USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Plymouth > History of Plymouth, New Hampshire; vol. I. Narrative--vol. II. Genealogies, Volume I > Part 30
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From 1881 to 1885 the bank was located in the Pemigewasset House. In the meantime a building site was purchased and the present commodious building was constructed. It was first occu- pied in 1885.
THE PLYMOUTH GUARANTY SAVINGS BANK.
This is the first savings bank organized in Plymouth. It was incorporated 1889, and was organized Oct. 7, 1889. The original guarantee fund was $25,000, which was increased April 1, 1893, to $35,000, Nov. 4, 1901, to $45,000, and Oct. 7, 1903, to
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$60,000. The surplus fund in July, 1904, was $26,200, and the total deposits amounted to $534,769.38. The history of this bank is a continued record of growth and of cautious and successful management. The business is conducted in rooms of the National Bank building. There is a board of eleven trustees. The original board were Charles H. Bowles, George H. Adams, Davis B. Kenis- ton, Frederick P. Weeks, Benjamin Sanborn of Campton, Elliott B. Hodge, Alvin Burleigh, Rodney E. Smythe, Amos M. Kidder, John Mason, and Frank L. Hughes. The five trustees first named have been re-elected at each meeting and have completed fifteen years of continuous service. In 1893 Charles J. Gould was elected to succeed Elliott B. Hodge, who died Dec. 5, 1893. Alvin Burleigh and Rodney E. Smythe retired in 1895 and were suc- ceeded by Scott N. Weeks and Henry C. Currier. John Mason died Sept. 9, 1898, and Amos M. Kidder retired 1898. These vacancies were filled by the election of Edward H. Sanborn of Campton and Dean S. Currier. Dean S. Currier removed to Colebrook 1899, and was succeeded by David B. Pulsifer of Campton. Frank L. Hughes died 1903, and John E. Smith was elected Oct. 7, 1903.
The first treasurer of the Plymouth Guaranty Savings Bank was Rodney E. Smythe. His duties were discharged with unfail- ing accuracy and faithfulness. After over thirteen years of con- tinuous service he resigned May 4, 1903, when John E. Smith was elected.
Charles H. Bowles was elected president at the organization of the bank, and with continued expression of confidence and regard he has been annually elected to the present time. In the organiza- tion of the institution there has been an investment committee of three trustees. Charles H. Bowles and George H. Adams have served continuously from the date of organization. The third member was Amos M. Kidder, who was succeeded, 1896, by Davis B. Keniston.
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
XXVI. MILLS AND MANUFACTURES.
T 1 saw mill and the grist mill are the most serviceable utilities of civilization. The early erection of a grist mill in Plymouth saved many tiresome journeys to the older towns, and everywhere the saw mill has been the herald of mansions, the pretentious successors of the log cabins. The donation of lands or money by the proprietors of towns, to ensure the early erection of mills, is a familiar incident in the annals of New Hampshire. In August, 1763, and before a permanent settlement had been made in Plymouth, the proprietors assembled in Dun- stable and voted that in the division of the township into lots there be reserved " a proper piece of Land for Building mills and that the committee for Laying out the Lands agree with sum person to Build a mill in said Town." The members of the committee were David Hobart, Elnathan Blood, and William Nevins. At a meeting held at the inn of Samuel Cummings in Hollis in January, 1764, the proprietors voted : -
That two sets of mill irons be purchased, viz : for a corn mill and a saw mill and Onesipherus Marsh appearing and offering to goo to peney- cook and speak for the said irons within this Fortnight and voted that he have three pounds, silver money, for this service; then voted that Josiah Brown imploy Proper person to Carey up the mill irons to the Township of Plymouth this winter and that he be paid for the same by this Propriety.
It will appear that Elnathan Blood, one of the committee to contract for the building of the mills, made certain propositions on the subject. For this reason he was excused from the com- mittee, and Josiah Brown was chosen to serve with David Hobart
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and William Nevins. In May, 1764, David Webster was chosen to succeed William Nevins, and the new committee was instructed to secure the completion of the mills during the ensuing summer, and that they be erected on the " most convenient place upon Mill brook." This is a small brook flowing north into Baker's River.
As the summer was fading into autumn the proprietors voted, Sept. 3, 1764: -
To Give Elnathan Blood and Benjamin Wright, the fifteenth and six- teenth Lotts on Bakers River Range in Plymouth and the irons for a Grest mill and a Saw mill, except the saw, to be Delivered to them at Plymouth and one Dollar upon each Right of Land in Plymouth that is Ratable. Provided that the above named Elnathan Blood and Benjamin Wright Build a good Grist mill and Saw mill, upon the Streeme that Runs Through the sixteenth and seventeenth Lotts, in the most con- venient place and that the Grist mill be built by the Last Day of Novem- ber 1764 and the Saw mill to be built by the first of August 1765 and that the above said Elnathan Blood and Benjamin Wright keep the above mills in good Repaier for the Space and Term of Ten Years from the Time the mills are built and that thay saw the Proprietors Logg at Six Shillings Sterling per Thousand or to the halves, which thay please, and that thay enter into Bonds and keep the above mill in good Repaier for the above Term of time and that thay Grinde and Saw for the Proprietors before aney other People.
Voted that the Clerk give Elnathan Blood and Benjamin Wright security for the above dollar on each Right in behalfe of the proprie- tors when the Grist mill is fit to Grind.
Elnathan Blood, one of the proprietors, and Benjamin Wright were residents of Hollis. For reasons unknown they neglected or refused to build the mills in Plymouth, and the year 1764 was memorable in a failure of the matured plans of the proprietors and in the disappointment and inconvenience of the early settlers. The first harvest of Plymouth was ground in the mills of Canter- bury and Concord, and Mill Brook enjoyed an added year of free- dom from toil at the wheel for the convenience of mankind.
In the failure of the agreement with Elnathan Blood and Benjamin Wright, the enterprise " received a grave but not a mortal wound." The early plan to build a mill on Mill Brook VOL. I .- 23
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was vigorously renewed the following year. There was an article in the warrant for a meeting held at the inn of Samuel Cummings in Hollis, Feb. 12, 1765, " To See what the Proprietors Shall think proper to be Don with Regard to Building the mills." The proprietors thought it proper " to Give Mr. Ephraim Lund the same Incouragement Towards Building the mills at Plymouth that was Formerly voted to Elnathan Blood and Benjamin Wright." At this meeting David Hobart, William Nevins, and Abel Webster were chosen to give Mr. Lund a deed of lots 15 and 16, the two mill lots, and to superintend the "building of the mill on the stream that runs through lots 16 and 17 at the most convenient place."
The irons for the first mill in Plymouth, including the pon- derous crank, which was a feature of the primitive saw mill, were drawn from Concord in the winter of 1764 on a hand-sled by men employed and probably attended by Lieut. Josiah Brown. It was a laborious undertaking, but it utilized and was a golden opportunity for a few men, living then as well as now, who will work only on the off side. During the following winter the irons for the first mill in Newbury, Vt., were drawn through Plymouth upon a hand-sled. A narrative of the enterprise is found in the History of Coos by Rev. Grant Powers.
In accordance with the terms of the contract with the pro- prietors, Ephraim Lund, in the summer and autumn of 1765, built the first mill in Plymouth. There were a saw mill and a grist mill under one roof. In the survey of the township the fifteenth and sixteenth lots in Baker's River range were reserved for mill lots, and were deeded to Ephraim Lund in consideration of his completed promise to build the mill. Finding a better locality near-by for the construction of a dam, the mill was built on the seventeenth lot, and near the west line of the sixteenth lot. Mill Brook, which turned the wheel of the first mill and later of two other mills, crosses the Hebron road near the Hamlin farm and flows north through the Pem farm into Baker's River. Traces of the dam of the Lund mill are found on the north side
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and near the Hebron road and on the southwest part of the Thomas Clark farm.
Ephraim Lund, the builder, owned the mill less than two years. July 6, 1767, in consideration of £56 11s. 4d., he sold to James Gordon of Boston, Mass., sixty acres of land, " together with a saw mill and grist mill standing on lot No. 17 adjoining the above with all the privileges, utensils and appurtenances thereof and thereunto belonging." Having sold the mill he demanded a settlement with the proprietors for the bounty payable in money. In August, 1767, the proprietors voted to dismiss the article, but March 30, 1769, they voted that Capt. David Hobart, William Nevins, and Abel Webster, the former committee, shall raise the money by selling common land and " settle with Mr. Lund upon Mill affairs."
Ephraim Lund was from Dunstable and was forty-five years of age when he came to Plymouth, 1765. He remained in this town five years, and in 1767 he was the town clerk and a selectman.
The second mill in Plymouth was built before the Revolution by Ebenezer Blodgett, and was sold by him in 1776 to his brother James Blodgett. Its early construction is evidence that the Lund mill failed to meet the increasing demands of the growing settle- ment. This mill was situated on Blodgett Brook, which flows north near the Mayhew turnpike, through the farm of Francis F. Blake, and into Baker's River. The highway leading south from the Rumney road near the residence of Charles Fletcher soon crosses the stream, and fifty yards east of the bridge are found the foundations of the mill and the embankments of earth and stone which were a part of the dam. James Blodgett owned and conducted the mill twenty-five years. The later owners were David Richardson, Thornton Alls, and Joshua Thornton.
The third mill was on the stream flowing easterly through Glove Hollow into the Pemigewasset. There were a saw mill and a grist mill under one roof, and it was built during the Revolution. This mill is notable in the number of successive owners or lessees. Capt. James Hobart, if not the builder, was an early proprietor.
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
Daniel Darling owned this mill several years, beginning about 1800, and Moses Hadley was the proprietor in 1811 and con- ducted a tanyard near-by. On account of a failure to mention the mill in several conveyances the succession of proprietors cannot be easily obtained at the registry of deeds. The later owners were Joseph Fletcher, Humphrey Sawyer, David Ford, and John Blake. In the progress of years the mill was often repaired, and possibly at some early date it was rebuilt. About 1856 it was purchased by Thomas F. Glynn, who continues in possession of the premises. The saw mill was remodelled by Mr. Glynn by the introduction of a circular saw mill. All the machinery was sold about 1865, and the building has fallen in decay.
For many years the brook in Glove Hollow was called Darling's Mill Brook. Moses Hadley, one of the owners of this mill, came to Plymouth in 1805 and remained fourteen years, when he removed to Richmond, Maine. He was a selectman of Plymouth, and while in this town he established a tanyard in the vicinity of the mill. The unused millstones, reposing upon the bank of the stream, and the remains of an ancient dam are the silent witnesses of occupation.
Samuel Stearns, about 1785, built a saw mill on his farm, now occupied by Nelson Downing, and on the stream formerly called Mill Brook. It was on the same stream and south of the Lund mill. At this point the brook was small, and the chief occupation of the miller was the waiting for the pond to fill. This mill later was owned and operated by a grandson, Aaron Stearns, Jr., and was abandoned a few years before his death, which occurred in 1865.
About 1815 Arthur Livermore of Holderness built a saw mill on Mill Brook and north of the Stearns and Lund mills. It was located on the Pem farm, owned within a few years by Amos M. Kidder, Harris J. Goss, and Lyman R. Sherwood. Mr. Liver- more conveyed the mill in 1818, by a lease for one thousand years, to Peter Webster and Daniel Smith. The later owners were Moses George, Washington George, Samuel George, Richard Philbrick,
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and Abiel C. Flanders. The mill was burned in 1860, and two years later was rebuilt by Ezekiel Elliot Merrill, who conducted it a few years, when it was abandoned.
In the Merrill Gazetteer of New Hampshire, compiled in 1816 and published in 1817, it is stated that there were four mills in Plymouth. If the enumeration is correct, it is evidence that either the Lund mill had fallen into disuse or that the Livermore mill, last named, was not completed in 1816.
Of the remaining mills the order of the building cannot be accu- rately stated. They were erected upon farms owned by the builders, and were operated many years before the record of the sale of the farm mentions the existence of a mill. There were two saw mills near the Mayhew turnpike and on the stream which turned the wheel of the Blodgett mill. Of these one was situated near the present residence of Jesse Sanborn, and the other near the homestead of Alvah S. Pillsbury. These mills have had many successive owners, and both were abandoned nearly fifty years ago.
Upon a small stream in the southeast part of the town, flowing from Plymouth through a corner of Bridgewater into the Pemige- wasset, was a small mill once used for sawing shingles and thresh- ing grain. It was owned by John Nutting and by Noah Harris.
North of Baker's River there have been two small saw mills in this town. Upon the most western of the two brooks flowing south into Baker's River, and upon the farm now of Calvin Clark, William Goold built a mill about 1848, and soon after removed the machinery to a new mill on a better site on the same stream. The dam was washed away in a few years and the mill was removed. The other mill, on another stream, was on the farm now of Cortez C. Hawkins. It was built and owned by David Merrill and operated by him a part of each year from about 1840 to 1860.
On Hazeltine Brook, which flows easterly through the southern extremity of Plymouth village into the Pemigewasset, there has been a saw mill, of which there are so many conflicting traditions that the cautious listener learns more of fable than of fact. The
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
mill stood near a dam at the outlet of the ice pond of Plummer Fox. It is certain that here Freeman and Ephraim Kingsbury Cook built a saw mill before 1852, the date of their removal from Campton to Plymouth. They sawed a considerable quantity of old-growth pine, which they used in building and in the manu- facture of sash and blinds.
Also on the Hazeltine Brook, and to the east of the Cook saw mill, Clark Gilman Batchelder had a small shop in which he sawed shingles and prepared stock for his business as a wheelwright. He sold the shop to Freeman and Ephraim Kingsbury Cook, then of Campton, who removed it and erected a building of two stories one hundred by thirty-five feet. Here for several years they manu- factured doors, sash, and blinds, and at times made caskets and coffins. The mill was also a convenience in their business of con- tractors and builders. In 1860 the younger brother removed to Laconia, and in 1864 Freeman Cook exchanged the factory and the saw mill with Hiram W. Merrill for the land on which have been erected the town hall and the spacious factory of Draper & Maynard. The following year the factory was burned, and has not been rebuilt.
In the tanning and leather dressing shop of John T. Cutter & Sons, nearly opposite the present factory of Draper-Maynard Company, there was a grist mill several years.
The modern mill, with improved machinery and fixtures and tenfold capacity, demands much greater motive power than is afforded by the several streams in this town. Of the twelve mills erected during the first century of the history of Plymouth none now remain. The local mill no longer is a necessity in every community. The present facilities of transportation distribute in every market the materials for building and corn and wheat pre- pared for use. The location of all the early mills is known, but in a few years every trace of some of them will be obliterated. On the site of each a commemorative tablet should be erected and dedicated in memory of the industry and hardships of the early fathers of Plymouth.
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MILLS AND MANUFACTURES.
THE VILLAGE GRIST MILL.
In 1888 James K. Pierce removed to Plymouth and built a grist mill south of the freight depot in Plymouth village. He con- ducted a custom business and was a dealer in flour and grain. He died in the autumn of 1900. A few months later the mill was purchased by William Patterson, who has refitted the plant with modern milling machinery and is conducting a general business in flour and grain.
THE PARK MILLS.
William R. Park and William R. Park, Jr., who have conducted a lumber business in several towns, while residents of Plymouth were manufacturers of and dealers in lumber. They owned a portable saw mill, which was located a few years where Foster's Peg Mill now stands. They removed from this town in 1896.
THE CHASE MILLS.
The brothers Warren G. and Irving H. Chase, under the firm name of W. G. & I. H. Chase, have been engaged in the manu- facture of lumber in Thornton and elsewhere. In 1897 they erected a mill in the village of Plymouth and are successfully con- ducting an extensive business. The motive power is a stationary steam engine of 250 horse-power. The mill possesses the most modern improvements, and in one day, with one-tenth of the out- lay of manual labor, it turns out more lumber than any of the early mills could produce in a year.
The mill is supplied with logs, mostly pine, drawn by teams from woodlands in Plymouth and adjoining towns, and a greater quantity shipped by rail from points more remote. The firm gives employment to fifty and sometimes eighty men, and daily produces thirty thousand feet of dressed lumber. The greater part of the product of the mill is recut and sold for packing cases.
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
THE PLYMOUTH VENEER COMPANY.
This corporation was organized under the voluntary corporation laws of New Hampshire, Dec. 14, 1892. The corporators were Davis B. Keniston, Plummer Fox, William R. Kimball, Joseph P. Huckins, Curtis L. Parker, and Obadiah G. Smith. The busi- ness was conducted in a building near the railroad station, now occupied by the Beal Mattress Company. The motive power is a steam engine. From veneer stock cut from poplar and other wood the company manufactured butter dishes, berry baskets, and a variety of wares, giving employment to forty people. The busi- ness was suspended in 1901. The corporation now owns the building, machinery, and the power plant.
THE FOSTER PEG MILL.
Jacob R. Foster, now a resident of Shelburne Falls, Mass., has been a successful manufacturer of split shoe pegs about fifty years, and has conducted business in several towns in New Hampshire and in Massachusetts. In 1897 he purchased a tract of land in Plymouth near the junction of Baker's and Pemigewasset rivers, and immediately laid the foundations for a commodious mill, which was completed in the early autumn of 1898. The motive power is a steam engine of 100 horse-power. There are several tenement houses connected with the plant. In all its appointments the mill is modern and it contains every innovation known to the business. From the log to the finished shoe peg every process is an object lesson in the study of the wonderful labor-saving devices of an inventive age. It is a forcible expression of the concentrated thought and invention of many men during the past sixty years.
The business is under the able and intelligent management of Edwin J. and George R. Foster, sons of the proprietor. The mill consumes twenty-five hundred cords of birch logs annually and produces three hundred bushels of shoe pegs each day.
To their stated business they have recently added the manu- facture of bobbins, which are sold in the rough and are finished in other mills.
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MILLS AND MANUFACTURES.
THE BEAL MATTRESS COMPANY.
This industry was established and conducted ten years in Orford and was removed to Plymouth in March, 1904. The company has leased and occupies the building of the Plymouth Veneer Company. The patented machines used in the preparation of the material and in filling the mattresses are the distinguishing feature of the company when compared with other concerns engaged in the same business. The company proposes to employ about thirty people, and the daily product will exceed one hundred finished mattresses.
THE GLOVE INDUSTRY.
For many years the manufacture of the Plymouth glove was the principal industry of this community. It offered remunerative wages to many men and women and added fame and reputation to the town. The foundation and the successful prosecution of the business are interesting incidents in the history of Plymouth. The inventions of Arkwright, Hargreaves, and Whitney in ginning and spinning cotton, which have been in use more than a century, were the solid foundations upon which the manufacture of many fabrics in universal use has been reared. In a smaller field, but relatively with equal success, the experiments and discoveries of Alvah McQuesten founded an industry which for many years was the fostered child of Plymouth.
Alvah McQuesten was a tanner. His tanyard was at the foot of Ward Hill. With the use of hemlock bark and by the processes then in general use, he tanned domestic hides, which he bought of the farmers, and annually produced, according to the nomencla- ture of his time, a finished stock of calf skins, cowhide, and sole leather. In his regular business there appears no suggestion of glove stock or the Plymouth glove.
In tanning by the established process the small number of deer skins that were annually placed in the vats, the results were very unsatisfactory. The tanned skin was not sufficiently soft and pliable. The hair side, called by the craft the grain, was hard and
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
glassy, and in use soon became chapped with many breaks and seams. Such was the comnon result everywhere, and deer skins were almost worthless.
An improved process in tanning and in dressing deer skins was not a sudden discovery nor the application of a secret communi- cated by others. It was the rich reward of many experiments made by Alvah McQuesten, an intelligent country tanner, who discovered a process of removing the grain, filling the skins with oil, and producing a soft and pliable material which was pleasing to the sight and durable in use. Compared with former results, it was a new material. If Alvalı McQuesten, in his continued and studious experiments, was assisted in any manner by the intelli- gence of the men employed by him, they should receive the credit which is their due. The tradition of the use of a secret obtained from the Indians is the decline of folly into foolishness. The Indians were not tanners. They produced no finished leather. The statement that the world never saw a specimen of genuine glove stock until it was produced by a citizen of Plymouth remains unchallenged.
As a natural sequence, and following these successful innova- tions in the preparation of the stock, Alvah McQuesten, about 1835, began the manufacture of gloves and continued the business until 1867, when he removed from town.
A few years later Jason C. Draper, who became a successful and prominent factor in the business, established a tanyard and glove factory at Lower Intervale. Oliver S. McQuesten, a brother of Alvah, and Arthur Ward, a merchant, jointly were dressers and manufacturers several years. In any review of the glove industry it will be discovered that many of the merchants of Plymouth were manufacturers of gloves, and many of the manufacturers, for the time being, were merchants. The union of the glove factory and the store was a convenience, if not a necessity, in the success- ful conduct of the business. The gloves were sewed by women in their homes, and merchants who were manufacturers paid for the labor in store goods. In the firm of Ward & McQuesten, Mr. Ward
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conducted the store and had charge of the piece work, while his partner superintended the tanning, dressing, and cutting of the stock. From 1862 to 1868 William G. Hull was a partner, and the firm name was Ward, McQuesten & Hull.
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