The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888, Part 13

Author: Little, William, 1833-1893. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Lowell, Mass., Printed by S. W. Huse & Co.
Number of Pages: 1240

USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Weare > The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888 > Part 13

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JOTHAM TUTTLE came to Weare when the war was raging hard- est, 1759, and success was crowning the British arms. He also married one of the daughters of Thomas Worthley, the third set- tler, and his father-in-law sold or gave to him the south half of lots thirty-three and thirty-four, range one. Mr. Tuttle built his log house near the line of lot thirty-two, in the valley of the Otter and just west of that stream.

He was a hunter and fisherman and scoured all the neighboring country for game, fished in all the streams and often went to Gorham pond in what was once Gorhamtown, where he got fish that would weigh several pounds each. He was poor, as were nearly all the rest, had no horse, and when he went to Bedford to mill, fourteen miles away, he carried his bag of corn on his shoulder and gun in hand to protect himself from the Indians who might shoot and scalp him .* He would go and return the same day. The very first settlers went sometimes to Londonderry to mill. He was the same Jotham who furnished the beans for Lydia Jewell's wedding. One of his descendants, Benjamin Tuttle, still lives near his old place.

BOND LITTLE from Hampstead settled on lot fifty-two, range one, south from what is now known as Fifield's Corner, in 1759. He had been a soldier, in Capt. John Hazen's company, in the war then going on, and had just returned from an expedition against Crown Point. No deeds running to him can be found, but " in the eighth year of his majesty's reign " he sold to Jacob Jewell, son of John Jewell, the second settler, half of his lot. His wife was Ruth Atwood, sister of Caleb Atwood, and she was a pious member of the Antipedobaptist church.

* In 1758, at Hinsdale, they killed Captain Moore and his son, took his family and burned his house. At Number Four they killed Asahel Stebins, took his wife and Isaae Parker, a soldier, and killed eattle in the woods .- Farmer's Belknap, p. 319. The report of this spread to every settlement, and it was a very proper thing for Jotham Tuttle to take his gun with him when he went to mill.

105

THE GORE.

1759.]

Mr. Little lived on lot fifty-two till 1775, then moved to Deering. In 1786 he went to Newbury, and in 1800 to Hatley, Province of Quebec, where he died July 10, 1811. He was a man of great energy, noted for his wit and mirthfulness ; was a prominent citizen in the towns where he lived, served as selectman, held various other offices, was a justice of the peace for many years and solemnized numerous marriages .*

When the result of the war was doubtful but few settlements, as we have told, were made. But now, 1759, when it was apparent that the French would be beaten and the Indians subdued, men again began to move into the woods without fear or hesitation. Weare, New Boston and Goffstown were beginning to rapidly fill up with settlers, and the Lord Proprietors thought it would be the best time to dispose of their lands in the gore that lay between those towns and the Royal Society land.

At a meeting held by them March 8, 1759, at the inn of James Stoodley in Portsmouth, they voted that it be severed and equally divided by lot to the proprietors in fifteen shares, to be laid out and divided into so many lots as shall be hereafter agreed upon.

They soon engaged Mr. Robert Fletcher, surveyor, to make a sur- vey. He at once went to the gore with two chainmen and laid it out into fifteen shares, two lots to a share. He was very careful in his work, spotted the lines plainly and made the corners distinct, put all the streams on to his plan accurately, examined the quality of the land so as to " couple" the lots in each share equitably, or, as he says, " so as to make fifteen equal shares quantity and quality as near as may be." As he ran it out the gore was six miles long, two hundred and eighty rods wide on the east end, and three hun- dred and sixty rods on the west end. In this he made a great mis- take, which in time had to be rectified. His plan was given to the Lord Proprietors Nov. 21, 1759.

Tuesday, Nov. 27th, they met once more at Stoodley's inn, and voted to accept and receive the plan; to make a division of said tract of land as it is laid down upon it; to draw the rights by lot in the usual manner at this meeting and to make said drawing a sever- ance of said tract of land to each of the fifteen proprietors' rights or shares to be the property of the owners, to them, their

* There is a tradition that a mulatto, Lot Little, came to Weare with Bond Little. He had been the slave of Bond's father, and the latter at his decease willed him to his wife.

106

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1759.

heirs and assigns forever. The lots were then drawn, and they paid Robert Fletcher £156 old tenor for his services .*

The Lord Proprietors soon put the lands into market, and Nathan- iel Martin, our first settler, was probably the first man to move out to the gore.

The Masonians or Lord Proprietors judged right about the result of the war. Wolfe this season defeated Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham, and Major Rogers with his rangers annihilated the St. Francis Indians, the Canada Algonquins, who for a hundred years had been murdering the settlers and laying waste the English fron- tier. It was now entirely safe for new settlers to move into the woods.

CALEB ATWOOD, from Hampstead, bought, Feb. 14, 1760, lot sixty, range two, of his father, John Atwood, for forty-two Span- ish milled dollars. His father bought it of Moses True, Jan. 30, 1760, for £12 lawful money. Young Atwood came to town in the spring of that year and built his cabin on the side of Mount Dear- born, the highest house in town. It stood just south of the house at present owned by Josiah G. Dearborn, where is now the flower

* The following is the full record : -

" PROVINCE OF 1 Portsmouth, March ye 8th 1759, Thursday, five of the clock after-

NEW HAMPSHIRE , noon at the dwelling house of James Stoodly Innholder :

" The Proprietors meet according to adjournment

" Voted that all that tract of land lying between the tract of land granted by said Proprietors to Ichabod Robie Esq. & others and that tract of land called New Boston so called be severed and equally divided by lot to the Proprietors into fifteen sharcs or lots to be laid out and divided into so many lots as shall be hereafter agreed upon by said Proprietors.

" A Truc copy of Record Attest, GEORGE JAFFREY, Proprietors Clerk.

" PROVINCE OF Portsmouth Nov ye 27, 1759, Tuesday, five of the clock, afternoon NEW HAMPSHIRE , at the house of James Stoodley, innliolder

"The Proprietors meet according to adjournment.

" Whereas at a meeting of the Proprietors on the 8th day of March last past it was voted that all that Tract of land lying between the Tract of land granted by said Proprietors to Ichabod Robie Esqr &c and that Tract of land called New Boston be severed and equally divided by lot to the Proprietors in fifteen shares or lotts To be laid out into so many lotts as shall be hereafter agreed upon by said Proprietors. " And whereas Mr. Robert Fletcher has been requested by severall of the said Pro- prietors to survey the said Tract of land and make an equal division of the same into fifteen equal shares in one or two lots to a share as the Quality of said land would best admit of and send a plan of the survey and division of the same to said Proprietors and as a plan of the survey and division of said tract of land was returned to said Proprietors by said Robert Fletcher the 21st instant dividing said tract into fifteen equal shares two lots to a share and coupled as by said plan Therefore

" Voted that the said plan be accepted and received and that the division of said tract of land be made agreeable thereto and that the same be drawn for by lot in the usual manner of drawing of lotts in said Propriety at this meeting and that the lots so drawn to each of the said fifteen original rights of said Proprietors shall be a severance of said tract of land to each of the said fifteen Proprietors rights or shares as respectively drawn to them and shall be to them their heirs and assigns forever as the lots are drawn

" And that the Clerk pay said Robert Fletcher the sum of One hundred fifty six pounds old Tenor for said Plan and Survey and Division.

" A true copy of record attest GEORGE JAFFREY, Proprictors Clerk.

" Pursuant to the above vote for the Draft of the fifteen proprietors shares of the

107

JOSHUA MAXFIELD.

1760.]

garden, and was about one mile west of Meadow brook on the road over the hill to Deering. His barn was on the west side of the "way," and soon after it was built a gale took the roof off, carried it over the road and laid it down softly in the stumpy field.

Mr. Atwood was a prominent man; active in town matters and a member of the first church. In his old age he went to live with his son Joshua, in Antrim. After that he lived at Deering, where he died.

JOSHUA MAXFIELD, from Salisbury, Mass., built his cabin and made his home on lot seventy, range three. It was in the Piscataquog valley on the west side of the river, by the "way" from what is now Oil Mill to East Weare. His land was a high, gravelly river-terrace, and as there was no brook or spring very near him, he tried to dig a well. He dug many a day in it; put in heavy timber curbings and at last got it down a vast depth, but found no water. He grew discouraged ; his fears of danger from caving in got the better of him, and one day he declared he could hear the cocks crowing in China, the Celestials pounding salt and picking tea, and he gave it up. The curbing soon decayed, the gravel caved in, and he lugged his water as usual.

tract of land lying between the tract of land granted to Ichabod Robie Esqr &c & New Boston so called

" The following draft of Lotts was made viz :

1 Drawn to George Jaffrey. No 13-24

Samuel Solley & Clement March Esqrs. 21-14

66 Jotham Odiorne Esqr Right.

20-12

Richard Wibird Esqr. 4-5

22-23

66 Nathaniel Meserve & Co Right. 28-29

66 Thomlinson & Mason. 19-15

Daniel Pierce Esqr & Mary Moore. 8-18

Joshua Pierce Esqr Right.

2-11

Mr. John Ringe ..

16-25

Thomas Packer Esqr

66 Theodore Atkinson Esqr.

3-26

" A true copy of Record, attest, GEORGE JAFFREY, Proprietors Clerk."

[The following is on Mr. Fletcher's plan.]

" Plan and division of a tract of land between Hales Town and New Boston.

" No of the lots to each share "1- 9 16-25 20-12) North by the needle on Royal Society land

2-11 10-17 21-14 Old corne of New Boston.

G J 3-26 8-18 22-23 > Corner of Hales Town A White Oak tree.

4- 5 7-6

13-24 19-15 27-30 | corner of New Boston.

8-29 ] Beech and Chestnut the corner of Hales Town

" Pursuant to the request of the proprictors of the land purchased of John Tufton Mason Esqr, I have laid out into 30 lots as described in this plan all the land between the Royal Society land so called, Hales Town, Goffstown and New Boston, have coupled them as by the above numbers so as to make fifteen equal shares quantity and quality as near as may be herewith laid in a scale of 200 poles to an inch. The lines faithfully marked and corners well made.

" Portsmouth November 21st 1759

ROBERT FLETCHER Surveyor

" A true copy of the plan of land

" Attest GEORGE JAFFREY, Proprietors Clerk."

66 Thomas Wallingford Esqr 10-17

John Moffatt Esqr ... 66 27-30

John Wentworth Esqr Right ..

66 Mark H. Wentworth Esqr. 1-9

108

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1760.

NATHAN CARR came from Haverhill, Mass., about this time, and settled on lot seventy, range three. He built his house on the east side of the river, near where is now Carr bridge. In 1766 he got a deed of his place from Joshua Maxfield. Mr. Carr was the father of Jacob Carr, the Revolutionary soldier and story-teller, and the great-grandfather of Dr. Alonzo F. Carr, now of Goffstown.

JOSHUA CORLISS, originally from the old Corliss homestead in Haverhill, Mass., Sept. 27, 1760, bought lot forty-four, range one, of Daniel Robie of Chester, for £180 old tenor bills of credit. Mr. Corliss soon moved from Chester to Weare and built his log-cabin by the road leading through his lot to Deering and about three- fourths of a mile west of the Peacock. He was a brother of Timothy Corliss, our fifth settler, and uncle of Timothy, Jr., the hunter, who was captured by the Indians.

In 1763 Mr. Corliss' wife died, and it is said this was the first death in town .* It seems improbable that no one should die for thirteen years after the first settlement; but it must be remembered that the early settlers were a strong and vigorous people, and that no very old folks nor invalids braved the dangers and hardships of frontier life.

Mrs. Corliss' death was sudden ; perhaps she died in child-birth, and her decease must have been a shock to all. No doubt every family was represented at the funeral, coming to offer sympathy. There could not have been a sermon, for there was no minister. Who read the Bible, who made a prayer, who sang some consoling hymn, who offered some sympathizing remarks, can not now be told.

There was no burying-ground in town then, and they dug a grave on the south side of the way not far from the bereaved man's cabin. It must have been a rude coffin ; the shroud of spotless linen, home- made; the bier of rough poles, cut for the occasion.

The funeral procession files through the woods to the last resting place- a long, sad train of mourners. At the grave the men take off their hats, the four bearers lower the coffin by leathern straps, then all look in. He who has charge thanks the people for their kind attention to the dead and the living, and the procession returns to the house.

It was the custom on such occasions to have a dinner of pork,

* It is claimed by the Worthley family that Mehitable Yarrow Worthley, wife of Thomas, was the first person who died in town.

109

JAMES EMERSON.

1761.]

beans and Indian pudding. No doubt one was served to all; and there was no funeral without a little ardent spirit to drown their grief and banish sadness. Then friends tried to say a comforting word, and at the proper time all went away, and how sad and dreary and lonesome was that home at night!

Joshua Corliss himself made some rude grave-stones for his wife. On the head-stone is the following inscription, still legible, but worn by the frost and storms : -

BUREa

HERE LVS YE BOGY OF ABIGAIL YE WIF E OF JOSHUA CORL ISS WHO GIEa MAR CH YE 1 5 IN YE 27

YEAR OF HER AGE

1763

The foot-stone is of harder rock than the head-stone; on it are the initials A C and an hour-glass, clear and distinct as when first cut. These stones have stood there more than a century. Near by Mrs. Corliss' grave is that of a young child, and a little farther off is the grave of a grown person.

It did not cost much for a funeral in those days. A coffin could be had for a dollar, and a shroud cost no more. The grave digging was gratuitous, for all were friends then and each wished to lend a hand.

Mr. Corliss soon after sold his place and bought lot seventy-three, range two, where Moses A. Hodgdon lives now. He was the first settler on it, lived there several years, then sold to John Hodg- don and moved to Hampstead, where he spent the rest of his life.

JAMES EMERSON of Hampstead moved to Weare in 1761. He first lived on lot twenty-six, range one, where Nathaniel Martin settled .* Then he got lot two in the gore of his father, Stephen Emerson, and built his log hut near its west line on the east side of the road up the Piscataquog, about twenty rods from the stream and sixty rods north of the dam at Oil Mill. Soon after he built a good log cabin a few rods north of his hut. But he was not con-

* When the railroad was built the workmen filled up his old cellar.

110

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1761.

tented with this, and Capt. Nathaniel Martin having got his saw-mill running, he built a good one-story framed house on the same spot ; perhaps the second one in town.

It was one story high and a low one at that ; two square rooms in front, with an entry and front door between them; the long kitchen in the rear, bed-room at one end of it, buttery and entry, cellar and chamber stairs at the other end; two great unfinished chambers up-stairs, where one could hear the rain patter on the roof, and a great chimney in the center with a huge fire-place in the kitchen, along with an ash-hole and a great brick oven over it. Mr. Emerson drew the fifteen thousand brick, enough almost for a modern brick house, to build it, from Concord, over the old road on an ox-sled in winter, and gave the whole price of a cow, which he sold, for the mantel-piece in the kitchen fire-place. In the cellar, which was under the whole house, was a great arch, on which the chimney rested and in which he stored his winter supply of potatoes, apples and garden vegetables, to keep them from freezing. His house was the envy of his neighbors.

Mr. Emerson brought a stout dog to Weare with him. Soon after, it caught a large otter on the bank of the stream and tried to shake the life out of it. But the beast was too strong and heavy for the dog ; it pulled back towards the river, dragged Bose into the water, where the latter had to let go or be drowned, and the otter got away, much to the chagrin of both dog and master.

Mr. Emerson was a deacon, very pious and very particular about keeping the Sabbath. Several years after he built his new house, he was riding horseback, with his wife behind him on a pillion, up to East Weare to meeting. As they jogged along they saw a fox chasing a rabbit, then both jumping over and under a log, the rabbit dodging and very much frightened. Mrs. E. pitied it and said to her husband "it is too bad for the fox to kill the rabbit "; she wanted him to get off and scare the fox away. Deacon Emerson heaved a long-drawn sigh and said it would be violating the Sabbath to thus meddle with the petty concerns of Nature ; God would be angry with him if he did, and so with pious meditations they rode on and left poor bunny to its fate. His wife, in telling the story, said her husband was a little particular, but she could not tell this time whether he was too lazy or too pious.

Mrs. Emerson lived to be ninety-seven years old, and both she and her husband were buried in the grave-yard just east of the

111

JONATHAN ATWOOD.

1761.]

Piscataquog and by the highway that leads from Oil Mill to East Weare.

JONATHAN ATWOOD's early history is a trifle obscure. It is quite certain he came from Hampstead to Weare as early as 1761 and perhaps in 1758. There is a tradition that Rebecca Blanchard widow of Col. Joseph Blanchard, sold him, in the latter year, lot fifty-three, range one, and by mistake put in the deed lot sixty-one, range two; that he built his cabin on and cleared a few acres of sixty-one and then was driven off by the rightful owner, and that he then in 1761 commenced on fifty-three and built his house by the road from South Weare to Francestown, about one mile west of Meadow brook. Mrs. Blanchard, to rectify the mistake, Aug. 20, 1765, gave him a new deed. Mr. Atwood was a substantial farmer, a good citizen, a member of the first church in town, signed its covenant and was one of its strong men. He lived on his old home- stead more than sixty years and was accidentally killed by falling down his cellar stairs.

WILLIAM SMITH of Epping, 1761, settled near Mount William on lot sixty-two, range three. He was in the employ of William Rowell of that town, who bought the lot of Benjamin Kimball of Hampstead for £350 old tenor. Smith bought it of Rowell, May 15, 1763, for £400 old tenor. He could not pay for it, and Rowell sold it to Moses Brown.

JACOB SELLA [Cilley ] of South Hampton, in 1761 bought of his father, Thomas Sella, the south half of lot seven, range five, for £20 old tenor bills of credit. He soon after settled on the old Center road one-fourth mile west of East Weare.

The winter of 1761-62 was severe and tedious to our early settlers. The snow lay six feet deep in all the woods, and the temperature was many degrees below zero for weeks together. Moose and deer were hemmed in, and men, on snow-shoes, easily caught them. The cabins in our little forest-girt fields were often covered up entirely by drifts, and the good man had to tunnel out and then walk up on the ridge-pole to shovel out the chimney. It is an old tale, that one settler had a big swine which ran at large about his premises, that the drift against his house was so hard the animal mounted to the roof and fell down the great chimney, terribly frightening the cabin inmates. The rude cart paths were impass- able, and if any one wished to visit his neighbors, he had to go on snow-shoes. The first settlers of this country learned to use them

112

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1762.

from the Indians. " With them one could travel with great ease over wastes otherwise impassable." They were oval in shape, nearly a yard in length and fastened to the foot at the toe with a strap, while the heel was left free.

And now in the spring of 1762 new settlers, throughout the state, began to swarm into the woods more than ever. In our valleys and on our hills trees were falling, pieces were drying, and flames were rushing and roaring. The fires glow on the banks of the streams ; they light up the hills at night. Smoke hides the sun and gives the day the mystic hue of Indian summer.

Then came the clearing, and all the settlers, day by day, would come home from the burnt piece to their meals of bean porridge, with their leather aprons and moose-hide trousers crusted with ashes, their hair full of cinders and their faces smirched with coals. Next year the grass will grow rank among the stumps, the ring of the scythe will be heard on the stones, and the sound of the sickle in the ripe grain. What joy to bind the golden sheaves !

As the season advanced, the sound of axes echoed from the woods to the hills, the sled paths were swamped out, the timber felled, the logs fitted and the cabins put up. Martin's saw-mill at Oil Mill furnished the boards for floors, doors and ceilings, and the long, shaved shingles were fastened on the roof with wooden pins, for not as yet were iron nails known in Weare.

STEPHEN EMERSON, from Hampstead, the father of Dea. James Emerson, Feb. 10, 1762, bought in the gore lot two of Daniel Pierce, one of the Lord Proprietors, for two hundred and eighty Spanish milled dollars, and lot four of Richard Wibird, another proprietor, for two hundred and forty such dollars. April 4, 1762, he bought of Thomas Kennedy of Winston, Mass., parts of lots twenty-six and twenty-seven. His son, Deacon James, lived on lot two, and another son, Stephen, Jr., on four. Years after, 1774, he gave them deeds, respectively, of those lots.

He moved to Weare in the spring of 1762 and built his house on the west side of the river and on the west side of the road two miles up from Oil Mill, towards East Weare and near what is now the Emerson bridge. The house stood on the north end of lot twenty-six, range one. His son, Marden Emerson, lived at home with him.

STEPHEN EMERSON, JR., came to Weare with his father and settled on lot four, as we have said, in 1762. He built his house, a small

113

PAUL DUSTIN.

1762.]

one, on the south-west corner of the lot, opposite Ezra Clement's. The old two story house, which he afterwards built, is still on the place. He was a good farmer, on the old road over the hill to the valley of the Otter.

MOSES GILE, from Goffstown, March 13, 1762, bought seventy- five acres of the south part of lot twelve, range two, of John Kidder of Derryfield, for £700 old tenor. Stephen Emerson's land was bounded against him on the north, in his deed dated 1762. Mr. Gile built his cabin about half a mile north of Mr. Emerson's house and on the east side of the road. He lived there several years, then sold out and went to New London.

EBENEZER BAILEY of "Masetutects Bay," May 17, 1762, bought lot forty-five, range one, of Elisha Batchelder of "Hawke," an original proprietor, for $50. He sat down on said lot at once and built his cabin about three-fourths of a mile west of the Peacock. The road the selectmen laid out in 1764, from Clement's grist-mill to Asa Heath's on the mountain, ran by it. He was a good farmer, a substantial citizen, one of the deacons of the Calvinist Baptist church, lived an exemplary life and was never admonished. He died on this place, and his descendants resided there for a long time.

PAUL DUSTIN settled in 1762. He was from Chester. His grandmother was the celebrated Hannah Dustin* who killed so many Indians at the mouth of the Contoocook. His father, Timo- thy Dustin, son of Hannah, married Sarah Johnson, and he was their second son.

* HANNAH DUSTIN was the wife of Thomas Dustin, of Haverhill, Mass. The Indi- ans made a descent on that place, March 15, 1697. Mr. Dustin, at work in the field, at the time, heard the war-whoop and hurried home. He told his children to run to the garrison house. His wife was sick in bed; her child born but a week before, and Mary Neff was caring for her. Mr. Dustin could do nothing for them, and left them to their fate. He mounted his horse, gun in hand, and rode after his children to take up one or two and save them, but he could not make a choice. The Indians pursued, he dismounted, fired at them from behind trees, held them in check, and saved all.

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The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888, Part 13

Author: Little, William, 1833-1893. cn Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Lowell, Mass., Printed by S. W. Huse & Co. Number of Pages: 1240

Author: Little, William, 1833-1893. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Lowell, Mass., Printed by S. W. Huse & Co.
Number of Pages: 1240