Gazetteer of Grafton county, N. H. 1709-1886, Part 63

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse Journal Company, Printers
Number of Pages: 1266

USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Gazetteer of Grafton county, N. H. 1709-1886 > Part 63

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William P. Beane, son of William, was born in 1798. For four years he kept a hotel in Lisbon village. He married Sophronia Smith, of Lancaster, to whom seven children were born, five of whom are still living. He died May 14, 1868. His wife died November 27, 1866.

Rev. Isaiah Shipman was born in Westminster, Vt., October 15, 1810. When six years of age his parents removed to Andover, and when eighteen years old he removed to North Springfield, Vt., where he resided, with the exception of one year in Massachusetts, until 1845. November 17, 1835, he married Charlotte R. Cook, of North Springfield, Vt., a lineal descendant of Robert Bruce. He was converted in 1854, baptized and ordained as a Chris- tian minister by Elder Jasper Hazen, of Woodstock. In 1845 he removed to Sugar Hill, in this town, where he was pastor of the Evangelical Adventist church for the period of twenty-two years. During this pastorate he was in- strumental in bringing many souls to Christ, not only by his preaching, but

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by his eminently christian walk and conversation, and the exercise of charity toward all. He won the confidence and love of the whole community, whether members of his church and society or not. From Sugar Hill he removed to Waterbury, Vt., and, on account of failing health, he went to- Virginia, in September, 1869, where he remained about one year, to the im- provement of his physical condition. In 1871 he again came to Lisbon, where resided three married daughters. In 1874 he was instrumental in building an edifice for the Messiah's church, at Lisbon village, which society he had organized two years before. In this church he preached until about the time of his death, April 25, 1882. A handsome monument marks his last resting place, in the cemetery at Sugar Hill. Elder Shipman's father died at North Springfield, Vt., June 18, 1871, aged 100 years, lacking four days. His widow survives him and now resides on West street, in the village of Lisbon. Their children are married as follows: The eldest daughter, Christina, to James G. Moore ; Emily R., to Arthur C. Wells ; Sylvia A., to Moses N. How- land, all of whom reside in Lisbon ; James F. married Julia Sargent and lives at Danville, Vt .; Charles H. married Ellen F. Keith and lives at Mont- pelier ; and Mary Ellen married William P. Dillingham and resides at Water- bury, Vt.

Day P. Corey was born in Bath in 1807, and has been a resident of this town forty years, thirty-six of which he has resided on a farm on road 3, where he now resides with his sons James K. and Benjamin F. He married Eliza Corey, of Lyman, who is still living.

James A. Bailey was born in Lyman in 1827, and has resided in this town since 1845, being now a resident on road 16. He married Adaline Chase for his first wife, second, Martha Chase, third, Mary Felch, and fourth, now living, Louisa C. (Barrett) Brown. One daughter, Debbie M., constitutes their family.

Dr. Charles Hart Boynton, son of Ebenezer and Betsey (Hart) Boynton, is a native of Meredith, N. H., and was born September 20, 1826. His father pursued the honorable calling of an agriculturist, and Charles passed his time, until he was nearly eighteen, laboring early and late on the farm, with but very limited school advantages, but, probably. by this hard labor, he acquired that vigor of health, and those habits of industry which have been of such practi- cal use to him in his after life. In the spring of 1844, he purchased his time of his father for one hundred dollars, went to Brighton, Mass., where he found employment, and remained until the following winter, when he returned to New Hampshire, and attended school. He afterwards, for a period of three years, worked at carpentering in Lawrence and Boston; then, his means enabling him again to devote some time to study, he entered the New Hampshire Conference seminary, at Northfield, where he was a pupil for two years of the winter and spring terms. Having made his choice of medicine as a life-work, he went to Manchester, N. H., and became a student under Dr. W. D. Buck, of whom it is said that "his office and dissecting-room were uncomfortable

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places for lazy students, and that he had little patience with a young man who would not work his brains." Mr. Boynton now passed several years in alter- nate work and study, laboring to obtain the means to defray his expenses while acquiring the education he so earnestly desired, and laboring as hard as a student, until his funds were exhausted. He attended lectures at Wood- stock (Vt.) Medical college, and at Berkshire Medical college, at Pittsfield, Mass., and was graduated at the latter institution in the fall of 1853. During the same winter he supplemented his education by attendance at the Harvard Medical school. Such perseverance under difficulties, which unaided by aught but his own labor of brain and hands, wrought success and the accom- plishment of his object, shows the strong individuality of Dr. Boynton, and is a valuable incentive and a useful example to the struggling youth who may read these pages, showing that perseverance and diligent labor will eventu- ally bring success.

Dr. Boynton located for practice in April, 1854, in Alexandria, N. H., and October 19, of the same year, he married Mary H., daughter of Joseph and Mary (Huse) Cummings, of Lisbon. Mrs. Boynton died July 28, 1876. Their daughter Alice resides with her father. In January, 1858, Dr. Boynton removed to Lisbon. In a short time the energy. determination and skill of the young physician gave him an extensive field of labor. For twenty-eight years he has practiced in Lisbon and the adjoining towns with untiring assid- uity, and has fairly won a leading place in his chosen profession. He loves his work and gives to it his best powers. He is gifted with a keen insight into the nature of disease, and his coolness, decision and nerve are inestimable qualities in a surgeon, and he demonstrates his fitness for his calling. He was made for his profession; and not his profession for him, which is often the case. As a rest or relaxation from such incessant labor and intense mental work, he has turned to agriculture, and taken great interest in it, and in horses, and all kinds of domestic animals, and is considered good authority in such matters by the farmers, who come to him for advice from a wide area.

Dr. Boynton is a member of the White Mountain medical society, with which he has been officially connected for many years, and has twice been its president, is a member of the New Hampshire medical society, and was ex- amining surgeon for invalid pensioners from 1863 to 1871. He belongs to the following Masonic bodies: Kane Lodge, No. 64, and Franklin R. A. Chapter, No. 5. He has served seven consecutive years on the board of edu- cation, in Lisbon, has taken great interest in the public schools and other educational matters, and was one of the originators of the Lisbon library. In politics he has affiliated with the Republican party since its organization, and represented Lisbon in 1868 and 1869, and was delegate to the state conven- tion in the winter of 1868 and 1869. He has a taste for geology and miner- alogy, and has a cabinet of rare specimens. His library is well selected, showing a preference for solidity rather than show in literature. He is a fine conversationalist, and his dry humor is very entertaining. All in all, Dr.

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Boynton is a strong man, mentally and physically, and adds much to the strength of the community in which he has made his home.

James G. Moore was born in Bristol, January 27, 1828. In 1849 he re- moved to Franconia and engaged in the lumber business and the manufacture of shoe pegs and bobbins. In 1870 he removed to this town, from which date he has been prominent in the business interests here. He invented Moore's pulp grinder, also improvements in machinery for the manufacture of shoe-pegs. He is a member of the firm of Moore, Brown & Co., who manu- ture wood pulp at Garvin's Falls, near Concord. He married Christiana C., daughter of the late Rev. I. H. Shipman, of this town.

Luke Brooks and John Whitcomb discovered the "Old Man of the Moun- tains," or the profile, in Franconia, in 1805, and named it Jefferson in honor of the president of the United States.

The wife of Jesse Guernsey, of Sugar Hill, now dead, is said to be the first person who ever saw the Flume, now so noted a resort, in the town of Lincoln.

John Haynes, built and kept the first tavern in Lisbon, at Sugar Hill, near Mt. Tom, so-called, on a road now gone out of use.

The Lisbon Free Will Baptist church, located at Sugar Hill, was organized by Rev. Josiah Quimby, Moses Aldrich, Timothy Tyler and Jonathan Bowles, in 1811. The first pastor, and first settled minister in the town, was Rev. Joshua Quimby, grandfather of Lyman Aldrich, now a resident of the town. The first church building was erected in 1829, and did service until 1884, when the present building was erected, about half a mile north of the old one. It will seat 300 persons and is valued, including grounds, at $3,500.00. The society now has ninety-one members, with Rev. S. S. Nickerson, pastor.

The First Methodist Episcopal church of Lisbon, located on Main street, was organized in 1839, its first pastor being the Rev. John Smith. The church building is a wooden structure, erected in 1842, and is valued including grounds, at $3,000.00. The society now has 130 members, with Rev. H. D. Smith pastor.

L ITTLETON is the most northerly town in Grafton county. It is bounded on the north by Concord, Vermont, northeast by Dalton, southeast by Bethlehem, south by Lisbon, Lyman and Monroe, and northwest by Waterford and Concord, Vermont. It is irregular in form. Its longest line, extending from the southwesterly corner of Dalton to the northeasterly corner of Monroe, is more than thirteen miles in length and is washed by the Connecticut river, whose turbulent course along the entire dis- tance is known as the " Fifteen Mile Falls." Its area is 26,000 acres. From the line of Dalton to Littleton village rises a series of high hills, some of them more than two thousand feet above the sea level. Another ridge, the eastern face of which runs parallel with the Ammonoosuc river, extends westward to

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the line of Monroe, where the northern spur of Mt. Gardner terminates. within a few hundred feet of the Connecticut river. There is a large but not valuable intervale at North Littleton. The Ammonoosuc meadows, extend- ing from a short distance below the village to the milis of the Littleton Lum- ber Company, are productive and valuable. The principal elevations are Black mountain (Mt. Misery), Morse hill, Wheeler mountain (Rice's hill), and Mann's hill, forming the chief peaks in the ridge extending from Dalton to the Ammonoosuc valley ; Mt. Eustis, south, and Parker mountain, west of the village.

The territory now constituting the town of Littletown was originally em- braced in the charter of Chiswick. This included also what is now known as Dalton. The charter of Chiswick was granted by Governor Benning Went- worth, November 17, 1764, to James Avery and forty-four others, most of whom were his relatives and residents of Groton, Conn. The grant con- tained the usual reservations for the benefit of the Church of England, for the first settled minister, for schools, for the governor, Theodore Atkinson,. for Mark H. Wentworth, and one share for James Nevin Esq.

The grantees under the Chiswick charter failed to comply with its condi- tions. The only attempt at a settlement was the erection of a rude log barn on the Ammonoosuc intervale, now a part of the farm owned by Noah Farr. This barn was built in the summer of 1769 and filled with wild grass from the surrounding meadow. About this time Avery, who had secured the title of the other Groton proprietors, disposed of his interest to Moses Little, of New- bnry, Mass., Moses Little, of Newburyport, Mass., Israel Morey, of Orford and Alexander Phelps of Hebron, Conn. The new proprietors sought a renewal of the grant and obtained it January 18, 1770. In the new charter the town- ship bore the name of Apthorp, in honor of one of the grantees, George Apthorp, Esq., of London, Eng. Nathaniel Carter, Benjamin Harris and Tristram Dalton, of Newburyport, and Samuel Adams, of Boston, Mass., were assigned an interest of four hundred acres each. "The Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" was also given a similar interest, the township, in the language of the charter, " containing by admeasurement only forty thousand, eight hundred and fifty acres and forty-eight rods."

Col. Moses Little, of Newbury, and Mr. Dalton gradually acquired by pur chase the interest of their associate grantees, and in June, 1784, they agreed upon a division of Apthrop. In November following they secured the pas- sage of a bill by the General Court, ratifying their arrangement and consti- tuting the towns of Littleton and Dalton, each receiving the name of its principal proprietor.

The town is well watered, and the Ammonoosuc furnishes an abundant water-power, only a small part of which is utilized. Of the more important streams, Hopkinson, Cow, Caswell's, Rankin's and Ainsworth's flow into the Connecticut in the order named; the Palmer and Parker into the Ammonoo- suc. Partridge pond lies principally in Littleton, the lesser part being in Lyman.

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The census of 1880 places the population at 2,936. This is manifestly erroneous, the method of enumeration excluding from the list of residents many whose homes were in the town but whose temporary absence caused their enrollment elsewhere. The number of inhabitants at the present time is computed to be 3,400.

The original grantees of Chiswick were mostly of Groton, Conn. Of the forty-five, twelve were Averys and a majority of the others were their uncles and cousins. The charter seems to have been a family affair, with James Avery as principal manager. This James Avery was a man of some import- ance in his day. He was interested in the charters of Landaff and other towns in Grafton county, "for speculative purposes only." His method was to associate a sufficient number of his relatives to secure the charter from Gov. Wentworth, paying the small fee required therefor, and then to dispose of the charter either to those who proposed to become actual settlers or to another set of speculators. None of them ever settled within the limits of the territory covered by the charters, on the backs of which their names ap- peared. Of the grantees of Apthrop, Col. Moses Little, of Newbury, Mass., was the leading spirit. He was a man of high character and of great execu- tive capacity. He had acquired a landed interest in New Hampshire and was the owner of many thousand acres in Maine and Vermont. He com- manded a regiment at the battle of Bunker Hill and acquired a reputation for bravery and skill as an officer. Advancing age and failing health com- pelled him to withdraw from the army before the close of the war, but he continued to serve his country in many ways.

Of his associates Col. Israel Morey, of Orford was for a time the most ac- tive in the township. He was a man of affairs, and for many years one of the most prominent in the Upper Connecticut valley. About the time the charter of Chiswick was issued Col. Morey emigrated from Hebron Conn., to Orford, N. H. He was accompanied among others by a man who was des- tined to become the first settler of Littleton. Nathan Caswell was at that time a little past his majority, short of stature, of sanguine temperament and undoubted courage. He was well fitted physically and mentally to endure the hardships and privations incident to frontier life. Mr. Caswell was born in New London, Conn., in 1740. When quite young, he was apprenticed to a tailor, with whom he served his time, and was married to Hannah Bingham when about twenty years of age. He lived at Hebron, Conn., for a short time before coming to New Hampshire. When Col. Morey became inter- ested with the Littles in Apthrop, he induced Caswell to make the first settle- ment in the town. In April, 1770, Caswell broke up his home in Orford, and, accompanied by his family, then consisting of a wife and four children, set out for his new home in the wilderness with all his worldly possessions packed upon the back of a horse. One night was passed at Bath, where the horse was left and the journey resumed the following day. He reached the barn built by Avery about nightfall, on the eleventh day of April. He

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found unmistakable evidence of the recent presence of Indians, but it was too late to think of retreating to a place of greater security that night. They dare not kindle a fire, but, cold and weary, the mother and children made their couch upon the wild grass, while the father, flint-lock in hand, kept watch and ward at the open door of the hut until morning dawned. These first hours of the settlement of the town were signalized by an important event. During the night Mrs. Caswell gave birth to a male child. This child was appropriately christened Apthorp, and in accordance with a custom then prevalent the proprietors gave him a lot of land, which his father located on the Connecticut river, and which is now known as the Hudson place. An examination in the morning revealed further indications of the presence of Indians in the valley, and the family decided to join the settlers in Lisbon un- til the dangers surrounding their new home should disappear. Accordingly a dug-out was hewn from the prostrate form of a giant pine, and the family, together with the scant store of household goods, were placed in it. They floated down the river to the Salmon Hole in Lisbon (then Gunthwait), where they joined the settlers in the fort, which was situated on the rising ground a few hundred yards northwest of the landing place. Their journey down the Ammonoosuc must have been a perilous one as the river was high and filled with floating ice.

A few days later Caswell returned to Apthrop, and found the hut burned to the ground by the Indians. As they had evidently left the region, the work of re-building was at once entered upon, and in a short time a cabin stood upon the site of the barn. The family returned and here made their home, until the hostile attitude of the St. Francis Indians, during the Revolution, forced them for a time to seek safety within the walls of the fort at the mouth of the Upper Ammonoosuc, in Northumberland. Soon after the war Cas- well sold his meadow farm to Ephraim Bailey, son of General Jacob Bailey, of Newbury, Vt., and moved to the Hudson place, on the Connecticut river, where he continued to reside until the infirmities of advancing age compelled him to make his home with his children. For a time he lived with Nathan, Jr., in Stratford, but passed the last years of his life with Apthrop and his married daughters, who lived in Canada.

Nearly five years after Captain Caswell settled on the Ammonoosuc meadow, there came into town, probably from Rhode Island, four brothers named Hopkinson. The christian names of two of them are certainly known, David and Caleb. Another was A. M., and it is probable that the name of the fourth brother was William. They entered the wilderness and made the first clearing on the meadow formed by the great bend of the Connecticut, at North Littleton. With the Caswells they were several times forced by hostile Indians to flee to the fort at Northumberland, but remained on their farms in this town most of the time. After the close of the war David settled in Guildhall, Vt, Caleb alone continuing to reside in town for any length of time. The Hopkinsons kept an inn for the accommodation of man and beast passing between the Lower and Upper Coös.

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In 1781 Captain Peleg Williams and Robert Charlton, were added to the list of settlers. Captain Williams joined the Hopkinsons on the Great Bow meadow, taking the upper end. Charlton pitched his lot in the west part of the town, on the farm now occupied by Russell Steere. He remained on this place until he traded with Colonel Little for the tract which included the Howard farm, now owned by Thomas J. Albee.

Luke Hitchcock came into town in 1783, and located on the farm now owned by Dr. Tuttle, in the northern part of the town.

In 1784, the years in which Apthorp was divided and Littleton and Dalton created, there were but twelve polls and eight families in Littleton. These were the Caswells, Peleg Williams, Caleb Hopkinson, Luke Hitchcock, Mr. Nash. Samuel Learnard, and John Chace. Robert Charlton and John Wheeler were unmarried. In that part of the town which was subsequently incorporated into Dalton, there were but two families, Walter Bloss, who lived near the Sumner farm, and Moses Blake, at the ferry, above John's river.

There are no reliable data respecting the number of inhabitants of Ap- thorp. The number of polls in 1783 was nine, and in 1784 twelve. Mr. Caswell's family consisted of fourteen persons. There were four in the family of Peleg Williams, whose daughter was espoused by Caleb Hopkinson about this time. Nothing certain is known of the remaining families, but it is probable that the population at no time exceeded forty.

Tristram Dalton and Nathaniel Tracy, in 1783, purchased of Hon. John Hurd, of Haverhill, the ten thousand acres deeded him by the proprietors of Apthorp, at the time the charter was granted. John Hurd was the most in- fluential resident of the Coös country, and possessed the confidence of Gov- enor Wentworth in the largest degree. It is supposed that the tract was deeded to him in payment for his "influence" in securing the charter from the Governor. These ten thousand acres, together with the six thousand pur- chased of Messrs. Little, constituted the town of Dalton. The rest of the grant owned by the Littles, became Littleton. Although legislative sanction of the division of Apthorp was not obtained until November, 1784, the pro- prietors had substantially consummated the work the last day of June in that year, and the birth of Littleton may well be ascribed to that date.

The new town progressed rapidly, the population increasing one hundred per cent. in the next six years. The close of the Revolutionary war caused a large influx of people into all of the New Hampshire grants, and Littleton gathered her full share. Sargent Currier came into town in 1785, locating on the Great Bow meadow. Thomas Miner, with a large family of children, came the following year and made the first clearing on the farm now owned by Curtis L. Albee. The same year Sargent Currier married Mr. Miner's daughter and moved to an adjoining lot. In 1787 Jonas and John Nurs came from Keene. Jonas made the first break in the wilderness at the junc- tion of the county roads, on what is now the Wheeler farm at North Little- ton. John settled with him and afterwards built a log cabin on the bluff

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above the Parker brook on the Isaac Parker farm, a mile and a half below the village. The Nurs brothers were large and vigorous men and left a nu- merous progeny, many of whom still reside in town. The next three years added considerable new blood to the population. Among others came Henry Bemis, who bought the betterments on one of the lots abandoned by the Hop- kinsons ; Jonas Lewis, who also took one of the meadow farms on the Great Bend. In 1789 James Williams came from Providence, R. I., settled on the farm still known by his name, at the north part of the town ; the same year Ebenezer Pingree and Jonathan Eastman, Mr. Pingree taking a lot near James Williams, while Mr. Eastman settled near the mills, on what is now known as Rankin's brook. James Rankin, with a grown up family of seven sons and a daughter. moved into town in 1791, from Thornton. The previ- ous year he had exchanged with Col. Little a tract of land in Thornton for eleven hundred acres of land in Littleton, and the mills on the brook which was to bear his name. He gave each of his children a farın of one hundred

and fifty acres With the exception of the mill property the land lay in a compact tract, and for agricultural purposes was one of the most valuable in town. In 1792 came David Lindsay, Jacob and Ephraim Bailey, Whitcomb Powers, Silas Symonds and Nathan Applebee. The Cushmans, Paul, Saul and Parker, came in 1793, and also Elisha Mann, who settled on the hill which still bears his name. Joseph Hatch, about this time, pitched a lot in the vicinity of Partridge pond. Vespatian and Silas Wheeler came in 1794, Joseph W. Morse in 1795, Eliphalet Carter in 1796, and was followed by his brothers Moses, Eben, Thomas and Daniel within the next two years. The brothers located at the west end where some of their descendants still reside. David Goodall, who was to leave his impress on the town, came in 1798 or 1799, as did also Douglas Robins. Noah Farr about the same time, a l ttle later, perhaps, settled on and gave his name to Farr hill.

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Gazetteer of Grafton county, N. H. 1709-1886, Part 63

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse Journal Company, Printers Number of Pages: 1266

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse Journal Company, Printers
Number of Pages: 1266