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 21
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Mr. Hosley married, in 1854, Dorothea H., daughter of Samuel and Cornelia Jones of Weare. They had one daughter, Marian J., the wife of Dr. William M. Parsons of Manchester. Mr. Hosley was a Unitarian by belief, a member of Hillsborough Lodge, I. O. O. F., and of Lafayette Lodge, A. F. and A. M., and also a Knight Tem- plar. He died March 24, 1890.
W TILLIAM M. PARSONS, M. D., son of Josiah and Judith (Badger) Parsons, was born in Gilmanton Dee. 30, 1826. He was the seventh of nine children, among whom was one other doctor, Joseph R., and one lawyer, Daniel J. All the others were teachers. His father was a lieutenant in the war of 1812, and his grandfather was a Revolutionary pensioner. On his father's side he is descended from Joseph Parsons, who was born in England and came to this country in July, 1626, and settled in Northampton, Mass. His mother was a descendant of Gen. Joseph Badger, a prominent officer of the Revolution. Among other ancestors were Rev. William Par- sons and Rev. Joseph Parsons, both graduates of Harvard, and on his mother's side, Hon. Joseph Badger and Hon. William Badger, governor of New Hampshire in 1834-36. Dr. Parsons attended the common sehools and Gilmanton Academy, and began the study of medieine with Dr. Nahum Wight of Gilmanton. He remained with him three years, at the same time attending a course of
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
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DE Parsons
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Mrs Pargens
Marie Parsons
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lectures at Dartmouth Medical College. He then families in Canada. For several years he studied began to practice with his brother, Dr. Joseph B. at Pointe-aux-Trembles, and having learned the printer's trade he founded, in 1874, a newspaper near his native town which is still published. In 1877 he became a local preacher in the Methodist Church of Canada, and after four years of theo- logical studies and probation, was ordained to the ministry at the session of the Montreal Confer- ence held in Kingston. He had been married, in 1871, to Miss Marie Elzear Denault, a nicce of the fifth Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec. Mr. Parsons, with whom he remained until 1855, having in the meantime attended a final course of lectures at the Vermont Medical College, from which he received his diploma in June, 1851. In November, 1882, he married Marian J., only daugh- ter of Hon. John and Dorothea (Jones) Hosley of Manchester. They have one child, Martha S., born April 30, 1884. In 1855 his brother sold his practice to him and moved to Haverhill, Mass. Dr. William practiced in Bennington nine years, enjoying a wide country clientage; in Antrim fifteen years, and in April, 1873, came to Man- chester, where he has since conducted a large and lucrative practice. In 1861 he was appointed by the governor as chairman of a commission for the cxtirpation of pleuro-pneumonia among cattle which was prevalent at the timc. He achieved great success in this capacity. In 1883 he was appointed assistant surgeon of the First Regiment, New Hampshire National Guard, and in 1884 was promoted to the office of surgcon, with the rank of major.
In religious belief he is a Quaker, and is also a member of the Masons, 32ยบ, of the Odd Fellows, Knights of Honor, and Elks. He represented the town of Bennington in the state legislature of 1871-72. In his practice, extending over forty-five ycars, Dr. Parsons has won an enviable reputation as a physician and surgeon. A very large number of students have begun successful careers in his officc. He enjoys a wide acquaintance profession- ally and socially, has a love for the beauties of naturc, which takes him to the woods every hunt- ing scason, and has a large capacity for enjoying life while still in the harness as a skilled physician and surgeon. Mrs. Parsons is a home-loving woman of strong intellectuality and benevolence, and their life is a fitting sequence to the thrift and hardship of their worthy ancestors.
REV. THOMAS A. DORION, pastor of St. Jean's Methodist Episcopal Church in Man- chester, and an indefatigable worker for the con- version of French Catholics to Protestantism, was born in St. Andrews, P. Q., in 1849, being a descendant of one of the oldest French Protestant
REV. THOMAS A. DORION.
Dorion was stationed as pastor of Methodist churches in Longueuil, Danville, and Sherbrooke, Canada, and for two years, pending the time when the Methodist Church in the United States would be ready to begin its mission work among the French Canadians in New England, he was at- tached to the Congregational Church in Ware, Mass. In 1889, when the New Hampshire Con- ference decided to begin missionary labors in this direction, Mr. Dorion was appointed to Manches- ter. He has built up a well organized French Methodist Episcopal church in the city where, six years ago, there was not cven the nucleus of a
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congregation. The present church membership of forty-five does not show all the work that has been accomplished, for during the six years of Mr. Dorion's ministry the church has had seventy members. French Canadians are constantly mov- ing from one place to another, and there are today, with the exception of the pastor's family, only four names on the rolls of the church of persons who joined when it was organized.
Being an old newspaper man, he brought his practical knowledge of the business into the min- istry and has for years, at a great sacrifice of strength and time, issued many tracts, papers, and books intended to convert Catholics to Protest- antism. He publishes a little French Sunday school weekly, the only paper of its kind on the continent, and also a monthly journal. He has also translated into French the Methodist catechisms and discipline, and has written a history of the lives of the Popes from a Protestant standpoint, and a small work entitled: "Romanism and the Gospel." During the year 1894 he published over half a million pages of religious tracts and Sunday school literature. Mr. Dorion is a most eloquent and impressive speaker in his native tongue.
C OL. CHARLES E. BALCH, the son of Mason and Hannah (Holt) Balch, was born in Francestown March 17, 1834. He was edu- cated in the common schools of his native village and at Francestown Academy, and at the age of eighteen began his active business career as book- keeper in the mercantile establishment of Barton & Co., in Manchester. After remaining with this firm about two years he accepted a clerkship in the Manchester Savings bank, where his financial talents soon attracted the attention of the officers of the Manchester bank, and upon the reorganiza- tion of this institution as a national bank, in 1865, Col. Balch was chosen its cashier and held that position for nearly twenty years, resigning in Jan- uary, 1884. He was also trustee of the Manches- ter Savings bank, the largest in the State, and a member of its investment committee and treas- urer of the institution until within a few months before his death. He was treasurer of the
Manchester Gaslight Company, a director and member of the New Hampshire Fire Insurance Company, and a trustec of many large estates. In all the various positions of responsibility and trust which Col. Balch was called upon to fill he dis- charged his duties with eminent ability and proved himself a most sagacious, careful, and safe financier. Hc was interested in a number of vessels, one of which, a four-masted schooner, of eight hundred and forty-three tons, named after him, was launched at Bath, Me., July 15, 1882. Col. Balch was thoroughly alive to the welfare of his adopted city and rejoiced in its prosperity, always respond- ing to personal calls looking to this end.
He never sought political preferment, but was always a staunch supporter of the Republican party. Deeply interested in national, state, and municipal affairs, he had firm convictions in regard to them. His life was conspicuous for its purity and uprightness. Not a breath of evil was ever raised against him, and his personal bearing to everybody was extremely cordial. For each of the vast number of persons who were brought into business and social relations with him, he had always a pleasant greeting, impressing all with his affability and marked courtesy. The unflagging interest which characterized him enabled him to become one of the most successful men of Man- chester and to acquire a handsome property. In 1883 he completed one of the fincst residences in the city, in a delightful location. His architectural taste, which was something unusual in a person not a professional, was evinced both in the plans for his own house, in the building of the Cilley block, in the fitting up of the interior of the Man- chester bank rooms, and as chairman of the build- ing committee of the Opera House. Having reached that point in his career where he could sensibly lessen his business cares, he was in a posi- tion to enjoy the fruits of an honorable and suc- cessful life.
His death occurred Oct. 18, 1884. He was connected with but onc secret organization, the Washington Lodge of Masons. His military title was received from two years service on the staff of Governor Hcad. Col. Balch was married in July. 1867, to Miss Emeline R., daughter of Rev. Nahum Brooks, who survives him.
EMILE HYACINTHE TARDIVEL.
MILE H. TARDIVEL, one of the brightest
nalist and lecturer, and in 1894 published "Le
E young French-American lawyers in New Guide Canadien-Francais de Manchester," which is a valuable directory and history combined of the French colony of the city.
England, was born in Quebec, P. Q., May 16, 1859, his parents being Jean-Marie and Adelaide (Donati) Tardivel. He was educated in the com- In 1879 he took a trip abroad, the chief pur- home of his father in Brittany, France. Oct. 2, 1889, he married Minnie Ger- trude Kavanaugh of Lewiston, Me., and their home is glad- dened by two ehil- dren : Paul Henry, born June 28, 1891, at Woreester, and Helene Jeanne, born Aug. 11, 1893, at Manehester. mon schools of Quebee and at Laval University, pose of his European journey being to visit the from which he grad- uated as A. B., June 24, 1880. Hc de- voted himself to the study of law until 1883, when he eame to the States, being at St. Johnsbury, Vt., one year, then at Lewiston, Me., from 1884 until 1888, re- moving thenee to Woreester, Mass., where he resided un- til 1892. In the lat- ter year he took up his residence in Man- A T the eentennial exercises held in Manchester, Wil- liam Stark was ealled on to speak, and among other things in relation to the professional men of the town he said : "Unfortunately Man- ehester has had but one eollege grad- uate." He himself EMILE H. TARDIVEL. was that graduate. chester and has sinee made this eity his home. He was ad- mitted to the bar in the spring of 1894, and is an aeeom- plished speaker. He is a Demoerat in poli- tics and a party man- ager of ability, having had charge of the Freneh vote dur- ing the presidential eampaign of 1888 with headquarters in New York. The next speaker was his eousin, Hon. Joseph He is a member of the present legislature, to Kidder, and he began his remarks by saying: which he was elected by a large majority at the " I beg leave to differ from the speaker who has just preceded me as to its being a misfor- tune that Manchester has yet produced but one college graduate. I have always noticed that if a family had one fool among its members they were sure to send him to college, and I eon- gratulate old Derryfield that its families have thus eleetion in 1894, and is an attendant upon St. Mary's Catholie ehureh, an active member of the Catholie Foresters and Aneient Order of United Workmen, and an honorary member of more than fifty Freneh Canadian organizations throughout the United States. In addition to his work as a lawyer, he has done exeellent serviee as a jour- far been so exempt."
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b.W . Wallace
REV. CYRUS WASHINGTON WALLACE.
R EV. CYRUS W. WALLACE was born in Bedford, March 8, 1805, son of Thomas and Mercy (Frye) Wallace, and was one of a family of five brothers and two sisters. His youth was passed in agricultural and meehanieal pursuits, his education being obtained in the distriet schools of his native town and at Oberlin Seminary, Oberlin, Ohio. He early manifested an inelination for the ministry and was fitted for this calling under the instruction of Rev. Herman Rood and Rev. Aaron Warner at the Theological Seminary at Gilman- ton. Having been licensed to preach by the Lon- donderry presbytery in April, 1838, he came to Manchester in May of the following year to supply the pulpit of the First Congregational ehureh, then situated at Amoskeag village. On its removal to the east bank of the river he was ordained and installed as its pastor on Jan. 8, 1840. For thirty-three years he continued in this eharge, resigning Feb. 11, 1873, but continued to eonduet the prcaching service in his old pulpit until the December following, when he aeeepted the supply of the pulpit of the First Congregational ehureh at Roekland, Mass., though retaining his residenee in Manchester. His dismissal by eouneil from the First Congregational church of Manchester was on Dee. 16, 1873. In addition to preaching at Roekland he supplied the pulpits at West Stew- artstown, Drury, and Francestown, N. H., for several weeks at a time, but was never installed over any church save the one in Manchester, of which mention is made. He was a vigorous preacher, and his diseourses were oftentimes eloquent. Two sermons delivered after his retire- ment from the Hanover-Street Congregational church are especially worthy of mention. The first was the last sermon ever delivered in the old church, which occupied the site of the present Opera House bloek, and was preached March 28, 1880; the second was delivered Mareh 8, 1885, at the celebration of his eightieth anniversary. Both efforts attraeted wide attention at the time as remarkable for a man of his advaneed years. His vigor and clearness of mind as demonstrated by these notable sermons may be compared with the like traits of Hon. W. E. Gladstone of England. Mr.
Wallace was the first minister to hold regular preaching serviees on the east bank of the river at what was called the new village in the early days of Manchester, and his pastorate was longer than that of any other Manchester elergyman. He was an ardent Republiean and in 1867-68 was sent as a representative to the legislature from Ward 4. It was also during the latter year that he received the degree of Doetor of Divinity from Dartmouth College. He was strongly identified with the early history of the city and prominent in all measures for reform. During the civil war he was for a long time a prominent member of the Chris- tian commission. His industry was ineessant, the only real vacation he ever took during his long ministry being a three months' trip to Europe in 1854. May 19, 1840, he married Miss Susan A. Webster, who died May 15, 1873. He married for the second time on Sept. 30, 1874, Miss Elizabeth H. Allison. Mr. Wallace died Oct. 21, 1889, aged eighty-four years.
G ARRISON HOUSES, to which the people could flee when threatened by the Indians, were not as numerous in Nutfield as in most other colonies, for the reason that there was no great need of them. Nevertheless there were a few, the house of Captain James Gregg, near the mill. being a garrison, and also the house of Samuel Barr, now Mr. Thwyng's. Rev. James MeGregor's dwelling was surrounded by a flanker, which was built by the town, and in the West Parish a garri- son stood on the spot now occupied by the house of Charles A. Tenney. Tradition ascribes the preservation of the colony from the attacks of the Indians to the influence of Mr. MeGregor with the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the French governor of Canada. It is said that they were classmates at college, that a correspondence was maintained between them, and that at the request of his friend the governor eaused means to be used for the protection of the settlement. He was said to have indueed the Catholic priests to charge the Indians not to injure any of the Nutfield settlers, as they were different from the English ; and to
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assure them that no bounty would be paid for their sealps, and that, if they killed any of them, their sins would not be forgiven. Another and perhaps more plausible reason for the immunity of the colony from Indian attacks was the fact that the settlers had secured through Colonel Wheelwright a fair and acknowledged Indian title to the lands.
R' EUBEN WHITE, who built and for so many ycars conducted the famous White's Tavern on Mammoth road in Londonderry, eame of sturdy Scotch-Irish stoek. He was born in Londonderry in 1795, and always lived there until his death, which oeeurred in 1856. At his tavern he and Mrs. White, the amiable landlady, entertained many of the dignitaries and noted people of their day, including Presidents Polk and Pieree and Daniel Webster. He was frequently honored by
REUBEN WHITE.
his fellow citizens by election to publie office, having been postmaster and having represented his town in the legislature. Reuben White was a man of strong individuality, who nevertheless
endeared himself to all who knew him by his frankness, sterling integrity, and fair dealing. He
MRS. REUBEN WHITE.
died honored and respected, not only by the whole community but by thousands throughout the state.
NE of the rough and ready characters of Man- chester was Riehard Ayer, a eapitalist who came from Suneook and took a strong hand in developing the young eity. One day he was ar- raigned before a justice for fast driving on the street and fined ten dollars. He handed the court two ten-dollar bills, and was asked what the extra bill was for. " My dog ran, too," was the sarcastie reply.
THE READY WIT of Rev. Cyrus W. Wal- laee of Manchester was well known to several generations of his time. One day J. Bailey Moore, a newspaper reporter, stopped in front of the parson's yard, observing the divine heaping brush on a roaring fire. " I suppose you wish all the sinners were in that fire, parson ? " said the reporter. "No," was the reply, " I have been preaching all these years to keep them out of it,"
INDIANS OF THE MERRIMACK.
IF there is any truth in the adage that the only good Indian is a dead Indian, then we may say that the people found upon this continent, when the white man landed upon these shorcs, have well earned the title of "Noble Red Man." Unfortunately for the American Indian, the first settlers were to a great extent religious bigots. Driven from their own country by persecutions, they in turn persecuted those who did not agree with them. The Puritans could not endure the thought that any religious instruction should be imparted to the uncivilized red man, unless it was in accordance with the doctrines of the particular denomination to which they belonged ; and out of this bigotry came those cruel Indian wars, that have left only the name of a once powerful people.
The mistakes of historians, caused by lack of knowledge of their subject, have, in the light of recent investigations, left much that was formerly relied upon as truth of less value than tradition.
When the English began to colonize New England, and the French Acadia, they found the whole country occupied by a race of people whom Columbus had called Indians, and by that name they have since been known, the red man taking the same name, to distinguish himself from the white man, for in the Indian language there was no race name. Of their origin nothing was known, not even by reliable tradition.
Daniel Gookin, who for many years was a co- laborer with Rev. John Eliot in his work of Christianizing the Indians of Massachusetts, and who was appointed magistrate in 1652, and four years later commissioned superintendent of all the Indians of Massachusetts, says, in his historical collections of the Indians of New England :
"Concerning the original of the Savages or In- dians in New England, there is nothing of cer- tainty to be concluded ; but yet it may rationally be made out that all the Indians of America, from the straits of Magellan and its islands on the south unto the most northerly part yet discovered, are originally of the same nation or sort of people." The color of their skin, the shape of their bodies, their black hair, their dark, dull eyes led many to believe them to have been of Asiatic origin. More recent investigations and discoveries of ancient ruins in Mexico and Central America would indi- eate that this continent was the home of primitive man, and that Asia and all the East were peopled from what was supposed to be the new world.
Of that people who once inhabited the valley of the Merrimack, not one is left to tell the story of his conflicts with the whites. Naught is left to us but our mountains, lakes, and rivers, that still retain, in a disfigured form, the names given them by the red man ; and even these have been so dis- torted that many of them cannot be interpreted by those who have made a careful study of their language. Fortunately, the early missionaries, who devoted their lives to the service of the Indians, have left us vocabularies from which we can, to a certain extent, learn the true meaning of their language, and admire the beauty of their dialect. Rev. John Eliot, in his translation of the Bible, gives us much of the language of the In- dians with whom he labored. Roger Williams furnishes us with the key to the Narragansett lan- guage. Several short vocabularies of other tribes have been prepared and printed.
Rev. Joseph Aubery, who for many years was a missionary among the Abenakis, left a valuable
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contribution. There are now in the possession of the Indian names by which so many of our moun- one of the churchesin Canada several old manuscript tains, lakes, and rivers are known today. No more valuable work could be undertaken by our histori- cal society, than the publication of these works of Joseph Aubery. Their existence has been so little known that no writer upon the subject of the American Indian has ever referred to them, except L'Abbe Maurault, in his French history of the Abenakis, published in 1866. volumes of the Abenaki language. These volumes, numbering ten in all, are written on good paper, in a plain hand. The first volume is a dictionary of the language, in quarto form, containing 540 pages, commencing with the word "abandonne" and ending with " zone." It is a complete Indian and French dictionary. The second volume is also a quarto, and contains 927 pages in double The Indians inhabiting the valley of the columns, many of which are left blank, for the pur- Merrimack were known as the Pawtucket tribe. pose of adding other words as required. This They resided near the falls on the river, below the
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AMOSKFAG FALLS, MANCHESTER.
volume gives the names of many localities and the present site of the city of Lowell. At the time of construction of the language. The second edition the settlement of Massachusetts, the chief saehem of the Pawtuckets was Passaconaway, who was said to have been a witch and a soreerer. He held dominion over several small tribes, the Wamesit, Paseataqua, and Pennacook being the principal ones. The Wamesits were also known as the Namkekes. The seat of the Wamesits was at the junetion of the Merrimack and Concord rivers, at what is now the town of Tewksbury, Mass. It was a great fishing place, and took the name Nam- keke from that fact, as did also the falls in Man- of these dictionaries was prepared in 1715. The other eight volumes contain mostly the church serviee translated into the Indian tongue. These unpublished volumes contain, without doubt, the most complete and accurate translation of the language of the aborigines of New England ever prepared. Father Aubery was perfectly familiar with the language. Had some of our historians of these tribes had access to these works, there would have been fewer errors in the etymology of
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chester, the Amoskeag. Thesc two falls, bearing names so nearly alike, led Mr. Potter into many errors in his history of Manchester. He locates the Namkeke tribe at the falls in Manchester, when any one who will take the trouble to read either Eliot or Gookin will see that they were at the Namkeke or fishing place at Wamesit. Mr. Potter says the Indians of the Merrimack werc a part of the Nipmuck Indians. The name Nip- muck was never applied to those Indians that resided on the larger rivers. Nipmuck (Nipnet) was a name given to the petty tribes, or clans, of inland Indians scattered over a large extent of country,-in Windham and Tolland counties in Connecticut, Worcester and Hampden counties in Massachusetts, and the northern part of Rhode Island. Their principal seat was at or near the great ponds in Oxford, Mass. From these ponds they derived their name of pond or fresh water Indians. They were members of several different tribes. Some were under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts, some under the Narragansetts, and some under the other larger tribes. They were called by this general namc to distinguish them from the shore Indians and from the river Indians who lived on the Connecticut. The Indians residing on the Merrimack river did not properly come under the name of Nipmuck. They were at all times known as the Pawtucket tribe. Some- times the name Pennacook was applied to them, though the latter name belonged to the division of the tribe that resided on the river in the vicinity of Manchester and Concord. Their principal seat was at Pawtucket (Chelmsford), and they took their name from the falls in the Merrimack river at this place. Pawtucket was from the Indian word Pawtagit (who shakes himself, which shakes itself), in a figurative sense, applied sometimes to falls. The name is spelled a little differently by some. The Pennacook country extended from Concord, N. H., up and down the river without any definite bounds, and without doubt it included the whole length of the river from the Pawtucket falls to Concord, and as much above as this divi- sion of the tribe extended.
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