History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 151

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200

USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 151
USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 151

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

And there have been some, without going so far as the flourishing West, who still revisit with great pleasure the good town of Sunapee, where they were born. One of this kind is William Robinson, of Sudbury Street, Boston, who, about fifty or more years ago, left with his little bundle under his arm, and, footing it all the way to Boston, began life without a cent. He is now the wealthy owner of much property, and of a flourishing business in com- pany with his two sons, who are an honor to their worthy father. But in more recent times there have been some who have gone from Sun- apee in pursuit of business or of honor. Wil- liam W. Eastman, now of Brooklyn, N. Y., a native of the town, and son of Ichabod East- man, was for many years a leading man in Suna- pee, and it was under his hands, as Representa- tive in 1849 and 1850, that the town received its present name. William, like his father, was an excellent general mechanie, and, in conjunction with B. P. Page, of Bradford, started on a large scale the manufacture of threshing-ma- chines in Sunapee, in the year 1847. He was afterwards warden of the New Hampshire State N. Y. Alvin Chase was remarkable for his Prison. He has, in late years, been deeply in- many feats of skill after he was totally blind. tercsted in the oil business and other enterprises He built, without aid, a chaise, the remains of in Brooklyn. which the writer has seen; a cheese press, still Charles H. Bartlett was born in Sunapee, October 15, 1833. He is the son of John and Sarah J. Bartlett, both recently deceased. He in existence ; shingled the house where he lived, working on the roof in the warm nights of sum-

375

SUNAPEE.

studied and was admitted to the bar of Hills- borough County in 1858. Mr. Bartlett was clerk of the New Hampshire Senate from 1861 to 1865, private secretary to Governor Smyth 1865 and 1866. In 1867 he was appointed clerk of the United States District Court in New Hamp- shire. In the same year he was elected solicitor for the city of Manchester, and declined a re- election in 1872. He was mayor of Manches- ter till February, 1873. He has held many other offices and trusts, and was president of the State Senate in 1883.

Alfred T. Batchelder, youngest son of Nath- aniel and Sarah Batchelder, also claims Suna- pee as his birth-place. He is about forty-two years of age and is the present mayor of Keene, N. H., a graduate of Dartmouth and a lawyer by profession.

The most prominent dentist in Concord, N. H., is George A. Young, son of Andrew and Ly- dia Young, of this town. He is acknowl- edged to be high in his profession.

And in the same city will be found Moses F. Rogers, grandson of Colonel Samuel Rogers and brother of Rev. Charles E. He has been actively engaged in the express business for many years, and was deputy warden of the New Hampshire State Prison under John Foss. Two sons of the late Mark Dodge are also natives of Sunapee. Albert is an extensive grain dealer in Gloucester, Mass., and Parker a physician in the West.

Caleb Colby, son of John Colby, is now a suc- cessful jeweler in New York City. He has a double claim on recognition here, having mar- ried a native of Sunapee, Mehitable Young, daughter of Lieutenant John.

BUSINESS ENTERPRISES .- Although within easy reach of the excellent natural waterfalls at the head of Sugar River, the first settlers labored for some years under difficulties as to the con- veniences of saw-mill or grist-mill, and it was no uncommon thing in those early days of the settlement for the sturdy head of the family to start with his back-load of rye or corn, and

proceeding through the then wilderness, by marked or spotted trees, reach the nearest mill.

They were under the necessity, at one time, of going that way as far as " Number Four " (Charlestown). But an effort was soon made to remedy this evil, and on the 3d of December, 1782, I find, by a document of that date, the proprietors invited one Joel Bailey, of New- port, to accept of the gift of twenty acres of the " undivided land," as an inducement for the said Bailey to build a grist and saw-mill in Wendell. The signers of this instrument, partly in the form of a quit-claim deed, were as follows : Esek Young, John Sprague, John Call, John Gardner, Thomas Martin, David Call, John Bevins, John Wendell and Stephen Hardy.

It does not appear that Bailey accepted of this offer made by those land-owners, and nothing was done in that direction till about 1784-85, when John Chase erected the first grist-mill, not far from the site of the Blodgett & Runals saw-mill of to-day. The entrance to the end of this primitive mill was by a steep descent immediately east of the present " Mill Hill " highway.

Not far from 1800 a wooden dam was put across the river, just below where the Granite Hame-Works now stand, and a power formed at the first steep fall, and that site has remained the Harbor Grist-Mill ever since. A saw-mill was subsequently combined with the grist-mill, and the ownership has passed through numer- ous hands. At an early date it was the prop- erty of Hutchinson & Cheney ; then Jeremiah Newall and Jonas Cutting, Purmort & Stevens, Young & Cobb, Lowell T. Nute, Charles Stubbs, and the present owners, Purington & Bartlett.

About 1820 a privilege was taken up some ways below the grist-mill, and below where William C. Stocker's excelsior-shop now stands. It was used by Hills, sou of John Chase, Jr., at what was then called a clothing- mill, where home-made cloth was fulled and dressed.

376

HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Jonathan Wooster also pursued the 'business of carding and fulling and dressing cloth, and was followed by D. B. Colcord, the latter removing his shop to George's Mills, where he conducted the same for about twenty years, end- ing in 1845, since which time no such business has been done in town, the products of factories taking the place of the home-manufactured article.

In 1842 the foundation of the present tannery was laid by George Keyser and David Haynes, and has been run by successive occupants. The water-power for the tannery was procured by throwing a dam across Sugar River just below the grist-mill dam, and at a subsequent period another dam was formed still farther down- stream, this last being now occupied by Wil- liam C. Stocker for the manufacture of excel- sior. About 1837 the substantial stone dam, just above the Harbor Bridge, was erected by a company of which Stephen D. Ford was the agent, but nothing was done on this dam until about 1844, when Christopher Cross, from Lowell, Mass., built the saw-mill on the south end of the " stone dam."

About the same time, Ephraim O. Whitcomb built a shop just below the Harbor Bridge, for the manufacture of bedsteads, and that business was pursued by various owners till 1852 or 1853, when Dexter Pierce went into the making of clothes-pins, and this shop, the basement of which was, in 1857, occupied by Royal Booth while he was constructing card-board machinery, took fire, and not only totally consumed that shop, but also the one on the north side of the river occupied by Abiather Young, for making shoe-pegs. The peg business was carried on by Abiather Young for years, until finally he oc- cupied the shop north of the saw-mill on the stone dam, and that, too, on the night of April 11, 1877, took fire and was completely de- stroyed. Since then the shoe-peg business has not been resumed. On the 18th of October of the same year (1877), Abiather died, aged fifty. It has been mentioned, in connection with the

name of William W. Eastman, that a large shop was built in 1847 for the making of threshing-machines, although in a smaller shop, called the " red shop," Mr. Eastman, in com- pany with James Perkins and others, had in previous years been in that business. This threshing-machine business was for a number of years, say from 1847 till 1870, a prominent in- dustry in Sunapee, till finally it fell into the hands solely of Major Josiah Turner, one of the first makers, who died of apoplexy, April 16, 1883. Since the death of Mr. Turner that business has also been entirely stamped out, and the last shop he occupied has been converted into a store-house for lumber.

About 1852, John B. Smith having been previously engaged for a short time in different kinds of mechanical employment at the Har- bor, built a shop at the point now locally known as Smithville, and began making clothes-pins and inventing machinery for their rapid produc- tion ; he succeeded at last in constructing a ma- chine that would turn out one hundred and ten per minute, and by procuring patents on his various machines acquired a monopoly of the business. But his inventive genius was not satisfied with this narrow field, and he soon added a machine-shop and foundry for casting brass and iron, with all the necessary buildings for that varied business. He continued increas- ing and extending until quite a village had grown up around his works, when, on the 19th of October, he was struck with paralysis, from which he died, aged sixty-six. He had always been an earnest student of the science of astron- omy, and was tempted, in the pursuit of that study, to try his hand at telescope-making, in which he succeeded so admirably as to com- mand the admiration of men long skilled in that business.

Solon W. Abbott runs a planing, tonguing and grooving-mill, and combines the making of coffins and caskets with his other business.

Willis W. Trow has similar machinery and a good saw-mill.

377

SUNAPEE.

Perkins & Alexander make hay-rakes of all kinds.

There has, from the earliest times, been one or more blacksmiths in town. Nathaniel Per- kins, a man prominent in our town affairs sixty years ago, was, perhaps, the first, having his first shop not far from where George W. Colby now lives; afterwards near his homestead, long known as the " Perkins place." His forge has, however, been cold for forty years. Moses Muzzey built his blacksmith-shop in 1818, on the eminence near George's Mills, known even now as Muzzey Hill. He died about thirteen years ago.

Moses C. Muzzey, son of the above, opened a blacksmith's forge at the Lower village in 1840, and has continued ever since, having a partner a large share of the time in Amos D. Carnes. Asahel Lear has been a blacksmith at the south part of the town for more than a common life-time and still survives.

STORES .- The stores in Sunapee have always been of the kind designated " country stores, " keeping a miscellaneous assortment, and taking the produce of the farmer in pay to a large ex- tent. In 1820, John Dane was keeping store in the house built by him for that purpose, and now owned by Solomon Bartlett, although among the older inhabitants it is still called the " Dane House." About 1825, John Colby succeeded Dane, and by 1830 he built the store which stood for many years on what is now J. P. Knowlton's door-yard. Colby was succeeded by Marble, and he by Wadleigh, and the Knowlton Bros., Moses and John, were run- ning the business in 1844, and the latter con- tinued till about 1863. John was followed by D. G. Knowlton & Sons, and the store moved from the hill to its present location, at the west end of the hame-shop, where it is run by Knowlton & Sargent.

The store and dwelling-house which was built by Josiah Turner, the under part of which was from the beginning intended for store purposes, was first occupied by Eastman & Kelsey ; and

the line of store-keepers who have filled up the thirty-seven intervening years have been nearly as follows : H. Stanton, Colby & Jones, Cut- ler & Wade, Jabe Thompson, Quimby & Simmons, Rawson, Ingram, Wm. C. Stocker and for the last fourteen years, N. P. Baker. Iu this store, since the election of Abraham Lincoln, or since 1861, the post-office has been kept till the present year.

At the Lower village the successive store- keepers have been Marble, Wadleigh, Col- cord, Edson and the present owner, Joseph Russell.

THE " GRANITE HAME-WORKS."-In 1869, W. H. H. Cowles and Lucius Buswell, from Grantham, commenced to build the large shop now occupied for the manufacture of hames. While the building was being erected Mr. Bus- well was killed, and Mr. Cowles found a new partner in the person of George H. Bartlett, and some three years ago Mr. Cowles aban- doned the business and sold out his half-interest to Irwing G. Rowell, the firm now being Bart- lett & Rowell. They do a large business and employ about twenty hands.

About ten years ago a tin-shop was started by Healy Cunningham, but on the 2d of April, 1884, he died suddenly, and the shop was for a short time vacant, but during the present year Fred. C. Keyes purchased the stock and shop, and has extended the business by the addition of stores and a general assort- ment of hardware.

ACCIDENTS.

The events happening in our midst of an accidental character have not been very frequent or unusual. The conflagrations of any impor- tance have all occurred within thirty years. In the winter of 1857 the two shops below the Harbor Bridge, one owned by Dexter Pierce and the other by Abiather Young, were both totally consumed; the fire originating in the basement of Pierce's shop and spreading north- ward across the river to Young's peg-shop.

378

HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

On the 10th of June, 1871, the clothes-pin shop of John B. Smith took fire and soon spread to the adjacent dwellings, destroying those of Moses I .. Sargent and Isaac Harriman, and damaging the Methodist parsonage and totally consuming the church on the north side of the highway.

The large shop which has been described as being built for the threshing-machine business, and in which shoe-pegs were now being manu- factured, took fire on the night of the 11th of April, 1877, and, although right on the river, for lack of any appliances to use the water .

was soon reduced to a heap of ruins.

DROWNINGS .- On a body of water as exten- sive as Lake Sunapee-nine miles by three-the number of deaths by drowning have been com- paratively few. If any loss of life occurred previous to 1800, the oldest inhabitants are unable to recall it, and the first of which we have any account is the death of Joel Fletcher, of New London, who came across with a neigh- bor in a " dug-out " or canoe made of half of a pine log. They came to procure clay from a clay-bed at the Harbor, near where the Wood- sum wharf now stands, and where a number of brick-kilns were subsequently burned for the building of the first chimneys in town.

Fletcher and his companion had almost reached New London shore on their return, when a sudden squall struck the boat, shifting the cargo of clay and upsetting the frail craft. His companion swam on shore, but Fletcher was drowned. And this happened, as Aunt Betsey Knowlton informed me, when she was thirteen years old. This venerable lady, who was a sister to Thomas Pike, our first sole rep- resentative, and mother of the three Knowltons- Dennis, Moses and John-died in July, 1881, at the advanced age of ninety-four. She retained her memory to the last, and passed away with the grandeur of a Revolutionary matron.

On 9th of September, 1821, the babe of J. Harvey Huntoon, who lived not far from the lake, was carried, with the bed on which it

lay, into the lake by the memorable "hurri- cane " of that year, and the body was found in a few days drifted to shore, near "Job's Creek."

In the spring of 1834, Josiah Currier, father of the late Bradford Currier and William Currier and Mrs. John Boyce, met his death by falling through the ice near the " Hedge- Hog Den," at the commencement of a terrific snow-storm that had begun just about sundown.

His outcries were heard by Oliver Young, who lived at that time on the farm on which Lake View House is built ; but Young was unable to reach him on account of the driving storm. It was nearly two months before his hat was found, when the snow had thawed away, giving a clue to the place where he went dowir.

Not in the lake, but near it, in the river, on the 9th of March, 1882, Corana Richardson, a boy six years old, was missed, and on a careful search his body was found in the river a little way above the " stone dam."

On Thursday, January 15, 1885, Leander Blodgett, of Newbury, started with a horse and wagon from the Chandler shore to go in the di- rection of " Pine Cliff," and on his return must have dropped through a hole in the ice, as the seat of his wagon and the buffalo-robe were found near the hole. The water at that point was about fifty feet deep, but grapplings were pro- cured, and the body of the unfortunate young man, as also the horse and wagon, were soon drawn to the surface.

A FATAL SHOOTING AFFAIR .- On Thanks- giving day, 1828, as quite a number of the young men of the town were collected in the store of Colby & Newall, in the Dane House, one of the party, a Jonathan Marston, took up a gun that stood in the corner of the room, and resting it upon the shoulder of David Reddington, fired at random, fatally wounding Elbridge G. Sar- gent, youngest son of Deacon Moses Sargent, and injuring some others who stood in range. One of the injured was Dennis G. Knowlton,

379

SUNAPEE.

from whom I had the relation of the accident. The buckle of the cap worn by the Sargent boy was driven into his forehead and twenty- two shot were extracted; but after lingering nine days he expired.

In the fall of 1869, when the hame-shop was being built, the younger partner of the concern, Lucius Busswell, while in the saw- mill, superintending the sawing of the lumber for the building, was struck in the forehead by a heavy slab which caught on the circular saw, and killed, lingering only a few hours. He was a young man of excellent promise, son of Oliver and Deborah Busswell, of Grantham.

THE HURRICANE .- Among the memorable events connected with this town, and without some notice of which a history would be incom- plete, was the terrific hurricane of the 9th of September, 1821, which swept across the north- easterly portion of the town, towards the lake, on its devastating path to the neighboring towns of New London, Sutton, Salisbury and War- ner. It tore up trees and carried them onward for miles, and what trees it did not entirely up- root it laid over, in many cases, almost to the ground. There are evidences still standing in old orchards over which this tornado passed, especially near Job's Creek, on the land sloping down towards the lake.

During the day of that memorable Sunday it was unusually hot and sultry, clearly indicat- ing electrical forces, and about four o'clock in the afternoon the black clouds began to roll, soon followed by the roaring of the bronzy, ashen- colored bugle of the whirlwind, as it sped on to the southeast, on its errand of destruc- tion. The writer has had corroborative relation from several eye-witnesses of that terrible scene. It was noticed to start ap- parently from the south side of Grantham Mountain, striking and partly demolishing one habitation in Croydon ; thence onward through the northeast part of Sunapee, doing damage only to the forests and fences, until it reached the house and barn of J. Harvey Huntoon,

near the west shore of the lake. It lifted the barn from its foundations and threw it in frag- ments down-hill towards the shore. It whirled the roof from the house and shattered to pieces all above the cellar, while a bed on which the youngest child was laid was snatched up and carried in the air to the centre of the lake and there dropped.

A few days after, as Dr. Alexander Boyd, of Newport, with Moses Muzzey, the blacksmith of Wendell, and others were looking over the track of the destroyer, they noticed an object near the entrance of the creek, and, on reaching it, they found the body of the child, its little dress torn to shreds, and its head bruised and battered almost beyond recognition. Mr. Hun- toon and his wife, Naoma, removed soon after to Concord, Ohio, where they died not long ago, and where they had been visited several times by persons now living in Sunapee. They re- tained, as a sad memento of that dreadful and fatal day, a small piece of the baby's dress, which they had encased in a frame, under glass, with its brief but sorrowful legend. When Charles Dickens, the English novelist, visited the United States, some one related to him the above-named facts, and on that he built his story of "The Fisherman of Sunapee," which had the run of the magazines and newspapers of that time. The havoc of this tornado, which ended its course at the south base of the Kear- sarge Mountain, has been described by other writers, so far as it affected the other towns named ; but no circumstantial account of its ravages in Sunapee has heretofore been written, and soon the observers of that startling event will be all numbered among the things that were; although to-day the dismantled cellar of the Huntoon habitation may still be traced, and a few of the leaning apple-trees are still bearing fruit, they were partially borne down by that terrific gust, now sixty-four years ago.

THE LAKE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS .- We now reach a matter in the history of Sunapee

380

HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

that, although we have made last, is not the least, but, in truth, the greatest, in regard to our material future,-the lake and its connec- tions.

As early as 1820 a charter had been granted by the Legislature to Josiah Stevens and others, giving them the right to draw and control the surplus waters of the lake for the behoof of " the owners of mills and mill privileges on Sugar River ;" and for many years the whole matter of the lake was comparatively but little noticed, the regulation of the drawing having fallen into the hands, almost entirely, of grow- ing mill interests at the extreme west end of Sugar River, where it empties into Connecticut River. All the intermediate mill-owners on the river had either become careless of their rights or they were ignored ; and this state of things ran along until about twenty years ago, when the importance of this beautiful sheet of water, as a navigable water, began to attract at- tention. The lake, before this time, had been baptized by N. P. Rogers, as the Loch Lomond of New England. I remember when there was at Sunapee Harbor but one small row- boat. To-day there are probably not less than two hundred row and sail-boats, many of them of superior build and rig.

In 1854, Timothy Hoskins, an ex-State Senator, and William Cutler built a horse- boat. Hoskins was interested in the saw-mill and Cutler in the tannery. It was capable of taking on parties of one hundred, but, after running for about eight years, it was broken up and portions of it can still be recognized.

On the 4th of July, 1859, Austin Goings, of New London, launched the first steamboat upon Sunapee Lake. It was a side-wheeler, the length of the keel being sixty-five feet. It could carry three hundred passengers. Its name was the "Surprise. But that point in the history of Sunapee had not arrived when a steamboat would pay, and, the war of 1861 coming on, Captain Goings enlisted and his boat was dismantled.

From 1861 to 1876 nothing but row and sail-boats floated on Sunapee Lake, but the centennial year was appropriately heralded by the commencement of permanent steam naviga- tion on our lake.

In this year the little steamer "Penacook " was purchased by N. S. Gardner and put upon the lake. When she was first run she had side-wheels and her machinery was very imper- fect ; but Captain Nathan Young, her present proprietor, has remodeled her, putting in a new engine and screw-propeller and changed her name to the " Mountain Maid." 1876 will also be memorable for the advent of the Woodsum brothers, Frank and Daniel, who came from Maine and built the snug, fine-looking and substantial steamer "Lady Woodsum," and have run her every summer since in connection with the trains arriving at Newbury.

The "Lady Woodsum " can carry over a hun- dred passengers, and they have an attendant barge that will take a larger company.

Mr. Craddock, the owner of " Liberty Island," has a small private steamer suitable for family parties, and used mostly for the con- venience of his family and boarders.

For a few years past, since our leading lines of railroad have given special opportunities of summer travel, a want seemed to be felt, on the occasion of extra trains arriving at Sunapee Lake, for still further steamboat accommodation, and in the winter of 1884-85 a joint-stock com- pany was formed for the building of a large boat, and in the summer of 1885 the commo- dious boat named the " Edmund Burke" was launched npon the waters of Sunapee Lake with appropriate ceremonies witnessed by a great multitude of people.

She was named in honor of the late Hon. Edmund Burke, who was the first projector of this enlarged enterprise, and who had in his life- time become deeply interested in the prosperity of Sunapee Lake as a place of resort ; having built him a nice cottage near the " Lake View," where, during a few of the closing years of his

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 151

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1200

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200