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Fall 2018.Pub The GeneralThe Friends of Stark NewsPark Newsletter starkpark.com |Fall 2018 Photo courtesy of Paule Houle; flickr.com/photos/paul_houle/collecons Stark Park in the Time Before America Inside this Issue: Part V: Prelude to War By Matthew Labbe Stark Park in the Time Before America … 1 The fledgling town of Derryfield continued to attract settlers during the early 1750s, and the Upcoming Events… 3 town was beginning to need infrastructure to support the population. The first item on the FSP Summer Concert agenda was the construction of a meeting house for conducting town business. Previously, the Series… 4 townsfolk had held their meetings in someone’s barn or one of the local taverns. New Trees... 5 Annual Meeting… 6 Unfortunately, the residents of Derryfield had Garden Tour... 6 difficulty getting along. The population was Moose Plate Grant… 7 split between the English descendants of the Ann Hecker Hastings… 7 Puritans and the Scots-Irish Presbyterians who Santa’s Sleigh… 8 came from Londonderry, and for decades even intermarriage between the two was for- bidden. The dispute came to a head in 1754 The Board: when the town voted that the meeting house President should be built on land donated by John Hall Kerry Schleyer on what is now Mammoth Road. This ar- Vice President rangement was entirely unacceptable to set- Tom Snow tlers at Goffes Falls and Amoskeag who thought that choice showed favoritism to the Secretary Scots over the English. Ann Thorner Treasurer In February 1755, thirty settlers petitioned the selectmen to reconsider the location. Stephanie Lewry Major General John Stark. By O. Pelton and A. Ritchie, 1856. When this request was refused, they ap- Brian Brady proached Justices of the Peace Joseph Blanchard and Matthew Thornton, who would later go on to sign the Declaration of Independence. The justices overrode the decision and called an- Tom Christensen other lawful meeting where the petition was accepted. No further work commenced on the Diana Duckoff project, however, due to the outbreak of the French and Indian War. Matthew Labbe Robert Lord Many of the able-bodied men left town to fight, including John Stark. During the war, he and his brother William served in Major John Robert’s Rangers. They were engaged in several dif- Laura Patton ficult battles on the northern frontier, one of which resulted in Stark being shot for the only Kris Pelletier time in his long military career. Later, he was stricken by smallpox but recovered. Among the ...Continued on page 2 Contact us at [email protected]! The Friends of Stark Park is a 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to develop, revitalize, maintain, and protect the heritage and recreational use of Stark Park as a historic asset to the City of Manchester, NH. Stark Park in the continued Time Before America battles was an attack on the Abenaki at St. Francis, Quebec in 1759. John Stark, second in command, refused to participate since it was home to the Indian “foster parents” he met during his abduction sev- eral years before. Unable to stop the slaughter, he instead returned home to his wife Molly, whom he married the previous year. The issue of a meetinghouse was revisited during a 1758 town meet- ing in John Hall’s barn. Again, the town voted to build on Hall’s land. They began construction, but again, dissent reared its ugly head. There was constant bemoaning while raising funds, and the building committee was even accused of mismanaging the accounts. By the following summer, the frame of the 40ft x 35ft building was in place, but money ran out before enclosing the walls and adding a roof. After some debate, work continued, and in 1760 a stone foun- dation was added to the building. Still, it was without a finished floor or doors and the disparate groups in town still could not agree on who to hire as a preacher! 1760 was also the year that the fighting of the French and Indian War came to an end. This war marked the last stand for most Native American tribes, leaving colonial forces in complete control of New England. Soldiers, like those in Derryfield, returned home while oth- er settlers flooded north along the Merrimack and Connecticut River Samuel Blodget. From MHA Collections, Volume 1. 1899 valleys founding dozens of new towns in the upper reaches of the state. For the citizens of Derryfield, the relative peace following the plans to raise revenue to pay their war expenses through the Ameri- war allowed for the expansion of farms and the development of new can colonies via taxation. The most famous of these was the Stamp economic opportunities. The nearly unlimited supply of fish from Act, issued in 1765. The resistance to the new law was substantial. Amoskeag was an attractive resource, and several farmers foolishly Colonists claimed that during the war they were attacked without let their fields go to ruin while pursuing wealth from the water. provocation, paid their share of the expenses, were not being repre- sented in Parliament, and that they should not be forced to pay for Still, peacetime did not solve local social problems. In 1765 a group any additional quartering of troops. In New Hampshire, colonists led by John Hall neglected to tell the opposing parties at Goffes Falls descended on the Stamp Master’s office with burning effigies, not and Amoskeag about a town meeting and used the opportunity to knowing that he had already resigned in fear. The widespread uproar secretly elect a group of town officers who would advance their agen- caused the law to be repealed the following year, but it was replaced da. John Goffe’s group was outraged and elected their own set of with the Declaratory Act which was a series of laws intended to allow officers. The town had to appeal to the state legislature to settle the the Crown to legislate in the colonies with impunity. dispute. The continued tension in town along with rumors of drunk- One of the laws that more directly affected Derryfield was the enness among the fishermen became widely known, and the town Crown’s claim to all white pine trees between 15” and 36” for use by developed a bad reputation. Disgruntled settlers were leaving, and the Royal Navy. In 1772, a surveyor visited the sawmills along the new settlers often avoided the area, keeping the town from grow- Piscataquog River and claimed hundreds of logs for the king. Samuel ing quickly. Blodgett, who would later build the canal at Amoskeag, was sent to Portsmouth to settle the matter in favor of the colonists. The gover- By the mid-1760s, the English were nor compromised and sent him back as a deputy surveyor so that the in control of Canada and they began process could be overseen locally with a minimum of dissent. About the Author: Matthew Labbe, a board member of the Friends of Stark Park, holds a M.A. in Anthropology from Texas A&M University and works as a Project Archeologist with Monadnock Archaeological Consulting. His 2 previous research on the history of his hometown has been published by Historical New Hampshire. In 1771, New Hampshire was divided into five counties. Derryfield Upcoming Events residents, now part of Hillsborough County, no longer had to travel to Portsmouth for court proceedings. Instead, they were assigned to the courts in shire town of Amherst. The courts of General Sessions, Common Pleas, and Probate were established. Captain John Stark was chosen as the first Grand Juror from Derryfield. Laws like the 1773 Tea Act further enraged the colonists to the point that one tea seller in Pembroke had his inventory seized by a mob and burned in the street. Outrages like these and others would cul- minate in the Boston Tea Party in December of that year. The Intol- erable Acts were imposed in response, which included restrictions on gun powder and munitions. When the New Hampshire Assembly tried to fight the law in 1774, the governor disbanded the body. Fu- rious, the representatives held a secret meeting in July and chose John Sullivan and Nathaniel Folsom to join the First Continental NH Arborist Association Work Day, October 20: Congress forming in Philadelphia. This body appealed to the king with no effect. Provincial governments like these, however, quickly The New Hampshire Arborists Association has selected began to supplant royal authority throughout the colonies. War Stark Park as their 2018 Fall Work Day project! We are broke out at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. excited to welcome approximately 20 volunteer arbor- The citizen of Derryfield responded immediately upon hearing the ists to the park to prune and enhance the health of our news when it reached them the following morning. Ironically, anger trees. We would like to extend a hearty thank you to at the British government helped resolve some of the tension in town the NH Arborists Association for helping to maintain since both ethnic groups finally had a common enemy. They formed our beautiful park. a Committee of Safety to defend the town and began enlisting sol- diers. Reportedly, 34 of the 36 able bodied men in town answered the call and were led to Massachusetts the same day by Captain John Moore of Goffes Falls. The remaining men stayed behind to see to the women, children, and the elderly. John Stark was on the farm at the time, working at his sawmill at Amoskeag Falls. Upon hearing the news, he closed the mill gate, and raced home to grab his gun and all the cash in his house.
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