Who were the people who were the
enemies of Noyes Academy? The leaders of the group that was so
rabidly against Negro students in Canaan were Dr Thomas Flanders,
Elijah Blaisdell and Jacob Trussell. Thomas Flanders was born in
Antrim New Hampshire in 1792. He married Susanna Follansbee in 1815
in Canaan. She died 7 years later, having had several stillborn
children, a son who lived to the age of 4, and John Gilbert Flanders,
who was born in Colebrook in 1818. Thomas remarried Ann Hilliard who
came from Cambridge, Massachusetts and they had a son, Abraham and a
daughter, Sarah. Thomas Flanders started his adult life in Colebrook
and moved to Canaan in the late 1820's or early 30's. He graduated
from Dartmouth College in 1832. He lived in Canaan in 1830, and the
census shows him having 2 young children and a teenager in his house
with himself and his wife. By 1840, he was living in Durham, New
Hampshire, where he lived until he died at age 75. His son John
stayed in the Upper Valley, spending his whole adult life living in
Enfield, New Hampshire. Abraham Flanders became a doctor, and moved
to New York City.
The Noyes Academy situation wasn't the
only controversy Doctor Flanders was involved in when he lived in
Canaan. Benjamin Spencer was a blacksmith who came to Canaan in
1825. He started a blacksmithing business and was busy at his job
for about six months when he disappeared. After he went missing, a
sheriff showed up in town with a warrant for Spencer's arrest.
Apparently he had taken out a loan from the Grafton Bank, in
Haverhill, but the cosigner's note was a forgery. It was obvious
that Spencer had to have had help with this, because he was
illiterate. Dr Flanders had some enemies in town, and they started a
rumor that it was him who had forged the note. After all, Dr.
Flanders and Benjamin Spencer had both come from Colebrook, and they
both arrived in Canaan at the same time.
Law authorities chased Benjamin
Spencer all the way to Pennsylvania, where he was arrested. He was
brought back to New Hampshire and charged with the crime of forgery.
He served two years in prison, but never did say who helped him forge
the cosigner's signature. He gave an impassioned statement swearing
that Dr. Flanders did not have anything at all to do with the crime.
William Allen Wallace tells us in his “History of Canaan”, that
“The doctor was not popular. His impulsive temper often broke out
without reference to propriety, and often gave offense. But he was
regarded as a man of integrity and incapable of committing an act of
dishonor.” Wallace claims that the reason Dr. Flanders left Canaan
for Durham is that these accusations bothered him so much.
Elijah Blaisdell was born in Canaan in
1782. His wife's name was Mary Fogg. They had nine children. His
son Daniel also became a lawyer and lived and had a law practice in
Hanover, New Hampshire. Daniel was an incorporator of the Dartmouth
Savings Bank, the bank that gave us the mortgage for our house. His
son James graduated from Dartmouth and a Bible college. He was the
superintendent of schools for Lebanon before moving West.
Elijah lived in a house on Canaan
Street. He became a side judge for the court of common pleas in
Grafton County. Elijah was a selectman in Canaan for 10 years, from
1822-1832. Then he moved to Lebanon “drive the niggers out of our
beautiful town”. He went back to accomplish a task, but he did not
move back to Canaan. When I read the accounts of the Canaan town
meeting of August, 1835, I was surprised to find that Elijah
Blaisdell's name wasn't mentioned. This is why. He didn't live in
Canaan. He was a native of Canaan, and I believe that he loved
Canaan and got involved with the Noyes Academy altercation because he
really hated the idea of black students being educated in his
hometown. I would be willing to bet that he left Canaan because of
George Kimball, and I believe that his hatred of Kimball partially
fueled his anger toward Noyes Academy. In the “History of Canaan”,
Wallace tells us that Blaisdell was “overbearing, arbitrary,
impatient of restraint, and not scrupulous of the rights and feelings
of others.” I love the way Wallace wrote, and his History of
Canaan is the best town history I've read so far, in part because he
doesn't hesitate to include the juicy stories and give his opinion
about the various people in the town. On the other hand, I think
Wallace held a grudge against the enemies of Noyes Academy, and some
of these people may not have been as bad as he portrayed them.
Jacob Trussell was born in 1779. He
was a sawmill owner and a leading citizen of Canaan. He was a
prominent Mason and was very active in the Congregational Church.
When the Noyes Academy episode was finally over, the Congregational
Church excommunicated Jacob for his leadership of the mob that
destroyed the school. You have to wonder where these people were
when the whole thing happened, and why they didn't stop it rather
than condemn the main players after the fact. Jacob and his wife
Persis moved to Franklin, New Hampshire. Persis is listed among the
members of the Congregational Church there, but Jacob isn't. He
wouldn't have been allowed to join another Congregational Church
after having been kicked out of the church in Canaan.
The anonymous footnoter that added the
comments to the list of participants in the town meeting wrote that
Chamberlain Packard was “killed by God”. Chamberlain Packard was
killed by a train, in Canaan, but he was 62 when it happened. The
same person wrote that Bartlett Hoyt was “killed by God after have
stolen money sent to him to keep his wife's father from starving and
going on the town”. Here's the story. Bartlett Hoyt's wife was
named Prudence Wilson. Prudence's mother died and her father,
Robert, married another woman, Sally Dole. Sally was an invalid for
a long time, and Robert hired Phoebe Pattee to be his housekeeper and
help take care of Sally. He ended up having several children by
Phoebe, while Sally was still alive and living in his house. Sally
finally recovered and left Robert, going to live with her brother,
who she lived with until she died. Robert married Phoebe even before
Sally died and kept on having children by her. He lived to be 77.
The town gave Bartlett Hoyt the money to bury his father-in-law.
Eventually, Bartlett and Prudence moved to Genessee, New York, maybe to get away from her family.
Most of the major players that founded
Noyes Academy didn't stay in Canaan, and neither did many of the
Academy's enemies. Nathaniel Currier stayed in Canaan. The Patees
stayed in Canaan, and many of the less prominent families on the
committee list stayed in Canaan, as did many of their children.
As I did the research about these
families, I found that people either had no children, one or two
children,or 8, 9, or 10 children. I found no families with three or
four children, but quite a few childless couples. It seems like if
you were fertile and your babies were strong enough to live, you
would have a large family. Some families might have been lucky
enough to have a child or two survive, in a long list of stillbirths,
miscarriages and infant deaths.
