USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Gazetteer of Cheshire County, N.H., 1736-1885 > Part 63
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Winchester lies in what is blieved to have been the basin of a lake that included, perhaps, a large portion of Cheshire county, if not more, and whose outlet was to the south, in Warwick, Mass. But in some convulsion of nature, the mountain chain on its western border was ruptured and a new outlet formed, where the Ashuelot river now runs, with the result of draining the submerged territory. The town is hilly with very little plains or level land, such as there is being found near the center village, in the valley of Mirey brook, on the banks of the river, and in the southwesterly part of the town, near the Connecticut river. The ranges of hills on the west, north and east of the Ashuelot extend in a northwardly and southwardly direction, whilst the range of hills upon the south of the river extend more nearly east and west. The valley of the Ashuelot here is about 400 feet above the sea level, and several of the hills and mountains within her limits have an alti- tude of from 600 to 1,000 feet. The soil is such as is common to most New England hill towns. Upon the sides of the mountains and upon the culti- vatable hills, the soil is generally stony ; but is very strong and very retentive of fertilizers when brought under cultivation, producing large crops of grain, potatoes and hay for many successive years. In the valleys and about the center village, the soil is free from stones and is of a lighter character, and not so retentive of fertilizers, though being much easier to cultivate, and pro- duces equally as good crops as the land on the hills, though it requires closer attention and more frequent cultivation. The bottom lands on the Ashuelot and in the Connecticut valley are very fertile, and only require slight attention to yield abundant returns, year after year.
The main crop grown is hay, to produce which the cultivation of all other crops seem to be secondary, as the usual method of cultivation is, first a crop of potatoes ; second, a crop of corn ; third, a crop of oats, wheat, bar- ley, or sometimes rye, with grass seed, and then follows the hay crop, contin-
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ued so long as the land produces a paying return, or till the farmer can readily break up the sod again. The farmer has no trouble in growing, under ordinary circumstances, large crops of Irish potatoes, Indian corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley and buck-wheat, as field crops, while, with special cultivation, he- secures handsome returns from peas, cabbage, turnips, beets and carrots. Tobacco was at one time a very paying crop, and was grown of a very fine- quality ; but, owing to the decline in price a few years ago, the crop has been almost entirely abandoned. The apple, pear, peach, quince and red cherries, with the other small fruits, both native and cultivated, are to be had in abund- ance. The grape, blackberry of both varieties, raspberry, gooseberry, blue- berry, both high and low, and strawberry grow wild in abundance. The grasses grown are mainly herd's-grass and red top, though in some localities. we find orchard grass and white top, and in the lowlands the ordinary growth of meadow grasses, both varieties of the clover, the red and white, grow naturally, and in seeding for mowing, the farmer frequently mixes herd's-grass, red top and clover seeds, the clover giving the most abundant yield for the first and possibly the second year, almost invariably yielding two crops in the season, and under very favorable circumstances three. The old forests have. nearly all disappeared, though in the western portion of the town, and here- and there upon the mountain's side, well up, are yet to be seen, braving the storms, defying nature and the arts of man almost, specimens of pine, hem- lock, oak and chestnut, that must have been goodly trees when Nawelet and his dusky followers pursued the deer and trapped the bear on the hillsides or in the valleys of the " Ashuelot." A new growth has succeeded these forest monarchs, and their children and their children's children now occupy their places, as there is an abundant supply of second growth of white pine and chestnut, with hemlock, oak, red and white, yellow pine, beach, birch, maple, elm and walnut, while all the forest trees and growths common to New Eng- land forests are to be found here.
The Ashuelot river enters the town near its northeast corner, and runs in. a general southwesterly direction till it passes the center village, when it curves somewhat abruptly and runs to the west and north, passing out of the town at very near the middle of its western boundary. This river is one of the largest streams that are tributary to the Connecticut from New Hampshire. It drains a district composed of the towns of Washington, where it takes its. rise, Stoddard, a portion of Antrim, Sullivan, Nelson, Surry, Keene, Rox- bury, Harrisville, Marlboro, Swanzey, Troy, Richmond, a portion of Ches- terfield, Winchester and Hinsdale. It is about one hundred. and twenty-five. feet in breadth as it passes through this town. It is subject to an annual freshet, commencing with the spring rains, that lasts from a few days to two and sometimes three weeks, at which times its banks are overflowed, and such manufactures as are dependent upon it for power are at a standstill. It. receives in its course through the town many small streams, the most notable- of which are Broad brook, which takes its rise in Chesterfield and runs south.
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through the west part of the town, draining the east slope of Mt. Pisgah, and Mirey brook, that takes its rise on the east side of Mount Grace, in Warwick, Mass., and runs in a northwest course and empties into the river about half a mile below the village of Winchester. This stream drains the valley to the the south, which was called by the Indians, "Sheomet," meaning pleasant or happy valley, and is historical as it is mentioned in all the early records of the town, being then known by the name it now bears. There are also four natural ponds or lakes within the town, the largest of which is Round pond, situated to the west of Mt. Pisgah, in the northwest corner. It is of an ir- regular outline, about two and a half miles in length and one mile in breadth at its widest point. In its near vicinity is North Round pond and Kilburn pond. About two miles northward from the center village is situated a body of water about one mile in length by three-fourths of a mile in breadth, of a very regular outline. This was known for about a hundred years as Hum- phrey's pond ; but in 1883 a self-constituted committee of citizens christened it " Forest Lake." Precisely what this body of water had done, either as a sin of omission or commission, to merit this innovation does not appear. Yet serenely, and with its usual placid countenance, when unvexed by wind and storm, in reflects the touches of the ruby tipped fingers of the morning and the rosey hues of the sunset, and it casts up from its depths the ever vary- ing shadows of the mountains surrounding it, and continues to deck its bosom with the lily, undisturbed by the event. To the elder citizens it will always remain as of old, " Humphrey's Pond," while to the younger it will probably become " Forest Lake." Within a few years this body of water has become quite a favorite resort for the citizens of Winchester and surrounding towns during the summer months. Many fine cottages have been erected upon its west shore within the past five years, and all are fully occupied during the the season, numbers beside occupying tents.
The streamns and ponds are stocked with the fish usual to New England streams and ponds, while within a few years, through the efforts of the fish commissioner of the state, the river has become stocked with black bass, and Forest Lake with land-locked salmon, these fish replacing the true Sal- mon, shad, alewives and herring, that in the days of the early settlers fre- quented these waters in abundance. In fact they were then so abundant that the citizen then " planted his corn with one large shad or two smaller ones to each hill, to make it grow."
In the early years of the settlement, black bears, deer, lynx, wolves, foxes, racoons, hedge-hogs, wild-cats, skunks, woodchucks and weasels, with squir- rels, black, grey, red, striped and flying, were abundant, and the ponds, river and smaller streams were inhabited by the beaver, otter, mink and muskrat. Of all these, only foxes, raccons, hedge-hogs, skunks, woodchucks, and weas- els, with the grey, red, striped and flying squirrels, of the land animals, remain- ing, beavers are never seen at present, but an occasional otter is observed, and mink and muskrats are yet very frequently seen. The last black bear,
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of which we have any record, was killed in 1853, near Round pond, and a lynx was shot about five years ago, in the east part of the town, near Rich- mond. The forests afforded resting places for several varieties of owls, from the diminutive screeching, to the large cat hawks, from the large hen, to the small sparrow, crows, pigeons, partridges, and the almost endless variety of song and other birds of New England, while the ponds and streams were the breeding places for wild geese and a large variety of ducks, and other aquatic birds. Specimens of all these remain, though in greatly reduced numbers.
The Ashuelot railroad passes through the town, following the course of the river, and has a station at Winchester, Ashuelot, and at Pisgah. The town's telegraphic communication is by the way of the American Telegraph Com- pany, and it is connected with the New England Telephone Company.
In 1880 Winchester had a population of 2,444 souls. In 1884 it had seven- teen school districts and twenty-two public schools, eight of which were graded and one high school. There were 537 pupils attending public school, of which seventy-five pursued the higher branches. There were five male and twenty-six female teachers, the former receiving an average monthly salary of $62.50, and the latter $22.00. The seventeen school-houses, including furniture, etc., were valued at $23,831.95. The whole amount raised for school purposes during the year was $5,592.29, while the total amount ex- pended was $5,570.76, with Rev. James Noyes, Elijah Harmon and Sydney M. Morse, committee.
WINCHESTER, a handsome post village, is located very near the geograph- ical center of the town. It has twenty stores, three churches (Methodist, Universalist, and Congregational), eight manufactories of boxes, pails and buckets, three blacksmith shops, two livery stables, one hotel, a savings bank, National bank, a public library of about 3,000 volumes, two lawyers, four physicians, and one dentist. The postoffice was established here in 1811. The town high-school is also located here, at which any scholar, a resident of Winchester, and having the necessary educational qualifications, may enter and secure, without expense for tuition, as good an education as can be secured at any academy. The masonic fraternity also have a flourishing lodge here, and the grand army a post.
ASHUELOT, a post village located west of the center of the town, is a flour- ishing manufacturing place. It has the factory of the Ashuelot Manufactur- ing Co., two stores, one hotel, a steam saw-mill and a blacksmith shop. Its postoffice was established in 1854. At Lower Ashuelot, a little further down the river, is the woolen factory of Messrs. Thayer & Turner, the cotton-mill of the Ashuelot Warp Co., the lumber mill or Ansel Dickinson, the paper-mill of Robertson Brothers, and a blacksmith shop. It has also the Dickinson public library of 500 volumes. The different branches of industry are all in active operation, and are blessed with a reasonable degree of prosperity.
The Winchester National bank .- The Winchester bank was chartered July 3, 1847, and commenced business May 30, 1848. John H. Fuller, of
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Keene, was the first president, and resigned May 1, 1850, and Henry King- man, was president from 1850 to 1864, when he died, and Hon. William Haile, of Hinsdale, was elected to his place, and was president of the old bank until its change to a national, in 1865. William B. Hale was the first cashier, and resigned in 1851, and Erastus Snow, was elected in 1851, and resigned in 1859. O. Sprague was cashier from 1859 to September 5, 1864, when H. Abbott became cashier, and was in office until changed to a na- tional bank February 7, 1865. He was then elected cashier of the National bank, and has held the office ever since. Hon. William Haile, president of the Winchester bank, was elected president of the Winchester National bank, and was its president to July, 1876, when he died, and Edward C. Thayer. of Keene, was elected in his place, and is the president of the bank at the pres- ent time. The Winchester bank had three presidents and four cashiers, the Winchester National bank has had two presidents and one cashier. The Winchester bank had a capital of $100,000.00, and the Winchester National bank has a capital of $200,000.00, and a surplus of $32,800.00. The charter of 1865, for twenty years, was renewed in 1885 for twenty years more.
The Security Savings bank was chartered August 3, 1881, and commenced to do business November Ist, of the same year. The president is Ansel Dickinson, and treasurer, Miss J. Grace Alexander. Amount of deposits, May 1, 1885, $110,000.00. Surplus, $2,700.00. Miss Alexander is the first and only female bank treasurer ever elected in New Hampshire.
The Ashuelot Manufacturing Co., incorporated in 1878, A. B. Turner, of Ashuelot, president, Edward C. Thayer, of Keene, treasurer, is located on the Ashuelot river, in the pleasant village of the same name. They manu -- facture Union and Moscow beavers. The capacity of these mills is twelve sets of woolen cards, and it gives employment to about 250 hands. The mills are substantial brick buildings. The main structure is 200 feet in length and three stories above the basement, with finishing rooms and dye-house 225. feet in length, also a substantial picker-house detached from the main building, and large and substantial brick store-houses. The corporation owns a well- stocked store and tenements and boarding-house, mostly of brick, sufficient for the accommodation of their operatives.
Thayer & Turner's woolen mills, located in Lower Ashuelot, on the Ashuelot river, manufacture Union beavers. The capacity of the mills is. four sets of woolen cards, and employs about seventy-five hands. The main building is about 100 feet in length and three stories high, and is furnished with picker-house, dye-house and store-room separate from main building, also, good boarding-house and tenements for operatives.
Ashuelot Warp Co. is located on the Ashuelot river, at Ashuelot village. The company is composed of Messrs. Ansel Dickinson, Arthur L. Maxfield' and Andrew H. Woodbury. They manufacture cotton warps exclusively. The mills are furnished with new and improved machinery, run 3,400 spindles, and give employment to fifty hands.
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TOWN OF WINCHESTER.
Dickinson, Seaver & Co., manufacturers of pails and buckets, have their extensive shops located in the village of Winchester, on the banks of the Ash- uelot river. This company was formed in October. 1883, and is composed of Ansel Dickinson, Luman B. Seaver, and Martin M. Baker. Their build- ing is 150 feet long, and forty-two feet wide, two stories high. The motive power is a steam engine of forty-five horse power. This industry gives em- ployment to thirty-five hands, and consumes about 1,800 cords of second growth pine timber per annum.
Dickinson & Baker, lumbermen, have their mills in the village of Win- chester, on the Ashuelot river. They manufacture mainly dimension lumber, and pine, hemlock, chestnut, and oak. They employ twenty men, and man- ufacture annually 500,000 to 600,000 feet.
A. M. Howard's box manufactory is located in the village of Winchester, on the Ashuelot river. In 1870 Mr. A. M. Howard became the successor of Mr. Scott, and has enlarged the productions of the business to about double its former amount, and has added the manufacture of toy tool-chests and fancy boxes. He gives employment, on an average, to thirty hands, and turns out annually about 400,000 boxes.
C. M. Norwood & Co.'s box manufactory is located on the Ashuelot river, which affords the motive power, with steam in one department, and at the village of Winchester. The business was established by Mr. Norwood alone in July, 1874, employing six hands. In September, 1883, the present firm was organized, and the business has been largely increased, giving employ- ment, on an average, to thirty hands, and consumes over 1,000,000 feet of lumber, from which 600,000 to 800,000 boxes are manufactured annually.
Robertson Bros.' paper mills are located in the village of Ashuelot, on the river of the same name, which affords the motive power. They manufacture tissue, manila, and toilet paper, giving employment to fourteen operatives, and turn out daily 2.200 pounds of manufactured goods. The members of this firm reside in Hinsdale.
Frank H. Eame's manufactory of Invincible woven-wire mattresses, located in the village of Winchester, on Main street, was organized August 1, 1884. He manufactures a superior wire spring-bed. Although this enterprise is in its infancy, it turns out about twenty-five beds per week.
Winchester box manufacturing company was organized May 15, 1884. The mill is located on Main street. The company manufactures all kinds of locked- corner packing boxes. Although this business is in its infancy, they em- ploy from eleven to fifteen hands. The business is carried on in a two-story structure, known as the Coburn shop.
Smith & Metcalf's box manufactory is located on Main street. This firm was established in 1877, for the manufacture of locked-corner wood packing- boxes. The concern gives employment to from six to nine hands, and turns out about $8,000.00 worth of manufactured goods annually.
Amos P. Tuft's steam saw-mill is located in the village of Ashuelot. He
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TOWN OF WINCHESTER.
manufactures pine, hemlock, and chestnut lumber, turning out annually from 150,000 to 200,000 feet, giving employment to about twelve men.
Captain Ansel Dickinson's lumber mills, located at Lower Ashuelot, man- ufacture dimension timber, boards and lath, turning out about 1,000,000 feet annually, and gives employment to about twenty-five hands. The Ashuelot railroad, which runs through the mill yard, furnishes ready means of trans- portation.
Broad Brook steam lumber mills, located on Broad brook, about two and one-half miles from lower Ashuelot, are run by steam power. They are owned and operated by Messrs. Ansel and Erastus Dickinson, who manufac- ture boards, dimension lumber, lath and shingles, giving employment to about thirty-five hands, and turning out over 1,000,000 feet annually.
D. T. Sabin's saw, shingle, stave and grist-mill, on Roaring brook, was built by him in 1858.
Hosea G. Pickett's saw, shingle and stave-mill, on road 47, was built by his father in 1835. In 1858 it was burned and was rebuilt by the present proprietor.
Narramore Brothers' mill, in the eastern part of the town, was built by William and Alvin Scott, in 1810, and was used as a grist-mill for many years. The stave-mill, built by William, was purchased by Lucius in 1855. He died in 1873, and the property came into the hands of his sons, the present pro- prietors.
Charles B. Mansfield's stave-mill, at the outlet of Forest Lake, was built by him in 1884. It has the capacity for manufacturing 500 cords per an- num.
The Adamascobite Company, W. F. Flint, president, and E. M. Forbes, secretary and treasurer, manufacture from stone brought from their quarry in Missouri, sharpening stones for all grades of edge tools, also a diamond grit polish. The stone is also much used for honing down granite, marble and other ornamental stones.
The Connecticut Valley mining company, located at Winchester, has a cap- ital of $400,000.00, with Henry Abbott, president, and E. M. Forbes, vice- president and clerk. The company was organized in 1881, for mining pur- poses. They have a silver mine located in the southwest part of the town, where they have sunk a shaft 100 feet, with fair prospects of striking pay rock.
When Col. Willard and his associates had completed their weary journey through the unbroken wilderness from Lunenburg to Arlington, they found the territory they were to possess absolutely uninhabited, as the tribe of In- dians, the " Squakheags," who were its former owners, had sold the same to the whites and had removed to and joined the St. Francis tribe, in Canada. This purchase included about 65,000 acres of the Ashuelot valley, and was known as " Nawelets country." The deed of this land from the Indians was signed by Nawelet, who was the chief of the tribe, and bears the date of August 13, 1687. The price paid was "Forty-five pounds, sterling, in traders' 34*
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TOWN OF WINCHESTER.
goods," a sum equal in our money to one hundred and ninety-nine dollars- and eighty cents. It should be said, in justice to this tribe of Indians, that from the date of the sale of their lands they lived in peace and harmony with the white settlers to whom they had sold, and that the most serious offense with which they can be charged is that of acting as guides to the French and their Indian allies during the war between France and England in their ad- vances upon the frontier settlements of the English. Then traditions, well enough confirmed to bear the stamp of historical accuracy, declare them to have been steadfast in their individual friendships to these settlers, whom they often protected by a timely warning of impending dangers.
The first settlers of Winchester were men of ability, perseverance, endur- ance and pluck, men inured to the hardships and trials incident to the found- ing of a new settlement in the wilderness, men who having once "put their hands to the plow " never looked back. Though driven from their firesides by war, and though their dwellings were laid waste by fire lighted by the torch of the hireling savage, their every improvement destroyed, and some of them captured and sent into imprisonment by their enemies, with the dawn of peace they returned to their desolated homes and began anew the battle in which they conquered the forest and all its inhabitants, and subdued the rug- ged soil with all its antagonizing elements.
Their first encampment is said to have been made on the east side of Long Hill, near a large spring of water in the pasture just south of the south mow- ing lot on the farm of Morrison Forbush. (This farm has been called Mich- igan for many years.) Their first shelters were very rude, constructed by placing sticks against some projecting rock or steep hill-side, and covering the same with earth. Their fires were made just at the entrance of this "burrow." As soon as possible they each sought their own individual lands and house lots, which had been determined upon at Lunenburg, October 2 3,- 1733, the land having been previously surveyed and a portion divided into equal lots as near as possible both as to size and " goodness of land." Each lot had been previously given a number, and that each might share justly in it distribution, tickets bearing numbers equal to the number of the lots were prepared, thoroughly mixed, and then each proprietor drew from the package one ticket, the number upon which determined which lot of land in the new plantation was to be his own. Of these house lots, there were laid out forty- two at "ye Bow," and twenty-eight at "ye Great River." Lots Nos. 5 and 6, at ye Bow, and lot No. 20. at ye Great River, were reserved for public use. As soon as possible they commenced the construction of their houses, the size of which had been prescribed in the grant made to them by the province, and were not to be less than eighteen feet square and not less than seven feet stud.
These dwellings were made of logs, or rude frames covered with cleft boards- which were split from oak cuts from five to seven feet long, and were from eight to ten inches wide and about one and a half inches thick on the back.
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TOWN OF WINCHESTER.
They were laid lapping and made a durable and tolerably tight covering. The roofs were thatched, the material used being the tall meadow grass, which was to be found in the lowlands in abundance. One end of the hut was principally occupied by the chimney, a huge mass of stone piled up as a back for the fire place, whilst a hole in the house-top let out the smoke. Eight or ten feet in width was a fire place of moderate size. In connection with house building they were "clearing " a small patch of ground to plant with corn, potatoes then being very little known. Their method in clearing the land was to cut up such brush and undergrowth of bushes as there might be and to girdle the large trees. This they did by chopping a narrow trench around the body of the tree, removing the bark about a hand's breadth in width, when, soon after, the tree would cast its leaves and remain after only as a dead trunk, to rot down in time. Later, and subsequent clearings, they felled the trees and left them to lie upon the ground till fairly seasoned, and then burned them as they lay, afterwards drawing together the remants of un- burned logs into huge heaps and again subjecting them to fire till completely consumed.
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