USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. I > Part 33
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Annals.
the community were bread cast upon the waters to return, increased many-fold through the enhanced value of his real estate.
In personal appearance Mr. Gile was peculiar, rather under medium height, but strongly built. His form was bowed by the con- stant burden of self-imposed labor. His dress was always of home manufacture, and usually consisted of trousers that ended midway between knee and ankle ; a shirt of hard twisted flannel ; a frock, a garment of white and blue frocking, hung from his shoulders in long unruffled folds. He probably at different times owned a horse and wagon. If so, they were not for his personal use. When seen in the village he was there on business, and coming and going he walked barefoot in summer beside a yoke of oxen to which he gave occasional attention with a long goadstick, but usually his head was bent in reflection. It is said that he owned a pair of shoes for use on dress occasions, such as attending meeting and court at Haverhill. When the meeting-house was built at the vil- lage he would start for Sunday services with shoes and stockings in his hands and when on the outskirts of the village would stop by the roadside and finish his toilet by putting them on, to be re- moved at the same place on the return journey. He was a plain, rugged, strong man, both physically and mentally, who found no delight in idleness, and whose pleasures were confined to the acquisition of property and watching its ceaseless growth under the quickening influences of compound interest and vil- lage prosperity.
Mr. Gile reared a large family. His eldest son, Aaron, was for some years prominent in business, as a cavalry officer in the militia, and as Deputy Sheriff. His later years were not happy ; self-indul- gence had dissipated property and created family dissensions, and he was compelled to pay the price Folly is sure to exact from her votaries. Another son, William Brackett, was one of a party of several young men who went from here to New Orleans in the early thirties and he died there in 1837. His son John was edu- cated at New Hampton and Union College, from whence he was graduated in 1839. He studied theology and was ordained as a Presbyterian clergyman at Setauket, Long Island, in November, 1843, and was settled over the society there, where he remained until his death, which occurred by drowning, September 28, 1849. The youngest son, Frye Williams, was in trade here for some years. When the Kansas-Nebraska excitement began, he went to Kansas and became one of the founders of Topeka and lived to become its historian. He was a banker and accumulated a large property. He died in June, 1898. The eldest of the children of John Gile
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History of Littleton.
married John Bowman, and the youngest became the wife of C. C. Abbey, M.D. She died in 1849. Of his grandsons, Gen. G. W. Gile, of Pennsylvania, and Francis A. Eastman, of Chicago, won distinction in their cliosen professions; one as a soldier, the other as a journalist.
Two ventures that failed were undertaken in the early fifties. The most important was an effort to secure the creation of a new county by uniting the towns of southern Coos and northern Graf- ton in a county which was to bear the name of the Revolutionary hero, Stark. A bill for the purpose was introduced into the Legis- lature at its June session, in 1852, and consideration postponed, for want of notice by publication, to the November session of that year. The purpose was to make the Ammonoosuc valley towns the nucleus of the new county, with Littleton as the county seat. Whitefield, Dalton, and Carroll were favorable to the movement, as were the Grafton towns of Bethlehem, Franconia, Landaff, Lisbon, Bath, and Lyman. In Lancaster and Haverhill there were power- ful political influences arrayed against the measure, and its ultimate failure was not unexpected under the circumstances.
The other movement was made by citizens of Bethlehem, resi- dent in Concord Gore, to secure annexation to this town. There were many and important reasons why their request should have been granted by the Legislature. Their business, social, and re- ligious connections were mostly here. A majority of the petition- ers resided within a mile and a half of our village, and this was their post-office address, while the post-office and business centre of Bethlehem was more than three miles away. But the Legisla- ture of those days was slow to disturb the integrity of ancient charters, and gave the petitioners leave to continue the political privileges and business inconveniences that their fathers possessed for fifty years.
For seventy years after its settlement farming was the chief occupation of practically all the residents of Littleton. The ministers, doctors, and merchants were engaged in agricultural pursuits, as well as in providing for the spiritual, physical, and material necessities of their fellow citizens. Thus, Priests Goodall and Fairbank, Doctors Burns and Moore, and Major Curtis and Esquire Brackett were successful farmers as well as followers of their professions or of trade.
In all these years there was little change in the products of the farm. Season followed season in unvarying routine of planting and harvesting the same crops ; year after year the husbandman disposed of cattle, sheep, swine, and wool, for cash, or in payment
333
Annals.
of his annual debt at the store.1 The transformation from a farming to a manufacturing community began with the building of the Woollen Factory, and was rapidly hastened by the creation of other less important, but beneficial industries during the same decade. The change this wrought greatly promoted the welfare of the farmers. The great cotton and woollen manufacturing com- panies had created a demand for potato starch, and small mills for its production were erected wherever the farmers could be induced to raise a sufficient supply of potatoes to make the pro- duction of this commodity profitable. The first of these mills in this town was built near the Rankins Mills in 1848. In 1850 Aaron Gile converted the old fulling-mill, then standing on the present site of the sash and blind shop, into a starch-mill, and operated it for two seasons. Other mills were built and, for a time, did a prosperous business. Manufacturers, in order to ensure a stock for their mills, entered into contracts withi the farmers for the product of given acreage at a price that, with an average crop, ensured a considerable profit. This system resulted in over-production of the manufactured article and conse- quent loss. The uncertainties attending the business are disclosed by the fact that one season the farmers in this town received thirty cents a bushel for their potatoes and the next year but twelve and a half cents. Under these discouraging circumstances the farmer ceased to grow the crop for the mill, and in a few years none were in operation, though the business was subsequently re- vived for a brief period. With the farmer it gave place to growing hops for the use of brewers or shipment to foreign countries.
The hop was early transplanted by the first settlers. For years its graceful tendrils ornamented a corner in the garden or a favored nook on the farm. The housewife treasured the vine,
1 AGRICULTURAL TABLE FROM THE CENSUS OF 1840.
Saw Mills.
Grist Mills.
Capital
Invested.
Stores.
Value of
Dairy.
Pounds of
Maple Sugar.
Tons of Hay.
Pounds of
Wool.
Bushels of
Potatoes.
Bushels of
Corn.
6
1
$19,000
4
$11,090
16,798
3,019
9,020
38,203
2,269
Bushels of Buckwheat.
Bushels of
Rye.
Bushels of
Oats.
Bushels of
Barley.
Bushels of
Wheat.
Swine.
Sheep.
Horses.
Neat Cattle.
497
510
16,226
237
2,753
990
6,170
381
1,790
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History of Littleton.
not only for its pendent beauty and culinary and medicinal virtues, but also for its commercial value, as its flower was legal tender at the counter of all old-time merchants. So highly was it es- teemed that as early as 1657 its cultivation was encouraged by legislative enactment. But the fostering care of the State failed to stimulate its cultivation, and it was not until about eighty years ago that it was grown in New England for other than domestic uses.
The climate and soil of the Ammonoosuc valley were favorable to its propagation, and in 1850 the farmers had entered upon its cultivation on an extensive scale, but it was not until it had been substituted for the potato as a market crop that it was largely grown in this town. It was an expensive crop to produce, requir- ing more labor to plant, cultivate, and harvest than other products . of the farm, yet, for a number of years it was, perhaps, the most profitable crop ever produced here ; certainly it gave employment to more people and put in circulation a larger sum of money than any other. But producer and buyer were too eager to gather a harvest of dollars, and a season's crop that brought twenty-five cents a pound gave the growers a large profit and induced them to increase the acreage devoted to its production, while others em- barked in the business until the hop-yard was the most constant object that met the eye in driving through this section. Still, the demand increased, until at one time the producers received sixty cents a pound for the crop delivered at the depot. With this, as withi the potato, over-production resulted, and the price gradually decreased until the farmer realized but four cents a pound. This put an end to its production here for market purposes.
At this time the farmer began to give more attention to raising fruit. The orchards set out by the pioneers were perishing of old age, and in renewing them regard was had to the quality of fruit to be produced. May grafts were set, one farmer (Roby Curtis Town) setting two thousand five hundred in 1851 and 1852. At- tempts were also made to grow other fruits, and some success was had in raising pears of a hardy variety. But the climate or soil, or both, were not of a character to encourage extensive experi- ments in horticulture.
The farmers had a grievance of long standing against the local merchants. It seems that the traders had been in the habit of making the price, not only of the goods they sold, but for the prod- uce of the farmer. To remedy this evil, the farmers organized in 1840 a mercantile company on the co-operative plan, to which they gave the cumbersome title of "The Center Village Farmers and
335
Annals.
Mechanics Mercantile Company." The articles of agreement, or constitution, of the association contained twenty-eight sections, by which all power was vested in a board, to consist of five directors, who should appoint a person to act as selling agent under their direction. All purchases were made by the board, and it also fixed prices, just as the merchants had done before them. The capital stock of the company was ten thousand dollars, divided into shares of fifty dollars each, but the total number of shares dis- posed of limited the actual capital to less than half the maximum sum prescribed by the Constitution. Marquis L. Goold was ap- pointed agent of the company at an annual salary of five hundred dollars. Joseph Robins and Amos Hubbard were active members of the board of directors and, with the agent, had general charge of the affairs of the association. It began business at the " Brick Store," and continued in existence less than two years. The glow- ing anticipations of its projectors were never realized in any particular, the scheme proving an ignominious failure. An assign- ment was made to Frye W. Gile, who closed up its affairs, leav- ing nothing to be divided among the stockholders. The stock was purchased by John W. Balch, who went into trade with Mr. Goold as partner, under the firm name of Goold and Balch.
It was during their tenancy that the Brick Store club was formed by a few congenial spirits who were patrons of the firm. Beside the proprietors the members who were constant in attendance at evening sessions were Otis Batchelder, Samson Bullard, Elijalı Fitch, Solomon Goodall, Simeon B. Johnson, Dr. Moore, Dr. Burns, while Charles W. Rand, William J. Bellows, Jolin Farr, and some others attended as often as business engagements would permit. The leading spirits were Messrs. Batchelder, Balch, and Fitch, whose practical jokes sometimes led to unpleasant consequences that the humorous suggestions of Dr. Moore or Lawyers Rand and Bellows did not avail to smooth over or heal. Such an instance caused the retirement from the club of " Esquire " Johnson. In those " good old days" snuff, yellow, black, or brown, was an in- dispensable article in every village store. This merchandise was stored in deep, slender jars of brown crockery that stood some eighteen or twenty inches in height, with an opening at the top suffi- ciently large to admit the hand. At the "Brick Store" three of these were arranged on a shelf behind the counter where they were con- venient of access. The " Esquire " was fond of the yellow article, but preferred that taken from some other man's box, and for this reason never carried it on his person. He happened to take a particular liking for the contents of one of these jars, and as he
336
History of Littleton.
paid his after-dinner call at the store went directly for his favorite " pinch." In the course of time the contents of the jar gradually disappeared, and it became necessary to insert the arm nearly to the shoulder in order to reach the snuff. About this time Mr. Balch desired to entertain the club, and concluded to do so at the expense of Mr. Johnson. So he emptied the snuff from the " Esquire's " favorite jar and replaced it with a gallon of drippings from a molasses hogshead. The after-dinner meeting on this occasion was large, and, as the " Esquire " entered, was engaged in an animated discussion, and he passed, without apparent notice, behind the counter, lifted the cover with one hand while the other went to the bottom of the jar and was withdrawn, reeking with thick molasses. He gazed upon the bedraggled member with in- dignant surprise, wiped it with wrapping paper, and, without a word, passed out, amid uproarious laughter, and never rejoined his old associates in their deliberations.
Another instance illustrating the character of the amusements of the club is related by William J. Bellows, in his centennial address.1 Speaking of the " Brick Store," he says :
" This store, like the old 'Red Store' (bating the liquor), will be remembered by many as the scene of many a jovial winter evening gathering, when nuts and raisins, candy and apples, were dispensed by the proprietors, at a reasonable rate, to whomsoever should be adjudged to pay for them as a penalty for conviction by the 'court' of some misdemeanor charged against him, and, as the ' court' received their full share of the 'penalty' awarded, the culprit seldom escaped punish- ment, so long as the 'court' had occasion for more nuts, raisins, candy, or apples. As ' cases ' were constantly occurring, the 'court' was obliged to meet in session nearly every evening, and it is worthy of remark that that honorable body, as also the proprietors of the store, especially John W. Balch and Otis Batchelder, invariably discharged their duties with a degree of cheerfulness seldom surpassed. Unfortu- nately for the interests of jurisprudence, these cases have never been reported. The case, however, of Goold v. Batchelder affords a fitting illustration. In this case, the defendant sold the plaintiff a ' white oak ' cheese for a new milk cheese, and afterwards ' made it up' to him by selling him a razor for one dollar and fifty cents that could not be made to cut, and was, consequently, a worse 'shave' than the cheese. It was decided against the plaintiff, on the ground that, having known Mr. Batchelder many years, he was a big fool for believing anything that Batchelder told him, and therefore ought to suffer the consequences. In justice to Mr. Batchelder, it should be said that he afterwards offered to Mr. Goold to 'make it up' again, and Mr. Goold said he 'did not see it.'"
1 Littleton Centennial, pp. 248, 249.
HENRY L. THAYER.
FRANK THAYER.
THAYER'S HOTEL.
338
History of Littleton.
Another merchant of this period was Fry W. Gile. He began business in a small store that stood at the time on the plot now used as a croquet ground by the proprietor of Thayer's Hotel. Early in 1850, having completed his new block, since owned by the McCoys, he moved his business there, occupying the store in the west end of the block. He had as a partner for the first year Isaac Merrill, of Haverhill, Mass. This was fitted up with what were then all the modern improvements, and was probably the most convenient and elegant general store in the northern part of the State. Mr. Gile afterwards developed considerable · literary ability, and the first manifestations he showed of possess- ing this talent were the advertisements he sent to the local news- paper. His venture did not prove a financial success, and in 1854 he departed for Kansas, there to rebuild his financial fortunes, and win credit as a historian.
The easterly tenement in this block was soon taken by Royal D. Rounsevel, who opened the first store in town devoted exclu- sively to the sale of dry-goods and small wares.
339
The Railroad.
XXI.
THE RAILROAD.
T HE Concord Railroad reached its northern terminus at the capital of the State in 1842. Building a railroad at that time was far different from what it has since become. Then there were no syndicates of capitalists to finance the enterprise. The funds with which to build and equip the road were secured by subscriptions to the stock by business men, mechanics, and farmers residing in the towns through which the proposed road was to be constructed. The people were skeptical as to the final success of such enterprises. The Concord Railroad, chartered in 1835, was as late as 1840 regarded by many intelligent people as a chimerical project. In February of that year, in a letter pub- lished in the " Patriot," a friend of the road endeavored to dis- abuse the popular mind of the then prevalent idea that a railroad from Nashua to Concord could not be operated in winter, owing to frost in the ground. The writer cited the fact that the Boston and Lowell Railroad had been in operation summer and winter for nearly five years, and it was well understood that there was more frost in the ground between Boston and Lowell than between Nashua and Concord, owing to the greater depth of snow in this State. It will scarcely be believed at the present time that such an objection could have been seriously urged sixty years ago. But this was not the least of the many difficulties encountered by the canvasser for subscriptions to the stock of a proposed railroad.
4
The most serious obstacle encountered by those interested in building railroads was the fact that the constitutional right of the Legislature to empower railroad corporations to condemn land over which it proposed to pass under the right of eminent domain had become a party question in the politics of the State and the dominant party denied the right of the Legislature to confer such power. In 18401 a law was enacted prohibiting railroad com- panies from taking land without paying the owner an agreed price
1 Session Laws, June Session, 1840, pp. 433-434. Also December Session, 1840, p. 504.
340
History of Littleton.
therefor, which was often extortionate. The effect of such a statute is obvious. It effectually checked the progress of railroad construction in the State.
The law of 1840 became at once a vital political issue, and con- tinued such for four years until it threatened the supremacy of the Democratic party. In order to avert the impending disaster, the leaders of that party devised, and in 1844 caused to be enacted by the Legislature, the first general railroad law of the State.1 This act constituted railroads quasi-public corporations, and the grave constitutional questions that had so long agitated the public were removed from the political arena, and great public utilities, such as the Concord Railroad, were rapidly pushed to completion.
Under the new order of things railroad corporations were rapidly chartered. Two of these - the Northern and the Boston, Concord, and Montreal - slowly threaded their tortuous way through Grafton County. The Northern reached Grafton in August, 1847, and before the close of the year was so far com- pleted as to run trains to its northern terminus at West Lebanon.
The Boston, Concord, and Montreal, chartered in 1844,2 entered this county and ran its trains to Plymouth in the autumn of 1849. Its construction did not advance rapidly from this point, and its next stopping-place at Warren was not reached until May, 1851. It was completed to Woodsville, May 10, 1853.
In the mean time the residents of the Connecticut valley had not been idle in the work of railroad building. The Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers road, chartered in 1843, surveyed in 1846, was opened to Wells River, November 6, 1848. This brought us within an easy stage ride of railroad connection with Boston, by the way of the Northern road.
The charter of the Boston, Concord, and Montreal contemplated the construction of a railroad " beginning at any point on the westerly bank of the Connecticut river, opposite Haverhill or Littleton in this State, or any town on said river between the towns aforesaid ; thence passing in the direction of the Oliverian route, so called, to Plymouth ; thence by a route over and in the direction of the valley of the Pemigewasset or Winnipissiogee or Merrimack rivers," to Concord. Among the corporators named in the charter were Cyrus Eastman and William Brackett of this town. The projectors of the road contemplated building to Wells River, there to connect with the Passumpsic; but Littleton in-
1 Session Laws, 1844, pp. 121-126.
2 Ibid., December Session, 1844, pp. 182-186.
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The Railroad.
fluences, in which Ebenezer Eastman was prominent, secured the insertion of the Littleton limitation in the charter. All sorts of schemes for building railroads were in the air. It was once contemplated to construct a road from Portland " to some point on the Connecticut river between Haverhill and Colebrook." 1. This was the inception of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad, now a part of the Grand Trunk ; and our townsmen kept this in view, not so much with an expectation of its construction as for its use in procuring possible influence to aid in securing rail con- nection with the roads designed to reach " a point on the Con- necticut river in Haverhill."
Another projected railroad that never had an existence, save on paper, was the " Connecticut River and Montreal Railroad Com- pany," incorporated in January, 1849.2 This was to be a connec- tion between the Boston, Concord, and Montreal, and Atlantic and St. Lawrence railroads. Its course was to be along the east- ern bank of the Connecticut from Woodsville to Lancaster. The incorporators were residents of the towns through which it was ex- pected to pass. The representatives of Littleton were Richard W. Peabody and Frederick A. Cross. It is a singular coincidence that of the sixteen persons named in the charter as members of the cor- poration, all of whom were prominent citizens of Grafton and Coos counties, these two alone should survive, sound of body and mind at the advanced age of more than fourscore and ten years.3
The people of this town were more or less interested in all of these roads. The question of railroad connection was constantly agitated from the time of the completion of the Concord road down to the hour when the whistle of the iron horse first rever- berated among our hills. The Legislature in December, 1848, incorporated " The White Mountains Railroad." The charter pro- vided that the route of the road should be " from some point on the Boston, Concord, and Montreal Railroad, in Haverhill, near Woodsville, thence up the valley of the Ammonoosuc river through Haverhill, Bath, Landaff, Lisbon, Littleton, Bethlehem, White- field, Dalton, and Lancaster, to some point on the Atlantic and
1 Charter of the Portland and Connecticut River Railroad. Laws of 1839, p. 470. Moses P. Little was named as one of the corporators in this act; nearly all the others were residents of Lancaster.
2 Session Laws of 1849, p. 725.
3 Richard Wales Peabody was born in Littleton, July 7, 1811, and now resides in Chicago. He visited his native town in the summer of 1901, and again in March, 1902, on the occasion of the reopening of the Congregational meeting-house. Fred- erick A. Cross is now a resident of Waterford, Vt. He was born December 9, 1807, and is still a frequent visitor to this town.
342
History of Littleton.
St. Lawrence Railroad in Lancaster." 1 Among the incorporators resident in Littleton were Ebenezer Eastman, Henry A. Bellows, John Gile, Willard Cobleigh, and Nelson Gile.2 The capital stock was fixed at "not less than five hundred shares nor more than ten thousand shares " of the par value of one hundred dollars each.
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