USA > Vermont > Orange County > Newbury > History of Newbury, Vermont, from the discovery of the Coos country to present time > Part 36
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director, to W. H. Cummings, who became president in 1874. In June, 1875, the capital stoek was increased to $300,000, and the number of directors was reduced to five. In 1878, John Bailey, Jr., succeeded Mr. Underwood, and Mr. Hall gave place to Alexander Cochran, in the next year. The board of directors remained without change till 1891, when Mr. Cummings died, and was succeeded as director by. John N. Morse, and Mr. Deming became president. November 21, 1893, Mr. Leslie died, after a long and faithful service of thirty-five years, in which he had discharged the duties of eashier to the entire satisfaction of the directors and the publie. Nelson H. Bailey was chosen eashier on the following day. In 1894, Mr. Shedd deceased, and was succeeded by Erastus Baldwin. In 1898, Mr. Morse died, and E. Bertram Pike became a director.
It will be seen that the bank owes much of its stability to the long connection with it of its cashiers and directors. Mr. Hale and Mr. Leslie were entrusted with its funds for fifty-three years; Colonel Tenney was associated with it as director thirty-three years; William R. Shedd, forty-one years; Abel Underwood, twenty-eight years, while of the present board, Mr. Deming has been in service sinee 1874, Mr. Bailey sinee 1878 and Mr. Cochrane since 1879. The bank has, in common with all monetary institutions, had its losses, and in times of financial distress, it has required mueh skill on the part of its managers to avert misfortune but it has ever received the confidenee of the business public, and in the days of the old state banks, its bills often commanded a premium. Several attempts have been made to rob the bank, without sueeess. In 1900, an electrical alarm was placed upon the building.
The Wells River Savings Bank was incorporated in 1892, and opened for business March 7, 1893, in the rooms of the National bank. The deposits have steadily inereased, until, at the elose of the year 1899 there was due to the depositors nearly $370,000. At that date the trustees were: James Johnston, George Cochran, J. R. Darling, D. S. Fulton, Ora Bishop and E. W. Smith. The officers were: James Johnston, president, D. S. Fulton and J. R. Darling, vice presidents, Samuel Hutchins, treasurer. A few months later Mr. Johnston died, and was succeeded by John Bailey, both as trustee and president. Certain business conditions under which our predecessors in the early part of the nineteenth century had to labor, may well be mentioned here.
The years which followed the panic of 1837, were "very hard times," and were due, largely, to distrust of the monetary system, or want of system, which prevailed. The supply of farm produce exceeded the demand; it was hard to get it to market, and when there it searcely brought enough to pay the cost of transportation. Money was very searce, and many farmers hardly received ten
Ra ahi
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dollars in cash for the whole year. Mr. Henry Whitcher relates the following: "A Mr. Carruth, a hard working farmer of Topsham, in the hard times of 1841, took his butter, a large quantity, to Wells River to sell. He was offered eight cents a pound, but said that he must get more than that, and went to the other merchants, but could get no offer, at any price, so he went back to the man who had offered him eight cents, and sold him the butter, expecting to receive a part of it in cash. But he was told that he must take it all in store pay. 'But I must have some money,' said he 'for I have a letter which has been in the post office for six months, because I have not had twenty-five cents to get it out.' He was given twenty-five cents, and went home." Compared with distress like this, what do we know in these days about hard times and scarcity of money ?
One of the evils under which the country labored, was the uncertain value of the money which was in circulation. Whatever may be the faults of the national banking system, it assures absolute protection to the holders of its bills. The five dollar bill which a man receives in Newbury, will be worth exactly that sum anywhere in the country, and even if the bank which issues the bill should fail, the bank note is just as good as before. So that it makes no difference to the holder what bank issues the note. But before the exigences of the civil war forced the present system upon the country, this was very different. The value of a bank note depended upon the ability of the issuing bank to redeem it. If the bank failed, the note was worthless. There were hundreds of banks in the country, and prudent people took only specie, or the bills of such banks as they knew were solvent. People were also careful about taking the bills of banks at a distance. Bills of western banks suffered a discount in the east, because of their insecurity, while bills of New England banks commanded a premium in the west. There were brokers who dealt in bank bills, exchanging the bills of distant banks for those near home for a percentage, which was often very large.
There was also much counterfeit money in circulation. The receipts from an auction held in this town in 1856, amounted to about $1,100 in cash, of which nearly $100 proved to be counterfeit. At present counterfeit money is so rare that Mr. Bailey, the present cashier of the bank of Newbury, has seen but two bad bills in his long connection with that institution. But in those days, each bank had a different plate for its bills, so . that there were thousands of different bills in circulation, and it was easy to pass counterfeits of distant banks. There were also bills in circulation purporting to be of actual banks, but which had no existence whatever.
Sometimes the imitations of a bank's bills were better engraved than the genuine, as the counterfeiters could command better skill
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than the banks themselves. The process of making a bank-note paper which cannot be imitated was not then known. Gangs of counterfeiters infested the country, carrying on operations in remote hamlets, or in Canada. These associations were often wealthier than the banks whose money they imitated, and were able to evade punishment either by keeping out of the reach of justice, or, in many cases, by bribing a jury. To protect themselves, the banks combined in associations intended to detect and punish counterfeiting.
Our neighboring town of Groton, was, at one time, the locality of a gang of counterfeiters. In January, 1849, some dies for engraving were stolen from the office of W. W. Wilson of Boston, one of his employees, named Christian Meadows, an engraver and printer, disappearing about the same time. This man came to the bank at Wells River one day, and was recognized by Mr. Hale, the cashier. Later he was seen in company with a man who registered at the hotel as "W. H. Warburton, Groton, Vt." The latter, who was an Englishman, was a burglar and bank robber, generally known as "Bristol Bill," from his connection with a bank robbery at Bristol, R. I. Detectives were put upon the case, and from the evidence secured, Col. Jacob Kent, sheriff, with a party of men, went to Groton on the evening of March 5, 1849, and arrested Warburton, and a woman named Margaret O'Connell, a counterfeiter from Boston. On the premises they found a complete set of burglar's apparatus. At Groton Village they found a "transfer press," weighing about 1,500 pounds, a copper plate printing press, and blank copper plates. Several men in Groton were implicated in the affair, and were arrested. Under the bee house of one Ephraim Low were found three boxes marked "axes," containing 135 dies for vignettes, names of banks, etc., being most of the lot stolen from Mr. Wilson, and a set of engraver's tools.
Between the robbery of Mr. Wilson and the Groton affair was a burglary on Long Island, in which Warburton, Meadows and the O'Connell woman were implicated. The latter person was well educated; an accomplished and daring woman. She was taken to New York to testify in the Long Island case. Warburton, Meadows, Ephraim Low, McLane, Marshall, and Peter M. Paul were taken to Danville jail. Paul turned state's evidence, Low died in jail. Warburton (Bristol Bill) and Meadows were sentenced to state prison for ten years. After sentence was passed upon Warburton, he sprang upon Mr. Davis, the state's attorney, and, with a knife which he had contrived to secrete, inflicted a dangerous, but not fatal wound, in his neck. After the expiration of his sentence he was taken back to Caledonia county, and there sentenced to six more years of imprisonment for his attack upon Mr. Davis. Meadows was pardoned by Governor Fairbanks, at the solicitation of Danicl Webster, this being one of the last acts of
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the latter's life, and was afterwards employed in the engraving department of the treasury at Washington.
Among other usages of a sterner age, which have completely passed away, was that of imprisonment for debt, a practice defended by many excellent people upon grounds which a more humane era condemns as both cruel and impolitic. Sometimes the law was of real value, but it oftener inflicted punishment upon men whose misfortune was made to be a crime. Any creditor could, upon failure to meet an obligation, have the unfortunate debtor sent to jail till the debt was paid. This power was a terrible weapon in the hands of a bad man. Our town records contain several articles like the following in the warnings for annual meetings: "To see whether the town will do anything for the relief of A. B., now confined in Chelsea jail for debt." Once or twice, but not often, the selectmen were instructed to see what conld be done. There were but two ways of release, either by paying the debt and costs of imprisonment, or by taking "poor debtor's oath." Sometimes men languished for years, in jail, for debt. One man was thus confined in Danville jail fourteen years. A slight alleviation of the evil permitted a man whose reputation for honesty was good, upon giving sufficient security, to obtain employment, if he could get it, within a certain distance of the jail, returning to imprisonment at night. These bounds were called the "jail limits," and persons whose liberty was thus restricted were styled "jail birds." It is fortunate for many men now living in Newbury that imprisonment for debt has long been abolished.
NOTE. In early chapters of this volume, mention is made of Glazier Wheeler, and his counterfeiting schemes, and the statement that he is said to have afterwards been employed as an engraver in the mint at Philadelphia. Mr. Bittinger makes this statement in his history of Haverhill, and it is made elsewhere. Since those chapters were printed I have seen the autobiography of Stephen Burroughs, which if it may be relied upon, casts some doubt upon this. Wheeler and Burroughs were associated in schemes of counterfeiting in the year 1787. He says thus of Wheeler:
"He was a man tottering under the weight of years, having long since, to all appearances, been a presumptive candidate for the grave. He was a man of small mental abilities, but patient and persevering in any manual pursuit, to admiration. Credulous in the extreme, which subjected him to the duplicity of many who had resorted to him for his work; inoffensive and harmless in his manners, simple in his external appearance, and weak in his observations on men and manners. He had spent all his days in the pursuit of the knowledge of counterfeiting silver so as to bear the test of assays. He had always been unfortunate and always lived poor."
Burroughs and Wheeler were sentenced to three years in the House of Correction, and confined on Castle Island, in Boston harbor. After their arrival at that place Wheeler is not again mentioned. One other circumstance related in this autobiography deserves notice: While a student at Dartmouth College Burroughs had for a roommate, Jacob Wood, who afterward became the second minister of this town, and for whom he entertained considerable dislike. Stephen Burroughs was the only son of Rev. Eden Burroughs, D. D., of Hanover, and his book of some 400 pages, is the history of a woefully ill-spent life. But he was a man of talents, and his narrative possesses considerable historical value. Late in life he reformed, and taught school in Canada with great success. He died at Three Rivers, P. Q., in 1840, aged eighty-five years, a member of the Catholic church. Several editions of his book have been published.
CHAPTER XLII.
PROFESSIONAL MEN .- MISCELLANEOUS.
PHYSICIANS .- LAWYERS .- OLD HOUSES .- DERIVATION OF LOCAL NAMES .- CENSUS OF NEWBURY .- REFLECTIONS .- PENSIONERS OF 1840 .-- THE LAST SURVIVORS .- NONOGENARIANS .- AN OLD SUPERSTITION.
M OST of the physicians who were in practice here long enough to be remembered, either belonged to families already settled in this town, or founded families of their own, and are mentioned at more length elsewhere. But, for convenient reference, the names of those who practiced here for some years are given place.
Dr. Gideon Smith and Dr. Samuel Hale were the earliest. Dr. Samuel White came in 1773, and died in 1848. At the opening of the century, Drs. Kinsman and Mckinstry, with Dr. White, were in active practice. The former removed to Portland, Maine. Drs. Stevens and Jewett were here in the '20's. The former passed his entire life in this town. In the last half of the century Drs. Watkins and Watson were successful in practice; the former was widely known. Since 1885, Dr. Hatch has practised here much of the time, and Dr. Russell and Dr. W. M. Pierce are the latest practicioners.
Wells River had no settled physician for some time after it became quite a village. Dr. Enoch Thatcher was the first who staid long. He died in 1850, aged 45. Dr. John McNab lived there at intervals after 1825, and had a large practice. Dr. Daniel Darling and Dr. Bugbee were there in the early '50's, also Dr. McNeice and Dr. Blood. The former died in 1859. Dr. A. H. Crosby, of a family famous in the annals of surgery, was located there for some years before the civil war; Dr. Ira Brown and Dr. J. R. Nelson, in the '70's. The present physicians arc Drs. Lee and Shattuck.
At West Newbury, a Dr. Merrill was in practice, in some form, long ago, and a Dr. Morrison, who removed to Bath. Dr. Carter
4
E. N. Walking
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practised there many years before he went to Bradford. Dr. Samuel Putnam was there early, but lived, much of the time, in "Goshen." In dentistry, Dr. Dearborn was here as early as 1852, and had an office in the Keyes building. Dr. Newton was here in 1857, and Dr. Gibson in 1858, and subsequently. He also had an office at Wells River. One Dr. Wood practised in the later '60's, and Dr. Buxton began a practice in 1880, which he transferred to Kansas.
At. Wells River, Dr. H. D. Hickok was for some years in the "art preservative of teeth," but removed to Malone, N. Y. Dr. Munsell came in 1880, and still remains. He also has an office at Harwich, Mass., which he occupies during some months of each year.
The medical history of the town has not much of interest. The biographical notice of Dr. Samuel White gives some idea of what was demanded of doctors in old days. Of all diseases the smallpox was most dreaded, and we may infer from repeated actions of the town, that it broke out every few years. In 1776, it was brought here by soldiers on the retreat from Canada. It again visited the town in 1783 and 1792. In the latter year, an article in the warning for town meeting read thus :
"To see if the town will open a pest house in some convenient place in sd town."
The town voted "That the meeting recommend to the selectmen to give liberty to have a House for noculation of the smallpox opened in this town, and under such regulations and restrictions as shall prevent its spreading."
In 1803, the disease raged in all the Coös country, and again broke out in 1810, but was not so severe here as in Corinth, where many died. Robert McKeen, a brother of the first president of Bowdoin college, came down with it, and chose to be taken to a solitary habitation, where he died, attended by an old man. In 1847, the disease broke out among the students at the seminary. There were many cases and several died. Among these was a daughter of Barron Moulton, of Waterford, the wife of Dr. Stevens, and the wife and three children of Rev. S. P. Williams, the pastor of the Methodist church. The alarm produced was very great. Hardly any one could be found to attend the sick, and there was some suffering from want of care. It was at the time of the building of the railroad, and it was supposed that it was brought here by the laborers, but it proved to have come otherwise.
Capt. James Wallace left his farm, and for many days and nights took care of the sick. For this he refused any compensation, saying that he had done no more than was his duty to do by his neighbors in trouble. At the town meeting in March, 1848, he was publicly thanked by the town for his attention to the sick during the excitement. There were a few mild cases in town in 1862 and one or two later.
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HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
In 1815, the "spotted fever" broke out, but was not so severe here as in many other places. In Warren, N. H., whole families were swept away, and entire neighborhoods were depopulated. Persons seemingly in perfect health were stricken with the disease, and died in a few hours. Dr. Lemuel Wellman, a noted physician of Piermont, went to Warren to help care for the sick, took the disease, and died in four hours. It is many years since any serious epidemic has visited this town. This town has sent out a goodly number of physicians; of most of them mention is made among the family records.
As with the doctors, so with the lawyers,-most of them were connected with local families, and are particularly mentioned elsewhere. Mr. Leslie has given sketches of several who were located at Wells River, and well known to him. A still more elaborate paper upon the "Bench and Bar of Orange County," by Hon. Roswell Farnham of Bradford, occupies 136 pages of Childs's Gazetteer of Orange County. Reference is made to it for a more complete account of such as are mentioned here only by name. The following lawyers, with their terms of practice here, are mentioned by Governor Farnham :
Daniel Farrand, 1787-1796 Charles B. Leslie, 1843
Benjamin Porter, 1796-1818
Charles Story, 1850-1851
Wm. B. Bannister, 1800-1807
Timothy P. Fuller, 1848-1852
John Wallace, 1814-1826
Charles C. Dewey, 1854-1860
Peter Burbank, 1815-1836
David T. Corbin, 1859-1861
John Chamberlin, 1818-1822
Daniel A. Rogers, 1861-1881
Abel Underwood, 1828-1879
Benj. F. Burnham, 1861-1863
Joseph Berry, 1827-1852
Washington Patterson, 1871
Isaac W. Tabor, 1830-1833
Scott Sloan, 1884-1898
E. W. Smith, 1872
The above list includes only those who were in active practice here for at least a year, and more. There were several men, not in regular practice, but who had extensive knowledge of law, and were engaged on many cases. Among them the late Richard Patterson should find a place. He was self-educated, but his keenness of intellect, and wide reading, made him the master of more legal knowledge than was usually possessed by men trained in the profession. Of several of these lawyers particulars are given in these pages which were not known to Mr. Farnham. But before the removal of the county seat to Chelsea in 1796, there must have been several lawyers here who are not enumerated by Mr. Farnham, but whose names are preserved among various legal papers of the time. Josiah L. Arnold was in practice here a short time in 1792, and a Mr. Brown.
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PROFESSIONAL MEN-MISCELLANEOUS.
Since the retirement of Judge Leslie, and the removal to Woodsville of their office by E. W. Smith and Son, there is no lawyer in this town whose office is located here. Woodsville now attracts the profession as Haverhill Corner did formerly. This part of the country was a better field for lawyers a century ago than it is now. Whether it is that people have become more peacable, or whatever the cause, it is certain that there was much more litigation then than now.
Rev. David Sutherland says that when he came to Bath in 1804, Esquire Buck held a justice court at Bath village every Monday morning, and was seldom without cases to try. The late Esquire Patterson stated that there were about four lawsuits when he came to Newbury in 1832, where there was one, sixty years later. This condition of more peaceful neighborhoods can be deplored by no one, except by that class of the legal fraternity who are never able to attain to anything higher in the profession than to help forward a neighborhood quarrel.
According to inquiries made by Rev. J. D. Butler in 1849, the oldest house in Wells River is the "old parsonage," now the residence of Dr. Munsell. It was built in 1792, by Silas Chamberlin, on part of the present site of the church, and removed to its present location by James Matthews about 1836. The kitchen part appears to be older than the rest of the house. The next oldest is the kitchen part of the George Leslie house, which was built in 1794. The next oldest is that of Mr. Adams, which was built by Simon Douglass, about 1805, probably. All the old houses between Stair hill and Ingalls hill, on the Upper meadow, originally stood on the old road, which ran upon the higher land, and were moved to the new, or present road, many years ago. The most northerly one was formerly called the Heath house, and is understood to have been built by Sylvanus Heath, who died about 1787. Mr. Scales's house was built by his grandfather, Charles Chamberlin, and is understood to have been built before 1800.
The age of the Colonel Tenney house in which Mr. McAllister lives, or its builder, are unknown. This was the Nathaniel Chamberlin farm, and may have been built by him, or by his successor, Jonathan Tenney. It was moved "down the hill" about 1800. The house of Mr. Learned is one of the very oldest in town, although little of the original structure, except the roof and timber remains. This was the Col. Frye Bayley house, and was begun by him in 1775, but the war came on, and nothing was done to it for several years. It was very little altered when remodelled by Mr. Learned a few years ago. That house saw a great deal of fine company in the best days.
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HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.
The old Johnson home on the Ox-bow is believed to be the oldest in town, and the frame of it was raised, says Mr. Perry, the day that the news of the battle of Lexington reached Newbury, which was probably about the end of April, 1775 .* The contract, still preserved, for doing the mason work, shows that the great chimney was built the year before. It was used as a tavern by Colonel Johnson and by his son Moses. Frank Johnson, the latter's son, owned it till his death, and his widow, who became Mrs. Duncan McKeith, lived there till 1863, when she sold it to Robert Nelson. Many interesting things could be told about this venerable mansion, which has long been a landmark of the valley. As before stated, a wing or addition to that house on the north side, is now the kitchen part of Mr. James Lang's house. According to Mr. Powers, the glass for the windows was brought from Concord on horseback, but it may be that this was for an earlier frame house, which stood a little north of it. The barns are older than the house; one of them is believed to be the oldest building in this town. A plan of these buildings, made by Colonel Johnson, while a prisoner in Canada, is preserved by Mr. T. C. Keyes.
The house of Dea. Sidney Johnson was built in 1800, by his grandfather, the colonel. There was formerly a wing to that house, on the upper floor of which was a ball room, used in connection with the tavern house. The David Johnson house, which Mrs. Wheeler owns, and occupies for a summer residence, was built in 1807. The kitchen part of the house opposite the cemetery, was formerly the kitchen half of the two-story house in which Col. John Bayley lived. The kitchen part of the Silas Leighton house was once the "old Porter office,"and before Mr. Porter's time was used for the same purpose by Mr. Farrand. Afterwards, as before stated, it was used for a young ladies' school.
The house under the great elm was built, it is understood, by Mr. Bannister, about a century ago. The quaint old house in which the late Miss Swasey lived was built in 1797, by her father, Capt. Moses Swasey, and was intended to be the kitchen part of a larger house, which he did not live to build.
According to Miss Swasey, the house which Mrs. Miller owns and occupies was built by Col. Peter Olcott, for his daughter, who married Benjamin Porter. Colonel Olcott was one of the most distinguished men in this part of the country in his day, and is not supposed ever to have lived in Newbury, although he was chosen in 1776, a representative from this town to "York," with Gen. Jacob Bayley, but an old plan of the river road, preserved in the first volume of the town buildings, gives Esquire Farrand as living there, in 1795. This house often called the "Harry Bayley house," has been much altered from its original plan. The house of Mr. Henry
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