The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888, Part 42

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 42

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Jasper Stone resides in Charlestown; he carried on the jewelry business on Main street for about forty years; was on the board of aldermen in 1873.

Joseph Stone kept grocery store about three years at Charlestown; studied law in the office of Abel Cushing, Boston; died of consumption at Charlestown, Jan. 28, 1846, aged 25 years, 5 months, 17 days; buried in the tomb at Boxboro'.

Jonathan Stone, the seventh son, was born at Weare, N. H., April 29, 1823; was engaged in the grocery and provision business in Charlestown; built, owned and let houses and stores ; was elected and served on the conimon council in 1872 ; was elected mayor of Charlestown in 1873. He was the last mayor of Charlestown, it being annexed to Boston Jan. 1, 1874.

He was married twice ; his first wife was Sarah Rebua Andrews, daughter of Abra- ham Andrews, who was a native of New Hampshire; his second wife was Mary L. Andrews, sister of his first wife; he had three children : one daughter, Sarah Lizzie, and one son, John Henry, by his first wife, and one daughter, Carrie Louisa, by his second wife.

He built a fine residence in Revere, Mass., on land formerly owned by Doetor Tuckerman, on the rise of ground west from the corner of Broadway and Aladdin streets, where he moved, June 21, 1876, and now (1885) resides.

* They were -

Lieut. Stephen Emerson, George Alley, Thomas Nichols, Ensign Herman Follansbee, Jonathan C. Butterfield, Arehibald Stinson, Moses Wood.

Serg. John Gale, William Clough,

Corp. Thomas Eastman, Daniel Emerson,

F.T Stuart Boston

Jonathan Stone

367

CLOSE OF THE 1812 WAR.

1814.]

from Francestown. They marched to Portsmouth Sept. 29th. Some of these men, although they enlisted for sixty days, were dis- charged as early as Nov. 10th .*

Five more Weare ment enlisted Sept. 26th, in Capt. Josiah Bel- lows' company from Walpole, for sixty days. They also went to Portsmouth and served their full time.

All these men served in the first and second regiments of the "detached militia," commanded by Lieut .- Cols. Nathaniel Fisk and John Steele, the brigade, of which they formed a part, being under Brig .- Gen. John Montgomery. As in the Revolution, the men of Weare served faithfully. The reportst of the companies at Portsmouth show many men absent from the ranks, for various causes, but it is a notable fact that not one of Weare's men is re- corded as being absent without leave, deserted, discharged as unfit for duty, sick or dead. Every man served until the British ships had left the vicinity of Portsmouth, and all were honorably discharged.

Peace was declared Dec. 24th, but one of the greatest battles of the war, that of New Orleans, was fought Jan. 8, 1815, before the news reached this country. It was a useless sacrifice of life, and could not have happened in these days of ocean telegraphs.

Weare voted at the annual town-meeting, 1815, to give $4 per month, in addition to the United States wages, to the militia of Weare who were detached in Sept. last, and stationed in Portsmouth harbor. They also voted not to receive the United States wages, due to our militia who were detached, and pay them in current money out of the town treasury. The selectmen record that they "paid the soldiers that were drafted for Portsmouth, $207.72."

The war cost the country $127,000,000, which was paid in twenty years by ordinary duties and internal revenue.§ It was worth the price; England ceased to insult our flag, there was no more im- pressment of our seamen, no more claim of the right to search our vessels, no making prizes of our merchantmen. Besides we had gained the respect of all other nations, had peace, and the country flourished as never before.

* Joseph Philbrick's journal says Thomas Nichols came marching home from Portsmouth at nine o'clock at night, and Aaron White with him.

+ Jacob Barrett, Robert Clough, Nathan Cram, Nathan Johnson, Serg. Ebenezer Wilson.

+ Adjt .- Gen.'s Report, 1868.

§ " Received this 23d day of October 1815, from Oliver Edwards of Weare for duties for the year 1814, one dollar for one silver watch. N. JOHNSTON Deputy Col- lector for the third collection district of New Hampshire."

368

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1812.

CHAPTER XLIII.

THE SPOTTED FEVER.

THERE was a plague in New England about 1616. It followed a great Indian war. Its ravages were so terrible that along the coast not five Indians in a hundred where left alive.

A fearful throat distemper prevailed in New Hampshire in 1735. It began in Kingston, and was particularly fatal to children. Most families lost nearly all under ten years of age. The disease was so swift that its victims died in a few hours. Children sitting at play would fall and expire with their playthings in their hands. A tenth part of the whole population of the state died in a year.

The small-pox ravaged the country about 1790. Weare had a slight experience with it, as has been told.

The spotted fever came in 1812. It traveled over the whole state. The angel of death swooped down upon one town after another until nearly all were visited. Antrim was one of the first towns to have it; more than forty died; fifty-three died in Acworth, eighty-four in Pittsfield. Jonathan Philbrick records, under 1814, that "sickness and death prevail in the towns around, but Weare thus far has escaped." He makes the same record for 1815, but Jan. 8, 1816, he says, "it is a time of great tribulation among us, many dying suddenly in this town." The victims would be taken strangely ; a sudden headache, a pain in the little finger, a sharp, pricking sensation on some part of the body, and in less than six hours they were dead. Dr. Peter C. Farnham* was taken with a stinging pain in his arm, two bright red spots appearing. He soon fell into a stupor, lost his senses and died. A young girl asked, " Who will be the next?" She was dead before midnight.

During the winter and spring almost the whole attention of the people seemed to be turned to the care of the sick, the dying and the dead. At first the physicians did not know how to treat the disease, and most of them resorted to heat and sweats ; and to such extremes did they go that many ware undoubtedly roasted to death. A hemlock sweat was considered the best thing to be done.

* Dr. Peter C. Farnham studied medicine with Dr. Samuel Peterson, of Weare. He went to Doctor Peterson's father's, in Boscawen, on Saturday, to return Monday, but never came back. He was carried to Concord and buried. He was thirty years old, of fine appearance, and " talents and integrity were his characteristics."

369

METEOROLOGICAL.

1780.]

Some also might have died of fright. While the fever was at its height the patient was covered with red spots, hence it was called the spotted fever. A few hours after death the corpse turned black ; and in other countries the disease was known as the black plague. It has been more dreaded than the cholera or yellow fever, because of its more sudden and terrible effect.

At first they had funerals, sometimes two or three in a day, and then many were buried in the night. Some hurried the corpse away to the grave before it was hardly cold in the house. In some towns nearly every family was in mourning. At length a lethargy seemed to possess the people, and friends followed their kindred to the grave with little or no emotion, and no mourning was put on .*

Some had great courage and went to the sick bed as nurses, to the coffining the black and loathsome corpse, to the grave-yard and never got sick. Others were cowardly and very careful, would stay in the house with all the doors and windows shut, but the disease noiselessly found an entrance, pale death got them, and they were hurried away to the grave.t

Many who survived lost their health by the disease, nearly all were deaf, and there was much loud talk in some towns for years after. Charles Wallace was spoiled by the fever ; he was deaf, lost his senses and soon died. As the spring wore away the disease took a milder form. In the warm summer it wholly disappeared, and only one case has since been known in Weare.#

CHAPTER XLIV. METEOROLOGICAL.

THE first settlers saw some deep and' drifting snows, that nearly buried their log cabins out of sight. The winter of 1780-1 was

* It is said no person over sixty years old was attacked by it; it seemed to prefer the young, the strong and the healthy.

t The following are a few of the Weare people who died of spotted fever :-

Miriam Collins, Amos Stoning and Susan Hasket Eaton, son of Sam-

Dr. Peter C. Farnham, Pope Stoning, his wife, uel Eaton,

Miss Page,

Mrs. Elizabeth Emerson, Hiram Edwards,

Joseph Huse,

Child of Jesse Blake, Lorenzo Edwards,

Thomas Huse,

Charles Wallace, Sophia Edwards.

John Cooper1,

# Elijah P. Clough died with it about 1825.

i" The daughter of Joseph Philbrick says she remembers that John Cooper, who was living with his grandfather, died with a very short sickness, and that they came to her father's for some medicine for him in the night; also, after his death her father said it was a clear case of spotted fever. John Cooper's father was William, - called ' Bill,' -and his grandfather was Salmon Cooper, cabinet-maker at South Weare."

370

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1794.

the coldest for forty years. From Feb. 15th to March 15th the snow did not melt on the south side of the house. It lay all over the land five feet deep, the roads could not be broken out, farmers went on snow-shoes to mill, drawing their grists with a hand-sled; wood was got up the same way, and as late as April 24th, when the sun made a hard crust, no walls or fences could be seen and loaded teams went over fields and pastures and through the woods as easily as upon the glare ice of a lake. It was for a long time called "the hard winter."

The spring of 1794 was the most forward ever known. May 17th winter rye was in bloom and apples were as large as ounce balls. That night came what was known for years as "the great white frost." Rye was killed to the ground and nearly all the apples and other fruit destroyed. One orchard on Craney hill alone escaped. In the fall a party of young folks from North Weare went there on a bright night for a few apples, and one young lady lost her pocket which contained among other things a silver dollar. She thought she paid dear for her fruit and remembered as long as she lived the "year of the great white frost."

Joseph Philbrick, who lived at South Weare and kept a memoran- dum of the weather, writes that Nov. 19, 1798, snow began to fall and continued three days, "in the whole about three feet deep, a tremendous storm." The winter was long and severe, the spring cold and backward; April 24th, he says "our horses went with the sleigh to Simon Tuttle's," "and the snow lay upon the easterly side of Mount Odiorne till the morning of May 22d." He also tells of a great snow storm that came Oct. 9, 1804. The apples were still on the trees and the potatoes not dug. Two feet fell and most of it lay on the ground all winter.

Cold Friday came Jan. 19, 1810. The cold was intense, the mercury falling fifty-five degrees in twenty-four hours, and the wind blew fearfully. There was no snow on the ground, which caused it to seem still colder. Few ventured out that day, and those who did found their hands, noses, ears and feet almost instantly frozen. In this state many froze to death. Nearly a whole family perished in Sanbornton, a most heart-rending calamity. Houses and barns were blown down. Thousands of tall forest trees were broken off, and being spoiled for lumber, were left to rot where they fell. It was the fearful wind that penetrated the thickest clothing and drove the cold into houses that made the day so terrible.

371

POVERTY YEAR.

1816.]

What is known as the " September gale" occurred Sept. 23, 1815. It began about ten in the forenoon and lasted four hours. Fences and trees were blown down, buildings unroofed and their fragments strewn in all directions. At Worcester there was a hot wind, almost suffocating. Joseph Philbrick tells how "it turned over their bee- house and took seventeen feet of the roof from the old barn." He adds that it was terribly destructive to fruit trees and the forests.

1816 was "poverty year," sometimes called " Mackerel year." Philbrick narrates that the season was cold and backward, "no blossoms till about May 20th. June 6th, cold, squally and some snow fell to the earth." "There was frost and snow every month." June 18, he says "there was a beautiful summer rain and then it was cold, and windy, and dry." "The drouth continued, with the exception of a few showers, till Oct. 22d, when there fell a good heavy rain." "A very small crop of hay and Indian corn, the least known in the memory of man; in consequence of the cold summer it could not ripen." It was all "pig corn." But the crop of small grains was good, and Mr. Philbrick raised a large amount of rye, and forty-eight bushels of wheat.

The next spring " hay was very scarce and dear, some sold at $9 per cwt." and Indian corn brought $2 a bushel .*

Corn being so scarce but little pork was fattened. As a substi- tute, a large amount of salted mackerel was eaten, hence the name " Mackerel year."

Jacob Carr, of Revolutionary memory, was always telling about the cold weather of 1816, and boasted of the large crop of potatoes he raised at that time. He said he " did not get less than five hun- dred bushels to the acre, and that he never allowed one to be picked up smaller than a tea-kettle."

He would tell how he tried to make his sickly corn grow that cold season, by extra cultivation, and that one morning he wanted to furrow it out for the day's hoeing; so he sent his son Allick to the pasture at sunrise for the horse, but after a long search the ani- mal could not be found. Dole Carr, another son, who was very strong, offered to draw the plow. Mr. Carr said he harnessed him up, put Allick on his back to drive and keep him firm, and with them furrowed out two acres before breakfast. When some neigh- bor doubted this story Jacob said, "It is true as the bible."

* " 1817, March 30. Prices current for the season. Hay $30 per ton, corn $2 a bushel, wheat $2.50, rye $2, oats 0.92 beans $3, butter, 25 Cheese, 15 "

372

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1817.

Another eccentric farmer was David Lull who lived in town at this time. He was a weather-wise man and had a curious style. He would make his forecasts and then say he would not plant corn this year, it would not be a good season for it. The next year he would not plant potatoes. The result was, he was always short. Israel Peaslee, his neighbor, with whom he discussed the subject, would each year plant some of all kinds and had plenty.

The year 1817 was cold, but with the exception of hay, crops were good. Joseph Philbrick raised forty-three bushels of wheat, sixty bushels of turnips, one hundred and twenty bushels of oats, one hundred and thirty bushels of corn, six hundred bushels of potatoes, and made fifty-seven barrels of cider .*

There was a hurricane in Weare, Sept. 9, 1821. It was like a western cyclone of late days. It mowed a swath through the woods of East Weare, twisting great trees off as if they were oaten straws. It went through the hollows and left the hill-tops un- touched. It destroyed thousands of dollars' worth of timber, and damaged the Peaslees at East Weare very much.

1826 was "grasshopper year." They came in the time of a great and long-continued drouth. Robert Peaslee says he saw them in flocks more than a mile long. At times great clouds of them appeared darkening the sun at noon-day. They ate up nearly every green thing. Men at work in the field would find their clothing destroyed and if they took off their boots the straps would soon be devoured. The insects liked those parts best for the salt sweat that was in them. The farmers drove them between the rows of potatoes or corn and then scooped them up by the bushel to feed to their hogs. A long, cold rain storm, that occurred the last week in August, destroyed them .; They greatly hurt the crops, and the fields looked brown and dead as in November. Joseph Philbrick;

* EXTRACTS FROM JOSEPH PHILBRICK'S RECORD.

" 1817, April 15, Pigeons flying in large floeks for several days, millions of them. Began to plow on the ridge.

' April 24. Sowed wheat, flax and oats on the southerly part of the ridge; in the afternoon and evening snow fell about two inehes deep.

" May 12. Plum trees in blossom ; quite cold at night so water froze in tubs.

" May 17. The the three preceeding nights quite frosty. Pear trees in blossom. Planted corn in the southwest corner of the great field.

" May 20. White frost.

" June 17 White frost."

t This storm eaused a great freshet; roads were badly washed, bridges swept away, and the Willey family in the great White mountain notch were drowned.

Į He made the following among other records : -

" 1826, March 22, Had twenty seven sap buckets made."

" Crops this year, - Wheat 12% bushels, oats 100 bushels, Corn 150 bushels, Pota- toes 500 bushels, Cider 70 barrels large erop "

373

FRESHET, METEORS, SNOW AND HAIL.

1830.]

wrote that "the amount of English hay was the smallest known since the year 1775, and that his corn and oats were much in- jured." But he also wrote "low land and meadow-hay tolerably good in consequence of late rains." "There was more second crop hay than ever before known and a bountiful supply of fall feed." Cold weather was also late in coming and the cattle found, till into December, ample supplies of food in the fields; the farmers by dis- posing of a part of their stock managed to comfortably get through the winter.

There was a great freshet Aug. 6, 1830. The streams were swollen, many of theni burst their banks, new channels were made and there was ruin and desolation in the fields. The town paid large sums extra this year for mending highways and repairing bridges.

A brilliant display of meteors took place on the morning of Nov. 13, 1833. It was the grandest ever witnessed in this country. They flew in all directions through a clear, unclouded sky, leaving long, luminous trails behind. They were like a distant shower of fire. Frequently one larger and brighter than the others would shoot across the sky, producing a flash like vivid lightning. The exhibition continued till the stars faded away in the dawn.

Jan. 7, 1835, the rain fell in torrents at night, raising the streams to a great height and damaging bridges and mills.

The snow laid late on the ground in 1838. April 12th it was four feet deep on a level, no drifts, and hard enough to carry a team anywhere, either in the open country or in the woods. That day Israel Peaslee drew three loads of hay from School hill, " cross lots," over high fences and walls without a slump. Two days later Ben- jamin Tuttle, drove an ox team from the Jones place, down the old road east of Mount William to South Weare. He crossed a dozen fences and the snow was so deep he did not touch but one pole, and the crust was so hard that he did not once break through. A great storm of wind and rain occurred Jan. 26, 1839, and immense losses were reported on the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers.

A brilliant display of northern lights illumined the whole sky for many hours on the night of Sept. 3, 1839. They were of many hues, white, red and green, with bright streamers up to the zenith, and a weird, crackling sound.

A tremendous hail-storm came crashing across the country June 30, 1841, doing an immense amount of damage. Some of the hail- stones were nearly as large as hens' eggs. It was accompanied by

374

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1842.

fearful thunder and lightning, and there were two other heavy thunder-showers during the day, one preceding, the other following. Many thousand lights of glass were broken in this and neighboring towns, the young crops beaten down, and lambs, calves and poultry killed.

A bitter cold storm of wind and snow occurred June 11, 1842. The ground was covered with a wintry mantle to the depth of three or four inches. The next day a November wind prevailed, but the young corn, the apples and other fruits sustained no serious damage .*

The winter of 1842-3 was long and severe. Sleighing was good till past the middle of April, and at that time, the snow was more than three feet deep on a level. It began to melt April 18th, disappeared rapidly, and by May 10th, the farmers were sowing their spring grain. The Millerites or Adventists had set March 23d as the day when the world would burn up; many, it is said, had their ascension robes all prepared, but the vast body of snow on the ground probably prevented that dire catastrophe.

There was a severe storm of wind, rain, hail, lightning and thun- der, Aug. 14, 1846. Buildings were unroofed, trees uprooted, and much glass broken.

For forty-five days, commencing Dec. 25, 1855, the weather was at no time warm enough to melt the snow from the roofs of houses, even in sheltered places.

There was an equally cold period, nearly as long, at the beginning of 1857, when the snow remained unmelted on the roofs.

The 23d of January, 1857, was probably colder than the cold Fri- day, 1810, but the wind did not blow. The thermometer showed forty degrees below zero at North Weare.

Feb. 7, 1861, was mild and rainy in the morning. Towards noon the wind rose. At night it was a gale. The next morning the mercury froze in the bulb, and it was more than forty degrees be- low zero. There was a change of over sixty-six degrees in twenty- four hours.

There was an ice freshet March 7, 1864. The river rose rapidly, and many bridges were badly damaged.

The greatest rain on record occurred Oct. 3 and 4, 1869. Nearly

* Price of farm products, October, 1842. Hay, $7 to $8 per ton; butter, 16 to 18 cents per pound; potatoes, 20 cents a bushel; winter apples, $1 per barrel. Other articles in proportion.

375

THE MILITIA.

1712.]

eight inches of water fell in forty-eight hours, and at the close of the storm most of the roads were so badly washed as to be impassa- ble; a vast amount of property, dams, mills and bridges, were swept away. It cost the town a very large sum to make the high- ways good again.

In the evening of Sept. 24, 1881, a remarkable thunder-shower came rushing from the west, accompanied by a strong wind. The clouds were of a brassy, yellow color, and the air full of electricity. The distant thunder muttered low at first; it was incessant; then it grew louder, one continuous peal; then, as it came near, it roared and crashed all the time, no intermission. The heavens were aglow with a steady stream of lightning, the whole earth was lighted up, the rain fell in torrents. It lasted nearly two hours, one constant roar of thunder, one unceasing lightning flash. No living man ever heard a grander or more awe-inspiring thunder-storm.

Men in Weare have seen meteors rushing athwart the sky; comets, like flaming swords, hurrying down past the pole star, and have heard the earthquake's shock. In ancient days people were frightened by such things, thinking they were portents of an angry God, and fearing that war, pestilence, famine, or other dire calamity, would soon stalk abroad in the land. Now such things are looked upon as orderly sequences in nature, having no more to do with men than with the leaves of the forest.

CHAPTER XLV.

THE MILITIA.

QUEEN ANNE's war closed in 1712. The chiefs of the belligerent Indian tribes signed a treaty of peace in 1713. But the Indians were treacherous, and the governor and council took good care to organize the militia to be ready in case of emergencies, and in 1718 the General Court passed the first militia law of the province. It provided that all male persons from sixteen to sixty years of age, ex- cept Negroes and Indians, should perform military duty; that every captain should call out his company four times each year for drill, and that there should be a regimental muster once in three years. In 1730 there were about eighteen hundred militia in the Province, consisting of two regiments of foot with a troop of horse in each.

376

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1760.

The "Seven Years' War" aroused the military spirit of the prov- ince, and in 1760 there were ten regiments: one of cavalry and nine of infantry. The ninth regiment was commanded by John Goffe, colonel; John Shepherd, lieutenant-colonel, and John Noyes, major. The soldiers of Weare then belonged to the fourth com- pany of said ninth regiment.

Changes were made in the militia law in 1776, 1780 and 1786. By the last act the training band consisted of all able-bodied males from sixteen to forty, and the alarm list included those from forty to sixty.

Weare had two militia companies in 1778 ; one in the north, and the other in the south part of the town. Samuel Philbrick, as we have seen, was captain of the south company, and Samuel Page probably captain of the north. The dividing line crossed the town from east to west a little north of the center .*

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The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888, Part 42

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