USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 29
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That it might be distinctly understood that no person should encroach upon the privileges already ceded to Mr. Gilman, it was ordered by the town, June 10, 1650, "that there shall not be liberty granted unto any man to set up any saw-mill at Exeter falls upon the town's ground to hinder Edward Gilman of his former grant of his two saw-mills at the falls, or timber for any other saw-mills near to the said falls."
It appears that another saw-mill was about this time erected on the east side of the river, probably at the foot of the falls nearest tide water, and on land of Humphrey Wilson. This was owned in common by Wilson, James Wall and the Rev. Samuel Dudley. And on the second of January, 1650-1, it was agreed between them and the town that the former two should pay for the Inmber two shillings per thousand for the oak and pine boards and plank they should take off the commons and saw ; but Mr. Dudley was to " go free without payment for his third."
This exemption was, of course, made in consideration of the ministerial office and services of Mr. Dudley, but it did not pass
* This man's name was often written Lissen or Leeson, as It was probably pronounced. It is believed that he came to Exeter from Salem, Massachusetts, where his name was spelt as in the text.
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unchallenged. Henry Roby and John Gilman dissented from the vote. No doubt they believed that Mr. Dudley was sufficiently compensated by the provision already made for him by the town. Perhaps, too, they discerned, what the records plainly indicate to us, that Mr. Dudley was a keen man of business, and abundantly capable of taking care of himself without having any distinctions made in his favor. But it was a courageous thing, in those days, when the ecclesiastical office was hedged about with so much dig- ยท nity and authority, for a layman to put his name on record in opposition to a motion for the benefit of his minister.
The fathers of Exeter, however, were never timid or backward in the expression of their opinions, and rarely withheld them out of deference to the views of those who differed from them.
For more than a century the books of the town show the names of dissentients from the majority, oftentimes only one or two in number, on most of the vexed questions of municipal policy.
PICKPOCKET FALLS GRANTED.
Another privilege for a saw-mill was given by the town, on April 20, 1652, to the Rev. Samuel Dudley and John Legat and their heirs and assigns forever, at the second or third fall above' the town on the fresh river, as they might prefer, with the right to take timber for their mill from the commons there, upon the terms of paying the town five pounds a year so long as the mill should be employed in sawing, and of supplying the inhabitants for their own use boards at three shillings a hundred, if taken from the mill. They chose what in all probability was then known as the second fall above the town, embracing the present Paper mill fall and Pickpocket fall. These are near together, and not being then defined by dams, might well enough have been counted as one fall. The name of Pickpocket was very early given to the mills there built. Its origin is uncertain. It is probably a corruption of the designation given by the Indians to the locality ; though there are not wanting those who derive it from the supposed unprofitable- ness of some of the business undertakings there.
On May 10, 1652, an agreement was proposed between the town and Edward Gilman, Jr., that he and his assigns should thence- forth pay to the town for the use of what timber his two saw-mills should cut, ten pounds a year, in lieu of half a hundred of boards on every two thousand sawn, as was originally stipulated. Whether it was absolutely concluded, the record fails to state.
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On the same day Edward Gilman, Sr., Edward Gilman, Jr., Edward Colcord and Humphrey Wilson had granted to them by the town liberty to set up a saw-mill at the lower falls in Lamprey river by the bridge, and to take timber on the common land there for their mill, on the payment of five pounds a year to the town, after the mill should be built. This site was within the limits of the present town of Newmarket.
On the same tenth of May, 1652, Thomas King had from the town liberty for a saw-mill on the great fresh river below the grant to Mr. Dudley and John Legat at the foot of the fall, and timber for the same on the commons, he and his assigns paying to the town five pounds a year therefor, and furnishing boards for the town's use, at three shillings a hundred. This was the first fall above the town, and has been known from that time to the present as King's fall, from the original grantee.
On the same day Thomas Pettit, Nicholas Listen, Thomas Cornish, John Warren and Francis Swain received from the town a privilege for a saw-mill at Lamprey river "on the next great fall above the fall that some of them have already taken posses- sion of, paying five pounds a year for the privilege, beginning presently after next Michaelmas." This fall was in the present town of Newmarket.
GRANT OF CRAWLEY'S FALLS.
On May 20, 1652, the town granted to Robert Seward and Thomas Crawley liberty to erect a saw-mill on the great fresh river on the next fall above Mr. Dudley's and Mr. Legat's (pro- vided it does not prejudice their or other former grants) and timber on the commons there for it, they to pay the town five pounds a year therefor. This site, which is now in the town of Brentwood, has never lost its name of "Crawley's falls," given it from that of the second of the original grantees.
In the multiplicity of these grants it was obviously necessary that the town's interest should not be neglected, and on the eighth of July, 1652, the inhabitants appointed a committee consisting of Edward Colcord, John Legat and Thomas Biggs to call to account the owners of saw-mills and to make demand for such boards or plank as were due to the town, and upon non-payment to take a legal course for the recovery of the same ; and on Feb- ruary 15, 1653-4, their anthority was extended to " the present year coming." The duties of this committee were so congenial to
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the inclination of its chairman, that we cannot help thinking that he must have been instrumental in its appointment. To be "in the law " was the normal condition of Edward Colcord.
On November 6, 1653, the town conferred upon Edward Hilton " in regard that he had been at charge in setting up a saw-mill, to enjoy for himself and his heirs forever, a quarter of a mile below his mill with the land and timber belonging thereunto, and also above his mill a mile and a quarter with the land and timber belonging thereunto. This land and timber is to lie square ; only on this side of Paseassic river to come about a stone's cast." The mill referred to is supposed to have been on the Pascassic, and together with the land granted, to have been within the present town of South Newmarket.
In 1653, Edward Gilman, Jr., the principal mill owner of the town, made a voyage to England to procure improved mill gearing, and never returned, having been lost at sea on his passage. His younger brother, John Gilman, succeeded him in his business and in a great part of his property, and was quite competent to fill his place. He survived Edward more than fifty years, and became one of the most useful and distinguished citizens of the place.
Lumbering being then the chief money producing industry in the town, the mill owners were very naturally called upon to pay their dues in cash towards the support of the minister. At a town meeting held April 28, 1656, it was agreed that "for maintaining the public ordinances the saw-mills belonging to the town should be rated as follows : the old mill upon the fall, seven pounds ; Humphrey [Wilson's ] mill at seven pounds ; the new mill of John Gilman at six pounds ; Mr. Hilton's mill at five pounds." The natural inference from this is that the other mill sites which had been granted, were not yet profitably occupied. It was also pro- vided that " when the ministry faileth, the old covenant should be in force : to wit, from the old and the new mill, half a hundred upon two thousand; and from the Humphrey [Wilson] mill, eighteen penee upon a thousand, and plank, two shillings upon a thousand."
On May 11, 1657, the town make a grant to Edward Hilton, Jr., of fifty acres of pine swamp adjoining his father's lot, "for his sole use for the mill that he intends to set up on the east side opposite the new mill, upon the falls of Exeter, with liberty to set up said mill, for which he is to pay five pounds annually ; upon the proviso that he is not to prejudice the new mill any way in
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respect of water. If John Gilman and the rest be willing that he should fell timber upon the common, then this grant is to be relin- quished ; but in case he keeps this grant, he is to make no use of timber upon the common."
On June 8, 1657, it was ordered "that all the pines upon the commons from this time forward shall be reserved for the use of the saw-mills already set up, or that have been granted and shall be set up, except that there is liberty for masts, fence building and canoes ; and if, at any time, there shall be any particular grants of lands made to any, yet the owners of saw-mills shall have liberty to carry off the pine timber, except before excepted."
On the twenty-fifth of April, 1664, the town directed that Cap- tain John Clark's mill should pay "five pounds annually to the publie ministry, though there be something dubious within the grant, at such times that it shall not be improved." The meaning of the latter expressions quoted seems to be itself " something dubious." The mill referred to must have been that on Little river, afterwards known as Gordon's, and still later as Giddings's and Rowland's. The site was originally granted, April 22, 1649, to the Drakes, Roby and Thomas King, the last of whom, on June 28, 1654, "resigned up his grant of a saw-mill formerly granted to him," which was evidently this one, because he continued to hold and enjoy the other privilege given him on the great river.
In 1653 Edward Gilman, Jr., being on the eve of sailing for Europe, conveyed to his brother Moses one-fourth of a saw-mill " now a building on little fresh river, on the western side thereof," - evidently the mill in question. Apparently, he must have pur- chased a share of the rights of the original grantees. Captain John Clark, who was an old lumberman with whom both the Gil- mans had previously had dealings, probably acquired the mill by purchase afterwards. It is repeatedly referred to in the later records of the town as Captain or Major Clark's mill.
Striet faith appears to have been kept by the town with the owners of mills erected in conformity with its grants. In the numerous donations of land to individuals, subsequently made within the territory whose trees were assigned to the mills, a pro- viso was always inserted that the pine timber, except masts, etc., should not pass with the soil because it was appurtenant to the mills.
The original grist-mill of Thomas, afterwards of Humphrey Wilson, served for a number of years to grind all the grain of the
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inhabitants, but at length John Gilman thought it expedient to build another at the main falls. This he probably did by the desire of the inhabitants.
On the twenty-fifth of October, 1670, Nicholas Listen and John Robinson were chosen by the town to go and forewarn Humphrey Wilson not to set his dam over the highway upon the upland near to John Gilman's grist-mill.
What reply Humphrey Wilson made to this "forewarning" is not known, but, perhaps, not a perfectly satisfactory one, for on the very next day the town voted, "that whereas there had been formerly, to their understanding, a privilege of water, and a liberty of a creek granted to Humphrey Wilson upon condition that he should supply the town's use in respect of grinding their corn, and the town since finding, especially of late, by experience, to their great loss and damage, that they have not been answered to their expectation, the town do hereby grant to John Gilman the privi- lege of the water, so that the saw-mills or any other mill or mills or any other ways by stopping of gates that may hinder his grist- mill, shall be at liberty for the use of the grist-mill to answer the town for grinding their corn ; upon which consideration the said John Gilman do promise upon all occasions to supply the town in grinding their corn, except more than ordinary providence hinder."
On March 3, 1673, it was ordered " that those who have felled any pine trees have liberty to take them away within a year ; after which any of those to whom mills appertain, may take them away for the use of their mills ; but hereafter, when those who fell pine trees shall not carry them away within three months, they shall be forfeited to any one who takes them away for the use of the owner of one of the mills."
It was also ordered "that whoever shall fell any pine tree (except for canoes, masts [or ] building), and shall not improve it and bring it to the use of the mills to which the privilege of the timber is granted, for every tree so felled shall forfeit ten shillings to the town."
The principal mill sites having been thus disposed of, the town had little occasion to take action concerning them afterwards, except in the two instances to be mentioned.
On September 9, 1701, the town granted " to Robert Coffin, his heirs and assigns, all the right the town hath or had in Lowd's falls at Lamprey river, with all the privileges of the flats twenty rods below said falls, said Coffin not to hinder any transportation
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of timber down said river ;" in consideration whereof said Coffin bound himself to pay five pounds yearly to the town or ministry by way of rate, so long as any mill should stand upon said fall on the side next to Exeter. This site was in the present town of Newmarket.
And on the first Monday of April, 1709, the town voted to give "all the right the town have in the stream and island to Captain John Gilman, where the said Gilman's corn-mill now stands, with privilege for a bridge to go on to the island,; and the abovesaid John Gilman doth oblige himself to grind the inhabitants' corn when wanted, for two quarts in every bushel."
None of the several mill sites mentioned were improved, so far as has been learned, for any other purposes than for grinding grain and sawing lumber, until the needs of the country during and subsequent to the War of the Revolution impelled men to employ the water power in the manufacture of other indispensable articles.
PICKPOCKET.
The mill site and privilege ceded by the town in 1652 to the Rev. Samuel Dudley and John Legat, embraced, as has already been explained, the fall which has from very early times borne the above unprepossessing name. The first use to which it was put was to drive a saw-mill, and probably it has never since been without one, or more. The Pickpocket mill was a well known locality, both to white men and to Indians. The latter were only too intimately acquainted with it, for in their raids upon the fron- tier settlements they visited it repeatedly in pursuit of victims or captives.
When Brentwood was set off from Exeter in 1742 the main river was made the boundary between the two towns, for the dis- tance of about half a mile. The Pickpocket fall was in that part of the river, so that one-half of it belonged in each town. There have been mills there on each side of the river, since ; but the chief manufactories have been on the Brentwood side.
One of the earliest attempts in this part of the country to manu- facture cotton cloth was initiated there, by a company composed mostly of inhabitants of Exeter. They were incorporated by act of the Legislature of the State in 1809, under the name of the Exeter Cotton Manufacturing Company.
They erected a factory containing eight thousand spindles, and for a time employed Samuel Chamberlain as their agent. He had
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a store at the main village, in which he offered for sale, in any quantity, " yarn and cotton bats," the products of the mill. Joseph Hyde then acted as the resident superintendent. Of course the business was conducted on a small scale, and in a primitive fashion, and probably brought little profit to the original investors, but the company continued to prosecute it for twenty years, and about 1820 a card factory was added to the original works, and an iron furnace for casting machinery.
Not far from the year 1830 Captain Nathaniel Gilman, Jr., pur- chased the control of the property, and continued the manufacture, with John Rogers as agent. In 1840 he sold it to John Perkins, and a few years later the factory met the fate to which all such establishments are liable, and was consumed by fire.
It was afterwards rebuilt, and adapted to the manufacture of paper. Willard Russell, Jacob Colcord, Joshua Getchell, and a Boston stock company of which Isaac Bradford was agent, suc- cessively occupied it, for the latter use.
The manufacture of wooden boxes, in connection with a saw- mill, is carried on there, at the present time.
THE PAPER-MILLS.
The fall in the Exeter river next above King's fall has for more than a century past been improved, and most of the time as the site of paper-mills, as well as of a grist-mill.
The first paper-mill was begun in 1777 or soon after, by Richard Jordan, a practical manufacturer, who came from Milton, Massa- chusetts. He purchased this site and water power for the pur- pose, from Joseph Leavitt, 3d, and others. His first experiments were seemingly not entirely successful, but we learn from a newspaper of the time that in September, 1785, the mill had under- gone a thorough repair and was nearly finished. In 1787 Jordan sold the paper-mill, power and implements to Eliphalet Hale, who in 1795 conveyed them to William Hale. They both continued the production of paper, the latter until after the year 1806; and the property next passed into the hands of Stephen or Gideon Lamson who in 1813 conveyed it to Enoch Wiswall and John Hunting of Watertown, Massachusetts. They retained it but a couple of years, and in 1815 transferred it to Thomas Wiswall of Newton, Massachusetts. He removed to Exeter, and took into partnership Isaac Flagg, and the firm of Wiswall and Flagg con- tinued the manufacture of paper there with success, until the death
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of the senior partner in 1836. Three years before, in February, 1833, the mill had been burned, but was rebuilt the same season, with improved apparatus. After the decease of Thomas Wiswall, Mr. Flagg took one of his heirs, Otis Wiswall, into partnership, and they continued the manufacture under the firm of Flagg and Wiswall. Still later, the three sons of Mr. Flagg, Isaac, Jr., Joseph and Samuel C. Flagg, succeeded to the property, and prose- cuted the business until the year 1870, when the mill was again reduced to ashes, and was not replaced. The privilege is now owned by the Hon. Nathaniel Gordon.
THE POWDER-MILLS.
Every reader of history will recall the dismay of Washington when he discovered, not long after he assumed the command of the American army at Cambridge in 1775, their destitute condi- tion in the all important article of gun-powder ; as well as the sagacity with which he concealed the appalling fact, and reached out, far and near, to supply the deficiency. But still, the scarcity and need of powder in the earlier stage of the war was apparent to all, and stimulated patriotic ingenuity to attempt its manufact- ure. It was undertaken for the first time in New Hampshire, in Exeter. Colonel Samuel Hobart, a native of Groton, Massachu- setts, and a former resident of Hollis, had served as paymaster to the New Hampshire troops about Boston in 1775, and removed in 1776 to Exeter, and there, probably with the assistance of Colonel Samuel Folsom, who was allowed to borrow of the State on his bond three hundred pounds for the purpose, purchased from Samuel Quimby the mills and water privilege at King's falls, and constructed a powder-mill. It was a difficult undertaking, but Hobart was a man not easily discouraged, and soon succeeded in putting his ma- chinery into good working order. The mill commenced operations about the middle of August, 1776. The following description of it appeared in a contemporary newspaper under date of August 24 :
A powder-mill erected in this town by Colonel Samuel Hobart, who, for his expedition, merits thanks from the public, having employed a number of the best hands in the country, and is now agoing, and is an improvement upon the former plans of powder- mills ; said to be preferable to those before built in New England. Forty-four pestles are carried by one shaft, standing in rows on each side thereof. Besides the mill, within the aforesaid time, has been completed a building for pulverizing and purifying the
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saltpetre for one part, and on the other, a room for drying the powder. All the works have been contrived and carried on under the inspection of the ingenions Mr. C., late of Boston, and is capable of manufacturing 2400 weight of powder in a week. The Committee of Safety sitting in this town. in company with several other gentlemen, visited the powder-mill on Thursday evening, when it was going in all its parts, performed by water, viz., pounding, grinding, sifting and graining. They were well pleased therewith, fired a number of muskets and pistols charged with the powder taken from the drying room, and judged it in every respect equal to any imported from Europe.
The manufacture of powder was continned by Colonel Hobart for some time, perhaps throughout the war. In 1777 he had a contract with the State to supply the troops therewith. It is mar- vellous that with the poor materials at command the manufacture was so successful. There was no supply of sulphur or saltpetre in the country, and the State encouraged their production by of- fering prices in the nature of bounties, for each, of domestic man- ufacture. The saltpetre was largely procured by leaching the soil taken from beneath old barns and stables ; - to such straits were our fathers reduced to obtain the means to defend their liberties.
After the war was over, Colonel Hobart put his mills to a dif- ferent use. The old method of manufacturing " wrought" nails was by shaping and heading each one separately by hand without the aid of machinery. This was a slow and laborious process, and necessarily very expensive. So valuable were the products, as appears by the inventory of the property of a deceased person, about half a century earlier, that the stock of nails belonging to his estate was actually counted, and the number of them set down at nine hundred and one. The estate was divided amicably among several heirs, and some wonder has been expressed how they dis- posed of the odd nail.
The art of cutting or slitting iron into nail rods by machinery had recently been invented, and Colonel Hobart fitted his mills for that work. We learn from the Freeman's Oracle of Septem- ber 27, 1785, that "the furnace and slitting-mill some time past undertaken by Colonel Hobart at King's falls, in this town, were last week completed, and visited by the judges of the Supe- rior Conrt then sitting."
Ten years after this Colonel Hobart sold his land, mills and water rights, including the iron works or forge at King's falls, to Joshua Barstow, who continued to occupy the chief part of them
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for the same purposes, it is believed, until his death about 1824.
In 1814 Barstow conveyed a small part of the land with one- fourth of the water power to Charles C. Barstow, gunsmith, who set up the manufacture of small fire-arms there, to a limited ex- tent. This, it is presumed, lasted but a few years. After Joshua Barstow's decease the property was occupied by Benjamin Hoit. It then included a large wooden mill, which is said to have been first designed for the manufacture of cotton cloth. Hoit used it for the production of coarse yarns and cotton batting. From his possession the establishment passed into that of Nathaniel Gor- don, and subsequently, about 1830, was purchased by Benjamin R. Perkins. The same kind of manufactures were kept up by both the last named proprietors.
About 1838 Mr. Perkins sold the property to Oliver M. Whipple of Lowell, Massachusetts. He established powder-mills upon it, under an act of incorporation, by the name of the King's Mills Powder Company. Alvin White was the superintendent of the works, and at a later period, James F. Huntington. The latter was a man of wonderful coolness and daring. On one occasion the roof of one of the buildings, in which was stored a large quantity of powder, took fire. Ninety-nine men in a hundred would have left it to its fate, but Huntington braved the terrible risk, mounted the roof and poured on water until he extinguished the flames.
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