44 
 H45 L7 
 Copy 2 
 
 I"' " 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 $mmy 
 
 
 
 Vears 
 
 
 
 Hgo 
 
 
 BV 
 
 JlilDttr • 
 Eivcrmore 
 
 -^i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rcmittiscetices of 
 fimtm\ eorncr 
 
SEVENTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 Reminiscences of Haverhill Corner 
 
 by 
 
 Arthur Livermore. 
 
 NEWS PRINT, WOODSVILLE, N. H. 
 IS03. 
 
 Copy "^ 
 
 ipy 
 
ONE HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED. 
 
 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 Arthur Livermore was born at Holderness, N. H., Jau. 7, 1811; 
 Graduated at Dartmouth College in 18'29; studied law with Jeremiah 
 Mason, and was admitted to the bar in 1833; located in Bath, N. H., 
 in 1839, succeeding to the practice of Jonathan Smith; appointed 
 U. S. Consul to Londonderry, Ireland, by President Lincoln in 1861, 
 and retained this position till 1885; then settled in the practice of 
 the legal profession at Bath, England, where he is still living at The 
 Hern, Oldfield Park. His father was Chief Justice Arthur Livermore 
 of Holderness, and his mother Louisa Bliss of Haverhill. His grand- 
 father was Samuel Livermore of Holderness, Chief Justice and U. S. 
 Senator for many years. Harriet Livermore, the '• school-mistress '" 
 or" guest ■* of Whittier's "Snow-Bound,"' was his cousin, daughter 
 of Judge Edward St. Loe Livermore. 
 
 It was in 1820 or 1822 that young Arthur Livermore came up from 
 the seclusion of his Holderness home to have his first taste of village 
 and academy life at Haverhill Corner, then the social, official and 
 political center of Northern New Hampshire. These reminiscences 
 in the following pages written by Mr. Livermore for Mrs. Wil- 
 liam Thompson, daughter of William Nelson, Esq., who is mentioned 
 in them,were dated Bath, England, Oct. 27, 1888. They were never 
 intended for publication, and in that fact lies much of their charm. 
 They are the vivid impressions made upon the mind of a boy at the 
 age of ten or eleven, recorded some seventy years later. They are 
 accompanied by valuable notes furnished for the most part by Mr. 
 Frederick P. Wells, historian of Newbury, Vt. [W. F. W. 
 
Hentjitiscences of l^averbiil Corner. 
 
 The very few who can derive pleasure from these reminis- 
 cences are familiar with the scene of them, the common 
 around which the people had ranged their seemly dwellings, 
 a quadrangle sloping gently westward toward the Connecti- 
 cut and the rich meadows through which it flows. 
 
 Moosilauke, Owl's Head, Sugar Loaf, and the associated 
 heights over which the sun pours its light in the morning, 
 and many other things might demand notice and description, 
 if what I am about to relate was intended for the information 
 or amusement of strangers. But the present generation who 
 know it best, being familiar with existing modes and means 
 of communication, cannot easily realize its sequestered state 
 at the epoch the title of these records denotes. 
 
 It was still called by the older people, " The Lower Coos." 
 North Haverhill now embraces a district known at that time 
 as " Horse Meadow." " The Catamount" was the name of 
 a moderate eminence half a mile or more distant from the 
 common, constituted by nature for a goal and limit to Sat- 
 urday afternoon excursions through forest paths numerous, 
 and each in its way diversified by fields and groves, and like 
 attractions. 
 
 Jesse Kimball was the preceptor of the Academy, and 
 among his pupils were Benjamin West Binney, who gained 
 distinction and wealth at the bar in New York, where he died 
 about fifty years later; Andrew S. Woods, of Bath, who 
 afterwards became Chief Justice of New Hampshire ; Nathan 
 Clifford, who gained a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court 
 of the United States ; Everett Wheeler and Warren D. Goo- 
 kin, who both became rich and died in New York ; Anthony 
 
6 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 W. Morse, who was distinguished in the New York Stock 
 Exchange by dashing speculation, and the attendant vicissi- 
 tudes of fortune ; Josiah and Levi Bartlett, brothers, who 
 made their lives useful in the practice of medicine ; Horace 
 Soper, who became respectable in the law ; and a number 
 of others, whose names I might mention, and whom I knew 
 in the sequel of their lives as worthy perhaps of a distinction 
 which they never reached, or perhaps aspired to. 
 
 Nathaniel Wilson,* a lawyer, at or near Bangor, is, if 
 living, the sole survivor of the group whom I could name. 
 
 On the north end of the common, lived Moses Dow, Esq., 
 many years register of probate. On the west side were 
 ranged Osgood, Swan, the widow Dow, Towle (inn-keeper), 
 Wright, (cashier of the bank), Coon. On the south was 
 George Woodward, and on the east were John Nelson and 
 David Sloan, Esquires ; Williams, the widow Bliss, Noah 
 Davis, (father of Chief Justice Noah Davis of New York,) 
 and Captain Adams ; their houses were all painted white, 
 except two. A few Lombardy poplars remained standing 
 like sentinels, in front of them, but soon fell victims to the 
 prevailing dislike that arose about that time towards those 
 unoffending things. It was a multifarious indictment that 
 was found by the grand inquest of the people. One would 
 aver that the tree nursed slugs ; another that it caused 
 houses to rot ; another that its shade was unhealtful ; that its 
 great height made it dangerous. In which of these, or for 
 what other crime the old fashioned dandy tree was doomed to 
 death, I know not, nor ever did. 
 
 The Coon house was then an inn, as appeared by a board 
 that swung in front of it. But few travellers called to dis- 
 turb the repose of Dr. Coon, whose age and corpulence made 
 exemption from such disturbances desirable. The house was 
 
 * Born in Haverhill, Sept. 29, 1808, d Orono, Me., January, 1892. 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. ( 
 
 afterwards sawn asunder ; one part, hauled to the south-east 
 corner of the common, became the residence of Mr. Blaisdell, 
 the other, removed down the south road, took to itself some 
 additions which qualified it to figure as the home of Gen. 
 Pool, who could command a brigade, or shoe its horses, as 
 occasion demanded. The ground was used for the site of 
 the Grafton bank. Mr. Woodward's house came at an early 
 day into the possession of Mr. Bell who enlarged and embel- 
 lished it. 
 
 Mr. Nelson's house presented a narrow front to the view, 
 but afterward took wings, and hovered a rare brood, long 
 since dispersed. 
 
 Mr. Sloan,* his neighbor, first came to Haverhill as pre- 
 ceptor of the academy, but afterwards entered the practice of 
 law, in which he continued till his death. 
 
 Mr. Williams made saddles and other gear for horses. 
 His shop, which was a chamber in his house, was sometimes 
 shared by Mr. May hew, whose reduced condition forced him 
 to make paper fly-traps by day and teach the French lan- 
 guage in the evening. Several boys whom I knew, actually 
 made such progress under him that they assured me that, 
 "Cammow-billy-bou-che-long," signified, "What do you call 
 that ? " That was the same Mayhew whose name was given 
 to the turnpike from Plymouth to Bristol, and who kept the 
 inn at the head of it. 
 
 Two men had died in Haverhill a few years before the 
 date of these records ; each somewhat distinguished in his 
 way, and each has transmitted to the present generation the 
 evidences of what we designate in animals as thorough 
 
 ♦David Sloan, born, Pelham, Mass., 1780. Dartmouth, 1806. Died, 
 1860. Came to Haverhill 1811, married daughter of Col. Thomas 
 Johnson of Newburj-, and had two sons who were graduates of Dart- 
 mouth, but died young. Scott Sloane of Woodsville, N.H.,is the son 
 of one of these. 
 
8 KEMINISCENCES OF 
 
 breeding. I mean that each has impressed upon his descend- 
 ants his own peculiar marks of form and temperament. 
 Their somewhat large estates in the northern part of the 
 town marched, I think, upon one another. Colonel Porter* 
 was of English parentage, and, if I have not been misinformed, 
 of English birth, also. His manners and his mode of life 
 were such as became a gentleman, and his discriminating 
 hospitalities were generous and extensive. He invested very 
 advantageously in land in Canada, as well as nearer home, 
 but did not live long enough to realize the splendid estate 
 which they would in a few more years have become. It 
 might not be easy to find his equal among his numerous 
 descendants, but they have been, to an extraordinary degree, 
 bright, gay, graceful and winning. Col. Porter was tall 
 and spare in his figure. He was largely conversant with 
 men, and a great many of his pithy sayings were currently 
 repeated seventy years ago. 
 
 His neighbor, Gen. Dow,f was less adventurous, but held 
 his small winnings with so firm a hand that he probably left 
 an easier task to hia executors than fell to the lot of Col. 
 Porter's, and a proportionately larger estate. If anybody 
 in derision could have spoken of him as a log, and taken the 
 liberty of sitting down upon him, such person would soon 
 have found the life and subtlity of the serpent within the 
 cold exterior. If he or his lacked the grace that men admire, 
 the adroitness with which they are guided, or the brilliancy or 
 
 * Col. Asa Porter came to Haverhill about 1770, a graduate of Har- 
 vard college ; lived where S. F. Southard now lives, on Horse Meadow. 
 He was a Tory; married a Miss Crocker, aud their daughter married 
 Mills Olcutt of Hanover, whose three daughters married VV. H. Dun- 
 can, Joseph Bell, and Rufus Choate. (See History of Haverhill, p. 82). 
 
 t Moses Dow, born, Atkinson, N. H. Harvard, 1769. Came to 
 Haverhill 1770. Owned the present Keyes farm. Major-General of 
 the State militia. Married Phebe Emerson. He died March 11, 1813, 
 aged 61. She died July 11, 1842, 91 years, 4 months. History of 
 Haverhill, p. 252 et seq. 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 
 
 beauty by which they are attracted, they have certainly shown 
 ability in winning the good things of this world, and are not 
 unlikely in the end to give a fair account of themselves. As 
 early as Gen. Dow's time it had come to be suspected that 
 the good things that men ate were not equally healthful. But 
 he knew no such differences, and declared unaffectedly, 
 ''The more I eat the better it is for me," 
 
 A son of this gentleman was Moses Dow, for many years 
 register of probate, and already round. He was a man of 
 remarkable quietude of manner, and, on sitting down, un- 
 consciously assumed all the appearance of being f\\st asleep. 
 He testified in a certain case, which will be adverted to in the 
 sequel, and which interested the neighborhood a good deal, 
 concerning somewhat noticed by him at about eight o'clock 
 in the evening. Counsel arguing the cause to the jury com- 
 menting upon Dow's testimony, exclaimed, "Eight o'clock 
 in the evening? Impossible, gentlemen ! My word for it, he 
 was at that hour asleep ! Do you doubt it? then look at him, 
 for there he sits, the very image of profound repose?" I 
 never heard a syllable in disparagement of his character or 
 conduct in office. He was appointed while its term was dur- 
 ing good behavior, but the legislature saw fit to change the 
 law, and Dow and Atherton, who had been long in oflfice 
 were displaced, and never afterwards appointed. 
 
 The widow of General Dow, and two daughters lived at 
 this time in their house on the west side of the common, and 
 next to Towle's inn.* These ladles had been genteelly edu- 
 cated, and possessed the only piano forte, but one in Haver- 
 hill. Neither of them was ever married, and the willing- 
 ness of one of them to become the wife of a gentleman, then 
 of great promise, and afterwards of great eminence in his 
 
 * Where Milo Bailey lived. It was somewhat altered after its 
 damage by the fire in 1848. 
 
10 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 profession, was one of the causes of an event that attracted a 
 vast deal of notice at the time, and the tradition of which 
 still survives. All the actors, and, I may safely say, all the 
 spectators of its scenes, have long ceased to care for it, and I 
 think I may, without risk of grieving any person, set down 
 what I remember of it. At that time, and tor many years 
 afterwards in New Hampshire, it was not unusual for a single 
 gentleman to be received as a boarder in the house of one of 
 the better class of people. One party to the arrangement 
 gained in this way a home, and the other a pleasant addition 
 to their's. It thus became convenient, and perfectly in har- 
 mony with the usages of the country, for Mr. Bell,* a gen- 
 tlemanly young lawyer to occupy one of the spare rooms in 
 the home of Mrs. Dow, and to be upon the terms of mutual 
 kindness, and of domesticity ordinarily attaching to such re- 
 lations. Unfortunately they resulted in the formation of ex- 
 pectations on the part of Miss Mary Dow, which were shared 
 by her mother and sister, and in consequent disappointment. 
 It is not necessary to believe that Mr. Bell willingly caused 
 or knew of the existence of these expectations. The honor- 
 able sequel of his life, indeed, rather demands that we should 
 believe the contrary. During his absence these ladies heard 
 of his engagement to a granddaughter of their old neighbor, 
 Col. Porter, charged him with it on his return, and expelled 
 him from the house, hurling his boxes into the road, and giv- 
 ing publicity to grief in every possible manner. I use the 
 terms of plurality, because I did not learn that the lady to 
 whom the alleged wrong had been done, was particularly 
 active in these demonstrations, or the contrary. She very 
 
 ♦Joseph Bell, born Bradford, Mass. ,1787. Dartmouth, 1807. Haver- 
 hill 1811-1842. Keinoved to Boston and became a partner with Henry 
 F. Durant who founded Wellesley College. President of Massa- 
 chusetts Senate. I..L. D., from Dartmouth College, 1837. Died at 
 Saratoga, ISol.— History of Haverhill. Bench and Bar of Grafton Co. 
 
HATERHILL CORNER. 11 
 
 soon retired to the place of her father's former residence,* 
 near Coos Meadows, and there remained durino- her life in 
 absolute seclusion. By reason of the shortening of the road, 
 the house had been thrown into obscurity behind a dense 
 growth of trees, and underwood, and to the traveller who 
 with difficulty gained a view of it seemed the fit abode of 
 gloom and despondency. There were persons of refinement 
 and position who were sincerely attached to the unfortunate 
 gentlewoman, and sympathized in her grief. 
 
 It would not be strange, therefore, if they shared in her 
 resentment also, and under its influence gave expression to 
 opinion not fully warranted by evidence. Her sister, a more 
 strenuous character, gave expression to her sense of the situ- 
 ation in a different manner, and, as it was said, she induced her 
 sister to consent to a suit at law. That unfortunate measure 
 was attended in the first place with a trial at Haverhill, in 
 which the jury failed to agree, and finally in one at Ply- 
 mouth, in which a verdict was rendered for the defendant. 
 The plaintiff 's principal counsel was Mr. (afterwards judge,) 
 Fletcher of Boston. The attorney-general, Mr. Sullivan, 
 argued the case for the defendant with ability that attracted 
 great commendation. 
 
 Previous to this last trial, a proposal was submitted to Mr. 
 Bell, who replied that his honor was at stake, and that he 
 could not retire until the end. A large bill of costs was in- 
 curred, which the defendant never enforced during the life of 
 the plaintiff, but did revive the judgment against the exe- 
 cutor, her sister, to whose advice and agency he imputed the 
 law suit, and who, by some inheritance had become able to 
 satisfy the judgment without much personal inconvenience, 
 or any abridgment of the comforts to which she was accus- 
 tomed. 
 
 * The house on the Kej'es farm ; burned in 1899. 
 
12 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 The boxes and other things which the exasperated ladies 
 had caused to be thrown out of doors, Mr. Bell caused to 
 be taken to the Grafton hotel, kept by Major St. Clair, 
 where he took lodgings, and to which place he brought his 
 wife after marriage. There they abode while the house which 
 had been George Woodward's was undergoing the required 
 alterations and repairs. They soon took possession of it, 
 and there lived until they left Haverhill and went to Boston 
 to reside, about twenty years afterwards. These twenty 
 years he devoted to a most successful practice of his profes- 
 sion, in which he became very eminent, and to the accumu- 
 lation of a fortune apparently in excess of what that practice 
 accounts for. He was believed to have been the purchaser 
 of a considerable part of Col. Porter's lands on terms that 
 left him a large profit. He was temperate and industrious 
 by habit, and either denied himself, or did not value, a large 
 intercourse with his neighbors. His manners were gentle- 
 manly, and his house a hospitable one.* 
 
 In politics his opinions were strong, and his feelings 
 always sufficiently animated. But he appeared to desire no 
 office, although his friends once endeavored to send him to 
 Congress. In person he was of medium stature, plethoric, 
 of dark complexion, with eyes and brows expressing force 
 and thought, rather than the mirth and suavity known to 
 those who were in his inner circle. He died at the age of 
 sixty, in the fulness of his fame. 
 
 Dr. Ezra Bartlett f lived and died in the house next to the 
 Grafton hotel, | on the east of it. He was son to Josiah 
 Bartlett, who signed the Declaration of Independence, and, 
 
 *Mary Dow difd Feb. 8, 1840. aged 55. Hannah Dow died Dec. 6, 
 1853, aged 64. (Cemetery.) 
 
 fDr. Bartlett was born Kingston 1770, died Dee. 5, 1848. 
 
 J The Grafton hotel was the three story house on Court street, 
 where the late Dr. Phineas Spaulding lived. The house in which Dr. 
 Bartlett lived is now the second beyond the Dr. Spaulding house. 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 13 
 
 in his old age at least, took pleasure in adverting to the fact. 
 Seventy years ago he w^as in full practice of his profession, 
 sharing v^^ith Dr. Carleton the cure of all maladies through- 
 out a large district, and so far as I ever learned, performed 
 his professional duties with ftiir success. Two of his sons, 
 at least, joined the medical profession, but not in Haverhill, 
 and his daughters were favorites in society. The doctor had 
 a leaning towards political life, and was more than once 
 elected Councillor. He dressed carefully. The frills of his 
 shirt were always in evidence, exquisitely plaited. His man- 
 ner and habits were perfectly dignified. 
 
 A diiFerent character, though a well dressed person, living 
 apparently at ease and without any kind of employment, 
 made daily appearance in public in those days. His walks 
 were strictly limited within half a mile of the jail, inside 
 which limit, whether for health or enjoyment he was much 
 abroad. In brief, he was one of a class rather numerous in 
 those days, termed "jail birds," unfortunate gentlemen who 
 had been imprisoned for debt, but by giving bonds to keep 
 within the prescribed distances from the prison, were set at 
 laro-e. After a while the gentleman referred to, settled with 
 his creditors, married a very nice young lady employed as 
 amanuensis in the registry of deeds, and disappeared from 
 Haverhill. A granddaughter is at this moment known as a 
 public singer of some eminence. 
 
 There were at that time a number of jail birds at that 
 place, most of them apparently laboring men, whose estab- 
 lished character for honesty enabled them to furnish the 
 required securities, and thus to obtain employment enabling 
 them to live. Imprisonment for debt was defended by some 
 sensible men who thought it acted as a restraint upon im- 
 prudence, as well as an aid to the poor man requiring credit. 
 He could obtain it by means of this sort of lien, which the 
 
14 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 creditor held upon the body of the debtor. But one very 
 serious mischief of the usage was that many enterprising and 
 useful men, foreseeing their inability to meet their payments, 
 absconded to avoid the disaster of their failure. 
 
 Imprisonment for debt was gradually alleviated, and in 
 1840 absolutely abolished, excenting always pre-existing con- 
 tracts, which the constitution of the United States did not 
 permit a state to impair, as it would do by weakening in any 
 form, the creditors' means of enforcing them. Consequently 
 for a number of years after the repeal, the process ran against 
 the body of a debtor whose contract ante-dated it, and I re- 
 member the case of one unlucky man as late as 1848, whose 
 case was not comprised in the several ameliorating statutes 
 designed for the relief of debtors, and who was held in close 
 confinement till he paid. 
 
 Prisons are stages at which a considerable class of advent- 
 urers are arrested, and not a few end, and that check and 
 eddy of passion results many times in scenes and traditions 
 very interesting. 
 
 I have not much to say of the Haverhill jail. Along with 
 a troupe of boys I followed to its portals an unhappy man 
 bound over by the justices of the peace for trial upon charge 
 of horse-stealing. I witnessed the examination, and pitied 
 the prisoner, who was a young looking and well dressed man, 
 and who, as I thought, was weeping during and after the 
 procedings. But before many weeks that penitent object of 
 my pity, had, with serrated edge of the main spring of a 
 watch, severed the iron bars of the casement, and escaped. 
 He was never recaptured, having, as was supposed, fled to 
 Canada. 
 
 The story of Burnham, his two-fold murder committed 
 within the walls of the same jail, and his execution upon the 
 summit of Magazine hill, lives no doubt in tradition. But a 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 15 
 
 brief appendix may possibly be new to the present generation, 
 and may be relied upon as strictly true, however droll. The 
 two men who were murdered had been committed for debt, 
 and the precept in form commanded the sheriff to keep them 
 in custody until released by due process of law. Now the 
 lawyer by whose agency the two men had been committed 
 did not 80 far abandon himself to the sensations of horror 
 generally awakened by the tragedy as to forget the interests 
 of his clients, and he cautioned the sheriff, who was jail 
 keeper as well, not to permit nor to suffer the dead bodies of 
 the prisoners to be removed, as he might by so doing become 
 liable to the conditions as for an escape, and advised him 
 carefully to examine the mittimus. The sheriff, old Col. 
 David Webster, a brave and honorable man, but conscious 
 of not being quite a match for the astute lawyer, was a little 
 amazed and puzzled by the condition. "What shall I do? 
 I cannot keep them till they decay. They will become in- 
 tolerable, etc., etc." "You can salt them," said the at- 
 torney. "I'll be d d if I do any such thing, but I'll 
 
 soon find out what my duty is." He was soon in his saddle, 
 and next morning about breakfast time dismounted at Judge 
 Livermore's in Holderness, who readily restored quiet to the 
 mind of the sheriff. The jail-keeper seventy years ago was 
 a Capt. Hoit who became embarrassed in his affairs and gave 
 place to Dea. George Punchard. 
 
 Note. — What has been said about seizing the bodies of de- 
 ceased persons for debt, was not very uncommonly done in the last 
 century. On the 28th of June 1785, Judge Thomas Chandler of 
 Chestei- died in Westminister, Vt.. jail, before he could take the bene- 
 fit of an act passed by the General Assembly four days before, releas- 
 ing him from imprisonment. The same penalties used in the case of 
 the victims of Burnham were threatened. Accordingly his body lay 
 in one of the cells of the jail until it became so oftensive as to endanger 
 the health of the inmates. At length Xathan Fisk, the jailer, sug- 
 gested an expedient which was put into practice. The jail yard bor- 
 dered upon the burying ground, and a grave was dug within the jail 
 limits, but sloping 'obliquely under the fence in such a manner 
 
16 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 [Stephen] Peabody Webster,* Esquire, was clerk of the 
 Superior Court, and kept its records in a room in his house, 
 which he made cheerful in winter with a good fire, and with 
 the fragrance of paper. He had a farm "out back," which 
 he enlarged by draining a small lake, and he had lands, not 
 his farm, in the same vague i-egion and elsewhere. I name 
 these facts concerning the land, as the genteel form of indi- 
 catinjr that he was rather straio^htened than flush in the arti- 
 cle of money, for land in those days was a terrible burden to 
 its possessor. Esquire Webster led the singing on Sundays 
 at meeting, and gave it emphasis by nods and gestures, stand- 
 ing erect in the gallery, and beating time upon the book. 
 He did somewhat in the politics of the state, in whose Senate 
 he used to sit. But the light of that house was Mrs. Web- 
 ster. The pair had been denied children, in order, it would 
 seem, that the love with which her heart abounded, might be 
 shed far and wide, penetrating places otherwise loveless and 
 forlorn, and ascend to the exalted source and worthiest ob- 
 ject of it. Her great goodness towards everyone with whom 
 she came in contact was a charm that they all felt. She was 
 leader moreover, among women in all manifold endeavor for 
 the unseen suffering, benighted, or oppressed. She had a 
 
 Ihat the bottom of the ^rave was withiu the latter, and the man was 
 accordino;ly burled In It without being removed from the jail limits. 
 This Chandler was one of the grantees of Chester, and a noted man in 
 his time. He was a Tory. — HalVs Eastern Vt.^ p. 583, 633-637. 
 
 Burnham sold his body to Dr. Bartlett for ten dollars. Josiah 
 Burnham murdered Russell Freeman and Capt. Joseph Starkweather 
 in Haverhill jail on the evening of Dec. 17, 1805. He was tried at 
 Plymouth, his defense being Daniel Webster's first case. He was 
 hanged on Powder house hill Aug. 12, 1806, before an assemblage of 
 10,000 people. A sermon was preached by Rev. David Sutherland of 
 Bath. He sold his body for rum, and it was taken to the Ox Bow in 
 Newbury, and dissected by the doctors. The manacles with which 
 he was confined, and the rope with which he was hanged, are still in 
 the jail. For the conditions of Haverhill jail at different times, see 
 Parker Pillsbury's " Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles,*' p.p. 125, 
 292-295. The jail was built in 179.3, and rebuilt about 1845. 
 
 *S. P. Webster, graduate of Harvard college. Clerk from 1805-35. 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 17 
 
 small apartment in her house for the custody of the "Tracts,' ' 
 as agent for the society that published them, and was never 
 happier than to aid the young people who called for them in 
 the selection of such as fitted their several conditions of mind, 
 or worldly fortune She knew all, and did much about 
 piissionary, educational and Bible societies. Her house was 
 the meeting place of their travellers, and of the ministers who 
 came to the village. 
 
 If Mrs. Webster was more compliant towards the tastes of 
 us boys, and even understood us a little better, she loved us 
 more, and strove more earnestly for our good ; that lay, she 
 thought, in a direction opposite to that of the pleasant ways 
 denoted by the boys' instincts, and lightened by her hus- 
 band's indulgent countenance. On Sunday mornings in 
 summer we were sent to our chambers, each with a tract, to 
 await the hour of preparation for a more serious duty, and 
 her familiar hail at the foot of the stairs, "Now boys, you 
 may lay aside your tracts, and go into the garden and gather 
 your carraway, and then it will be time to set out for meet- 
 ing." That sort of nosegay was deemed to be the thing for 
 the holy hour, and, to say the truth, it has to this day the 
 odor of sanctity to my nostrils.* 
 
 We were called to meeting by the sweetest toned bell ever 
 heard, which old Mr. Cross made to swing in the steeple of 
 the meeting house f on Ladd street, with a strongly religious 
 
 *Peabody Webster lived in a large two-story house on Court street, 
 the last two-story house on the left as you go east, and where Mr. 
 Merrill now lives. That is the house where Rev. Ethan Smith lived 
 about 1790-1800. He (Mr. Smith) was a learned and noted man, and 
 wrote a bool< to prove that the Indians are descendants of the ten lost 
 tribes, 
 
 t The old meeting house stood on the east side of Ladd street, (first 
 occupied in 1790), a few rods north of the street that goes up to the 
 depot. The school house on the corner was built from its materials. 
 The old bell, (craclied) is in its tower. 
 
18 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 air which no other bell ever had ; nor could any but the 
 same old man draw forth from that one. 
 
 Grant Powers* expounded the doctrines to a congregation 
 that knew not the infelicity of doubt, and with the air of one 
 who did not doubt either his own dogma, or his hearers' ac- 
 ceptance of it. The system of faith conserved in that church 
 did certainly prevail. Those who resisted were marked. 
 Those who regarded the matter objectively not the less be- 
 lieved, and looked for the day when that belief should be in- 
 formed with life, and should bear fruit in their own hearts. 
 Among these I may name, without disrespect, the remnant of 
 the Dow family, whose apathy was such that they did not all 
 even go habitually to meeting. They were not the less happy 
 in believing that a boy named Bailey Martin, a very poor 
 and ignorant boy, had obtained religion, and they were so 
 much impressed by the change the event had wrought upon 
 the lad, that they invited one or two of their friends to wit- 
 ness his demonstrations. The poor, ignorant boy was called 
 in, and at their request assumed a devotional attitude, in 
 which the spectators joined, and confessed to God that he 
 was a sinner, and had been a sinner from the time that he 
 was knee-high to a toad! 
 
 Following the afternoon meeting was the Sunday school, 
 held in a school house at the Corner. For this the boys and 
 girls prepared by committing to memory such hymns and 
 Scripture as they pleased, for which they received payment 
 at the rate of one cent for each hundred verses so committed. 
 The tally was kept by the issue of tickets of the denomina- 
 tion of one cent and one mill, all of which were redeemed in 
 cash at the end of the quarter. If the mammon of the world 
 
 *Rev. Grant Powers, born in Hollis, N. H., 1784, nephew of Rev. 
 Peter Powers, son of Lampson and Elizabeth (Nutting) Powers. Dart- 
 mouth, 1810. At Haverhill 1815-29 Died in Goshen, Ct., 1841. 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 19 
 
 appeared to some to have been unwarrantably thu8 drawn 
 into the service of religion, it may be remembered that much 
 Scripture was through this inducement impressed upon memo- 
 ries at a period when such memories are most impressible 
 and retentive. Conference came in the evening "at early 
 candle-lio-hting," at which the minister was not ordinarily 
 present, but left to the deacons and other gifted members of 
 the church, the conduct of that somewhat diversified scene of 
 exhortation, psalmody, mutual encouragement and prayer. 
 
 "Early candle-lighting," the formula used by the minister 
 to denote the time for the conference to assemble, denoted 
 also the absence of clocks in some of the houses that could 
 be depended upon as unerring time-keepers. I like to dwell 
 upon any of the tokens of manners more primitive than 
 our own, when the flight of the hours was marked by the 
 movement of the heavenly bodies, when the cock announced 
 the beginning of the day's labor, and the twilight its close. 
 This gloaming on Sunday never failed of light sufficient to 
 guide the pious steps of dear Mrs. Webster to the conference. 
 She bore in a brass candlestick a tallow candle, to help in 
 the imperfect illumination of the scene. If she ever wearied 
 of the clumsy exhortations of the actors, their prayers that 
 painfully dragged, for the devout orator to frame a wish or to 
 imagine a want not already more than supplied by the 
 bountiful source of all good ; if she failed to be wakened to 
 ecstacy by the singers grouped around the candles, and hold- 
 ing their books in a manner to receive their very dim light, 
 she took up arms against the perception of such weariness, 
 because the conference was a means of grace, and it was her 
 duty, and must be her pleasure to attend it with regularity. 
 And she did so. Twenty years at least, later, that candle 
 was represented by its like, conveyed in the same brass 
 candlestick, by the same figure, scarcely changed, though 
 moving with steadiness naturally impaired by age. 
 
20 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Seventy years ago the kitchen clock in Mrs. Webster's 
 house was wound on Saturday evenings, because the wind- 
 ino" was not counted a work of necessity or mercy permitted 
 to be done on Sunday. Of her views as to some worldly 
 amusements, I shall have occasion to say somewhat in the 
 sequel. On the subjects of portraits she adopted the popular 
 estimate, with the qualification that a good portrait might 
 become a snare, and cited the case of a minister who found 
 that of a most beloved daughter, deceased, worked a mischief 
 upon his heart, and a hindrance in the path of his duty. He 
 caused the offending picture to be taken down from the wall, 
 and hidden in the garret, declaring the cause to be that he 
 found himself " carrying it to meeting with him." 
 
 Captain Benjamin Merrill was, seventy years ago, the 
 foremost man of business at Haverhill Corner, and in the 
 matter of honesty, no one had, or could have had a higher 
 character. He kept store in a building next to Grafton 
 hotel on the west ; the two brothers, John and Samuel Page, 
 conducting a like business in the one next in the same 
 direction. Mr. Nelson later built his office immediately 
 west of Page's store, and then came Jacob Williams' garden. 
 
 Captain Merrill appeared to be engaged in numerous mis- 
 cellaneous transactions outside his store-keeping, and at his 
 death, at an early age, left a substantial accumulation of 
 property to his widow and numerous children. His life was 
 a highly exemplary one, during which he appeared to avail 
 himself of every opportunity for doing kind and obliging 
 thinsrs. An anecdote used to be told of his sao-acious use of 
 silence, in one of those cases where men are more frequently 
 clamorous. A thief had deprived him of a side of bacon, or 
 some such thing, the loss of which had been perceived by 
 himself alone. He wisely held his peace till long after the 
 event. A man who lived several miles distant called at the 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 21 
 
 store and kindly commented upon the theft, and asked the 
 Captain whether or not he had been able to detect the author. 
 "Never till this moment," was the crushing reply. "You are 
 the very fellow ! " 
 
 On one Sunday afternoon in summer, his teamster came 
 galloping into the village upon one of his French horses, 
 driving the other before him. In an hour it became known 
 to all the inhabitants that the wao-on loaded with ffoods from 
 Boston had been overset a few miles distant, a hoofshead of 
 molasses burst, and the teamster had hurried into town in 
 this manner for vessels to save the wasting treacle. The tale 
 was told and listened to as only people tell and listen, whose 
 quiet lives yield but tew topics for animated discourse. Days 
 after the event the minister, calling on Mrs. Webster, intro- 
 duced it in conversation. Her reply was to express hope 
 that it would be a warning to Sabbath breakers. But the 
 minister was convinced it would have no such effect, "for 
 sinners will go on to their own destruction," And Mrs. 
 Webster admitted that such was the truth. There was much 
 discussion in the village, as to whether Captain Merrill was 
 responsible in the sight of God, for the act of his servant, 
 performed without special instructions, or whether the 
 teamster having got within half a day's travel at the end of 
 his journey, ought to have remained for Sunday to pass by, 
 or rather use a part of the holy season to reach his home. 
 
 Capt. Merrill was so much esteemed by all that there 
 was a prevailing disposition to solve all doubts in his favor, 
 and to regret the loss of the molasses, rather than censure 
 the loser for a merely constructive offense, if indeed any 
 such had been committed. 
 
 Further down the road at the point at which it reaches the 
 common, and on the right, or northerly side of the road, 
 lived another notable lady, Mrs. Bliss. f Her husband who 
 
 tThe old Bliss tavern, where Mr. Leith now lives. The first post 
 office in Haverhill was kept in that building, during Wasliington's 
 administration. Mrs. Bliss was Mr. Livermore's grandmother. 
 
22 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 had been a captain in the Massachusetts line during the war of 
 the Revolution, died in 1818, leaving her with little, except 
 the house, to continue the business of the variety shop that 
 was in one corner of it. She did so in cheerful obedience to 
 the necessities of the case, though she narrowed that business 
 as soon as convenient to a few specialties of women's wear 
 and adornment, within the circle so indicated. She felt that 
 her taste was so correct as to enable her, and therefore to 
 require her as a duty, to do better for her customers than 
 merely to minister to their fancies, and perpetuate their fol- 
 lies by supplying the uncomely they demanded. So when a 
 customer, instead of inquiring of the shopkeeper what it was 
 proper to have, asked point blank for high heeled shoes, or 
 fabrics of unsightly color, the answer was conveyed in terms 
 of courtesy, strangely in contrast with the tone and counten- 
 ance that reflected, and generally repressed forever the un- 
 becoming fancy. True, the customer did not always "tremble 
 like a guilty thing surprised," and nothing worse occurred 
 than her retirement, and accommodation at some more 
 largely furnished shop, and at the hands of more compliant 
 shopkeepers. 
 
 Mrs. Bliss was a church member, and would not yield to 
 another in her loyalty to the minister and to the church. 
 But she never sought eminence among the promoters of 
 religion or education, or the dissemination of tracts and 
 Bibles, though opposed to none of those things, and indeed 
 a contributor to most of them. From her natural temper 
 she was disinclined to associations, and unfit for their ways. 
 In one other thing she differed from Mrs. Webster, who 
 with much loving sympathy with the young and their amuse- 
 ments in general, absolutely denounced dancing. It was in 
 her eyes a sin in itself, and under no circumstances or con- 
 ditions could it be other than a sin. Mrs. Bliss, on the 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 23 
 
 contrary, contended that, shocking as it must be for a 
 church member to dance, there was much to excuse young 
 people who had not professed religion, indulging in that 
 amusement. It was as innocent amusement as any, and 
 more so than many that were generally permitted. Its forms 
 were based on courtesy, and tended to animate and preserve 
 good manners. Persons going to a ball perfectly under- 
 stood that they must wear nice clothes, and practice the 
 most perfect manners possible. There is reason to believe 
 that these sentiments, though expressed with modesty, and 
 with a desire to avoid giving offense, impaired in some degree 
 the good lady's standing in the church, and held her without 
 its interior circle and the atmosphere of the associations. 
 
 She however found society. The best of it was not of this 
 world, but of the enchanted w^orld of the author of Waverly, 
 His books were making their appearance in quick succes- 
 sion, and were read by no one with more intense enjoyment 
 than by her. Her next greatest pleasure seemed to be in 
 repeating their contents to her customers and visitors. Books 
 were then less accessible in Haverhill than now, and novels 
 were more than proportionately few. 
 
 Seventy years ago you would have said, "The Eastern 
 stage goes out on Mondays and Fridays at four o'clock in 
 the morning." Such was the phrase, and such was the fact. 
 Before that hour the driver went through the village to knock 
 at the doors from which the passengers were booked, and with 
 the butt of his great whip-stock failed not to awaken them, 
 and many of the neighbors as well. But these all knew the 
 cause of the din, and though not without neighborly interest 
 in it, soon composed themselves to sleep again. 
 
 The "coach," as we now say, did go out from St. Clair's 
 inn. The board which swung at a great height in front of it 
 was lettered "Grafton Hotel, J. W. St. Clair," and other- 
 
24 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 wise embellished. The coaches used were sundry, of abnor- 
 mal forms, tentative in the direction of utility and comeliness, 
 and rejected experiments apparently, and therefore adapted 
 to an enterprise which was deemed also an experiment ex- 
 posed to like failure. But the managers were obliging toward 
 their customers, were persevering and faithful, and so in the 
 distant end, successful. 
 
 This coach, starting at four o'clock in the mornmg with 
 the mail, no larger than could easily be carried upon the 
 driver's arm, and tossed into its place, (where he seemed to 
 keep it by sitting upon it), together with the passengers 
 arrived at Morse's inn in Rumney for a breakfast that seemed 
 late. After which it proceeded by Mayhew's turnpike, and 
 that part of Salisbury now called Franklin, to Concord, 
 which it reached about six in the afternoon, unless retarded 
 by adverse conditions of weather — spring and autumn mud, 
 and so forth. We were drawn in successive and inter- 
 changeable teams by Smart, May and Hewston. 
 
 Smart was accounted the best whip, and, proud of the dis- 
 tinction, upset his coach, and was run away with by his 
 horses more frequently than the rest. Col. Silas May was 
 of serious demeanor, like a deacon, and not otherwise remark- 
 able, but finally to escape trouble in some forgotten form, ran 
 off. But Hewston witched the world by means of an im- 
 mensely long tin horn, which announced the coming of the 
 stage, as if it were a band of music. 
 
 I shall not forget the gamut of that amazing instrument, 
 the tramp of the four steaming horses, the rattle and creak of 
 the coach, and the jingle of the chains, and other gear, as the 
 man drove by us boys that had gone out on a summer's 
 evening to meet it. We had been released from school, had 
 our tea, and the cool and tranquil evening that disposed us 
 often to that quiet pastime, took like effect apparently with 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 25 
 
 the older generation, that failed not to be largely represented 
 at the Grafton hotel. The passengers who chose to stop there 
 with their baggage, having been discharged, the coach was 
 then driven down across the common to Towle's inn. 
 
 One word in memory of two of the horses. They were 
 widely known as Paddy and Hunter, and earned their fame 
 by out-tasking many a pair of wheelers they led in the ser- 
 vice, to which they were devoted. I know how much they 
 were esteemed by Robert Morse their owner, and I have com- 
 fort in the knowledge of his humane disposition, that their old 
 age was cared for. 
 
 The Bath stage was driven by Tim Hurd. The vehicle 
 was open, with the exception of a hood or bellows-top that 
 protected the back seat, and was drawn by two horses that 
 were made always to leave and enter the village on a gallop. 
 I thought the affair to be a smart one, till I was taken to 
 Bath as a passenger, when I came to suspect that the gallop 
 was taken up for show. It was followed by a very languid 
 pace the rest of the way. This stage "went out" and re- 
 turned on Sundays, and on Wednesdays it proceeded as far as 
 Lancaster, returning the next day. 
 
 The Hanover four-horse stage was driven by Swasey ; 
 leaving Haverhill twice a week, in the afternoon, and re- 
 turning early in the morning. There were in addition, the 
 Grafton stage, which found it's way to Concord through 
 Canaan, but its existence was fitful ; and the St. Johnsbury 
 stage, of which I remember nothing. Hoitt, a man of storm- 
 defying countenance, drove the former, and caused to be 
 painted upon one of the panels, "Wide Awake." But to 
 no effect, for the thing passed away, and with it Hoitt's oc- 
 cupation. 
 
 The mail brought the Boston Recorder, a religious paper, 
 edited by Willis ; and the Boston Courier, edited by Buck- 
 
26 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 ingham ; and I think no others from without the state. The 
 New Hampshire Patriot had no rival in Concord, although a 
 religious paper called the Observer was then published. 
 
 Sylvester T. Goss came to Haverhill a little later, and re- 
 newed the attempt, in which several had failed, to establish a 
 newspaper there. It was not of his paper, but of a prede- 
 cessor, that Dr. Moore, the wag of the period, said to the 
 printer, after inquiring most kindly, and expressing deep 
 interest concerning the enterprise; "My dear fellow, you 
 plainly have a good deal of work in getting your paper 
 through your press, and if it will relieve you in any degree, 
 I beg you will not scruple to send me the paper without the 
 printing. It will really be all the same to me, you know." 
 
 It will be a slight anachrocism, but I will pause to name 
 two men who assisted in Goss's printing office — Buzzell 
 Dow, who afterwards became rich by printing Bibles, and 
 other religious books, and another whose name I never quite 
 knew, but who was known as Goss's Dandy, so wisely was 
 his apparel shaped and worn. His hat was white beaver, 
 bell-shaped to extravagance ; his coat, swallow-tail, blue, 
 with brass buttons, and black velvet collar ; waistcoat of 
 white marseilles, with border of blue vignette, most flam- 
 buoyant ; trousers of w^hite linen, wonderfully full in the legs, 
 and down four inches from the shoe, the interval being 
 occupied with white cotton hose. 
 
 His pastime after working hours was to appear in these 
 clothes, in and about taverns and shops where spirits were 
 abroad, to converse with those spirits, and give voice to their 
 inspirations. I never saw him fight, but certainly heard him 
 intimate on such occasions that he could fight, and would do 
 so, if provoked. 
 
 I do not know what title Mons. Dorion has to be cele- 
 brated in this history. But Dorion made occasional visits to 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 27 
 
 Haverhill, and passed weeks there, innocently enough, so far 
 as I ever heard. Why he came, and why, being there, he 
 chose to go, was not apparent. Some said that he held a 
 mortgage upon the possessions of a gentlemen at that time 
 admitted to be less affluent than of old, but still residing in 
 his own fair house, and in countenance. He was a French- 
 man, (Canadian, I suppose) and did not go to meeting, al- 
 though his clothes were excellent, and fully up to the require- 
 ments of public worship. 
 
 He was at one time taken sick, and on that occasion was 
 accosted by some good person on the subject of religion. 
 He said that he had sometimes, in view of the uncertainty of 
 the issue of his sickness, thought of repentance, but was re- 
 strained by the further thought that if he should get well, he 
 would be very sorry for having so unadvisedly and prema- 
 turely made that preparation for death. 
 
 He carried a gold repeater which he used to hold to my 
 
 ear. 
 
 A more remarkable character was a West Indian Spaniard, 
 who occassionally made his appearance. His name I could 
 never quite master. He was a young and decidedly hand- 
 some man, of the dark type. He drove in a chaise two 
 grays, tandem, the leader trained to gallop while the other 
 kept the trot. He had for a companion a Mr. Wilson, an 
 older man, and was free with his money, of which there is 
 evidence that he had good store. He lived in a log house 
 which he had built in a forest, in or near the town of Lon- 
 donderry, and furnished and finished in a style of great 
 luxury. His eccentricities unhappily shaded toward excesses. 
 I know nothing of the end.* 
 
 * Morrison's history of Windham has an account of a character 
 who irmobablv the same man as Mr.Livermore mentions. He states 
 Jha? fn Mav 1823 F. L. Bissell, an East Indian came to Wmdham. 
 He was a nYti e o Sumatra. He had an English education, and was 
 
28 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 James I. Swan* died about 70 years ago, at an early age 
 to have achieved the reputation for extraordinary professional 
 ability which attached to him. He did not reside at Haver- 
 hill, but he married the daughter of Mr. Sprague, who built 
 and occupied the house in that place between the Nelson and 
 Williams houses, which Mr. Sloan afterwards occupied. 
 
 George Woodward was among the most conspicuous fig- 
 ures in Haverhill, and in courtesy of manner, and in winning 
 kindness toward everyone, was held by many to be the model 
 of a gentleman. He had been, and it is my impression that 
 he was, seventy years ago, clerk, or the assistant clerk of 
 the superior court, and at a later date became clerk of com- 
 mon pleas. He lived in the house at the south end of the 
 common, that afterwards became the residence of Mr. Joseph 
 Bell, kept his office there, and eked out a greatly reduced 
 income by taking to board the boys sent from a distance to 
 attend the academy. 
 
 In early life he had been in good practice, and also the 
 cashier of Coos bank, whose disastrous failure brought down 
 the cashier and board of directors, and drew upon them all 
 the imputations that commonly dog the steps of misfortune. 
 A ffood deal of litigation, tending^ to the damas^e of their fair 
 fame, followed the break-down of the bank, but Mr. Wood- 
 heir to a large estate, which was in the hands of a Mr. White of 
 Salera, Mass., his guardian. At this time he was about 18 or 19. 
 After camping out for awhile, he with some intimates built a log 
 cabin, rough on the outside, but finished in the most elaborate man- 
 ner within, on the shore of Mitchell's pond. In time he built a fine 
 stable, and kept several teams, spending money liberally, and attract- 
 ing many guests by his fine liquors. In the course of several years 
 he used up his money, and disappeared. The place was kept up as a 
 sort of tavern for some time, but fell into disrepute, and decay. The 
 log house stood until 1SG5. The fish pond still remains. — History of 
 Windham, pp. 251-253. 
 
 ♦James I. Swan, born in Haverhill in 1780. Eead law with Alden 
 Sprague. Admitted to the bar in 1802. In practice at Lisbon till 
 1807. At Bath till death. Married Elizabeth Sprague. No children 
 survived him. — Bench and Bar of Grafton County. 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 29 
 
 ward's good spirits appeared not to have forsaken him ; and 
 according to Mr. Mason, who was his counsel, he was too 
 intent upon psalm singing to bestow proper attention upon his 
 case, at times when such attention was most urgently required , 
 and might most reasonably have been expected. 
 
 At the time to which these reminiscences relate, he sat in 
 the gallery with the singers on Sundays, and appeared to 
 alternate with Mr. Webster in the lead of that performance. 
 
 I must here insert a parenthesis, to record that Mr. Chap- 
 man, the gardener, performed upon the bass viol, which was 
 the only instrument used in their solemnities. 
 
 Mr. Woodward conveyed his family to meeting in a wagon 
 having two seats, and often took me up on a hot summer's 
 day, with a considerate kindness I cannot forget. I know 
 not through what causes, or by what influences impelled, Mr. 
 Woodward became a Methodist, and taking up his abode in 
 the Noah Davis house, between Mrs. Bliss' house and the 
 academy, opened its doors to the brethren of that persuasion, 
 with such liberality that he was commonly at his wits end 
 for means to feed and clothe his own family. He could not 
 re-make himself, nor efface the gentleman that he was, but 
 it is to be confessed that his style became in a measure 
 debased, and he left Haverhill a changed man.* 
 
 I inherited from both my parents a very kind regard for 
 him, and should be most happy to know that his numerous 
 children had been prosperous, in spite of the inevitable neg- 
 lect of their education, ensuing upon his eccentricites, and 
 the forfeiture of position that a different course might have 
 preserved for them at the outset of their lives. 
 
 * George Woodward, born in Hanover in 1776, son of Judge Beza- 
 leel Woodward. His mother was a daugiiter of the 1st President 
 Wheelock. Dartmouth, 1793. Came to Haverhill, 1805. Removed 
 to Lowell, Mass., in 1826. Died in 1836. Judge Warren Currier of 
 St. Louis, married one of his daughters. — History of Haverhill p. 259. 
 
30 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 A winding up of the affairs of the Coos bank was entrusted 
 to Mr. John Nelson,* a lawyer, who passed the whole of his 
 professional life in Haverhill, where he died May 3, 1838, at 
 the age of about sixty years. The trust was of considerable 
 magnitude, and was executed by him in a manner that per- 
 fectly satisfied the parties interested, and made, it is said, his 
 own fortune ; that is to say, as much as, with his moderate 
 desires and prudent management, created a state of perfect 
 independence. At the epoch to which these reminiscences 
 refer, Mr. Nelson appeared to be in rather feeble health. 
 His form was slender, and his walk remarkably slow, so that 
 the boys at safe distances made their remarks upon those 
 peculiarities. The next winter found him largely engaged 
 in out-of-door employments, which had the desired effect of 
 restoring his health. I well remember seeing him driving 
 home his horses and sled loaded with wood, keeping his 
 position at the hind end by holding on to the stakes. He 
 was a man of very few words, and a gentle and somewhat 
 muffled voice. If brilliancy of speech and wit may be 
 reo-arded as forming a very strong contrast with such man- 
 ners, then that contrast was presented by Mrs. Nelson, whose 
 countenance was always radiant, and whose speech was in- 
 formed with good sense, and the fruits of intelligent observa- 
 tion. She was very much a gentlewoman, had no affecta- 
 tions or pretensions, but a summary way of dealing with 
 those affectations objectively. 
 
 During our annus mirabilis, and long before and after, 
 Ephraim Kingsbury was recorder of deeds for the county, 
 and kept his office in his house, which was then upon the road 
 
 * John Nelson, born in Exeter in 1778; Dartmouth, 1800; first wife 
 was Susannah, daughter of Gen. Eben Brewster of Hanover; second 
 wife was a daughter of John Leverett of Windsor, Vt. ; one of their 
 daughters married Chief Justice Ira Perley of Concord ; the late John 
 L. Nelson, United States Circuit Judge, of Worcester, Mass., was his 
 son. 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 
 
 31 
 
 leading northward from the Corner, and a few doors removed 
 from the Grafton bank, that low white building so alluring 
 to burglars, and so unresisting. Kingsbury was by nature 
 a recorder. His pale, cleanly and somewhat plethoric figure 
 and gray hair were at ease among the folios in his custody. 
 His Tcript, as plain and regular as type, was a model for 
 such uses as his office required. His manners bland and easy, 
 but rather sad than gay, marked a temper most irascible. 
 So long and so well had he exercised his office that it seemed 
 to have become his own, so that when your pestilent politics 
 set in, and bestowed it in reward of services, at that time the 
 act seemed unnatural. 
 
 The salary, or whatever was the form of emolument at- 
 tached to the office, had not yielded the means for the modest 
 support of the man who had devoted himself to it, and a 
 small deal in stationery and the taking of boarders had given 
 him but a wretched supplement, so that when the politician 
 came to claim his own, poor Kingsbury was poor indeed. 
 But it was after all benevolent fury that dealt the blow, for 
 he rallied, and found in the great city a better desk, at which, 
 after many years, he died.* 
 
 He had somehow incurred the censure of the church. I 
 am convinced that his offense was not a flagrant one, because 
 Mr. Powers the minister thought it necessary to bestow a long 
 afternoon sermon in justification of the decree of excommu- 
 nication which came in for the "Amen." I distinctly re- 
 member listening to the good minister's oratory with more 
 reverence than understanding, and, according to my best 
 recollection and belief, had not the faintest idea of what it was 
 all about, but that it differed from a sermon in the terminal 
 phrase, and in the perpetu al recurrence of "Mr. King s- 
 
 *Ephraim Kingsbury, born in 1775; Dartmouth, 1797; came to 
 Haverhill 1799 ; removed about 1834 ; died m :Sew \ orli. 
 
32 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 bury." The other boys remarked how the minister kept 
 saying "Mr. Kingsbury," "Mr. Kingsbury." The result 
 was that the gentleman so unpleasantly discoursed against, 
 from that time forth pointed his horse's head in the opposite 
 direction, and became one of Mr. Blake's* congregation at 
 Piermont. 
 
 At this large distance of time, and giving due allowance 
 for difference between boyhood and old age in their faculties 
 of perception and judgement, I think I am safe in saying 
 that Mr. Blake was a man of extraordinary force in the jml- 
 pit. It was from his discourses that I derived my earliest 
 notion of eloquence, and my first perceptions generated by 
 genuine thought and set on fire by the passion of the hour. 
 His introduction was so deliberate, and with pauses so long 
 as to alarm a stranger as to the issue of it all. Meantime he 
 would lean upon the cushion, looking downward and wag- 
 ging his head from side to side, appearing to be chasing 
 thoughts far distant. By degrees these wanderers seemed to 
 come scattering homeward, and soon you found them ranged 
 in logical form, and in vollies of fine declamation. He was 
 reported to have concluded his sermon upon Emily Towle 
 with Cato's Soliloquy. For such audacious doings and such 
 popular fascination I believe the ministers of his association 
 hated him as much as the dead can hate the living — which 
 is not at all. The poor man was starved out of Piermont, 
 and migrated with his hardy sons to Ohio. 
 
 It was a long, long, straight road of gentle ascent, at the 
 end of which Piermont meeting house seemed to recede as I 
 approached it on sunny days, and I can certainly trust my 
 memory with the record it returns to me, of the weariness of 
 my walk, and of the motives that induced it. It was not 
 
 *Rev. Robert Blake, a native of Scotland, minister at Piermont, 
 1819-1836. 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 
 
 33 
 
 mere boy's sense of freedom and tendency to adventure. I 
 was fascinated by the speech I went to listen to. 
 
 Emily Towle was one of the bevy of girls of my own age, 
 and died at the age of about eighteen.* When I last saw 
 her, the disease of which she died had just begun its work by 
 transmitting her into an object of surpassing beauty. Her 
 coevals were Mary and Sarah Bartlett, Harriett Merrill, and 
 
 Charlotte Osgood. 
 
 The small differences of age and localities that limit the 
 intimacies of boys and girls disappear as they become older. 
 But my ce7isus, remember, was taken seventy years ago, and 
 is rigid at the number of girls I have named. I then deemed 
 them so fair that it is not easy now to doubt they were other- 
 wise. If there was illusion in the case, I do not wish to be 
 
 disenchanted. 
 
 A short distance beyond Piermont meeting house lived the 
 widow of Dr. Wellman, mother as well of a number of beauti- 
 ful dauo-hters. I remember the sad announcement that her 
 only son had been brought home from Boston a raving 
 maniac. He remained more than twenty years in terrible 
 imprisonment in one of the chambers in his mother's house, 
 where after an hour's lucid interval he died, remembering 
 only in the most vague and imperfect way the large span of 
 darkness and the trouble he had caused, and begged his 
 
 mother to forgive. f 
 
 * Emily H. dau. of Edw. Towle, died May 22, 1829, aged 19.— Cem. 
 tVVellmau family iu cemetery on the river road, Piermont. Mr.Martin 
 says that their bodies were removed to that place severa years ago. 
 Dr. Lemuel Wellman, Nov. 14, 1815, 45 yrs, 10 mos, 11 dys; Esther 
 Steele Russell Wellman, born at Beauford, Conn •« 1770 died in 
 New York City Dec 1, 1851; Lemuel Wellman, died July 8, 1842, 4G, 
 Amelia Wellman, died Mar 26, 1814, 11 yrs, 29 d>;s; Mary Patterson 
 widow of Dr. Thomas Pvussell, born at Cornwall, Conn., Jan. lU, 174c{, 
 died in Malone, N. Y., Dec. 7, 1822; Dr. Thos ?"f «l^. born at Beau- 
 ford, Conn., Oct. 14, 1727, died in Piermont in lb03; Electa, then 
 daughter, died SeptJ 11, 1783 15 days; Anthony Wellnian son of 
 Anthony and Electa B Morse, died March 12, 1834, 3 yrs , Thos. btus- 
 sell, died Oct. 20, 1841, 24 mos. 
 
34 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 One of the daughters became the wife of John S. Wright, 
 and mother of three sons. She died before her husband left 
 Haverhill. The dispute of Eben Wright's will was a notori- 
 ous recent event in Boston. Hester Wellman was beautiful 
 and in every way charming. So indeed was Brittannia, the 
 youngest of the sisters, but in my eyes not quite so much so. 
 An older sister married Anthony Morse,* and was the 
 the mother of Mrs. Berg,f and grandmother to Lilly Berg, 
 if I am correctly informed. Pamelia Osgood was a pretty 
 and attractive young lady in 1820, and so were the four 
 daughters of Mr. Gookin, who lived opposite the meeting 
 house in the Ladd neighborhood. Laura Bartlett was, dur- 
 ing that year, married to Jacob Bell who kept the store that 
 had been Gen. Montgomery's at the Oliverian Brook. 
 
 In the realm of beauty at the same date, was Augusta St. 
 Clair, who soon after became the wife of Ezra C. Hutchins, 
 then of Bath, and afterwards of Boston. 
 
 I find a difficulty in assigning a social rank to the few 
 young ladies of the age of those mentioned, because if the 
 young ladies ever assembled in circles held by themselves to 
 be select, I never knew it. 
 
 Older persons were accustomed to dwell with regret upon 
 the memory of the times when the Spragues, the Mont- 
 goraerys, the Dows, etc., formed a select and joyous com- 
 pany. I might name those whose eyes were bright at the 
 period in review, but who preferred to sit as near as possible 
 to the windows, for the benefit, of course, of its better light, 
 and who were by that means enabled to report at night the 
 
 * Miss E. [j. Morse, dauojhter of Authouy Morse, and Dr. Wellmau's 
 oldest daughter owned the house, and lived alone in it, and was found 
 dead in bed there June 12, 1S92. She had visited Europe several times, 
 and had just returned from spendinor the winter in Baltimore. She 
 was buried in Greenwood cemetery, Xew York. 
 
 t Mrs. Berg owns the old Wellman mansion, and si)euds her sum- 
 mers there. 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 3d 
 
 names of all the bachelors who had made their transit through 
 
 the day. 
 
 It was to no effect that Mrs. Bliss assured them that such 
 was not the way, and that fair forms did not gain attractive- 
 ness by being alway in evidence at the windows, nor did 
 young men become fascinated by merely being looked at and 
 
 talked about. 
 
 Mr. McGaw and Mr. Cartland were law students ; Alfred 
 Oso-ood came at rare intervals from Boston to visit his km- 
 dred. I cannot remember another young man whose name 
 I could insert without grave terms of disqualification. Yet 
 such there may have been. 
 
 On Wednesdays, about noon, with great regularity, two 
 forms came from opposite directions into the village, and 
 drove to Towle's inn. One was Mr. Payson* who had left 
 his home in Bath at ten o'clock, and halted at the half-way 
 house at Horse Meadow for repose of himself and beast, and 
 for a mere taste of mine host's excellent rum. For such was 
 the liquor he preferred. He was affable by nature, and the 
 drop tasted made him yield the more to that fine instinct. 
 Politics, money, agriculture, are among the themes on which 
 a gentleman is free to converse, is uideed expected to con- 
 verse, with any man whose relations with him are not merely 
 servile ; and by the time he is ready to proceed another drop 
 is required, 
 
 *Moses P. Payson, born at Rowley, Mass.. 1771; Dartmouth, 1793; 
 read law with Alden Spvague of Haverhill; admitted to the bar in 
 1797; at Bath 1798 till death, Oct. 10, 1828, aged 57 yrs, 10 raos 21 
 days'; representative in legislature ; president of senate ; prefident of 
 Grafton County bank; married Hannah Perley in 1/98, blie died in 
 1832 one of tlieir daughters married Hon. Jonathan Smith to whose 
 nractice Air. Livermore succeeded. Mr. Payson built the great brick 
 Souse at the south end of Bath village,which cost $13,000 an immense 
 sura in those days.-i?enc/i and Bar of Grafton County; Memorial Ser- 
 mon by Bev. David Sutherland. 
 
 Mr. Payson made a profession of religion, and joined the Congre- 
 gational church about a year before he died. 
 
36 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Driving into the village he knows everybody and the compre- 
 hensive sw^eep of his courteous bow embraces everything visible 
 within the boundaries of the common. He finds the rum at 
 Mr. Towle's good, as he had often found it before. It is the 
 day of the stated meeting of the directors of the Grafton 
 bank, and he is the president of that board. Indeed he is 
 the president of everything he belongs to, capable of a pre- 
 sidino* officer. Moderator of the town meeting in Bath as a 
 matter of course, and only a few votes are cast to satisfy the 
 exigencies of the law requiring an election by ballot. He was 
 always president of the senate of New Hampshire during the 
 many years that he sat in that chamber, and when all the 
 world met at Windsor to vote the Connecticut river into the 
 list of navigable streams and to take orders for the removal 
 of obstructions, Mr. Payson was placed in the chair. It was 
 his courtesy of manner, his tact and good common sense that 
 were well-known, and qualified him for such places. His 
 mind was not largely informed, but it was safe and sound 
 within its own sphere, and was plagued with no half-lights, 
 no misleading passions. 
 
 It should not seem strange if the success that he won by 
 these valuable practical forces, brought on a little pompous 
 vanity in the end. But neither the success nor the credit 
 which he won impaired the amiable disposition, the even 
 temper, or the hospitable manners that made him with but 
 one unhappy exception a most agreeable man. According 
 to a fashion that was not in all cases fatal to the strong men 
 of his day, he began by eleven o'clock and continued through 
 the day, it is said, tasting New England rum in very small 
 quantities and much diluted. He died at not much over fifty, 
 happily before his habit could be called intemperance, but too 
 late to restore its ravages upon his system. 
 
 He built an expensive house, for which he was somewhat 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. ^^ 
 
 censured. But he was at that time in the prime of life, with 
 fair prospects, and an estate which could well have submitted 
 to that extent of depletion, had his life been lengthened to 
 the ordinary span. He took great delight in the hospitable 
 demonstrations that the large house favored, and which, 
 wisely used, go far toward making and retaining friends. 
 
 His early death defeated plans which if too hopeful cannot 
 safely be condemned as irrational, and of the considerable 
 estate which he accumulated not a farthing now remains in 
 the hands of any of his lineage. 
 
 A differently constituted man was Mr. Britton, who for a 
 like purpose, drove into the village with equal punctuality 
 from the opposite direction on the same days. He was tall, 
 well formed, and to the end of a life of seventy-seven years 
 was an erect and firm man. He always appeared clean and 
 well dressed in the conservative style of apparel, that no 
 token should be wanting to denote his aversion to unseasoned 
 innovation. At that time he wore his hair in a queue, but 
 abandoned that fashion a few years before his death, for some 
 cause unknown to me other than the lack of an abundance 
 of the necessary material, for such existed and retained its 
 color to the last, and but sparingly interspersed with white. 
 His manner was gay, his humor at once kind and cynical. 
 There was nothing about him that should have repelled any- 
 body. Yet he was never a candidate for popular suffrage, 
 nor held any public office whatever, but that of justice of the 
 peace. And the functions of that office were with him of the 
 most formal manner only. He aimed at no demonstrations, 
 and was eminently a man of most impregnable secrecy. He 
 was never charged with unfair practices, whether at the bar, 
 or in his private transactions. He accumulated an estate and 
 transmitted it to his children in safe investments, the nature 
 and amount of which impertinent inquiry has thus far failed 
 to discover. 
 
38 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 I have endeavored to portray the man objectively, repress- 
 ing with difficulty the strong emotions that spring from the 
 recollections of the charms he imparted to many convivial 
 hours, of his generous hospitality, of his cleanly and gentle- 
 manly life, of his personal kindness to myself. 
 
 The Superior Court was holden annually in May, and the 
 event was one of deeper and more pervading impression than 
 can easily be described. The best parlor and the best bed 
 room, closed and secluded through the rest of the year, were 
 opened in every house. The paper curtains were rolled up, 
 the fireboards were removed from the fire place they had kept 
 sealed, the year's gathering of dust removed, and all things 
 put into working order ; so that what seemed sacred and 
 sepulchral before, took on light and cheerfulness. 
 
 Such was the preparation of almost any house for the re- 
 ception of boarders for "court week." A dollar a day was 
 paid by the judge and lawyers for the most sumptuous ac- 
 commodations provided, and for jurors, witnesses and others, 
 the scale was adjusted in a reasonable manner. It was usual 
 for two gentlemen to occupy one bed, and the pairing was a 
 permanent arrangement extending over a succession of years. 
 The court and most of the bar, and the sheriff were commonly 
 lodofed at Mrs. Bliss's, who sent for Mrs. Fifield to come in 
 and do the cooking. 
 
 Gentlemen for the most part came with their own horses 
 to court, and proportionate stir was created in the barns and 
 cow sheds, to meet the great event of the year. 
 
 Among the lawyers were Phineas Walker of Plymouth and 
 
 Gilbert of Hanover, who always slept together in a 
 
 very small room in the last mentioned house. Walker had 
 the pretentious air that he supposed to be patrician. His 
 figure was portly, and so poised as to create a doubt of his 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 39 
 
 ever seeing his own feet, and to give credit to a story in 
 vogue of his having fallen over a cow that was lying in his 
 path at mid-day. His powers of narration made him some- 
 times good company, especially when his stories were eked 
 out with inventions not easily winnowed from the truth either 
 by others or himself. During a few years antecedent to 1819 
 he was the only practicing lawyer in the eastern part of the 
 county, and adventured upon measures which he was com- 
 pelled to abandon after Mr. Grant came to Plymouth. Grant 
 found out that Walker was in the habit of using one writ 
 only for a great number of actions, and worried him exces- 
 sively one day by moving an order upon him to file his writ. 
 " What does the young man want to see my writ for? It is 
 just like any writ. Did he never see one?" 
 
 Walker delighted in a vast white waist-coat, very broad 
 shirt frills, and to spatter the same with tobacco juice which 
 he cast from behind a cravat so high and stiff as to support 
 his chin, and minister to the strut which delighted both him- 
 self and the beholders. 
 
 Mr. Grant died at a very advanced age so poor and so 
 solitary, for he survived his excellent wife and daughters, 
 that a tender charity interposes to dim the memory of the 
 earlier stages of his life. 
 
 If he was profoundly ignorant of the law, and wholly 
 unequipped for the professional acumen to which he made 
 ridiculous pretensions. Walker's ignorance, equally pro- 
 found, was displayed in the assumption of power over facts 
 and principles comparable only to the genius of the German 
 
 \biathar G. Brittou, lawyer at Orford in 1796; died at Boston in 
 1851 Phfneas Walker, admitted to the bar in 1796 ; at PlymoutJi until 
 1832- Judge of Probate several years, btephen Grant, admitted to 
 bar in 1803; at Plymouth till 1829, and from 1844 to 1846; died and 
 buried at Plymouth. 
 
40 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Emperor, who pronounced himself supergrammaticus , and 
 competent to deal with the forms of speech in as absolute a 
 manner as he did with the persons of his subjects and with 
 their estates. To Walker's wild assumptions and citations 
 of books he had never seen, even in their bindings. Grant 
 would reply with quibbles without point, sharp intimations 
 and knowing looks. 
 
 A very different man was Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, then 
 very young in the profession, and of distinguished abilities. 
 But the inherent impediments to success at the bar, I fear, 
 so far prevailed as to make that promise "of none effect." 
 He was, however, highly respectable in the level to which 
 he adhered, prepared his cases ably and knew enough 
 law for his purpose. But Rogers was, physically, always 
 rather infirm, and was deficient in the sort of force one re- 
 quires for putting himself on evidence in the throng. He 
 was a man of fine sensibilities towards the beautiful aspects 
 of nature, and expressed himself on such matters in grace- 
 ful language. 
 
 His literary taste had been cultivated to the extent of the 
 narrow range of books accessible in those days. He sang 
 with a fine voice with truth and feeling the songs of Burns, 
 Moore, and the like. His conversation was always 
 attractive for its wit and genial responsiveness. He found 
 pleasure in the society of ladies and made himself agree- 
 able to them.* 
 
 *X. P. Rogers, born at Plj'mouth, N. H., June 3, 1794, died at 
 Concord, Oct. 16, 1846; Dartmouth. 1814; studied law with Richard 
 Fletcher; opened a law office at Plymouth; married a daughter of 
 Judge Daniel Farrand, who was a lawyer and very prominent citizen 
 of Newbury from about 1788 to ISOO, when he removed to Burling- 
 ton, where he died, 1825. 
 
 Rogers removed to Concord in 1834, where he became editor of the 
 Herald of Freedom^ and was one of the earlier abolitionists in com- 
 pany with Pillsbury, Garrison, and others. See Pillsbury's "Acts of 
 the Anti-Slavery Apostles," and Garrison's Life; also Osgood's 
 White Mountain Guide for his descriptions of scenery. 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 41 
 
 From outside the county came Ezekiel Webster of Bos- 
 cawen, Bartlett of Portsmouth, and Fletcher of Boston, all 
 whose forms remain fixed upon my memory. Parker Noyes 
 of Salisbury, whom I saw, but of whose form I remember 
 nothing, was a man of acknowledged abilities. It is 
 probable that there were others, not named in these remi- 
 nescences, but they are not alive to reproach my forgetful- 
 ness. 
 
 Richardson, Green and Woodbury comprised the Superior 
 Court. They were attended in going to and coming from 
 the court by Col. Brewster, the sheriff, wearing a coat with 
 brass buttons and a red collar, and bearing a fine dress 
 8word. Two deputies bearing maces also attended the 
 judges. Richardson and Green were both lame and halted 
 in their gait. But the maces and the sword and the red 
 collar were enough to dignify greater blemishes, and so we 
 all gazed and spoke with bated breath, if at all. 
 
 The terms of court, bringing together from various parts, 
 from town and country, gentlemen thoroughly known to each 
 other, were occasions of conviviality. Because they were 
 well known to one another this conviviality was free, but 
 because they were in general gentlemen it never became 
 coarse. Outsiders familiar with the general demeanor and 
 lordly form of Ezekiel Webster, would hardly believe, if 
 told, that he would join his double bass to the tenors and 
 other supplementaries of the harmonics in singing the fable 
 of the bag and the apple tree, or the formal words of a 
 "caprtiV to the music of an oratorio. 
 
 Rogers and Britton, with others, gave parties. There 
 was a little drinking and the decanters of wine and 
 brandy were at all times in evidence in the parlor of the 
 boarding house and on the dinner table. The tradition of 
 
42 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Mr. Moody's formula in Strafford County when, with a rap 
 of his cane he called the waiter to the foot of the stairs, was 
 living a few years ago. "Waiter, bring a bottle of rum, a 
 bottle of brandy, a pitcher of water, a bowl of sugar, four 
 teaspoons, and a pack of cards." 
 
 But in the county of Strafford customs were preserved 
 that had disappeared from Gi'afton. 
 
 Britton would, term after term, recite his story of the 
 "blue-jay" that the boy and his father set a trap for, in 
 marvellous imitation of the tone and sniffle of the conven- 
 tional Methodist minister or convert, relating his "experi- 
 ence." Nobody ever wearied of it. It was new every 
 morning and fresh every evening. 
 
 I have not the temerity of attempting to reproduce 
 Rogers' story of Mr. Grant's settlement of the estate of 
 James Little. It was the great event of Grant's life. He 
 had reduced the assets to money, paid the debts, and was in 
 possession of twelve hundred dollars to be paid to Mr. 
 Wm. Little of Boston. He put it into a "strong box," 
 which he placed in his sleigh box and conveyed it to 
 Boston. In the morning he issued from the inn with the 
 "strong box" under his arm, but had not gone far when he 
 lost sight of the inn and became alarmed, remembering 
 many shocking things he had heard of the immoralities of a 
 city. He hailed the first man whose attention he was able 
 to gain and asked him to be so good as to inform him 
 whether the street they were in was a "reputable street." 
 Finding at length the office of Mr. Little he inquired 
 whether Mr. Wm. Little, the son of Mr. Robert Little, and 
 nephew of Mr. James Little, lately of Campton, N. H., 
 deceased, intestate, was at home. The gentleman so in- 
 quired for was present and made himself known. Grant 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 
 
 43 
 
 fixed his eye upon him and after stern examination became 
 convinced that he was altogether too young a man to have 
 so laro-e a sum as twelve hundred dollars due to him, and 
 that an imposition had been planned. "It is doubted," 
 said he "and until proof of identity is forthcoming I shall 
 decline to pay over the sum I hold as administrator, ' de 
 bonis non' of James Little?" 
 
 Such was the theme. But the music of the variations, 
 alas I has gone with the parties that uttered. The sequel to 
 these mirthful memories is all too pathetic. 
 
 Methodism, seventy years ago, was under the somewhat 
 opprobrious shadow of orthodoxy, as entertained at Haver- 
 hill Corner, and indeed, throughout, and even beyond the 
 limits of New Hampshire. It had therefore to struggle, not 
 only against sin, but against that opprobrium. Its ways 
 were therefore earnest, and its demonstrations passionate 
 and wild. But it was, plainly, a growing sect, and in the 
 main united, although collateral lights did sometimes, and 
 for a brief period, show themselves, claiming a greater 
 freedom of usages and larger pretensions to authenticity. 
 I think that no Methodist meeting house then existed within 
 many miles of Haverhill, certainly there was none in the 
 town, and except camp meeting, the district school houses 
 were the only scenes of their animated worship, preaching, 
 exhortation, rhapsodies, and proclamations of Divine 
 favor. 
 
 It was a great day when they gained permission of the 
 proper authorities to use the Court House for such pur- 
 poses, as it was a day of rebuke to the good ones in oppo- 
 sition. But numbers were on the side of the Methodists, 
 and so was the voting power, as it was hinted to the cus- 
 todian of the keys of the Court House. 
 
44 EEMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Among the " signal manifestations" at a camp meeting 
 held at Warren was the conversion and entrancement of 
 one Narciesa Griffin. Witnesses affirmed that her face 
 shone, and the skin became preternaturally smooth. But 
 some one wrote in a newspaper that he believed every word 
 of the story. He was in particular convinced that the skin 
 of the young woman was perfectly smooth, for he "had felt 
 a hundred of them and they all felt exactly so — smooth as a 
 bone." The phrase became a bye-word. " Smooth as a 
 bone" was upon everybody's tongue, while a diligent search 
 was made for the author of the communication, which was 
 denounced by one party as a wickedness, and by the other 
 as something as bad. The search became warm and the 
 end was that the Rev. Grant Powers, in open meeting on 
 Sunday, confessed himself to be the offender. I heard the 
 confession, which was penitent in a measure, but which ex- 
 cused the act by the example of the prophet who made use 
 of irony and satire to confound the priests of the idols. 
 But it was an unlucky act for Mr. Powers, who lost caste 
 by it and soon after left the parish. 
 
 The Methodist minister of those days commonly wore a 
 white hat, and in preaching affected a singular tone, not 
 wholly unlike a Gregorian chant, but really not quite resem- 
 bling that or anything else. But that tone, so difficult 
 apparently to catch, was necessary for attracting the confi- 
 dence of the hearers in the spiritual attainments of the 
 minister, and was singularly attractive of attention at least, 
 if not of admiration in every case. 
 
 It has been thought that education has damaged the influ- 
 ence of the clergy of that sect by bringing them into con- 
 formity with those of other sects. 
 
 But it is rather probable that education "all around" has 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 
 
 45 
 
 had somewhat to do with the change that has invaded the 
 iisages of that worthy and perfectly respectable order of 
 Christians. 
 
 The memory returns with pleasure even now to the quiet, 
 frugal, domestic manners of Haverhill Corner seventy years 
 ao-o. The two-storied white square houses with small dif- 
 ferences in structure or size, each containing one best par- 
 lor and chamber over it, both of which were closed fifty 
 weeks in the year to the footsteps of man, and to the light 
 of the sun, except as they might have been used for the 
 storage of Sunday clothes, or other things likely to suffer 
 from familiar touch, and as they were embraced in the an- 
 nual house cleaning, when all the furniture was removed and 
 the windows taken from their frames for washing. 
 
 Mr. Kingsbury lighted his office with two tallow candles 
 in iron candlesticks, and I am not prepared to deny that the 
 parlors of some of the inhabitants enjoyed the same quality 
 of rather feeble light, or that there were here and there in 
 rare instances to be found oil lamps. 
 
 But in general the family contented themselves with one 
 candle, around which they sat. The evenings were spent in 
 the second parlor or dining room, and its benefits were 
 shared by the maid of all work, without any feeling of ele- 
 vation on her part, or constraint, or other annoyance on the 
 part of the family. 
 
 Some of the families included boys or young men who 
 came from a distance to the academy, and paid from a dollar 
 to a dollar and a quarter a week for their board and wash- 
 ino-, or in recompense for their accommodations took care of 
 the horse, cow, fire wood, and performed the domestic ser- 
 vices usually allotted to boys. Among these was Nathan 
 Clifford, afterward a Justice of the United States Supreme 
 Court. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 The first execution in Haverhill was that of Thomas Powers a 
 mulatto, iu 1796. He sold his body to Dr. Peterson of Boscawen, 
 and Dr. Lacy of Hopkiutou. "They rode to Haverhill and were 
 present at the execution. Dr. Lacy skinned the body, had the skm 
 tanned and a pair of boots made from \ir-iHistory of Boscawen, 
 N. H., by Charles '-Carleton" Cofiin, p. 428. 
 
 The sermon at the execution of Powers July 26, 1726, was delivered 
 by Eev. Noah Worcester of Thornton, N. H., from Luke xxiii. 32-34. 
 It was printed and sold by N. Coverly of Haverhill. It contains 
 thirty-three pages, seventeen of which are in exposition of the text, 
 three were addressed to the criminal who seems to have been very 
 young, and the rest to the audience. A copy is owned by Hon. 
 Horace W. Bailey, Newbury, Vt. 
 
 Mr. Powers was the last pastor to occupy the meeting house in 
 I add street. This house was fashioned after the style of those days 
 with square pews, a barrel shaped pulpit perched high upon the 
 eastern side of the house, and over it a high sounding board sus- 
 pended by a rod that seemed altogether too slender for the mmister s 
 safetv The deacon's seats of honor were in front of the pulpit 
 fncin"o- the congregation. The broad aisle ran straight from them to 
 the f ^ont door. The seats on four sides of the pews were upon 
 hino-es, to be raised during prayers, coming down with clatter when 
 it was ended. The children were often seated in front with their 
 backs to the minister in full view of their parents, so as to leave 
 little chance for plav. Besides the front door on the west side there 
 was an entrance through the tower on the south end, from which 
 also rose a stairwav to the gallery which extended around three sides 
 of the house.-[From Eev. J. L. Merrill's sermon, at the Centennial 
 Celebration of the Haverhill Congregational church, Oct. 12-13, 1890, 
 
 p. 14. 
 
 Mr. Powers resided in the house on the bluff at the corner where 
 the road to the cemetery and the one to Ladd street meet. 
 
 The present church building was built by the Methodists, and 
 when it was bought by the Congregationalists the people of the town 
 wanted the old bell to come to this church, while the people on Ladd 
 street strongly objected to their taking it. * * The people on Ladd 
 street watched the old bell night and day for a time till the bell was 
 finally left in the old place. Afterwards the old bell was removed to 
 the new school house built there and the old church taken down. 
 
48 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 FROM THE ADDRESS OF J. H. PEARSON, CHICAGO, ILL., AT THE' 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 
 
 As I look back over the years I see the people as they took their 
 places in church. The seats have been turned around since I attended 
 here, the pulpit used to be at the other end under the gallery. The 
 pews faced the minister, and the singers also faced the entrance of 
 the church, so that e\^eryone could see the people as they came inta 
 church. 1 used to think that a nice arrangement, for we could see 
 everyone, and how they looked when they came in. Now let me fol- 
 low the pews and their occupants as I remember them. I will com- 
 mence with the wall pews at the southwest corner of the church, as 
 it used to be. Of course I cannot recall all. Among those that I 
 remember was Miss Eliza Cross. I think she used to sit in the cross 
 pews in this corner. She was one of the leading members in the 
 church, active in all christian work, especially interested and efficient 
 in the Sunday school. She was an earnest advocate of the anti- 
 slavery movement that was discussed in Ladd street, as far back as 
 1840. Near her sat Jonathan and William Watson, who lived at the 
 northern part of the town. They were not members of the church, 
 but were regular attendants upon worship ; good citizens, and men 
 who commanded the respect of the community. 
 
 The Woods family and Mrs. .lewett occupied the same pew, and 
 were regular attendants upon public worship. The Johnston family 
 occupied two pews, and were regular worshipers. They were an old 
 substantial family, taking an honorable place among their neighbors. 
 John Smith who was once pastor of the church, and Charles R. Smith, 
 his son, had a seat between the Woods and Johnston families, and 
 wei'e regular attendants. They were an intelligent and respectable 
 family, well-to-do farmers on Ladd street. 
 
 Next, as 1 remember, came the family of Hon. Joseph Bell. He 
 was the most prominent lawyer in town, and one of the legal authori- 
 ties of the state. He was a man of fine appearance, excellent busi- 
 ness ability, and exercised a wide influence through all nothern New 
 Hampshire. I can still see him as he used to walk into church, in his 
 Sunday suit with ruffled shirt bosom, followed by his fine looking 
 wife and children. He was not a member of the church, but attended 
 pretty regularly, and paid the most pew rent of the church. There 
 was John Osgood on that side. He was known in the town as honest 
 John Osgood. He and his family were all members — a very fine 
 family, and good citizens. 
 
 The Towle family and Dr. Morgan sat side by side. They were 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 
 
 49 
 
 both prominent in the community. Wm. Barstovv and his family sat 
 on this side also. This was a large family, and very regular at 
 church, and interested in all the life of the church. Henry Towle, 
 the jeweler, was also on that side of church. He was always iu 
 church, and came early. 
 
 John L. Rix and family were usually in church, but not as early as 
 some others. He was not a church member, but his wife was. He 
 took an interest in church affairs, and if all did not go right he gen- 
 erally had something to say about it. Next that I remember was 
 Nathan B. Felton and John R. Reding and wife. They took a back 
 seat. 1 remember it was a little higher than the other pews, so that 
 they could overlook the whole congregation. They both were promi- 
 nent people, and good citizens. 
 
 Lyman Buck and family, Arthur Carleton and family, and James 
 Bell and family, occupied body pews in church, and were all good 
 members of society. The two Bell families were most prominent, 
 and their appearance corresponding. I can well remember John L. 
 Bunce as he used to come into church. He was a tall, fine looking 
 man, straight as a candle, and with a military step that suited him 
 well. He was a banker, and a leading man in Haverhill. Then I can 
 see Deacon Henry Barstow and his tall wife. He was rather short, 
 and a little lame. He was a good man, and had a fine family. He 
 used to lead the singing in prayer meeting. 
 
 Near these were James Atherton and family, and Dr. Spalding and 
 family. Deacon Chester Farmau had a front pew in the nest row of 
 seats. He lived farthest away from the church, and yet you would 
 always find him and his family in their seats before any others. He 
 was a very substantial and good christian man, and everyone knew 
 just where to find Deacon Farman. I remember he had a peculiar 
 sound to his cough, so that everyone knew it at once. 
 
 Benjamin Merrill and family came next as I remember them. He 
 had a large family, and I think they occupied two pews. Everybody 
 iu town knew Capt. "Ben " Merrill, as he was called. He was the 
 kino- merchant in the village, a bright, active man, with a bright, act- 
 ive family. Deacon A. K. Merrill (his oldest son) was made deacon 
 when quite young, and remained a deacon till his death. 
 
 In this connection I recall the name of Russell Kimball, a prominent 
 man in this church and society. He was for many years the leadmg 
 merchant in the village and his note was as good as that of any man 
 iu town, if you could get it; but his notes never floated round on the 
 market; his credit was never questioned. John Nelson and family 
 came nest. He had one of the good old fashioned families that filled 
 
50 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 two pews when all were present. Mr. Xelsoa was a lawj^er of 
 ability, and was also a successful business man. His family were 
 prominent in the village, intelligent and dignified. 
 
 Among the leading families that came from Ladd street, I recall 
 the Ladds and Herberts. Somewhere in the body-pews were John A. 
 Page and his wife. Mr. Page was cashier of the Grafton Countj- 
 bank for a number of years after Mr. Bunce left. His father, Gov. 
 John Page, left this church to join the Methodists, among whom he 
 became a leader. Next to John A. Page, as I remember, came Dr. 
 Ezra Bartlett and family. I can still see the venerable doctor with 
 ruffled shirt bosom and cane coming into the aisle at the head of his 
 family, his portly wife following him, and the large family following 
 in their order according to age. Most of the people were now in 
 their seats ; and when they saw the family of Dr. Bartlett coming 
 into church they looked upon as fine appearing and dignified a house- 
 hold as could be found in that part of the country. 
 
 Among the sturdy, well-to-do farmers from Piermont, I remember 
 Caleb and George Stevens and Benjamin Carter. They lived on the 
 town line of the village, and were excellent people. 
 
 I must not forget to mention Peabody Webster. " Pee"' Web- 
 ster, we used to call him. He was a leading man in this church and 
 society as long as he lived. 
 
 Dr. Edmund Carleton sat behind Dr. Bartlett as I remember. He 
 was deacon of the church at an early date, and remained a deacon till 
 his death. He and his family were remarkable people. They were a 
 devoted christian family, regular in attendance upon church, and 
 ready for every good work. I recall distinctly Dr. Carleton as he 
 distributed the bread and wine at communion. I remember too, that 
 he used to wear a red bandana handkerchief over his head as he sat 
 in church. I suppose from taking cold ; this made him quite a con- 
 spicuous person in the congregation. Benjamin Swan and family 
 were next behind Charles Carletou's, I think. His family were 
 usually in their place. Mr. Swan was an upright man, and a good 
 neighbor. His wife was a very pleasant lady. 
 
 On the east side of the church Joshua Woodward and family, and 
 Caleb Hunt and family sat, in two pews side by side. Mr. Woodward 
 was a very prominent and intelligent man. He lived on Ladd street, 
 and was an active worker in tiie church and society. He was noted 
 at an early day as an abolitionist, and took strong ground in favor of 
 abolishing slavery. The Hunts were esteemed for their general in- 
 telligence. Somewhere near the Hunts and the Woodwards sat 
 General Pool and his family. Next to these came David Sloan and 
 family, " Squire" Sloan, as he was called, was somewhat peculiar in 
 
HAVERHILL CORNER. 51 
 
 many of his ways. But he was a good lawyer, and a sensible man, 
 and his family were like him. He was not a church member, but 
 usually attended, coming in a little late, if I remember rightly. I can 
 next recall Hon. Samuel Page, with a well-filled pew of children on 
 the east side of the church. He had an excellent family of children 
 who settled as well-to-do farmers. * * * 
 
 Hosea S. Baker and family came next. Mr. Baker was a pew-holder, 
 and attended this church up to between 1845 and 1850. He was then 
 induced to take charge of the Sunday school at the Methodist church, 
 and afterward attended that church. He was a strong man, and left 
 his mark on the community. 
 
 Then came Moses St. Clair and family. "Major" St. Clair he was 
 usually called. He had a large family of boys, and they were gener- 
 ally in their places in church. * * The next pew was my father's, and 
 next came Moses Dow and family. After his death, Vocamus Keith 
 married his widow, and they were regular attendants at church. I 
 remember they came to church in good season. 
 
 Then came the pew of Jonathan S. Nichols and family. I could say 
 much that is good about himself and family, but as he is still with us, 
 I forbear. I will mention one family more, that of Michael Carleton. 
 They usually occupied two pews, and were always in their places in 
 good season. The father was an unassuming man, and so were all 
 the family. They were quite devout worshippers in the house of 
 God. I can still see Mr. Carleton when the minister was well on in 
 his sermon, bow his head a little and close his eyes, but I suppose his 
 ears were open to hear what was said. 
 
 Before leaving my recollections of this church I must speak of the 
 members of the choir. The leader was Timothy K. Blaisdell, who 
 was conductor for many years, from about 1832 to 1845. It may well 
 be said of him that he had no superior in that line in this part of the 
 state. He was a merchant, a good citizen, and had a fine family. 
 
 Sarah Merrill, or perhaps one of the other Merrill girls, (a sister of 
 Deacon Merrill) played the organ. Miss Eleanor Towle (now Mrs. 
 Chapman) was the leading soprano. The rest of the choir came from 
 the Merrill and Barstow families, Samuel Ladd, Henry Towle, Nel- 
 son Chandler, James Woodward, Jonathan S. Nichols, Miss Ellen 
 McClary (now Mrs. Reding), two of James Bell's daughters, Calhsta 
 Orpha and Luella Bell (now Mrs. Merrill). I think it is true that this 
 church had then the best singing of any church in this part of the 
 country at the time. 
 
 It seems a little singular that neither Mr. Bittinger, nor any of the 
 
52 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Speakers at the anniversary make any mention of a curious charge 
 once made to the church at an ordination in Haverhill, by Rev. David 
 Sutherland of Bath. I have seen the charge in print, but Rev. J. L. 
 Merrill tells me that although it was a fact, he cannot tell which of 
 the several ministers of Haverhill it was. 
 
 There had been considerable trouble in the church, and several 
 ministers followed each other iu the course of a few years. Finally 
 Ihey settled one, and at the installation Mr. Sutherland had the charge 
 to the people. The exercises had been very long, and when the 
 charge came the audience feared a long sermon. Mr. Sutherland rose 
 iu the pulpit and said substantially as follows : '' My friends, I sup- 
 pose you expect me to give you a great charge. Yes, I am going to 
 give you a great charge, one you will all remember." Then opening 
 the Bible he turned the leaves to the first epistle to the Thessalouians, 
 and read, " And we beseech you brethren, to know them which 
 labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you ; 
 And to esteem them very highly for their work's sake — and be at 
 peace among yourselves.'' He then closed the book and sat down. 
 They remembered that charge. 
 
 Mr. Merrill tells me that at the installation of the Rev. Joseph 
 Gibbs in 1835, his father, who was an old Scotch minister, gave the 
 charge to the pastor in these words, or using these words in the 
 course of his charge : " Joseph, if after you have been here two years 
 the people like you as well as they do now, it will be because you 
 have not done your duty." He died within that time. 
 
 Ben Wiser was a character about Haverhill, especially court week. 
 One day at dinner in the tavern, a man swallowed a fish bone, and 
 came near choking. Ben said that he had once invented a little con- 
 trivance, which, being placed in the mouth when eating fish, would 
 separate the bones from the fish, throw them out, and gently guide 
 the latter down the throat. He loaned it to a man one day, who put 
 it in wrong side to, and it sent the bones down the man's throat and 
 choked him. The man's relatives smashed the machine, and Ben 
 never could remember how to make another. 
 
 [F. P. Wells. 
 
 ERRATUM. 
 
 In foot-note, page 30, for John L. Nelson read Thomas L. Nelson. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 mil nil nil 111 miiiiii mil mil mil III! III! 
 013 996 959 5 I