21 



THE FARMER'S xMONTHLY VISITOR. 



The town of Peterborough ''One handred years ago." 



The perusal of a pamphlet sent by a friend containing the proceedings at 

 acelehratipri of liic coiupletion of a century since its first settlement of the 

 inhahitants of Peteucokougii, a town situated near the foot of the Monad- 

 nock, in the county of Hillsborough, gave us unwonted delight. In these pro- 

 ceedings the wliok' town, without distinction of party or sect, participated: 

 many natives of tiie town resident in otiier parts of the country, were pres- 

 ent; and others', who could not conveniently come, wrote letters. 



Rev. Joii.v HopiiiNS Morison, a native of this town, now a settled cler- 

 gyman atNew Bedford, Mass. delivered the address on this occasion. From 

 this address we extract the first sentence : 



"A hundred years ago this whole valley, from mountain to mountain, from 

 the extreme north to the extreme southern limit, was one unbroken forest. 

 The liglit soil upon the banks of the Contoocook was covered with huge and 

 lofly pines, while the rocky hills and ricli loamy lands were shaded with maple, 

 beech and birch, interspersed with ash, elm, liemlock, fir, oak, cherry, bass, and 

 other kinds of wood. Bogs and swamps were far jnore extensive then than now; 

 and the woods, in many part.-, on account of the fallen timber and thick under 

 brush, were almost impassable. The deer and the moose roamed at large; 

 the wolf and the bear prowled about the hills; the turkey and partridge whir- 

 red with heavy flight from tree to tree, while the duck swam undisturbed 

 upontlio lonely, silent waters. The beaver and the freshet made the only 

 dam that impeded the streams in their whole course from tl'ic highlands to the 

 Merrimack ; the trout, pickerel and salmon moved through them unmolested; 

 while the old IMonadnock, looking down in every dircciion upon almost in- 

 terminable forests, saw in the hazy distance the first feeble encroachments 

 upon tiie dominion winch he had retained over his wild subjects for more than 

 a tliousand years." 



There are few places in this or any other country having no advantages in 

 position for accumulation by trade or other extraneous causes, that are more 

 distinguished than this town. Consider that from 1729 to 1740 its first settle- 

 ment was a struggle as it were between life arid death ; and what she has 

 done in the following ninety years ! Few of the country towns have bred and 

 brought up a race of men of so high an order of intellect and so much enter- 

 prise. 



The first impetus given to the growth and properity of this tow'n was the 

 acquisition of some thirty or forty families of the same race of Scotch-Irish 

 fi-om the north of Ireland that first settled the town of Londonderry in the 

 year 1719. Among the descendants of theie may be mentioned the families 

 bearing the names of Morison, Steele^ Smith, Wilson, Grcgg^ Stuart, Wallace, 

 Gordon, Scott, Lltilc, Mitchell, Ritchie, Ferguson. 



One of the most cuterprii^ing and intellectual families ever raised in the 

 State of Nev.' Hampsliire was that of the Peterborough Smiths. The father 

 was William Smilh, who was a delegate to the Provincial Congress of 1774, 

 a man "of singular discretion, modesty and goodness ;" and the mother, 

 whose maiden name was Morison, w-as " a driving, energetic woman.'' The 

 seven eons named in their order were Uohcrt, Jehu, William, James, Jeremi- 

 ah, Jonathan ami Samuel. " Ti;e seven sons, (except one who died when 

 young) were all uncommon men, and have had in the town for the last sixl}' 

 years an influence possessed by no other family. Seventy years ago, if we 

 may trust to one v^-^ho then knew ihem well, a more rude, uncouth, impudent 

 set of boys was not to be found in Peterborough." Of the seven sons, we 

 belieye, only the three youngest survive. The oldest of these, Jeremiah, has 

 ttt different times Iiold the otrice of Chief Justice and (lovernor of the State. 

 He commenced Ihe practice of law in 17S7, and was elected a representative 

 in Congress a^i early aK the j'ear 1701. For the last twenty years lie has been 

 in private life, having ia that' time lost all his family — a wife and son and 

 tdaughter. WitUin the last ten years he is again married to a lady much 

 ycunger than himself, by whom he has one child. He visited Congress in 

 the year 1336 ; and he tliere met for the first time in thirty years the late 

 President of the United States who was a representative from the State of 

 Tennessee with him in 1707. The veterans were two of the only five mem- 

 bers of tlaat Congress who yet survive. 



Of the six Smiths, Jeremiah alone received a college education. The 

 yoimgeM ion, Samuel, was enterprisini*; beyond almost any other individual 

 of the Slate ; he was tiie founder of much of the prosperity and wealth of 

 ihe town. Where he did not possess the means to go forward in any enter- 

 pxise, he never failed to seek and find them somewhere. Had iie been in 

 some positions, h'^ might have amassed millions of property ; but a life of se- 

 vere labor and unparalleled activity was not rewarded accoiding to its des- 

 erts. Overexertion has laid a noble structure partially in ruins, to be reno- 

 v.ate.d and renewed by the Builder on high. The four other son*, we believe, 

 tave been all distinguished farmers. They have undoubtedly experienced much 

 less of the vicis:;itudes of life than the two others; they have had a more 

 certain success, because they engaged in tlie sure occupation. Dea. Jona- 

 than Smith is at this time one of the best farmers of his town; and his situa- 

 tion \z such an one as well might entice the wealthy or tiie proud man from 

 the city to the country. Another brothe*, John, we liave seen ; and of him 

 does tlieauthor,of the century sermon truly say "he perhaps united in him- 

 eelf all the eharnctcristica of our town in a more remarkable degree tlian any 

 other man, joining to the gushing emotions of a child, strong powers of 

 thought, integrity, courage, and an infinite fund of wit." This gentleman, 

 if we remember arlglit, was killed in tlie year 1621, by falling from a load of 

 hay : his death threw a gloom over tiie town. 



Fov/ places in the country with an equal population have turned out such 

 a native race of strong men as the generation of Peterborough, which is now 

 passing off the stage. The Smith family may be taken as the hcau ideal of 

 ibis race. The Steclcs are another family falling little short of tiiem. 



Never did people enjoy a more unlimited exercise of the tongue than the 

 men of Peterborough. Meeting abroad at the county courts audon other 

 public occasions, they were Ishmaelites towards cacli other in every thing 

 pkort of blows. '1 he mighty man gloried in his might even when victory was 

 gained at the expense of truth : but his prostrate antagonist neither asked or 

 received commi'ieration because his loss of vantage ground was by no means 

 to be imputed to his greater delicacy or better sense of propriety. 



With the disposition for unlimited abuse in the unruly member, with an 

 abundant flow of v.it never withheld when there was opportunity to let it ofT 

 — the men of Peterborough may be characterized as excellent in most of the 

 social dispositions and usages that give to eoeiety its great charma. Gener- 



ous and humane, they were generally men of undoubted courage. Mr. Mor- 

 ison mentions the fact, that in the battle of Bunker Hill, althougii there were 

 only from seventy to eighty families in tlie town, twenty-two citizens of Pe- 

 terborough were present, and seventeen actively engaged in the fight. Six 

 citizens of the town, in the previous French war, rangers in the company of 

 Robert Rogers, were slain in battle in one day. 



At Bunker Hill, '* Lieut, (afterwards Captain) William Scott, early in the 

 action, had one of the bones of his leg broken just below the knee. He con- 

 tinued coolly paring balls and handing them to his soldiers. He was among 

 tlie very hindmost in tlic retreat, wlien he received in his tliigh and in the 

 lower part of his body four additional balls, and, bh-cding at nine orifice*, 

 fainted upon tlie field. When he came to himself, a Britisii soldier was stand 

 ing over him with his bayonet, and asked with an oath if he did not deserve 

 to be killed. " lam in yourpowyr," was the reply, "and you can do with me 

 as you please." He was rescued by a Britisii oilicerand permitted to remain 

 unmolested on the field. He was carried a prisoner to Halifax, wlience by the 

 assistance of a friend then residing in the enemy's countiy, he found nieana 

 to escape and return to his friends. Of tliis veteran the orator mentions the 

 fact of his having rescued in July 1702, nine persons, four of whom were 

 small children, from a watery grave — the boat in wiiich he and they were, 

 being upset in a tempest on the Delaware river, and no one except himself 

 being able to swim. The editor of a Boston paper announced the fact at the 

 time with this addition : — *' For the honor of Capt. Scott, an old and valiant 

 soldier, a son of Massachusetts, this circumstance should be handed down to 

 posterity." 



The instance of Capt. Scott, (continues Mr. Morison) "■which by no means 

 stands alone in our history, may serve to illustrate the courage which has al- 

 ways been a prominent feature in the character of our citizens. And it has 

 run through the whole eliaracter, distinguishing alike their habits of tiiought, 

 of social intercourse, of public and private enterprise. In whatever they have 

 undertaken they have gone forward with the sanie fearless spirit. If at any 

 tin)c a man has iiad hard thoughts of his neighbor, he did not whisper it about 

 in private scandal, but the offender was the first to hear it. There has been 

 no secret underhand dealing, but' their voices were always loud, tiieir gait e- 

 rect, their conduct open. While ready to maintain their own and their neigh- 

 bors' rights, the}' have also, it must be acknowledged, never been backward 

 in proclaiming their own merits. Yet they have not been a conceited, boast- 

 ing race, hut men who knew their strength, who judged correctly of their 

 merits, and would not suffer others to destroy or impair their just apprecia- 

 tion." 



The orator says — " Loud talking has alwa^'s prevailed here :" we have some- 

 times heard it from the natives when away from their domicil; and we were 

 quite ready to declare, whenever a stranger in the crowd very decently dress- 

 ed, a six foot good liver, fiush in countenance and tolerable fair in face, was 

 liolding forth in conversation louder than all others around him — " that man 

 is from Peterborough." But we will concede one exception ; and this may bo 

 because, as we are told by Mr. Morison, " the family from which he sprang 

 lived in the northeast corner of the town, which seemed cut off from the rest." 

 That exception was tlie gallant Gen. James Miller, who being a native of 

 this town was present at the centennial celebration. This excellent soldier, 

 wliose modesty never allowed iiim to proclaim " tiie mighty meed of his large 

 honor" only in the act itself which merited praise, was born in 177C). His 

 father, James Miller, sen. and a twin brother inherited a farm together, "upon 

 which they lived fifteen or sixteen years, enjoying the produce in common, 

 with no exact division of labor or the fruits of tiieir labor. The family were 

 remarkable for simple hearted truth and kindness, and at the same time great 

 manliness and courage." 



The Wiunipisseogee Lake and River. 



A more charming and delightsome view with the naked eye is not perhapfl 

 to be seen in America than that from Red Hill in the county of Strafford, N. 

 H. The view from the top cf Mount Washington in a clear day is magnifi- 

 cent : the mountains in different directions seem like waves of tiie sea — but 

 the eye rests on little else beside mountains. From Red Hill the eye des- 

 cries objects — villages and isolated buildings, green fields and forests, the 

 golden wheat and paler rye, and flowing corn — the flocks of cattle andsiieep: 

 More beautiful than all ou the northwest, the Squam lake at tiic southwest 

 foc-t of the Sandwicli mountains, some six or eight miles in extent each way, 

 studded with islands; and the lake Winnipissiogee nearly in its whole ex- 

 tent of about thirty miles with its hundreds of islands, resembling liquid sil- 

 ver run jnto a vessel of unequal surface, portions of which ^are too high to 

 be covered. 



If tiie view of Winnipisseogee as a whole from the Red Hill summit ia 

 beautiful, tiie appearance of the lake at different points with the islands and 

 surrounding scenery as we pass around and near it in the vernal season, is 

 scarcely less enchanting. Its shores, unlike those of Lake George, are not 

 surrounded with precipitous mountains forbidding settlement : tliey are a- 

 mong the most fertile lands of the State; and tiiose islands upon the lake 

 wJiich have been brought into cultivation contain some of our best farms. — 

 On two of these islands tlie last year three different farmers have raised 131, 

 130 and IIG busliels of shelled Indian corn to the acre. 



The area of the valley of tliis lake presents an ampliithcatre of about fifty 

 miles in lengtli by from twenty -five to thirty miles in breadtli. On the north 

 at the distance of from five to ten miles the range of the Ossipee mountains 

 extends some fifteen miles, and on the south tlie Guustock mountains extend 

 nearly the same distance as a parallel. Commencing at the easterly end of 

 the lake on the north, standin t in their order upon the shore, are the towns of 

 Wolfeborough, Tuftonborough, IMoultonborough and Centre Harbor — on the 

 soutii proceeding easterly are Meredith, Gilford and Alton : tiie islands be- 

 long to the town wiiose sliore on the main land is nearest. There are proba- 

 bly twenty ponds of from one to six miles in diameter in the seven towns 

 surrounding, which empty into this lake : the most of these are at an eleva- 

 tion cf several feet above the level of the lake, and some of their streams|fur- 

 nish fine mill seats. There are besides other considerable streams running* 

 down from tlic mountains on either liand, constantly contributing to the wa- 

 ters of the lake. 



The level of the lake ia at an elevation of not far from five hundred feet v 

 bove the level of the eea. There are other considerable feeders of the Mar- 



