History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 183

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 183
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 183

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).

At Lake village the store on the west side was the only store at first ; afterwards, Cole's store at the fur- nace, and the Bugbee store, at the bridge, were added ; afterwards, G. W. Weeks and various other dealers opened places of trade, and the business is now of large capacity, and holds an enlarged place in the supply of the outlying districts, and in the patronage on the part of those who more and more make their marketing here.

The bakery business has been carried on at Lake village by Charles Elkins. The trade at Meredith bridge in early years was predominantly given to the Meredith side, and to this day the bulk of trade is there.

The French store, however, has done a fair share of business since its opening, which was at an early date, and has not frequently changed ownership. Henry French conducted it for many years, and was principal member of later partnerships. Avery's store was the first opened, in 1790, at the end of the bridge. Various other business concerns were located in two small buildings on each side of the roadway, at the abutment of the bridge. The one on the up- river side of the roadway was built by L. B. Walker, Esq., and extended beyond the natural shore-line into the river, and its supposed obstruction to the water-flow created a sensation on the part of those interested in the water-power above, and demands were made for its withdrawal, on penalty of its being overturned into the river.

Richard Gove conducted, for nearly a half-century, the jewelry business in this and other buildings. The post-office, established in 1824, was once kept in the building on the down-river side of the way by Mr. A. C. Wright, who conducted the paper, the Winni- piseogee Guzette, and did business as shoe-dealer, and

765

GILFORD.

afterwards in Lowell, Mass., whence he came, and whither he returned. The large block on the corner has been occupied by various parties for offices, resi- dences and trading-places, and on its site, since its destruction, have been located various structures, among which is a market, a shoe-shop and drug-store. Swain's store has been recently added, and one oppo- site the hosiery was in occupancy by I. Tilton for some years.

Hotel-keeping, a branch of trade, has been of some importance and has been conducted by a few enter- prising men as landlords.

The Lawrence tavern, on Gilford side, was rival of the Robinson's tavern, on the other side. It was kept by Ebenezer Lawrence, and afterwards by John Til- ton, and then became the Willard Hotel, and was considered " beautiful for situation," and a favorite resort to the best class of the traveling public and for boarders. It was afterwards kept by Young, Morrison & Everet. The' Eager tavern was nearer the court- house, but " the court " usually made his abode at the Willard, and the litigant more generally at the Eager and Robinson's. The Eager has often changed land- lords and name. It has been kept by Asa Eager, Frank Chapman, Charles Beede, Hiram Verrill, Mr. Tuck, A. Morrison, John Blaisdell and others, at different times, and known as the Belknap House and by other names, and been enlarged and rebuilt. The building of another house at Winnesquam, "The Bay View," and now still another, " Vue De L'Van," has been in response to summer travel and required boarding, which has greatly increased; and other houses for boarding, such as the Maplewood, etc., have been opened.

At Lake village, Sargent's tavern was opened some thirty years ago, and before that there was no public- house and not much travel to require one. The travel by stage was mainly through Meredith. As to travel, its mode, direction and extent, great changes have occurred. The stage-lines were from Conway and the upper parts of the State to Concord and Boston. Daily trips were made each way. One day took pas- sengers from the upper towns to Concord, and the next day to Lowell and Boston. These stages were usually filled. Daniel Greene drove a mail line from Meredith Bridge, through Gilmanton, to Pittsfield, and a bi-weekly stage ran to Alton Bay. This last route underwent some alterations,-at one time pass- ing through Gilford village, and, at another, via In- tervale to Lake village, and was finally discontinued and a special route made to the village; and West Alton was connected with Alton Bay.

Robert Carr kept a semi-hotel, or entertained teamsters and travelers, as a halting-place between Emerson's, at West Alton, and Meredith Bridge. Captain James Follet furnished meals and enter- tained at town-meetings and on other public occasions at the Meeting-House Hill. These, with many other places recently, furnishing board in the summer sea-

son, constituted the hotel provisions in the town and vicinity.

About 1845 travel by rail began. The Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad was first opened to Meredith Bridge, and afterwards to Plymouth, and finally to Wells River.

The repair-shops were located at Lake village, and a wharf and landing at the Weirs.

Before this, in 1832, the first steamboat, the " Bel- knap," was built at Lake village, and got up into the lake by being buoyed up, to pass the shallows at the Weirs. She was a heavy, clumsy boat, and ran only a few years till she ran aground near Long Island, and was finally broken up and disposed of. Captain Winborn Sanborn was the commander of her, and he was, in after-years, also of the " Lady of the Lake." Since that time the " Lady of the Lake," the " White Mountain," the "Long Island," the " Winnipesau- kee," the " Minneola," the " James Bell" and many other smaller steamers have been put upon routes on the lake, and communicate with the Weirs and Lake village. Much transportation has been made also by the horse-power toll-boats, and in gondolas (so-called popularly), and by rafts and smaller boats.

The corporations located in the town, or doing business therein, have been the Iron-Mining and Foun- dry Company, the Ticking-Mill Company, the steam- boat companies, the Academy Corporation, the Horse Railroad Company (formed in 1883, and running street cars from Laconia and Lake village), the Savings- Bank, National Bank and some smaller concerns that do business on joint capital and have common interests.

In educational work and facilities, the town has a commendable record in the past, and standing at present.

When the town was incorporated there had been formed ten districts in which schools had been main- tained, and the money raised that year for the sup- port of these schools was four hundred and ninety- two dollars. These districts have since been increased till they numbered fourteen. The added districts were the Lake village (the village having grown up since that time), the Zebedee Morrill District, the Daniel Brown District and the Captain Marsten Dis- trict. These schools were maintained by the school- money, divided according to the valuation of the district, as bounded. Hence, they varied in duration, and often were of short duration. Usually, a sum- mer and a winter term was held, of eight or twelve weeks each. Select schools were occasionally held at Gilford village and at Lake village in more recent years, and, in 1820, an academy was established at Meredith Bridge, which was sustained some forty years, and then consolidated with the High School or graded schools of that village. This was a rival school of the Gilmanton Academy, which was established there in 1794.

The academy had not, alas ! the prestige of that of

766

HISTORY OF BELKNAP COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Gilmanton, a generous grant of land from the State and the appropriation of its school-lot from the town. But it had the moral support of the better class of the community, and a liberal patronage. It was well instructed and managed under Precep- tor Joshua M. Pitman, from Meredith, and Dyer H. Sanborn, from Gilmanton, and John C. Clark, Mr. Emerson and others, whose preceptorships were the good fortune of the corporation and the praise of the patrons and students. There had been a short interim in the principalship when Benjamin Stanton, from Lebanon, Me., and a graduate of Bowdoin College, as- sumed the duties of principal, and Clara Stanton those of assistant and preceptress, which was in 1849, and continued till 1853.

The school was sustained a few years afterwards and was taught by several teachers, among whom were Woodbury L. Melcher, A.M., Mr. Richer, Professor Hammond, Professor Burleigh and, after consolida- tion, by J. G. Jewett and others, and was at length consolidated with the graded public schools, and its record becomes merged in that of the town schools. At different times select schools were held for a single term at Gilford village. Such were taught by Albert G. Weeks and Nathan Weeks, William H. Farrar, C. C. Watson, D. S. Frost, Dr. Dearborn and others. The old-time teachers were severe disciplinarians, and the scholars of that day stalwart and rude. The fe- male teachers of the summer school were somewhat noted for their matronly kindness and care and ad- vanced age. Two by the name of Mary Sanborn fol- lowed the vocation till in far advanced years.

Among the male teachers who exclusively taught the winter schools were William H. Farrar, Albert G. Weeks, Ira G. Folsom, Rev. Mr. Damon, Daniel K. Smith, Rev. D. C. Frost and others, who were men of ability and extended education, and some were collegians. Of another class, athletic and disciplina- rians, were Jeremiah Thing, James Morrison, John Davis, J. J. Morrill, Daniel Eaton, George Hoyt, Samuel Evans, Jonathan Weeks, Harrison Bennet, William B. Weeks, Benjamin Sanborn, David Y. Smith, Aaron Blaisdell, Daniel Blaisdell, John M. Rowe, Nathan Weeks, William Morrill, Harrison San- born, Rufus Morrill, S.S. Ayer, William Hunt, George Sanders, George Sleeper, Nehemiah Sleeper, Simon Rowe, Shepherd Rowe, Rev. J. L. Sinclair, M. B. Smith and many others. Nehemiah Sleeper was school com- mittee for the town at its commencement, and Es- quire Benjamin Weeks was a leading man in educa- tional interests even before the incorporation of the town. A few sons of Gilford have graduated at col- lege,-William, son of Esquire Benjamin Weeks, Albert G. Weeks, Ira Folsom, J. P. Watson, Wood- bury L. Melcher, C. C. Watson, John B. Morrill, A. J. Thompson, Jonas Sleeper, Daniel Dinsmore, Joseph B. Clark and a few others.

The town early contained circulating libraries, which did much for the instruction and general intel-

ligence of the community ; these were well read, but have not been maintained. A public library is pro- vided by Laconia for that part of Gilford now de- tached.

There have been two newspapers published in town,-one more recently at Lake village and one formerly at Meredith Bridge,-but papers published in Boston and New York have larger circulation.

The Gazette (Winnipesaukee), at Meredith Bridge, was edited and published sometimes in Gilford and sometimes in Meredith, and under changed names. Among its editors and managers have been Charles Lane, J. C. Moulton, A. C. Wright, Mr. - Baldwin (of unhappy and premature death), and several others. Mr. Drake was some years foreman printer. The La- conia Democrat may be considered the successor of the Gazette, and has been well conducted, but belongs to Laconia properly. The Lake Village Times is under the management of the Hon. Mr. Haynes, member of Congress, and is a successful issue and patronized by readers of the town of the Republican party and sympathies. Gilford has not been distinguished for authors and authorship, unless we except the work done in the line of text-books by Dyer H. Sanborn, and the ordinary editorials in the regular issues of newspapers.

In professional ranks and services there have been adepts and honorable success. The medical practi- tioners have been many, and by no means in dis- honor. They have been generally trustworthy and effi- cient, and, in some instances, distinguished. In the first years after the settlement of this part of the Gilmanton territory the demand for medical and surgical services was met by the abundant supply of doctors resident in Old Gilmanton. Many of them had a wide prac- tice, even spanning Gilford, aud extending across the lake into towns adjacent to the northern shore. Such men were Dr. William Smith, in 1768 and to 1830; Jonathan Hill, 1778 and onward into the present cen- tury; Obadiah Parish, 1790-94; Abraham Silver, 1790-1801; Simon Foster, 1793-1824; Daniel Jacobs, 1796-1815 ; Benjamin Kelley, 1801 -- 39; Asa Crosby, 1816-32; Thomas H. Merrill, 1814-22; William Pres- cott, 1815-33; Dixie Crosby, 1824-38, and at Gilford, 1835-38; Otis French, 1828 and onward ; Jacob Wil- liams, 1816-28; Nathan C. Tebbetts, 1825 and on- ward; John C. Page, who practiced at Gilford village in 1826 and Gilmanton, 1832-36, and was afterward a minister ; Nahum Wight, 1832 and onward many years; Joseph Gould, 1820 and onward; Edward G. Morrill, 1834 and afterward; and some others for a short time.

Those who have located and practiced in this town, more exclusively, were Zadock Bowman, at Mere- dith Bridge, in early times; J. C. Prescot ; Dixie Crosby, about 1835, and who became distinguished as surgeon and professor in Dartmouth Medical College; Josiah Crosby, succeeding Dixie ; Andrew McFarland, 1838 and onward; J. L. Peasley, who soon retired

767

GILFORD.

from practice; Dr. Garland, about 1845-60 ; Dr. Ayer, 1850 and onward ; Dr. Francis Sleeper, native- born, and practicing till about 1860; Warren Sleeper and Warren Leach, homœopathists, or of the Botanic School; Dr. Knowles, a few years, about 1845; Dr. Prescot, succeeding Knowles; Dr. Wilson, about 1875, and again at present ; Dr. Weeks, homœopathist; Dr. Foster, to the present time; Dr. B. Munsey, eclectic to the present time at Gilford village and also Laconia; Dr. Josiah Sawyer, at the village for many years prior to 1845; Dr. George W. Munsey, at the village for some forty years prior to 1856; Dr. Charles Tebhets, at the village and later at Laconia ; Dr. Dearbon, at the village a short time ; Dr. Devan, at the village and Lake village; Dr. Moore and Dr. Goss, homœopathists at Lake village; Dr. Frank Russell and Dr. I. S. French, native-born, and gradu- ating as residents ; Drs. Frank Stevens and Hosea Smith and others studied medicine with Drs. Garland and Ayer, and practiced elsewhere. There was also in early times a class who practiced limitedly without professional education, as Mrs. Samuel Blaisdell and Mrs. Frohock, and others; also, Nathaniel Davis, Sr., D. Y. Smith and I. S. Gilman, by patent prep- aration. Mrs. A. F. Wiley is sole representative of female practice, under a regular diploma, and after a full course of medical education. Her location was first at Gilford village, and afterwards at Laconia.

The spotted fever epidemic was in 1816, and Dr. Asa Crosby discovered an effectual remedy for it ; other fevers, notably the typhoid, has been at times epidemic, but this array and force of medical ability has proved a defiance to their ravages, and protected life effectually.

A special instance of surgical operation was the case of Malachi Davis, who was opened and had gravel extracted, and lived many years afterwards. The surgery of Dr. Ayer was skillful, as was also that of the Crosbys.

The legal profession, though not represented by so numerous a host as was the medical, was nevertheless not without distinguished men. The shiretown of Strafford County, and later of Belknap, would natur- ally collect into its domain much legal talent and furnish much practice.

The first court-house and courts were at East Gil- manton, where there is now no village. In 1799 the courts began to be held at the Academy village, and the legal men were collected and resident there. Later still, the courts and court-house were located in what was thereafter Gilford. The several lawyers of Gilmanton and from other places came here to trans- act business in the court, and at length the legal talent was massed at this point. Timothy Call was here as early as, or before, 1801, and ten years later Lyman B. Walker, and Stephen C. Lyford in 1815, and Benjamin Boardman ten years later. Gilmanton was thirty-two years without a lawyer, when, in 1793, Stephen Moody, pioneer of the profession in this part

of the county, appeared in that capacity among the inhabitants of the Lower Parish. The more important matters in question had been managed by lawyers of Exeter and other places of older settlement, and Joseph Badger, as magistrate, with the justices in their official administration before him, disposed of the matters of minor moment. In the immediately subse- quent years the law business of the early settlers of Gilford was done by the lawyers of Gilmanton pro- per, where there were practicing, besides Stephen Moody, John Ham, after 1801; Nathaniel Cogswell, after 1805; Benjamin Emerson, after 1822; Nathan Crosby, after 1824; James Bell, about 1825 (who afterwards pursued his profession in Gilford) ; George Minot, in 1831; Arthur Livermore, in 1833; Ira A. Eastman, in 1834; E. St. L. Livermore, iu 1835; William Butterfield, in 1841; George G. Fogg, in 1844; and others later. The courts of Strafford County being held at two places, Dover and Gilford, the share of litigation in the county was less for the term sitting at Gilford than that for the term sitting at Dover ; yet some very important cases were tried at Gilford, and "court time," especially "great day,"-i.e. the day for criminal cases, viz. : the first Thursday-was a season of great concourse and a gala- day for venders and jockeys and horse-racing, and all manner of excitement and excesses, personal and social. The effect of the time was both to partially clear and to replenish the docket, and both to empty and to fill the pockets, as depended.

Many lawyers of Dover and Portsmouth, of Exeter and Concord and other places, were accustomed to practice at the Strafford, (later, the Belknap) bar ; and many a powerful plea and weighty charge and able opinion or decisive verdict was made and heard and given and rendered in the court-house at this place. The mighty men, Pearce and Hale, Atherton and Bellows, Butters and Bell, argued causes masterly here. Later and not much lesser advocates before this bar were Whipple and Stevens, Hibbard and Lov- ell, Hutchinson and Melcher, Vaughan and Clark (both Joseph B. and Samuel), Jewel and Jewett, and others who follow in the train of Walker and Board- man, and Lyford and Hazeltine.

The common justices of the town, who did much of the minor law business of the town, were headed by Esq. Benjamin Weeks, who, as mediator between man and man, heard and advised in those intermin- able questions of disputed rights of possession, aris- ing from the imperfectly-defined boundaries to plants in the wilderness; as also in matters of dues, not considered consistent with ability or determina- tion ; and in matters of demeanor, private and pub- lic ; and this, no narrow sphere for the good esquire.

Among those thus honorably constituted and act- ing were the following: Benjamin Jewett, Jr., Ber- nard Morrill, E. S. Hunt, Mesheck Sanborn, Josiah Sawyer and Daniel Weeks, for the centre of the town; Joseph P. Smith, Daniel Brown and Daniel

768

HISTORY OF BELKNAP COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Eaton, for the east part of the town; John Evans, Samuel Leavitt, Ebenezer and John Smith, for the north ; Charles Hibbard, Joseph Libbey, Aaron C. Blaisdell, G. Thing, George Saunders, Samuel G. Sanborn and Aaron Robinson, for the northwest; Benjamin Sanborn, Joseph Sleeper, Benjamin Cole, John Blaisdell, V. Barron, for the west part of the town ; and Morrill Thing, J. James, Ephraim Mal- lard , Ebenezer Lawrence, Woodbury Melcher, and many others, in the south part of the town and Mere- dith Bridge.

The Probate Court was held at Gilford, and after the division of the county Warren Lovell was many years the judge and Esquire Vaughn the clerk. The successors will be learned from reference to another chapter, treating of the courts, the bench and the bar.

The Sheriff's of the county have been Asa Eager, -- Philbrick, Bartlett Hill and others, as will also be seen from the section appropriated to the bench and the bar. The deputies have been these, some he- fore promotion, and as not promoted, Dudley, Smith and others, as will also be seen from reference to the same article. There have heen important causes tried at this bar of the Court of Common Pleas,- e. g., the case of Hain vs. the town of Alton, to re- cover damages by reason of imperfect or obstructed highways; twice tried without agreement and verdict by the jury, and transferred. The cases of land-hold- ers vs. the Locks and Canal Company, to recover dam- ages for unnatural flowages. The company, by Hon. James Bell, Esq., their agent, assisted by Hon. Charles G. Atherton and others, defended themselves vs. many land-holders and mill-owners on the Winnesquam and other bays, who brought suits for damages to lands and mill privileges. The company lost their case, and appealed, and afterwards compromised. The company, to secure greater capacity of reservoir in the lake and bays, instituted a critical survey of the lake and its surroundings hy a skilled civil engineer, Daniel K. Smith, assisted by others, and caused an accurate computation to be made of the whole basin's increase in capacity, by a definite in- crease of height by flowage (above the natural level) ; also the amount capable of being drawn by reducing the natural level to a definite extent. The result of the litigation in cases on the Winnesquam, and the unexpected amount of damages that would result from raising the surface of the lake, led to the de- cision to attempt only a slight increase of flowage, and an extra draught by means of a canal, cut in the bed of the river at Aquadocton, which decision was carried into effect, and whatever damages were occa- sioned, either by draught or flowage, were paid, by agreement with the parties sustaining them. The surveying of Smith & Crocker, of Laconia, was notable and of fine specimen. The desire of the company to add height to the dam at the foot of Winnesquam, and at Lake Village and Meredith

Bridge, and thereby to increase the reservoir capacity of the lakes and hays, was accomplished in a meas- ure, but hy purchase, and not by court decisions.

The litigation of citizens with one another, or the town with individuals, or either with corporations, has not been to a great extent, and the courts have been generally good arbiters of justice. Pauper cases and disputed possession, and building of roads and bridges, have constituted the greater part of legal actions and contentions. Cases of prosecutions for liquor-selling without license were at one time quite numerous. Criminal cases have been few, and the courts and the legal profession, in such cases, have honorably dealt with the arraigned, according to the law and the testimony.

The Ecclesiastical History of Gilford is of im- portance and interesting. It will embrace the rela- tion and development of several denominations; the annals of the several particular churches organized in the town; and the biographical sketches of the ministers raised up and laboring here, with notices of the leading men in these churches and of special issues taken and decided. The aims and the pro- visions of the proprietors of Gilmanton and, more primarily, of the colonial authorities, were religious rather than ecclesiastical. They did not foresee or anticipate a heterogeneous moral community, and yet the primal stock and idea was narrow and ex- clusive, and, to their surprise, was found to be thus developing itself. Their religious sentiments mani- fested a dogmatic nature and tendency. At the first a man was placed in service hy comparatively disin- terested authorities, the district proprietors, who labored more for the moral improvement of the people than for the special ecclesiastical outlook, or even the spiritual culture.

He, the Rev. William Parsons, was a man of moral rectitude and devotion, and of great catholicity of sentiment and fellowship. He was sent by the pro- prietors to fulfill their stipulated engagement as a re- ligious instructor for the first ten years of the settle- ment. This he fulfilled with punctilious exactness and faithfulness. But the germs of two faiths and typical life were in this nascent body politic; and when the throes were past it was found that twins were brought forth, and they, like the typical pair, had been taking each other hy the heel in ante-natal strife.

The people, when they came to exercise their choice in regard to a settled minister, found a portion of them united on Rev. Isaac Smith. Without dis- respect or averting any regard for Mr. Parsons, who was then nearly sixty years of age and in many ways still useful, the people attempted to provide for the future spiritual guide to the rapidly-expanding settlement. In 1773, when this point in religious affairs had been reached, the thoughts of many pros- pectors had been directed to the outlook of the place at the terminus of the Province road, which had now

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 183

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