History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 187

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 187
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 187

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).

Mr. Crane can attribute his success to persistent and indefatigable industry, to the close and concen- trated action of mind and body and his quick and intelligent appreciation of men and things. His natural tastes are in harmony with artistic and cultured surroundings, and his business has enabled him to gratify his desires. He has designed and erected the handsomest residence in the town, a view of which appears on another page, and his home abounds in all the comforts that money will buy. He is a lover and owner of fine horses, intelligent dogs and a fine steam yacht, and is passionately fond of aquatic and field sports. He is a good citizen, a social companion, a strong friend, and, with his positive and energetic nature, may be truthfully called a good type of the rushing, active, impetuous and successful Americans of the nineteenth century.

MOSES SARGENT.

But little more than a quarter of a century had passed after the long and exhausting Revolutionary war, when manufactures were few and in their infan- cy, and our people were chiefly agriculturists and day laborers, compelled to exercise the utmost economy, and but a limited number were able to give their children the advantages of a liberal education, when Moses Sargent, son of Moses and Nancy (Morrill) Sargent, first saw the light of day, in the old town of Amesbury, Mass., December 16, 1803. His father was a ship-carpenter, wholly dependent on his daily labor, and when Moses was but a few years old Mr. Sargent met with an accident, which seriously crip- pled him for life, and incapacitated him from longer attending upon his vocation; so, at the age of nine years, the young lad was obliged to go out into the world of work and struggle for a living, not only for himself, but for his parents, without any of the ad- ventitious aids of education or inherited rank, and with only his brave heart and willing hands.

He commenced work in a factory in Amesbury,

which was the first broadcloth-factory erected in the United States. Being a good, honest, industrions, hard-working lad, he soon attracted the attention of his employers, and the agent of the factory gave him one term's schooling, when he was about thirteen, and he also wrote off the multiplication table for him to learn while at his work. But to the eagerly 'desirous and willing searcher for knowledge the way is made, opened or found in some manner, sooner or later, and at a school, which was kept on Sunday, by a Quaker gentleman and philanthropist, for the pur- pose of giving the factory operatives an opportunity to obtain some education, Moses learned the rudi- ments of mathematics, and took a peep into that realm of knowledge which he had so longed to enter. His diligence and rapid progress, and his wish for an education, so impressed his teacher, that when he was about sixteen he offered to pay the expenses of Moses' tuition at some good school, but as he was almost the sole dependence of his parents he was forced to de- cline this kind offer, .

He remained for eight years in the broadcloth-fac- tory, when Amos Lawrence and his brother, with others, under the firm-title of " A. & A. Lawrence & Co.," started a flannel-factory, where Moses engaged work and was employed for twelve years. About 1830 this firm purchased a broadcloth-factory a short distance up the river, for the purpose of using it for making satinets, and Mr. Sargent, who had grown up almost to manhood in the factories, and had made capable and good use of his time, and become a skilled and experienced workman, was given the super- intendence of the putting in of the machinery and getting the manufactory in running order. He held this position for about three years, when he went to Byfield, leased a water privilege, and with one set of cards he started the manufacture of yarn in a small way on his own account. He continued in business here for two years, when his health failed and he was advised by his physician to leave the proximity of the salt water, and in December 1835, he came to Batchelder's Mills, N. H. (now Lake village), and leased a yarn-mill of the Lake Company, and fitted it up to make woolen yarn for domestic knitting purposes. Mr. Sargent was the pioneer manufacturer of this yarn in New Hampshire. He commenced with one set of twenty-four-inch cards and ten operatives, and for twenty-nine years he was engaged in this industry. The business steadily augmented, and the one set of cards was increased to five, and for the last two years Mr. Sargent himself manufactured the yarn into stockings; among his contracts, filling two for the United States government, amounting to one hundred and fifty thousand pairs.

Shortly after the close of the Civil War Mr. Sargent disposed of his business interests to the Belknap Company, of Laconia, and for about a year was not in active business. He then went to Upper Gilmanton, bought a cotton-mill, fitting it up for

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making cotton stockings, and carried on this manu- facture for six years, employing two hundred opera- tives. His factory was then purchased by "A. Lawrence & Co.," who after a few years formed a stock company; fifty shares of the stock were given to Mr. Sargent, in consideration of friendship, long acquaintance and the pleasant business relations which had always existed between them.

During his residence in Upper Gilmanton he took an interest in the affairs of the town, and it was through his influence that the name was changed to Belmont. Politically, he was a Whig, and is now a Republican, and represented Belmont in the State Legislature in 1872, and its prosperity and growth is due, in a large measure, to Mr. Sargent's enterprise. He relinquished business after the sale of his interests in Belmont, and returned to Lake village, which has since been his home.

Mr. Sargent married, first, October 27, 1824, Judith, daughter of Stephen and Esther (Reynolds) Hoyt. Their children were Mary (married H. O. Heywood, has two surviving children, and resides in Lake vil- lage.); Stephen H., who now lives in Salem, Mass .; Moses, who is agent of the Gilmanton Mills, Belmont; John, deceased; David, deceased; and Frank S., now an overseer under Moses. Mrs. Judith Sargent died July 26, 1849; and Mr. Sargent married, second, Mrs. Mary Huntington (born Seavey), in February, 1850. She died December 2, 1854, and he then married, Sarah, daughter of Gilman and Sally Thyng.

Mr. Sargent has been a resident of Lake village for many years, but his devotion to business has pre- vented him from being especially active in its public affairs or taking official position; yet he has always contributed generously to every worthy object, public or private. He was one of the incorporators of the Lake Village Savings-Bank, and director and vice- president from its establishment until the present time. For forty years he has been a member of the Baptist Church, and conscientiously acted according to the truths and doctrines of the same. For forty years, also, he had been a member of the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows, and has taken an active part and taken all the degrees. His attention has been drawn somewhat in the direction of military organi- zations and at one time he was a lieutenant in the militia.

Mr. Sargent for more than three-score years has been a producer, and not a mere consumer, earning his own bread, and assisting his parents while yet a mere lad, and before attaining his majority he had provided a comfortable home for them. The patient industry that characterized his early years, when his daily bread and that of others was earned by the toil of his hands and the sweat of his brow; the perse- vering energy which he manifested when, starting from an humble beginning, he entered upon the special line of manufacturing through which he gained suc-

cess,-all these are worthy of record; for, " men may come and men may go, but the work they do lives after them, and the industries they plant or aid in advancing go on after they are gathered to their fathers."

Mr. Sargent, mindful of early struggles, has assisted many young men to start in life, both with his coun- sel and means. Social, kind-hearted and cheerful, he is a pleasant friend; of sterling integrity and an enterprising man he has made a deep impress upon the industrial development of this section, and now, in his eighty-second year, honored and esteemed by a large number of acquaintances, there will be nowhere found a tongue to whisper aught against his integrity or his broad Christian charity.

JOSEPH CLIFFORD MOORE.

Hon. Joseph Clifford Moore, editor of the Manches- ter Union and the financial head of the Union Pub- lishing Company, is a thorough representative of that valuable class known as self-made men. He is the second son of Dr. D. F. and Frances S. Moore, and was born in Loudon, N. H., August 22, 1845. His early education was limited to the common schools, and more or less shared with labor. Later in life, having made the best of such advantages as came within his reach, he pursued with success a course of medical training at New York Medical College. From this training he returned to Lake village, the business centre of the town of Gilford, which has been his home since he was ten years of age, and entered upon the practice of medicine in partnership with his father, Dr. D. F. Moore. This was in 1866, and from that time up to his joining in the newspaper enterprise at Manchester, in November, 1879, he fol- lowed his profession with untiring industry and grati- fying success. His practice extended over a wide section, and involved long hours and much arduous travel. During this time he was also active in gen- eral business enterprises.

Mr. Moore began his journalistic career without the benefit of any special training whatever, but brought to the work a clear, cool head, ripe judgment and honest purpose; but it was early apparent that he possessed that rare quality, "the newspaper fac- ulty." Careful, prudent, cautious and conservative by nature, he applied that faculty with constantly increasing shrewdness and wisdom; so that the en- terprise not only developed a remarkably rapid, but a sound and healthy, growth. Exercising good business judgment and methods, he successfully main- tained the financial standing of the paper, notwith- standing the excessive demands of a rapidly-growing plant. In shaping the tone and conduct of The Union, he has uniformly aimed to give it a character for independence, integrity and respectability, ad- vancing it on the true line of progressive modern journalism. He is a ready editorial writer on

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political and general topics, eschews the ornamental and descriptive, and goes straight at the meat of a matter in a plain and direct style. His methods are convincing as well as terse and vigorous.

Mr. Moore has always taken a warm and active interest in politics, not from the selfish motives of the office-seeker, but as an ardent believer in and stanch supporter of a sound, sterling and progressive Democracy. At the State election of 1880 he was elected a member of the State Senate from the Sixth Senatorial District, and filled the seat with credit to himself and his constituency. He introduced and was chiefly instrumental in securing the passage of the measure which created the present State Board of Health. Always under self-command, easy and agreeable in manner, he proved to be valuable in legislative work, and was invariably relied upon to release the Senatorial body when sharp conflict of opinion led it into a jangle. Since the expiration of this official trust his time has been given exclusively to business matters and the conduct of the Union.

In January, 1885, he was unanimously chosen president of the New Hampshire Club, an organi- zation comprising the leading business and profes- sional men of the State, and shortly after accom- panied it on a successful excursion South. As president of this body he is broad and liberal, seeking only to develop its interests and extend its in- fluence.

Dartmouth College, at the June commencement, 1884, conferred upon him the degree of A.M.

Mr. Moore retains his residence at Lake village, with his aged parents. He is married, but has no children. In manner he is easy and agreeable, and is favored with an excellent address and attractive personal presence. In business affairs he is careful and conservative, and at the same time enterprising. Honorable and just in his transactions, he enjoys the confidence and respect of business men. At this writing he is in the full vigor of his powers, with the promise of a useful and successful future before him.

HISTORY OF GILMANTON.

BY REV. S. S. N. GREELEY.

CHAPTER I.

THE present people and the multitudes who have gone out all over the land from the old town of Gil- manton have enjoyed opportunity to learn of the earlier history of their town from one of the most thorough and complete town histories that in its day had issued from the press. Indeed, the work was never so eagerly sought after, never so highly prized, as at the present time, though its records ended nearly forty years ago.

Personally, I have owned three or four copies to- gether, but literary friends have "borrowed " them, litigants have desired to turn to something in "that book " which might help their case, or strangers want- ed to know something about the town, or descendants of sundry ancients desired to be certain where they came from,-and so I loaned them the books, and after the passage of years can only sing in mournful cadence,-

" When shall we meet again- Meet ne'er to sever ? "

The historian of Gilmanton, Rev. Daniel Lancaster, for more than twenty years Congregational pastor in the town, very early in his ministry, seemed to hear the voice of Bildad the Shuhite sounding down the centuries, "Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age and prepare thyself for the search of their fathers: shall not they teach thee?" So from the fathers dead, from the aged living, from town records, church rec- ords, school records and transpiring events he brought out, at length, Lancaster's " History of Gilmanton," as he says in his preface, " at the cost of an amount of labor which none can estimate but those who have made similar attempts; a labor that has been con- tinuous through nearly twenty years." But, in his modesty on the issue of the work, he suppressed al- most one-half of it.

Some hundreds of copies passed through the bind- ery and were thrown on the market, when again, in his modesty, he concluded that as many copies were completed as ever would be called for and no more were issued. That was not the worst of it. Half a cart-load, more or less, of printed sheets were disposed of for wrapping paper !

The work sold for about seventy-five cents. Num- bers of prominent citizens subscribed for ten, fifteen and twenty copies by way of encouragement, and gave them to friends and sold to others, as they had opportunity, till the stock is long since exhausted, and the call for the book from far and near is more imperious as the years move on, and never so earnest as it is to-day. Ten, twenty and thirty dollars are offered for a copy! This history of a history is an illustration of the increasing value of family, town and county annals, if not with cotemporaries, with generations yet unborn. All that makes up the world and life is ever changing, but "the past is with the past " and will ever stay there. It cannot be changed. It has already "put on immortality," and its events, like old monuments in Egypt, become but the more interesting the farther their age is pushed up the river of time.

If these statements are true, then this inference follows : that families to whom this new collection of town histories is offered should not fail to secure it, though at large first cost. While whole family libraries wax old and are neglected, local history becomes but the more valuable, as seen through the vista of years.

Gilmanton was incorporated in 1727. It was named and originally spelled Gilmantown, from the fact that among the grantees of a charter, issued by His Majesty, King George, there were twenty-four per- sons by the name of Gilman.

This charter opens with kingly dignity, -- "George, by the grace of God and Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c., Greeting."

Then he would have all people know that " wee " (with concurence of his counsel), " for the due en- couragement of settling a new plantation, do give and grant, in equal shares, unto sundry of our beloved subjects that inhabit or shall inhabit within the said grant, within our province of New Hampshire, all the tract of land within the following bounds." Here follows a most liberal slice of the earth :

" From the head of Barostead, next to the town of Chichester ; thence on the N. W. line to Winipissiokee Pond, or the river that runs out of said Pond, and from the first place where it began, to run N. E. eix miles ; then N. W. two miles ; then dne N. to Winipissiokee Pond; then on said Pond and river to meet the first line ; provided it do not entrench on any former legall grante."

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HISTORY OF BELKNAP COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

His Majesty then proceeds with certain royal "con- ditions" to be fulfilled by the inhabitants of the town from that date "forever !" Evidently at the is- suing of this instrument the geography of King George did not make a note of Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill and another " George," whose "sir-name" was Washington !

The charter was signed on the 20th of May by His Majesty's Colonial Governor, John Wentworth.

During the French War several frontier towns had been greatly tried by the raids of hostile Indians. They had pillaged, carried away and, in sad in- stances, murdered the early settlers. These suffer- ings and exposures deterred the waiting families for Gilmanton from any speedy entrance upon their granted lands. They did not sing with any great ear- nestness,-

"Oh, for a lodge in this vast wilderness !"

and the settlement of Gilmanton was delayed for a series of years. In fact, there was no permanent set- tlement until the close of 1761. From 1727, the year the charter was granted, until 1766, a period of nearly forty years, the town-meetings were held in Exeter.

On the memorable evening of December 26, 1761, Benjamin Mndgett and his wife, from the town of Brentwood, arrived in Gilmanton, having come that day from Epsom, a distance of not less than twelve miles, on foot. Mrs. Mudgett was the first white wo- man who set foot on the soil of Gilmanton, and she passed the first night in town with no other woman nearer than Epsom. On the next day, December 27th, John Mudgett and wife, with great weariness, reached town. About fifteen days later, January 10th, Orlando Weed and wife joined them, and here these three families remained through a winter of terrible severity (1762). "Snows were so frequent and so deep as to prevent passing in any direction for two months, being nearly six feet on the level." So writes Mr. Benjamin Kimball, of Concord, in his journal. Mrs. Mudgett (of the first family) was the daughter of Joshua Bean, who, by two marriages, had twenty-one children. They all came at length from the home in Brentwood about 1780, and settled in Gilmanton,-a valuable accession to the population. Mrs. Mudgett lived in Gilmanton until the inhabitants had in- creased in number to more than five thousand. This was before Gilford was disannexed. She died in Mer- edith July 9, 1834, aged ninety-five years. She was mother of the first male child born in town,-Samuel Mudgett, born February 15, 1764.

The first child born in the town was Dorothy, daugh- ter of Orlando Weed and wife, October 13, 1762. The early families were generally large, embracing, most of them, from ten to twelve, and some even fif- teen children.

"Tempora mutantur."

In the course of the next season, 1762, seven fami- lies moved in. Many prospectors prepared to move

their families the following season. Jeremiah Connor had cleared land and built a camp, and Captain Jo- seph Badger and his two sons, William and Joseph, had put in some seed and built a log house.

Captain Joseph Badger was one of the original pro- prietors, and from his first entrance into Gilmanton in person, seems to have won the respect and confidence of the settlers, and was never free from the occupancy of public trusts. Although here in the spring, in con- sequence of the sickness and death of his son, in the month of May, he did not remove his family from their home in Haverhill, Mass., until July. His was the eighteenth family, and at the raising of his barn that season, the first framed building erected in the town, he had, as he often afterwards related, every man, woman and child to take supper with him.

On August 1, 1763, the first minister moved his fam- ily into town, for a permanent residence,-the Rev. William Parsons. He became a proprietor of Gilman- ton and was employed by the corporation to preach to the settlers, and for the first ten years was preacher and schoolmaster. Before any school-houses were furnished hetaught in private houses. He was a very useful citizen, and a minister earnest and faithful, and did much to give a right direction to the early movements in regard to religious institutions.

In March, 1773, the Rev. Isaac Smith came into town, the second minister, and entered upon a pastor- ate of forty years.

This year came also William Sibley, the first mer- chant, together with Lieutenant Peter Folsom, Simeon Copp, Colonel Samuel Greeley, Lieutenant Ebenezer Eastman, Samuel and Nicholas Gilman and twenty others.

The next year, 1774, was memorable for the erec- tion of two houses of worship,-one by the town for the use of the Congregationalists, and one by individ- uals for the use of the Baptists. A Congregational Church was organized, and the Rev. Isaac Smith was ordained over it. This year the town voted to build a school-house at Peaked Hill (Centre village).

But we hasten now from the toils and prosperous progress of those who struggled to make the wilder- ness bud and the desert blossom like the rose, to the times when the cloud of war darkened all the land. Gilmanton had now become the home of many dis- tinguished men, lofty in character, wise in counsel, brave, patriotic, unswerving in devotion to their coun- try and their God. Their names are illustrious in the annals of the town, and their descendants have been largely men and women worthy of their sires. They have been leading minds in town affairs, and occu- pants of public positions of wide responsibility.

At the opening of 1775 the Revolutionary War commenced, in which struggle Gilmanton bore an honorable part. She not only sent her representative, Colonel Antipas Gilman, to the deliberative conven- tion called at Exeter, but these earnest men were ready also to take the field. Accordingly, a few days after

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the battle of Lexington, twelve of the inhabitants of Gilmanton, Lieutenant Ebenezer Eastman at their head, volunteered, and marched forth to the rescue. This officer, in the absence of the captain, commanded a company at the battle of Bunker Hill, on the 17th of June. There is an interesting story current in this connection, out of which the poet, B. F. Taylor, wove his popular effusion known as "Mary Butler's Ride."

She was the young wife of Lieutenant Eastman. When he hastened to the war she was left alone with a young child. Report soon reached her of the bat- tle of Bunker Hill, and that her husband was among the killed. She determined to know if it was but flying rumor or serious fact for her. There were no roads, no guides but spotted trees ; no carriage to couvey her ; but, mounting her horse, with her infant child on the saddle before her, she struck out for her father's house in Brentwood, a distance at least of forty miles. When she reached her father's house the news of the battle was confirmed, but no list of the killed or wounded.

Leaving her infant child, she mounted again, and on reaching Charlestown found her husband alive and well.

" Then up rose Mary Butler, and set her wheel at rest :

She swept the puncheon floor, she washed the cottage pride-

The cottage pride of three weeks old-and dress'd him in his best. She wound the clock that told the time his mother was a bride, And porringer and spoon she deftly laid aside ;

She strung a clean white apron across the window panes And swung the kettle from the crane for fear of rusting rains, Then toss'd the saddle on the bay, and donn'd her linen gown. Full seventy miles to Cambridge town ! Bring out your civic crown ! I think 'twill fit that brow of hers, who sadly smiled and said,- ' We'll know about your father, boy, and who is hurt or dead.'"

The ancient cellar over which stood the cottage of Lieutenant Eastman is a frequented spot by summer visitors, and, till lately, scattering rose-bushes opened their fragrant annual tributes to the memory of the brave.

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 187

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