USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Manchester > Willey's semi-centennial book of Manchester, 1846-1896, comprised within the limits of the old Tyng Township, Nutfield, Harrytown, Derryfield, and Manchester, from the earliest settlements to the present time > Part 19
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Col. Clarke conducts the Mirror farm, located just outside the city limits, and here experiments in many directions are tried under his supervision. The largest strawberries ever raised in Manchester have been grown at the Mirror farm, and on onc field there in the season of 1895 over four and onc half tons of hay were cut to the acre on the first crop.
Mr. Clarke is a member of the Franklin- Street Society (Congregational), and is rarely absent from the Sunday morning service. He was chairman of the committee that selected the present pastor, Rev. B. W. Lockhart. He is a member of the committee that has charge of the choir singing, and is one of the gentle- men who have so successfully managed the ves- per services at this church, which have proved so popular. He liberally supports the work of the church. He is a member of the Franklin-
The whole management of the Mirror office and its immense responsibilities rest upon him, and his personal attention covers cvery detail. He disposes of work with great casc and rapidity, and no obstacle cvcr daunts him. Col. Clarke has Street Young Men's Association.
COL. ARTHUR E, CLARKE'S RESIDENCE,
THE EAYERS RANGE.
BY REV. JESSE G. McMURPHY.
THE prominence of the range feature in the two ranges were called the Double Range on the original settlement of the nut country was west side of Beaver river, thus distinguished from largely due to the clannish character of the people. the Double Rangc on the east side of Bcaver river. Families connected by marriages and common sentiments and opinions found it convenient and agreeable to dwell together along some fertile slope or stream, and to facilitate communication adopted the plan of parallel homesteads, long and narrow, with a highway only across the common residence ends, while the opposite ends remained uncultivated and covered with forests and swamps still occupied by bears and wolves.
The Double Range, the English Range, and the Aikens Range were not more prominent than the Eayers Range in respect to the dates of their settlement or the character of the people who formed and named them. An examination of the old Proprietors' Book will convince the reader that families occupied these lands before any name had been given, or any steps taken to build a town- ship here, and even the name of Nutfield cannot bc claimed as the earliest applied title to any por- tion of the territory. Dunstable is an older name that was applied to many thousand acres including all that was afterward known as Nutfield, and only relinquished when the boundary between the provinces of New Hampshire and Massachusetts was finally established. The transcript of the laying out of these homesteads shows the process of naming the ranges was less rapid than the settlement. Nearly all of the Eayers Rangc homesteads were described as lying in the West Range, in reference to the fact that the Aikens Range joined it on the east, and for a time these
The headlines of these farms extended north of northwest and south of southeast, and the longest or side lines extended east of northeast and west of southwest. The ranges arc never described as touching each other and in many places unappropriated land was left to raise inter- minable disputes and claims of ownership. This is notable on the westerly side of the Eayers Range, where there was much swamp, and the next range began beyond the swamp. The change of direc- tion in the westerly headline is the source of end- less complications in surveying lots, as also the merging of the Aikens Range and Eayers Range on the north, their side lines having different directions.
As this range eventually became known as the Eayers Range by reason of the prominence of William Eayers and his family here and in other parts of this township, a copy of the record of the laying out of his homestead is herewith given :
Nutfield October 11th 1720. Laid out to William Eayers a lot of land in the west range in the said town containing sixty acres of land and is bounded as followeth: beginning at a pine tree at the northeast corner and a heap of stones. from thence running a due west-south-west line three hundred and twenty rods and bounding all the way upon John Givean's lot. from thence running south-south-east thirty rods and so running two parallel lines to these lines first mentioned bounding upon Thomas Boyle and Edward Aiken, together with an interest in the common or undivided lands within the said township equal to other lots in said town. David Cargill. James McKeen,
159
Robert maxcen Forces I secres land out inLondonderry March (722. Recordado Feb. 21, '723).
James Smith
S
1 Swamp
Boyles
Rua James meg Gregor Forty acres land outto m Londondury March 1722 Recorded Feb 11, 1725 Road
Hoved Morrison. forty acres laid out in Londondury March 1722 Recorded Feb. 275 1724.
Itantunes
meadow
411720
Samuel Morrison Sixty acres laid out in Nulfull 1720 Recorded Sept. 24h 1722
1
1
1
Abram Holmes, Sixty acres laid out in Nulfile Oct. 26, 1720. Recorded Get. 28, 1720
matthew Clark
John Grombee Forty acres lande out in Londondury in march 1722 Recorded March 14, 1723.
John givean, Sixty acres laid out in Nulfiled Oct. 26, 172% Recorded Get 26, 1720 James Graig took the lot-soon after Acorrember QUE 1223.
grante
William Gayers 17
Sixty werts back out in Nulgela Get 11, 1720 Recorded @ctt 11 1/20. was
Thomas Boyle and Son
Sixty acres laid out in Nulfeel Sept 22 Recorded October 111720.
ge 17/20.
Aiken
James Wilson, Sixty - acres laid out m Nutz -field Sep. 29, 1720 Recordul Beth 1/4 1720 afterwards S
dirigent & Wilson
4 to Widow Elligabe Mary Wilson.
Tto John mcGlung
James Alexander Forty acres land out In Londonderry march 1722. Recorded January 851723.
One hundred rods 0 10 25 50 1
100
John macburgers out un marcaich 1722 Recorded Feb. 26, 1723 Road Fifty one Gerets Londonderry
which
John mecher Elizabeth Wilson Mary Wilson Fone acres lance Fifty- London derry in out in march 1722. Recorded January 25,1741.
Aiken brook upork
map of the Layers Range prepared and drawn by Revel J. G. McMurphy. all rights reserved
1
Bell .
John.
John Bell
1
1
Lindsey
Flawed Morrison Sixty acres lacc out in Nuttfuld 1720 Recorded Sept. 29-1722.
march 237!
1
John Woodburn Sixty acres card out in Nutfullt in 1720. Recorded Sept. 4, 1722
Toy
-
Aiken
m Willson Benjamin
Andrew Lodd
1
1
John Wallace
Riken
Abram Holmes And Carry Forty acres laid out in Londonderry in march 1722. Recorded January 8,1723
Card November 6. 1723.
MAP OF THE EAYERS RANGE.
161
WILLEN'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
James Gregg, Robert Wear. John Morrison, John Goffe, Com- mittee. Recorded this 11th of October 1720.
Pr. JOHN GOFFE, Town Clerk.
The identification of this man's homestead and residence may be of interest to the reader and especially to a numerous line of descendants who have given their names to many important enter- prises sinee the settlement of the Eayers Range. Therefore some further comments are made upon the exact location of William Eayers and the house in which he lived. In passing to the means of identification it is also to be noted that the orthography of the surname is original and has since been changed into Ayers. The roads leading by the dwellings of this range werc private for several years under the constructive era while the township was still known as Nutfield; but soon after the charter was granted and the name of Londonderry therein established, corporate action laid out the highways. The following will serve as an example and be recognized as a present thoroughfare :
Londonderry November 6th 1723. Laid out by the select- men a straight road beginning at the northwest side of David Morrison's homestead lot and running southeast across the brook on the south side of said Morrison's field between two great rocks and by marked trees across Samuel Morrison's lot and Abram Holmes' lot and on the west of John Woodburn's field. across the said Woodburn's lot, and then turning a little more easterly over a little run and so to the highway that comes from Edward Aikens, and then turning over the bridge and taking the line between William Eayers and James Craig's lots to the cross road that turns by Mr. Eayer's house and David Boyle's and to the east of John McClurg's cellar and through the second divisions, the said straight road to be four rods wide where it crosses their lots and where it runs along lots two rods wide. Samuel Moore, John Blair, Benjamin Wilson, Robert
Boyes. Selectmen. Recorded this 13th day of December 1723. Pr. JOHN MACMURPHY, Town Clerk.
This direct road here recorded began on the north side of the farm lately occupied by James McMurphy and passed by his house and over the Aiken brook, and now over the railroad bridge and across the farm of Alexander McMurphy and over the spring brook between the lots of Daniel Owens and John Duffy into the road that comes from John Folsom's house, and then turning west-
ward passes again over the Aiken brook on the line between John Duffy and the Corthells to a cross road that once passed along near the Aiken brook through the Morrisons', Holmes' and Wood- burn's lots, to accommodate several families that lived by the brook, their old cellar walls and cool, elear well springs being still visible. At William Eayers's house the road leads southerly, that is, by Mrs. Corthell's present home, and then by George Ripley's house, the old Boyles lot, and continuing by the late homes of Peter Horne and Robert Jeffers.
Abram Holmes very early sold his original homestead and settled on other lands where the family continued to occupy without interruption until the present generation. John Woodburn also complained of his land and was granted the privilege of taking a homestead in some other sec- tion of the township, and after several trials located in the western part of the town near Dunstable line with others, forming a new range.
A reference to the brief genealogical history of the early settlers contained in the work of Rev. Edward L. Parker will show these families along the Aiken brook to have been closely related by marriages. The Woodburn lot was never fenced off, but came to be common with the Craig lot on the south, and the two lots are united longitudi- nally to be divided transversely into three or more portions owned by Daniel Owens, John Duffy, James Madden, and Alexander McMurphy. James Smith was not one of the scheduled proprietors of the town of Londonderry, but records of births in his family are given and they are previous to the time of alleged settlement, before the date of the royal charter or even the deed of Col. John Wheelwright. The James Smith lot came into the possession of the Pinkerton family ; there the worthy founder of Pinkerton Academy and liberal benefactor of the two religious societies of his gen- eration lived and died. Thirty-one thousand dollars in those days meant persistent industry and habitual economy, and those endowments signified mature convictions and determination to sacrifice himself and conseerate the fruits of his labors to the highest good of his countrymen.
Robert MeKeen's lot of forty aeres was laid out bounding upon land of James Smith, and men-
162
WILLER'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
tion is also made in the record of a highway lead- 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 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 banks as far as a spruce swamp. In this descrip- tion the reader may readily lo- cate 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 acres laid out to the Rev. James McGregor 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 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 orchards and gardens.
In order to show the manner of describing meadows granted to the early settlers, the tran- script of one is here presented :
Londonderry July 23d 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 ;
POTATO FIELD, DERRY.
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.
Pr. JOHN MACMURPHY, Tomon Clerk.
This transcript fully illustrates the custom of granting meadows independently of homestead bounds or any right given by the plan of allot- 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- croachment of bushes and trees is not easily ex- plained. When David Morrison cut 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 bcars was a common occur- rence, 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 particular history of these move- ments the reader is referred to the History of the Morrison Family, published by Leonard Morrison.
163
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
John MeClurg's cellar 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 McClurg's name will be found associated with the possession of large tracts 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 on the southerly side of the Eayers Range. It shortly became a homestead, as nearly all the second divisions were needed to satisfy the de- mands for more land. Sons of pioneers reaching the ages of twen- ty-one required homesteads. 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 Eayers Range was watered by the Boyles brook that crosses 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 car- 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.
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 according to the sehedule. One half of the re- yard, and, meandering through Boyles mea- mainder was granted to Elizabeth Wilson, the dows and numerous other claims, crosses 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 river. brook, as it passed through the Wilson and Me- 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.
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 exclusive of the meadows, and consequently many more arc now included in the boundary since the meadows have been purchased. Daniel Owens
14
16.1
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
purchased the western half of this lot from the But 'She Loves Me and I Loves Sue' is nather heirs of the late Abram McKenney. The Rankine gud nor bad." meadow was originally granted for abont 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 produets raised upon the land. It is within the memory of some aged people to deseribe the habits of the old maids and unmarried brother, and the peculiar speceh of these last seions of a venerable stock. The old maple trees of a large orehard that produeed many thousand pounds of sugar were but recently eut down, and even now there are some remnants of hardy appearanee. How many trips the old maids executed in the thawing spring months along those pasture paths among the maples to feteh home the buekets of sap ! The slope of that old orehard was favorable to the observations of those who lived to the north and eastward. The tending of sheep was another oeeupation of the maiden sisters, and it is reported that they were quite as timid as their floek, and were seldom seen at elose range, but at the ap- proach of a man they vanished behind the roeks and trees and shyly eame forth after the stranger nad disappeared.
T THREE KINDS OF SONGS .- Rev. James MeGregor had a fine sense of propriety, whether he had an ear for musie or not. In eon- 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 Wateh Their Floeks by Night ' is a very gud song. 'Janie Stoops Down to Buekle Her Shoc' 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.
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 selectmen of the town in that year. Of George Reid's early life but little is known, except that in 1757 he married Mary Woodburn, daughter of John Woodburn by his first wife, Mary Boyd, and that he settled in Lon- donderry. When the news of the battle of Lexington came, Reid was in command of a company of minute men. He immediately placed himself at the head of his company and marched to join the left wing of the American forces, un- der Gen. Stark, near Boston, and took part in the battle of Bun- ker Hill. His services in that engagement were recognized by the Continental Con- gress, and on. Jan. 1, 1776, he was commis- 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 confidence of Washington. He shared with the army all the hardships of the encampment at Valley Forgein the winter of 1777, and was with Gen. Sulli- van on his famous expedition against the Six Na-
GEN. GEORGE REID.
tions, to avenge the massacres of Wyoming and Cherry Valley. During the summer of 1782 he was in command at Albany. In 1786 Gen. Reid was appointed by Gcn. Sullivan, then president of the state, to command the military forces called out to suppress the rebellion which arose from the popular clamor for the issuance of paper money which should be re- ceivable 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- rection was suppressed without the loss of life, and the forty prisoners taken were discharged, " on their profession of sincere repentance," says the record. Londonderry had voted in favor of a paper currency, yet those who took part in the insurrection and who were church members in the town were required by the churches to make a public acknowledgment of the error into which they had been drawn. It would be something of an anachronism nowadays to discipline a church member for being a green- backer 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 sagacity. 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
165
166
WILLER'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
property were threatened. On one occasion, when five children: Caroline M., Sarah E., Mary A., an angry crowd surrounded his house at night, he 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 a t Washington. He was detailed at different times to examine the of- fiees of internal revenue eollee- tors in various states, ineluding 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- HENRY S. WHEELER'S HOUSE, DERRY, Once the home of Gen, George Reid. signed in 1876 appeared at the window fully armed and addressed the rioters who had come to take his life. His 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 circle 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- fluenee over the more exeitable and strong pas- sions of her hus- band, whose mili- tary life had served to give prominenec to those traits of character 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 and has sinee been engaged in farming in Derry. Reid." Her half-brother, David Woodburn, was the maternal grandfather of Horaee Greeley. Mrs. Reid died April 7, 1823, at the age of eighty- eight years.
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
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