History of Coos County, New Hampshire, Part 59

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse [N.Y.] : W. A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1194

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Their mill is the largest and most complete lumber mill in New Eng- land. The power is furnished by a 400-horse-power steam engine. A ten- lighted machine of the "Weston electric light " was introduced in 1882, at a cost of $2,200, enabling them to run full time the whole year. Besides their lumber-mills, they have a separate establishment with a 150-horse- power steam engine, in which they manufacture mouldings, floorings, and finishings of all kinds; box shooks (of which they ship 5,000,000 feet annually), butter-tubs, etc., etc. They have also manufactured here some exquisite furniture of the native hard woods, birch, "bird's eye " maple,

BROWN'S LUI FER CO.

PFFr

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TOWN OF WHITEFIELD.

ash. etc. This department may be extensively developed when pine and spruce become exhausted. In and about the mills they employ 150 persons. During their operations in Whitefield the Browns have lost at least $200,- 000 by fire. A first-class pulp-board mill was erected in 1875, at a cost of $75.000; when fairly in operation, and producing a superior article, it was destroyed by fire. Within six months of this event their moulding and box mill, with stock, was also burned, at a loss of from $60,000 to $75,000. No insurance on either. To prevent such occurrences in the future, the company now has a steam engine with 2,500 feet of leather hose, and a powerful steam fire pump. Water is brought from a distant reservoir to the numerous hydrants they have located.

The company owns 40,000 acres of pine and spruce timber lands, which will furnish material for their mills for from fifteen to twenty years. The value of this is constantly increasing. During the winter season they em- ploy 300 men and 200 horses and oxen "in the woods " and on the rail- road, which each season transports from 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 feet of logs belonging to the company, besides logs and sawed lumber for other parties, making an average of 200,000 feet per day. The annual sales of lumber range from $350,000 to $400,000, and some years have reached $500,000. They own about fifty tenement houses in Whitefield and Jeff- erson. occupied by seventy-five families. They have conducted an exten- sive mercantile business in Whitefield since September 1. 1579 (now Bow- ker & Co.). Its annual sales are about $125,000. Before 1$50 they built a store at Jefferson Meadows, which they rebuilt in 1882, immediately after its destruction by fire. This is a fine structure, and contains the store, rail- road office and a postoffice. They erected a telephone line in 1881, and now have twenty miles in operation. They use this in place of a telegraph on their railroad line. From small beginnings has been developed in a few years the large mills and manufacturing establishments in Whitefield: a railroad fourteen miles in length. with four engines, running seven pas- senger trains in the summer season; a repair shop; two mercantile houses, and a well organized series of camps in the woods, under the superintend- ence of N. R. Perkins. [See Jefferson.] In this large establishment sys- tem and order prevail, and each man has his place.

To W. G. Brown must be given the credit of first suggesting the intro- duction of the yellow fir of the Pacific coast, as spars and masts into the Atlantic ship yards. This fir has now an established reputation, and the brothers have supplied masts of this wood for the English, French, and Chinese navies. In 1875 A. L. & W. G. Brown, with others, built a ship of 1,500 tons, at Newburyport. Mass., which cost $120,000 when ready for sea. It was namel " Brown Brothers." and was designed to bring spars from Puget Sound to eastern ports. They were the pioneers in this com- mercial field. In 1876 the " Brown Brothers " brought the first cargo to the

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east. Since then they have brought six cargoes at a cost of over $250,000. W. G. Brown has had the special superintendence of this, and has been several times to the Pacific coast. The following incident shows the energy and executive qualities of this firm. In 1879 A. L. & W. G. Brown chartered, at Boston, a vessel then at Puget Sound. By terms of the char- ter it could remain there only sixty days. W. G. Brown started from Bos- ton by rail to California, and. during his journey, traveled 275 miles from Reading, Cal., to Roseburg. Oregon, in fifty-two hours. Arriving at Puget Sound he engaged his men, cut down the trees, hewed the timber, and loaded the vessel within the time allowed. The beautiful flag-staff at the Quincy House, Boston, which is so often admirel, was brought by them on the " W. W. Crapo," in 1883. and presented to the late Col. J. W. Johnson

Charles W. King, treasurer of Browns' Lumber Company, a native and resident of Lunenburg, Vt., is a quiet, courteous and unassuming gentleman He possesses quick decision and untiring energy, and is rapid, clear and sure in his reasonings, conclusions, and results. He has brought into the service of the company a great experience in successfully dealing with important financial operations, and performs his duties with acknowl- edged ability.

LOUIS TRACY HAZEN.

If one who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before is entitled to the name of "public benefactor," how much more should this term be applied to such a man as Mr. Hazen, who, by the creation of the finest farm in the county. his development of what is destined at no distant day to be the most valuable herd of registered Jerseys in the United States, and his application on an extensive scale of the teachings of "im- proved agriculture," furnishes a practical education to every farmer in not only Coos, but a much larger area, and by example and success, and the advantages the proximity of such an establishment offers for the better- ment of stock, confers incalculable benefit upon the community, and in re- lation to the agriculture of the county he becomes an historic personage of whom and his work many will be glad to read.

Louis Tracy Hazen comes of good Anglo-Saxon ancestry, domiciled in New England for nearly two centuries and a half. He is a lineal descend- ant of Edward Hazen, who was resident in Boxford, Mass., in 1649, where his old home is yet standing, and was born in Hartford, Vt., July 11, 1836, the son of Lucius and Hannah (Downer) Hazen.

There is much in the inheritance of traits and qualities from a line of reputable ancestry devoted to certain channels of business, and much in the environment of the individual which tend unitedly to impress a pre-

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dilection for certain pursuits upon one's mind, and an inherent power of winning success when these pursuits are followed under favorable circum- stances. Let us see if we can find from whence Mr. Hazen draws his in- terest in agriculture.

His paternal grandfather. Asa Hazen, a native of Connecticut, was one of the first settlers of Hartford, Vt., where the farm which he selected and marked as his by " blazing " the trees around it, was occupied by him during his life, and is now in the possession of one of his grandsons. Of keen judgment, he was a prominent and influential man in social, religious and civil affairs, and a successful farmer. Among his children were Allen, Thomas, Austin, Asa. Lucius and Tracy. Allen, a farmer, succeeded to the homestead. Thomas, a farmer, settled in Norwich, Vt. Austin [D. C.], a Congregational minister, was settled in Berlin. Vt., for many years, and died there. [He left four sons. all of Dartmouth and Andover, and Congregational ministers. Allen was a missionary in India over thirty years, and is now a settled pastor in Deerfield, Mass .; Austin, pastor at Underhill, Vt .. for twenty years: William, settled in Northfield, Vt .. for twenty years: Asahel had a pastorate in Middletown, Conn .: a daughter, Sophia, a teacher in South Hadley (Mass.) seminary, married Rev. David Stoddard. She went with him as a missionary to Prussia and remained until his death ten or twelve years later, when she returned to America. ] His son, Lucius, remained after his majority as a farmer on the homestead with his father, receiving education sufficient to become a teacher, and taught several winter terms with satisfactory results. He married Hannah, daughter of John and Hannah Downer.

From his maternal grandfather. Mr. Hazen inherits not only personal appearance, but mental traits-rapidity of thought, and quickness of con- clusion and execution. John Downer walked from Coventry, Conn. to Sharon, Vt., when but nine years old, his father being one of the first to claim a home for his family in the wilderness, and he grew up familiar with and developed by the vicissitudes of pioneer life, and early learned to rightly estimate the value of a dollar. The first whenit flour usel in their family was from wheat of their own raising, which his father car- ried on his back sixty miles to mill, at Charlestown. N. H . wearing snow- shoes. He became one of the most prominent, wealthy and active mon of Windsor county. He was extensively engaged in farming and droving, kept a hotel where as many as 250 guests received entertainment at one time, and was one of the three owners of the stage route from Concord, N. H .. to Burlington, Vt. His active, nervous temperament accomplished much. He was an able financier, and acquired wealth. notwithstanding large losses by endorsements, into which he was led by his accommodating dis- position. After the marriage of his daughter to Mr. Hazen, Mr. Downer built the house where L. T. Hazen was born, removed thither, and left the

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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

hotel in possession of his son-in-law, who conducted it five years, then sold it and moved to the farm, in Hartford, to live with Mr. Downer. They were in business together for twenty-five years, when they moved to Newbury. Vt., where they purchased the finest interval farm in that fruitful section, embracing 700 acres. and known as the "Musquash Meadow, " or Oxbow farm. Here Lucius D., Louis T., and Hannah M. (Mrs. Dr. H. (. Newell), the children of Lucius and Hannah D. Hazen, were reared. Mr. Downer died in 1861, aged ninety-one. In connection with his farm Mr. Hazen dealt largely in all kinds of live stock, and sent many droves to market. His sons were early trained to know the good points of oxen, cows. horses and sheep, and to buy and sell on their own judgment. He had at one time 1,200 sheep on his farm. Republican in politics, Mr. Hazen represented Hartford several times in the Vermont legislature, and Newbury during the whole of the exciting period of the War of 1861-65. He was a Congregationalist in religion. His death oc- curred in 1864. Mrs. Hazen died in 1874.

Louis Tracy Hazen was educated at Kimball Union academy, Meridan, N. H .. and introduced to business ostensibly as a clerk in his father's store, but really was a trader in horses, cattle and real estate from an early age. He began trading in horses when but twelve years old, and for many years followed merchandising, droving, and dealing in all kinds of farm stock. He commenced business for himself as a stock farmer in Newbury, carry- ing on in connection with Lucius D., extensive operations in cattle and sheep. having as many as 1.200 of the latter. In March, 1866, they sold the farm, removed to Barnet, Vt., and established themselves as general merchants, wool buyers, and lumbermen, as "L. D. & L. T. Hazen." After five years, in December, 1870, they purchased Manson Bowles's in- terest in the lumber business of " Kenney, Bowles & Fiske," consisting of the mill property now occupied by Mr. Hazen, 3,000 acres of land, and a lumber yard in Worcester, Mass. The firm of Kenney, Hazen & Fiske continued two years, when it was closed by the Hazen brothers selling their share in the lumber yard, and purchasing the entire Whitefield busi- ness. L. D. & L. T. Hazen continued lumbering and merchandising for about ten years, conducting a large lumbering interest in Victory and Con- cord, Vt., with mills in both places, for six years. In 1884 the brothers partially divided their interests, L. T. taking the Whitefield property, now consisting of 6.000 acres of land. His lumber operations now only employ abont twenty men six months of the year.

Mr. Hazen began improved agriculture and fine stock-raising in Octo- ber. 1855, having been preparing his farm for about ten years. When he first came to Whitefield he cut five tons of hay; within two years he cut twenty-five tons on the same acreage. He had 120 acres of worn-out land in cultivation; he has now 1,700 acres in tillage and pasture. To this he

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adds 150 acres this season. In 1884 he built a creamery, 32x45, with a basement of four rooms, containing a four-horse-power steam engine, and apartments for setting milk, churning, working and printing butter, etc. Making a specialty of Jersey stock, he commenced with a herd of seventy. which has increased to two hundred and four, one hundred and twenty being registered Jerseys, and the rest of high grade. He has a series of model barns, chiefly constructed from his own designs. A horse barn. built in 1583, is 200 feet long. and thirty-two wide, with a row of stalls on each side, and hay above. In 1854 he erected cattle barns: one of three stories, 180 feet long and forty wide, with two rows of stalls, and one of two stories, with one row of stalls. These barns are connected by a build- ing fifty feet long. The hay is put in at the third story and descends to the second floor. A mile from these, on the farm, is a storage barn for hay. This has two stories, is sixty feet long and forty wide: connecting with it is a one-story building 230 feet long and thirty-four feet wide with two rows of stalls.

Mr. Hazen is an earnest advocate of ensilage, and considers it solves the problem of restoring worn-out lands. He built a silo of 1,000 tons in 1886, and has another of 600 tons in one of his barns. He raised, in 1886, fifty acres of corn (675 tons), raised this year sixty-four acres of corn, 200 acres of oats, and over 300 tons of hay. and bids fair to succeed to the title of " Corn-King" so long borne by Col. Clough, of Can- terbury. In his herd of 300 cattle he has the greater number of Pansy A bert strain, yet has fine representatives of Victor, St. Helier, Commassee, Victor Hugo, and Stoke-Pogis breeds. His most valuable bulls are Min- nie's Duke of Darlington, No. 6934, Fabyan, No. 3914, Winner's Lisgar, No. 11557, St. Helier Lad, No. 12375. Some of his cows have wonderful records as milk and butter producers. We give one week's production of butter of four. Countess of Lakeside, No. 12135, nineteen pounds: Matilda, No. 3238, seventeen pounds: Pet Clover, No. 14624, sixteen pounds, eight ounces; Lily Cross, No. 17796, fourteen pounds. Mr. Hazen kept 350 cows in 1556 and made 5,500 pounds of butter. This year he has about 500 cows. He has a centrifugal cream separator which separates the cream from the milk of ninety cows in fifty minutes. His butter has taken the prize at the last two meetings of the Dairymen's association.

There were but seven houses in Hazen's Mills when it took that name. Now, in addition to the buildings already described. it has fifteen houses, a grist and saw-mill, a store, a railroad station, postoffice, telephone office, b acksmith and wood-working shops.

Mr. Hazen married, October 6, 1563. Ellen Frances, daughter of Frank and Eleanor (Stevens) Johnson. (She decends from early and prominent families of Newbury, Vt., where she was born in the house built by her

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grandfather in 1776.) They have four children, Frank J., Maria F., John D., and Grace S.

Mr. Hazen is a member of the Methodist church. Republican in politics, he represents Whitefield for the present term, 1887-88, in the state legis- lature. He has a genial and social nature combined with business qualifi- cations of a high order. His influence is felt in all important matters, and he has an extended circle of friends among leading men.

JOEL MC GREGORY.

The McGregors of New Hampshire are presumably descendants of Rev. James McGregor (then spelled MacGregore), one of the Londonderry emi- grants. These emigrants were what is termed Scotch-Irish; that is, they were of Scotch lineage, born on Irish soil, but their difference in religion preventel an intermingling of blood, and they were as distinct from the Catholic-Irish as though an ocean rolled between them. They left Ireland in 1718, arrived in Boston in August, and in the spring of 1719, under the guidance of their pastor, Rev. James McGregor, a small company made a settlement in Londonderry, N. H. These pioneers were robust, persever- ing and adventurous men. They left their country to secure freedom of conscience and religious liberty, and not from hope of gain. David, son of Rev. James McGregor, born in 1710, accompanied his father, and, in 1733, became the pastor of the West Parish Society at Londonderry, ministered to them until his death, in 1777. The name, in the course of years was, by some, written McGregory, but the present generation pre- serve the original spelling of the Scotch McGregors.

Joel McGregory, son of Loma and Fanny ( White) McGregory, was born in Whitefield, June 3, 1820. His school facilities were necessarily limited. At the age of ten he left the home of his parents permanently, and from that time henceforth earned his living. With the same spirit of per- severance and persistency which characterized his Scotch ancestors, he applied himself to work. By steady, unceasing toil in various mills, he acquired a practical education in making lumber, saved a part of his wages, and with Ira Goodall purchased the mills of Dodge & Abbott, which were where Hazen's mills are now located. In 1845 Mr. McGregory went into the "woods," and had charge of these mills Here he continued eight years, and the place took the name of McGregory Mills. Sixty thousand of long clap boards a week were produced, a large amount for one of the primitive structures of that day; these were hauled to Wells River. Mr. McGregory then removed to the Chase farm, and carried on agriculture for nineteen years. and, about 1854, he purchased an interest in the "vil- lage mills." His industry, knowledge of general farming, and excellent

Joel McGregory.

W.LITTLE.

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practical judgment brought their rewards, and he was able to give to his children the opportunities for education and improvement denied him in early youth. By his labor, in many ways, he augmented the weal of his native town. Democratic in his political affiliations, he represented White- field in 1556: and, energetic and positive by nature, he was an active member of the legislature. He was selectman for several years and an efficient town officer. His religious belief was that of the Baptists. Hon- orable in his dealings with his fellow-men, Joel MeGregory was a good citizen: social, kind, and obliging, he was a true neighbor. He died Angust 11, 1565. His widow survives him. Mr. McGregory married, May 30, 1846, Hannah (Philbrick) Gove. (See sketch of Dr. Gove for ancestry.) They had six children, Anna E. (Mrs. Joel M. Sartwell), George G., Charles I. John L (see physicians), Joel W., Stella F.

GEORGE SULLIVAN GOVE, M. D.

The Gove family is not unknown in the annals of New Hampshire, and its members have been prominent as politicians, professional men, and in other walks in life.

George Sullivan Gove, M. D., son of John Mills and Anna (Montgomery) Gove, was born in Whitefield, September 22, 1528. His grandfather, Elijah Gove, of Weare, was one of the signers of the Association Test in 1776, which reads "We, the subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage and promise, that we will to the utmost of our power at the risque of our lives and fortunes, with arms oppose the hostile proceedings of the British fleets and armies against the United American Colonies." John Mills Gove, son of Elijah, was born in Weare. in 1787. He moved to Acworth, where he carried on merchandizing and engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1521 he came to Whitefield, and settled on the first farm north of Burns pond, where Joseph L. Taylor now lives, and very soon established a store in connection with his farm. About 1831 he moved to the place now occu- pied by Mr. Chase. His wife, Anna (Montgomery) Gove, was a native of Francestown, and born about 1790. They had eight children: Jehiel, died in infancy. Vienna (Mrs. Leonard Bowles). Laura (Mrs. Joseph L. Taylor), deceased, John T., who died in bay of San Francisco in 1859, Elijah B., Ira S. M., Hannah P. (Mrs. Joel McGregory), George S., and Charles P., who died at an early age. Mr. Gove was a man of ability, and conversant with town matters for many years, being justice of the peace, selectman. and holding other responsible trusts. He was a Democrat in politics, rep- resented Whitefield in the state legislature, and was a member of the Constitutional convention in 1550. In his younger days he was a Freewill Baptist, but about isto he became an adherent of Rev. Mr. Miller, was

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prominent in the councils of the "Second-adventists." and both he and his wife were connected with that church until their death. Mrs. Gove died in 1866; Mr. Gove's death occurred in 1870.

Dr. Gove participated in the labors of his father's large farm, with but limited school privileges, until he was of age His first thought and desire then was for education, and he attended private schools in Whitefield two or three years, working for his brother, Elijah, in his hotel (for $12 per month) to defray his expenses. [The site of the hotel is now occu- pied by "Bowker & Co.'s" store. ] His next venture was the meat busi- ness, which he conducted in the summer in primitive, pioneer style. His meat cart was an old-fashioned Haynes wagon, in which was a dry-goods box with leathern hinges. During this time he taught school two winters, 1853 and 1834, in Whitefield. In the spring of 1834 he went to Burling- ton, Wis .. and receiving an offer of $60 per month to sell lightning-rods, concluded to try it for himself; purchased team and outfit, and travelled in Eastern Wisconsin with good financial results, and was about to go farther west to buy land and make a settlement, when he received news of his father's impaired health, and returned to Whitefield.

January 2. 1855, Dr. Gove married Maria Pierce, daughter of Morris and Lucy (Fisher) Clark, of Whitefield. [She is of the same stock as the distinguished Rev. Ranna Cossitt .- is granddaughter of Judge Ambrose Cossitt, of Claremont, and niece of Hon. George A. Cossitt, of Lancaster. ] They have had two daughters: the elder, Della Emily, born July 22, 1864, lived but a few months; the second, Anna Maria, born July 6, 1867, was graduated from St. Johnsbury academy in June, 1887, and is now a stu- dent at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Boston.

Dr. and Mrs. Gove commenced housekeeping in the old unpainted Will- iam Dodge house, now standing at the end of the bridge. This year he began his medical studies under the charge of and with Dr. Albert Winch, and attended lectures at Dartmouth college the fall terms of 1856-57-58, and was graduated from the medical department in November, 1858. In the spring of 1859 Dr. Gove commenced his long and successful career as a physician in Whitefield. In the fall of 1864 he attended lectures at Bellevue college, New York, in order to perfect himself in surgery, of which he was making a specialty; but contracted a cold, which resulted seriously, and during the years of 1865 and 1866 he was unable to attend to his professional duties; since then he has not given much attention to surgery. In 1880 he performed the Cæsarean operation successfully: this was said to be the first case of the kind in the state, and he reported it, by request of the State Medical Society, for publication in the " Transac- tions." He has been a member of the New Hampshire Medical Society for several years, and of White Mountain Medical Society since July, 1859. In the latter body he has been censor, secretary, president, and held other offices,

Geo. S. Gove, M. D.

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TOWN OF WHITEFIELD.

and was twice its delegate to the American Medical Association, of which he is a permanent member. Since 1857 he has belonged to the Masonic Fraternity, and is a member of St. John's Lodge, I. O. O. F., Whitefield. His political affiliations are with the Democrats, the minority party, of which he has been a frequent nominee for representative. In connection with his medical practice he has carried on farming to some extent and takes great pride in his fine stock. During the summer months of the past few years Dr. Gove has been located at the Fabyan House, as physician for the mountain houses.

Gifted with senses remarkably acute, delicate of touch, quick and keen in observation. taking in immediately the physiognomy of disease, reading understandingly books, men and things, Dr. Gove's judgment, correct and rapid. appears as if produced by intuition. Probably the most reliable guage of a physician's ability is his reputation with his professional breth- ren. Many who stand high in public esteem as medical practitioners speak very highly of Dr. Gove's abilities, and were it not for his attach- ment to his home, he might easily have found a larger field for his talents, better compensation, less physical and mental wear, and more time for scientific study. He is affable and courteous to all, and treats the indi- gent sufferer with the same kind consideration which he extends to the affluent. He is not wanting in ambition, and desires and appreciates the good will and approbation of the public, which he enjoys. His religion is simple Christianity.

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History of Coos County, New Hampshire, Part 59

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Syracuse [N.Y.] : W. A. Fergusson Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse [N.Y.] : W. A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1194