USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Andover > History of the town of Andover, New Hampshire, 1751-1906, Part I > Part 22
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All the changes of ownership of the sawmill and grist-mill can- not now be traced.
The upper stone of the first set of mill stones in Andover is
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still in existence and serves as a well eover on the E. C. Chase (Caleb Cross) farm.
John Roberts owned and operated the sawmill in 1781. Sam- uel Blake owned one half of the sawmill in 1784 and Jonathan Weare owned the other half of the sawmill and all of the grist- mill. Chandler Cass owned the mills in 1818. Robert Barber and Joseph Noyes operated the sawmill after Mr. Cass. Bar- stow and Dyer occupied both saw and grist-mills, in part, in 1823. In 1831 Joseph Noyes owned both mills and David Dyer operated them. In 1833 Benjamin Shaw, of Shaw's Corner, Franklin, bought the grist-mill of Mr. Philbrick, and soon be- gan to increase the business of the mill. He was the first man to bring the southern. "horse tooth," variety of corn into town. He bought it in Boston in 1834, freighted it by boat to Concord and thenee by horse teams to his mill. where it was ground for his customers. Nathaniel Fellows was the miller at that time.
In 1842 Mr. Shaw entirely rebuilt the grist-mill, with many improvements, including a set of burr stones bought at the Charlestown (Mass.) prison, brought by water to Concord and thenee by team to the mill. He also owned and rebuilt the saw- mill in 1834. The work and material cost $2,600, and he after- wards rented it to Caleb Merrill, Elkanah Bean and Reuel Long for five years at the rate of $500 per year.
When the lease expired he bought the Deaeon Severance lum- ber lot near the Boston Hill schoolhouse and sawed the logs at his mill. He owned both mills until his death, December 17, 1846. Wm. Otis, Addison Tuttle, William Marston and H. D. Cilley and Joseph Osgood were subsequent proprietors of the sawmill.
With the construction of both grist and sawmills at West Salis- bury, with far greater water power, the patronage of the East Andover mills beeame wholly loeal and they soon became un- profitable.
BONNEY'S MILLS.
West Bonney built a mill about 1800 at West Andover, on the stream flowing from Eagle Pond and a short distance above the present Harriman bridge. A sawmill was first built and a carding mill was afterwards added on the southwest side of the
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HISTORY OF ANDOVER.
river. The latter was carried away by a freshet about 1830. Nathaniel G. Haines owned the saw and grist-mills and clothing mill in 1818 and the clothing mill on the northeast side of the river in 1826.
Winthrop Fifield owned a mill near (probably below) Bon- ney's mill soon after 1800. The mill was occupied as a clothing mill by Sumner and Favor and while in their hands was carried away by a freshet. August 28, 1826.
CILLEY'S MILLS.
Aaron Cilley built the first dam across the river at Cilleys- ville about 1785 and the mill privilege remained in the name of his descendants until sold to John Proctor in 1866. From a small beginning it gradually increased until it became the most complete and important set of mills in town. A sawmill has ex- isted there for nearly 125 years and a grist-mill for nearly a century, while the generally good water power has sufficed for other prosperous industries.
Mr. Cilley settled on one of the "amendments" or common- lands, as they were called, and in 1789 desired a deed from the town for the place on which he had settled. In 1790 the town voted not to give the deed. So far, no record has been found of any later action on his request.
A shingle and elapboard mill, planing mill. lath machine and other usual accessories have been connected with the sawmill. A bobbin shop, wheelwright shop, an establishment for making wrapping paper and a fishing-rod factory have also derived their motive power from this mill privilege. The paper mill was started by Capt. William Gordon in 1871 and existed for a few years only.
Gilman Lang, a skillful maker of edge tools, came from Graf- ton to Cilleyville abont 1865 and began the manufacture of axes. He moved from Andover to southern Iowa.
Capt. Samuel Elkins built the first sawmill on the outlet of Bradley Pond; the dam being practically on the site of the dam at the present hame shop. This mill and site has had many own- ers and has been put to many uses. Captain Elkins came to An- dover from Salisbury, where he built the first mill on the site of Prince's mill. about 1793. and settled on Beech Hill. The mill
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was probably built about 1800, and used simply as a sawmill for several years.
Jacob Eastman, who lived where W. F. York now lives, oper- ated a carding and clothing mill with this water power in 1825. Bracket Clark ran the earding and clothing mill after Eastman's death in 1826. After Clark went to Franklin, John Ellis, son of Lawrence Ellis at East Andover, took the property and ran it as a sawmill and shingle-mill. After Ellis retired the mill was managed by Horace T. Field, who devoted his time chiefly to de- vising improvements that were not financially successful ; and by several other men who controlled it in the interest of special lum- bering operations for short periods. After it came into the pos- session of John Proctor it was actively employed for several years and then with all its privileges was transferred to the Hame Company, that has now become the most important busi- ness enterprise of the town.
The mill on Mountain Brook, on the road from Cilleyville toward Kearsarge Mountain, was built before 1827 by Bachelder, Seavey and Sleeper. For lack of a steady supply of water it was never a very successful business enterprise and was finally abandoned.
A little later than 1800. one account gives it as 1820, Jonathan Roberts built a grist-mill, with one "run of stone," on the brook forming the inlet of Elbow Pond and north of the present high- way. This mill was a few rods above the sawmills afterwards built by Capt. Samuel Morrill. Captain Morrill changed the grist-mill to a shingle-mill, but after a few years it was disman- tled.
About 1814 a sawmill was built near the site of the above grist- mill by Isaac Brown.
One of the first shingle mills in town was built on Roberts' Brook, now known as Middle Brook.
The Graves sawmill on Mill Brook, near the Graves Meadow, was built by Capt. William Graves in 1837. The grain thresh- ing machine was connected with the mill by Mr. Graves about 1860, and a eider mill was added about 1864. This mill was bought of Henry Colby in 1874 by John D. Aiken, and is now used as a sawmill and shingle-mill and also for threshing grain and making cider.
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HISTORY OF ANDOVER.
A sawmill was built at the falls on Tilton Brook by David Dyer and Parker Scribner. Mr. Dyer also set up a carding mill at the same place. Afterwards, in 1818, Nathan Leeds, senior, built a two-story mill on Tilton Brook, where he manufactured chairs, bedsteads, etc .. for many years. Leeds and Josiah Bad- cock set up a elapboard mill at the same place, which was oper- ated by Mr. Leeds.
The first dam on Mill Brook at the small falls next below the Busiel hosiery factory was built for the use of a carding and clothing mill. The mill was built and operated by Mr. Sawyer. John Brown was the proprietor of the shingle-mill which suc- eeeded the carding mill. This mill was afterwards owned by sev- eral persons, and at one time was used by Willard Emery and John S. Pillsbury as a shingle mill, a clapboard mill and plow factory.
In accordance with some legal requirement, the following mills reported their net income for the year 1811. as given below :
Bonney's mills at West Andover. $30.00.
Cilley's saw and grist mills at Cilleyville, $36.00.
Roberts' saw and grist mills at East Andover, $100.00.
The first mill on the east side of "Hog Back" was a sawmill erected by Joseph Fellows, the first settler, and his sons, John and Ebenezer. The mill stood about ten years and was set on fire accidentally and burned by fishermen who were spearing "suckers" by torchlight.
Isaac and Joseph. sons of Joseph Brown, built a small grist- mill about twenty rods below the site of the sawmill. This busi- ness did not prove profitable and after several years the mill was taken down. Enoch Brown was for a few years the miller at this mill. He lived on Healey Hill, where Jacob Weare so long resided.
John Merrill built a shingle mill on the brook near Luther Sawyer's on "the plains" in 1833.
A sawmill, built by a company (Ephraim Sanborn and oth- ers) before 1800 stood on the "mill brook" a few rods above the 1 Dyer bridge. Traces of the stone dam are still to be seen.
The first carding, dyeing and fulling mill at the East Andover mills was destroyed by fire. Robert Barber built the second mill and it is supposed that he also built the first one. He owned the mill in 1817-'18.
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Jeremy Y. and John Bryant were proprietors of the fulling mill at East Andover in 1823 and owned half of the sawmill with Robert Barber and David Dyer, who at that time owned the grist- mill.
A lampblack factory was started by Mr. Staples in 1800 on "the plains" west of the brook and west of William Morrill's place. It continued but a few years.
HOSIERY.
About 1865 William S. Marston built over the sawmill at East Andover, fitting the new two-story structure for a hosiery mill and rented it to Mr. Townsend of Lowell, Mass., who operated it about a year. It was then sold to Mr. Thomas Appleton, who ran it as the Highland Lake Mill till the autumn of 1872. On the departure of Mr. Appleton the mill came into Mr. Marston's possession again for about one year, when it was sold to Shepard and Messer of New London. They maintaind the business for three or four years, after which the mill was idle for nearly two years. It was then rented, in 1879, to Colvin and Hood of Lake- port for the manufacture of underwear. This firm dissolved and the business was continued as a yarn and stocking mill by R. N. Colvin. It then passed into the hands of Mr. John Murphy, who sold it to Mellen and Phelps. After about one year it was
owned by Mellen and Quimby. Mr. Harrison M. Busiel, who had been a manufacturer of hosiery in Franklin as early as 1854, came to East Andover in 1865 and established a hosiery factory on the site of the first grist-mill, where he has continued the business to the present time, 1907.
TANNERIES.
Israel Marston owned and operated a tannery at East An- dover and Enoch Merrill succeeded him in the business at the same place.
Benjamin F. Tucker carried on the business on what is now known as the Samuel Morrill place. The business was started by his father, Capt. James Tucker, about 1800. He lived on that farm, where his tan yard, bark mill and finishing shop were a few rods east of the house. His tan-pits were located on the road leading from C. Campbell's towards F. H. Flanders' on land now owned by W. H. and A. H. Kilburn. On the death of
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HISTORY OF ANDOVER.
Mr. Tucker in 1836, his father carried on the business for a few years. Enoch Seavey operated the tannery as late as 1846 or 1850, when the business was discontinued.
The stone wheel used in the Tucker tannery to crush the bark is now used as a cover to the well on the Shirley place, east of the Centre village. The pump passes down through the shaft hole in the stone.
POTASH.
The making of potash and pearlash was carried on by Benja- min Thompson near the river and nearly opposite the house now owned by John Sanborn east of Potter Place. The business was established about 1800 and continued about twenty years. Jo- seph Webster of Springfield was the skilled employé of Mr. Thompson. About forty large iron potash kettles were used and the last one of the collection was used by Herod Thompson for many years as a watering trough for his stock.
Potash was made at one time at a point a few rods northeast of the residence of the late Caleb Cross at East Andover.
For several years potash was made in a building standing be- side the brook, a few feet east of the residenee of Carlos Pevare in the village of East Andover.
Enoch Merrill and Benjamin M. Tyler erected a building for the manufacture of potash, a few rods north of the house of James Parker in East Andover village. The business was suc- cessful for many years.
A potash factory owned and operated by Josiah Badcock, Jr., was located nearly east of the present residenee of Charles W. Stone on Taunton Hill.
BRICKMAKING.
Bricks were made by a Mr. Blake at an early period at a place on Connor's Hill, on land now owned by George H. Haley.
They were made quite early at a place on Nathaniel Fellow's farm near Dyer's crossing.
The material near the latter place was used again about 1830. Joseph Ladd, Sr., started a brick yard on the farm now owned by Geo. E. Eastman, and his neighbors were allowed to use his plant to make brick for themselves. About 1830 bricks were made on the land now owned by W. D. Tuttle at Bennett's cross- ing.
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Nehemiah Emerson opened a brick vard near the old grist- mill at East Andover in 1841 or '42.
MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTURES.
Elijah Hilton manufactured nails with a machine invented by Caleb Leach of Plymouth, Mass. With this machine a boy could cut and head about 5,000 nails per day.
Nail-making in this town declined soon after the Perkins nail machine came into use for making cut nails. Very few wrought nails were used after 1830.
About 1850 Stephen Scales built a small machine shop, using the water of the Keniston brook for power. Scales lived in the house east of Vivian Quimby's present residence. The machin- ery was used principally in boring gun barrels. Scales was an ingenious mechanic, a skilful gunsmith and had much practice in repairing cloeks and watches.
Enoch Eastman, and afterwards his nephew, Versal R. East- man, were noted makers of spinning wheels, both "linen" and "woolen." The wheelwright shop of Versal R. Eastman is now owned by John Buswell on Beech Hill. There are some of the Eastman "Linen" and "Woolen" wheels still in existence.
John Rowell of East Andover was also a maker of spinning wheels. Capt. Moses Gove, who lived on the "Back" or 'North" Road, was a noted maker of churns, which in those days were made of straight staves, the bottom diameter the larger, and bound with wooden hoops. It is said that Captain Gove moved to Canterbury and died there.
Dea. Sylvanus Atwood carried on the business of a wheel- wright at West Andover for a few years after 1835, and then moved to the Centre and occupied a shop that stood about half way between the present sites of Rollins' and Emerson's stores.
Edwin Moody established a cabinet-shop at the Centre in 1832 and continued the business as sole owner till 1841. After that time he was associated with Samnel Morrill for two or three years, working at several kinds of machinery which they had devised. From 1832 to 1841, Mr. Moody conducted a large busi- ness for a country town, supplying many of the people with complete sets of house furniture. He employed several journey- men and apprentices, many of the latter becoming competent
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masters of the trade. The cabinet-shop was in the building now occupied (1906) by Millard F. Thompson as a residence.
THE HAME FACTORY.
The most important manufacturing business ever established in town is that for making harness hames. This business was started at Enfield Centre, N. H., in 1860 by Joseph Baker and Robert C. Carr. John P. Carr of Enfield soon became associ- ated in the enterprise. In 1863 the company transferred its business to Andover, occupying the site and water power, on the outlet of Bradley Pond, where Capt. Samuel Elkins built the first sawmill in that section of the town, soon after 1790. In 1869 W. S. Carr became an owner of a portion of the business and in 1877 was one of the principal members of the firm. In 1883 C. E. Carr became an owner in the business. R. C. Carr left the firm in 1877 and soon after 1883, Mr. Baker sold his in- terest. After the death of John P. Carr, in 1888, the business was owned by W. S. and C. E. Carr. In 1896 the Andover Co. was consolidated with the Bartlett and Rowell Co. at Sunapee under the name of "The Consolidated Hame Co.," and the busi- ness was continued at both places. Mr. R. P. Carr became a member of the Andover Co. in 1894. In 1902 the Andover and the Sunapee plants were consolidated with the United Hame Co. of Buffalo, N. Y .; the J. A. DeArmond Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Hermann Bros. of Tell City. Indiana, and were in- corporated as the U. S. ITame Co., with the following officers :
O. P. Lechtworth, of Buffalo. president.
W. S. Carr, of Andover, vice-president.
G. H. Bartlett, of Sunapee, treasurer.
Fred Frazer, of Syracuse, N. Y .. elerk.
C. E. Carr, manager of Andover plant.
C. L. Weidrick, manager of Buffalo plant.
I. G. Rowell, manager of Sunapee plant.
R. P. Carr, manager of Tell City plant.
The Andover branch of the company is a well-managed, pros- perous enterprise and employs generally about one hundred workmen. The products of this company find a market in nearly every civilized country.
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LUMBERING.
The value of the immense quantity of excellent pine and spruce lumber in this town during the first half century of its existence could be measured only by the local demand for buildings. bridges and fences.
Houses covered with boards, clapboards and shingles required the use of many nails, and hand-made nails were expensive. The pod augur of those days was neither a convenient or a rapid- working tool and a house or barn frame of that period required many one-inch holes for the wooden pins that held in place the posts, beams, girts, plates. rafters and braces against the mighty winds that swept the Andover hills. But a well built log house or barn was not only comparatively comfortable, but with good timber and time in abundance, it was vastly cheaper than a frame building.
These facts soon confronted the owner of the first sawmill, who had agreed to saw his neighbor's logs "at the halves."
His share of the lumber was piling up fast, for he had no mar- ket, and out of these conditions grew his long controversy with the proprietors.
Land and lumber were the two speculative articles in the depths of the wilderness; but the trees must be removed to get access to the land. Hence many millions of feet of first- class pine were reduced to ashes in order to clear the land for cultivation and grazing. Before the settlement of the town a great fire had swept over the whole northwest section of the "great plains" and destroyed the heavy growth of pines, mostly of the red, sometimes, but erroneously called the "Norway" va- riety.
The southeastern and eastern sections of the plains were still covered with pines, mostly of the white variety, many of them magnificent specimens of that king of our northern woods.
Abont 1798 a great white pine tree, very tall and straight. five feet in diameter at the butt, was cut on the Joseph Morey place just east of the Potter place, not far from the house occu- pied by Charles Baker in 1905.
The mimber of sawmills increased with the influx of new set- tlers, and the demand for a better class of framed and well- finished buildings, but no extensive lumbering operations were
18
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undertaken until about 1839, when Caleb Merrill and Elkanah Bean of Franklin and Reuel Long of Andover united in the firm of Merrill, Bean and Long to conduct a general lumbering busi- ness.
They bought most of the lumber near the Boston Hill school- house, except the Severance lot, and began their active campaign by first taking off the white pines fit for masts. These were felled and immediately removed, because if left on the ground and another mast tree fell across them, one or both of the trees were almost certain to be broken, destroying their value as masts. The butt of the tree was loaded on to the high bunk of a large bob sled and the team of six, eight or more yoke of oxen started with the huge stick, from 85 to 135 feet long, for the Merrimack River in Franklin, whenee it was floated to Lowell and thenee by the Middlesex Canal to Charlestown, Mass., to be fashioned into a towering mast for some swift American elipper.
The logs above the portion of the tree valuable as a mast were taken to the company's sawmill at East Andover, to be cut into boards.
These formidable ox teams, with their ponderous trailing loads. were an attractive feature in the winter landscape.
An ever-present element of danger in handling such unwieldy loads lent an additional zest to the ever attractive life in the woods.
At the curves and angles in the roads and wherever one side of the road happened to be the highest. the rear end of the mast would swing around like the tail of a mighty serpent, and small trees, wooden fences and even stone walls were swept away as easily as are charred weed-stalks by the farmer's plow.
These teams held the right of way. and when the unfortunate traveler, with his one horse. met or overtook a team or a proces- sion of such teams, he had to sit, in drifting snow perhaps, with such patienee as he might, until some wider spot in the road en- abled him to pass.
About 1.200 masts were taken from the "plains" at this time and John Fellows and Benjamin F. Scribner managed the haul- ing from the lot to the river. After the masts were removed, the rest of the lumber was hauled to the mill at the village and to the Graves mill below the village.
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Other mast timber was cut in town, notably about Bradley Pond and on other sections of the "plain," but the methods of hauling and marketing were the same as already described.
Between 1850 and 1860 a large amount of hemlock, spruce and white pine lumber was eut in the vicinity of Bradley Pond by Cyrus Gookin of West Salisbury. drawn in the winter to the bank of the Blackwater River below the Seavey bridge, rolled into the river at highwater in the spring and floated down to the owner's mill.
With the advent of the portable steam sawmill. rapidly mov- ing from lot to lot, forests are quickly converted into merchant- able lumber; but much of the old-time comradeship among the young farmers along the humber road. with their teams of sturdy oxen, and the busy hum of the mill by the waterside, with the odor of pine and spruce throughout the year, have disappeared.
The Pole and the Italian follow the smoke and the whistle of the steam mill. but leave little trace of their occupation. save the unsightly piles of sawdust, where once the young and rapidly growing trees lent shade and beauty to our hillsides.
THE ANDOVER FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY.
ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION.
ARTICLE 1. We hereby associate as a Mutual Fire Insurance Company for the purpose of insuring our property against loss or damage by fire or lightning. The corporate name of the company shall be The Andover Fire Insurance Company, and its office and records shall be kept in Andover, New Hampshire.
ART. 2. Any person by signing the Articles of Association and be- coming insured in said Company, and his legal representative, shall be a member thereof so long as said insurance shall continue, subject at all times to these Articles of Association and all By-Laws of the Com- pany. Policies of insurance shall be signed by the President and Sec- retary; shall not be issued for a longer term than six years; nor for more than two thirds of the value of the property insured; nor shall the Company be liable for more than two thirds the value, at the time of loss or damage; unless in case of partial losses.
Should the funds or deposit-notes be insufficient to pay all losses, the sufferers insured shall receive a proportional dividend thereof; and any member may at any time be discharged therefrom by paying his deposit-note and surrendering his policy. No property shall be issued which is not, at the time of such insurance, situated within the limits of said Andover.
ART. 3. A Board of Directors, of not less than three nor more than
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seven members of the Company, shall determine all matters and things pertaining to the making and issuing of policies, the rates of insurance, payment of premiums and deposit-notes, settlement of claims for loss or damage, the making of assessments and shall control and manage the property and affairs of the Company generally, subject, at all times, to its Articles of Association and By-Laws. Said Directors shall be chosen, by ballot, at the annual meeting of the Company; shall hold their offices for one year, and until others are chosen and accept the trust in their stead.
They shall elect one of the board to act as president, and shall keep a record of their proceedings. A Secretary and Treasurer shall be chosen and hold their offices in the same way as the Directors.
The Secretary shall be sworn to, and the Treasurer shall give bond to the satisfaction of the Directors for, the faithful discharge of their re- spective duties. The Directors shall fill all vacancies occurring be- tween annual meetings in the board, or other offices.
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