History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 109

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co.
Number of Pages: 1124

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SOUTH CONWAY, or Goshen, is a lovely and prosperous agricultural section. The country is broken but fertile, and affords beautiful and varied scenery. There are summer boarding-houses here that afford delightful and quiet resting- places. The Davis family has been prominent in various ways. Davis hill was settled and named by them. Daniel, Moses, and Ephraim Davis were long resident. Daniel and Moses were selectmen for years from 1809, and capable officials. Descendants of the early settlers have attained wealth and honors in other localities, and the civil list of the town shows some one of the name as selectman or representative very frequently.

One of the leading farmers of the south part of the town is Colonel Samuel Hazelton. He is historie in being the last colonel of the old Thirty-sixth Regiment of the long since defunct militia. He is son of Ebenezer Hazelton, and was born December 26, 1820. He held all the offices in regular order from lientenant to colonel, has represented Conway in the legislature as a Repub- lican, been selectman many years, justice for more than thirty years, and is a prominent and wealthy man. By his first wife, Mary H. Farrington, he has two children : Frank L. and Mrs Mary L. Carlton. By his second wife, Sarah A. Chadbourne, he has two children : Etta A. (Mrs F. G. Cole) and Jennie L.

William Parsons, a most estimable citizen, came from Massachusetts. He was deeply religious, and devoted to Sunday-school work. His son, Francis H., occupies the ancestral home and has many of his father's characteristics. He has been selectman.

THE GREEN HILLS have from early days been the residence of good

A. R. Mason

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TOWN OF CONWAY.

farmers. The Heath family was one of the earliest families. John Heath, a great hunter in his day, died in Conway a short time ago almost a centena- rian. James G. Hill, son of Wentworth Hill, has a very fine place. He has remodeled the homestead of his father and made it very attractive.

CONWAY STREET is a section of fine farms. Much sweet corn is raised that finds its way to the canning factory built at " fag end " by William Perry, and now owned by Mr Eastman. Two hundred operatives are employed here for a few weeks in the fall. Joshua, an original proprietor, John, and Edmund Kelly were here early (Joshua in 1770), and descendants still occupy their lands. John Osgood was living on Ballard brook, where Locke's mill stands, in 1794. He was a farmer. Eliphalet, Samuel, John, Silas, Nathaniel, Hazen, Isaac, Benjamin, Susan (Mrs Seth Wiley), and Eliza (Mrs Thomas Abbott) were his children. Samuel lived where his son John lives at "fag end " of

Conway street. Lewis, another son of Samuel, lives in Bartlett with his daughter, Mrs Frank Wiley. Another son, Samuel, married Olive Snow, of Denmark, Maine, and settled in Fryeburg. (Her daughter, Abby D., married Charles H. Whitaker, Esq., of North Conway.) Caleb died on the Deering place in 1889. Lieutenant Benjamin Osgood, Captain James Osgood, Moses Osgood, Jeremiah Osgood, were the first settlers in " Osgood Row," in the east part of the town. Charles was a later settler. His son Hazen lives in North Conway. Benjamin Osgood, Jr, kept a tavern near Black Cat bridge until it was burned in 1829.

Joshua Shirley, son of Deacon William, the one who settled on Shirley hill, lives on Conway street.

East Conway had a postoffice for some time. Its last postmaster was Nelly Mansfield, daughter of C. F. Mansfield, a soldier of the Civil War, and was kept at his residence on the Greenleaf place.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

NATHANIEL R. MASON.

PROMINENT in the history of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire from the earliest times has been the Mason name. John Mason, of Dorchester, Mass., 1630, was a captain in Cromwell's army. Captain John Mason, a London merchant, governor of Portsmouth in Hampshire county,

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

England, and later governor of Newfoundland, has made the name and New Hampshire to be nearly synonymous. He was one of the grantces of Laconia, gave the name (New Hampshire) to the colony, and changed "Strawberry Bank " to Portsmouth. The part he bore in the settlement and the protracted litigation carried on by him and his heirs is treated at length in the county history. Nearly all of those bearing the name in New England are branches of the same ancestral tree, and it is most probable that Nathaniel Randall Mason was following ancestral traits in his labors to build and develop the pleasant mountain village of North Conway.

Nathaniel R. Mason, son of Joseph and Polly (Randall) Mason, was born June 2, 1814. His father, whose home was near that of his wife's people in the as yet undeveloped Kearsarge Village, died when Nathaniel, his youngest child, was but a lad of ten years, and the labor of bringing up the family of young children devolved upon the mother, a small-sized, quiet, hard-working woman of rare executive ability, who utilized to the utmost the means of subsistence produced on the new farm in the elearings, and brought up her children in a manner highly creditable to her care, diligence, and Christian training. She lived to an advanced age, and witnessed the satisfactory devel- opment and growth of the seed she had planted in their minds.

Nathaniel learned the cabinet trade of his brother William, and occupied a shop north of the location of the North Conway House. He married in 1839 Ruth, daughter of Dearborn Hutchins, of Fryeburg, Maine, and began housekeeping in the small one-story house of ten rooms, which, changed and much enlarged, is now the North Conway House. His keen foresight early saw the possibilities of future summer travel and the importance and desirability of drawing it to North Conway, and building up here a centre for the moun- tain region. Prior to 1850 he remodeled his dwelling and opened it as the North Conway House. Here for over thirty years, until 1881, he entertained guests with hospitality and courteousness, and became known to many as the pioneer landlord of the little village. This was but one of the spheres in which his active influence worked for the weal of the village. He bought and sold real estate of all kinds, laid out building lots and erected buildings in the village, and caused more houses to be built than any other person. He established a store with many departments that became a great distributing centre of supplies, and by honest fair-dealing acquired wealth. He made and gave employment to many, and assisted the poor in building homes of their own. As the village grew his interest in it increased, and every move- ment for public improvement met with quiet but substantial aid. Never prominent or conspicuous, he substituted deeds for words, and actions for promises. In him the poor had preeminently a friend. They would come to him as a wise counselor and certain help in time of trouble. One of his neighbors told Rev. Mr Pratt, " If I had not a dollar in the world and my

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TOWN OF CONWAY.

family was in need, I could go to Mr Mason and state my case, knowing that he would help me whether I could ever pay him or not." This was the feeling of those who knew him best, and yet he would have honestly disclaimed the idea that he was specially benevolent. To him every townsman was a neigh- bor, and his gentle kindliness made no enemies. A man of few words, of courtly dignity and reserve, he commanded the confidence of others. He was of sterling integrity, energetic, diligent, and systematic in business ; a reader of the Bible and a profound believer in its promises ; a man of prayer, and one who never spoke evil of any one. After his death his well-worn prayer-book was found with a leaf turned down to mark a prayer he highly prized, that for the second Sunday in Lent. In every position of his life his duty was done with cheerfulness and alacrity. He was averse to holding public offices, but in the few he did accept he showed the same practical judgment and ability that characterized his private life.

Mr Mason was especially fortunate in the marriage relation. His wife, Ruth (Hutchins) Mason, was descended from two prominent New England families. She was a sister of Hon. Henry Hutchins, of Fryeburg, Maine, and a granddaughter of Captain Nathaniel Hutchins, who won high fame in the French and Revolutionary wars. Her mother was an Eaton. This is a family of high repute in central New Hampshire and elsewhere. There was a remarkable intermarriage between the Eaton and Hutchins families, three children of an Eaton family marrying three children of a Hutchins family. In consequence of this, Mrs Mason was a double cousin of General John Eaton, the head of the national educational bureau at Washington, D. C., and of Hon. Stilson Hutchins, of the Washington Post. Mrs Mason was an active woman, of great practicality, energy, and endurance. She possessed sterling qualities of character, firm principles, undeviating honesty, and was bold and fearless in upholding beliefs and causes which she deemed right. She was a capable helpmeet to her husband, and her kindness and motherly solicitude for others' welfare endeared her to all. She loved her sons with a deep affection, and this frequent remark of hers is the key to her tuition of them : "I want my boys to do right." She died July 3, 1881. Mr and Mrs Mason had children : Freeman H. (dec.), Frank L., Mahlon L., Mangum E. (a young man of much promise, who died at the age of nineteen).

Mr Mason's relations with his daughters-in-law were of a paternal and filial character, as much as if they had been his own children. After the death of his wife, he lived in the family of his son Frank, whose wife, Mrs Katharine (Dame) Mason, a most estimable lady, kindly and lovingly ministered to him in his declining years. She has many friends in Conway. Mrs Martha (Nutter) Mason, the widow of Freeman Mason, a very pleasant and worthy woman, lives in Jackson. Some time after the death of her husband, she went abroad, traveled in France and Germany, but returned, loving more than ever the mountains of her "native north."

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

Mrs Ellen (McRoberts) Mason is the wife of Mahlon L. A friend of hers says : -

Mrs Mason is of that type of New England women some of whom have lived in every generation from the Pilgrim days, and whose influence for good, as a class, becomes sooner or later as wide as the continent. Such women, from their opinions, from facts, from intuitive perception, and sometimes from severe logic and their expressions of opinion. are not merely echoes of what may be the current fashion of the hour, but are based on positive convictions, and, having such convictions, like Mrs John Adams, they have always the courage to assert and maintain them, whether they relate to the beautiful colorings of a landscape, to a grand passage of oriental poetry, or to the policy of empires.

Mrs Mason was born in Baldwin, Maine, in 1850; she is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, was well educated at the Normal School and at the academies of Maine, and after a short time spent in teaching was married in 1873 to Mahlon L., the youngest son of Nathaniel Randall and Ruth Hutchins Mason. As the wife of the proprietor of the Sunset Pavilion at North Conway, one of the delightful summer hotels of the mountains, she has been brought promi- nently forward in the social world and has made a large circle of acquaintances. She is also widely known as a writer. Some of her poems have found a place in the compiled books of poetry both of New Hampshire and Maine, and her prose contributions to the Boston Sunday Herald, the Portland Press and Transcript, the Granite Monthly, the White Mountain Echo, and other publications have attracted considerable attention. In the autumn of 1887, with her sister, Miss McRoberts, and her sister-in-law, Mrs Freeman Mason, she spent eight months in Europe, mostly in Germany. Her son 1 accompanied her in order to study German. While abroad, Mrs Mason was engaged in such inquiries into German life and character as would naturally be interesting to a bright New England woman, and in superintending the education of her son. The fruit of her observations of German homes and habits found expression in letters to the Boston Sunday Herald. She visited the Hartz Mountains, and was deeply impressed with their savage sublimity. She gives a stern and graphic picture of cold, huge, desolate nature as seen in those grim rivers and ghostly mountains.

Her sketches and letters have been hastily written in moments of leisure snatched from a busy life, and are specimens of easy, racy, and elegant writing, rather than an actual test of her powers as a writer. But as summer correspondent at North Conway, Mrs Mason has made known to the outside world the enchanting beauties of the region which to visionary people seems "half classic and half fairy land; " but to Mrs Mason it seemed a delightful New Hampshire village, imparadised among the great watching hills of the north, where tourists from all the weary world might come, like pilgrims to Mecca, to rest awhile in pleasant homes, among the enchanted woods and broad intervals, by swiftly gliding rivers, in a land surrounded by the great guardian mountains, and there breathe the fragrant odors of the green trees, and passively quietly enjoy the tender caresses of nature in her loveliest moods. Such, to Mrs Mason, is North Conway ; and as such she has called it to the attention of the beauty-loving world. And the effect has corresponded with her design. Her sympa- thies are always with the right; and none can more readily detect the delicate pencilings of nature in mountain, cloud, or sky, or more warmly appreciate true nobility in man or woman.

HIRAM CALVIN ABBOTT.

THE Abbott family is an old and prominent one in New England, showing strong and marked traits of character in every generation. George Abbott,

1 Nathaniel Robert Mason is the only representative of Nathaniel R. Mason in the third generation. He is a very interesting lad; with his pleasant and courteous manners and eager desire for knowledge, added to his natural force and perseverance, he gives promise of a successful future.

Hivand & abbott

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the first American ancestor, emigrated from Yorkshire, England, about 1640, and was a proprietor and first settler of Andover, Mass., in 1643. He married Hannah Chandler and died in 1681. The place where he settled is known to this day as " Abbott's Village." His son Nathaniel married Dorcas Hibbert, and their son Nathaniel, born in Andover in 1696, was an original proprietor of Concord. Of him it is written : " He was honest, respected, and beloved, resolute in protecting the town and defending the rights of his country. In 1746 he commanded a company in defence of the town against the Indians. He was a lieutenant in the provincial service in the expedition against Crown Point. In 1744 he joined the Rogers' Rangers, and was at the capture of Cape Breton in 1745; was subsequently in many of the sanguinary conflicts on the northern frontiers. He held a captain's commission and was a brave and useful officer." His wife was Penelope Ballard. Of their sons, Joshua was captain of a company in the battle of Bunker Hill; Jeremiah also participated in the same memorable battle, was a sergeant in his brother's company, lieutenant in the service at Ticonderoga, and in the expedition against Canada.

He married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel Thomas Stickney, of Concord, and moved to Conway in 1782. "By industry, hard labor, and perseverance, they built a comfortable dwelling and opened it for the accommodation of the few travelers who ventured into this wilderness. A large and commodious tavern was afterwards erected near the old house. They were hospitable and kind, early supporters of religious worship, and respected by all who knew them." Jeremiah, the oldest son of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Stickney) Abbott, married Mary Smith, of Biddeford, Maine, and resided in Saco for some time, where, May 15, 1812, Hiram Calvin Abbott was born. His brothers were : John, William S., Horace, and Osgood ; his sisters were: Ellen, Eliza- beth, and Mary.

Hiram C. Abbott came with his parents to Conway in his early childhood, and here they made a permanent home. They were in very limited circum- stances with a large family ; and as his father died when Hiram was but eleven years of age, he, as the eldest, was obliged to learn the lessons of hard labor at a time when boys are finding pleasure in school and play. His school advan- tages were but few, but his practical education was commenced as clerk in the store of his uncles, T. S. & N. Abbott. He was a natural financier, and saved the money he received for various services. He was kind to his brothers and sisters, aiding them to the full extent of his small means. After some years of clerkship, and acquiring a reputation for integrity and business ability, he engaged in trade in company with Samuel Thom in a store which occupied very nearly the site of the band-stand in Conway. He was successful in busi- ness, and subsequently erected the store now occupied by L. C. Quint, and traded there for many years. As a merchant, his acquaintance was extensive.

But it was not in the mercantile field that he was most known or accom-

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

plished most in the development of this section. Conway was the great centre of all stage lines of the White Mountains. Early in the forties Mr Abbott was the proprietor of the stage route running from Concord to Fryeburg. As the Boston, Concord & Montreal railroad progressed, the terminus of the stage route changed, first to Franklin, later to Meredith and Centre Harbor. In 1845 the line from Meredith to Conway was owned by John Little. Prior to 1850 Henry Sayward, Stephen Durgin, and L. H. Eastman became owners. This firm was succeeded by Sayward, Durgin & Company, the company being William S. Abbott and Samuel Allard. In 1857 Abbott and Allard sold to Hiram C. Abbott and John Ford, the firm-name remaining as before. They owned the line until 1873, when R. A. R. Benson became proprietor. Before 1850 Mr Abbott was a member of the firm, Thom, Abbott, & Company (Samuel Thom, Hiram C. Abbott, Nathaniel Abbott), owning the stage route from Conway to Littleton through the White Mountains. This they continued until the railroad superseded staging.

In many and various ways Mr Abbott contributed to the weal and advance- ment of Conway. He was interested in the building of the Conway House in 1850. This was the first attempt to construct a hotel commensurate to the accommodation of summer guests. The builders were Thom, Abbott & Company, Samuel Thom having one-half interest, Nathaniel Abbott three eighths, and H. C. Abbott one eighth. He was one of the incorporators and a trustee of the Conway Savings Bank, its first treasurer and third president. His business abilities were appreciated by the most prominent people. He was appointed special administrator of the immense Bemis estate, and assignee in bankruptcy of the Tolman estate.

Mr Abbott married, December 28, 1846, Laura A., daughter of Judge Jonathan T. Chase. Their children were : Fanny C., Ann M., William Myron, and Marion ; William Myron is the only one now living. Mrs Abbott died November 29, 1875, and October 7, 1876, Mr Abbott married Margaret T., daughter of Jonathan and Lydia (Carlton) Hall, who survives him. Mrs Abbott is a granddaughter of Ebenezer L. D. Hall, of Bartlett, who was judge of probate of Coos county for so many years, well known for his probity and wise administration. He was a highly educated gentleman, a teacher for bett-1442 many years, and served in the Revolutionary war.

Hiram C. Abbott inspired all with whom he came in contact with unbounded confidence in his common-sense and uncompromising integrity. He lived in friendship with all men, and never was known to speak deroga- torily of any one. He was a thoroughly practical man, possessing a strong will combined with rare foresight and caution, and when onee his plans were formed, was diligent and resolute in their speedy and complete execution. He ever manifested a lively interest in all matters tending to advance the welfare of Conway, and wholesome deeds testified to this. Mr Abbott died January

J.J. Morton

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TOWN OF CONWAY.

14, 1886. His name is respected and his memory cherished by a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, and it will be many years before his place in Conway is filled. Democratic in politics, he cared nothing for official place, and willingly left to others the honors of its holding, giving his service to the party from love of its principles. His greatest enjoyment was in his home-life, where he was the loving companion and affectionate father.

LEANDER S. MORTON.

THE Morton family of England took an early and important part in the Plymouth colony, and were among the originators and instigators of the enterprise which resulted in the emigration of the Mayflower band to the shores of America. George Morton, the progenitor of the Mortons of New England, was a merchant of York, England. About 1612 he joined the Pilgrims in Leyden, Holland. In 1623 he embarked for America with his family in the ship " Ann," to join his friends at Plymouth. While in Leyden he had corresponded with Governor Winslow concerning matters relating to the emigrants and the colonists. He was a man of fine education. His son Nathaniel, born in Leyden in 1613, was secretary of the Plymouth colony from 1645 until his death in 1685. Nathaniel Morton was the author of the "New England's Memorial," published in 1669. He was also clerk of the town of Plymouth for many years, and his records bear witness to his intelli- gence, fidelity, and usefulness. His descendants have ever been conversant with town and municipal affairs, holding important positions and high stations in society. Hon. Marcus Morton, LL.D., served as governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts three terms, and occupied a seat on the bench of the supreme court for fifteen years.

Leander S. Morton, son of William and Mary (Rich) Morton, was born in Standish, Maine, December 5, 1819. He had common-school and academic advantages of education, and qualified himself at an early age as a teacher. His father gave him his time when he was fourteen, and he engaged in teach- ing for ten terms. The agricultural capabilities of Aroostook county attracted him, and he became a farmer there, and was elected and reëlected to the state legislature before he was twenty-five. About 1847 he came to Conway and engaged in merchandising at the Centre. This became the chief store of the Upper Saco valley and transacted an enormous amount of business, and, until the building of the Portland & Ogdensburgh railroad, was the centre of trade of a wide community. The country stores of those days were the exchange bureaus of the farmers. There the productions of the field or forest were exchanged for necessary articles of tools, clothing, and farm and household

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

supplies, and the enterprise of the merchant was the element tending most to increase the wealth and prosperity of the people even while having personal gain for its principal object. The principles of the men of that day were their convictions, the result of deliberate judgment and pure and unselfish patriotism. In these they were persistent and conscientious. Their love of country, their independence, their courage, were the products of close observation and discriminating habits of thought. To deal with such men, to keep their patronage year after year while working for profit, demands a union in the merchant of ability to know and understand character and motives, power of adaptation to individuals, sterling integrity, practical shrewdness and common-sense, and, back of all, a sympathy and faith in human nature that will receive response from the widely varying personalities with whom the merchant is brought so closely in contact. These Mr Morton had in high degree ; his store was well patronized, enjoyed the reputation of the utmost fair dealing, and he acquired wealth. He conducted trade until his death, October 15, 1872, and was one of the incorporators and first president of Conway Savings Bank. He married, August 10, 1844, Martha L., daughter of Benjamin and Lucy (Fogg) Hawkes, of Buxton, Maine. Their children were : (1) Mary Ellen (married Jeremiah Farrington, and had children : Martha, Mabel E., Leander Morton, Ethel (dec.), J. Arthur) ; (2) Frederick W., married Fannie M. Wiley; children : Annie L. (dec.), Frederick L., Margaret, Ruth (dec.) ; (3) Charles F. (married Emma O. Pratt ; has one child, Martha E.).

Mr Morton was a Methodist in religion and a Democrat in politics, and much in public life. He was town clerk of Conway for eighteen years, and the records attest to his faithfulness and care. They are extremely full and perspicuous, and of elegant penmanship. He was selectman, representative, and justice of the peace. He was frequently chosen delegate to conventions of his party, and his opinions were highly prized by his associates. He was often solicited for advice by residents of his town, who placed a high estimate upon his sagacity and wisdom. A man of calm, collected, thoughtful nature, he weighed well all matters coming before him, and rarely made mistakes. Ile was mild, sympathetic, and generous, broad and liberal in his treatment of men and measures, and popular as a leader in everything tending to the public good. In home life he was ever kind and affectionate, and his memory is sweet with precious reminiscences.

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History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 109

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co. Number of Pages: 1124

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co.
Number of Pages: 1124