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The Meetinghouse Tragedy

© Christina Coruth

The Meetinghouse Tragedy
Charles E. Clark
University Press of New England
1998
152 pages
ISBN 0-87451-872-5
$14.95 (Online stores) Paperback

In September of 1773 something terrible happened in Wilton, NH. One hundred and twenty men were attempting to raise the frame of the new town meetinghouse when a support beam gave way plunging 53 of the men onto the joists 27 feet below. Five men died and 48 were seriously injured, as the tools of the day, which included axes and large crowbars, fell on top of them. As often happens when tragedy strikes, home grown poets put the events to rhyme thus providing an oral history. This tragedy and the ballad might have faded into oblivion if not for a fateful discovery by a curious professor.

In 1974, Charles E. Clark, a professor at UNH, became the sixth owner of the family Bible. Inside, he discovered a handwritten pamphlet, dedicated to his many times great grandmother Phebe Howard. He soon realized that the ballad was a gift upon her birth. It told the story of the meetinghouse tragedy in Wilton and it fueled Clark’s desire to know more about the tragedy and about the ballad.

Clark brings us into 18th century New Hampshire as he weaves interesting details of daily life in a small colonial community while telling the two main stories of the book – the events surrounding the tragedy and the evolution of the ballad.

One of the highlights of colonial life was the raising of a barn or meetinghouse. In today’s world of power tools and cranes, it’s hard to imagine how our colonial ancestors managed to erect structures the equivalent of a three-story building using simple tools, brawn, and ingenuity. Clark explains the process and provides diagrams and drawings in an easy to understand fashion that will leave you enlightened and amazed.

Don’t skip over the endnotes and appendixes in this book. Clark’s research is extensive as a perusal of the appendixes reveals. News of the tragedy as reported in local papers, three versions of the ballad, as well as the first version to make it into print, contained in the appendixes are the “after dinner treat” you don’t want to miss. You’ll also find a glossary of “Building Terms,” which are valuable to 21st century readers.

Although The Meetinghouse Tragedy will find its place in the history section of libraries and stores, it also makes a great tool for the genealogist who can trace his or her colonial ancestry to the New Hampshire towns of Wilton, Lyndeborough, New Ipswich, Temple, Miles Slip (Milford), Concord, Amherst, or to Andover or Pepperell in Massachusetts. Clark lists the names of the injured and killed. And, of course, the names of other residents of Wilton came up during the course of telling the story. Genealogists will also appreciate the historical background.