USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > Milton > Historical address delivered at the centennial celebration, August 30, 1902, of the town of Milton, New Hampshire > Part 1
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, 1902, OF MILTON
NEW HAMPSHIRE SMITH
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00055 5729
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Orthey Thos Smith-
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DELIVERED at the CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, AUGUST 30, 1902, of the
TOWN OF MILTON NEW HAMPSHIRE
BY ARTHUR THAD SMITH Principal of the Nute High School, 1896-1901
WITH THE OFFICIAL PROGRA IME AND THE COMMITTEES OF THAT OCCASION
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
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PRINTED BY THE RUMFORD PRESS CONCORD, N. H.
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Mr. President, Citizens, and Friends of Milton :
It is needless for me to say that I am gratified to be present here to- day. Although I cannot claim the honor of being a son of Milton; al- though it will be impossible, for ob- vious reasons, for me to entertain you with anecdotes and delightful remi- niscences of schoolmates or school days of forty or fifty years ago, you may rest assured that no one who is here to-day takes a deeper interest in the observance of this centennial. Coming as I did to the Nute High School with the ink hardly dry upon my college diploma, it is but natu- ral that this community should have made a deep impress upon me. It is impossible ever to repeat the peculiar
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interest that attaches to one's first field of labor. Should I much exceed the allotted threescore and ten, I could never forget the five years passed in your midst, and their pleas- ant associations. Nothing, I am sure, could be a source of greater gratifica- tion to me than to know of Milton's prosperity, and of the success of those whom it was my good fortune to meet as students and friends of the Nute High School.
Although Milton is the youngest town of Strafford county, save Rol- linsford, one hundred years of her history have been completed. Her sons and daughters have come to- gether from every point of the com- pass to celebrate the anniversary of her birth. You who own Milton as your place of nativity, have returned to-day, flushed with the success that
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has crowned your efforts in those fields to which you departed in your early years; you have returned to meet again those friends of childhood and youth, and to exchange reminis- cences of those happy days of yore. Whatever may be the mingled emo- tions of joy as an old familiar face is seen, or of sadness at the absence of the dear one, there exists in the hearts of all a common love for the old town, its scenery, its history, its traditions -that affection which ever glows in the shrine of the inmost feelings, as undying as the eternal fires of Vesta. Great as our regard for the town may be, however, we must acknowl- edge that unsatisfactory indeed would be a centennial celebration if it merely commemorated the completion of a cycle of time. Age of itself, barren of achievements, may excite curiosity,
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but never veneration. The rounding of the century mark is rather a dis- grace than a credit if nothing has been accomplished worthy of the pe- riod that has elapsed. That is the supreme test. It is the parable of the pounds over again.
" Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay," is as true to-day as when penned by the immortal Tennyson in his Locksley Hall. Every town as well as every man has a duty to perform in the particular phase of human activity which has been chosen. A failure to meet this duty is a disgrace. An inert, sloth- ful existence is a reproach. The life of Nathan Hale given for his country at twenty-one is far more worthy of commemoration than sixty years of a Benedict Arnold.
But what makes for character in a
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town? What is the measure of achievement? It is the same as em- ployed in the case of an individual. To command the honor of the world, the history of a community must manifest an unswerving devotion to country, a sturdy patriotism, as evi- denced by the willing and ready sac- rifice of lives and wealth in times of public peril. As the miser counts his gold, so many towns and cities exult in the possession of beautiful and costly buildings with luxurious decorations. That is not the true measure of success. Too often the security, liberty, and peace that ren- der these luxuries enjoyable were purchased largely through the ex- penditure of blood and wealth by others, whose sacrifices for the com- mon good have left them impover- ished, while the benefits have been
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reaped by those who evaded the call of duty. It was unaffected, simple, republican Rome, let us remember, that furnished that sinew to the Ro- man arm which enabled the effete empire to live in luxury for so many decades.
In the great crises of this country, in the times that tried men's souls, the record of the town of Milton has been one of which every citizen may be justly proud. It is that which renders this centennial so pleasurable to those who have returned to-day. The record of this hundred years may be opened to the world and not a page need be effaced nor a single line be dimmed. It is a record of self-sacrifice and devotion to country that would bring honor to any town of any nation and is a worthy reflec- tion of the sturdy character of the
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builders of this community. It is with commendable pride, then, that we lay this record before the world to-day to show that Milton is ready to do again what she has done in the past. As the philosopher's stone of old, such a history must transmute those who come in contact with it into what is far better than the gold of the alchemist-a generation of men and women made nobler and more patriotic by its example.
The earliest permanent settlement made in this county, and indeed, in this state, was at Dover, then called Cochecho, in the year 1623. For many years Cochecho was a frontier town, and through fear of the Indians few dared to venture far away from the old block houses there. It was of those old times that, in Whittier's " Snowbound," the mother
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" Told how the Indian hordes came down At midnight on Cochecho town."
It was on the night of the twenty- seventh of June, 1689, you remember, that the famous massacre occurred at Dover; when the block houses were burned, the stern Major Waldron tor- tured to death, and so many pioneers killed or carried into brutal captiv- ity. It is certain that the braves who gathered to perpetrate that dastardly deed came largely from the North, and it is more than probable that these hills and ponds were witnesses of their journey down along the old Winnipesaukee trail, and of their re- turn with scalps and captives on their way to Montreal. By a strange co- incidence, at the allotment of land in the second division of the Northeast parish of Rochester, Colonel Richard Waldron, a lineal descendant of the Major, became original proprietor of
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the entire territory of what later be- came Milton Three Ponds, where many of the villagers now reside.
In these early perils, the pioneers of Milton did not share. When the first permanent settlement was made here, the red man's power had been broken. It is true that tradition re- cords the presence of the Indian in these woods. There are stories of trappers who, penetrating this local- ity to hunt the game that was so plentiful here, when suddenly at- tacked by Indians near the North- east pond, defeated and slew the red- skins, burying their bodies near the shore. But it may truly be said that among the hardships of the early pioneers, the perils of death by the tomahawk was not one.
When the town of Rochester was settled in 1722, what is at present
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Milton was a portion of it, and later became known as the Northeast Par- ish. Of course, the early history of this town was associated with that of Rochester. That, together with the fact that important early records were destroyed by fire, renders it very difficult to determine with perfect accuracy when the first settlements were made here. It is generally con- ceded, however, that the first perma- nent residence was made in what is now the southern part of the town in about the year 1760, by Jonathan Twombly, on what has been some- times called the "Bragdon Farm." It is recorded that Richard Walker was a very early settler, and it is possible that he may have antedated Twombly, but probably he came at about the same time. In 1771 or 1772, John Twombly (who does not
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appear to have been related to Jona- than) established his home in what was known as the Varney neighbor- hood. One Jenkins, who lived upon Goodwin hill at the time, was his nearest neighbor. Plumer's Ridge was reached in 1772 or 1773, prob- ably by Benjamin Scates. Beard Plumer and his brother Joseph, sons of John Plumer of Rochester, set- tled at the Ridge at a very early period, however, and it is possible that they may have preceded Scates. James C. Hayes, David Wallingford, William Palmer, Elijah Horne, Moses Chamberlain, and others, were also among the first. It was probably not until 1785 or 1786 that the West Branch River was settled. Paul
Jewett, Amos Witham, Reuben Jones, and others, were the first set- tlers. The pioneers at the Three
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Ponds were Samuel Palmer, Levi Bergen, John Fish, Paul Jewett, Pelatiah Hanscom, Robert McGeoch, and others.
During all of this period whatis now Milton was the Northeast Parish of Rochester, and considerable difficulty seems to have been experienced in arranging for the religious instruc- tion of the section, which finally cul- minated in separation. There ap- pears on the Rochester town books a record of a vote relative to this mat- ter as early as 1774, to the effect that preaching be furnished to the more remote inhabitants of the town in proportion to the taxes paid. This provision appears to have been inade- quate, as in 1780 the voters in the upper parish objected to being taxed for building a new meeting-house at Norway Plains, the old one at Haven's
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Hill being unfit for use. Soon dis- satisfaction so spread that many ab- solutely refused to pay the minister's tax, and the way was commencing to open toward separation from the mother town. Finally it became ap- parent to all that it was too great a distance for those residing at Shapley Mills (now Milton Mills), Plumer's Ridge, and Palmer's Mills (now Mil- ton proper) to attend church at the Haven's Hill meeting-house, and con- sequent injustice for them to be taxed for the maintenance thereof when practically deprived of the benefit. A petition for separation was accord- ingly presented to the legislature of New Hampshire at the June session of 1802 by Captain Beard Plumer, then one of the representatives from Rochester. On June 11, 1802, it was voted to incorporate the Northeast
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Parish of Rochester as the town of Milton, and a charter to that effect was formally granted.
The records show that the first town-meeting was called by William Palmer, Esq., and convened at the tavern of Lieutenant Elijah Horne (at present the residence of James L. Twombly), August 30, 1802, and it is of this occasion that to-day is a commemoration. At the first meet- ing it appears that Beard Plumer was chosen moderator, Gilman Jew- ett, town clerk, William Palmer, John Fish, and John Remick, Jr., se- lectmen. The first official act of this
board occurred just one hundred years ago to-day, and was the licens- ing of Lieutenant Horne to keep a public tavern. The first annual town meeting, however, was not held un- til March 14, 1803, when Beard Plum-
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er was again chosen moderator, Gil- man Jewett, clerk, William Palmer, John Fish, and Ezekiel Hayes, select- men. Beard Plumer was elected rep- resentative. The record shows that 134 votes were cast for governor at the first election, John T. Gilman, receiving 103, and John Langdon 31.
The scope of a short historical sketch does not permit an exhaustive examination of the details of Milton's history. Interesting as these may be, -they must be left to the precise anti- quarian or genealogist. It may be well, however, to note, in passing, a few of the events that have been most prominent, with a reference here and there to the several interests with which the town has been mainly iden- tified.
The first tavern was erected prob- ably by James Hartford and Robert
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McGeoch, shortly after 1780, the ex- act date being placed by various per- sons from 1783 to 1787. It was situ- ated on land about where the present railway station now stands, the group of buildings extending a considerable distance along the river bank there. The hotel itself was about 75 feet long and possessed the characteris- tics in which the host was wont to revel in the olden days. There was the broad, generous hall with capaci- ous bar-room at the left, boasting the huge fireplace with its Yule-tide logs. Benjamin Palmer was the first innkeeper. Between 1820 and 1830 this old tavern became one of the stations of the stage lines to the White Mountains, and as the post-office was situated there, all mail for the north from Dover and beyond was sorted and placed in pouches for the three
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northern stage roads, Ossipee and Conway, Parsonsfield and Fryeburg, Milton Mills, Acton, and Shapleigh (Maine). Thus by a curious coinci- dence, the site of the station in olden times is yet that of the railway station for the village to-day. The coaches arrived there at about twelve o'clock, so that dinner was served to all be- fore the journey was resumed. For a part of the day, at least, the village bustled with activity, the ex- citement continuing for a length of time proportionate to the importance of the news received. The various events of the hour were, of course, discussed with dignity and authority by the Solons and Oracles of those days about the tavern fireplace.
Of the public buildings in town, perhaps the most interesting as well as the most venerable is the present
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town house on the Ridge. It was first erected as a meeting-house in accordance with a vote of the town to that effect at the annual meeting in 1802, John Fish, Beard Plumer, and Gilman Jewett being the execu- tive committee. The lot was pur- chased of Thomas and Aaron Downes for $26, and the building was com- pleted at a cost of nearly $2,400 by Caleb Wingate, Capt. Daniel Hayes, and Gilman Jewett. The pews were subsequently sold for nearly $2,000, so that the net cost of the structure to the town was not large. It is recorded that it was not con- sidered amiss in those days, even at the raising of the frame of a meeting- house, to lubricate the work with rum in large quantities, and the books show that the town paid $10 for the amount consumed on that occasion.
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The first service was held in 1804, and the building was constantly in use as a religious edifice until after 1830. We are accustomed to-day to receive our religious instruction in sugar- coated, homœopathic doses, that is, in services composed of short sermons with excellent singing, while personal comfort is regarded by cushioned pews, and in winter by a comfortably warm auditorium. We cannot but think the treatment allopathic and heroic to the last degree in the olden days, with a sermon of one and one half to two hours in the morning, and after an hour's nooning, another of equal length in the afternoon with the patient auditor seated for these four or more mortal hours in the un- cushioned, back-breaking old box pew, with no fire during the winter except individual foot-stoves for the
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ladies. Old Zeno, the Stoic, would have been at a loss to have arranged a service more true to the tenets of his sect, at least as far as studied dis- comforts to the flesh are concerned. There were no regular services held at the Ridge meeting-house after 1838. After that it was closed dur- ing the winter months, but Parson Willey preached there once a month during the rest of the year until 1845. As the parish had become divided by the forming of a church in Milton Mills in 1833, in the Three Ponds in 1835, and in West Milton, in 1841, the Ridge meeting-house finally went out of use and was sold in 1855 to the town, being dismantled to suit its present purpose.
Before Milton was set off from Rochester as a separate parish, it was dependent for the services of a pas-
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tor upon Parson Haven, who attended to his many duties as best he could until about 1800. The first parson who was employed by the town of Milton after its incorporation was Rev. Reuben Nayson, from Wake- field, who was paid the munificent salary of $82, for services during the year 1801. The first preachers oc- cupying the pulpit at the old Ridge church were Rev. Gideon Burt and Rev. Christopher Paige, who offici- ated there in 1804.
It appears that the way of the trans- gressor was hard financially in those early days as well as spiritually. There were sins of omission as well as those of commission, and the priv- ilege of erring in the former seems to have been paid for in cash. The records show that during the year 1803 the tything man, William Pal-
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mer, paid into the town treasury the sum of $4, which had been collected from those who had committed the heinous crime of absenting them- selves at various times from divine worship. It is interesting to con- jecture how large the revenue to the town would be were this fine in vogue to-day.
To James F. Maston belongs the honor of being the first teacher em- ployed by the town of Milton. He kept the winter term of 1803 in a school building erected in a spot on the Ridge, just in the rear of where Mr. Frank Horne's barn stands to- day. He received as wages the sum of five pounds four shillings (about $26), and was subjected to the indig- nity of "boarding around." The sum- mer term of 1804 was kept by the first woman employed as teacher by
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the town of Milton, Miss Mary Wal- bridge, and two pounds eight shill- ings (about $12) was paid to her. Since that time the schools of Milton have been conducted in much the same manner as one would expect from a country community. The con- ventional " little red schoolhouse " at the foot of Silver street, violating tradition by being built at the foot of rather than at the top of a hill, was constructed in 1827, and was for many years the forum in which the wielder of the birch and rule reigned supreme. The building was in 1853 altered into a two-storied structure and as such was occupied as a school until about 1890, when it was sold by the town and remodeled into the structure that it now is. The pres- ent grammar school, erected in 1891, still retains a reminiscence of the old
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structure in the form of the "bell of 1855," which still calls together the scholars of to-day as it did their fathers and mothers. The central school building at Milton Mills has for a number of years accommodated the higher grammar and lower high school grades there.
Schools of a so-called high school standard have been established in Milton at various periods but by pri- vate individuals, the town being con- tent to hold strictly to the old law requiring faithful instruction in the three R's with Latin as an extra in the shire and half-shire towns. The
first attempt at a high school was made by the Rev. Ezra S. Anderson, in 1832, but perhaps the most success- ful was the classical institute which was held in the old Union meeting- house, remodeled in 1866 for that pur-
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pose. The present Nute High School was founded in 1889, along with the Nute Library, in accordance with the provisions of the will of Lewis Wors- ter Nute, a native of this town, who died in 1888. There are few towns which possess the opportunities for schooling that the town of Milton does to-day. It should be a matter of the greatest pride to Milton people that such excellent educational facili- ties are for their children to enjoy. And, further, it should be a matter of congratulation that a former towns- man has seen fit to endow Milton with a school which, under the able man- agement of the present trustees and efficient instructors, must be regarded as one of the finest institutions of its character in the state. Not only for this benefaction of $125,000 should Mr. Nute's name be gratefully remem-
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bered; his other gifts were many and varied. He left the sum of $50,000 for the public schools, $10,000 for the building of a chapel at Nute's Ridge, with $30,000 for the support of the preaching there, and $50,000 for other benevolences, including the Nute fund for the worthy poor.
The towns are very rare that pos- sess such excellent facilities for the development of water power as Mil- ton. The declivity of the Salmon Falls river from its source to the sea is 499 feet, and a fall of 275 feet, over one half of the total, is within the lim- its of Milton. The official report of the United States government, after pronouncing the Salmon Falls river superior in available water power to all but one of the streams of equal size on this portion of the Atlantic slope, alludes in most flattering terms
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to the remarkable opportunity for de- velopment here, recording the fall in Milton to be by far the largest on the river.
It would be very interesting, did time permit, to trace the history of the various manufacturing industries that have been established both in this section of the town and at Milton Mills. Suffice it to say that the first dam was built by Samuel Palmer, in about 1784, on the site of the present main dam at Milton village. Saw- mills and gristmills were built on either side. Then there was the old Jones saw and gristmill at the Flume, washed away by the freshet of 1786. The Leighton privilege, so called, was also one of the earliest and was located near the upper leath- er board mill. It was in 1816 that Thomas Leighton erected there a
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cotton mill which he operated until 1837. The other privileges both here and at Milton Mills were also utilized at an early period.
It may occasion considerable sur- prise to the public in general to learn that the water power that can be util- ized at Milton is far superior to that available to the Cocheco Manufac- turing company of Dover, and at least fully equal to that of the Great Falls Manufacturing company of Somers- worth. Such is the fact nevertheless. The United States government report records, as utilized by these com- panies, a fall of 36 feet in Dover with 1000 horse power, and a total fall of 62 feet in Somersworth, with about 2500 horse power. It is entirely feas- ible to utilize for one plant in Milton, from the pond to and including the flume privilege, a fall of 140 feet,
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which with a run of 12,000 cubic feet of water per minute, a very con- servative estimate, will develop be- tween 2500 and 3000 horse power. This does not include the fall of 47 feet at Milton Mills, with 231 horse power, nor that of Spaulding's upper mill, with 21 feet fall and 375 horse power. Thus the total developed and undeveloped horse-power at Milton may safely be estimated as from 3,300 to 3,500 units. It is a matter of his- tory that the Great Falls Manufac- turing company first determined to locate at Milton about 1820 and in fact had chosen the site, but were driven away by a most senseless se- ries of lawsuits occasioned by short- sighted and grasping riparian owners. Let us see what this mistake of some of the early settlers has meant to the town. If the water power of Mil-
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ton were utilized in the manufacture of cotton cloth each horse power would mean 48 spindles. This would give the town about 120,000 spindles and as one person is employed for each 80, there would be from 1,500 to 2,000 operatives. Had it not been, then, for the petty bickering and shortsighted selfishness of some of her early settlers, Milton would be to-day a city of from 10,000 to 15,000 inhabitants, with all the wealth and prestige that such a population would bring. As the tremendous natural and artificial advantages exist here yet, however, it is not impossible that the town will reap some day the full- est advantage from its resources.
Important as may be the develop- ment of industry, the supreme test of the character of a town is, after all, its attitude toward the government in
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time of need. By attitude I do not mean the academic resolves so often passed, engrossed, and forwarded to the authorities. These perhaps have their place as indicative of the tran- sient enthusiasm that pervades a com- munity. But when the smoke has cleared away, as it were, the historian of after years in coolly and candidly weighing the value of the service which has been rendered can be in- fluenced only by acts. "Deeds not words," if demanded of an individual, are doubly required of a community. With this as the ultimate test it may truly be said that few towns have equaled the town of Milton in sacri- ficing for the good of the nation. Few towns have so consistently met the needs of the country with such promptness or such vigor. The pa- triotism of the town of Milton has not
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