USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Derry > Willey's book of Nutfield; a history of that part of New Hampshire comprised within the limits of the old township of Londonberry, from its settlement in 1719 to the present time > Part 19
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Robert MeKeen's lot of forty aeres was laid from John Folsom's house, and then turning west- out bounding upon land of James Smith, and men-
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tion is also made in the record of a highway lead- together with a piece of meadow in Pole meadow bounded by stakes between the lots of John Woodburn and William Aiken ; also a pond lying by the six acre meadow. David Cargill, John Bell, Allen Anderson, John Mitchell, Committee. Recorded this 28th of February 1723-24. ing from the Aikens Range to Canada and passing through his land. The Robert McKeen lot was not granted for a homestead, but a second division was made, the same in amount that was laid out to Pr. JOHN MACMURPHY, Town Clerk. every proprietor of one full homestead of sixty acres. The stream of water that runs southward through Robert McKeen's second division had been reserved for the use of a sawmill. The privilege of the stream extended upwards upon the bounds or any right given by the plan of allot- banks as far as a spruce swamp. In this deserip- tion the reader may readily lo- eate the Aiken sawmill at a point recently occupied by Washington Perkins and des- ignated as the Whittier sawmill, and earlier still as the Wilson saw- mill. The forty aeres laid out to the Rev. James MeGregor as a second division were granted in part for a want of wood upon the lot assigned to him as a home- stead. This is and always has POTATO FIELD, DERRY. been a wooded traet of land, but in the years when the Pages and the Spinneys lived there much of the land was in a good state of cultivation and there were flourish- ing orehards and gardens.
In order to show the manner of deseribing meadows granted to the early settlers, the tran- seript of one is here presented :
Londonderry July 23ª 1723. Laid out to David Morrison one acre and sixty rods of meadow, be it more or less, which lieth at Bear hill and is bounded on Samuel Morrison's lot by stakes and running down the creek to the meadow bounds ;
This transcript fully illustrates the custom of granting meadows independently of homestead ment. The mea- dow at Bear hill is still cut annual- ly and why the space remains free from other growths and re- sists the en- eroachment of bushes and trees is not easily ex- plained. When David Morrison eut these mea- dows the whole country was densely covered with forests and even the high- ways that led from one part of the town to the other parts were through the wil- derness, where it was necessary to mark the course by blazing trees by the roadside. And as in those days the meeting with bears was a common occur- renee, many traditions of such meetings are found in the memories of old people. The Morrisons remained in possession of their lands in the Eayers Range for several generations, but finally sold the homesteads, and either removed to other towns or occupied their second divisions and amendment lands. For a more partieular history of these move- ments the reader is referred to the History of the Morrison Family, published by Leonard Morrison.
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WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
John MeClurg's eellar wall is said to have They appear to have selected lots with reference been recently visible near the house of Warren to possibilities of construeting dams or raising P. Horne, a little to the northwest by the upper road. In other parts of the town John MeClurg's name will be found associated with the possession of large traets of land. James Alexander's home- stead was in the Double Range east of Beaver river and had a second division allowed to his right mill privileges on secondary streams where all the really available streams had already been taken. The lands were not suitable for agricultural pur- poses by reason of the swamps and stones, and the streams had not sufficient water to supply a pond. All of that swamp at the westerly end of the on the southerly side of the Eayers Range. It Eayers Range was watered by the Boyles brook shortly became a homestead, as nearly all the seeond divisions were needed to satisfy the de- mands for more land. Sons of pioneers reaching the ages of twen- ty-one required homesteads.
In reference to the Wilson lot, originally laid out to James Wilson, there is a mar- ginal reading in the Town Ree- ords showing that James Wil- son died and one half of the lot was sold to John Mc Clurg and that became his HENRY S. WHEELER'S BARN, DERRY. proper half share aeeording to the schedule. One half of the re- yard, and, meandering through Boyles mea- mainder was granted to Elizabeth Wilson, the dows and numerous other elaims, erosses the widow of James, and the other fourth to her road west of Charles MeAllester's place and so daughter, Mary Wilson. At this time the Aiken on to join the waters of the more favored Beaver brook, as it passed through the Wilson and Me- river.
Clurg lands, was merely a small stream that over- flowed some meadows above in the spring of each year. The building of a dam and mills upon this stream at this place oeeurred many years after the settlement of the Eayers Range.
David and Thomas Boyle left their surname upon many swamps, meadows, brooks, and places.
that erosses the road west of George Crispen's house and erosses another road west of the Elas house, at that point beyond and out of the range. However, the Boyles brook ear- ried a wheel to operate a fulling mill right above the road at the Elas. About a mile west of this Boyles brook is another seetion of country marked with similar eon- ditions, and a Boyles brook runs through it just west of the Shipley or Lon- donderry grave.
Samuel Aiken now owns the second division laid out to David Morrison, or that portion of it upon which the buildings were placed. It must be borne in mind that forty aeres were granted exelusive of the meadows, and consequently many more are now included in the boundary sinee the meadows have been purchased. Daniel Owens
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WILLERS BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
purchased the western half of this lot from the But 'Sue Loves Me and I Loves Sue' is nather heirs of the late Abram McKenney. The Rankine gud nor bad." meadow was originally granted for about four acres and bounded on this lot. Sydney Burbank occupies the easterly ends of two lots originally laid out to William Eayers and Thomas Boyle. A LFRED BOYD, the only son of William and Margaret (Holmes) Boyd, was born in An- trim, Feb. 12, 1817. His parents moved to Derry in 1821, when his father bought what was then It is not fifty years since the last Robert Craig and sisters lived on the lot granted for a homestead to John Givean and passed over to James Craig within three years, or before 1723.
The Craig farm of one hundred and twenty acres, for it embraced the Woodburn lot, was rather distinguished from others by the many peculiar traits of the family and consequently the singular products raised upon the land. It is within the memory of some aged people to describe the habits of the old maids and unmarried brother, and the peculiar speech of these last seions of a venerable stock. The old maple trees of a large orehard that produced many thousand pounds of sugar were but recently cut down, and even now there are some remnants of hardy appearance. How many trips the old maids executed in the thawing spring months along those pasture paths among the maples to fetch home the buckets of sap ! The slope of that old orchard was favorable to the observations of those who lived to the north and eastward. The tending of sheep was another occupation of the maiden sisters, and it is reported that they were quite as timid as their flock, and were seldom seen at close range, but at the ap- proach of a man they vanished behind the rocks and trees and shyly came forth after the stranger nad disappeared.
T HREE KINDS OF SONGS :- Rev. James
MeGregor had a fine sense of propriety, whether he had an ear for music or not. In con- versation one day with one of his parishioners on the subject of songs he remarked: "There is just three kinds of songs. There is the very gud song, the very bad song, and the song that is nather bad nor gud. 'While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks by Night' is a very gud song. ‘Janie Stoops Down to Buckle Her Shoe' is a very bad song.
ALFRED BOYD.
the Cheney farm, comprising most of the land where the Depot village now stands. Jan. 28, 1858, the son Alfred married Emma C. Corwin, daughter of John and Clarissa (Thompson) Corwin of Tunbridge, Vt. They had five children : John A., Fannie E., Sarah C., Clara M., and Everett W. Boyd. Mr. Boyd remained on the old farm until his death, which occurred Oct. 9, 1874.
GEN. GEORGE REID.
tions, to avenge the massaeres of Wyoming and Cherry Valley. During the summer of 1782 he was in command at Albany. In 1786 Gen. Reid was appointed by Gen. Sullivan, then president of the state, to command the military forces ealled out to suppress the rebellion which arose from the
G EN. GEORGE REID, who after Gen. Stark is the most distinguished military son of Nutfield, was born in Londonderry in 1733. His father was James Reid, who was one of the early settlers and seleetmen of the town in that year. Of George Reid's early life but little is known, except that in 1757 he married Mary Woodburn, popular elamor for the issuanee of paper money daughter of John which should be re- eeivable as legal ten- der in payment of taxes and debts. Gen. Reid was in Exeter at the time, where the legislature was in ses- sion, and he led the troops against the in- surgents, who had re- tired a little out of the village. The insur- reetion was suppressed without the loss of life, and the forty prisoners taken were discharged, " on their profession of sineere repentance," says the reeord. Londonderry had voted in favor of a paper eurreney, yet those who took part in the insurrection and who were ehureh members in the town were required by the GEN. GEORGE REID. ehurehes to make a publie acknowledgment of the error into which they had been drawn. It would be something of an anachronism nowadays to discipline a chureh member for being a green- baeker or a bimetallist. Gen. Reid was appointed justice of the peace for Rockingham county in 1786, an office of dignity and consequence in those days, and in 1791 he was appointed sheriff of the county. He was a man of great courage and sagaeity. So intense was the feeling against him in his own county for the part he had taken in suppressing the insurrection that his life and Woodburn by his first wife, Mary Boyd, and that he settled in Lon- donderry. When the news of the battle of Lexington eame, Reid was in command of a company of minute men. He immediately placed himself at the head of his company and marehed to join the left wing of the American forees, un- der Gen. Stark, near Boston, and took part in the battle of Bun- ker Hill. His serviees in that engagement were recognized by the Continental Con- gress, and on Jan. I, 1776, he was eommis- sioned to be captain of a company in the Fifth Regiment of infantry. From that time on his rise was rapid. In 1777 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel; in 1778, colonel; in 1783, colonel by brevet in the army of the United States, and in 1785, brigadier- general of the New Hampshire forces. He served with valor and distinction in the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Trenton, Brandywine, German- town, Saratoga, and Stillwater, enjoying the fullest confidenee of Washington. He shared with the army all the hardships of the eneampment at Valley Forgein the winter of 1777, and was with Gen. Sulli- van on his famous expedition against the Six Na-
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WILLET'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
property were threatened. On one occasion, when an angry crowd surrounded his house at night, he appeared at the window fully armed and addressed the rioters who had come to take his life. Ilis coolness and the force of his words alone induced them to disperse without doing him harm. Gen. Reid died in September, 1815, at the age of eighty- two years. His wife, a woman of rare endow- ments and of most interesting character, was well adapted to the cirele in which she moved. With a strong and vig- orous intelleet, a retentive mem- ory, a cheerful disposition and great equanimity of temper, she exerted a power- ful and happy in- fluence over the more exeitable and strong pas- sions of her hus- band, whose mili- tary life had served to give prominenceto those traits of eharaeter by which he was dis- tinguished. Gen. Stark onee said of her : " If there is a woman in New Hampshire fit to be governor, 'tis Molly Reid." Her half-brother, David Woodburn, was the maternal grandfather of Horaec Greeley. Mrs. Reid died April 7, 1823, at the age of eighty- eight years.
HENRY S. WHEELER'S HOUSE, DERRY .. Once the home of Gen. George Reid.
five children : Caroline M., Sarah E., Mary A., Elizabeth W., and Henrietta O. Mr. Wheeler was educated in the common schools and at Pep- perell Academy and Pinkerton Academy. He was formerly a school teacher in New Hampshire and in the West, and subsequently was clerk and salesman in different places. In 1865 he was re- ceiving and shipping clerk in the commissary depot at Richmond, Va., and the following year he received an appointment in the treasury de- partment at Washington. He was detailed at different times to examine the of- fiees of internal revenue eollec- tors in various states, including Massa e husetts, Vermont, New York, Pennsyl- vania, Maryland, .Ohio, West Vir- ginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ar- kansas, Mississip- pi, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Vir- ginia. Having overtaxed his strength, he re- signed in 1876 and has sinee been engaged in farming in Derry. His official life may be summed up as follows : Clerk in the commissary depot in Richmond, Va., about one year; official in the treasury depart- ment, ten years ; seleetman in Derry, seven years ; representative in the legislature from Derry, four years, making twenty-two years in all. While in the legislature he was one of the most earnest advocates of the bill to establish the town system of sehools, and aided by his speech and vote in
H ENRY SPAULDING WHEELER, son of Thaddeus and Caroline (Farrar) Wheeler, was born in Pepperell, Mass., Oet. 9, 1835. He married, in 1877, Hannah Maria, daughter of seeuring its enaetment. Mr. Wheeler has had a Joseph and Sarah A. (Stiekney) White, and has pronounced talent for music from early boyhood.
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WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
He taught singing school in the West, and has Manchester, N. H. In 1876 she united with the First Baptist Church of the last named place, and in 1880, having received a letter of recom-
sung tenor in church choirs for nearly forty years, including the First Methodist, the First Church, the First Congregational, and the Baptist Church of Derry, and a Methodist church in Nashua, and was connected with the choir of the Calvary Bap- tist Church of Washington, D. C., as tenor singer for ten years, being its chorister a part of the time. Having a sympathetic voice of ample volume, he has made himself useful in the praise service in church and Sunday school wherever he has been located. Mr. Wheeler joined the Baptist Church in Orange, N. J., in 1863, since which time he has been active in church and Sunday school work while living in Orange, Washington, and Derry.
HENRY SPAULDING WHEELER.
Mrs. Wheeler was born Jan. 9, 1853, in Derry. Her education was received in the common schools and at Pinkerton Academy. She has resided in Methuen and Haverhill. Mass., and in
MRS. HENRY S. WHEELER.
mendation from that church, she and her hus- band united with twelve others to form the Baptist Church at Derry Depot, and they are among its most interested and loyal members.
G RISTMILLS were built in the first months of the Nutfield settlement. The first one was probably that of Captain David Cargill, at the castern extremity of Beaver pond, which must have been built before the colonists had been a year in their new home. There is a reference to this mill in the town records, dated Feb. 13, 1720, when in speaking of the road on the north of the pond, running from Samuel Marshall's house to George MeMurphy's, it says the road crosses the brook " below Captain Cargill's grist mill." In 1722 Captain James Gregg built a gristmill in what is now Derry Village, possibly on the spot where W. W. Poor's mill now stands. In 1 731 a mill privilege in Londonderry was granted to Benjamin Wilson, who built the first mill, since known at various times as Moor's, Goss's, and Kendall's mills.
THE JAMES ROGERS FAMILY.
JAMES ROGERS was born in Gloucester, Mass., March 31, 1833. He was named for and is the fifth in direct descent from James Rogers, one of the original " Proprietors of Lon- donderry," who settled on the English Range. This first James Rogers was a brave man, fond of adventure, and after getting well established in Londonderry he moved further into the wilderness and became one of the first settlers of the present town of Dunbarton. He was shot at night in the woods by a friend, who mistook him for a bear, and upon his eldest son, Robert, devolved the care of the
2
MAJOR ROBERT ROGERS.
which included some of the most intrepid men in the colonies. During the seven years' war which followed, Rogers was almost constantly in a posi- tion of great responsibility, difficulty, and danger, but his achievements were such that Lord Am- herst reported to the English government that " Major Rogers of the Colonial service has by his discretion and valor essentially contributed to the success of the royal arms." In marching the rangers preceded the main body of the army and were trained to attack or retreat with remarkable quickness. In fighting the Indian they adopted his mode of warfare and matched him in strategy. Their route was through dense and tangled woods, over hills and mountains and across rivers or swamps. But mountains, rivers, and hidden foes were not the only obstacles with which they had to contend. Loaded with provisions for a whole month and carrying a musket far heavier than those of modern make, besides their blankets and ammunition, they were compelled to bear the burden of a pack horse while doing the duty of a soldier. Many are the anecdotes of thrilling ad- venture and hairbreadth escape related of them. On one occasion Major Rogers and a small party of his rangers were surprised and nearly sur- rounded by Indians on the shore of Lake George. Rogers had on snowshoes and succeeded in reach- ing the top of a high rock overhanging the lake. Throwing his haversack and other cumbrous articles over the precipice, he turned around in his snowshoes without moving their position on the ground, and having fastened them on so that the heel and toe were reversed, he descended to the lake by another path. When the Indians arrived at the top they saw two sets of tracks leading to the rock, but none leading from it, and therefore supposed that two of the fugitives had perished in attempting to descend to the lake at that place. In a few minutes, however, they saw Rogers mak- ing his escape on the ice, and thinking that he must have been under the immediate protection of the Great Spirit, or he could not have descended the precipice in safety, they did not venture to pursue him. From that day the rock has been
large family. Robert Rogers, or " Rogers, the Ran- ger," as he was commonly called, subsequently be- came one of the most noted and heroic characters in New England. He was born in Londonderry in 1727 and was twenty-two years old at the time of his father's death. The settlers in the Merrimack valley were being constantly harassed by the In- dians. It was a bloody and remorseless warfare, for the savages sought scalps, not captives. Young Rogers was appointed by the colonial government to the command of a corps of rangers then form- ing for active service against the French and Indians. John Stark was a member of this corps, known as "Rogers' Slide." In 1759, after the
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WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
retreat of the French troops and the savages to in slumber. Never was surprise more complete. Most of the Indians were killed before they were aroused to consciousness. There was little use for the musket. The hatchet and knife made sure work. Some few ran to the St. Lawrence, but a majority of these were shot or drowned. The rangers set fire to every wigwam, and from the captive squaws they learned that a large French force and a few Indians were eneamped but a few miles away. Only one of their own number had been killed and one wounded. The return to New Hampshire was accomplished only after Canada, General Amherst determined to destroy in their homes the St. Francis Indians, who had committed unusual atrocities upon the settlements at Walpole, Hinsdale, and elsewhere. He selected Major Rogers for the task, and on Sept. 28 gave him this order: "You are this night, with two hundred pieked men, to proceed to attack the enemy's settlement below Missisqui bay, on the south side of the St. Lawrence, so as most effee- tually to disgrace and destroy the enemy, and redound to the honor of his majesty's arms. Re- member the infamous barbarities of the enemy's great privations and the loss of two thirds of the
ROGERS' SLIDE, LAKE GEORGE.
Indian seoundrels. Take your revenge; but though they have killed women and children of all ages, spare theirs. When you have done this service, return and report to me." Major Rogers started immediately on this perilous march of over three hundred miles through an unbroken wilder- ness of the enemy's country, arriving on the twenty-second day at their destination, with a loss of sixty men by siekness and fatigue. At night Rogers erept into the village and found the whole population in a drunken earousal over the return of their warriors. Just at daylight the rangers in three divisions entered the village, now wrapped
surviving rangers. This was their last expedition in the royal service. In 1766 he was commissioned by the crown to explore the Lake Huron region and was appointed governor of Miehilimackinac. Accused of treason, he was sent to Montreal for trial, but was honorably acquitted, and in 1767 he went to England, where he published a volume of " Reminiseenees of the French War," which was widely eireulated. While travelling in an English mail coach it was stopped by a highwayman, who with pistol at the window demanded the passen- gers' money. Rogers opened his cloak, as if to comply, and the robber lowered his pistol. That
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instant the vigorous hand of the wary American the present James Rogers, who was brought to grasped his collar and drew him from his horse Derry by his parents in 1835, when he was two through the coach window. He proved to be a noted offender, and on delivering him to the authorities Rogers received a handsome bounty.
In the beginning of the Revolution Rogers re- turned to America and espoused the royalist cause. Ilis name was on the list of tories proscribed by the act of New Hampshire of 1778. Leaving his family, never to return, Rogers went back to Lon- don, and thence to a post in East Indies, where he died some years later. General Stark, who served under him, used to say that for presence of mind amid dangers he never knew the equal of Robert Rogers ; and he always regretted the eireumstanees which led him to abandon his native country. In 1760 Robert Rogers was married to Anna, daugh- ter of Rev. Arthur Brown, an Episcopal minister of Portsmouth. His son, Arthur Rogers, became a lawyer and lived and died in Concord. He mar- ried Margaret Furness of Portsmouth, and his son, Robert, born in Concord, married Sarah Lane of Gloucester, settled in Derry, and was the father of
years old, and has since resided there. He mar- ried, Feb. 18, 1864, Abbie Hall, daughter of Cap- tain Moses and Mary (Cochrane) Hall of Chester, and granddaughter, on the mother's side, of John and Jemima (Davis) Cochrane of New Boston, and great-granddaughter of Benjamin Davis, a captain in the Revolutionary army. They settled on the Waterman place, a farm once noted for its extent of territory (1,400 acres) and for the large number of cattle and sheep which were formerly kept on it. The children of James and Abbie (Hall) Rogers are : Elizabeth Furness, graduated at Pinkerton Academy in 1884, died Sept. 11, 1885 ; Mary Cochrane, educated at Pinkerton Academy and at Salem (Mass.) Normal School, now a teacher in Lawrence, Mass. ; Helen Grace, graduated at Pinkerton Academy in 1891, entered Wellesley College in 1893 ; Anna Crombie, grad- uated at Pinkerton Academy in 1893; James Arthur, now pursuing a course in the business college at Manchester.
THE WATERMAN PLACE, EAST DERRY.
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WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
S AMUEL HOWARD BELL was born in 13, 1892, died Nov. 20, 1892. Mr. Bell is a Lawrence, Mass., May 17, 1858. He is the member of Echo Lodge, No. 61, I. O. O. F. ; an son of William and Ellen Weeks (Kcllcy) Bell. officer of the Grand Lodge, Knights of Pythias, His father, who was born in England, emigrated and of Rockingham, No. 29. to America and settled first in Fall River and afterward in Lawrence, where he became a clerk in the counting-room of the Pacific Mills. His JOHN HENRY PARMERTON, only son of John and Sarah F. (Bigelow) Parmerton, was born in Londonderry Jan. 18, 1852. Five mother was the daughter of Daniel Kelley of Gil- manton. Mr. Bell studied pharmacy in Lawrence with Henry M. Whitney, the oldest apothecary then in the profession there, and in 1879 opened a drug store in Association Hall at Derry Lower Village. In 1883 he found it advantageous to extend his business by establishing a branch store at the Depot, purchasing the building now occu- pied by him and furnishing it with a complete stock unsurpassed in any country town. In 1889 he built a substantial and commodious residence on Broadway, in which he now lives with his family. He was married Jan. 28, 18So, to Miss
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