USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Candia > History of the town of Candia, Rockingham County, N.H., from its first settlement to the present time > Part 21
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There were cider mills in all parts of the town and many great piles of pumice were to be seen along the roadside near by. Great quantities of cider were made, some far- mers making fifty barrels or more, and a few not over four or five barrels.
The women in October have been kept busily employed in paring and stringing apples; and now, after the cider has been made many large quantities are boiled down, the old brass kettle is brought forth and the supply for the win- ter of rich, brown apple sauce is made and stored away in the cellar.
And now November has come; the fierce winds begin to blow causing the rafters and braces in the houses and barns to sway slightly and creak. As it becomes colder the ponds and streams are frozen over and though the boys have few if any skates, they love to slide just the same, though they are quite liable to fall and bump their heads upon the ice and see stars in the day time.
When a very cold snap comes before much snow has fallen the deeply frozen ground in many places cracks and opens in zig-zag seams a dozen or twenty rods in length
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with a loud report, causing the buildings to tremble. In the coldest and most frosty weather the nails in the sides and roofs of the buildings snap and break with a noise like the report of a musket.
Towards the last of November, Thanksgiving day arrives and the grown-up sons and daughters, with their wives and husbands, meet at the family mansion of one or the other of their parents to have a good time in communing with one another, and to enjoy the chicken pies, the roast turkey, the plum puddings and the mince, apple and pump- kin pies set before them.
Early in December, after the hogs and beef cattle were slaughtered, the sausages have been made and the candles for the year have been dipped, winter comes on in earnest. The fields and roads are covered with snow and the great old-fashioned sleigh bells are tinkling merrily. These old strings of bells, consisting of eight or ten in number, were of different sizes, some of the larger ones weighing three- fourths of a pound or more. The bells owned by one cit- - izen were often set to a pitch differing from all the others in town, so when an individual was familiar with the tone of a string of bells belonging to a certain citizen he be- came aware of his approach when he was a mile off. Mr. Samuel Fitts, who lived on High Street, had a string of very large bells that were specially rich in tone, and when his old white- faced mare trotted up and down the hills with the bells upon her neck nobody except the dullest could help being delighted with the music that filled the air.
When the great storms came in winter and the roads were blocked with snow all the oxen and steers in the highway districts were hitched together to an ox-sled with a log chained in front of the runners. The sled was covered with men and boys, while a few went ahead to shovel through the larger drifts to enable the team to pass along. The weight upon the sled pressed it down into the snow instead of plowing it out as is the custom at the present day.
The foregoing is a description ot some of the phases of farming as it was carried on between the years 1800 and 1824 A short time previous to the last date, cotton man- ufacturing by machinery was introduced into this country.
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Great corporations were formed, large amounts of capital were invested and many mills were erected. The city of Lowell was founded at about the latter date and large numbers of young men and women from the towns far and near were employed. Great factories were built at Nash- ua four or five years later; and, in 1837, Manchester was surveyed and laid out for a manufacturing city. The first mill there was put in operation, in 1838, and in a period of three or four years a dozen or more mills were in active op- eration.
The young men and women and others of more mature age who lived in Candia were first attracted to Lowell, and scores of girls from High Street the North Road, the South Road and other parts of the town became employed there at various trades and as operatives in the mills.
Lowell afforded a good market for the farm products of Candia; but when Manchester became a thriving manufactur- ing town the farmers had a market close by, and many of the young people of both sexes established themselves there.
In the meantime, great lines of railroads and many new cities and large towns were built in all sections of the country. The gold and silver mines of California and Ne- vada were discovered, and great opportunities were offered the young people who had been brought up on the farms of Candia to secure at least a moderate fortune and pro- vide themselves with some of the luxuries as well as the mere comforts of life. Many of these classes left the old homesteads and settled in the large cities and towns in va- rious sections and some of them became eminently suc- cessful.
During all this time the generation of farmers they left behind were dying off or becoming so decrepid,with age that they were unable to do a fair day's labor. Many of these had not the means to employ the necessary help to carry on their farms or to provide the needful fertilizir g materials to restore them to their primitive state of productiveness.
There are some excellent farms in Candia and there might be many more if the soil was properly cultivated; but a good many people like to live in a city where there are
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splendid churches, fine music, libraries, attractive amuse- ments and social entertainments, instead of dwelling all the year round on the most romantic and delightful spot in the country, where there are but few neighbors, and where a carriage passing along the highway is regarded as a cu- ricsity and the members of the family rush to the windows to get a view of it.
In these days, when cattle, sheep and swine can be brought a thousand or two miles from the West and sold with profit in Manchester at a lower price than they can be raised in New Hampshire; and when strawberries, early potatoes and garden vegetables from the Southern States can be enjoyed by the inhabitants of the city at a small ex- pense two months before the same kind of fruit and produce raised in the North are fit to be eaten, it becomes a diffi - cult task to demonstrate that farming in this quarter of the state can be made a very profitable industry.
DOMESTIC MANUFACTURIES.
Soon after the early settlers were established upon their farms they began to keep sheep. The women carded and. spur the wool, and it was woven in great wooden looms, that were set up in the house of the well-to-do farmers. Spinning five skeins of woolen yarns was considered a good day's work; and women who worked out were paid. fifty cents a week and boarded. The process of weaving in the clumsy looms was a laborious one. The web was sprung by the feet, the shuttle was thrown from one side- to the other by the hands and the lathe, that supported the reed, was swung to and fro to beat in the filling by the right and left hands alternately. Five or six yards on of weaving were a day's work. The warp was wound up- quills and the filling on spools, the winding being often done by boys and girls. The best of the wool was woven into cloth for men's and women's wear. That intended for men was taken to'the clothier to be fulled, dyed, sheared and pressed. That to be worn by the women was simply dyed and pressed. To save expense many of the men and boys wore a stout kind of wailed cloth, that was simply dyed.
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A boy clothed in garments made of this very coarse kind of stuff, after being engaged in snow balling during a recess at school, before he returned to his seat, found it difficult to brush from his back and legs the great masses of snow ad- hering to them.
Some of the women wove bed covers or coverlets and much ingenuity was displayed in the weaving of the vari- ous ornamental figures and colors. In the summer the men wore tow and linen cloth for trousers and sometimes a fabric made of cotton and linen called "fustian." Cot- ton bought at the store was often mixed with wool and made into cloth for men's wear.
It may be mentioned here that some of the early settlers wore leather breeches made of tanned sheep skins when about their every-day work, and a few even wore them to church on the coldest days of winter.
The sheets, pillow cases, table covers and the under cloth- ing for summer wear were made mostly of linen spun upon . the old-fashioned wheels that were operated by a treadle moved by the foot. The flax when ripened was pulled up by the roots and spread upon the damp ground to rot and soften its outside woody covering. This was then separat- ed from the flax by processes called breaking and swing- ling.
COOPERING.
The business of coopering was an important industry very soon after the town was first settled. The farmers needed barrels to hold their salt pork and and also pails, wash tubs, firkins, buckets and various other wooden ves- sels for family use. All of these were furnished by work- men who had learned the cooper's trade. Some of the ves- sels were made of oak, but the most were made of pine. Beside those that have been named were two smaller wooden vessels, one of which called a "noggin," held three or four quarts, one stave projecting a few inches above the others for a handle. This vessel was often used as a 'soft soap dish. The other, which was about the same size, was fitted with a hard wood handle attached to
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its side at an angle of forty-five degrees like a porringer. This was called a "piggin" and was used in the kitchen for dipping water.
William Turner, Elijah Clough and Samuel Worthen had the reputation of being expert workmen as the manufact- urers of pails, tubs, piggins and other wooden ware used in the kitchen.
Sometime before the war of the Revolution broke out, there was a demand in Salem, Portsmouth and other sea ports for oak shooks or staves with hoops and headings for molasses hogsheads. The hogsheads were made and then taken down, tied up in bundles so as to be portable for shipment to the West Indies. After their arrival there they were again set up and made ready for use.
During the first fifty years of the present century a large number of the citizens of Salem, Portsmouth and Newbury- port were extensively engaged in the mackerel fishing bus- iness, and there was a constant demand for fish barrels. The business of making fish barrels constantly incre ased from small beginnings until scores of workmen were prof- itably employed. There were coopers' shops, flanked by great piles of staves and hoop-poles, in nearly every sec- tion of the town. Many farmers followed the business in winter and at other times when their services were not ab- solutely needed on their farms.
There was an abundance of the best of pine lumber in va- rious sections of the town in those days and more especial- ly in the southwest part in the vicinity of the Turnpike. A considerable number of men were constantly employed in felling the trees and in riving or splitting the wood into staves. A number of men were also employed in cutting and trimming poles for hoops. The poles were mostly small saplings of ash and oak.
Among the most prominent coopers in town fifty years or more ago were J. R. L. Rowe, Enoch Worthen, Lewis Worthen, Aaron Brown, Peter Fifield, Elias and Joseph Hubbard, John C. Fifield, True French, Samuel Morrill, Parker Morrill, Sargent French, Capt. Jesse Eaton, Capt. Abraham Fitts, Samuel Fitts, Josiah French, Samuel Mooers, Elijah Clough, Jacob Libbee, Abraham Emerson, Jonathan
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Brown, Aaron Heath, John Rowe, Nathaniel Rowe, jr .. Aaron Rowe, Moses Rowe, B. Pillsbury Colby, Abraham Fitts, Daniel and Archibald McDuffee, Samuel Buswell, Moses Varnum, Willis Patten. There were also coopers who lived at the Island, on the Colcord Road, South Road and the Langford Road.
William Duncan, Master Moses Fitts, Peter Eaton, S. Ad- dison Sargent and other traders in town employed young men to make barrels. Samuel Anderson, the inn-keeper, also employed many coopers in his day.
Those coopers who did a large business hauled their bar- rels to Newburyport with a four-ox team. The cart was fitted with upright poles about ten feet in length on the side and at each end to keep the barrels in place. The poles were fastened together at the top with narrow strips of board in which holes had been bored to receive the ends of each of the said poles. A hundred barrels, which were set upon their ends, one above another, was considered a load for one of the ox teams. . It took three days to go to New- buryport and back. The first night was often spent at Southampton and the journey was resumed early the' next morning. The barrels were generally disposed of early in the afternoon of the second day, after which the drivers re- turned to Southampton with their teams to spend the night.
In good times the barrels were sold for about seventy- five cents each. Sometimes each barrel contained a half- barrel inside. These were called "pairs" and sold for about a dollar and ten cents. Many of the coopers, who carried on the business on a small scale, took their barrels to mark- et on a one-horse cart. Some of the teamsters to Newbu- ryport, besides taking home with them small quantities of goods bought in exchange for their barrels, often hauled great loads of rum, sugar, fish, etc., for the traders in the town.
When the Candia teamsters met each other on an even- ing at Southampton, they were very liable to have a big jollfication among themselves.
More than forty years ago the fishing business in Newbu- ryport declined and there was little demand for barrels, and only a few have been made in Candia since.
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SHOEMAKING.
Among the first settlers were a few shoemakers, but the names of most of them have not been preserved. In 1781, John Lane, the carpenter and cabinet maker, in his ac- count book credits Peter Mooers for making two pairs of shoes for four shillings, and he charges him for making a shoe maker's seat with seven drawers, seven shillings and sixpence. He also charges him for a cutting board and a lamp chimney, one shilling; and for a calf skin for a pair of men's shoes, two shillings. Peter Mooers then lived on the west side of the road from the Corner to the Village and near the present residence of William Patten.
In 1780, Mr. Lane charged Nathaniel Burpee one shilling and sixpence for making a shoemake'rs seat for his son Ez- ra. For some years shoemakers traveled from house to house carrying their kit and bench, to remain until shoes were made for the entire family. This practice was some- times called "whipping the cat."
In the course of some years, there were shoemake's shops in several sections of Candia, and men's, women's and children's shoes made to order. Many of the farmers often furnished their own leather for the soles and uppers. Most of the men and boys wore heavy cow-hide shoes and in many cases, one pair by being tapped once or twice, lasted a year. Sometimes there was no binding put on the uppers and the edges of the quarters were just as they came from the cutter's hands.
In winter knit woolen buskins resembling gaiters were worn over the shoes and ankles to protect them from the snow and keep the feet comfortable. The buskins were oft- en fastened over the shoes by leather strings made of tanned. woodchuck's skin. As the people improved their condition many of them could afford calf-skin boots and women had shoes made of morroco; and some of them that had to trav- eI a long distance to church often kept on their every-day shoes or went barefooted until they came in sight of the meeting- house to put on their best ones and then tuck the old ones in some crevice in the stone wall by the road- side
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Soon after the beginning of the present century many en- terprizing and prosperous shoemakers lived in Candia. They took apprentices for a term of years, and sometimes they employed journeymen. Among these can be mention- ed Elder Moses Bean and Samuel Dudley. They carried on the business at the Village. After them came Gilman Richardson and Joseph Richardson.
About the year 1824, there were a few shoemakers em- ployed in making sale work for wholesale manufacturers of Haverhill, Mass. Among these were George Gilbert, Charles Butler, Major Ebeneezer Nay and Asbury Buswell. After these came soon Leonard and Thomas Dearborn, Henry Clough, Col. Samuel Cass, Austin Cass, besides sev- eral others, until finally the business increased so much, that shoemakers' shops stood in every section of the town. Almost every boy who could hold a lapstone was either an apprentice or full-fledged workman.
The uppers were cut and bound in Haverhill and the soles of different sizes. At first the workmen had to procure the stock and return the manufactured article. At length, special agents, called freighters, transacted this busi- ness, so the shoemaker had only to keep at his work, re- ceiving his money upon the freighter's return. John Cate has been employed as freighter for several years to and from Haverhill.
Samuel Dudley commenced to manufacture women's sale shoes at the Village previous to 1840. The uppers were cut and the binding done mostly by the women in the Village and vicinity. He employed a large number of hands, the business adding very much to the prosperity of the town. He continued in the business until about 1854.
In 1854, Alvin D. Dudley manufactured shoes on a larger scale in the Village in the building on the west side of the street that is now owned by J. Roland Batchelder, the car- penter. He did a flourishing business and employed many persons. In 1870, Mr. Dudley moved to Haverhill.
About thirty years ago John B. Richardson manufactured at the Corner; and Oliver Critchett carried on the shoe busi- ness at the Depot Village; each employed about 40 workmen.
Within twenty years the shoe business has been almost
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entirely revolutionized by the inventions of the shoe sew- ing machine, the pegging machine and other improvements. Formerly the work of making a hoe, except the cutting and binding, was done by one workman, but now several are united in a team, one doing the lasting, another the stitching, one the pegging or sewing, another putting on the heels, another the edges and still another scraping and finishing the bottoms. The work is done very rapidly by the help of machinery at a saving of much labor.
In 1878, Edward Dearborn commenced the busines of making pegged shoes by machinery in the Langford Dis- trict.
In 1887, his brothers, Jenness and Woodbury Dearborn, erected a two-story building, 64 feet long by 62 feet wide, and put in a full line of machinery and steam power, for manufacturing ladies' sewed slippers. They employed 30 hands, turning out 680 pairs per day.
In 1883, John Holt came to Candia from Raymond to en- gage in the business of making sewed shoes by machinery in the Langford District.
In 1885, Jacob Holt, coming to East Candia from Lynn, Mass., entered into joint partnership with his cousin, John Holt, in the business of making ladies' slippers by ma- chinery. They employed about thirty hands. The firm did a good business for a considerable time, until it dissolved and Jacob Holt went into business on his own account. He erected a new building of two stories, 30 feet wide and 70 feet long, putting in a full assortment of machinery. He employed 30 hands.
There are about 100 hands employed in manufacturing shoes in this district.
Since 1889, Elijah Morrison and a few other journeymen have manufactured sale shoes by machinery in a building situated on the B. Pillsbury Colby place near the Cor- ner.
William Dearborn during the past three years. has man- ufactured sale shoes in a building at the Depot Village.
Allen Nelson employed fifteen or twenty hands in manufacturing women's shoes by machinery in a build- ing at the Village opposite the old Freeman Parker house
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He is now located in the second story of J. RowlandBatch- elder's carpenter shop.
SILK CULTURE.
During the years 1835 and 1836, a considerable number of the people of Candia, Chester and other towns in the vicini- ty became much interested in the subject of producing silk. Various agricultural writers and editors in Boston and else- where contended that the raw material for manufacturing silk goods could be produced in New England as well and as profitably as in France and other eastern countries, Acting on these suggestions, people in various places pro- ceeded to set out mulberry trees for the purpose of supply- ing food for the silk worm.
Among the people in Candia who were interested in the new enterprize were Dr. Isaiah Lane, Francis Patten, Cap- tain Abraham Fitts, Alfred Colby, Asa Fitts, Ezekiel Lane and his sister, Hannah Lane. Dr. Lane procured a lot of young mulberry trees from Boston and sold them to the parties above named In due time enough leaves were produced to feed the few silk worms that were hatched from the cocoons that had been supplied.
After the silk worms had produced a small quantity of cocoons, the next thing to be done was to reel off the ex- tremely fine threads of silk covering them. Hannah Lane and two or three other women managed to reel silk enough to make a few small skeins for sewing.
After the experiment had been fairly tried it was found that the climate was rather too cold for the silk worms and that considerable capital would be required to make the business a success. The failure of the enterprize caused much disappointment to some of the parties concerned in it, and especially to a young and popular school mistress who had invested all the money she had earned by keep- iug one of the district schools in the summer term of 1836. Nearly all of the mulberry trees that were set out in the town fifty years ago have either decayed or been cut down, excepting four or five in the door yard at the residence of the widow of Captain Abraham Fitts on High Street.
SAMUEL MORRILL.
Sketch, page 51I.
MIANDA MORRILL.
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WOOD AND TIMBER.
During a period of nearly forty years, the business of cut- ting large tracts of wood and timber has been one of the most profitable industries in the town. Before the year 1852, cord wood and timber for building purposes had to be haul- ed by teams in small quantities to Manchester. Many years previous to that date, small quantities of boards were taken to Methuen and Newburyport.
In 1852, at the time the Concord and Portsmouth Railroad was opened to Candia, various parties that resided in Man- chester and other places bought timber lots in the town and transported the lumber to Concord, Manchester and else- where by cars. When the Candia Branch Railroad was opened to Manchester. in 1861, there was a considerable increase in the business and almost every year since that time wood lots in the town have been sold and operated nearly every year. The following is an account in part of the sales and operations in these lands :
Dr. Moses Hill of Manchester, in 1853, bought a large timber lot situated in the Southwest part of the town be- tween the Concord and Portsmouth Railroad and the Turn- pike. Dr. Hill set up a portable steam mill on his lot to saw the logs into boards, frames for buildings, etc. This was the first steam mill which was operated in the town.
About 1853, William P. Channell of Durham bought a timber lot of Abraham Emerson. He also bought large quantities of ship timber in various parts of the town.
In the year 1854, David Fellows, who came from Deer- field and purchased the old William Duncan place, bought several lots in the Southwest part of the town near the Turn- pike, and had the logs sawed at Dr. Hill's steam mill.
About the same time, Dunlap and Houston of Manches- ter, bought the Maple Falls saw mill, and also bought a large timber lot situated between the lower end of High Street and the Baker Road. This lot belonged to the heirs of the late Caleb Brown, and the lumber was sawed at the Maple Falls mill.
John M. Parker, David Parker and Lewis Simons of Goffs-
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town bought of Abraham Emerson a wood lot, which formerly belonged to Samuel Wilson, situated between the Chester and Patten roads. Also a very large timber lot situated on the farm which formerly belonged to Maj. Simon French.
Gilman Clough and his son, Lewis"A. Clough, several years ago bought of Col. Coffin M. French a very valuable timber lot situated in the Southeast corner of the town. They also bought a wood and timber lot which belonged to J. Osgood Wason, and was situated in the same neigh- borhood.
In 1855, David Houston bought a valuable timber lot of John Robie, situated on the Manchester road.
About fifteen years ago, Rufus Patten sold a large timber lot to Gilman Clough.
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