Transcribed from The Boston Herald, Sunday, August 17, 1919;
Boston, Massachusetts, page 45
“HISTORIC NEW
HAMPSHIRE TOWN TO CELEBRATE 2D CENTURY
Londonderry’s Anniversary
“Meeting” of 1869 is to Reassemble After an “Adjournment” of 50
Years – But the Cider
Provided for in the Will of Dr. Sylvanus Brown Will Not Be Available
By Hobart Pillsbury
Londonderry, Aug. 16
Just 50 years ago one of the greatest celebrations ever held
in New Hampshire took place at Derry in commemoration of the 150th
anniversary of the organization of the historic town of Londonderry, a town
that originally included a part of the city of Manchester, and the present
towns of Londonderry, Derry and Windham.
In the official record of that celebration, which has been preserved in
the archives of both town and state, the last minute reads thus:
It was now announced
by the president of the day that the regular program had been carried out, and
it was moved and seconded that the meeting be adjourned for 50 years.
On Aug. 24 that same “meeting” is to reassemble. Some of the same men and women, although not
many, who voted to “adjourn for 50 years” will be present at the
reassembling. There will be others
present, United States senators and members of Congress, governors,
ex-governors and distinguished men, who were not heard of and perhaps not alive
when the former festivities took place, who will join in what will be the most elaborate
of the many Old Home week reunions of New Hampshire.
But Time’s speeding onward:
How soon in its flight
Will it bear us afar and away out of sight?
How few, on another centennial day,
Will return and talk over the years sped
away?
This verse closed a poem read 50 years ago to the
celebrators. New Hampshire towns, which
boast a records of 200 years of uninterrupted organization, take especial
interest in the preservation of the old home spirit and the observance of Old
Home week. It is just 20 years since the
late Frank W. Rollins, the Boston banker, at that time Governor of New
Hampshire, conceived the idea of promoting an annual reunion of those natives
of New Hampshire who had moved away.
Horace Greeley’s
Dedication
Horace Greeley said, in an oration at the 150th
Londonderry anniversary, that “we shall cordially agree to devote this festival
to the memory of that Scotch-Irish race who first settled this town.” The Scotch-Irish blood survives in Londonderry
today, to a greater extent probably than in any town in the United States. What Greeley said 50 years ago is true:
The old township has
been cut up into several: old landmarks
have disappeared; old fashions have changed; new institutions have changed old
habits and softened rugged peculiarities; but the Scotch-Irish people remain;
their genius lights up most of the faces now looking into mine.
One of the participants in the celebration of 1869 was Dr.
Sylvanus Brown, a physician of Derry, who died with a few years and left the
town a legacy which should be allowed to draw interest until 1919, when the
entire fund was to expended in the purchase of cider and distributed among the multitude
present at the 200th anniversary exercises. Whether by providential provision or otherwise,
the fund got lost in the financial meanderings of the town in the course of 40
years and no money exists today with which to buy cider. Furthermore, no cider exists, under the bone
dry laws, which could be used for celebrating, and that would be of sufficient caliber
faithfully to carry out the provision in the will of Dr. Brown.
E. H. Derby, a prominent Boston lawyer of two generations
ago, speaking at the Derry celebration of 1869 referred to the five great
anniversaries that were that year observed and that might fittingly be noted in
1919 – the birth of Napoleon, the Pacific railroad, the Suez canal, the
invention of the steam engine and the settlement of the Scotch-Irish in
America. The last, according to
Bancroft, is as important to America as the landing of the Puritans, and it is
held by many that the Scotch-Irish did more for civil and religious liberty,
more to sever the ties that bound the colonies to England, and more to
establish American independence than did the Pilgrim Fathers. New Hampshire people are sometimes inclined
to weary of the frequent praise of Massachusetts and the Pilgrim Fathers and the
Puritans as the only settlers of New England who came with high courage and
firm religious convictions. The five
shiploads of Scotch Irish that arrived in Boston include men who, in the words
of Parson Macgregor, “wished to worship God according to the dictates of their
conscience and the rules of His inspired word.”
The Story of
Londonderry
The story of Londonderry is one of the heroic memoirs of
American colonization. Londonderry was
settled by Scotchmen as a result of British oppression. The English Parliament passed laws which were
oppressively felt in Scotland by the Scotch Presbyterians. Thousands of these Scotchmen early in the 17th
century passed over into Ulster in Ireland and resettled that community under
favorable terms of the King of England.
These Scotch became Irish, but were not of the Irish. They did not intermarry with the Irish or
agree with them on matters of government and religion. There was strife which culminated in the memorable
siege of Londonderry, the chief city of Ulster, in 1688 – 89. The Scotch Protestants and the Irish
Catholics strove for supremacy with such bitterness that at length the bolder
souls among the Scotch, failing of that measure of freedom which they had been
led to expect, decided to emigrate to the new world.
Some of the immigrants went from Boston to Worcester, and
the Londonderry colonists originally started for Casco Bay, Me, with a view to
exploring the territory there. They
spent the winter of 1718-19 at Portland, and suffered many hardships from cold
and scarcity of food. In the spring they
sailed down the coaset and up the Merrimack river to Haverhill, from which they
explored by land into the desirable tract at Londonderry, to which they
originally gave the name of Nutfield.
On April 11, 1719, there arrived in what is now Derry 16
families of Scotchmen from Londonderry, Ireland. The Rev. James Macgregor delivered under a
spreading oak at a place called Horse Hill, the first sermon ever preached in
town. The colony was a great success.
Soon there were 70 families, and the first settlers made their “home
lots” of gorund only 30 rods wide and one mile long, in order to protect
themselves against the Indians.
The settlers purchased the territory from John Wheelwright
by a deed that was drawn up at Boston on Oct. 20, 1719. This John Wheelwright was a grandson of a
minister of the same name who had bought the land from the Indians in
1629. One June 21, 1722 they got a
charter from the King of England confirming their titlte to the town on
condition that once a year they should pay the King a quit rent of one peck of
potatoes forever and should reserve for the royal navy all the trees grown in
the town suitable for masts for ships.
Church Well Finished,
but Homes of Logs
The early settlers built their homes of logs, but in two
years they had a church edifice built of good timber and well finished at what
is now East Derry, on the sight of the present Congregational Church. Able-bodied men attended divine worship fully
armed against the raids of the Indians, and there is still preserved the musket
which the minister, Mr. Macgregor, habitually carried into the pulpit.
In 1723 a log schoolhouse was built. It was 75 years before anybody in town had a
first-class vehicle to ride in, John Prentice having the first, and he drove a
chaise which was considered highly extravagant at the time.
They were loyal to the government. In the old French war, in 1745, Dr. Matthew
Thornton, who afterwards signed the Declaration of Independence, served as surgeon
in a campaign of great hardship against Cape Breton. In 1756, when attempt against Crown Point was
made, the town raised three companies of troops which served under the command
of three Londonderry soldiers, Robert Rogers, William Stark and his brother,
the celebrated John Stark, who afterwards became New Hampshire’s most
celebrated general in the revolutionary army.
The spirit of these men was the spirit which identified
their sympathies with the cause of independence from the start. Even before the battle of Lexington and
Concord four Londonderry boys deserted from the British army because of their
revolutionary principles, and were recaptured at Haverhill, Mass. A company of Londonderry men under the
command of Capt. Aiken proceeded to Haverhill and rescued them.
Londonderry at Bunker
Hill
When the news reached New Hampshire that Gen. Gage was
marching at the head of British troops from Boston into the interior, the
Granite state dispatched at force of 1200 men to Cambridge and Charlestown. The “History of Londonderry” related that “men
dropped their implements and in a few hours all who could bear arms were
assembled on the Common at the meeting house.”
They were Minute Men, indeed, and a Londonderry contingent fought at
Bunker Hill, where New Hampshire troops were conspicuous for gallantry.
The ancient records show that on Dec. 17, 1776, the town
meeting voted
“that the remainder of
the powder shall be divided to every one that hath not already received of the
same, as far as it will go; provided he produces a gun of his own, in good
order, and is willing to go against the enemy, and promises not to waste any of
the powder, only in self-defense; and provided, also, that he show twenty good
bullets to suit his gun, and six good flints.”
When the revolutionary war was over it was proposed to
reinstate the Tories as citizens of the town. To this proposal the town sent a
memorial to the New Hampshire Legislature, saying:
“We expect that you
will use your best endeavor that nothing may ever be done for those infernal
wretches by the state, further than to provide a gallows, halter and hangman
for every one that dare show their vile countenances amongst us.”
It was during this period that sharpers and hawkers took
advantage of the depreciation of government money. The town took official cognizance of the high
cost of living, particularly as regarded professional fees and money-changers’
commissions. A vote was passed to reduce
the fees of lawyers 50 per cent on the ground that “they would not then be so fond
of business, and people would have time to breathe.”
Large families grew up among the early settlers of
Londonderry. It was the rule rather than
the exception to have 8, 10 or 12 children, and there appeared to be no
difficulty in supporting families of this size out of the product of the
farms. The settlers introduced the Irish
potato into this country and they learned from the Indians how to catch salmon
at Amoskeag in what is now the centre of the city of Manchester. Salmon abounded near the falls at Amoskeag.
Londonderry also developed the linen industry in America,
and years ago every house in town had its weaving loom at which the women were
particularly adept. The Londonderry
weavers had almost a national reputation for quality of product. Their frugality and industry enabled them to
maintain their large families, and from the original 70 families in the town,
it was stated by Charles H. Bell, the former United States senator, at the last
celebration in Derry, that “as near as he could figure out, upward of 50,000 descendants
of these Scotch-Irishmen were then living in the United States”.
Some Amusing
Incidents
The Londonderry men were always religious and maintained the
church with considerable dignity. The
minister of Londonderry received a larger salary than the chief executive of
New Hampshire. They were men of plain
speech. The minister one day made many
parochial visits, and toward evening rode a horse up to the home of one of his
elders. He had, as a matter of course, been pressed at every dwelling to
partake of the liquid refreshments which are now taboo, but were then
considered indispensable, and between fatigue and overhospitality on the part
of his parishioners, found it hard to keep himself upright in the saddle.
The elder’s keen eye took in the situation.
“Wont’ ye light doun, parson,” said he, “and come in and get
something do eat, for I perceive ye’ve had enough to drink, already.”
To show how obstinate these men were, the story is related
of the representative from Londonderry to the New Hampshire Legislature who
differed decidedly from the speaker in matters of religion and politics and had
also expressed doubts as to the speaker’s honesty. At the close of the session it was customary,
and as today, to offer resolutions of felicitations to the presiding officer
and present him with a substantial gift.
In this particular session the managers of the Legislature
feared to encounter the public opposition of the outspoken “gentleman from
Londonderry” to their resolution, and thought it prudent to confer with him in
private as to their plans. They showed
him the resolution, which was in the ordinary form, presenting “the thanks of
the Legislature to the presiding officer for the dignity, ability, and
integrity with which he has discharged his duties.”
The gentleman from Londonderry perused the resolution carefully
and said:
“There is only one word I object to; strike out “integrity’
and I will vote for the resolution.”
Which was done, and the records of the Legislature stand in
that way today for that particular session.
It was the ancient practice in the town to sit at the table
in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
In other towns it was found more convenient for the communicants to
remain in the pews. Londonderry stuck to
its practice for many years, until finally the minister announced that
parishioners would remain in their pews during the service, but seats at the
table would still be provided for such as might object to the change. Most of the members adopted the prevailing
fashion; but quite a few would not change and sat at the table. The latter faction dwindled in numbers until
there was but one old gentleman who would not yield his assent. Year after year, until he went down to his
grave, each day of communion, in sunshine and in storm, found him sitting at
the table, solitary and conspicuous, in mute but faithful protest against an
innovation for which he found no warrant in Scripture.
The first display of musical instruments in church ever made
in New Hampshire took place in Londonderry, and the incident is somewhat
peculiar. It appears that the minister
had formerly been a chaplain in the British army and had learned to play the
violin. He brought his stringed
instrument to America, no doubt hidden in the bottom of his chest, and late one
night one of the elders, passing the parson’s log cabin, heard the “linked
sweetness long drawn out” peeped through the window and discovered the man of
God in the very act of drawing the bow.
Of course the elder reported what he saw to the session, and a decree
was made that the minister should “hang up the fiddle and the bow” for three successive
Sundays in front of the pulpit.
Londonderry got its charter as a town in 1722 and the name
was then changed to Nutfield. One
provision of the charter was that fairs should be held in May and November and
for over 50 years these were great events.
Merchants came from Boston and Salem to exhibit their wares. Toward the
last, however, these fairs became mere riotous gatherings and were abolished.
The town prospered so that 100 years ago it was the first in
importance in New Hampshire. Two famous
academies were founded, Pinkerton Academy for boys and the Adams Female
Seminary for girls. In the later one of
the faculty was Mary Lyon, who founded Mt. Holyoke College.
The first marriage in Londonderry was that of John Wallace
to Annie Barnet, in 1721. The first
funeral was that of John Clark, in 1720.
The first birth was that of Jonathan Morrison, and it was an occasion of
much anxiety which mother’s son should obtain the prize of a lot of land which
was assigned to the first son born in Londonderry. This first born was an uncle to one Jeremiah
Smith, who was later well known as a “millwright, blacksmith, carpenter,
house-joiner, stone-cutter and gunmaker,” being evidently a gentleman of some
versatility.
One of the athletic exercises in the early days of this town
was to see who could soonest load a wagon with barrels of cider. Young men about town, when meeting on the
road, would frequently unload and load again just for this purpose.
The New Hampshire Legislature used to have sermons preached
before it by distinguished clergymen. On
one occasion the Rev. Dr. Morrison of Londonderry delivered the sermon and the
customary motion was made to print the same as a public document. An amendment was offered “provided they would
print the brogue” and solemnly carried.
John Montgomery, one of the early Londonderry weavers, wove
the linen for George Washington and other officers of the army and received
from Congress for this service 40 pounds in money and a diamond ring as a
premium.
Colonists of Londonderry went out from that town to settle
many other towns in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. An expedition went to Bedford in 1737,
Peterboro in 1741, Acworth in 1766, Antrim, Henniker, and Deering in 1767, and New
Boston in 1774. The town of Windham was
carved out of Londonderry in 1741 and Derry in 1827. Other towns settled principally by men of
this town were Londonderry, N. S., Londonderry, Vt., Windham, Vt., Truro, N.S.,
and Cherry Valley, N.Y.
Romance of “Ocean
Mary”
The most charming of the many stories that are connected
with Londonderry is that of “Ocean Mary” and it is said that there is every reason
to believe it true. In July, 1720, a
ship, whose name has not been preserved, set sail from Londonderry in Ireland
for Boston with a number of well-to-do families on board bound for the Scotch-Irish
settlement in New Hampshire. Among the
passengers were James Wilson and the young wife whom he had married a year
before on their way to take up the land of which Wilson was one of the original
grantees.
Concerning the first few days of the voyage of this
immigrant ship little is known, except that there was a protracted calm,
followed by a storm of unusual violence, by which the ship was driven from her
course. The passage across the Atlantic
was about one-third accomplished when events transpired that mad the trip
memorable in the lives of all on board.
One evening the lookout saw on the horizon a sail silhouetted
against the rising moon. The strange
craft came nearer and nearer, and by morning her low hull could be seen like a
black shadow under her full set of canvas.
The pirate ship came within gunshot of the emigrant ship.
There was nothing to do. The emigrants
had nothing but a few muskets for arms, and she was too slow to run away.
Boats were soon alongside and the ocean robbers fell to
work, swarming over the decks as men accustomed to plunder and kill and with plenty
of knowledge as to both. Crew and
passengers were seized, searched, robbed and bound, and either rolled into
heaps or left where they lay. Valuables
were gathered into parcels and made ready to be transferred to the marauder’s
vessel.
The robber chief went below, found the officer’s quarters,
threw open the aftercabin door with a rough hand, and came upon a young woman
lying in the berth.
“What are you doing here?” demanded the ruffian.
The terrified woman uncovered an infant’s face.
“See.”
The pirate drew near to her.
“Is it a boy or a girl?”
“A girl,” said the mother.
“Have you named her?”
“No.”
The pirate went to the cabin door and ordered no man to stir
until further orders. His followers
ceased their pillaging and their chief returned to the berth where the woman
lay.
“If I may name that baby,” he said to her with quiet voice, “I
will unbind your men and leave your ship unharmed.” May I name the girl?”
“Yes”
Then the robber bent over and took up the hand of the tiny
baby.
“Mary” was the name the woman heard his speak.
When the child drew its hand away from his, the mother saw a
tear on the pink fingers.
The pirate ordered all captives unbound and goods and
valuables restored to the places from which they had been taken. Then, with his crew, he left the emigrant
ship and pulled to his own vessel. But
the emigrant ship had scarcely got underway than a new alarm came. The pirate
was returning.
If the passengers were dismayed by his reappearance they were
surprised to see him come on board alone and go directly below to the
cabin. There he took from a parcel a
piece of brocaded silk of fine texture and beautiful design. It was of a plaid
pattern, combining many hues of red and green, wonderfully harmonized and
softened with lines of white.
“Let Mary wear this on her wedding day” the pirate said.
He left the ship and was seen no more.
The ship reached Boston and no further incident disturbed
the passage. James Wilson died soon after
landing and the mother went with “Ocean Mary” to live in Londonderry, where
friends awaited them. The mother married
at Londonderry some months afterward James Clark, the great-great grandfather
of Horace Greeley.
In 1738 one Thomas Walker emigrated to America, settled in
Londonderry, and married on Dec. 18 of the same year the girl “Ocean Mary”. The wedding dress was the pirates’ silk. Four sons were born to her, one of whom,
Robert Walker, built the finest house in Henniker, N. H., still standing. “Ocean Mary” lived in this house, on a sightly
hill, until 1814, when she died at the age of 94 years.
She was tall, graceful, with light hair, blue eyes, and a
florid complexion. She had an
aristocratic nature, her manner was fine and her ways kindly. Her granddaughter
and great granddaughter have worn the pirate’s silk at their weddings, and
although mellowed with age, its richness is still preserved.
Many of the older buildings of the town are still
standing. One is the homestead of
Matthew Thornton, the first New Hampshire signer of the Declaration of Independence. Another is the Col. Lane house in which Gen.
Derby resided and where the Marquis de Lafayette on his visit to America lodged
over night. The Parker homestead with
its beautiful cedar trees in front is the old parsonage of the original
Presbyterian church.
The original Pinkerton Academy through whose doors have
passed hundreds of men and women who later achieved prominence in all parts of
the country, is standing on its original site, within a stone’s throw of the
present large and stately academy. The
old academy was used from 1814 to 1887 as the headquarters of the institution.
The Hood farm, where originated the H. P. Hood & Sons
milk business, is a place pointed out by natives, not so much because it was
Mr. Hood’s first farm, but because before that it was the old Redfield tavern
where Lafayette dined. The birthplace of
Gen. George Reid may be seen today, an extremely old style frame house. Gen. Reid was really one of the great
generals of the revolutionary army, although history does not give him that
prominence. To New Hampshire’s people
the figure of Gen. Stark overshadows that of Gen. Reid, but there is at the present
time a disposition to give Gen. Reid his due and accord him something of the
honor to which his services under Washington entitle his memory. The next session of the Legislature will be
asked to place a portrait of Gen. Reid in the State House.
The Adams Female Academy is standing, and the building that was
originally used a s boarding house for pupils at that institution is lately
used as a boarding house for summer boarders, for whom New Hampshire is a
mecca. It is called “The Elms”.
One of the features of the 200th anniversary celebration
will be the historical pageant on the grounds of Pinkerton Academy on Monday,
the 25th. This pageant has
been written by Mrs. J. G. McMurphy of one of the old families and it pictures
scenes in Londonderry, Ireland, the parting of old friends, the embarkation for
America, and the settlement of the town.
The central theme of the pageant is education with freedom to think and
to act according to the dictates of conscience.
Among the speakers will be Gov. John H. Bartlett, Senator
George H. Moses, Representative Sherman E. Burroughs and Chief Justice Frank N.
Parsons of the state supreme court, himself a native of the town. The presidents of the days of celebration
include six distinguished sons of the town.
They are George I. McAllister, an eminent lawyer at Manchester; Charles
M. Floyd, former Governor of New Hampshire; Chief Justice Parsons, Robert
Lincoln O’Brien, editor of the Herald; Charles H. Hood, present head of the
Hood milk concern, and Rosecrans W. Pillsbury, publisher of the Manchester
Mirror. The committee on the celebration
is headed by Perley L. Horne, principal of Pinkerton Academy.”
-------------------------
Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "200th Anniversary of Nutfield, from a 1919 Boston Newspaper",
Nutfield Genealogy, posted May 10, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/05/200th-anniversary-of-nutfield-from-1919.html: accessed [access date]).
