History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II, Part 1

Author: Jackson, James R. (James Robert), b. 1838; Furber, George C. (George Clarence), b. 1847; Stearns, Ezra S
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Pub. for the town by the University Press
Number of Pages: 918


USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II > Part 1


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70


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Gc 974.202 L73j v.2 1128569


GENEALOGY COLLECTION


ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01096 4010


HISTORY OF LITTLETON NEW HAMPSHIRE


Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015


https://archive.org/details/historyoflittlet02jack_0


....


-


TOWN BUILDING.


HISTORY


OF


LITTLETON


NEW HAMPSHIRE


IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. II.


JAMES R. JACKSON HISTORIOGRAPHER


TOPICAL HISTORY 1


PUBLISHED FOR THE TOWN BY THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 1905


Copyright, 1905, BY THE TOWN OF LITTLETON.


1128569


TABLE OF CONTENTS


PAGE


XXVII.


MANUFACTURING.


1870-1903


1


XXVIII.


MERCHANTS


29


XXIX. BANKS AND BANKERS


75


XXX. THE PROFESSION OF MEDICINE.


By Albert Still-


man Batchellor


88


XXXI. CRAFTSMEN 138


XXXII. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY


156


Congregational Church


156


XXXIII. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY (Continued)


245


Methodist Episcopal Church


245


XXXIV. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY (Continued)


302


The Protestant Episcopal Church


302


XXXV. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY (Continued)


313


The Free Baptist Society


313


XXXVI. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY (Continued)


324


The Roman Catholic Church


324


XXXVII. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY (Continued)


343


The Unitarian Society


343


XXXVIII. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY (Continued) .


351


Baptist, Adventist, and Christian Science 351


XXXIX.


YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION


357


XL. NATIVE MINISTERS


360


XLI. MEN AND WOMEN OF PROMINENCE ABROAD


382


XLII. TEMPERANCE


402


XLIII. SCHOOLS. By Mrs. Lydia Drew Jackson .


418


XLIV. LIBRARIES .


439


XLV. MUSIC AND MUSICAL ASSOCIATIONS


453


vi


Table of Contents.


PAGE


XLVI. TAXATION 462


XLVII. SURVEYS. By Adams Moore, A.M., M.D. 479


XLVIII. HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES 485


XLIX. CEMETERIES


496


L. THE FIRE DEPARTMENT


512


LI. SOLDIERS OF THE REVOLUTION AND THE WAR OF 1812 520


LII. THE MILITIA IN NORTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE. Albert Stillman Batchellor 531


By


LIII. FREEMASONRY. By Albert Stillman Batchellor 554


LIV. ODD FELLOWS AND OTHER FRATERNAL ORDERS 588


LV. AGRICULTURE


593


LVI. COURTS


600


STATISTICAL HISTORY. By Chauncey H. Greene


607


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


TOWN BUILDING . Frontispiece HENRY C. REDINGTON Facing page 2


MILLS, SARANAC GLOVE COMPANY


6


HENRY C. LIBBEY


8


GEO. M. GLAZIER


66


10


IRA PARKER


MANUFACTORY, KILBURN STEREOSCOPIC VIEW COMPANY 66


14


BENJAMIN W. KILBURN 16


LITTLETON SHOE FACTORY


18


THE PIKE MANUFACTURING CO. PLANT


66


22


EDWIN B. PIKE


24


E. BERTRAM PIKE


66


26


GEORGE F. BATCHELDER


30


ISAAC CALHOUN . 46 66


FRANK P. BOND .


48


CYRUS EASTMAN


50


HENRY L. TILTON


66


54


VIEW IN RIVERSIDE PARK


66


58


.


WM. J. BELLOWS


66


60


CHARLES C. SMITH


66


68


WILLIAM H. BELLOWS .


66


70


GEORGE B. REDINGTON


78


OSCAR C. HATCH


66


80


BANK BUILDING, EXTERIOR


84


BANK BUILDING, INTERIOR


86


WILLIAM BURNS, M.D. 66


102


ADAMS MOORE, M.D.


104


GROUP OF RESIDENT PHYSICIANS


66


106


RALPH BUGBEE, JR., M.D.


66 110


12


viii


List of Illustrations.


T. E. SANGER, M.D. . Facing page 112


GEORGE W. MCGREGOR, M.D. . 116


WILLIAM J. BEATTIE, M.D. . 118


EDWIN K. PARKER, M.D. 120


GROUP OF PHYSICIANS


124


CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, ERECTED 1832


160


REV. DRURY FAIRBANK


164


CONGREGATIONAL PASTORS


178


REV. FREDERICK G. CHUTTER


208


JOHN MERRILL


216


CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, REMODELLED 1874 .


¥ 242


GROUP OF METHODIST PASTORS


256


METHODIST CHURCH®


260


PASTORS M. E. CHURCH "


266


ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL CHURCH 306


GROUP OF EPISCOPAL CLERGYMEN 308


CALVINIST BAPTIST CHURCH . 316


FREE BAPTIST CHURCH


316


GROUP OF FREE BAPTIST PASTORS .


320


ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND PARSONAGE .


324


PLACE OF FIRST MASS BY ROMAN CATHOLICS IN TOWN " 326


GROUP OF ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS


336


UNITARIAN CHURCH .


344


GROUP OF UNITARIAN MINISTERS


¥


348


ADVENT CHAPEL


354


REV. N. E. COBLEIGH, D.D., LL.D. CC


66


372


REV. ENOCH M. PINGREE


378


MOSES A. DOW


382


DANIEL J. STRAIN " 384


SAMUEL B. PAGE


386


FRED O. NOURSE 388


REV. JEREMIAH EAMES RANKIN, D.D., LL.D. .


. 390


WRITERS AND MISSIONARIES . 398


IDA FARR MILLER . 400


TEMPERANCE WORKERS 414


370


REV. JOSEPH E. ROBINS, D.D. .


.


ix


List of Illustrations.


LITTLETON HIGH SCHOOL .


Facing page 418


KILBURN SCHOOL BUILDING


CC 426


MITCHELL SCHOOL


CC 428


APTHORP SCHOOL


430


GROUP OF HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPALS


66


434


LITTLETON CORNET BAND .


454


ALBERT H. BOWMAN


456


PLAN OF LITTLETON (1877)


478


MAP OF CONCORD, NOW LISBON


480


RAY T. GILE


484


MAIN STREET, LOOKING WEST, BEFORE 1870 .


494


OLD COVERED BRIDGE


66


494


GROUP OF MASONS


576


·


ERRATA.


On page 201, first line, for "Sangar " read "Sanger."


.. .. 428, second line from bottom, for " Matilda Rankin " read " Melinda Rankin."


". .. 433, first paragraph, third line, for " Franklin J. Tilton " read " Franklin Tilton."


" " 572, seventh line from bottom, for "1758" read 1858."


HISTORY OF LITTLETON.


XXVII.


MANUFACTURING. 1870-1903.


TN 1870 the business conditions that prevailed during the war T period were being rapidly adjusted to their normal relations. Prices were nearing their natural level. The town debt had been funded at a 7.30 rate of interest, and the bonds were the property of some of the thrifty citizens of the town. So rapid had been the growth of wealth that a much larger amount of bonded indebtedness could have been disposed of in the home market. This year also marks the beginning of a change in the industrial life of the town. The woollen mill and the scythe factory were for many years the only industries that did not have their origin in the soil. In 1867 E. J. M. Hale sold the woollen mill to a corporation that had been organized under the title of The Littleton Woollen Company with a capital of $200,000. In this company Mr. Hale, John Townsend, Jordan, Marsh & Co., and the firm of Leland, Allen & Bates, were the principal stock- holders. All but the first named were of Boston, and Joseph L. Whittaker was the only resident of the town who held any of the stock. John Townsend was treasurer, and Leland, Allen & Bates selling agents, while Henry H. Townsend, a son of the treasurer, became superintendent. In 1869 Jordan, Marsh & Co. purchased a controlling interest, and Capt. William H. Stevens became treas- urer and agent. In 1874 Joseph L. and Robert H. Whittaker, who had been the dyers and finishers for the mill for nearly twenty years, leased the property and operated it for less than a year, when its machinery was silenced never to be put in motion again in the old mill. During the thirty-four years in which it had been operated millions of yards of flannel, white, gray, scarlet, yellow, VOL II. - 1


2


History of Littleton.


and blue, had issued from its looms, and many thousands of blankets had been sold in the markets of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. The vicissitudes of its history were many. At first, under various managements there had been a struggle for exist- ence; then came years of wholesome success, to be followed by a period of unnatural prosperity, when the profits of the business were nearly a hundred per cent, and afterward a relapse into a condition closely resembling that of 1840-1845, after which it was transformed and devoted to other uses.


The original scythe factory, built five years earlier than the woollen mill, held its place among the industries of the town for nearly thirty years. It was built and operated by George W. Ely, George B. Redington, and John Farr. They were men of active public spirit, who, while caring for their own interests, fos- tered those of a public character. Mr. Farr retired from the firm after two years ; Mr. Ely remained until 1844, when he removed to St. Johnsbury, Vt., where he engaged in the manufacture of forks and hoes. He was a man of excellent business capacity and much respected for solid worth. He is noted for having served a single term in three different public positions, those of Selectman in 1838, Representative to the General Court in 1840, and fire- ward in 1844, and having refused a re-election to each. Such acts of abnegation have been rare in our history. The business in which he engaged at St. Johnsbury prospered and finally found its way into the maw of a trust, long after the death of its founder. Mr. Ely died at Philadelphia in the summer of 1876.


This scythe factory was four times destroyed by fire. The first occurred in February, 1842, when it was running to its full capacity to fill orders for the season. It was at once rebuilt and five hundred dozen scythes made in time to fill the contracts of the firm. At this time Henry C. Redington became a member of the company, which was thereafter known by the title H. C. Red- ington & Co. In 1856 the company abandoned the manufacture of scythes to devote its entire resources to the lumber business. The scythe shop was then leased to Wesley Alexander, and was burned a second time, in 1858. It was rebuilt and the business successfully conducted until the works were levelled to the ground by another conflagration in 1859. Mr. Alexander then abandoned the business, and soon after moved from town. Mr. Alexander was a man of high character and business enterprise. He was a deacon in the Baptist Church, and one of the original Free-Soilers of the town, a Selectman in 1855, and Representative in 1858. In 1861 Philip H. Paddleford rebuilt the shop from its foundation,


.


-


HENRY C. REDINGTON.


3


Manufacturing.


put in machinery, and leased it for a term of five years to Harts- horn & Co. This company was composed of Charles Hartshorn, Cyrus Eastman, and Samuel A. Edson. On the expiration of the lease in 1867, business of nearly every kind was disturbed by the great shrinkage in values which took place in the years extending from 1866 to 1870, and the lease was not renewed. Within a few months the building was burned to the water's edge, and the Red- ington box factory was soon after erected upon its foundation.


The scythe factory built on the site of the present shops of the Pike Manufacturing Company was the outcome of a movement inaugurated by some of our public-spirited citizens in 1870 for the purpose of maintaining the industrial interests of the town, then threatened by the loss of the lumber business and by the extension of the railroad into Coos County. In 1871 the Red- ingtons, Cyrus Eastman, Charles Hartshorn, Samuel A. Edson, John and Nelson C. Farr, Philip H. Paddleford, Luther T. Dow, and others organized a corporation under the general law for the purpose of making scythes, axes, and other edged tools. The first board of directors consisted of Charles Hartshorn, John Farr, Nelson C. Farr, Philip H. Paddleford, and George B. Redington. Luther T. Dow was made superintendent. Suitable buildings for the purpose of the corporation were at once erected. The main shop was one hundred and thirty feet in length by thirty- six in width ; another building, to be used as an office and a storeroom for the finished product, was seventy feet in length and twenty-six in width ; a storehouse for material and coal was also erected, together with a boarding-house and other dwellings. The first year fourteen hundred dozen scythes were made, and the annual output thereafter was about seventeen hundred dozen. In 1874 Otis G. Hale succeeded Mr. Dow as agent, and the com- pany at the same time added the manufacture of axes to its product. James H. Witherell, who held a copyright on a name and style of scythes and axes that had met with large sales, assumed the management in 1880, and so continued until its affairs were closed up in 1885.


The directors of the company were men who had been impor- tant factors in the development of the industrial interests of the town. Most of them had reached an age when men are loath to embark in new ventures in which the pecuniary results are in doubt and in which the known benefits are entirely of a public character. It is true that all but Nelson C. Farr had experi- ence in the business, and were supposed to know the extent of the hazard involved. John Farr and George B. Redington were


4


History of Littleton.


members of the firm that built the first scythe factory thirty-six years before ; Cyrus Eastman, Charles Hartshorn, and Samuel A. Edson constituted the firm that was the last lessee of the old factory ; Philip H. Paddleford had been the builder of the mill and maker of much of its machinery, and Luther T. Dow had learned the practical business of manufacturing scythes under the Redingtons. But conditions had changed, and the experience of Hartshorn & Co. was certainly calculated to dissuade people from participating in the new project. Then, too, the socialistic ten- dency of these days to involve towns, in their corporate capacity, in the establishment of manufacturing enterprises other than the exemption of the plant from taxation, was unknown. Citizens who desired to keep alive the spirit of enterprise and prevent the town from receding from its advanced position were required to invest their capital and assume all the risks of the ventures estab- lished for these purposes. In this instance the undertaking was fatal to one estate, and others suffered to a greater or less extent. Philip H. Paddleford died in 1876, and Nelson C. Farr in 1884, and Charles Hartshorn left town in 1880. - removals that were regarded as distinct losses to the community.


Philip H. Paddleford was a son of Peter Paddleford, a noted millwright and bridge-builder, who erected the house which is the present residence of Mrs. Tuttle. His shop, west of the resi- dence, was some years after his death removed to Meadow Street and made a tenement. The son became his father's partner in 1835, and about 1849, when the senior retired, the saw-mill property at South Littleton was purchased, wood-working and machine shops were added to the plant, and a large business was carried on during the lifetime of Mr. Paddleford.


It was a practice with Mr. Paddleford to give an interest in the business to some efficient mechanic who had been in his employ ; and his brother-in-law, Harmon Marcy, widely known in those days as a bridge-builder, Anderson Miller, and Capt. Marshal Sanders were successively his partners, the firm having charge of building and repairing nearly all the saw-mills, grist- mills, and factories of various kinds in the Ammonoosuc valley and many others beyond this territory. Mr. Paddleford was a reliable man, intelligent and well read in matters beyond the scope of his business, retiring, but eager to help others both in private and public matters. He was a charter member and the first Worshipful Master of Burns Lodge A. F. A. M., and was largely instrumental in the erection of Union Block. In politics he was a member of the various parties that followed each


5


Manufacturing.


other as the principal opponents of the Democratic party. He was elected by the Know-nothings to the Legislature in 1855, and as a candidate for re-election the following year suffered defeat with his associates on the ticket. He was generally held in such high esteem that he was often nominated by his party friends for public office for the purpose of strengthening it when defeat was inevitable but a full vote desired.


Charles Hartshorn is still living in Cambridge, Mass. He was, while resident here, an able, active, and public-spirited business man, who advocated all the public enterprises and improvements that rendered those years memorable. From the time he became a citizen of the town, in 1859, until his removal, in 1880, he was one of the landlords of the Crawford House at the White Mountain Notch, in partnership with Col. Joseph L. Gibb, Timothy Woolcott, James M. Hadley, and others who at different times were con- nected in this capacity with that celebrated summer resort. He was a member of the building committee that superintended the erection of Union Block, and also of that appointed by Union School District to build the High School building. With Mrs. Hartshorn he gave the Episcopal Church the lot on School Street on which its church now stands. A Republican in politics, he was several times the candidate of that party for public office. He possessed a sharp tongue, and was seemingly unmindful of the fact that its use in lashing the foibles of his acquaintances had a marked tendency to render him unpopular with the victims of its sting. He was given to applying to any one whom he disliked a charac- terizing epithet so descriptive and appropriate that it stuck to the individual for years. Mr. Hartshorn was also noted for being one of the two persons in town who habitually wore a silk tile.


After the death of Nelson C. Farr, who had acquired a control- ling interest in the stock of the scythe factory company, the cor- poration became insolvent, and its affairs were closed up. Sharp competition and the distance from the supply of raw material made it impossible for the company to keep the field against manufacturers more favorably located.


The property was purchased in 1887 by Charles F. Harris, who utilized it for the manufacture of carriages and sleighs. Mr. Harris is an expert mechanic, and has given much attention to improving carriages, with the result that he makes a class of goods in great demand on account of their durability and comfort, partic- ularly springboards and a sleigh the body of which is set upon steel springs. In 1892 Henry Merrill bought an interest in the establishment of Mr. Harris, and the plant was considerably


6


History of Littleton.


enlarged and improved. In 1902 the property was sold to the Pike Manufacturing Company, and Charles F. Harris & Co. then bought of Noah W. Ranlett the shop on Mill Street, formerly the pot- ashery of Roby, Curtis, & Co., built in 1805 and converted into a blacksmith's shop in 1856 by Eben Stevens, and then into a car- riage shop by Daniel and Albert H. Quimby in 1858.


For more than thirty years the Saranac Glove Company has been the principal manufacturing industry of the town. It was started in a small way by Ira Parker in 1866. Mr. Parker was then in company with his father, Silas Parker, in tanning at the old Bonney yard. He was alert, industrious, and progressive in his business, and soon mastered the fundamental principles of a suc- cessful manufacturing career, - those of buying his raw material in the lowest market and selling the product in the highest. When at school in Lisbon, he had earned his pocket money by making gloves and selling them while his fellow students enjoyed the pleasures and frolics common to after-school hours. On his twen- tietli birthday, October 7, 1866, his father gave him his " time," and offered him a share in the business, which was eagerly accepted, and the young man of twenty embarked on his career owing $3,600. He at once turned his attention to making gloves. His stock consisted of such deer and dog skins as were offered for sale in the local market. When this source of supply was found in- adequate, he started on a tour through Coös in search of deerskins and to place his manufactured goods where they would eventually add to his list of customers; and in these respects he was abun- dantly successful. In the early days of his enterprise he did all the work, -tanning, cutting, sewing, finishing, and selling the product. With his customary enterprise Mr. Parker neglected nothing that was calculated to increase his business ; yet the gloves were, in the main, self-advertising, making their way on their merit, and their production soon taxed the resources of the young manufacturer.


The old-fashioned method of tanning occupied months in pre- paring leather for use, and Mr. Parker was constantly experi- menting to discover a quicker method. He had made some advance in this direction when he found he had been anticipated by Moses Page, of Franklin, who had patented the process known by his name. The right to the exclusive use of the new invention soon became the property of the company, and largely increased its facilities for making gloves. Thus, without capital but with abun- dant courage, enterprise, and hope, he was successfully launched on his career.


F


F


-


SARANAC GLOVE CO. BUCK GLOVES & MITTENS.


SARANAC GLOVE CO


-


9 11


U


MILLS, SARANAC GLOVE COMPANY.


7


Manufacturing.


This enterprise had attracted the attention of Charles T. Lin- coln, a travelling salesman whose line was the sale of gentlemen's furnishing goods. To his practised eye the superior quality of the goods was apparent, and he also saw the commercial possibili- ties likely to result from their manufacture on a large scale. He discussed the matter with Mr. Parker, and the result was the formation of the firm of Ira Parker & Co., with both these gentle- men as partners. Several months afterward George M. Glazier, of Boston, and Silas Oscar Parker became members of the firm. The manufacturing department was removed to the building lately occupied by the Cohashauke Club, which was purchased of Henry Merrill. S. O. Parker was a member of the company about two years, when his interest was taken by his brother Ira. The connection of Mr. Lincoln with the firm was terminated by lis death in 1879. He was passing the summer at Little Compton, R. I., and while fishing from a rock slipped into the sea and was drowned. He was a man of genial presence, and his business ability was of a high order. The surviving partners bought of the executor of his estate the interest he held in the business of the firm, and for ten years were the sole owners.


Within three years the company had outgrown its quarters, and in 1878 the plant of the Littleton Woollen Manufacturing Com- pany became the property of the firm. This large plant had been idle for nearly three years, and was secured from its Boston owners for a sum less than that received by its purchasers for the woollen machinery. The factory was soon converted into a tannery and glove shop, and, for the first time since the organization of the firm, all its departments but that of the office were under the same roof. The company was soon compelled by its increasing business to add to its manufacturing facilities, and the large shop east of the main building was built for the accommodation of its glove-making department, while the old factory was used as a tannery. The company then had for use buildings with a floor space of more than thirty thousand square feet. It also owned the old saw-mill, more than thirty tenements, and a store-house ample for the requirements of its large business. The saw-mill property had been leased for various purposes. It was occupied in part by Simpson Brothers, carpenters and builders, and by Henry A. Eaton as a bobbin factory. Seven years after it was thus equipped, on the morning of November 10, 1887, the old factory and saw-mill erected in 1839 were destroyed by fire. This con- flagration was the most disastrous in respect to loss of property in the history of the town. The fire originated in the bobbin factory,


8


History of Littleton.


and spread with great rapidity until the factory building, and the old foundry on the opposite side of the street, were swept away by the flames. The foundry had, more than a score of years before, been converted into a double tenement by Robert Whittaker. At the time of this loss the Saranac Company was pressed to fill orders, and was advised by builders that the tannery could not be replaced until spring; but Mr. Parker thought otherwise, and pro- ceeded to execute plans already formed. He employed mechanics, contracted for lumber and other material, and as soon as the in- surance was adjusted a large force was at work on the new building. Many obstacles were encountered. The large chimney was built in open air when the thermometer at times registered 24° below zero, and a method had to be improvised to keep bricks and mortar from freezing when they came in contact. But in spite of this, and many other discouragements, on the 14th of December, just thirty days from the time when the first blow was struck on the new building, it was completed and the machinery in place and in operation. This shop occupies the site of the woollen mill, is one hundred and seventy feet long, forty-five wide, and has two stories above the basement. A bobbin factory and steam plant for heating all the buildings of the firm used for manufacturing pur- poses was constructed at the same time.


The growth of the glove industry was not confined to the Saranac Company. It was the pioneer that led the way, but others followed in its train. The first of these was a firm com- posed of Henry H. and Charles Parker, brothers of Ira, who in June, 1874, started in business in rooms over the store of Farr & Dow, which stood on the present site of the Chutter Block. This enterprise prospered from the start. For a time its tanning was done by Ira Parker & Co., but within a year the brothers bought of Charles H. Applebee the old Palmer Mill on the Apthorp road and converted it into a tannery. In 1876 the firm was merged in the Eureka Glove Manufacturing Company, a corporation of which Sylvester Marsh, Henry L. Tilton, Ira G. Stevens, Henry H. Parker, and Nelson Parker were the directors. Mr. Marsh was president of the company, Mr. Tilton treasurer, Ira G. Stevens secretary, and Charles Parker general manager. Within a few years the corporation passed through several muta- tions. In 1877 Charles Parker purchased all the stock held by his associates and became sole owner of the plant. In 1879 his brother Nelson bought a considerable interest, and Porter B. Watson also became the owner of a block of its stock about the same time and assumed charge of its tanning branch. In




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