USA > Vermont > Orange County > Newbury > History of Newbury, Vermont, from the discovery of the Coos country to present time > Part 14
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One class of men has received scant justice at the hands of posterity. Seventy years ago the name of Tory was so obnoxious that it was hardly possible to offend a man more than to call him by a name which implied that either he or his immediate ancestor had taken the unpopular side in the great struggle. Many years ago the word "Tory," was found scratched upon the stone in the Ox-bow cemetery, which marked the grave of a certain revolutionary officer, whose situation during the war had made him the object of much annoying criticism from his enemies. The culprit was discovered, and a bitter feud resulted between two families which out-lasted that generation.
It has been asserted, with considerable probability, that the war for independence was the work of a minority of the people of the colonies, and that, had the result depended upon a ballot, the colonies would have adhered to the crown. Fortunately for us and for the world, the contest was decided in favor of popular government, but much obloquy has fallen upon certain men in Coös, which they never deserved.
Colonel Asa Porter, Col. John Taplin and others, were men of
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HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
education and influence who had held office under the crown, and who honestly believed that the sort of goverment which was intended to be set up would bring about, in the end, worse evils than those which the country before suffered. Thence they declined to cast in their lot with men like Bayley, Johnson and Bedell, and in consequence of their prominent position, they were held to be guilty, in popular belief, of instigating a thousand plots and deeds of which they were both innocent and ignorant.
There were men in the Coös country who took advantage of the disordered state of the times to gratify private malice, and there were also those who profited by underhand dealings with the enemy. There were others, officers in the Continental service, who kept up a secret correspondence with Canada. There were those also in Coös, who were locally active in the plot to supersede Washington by Gates. But the outcome of the war so signally resulted in making Washington pre-eminent above all other Americans, that those who had striven to overthrow him, made haste to remove the traces of their hostility.
Still, all was not destroyed, and the pride of many families would be wounded could they know what the Canadian archives can reveal. But these were few; the great majority of the people in the Connecticut valley were true and loyal to the patriotic cause. Among the troubles which grew out of the war, and which the Coös country had to share with the older portions of the colonies, was the disturbance to business which arose from the depreciation of the currency. Successive issues of paper money, which could not be redeemed in coin, were still further shorn of their value by numerous counterfeits. The bills issued by the order of the Continental congress were so poorly executed that it was very easy to counterfeit them, and even the genuine soon became of little value. In these days of a stable currency, we find it hard to imagine the state of things which would result, if a man could not know what the dollar bill which he received today will be worth tomorrow or next week. Business security is only assured when a man knows that the dollar of today will be worth just one hundred cents next week or next year, or five years hence.
But the continental currency depreciated so rapidly in value, that the General Assembly of 1787 found it necessary to fix by law the value of paper money expressed in contracts made at different times after September, 1777, when the Continental dollar began to fall below the Spanish milled dollar, which was the chief coin in circulation. By that law, the value of the Spanish dollar was that of two paper dollars in 1778; by the September following it was worth three dollars, and ten months later the Spanish dollar was valued at ten paper dollars. In all contracts dated January 1, 1780, one dollar in silver was held to be equal to twenty paper dollars; by the first of the next September the ratio was 72 to 1
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AFTER THE WAR.
and kept on rising. Money was never so plenty as when it was almost worthless, because when a man received any of the currency, he made haste to spend it as soon as possible, to get as much out of it as he could.
There were men ruined by this fall in values. John Hugh, who owned a farm on the Ox-bow, sold it, receiving his pay in Continental currency, with which he intended to purchase new land in the north part of the state, but before he could invest the money, it had become almost worthless.
The following bill, preserved among the Little papers, has interest in this connection :
"Dr .- The United States of America to Moses Little. On express from General Bayley to his excellency, General Washington, being 350 miles from Coos to Morristown, February 28, 1781.
To my expenses on the road to headquarters, $ 946
To my expenses on my return, 1146
To my time, 31 days, at $81 per day, 2345
$4437."
This formidable bill, when reduced to coin, shrinks to the modest sum of $63.44.
The years which passed between the end of the war and the adoption of the Federal constitution were, to the country, generally, years of distress and uncertainty. This time was what Prof. Fiske has so well entitled, "The critical period of the American republic." The new nation was only a league between the states; there was no central authority, no head to the new government. It seemed doubtful, even to the wisest and most patriotic, if the new nation would long endure.
There was great distress in all parts of the country. Many had become impoverished by the war; many had left the country. A few had seized upon the opportunities of the time to acquire wealth. The continental currency had become so worthless that no one would take it, and disappeared from circulation. Taxes were high, and money was scarce. Those who were so unfortunate as to have all their property in wild land, saw it worth so little as hardly to sell for enough to pay the taxes upon it. Those who had money, made haste to invest it in real estate, taking advantage of the dire necessities of their neighbors. Our town records show how many farms, and tracts of wild land, came into the hands of a very few men about that time.
In Massachusetts a formidable rebellion broke out in 1786, under the leadership of Daniel Shays. There were outbreaks in different parts of New Hampshire and Vermont. At Rutland a mob prevented the sitting of the court. Here in Newbury, one Henry Tufts, who was always in mischief somewhere, appeared at the court-house on the day of the opening of the court, made an inflamatory speech, displayed a gun, and called on the people to follow him, and turn out the judge, lawyers and jury, who were,
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HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
he declared, the authors of all the misfortunes which the country suffered. Tufts was, however, at once disarmed, and put in jail, after which, being compelled to sit in the stocks, he decided to leave the town. Some years later, he wrote from Maine, under an assumed name to Col. Johnson, trying to recover the gun which had been taken from him. This was that Henry Tufts, who, later, published an autobiography of which Thomas Wentworth Higginson gave some account in Harper's Magazine for March, 1888, under the title, "A New England Vagabond." Tufts died in Maine in 1831. He married one of his numerous wives in this town.
The evils which were caused by a depreciated currency were augmented by the great amount of base coin which was in circulation. When we speak of the money of those days, two things must be remembered-that there were no banks in this country until after the revolutionary war, so there were no bank- notes-and that the United States did not begin the coinage of gold and silver until 1792, consequently all the coin which circulated was of foreign countries. At the present time it is rare to see a foreign coin in circulation, except Canada silver, but in 1787, an account of money, amounting to one hundred pounds sterling, sent to New York, enumerated coins of five nationalities. Here in Newbury, the records of the First Congregational church show that it was voted, June 6, 1788, "that each member should leave a pistareen with the minister for the purpose of purchasing the wine for the communion service."
In these days, counterfeiting is about as dangerous business as a man can engage in, but in those days of slow communication, the occupation was comparatively safe and lucrative. It was much easier and safer to counterfeit the coins of some distant country, whose money was little known, than it was to imitate the coin of the United States, had any been made then.
Glazier Wheeler, whom we have met before, had fallen into the hands of men who obliged him to make for them Spanish dollars and "Half Joes," which contained only one-fourth as much pure metal as the genuine. The money which he had been making, contained one-half the usual amount of gold and silver. Wheeler was caught in the act of making dies, was made to stand one day upon the pillory at Haverhill, have one of his ears cropped, and be imprisoned one year. He complained bitterly over his treatment by those who had profited by, and then abandoned him. He had served with credit in the war, and later, is said to have retrieved his fortune by his skill as an engraver in the mint at Philadelphia.
At this time, and for many years before and after, the standard of value, in local trade, was a bushel of wheat, the staple product of the farms, the one for which there was the most steady demand, and most equable valuc. The bushel of wheat paid taxes; upon it
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AFTER THE WAR.
was computed the minister's salary, and the laborer's wages. The great meadows produced, annually, thousands of bushels for export, and the hill farms were beginning to contribute to the supply. At present a field of wheat is hardly seen on the meadows from Ryegate to Hanover.
The years which passed between the end of the war and the beginning of the century, were, on the whole, very prosperous ones in Haverhill and Newbury, for those who had been here long enough to have established themselves, or those who came here with money enough to purchase improved farms. The country between Haverhill and Concord had become settled, and the roads were better every year. The whole north country from here to Canada line was filling up with an industrious and thrifty population. Newbury being at the head of boat navigation on the river, had the great advantage of situation, and there were some very enterprising men in this town in those days, who were quick to seize upon the opportunities then offered.
They made it for the interest of people about to settle above here to purchase their supplies in Newbury, instead of bringing them from the places whence they came. In turn Newbury was a convenient market, and the merchants had much trade with all the upper country.
The circumstance of the courts being located here, brought many people into the place, and caused it to be well known. Some of our older houses, twenty or more, were built in that period. Haverhill academy was opened in 1793, and soon made its influence felt. One evidence of the prosperity of the time is shown by the enterprise of the people in building roads, and making it easier to market the produce of the farms.
In 1796, the town suffered a considerable loss in the removal of the county seat to Chelsea. For nearly twenty-five years Newbury had received all the benefit which in every newly settled country attends the possession of the seat of justice. Several lawyers, some of whose names have not come down to us, made their home here, and it was from that removal, that Newbury ceased to be the most important place in the east part of the state, above Windsor. The close of the century left the town in a prosperous condition, when we take its position into consideration. The distance of the nearest market, and the condition of the highways, prevented the development of the resources of the country. Only live stock, and the more portable products of the farm went to the distant markets.
When we consider that a century ago there were no manufacturing towns, and that there were, in all New England, not more than ten places of as many thousand inhabitants, and those along the coast, we may well wonder that there was any market at all, not already supplied by towns nearer the sea-ports. There was,
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HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
however, a growing export trade, and those products of the farm which were in greatest demand were those which were required to supply this trade. These were butter, cheese, wool, maple sugar, dressed meat, salts, (i e., pot and pearl ashes,) and grain. Lumber was floated down the river, either in the log, or in boats, usually the former. Timber for ship-building, especially for masts, was in demand. It is said that during the wars of Napoleon, trees were cut in this town to supply masts for the French navy, and which were floated down the river.
There are huge pine stumps four feet and over in diameter, still remaining in the woods in Newbury, from which the trees were removed a hundred years ago, and which bid fair to outlast another century, and which may have furnished masts for Napoleon's ships.
The sale of trees for masts began soon after the revolutionary war, and was continued for many years. Some of the accounts of sales of these still exist. Dr. McKeen thus states regarding similar transactions in Bradford: "Pine trees were then plenty and money scarce. Sticks of timber sixty feet long were estimated by their average diameter at the rate of twenty-five cents an inch. According to this rule a mast sixty feet long and thirty inches in diameter would come to but seven dollars and a half. One giant mast 116 feet long, and forty inches in diameter was thus delivered. This large pine trunk, at the above rate, would be estimated at not quite twenty dollars." These facts are given to show how hard people had to work in those days to get a little money.
Another business which was quite important was that of building flat-bottomed boats for the conveyance of lumber to market, and bringing up cargoes of salt, rum, iron and other heavy articles of merchandise. There were several builder's yards in this town. One, and perhaps several, were at Wells River. Boats were also built near the mouth of Harriman's brook, and near the present site of Bedell's bridge. Sometimes, for lack of a return cargo, the boat was sold for its lumber, and the men who had gone down with it, returned on foot. The men who went down with rafts usually returned in this way, and there are still old men who have often walked back from Hartford, or Northampton, after going down with their load. Many, and perhaps most of the older men who were living twenty years ago, had spent considerable time upon the river in their younger days, just as many of the older men of the present day used to be teamsters between here and Concord before the railroad was built.
There are none left who can tell what Newbury was at the close of the century, the exact location of homes, or precisely what parts of the town had been cleared. Boltonville and the farms around West Newbury, were settled much earlier than any other sections back from the river. John Wilson, who came to Bradford
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AFTER THE WAR.
in 1795, and settled west of Wright's Mountain, stated in writing in his old age, that at the date mentioned, the only road from Corinth to Newbury was the one which goes past the Rogers hill schoolhouse. About 1788, John C. Foster bought land, and began clearing on the farm which, two years later, he sold to William Peach. Not much later, settlement began on the farm long owned by William Wallace, and about the same time, by Thomas Mellen, where J. C. Leavitt now lives, south of the town house. These were the first settlements in that part of the town. In 1796, President Dwight of Yale college, made the first of three journeys which included the Connecticut valley. In this year he mentions the fine apple orchards along the river road, the finest he had ever seen, but wheat, he said had been blasted upon the meadows for some years. Dr. Dwight was a very close observer, and some of his remarks are worth quoting :
"October 7, Crossed the river at the ferry above the Great Ox-bow. The boat was managed by two children smaller than I had ever seen entrusted with such employment. But the expedition and safety with which we crossed the river, proved their perfect competency for their business, and convinced me that we generally estimate the capacity of children beneath the truth. The houses of the place are moderately good in size and structure, but not being painted have an unpleasant appearance.
About 1782, a spring was discovered, which ceases, it is said, to flow for some time once in every two or three years. When its waters are left to settle they are covered with a yellow pellicle, and emit a strong sulphurous odor."
He again visited Newbury in 1803, and 1812, noting many improvements at each visit.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
RECRUITING STATION .- FRENCH REFUGEES .- ANECDOTE .- WASHINGTON'S DEATH .- SETTLEMENT OF JEFFERSON HILL .- FARMS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS .- THE EXECUTION OF BURNHAM .- POPULATION .- IMMIGRATION .- THE WAR OF 1812 .- ACTIONS OF THE TOWN .- PASSING AWAY OF THE FATHERS OF THE TOWN .- DEATH OF INDIAN JOE.
TN 1799, a recruiting station for the United States army was opened at Newbury, and it would seem from certain bills which remain among the Johnson papers, that a company of soldiers from the regular army was stationed here. They mention "barracks," and a "hospital". Capt. Andrew McClary was the officer in command, and J. V. Glen was Adjutant. The bills are in a handwriting which is a marvel of beauty.
Near the close of the century many citizens of France sought refuge in this country from the troubles and dangers of their own land. Upon the heads of some of them, a price was set, and they made their way, for security, to the remote villages. Several of these, both men and women came here, and remained some time. They did not mingle with the townspeople, as only one or two spoke English, but kept entirely to themselves. They do not appear to have taken their exile much to heart. Some of them had rooms at the Ox-bow, and others were quartered lower down, in the village. One evening these latter went up to Moses Johnson's tavern, where they made merry, returning long after midnight. At that time there was a very tall and large tree standing on the west side of the road, south of where Dea. Sidney Johnson now lives. The moon, then low in the west, cast its broad shadow across the white, dusty road, and when the merry party came to the place they imagined that the shadow was a stream of water, and came to a standstill. They debated for some time how to cross without falling in and getting
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THE NINTEENTH CENTURY.
wet, when one of the party, less tipsy than the rest, wrenched a board from the fence, which he placed across the chasm, and the party, holding each others hands for security, tip-toed safely over. Augustus de St. Pot, one of them, taught dancing school a term or two here in Newbury, and afterward went to Maryland. There was considerable gossip about these people at the time, but they were soon forgotten.
The news of Washington's death reached Newbury about the end of January, 1800, and appropriate religious services were held in the meeting-house. According to the recollections of Reuben Abbott, a procession was formed at Lovewell's tavern, now the Sawyer House, which comprised the military companies in the neighborhood, and the veterans of the war, and marched, with military music, to the meeting-house, where a sermon was delivered by Rev. Mr. Lambert, and a funeral anthem, composed by Mr. Ingalls, was sung. The pulpit and galleries were hung with black, and the services made a great impression.
In 1801, John Peach, Noyes and Joshua Bayley went out to Jefferson Hill, then covered with an unbroken forest, and began to clear land. John Peach built the first log house, near the present residence of his son, A. M. Peach, and Joshua Bayley the second. They were joined, later, by Merrill, James, Jacob, Ephraim and John Bayley.
Dr. Samuel White came about 1806, and later comers settled around them. James Bayley settled at the top of the hill, at the south, where Thomas P. Bailey now lives, and that house, the oldest on the hill, was built in 1827. James Bayley moved to St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., in 1833, and died there.
Dr. White lived near the present schoolhouse, his farm being on that side of the road. Then came the farm of John Peach; his son, James, afterward owning the northerly part. Merrill Bayley's place was where Albert Wright lives, his brother, Ephraim, settling south of him. The buildings erected by Ephraim are gone, Joshua Bayley's farm was north of the cross-road, and his brother, Noyes, lived where Mr. Randall does now, and the log schoolhouse which stood till 1847, was on the north side of the road, opposite the burying-ground.
John Bailey's farm was that now owned by George W. Bailey, and Jacob settled where Andrew Wylie now lives, but later, bought out his brother James. James Waddell settled on the present farm of Henry Randall, and John Waddell on that now owned by Robert Lackie.
Archibald Hunter came from Scotland, and cleared the place where Andrew Arthur lives; Nathan Avery, Jr., built the house, and lived on the farm now owned by the widow of Alvah James, and Aaron Morse lived west of him, a little way from the road. These were later comers. James, son of John Peach, was the first
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HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
child born on the hill, in 1803, and Mrs. Joseph Fuller, in 1833, was the youngest child of the first settlers. A bridle road, whose location is almost forgotten, led up through Scotch hollow to the east side of the hill. The first public road from the hill went to Boltonville, and was surveyed by Nathan Avery, July 1, 1810.
For many years this neighborhood was somewhat isolated from the rest of the town, and the people formed a community of their own. Later, and especially since the building of the railroad, its interests are more with South Ryegate, than with the rest of Newbury.
Mention is elsewhere made of the legislative session of 1801, and of other things, in connection with particular periods of local history. In 1805, an event occurring in Haverhill has a place in the annals of Newbury. On the 18th of December, Josiah Burnham, a prisoner in the jail at Haverhill Corner, murdered, under circumstances of peculiar atrocity, two fellow prisoners, Hon. Russell Freeman, and Capt. Joseph Starkweather. Burnham lived here in Newbury a number of years, and was a signer of the New York petition of 1770. He was, by turns, farmer, horse-dealer, school-master, and vagabond. He was also a very good surveyor. His trial took place at Plymouth, and his defense was Daniel Webster's first plea. This latter circumstance gives the murder an historic interest. Burnham was hanged August 12, 1806, the gallows being erected on the hill-side north of the Corner. It was estimated that 10,000 persons, the largest crowd that had ever gathered in this part of the country, witnessed the execution. A remarkable sermon was preached on that occasion by Rev. David Sutherland of Bath. Burnham had sold his body to the surgeons for rum, and after the execution, it was brought over to Newbury, and placed in Dr. Mckinstry's office, in the Col. Johnson house. The same evening it was dissected in a small building which stood where the east end of James Lang's barn now stands, at the Ox-bow. One of the doctors, from up country, brought a large cleaver, such as is commonly used by butchers, as his share of the dissecting instruments. The skeleton of Burnham is in the anatomical museum at Hanover.
From the opening of the century down to the breaking out of the southern rebellion in 1861, there is little in the annals of the town which does not find a more appropriate place in the history of the various institutions of Newbury. A few things, however, do not seem to have a proper position in any of these.
The first two decades of the century do not seem so prosperous as those which preceded and followed them. The population, which had been 873 in 1790, and 1304 in 1800, showed a gain of only 59 in the first ten years, and only 160 in the second decade. This, despite the fact that in those years many farms were opened, and large sections of the town came into cultivation,
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MOOSIL. AUKE. NEWBURY VILLAGE-LOOKING NORTHEAST.
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THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
and, also the records of families, which show that many people came here to settle in those years, and the natural increase of population was quite large.
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