History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 164

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1714

USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 164
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 164

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Oliver H. Lord's acquaintance with public men of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts is very extensive, and he is held in high esteem by a large circle of friends.

DAVID H. BUFFUM.

David Hanson Buffum, son of Timothy and Anna Austin Buffum, was born in North Berwick, Me., Nov. 10, 1820. His father died when he was but six years of age, and in consequence of the slender resources of the widowed mother, young David was taken into the family of his father's brother, with whom he remained until seventeen years of age. During this time he at- tended several terms at an academy, and later we find him engaged in the laudable vocation of teaching school.

In 1839 he came to Great Falls and entered a store as clerk, receiving eight dollars per month as com- pensation. At the age of twenty-one he purchased an interest of one of his employers and continued two years, when he disposed of his interest in that firm and erected a brick block containing three stores, one of which he occupied in general merchandising, and continued in the mercantile business with marked success until Dec. 5, 1846, when he was chosen cashier of the newly-organized Great Falls Bank, and offici- ated in that capacity until April 20, 1863. While cashier of the Great Falls Bank he was elected treas- urer, in August, 1857, of the Somersworth Savings- Bank, and continued as such ten years. In 1857, Mr. Buffum, in company with the late Hon. John H. Burleigh, organized the Newichawanick Woolen Company, at South Berwick, Me., and in 1862 he organized the Great Falls Woolen Company, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. This com- pany was at once successful, and the capital was soon increased to one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Buffum has been treasurer and general manager of this corporation since its organization, except for a few years, when, in consequence of impaired health, he was compelled to retire from active business. Mr. Buffum, for nearly a quarter of a century, has been engaged in the manufacture of woolen fabrics, and with that success which attends energy and first-class business management. He is also the owner of a felt- mill at Milton, N. H., a partner in the wool-pulling establishment of L. R. Hersom & Co., of Berwick,

Public-spirited and of a progressive mind, Mr. Buffum has ever been foremost in all movements which, in his judgment, tended to the advancement of the welfare of his adopted town. He was town clerk in 1843-44, moderator in 1848-57, and select- man in 1846-71-72. His fellow-citizens have recog- nized his ability and worth, and have chosen him to various positions of responsibility and trust. He represented the town in the Legislature in 1861-62, serving the first year on the Committee on Banks, and the second year as chairman of the Committee on the Reform School. He was elected to the Senate in 1877, and served on the Committees on the Judiciary, Finance, Banks, and State Institutions. In the fol- lowing year, 1878, he was re-elected to the Senate, and was chosen its presiding officer. Mr. Buffum was the first president of the Senate from Stratford County as now constituted. In 1880 he was a del- egate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago.

In all the positions which he has been called upon to occupy it may truly be said that he has discharged his duties with a conscientious regard for the public good.

Jan. 26, 1853, Mr. Buffum united in marriage with Charlotte E. Stickney, daughter of Alexander H. Stickney, of Great Falls, and their family consisted of four children, three sons and a daughter, viz. : Charlotte A. (died May 23, 1877), Edgar S., Harry A., and David H. Edgar S. is the agent of the Great Falls Woolen Company ; Harry A. is manager of the felt-mills at Milton, N. H .; and David HI. is an undergraduate at Yale.

Mr. Buffum attends the Congregational Church, to which he has ever been a liberal contributor.

CAPT. ISAAC CHANDLER.

Capt. Isaac Chandler was born in Windsor, Conn., Sept. 22, 1811. He remained in his native town until the age of sixteen years, when he procured em- ployment in a factory at Ludlow, Mass., to cover rollers and as a mule-piecer. He remained there three years. In 1830 he came to Great Falls, N. II., and engaged in covering rollers for the Great Falls Manufacturing Company at twenty-two cents per day, and at the end of the year had saved from this pittance forty-nine dollars and seventy-six cents. He

700

HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

then commenced working in a mule-room for a almost daily, and in addressing schools used no be- slightly increased compensation. Hand-mule spin- ning required skilled labor, and as the manufacture of cotton was comparatively in its infancy in this country, all the spinners were brought from England, who monopolized the trade. Their time was about equally divided between spinning and beer-drinking, and bnt a small product was obtained for their labor. Mr. Chandler's perseverance and natural ingenuity soon made him master of the machine and he com- menced spinning, working for his own and his en- ployer's interest. He soon showed them the increased product of a mule run by a young and energetic Ameri- can. Everything was done to diminish his prodnet, and his mules were frequently disordered during his absence, but he had no affiliation with their combina- tion or their habits. Soon other young men were apprenticed to the business, and in a short time no foreigners were employed as spinners. In 1835 he took charge of the belt- and roller-shop for the cor- poration, which position he still retains.

The systematic and rigid economy which enabled young Chandler to save so large percentage of his first earnings was characteristic of his whole life, which with good judgment in making his first invest- ment laid the foundation for his great financial suc- cess. When twenty-two years of age, before there were any railroads leading to the West, and long before Horace Greeley emphasized the words "Go West, young man," he discerned that the star of empire was tending towards the setting sun, and soon the track of the buffalo and the trail of the red man would be buried by the plowshare, and the outposts of civilization would be constantly moving towards the Pacific slope, which would enhance the valnes of the then almost worthless lands. He collected his available funds, concealed them in a leathern girdle, and by stage-coach and canal-boat, on foot and on horseback, went to what was then the far West, and invested his funds in wild lands, and the subsequent returns from this investment attest the correctness of his youthful foresight and good judgment.

Mr. Chandler has held many places of honor and trust in the town; has been identified with all its leading interests. He held a captain's commission for four years in the New Hampshire State militia, is a director of the Great Falls National Bank. vice - president of the Somersworth Savings - Bank, has been a director of the Great Falls and Conway Railroad, was one of the founders of the Manufac- turers' and village library, represented the town in the Legislature of 1851, and has been a member of the school committee for a period of thirty years. When first elected a member of the school committee there were no graded schools in this vicinity. He visited schools in Boston, Lowell, and other cities in Massachusetts, entered into correspondence with prominent teachers and educators respecting the ad- vanced modes of teaching. He visited the schools

wildering preliminaries, but spoke directly to the point, and was never misunderstood. He wasted no words in apologies for telling teachers their faults. Glittering and elaborate advertisements of text-books had no influence on his selections, nor could gratui- ties from persistent agents corrupt him. They must be tested by his standard ; he called to his assistance the best available talent, and they were thoroughly examined, and after weeks and sometimes months of patient labor his selections were made. A few years since Mr. Chandler asked to be relieved from serving on the committee longer, but at the last annual meet- ing of the district the expression was so unanimous that he should again serve them, although he has passed threescore and ten years, he has again buckled on his armor, which has never become rusty from in- activity. Owing to the small amount of schooling in the town where he spent his childhood, his education was necessarily limited, but his constant study of the text-books and his frequent visits to recitation-rooms, and the watchful interest he took in the advancement of the various classes, although his name does not appear on the school register as a pupil, it can be truly said that he was educated in our schools. He is social and domestic in his habits, is a lover of music and amusements, indulgent in his family, and liberal in his expenditures for their comfort and happiness. He is constitutionally honest and temperate in all things. His doors are wide open to his friends, and they are welcome to his pleasant fireside to enjoy his generous hospitality without restraint. Mr. Chandler is a benevolent man ; by this the writer does not mean that he has become a life-member of all or any of the so-called charitable societies; he chooses to be the almoner of his own charities, and the worthy poor are never turned empty away ; needed supplies have been found at more than one poor neighbor's door, and frequent donations that have come to them by no visible hand have generally been marked to the credit of some good angel. Some young men starting out in the battle of life, struggling for fame or fortune, will testify that they have found him a true friend in time of need.

Politically, Mr. Chandler is a Republican ; was for- merly a Whig. He attends the Congregational Church. Nov. 26, 1837, he united in marriage with Elizabeth Downing Furber, daughter of William and Alice C. Furber. Their family consisted of Mary Eliza, born Feb. 23, 1839, died Feb. 4, 1855; Charles Furber, born Jan. 15, 1841, and resides in St. Louis, Mo .; Arabella, wife of James Emery Randall, Esq., paymaster of the Great Falls Manufacturing Com- pany (they have two children, Mary C. and Lizzie A.); and Albert F., born Dec. 7, 1844, and resides in Leadville, Col. Mrs. Chandler died March 2, 1873, and Sept. 25, 1876, Mr. Chandler married Charlotte M., daughter of Levi and Alice Coleman Cochrane, of Fayette, Me.

june Chandler

701

STRAFFORD.

CHAPTER CVI.

STRAFFORD.I

STRAFFORD was set off from the town of Barring- ton in 1820, Barrington being at that time twelve miles long and six and a half wide, the northern half constituting the town of Strafford.

The surface is greatly diversified into mountain, hill, and dale.

.The Blue Hills, passing nearly through the centre, afford many grand and beautiful views to the lover of nature. Strafford has its share of the wild and grand scenery that so distinguishes the State of New Hamp- shire.

From the tops of the Blue Hills to the east a fine view of the southwest part of the State of Maine is presented, while to the southeast the ocean with its snowy sails is distinctly seen. To the south the high- lands of Massachusetts and the Uneonnung Moun- tain, in Goffstown, rise to full view, To the west the Sunapee and Kearsarge Mountains rear their hald summits to the clouds, while to the north that Swit- zerland of America, the White Mountain region, towering above the rest of New England, meets the astonished gaze of the lover of the beautiful and sub- lime.

The days were when its brooks and ponds and shaded woods afforded rare sport to the hunter and fisherman, but those days are fast passing away. Its minerals are mostly locked up in its hills and moun- tains.

Several attempts have been made to unfold its treasures. Parties have prospected and sunk shafts ; their success is their secret. There is, however, a mica-mine near Parker's Mountain that has attracted much attention. It is situated on the road leading from Strafford Ridge to Barnstead. It is being worked with good results. Some of the finest specimens in the country are taken from it. Much of the soil in the southern part is remarkably good. Its wheat, corn, and grazing lands are among the best in the State. Itx fruit is abundant and varied. Its winter fruit has a reputation surpassed by none.

Strafford is noted for its fine stock, the Durham taking the lead for beef and working oxen, the Jer- seys and Devons for dairy purposes. Frequently steers at three years old measure seven feet and up- wards.

There are four roads extending through the town, in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction, nearly parallel to each other.

It is bounded on the east by Farmington and Rochester, on the south by Barrington, west by Northwood, and on the north by Barnstead.

Bow Lake Reservoir is a beautiful sheet of water about two miles long and one and a half wide, some-

what in the form of a crescent. The Cocheco Com- pany of Dover controls its waters, which are carried to the city by the lsinglass River. There are sev- eral other similar ponds of less note, among which are Willey's and Spruce Ponds.

About fifty years ago the dam at Bow Lake gave way and its waters went rushing and roaring for eighteen miles to Dover, doing much damage in their course. The county immediately replaced the dam by one of granite, it being now one of the most sub- stantial ones in this part of the country.

There are four stores in town at the present time doing an excellent business, and much lumber is being manufactured and transported to the various markets in this vicinity.

Farmington, Rochester, Great Falls, Dover, and Pittsfield are excellent markets for our farming prod- uets. Strafford is essentially a farming town, but there has been erected at Bow Lake an extensive building, and machinery is being now put in for the manufacture of shoes. The population of Strafford in 1881 was seventeen hundred and seventy.

When our fathers about one hundred and fifty years ago first made their advent into this town it was cov- ered with noble forests, under whose shade the purling brooks, always full, went joyously on to the wide, wide sea. Then from necessity the first settlers laid low the tall trees, and the work of destruction has been going on from that day to this, and now the portable steam saw-mill has swept every vestige of everything that looks like a forest. Well may we exclaim, " Woodman, spare that tree !" As a consequence our brooks are diminishing in size and our springs are drying up, until at this writing, Aug. 14, 1882, after a sharp and somewhat protracted drought, there is hardly a brook in the town that has a continuous flow of water. I know whereof I write, having been over a large part of the town within the last two weeks.

There are nineteen school districts, and money is voted for schools liberally besides what the law re- quires us to raise.

In 1826 a terrible fire burned over Parker's Moun- tain, and the fire frequently caught a half-mile from the burning mountain. Those living at that time say the scene by night was indescribably grand. The fire continued to burn about a month.

I am told by the older people that the first settlers raised but very little corn or wheat, and hardly any potatoes. About eighty years ago the yellow potatoes were introduced into town, and were grown almost exclusively for a long time. Wheat and corn began to be raised after they began to plow the ground. Rye on the burn was their main crop. Beans were raised in abundance, hence bean-broth was one of their prin- cipal dishes. Their not raising potatoes or corn ac- counts for their small hogs. They ran in the woods, and seldom weighed over one hundred pounds. Some- times they would get one up to one hundred and fifty pounds. That was a big hog for those days.

1 By J. B. Smith.

702

HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Strafford is a very healthy town, the water pure and cold, the mountain air pure and bracing; persons frequently live to be eighty or ninety, and some even to one hundred years of age.

There are two secret societies of the order of the Patrons of Husbandry, both in a flourishing condition, having halls of their own, one located at Strafford Corner, the other at Bow Lake.

There is one public-house, kept by John M. White- house, near the foot of the Blue Hills, on the Crown Point road.

Manufacturing Interests .- There are seven mills where lumber is manufactured, four grist-mills, one cotton and wool carding mill, one barrel and shook manufactory, two carriage manufactories. There is in the vicinity of Bow Lake iron ore in considerable quantities, also plumbago.

The rock of our mountains is mostly of coarse granite, although there are some of the finest and best granite to be found in the State. There is a quartz ledge in the northwest part of Strafford about half a mile in length, and has the appearance of a snow-bank in the summer from a distance.

I am indebted to Daniel Winkley, Esq., for the fol- lowing early history of Strafford :

It appears that a ship of his Majesty King George II. put into Portsmouth Harbor, in need of repairs, and that a contract was made with the authorities of the town to repair the same and to receive in pay a tract of land now known as Barrington and Strafford, said tract being fourteen miles long by six and a half wide. Portsmouth having fulfilled its contract, a tax was levied on the inhabitants to pay for the same. After the tax was raised the said land was divided into lots in size proportional to the tax each man paid. The lots were numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, up to 277, that being the number of tax payers. They now drew their numbers on the first range of lots on the east side of the town, and so continued till the ranges of a mile wide were laid off into lots and the land taken up, with the exception of lot of two miles wide run- ning across the southerly end, nearly east and west, which was reserved to Portsmouth expressly to pay the expense of starting a foundry in that town.

In laying off the lots, when they came to a pond, as Ayers' Pond, in the first range of lots they surveyed, numbered its acres and led the lot in course beyond it. So of Round Pond and Bow Pond. Bow Pond and commons numbered in the survey nine hundred and sixty acres. A man by the name of Thomas Parker drew lot 149, containing six hundred and forty-eight acres, which happened to fall on the top of a mountain ; hence the name of Parker's Mountain.

Some of the persons who owned these lots settled on them. I see many of the names of the first set- thers among the original owners of the lots. Others threw them into the market. Hence it is that we hear so much about "taking up a farm," "settling on lots," " selecting homes" by the old people.

There are six ranges of lots one mile wide, the first commencing on the easterly side of the town. Then comes a range road nearly north and south, four rods wide, there being five of these roads, the half-mile on the westerly side not being laid off into lots. There is a cross-road running nearly east and west not far from the centre four rods wide. On the north side of this road in the fourth range of lots, between I56 (Joshua Perce's 720 acres) and 157, next south of cross-roads, lies a parsonage lot.

I will now give a few of the numbers of lots, with the original owners' names and number of acres, com- mencing on the easterly side of the town going up. I give an exact duplicate of the original, which lies before me:

No. Original Owners' Name. Acres.

1. Henry Hvis. 270

2. Thomas Hamet GO

3. Julin Moore ... 72

4 Francis Ran.

5. Benjamin Gambling. 330

6. Elrezer Russell. 96

7. Widow Hatch

8. Edward Cater.

240

9. William White

10. Nathaniel Rogers

360

11, James Libbey

Round Pond (280 acres)

120

12. Samnel Allcock 210

The above is enough to show the transaction. There are two hundred and seventy-seven names, with num- ber and acres attached, in the manuscript before me.

The plan of the town with the proportional size of the lots I have given a short account of. The manu- script and plan that I have, Daniel Winkley, Esq., says are exact duplicates of the originals. The origi- nals were in the hands of Elijah Tuttle, an old man of Strafford, a professional and exact surveyor, and as as he was about to die gave them to Mr. Winkley.

The story runs that John Foss, one of the original settlers, owned Bow Lake and sold it to John Caverly (4th), who sold it to the Cocheco Manufacturing Company, its present owners.

If the history of the contract between his Majesty King George the First and the town of Portsmouth is correct, and also the story of the survey, plot, and płan, and the laying off and assigning lots is true, then how did John Foss get his title to Bow Lake ?

The plan exempts from sale the waters of the ponds in the tract of land under consideration. These ponds were surveyed, the number of acres given, and they never even went into the hands of the Portsmouth proprietors individually, and no man could give a title to them any more than to the ranges set off for roads, for there was no man ever had any legal title.

Family Sketches .- Joshua Otis, father of the Rev. Micajah, married Mary Hussey, of Barrington, had ten children, - Nicholas, Elijah, Paul, Micajah, Joshna, Stephen, Mary, Sarah, Jane, and Rebecca. Ile died with the measles, ninety years of age. Came from Dover and took up the farm upon which Jacob B. Smith now lives, and there lie his remains to-day. Micajah was a pioneer in organizing and sustaining the Free-Will Baptist Church at Strafford Corner.

703

STRAFFORD.

He settled on land in the extreme southeast corner of Strafford ; married Mary Foss, sister to Thomas Foss, better known in all this region as Master Foss. Mas- ter Foss had one son, John. He had two sons-John and Andrew. John was at one time warden of the State prison, at Concord. Andrew was a famous Abolition preacher and lecturer.

Micajah Otis, by his marriage with Sarah Foss, had six children, of whom the Hon. Jacob Otis was the eldest, who lived and died on the farm that his father had cleared up. Was born in 1810; married Sally Kimball, of Farmington. Ile was a real self- made man. Taught school twenty winters. Was one of the selectmen two years, and representative to the General Court two years prior to the division of the town. In 1828 was representative from Strafford, and afterwards counselor from the Second Counselor Dis- trict three years. Was surveyor of land, justice of the peace, and drew up a large number of legal in- struments, and also did a large probate business. He was a successful farmer, and died in 1854, and he sleeps with his fathers.

The Berrys are a numerous and respectable portion of the inhabitants of Strafford. Nathaniel and John were brothers, and came from Rye, and settled at Strafford Corner while as yet there were no public highways in this part of the town, both brothers "having many descendants. John Berry had eight children, among whom was Thomas, father to Tam- son, wife of Deacon Thomas Berry. Tamson still lives on the old homestead, a very aged and respect- able lady.

Thomas had eighteen children by two wives. These children, with the exception of two, lived to become men and women, and settled in this vicinity.

Nathaniel, father of George, who was the father of Deacon Thomas, had thirteen children. Nathaniel, George, Thomas, and James Demeritt all lived and died on the old homestead. It now is being occupied by Dana R., a son of James Demeritt Berry. This family settled here over one hundred and seven years ago.

The Hayeses lived about one-half mile above Straf- ford Corner. This family was among the first settlers. John Hayes was an emigrant from Scotland, came to Dover, N. II., about 1680, lived and died there, mar- ried Mary Horne, and had a large family. His son, John2 Hayes, lived in Dover, and was deacon of the first church. He married widow Tamson (Went- worth) Chesley, and had eleven children. One of these was Josephi3 Hayes, born May 1, 1746, and lived in Strafford, N. H. IIe married, first, Peggy Brews- ter ; second, Elizabeth Wingate. Had eight children, all by his first wife. Died July 30, 1816. His son Joseph, a strong-minded and upright man, had a family of twelve children. The homestead has now passed from the name.

Benjamin Stanton came from England, born in 1700, married a Ricker, had five children. The third,

William, settled in Barrington, now Strafford, buying land of the town of Dover in 1754, showing a settle- ment of one hundred and twenty-eight years. Mar- ried, in 1761, a Brock. Their son William, Jr., lived at home and married a Holmes. They had eight children. The eldest, Ezra, still kept the old home- stead, and married an Otis, and had seven children ; one, Joshua O. Stanton, M.D., now a practicing phy- sician in Washington, D. C., and another, William P., married a Brock, who, with their only child, Fred. T., who married a Young, live now on the farm reclaimed from the forests by their ancestors. This farm, one of the best and neatest kept in town, is a half-mile above Free-Will Baptist meeting-house at Strafford Corner.

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History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 164

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1714

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1714