USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Lyndeborough > The history of the town of Lyndeborough, New Hampshire,1735-1905 > Part 51
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
Charles L. Avery
A special town meeting was called on Aug. 10 for the pur- pose of perfecting arrangements and appropriating money to pay expenses, and it is a curious, and in some respects a ludicrous fact, that this meeting extended into three days before the "red tape " of the law could be complied with and the money legally appropriated. This with no opposition to the measure. The sum of three hundred dollars was placed in the hands of the committee to carry on the work.
David C. Grant was chosen president of the day, Andy Holt chief marshal, and Jacob A. Woodward, toastmaster. A mam- moth tent was hired in Boston and was pitched on the common, just south of the town hall.
*At the time this celebration was proposed, Mr. David C. Grant and many others inter- ested in the event, were of the opinion that John Badger was the first settler within the limits of Salem-Canada, and that he made his beginning in 1739.
Later researches, however, serve to prove that so far as his being the first settler such was not the fact, and that really the celebration should have been held in 1887. So far as the celebration is concerned this matter is immaterial now, and this note is inserted to explain any discrepancy which a careful reader of the foregoing chapters of this history might find.
545
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
The day selected, Wednesday, Sept. 4, was all that could be desired in the way of weather. Cloudless skies, cool, bracing air, and warm sun, made an ideal day. Sons and daughters of Lyndeborough had come from all over the country to visit their native town, and to help by their presence in making the day one to be remembered. Many of the citizens had decorated their homes in honor of the occasion. The residence of Charles R. Boutwell was especially noticeable. On the front was the inscription, 1739-1889. The grounds as well as the house were beautiful with national colors and other devices. George E. Spalding also put out numerous flags, and displayed a por- trait of the first settled physician in town. At sunrise the bells were rung and a salute was fired. At 9 o'clock a procession was formed on the common in the following order : --
Platoon of Police Chief marshal, Andy Holt, and aides C. Henry Holt in command of militia, and staff Peterborough Band, 22 pieces, C. E. White, leader Lafayette Artillery Co., A. S. Conant, captain Section of Artillery, Sergeant A. T. Ford Post Harvey Holt, G. A. R., Jason Holt, commander Color Guard Sons of Veterans, Edward Ross, captain
Woman's Relief Corps, and citizens in private carriages.
The route of the procession was through the historic street of the "centre." In the evening the village was illuminated, and there was a fine display of fireworks, generously paid for by Boutwell Bros. of Lowell, Mass.
At 10 o'clock A. M. the meeting which had assembled under the large tent was called to order by the president of the day, Mr. D. C. Grant, who said : -
The hour has arrived which was assigned by the committee for the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Lyndeborough. If we had arranged a day to our own liking, we could not have selected a more beautiful day than this. We have come to- gether upon a very interesting occasion, for the purpose of connecting the future with the past by a golden link which cannot be broken. One hundred and ninety-nine years ago, whoever was traveling through the village of Salem, Massachusetts, would have seen a little band collected together to go on an expedition to Canada. That little band was com- manded by Capt. Samuel King. That expedition returned late in that season, having met with defeat and disaster. They found the exchequer of Massachusetts depleted, and they were not paid for their services.
One hundred and fifty-four years ago last June the Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted to Capt. Samuel King and his co-laborers, for their services, a certain tract of land six miles square, lying west of Nar-
546
HISTORY OF LYNDEBOROUGH
ragansett No. 3 - so called then, now Amherst and part of Mont Vernon. One hundred and fifty-four years ago the proprietors who were associated witlı Capt. Samuel King met together and had their land surveyed ; and the remains of it are what is now left of Lyndeborough, but at that time a part of Wilton, Mont Vernon and Milford.
Those early settlers, those earlier proprietors, made an effort to have the land surveyed, and one hundred and fifty years ago this last season they had built a few cabins, and they spent the winter of 1739-40 in the limits of old Lyndeborough, planting the first settlement, laboring against the forces of nature to establish for themselves and for their pos- terity a home. That home has been transmitted to us, and we, their children, to-day have met to connect, as I said before, with a golden link, the bright silver chain of circumstances which has brought this town into its present position. Last March a few of the citizens of Lyndebor- ough conceived the idea that we had neglected the works of those noble and worthy men in that distant day as they came here into this forest home and established the homes which we now this day enjoy. The town unanimously voted to celebrate that event, and invitations have been extended to you, and you are here today to unite with us in con- necting that important event with the events of this day and with the future. We thank you for having responded so nobly and so generously to that call ; and the God of heaven has smiled upon us, and lest we should forget our dependence upon that God, the God of our fathers and our God, let us all unite in calling upon His name to assist us in these services, that they may redound to His glory and to the benefit of man- kind. I will call upon the Rev. Mr. Childs to lead us in prayer. .
Rev. Mr. Childs of Lyndborough Centre then offered prayer.
The President. We have with us to-day one who was born and reared in our midst, and we could discover nothing very remarkable in him while a boy. As he grew up to manhood he served us as superintending school committee, first as school teacher, then as merchant. He has since wandered from the fold, and has gained the reputation of being as good a specimen of the live Yankee as Lyndeborough has ever been known to produce. I have the pleasure of introducing to you William W. Curtis.
Mr. Curtis. Fellow-citizens of the Town of Lyndeborough : Let God be praised for having set apart so perfect a day for this commemora- tion of our illustrious fathers and mothers, who fashioned and moulded the golden principles of justice, honor and manhood and handed them down to us, that they might be everlastingly perpetuated to all future generations of the sons and daughters of this, their native home.
Mr. Curtis then read a poem, the manuscript of which is not available for this history.
The President. We have with us, to-day, another one of the noble sons of Lyndeborough who spent his youthful days with
547
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
us, who has gone forth as an educator and an instructor ; after- wards, to preach the everlasting Gospel to the people. He comes to you to-day, after many years of experience and after many months of hard searching upon our musty records. He has gleaned much from them and will now lay before you a part of the results of his labors. I have the honor and the pleasure of introducing to you the Rev. F. G. Clark, of Medford, Mass.
The address of Mr. Clark was listened to with close attention and was greeted with much applause. It was the first con- nected story of Lyndeborough or rather Salem-Canada-Lynde- borough, to which the great majority of the citizens of the town had ever listened. With his permission much of it has been incorporated in this history.
During the delivery of the Historical Address, a pause was made for the singing of a hymn, concerning which Mr. Clark said : The hymn now to be sung is a hymn that was written by Dr. Herrick for the last service held in the old church which stood where the present town-house now stands.
The exercises were resumed at 2 P. M., and the president said : We have with us to-day another of the sons of Lynde- borough, who grew up amongst us, who went to our schools, who played with us, and who, in his early manhood, prepared himself to teach others. He has wandered away, and he has returned to us with a message. I have the honor and the pleasure of introducing to you Professor Daniel Putnam, of Ypsilanti, Mich.
(Prof. Putnam then delivered the following oration.)
Ladies and Gentlemen : - I am both proud and glad to address you as my fellow townsmen. It is true that in one aspect we are strangers. Your faces are new to me as mine is to you. Five and forty years seem to the young an almost endless age. They do indeed form a large part of any ordinary human life. So many years have passed since I ceased to be a resident of this my native town. Only seldom during all these years have I visited for a brief time these once familiar scenes. A gener- ation and more has passed away. I meet the children and the grand- children of my school-fellows. They may be pardoned for looking upon me as a preserved relic of antediluvian times, a returning Rip Van Winkle of the days "before the war."
Yet some things are unchanged. "The common " here where your chairman and I used "to train," almost half a century ago, in the then celebrated " Lyndeboro Light Infantry," is scarcely changed in a single feature. I regret that the old " Meeting House" is gone. I can see in my " mind's eye " at this moment its dingy yellow outside, its two rows of small windows ; in the interior its square pews, its wide gallery, its high pulpit and its wonderful " sounding board " suspended above the
548
HISTORY OF LYNDEBOROUGH
minister's head. The old house deserved to be spared and preserved as a relic of the olden times, and on account of the associations which had, in the lapse of years, gathered about it. "The mountain" yonder is the same; the hills which I used to climb are the same. The rocks are still here, as many and as huge as ever. I find the same narrow valleys and winding roads. From the hilltops are the same wide views and charming prospects of nature.
One may be allowed, to exclaim, in borrowed words :
" Ye crags and peaks, I'm with you once again ! O sacred forms, how proud you look ! How high you lift your heads into the sky !
How huge you are, how mighty and how free ! "
An anniversary such as has gathered us together to-day naturally turns the thoughts of those who have reached or passed the mid-day point of life, backward. The traveler, who climbs with toilsome steps up one of our native hills, pauses now and then and turns to measure over with his eye the path along which he has been struggling, following all its windings and numbering all its mile-stones.
We have come from our homes and our wanderings to greet one another as we rest for a few moments round about the hundred and fiftieth mile-stone which marks the age of our municipal life. Looking backward from this height I see with tolerable distinctness three score of these annual way-marks. Five others are partially obscured from view by the haze which covers early childhood. Some of you can see as many ; a few can count a larger number; most of you stop reckoning before you reach a score and a half.
In addressing you under these circumstances I find myself impelled to speak briefly of some of the things which have been crowded into the space of five and sixty years, to note a few of the changes which have taken place, and to inquire whether, on the whole, real, healthful and hopeful progress has been made. Our starting point is the year 1824. The second term of the fifth President of the United States was drawing towards its close. Only forty-eight years had passed since the Declara- tion of Independence and only thirty-five since the organization of the government under the constitution. Many of the younger actors in the great Revolution, and in the events which immediately followed, were still vigorous and influential in public affairs. Two years later, on the fourth of July, just fifty years from the day when the Declaration of Independence was promulgated, the second and third presidents of the republic passed away.
During the years which have intervened the territory of the country has been enlarged at least three-fold; the states have increased from twenty-four to forty-two, and the population has grown from ten millions to more than sixty millions.
The progress in inventions, in sciences and arts in machinery, in means of travel and transportation, indeed in everything which has to do with civilization and with the comforts and conveniences of life, has been simply marvelous. The wildest dreams of imagination have been more than realized. In my early boyhood the stage-coach afforded the most
549
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
rapid means of conveyance, and goods were transported into the interior of the country by huge, lumbering wagons drawn by four, six, or eight horses. The Erie canal was opened in 1825, and the first railroad in the United States was put in operation in 1826. This was the Quincy road, less than four miles in length, operated by horse-power, and used to transport the granite from the quarries to tidewater. Locomotives were first employed for railroad transportation in 1829 or 1830. These were crude in form and construction, weighing scarcely more than a ton. The first telegraph line was erected and the first message transmitted . over the wires in 1844. The first really successful Atlantic cable was laid in 1866. Time does not permit me to speak of the sewing-machine, of mowers and reapers, of the telephone and of the thousand other wonders of the last half of this nineteenth century.
Our progress in the directions to which I have thus hastily referred is so obvious and so gratifying to the natural vanity of the human mind that we never tire in boasting of it. It would be worse than folly to be- little this progress even if one were so disposed.
But widening territory, increasing population, accumulating wealth of material resources are not the sole, or even the most important indica- tions of real advancement either in a nation or in a limited, local com- munity. We can judge more correctly and wisely in respect to the prog- ress when we know how this territory is occupied, improved and governed ; when we know of what sort and character this swelling popu- lation is, and when we have learned in what ways these resources are used. The present must be compared with the past if we would be sure in respect to the character of the changes which have taken place, and would determine whether, on the whole, the condition of things is better than it was half a century ago.
It will be impossible to make any general comparison, beyond that already indicated, that of the New England of today with the New England of the times of Andrew Jackson or of the grandfather of the present President of the United States ; or of the Lyndeborough of 1889 with the Lyndeborough of 1839, the Lyndeborough of my youth. But it may be of service to us, especially to the younger of us, to institute such a comparison in a few particulars.
It may be frankly admitted that a sort of halo seems, at times, to gather about the heads of the men and women of our childhood. Dis- tance obscures roughness of character as it does roughness of the land- scape. It hides many a sharp angle and uncouth feature of the form and face as it does those of the hills and mountains. In remembrance, time mellows dispositions as it does unripe fruits. In our comparisons we shall strive to guard against the influence of this weakness of nature.
It is natural to commence with the population itself. How does the general character of the population of to-day compare with that of fifty years ago? At that time the population of the rural New England towns was, in the main, homogeneous. Within the range of my immediate personal acquaintance in boyhood I can recall but a single family of foreign birth. The families were all of essentially the same stock, de- scendants of the original settlers. In some cases nearly half the families of a neighborhood bore the same surname. There were no race
550
HISTORY OF LYNDEBOROUGH
separations, distinctions or prejudices. The people spoke the same lan- guage, had the same traditions, and were animated by the same prin- ciples. They were, in some cases, narrow, provincial, an unfriendly critic would probably say, bigoted. They clung with great tenacity to inherited peculiarities, and without doubt overestimated the value and importance of some religious and political dogmas. But they were Americans, and Americans only, without prefix or suffix. They were neither Irish-Americans, nor German-Americans, nor French-Americans, nor any other qualified sort of Americans, but Americans pure and simple.
It is hardly necessary to say that to day the population of New England is far less homogeneous. Not only the great cities and large villages but, in some sections, the country districts are becoming filled with men and women of foreign birth. According to a recent writer, in one of our periodicals, in Massachusetts "Out of a population of 1,942,142, the foreign-born number 526,867, not including such children of alien parent- age as have been born in the United States. The foreign-born represent one-fifth of the people employed in agriculture, one-half of those em- ployed in the fisheries, two-fifths of those employed in the manufactures, and two-thirds of those employed in mining and as laborers."
The mass of the foreign population of New England has come from Ireland and Canada. The great influx of immigration from Ireland began about 1847. The Canadian French began to come in large numbers about 1867. The inflow still continues in undiminished volume. " Two successive steamers of one line brought to the port of Boston in April last, 2,100 steerage passengers from Ireland, eleven-twelfths of whom intended settling in New England, and almost every train from Canada brings from one to three cars filled with French Canadians seeking new homes in Massachusetts and her sister states."
The rapidity with which the French population has increased in New England is almost beyond belief. " In Manchester, out of a population of 40,000, 12,000 are of this nationality. In Nashua, out of a population of 17,500, 5,500 are French, a gain of fully one-half in five years. In Lowell they constitute one-third of the population." Many other large towns and cities show a like condition of affairs.
It is not necessary to make further quotations of statistics. The facts are doubtless familiar to you, and you can sum up for yourselves the results of our comparison. Even the most hopeful will hesitate to declare the new condition of things better than the old in respect to population.
I am conscious of no prejudice against men born in other lands and bred under the influence of institutions different from our own. I count among such some of my warmest personal friends and most esteemed associates.
But have we not flung our doors open too wide? Can we afford to admit and welcome without discrimination? We have barred our West- ern gates against the "heathen Chinee," but our Northern and Eastern gates are practically unguarded. Let intelligence and virtue come, but we have 110 room for more of ignorance, and vice and crime. Of these we have more than enough of native production. The paupers and anarchists of Europe are as much to be dreaded as the coolies of Asia.
551
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
The ignorance and illiteracy of the North are as dangerous to the purity of the ballot-box and the permanency of our institutions as those of the South.
A comparison of social and political conditions naturally follows the comparison of population.
A hundred or even fifty years ago, the New England towns afforded the best known example of a pure democracy. This was true not only in respect to affairs of government, but also in respect to social conditions. There were no fixed and recognized lines dividing the people into classes or casts. There were then, as there always have been and always will be, differences in intelligence, in education, in refinement, in wealth, in in- fluence, indeed in everything in which men can differ. But such differ- ences were incidental, individual, and temporary. There were no classes of capitalists and laborers; of employers and employees. No young man regarded himself as born into a caste, and as belonging to a particular class of society. No young woman thought of herself as predestined, by the accident of birth, to be a servant or a mistress, an employer or a drudge. The boy worked on the farm or in the shop of his neighbor. But he worked with his employer as well as for him. The girl did ser- vice in the kitchen of her mother's neighbor and friend, but her social position was not thereby changed. The next year the boy became owner of a farm, and very likely employed the son of his former employer. The girl became mistress of her own house, and in turn employed the daughters of her neighbors. The employed and the employers were of the same stock and often of kindred blood, and were constantly chang- ing places and relations. Social equality was not disturbed.
Even where large numbers of persons were employed the conditions were essentially the same. In my early boyhood the newly-erected cot- ton mills of Nashua and Lowell were filled with the self-respecting and respected sons and daughters of New England farmers and mechanics. The " overseers " and the "hands" were often old acquaintances and friends, frequently from the same neighborhoods and the same families. Outside the work-rooms they met and associated on terms of perfect equality.
. While doubtless something of this old condition of equality still sur- vives in towns like our own, and in communities which have retained their original homogeneous character, it has almost entirely disappeared in the large cities and in all the great manufacturing establishments. During the last quarter of a century there has been a constantly increas- ing tendency towards the creation of permanent classes in society and towards the formation of sharp and clearly defined lines of separation between these classes. These lines run through social life and social organizations ; in some quarters they appear in religious life and relig- ious organizations ; and they are beginning to make their way into the dangerous domain of politics, and threaten to become the basis of politi- cal organizations and political action.
It will have to be admitted, I think, that our present social and politi- cal conditions do not, on the whole, compare favorably with those which existed half a century ago. Some real dangers threaten us. These are serious enough to cause apprehension if not alarm. Some tendencies
552
HISTORY OF LYNDEBOROUGH
must be checked, and some acknowledged evils must be corrected if our institutions are to be maintained in their purity and integrity. The right of suffrage must be so guarded that the reported result of an elec- tion shall indicate the will of the majority of the actual voters. If in a sharply contested election voters can be sold and bought like cattle, at so much a head ; if votes can be bargained for like any other marketable commodity ; if the tricks of petty ward politicians and the manipula- tions of self-constituted leaders are to determine candidates and control the policies of great parties then our boasted right of suffrage is a worth- less form, a mocker and a delusion, and our elections are a costly and solemn farce.
If, in addition to all this, men are to bring over from the old countries the prejudices of race, and the political and sectarian animosities of by- gone ages, and are to nourish their barbarous hates and to fight out their senseless quarrels on our soil, in our streets, and about our ballot boxes, then indeed have our politics become degraded, and danger has become really alarming. America has need of only American citizens and American voters, and of American questions and issues in our politics and at our polls.
Time does not permit further comparisons in these directions. The conclusions thus far reached are not calculated to flatter our vanity or to foster our pride. If our examinations were to be closed just here the outlook for the future would not be encouraging. We should enter upon the next half century with gloomy forebodings. I do not, however, share very largely in the excessive fears of the timid, or in the terrible prognostications of evil uttered by the pessimistic prophets of the day.
Allusion has already been made to the great influx of emigrants of different nationalities ; many of them ignorant of the nature of our in- stitutions and of the duties and responsibilities of citizenship; not a few of them imbued with socialistic and anarchic ideas, with confused notions of the distinction between regulated liberty and unbridled license, impatient of necessary restraint and destitute of sympathy with many of the social and religious customs and the political traditions of the native population.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.