USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > Durham > History of the town of Durham, New Hampshire (Oyster River Plantation) with genealogical notes, Volume 1 > Part 25
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gational church, serving as clerk of the church since 1871 and of the society since 1875 and as deacon since 1877. To the busi- ness of a farmer he added that of lumbering. He has served two years as county commissioner. In politics he is an independent Democrat, and both parts of that name have hindered advance- ment in political office in Durham. This has never weighed heavily upon his spirit, nor has it lessened the public esteem in which he is held. In town affairs he has often acted as moderator,
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overseer of the poor, selectman and on various committees. He is also a justice of the peace. As a member of the committee to collect material and publish a history of Durham he has been zealous and efficient, the acknowledged superior of all in knowl- edge of genealogical details of the town's old families. He has gathered and imparted such information by patient search of
FORREST S. SMITH
public records and by an extensive correspondence of many years. He has done this con amore, for the mere love of it-the trait of the expert genealogist. [See frontispiece of Vol. II.]
Forrest S. Smith, seventh in descent from Joseph Smith, was born 30 June 1857, and owns the same acres on which his first American ancestor settled. He was educated at Exeter Academy
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and passed examination for admission to the Yale Scientific School, but the death of his father threw upon him the care of the farm. He taught school in Durham and served some years on the school committee. He made a specialty of raising hay and cattle. In 1887 he went to Boston and secured a position in a wholesale commission house, that deals largely in hay and grain. In 1892
HON. JEREMIAH LANGLEY
he became a member of the firm known as Hosmer, Robinson & Co., and they do the largest wholesale hay and grain business in the world, as is claimed. Although he keeps his legal residence in Durham and maintains a summer home on the ancestral estate, he lives most of the year in Brookline, Mass. His office is at the Chamber of Commerce building.
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Mr. Smith married, I September 1887, Sarah Adla Thompson, daughter of Dea. John E. Thompson, and they have traveled extensively in America and Europe. He is a member of the Algonquin Club, of the Boston Athletic Association, of the Boston Art Club, of the Grae Burn Country Club of Newton, and of the Masonic order.
Hon. Jeremiah Langley was born in Durham 25 March 1841. He was educated in the public school and at the age of fifteen had learned the trade of a shoemaker. He also learned to man- age a farm and raise hay, and, knowing the value of this product, he has bought and sold a good deal of it. In 1890 he and sons bought a line of barges for transporting coal from Portsmouth to Dover, Exeter, Newmarket and Durham. He has taken great interest in political affairs and has served his town in varied offices, as moderator, selectman three times, representative and senator. While in the legislature he did much toward securing the removal of the agricultural college from Hanover to Durham. As senator he served on the committees on railroads, agriculture, incorporations, elections and soldiers' home. He has been presi- dent of the Republican Club of Durham and a recognized leader in that party for twenty years, The Grange and Public Library acknowledge his services, and the Newmarket Bank has had him as director. He is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, speaking after the manner of lodges, and to speak plainly he is an energetic farmer, business man and political leader.
Hon. Lucien Thompson was born at the old Thompson home- stead in Durham 3 June 1859. When he was ten years old his father died and the family removed to Manchester, where Lucien graduated from the high school at the age of eighteen, being the salutatorian of his class. Preferring farming to a course of classical study in college he returned to the homestead in Durham and became a successful farmer; yet he has found time to serve his town and state in various offices, such as supervisor, treas- urer and moderator of ten town meetings. He has been a justice of the peace since 1886 and for a long time notary public. From 1887 to 1892 he was a member of the State Board of Agriculture, and since 1892 he has been a trustee of the New Hampshire Col- lege of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and is secretary of the board. At the age of twenty-seven, he was elected representative to the legislature. He was a member of the senate in 1893-94,
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and served as chairman of the committee on agriculture and as member of committees on education, state prison and industrial school, labor, and public improvements. He was on Governor Bachelder's staff with rank of colonel.
Col. Thompson, for so he is popularly called, inherited the valuable library of his aunt, Miss Mary P. Thompson, and has written historical articles for the newspapers and the Granite Monthly. He assisted his aunt in gathering material for her Landmarks in Ancient Dover and for more than a score of years has been collecting material for the history of his native town. The facts pertaining to military history, cemeteries, old houses, slavery, post offices, and many details of educational and ecclesi- astical history, that are recorded in this book, are the result of his long and painstaking research. Indeed, without his cooperation the history of Durham must have been incomplete.
Col. Thompson drafted the by-laws of the Durham Social Library and has been secretary of that and of the Durham Library Association since 1881. He is a charter member of Scammell Grange, its secretary many years, lecturer and over- seer of the Pomona Grange, and a member of the State Grange executive committee. He is a charter member of the New Hampshire Genealogical Society and has been a trustee and the treasurer of the same, and belongs to the Sons of the American Revolution. When in the legislature he was a member of the special committee that erected the present Strafford County court house.
As a working member of the Congregational church he gave much assistance in editing its historical manual. He has also edited and published several historical pamphlets and papers read before patriotic societies. It is to be regretted that the health of himself and his family does not permit him to live con- tinuously in Durham. For several years his winter home has been in University Park, Denver, Col. [See Genealogical Notes and frontispiece of Vol. I.]
Hon. Daniel Chesley, son of Daniel and Margery Steele (Wood- man) Chesley, was born in Madbury II October 1859. He lives on the old farm that has been in the possession of the Ches- ley family from the earliest beginnings of Durham and is a practical and successful farmer as well as a general contractor, doing a lot of building in stone, brick and wood. He has
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served on the board of selectmen, as representative to the legislature and as a member of the State Constitutional Conven- tion of 1902. He is now filling the office of State senator for the term of 1913-14 and is chairman of the committee on towns and parishes and a member of committees on military affairs, agriculture, state hospital, and fish and game. He belongs to
HON. DANIEL CHESLEY
the orders of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Patrons of Husbandry. His portrait tells the rest of the story.
Charles Wentworth, son of Charles H. and Ann Elizabeth (Stacy) Wentworth, was born in North Berwick, Me., 10 July 1872, eighth in descent from Elder William Wentworth, one of the earliest settlers of Dover and bearing a surname that was been 21
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honored in history. He was educated in the North Berwick High School and in New Hampshire College. He has served as town clerk of Durham since 1904 and represented the town in the legislature, 1905-06, serving as secretary on the standing com- mittee on agricultural college, and partly by his influence money was appropriated for the college gymnasium. He has also been
CHARLES WENTWORTH
on the school board five years and has been station agent of the Boston and Maine Railroad since 1900. He is a member of the Sons of Veterans, his father having served three years during the Civil War in Company F. 4th New Hampshire Volunteers. He married, in 1898, Evelyn Jenkins of Lee, a student of New Hampshire College, and they have one daughter, Valerie. A social companion, an artist in telling a story and in illustrating
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it with pen or brush, a faithful and accommodating official, a modest and unassuming man of worth,-such is the impression that he makes upon one who knows him a little below the surface.
Col. Arioch Wentworth Griffiths was born in Packer's Falls district 31 August 1851. He was educated in the common school, Newmarket High School and the Franklin Academy of
COL. ARIOCH W. GRIFFITHS
Dover. Together with his father and brother he has developed one of the best farms in Strafford County. The set of buildings, twelve in number, includes a handsome two-story residence, equipped with electric lights, steam heat and telephone, and a spacious barn, 41 by Ho feet, which has a capacity for 150 tons of hay. An electric mill has been built, capable of producing
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600 barrels of cider per day. The output averaged 1,000 bar- rels per year for thirty-five years. Owing to change of laws and failure of the apple crop the mill is now idle. Mr. Griffiths is a Republican in politics, has served two years as selectman and as moderator of town meetings twelve years in succes- sion, holding that office now. He also holds at the present time his seventh commission as deputy sheriff. Since 31 May 1888 he has been an active member of the Knights of Pythias, being a member of Pioneer Lodge, No. I, of Newmarket. He was actively instrumental in the organization of Sullivan Lodge, No. 26, of Durham. He filled the various chairs and became a member of the Grand Lodge in 1891. He was a charter member of W. A. Frye Company, No. 5, U. R. He was second lieutenant at its organization, afterward elected five times first lieutenant, and was promoted to the rank of major on regimental staff. After holding this position two years he was elected lieutenant- colonel and held the position two years. He was then appointed assistant inspector general on the brigade staff with the rank of colonel, in which position he served two terms of four years each. He was then appointed assistant quartermaster general with same rank, in which office he is now serving his second term. He belongs to the Sons of the American Revolution and was for many years a director of the Newmarket National Bank.
Albert DeMeritt was born in Durham 26 August 1851. Besides caring for a farm of three hundred acres and doing much in lum- ber business he has held many public offices, such as moderator of town meetings eleven times, and two terms representative in the legislature, where he served on the standing committee on agricultural college and on the committee on appropriations. In appreciation of his work in the legislative session of 1911 the faculty and trustees of New Hampshire College each unanimously passed resolutions of commendation.
Mr. DeMeritt was a member of the Constitutional Conven- tion in 1889 and again in 1912. He served on the State Board of Agriculture nine years and has been one of the trustees of the college. He has taken great interest in education, serving on the school board nine years. He drafted the free text-book bill, which became a law in 1887 and remains in force unchanged, so complete that almost all the other states have adopted it. Through his efforts the Durham Lyceum was organized, which
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ran for a decade with remarkable success, attracting people from the neighboring towns.
Mr. DeMeritt is a member of Scammell Grange and past chancellor commander of Sullivan Lodge of Knights of Pythias. He is also a justice of the peace. New Hampshire College has conferred upon him the degree of Master of Science .*
ALBERT DEMERITT
Charles E. Hoitt, son of Gen. Alfred Hoitt, was born 8 March 1849. After spending a few years in Concord he settled in Dur- ham, buying and remodeling the old Ballard house. Like his father he belongs to the Democratc party. His popularity is shown by the fact, that, although Durham always casts its presidential vote for Republican electors, and has chosen only four Democratic representatives since the Civil War, he and his father are two of that four. He has been elected selectman
* Mr. DeMeritt, shot accidentally, died 22 August 1913, much esteemed and lamented by a host of friends.
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sixteen times and still holds that office. He has filled every chair in Sullivan Lodge of Knights of Pythias, including grand chan- cellor. He is also a prominent officer in Scammell Grange. He is now serving his second term as county commissioner. His popularity is due to his cordial way of meeting all people and to honesty and economy in handling the people's money, the
CHARLES E. HOITT
necessary expenses in a new college town demanding wise and strict calculation.
Valentine Mathes was born in Durham 13 February 1846. At the age of eighteen he began river freighting to Portsmouth, Exeter and Newmarket. After three years he turned his atten- tion to railroading in New York and Boston for a year. Then
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he bought out Joseph W. Coe at Durham village, where he kept a general country store and served as postmaster from 1872 to 1880. He then removed to Dover, where for sixteen years he did a large business in groceries, coal, wood, hay and grain. This business was sold in order that he might devote all his time to the lumber business, in which he had been interested actively
VALENTINE MATHES
from boyhood and which had grown extensively. In this busi- ness his son, John E. Mathes, is associated with him.
Mr. Mathes owns and rents to tenants one hundred and sixteen tenements, offices and stores and is the largest individual tax- payer in Dover. He and his brother, Hamilton A. Mathes, organized the Pascataqua Navigation Company, with a capital
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of $100,000, and have two boats and twelve barges engaged in river freighting from Eastport, Me., to Boston, Mass.
He has been representative to the legislature and has served in the common council of Dover. He is a Mason, Granger, Red Man, Elk, Odd Fellow, and, last but not least, a member of the Congregational church.
CHARLES S. LANGLEY
Charles S. Langley, son of Hon. Jeremiah Langley, was born in Durham II October 1867. He has been a member of the school board eighteen years and represented the town in the legislature, 1903-04, serving on the committee on Agricultural College. Since boyhood he has been associated with his father in the hay and lumber business and in river freighting. In addition he
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deals in automobiles and has planned and built several houses in Durham Village. He has been a director of Newmarket National Bank about fifteen years. He is affiliated with the Grangers, the Knights of Pythias, and the Elks. The Langley home is one of hospitality, prosperity and ambitious content- ment. [For family see Genealogical Notes.]
GEORGE W. RANSOM
George W. Ransom was born in Durham, I January 1858, son of Alonzo and Isabella (Hook) Ransom. He brushed aside all obstacles to his way through preparatory schools and college by working on a farm after he was fourteen years of age at eight- een dollars per. month and by chopping white oak cord wood in the winter at fifty cents a cord, and he has made himself richer
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than those who allowed him to do it. He fitted for college at Franklin Academy, Dover and New Hampton Literary Institu- tion and graduated at Dartmouth in 1886 with the degree of A. B. Meanwhile he taught school in Middleton, Wolfeboro and the village school at Durham three years. This kept him away from his work in college twelve weeks of each year. The writer hereof knows just what that means by happy and profita- ble experience. One learns to study as well as to teach by teaching.
After graduation Mr. Ransom taught in Walpole, N. H., Pepperell, Mass., Warner, N. H., and since 1893 in Boston, Mass., where he has served as submaster and master of schools in Dor- chester, Roxbury and the city proper. He is now master of the Abraham Lincoln School, which has 2,400 pupils, perhaps the largest school in New England. He has also been principal of the South Boston Evening High School. He has taken several courses of study in the Boston School of Technology and in Har- vard University and has traveled extensively in Europe and in this country. He certainly has an aptitude for hard work and for work that counts for something. He has honored the history of Durham more than the History of Durham can honor him.
Mr. Ransom married in June, 1893, Eliza B. Taylor at Alex- andria Bay, New York, a graduate of Oswego Normal School and a teacher of large experience. She graduated from the Boston University Medical School in 1900 with degree of M. D., and afterward took postgraduate courses in New York and in Johns Hopkins University. She has been instructor in the Boston University Medical School in the chair of Histology and is now practicing as a specialist in nervous diseases, in Boston. They have children, Ruth, born 24 December 1903, and Eleanor born 22 December 1905.
POST OFFICE AND POSTMASTERS
The earliest post office in New Hampshire was established at Portsmouth previous to 1695, and it did business for the entire province. Durham was first included in a mail route in 1786, and Samuel Dearborn was the post rider, at a salary of twenty- four pounds per annum. The cost of sending a letter forty miles was six pence. After 1691 the rate was reduced to eight cents for distances under forty miles and increasing gradually to twenty cents for over three hundred miles, and twenty-five cents for over five hundred miles. Every letter composed of two pieces of paper paid double these rates, and so the rates went up in proportion to size and weight. Then letters were necessities or luxuries, and the art of compact writing was culti- vated.
The building of Pascataqua bridge and the New Hampshire Turnpike put Durham on the main line of travel, and then caravans a mile long, composed of loaded teams from Ports- mouth and from Durham wharves might be seen on their way to Concord. Thus a post office at Durham became almost a neces- sity, and Benjamin Thompson was appointed the first post- master, I October 1796. He was son of Judge Ebenezer Thomp- son and served for twenty years as clerk of the Court of Common Pleas in Strafford County. He was also a justice of the peace and a trustee of Durham Academy. The post office was then in a building near the location of the present office, in a store that was burned several years ago.
Mr. Thompson was succeeded, I October 1802, by Edward Wells, who served during the administration of President Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Wells was taxed in the Lubberland district in 1794. A deed from Benjamin Chesley to Joseph Coe, dated 21 July 1804, conveying land adjoining on which now stands the Town Hall, contains the following clause, "adjoining land in possession of Edward Wells as his store now stands," and here was the post office. Mr. Wells married Margery, daughter of Theophilus and Mary (Sullivan) Hardy, and taught school in Durham several terms between 1802 and 1812. His sons became noted men, Samuel being governor of Maine, Joseph
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lieutenant-governor of Illinois, John A., United States senator from New Hampshire and candidate for Governor.
Benjamin Underwood Lapish was the next postmaster, taking office I January 1808 and holding it only six months. The post office at this time was in the Alonzo Ransom house.
George Ffrost was the fourth postmaster in Durham. He was appointed 1 July 1808, and he or his son, George, held office till 5 January 1848. The office during this time was in a store on the north side of the road at Durham Falls bridge. Mr. Ffrost was a magistrate, merchant and extensive farmer, representing the town in the General Court in 1807.
William J. Chesley was the successor of George Ffrost and served till 25 July 1849, a little more than one year. He inherited his grandfather's, Benjamin Chesley's, homestead, living on the spot where now is the residence of the president of the college. He kept the post office in the southeast corner of his residence. He served as selectman, moderator, and delegate to the Con- stitutional Convention in 1850.
Mrs. Mary A. Page succeeded Mr. Chesley and held the office till 23 May 1853. She was Mary Ann Gilman and married Joseph W. Page, 30 November 1823. She kept the post office in the west front room of the house east of the house in which was the post office in 1902, and Mr. Page kept a store over the well between his dwelling house and the residence of Mrs. Hamil- ton Smith. He died 9 March 1834, aged 42. Mrs. Page lived in the house here mentioned till her death, in 1882.
Alfred D. Hoitt was appointed postmaster 23 May 1853, and held the office about four years, during the administration of President Franklin Pierce. Mr. Hoitt kept a general store in a building formerly standing opposite the old railroad station and now removed to Thompson Avenue. Here was the post office.
Mr. Hoitt removed to Charlestown, Mass., and became promi- nent in politics, serving as alderman and in the common council. He was a hay and grain merchant on Canal Street, Boston, for thirty years, removing to Arlington in 1873, where he served on the water board and board of assessors as chairman. He was a director of the Metropolitan Bank and vice-president of the Arlington National Bank. He served several times as dele- gate to Democratic national conventions and was superintendent of the Arlington branch of the Boston post office.
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Joseph W. Coe became postmaster 9 July 1857. He kept the office in the old brick store in the Town Hall building and in the Perkins store across the street. He was educated at Durham Academy and was engaged in mercantile pursuits for twenty years. He purchased the beautiful Steele residence, where he long resided. Being a Union man he identified himself with
JOSEPH WILLIAM COE
the Republican party in 1861. The income of the post office in his time was only about $200 annually. [See Genealogical Notes.]
Valentine Mathes, Jr., was appointed postmaster 12 August 1872, to succeed Mr. Coe. He served under the administration of President U. S. Grant, and kept the office in a store opposite
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the Town Hall building. He was also town clerk. He sold out his business to Jasper R. McDaniel, and removed to Dover.
Jasper R. McDaniel became postmaster 15 November 1880. He was the son of the late John R. McDaniel, Esq., and lived in the house afterward owned and occupied by Prof. Charles L. Parsons. The post office was continued in its previous quarters. Mr. McDaniel sold his business to Chauncey E. Hayes, and removed to Malden, Mass.
Alvin Jackson began his duties as postmaster 24 August 1885. He was born in Madbury in 1848, and for many years was en- gaged in business in the store belonging to Miss Louise S. Smith, residing in the tenement over the store. He served under both President Cleveland and President Harrison.
Chauncey E. Hayes was appointed postmaster 5 April 1889, and the office was again removed to the Town Hall building, in the room now used as the town safe. Mr. Hayes carried on a general store and was town treasurer, 1892-96. He is still living in Durham village and all four of his children have gradu- ated at New Hampshire College.
Alvin Jackson again came into office 17 June 1893 and served till I July 1897, when George D. Stevens was appointed post- master. The removal of the post office from the Town Hall under the hill to a point nearer the college occasioned some con- test. The store east of the Benjamin Thompson residence was. fitted up and again the post office was located here, in the same building where it was kept under the first postmaster, 1796-1802. Mr. Stevens occupied the tenement over the store for a dwelling. The post office remained here but a few months. On a Sunday afternoon, 12 December 1897, the Alvin Jackson store was discovered to be on fire. As this building was about two feet from the post office building, the contents of the latter were hurriedly removed to the grocery store of Walter S. Edgerly in Whitcher's block, where it remained a few days. The post office building and the Benjamin Thompson residence, at that time used as a girls' dormitory, were completely destroyed.
Within a few days the post office was removed to the annex of the store of Gorham H. Sawyer, opposite the Alvin Jackson store. March 20, 1899, it was removed to the Mary P. Thompson house, so called, owned by Hon. Lucien Thompson, who fitted up the west side of the house for the accommodation of the public.
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