HoUJn pH £ Mill Run] HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY William F. Whitcher HISTORICAL ADDRESS ON THE OCCASION OF THE One Hundred and Fiftieth ANNIVERSARY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE Town of Haverhill New Hampshire SEPTEMBER 20, 1912 William F; Whitcher Privately Printed 1918 n 7 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH Anniversary Observance AND Dedication of Soldiers' Monument AT HAVERHILL, N. H. SEPTEMBER 20, 1912 Historical Address by William F. Whitcher We celebrate today the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of the town of Haverhill, the earliest settled, in point of time, in northern or central New Hampshire. It is even yet a new town as compared with the original Haverhill in Essex and Suffolk, England, which was already old when, in 1639, one of its sons, John Ward, graduate of Cambridge, only eighteen miles distant, came to New England and became the first minister of Pentucket on the Merrimac, which was erected in 1641, by the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, into a township, and given the name of Haverhill in honor of the birth- place of its first minister. The English Haverhill is a quaint old parish and market town, picturesquely situated, with its one long street, in a valley on a branch line of the Great Eastern railway, with two manufactur- ing industries, one for cotton, the other for silk fabrics, and with a population of about 4,500. The bustling, prosperous, manu- facturing city on the Merrimac, with its 40,000 population, was known as "Old Haverhill" within the memory of many here today, and our Haverhill, its namesake, was and still is new in comparison with that municipality, which, more than twenty years ago, celebrated its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. Our Haverhill, however, with its one hundred and fifty years of life, takes on the dignity of age when compared with the three other Haverhills on the world's map — one in Lawrence County, Ohio, another in Marshall County, Iowa, and still another in Butler County, Kansas, each a small farming township, and each with a population of less than four hundred. Towns as well as individuals have a character and individuality of their own, the result of varied influences. In its one hundred and fifty years of life Haverhill has had its own peculiar charac- teristics. It has differed from its neighbors. It still differs. It is not Bath, Coventry- Benton, or Piermont; it has been, and is, unhke its twin sister, Newbury, Vermont. It is Haverhill. Its people have been Haverhill people. Its history is peculiarly its own. Its settlement was not an accident. For a period of fifty years and more previous to such settlement, there was on the part of the colonists in northeastern Massachusetts and south- eastern New Hampshire knowledge of a Coos country on the Connecticut, possessing a soil of marvelous fertility, forests of heavy and valuable growth, and streams furnishing abundant fish and ample water-power for mills. Trappers had visited it, captives had been carried by Indians through it to Canada, so that as early as 1704 Penhallow mentions a French- Indian fort, and corn planted at Coos high up on the Connecticut river. Rev. John Williams, who in that same year was carried, with more than a hundred others, captive from Deerfield, Mass., to Canada, in his narrative published some years later, speaks of Coos as if it were a region well known. After the settlement at Charlestown, or "Number Four," — begun in 1748, — had become established, the question of the settlement of Coos began to be agitated. In 1751 hunters came up the river examining the land on both sides, as far north as the mouth of the Ammonoosuc. A year later John Stark and three others who were hunting on Bakers river, in what is now Rumney, were surprised by a party of Indians, and Stark and one of his companions, Amos Eastman, were captured and taken to Canada. They passed through the Coos meadows at Little Oxbow, both on their enforced journey and on their return a few months later. That same year, 1752, application was made to Governor Wentworth by men from Hampton and vicinity for charters for four towns each six miles square in Coos, and in bringing the matter to the attention of the General Court the governor alluded to the forfeiture of previous grants in the same section. Protests and threats were made from Canada and the charters were not given. In the spring of 1753 an expedition of twenty-one men under command of Colonel Zaccheus Lovewell, with John Stark for guide, was sent out by the General Court "to view the Coos Country." The route taken was up the Pemigewasset and Bakers rivers and over the divide to the Connecticut. The path which they marked out was followed the next year, 1754, by Capt. Peter Powers, with a company sent to ascertain if the French had advanced into the Connecticut Valley. They left Concord June 15, reached the river at what is now Piermont June 25, and fol- lowed it as far north as Northumberland, which they reached July 2. In the early spring of 1760 Thomas Blanchard was ordered by Governor Wentworth to make a survey of Connecticut river north- ward from Charlestown, and at the end of every six miles, on a straight line, to set a boundary on each side the river for a township. He made this survey in March, going up the river on the ice, and his survey extended to the mouth of the Ammonoosuc and included nine pairs of towns, the two northernmost being about seven miles in length, instead of six. All this was in anticipation of settlement, but the dangers which threatened from the north had made actual settlement unadvisable. For a period of more than seventy years England and France had been in almost unbroken warfare with each other, and the English settlements in New England had been, during nearly all this period, subject to attack by the French and their savage Indian allies from the north. But with the surrender of Montreal to the British in September, 1760, and the consequent downfall of French Empire on the American continent, the dangers which served for a period of a quarter of a century to prevent the settlement of the coveted Connecticut Valley region, especially that of lower Coos, were practically ended. A regiment of New Hampshire troops, under command of Colonel John Goffe of Bedford, was sent in the spring of 1760 to aid in the completion of the conquest of Canada. It took part in the siege of Montreal and was present at its surrender. Four officers of this regiment were destined to have a large influ- ence in the early history of the towns of Haverhill and New- bury. Lieutenant-Colonel Jacob Bayley, Captain John Hazen, First Lieutenant Jacob Kent, all of Hampstead, and Second Lieutenant Timothy Bedel of Salem, on their return home after the surrender, passed through lower Coos. The Oxbow meadows attracted their attention, and they spent several days examining the adjacent country. They determined to secure if possible charters of two townships on opposite sides of the river, in which they might themselves make settlement, and on their arrival home they lost no time in applying to the governor for such char- ters. Bayley and Hazen stood high in favor with the colonial government for valuable military service rendered and each had influential friends whom the governor wished to please. They obtained in the winter of 1760-61 promise of the desired grants, a promise which, however, was not fulfilled until May 18, 1763, when Haverhill was granted to John Hazen, Jacob Bayley, Timothy Bedel, Jacob Kent and 72 associates, and Newbury was granted the same day to Jacob Bayley, John Hazen, Jacob Kent, Timothy Bedel and 72 others, the names of many of whom also appeared in the list of the grantees of Haverhill. These were not the men, however, to wait for the charters. They had the governor's promise and they at once acted. Hazen and Bayley came up in the early summer of 1761, looked over the ground more carefully than they had done before, agreed that the former should settle on the east side of the river, the latter on the west, and at once began to arrange definite plans. Bayley went on to Crown Point on military business and Hazen returned to Hampstead by way of Charlestown, where he engaged several men to come to Coos, cut and sack the hay on the cleared ground on the Oxbows. In the meantime a stock of cattle, mostly young cows and steers, were purchased, and in August Michael Johnston, John Pettie and Abraham Webb started with these from Hampstead by way of Charlestown and following the line of spotted trees made by Blanchard the previous year reached their destination in October. The settlement of Haverhill was begun. These three spent the exceptionally long and cold winter here in an improvised shelter feeding the hay to the cattle, and breaking the steers to the yoke, that they might be ready for the plough and the other work in the spring. When the spring came Captain Hazen was on the ground with a number of men and materials for a sawmill and gristmill, which were erected on Poole Brook, on the site where Swasey's Mills stood later, and but a few rods distant from the spot where we meet today. He brought with him Uriah Morse and his wife from Northfield, Mass., the first family settling in town. Morse built his house on Poole Brook, near what was later the almshouse, now the residence of W. H. Ingalls. He furnished board for Captain Hazen, and the men who came with him, among whom were Joshua Howard, Jaasiel Harriman, Simeon Stevens, Thomas Johnson and Timothy Bedel. Howard, Harriman and Stevens came direct from Haverhill, Mass., by way of Bakers river, over the divide into what later became Coventry, and down the Oliverian instead of taking the usual route by way of Charlestown. These men all became promi- nent in the life of Coos. Howard settled later on the island which bears his name, — now a part of the county farm, — where he lived to the advanced age of 99: Harriman after a few years became the pioneer settler of Bath: Stevens, a grantee of both Haverhill and Newbury, went to Piermont, where his descendants became prominent. Johnson remained in Haverhill but a short time, going to Newbury, where he became next, perhaps, to Jacob Bayley, its most distinguished and influential citizen. Timothy Bedel, except for the few years he lived in Bath, of which town he was a grantee as well as of Haverhill, was one of the pioneer leaders who gave Haverhill its enviable reputation from the first. Captain Hazen had reasons for beginning his settlement prior to obtaining his charter. Other parties, one Oliver Willard in particular, were casting covetous eyes on the section, and endeav- oring to forestall him in securing possession of the broad meadows. 6 He took no chances. He believed in possession as constituting several, if not indeed the proverbial nine points of law, John Hazen was a remarkable man. As founder of the town his career and character merit, even in the brief time allotted to these exercises, more than the mere passing attention which has heretofore been given them. He was born in Haverhill, Mass., March 5, 1727, the son of Moses and Abigail (White) Hazen, and was fourth in descent from Edward Hazen, who came from England and settled in Rowley, Mass., about 1640. He lived in that part of Haverhill known as Timberlane, which, after the establishment of the boundary line between New Hampshire and Massachusetts in 1741, became a part of the town of Hamp- stead, incorporated in 1749. He was active in the settlement and development of the new town, served on its board of selectmen, and rendered in the French and Indian Wars important military service. He had the genuine soldier spirit. He was a lieutenant in the company of Captain Jacob Bayley, his townsman, in the Crown Point expedition of 1757. In 1758, he was captain in Colonel Hart's regiment, and in 1760 he was, as previously noted, captain in Colonel Goffe's regiment, of which his friend Bayley was lieutenant-colonel. He was a man of undaunted courage, of great physical strength, and though his educational advantages had been limited, of wise foresight. When it came to securing his charter, he prudently had inserted the names of grantees whom he knew would not become actual settlers, and whose rights in the township he could doubtless secure for himself at a fair price and without great difficulty. Thus John Hazen, Jr., who at the time was not more than six or seven years of age, was a grantee. Robert Peaslee, a brother-in-law, Moses and Wil- liam Hazen, brothers, were others. His sister had married Moses Moores, and the names of Edmund, John and Benjamin Moores, as well as that of his father-in-law, John Swett, appear in the list of grantees. Nathaniel Merrill, his future son-in-law, was another. With the exception of Merrill none of these grantees ever became residents of Haverhill. Some of their shares Hazen secured immediately, and at a meeting of the proprietors held in September, 1763, it was voted that he choose the house and meadow lots of five shares before the other grantees should draw their lots. His choice was doubtless already made, as he named the Meadow lots numbers 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, all in one plot, about a mile square, the well-known Oxbow, Hazen, Swasey farm, now owned by Moses A. Meader. The house lots were adjoining. The proprietors reserved the mill privileges for their own use. Later he purchased other rights, for as the owner of ten shares he was authorized Jan. 4, 1771, by the proprietors to hold "his proportion of land in a body between the Oxbow and the east line of the township according to a plan then submitted." This trail, a mile wide and nearly five miles in length, passed soon afterwards into the hands of John Fisher of Salem, Mass., and was known during the Revolutionary period and later as the Fisher farm. It was a tract covered with the finest of pine, and remained for a quarter of a century an unbroken wilderness until the pines began to be felled and the tract was opened up to settle- ment. His foresight and sound judgment are seen again in that he was instrumental in securing as settlers an exceptionally desir- able class of men, most of whom were not numbered among the grantees. I mention the names of some of those who settled prior to 1770. Timothy Bedel, distinguished soldier in the War for Independence; John Page, the father of Governor and United States Senator John Page, and of Samuel Page; John White, Joshua Poole, James Bayley, Maxi Hazeltine, Elisha Lock, Uriah Stone, great-grandfather of President Chester A. Arthur; James Woodward, Jonathan Elkins, Ezekiel Ladd with his six brothers, and whose monument abides, — Ladd street; Jonathan Goodwin, Edward Bayley, James Abbott, Joseph Hutchins, Simeon Goodwin, John Hurd, William Eastman, Joshua Hay- ward, Timothy Barron, Nathaniel Weston, Asa Porter, Andrew Savage Crocker, Charles Johnston, Ephraim Wesson, James Corliss, Jonathan Ring, Thomas Simpson, Amos Kimball and Charles Bailey. These were men who would have had marked influence in any community. Let me emphasize the fact that Captain Hazen was wise in his choice of associates. He was not attempting the formation of a community in which a single personality, and that his own, should be dominant. Some of these men were his superiors in culture and in qualities of leadership, and none recognized this more clearly than he, but they were men, who could secure for the town county-seat honors, who could establish schools and churches, who could give the new town enviable 8 prominence, and they did it. From the beginning Haverhill was the first town in Coos. These men mentioned, and such as these, gave tone and character to the Haverhill of their day, and the Haverhill of subsequent years. They were of sturdy English stock, of Puritan ideals and train- ing, of frugal habits and virtuous life. They had the genuine pioneer spirit and possessed the racial hunger for land. Among them were men of liberal culture, like John Hurd and Asa Porter, both graduates of Harvard; men of devout piety and rugged integrity, like John Page and Charles Johnston; of indomitable purpose^ like Ezekiel Ladd, James Woodward, Timothy Barron and Jonathan Elkins, and the War of the Revolution proved their self-sacrificing, undying patriotism. The character of a town is of course influenced by soil and climate, by mountain, lake and river, and Haverhill has been fortunate in these ; but underlying these in any town or commu- nity are the lives and characters of its men and its women, and Haverhill has also been fortunate in these, doubly fortunate in the character of John Hazen and those who joined with him in her founding, establishing her schools and churches, building her roads, and transforming her forests into fertile fields. Those early days were strenuous days. The roads were little more than mere bridlepaths. The homes were in log cabins with few conveniences and no luxuries; household furniture except in rare cases was of the rudest; life was filled with hard- ships which were borne cheerfully, since these settlers beheved in the future of their town. They lived the simple life, and in none of the early records do we find complaints of the high cost of living. We get a glimpse of the manner of life in the inventory of Captain Hazen's estate, filed Oct. 22, 1774, shortly after his death. He had been in Haverhill twelve years. His Oxbow farm had been the first settled, and this had just been sold to John Fisher. He had real estate remaining to the value £388 10s. There were notes of hand amounting to £360 6s. The schedule of per- sonal property is given in minute detail. Dress was evidently not a fad with the captain. His wardrobe consisted of "a half worn brown coat; 2 pair breeches: one old velvet waistcoat: one old hat: one old surtout: 2 striped linen shirts: one cotton and linen shirt: 2 pairs stockings: 2 pairs shoes: 1 pair knee 9 buckles : 1 pair silver shoe buckles : 1 pair stone sleeve buttons : one silver watch," which alone was valued at £4, a total value of £10 or less than $50. It was a wardrobe evidently for use rather than for ornament. The household furniture is indicative of the style of living. It included feather beds and pillows : bed- steads and cords, blankets, sheets, coverlets, case of drawers, writing desk, kettles, frying pans, skillets, andirons, flatirons, pewter dishes and plates, 6 knives and forks, 3 silver teaspoons, 4 chairs, 1 looking glass, 1 tin canister, shovel and tongs, under beds and crockery ware, all of a total value £32 4s or less than $150. And this was not poverty either, for we find in the barns and fields, 3 yoke of oxen, 6 yoke of steers, 8 cows, 5 heifers and 5 calves, 4 horses, 4 colts, 12 swine and crops gathered, including 60 tons hay, 94 bushels wheat, 148 bushels oats, 90 bushels corn, 50 bushels potatoes, 28 bushels rye, 15 bushels peas, with flax and flax seed, clover seed, herds grass seed, etc., valued at £358 7s 6d or upwards of $1,700, by the appraisers Charles John- ston, Andrew Savage Crocker and Joseph Hutchins. There was a contrast between the value of the contents of the barns and gran- aries and the contents of the dwelling-house. It must have been the simple life, and yet the estate of Captain Hazen was one of the largest in town, the population of which according to a census taken the previous year numbered 387. The house erected by him prior to 1770 still stands on the farm, at the foot of the hill road leading from the main road to the meadow, probably the oldest in town, and is his only material monument. There is no Hazen family to erect to his memory a monument of stone and bronze, nor can his grave, the location of which is unknown, though probably in the Oxbow cemetery in Newbury, be marked with fitting memorial tablet, but his memory should not perish from the town. He is not, however, without descendants. He married Nov. 30, 1752, Anne Swett of Haverhill, who died in Haverhill Sept. 29, 1765. Of their two children, John went, after the death of his father, with his Uncle William to New Brunswick. Sarah, the eldest, born in Hampstead March 12, 1753, married, June, 1771, Maj. Nathaniel Merrill. Of their twelve daughters, ten married: Sarah, Colonel Aaron Hibbard of Bath; Elizabeth, Captain Moses Swasey of Newbury; Mary, Nathaniel Runnells of Piermont; Nancy, Obadiah Swasey of Haverhill; Charlotte, Isaac Pearsons 10 of Haverhill; Lucinda, Abner Bayley of Newbury; Ruth, James Morse of Corinth, Vt.; Hannah, Gov. John Page of Haverhill; Mehetabel, Thomas Morse of Newbury; Louisa, Samuel Page of Haverhill. I need not say that John Hazen has numerous de- scendants, more numerous probably than those of his friend and associate in the settlement of Coos, Jacob Bayley. Some of them are here today, some descended from both these pioneers. Some of these families have written themselves large into the life of the town. Haverhill owes it to herself to provide some fitting memorial to John Hazen, preeminently her founder. I have not time to speak at length of Captain Hazen's asso- ciates, whom I have already mentioned, and their immediate successors, who through faith, dauntless courage, untiring energy, endured hardships, subdued the wilderness, wrought righteousness, escaped the sword of foreign and savage foes, "out of weakness were made strong, waxed vaUant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." They made Haverhill beautiful for situation, first, in point of civic, educational, official and political influence, among the towns of the Coos section. Immediately after the grant of the charter in 1763 the pro- prietors took steps to hasten the settlement of the town. Two votes passed at a meeting held in Plaistow Sept. 26, 1763, are significant : " Voted that the Proprietors of Haverhill join with the Pro- prietors of Newbury in paying for preaching one or two months this fall." "Voted that the Proprietors of Haverhill join with the Pro- prietors of Newbury to look out and clear a road through Haver- hill and that Col. Jacob Bayley, Capt. John Hazen and Lieut. Jacob Kent be a committee to look out and clear said road." At a meeting held in Hampstead, Sept. 10, 1764, the last to be held away from the settlement, the proprietors again voted that they "assist the town and proprietors of Newbury in hiring preaching for six months next coming, and that Captain Timothy Bedel be a committee to join committee in Newbury for this purpose, the preaching to be in Newbury in Cowass. " Under this first vote Mr. Silas Moody, a recent graduate of Harvard College, came to Coos and preached for three Sabbaths in Newbury and two in Haverhill. In 1764 Rev. Peter Powers of Hollis spent the summer in the two towns, preaching in houses 11 and barns to the acceptance of the settlers, and in September of that year a church of fifteen members hving on both sides the river was organized. The first town meeting held in Haverhill was on January 25, 1765. This was a special meeting, and the substance of the only four votes passed was, to "join with Newbury to give Mr. Peter Powers a call as their gospel minister," to pay as Haverhill's part of his salary £35 6d and one third part of the expense of installation, to deliver at his door each year thirty cords of wood, cut and corded, and to name Timothy Bedel, John Taplin and Elisha Lock a committee to wait upon Mr. Powers to carry into effect the action taken, and ask the coop- eration of the proprietors in the affair. This salary of the Rev. Peter Powers was the first money raised by the town of Haverhill by taxation. It antedated appropriations for roads, schools, or even the salaries of the town officers. Why? These first settlers of Haverhill were of Puritan stock, were God-fearing men, but they were not religious devotees. Indeed, few were professing Christians. John Hazen was not, Joshua Howard was not, Uriah Morse was not, Jon- athan Goodwin was not; but their first corporate act as a town was to establish a town church, which remained such for a period of more than forty years. There were other reasons for this action than those purely religious. These proprietors and first settlers wished to give their town character and standing, to offer inducements to a desirable class of families to make their homes in a wilderness. The minister of the New England town in the 18th century was its first citizen. He was the recognized authority on ques- tions of religion and morals, the arbiter in matters educational and social, if not indeed political. There were no newspapers, few books in the new settlements; schools had not been estab- lished. Stated worship on the Sabbath furnished the only opportunity for the scattered families to meet, exchange greet- ings, hear the latest news from the old home towns, discuss quietly among themselves matters of local importance, as well as obtain religious instruction. To this early Newbury and Haverhill church families walked five miles and more. Every- body "went to meeting." They sat on rude benches and listened reverently, or indifferently, to long prayers and still longer 12 sermons; but this was their one weekly outing, their only vaca- tion from strenuous toil and labor. The Sabbath meeting was newspaper, library, club, as well as the house of God. The fathers took their first corporate step and raised their first money wisely. They might not have been devotedly pious, most of them were not, but they recognized in the church and its minis- ter not only an institution which would attract settlers, give character to the community, but a saving salt which would prevent the degeneration of their settlement into the primitive conditions of savagery. This established church, however, did not meet with unani- mous approval. There were Episcopalians as well as Congrega- tionalists among the early settlers. The two most influential of the former class were Colonels Johnjiurd and Asa Porter. In October, 1764, the proprietors had "voted that 200 acres of land be laid out for a parsonage for the parish, next to the river." This was doubtless intended to be the charter glebe right. Whether this was for the use of the first settled minister or for a minister of the Church of England was a question, and Colonels Hurd and Porter took the latter view, and were charged with endeavoring to secure this glebe right for an Episcopal clergy- man. Rev. Ranno Cossit. That the community was tremen- dously stirred appears from a so-called "Haverhill and New- bury" covenant, dated January 28, 1775, and numerously signed. The signers declared that the two colonels were "public enemies to the good of the community" and pledged themselves to hold no communication with either of them, "not so much as to trade, lend, borrow, or labor with them." To make this boycott complete, they further pledged themselves "not to hold any cor- respondence, nor have any dealings with those that hold with Cols. Hurd and Porter until they shall willingly make public satisfaction for what they have done in the premises." There is no record that "public satisfaction" was made, but a little later Colonel Porter's influence was lost through charges of dis- loyalty made against him, and Colonel Hurd's surroundings were made so uncomfortable for him that he returned to his old home in Boston two or three years later. No controversies are more bitter than those pertaining to church and religion. The salary of the minister was paid by taxation until and during the year 1814, though the opposition to this steadily 13 wishing to be left off the road, the town accepted as the lay- out this unique description, "as it is now trode." Down to the year 1800, however, little was accomplished in the matter of building what today would rightly be called roads. The need was recognized, highway surveyors were elected at each annual town meeting, labor on the highways was to be reckoned at 3s or half a dollar a day for a man, and at 2s a day for an ox- team. Such taxes for roads as were voted were to be paid in labor, but the work was done indifferently. At one of the early meetings a committee was chosen "to settle with the old surveyors, and see who has worked and who has not," and at the same time it was "voted that the surveyors shall not call on them that has done the most work till the others has done their part." The roads were poor and would have been impassable for the vehicles of modern times. Improvement has been so gradual as at some periods to be imperceptible. An event in road construction was the completion of the Coos turnpike in 1808. This extended from Haverhill Corner to Warren, connect- ing with the turnpike to Plymouth, and because the corporation building it made it a good road, it became the great thorough- fare for teams and travel for many years. More than anything else it contributed to the development and prosperity of Haverhill Corner, making it until the coming of the railroad the great stage center that it was. The changes made by the turnpike, the subsequent changes made by the railroad, with changes imminent in the near future resulting from state road construc- tion suggest how thoroughly essential are the best possible transportation facilities to the growth and prosperity of a com- munity. From its beginning Haverhill roads have been as good as those of neighboring towns, but this is not saying much. Only in recent years is it being recognized that prosperity fol- lows good roads, instead of good roads following prosperity. In the early days the roads were few and poor, meeting conditions of absolute necessity. The settlers made provision for schools at an early date, just how early is unknown. The earliest vote of the town on record is that of March 9, 1773, when it was "voted to hire a master to keep a town school this present year, and to raise £5 lawful money in specie for the use of schools." This seems a small sum, but it was as much as the entire amount raised to defray 14 all other town charges, and money was money. More was expended, since there is on record a receipt signed by Timothy Curtis for "£8 19s and 6d for teaching school five months and twenty days." Timothy Curtis is Haverhill's first schoolmaster of record. Where the school was kept is not known. The next year £35 was raised, and the year following £34, Timothy Curtis, school master. In 1786 the town was divided into four districts, the first extending from Piermont line to the Oliverian, the second from the Oliverian to the south line of the Fisher farm, North Haverhill, the third to Colonel Howard's bridge, near the county farm buildings, and the fourth to Bath line. These districts were all on the river. Divisions and subdivisions in later years increased the number of districts to twenty. Four schoolhouses were ordered built, and the sum of £100 was raised for the purpose. The sum of £60 was raised for the support of schools to be paid in wheat at 6s a bushel and Indian corn at 3s. Each district was to have the use of its own money, scholars were required "to attend school in their own district." In 1788 and 1789 additional sums were raised to finish these schoolhouses, which were crude affairs, and which were super- seded in 1805 by better buildings. From the beginning the support of schools by the town has been liberal. In recent years there has been marked progress. Today with the one town district, with two high schools, with the Woodsville district with its excellent high school, with instruction after approved mod- ern methods, with wise and efficient supervision, no town in New Hampshire furnishes better school facilities and privileges. The settlers were fully alive to the advantages arising from institutions for advanced education. When Governor Went- worth granted a charter for Dartmouth College in 1769, no site had been fixed for its location. Haverhill was one of several towns which sought to secure the college, and of the various locations suggested Haverhill was preferred by Governor Wentworth, The proprietors at a meeting held April 10, 1770, "voted to give Rev. Elitzar Wheelock D. D. 50 acres of land in Haverhill on Capt. John Hazen's Mill Brook, where there is a convenient waterfall for a mill, and to be laid in a convenient form for a mill, provided Dartmouth College should be located in Haverhill." A site for the college was selected just above this village (North 15 increased. The Haverhill Church had been organized inde- pendent of Newbury in 1790. In 1813 the sum of $200 was raised for preaching, "to be expended at the discretion of the selectmen," In 1814 the town voted to concur with the church in settling the Rev. Joel Mann as minister at a salary of $450, preaching to be one third of the time at the North meeting house and two thirds at the South meeting house. Mr. Mann declined the call and it does not appear that any money was appropriated. In 1815 it was voted to divide the town into two parishes "for ministerial privileges" — whatever they may have been — the south line of the Fisher farm to be the division line. With this vote, the town as a municipality seems to have abandoned affairs ecclesiastical. Methodists, Baptists, and other denominations had gained a foothold, the "toleration act" had been passed in 1807, and establishment was at an end. The old first church continues its work, in which is joined today by four Methodist Episcopal, one Congregational, one Protestant Episcopal, one Universalist, one Advent, and one Roman Cath- olic, while a regular Baptist, a Free Baptist and an Advent have since 1815 been organized and passed out of existence, as has also the North Parish Congregational Church. The example of the fathers has been followed and Haverhill has never suffered from lack of religious privileges. At the 1763 meeting of the proprietors, as already noted, it was voted to join the Newbury proprietors in looking out and clearing a road through Haverhill. Thus early the matter of roads, if not that of good roads, engaged attention. Ingress and egress were absolutely essential to the growth and prosperity of the settlement. This first road, so called, was out through the centre of the town over Morse hill, through No. 6 to the Coventry meadows, over Warren summit, down Bakers river to Plymouth. It was not much of a road, just a bridlepath. In- deed, it was ten years before an ox-team went through from Haverhill to Plymouth, an event which created great interest. Other roads were ordered cleared, the river road from Bath to Piermont line being the next, and in June, 1773, it was voted by the proprietors to give this road to the town "as it is now trode," Col. Asa Porter entering his dissent to the vote. This was laid out four rods wide, but it was hardly more than a bridlepath leading by the homes of the settlers, and these not 16 Haverhill). A subscription paper in aid of the college was started. There was little money, but there was land. John Hazen and Jacob Bayley of Newbury subscribed 1,000 acres each. Timothy Bedel subscribed 500 acres. Doctor Wither- spoon of Ryegate subscribed another thousand acres. Not less than 6,000 acres of the best land in Haverhill, Newbury, Ryegate and Bath were pledged. Colonel Asa Porter, graduate of Harvard, offered a valuable part of his estate, known in later years as the Southard farm. Colonel Bayley in behalf of the leading men of the towns interested went to Portsmouth and secured the endorsement of Governor Wentworth, to Newbury- port and enlisted the aid of the Littles, landed proprietors in the Coos country, and to Connecticut, where he laid the plans before Doctor Wheelock. He gave bonds to convey to the college a part of the Great Oxbow in Newbury, and to sell to the college all of the Little Oxbow in Haverhill at the cost of improvements, these consisting of a framed house (still stand- ing) and a large barn. He also agreed to put up the frame for a college building 200 feet long free of expense to the college. The Haverhill and Newbury people believed they had secured the college until in August, 1770, they learned that Doctor Wheelock had chosen Hanover. It need not be said that great was their disappointment. It need not be said either that Haverhill was the more desirable location. Nor need we pause to conjecture how different the course of Haverhill life and history might have been. It might have been, but it was not to be. Why Hanover was preferred has never yet been fully explained, but Eleazer Wheelock was not only as the boys still commemorate him in song "a very pious man," but a man who proposed to maintain his college under his own personal control, and there were able, scholarly men in Haverhill whose influence he may have feared would not be voluntarily made secondary to his. But the early settlers of Haverhill did not, because of this failure, abandon efforts to secure facilities for a more liberal education than the common schools afforded. As the settle- ment at the Corner grew, they began to plan for an academy. In 1792 a building was erected for an academy and other purposes (I will allude to the "other purposes" later), and in 1794 an academy charter was granted, the trustees named being Charles 17 Johnston, the Rev. Ethan Smith, John Page and Samuel Bliss. The petition for the charter stated that "a young gentleman of liberal education (Moses P. Payson, afterwards of Bath), emi- nently qualified for a preceptor, had been employed and that about thirty pupils had already engaged in pursuit of an educa- tion in the arts and sciences." They set forth the object of the institution to be "to promote religion, purity, virtue and morality, and for instruction in English, Latin and Greek languages; in writ- ing, music and the art of speaking; in geometry, logic, geography, mathematics and such other branches of science as opportunity may present." The first building, of wood, was burned in 1814, and the second, erected of brick a little later, still stands as Pearson Hall, meeting a need and performing a mission of its own. Among its early principals succeeding Mr. Payson were Stephen P. Webster, Isaac Patterson, Joseph Bell, names familiar to the older residents of the Haverhill of today. The Academy was one of the earliest in the state. Phillips at Exeter began its work in 1783. Appleton at New Ipswich was incorporated in 1789, Atkinson in 1790, and Gilmanton in the same year with Haverhill. Its influence in promoting culture and refine- ment, for which Haverhill was early notable, is hardly to be overestimated, while its wider influence in the life work of its thousands of pupils in town, state and nation is incalculable. Its centennial was appropriately observed in 1896, and it still continues its beneficent work under its old name, though now a part of the town public school system. Captain Hazen and his associates failed to secure the college, but they were alive to every opportunity to advance the interests of their town. Grafton County was set up in 1771. It embraced all its present territory, with the addition of Coos, a part of the present county of Carroll and some towns since annexed to Merrimack. There were to be two county seats, and the pro- prietors and settlers determined to secure for Haverhill the advantage of being the full shire town in which not only courts should be held, but the county offices located. Colonel John Hurd had large influence with the Provincial government at Portsmouth. The proprietors. May 12, 1772, chose Colonel Hurd agent to petition the Portsmouth government for holding one half the inferior courts, and one superior court in Haverhill, and for his "incouragement," they voted him 1,000 acres of the undi- 18 vided land in town, with the privilege of pitching it in square form in case he should succeed in having his petition granted. Colonel Hurd was in Portsmouth on business at the time, and Colonel Asa Porter was instructed to send a copy of the vote to Colonel Hurd by "the easiest method." There were no mails, and "the easiest method" was undoubtedly a journey to Ports- mouth by Colonel Porter himself. Colonel Hurd secured the courts, but did not secure his land. They paid his account for cash paid out, amounting to £3 12s but refused to allow his claim for the land voted him. In the warrant for the proprie- tors meeting held Feb. 25, 1774, was an article "to see if the proprietors will bear their proportion with Asa Porter Esq., Captain John Hazen, Deacon James Abbott, Andrew Savage Crocker, Esq. of the thousand acres of land which they voted John Hurd Esq. or any part of it." "Put to vote and passed in the negative. Tried by a vote if they will bear any part of it, and passed in negative." It is gratifying to note that the four men mentioned were not willing to be a party to this act of proprietary dishonor. The courts were brought to Haverhill in 1773. John Hurd was appointed Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Common pleas, and Asa Porter was one of the four Associate Justices. The proprietors made generous provision for a court house site, and the court house and jail were erected a little north of North Haverhill Village, west of the river road of today. The building was of wood, about 80 x 50 feet and two stories high, a somewhat pretentious edifice for the time, and Asa Porter, who was the agent to build it, was charged by a committee appointed by the court to investigate his accounts with being grossly extrav- agant. Charles Johnston and Jonathan Haley were added to the committee to complete the building and they recommended that it be done in "the plainest and most frugal manner." It was doubtless so done, as subsequent events indicated. During the War of the Revolution the sessions of the courts were suspended in Grafton County and the building fell into neglect. The courts, reorganized after the war, were held in it for several years, though there was a movement to remove the courts to the Corner, which with the ample water power at the Brook, and the enterprise of its leading citizens, was rapidly becoming the most important part of the town. In 1784 a 19 committee consisting of Charles Johnston, Moses Dow, Timothy Bedel and James Woodward was chosen by the Corner and Ladd-street people to advance the project of removal. It was an able committee. In 1792 Colonel Johnston and other citizens at the Corner erected a building for the proposed academy and "other pur- poses." The "other purposes" were in the second story. In June, 1793, Colonel Johnston, in behalf of its owners, offered this "commodious building" to the courts free of charge, reserving to themselves the right to hold a public school in the building when the courts were not in session. The court house on the North Haverhill plain was getting out of repair, and the hos- pitable and philanthropic offer of the Corner, where there were better taverns, was accepted, and the courts went to the Corner to stay. They were held in the second story of the academy building and its successor until the county erected a court house at the Corner in 1843. There was grief on the part of the resi- dents at North Haverhill and Horse Meadow at the loss of the courts, as a century later or so there was grief at the Corner over a similar loss. The courts and county offices returned to the north end of the town, — the extreme north end. But this is recent history. The courts, the academy, the taverns, centers for the various stage routes, the manufactures and industries at the Brook gave to the village at the Corner in its palmy days a tone and standing, a place in social and political life unsurpassed by any town in the state. Why called "the Corner"? Because it was the corner, and because it was a peculiar corner. Glance at the map of Haverhill on the souvenir medal I trust you have purchased today, — Haverhill is bounded on the south by Piermont, and Piermont is also a part of its northern and eastern boundary. Nine pairs of townships between Charlestown and the mouth of the Ammonoosuc were marked off in the early spring of 1760 by Thomas Blanchard by order of Governor Wentworth. By this survey the southwest corner of Haverhill and southeast of Newbury would have been very near the present Bedel's bridge. These towns above Charlestown were each six miles long on the river except the upper pair, it being a little over seven miles from Bedel's bridge to the mouth of the Ammonoosuc. 20 When, in 1763, after nearly two years, work in clearing lands, building a mill, making preliminary surveys on the lands promised them by the governor for townships, Captain Hazen and Colonel Bayley went to Governor Wentworth for their charters, giving him the names of those whom they washed for associate grantees, they found the governor had arranged to add to their list the names of some twenty of his own friends. Hazen and Bayley naturally protested that, as they had been at large expense in making surveys and improvements, it would be unjust to them to admit twenty other proprietors, thus reducing the value of each of the shares by dividing the land between eighty instead of sixty proprietors. The governor insisted on his additional names, but suggested to Captain Hazen and Colonel Bayley that they take enough from the ungranted land south — Pier- mont and Bradford were not chartered until 1764 — to make up for the twenty additional shares. When they came to make their survey of the first two tiers of lots in 1763, they acted upon this suggestion and went a mile and 68 rods south of Bedel's bridge and set up their corners. Piermont and Bradford proprietors later found that their towns were short of the six miles on the river named in their charters, and trouble began. The story of the Piermont controversy is a long and interesting one. Newbury kept its extra mile and more, and Bradford remains a short town. The costly litigation be- tween the Haverhill and Piermont proprietors lasted till 1784, when it was finally settled by the following agreement: "All the meadow lots, all the house lots, and all the first division of 100 acre house lots (these were seven in number) as laid out and bounded by said proprietors of Haverhill, shall be and remain unto the said township and proprietors of Haverhill." This accounts for the jog in the southwest corner of the map of the town. Had the Haverhill proprietors lost their entire case, Haverhill Corner would have been a village in the northwest corner of Piermont, and the history of Haverhill would have been different from what it is. Fortunately for the town, its early settlers were able, sagacious, influential, persistent men and the Corner was saved to Haverhill. I have not time to speak of the courts as an educating and social influence. In the early days members of the bar rode the circuit, and at the trial of famous causes the court house 21 was thronged to listen to the arguments of Jeremiah Smith, Ezekiel Webster, George Sullivan, Levi Woodbury, Joel Parker and many others scarcely less eminent in their profession, while Haverhill as the county seat was the home of such lawyers as Moses Dow, Alden Sprague, George Woodward, John Nelson, David Sloan, Samuel Cartland and Joseph Bell. Among the early physicians of the town in practice down to the middle of the last century were Martin Phelps, Amasa Scott, Edmund Carleton, Ezra Bartlett, Ezra Bartlett, Jr., John Angier, Hiram Morgan and Phineas Spaulding, — honored names all. In the official and political life of the state and nation Haver- hill has had its full share of honors, hardly any other town in the state more. She has given the country no president, but one of her great-grandsons, Chester A. Arthur, filled with honor to himself and country that exalted office. An alumnus^ of the academy was for years a justice of the United States Supreme Court. A native son^ of Haverhill was United States senator, and for three years governor of the state. In the lower branch of Congress Haverhill has been honorably represented, has furnished the state with members of the executive council, and the two branches of the state legislature with presiding officers, as well as with members strong in influence and ability. Of Haverhill's patriotic devotion to the cause of country, yon- der monument this day speaks. Her greatest soldier, Timothy Bedel — and I do not forget that the name of Charles Johnston must be coupled with that of John Stark whenever the story of Bennington is told — was the ancestor of soldiers as well. His gallant service in the French and Indian Wars, was supple- mented by arduous service and heroic sacrifice in the War of the Revolution. Moody Bedel, a boy of twelve, was with his father. Col. Timothy Bedel, at the battle of Saratoga, and later served as private in Capt. Ezekiel Ladd's company in his father's regiment. Later still, as lieutenant-colonel of the 11th U. S. infantry, he was the hero of the memorable sortie on Fort Erie in the War of 1812. The son of Colonel Moody and grandson of Colonel Timothy, John Bedel was a lieutenant in the brigade of General Franklin Pierce in the Mexican War, and when the War for the Union broke out he went to the front as major of « Nathan Clifford. "• John Page. 22 the 3d New Hampshire Volunteers, rendered brilliant service, and was mustered out brevet Major-General. This is a family record in which Haverhill may justly take no small pride. Did time permit I might speak of the influence of Haverhill in other towns, in other states and other countries through her sons and daughters who have gone out carrying the Haverhill spirit and training with them everywhere. But it has been my object not so much to present a sketch of the history of the town for 150 years — that were impossible in a brief hour — as to call attention to the circumstances surrounding its settlement, the character of its settlers, the plans they made, the hardships they endured, the successes they won. These settlers were of two classes. There were men of liberal education, broad culture, untiring energy, and of property. They came to the wilderness to make permanent homes for themselves and their posterity. They appreciated the value of the church, the school, and of free civic institutions. Haverhill had a larger proportion of this class than had many surrounding towns, and they early gave the town prominence and leadership. There were others who came on foot bearing all their property on their shoulders. They were not so much helpers, as those needing help, and had not the more well-to-do furnished them shelter, food and work, they would have succumbed to the hardships of the time. And there were hardships. We can Uttle appreciate them or imagine the loneliness and privations of the wilderness. It was more than seventy miles to Charlestown. Haverhill in 1765 had been settled three years. Claremont contained two famihes; Cornish one; Plainfield one; Lebanon three; Hanover one; Lyme three; Orford two; Piermont one. The roads were simply blazed forest trails. The houses were rude cabins, fish and game with the products of the field the food. There were no luxuries, few comforts. Furniture was of the rudest, mostly home made. Dishes were of wood and pewter. The toil was incessant. We cross today the bridge of one hundred and fifty years. We note the building of frame dwellings, the better furniture and household utensils, the entrance of china and silver, the carpeted floors, the ornamentation of walls, the stove and range superseding the fireplace, the establishment of schools and 23 academy, the erection of houses of worship, the building of roads, the chaise, the wagon, following the saddle and pillion, the turnpike, the famous stage coach and tavern days, the early bank, the newspaper, the improved farm methods and farm utensils and machinery, the erection of the roomy mansions, an aristocracy of wealth and culture, the postal service, the railroad, the telegraph, the electric wonders of modern times, the long procession of strong men and beautiful women, the sterling integrity and intelligence of the citizenship, the patri- otic devotion to country. There are family names worthily cherished and honored. There is a priceless wealth of com- mendable achievement. Others have labored, and we have entered into their labors. Our heritage is a goodly one. May we transmit it not only unimpaired, but enriched to our children. The exercises closed with the rendering of "Home Sweet Home" by the Woodsville Ladies' Quartette — Mrs. William L. Hartwell, Miss Luvia E. Mann, Mrs. Lillian Ray Miller, Mrs. Melvin J. Mann — and the Lord's Prayer was recited by the audience, led by Mr. Barstow. 013 996 947 9