Pine Tree Riot

Weare is the next town over from us. The Pine Tree Riot is an interesting episode in colonial history. Libertarian groups still sell T-shirts and patches with "Pine Tree Riot" on them. It's a great example of the importance of having difficult and uncooperative people around to stand up against injustice, but also not necessarily trusting them to mind the store themselves. It's a difficult balance. 

In 1772, Hillsborough County Sheriff Benjamin Whiting and Deputy John Quigley departed to Weare with a warrant to arrest Ebenezer Mudgett,  a mill owner in town who had repeatedly violated this law. Mudgett was apprehended, but released by Whiting after Mudgett promised he’d pay the fine the next day. Trusting Mudgett’s word, Whiting and Quigley spent the night at the Pine Tree Tavern nearby.

The next morning, Mudgett returned not with his penalty fee, but a horde of angry citizens who were likewise infuriated by the law. Together, they would beat Whiting and Quigley within an inch of their lives with wooden rods. To add insult to injury, the mob would also crop the ears and shear the manes of the two men’s horses.

Weare is still sort of like this. The selectmen and the police have been arguing and threatening each other as long as I can remember, though it seems to have settled down ten years ago.  Both of them keep getting into dustups with the fire and ambulance people as well, which is unwise when they are (or actually, were) trained volunteers who work at hospitals or the Dept of Safety in Concord and do this for a living, giving time to their community in generosity. It used to be that zoning disputes could get violent, usually when the town fathers objected to the externalities of disposal, watersheds, and the like.

Still you have to have some.  They are the yeast of society, as a psychiatrist friend of mine used to say. You might hesitate to give the keys to both the ammunition and the liquor cabinet on the same night, though. Probably best to alternate the days.