BREWSTER’S RAMBLE #149 (continued)

BREWSTER’S RAMBLE #149

BREWSTER’S RAMBLE #149

OLD HOMES & OLD CUSTOMS

There are now in Portsmouth eight handsome Churches, and four Chapels, none of which, (except the Episcopal and Universalist Churches) were built in 1818. The two latter were built in 1808. One other large brick church on Pleasant street was built about forty years ago, and has been made into a dwelling house. Fifty years ago the Unitarian Society occupied the Old South Church -- the Congregational Society the Old North, in neither of which the parishioners had confidence that the cold blasts of winter could be overcome by the heat of stoves -- and so only those who could endure with philosophic firmness the cold house for three hours on the Sabbath, were punctual in their attendance. The ladies were generally provided with foot-stoves and moccasins -- gentlemen wore galoches -- India rubber shoes had not then been discovered. The Methodist Society then occupied the building in the avenue on Vaughan street, now used as a stable. The Freewill Baptists occupied what is now called the Temple. The germs of what after became the Middle-street Baptist Church, were gathered in the church of the Independents on Court street, on the site of the present Unitarian Chapel. The Sandemanian Society worshipped in the chamber of the brick school house on State street. The Society is now extinct. These were all the religious societies in Portsmouth fifty years ago. The Brick School house readily designated a locality, for all the other school houses were old wooden buildings, better fit for pigs than for children. Now we have seven brick school houses -- one of which cost more than all the school houses in Portsmouth fifty years ago. Not one of the public school houses of 1818, except that on State street, now remain.

The only organ then, was that in St. John's Church. There were no Sunday Schools, no Temperance meetings, no Lyceum lectures. There was no Hearse in Portsmouth. The bier might be seen in the entries of the churches, and the friends or neighbors of the deceased bore them to their graves. There were no carriages used for funerals then -- nor was there an Auburn street or Harmony-Grove Cemetery.

Fifty years ago the present lower room of the Atheneum was an insurance office, and the chamber over it was St. John's Masonic Hall. The Atheneum was just incorporated, and its five hundred volumes were on shelves in the room over John H. Bailey's store on Congress street. There were then no bridges to connect Portsmouth with Maine, or with Newcastle, or with Rye over Sagamore creek. Lafayette road was not then opened, and Rye Beach was less thought of as a place of resort than Newington -- Piscataqua Bridge being then the great place of attraction to parties of pleasure. The Assembly House at what is now Raitt's Court, was then the only place in town for public exhibitions and balls.

Fifty years ago, an old dilapidated building on the present site of the Court House, was the "Work House," as it was called. In it was "Union Hall," where the Selectmen held their meetings, and enjoyed an annual supper. That noble brick edifice which now stands on the City Farm well supplies its place. The Stone Jail has been built in that time, and within fifty years the iron staples have been taken from the top of the corner of the fence in front of the jail, to which we have seen the hands of many a culprit fastened, while his bare back received the cat-o-nine tails, every blow leaving a ridge, while the cries for mercy rent the air. It is but a few years more than half a century that these scenes were witnessed at the close of almost every term of the County Courts. And we have seen also the branding process, when the horse thief was pinioned down on the broad stone at the west door of the jail, and with a cork filled with needles, India ink was pricked in over his forehead and down his nose, to form the letter T. The erection of our State

Prison happily terminated these legal barbarities.

There was no imposing factory building in Portsmouth fifty years ago. The spinning wheel was then as much more common than the piano, as the piano now exceeds in number the spinning wheels. Mrs. Tucker's loom in Tanner street used to do the weaving for many families. There was a windmill for grinding bark on the spot where the car house of the Concord railroad stands -- and on the spot where the Concord station house now is, stood that long black building, the Old Distillery. On the highest point between Russell and Green streets stood Bowles's windmill for grinding grain.

BREWSTER’S RAMBLE #149 continued