USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Plymouth > Twenty decades in Plymouth, New Hampsire : 1763-1963 > Part 4
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HOLMES PLYMOUTH ACADEMY
The thirteenth academy in New Hampshire was chartered in Plymouth in 1808. When Samuel Holmes of Campton was informed about the plans. although his home was in Campton, he gave $500.00 toward the foundation and was honored when the school was known by his name.
Academies were private secondary schools that depended for their main- tenance upon the tuition that was received from the pupils. Usually the Board of Trustees selected the principal who must depend for his salary upon the number of students who enrolled-a test of his popularity.
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Twenty-six citizens of Plymouth and surrounding towns signed a peti- tion to the General Court for incorporation of a "Public School for the benefit of the rising generation." Colonel Holmes, Arthur Livermore, John Rogers and four clergymen were appointed to the Board of Trustees.
No records about the history during its beginning years remain. That a building was occupied seems to be proved by the fact that a bill of twenty-five dollars for repairs was approved by the trustees for the academy building. If students enrolled, no list of their names remains, neither are any names of a faculty preserved. Not until 1822 was a record found about the Board of Trustees or the name of a principal mentioned.
THE WAR OF 1812
Towns in the interior of New Hampshire were hardly disturbed by this war that concerned navigation problems. Since some danger of an invasion from Canada threatened, a company was sent to guard the northern frontier. The state militia was alerted to be ready to proceed to Portsmouth since British ships were sailing along the coast. Not more than a dozen men from Plymouth saw service in either section.
Plymouth was approaching its half century birthday. Prosperity was changing the trend of progress. New homes were arising along the Rumney Road, the usual name for the street in that direction.
On Ward Hill, Isaac Stafford was a new arrival. In 1804, he erected the house at 150 Highland Street, now owned by Mrs. Frank Foster, soon married the youngest child of Nathan Ward and became a prosperous citizen.
Enoch Ward, Jr., began to build several two story houses on Highland Street. Moor Russell was enlarging his home.
This was the period when the priceless antique furniture of the present was being hand-made by patient craftsmen. An example is the lyre table now in the chancel of the Congregational church, carved by Enoch Ward at a price of two pounds for the communion table of the Ward Hill meetinghouse. The Boston Rocker, ladder back chairs and spool beds were designs by New England's craftsmen. The latter should recall the hours that children were taught to turn the cranks of the lathes while their father held the blade that carved the grooves in the wood that are supposed to imitate spools. The belts for the cranks were not endless. After the belt was wound to its end, back the wheel must turn to begin its work over again. Finally, treadles were de- vised to run the motive power by the foot of the operator.
Hard maple, solid oak or mahogany were the materials. Craftsmen look- ed for curly or bird's eye maple logs as they cut their firewood. Mahogany
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was imported, also rosewood and walnut not grown in New England. Black walnut became popular especially for bedroom furniture and the carved frames for parlor furniture with the hair cloth coverings.
Coin silver spoons were the proud possession of brides. Prosperous fam- ilies purchased pewter platters and goblets. The wealthy proudly displayed their imported silver tea services of many designs and varied pieces. China, brought home from voyages around the world by the sea captains, and Chel- sea and Minton porcelains from England are sought at auctions today. The homespun garments became everyday wear. Silks and satins, brocades and fine woolens were imported along with dolls that were dressed to illustrate the styles of European designers. Even these remote villages received these inno- vations as proved by silhouettes preserved by descendants today.
Spinsters were learning the art of making fine yarns, dyeing them with native dyes made from vegetables and plants of the wild. Weavers on their kitchen looms learned the methods of setting the warp to produce the cover- lets that are priceless heirlooms today. "Windows and Doors, Weaver's Rose, Indian Wars, and Double Bow-Knot" were skills that weavers displayed. Flax was grown, cured and spun on the flax wheels in many homes to weave the bed linens, towels of many designs and table linen that endures to this day. Cotton thread in skeins was purchased to weave for domestic uses. Warm wool blankets became the pride of every housewife.
Brick yards were busy. Several houses remain today whose walls are made of this native brick. Apparently the deposit of clay near Loon Pond provided the greater amount although at the wading-place on the Baker River bank another supply was excavated.
Records of the early process show that since clay retains considerable moisture, it was necessary to dig a supply and spread a thin layer where the sun would evaporate the water.
After this dried clay was pulverized by tramping it by men or cattle and the pebbles were removed, it was shoveled into a pit in layers of ninety per cent clay to ten per cent of sand. Water was added and then this mixture was allowed to set until it slacked, as did lime.
Then a "pug-mill" mixed the clay and sand. This mill was a large con- tainer or bin equipped with paddles that were turned with a sweep by horse power. A workman, called a "striker," tossed balls of this mixture into wood- en molds that were divided into sections the size of a brick and soaked in water which gave the name, "water-struck" because the striker pressed the surplus wet clay off the top of the wet molds. These were spread in the sun to dry until the bricks would slip easily from the molds.
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-G. G. Clark
This is a brickyard in Plymouth. A workman has a mold for bricks in his hands. There are two pug-mills with horses fastened to the sweeps. Lines of bricks are spread to dry in the sun, and a stack of bricks is prepared for baking. In the rear, the kilns are almost concealed by smoke from wood fires.
Now the bricks were ready to fire or bake in sheds with thick walls to retain the heat. Furnaces at ground level for wood fires were constructed with flues to carry the hot air to circulate among the stacks of soft bricks.
The fires slowly heated the bricks for about a week. Then the tempera- ture was increased to 1850 degrees during two days, then gradually decreased until the roof of the kiln could be removed and the bricks allowed to cool. The stacks in the center of the kiln often turned black from over baking while those near the shed walls might be insufficiently baked. Ancient fireplaces were often intentionally built with a mixture of the red and the black bricks. No artificial coloring was employed, only the heat from wood fires produced the deep red bricks.
Lump lime and sand was the mortar to build fireplaces and chimneys. When these fall apart today, this cement does not cling to the brick. A de- mand for these hand-made bricks is brisk at present to repair the old fire- places in restored colonial homesteads, since these are smaller in dimensions and a different shade of red. A brick yard remained in operation in West Ply- mouth until near the end of the nineteenth century.
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THE SOCIAL LIBRARY
Libraries that were supported by generous citizens were established in many towns during this decade. Plymouth kept up-to-date with the Plymouth Social Library, owned and managed by Col. David Webster, Moor Russell, Rev. Drury Fairbanks, William Webster, Dr. John Rogers, Samuel Wells, James Little and John Porter, Esq. In the law of incorporation, the owners were permited to receive donations of not over one thousand dollars annually. The general public was not permitted to enjoy the use of the contents and the books were in a private house.
SUMMARY
This decade included the Mayhew Turnpike and Franconia Notch Road, the second bridge over the Pemigewasset River, the Burnham Trial, Finishing the Second Meetinghouse, Founding the Holmes Plymouth Academy and the War of 1812, with notes of progress in new houses and native crafts.
Elms for potash along the road to Rumney that "saved the Revolution." (See page 17.)
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1813-1823
STAGE COACHES
Turnpikes were extending their lines in all directions throughout the state. The inhabitants in the northern towns were demanding public trans- portation to Boston, certainly an innovation of supreme importance.
Accordingly a stage coach route, promoted in Plymouth by Col. David Webster, his son, William, Moor Russell and Jabes Hatch Weld, was establish- ed by Robert Morse of West Rumney in 1814. Soon Mr. Morse became the sole proprietor of all of the stage routes in Grafton County. Two and three seated wagons were used and Peabody, Stephen and Thomas, sons of Mr. Morse, were the drivers.
Two years later a contract was arranged to carry mail by stage from Con- cord to Plymouth, with Simon Harris of Bridgewater leaving Concord every Tuesday to arrive in Plymouth at 11 A.M. on Wednesday and returning at Concord by 6 P.M. on Thursday. Relays of horses were maintained at tav- erns along the route.
Another mail line ran from Portsmouth to Haverhill through Plymouth, by the Coos Turnpike that passed the tavern of Col. William Tarleton that stood on the shore of the lake that honors his name today.
Stage drivers became popular among the housewives along their routes. They kindly delivered parcels, stopped in the cities to shop for every article that was ordered, yet best of all, they brought the news from town to town. Postage on a letter was six cents for ten miles, increasing to twenty-five cents for four hundred miles and more.
THE STARVING YEAR
Thoughout New Hampshire, the year 1816 was remembered as the Starv- ing Year because the temperature was unusually cold. In this vicinity, with the exception of July, killing frost occurred in the other eleven months. In June a foot of snow fell and snow covered the ground in the last of August. Crops were planted and frozen repeatedly. When a few plants survived, by covering them when necessary, a small quantity of potatoes and rye might be grown. Corn or grain became so scarce that even the seed that was supposed
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to be saved constantly was consumed. Every section of the state has pre- served tales about the hardships of 1816.
In this vicinity the name, Christian Hill, commemorates the generosity of Reuben Whitten. By some natural contour of the hill, the frost did not smite a field of grain. Forty bushels were harvested and dried before the fire- place.
The winter was so severe that cattle froze and game disappeared. Each week, Mr. Whitten gave sufficient wheat to his neighbors to prevent starva- tion, refusing to accept money from any of them.
In later years a monument was raised on his farm above the village of Ashland to perpetuate the name of Reuben Whitten and to express gratitude by calling the site Christian Hill.
MERRILL'S GAZETTEER
During the year 1817, Eliphalet Merrill of Northwood, N.H. published a leatherbound book of 225 pages, about five by eight inches in size, "The Gazetteer of the State of New Hampshire." The author stated in his preface that his information about the towns was obtained from letters to men "of the best information in every township."
For Plymouth he stated in part, "In the northeast part (of the town) is a pleasant village containing about twenty-two dwelling-houses, a meeting- house, court-house, four stores and a distillery. In this town are also four mills & c." In 1810 the town contained 937 inhabitants. In 1812, the num- ber of polls was 160 and taxes were $4.80 per thousand. There were owned 184 horses, 128 oxen, 297 cows, 822 cattle between two and four years old, and 2000 sheep. Also noted, "on the 27th of November, 1814, a severe earth- quake shock was felt about seven o'clock in the evening. The spotted fever raged very extensively in many parts of the state." An item in the Stearns History states, "March 8, 1814, Died in Plymouth, Dr. John Rogers of the same fever," an indication that this village did not escape.
The names of the twenty-two owners of dwelling-houses were three Ward Families, Isaac Stafford, Joseph F. Cummings, Peter McQuestin, a black- smith, and a Dearborn who built a brick house on Ward Hill. On Highland Street, lived Enoch Ward, Moor Russell, Nathan Harris at number 38 of to- day, two Ward houses at numbers 60 and 78, and the house at number 47, per- haps occupied by Noah Cummings. On Main Street were Stephen Webster, William Webster, Jabes Hatch Weld, and Dr. John Rogers in one of the two houses that he owned. John Willoughby and Jacob Merrill repaired clocks and watches somewhere in the village.
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The four stores listed were Weld, Russell, Harris and Isaac Ward. The distillery seems to have been forgotten. The four mills were grist and saw mills in West Plymouth and the Lower Intervale.
MILITARY AFFAIRS
After the Revolution, the state reorganized its forces. The veterans in Plymouth were included in a new Fourteenth regiment. "Training bands" com- posed of young men and an alarm list of men over forty years of age but under seventy were organized in every town with officers of the rank of captain only. Celebrations were gala days when the veterans paraded and the fifes and drums furnished martial music.
A revision of the laws in 1816 restored the officers of the rank of Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel and Major, possibly because the War of 1812 demonstrat- ed that a trained militia should be in readiness for emergencies. Muster Day in the spring and training maneuvers in the fall became popular events that perpetuated the patriotic spirit. Several level fields on the intervale in Plym- outh and Holderness and in Campton are areas that are remembered as Muster Fields.
If cook-books of that period are consulted, the recipe for Muster Ginger Bread will be found. This was a thin cake, cut into rectangles, three by six inches in size, sweetened with molasses and flavored with ginger that vendors sold in quantities among the crowds.
In Stearns' History may be read the lists of the officers in Plymouth who served until the militia was suspended in 1851.
THE TOLERATION ACT
A radical change in religious laws caused consternation in 1819 among the denominations. Throughout the years since the dissenters to the sermons that Rev. Ward delivered were excused from paying their minister's tax in 1775, this custom became so widespread that the people who belonged to the "Standing Order", actually the Congregational Denomination, were hard pressed to provide sufficient taxes to meet the salary of the minister for the town.
A bill was introduced into the legislature in 1819 to eliminate this tax in all of the townships. After this bill was enacted into law, to compensate for the loss of this minister's tax, a new law permitted denominations to organize "societies" which were legally allowed to tax persons who voluntarily became members of these societies in order to meet the financial obligations of the churches.
The Congregational Church in Plymouth immediately formed a society
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in June of 1819. Its list of members included many persons who were un- willing to become members of the church, yet desired to promote the work of the church. As other financial plans evolved, the members disbanded this so- ciety in 1957.
THE METHODIST DENOMINATION
The circuit riders since 1800 had pursued their dedicated mission to spread their tenets throughout Grafton County. In Plymouth, Ebenezer Blod- gett was the most active member with scores of Methodists attending services on the Sabbath.
After twenty-three years, a brick church was erected on the Yeaton Road not far from the residence of Ebenezer Blodgett, that accommodated an au- dience of three hundred persons. The Methodist denomination now sur- passed the attendance in the meetinghouse on Ward Hill.
No permanent clergyman was assigned by the Conference in 1823 or in the next decade, instead Plymouth shared the ministers with surrounding towns. The name, Methodist Episcopal, pleased Squire Samuel Livermore of Holderness, who regarded the denomination as "first cousins" in relationship to the Trinity Episcopal Church with its chapel that still remains near the Holderness School. The brick church continued to be open for Sabbath services until 1865 although the Methodist denomination established a church on the Main Street in Plymouth Village.
THE OLD BRICK
The title, "The Old Brick," was acquired from the year 1822 when Moor Russell erected a two story brick store on the site of the United States Post Office of 1963. Two sons, David and William, became clerks to learn the busi- ness. Prosperity guided this enterprise until the merchandise included every commodity that the community desired-truly a general store in the country.
Between 1820 and the following five years, the Russell home was enlarged with the brick, two story structure that stands on Highland Street in 1963. The interior preserves the traditions of workmanship from the foundations in the cellar beneath the fireplaces to the queen post frame in the attic. The unsupported staircase is one of few in the northern section of New Hampshire. Specialists in such construction were employed and the folklore of the past is that, if the owner paid the bill immediately, the builder inserted an ivory disk within the top of the newel post, as may be found in the Russell staircase.
The mantels of the three fireplaces are unpretentious yet artistic. The shutters for the windows, inside of the wide brick walls, and the front doorway are truly New England designs. The kitchen of 1797 or earlier remains a
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The Old Brick, Moor Russell's Store, 1822, at the corner of Highland and Main Streets, razed for the site of the post office in 1936.
valued example of an old brick fireplace and a special heater for water that fortunately is preserved today.
This homestead must have been a busy household with eleven boys and girls growing to become distinguished men and women. The daughters mar- ried professional men, one the President of Vassar College, two married emi- nent doctors and the sons followed their father in several lines of merchandis- ing or brokerage. The family name has disappeared from Plymouth and the mother's maiden name of Webster also. At this two century anniversary the memory of these founders of Plymouth should be recalled with veneration.
THE COURT HOUSE
The terrace between Highland and Court Street presented considerable activity with the Brick store and a new County Courthouse under construc- tion in 1823. The entire section was a vacant, tree covered hillside, the north- ern limit of Col. David Webster's original acres. The aged pioneer had sur- rendered his property to his second son, William, and he died within a few months on May 8, 1824.
The County of Grafton no longer found the courthouse of 1774 adequate for its business. Now a jury room for conference, another for consultation
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between clients and lawyers, and a third where the legal profession might meet, in addition to the courtroom, became necessary. Early in the year 1823 the County voted to erect a new courthouse.
The land was purchased from William Webster and he and David Moor Russell were the contractors. The brick was supplied by Eli Pike who lived on Pike Hill, west of Ward Hill. Before the end of the year, on the site of the present courthouse stood a building designed according to that period re- sembling a Greek temple. The walls were two stories high and the gable roof extended in front above a porch that was supported by four fluted Doric columns, painted white. Around the entire building was a wooden friese with dentile pattern at the eaves, also painted white.
Above the roof, set back so that it was supported by the front brick wall, was a belfry, its lantern octagonal in shape with its eight windows covered by green blinds. The finish of the top was a "dish-cover" design that resembled in shape the semi-circular cover-tops of porcelain sugar bowls, with eight carved panels beneath this dome-top. The belfry and the triangular wooden fill of the front gable were painted white as were the frames of the four small- paned windows on either side of the building.
Judge Arthur Livermore reported to the Court of Sessions of Grafton County that he had inspected this structure and found that the contractors had faithfully performed their work.
One innovation demands special mention. The contractors were instruct- ed to build two chimneys of brick, protruding through the roof, "to admit a stove pipe." This marks the beginning of the use of stoves in public buildings.
Another addition that was introduced in 1849 was a bell in the belfry used to open court with its summons. The trade mark around the top of the barrel reads, "Henry N. Hooper & Co. Boston, 1849. No. 317." This company purchased the foundry of Joseph Revere, the son of Paul Revere who suc- ceeded his father in the business of casting bells.
SUMMARY
This decade included the Stage Coach Lines, The Starving Year, Data in Merrill's Gazetteer, Military Affairs, The Toleration Act, The Beginning of the Methodist Denomination, Building "The Old Brick" Store and the New Court House on Main Street.
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-LH
Left to right: Thompson's Law Office, (1830), Congregational Church (1836), Courthouse (1823) and Holmes-Plymouth Academy (1835 ).
1823- 1833
This decade is distinguished by several improvements of importance to everybody. A noteworthy introduction to more comfortable existence was the transition from fireplaces to iron stoves.
Records prove that in 1823 a stove was installed in the meetinghouse on Ward Hill. Possibly the town did not purchase this new convenience, since taxes were not allowed for the fuel. The following year, the wardens of the Society, the organization that the Congregational Church maintained since 1819, voted to "take care of the meetinghouse and see that the stove was sup- ported with fuel and tended." The expense for wood was $2.50 and to pay the janitor the bill was $2.00. Evidently wood was surplus property in 1823.
THE PAUL REVERE BELL
A second action was circulating a subscription paper to purchase a Re- vere bell to install in the belfry of the meetinghouse. Contributions varied from fifty cents to twenty dollars. The stock books of the Paul Revere & Sons Foundry in Boston record "Plymouth, October 26, 1827. Number 373, weight 932 pounds." The entire expense was $382.27.
The bell was hung on November 12, 1827. The custom of tolling the bell was immediately practiced at the death of Mrs. Samuel Emerson, the wife of the Chief Justice of the Superior Court, on November 23, 1827. One night in that winter the community was startled to hear the bell ringing an alarm, be- cause the Alvah McQuesten house had caught fire.
Nobody remembers when or why this bell disappeared. One tale exists that the metal cracked and was sent to the George H. Holbrook Bell Company of East Medway, Massachusetts to be cast with additional metal in the bell that now hangs in the belfry of the Congregational Church, dated 1834. An- other story relates that the bell was sold when the meetinghouse was trans- ferred to the bank of Beebe River in Campton to become the framework of a saw mill. There the bell hung until fire consumed the mill and melted the bell, according to a memory in Campton.
THE THIRD BRIDGE
A most important event was the organization of a corporation to con- struct a third bridge over the Pemigewasset River between Plymouth and
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Holderness. On December 16, 1824, an act was passed by the legislature: "Granting to Phineas Walker, Josiah Quincy, William Webster, Arthur Liver- more, Nathaniel Peabody Rogers and Associates the exclusive right to build- ing, repairing, rebuilding, and keeping a toll bridge across the Pemigewasset River between Holderness and Plymouth where Cochran's ferry, so called. is." Since Edward St. Loe Livermore, to whom the franchise for a ferry was granted, had removed from Holderness, evidently he transferred his rights to another ferryman, possibly of Holderness.
These men were incorporated "by the name of The Proprietors of Pont Fayette." At this date, the Marquis de Lafayette was visiting this country with honors bestowed upon him because of his military and financial aid dur- ing the American Revolution.
The highest mountain in the Franconia Range, called "Big Haystack," was christened Mount Lafayette with appropriate ceremonies on October 17, 1824. The Marquis visited Concord on June 25, 1825. A folk tale states that he came to Holderness to stay the night at the residence of Squire Samuel Livermore, a somewhat doubtful rumor since Judge Livermore died in 1803.
The bridge honored this French nobleman by perpetuating his name through the following century although variations were used such as Pont LaFayette, and Pont Lafayette Bridge and The Lafayette Bridge.
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