USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > History of Strafford County, New Hampshire and representative citizens > Part 23
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worth in Dover, in 1737. After he bought his farm in Berwick and settled there in 1754, he became schoolmaster there, and kept on teaching more or less until he was much passed four score years of age. He was sixty-three years old when he settled in Berwick, and he was a noted schoolmaster there for a score of years. There is not the slightest evidence that he taught school in Berwick before 1754. He taught school in Old Dover thirty years, and in Berwick twenty years. All the Dover men who took such a prominent part in the Revolution had been his pupils.
Of course Master Sullivan did not keep school every month in the year ; he did many other things. He was an expert at drawing up legal papers, cleeds, wills, etc. He raised his own vegetables, corn, beans, etc., for the household, and was always ready to lend a hand at whatever needed to be done in the Parish of Summersworth. He had private pupils at his house.
MASTER JOSEPH TATE
Joseph Tate, known as "Master Tate," was the immediate successor of Master John Sullivan as schoolmaster in the Parish of Summersworth. He was an Englishman, but where he was born the writer does not know. It is said that the maiden name of his mother was Bird. He did not live near the meeting house, as his predecessor did, but by the Salmon Falls river, about fifty rods below the lower mill. He married Elizabeth Saunders. She was probably a widow, as his record says, 21 Dec. 1774, "My wife's daughter, Elizabeth Todd, broke her leg in going home from my house." He lived some years previous to his death, at the house of Captain Morris Hobbs, where he died in 1782, aged about ninety years, and was buried near Captain Hobbs in the family burying ground, near the present residence of Charles Ham. He had a family of four sons and one daughter; the sons: Robert, born in 1744; Joseph, born in 1746; Benjamin, born in 1749; and Mark, born in 1751, were all soldiers in the Revolutionary war.
Master Tate was noted as a schoolmaster, but he is still more noted and remembered to this day by the journal he kept, which is now in possession of the town clerk of Rollinsford. The volume is headed : "Names of Families, Children, Names and Time of Birth, in the town of Somersworth, Mar. ye 26, 1776." It is said that some of his records were lost by the burning of a dwelling house. The extant volume gives dates prior to 1767, of births of children in the families then resident in that town, and continues until 1778, his other records come down to 1786. The volume contains, also, "Memo- randums of Sundry Things, viz., Deaths, Marriages, Disasters, etc." There
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are interspersed extracts from periodicals, statistics, recipes, notices of cur- rent events, etc. ; and the book is very curious and valuable.
Up to 1793 the town had been one school district ; in that year a committee was chosen to divide the town into school districts, and locate a schoolhouse in each district. The committee divided the town into four districts. In 1794 the town voted that the selectmen may not furnish the districts with school- masters; that each district furnish themselves with schoolmasters, and that they will save the selectmen harmless from all costs that arise from a fine on that account.
Somersworth has always been up-to-date in its schools, and sometimes in the advance of other towns. By an act of the Legislature passed in 1848, known as the "Somersworth Act," school district No. 3 in Somersworth ( the Great Falls district) was permitted to have a system of graded schools, and maintain a high school, to purchase land for schoolhouse lots, not exceeding three acres in one lot, and to erect such schoolhouses thereon as may be deter- mined on by vote of the district ; also to hire money to meet the cost of lot and building, in excess of $2,000. Under this act a lot was procured on Prospect Hill in 1849, and the present high school was erected upon it at a cost of ten thousand dollars. This was the first high school established in New Hamp- shire. Dover did not take this step until 1852. The graded system was adopted.
The principals and instructors in the high school have held high rank in the profession, and some of them have won distinction in other fields of work. As an adjunct of good schools the citizens have maintained a good circulating library, which was established in 1842. In the articles of agreement adopted December 31, 1841, they gave it the name "Manufacturers' and Village Library." The organization continued under this business agreement seven years. On the 30th of April, 1849, a voluntary association was organized under the statutes, a constitution and by-laws were adopted and officers chosen, whereby the partnership gave way to a kind of corporation. A charter was obtained from the Legislature in June, 1855, which provided that John A. Burleigh, Mark Noble, Royal Eastman, Isaac Chandler, Henry Y. Hayes, George W. Wendell and their associates, successors and assigns, be and hereby are constituted a body politic and corporate by the name of the "Manufact- urers and Village Library" and that "they may establish a library in Somers- worth, may lease or erect and maintain suitable buildings therefor, and may take and hold by gift, grant, purchase, devise, or otherwise real and personal estate to the amount of $20,000," whichi later was enlarged to $100,000. A reorganization was established and the library commenced to grow and flour- ish and has continued doing excellent work to the present time.
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In August, 1888, one of the original incorporators gave the library a lease for ninety-nine years of the second story of his block on Orange street, to be used as library rooms. Henry J. Furber, Esq., of Chicago, a former resident of Somersworth, supplemented Mr. Chandler's generous gift by giving money sufficient to finish and furnish the rooms so as to afford excellent accommo- dations for the library. The library now has about thirty thousand volumes, and any person can have the privilege of reading these books by paymeet of one dollar a year.
CHAPTER XXIII HISTORY OF SOMERSWORTH (V)
VARIOUS BUSINESS INTERESTS
When the Parish of Somersworth began to be settled it was not a condi- tion such as the modern vaudeville song has it, "Everybody works but father." The fact was "father" took the lead and all the boys and girls followed in helping keep on hand a good supply of pork and beans, bread and butter, and liomespun clothing for all sorts of weather, and they had plenty of "all sorts" in the beginning of things here. As the ground was covered with for- ests, untouched since the ice age in New England, the men and boys first of all had to use their axes in chopping, and their broad axes in hewing to build houses for all sorts of purposes. They had to use the broad axe until they could build saw mills, and as soon as they could get to it the town granted water falls to enterprising citizens for the construction and running of the mills; more than that, the mill owners received grants of timber for use in the mills. The early town records of Old Dover contain reports of many such grants. For example :
5, 17 Mo; 1652. "Whereas Captain Thomas Wiggins and Mr. Lyman Bradstreet have sett upp sawmill works at Quamphegon ffall" they are granted trees on land a couple of miles long and one mile broad; fro rent per annum.
5, 10 Mo: 1652, at Fresh Creek a mill privilege, on the west side of the old road, was granted to "William Ffurber, William Wentworth, Henry Langster and Thomas Canney ;" £6.rent per annum, "for the wood beside ten shillings for every such mast as they make use of."
So it is manifest what the chief business was at the beginning of things and this business held good for more than a century and a half. About 1700 Judge John Tuttle, one of the big men of Old Dover, came into possession of the Quamphegan mills and did great lumber business for a score of years. His residence was on Dover Neck, a short distance below the Meeting House. But not all the lumber business was done in sawmills. The manufacture of pipe-staves, clapboard, shingles, etc., by hand, was extensively engaged in. You know in the old arithmetics one of the tables the boys had to commit to 14
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memory was this : Four gills make one pint ; 2 pints make one quart ; 4 quarts make one gallon; 63 gallons make one hogshead; 2 hogsheads make one pipe . 4 pipes make one ton. Well, the "pipe-staves" that the Dover men made were made into casks that held two hogsheads, as stated in the table. Dover had coopers who manufactured the "pipes," a very profitable business; after the heads and hoops were all fitted, the casks were taken apart and placed com- pactly together, and shipped to the West Indies for the use of the molasses and rum trade.
Time went on; one thing opened the way for another. Up to 1750 no record of more than one farmer is found at Great Falls, on either side of the river. Andrew Horn was resident on the Somersworth side. A sawmill and a gristmill were built at the lower level about 1755. There was no dam across the river, but power was obtained by drawing the water through a sluice way, at the side, from the upper to the lower level. The business had become so thriving that in 1763 the mill proprietors petitioned for a road to be built that would give them connection with Dover. The proprietors of these mills were Ebenezer Wentworth, Isaac Hanson and several others. Up to 1820 there was no dam across the river, the power being obtained by the sluice way. Soon after that something happened. A quiet, but energetic Quaker, Isaac Wendell, came up there from Dover and viewed the "Great Falls" and saw what a mighty power was running to waste. Mr. Wendell had been engaged in the purchase of the Cochecho Falls at Dover, and in the establishment of a manufactory of cotton at that place. He, with Mr. John Williams, had obtained a charter and formed a company, chiefly of Boston men, called the Cocheco Manufacturing Company. That was in 1821. It is stated by those who had personal recollections of conditions at the Falls in 1822, that the only houses there, in what was soon to become the village of Great Falls, were the Joseph Wentworth house, then occupied by Andrew Horn, Jr., now (1913) the residence of Mrs. Edgerly, widow of the late James A. Edgerly, Esq., and standing where it then stood, and Gershom Horn's house, which stood where the familiar J. W. Bates' blue store stood in very recent period.
The Great Falls Manufacturing Company was chartered June 11, 1823, with an authorized capital of $500,000. . An increase of the capital stock to $1,000,000 was authorized in 1826, and in 1827 it was increased to $1,500,000.
In 1823 the highway, now High street, was laid out, three rods wide, and became the way to Dover, instead of the Prospect street route, which Mr. Wendell described as "very narrow, rough and steep."
The Great Falls Manufacturing Company owned all the land from the Great Falls hotel south to the Indigo Hill road. Main street was opened by the company for a highway, and in 1827 the town laid out a road, four rods
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wide, from the meeting house to the Indigo Hill road. This gave to Great Falls the present highway to Rollinsford Junction. In 1828 that part of it which is known as Main street was laid out, three rods wide, reserving four- teen feet on the westerly side for a sidewalk. In 1827 the town voted to widen and straighten the road from Mrs. Hannah Carr's by Benjamin Hussey's to Dover line, "as said road will be much traveled and it is of vast importance that the road from manufacturing establishments should be good to touch water, or from village to village."
The editor of this History of Strafford County was editor and publisher of the Dover Enquirer in 1894, as before and after that date. In January of that year he received the following communication from Miss Anne E. Wen- dell, of Wayne, Penn., daughter of Isaac Wendell, the founder of the com- pany that built the mills, and the village of Great Falls. It was published in the Enquirer of January 26, 1894, and gives a description of the village and the origin of the mills which are as unique as they are of inestimable historic value. The editor of the Enquirer then never dreamed he would be afforded an opportunity to use it as now given. Miss Wendell said:
After the Dover factories were well established and John Williams elected agent, father at the request of the directors remained some time actively oc- cupied for their interests, then he turned his attention to Great Falls.
I was with him on his first visit to the Falls, on Gershom Horn's farm in 1822.
I remember the impression made by the fall descending 100 feet within less (I think) than a mile; my father, with his quick perception, at once realized its value as water power for manufacturing purposes.
He soon after purchased all the water power, the old grist mill, farmhouse, and enough land as he then thought would answer all his wants. I think he paid $5,000, a large sum at that time.
Immediately after the purchase, father commenced building. At first, a blacksmith's shop where were made tools for further operation.
Much of the machinery was made at this blacksmith's shop, or cast at the little foundry on the Belamy river, which he then owned.
The stone was quarried at "Rocky Hill," a little above, either then belong- ing to the property, or purchased afterward; large scows or flat-boats were used to bring the stone down. Brick was also made on the ground.
The first factory erected was of wood, No. I, about 150x100, and five stories high.
A canal was then opened about one-fourth mile long, thus taking the water from the dam to supply the factories, which were to be built below.
After No. I had been filled with machinery, and put in operation, No. 2 was built, of brick, 250 feet long, and five stories high. with basement making six stories.
After this he organized a company with a capital of one million dollars.
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The stock was readily taken, mostly in Boston, some of the same gentlemen interested in Dover were among them; those of the stockholders I recall to memory were John Bumstead, of Trott & Bumstead, John Hooper, Henry Hubbard, etc., father and uncles, A. & J. Wendell retaining one-fifth of the stock.
From this time the place grew rapidly, Nos. 3 and 4 were soon built, father acting as general agent and business manager.
His residence at this time was at Dover, five miles south of Great Falls. All of his bank business was either at Dover, Boston or Portsmouth, twelve miles further south from Dover, the latter town being between Great Falls and Portsmouth, and he drove daily back and forth between these places. There were no railroads in those days, and he needed fast horses, which were tenderly cared for, but he was always known on the road, even if not seen, by the rapid step of his horse. He often caused anxiety to his family when he traveled late at night with large sums of money for pay-rolls and other expenses ; sometimes he secreted it in his boots, which wore the notes enough to be observable and called forth a query from one of the bank cashiers as to why his notes were so tumbled.
He was an early riser, and when we resided at the Falls, four o'clock in the morning often found him going through the rooms at the mill, and the watchmen well knew no delinquency of theirs would pass unnoticed; they were always expecting the "old man," as he was called; his dress, the broad brim and broad skirted coat worn by Friends and his somewhat stooping shoulders gave him the appearance of being much older than he was, but he was really a very active man, never walked slowly, and in these days would have been called an athlete.
Houses were built early and as fast as needed; the old farm house became a boarding house for men under the control of Major Orange; the first new house was a large one, on the opposite side of the road a little further north, and occupied by John Nute and wife Elizabeth, who accommodated the clerks, father, when there, the directors of the company, etc .; in another part of the same house, girls were boarded; if I recollect aright, this house was on the upper corner of the old Dover road, which was then very narrow, rough and steep.
There were two small houses on the North side, opposite the burying ground ; I do not remember whether they were new or old.
Beyond the Nute house was early erected the row of houses with the high front steps; the first was occupied by Asa Arnold, and afterward by Dr. Mar- tin; my father moved into the second, and the others, which were double houses, were occupied in 1826 and 1827 by John G. Chase, William Hill, Abner Jones,-Gridley, J. Stanwood, and Gideon Smith.
Near the new bridge was a shop, occupied by Daniel Ham, hatter, and a store afterward used as postoffice and Tappan Wentworth's office.
I do not know when the new bridge was built, but it was there in 1826; also a row of houses beyond the river, on the eastern side of the road.
On the south corner of the old bridge was a small frame shop, I think shoemaker's; next going south, was James Stanwood's large store, then Dud-
HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, SOMERSWORTH, N. H.
FURBER MEMORIAL CHAPEL, SOMERSWORTH, N. H.
FIRST NATIONAL BANK AND MARKET STREET, SOMERSWORTH, N. H.
NORTH MILL; GREAT FALLS MFG. CO., SOMERSWORTH, N. H.
SOMERSWORTH NATIONAL BANK AND HIGH STREET, SOMERSWORTH, N. H.
CATHOLIC CHURCH AND PARISH HOUSE, SOMERSWORTH, N. H.
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ley Wiggin's tailor shop, a dwelling occupied by Dr. Martin, in 1826, the factory, store and counting house; below these, running nearly to the old grist mill, which in 1826 was still in use, was a row of one-story buildings, occupied by a tin-man, barber, and Ann Dearing's millinery.
Fronting these up the hill. stood the old "Farm" boarding house, and still higher on the other side of the Dover road a large house, whether new or old, I do not remember: Oliver Walcott occupied it. The Presbyterian church nearby was erected before, or in 1827.
The two-storied frame houses on the east side of the canal were built as early as 1823 I think,-in them lived at that time Whittemore, Lamos, Moore, Lemuel Perham ( for a little while ) and Bibby the wife beater, who received the ladder penalty, which cured him.
On the west side of the canal, passed the road leading to Berwick ; on this road in 1824 were built the row of two-storied brick houses, fronting others near the river, there being quite a distance between the two, the canal sep- arating them.
In 1824 the street back of these was opened with two-story frame houses on each side: Moore's boarding house was the last one down.
In 1825 the company commenced the brick hotel on the corner of the Dover road; soon after Isaac Stanwood built his store. and Joseph Whittier his house, near the wood; opposite, I think, Gershom Horn's new house; these in 1827 were the last houses on the Dover road. There were others near, but I cannot recall them.
The Presbyterian church was built in 1826; the Methodist had no church building until near 1830; they met in private houses or vacant rooms. Dudley Wiggin was one of their leaders. John G. Chase joined them; he was one of the noblest of Christan men down to his old age, and one of the able men father gathered around him, among whom were Daniel Osborne, principal clerk; David Osborne (Williams & Wendell's Boston clerk), David Barker, Gideon C. Smith, Brayton Slade, James Dennis, Asa Arnold, Charles Lawton, Abel Fletcher, a mathematician of high order, Jonathan Freeman, and others.
There were also odd and peculiar people, and amusing incidents. No intoxicating drink was allowed on the place, while under my father's control, ginger-beer was substituted for those who desired it, but liquor was often secretly obtained. The laborers building the walls of the canal, left little liiding places for the bottle. Father had no control in Maine, and the men sent their shoes to be mended, he thought, rather oftener than was necessary, and one day, observing a messenger boy returning with a pair of boots, he approached the boy on the bridge, but before they met, the boots went over the railing into the river, and the story was told.
One season, in very warm weather, a death occurred at Rocky Hill; it was reported the man would have been saved, had they been allowed stim- ulants ; but after examination, it was found that he alone among the men, had taken liquor."
The woolen mills were in full operation in 1826, weaving carpets and broadcloth. They were under the care of Oliver Walcott, but not being profitable, were abandoned after a few years."
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The gristmill and sawmill, which had been at Great Falls from 1755 to 1822, when they gave place to the cotton mill, were rebuilt at the lower falls, familiarly known as "New Dam," in 1825. The gristmill was on the Somers- worth side and the sawmill on the Berwick side, a "new dam" having been thrown across the river that year. The gristmill was maintained until 1863. when the Great Falls Woolen Company was incorporated with a capital of $50,000. This company took a lease of the power there and built a woolen mill in place of the gristmill. In 1864 the capital stock of the company was increased by a stock dividend to $100,000, having made immense profits on the manufacture of army goods for use in the Civil war. The woolen mill is still in operation and is owned by Deering, Milliken & Co., of New York City, of which Seth M. Milliken is the head and chief owner. Mr. Milliken is a son-in-law of the late Dr. Levis G. Hill, of Dover. The sawmill on the Berwick side has given place to the electric plant of the Consolidated Light & Power Company; the change was made in 1888.
The manufacture of cotton cloth (the chief industry of Somersworth) was almost at a standstill during the Civil war, but the Great Falls Company, having confidence that the Union army would subdue the rebellion and restore prosperity, occupied the time while its looms were idle, in making improve- ments in its plant. A flouring mill was erected and put in operation, and a reservoir was constructed on Prospect Hill, and connected by a twelve-inch pipe with the river, to be filled by force pumps in one of the mills. The town was permitted to lay water pipes, connected with this main pipe, and to place hydrants through the town for protection against fire, the company to have the use of the town's pipe for such service as its needs might require. Under this verbal agreement the town has extended a system of pipes and hydrant service, so that the city is not in danger of a great conflagration through lack of water. The reservoir is 140 feet above the upper level of the river (top of the upper dam) and has a capacity of 1,700,000 gallons. In 1890, the company erected by the side of the reservoir, a water-tower, or stand-pipe, 20 feet in diameter and 70 feet high, having a capacity of 160,000 gallons, which furnishes a pressure in the hydrants on Market street of eighty pounds to the square inch, sufficient to throw streams of water over the tallest buildings in the city. Further improvements have been made since then in various ways There are other minor industries carried on in the city, which are prosperous, but which are of comparatively recent date.
BANKS AND BANKING
The Great Falls Bank was incorporated by the Legislature in 1846 and its charter was approved July 8th of that year. Its capital stock was $100,000,
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and its original incorporators were Joseph Doe, John A. Burleigh, Daniel G. Rollins, Samuel Hale, Nathaniel Wells, Winthrop A. Marston, Benjamin Hanson, Oliver H. Lord, Thomas B. Parks, Oliver Hill and Ezra Harthan. August 30, 1849, it was voted to increase the capital to $120,000, and August II, 1851, it was voted to further increase it to $150,000. The bank was reor- ganized as a national bank, March 27, 1865. The first president was Joseph Doe, 1846-1848; Jolin A. Burleigh, 1848-1860; Nathaniel Wells, 1860-1878; he was succeeded by David H. Buffum, who had been the first cashier until April 20, 1863, when he was succeeded by Joseph A. Stickney, who held the office until he was murdered in 1897 by Joe Kelley. The name of the bank was changed in 1902 from Great Falls National to First National of Somers- worth, and Fred M. Varney was Mr. Stickney's successor as cashier and served until 1908.
The Somersworth State Bank was incorporated in 1855, and became the Somersworth National Bank in 1865, and its charter has been renewed under that name each twenty year periods since then. The incorporators of the State Bank were: Oliver H. Lord, George W. Brasbridge, Royal Eastman, Charles F. Elliott, George McDaniel, John S. Haines, Calvin Whitten, Stephen Shorey, John H. Burleigh, David L. Rollins, George W. Wendell and Au- gustus Cushing, all strong men in business affairs. Oliver H. Lord was the first president and held the position until 1881.
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