History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 126

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1520

USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 126
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 126

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

JOSEPH BACHELDER.

Joseph Bachelder was the son of Captain Abraham Bachelder (3), and was born in Loudon in 1800. He is the descendant of Jethro, and is in the direct line from the Rev. Stephen Bachelder, from England. He married Hannah H. Hill, by whom he had a family of six children,-John Q. A., born March 10, 1826 ; Otis H., born January, 1828, died November 17, 1859; ; Clarissa, born ¿January 6, 1830; Joseph P., born October 21, 1835; Elvira A., born June 4, 1839 ; Roseltha, born April 17, 1845, died September 20, 1860.

John Q. A. married Eliza J. Sanborn, daughter of Edmund Sanborn; has lived in Massachusetts since twenty-five years of age ; has no children.

Otis H. married Maria Howard, of Lawrence. Mass., where he was in trade until his death, and left no children.

Clarissa married Cyrus T. Bachelder, and resides in Peabody, Mass., and is engaged iu trade.

Joseph P. married Elvira A. Whitney, of Canter- bury, and had one child, named Alfred P.

Mr. Bachelder married, the second time, Abby J. Demeritt. Mr. Bachelder resides upon the home- stead and occupies the pleasant mansion of his father. He is a most thorough and practical farmer and an honored and respected citizen of the town. His son, Alfred P., married Nellie M. Brown, of Can- terbury, and has one child, named Ernest L., which constitutes the sixth generation of Bachelders that have been born in this Bachelder mansion and have lived in the same, beginning with Jethro.

Joseph Bachelder died in Loudon March 29, 1877. He was an able, upright and a respected citizen of the town, and was always interested deeply in the cause of education, the progress of science and reli- gion. He, with his wife, were members of the Con- gregational Church at the village in Loudon for many years. He was an excellent and practical far- mer, having one of the finest situatious in the town, upon which he has made extensive improvements. He was firm and decided in his opinions, and unyielding in the principles which he believed to be right. He did not interest himself in political matters to any

I. B. Lowering

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extent, and was never elected to any of the ordinary offices of the town. He was successful in the acqui- sition of property, and at his death possessed a large and valuable estate. A relic is retained in posses- sion of the family, which is the wig worn by Jethro, Sr., who was a bald-headed man. An interesting inci- dent is related at his birth, which is, that while going for the necessary assistance in the case, to a neighbor's, the person, in crossing a brook, caught by an elm-tree for support, which uprooted and was transplanted af- terward near the residence, and which measured, in July, 1885, seventeen feet in circumference. In the year 1800 a bear was killed, which had two young cubs. The oil was taken from the old one. Some of it was sealed up in a small bottle, some of which was shown the writer in 1885, it being eighty- five years old. One of the cubs was killed with its mother ; the other was taken to the breast of a wo- man who had lost a new-born babe.

Mr. Bachelder, upon the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage, was presented, by his connection and friends, with a valuable gold-headed cane, which is kept in the family and highly prized.

SAMUEL B. LOVERING.

The first of the Lovering family of whom we have any authentic record was Moses Lovering, of Exeter, N. H. He married Nelly Taylor, of Exeter, by whom he had a family of thirteen children,-nine boys and four girls, viz. : Willerby, Nelly, Osgood, Taylor, Nancy, Moses, Jesse, Mary, Zebulon, John, Daniel, William and Sarah. Of these, the first eleven were born in Exeter, the latter two in Loudon. One re- markable fact in a family so large was that they all lived to be from forty to ninety years of age. They were all married and had families ; two of them, Moses and William, were twice married ; Mary was the first who died (about 1815), and William died in Spring- field (1865).

In the year 1787, Moses Lovering, with his family, left Exeter to make his home in the then sparsely-set- tled region now the populous and thrifty town of Loudon. Their household goods were brought in an ox-team, while the ladies rode on horseback about fifty miles along a forest pathway over the hills to their future home, a hundred-acre lot on the site of Mr. S. B. Lovering's present abode. There was a primitive affair dignified by the title of a mill on the place, in which, by diligence and patience, they could grind a bushel or so of corn. There were none of the comforts, or what would be considered at the present day the necessities, of civilized life, surrounding them in their frontier home ; but with the resolute will which characterized the grand old pioneers of our American civilization, they went earnestly and hope- fully to work and soon converted the forest-clad hills into smiling fields teeming with cereal productions, and gradually gathered around them property and con-

veniences. They from time to time added to the original hundred acres till they possessed a landed estate of over five hundred acres. The boys were ingenious as well as industrious; all of them could skillfully handle carpenter's tools, and possessed the various requisite qualities and accomplishments for successful pio- neers.

In course of time all the brothers married and set- tled in Loudon, and as each one took to himself a companion, the other brothers would all join together and build for the newly-wedded couple a house to live in. In that early day there was no public-school sys- tem in vogue, there were no school-houses, and the only tutorship the children of the neighborhood could obtain was when occasionally an itinerant teacher would come into a community and teach for a few months at a private house, when those children who lived near enough and whose parents were able to pay for their tuition were privileged to attend. Moses Lovering, with a family of thirteen children to rear and support, and poor in purse, could not afford to send his children away to school and so they were comparatively uneducated. Some of the boys so far educated themselves as to be able to attend to their business affairs without outside aid in such matters as required record or correspondence, but they all felt severely the need of better education. They were very steadfast in their affection for each other, and each frequently visited the other at their respective homes ; and thus the long winter cvenings were spent in so- cial converse around the hearth-stones of those huge old fire-places, where roared and crackled the blazing wood-fires of our grandsires' days.

About 1816, William and Osgood moved to Stew- artstown, N. H., Taylor to Canada, Daniel and Wil- liam to Springfield, N. H. From there Daniel went to the West and died. The others died in Loudon and vicinity. The boys were all Democrats in politics.

Zebulon Lovering, the father of Samuel B., was born in Exeter, N. H., July 15, 1777. He married, January 21, 1807, Abigail Buswell, who was born in Kingston, N. H. (1787). Upon the death of his father, Moses, Zebulon inherited the homestead in London and re- sided there till the close of his life. They had ten children,-Samnel B. (portrait in this volume) ; Al- mira, born September 10, 1811, married Kinsley Ma- son ; Anis J., born February 12, 1814, married George W. Neal; Sarah B., born August 14, 1816, married James McAnstin ; Louisa, born February 17, 1819, married Aaron B. Young ; Laura L., born February 27, 1822, married Rev. Stephen Eastman ; Abigail, born Angust 11, 1824, married Osni P. Hamblet; and Alonzo B., born April 13, 1827, married Sarah Davis. Zebulon died December 21, 1830; Mrs. Lovering, August 21, 1861.

Samuel B. Lovering, the eldest child of Zebulon, was born April 13, 1808. In his boyhood days the district schools were usually kept about three months

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in the year. He began attendance at these when about eight years of age, and continued till he was eighteen. After this he took lessons of Master Tim- othy Gleason in writing and arithmetic. He was brought up to work on the farm and at the mill. The year he attained his majority his father died, and the care of his widowed mother and the smaller children devolved upon him. His father left the farm to him upon the decease of his mother. Soon after his father's death he rebuilt the old mill, converting it into a saw-mill, and it has been run as such ever since, sawing lumber, boards, shingles and laths, averaging about one hundred and fifty thousand per year. He has, from time to time, made additions to the real estate he inherited from his father, and now owns about four hundred acres of land. He has been a successful and prosperous farmer. He united with the Methodist Episcopal Church when he was about thirty years of age, and from that time to the present he has been a consistent member. He is fond of music and accomplished as a singer and instru- mental performer. He led the choir in his church for twenty years, and in old militia days he played the clarionet at the muster-grounds for fifteen years. He has served his town as selectman and representative to the Legislature. He has been justice of the peace for nearly forty years, and has been in Probate Court business since his first appointment, and has settled many estates and held other positions of trust.

He married, December 18, 1834, Mary S. Rogers, of Northfield; she was born April 22, 1811, and was a lineal descendant of John Rogers, the martyr. Their children were,-

Nancy A., born January 31, 1836; married Josiah Young, and lives at Clarksville, N. H.

James B., born March 7, 1838; married Jennie Hamilton, a school-teacher, of Brookline, N. Y. He was for several years manager of the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company, at Jersey City ; now lives at Webster, Fla.

Harlen P., horn June 12, 1843; married Eliza Wentworth, of Boston ; resides at Tampa, Fla.

Abigail M., born May 14, 1845 ; married Augustus A. Arling, a farmer in Canterbury. He died, and she married George Simmons, of Boston, Mass.

Clara A., born November 18, 1848 ; died November 5, 1855.

Frank O., born June 1, 1856; died July 7, 1862. Mrs. Lovering died November 11, 1858.

Mr. Lovering's second wife was Lucy Grace, of Hillsborough, N. H. They were married September 4, 1859. She was born February 10, 1826. Their children were, --

Clara A., born July 19, 1860 ; married Herman W. Mudgett, M.D .; now resides at Moore's Forks, N. Y. Frank O., born April 2, 1863.

Edwin E., born April 7, 1865. Both the latter are at the old homestead, assisting their father in the conduct of the mill and farm.

Mrs. Lovering died March 17, 1878.

Mr. Lovering married in Concord, N. H., Novem- ber 11, 1880, his present wife, Lavina Hoyt, of Fisherville (now Pennacook). She was born Feb- ruary 26, 1832. She is the daughter of Deacon Benjamin Hoyt, deacon of the First Baptist Church of Pennacook from its organization till his death, September 6, 1864. Mrs. Lovering has been a member of the same church since her nincteeth year. She for many years taught a class of girls in the Sabbath- school there, and all of them have subsequently united with the church.

Deacon Benjamin Hoyt was noted for his moral integrity and strict piety. He was a successful farmer and a highly-respected citizen of his town. He was descended from John Hoyt, one of the original settlers of Salisbury, Mass. (For a more extended an- cestral history of the Hoyt-or Hoitt-family see biography of Thomas L. Hoitt, in this volume.)

Mrs. Lovering's mother was Hannah Eastman, a descendant of Captain Ebenezer Eastman, who in early life followed the seas, and was one of the pio- neer settlers of ancient Pennacook (now Concord), N. H. Another of her ancestors was Captain Joseph Eastman, who figured in the French and Indian War. Mrs. Hoyt was a very pious woman, and when her husband, the deacon, was absent from home, attend- ing evening meetings, she would talk and pray with her children, and teach them the importance of God's word ; all of them have since become members of the church.

DAVID J. FRENCH.

David J. French was born in Loudon September 2, 1805. He was the great-grandson of Timothy French, who came from Salisbury, Mass., about the year 1773, and settled in the northeast part of Lou- don, and was among the first who settled in that local- ity. At that time there was no road leading from the old Dr. Tenney corner northwesterly to Loudon Ridge, save a sled-path used in the winter season. Hecleared the land for his farm, which was a wilderness; built a house and drew the boards from Cram's mill, in Pitts- field, to board it, upon wheels as far as the Tenney corner, and then upon a sled in the month of July to his future residence. His father was Joshua French, who lived upon the farm which has always been occu- pied in the French name. David J. French lived with his father until about twenty-six years of age, when he married and soon after purchased the farm where he now resides, and commenced for himself and family a farmer's life, about the year 1832, which avo- cation he has followed to the present time, and at the age of eighty years was found in his field with a scythe in his hand, able to cut and put into his barn one acre of grass a day. He is a man of robust form, and possesses a strong and iron constitution, for which the French family have ever been noted. He has

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been very successful in acquiring property ; commenc- ing with an indebtedness of five hundred dollars, he is now the owner of several tracts of land, besides several thousand dollars in banks and upon loan, which he has earned by hard labor, and not by speculation or intrigue. Mr. French received only a common-school education, but possesses large, native abilities, which, being well cultivated, have enabled him by persistent effort to hew his way successfully through life. As a politician he is a most thorough Republican, always attending the annual meetings of the town and manifesting a great interest in every matter that pertains to the highest and best interest of his native town, and acting at all times in his polit- ical life as though conscious of his accountability to a power which is infinite and supreme.

He is a man of strong religious feeling, and has for many years led a life of daily and family prayer. Be- ing retiring in his manner in public religious duties and profession, he has never connected himself with any church, but is a constant attendant upon worship at the house of God whenever practicable. Mrs. French died January 22, 1872. Since her death and that of his son Isaac, Mr. French has lived at the old home alone, patiently waiting thesummons that shall call him to meet the loved ones who have gone before.

Dr. Isaac S. French was the only child of David J. French, and died in the year 1878. He married Au- gusta French and had no family. Dr. French in- herited from his father characteristics that were strongly marked in boyhood, and being well culti- vated, enabled him to become an eminent and useful man, although young. He was well educated by his father at Gilmanton Academy, and studied medicine with the venerable Dr. Nahum Wight ; he attended college at Pittsfield, Mass., and at the medical college at Hanover, N. H., from which he graduated as a physician. He commenced practice in Salisbury, Mass., and remained one year, and then returned to his native town and engaged actively in his profes- sion with success. His business relations were exten- sive, and he occupied positions of trust. He held the situation of assessor of the internal revenue for the Congressional district in which he resided, under the administration of President Lincoln, besides doing a large local business as a justice of the peace in his own town and surroundings. He acquired, by economy, frugality and labor, in a few years a hand- some property, and had well established himself among his townsmen in his calling and profession. He died in the prime of his life and in the midst of his usefulness, having large " honor in his own coun- try."

STEPHEN MOORE.

Stephen Moore is the son of Thomas and Comfort ( Perkins) Moore, and grandson of Captain Samuel Moore, who was twice married and had a family of ten children. He was a native of, and resided in Can- and had four children.

terbury, where his father was town clerk. He held a commission as captain under King George III. but when the Revolutionary struggle began he resigned his commission, and, casting his fortunes with the colonies, fought during the war on the American side. He died just before independence was established, and his son Thomas, then a lad of fifteen, was bound out to a farmer at old Hampton, but, becoming dis- satisfied with his new home, and fired with the martial spirit of the times, he ran away and enlisted in the army, serving about six months.

Captain Samuel was by occupation a farmer and inn-keeper. He kept the hostelry known for many years as the McCrillis tavern, about a mile south of Canterbury Centre.

Thomas Moore was brought up on the farm, to the time of his father's death. In 1785 he first began im- proving the tract of land, in what is now the town of Loudon, where he subsequently made his home. Jan- uary 11, 1787, he married Comfort Perkins, and, hav- ing previously built a small house on his Loudon land, the young couple at once went there and began house- keeping, and there the remainder of their lives were passed. The part of London in which he located was then an unbroken forest ; he was the first settler in that part of the town.

He was, by natural gifts, a bright, intelligent mån, but had no educational advantages in his youth. When, in after-years, he had gathered a little property around him, and had a child large enough to receive instruction, he and a neighbor named Wheeler hired a private tutor to come to their homes, who, spending his time alternately between the two houses, taught both parents and children. Thomas Moore was always a friend of education, and when the town began to appropriate money for school purposes, but had as yet no school building, he tendered the use of his dwelling, and the school was kept in summer-time in his barn, and in the winter months in his residence. He was one of the committee who first districted the town for school purposes, and he held various minor offices in the town. Their family consisted of nine children, seven of whom reached maturity, viz .:

Polly, died unmarried.

Samuel, married Charlotte Foster, of Canterbury, and had one child, now Mrs. Kate Rowe, of Rochester, N. Y.

Joanna, died unmarried.

Alexander, married Mary Page, of New Hampton ; had a family of several children, who grew up to ma- tnrity.

Stephen, subject of sketch.

Sophronia, married Jacob A. Potter, of Concord, and had a family of four children.

Comfort, married William A. W. Neal, of Concord, and had one son.

Thomas, died young.

Myra, married Joseph N. Wadleigh, of Loudon,

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HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Of these nine children of Thomas and Comfort Moore, Stephen is the only one now (1885) surviving.

Thomas Moore was au industrious and enterprising farmer, and did much toward improving the tract of land on which he had made his home. In religious belief he was a Congregationalist, and his wife was a Free-Will Baptist.

Stephen Moore, like others of his time and locality, had very limited advantages in the way of schooling. Brought up on the farm, he worked hard in his boy- hood, but improved what little time he had for study as best he could, studying nights and at leisure times, and thus obtained a fair English education. Upon his father's decease the property was divided among seven children, but Stephen purchased the interest, from time to time, of the other heirs, until he finally became the possessor of the home farm and adjacent wild lands, and here, for more than half a century, he toiled and labored and reared a family of children. Like his father, he was hardy, industrious and frugal, and he gradually improved the farm and buildings thereon, and gathered property around him, until he became in very comfortable circumstances, and was the proprietor of one of the best kept farms in his town.

In April, 1809, the barn on the home farm of Thomas Moore was burned, together with four oxen, four cows, ten tons of hay and farming implements. Supposed to be the work of an incendiary. There was no insurance.

The esteem in which Mr. Moore was held by his neighbors was evideuced by numerous small presents, such as lumber, labor, etc .; also a cow given by the Shakers. Within six weeks after his barn was burned, he, with the help of his neighbors, had taken from the woods the lumber, and built the barn which at present stands there. He also built a shed and car- riage-house connected with the barn, and dug a well. In 1822-23, Samuel, Alexander and Stephen Moore erected a saw-mill on a small stream running through the home farm, for the purpose of sawing their own lumber. A few years later the mill came into the possession of Stephen. Samuel and Stephen also bought and used the first shingle-mill which was brought into the town. It cost, with right to use the same, one hundred and forty dollars. They used it twenty years.

where he had cut wood and timber, and cleared for pasture. In 1860 he sowed four hushels of wheat on two and a half acres of land, and harvested therefrom a crop of one hundred bushels.

In September, 1866, Mr. Moore removed from the home farm to the village of Loudon Mills, and the homestead came into the possession of his son, A. G. Moore, who, in 1868, raised the barn and put in a cellar, seventy-six by twenty-four feet, with walls of split granite. In 1869 he built a carriage-house and stable, thirty-six by twenty-six feet. In 1874 he put new wheels and gearing in the saw-mill, and in 1884 he took up the lead pipes laid by his father, Stephen, and in their place laid cement-lined irou pipes to the house and barn. He has also continued in various ways to improve the farm, and has been very success- ful in conducting it.

Stephen Moore married, January 31, 1827, Mary L., daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Wells) Greeley, of Gilmanton, N. H. They had eight children,-

Joseph G., boru December 12, 1827.

Albert, born February 21, 1831; died in infancy.

Anne Maria, born July 17, 1833; died September 20, 1881.

Andrew G., born January 12, 1836; married Laura A., daughter of Zephaniah and Mary Batchelder; has one child living.

George L., born March 8, 1838 ; enlisted in Union army and died in hospital, July 12, 1864.

Infant son, unnamed, died in infancy.

Mary R., born September 14, 1842; died October 10, 1876.

Caroline A., born November 23, 1848; died January 1, 1852.

Joseph G., married first Mary A. Arlin, and second Aune Nichols. He has five children, all sons, and resides in Dubuque, Iowa, where he is at present en- gaged in the wood and coal business. He has been, however, for about thirty years, a railroad engineer.

Anne M., married John O. Hobbs, of Deerfield. He removed to Newport, N. H., and was a merchant tailor there to the time of his death. His only child, Miss Kate Hobbs, graduates from the academy there in the class of 1886.

Mrs. Moore died March 31, 1854. Mr. Moore mar- ried, as his second wife, Mrs. Mary Berry, widow of Alanson Berry, of Loudon, a daughter of Levi Bean, of Brentwood, N. H. Mr. Moore has given all of his children an academical education, at the various academies of Gihnanton, Pittsfield, Sanbornton and Loudon.

In 1840, Stephen Moore dug a well fifty rods from the buildings, laid pipes and brought the water to his house and barn. He also built a small barn, thirty by thirty-six feet, for sheep, on the northeast side of the large barn. In 1848 he built an ell to the dwell- Since Mr. Moore's residence at the village he has accomplished a work at once unique and interesting. He owned a tract of woodland lying adjacent to the church and bordering on the village, which he made overtures to the village to assist in converting into a cemetery ; uot meeting with a satisfactory response, he conceived the idea of himself beautifying and ing-house, forty by twenty feet, consisting of kitchen, pantry and wood-shed. In 1850 he divided the large barn in the middle, moved one part back, put in an addition of twenty feet, making it seventy-six by forty-four feet. He also built a shed, thirty by sixteen feet, connected with the small barn. In 1850-51 he raised six hundred and fifty bushels of rye on outlands, | adorning the grounds and preparing it for future use

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as a resting-place for the dead. With characteristic energy, he at once set about carrying his plans into execution, and here, toiling day after day, to accom- plish his cherished purpose, the last twenty years of his life have been spent. Beginning this enterprise at an age when most men are ready to retire from ac- tive life, it is astonishing to see what he has, unaided and alone, accomplished.

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 126

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1520

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1520