The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888, Part 64

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 64

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There are now four grist-mills in town, one each at Oil Mill, East Weare, North Weare and South Weare, the latter on the Peacock where Capt. Philbrick built the first one .*

BAKERS. Jonathan Philbrick is as well remembered as any of them. He had his bakery at South Weare, by Dearborn's tavern, and not far from Meadow brook. He made crackers, ginger-bread and cakes of various kinds, and sold them up and down the country.

EVAPORATED APPLES have been put up in large quantities each autumn for many years at North Weare. James E. Jones carried on the business at site five on the river. The work has been done by machinery moved by water-power, and the product is con- sidered much nicer than the old-fashioned dried apples.

POTASH AND PEARLASH making was a great industry in the early part of the present century. Wood was abundant, the fire-places at

* In 1870 grist-mills were thus reported: Whole number, 2; capital, $4000; men employed, 2; annual pay-roll, $700; number of bushels of grain ground, 23,000; value, $31,700.

561

CIDER AND APPLE BRANDY.

1810.]

that time were huge, and it was no uncommon thing for farmers to burn fifty cords a year, and they had a large quantity of ashes to sell. All traders took them in exchange for their goods. Jacob Straw or Benjamin Merrill had potash-works on Sugar hill as early as 1774, and they were common all over town.

Enos Merrill, the cooper, as he said, had a large potash factory at East Weare and made "salts" and pearlash. He had great cauldron kettles in which he boiled the lye, and he refined the salts in a huge oven, where the flames looked like the fires of hell, as shown in the pictures of old painters. Pearlash brought a high price, often sell- ing for $190 a ton, and never lower than $100. It was sent away on great teams to Boston. Merrill kept store and bought ashes for goods of the farmers and for cash of the other traders. There were large potash-works at South Weare and at Oil Mill about 1820.

CIDER AND APPLE BRANDY. Cider was made by almost every considerable farmer in town, and every other well-to-do farmer had a cider mill of his own. George Hadley, a Revolutionary soldier and the first settler of that name, when there was a good apple-crop would make a hundred barrels a year. Many had distilleries and made apple brandy, which was sold in the market towns, except what was drank at home. Abraham Morrill distilled a large quantity from 1810 to 1830. Amos W. Bailey, Swett Gove, Tristram Johnson and John E. Carr had distilleries. The manufacture of apple brandy was quite a business. No one then thought of feeding apples to cattle or hogs, -it being considered a waste. When apples were plenty cider would be made early so as to work, and taken to the still, where a gallon of cider brandy was received for a barrel of cider. Cider wine was made by putting seven or eight gallons of apple brandy into a barrel and filling it up with cider. A tumbler- ful of it would make a man think of his friends in Ireland. After the cider brandy was made all the barrels and great five-barrel casks were filled with late-made cider for common drinking.

In recent times much cider has been made for the city market and for vinegar. In 1862 Squire L. Gove put in a cider mill at site forty- six on the Peacock, and manufactured cider by water-power. Geo. W. Woodbury for many years made cider in his mill at site nine on the river. In 1866 Sebastian S. Clark and son, Josiah D. Clark, enlarged the Oliver Edwards shop at site sixty-one on Center brook and put in a cider mill operated by water-power. In 1869 he put in a water- power press and has since done a large business.

562

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1803.

OIL MILLS were plenty in New England about the beginning of the present century. Linseed and pumpkin-seed oils were manu- factured in them. Phinehas Stone came from Massachusetts, where he had owned one, to Weare in 1803. July 12th, in company with Simon Houghton, he leased from Benjamin Gale a water-power to run an oil mill for twenty years, and soon built our oil mill. It gave its name to the village, which has kept it ever since. Colonel Stone operated it but a short time, when it passed into the hands of other parties, and eventually was owned by Christopher Simons.

It was situated on the south-west side of the highway, south of the bridge, a two-story building thirty by forty feet, the flume on the east side extending half the length. There were two entrances, one to the second story at the north-east corner by a flight of steps over the flume, the other to the lower story near the south-east cor- ner. There were stairs inside from the south-west corner to the second story.

The simple machinery,* strongly constructed, was first to crack the seed, second to grind it, third to warm the meal, and fourth to press it. The meal was put into a heavy canvas cloth to keep it in place in the press, the oil ran down into a tub like cider, from which it was put in barrels. The flax-seed cake taken from the press was chopped and broken into small pieces, which were again ground into meal, sold to farmers and fed to their stock.

The raising of flax was a great industry before the times of cotton factories, and flax-seed used to be taken at all the stores as barter and sold in turn to the oil mills. Stone, and after him Simons, used to have great bins of it, more than five hundred bushels, stored in the second story of their oil mill at a time. Then the mill ran more

* The machinery for cracking the seed consisted of two iron rollers, ten inches long and eight inches in diameter, fitted to iron shafting placed horizontally; the rolls smoothly finished, and ran so nearly together that only a sheet of the thinnest paper could pass between them. A spout so closely fitted to the rolls that not a seed could escape, conducted the sced to them, from the room above, where it was broken passing between them. It was then shoveled on to a bed-stone near by, about nine feet square. Through the center of this stone stood a perpendicular oaken shaft about twenty inches in diameter, securely fastened to heavy timber at the top and revolved by a water-wheel below. Through this shaft above the bed-stone was a wooden axle about seven feet long, and at each end was a mill-stone about five feet in diameter, fourteen inches thick. Behind each stone wheel was a follower, to keep the meal in place, and they, going round and round about twenty times a min- ute, soon ground out a pressing. The meal was then put into a thick sheet-iron cylinder, which was made to revolve several times a minute over a slow fire. When properly warmed it was put into canvas bags, and these placed in the press box, and power applied by an iron screw about four inches in diameter, turned by strong machinery connected with the water-wheel. The oil, like cider, ran down into a tub, from which it was dipped into barrels. The flax-cake was taken out of the press, chopped into small pieces with an axe, again placed under the great stone wheels, ground into meal and sold to be fed to the farmers' stock. The oil was sold for about $1.50 a gallon, and hundreds of barrels were made each year.

563

MISCELLANEOUS.

1740.]

than two-thirds of the year. In 1835 but a few bushels of seed could be obtained, the mill only ran two or three weeks, and in 1836 the business ceased. Linseed as well as pumpkin-seed oil found a ready market in those days, and the business was profitable.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

MISCELLANEOUS.

THERE is a tradition that a man named Keyes, some time before 1740, built himself a rude cabin in the woods of old Halestown. It is told how for several years he lived in the forest primeval; heard the howl of wolves, the gob- bling of wild turkeys, the splash of the otter, and saw moose and deer, the conical huts of the beaver and the wild duck swimming on the streams. Then when he found that the settlement of the boundary line had located him not in Massachusetts but in New Hampshire, and that he had no title to his farm, he moved away, and soon a young growth of wood sprang up in his little clearing.

Smith's Annals narrate that the town of Hillsborough was settled in 1741, that Hills and Keyes,* both of Boston, the town proprie- tors, built a parsonage and a meeting-house, and purchased a bell for its steeple; that at the breaking out of the Indian war in 1744 the settlers deserted their new homes, and that "Keyes of Weare," who happened that way, having secured the glass, set the meeting- house on fire for the mere gratification of seeing it burn.

John A. Riddle, of Bedford, says he saw among the papers of Matthew Patten,t the justice of the peace, a complaint against some man in Halestown for burning a building in Hillsborough to get the

* Gersham Keyes, of Boston, owned a large tract of land in Halestown. See page 67, ante.

Matthew Patten was born in Ireland, May 19, 1719. He settled in Souhegan East, now Bedford, in 1738. He was a farmer, a fisherman at Amoskeag falls, an excellent surveyor, a justice of the peace, did a large legal business and was judge of probate.

564

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1752.

wrought nails, which were very scarce and dear at that time. Great efforts have been made to find that complaint; as yet they are un- successful, but Mr. Riddle is positive that such a document was once in existence and that he saw it. Whether it will ever be found, and the cloud, that envelops the history of the first settlement under the Halestown proprietors if there was one, ever be dissipated, time and research only can tell.

TIME. The history of Halestown all occurred in Old Style ; that of Robiestown in both Old and New Style. Previous to 1752 the year began on the 25th of March. January following December, 1735, was written January, 1735, and it was customary to write all dates between Jan. 1st and March 25th without changing the number of the year. But it was also customary to write the dates in January, February and the first twenty-four days in March in double form, thus : Jan. 20, 1735-6, or 1735. This would indicate the 20th of January following December, 1735; and as soon as the 25th of March was reached the figure 5 would be omitted and the figure 6 would assume its place. By act of parliament the manner of reckoning time was changed in September, 1752. In addition to making the year begin Jan. 1st, to correct previous errors the time was brought forward eleven days by calling the 3d of Septem- ber the 14th.

In writing of Halestown and of Robiestown, dates may have some- times been given as of New Style when they should have been of Old Style and vice versa. If any such incongruity should be found the reader no doubt will easily translate them rightly, and he may rest assured that all the dates in this history are correct either in Old Style or New.

LAW. The early settlers often went to Matthew Patten for law and justice. Parish Richardson, of "Weirs town," complained, June 3, 1760, on his majesty's behalf as well as his own, against John Marsh, of place and province aforesaid, that said Marsh at the dwelling house of the complainant did, with a gun or firelock loaded with powder and ball, shoot and kill said complainant's dog, which was lying beside the house, "terrofying the complainant's wife and children "; and he alleged that it was contrary to the peace of our "Sovereign Lord the King, his Crown and Dignity." Parish Rich- ardson signed with his mark, and Justice Patten issued his warrant and saw that justice was done. This case shows what was going on in the new settlement and what the people had to talk about. John

565

TITHING-MEN, TAXES, ETC.

1764.]

Marsh lived on the river-road, just north of the gore, and Parish Richardson was probably his neighbor; both soon left town.

FISH were so plenty in the river that they were used in Weare, from 1751 to 1764, as manure, - a practice copied from the Indians. In the early times it was not uncommon to stipulate in the inden- tures of apprentices that they should not be obliged to eat salmon oftener than six times a week.

FIRST SOFA. Israel Peaslee, of East Weare, owned the first one ever brought into town. It was afterwards purchased by Moses Hodgdon, and is now owned by his son, Moses A. Hodgdon.

TITHING-MEN were chosen in Weare in 1764 at the first town- meeting. They were for the benefit of the clergy and the church; to preserve the sanctity of the Sabbath; to prevent traveling and to prohibit all secular work on that day. They also kept order in the house of God during the solemn services.

It is told how Curtis Felch, who was tithing-man at the east meeting-house, saw Thomas Stevens whispering and laughing with the boys. Felch, feeling the dignity of his office, spoke out pom- pously, " Thomas Stevens, if you can't behave in the house of God, you had better leave!" Stevens felt mortified. He waited a min- ute, then jumped to his feet and shouted, "Curtis Felch, if you don't pay me that bushel of corn you borrowed of me, you ain't a Christian!" Felch had plenty of corn, and never borrowed any, while Stevens was poor and had no corn to lend, which made it all the more amusing. The minister had to bear such interruptions.

Tithing-men were popular in the last century and the first of this. But when the highways were built from Henniker and Hopkinton through Weare to the large towns "down below," where were the farmers' markets, these officers soon grew very obnoxious. They prevented business and hurt the inn-keepers. Then for a few years they chose only those who lived in the remote parts of the town, who could not do much harm, and in 1832 they cut them off entirely, voting not to choose any men to that office.

TAXES. The first taxes were collected in Weare in 1764. Min- ister rates were raised in 1766. Money was gathered to build and re- pair high ways in 1768, -£40 in all, -"to be worked by Rat," two shillings a day for a man, and the same for a yoke of oxen. The citizens paid a county tax in 1771 of £8 7s. 7}d., to help build a prison at Amherst. State taxes were "terrible high" in the time of the Revolution, and Aug. 15, 1782, the town "voted that

566

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE. [1771.

Nathaniel Weed be a committee-man to go to Exeter to have our heavy taxes abated." The town was very lenient in raising taxes at first, many not being taxed at all; and in 1784 the selectmen " abated John Podney's Rates a Cow that Dyed, £0 : 1 :9:0."

The United States government began to look affectionately at our town in 1799, -money was wanted; and John Robie, Jabez Morrill and James Caldwell were chosen to take the valuation in said town, according to act of Congress. Good stallions were scarce in 1821, and to encourage agriculture the town exempted all belong- ing to Weare from taxation. In 1847 men got tired of paying taxes, and "tried to avoid them," and the selectmen were instructed to "put every man in town under oath, relative to his taxable prop- erty." Appraisers Ebenezer Gove, Dustin White and Daniel Paige were appointed in 1851 "to appraise all the real estate in town." Ten years later the town, at the instance of Zephaniah Breed, voted in favor of taxing all dogs. The town introduced a new fashion in 1866; they instructed the collector to make a discount of three per cent on all taxes paid by July 1st, two on all paid by Aug. 1st, and one by Sept. 1st. This custom has been continued to the present time. In 1868 a resolution was passed almost unanimously, that all national, state, county, town and municipal bonds should be taxed. This seemed just. It was popular; but the bondholders prevailed, and people of moderate circumstances and holders of real estate had to pay the taxes as usual. Similar resolutions, introduced by Hon. John L. Hadley, were adopted in 1870, and at the same meeting the town voted to exempt from taxation, for five years, any capital coming into this town for mechanical or manufacturing pur- poses. A like vote was passed in 1873, extending the time to ten years. Assessors * were chosen in 1875 to assist the selectmen in making a new appraisal of real estate. The tax on the Rockland mills was abated in 1883 for the years 1877, 1878 and 1879, and it was voted that year to publish in the town reports the names of all delinquent tax-payers, with the amounts due.t

FIRST CHAISE. John Hodgdon was the first man in town to own one. He used to drive about the country in it, looking at his

* They were : north division, Abner P. Collins, Daniel P. Woodbury ; south division, Luther E. Gould, Squire G. Eastman ; east division, Robert Peaslee, Joseph W. Cilley.

t In 1794 Weare paid more publie tax than any town in Hillsborough county. In 1798 Weare paid $13.74 per $1000, which was more than any town in the state, except Portsmouth, $26.33; Londonderry, $16.82, and Gilmanton, $14.58. In 1812 Weare paid $12.01; Portsmouth, $45.06; Londonderry, $14.63; Gilmanton, $14.20; Barrington, $14.58; Sanbornton, $14.43.

567

BOUNDARIES OF WEARE, ETC.

1772.]

land, and it was said to have been the most familiar vehicle seen at Amherst court. But the first chaise was driven to Weare years be- fore he bought his. A Quakeress from Salem, Mass., came up in one, visiting and to meeting. Estes Newhall attended her on horse- back. The road was very rough; no bridges; but they managed to ford and ferry the streams, and arrived safely at Jedediah Dow's. They could not get quite to his house, the road not being cut out, and so left the chaise a short way off in the woods.

The first chaise seen on Barnard hill was owned by Richard Philbrick in 1810. It was a great curiosity to the people there. Philbrick used to drive at a Jehu rate down the hill from Huse's to East Weare.

BOUNDARIES OF WEARE. North, by Henniker, Hopkin- ton and Dunbarton; east, by Hopkinton, Dunbarton and Goffstown; south, by Dunbarton, Goffstown, New Boston and Francestown, and west by Francestown, Deering and Henniker. Weare is bounded on the north, south and east by Dunbarton by reason of the exceedingly crooked line between Weare and Dunbarton, established by the legislature; on the east by Hopkinton seven rods, on the south by Goffstown, for the reason that the legislature trans- ferred a tract of land from New Boston to that town, and on the west by Henniker, seventeen rods.

MEETING-HOUSE CORNER, now called Fifield's Corner, was once the center of business in South Weare. The meeting-house, school-house, store and blacksmith shop were all located there be- fore the Revolution.

QUAKERS. It is claimed that Jonathan Peaslee was the first Quaker in Weare. He came in 1765. If he was a Quaker, Dow and Purington were not the first. The name, "Jonathan Peaslee," appears in the list of early Quakers.

PRAYERS AT TOWN-MEETING. It was customary at the first to open all town-meetings with prayer. When the Quakers came they were a little uneasy about the prayers. John Hodgdon one year, as soon as the meeting was called to order, moved that the custom be abandoned, saying, "I see no occasion for audible prayer for Divine guidance, when every man, before he comes here, has made up his mind how he shall vote and knows what he will do." His motion prevailed, and there has been no praying in Weare town- meetings since.

CONSTABLE'S STAFF AND JURY BOX. In 1772 the

568

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE. [1774.

selectmen paid for these useful articles three shillings six pence.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. The town must have " weights and measures as the law directs." We have seen how John Hodg- don went to Portsmouth in 1774 for them, at an expense to the town of twelve shillings for himself and of one and a half pounds paid Noah Parker. Mr. Hodgdon went to Portsmouth again in 1776 for more weights and measures, and charged the same price for his services. He did not get enough for the town's use this time, so in 1779 he went to Portsmouth and bought additional ones, and paid Trader Parker £36 1s. for them, and charged £11 8s. for his " Care and truble in Puchessing the weights and measure for a town Standard, and for Bringing the Iron Weights from portsmouth." Several years after this (1785) the town paid Jedediah Dow for bringing weights and measures six shillings. New weights and measures were needed in 1805, and the town paid Daniel Warner for some that year, $17.75, and Humphrey Sawyer for a scale beam and other things $14.25. The town voted at this time that the seal for Weare's weights and measures should be the letter "W." A sealer has been chosen each year since 1774, who has performed his duties under oath.

TEA AND COFFEE were so scarce in the time of the Revo- lutionary war that people substituted for the first Labrador tea and loosestrife, and for the second burnt rye, beans and peas. For molasses some boiled corn-stalks.

POST-OFFICES AND POST-RIDERS. Before the war of the Revolution there were no post-offices nor post-routes in New Hampshire. When it was absolutely necessary to send a letter, a messenger carried it, or a friend going that way took it along. There were tramps in those old days, as now, who roamed from place to place, too lazy to work, and sometimes they had "beats " several hundred miles in length. Often they were excellent carriers, and a letter entrusted to their care was sure to reach its destination. Plenty of food and good lodgings were all the pay expected.

New Hampshire, May 18, 1775, established a post-office at Ports- mouth, and appointed Samuel Penhallow postmaster, and directed that he with the members from that town shall be a committee to agree with a post-rider or riders .*

* Provincial Papers, vol. vii, p. 473.

569

POST-OFFICES AND POST-RIDERS.

1786.]

Our legislature arranged for å post-office department in March, 1786, and four post-routes, one a northern and another a western, were established. John Lathrop, of Lebanon, was post-rider on the first, and Thomas Smith, of Surry, on the second.

In 1791 the legislature re-arranged the four routes. The first be- gan at Concord and proceeded through Weare, New Boston, Am- herst, Peterborough, Keene, Walpole, Charlestown, Claremont, Newport, Hillsborough to Concord again .* The second went north to Plymouth and Haverhill, then south to Hanover and Lebanon, and thence to Concord.

Each post-rider was required to perform his route weekly, and he was paid £12 a year. They were required to reverse their alternate trips ; one week it was from Concord to Weare, round through Charlestown to Concord, the next round the other way through Weare to Concord. The postage on single letters was sixpence for forty miles, and fourpence for any distance less than that Weare could send a letter to Keene or any other town on the route every week, but it would take nearly two weeks to get one to Ports- mouth or Exeter. William Gordon was appointed postmaster the same year for Amherst, and George Hough for Concord. Our citizens for a long time mailed and received their letters at those offices, and their uncalled for letters were advertised in the papers of those towns.

Jacob Smith was the first mail-carrier under the law of 1791.1 He received $50 per annum for his services, and what he could get carrying parcels. The people on the route paid him the first year, and after that the government. He was soon succeeded by John

* The exact route was " beginning at Concord, thence to proceed through Weare, New Boston, Amherst, Wilton, Temple, Peterborough, Dublin, Marlborough, Keene, Westmoreland, Walpole, Alstead, Acworth, Charlestown, Claremont, Newport, Lemp- ster, Washington, Hillsborough, Henniker, Hopkinton to Concord."

t RATES OF POSTAGE ON LETTERS IN 1795.

Every single letter conveyed by land not exceeding thirty miles, 6 cents. Over 30 and not exceeding 60. 8 66

66 100 66 66

150.

1212 66

66 150 60 66

200. 15

66 200 66 66

250 17

250

66 66

350.

20 66

66 350

66 66

450.

66 450.

Rates in 1823 for a single letter of one piece of paper for any dis- tance not exceeding 30 miles.

80 66

150.

1212

150

400. 1834 66

400.

Over 30 and not exceeding 80.

Letters composed of two pieces of paper were charged double those rates ; three pieces, triple rates, and more than three, quadruple postage.

570

HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1809.

Philbrick, who carried the mail twelve years. He blew his post- horn as he rode horseback along the country roads, and distributed his parcels and newspapers, which he carried outside of his mail-bag on his own account. He deposited the letters entrusted to him to mail or deliver, and all deeds to be recorded, in his saddle bags that were thrown over his horse's back. Postage was high then, six cents for carrying the smallest letter any distance less than thirty miles, and twenty-five cents if the distance exceeded four hundred and fifty miles.

Lieut. Francis Bowman set up as a post-rider about the beginning of the present century. His route was from Henniker through Weare, New Boston and other towns to Amherst. He carried letters to be mailed, brought letters for delivery, distributed small parcels, got deeds recorded, and peddled papers, principally the Farmer's Cab- inet. He rode an old gray mare, blew a loud-sounding post-horn, and dealt out his packages with great rapidity. His papers were bought of the printer ; he trusted them out to his customers, some of whom were slow to pay, and he often dunned them politely and sharply through the columns of the Cabinet.

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The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888, Part 64

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