USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. I > Part 35
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In the fifties there were many changes in the operating force of the road. Brooks L. Palmer and Silas Kingman served respec- tively as engineer and fireman for several years, until Mr. Palmer, attracted by a large salary, went to Cuba, where he fell a victim to yellow fever, and Mr. Kingman became a soldier in the war for the preservation of the Union. They were succeeded by Isaac R. Sanborn, as engineer, and James H. Smalley, as fireman, who served many years. When the road was merged in the Boston, Concord, and Montreal, Mr. Sanborn went to the Concord road and Mr. Smalley returned to his trade of harness-making, and is still in business in this town. Two old stage men who were con- ductors from the opening of the road from Concord to Woodsville, running daily in opposite directions, Seth Greenleaf and Jolin Sid- ney Russ, transferred their northern stopping-place from Wells River to this town, and with eminent fairness divided their patronage, the former going to Cobleigh's Hotel 1 and the latter to Thayer's Tavern,2 where they became fixtures for a full quarter of a century. These men were well known and counted among their friends the entire travelling public through this section of the State. They were widely different in form and character ; Green-
1 Union House.
2 This hotel will be remembered as Thayer's Tavern. At that time Mr. Thayer had not made his reputation, and it was known as the White Mountains House, its original name.
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History of Littleton.
leaf was rotund, jolly, fond of a practical joke, generous to a fault, smiling upon every one, and in politics, first a Whig and then a Republican.
A characteristic incident is related concerning him. One day, while sitting on the piazza of the Union House, a man passed, carrying on his back a freshly filled straw tick. Mr. Greenleaf saw an opportunity to perpetrate a practical joke. He drew a match- safe from his pocket, lighted it as he approached the burden-bearer and set fire to the protruding straw ; in a moment the tick was a mass of flame and was hastily thrown to the ground where it was soon dust and ashes. The former owner gazed at the ruins in doleful amazement, when Mr. Greenleaf took a roll of bills from his pocket, selected a five-dollar note, which he handed to the loser of the tick, who was more confounded than before and it was some time before he took in the situation.
Russ was slim, sedate, reticent, practical, both in business and in his charities, close in his dealings and a life-long Democrat in his political opinions. In the course of time their official duties extended from Concord to Littleton. Growing old in the service of the corporation, they gradually withdrew. Mr. Greenleaf was the first to retire. He purchased the Judge Bellows 1 place of J. W. Hale, remodelled and improved it and made it his residence for several years. He died in September, 1880. Mr. Russ resided at Concord, where he died in 1880. Other conductors who at one time resided here were George W. Eastman, who subsequently moved to Plymouth ; W. M. Rollins ; Edward P. Fisher, who was killed by falling between the cars near Amoskeag Station in 1869 or 1870; and John W. Wardwell, who has since been superintendent of the Cleveland and Canton Railroad, and resides in Cleveland, Ohio. Among the employees who were of Littleton were John Cleveland (son of Moses), who was killed near Lowell, Mass., while endeavoring to pass from the baggage car to the engine. He was on the tender when his head came in contact with an overhead bridge on a street crossing and he received injuries which termi- nated his life before the train reached Boston.
In those days civil service was an unknown quantity in this country. The doctrine that " to the victors belong the spoils " was accepted by all classes and parties as a sound political maxim and was rigidly enforced whenever there chanced to be a change of administration. Under this rule, among the positions in the gift of the party in power that were much sought by men who were promi- nent as party workers, none was perhaps considered more desir- able than that of route agent in the mail service. The duties were
1 Now the residence of C. F. Eastman.
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The Railroad.
not burdensome and the salary was sufficient to add to the attrac- tiveness of the office. When the White Mountains Railroad was opened to travel, the mail route extended from Concord to Wells River by the way of Plymouth, and James F. Langdon, of Ply- mouth, and George W. Hoyt,1 of Concord, were route agents, or postal clerks. Both were personal friends of President Pierce and received their appointment from him. Before. the close of 1853 the Post Office Department issued an order making Littleton the northern termination of this route, and directed Messrs. Langdon and Hoyt to extend their trips over this railroad. The election of President Buchanan, though of the same party, brought to the front new men and influences, and there were several candidates for these positions. The successful men were Jeremiah Blodgett, of Wentworth, and Col. T. A. Barker, of Westmoreland. Colonel Barker soon received permission to change routes with J. T. Clough, then of Canterbury, who was an agent on the route from Boston to St. Albans, Vt. Mr. Blodgett was a man of note in the politics of the State for many years. He had been Deputy Sheriff, a represen- tative in the Legislature, a member of the governor's council, and had held other offices. He possessed vast general information and had the political history of the country well arranged in his capacious memory, and was seldom averse to bringing it into use - never, we believe, unless upon an occasion wlien an opportunity offered to discuss, instead, some phase of religious doctrine. To him a discussion of these questions with an intelligent, well-informed opponent was an unalloyed delight. On his first official trip he sought congenial company among his political foes by ask- ing admission to membership in the Brick Store Club. To this circle he was welcomed and given the chair of honor, where he could rest his feet upon the hearth and tip back at an angle of forty-five degrees, his favorite attitude. Political questions were the absorbing theme of the hour, and here they were discussed with ardor. A man who " took the other side " was something of a nov- elty in the club. The change was interesting for a time, but " Uncle Jerry " was too strenuous and so given to suggesting proposi- tions in discussion that Dr. Moore thoughit should " be looked up," that political argument became too laborious and was soon tabooed on the evenings when Mr. Blodgett was present. Theology proved an agreeable substitute, as there was a more equal division of senti- ment among the members. That Mr. Blodgett gained the respect and friendship of all the members, in spite of his political opinions, is shown by the fact that when, in the course of events, the Repub-
1 The father of the play wright, Charles H. Hoyt.
VOL. I .- 23
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History of Littleton.
licans came into power, and " Uncle Jerry " gave way to Jesse Mann, a unanimous protest went out from the club. This action was most likely the first expression in this town in behalf of civil service reform. Since then many changes have taken place in this branch of the postal service. William Harvey Greenleaf suc- ceeded Jedediah T. Clough, and he and Mr. Mann have been fol- lowed by Harvey P. Ross, George W. Little, Gen. J. M. Clough, Chauncey H. Greene, Major Samuel G. Goodwin, C. L. Morrison, Warren C. Merrill, and others. The extension of the railroad to Lancaster lengthened the route to that point and Littleton ceased to be its northern terminus. The service is now covered by the civil service rules, and this important branch of the public business is no longer regarded as the legitimate spoil of the party worker.
The location of the depot became a public question. The ma- jority favored the Bowman meadow site. It furnished larger and more convenient yard room for the accommodation of the lumber manufacturers, and would save the town the expense of rebuilding the bridge, a potent consideration with many. On the other hand, the land damage would be greater and would require the railroad to build and maintain an expensive bridge over the Ammonoosuc River.1 Other considerations likely to have had weight in deter- mining the location were the fact that the firm with which Ebenezer Eastman was connected desired land on which to build a depot-store,2 and that Jolin Bowman always placed a high value
1 The amount of land damage, paid by the corporation to owners of land in Little- ton was not large. The record is as follows : -
Philip Il. Paddleford
$ 19.00
Adams Moore .
17.00
George Gile
63.00
Alexander McIntire .
60.00
Warren MeIntire
60.00
Washington Williams, of Portsmouth, or Warren MeIntire, title in dispute
6.00
Washington Williams
44.00
Nelson Gile
31.00
Timothy Gile .
176.00
Rev. Drury Fairbank
40.00
Luther A. Parker
71.00
Salmon Hoskins
30.00
E. J. M. Hale .
2.00
Josephı Warren Ilale
2.00
William Brackett
660.00
William Burns
170.00
Cyrus Eastman
85 00
Charles W. Brackett
85 00
Total
$1605.00
2 Col. C. Eastman had at this time purchased the Depot Store site of Dr. Burns.
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The Railroad.
upon the meadow, and was a man who disliked to part with his real estate. In the end, the present site of the freight depot was chosen, and the freight yard was west of the street where the pas- senger station now is. A large building was erected, exceedingly plain in design and rendered more unattractive by a dingy coat of dark-brown paint, which time and smoke from the locomotive soon turned to a sooty black on each end. The upper story served as a tenement, while the lower was used for traffic purposes. In the westerly end were waiting-rooms, furnished with a few benches and two or three chairs. These rooms were divided by a ticket- office and a hall from which a stairway led to the tenement above. Trains passed through the structure on its southerly side. There were reasons for such an unsightly building in the first in- stance, as the corporation was bankrupt for several years, but when it emerged from this condition under the control of the Boston, Concord, and Montreal road, this town became the most important station on the line, in respect to the volume of business transacted and the amount of receipts from both passenger and freight traffic. Under these circumstances it was little less than an outrage on this community to impose such a building on the public for fifteen years. This town received little consideration at the hands of the Lyon-Dodge management until action was necessary for legis- lative purposes. Then they listened to the demand of their patrons and erected the present creditable station.
The first station agent was Robert H. Nelson, who served in that capacity but little more than a year, when he removed to Chi- cago, where he engaged in the lumber business, in which he pros- pered. He died in 1862. His successor, as agent, was John A. Harriman, of Dalton, who held the position until April, 1856, when he retired to become the local agent of the United States and Canada Express Company. At that time the contractors, under the immediate direction of J. E. Chamberlain, were operating the road, and Mr. Chamberlain made his son, Horace Elliott Chamber- lain, station agent, and in 1859 added to his duties those of Gene- ral Freight and Ticket Agent of the corporation. This was the beginning of a notable railroad career. Horace E. Chamberlain was born in Newbury, Vt., November 30, 1834. He was edu- cated at the Seminary in his native town, and came to Little- ton in April, 1856, where he was stationed until 1864, when he assumed the duties of station agent of the Rutland and Burlington Railroad, at Burlington, Vt. In 1865 he was promoted to the position of General Freight Agent of that road. When the court ended the contest for the possession of the Concord Railroad by
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History of Littleton.
abrogating the lease of that road to the Northern Railroad and restoring it to the custody of its directors, Mr. Chamberlain, upon the recommendation of Harry Bingham, was appointed Superintendent of the Concord Railroad in the summer of 1871. When his corporation absorbed the Boston, Concord, and Mon- treal Railroad, he became General Traffic Manager of the new combination and held that position two years. In 1893 he was appointed Superintendent of the Concord Division of the Boston and Maine Railroad. He resigned this position in 1899, and retired from business after a service of forty-three years. Mr. Chamberlain was distinguished among railroad men for singleness of purpose, industry, and devotion to duty. The positions he held brought him into contact with all sorts of persons and were sur- rounded with temptations that might have led a weak or ambitious man to sacrifice the interests of the corporation to win personal popularity or public station. The blandishments incident to the position never seemed to reach him, or if they did, never affected his official action. He held the position as a trust to be adminis- tered in the interest of the stockholders and not for his personal advantage. He was a man of few words, and in business went direct to the matter under consideration. He early learned how to say " No " at the proper time, and never relinquished the habit. With all his regard for the interests of the road, he fully recog- nised the quasi-public character of the corporation he directed, and gave the people such accommodations that reasonable men seldom had just cause for complaint. He was a charter member of Burns Lodge A. F. & A. M., was its first Senior Warden and second Wor- shipful Master, and is the only survivor of the small group who were instrumental in establishing the lodge.
When Mr. Chamberlain departed for a wider field he was suc- ceeded here by John E. Dimick, who had for several years been the agent of the Passumpsic Railroad at Wells River. He was an efficient and popular railroad official, and in 1871, when Mr. Cham- berlain assumed the management of the Concord road, Mr. Dimick went to Portsmouth as agent at that station. At present he has charge of all matters there as agent of the Boston and Maine road. He has been somewhat prominent in politics since his removal to Portsmouth, and has been a representative in the Legislature, and is at present a member of the Board of Police Commissioners of that city.
Alden Quimby, who had been connected with the station as local baggage-master from 1856 to 1871, was Mr. Dimick's successor as agent, in which capacity he continued until his death in 1886. He
HORACE E. CHAMBERLAIN.
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The Railroad.
was an obliging man, much liked by the patrons of the road as well as by his superiors, as is shown by his long term of service of thirty years. Jolin C. Eastman, who had been station agent at the Twin Mountains, was transferred to this station during the last illness of Mr. Quimby, and remained until 1890, when he assumed charge of the business of the road at Lancaster, and Frank Eugene Wadleigh succeeded him here. In 1899 Mr. Wadleigh went to Laconia as ticket agent, and Mr. Eastman returned and resumed the duties of the position which he now holds.
A trio of young railroad men who ran on the same train and became members of Burns Lodge at the same time were Edward F. Mann, William A. Haskins, and William Harvey Greenleaf. The first was a baggage-master at one time and then conductor, the second an express messenger, and the third mail agent. Rail- road men are necessarily, to some extent, birds of passage, and while Mr. Mann never had a voting residence here, this was practically his home for some years. He was an active, intelligent man, who won friends and held them by his genial and kindly personality. He passed successively through all the grades in his line of service from brakeman to that of general superintendent of the Concord and Montreal Railroad. He was prominent in political affairs, and represented Benton in the Legislature two terms, and was twice elected to the State Senate from the Twelfth District. In 1888 he was the candidate of his party for member of Congress, and shared the fate of his associates in defeat, but received several hundred votes in excess of the next highest candidate on his party ticket. He was democratic in intercourse with his associates, direct and manly in business, and devoted with unquestioned loyalty to his corporation as well as to the political principles he espoused. During the last years of his life he suffered greatly from an incurable malady, but continued to discharge the duties of his position until within a few weeks of his death, which occurred at Concord, on the 19th of August, 1892. His friends numbered the wide circle of his acquaintanceship, and as he won them without effort he held them by the firm and shin- ing qualities of his manhood. William A Haskins resided here several years, and was interested in many things calculated to advance the public welfare. He was prominent in Masonic circles as well as in politics, and served as moderator for nine successive years. William H. Greenleaf made his home at Nashua, and after leaving the road engaged in trade for a time. He has represented his ward in the Legislature several terms.1
1 The list of railroad men during the period when Littleton was the terminus in- cludes, among those not before mentioned, the following : -
358
History of Littleton.
Fifty years have passed since the first railroad train made its sinuous way throngh this valley to our village, -- years big with the results of material advancement and the development of won- drous inventions that have caused many of the marvels of ancient fiction to shrink into insignificance. The growth of railroad com- munication has at least kept pace with the progress of the years, and the contrasts it affords are in many ways as striking as were the transitions from the stage coach to the early railroad trains. At first the cars were small, hung on springs that served but slightly to ease the jolts caused by an ill-ballasted roadbed, and the frequent application and release of the brakes always disturbed the passen- gers, and sometimes caused their involuntary removal from their seats. The interior, in summer, was usually filled with a cloud of dust that entered through unscreened windows. . In winter it was heated by an unsightly wood stove placed near the centre of the car. This method kept the passengers near the stove in perspira- tion, while those in the vicinity of the doors required overcoats and wraps to make them comfortable.
The litigation that involved the road in disaster during the first seven years of its operation compelled frequent changes in rolling stock and consequent inconvenience to the travelling public. In the autumn of 1856 the contractors were in possession with their credit exhausted. The road from which their equipment of locomo- tive and cars had been leased made a demand for their return, and for a short time it looked as though the management would be compelled to suspend the running of trains. But they proved equal to the occasion, and for a trifling sum purchased an old passenger car and transformed a short freight car with one set of trucks into a combination baggage, mail, and express car. This car was without platforms, and the brakes had to be operated from its roof. A partition separated the baggage room from the mail compartment, the interior furnishing of which consisted of a bench
Conductors : H. E. Sanborn, David Ferguson, Charles James, O. M. Hines, G. W. Little and Thomas Robie.
Baggage Masters : Asa Sinclair, J. C. Holmes, E. B. Mann, Charles H. Simpson and George V. Moulton. Mr. Moulton became conductor soon after the extension of the road to Lancaster.
Engineers : John L. Davis, Hiram Judkins, Geo. C. Eaton, Charles Green, J. Wesley Lyon, William Clement and C. M. Burleigh.
Firemen : Henry Simpson, James K. Hatch, William Moore and William Martin.
Express Messengers : Lewis Baxter, Harvey P. Ross, Daniel Green, John Church, John W. Wardwell, Jonathan M. Stevens and Robert Dewey, Jr., William A. Stowell, now general manager of the Montpelier and Wells River Railroad, was for a few months connected with this service here. See address by Hon. John M. Mitchell, " Littleton Centennial," pp. 259-275.
359
The Railroad.
for the distribution of the mail, and a half-dozen boxes for its reception. The doors were hung on a track or slide such as were then in use on all freight cars. Ingress or cgress from this room while the train was in motion was impossible, while to remain imperilled the health of the agent. The baggage-master fared better, as he rode in the passenger car and did the braking. One corner of this improvised combination car was reserved for the use of the express company. This arrangement did not con- tinue long, as the Boston, Concord, and Montreal Railroad came to the relief of the management, and the road soon after this passed into the hands of trustces who operated it until a sale was con- summated to the bondholders.
In sharp contrast to the present luxurious mode of railroad travel, especially that of railroad officials, were the surroundings attending the first visit of Commodore Vanderbilt to the White Mountains, in 1855 or 1856. With a party consisting of some twenty persons, including his wife and daughters and son-in-law, Horace E. Clark, and William D. Bishop, of the New Haven road, he left New York and passed the night at Springfield. The fol- lowing morning the journey was resumed. They dined at the lunch counter conducted by Asa T. Barron at White River June- tion, and when the party reached Wells River, a change was made to the train destined for Littleton, which stood on a side track next to the river. When the train was under way the party was divided and distributed from one end of the car to the other, and the old commodore, ruddy-faced, gray-haired, and gray-whiskered, with a light-colored top coat on his arm, and a trip pass in his hand, accompanied the conductor through the car, pointing out the members of his party who were entitled to transportation on his paper. All were covered with dust and otherwise travel-stained. As the train swung into the Ammonoosuc valley, the party became exceedingly enthusiastic over the landscape disclosed from the car windows. Mr. Vanderbilt was then regarded as the second wealthiest man in this country, the owner, or manager, of railroad and steamship lines of immense value, yet he shared all the countless discomforts that then attended railway travel. In these luxurious days, when a superintendent of division gocs abroad, he rides in his private car, surrounded with lavish comforts that would have moved the commodore, with his ideas of economy and respon- sibility to stockholders, to vigorous exclamations, in violation of the third commandment.
This condition of affairs could not, in the nature of things, long endure. The lower roads and the travelling public had a common
360
History of Littleton.
interest in desiring improved railroad facilities to the Mountains, and in 1859 the Boston, Concord, and Montreal acquired the road by lease for a period of one year, and at its expiration the lease was renewed at an increased rental,1 for a term of five years. Under the new order the equipment was, in every way, much im- proved, and the same train men, excepting engineer and fireman, made the trip between Concord and Littleton. Yet it was many years before through trains were run over the route from Boston. A transfer of passengers, baggage, express, and mail was made at Wells River, and it was not until the roads were consolidated that this nuisance was abated and the same cars ran from termini at Boston and Lancaster, and at Fabyans during the season of mountain travel.
For the first twenty-five years of the existence of the road litiga- tion seems to have been the normal condition prevailing among the stockholders, the contractors, and trustees or agents of the corporation.
In 1853 the corporation issued bonds to the amount of $180,000 secured by a mortgage on all its property to Ira Goodall, and Daniel Patterson of Bath, and Stephen Kendrick of Franklin, as trustees. This action was necessary to provide iron for the road, as well as to partially relieve the directors of the many burdens they had assumed during its building. These bonds were largely held by Benjamin T. Reed of Boston, E. J. M. Hale of Haverhill, Mass., and George Minot of Concord, who acted as counsel for others, all representing $160,000 of the total issue. These parties applied to the Legislature in June, 1857, for the passage of an act authorizing the sale of the road, as provided in the mortgage, and for authority to organize a new corporation by the purchasers. An act was passed, and in July, 1858, the court authorized the sale which was held at Bath on the 23rd of November, 1858, and George Minot, acting for himself and Messrs. Reed and Hale, pur- chased it for the sum of $24,000, and these associates in 1859 organized as the White Mountains (N. H.) Railroad, and the fol- lowing year made the lease to the Boston, Concord, and Montreal Railroad.
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