United States senator from New Hampshire for twelve vears, and a justice of
the Supreme Court for three years. Another of the name was chiet justice of
New Hampshire from 1859 '" 'S64, and one of the most eminent lawvers in
the State. They have been spealiers of the house, presidents of the Senate,
and congressmen, filling every office with ability, honesty, and lienor.'
Ill 1794 a post-rider went between Boston and Concord eacli
way once a week. A weekly line of stages was advertised, run-
ning from Concord, through Pembroke, Allenstown, Chester,
and Haverhill, to Boston. Two days' time was allowed for the
mail to make the trip one way. The advertisements of this year
mention no public conveyance in other directions. The notice
appeared October i.
In November the stage line made a connection at Haverhill
with stages for Exeter and Portsmouth. Passengers were
allowed to carry fourteen pounds of baggage free.
Walpole was at that time a place of more business than an\-
in that vicinity, and was much resorted to by the people of the
neighboring towns. There was also a considerable travel from
a distance passing on what was called the great river road. The
inhabitants of that part of the valley of the Connecticut river were
then just passing from the rude and boisterous manners of first
settlers to a more civilized, orderly and composed state.^ A set
of young men, mostly of the legal profession, gathering from
many miles up and down the river, were much in the habit of
familiar intercourse for the sake of amusement and recreation.
They occasionally met at village taverns, but more commonly at the
sessions of the courts, and freely indulged in gaming, excessive
drinking, and such like dissipations. The most of them were
gentlemanly in manners, and some talented. The ruin of some
served as a warning to others.'^
" Mr. West was by far the first and best lawyer, and in all re-
spects the most respectable man, in that region of country. He
â– iM-ed Myvcii t.i.lby. = Jeremiah M.ison.
1/94] STATE GOVEKNiMKNT. 45 1
was educated at Princeton College, and commenced the practice
of law at Charlestown before the close of the Revolutionary
war. He had good natural powers of mind, a quick and clear
perception, a delicate taste, highly refined, a sound judgment,
and lively imagination. His style of speaking was simple, nat-
ural, smooth, and mild ; always pure and neat, and sometimes
elegant ; with a good person, clear and pleasant voice, much
earnestness and apparent sincerity, — he was altogether a most
persuasive speaker." ^ In arguing cases of complicated and
tloubtful evidence before a jury he had few or no superiors. In
the discussion of questions of law, and in argumentation of
mere abstract propositions, he was less powerful, for he was
deficient in law learning. " This he was fully sensible of, and
attributed it to his having quitted the study when he began the
practice of the law. He said of the elder Judge Livermore, who
had been attorney-general of the Province before the Revolution,
and chief justice of the Supreme Court, that, having no law
learning himself, he did not like to be pestered with it at his
courts ; that when he (Mr. West) attempted to read law books in '
a law argument, the chief justice asked him why he read them ;
if he thought that he and his brethren did not know as much
as those musty old worm-eaten books ? Mr. West answered,
" These books contain the wisdom of the ancient sages of the
law." The reply was, "Well, do you think we do not under-
stand the principles of justice as well as the old wigged lawyers
of the dark ages did ? " Thus his law books were laughed out
of court. This was surely but poor encouragement for the dry
study of law books. ^ Mr. West was a member of the conven-
tion of New Hampshire for adopting the constitution of the
United States, when from his known talents much was expected
from him ; but his modesty and diffidence kept him from speak-
ing although he was very much interested in the result, which
was for a long time in suspense.
Joseph Dennis, a graduate of Harvard College, 1790, was also
practising law at Walpole at this time, although "his legal
knowledge consisted wholly in a choice selection of quaint, obso-
â– Jeremiah Mason.
452 lllSTOKV OF Ni:\V IIAMPSIIIKE. L ' 794
lete, and queer phrases from 'Plowden's Commentaries,' the
only book he ever read with any attention. These phrases he
often repeated in ridicule of the law, to the great amusement of
his auditors. He was the most aerial, refined, and highly sub-
limited spirit,"' with "a good share of native genius, and a
delicate and accurate taste, cultivated by an ardent study of the
English classics." He afterwards edited the Portfolio in Phil-
adelphia.
' " Another of the extraordinary men who then ranged that
country was William Coleman, afterwards so greatly distin-
guished as the editor of the Nezu York Evening Post, under
the patronage of General Hamilton, that his opponents gave him
the title of field-marshal of Federal editors. By great industry
and persevering diligence he acquired a good education. As a
lawyer he was respectable, but his chief excellence consisted in
a critical knowledge of the English language, and the adroit
management of political discussions. His paper for several
years gave the leading tone to the press of the Federal party."
He freely admitted the assistance he received from Alexander
Hamilton in writing his most powerful editorials.
-In contradistinction to most of the places in the valley of the Souhegan,
Milford boasts of no antiquity and will not celebrate its centennial until 1894.
For its origin it is indebted to a genuine outburst of human nature in the
form of dissatisfaction, which took place in the old town of Monson. That
ancient, now extinct, town was incorporated April i, 1746, and was bounded
on the north by the Souhegan river and south by Ilollis. Its corporate exis-
tence lasted for twenty-four years, during which time it regularly held annual
town meetings, elected its town clerks, selectmen, tithingmen, hogreeves and
other town officers ; but there is no evidence that it ever had a school-house,
meeting-house, or a •■learned orthodox " or other minister. The only public
structure ever owned by the town was a pound built for the confinement of
disorderly cattle. At the first town-meeting, held in May, 1746, it was voted
to build a pound and also buy a suitable "book to record votes in, and other
things as the town shall see fit." The people of Monson, however, liketlieir
neighbors of HoUis, do not at any time seem to have been well content with
their chartered boundaries. Several expedients in difterent years came before
the annual meetings proposing changes in the chartered limits, soine of them
favoring additions to its territory, others a division of it in various ways.
Among the rest was a proposal adopted at the March meeting in 1760, to
I Jeremiah Mason. 2 J. B. Conner.
1796] STATE r.OVERNMENT. 455
annex the land on the south side of Monson to Ilollis, and to petition tiie
governor and Council for such part of Souhegan west to be added to Monson
as would be sufficient to maintain the Gospel and other incidental charges.
Again, in 1761 the town voted to set off a mile and a half on the south to
Hollis. This last was passed to favor a petition of Ilollis to the General Court
for the like purpose. After this date all questions looking to a change in the
boundaries of the town seem to have rested until 1770, when the people of
Monson, having abandoned all hope of maintaining preaching, or of " settling
the Gospel among them," petitioned the General Court to put a final end to-
their unhappy and troubled corporate life by a repeal of their charter. In
this petition thev gave as a reason the barrenness of the soil about the centre of
the town, and their inability to establish the Gospel or even to build a meet-
ing-house. The consent of Hollis to accept of two miles in width of the south
side of the suppliant town, and of Amherst all the residue, having been ob-
tained, an Act was passed by the General Court in 1770, dividing Monson by
a line extending east and west, passing very near its centre, and annexing
the south part to Hollis and the north to Amherst.
In 1793. the town of Milford was incorporated, the Act chartering it being-
entitled : "An Act to incorporate the south-westerly part of Amherst, the
north-westerly part of Hollis, the Mile Slip, and Duxbuy school farm into a
town. Milford as incorporated included a small part of Amherst north ol"
the Souhegan, much the largest portion of that part of the old town of Mon-
son which was ceded to Amherst in 1770, all of the Mile Slip notincluded in
Raby, with the Duxbuy school farm, and an area of one thousand acres taken
from Hollis. Thus it will be seen that Monson, after having been carved into
many slices and served up in a variety of ways, was finally collected, moulded
into a different form, given another name, and in its new dress graces one of
the most beautiful spots on the Souhegan river.
The charter for the first New Hampshire turnpike, extend-
ing from Concord to the Piscataqua bridge, in the vicinity of
Portsmouth, was granted by the legislature in 1796, and was
promptly commenced and completed, running through the ex-
treme northern section of Pembroke. This was the first of a
series of these thoroughfares, extended by the enterprise of a
few public-spirited individuals into every section of the State.
'Turnpikes are not of American origin. They existed in the
mother country long before the days of Mansfield and Black-
stone. The first turnpike road was between the West Riding
of Yorkshire and London. This Act was passed in the fifteenth
year of the reign of Charles the Second. It was an innovation
that excited great hostility. The people benefited by it tore
'Julin M. Shirley.
454 HISTORY OF NEW llAMPSHIKE. [1/96
tlown the toll-bars, and the new enterprise was baptized in blood
before the people would submit to it. The new system tri-
umphed by slow degrees.
Macaulay graphically describes the condition of that country
with respect to communication before such roads became accept-
able to the public.
Capital seeking an outlet saw its opportunity, and under a
swarm of Turnpike Acts the country was at last gridironed with
these roads.
The turnpike craze in this State is almost forgotten ; we caught
it from Massachusetts ; it began in 1795 and culminated about
twenty years after ; it wrought a revolution in public travel,
relatively, nearly as great as that brought about by the railwa)'
craze between 1840 and ICS50. The system with us did not
originate in the local want or demand along the lines contem-
l^lated. Other and more far-reaching causes, as we shall see,
were at the bottom of the movement. The settlement of the
.State was necessaril}' by progressive, though at times apparently
simultaneous, steps. First came the settlement and location of
the four towns, and the opening of communication between
them ; then the advent of the trapper, hunter, and scout into
the unsettled portion ; then came the land grants, and the set-
tlement in isolated locations ; then the blazed path to the parent
towns and to the cabin of the pioneer or the outposts ; then the
drift-ways, cart-ways, and the local roads winding from cabin to
cabin ; then the town-ways and session or county roads, with
here and there the " provincial " roads like that which passes
through Gilmanton and that which was laid out and built from
the Gerrish place — now the county farm at Boscawen — to the
college at Hanover in 1784-86 by legislative committee, and
that laid out by a like committee from Hale's Bridge, in Wal-
pole, in the county of Cheshire, running si.Kty miles to a pitch-
pine tree on Deerneck in Chester.
Fifty-three turnpike companies were incorporated in this
State. The Acts of corporation in Massachusetts were in
fact based on English models, but the Bay State mind, then as
now, felt itself competent to improve upon anv model, irrespec-
1796] STATE GOVEKX.MKNr. 455
tive of whether it was the work of human liands or of the Divine
Architect ; and as minds differed even in Massachusetts there
was a marked diversity in these Acts ; and the New Hampshire
Acts were Httle less consistent or coherent.
" The New Hampshire turnpike road " is commonly known
as "the first New Hampshire turnpike," because it was the first
Act of the kind in this State. John Hale, Arthur Livermore,
Isaac Waldron, John Goddard, Thomas Leavitt, William Hale,
Jind Peter Green, all notable men, were the corporators espe-
cially named in the Act. This Act was passed June i6, 1796.
The road ran from Piscataqua bridge in Durham to the Merri-
mack river in Concord, passing through Lee, Barrington, Not-
tingham, Northwood, ICpsom, and Chichester. The distance
was thirtv-si.\ miles.
The elaborate plan or survey of tliis pioneer turnpike in tliis State may still
be seen in the State Hou&e in Concord. The Act contains in eft'ect eleven sec-
tions. The first gave the names of the corporators, the name of the corpora-
tion, and conferred upon it the inestimable privilege of suing and being sued;
the second provided for the organization and the establishment of regulations
and by-laws for the government thereof; the third empowered the corpora-
tion " to survey, lay out, make, and keep in repair a turnpike road or highway
of four rods wide, in such route or track as in the I e~t of their judgment and
skill will combine s/ioyhtess of distance -vit/i the most practicable ground
between the termini; the fourth provides that the damages to landowners
should be fixed by the Court of Common Pleas, if the parlies could not agree:
the fifth in relation to ■• gates" and ■■turnpikes ", to prevent trespass;
the sixth authorized the appointment of toll-gatherers and fixed tne rates of
toll; the seventh authorized the purchase of one thousand acres of land in fee
simple, and provided that the shares be assigned by deed, and that the shares
bought be sold for non-payment or assessments ; the eighth prohibits the
taking of toll prior to the expenditure of six hundred dollars upon each mile
of the road, a proportionate sum upon the whole number of miles; by the
ninth the corporation was liable to be indicted and fined the same as towns
for defective highways, with a proviso that if the turnpike road ran over any
part of the road then used the company should neither collect toll for that
part nor be liable to repair it; the tenth provided that an account of the ex-
penditures and profits should be laid before the Superior Court at the end of
twenty years, under penalty of forfeiture of charter, that if the net profits
for the twenty years should exceed twelve per cent, per annum the court
might reduce the tolls so that it should not exceed that rate, and if the profit
was less than six per cent, the judges might raise the toll so that the rate should
not be less than six nor more than twelve per cent. ; the eleventh provides
456 HISTORV OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. ['797
that the charter sliould be void unless tlie road should be completed in ten
_vrars, with the proviso that the State, alter the expiration of fortv vears, might
convert the same into a public highway by repaying what had been expended
by the company, with interest at the rate of twelve per cent, per annum
thereon, after deducting the amount of the toll actually received.
Some of the provisions of this Act and that of the fourth are in marked con-
trast. The preamble to this Act and the petition for the fourth should be read
•ogether; they were both the work of comprehensive minds having the same
objects in view.
The preamble is as follows : —
"Whereas a petition has been presented to the General Court, setting forth
'.hat the communication between the sea coast and the interior parts of the
State might be made much more easy, convenient, and less expensive, by a
direct road from Concord to Piscataqua bridge than it now is, between the
country and any commercial seaport; that the expensiveness of an undertak-
ing of this kind, however useful to the community, would burthen the towns
through which it may pass so heavily as to render it difficult to effect so im-
Dortant a purpose, otherwise than by an incorporated company, who might
â– iie indemnified by a toll for the sums that should be e.xpended by them : there-
fore it was prayed by the petitioners that they and their associates might be
incorporated into a body corporate for the aforesaid purpose, under such limi-
tations, and with such tolls as might be thought fit, which prayer being rea-
sonable, etc."
Al the meeting of the legislature in June, 1797, John God-
dard had three votes for speaker ; Woodbury Langdon, seven ;
P-Ussell Freeman, forty-one ; and William Plumer, seventy-
three ; and William Plumer, who for si.x years had held aloof
from the legislature, practising his profession, was thus wel-
comed back to public life. He was at that time a Federalist.'
2 Edward St. Loe Livermore, at the head of the Rockingham
county bar, having accepted a seat on the bench of the Supreme
Court, Portsmouth offered a fair field to a rising young lavi^yer,
Jeremiah Mason, to enter. It was relatively a place of more
importance than now. Its chief sources of prosperity were
shipbuilding, for which it had peculiar facilities in its noble
harbor, and in its proximity to extensive forests, and the carry-
ing trade, — for both of which it was mainly indebted to the wars of
the French Revolution, which were desolating Europe. It had
many prosperous and enterprising merchants, and an active,
thrifty, and energetic population. Its ships were known in every
'William Plumer, Jr. - Icreini.i'i M.isrn'.^ Life.
1/97] STATE GOVERNMENT. 457
clime, and the commerce which enriched it gave an improved
tone to the manners and social habits of its inhabitants.^ Many
men of good judgment entertained the behef that the future
progress and prosperity of Portsmouth v/cre more assured than
those of Boston.
Portsmouth was also at that time a pla^e of more than com-
mon social attractions. Even before the Revolution, in days of
wigs, cocked hats, and flowered waistcoats, it was the residence
of many cultivated families and the seat of a generous hospitality,
and at the close of the last century its old character remained,
indeed made more marked by the wealth which commerce had
poured into its lap. The Marquis of Chastellu.x, who was there
in 1782, speaks of seeing handsome women elegantly dressed,
of dinners and suppers, and of fine houses richly furnished.
There must have been an easy, agreeable, and somewhat refined
society. Travelling was slow, difificult, and expensive. For
society, the inhabitants were mainly dependent upon them-
selves ; the ties of social life were closely drawn. Men were not
so busy and time was not so precious as now. Books, news-
papers, and magazines were rare ; men and women read less,
but talked more, and wrote longer and more elaborate letters,
than now. ' Cheap postage has spoiled letter writing.' Much
time was spent in social visits ; tea parties and supper parties were
common. The gentlemen had their clubs and exclusive social
gatherings, sometimes too convivial in their character; and
"occasionally a youth of promise fell a victim to the temptations
of a mistaken hospitality." Gaming was more common among
respectable people than now.^
^There are different divisions of Methodists, but those most
common in this section of the country, and the largest body of
them, are called Episcopal Methodists. The denomination
originated in England in 1739, mainly under the labors of Rev.
John Wesley.
The first Methodist Society in this country was organized in
New York city in 1766. It was composed of immigrants from
Ireland, who had been won to the faith by the preaching of Mr.
' Jeremiah Mason's Life. - Joseph FuUonton.
458 HisToKV OF m;\v iiami'shire. ['79/
Wesley. The first Methodist preacher in that city was Philip
Embury. New England was visited by several preachers, amoni;'
them being Rev. Jason Lee, a pioneer often on the frontiers,^
travelling on horseback, and addressing, with great earnestness,,
zeal, and fervor, multitudes that came to hear him. He was in
Boston, where he preached once under the great elm on the
Common.
No sooner had a foothold been gained in Massachusetts than
New Hampshire was considered a field to be cultivated. In
1794 the New England Conference appointed John Hill to
labor in this State. What came of this is not known, as there
is no record of his work. Possibly he did not come into the
State. Yet, through the efforts of some one, a society was soon
after formed in Chesterfield, which in 1797 had ninety-two mem-
bers, and that year Smith Weeks was appointed to that place.
The church there still exists, and is probably the oldest in the
State. Two years later Elijah Batchelder was appointed there.
In the meantime other sections were visited. Jason Lee, above named,
labored in the lower part of the State to some extent. Some opposition was
encountered, but in general a good work is not hindered by opposition, but,
on the contrary, is usually advanced. During the year 1800 a society was
constituted in Landaff and one in Hawke, now Danville: in 1801 one in Han-
over; in 1S02 one in Biidgewater and one in Kingston ; in 1803 one in Grant-
ham; in 1S04 one in Pembroke, one in Loudon, and one in Tuftonborough ;
in 1S05 one in Northlield and one in Centre Harbor; in 1S06 one in Ports-
mouth; in 1S07 one in Canaan and one in Rochester; in 1810 one in Green-
land.
The several places to which a minister was appointed constituted a " cir-
cuit," receiving its name from the principal town; and this continued, espe-
cially in country regions, until within a very few years. A circuit embraced
two, three, or more towns. These the minister was to visit and hold evening
or other meetings. When a circuit was very large, two ministers were
assigned to it. On a circuit, a minister was much in the saddle, or travelling
on foot in wilderness regions, finding his way by spotted trees.
During the times in which the above societies were established, and later,
there were several distinguished ministers doing good service in the State-
among whom should be named the following : —
Rev. Elijah Hedding, who travelled over some of the rough portions of the
State, preaching the gospel to many, but subsequently becanie a bishop, and
resided in Poughkeepsie, N. V., wliere he died.
Rev. Wilbur Fisk, who was a presiding elder in New Hampshire, and
I79S] STATE GOVERN M1;NT. 459
afterwards became presidentof Weslejan University, in Middletown, Conn.,
and \vas elected bishop, but diid before serving in that office.
Rev. John Broadhead, a native of Pennsylvania, who was for some time ;i
presiding elder — a man of sterling ability- and an effective preacher, who
resided at what is now South Newmarket, was a senator in the legislature,
and for four years representative in Congress, and who died April 7, 1S3S.
^ In June, 1788, Benning Moulton, and fifty-one others, "in-
habitants of Meredith Neck, the northern district of New Hamp-
ton and New Holderness, and of the southern district of Moul-
tonborough," petitioned the legislature to be severed from the
respective towns to which they then belonged, and incorporated
into a "township by the name of Watertown," for the following
reasons : " That the lands aforesaid are so surrounded with
ponds, and impassable streams running into and out of said
ponds, and so remote from the centres of the respective towns
to which they belong, that we have hitherto found the greatest
inconvenience in attending public worship." The matter came
before the legislature in January 1789, and a committee, consist-
ing of Hon. Joseph Badger of Gilmanton, Daniel Beede, Esq.,
of Sandwich, and Captain Abraham Burnham of Rumney,
was appointed "to view the situation of the premises petitioned
for, . . . and report their opinion thereon to the General Court
at their next session."
The committee visited the locality in May following, with a
copy of the petition, in which the bounds of the proposed town
were described, and containing the names of the petitioners.
They made up their report on the premises, and wrote it on the
back of the copy of the petition, dating the same "Centerr
Harbor May y« 28th, 1789." It seems from this, that there was
a landing then called "Centre Harborr," eight years before the