History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 46

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

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Mrs Avery survived her husband between seventeen and eighteen years, and to the last was always a most welcome member of every circle in which she moved. Her last sickness was short and severe, resulting in her death, March 6, 1876. At the funeral service, held in the Congregational church which she had long loved, her pastor, Rev. George H. Tilton, read, in connee- tion with very tenderly appreciative remarks, Proverbs 31: 10-31, a portion of Scripture never more appropriate, and added a somewhat extended account of her religious experience, which, not long before, he had committed to paper as dictated by her own lips.

The children of Mr and Mrs Avery were: 1. Augustine Deeatur, born October 16, 1814. 2. Joseph Lorenzo, born January 12, 1817. 3. Anne Eliza, born November 25, 1819.

The two sons of Mr Avery married sisters, and have always been in company in their business, sharing equally in all gains and losses. Both have remained in Wolfeborough, both are members and supporters, like their father before them, of the Congregational society ; and, though both have sustained various offices of trust, both have often declined to be candidates for offices, preferring a life of untrammeled freedom from the cares of official responsi- bility.

Augustine D. Avery has, however, been town clerk and town treasurer, each for several years : representative for three years, county commissioner one or two terms, a corporate member of the Wolfeborough Savings Bank, and was elected, but never served, as a trustee of the academy.1 He married, December 26, 1854, Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Dudley Leavitt and Sarah

1 Mr Avery is a man of unusual information concerning all branches of commercial activity in this section, reads and understands good literature, has a strong and energetic nature, and, having once taken hold of the handle of the plow, does not look back until the furrow is turned. He, like his brother, is a pleasant, courteous gentleman, whom It is a pleasure to know. He has been one of those most interested in the history of Wolfe- borough, and, proud of her record, has done much to preserve it. Both Augustine and Joseph are highly valued citizens, and are justly classed among the best representatives of Carroll county. - EDITOR.

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TOWN OF WOLFEBOROUGH.

Ann (Wiggin) Libby, of Wolfeborough. They have had five children : 1. Mary Elizabeth, born November 16, 1855; died October 20, 1856. 2. Dud- ley Libby, born August 11, 1857 ; died June 24, 1874. 3. Samuel Augustine, born March 5, 1860; died August 27, 1861. 4. Samuel, born March 11, 1862. 5. Belle, born March 27, 1866. The oldest son, in the bright morning of his young and promising manhood, lost his life by drowning in the Winnipiseogee lake.

Joseph L. Avery has also sustained the offices of town clerk and town treasurer, and was a corporate member and trustce of the Wolfeborough Savings Bank, and its first treasurer. Since leaving the last-named office he has been on the board of examiners. He was on Governor Weston's staff with the rank of colonel. He was a trustee of the Tuftonborough and Wolfe- borough Academy from the time his father retired from the board till the adoption of the name of " Brewster Free School," of which he is a corporate member and trustee. During the construction of the Wolfeborough railroad, Mr Avery was treasurer, and has been a director to the present. As treasurer he was not required to give any bond, and, in the interest of the road, he often found it necessary to take journeys partly by night and through miles of an unfrequented region alone, and with many thousands of dollars in charge ; yet, though sometimes in apparent peril, he escaped unfriendly molestation. He married Helen Maria Libby January 8, 1857. They have had two chil- dren : 1. Joseph William, born August 14, 1867; died October 16, 1867. 2. Joseph Clifton, born June 1, 1874.

Anne Eliza, the only daughter of Samuel and Mary M. (Clark) Avery, married, November 6, 1839, Rev. Leander Thompson, of Woburn, Mass. Soon after their marriage they sailed with others for Syria and the Holy Land as missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. During their sojourn of several years in that country, a series of four terrible wars, very unexpectedly to them, desolated a large portion of the missionary field and seriously interrupted the missionary work. The unavoidable cares and anxieties, and sometimes great perils, which attended such scenes, and the prostrating effects of the extreme heat of the climate, at length completely broke down the health of some of the missionaries, and among them was Mr Thompson. After a long and very dangerous illness in the city of Jerusalem, whither he had fled for safety from the perils of war, an illness from which he has never fully recovered, he was advised and thought it best to return with his family to the United States. Here, though never regaining his former vigor, he has been twice a pastor; first, for seven years, in South Hadley, Mass., and later, for thirteen years, in West Amesbury (now Merrimac), Mass. Besides this he has been acting pastor in Wolfeborough one year, and in his native town of Woburn, Mass., between three and four years. In this last place he has with his family resided for several years without a pastoral charge.

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Mr and Mrs Thompson have had six children, the first born in the city of Jerusalem, the second in the city of Beirut. Only two are now living, four having died in childhood. One, Everett Augustine, born March 28, 1847, graduated from Amherst College in 1871, and for many years has taught the classics and natural history in the high schools of Woburn and Springfield, Mass. The youngest son and child, Samuel Avery, born in Wolfeborough, October 16, 1850, married, November 27, 1879, Harriet Ella, daughter of Dexter Carter, Esq., of Woburn, where he resides and is engaged in business. They have two children : 1. Amy Carter, born October 22, 1881. 2. Everett Leander, born May 12, 1884.

DANIEL PICKERING.

IN the list of inhabitants of Portsmouth who, in 1640, made a grant of fifty acres for glebe land for the use of the ministry, is the name of John Pickering, who. in himself and his descendants, was to play a con- spicuous part in town matters, both civil and ecclesiastical. He appears in Portsmouth as early as 1635, perhaps as early as 1630. He came from Massachusetts, and was probably one of the early settlers of Cambridge. He was of English birth, a man of wealth and great business capacity. Hle had several grants of land from the town besides the South Mill privileges. In Portsmouth his land covered the Point-of-Graves cemetery and extended over the site of the South church to the mill bridge, taking in the whole shore to the site of the Universalist church. He was an old man at his death in 1669. His sons, John, of Portsmouth, and Thomas. of Newington, were molding forces of society.

Captain Jolin Pickering was one of the ablest, boldest, and most pronounced of the sons of New Hampshire in defence of the rights of the people. He possessed great physical strength, a powerful will, and a keen and subtle mind. He exercised much influence in church and state, was a lawyer and king's attorney, a captain of a company for years, and after the impeachment of Governor Andros in 1689 he marched his company to the dwelling of Richard Chamberlain, colonial secretary, and took the public records by force and concealed them. In 1692 he was imprisoned by Lieutenant-Governor Usher to compel him to deliver the books or make known their place of concealment. In 1690 he represented Portsmouth in the Assembly of Massachusetts at Boston, and was a member of the convention for securing a reunion of the two provinces. He was a member of the colonial assembly of New Hampshire most of the time from 1680 to 1709, and its presiding officer in 1699, 1704, 1705, 1706. 1707. 1708, 1709. "When the difficulties began in regard to the site for the new church, which ended in the formation of a new parish

Dans, Pickerry

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and animosities which disturbed the peace of the whole province for a generation, Captain Pickering was the leading spirit in the old South parish, who carried everything as he willed at the town-meetings, either by persuasion or by force, strenuously opposed building the new meeting- house so far up as the site of the North church, carried the matter again and again to the general court, and generally with success for his side ; was foremost in all matters concerning the old parish, and when at last the old church could be no longer repaired and kept as he made the town vote it should be, 'the meeting-house of the town forever,' he devised to the South parish a lot of ground for a convenient site for another meeting- house to be set off to the said parish, 'on the highest part of his neck.' He was a large real estate owner at the south end of the town, and what was called Pickering's Neck was a part of the land on which the fourth place of worship for the town of Portsmouth was built, being the church of the South parish until the present stone church was built in 1824."

Thomas Pickering? settled in Newington, on a part of his father's estate comprising five hundred acres on Great Bay, granted in 1655. Not long after he had built his log hut an English man-of-war anchored near by, and a press-gang came to impress him into service. After complimenting Thomas, who was clearing his land, on his muscular appearance, they commanded him to come with them. He declined, seized one by the throat, threw him to the ground, and threatened to cut off all their heads. They abandoned their object and left him to his freedom. Thomas Pickering was as strong a man in mind as in body ; was one of the opponents of Governor Cranfield in his arbitrary rule. Every movement for liberty, religious advantages, and civil advancement met with his ready support. Portions of his estate are now occupied by his descendants. He had three sons, James, Joshua, Thomas, and nine daughters. James was a lieutenant in the French and Indian war. The granddaughter of Joshua married Jonathan Bailey, and through this marriage Thomas Bailey Aldrich is connected with the family.

Thomas Pickering 3 was born in Newington in 1703, and died in 1786. He married first Mary, daughter of Colonel Downing; second, in 1743, Mary, daughter of Jean Janvrin, of Portsmouth. Three of his children married Langdons. He was a highly successful farmer, and had large sums of money on loan, which he lost through the " legal tender" act. His home was one of good cheer and a special resort of ministers of the gospel. Thomas was an old man in Revolutionary times, but a zealous patriot, as were all of the family. The "True Sons of Liberty " of Newington signed the Association Test in 1775, "risquing their Lives and Fortunes, with arms, to oppose the British Fleets and Armies." Among those signing were Nicholas, Ephraim, John G., John, Benjamin, James, Richard, and Winthrop Pickering.

William Pickering, the first child of Thomas and Mary (Janvrin) Picker-

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ing, was a farmer in Newington and Greenland. He was born in 1745, married Abigail Fabyan, of Newington, and had ten children ; three of whom, John, Stephen, and Daniel, became residents of Wolfeborough. He was a man of property, and his children were brought up to do credit to the family name. He died May 16, 1798.

Daniel Pickering, son of William and Abigail (Fabyan) Pickering, was born in Greenland, November 22, 1795, where his early life was passed, and he acquired a good education at the excellent Brackett Academy, of Greenland, and Phillips Exeter Academy. On arriving at maturity he came to Wolfe- borough, where his brother John had previously located and built a hotel. Mr Pickering immediately engaged in merchandising. He was successful, and soon erected the store at Pickering's Corner, opposite the "Pavilion," and continued in business as a merchant for thirty-five years. He carried the largest stock of goods in Carroll county, and drew trade from a territory of thirty miles in radius. At one time he had three stores in active operation : that at Wolfeborough village, one at Goose Corner. and one at Tuftonborough. For many years much of the pay for goods was given in products of the farm and forests, and Mr Pickering had many teams engaged in drawing these to Portsmouth and returning with goods. Mr Pickering was a natural salesman. It is said that " he was the pleasantest man that ever waited on a customer," and he made the hearts of children glad by his plenteous gifts of "goodies." He always gave a liberal allowance of the commodity sold, and the wealth he acquired was untainted with short weight or false measure, and the confidence of the community was secured by his fair dealing. About 1840 he formed a copartnership with John N. Brackett, Ira P. Nudd, and Moses Thompson to carry on the manufacturing of shoes for Boston parties in connection with merchandising. The firm was Pickering, Brackett & Co. for two years, when Freeman Cotton succeeded Mr Brackett, and the firm name became Pickering, Cotton & Co. The amount of business transacted by Mr Pickering as a merchant was very large, and he was also connected with every branch of commercial activity in town. He carried on the manufacture of briek on a large scale. In connection with his brother Stephen he origi- nated and was a large owner of the stock of the Pickering Manufacturing Company, whose woolen and satinet mills were located at Mill village. He purchased wide tracts of timber land and carried on extensive lumbering operations, was one of the incorporators of the Wolfeborough Bank and its president, and one of the stock company that built the steamer " Lady of the Lake." He did much to develop the growth of the village of Wolfeborough and Mill village. He owned a tract of land running from Pickering's Corner to the site of the Glendon House, and a large farm stretching eastward from the Avery homestead on the south side of the road. At that time there were but twelve houses from the present residence of Greenlief B. Clark to that

Adam Brown

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of Israel Manning on the hill across the Bridge. Northerly there were but nine houses from Pickering's Corner to Hersey's brook. Mr Pickering laid out his land in lots, was always willing to sell one at a reasonable price, and built many houses. He lived to see a beautiful place spring up as the result of his public spirit. He erected a number of buildings in Mill village and aided others to build. He was the prime mover in the erection of the Pavilion Hotel. In 1820 he was one of the three persons named in the act of incorpo- ration of the Wolfeborough and Tuftonborough Academy ; he sold the lot for its site at a very small price, and was later one of the trustees. The council that organized the Congregational church met at his house, and he and his wife were of the twelve first members. He was devoted to religion, was a prompt and regular attendant at all meetings, and contributed freely to build up and sustain the church and its work. He gave the lot on which the church stands to the Congregational society as long as it should be used for church purposes, and his house gave bounteous and open hospitality to its clergymen.

Mr Pickering married, June 26, 1822, Sarah C., daughter of Joseph Farrar, Esq., of Wolfeborough. They began housekeeping and always resided in the building his brother John had erected as a hotel. In person Mr Pickering was somewhat above medium size, with dark hair and eyes, and, while quiet and a man of few words in business, he was very pleasant and social in society, and every one was at ease in his presence. He was a kind and considerate employer, a lenient creditor and benefactor to the poor, and in the circle of his home was the soul of kindness. A shrewd and far-seeing financier, he accumulated wealth. He was a valued adviser in business affairs, and the personification of punctuality, promptitude, and system in all transactions. An "old line" Whig in politics, he was postmaster for years, keeping the office in his store. When the lamp of his life went out suddenly, February 14, 1856, while going from his house to his store, the poor lost a friend, and the better element of the community one of its chief pillars.

Of Mr Pickering's three children, Joseph W. and Eliza M. died in infancy. The other, Caroline D., is the wife of Charles Rollins, Esq., of Boston, a native of Rollinsford and a descendant of James Rawlins, who came to Ipswich, Mass., from England in 1632, and settled in Newington about ten years later. Their children are Helen M., Sarah P. (Mrs Harry Ashmead Lewis), Charles H. Mr and Mrs Rollins are much interested in Wolfebor- ough, and the Pickering homestead is their lovely summer residence.

ADAM BROWN.

ABOUT 1785 Captain Moses Brown, a native of Wenham, Mass., born April 14, 1759, who had been a successful and prosperous sea-captain, came to Wolfe-

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

borough and purchased land on what became later " Brown's ridge," and was the most prominent of the citizens of the east part of the town. His wife was Lydia Kimball, a member of the Wenham branch of the Massachusetts family of that name. Captain Brown opened a tavern for the accommodation of the numerous travelers along the great highway on which he located, and acquired extended reputation as a host and entertainer. His health was impaired previous to his residence here, and he died August 3, 1809, when only fifty years of age. His wife survived him many years, and conducted the hotel with great ability. Their children that attained maturity were: Sally (Mrs Taft Brown), Oliver, Adam, Irena (married Nathaniel Ambrose, Esq., of Moultonborough), Moses P., Polly (Mrs William Smith).

Adam Brown was born January 9, 1793. He had the common lot of chil- dren of that early day, hard work, which developed a magnificent physical organization, and but few educational advantages, these being comprised in about six weeks' annual attendance at the neighborhood school. The boy was eager for a business education, and gathered a full share of such knowledge as he deemed important in practical life, and, with an inheritance of three thousand dollars, began life for himself when twenty-one as a farmer on a large farm.

The magnitude of his operations, as he employed from ten to twenty men, kept him constantly engaged in superintending them, and much time was passed on horseback, riding here and there as circumstances demanded. His business aspirations were not content with general farming ; he soon became a large raiser of cattle and the purchaser of great tracts of valuable timber land. He then combined lumbering with his other operations, and gave employment to many, building up quite a settlement of his employés which bore the name of "Brown City." His investments in real estate continued, and at the time of his death, November 25, 1880, he was by far the largest landowner in Carroll county. He was connected with various matters of financial magni- tude : was an incorporator and director of the Portsmouth, Great Falls, and Conway railroad, and in numerous and differing ways exercised a most bene- ficial influence in business circles throughout all this region. Ile was a keen and sagacious financier, forecasting events with great precision, and acquired wealth.

Mr Brown was a Whig, Free-soiler, and Republican in political belief, and was heartily in accord with party movements; but the imperative demands of private business did not permit his giving his personal energies to the support of party. He never cared for the publicity or care of office, and steadily avoided all honors in the political field. He was possessed of marked traits of character which rendered his life more than an ordinary one. His career gives an example of what may be achieved by thorough uprightness of char- acter, honesty of purpose, and a just regard for the rights and happiness of

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others. He was kindly in disposition and always courteous in his intercourse with his fellowmen. Though tenacious of his own opinions, he thoroughly respected those of others. He was outspoken in his views, and had a repug- nance amounting almost to contempt for hypocrisy or insincerity in any one. He was generous, and his contributions to both public and private enterprises were bestowed with a liberal hand. He took much interest in worthy young men struggling amid the vicissitudes of life, and many have cause to bless his memory for material assistance and valuable counsel.

The religious nature of Mr Brown was largely developed, and his acts did not cease with a profession of religion and a church membership. He joined the Freewill Baptist Church in 1833, and was a faithful and consistent member. His memory is held in remembrance throughout an extended circle that reaches far beyond the limits of his own denomination, as a man of great benevolence and a Christian philanthropist. From a report of the Society of Foreign Missions connected with the Freewill Baptist Church it appears that to that branch of religious work alone he had given $40,000; more than any other member of the church from its organization. He paid for the education and maintenance in their own country of ten East Indian children. These received the names of members of his family, and his fatherly care was mindful of them until in some cases they were heads of families. He was the first contributor to the education of the African freedman, heading the list of those who so generously erected and sustained the first school established for this purpose - Storer College at Harper's Ferry, Va. His liberality did not stop at denominational lines. It was a pleasure to him to relieve suffering and distress, and the full extent of his charities was known only to himself; but his name is written high up on the roll of Christian philanthropists.

Mr Brown was an unusually good type of the Anglo-Saxon race, with a large and finely proportioned form, and a dignity of bearing almost kingly. He retained the clear complexion of youth and preserved his manly vigor to an advanced age.

Mr Brown married Susan Plummer, of Milton, who died November 15, 1829. They had one child, Adam Plummer, a most promising young man. He died April 14, 1838, in his nineteenth year. March 1, 1839, Mr Brown married Sarah A., daughter of Richard and Polly (Thompson) Pickering, of Newington. She was born February 12, 1799, and died February 11, 1880. Their only child, Susan P., married Francis Page Adams, of Newfield, Maine, a lineal descendant through his mother of the celebrated Sir Francis Drake. They have had three children : Adam B., died at the age of twenty-one, February 6, 1887 ; Samuel C. and Fanny Isabelle. Mr and Mrs Adams reside in Boston, but the ancestral home, now " The Ridge," somewhat modernized, affords a delightful summer home for themselves and their many guests. From " The Ridge " is presented a magnificent prospect of mountain scenery.

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

Mt Washington and neighboring peaks, Chocorua, Mote mountain, Kearsarge, and many minor peaks are in full view across intervening miles of distance.

SAMUEL HUGGINS.

THE Huggins family is an early Anglo-Saxon one, coming down through centuries in England, and members are frequently mentioned in the history of the times in connection with civic honors and positions of responsibility. It is also an old American family. The first of the name to come to New England and the progenitor- of the family in New Hampshire was John Huggins, who came to Hampton in company with Rev. Stephen Bachiler in 1640. His descendants were early located in Hampton and contiguous towns. - EDITOR.

Samuel Huggins 1 was of English origin, one of the third generation in this country. His ancestors lived in Greenland, N. H., near what was called The Parade, and it is said that a lane still called Huggins' lane was a part of the original farm. His father, John Huggins, moved from Greenland to Wakefield and located near Huggins brook as early as 1790. In the latter town he made a home, having married Anna Mordough, of Wakefield. Speci- mens of his handiwork are still kept in the family as curiosities ; the bureaus and stands were put together with wooden pins.

Samuel was a brave, persevering, and self-reliant youth. His leaving home in early manhood was the old story of an enterprising Yankee boy starting out with his earthly possessions put over his shoulder, taking the journey on foot. He went from Wakefield, N. H., to Wenham, Mass. Here for several years he superintended farmwork. In 1817 he married Sally L. Wyatt, of Wenham. She too was of English descent, her father coming from England in the latter part of the eighteenth century. After marriage they came to Wolfeborough and purchased what was known as the Deacon Wormwood farm, in the east part of the town. He paid down one thousand silver dollars that he had saved from his earnings for this purpose. On this homestead their ten children were born, and here the parents lived, died, and were buried, the father nearly reaching the age of ninety-two years. Samuel Huggins was a man of good physique, more than six feet tall and well proportioned. He was of a somewhat slow, contemplative turn of mind; could frequently be seen walking with hands clasped behind him, absorbed in thought. He was conservative by nature ; in polities he was in earlier life a Whig, voting that tieket in Wolfeborough when but nineteen Whig votes were east in town. In later years he was a Republican. In religion he and his wife were Meth- odists, and his home was always open to the circuit-rider as on horseback

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History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 46

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