USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Lancaster > The one hundred & fiftieth anniversary of Lancaster, New Hampshire, 1764-1914; the official report of the celebration held in August, nineteen hundred and fourteen; > Part 9
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Of the general business of Lancaster outside of those that I have named I will say but a word. We had the usual complement of sawmills and a grist- mills and starch mills; and there had been built the year before, I think, a
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strawboard mill. Beyond that I do not remember any enterprises of a business nature, outside trading, of any great consequence.
But irrespective of the incidental advantages which a town may have by reason of its natural resources, the fertility of its soil, its means of trans- portation, the real town is the town that the men who live in it make it. And such was the real Town of Lancaster in 1864. It was prosperous, happy, beautiful because of those who lived in it and held it up to its best tradi- tions. And I should, I fear, not be doing my full duty if on this day and with this opportunity I failed to call to your minds and memories some of the men who made Lancaster what it was in 1864; who made it what it was, the proud North Star of the Granite State. And yet I do it with much hesitation, because I fear I shall omit the names of many who ought to be remembered on an occasion of this kind. And in naming a few of the leading citizens outside of those whom I have already named, I shall call only those who were of mature life; the younger men, although then promi- nent, some of them, had their careers afterward. I shall speak and name only those who in 1864 had arrived at the maturity of manhood and had showed their power and their strength in making Lancaster the best as well as the most beautiful town in New Hampshire. They were forceful, sterling men.
FORCEFUL, STERLING MEN
Such men were Jared W. Williams, who had been United States Senator; first the congressman, then governor, then senator. Such men were James W. Weeks and William D. Weeks, whose son has so grandly represented the Town, the old citizens and their memories to-day upon this platform. And there were William R. Stockwell, who lived in the eastern part of the Town, and whom you all know, at least by family, and Colonel John White, and James A. Brackett, who I am told lived a peaceful, happy old age, and who has but recently gone to the fathers; Samuel H. Legro, Samuel F. Spaulding -Samuel Fitch Spaulding, whose name was so prominently connected with the development of the top of Mt. Washington; and John Hubbard Spaulding, Edward Spaulding, and Charles Plaisted, Fenner M. Rhoades, Fielding Smith, William Rowell, Bartlett C. Towne, Horace F. Holton, Benjamin F. Hunking, Moody P. Marshall, Edmund Brown, Seneca B. Congdon. And I hope it will not be inappropriate for me to add to this list at least one of those of whom there were several then living in Town, whose name I bear, the name of Seth Savage, for a long time a prominent and leading citizen of the Town of Lancaster. There are others I have no doubt equally worthy to be included in this list. That they are not mentioned here is due to a faulty memory which I must ask you to forgive. But I take pleasure in placing these names upon the permanent records of this celebra- tion to-day, as being men of sterling worth, who by their industry, their
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"Old Woman in Shoe" Playground "Cinderella"
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sobermindedness, their thrift and their public spirit had made Lancaster what it was in 1864.
Now fifty years ago Lancaster was somewhat cut out from the rest of the world; but it was not provincial. It had been up to within a few years a four days' journey to get from Lancaster to Boston. In 1864 there was no telegraph, so that all of our outside communications came by mail, practi- cally all of them. In 1864 there were no railroads in Lancaster. One had been built, the Grand Trunk, to that part of Northumberland which is now Groveton, a few years before, and another one twenty miles away at Little- ton; still neither of them came to Lancaster. It was the day of the old stagecoach. And I remember very well the coming and going of those old stagecoaches. It was a long, dreary and sometimes dark trip from Littleton to Lancaster, unless we were sung to, as the Senator has told us this after- noon. One day the stage came and went by Whitefield, the next day it came and went by Dalton. I was a clerk in the Joyslin store a part of the year of 1864. I had to get the mail off at four o'clock in the morning, and I can almost hear now the sounds of the rumbling wheels of the old stage- coaches as they came into Town between nine and ten o'clock in the evening bearing the passengers of the day.
LANCASTER AND THE WAR
In 1864 this nation of ours was engaged in a tremendous struggle for its life. That war had reached its last, and as it turned out, its triumphant stage. Lancaster had borne its full share of the burdens of that war. It is recorded that 250 or more of the men of this Town went to the front and there fought and bled or died, many of them, for the good of their country. Lancaster had paid its full share in the bitter price of war. Colonel Cross, who has been already mentioned to-day, had been killed at Gettysburg in 1863. Lieutenant Lewis had fallen at Fredericksburg in December, 1862. And besides these officers of note there were scores of men who had attested their valor and their patriotism with their blood, or had sickened and died in camp, in hospital or in rebel prison. Survivors, maimed or broken in health, walked about our streets. Wives, daughters, mothers, sweethearts, were bearing, as women must always bear, the severest shock of grief and loss, or were enduring as well they might, as women must always endure, the dreadful stress of uncertainty and the almost overwhelming waves of anxiety. The excitement, the enthusiastic excitement which marked the early days of the war had gone by. The souls of men and women were chastened. The war had become a serious and a dreadful thing. And in 1864 mens' minds were clouded; we could not know for certain the issue of the war. And yet there remained in Lancaster, as well as in the rest of the country, the firm resolve and the high purpose that whatever might be, the Union should be preserved. And in the autumn of 1864, there were gathered
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up in this Town and community more than a score of men towards the forma- tion of the 17th New Hampshire Regiment commanded by Col. Henry O. Kent. Happily these were the last.
As I have said, there was no telegraph in the Town then; it came two years later; news came by mail, much of it through the Boston dailies, particularly the Boston Journal. And I remember well how men in crowds gathered in the old post office under the Town Hall and upon the platforms, awaiting the arrival of the coach and the mail and the papers at night, in order to learn what had been the fortune of war the day previous. Some- times several neighbors clubbed together and received and read one copy of a daily paper. Sometimes in store or shop some one man read the con- tents of the daily paper to his neighbors and friends. It is no more than truth to say that in 1864 the war, and Lancaster's relation to the war, were the real life of the Town of Lancaster.
The war over, the soldier came back and was a citizen. He took up the work he had left. He handled the plough and the hoe, the yardstick, and the tool of his trade. On the farm, in the shop, or store, or office, or count- ing room, he became again a builder of Lancaster. The telegraph con- nected Lancaster with the outer world. Then the railroads came, first one, then another. New commercial and manufacturing enterprises were estab- lished. Wealth increased. Population became more than doubled. And soon there was every show of material prosperity, and the same has con- tinued until this day.
But I have talked too long. We sons and daughters of Lancaster who have come back here to-day to listen to the welcome greetings of our good old mother, find her happy, even radiant, clothed in beauty and grace. We revere her. We love her. We wish her as happy and satisfactory a fu- ture as her past has been. We shall not all of us be here in 1964, but those who shall then be here will say, I have no doubt, as we say now, that the fathers and mothers of the succeeding generations have kept the faith, have builded wisely and well, and have been worthy successors to those forefathers of the hamlet, so many of whom are now lying on the little hill over yonder by the church. Our dear mother Town, we salute you and we bless you.
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Governor S. D. Felker
MR. DREW: Ladies and Gentlemen: It gives me pleasure now to introduce to you our Governor, Mr. Samuel D. Felker of Rochester, New Hampshire, who will speak to you for a few minutes.
Gov. FELKER: Ladies and Gentlemen, Citizens of Lancaster: It gives me great pleasure to be with you here to-day and to participate with you in this occasion. I bring to you the greetings of the State and wish you all prosperity. Someone has said that God might have made a more beautiful town than Lancaster, but that He never did, and I fully agree with that sentiment.
I cannot help but admire the judgment of those early settlers who came from Haverill, the second bend below here, to these fertile valleys, for agri- culture and farming conditions are the life of any community; where you see good farms you see comfortable homes and you see a prosperous and a happy community. Lancaster is fortunately situated because it has all of this, and in addition it has the grand mountains which appeal to the whole continent and to the whole world.
Lancaster, as I sat here, did not seem so very old. I have been told since coming here that Mr. Stockwell, a grandson I believe of the first settler of the Town, Emmons Stockwell, died here recently eighty-four years old, at whose birth some of the earliest settlers of the Town were still living. Such is the small compass of human affairs. But during that existence Lancaster has had more than its portion of illustrious men; men who have made a mark in the State. And someone has said to me to-day, in yon burying ground lies more brains than in any other community in the State of New Hampshire. But the brains that are in the cemetery are not all the brains there are in Lancaster. They are a live and wide-awake people; a people who to-day make themselves felt the world over; what illustrious names has Senator Weeks brought to your attention-take himself, who has done so much for his native town; take Judge Savage who has risen to the chief- justiceship of his State; and take your own beloved Jordan. I bring to him the greetings of all of the people of New Hampshire. They certainly wish him long life, and a return to health, and he will be forever held in ven- erable remembrance by all the citizens of the State.
I might talk to you of advancing freedom; I might talk to you of progress, and we have made much of it, and the individual has become freer and freer as years have gone by, and more valuable to himself, the community and the State. I might talk to you of peace, but the war across the conti-
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nent has seemed to say there will never be any peace. I wish to God that those people who instituted the war had to do the fighting; then there would be no wars. But there is a brotherhood of man, thank God, and it is com- ing more and more to the surface. You show it to-day right in this commingling, in this getting together here in Lancaster.
It is true that you are doing more by your government for the individual. New Hampshire is doing the same. I have thought as I sat here of the changes that have come over New Hampshire during these years. She has been prosperous in a material way. Look at your Savings Banks. I am told by the Bank Commissioner that there are two bank books to every family, and that the sum total of those are over nine hundred dollars to a family in the State of New Hampshire.
In her manufacturing see what New Hampshire is accomplishing. Next to Boston, Manchester ships the largest amount of freight by the Boston and Maine Railroad. Look at our means of transportation. We are spend- ing several millions of dollars in improvement of our highways for the ac- commodation of ourselves and of those who visit us. In an educational way we are doing very much and making great progress. We are building a new normal school at Keene; our College at Durham, which is your college, everyone's college in the State of New Hampshire, had only about a dozen students when I was in Dartmouth. It has now over four hundred and we do not know what to do with the boys and girls, they are coming to us so fast. It is a great opportunity for those who seek an education.
So in all of the things that go to make up a community, New Hampshire is proud of its existence; proud of its several communities dotted all over the State.
I congratulate you and bid you God speed. And when you come here in fifty years from now, as some of you probably will, may you be as prosper- ous and may you live under the best government that God ever vouch- safed to man.
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Honorable Edmund Sullivan
Edmund Sullivan. Born in Lancaster, April 19, 1865, son of Flor- ence and Margaret Sullivan. Graduated from Lancaster Academy; from Law Department of the University of Michigan, 1890. Prac- ticed law in Michigan for a brief period. Opened offices in Lancaster in 1892 and practiced his profession in partnership with Hon. W. H. Shurtleff and later with Mr. Fred C. Cleaveland. Moved to Berlin in 1901 and formed partnership with Daniel J. Daley (native of Lan- caster and present mayor of Berlin), which still exists. A Democrat, and active in politics. County auditor, 1898 -. At one time police commissioner. Delegate to Constitutional Convention, 1912. Present chairman of the State License Commission. Member of the Knights of Columbus and Elks. A prominent member of the State Bar and a son of whom Lancaster is proud. Married in 1894, at Lancaster, to Mary F. Kenyon, daughter of John and Ella F. (Creamer) Kenyon, of Salem, Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan have two children, Harold and Miriam, both of whom are in college.
MR. DREW: Ladies and Gentlemen: We will now have a talk from Edmund Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan is one of the lawyers of Coos County, a good, sterling man. He is a son of one of our old citizens,-one of our old Irish citizens, one of the best class of men that we have ever had in Town. He will give us a talk of a few minutes.
It gives me much pleasure to introduce Mr. Sullivan.
MR. SULLIVAN: Mr. Chairman, Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen : I am glad to be with you on this occasion, and I thank you for your kind invitation to take part in these exercises. But, notwithstanding your kind invitation, I rise to address you, laboring under a very severe struggle of feeling. I am here, however, in an interest common with yourselves, hop- ing for your hopes and praying that the success of Lancaster may be per- petual. And what I say to you to-day, I assure you carries with it the unction of a warm heart.
One of the strongest passions that is implanted in the make-up of man, is the love for the place that gave him birth. This natural impulse is the basis upon which society rests; its benign influence has established and preserved governments, given freedom to the oppressed, and moulded and mellowed the human character. The pleasure of standing on the soil of the town of our birth, beneath the trees and surroundings that sheltered our boyhood and youth; the pleasure, although it carries with it a tinge of sadness, of seeing those whom we love ripen into serene and peaceful old age, is among the best pleasures of which the heart of man is capable. I realize that I do not come among you as a stranger. I was born on one of
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your farms on the "Out East Road." As a boy I attended your District Schools and your Lancaster Academy. It is here that I entered into my novitiate of law; and in that court house is where I tried my first case. Here is where I found Mrs. Sullivan, and here is where my children were born. And so, while it is not proper to inject into my remarks purely personal matters, you can appreciate that I come here with more than an ordinary interest, and that I speak to you as one returning to the house- hold from which he sprang. In coming here this morning, at a season of the year when God has seen fit to clothe the face of Nature at her best, when every object bids welcome, when a smile is crystallized in every landscape, I cannot but feel that,
"The faces of my kinsfolk, the days of childhood flown, The echoes of her mountains, reclaim me as their own."
It is not my purpose to cumber my remarks with any date or data re- pecting the early history of this Town. That would be simply a repetition of what is a familiar knowledge to you all. We all appreciate and we all understand the privations, and the hardships which the early settlers endured in coming up into this valley and carving this beautiful Town out of a wilderness. Their appreciation of the beautiful is evidenced by the places where they erected their first dwellings. It shows that they knew where to stop and where to commence to lay out the Town. Where can you find pleasanter spots than the Holton Homestead, and the Stockwell Farm? They also brought with them that spirit of natural justice that is the outgrowth of highmindedness and high ideals, and established a form of local regulation, connected with and part and parcel of the general govern- ment, and they transmitted to you, their successors in title, this Town which had prospered and flourished under their guardianship,-and since God gave the fruitful land of Canaan to Moses, there never has been a gift of such princely liberality.
It is our good fortune to have been born in this town in this age. Our advent into it found it peaceful and pacific,-inhabited by strong men and women, free from intolerance, no clans, no vicious organizations, roads built, schools of high order maintained, public buildings established, churches well attended, its farmers prosperous and contented; its growth symmetrical and its progress within the easy reach of all; its public men filling high posi- tions of trust and confidence in the State and Nation; and, notwithstanding the hard labor and mental strain that is incident to the discharge of the duties in those positions, the interest of those men in their town never flagged or abated; they popularized the laws of the State and Nation by example and by a high order of citizenship.
When this country was confronted by a real peril, not an imaginary one existing in the brain of some Emperor, and the nation called upon its sons
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Mrs. L. F. Moore H. J. Whitcomb
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to come to its rescue, Lancaster, to the everlasting credit of its brave men, living and dead, did its part.
The citizens of Lancaster were an especially strong class. Perhaps as good evidence of this, aside from the marked progress of the Town itself, was exhibited in their annual town meetings,-the best method of govern- ment that human ingenuity ever devised,-where they elected their town officers and made their annual appropriations. And whoever was elected to office, knew that he had an able and intelligent constituency back of him, and knew that his official acts were closely scrutinized, and at once felt that the straight and narrow path was the safe one to follow. The discussion of all questions that related to town affairs was of the highest order, parti- cipated in by lawyers, doctors, farmers and everybody else who cared to be heard, with always opposition enough to create an intelligent interest in town matters; it being always understood that their affairs would be run with the highest efficiency and strictest economy. But in whatever they did, there was no diminution of local sovereignty, no dwarfing of the indi- vidual citizen.
LANCASTER'S RIGHT TO ACHIEVEMENT
As we look back, can we wonder at Lancaster's achievements? From its ranks it has furnished two governors, a member of Congress, and a Justice of the highest court in the State. And this within my memory. They not only filled the offices creditably to themselves, but to the State and Town from which they came. Democratic in their make-up, filled with original ideas which they were not slow to advance, they were regarded by all as leaders in their day. In addition to this, Lancaster has always had a strong, sturdy, contented, rural population, which in every country, state or town, is an assurance of its strength and peace, when there should be peace; and a resource of courage when peace would be cowardice.
In the tendency of the boys to quit the farm, there is abiding cause for regret, for we know that the country town is losing a citizenship that is virtuous and competent, patriotic and honest. But, as much as it is de- plorable, it is true that for many years, the tendency of the young men has been to gravitate towards the large cities,-already centre spots of danger, -with their idle classes, corrupt politics, vicious organizations, secret societies of anarchy and socialism, that are looked upon by thoughtful men as an impending danger. For myself, I regard it as just discord enough to render our attachment to our institutions more firm. I do not believe that those insidious organizations, while they may terrify neighborhoods and frighten constitutional alarmists, will ever arise to the plane of being classed as anything more than mere law violators, and will always be held in check by the legally constituted local authorities.
But, after all, under wise legislation, beneficial to the farmers, the
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fruits of which are for the first time being apparent, men, who as boys quit the farm, are now returning to their old homes, inspired in the belief that, after all, health and independence are more valuable than riches.
THERE ARE OPPORTUNITIES AT HOME
The young men have commenced to see that there are opportunities at home; that the country town after all has always provided for its boys and girls who are thrifty and reliant; that the life and repose on the farm is far ahead of the rush and the crowd of the city; that broad fields and lofty trees give better health and longer lives than brick buildings, hot pavements, and smoking chimneys.
We must not forget that the government, local or national, no matter what it does cannot do all that is necessary to extend the general welfare of all its people; that the greater part of that duty has to be performed by the individual himself. The government gives its protection, but the welfare of the citizen is generally measured by the extent of his individual effort. Independent and self-reliant, he should ask nothing from the government that he himself can do.
A few days ago, I visited the City of Washington. I was amazed as I looked upon the great public buildings, and realized their tremendous significance. I saw the home of the President, the supreme court, the house of representatives, the senate chamber, and its many other de- partments, and realized, in part at least, all they represented. It was by far the greatest sight I ever saw. In these great departments were working the best minds of the country, while perhaps not in unison, they were working collectively and individually for the betterment of the country, which means the rights of the citizen. Statesmen, as they were, and true to the elementary principles of this government, this could be, and was, their only object.
I thought, as I stood there, of the great responsibility they were carrying, how wisely they had met and solved the most abstruse problems, and above all and over all, how much we and the rest of the world owed to those great minds for broadening the fields of human liberty.
On my return home, I was notified that I was expected to say something on this occasion. My mind naturally harked back to the old Town, to boyhood scenes and childhood days. Among other things, the days I spent on the farm came up before me. I thought of the farmers among whom I lived,-the first figure to stumble amid the early dawn and welcome the coming day. I remembered the farmer, living in a quiet modest farm- house, surrounded by great trees, encircled by his fields laden with maturing crops; within the house, thrift, comfort, from which courtesy and kindness never departed, and which always made the stranger welcome. In front of the door stood the farmer, independent, strong, resolute and determined;
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Nevers' Band F. D. Carpenter Mrs. Sarah Eaton
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a member of no entangling combinations and wearing no man's collar; planting his own crops in his own time, and selling them in his own way in a market of his own choice, master of his lands and master of himself. I watched him at his busy labors through the day, no halting, no resting; farming was his business and he was crowding his farm to its utmost capacity. And I saw the sun set and night settle down upon his home. I saw him spend the evening with his family, and read aloud extracts from the weekly paper, and finally I saw him, a simple man of God, gathering the family about him and all kneeling in prayer, close the record of the day by calling down the benediction of God upon his family and his home. And as those well remembered scenes came into my mind, notwithstanding the memories of Washington were still fresh, I came to the conclusion that in the home of the people lies the anchor of our Country; that its power begins there, and there its responsibility ends. Back of the national Capitol stands the citizen and the home; the stability and permanency of the Capitol is dependent upon the patriotism and influence of the home.
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