1^ .^,^i!?4l^ vj^ .0' ^" ^Vo .^' %l <^^ ._i-^^V f\u^^KA,yvii^ i^C^C^^J^, SIXTY YEARS IN CONCORD AND ELSEWHERE. PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS HENKY McFAELAND. 1 S3 1-1891, PRIVATELY PRINTED. CONCORD, X. H. 1899. ^ XWO COPIES jRECElVEn, tliirtpy of congi*ot% Office 9f the FEB 2 3 1900 Kegttttr of Copyrl^ht^ 54398 THE RUMFORD PRESS, CONCORD, N. H. SciC JUD GOk^V, Copj-right, 1899, by Henry McFarland. TO MY WIFE, M4RY FRANCES CARTER, THIS NAHRATIVE IS AFFECTIONATEI-Y INSCKIBED. SIXTY YEARS IN CONCORD AND ELSEWHERE. I. Concord, New Hampshire, is a town to which almost everybody, sooner or Liter, comes. Here have been the Marquis de Lafa3^ette, Count Rumford, Daniel Webster, James Monroe, S. F. B. Morse, John Tyler, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emer- son, Nathaniel Parker Willis, John Pierpont, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Winfield Scott, Rufus Choate, Abraham Lincoln, Sal- mon P. Chase, Henry Ward Beecher, John G. Whittier, Sam Houston, Horace Greelej^ Adelina Patti, Anna Bishop, William War- ren, Adelaide Phillips, Teresa Parodi, Edwin Bootli, Joseph Jefferson, Levi P. Morton, Capt. James West, of the once famous Col- lins steamship " Atlantic," Robert Bochsa, first harp-player at private concerts of the Emperor Napoleon, Ulysses S. Grant, Will- iam T. Sherman, Philip H. Sheridan, Ed- ward Everett, Jefferson Davis, Theodore L. 6 Sixty Years in Concord. Cuyler, Rutherford B. Hayes, Bayard Taylor, Benjamin Harrison, Madame Salm-Salm, and others famous in various ways, of whom those above named are conspicuous examples. I have thought that a man might take a stand on Main street, and by patient waiting be sure to see pass by any noted person whom he sought. Sucli a broad, hospital)le town as this is a good one in which to be born, — broad in ter- ritory, broad enough in opportunities. I in- tend to relate my experience and reminis- cences of the place, and the narrative may in- clude other topics not too remote from the main purpose. There will be family and personal biography, too much perliaps, and any reader with a critical turn of mind may as well pause here at the threshold and turn his steps away. My parents, Asa McFarland and Clarissa Jane Cliase, were married at Meredith Bridge, now Laconia, by Rev. Daniel Lancaster, pas- tor of the Congregational church in Gilman- ton. After the wedding, they drove in a chaise to their home in Concord, being es- corted a part of the way by young friends driving in similar carriages, — the chaise being tlie fashionable vehicle of that day. I am the eldest child of those parents, — born July Personal ReeoUeetions. 1 10, 1831 ; and perhaps a less sturdy infant never surprised its nurses by living. My father was the eldest son of Rev. Asa McFarland, third pastor of the First Congre- gational church in Concord, who served the parish, or rather the town, that being the day of the '' established church," with ability and irreproachable industry from 1798 to 1821. The text of my grandfather's first sermon after his ordination was from Job xxxiii : 6, and the sermon was preached on March 11, 1798. In it is found the follow- ing sentence: ''I do not promise myself a great share of repose in the business which I have undertaken." The church records bear the names of four hundred and twenty- eight persons added during this ministry. My mother was the youngest of five daugh- ters of James Chase, of Gilford, the bounda- ries of which town included a part of what was the village of Meredith Bridge. My father's mother, Elizabetli Kneeland, a third wife, was born in Boston, March 19, 1780 ; she was the only daughter of Barthol- omew and Susanna Sewall Kneeland. Her mother was of the Sewalls of York, Maine, a family which has a record in the annals of jurisprudence. Her father was a merchant of Boston, who resided at tlie time of lier 8 Sixty Years in Co7icord. birth at or near the northerly corner of Washington and School sti'eets. As the wife of a countiy clergyman, her life abounded in good works and alms-deeds, as her memoir by Rev. Nathaniel Bouton (1839) relates, and she died, as did her husband, at the age of fifty-eight years, — he on Feb. 18, 1827, and she on Nov. 9, 1838. There is in existence an inventory of the estate left by ny reverend grandfather, which fixes its valuation at $15,239.13. There was considerable real estate, — town lands, and a farm on the river road to Penacook. He was the son of a farmer, and was alwa3's inter- ested in agriculture. As miicli as the above mentioned valuation may have come to him as his wife's inheritance from her father's estate. Their private income must have been their chief pecuniary resource ; for his annual salary was but $350, and to the pay- ment of this, meagre as it now seems, there were at the outset of his ministry twenty-two dissentei'S, probably heads of families, who were appalled by the munificence of the ''living." He had, however, tlie use of cer- tain parsonage lands, and in 1820 his minis- terial income was increased by an agreement made by earnest parish friends to pay an- nually the sum of |!l54.43 in addition to the Personal Recollections. 9 regular salaiy. A copy of this agreement is ill existence, and it is an interesting paper. On it are one hundred and eighteen names. The hirgest single subscription is that of Thomas W. Thompson, ten dollars ; and the smallest ones are fifty cents each. There are pledges of curious amounts, such as f 1.13 and f 1.15, — a fact which might be taken to indicate care and exactness, or the impor- tance of small sums of money in those days ; but the most probable explanation is, that these subscriptions had some relation in the giver's mind to the personal tax which he had theretofore paid for the support of public worship. M}^ grandfather found opportunity to write, in 1806, one year after a Unitarian was appointed professor of divinity in Harvard college, a volume of two liundred and seventy-four pages, entitled '' An Historical VicAV of Heresies and Vindication of the Primitive Faith." This book was issued " from the press of George Hough, sold at his bookstore in Concord, and at tlie book- store of Thomas & Whipple, Newburyport." A few copies still exist. He served at times as chaplain at the prison, and as a member of the town school committee. He was a trus- tee of Dartmouth college for a considerable 10 Sixty Years in Concord. period, which included those critical years in its history, 1816-'19, and became involved in the great controversy of that time for its control. All that I have seen of what lie had to say in tlie newspapers, on behalf of the trustees, he said in a dignified way, and signed his name thereto, like a man, while the writ- ings of his opponents were put forth under editorial impersonality, or in various anony- mous forms. He must have enjoyed the cel- ebrated success which the cause gained in the United States court. He also performed some missionary services as far away as the Pequaket countrv, around Conway and Frye- burg, and was there during the sudden illness and death of his second wife (Nancy Dwight, of Belcherto wn, Mass.). It appears that he left her in health, and returned to learn that she was in her grave, within three months after marriage, her burial having been lis- tened b}^ dread of the malignant fever which carried her off. He passed away himself at an asfe below the averao^e of his ancestors. It is not inappropriate to apply to him these lines from Goldsmith's "Deserted Village :" But in his duty prompt at every call, He watched and wept, he prayed and felt, for all; And, as a bird each fond endearment tries To tempt its new-Hedo^ed offsprin*^: to the skies, He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way. Personal Recollections. 11 My mother's mother was Nancy Aveiy, a native of Deerfield, of what Carlyle calls the "fairest descent — that of the pious, the just, and wise," — a Christian of the utmost gentle- ness and grace, wliom tlie little folks of our cousiilry loved the more because she shared our delight when Ave came^ in shouting from Gilford meadows, bringing pails of berries or baskets of trout. She died in 1854, ao-ed 81 years. My father took no care about affairs of ancestry. It appears that he was a descend- ant in the fourth generation from Daniel McFarland, wlio, with a son twenty-eight years old, came to this country in 1718 from the province of Ulster, Ireland, whither he or his ancestors had gone from Argyleshire, which lies opposite Ulster, across the chan- nel in Scotland. Daniel settled in Worces- ter, Mass., and his homestead (500 Pleasant street) remains in possession of his descend- ants. A considerable number of Scotch Presbyterian colonists at that time took up homes in Worcester, and were not received kindly by their Congregational neighbors. They attempted to build a church in 1740, but it was pulled down in the night by mili- tant adherents of the rival church. Not long afterward the McFarlands became Congrega- tionalists themselves. 12 SLrfi/ Years in Concord. In the mother country the Mcfarlanes dwelt about Loch Sloy and Loch Lomond. Arrochar was the home of the chief of the clan, and the old site of his castle is now occupied by a hotel. In the summer of 1889 my brother visited some of the Mcfarlanes living in a humble way near Loch Lomond, on the estate of the Duke of Montrose. Sir Walter Scott mentions the clan, and says the moon was called in their vicinity ''Mac- farlane's lantern." Bailie Nicol Jarvie in "Rob Roy" claims kinship with them, and through them with the Macgregors. The}^ were predatory and warlike folk, whose battle cry was "Loch Sloy," and their love of home and mountain, lake, river, and woodland, is deeply ingrained in their posterity. In America they are widely scattered. There is McFarland's mountain at Mount Desert, McFarland's gap on the Chickamauga battle- field, and McFarland's station on a railroad in Kansas. Our family homestead in Concord, built in 1799, now numbered 196 North Main street, was as comfortable as were the dwell- mgs of our neighbors, though the parental resources were limited. There was in my early youth a carpet for only the best room ; l)ut there was solid silverware, beautiful Personal Recollections. 13 table-linen, and stately mahogany furniture of the Chippendale period, brought from Boston by my grandmother. The front hall was plainly furnislied, and its clear white- pine finish had never been painted. There were no draperies for the windows, but their place was supplied by sliding solid wooden shutters from places of concealment in the casings, while candles or whale-oil lamps shed dim* liglit on the interior. The lamps were of most primitive description, until there came one called the "astral," which caused as much contentment as did the eventual introduction of coal gas. There were a few pictures, among them one of Mar- cus Curtius riding a white liorse into the gulf of the forum to save Rome ; but little people got greater satisfaction from the winter frost- work on the windows, where were etchings of ferns, trees, and fairy castles. The porce- lain tableware was decorated in blue, and bore tlie imprint of Porter & Rolfe, local dealers, wlio imported it from Staffordshire potteries, — Burslem, the home of Josiah Wedgwood, being the exact place of its production. In summer our Concord streets were hot and dusty, but were never sprinkled arti- ficially; — flies and mosquitoes were numer- 14 Sixty Years in Concord. ous, but there were no window-screens. There was neither ice nor abundant soft water for domestic uses, and in winter no home was warmed in all its needful apart- ments. The young people of that time could sleep in chambers of almost arctic tem- perature, bathe in water where ice was form- ing, and go clown to breakfast with no doubt- ful appetite, although in early March morn- ings they might be required to swallow a doleful mixture of sulphur and molasses, which was deemed an excellent spring tonic and in common use. As to the matter of dress, boys were not so very carefully clothed then, being pro- vided with neither woolen underwear, over- coats, nor overshoes ; for out-door use the}' had long boots, mufflers, caps of hair seal- skin, and mittens. However cold it might be elsewhere, there was gladness and cheer in the kitchen, around the broad open fireplace. Care was taken to keep live coals over nig-ht, and at the home of one of the neiglibors, Mr. John Odlin's, fire did not expire on the hearth for twenty-two years. The implements of cook- er}^ were few and simple. On a stout iron crane the Dutch oven hung, glowing embers beneath it, and hot coals on its lid. For Personal Recollections. 15 larofer imdertakinf^-.s there was the tin-kitchen on the hearth. This was for roasting by exposure to the direct and reflected heat from the open fire, while the oven did the baking, and each produced results which were eminently satisfactory to youthful expectations. My own memory is partial to the fire-cake, wliich was cooked on a sheet of flat tin turned up to confront the fire at an angle of fifty degrees, and browned to a tempting shade. It must have absorbed some sweetness from the maple logs on the fii'e. When fuel became more costly, the cheeiy fireplaces were closed with bricks, the rotary cooking stove came into use, and the most picturesque features departed from tlie kitchen. I once heard Henry L. Hallett, of Boston, sa}^ that a fire on the hearth was better tlian a grand painting on the wall. The rotary stove is mentioned because that was the first cooking-stove I ever saw. It was sold in Concord by William Gault, and widely advertised. Its top was made to revolve, like a turntable for locomotives, by the use of a short lever, and the cooking- dishes were tlius brought one after another over the hottest portion of the fire. Gradu- ally otlier fireplaces in the house were closed, 16 Sixty Years in Concord. and " air-tight " iron orsoapstone stoves came to occupy grav^e places in the living-rooms. Such have liad their day, and open fires have returned to my old home as well as to many others. In an old house, long the dwelling of a neighbor's family, once the residence of Rev. Israel Evans, my grandfather's prede- cessor in the North Church pulpit, it has been found that the bricks in its chimneys were so saturated with creosote from forty years' use of air-tight wood-burning stoves, that a disagreeable and ineradicable odor pervaded all its interior. There were three children beside myself, all reared in the old-fashioned method, — by good example and plenty of precept. Being the eldest, I got, as is usual, rather more than an average share of the training and up-bringing. My mother was a religious woman, and drilled us with careful diligence in the Westminster catecliism and Sunday- scliool lessons. The children of that period were given Bible reading as a stint. A chapter must be read every ijiorning before play began. In at least one neighboring family, ex-Gover- nor David L. Morril's, Fast and Thanksgiv- ing days were observed as strictly as was the Puritan Sabbath. There was generally less Personal Recollections. 17 cheerfulness and good humor than now pre- vails among elderly people. This may be ascribed to the fact that life was a more serious business then, the fruits of toil were less, there were fewer amusements and fewer books, political differences were more bitter, and the tone of preaching was more severe, less helpful and less hopeful. My earliest church-going was to the Old North, which stood where is now the Walker scliool-liouse. Tlie exterior and interior of that edifice are imprinted on my memory, the especial interior features being tlie sounding- board of wonderful appearance, and tlie pcAV of Dr. Peter Renton, upholstered and tas- selled with red, in the east gallery. A winter morning ride to that church in Mr. Samuel Herbert's large sleigh, with my grandmother and others, when a considerable number of footstoves were taken alono- with live coals therein, is fixed in my recollection. Mr. Herbert lived in a house still standino^ at the corner of Main and Ferry streets, built in 1765 by his fatlier, who was a soldier at Ben- nington. The horses wliich he turned out seemed very fleet, the sleigh-bells rung clear in the frosty air, and the driver vigorously cracked his whip. No small boy would ever forget such a dash through the snow-drifts. 18 Sixty Years in Concord. The old North bell, which rung so invitingl}- on Sunday nioinings, had tlien three dail}' week-day ringings, — at seven in the morning, at noon, and at nine in the evening, -the lat- ter being a tradition of the English Curfew, which dates back to William the Conqueror. Just when those bells ceased to be rung- I cannot say, but probably about 1851. In the Old Xorth choir, with the viols, vio- lins, and clarionet, Mr. George Wood was the chief singer, liis voice being a tenor of sweetness and average strength. He enjoyed singing a solo, and however delightful the song might be, his facial expression was rather alarming to youthful vision. There was a great beam which ran across the ceiling at a convenient distance from the gallery, and Mr. Wood always fixed his eyes on that beam when he lifted his voice to the higher notes. This habit puzzled me, until I reached the conclusion that the beam was in some myste- rious way a necessary mental adjunct to the singing — a sort of spiritual ''lift," enabling him to gain more easily the upper chambers of song. The lij^mns sung were from " Watts and Select." At the evening service in the town hall " Village Hymns " was nsed. No more need be related here about the Personal Recollections. 19 old church, because it has often been de- scribed, — to some extent by ray father in his " Outline of Biography and Recollection," printed in 1880, and again by Mr. Joseph B. Walker in his " History of Our Four Meeting- Houses," printed in 1881. There are remain- ing in New Hampsliire some better examples of colonial architecture than the Old North church, but it was more dignified and im- pressive than many modern religious edifices, and would compare with the school-house that stands in its place as does a rug of Damascus with a crazy-quilt. The Sunday outfit of an elderly gentleman of that time was a rather wonderful sight. A dress coat was a thino^ Avhich lasted for years, and through all stress and vicissitudes was called the best coat. Made usually rather narrow for the wearer, its skirts were long, and the collar had aspirations toward the top of the owner's head. In the course of years this lofty collar became rather un- sightly and unclean. A bell-topped beaver hat, bought perhaps for liis wedding, set off his dome of thought. His stock was neither a thing of beauty nor a joy forever: sometimes made of leather, always stiff and wide, it must have been a continual torment. It was a serious affair to be arrayed like one of these ; 20 Sixty Years in Concord. but in partial offset, it should be stated that it was not considered "bad form" to sit in one's shirtsleeves at church if the weather was oppressively warm. The Old North pulpit seems not always to have been devoted to doctrinal preaching. The Concord Gazette of Aug. 2, 1806, con- tained the following advertisement : The Rev. Mr. McFarhmd's sermon, preached the next Sabbatli after tlie late total eclipse of the sun, is just publislied, and ready for subscribers, and for sale by George Hough, at the Concord Bookstore. The vestibule of the old church contained an object of worldly interest, to wit, a bulle- tin-board, on which, in fulfilment of law, the town clerk posted notices like the following : Concord, January 4, 1837. Mr. Joseph Bagstock, of Concord, and Miss Clementina Fletcher, of Hopkinton, in- tend marriage. Jacob C. Carter, Town Clerk. There was sometimes a considerable list of these fascinating announcements, to be read by the most devout people before entering church. In February, 1837, my mother removed her church relation to the South Congregational Personal Recollections. 21 cliurcli, just then organized, and she is now (1891) one of only two original remaining members. My father joined the same church in September, 1842. Abont that time there were many isms in the air. Anti-slavery societies were numer- ous and aggressive, and the argumentative leaders in that movement were denouncing the churches for timidity and inaction in respect to the liolding of slaves in our South- ern states. Some of them renounced the Bible as a Jewish impediment to progress ; many withdrew from the churches, or Avere driven out as disturbers. There were also vegetarians, non-resistants, mesmerists, and what were called transcendentalists. When these notions took hold of people, tlie earlier symptoms were with men long hair, and with women short hair and a propensity to carry knitting-work to church. Two of tliese local doctrinaires, John B. Chandler and Maria Church, contracted marriage, the ceremony consisting merely of a mutual declaration, made in the presence of witnesses, at the breakfast-table. This was to cause notoriety, and to escape obligation to priests, as they styled tlie grave and reverend clergy. This event caused considerable local stir, and found mention in a book entitled " Items on 22 Sixty Years in Concord. Travel, Anecdote and Popular Errors," which was published in Quebec in 1855. These folk, or some of the noisiest of them, became known as " Come-Outers." Stephen S. Foster, of the neiofliborincr town of Canter- bury, was one of the most radical shouters against what he called a hireling priesthood, and it became his custom to go about inter- rupting church services. He visited the South church, at that time (September, 1841) on the southwest corner of Main and Pleas- ant streets. He came to the moriiing service, and took a seat near the pulpit, at the preacher's right. After the preliminary ex- ercises, the pastor. Rev. Daniel James Noyes, arose to begin his sermon, but Mr. Foster stood up and began an address in regard to negro slavery. He was requested not to in- terrupt the usual services, but continued to speak. The organist. Dr. William D. Buck, overwhelmed his words Avith the notes of the orofan, and he seemed to be disconcerted, but kept his feet with a half audible remark about drowning his voice. He was conducted to the door, in a rather dignified w^ay, by two persons, one of whom was Col. Josiah Stevens, at that time secretary of state for New Hamp- shire. In the afternoon Mr. Foster came again, and began his address as soon as the Personal Recollections. 23 congregation was seated, but was put out with less dignity and more promptitude than before. I was rather frightened, but remem- ber the buzz made b}" his feet as he held tliem " non-resistingly " togetlier, and was slid along the central aisle toward the door in the grip of a stout teamster and tlie church sexton. No unnecessary force was used and no personal harm inflicted, that I could see, but the next issue of the Herald of Freedom made the most of the opportunity. There was also a trial before a justi(;e, and a fine inflicted, whicli bystanders paid. At this trial Mr. Foster, in some remarks, likened tlie scene before him to that ancient court in Jerusalem when Pontius Pilate sat on the bench. Tlie justice, Mr. Stephen C. Badger, reminded him that there was a less worthy respondent present on this occasion, whereat Foster retorted that the judge of the tribunal was very different too, — perhaps not so im- perial, but surely a more kindly and consci- entious personage than the Roman governor. It would have been wiser, perhaps, if the regular morning service at the church had been suspended and Mr. Foster given a pa- tient hearing ; but I suppose there was not sufficient willingness to listen to the author of a work called '' The Brotherhood of 24 Sixti/ Years in Concord. Thieves, a True Picture of the American Church and Clergy." It is rather queer that when the question of freeing slaves came in 1861 to be a strife of arras, not one of these professional aboli- tionists, old or young, put a gun on his shoulder and went to the war. None of the " Old Guard " of New Hampshire, as they have since called themselves, put their lives in peril by taking the field. They appear to have been men of talk, but not of action. The world is rather more fond of men, and the memory of men, who do something beside talk. IT. If we were set back to about the year 1840 there wouki be found a state of industrial and business affairs singuhirly unlike that now prevailing. Jt would not be so easy for any person to accumulate anoney. A Con- cord citizen, of that class called " men of property and standing," who has lived com- fortabh' but without ostentation, has kept for many years a careful account of his an- nual income. Because it Avill give an idea of local resources during the earlier period of these recollections, he permits me to give the following net results of his labor and capital for ten years prior to 1849, wlien he was in trade on Main street : 1839, $203.11 1844, 1 427.24 1840, 584.50 1845, 1,231.01 1841, 568.60 1846, 1,591.28 1842, 396.76 1847, 2,410.15 1843, 657.73 1848. 1,146.18 an average for the first five years of onl}^ $482.14. In 1840 there were few railroads, no elec- tric telegraphs, and of course no telephones. 26 Sixty Years iyi Concord. The first free bridge across the Merrimack had just been built here in 1839. It was a rather hard day's journey from Concord to the sea-coast. The national debt was no more than ten million dollars. Indiana and Illinois were frontier settlements. Postage on a half ounce letter to those remote regions was twenty-five cents ; for an ounce, one dol- lar. Boston had less than three times the present population of our city of Manches- ter, and Manchester itself was about equal to East Concord. There were but twenty -six states in the Union, and there were two and a half millions of slaves. The Dake de Joinville, with the sailing frigate " Belle Poule," was bearing the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte from St. Helena to France. Wash- ington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper were living people. There were not more than two ocean steamships sailing regularly out of the port of New York. There was one stationary steam engine in Concord, and that was regarded by strangers who ventured near it as an awe-compelling sight. One of our townsmen who boasted of smoking cigars which cost thirty dollars a thousand was deemed a great prodigal, like Lucullus. Not more than twent}' daily ncAVspapers were taken in the whole town. Paris fashions Persoiial Recollections. 27 came but slowly, and there was as little public attention to sanitary rules as to the laws of the Medes and Persians. The central precinct of the town was but a picturesque village.* The air of colonial days was still upon it. There were at least three houses on Main street which had been frontier garrisons. One colored woman was living who had been a slave here in her youth, and appears to have been recorded as such in the census of 1840, — Nancy, born about 1766, who died in the family of Mr. Samuel Her- bert in 1845. If the town lias since gained much, as it assuredly has, in convenience, resources, and stateliness, something rather delightful of repose, simplicity, and tradition has gone away. In that day most of the dwellings were scattered along Main, State, Green, and Spring streets, then recently named (1834), and thoroughfares connecting these four. The region about South street was almost terra incognita. Common talk was that Sampson Bullard's residence on that avenue, now the home of Mrs. Alonzo Downing, might as well *In 1832 Lieut. E. T. Coke, of the Forty-fifth Regiment, British army, traveled through the United States and Can- ada, and wrote afterward "A Subaltern's Furlough." He said, " Nowhere did I see such beautiful villages as in New England, of which Concord in New Hampshire, Worcester, and Northampton rank preeminent." 28 Sixty Years in Concord. be in Bow. Tliere were no such streets as Capitol, Court, Chapel, and Pitman. The State-house park was flanked along its southern border by primitive but populous and very noisy stables, particularly on Inau- guration Day. Among them was a black- smith's shop, where Bradbur}^ Gill struck mighty blows on the anvil. The Merrimack County Bank and the New Hampshire Sav- ino^s Bank, as well as- the law offices of Franklin Pierce and Asa Fowler, were in the building now occupied by the New Hamp- shire Historical Society. Franklin Pierce dwelt on Montgomery street. General Joseph Low, whose gilt-headed cane and confident manner caused the boys to regard him as the Croesus of the town, had a pleasant house with a deep front yard where Rum ford block noAV stands. At his death, in 1859, his estate was valued at about. $30,000 — a considerable fortune when few persons had more. Nearly opposite, on the corners of School street, in a quiet atmosphere, were the homes of his brother William and Deacon Benjamin Damon. Mr. Peter Smith could be seen in the streets in the capacity of town crier. The residence of the governor of New Hamp- shire had recently been where is now the Governor Hill building. On Warren street. Personal Recollections. 29 opposite the site of our Central Fire Station, were an iron foundry and a tanyaid. Some stores in good situations on Main street were mere wooden shanties, one story high, gable to the street, boarded up broadly in front as high as the ridgepole to give them two- story pretensions. They were like the struc- tures to be seen around railroad stations in three-weeks-old Colorado and Nevada towns, emblazoned " Palace Saloon," " El Dorado," "Delmonico House," etc. There were but two brick buildings of any consequence on Main street down town, — Stickney's and Low's. There was nothing built on the low- land east of Main street but a distillery and two slaughter-houses. Political meetings (many), secular lectures (occasional), and social gatherings of the larger sort (few) w^ere in Grecian hall connected with the Eagle hotel, Stickney's" hall at Stickney's tavern, or in Washington hall, an annex to the Washington tavern at the North End. The near coming of railroads was thouglit in influential quarters to so threaten private rights that committees of vigilance were pro- posed to devise ways to curb their charters and restrain their dreaded depredations for right of way. Pecker & Lang's store at the Nortli End, corner of ]\Iain and Franklin 30 Sixty Years in Concord. streets, was as prosperous as any other, and anything could be found there from a paper of pins to a hogshead of mohisses. Luther Roby was printing stacks of quarto Bibles in the brick building still standing, No. 256- 262 North Main street, and meditating on schemes like the sugar trust, copper syndi- cate, and Standard Oil Company of to-day. His monopolies were to be in wafer seals and whale oil, if I remember aright. Knives and locks were then made at " Millville," shoe lasts at " Fush Market," potter}^ on the Hopkinton road, hammers and shovels at the state prison, silver spoons and friction matches, as well as drums and churns, in '' smoky hollow." Two clear, swift l)rooks crossed Main street, carried below its surface in culverts, one (called West's) at the foot of Chapel street, and the other near the foot of Mont- gomery street. One had its source west of the old prison, and the otlier on the present city hall grounds. Both met on the inter- vale, and flowed to the Merrimack in a stream copious enough to support nnmerous frogs, schools of minnows large enough for pickerel bait, and an occasional bigger fish. Two of my comrades declared they saw a trout further up West's brook than the pres- Personal Heeolleetions. 31 eiit site of Mead, Mason & Co.'s steam mill. From the east windows of onr homestead there might often be seen, in the springtime evenings, the bright flames of torches flitting about on the river, l)orne in the bows of boats the occupants of which were engaged in taking fish with spears of man}^ prongs. There were in this seven-mile-square town less than five thousand inhabitants, and those were not altogether prosperous. The times had been out of joint. A speculation in Maine lands, which culminated in 1837, had brought trouble in its train. This specula- tion was the '-Atchison," the " Delphos," or the " western mortgage " of that period. No railroad had reached Concord, but the highways were fretted by a large traflic in teams and stage-coaches. It was an inspir- ing sight to see the four- and six-horse coaches depart in a long line for the north, to Burlington (two days away), Hanover, Haverhill, Bradford, Vt., Conway, Clare- mont, and intermediate towns. The adver- tisement of one of the Boston lines cautioned its friends not to buy tickets of B. P. Cheney, then of 11 Elm street in that city, since one of Boston's wealthiest citizens. The stage- coachmen were an important set of people, whose favor was sought. Every winter they 32 Sixty Years in Concord. gave a coachmen's ball, one of the societ}^ events of the region, and it is said that peo- ple sometimes attended to whom Macaulay's characterization of Lucy Walters might ap- ply. These dancing parties were usually at Grecian hall, but may have once or twice drifted away to Stiekney's or the Wasliing- ton tavern. I can mention in this place as appropriately as in any, the gentlemen of the North End, for whom I had great respect, and who, being of good birth, ability, considerable property, and dignified bearing, were during many years regarded as the conservative or aristo- cratic force in public affairs. My father must have got in his young days a similar impres- sion of the predecessors of those men. He said to me only a day or two before he died, at a moment when his thoughts were wan- dering, but in tlie careful phrase whicli he always used, — " I wish I could convey to your mind an adequate conception of the attempt made in my youth to found a feudal aristocracy at the North End." This very high respect which I felt was shared by all the boys of my age. It was a great privilege for us to be permitted to look in at the Mer- rimack County Bank, where no one beneath the rank of judge, colonel, or at least select- Personal MecoUections. 83 man, was permitted to sit around tlie fire with the elect when the Boston paper came to be read. All the churches of that date, except the Baptist, were plain structures of wood; the exception was of equal plainness, but its walls were of brick. The pastors were, at the North, Kev. Nathaniel Bouton ; at the South, Rev. Daniel J. Noyes ; at the Baptist, Rev. E. E. Cummings ; at the Unitarian, Rev. Moses G. Thomas ; at tlie Methodist, Rev. Wm. H. Hatch ; and at the Episcopal, Rev. Petrus Stuyvesant TenBroeck. Al- though it is the custom to speak of the f/ood old times, I do not suppose the general aver- age of morality was higher than now. Con- cord has always had at least a respectable rej)utation for thrift, intelligence, and well- doing. But, to go to tlie other extreme, there was a noted public liquor-shop in the basement of the Farley building, which stood where is now Exchange block, and connected there- with was a bowling alley, then considered a very low-toned place of amusement. Another rum-hole in a basement on Main street opposite the capitol, came to be popularly called the Chichester gin-shop. I have looked witli curiosity over the wine lists of 84 Sixty Years in Concord. some famous hotels, but neither there, nor in the lists of old liquors imported by ancient houses and sold because of deatli in the family or otlier misfortune, have 1 seen men- tioned this old Chichester gin. It got its name in this wise : Men from out-lying towns, many of tliem from Loudon and Chi- chester, who had wood to sell in the winter, were constrained to remain in tlie streets around the state-house park until they dis- posed of their sled-loads. To such, the cheer of a warm fire and a hot drink was always a temptation. It became known one winter that tlie proprietor of this basement grogery kept two grades of gin, one for the tipple of his most fastidious customers, and the other for those who onh^ wanted some- thino' hot and strong". One day lie returned to his place from a brief absence, and found his assistant dealing out tlie best gin to a group of sled-drivers. At this sight excite- ment overpowered discretion, and he pub- licly rebuked tlie erring bar-keeper, point- ing out the gin to be served, which he said was good enough for the Chichester people with whom he was dealing. This declara- tion made a flurry of exasperation, and the qualities of Chichester gin were discussed and commented upon, even in families where Pergonal Reeolleetioas. 35 gin was not a favorite drink. A few morn- ings after this occurrence an efitigy was dis- covered hanging from the eaves of the build- ing, with a black bottle marked ''Chichester gin " clasped to its ragged manly bosom. As this eavesdropper hung in front of a win- dow of my father's printing-office there were objections to its nnnaining, and '' old vet- eran " Hoit, the founder of the Patriot^ then a compositor, leaned out of a Avindow and cut the suspending cord, Avhen the offending figure shot downward, and landed on the stairs leading from the sidewalk to the grog- gery to be seen no more. Two local frequenters of the Chichester gin-shop always sat around the fire until the place was otherwise deserted, when they went home at the owner's bidding, and the door closed on their reluctant heels ; but one night the bidding was omitted, and they stayed on in undisturbed tranquility until morning, when the bar-keeper found them where he had left them, crooning away over the stove, taking no note of time. The effigy above mentioned was probably' the work of a lot of young highbinders Avho did about all the nocturnal mischief in town. One of their common pranks was to trans- pose business signs, fastening "Fresh Fish 36 Si.rti/ Years in Concord. daily received from Boston " securely to a well known lawyer's office, for chnrch-going people to see on Sunday. The night after the Fourth of July was an occasion for great bonfires in the street in front of the state- house, when all the loose combustibles with- in read), — barrels of tar, dry goods boxes, out-buildings, neglected wagons, etc., — were piled on the fliimes. If the town constables appeared, they were greeted with volleys of rotten eggs ; but at least once (1842) the riot act was read, and several offenders arrested for disturbing the peace and dignity of the state, which so offended Dr. Peter Renton (his son John being in limbo) that he changed his residence to Boston, where he gained an extensive practice, and died in February, 1865. Many of these mischief-loving fellows were journeymen printers, who had more than their share of the spirit of misrule. Another of their diversions was the occasional issue of a ten-by-fifteen-inch paper called The Owl^ de- voted to tattle and scandal, which had no subscription list, but was distributed freely at doorsteps in the early morning. This paper had for a heading a picture of the bird of wisdom perched on the side of the globe witli a quill pen over his ear, wearing Personal Recollections. 37 eye-glasses and smoking a pipe. Tliere were many local printing-offices then, among them those of the Statesman, Patriot, Herald of Freedoyn, Family Visitor, Congregatioyial Jour- nal, and Baptist Register, — about a dozen in all. It was supposed that The Owl itin- erated in its roost or place of issue, and was printed at night. Each journeyman of the gang put in type, as opportunity offered, at his place of employment, the copy assigned to him, and carried the type on gallej^s to the rendezvous for printing, all the materials being taken from the employing printers. When public wrath became excited, and search was hot, the " forms " were buried in the earth to await some midnight resurrec- tion. I think the last number of TJte Otvl appeared in 1848. The railroad, when it came, changed the life atid to some extent the appearance of the town. When the surveys for the Concord road were made, the engineers were in doubt whether to bring it liere by the route finally selected, or by one a little more to the west- ward. If the latter way had been chosen, the station would have beeu somewhere near tlie corner of Pleasant and South streets, and the building of the Northern railway lines would have divided the town in twain: 38 Sixty Year's in Concord. so tlie result which was reached seems to have been a fortunate one. Those famous civil engineers, George W. Whistler, after- ward the great railroad luiilder in Russia, William Gibbs McNeill, a West Pointer, who commanded the Rhode Island militia in the Dorr rebellion, and E. S. Chesbrough, chief engineer of the Boston water-works and of the water and sewage system of Chicago, each had a hand in surveying or building the line from Boston to Concord. The Concord company's rails were laid down in 1842; and I Avent to the so-called Great Swamp, now market-gardens, below the present gas-works, to see the process of track-laying, which was different from current methods. A line of chestnut planks, three inches by eight, was laid below the ground, under the ends of the sleepers and parallel with the rails ; to these planks the sleepers were fastened with wooden bolts. This use of planks for sub- sills was soon determined by experience to be unnecessary. The ends of the nnls were placed in iron chairs, which are now dis- carded for the more satisfactory fisli-plates. All the territory, where are now the tracks, station buildings, and Railroad square itself, was raised several feet above its natural level, and much of the gravel used for grading was Personal Re collect ions. '^9 carted across town from " saiul hill," at tlie west side of tlie existing central precinct. I was among the mnltitnde of townspeople who gathered in the evening of September 6, 1842, to see the first railway passenger train come into Concord. This train of three pas- senger cars was drawn by the '* Amoskeag," a small locomotive bnilt by Hinkley & Drnry of Boston, ten and a half tons in weight, Avith one pair of driving-wheels five feet in diameter. George Clongh was the conduc- tor, Leonard Grossman, engineer, and Seth Hopkins, fireman. The engineer and fireman were wholly exposed to the weather, as the cab for locomotives was not devised until years later. Tlie station buildings to which this train came were lowly, but sufficient. This important event was noticed in the Pat- riot to the extent of a quarter of a column : an unusually sprightly local Democratic caucus a few weeks before got a column and a half. Fires have greatly changed the appearance of our town. Except the sites of Rumford and Woodward's blocks. Button's building, Masonic Temple, old Goncord Bank and Board of Trade buildings, I have seen all the business- territory on both sides of Main street, between Bridge and Pleasant streets, burned over once, some of it twice. III. During 1113^ boj^liood Concord had few peo- ple of foreign birth. Michael Spellman and Peter Murphy Avere among the first Irishmen whom T remember. There was a Patrick Gunning, a tramp, who kept Concord in his orbit, alwa3"s begged a clean shirt but was never known to wear one, and, in rich brogue, announced himself to be on the way to Montreal. His last appearance here, so far as I know, was in 1863. At West Concord was Patrick Tyiiing, born at Kilkenny, a soldier in the British army which burned the capitol and the presi- dent's house at Washington in 1812, and got routed at New Orleans. Another one, back of my remembrance, wdiom my father knew, was James Phelan. He went hence to Boston, blew an organ in the Catholic church of the Holy Cross, sold tickets in the Federal Street theatre, and then embarked in the hardware trade in New York. In the latter city he became conspic- uous in public undertakings, acquired a great estate, and had a house at Newport, Personal Reeollections. 41 R. I. Still later he went to Paris, became a companion of the Count D'Orsay (who died in 1852), and gave entertainments rivalling those of the titled people in tliat great city. He was one of the American friends who welcomed Charles Sumner to Paris in 1872, when the senator last visited Europe. John Anderson, a Scotch shoemaker, had a shop in "smoky hollow." He was a fervent Democrat. When Gen. William Henry Har- rison was elected president in 1840, Mr. Anderson was cast into the depths of woe, and declared tliat Democracy had fallen never to rise again. Some of the youngsters of Concord were taught by Miss Sally Parker. Her school, which was for the youngest pupils, was in an east room of her house, now No. 14 Centre street. The apartment was unfinished, lathed but not plastered, and the seats were long- wooden benches without backs. Prizes of three butternuts were distributed every Sat- urday to winners of class honors. Who were the scholars, and what books were studied, I cannot A^enture to say. On the next lot south of ni}^ fatlier's house stood a yellow cottage, an appanage of the Dr. Peter Green estate. Here came to dwell Mrs. Ruby Bridges Preston, a widow, teacher 42 Sixty Year^ in Concord. by the Lancastrian system of a school for children. Her front room was the rendezvous of little pupils, among whom my mother enrolled me. Of the children who gathered there I can call to mind with certainty only three boys, namely, William Chadbourne, Robert A. Hutcliins, and Henry G. Burleigh. William Chadbourne was a son of Dr. Thomas Chadbourne, and years afterward became a partner in tlie great dry-goods house of James M. Beebe & Co., of Bos- ton, in whose behalf he crossed the At- lantic forty times. He died in Brookline, Mass., May 15, 1868, aged thirty-six years. — Robert A. Hntchins (son of Ephraim Hutchins) served on the staff of General Wilcox in the war for the Union, with gal- lantry like that of his great-grandfather Col. Gordon Hutchins in the Revolutionary war. Robert w^as the handsomest boy of his time in the town, and when a man, would have made as dramatic a figure as did the Revolu- tionary colonel who walked up the aisle of the Old North church on an August Sunda}^ in 1777, with the dust of his gallop from Exeter still on his shoulders, to tell the startled congregation that a British army under General Burgoyne was marching from Canada toward New York, and that General Personal MecoUections. 4o Stark would leave next morning with the New Hampshire volunteers to strike tlie hos- tile expedition. Robert died at Los Angeles, Cal., Oct. 15, 1883, aged fifty years. — Henry G. Burleigh's father, a manufacturer of shov- els, contractor for labor at the state prison, lived where now stands the city hall, almost directly opposite the site of Mrs. Preston's yellow cottage. Henry has spent most of his prosperous life at Ticonderoga and White- liall, N. Y., and has had the honor to repre- sent the Eighteenth New York district in the Forty-eiglith and Forty-ninth congresses, receiving at his last election 20,732 votes against 2,817 for all others. Mrs. Preston died in Concord, Aug. 15, 1881, aged eighty-two years. She had a son, James, a sailor, whose loose blue flannel suit, with wide-bottomed trousers and tarpaulin hat, with a fathom of ribbon flowing behind, caused our eyes to open very wide when he came liome in full sea rig. He died of fevei* ofi the coast of Africa in 1848. Getting away from INJrs. Preston's, I sat under the instruction of Miss Mary Ann Allison, in a house which stood where is now the North churcli. This house was built for Capt. Joshua Abbott, who fouglit at Bunker Hill, and was said to be in 1855 one of the 44 Sixty Years in Concord. oldest sixteen in Concord main village. It is still in existence, being now No. 12 Wash- ington street. Shadrach Seavey had altera- tions made in it during his ownership thereof, and fonnd a brick in the chimney bearing the date '4765" marked in its soft clay before burning. There was a little more discipline at Miss Allison's school than I had experienced before, and when the class in Malte-Brun's Geography was on the floor, and some luck- less wight ventured to shout "Mild and sa- lubrious !" in reply to a question about tlie climate of Patagonia, he was liable to suffer some penalty for his words without knowl- edge ; — but most of the climatic descriptions in that geography were "cold and inhospi- table," "mild and salubrious," or "hot and unhealthy," and we rarely got far out of our latitude in guessing at suitable answers to interrogatories on that theme. My playmates and schoolmates of this and a little later period were, beside tliose before mentioned, Edward P. Carter, Robert Sher- burne, Samuel and William H. Morril, George W. Gault, Edward Whipple, George H. Sanborn, Charles H. West, William L. Gage, and Nathaniel E. Gage. Of all I have named, only four are living. Edward Carter Personal BecoUections. 45 died ill Central City, Colorado, April 9, 1868, aged thirty-four years. Robert Sherburne is a farmer in Illinois. Samuel Morril is a physician at Marlboro, Pitt county, North Carolina. His brother William resided there, until his death, which occurred about six 3^ears ago. During the War of the Rebel- lion, William was a staff officer in Mahone's Division of the Southern army. George Sanborn became an inventor of printers' and bookbinders' machinery, prospered, and died in or near New York city. Cliarles West was a paymaster in the navy during the War of the Rebellion, and died in Winchester, Mass. Nathaniel Gage was a pliysician, and perished from cold on a Western prairie ; while his brother William was a distin- guished writer and preacher of the Congre- gational church, settled for many years at Hartford, Conn., and died in 1889. He once received a call to the Richmond Street church, in Edinburgh, Scotland. George Gauit, after going to sea before the mast in a ship commanded by my uncle, William McFarland, settled down to country life in Gilmanton, and became a deacon de facto, as he had been by courtesy in his youth. George was long my most intimate friend. He lived with his uncle, John Stickney, on 46 Si.Hi/ Years in Concord. the old Stickiiey Tavern estate, which dated back to 179-4:, now changed utterly, but the site opposite my old home has since been owned in part by Mr. John H. Pearson. The axe was laid to the root of the old tavern sign- post probably about 1838-'40. The swinging sign-board which it long supported had on either face, in good strong colors, the figure of an Indian with bow and tomahawk, and the legend '^ J. Stickne}^ 1794.'" The old tavern hall was a favorite place Avith us. There in the early part of tlie cen- tur\^ had been famous dancing parties, and in 1818 a great dinner to General Ripley, of Maine, a soldier in the War of 1812, when the principal decoration was the national flag- displayed on a fishpole. There, on March 4, 1825, was a dinner in honor of the inaugu- ration of President John Quincy Adams. This old hall abundantly lighted, and the great sheds and barns opening to the south, with liorses and cattle and plenty of room, made the Stickne}^ estate a grand place for boys in any kind of weather. In the stable was one of our particular friends, '' Old Judge," the horse, and in the yard anotlier, ''Old White," the dog. M}^ father drew the following picture of the Stickney tavern, as it was about 1825 : Personal Recollections. 47 Stickney's was the stage tavern of the town. The celebrated reinsmen of the period were to be found there, in all their pride of place, — Parsons, Bly, Walker, and others ; we can see them as clearly as if yes- terday, standing near the front door. And not the drivers only, but their horses and coaches, and the long tin -horns whicli the}^ blew on approaching the town. Parsons had at one time four wliite horses for the team driven into Concord. They were lost at the burning of the Anderson tavern, about 1822, on the turnpike between Hooksett and Ches- ter, when Tom shed bitter tears that he could fondle and drive them no more. A Vermont traveller once said they could at Stickney's make better beefsteak of red oak chips than he obtained in some taverns where they served what purported to be beef. Stickney's tavern was a resort of rep- utable travellers, — stage passengers, people going about in their own vehicles, Vermont- ers going to Boston, Salem, and Newbury- port with country produce, and footsore and dusty pedestrians, cane in hand. Undesir- able people, if they went to the house, were not apt to like the ''lay of the land," and did not remain long within its portals. All well disposed people reaching tliis house felt they had gained an excellent harbor. A favorite winter drink of the days when this tavern was in its prime was " flip." One of the most common banters of the olden time was, ''Til bet a mug of flip." 48 SLvtif Year^ in Concord. This drink consisted of beer and rum, with supfar and orated nutmes'. When mixed, tlie poker, always during winter kept in the fire, was thrust red hot into the mug, and then the foaming liquid was " flip." The arrival of coaches at Stickney's de- pended upon the state of the weather and the roads. Those from Boston, in favor- able seasons, reached here before 6 p. m. ; those going north or south left at 4 a. m. A long tin liorn was blown at departure, and also on arrival, — indeed, on going into any village, to notify postmaster, taverner, and all concerned to be ready for the exercise of their duties. Many people can testify to the comfort they took in this wayside inn. Dancing parties at Stickney's assembled at an early hour. I have seen an invitation to one such printed on a playing-card, the five of diamonds (perhaps a hint tliat card-pla}- ing would be allowed), which read as fol- lows : SOCIAL BALL. The company of Mr. and Mrs. Chandler is requested at Stickney's hall, on Thursday even- ing next, at 5 o'clock. W. A. Kent, ) R. H. Ayer, > Managers. C. Emery, ) Concord, Nov. 29, 1806. Li the great Avoodshed of the Stickney tavern, George Peabody, aftei'ward the emi- Personal Recollections, 49 nent London banker and piiilantliropist, once cut firewood to pay for a night's lodging, when in 1810, as a boy of fifteen, without surplus money, he was on his way from Danvers to live a 3^ear with his grandfather in Thetford, Vt. AVhen he visited Concord in 1858, as the guest of Hon. N. G. Upham, he related this fact to Hon. Ira Perley. George Gault and I were occasionally called upon to cut wood in this shed, but in no other way have our fortunes resembled those of Mr. Pea- body. In the Stickney kitchen was a colonial fireplace, wide enough for sticks of wood four feet long, and Miss Susan Stickney did not object to our whittling in a part of that room, so a large share of our winter carpen- try was carried on there. Capt. NatJmn Stickne}', wdio owned the next estate, we were rather shy of, for a boy discovers read- ily who of the grown people have no longing for his societ}^ ]Mrs. Ezra Carter (mother of Edward) and Mrs. Thomas Chadbourne (mother of William) were always indulgent to boys, and we favored them with much of our company. Our calls were not of a very ceremonious character, being often made without preliminary rap at the door, or waitino- for an usher to escort us in : such 50 Sixty Years in Concord. formalities were not considered then as of the utmost importance. Mrs. Chadbourne was before marriage Clarissa Dwiglit Green, a daughter of Dr. Peter Green, named for my grandfather's hrst Avife, Clarissa Dwight, of Belcliertowu, Mass., wlio died a few days before her namesake was born. There were summer visitors to Concord then, the like of whom are not seen here now — girls from Switzerland, who sang street songs to the accompaniment of a tambour- ine. They had indifferent, overtasked voices, but my father listened with apparent pleas- ure to their whole rejjerfoire. Tliere may not have been nnich delight in the music, but the costumes and songs of the Swiss can- tons probably carried his imagination away to Alpine valleys, which he had a longing to see. Miss Allison, our teacher, transferred her scliool, first, to a room over a drug store and tract depositorv in a structure standing tlie second south of the Historical Society's building, and thence to one of the jurj- rooms in the old town- and court-house, which stood near the present junction of Main and Court streets. At the last place I got a hard fall on the long stairs, and was taken home wounded and frightened. On the lower floor of this plain colonial building Personal Recollections. 51 was the town hall, and in its vestibule, or in the town hall itself, were stored on cross- beams some most astonishing implements called fire-hooks, designed for pulling down burning buildings. They were very un- wieldy and rarely put to use, but made an excellent roosting-place for expert climbers on town-meeting day ; and it was from that heiglit of vantage that Deacon Caleb Parker, in 1838, charged Cj'rus Barton with voting double. This was a subject for talk and newspaper paragraphs for 3^ears afterward, Colonel Barton being then the editor of the Patriot. Our school holidays of that time were not always spent exactly to our liking. There was a considerable period when such of us as worshipped at the South church were sent thither on Saturday afternoons to recite the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism to the pastor. That work was all in my memory, both questions and answers, and will never be wholly forgotten ; nor shall I ever forget the look of astonishment which came to the face of the pastor when on one occasion he surprised us all playing "tag," or " follow my leader," among the seats of the chapel, and gave us a considerate rebuke for lack of respect to the temple. 52 Sixty Years in Concord. Fourth of July, too, was wont to be given to cold-water-army marching and Sunday- school celebrations ;— so when that ever-glo- rious day came, most of the, town cliildren were paraded under various banners, each denominational band of Sunday-school pupils by itself, and marched to tlie Old North to hear addresses on temperance ; thence to the State-house yard, tired, hot, dusty, and hungry, to be refreshed with cake and cold water or lemonade so long as the cake lasted, afterward witli barrels of dry crackers brought from the bakery of Capt. Ebenezer Symmes. A little pamphlet relating to the celebration of 1841 was published. It gives the names of the teachers and scholars then present from each Sunday-school, and shows the following totals,— North churcli, 220 ; Methodist, 80 ; Episcopal, 71; South church, 230; Baptist, 108; Unitarian, 107. Total, 81(3. On that occasion the tables were spread in a field near Richard Bradley's home, and a thunder shower disturbed affairs. After my last ap- pearance at one of those festivities, I went home, and, within hearing of my father, made a little declaration of independence, to the effect that I would never go to another such celebration, and, much to my joy, this resolu- tion was approved by the home government. Personal ReeoUections. 53 The schools of that period were not graded, so we had pupils of various ages and different attainments in the same apartment. There were first, second, and third classes in reading, arithmetic, and other branches of study. One advantage this old way certainly had : 3'oung people could listen to the recita- tions of those more advanced than them- selves, and learn something by hearsay. It would be interesting to see the school-books of that time, — the New Hampshire Book, the American First Class Book, Porter's Rhetor- ical Reader, Olney's Geography (beside Malte-Brun's, alread}^ mentioned), Com- stock's Philosophy, Cutter's Ph3'siology, Webster's Spelling Book, Adams' Arithme- tic (published at Keene, N. H.), Colburn's Arithmetic, Greenleaf's Arithmetic, and Smitli's Grammar. Penmanship was taught with more care and lather more success than now, but ours is not a nation of penmen ; the English and Germans excel in this respect. It seems to me that I went from school to school in a rather desultory way, but it was merely change of place and teacher ; books and methods were generally the same. There were in our main village three public school buildings, for districts numbered 9, 10, and 54 Sixty Years in Co7ieord. 11 ; that for District 10 was the Bell school- house, situated where is now the high school building, and that for District 11 was a rather dignified two-story brick building at the corner of State and Church streets, on what Avas formerly called Parsonage lands. Some of our Concord old-time pedagogues afterward attained eminence, — for instance, Hon. Levi Woodbury, Benjamin Thompson or Count Rumford, Prof. Edwin D. Sanborn, Hon. George W. Nesmith, Nathaniel H. Carter, and Rev. Abraham Burnham. I was at tlie Bell school a long while, the same that my father and uncles had attended. How thickly and deeply the old desks and seats were scarred by generations of destruc- tive jack-knives ! The existing building for the high school is the fourth which I have seen on that site, each a great improvement on its predecessor. Masters Moses H. Clougli and James Moulton at different times swayed the ferule there during my early pupilage. John Towne was also a dominie in this school for a considerable period, and was at the same time deputy sec- retary of state, — a fact Avhich suggests that the occupation of teaching was not deemed so exhaustive of vital forces as it is now said to be. There was considerable punishment Personal Recollections. bb in this school, and the ferule and rattan were never far away. They were kept in hand as necessary badges of authority in all the schools for larger pupils of that time. At this school I came first and last, within the circuit of some new companions, — Abel and George H. Hutchins, John and Charles Kent, Charles P. Sanborn, afterward speaker of the house of representatives, Benjamin E. Badger, Gustavus Walker, Henry H. Gil- more, lately mayor of Cambridge, Mass., Thomas J. Treadwell, who graduated at West Point, and served in the Ordnance Corps of the army, J. Hamilton Low, Edson C. Eastman, Charles H. Foster, recently a sugar importer in Boston, John Chandler, wlio lived sometime at Manila as agent for William F. Weld & Co., the largest ship owners of Boston, Henry W. Fuller, George Henry Chandler, major of the Nintli New Hampshire Regiment, William E. Chandler, now a United States senator, James E. Ran- kin, since a Congregational clergyman, now president of Howard University, and J. Henry Gilmore, now a professor in Rochester Uni- versity. The last two are known as authors of famous hymns. There came home from West Point in my school days a young man in the uniform of 56 Sixty Years in Concord. the military academy, who was regarded with much curiosit}^ This was Napoleon Jerome Tecumseh Dana, whose mother and sister then lived in the house next north of the residence of the late Gov. Onslow Stearns. He was heard of afterward when he marched with tlie renowned First Regiment of Min- nesota to join the Army of the Potomac. In Februar}^ 1862, he was a brigadier-general, commanding the Third Brigade of Sedgwick's Division in the Second Army Corps. He was severely wounded in the impetuous at- tack of this corps, under General Sumner, on the enemy's left wing, at Antietam. I met him again in 1886, when he was president and I was secretar}^ and treasurer of the Mon- tana Union Railway, an offshoot of the Union Pacific Compan}'. Walter Brown, or Darkey Brown as we called him because of his swarthy complexion, indulged in a rather amnsing escapade at the Bell school. One morning he brought a red squirrel in his pocket, and when the exercises of the forenoon were well advanced, the little creature left its place of concealment and ran out-of-doors with Walter in full cry in pursuit, starting from his seat near the middle of the large room. Neither the cap- tive nor the captor returned that day. Personal Becollections. 57 Walter was, like all the rest of us, fond of the woods, and it was said that he could crack a chestnut-biirr with his bare heel. .The last I heard of him he was in Iowa about 1860, advertising for a wife. My ambition at this time was to become a carpenter, like one wliom I heard could earn $1.25 a day ; or a miller, the latter fancy hav- ing taken hold of me during a visit to a tidy gristmill in a picturesque nook on the Win- nipiseogee river at Meredith Bridge. All the boys had spells of wanting to go to sea : mine were cared by the advice of my uncle William, a ship-master who was a sailor from boj'hood. I was awa}^ from the Bell school at inter- vals, during one of which I trod the paths to Academy hill, where in a lonesome building- was what was left of the Concord Literary Institution. In 1835 moved by Mr. T. D. P. Stone, a young gentleman from Andover, Mass., an associated effort had been made to establish an academy on the hill, with normal, academical, high, and preparatory depart- ments. The first intent was to build of granite, but that purpose failed. The wooden building, fifty-four by fifty-eight feet, had boys' and girls' studj^-rooms, recitation-rooms, a laboratory, and a spacious hall for rhetori- 58 Sixty Years in Concord. Cell and public exercises. About one liundi-ed shareholders were in the undertaking, and the roll of pupils contained, first and last, nearly two tliousand names, from all New Eng- land, Oliio, and Alabama, and from Greece and Spain one each. In 1835 there were eleven teachers and more than two hundred and fifty students. The ambitious undertak- ing was not rewarded with prosperit}^, and after a time the property was leased for the uses of a private school. Mr. Aaron Day, just out of Dartmouth college, and Miss Emily Pillsbury were the instructors during- my pupilage, and the hall, being airy and well lighted, was the school-room. I fix the year of my attendance as 1843 by circum- stantial evidence only. ]\rost of the scliolars were attacked briefly by a prevalent influenza called the " Tyler Grip," because it appeared contemporaneously with President Tyler's visit to New England, which occurred that year. Then, too, we had a season of great interest in a popular excitement which sprung out of the hanging at sea of three chief mutineers on the brig '' Somers," of the United States Navy, the culprits being Spencer, Cromwell, and Small. Spencer was a son of Hon. John C. Spencer, secretary of war. Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, sailor Personal Mecollections. 59 and author, was the commander of the ves- sel, and, being accused of harshness and imprudence, was court-martialed on arrival at New York, but fnlly exonerated. This hanging was in December, 1842, and as the consequent excitement ran along into the fol- lowing year, this seems to confirm the other date. We went so far as to suspend some paper effigies of the mutineers to the ceiling of our scliool-room. Among the effects left over from the wreck of the academy were some philosophi- cal apparatus, among which was \i\\ orrery, to teach us the movements of the planets, an air-pump and receiver, by which we learned that a mouse could not live happil}^ in a vacuum, and a primitive dynamo, from Avhich we got some idea of the power of elec- tricity. (Tliis apparatus is now in the posses- sion of Benj. E. Badger, Esq.) This was the same year that congress appropriated f 30,000 to enable Prof. S. F. B. Morse — the former portrait painter in Concord — to build the first electric telegrapli, from AVashington to Baltimore. One may not be so fi-ee to deal witli the names of school-girls, but I suppose Miss Clara Lancaster was regarded generally as the local beauty of the period. She mar- 60 Sixty Year^ in Concord. ried a swarthy Cuban of at least middle age, and it is doubtful whether any one in Con- cord knows what became of her. Concord was so sparsely settled that I went usually across lots from my home on Main street to the academy, where Academy street now is, without causing inconvenience to anybody. A little battle of the Tom-Brown-at-Rugby description, between two of the older boys, was fought one evening, and divided us for a few days into rival clansmen. One of the belligerents, George Renton, died in Boston a few years ago ; the other lives in St. Louis. Oratory and the drama were not utterly neglected at the academy. Our great speaker, so I thought, was Samuel Morril, son of ex-Governor David L. Morril. Car- dinal Wolsey charged Cromwell to fling away ambition ; but our school had never heard of this priestly advice, and Ave essayed a public dramatic exhibition. Some scenes from the tragedy of Pizarro, by Kotzebue, were given to a crowded house. This is one of the passages : Gomez. — On yonder hill, among tlie palm- trees, we have surprised an ohl Peruvian. Escape by flight he could not, and we seized him unresisting. Pizarro. — Drao- him before us. Perso7ial RecoUections. 61 I have never seen these lines since they were delivered in the old academy, and they may not be correctly given. This play was followed by a farce, of which it is enougli to say that it was the production of a school-boy, William Chad- bourne. The text and the acting were wliat they were. The members of the six Shake- speare clubs now in Concord might have smiled behind their fans had they been pres- ent on that elevating occasion. This was perhaps the last flicker of the candle on that hill of science. The doors of the academy did not reopen to pupils. The building was taken down, and wrought into some houses now standing near Main street, south of the last residence of Governor Hill. IV. I was at Pembroke Academy for the sum- mer and autumn sessions of 1844, 1845, and 1846. The town of Pembroke, like Gold- smith's Auburn a village of tlie plain, was at that time rent by factions, one being par- tisans of the Academy, and the other champ- ions of the Gymnasium, a younger and rival school, alleged to be less orthodox in its teachino'. Church and state were divided on this school question. On the way to the Academy I was often the target for the gibes, and sometimes the missiles, of students or enterprising friends of the younger seminary. I could throw a stone with some force and accuracy on suitable occasions, and those of us who lived north of the Academy, and had to pass the G^annasium four times a day, finally obtained peace by being always ready to fight for it. The principals of the Acadeni}^ during the above-named years were, successively, Charles G. Burnham and Jonathan Tenney; assist- ants, or preceptresses as they were called. Miss Elizabeth Fuller, Miss Emily PillsUny, and Miss Clara A. Brown. Before this I Personal Recollections. 63 had seen a Latin dictionary, and Andrews iind Stoddard's Latin Reader and Grammar. At Pembroke Virgil was read, and also Sal- lust. Arithmetic was not very difficult, and I could solve the usual examples. Mr. Ten- ney sometimes sent me to the blackboard to show some older boy the way out of trouble ; but in declamation and original composition I had not good standing. None of the pupils of that period has attained a very eminent station in life, so far as I know. Albert Palmer obtained the mayoralty of Boston ; John Thornton Wood, who wrote ^\faciam viam " under his name on the fly-leaf of school-books, became a writer on the Phila- delphia Nortli American, and is now a resi- dent of Washington ; and Natt Head blew a bugle in the Hooksett band and reached tlie governor's chair in New Hampshire. My room-mate at Pembroke was Nathaniel L.^ Upham, now a Congregational clergyman residing in Philadelphia. Rev. Abraham Burnham, Nathaniel's grandfather, took us into his family, and was as kind to us as if we had been his sons. My grandfather had a part at his ordination in 1808, when the Concord paper said, — " To the credit of the people who attended, during a long exercise the greatest degree of order and decorum 64 Sixty Years in Concord. prevailed." Mr. Burnhain had a serious face, thoughtful expression, and was ratlier abrupt in manner, so his real character did not man- ifest itself to everybody. He kept a good horse, and was fond of having us drive with him to " Buck street," or North Pembroke. There was an abundance of wholesome food on liis table, at which we were never seated until, all assembled and standijig, the divine blessing had been solicited. He liked cheer- ful conversation and a lively joke. I remem- ber an occasion at family prayers when he read a chapter of the Old Testament, in which mention is made of the Hebronites. Closinp' the Bible with a smart bano- he re- marked, — " We have some Hebronites in New Hampshire." " Why, wliere ? " said Mrs. Burnham, with manifest surprise. '' Up in Hebron," replied he gaily, tlien arose and began a fervent prayer. To those who deemed him a severe man this would have seemed a queer thing to do, but the truth is he was not a severe man. He was a brisk, hearty New England clergymjin, sound and mellow, not too theological to be human. My father was not subjected to great ex- pense for my living in Rev. Mr. Burnham's family. The stipulated price was -$1.50 a week, but in consideration of my driving the Personal Recollections. Q^ cow to and from pasture one week, and carry- ing wood from shed to kitchen and watering the horse the alternate . week, the price was reduced to 11.25. ]\Iy room-mate performed like serv^ice on alternate ' weeks. What would a lively Harvard student, maintaining a suite of rooms, a piano, and bouquet for his centre table, with annual college and per- sonal expenses of from -11^2,000 to -^5,000, think of so small an outlay ? My journeyings to and fro with tliat cow were satisfactory opportunities for reflection and observation. The sleek creature had the riglit of way, for it had been settled in the clash of battle, with much pawing of dust, and bellowing, and onset of horns, that she could defend her privilege against all milch kine along the road. There were berries to gather, squirrels to chase, and skunks to hurl stones after; also shy upland plovers, fluttering and limping away from j)asture nooks, enticing one away from their homes where beautiful eggs were hid in soft herb- age under overhanging berry-bushes. Trout would come up for a grasshopper to the sur- face of every pool in a brook from which they have now been gone these forty years; and there was that wondei'ful Fife liouse, under the builder's hand then, not completed yet. 66 Sixtij Yearn in Concord. I was permitted to come home to Concord on alternate Saturdays to remain over Sun- day, the homeward journey being made on foot, and the return usually by railway as far as Robinson's Ferry. The first time I went toward Pembroke Acadeni}^ by rail, Hon. N. G. Upham (my room-mate's father), superintendent of the Concord railroad, told Mr. George Clough, the conductor, to pass me free for that one time, the first occasion on which I travelled as a '' dead-head " — a de- lightful experience. Gail Hamilton says it seems to be a hardship for anybody to pay car fare, because one wants all his mone}^ to spend at the journey's end ; and to the truth of that statement abundant testimony might be found. Being able during school hours to prepare myself sufficiently to pass the recitations, there was time for woods and fields, and I knew every eddy in the river, all the good fishing-places, the best forests for chestnuts, and did such shooting as could be done witli a long bow, a gun being prohibited. Knox's woods were abundant in nuts, but an edict of the proprietor, enforced b}^ his big dog, barred ns out; still Ave- foraged around the edges under far-reaching trees. Our regular 1)athing-place was a pool in Personal Recollections. 67 the Merrimack, and here one afternoon was dragged out a boy named McQnesten, who had ventured beyond his depth, and was splashing and struggling in distress. Near by this favorite spot was the eccentric Daniel Flagg's shower-bath. Here was a hogshead held aloft on poles, and piped so that it would drop an avalanche of cold spring water from a height. of twenty feet on the stark and cranky individual willing to defy mosquitoes and the e3"es of the forest. I never saw this invigorating apparatus put to use, and sus- pect it did not give its owner the satisfaction which he had hoped to derive from it. Daniel was a queer character, not over fond of work. Barefooted in summer, thinly clad all the year, gaunt and pinched, he claimed to use for food or raiment no article to obtain which had cost some animal its life. He fellow- shipped to some extent with the people known as " Come-outers." Many of my schoolmates at Pembroke were in training for college, to Avhich I had no inclination, but a new Bell school-house having been built, I was there for a while, with Mr. Hall Roberts as instructor. V. Although the boys of 1840-'45 were with- out tennis, croquet, and cigarettes, there was sufficient amusement. Marbles and ball were taken up as soon as the snow was gone, base- ball being a favorite game, although it had not the modern rules and strange devices. We walked on high stilts, flew kites away up in the blue ether, and built miniature saw- mills on West's brook. With the aid of a pliant stick and a short knotted string, we shot darts out of sight skyward. The most conspicuous ball-ground was the state-house park, and a game could usually be found there any week day in April or May; on Fast Day, three or four games at the same time. On the stone wall, then tlie north boundary of the park, was perclied a row of spectators, like swallows on a telephone wire. There was no restraining reverence for the capitol. Boys with lofty aspirations climbed by tlie lightning-rod from the ground, and crossed the dome of the edifice as it then was, to seat themselves astride the eagle's neck. This was a favorite pastime for Abiel Carter, Personal Recollections. 69 and his brother, John W. D., since citizens of Portland, Maine. Abiel went up one night before a Fourtli of July, and hung the national flag on the eagle ; at dajlight he discovered it was " Union down," and climbed up again to right it. A boy who thought that much of the old flag could not be driven into the rebel army, if he did have life and property at stake in Texas when the storm of •war burst over the South in 1861. Doric hall, as it is now called, then known merely as the '' Area," was used occasionally as a public assembly-room. There Daniel Web- ster once received a popular greeting, and so, I think, did Gen. Sam Houston, of Texas. The Seamen's Friend Society of ladies held sometimes a June fair there, in the hope of capturing mau}^ half dollars for their cause from rural legislators, — a hope which never had full fruition. The river and intervale were places of frequent resort, for Ave took delight in the stream, and in its green banks and sandy edges. In the summer vacation-days a whole afternoon was frequently given to the water, reserving only time enough to get our heads well dried before the anxious maternal inspec- tion at supper time. The west bank of the river for an eighth of a mile above the " Free 70 Sixty Years hi Concord. Bridge" was the popular evening bathing- place for apprentices and mechanics, and a long line of young A polios could be found there from late afternoon until dark. The Avater was deep then, with no shoals or sand- bars, and there was good diving. Edward E. Sturtevant, tlien a printer in Concord, after- ward a major of the Fifth New Hampshire, " New Hampshire's first volunteer," killed in the assault of the Army of the Potomac on the heiglits of Fredericksburg in December, 1862, was accustomed to go under with a cigar, lighted end inside his mouth, come up a long way oft", and puff the smoke in a leisurely swim to the further shore. My comrade, George Gault, could go off a spring board with the grace of a professional ath- lete, turn a beautiful curve, and plunge into the water straight as a pickerel, leaving liardly a ripple behind. The Merrimack to our boyish eyes looked broader and grander than it is : to me it has always been the ]nost delightful of rivers. . David A. Wasson, a native of Maine, where rivers abound, says in one of his essays, — " Sweet old Merrimack stream, the river that we would not wish to forget, even by the waters of the river of life I " It was our common fishing-water, too, and seldom it was Personal Recollections. 71 that we came home empty-handed. We caught perch, chub, roach, horn-pout, and pickereh Although the small streams in our county, all tributary to the Merrimack, are among the best natural trout waters, I never saw but one trout caught in the river itself ; that one was taken between the moutli of Turkey river and Garvin's falls. 1 have lieard of an occasional one in Turkey pond. I took a pickerel which weighed over three pounds at the outlet of Fort Eddy, when I was but just strong enough to land him,'^nd one of the South End boys, Theodore French, caught one twice as large not far above the lower bridge. Salmon were then taken at Garvin's falls, before the great dam was built at Lawrence in 1848. The last of those lordly lish I heard of in the river, before that high dam was completed, were taken at Gar- vin's, and sold in Concord to Joseph A. Gilmore, who shared tliem with his frieQds. Between those two, and the fish now occa- sionally seen in the attempted restocking of the stream, was a long interregnum. Just below the Lawrence dam, in 1851-'51, I had opportunity to see many sliad taken in a seine, and once was looking on when a great sturgeon escaped by leaping over the edge of the net as it was drawn to shore. 72 Sixty Years in Concord. There was some navigation on the river. Canal-boats came np from Boston (by use of the Middlesex canal as far as Lowell) from 1816 to 1843, having one landing just below the Pembroke bridge, and another near the Federal brido'e. One of the means to enter- tain a president in Concord in 1817 was to give him a boat excursion down tlie river to Garvin's falls. There was an odor like that of city wharves about the boating company's landings ; — bales and boxes of goods, bundles of iron, and hogsheads of molasses were vis- ible. One navy-yard where canal-boats were constructed was oji the north side of Centi'e, between INIain and State streets ; another was on Hall street. When ready for the Avater the boats were liauled away and launched, with some frolic and possibly some tippling. The granite for Quinc}^ market in Boston was boated down the river. A small steamboat had come up from the "Hub" as long ago as 1819. On at least one occasion of high water, boats landed hogslieads of molasses at the distillery, which stood where Stratton & Co. now dispense "Alpine Daisy " flour. Rafts of timber from forests north of Con- cord were taken down the river, some of them with rustic huts thereon, whence came the glow of firelight, and glimpses of a cook Personal Recollections. T3 preparing the raftsmen's supper. Some of this timber was wrought on tlie lower Merri- mack into the staunch frames of ships known all around the world. It seemed to us, as we sat in the clover and buttercups by the river, where the bob-o-links sung and the bees gath- ered honey, as if the adjacent north region whence the Avater came, witli now and then a boat or a raft on its bosom, was a vast mys- terious country, indefinite and unknown. " An English artist named Harvey, an asso- ciate of the National Academy, once made a picture of Concord from the east bank of the river above the Pembroke or lower bridge, in the foreground of which was almost exactly what I have attempted to describe. Litho- graphic copies of this picture were printed in London. I know of but three in existence now ; — one is the property of Mr. John M. Hill, another is owned by a bookseller in Bristol, England, and the third is in a Con- cord barber shop. Along the river bank were groups of maple trees, from which we drew sap in sunny spring clays for boiling down to sugar in the even- ing. On one of these sap-gathering play- days, at high spring tide, we lost an axe belonging to Mr. John Stickney, and it lay quietly at the bottom of the stream until 74 Sii'ty Years in Concord. summer drought enabled us to recover it, to our great satisfaction, before its loss ^had been discovered, and not much the worse for its watery bnrial. The '^ Paradise woods," a forest of grand old pines, which stood opposite the site of the present Blossom Hill Cemetery, was in the spring a place abounding with Mayflow- ers and evergi'een. The ground in these woods became dry as soon as the snow was gone, and there was a solemn, attractive grandeur in the stately pines. When those trees were swept away by the axe, desolation reigned in their stead. There was also a beautiful grove of large trees, mainly elms, on the "fan" north of Fort Eddy, to which we went on hot summer afternoons to enjoy the cool breeze, the waving grass, and the songs of birds wdiich nested there in great numbers. Their nests were never molested by us. Toward autumn we roasted corn and potatoes, and sat down to pastoral feasts, where good digestion waited on appetite, and health on both. There were also on the meadows many staunch old hickory trees, at which we kept busy in autumn holidays lay- ing by a store of nuts for winter, there being- considerable rivalry to determine who could gather most. Personal Recollections. 75 The annual militia trainings in May and the autumnal reo'imental musterinofs were interesting and picturesque events, wliich assembled the Concord Light Infantry (dat- ing back to at least 1797), Capt. David Neal, with blue coats, white trousers, and waving plumes of red and white ; the Columbian Artillery, Capt. Thomas P. Hill, clad in patriotic blue ; the Troop, with red coats and horses of every color, led by the redoubtable Cotton K. Simpson ; and the Borough Riflemen, Capt. Timotliy Dow, with a front rank of pioneers dressed like Indians and bearing big tomahawks. Noth- ing precisely like these is likely ever to go through our streets again. The more numerous train-bands without uniforms, but provided with muskets, cartridge boxes, knapsacks, and of course canteens, obtained in some way the rather queer name of "string-beans." Those militiamen, sucli as were left of them, made their last collective appearance in 1861, as Home Guards, " not to leave town except in case of an invasion," with Josiah Stevens, captain, Asa McFarland, first lieu- tenant, and Hamilton E. Perkins, first sergeant. Coasting could be done, in its season, on 76 Sixty Years in Concord. any street in town which had sufficient slope: no policeman would gather us in. T have slid from a point on Main street near Bridge street, northward as far as Montgomery street, where there is very little declivity now ; and Bridge street (before the building of the railroad bridge) and Ferry street were very lively coasting-places, railroad trains passing so infrequently that they did not interrupt the sport to a serious or very dan- gerous degree. I once saw a big sleigh- bottom, with a dozen boys thereon, come flying down Montgomery street, and at the junction with Main take a countryman's horse out of a passing sleigh and land the animal clear over on the east sidewalk, the boys rolling off barely in season to escape harm. This affair was treated as a merely funny adventure, — no fuss, no writs, no law- yers, and no half column in a daily news- paper. Tliere may have been some anxious hearts for a few hours. I know I saw Andrew Chadbourne roll off the flying sled as he saw what must occur, run into his father's house, and come out after a while to ask the artless victim of the mischance how it all happened. Some of us were coasting on Ferry street on an afternoon holiday, probably in 1843, when looking toward the sun we espied the Personal Recollections. 77 comet of that year. This was before the strange visitor had begun to be talked about or discussed in such newspapers as came to our notice. A gun is usually a coveted possession, and there was in our house a weapon which my father called a fowling-piece, bought when he was an apprentice in Boston, in 1822, from a store in Dock square, at a cost of ten dollars. It was obtained for use in militia trainbands, but he did some shooting with it on Boston common. When it reached m}^ hands it was very long, although some inches of its original proportions had been shorn off at the muzzle end. The calibre, too, was large ; so it took a sight of ammunition to load it, and when discharged, it scattered shot widely and none too effectively. There was a small flaw in the barrel, a few inches from the lock, which was the cause of some solicitude, but the arm proved to be safe for the gunner, and not very dangerous to any- thing else. George Gault had the use of a similar gun from iiis uncle, John Stickney. It was at least as old as mine, much homelier, with a curious bend in its barrel, a depression be- tween lock and muzzle very evident to the eye when the piece was sighted, probably a 78 Sixty Years in Concord. caprice of the gun-maker with an intent to give it long range. Its shooting qualities were neither better nor worse than those of my weapon. Much time was spent by us in the forests and fields. The pursuit of fish and game im- parted liabits of observation which were useful in after life. In tlie right season there was almost always some reward for our hunt to be found within easy distance. About the year 1850 I saw a sportsman come out of a cornfield which bordered on Ferry street, half way from Main street to Fort Eddy, carrying twenty or thirty snipe and wood- cook. He was shooting in a wajr which 1 had never seen before, with a handsome double gun and a fine setter dog. We got ruffed grouse within a mile of the state-house ; one I discovered in my father's garden. Many a woodcock have I seen flying across Main street in the early evening, and wild pigeons were sometimes numerous in the vicinity. The last mentioned birds I occa- sionally shot from trees on Main street, also in my father's garden, but oftener on the meadows and Pine plain. Once I secured a dozen pigeons, only one at a shot, about a mile from the city hall ; but this was not done with the old fowling-piece before men- Personal Recollections. 79 tioned. It was not so far as that from the city hall that I came near getting a wild goose. The great bird was hit, and a little more discretion on my part would have secured it, but I lost my head with excite- ment, and it escaped into the pine woods on the plain. We were often as short of ammu- nition as was the Continental army, and such old iron and lead as could be found were bar- tered for powder and shot. As our shooting- was not altogether approved in certain mater- nal quarters, it was hard to obtain mone}' from the home government. There were in Avinter some excellent skat- ing-places on the intervale. The meadows not being then well drained, we could often skate from where are now the sheds of the New England Granite Company southward to the frog-pond below the Concord & Mon- treal engine-house. During winter freshets water sometimes covered the intervale, ice formed, and a grand skating park resulted. Occasionally we found smooth ice on the river, and went flying as far up as Sewall's Falls. My first skates were fished out of a box of half-forgotten rubbish, and rigged with leather thongs. When discovered, brown rust lay thickly on the blades, but hard work w4th brick .dust and an old file 80 Sixty Years i)i Concord. took that off. The skate of that day had a longitudinal groove in the edge which came in contact with the ice, and a good pair, with curves in front ending in a brass acorn over the toe, cost a dollar and a quarter. George Gault's brother William sent him a pair from New York which had some elegant double curves at the toe, two grooves in the cutting edge of the blades, and other devices which stirred our souls, and caused us to regard him as a most fortunate being. We called those " real Plolland skates." Christie Renton, daughter of Dr. Peter Renton, was, I think, the first girl wlio did any skating in Concord. She learned on Horseshoe pond, with the assistance of her brother John, wlio was a powerful skater. There was a story current among us that John once started at the upper end of the Horseshoe, and came down to the bridge with so mucli headway that he jumped clear over it, that structure being then nearer the water level than it is now. Tliis was as famous a story among us as is that of "Alvarado's leap *' in Mexican history. The Northern Railroad embankment was not constructed then, and there was a clear run from the head of the pond. VI. Not very many books were accessible in the earlier part of the period which I have tried to describe. My list included some volumes of the Penny 3Iagazine and Merri/'s Museum^ Banyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," Harper's Family Library, Goldsmith's "Ani- mated Nature," " The Scottish Chiefs," " Thaddeus of Warsaw," the Rollo Books, a few other of Jacob Abbot's stories, and a little later a real treasure-house, — Chambers' Miscellany. " Robinson Crusoe " was read and re-read. Josephus's History was among the possessions of the Stickney tavern. Some boy friend had the "Swiss Family Rob- inson " and the " Arabian Nights." If there had been a place like the Concord City Library, it would have been a great satisfac- tion. Maria Edgeworth's novels were in our house, but not much read. Dickens's novels were the first I went through Avith real satis- faction. The "Pickwick Papers" I tried to read, but could not get interested in them, — a confession I never dared make, until I heard Hon. Asa Fowler, whose love for books no one would question, say the same for himself. 82 Sixty Years in Coicord. Three weekly newspapers came to our home, the Congregational Journal^ The New Hamp- shire Statesman}., and the Boston Journal. After m}^ father became the publislier of the Statesman the second time, in 1851, news- paper reading became too abundant. Mention has been made of a few of many taverns on Main street: The Washinpton o House, Merrimack House, Stickney tavern, American House (not the existing one of that name). Eagle Coffee House, Columbian hotel, Phoenix hotel. Elm House, and Carter's tavern. Although strong liquors had ceased to be considered good drinks, bar-rooms were not banislied from sight, nor driven to by- places and holes in the ground. I was not allowed to visit taverns or drinking- places, but was induced once to go to '^ Sam Clark's," a semi-respectable retreat within a liouse then standing where is now the Phoenix block, to get a first acquaintance with oysters. Will- iam Chadbourne and myself invested all our money in a savory stew, and divided the pro- ceeds of the investment. Its cost was nine- pence in Spanish coins, equivalent to twelve and a half cents. Most of the silver coins in circulation were Spanish or Mexican,* many *In 1801 Thomas Jefferson and John Randolph attempted to abolish ihe national mint and do away with the United States coins, which they styled an " insign.a of sovereignty," or an assertion that the Nation is superior to the Slate. Personal ReeoUections. 83 of them so worn that the mint stamp was indistinct. Shop and store prices were not stated in our national money, but were " four- pence ha'penny " (six and a quarter cents), '-'• two and thre'pence" (thirty-seven and a half cents), and so forth. Bank notes issued in one state might not be current in another. Counterfeits were so common that every merchant kept a "detector" near his elbow, and |)aper currency was never satisfac- tory until the establishment of the national banking system in 1863-'64. There being then no local daily newspaper, the taverns were places of common resort to tell and hear town news. The old Phoenix, opened in Januarj^, 1819, was a rendezvous of my father's, and a most respectable cir- cle of Whig gentlemen could be found there any cool evening, gathered around tlie cheer- ful fire in the bar-room, an apartment about twenty by thirty feet in area. The adorn- ments of the room were long rows of sus- pended crook-necked squashes, which dis- appeared gradually before the approach of spring, and a few pictures, " Susannah and the Elders" being as conspicuous as any of the collection. Major Ephraim Hutchins was the landlord, and Mr. Solon Stanley officiated behind the counter. After the brief 84 Sixty Years in Concord. reign of William Dole, one was succeeded by Mr. A. C. Pierce, and the other by Mr. S. H. Dumas, who has been for many years landlord of the Boar's Head at Hampton. The Plioenix was Daniel Webster's abiding- place when he came to Concord, and Gen. Winfield Scott was there when on his way to Maine at the period of the northeastern boundary dispute, in 1841-'42, with England. When I had attained wisdom enough to be permitted to go occasionally to the Plioenix, Hamilton Hutchius, Lewis Downing, Sam- uel Coffin, J. Stephens Abbot, Ira Perley, Woodbridge Odliu, Charles Smart, Joseph G. Wyatt, Joseph A. Gil more, Abel B. Holt, and others, were in more or less regular attendance. There was no drinking ; it was mere sociability and friendliness. Democrats holding similar rank in town resorted to the American House, corner of Main and Park streets. Midway between these two hostelries was the Eagle Coffee House, a most comfortable tavern, built in 1827 by Mr. William Rich- ardson, who came from Methuen, Mass. Until then its site had been an apple orchard. Here was a large tavern hall called the Grecian, where on tlie wall back of the ros- trum was what purported to be a picture of Personal Recollections. 85 the Battle of New Orleans. Here Daniel Webster once received his friends, but the floor weakened under the weight of a numer- ous assembly, and tliere was a sudden adjournment to the state-house. At the gatherings which I have mentioned at the Phoenix, Mr. Odlin had always a fund of wit to distribute. Ira Perley, a lawyer of excellent attainments, highly respected by his fellow-citizens, an oracle in the Whig- circle, was considered a possible governor or member of congress. Altliough afterward chief-justice of New Hampshire, he never had the nicest judicial temper, — was fitful, moody, and, in conversation at least, occa- sionally unjust. Mr. Wyatt, being a daily messenger of the express to Boston, was an important acquisi- tion to the circle. He could often tell of occurrences in that city before they were set forth in the newspapers. The murder of Dr. George Parkman in Boston, in November, 1849, made a great impression on the public mind ; and happening to hear from Major Wyatt tliat tlie murderer had been discovered and was a professor in Harvard Medical Col- lege, I went home with the intelligence, to be told by my father that it was preposterous nonsense : still it turned out to be truth, and 86 Sixty Years in Concord. my father read, in the Vale of Chamouni, in September, 1850, an account of Dr. John W. Webster's execution on the gallows in pen- alty for the crime. The interior of Mr. Wyatt's home Avas enlivened with portraits of American statesmen. If the men them- selves lost Mr. Wyatt's esteem, it was his custom to turn the portraits head downward on the walls, permanently or temporarily as they might deserve. During periods of more than usual political interest, the Phoenix loungers overflowed into the south parlor, on tlie same floor as the bar-room, and filled the broad front piazza. These people at the Phoenix were great admirers of Henry Clay, and took that statesman's failure in the presi- dential election of 1844 very much to heart, as tliey would surely have done the defeat of Webster if the latter had been the can- didate. The first time my eyes beheld Daniel Web- ster I was a school-boy in the street, ignorant that he was in town, but it needed no herald to tell me who he was ; no other man could have that imperial presence. My awe was equal to that of the navvy, who pointed at him in a Liverpool street, in 1839, and ex- claimed, *' There goes a king." Nearly half a century ago I was told that Personal RecoUections. 87 my grandfather was the officiating clergyman at the marriage of Daniel Webster and Grace Fletcher. Lately I have been looking about to see if any corroborative evidence is on record. Miss Grace Fletcher was the daughter of a Congregational clergyman of Hopkinton, but at the date of her marriage her father was dead, her mother probably re-married, and she herself living with a married sister in Salis- bury. My grandfather was a tutor in Dartmouth college when Mr. Webster was the foremost student there, and they were probably known then to one another. He was also, as I have before stated, a trustee of the college during the controversy which resulted in the famous Dartmouth College case in the United States supreme court, where Mr. Webster made the argument, which brought tears to the eyes of the great Virginian, Chief Justice John Mar- shall, and wrung a favorable decison from a reluctant court. There was a color of probability to what I was told, and a search for the truth has amused me, but at the church in Salisbury this marriage is recorded under the head of ''Marriages by Mr. Worcester," a long record running from Nov. 12, 1791, to Nov. 28, 1830, 88 Sixty Years in Concord. when Rev. Thomas Worcester was pastor of the Salisbury church, and I suppose it may have become the habit to write down any marriage wliich occurred, without careful regard to the heading. Mr. Webster himself seems to have made an error as to the date of his marriage. In his brief autobiography, written in 1829, he says, '' June 24, 1808, I was married." To be sure tliis does not say exactly that such was the date of his wed- ding, but, standing as it does in a sentence by itself, that is what it has been taken to mean. If that is what it means, it was clearly a slip of memory. On the records of the town of Salisbury is the following: ''Daniel Webster, Esq., of Portsmoutli, and Miss Grace Fletcher, of Hopkinton, N. H., were married May 29, 1808." This does not give the name of the clergyman. At the date of his marriage, Mr. Webster lived in Portsmoutli. In the Portsmouth Oracle of June 11, 1808, is this: "Married in Salisbury, Daniel Webster, Esq., of this town, to Miss Grace Fletcher." This gives neither date nor clergyman. The Concord Gazette of Tuesday, May 31, 1808, does a little better. It says, — '' Mar- ried in Salisburv, on Sunday evening last. Personal Recollections. 89 Daniel Webster, Esq., of Portsmouth, to Miss Grace Fletcher." This Concord G-azette of Tuesday probably went to press Monday evening, as was the cus- tom of that day, and I have wondered if my grandfather preaclied in Salisburj^ Sunday, May 29, 1808, married the young people, who were probably both known to him, drove home to Concord Monday morning, and attended to the publication of that notice promptly in the Gazette., which was then printed by his friend J. C. Tuttle. To add to the possi- bility of my grandfather's having been in the pulpit at Salisbury on the above named Sun- day is the fact that he was to preacli the election sermon in Concord on the follow- ing Thursday. Bouton's History of Concord has a partial list of the preachers of election sermons, in which another name than my grandfather's appears for 1808, but this is assuredly an error. The same Gazette which printed the notice of marriage saj^s, — " The Rev. Mr. McFarland, of this town, is ap- pointed to deliver the Election sermon on Thursday." I have been inclined to think that tlie preparation of that sermon (copies of which are in existence) for the opening of the legislature so far occupied his time the week before the marriage that it might have 90 Sixty Years in Concord. been very conveiiient for him to exchange with Papson Worcester of Salisbury on the Sunday of the wedding. But after all, I have found no proof that Dr. McFarland officiated at the espousals. The annual town elections were opened on the morning of the second Tuesday of March, and continued down to Friday or Saturday ; at least once the meeting held into a second week. x\s the elections were at the town hall nearly opposite my home, and as our friends were active Whigs, and often beaten, those great assemblies were interesting, although mostly unsatisfactory. Sometimes there were discussions on town affairs be- tween men like Richard Bradley, Joseph Low, Samael Coffin, and James Peverly, on one side, and Isaac Hill, Franklin Pierce, Robert Davis, and Joseph Robinson, on the opposite side. . There were violent personal hatreds between Whigs and Democrats. Ex-Gov. Hill of the Patriot^ a red-hot Jackson man, and in fact one of what is called in history " Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet," used a good many lively nouns and adjectives in political newspaper attacks. These ways became the ways of partisans, and there was sometimes hot and fretful talk on the town-hall floor. General Pierce was too ambitious to brook Personal Recollections. 91 control, so he rebelled a little against the authority of the political leader, but kept inside the party lines. Within those lines there was an exhilarating- scrimmage on Sat- urday, Feb. 18, 1842. Two factions of the Democracy, "radicals" and "conservatives," striving for control of a caucus in the town hall, came in collision, seats and desks were smashed, wigs flew in the dusty air, and bloody noses were seen on most respectable faces. There was a great uproar and a clat- ter of flying feet, combatants chasing their foes as far down as Centre street. Two Patriot newspapers were then seeking party favor, the Neiv Hampsliire Patriot and HilVs JVew Hampshire Patriot. The old town hall was provided with a speakers' platform at the west end, opposite the entrance, and a broad open floor led from entrance to platform. Rows of benches were on eitlier side, facing not toward the plat- form, but at right angles to it, as in the British house of commons. On the south wall hung a large clock-case with a dial, but it was a hollow sham, into which a boy could climb. For a considerable period the even- ing meetings of the First church were held in the old hall, and so afterward were the services of the early St. Paul's Episcopal church. 92 Sixty Years in Concord. Town-meeting week was in some sense a town lioliday, — a time for cakes and ale, gin- gerbread and molasses cand}'. Peddlers of various notions, and hucksters' bootlis, were numerous in the trampled snow of the town- house liill. People from outlying districts, on the borders of Boscawen, Bow, Canter- bury, Chichester, Dunbarton, Loudon, and Pembroke (a cluster of dignified English names), came in the morning, some of them to stay all clay and go home in the evening with the smell of rum in their garments. In the choice of moderator no check-list Avas used. The chairman of the selectmen, standing at the handle of the big front door, received the ballots of the voters, who, to prevent double voting, entered and remained within the hall perhaps a weary half day, un- til the polls were closed, although there was an occasional escape through some neglected window. In 1843 Joseph Low, a Whig, was elected moderator in opposition to Franklin Pierce, Democrat. There were usually ballots of three parties, — Free Soil, Whig, and Democratic, — and sometimes those of bolters or factions got into the field. George Gault and I once carved in pine wood two droll devices for headings, and printed tickets at my father's Personal Recollections. 93 press, designed to ridicule certain local poli- ticians, a South End gentleman being the especial object of our displeasure. Taking exceptional care in the printing, we carried our productions to the town hall, but were afraid to distribute them. Concealing tlie packages imperfectly in the crevices of a woodpile on Mr. John Stick ney's estate, we went away for deliberation, and on our return were astonished to find a big, sober-faced man selling our tickets for ten cents each, in a very active market. Then we realized that " Tliere is a tide in tlie affairs of men. Which, taken at tlie tlooci, leads on to fortune," for we had no more than ten cents each to spend in all town-meeting week. This great annual meeting brought all the- queer local characters to tlie front — among others, Benjamin Green, a half-crazy English- man, with perhaps a broadside of original doggerel verses ; John Virgin, a cranky pen- sioner of the War of 1812, who served under General Harrison at Tippecanoe, vehement and sometimes eloquent in praise of his old commander and Henry Clay ; and a man from "The Borough," who went striding about, Avith a pole held at his shoulder as if it were a gun, sliouting " Guards to the right ! Dragoons to the left! Advance the centre!" 94 Sixty Years in Concord. Such queer people seem to be extinct. " Our Decided Characters," who were por- trayed by Mr. Charles L. Wheeler in a Con- cord Director}^ published by him in 1853, have apparently left no successors. As long as annual sessions of the state legislature began in June, so long was Inaug- uration or Election chw the best holiday of the year. It came in the most delightful of all the months, and the wliole town was made ready for it. Contracts for house building and painting were timed to be completed before that day, and lawns were raked of their last dead leaf. New clothes were brought home from the tailors, and new bon- nets had their first outing. Out-of-town visi- tors swarmed in, arrayed in their best. The military turned out, — infantry, artillerj', and (in 1860-'65) the Governor's Horse Guards. This was a brave show. To be sure the Horse Guards had their difficulties ; what military company does not? Their untrained horses could never qaite comprehend why sabres should be drawn, and the flash of steel about their heads scattered the whole caval- cade into separate units. Then there was one occasion wlien '' bold John Barleycorn " got in his work. A bustling officer of the guards mounted his horse at the Phoenix, Personal Recollectio7is. 95 before the hour for parade, and made a head- long dash down Main street, slashing with his sabre right and left at imaginary foes, and putting to desperate flight a demure cow at the South End. This achievement being satisfactorily accomplished, he came back up the street at like pace, and landed prone in the dust in front of Phcenix block, exclaim- ing, '• The. horse was not to blame I" Thence he was borne off to bed, and the horse, which had stood quietly by the fallen rider, was led away to the stable. Such scenes did not occur on Main street every da}^, or every Election day either. The career of that Horse Guard was over. " His banner led the spears no more amidst the hills of Spain." If any person of the olden time had fore- told the present biennial winter sessions, without music and banners, fakirs and magi- cians, lemonade and 'lection cake, he would have been regarded as a hopeless lunatic. There was work as well as play for the boys of 3845, — work in the garden, hoeing and digging, fruit-gathering, wood to saw, split, and pile, and paths to shovel in winter. No grocer of that day delivered by wagon the goods sold to his customers. He surren- 96 Sixty Years in Concord. dered commodities at his store, and the pur- chaser got them home as he best could. In such service my wheelbarrow was useful, and my father would dispatch me to the grocery, usually that of Deacon Nathaniel Evans, which stood wdiere is now the Chase building, with a written order for whatever was wanted, drg,wn in his strong, character- istic liand, which ran usually in this way: Mr. Evans : Please deliver to this lad the following [here was a list of articles], and charge the same to the account of Your obt. servant, Asa McFakland. all as carefully capitalized and punctuated as if it had been a paper of the State De- partment. This was rather serious business when tlie supply of wheat flour and sugar and molasses needed replenishing, but there were neither delays nor accidents on the line. The streets and walks were not crowded with traffic. I was often at the printing-otRce, then in the third story of Stickney's building, which faced the state-house park, to render such service as was within my strength and ca- pacit}^ First-class printers made constant use of the dry-press for restoring finish to paper which had been wet before printing. Personal Recollections. 97 and indented bj the impression of type. The practice of wetting paper was then universaL To restore the printed slieets to their original finish, they were phiced between hard, smoothly finished pasteboards, and subjected to great pressure in powerful screw^ presses. It seems as if I must have '' put in " and " taken out " in those years enougli sheets of paper to cover the whole territory of Concord with literature. It was monotonous toil, be- gun when I was too small to stand in one place and reach to the right or left for sheets, so it was necessjuy to wallv to and fro in front of the bench, like the swing of a pendulum. There was a story current among the boys tliat Dr. Timoth}^ Haynes liad a dissecting- room in the attic at the south end of the Stickney building. Two or three of us went to the roof above the printing-office, ran along tlie ridge, ventured down a convenient scuttle, and found tliere a human body on a table covered witli canvas. It Avas a grue- some sight, and we stood not long upon the ordei' of our going. Among my father's customers were the Canterbury Society of Shakers, and David Parker, chief of that society, persuaded him to have a dry-press of a new pattern built by them at Canterbury. It was not scientif- 7 98 Sixty Years in Ctnicord. ically designed in some of its proportions, and proved to be too weak to resist its own power. Tlie Sliakers essayed to do some of tlieii- own printing, and I heard my father and David Parker, or Thomas Corbett, discnss- ing the workmanship of a doctrinal book wiiich they had issued. My father had observed errors in it, altliough the Shakers claimed that the printing liad l)een done under inspiration from Heaven, and that after first proofs liad been corrected b}" human liands, revised proofs had been taken, left in a convenient place, and the angel Gabriel summoned Ijy trumpet to come down and give the pages a final critical reading. Among printing-house workmen and apprentices, I remember well the " old vet- eran '* William Hoit : '' Capt. Sam " A. Mor- rison, who not infrequently took a drop too much, and went about town brandishing a cane at invisible tormentors, or in the office mio'ht flino' missiles at an imaoinary imp lurkino- iu some dim corner: Edmund S. Chadwick, Ervin B. Tripp, Frank Barr, George O. Odlin, Rufus Lane, Edward E. Sturtevant, George E. Jenks, Elijah Clough, Edward A. Jenks, Andre av J. Gilmore, wlio v^ served in the navy during tlie CiA'il War, ^ Personal RecoUectioiis. 99 Edward O. Witliingtoii, and Heiuy W. Phelps, who became interested' in a news- paper at St. Paul, Minn., but came home to Hopkinton to die in October, 1857. Then there was "Archibald," a guzzling Scotcli compositor, who tramped around a long cir- cuit of towns, making his appearance here irregularly, and remaining so long as he did not get intolerabl}^ drunk. Among persons of an earlier daj^, all now dead, who became conspicuous in newspaper undertakings and otlierwise, whom local associations would indicate for mention here, are Nathaniel H. Carter, editor of the JVetv York Statesman^ born near the banks of Tur- key river, which he celebrated in the poem " To my Native Stream ; " George Kent, for five years prior to 1831 editor of our States- man^ afterward consul of the United States at Valencia, Spain; George J. L. Colb}', in 1844 editor of the People's Advocate in Concord, many years editor of the Neichiiryport Her- ald', Paul Morrill, once a citizen here, one of the founders of the Alta California^ San Francisco ; and Jacob H. Ela, an all around man on several papers, afterward member of congress from the First New Hampsliire tS District. WillianrT. Porter and George Wil- * kins Kendall were employees of the States- 100 Sixty Years in Concord. man and the Patriot ; — the former, known as " York's tall son," six feet four inches high, founded in 1831 the ^^f?6' York Spirit of the ' Times; and the other, in 1837, established the Retv Oi^leans Picaynne^ a great paper durino- the Mexican war, and since that event My father printed the New Hampshire court reports under some arrangement with Hon. Joel Parker, the chief justice. Printed but unbound sheets of such reports were kept for safe storage at a room on the sec- ond floor of the New Hampshire Historical Society's building; and 'many a trip to and from that place did I make with the wheel- barrow before mentioned, tugging up and dow^n those stairs loads of good law, now quoted in many courts wliere English is spoken. Great care was exercised in the printing of those reports, and as specimens of law print- ing, which has a style of its own, they will compare favorably with tlie reports of an}- state in the Union. Asa McFarland had an honest man's pride in his business, which he loved as a worthy art; and writing this re- minds me how troubled I was at being told by the Morril boys that their father, David L. Morril (who had been governor, and Personal MecoUections. 101 wrote occasional prosy articles for the jSfafes- man over the signature of ••' Senex "), declared printing to be only a trade, and that my father ought not to mention it as an art. It seemed preposterous to me that any one could suppose my father to he mistaken about his own business : hence my chagrin. I should have been gratified could I have quoted the inscription from the facade of Lawrens Coster's house at Haarlem, placed there before 16ii8, or even shown them, in Worcester's Dictionary, the word jjy^inting defined as '-'• the act, the art^ or the practice of imprinting words on paper." There was nothing relating to the art of printing as practised in his day which my father did not understand, and in which he did not at times take part. He wrote readily, and could have produced a book, except bindinof, doino- all the work with his own hands. After he assumed, in 1851, the pub- lication and editorial care of the Statesman^ he did not oversee every detail of the estab- lishment, but the impress of liis care was on all the considerable productions of liis press. The printers' work most distasteful to me was the boiling of glue and molasses together for the composition of ink-rollers, and this performance seemed, singularly enougli, to 102 Sixty Years in Concord. come very often on Saturday afternoons wlien there were school half-holidays. The boiling being done, the rollers were cast late in the day, and allowed to remain in the iron moulds until Monday morning, when they were taken out, and examined as carefully as is the cylinder of a steam engine in a. great foundry. Every printing-office then made its own rollers. But the youthful toil which caused me real distress was blowing the organ at the South church. Tlie daughter of one of our neighbors, being a pianist, was ambitious to play the organ, and wajited many hours of practice. Stimulated by promise of suitable compensation, all of my Saturday -afternoons for a whole summer were spent in the work of ^Eolus at that organ ; and beside losing- legitimate playtime, I was paid in nothing but charming smiles from tlie fair organist, — a coinaofe which I have since learned p-oes at its face value all around the world. VII. Charles Kingsley says, — '' There is no pleasure that I have ever experienced like a child's nudsumnier holiday. The time, I mean, when two or three of us used to go away up the brook, and take our dinners with us, and come home at niglit, tired, dirty, happ3', scratched beyond recognition, with a great nosegay, three little trout, and one shoe, the other having been used as a boat till it had gone down with all hands, out of sonnding." I have enjoyed that kind of pleasure — at least the fishing and out-door dinner — not only in childhood, Imt ever since. There were visits to Meredith Bridge and North Conway, where every stream had wary trout in it, whicli gave great satisfaction. Jacob Libby was a favorite stage-driver as far as Meredith Bridge, and Peter Hines thence to Conway. After the Concord Rail- road was opened, the start from Concord was so late that the latter portion of the drive was pushed far into, the night ; and being once the onl}^ passenger beyond Ossipee, I 104 Sixty Years in Concord. AViis tliiimped about heavily ; — half asleep and "half awake, I was continually lying- down on the seat, tumbling off into the straw at the bottom of the coach, and hunting for my cap, which was forever getting lost in the blackness of space. Among the most delightful vacations which a boy could have were those at North Con- way, then a charming village in the moun- tains, without cars or caravansaries, or tourists with alpenstocks and plaid trousers. There was a daily mail stage thence to Concord, and one quiet country inn. My father's eldest sister, Susan, became in 1838 the wife of Gilbert McMillan, who owned and dwelt upon the best and most picturesque farm in the whole valley of the Saco. My uncle McMillan was a descendant of Andrew McMillan, who came to this country from Londonderry, Ireland, about 1754, served in the rangers with Capt. Jonathan Burbank and Major Robert Rogers, purchased two slaves, Caesar and Dinah, in 1767-68, and as early as 1775 was a prominent man in Con- cord, having a store on the northwest corner of Main and Pleasant streets. The wide and beautiful farm at Conway was a provincial grant to Andrew for military services in the Frencli-Canadian war. Tlie mansion was Personal Recollections. 105 spacious, a good example of the New Eng- land farm-house, some rooms containing deep-backed settles fronting broad, generous fireplaces. The morning after the midnight arrival on nn* first visit, as I came down to breakfast, the household dog Kover came tearing up to greet me at the half-wa}^ land- ing on the stairs, and we formed a friendly alliance ^yhich lasted until his death, and was renewed with various successors that bore his name. Not far from the house, large barns shel- tered the necessary horses and a goodly herd of cattle. Behind the mansion were the Saco meadows, in front was Sunset hill. Away to the north, at the end of the Saco valley, was the sublime mountain range, of which ni}^ uncle said, in reply to my inquiry as I saw him lean daily on his cane and gaze northward longingly and earnestly, that it was as grand and beautiful to his vision as when his eyes first saw it. He was a Cliris- tian gentleman, quiet, patient, appreciative, fond of wit, going about his estate to super- intend its cultivation like an English country gentleman out of " Bracebridge Hall," and his wife was his perfect counterpart. Would that every New Hampshire farm were to-day in as honorable and delightful ownership. 106 Sixty Years in Concord. Landscape painters visited Conway fre- quently, some of them not widely known, but Kensett and the Harts (James and Will- iam) were distinguished. I found one of the latter at work one moniino- near a turn in Artist's brook, on my uncle's meadow, painting a glorious picture of Pequaket mountain, with the brook, meadow, and an old scarred white birch in the foreground. There was an angry swarm of mosquitoes buzzing about his ears, and he might have resented my intrusion ; l)ut he did not, and was so kind as to invite me to see his collec- tion, and equally kind when I availed myself of the invitation. My uncle's eye was so trained by dwelling among and observing grand scenes of nature that he could estimate a painter's merits l)y one long look at the can- vas, and his comments on some of tlie efforts of struggling genius were highly amusing. During my first visit to North Conway, I l)ecame so attached to tlie hills and valleys, my uncle and aunt, the birds and squirrels, the dog Rover and the horse Charlie, that I was loath to heed a summons to return, and my mother feared that my love for home was permanently broken. On a later visit, in 1850, my friend Robert A. Hutchins was with me. Both were welcome to tlie boundless Personal Recollections. 107 hospitalities of the farm. We walked from North Conway to the mountains, going on the first day as far as Ethan Crawford's. Next day we trudged up through the Great Notch, dined at Tliomas Crawford's, the original Notch House (built in 1828, burned in 1854), and returned in the evening to Ethan's. The Saco river swarmed with trout. We took enough in a half liour to furnish the people at the hotel a good supper and breakfast. It was not a common affair for people to be making pedestrian journeys around the mountains, and Etlian Crawford did not know exactly what to tliink of us. At length he inquired about our connections in Concord, and being told, he said, " Boys, I know your fathers well. If you are walk- ing around these mountains because you are out of money, tell me, and I will lend you whatever you need." Of course \ye thanked the old gentleman for his kindness, told him we were walking for the fun of it, and better to enjoy the scenery, and returjied to Con- way by the way we had come, confessing to some fatigue from our fifty-mile tramp. On our way down tlie valley, the tiller of a small farm hailed us, and learning we were from Concord and knew relatives of his, in- sisted on our enterino- his cottao-e and shariup^ c3 O O 108 Sixty Years in Concord. his liunible dinner, whicli I remember was salt codfish and potatoes, though trout were very abundant in a brook liurrying by liis door. My school-days came to a sudden and in- glorious end. My father had been wanting me to be a printer, but I had seen so much of the dark side of the '' art preservative of all arts " that I shrank from it, and he patient- ly let me have my own way. Therefore we were going along in 1848 in uncertainty as to what I should do, and he advised that I revisit school. Mr. Hall Roberts, who was then rather eccentric, had been, as before mentioned, a principal at the Bell school, but, in conse- quence of some disagreement with the school- committee, had left, and was teaching a class in the vestry of the Baptist church ; so to this latter place I repaired. The teacher inquired what I was to study, and I replied that I was to be guided by his judgment, whereupon he proposed delving further in the same old books. My mind was resolved : I went home and told my father that I was done going to such schools. Tliis from a. boy of seventeen probably amused him. '' Very well," said he, " you can come to work in the office this afternoon." I was ready when the hour struck, and for months Personal Recollections. 109 and months inked book forms, standing be- hind a hand press, nsing a liandle and frame which carried double rollers, distributing iidv on the rollers by means of a wooden cylinder which in its turn was revolved by a crank. This was by no means easy. Edmund S. Chadwick and George E. Jenks were the pressmen with whom I toiled most. There were three hand presses, and a long-haired, ignorant fellow named John Powell was my illustrious rival at another press. At my press we were ambitious to do a large quan- tity of good work. A '' token " an hour was deemed a fair stint, but on a long job of way- bills for some railroad we struck them off at the rate of a token in forty minutes. This was done on a favorite press, which was about ruined in the great fire of 1851. In January, 1849, Mr. John F. Brown took me for a clerk in his bookstore, where I wanted to be for the sake of reading. This store was at the southeast corner of the state- house park, squarely in space now occupied by Capitol street where that street joins Main. It was the lineal descendant of a bookstore owned early in the century by Isaac and Walter R. Hill, later by Hill & Moore and Horatio Hill & Co., and the old sign, bearing a portrait of the philosopher, diplomatist. 110 Sixty Yecos i)i Concord. and man of letters, Benjamin Franklin, painted by Marsliall, an artist of some celeb- rity, bad been over it since 1810 or 1811. Tlie wood-work and tlie orio-inal letterinof of tbis sign were done b}' William Low, of Low & Damon. A picture of tbe building, erected by John Leacb in 1827 for Isaac Hill, in wliicb tliis store was wben I came to know " it, constitutes tbe beading to tbe second page editorials of tbe Patriot of tbat day. Tbe building was burnt in April, 1864. My fatlier told me tbat bookselliug Avould not do for a permanent occupation ; but I did not take a long look abead, and tbougbt tbat an attractive store, full of books wliicb could be read in leisure bours, was a good enougli goal. M}' salary was to be $50 tbe first year. Mr. Brown was a good-tempered employer ; be never reprimanded me, and I served bim well. Tbere was an older clerk wben I began, but be did not stay. Wlien Mr. Brown went away to tbe great " trade sales " or book auctions in Boston and New York be left me alone, and I deposited our sales- money in tbe Mecbanicks bank on Park street, witb Mr. George Minot as casbier. Commercial travellers were not often seen tben, ])ut Messrs. Hogan & Tbompsou, of Pliiladelpbia, bad a salesman from wbom Mr. Personal Recollections. Ill Brown bouo-ht blank books and stationery when he came on semi-annnal visits to Con- cord. Six months' credit was allowed on these purchases. Almost all the first-rate writing-paper of that day came from England and France, tliat of Monier, a French maker, being preferred by Mr. Brown. He would hold a sheet up to the light and exhibit the water-mark with much apparent satisfaction. On Harper & Brothers' publications a dis- count of twenty per cent, "from retail prices was allowed to us. This disconnt was deemed too small, and was the cause of con- tinual growling among country bookseller^. Mr. Brown, who began bookselling in 1836, was the publislier of Dudley Leavitt's Farmers' Almanac and of Brown's Pocket ^Memorandum or diary, both of which had a large sale ; also of Tytler's Universal His- tory, printed from old plates, and Putnam d' Hodp^es' Grammar, whicli last was somewhat revolutionary in its rules, and did not go off very well. Mr. Putnam was Bev. John M., a Congregational clergyman in Dunbarton. I think Mr. Hodges was, or had been, a Bap- tist clergyman in the same town. T often heard those three interested persons wonder- ing why there was not more demand for their kind of grammar. Dudley Leavitt 112 Sixty Years in Concord. then lived in Meredith, and the stag-e-drivers pointed out his house to passengers as tliat of a person of great renown. The copy for his almanac, for wliich Mr. Brown paid 1100 a year, was then made ready for manj^ ensu- ing years. He had been ( 1818-'19 ) a teacher at the Bell school when my fatlier was one of his pupils. I remember him as a courtly man witli gentle manners. Among our book-buyers was Mr. Mason W. Tappan, who had a law office at Bradford. His practice was to go around the store b}' himself, select a good lot of books, and buj' them witliout haggling. His visits were fre- quent and welcome. No reader of this will need to be told tliat he Ijecame member of congress from our district, 1855-'61, and was colonel of the First New Hampshire regiment in the VVnr of the Rebellion. Ex-Governor Isaac Hill, Avhen at home from Washington, was frequently at our store, and seemed to enjoy conversation with Mr. Brown, who belonged to the same political party ; but the governor, as was his wont, did most of the talking. He had been a fierce opponent of Daniel Webster, attacking him politically and personally in the Patriot : but I remember one of those calls, which occurred probably in the winter of 1849-'50, The Franklin Bookstore in 1850, (From an old wood cut.) Personal Recollections. 113 when Mr. Hill, just home from Washington, came in, and told Mr. Brown that he had met Mr. Webster, the old resentments had been forgotten, they had enjoyed a most agreeable interview, talked about New Hamp- shire, about farming, and kindred subjects, and became good friends. "And Daniel Webster is," said Mr. Hill, enthusiastically, " the greatest man who ever lived in Ameri- ca ! " As Mr. Hill died early in 1851, this personal friendliness was probably never again interrupted. Governor Hill was an enthusiast about farming, and a fluent talker about the merits of pine-plaiu lands and Chenango and New York red potatoes. Gen. Franklin Pierce came in rather often. He was then, in the view of liimself and a very few intimates, a likely enough candidate for the presidency of the United States in 1852, a scheme to effect his nomination hav- ing been considered, on his return from the Mexican war in 1848, by himself, Pierre Soule of I^ouisiana (Pierce's minister to Spain), Edmund Puffin of Virginia (who fired tlie first cannon shot at Fort Sumter in 1861), ex-Congressman John S. Barljour of Virginia (who was active in Pierce's behalf in the Baltimore convention of June, 1852), and probably Jefferson Davis (Pierce's secre- 114 Sixty Years in Concord. tary of war), as well as others. This is related on the autlioritj of a friend who had the general's full confidence. Judge Levi Woodbury, of Portsmouth, had early in 1851 been put in the foreground as a candidate for the presidency b}' the Democratic state con- vention of New Hampshire, but he died in September of that year. General Pierce was trimming his political sails so carefully to catch the Southern breeze, in the winter of 1851-'52, that he squelclied a movement to invite Louis Kossuth to visit Concord, be- cause tlie Hungarian patriot was not well received at Richmond, or some like Southern city.* All the talk of that time about the presidential nomination being an utter sur- prise to him was mere political claptrap. Charles H. Peaslee, Asa Fowler, Calvin Ainsworth, and other men of that coterie, were often in the bookstore, as was Jesse A. Gove, who had been a lieutenant with Gen- eral Pierce in the Mexican war, was after- ward colonel of the Twenty-second jNIassa- chusetts regiment, and was killed in battle on the Virginia peninsula in elune, 1862. Col- onel Gove was then reading law. Among the local law students of about that period *In regard to Kossuth, Charles Sumner wrote to his brother George from Washington. Jan. 5, 1852, "There is a wretched opposition to him here proceeding from slavery-. " Personal RecoUections. 115 were Col. John H. George, Francis B. Pea- body, since of Chicago, William B. Gale, since a distinguished Massachusetts lawyer, Sidney Webster and Stratford Cannino- Bai- ley, afterward of New York city. There was another rather frequent and somewhat dangerous visitor: this was Sam- uel G. Chase, of Hopkinton, a man of Hercu- lean size and strange fancies. Rather gentle in his ordinary moods, he never came in with- out inquiring if I was a son of Judge Upham, toward whom he did not feel kindl}^ for he had a craz}^ notion that the judge was keep- ing the Concord Railroad out of his personal possession. Once he came in with a gun, and seemed to be hunting for the judge, but left the weapon in the store until he v^ent home in the evening. Afterward he shot at a Hopkinton man, toward whom he had some dislike, and was committed to the asy- lum for the insane. Another queer visitor became an habitual lounger on the premises. His custom was to go behind the counter, find some book, and busy himself in reading it, always in the vicinity of the money-drawer. After a time suspicion led me to fasten a bell to the drawer with a whalebone spring fixed so it must ring if the drawer was opened. The 116 SLrty Years in Concord- denouement came with startling promptness. The thief came to the store when Mr. Brown was out, but Mrs. Brown happened by some fortunate chance to come in. Our visitor took his accustomed position, and when he thought liimself unobserved, the bell rang loudly, — a sort of vigilance-committee ring, heard ver}^ distinctly all over the store. He discovered that he was detected, and departed. In response to a note from Mr. Brown he returned that evening, confessed, and eventually made restitution of a sum sufficient, he said, to cover his stealings ; so he was promised immunity from exposure. He was not what our people called '' town born," that is, not by birtli a Concord boy. St. Valentine's Avas an eventful day, for sending valentines was a prevalent custom. Those which we sold came from New York. Some were regarded as very elegant, and cost two or three dollars each, but those called comic were hideous things, unfit to be put in the mail ; — nearly all found ready sale at retail prices about doul)le the wholesale cost. Macaulay's History of England, at least two volumes of it, was pul)lislied in London in 1849, and American publishers made haste to reprint it. Harper & Brotliers got out an Personal Recollections. 117 edition in a few days after they obtained a copy, at two dollars a volume. Phillips, Sampson & Co., of Boston, followed this with one at a dollar a volume, and Harper & Brothers retorted with another at fifty cents ; so almost everybody was just then reading Jiistory. Hcoyer's 3Ia(/azine was started in 1850, and there was some local demand for it, though less than a dozen copies monthly were taken at our store during the first year of its existence. It was a reprint of articles se- lected from English magazines, and the first number had but three engravings in addition to some fashion plates. However, it was bet- ter than Godey's Lady's Book or Graltanis Magazine^ which had been in favor, and was .said by the publishers to be " unsurpassed b}^ any similar publication in the Avorld." Tlie work of the engravers and printers was much inferior to that of the magazines of to-day. Tlie American Art Union was a respecta- ble New York lottery of that day. Au}^ per- son, by the payment of five dollars, could obtain a valuable engraving, and entitle liim- self to a chance of drawing by lot some more valuable book, picture, bronze, or statue. Mr. Baruch Biddle was fortunate enoug'h to draw Audubon's Birds of Amer- 118 Sixty Years in Concord. ica, several volumes, witli life-size colored plates — a splendid prize ; but Mr. Biddle was not an ornithologist, so he left the work with Mr. Brown to be sold if a satisfactory price could be obtained. It remained in the store, an object of much interest, for several months, l)ut eventually went to a distant buyer, at, I think, 8300. Copies are reported to have sold in London recently for 81,725. The sword presented to General Pierce, under vote of the legishiture of New Hamp- shire in June, 1849, for service in the Mexi- can war, was on exhibition at the bookstore as long as it attracted any curiosity. The general received a similar weapon from ladies of Concord in May, 1847, and the presenta- tion speecli was made by the daughter of a clergyman. The Franklin Bookstore, as Mr. Brown called it, appeared to be prosperous, and its owner contented; therefore it was a consider- able surprise when Mr. B. W. Sanborn, who had a bookstore just across the street, came over in May, 1850, and, with very little talk or ado, bought the wliole concern, — books, stationery, fancy goods, and Mr. Brown's share in the building. Tlie second year of my clerkship was passing, and the fifty dol- lars salary had been doubled ; but it had been Personal Recollections. 119 made plain to me that my father was right, that I had better not be a book-seller ; so, I'e- maining with the new proprietor only long enougli for his assistants to become familiar with the shop, I went out to see what other way of business might open. VIII. At the end of this bookselling experience my father was en route for Europe Avith his brother Andrew, the superintendent of the New Hampsliire Asylum for the Insane, in tlie prosecution of a plan for travel long cher- ished by them both. As the coach for the railway station took him from our door, on a bright July morning in 1850, Mr. Nathan Stickney, usually one of the selectmen of the town, drove by, and being a witness to the leave-taking, said to my friend George Gault, who was driving Avith him, that he never ex- pected to see Mr. McFarland again. That is how the dangers of sailing to Europe were estimated in Concord. M}^ father's voyages to Liverpool and from London were made by way of the Grinnell, Minturn & Co. New York line of sailing packets, some of the best ships in wliich Avere built in Portsmouth, and at least one of them liad a New Hampshire captain. I was so fortunate as not to be long out of emplo3mient. Mr. Rufus Lane, Avho has been mentioned before as a compositor in my Personal MecoUection,^. 121 father's printing-office, had become clerk and tirae-keeper at the machine shop of the Con- cord Railroad at 11.17 a day, and I was hired to assist him temporarily in the preparation of some tabular statements. Then I was at the postoffice two or three weeks, serving under Major Ephraim Hutchins, who had given up the Phcenix hotel, and was eiglith in the honorable line of Concord postmasters. By this time the work which I had done under Mr. Lane's supervision had been noticed in the office of the superintendent of the Con- cord Railroad, and I was engaged to serve as a junior clerk in that office for #20 a month. The Concord Railroad had been chartered as early as 1835. It was contemplated at first to build from Lowell to Concord. The dis- tance from Nashua to Concord is less than thirty-five miles, and the elevation to be over- come in that distance is less than one hun- dred and seventeen feet. Engineers estimated the cost of a single track with sufficient roll- ing stock would be $550,000 ; this was, how- ever, for a line on the west side of the Merri- mack all the way, which would require no long bridges. It was difficult to raise even the above named sum. Pecuniary troubles, which culminated in 1837, exerted a depress- ing influence, but in 1840 a resolute effort 122 Sixt^ Years in Concord. was made. Messrs. Joseph Low, Natlianiel G. Upham, and Charles H. Peaslee, a com- mittee of the corporators, made a report, which was of the nature of a prospectus, giv- ing details of cost and probable traffic, as well as some careful estimates made by Peter Clark, of Nashua, Avho liad been agent of the Nashua & Lowell Railroad, and was engaged to go over this line as an expert. These gen- tlemen mentioned as an encouraging circum- stance that a railroad had l)een constructed from Montreal soutlierly to St. Johns on the Sorel or Richelieu river ; also that a toll-gate- man just below Concord had kept statistics, which proved that 35,760 tons of freight had passed through his gate by teams in one year, while the Concord Boating Company carried 7,039 tons ; and the stage-coaches on the Mammoth road carried 29,758 passengers in the year ending Sept. 30, 1840. The freight rate from Boston to Concord by canal-boat was $D per ton ; going back with the stream it was one dollar less. A boat was five days coming up and four days returning, and the capacity of a boat was fifteen tons. There were twenty boats, tliree men to each. (The freight rate by boat in 1815 was thirteen dol- lars per ton up stream and eight dollars down stream.) The fare for a passenger between Persoiial Recollections. 128 Boston and Concord when it was stage-coach- ing all the way was -IS, later by coach and cars it was •it'2.50, and by the Mammoth road it became as low as f 2. The freight rate b}^ teams before boats began to run Avas 120 a ton. Seeking town aid for railroads was a resort of even that day. In 1836 the town of Con- cord voted to apply to the legislature for authority to subscribe for shares in this en- terprise, and to borrow money wherewith to make payment therefor. In January, 1837, such authority was obtained, and subscrip- tions were made for eight hundred shares of fifty dollars each. In 1841, disturbed by the magnitude of the undertaking, six hundred shares (on which the first assessment had been paid), were turned over free of cost to the Concord Literary Institution, which sold them to Gen. Joseph Low for 1675, and other disposition was made of a remaining lot of two hundred shares. This was a preater mistake than George Gault and I made when we hid our burlesque ballots in the Stickney wood-pile. The dividends of the corporation, from the date of its opening in September, 1842, average a little more than nine per cent, per annum. Eacli one hundred dollars invested has returned directly to its owner 12:1: Sixty YeavH hi Concord. (May, 1890) four hundred and thirty dollars, while the property has been greatly improved, and the investment is apparently as safe as ever. There have been some fluctuations in this prosperity. In 1855 business Avas not satisfactory, and but six per cent, was divided. If my memory is not at fault, there was but one through daily passenger train on each of the roads north of Concord that year. Although it was feared at one period that the Concord road miglit be compelled to make its northern terminus at Amoskeag, at least temporarily, means were obtained to complete it as a single track on the line adopted, with two bridges over the Merrimack, and suffi- cient buildino^s and rollino^ stock, for some- thing less than $800,000. The iron rails came from England, weiglied fifty-six pounds per yard, and cost on the wharf in Boston about •f 55 a ton. Now the best steel rails, weighing seventy-two pounds per 3^ard, cost i35 a ton. The second track was laid in 1848, and the capital increased to #1,500,000. The corpo- ration owned at fii'st but three locomotives, the "Souhegan," '' Piscataquog," and "Amos- keag," to which the " Hooksett"and " Pena- cook " were shortl}' added, each of ten tons' weight. Taken altogether, they weighed less than the " General Lafayette" of to-day. The Personal Reeollections. 125 " Suncook," which weighed fourteen tons, was obtained in 1845 or 1816, and was re- garded as a tremendous affair. It stood on four driving-wheels, without a forward truck, and was awkward in movement, but it did good work. If I am not mistaken, I saw it once back up into the Northern yard, hitch to a train of fifty-seven long, loaded cars, drag them from the side track, and then away to Nashua in a most resolute, self-reliant way. In 1847, when annual statistics began to be deemed worthy of publication, the mileage of Concord Railroad trains was stated at 143,251 ; passengers carried numbered 203,- 505; freight carried, 103,371 tons. In 1889 the passengers carried numbered 893,110; tons of freight, 1,652,322. In the report of a committee of stockholders made in 1851 is a statement in regard to the lands and station buildings of the company. The lands in Concord were a little more than sixteen acres. The first passenger station had been removed, and converted into a car- house ; and the second one, designed by Mr. Riclip.rd Bond, an architect of Boston, had been built by our townsman, Philip Watson. This building in outward appearance was about what our city hall would be if the dome and piazza Avere removed, the wings 126 Sixty Yearn i)i Concord. lengthened, and a piazza constructed in front of each wing. Within it on the lower floor were the train-house and the necessary adjuncts ; on the second floor were a large hall, and the offices of four railway corpora- tions, — the Concord, the Northern, the Mon- treal, and the Portsmouth. The Concord company's offices were in the southwest cor- ner, and other rooms were furnished to the other companies free of rent. The hall, sixty- three by sixty-nine feet in area, was the most convenient one in Concord (then or since), being up only one flight, and reached by two broad, easy staircases. The rent charged was four or five dollars an evening, a little more if the company furnished a ticket- seller. Some notable events took place within its walls. Madame Parodi sung there, so did Adelina Patti, then (1853) ten years old, and so did Madame Anna Bishop, accom- panied by the great master of the harp, Bochsa. Ole Bull was there with his violin. Washington Allston's great picture of Bel- shazza's Feast was shown in an adjoining- room, in March, 1819. The lecturers of the Concord Lyceum,* for fees of |20 each, oc- *This was an association of young men who assembled one evening in each week in the hall of the Natural History Society for improvement in debate. On one appointed even- ing the question was, " Ought Concord to adopt a city char- ter?" and public attention to the discussion was invited. Personal Recollections. 127 c'upied its platform, — lialpli Waldo Eiiiersoii, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John G. Saxe, Thom- as Starr King, Dr. J. Y. C. Smith, ex-mayor of Boston, and the ex-actress, Miss E. Kini- berly, reader of Shakespeare. Gen. Frank- lin Pierce was received there, and made a pnblic address on his retnrn from the War with Mexico, in January, 1848 ; and there, in 1856, a meeting was held which resolved that he be received in '' solenni, mournful silence," when as president of tlie United States he visited Concord in a partisan way during the Kansas-Nebraska agitation and the Buchanan- Fremont presidential campaign. The first state fair, held in October, 1850, was parti}- in this hall, partly in the company's machine- shop, and partl}^ on the meadows east of the station. Tickets to these various places of exhibition Avere sold in a temporary shed on the south platform of the passenger station. The hall continued in full popularity, al- though the evening trains were an occasional element of disturbance, until 1855, when Phcenix liall was l)uilt on Main street. The invitation was rather generally accepted, and the ladies and gentlemen who assembled must have been amused when one of the disputants, Samuel Hermann, a Bohemian boj- who was learning of Ivory Hall the trade of a silversmith, and spoke English imperfectly, gravely argued in favt)r of the charter because its adoption would transmute Concord directly into a metropolis like New York or Boston. After leaving Concord, Samuel entered Trinity college. 128 Sixty Years hi Concord. Public affairs and political meetings were occasionally held at Depot hall until it was burned in 1859. One of the last uses to which the old place was put was the drying on its floor of a remainder of two car loads of cotton, which took fire on the way from Boston to Manchester, and was by the good management of Conductor Freeman Webster run off the track into the pond at Winchester, Mass. The personal organization when I joined it was formidable for a short road. It resem- bled a military company with more musical instruments than muskets. The president was Isaac Spaulding, who lived at Nashua : he was the largest stockholder, and was paid f 1,000 a year. He was a timid- man in deal- ing with men, but sensible and practical ; kept one eye on the Boston stock-market where lie ventured his money, and the other on Peter Clark — after Peter became hostile to the road. Hon. N. G. Upham was the superintendent at #2,000 a year, performing also many duties which are now regarded as belonging to a president, for which, being a trained lawyer, he was abundantly qualified. Mr. Upham had been a judge of the superior court of New Hampshire, and probably some of the good law which I liad, as hereinbefore Pei'sonal Recollections. 129 mentioned, toted up and down the stairs in the Historical Society's building, was of his making. The judge, as he was always called on the road, Avas a man of foresight, thought- ful, and watchful of any legislative or politi- cal influences Avhich might l)e harmful to railways. He w^as annoyed by gadflies of the press and forum, who swarmed together at certain seasons and joined forces for an attack. These people carried their hostilities into the legislature, where they were con- fronted by a most respectable lobby, com- posed of persons whose names, if listed here in collection with the little ($15 and $25 and $50) fees which they received, would excite both wonder and merriment. The judge managed all the relations of the com- pany toward the public, and Avith connecting roads, in a most satisfactory manner. His administration Avas careful, honest, and suc- cessful. There Avere questions as to division of traffic and earnings so well settled then as to become established railway customs. There Avere also physical uncertainties ; — one of our people thought a snoAA^-ploAV might be driven by a hand-car ; another, that snow would pi'event trains from ever run- ning north of Concord in Avinter. The judge himself had a dream}' mind for mechanical 130 Sixty Years in Concord. matters, and was at some disadvantage on that acconnt. He was also nearsighted, and rather fearful that something was going on just beyond his vision not altogether to his liking. Curiously enough, he once made an attempt to test the sight of Phineas Davis, a passenger-train engineer, who had, it was liinted, some visual defect. The jndge, witli spectacles carefully burnislied and adjusted, called Phineas off the engine, walked u^) and down the platform in conversation witli him, and suddenly inquired if lie could see some object wdiich was tlieii in the distance ; but nobody ever knew which could better see the target, the judge or the engineer. Mr. Harvey Rice was the master mechanic in the iron-shop, and Mr. John Kimball filled a like place in the wood-shop. Each was paid 'f 1,000 a year ; but these salaries seemed so generous in that day, that when a list of employees and their compensation was printed in the annual reports, they were stated at $3,191- per day, to sootlie the vision of stockholders who might each, like Mrs. John Gilpin, have a frugal mind. Mr. James A. Weston was the civil engineer, at the same salary, in charge of repairs of the line and construction. It does not look as if either of these gentlemen was overpaid. Mr. Rice has Personal Recollections. 131 since been master mechanic, or superintendent of motive power, of vastly greater roads, such as the Erie. Mr. Kimball has gained honors of many kinds, and so has Mr. Weston ; in fact, the state paid the latter as much to be governor. Hon. Benjamin A. Kimball had just entered on his connection witli the com- pany. George G. Sanborn, since local treas- urer of the Northern Pacific Railroad, sold tickets in the passenger station, and got •ii^l.67 a day for doing it. Elliott Chickering, an incorruptible man of the old Whig school, was the wood-buyer, and charged §1.50 a day for liis work. He had risen from the position of switchman. His coon-skin cap and cigar pointing skyward were familiar objects in winter. John H. Elliott, who had been a stage-coacli agent, was the general ticket agent at §800 per annum ; John C. Gault, who has since been general manager of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, and lield other like positions in the West, was a clerk in the Manchester freight-house at §1.42 a day; Nathaniel P. Lovering, the treasurer, earned in 1850 a salary of §1,000 per annum, and had an office in Boston, on State street, in the Merchants Exchange, — a building which was one of the architectural wonders of New England, but just now 132 Sixty Yea7's in Concord. pulled down as a mere (3uniberer of the ground. I told iny father, after his return from Europe, about Mr. Lovering's princely income (with another salary from the Pas- sumpsic Co.), and he encouraged me to hope that I might sometime do as well. Reuben Sherburne, since a most prosperous Boston merchant, was the master of transportation, equivalent to general freight agent, and re- ceipted for '^1,200 per annum. George A. Pillsbury, the Minneapolis millionaire, who has just given to Concord the Margaret Pillsbury Hospital, succeeded Mr. Chicker- ing as wood-buyer, and came on the road a little later; as did also William S. Kim- ball, the rich tobacconist of Rochester, N. Y., who worked in the machine-shop, and now and then made a trip as fireman on a loco- motive. Now he has in his greenhouse 1125,000 worth of orchids. The railroad seems to have been as good a training-school as an Institute of Technology. Mr. James W. Sargent, at 'f 700 a year, was my immediate superior. He Avas called pay- master and superintendent's clerk, but his duties were like those given to a local treas- urer of to-day. He had been a teacher of penmanship, and could keep a tidy set of books with entries of formal routine char- Personal MeeoUections. 133 acter; was particular about his pens and paper ; but got started fairly too late in life, or had not self-reliance and mental reach enough ever to get a greater railroad place. He took a department clerkship at Washing- ton in July, 1859. Beside this indoor life at the desk, I was given some open air duties ; was often sent to Nashua with a message to our president, or to the Nashua Bank, of which he was also president, to exchange money taken on the road for circulating notes of its own, every bank being then in intense rivalry with every other^ to keep its own notes out and to get other bills in. Levi P. Wright, the conductor who ran the lieavy passenger train from Boston, which reached Concord at 10 : 30 a. m. and returned at 3 : 30 p. m., and who had an adequate sense of the dignity of the duties which he was performing for ^54.17 a month, caught me at Nashua on my first errand, and pulled me up for an introduction to Mr. F. M. Stimson, station agent (|50 a month), and George W. Page, ticket-seller (|24 a month), as Mr. Sargent's ''new boy." I knew he was quizzing me a little for my shyness in a new relation, but as Page had been a school- mate of mine, this did nobody any harm, and 134 Sixty Years in Concord. it was not very long before I gained courage enough to run Mr. Wright's train when he wanted a day off from duty. In public estimation the conductors were the most important railway officials. They were seen daily, Avhile the rules and time- tables, and brief messages from headquarters, to control such useful and dignified gentle- men, were not apparent. Beside Mr. Wright, there were George Clougli and William Dole, each at #50 a month. Mr. Clough began when the road began, having previously been a stage-coachman, and served down to 1866, twenty-four solid years. Mr. Dole liad been landlord of the Phoenix, and obtained his position on the road by purchase from his predecessor, Ira Foster, on the payment of $500, as commissions were formerly sold in the British ai'my. I never heard of another case of purchase of place on a railroad train. The engine-drivers were next in public regard, and were a ratlier remarkable group. Seth Hopkins and liis brother William were the eldest in rank, and ran the two best passenger trains, at '1{)2.25 a day. A run to Nashua and back was reckoned a day's work. Seth was a strong, fearless man, rough in speech, punctual, always demanding the best engine, giving it no gentle usage, and getting- Fer^onaJ MecoUertions. 135 its utmosfc out of it. He dared risks which others might shrink from, such as letting water go below all tlie gauges to get tlie utmost steam space in the boiler, in a com- petitive trial of engines at Lowell. This experiment resulted in a dead failure, for the fusible plug melted, and out went his fire ; but coolness and careful judgment carried liim safely through a hazardous experience of twenty years. He said that his train was run on the theory that every switch was set wrong for him all the way from Concord to Nashua and back. William Hopkins was a different character, fearful of danger, alert, and watchful as a lynx. Careful of his engine, he was esteemed highly by the master mechanics. A collision at Goff's falls in May, 1854, which came about through no fault of his, frightened him out of the service, because through this accident he discovered that his own prudence could not keep peril at arm's length. In that case, having reversed his engine and opened the sand-box, he jumped overboard, and came to himself among the wreck, with the red contents of a demijohn flung out of the ex- press car dripping from his clotliing. There was no doubt of his fright, but a reassuring smell of old brandy in the air revived him. 136 Sixty Years in Concord. and he proved to be uninjured. Still lie left the road soon afterward, took a contract for stone work on the Boston & Lowell Railway, and before long was instantly killed by the fall of a derrick. Phineas Davis, at f 2 a day, was a patient, gentle man, full of good intentions, but rather nervous ; went over his engine while it was in motion, and at train stops was out with a wrench or an oil-can to doctor some rattle or squeak. He went into a damaged culvert with the engine '' John Kimball," on the Manchester & Lawrence division, in 1864, and was killed. Charles F. Barrett, at that time in receipt of $2 a day, was an easy-going man, careful and conscientious. No more successful driver ever stood on a locomotive. Forty-three years in charge of an engine, witliout an accident involving loss of life or injury to person or property laid at his dooj", is a record that tells its own story of vigilance and capability. I was once sent down the road in charge of a special train carrying the Canadian mail for Europe, which had been delayed north of Concord, and we started about the time the mail should have been in East Boston. The steamship was waiting, and we had direc- tions to go as far as Lowell without tlie usual Personal Recollections. 137 change of engines at Nashua. I heard some- body tell Mr. Barrett to run as fast as possi- ble, — but there was a thick fog in the air, and he would not go an inch in a mile faster than was safe ; so the Cunarder had to wait until the sleepy Canadian mail agent got on board, about two and a half liours late, with the wonderful Royal mail, perhaps fifteen bushels of it. When the Mcinchester & Lawrence line to Boston was completed, in 1850, a sharp com- petition sprung up. In September of that year it was determined by the managers of the line via Lowell to put on two daily ex- press trains between Concord and Boston, and the Concord compan}- furnislied one train which went through to Boston and back without chanoe of eno-ine or driver. This train left Concord at 6: 15 a. m., and return- ing left Boston at 5 : 25 p. m. There w^ere but three way stops, and the time going toward Boston was an hour and fifty-five minutes ; returning, it was two hours. Seth Hopkins ran our train with the " General Stark " engine, built by the Amoskeag Manu- facturing Co., and day by day that train was delivered at each end of the run on time ; but I think the Boston & Lowell train, which was given the same running time, left 138 Sixty^ Years in Concord. Boston at 8:15 a. ni., and returning left Concord at 4 p. m., drawn usaally by the "• Baldwin,'' sometimes by the " McNeil," did not reach Concord squarely on time in the whole season, much to the chargin of the driver, Lester Aldrich, who declared to our superintendent that no engine then ow^ued by the Lowell company had boiler capacity and power enough to make the run. The truth is, that the Low^ell company had not then much heart in its long travel. It was a fav- orite statement of one of its directors, that the business of their Woburn branch was worth more to tliem tlian everything they got from above LoAvell. My recollection as to the time made by our express train of 1850 may be questioned by local railroad men of to-day ; but the statement is con- firmed by the Pathfinder Railway Guide., the manager of wliich has very kindly referred to his files for that year, and finds that the train left Concord at 6 : 15, Manchester at 6 : 40, and ]'eached Boston at 8 : 10. Returning, it left Boston at 5 : 25, Nashua at 6 : 25, Man- chester at 6 : 50, and reached Concord at 7 : 25. No train over the same line is doing- better now. It was fixed in my memory that the downw^ard time of our company's train was one hour and forty-five minutes, and so Personal JiecoUections. 139 thought Harvey Rice, then master mechanic^ and Charles F. Webster, then hreman on the " Gen. Stark," but T suppose we cannot go behind the record in the Pathjinde7\ About that time the 4moskeag Manufac- turing Company completed a tall engine called the " Mameluke," with driving-wheels seven feet high. Standing on the ground I could just touch the top of those wheels with an outstretched finger. Our company was urged to buy this engine for the express train, and some trial runs were made with it, but the '' General," with wheels five and a half feet high, was equal to the service : the " Mameluke " was as great a terror to the master mechanics as the cavalry of the desert were to Mohammed Ali, and the purchase was never made. Charles F. Barrett once drove this engine, with six passenger cars, from Concord to Nashua in forty-two min- utes, with Levi P. Wright conductor, and George Little baggageman. On this trip the " Mameluke " ran ten miles at the rate of one mile in one ininute and two seconds. A recent mayor of ^Manchester, D. B. Varney, rode on the front of the engine, a badly frightened man. The " Mameluke " was eventually reduced in height, and found a buyer in the New York Central Compan} . 140 Sixty Years in Concord. It was a part of my work to make the monthly payment of wages to employees of the road. At the machine-shop it was the rule to cover the pay-roll with a sheet of blotting-paper, with an opening therein, which sheet was slid around to emxble a man to sign for his own pay without disturbing his peace of mind by seeing what other men were paid. Daniel Law, a big blacksmith, once committed a notable breach of etiquette by lifting the blotting paper and reading the whole list. Station agents could of course be reached for payment by passenger trains, but to find section-men I caught rides on freight trains and hand-cars, or, if nothing- else served, track walking was the resource. The risks of robbery would forbid that kind of tramping now. After our compau}^ took control of the Manchester & Lawrence there was more train service for the passenger conductors, and I made trips often for one or another of them. For three successive weeks I did the work of a conductor, one hundred and fifty- eight miles a day, beside some office work. This was when the old rail chairs were in the track, and the clatter of wheels as they rolled over the rail joints filled my ears by day and echoed in my slumbers all night. Personal Reeollections. 141 Nothinof was allowed for sucb extra service, and it was not in itself much to my liking ; but it carried me to Lawrence often, where at the right season I loitered about the then grassy site of the present Pacific mills, and saw great draughts of shad taken by fisher- men using a seine ; — also, and this was of much more consequence to me, I gained in that then small city an acquaintance which was the most fortunate of my life. There were trains taken over the road at some times to which I look back with won- der tliat nobody was hurt. Think of the thronged state fairs, and running out of Manchester, in the twilight, without air- brakes or Miller platforms, seventeen cars crowded with passengers, some of whom were rather hilarious. That no accident occurred on these occasions is abundant evi- dence of the patience, skill, and caution of the engineers. There were the Central Ver- mont trains also, which during some winters were late every evening, and a special trip to Nashua became necessary, with a late return on the engine, up the cold, dark val- ley, past the black factories and the blacker canals, hurtling along into the shuddering air, with the headlight cleaving a narrow rift in the darkness, its rays gleaming a lit- 142 Sixty Years in Concord. tie way off on the cold rails, and reflected dimly by the white switch targets. William Hopkins (may he rest in peace!) on dark, sleety nights leaned far ont of the cab side- window, facing the storm, to get the farthest possible view aronnd cnrves, incidentally muttering something else than benedictions for people who took the risk of running over the Manchester crossings ahead of the fl3'ing *' Tahanto " or " Passaconaway." After appropriating for our engines the local Indian names, mythology was resorted to, and the " Titan " came on the road. One of our master mechanics read somewhere of the " wheel of Ixion," and deputized me to find out who that personage was. Search was made in a friend's Dictionary of Mythol- ogy, and the quest being satisfactory, Ixion gave his name to a freight engine. I tried to induce the authorities to go into poetry, and have a '^ Tarn O'Shanter " and " John Gilpin," but they never did. It is sometimes wondered how conductors, with so few errors, collect the tickets of pas- sengers who get on at way stations and dis- tribute themselves through a train. Tliere are various ways of identifying such, but the expectancy which shows in the face of an honest passenger when the conductor ap- Personal RecoUections. 143 proaclies aids as much as anything. 1 have known men to jump on a train, and be to all appearance fast asleep before the con- ductor could get to them. There was little or no Sunday work. 'Jlie only Sunday train was an infrequent one to take along the Canadian mail, if the fort- nightly Canard steamship liappened to come into Boston on a Sunday morning. It was a whistle of this train below Concord which brought Joseph A. Gilmore (then in trade) to his feet and out of the First Baptist church, one forenoon, to ascertain the price of grain in Liverpool ; and when Rev. Dr. Cummings went Monday morning to the store to rebuke his parishioner, Mr. Gil- ]nore saw him approaching, and, as he came within hearing, shouted to the teamster to hurry up to the pastor's house with a bar- rel of the best flour. I have already mentioned Mr. Reuben Sherburne, our master of transportation. His office was in tlie early da3'S at the freight- house in Boston, where his duties were per- formed in a most accurate and business-like wa}^ Judge Upliam determined that this office should be in Concord, and Mr. Slier- burne came here as early as 1852, remaining not very long before he was appointed super- 144 Sixty Years in Concord. intendent of the Vermont Central. Mr. James A. Weston became master of trans- portation, and brought about my transfer as clerk to that office. On taking possession, Mr. Weston did not ask for any explanation of affairs, nor did Mr. Sherburne volunteer any; so I had a puzzle in studying books, papers, and letters to pick up the thread of affairs, for Mr. Weston remained the civil engineer of the company, and gave his per- sonal care to the duties of that office. There had been a belief on our road that nobody but Mr. Sherburne and his l)rothers knew anything worth knowing about freight busi- ness, with the possible exception of Mr. Will- iam M. Parker of the Northern, and it did not add to my comfort, during the trials of those first two or three weeks, to have friends coming in with curious faces to witness the tremendous failure to which they said we were doomed ; but patience and study solved all the problems, and fortunately the company did not have to take the freight trains off the road. My most intimate railroad friends were George E. Todd, since superintendent of the Northern ; James R. Kendrick, since superin- tendent of the Old Colony ; Henry C. Sher- burne, not long ago president of the North- Personal Recollections. 145 ern ; George G. Sanborn, now of St. Paul, Minn. ; O. A. Clough, now of The South pub- lishing company of New York ; Charles H. Ham, since of Chicago, author of the book, " Manual Training," and a writer on political, financial, and social topics ; John Kimball and Benjamin A. Kimball of Concord, James A. Weston of Manchester, and Charles I. Elliott. It may be worth recording that all these are living except the last named, who was killed by an accident at the Dalles, Ore., Aug. 29, 1861.* During the summer of 1854 Charles H. Ham and I took a three-months vacation and went to Labrador, of which voy- age something will be written in another chapter. Judge Upham was in Europe from July, 1853, to January, 1855, and during his ab- sence the road was run by a triumvirate, with the president, Mr. Spaulding, as procon- sul. This plan was a failure in some ways, — one of its results being that when the judge returned our department of the office was out of favor, and before long its duties fell upon me. I endeavored to do all the in- door and some of the out-door duties without a clerk, but found after less than a year's trial that I should ruin my sight by careful * Mr. Kendrick, Mr. Todd, and Mr. Weston have since died. 10 146 Sixty Years in Concord. work on books ruled with close horizontal and perpendicular lines of various colors, so 1 bowed myself out in the summer of 1856, but have always looked back to those six years' service in the Concord Railroad staff with contentment and pleasui-e. The corporation at that time was managed with considerable regard to the growth and welfare of Concord, and I am sure that if Judge Upham had been in actual control at a later period, the shameless taking up of the direct rails to Portsmouth, and the building of tlie Pittsfield line from Hooksett, would not have been perpetrated. IX. On the northeastern coast, not far from where Canada terminates and Labrador be- gins, where the Gulf of St. Lawrence nar- rows into the Strait of Belleisle, is an inlet of the sea named Bonne Esperance bay. It is in the same latitude as the city of London. Forty years ago Newburyport fishermen called it, or a portion of it, Salmon River harbor. It is an inlet of considerable extent, irregular in shape, and tlie impression on my memory is that it has twice the surface of Sunapee lake. The main channel leading to it from the strait opens from the southward, — broad, deep, and easy to navigate. There is another channel from the eastward, narrower and less useful. The shores of this distant bay are rocky elevations of moderate height, rising abruptly from the water's edge, or marshy lowland. Much of the lowland and some of the upland is covered with soft moss so deep that walking in any direction is diffi- cult. One considerable stream — the River an Saumon — finds its way into Bonne Espe- rance bay through a rocky opening, and a fiord two miles long in tlie northern shore. 148 . Sixty Years in Coiicord. Connected with Bonne Esperance bay, by channels within the isLands, is another equal- ly spacious, called on the old charts Esqui- maux bay. Into this flows a river also called the Esquimaux, sometimes the Styx, which really is, I think, St. Paul's river. There is near the shore nothing like what we call woodland. The few spruces, birches, and firs which grow are dwarfed to the mere height of a man's elbow. Where there is soil it is thin and sandy, capable of producing in the short summer of that latitude nothing of much value to man or beast. Grass grows in sheltered places, and a few strawberries are found, not like the delicious ones abundant on the Upper Saguenaj^ There are also raspberries, blueberries, stunted and bitter, and an abundance of what the fishermen call baked apples, a name given in Labrador to the fruit of tlie Ruhus Chamceiyioi'us^ or cloud- berry. It grows profusely at the top of little plants as tall as a shoot of penn^^royal, each stalk producing a berry. This berry, as it de- velops, is first greenish white, then red, and when ripe it takes an amber shade. It is then about the size and shape of a blackberry, and tastes like a baked sweet apple. When ripe, and also during the state of redness, this fruit is a welcome addition to the food served on a Perso)ial Recollections. 149 fishing vessel. On the schooner that I knew, the cook's galley was most prolific of fried codfish and boiled potatoes. Other culi- nar}' achievements came forth occasionally, such as baked beans, eggs of the murre or foolish guillemot,* cod's head chowder, and *' gundy," a mj^sterious compound of hard bread and molasses, of whicli a small quan- tity lasted a long time. This dainty is said to be not yet unknown at sea. On a great occasion, which may have been tlie Fourth of July, the cook produced a dried-apple pie and a sheet of gingerbread. It may not be opportune to dwell thus on affairs of the kitchen, but the hunger of fishermen is pro- verbial. Further north tlian Bonne Esperance ba}^ a kindlier soil produces some potatoes, tur- nips, and cabbages, but no grains. At Bron- son's station, above Rigolette, a friend of mine saw in 1859, growing on the south slope of a hill, potatoes, beets, onions, and radishes. On Bonne Esperance bay, inex- pressively dreary as it must be in winter, a few hardy people dwelt in the summer of 1854. Among them was John Goddard, a sturdy Englishman, whose weather-beaten * In September, 1836, the schooner *' Martha Jane," of Fall River, arrived in Portland with two thousand dozen murre's eggs from the coast of Labrador. 150 Sixty Years in Concord. house, on a rocky liarbor island, was kept in order by an Indian wife, and defended by as fierce a team of Esquimaux dogs as could well be collected. Two miles away lived John Haywood, and an aged man named Chalker, whose daughter Haywood married. These people had some nets ex- tended for salmon, and kept a few articles, such as cloths, powder, and cutlery, for sale or for barter; and Goddard dealt in rum, which goes everywhere and carries a curse with it. Away to the northw/ird, or northwestward — for the general line of the coast trends in the latter direction — at Bradore, Hopedale, Henley Harbor, and Batteau Harbor, are or were larger settlements of like people. There were also a few Moravian mission-stations ; and all along the coast was traffic in furs, oil, and fish. The means of life were wrung from the stormy sea, or from the lonely interior wilderness, where the people dwelt in winter. During some recent years the fisheries have failed, and succor of the Newfoundland gov- ernment has been necessary. The coast is not now a resort for New England fisher- men, although last year (1890) the fishing is reported to have been excellent. There was a long series of 3'ears when the codfisheries l^ersonal Mecolh'cfions. 151 on this coast were abundant in their yield. A Boston shii^master, Frederick Nickerson. now dead, told me a dozen or more years ago, that when he was a boy, probably about 1840, he was on the Labrador coast in a large ship from Boston, which was loaded with salted and dried codfish bought on the coast, for which a good sale was found in Spain and r^ortugal, those Catholic countries being- great markets for fish. Such voyages in such ships were not uncommon then; but it must be rare, indeed, that a square-rigged vessel is now seen on that lonely shore beyond Belle- isle, though ships of the Hudson Bay Com- pany continue to make annual voyages to York Factory. At the time of which I am writing, small vessels came regularly from London and took awa}' the furs, fish, and oil accumulated by English agents. Hearing occasionally, as Ave did, in the interior of New England, of these Labra- dor fisheries, and the healthful influences of the occupation and the summer climate, it seemed wise in the spring of 1854 to try whether sucli a radical change of air, scene, and mode of life would not be recreative in many ways, and my employers were so kind as to give me a three-months vacation. I determined to go a-fishing, and my railroad 152 SLrtij Vear^ in Concord. friend, Charles H. Ham, declared, to my sur- prise, that lie would go too. Therefore we repaired to Newbiirjq^ort, where ■ several fish- ing schooners owned by Mr. Richard Dodge, of Hampton Falls, and Mr. Isaac H. Board- man, of Newbury port, made annual voyages to Labrador, and took passage in the ''An- gelia," a fore-and-aft schooner of one hun- dred tons' measurement, whereof William Morgan was master and part owner. This Captain Morgan dwelt in Seabrook, and sailed the seas only in summer: in winter he was a follower of St. Crispin. Many of the crew miglit be styled web-footed shoe- makers, not being sailors of much experi- ence ; in fact, we had only one man on board, the mate, John Daley, who could have passed for an able seaman. He took pride in relat- ing how he placed a gilt star at the top of the maintopgallantmast of the famous ship " Dreadnauglit," when she was built at New- buryport. My friend and myself set out as passen- gers, agreeing to pay fift}^ dollars each as pas- sage money for the round trip; and there was another fellow in the cabin, from Newmarket. Contrary winds kept our schooner in port three days beyond the one appointed for sail- ing, and meanwhile we explored Newbury- Personal Ree annuities on the life of a French gentle- man well advanced in life. The order was accompanied by all necessary information, authenticated by consular certificates, etc., and was executed. Not long afterward came an- other like remittance and order for annuities on the life of the same man. This command too was executed, though not so easily, and then came a third one of the same kind. The last went pretty hard, for the American trust companies began to be suspicious, and sug- gested that the Frenchman was a Wandering Jew, to live forever ; but still it was done. Time went on, and intelligence came that the Frenchman had fallen down stairs and broken his leg, whereupon the actuaries in New York assembled and partook of a good dinner, thinking they w^ould soon be rid of him and their obligations to him. But he recovered, and held on bravely, drawing his annuities " with perfect impunity and great boldness," as a fertile imagination once de- 186 Sixty Years in ConcorcL .scribed the way smuggling was done through Concord. Mr. Ward investigated the trans- action when he was afterward in Europe, and found his client to be a man who had invested all his means in buying annuities in the United States, and had heavily insured liis life in England. He was living on his annuities, less the annual premiums paid for life insurance, expecting that at his death the life insurance payments Avould replace his fortune to his heirs. This affair has this much connection with the panic of 1857 : The Ohio Life & Trust Company of New York was one of the companies which granted the annuities. The cash which that company received from the old Frenchman kept it alive beyond its time, and Avhen it finally did fail, it precipitated the disasters of that disastrous year. In the autumn our boats went into winter quarters at Milwaukee, and it was settled that the season had not been a successful one. The boats together had neither made nor lost money. Mr. M. L. Sjdvcs, repre- senting tlie directors, came out from New York to see what was the matter. He was ver}^ bright and quick at figures, and soon located the difficulty in the great cost of sailing the " Planet." She was too big for Personal Becollections. 18T the business, and was not prudently con- ducted. Mr. Sykes was veiy kind, and next year, when he had succeeded ''the colonel" as superintendent of the Chicago & Milwau- kee road, sent for nie, but meanwhile I had become settled in business in Concord. I had formed no special attachment to Chi- cago, and my regard for Concord had in no way diminished. All the while I had been away I had longed for the New England hills and woods where the ruffed grouse dwells, and where the clear, swift, cool streams run. I had written from Chicago some letters for the Statesman^ and my father thought I could help him here : so, with no conception of the possibilities about to open to railroad men in the Great West, I bouglit a one-third interest in the Statesman estab- lishment, for which I paid $5,000, a sum which looked quite large, about half of which was borrowed money. XI. The Netv Hampshire Statesman, with which 1113^ father was intimately connected for pe- riods amounting in all to forty years, was founded by Luther Roby. The first number thereof, dated January 6, 1823, when Con- cord had about three thousand inhabitants, was printed in the southwest first-floor room of the Carrigain house, now the residence of Dr. William G. Carter. Its first editor, Amos A. Parker, Esq., is still living (1891) in Fitzwilliam, at the age of ninety-nine years. As to the birthplace of the news- paper, he writes, clearly and distinctly, under date of Nov. 19, 1890, ^' I state posi- tively, for I know, the first number of the JVetv IfamjJsJiire Statesman was printed in the Carrigain building, at the north end of Concord street." This is like a voice out of the long buried past — a letter from a man who was living a centur}^ ago. Shortly after its birth the Statesman went across the street to be printed in a two-story wooden building on the northeast corner of the lot where my home now is. No. 203 North Personal Recollections. 189 Main street. I remember this unpretending building after about 1840. It was then owned by Gen. Robert Davis, and during its occupancy of the site mentioned was once kept in part as a restaurant. On the night of Oct. 3, 1850, it w^as shattered by a mob of young fellows who claimed to be deliver- ing the North End from wine, women, and song. The third dwelling-place of the Statesman was the second floor of the Dr. Ezra Carter house, corner of North Main and Washing- ton streets. It went down town in 1825 to a primitive building which stood where is now Phoenix block ; and on Feb. U, 1826, when my father bought a quarter interest in it for 8500, its habitation was a long third- story apartment for printing and a second floor room for a business office in Farley's, which stood where is now the Exchange building. There were various subsequent changes of location, all mentioned in the Statesman of May 31, 1867, and changes also among the partners in ownership. My father seems to have invested in it i500 more, and labored zealously in its behalf un- til Jan. 1, 1834, when, having in eight years gained only $1,500 above the expenses of his frugal living, he parted with his share. Ten 190 Sixty Yeai'S in Concord. years letter, in July, 1844, when the States- man was owned by George O. Odlin & Co., he became its editor, keeping sturdily alive, liowever, his own separate printing establish- ment where tlie Mr. Odlin above mentioned had been an apprentice. His connection as editor seems to have ceased before 1850, for in that year he visited Europe ; but in 1851 he and Mr. George E. Jenks, who had become his partner in 1850, bought the Statesman for $4,500. They were urged to make, this purchase by many prominent Whigs of New Hampshire, and some of Massachusetts. The paper, for a little time under Mr. Odlin's editorial care, had been attacking Daniel Webster, one of the charges being laxity in affairs of personal finance. T think Mr. Webster had not paid his sub- scription to the Stafesfnan promptly, and Odlin & Co. threatened to attach his car- riage, which was undergoing repairs at the factory of L. Downing & Sons. These attacks, printed in a newspaper so near Mr. Webster's birthplace, exasperated his friends, and they were anxious to effect an alteration in this respect. A few New Hampshire Whigs loaned McFarland & Jenks. about $1,200, taking notes therefor. Most of these notes were left in the custody of a trustee. Personal Me collect io)is. 191 and ill due time all were paid with interest — a result which T suppose the lenders may not have expected. Mr. Webster told my father on some after occasion that this change in ownership was gratifying to him. The Statesman left its lofty quarters in Low's (now Woodward's) building, and went to an equally high floor in Stickney's block in front of tlie state-house, occupying there the width of two store fronts. Driven thence at much loss by the great fire of 1851, recourse was had to the erection on leased land of a one-story building (still standing near the gas-holder east of the junc- tion of Main and School streets), for which 1 drew the paper plans at my father's request. Philip Watson built it for 1400. This new situation, if not among the best, was the best to be had just then, and the ground rent was fifty dollars a year. It was soon discovered from experience that the misfortune of the fire brouglit with it at least one compensation, — proof that a print- ing-office need not always be in upper apart- ments. In January, 1855, Concord had about nine thousand inhabitants, and had adopted a city charter two y ears. bef ore ; but so lately as 1859 there were but one hundred and sevent3^-two persons and firms who paid 192 Sixty Years in Concord. an annual tax of $50 and upward. Having had a fair degree, of prosperity, the States- man went in 1855 to the first floor and base- ment of the south section of the new Phoenix block, where its annual rent was #500. The apartments in Phoenix block were large enough at the outset, and the location Avas and continued to be satisfactory; still, look- ing in there a few days ago it was hard to realize that the growing business was kept for twelve long years within such narrow limits. When I joined the office we divided the duties of proprietorship. My father did nearly all the editorial writing, saw the man- uscripts for the newspaper put in type, went over book and pamphlet manuscripts, cor- recting them for the compositors, read a good share of the proofs, and maintained a general oversight of our " department of the interior." This was usually enough to keep one busy, and I never knew a more punctual and industrious man. If he had nothing* else at hand, he found a composing stick, and took a place among the compositors. Mr. Jenks had the job printing in charge, estimated the cost of work offered for our undertaking, read proofs, and cared for mechanical details. He had a taste for Personal Mecollections. 193 statistics, and a Political Manual for New Hampshire, begun in 1857 as a small affair for legislative use, by its gradual enlarge- ments gradually took possession of a large portion of his time. My work was mainly that of the business office, although I did some paragraphing, and made an occasional longer article. There had been no professors of journalism in our Concord schools, but my father gave me this one helpful hint, as he applied the blue pen- cil to some manuscript : " It is a rule as old as Blair's Rhetoric never to end a sentence with a preposition." Blair's Rhetoric I have never seen, but there are sentences penned by William Pitt and Lord Macaulay which end with prepositions. A Concord lawyer, now dead, once re- marked in my hearing that he believed he could produce good newspaper articles if he could only think of something to write about : whicli was equivalent to saying he could write good articles if lie ''only liad a mind to." The jStatesmait had become, before 1858, the favorite local newspaper. Its editor being by nature devoted to his native town, did not fail to write at good length of what concerned its interests. There was enougli 13 194 Sixty Years in Concord. of politics about it to satisfy a fair-minded Whig or Republican, and little or no vitu- peration, for which my father had no taste. It was a clean, handsoniel3^-printed news- paper, an agreeable weekly visitor to the feminine portion of its readers, helpful in a religious waj^ true to its party without ser- vility, and loyal without liesitation during tlie War of the Rebellion. There was a more distinct personality in it tlian there can be in papers that depend on purchased ster- eotype plates for their selected reading. Perhaps I cannot better illustrate what kind of a newspaper i\\Q- Statesman was to its local readers than by introducing here, as if this were a scrap-book, a few transcripts from its files for the period with whicli I am deal- ing, excluding for various reasons any of the lono-er and weiofhtier articles. [May 15, 1858.] To decorate our office front window a little, we have placed therein an attractive ])icture of the famous clipper ship "Dread- naught," which has run from New York to Liverpool in twelve days and a half, and two others, one entitled " On the dock at Liver- pool," the other " On the dock at Boston." One of the latter represents "a fine old Irish gentleman " about starting for America, and tlie other shows the same individual, having Personal Recollections. 195 bettered himself greatly, just about to sail on his return voyage. One rainy clay last week quite a squad of persons were together looking at these pictures, and we were un- certain how they would be received until the hearty remark, "• Faix! hoys^ if we only do as tvell as that chap has done,^^ uttered with an unmistakable Dublin accent, assured us liow well they Avere appreciated. [May 29, 1858.] Some humorous writer has an ample held by gleaning in which to make up a very diverting account of those annual conven- tions — the Anniversaries of New Hampshire Railroads. These meetings are frequenth ushered in by a terril)le tempest, and, with much unanimit}^ terminate in the most pro- found peace. For a month preceding the long-awaited da}^, the very atmosphere is often redolent of lire and brimstone. The different parties charge the Manchester 3Iir- ror up to the muzzle with missiles, which those who forged them thought w^ould carry death into the enemy's camji. Attacks, replies, rejoinders, and surrejoinders multi- ply like weeds in the garden of a laz}' printer, and the public become impressed with the belief that sundry presidents, directors, and superintendents will bite the dust as soon as the enraged stockholders have opportunity to make their power felt at the polls. But notwithstanding all these furious newspaper denunciations — attacks, replies, rejoinders, and surrejoinders ; in 196 Sixty Years in Concord. spite of all the caucusing and clamoring, all tlie preparation of copious supplies of printed tickets, got up in various forms, with trans- positions of names, the " old board " is usually reelected. By what sorcery is this done ? Who is the Palinurus that pilots these boards of directors throuo^li boisterous channels into pacific seas ? Who allays these all-engulfmg waves, white with foam before the annual meetings, but calmed into the repose of a summer pond when the day of conflict comes, so that anniversaries whicli promised to be vindictive and furious, pass off like a Quaker meeting, to the surprise of the public, and the disappointment of Boston news reporters? Can any mortal account for these things ? [July 10, 185S.] Mr. Solon Gould, one of the inflexible Democrats of Ward Four in tliis city, made a great mistake on the Fourth, which greater Democrats than he mioht liave made. Solon o put on his high-heeled boots after dinner, and walked down town to see what was in the wind. He happened in at the State House yard just when our Congressman, Hon. Mason W. Tappan, Avas reading the Declaration of Independence. Now Solon is a better Democrat than ever the great LaAv- giver of Athens was. but to say that his per- ceptions are, at all hours of the day, as keen as those of the wise man for whom he w^as named, would be a reflection which it is not Personal EecoUectiojis. 197 proper to cast, even upon a human being long since numbered among the dead. Solon not only happened in as Mr. Tappan was reading Rufus Choate's "bundle of glitter- ingr generalities," but exactly as the orator was in that part where they put it on heavy on poor old George TIT, and among other bad deeds charge the King with making '' judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of tlieir offices, and the amount of their salaries," and of -creating " a multitude of new offices, and sending hither a swarm of new officers, to harass our people and eat out their substance." The object of these summary reproofs Solon took to be his friend James Buchanan instead of old George III, and, after denouncing the celebration as a Black Republican affair, wheeled on his heel, and left in profound disgust. [July 10, 1858.] The State House after Adjourn- jMENT. We had the satisfaction, the other day, to conduct several newspaper friends over a portion of the city, and to exhibit to them such '' lions " as they expressed a de- sire to see. Tliis is a duty, the discharge of which is particularly pleasing, unless guests indicate a wish to see lions which are no lions at all. We get along with out- of-town friends very well when the stroll is in certain directions and beneath wealthy arboreal shades ; but nothing more com- pletel}^ brings up a Concord man all stand- 198 Sixty Years in Oo7ico7'd. ing than u request to be sliown the interior of the state bouse. We make excellent work of it along Main and State streets, and the streets which cross those two thoroughfares ; go with much satisfaction to the Pond hill, and obtain the delightful view thence over the island to and beyond East Concord ; point for admiration to that prince among noble elms, the one fronting the residence of Samuel Coffin, and tliose ancestral ones fronting the residences of Joseph B. Walker and Charles Smart; look with our friends over a large portion of the city and into ad- jacent towns from the brow of Holt hill ; go over the Whale's Back, and take a turn to the Hospital pond, and thence to the Asy- lum ; take a pull through the new settle- ments in Wards Five, Six, and Seven ; de- bouch into Main street at the South End, and come up under the elms and maples that skirt the west side of the avenue from the dwelling of Lewis Downing (not forgetting the heaven-aspiring, symmetrical elm opposite the residence of that gentleman) to the home of Joseph A. Gilmore ; we make, let it be re- peated, very gratifying progress when in this line of lion showing ; but when at last the word is pronounced that the guest or guests will consider a visit at the capital of New Hampshire in the light of the play of " Ham- let," with the part of Hamlet omitted unless treated to an interior view of the state house, we are instantly depressed to a point away below zero. Personal Reeollectloni<. 199 And into this freezing sitnation our friends from Portsmouth, Salem, Lowell, and else- where, threw us last Wednesday. We had all been peram})ulating the city, and finally brought up about lialf-past nine a. m. in the delicious shade on the Avestern steps of the State House. We all sat there some minutes, discoursing of the numbers of different legis- latures, the number of voters necessary to choose one and each additional representa- tive in this state ; of the district system as now existing in Massachusetts, of our very redundant house and our ver}^ diminutive senate, when some one uttered the appalling- words, '-''Come^ isn^t it about time to he r/oinr/ inside the State House f " Well, we went in, and never with more suffusing, burning mortification. We have known these twenty odd years that the interior of the State House is anything but pleasing to people conversant with elegant public structures, and have not for a long time, of our own mere motion, gone within it in company with out of town friends, but on this occasion its appearance was anything but pleasing. It is absolutely unbecoming* to a respectable Commonwealth. Thirt}^- nine years' service, and, we believe, no in- terior repairs — not so much as a coat of paint — has reduced it to a dirty and unwholesome appearance, and with the Republican party pursued like a hare upon the mountains, and the foolish cry of " Extravagance " uttered against it by every yelping foe, the prospect 200 Sixty Years in Concord. is that unless the State House is burned or demolished by an eartliquake, it will become mud] worse before it is an}^ better. [May 28, 1859.] About fort}' or forty-five years ago the Columbian hotel was in the form of a long, one-story baking establishment, conducted by Major Peter Rol)inson, and from it issued the grateful odor of new gingerbread, to tan- talize the hungry crowd of boys and girls who wheeled around the corner of Mr. Will- iam Low's house (corner of Main and School streets) on their way up town from the scho- lastic den where they had been confined all the forenoon. The bake-house was made into a two-story building, and opened for the reception of the travelling public about thirt3^-eight 3'ears ago by Mr. John P. Gass. About 1828 it was kept by Gen. John Wil- son, from Lancaster, who brought thither our now thriving and benevolent fellow- citizen, Mr. Nathaniel White. As this latter gentleman has acquired all his means by honorable ends, it is the more creditable to him to say that he commenced as a boy in the Columbian, and has been upon the rise ever since. Although many years amidst tobacco smoke and ardent spirits, he refrained from their use, and thus escaped the rock on Avhich many make shipwreck. The Columbian Avas in those da3^s an inn where several stage-coaches put up, and there our respected fellow-citizen, Mr. Peter Perso)ial Recollect ions, 201 Dudley, made his tarry ing-place when he commenced as a driver into Concord from Plymouth. During the period Avhen the militia of New Hampshire was in high feather, this tavern was tJie headquarters of the Columbian Artillery, a company Avhich for several years was composed largel}" of journeymen and apprentices to the printing business in Concord ; a corps of no mean repute, which made some stir on the muster lields of the Eleventh Regiment. A^acancies were filled, and new commissions wet, in the Columbian hotel. Looking back upon those times, the wonder is that escapes were made from the confirmed habits apt to follow such procedures. Three drams at a half-day train- ing were not uncommon in the da3's of the Columbian Artillery, — a drink at the gun- house near the site of the Unitarian church, a drink on Pond hill brought from the Washington tavern, and a final drink, about T p. m., at the official hotel of the compau}- — the Columbian. The Columbian Artillery, the Concord Light Infantry, the Troop, and the Bow and Borough Riflemen were the uniformed com- panies of the Eleventh Regiment, which had May trainings and one annual autumn encampment in this or some neighboring- town. The artillerj^men used but one can- non, which was manoeuvred by drag-ropes. The two-days encampment wound up with a 202 Sixty Years in Concord. sham fight, wlien the noisiest and smelliest kind of gunpowder was burned, but no harm done, unless in the excitement of battle some exhilarated warrior, like Alexander Salter Lear of Bow, shot away the ramrod of his old flintlock musket. My youthful soul was filled with horror and dismay by the racket of tliose sham fio-hts. t> [June 25, 1859.] " Pluck. — Certain fighting characters once took a big oath tliat they would neither eat nor drink until they had slain the Apostle Paul. What effect this rash vow had upon the diaphragms of those who made it, the record does not state. The probabilities are that the oath was made void, or the vaga- bonds went hungry awhile, for the apostle outlived their fur}^ and did nuich good ser- vice afterward. There are lots of New Hampshire Demo- crats, the I'egular leaders and drum-majors of the party, who, we believe, have made a solemn vow that they will not come to Con- cord during the month of June so long as the Black Republicans are in power. This is a very rash vow. It keeps our Democratic friends out of the pale of that civilization, good breeding, and other healing influences diffused here wlien the wisdom of the state is assembled in council. This article was suggested by seeing our old friend. Gen. Israel Hunt, of Nashua, in Personal Uecollections. 20-3 the north lobby of the state-house hist week — a stray leaf from a gilt-edged volume. The general manifests common sense by coming- to Concord every year, and never departing- until he has looked in upon the legislature, probably to bestow upon it his best wishes that the Republicans wdll make none but o-ood laws, and rule the state well. There is both pluck and philosophy in this procedure, which is worthy of all imitation by his Dem- ocratic brethren. May he live a score of years, to come up and bestow his annual benediction on the Republican party in power. [March 3, I860.] ABitAHAM Lincoln in PHa:Nix Hall. — Mr. Lincoln addressed the people for an hour and a half in one of the most pow^erful, logi- cal, and compact speeches to which it was ever our fortune to listen ; an argument against the system of slavery, and in defence of the position of the Republican party, from the deductions of which no reasonable man could possibly escape. He fortified every position assumed by proofs which it is im- possible to gainsay, and while his speech was at intervals enlivened by remarks which elicited applause at the expense of the Dem- ocratic party, there was not a single word which tended to impair the dignity of the speaker or weaken the force of tlie great truths which he uttered. At its conclusion nine roof-raising cheers were given, — three for the speaker, three for 204 Sixty Years in Concord. the Republicans of Illinois, and three for the Republicans of New Hampshire. In this speech Mr. Lincoln compared sla- very to a snake which had crawled into bed with the children, and said the difficulty was how to deal with the snake without hurting the children. At the close of Mr. Lincoln's address, Mr. Calvin C. Webster came to the writer of this, and said very earnestly, " That man will be the next president of the United States." He followed Mr. Lincoln to Phoenix hotel and made a similar remark to him, to which Mr. Lincoln replied that a good many men wanted to be president. Mr. Webster afterward went to the Chicago convention and helped nominate Mr. Lincoln. [January 5, 1861.] In an Ugly Hole. — Mr. John Clark, of Franklin, better known up and down the country as " Boston John " the Dam Builder, on Friday last week came near making a last plunge over one of his own dams. The mill- pond immediately above Aiken's great manu- facturing establishment, which is frozen over but a few da3^s in winter, being covered with ice on that day, some men of common weight and rotundity had ventured across. "Bos- ton," as he is called for shortness, who at the Personal Recollections. 205 ripe age of 71, with form ereet and footsteps firm, weighs 240 lbs., noticing the track, put himself and his cane into the same path. Reaching the centre of the pond in safety, he there came to a stand, and, after the manner of the elephant treading on a pumpkin in a country circus, placing his foot down solid, on trial, he settled like a line-of-battle-ship, in medias res, for a cooling bath, with the ice all around him like a honeycomb. Mr. Henry Crane happening to have liis eye at this precise moment upon that interesting locality, went to the rescue with astonishing- velocity. He had not, however, made a dozen strides when "Boston" roared out to him,. " Bring me a long board" — which was done " quicker than Jabe went to the maul," and forthwith " Boston " and his cane were stand- ing erect again, unharmed save a gentle chill, which he says was at once dispelled b}^ warm and soothing drinks. [January 25, 1862.] Ex-Governor Steele was, it seems, one of those fossils who wrapped up warm, nursed their ancient wrath, and came to Concord to join in the passage of resolves (at the state convention) full of innuendoes against a host of their fellow-citizens who are working- like beavers to put down the Rebellion. The Republicans of New Hampshire can bear to be kicked, but when it is by such men as the ex-governor, they can but bring to mind the words, — 206 Sixty Years in Concoi^d. '• And wlioii he saw an ass come prancing to his cot, ' Avast! ' he cried, ' at death I do n't repine, IJut't woukl be double death from lieels like thine.' "" The Statesman made for years a vigorous battle against a class of vexatious lawsuits brought to recover damages for fictitious injuries sustained on the highwa}^ — a battle 80 vigorous and effectual that in Januar}^ 1865, a motion was made to bring the editor before the bar of court to answer a charge of contempt, — a motion which was dismissed by the justice. [October 23, 1863.] The New Pool of Siloam. — The most remarkable of modern curative powers is a jury verdict, with damages assessed to the amount of a few thousand dollars. This paper has uniformly urged the belief that most of what are called road cases — suits against towns for damages occasioned by defects in highways — have their origin in nothing but a desire for pelf. We are half inclined to retract our opposition in view of the brilliant medical results of success in suits of this character. If we could publish certificates of the nimbleness of tongues once speechless, the agility of legs once paralyzed, the recover}^ from ailments seen and unseen which had been pronounced beyond the reach of surgery, all effected by trial by jury, the public would be amazed at the curative effect o f a verdict with damaoes. Personal Recollections. 207 [March 20, 1864.] Chocorua Mountain. — We went suffi- ciently far from home tlie other da}^ to obtain a view of the Sandwich mountains, and saw further that notable and favorite peak which dwellers in the region round about are wont to speak of as " Old Chocorua." It is an eminence of peculiar form, the twin brother of which cannot be found in the state. The people of Carroll county become attached to it, as the Swiss to their hills or the Germans to the Rhine. Many a man, either on the wide-rolling sea or in the army, thinks ever}" day of this glorious old gray peak, and if brought suddenl}' in sight of it, would be as exultant as the Armj^ of Liberation return- ing from the last conflict with Napoleon, on beholdino' their favorite river: *' It is the Rhiue — our mountain vineyards laving-, I see its bright Hoods sliiue; Sing on the marcli, with every banner waving, Sing, brothers, 'tis tlie Hhine.*' '' Old Chocorua*' is one of the most con- spicuous features in the mountain region of New Hampshire. Its ragged summit, its isolated position, and moreover a legend con- nected with it, cause it to be a celebrated peak. If we could transfer Chocorua mountain to Clnchester, and put Sanborn ton bay where lies the wide intervale east of Main street, what a glorious prospect there would be ! 208 Sixty Years in Concord. [July 2o, 1864.] A Tough Hen. — Two Concord fishermen* over in Epsom sought refuge from a heavy shower under a friendly roof, leaving the paraphernalia of their sport leaning against the side of the house. Hearing a terrible squawking shortly afterward, they sought the cause, and found that a hen, in pursuit of worms, had swallowed one containing a fatal fisli-hook, and was tugging lustily at the line to get away. The woman of the house expressed much regret at the occurrence, the victim being her best hen and most reliable layer. Every effort was made to extract the hook, but it clung fast to the dark interior of biddy's throat. A proposition to kill her was overruled. After full consultation it was determined to cut off the line, leave tlie hook in the gullet of the victim, and see what would come of it. To the surprise of all hands, on the next day the hen laid one of her largest-sized eggs, and has gone on from that day to this, fulfilling all her duties in the most exemplary and hen-like manner, as though nothing had happened to derange her stomacli. [May 4, 1866.] CAPTUiiE OF A Black Eagle. — Mr. Charles Abbott, who lives on the place called the " silk farm," near Turkey pond, in this city, some days ago set a steel trap on a hum- * Isaac A. Hill, with whom I have enjoyed many a good hunt, and Benjamin E. Badger. Personal Recollections. :2U9 mock above the surface of the pond to catch some of the wild ducks which he had observed to frequent that spot. Visiting the trap, he found that one had been caught, and some evil bird had devoured it. Trying his luck again, last Saturday he caught two, and while taking them ashore in a boat a black eagle came down so near, that, to use Mr. Abbott's words, lie* was afraid the audacious fellow would get the ducks away from him. It was determined to tr}^ the capture of the eagle himself, and tlie trap was set for him with a suitable bait. That very same da}^ his majest}^ put his foot in it. Mr. Abbott rowed out to the hummock, expecting a battle witli the bird, but to his utter surprise, as soon as the boat reached the hummock, the eagle walked in with the trap and chain, and seated himself to be taken ashore. He Avas unin- jured, and is now at Mr." Abbott's house, where he bears his captivity without any sulky or captious ways, suffering himself to be approaclied and handled familiarly. The spread of his wings is seven and one half feet. Although called the black eagle, Wil- son, the ornithologist, gives liim the more inelegant title of ''Ring Tailed Eagle." [April 16, 1869.] Last evening, about eight o'clock, the most beautiful auroral display we have ever seen was visible over Concord. It was as if some celestial mercer had unrolled two or three dozen pieces of silk, of the most beautiful tints 210 Sixty Years in Concord. of purple, green, blue, lilac, and wliite, gathered the ends into his hands at tlie zenith, and let them flow down to the horizon (north, south, east, and west). The colors were frequently clianged — sometimes quite suddenly, some- times disolving gradually, and softly fading before the new tints. It is impracticable to continue these quota- tions, but looking at the files for the period under our review, some interesting facts pre- sent themselves. Among our correspondents, 1859-66, were Moses B. Goodwin, the best letter-writer we ever had, Col. Henry W. Fuller, Charles H. Bartlett, Esq., Capt. William F. Goodwin, and Capt. Edward E. Sturtevant. The Statesman was the first paper in New Hampshire (September 5, 1859) to devote regularly a column to paragraphs of state news, a practice in whicli it soon had many followers. On the morning of Friday, August 6, 1859, we did what was then thought pretty enter- prising, — printed almost two columns about an anniversary at Gilmanton academy winch occurred the day before. During the summer of 1859 we published lists of arrivals at the White Mountain hotels. Our election returns were always most full and most accurate. Personal Recollections. liH The Statesman advocated the introduction of Long Pond water to our main precinct as early as May, 1857, when it employed Mr. John C. Briggs to make a survey, and deter- mine the altitude of Long Pond above the sidewalk at the corner of Main and Bridge streets. Li September, 1859, it asked, '•^Shall we have pleyity of ivater?^^ following this up with articles on that subject until July 20, 1866, and perhaps longer. Li 1861 it urged the adoption of steam engines for the Concord fire department. The Statesman did good service toward retaining the state-house in Concord when its removal was threatened in June, 1864. Tlie paper put up the name of General Grant as its candidate for the Presidency on December 13, 1867. Among the distinguished men who visited Concord during or near the period under ex- amination here, and not previously mentioned as visitors, were Hannibal Hamlin, Schuyler Colfax, Henr}^ Wilson (once a pupil at the Concord Literary Institution), John A. An- drew, William Pitt Fessenden, Daniel E. Sickles, John E. Wool, Joseph H. Hawley, Benjamin F. Butler, Gen. T. W. Sherman of Sherman's Battery, Benjamin R. Curtis, Joshua L. Chamberlain, D. W. Voorhees, 212 Sixty Years in Concord. Lord Ainberle}^ of Engiand, and Stephen A. Douglas. Lady Aiiiberley was also here, and Mrs. Douglas, tlie latter deemed to be one of the most beautiful women of her time. Mr. Douglas's visit was in July, 1860, and General Pierce, General Peaslee, and other prominent Democrats found it convenient to be out of town. Henry P. Rolfe, Esq., did the honors of the occasion. Mr. Douglas was then out of favor with the Democratic party of the South. Mrs. Douglas afterward, at Newport, R. L, had something to say about tlie behavior of her and her husband's friends liere, who trampled down a lawn with eager feet, and could be seen peering through lier liost's windows to gaze on her attractive face. The Statesman office had in this region a reputation for doing careful jDrinting, which liad come along as an inheritance from the small beginning of my father in 1834 ; and- in 1859 sixteen persons were employed, beside the proprietors. A pamphlet printed to ac- company some Shaker washing-machines to the World's Fair in London, in 1862, was so much admired by the judges of the fair, that the commissioner, Hon. Frederick Smyth, could have obtained some favorable notice Perso)tal Recollections. 213 for us if it liad been entered in the lists for exhibition. Our mechanical resources were sufficient for the time, although we were unable to meet the wishes of a customer who in 1868 wanted a Bible printed right off, so he could take it home that day on the 3 o'clock train. An important accessory to our establishment was an excellent steam engine built by Hit- tinger & Cook, of Charlestown, Mass., which drove the power presses, — an Adams, a Hoe cylinder (set up in 1858), and two rattle-te- bang Hawkes presses. There was also an immense hand press for large posters, which was disliked by workmen, and christened by some of them " the man-killer." Writing of those presses reminds me of a locah attempt made about 1851 to invent a printing machine, or to improve some exist- ing one. The projectors were a printer and a railroad clerk who had wrought with tools. Securing a place over the Patriot office, they set about their work with enthusiasm. I happened to witness many a consultation be- tween these friends in interest, but never saw the object of their endeavors. After I joined the Statesman., in the course of a consultation the belief was expressed by one of the partners that we might be so for- 214 Sixty Years in Concord. tuiiate as to each gain annually, in return for our investment and personal services, as much as $2,000, an expectation which proved to he well founded. There was usually an abun- dance of advertising, of which for our issue of April 23, 1859, we declined five columns. In January, 1863, because of the high price of paper, the size of our sheet was reduced, and smaller type used ; but in Januar3% 1866, tlie full size was restored. The Democratic party in New Hampshire became an unhappy family as early as 1854. The Patriot lost the state printing tliat 3'ear, and the State Cajjital Heporter., then two years old, with Amos Hadley, one of its ed- itors, as a candidate, obtained it. In 1855, when the old party had fairly fallen from power, there were three Concord papers in the opposition, the Statesman^ the Reportery and the Independeiit Democrat., which last was started in Manchester in May, 1845. Soon after its beo-inniuo- it came to Concord* and in 1847 absorbed the New Hampshire Courier., with which the Grranite Freeman and the Concord Grazette had been previously united. The G-azette had a brief existence. Jts editor was Mr. Charles F. Low, an eccen- tric gentleman and extensive traveller, who studied theology in Andover, law in Concord, Personal Recollections. 215 was a lieutenant in the Mexican war, in 1861 was robbed by Bedouins in the valley of the Jordan, and at last was drowned in Indian river in Florida, Jan. 16, 1874. Mr. Hadley was reelected public printer in 1855 and 1856. In 1857 he and his paper Avere united with the Independent Democrat^ and in tliat year George G, Fogg, of the lat- ter, was chosen successor to Mr. Hadley. Mr. Fogg was a Avriter, but not a printer. Under these circumstances the public printing was not so well done that it could not be done better, and the publishers of the Statesman had begun to Avonder, early in 1858, wdien their turn at the business would come. It never would have come with the assent of the incumbent. ^Ir. Foo-o- had no inclina- tion to part with his office ; he was a great believer in himself, and a strong writer, fond of assailing both opponents and rivals. There were many issues of his paper when he devoted more space to attacking the Statesman than he did to fighting the com- mon enemy. He probably succeeded in making a portion of his readers and the public believe that the Statesman was not altogether sound on the slavery question. My father, the most transparently upright and honest man whom I ever knew, had 21 f) Sixty Years in Coyicord. neither the art nor the. inclination for mak- ing tactful use of his resources to gain any personal end, and he had little taste for office ; but he was not quite willing to let the Statesman stand quietly aside any longer, and see its rivals continue to carry away the chief recognition and favor of the part}^ and beside, he wanted to do the public printing in a careful style, as lie had once before done it, in 1846. Our attempt to oust Mr. Foo'O' was made b}^ regular approaches. The editor of the Statesman became a candidate before the legislature of 1858, with small expectation of success that season, because the rule of two years in office would be urged forcefully in behalf of Mr. Fogg, but with the intent to set a stout stake in the contested ground. One year later, in June, 1859, Mr. McFar- land was elected, receiving 189 votes to 109 for William Butterfield. Prior to this election the Indej)ende)it Democrat made its customary effort to ex- liibit tlie Statesman as unreliable on the slavery question. There were some Repub- licans in the legislature whose chief reading- was the Independent Democrat, represented as well by David Morrill of Canterbury as by anybody, who I have no doubt had been Personal Recollections. -IT compelled to believe the proprietors of the Statesman capable of owning negro slaves. This old gun of the Independent Democ7'at was spiked by the Statesnuot declaring itself in favor of William H. Seward as candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1860. The editor did this with good con- science, decisively, early in June, 1859. Mr. Seward was just then the hete noir of all pro-slavery men. In a speech made at Rochester, N. Y., the previous year, he had used these words in regard to the slavery question : " It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become eitlier entirel}^ •a slave-holding nation, or entirely a free labor nation." Taking this downright stand in favor of Mr. Seward, "irrepressible con- flict" and all, probably removed all doubt about our political standing, and we had the public printing for the years 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1865, and 1866. Busy places as most newspaper offices are, there are callers who expect to meet the edi- tor. Before our time Isaac Hill received such around the unpretending table where he prepared the invective for the Pati-iot. Here Mr. William Low, with a more fiery 218 Sixty Years in Concord. and intense spirit even than that which ani- mated Mr. Hill, sat by the hour to urge the pen of his impetuous friend. Our editorial work was done with an equipment as plain as Mr. Hill's. The edi- tor of the StatesmaH never liad a desk which would have sold at auction for as much as two dollars. Even this was placed where no quiet thought or counsel could be had, and no library was accessible. But there were often agreeable callers. Among those from out of town, none were more welcome than George W. Nesmith of Franklin, Will- iam H. Y. Hackett of Portsmouth, John H. Thompson of Holderness, David Gillis of Manchester, John M. Parker of Goffstown, Joel Eastman and John McMillan of Con- way, Aurin M. Chase of Whitefield, Richard H. Messer and Luther McCutcheon of New London, William M. Weed of Sandwich, Joseph Gilman and Nathaniel Hubbard of Tamworth, Jacob Benton, Ossian Ray, and Henry O. Kent of Lancaster, Cyrus Taylor of Bristol, John S. Walker of Claremont? Alvin Beard of Nasliua, Georo-e Wadleig-h of Dover, George S. Towle of Lebanon, and John L. Rix of Haverhill, — the last two as fiery and impetuous as was old William Low himself. Tliese were all, or nearly all, men Persoiud Recollections. 219 who had come along the old Whig paths into the Republican party, and were deemed as reliable as the sun in its revolution. The}^ had alwa3^s news or some good story to tell, to lighten the editorial pen. There are doubtless interesting incidents disclosing themselves to all printers. I will relate one which came to our experience in the course of a lawsuit at Plymouth, in the winter of 1861-62. A firm doing business in Concord had sued another in Grafton county, and laid an attachment on property to secure debt. Just before this attachment was placed, other attachments had been laid on the same property to secure the holders of certain notes made by the debtors, bearing date May 18, 1858. The Concord creditors believed these notes to be fraudulent, and an investigation followed. The debtors swore that the notes were made on the day of their date. Now these notes were written on forms which bore the imprint of Rufus Merrill, a stationer in Concord. Mr. Merrill was able to testify that the forms were printed for him at our office. It proved that the ornamental design at the left end of the notes, an engraving of the figure of America on tlie dome of the capitol of the United States, was not owned by us until 220 Sixty Years in Concord. March 16, 1859. So we were able to testify that the notes were not printed until nearly a year after they were dated, and the scheme of the debtors was utterly frustrated. In 1861, as a consequence of war, gold and silver money went very suddenly out of circulation. The disappearance of small silver coins was a serious hindrance to busi- ness. Postage-stamps- of different denomi- nations were used as currency, but they became soiled and sticky. Before the gov- ernment issued its fractional paper currency, local attempts were made to supply a public need. We printed checks for fractions of a dollar for the Bank of Newbury, Vermont ; the Ocean Bank, Newburj^port, Mass. ; the Union Bank, Concord; the Carroll County Bank, Sandwich ; the Warner Bank, Warner ; and for others. Local traders of good repute also issued fractional checks. Specimens of this war-time currency are now scarce, and possess considerable liistoric interest. The war as it went along gave cause for another kind of printed matter. There is among my specimens a card which is a curiosity to young people, and is therefore copied below. It was probably printed in 1864, when " substitute brokers " were a rather numerous and active people. Personal Recollections. 221 Xew Hampshire Union Recruiting Company. No. o, Hutcliins Street, leading from Main street to the Depot, Concord, N. H. Highest Prices paid for Substitutes nnd Vol- unteers. Dkaftei) Men or Town Agp:nts will be furnished at the Shortest Notice. J. S. Appleton: Wm. H. Conner; G. W. Dodge; J. O. Trask ; Ed. Jndkins ; J. C. Nichols; D. S. Carr. Considerable sums of money were gained l)y substitute brokers and some of the per- sons with whom they dealt. A recruiting officer who was stationed here for a season told me, years afterward, that he made as much as f 12,000 in a few weeks' service. This was done by enlisting men for towns which were paying large bounties for ver}' indifferent recruits. Among those who did some service for the Statesman., at or not very far from the time which we are recalling to view, and who gained distinction in other walks of life, there were, as Avriters, Joseph C. Abbott, afterward adjutant-general of New Hamp- shire, a general of the United States Volun- teers, and senator from North Carolina ; and John T. Perry, afterward of tlie Cincinnati Gazette ; — as printers, Jacob H. Gallinger and O.70 Sixty Years in Concord. Martin A. Haynes, comrades at the case and associate members of congress ; Col. Pliin P. Bixby of the Sixth and Maj. Edward E. Sturtevant of the Fiftli New Hampsliire reg- iments. I was away from the Statesman from De- cember, 1862, until January, 1866, serving in the general staff of the arm}^ of the United States. XII. Wlien it became known in the autumn of 1860 that Abraham Lincoln had been elected president, what has been called the "great unpleasantness" began. In December, South Carolina declared herself out of the Union, and within two months six other states had followed her. President Buchanan (who, when he visited Concord in 1846, as a mem- ber of Mr. Polk's cabinet, forgot his linen duster and left that gaiment to grace the rotund figure of the landlord of the Ameri- can House) proved too feeble for the emer- gency, as all the world knows. Nobody knew tlien, at least nobody in Concord knew, how great and wise a man Abraham Lincoln was. George G. Fogg had visited Mr. Lincoln at Springfield, 111., after the nomination for the presidency, and therefore his opinion of the president-elect was occasionally sought. Mr. Horace L. Hazelton, of Boston, inquired of Mr. Fogg, before the inauguration, if Mr. Lincoln was another Andrew Jackson, and Mr. Fogg- replied, "I wish he were a Jackson," — an 224 Sixty Years in Concord. answer which did not entirely reassure Mr. Hazelton, or tliose to wliom Mr. Hazelton repeated it. There was a good deal of indifference to the unusual proceedings at the South. Se- cession had been threatened so lone, that when states proclaimed their withdrawal from the Union there was neither surprise nor excitement nor dismay. The emergenc}' was estimated differently by different indi- viduals. I remember hearing a Concord citizen, Henry P. Rolfe, Esq., say in March, 1861, that it looked as if the constitution of the Confederate States, adopted the preced- ing month by a convention held at Mont- gomery, Ala., would be ratified ultimately l)y everj/ state. North as well as South. This would have been equivalent to a secession of all the states from the existing Union, and the formation of a new confederation with slavery permitted in each state. In the early part of February, 1861, a Peace Congress of representatives of the states assembled in Washino^ton on the invi- o tation of the state of Virginia, the delegates from New Hampshire being Asa Fowler of Concord, Levi Chamberlain of Keene, and Amos Tuck of Exeter. The deliberations of this assembly, February 4-27, were interest- Personal Recollections. 225 iiig but ineffectual; — still, I remember hear- ing Judge Fowler say, on his return to Con- cord, that he was satisfied there would be no war. The New York Evening Post had said, in the preceding November, that a distin- guished gentleman at the South, being addressed to ascertain what in his opinion would be the end of this secession humbug, replied, — " It will end as all such things at the South have ended ; but you must let us down easy. Patience and good nature on the part of the Northern states are all that is required to make this conclusion speedj^ and sure." The New Hampshire Statesmaii said, — "In opposition to the above, we hear that ex- President Pierce, whose sources of informa- tion are said to be of the most fortunate character, differs in opinion from this dis- tinguished Southern gentleman, and regards a dissolution of the Union as inevitable." Stephen A. Douglas said privately, when he was in Concord in Jul}^ 1860, tliat Lin- coln would be elected and war would follow. Who of our people then old enough to appreciate the situation will ever forget the months of weary waiting, from November, 1860, to March, 1861, — traitors in the cabi- 226 Sixty Years in Concord. net, in the army, and in the navy, stealing and plundering everywhere, and not one spark of manly courage or apparent force at Washington, except when, on January 29, John A. Dix, a loyal man, who had by some strange chance become secretary of the treasury, telegraphed to a special agent of that department at New Orleans, who was trying to save a revenue cutter, the captain of which had gone over to the enemy, — ""If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." President Lincoln was inaugurated in Marcli. There was another month of inac- tion, not unlike the later months of Bu- chanan's administration, when the public feeling was expressed by the Neiv York Times in a very remarkable newspaper arti- cle entitled "Wanted — A Policy." That article is too long for reproduction here, but I quote its closing paragraph: We trust this period of indecision, of inaction, of fatal indifference, will have a speedy end. Unless it does, we may bid farewell to all hope of saving the Union from destruction and the countr}^ from an- archy. A mariner might as well face the tempest without compass or helm, as an administration put to sea amid such storms as now darken our skies, without a clear and Personal Recollections. '2J2,1 definite plan of public conduct. The coun- try looks eagerly to President Lincoln for the dispersion of the dark mystery that hangs over our public affairs. The people want something to be decided on, some standard raised, some policy put forward, which sliall serve as a rallying-point for the abundant but discouraged loyalty of the American heart. In a great crisis like this, there is no policy so fatal as that of having no policy at all. Then came the bombardment of Fort Sum- ter in Charleston harbor, and the surrender of that fortress to the rebels on the morning of Sunday, April 14. News of this surrender reached Concord Sunday noon, and was com- municated to a hundred or more persons waiting around the telegraph office. People were looking anxiously for a hero just then, and on what seemed rather slender evidence adopted Major Robert Anderson, the punc- tilious commander of the surrendered fort. After the Avar was over, there was found among the rebel papers a letter from Ander- son, written while he was in command at Sumter, in Avhich he said, '' I tell you frankly, my heart is not in this war." On Monday moi-ning, April 15, came the proclamation of President Lincoln calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers, and 228 Sixty Years in Concord, the strange public stupor was gone. The administration had a policy. A great mass meeting assembled in our city hall Friday evening, April 19, at which patriotic ad- dresses were made by Thomas P. Treadwell, Henry P. Kolfe, William L. Foster, Anson S. Marshall, Edward H. Rollins, Nathaniel S. Berry, A. B. Thompson, Josiah Stevens, Joseph B. Walker, Henry E. Parker, Cyrus W. Flanders, E. E. Cummings, S. M. Vail, and R. R. Meredith, the latter then a stu- dent at the Methodist Institute, now a dis- tinguished clergyman of Brooklyn, N. Y. There was no mistaking tlie fervid patri- otism of the audience. It became known the next day that Gen- eral Pierce wanted to be heard, so a crowd assembled in the evening at the Eagle hotel, . and the ex-president spoke from a balcony : Fellow-Citizens and neighbors : If I had been apprised of your meeting last night, seasonably, I should have been present at it, but the notice did not reach me until this morning. I wish to say in advance that since my arrival here the resolution has been read to me, and it has my cordial approval. You call for me, my friends, as lovers of our country and of the blessed Union which our fathers transmitted to us, on an occasion more grave, more momentous, fraught with Personal Recollectio7is. 229 more painful eiiiotions, than any under which I liave ever addressed you ; but I rejoice that that flag floats there (pointing to the flag). Love for the flag of our country is a senti- ment common to us all; at least to my heart it is no new emotion. My father fol- lowed it from the battle of Bunker Hill till the enemy evacuated New York in 1783. My brothers were with the gallant men who upheld it in the War of 1812. Can I, can you, fail to remember how proudly it floated at a more recent date from Palo Alto to Buena Vista on one line of operation, and from the castle of San Juan d'Ulloa to the city of Mexico on another ? Never! Can we forget that the gallant men of the North and of the South moved together like a band of brothers, and mingled their blood on many a field in the common cause? Can I, if I would, feel other tlian the profoundest sad- ness when I see that tliose who have so often stood shoulder to shoulder in the face of foreign foes are now in imminent peril of standing face to face as the foes of each other? — but they should have thought of this as well as we : at all events there is no time now to consult our feelings. The question has resolved itself into one of patriotism and stern duty. We cannot fail to see what the nature of this contest is to be, and to some limited extent tlie fearful- ness of its progress and consequences. We must not, liowever, turn our faces from them, because the true way to meet danger 230 Sixty Yecvrs in Concord, is to see it clearly and encounter it on the advance. I, for one, will never cease to hope, so long as the fratricidal strife is not more fully developed than at present, that some event, some power, may yet intervene to save us from the most dire calamity that ever impended over a nation. The opinions of many of the vast crowd I see before me, with regard to the causes which have pro- duced the present condition of public affairs, are known to me, and mine are well known to you. I do not believe aggression by arms is a suitable or possible remedy for existing evils. Still, neither of these mat- ters ought to be considered now : they may well be waived, nay, must be, until we have seen each other through present trials and future dangers. Should the hope which I have expressed not be realized, which may a beneficent Providence forbid, and a war of aggression be waged against the national capital and tlie North, then there is no way for us, as citizens of one of the old thirteen states, but to stand together, and upliold the flag to the last, with all the rights which pertain to it, and with the fidelity and endurance of brave men. I would advise you to stand togetlier with one mind and heart. Be calm, faithful, and determined, but give no countenance to passion and violence, which are usually un- just, and often in periods like this the har- bingers of domestic strife. Be just to youi^ selves, just to others, true to your country ; and may God, who so signally blessed our Personal Recollections. 231 fathers, graciously interpose in this hour of clouds and darkness to save both extremi- ties of the country, and to cause tlie old flag to be uplield by all hands and. all hearts. Born in the state of New Hampsliire, I intend that here sliall repose my bones. I would not live in a state the right and honor of which I was not prepared to defend at all hazards and to the last extremity. This address, spoken as it was with earnest- ness of manner, sounded well, and was re- ceived with cheers, but there is not much battle smoke in it. Hon. Ira Perley, who stalked about in the dimly-lighted street, with a half-fierce and wholly patriotic man- ner, characterized it instantly as '' late, re- luctant, and unimportant." In the preceding year ex-President Pierce had written a letter to Jefferson Davis, which was brought to light in the looting of the Davis plantation in Mississippi in 1863, in which he said, — Without discussing the question of right — of abstract power to secede — I have never believed that actual disruption of the Union can occur without blood ; and if through the madness of Northern abolitionists that dire calamity must come, the fighting will not be along Mason and Dixon's line merely. It will be within our own borders and in our 232 Sixty Years in Concord. own streets, between the two^ classes of citi- zens to whom I have referred. Those who defy hiw and st30ut constitutional obligations, will, if we ever reach the arbitrament of arms, find occupation enough at home. The ''late, reluctant, and unimportant" speech might never have been made had the general foreseen the discovery of his remark- able letter.* It was an inspiring and reassuring sight when on Saturday morning. May 25, the First regiment came over from Camp Union and marched down Main street to the rail- way station, with its ranks reaching clear across the avenue, followed by a baggage- train and outfit which caused the New Yorkers to say it was tlie best equipped regi- ment which had gone to the war. I can see exactly how that whole regiment looked, and the figure and expression of Col. Mason W. Tappan as he rode past the Phoenix hotel at the head of the column, a little anxious, not exactly glad to go, but ready to do a soldier's duty. There were many such sights to follow, for the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, Elev- *Hon. Henry S. Foote. formerly a senator from Missis- sippi, in his History of the RebeUion'says,—" Ex- President Pierce, and several others whose letters to Mr. Davis have lately seen the li^ht, had plied this confiding' persnnage with secret promises of support, upon which he built in part his hopes of one day wielding an imperial sceptre." Perso7ial Recollections. 233 enth, Twelfth, Tliirteeiith, Fourteenth, Fif- teenth, and Sixteenth regiments- were all mustered at Concord, and one after another tramped down our broad avenue with the sturdy tread that carried them into every great battle of the war. Concord herself furnislied more than men enough to make a regiment, — in fact more than thirteen hun- dred men. They were on the Peninsula, at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, the Wilderness, Nashville, the siege of Rich- mond, and Appomattox; with Hooker, and Meade, and Thomas, and Sheridan, and Sher- man, and Grant, and their story of patience and sacrifice will never be adequately told. Perhaps the Second and Fiftli regiments became as famous as any. The following- paragraph was floating about as long ago as September, 1862 : Said an officer in the Army of the Poto- mac, — "" When there is a rough job on liand McClellan calls on Hooker's Division. 'Fight- ing Joe ' looks the matter over, and if there be a particularly hard corner, he gives that to Grover's brigade. General Grover wants a regiment he can rely on, and he selects the Second New Hampshire. Then if there is one place more difficult than all tlie rest, Colonel Marston brings out Company B of Concord." 234 Sixty Years in Concord^ The Fifth led the roll of all infantry regi- ments in the total number of its casualties, two hundred and ninety-five having been killed or mortally Avounded in its ranks. Gen. Francis A. Walker says of the Fifth at Antietam, — Under cover of a ridge, at some little dis- tance from the left, the enemy are moving down into our rear. The movement is first discovered by Cross of the Fifth New Hamp- shire. He waits for no orders, but instantly faces to the left and moves to the rear, dash- ing into a race with the enemy for the pos- session of a ridge that commands the field. The two lines actually were parallel to and not far from each other. Cross is ahead, seizes the crest, and pours a volley from his whole front upon the discomfited enemy, who fell back as rapidly as they had advanced, leaving the colors of the Fourth North Caro- lina in tlie hands of the brave boys from New Hampshire. And at Gettysburg, — The scene of the contest is the wheat-field, so famous in the story of Gettysburg. This, and the woods on the south and west, are now full of the exulting enemy. Through this space charges the fiery Cross, of the Fifth New Hampshire, witli liis well approved brigade. It is his last battle. He, indeed, has said it, as he exchanged greetings with Hancock on the way ; but he moves to his Personal Recollections. 235 death with all the splendid enthusiasm he displayed at Fair Oaks, Antietam, and Fred- ericksburg. In the third week of July, 1861, I hap- pened to go to Washington for the first time, and determined to satisfy at once my curi- osity to see Gen. Winfield Scott, who held the highest rank in our arm}^ So I waited one afternoon around his headquarters on Seventeenth street until he came forth. His was, as every one knows, a strong, majestic figure, and he spoke a kindly word to all who addressed him ; but I came away with a heavy heart, for I could not believe that a man so aged, so clumsy and infirm, enjoying military fame with vanity so evident, could command successfully a great army in the field. My impressions were utterly unlike those obtained three years later from the calm, thouglitful face of General Grant, whom I saw on March 8, 1864, not far from the same spot, in the hidl of Willard's hotel, about to take com- mand of all the armies of the North, and in one year and one month end the war : " He slew ourdraj^on, nor, so seemed it, knew He had done more than any simplest man might do." There had been in the hall of the hotel an hour or two earlier an amusing occurrence, 236 Sixty Years in Concord. which is described by Hon. L. E. Chittenden in his " Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration '' as follows : It was in the early days of spring, and I was living at Willard's. The outlook was discouraging, and occurrences in the treasury had been very depressing to friends of the Union. I had risen early, had left my room before dawn, and, seated by a window wliich overlooked the avenue, in the main office, I began to read the morning paper. The pas- sengers from the Western trains had not yet arrived. The gas-lights were turned down, and tliat potentate, the hotel clerk, who had not yet pat on his daily air of omnipotence, was peacefull}^ sleeping in his cusliioned arm- chair. Two omnibuses were driven to the entrance on Fourteenth street, witli the rail- road passengers from the West. The crowd made the usual rush for the register; the clerk condescended to open his eyes, and as- sign them rooms on tlie upper floor (tliere was no elevator), as thouo^h he felt an acute pleasure in compelling them to make tlie as- cent, and for a few moments there was bustle and confusion. It was soon over ; the clerk resumed his arm-chair, closed liis eyes, and liis weary soul appeared to be at rest. There were two passengers who did not appear to be in such frantic haste. One was a sunburned man of middle age, who wore an aruiy hat and a linen duster, below which, where a small section of his trousers Personal Recollectiojis. 237 were visible, T caught a glimpse of the nar- row stripe of the army uniform. He held the younger traveller, a lad of ten years, by the hand, and carried a small leatlier bag. As they modestly approached the counter, the temporary lord of that part of creation, without deigning, to rise from his chair, gave the register a practised Avhirl, so that the open page was presented to the elder trav- eller, observing, as he did so, '^ I suppose you will want a room together." He named a room with a high number, gave the usual call, ''Front!" while the guest proceeded to write his name without making any observation. The clerk removed the pen from behind his ear; gave another whirl to the register, and was about to enter the number of the room, when — he was sud- denly transfixed as with a bolt of lightning ! His imperial majesty became a servile menial, thoroughly awake, and ready to grovel be- fore the stranger. He begged a thousand pardons ; the traveller's arrival had been ex- pected—parlor A, on the shady side of the house, the very best apartment in the hotel, had been prepared for his reception — it Avas on the first floor, oidy one flight of stairs ! Might he be allowed to relieve him of his travelling convenience? and the lordly crea- ture actually disappeared up the stairway, like Judas, carrying the bag. My curiosity was excited to ascertain who it was that had wrought such a sudden trans- formation. I walked to the counter, and 238 Sixty Years in Concord. there read the last entry on the register. It was : " U. S. Grant and son, Galena, 111." An unfortunate battle was fought during the week of my stay in Washington, — the Bull Run battle of July 21, 1861. The after- noon of that day, in company with Mr. John C. Wilson, formerly of Concord, I was loiter- ing near the southern boundary of the White- House grounds, and we could hear distinctly the far-away boom of the cannon. No doubt as to the result of the battle disturbed us, until some hours later a tide of fugitives came pouring over Long Bridge, and there passed by, in a Concord wagon, our friends Congressman Rollins and George Marston (the latter afterward a paymaster in the army), who had, with other sanguine gentle- men, driven into Virginia to witness the dis- comfiture of the rebels ! The defeated army swarmed in confusion into the streets of Washington, and the city for a few hours seemed to be at the mercy of its enemies. Among a disorganized group of soldiers I saw one with blood dried in his hair. Inquiring if he was hurt, he replied that he had got a rap on the head, and taking off his cap and following with his finger a wound ploughed in his scalp, " Why," said he, " here is the d d thing now ! " and so Personal Recolleetioyis. 239 saying he detached a small bullet from the lodgment it had found after glancing around his skull. Chaplain Parker, of our Second regiment, whom I saw, was shocked by the battle, and very regretful about the result ; feared France and England would recognize the Southern Confederacy. I asked him about tlie fate of a mutual young acquaintance, and my appre- hensions as to tliat friend's safety were calmed by an assurance that he had run to- ward Washington at the first sound of the cannon, as fast as his legs could carry him. There were many people in Wasliington who did not conceal their sympathy with the Rebellion. The city itself was merely a Southern toAvn, like Alexandria, rambling, unpaved, hot, and untidy, interesting to a visitor only because of its beautiful situation, the public buildings, and the public business. There was in Concord, from June, 1856, until August, 1861, a weekly newspaper called the Democratic Standard^ which was printed, published, and purported to be edited by the Palmers, a father and four sons. Hon. Edmund Burke, of Newport, a newspaper man as early as 1833, a j)rominent Democrat as far back as 1838-'44, when he represented New Hampshire in congress, and in 1845-'49 240 Sixty Years in Concord. when he was commissioner of patents under the Polk administration, was supposed to do the ablest of the writing for the Standard.^ whicli had outright south-side views.* Mr. Burke, whose connection with the paper was stoutly affirmed, and denied as stoutly, was at that time unfriendl}^ to ex-President Pierce. The Standard printing-office Avas a place *As a specimen, I quote here the closing paragraplis of an editorial from tlie Standard of Aug. 3, 1861: The developments of the late disastrous battle and humil- iating defeat have dem nsirated the fact to the American people that Abraham Lincoln is unequal to the gi-ea and responsible position to which ne has been elevated. They show that he has not the capaci y to jadge for himself and to mark out his duij' in this great crisis, nor the firmness to execute his plans if he has any.. It now stands c nfessed thar he is influenced and controlled by a set of miseiable, unprincipled, and cowardly political demagogues who sur- round him, and who impudentlj' , through liim. dictate the policy of the government, assuming ev< n to ' recruited soldiers, who ^hl^,^^®^?.^^ ^"^ ^^^^^' t^« type into the street. The sheriff's reading of the riot act consisted in climb ns a lamp-post, extending his righ, arm, and saving pSas?#ely ihn Tl^-'V ^"y- 'i^^'^' ^ ^"^^^« ^'O" had better go home.- ^888 r Ssf '^ ^'^ "^ *^^ Tf'ar o/ Secession. Ticknor & Co.. tDestroyed by fire in 1888. 244 Sixty Years in Concord. the state-Louse, and hung at the ends of a cross pole, one hundred and fifty feet in the air, the life-size effigies of two public men who were the subjects of contemporary criti- cism. The city was sued by John B. Palmer, and after several indecisive trials by jury, two thousand dollars was paid to him and the proceedings quashed. XIII. Toward the end of the year 1862 I was ap- pointed a paymaster in the arm3^ My com- mission, which bears for its signature the name of Abraham Lincohi, shows the date of appointment to have been November 26. There were seventy persons appointed to like positions on the same day, among them Sim- eon D. Farns worth of Manchester, Albert H. Hoyt of Portsmouth, and C. W. Woodman of Dover. Repairing to Washington for assign- ment to duty, we were detained in idleness while a quibble was adjusted between the treasury and the war department. The con- troversy was, whether, being officers of the United States, the law required revenue stamps to be affixed to our bonds of surety. The treasury department said no, the war de- partment said yes, and finally, about the last of January, 1863, Secretary Stanton had his way ; so stamps enough were applied to m}^ bond to send it past all scrutiny. I put on more than were deemed necessary by the most scrupulous solicitors, the extra ones being placed as a reinforcement to the picket line. 246 Sixty Years in Concord. The bond itself was not a formidable affair- twenty thousand dollars — for the next day after it was passed at the war office two hun- dred thousand dollars was entrusted to my care wherewith to begin service. The duties of a paymaster were not so simple as beginners had supposed. Soldiers were mustered for pay at the end of each al- ternate month, and muster rolls of the regi- ments to which a paymaster was assigned were transmitted to him, through the paymaster- general, six times a year. The paj^naster extended on the rolls the sum due to each man according to data carried on the roll it- self. Varying rates of pay, because of differ- ences in rank, or service in artillery, cavalry, or infantry ; allowances for rations, for ser- vants, for reenlistments, and for bounties ; stoppages for loss of arms, for over-drafts of clothing, for sutlers' bills, and fines by courts- martial, made the duty more difficult, and — the paymaster being liable for errors — more hazardous than most of us had conceived. As for myself, I would have retreated, as did one of our New Hampshire appointees, had I not been ashamed to admit that I dreaded to go on. After the rolls were carefully pre- pared, payment was made in the field as regu- larly as funds could be provided. One clerk Personal Recollectioris. 247 was allowed ; two if the work was very heavy. The pa}^ and allowances of a paymaster were those of a major of cavalry, and if I remem- ber aright, somewhat more than •f)2,.500 a year. My first detail was to the Second and Fourth Wisconsin batteries, at Suffolk, Va., the 148th New York regiment at Norfolk, and at Hampton the 139th New York, and the soldiers in the Chesapeake General Hos- pital, the last equal to a regiment. Paymas- ters Arthur W. Fletcher and O. B. Latham went at the same time to that department of the arm}'. Fletcher, who I was told was a nephew of Grace Fletclier, Daniel Webster's first wife, being the senior in rank, was con- sidered to be in charge. The journey was by way of Baltimore and the Chesapeake bay. Perhaps no one knows what good a part of our army was doing at Suffolk, but it was an outpost, held by a few thousand men, under command of General John J. Peck, who had seen some service in Mexico, and had re- joined the army from civil life. While at Suffolk I was one night at a small public house, and the rebel landlord, after seeing my luggage, lodged me in a room so queer and remote, so accessible from the ex- terior by windows opening on shed roofs, that 248 Sixty Years in Concord. it seemed prudent to protect the money-chest with a guard of two soldiers selected from a Pennsylvania buck-tail regiment, and there was reason afterward to think this was a fort- unate precaution. On the hotel table was fried beefsteak, thin and tough as sole-leather, witli wlieaten rolls, clayey white on the outside, dark and heavy as pig lead within. Such Virginia cookery as came to Northern observation during the war fell short of its ancient reputation. Among incidents of this first visit to " sacred soil " Avas a call on the rebel guerilla Harry Gilmor, then in the jail at Norfolk. He did not expect to be confined many days, and his shelves were loaded with cold fowl and pastry supplied by rebel friends. At Newport News were visible the topmasts of the old frigates " (^ongress " and '' Cum- berland," which had been sunk by the ''Mer- rimack" ten months before. When Commo- dore Smith in the nav}^ department, heard that the '' Congress " hauled down her flag before she sunk, he said, " Joe's dead." Joe was his son in command of the " Congress." He was dead. At the Chesapeake General Hospital the surgeon-in-charge was turning that institu- tion over to a successor. There was a show Personal Recollections. 249 of dignified, shallow politeness going on be- tween these people, and they were exhibiting nice surgical instruments to one another, but it seemed to me that the departing doctor wotild be willing to applj a scalpel to the anatomy of his successor. My disbursements amounted to but |83,- 948.72 of the larger sum provided, and get- ting back to Washington, after a week's absence, tliey inquired at the paymaster-gen- eral's office what had become of our com- mander-in-chief, Fletcher, of whom reports had come tliat he was enjoying too well the hospitalities of the garrison at Fortress Mon- roe ; but he returned in about two weeks. In April, 1868 (20-27), I paid the Eighth, Forty-first, Forty-fifth, and Fifty-fourth New York regiments, near Falmouth, and the 15od New York, near Alexandria, Va., dis- bursing 1168,567.58. All but the last of these regiments were in Howard's division of the Third Army Corps, and nearl}^ all the men were originally from Germany. The Eiglitli was commanded by Col. Felix, Prince Salm-Salm, a near-sighted, scholarly-looking, attractive German, a gentleman of a class perhaps less numerous now than formerly, ever ready for soldierly experience and adven- ture in any cause, like Emin Pacha, provided 250 Sixty Years in Concord. the pay be good. This was just before the battle of Chancellorsville (May 3-5). There had been a period of inaction after the unfor- tunate Burnside assault on Fredericksburg, and amusements had relieved the monotony of camp. There had been some racing, and Col. Salm-Salm had nearly broken his neck by his horse's falling at a hurdle. This did not prevent his giving a dinner-party, the evening of April 22, at his comfortable quarters, in tents pitched on a moderate elevation pro- tected by a few low trees. At tliis dinner General Daniel E. Sickles was the principal guest, and to it he came in full martial attire, cantering into camp followed by an aid and an orderly. Madame Salm-Salm was the only lady at the table. A young colored woman, with regular features of sable blackness, wearing a gay turban, stood behind the chair of her mistress, to whose evident personal beauty she made an admirable background. The host and hostess of this festive occasion, as well as General Sickles (who not long before had shot Philip Barton Key), had had in their lives more than the ordinary share of adventure. Salm-Salm was perhaps thirty- five, the second son of a princely family in Germany ; had served in the armies of Prus- sia and Austria, w^asted his resources by Personal Recollections. 251 extravagant living in Vienna, and emigrated to America when the civil war broke out. Madame Salm-Salm Svas born in Baltimore, confessed to twenty-three years, and wa& christened Agnes Leclercq. She grew up a beauty, and took to horsemanship, — not to ordinary riding either, for, after instruction at a Philadelphia circus, in the spring of 1858^ she made a successful public appearance. She visited Southern and Western cities as a rider and dancer, and in the autumn of that year established herself in New York. She married, but Immdrum life did not suit her, and one morning she walked out from her home and never went back to it. By way of making the affair proper, she got a divorce- After living some months at Havana, she came to Washington just after the war broke out, and did not permit herself to be forgot^ ten, until in 1862, to the surprise of the gos- sips, she married Prince Salm-Salm. After our war was over the Prince went to Mexico, became chief of staff to the Emperor Maximillian, and was uncomfortably near being shot beside that unfortunate Austrian when the empire collapsed, but was saved someliow by his wife. When war was declared between France and Prussia in 1870, Salm-Salm was a major in the Grena- 252 Sixty Years in Concord. dier guards of Prussia, and was shot dead at Gravelotte,one of the early battles of that war. I never saw the Prince after that dinner at Falmouth; but one morning in tlie summer of 1865, a military friend remarked in my office at Concord that the Princess Salm-Salm was at the Phaniix hotel. It seemed as if he must be mistaken, but, passing that hostelry later in the day, I saw her leave its door to take a carriage. As a result of her persistent entreaties all through the year 1864, her hus- band, who was then at the West in the army under Gen. George H. Thomas, had been commissioned a brigadier-general. Madame Sahn-Salm told the story of her life in our army, in Mexico, and as a nurse in the Franco-Prussian war, in a book published in 1877, entitled " Ten Years of My Life." In that volume she does General Sickles and Provost-Marshal-General James B. Fry the favor of mention, among man}^ others, and speaks also of " good old Governor Gilmore of New Hampshire." She had probably availed herself of the friendly offices of these gentlemen to obtain theloDg-souglit general's commission for Felix. Her book is untruth- ful, and her comments on public men of that time and on the conduct of the war are of no value. Personal Recollections. 253 In May and June, 1863, near Culpeper Court House, I paid a part of the First Ver- mont Cavalry ; near Alexandria, the 153d New York, and at Falmouth, the Third and Fifth Michigan, the Seventeenth Maine, and elsewhere a portion of the First Massachu- setts Cavalry, which consumed f 151, 51 2.69. Then came the Gettysburg campaign. About July 1 it was rumored in the streets of AVashington that rebel cavalry were in Maryland, and it was surprising to discover the ill-concealed satisfaction which this de- veloped in some occupants of minor official places. The battle of Gettysburg, the crisis of the war, was won on July 2 and 3, and Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant on July 4. When this news was bulletined in Washington, rebel sympathizers went into permanent retirement. To revert to Concord : These great events were a painful shock to certain citizens of New Hampshire who were assembled in con- vention in the state-house yard on the Fourth of July. Ex-President Pierce was presiding. A portrait of Vallandigham, the chief copper- head of Ohio, whom the Statesman called '' the great Unpronounceable," was displayed on the platform. Voorhees, of like repute in Indiana, spoke. The government was de- 254 Sixty Years in Concord. nouncecl, its chief magistrate contemned, and the war dechired a failure. Tidings of the victory at Gettysburg, which reached the platform, were pronounced an abolition lie, told to distress the convention. This meet- ing was timed to give moral aid to Lee's attempt at invasion of the North, and I never doubted that it was held on some hint obtained from Richmond.* In July and August I paid all the soldiers in convalescent camp, and the 153d New York. Operations were disturbed, about August 5, by the absconding of a clerk, who was fortu- nately captured, and all his plunder (140,000) recovered. In September I paid at Brandy Station, Va., the Twelfth Indiana Battery, the 110th Pennsylvania, Seventeenth Maine, Fortieth and 106 til New York regiments. In November, at the same place, I paid the First Sharpshooters, Third and Fifth Michi- gan, Seventeenth Maine, Fortieth New York, Twentieth Indiana, and the 110th Pennsyl- vania. These were all brigaded under the command of Gen. Regis de Trobriand, an ex- * Had Lee gained that battle, the Democrats would have risen and stopped the war. With the city of New York and Oovernor Seymour and Governor Parker in New Jersey, and a majority in Pennsylvania, as they then would have had, they would have so crippled us as to end the contest. That they would have attempted it we at home know.— Li/e of Michard Henry Dana, vol. 2, p. 275. Personal Recollections. 255 cellent soldier, afterward the writer of " Four Years with the Army of the Potomac." I cannot tell better the experiences of that period than by quoting now what I wrote then to the Statesman. [November 17, 1863.] A Night in an Ambulance. Near Bealton station a terrific peal of thunder with a blinding flash of lightning, followed by rain, and darkness that might be felt, brought our party to a halt. We had been for half an hour groping our way by the aid of a dim lantern borne along: the road a little distance in advance. It was not later than 6 o'clock, but that hour past sunset, in this latitude, at this season, brings most out- door enterprises to a pause. So it did our journey. We cast about in search of a place to bivouac. A cluster of small oaks seemed best to serve the purpose, and the united efforts of men and beasts were just sufficient to place our ambulance within the partial .shelter of the trees. The rain continued to pour in torrents, and peal after peal of thun- der crashed through the grove like reports from a battery of twelve pounders. We left Washington that morning, most of us bearing passes as broad as a bill of 256 Sixty Years in Concord. lading, bound for the Army of the Poto- mac. Bouncing along over the Orange & Alexandria Kailroad, we reached Warren- ton Junction to find Captain Mattocks, of the Seventeenth Maine regiment, and forty other good fellows, ready to escort us seven- teen miles further, to the journey's end near Brandy Station. The rails had not been relaid beyond Warrenton since the rebels retired behind Culpeper. Within the ambulance was a gentleman who left Natchez, Miss., when the war broke out, because he was a Union man, and had a desire to preserve undisturbed the vertebrae between his head and body, which some zealous friends had bought a rope wherewith to sunder. In short, he was threatened with hana-inQr. You can ascertain what he thinks of this rebellion without talking with him a great while. I believe good Governor Berry used now and then to call this an unholy rebel- lion. Our friend in the ambulance goes fur- ther. In this connection he uses words found in Scripture with great force and earnestness^ His opinions are not those of the Union Dem- ocrat., of Manchester, N. H. Opposite liim sat a tall young fellow from Georgetown, D. C., who liad brought gaiters and spurs, to be ready for either a dance or .Personal RecoUectio)ii<. 257 a canter. There were two other inmates beside your correspondent. One was the driver, the other a sutler. They have the zoological names of Wolff and Bull. The captain guessed we might as well stay where we were until daylight, so, stationing liis guard, lie and his lieutenants clambered in among us. Private Wolff, of tlie 110th Pennsylvania, put a fresh candle in the lan- tern, which, he remarked, had been confis- cated from the hospital department. Mr. Bull produced a Bologna sausage, the young fellow from Georgetown some apples. Captain Mattocks a loaf of army bread, another indi- vidual contributed a cold roast cliicken, and our Mississippi friend a bottle of ])lack- beriy brandy, wliich he declared to be a sovereign balm for ailments resulting from change of temperature and drink. Although our table furniture consisted of nothing but a jack-knife, which Mr. Bull declared he l)rought from *' Indianny " at the beginning of the war, still we made a very jolly sup- per. It ought to be mentioned that the and:)U- lance was drawn by two mules, called Robert and Rebecca by Private Wolff, both of them being in sleek condition ; indeed, so sleek that two British officers, who came down on 17 258 Sixty Years hi Concord. the same train with us to visit the army, remarked, in passing our establishment, that '' those 'osses were very fat." Private Wolff was gratified at the compliment, 'but judged the gentleman could hardl}^ belong to the cavalry service. He remarked, furtlier, that he thought a great deal of these two animals, as did his predecessor on the box, who had gone liome on a furlough and forgotten to deliver several little parcels of money wliicli his comrades entrusted to his care. Eight people might sleep very comfortably in an ambulance if they had each undergone amputation of both legs. We were unable to make any satisfactary arrangement until about 10 o'clock, when three of us scrambled outside, and sat down, like an Indian pow- wow, on a rubbei' blanket, and, leaning cigainst a tree, snatched some refreshing- naps, interrupted only by olfactor}^ evidence of the neighborhood of a horse who had for- ever finished pawing in the valley and re- joicing in his strength. These dead animals are passed at every curve in the road, each now representing about rtl25 of the "five twenty loan." Nobody thinks it worth Avhile to take off their liides and hoofs. Behind us, around a big, blazing fire, stood a majority of our escort, drying tlieir coats Personal Recollections. 259 and blankets, while others were lying full length on the ground, with naught between them and mother earth except a thin layer of boughs. It is wonderful with what non- clialance these men bear all sorts of exposure and encounter every danger. A cup of steam- ing coffee puts them all right after a com- plete drenching on the most watchful picket- line. Only a week before, these very men around us were- wading the Rappahannock in the face of the enemy's fire, and a mere rain-soaking is nothing compared with that. Mosby, or any other enterprising robber, might have made a good thing by gobbling us up that night. Our ambulance and con- tents, with others before and behind us on the road, would have bought half of Rich- mond at current rates of premium, and enti- tled us to the most distinguished hospitali- ties of tlie Libb}^ prison. Before daylight Private Wolff discovered that Rebecca had lain down in the mud, from which he aroused her, and gave her a good currying with a wisp of ha}'. The men around the fire made a kettle of cof- fee, and before sunrise we were on our way again. Tlie Rappahannock river, at the station of the same uame, is hardly so wide as the Con- 260 Sixty Years in Concord. toocook at Fislierville. We crossed it by a pontoon bridge, laid down by the rebels, which they liad no time to withdraw before tlie impetuous advance of the column under Sedgwick. South of the river and close to the water is an eminence about as high as Kent's hill in Concord, crowned with an ugly-looking fortification supposed by the Johnnies (as Private Wolff calls them) to command the bridge and adjacent ford. A cluster of graves not far away is now the only physical evidence of the gallantry with which the river was crossed and the heights carried with the bayonet. Even as we looked on the scene of this recent success, the roar of cannon in the advance told of another possible encounter. It was a light battery with Kilpatrick's cavalry, shelling the enemy beyond Culpeper. The whole army was put under orders to be ready to move. Between Rappahannock and Brandy Sta- tion is as o-ood a field for battle as can be found in all Virginia. It was here that the column which crossed at Kelley's Ford joined that of Sedgwick, and the whole army de- bouched upon this plain, and moved for- ward in battle order. This is said to have been the best opportunity to see at one glance the whole Army of the Potomac which has Pergonal Recollections. 2(31 occurred in the existence of that army.* It was ahnost noon when we reached the camp of the Seven teentli Maine regiment. A DAY IX THE AILMY. This brigade was the first to cross at Kelley's Ford, in the recent forcing of the enemy's lines back from the ]{appahainiock. It is commanded by Col. Regis de Trobriand, a French gentleman who married a lady in Brooklyn, N. Y., and took up a residence in this country. He is an accomplished soldier and scholar, speaking several languages flu- ently, and sketcliing witli skill, either with colors or with pencil. He is the only for- eign officer against Avhom I have never lieard a word of detraction in the army. For the gallantry and spirit with which this brigade advanced and crossed at Kelley's Ford, botli the brigade and its commander have been complimented by name in. the general orders * General de Trobriand says,—" This grand military deployment offered one of the finest spectacles which could be imagined. Let one picture to himself two army corps marching on the centre, in line of battle, in mass, the artillery in the intervals, and on the roads the flanks cov- ered by two divisions in column, the skirmishers in advance the cavalry on the two wings; the reserves covering the wagons in the rear; and all this mass of humanity in per- fect order, rising or falling gradually according to the "^ u i-*^"^ ^^ ^^^^ plain, with the noise of the cannon, which did not cease throwing projectiles on the rear guard of the Confederates in retreat. Such was the moving picture which was given us to enjov during that whole afternoon." 262 Sixty Years in Concord. of the Army of the Potomac. It includes the Third and Fifth Michigan, Seventeentli Maine, Fortieth New York, First United States Sharpshooters, and tlie 110th Penn- sylvania regiments. These Michigan regi- ments have been in tliis army from the first Battle of Bull Run until now, and their fame is like that of the Second New Hamp- shire, exceeding the latter in that they shared in the great battle of Antietam and some later engagements, in which tlie Second did not. Lieut.-Col. John Pulford, commanding tlie Fifth Michigan, has had a singular experi- ence. He was a captain in the same regi- ment at the battle of Malvern Hill, when it was supporting a battery. A Minie ball struck him close beside the right eye, fur- rowing along the skull toward the ear. From that instant until tliirty days after- ward all is a blank to him. He was left unconscious on the field, picked up and carried to Richmond, exchanged, and finally came to his senses in a hospital in Baltimore, where, he says, he could not refrain from abusino- the attendants around his bedside for trying to convince him that he was not still in the smoke and fire of Malvern Hill. Of all the famous regiments of the army. Personal BeeoUeetioiiS. '268 none will fill a brighter page in Instoiy than those two from Michigan. The Fortieth New York was formerly known as the Mozart regiment. It is now commanded by Col. Thomas W. Egan, w^iom T remember to have met in Chicago several years ago, and who was a contractor in bnild- ing the Cheshire railroad in New Hampshire. Having had other regiments and parts of reeiments consolidated with it, this is still almost up to the maximum strength, ft was a favorite one Avith General Kearne}^ wdio formerly commanded the division, of whose gallantr}^ the men wdll never cease telling. Tn the Kelley's Ford affair, tliis regiment captured several contrabands from the enemy. One of these informed me that he formerly belonged to Sergeant Thomas of the Fifth Alabama regiment. By retreat- ino- into the woods he lost the whereabouts of his regiment, and on emerging from liis hiding-place he was picked up by Colonel Egan. He says General Lee is held in high estimation through tlie South, but that Bragg is known as Corporal Bragg, and the sol- (bevs of the rebel army in the West are often fired by the interrogatory whether they belong to Corporal Bragg's army. He was with his regiment at Gettysburg, and a wit- 264 Sixty Years in Ooticord. ness of the terrific charge of Ewell, which I have often heard officers say no division of our army would have attempted ; and, indeed, it is doubtful if Ewell's men would have made the essa}^ had they not been told they were to charge Pennsylvania militia. It is fortunate for the country that no mil- itiamen were sighting the artiller}^ which rent wliole companies of the advancing col- umn at each discliarge. Our contraband says that such of the rebels as survived the charge admitted that they were terribly defeated. He gives a rather doubtful account of the degree of destitution existing among the colored people of Alabama, many of whom, he assured me, had nothing to eat but ashes and water. He said they might shoot " pos- sums," which are as good to eat as hogs, if the}' liad guns, but firearms are denied to them. He says a black man in the Southern army can make a heap of money b}' washing offi- cers' clothing, twenty-five cents per piece being paid for such service. He says they bring along portions of their apparel and ask " de cullud hoys to knock out sum ob de dirt," and if they have more success than Avas anticipated, the reward is greater than Personal Recollections. 265 the standard price above mentioned. Colo- nel Egan gave him a paper collar to wash, which of course came to pieces under his manipulations, much to his consternation. He apologized by the explanation that he had not been used to washing sucli line goods in the Southern army. This contraband declares thiit he would willingly have been captured, but that Massa Thomas had obtained a furlough for thirty days, and he was going home with him to a place on the Alabama river above Montgom- ery, where Massa Thomas's father has a store and plantation. Although making heaps of money by washing, to use his own words, still it took a great pile of it to buy anything, *' do's shoes costing me forty dollars," show- ing a pair of decent brogans. Before I fin- ished conversation with him our friend from Mississippi came up, and hearing that his name was Henry Jackson, took a sharp look at him, that being the cognomen of one of the eighteen or twent}^ likely boys left by him in his sudden exit from tlie South. This was another Jackson. The Third Corps was to-day reviewed by Major-General Sedgwick, and British visitors to the army, on a plain,- half way between Brandv Station and the residence of Hon. 266 Sixty Years in Concord. John Minor Botts. The remarks of this bri- gade were not altogether complinientar}' to their blockade-running guests. I Iiave never before seen these men in so good spirits. Exhilarated by the last crossing of the Rap- pahannock, they seem to have new confidence in themselves and General Meade, and hope to cross the Rapidan l^efore winter closes the campaign. [November 19, 1863.] It has been mentioned that the First regi- ment of Sharpshooters is one of tlie component forces of the brigade of which I have been o writing. A portion of to-day has been passed in their camp. The performances and the renown of this regiment are equal to the ex- pectations with which they took the field. It is armed with Sharp's rifles, which are " sighted " with more care than the ordinary carbine of that manufacturer. Tlie heavy telescope rifles which they brought into the field were abandoned after the siege of York- town, at which place they served a good purpose, but of course weapons so gigantic proved to be unsatisfactorj^ for marching and skirmishing. These Shai*p's rifles are alto- gether more useful, although not so perfect for target shooting. Company E, wliicli was recruited in Con- Personal Recollections. 26T cord, lias thirty-three men present for dnty. It is commanded^ b}^ Capt. William G. An- drews. The members of this company have the impression that they have been lost sight of by friends at liome, because of being* incorporated in a regiment which has nine companies from otlier states. " California Joe," a marksman who won considerable re- nown at Yorktown, where his activity and skill made a piece of rebel artillery useless, has been discharged for disability. Some marvellous stories of the skill of the Sharpshooters are still told. It is said that at Kelley's Ford, where they were sent for- ward as skirmisliers — as, indeed, they are in nearly every battle in which they participate — the rebels suffered so severely in their rifle pits that they dared not show their heads above the place of concealment, but, raising their guns to a level, fired at random from their coverts. It is certain the rebels have a wholesome fear of them, and, recognizing- them by the peculiar report of their rifles^ keep as well out of sight as possible. This regiment is now commanded by Lieut.-CoL Trepp, an officer of Swiss nativity. An amazing tendency towards dress i^s noticeable in the Army of the Potomac. Suits of velvet are fashionable, trimmed with 268 Sixty Years in Concorde gold cord, and adorned with the insignia of rank to whicli the wearer is entitled. To the latter may be added the Kearney cross, or the badge of the army corps to which the officer belongs. Corduroy is worn to a con- siderable extent by cavalry officers. These fanciful suits, are in addition to others made of materials and in style to correspond with the regulations of the army. An offi- cer setting forth to make an evening call on a friend is often a sight worth seeing. The proximity of this army to Washington enables one to manage these expenditures for dress very readily. Tliere is, so I am told, a Jew, who has obtained in some way the exclusive right to sell clotliing in this army, and he is, as may well be supposed, doinp- a thrivino- business. The number of these sons of Abraham who manage to attacli themselves to the army is large. Many of the sutlers are of Hebrew lineage. One of them, who is packing up to go away on the next train, has a haversack full of parcels of money, entrusted to him by soldiers, to carry to the express office in Washington. The burden of his thought is shown by his remark, *' If some folks had all dis monish to carry up for de boys, dey make as much as fifty tollars ; scharge de poys twendy-vive .shents apeas." Personal Recollections. 269 About a quarter of a mile from this camp is the home of Hon. Jolm Minor Botts. This distinguished gentleman resides in an ordinary Virginia farmhouse, to which are attached outbuildings of decent description. He has about a thousand acres of land, some of wliicli he has purchased since the war began. This farm has suffered less from depredations than others in its vicinity. Mr. Botts has more sheep and cattle than all others of the region round about, his flock of the former numbering about one hundred and fifty head. Mr. Botts manifests a generous hospitality to the officers of our army, having frequent parties at dinner, and making welcome to liis hearth all who choose to call on him. He has extended the same civilities to the rebel generals, making an exception of Stuart, the cavalry officer, whom he does not allow to cross his threshold. He is under parole to the rebel government not to dis- close anything whicli may come to his knowl- edge detrimental to the rebel cause. The parole given by Mr. Botts exempts him usually from the pilfering of the rebel army, and when our forces are in the neigh- borhood a detachment of the provost guard is placed in charge of his property. When 21 i) Sixty Years in Concord. the ]'ebels last occupied this region tliey burned his fences ; so on the return of Gen- eral Meade a detail was made from our armj^ to rebuild tliem. After a time the detailed men became weary of rail-splitting, and com- pleted the repairs with handy materials taken from the borders of " secesh neighbors. By the rank and file of the army Mr. Botts is not believed to be an unconditional Union man. A soldier told me liB had counted among his sheep nine bell-wethers, and nine different marks upon the sheep ; therefore lie believed Mr. Botts was the nominal Union man for the county to save the cattle and sheep of the neighborhood. He said he did not see how a man could save himself from the depredations of both armies unless he carried water on both shoulders. The wife of a rebel colonel residing on the next farm told me she had never heard Mr. Botts say anything about the Union. He is writing liis impressions about the war and the times. So fast as any considerable portion of this is completed, he sends it to a place of safety.* [January 22, 1864.] Tlie First New Hampshire Battery is en- camped on the estate of Hon. John Minor * In 1866 Harper & Brothers published " The Great Rebel- lion: its secret history, rise, progress, and disastrous fail- ure," by Mr. Botts, a most uninteresting book. Personal Recollections. 271 Botts, in a spot well sheltered by trees, of sufficient elevation to be tolerabh^ free from mud, and to furnish a healthful position for both men and horses. It was this battery Avhich lured a body of rebels to swift destruc- tion at Gettysburg. Being posted in a good position, and ordered to husband his ammu- nition, Captain Edgell directed the firing to cease, and retired his men to a shelter in the i-ear of the guns, while he remained to Avatch the course of the battle. Seeing the artillery without visible protection, the rebels thought it was abandoned, and advanced a brigade at tlie charge to capture it. At this opportune moment Captain Edgell recalled his can- noneers, and their rapid discharges rent the advancing column. After eight rounds were fired, what men were left of the brigade threw down tlieir arms and came in as prisoners. In illustration of the nonchalauce with Avhich sutlers are placed outside the pale of civilization, I ma}^ mention that a fellow- passenger on the Orange & Alexandria Rail- road pointed out to me, with all possible seriousness, the scene of a recent accident. '' There," said he, with unfeigned gravity, '' is where the cars ran off the track, killing tliree men a)id a sutler.^' 272 Sixty Years in Co}ieord. Curious extremes of weather occur this winter in this region. A few mornings since the sun was shining warmly, and I heard the familiar note of the l)lue-l)ird, while flyings squirrels were performing their eccentric evolutions in close vicinity ; yet on the fol- lowing day the air was piercing cold, and two or tliree inches of snow fell. About the end of tlie year 186B came a payment harder than any to which I had been assigned. Just before Christmas day, visiting the oiiice of the paymaster-general, it appeared that paymasters were being- selected by lot to go to the army and dis- burse pay and bounty money to reenlisted veteran volunteers, a difficult, and at that season an unwelcome, duty. I remarked incautiously, '' Why does not tlie colonel select the men he' wants and tell them* to go?" When I returned to my quarters, there lay an order for me to go. So between December 25, 1863, and January 7, 1864, near the Rapidan, in the wintry wind driv- ing down from the Blue Ridge, I made the rolls and paid the First and Second Sharpshooters, Third and Fifth Michigan, Fortieth and Eighty-sixth New York, Fifty- seventh, Sixty-third, 105th, and llOtli Penn- Personal Recollections. 273 sylvaiiia regiments, Battery E First Rhode Island Artillery, the First New Hampshire, Fourth Maine, Tenth Massacdiusetts, and Twelfth New York batteries, to the tune of •*34:>,542.98. Tliis was about half a mile from the headquarters of the army, and I happened once to see General Meade. While working at this payment, I learned by expe- rience that it is difficult to do satisfactory pen work and correct arithmetical calcu- lations using the heads of l)arrels and the sides of boxes for desks. There were no better soldiers in tlie Arm\^ of the Potomac than the Sharpshootej-s, the Seventeentli Maine, Third and Fiftli Michi- gan, Fortieth New York, and tlie 110th Pennsylvania, regiments, lieretofore men- tioned. In April, 1864, they became the Second Brigade of the Third Division of the Second Corps. Tlie experience of officei-s tells in a way the service of regiments. Col. Caspar Trepp, of the Sharpshooters, was killed at Mine liun ; Col. George W. West, of the Seventeenth Maine, was wounded in the Wilderness, and discharged in March, 1865, with the rank of brevet brigadier; Col. Byron Pv. Pierce, of the Third Michigan,' was made brigadier-general in June, 1864; Col. John Pulford, whom I liave mentioned 274 Sixty Yea7's m Qoncord^ before, wa.s wounded again in the Wilder- ness, and mustered out at the end of the war as a brevet brigadier, having served from beginning to end, and more tlian once shot nigh unto death in tlie Army of tlie Poto- mac. In the " History of the Seeoiid Army Corps," Gen. Franeis A. Walker says, — On April 22, 1864, the reenforced corps was reviewed by General Grant. Of all the gallant regiments which passed the review- ing officer, two excited especial admiration, — the 148th Pennsylvania and the Fortieth New York, Colonel Egan. * * * * ^- * On the morning of May 23, 1864, a bridge over the Noi'th Anna was held by troops of Kershaw's Confederate division. This Han- cock determined to carry. Two of Birney's brigades, now under Col. Thomas W. Egan (Fortieth New York), and Col. Byron R. l^ierce (Third Michigan), Avere formed for attack, and at half ])ast six in the morning charged across the helds from nearly oppo- site directions converging upon the earth- work. The two brigades advanced in splen- did style, over open ground, vying with each other in gallantry of bearing and rapidity of movement, and, carrying the intrenchments without a halt, the enemy were driven pell- mell across the river and the bridge seized. Personal Uevollectinns. 275 June 16, 1864. In front of Petersburo-. At eight o'clock Egan led his brigaxte in a brilliant assanlt upon one of the Confed- erate redoubts (Redan No. 12), carryino- it HI the very style which he had displayed on the North Anna. In the assault Emm was wounded, but not severely. October 27, 1864. Boydton Plank Koad. At the hrst sound of the enemy's attack on Pierce, Hancock sent Mitchell to General Egan, directing Idm to face about and assail the^ enemy. When Mitchell reached tTcneral Egan, he found that gallant officer with the instinct of a true soldier, already in motion. It was quite evident that in taking- position on the secondary ridge, and opening against Mott, the enemy were oblivious to the presence of Egan's troops, and when he burst upon their right and rear, it must have been like a bolt from a clear sky. Two eolors and many hundreds of prisoners were captured. One morning in March, 1864, my wife and myself met at the Treasury Department Mr. John E. Embler, of Newburg, N. Y., and two ladies, his relatives, with all of whom we had liad some previous acquaintance. He was proposing to start a national bank at l)is liome on the Hudson, and had a lively curiosity to see the process of printing national bank notes. Alsitors were not geif- erally admitted to the treasurv printing 276 Sixty Years in Concord. (lepartmeiit, mid liow to get in there was the question. He exclaimed that being from New York he would appeal to Secretary Seward. M}^ suggestion that Mr. Seward must be a very busy man availed nothing. Awa}^ Mr. Embler went to the State Depart- ment, and came hurrying back directly with a message from Mr. Seward inviting us all to call. Rather reluctantly we went: it seemed as if we must be intruding unwar- rantably, but the secretary of state put us at ease by a most kindly reception, and by a friendly interest in Mr. Endjler's plans. He sent for Mr. Maunsell B. Field, an assistant secretary of the treasury, on whose behalf Secretary Chase in tlie following June pet- ulantly resigned his secretaryship, and Mr. Field (afterward the author of '' Memories of Many Men and Some Women " — a book within the pages of winch may be found an annising account of the author's experience in seeking office at the hands of President Pierce), although he looked very cross, con- sented to give Mr. Embler the desired access to the printing rooms. Mr. Embler then, in a rather hortatory- way, enjoined it on the secretar}^ to go ahead and put down the Rebellion, and Mr. Seward said in reply that it was all important that Personal Recollections. 277 the public temper be right, for, said he, '' Mr. Embler, you know that at the hist elec- tion in your own county in New York the Republican vote was onlj^ a little larger than the Democratic; in other words, Jefferson Davis showed almost as mucli strength as Abraham Lincoln," — and so he entertained us at least half an hour with the most attrac- tive conversation to which T ever listened. Even when, after one or two essays to leave, from whicli he restrained us, we had finalh' gone, he hurried to the hall to say, in a very gracious Vt^ay, that his daugliter Avould have a reception that afternoon, and would be glad to see the ladies of our party. Nothing could have been more kind, and tlie ladies Avent to a charming reception at the great house on Lafayette square, where Mr. Seward a year later was so nearly slain by an assassin. After tliat half hour in the great parlor of the old State Department, I never wondered why Governor Seward had many devoted personal friends. Secretary Stanton, of the War Department, with whom I once had an interview, was a grizzly bear in comparison. I never saw President Lincoln in Wash- ington but twice, once at a White House reception, and once at a hotel on the avenue where he stopped for a glass of water ; but T 278 Sixty Years in Concot'd. dwelt for a time in tlie same liouse with Mr. W. O. Stoddard, an attache of the White House, author of '• Inside tlie White House in War Times." There was some idle side- walk criticism of tlie president, the only charge that I remember hearing being that he did not read the newspapers. In summer evenings on Pennsylvania ave- nue there was often seen a man whose strong, impressive face and sturdy figure fixed itself in my memory ; years afterward, looking at a portrait of Walt Whitman, I discovered the unknown to have been that poet. I paid the Sharpshooters, and the before- mentioned Maine, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania regiments, down to Ma}^ 1864 ; then I was ordered to Concord to pa}^ soldiers on leave of absence or mustered out, veteran reserve men, etc. This order came to me unexpectedly, brought about by some one in the Navy Department. That department was hostile to Senator Hale because of his public rebuke to Secretary Welles, in the latter part of 1861, for employing George P. Morgan (Welles's brother-in-law) to buy ships for the government, thereby putting into Morgan's pocket a commission of about '1^70,000. Mr. Hale's term in the senate Personal Recollections. 279 expired in 1(S65, and tlie question of liis reelection came before tlie legislature of 1864. Maj. George P. Folsom, my prede- cessor at Concord, w;is doing what lie could to forward Mr. Hale's reelection ; therefore it was arranged for me to relieve liim, and attend merely to duties of my place. When the senatorial election came, it resulted in tlie choice of Hon. Aaron H. Cragin. The dut}^ at Concord was light until regi- ments began to come home from the war. In July and August, 1864, the disbursements were only 168,369.16, but in the correspond- ing months of 1865 they were thirteen times greater. From June, 1864, until Januar}^ 1865, many men of the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, and Eiolith repi- ments, whose terms of service had expired, came home, and were discharged and paid here ; also the Fourth Vermont at Brattle- boro'. There is probably no other house in Con- cord that has had so much o-reenback cur- o rency in it at any one time as has No. 167 North Main street, which was my home at that period. Express charges on great sums of money were large, and not provided for in the scheme of the War Department relat- ing to paymasters, though necessary car 280 Sixty Years in Concord, fares were. So it seemed to be necessary to go occasionally to Ncav York or Boston to exchange large treasnry drafts for currenc}'. The Boston sub-treasury did not cash drafts on its sister institution in New York, and it happened several times that I came home late with a sole-leatlier trunk full of money (perliaps fl50,000), which Avas kept in the liouse until it could be counted and arranged for disbursement. Tliere seemed to be no better way than this, although it was the cause of some anxiety. I liad a dog, sure to hear and announce the approach of any unwelcome stranger, and a heavily-loaded double gun stood in a handy place. As I was once leavinor New York on one o of these trips. Col. T. J. Leslie, the chief paymaster of the district, desired me to carry one hundred thousand dollars to Paymaster J. A. Brodhead in Boston, beside the fifty thousand dollars which I was carrying to Concord, — all in one hundred and fifty green- backs of one thousand dollars each, which could be carried in a trousers' pocket. Going on board a Fall River liner, the clerk said every room in the l)oat was engaged. The captain was near by, and I told him of the fix I was in, getting in reply merely the remark that no one had any business to be Personal Recolleetioiis. 281 carrying so much money. There was one more resource. The colored stewardess was told that if she could get a stateroom for a very tired man slie would be the gainer of five dollars, and, in no longer time than it took for her to o-o to the clerk's office and o return, the key to a very satisfactory room was in ni}' hand. The sole-leather trunk before mentioned was the object of some attention in the rail- road station in Boston, as I learned years afterward when a baggage-man checked it to Concord, with the remark, " This is the thing that used to have so much money in it." When on that memorable day in April, 1865, the shattered army of General Lee found a line of bayonets across its path of retreat, and laid down its arms, the news set Concord wild with rejoicing. Dignified citizens caught up shot-guns and spent a day making a racket on Main street. Tliere was also a demonstrative procession and some boisterous hilarity. In June, July, and August, peace being- restored, all the veterans came home ; and I paid the Second, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thir- teenth, and Fourteenth regiments, as well as 282 Sixty Years in Concord. the New Hampshire Cavalry and Heavy Artillery. Paymaster C. O. Benedict was in Concord from about Aug. 1 to Sept. 10, 1865, and paid sucli of the mustered-out New Hampshire regiments as are not above mentioned. His payments amounted to about 1210,000, and that money primaril}^ went through my hands. It was a pretty haril, patient strain for days and nights together. The soldiers were anxious to get home, and it was desirable financially that they be dis- banded to ease the burdens of war. M}^ own disbursements for four months ending with August were 11,556,742.38. This was more than it cost to complete the Concord Rail- road — a large amount of money to set afloat in a town like ours, and some of it was wasted as money is in garrison towns. When this had been done and the last man in uniform had gone down the street, it seemed that peace had indeed come. The last angry shot had been fired by Grant's victorious legions months before in the val- ley of the Appomattox. Tlie Great Presi- dent was dead. There was no beat .of drum along our highways ; — the tattered standards of the regiments had been folded away at the State-house, and recruiting offices closed. Even our Governor's Horse Guards (who Persoyial Recollections. 283 nicide tlieir first brilliant annual parade in June, 1860, wore a superb uniform copied from that of a corps of Austrian Hussars, gave occasional merry dancing parties and served famous dinners without grog, offered their services in the field in 1861, and were rejected because General Scott said there would be little use for cavalry) disbanded in December, 1865, having never had any sup- port from the state. By an order from Washington I was mus- tered out January 15, 1866, and the brevet of lieutenant-colonel came to me, for what the War Department was so kind as to say had been " faithful services." XIV. Eighteen hundred and sixty-four was the year of a controversy about the state-house, Avhich edifice, and tlie dignities of the capi- tal, the people of Manchester sought to cap- ture. The strife was ended by the laying- out of Capitol street and the rebuilding of the State-house at the expense of Concord, the outlay being near $175,000. The im- provements to the state-house cost il58,000. The new street was almost a necessity, but there was no justice in imposing the cost of a state capitol on a community Avith whom it was located by a former generation. The loan which Concord negotiated in 1865 to defray these costs has been a burdensome portion of its debt, and has hindered its growth and prosperity. It is interesting to trace the history of this debt through the annual reports of the cit}-. The credit of the city was so good in 1865 that its bonds sold for a better price than those of the United States. On the original issue of state-house bonds the interest was payable in gold, and gold remained for several years at a pre- Statesman Building— 1866. Personal MecoUectiofis. 285 mium. In 1875 a fraction of the debt was paid, and the remainder repLac^ed with cur- rency bonds Jirranged to mature in install- ments at various dates. Tt is difficult to follow tlie annual interest charges with accuracy, but it is sufficiently exact to say that the portion of the principal of the debt which remains unpaid, twenty-seven jears after it was contracted, is fifty-seven thou- sand dollars, and when the last bond matures and is paid in 1896, the city will have taxed itself, to defray principal and interest, with- out reckoning the cost of Capitol street, the sum of three hundred and forty-seven thou- sand four hundred dollars. This has been a burden to our moderate population and resources, and will be felt after it is re- moved. It ought to be remembered that Concord people, either privately or corpora tely, have given to the state the site of the state- house and granite for the building, the site of the old prison, the broad original lands of the Asylum for the Insane and a contribu- tion* toward the original building, beside at least one half the site of the state library building. Some curious statistician may estimate the present value of these gifts. One of the arguments used against Con- 286 Sixty Years in Concord. cord by its rivals in the state-house contro- versy was the riotous destruction of the Democratic Standard in 1861; but Col. John H. George, of counsel for the city, retorted with some reminiscences of an anti-Catholic mob down the river, which threw tliat spe- cious plea out of court. Returning to duty in the Statesman office, there were not many occurrences of sufficient interest to be recorded. Personal accounts for three years were easily adjusted with my partners. My army salary had been equal to their respective drafts on the newspaper treasury. Tlie gains of business, and the profit on a considerable investment in gov- ernment ])onds, made when '" seven tliirties " Avere below par, provided us with larger resources. It was concluded to erect a build- ing for tlie printing lousiness, and the lot at the southeast corner of Main aiid Hutchins streets was purchased. This was before the name of Depot street was b}^ some uninspired hand affixed to the last mentioned thorough- fare. The lot selected was a second choice. In the Q^eneral view it was too far down town, and the locality was not sustaining a very elevated character. During the war it had been occupied b}^ a cluster of shanties Personal Recollections. 287 kiiuwii as the " Etliau Allen," " White Pig- eon," and "Ship Stores" saloons. One of these shanties, or another near by, had a painted striped pig for its sign board. Some rather distingnished loafers and gamblers frequented those places. But the situation proved to be what was wanted. Plans for a Statesman building were prepared b}^ Mr. Edward Dow, said by one of his townsmen to be " the greatest artichoke in New Hamp- sliire," and the building, begun in September, 1866, was completed and occupied just before June, 1867. It made a satisfactory home for the newspaper for nearly a quarter of a centur3\ Shortly after Abraham Lincoln became President, in 1861, Georo-e G. Fog-o- of the Independent Democrat was appointed Minis- ter to Switzerland, and resided abroad until 1865 ; but on the accession of Andrew John- .son to the Presidency, Secretary Seward caused George Harrington to be sent to Switzerland, and Mr. Fogg came home in no very amial)le mood. William E. Chandler, who had been solicitor to the Navy Depart- ment, had taken Mr. Harrington's old place as assistant secretary of the treasur}^ With the intent to make -Mr. Fogg a little happier, Mr. Chandler gave him a commission to 288 Sixty Years in Concord. adjudicate the title to a large quantity of cotton held in seizure at Ne\A' Orleans by the United States government. Tliither Mi*. Fogg repaired, and released nine thousand six huudred and sixty-five bales of cotton, valued at about two million dollars, and retained for the government twelve bales to which nobody made claim. By this perform- ance, for which he received a fee of !i^6,00<) for two months' time, and l)y the savings from his ministerial salary of r^7,500 in gold per annum, Mr. Fogg acquired a comfortable property. But the loss of the Swiss mission liad embittered him ; and l)ecause Mr. Cliand- ler had succeeded Mr. Harrington who had succeeded Mr. Fogg, war was declared in the Independent De]noer(ft^ not only against Mr. Chandler, but against Edward H. Rol- lins and N. 0. Ordway, tlien Mr. Cliandler's personal and political friends, all three being influential members of the Repul)lican part}- ()f New Hampshire. Ml'. Rollins, retiring from congress in 1837, had in May, 1869, become the secre- tiwy of the Union Pacific Railroad. Col. Ordway was sergeant-at-arms of the United States house of representatives, to which office he was elected in 1868, and reelected until 1875. Personal Recolleetions. 289 To a man in control of a newspaper, there often conies a temptation to use liis pen in personal attacks on people with whom he happens to differ. Any person who will look at the files of the Independent T)einocrat or the Concord Daily Monitor (with whicli the former paper was nnited in Januar}', 1867) from 1866 to 1870, will find no diffi- culty in concluding that during- that period the editor of those newspapers took no delight in the life and public services of either Mr. Chandler, Mr. Rollins, or Mr. Ordwa}^ In the latter part of 1868 my father's health failed, and he decided to relieve him- self of newspaper care ; so it was arranged for Mr. Rossiter Johnson to become the edi- tor of the Statesman on January 1, 1869. On that date the paper was enlarged, and a larger, faster printing-press added to our equipment. Oar edition was carried to a figure considerably higher than its average had been, while the care and expenses of the business were proportionately increased. The Statesman then entered upon an "offen- sive-defensive " campaign in behalf of Mr. Chandler and his friends, and doubtless startled some of its supporters by its aggres- siveness. Its new editor was not by nature 290 Sixty Years in Concord. an aggressive man — quite the contrary; still Kev. Dr. Boiiton, of Concord, and Mr. Lewis W. Brewster, of Portsmouth, made formal protest against the pugnacious style of our paper — a style which was really Mr. Chand- ler's. Dr. Bouton's letter was written on the sermon paper with which he was himself accustomed to wage battle with the enemy of all righteousness. This was also a day of political tracts, cop- ies of which may still be found. Mr. Chand- ler wrote some, and Col. Ordway developed unsuspected vigor as a pamphleteer, quoting- English poetr}^ of the time of Spenser, and making use of his knowledge of practical politics in New Hampshire and his adver- sary's hasty flight from some public station in Kansas in the stormy period of 1856. The end of all this was what the Statesman sought — a period of peace within the party. In the winter of 1869-'70 I visited Wash- inp-ton with an intent to make final settle- ment of m}' military accounts, and as sucii affairs with the government consume consid- erable time, the sergeant-at-arms was so kind as to employ me ad iMerim as a cashier. Col. Ordway had originated a banking de- partment in his office at the capitol, which Personal Recollections. 291 collected at the treasury the monthly clues of congressmen and placed such to their credit, subject to withdrawal at their Avill, and at- tended to any other financial business which might be entrusted to it. This convenient cash department had more customers than many a country bank. Tlie accounts of some congressmen were often overdrawn, while others had always satisfactory bal- ances to their credit. The books were care- fully written and a balance-sheet drawn daily, for some impecunious orator might come in for money wlien there was none to his credit, and that fact being made known to him, a call for a statement of account would follow : but I never knew the office to be in error. Moses Dillon, of Wilmington, Del., who had lived in Louisiana and was familiar with Southern Avays, was Col. Ordway's book- keeper. He was usually very civil to all congressmen, but there was a quantity of '' befo'-the-wah " chivalry bottled up in the little man, and he would have taken the field if his fidelity had been questioned. It was out of this office of the sergeant-at- arms, and out of the position which T held in it, that twenty years later Edward Silcott bolted to Canada with thirty thousand dol- lai-s of money belonging to congressmen, 292 Sixty Years in Concord. which I think the losers held that the United States treasury must make good to them. Charles H. Cliristian, then a faitliful colored attache of the office, is still tliere. Among the customers of the office in my time was Congressman Stevenson Archer, of Maryland, who in 1890 was committed to tlie penitentiary of that state for embezzling- •f 132,000 from its treasury, of whose con- tents he had become the custodian. The most cautious men who did business with us were Benjamin F. Butler, of Massa- chusetts, and Clarkson N. Potter, of New York, both of whom invariably affixed their names to pay orders far above the line which the treasury department provided for signa- tures, close to the text of the order, as a pre- caution that nothing sliould be prefixed to what they had signed. Oakes Ames, from Massachusetts (then re- garded as a millionaire), seldom left anything to his credit worth carrying on our ledger ; but being deemed a master of finance, he had a class of congressional pupils in that popu- lar school, to some of wliom grief came a few years later. The apartment of the sergeant-at-arms, with its hearth strewn with blazing liickory logs, was an attractive loitering-place to Personal Recollections. 29o luaiiy a congressman. The tall figure of Luke P. Poland, of Vermont, clad in a Websterian suit of blue with gilt buttons and a buff vest, was frequently seen. Tliomas Fitch of Nevada, — who afterward «aid, on the lecture platform in Tremont Temple, he liad found that although he spoke with the tongues of men and of an- gels, and had not Boston, it profited liim nothing, — James A. Garfield and Samuel Sliellabarger, of Ohio, Samuel S. Cox, for- merly of the Zanesville, Ohio, district, then of New York, Samuel J. Randall of Penn- sylvania, John A. Bingham of Ohio, Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts, Ebon C. Tnger- soll, of Illinois, and many others, could be expected to make at least one daily call. Those whom I have mentioned were orators, and there were interesting dialogues when they met around the glowing fire. My connection with the sergeant-at-arms office gave me access to the floor of represen- tatives hall. The best speaking which I hap- pened to hear was a brilliant speech by John A. Bingham, repelling a charge of personal uncharitableness made against him by the *' Tall Sycamore of the Wabash," D. W. Voor- hees, of Indiana, because Judo-e Bino-ham did not favor the creation of a Xinited States mis- 294 Sixty Years in Concord. sionto Rome (not Italy). Joliii Morrissej, the ex-pugilist, whose hair was carefully curled, and who wore in summer a suit of white linen, was almost never in his seat, and ap- peared to derive no enjoyment from liis mem- hership. Fernando Wood, tall and dignified, dressed like a Presbyterian clergyman, was, on the contrary, constant in his attendance. Samuel J. Randall, once a Whig, longer a Democrat, was a restless person, often hurry- ing hither and thither in the aisles, serving apparently as a party whip. The speaker's apartment was next to that of the sergeant-at-arms, and Speaker Blaine was an example of promptness. Exactly five minutes before a session should begin he was at his room, and crossing the corridor pre- cisely as the clock marked the hour, he stood in his place, the gavel fell, and the silver mace was elevated to its marble pedestal at Ids risfht. There this emblem of author! tv was placed during session hours, but when the house went into committee of the wliole, it was removed to a lower perch. This use of the mace came to us with English parlia- mentary traditions. Every school-boy remem- bers in his English history, Oliver Crom- well's order in 1653 to '' Take away that bau- ble ! " Our speaker's bauble was an artistic Personal Recollections. 295 thing, a truncheon of small rods bound to- gether with clasps, surmounted by a globe on which the hemispheres were engraven, and over all stood an eagle with outstretched wings, the metal being solid silver. This mace has been the topic of a readable maga- zine article. The capitol itself is most interesting. Dur- ing the war I liad seen its dome lifted to completion, as if disunion were an impossi- ble thing, and watched Crawford's figure of America as it went slowly into place to crown the whole. Then it Iiad been a satis- faction to view the halls, staircases, bronzes, marbles, paintings, and carvings. Now I liad opportunity to explore the great building intimately. Access was had to the library, wliose custodian, Mr. A. R. Spofford, was a New Hampshire man b}^ birth, also to the marble baths, and any of the committee rooms, among the latter that of the house committee on military affairs, decorated with a series of scenes in Indian life painted by Col. Seth Eastman, U. S. A., formerly a Con- cord man. There was in the basement of the capitol a place which newspapers named " the Bas- tile," — not exactly a dungeon, but a strong room, where recalcitrant witnesses had some- 296 Sixty Years in Concord. times been confined. It had grated windows, no direct sunlight, and woukl not be re- garded as a pleasant habitation. This apart- ment was controlled by the sergeant-at-arms, and there Mr. John W. LeBarnes, an assist- ant of Col. Ordway's, and myself, arranged some involved accounts (wanted in a hurry) relating to mileage, costs, and witness fees of a certain congressional committee of in- vestio-ation at New Orleans. LeBarnes was familiar with the place for he liad volunta- rily lodged there. We toiled all the after- noon and three quarters of the night, and when I trudged sleepily to my lodgings at the corner of West Tenth and North E streets, I was unable to get in, and took refuge from a storm in the doorway of Ford's theatre (within which Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday, 1865), and there in gloomj^ seclusion waited wearily for the morning. During this sojourn in Washington, which lasted away down into summer, I came to know many people about the capitol, — news- paper correspondents and clerks of commit- tees, men of as much information and ability as the average congressman. Among such were E. V. Smalley of tlie Neiv York Tribune^ Sidney Andrews of the Boston Advertiser^ Personal Recollections. 297 U. H. Painter of the Philadelphia Inquir- er., George A. Bassett, clerk of the house committee on ways and means, and Robert J. Stevens, clerk of the committee on a23pro- priations. George Bassett was, I tliink, a brother of Isaac Bassett, the tall doorkeeper of the senate, who has been seen in that place almost from time immemorial, and I am sure he was of Wesley W. Bassett, who was in 186'3-'4 a paymaster in the navy. They seemed to belong to a family with a talent for holding office. In Washington, in the winter of 1868-'4, 1 had dwelt on First street East, a site now within the capitol grounds, at a house man- aged by a woman with two daughters. Among the guests were the Paymaster Bas- sett above referred to, and his wife, a lively secessionist from Maryland ; Hon. Edward McPherson, clerk of the house of representa- tives ; Capt. Homer C. Blake, of the navy, who commanded tlie little gunboat '' Hat- teras " when she was sunk by the " Ala- bama " in the Gulf of Mexico, and his fam- ily ; Frederick A. Aiken, a lawyer who afterward appeared in the defence of Mrs. Surratt, when that woman was tried for complicity in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and his wife ; two or three young 298 Sixty Years in Concoi^d, army officers, and one or two not very distin- guished congressmen. This was a pleasant household, and although it was observed that the landlady seldom went out, and there were some peculiar incidents in the domestic circle, these circumstances caused no especial comment. When I gained the acquaintance of George Bassett in 1870, and told him of my friendship with his brother in 1864, he inquired if I knew who the landlady of the house on First street really was. He said she was the Mrs. Cunningham in whose house, on Bond street. New York, Dr. Harvey Burdell was murdered in 1856, she being implicated as a principal or accessory to that crime ; that she and her daughters had gone to San Francisco after the war, and were identified there as the Mrs. and Misses Cunningham. This is, I suppose, a somewhat doubtful story, but as proof I was shown some pho- tographs which were rather convincing. Nothing but time and patience was re- quired to close my army accounts. The to- tal sum which had been entrusted to me was 11,720,922.44, about equal to the total gold product of California in 1848. A few vouch- ers which were deficient in technicalities were perfected by filing the retained dupli- Personal Recollections. 299 cates in which there were no defects. One voucher was withdrawn to be filed in an- other bui-eau, and as a result of the whole settlement a small sum of money, 1223.77, came to me. This was deemed a fortunate ending to a service which some of the older paymasters said, in 1862, would, by reason of errors and teclmicalities, involve tlie whole corps in pecuniary ruin. The paymaster-general, in a report dated Oct. 31, 1865, speaking of the services which his staff rendered in the later months of the war, used the following words : ¥mm the early days of June to the present time, this department has made final payment to more than eight hundred thousand officers and men. This is an important exhibit of work, performed chiefly within tlie months of June, July, and August— two hundred and seventy millions of money paid to eiglit hun- dred thousand men. When the manner of these payments is observed, with a knowl- edge of the particularity required in each case, each to be computed in its several items of pay, clotliing, bountj^ etc., such stoppages as may be chargeable deducted, the final amount stated, and the signature of each officer and man appended ni duplicate to the receipt rolls, some idea may be formed of the stupendous labor involved. This work, in its innnensity as to men and monev, and 300 Sixty Years in Concord. the small limit of time in which it has been performed, has, it is believed, no parallel in the history of armies. For this result the country is indebted to the zeal, intelligence, and sleepless industry of a corps of experi- enced paymasters, who signalized themselves in this closing act of their military staff ser- vice by tlie faithfulness and devotion to duty Avhich reflect the highest honor upon them. During the War of the Rebellion the cost of our pay department, including losses by capture and by accident, defalcations (^541,- 000), salaries and expenses of paymasters and clerks, was less than three fourths of one per cent, of the total disbursements. In the War of 1812 the expenses and defal- cations were over seven per cent., — so I have somewhere read. The "good old days" appear to have been not so good as our own. XV. My relations with the Statemnan news- paper were changed in 1871. Hon. Edward H. Rollins had become treasurer as well as secretary of the Union Pacific Railroad, and offered me the place of cashier in that com- pany's Boston office. My connection with that corporation began on May 9, 1871, and ended almost seventeen years later, when healtli failed and I became incapable of fur- ther service. There had been great scandals connected with the construction of that railroad, whicli were supposed to have been forever buried before I went into its employment, but they came unexpectedly, time after time, to the surface, in congress, in law courts, and else- where, — like lumps of ice in a surging stream. To recite the facts concerning those scandals (Credit Mobilier, Ames contract, alleged briberies, Pennsylvania tax suit, two million dollar note, etc.) might enliven these pages, and show with what a lavish hand the mone}^ and securities of the company were dealt out in the early days of the old regime, 802 Sixty Years in Concord. but such recital can be deferred. Nowhere ill this narrative have I undertaken to tell everything that I know. Curious readers may find most of the details of the inglo- rious story told in the reports of the Wilson and tlie Poland Investigating committees of Congress, printed in 1878. It may be need- less for me to say that Mr. Rollins was not a Credit Mobilier man, but it is a pleasure to say so. When I took up service with the Union Pacific company, two years after it had been driven out of New York City, because of a raid of pettifoggers and sheriffs made at the instance of James Fisk, Jr., it had two small rooms on the fourth floor in Sears building in Boston for the office of its treasurer, and two others a little way off on the same floor, set apart for Mr. John Duff, the vice-presi- dent. One of the first disturbing facts which came to my notice was, that my predecessor as cashier sued to recover a moderate allow- ance for overwork and special services, and it was curious to see the resident directors going solemnly into court with piles of com- pany books and papers to resist the claim. The verdict was against them for f 2,267. The credit of the company was not then Personal Recollections. 303 very high. It had been impaired by loose management, by an incorrect ruling of Secre- tary Boutwell of the United States treasury as to certain bond interests, and by sympathy with the monetary suspension of Oakes Ames and Oliver Ames & Sons, who had been and still were interested in its construc- tion and management. It had been com- pelled to seek alliances, and was friendly with the Pennsylvania Central Railroad X:)eople. Thomas A. Scott was president, and came occasionall}^ to Boston to preside at quarterly meetings. He was a handsome man and kept a bottle of cologne or Florida water on. the directors' table within his reach. John Duff, as I have said, was the vice-presi- dent. Unlearned in books he had a Scots- man's shrewdness, and owned fine pictures in which he took delight. His was a grand, impressive face, well set off by thick white hair. He had built railroads in the West, but did not like to do anything on paper. Most of the time he was in New York, where he had a desk in a Nassau street bankino- house, and no irksome responsibilities came to him. The floating debt of the companj^ was troublesome then, as it almost always was, for it cost seven per cent., and a commission 804 Sixty Years in Concord. or discount equal to another seven per cent, per annum, to carr}^ it, even with bonds of the corporation pledged as collatend. Jay Gould, when he came into the directory, obtained for the company better rates tlian these. Under such circumstances there were trials in the path of the treasurer, but there was hope of brighter days. The net earnings of the company had not been sufficient to pay its interest charges. The four or five clerks who in 1871 attended to affairs in • Boston often doubted whether their sahiries were safe for any considerable time. The mone- tary condition is well shown by the fact that the last of the land grant bonds, (hited in 1869, had been sold and were in process of delivery to some New York bankers at sev- enty per cent, of their par value, or fTOO for a ?fl,000 bond. After paying interest on these seven per cent, bonds with the utmost regularity for years, they were most of them redeemed before maturity, some of them at the rate of $1,120 for a bond sold at $700. Another syndicate of bankers bought at eighty per cent, of their par value 12,500,000 of Omaha Bridge bonds, which bore eight per cent, interest, and had twenty-five years to run. Personal Recollections. 305 The Pennsylvania Central alliance lasted only a year, and ended on March 6, 1872, wlien some New York Central people took up the road, and Horace F. Clark, a son-in- law of tlie first Cornelius Vanderbilt, became the president. Mr. Clark had been a mem- ber of congress, was a lawyer, and an invet- erate talker. At the first meeting of the directors after he came into the company he gave liis tongue no rest. Ezra H. Baker, a veteran Cape Cod sailor, who sat at that meeting, remarked when the monologue was over, '' What a president we have got ! " Mr. Clark took more personal interest in the com- pany than did his predecessor. He upset some of the black-mailers who liad tlieir head- quarters in Wasliington. He had a hatred of free passes tliat amounted to a monomania, and applicants for favors of that description met a hot reception. Mr. T. E. Sickels, then our general superintendent, was an amused witness of the retreat of a clergyman, amid a storm of adjectives, biWical and otherwise, from the bed-chamber of the president, to which refuge the preacher had made his way to ask for free transportion. Mi\ Clark had tlien fallen into a chronic nervousness, which lasted until his death in 1873. Under his management affairs had begun to improve. 20 306 Sixty Years in Concord. In Marcli, 1874, Mr. Jay Gould, having invested lieavily in the company, went into the direction with two or three of his New York friends. Mr. Sidne}^ Dillon became president, and Mr. Gould strove to bring the company into the good opinion of investors. Just before he became a director, a Union Pacific share was worth in Wall street about tliirty-two dollars, and when years afterw^nrd he sold out it was worth about one hundred and ten dollars. Tlius one hundred and fifty thousand shares, his holding, Avould show a profit of #11,700,000. There was a long period during which the treasurer had a daily letter from Jay Gould. Mr. Gould had no amanuensis. He wrote rapidly on light blue paper with dark blue ink, and his missives came to be known as "blue jaj^s." He kept no copies of those let- ters. In 1875, rates of fare and freight being- undisturbed by competition, the company's earnings enabled it to make dividends, and it paid the following : In 1875, three and a half per cent. ; in 1876, eight ; in 1877, eiglit; in 1878, five and a half; in 1879, six; in 1880, six; in 1881, six and three quarters; in 1882, seven ; in 1883, seven ; in 1884, three and a half, — making, in all, sixty-one and a quarter Personal Recollections. 307 per cent. Events have proved that it would have been wiser to have applied those divi- dends toward extinction of tlie government loan. It was about 1875 tliat tlie companj^'s Bos- ton office was moved from tlie Sears building to the Equitable, then just constructed. Mr, Dillon retired from the presidency in 1884, and returned to it again in 18i)0, Mr. Charles Francis Adams serving between those dates. Mr. Dillon was naturally impa- tient of restraint, and not over fond of '' lit- erary fellers." When Isaac H. Bromley, of Hartford, Conn., a very bright newspaper man, was appointed a government director under the Ha3'es administration, he called on Mr. Dillon officially, and was told that gov- ernment directors were '' nothing but a myth anyway." Mr. Bromley at once made some inquiries of the secretary to ascertain just when he and his associates were " relegated to the domain of mythology," and Mr. Dillon shortly afterward revised his opinion of their materiality. Under President Adams Mr. Bromley became an assistant to the president. In 1877, Hon. E. H. Rollins, having been chosen a United States senator from New Hampshire, vacated his position with the company. There were many applications for 808 Sixty Years in Concord. the place (none from myself), but I was elected secretary and treasurer in March of the last named year. It would be useless to relate the history of the office from that date until my retirement in 1888, eleven years later. The work was often difficult, always confining. I never saw tlie road itself until 1887. Sometimes the company was in favor in the stock market, at other times in dis- favor. Some of the cliief directors died, and others came in by hereditary succession. Branch lines were constructed, more and more bonds issued, floating debts cleared off at one time were renewed at anotlier, and there was a gradual increase of responsibility. I received from my predecessor securities of various kinds, the face value of which was perhaps five million dollars, and left to my successor in like property more than eiglity- seven millions. Tlie mileage of tlie system increased from about one thousand miles to nearly fivie thousand. During a long period tlie system had the management of Mr. Sidney Dillon, who wanted men of railroad experience around him ; at another it had Mr. Charles Francis Adams, who preferred Harvard graduates. Mr. Adams devoted himself unreservedly and unselfishly to the welfare and betterment of the corporation. Personal Recollections. 309 He was alwa^^s considerate toward his sub- ordinates and never ruffled in temper. He wrote better Englisli than some of liis prede- cessors in the Union Pacific presidential chair, as he might well do, being himself the descendant of two presidents of the United States and the son of a distinguished minister to England. The senior Charles Francis Adams once wrote .a couple of lines Avhich ought to be placed alongside of those of John A. Dix, hereinbefore mentioned. On Sept. 5, 1863, after a long setting forth of injuries done and likely to be done to the American people by confederate cruisers built and being built by Englishmen, he said in a letter to Earl Rus- sell, her Majesty's Secretary for Foreign Affairs, " It would be superfluous for me to point out to your Lordship that this is war." After those words were written no more rebel ships sailed out of English liarbors. After reading "Three Episodes of Massa- chusetts Historj^" I ventured to remark to the younger Charles Francis Adams that it seemed a pity that a man who could write such interesting books had given so much time to the management of railroads. In 1879 the Kansas Pacific, with six hun- dred and forty-three miles and the Denver 310 Sixty Years in Concord. Pacific, with one liundrecl and six miles, were brought into the Union Pacific S3'Steni. One hundred tliousand shares in the first named company, and forty thousand sliares in the second, had been selling at low prices, perhaps ^30 a share in the market, but by this consolidation were made equal to the shares of the Union Pacific company tlien selling above their par value on the stock ex- change. Any person with a pencil can fig- ure out the pi'ofits to the holders of those shares. Whatever the stock ledgers of that time may show, I think none of the then directors of the Union Pacific company was caught among the " shorts." My connection with the Union Pacific was fortunate for myself in not much beside hon- orable experience. Beginning as cashier in 1871, and taking up the duties of secretary and treasurer in 1877, other cares came to me, — a vice-presidency in 1885, and a rather responsible trusteeship in the same year. These and lighter positions in forty subordi- nate or branch companies came gradually in my way, until, in April, 1888, I was taken from them all, upset by an injury which, if previous circumstances liad l)een more kind, might have done me no lasting harm. Personal lie collections. oil Between the years 1877 and 1888, the com- pany, by devolving on me dnties which had been performed by others, affected a direct saving in saLiries of one hundred and twelve thousand two hundred and fifty doUars, — a sum wliich a receiver or member of a reorgan- izing committee would regard as moderate compensation and consolation for a year or two of personal service. The. receipts and disbursements during my seventeen years with tlie Union Pacific treas- ury amounted to 1247,815,531.49 ; there were also issues of bonds, and a handling and re- handlinsf of such securities as collateral for loans and otherwise, to a vast amount, all without error. It is probable that T should have been held accountablefor any accidental or other loss in the ofiice, but there was none. My salary afforded me a surplus over ex- penses in seventeen years of rather more than seventeen thousand doUars, about half as much as one of our hereditary directors squeezed out of the company as boot in an exchano-e of two varieties of Kansas Pacific bonds one day in September, 1880, — a fulfil- ment of an unvv^ary agreement (which the treasurer did not make) but, fortunately, after 1873, my income from investments exceeded my earnings. 312 Sixty Years in Concord. Not many men whom the world calls in any degree famous had occasion to visit the Union Pacific office in Boston. I remember seeing as callers in the ordinary business way James G. Blaine, William D. Howells, Sir John Rose, Samuel F. Smith, author of '' My country, 't is of thee," George F. Hoar, Henry Wilson, and Ilenry Cabot Lodge ; Henry Ward Beecher once just looked in- side the door. William M. Evarts came in on one occasion with Sidney Bartlett, the last named being the company's counsel and the most interesting gentleman wliom I knew in Boston, — in the practice of law up to near the age of ninety years. Gen. E. T. Alexan- der, who was chief of artillery in Lee's army at Gettysburg, was for a time one of our gov- ernment directors. He told me that if the rebels had been pursued vigorously just after that battle their army could have been de- stroyed. James F. Wilson, of Iowa, and Marcus A. Hanna, of Ohio, were at different times among the government directors. Levi P. Morton was some time a company director: so were Andrew Carnegie, of Pennsylvania, and Cornelius S. Bushnell, of New Haven, Conn. Bushnell was a big, bold personage, breezy in his manners — no man more so. He was the builder of the Personal Recollections. 313 original " Monitor," and when that strange vessel fouglit the " Merrimack " in Hampton Roads, she was actually the property of Mr. Bushnell and John A. Griswold, of Troy, N. Y., for she had not then been accepted by the government. Months before that event it was Mr. Bushnell's bold advocacy of Eric- sson's plans that prevailed with President Lincoln, and afterward with the navy de- partment, so that the construction of the " cheese-box on a raft " was undertaken. Among other widely-known men of finance not hereinbefore mentioned who in later times (1875-1887) held directorship in the com- pany were Russell Sage, James R. Keene, David Dows, Augustus Schell, George M. Pullman, George G. Haven, Colgate Hoyt, and James H. Banker. Joseph Richardson, the builder of the '' Spite House" in New York, was another. He was so careless in his dress and appearance that once when he came, at an unusually early hour, to attend a directors' meeting at the Boston office, the young man in charge of the premises, mistaking him for an idle loafer, ordered him to clear out, at which Richardson was greatly amused, and he was afterward fond of telling about the circumstance. There are people who think that all the 314 Sixty Years in Concord. officers of a great corporation may, by the help of superior information, invariably make a great deal of money buying and selling its securities in the stock market. AVithout un- dertaking to speak for anybody else, I am quite sure that no other set of people suf- fered so much by the decline in value of Union Pacific shares, which began about 1884, as did the Union Pacific directors themselves. Samuel J. Tilden, too, although not a director, was then a large shareholder, and was represented in the board by Andrew J. Green, who had been controller of the city of New York, and was skilled in finan- cial affairs. Mr. Tilden was himself ac- counted a pretty shrewd man, but I do not see how he can have lost less than half a million dollars, for he had ten thousand shares, which cost him a round million. One day there came to our office a young- lady seeking a situation as a shorthand writer. She was accompanied by her father. Both were dressed like people of a by-gone period, and looked exactly as if they had just stepped out of a gallery of portraits by Gainsborough and Romney. She was allowed to make trial of her skill in taking down some sen- tences of speech, and scored a failure. Be- Personal .Recollections. 315 ing told as gently as possible tliat our work was probably too difficult for Iier until she should have had further instruction and practice, her father arose, and in the grand manner put liis daugliter's arm under his own, said sometliing about his roof being glad to give her shelter, and they both re- tired in a stately way, as if the wliole affair had been a scene in a comedy. It would have been exceedingly funny, if I had been sure it was not pathetic. There was ojice in tlie Equitable building a remarkable escape from death. For a time a restaurant was kept on the loftiest floor, where the windows commanded a line view of the harbor and in summer the air was cool. A young lady and gentleman, with a child, came there to dine. In tlie upper hall- way the little one escaped their care for a moment, and ran through the balusters of the stair-rail, which were set wide apart. This was on tlie eighth or ninth floor, and there was a slieer drop in the stair-well to a marble pavement about one hundred and twenty feet below% A startling shriek went through the building when tlie motlier saw what had happened. If the child's guardian angel was off duty for an instant, she got back in time. The little one went off tlie 316 Sixty Yearns in Concord. floor with forward impetus sufficient to carry it across the stair-well when it had fallen three flights, and then it struck so nicely balanced on the sloping stair-rail that the in- clination of the rail slid it in on to the stairs, where a girl who was washing the steps caught it up, apparently not much hurt. The richest men whom I have known were not the most contented. One day an indi- vidual, possessor of many millions of prop- erty, so anxious for an increase that he after- ward left Boston, where all his wealth had been acquired, and went to a distant city, where he could escape taxation on personal estate, came to the Union Pacific office with an eager face, called out one of the directors, and besought to be put in the way of making a little money. When he had gone, the gen- tleman with whom he had been speaking said, " Of all tlie fools in the world, the biggest are retired Boston merchants." He had him- self been a Boston importer of East India goods. It is quite true that some people were con- tinually fooling our resident directors. One such scarcely ever came to Boston without fleecing them. He induced them in 1876 to pat a million dollars into a Jersey City Personal Recollections. 317 oil refinery which the Standard Oil Conii^any raked in at one handful. Another very com- mon fellow from tlie West woi-ked several schemes. He was in politics, mining, and other transactions. In Api-il, 1 877, represent- ing that he wns to cut a big figure in public life, get elected governor of his state, buy a newspaper, and be a great and good friend to the Union Pacific Company, tlie directors gave him a moderate fortune out of our treas- ury, namely, f 86,000 in the bonds of a certain Western county ; but it all amounted to noth- ing. This did not deter tliem from buying of him later four hundred bonds and some stock in a mining and tunnel company which were o^f not mucli account. The worthless Nevada Central Railway was also foisted on to them, or rather on to the company, in some curious way; but when Alexander Graham Bell of- fered them as individuals oi-iginal stock in his telephone patent, they witnessed his ex- periments, and declared the invention to be a very interesting thing, but without commer- cial value. Some accomplished liars visited our cash room— brakemen detained in tlie East until their money was gone; clerks who had smoothed a mother's dying pillow and spent 318 Sixty Years in Concord. their last cent ; farmers returning from the old country and landed accidentally in Bos- ton instead of New York ; women who had pursued eloping sisters to the edge of the ocean — all wanted moneyed help back to the Union Pacific country, and all proved to be arrant rogues. The State Street people transacted their affairs with our ofiice, and entrusted it with their property, in a confident and most grat- ifying wa}^ It seems a curious happening, but when I had left the office on the evening of April 4, 1888, little suspecting it to be for the last time, on the way to the railroad sta- tion I was overtaken by a Devonshire Street banker, who said, in casual conversation, " I have had a great amount of business with your office, and it has all been done right." Tliis was an agreeable incident to reflect upon in tlie weary months of disability that followed. I had held the place longer than any other occupant of it. These Recollections do not connect them- selves closely with Concord after the year 1871. The writing them has given me a winter's occupation and amusement. They may have little worth ; but if years hence a Personal Recollect ions. 319 copy shall remain on some neglected book- shelf, I hope it will have gained local value and some flavor imparted by antiquity, like a cask of vin ordinaire long forgotten in some cool cellar. Summing up now the sixty years : These experiences with fishermen, printers, soldiers, Union Pacific millionaires, and all sorts of people, bid me say that tlie conclusion to which" I am brought is, that of all personal possessions Christian character is the best. Concord, July 10, 1891. INDEX. Abbott, Joseph C 221 Joshua 43 Abbot, J. Stephens 84 A Baffled Fraud 219 A Boy's Library 81 Adams, Charles Francis 308, 309 A Daj' in the Army 261 A Hard. Payment 272 Alexander, E. T 312 Ainsworth, Calvin 114 Allston, Washington 126 American Art Union 117 Ames, Oakes 303 Oliver 303 Amusements in 1840 68 An Army Dinner 250 Anderson, John 41 A Night in an Ambulance 255 Annuities of a Frenchman 185 Anticosti 166 A Tough Hen 208 Auroral Display 209 Avery, Nancy 11 Badger, Benjamin E 55,59 Charles A 180 Stephen C 23 Barr, Franlj 98 Barrett, Charles F 116, 139 Bartlett, Samuel C. ]81 Sidney 312 Barton, Cyrus 51 Bay of Islands 154 Beginning of the Rebellion 223 Berry, Nathaniel S. 228, 256 Bingham, John A 293 Birds in Labrador 164 Bishop, Anna 126 322 huhx. Bixby, Phin P. , . 222 Blaine, James G 294,312 Blowing a Church Organ 102 Boating and Rafting 72 Bombardment of Fort Sumter 227 Bonne Esperance Bay 147 Borough Riflemen 75 ** Boston John " 204 Botts, John Minor 269 Bouton, Rev. Nathaniel 8, 33, 290 N. S 181 Bradley, Richard 90 Brewster, Lewis W. 290 Briggs, John C 172, 211 Bromley, Isaac H 307 Buck, William D 22 Brown, Clara A 62 John F 109 Walter 56 Bull, Ole 126 Bull Run Battle 238 Burke, Edmund 239 Burlesque Tickets 93 Burnham, Rev. Abraham 54,63 C. G 62 Burleigh, Henry G 43 Bushnell, C. S 312 Buying into the Statesman 187 Canadian Mails 136, 143 Candidate for Shorthand Writing 314 Canterbury Shakers 97 Capture of a Black Eagle 209 Careful Printing . • 212 parnegie, Andrew 312 Carter, Abiel 69 Edward P 44 Mrs. Ezra 49 John W. D 69 Nathaniel H 54, 99 Catechism Class 51 Chadbourne, Andrew 76 Mrs. Thomas 49 William 42, 61, 82 Chadwick, Edmund S 98, 109 Index. 323 Chandler, Geo. H 55 Timothy E. 180 William E 55, 287 John 55 John B. 21 Changes by Fire 39 Chase, Samuel G 115 Chesbrough, E. S 38 Chicago in 1857 181 Chichester Gin 33 Chickering, Elliot 131 Chocorua Mountain 207 Church, Maria 21 Clark, Charles 243 Horace F 305 Peter 122, 128 Olough, Elijah 98 George 39, 66, 134 Moses H 54 O. A 145 Coasting 75 Coffin, Samuel 84, 90 Colby, George J. L 99 Columbian Artillery 75, 201 Columbian Hotel 200 Concord Boating Company 122 Concord Gazette 214 Concord in 1840 27 Concord Light Infantry 75 Concord Literary Institution -57, 123 Concord Lyceum 126 Concord Railroad 12i Concord Railroad Construction 37 Concord Railroad Opening 39 Concord's State-house Expenditure .... 284 Contraband Negro . . 263 Crawford, Ethan 107 Crossman, Leonard 39 *' Copperhead " Convention in Concord .... 253 Cummings, E.E 33,228 Dana, Napoleon J. T 56 Davis, Phineas ........ 130, 136 Robert 90 Wm. S 243 824 Index. Day, Aaron 58 Democratic Standard 239 Departure of First Regiment 232 De Trobriand, Regis 254, 261 Dillon, Sidney 306. 307 Distinguished Visitors to Concord 5, 211 Dix, John A 226 Dole, William 84, 134 Douglas, Stephen A 212, 225 Mrs. S. A 212 Downing, Lewis 84 Dress in the Army 268 Drew, George W 169 Dudley, Peter 200 Duff, John 302,313 Dumas, S.H 84 Duties of an Army Paymaster 246 Eagle Coffee House 84 Early Foreigners 40 Early Schoolmates 44, 55 Eastman, Edson C. 55 Samuel C 169 Eagan, Thomas W 263,274 Ela, Jacob H 99 Eleventh Regiment 201 Elliott, Charles I. 145 JohnH. ; 131 Emerson, Ralph Waldo 127 Epps, Charles L 181 Escape from Death 315 Fast Trains to Boston 137 Fifth Regiment 234 First New Hampshire Batterj' 270 Fish in Merrimack River 71 Fisk, James, Jr 302 Flagg, Daniel 67 Flanders, Cyrus W 228 Fogg, George G 215, 223, 287 Foster, Charles H 55 Ira 133 Stephen S 22 William L 228 Fowler, Asa . • • 28, 81, 114, 224 Index. 325 Fourth of July Celebrations 52 Fourth of July Riots 36 Fractional Currency 220 Franklin Bookstore 109 French, Theodore 71 Fuller, Elizabeth 63 Henry W SS Melville W 176,182 Gage, Nathaniel E 44 William L 44 Gallinger, Jacob H. • • • 221 Gault, George W 44, 45, 70, 77, S2. 120, 123 JohnC 131 William 15 •' General Stark " Engine 137 Gentlemen of the North End ...... 82 George, Sam 167 Gilmore, Andrew J. 98 Henry H 55 Joseph A 71, 84. 143, 252 Gould, Charles F 180 Jay 304, 306 Solon 196 Gove, Jesse A 114 Governor's Horse Guards 94, 282 Green, Benjamin 93 Grecian Hall 84 Grant, Ulysses S 235 Ulysses S., his arrival in Washington . . .236 Hadley, Amos 214 Ham, Charles H 145, 176, 184 Harper's Magazine 117 Harriman, Walter 171 Hatch, William H 33 Haynes, Martin A 222 Timothy 97 Head, Natt 63 Herbert, Samuel 17, 27 Hill, Lsaac 90,112,217 Holt, Abel B 84 Hoit, " Old Veteran " William 35, 98 Holmes, Oliver Wendell 127 Hopkins, Seth 39, 134, 137 William H 135. 142 826 Index. Houseful of Money 279 Houston, Gen. Sam 69 Hunt, Israel 202 Hutehins, Abel 55 Benjamin T. 169 Ephraim 83, 121 George H 55 Hamilton 84 Robert A. . . . 42, 106 In an Uglj' Hole 204 Income of a Business Man 25 Independent Democrat 214 Ink Rolling " Behind the Press " 109 Isms, the Day of 21 Jenks George E 98, 109, 192 Edward A 98 Johnson, Rossiter 289 Kendall, George W 99 Kendrick, James R 144 Kent, Charles P 55 George 99 John 55 Kimball, Benjamin A 131, 145 John 130, 145 Wm. S 132 Kiirg, Thomas Starr 127 Kneeland, Bartholomew 7 Elizabeth 7 Susanna Sewall 7 Labrador Fisheries 150, 161 Lancaster, Clara . 59 Landscape Painters of Conway 106 Lane,Rufus 98,120 Late Rides on an Engine 141 Leavitt. Dudley HI Leavitt's Almanac HI Lincoln, Abraham 203, 223 Long Pond Water 211 Lovering, N. P. 131 Low, Charles F 214 J. Hamilton 55 Joseph 28, 90, 92, 122, 123 William 110,217 Index. 827 Macaulay's History of England 116 Machine Shop Pay Rolls 140 Mackenzie, Alexander Slidell 58 *' Mameluke " Engine 139 Marshall, Anson S 228 McFarland Ancestry H Andrew 120 9, Rev. Asa ■^^^ • • • • 6, 11, 75. 96, 100. 120. 190. 192, 216. 289 Homestead 12 Elizabeth Kneeland - Nancy D wight 10 McMillan, Andrew 104 Farm ! 104 Gilbert JO4 McNeil, Wm. Gibbs 38 Meredith, R. R • ... 228 Merrill, Rufus 219 Merrimack River 70 Military Accounts, Settlement of ... . 290. 299 Militia Trainings 75 Mittanogue Bay I65 Monej' and Currency . - 82 Money in the Pocket 280 Morril, David L 16, 100 Samuel 45 60 William H 44 Morrill, Paul 99 Morton, Levi P 180 312 Moulton. James '54 Murdock, Cyrus M 169 Names of Engines 142 Nesmith, George W 54 New Hampshire Court Reports lOO Newspaper Men 99 New Pool of Siloam 206 North Conway 103 Noj-es. Daniel James 22 33 Odlin. George 98 190 John j4 Woodbridge 84,85 Office of Master of Transportation 143 Old Fire Hooks ! 51 328 index. Old North Choir 18 North Church 17 Pedagogues 54 Printers 98 Railroad Men 130 Ways and Cookery 13 Ordway, N. G 228, 290 Owl, The (Newspaper) 36 Pabst, Frederick 179 Palmer, Albert 63 JohnB 242 Paradise Woods 74 Parker, Caleb 51 David 97 Henry E 228, 239 Joel 100 William M 144 Parodi, Teresa • .... 126 Patriotic Meeting 228 Patti, Adalina 126 Peabody, George 48 Peaslee, Charles H 114, 122 Perkins, Hamilton E. . . .' 75 Pembroke Academy 62 Perley, Ira 84. 85, 231 Perry. John T 221 Peverl.v, James 90 Phelan, James 40 Phelps, Henry W 99 Phoenix Hotel 83 Pictures of Concord 73 Pierce, A. C. . 84 Franklin . . 28.90,92,113,118,127,212.225,228,231 Pillsbury, Emily 58, 62 George A 132 Pluck • 202 Porter, William T. . . ' 99 Printers' Ink Rollers 101 Printing as an Art 100 Printing Machinery 213 Pulford,John 262,273 Queer People 93 Quimby, Benjamin F 181 Index. 329 Railroad Competition 137 Friends j^^ Rankin. James E 55 Remarkable Newspaper Article 226 Renton, John gQ Dr. Peter 17,36,80 Christie gQ Rice, Harvey " .' 130 jgg Roberts, Hall 67 108 Robinson, Joseph . . . ' 90 Robj', Luther 3q Rolfe, Henry P 212,224,228 Rollins, Edward H 288, 301, 302, 307 Salary of Country Minister g Salm-Salm, Felix ! 249 Madame 25o Sanborn, B. W. j^g Charles P 55 Edwin D 5^ ^^^ov?:e G .'.'.' 131,145 George H 44 Sargent, James W j32 Saxe, John G 127 School of Mary Ann Allison 43^ 50 Ruby B. Preston ' \y Sally Parker . . 41 School Life at Pembroke g5 Schooner " Angelia " 152^ 167 Scene at South Church '22 Scott, Winfield • . 235 Seamen's Friend Society g9 Sea Trout jg2 Seavey, Shadrach \ 44 Seward, Wm. H., call on 276 Sharpshooters 266 Sherburne, Henry C. ! 144 ^^^^^^ .' 132,143 Robert 44 Shooting Sickles, Daniel E 250 Sighting Land jgg Skating ' ' „g Smart, Charles g^ Smith.J. V.C 127 830 Index. Smyth, Frederick 212 Soldiers Paid in Concord 279, 281 Some things the Statesman did 210 Spaulding, Isaac . . • 128 Stage Coach Fares 122 Lines 31 Stanlej-, Solon 83 Stan wood, Henry P 180 State Capital Reporter 214 State House after Adjournment 197 State House Controversy 284 Statesman Building 286 Statesman History 188 Second Regiment 233 Steamboating . 177, 186 Stevens, Josiah 22, 75, 228 Stewart, Thomas W 169 Stickney, John 73, 77 Joseph 169 Nathan 49, 120 Miss Susan 49 Tavern 47 Sturtevant, Edward E 70 St. Valentine's Day 116 Substitute Brokers 220 Sunday Dress 19 Surrender of Lee 281 Swiss Singers 50 Sykes, M. L 186 Tappan, Mason W 112, 196, 232 Tenney, Jonathan 62 Ten Broeck, Petrus S 33 The Editor's Desk 218 The Printing Office 96 The Troop 75 Thomas, Rev. Moses G 33 Thompson, A. B 228 Benjamin 54 Thomas W 9 Todd, George E 144,171 Torchlight Procession of 1856 172 Towne. John 54 Town Elections 90 Town Hall 91 Index, 331 Treadwell, Thomas J 55 Thomas P 228 Tripp, Ervin B 98 Union Pacific Railroad 301 Disbursements 311 Dividends 306 Upham, N. G . .49, 66, 122. 128 N. L 63 Vail, S. M. 228 Virgin, John 93 Voyage to Labrador 152 Walker, Gustavus 55 Joseph B 19, 228 Ward, Samuel . 185 Warde. David A 169 Watson, Philip 125 Webster, Calvin C 204 Charles F 139 Daniel 69, 85, 86, 113. 190 Welcome Visitors 218 Wentworth, John 181 West's Brook 30 West, Charles H 44 Weston, James A 130,144,145 Wheeler, Charles C 178, 179 Whipple, Edward 44 Whifctler, George W 38 White Mountains, foot journey to 107 White, Nathaniel 200 Wilson, John C 238 Woodbury, Levi . - 54, 114 Wood, George 18 John T 6a Worcester, Rev. Thomas 88 Wright, Andrew J 180 Levi P 133, 139 Wyatt, Joseph G 84,85 H 99 78 ' f ^ ^X«^^ N.MANCHESTER ~.^^\ '^^E^^^{:ir INDIANA •& i p 1 m 1 1 1 t. i^. - ii "^ f