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 29
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T THE SINGERS AT THE FUNERAL of
Rev. William Morrison were not sent home hungry or thirsty. That good man died in 1818, after a pastorate of thirty-five years in the West Parish, Londonderry, and his funeral was a note- worthy event. Among the records of the parish is the following : "Londonderry, Mareh 12, 1818. A bill for Refreshment that was prepared for the Singers on the present occasion : 5 quarts West India Rum, $3.20; 1 pint Brandy, .40; 1 gallon Cyder, .20; 16 Pyes, $2; 100 Fryed Nuts, .75; 5 lbs. Cheese, .63; I buneh of Cigars, .13 ; total, $7.31." There is nothing in the records to show the number of singers who partook of this luneheon.
A CHAPTER OF TRAGEDIES.
F OR a community of cosmopolitan character, 85-86-87-88-89, Melvin J. Jenkins ; 1890-91, Manehester, both as a town and a eity, has H. W. Longa; 1892, Michael J. Healy. The first board of police commissioners consisted of Isaac L. Heath, Noah S. Clark and Frank P. Carpenter. Upon the resignation of I. L. Heath, who suc- ceeded N. P. Hunt as judge of the police court in May, 1895, David Perkins was appointed his successor on the police commission. been comparatively free from crimes of a serious nature. Before Manchester began to take on the first signs of becoming a manufacturing place, the peace and dignity of the town was looked after by sheriffs and eonstables, but on Oct. 26, 1839, the citizens of the town voted to establish a system of poliee, the seleetmen appointing a board of police It is a remarkable faet that in a half a century and more Manchester has been startled by only two premeditated murders. Other serious erimes have been few and far between. The first known murder by a citizen of Manchester was committed on April 4, 1821, when Daniel D. Farmer assaulted a woman of hard character, named Anna Ayer, at a house in Goffstown, by striking her on the head in a fit of anger. The woman died nine days later. Farmer was arrested, tried the following October, found guilty of murder in the first degree, and was hanged Jan. 23, 1822. consisting of Mace Moulton, Jacob G. Cilley, James Wallace, Henry S. Whitney, Nehemiah Chase, Joseph M. Rowell, and Stephen C. Hall. Upon the incorporation as a city, a police court was established and a city marshal annually elected thereafter. The "lobby," as it was termed in the early days, was for many years located in one corner of the basement of the city hall, the eity marshal having an office on the first floor, and the police court being held in a room in Riddle's bloek until 1857, when it was held in city hall building. The present police station (see page Sept. 24, 1829, Jeremiah Johnson, a member of the Manchester Rifle company, was killed by Elbridge Ford in a fracas at the annual Goffstown muster. The soldiers had offended some gamblers on the muster field, a fight ensued, during which Ford struck Johnson on the head with a club, fracturing his skull. Johnson died the next day. Ford was tried for manslaughter in October, 1840, sentenced to state prison for five years, but was pardoned after three years. 194), corner of Manchester and Chestnut streets, was built in 1885 at a cost of about $30,000, and the police department of the eity ranks high for its efficiency. Until 1894 the department was con- trolled by the mayor and aldermen, but in that year the police commission was appointed by the governor. The first justice of the police court was Samuel D. Bell, and his suceessors up to the present have been : Chandler E. Potter, Isaac W. Smith, Samuel Upton, Joseph W. Fellows, John P. Bartlett, Nathan P. Hunt, and Isaac L. Heath. The first city marshal of Manchester, elected in 1846, was George T. Clark. Sueeecding marshals up to the present, are : 1847, Daniel L. Stevens; 1848-49, Robert Means; 1850, Joseph M. Rowell ;
The most noted tragedy in the history of Manchester was the Parker murder, which was committed on the evening of March 26, 1845. Jonas L. Parker, who had been tax collector the year before, lived on Manchester street, near Elm. Late in the evening named a man called Parker to 1851-52, D. L. Stevens; 1853-54, William H. his door and said that a Mrs. Bean wanted to see Hill ; 1855, Samuel Hall ; 1856-57-58, Henry G. him at Janesville on urgent business. Parker Lowell ; 1859, I. W. Farmer ; 1860, John L. Kelly ; accompanied the man up Manchester street to the 1861-62, William B. Patten; 1863, John S. Old Falls road, then on the outskirts of the town. Soon after cries of murder were heard, but no attention was paid to them. The next morning the dead body of Parker was found near the corner
Yeaton; 1864, Henry Clough; 1865, Benj. C. Haynes; 1866, Henry Clough ; 1867-68-69-70- 71-72, William B. Patten ; 1873, Gilman H. Kim- ball ; 1874-75, Darwin A. Simons; 1877, C. C. of Manchester and Maple streets. There were Keniston; 1878, Daniel R. Preseott ; 1879-80, evidenecs of a terrible struggle. Parker's throat was cut, and a butcher knife and razor lay by his H. W. Longa ; 1881-82, A. D. Stark ; 1883-84-
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side. His pocketbook containing a large sum of place. On Jan. 22 of that year, Dennis Shea, who money was taken. All signs indicated that two lived in a block at 511 Elm street, struck his wife on the head with a flatiron, fracturing her skull, and causing her death two days later. Immediately after assaulting his wife Shea cut his throat with a razor and died in a few moments. The tragedy was caused by a family row. persons had been concerned in the murder. The town offered a reward of $500 and the state $1,000 for the apprehension of the murderers, but no tangible clues were obtained until 1848, when Asa and Henry T. Wentworth, brothers, who formerly kept a tavern at Janesville, were arrested in Saco, On March 17, 1872, John Burke and his wife beeame engaged in a drunken dispute in their house, corner of Elm and Park streets, during which he struek her on the head with a piece of eordwood, eausing her death soon after. Burke Me., and charged with the murder. After a long examination, both were discharged. In May, 1850, they werc re-arrested, together with Horaee Went- worth of Lowell and one William C. Clark. They
ELM STREET, MANCHESTER .- LOOKING NORTH.
were ably defended by Gen. Franklin Pieree and other noted counsel, and after a searching examina- tion, Horaee Wentworth and Clark were dis- charged, and the two brothers held in $5,000 bonds for trial. The prosecution soon after decided that the evidence was not strong enough to warrant holding them, consequently the grand jury found no bill, the Wentworths were discharged, and the slayers of Jonas L. Parker remain unknown to this day.
The eity was remarkably free from tragedies from this time until 1872, when two murders took
was tried at the court session in Amherst, found guilty of manslaughter in the first degree, and senteneed to fourteen years in state prison.
Aug. 30, 1880, a tragedy oeeurred in a house on Belmont street, East Manchester. Edgar F. Colburn, a young married earpenter, and William E. Beauregard, aged seventeen, were indulging in friendly sports, playing tramp and ehasing eaeh other around the house. In a thoughtless moment Colburn grabbed an old musket supposed to be unloaded, aimed it directly at Beauregard's throat, and fired. The gun was loaded and the vietim
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WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
fell dead in his tracks. Colburn was indicted for serious. After the murder, Stockwell coolly said manslaughter in the second degree, recommended hc was glad of it. He is now confined in the county jail awaiting trial. The linc of his defence will be on the ground of insanity. The murderer
to the mercy of the court, and sentenced to one year in state prison.
Sept. 30, 1880, Pierre Edward Powers, agcd is twenty-seven years old.
eighteen, flung a ragged-edged, broken bottle at John Blanchard, aged twenty-three, which resulted in the latter's death in twenty minutes. Powcrs and some companions jostled against Blanchard, who pushed Powers down. They had some words, a bottle in Powers's pocket broke and neck was hurled at Blanchard, striking him in the jugular vein. Powers was at once arrested, held for man- slaughter, and sentenced to state prison for five years.
Fifteen years clapsed before the fair famc of Manchester was again blotted by a crime in which a life was lost in consequence. In the evening of March 3, 1895, a drunken row took place at 34 Middle street between James, commonly called " Slasher" Welch, and John O'Brien, a Milford man. Both visited the house of Welch's brother- in-law, where the tragedy occurred, and in the melee Welch threw O'Brien down stairs, jumped upon his body, fractured his skull, and inflicted injuries from which he died during the night. Welch was indicted for murder, but pleaded guilty of manslaughter in the second degree, and was sentenced, May 23, to eight years in state prison.
The most cold-blooded tragedy since the famous Parker murder was enacted in the watch room of the police station at 11 o'clock in the night of May 21, 1895, when cx-Patrolman Fred A. Stockwell deliberately fired five shots at Sergeant Henry McAllister of the police force, three bullets WILLIAM T. MORSE. hitting him and causing death in a few seconds. Stockwell had resigned from the force a week previously rather than suffer an investigation for neglect of duty, and had been drinking heavily and making threats against Sergeant McAllister, whom he suspected of reporting him for his misdc- meanors. Stockwell had also becn mixed up with several women, claiming that he was unmarried, and he charged McAllister with informing his wife concerning his infidelities. He had openly threatened, in the presence of police officers, to take the sergeant's life, but little attention was paid to him. His thrcats were regarded as the freaks of a high temper and not considered as where he and his family still live.
W ILLIAM T. MORSE was born in Chester Aug. 14, 1857. Hc received his cducation in that town, graduating at Chester Academy under Prof. Jacob T. Choate. He then taught school two years in Belmont, resigning his position
to accept a clerkship in C. S. Wilcomb & Son's store in Chester. In November, 1885, he married Miss Mary Little Curricr, a granddaughter of David Dustin of North Salem. She is the sixth in direct descent from the noted Hannah Dustin. They have two children, Marian Ida, born Novem- ber, 1886, and Louis William, born November, 1889. In May, 1889, Mr. Morse became literary editor of the Derry News, for which paper he had worked as gencral agent and correspondent from its inception. In the spring of 1889 hc built a residence on Mt. Washington, near Derry Depot,
252
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
M ANCHESTER TOWN HOUSE OF 1841. They had been gone from the building scarcely an - This building, begun in 1841 and com- hour when smoke was seen coming from the attic pleted the following year at an expense of $17,000 windows and an alarm of fire was sounded. The day was hot and dry, and the building was destroyed within an hour. It was surmised that the flashing powder, communicating with shavings beneath the single floor of the attic, had smould- ered there until the heat forced the fire into an open and rapid flame. The walls being of brick and the roof slated, the first crash was caused by the falling of the tower, with the bell, clock, and gilt cagle, the whole coming down at the same instant, straight into the cellar. The present building was begun soon after, and completed in 1846. It has done good service for forty-nine years. The view of the old town house, hercwith presentcd, was engraved by H. W. Herrick in 1844 from a sketch made in the autumn of 1843. including the cost of the lot, was a brick structure with stone trimmings. Its dimensions were ninety feet on Elm and sixty feet on Market street. It was the second building used for town business, the previous one being an old structure at East Manchester, altered from a meeting-house and subsequently changed to a dwelling, which is still to be seen near the cemetery in that locality. The site originally selected for the town house was at the northwest corner of Merrimack common, but a change was afterward made to Elm and Market streets, as being more central for town business. The postoffice was located in the south- east corner of the building ; three stores and a printing office werc also on this floor, with the main en- trance and vestibule on Elm street as now changed in the pres- ent building. On the second floor were two law offices and the town clerk's office, the remaining space being taken up by a fine hall sixty-three by OLD TOWN HOUSE, MANCHESTER. seventy feet. The armory of the Stark Guards was in the attic. On the land north of the building, where the Patten block now stands, was a flourishing vegetable gar- den in which pole bcans, corn, and cucumbers were cultivated with profit to the owner.
This old town house, a most substantial struc- ture, had lan existence of only about three years, for it was destroyed by fire in August, 1844. The day before the fire the military company occupying the attic had been on parade, and two of the younger members were detailed to clean the mus- kets and store the remaining ammunition. About the noon hour the boys, in playing with some of the cartridges, marked figures on the floor with a train of powder and flashed them with matches.
IN the original char- ter granted in June, 1722, to the town of Londonderry in the name of George III. by Gov. Samuel Shute and the coun- cil was a provision requiring the " men and inhabitants to render and pay for the same, to us, our successors, or to such officer or officers as shall be appointed to receive the same, the annual quit-rent or acknowledgement of one peck of potatoes, on the first day of October, yearly, for- ever." The charter did not say what was to be done with the potatoes, but for several years they were turned over to Gov. Shute's representatives. Finally the payment was neglected, and there are now many bushels of potatoes due, according to the charter, from the town to some one. In 1863 some wag created a small panic by starting the rumor that in consequence of its long neglect the town was to be deprived of its charter The panic, however, was of short duration.
WEST MANCHESTER IN 1768.
BY REV. JESSE G. McMURPHY.
THE old Indian trails from camping grounds - to fishing stands, and from tribal villages to distant hunting regions, gradually became the white man's lines of communication. After the period of foot travel the same paths, with slight changes, were used for more frequent saddlebag traffic, and eventually were laid out as highways, two or four rods wide, and fenced for stages and other vehicles. From the earliest scttlement of white people on the Massachusetts Bay, almost exactly a hundred years before the occupation of Nutfield, it was known that well defined paths led from the coast inland toward the northwest. There were famous sites for fishing along the Merrimack river, and several tribes of Indians lived at intervals throughout the course of this abundant storehouse of nature. Beyond, and farther toward the setting sun, were immense tracts of country abounding in deer, moose, and buffalo. With the increasing population of the Massachusetts Bay colony and the destruction of game in the forests and fish in the streams, the Indians moved farther from the coast, but their trails were followed closely by the aggressive settlers. The Indian villages became trading posts and for some indefinite period presented the sin- gular appearance of being inhabited by both Indians and white people. The old Indians, incapable of carning a subsistence by hunting or fishing, preferred to trust to the clemency and favor of the white population rather than to go farther inland with their tribes and probably perish of starvation and neglect. Many of the white men of adventurous habits became allied with the
tribes, and others stood in friendly relations that permitted them to settle upon waste or unoccu- pied lands quite apart from the laid out lands. Consequently the records of towns and counties abound in references to older settlers whose names do not appear in any charter. Some of these prior settlers were expelled forcibly, but generally a compromise was resortcd to and the occupant allowed to hold for life.
The old Indian trail from the coast through Haverhill and Nutfield by Amoskeag Falls into the Connecticut valley was familiar to the colonists before the charter of Londonderry was issued. The Amoskeag path became an cstablished and laid out highway as soon as the land along its coursc was allotted under the charter. The inhabitants of the town learned from the Indians of the abundance of fish at a placc upon the Mer- rimack river known as Amoskeag Falls, and so important became the privilege of fishing in that vicinity that the shores of the river were parcelled and sold for stands, designated by certain names in some way characteristic. The following tran- script of such a document may be of interest to the reader :
Know all men by these presents that I Alexander Mac- murphy of Williamsburg in the county of Hampshire and com- monwealth of the Massachusetts. Gentleman. for and in con- sideration of the sum of five pounds lawful money to me in hand before the delivery hereof well and truly paid by Archibald Mac- murphy of Londonderry. in the county of Rockingham in the State of New Hampshire, Esq., the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, have given granted bargained and sold and by these presents do fully, freely and absolutely give grant. bargain. sell and convey and confirm unto him the said Archibald Mac-
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25.1
WILLET'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
murphy his heirs and assigns forever, all my right, title, interest, claim, challenge or demand which I have in the fishing place in AAmoskeag Falls in Merrimack river, hereafter mentioned (viz) one fourth part of a place being between a place called the Pulpit and Sullivan's point on the easterly branch of the said river, and also one sixth part of a fishing place on the westerly branch of said river commonly called the Puppy Trap or Eel place, said fishing places are on an island in said falls. To have and to hold the said interest in said fishing places and all appur- tenances thereto belonging to him the said Archibald Macmur- phy his heirs and assigns to his and their proper use and improvement forever. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 29th day of September A. D. 1787.
and Islands
Amoskeag Falls
WHOyes'
10
80
One hundred roots
This plan describes a part
of merrimack and Pescataquay rivers with location of formes, highways mills
vid of high
Mis Sadfreys house
hur
the Foot of the Fall.
and houses as they will !!
my
seen and drawn Matthew Pattern of Bedford on The 11th of April 17681
Stens zu turumans house
The present plan is a
copy made for Willies
Book of Mutual By
Rev. J. G. McMurphy
The time between Bedford & Gott
ale grifin's house
The Gust-Till
utas
iwants a road
Budge
River
Mr. Steven's house
Ohri ABram Merrell' house
ant
1 mars
nach Rever
Seland)
LOCATION OF OLD FERRIES AND HIGHWAYS.
N. B. Before signing the words (in Amoskeag Falls in Merri- mack river) in one place and in another place the word (place) and in another place the words (his and) were interlined. ALEXANDER MACMURPHY.
Signed sealed and delivered in presence of Elizabeth Patten Matthew Patten.
Hillsborough Ss. Bedford September 29th 1787. Alexan- der Macmurphy above named personally appeared and acknowl- edged the above instrument to be his free act and deed.
Before MATTHEW PATTEN, Justice Peace.
The positions of these fishing places are quite clearly defined in the deed. The grantor had occupied land along the shores from a much carlier date. He granted lands to Capt. John Stark in 1760 and to Isaac Godfrey in the year 1768, the date of Matthew Patten's survey.
Referring to the map copied from the plan made by Matthew Patten, April 21, 1768, it will be noticed that the fishing places were loeated immediately above the site of Capt. John Stark's sawmill, and that the road passing south by the sawmill was the old river road coming in from Hooksett, following the course of the river about the line of the Boston & Maine railroad to the site of the old ferryman's house not far from the station. It will be noted that this ferry of God- frey's was on the line of the highways that led from Chester and Londonderry to Goffstown by the falls. South of the ferry the river road turned eastward from the river and lost the older name in being ealled the Nutt road.
The Stark mills oeeupy the approximate site of Capt. John Stark's sawmill and lumber yard. The Jefferson mills are between the house of Robert Boyes and the river. On the west side of the river where only one house was marked in the plan, the laid-out highway of 1768 is easily reeog- nized as the present Main street of West Man- ehester. The line between Bedford and Goffs- town which eame to the river then has eeased to exist, the adjoining parts being absorbed in the eity, but it serves to locate the position of the old gristmill on the opposite side of the river and the miller's house. Abraham Merrill's ferry formerly connected Derryfield and Bedford by a shorter route that became convenient and necessary with the growth of Bedford, being superseded eventually by a bridge.
Whatever traditions people may have eon- eerning the location of any of these old sites, the reader is advised to make use of seale and compass and aseertain exaet relations rather than aeeept the authority of mere reports. The author of this plan of 1768 was a resident of Bedford and his descendants have given names to buildings in Manchester.
Matthew Patten was a justiec of the peace and surveyor, widely known for his interest in
house
Saw bull
Caht John Starks
The original was laul out with compass and chain :
eu's Fury peace and
: when he married place & landi
255
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
publie affairs, his hospitality, and his cultivation of literary tastes in the preservation of faets coming under his observation from day to day in the form of a diary that was published after his deeease. He was born May 19, 1719, and died in Bedford Aug. 27, 1795. He was married to Elizabeth Mae- Murphy of Londonderry, July 16, 1750. She was a daughter of Squire John MaeMurphy and was born Sept. 3, 1728. There were born to this mar- riage the following ten children whose histories are important in Bedford and adjoining towns : Susanna, who married Thomas Taggart : John, unmarried, killed in Canada war; James, killed in Indian war in Ohio; Betsey, married Hugh Tol- ford, her cousin ; Robert, married Jane Shirley ; David, unmarried ; Mary, unmarried; Alexander,
married Lydia Atwood; Jane, unmarried; Sarah, unmarried.
When old Squire John MaeMurphy of Lon- donderry died in 1755 he left a will disposing of mueh property, both real and personal, besides that settled upon his heirs during his life. Among other items of the will are the following two: " My will is that my beloved son Alexander Mae- Murphy shall have twenty-five pounds new tenor paid him out of my estate in one year's time after my deeease and apples sufficient to make five barrels of eider yearly and every year for the space of five years, and to my son-in-law Matthew Patten the same quantity of apples for the aforesaid time of five years after my deeease and liberty to make each of them their apples into cider at my press."
LADIES' PARLOR, I. O. O. F. HALL, DERRY DEPOT.
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WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
RED LEONARD WALLACE, son of city owning the hearse and other property pertain- F Frederick and Margaret Ann (French) Wal- lace, was born Jan. 23, 1839, in that part of Man- chester known as Piscataquog, then a portion of Bedford. His father, one of the pioneers of the city of Manchester, was employed in many im- portant capacities for the great manufacturing corporations in their early years. He was also prominent in polities, being a member of the board of aldermen in 1847. The son attended the eity schools in his boyhood, and at the age of six-
FRED L. WALLACE.
teen went to work in David MeColley's bookstore, one of the well-known institutions of the day. Later he was appointed assistant postmaster under David J. Clark, brother of Hon. Daniel Clark, and during his term of office, from 1861 to 1865, the system of free delivery was established in Man- chester. In 1869 Mr. Wallace entered the service of Charles S. Fisher, the eity undertaker, who at the time was the only one in that business within a eireuit of twenty miles. The city undertaker was then annually appointed by the board of alder- men as one of the regular municipal offieers, the
ing to the business. In company with Moses O. Pearson, Mr. Wallace bought out Mr. Fisher in 1872, and the firm of Pearson & Wallace began its successful career. Upon Mr. Pearson's death, Hon. Alfred G. Fairbanks became a partner, and the firm name was changed to F. L. Wallace & Co., its present style. Mr. Wallace has always been a progressive man, seeking to develop the possibili- ties of his ealling. Fitted by nature for its deli- eate and difficult duties, that require for their proper fulfilment not only kindness but taet, he has been a friend and comforter in many a be- reaved home, while he has also introduced into the undertaking art many improvements and practices that have beeome universal among undertakers. In a word, he has kept Manchester ahead of sister eities in all that pertains to his profession. Mr. Wallace was married, in 1861, to Josephine, daughter of Joel Fife of Pembroke, and four ehil- dren - Fred A., Lulu B., George P., and Cyrus W. - have been added to the family, all of whom are living exeept the last, who died at the age of four years and six months. Mrs. Wallace died in 1871, and in 1875 Mr. Wallace married Sarah E. White of Manchester, daughter of Capt. William White of Portsmouth. He is a member of the First Congregational church, of Agawam Tribe of Red Men, and the Royal Society of Good Fellows, and is, withal, one of the most popular and progres- sive men of the Queen City.
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