CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
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 FROM 
 
Cornell University Library 
 F 44L9 C59 
 Historical address given at the one 
 
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 3 1924 028 836 182 
 
Cornell University 
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 the Cornell University Library. 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 9240288361 82 
 
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 i:7S©-iss©. 
 
HISTORICAL ADDRESS 
 
 GIVEN AT THE 
 
 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ftNNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE 
 
 TOWN OF LYNDEBOROUGH, N. H., 
 
 SEPTEMBER 4, 1889. 
 
 REV. FRANK G. CLARK, 
 
 PLYMOUTH, N. H. 
 
 €ancaxti, 'B< 3-' 
 
 Republican Press Association, Railroad Square. 
 1891. 
 
 . -f. 'J ., I 11 I 
 
 HNIVMvr:|i Y 
 I I.. I;AI;Y 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following address was prepared at the request of the Com- 
 mittee of Arrangements for the celeoration of the one hundred and 
 fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Lyndeborough, with the 
 understanding that all hist^orical material of value obtained should 
 be at the disposal of the committee of the proposed town history. 
 As this history has been unexpectedly delayed, the friends of the 
 writer have asked to have the address printed. This is done with 
 the hope that it will aid the historian in his further search for facts 
 and incidents in the early history of the town. The address is 
 necessarily incomplete, and doubtless has many statements that 
 further examination wiQ correct or deny. Such preliminary work 
 is always attended with serious difficulties. It was not designed to 
 cover an outline of the town to the present time, but to give some 
 glimpses of the early history that would open the way for a more 
 thorough investigation. By request of the Committee of Ai-range- 
 ments, the war record was assigned to other and more competent 
 hands. 
 
 If, by this publication, the committee of the town history are 
 encouraged and helped in securing a more accurate and extended 
 basis for further research, and especially in obtaining the register 
 of the earliest families in town, the author wiU feel amply rewarded 
 for the time and effort expended in the preparation of the address. 
 
 F. G. C. 
 Plymouth, N. H., August 1, 1891. 
 
HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 
 
 To gather up the threads of a town's history extending 
 over one hundred and fifty years, and to weave them into 
 an address at once concise, accurate, and interesting, is a 
 task which only those can appreciate who have had a like 
 experience. In his dilemma, your historian turned to books 
 for aid, and in the first history of New Hampshire he opened 
 he found that Lyndeborough derived its name from the 
 abundant Linden trees in town. Feeling that a book with 
 such a statement was hardly a safe guide in historical re- 
 search, he opened another history of New Hampshire, and 
 read that Lyndeborough was a small village " but pleasantly 
 located on the banks of the Piscataquog river." He 
 thought he could rely upon the record of deeds to show 
 him when the earliest families in town settled, and he 
 searched diligently those at Boston, Cambridge, Salem, 
 Exeter, and Nashua, but all in vain. He supposed that he 
 could depend upon the town records to help him locate the 
 first roads, and found this description of the first laid out 
 after the incorporation of the town in 1764, which is very 
 definite in statenient, — if one was familiar with the location : 
 
 A road laid out two rods wide, beginning at the end of Amherst 
 road which is laid out along by James Boutwell's house, at Amherst 
 west line and from thence as the road is now trod, or near it, to the 
 north east corner of Wm. Carson Jun., land and then where the road 
 "was allowed at the north side of his land and Adam Johnson's land 
 
6 
 
 to the south east of John Hutchinson land and so on to the foot-path 
 that goeth from Adam Johnson's house to John Hutchinson's, and 
 hy that or near it to said Hutchinson's house and by the south side 
 of his house and down the hill westerly to the road as it is now trod 
 and by that, or near it, to where the way turns out to go across by 
 Wainwright's brook little meadow so called and near that as the 
 way is marked out to the east line of Mr. Rand's lot and across 
 the south side of Mr. Eand's lot and through the south east comer 
 of Mr. Rand's pasture to the way that goes from the meeting house 
 to Benjamin Cram's house and so by that or near it to Benjamiu 
 Cram's house and then as the way is now trod by Melchizedek 
 Boffee's house and to the north line of said BofPee's lot. 
 
 These hints concerning the difficulty in securing accurate 
 information about the early history are given that you may 
 have some charity for the historian, if he does not tell you 
 all you want to know about the town. 
 
 We meet to-day to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth 
 anniversary of the settlement of Lyndeborough, though the 
 town was incorporated only one hundred and twenty-five 
 years ago. But as the age of a child is reckoned from its 
 birth and not from the time it is named or baptized, so the 
 years in which this town was known as Salem Canada are 
 as much the history of Lyndeborough as the year 1889. 
 
 It is true that her beauty has been marred. Time has 
 dealt severely with her form. Ambitious schemers have 
 robbed her of much of her fair domain, l)ut she has retained 
 her vitality and identity as truly as the war veteran who 
 leaves an arm or a leg on the battle-field. 
 
 Lyndeborough was born in 1735, when the charter was 
 granted; and though she suffered in childhood until the 
 question of her parentage was settled, jet she sur%-ived the 
 ordeal, proved the legality of her birth, and has made a 
 record of which her parents may well be proud. 
 
 Although the history of Lyndeborough began June 19, 
 1735, when the grant was made, yet we need a glance at 
 
the earlier events of New England in order to understand 
 why the town was granted, and why its settlement was so 
 slow and difficult. 
 
 When England and France were at war near the close of 
 the seventeenth century, the French, having possession of 
 Canada, brought terror to the colonies of New England 
 by using the Indians as their allies. The Massachusetts 
 colony, thinking to protect itself and at the same time 
 secure large booty, combined with Connecticut and New 
 York, and organized an expedition in 1690 with the expec- 
 tation of capturing Montreal and Quebec and so gaining 
 possession of Canada. A large force marched from northern 
 New York, and a well furnished fleet sailed from Boston, 
 but, the two arms of service failing to cooperate, the expe- 
 dition was an utter failure, and the expense of the fleet, 
 fifty thousand pounds, crippled the Massachusetts colony 
 for many years. They had no money with which to pay 
 the soldiers, and so they resorted to the perilovis method of 
 issuing bills of credit, or paper money, which very soon 
 depreciated in value, and brought untold misery upon the 
 people. It opened the way for a currency of varying value, 
 making it very difiicult to secure a reliable standard of ex- 
 change. The first issue of bills was called old tenor; the 
 second, middle tenor; and the third, new tenor; and all soon 
 became depreciated in value, the old tenor more than the 
 others. Finally the mother country took pity on her colony, 
 and sent over seventeen cart-loads of silver and ten truck- 
 loads of copper, in 1749, to establish specie payments ; and 
 one Spanish dollar was given for forty -five shillings of paper. 
 This was called lawful money, while the specie was called 
 sterling — making five kinds of money. All through the 
 earlier history of the town these different currencies are 
 mentioned. Sometimes the bills of credit were called proc- 
 lamation money, but usually old tenor or lawful money. 
 
 Forty years after the war of 1690, when the colony had 
 recovered somewhat from its crippled condition, the soldiers 
 
8 
 
 or their heirs began to ask for something more substantial 
 than the paper that had been given them, and the colony, 
 richer in lands than in anything else, granted a township 
 to such companies as asked for them. Most of these places 
 took the name of Canada together with that of the town 
 from which the men went to war. The grant to the Row- 
 ley men was called Rowley Canada, afterwards Rindge. 
 So there was Ipswich Canada, Salem Canada, and many 
 others. 
 
 June 19, 1735, the general court of Massachusetts made 
 to Captain Samuel King and fifty-nine others the grant of 
 a township of the contents of six miles square, containing 
 23,090 acres of land and 1,018 acres allowed for water. The 
 town was laid out west of Narragansett Number 3, or 
 Amherst, in May, 1736. In the house of representatives, 
 June 1, 1736, the plat was accepted, and the land confirmed 
 to the grantees, their heirs and assigns forever, " provided 
 the plat is no more than 24,058 acres, and does not inter- 
 fere with any other grant, the land lying west of Narragan- 
 sett Number 3, and on the north of Souhegan river." A 
 notice was given, dated " Boston, July 8, 1736," 
 
 To all persons claiming an interest in the grant of a township 
 made by the Great and General Court to Samuel King and others 
 who were, or are descendants from such as were, in the expedition 
 to Canada anno 1690. That the said township is laid out and the 
 committee purpose to meet at the house of Mrs. Pratt at Salem on 
 Wednesday the first day of September next at ten o'clock before 
 noon to admit persons according to the grant and take bond for 
 their fulfilling the conditions. 
 
 But few of the persons entitled to land cared to occupy 
 it, and, as soon as the grant was made, land speculators 
 began to buy up the rights, so that at the first meeting noti- 
 fied above, forty-seven men represented the original sixty 
 rights. 
 
 December 17, 1786, the general court ordered Daniel 
 
9 
 
 Epes to call the first meeting of the proprietors, and in 
 January he issued the following notice : 
 
 These are to notify the Proprietors or grantees admitted into 
 the grant made the inhabitants of Salem, Marblehead &c. in June 
 1735 in answer to the petition of Samuel King and others who were 
 in the Canada expedition, that they assemble together at the house 
 of Mrs. Margaret Pratt, Innholder, in Salem on Thursday the third 
 of Feb. next at eleven o'clock a. m. To choose a moderator, Pro- 
 prietor's clerk &c and to pass such votes and orders as may be agree- 
 able to the bringing forward the settlement of the township and to 
 agree upon methods how to call future Proprietors' meetings and 
 also to admit the grantees to a draft of their home lots and that 
 every grantee pay in his proportion of money for laying out said lots 
 before he draw the same. 
 
 [Signed] Daniel Epes 
 
 Salem Jan 20 1737 
 
 At the meeting held in accordance with this notice Feb- 
 ruary 3, 1737, Daniel Epes was chosen moderator, Benjamin 
 Lynde, Jr., treasurer, and Daniel Epes, Jr., clerk. Each 
 proprietor, after paying into the treasury four pounds, drew 
 a home lot of sixty acres, and then drew two lots of one 
 hundred aud thirty acres each, on paying four pounds more 
 to defray the necessary expenses of surveying and marking 
 the lots.^ There were one hundred and twenty -seven second 
 division lots, two to each of the proprietors, two for the 
 first minister, two for the support of the ministry, two for 
 schools, and one for a mill lot. Only a few of the propri- 
 etors, or stockholders, settled in Salem Canada, but they 
 were interested in the prosperity of the town, and voted 
 money freely for a meeting-house, support of preaching, and 
 building of roads. Some of them were men of large prop- 
 erty, who owned rights in other towns also. These men 
 owned all the land in town, divided and undivided, except 
 
 1 This seems a large sum to pay out for expenses, but it was the old tenor money or 
 paper, which was not worth a third of its face value. 
 
10 
 
 that just mentioned for the support of the ministry and 
 schools. They sometimes sold the home lot or a second 
 division lot, and retained their right to their proportion of 
 the other land, and sometimes sold out their whole right or 
 claim in town. Some of them hired men to go on and im- 
 prove their lots, and put up buildings and occupy them. 
 They voted, — 
 
 That as many of the proprietors as have or shall settle their rights 
 by the first day of December 1741 in the following manner viz. to 
 build a house of six feet stud and eighteen feet square and finish 
 the same convenient for a family to dwell in and have one or more 
 persons settled in the same in order to continue therein and to clear 
 six acres of said land fit for mowing or plowing, that each proprie- 
 tor or proprietors shall be entitled to receive the sum of ten pounds 
 for each right (so settled) to be paid by the proprietors. 
 
 The meetings of the proprietors were held in Salem for 
 nearly fifty years, and at the house of Margaret Pratt, inn- 
 holder, twenty-eight years. Notices were posted in Salem, 
 Marblehead, and Woburn, and sometimes in Chelmsford. 
 Occasionally they were published in the public prints, the 
 Evening Post and Green and Russell's papers being men- 
 tioned. A few of the meetings were held at Dunstable, 
 now Nashua, and the last years of record they were held in 
 Lyndeborough. The proprietors gradually sold off the 
 undivided land and their rights until there was but little 
 common land left, and but few to make a claim to it. They 
 had several meetings to close up their accounts, one after 
 another taking land from the commons for his share, and 
 other land being sold to pay cost of survey, etc. The 
 record of the last meeting which was held in Lj^ndeborough 
 is as follows : 
 
 The proprietors met according to adjournment, being the last 
 Tuesday in August, 1803. Present, Amos Whittemore, moderator, 
 Sewall Goodridge, clerk, Major Gould, and Jacob Wellman. 
 
11 
 
 Whereas, it is made plain to the proprietors that the land in com- 
 mon remaining is not sufficient to pay the debts of the propriety, 
 therefore voted that each creditor take the remaining land in pro- 
 portion to the several as they see fit by paying other claimants, &c., 
 leaving a small piece of common, &c. Voted to adjourn this meet- 
 ing to the last Tuesday in September next to meet at this place at 
 nine o'clock a. m. 
 
 [Signed] Sbwall Goodeidge 
 
 Clerk. 
 
 Thus for sixty-six years the proprietors kept their organi- 
 zation. Though they had no voice in the affairs of the town 
 after its incorporation in 1764, yet they were interested in 
 its prosperity and contributed money for its advancement. 
 In the first years of their association they made vigorous 
 efforts to forward the settlement, but it was difficult to 
 manage the affairs of the new enterprise with the base of 
 supplies and of power fifty miles away, and an almost un- 
 broken wilderness between. Besides, some of the proprie- 
 tors had only a financial interest in the matter, — they were 
 simply land speculators, — so when their rights were heavily 
 taxed to pay for improvements, they neglected to pay the 
 assessments, and failed to attend the meetings for business. 
 The proprietors had the power to sell all the lots on which 
 the taxes were unpaid, and did so to some extent ; but it 
 was a delicate matter, and they hesitated to do it, and in 
 some cases allowed the unpaid taxes to accumulate for 
 twenty years before they sold the land. 
 
 The most prominent and efficient of the proprietors was 
 Benjamin Lynde, Jr., Esq., who was interested in the 
 enterprise from the beginning, and who bought up at one 
 time and another a large number of the original rights. As 
 the town was named for him, his record is a matter of 
 interest. Benjamin Lynde, the father of the proprietor, 
 was a prominent man in Massachusetts colony, holding 
 many offices of trust and honor. Benjamin Lynde, Jr., was 
 born October 5, 1700, graduated at Harvard college in 
 
12 
 
 1718, and married, November 1, 1731, Mary, daughter of 
 Major John Bowles, of Roxbury, a descendant of John 
 Elliot, the noted missionary to the Indians. He was ajj- 
 pointed special judge of the court of common pleas for 
 Suffolk county, and in 1737 was named one of the agents 
 to accompany the commission to Hampton on the settle- 
 ment of the boundary line between New Hampshire and 
 Massachusetts. In 1739 he was chosen standing judge of 
 common pleas of Essex county, and in 1745 was appointed 
 to the superior bench of the province, which position he 
 held for twenty-seven years ; he was also a member of the 
 council for twenty-eight years. He presided at the trial of 
 the soldiers who fired on the mob in State street, Boston, 
 March 5, 1770. The last two years of his life he was judge 
 of probate, and died October 5, 1781. His daughter Lydia 
 married, September 30, 1767, Rev. William Walter, D. D., 
 rector of Trinity church, Boston, who represented the 
 Lynde estate in the meetings of the proprietors for many 
 years. In a controversy which arose between the proprie- 
 tors of the town and the Masonian proprietors, to whom 
 reference will be made later. Dr. Walter had a very promi- 
 nent part ; and a letter of his to the agent of the Masonian 
 proprietors is well worthy of preservation for its vigorous 
 English, and as showing the difficulties in those early days 
 of securing accurate surveys of lots. The agent of the 
 Masonian proprietors complained that the lots reserved for 
 them fell short of measure, but as the proprietors of Lynde- 
 borough suffered in the same way in reference to the north 
 line on Francestown, in which the Masonian proprietors had 
 interest, they felt that one discrepancy would offset the 
 other, though they were willing to do anything in reason. 
 Dr. Walter sent the following letter, dated October 29, 
 1793, to John Pierce, Esq., clerk of the Masonian proprie- 
 tors : 
 
 Sib: Your letter of Sept. 17, 1792, was received by the proprie- 
 tors of Lyndeborough at their late meeting in Dunstable. The con- 
 
13 
 
 tents thereof were fully discussed, and I was directed to communi- 
 cate their sentiments upon the subject. 
 
 You will permit me to call to your remembrance the contents 
 of your former letter, Sept., 1792, wherein you declare yourself 
 fully authorized by the Masonian proprietors to communicate to us 
 the extent of their demands against the propriety of Lyndeboro', 
 which were to have two lots laid out to you in lieu of No. one, and 
 two cut off by Carleton's survey laying over Fletcher's, — and to 
 have number four and five make Up what deficiency was said to be 
 in them ; and then, in behalf of the Masonian proprietors, you 
 declare that, these conditions being complied with, you would forever 
 quit all demands upon the proprietors of Lyndeboro', although fur- 
 ther demands might be made. No words can more fully express 
 your mind, no conditional engagement can be stronger in honor or 
 in law. Without entering into the merits of the different surveys, 
 or contending that you had already received your quantity except 
 twenty-six acres, as appears by Fletcher's resurvey of the nineteen 
 lots, and Carleton finding space enough to lay out his eight lots, — 
 without entering, I say, into this old dispute, for peace sake the 
 proprietors of Lyndeboro' immediately voted to comply with your 
 request, and to rectify what you called errors in Carleton's survey, 
 by which more than three hundred acres are, in effect, given to the 
 Masonian proprietors beyond their strict due. A committee at the 
 same time was appointed to lay out the two lots, and survey numbers 
 four and five to make up the deficiencies in them if any there were. 
 The committee were two of our most respectable members, — Esq. 
 Rand and Col. Putnam, — who took with them one of the most 
 respectable surveyors in the neighborhood, John Shepherd, Esq. 
 They went over the commons, and finally fixed on that part of them 
 which lies toward Amherst, and laid out two lots, one and two, in 
 lieu of the same numbers in Carleton's survey said to be cut off, 
 and a regular return was made to us and accepted at our meeting, 
 June, 1793 ; and an official report to you as agent of the Masonian 
 proprietors was ordered to be made, and was in fact made, as 
 appears by a copy of the letter which stands on the records of the 
 clerk of the propriety. 
 
 I presume therefore it must have escaped your recollection when 
 you say that no return has been made of this survey ; the land so 
 laid out is now declared by Col. Putnam, Major Gould, Rev. Mr. 
 
14 
 
 Goodridge, and Esq. Shepherd to he equal to the commons in general, 
 — well wooded and laying near a saw-miU ; and whatever old Mr. 
 Rand might have said to you in a jockular manner, or might be 
 said by others maliciously, it is supposed to be any day worth a 
 dollar per acre or more. This I presume must satisfy you of its 
 being more than a tolerable proportion to the land lost, especially 
 when I assure you that I have myself this week agreed for the sale 
 of one of my second division lots near the centre of that town for 
 less than one doUar per acre. 
 
 As to lots number four and five, they also were surveyed at the 
 same time ; number five was found to be more than complete, and 
 the committee thought it as reasonable to take o£E the surplus as to 
 add to number four a deficiency that might be found in it ; but, as 
 you are pleased to say, the lots being drawn for and sold, must 
 stand as it is, be it more or less. We have ordered a new inspec- 
 tion of number four, and have made up that lot to the satisfaction 
 of the purchaser, leaving number five with all its overplus. After 
 this, we presumed certainly upon having a final discharge from the 
 Masonian proprietors, as from gentlemen who must feel themselves, 
 by their most solemn promise, under every obligation as men of 
 honor to give it to us without a moment's delay. Instead of which, 
 we have a new demand for a deficiency in number six, and we 
 know not but some time hence stiU further demands wiU be made, 
 under the threat that you or some other gentleman cannot acquiesce 
 in the final division of the commons till their conditions are com- 
 plied with. 
 
 But, sir, the proprietors of Lyndeborough are not to be awed 
 into endless submission by threats contained in public or private 
 letters. As to number six, I am directed to say that we know not 
 the state of that lot. It may be delinquent, but if it is, we pre- 
 sume the fault is not ours, for it lies on the north side of the town, 
 which line we have for thirty years back been complaining to the 
 Masonian proprietors as being crowded too far south by Beton and 
 others, who purchased Wallingford's lot, and have prayed their 
 interference to do us justice by giving to us, who were the first 
 purchasers, the extent which our charter gives us on that side ; but 
 we have not been able to procure from them the smallest exertion, 
 not even to the moving one of their fingers, to displace the burden 
 by which we are losers of some hundred of acres. And if you also 
 
15 
 
 are a loser, it is no matter of admiration, but surely your com- 
 plaints should not be sent to us. I have, therefore, only to say in 
 behalf of the proprietors of Lyndeborough that if the Masonian 
 proprietors will carry back, or cause to be carried back, that line 
 so as to give us our just claim on that side, and there shall then be 
 any deficiency in number six or any other lot bordering on that 
 line, we will instantly make up the deficiency, whatever it may be. 
 This, I presume, sir, will convince you that we have done all that 
 you or any reasonable man could expect, and induce you to give us 
 what you have so long denied us, a fuU and final discharge. If 
 this is still cruelly denied us, we must appeal to the powers which 
 are above us. 
 
 I am, sir, with due respect. 
 
 Your most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 W. Walter. 
 
 Another prominent proprietor was Daniel Epes, Jr., 
 Esq., of that part of Salem afterwards called Dangers, 
 whose sons, Francis and Benjamin, became influential citi- 
 zens of Lj'ndeborough after its incorporation. Deacon 
 Nathaniel Putnam, Joseph Richardson, Edward Hardy, 
 and Timothy Cummings were the only original proprietors, 
 so far as can be found, who made homes for themselves in 
 the town. 
 
 The proprietors soon found difficulties other than those 
 of the wilderness to retard the development of the new 
 township. They had hardly commenced a settlement when 
 the question began to be agitated as to the line of division 
 between the province of Massachusetts Bay and the prov- 
 ince of New Hampshire. This was a very important mat- 
 ter to the owners of land in Salem Canada, for they were 
 connected with the province of Massachusetts Bay, hold- 
 ing the title to their land from that province, and therefore 
 they waited with great anxiety the settlement of the vexa- 
 tious question. 
 
 The matter was vigorously discussed by both parties, 
 
16 
 
 Massachusetts claiming that the line was designed to start 
 from a point three miles north of Black Rocks, at the 
 mouth of the Merrimack river, and to run parallel to the 
 river to a point three miles beyond where the two branches, 
 Pemigewasset and Winnipiseogee, come together to form 
 the Merrimack, which would have been three miles north of 
 the present town of Franklin, and then the line was to ran 
 due west to the South sea, or Pacific ocean. New Hamp- 
 shire claimed that its south boundary was from a point 
 three miles north from the channel of the Merrimack at its 
 mouth, and extending due west to his majesty's other gov- 
 ernments, or New York. New Hampshire and Massachu- 
 setts werC' so far united as provinces of his majesty that 
 they were under one governor, Jonathan Belcher, who 
 resided in Massachusetts and was supposed to be in her 
 interest, while David Dunbar, Esq., was lieutenant-governor 
 of New Hampshire, who, with a majority of the council 
 and house of representatives,' was opposed to Governor 
 Belcher and to the Massachusetts claim. 
 
 The subject was finally left to a board of commissioners 
 from Nova Scotia, New York, Rhode Island, and New Jer- 
 sey, who met at Hampton, August 1, 1737. The legisla- 
 tive assemblies of the two provinces met also within five 
 miles of each other, one at Hampton and the other at Salis- 
 bury. The occasion was one of great pomp and parade. 
 No doubt this procession, with the governor riding in state 
 attended by the great and general court, was an impos- 
 ing spectacle, which at the time was made the subject of 
 burlesque in true Hibernian style : 
 
 Dear Paddy, you ne'er did behold such a sight 
 
 As yesterday morning was seen before night. 
 
 You in all your born days saw, nor I did n't neither, 
 
 So many fine horses and men ride together. 
 
 At the head, the lower house trotted two in a row. 
 
 Then all the higher house pranced after the low ; 
 
17 
 
 The governor's coach galloped on like the wind, 
 And the last that came foremost was troopers hehind, 
 But I fear it means no good, to your neck or mine. 
 For they say, 't is to fix a right place for a line. 
 
 This commission did not settle the dispute ; but it was 
 decided by his majesty in council, March 5, 1741, sustain- 
 ing practically the claims of New Hampshire, the line run- 
 ning west from a point three miles north of the mouth of 
 the Merrimack and parallel to it, to a point three miles north 
 of Pawtucket Falls, now Lowell, then a straight line due 
 west. This brought Salem Canada within the limits of 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 But the settlement of this vexatious question soon 
 brought the proprietors of Salem Canada into still deeper 
 trouble, for they found that their township was within the 
 limits of an old grant made to John Mason in 1629, from 
 the council of Plymouth, England, and confirmed August 
 19, 1635, by King Charles the First. For a long time this 
 grant remained unclaimed, but finally John Tuftou Mason, 
 a great-grandson of John, succeeded in bringing his claims 
 to the attention of the government and having them 
 allowed. Then he sold his title in 1746 to twelve men, 
 residents of Portsmouth and vicinity (who have been 
 already mentioned as the Masonian proprietors). 
 
 As soon as the proprietors of Salem Canada found that 
 their title to the township might be disputed, they sent a 
 strong committee to Portsmouth with full power to settle 
 with the Masonian proprietors on the best terms they 
 could. Meanwhile the matter was complicated still more 
 by the grant which the Masonian proprietors made, of a 
 town called Number 2, now Wilton, that covered quite a 
 portion of the south part of Salem Canada. The Masonian 
 proprietors agreed, however, to give a quitclaim deed to 
 the proprietors on twp conditions, — first, that they should 
 take land to the north of the township in place of that 
 
18 
 
 covered by the grant to Number 2, and second, if the 
 Masonian proprietors could have reserved for them three 
 farms, one of five hundred acres, and two of one hundred 
 and fifty acres each, and also have reserved to them, free 
 from all charges aud incumbrance of settlement or taxes 
 until improved, six thousand and sixty-six acres of undi- 
 vided lands. 
 
 This new grant did not interfere in any respect with the 
 rights of the settlers already in the township, nor with 
 their division Hues. The old plan of Salem Canada, with 
 lots and bounds, was retained in the new title, so far as 
 they covered the territory, the new grant being simply a 
 quitclaim deed to secure a perfect title to the land. "The 
 same proprietors continued in office, and held their meet- 
 ings in the same place, but as the name of the township 
 was cumbersome, and as Benjamin Lynde, Jr., owned sev- 
 eral rights in town and had shown a deep interest in its 
 settlement, they gave to the township the name of Lynde- 
 borough, and the new grant was dated Dec. 5, 1753. The 
 grant was signed by Joseph Blanchard as agent for the 
 Masonian proprietors, aud the modified township was to 
 contain twenty-eight thousand acres with lots reserved for 
 minister, ministry, and schools. 
 
 The township of Salem Canada was to be of the con- 
 tents of six miles square, though it was neither a square nor 
 a rectangle. It was nearly square with the exception of a 
 large corner missing, toward Boystown, or New Boston. 
 The south-east corner, as nearly as can be ascertained with- 
 out running the lines, was a little north of the Deacon 
 Bartlett place on the road to Milford. The south line, run- 
 ning from that point west, passed back of the Congrega- 
 tional church in Wilton, crossing the Forest road not far 
 from Mr. Levi Putnam's mill, running past the old north 
 burying-ground in Wilton, and a little to the south of the 
 present county farm to a point south-west and near to the 
 Benjamin Whiting house in Temple, about half a mile 
 
19 
 
 from the county farm. The west line extended north to a 
 point not far from the Dr. Fitch place, a short distance 
 east of Greenfield Centre. The north line extended north 
 of the summit of the Pinnacle to New Boston line, then 
 after leaving to that town the north-east corner, already 
 described, it passed south along the Amherst line, now 
 Mont Vernon and jMilford, to the point first mentioned. 
 
 The town as thus laid out was well situated and propor- 
 tioned, and gave good promise of becoming a prosperous 
 and thickly settled community, but circumstances doomed 
 it to be stripped of its fair proportions, and it came very 
 near utter destruction. The Masonian proprietors invaded 
 it on the south, and took a large slice for Number 2, or 
 Wilton, in 1749. In 1764 there was an attempt made to 
 divide the town at Boffee's mountain, so called, thus form- 
 ing a town on each side. At another time it was proposed 
 to divide the town by a line running north-east from the 
 north-east corner of Wilton, near the residence of Mr. Joel 
 Perham, to a point on the New Boston line. 
 
 In 1780 three families petitioned to be set off to Amherst 
 north-west parish, now Mont Vernon, and about the same 
 time others in the south-east corner desired to be joined to 
 what is now Milford. June 15, 1791, the north-west portion 
 of the town was set off to help form Greenfield. June 11, 
 1796, the south-west corner was taken to become a part of 
 Temple. June 5, 1853, a large slice was annexed to Mont 
 Vernon, and finally, June 27, 1873, another portion was 
 taken by Milford. 
 
 It is said that Lyndeborough has more corners in its 
 boundary than any other town in the state, and Dr. Her- 
 rick said in his poem concerning its outline, — 
 
 Thus we have been pinched and hackled all raw, 
 Which leaves us in shape of a circular saw 
 With a piece broken ofE ; and yet we are here, 
 And keep on our course, in hope, without fear. 
 
20 
 
 We are now prepared, after this long preliminary state- 
 ment, to look at the town itself, and to trace, so far as we 
 can, the first movements toward a settlement of Salem 
 Canada. When the grant was made in 1735, the fifteenth 
 in the state, it was in reality the planting of a town in the 
 wilderness. There were then no other towns located in 
 Hillsborongh county north of Dunstable, or Nashua, with 
 the exception of Narragansett Number 3, or Amherst 
 and Bedford, and no towns to the north and west settled 
 nearer than Keene and Winchester (then called Arlington). 
 The grants of Amherst and Bedford, as Narragansett Num- 
 bers 3 and 5, were made two years before, and settlers 
 had already taken up land. It is thought that there were 
 not more than 10,000 people in New Hampshire in 1730. 
 
 The first thing to be done after laying out the town was 
 to open a road toward its centre and through the home 
 lots, as they were called. These were located in the south- 
 east part of the township, in what is now Perham and 
 Johnson corner. The usual plan of a town was to have 
 the settlers locate on small or home lots at first, so that 
 they might be near each other for mutual protection ; but 
 when the first settlements were made in Salem Canada, it 
 was thought that all danger from the Indians was over, 
 and so the settlers took their best land in different parts of 
 the town. 
 
 At the second meeting of the proprietors, November 21, 
 1737, they voted to clear a road to the centre of their town- 
 ship from Amherst, and to let out the building of the road 
 " by the great," that is, by the job. They also voted that 
 " upon Mr. Cornelius Tarbell and Mr. Joseph Eichardson's 
 clearing a good and sufficient cartway from the place where 
 Mr. Timothy Cummings left off clearing a way from Mr. 
 Waltron's in Narragansett Number 3, to or near Wain- 
 woods brook, and to clear said way to or near the centre 
 of said Canada township and building a good bridge over 
 said Wainwoods brook, and laying the bodies of trees and 
 
21 
 
 making good passable causeways over miry places and over 
 gullies and small brooks, so that a laden cart may pass con- 
 veniently, that the said Tarbell and Richardson be paid 
 fifty-eight pounds." 
 
 Mr. Waltron lived a mile south of Amherst centre. The 
 road thus opened entered the township near its south-east 
 corner, and the brook called Wainwood's was the one 
 formed by the union of Purgatory brook and the one that 
 flows out from the Badger pond down through Johnson 
 corner. The proprietors' records speak of Trail's brook, 
 which was probably the branch just mentioned flowing 
 from the pond, as the trail followed near it into town ; and 
 Half-way brook is also mentioned, which might mean Pur- 
 gatory brook, as half-way between the two grants, Narra- 
 gansett Number 3 and Salem Canada. This first road 
 came up by what used to be called the crotch of the brooks 
 and into Johnson Corner by the place formerly occupied by 
 John Carson, south of David Clark's ; after passing Willis 
 Perham's place, and near the Israel Curtis place and 
 George Rose's, it came out at what was then the centre of 
 the town, Putnam hill in South Lyndeborough, near where 
 Mr. Edward H. Putnam now lives. 
 
 The next year, December 26, 1738, they voted twenty 
 pounds to John Cram and the lot thirty-nine, "on condi- 
 tion that he build a good and sufficient saw-mill on said 
 lot and cut boards for the proprietors at the halves, or 
 ■equivalent for such as shall bring logs. To be finished on 
 or before the last day of August next, and kept in sufficient 
 repair for sawing during the term of fifteen years." The 
 next year, May 28, 1789, the proprietors voted that " the 
 committee be empowered to take bond of Mr. John Cram 
 for his performing the condition of building a saw-mill on 
 the terms previously voted, only the said Cram have lib- 
 erty of building said mill on his lot. Number 41, it being 
 represented that there is the best and most convenient 
 place for a saw-mill." 
 
22 
 
 The first place proposed for the mill (on lot 39) was on 
 the stream west of the south village, and the place chosen 
 was east of the south village, just below where a mill now 
 stands, south of Putnam hill. There is no record that Mr. 
 Cram built the mill, but not long after that stream is called 
 Saw-mill brook ; and as he had given bonds to build, he no 
 doubt did so within a few years. But it was not built 
 within the time mentioned, for May 9, 1740, nine months 
 after the specified time, Nathaniel Putnam presented the 
 following petition to the proprietors : 
 
 The petition of Nathaniel Putnam (one of said proprietors) hum- 
 bly sheweth, That he hath lately buUded a good saw mill in said 
 town at his own cost and charge, and as he apprehends will be of 
 great service to the said proprietors now before any other saw mill 
 will be erected and fitted for sawing, he therefore most humbly 
 prays that the said proprietors would give him some consideration 
 as they in their wisdom shall see meet, and as in duty bound shall 
 ever pray. 
 
 [Signed] Nathaniel Putnam. 
 
 The proprietors voted a consideration of ten pounds to Mr. 
 Putnam, which was paid the following year, September 15, 
 1741. 
 
 This first saw-mill in Salem Canada was in all probabil- 
 ity just above Barnes's falls in Wilton. 
 
 The following record is found dated March 7, 1739 : 
 
 It being represented to the proprietors that it is proposed by 
 some of the proprietors of the Ashuelots (afterwards Keene) to cut 
 and bring the road from said townships across the woods and so 
 into this Canada township which if effected may be of great advan- 
 • tage to this propriety : wherefore votjgd, that to encourage the bring- 
 ing of said road from the Ashuelots into this township, this propri- 
 ety engage and wiU make a good and sufficient way from the place 
 where the said road is brought into this town to the end of the road 
 cleared by Tarbell and Eichardson to or near the centre of said 
 township. 
 
5^8 
 
 A committee was chosen, and the work of opening a 
 horse road was completed in a short time. It was improved 
 subsequently, and must have been highly appreciated 
 by the settlers. It passed from Putnam hill by Emory 
 Holt's place, around Stephenson hill, and by David 
 Grant's and Deacon Mclntire's over the mountain, and 
 was the first and only road for many years to what is now 
 Greenfield. 
 
 But there were untold difficulties that hindered the rapid 
 settlement of the town. The country was a wild, unbroken 
 forest. There were no neighbors nearer than Amherst, and 
 no grist-mill nearer than Dunstable or Nashua, for a long 
 time'. A settler would start in the morning with a bag of 
 grain on his shoulder, and make his lonely, toilsome way to 
 Dunstable and back in two days, if prospered on his jour- 
 ney. The renewal of hostilities between the French and 
 English brought terror to those scattered families, because 
 of the atrocity of the Indians. 
 
 In the first year of the war, New. Hampshire furnished 
 Amherst and Salem Canada each with a scout, and they 
 also had a guard of soldiers from Massachusetts. May 13, 
 1747, Souhegan West, or Amherst, petitioned Governor 
 Wentworth and the General Court of New Hampshire for 
 a guard of soldiers to act as scouts, saying that "the diffi- 
 culty of war happening so early on our settlements, and the 
 defenceless state they are in, has obliged them all, namely, 
 Peterborough, Salem Canada, New Boston, axid Hills- 
 borough, so called, entirely, to draw off as well as the forts 
 on the Conn, river." This indicates that the settlement of 
 Salem Canada was sadly broken up in the first fifteen years 
 of its history. It is shown also by the records that some 
 of the children of these -first families were born in other 
 towns. The second child of Ephraim Putnam was born 
 in Salem ; the oldest child of Melchizedeck Boffee was 
 born in Litchfield; the oldest son of Jacob Wellman was 
 born in Dunstable, because, as the family record says, " his 
 
24 
 
 parents had gone there on account of the depredations of 
 Indians." 
 
 There are many traditions in town concerning the incur- 
 sions of the Indians, but there was no loss of life so far as 
 can be ascertained. More or less persons were killed at 
 Salisbury, Charlestown, Hopkinton, Keene, and Walpole, 
 but nothing authentic has been found concerning hostile 
 Indians nearer Salem Canada than Peterborough and Hills- 
 borough. Tradition says that there was a fort or block- 
 house on Putnam hill, but nothing has been found in the 
 records of the proprietors or of the town that confirms the 
 story. It is probable, however, that the building, put up for 
 a church and never finished, was used for such a purpose. 
 It is said that the Boffee family, hearing the firing of guns 
 one day, and supposing that there was an attack on the 
 fort, fled to Amherst for safety, but found afterwards that 
 it was a false alarm. Tradition says that the Indians vis- 
 ited Jeremiah Carleton's family, and so frightened them by 
 killing their live stock that they went to Connecticut and 
 remained for several years. This storj' of the heroic con- 
 duct of Ephraim Putnam's wife has been handed down in 
 the family: 
 
 Mrs. Putnam and daughters and a boy were left in the 
 fort one day while the men were away at work. Seeing an 
 Indian approaching, she stationed the children in different 
 parts of the building and began calling the roll. As the 
 children replied in different places and tones, the Indian 
 supposed the men were all inside. The same Indian re- 
 turned after peace was declared, and told of his surprise 
 when he heard the calling of the roll. It is said that the 
 early settlers used to ascertain each others' welfare by 
 blowing a conch shell each morning at sunrise. The skele- 
 ton of an Indian was found in a sand-bank on the north 
 shore of Badger pond in 1848, but no evidence of a per- 
 manent camp has ever been discovered. 
 
 Other traditions might be given, but history is of more 
 
25 
 
 value than legends, though not so romantic. We are pre- 
 pared now to speak more definitely of some of the early 
 settlers, and to touch briefly their record. 
 
 EARLY SETTLERS. 
 
 John Cram stands at the head of the pioneers of the set- 
 tlement, and well deserved to have his name embalmed in 
 that of the town. Cramborough might not be as euphoni- 
 ous as Lyndeborough, but it would be a significant and 
 well deserved name, and would have given credit where 
 crpdit is due. John Cram and his wife Sarah, with married 
 sons and grown-up daughters, came from Wilmington, 
 Mass., where he owned a farm, and at once set to work to 
 make homes for himself and children. He and his oxen 
 are mentioned as doing the first work in cutting roads and 
 drawing logs for the meeting-house. His lot covered the 
 east part of Putnam hill at the centre of Salem Canada, 
 and he donated ten acres of it next to the meeting-house 
 for the use of the town. He is mentioned by the proprie- 
 tors as one of the first settlers, and when he met with 
 severe misfortune in the loss of cattle, in the winter of 
 1740-'41, the proprietors voted him a gratuity of fifteen 
 pounds out of their treasury. He was chairman of the 
 committee chosen to secure the first preaching in town, 
 and was identified with all the interests of the settlement. 
 He sold his home farm on Putnam hill in 1753 to his 
 son-in-law, Ephraim Putnam. His wife died in 1757, and 
 he passed away at Amherst in 1759, aged about eighty 
 years. 
 
 John Cram's son Jonathan, and his wife Mary, daughter 
 of Daniel Chamberlain, took up land at the same time with 
 his father, and settled the next lot south of where his 
 descendants Joseph and James Cram lived. Benjamin, 
 another son of John, and Elizabeth his wife, settled on lot 
 54, where Mr. Sargent lives. Another son, John, Jr., and 
 
26 
 
 his wife Mary, improved land where Artemas Woodward 
 lived, but settled in what is now Wilton, not far from 
 Jacob Patnam's, where his brother-in-law, Ephraim Put- 
 nam, had lived. Still another son, Joseph, owned the 
 Emory Holt place, but probably had no family, as his broth- 
 ers and sisters deeded seventy-five acres of the south part 
 of their father's lot 41, April 8, 1768, to Jonathan Cham- 
 berlain, for caring for their brother Joseph and giving him 
 Christian burial. He died December 24, 1794, aged eighty- 
 seven. 
 
 Phebe, a daughter of John Cram, married Moses Stiles, 
 and settled on lot 42, east of the south village cemetery. 
 Sarah, another daughter, married Ephraim Putnam (son of 
 Nathaniel, one of the proprietors of the town), who settled 
 near his brother Jacob in what is now Wilton, near the pres- 
 ent Jacob Putnam's. This Ephraim, afterwards deacon and 
 prominent in the history of the church and town, remained 
 with his father for some time, but took a deed of the home 
 farm of John Cram, his father-in-law, February 23, 1763. 
 It is probable that the house was on the top of the hill near 
 Mr. Edward H. Putnam's. Most of the children of John 
 Cram had large families, and many of his grandchildren 
 settled in town. Jonathan, son of Jonathan, lived at one 
 time on Charles Boutwell's place ; David, another son of 
 Jonathan, and Mary Badger his wife, located where his 
 grandson Luther lives ; and Jacob, another son of Jona- 
 than, who married Isabel, daughter of John and Jennie 
 Hutchinson, settled on the Harwood place now owned by 
 Mr. Melendy. 
 
 Without dwelling longer on the history of the Cram 
 family, it is evident that Cramborough would have been a 
 very appropriate name for the town. 
 
 One of the first settlers in town was John Hutchinson, 
 of Litchfield, who July 10, 1736, gave a bond to Jonathan 
 Peal, of Salem, Mass., one of the original proprietors, that 
 he would have within four years oia home lot 60, where 
 
27 
 
 Charles Perham now lives, a dwelling-house 20 by 18, and 
 cleared, broken up, and brought to and fenced in, twelve 
 acres. When the deed was given, September 27, 1760, the 
 statement is made that these conditions were fulfilled. 
 
 Another of the first settlers was Melchizedeck Boffee 
 and Margaret his wife, from Londonderry, who improved 
 the land on the hill east of David Clark's, but who bought, 
 January 30, 1744, ninety acres of laud Avhere David Grant 
 lives. Several of his family settled in town, and two sons 
 at least. Lieutenant Thomas and John, were in the Revolu- 
 tionary war. 
 
 David Stephenson and wife settled on the farm still 
 called by that name, and owned early in the history of the 
 town the lots north and north-west. 
 
 Jacob Putnam settled on second division lot Number 3, 
 where Jacob Putnam now lives in Wilton. 
 
 John Dale, Jr., settled on home lot Number 11, the Abel 
 Fisk place, now owned by S. H. Dunbar in Wilton, and 
 John and Mary (McFarland) Badger on home lot 10, just 
 east of John Dale's, taking deed of his lot July 2, 1739. 
 The sad story of his life has been well told in the history 
 of Wilton. His son, David, and his wife Rachel settled on 
 the James Karr place, north of the Badger pond, and Rob- 
 ert and his wife Hannah on the hill where Nathan Richard- 
 son lives, and Mary, the daughter, married David Cram. 
 
 Samuel Leman (of Wilmington, Mass., dish-turner, son 
 of Samuel and Margaret (Hutchinson) Leman, of Charles- 
 town, born August 16, 1691) married Mary Bryant, and 
 settled, probably in 1736, on lot 59, south of D. C. Grant's, 
 and his son Samuel, Jr. (born September 9, 1721, and who 
 married Love Wheeler, November 7, 1746), settled on 
 David Grant's farm, but soon sold to Melchizedeck Boffee, 
 and probably moved to HoUis. On the plan of the town 
 two lots near the Artemas Woodward place are marked as 
 owned by Dr. Leman, but whether or not he was Abraham, 
 son of Samuel, has not been ascertained. 
 
28 
 
 Timothy Cummiiigs, son of Timothy, of Marblehead, 
 Mass., settled on his own right, very likely his home lot 
 26 in Perham Corner. He was the first to work at clear- 
 ing a road into town, and his wife was paid twenty-five 
 shillings for the use of her pewter, and for her service at 
 the raising of the first meeting-house. 
 
 James Stratton settled on Cornelius Tarbell's right, 
 probably the home lot 25 in Perham Corner, as the second 
 division lots of that right were sold to William Holt, of 
 Andover, who settled on lot 76, or the Dr. Herrick farm, 
 taking a deed August 9, 1753. 
 
 Ephraim and Sarah Putnam, as already stated, settled 
 on second division lot number 5, in what is now Wilton. 
 
 Edward Hardy was early in town, and probably was on 
 home lot 24 in Perham Corner. 
 
 Ephraim Powers and wife Lucy were early in town, 
 and settled on 100 acres of the east end of lot 53, near 
 Deacon Benjamin Cram's. 
 
 David Stratton took a deed of forty acres of lot 68, De- 
 cember 31, 1745, a part of the same lot on which Melchize- 
 deck Boffee was located, and now occupied by Captain 
 Andy Holt. He may have been a son of James. 
 
 John and Tryphena Kidder, of Londonderry, took a deed 
 of lots 77 and 78, October 14, 1757. Lot 77 was just north 
 of Mr. Grant's place. 
 
 John and Mary Rowe were early on the Israel Cram 
 place. 
 
 Jacob Wellman, of Lynnfield, Mass., son of Abraham 
 and EHzabeth (Taylor) Wellman, and his wife, Jane 
 (Johnson) Wellman, bought a proprietor's right April 16, 
 1742, and occupied home lot 57, where David Clark now 
 lives. The first house was in the field north of the present 
 buildings. The house now occupied is probably one of the 
 oldest in town. 
 
 John Johnson, cordwainer, of Lynnfield, and wife Mary, 
 bought one full right, and settled west of their brother-in- 
 
29 
 
 law, Wellman, on Aaron Russell's farm ; and his son James, 
 and Hannah his wife, on the next lot west, where W. H. 
 Bowen lives; and another son, Adam, and wife Abigail, on 
 Willis Perham's place ; and the family at one time and 
 another owned a good share of what has been called ever 
 since "Johnson Corner," though it is many years since one 
 of that name has lived in that part of the town. 
 
 Edward and Elizabeth Spalding, of Hudson, father of 
 Captain Levi of Revolutionary fame, bought lots 11.3 and 
 122, May 30, 1765. These lots were over the mountain, 
 where the descendants have lived so many years. Stephen, 
 a brother of Edward, bought in the same year seventy 
 acres of lot 112, east of his brother and north of Jonas 
 Kidder, who bought lot 105 the next year. Reuben, an- 
 other brother of Edward, came from Hudson and settled 
 later on part of Edward's lot. 
 
 Jeremiah Carle'ton and wife Eunice settled on land now 
 owned by E. C. Curtis, and the log house was near the 
 buildings east of Mr. Curtis's house. 
 
 Edward Bevins settled on one half of home lot 19, in 
 Perham Corner, near the George W. Parker place, and 
 John Hutchinson on home lot 27, perhaps where Perham 
 Holt lives. 
 
 George Gould and wife Mary came from Salem, and 
 owned a good deal of land. They bought, January 25, 
 1739, one half of a right of home lot 46 and second divi- 
 sion lots 74 and 27, but in 1768 they were living on lot 70, 
 opposite where the town-house now stands. 
 
 Elias and Mary Taylor lived on Kilburn Curtis's place 
 for some years, and sold to Adam Johnson March 17, 1758. 
 
 John and Elizabeth Carkin settled on the farm now 
 owned by Robert Lynch. 
 
 Captain Peter Clark and wife Hannah came from Brain- 
 tree, Mass., in January, 1775, and settled on lot 110, where 
 the Holden familj'^ now live. 
 
 Joseph Richardson, Jr., millwright, of Woburn, Mass., 
 
30 
 
 was prominent in the early history of Salem Canada, and 
 lived in the portion that was set off to form the town of 
 Temple. 
 
 April 4, 1766, Nehemiah Rand, of Charlestown, Mass., 
 bought a lot adjoining that of his brother. Rev. John 
 Rand. 
 
 April 8, 1767, James Boutwell, of Amherst, and previ- 
 ously from Wilmington, Mass., bought where his descend- 
 ant, Charles, now resides. He bought of Ebenezer and 
 Elizabeth Coston, who lived in town and owned consider- 
 able property, and afterward removed to Wilton. 
 
 Eleazer Woodward, in 1770, bought where Jacob Wood- 
 ward now lives. 
 
 Dr. Benjamin Jones bought the Harvey Holt farm in 
 1774 ; and Jacob Butler, Jr., of Pelham, bought a farm in 
 the south-west part of the town, December 23, 1776. 
 
 Many other families have been traced, but there is no 
 time to speak of them to-day. The progress of the town 
 was very slow through the first twenty-five years, for the 
 reasons already given. In 1764 there were only about 
 forty families in town. But with the fear of Indians 
 removed, and with a town charter, the growth was rapid 
 and permanent. March 1, 1762, the people voted to ask 
 for the incorporation of the town; and March 5, 1764, John 
 Stephenson was appointed a committee to obtain a charter, 
 which was secured April 23, 1764. The charter began, — 
 
 Province of New Hampshire. 
 
 George ye 3rd, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France 
 and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith &c. 
 
 To all whom these presents shall come, Greeting : Whereas our 
 loving subjects inhabitants of a tract of land within our Province of 
 New Hampshire, by the name of Lyndeboro, have humbly peti- 
 tioned and requested that they may be erected and incorporated 
 into a body politick and corporate to have continuance until his 
 majesty's pleasure shall be signified to the contrary, &c. 
 
31 
 
 The charter reserves to his majesty and his heirs all 
 white pine trees fit for use for the royal navy. The char- 
 ter closes as follows : 
 
 In testimony whereof we have caused the seal of our New Hamp- 
 shire Province to be hereunto affixed. Witness Benning Went- 
 worth Esq. our Governor and Commander in Chief in and over 
 said Province of New Hampshire the twenty-third day of April in 
 the fourth year of our reign anno domini 1764. 
 
 [Signed] B. Wentworth. 
 
 John Stephenson was authorized to call the first meet- 
 ing, which was held May 15, 1764, with John Shepard, Jr., 
 moderator ; John Stephenson, town-clerk : Jonathan Cram, 
 Benjamin Cram, and William Carson, selectmen. A con- 
 stable, surveyors, tithing-men, deer-keepers, hay-wards or 
 field-drivers, and a pound-keeper were chosen. Jeremiah 
 Carleton, for some reason, entered a dissent against accept- 
 ing the charter. 
 
 It was a custom iti the early history of New Hampshire 
 to warn out of town, through a constable, all new comers 
 and strangers, so that the town might not be liable for 
 their support if they should come to want. Such a war- 
 rant, issued in 1765, after stating the' facts concerning a 
 certain widow who had recently come to Lyndeborough, 
 concludes as follows : 
 
 Pursuant therefore to the laws of this Province in such cases 
 made and provided you are hereby in his majesty's name required 
 instantly to warn the said widow to depart and leave this town. 
 
 It is said one constable, unacquainted with this formal 
 custom, performed his duty in a very literal way, by say- 
 ing with great official importance, " I have come, Mr. Wil- 
 kins, to warn you off of the face of God's earth : so now 
 you step ! " 
 
 From 1765 to 1775 there was a large addition to the 
 number of families in town. In the last mentioned year 
 
32 
 
 there was, by census, a population of 713, New Boston at 
 that time having 569, Wilton 623, and Francestown 200. 
 Lyndeborough was among the first of the towns to respond 
 to the call to arms in securing the rights of the colonies. 
 The town had twenty-seven in the army in 1775, and more 
 than one hundred and thirty of her citizens spent more or 
 less time in the service, some of whom participated in the 
 prominent battles, from that of Bunker Hill till the close 
 of the war. But this story is to be told to you by another, 
 who is well qualified to present the scenes of war and 
 the glories of victory, for he himself led a regiment of 
 soldiers against the foe during the civil war, and helped 
 perpetuate the liberty purchased by our Revolutionary 
 father s.i 
 
 There are still some matters that can be briefly men- 
 tioned before the church history of the town is noticed. 
 The first appropriation for schools was made June 6, 1771, 
 when the town voted to hire a school, and chose a commit- 
 tee of five to effect the same, for which they raised twelve 
 pounds lawful money. In 1772 fifteen pounds, and in 
 1773 forty dollars, were voted. In 1777 the town was 
 divided into eight districts, but all were regarded as one, 
 and one man was hired to keep school in eight parts of the 
 town. The next year school was kept in four places by 
 one person, Avho was hired for a year. It is a noticeable 
 fact that deeds signed previous to the year 1800 have 
 usually the mark of the wife instead of her signature, 
 showing that education was very limited in extent in those 
 days. There were but very few books in use in school. 
 The arithmetic of the teacher was a manuscript, from which 
 the scholar copied his rules into a book of his own, with 
 the examples after they were wrought. The book used by 
 Jacob Cram in 1762 is still preserved by his descendants, 
 and contains this statement: "Examples in Arithmetic 
 
 1 Brigadier-General Alfred F.Holt, Surgeon-General on the staff ofthe Commander- 
 in-Chief of Massachusetts, died at Martin, Florida, Oecember 28, 1890. 
 
33 
 
 done by me Jacob Cram in the year 1762 it being the 
 twenty-third year of his age. Lyndeboro' March 18, 1762." 
 The teachers employed in those days were poorly quali- 
 fied for their position. In one town, one of them sought 
 assistance in adding his school bills, saying, " I could 
 do it easy enough if it were not for those half cents. If 
 those were only mills * I should know what to do." In 
 another town the people were so wrought up by the intro- 
 duction of the study of grammar that they voted to dismiss 
 the 'eacher for his audacity ; and one person present at the 
 meeting, his heart swelling with pride over the victory, 
 moved "that a vote of the town be taken not to employ a 
 teacher who knows grammar," — and the vote was carried. 
 
 Thfi girls of those days were kept busy from morning to 
 night carding and spinning, or caring for the little ones 
 whikj the mother sat at her loom. Many of the girls, like 
 those; of to-day, longed for an education, but saw no way to 
 seen re it. The story is related of one such girl in Lynde- 
 borough, who was told that she could not go to school 
 unless she took the baby with her, which she did, rocking 
 it to sleep in a sap-trough. 
 
 . In 1790 the population of Lyndeborough was 1,280, the 
 largest in its history. At that time it was larger than any 
 other town in the vicinity except Amherst, which then 
 included Mont Vernon and Milford, and which had 2,869 ; 
 while Wilton had 1,105, Peterborough 861, New Boston 
 1,202, and Francestown 982. In 1800, Lyndeborough had 
 , a population of 976 ; in 1810, 1,074 ; in 1820, 1,163. i 
 
 During the War of the Revolution the paper money so 
 i depreciated that it made serious trouble, and the town 
 
 chose a committee October 11, 1779, to set a value on the 
 necessaries of life sold in town ; and they voted to the min- 
 ister as his salary that year seven hundred and fifty pounds 
 lawful money, in corn, rye, wood, flax, pork, beef, or labor, 
 
 1 The loss of population from 1790 to 1800 was due to the incorporation of the towns 
 of Greenfield and Temple. 
 3 
 
34 
 
 at the price of sucli articles iu 1774, that is, before the war. 
 In 1780 the minister's salary was three thousand pounds 
 lawful money, and men had thirty dollars a day for work- 
 ing on the roads. At the same time a man was voted two 
 hard dollars for the care of the meeting-house for a year. 
 
 In 1795, after they were rid of the poor paper money, the 
 town allowed for working on the road three shillings (half 
 a dollar) a day for a man, the same for a yoke of oxen, 
 two shillings for a cart, and four pence for iron bar, hoe, 
 shovel, or axe, but from November 1 to April 1 it was half 
 the above rates. 
 
 In 1784 there were fifty-seven families west of Lj-nde- 
 borough mountain, and only one road leading directly to 
 town. 
 
 In those times it was legal to imprison a man for unpaid 
 taxes, and a warrant made out in 1787, after giving the 
 facts, closes in this way : 
 
 These are therefore in the name of the state of New Hampshire 
 to require you (the constable) to distrain the goods or chattels of 
 
 the said (if you can find the same in your precinct) s uffi- 
 
 cient to satisfy and pay the above sums, with the charge of making 
 such distress by sale thereof, the overplus if any return to said 
 
 and in case no goods or chattels of the said can be 
 
 found whereon to distrain, as aforesaid, then commit him to the 
 common jail in said county and the jailor is required to receive 
 him, there to remain without baU or mainprize until he pay or sat- 
 isfy the sums aforesaid. 
 
 The stone pound, which still stands as a monument of 
 good work, was built in 1774. 
 
 August 19, 1782, the town voted to build stocks for the 
 punishment of disorderly persons. Whether they were 
 ever built and used, tradition does not tell us. 
 
 May 24, 1798, the town voted thirty dollars "to the pur- 
 pose of teaching singing in town under the direction of the 
 selectmen, ten in the north, ten in the south, and ten in the 
 
35 
 
 centre of the town." Later, sixty dollars was appropri- 
 ated for a similar purpose. 
 
 In 1799 the second New Hampshire turnpike was incor- 
 porated, from Amherst to Claremont, running through the 
 eastern part of Lyndeborough. The Forest road was not 
 opened until 1831. 
 
 In 1797, Scataquog was first mentioned in the proprietors' 
 records, where common land w'as sold at a dollar an acre. 
 Other good wild land sold at that time for five or six dol- 
 lars an acre. About this time the term " Purgatory " was 
 applied to the falls in the east part of the town. From a 
 list of non-resident land at this time, the following descrip- 
 tions are taken : 
 
 In the east part of the town with a small barn 24 by 30, and a 
 shell of a house 24 by 18. 
 
 Tn the south part of the town, pasturing miserable poor land. 
 
 In the east part of the town about twenty acres under improve- 
 ment with a barn 70 by 30 and two small huts called houses. 
 
 In the east part of the toWi^ middling good. 
 
 Certificates of marriage of those days are interesting, and 
 two specimens are given : 
 
 Jan. 27 1794 This certLiiff 'i that the intentions of marriage 
 between Mr David Jennings and Miss Hannah WeUman both of 
 this town have been twice published and it is more than three 
 weeks since the first time and there has been no objection nor like 
 to be any as I am informed nor any difficulty in case they should 
 
 be married 
 
 [Signed] Peter Clark, Town Clerk. 
 
 A couple brought the following certificate to Rev. Mr. 
 Goodridge : 
 
 This may certify all whom it may concern that Robert Burns of 
 the town of Bedford and Molly Smith of the town of New Boston 
 has been published according to law and order and may proceed to 
 marriage for anything I know. 
 
 [Signed] Wm White Town Clerk. 
 
 Jan 23, 1781. 
 
36 
 
 A will dated Nov. 10, 1779, gives the widow the improve- 
 ment of lands and buildings for her support and that of 
 the children so long as she remains a widow ; and if she 
 should become a widow a second time, the will says, " if 
 she see fit she may return to the possession of my land and 
 buildings, with the other privileges thereof, to remain in 
 the enjoyment of the same until her death." 
 
 The following release frdm the payment of a debt for a 
 year, in 1792, is a curious specimen of a business contract : 
 
 Know all men by these presents that we the subscribers having 
 considered the circumstances and condition and being requested by 
 Lieut Thomas BofEee, who being indebted to us, do give and grant 
 free liberty to him the said BofPee that he may go and come, pass and 
 repass, and not be hindered or troubled, or put to any cost or charge 
 or damage by us, or any by or under us, for, or on account of, what 
 is due to us for the term of one year and if there shall at any time 
 within said"year from the date hereof be any cost'or charge or dam- 
 age arise by suit at any court or in any preparation for suit or exe- 
 cution after suit whatsoever ; Do hereby promise each one for him- 
 self to said Boffee, the subscribers will free said BofEee from said 
 charge and from any part thereof by paying it ourselves and after 
 said year is ended, the debt to be paid and if not paid, to be recov- 
 ered by suit in any court where said action may be tried and this 
 writing to be no bar or hindrance in the recovery of the debt and 
 interest and cost thereof, after said year is ended and in testimony 
 of our free consent to the above writing we have set to our separate 
 hands and seals at Amherst this 30 day of Oct 1792 
 
 Samuel Pollard 
 Benjamin Epes. 
 
 At the opening of the century a company was organized 
 to mine for gold on Scataquog mountain, but like many 
 later efforts of the same kind it proved a failure. 
 
 As late as 1809 there seems to have been only one post- 
 office in this section of the county, the one at Amherst ; 
 for at that time there were letters advertised in the Am- 
 herst Cabinet, directed to all the towns in the vicinity, and 
 
37 
 
 as far away as Temple and Weare. It was the practice in 
 many towns for tlie men to take turns in going to Amherst 
 for the mail and the Amherst Cabinet. The mail was car- 
 ried on horseback for some years from Mont Vernon to 
 Greenfield, through Lyndeborough. Some of the merchants 
 at the centre were Major Gould, John Ordway, Nathan 
 Wheeler, Jonathan and William Clark, Oliver Bixby, Man- 
 ahan & Tubbs, Samuel T. Manahan, Daniel Woodward, 
 William J. Herrick, William W. Curtis. 
 
 At the south village were Holt & Hardy, Hardy & 
 Stephenson, Cram & Daniels, Burns & Wallace, Peter 
 Smith, G. P. Fletcher, J. H. Tarbell, W. W. Young, and 
 J. H. Tarbell & Son. 
 
 The New Hampshire Gazeteer of 1823 speaks of Lynde- 
 borough as having two taverns, two stores, four saw-mills, 
 three grain mills, one clothing mill, and two tanneries. 
 The clothing- or fulling-mill was on Rocky river, where 
 Warren Eaton's mill now stands, and one grain mill was on 
 the same stream above, at the Stephenson mill ; another on 
 the same stream below, and west of south village ; and the 
 other south of Putnam hill, and below the present saw- 
 mill. There was a tannery at the foot of the hill, west of 
 Charles Boutwell's, carried on by Nehemiah Boutwell ; and 
 another north of the Badger pond, owned by John Wood- 
 bury. Elias Mclntire kept a hotel at that time where his 
 son Nathaniel now lives, and the other was on the turn- 
 pike. During the Revolution a hotel was kept by Capt. 
 Barron, north of the Badger pond, where F. B. Tay lives. 
 When Burgoyne was captured, a large number of people 
 gathered there to celebrate the event. A cask of tar was 
 raised to the top of a pine tree, over which was placed an 
 image of the British commander, and after dark the enemy 
 was burnt in effigy. 
 
 A pottery was once carried on by Peter Clark, north of 
 the mountain ; there were potash works west of Charles 
 Boutwell's, owned by Nehemiah Boutwell; and there was a 
 
38 
 
 forge and furnace owned by Henry Cram's sons, east of 
 Putnam hill. 
 
 February 24, 1826, the selectmen licensed Daniel Put- 
 nam to keep a tavern at his house for the term of forty- 
 eight hours, to commence at six o'clock on the morning of 
 February 28. 
 
 The town has been very free from accidents and ex- 
 tended epidemics. No serious crimes have been committed, 
 so far as known. But there were casualties of course. 
 Timothy Carleton was killed at the raising of the Wilton 
 meeting-house, in September, 1773. In the winter of 1812 
 the spotted-fever raged for a short time, and thirteen per- 
 sons died in as many days. In November, 1809, three chil- 
 dren of Mr. Lakin were burned in a barn while the family 
 were at an ordination in jNIont Vernon. John Fish was 
 killed ]\Iay 4, 1846, on the road between the Forest road 
 and Warren Eaton's mill. Mrs. Artemas Woodward was 
 thrown from a carriage and killed May 8, 1852, at the foot 
 of the hill west of George Spalding's. Samuel Hodgeman 
 was killed by lightning June 17, 1860. 
 
 A disastrous fire in Portsmouth in 1814 led the people of 
 Lyndeborough to make a contribution in money and provi- 
 sions, with subscriptions from ten cents to four dollars, the 
 whole amounting to one hundred and fifty-three dollars 
 and eleven cents. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 
 
 We come now to the ecclesiastical history, which was an 
 integral part of that of the town for nearly a hundred years, 
 as during this time the minister was paid by the whole 
 town. 
 
 The first settlers were trained in the Puritan faith, and 
 brought with them the Bible and catechism. They observed 
 the Sabbath, and understood the advantages of public 
 worship. They were men and women of fortitude, cour- 
 
39 
 
 age, and perseverance. Such men were needed to effect a 
 permanent settlement here. It was a wild wilderness, far 
 from the villages of eastern Massachusetts, from which 
 they came. They desired to have the Gospel preached in 
 their new home, and it was a part of their contract that they 
 should have a meeting-house and preaching within five 
 years after the settlement began. The proprietors were 
 also interested to do their part, so. far as possible. But it 
 was so much easier to vote at Salem than it was to carry 
 out the votes in Salem Canada, that the progress at first 
 was slow and discouraging. 
 
 The proprietors voted, March 7, 1739, to place the meet- 
 ing-house as near the centre of the township as it could be, 
 and a committee was appointed to " look out a convenient 
 spot for the same, and make report at the next meeting, 
 and to clear a road from the end of the road already cleared 
 to the' said meeting-house place." The place selected was 
 on Putnam hill, east of south village, in the upper end of 
 the field north of Edward H. Putnam's, partlj^ on lot 41 
 and partly on lot 44, at the western part of said lots. 
 Benjamin Lynde donated twenty acres and John Cram ten 
 for the use of the meeting-house, which was to be set on 
 the road adjoining said lots. They voted to " build and set 
 up a good frame thirty-five feet long, thirty feet wide, and 
 twenty feet stud at on or before May 10, 1740, and to 
 underpin the same with good handsome stones." But for 
 various reasons the frame was not raised until September 
 24, 1741. The bills for raising this frame, as approved the 
 next January by the proprietors, indicate that the rum and 
 sugar used on the occasion cost more (sixteen pounds and 
 six shillings) than the bread, fish, and cheese (eleven 
 pounds and five shillings). It took liquor in those days to 
 hew timber and put up frames, and one Avould judge that 
 it was not used sparingly. The frame stood uncovered for 
 a long time. The proprietors voted, August 23, 1748, to 
 finish the meeting-house : 
 
40 
 
 Viz. boarding sides and ends with feather edged boards, to board 
 and shingle the roof and put on weather boards and finish the 
 covings, to make and hang all the outside doors ; to lay a double 
 floor below ; To make six seats on each side ; To fix pillars under 
 the galleries, to make a conveniency for the minister to stand in to 
 preach, and to glaze the said house with glass seven inches one way 
 by nine the other way and to make five windows. 
 
 It is evident from the records that the house was boarded 
 and shingled, but there is no indication that it was ever 
 finished. No doubt it was used for a time, but no evidence 
 of it can be found in any of the records. Eleven years 
 later (October 10, 1754) a committee was appointed to 
 "view the meeting-house and see in what manner it can be 
 made suitable for public worship," and five years later, in 
 1759, the proprietors voted an appropriation "for a new 
 meeting-house to be erected for the accommodation of the 
 present inhabitants." After the strip was taken from Salem 
 Canada and given to No. 2 or Wilton, the first location of 
 the meeting-house was no longer near the centre of the 
 town, and this explains the reasons for building a new 
 house. But they did not wait to have a meeting-house 
 built before they provided preaching, for the records of the 
 proprietors for December 10, 1741, read, " It being put to 
 vote whether the word of God should be preached in the 
 town this winter passed in the affirmative, and six pounds 
 were granted for that purpose." 
 
 August 23, 1743, " John Cram, Jacob Putnam, and John 
 Dale, Jun., were appointed a committee to procure a min- 
 ister to preach, and three pounds old tenor were allowed 
 for as many days as they shall have preaching for the next 
 six months ensuing." The following letter was sent to 
 L3mdeborough by the proprietors December 25, 1755, in 
 answer to a petition for a minister : 
 
 To the inhabitants of Lyndeboro' : 
 
 The committee of the proprietors met together on your petition 
 for having the preaching of the Gospel continue among them, and 
 
41 
 
 considering your earnest request (with which we are well pleased) 
 and the advantage it may be to the spiritual and temporal interests 
 of the town, have resolved to allow to such Gospel Minister as you 
 shall get to preach for the three following months £6.10 old tenor 
 for every Sabbath after the twenty-fifth of the instant month. 
 I am in the name 
 
 Your assured Friend 
 
 B. Lynde. 
 Salem Dec 25, 1755. 
 
 The first meeting in Lyndeborough in the interests of a 
 settled ministry of which we have any record, is suggestive 
 of the practical piety of those days. It was held at the 
 house of Ephraim Putnam, September 3, 1756. After 
 electing Jonathan Cram moderator, and Jacob Wellman 
 society clerk, — 
 
 Voted, To keep a day of fasting and prayer for the blessing of 
 Almighty God in choosing a minister and settling church order. 
 
 They sent for three of the nearest ministers to assist them 
 in the service, and give " advice in the weighty matter of 
 settling a minister." This society, thus organized, con- 
 tinued to care for the rehgious interests of the community 
 until the town was incorporated eight years later, which 
 served the church in a business capacity until 1835, when 
 a society is again mentioned. September 27, 1756, Mr. 
 John Rand, who had been supplying the church for some 
 time, was invited to settle as pastor, but he did not accept 
 the call until the next year. He was absent from town so 
 long that a committee was sent to his father's to find him. 
 During his absence Mr. Nathan Holt supplied for a time, 
 but was settled in South Dennis, Mass. December 5, 1757, 
 a church was organized with eight male members, — and, per- 
 haps, twenty or more in all, — the pastor of the Amherst 
 church, Rev. Daniel Wilkins, and two delegates, assisting 
 in the service. This was the seventh church organized 
 in the county. There was no church on the north and 
 
42 
 
 west uearer than Keene, and the nearest on the south and 
 east were Amherst, Nashua, and Hollis.^ Two days after 
 the organization of the church, December 7, Mr. John 
 Rand was ordained. The churches on the council were, — 
 Townsend, Rev. Pliineas Hemingway, pastor ; Hollis, Rev. 
 Daniel Emerson, pastor; Hudson, Rev. Nathaniel ]\Ierrill, 
 pastor ; Amherst, Rev. Daniel Wilkins, pastor ; and the 
 church in Pepperell. Mr. Rand was to receive forty pounds 
 from the proprietors as a settlement, payable in three 
 instalments, and a yearly salary of forty pounds, and the 
 society were to provide a certain amount of wood, and 
 "one shilling each for each soul in town, and to increase 
 the number of shillings according to the increase of the 
 number of souls." Mr. Rand lived the last part of his pas- 
 torate where Charles Boutwell now lives, but his term of 
 service was very brief for those days, and after four years 
 and four months he was dismissed April 8, 1762. 
 
 Rev. John Rand, son of Jonathan and Millicent (Esta- 
 brook) Rand, was born in Charlestown, ]\Iass., Jan. 24, 
 1727 ; was graduated from Harvard in 1748, and afterwards 
 married to Sarah, daughter of Captain John Goffe, of Derry- 
 field, ijow Manchester. After leaving Lyndeborougli he 
 lived in Goffstown and Bedford. He represented Bedford 
 in the convention that formed the constitution of New 
 Hampshire, and died October 12, 1805. He was said to 
 have been Arminian in doctrine, but inclined to the Epis- 
 copal form of worship. He occasionally ministered to a few 
 persons of the latter denomination then resident in Goffs- 
 town and Bedford, but was never settled again in the min- 
 istry. Twin sons, John and Jonathan, were born to him 
 June 24, 1762, and twin sons, Nehemiah and Thomas, were 
 born May 22, 1776. The other children were,— MiUe, 
 born February 5, 1764 ; Robert, born ]\Iay 13, 1767 ; Sarah, 
 born January 20, 1774. 
 
 1 The first Baptist church in New Hampshire was organized two years before, in 
 1755; the first Methodist church in the state was gathered in 1792, and the first Freewill 
 Baptist in 1780. 
 
43 
 
 In October, before Rev. John Rand was settled, the 
 society voted, — 
 
 That the meeting-house shall he set on the road that goes from 
 the beaver pond bridge to Jonathan Cram's Jun., on a place called 
 the Rocky Hill not further from a place called Rocky ledge, on the 
 road to the lower corner of the town so called than the said 
 bridge is. 
 
 The next year, December 7, 1758, the society record 
 reads, — 
 
 Bound ourselves to buUd a meeting-house on Rev. John Rand's 
 lot lying east of Jonathan Cram's Jun., not exceeding forty rods 
 from the south west corner of said lot. 
 
 They voted " to build within a year, according to the de- 
 scription of the house, as mentioned in a bond bearing date 
 Nov. 21, 1757." 
 
 According to these votes tlie second meeting-house was 
 located in the field east of where Mrs. Benjamin Button, a 
 granddaughter of Rev. John Eand, now lives, on the road 
 from the centre of the town to Johnson Corner. The pro- 
 prietors voted to appropriate 13£., 8s., 6d. for glass and 
 nails for this house, but the aid was declined by the peo- 
 ple, probably on account of the small sum offered. Tradi- 
 tion says the people were so much displeased with Ben- 
 jamin Lynde, Jun., Esq., that they thought seriously of 
 changing the name of the town, showing that they had 
 some grit as well as grace. The first record of a meeting 
 held in this house is that of a society meeting, ]\Iarch 9, 
 1761, and it is probable that the new house began to be 
 used at that time ; but it was occupied only about ten years, 
 and tradition says it was then moved nearer the centre, 
 used as a dwelling-house, and afterwards burned. 
 
 The church, during the first year of its organization, 
 chose Melchizedek Boffee and Ephraim Powers a com- 
 mittee to " take care and see that there is no disorder on 
 
44 
 
 the Sabbath day for the year ensuing," and tithing-men 
 were chosen annually by the society, and afterwards by the 
 town. They were five years without a settled pastor. Rev. 
 John Wyeth, of Cambridge, afterwards settled at Annis- 
 quam, Mass., supplied for some time, and a call was 
 extended to Mr. William Clark. Rev. Antipas Steward, a 
 native of Marlborough, Mass., and afterwards settled at 
 Ludlow, Mass., was also called to settle, but declined the 
 invitation. 
 
 Meanwhile some of the people were dissatisfied with the 
 location of the church, and, as the town grew, it did not 
 seem to be large enough. The families in the south-east 
 part of the town were unwilling to have the house removed 
 any farther from them, and they asked for the preaching 
 service in their neighborhood a portion of the year, and, a 
 quarter part of one year, services were held at Jacob Cram's, 
 where Mr. Melendy now lives. The proprietors selected a 
 place for the new meeting-house on John Gould's lot 69, 
 somewhere west of George Spalding's, but the Bevins Cor- 
 ner people made so much objection that the town voted, 
 July 21, 1766, — " In order that the inhabitants of the most 
 easterly part of this town cordially join with the other 
 inhabitants of said town in settling the Gospel, that the 
 meeting-house be built about half way between where the 
 meeting-house is fixed by the proprietors, and where the 
 meeting-house now stands, that is, before the door of Mr. 
 Gould's house, where a heap of stones is this instant laid 
 by the inhabitants of this town." The town-meeting was 
 adjourned long enough to erect this monument of their 
 compromise. Even then all were not satisfied, and the 
 town referred the momentous question to John Goff of 
 Bedford, Samuel Barr of Londonderry, and John Hale of 
 HoUis, who confirmed the decision of the town by their 
 report April 27, 1768. The spot chosen was where the 
 present town-house stands, and the house — fifty feet 
 long, forty wide, and tweaty-two feet post — was finished 
 
45 
 
 some time in 1772. It was occupied by the church aud 
 town until the present church was built in 1837, and by 
 the town until the town-house was built in 1845. The old 
 church was sold to Jacob Butler, aud made into a barn. 
 The pews of this church were appraised and sold. The man 
 paying the highest tax in town had the privilege of taking 
 the best pew. If he declined, the second highest tax-payer 
 had the privilege, etc. The following description of this 
 old church, around which cluster so many pleasant and hal- 
 lowed associations, is given by D. C. Grant, Esq., and is no 
 doubt accurate : 
 
 It had three grand entrances with double doors surmounted with 
 heavy caps, like a roof with heavy cornices. It stood facing the 
 south after the custom of the times, so as to be square with the sun 
 at noon. The south door was covered with a porch about twelve 
 by eighteen feet, with double flight of stairs leading to the galleries. 
 This porch, like the house, had three doors. The interior had a 
 gallery on three sides ; the singers were located in front of the pul- 
 pit. There were two or three rows of seats extending around the 
 gallery, with free seats for men and boys on one side, and women 
 and girls on the other, and many a meaning look and tender glance 
 were exchanged in that holy place. Back of these free seats was a 
 row of pews of the sheep-pen pattern of those times, with seats 
 around the sides. In the body of the house was one broad aisle 
 leading from the south entrance to the pulpit, and also a narrower 
 one extending around the house, leaving a row of pews between it 
 and the wall, raised about eight inches above the rest of the pews 
 on the ground floor. The central part of the house had square 
 pews with seats all around, so that the children and servants sat 
 with their backs to the minister. All the pews were surmounted 
 with a railing ten or fifteen inches above the panel work, sustained 
 by spindles like the rounds of a modern chair. The front seats 
 were hung, not on golden hinges, and were usually turned up dur- 
 ing prayer, when all the congregation stood. With the amen, down 
 came the seats with an almost deafening roar, like that of the firing 
 of the old slam-bang infantry in the sham fight of muster. The 
 pulpit was built high, upon the centre of the north side, with nice 
 
46 
 
 panel work painted to represent mahogany veneers. Pulpits in 
 those days were built for such fiery speakers as John Knox, of 
 whom it is said, " er he haid done with his sermone, was sae active 
 and vigorous, that he was like to ding the pulpit in blades and flie 
 out of it." Beneath the pulpit in front was the deacon's seat, par- 
 tially hidden by a wooden screen to which the communion table leaf 
 was attached, which could be let down when not in use. Over the 
 minister's head was the indispensable sounding-board, nearly round 
 and several feet in diameter, looking like an inverted top, and 
 children used to wonder what would become of the minister if it 
 should fall upon his head. 
 
 Rev. Sewall Goodridge, after three separate calls from 
 the town to settle, accepted their invitation, and at the 
 close of his letter of acceptance desires the prayers of the 
 people "that God of his infinite mercy may be with me at 
 all times; that his grace may dwell within my heart; that 
 his spirit may lead and guide me in all truth, even as it is 
 in Jesus Christ, which is according to Godliness; that his 
 spirit may descend into my heart, even a spirit of truth 
 and purity, integrity and uprightness; that I may be 
 enabled to see more and more of the excellency and amia- 
 bleness of that religion which I myself profess, and which 
 I shall, or may, from time to time communicate to others ; 
 that I may be made faithful and abundantlj^ successful to 
 your souls of all such as shall hear me; that I may be 
 enabled to preach Christ and him crucified, and rightly 
 and sincerely divide the truths of the Holy Scriptures, and 
 administer the oracles of God unto you in the truth and 
 purity of the same." 
 
 jMr. Goodridge was ordained September 7, 1768, and there 
 were present at his ordination, — his pastor, Rev. Zabdiel 
 Adams of Lunenburg, Mass., who probably preached the 
 sermon, Rev. John Payson of Fitchburg, Rev. Nathaniel 
 Merrill of Hudson, Rev. Daniel Wilkins of Amherst, Rev. 
 Daniel Emerson of Hollis, Rev. Joseph Emerson of Pep- 
 perell. Rev. Stephen Farrar of New Ipswich, Rev. Jona- 
 
47 
 
 than Livermore of Wilton, and Rev. Joseph Kidder of 
 Nashua. 
 
 Rev. Sevvall Goodridge, son of Benjamin and Sarah 
 (Phillips) Goodridge, born in Lunenburg, Mass., July 18, 
 1743, was the fifth generation from William, who came 
 probablj' from Bury Saint Edmunds, Suffolk county, Eng- 
 land, to Watertown, Mass., where he was admitted to the 
 bar in 1642, having his home near what is now Mount 
 Aubiirn. He was graduated from Harvard college in 1764, 
 and continued pastor of the church here until he died, March 
 14, 1809, after a pastorate of forty years and six montlis — 
 the longest by many years of any in the history of the 
 church. He received about one hundred and thirty dollars 
 as a settlement from the proprietors, and two hundred acres 
 of land, which he selected for a home, north of the pond 
 where William Fisk now lives. He was to have an annual 
 salary of forty pounds until there should be seventy families 
 in town, then fort3'-five pounds until there should be a 
 hundred families, and after that fifty pounds. He had a 
 successful ministry, and was a preacher of sound doctrine. 
 He was a prominent and successful business man, long one 
 of the proprietors of the town, and probably wrote and wit- 
 nessed more deeds than any man in town since his day. 
 He was a liberty-loving man, and when the coming storms 
 of the Revolution began to lower, and the oppression of the 
 mother country and the rights of men began to be discussed 
 all over the land, he and his people were not ignorant of 
 these things, and both minister and people warmly espoused 
 the cause of the colonies. In the second year of his pas- 
 torate twenty- four united with the church, and there were 
 additions almost every year for twenty years. 
 
 Mr. Goodridge was in feeble health in the later years of 
 his life, but was accustomed to gather the children on the 
 forenoon of Election day and hear them recite the catechism. 
 He married Phebe Putnam, of Dan vers, Mass., and " his 
 bringing his wife to town," says Rev. E. B. Claggett, " was 
 
48 
 
 an event of exciting interest among his people. They came 
 in a two-wheeled chaise, a vehicle that had scarcely been 
 seen in any of our towns at that early period. Mr. Jacob 
 Wellman was decidedly of the opinion that they would not 
 be able to come through with the carriage, or at least that 
 the lady would not have courage to ride in it all the way. 
 Accordingly he saddled and pillioned his horse, thinking he 
 might have the honor of bringing the bride himself. But 
 it was finally concluded that the minister and his wife 
 should both keep their seats, while six strong men followed 
 behind to keep the chaise right side up." 
 
 Mr. Goodridge resigned in 1806, but the town continued 
 him in office and voted him an annuity of one hundred dol- 
 lars while he lived. He died on town-meeting day, and the 
 town-clerk made the following record: 
 
 After the votes for governor were counted, the melancholy 
 news of the death of our former pastor, the Rev. Sewall Goodridge, 
 was brought into the house by Dea. Peter Clark, upon which the 
 town passed the following votes or resolutions : 
 
 Voted unanimously , To assist the bereaved family at the funeral 
 and in burying our Rev. pastor, Mr. Goodridge. 
 
 Voted, To choose a committee of seven and that they be instructed 
 to bury the Rev. Mr. Goodridge in a decent, respectful, and minis- 
 terial manner, to send to and request all the ministers to attend, 
 make provision for their entertainment, and pay all funeral charges, 
 except for the mourning garments of the family. 
 
 It may be noticed that the bill for the entertainment of 
 the ministers and others included ten gallons of genuine 
 West India rum, which in those days the solemnities and 
 dignity of the occasion obviously demanded. 
 
 The first couple married in Lyndeborough by the Rev. 
 Mr. Goodridge were Joseph Wilkins and Grace Hutchinson. 
 
 If the historian should estimate a church from the stand- 
 point of its records simply, he would gain a very wrong 
 impression of its character and work, for a record is 
 
49 
 
 made of all dissensions and difficulties but nothing is 
 said of the years of prosperity. The church in Lynde- 
 borough was not alone in having occasions for discipline. 
 The men of those times had strong will power. They had to 
 contend with almost insurmountable difficulties in estab- 
 lishing homes for themselves. The times developed a rug- 
 ged independence and individuality of character, and it was 
 not strange that some sparks of fire should fly when such 
 flint and steel came in contact. But the spirit of their 
 Master had a wonderful power over their lives, and when 
 they found themselves waxing warm in debate, or troubled 
 by each others' faults, they sought advice of neighboring 
 churches, and were prompt to make suitable confession if 
 rebuked by their counsellors. A few extracts from the 
 records of the church during these years, which included 
 the stormy times of the Revolution, may not be without 
 interest. 
 
 April 10, 1769, the church voted that six weeks intervene 
 between the communion seasons, and that " the proportion 
 of contributions for the support of the communion be two 
 coppers from each member." It was also " Voted, that no 
 person be permitted to partake with the members of this 
 church more than twice or three times successively without 
 producing a recommendation or a dismission from the 
 church to which they belong." The next record in 1769 is 
 suggestive : " After debate, voted to choose three choris- 
 ters, Andrew Fuller, Osgood Carleton, and William Bar- 
 ron, to take the care and set the Psalms in the public con- 
 gregation." 
 
 At another time they voted " that the members of the 
 church sit in praising God in the time of divine service, and 
 that this vote be recorded in this book." A few years later 
 the record says they " agreed by a great majority of the 
 church that every member stand or sit as they may think it 
 convenient in time of singing in public devotion on the 
 
 Lord's day." 
 
 4 
 
60 
 
 Again : The church considered an article " to see if the 
 church will consult anything about the singing in the house 
 of God on the Lord's day as there are several persons un- 
 easy about the same," and later they voted "that the read- 
 ing the Psalm or hymn by the deacons be carried on as 
 usual in the forenoon, except the Psalm or hymn will not 
 admit of reading and in such case the chorister to signify 
 the same to the deacons by speaking or some other token or 
 sign, for twelve months from this day and the deacons omit 
 reading in the afternoon." 
 
 In 1779, voted " that Dr. Watts version of the Psalms be 
 used for the three months next ensuing." About this time 
 a large committee was chosen to 'make a new draft of the 
 covenant, which after mature deliberation was adopted, 
 and all present subscribed to it. It was strongly orthodox. 
 At one time complaint was made against a brother of the 
 church " for giving imprudent advice and for wronging the 
 truth," and the committee to whom the matter was referred 
 reported, — "We have examined the evidence on both sides 
 and have done our endeavor to persuade the parties to agree 
 but to no purpose, we therefore take this opportunity to 
 inform the church that it is our opinion that it is more to 
 the honor of God and to the peace and comfort of this 
 church that the aforesaid complaint be dismissed by the 
 church." 
 
 At another time a member of the church brought before 
 it several complaints against the pastor, three of them as 
 follows : 
 
 (1) I apprehend I can point out some particular times when 
 liquor or strong drink has a difBerent and unexpected effect with the 
 pastor to me as well as to the pastor himself according to his 
 acknowledgment. 
 
 (2) I apprehend the pastor is chargeable with disregarding the 
 truth in the matter of moving a fence, &c. 
 
 (3) I apprehend the pastor chargeable with unfaithfulness as to 
 his word and promises in his dealing with others. 
 
51 
 
 In reply to the complaint concerning the " different and 
 unexpected effect " of liquor, the pastor says, " Though I 
 have never been drunk with strong liquor, yet I have per- 
 ceived it to have, at particular times, a different effect from 
 what I expected, but can not allow, by any means, I am 
 become a slave to it." To the second charge, of disregard- 
 ing the truth, he says, " I know not even the color of a 
 disregard to the truth, though there was a contradiction." 
 To the third complaint, as to breaking promises, he saj^s, 
 "I have never knowingly made a promise but I have either 
 fulfilled or endeavored to fulfill it, unless Providence shut 
 the door by disappointment." The complaints were dis- 
 missed by the church, and the complainant confessed that 
 matters did not appear to him in such an aggravated light 
 as when he exhibited the complaint. 
 
 The highest outward respect was paid to the Christian 
 ministry in those days. When the pastor approached the 
 church on the Sabbath the people parted to the right and 
 left, while the minister and his wife passed between, both 
 parties politely exchanging civilities. When the services 
 closed in the church, not an individual left his pew until 
 the minister left the pulpit and passed down the aisle. 
 
 From 1797 to 1806 no records of the church can be found, 
 neither of baptisms nor of admissions to the church, but in 
 1807 the clerk, Dea. Aaron Lewis, was requested to make 
 out a satisfactory record. As a result, the names of those 
 baptized are given, but no dates. 
 
 October 13, 1807, the church voted to give Mr. Jesse 
 Fisher, of Princeton, and afterwards settled in Scotland, 
 Conn., a call to settle, but there is no record of the con- 
 currence of the town. A call was given Rev. Jaazaniah 
 Crosby, of Hebron, but the council refused to settle him 
 because of his lack of soundness in theology. He after- 
 wards settled in Charlestown, and later became a Unitarian 
 preacher. 
 
 Rev. Abraham Randall, of Stow, Mass., previously set- 
 
52 
 
 tied in Manchester, Mass., accepted a call provided the 
 town would "furnish him twelve cords of good, hard, dry- 
 wood yearly," but the people said " Nay," and he did not 
 settle with them. 
 
 In 1811 there were 108 members, and Rev. Nathaniel 
 Merrill was ordained October 30, 1811, of that year. The 
 pastors and churches assisting at the ordination were, — 
 Rev. Elijah Parish, D. D., Byfield, Mass., Rev. Isaac Bra- 
 man of Rowley, Mass., Rev. James W. Woodward of 
 Norwich, Vt., Rev. Jeremiah Barnard of Amherst, Rev. 
 Ebenezer Hill of Mason, Rev. Thomas Beede of Wilton, 
 and Rev. Ephraim P. Bradford of New Boston. 
 
 The new minister was a man of ardent temperament 
 and tender sensibilities, and soon won the affections of his 
 people. Feeling the power of the Gospel himself, he knew 
 well how to reach the mind and heart, and his ministry 
 was long and very successful. One hundred and ninety- 
 seven united with the church in the iirst twelve years of 
 his pastorate. At the beginning of the century, religion in 
 this country was at its lowest ebb. The prayer-meeting 
 had not then been developed as a power in the church, 
 but the true spirit of a religious life was not dead, oidy 
 dormant. In December, 1823, a religious association was 
 organized, which might well be called the original Societj'- 
 of Christian Endeavor, as its aim, method, and constitution 
 were almost exactly those of the present society by that 
 name. The following is the constitution of this early 
 religious society of Lyndeborough : 
 
 We the subscribers agree to form ourselves into a society for 
 religious improvement, and as a summary of our belief of the lead- 
 ing truths entertained in the Holy Scriptures, we adopt the con- 
 fession of faith used in this church, and we humbly entreat the 
 guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit to assist us in our Chris- 
 tian course, that we may be enabled to perform every duty which 
 devolves upon us with filial piety. And that our meeting may 
 prove a blessing to our own souls and the souls of those around us, 
 
53 
 
 ■we furthermore agree in the strength of Christ to observe the 
 following rules and regulations : 
 
 (1) That the present pastor of the church be the president of 
 the society. 
 
 (2) That a vice-president be chosen quarterly, to act as pres- 
 ident in his absence. 
 
 (3) That a secretary be chosen at the first meeting in January 
 annually, whose duty it shall be to keep the records of the society. 
 
 (4) That we will meet once a fortnight in the afternoon or even- 
 ing of Monday at such hour and place as may be agreed on by the 
 society. 
 
 (5) That in case of absence we wiU render an excuse if requested. 
 
 (6) That our meetings be opened and closed with prayer and 
 singing. 
 
 (7) That none of us will decline leading in prayer when 
 requested by the president, unless for special reasons. (In this 
 article male members are intended.) 
 
 (8) That experimental religion be the frequent subject of con- 
 versation : and that the president may select a passage of Scripture 
 at each meeting to be discussed by the members at the next meet- 
 ing. 
 
 (9) Resolved, that we wUl be free to relate to each other our 
 feelings and views upon religion. 
 
 (10) That strict order be observed during our meetings and that 
 but one speak at a time. 
 
 (11) That no person either male or female will be expected to 
 meet with this society more than once, unless such person unites 
 with us by signing this constitution. 
 
 (12) That the above constitution may receive such amendments, 
 alterations or additions as the society may think expedient. 
 
 Dec, 1823. 
 
 The constitution was signed by twenty-four persons ; 
 and the meetings thus established, together with the 
 remarkable Christian experience of Barron, son of Capt. 
 William and Sarah Clark, who died April 18, 1826, at the 
 age of ten years, were the apparent means which led to 
 the extensive revival of that year, the greatest which 
 the church in Lyndeborough ever experienced. "There 
 
54 
 
 were but few families," said the pastor afterwards, "in 
 which there were not some either deeply impressed or 
 rejoicing in hope. The Lord seemed to come down like a 
 mighty wind, prostrating sinners and bringing them sub- 
 missively to Christ. In this work God was pleased to 
 magnify and honor in a striking manner his own institu- 
 tions. Though some were arrested and brought in who 
 were open despisers of the Divine truth of Christianity, 
 and who seemed to be far from the kingdom, yet nearly all 
 had been accastomed to attend on the means of grace." 
 Those parts of the town where the people uniformly 
 attended religious worship were the parts most signally 
 blest. One hundred and seven united with the church at 
 that time as the fruits of the revival, and seven or eight 
 young men were led to devote their lives to the work of the 
 ministrj', among them Rev. James Boutwell, Rev. Benjamin 
 F. Clark, Rev. Charles Whiting, Rev. James Hervey jMer- 
 rill, and Rev. David P. French. One hundred and four- 
 teen more united with the church during the remainder of 
 Mr. Merrill's pastorate— making four hundred and eighteen 
 in all, a grand record for pastor and people. 
 
 It was during this pastorate that the lecture-house was 
 built in North Lyndeborough. At the suggestion of Rev. 
 Moses Bradford, of Francestown, the ministers of that towo, 
 and of Lyndeborough, New Boston, and Mont Vernon, 
 agreed to establish a Wednesday lecture at North Lynde- 
 borough to accommodate parts of the four towns adjoining. 
 It was to be held in the afternoon every other W^ednesday, 
 and these four ministers were to preach in turn, the others, 
 as far as practicable, to be present. At first it was given 
 in private houses, then in Parker hall ; then in 1813 a lec- 
 ture-house was built, which was used about forty years. 
 Out of this movement began the revival of 1812, aud the 
 neighborhood Sunday evening prayer-meeting, which was 
 held for many years. 
 
 Mr. Merrill lived in the house opposite George Spal- 
 
55 
 
 ding's, the place having been given to the town for a par- 
 sonage by Benjamin Lynde, Jr. 
 
 It was during this period' that the church became a sep- 
 arate institution from the town. Thus far the town had 
 paid the minister's salary, as one of its necessary expenses, 
 and had joined with the church in calling and dismissing 
 pastors. But men of other denominations, or of no relig- 
 ious belief, began to flock into the town, and they were 
 restive under a tax iu-which they had no interest, and a 
 state law was passed before the separation took place by 
 which they could be excused from such taxation. The 
 following are specimens of notifications sent to the select- 
 men at this time : 
 
 To the selectmen of Lyndeboro'. This may certify, that I differ- 
 in religious opinion from Rev. Nathaniel Merrill and object to you 
 and your successors in office hereafter taxing my poU or estate 
 toward the support of preaching in this town. 
 
 Sir : for particular reasons I wish not to be taxed to Mr. Merrill 
 again till I think different. 
 
 Gentlemen : This may certify that I differ from Rev. Nathaniel 
 Merrill's religion, and therefore I refuse to pay him any minister 
 tax and shall not. 
 
 These changes in ministerial support led Mr. Merrill to 
 resign, and he was dismissed July 28, 1835, after twenty- 
 three years and eight months' service. Many years have 
 now elapsed, but he has not ceased to be lovingly remem- 
 bered. He was a genuine son of consolation, and his min- 
 isterial brethren used to speak of him as the " Beloved Mer- 
 rill," and he was often called by them to assist in revival 
 work, for which he had peculiar qualifications. 
 
 Rev. Nathaniel Merrill, son of Thomas and Sarah (Friend) 
 Merrill, was born in that part of Rowley now Georgetown, 
 Mass., December 4, 1782, and died there, while on a visit, 
 July 4, 1839. He prepared for college at Dummer acad- 
 
56 
 
 emy, was graduated at Dartmouth college iu 1809, and 
 studied theology with Dr. Elijah Parish, at Byfield, and 
 v/ith Dr. Samuel Spring, of Newburyport. He married 
 Betsey Carpenter, at Norwich, Vt., January 22, 1812. 
 Three of his sons were graduated at Dartmouth, and one, 
 Rev. James Hervey, was pastor at West Andover, Mass., 
 for many years. After leaving Lyndeborough, Mr. Mer- 
 rill was settled in Wolcott, N. Y., in September, 1835, 
 and was pastor there at the time of his death at his old 
 home in Georgetown, where he was buried. 
 
 The Sabbath-school was established in 1819, but the first 
 mention made of it in the records is a vote of the church, 
 November 8, 1821, "That a contribution to defray the 
 expenses of the Sunday-school be taken on Thanksgiving 
 Day." 
 
 On January 2, 1822, the town voted that certain indi- 
 viduals have the privilege of erecting a stove in the meet^ 
 ing-house. Until this time there had been no way of 
 warming the house, except as foot-stoves were carried, filled 
 with coals. This question of introducing stoves was dis- 
 cussed with a good deal of excitement, and was opposed in 
 this town, as in many others. One old Revolutionary hero 
 is reported as saying, — "I have attended church these fifty 
 years; I have fought the British seven years ; I have slept 
 in a tent on the frozen ground with nothing but a blanket 
 to cover me ; 1 have trod the snow-path with bleeding feet 
 nearly naked, — and if Mr. Merrill wants a fire, let him go 
 to the place where they keep one all the j'ear round." 
 
 October 27, 1835, the first mention of a society or parish 
 is found, and a vote was passed to raise the salary by vol- 
 uutarjr contributions. Later they seem to have taxed the 
 members of the society, and sometimes all the members of 
 the church, though not members of the legal society. Some 
 of these brethren neglected, on the plea of poverty, to pay 
 the assessments, which made considerable trouble, but the 
 matter was referred to a committee from other churches, 
 
57 
 
 and in the case of one brother they recommended that " he 
 first pay all he thinks he ought to and not be mean, and 
 then reflect upon paying the remainder." 
 
 Rev. Jacob White supplied the church late in 1835, and 
 was ordained January 13, 1836. The sermon was by Rev. 
 Silas Aiken, of Amherst; ordaining pra3^er, by Rev. E. P. 
 Bradford, of New Boston ; charge, by Rev. John M. Whiton, 
 of Antrim ; right hand of fellowship, by Rev. Austin Rich- 
 ards, of Francestown ; address to the church, by Rev. Hum- 
 phrey Moore, D.D., of Milford. 
 . Mr. White was a thoroughly educated man, a sound 
 theologian, a good writer, and an able and instructive min- 
 ister of the Gospel. He was pastor four years and a half, 
 and was dismissed June 30, 1840. Fourteen united with 
 the church during his pastorate. It was during this time 
 that the present church and parsonage were erected. The 
 church worshipped in the old meeting-house for the last 
 time, November 26, 1837. Mr. White on that day preached 
 a historical sermon from the text, Zech. 1 : 5, "■ Your fathers, 
 where are they ? and the prophets, do they live forever ? " 
 An original hymn was sung, written by Dr. Israel Herrick. 
 The new church was dedicated three days later, Novem- 
 ber 29, 1837, with a sermon by the pastor, and prayer of 
 dedication and consecration by Rev. E. P. Bradford, of 
 New Boston. Another original hymn by Dr. Herrick was 
 sung. 
 
 Jacob White was born in East Bridgewater, Mass., No- 
 vember 20, 1806, and died in Lyndeborough, while on a 
 visit, April 3, 1865. He secured the means for his educa- 
 tion through great personal effort, graduating at Brown 
 University in 1832, and at Andover in 1835. The year 
 after leaving Lyndeborough, he suffered from ill health, 
 but supplied for nine months in Plymouth, Mass. He was 
 pastor at Orleans, Mass., from 1841 to 1861, and resided in 
 Orleans until 1865, when he removed to Bridgewater, his 
 early home. 
 
58 
 
 For two years the church was very acceptably supplied 
 by Rev. William Richardson, who had just closed a pastor- 
 ate of ten years at Wilton. 
 
 Rev. Ivory Kimball was installed December 28, 1842, on 
 a salary of four hundred dollars, with the use of the parson- 
 age buildings and land and parsonage pew, which he 
 accepted on condition that he should be paid punehuiUy. 
 The sermon was preached by Rev. Wm. T. Savage, of 
 Amherst; installing prayer, by Rev. E. P. Bradford, of New 
 Boston ; charge, by Rev. John M. Whiton, of Antrim ; and 
 right hand of fellowship, by Rev. William Richardson, of 
 Deering. Mr. Kimball labored faithfully and successfully, 
 but continued ill health led him to resign, and he was dis- 
 missed Februar}^ 24, 1846, after a little more than three 
 years' service. One of the remarkable events of his pas- 
 torate was the vote of the church, April 4, 1844, endorsing 
 strong resolutions condemning slavery as a ''system of fear- 
 ful wrong — a sin against God — at war with the letter and 
 spirit of the Bible and the dearest rights of man for time 
 and eternity ; " and asserting that the emancipation of the 
 enslaved ought to take place without delay. One hundred 
 and twenty voted in favor of these resolutions and only 
 six against them, showing that the church took strong 
 ground for those times on the vital question of slavery. 
 
 Ivory Kimball was born in Wells, Me., September 21, 
 1805. Studied theology at Bangor Seminary in 1834 ; 
 was ordained at Limington, Me., where he was pastor to 
 1841. After leaving Lyndeborough, he resided at Edge- 
 comb, Me., and Avas pastor there from 1851 to the time of 
 his death, July 24, 1853. 
 
 Rev. Erastus B. Claggett was ordained at Lyndeborough, 
 September 30, 1846. The sermon was by Rev. John 
 Woods, of Newport ; ordaining prayer, by Rev. Jonathan 
 McGee, of Francestown ; charge, by Rev. Bezaleel Smith, of 
 Mont Vernon ; right hand of fellowship, by Rev. Leonard 
 Tenney, of Jaffrey ; address to the people, by Rev. Albert 
 
59 
 
 Manson, of Bennington. In his letter accepting the pasto- 
 rate, Mr. Claggett said, — 
 
 Beloved Brethren and Friends : The invitation extended me 
 through your committee to become your pastor and religious 
 teacher has occupied my deliberations until the present time. The 
 solemn responsibilities of the pastoral office, the nature of the field 
 to which you invite me, and the amount of labor needed there dis- 
 suade me from so great a vsrork. But when I consider the provi- 
 dences which introduced me to your acquaintance, the unanimity 
 with which your invitation is extended, and the numerous expres- 
 sions of kindness I have received from you, I am induced to believe 
 that the Great Head of the church bids me labor among you in the 
 Gospel ministry. I therefore accept the call you have given me, 
 hoping that He who has thus far seemed to lead the way will aid 
 and strengthen me in promoting the interests of the Redeemer's 
 kingdom in your place. 
 
 This letter shows the spirit with which this man took up 
 his life-work, and it was continued unto the end. He was 
 thoroughly devoted to his calling, and was eminently qual- 
 ified, by his literary attainments, his warm, sympathetic 
 nature, and his entire consecration, to do a noble work in 
 his Master's service. He entered heartily into every inter- 
 est of the town. He advocated and sustained lyceums and 
 public lectures for the benefit of the community, and was 
 the prime mover in establishing the Franklin Library 
 Association. For thirteen years he served as superintend- 
 ing school-committee, and was instrumental in greatly rais- 
 ing the standard of scholarship and in securing new and 
 improved school-houses. He encouraged the scholars to 
 continue their studies beyond the common school, and gave 
 his time, cheerfully and without compensation, in teaching 
 them in preparation for academy and college. 
 
 He was a warm friend of the cause of temperance and of 
 the oppressed colored race, and by his words and efforts 
 greatlv stimulated those who went forth in defence of the 
 
60 
 
 Union. He was devoted to the spiritual interests of the 
 whole town. If the people could not, or would not, come 
 to the church, he was ready, with much bodily discomfort, 
 to go to the out-districts and hold meetings. His labors 
 were not in vain. Ninety united with the church during 
 his pastorate, and many of the young people were trained 
 in mind and heart for fields of usefulness in town and else- 
 where. Through his influence a large number of them 
 attended the neighboring academies, and several entered 
 upon a professional life. 
 
 His interest in the town is well illustrated in these 
 words spoken to his people near the close of his ministry : 
 
 When I first came among you I thought there was character 
 here, and I found I was not mistaken. It was my aim to inspire 
 the people with self-reliance and self-respect, with the conviction 
 that they could do something and be something themselves, and so 
 regard this place as not the least among the princes of Judah. We 
 have had common schools and high schools worthy of commendan 
 tion ; libraries and periodicals have not been wanting ; fairs, exhi- 
 bitions, and lyceums have evinced talent, taste, and liberality more 
 than creditable. Your sons and daughters have acquired an educa- 
 tion, not a few have been successful teachers, and some have 
 entered professional life. Lyndeborough has lived not for herself 
 alone. Her influence, though not made conspicuous, is really wide 
 and extensive. And now can you regard your mission as accom- 
 plished ? WiU you yield to discouragements, and let your light, 
 like the waning moon, go out ? You are not prepared for any such 
 thing. You have too much regard for old Lyndeborough, for your- 
 selves, and for the cause of Christ and humanity. If, then, you 
 mean to live and thrive and maintain your standing, you must be 
 interested and earnest, public-spirited and liberal. 
 
 Mr. Claggett never had robust health, but with the ex- 
 ception of two months, after his return from the Christian 
 Commission in 1864, he was always able to attead public 
 worship, and administered the communion on every occa- 
 sion except as above. After twenty-four years of service 
 
61 
 
 he was dismissed, September 30, 1870. His salary had been 
 ery small, but with the help of some private income he 
 kept the church from seeking Home Missionary aid. A 
 debt of four hundred dollars was resting upon the church 
 at the time of his ordination, which was afterward paid, and 
 a bell costing three hundred dollars was procured, which 
 was replaced by another when broken. 
 
 Erastus Baldwin Claggett was born in Newport, May 9, 
 1815 ; entered Dartmouth college, but did not graduate on 
 account of ill health, and was graduated at Andover in 1844. 
 After his pastorate at Lyndeborough he resided for a time 
 at Nashua, and afterward was acting pastor for several 
 years at New Fairfield, Conn., where he died May 16, 1877. 
 
 After the dismissal of Rev. E. B. Claggett, the church 
 was supplied for several years by pastors without installa- 
 tion. Rev. George Smith, Rev. Newton I. Jones, Rev. 
 William L. S. Clark, Rev. Lyman F. Rand, and Rev. Lin- 
 coln Harlow served in that capacity. 
 
 Rev. Theophilus P. Sawin was installed November 20, 
 1878, and resigned on account of failing health, August 14, 
 1885. He was not dismissed however, and died in office 
 January 19, 1886. 
 
 Theophilus Parsons Sawin, son of Bela and Becca (Bar- 
 ber) Sawin, was born in Natick, Mass., February 4, 
 1817. Studied at Phillips academy, and took a theological 
 course with Rev. Parsons Cooke, D. D., of Lynn. He was 
 ordained at Saugus, Mass., April 19, 1843, and dismissed 
 April 20, 1848. Installed at Harwich, Mass., March, 
 1850, and dismissed March 11, 1851. City missionary 
 at Manchester, 1851 to 1856, and from 1866 to 
 1869. Installed at Brookline, December 11, 1856, and dis- 
 missed May 18, 1866. He was acting pastor at Revere, 
 Mass., from August, 1869, to April, 1874; at Middle- 
 borough, Mass., from January, 1875, to December 1, 1877. 
 He married, January 1, 1838, Martha, daughter of Robert 
 and Phebe (Mclntire) Mason. 
 
62 
 
 On the 14th of November, 1888, Rev. Alexander C. 
 Childs was installed pastor of the church. 
 
 During the history of the church nine hundred and forty- 
 one have united with it, and eleven have been licensed to 
 preach the Gospel. The present membership is sixty-two. 
 
 Throughout these one hundred and thirty-two years of 
 its historj', a noble work has been done, making as Rev. 
 Mr. Claggett once said, " Christian men and women for the 
 rest of the world." Its representatives or their descendants 
 are to be found in all parts of the country, giving proof of 
 the solid foundation of character laid by the faithful and 
 godly ministers who have served this church throughout its 
 history. 
 
 BAPTIST CHURCH. 
 
 The first services held in town by the Baptists were in 
 1824, under a large elm in the yard of Moses Pearsons, a 
 place toward the west part of the town since owned by 
 Miss Anna Fish. William and Susan Pearsons were then 
 baptized in Rocky river, south of the Crosby place, by Rev. 
 Joseph Elliott, of New Ipswich. The Baptist chiu'ch was 
 recognized December 10, 1829, and consisted of twenty-one 
 members, who brought letters from Wilton and Milford. 
 David Putnam was chosen deacon, and Daniel Cram, clerk. 
 The meetings were held for a time in the school-house, and, 
 when shut out of that, in the grove near by. The meeting- 
 house was raised in 1832. Rev. David Burroughs writes 
 that " Ephraim Putnam gave the lot on which to build, 
 Miss Stephenson the timber in the woods, and the farmers 
 turned out with teams to draw it; Captain Israel Putnam 
 gave the saw bill, and I was one who gave some days work 
 with the axe." Thus the structure came iuto shape and 
 position, though for several years it was occupied in an 
 unfinished condition for lack of means to complete it. 
 
 The pastorates have been many and brief. Rev. Charles 
 Cummings was among the first. Rev. John Woodbury and 
 
63 
 
 Joseph Sargent served one year each. There have been 
 long pastorless intervals, when the chu.rch had such supplies 
 as were available, some of them excellent men whose labors 
 God richly blessed. But often no one could be obtained, 
 and then sermons were read, or a prayer-meeting held. 
 Among the supplies of the church may be mentioned Revs. 
 John Atwood, John Peacock, Asaph Merriam, Miles Bron- 
 son, and J. C. Foster. 
 
 In 1850, Rev. David P. French became pastor, and served 
 the church one year. In 1854, Rev. E. J. Emery began a 
 pastorate of three years, the longest to that time. Since 
 1858, the following have been pastors : Revs. Joseph B. 
 Mitchell, E. J. Whittemore, S. B. Macomber, W. B. War- 
 ner, H. G. Hubbard, G. B. Smith, and the present pastor, 
 D. Donovan. 
 
 The church has given licenses to preach to four members, 
 — David Burroughs, David P. French, Daniel Putnam, and 
 Jason Putnam. Two of its present members are looking 
 forward to the ministry. During the present pastorate the 
 divine blessing has been granted ; the house of worship 
 has been reseated and repaired; twelve have been baptized 
 into the membership, and several have been received by 
 letter, some of whom, having the ability, have given very 
 liberally towards the support of the church. It had for 
 many years been aided by the state convention in the sup- 
 port of its pastor, but, through divine favor, it is now a 
 self-supporting body. 
 
 PEOFBSSIOKAL MEN. 
 
 There is only time to enumerate the professional men of 
 the town, and natives who have made a record elsewhere. 
 The list is incomplete, but enough are given to show that 
 Lyndeborough has sent out her share of the leading men of 
 the country. 
 
 Of the physicians in town, Dr. Leman is mentioned very 
 
64 
 
 early in the transfer of real estate, but nothing farther is 
 known of him. The same is trae of Dr. Daniel Russell, 
 but as he owned property near Peter Russell who came to 
 town from Merrimack, the doctor may have been his son. 
 
 Dr. Benjamin Jones, the ancestor of the other prominent 
 families of .that name who lived in town, bought lot 67, 
 May 5, 1774, on the side of the mountain where Mr. Jos- 
 lyn lives, and occupied it for a long time. He afterwards 
 built where George Spalding lives, and died there January 
 12, 1819. 
 
 Dr. Daniel Wardwell, son of Solomon and Bethiah Ward- 
 well, of Andover, Mass., was born in HoUis, January 11, 
 1784, and married, 1816, Sarah Osgood, of North Andover, 
 Mass. He practised in town from 1816 to 1821 or '22, 
 and lived in the parsonage with Rev. N. Merrill. He after- 
 wards removed to Andover, where he died. 
 
 Dr. Nathan Jones, son of Dr. Benjamin, was settled in 
 town from 1828 to 1834, and then removed to Wenham, 
 Mass. 
 
 , Dr. Israel Herrick, son of Edward and Mary (Holt) Her- 
 rick, was born July 9, 1794, and died February 18, 1866. 
 He began practice in town February 19, 1821, and remained 
 seven years; then, after an absence of six years, he returned 
 through the influence of Rev. Mr. Merrill, and continued 
 in practice the remainder of his life. There is much that 
 ought to be said concerning his life and influence in town,, 
 but there is no time now for eulogy. 
 
 Dr. William A. Jones practised in town for many years, 
 and died in Wilton, December 18, 1880. 
 
 Dr. Moses Atwood and Dr. Aaron Hardy Atwood prac- 
 tised in North Lyndeborough for a time. 
 
 It is said that only one lawyer ever tried to make a liv- 
 ing in Lyndeborough, and he found the people so peaceable 
 and law-abiding that he gave up his profession and devoted 
 himself to the manufacture of wooden measures, in which 
 he was very successful. 
 
65 
 
 Of the lawyers who were natives of the town, five names 
 have been found, — Nathaniel, son of Rev. Nathaniel Mer- 
 rill, Walcott, N. Y. ; Peter, son of Peter and Jane (Aiken) 
 Clark, born April 29, 1810, and died at Nashua, May 29, 
 1841; Alfred Byron, son of Edward Page and Mary 
 (Dodge) Spalding, born August 16, 1849, died November 9, 
 1881 ; Fred S., son of Charles G. and Elizabeth (Blanchard) 
 Hatch, born March 5, 1859, and residing in Larned, Kansas ; 
 and William Henry Grant, who is with us to-day and will 
 speak for himself. 
 
 The names .of twenty physicians have been found who 
 were natives of the town, all of whom have made a good 
 record in their profession. Only their names and place of 
 service can now be given. Nathan Jones, Wenham, Mass; 
 Jacob Butler, Maine, N. Y. ; Nehemiah Rand, Nelson; 
 Benjamin F. Hadley, Jasper, N. Y. ; Willard Parker, New 
 York city, one of the most distinguished physicians in the 
 country; Aaron Hardy Atwood, Richmond, Va. ; Charles 
 P. French, Denver, Col.; William A. Jones, already men- 
 tioned; Harvey G. Mclntire, Concord; E. Joseph DonnelL, 
 Stockton, Kan.; William T. Donnell, Dakota; Surgeon- 
 General Alfred F. Holt, Cambridge, Mass.; J. Newton 
 Butler, Lempster; Stephen W. Goodrich, New York city; 
 J. Milton Rand, Newark, N. J. ; Henry E. Spalding, Bos- 
 ton, Mass.; Henry W. Boutwell, Manchester; Herbert B. 
 Mclntire, Cambridge, Mass.; George G. French, Lake For- 
 est, 111.; George W. Hatch, Wilton. 
 
 So far as known, eighteen natives of the town have stud- 
 ied for the ministry, thirteen Congregational and six Bap- 
 tist, and all but three had years of service. Only the 
 briefest mention can be made of them : 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL. 
 
 William, son of Ebenezer Hutchinson, born April 4, 
 1794; died April 20, 1842. Preached in Plainfield, and 
 other places in New Hampshire. 
 
66 
 
 Benjamin F., son of William and Sarat (Barron) Clark, 
 born February 23, 1808; died May 28, 1879. Pastor at 
 North Chelmsford, Mass. 
 
 William Clark, brother of B. F., born January 31, 1791 ; 
 died June 25, 1853. Pastor for many years of Presby- 
 terian church, Carlisle, N. Y. 
 
 Ira H., son of Eleazer and Rachel (Houston) Wood- 
 ward, born June 15, 1811 ; died January, 1830, before 
 entering the ministry. 
 
 James Boutwell, son of Nehemiah and Elizabeth (Jones) 
 Boutwell, born May 14, 1814 ; died at Sanbornton, April 
 21, 1865. Pastor at Brentwood and Sanbornton. 
 
 Charles Whiting, son of Oliver and Hannah (Marshall) 
 Whiting, born July 25, 1813; died at Fayetteville, Vt., 
 May 5, 1855. Pastor at Wilton seven years. 
 
 James H. Merrill, son of Rev. Nathaniel and Elizabeth 
 (Carpenter) Merrill, born October 16, 1814 ; died October 
 28, 1886. Pastor at Montague and Andover, Mass. 
 
 Ethan Allen Hadley, son of Joshua and Betsey (Will- 
 iams) Hadley, born November 13, 1809. Preached in Jas- 
 per, N. Y., and died at Dix, N. Y., April 24, 1867. 
 
 David F. Palmer, son of Asa and Mary (Fletcher) Pal- 
 mer, born in Pelham, February 27, 1809, but grew up in 
 Lyndeborough. Pastor of Royal Oak Presbyterian church, 
 Marion, Va., twenty-four years, and died June 30, 1868. 
 
 BAPTIST. 
 
 * 
 
 David P. French, son of Isaac P. and Clarissa (Barnes) 
 French, born February 1, 1817 ; died at Nashville, 111., 
 April 29, 1886. Pastor in New Hampshire and Illinois. 
 
 Eben E. Gardner was brought up by Deacon David Put- 
 nam, and preached in Trumausburg, N. Y. 
 
 Jason, son of Deacon David and Tryphena (Butler) Put- 
 nam, born November 25, 1817 ; died May 18, 1841, before 
 entering the ministry. 
 
 Rev. David Burroughs, son of Asa and Sarah (Butler) 
 
67 
 
 Burroughs, was born August 11, 1810, and has entered 
 upon the fifty-seventh year of ministerial service ; is now 
 laboring in Cincinnatus, N. Y. 
 
 There are also four^ Congregational ministers living, — 
 Rev. William T. Boutwell, Saint Paul, Minn. ; Rev. John 
 Jones, Colorado Springs, Col.; Rev. Sa:nuel J. Spalding, 
 D.D., of Newburyport, Mass.; and, lastly, the speaker, 
 Avho by his long address has already reminded you of Ten- 
 nyson's words about the brook,-^ 
 
 '' Men may come and men may go, 
 But he, goes on forever." 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 Rev. John Jones, son of Joseph and Anna (Richardson) 
 Jones, was born September 8, 1812, and was graduated 
 from Dartmouth in 1834. He taught the next year in 
 Gloucester, Mass., and was graduated at Andover in 1838. 
 He was ordained at Chittenden, Vt., July 1, 1841, and was 
 pastor until 1844. Then agent of New Hampshire Bible 
 Society from 1844 to 1846 ; teacher at Sandusky, O., 1848 
 to 1852; acting pastor at Danville, Ind., and Earlville, 
 111., 1853 to 1855 ; agent of American Bible Society, Illi- 
 nois, 1855 to 1862. Resided at Meriden, 111., and Colorado 
 Springs, where he died in August, 1889. 
 
 Rev. William Thurston Boutwell, son of Nehemiah and 
 Elizabeth (Jones) Boutwell, was born February 4, 1803. 
 Prepared for college at Hancock and Exeter academies, 
 and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1828 and at Andover 
 in 1831. Ordained at Woburn, Mass., June 7, 1831, he 
 was sent by the American Board as a missionary to the 
 Objibway Indians at Mackinaw and other places about 
 Lake Superior, where he labored until 1846. After that he 
 
 1 Since this address was prepared, Eev. W. T. Boutwell, Rev. Joiin Jones, and Sur- 
 geon-Geueral Holt have died, brief sketches of whom are added. 
 
68 
 
 resided at Stillwater, Minn. He was a pioneer home mis- 
 sionary in that state, preaching the first sermon at Still- 
 water and at Saint Paul, in which places he sustained 
 preaching services for several years. He died October 
 11, 1890. 
 
 General Alfred F. Holt, the son of David and Ann 
 (Cochran) Holt, was born December 16, 1838. Studied 
 at Appleton academy, Mont Vernon, at Harvard Medical 
 College, and at the University of Vermont, where he re- 
 ceived his M. D., June, 1860. He began practice the same 
 year at Cambridge, Mass. April 16, 1861, he joined, as a 
 private, the first company of volunteers organized for the 
 war ; was soon appointed hospital steward, and in Decem- 
 ber of the same year was made assistant surgeon of the 
 Thirtieth Massachusetts Regiment. In 1862 he was pro- 
 moted to surgeon of the First Texas Cavalry, with which 
 he served until December, 1863, when he left the medical 
 department and was commissioned major, and, later, lieu- 
 tenant-colonel of the same regiment, serving in this capac- 
 ity to the close of the war. During this time he partici- 
 pated in nearly all the battles and campaigns of the De- 
 partment of the Gulf. He at once resumed practice at 
 Cambridge, and in July, 1879, was appointed medical 
 examiner, and in January, 1884, surgeon-general of Massa- 
 chusetts Volunteer Militia, with rank of brigadier-general. 
 These positions he ably filled, in a manner acceptable to 
 all. He was a member of the American Medical Associa- 
 tion, the Massachusetts Medical Society, the Cambridge 
 Society for Medical Improvement, the American Associa- 
 tion for the Advancement of Science, the Loyal Legion, 
 and the Grand Army of the Republic. He stood high in 
 his profession, and was celebrated as a microscopist, hav- 
 ing been for many years an authority in the study of mor- 
 bid anatomy. He died at Martin, Fla., whither he had 
 gone for his health, December 28, 1890.