92 



«Ii)C iTavmcr's jHontiuij faisitov. 



wEjL*i= ji f iii i mwaM 



6.toi-ms is iMere,-.se(l-it does not l,.u..lle so well, 

 eiil,.;i- in c.miiiii-, l.iadii.g, loa.lm?, or stacluiig- 

 aiMl .<liaUors out w.on: Tlic o|.iMion is prf.ty 

 Nvell t.slMl.libhcd, ihMtvviuMi wheat or lye is cut 

 e,„-lv-wo mean liL-lorclhe. -rum us cntn-f l.v lirtrtl 

 it nrnkes quite «s n.ucl.. and winter nnnr, lluu. U 

 left till tlie nsnal ti.np. Since wntin;; tlu: above 

 we haupeued to read it to ni, esi),.rienr.ed nnllor, 

 who i. also H tiood fanner. I o savs he us well 

 satisfi.-d ll.at early nit prain-that wincli isal.|.a- 

 ivnllv qniie ^.rcen-will really yin d more floor, 

 .„Hl "is worth several cents a hnsliel more than 

 tliatuhich issnftVrcd to stand liH liie berry is 

 thoroogldy hardene.l.— farmfr's Cabmei 





COAUrORD, N. H. JUNK -2'.l. la-U. 



The Vagariss ot au invalid Editor. 



Fortv-two years ai,'0 next Noveinher, then a 

 bovof'r.Mirteen years", lioni in (he BnnUcr Hdl 

 town of old Ma>sac.hnsciis,the editor of the Vis- 

 ito" came into New Ilampshnv, as an appren- 

 tice to the primin- hnsiufss. The " Farmer s 

 C-ihinet," a |iaper still poblrsh^d by Mr. I.o>l.n>n 

 at Amherst, as it has been by him lor thirty-live 

 years, was inlhat month commenced by Mr. Ju 

 BBoh Gnshinir. It succeeded the "Villaue Mes- 

 s-ii-er." a paper of hi-h-toiicd le(h-ral |iolnics, 

 whi'cli'liad been snspende.l a l^■^\v niontlis lor want 

 of?up|inrl. Ill the old prinlinsofiico where it was 

 onr fortune to labor as an apprentice nearly seven 

 years, with an absence at no time over a sin-le 

 week, never less than twelve and often tnnrtc-f n 

 and fifteen hours of each twcii>y-four, savniL' and 

 excepting Saturday nipht ami Smi.lay— m the old 

 printinc "office, an upper room of winch, lallied and 

 Mastered with not sufricieiit height ;o stand up- 

 l-i..|ii was the place ot study and rest alter relirin? 

 from the labors of the day and n.i,:^lit lor us maiiy 

 «s live of the seven years, wo found an omni 

 Liin "atliernm of wonders— an old closet tilleil 

 witli' newspapers from various parts of the 

 world-manuscripts, inoof-sheets, relnsc pam- 

 phlets verses in handbill sbape,&e. &c. Among 

 the newspajiers were several numbers ot the 

 "Bombay Courier," published in lirilisb Imlia— a 

 Avondorfnl arlide then in our y.um- conception ns 

 coniim- from the other side of the (Jlobe. l.p to 

 thai time onr ideas of i;eo;jrap!.y were conhued 

 to Morse's Aliridiiement, a cojiy of which as it 

 cost one dollar, we had never owned, but ha<l 

 av:;iled ourselves of borrowiiijr at scliifol from 

 some scJiolar whose parents were n, ore able to 

 piu-chase than ours; and all our knowlc.i;:c ol 

 the progress making in liie old Thirteen States 

 froui the c.hauges^ and additions of Slates, 

 Counties and T(;wiis was dcrivitd from the un- 

 proved successive editions of Noah Webster s 

 Epelliu<'-booU. which was then abuost nniversal- 

 Iv taUiua; the place of Ddworth and Perry. In 

 a"i!ew u]) counirv touti of \Vorc;ester c.mniy, 

 (ifiV miles fnnn l^osion, confined in our travels to 

 the mo:-t direct towns pas>iug lluon-li old Con- 

 cord,over the hill ri.l-es ihrouyh Groton, it may he 

 snppos.-d that ihevondilid ap|H-cniic.e ol fourteen 

 came into New liampsldre with no very srrcat 

 fund of practic-J knowledge of the !;eos:rapby ot 

 the country. In the distance of only thirty miles 

 nurtli, the vilia-e of Amherst, then as it is now 

 a beautiful level plain siirrom.ded by Imild- 

 in"S, opeiieil to us like a new and strange woihl. 

 We knew all about old Concord and the sci'iies 

 of the f^rst openini; of the levolmion, from onr 

 own Menotoiny— the house to which John Uan- 

 COcU and Samuel Adams reliied when outlaw eil 

 liy the ]iroclamatiou of Gov. Ga;;e— the spot, be- 

 fore the erection of the aiounmeni, where the 

 ei dil men bidoimiu!; lo families of onr ueifth- 

 bo'rs fell under the first fire of the Criiish re-n- 

 lars— the Ixmses on the «ay entered and pil- 

 l;,.,ed— the spot where the brave bund from .Ac- 

 ton at the CoMCor.l river first resisted the foe, 

 and « here fell ii larue number in proportion lo 

 the whole of its noide heads of faoiilies. "Fa- 

 miliar as household words" foriy-two years aijo 

 were all the events of Lexiiiiiton and Bunker 

 Hill. We had heard of another Concord than 

 ours, somrwhere in the di>tance, called '-New 



Comord," but wlietber it lay east, west or soiiili 

 —no inlbrmaiioii (d' it beinj; contained^ in Web- 

 ster's speliiuy book, or even in Morse's Abiidj;- 

 iiieiit— was more than we c.'nid lell. 



Tlie old clo.set ill the prinliuji office, anions its 

 other cmioMties, contained a homely sonj; print- 

 lal for no other lliail the anllior's bei.efii.ol some 

 invalid iliueianl wlio.-e means of living v\ere prin- 

 cipally derived from ihe chariiies of llie people 

 among whom he travelled and resided: the vers- 

 es commenced with this aposirophe to the town 

 which by chance has since become our lamiiy 

 place of" residence for tmriy-five of the filty-M.>; 

 years ol' onr life : 

 •• Concord, moet noUe Concord, my friends yoii may wclj 



know, 

 Or else tl.'-y never would so much on a poor man bestow.' 

 Oil enquiry we foumi that it uas not onr own 

 Massaclui.-.etis Concord, wliicli had descived this 

 praise; that this town was situated slid ihinv 

 utiles rmlher from our home than Amhersi; ami 

 that the itinerant hail oliiaiiied, piiucipally bom 

 tlie geiierosiiv of llie people oi Concord, siith- 

 cient assisl.in'ce to enable him to erect in Millord 

 a cottaire and pav for a piece of land on « liieh 

 himself and his "lamilv eomtbrlahly siibsisled. 



This Xew Concord has woiidertnlly changed 

 in the s;>ace of thirty-five yeais: allliougli seven- 

 ty miles distant from Do.-tuiij it has a railroad car- 

 rying' passengers and luarcliandize oyer the 

 whole distance in three hours uud a halt; bnng- 

 iii'; the towns nearer in point of time than Old 

 CJncord at the distance of twenty miles: both 

 towns now enjoy this fiicilily, and the elder town 

 ill two years afler the yo»i-ger is now only one 

 hour's ride from Rosioii 



The New-Hampshire Concord thirty-five years 

 Miiee had only a siii<;le house as a place of wor- 

 ship: in ils steady growili lliat place of worship, 

 from I he original ohioug square in wliieii the 

 Constitutimi (d'lrsa was adop-ted, had grown in- 

 to an ociaaon from which all the peo|ile within 

 the distance of five to eight and ten miles uiet 

 and worshipped : we had only a single minister 

 of the Coiiirre'iational order, and bard work it 

 was to raise for him by a town ta.x the aiiimal 

 salary of (bur hundred dollars. Now from that 

 old church all the bees have swarmed ; and ii 

 staiuls empty at the North-end of the mam street, 

 the people of the same order filling and oc- 

 ciiiiviu" four new chiindies, two on the main 

 street, and one three miles out of the city part of 

 the town near the west village, and another on 

 the east side of the Merrimack at l!ie distance ol 

 two miles: besides these lour we have a Calviii- 

 ist Baptist, a Unitarian, a Methodist, an Episco- 

 pal, a L'mversalist, and a Friend-s' meeling-hou.se 

 in and near the main village ; and the ■' Coine- 

 onlers" lake possession of a place for worslii|i and 

 loii.l singiui;- wherever they can find it. These 

 liicls relative to our worship and onr churches 

 bespeak Ihe change that has come over us in the 

 last thirty-five years— a change not only in pop- 

 ulation hilt in the tastes of the people; for it 

 may be tiientioned that notwithstanding- the in- 

 crease of the places of worship the most of them 

 hold three, and some of them four meet'nigs of a 

 Sunday, where under the old arrangement there 

 was rarelv more than tno. 



With ail the faults of the times, the Kiiapp and 

 Miller e.vcilemenls, Ihe denniieiatimis of ihe or- 

 thodox church hvUotiers and Fo-ter and the su- 

 perstitions of even some of luir good Unitarians 

 who believe in ftlenuuism, we certainly have nc- 

 ca-ion, wilh ihe song-maker and vender, the eld- 

 est l>ard of Milfonl, to pronounce Cnnrord to be 

 a "most noble" town, and with all the faults ol 

 ourselves and others id" ils inhabitants wdio" have 

 ilone many things we ought not to have done, 

 and have left undone many things we ought to 

 have done," we will to the last say of this town 

 " we love thee still." 



After all this prelace we wish to come directly 

 in hnsinc-ss in relaiiim to this goodly town of 

 Concord : without liullirr hi.-.leiy of what it has 

 lieen- and the ciand docmnent in the State 

 arcliives which shows nearly every male inlialn- 

 nmi of the •own in Ihe year 1775 pleikdng him- 

 self under hi.* o,mi hand to st.aiid by his -country 

 in a-seitimr its rights aga-inst Hiiiisli oppression, 

 pinvps the'' noble and gallant spirit of a \a\-j'- 

 maiorliy of the fathers of her iiresent farmers 

 and lan'd owners;— willioiit stating all we are at 

 this time— we will come to the r.iiticipalion ol 



what Coiicoid may become as ah ugncnitnral 

 aiiil prodiiciiiii town. 



'I'here are iwu— nay, there are (br'*;e points on 

 whii-h Concord exceeds any olh'Jr town ol the 

 Slate of New Hampshire : 



T. Concoril has more (nearly (Puible; ihe num- 

 ber of acres id' river ulltivi-jii hiinls to eiiv other 

 lo« 11 of the Slate. 



a. it has more acres of growing «uod and 

 timber ; anil 



a It has a greater quainily of laire granite 

 rock probably than tmy other toun ol Neu Eng- 

 land. " . , , 



1. Sadly, within the hist thirty year.s, has lieen 

 abused the rieti atlnvial soil upon onr rivers. 

 Orijiinally not as lertile as tli- more recently 

 made alluvion iiijon the Conneciiciit, the lauds 

 upon the Merrimack have Mift'ered a greater de- 

 teiioiaiion. But alter all, we say of them thit 

 lkei/(annot be worn out. They will he resiisci- 

 tat"ed. Under all the cimipelilion (d' the inoro 

 feriile, wheat Loowing, caltle raising conutiy ol 

 the west, we 'say that the alluvial lands tipoii 

 Merrimack river''Kt their present prices give us 

 sure a prospect of gain to the liiriii laborer as 

 'any i«irt of the poontiy. Without capital and 

 lahm- expended, the farmer may e.\pect accumu- 

 hnioii nowhere. 



Merrimack river runs through the town ol 

 Concord, strelching in a direct line some ten 

 inile.s from the month of the Soncoid; liver 

 which comes from the east on the soullierly line 

 of the town, dividing it from Pembioke, to the 

 month of the Coiitoocoi.k, coining lioiu the 

 west, which is at tlu^t point the dividing line on 

 Ihe north between Concord and Boscavyeii : (lie 

 sinuosities of ihe main liver make it run witliiii 

 the town the disance of seventeen to eighteen 

 iiiile.s. In much of the distance the lower river 

 alluvion is one mile, and in some places two 

 miles over. The most valued portion ol tins 

 liver alluvion, according to tradition, w:is cleared 

 from the lime known to the fir.-t iidiabiiaiits. ll 

 was occupied as the seat of a po^erhd nd'e ol 

 Indiaii.s, by whom corn was grown upon it. Ine 

 renowned chief, P.issacoimuay, at the bead ot 

 Ihe Midiauks who removed west, was known to 

 the white inhabitants on the seaboard, before the 

 setlleineiit hv the whiles. 



The open river alluvion here altracted, fully a 

 hniidred years after the setlleinent of riymonth, 

 die first e'nlerprisiiig men from IMapsuchiisetts: 

 the father of onr tribe of Ea.stnians came here 

 from Haverhill wilh a team of some ten stout 

 vokes of o.\eii,anil ploughed our inlervale.s, lee d- 

 "iiig them on the tall gra--s then lii::her than the 

 o.x'en themselves. The races who first came 

 here whose names are so tinineroiis in the town, 

 knew how lo cidtivate the rich kinds to advaii- 



l;,i;e, tliey soon became indepeiideiit, if not aP 



llueiit— tliev liHil the means, and they always 

 knew how "to be generous. Who was ever ae- 

 qiiainled wilh one of these old heads ol families 

 whose home was not the abode of generous hos- 



pitalitv ? . „ , ij 



A lii>toiy of the river nuins in Concord would 

 be iiiteresliug to the agriciilimisi, as showing 

 the certainty of success which aileiids the labor 

 of the enteriirising and vigilant farmer. \\ orn 

 down as has become much of this "gnoiUy her- 

 itage," we take up the subject to induce the 

 present proprietors to take up in earnest the i- 

 work of renovation. 



That part oi' the town immediately on the east 

 side of the river extending nearly two miles below 

 the north line, of Bow on the west side— a portion 

 ofthp strip oflaiid formerly a part of Bow itscltex- 

 tendiii" all round the easteily line ol Concord 

 smiie Ten miles ami- hounded by Soncook river 

 as between this town and Pembroke— hu-meily 

 eonslitnled three tiinns of the Garvuis and 

 Thompsons, and is now ilie property ol ilie Ain- 

 o-kcau company: it embraces the water power 

 ii^-xt largest lo the A nioskeag fall il.selt ot tlorly 

 feet fall'iii llie .Merrnnaid<, and is desiined at no 

 very distant time to become the site of a manu- 

 facturing ciiv. Held ill abeyance as are iimiiy 

 hundred acivs of land, these farms are nejilecled 

 in their cullivalioii ; but iiiiich of the land IK 

 .'rowing from six to twilve percent, of iis cost 

 nimiiallv in Ihe addition of ils forest pine liinher. 

 That portion of the liiil.t lands which is in pasture 

 .rrows no worse; but that part of the mtervaie 

 'which anniifdlv undergoes the skinning process, 

 inav be expected soon to bo called " worn out. 



