USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > Durham > History of the town of Durham, New Hampshire (Oyster River Plantation) with genealogical notes, Volume 1 > Part 24
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Hon. George Frost, born at Newcastle 26 July 1720, was son of Hon. John and Mary (Pepperrell) Frost. Upon the organiza- tion of Strafford County, in 1773, he was appointed one of the associate justices of the Court of Common Pleas and held that office till 1791, for the last few years being chief justice. He was delegate to the Continental Congress in 1777, 1778 and 1779,
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councilor in New Hampshire, 1780-84, moderator of town meet- ings seven times, selectman four times. He was delegate to the fourth Provincial Congress convened at Exeter 17 May 1775. He was also a member of the town's Committee of Correspondence Inspection and Safety. He lived in the Smith garrison at Lubberland, having married Margaret, widow of Dea. Ebenezer Smith. [See Genealogical Notes.]
Judge Ebenezer Thompson was born in Durham 5 March 1737. He studied medicine but soon abandoned medical practice for public duties. He was elected one of the selectmen at the age of twenty-eight and held that office ten years, by annual reëlection. He also represented for ten years the town of Durham in the General Assembly at Portsmouth, beginning this service in 1766. He took an active part in the events that led up to the American Revolution. He was among those who seized the military stores at Fort William and Mary, 14 December 1774, for which he was deprived of his commission as justice of the peace. He was a member of all the Provincial Congresses that met at Exeter and acted as clerk, and after the formation of a state government he was the first secretary of State, reappointed for eleven years in succession. He was also clerk of the senate from 1776 to 1786. He was secretary of the State Committee of Safety all through the Revolutionary War and was also a member of the Durham Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety. He was one of the committee to draw up a plan of govern- ment for New Hampshire and to frame a constitution. He held the office of councilor for five years. He was a commissioner to meet delegates from other states at New Haven in 1778. He was employed to settle the boundaries of several towns, being an expert land surveyor and draughtsman. He drew the plans for the church built at Durham in 1792. Twice he was appointed to represent the State of New Hampshire in the Continental Congress, but he declined these honors because of feeble health. He was State senator, justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and in 1795 justice of the Superior Court of Judicature. In 1796 he accepted the office of judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Strafford County and held it till his death in 1802. In the midst of all these cares of State he found time to serve his town as clerk for eighteen years, selectman, assessor of taxes, commis- sioner and auditor, besides being on most of the committees of
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the parish and acting as one of the school committee. He was often consulted for legal advice, though he never was admitted to the bar. He was one of the presidential electors at the choice of Washington and also of Adams. No native of Durham has held so many public offices nor won more esteem from his fellow
JUDGE VALENTINE SMITH
citizens. His record is one of honesty, patriotism, unusual ability and usefulness .*
Judge Valentine Smith was born in Durham (Lubberland) 26 May 1774, son of Dea. John Smith, and died 2 March 1869. He was town clerk twenty-eight years, from 1802 to 1819, and from 1827 to 1838. Besides being teacher and surveyor he served
*See Memoir published by Miss Mary P. Thompson.
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as selectman eleven years and as representative six years. He was justice of the Court of Common Pleas, 1819-21, chief justice of Sessions, 1822-25, and was for fifty-six years a justice of the peace. He was interested and helpful in the church, in education and in the Durham Social Library, a highly useful citizen
Hon. Stephen De Meritt was born 19 December 1806, and died 27 January 1867. He took an active part in town affairs and
HON. STEPHEN DEMERITT
was often employed in the settlement of estates, being named in 1856 as one of the executors of Benjamin Thompson's will. He died, however, before Mr. Thompson. He served as moderator in town meetings seven times, and selectman in 1836, 1837, 1841, 1843, 1844, and 1850. He represented the town in the legislature in 1837, 1838, and 1844, once being unanimously elected, and was State senator in 1845. He is
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remembered as honest, able and popular, a strong friend of the temperance cause and a man whose influence was for the good of the town. [See Genealogical Notes.]
Prof. John Smith Woodman was born 6 September 1819, and died 9 May 1871. He fitted for collegeat South Berwick Academy and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1842, after which he studied law with John A, Richardson, Esq., and with Hon. Daniel M. Christie. Meanwhile, he taught four years in Charleston, S. C., and went abroad, traveling for more than a year in France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, and Italy, publishing his Obser- vations in the New Hampshire Patriot and the Charleston News. He made a special study of art and agriculture. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1848 and opened an office at Salmon Falls. In 1850 he was appointed commissioner of schools for Strafford County. In January 1851 he was chosen professor of mathe- matics in Dartmouth College and in 1857 was made professor of civil engineering, to have general charge of the Chandler Scien- tific Department of Dartmouth College.
Meanwhile he had served as commissioner of schools for Grafton County with remarkable success. After twenty years of service in the Scientific Department of Dartmouth he retired because of ill health and went to Florida for a short time. He returned to Durham and to the old Woodman homestead to end his days and was buried in the Woodman cemetery. He was probably the most prominent and successful educator that Dur- ham has produced. His property, amounting to some $20,000, was bequeathed to the institution he had served so long and well.
Benjamin Thompson was born at Durham 22 April 1806, and died there 30 January 1890. He was never married. His father was Benjamin, and his grandfather was Judge Ebenezer Thompson, mentioned heretofore. He inherited, among other property, his father's residence in Durham village, with neigh- boring lands, and the so-called "Warner farm," originally a part of the 500 acres granted to Valentine Hill. By strict economy and good management in the course of half a century he in- creased his property to over $400,000. He taught school two terms in his youth. No public office was held by him save that of auditor one year. He was never strong physically. Nearly all his property was willed to the State of New Hampshire in trust, "The object of this devise being to promote the cause of agri-
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culture by establishing .
. an agricultural school to be located on my Warner farm, so called, and situated in said Dur- ham, wherein shall be thoroughly taught, both in the school-room and in the field, the theory and practice of that most useful and honorable calling." The real estate so bequeathed was valued
FENJAMIN THOMPSON
at $17,100, and the Benjamin Thompson Trust Fund amounted to $363, 823. Thus he very wisely chose to perpetuate his memory by honoring his native town and conferring blessings upon untold generations.
Hamilton Augustus Mathes was born 16 July 1843, son of John and Pamela (Mathes) Mathes, and died 2 December 1891.
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He was educated at Colby Academy, New London. He filled various offices in the town of Durham, being moderator of town meetings seven times, selectman in 1871-72, supervisor 1878-82, and treasurer, 1872, 1885 to 1890. He was one of the prime movers in establishing the Durham Social Library and was its president till his death, in ten years having missed only one meeting of the board. He began to manufacture brick at the
HAMILTON A. MATHES
age of twenty-one and the last year of his life he sold 8,000,000 of bricks. He was president of the Pascataqua Navigation Com- pany, which he helped to organize. He lived at Durham Point till about 1883, when he removed to the village. He employed about 200 men in his five brickyards. He was actively interested in the work of the Grange and was an influential member of the Congregational Society.
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Miss Mary Pickering Thompson was born in Durham 19 November 1825, and died there 6 June 1894, daughter of Ebenezer and Jane (Demeritt) Thompson, great-grand-daughter of Judge Ebenezer Thompson. After studying at Derry and Durham Academies, where she took first rank, she attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, where she graduated with honor in 1845. A little later she took post-graduate studies at the same institution, then under charge of that famous educator, Mary Lyon. She taught at Oakland Female Seminary, Hills- borough, Ohio, and at Aberdeen, Ohio. Here, in 1847, she asked
MISS MARY PICKERING THOMPSON
for a letter from the Congregational Church in Durham to the Presbyterian Church in Maysville, Ky., just across the river from Aberdeen. Her request was refused on the ground that "Maysville is in a slave state, and the Presbyterian church there probably has members who are slave holders." This refusal led her to study into ecclesiastical questions, and the result was that she united with the Roman Catholic Church and, 31 August 1847, she entered the Notre Dame Convent at Cincinnati, Ohio. She taught for a while in the Ursuline Convent at Galveston, Tex., and she was one year, as vice-
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president, at St. Mary's Female Seminary, Md. During the years 1854-56 and again in 1873-77 she traveled in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Spain, Belgium, and Holland. The rest of the time during this period and there- after she spent in literary work at the house which she purchased in Durham village, and in such work, which was her delight, she excelled in quantity and quality. She contributed one hundred and thirty-five articles to the Catholic World, historical, biograph- ical, descriptive and religious, besides many newspaper contri- butions. She was specially interested in everything that pertained to her native town and to ancient Dover, and she devoted years to research work among the New Hampshire Province Deeds, Probate Records, and Court Records, original and copious sources of historical information. The records of Durham and Dover were minutely examined by her. Wherever she looked scarcely anything seems to have escaped her notice. The new things of this history of Durham have been derived from sources printed or indexed since her death or from examination of places which she could not visit. She gathered up a great amount of inter- esting and valuable folk-lore and interwove it with the facts of history, so as to make everything she wrote interesting as a novel. The beauty of her style arises from the fact that she knew so much to say and the study of several languages enabled her to choose the appropriate word, while her knowledge of general literature is attested by constant allusions to standard prose and poetical works. Her Landmarks in Ancient Dover is a compen- dium of refined knowledge, indispensable to the historian and full of interest to the general reader. It was completed in the midst of physical pain, yet the whole work is joyous. Her Memoir of Judge Ebenezer Thompson shows a proper family pride and is a loving tribute to the memory of a distinguished ancestor. Dur- ham has produced many honorable and able men and women, but no one of them has done more for the town and merits more gratitude and praise than Mary Pickering Thompson. I know her only in the spirit, and I wish, with many others, that she could have lived to write this history of Durham, as was her desire and intention. Certainly she has contributed more than any other to make it as full and accurate as it is. Durham owes to her some permanent memorial.
Dea. John Emerson Thompson, born 25 September 1815, was
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the son of Dea. John Thompson and the great-great-grandson of Dea. Jonathan Thompson. Thus this family has rendered distinguished service to the church. He served as deacon from the year 1870 till his death, 10 January 1892. His father held that office forty years. The latter was a master carpenter and built three meeting houses, one of them being the church erected in Durham in 1792. His ancestor, the first John Thompson of
DEACON JOHN THOMPSON
Durham, built the historic` meeting house on the same spot, about 1712.
Dea. John E. Thompson had a ready and tenacious memory and was fond of relating stories of old times and people. He lived about a mile from the village, near to the Jabez Davis garrison. He is remembered as a staunch supporter of the church and a useful and honored citizen. He held the office of select- man in 1862. The most of the old shade trees in Durham
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Village, especially along the street next the New Hampshire College land, were grown and set out by him and are a good memorial. For family see Genealogical Notes.
Dea. Albert Young was born in Durham 3 February 1837, and died 21 September 1910. He was son of Daniel and Hannah (Chesley) Young. His father was a soldier in the War of 1812
DEACON JOHN EMERSON THOMPSON
and afterward kept the toll-gate on the New Hampshire Turn- pike, where Edward A. Marston now resides, and had a tan yard on the Fowler land easterly. Dea. Young was educated in Durham and Strafford Academies. He was an incorporator of the Christian Society in Durham and for many years was an active leader in that denomination. After services ceased in
HISTORY OF DURHAM
305
the brick church he united with the Congregational church and was made a deacon therein in 1894, which office he held until ill health compelled him to resign. He managed a shoe shop and a good farm, the old estate of maternal ancestry. He served as selectman. He was also an Odd Fellow and a charter member of Scammell Grange. For years he was president of the George
DEACON ALBERT YOUNG
Ffrost Temperance Society. His memory was remarkable and he could tell much about the old residents and houses of Durham. He was a man of deep and staunch moral convictions, unselfish and devoted especially to home life. Patient and uncomplain- ing through years of ill health, he left behind the memory of an upright citizen and loyal friend. He left one daughter, Mary E.,
20
OLD SAWMILL AT WIGGINS FALLS
HOLD GRIST & SAWMILL WIGGINS FALLS
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born 4 August 1869, who married 24 April 1893, Charles A. Smart, and has a son, Albert Monroe Smart, born 5 December 1907.
Thomas H. Wiswall was born in Exeter 28 January 1817, son of Thomas and Sarah (Trowbridge) Wiswall. He was educated in Exeter schools and Wakefield Academy and began apprenticeship at the age of sixteen in his father's paper-mill at Exeter. He left Exeter in 1846 and for five years had charge of a paper-mill
THOMAS H. WISWALL
at Dover, after which he was employed two years in the Russell paper-mill at Exeter. In 1853 Mr. Wiswall removed to Durham and in partnership with Isaac Flagg, Jr., the son of his father's partner, purchased a saw-mill'on the Lamprey River, in that part of Durham known as Packer's Falls.
Here may be the proper place to say a few words respecting the industries of this region. In 1835 the original dam and a
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saw-mill were built by Moses Wiggin, and another building was added for a grist and flour mill, both two-story buildings. In the second story of the saw-mill gingham cloth and blankets were manufactured by a Mr. Talbot. Other articles manufactured in these mills were shoe knives, hoes, pitch forks, wooden measures, nuts, bolts, bobbins, ax handles, hubs, carriages, sleighs, chairs, matches, and spokes, by various persons. In 1854 Moses Wiggin built a canal and purchased the old Brooks machine shop which formerly stood where Elmer Kent's stable is now, opposite Lang's blacksmith shop in Newmarket. This building was removed to Wiggin's Falls, then so called, and was the original paper-mill,
.
-
WISWALL'S PAPER MILL
a building 34 by 80 feet. It was leased the same year, with water power, to Messrs. Wiswall and Flagg. After three months Mr. Flagg sold his interest to Howard Moses, and he soon sold out to his father, C. C. P. Moses, and the business continued under the name of T. H. Wiswall & Co., until the death of Mr. Moses in August 1883. Previous to this Mr. Wiswall had acquired full ownership of all the mills, and gradually all other manufactures ceased, and paper became the sole product. Additions to the mill were made, including an L, 15 by 20 feet, and a stock house was built, 30 by 50 feet. In 1868 a completely new dam was built. Houses were erected for the workmen, and a store was kept by
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Austin Doeg. This continued to be the busiest spot in town till I November 1883, when the paper-mill and all adjoining build- ings were totally destroyed by fire. Only the dam and saw-mill were kept in use till the spring of 1896, when a freshet swept a portion of the dam away. November 25, 1899, the privilege was sold to James W. Burnham, president of the Newmarket Electric Light, Heat and Power Company, and an electric power station was built at once, Durham seeing its first electric light, 20 February 1900, in the houses of James W. Burnham, Mrs. Sarah J. Woodman (the Highland House), and the Griffiths brothers. The plant has been owned, since 7 April 1912, by the New- market Electric Light Company, and a concrete dam and head gates have been built.
Mr. Wiswall married, 22 June 1841, Miss Hannah Thing of Brentwood. He was a deacon in the Congregational church at Newmarket, director of the Newmarket Bank and representative from Durham in 1872 and 1873. He retired from active business in 1883, and died 7 March 1906.1
Hamilton Smith, although born in Louisville, Ky., 5 July 1840, regarded Durham as his own home as well as the home of a long line of ancestors. Here he built his summer residence and here he died, 4 July 1900, while on a sail down Oyster River. He became an expert mining engineer. His office was for years in London and later in New York. He was interested in mines in South America, Alaska and South Africa, as well as in the United States. He published a book on hydraulics, a treatise on "The Cost of Mining and Milling Free Gold Ores," and papers writ- ten at different times on "The Flow of Water through Pipes," "Water Power at High Pressure," and "The Temperature of Water at Various Depths." An obituary notice spoke of him as "one of the world's great mining experts." He gave $10,000 for the Valentine Smith Scholarships in New Hampshire College, and his widow gave as much more for the dormitory for young ladies, called Smith Hall. Both were very fond of Durham, and their beautiful private grounds were open to all. Mrs. Alice Smith survived her husband and died in Washington, D. C., 15 March 1906. Both were buried in a chapel built on their Durham estate. They were highly esteemed by the people of
1The material for the above sketch was kindly furnished by Col. Arioch W. Griffiths.
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Durham and will long be remembered for their kindness and generosity.
Ebenezer Thompson was born in Durham 15 August 1821, and died 15 May 1869. He was a man of keen, active mind and intelligent tastes. He was educated in the academies of New London, South Berwick and Andover. He was specially
HAMILTON SMITH
familiar with the early history of the New England colonies and began to collect materials for the history of Durham. For a time he was with his grandfather, Benjamin Thompson, mer- chant, and Gov. Ichabod Goodwin, Portsmouth. In the early days of the Boston & Maine Railroad he was station agent at South Berwick Junction, and later he was wood agent of the
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New York and Erie Railroad, living some years at Dunkirk, N. Y. He returned home in 1854 and the following spring was elected chairman of the board of selectmen and the same year was appointed justice of the peace. He took a strong interest in politics, held several town offices and was a county commissioner.
He was greatly interested in the public schools of the town and was so efficient a superintendent that he received a vote of thanks
EBENEZER THOMPSON
at the annual town meeting in 1861 "for his assiduity and interest taken and zeal manifested in the cause of common schools in this town,"-one of the few votes of similar nature in the records of the town. In his section of country he was the pioneer in growing the Baldwin apple, in which he was very successful. He was also engaged in lumber business, insurance agent for sev- eral companies, and director of Newmarket National Bank and
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Strafford National Bank. [See Genealogical Notes, and accom- panying portrait.]
Mark Henry Mathes was born in Durham 2 October 1840, and died there 8 June 1911. He lived on the old Mathes homestead at Durham Point, as a successful farmer, serving the town as selectman and representative to the legislature. In
MARK H. MATHES
the last years of his life he was compelled by rheumatism to walk with crutches. He is characterized as honest, outspoken and kind. [For family see Genealogical Notes.]
Gen. Alfred Hoitt was born in Northwood, II January 1806. He removed from Lee to Durham soon after the building of the Boston and Maine railroad and erected a fine residence close
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to the station. His buildings were destroyed by fire, caused by sparks from an engine of the railroad. This led to litigation with the railroad for four years, and Gen. Hoitt at last won the suit. For years he conducted a lucrative business in shipping produce to Boston. He was a major general of the New Hamp- shire militia and a sturdy representative of the Jeffersonian type
GEN. ALFRED HOITT
of democracy. He served as representative and State senator for Lee and was once unanimously elected selectman of that town. He also represented Durham in the legislature. Within less than a year after his removal to Dover, about 1880, he ran for mayor and lacked only one hundred and seven votes of de- feating the opposing candidate in a city of one thousand Repub- lican majority. He died in Dover 9 November 1883.
SOME MEN OF THE PRESENT
In the previous chapter it has been a pleasure to extol the virtues of the departed, and nobody can complain because of this, since death glorifies our beloved. It is now necessary to say something about some who are living, and here words must be carefully chosen and a severe simplicity is demanded. Some- how most of us poor mortals cannot well bear to hear our own living acquaintances praised beyond ourselves. It is impossible to mention all the good people of Durham in this chapter. Modesty should be a prominent trait of the living, and the writer wishes to avoid any accusation of flattery and of having kissed the Blarney Stone. Therefore, the following statements deal with facts only, which must speak for themselves. The names are arranged to suit the illustrations, without any reference to preëminence.
Hon. Joshua B. Smith, son of Hon. Valentine Smith, was born in Durham 28 July 1823. He has served as moderator ten times, as town clerk, 1851-56, selectman nineteen years, treasurer eleven years, representative in 1865, 1866 and 1878, state sena- tor 1875-77, councilor 1877-78, and delegate to the Constitu- tional Convention in 1876. He was one of the leaders in the organization of the Durham Social Library and was for a long time librarian and then president of the Durham Library Associa- tion. He is a member of the Congregational church and, like his father, has done much to support and advance it, both having been active in the building of the present church edifice. He has been a member of the State Board of Agriculture and a justice of the peace.
His sister, Miss Mary E. Smith, has been associated with him in all good works. For years she played the church organ gra- tuitously. Her private library has been at the service of many, and for a long time she was president of the board of trustees of Durham Library Association, a director, librarian, and on the committee for the selection of books, without any compensation except the thanks and good will of the people. And is not that enough for generous souls? The poor have had in her a bene-
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factress, and many others owe to her more than money can pay. They who give themselves to society give most.
Dea. Winthrop S. Meserve, son of Smith and Abigail (Emer- son) Meserve, was born in Durham 7 February 1838. He stud- ied at Durham, Berwick and Hampton Academies. At the age of eighteen he assumed management of the old Emerson farm, which he acquired later. He has been a leader in the Congre-
HON. JOSHUA B. SMITH
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