USA > New Hampshire > Carroll County > Wolfeborough > History of Wolfeborough (New Hampshire) > Part 9
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Reuben Libby came from New Durham. He had a settler's lot of one hundred acres of John Parker, whose proprietary lot comprised the whole of Wolfeborough Neck. Libby chose the lot that extended farthest into the lake that he might be near the water route from Merry Meeting (Alton) Bay to Moulton-
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borough, some settlements having already been made in that town. He had the previous year made some preparations for a crop, and took with him a horse and a few neat cattle. He married Sarah, daughter of Widow Mary Fullerton. This was the first marriage that occurred in Wolfeborough. The nuptial ceremony was performed under the branches of a large oak tree that stood beside the Miles Road on land now owned by Benjamin Morri- son.
Libby was quite illiterate, as were nearly all the persons who took up settlers' lots in Wolfeborough. The following writing will show that, also that he was managing Parker's affairs in the town :-
"Barronton July 26 Day 1771.
Capte. John Parker Sir Please to Pay to the Barer Joseph Hall ten Pounds Lawfull Money for won yoak of oxen which I have Bought for the youse of your farm on Wolfborough Neck.
Reuben Libbe."
Notwithstanding his lack of education, Libbey was quite active in town matters, and held several responsible positions. He was a member of several boards of selectmen, and in 1785 and 1794 was sent to the legislature to represent the classed towns of Moultonborough, Tuftonborough, Wolfeborough, and Ossipee. He held the different grades of commissioned officer in the militia company of the town, and in 1779 enlisted in the army to fill the Wolfeborough quota for the Rhode Island expedition. He had previously agreed with the town authorities to hold the town harmless in regard to the matter, and being unable to find a man willing to serve as a soldier, he himself enlisted. He received for bounty and travel forty-six pounds and sixteen shillings, a sum, the real value of which it is now difficult to determine on account of the fluctuating state of the currency at that period. His hay crop was to be harvested by the town.
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HISTORY OF WOLFEBOROUGH.
In early life Libbey was a noted bear hunter, killing thirty-six in one season. He did not remain on the Neck farm during his whole life, but removed to the more compact part of the town. Near the close of the century he held the office of deputy sheriff, a position of more relative importance than it now is. He is said to have been quite negligent in his attire, caring little for his personal appearance. A humorous anecdote has long been circulating, which, it is claimed, had its origin from an exhibition of this characteristic.
In the autumn of 1765 Paul March agreed with the committee on settlements to have ten families located in Wolfeborough by the following spring. Each family was to clear four acres of land and to build a house equal to one twenty feet square by the suc- ceeding autumn. Doing this, it would be entitled to one hundred and fifty acres of land situated in the westerly part of the town. If March succeeded in the enterprise, he would be entitled to a similar lot. If he failed, he was to forfeit his own proprietary lot, and pay twenty-five pounds, lawful money. Each settler was obligated to remain on his lot ten years, either in person or by substitution, and improve the same.
The project failed in part, but not altogether. Seven families came to the town in the spring of 1768 under the patronage of March, but the number of settlers was not so large, nor the period before settling so short, as the agreement required. March did not probably suffer loss on account of non-compliance with the precise terms of the contract, as the obstacles in the way of se- curing settlers was so great at that time that a partial failure would be deemed excusable.
Wolfeborough was a wilderness, surrounded by an almost un- broken forest of large extent, with no roads from settled districts reaching or very nearly approaching it, excepting, perhaps, a path leading from Rochester through the second division of Middleton, and it is not certain that any such existed. - A census of New Hampshire was taken in 1767, and only two towns within a radius
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of twenty miles reported inhabitants. These were Gilmanton with forty-five families and a population of two hundred and fifty, and New Durham with twenty-five families and a population of one hundred and fifty-seven. There were a very few families in Moultonborough, also in Wakefield, and possibly one or two at Merry Meeting. Land was low-priced in New Hampshire even in or near settled towns, and comparatively few persons were in- clined to brave the inconveniences and hardships of pioneer life. Only the more indigent or resolute could be induced to under- take it.
The persons who took settlers' lots in 1768 under the patronage of March were James Lucas, Samuel Tebbetts, Joseph Lary, Thomas Piper, Thomas Taylor, Benjamin Blake, and William Fullerton. The land which became their home farms, seven hun- dred acres, extended from the rangeway near Friend street to and including the Fullerton farm, being bounded on one side by the Miles Road and on the other by Lake Winnipesaukee. The fifty-acre lots, to one of which each settler was entitled, were situated on Pine Hill, north of the present highway, and extended from Pine Hill schoolhouse to Tuftonborough line. The farm- lots varied in width on account of their difference in length occa- sioned by the curvatures of the shore of the lake.
The first, or most easterly lot, was fifty-six rods wide. It was taken by James Lucas. Associated with him was Thomas Lu- cas, who was probably a brother. They were about fifty years of age, and had each of them a family. James was a moderator of the first town-meeting; and Thomas, a member of the first board of selectmen. The latter was also elected moderator five times. The family was of Irish ancestry, and came from Suncook to Wolfeborough. Its descendants became quite numerous, and occupied different portions of the town. It retained possession of the farm for two generations, when it was purchased by Samuel Nowell, whose family occupied it for a period of about the same length. One-half of it then came into the possession of two
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brothers, A. D. and J. L. Avery, the former of whom still holds it. The remaining half was purchased in 1883 from the heirs of Charles Nowell, a grandson of Samuel, by I. B. Manning, who now occupies the old homestead and the house Lucas built. One acre of this land has been sold to Jesse Gould, who has erected a handsome summer residence upon it. Either this Samuel Nowell or his father was a member of the famous Boston Tea Party.
Nehemiah, a son of James Lucas, settled on the most southerly of the fifty-acre lots on Pine Hill. A rise of land near the buildings now occupied by Jonathan F. Estes is still called "Miah's Hill." In the latter part of his life he was afflicted with blindness, the result of an injury received from the horn of a cow, and was sup- ported at the public expense.
A grandson of James Lucas, James Lucas 3rd, obtained a con- siderable tract of land from the William Torrey proprietors' lot. It extended from the main road, near Pickering's Corner, across Smith's River, to Crooked Pond. A few acres near the upper dam, bequeathed to Mark Lucas by his father, James Lucas, 3rd, is still in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. Francis B. Cook. The blood of the Lucas family flows in the veins of many persons in the vicinity, but very few having that cognomen now reside in the town.
The second lot, fifty rods wide, was taken by Samuel Tebbetts. On it was built the first pound, Mr. Tebbetts being pound-keeper for several years. He was a millwright and framer, the town meeting-house being framed by him. The Tebbetts family held the place for three generations, when it became the property of Dudley Leavitt Libbey. It is now owned by Blake Folsom, and conducted as a milk-farm by his nephew, Blake Horne. On a spacious lot affording fine landscape views, which has been taken from this farm, Daniel E. Leavitt, of Portsmouth, has erected a fine summer residence. Samuel Tebbetts had two sons, Benjamin and Levi. The latter settled in Tuftonborough, while Benjamin remained on the home farm, where he raised a family of children,
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HISTORY OF WOLFEBOROUGH.
among whom was Charles G. Tebbetts, who sold the farm to Libbey. There are several families in town bearing the name of Tebbetts. Some of them may be relatives of Samuel, the settler, but generally they are not at all closely allied.
The third lot, also fifty-five rods wide, was taken by Joseph Lary. Three families of this name came early to the town from Suncook, Joseph's, Jonathan's, and John's. They were evidently of Irish origin, and were probably related, the men, perhaps, be- ing brothers. Joseph's wife was the daughter of Lieutenant Charles Rogers, who spent the last years of his life with her. She was an athletic woman, and when the house for the occupancy of the family, the walls of which were made of logs, was in pro- cess of building, carried the boards used in roofing an up-hill grade of more than a mile.
Joseph and Jonathan Lary were quite prominent in the affairs of the town, holding several important official positions. Jonathan afterwards removed to the center of the town, where he was in- strumental in erecting a sawmill on what is known as the Willey Mill Stream. He remained there several years, and then, dis- posing of his interest to William Triggs, left town. This mill was at first erected by sundry persons, who owned shares, but was principally managed,-first, by Jonathan Lary ; then, by Wil- liam Triggs ; and afterwards, by Valentine Willey. The mill was finally sold to Valentine B. Willey, who is its present owner. At different periods it has borne the names of the various proprietors.
It has been supposed that the Lary premises were wholly or in part occupied by John Sinkler, who came from Stratham about 1770, and that he here kept a two-roomed tavern. The farm, how- ever, was in Lary's possession at a later date, when he sold it to Daniel Wiggin, who also came from Stratham. Wiggin died suddenly, when comparatively young. His grand-daughter, the wife of Benjamin Webster, now dwells on the farm.
The fourth lot, which was fifty-four rods wide, was settled by Thomas Piper, who probably came from Stratham. After two
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years he sold it to Ebenezer Meader, and removed to the "Mills," where Cutter & Sewall had just completed a grist-mill. He re- mained there a few years, becoming the miller, then entered on his fifty-acre lot on Pine Hill. Here he built a house, and cleared land. This was his residence until his death, which occurred sev- eral years afterwards. It is said that he served in the army dur- ing one short campaign, and that his wife, during his absence, used to frighten the bears from the growing corn with torches.
Mr. Piper had seven children, Thomas, David, Samuel, Timothy, John, Mary, and Susan. David and John were soldiers in the army during the most of the war, the latter enlisting when he was only sixteen. David married Molly Edmunds, and settled on the farm now occupied by Mrs. B. Burleigh Newell. He had five children, Joseph, Sally, Abigail, Susan, and Mary. Timothy had twelve children, all of whom reached mature, some of them, advanced age. They are said to have averaged two-hundred pounds in weight. He settled in Tuftonborough.
John spent the first portion of his life on Pine Hill, but the greater part of it near Tuftonborough Center. He was twice mar- ried. His first wife was Jemima Hersey, of New Market. She bore him ten children, as follows :
John, born August 1, 1783; Betsy, born May 15, 1785, died in 1802; James, born March 14, 1787; Thomas, born March 29, 1789; Gilman, born February 26, 1791; William, born January 24, 1793; Nancy, born October II, 1794, married Jeremiah Foss, of Tuftonborough ; Mary, born May 2, 1797, married Mark Her- sey, of Sanbornton ; Abigail, born May 26, 1799, married William Fullerton ; Jemima, born January 4, 1803, married Samuel Leavitt and Wm. Blaisdell, both of Tuftonborough.
Betsy died at the age of seventeen years of consumption brought on by a cold occasioned by wearing a thin ball-dress in winter. She was the fiancee of James Hersey, the second son of Jonathan, the settler. The sons, John, James, Thomas, Gilman,
HON. CHARLES F. PIPER
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and William, became farmers, and made their homes in Tufton- borough.
Mr. Piper married for a second wife, Anna Young, of Tufton- borough. She became the mother of eleven children, as follows:
Phebe A., born August 10, 1804, married Stephen Pendergast, of Barnstead ; Paul W., born September 17, 1805, settled in Mor- ristown, N. J .; Susan W., born October 26, 1806, married Joseph Ayers, of Barnstead; Betsey A., born January 8, 1808, married Oliver Sanborn, of Rochester ; Lucinda C., born July 24, 1809, mar- ried Charles Pinkham and Abel Haley, both of Tuftonborough ; Napoleon B., born November 28, 1810, died in St. Marks, Fla .; Martha W., born February 6, 1812, married Nathaniel Mason; Sarah H., born May 20, 1813, married Levi T. Hersey ; Patience C., born October 15, 1814, married Asa Allen, of Lee; Benjamin Y., born April 29, 1816, settled in Lee ; Vienna E., born January 16, 1821, married Lyman Allen, of Nottingham.
These twenty-one children, with the exception of the first Betsy, reached full adult age. Nineteen became heads of families, and eighteen were present at the burial of their father. Several of them became quite advanced in years. Sarah, Mrs. Levi T. Hersey, was eighty-six years nine months old at the time of her death, and Benjamin Y., aged eighty-five years, still survives.
Hon. Charles F. Piper is a son of Benjamin Y., the twentieth son of the "Adjutant," as his neighbors used to call Corporal John Piper. Though not a native of Wolfeborough, Mr. Piper has spent nearly all his active life here and has done as much as any man of his generation to forward the interests of the town.
He was born in Lee, N. H., May 22, 1849, and first came to Wolfeborough in 1866 to attend the old Academy. At the con- clusion of his studies he went to Boston and entered the employ of a wholesale dry goods house. His firm was among the suf- ferers by the great fire of 1872, and he then entered the railway mail service, running between Boston and Bangor. He followed this calling for something over four years and in the meantime
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had purchased the clothing business of Levi T. Haley and had taken to himself a wife. He married December 10, 1874, Ida E., daughter of Silas Durgin. After leaving the mail service Mr. Piper assumed active control of the clothing business he had pur- chased, and he is still associated with the firm that succeeded him.
Mr. Piper was postmaster during the Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur administrations, and in 1890 became cashier of the newly organized Wolfeborough Loan and Banking Company, which position he still holds. He has had an active hand in politics not only of his town, but of the county and state. He has not been a seeker after office, although he has held the positions of town clerk, town treasurer, representative and councillor.
In recent years Mr. Piper has operated somewhat extensively in lumbering and real estate. He is a member of the firm of S. W. Clow & Co., box manufacturers, and in association with other gentlemen controls valuable resort properties on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee and Wentworth. The marked develop- ment of these holdings within the past decade is due in no small degree to the liberal and progressive basis upon which the owners have met the summer home-seeker.
A descendant in the fourth generation from the settler, Mr. Piper has preserved in his life and character the best traditions of a worthy family, of which he is today the most notable repre- sentative. Carroll D., the only child, born May 29, 1880, is a member of the junior class at Harvard.
Ebenezer Meader (he and his associates spelled the name Meder) was of the fourth generation from the emigrant John, who came to this country in 1650, and settled near Oyster River. He was born in Durham, and came to Wolfeborough in 1768. He first made an opening on a lot in the western part of the town, but not obtaining a clear title to it, lost a portion of the fruits of his first year's labor. In 1770 he purchased the lot on which Thomas Piper had entered as settler, and the farm has ever since remained in the possession of the family, passing from
JOHN MEADER
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Ebenezer to his son, Samuel, his grandson, John L .; his great- grandson, Samuel A., the present occupant.
Mr. Meader took with him from Durham a cow and pig, gifts from his father. The course of travel from Wolfeborough to Merry Meeting Bay, and from that place a considerable distance into Rochester, was marked by blazed trees, portions of the sol- dier's road of 1722 having through disuse grown up to wood. Here young Meader picked his way with his brute companions. It has been claimed that these were the first domestic animals brought to Wolfeborough. This may be true in relation to the pig, but Reuben Libbey, no doubt, drove in the first neat and equine stock.
Meader was a blacksmith, a trade of incalculable value to the early settlers, when from large iron bars were forged and fashioned on the anvil with the hand-hammer every article of that metal, from a shingle-nail to a plow-share. Persons came a long dis- tance to his shop. At one time, when the call for soldiers was very urgent, and he essayed to enlist, the town hired Enoch Thomas to go into the army, in order that the community might retain the services of the blacksmith. He made the nails used in constructing the house, until recently, standing on Friend Street. He was a man of good judgment, and held important positions, being elected selectman six times.
He had nine children, three of whom died in infancy. His son, Samuel, had eight children ; his grandson, John L., four ; and his great-grandson, Samuel A., three. These were all born on the home farm. The families of the ancestors of Ebenezer Meader were quite uniform in number. The emigrant John, his great- grandfather, had five children, Elizabeth, Sarah, Nathaniel, John, and Nicholas ; his grandfather, Nicholas, five, Keziah, Samuel, Nicholas, John, and Daniel; his father, Samuel, five, Timothy, Ebenezer, Isaac, Hannah, and Eliza.
The fifth lot was sixty rods wide. It was taken by Thomas Taylor, who came from Gilmanton, and after residing in Wolfe-
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borough a few years, returned again to that town. His son, Wiggins Taylor, was the first male child born in Wolfeborough.
Benjamin Folsom, who was born in New Market in 1740, and had removed to Gilmanton, either accompanied Taylor to Wolfe- borough, or soon followed him. He was present at the charter election, held September 28, 1770, and was elected to a minor town office. He was also elected a town officer in 1771 and 1772. In 1773 he was chosen hog-reeve, highway surveyor, and chairman of the board of selectmen, his associates in the last office being Thomas Taylor and James Conner. Sometime after September of that year he was killed by a falling tree, but whether in Gilman- ton or Wolfeborough is not known. Being a carpenter by trade and an active citizen, his death was accounted a great loss to the town.
When Taylor left Wolfeborough, the farm came into the posses- sion of Jonathan Chase, who hailed from Stratham. He was a relative of Dudley Leavitt, "the almanac-maker," and had served as soldier in the American army. Here was born, July 28, 1784, his daughter Nancy, who married William P. Edgerly, and bore him six children, Betsy, Jerome B., Irena, Lewis C., William P., and Cyrus F. Mrs. Edgerly was a remarkably industrious and energetic woman, and a professing Christian for ninety years. She retained her mental faculties until late in life. Her death occurred January 26, 1889, at the age of one hundred and four years, five months, and twenty-eight days. Her daughter, Irena, (Mrs. Bradstreet Doe), with whom she spent the last years of her life, still resides in Wolfeborough, aged eighty-seven years.
Jonathan Chase spent several years with his son Thomas, who settled in the southwesterly corner of Wolfeborough, where he cleared a farm on which he built two thousand rods of good stone- wall during his lifetime. Mr. Chase finally made a home near the center of Wolfeborough. Dudley Leavitt Chase and his wife, Mary, January 6, 1789, gave to William Rogers a deed of the Chase lot with the exception of one and one-quarter acres previous-
"MEADER'S RETREAT." OLD MEADER HOMESTEAD
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.....
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ly sold to Ebenezer Meader, the consideration being one hundred and fifty pounds, lawful money. Rogers, who speculated somewhat in land, probably the same year transferred the property to Jacob Folsom, of New Market.
Folsom with his wife, Elizabeth Smart, at once took possession of the purchase, and it has been retained in the family to the present time. Mr. Folsom had eight children, seven of whom were born in Wolfeborough. Their names were Gilman, Polly, Lydia, James, John, George, Henry, and Charles. Polly became the wife of Joseph Edmunds, and died at the age of ninety-sever. years, the same age as was her mother at the time of her decease. Mrs. Hannah Folsom, who was the wife of Deacon John, a son of Jacob Folsom, had since died, aged ninety-eight years. It is remarkable that there have been in some way connected with this farm four women whose ages have exceeded ninety-seven years.
The first Folsom (Foulsam) came to this country near the beginning of the seventeenth century. The early families gen- erally made their homes in Rockingham County, and especially in the vicinity of the town of Exeter. Here dwelt Nathaniel Folsom, who was quite prominent in his time, being a major- general and member of congress.
The Folsom family has not produced a large number of dis- tinguished persons, but its members have been men and women. of piety and good citizenship. It has filled churches rather than prisons. Indeed, it is a proverb that a criminal seldom bears the name of Folsom. Large numbers of clergymen, usually of the mediocre type, and church officers have been found in its ranks. Jacob Folsom, the head of the Wolfeborough branch, was on inti- mate terms with Elder Benjamin Randall, of New Durham, the founder of the Freewill Baptist denomination. His son, John Folsom, whose wife, Hannah Blake, large of body and large of soul, was a model of zeal in religious and benevolent work, was a deacon in the Christian church of Wolfeborough. Blake Fol-
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som, a lifelong resident of Wolfeborough, is the most prominent representative of the family at the present time.
He was born October 25, 1824, and lived on the home farm until twenty years of age, when he started out to make his own way in the world. Seven years later he returned to his native town, opened a hardware store and began the manufacture of tin- ware. This business he successfully conducted for thirty years. Since that time he has devoted himself to the oversight of his large real estate holdings. Mr. Folsom married, December 6, 1851, Ruth D. Gerrish, of Rochester. He has served two terms in the Legislature and was for eight years president of the Lake National Bank.
The sixth lot, which was seventy rods wide, was taken by Benjamin Blake, who came from Epping. Being anxious to be the first settler, he hurried to the town, and with the aid of his robust wife, whose maiden name was Molly Conner, built a log house, in which he lived eighteen years. This farm has never been out of the possession of the Blake family.
Mr. Blake was a hardy and eccentric man, many anecdotes of his peculiarities being still related. In the warm season, when hurried with work, he would remain in his field continuously for several days and nights, sleeping on the ground, his food being brought him by his wife. In winter mornings, after kindling a fire, he would place his deerskin garments, stiffened with the cold, on the broad hearthstone, and while they were warming, visit the barn and feed his stock. He enlisted as a soldier in the cam- paign which resulted in the capture of Burgoyne's army, and being discharged in the interior of the state of New York, walked barefoot to his home in Wolfeborough from choice.
There was some rivalry between Blake and his brother-in-law, James Conner, in relation to their farm work. One day near the close of the hay harvest, Conner visited Blake, who informed him that he had finished mowing, and should complete his haying the next day. Conner still had grass standing in his field. That
BLAKE FOLSOM
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