USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Warren > The history of Warren; a mountain hamlet, located among the White hills of New Hampshire > Part 41
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Mr. Lane also constructed a large canal, half a mile long, through which he turned the water of Baker river into the large mill-pond on Black brook. The cost of the work was about two thousand dollars. It was finished late in the fall, and the water first let in on November 28, 1853.
This made an excellent mill-privilege and a great saw-mill went up in Warren village. Millions of fect of lumber have been manufactured here and sent to market. East-parte also waked up and a mighty mill was erected there. Warren Summit also got enterprising; numerous mills have been built, and the timber comes down from Black mountain, Owl's head, Webster slide, and Wyatt hill.
What was the consequence of all this enterprise? Warren village doubled in size, and the population and wealth of the town much increased.
CHAPTER VI.
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF TWO MURDERS.
THIS is a chapter we would gladly omit, but we should not be deemed a faithful historian if we did not write it. Within a year and a half of each other, it was alleged, two men were mur- dered in Warren. Antony McCarter and Vanness Wyatt were the alleged murdered men,-Patrick Sweeney and James M. Wil- liams were the alleged murderers.
The first tragedy happened in 1859, and it was a snowy day in March when Antony McCarter was last seen in Warren. He had led a secluded life for years; but that winter had taken up his resi- dence with Sweeny, an Irishman, who had his shanty in the fir woods by the brick-kiln, on the East-parte road. He had quar- relled with Sweeny's wife that morning, and she had inflicted a deep gash in his face with an iron poker. No one saw him after that day.
Sweeny sold McCarter's stove, his clothes, axe, and jack-knife. He told many different stories about where he had gone, and when hints of foul play were thrown out, Sweeny left town suddenly in the night and went to Vermont.
Enquiries were made for the murdered man in all the neigh- boring towns, and even letters were sent to the other side of the Green mountains by the river Lamoile, where he used to live; but nothing could be heard from him.
The people grew anxious, excited; the summer went by and still nothing was discovered. Wild stories were told, how some
RETURN OF THE MISSING MAN. 479
boys passed him in the woods where he was just covered in a shal- low grave; how a fisherman hooked up one of his ribs from the great pot hole in the river; and how will-o'the-wisps were seen hovering at niglit over the old cellar of the shanty.
So intense was the excitement that in January people began to search for McCarter. The cellar was dug deeper, the woods were searched where the boys said they discovered him, and the great basin in the rocks was dipped out by more than twenty per- sous ; but no dead man could be found. Where was he? All be- lieved him murdered. Where was Sweeny?
More than two years afterwards, an old man with a pack on his back was seen traveling through the village towards the East- parte. To the surprise of every one, it was McCarter. He went back to the old shanty again, fitted it up, and to-day, with his liens, his dog, and his cat, he lives alone in the fir woods .*
The second occurred in 1860, and it was far more serious than the Sweeny-McCarter affair, and the dead man never came back to life again.
James M. Williams was a nervous, thin-haired man. Vanness Wyatt was stout and strong; but was loose in his conversation, and did not weigh well his words. Mr. Williams was a man of considerable property. Mr. Wyatt was poor. Mr. Williams had become very unpopular, owing to an alleged improper intimacy between himself and Mrs. Joseph Chamberlain. Said intimacy was stoutly denied by Mrs. Chamberlain, Mr. Williams, and all their friends, and the persons who circulated the stories were pros- ccuted for slander. Mr. Wyatt was a good natured fellow, and was generally liked; but persons who said they were disgusted with the alleged conduct of Mr. Williams with Mrs. Chamberlin put Wyatt up to " haze " Williams.
But this was the real cause of the quarrel between the two men. Wyatt's father owed Williams a debt; the latter sucd the father and attached and sold some peg wood and bark which the son, Mr. Wyatt, claimed to own. Mr. Wyatt was mad, made an
* McCarter was born in Canada, of Irish parents. He served in the 1812 war, was in several battles, and at Sackett's harbor was severely wounded. He belonged to the British army.
Patrick Sweeny in 1864 lived in Manchester, N. H. He is a thick set, light complexioned man, somewhat given to drunkenness and telling foolish lies.
.
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
assault upon Mr. Williams, although he did him no injury, and used very threatening language towards him. He was somewhat encouraged to do this by those persons who disliked Mr. Williams. The friends of the latter advised him to arm himself. He did so with a revolver. Should not the parties who encouraged this bad blood on both sides feel a little guilty? If any one should ask us to express our opinion privately, we should say that the persons who advised Mr. Williams were vastly more to blame than him- self for what he did; also, that if those who set on Mr. Wyatt had minded their own business they would have done far better.
The killing took place on the morning of July 27, 1860. Wil- liams had been to Samuel Bixby's, who lived over the river from the depot, to milk his cow. Wyatt was at work loading bark near the railroad track. Coming home in company with William Clem- ent, Mr. Williams saw Mr. Wyatt approaching him with a small stick in his hand. When near the south-east corner of the house Stevens Merrill built sixty odd years before, Williams spoke and said, "Van. is after us." Clement said, "I guess not." They passed along a few steps, when Williams turned again, drew up his pistol and said to Wyatt, " Step another step and I will blow you through," and fired at the same time. He then passed along on the sidewalk about six feet, and by the corner of the fence made a short halt, and as Wyatt caine near where Clement stood, Williams started across the street.
William Clement under oath says in continuation: - " He (Wyatt) then said, 'I have not touched you Mr. Williams, and wasn't a going to,' and Mr. Williams liad got out a little ways in the road and said ' I know you havn't, but you followed me with a stick,' and then he passed along across the road. Wyatt then looked up and said, ' Bill. he has killed me.' I saw lie was pale, and saw a red spot on his shirt, and he was tottering; went towards the fence and I sat part down and caught him. After I got hold of him I looked around for help, but could see no one; but turned and saw Williams across the street, and called to him to help carry in that man or take care of him, don't remember which, and then I looked back up street and saw Boynton coming out of his door, and called to him and he came, and we carried Wyatt to Knapp's hotel. Wyatt lived from five to ten minutes, and then died.".
481
ARREST AND TRIAL OF WILLIAMS.
They had a post-mortem examination of the murdered man, and the following doctors were present: David C. French, A. G. French, Jesse Little, Peter L. Hoyt, and A. A. Whipple. They found that Vanness was shot in the left breast, the ball passing through between the fourth and fifth ribs, above the centre of the breast, through the covering over the heart, through the heart-and it lodged in the right lung. Dr. Alphonzo G. French took out the ball.
There was a terrible excitement in Warren that day; men turned pale when they heard the news, and almost every person in town came to the village. They wanted to see the murdered man, and they wanted to see the murderer too, as they called him. One political party was almost wholly against Williams. The other party with equal unanimity immediately began to stand up for him.
Hazen Libbey, the constable, arrested Mr. Williams. Chas. H. Bartlett, Esq., an attorney at Wentworth, came to advise with him. Hon. Thomas J. Smith came to advise with the citizens. He counselled moderation, and had a coroner's jury summoned. It consisted of Samuel L. Merrill, George E. Leonard, and Samuel Bixby; and after hearing the evidence they brought in the follow- ing verdict: "He came to his death by a bullet shot from a pistol by the hand of James M. Williams." Then Mr. Williams was brought before a Justice of the Peace, Col. Isaac Merrill, waived an examination, and was committed to Haverhill jail. At the August term of court he was admitted to bail, and at the January term at Plymouth he had his trial.
Justices Bellows and Nesmith held the court; Hon. John Sul- livan, the Attorney General, and Henry W. Blair, county solicitor, were counsel for the State. Hons. Josiah Quincy and Harry Hib- bard were assigned as counsel for the respondent, he representing himself as poor. The jury consisted of nine of one political party and three of the other .* The respondent plead, "Not guilty," and set up that the act was committed in self-defence.
Many witnesses were called; and the case occupied several
* It was alleged, but perhaps wrongfully, that Mr. Williams' friends. those who advised him to get a pistol, were about the court working for him, and that they log-rolled the jury, &c.
t The State called the following persons as witnesses : William 'Clement, Wil- E*
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
days; the jury were out thirty-six hours, could not agree and were discharged. It was understood that the jury divided politically ; the three of one party being for the State, and the nine of the other party for the respondent. The case was continued along for a year or more, and then a nolle prosegui was entered.
It is but justice to Mr. Williams to add that no juryman found him guilty. of murder. The three who were for convicting him only wished to bring in a verdict for " manslaughter in the second degrec."
Afterwards Mr. Williams had a short history of the trial pub- lished in pamphlet form in vindication of himself. If any should think our brief chapter does not do him justice, we would advise them to procure the pamphlet and read and judge for themselves.
Vanness Wyatt was buried in the village grave-yard, and on his tombstone is the following inscription :-
"VANNESS WYATT, DIED July 27, 1860, Æ. 28.
He came to his death from a pistol shot by the hand of James M. Williams, in the street at Warren village, at five and one-half o'clock, A. M."
liam Caswell, Dan. Y. Boynton, Alphonzo G. French, Hazen Libbey, Henry A. Colley, Isaac Merrill, J. B. S. Otterson, Hobart Wyatt, Veranus P. Drew, George H. Moulton, Ezra Libbey, George W. Merrill, Isaac Sanborn, Benjamin Clement, Damon Y. Eastman, and several others who were not put upon the stand. The de- fence called Arthur Knapp, Darius Swain, Otis Chamberlin, Joseph Bixby, Adoni- ram Whitcher, Caleb H. Noyes, Morrill J. Sanborn, George Libbey, Harvey Cham- berlin, N. P. Folsom. Ezra B. Eaton, Addison Robinson, Ferdinand C. Keezer, Jas. P. Webster, Nathaniel Merrill, Salmon Gleason, Joseph Chamberlin, and put in the affidavits of George W. Prescott and Mary G. Noyes.
Warren has had two or three other very mean and as some say very dirty cases ; but we can't stomach to put them in this our modest, pleasant, and urbane history. The writing the above chapter was about the worst dose of literature we ever took. For a history of said cases we would refer the historian of a hundred years hence to the N. H. Law Reports .- Author's Note.
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CHAPTER VII.
CONCERNING A GREAT RIVALRY BETWEEN CHARITABLE RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES, WHICH RESULTED IN MOVING AND REMODELLING THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE, IN A TOWN-HOUSE, A NEW SCHOOL- HOUSE, A BEAUTIFUL COMMON, AND IN IMPROVING THE GRAVE- YARD, ALL WHICH IS AN HONOR TO THE TOWN AND THE PRIDE OF THE INHABITANTS.
ABOUT the year 1830, and perhaps at an earlier date, different clergymen of the Universalist denomination preached occasionally to the believers in a world's salvation from sin and suffering ; but the first society was organized in the year 1838, under the ministry of Rev. John E. Palmer.
The Methodist at this time was the most prominent society in town, in fact the Congregationalists had nearly all disappeared,* and the Freewill Baptists were but a weak handful of brethren. Consequently it was natural that the followers of John Wesley,
* The Congregationalists often tried to make inroads upon the Methodists, but without much success. Priest Davis, (I. S. Davis,) of Wentworth, was instrumen- tal in getting a daughter of Capt. Daniel Merrill converted, and wanted her to join his church. Capt. Daniel's folks were Methodists, but they all went down to the congregational church one Sunday. Davis was a cunning man and he preached a good Methodist discourse to please them. Aunt Daniel heard him through, and after meeting she spoke. Said she, " Mr. D.'s preaching reminds me of Farmer Joshua Merrill up at Warren; when he goes ont to catch his old mare, he shakes a nice pan full of oats and calls, 'ker-joh, ker-joh, ker-joh,' holding the bridle all the time behind him out of sight. Just so with the priest; he halloos 'ker-joh,' and shakes a nice pan-full of Methodism; but when he gets'em caught, he'll put on the orthodox bridle with a vengeance." "The daughter didn't jine that society no how."
Capt. Daniel Merrill once did something that pleased or displeased his wife very much. To recompense him, she made up his new pants wrong side out, seam like a welt on the outside, and the Captain highly delighted wore them to meeting several times, in that fashion .- R. K. Clement's story.
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
wishing to retain the supremacy, should regard this new sect with suspicion and much jealousy, especially as its members, disciples of John Murray, did not believe in an endless hell at all.
At first the Universalist society had their meetings in the school-house, the one with four roofs that stood in the fork of the turnpike and Beech hill roads, and once in a while they would get possession of the meeting-house on the common. Then the Meth- odists would be filled with righteous indignation at the sacrilege, as it seemed to them.
But the Methodist society still increased much the fastest, and finally having been disconnected from the Wentworth and Orford circuit, it obtained what it had not before had, preaching every Sabbath; yet as they had no right to occupy the old meeting-house all the time, although they wanted to, they were compelled to use the school-house as often as one Sabbath a month, while the Uni- versalist minister held forth in the pulpit under the great sounding board. This seemed too bad, and the Methodist brethren would steal the Bible away from the pulpit sometimes, and carry it to the school-house with them. David Smith, Esq., a leader in the new society, and withal a good disputationist, often remonstrated with the Methodist brethren, but to no purpose, and much ill feeling was engendered.
At last the feud culminated. The believers in eternal torment came to the conclusion that they would not worship under the same roof with that " damned society," that did not believe in " damnation " at all; that they would give up the old meeting- house entirely for a season, and under the ministry of Rev. Sulli- van Holman a new and beautiful chapel was built. Much taste and picty was evinced in selecting the locality for the new house. It was located a short distance from the front door of the old church. Then a school-house committee, from the same good society, with excellent taste, located a new school-house nearly in front of the old meeting-house ; building a nice school-house privy close up to the old sanctuary. And now the Universalist society could have as much preaching in the old house as they wished; and some wicked outsider who sympathized with the Methodists said, " They could be damned into the bargain if they pleased."
The two societies being thus now in full blast, and the Free-
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RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM.
will Baptists wide awake, there was a great rivalry among them, and as a result the whole town went to meeting with all its might. In winter they came in sleighs from Beech hill, Height-o'-land, Pine hill, Runaway pond, the Summit, East-parte and the Forks, many of the women bringing their mother's old foot stoves to keep their feet warm, and hitched their horses during the services under the new chapel sheds, a long row that the Methodists had proudly stretched more than half way through the very centre of the old common. In the summer time, no matter if it lightened, thundered, rained, and hailed, or the sun poured down its rays with torrid heat, they all turned out to meeting just the same. The ladies on such occasions carried fans and parasols to keep cool, and most every one brought bouquets or bunches of flowers, and alecost, thyme, and southernwood, the pungent qualities of which they found very useful stimulents to keep them awake during drowsy sermon time. The choirs also sang better than ever before, and they had some glorious awakenings and revivals. Everything was lovely and nobody seemed to care a copper how the village, churches or common looked, provided only the societies flourished. Opposition, excitement, and rivalry are grand things in church affairs. For as many as ten years ecclesiastical matters thus went on, and then the fever heat began to cool down a little.
The eyes of the citizens opened slightly, and they could see that the old meeting-house of 1818 was out of repair and fast going to decay ; and that the paint was worn off the new Metho- dist chapel ; also the once beautiful parade in front of Joseph Mer- rill's inn was fondly in the recollection of some of the oldest in- habitants, and the school-house and the new chapel-sheds seemed out of place and unsightly. In short, the whole village looked bad and was an object of remark in the neighboring towns.
Soon a general discontent arose against this order of things on the common. Sundry individuals began to move in the matter. Plan after plan was devised and abandoned; but at last a town meeting was held at which it was voted, the Universalists acqui- escing, to sell the old meeting-house to the Methodist society and that the town should buy the Methodist chapel at an expense of five hundred dollars, for a town-house. The village school district No. 2 had a meeting, or several of them, and voted that the dis-
486
HISTORY OF WARREN.
trict would exchange its lot of land for one to the north, and then it was generally agreed that all three of the buildings should be " moved and the common cleared.
There was much opposition and a great fight about the mov- ing and where the houses should be placed ; but they finally settled down into their present locations and everybody was delighted.
Ira Merrill gave the lot of land for the town-house; money was raised by subscription to buy of Albe C. Weeks the lots for the meeting-house and school-house. Henry W. Weeks and Levi C. Whitcher paid the most liberally, and Capt. Samuel L. Mer- rill, more generous than any of the rest, gave most of the land where the common is now.
Ephraim S. Colley moved the meeting-house and town-house, and Janes Glazier the school-house. John M. Whiton managed the remodeling of the old 1818 meeting-house. Columbus Clough, George Clough, Amos F. Clough, and Ezra W. Keyes, did the work. Considerable additions were made, but the body of the old house remained the same, posts, timbers, walls, and roof, and even the plastering overhead is the very same put on in 1818, bet- ter than any that can be spread at the present day.
Thus the common was cleared and the looks of the village improved. Our good Methodist society also, after twenty years of effort, had now obtained what they had always longed for, the full control of our fathers' old meeting-house; and that they might be a little more popular, under the pastorate of the Rev. L. L. Eastman they had purchased the beautiful toned bell that has so often enlivened our hills and valleys. At first they had it rung every day at noon, and several times each Sabbath; but the week- day ringing shortly fell into disuse except on funeral occasions, and when it tolls at the deaths of the inhabitants .*
Jared S. Blodgett has always had charge of the bell, and the moment it is heard to toll all know that he is in the church tower and every individual is all attention, hushed, standing in the atti- tude of profound listeners. The bell, by some signal which all understand, proclaims the sex, the married or single state of the
* Tolling the Bell .- A man dead and the bell strikes one; a woman and it strikes two; a pause-then if the person is single the bell strikes three times slowly; if married, four times slowly, then the age is counted out.
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$1 1
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IMPROVEMENT OF WARREN COMMON.
deceased, and then counts out his or her age. Having ascertained these particulars, the people begin to speculate, for they already know every one that is ill in town, and thus generally discover pretty certainly before any other intelligence reaches them, whose bell it is. That bell is a sufficient text for the discourses of the day. They run all over the biography of the individual and bring up many an anecdote of him and his contemporaries which had long slept in their minds.
After the meeting houses, sheds, and school-house were moved, what an amount of work was done on the common! The stumps of the dark old pines two hundred feet high, that once sighed in the wind and shaded the Indian beneath, were dug out; hundreds of tons of stones were removed, and ploughs and harrows were used day after day. One spring, Henry W. Weeks, Charles Leon- ard, and others, planted elms and maples all around it, and the good citizens have now in part the village green that Gov. Went- worth wished they should when he so kindly gave the town char- ter in 1763. It is the pleasantest place in town. The wide spreading trees cast a refreshing shade there. Caravans with elephants, lions, and tigers,-and circuses-pitch their tents upon the greensward, and the great mountains, bright and refreshing, look in upon the gatherings of happy citizens. May the common be forever pre- served.
With a new meeting-house and bell, town-house and common, the village cemetery must be improved. Col. Isaac Merrill was the leading spirit in this enterprise, and the wall was re-built, good fences erected, and some trees set out, and to-day Warren has as beautiful a burying ground as almost any country town .*
From our grave-yard a green vale extends far away to the south. Great hills lift their heads around and stretch their old trees to the wind. Warren's first settler, Joseph Patch, lies here
* The first grave-yard in Warren was located a short distance below the village on land near the great railroad bridge. It was situated on the west side of the road at the top of a little hill which was once the bank of the river. In this yard about twenty were buried, among the first of whom were John Mills and his son, early settlers. When excavations were made for the railroad, the remains of sev- eral bodies were exhumed; but the overseer of the work dug the graves deeper, and in them again deposited the remains.
There were also three other burying grounds which have become almost un- known. One of these was located near the present site of the railroad depots. Another is on Blue ridge, where Joshua Copp was buried. It was the piece of land which the town voted to accept of him for the purpose of erecting a meeting
488
HISTORY OF WARREN.
without a tombstone. His grave is beside a rustling tree. The breezes are sighing there. A little streamlet murmurs near and sends its waters to the Asquamchumauke. A great mountain to the northward, Moosilauke, looks in on the turfy mound. "O lay me, ye that see the light, near some rock of my hills! Let the thick hazels be around. Let the sound of the distant torrent be heard."
Obadiah Clement also lies sleeping in an unmarked grave, and Stevens Merrill and Jonathan Merrill are resting near by. Joshua Copp is buried on the Blue ridge by the banks of the Mikaseota. Simeon Smith has his grave under the great apple tree by Red-oak hill road, and John Mills is sleeping on the river bank where the " roaring rips are ever sounding." Who can tell of the others?
Warren's old settlers are all dead now. A life interspersed with joys and sorrows was theirs.
" Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield; Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; How jocund did they drive their team afield, How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke.
But now-
* *
Each in his narrow cell forever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
The breezy call of incense breathing morn, The swallow twittering from her straw built shed; The cock's shrill clarion or the echoing horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.
For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, Or busy housewife ply her evening care; No children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knee the envied kiss to share."
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