USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Sanbornton > History of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, Vol. I - Annals > Part 25
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HISTORY OF SANHORNTON.
stairs and bring up all their grists ! As another anecdote of this old mill, Sergt. John Sanborn was . jogging along" towards the same early one Monday morning, feeling somewhat in a hurry Milling auce. dote of perut. for his grist, when a young fellow, - by name, yet more Juhu Suuborn. in a hurry, rode past him rather disrespectfully, and going up to fhul Mr. Darling, the miller (at what is now Eleazer Davis's), with the design of " getting ahead of the old gentleman," found to his chagrin, on returning with the miller, that Mr. Sanborn's grain already had possession of the hopper! ,
These original mills are both said to have " sailed down stream " in the great freshet of February, 1824 : but the grist-mill was immedi- ately replaced by the enterprise of Judge Atkinson ; and to this had Destroyed by
been added, before 1844, another saw-mill, cider-mill, Iresbet and fire. etc., all of which were then bought by Col. A. II. Tilton and George S. Baker, who cleared off the rubbish, built a woollen mill thirty-seven by seventy feet, two stories high, with attic aud basement. aud ran one set of cards till 1846. They then sold to the Lake ( Water-Power) Company ; but Col. Tiltou continued to occupy the mill, under a lease, with a new set of machinery and great success, till it was totally destroyed by fire, December, 1855, with a loss to Col. Tilton of $6,000 above his insurance.
From this time the old dam stood idle till 1868, when it was used by R. M. Bailey, of the Bailey Mill Company, for a coffer-dam in building the present substantial dam just below it ; ou which, the same year, the spacious and attractive factory was also erected, known in 1873 as the Winnisquam Mill, of the Winnipiseogee Mills Latest lin- Company. This is of wood, one hundred and sixty by provenients. fifty-eight feet dimensions, and three stories in height, with a handsome basement, costing Mr. Bailey some $25,000 ; now owned (1880, 1881) by the New Hampshire Manufacturing Company (Dexter, Abbott & Co., Boston), and run by Mr. Charles T. Almy, resident lessee. Ile manufactures cotton yarns and silesias, or tine sheetings, operating 7,300 spindles, and employing about fifty hands. The machinery is of the most improved pattern, the " slasher," in the basement, having been imported from England at a cost of $1, 125. The company now own three dwelling-houses, and the picker and boiler wartincuts are separate from the main factory.
The third mills in town, proceeding as nearly in chronological order as may be, ummust have been the Dustin saw and grist mill below Turkey Bridge, where the old road crossed Salmon Brook. They III. - The old were built and occupied by David Dustin, very early, and Dustin Mills. his grist-mill has often been claimed as the first in town. But it seems improbable that, with the few settlers in that part of the
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MILLS AND MILL SITES.
town, it could have had an earlier existence than the mill at the Bridge, just namned, in 1766. The stones for grinding in this mill were dug near the mountain road, east of the original Wadleigh place, where now a pasture, and drawu down on an ox sled. The water-wheel was an undershot, " forty feet in diameter " (?), as reported. Some five of the later millstones of this establishment were still to be seen (1871), strewn upon the south bank of the stream, near the end of the old dam, - now two feet wide, - with a solid wall standing ten feet high above it, and with ruins of the old raceway in the deep ravine below ! Samuel Dustin afterwards changed the original building into a saw and shingle mill, adding a separate one for the grist-mill. The last vestige of these mills disappeared about 1850, except as above stated.
The first mill at the Chapel should come fourth in order, if built, as some allege, in or before 1772, by " Bear " (John) Folsom ; * others say by John Shaw and Major William Prescott. The old platform was discovered, in good preservation, six feet under ground, in 1875. This original mill was only for sawing. " Every board had to be run back by the foot." A grist-mill was afterwards added, on the north side of the stream. Nathaniel Burleigh is said to have succeeded Folsom in the possession (having first, in a contention about the " hidden ox-chains" and the choicest trees, proved himself the stronger man of the two in the old mill yard !). Nathaniel Piper, Sen., rebuilt these mills, and his son Nathaniel erected the present saw-mill and later grist-mill, as now, upon the south side IV. - The Chapel or of the brook. Having remained for nearly two genera-
Piper Mills. tions in the Piper family, they were purchased by Benja- min S. Colby in 1870-72, who, in company with Alfred Clark, has been doing a large business, the saw-mill having been supplied with entirely new machinery, - a large circular "and lathing, shingle, planing, and box machines." Present value of both mills, 83,000, though costing much more. Annual product, 300,000 feet of lumber, or about $5,000, of which $1,400 is in boxes, made for 1. W. Sullo- way, of Franklin. Ten hands employed from March to July ; four the rest of the year.
As built nearly at the same time (1772), and perhaps by the same man (who may have removed hither from Calef Hill), was the original Folsom saw-mill, which is known to have been standing on the San- bornton side of the river when Jeremiah Sauboru first settled at Franklin Falls, in 1778 (see Vol. 1I. p. 633 [161]). This is at the upper bridge, and the middle one of the three upper falls (dams).
* This account requires a slight modification of that appearing in Vol. II. (p. 573 [18]).
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JUSTORY OF SANHORNTON.
The first mill was soon carried down by a freshet, and Mr. Sauborn rebuilt on the Northfield side, where one of his obl sills was, till very recently, to be seen embedded in the wall just above the bridge. This V. - Barllent
mill ( with an added grist-mill) was again transferred to the nulle at Frank. Saubornton side, though extending over the edge of the lin Falls. river for some little distance ; and its site was occupied, after 1810, by the Jona. Sanborn fulling or clothing mill, which was itself' succeeded by the old " red mill," two stories high, for making satinet and cotton yarn. This, after lying unused for several years, was burned, by design ( ?). The same site is now occupied by Mr. Sleeper (late Sleeper & Page), door, sash, and blinds ; valuation, $6,000 ; employing fifteen hands, with an average product of $20 per day, or $6,200 per annum. Also in immediate connection, the provender grist-mill of Charles H. Davis, with two runs of stones and a flourishing business. Just above these mills, on the same privilege, is a small brown shop. owned by the Water-Power Company, on the exact site of the machinists' and wood-workers' shop of Mr. Daniel Ilerrick, which was also, for some years, used by the late Dea. G. C. Ward as a palm-leaf pressing establishment.
A set of mills - probably both grist and saw together - very early (1780?) stood on the Winnipiseogee River, sixty rods below Union Bridge. They were first built and owned by the Gibson Brothers, at the so-called .. Gibsons' Falls." Signs of their dam, which then crossed the river, may still be seen at low water. There were mills on both sides of the stream. Willoughby Durgin afterwards built a catering dam part way across the river, on the site of the old Gibson dam, owning and ( in part, at least) building a grist-mill and saw-mill
VI. - The joined to it ; sold his privilege to Simon D. Sanborn and Gibson Falls or Joseph Dow, about 1814 ; and they sold to Major Edward I'mina Bridge Stills. Pearsons, of Exeter, in 1828, who put a new straight dam across the river, to accommodate his mills both sides. The saw-mill was owned, like many others in town, by different share- holders. With the exception of a few of these shares, l'earsous got possession of all the mill property. A shingle and clapboard mill was built by Josiah C. Philbrick (near 1831) in connection with the above. The noble river, now at last made tranquil by the new dam below, flows over all these sites as if nothing, as here described, had ever happened !
A trip-hanner seythe shop and grist-mill, erected by Tilton & Smith, as early as 1788, was the first improvement at the original Sanbornton Bridge (see Vol. 11. pp. 732 [129] and 797 [28]). Through various changes, by fire and otherwise, the site is now occu- pied by the large and commodious two-story grist-mill of Hazen Copp
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built by him in 1872, now run (1880, 1881) by Charles W. Blood ; as
TTI. - The also a similar structure a few rods below, built by Mr.
Tiltou-Copp Copp in 1877, - with machinery driven by the same fall, Miilis. -and now occupied by Raymond N. Colvin, hosiery, ribbed shirts, and drawers, employing about twenty hands. Estimated value of both mills, $15,000, the upper or grist-mill being rated at two thirds that sinn.
Among the previous occupants of this same site should be named Mr. William Follansbee, who used it first for a cotton mill, built about 1830, and soon burnt; next as a woollen factory till about 1537. During some ten years' residence, Mr. Follansbee, by his William Fol- business energy, did much for the upbuilding of the San-
lanchee and A. IL. Tilton. bornton Bridge of that day. Here also Col. A. H. Tilton, leasing the mill in 1838, in company with George S. Baker, mainly commenced his career as a mamifacturer. (See Vol. II. p. 804 [91].) A case of goods sent from this factory to Boston in 1840 first received the name of Tilton's ". Tweeds," selling well, and estab- lishing a reputation by their excellence.
Our chronology must now take ns to another corner of the old town ; for on Prescott Brook, one and three fourths miles above its mouth. a set of mills had been built, and was owned by Joseph Prescott ( the second son of Major Joseph, first settler) in 1789. The saw-mill was first erected below the crossing of the old road, south side of stream ; then the grist-mill (oue rn) above the road, north side of brook ; with the mill house, occupied by those who carried on the mills, VIII - The
I'rescott Mills. between the two. These mills have been attributed to Asa and Mark, the sons of Joseph Prescott, who may have improved, rebuilt, or possibly first built the grist-inill, but could not have been the first to ereet the saw-mill. They continued for thirty years on what was then a main thoroughfare; now overgrown with woods.
The Threshing-Mill Brook, flowing into the Salmon, south and west of the Chapel, though small, has from the earliest times (1790?)
IX. - The afforded an excellent mill site. At the point on Lot 70,
Joseph Smith, First Division, where Joseph Smith, first settler, erected a or threshing mill. dam for grist-mill, ete., the height of the fall compensates for the small volmne of water ; and the mill is still largely patronized in the summer and fall for threshing and apple grinding, many loads of grain being carried to it from a distance of two to four miles in every direction. Present owners (1880), White & Osgood.
The Burleigh clothing mill, at East Tilton, dating back to 1795 ( ?), at least, was near the bank of the Winnipiseogee, at the end of the present and just above the old Burleigh Bridge. (This bridge was
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HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
changed in 1867 - east end swing down and west end swung up, middle pier remaining the same - so as to avoid a sharp turn in the road, on west side of river. ) In the rear of this mill was the antique two-story " corporation house," as now standing, originally built as " clothier Burleigh's " residence. The new dam of the X. - The Hur. Water-Power Company is built fifteen rods above the old leigh clothing till and others
clothing-mill dam. Nearly at the same time with this Hear It. clothing mill, a saw and grist mills were also built, fifteen rods west, nearer the Little Bay, ou the same site, and in partly the saine buildings as occupied by Byron W. Brown and D. S. Daniels, till 1866 and 1877. Ou the former year the grist-mill was rebuilt ; has remained in the charge of Mr. Daniels, with two runs of stones, and grinding from 7,000 to 8,000 bushels of Western corn per annum, besides a large enstom business. Mr. Brown completed his new saw- mill, eighty feet by thirty, in September, 1877, with one large cirenlar saw, two range saws, clapboard mill, and planer. He employs five men in the winter, besides choppers and teamsters, - ten or twelve in all. Total value of the above mill property, abont $3,000.
The excelsior factory should be named in this connection, a few rods up the stream, below the railroad. It was erected in 1869, by G. Wm. Blanchard, of Boston, at a cost of $20,000 ; was driven from the upper dam ; manufactured excelsior for mattresses out The excelsior factory. of poplar-wood ; employed twenty men ; was sold to Per- son C. Shaw and II. O. Haywood, in 1877, for $7,000; disappeared by fire in 1878, - a serious loss, both to the owners and to the manufacturing interests of East Tilton.
A grist-mill, oil-mill (flaxseed), and trip-hammer shop were built and occupied by Bradstreet Moody, Esq., soon after he came to town, near the upper dam and the late Rev. Mr. Cass's, east of Tilton Vil- lage. His first house 'also stood next to the river, below which his mill extended, on the present dam, about one hundred feet, and forty or fifty feet wide, consisting of a main part, two stories, and an L or 'T part, one story. This building contained a trip-hammer, three or four forges, an oil-mill (in the lower end), a flax-swingling mill, a foundry next to the river (L part) for all small castings ; and in the second story, a turning lathe and carding machine, with the grist-mill and two or three runs of stones below. He employed ten men in all. The above describes Mr. Moody's first establishment ;
XI. - The destroyed by fire in 1814 ; rebuilt, and again burned, about
Moody aud Simonds Mills.
1855. After lying idle for twenty years, the privilege was bought by Benjamin P. Simonds, for $5,000, who erected a saw and shingle mill, seventy feet by thirty-eight, in April, 1875 ; and in April, 1880, an addition to this, forty feet by twenty-two,
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containing three planers and a box-mill. Mr. Simonds employs, on an average, fifteen hands, with two pairs of horses and four yoke of' oxen. His manufactured product for 1880 was 1,250,000 feet of lumber.
Before 1800, also, the earliest mill must have been built at North Sanborutou, by Benjamin Colby, as it was certainly called " Capt. Colby's mill " in 1801. He sold the same to Abuer Kimball, and the latter to Joseph Iluse, who owned longest and made large improve- ments about 1810, probably adding the grist-mill, so that the two XII. - The mills have chiefly borne his name. The saw-will was North San- washed out by the freshet of 1826, and innmediately re- burutou Mills. stored. Grist-mill rebuilt by Moses P. Piper, 1838 and 1839, and hence called, of late, like those farther down the stream, " Piper's Mills." The two are now owned by Moses R. Weeks, - grist- mill east side of stream, two runs of stoues ; saw (upright) and shingle mills west side, with cider-mill addition, in 1878. Last appraisal, $1,200 ; worth more. Business mostly job-work. This privilege Las a valuable reservoir, the Hermit Brook as well as Salmon being made available.
Following chiefly in the order of time, though partly by groups, we have the saw-mill west of the Sanborn Road, in Tilton, on the Gulf Brook, known to have been first built, before 1800, by the XII. - The
Hanboru Mill. Sanborns living wear. It was ouce burned and twice built over; lastly on shares, and " occupied by the neighbors in turn, during the sawiug season, without intermission, by day and by night."
The original dam and earliest saw-mill at what is known as " Cross's Mills," in Franklin, on the Wiunipiseogee, were built by Abraham Cross, in 1804. John Clark obtained, by deed, "for his own use, one half of saw-will and privilege in Lot No. 71, Second Division, for trip-hammer, grindstone, aud other machinery for XIV. - The blacksmithing in all its branches," Jan. 26, 1825. "Jerry Cross Mill.
Cross's Mill" is said to have been " raised," March, 1825, "opposite the Satchel Clark Mill." Trouble apprehended about the use of the privilege. Probably two mills for a time. Just below this site the Winnipiseogee Paper Company have erected, since 1870, one of their extensive pulp mills, at a cost of $40,000, for the manufacture of spruce lumber into paper material, employing from fifteen to twenty hands.
A saw-mill on the Sanders lot, No. 46, First Division, just below XV. - The juuction of the three brooks, was built by a company of Wallis Mill. six men, - John Wallis, Benjamin Morgan, Jr , Lieut. Nathaniel Grant, Stuart Iloyt, Peter Sanders, and Ebenezer Sauborn,
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HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
-about 1805. Like most of the mills on the brooks of Sanbornton, it was used but part of the year, during the high water. Taken down 1825.
The history of the Gulf Bridge privilege is as follows : Mill first built, with house accompanying, above the road, by one Wadleigh, called . Bradhook." The same afterwards owned by Charles Hutch-
inson, about 1810, with one aere of land. Only used in XVI. - This Gulf' Bridge the spring, as a grist-mill, for grinding corn. Mr. Phil- SIil. brick next owner. Walter Ingalls, who had previously run a windmill at bis father's place on the hill, then bought this privilege, aud had a turning lathe here for several years. Afterwards soll, for $20, for a threshing mill, but never used, and so finally reverted to the Ilersey farm, Lot 37, First Division, from which originally taken.
On the first site above No. III. ( Dustin Mill), Salmon Brook, and half-way to the so-called Turkey Bridge, was the William Rundlet grist-mill, with two runs of stones. Continued some thirty years ; but the only remains now visible is the " steep road running down to it," just west of the red house beyond Turkey Bridge. It was carly carried away by a freshet ; rebuilt, and finally tended by Elias Russell till burned, 1836 or 1887.
A " mill company" - number of owners - built the first saw-mill four rods above the present Turkey Bridge. Another was afterwards erected on the same site, by Thomas Morrison. " When this mill was raised, the hands had stolen a turkey for the occasion, and Squire William Weeks, who was at the raising, con- - The mills at Turkey Dealge. trived to get it away from them. The joke gave the name which always clung to the old mill." - Merrimack Journal. The mill has long since disappeared, the dam is in ruins, but the name is permanently embalmed in that of the bridge, as above.
Midway between the two last, or just below Turkey Bridge, is the large shop, uow disused except for storage, where James Taylor, its builder, carried on extensive blacksmithing for many years, after- wards owned and used by James Calley (Colby?). It was aided by the water-power (main brook), with a trip-hammer for "drawing iron." This site had, however, been previously ocenpied by a blacksmith's shop for making scythes, ete., which was burned ; supposed to have been operated by Thomas Calley, Jr.
Opposite the last. on the south side of the stream, was originally a shop for turning lathes, and a " gollsmith's shop"! where also Mr. Simon Johnson carried on the business of clock-making for several years after 1850. A very superior quality of clocks has been pro- duced from this establishment by the senior Mr. Johnson, and latterly by the Johnson Brothers. Motive power supplied by the unfail-
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MILLS AND MILL SITES.
ing reservoir of water fed by springs, south side of the road, and
XX. - The discharged into the brook. One of their best clocks was Johnson clock manufactured for the United States Clock Company, New factory. York, in 1865, the movement alone costing $300, and the finished article about $1,000. Their clock for the observatory at Hanover was furnished for $200. The " regulator" in Lord Brothers' store, at Tilton, bearing their imprint, was $150 as it stands. Move- ments are now their specialty, varying in prices from $50 to $300, with orders from all parts of the country, and an annual product, in good times, of 82,000. Their building, though umpretending in appearance, is valued, with its machinery, at 8900 to $1,000.
The Nathaniel M. Prescott, one of the best privileges on Salmon Brook, a few rods above No. XVIII., was originally a clothing mill, built by Mr. Gordon ; carried off in an Angust freshet, probably of 1826 ; then sold to Asa Swain (by whom rebuilt), and owned succes-
sively by Joseph Calley and William Rundlet, still as a
XXI. - The
clothing mill, till finally burned. Phoenix-like, it reap- Gordon-l'res- cott mill site. peared as a shingle and clapboard mill; used also for cabinet work and Mr. Warren Wadleigh's axe-handle factory ; next a threshing and cider mill, as employed by Mr. Prescott, till 1874, when leased by Blaisdell & Burley, and fitted with valuable and improved machinery for the manufacture of their patent refrigerating cupboards.
We add to this account of the mills of the " Salmon Brook Hamlet" a few observations from the graceful pen of Prof. E. Harlow Russell, in a Merrimack Journal of November, 1873 : " The original location of the settlement was probably determined by the rapid descent of the brook at this point, which is so great that it afforded four mill sites within a distance of little more than a quarter of a mile. Quotation trous Thirty-five years ago there were two grist-mills, two saw- Prof. Russell.
mills, and two shingle mills, besides some minor manufac- turing machinery, all in full operation almost within hearing of one another. Now, all is changed. The mills are mostly demolished, the dams, save one, are gone, and the stream murmurs along the channel much as it did two hundred years ago."
Passing to the Prescott Brook ( New State), a saw-mill was built by Henry Blake, about 1802, some three fourths of a mile XXII. - The from the month of the brook, below the Jonathan Cawley Blake Mili.
place, and above the present school-house of district No. 10. It was afterwards owned by Capt. Nathaniel Head, and then by Dea. Osgood. .
Twenty years later a saw, grist, and shingle mill, built by John Abrams, stood a little east of the Hill bridge. The saw-mill was ou
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HISTORY OF SANBORNTON.
one side of the stream, the grist-mill on the other. The shingle
mill, subsequently built, was a " fine one, containing two XVIII. - Thu machines, nudl doing a great amount of business." The whole " ran down " about 1850. Remains of the dam are now scarcely visible.
Thomas Calley carly had a dam and mill privilege for a turning lathe a few rods above the bridge over Colby Brook, near the resi- dence of the late Jerry Weeks; also a bellows at shop near the Weeks house.
Adjoining the old Sammel March place, ou the same brook as last, and half a mile above the old bridge near David Shaw's, was a saw- mill and privilege "on lots numbered 1 and 2, Second Division."
Having previously been bought by Charles Thomas (of - Mills upon Samboruton), of William Weeks, Nathaniel Morrison, and
Culby Brouk. heirs of Renben Eaton, it was conveyed by the said Thomas and Lyman Walker, of Gilford, to David Shaw aud Benjamin Cawley, for $60, Ang. 18, 1827, and was taken away about 1850.
Near the month of the same brook, and between the old and new bridges at David Shaw's, was a saw, shingle, and lathe mill, built and occupied by David Shaw, Sen., for about ten years. It was then moved to IIill, and incorporated in the mills near the railroad station.
The newer highway now passes directly over the site of the old William Ford saw-mill, on the west side of Sucker Brook, Lot 48 (just below 5), First Division. In connection with this was the San- bornton nail factory (as at last discovered !). The primitive nails were here wrought of hogshead hoop iron ! One Dalton was their first and chief manufacturer.
A grist-mill was owned by William Chase, on Sucker Brook, below the Meadow school-house, forty or fifty rods from the - Mills upou old road ; ocenpied eight or ten years from 1812. The the Bay brooks. New road to Laconia, down the brook, passes near the ruins of the old dam.
Stephen Iluse had a grist-mill on ITuse's or Black (Cat) Brook, ou the left of the road in the ravine, as oue passes from the present Ira Woodman's down the hill to Dea. IInse's.
A saw-mill, owned by Zebulon Smith, just above the entrance to the new cemetery, northwest of Bay meeting-house, there stood about forty years. Remains of the dam still seen from the road.
A saw-mill once stood on the same brook (north brauch), Lot No. 21, Second Division (northeast corner of town), built by Joseph Batchelder. Also a shingle mill at same place, owned by John Clark. Nathan Batchelder deeded the above (saw-mill), with eleveu and one
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