. THE EXETER Quarter- Millennial. Address delivered in Exeter, New Hampshire, June 7, 1888, on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of the town. BY CHARLES H. BELL. ONE HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED. EXETER : PRINTED BY JOHN TEMI'LETON. Ojc "NfaS'-ILtti MDCCCLXXXVIII. ADD11ESS. It is a pleasant and profitable cus- tom which our older towns have adopted, to celebrate by memorial exercises their notable anniversaries. It reminds the generations on the stage that the privileges they enjoy are not of spontaneous growth, but have been secured to them by the pains and foresight of their predeces- sors ; it keeps green the memory of the fathers who braved hardship and peril that they might lay broad and deep the foundations of civil and religious liberty for their descendants ; it admonishes the Present not to care for its own time alone, but to repay the debt it owes to the Past by plan- ning and providing for the Future. Fifty years ago the town of Exeter observed with fitting ceremonies the two hundreth anniversary of its na- tivity. In the presence of a great concourse, largely composed of de- scendants of the planters of the orig- inal settlement, a gentleman familiar with the early history of the place, of ripe learning and experience, and of philosophical habits of thought, delivered an Address appropriate to the occasion. He dwelt especially upon the character of the founders of Exeter and the events of its early years. It would be an act of pre- sumption ibr me on this occasion to attempt to deal with the topics which he then treated so felicitously. I shall give my attention there- fore, chieily to those passages of the town's history which did not appropriately come within his de- sign. The quarter millennial anniversary of old Exeter which we now cele- brate, is not the exclusive prerogative of the town which at present bears the name ; it belongs to several other neighboring places as well. New- market, South Newmarket, Epping, Brcntwood and Fremont were parts of the original township of Exeter, and during substantially the first century were under its government. The first two of those towns were set off into independent municipalities in 1727, the third in 1741, and the last two in 1742. Stratham, also, though its territory was never a part of the original township, was by law united in government with Exeter from 1692 to 1716, and was in effect a part of it many years before. The inhabitants of these several places are descended from the same stock as our own. They are con- nected with us by the ties of blood, of common memories, and of long and neighborly friendship. Exeter was the maternal town ; they the children who enjoyed the same nur- ture as ourselves, and when they reached adult age, quitted the home- stead to set up their own separate establishments. When the mother's birthday comes round, they are en- titled to the same privilege of giving it filial observance that we have. We cordially welcome them to a partic- ipation in the celebration of our com- mon anniversary to-day. Two hundred and fifty years in this country constitute antiquity. They carry us back to within eight- een years of the time when the May- flower landed the Pilgrim Fathers on the stern and rock bound coast of Plymouth. The changes which have occurred in the condition of the suc- cessive generations who have inhab- ited this township during that period have been so numerous and so strik- ing that it would be impossible even to allude to them in the single hour at my command. I can only direct attention to the more significant events those which were chiefly in- strumental in shaping the destinies of the town, and which especially emphasize the characteristics of the people. For the sake of convenience and clearness I will take up each successive half century and consider it by itself. 1638 TO 1688. Exeter had neither charter nor act of incorporation. It came into being as a place of refuge for men perse- cuted for conscience' sake. The Rev. John Wheelwright was its founder and sponsor. He was a na- tive of Lincolnshire in England and belonged to the upper middle class of the people. He received his ed- ucation at the university, and inher- ited lands from his father. We may judge something of his abilities and standing by the friendships which he tnade. Two of the foremost men whose names are recorded on the pages of England's history, Oliver Cromwell and Sir Henry Vane, were his early acquaintances, and in ma- ture life his associates and friends. This is n sufficient voucher for his character and position. His sphere of action was limited, when compar- ed with theirs, but he maintained the independence and firmness, the breadth and dignity, which would have fitted him for high station, had his destin}* called him to it. For his puritanical utterances he was silenced as a preacher in Eng- land ; and he came to this country in pursuit of a free religious atmos- phere. But he found the lords mag- istrates and elders of Massachusetts fully as intolerant as the lords bish- ops at home. Moreover he became a warm partisan of the losing candi- date for the chief magistracy of the colony. Unfortunate both in his theology and his politics, he was banished by his fellow Christians of Massachusetts, and found an asylum among the heathen savages at the falls of the Squamscot. Here he be- came the founder of a commonwealth as well as of a town. No govern- ment under that of the Creator ex- isted over the domain that he pur- chased from the Indian occupants. He established one. The Exeter Combination for the purpose of self government, as drawn by Wheel- wright in 1G39, and bearing the signatures of himself and his compan- ions, is preserved in his own hand- writing in our earliest book of records to this da} T . Under the authority of this instrument and of a code of laws framed in accordance with it, the little colony for five years lived and managed their own affairs in peace and harmony. The rulers of Massachusetts, am- bitious to extend their sovereignty, then laid claim, by a forced con- struction of their charter, to the ter- ritory of New Hampshire. The in- fant settlement had no power to re- sist, and no tiibunal to afford re- dress. Wheelwright and his special friends, unwilling again to expose themselves to the tender mercies of which they already had a sufficient experience, shook the dust from their feet, and sought refuge in the forests of Maine. The remaining citizens of the town made a virtue of necessity, and petitioned to be re- ceived under the jurisdiction of Mas- sachusetts, and permission was gra- ciously accorded. For the first few years after this change of government, the town was apparently at a stand still. Their old leader was gone and there seem- ed to be no one left to give tone and balance to the settlement. The peo- ple fell to wrangling over religious questions. This was characteristic of the times. The hours that the men of this age spend in discussing party politics or the news of the day, they employed in controversies over questions of speculative theology and the comparative gifts and graces of rival preachers. They had noth- ing else to occupy their minds. Their few books were for the most part po- 8 lemical, their politics and religion were synonymous, and news they had none. Our colony at this stage was sadly in need of a tonic and an alter- ative. From the narrowing influence of religious dissension the inhabitants were fortunately rescued after a few years, by two new arrivals. The first was that of Edward Oilman, the younger, a man of property and en- terprise. Apparently he was attract- ed hither by the report of the water power of our rivers, and of the abundant timber upon their banks. He entered into an agreement with the townsmen to come here and build saw mills, upon condition that the town would grant him water power and timber. The contract was hon- orably fulfilled on the part of each. A new industry was thus established in the town ; new value was given to the waters and the forest, and a fresh impetus to business and trade. The other arrival which conduced to the improvement of the place was that of a settled pastor, the Rev. Samuel Dudley. Nothing could have been more fortunate for the people. A son of one governor of Massa- chutetts and a son in law of another, his acquaintance with the leading men of that colony was potent for good to our people. Moreover he had been a man of affairs before he became a minister. He appears to have been free from the hair-splitting of theological subtleties so common among his clerical brethren. No doubt he preached faithfully the fun- damental doctrines of his denomina- tion, and we are sure that he enfor- ced by his example the virtaes of in- dustry and thrift. But he wasted no time in idle speculations upon the hidden mysteries of another world, so long as there were pressing duties calling for his best attention in this. After his arrival we hear nothing more of religious dissensions. Mr. Dudley lived in the town and minis- tered to the people of Exeter more than thirty 3 - ears, and perhaps no man, in the infancy of the place did more than he to give it character and stability. In 1G80 Exeter experienced ano'h- er change of government. New Hampshire was erected into a royal province, and had its own separate officers commissioned by the British Crown. Reluctant as were the in- habitants, forty years before, to sub- rait to the jurisdiction of Massachu- setts, they were yet more reluctant to quit it now. It was not so much that they loved that govern- ment more, though it had served them well, as that they loved the prospect of the New Hampshire gov- ernment less. From the influences under which it was instituted, the}* regarded it as a menace to the title of their lands. John Mason received in 1G29 a grant of the territory of New Hamp- shire, through the council of Ply- mouth, from the King of England, who claimed to own it by the right of discovery. Mason after expending a considerable sum in settling a col- ony upon it, died in 1G35. Three years after his death Wheelright 10 bought from the Indians the territo- ry of Exeter and its vicinity. If those who came to inhabit it had ever heard of any claim of Mason or his heirs to the lands, they must have regarded it as unfounded and uujust. What right could the King of England acquire, they might natural- ly have asked, to an inliabited coun- try, by the mere fact that during the reign of one of his predecessors more than a hundred years before, a Brit- ish explorer had discovered and landed upon it? And what right could Mason gain to the lands in the rest of the province, by estab- lishing in one extremity of it a col- ony at Portsmouth and mills on the Newichwannock? Neither Mason nor any one in his behalf, so far as it appears, had ever so much as set fooit or eyes upon the soil of Exeter. On the other hand the purchase of the lands from the Indian proprietors, and continued actual oc- cupancy afterwards, were regarded as forming an unimpeachable title. Forty years and more the inhabit- ants had possessed the soil under a claim of absolute ownership. The}* had sown and reaped, bought and sold, inherited and devised it, with- out a question or a doubt of the se- curity of their title. And now Robert Tufton Mason, grandson and heir of John Mason, had obtained the opinion of the At- torney General of England, that he had a good and valid claim to the soil of New Hampshire. The tidings came upon the colonists like a clap of thunder from a clear skv. ii It is true that this legal opinion was afterwards modified, hut il was nevertheless upon Mason's solicita- tion that the King severed New Hampshire from Massachusetts and gave it a separate government. The consequences of this step the inhabi- tants foreboded only too clearly. Tribunals would be established that would recognize Robert Mason's title to the lands ; and then what would become of their cherished possessions ? Is it any wonder, therefore, that they went unwillingly under the yoke that threatened to deprive them of their property and homes? For the first two or three years af- ter the new government went into operation, however, their apprehen- sions were not realized. The first officers appointed were craftily select- ed from the ranks of the colonists themselves, so that the rights of all were respected. At length Robert Mason became tired of waiting, and by his desire Edward Cranfield, said to be a needy relative of an English family of rank, was appointed gover- nor. To make assurance doubly sure, Mason bound him to himself by pecuniary inducements. Cranfield made his approaches with studied deliberation. The representatives of the colonists at first believed him to be their friend, and unwittingly sur- rendered to him the control of the jury lists a fatal oversight, as the event proved. No sooner did he feel himself strong enough than he threw off the mask and became the un- scrupulous partisan of Mason in his attempt to strip the inhabitants of 12 their homesteads. Suits were brought in every township, and no less than sixteen in Exeter alone. At first the colonists made an attempt to defend them, but judges, sheriffs and jurors were found to be the creatures of Mason and CranQeld, and trials sim- ply a farce. Judgments were invari- ably entered for Mason. If he could only have enforced them, he would have been the proprietor of the pro- vince in deed as well as in name, and the occupants must have become his tenants on his own terms. But then it was that our fathers showed the stuff they were made of. Then they proved that there was a higher law than that administer- ed by such tribunals ; the law of right and justice. The processes of those Courts were found of no more worth than the paper they were written on ; the officers of the Courts were power- less as new born babes. Though judges and juries pronounced the lauds to be Mason's, the voice of the people decreed them to be the occu- pants'. Mason could not sell and dared not attempt to possess, what he had nominally acquired. Cranfield, the mercenary governor, foiled in his land speculation, then attempted to fill his pockets by illegal taxation of the people. By false pretenses he induced his council to assent to a levy, though his commis- sion forbade him to lay taxes with- out the concurrence of the popular branch of the General Assembly. This was the drop too much that ovcr- ilowed the measure of the people's patience. They did not even make a 13 pretence of obedience. When the emissaries of the governor visited Exeter to demand payment of the illegal assessments, they were met with open insult and derision, and the very women threatened them with red hot spits and scalding water. Such was the spirit of the people at the close of the first half century of the town's history. 1G88 TO 1738. The second half century begins with the year 1688. The settlement hud by this time struck root deep in- to the soil, though its outward growth was small. The population could have little exceeded three hundred souls. But they had learned the value of what they had acquired, and had the spirit to defend it against the ag- gressions of authority or of violence. This period carries us forward to the year 1738 and covers the whole dura- tion of the earlier Indian hostilities, except the brief episode of Philip's war, which was in New Hampshire but a momentary foregleam of the lurid light which was later to redden the whole horizon of our frontier, for long and blood}' years. Exeter was a border town. Along its western boundary no inhabited territory in- terposed between it and the deep for- ests which were the highway and the lurking place of the hostile savages. For years there was no hour when an inhabitant of the town could say that he was safe. When he unbarred his door in the morning, he was liable to be shot down from an ambush ; when he returned to his home at the 14 close of the day he had no assurance that he might not iind it a heap of ashes. The parting of husband and wife for an hour's separation, each felt might be their final one on earth. Men did not even attend divine ser- vice without weapons in their hands. At night whole neighborhoods were gathered into garrisons, for compara- tive security. All was danger and apprehension. Trying as was this period of con- stant peril, it was not without its compensations in its effects upon the character of the inhabitants. While real trouble was always present, there was no borrowing of imaginary trou- ble. Habits of courage and presence of mind were generated. Women became heroines. Young men learn- ed to imitate the virtues of the In- dian savage his caution, patience and contempt of hardship and dan- ger, and to supplement them with the chivalrous qualities that grow out of the relations of civilized life. The successful Indian-fighter was the knight-errant of his time, protecting the helpless, rescuing the captives, avenging the slain. The fame of one of the most distinguished of these, Col. Winthrop Hilton, belongs to old Exeter ; his home was in that part of it which is now South Newmarket. He was the paladin of the region. His "keen black eyes and his long bright gun" were objects of terror to the hostile aborigines. In defence of the white inhabitants of these ex- posed frontiers he led his brave as- sociates again and again into the haunts of the savages. Long he kept 15 them in wholesome awe, till at last they fell upon him by surprise and put an end to his career. His achieve- ments are worthy of being wedded to immortal verse, and will form a lit subject for the muse of the national poet of the future. After years of intermittent warfare, during which our town lost heavily by slaughter and capture, the joj'ful tidings of peace with the Indians were proclaimed. The country breathed freer. No longer restrained by the dread of the tomahawk and the scalp- ing knife, the tide of population over- passed the frontier, and distributed itself through the territory beyond. New townships were settled ; a new border land was created, a shield of protection for Exeter. As is always the case after the re- pressive influence of war is removed, the population at once increased apace. Agriculture was resumed, and the woods which had long echoed only the crack of the deadly rifle, once more resounded cheerily to the blows of the lumberman's axe. Prosperity returned with a rebound. The edu- cation of the young was placed upon a permanent basis. The town es- tablished and thenceforward main- tained a grammar and classical school and erected a building of respectable dimensions for its accommodation. A spacious new meeting house witli two tiers of galleries was built on the spot which has been occupied as the site of a house of worship now one- hundred and ninety-two years ; and on the opposite side of the way stood the town house, beside which were 16 stationed, like sentinels to preserve the public order, the whipping post and the stocks. The title to their lands was no lon- ger a subject of apprehension to the inhabitants. No thanks for this, however, to the English authorities. They did their utmost to instate the representatives of Mason as the pro- prietors of the province, by means of an arbitrary mandate, in sheer viola- tion of the Englishman's proud inheri- tance, the common law of the realm. In the great suit of Allen against Waldron tried in our courts in 1707 and by common consent made a test case to decide the title to the lands of the province, the Queen in Council ordered that if either party should require it, the jury were to return a special verdict, stating merely the facts proved, and leaving the judg- ment to be pronounced by the Eng- lish tribunals. The order was wholly in the interest of Allen the plaintiff, the representative of Mason ; for if it had been carried into effect there is little doubt that the English courts would have found means to "drive a coach and six" through any finding of the provincial jury, and to author- ize a judgment for the plaintiff. But the order was a clear usurpa- tion of power, for from time immemo- rial jurors have enjoyed the right to find their verdicts in general terms for the plaintiff or the defendant, if they pleased ; and no court had the authority to compel them to do other- wise. And this jury of our fathers, to whom was committed the decision of the most important question ever 17 litigated in New Hampshire, rough and unlettered as they probably were, yet knew their constitutional rights, and knowing dared maintain them. Though twice sent out under the or- der of the Queen in Council they had the courage and independence to dis- obey the unconstitutional mandate, and would render no verdict save a general one against the Masonian claims. All honor to their firmness and foresight. Had they yielded their prerogative then, our lands and our laws, too, might to-day have been at the mercy of foreign tribunals. The independence of the jury once sur- rendered could never have been re- gained. And would the sons of jur- ors who bowed to the illegal assump- tions of power, have had the moral fibre to resist further aggressions, and to endure long years of fighting and suffering to achieve their inde- pendence ? It is pleasant to record that two at least of the jurors who took this noble stand in behalf of their own rights and those of their coun- trymen, were citizens of Exeter. It was near the close of the first century that the distribution of the common lands was accomplished. The territory which Wheelwright ob- tained from the Indians, in 1638 did not become private property, but the public possession of the town. Thus the inhabitants in their collective ca- pacity were vested with the control and disposal of a domain of the extent of one hundred square miles, at the least. From it they made grants from time to time to townsmen and new comers, at discretion. Their 18 discretion they used wisely. They treated their great landed estate as their capital, and drew from it such portions only as they had need of, to encourage enterprise and reward desert, and to meet necessary charges. Had they had the spendthrift's dis- position, they would have squander- ed their resource in a decade, if in- deed it had lasted so long. But they were gifted with prudence and moderation, and a hundred years elapsed before the last of the land was disposed of. In 1714 the town still retained a belt of it two miles in breadth and extending along the whole western bound of the township, and adopt- ed an order that it should be reserv- ed as a perpetual commonage for the inhabitants. And so it continued for a quarter of a century. When we consider that it required only a vote of the majority to give to every in- habitant his proportion of those ten thousand acres or more, it appears wonderful that they kept their hands off it so long. At length, however, but only after careful consideration, and with the aid of more than one committee, the distribution was effected, apparently to the satisfac- tion of all. There is an old fashion- ed prudence, and forbearance and deliberation in the dealings of the in- habitants with their common lands, which are in refreshing contrast with the forth-putting impatience of these modern times. 1738 TO 1788. The third fifty years take us on 19 to 1788, the date of the adoption of the Federal Constitution. This was an era of momentous political changes on this continent. It wit- nessed the wresting of the dominion of Canada from France by England, with the aid of the Americans, and the wresting of the United States from the control of England by the Americans with the aid of the French. The great struggle between England and France for the mastery in Amer- ica lasted, with some intermissions, for fifteen years. During this peri- od our town was never backward in furnishing its quota of men and means to promote the designs of the mother country. The campaign against Louisburg in 1745 was a veritable crusade. The troops marched under a banner whose motto JVil desperandum Christo duce was chosen by the evangelist George "Whitefield. Every rule of scientific warfare was set at naught, and the success of the ex- pedition astonished the military world. Of the six hundred men fur- nished by New Hampshire in the first instance and by way of rein- forcements for this enterprise, Exe- ter appears to have sent two compa- nies. In the battle at Lake George in 1755, the fortunate issue of which gave Sir William Johnson his bar- onetcy, an Exeter company of eighty men under the command of Captain Nathaniel Folsom, with half as many New York troops, contributed in no small degree to the discomfiture and total rout of the French. They at- 20 tacked and dispersed the rear guard of the enemy, and inflicted a severe loss upon the main body of their re- treating army, besides depriving them of their ammunition and bag- gage. It was an exploit which made the reputation of the officer who con- ducted it. At the capitulation of Fort Wil- liam Henry, two years later, among the troops surrendered were two reg- imental officers and a company of Exeter men. In the plunder and massacre of helpless prisoners by the Indian allies of the French on that occasion, which affixed an in- delible stigma upon the character of Montcalm, several of our townsmen suffered, some death, others capture and long detention, and all the loss of their property. In every campiagn of that pro- tracted war, it is believed, Exeter was represented by a due proportion of officers and soldiers, serving faith- fully under the flag of the mother country, even to the decisive years, which saw the chivalric Wolfe yield up his life in the moment of victory at Quebec, and the gallant Amherst receive the surrender of Montreal, which terminated the French ascendancy in Canada. It seems to have been beneficently ordered of Providence that before the final test of the Revolution came, our countrymen had undergone the experience of the French and Indian wars. They had there derived just the lessons needed to inspire them with confidence to enter upon the struggle for their independence from foreign domination. They had tested their mettle in the conflicts with the cruel savages, and measured themselves with the disciplined bat- talions of the warlike French. They had witnessed the bloody repulses of Braddock and Abercrombie, and par- ticipated in the victories of some of the most successful generals of the British army. All the while they were becoming inured to warfare, and were losing their dread of regu- lar troops, who imported the tactics of the parade into the bush fighting of the wilderness. They were qual- ifying themselves to meet on some- thing like equal terms the armies of Howe and Burgoyne, of Clinton and Cornwallis. In those early schools of warfare were trained Stark and Putnam and Washington. Without the experience gained from those sources, to whom could our coun- trymen have turned for leaders in the long and doubtful contest by which they finally achieved their independence? And without com- manders practiced in the military art, would they ever have had the temerity to take up arms against one of the most powerful nations on the globe ? Scarcely was the French war over, before Britain began that series of encroachments upon the rights and liberties of her American colonies, which at length aroused them to arm- ed resistance. The Stamp Act was the initiative. This was an in- direct attempt at taxation without representation, a principle not for an instant tolerated by the sons of lib- 22 erty. The people of Exeler chose the evening of the fifth of November, 1765, to demonstrate their feeling towards the odious act. This was the anniversary of the famous "gun- powder plot," and was observed in some of the New England towns by burning in effigy Guy Fawkes and the Pope, as the chief enemies of the British constitution. Three figures were prepared, in the Exeter de- monstration, representing accord- ing to the popular understanding, Lords North and Bute and the devil, the former two of whom, at least, were identified with the legislation detrimental to the colonies. The effigies were paraded through the streets, under the escort of a hooting crowd, over the great bridge to the east bank of the river, and there on the hill-side, in full view of the vil- lage, they were deliberately set fire to and burned. This unmistakable act was beyond doubt, the expression of the feeling of the great majority of the inhab- itants of the town. Yet there was an undercurrent of timidity and re- monstrance. Stamps were made by law necessary to the validity of every written instrument and of every legal proceeding. Yet not a stamp would the people suffer to be used. How then, asked a few, are we to collect our dues, or to secure our proper!}' from depredation? The patriotism and sound sense of our fathers solved the problem, Thirty-four of the principal inhabitants of Exeter set their hands to a public manifesto that they would in person aid and 23 sustain the peace officers in the main- tenance of order, and in the defence of property. The same colonists who defied the power of the entire British parliament respected the self constituted authority of a handful of their countrymen. The year which passed in the open nullification of a known, unmistakable statute, was as free from illegal disturbance in all other respects, as an}' year before or after. From this time forward Exeter was outspoken in its opposition to the ag- gressions of Britain, and in its sym- pathy with the colonists upon whom they bore most hardly. When the Boston Port bill was passed, which put an end to the commerce and trade of the principal town of New England, and reduced a part of its population to poverty and distress, a town meeting of Exeter was called, which not only passed a series of resolutions of condemnation of the course of the English government, but also voted to raise the sum of one hundred pounds by assessment upon the polls and estates of the inhabi- tants, for the relief of the suffering poor of Boston. It is creditable to the benevolence and patriotism of our people, that the assessment ap- pears to have been paid as cheerfully as any other tax ; and the full sum was duly applied to the charitable purpose for which it was raised. The next step taken in New Hamp- shire in resistance to British oppre- sion was the seizure of the arms and ammunition of Fort William and Marv in Portsmouth harbor in De- ccmber, 1774. This appears to havu been no sudden adventure of a hand- ful of patriots of a single locality, as some have imagined, but a well planned scheme, known to the leading citizens of the towns in the vicinity, in which, in order that there might be no/isk of failure, the parts were care- full}' assigned that each was to take. Exeter had the honor to furnish the men to support the movement on the spot, should resistance be at- tempted. Accordingly on the ap- pointed night two parties of armed Exeter citizens, numbering seventy or eighty in all, led by Col. Nathan- iel Folsom and Capt. John Giddinge with other prominent patriots of the town, marched to Portsmouth, and were stationed where they could be of the readiest service, should help be needed. Meantime the raiders passed down the river, took posses- sion of the Fort, placed the military stores on board their gundalows, and then retraced their course without serious molestation. When the tid- ings of the success of the foray were received, the Exeter companies re- turned home. Their participation in the active work of disarmament was not needed, possibly for the reason that their presence overawed such opposition as could have been mus- tered. The powder that was seized was, much of it, stored in Exeter and the neighboring towns. Between this occurrence and the actual breaking out of hostilities a period of about four months inter- vened. On the evening of the nine- teenth of April, 1775, one of those rumors of evil tidings that outstrip in speed the fleetest messengers, reached the place, that the British troops had marched out of Boston and that an action had been fought in which American blood had been shed. Little sleep in Exeter that night, we may be sure. Men were walking the streets and gathering in consultation till the small hours of the morning, and wives and mothers well knowing the high patriotic spirit of those dearest to them kept anxious vigils. About daylight the next morning the town was aroused by the arrival of an express which told the story of Concord and Lexington, and designated Cambridge as the rendez- vous for patriotic volunteers. All Exeter was astir. Drums beat, men mustered ; women cooked and stitch- ed ; and in a few brief hours one hundred and eight men stood in array before the Court house, armed, equipped and provisioned for the march. It was an instantaneous con- version of citizens into soldiers. They had not even an officer chosen. But there was no hesitation. James Hackett, a ship builder, patriotic, resolute and courageous, was by one voice put in command, and led the Exeter volunteers to Cambridge. Throughout the Revolution and for years afterward, Exeter was the capital of the State. Here as- sembled the successive provincial conventions, which provided for the safety and welfare of the people in the interregnum between the king's and the people's government. Here were held the sessions of the Legisla- \ tore, and in its intermissions, of the Committee of Safety, vested with dictatorial powers. From this place was written by Matthew Thornton, the official letter which contained the earliest suggestion of indepen- dence that emanated from any or- ganized body of the time. Here the Legislature of New Hampshire adopt- ed, January 5, 1776, a written Con- stitution, the earliest of any of the United States, for the government of the people, by the people and for the people. Time will not permit me to des- cribe the part which the town took in the prosecution of the war. It was an honorable record. Enoch Poor, a ship builder and merchant, became a general officer of distinc- tion, valued by Washington and be- loved by Lafayette, and died in the prime of his life and in the zenith of his fame. Nathaniel Folsom was major general of the militia of the State, an office little showy but greatly useful. More than fifty times during the war, were detach- ments from his command, great and small, called into active service. Nicholas Gilman entered the arm\* as adjutant, and was promoted to be a captain of the staff, and as such was sent by Washington to take ac- count of Cornwallis's captured armj r , after the surrender of Yorktown. Caleb Robinson left the service with the well earned grade of major, and Jonathan Cass and Noah Robinson fought their way up from the ranks to the command of companies. As nearlv as can be estimated Exeter 27 furnished not less than two hundred men, for longer or shorter terms of military duty in the war. The' services of citizens of the town in civil life, were not less val- uable or important. Treasurer Nich- olas Gilman, the financier of New Hampshire in the Revolution, Noah Emery, and many other true patri- ots and sagacious managers, while their sons were fighting at the front, were providing the sinews of war and wisely planning for the future, at home. I have not been able to learn of more than one genuine tory in the town, and he was a recent im- portation. His stay was short. It was in 178G that Exeter wit- nessed the attempt of the greenback- ers of that period to coerce the Leg- islature into the enactment of a law for the issue of paper money, to be made a legal tender for all debts. It might be supposed that the experi- ence which the people had already undergone with this fickle currency would have deterred the most thought- less from risking a repetition of it. But times were hard and cash was scarce. A considerable party of the people in the couutrj 7 were infatuated with the belief that an abnndance of paper promises to pay would produce an abundance of all other desirable things. In this persuasion they mustered to the number of about two hundred men, and marched under leaders who had served in the war, into this town, surrounded the meet- ing house in which the Legislature were in session, placed sentinels with loaded guns at the doors, and held 28 tiie members prisoners, declaring their purpose not to release them until the desired statute should be enacted. For some hours the entire executive and legislative authorities of the State were thus kept in durance, a disgraceful spectacle. It was to the people of the town that they were at length indebted for their release, by a stratagem which alarmed the illegal assemblage for their personal safety. They retreated to a more secure posi- tion, but still persisted in their purpose. The next morning, however, they were swept away like chaff by the appearance of an overwhelming force of citizen soldiery, of which our townsmen led the van. The last public act which took place in our town during the half century now under review, was the assembling of the Convention called by the State for the ratification of the Federal Constitution. That in- strument had been framed by a body of the ablest patriots of the land, presided over by Washington himself. Of the two signatures of the mem- bers appended to it in behalf of this State one was that of an Exeter man, Nicholas Gilmau. It was then sub- mitted to the several thirteen States for their action ; it being provided that it was to go into effect whenever it should receive the approval of nine. It was a question of vital importance to the stability of the country. The Articles of Confederation, under which the people had been living, were comparatively a rope of sand. In order to assume and maintain our proper position before the world, a 29 stronger government was absolutely necessary. It was not claimed that this Constitution was faultless ; it was the result of compromises, but it was the best which the best men of the country could devise. When the New Hampshire raiifv- iug Convention assembled here in January, 1788, the Constitution had received the approval of eight states, and lacked that of but one more to become the organic law of the land. The Convention included many of the most influential men of the .State. It was found that they were widely divided in opinion. The merits of the proposed instrument were thor- oughly discussed during the session here which lasted ten days. The numbers of the parties were so nearly equal, and the responsibility of the decision was so great, that the friends of the Constitution dared not bring the question to a final vote without some further delay, which they hoped would weaken the objec lions of its opponents. The Con ventiou was therefore adjourned to meet in Concord in the following June, when it was found that the strength of the opposition was dimin- ished and in a brief space the ratifi- cation was carried. Thus New Hamp- shire, which twelve years before had been the foremost to adopt a State Constitution for popular government, now had the distinction of giving vitality to the National Constitution, under which our country has lived and prospered for a hundred years. 30 1788 TO 1838. The fourth half century of Exeter embraces the interval between 1788 and 1838. The situation BO longer afforded a field for the romantic inci- dents which were so prominent in some portions of the colonial age. The adventurous life of the pioneer was over. There were no more sav- age incursions, and no oppressive abuses of authority to call forth the heroic elements of character. Now that independence was assured, and a permanent popular government set up, the first business of the people was to repair the damages caused by the war, and to cultivate the arts of peace. The period we are now con- sidering, though not without some sharply disturbing influences, was marked in general by recuperation and material improvement, and fur- nishes few of the eventful occurrences which enliven the pages of history. The severing of the tie which con- nected the colonies with England, had the efftct of diversifying Ameri- can industries. It had been the poli- cy of the mother country to limit the productions of her colonies to a few simple articles of necessity and ex- port, and to keep them dependent upon herself for all more complex manufactures. For a long series of years the chief source of revenue to Exeter was the sale of the growth of the forests. Timber trees and lum- ber sawn in her mills were disposed of in quantities which threatened to strip the soil of its chief element of value ; a process akin to killing the 31 goose that laid the golden eggs. And when the war of the Revolution cut off from our country the supply of the indispensable commodities pro- duced by the skilled artisans of Bri- tain, American ingenuity was stimu- lated to provide the best attainable substitutes for them. The water- power of our streams that had hith- erto turned only the wheels of saw and corn mills began to be utilized for a variety of other purposes. In Exeter one of the earliest powder mills was put in operation, to supply the needs of the Continental army. Paper was an essential commodity, and a mill for its production was the next undertaking. The manufacture of cotton into the various forms of batting, yarns and cloth, was begun somewhat later, but was one of the very early experiments of the kind in the country. These enterprises were fairly successful and lasting. In addition to these, mills for various uses were from time to time estab- lished, fur fulling domestic cloth, foi' grinding chocolate, for pulverizing tobacco into snuff, for expressing oil from flax seed, for slitting iron into nail rods, for making fire arms, for weaving woolen cloth and for produc- ing starch from potatoes. The man- ufacture of duck or sail cloth, the founding of iron, the production of saddlery, the building of carriages, the tanning of leather were also among the earlier industries of the town. Some of these were found unproductive and abandoned, but the law of the survival of the fittest pre- served others, and all in their turn 32 subserved the interests and prosperity of the town. The printing press at this stage of the town's development came to be an important factor. It had been introduced as early as 1775, but its influence was then small. Our earliest printer was a loyalist in disguise, and when unmasked was driven away with ignominy. Others took up the composing stick which he laid down, and from that date to the present, there has prob- ably not been a time when the town was without a press. It is a fact not generally known that an edition of the New Testament was publish- ed here in 1796, the earliest issue of any part of the Scriptures in the State. The newspaper in Exeter was long a hazardous experiment, and years elapsed before it received such encouragement as to put it on a per- manent, footing. A score of weekly publications were attempted in the mean while, but were generally short lived. Each successive venture, how- ever, showed a stronger support, and the NEWS-LETTER, founded in 1831 by that distinguished veteran of the press, John S. Sleeper, took firm root and put the permanancy of Exeter journalism beyond a problem. The Phillips Exeter Academy ac- quired its earl} 7 fame in the same half century, which was exactly con- terminous with the principalship of Dr. Benjamin Abbot. It was for- tunate in having among its early pupils several youths whom Nature had formed to become leaders of men, and not less fortunate in pos- sessing instructors who were ca- pable of so governing and directing them that they might best fulfill their high destiny. The influence of the Academy during those } T ears could not fail to be a power for good in the town. Dr. Abbot, Professor Hosea Ilildreth, and the series of brilliant young college graduates who were their assistants, were not men to live in a community and leave no trace be- hind. Their impress was plainly discernible upon the moral, social and literary life of the town. The character for intelligence and culti- vation which Exeter has long main- tained, is due in no minor degree to the circumstance that it has been the seat of a well established and wide- ly known institution of learning. 1838 TO 1888 The last half century, from 1838 to the present time, will be noted as an age of inventions. And no prior period of our history has been so fruitful in improvements to the town, calculated to increase its activity, and consequence and attractiveness. An entire new quarter has been added to the village, broad streets opened with substantial sidewalks and abundance of beautiful trees, and lined with comfortable, not to say handsome dwellings. Upon our principal business thoroughfare, the stores and blocks have for the most part been rebuilt, of moro durable materials, and with increased con- veniences and spaciousness. The ready and rapid comrnunica- 34 tion with the commercial centre of New England which has been se- cured, affords additional advantages and encouragement to the various new manufactures which have plant- ed themselves along the line of the railroad. The cotton factory has doubled its productiveness ; the main river has been deepened and straight- ened to facilitate water carriage to the sea. The telephone has brought all our neighbors nearer, and the tel- egraph has given us literally wing- ed words, with power of flight to the farthest regions of civilization. The new public buildings of the town and county, the churches, the railway station, the Academy and the Seminary, all partake of the gen- eral spirit of improvement. Illumin- ating gas has come to light our streets and public and private edi- fices ; and abundant pure water lifts itself into our houses and waits at our hydrants to leap forth in copi- ous streams for the protection of the village from conflagration. A cemetery of ample size, capable of sufficient expansion, and under the charge of a responsible corpora- tion, has taken the place of the old town burying grounds, which were liable after a generation or two to fall into neglect and dilapidation. This change is especially welcome to all who value the memory of the past and who cherish any feeling of veneration for the last resting place of the dead. Our system of public instruction has been lifted to a higher level. 13etter teachers, books, methods and 35 schoolbuildings are furnished for this generation than ever before. Graded schools separate the pupils of different ages and degree of pro- ficiency. The Female Seminar}*, by the munificence of a son of Exeter, affords for our girls exceptional facilities for free education. Three printing offices make weekly proclamation of the enterprise and intelligence of our people. The six thousand volumes ami upwards of our Public Library bring within its reach almost every family and person, of whatever age or ca- pacity, and make it an educator of the widest range. The only alloy to our satisfaction in it, is the grave ap- prehension for its safety in its pres- ent place of deposit. A wooden building in an exposed situation is too hazardous a place in which to risk an accumulation of such value and so impossible to replace in case of loss. One public spirited citizen has given by his will a handsome sura in aid of the library. May we not hope that others will provide a safe and suitable home for its col- lections, and for a reading room for the people of the town? Such a gift would be of incalculable value. Like mercy, it would be twice blessed, blessing both "him that gives and him that takes." In the very midst of this half cen- tury occurred the vastest war of modern times, waged by one section of the Republic against its lawful government for the' disruption of the national Union. When hostile guns were turned upon the American flag, 36 and the President issued the first call to arras, though the state of New Hampshire was without a militan' organization, the young men of Exe- ter were ready for the ordeal. In the regiment commanded by one of our distinguished townsmen, marched a body of Exeter volunteers, to take part in the first great conflict of the war. From that time until the sur- render of the rebel army at Apporao- tax there was scarcely one of the his- toric battlefields of the great struggle but was stained with Exeter blood. Pearson, Collins and scores of other Exeter officers and soldiers whose names I am sorry that I am not able with accuracy to specif\ T , gave the crucial proof of their devotion to their country's cause, by d} r ing for it. Many others of them suffered from wounds and disease, sometimes more than the pangs of death. When the titanic conflict was over, and the Union of the states for which they had bravely fought, was confirmed, never again to be assailed or ques- tioned, the shattered ranks of the sur- vivors returned. We welcomed them with gratitude and acclamation. All that they have since received of honor and of reward, from a grateful country, they have well deserved. As long as the war lasted, Exeter failed in no duty nor attention to her soldiers in the field, or to the families they left at home. But since peace has returned, there is one testimonial of honor to our gallant volunteers that ought no longer to be deferred. I do not now refer to a Soldiers' Monument, although I trust in due 37 time to see such a structure reared on some commanding spot, and worth}' of the town and of those whose valor it commemorates. The testimonial that I speak of is simpler. To this day the town has no com- plete and accurate record of the men by whom it was represented in the great Civil war. This should no longer be. We owe it to the patriotic soldiers and sailors, we owe it to our posterity, we owe it to the honor of the town, that the name, origin, fam- ily, occupation, time and place of service, achievements, wounds, suf- ferings and in case of the dead, the burial place of each Exeter citizen who performed duty in the arm}* or navy, in defence of the National Union, should be ascertained, and placed upon permanent record. This should be done without delay, for everyday that passes, adds to the difficulty of obtaining all the needful information. Then let the town publish this roll of service and of honor in a handsome Memorial Volume worthy of preserva- tion. When this is done, and not before, we may feel that one impor- tant part of our obligation to our patriotic defenders, not to suffer their memory to pass into oblivion, is ac- complished. In order most vividly to realize the vast changes which time has wrought in our town in the long period which has elapsed since it was yielded by the aborigines to be the abode of white men, we have only to cast a backward glance at Exeter as it is depicted to us in its earliest years. It is like looking through the tele- soope reveised, everything appears so distant and diminutive. The one primitive corn mill of Thomas Wilson on the river ; the village consisting of a single street, through which Gowen Wilson collected the inhabi- tants' cows to drive them to their pas- turage, such as it was, in the woods ; the bchool where Philemon Pormort with horn-book and primer taught the settlers' children ; the log meet- ing house of twenty feet square, and the great primeval forest brooding over all, these few characteristic fea- tures outline the story of the poverty and bareness of the lives which our forefathers were content to lead. But if it was poor living, it was associated, in some respects at least, with high thinking. Those hard- far- ing men possessed and transmitted to their descendants sterling qualities. Independence and firmness when as- sailed by religious intolerance ; manly resistance to the illegal abuse of civil authority ; courage and constancy in defending their homes and families from savage brutality ; loyalty to their sovereign when he was right and loyalty to right when he was wrong ; undeviating devotion to the liberties of their countrymen, all these we have seen abundantly exemplified in their lives. Generosity and consideration for others, were also among their charac- teristics. In the early times they had little enough to give. Money was a rarity ; they had to compensate even tin ir mini.-,t