USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. II > Part 15
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The remarkable scourge of erysipelas had a beginning here in 1842, when a child was found in the village suffering from it, attended by marked peculiarities. Dr. Moore recognized the true nature of the case, and gave it consideration in connection with the history of the disease, as it had been known in London. The infection was unconsciously conveyed by physicians in their prac- tice and otherwise, and an alarming fatality followed. This was especially the case with women in childbirth. The epidemic became general in Vermont, and a fatal termination was almost certain with the special class of cases previously mentioned. In this town it was brought under control, perhaps, in a measure by favorable local conditions. As this became known, the town attracted many women from Vermont for the period of confine- ment. Many lives doubtless were saved by this hejira. The town was, for this reason, regarded as a sanitarium forty years ago, -- a " city of refuge " from the epidemic.
What at one time promised to be an epidemic of typhoid fever ap- peared in the winter of 1862-1863, but it was soon brought within
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control. In the last twenty years there have been some thirty cases of this disease in town.
In 1851 dysentery, peculiar in its epidemic or infectious form, was communicated at Waterford by two children who had con- tracted it while on a visit with their mother in Boston. It was violently contagious, and fatal to almost every child that came in contact with it. It was communicated at funerals and in clothing. It was a violent dysentery, accompanied by a remark- ably potent element of contagion. Nothing of the like character has before, or since, been known in this vicinity. A peculiar feature was, that it prevailed in the winter months.
No adequate treatment of these topics can be given in this place. It is a subject that well deserves an article extended and in detail. It is, however, apparent from what we have outlined of this branch of the history of the town, that its exemption from special visitations of disease is phenomenal. If our experience has been thus fortunate under the lax methods and habits of the past, we may hope for a more striking immunity under the regimen which the enlightened science of the future will enforce.
The review of the periods in which our people have suffered special visitations of disease demonstrates that our exemption, if not complete, has been remarkable. The conclusion is justified that our climate and sanitary conditions are very favorable to general health and longevity. The streams course rapidly over our territory, down marked declivities. Nature, therefore, con- trols the drainage, and scours the surface of our hillsides and valleys with frequent and drenching rain-storms and mountain floods. We have the pure air of the highlands, and the mountains break the violence of the winds. The water of our springs is wholesome, some of them having mineral constituents of a medici- nal character, and others being of as absolutely simple chemistry as the famous Poland spring. The registration report of 1901 gives the number of births as 78; in 1902, 86. The deaths were 79 in 1901; in 1902, 80. In view of the conceded efficiency with which the data have been gathered here, as compared with many other sections of the State, we have an average in these important statistics which is very favorable to the health condi- tions of the town. A careful estimate of the number of residents, who are more than seventy years of age, gives 150 in that class. One feature of our climate, especially favorable to small children and invalids, is that the nights are almost invariably cool in the midsummer season. Our people have a daily relief from the strain of the heated term. Other elements of the sanitarium
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mark the town. Its advantages are becoming known abroad, and its attractions, as a resort for health and recreation, are recognized by increasing numbers of summer visitors. We can- not promise immunity here from the ills to which the human system is everywhere susceptible ; but this town is assuredly one of the favored spots.
In the winter of 1901-1902 an epidemic of typhoid fever pre- vailed in the village. The best expert authority on the subject located the cause to a case of typhoid at Bethlehem, the theory being that the germs passed with escaping sewerage the interven- ing lands, thence through the instrumentality of winter freshets to the river. Thus the river became contaminated, and a violent phase of the epidemic resulted. The river was abandoned as a water supply the following autumn, and an abundant and superior quantity of water from the side of Mount Garfield has been sub- stituted. No municipality on this continent has to-day a more excellent and abundant supply of pure water for all purposes than has Littleton.
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XXXI.
CRAFTSMEN.
T HE first settlers were people accustomed to make their own tools, build their cabins, and manufacture the rude implements with which they tilled the soil. They were "jacks at all trades," and knew nothing of competition or trades unions or trusts. After a period of hardship they conquered adverse conditions and lived comfortably, peacefully, and prosperously.
At least three of the early settlers are known to have given the usual seven years to an apprenticeship and to acquiring a trade. Captain Caswell served such an apprenticeship to a tailor, Capt. Peleg Williams to a shoemaker, and Asa Lewis to a millwright and builder. It is probable, too, that Josiah Newhall served an apprenticeship to acquire the trade of a blacksmith. When they came to this town, all, with the exception of Deacon Lewis, were more dependent upon the cultivation of the soil than upon their trades for a livelihood.
Mr. Lewis built the Bowman saw-mill for Solomon Mann, the mill at South Littleton for Moses Little, and rebuilt the Rankin mill. He also erected the Bowman, Curtis, and Dr. Burns dwell- ings, and probably others.
James Dow, who married a niece of Mrs. Lewis, acquired the rudiments of the carpenter's trade in the service of Deacon Lewis, and was for nearly half a century a prominent builder in town. Before he had fully mastered the peaceful vocation to which he was to devote his active life, he enlisted in the War of 1812, and served as a musician from April, 1814, to March, 1815, participat- ing in the battles of Chippewa, Bridgewater, and Fort Erie. In the last-named contest he received a severe wound which incapaci- tated him for further service. An enthusiastic soldier, the lively spirit of patriotism kindled on these fields was never quenched, and even when advancing age had retired him from active labor it was his custom on each Fourth of July to summon to his side two
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grandsons who would beat the drums while he played the fife, and parade the streets to the music of "Yankee Doodle" and other patriotic airs.
Mr. Dow had a residence and shop on the Mann's Hill road, now Pleasant Street, as early as 1828. Builders in those days received little aid from machinery. Their raw material came to them in the shape of boards and planks from the saw-mill ; their frame was hewn from the log; the finish was worked out with hand planes ; the shingles, and sometimes the clapboards, were made in the woods from ancient pines that had been prostrated in some mighty storm, and were cut into lengths with a cross-cut saw, split with a cleaver, and worked into form and smoothed with a shave. They were durable articles, and would often last for a generation. Window-sash, doors, and all but plain finish were made at the home shop during the winter, none but the best of pine being used for this work.
About the time Captain Dow returned from the war, Jonathan Lovejoy, who had married a daughter of John Nurse some years before, came here from Lyman, where he had resided some ten years, and worked at his trade as a carpenter and joiner, and was for nearly forty years the principal competitor of Mr. Dow. These men were not architects. Each had a style that was par- ticularly his own, and from it they seldom varied. Dr. Burns found pleasure, in his drives about the town, in pointing out to his companion the buildings constructed by each of these craftsmen. Many of the houses they built are still standing, but those erected in the village have been so changed by adornments and " modern improvements " that even Dr. Burns, could he revisit the scenes of his labors, would fail to recognize in them the marked me- chanical peculiarities of the men who supervised their construction.
Jonathan Lovejoy was at one time a considerable figure in the political movements of the town. He was one of the original mem- bers of the Liberty party and active in its behalf ; but it was some years before the small number of the malcontents, as they were termed, put a ticket in nomination.
For nearly ninety years the Dow and Lovejoy families have had representatives engaged in this craft. Mr. Dow had but two sons, Luther T. and James, Jr., both of whom were connected with the trade ; the younger, who still lives, having followed it through life. Of his ten daughters seven lived to the age of womanhood and mar- ried craftsmen. Of these sons-in-law, David Page Sanborn and Franklin I. Gooch were tool-manufacturers, Capt. Elisha Burnham, Capt. Ellery D. Dunn, and Hezekiah H. Noyes were carpenters
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and builders, Albert H. Quimby was a carriage-manufacturer, and Thomas R. Nichols a painter.
Captains Burnham and Dunn were leaders among builders. Elisha Burnham resided on Union Street, where his son Henry B. now lives. He was a man of high character and in early life an enthusiastic member of the militia, in which he rose to the rank of Captain, commanding a company in the Thirty-second Regiment, and afterward the Independent Company of Light Infantry. His standing with his townsmen is indicated by the fact that in 1845 the minority party nominated and elected him to the Legislature.
Ellery D. Dunn was for fifty years the most prominent builder in this section of the State. He combined a considerable knowl- edge of architecture with a natural mechanical adaptability for the business and was a skilful and rapid workman. He had as a partner for many years William H. Chandler, who was also a supe- rior workman. The firm did a large business in this and adjoining towns and gave employment to a number of skilled workmen. After Mr. Chandler's death in 1882, Cyrus H. Conant came here from Tilton and entered Captain Dunn's employ. His proficiency finally led to his becoming a partner in the business. The firm built a large addition to the Hamilton Hotel in Bermuda and did a general contract business in its line. Nearly all the buildings on Main Street erected between 1860 and 1890 were constructed by Captain Dunn and his several partners. When Spokane, Wash., became the Mecca of fortune-seekers from this section, Mr. Conant journeyed thither in 1892, and that city has since been his home. Mr. Conant married Joan, daughter of Dennis Murphy, a son of the Emerald Isle, who possessed a large allowance of the humor- ous qualities which distinguish the people of that country. On first coming to this country in 1849, he made his home in this town, and here he continued to reside until his death in 1896. During this long period he was one of the characters of the town, and his original sayings were widely circulated and some of them still survive in local slang.
Jonathan Lovejoy had a son, Jonathan Johnson, who followed the trade, and his nephew and son-in-law, who was of the same craft and was his partner for several years, after his death con- tinued the business. The name of this family is associated with the west end of Main Street. In 1834 Jonathan Johnson built the house now standing at the corner of Main and Meadow Streets. The old house standing on this site, now the ell of the building, was once owned by Sylvester Savage, who probably built it about 1812. It was the home of the Rev. Mr. Hardy during the
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last months of his life. Mr. Lovejoy also built the house next west of the Isaac Abbot house in 1839, and with his cousin Charles H. Lovejoy in 1838 built that which was successively for many years the home of Jonathan, Charles H., and Henry W. Lovejoy.
The Lovejoys were given to intermarriages. Simon, the father of Jonathan and William of this town, married his cousin Grace, daughter of Nathan Lovejoy of Pepperell, Mass., and William Wallace and Charles Henry, sons of William, married daughters of Jonathan, while another William, a son of the same Jonathan, married his cousin Nancy, eldest daughter of his uncle William.
To return to the old-time artisans in this branch of the trades. At a time when carpentry and joinery were distinct occupations, Elisha P. Miner, a son of Isaac and grandson of Thomas the pioneer, followed the former trade, and framed many of the houses in town that were built between 1820 and 1860, when Mr. Miner retired. He was much respected for his probity. His son Silas A., but recently deceased (1903), followed the same trade.
About 1826 Levi Sanborn became a citizen of this town, coming from Sanbornton and bringing a family of nine children, among them David Page Sanborn, subsequently the noted tool-manufac- turer. Mr. Sanborn built the first house on the lot afterward owned by John Farr ; it was destroyed by fire soon after the prop- erty had been purchased by Mr. Farr, and his eldest daughter perished in the flames. The brick house now owned by Cyrus Young occupies the site of the building which was burned. Mr. Sanborn died in 1835. Several of his sons and all the husbands of his daughters were carpenters.
Jonathan Nurs was one of the most skilful of the old-time carpenters, and framed several of the important buildings of the town besides assisting Mr. Tenney, who was the overseer in fram- ing the village meeting-house, and Mr. Ingalls, who built the Woollen Factory. These structures were supposed to require the special experience of builders more familiar with the work than were any of those at home. Accordingly Mr. Tenney, from one of the New Hampshire towns in the Connecticut valley, and Mr. Ingalls from one of the hill towns of Vermont, probably from Danville, were engaged to superintend their erection. Mr. Nurs built the old factory boarding-house and marked the frame of Thayer's Hotel, though Andrew Scott - a noted carpenter in his day, who once resided in town but at that time lived over the line in Bethlehem - directed the work.
Mr. Nurs built and lived for some years in the house, recently
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destroyed by fire, that stood near the Palmer Brook bridge on Union Street. His work was not confined to this town. He helped build the Profile House and other houses at the White Mountains as well as numerous buildings in near-by towns.
Oliver Nurs, a brother of Jonathan, was another old-time carpenter who was not without fame as a builder somewhat more than half a century ago. When times were slack, he found work by building on his own account. He built the house on Main Street beyond the cemetery, once the residence of John W. English and now owned by Alphonso Harriman ; the original house on the site of the Mountain Home House, and others outside the village precincts.
Another follower of this craft who resided in the town in the thirties was Frederick Kilburn. When the Rev. Isaac R. Worcester was settled over the Congregational Church and So- ciety, he was given nearly five hundred dollars that had been raised to enable his brother Evarts to build a parsonage, and he employed Mr. Kilburn to build for him the residence on the north- east side of Union Street, near the Pike Company's works, now owned by John A. Miller. Mr. Kilburn had the reputation of being an excellent workman.
In the years prior to 1850 the modern light frame of sawed timber was unknown in this section. Pine was the material used, and was usually cut within the village precinct. The timber used in the frames of the meeting-house and the Brackett store, now known as Calhoun's Block, was cut in the village, and the fine frame of the Woollen Factory was hewn from pine cut on land that extends from High Street to Palmer Mountain. As the ceilings of the factory and store were to be used unplastered, the exposed parts of all the timber were planed and were without a scar from the hewer's axe.
In the early part of this period few buildings were painted, and it was customary to leave such work to the joiner. Red or yellow was the prevailing color in use, but sometimes an owner more ambitious than his neighbors would paint his house white. Then there came a time, about 1840, when all the painted buildings in the village with the exception of the old red and yellow stores, the house at the corner of the meadow road, which wore its red coat many years more, and one or two dwellings on the Mann's Hill road, were white. Another notable characteristic of that time was the absence of piazzas. As late as 1840 the only dwellings in the village thus adorned, other than the taverns, were the residences of Henry A. Bellows and Dr. William Burns.
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When, in 1839, Peter Paddleford built the house now the resi- dence of Mrs. Charles M. Tuttle, the parlor end, on both its north- erly and southerly sides, had piazzas. From this time they grew in favor, and when William Brackett built his village residence near the bridge, it was nearly surrounded with a piazza which has remained unchanged to this day.
The early frame structures were low-posted and seldom more than one story in height. There are several well-preserved examples of these dwellings still to be seen, -among them the old Bowman house in the rear of Opera Block, a two-story build- ing; the Loren Bowman house, which stands in what was the Brackett mill yard opposite the brick house where Cyrus Young resides. This Bowman house was built on the site of Dr. Sanger's residence in 1819 by Noah Farr, who gave a load of potatoes for the two-acre lot that constituted its site. Some adornments have been added, among them the front porch, but the general character of the house is unchanged. On its original site it was for several years the home of Col. Timothy A. Edson, and then for nearly half a century the residence of Truman Stevens. The Brackett place on the meadow road, now owned by the McIntires, and the Goodwin and Allen houses on Mann's Hill are also well- preserved types of the architecture of the period. Many others have resisted the tooth of time only to be transformed into " modern dwellings."
The builders of recent times, other than those already men- tioned, have been many, and among the most prominent were John T. and Samuel Freeland Simpson, who did business under the firm name of Simpson Brothers from 1868 down to 1890, when the firm was dissolved by the departure of the younger brother, who has since made his home in Lawrence, Mass. John T. was a soldier in the war of 1861-1865, as a member of a Maine regiment in which he rose to the rank of First Lieutenant. Since his residence here he has been prominent in Grand Army and po- litical circles, having commanded the local post and represented the town in the General Court. He has also served on the Board of Selectmen and as Commissioner of the Village District two terms.
John D. and Charles Bradon Chandler, who have been resi- dents of the town fifty years, belong to this craft, the former liav- ing built many dwellings in that time.
Soon after the close of the war in 1865, John Carbonneau came to Littleton from Sherbrooke, Canada. He was accompanied by some of his sons and followed by others, all of whom were car-
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History of Littleton.
penters. They were William G., Napoleon, Theophile, and John A. This family were among the first to build at the west end of South Street and on Bridge Street, John building the first house on Bridge Street south of the railroad, Napoleon that at the corner of Bridge and South Streets, and William G. two houses on the left side of South Street.
Another excellent workman, who came from Sherbrooke, Canada, in 1876, is Charles E. Garand, who is still active at his trade.
Among the builders at this time (1903) are John A. Fogg and his brother, Edgar O. The last-named has a shop in what was formerly Grange Hall on Union Street. John A. was for some years very active, doing a large business, but has within a few months practically retired.
Riley S. and Chester Simpson for nearly fifty years have re- sided in town, and during most of that time have worked at their trade as carpenters, though they have never been contractors.
Jeremiah B. Copp is regarded as one of the best workmen the town has had as a carpenter, using the word in the sense of dis- tinguishing the trade of framer from that of joiner or finisher of a building. He came here in 1860, and since that time has been employed on nearly all the important structures erected in the town. He framed the High School building that was blown down before it had been boarded by the storm of November, 1867. After this event Charles Nurse, son of Jonathan, was given the contract to remove the débris and complete the job. Mr. Nurse is the oldest of our living carpenters. He has now retired after a laborious career extending over more than fifty years.
Louis Myott, a former employee of Dunn & Chandler and then of Cyrus A. Conant, whom he succeeded in the business, is a skilful and successful workman.
It was many years after the settlement of the town before a mason became a resident. A Mr. King was the first mason ; he was here but a short time. But Aaron Kenney lived in the Crane neighborhood in Bethlehem, and was a master-hand at build- ing brick ovens and chimneys, and could lay plaster that would stick where he put it for a generation. For more than a decade he did nearly all the masonry and plastering in this town as well as that of his residence. The building of the Scythe Factory and saw-mill at the hamlet now known as Apthorp rendered this an inviting field for all the crafts, and in 1836 Moses Cleveland, "bricklayer and plasterer," came from Bath and located here, where he had a monopoly in his trade until 1850, when the erection of the Methodist meeting-house, and the rebuilding in
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Craftsmen.
part of the Congregational meeting-house, and the growth of the village in anticipation of the coming of the railroad, required all kinds of artisans, and created a demand for a more ornamental style of workmanship than Mr. Cleveland was familiar with; so Samuel Pollard came and did the work on the meeting-houses, Thayer's Hotel, and most of the private residences built in the next six years. Mr. Pollard was an expert workman, and was the first to embellish the plasterer's art with cornice and stucco orna- mentation. He subsequently, about 1858, removed to Dalton.
The successor of Mr. Pollard was Chester Fisk, who had been a resident here from 1852 but had not entered into competition with Mr. Pollard for a share of the higher class of work. Mr. Fisk was regarded as one of the best masons that have made this town their home. In the seventies he went to Manchester, where he died some years ago.
His successor was Newton S. Cooley, who had been a gallant sailor in the navy during a part of the war. He was an excellent workman, thoroughly versed in all its branches, and a skilled decorator in the plastic art connected with this craft. Mr. Cooley did a large business down to the time when his health failed and necessitated his retirement.
Among those who succeeded Mr. Cooley were James Place, re- cently deceased, and James E. Cheney, John McKelvey, John Bean, and Joseph White, who are still in the business.
The furniture business has, in a way, had an existence here for nearly a hundred years. The old-time cabinet-makers manufac- tured for a market that extended beyond the borders of the town. Josiah Hosmer, the landlord of the Bowman House, and the builder of the Union, or Cobleigh, stand, was a cabinet-maker by trade, and never quite abandoned that business while a resident here. The Hazeltine chair business was started in 1830, and soon acquired a reputation for substantial and handsomely finished work that is still remembered. Enoch Hazeltine was a unique character ; slight of form, light-complexioned, with an intellectual face and an ab- stract air, his bearing was such that by those who did not know him he was regarded as queer. He was a man of strong convictions and much given to thought. An abolitionist, his soul was centred in the work of that party to the exclusion of everything else except an occasional excursion into the realms of what is now styled " liberal Christianity," a subject that sometimes led him to forget for a moment the chains of the bondman. His habit of introspection led to many curious physical results, and for years kept him maimed and bandaged in consequence of a misdirected blow or a
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