USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 30
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Before that time, however, more than one of the mills had been blown up. On the evening of August 25, 1840, about a quarter past nine, the people for miles around were startled by an explo- sion of a large quantity of powder at the mills, which shook the very ground. Fortunately no one was injured, as all the workmen had gone to their homes. But it is said that the violence of the explosion was so great that it actually emptied the water out from the canal into the adjacent highway.
Another similar accident happened on the seventeenth of May, 1843, when a single building, containing about one hundred and fifty pounds of powder, was destroyed. One of the workmen who was in the building was literally blown to pieces, and fragments of his body were caught and hung in the branches of a neighbor- ing tree.
The powder manufacture ceased some time after 1850, and the old cotton-mill on the falls was burned and the dam carried away. In 1855 the property was purchased by William M. Hunnewell, who repaired the dam and moved a large mill building upon the
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premises, and fitted it up for the manufacture of hubs, spokes and shingles. This he carried on, besides a grist and saw-mill, until the year 1867, when he conveyed the whole to the Exeter Manufacturing Company, who are still the owners.
"THE FALLS OF THE SQUAMSCOT."
At the principal falls in the village of Exeter there are, and long have been, two dams, twenty or thirty rods apart, known as the upper and lower, with reference to their position on the stream. At the lower dam the river is divided by an island into two chan- nels. There were constructed on these falls, in the following order, first, Thomas Wilson's grist-mill ; then Edward Gilman's two saw-mills, one on the eastern and the other on the western side of the river ; then Humphrey Wilson's saw-mill, on the east- ern side ; and lastly, John Gilman's grist-mill on the western side of the island. Some of them changed ownership many times, and others were added in after years ; but it was long before a mill was built there for any different use. At length, however, mills for a variety of other purposes sprang up.
When Washington visited the place in 1789 he recorded in his diary that " in the town are considerable falls which supply sev- eral grist-mills, two oil-mills, a slitting-mill and snuff-mill."
The oil-mills were for expressing linseed oil from flaxseed ; the slitting-mills for cutting nail rods.
In 1795, Dr. Samuel Tenney, in his account of Exeter, stated that the dams over the falls "afforded seats for four double geared corn-mills, four saw-mills, two oil-mills and one fulling- mill."
From Phinehas Merrill's plan of the village in 1802 we learn that there were then, at the upper dam, Ebenezer Clifford's grist and saw-mills and York's grist and saw-mills on the western side ; and D. Clark's grist-mill and fulling-mill, S. Wiggin's oil-mill, and S. Folsom's nail factory on the eastern side. On the lower dam were S. Brooks's grist-mill on the western side, and S. Gilman's saw-mill and J. Smith's oil-mill on the eastern.
Merrill's Gazetteer informs us that in 1817 the fulling-mill, the two oil-mills, the saw and grist-mills were still there, and that a woollen factory had been added, which was on the west side of the upper dam. This was a building of considerable size, erected by Nicholas Gilman in 1803 to contain carding and other machinery.
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After his death it was owned for some years by Colonel Nathaniel Gilman, and used for the manufacture of satinet cloths, under the management of his sons Nicholas and Daniel. The old woollen-mill, as it was termed, was subsequently occupied by Cap- tain James Derby as a machine shop, and then by Woodbridge Odlin as a storehouse. Between 1845 and 1850 it was burned.
In the latter part of 1824 Dr. William Perry completed a mill situated on the east side of the upper dam, for the manufacture of starch from potatoes. He was induced to undertake this enter- prise by a series of experiments which convinced him that British gum, which was used by the cotton manufacturers as a sizing for their cloth, was nothing but charred starch. Moreover, it was imported and expensive. Dr. Perry succeeded in making starch which was highly commended, and furnished the cotton-mills in Lowell, at a lower price, with a perfect substitute for British gum. His mill was burned to the ground March 3, 1827, but he rebuilt it at once. Again it was burned in 1830, and the energetic doc- tor had it in operation again in three weeks' time. He used from thirty to forty thousand bushels of potatoes annually. At length, some enterprising and not too serupulous person contrived to dis- cover in a clandestine way the secrets of the business, which gave rise to competition and rendered it less remunerative, and after a time the doctor abandoned it, and the mill was turned to other uses.
EXETER MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
About the year 1827 the design was formed to utilize, for the purpose of cotton manufacture, the water power of the upper falls in the village of Exeter, which was then owned in fractions by several persons, and employed for various objects. Two com- panies were formed for the purpose. Benjamin Abbott, John T. Gilman, Nathaniel Gilman, John Rogers, William Perry, George Gardner and their associates were incorporated by the Legislature in June, 1827, as the Exeter Mill and Water Power Company ; and Nathaniel Gilman, John T. Gilman, Bradbury Cilley, Stephen Hanson, John Rogers, Nathaniel Gilman, 3d, Paine Wingate and their associates as the Exeter Manufacturing Company.
The former corporation purchased the control of the water power, and conveyed to the Manufacturing Company a sufficient part of it to operate five thousand spindles. The Manufacturing Company erected a brick mill of suitable capacity, and commenced the manufacture of cotton sheetings therein in the year 1830. The
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building agent was Stephen Hanson of Dover; the first president was John Houston, and the clerk and manufacturing agent was John Lowe, Jr.
The plan of two corporations being afterwards found cumbrous and unnecessary, the Mill and Water Power Company, by author- ity of an act of the Legislature, in 1861 conveyed all their prop- erty and franchises to the Manufacturing Company.
The Exeter Manufacturing Company have also acquired all the water rights at the lower dam, so that they are now the owners of the entire available power on the river between the Paper mill fall and tide water.
In the year 1876 that company erected a new mill, adjoining the old one, thereby substantially doubling their manufacturing capacity. By reason of the lowering of the river in the summer months, it became necessary, also, to provide the establishment with auxiliary steam power.
In December, 1887, the upper two stories of the old mill were consumed by fire, but the damage was repaired and new machinery put in and set in operation in about two months. The modern protections against fire, with which the building was provided, no doubt prevented a more extended conflagration.
The management of the company is efficient, and in accord with the improved methods of the times. The goods they manufacture have always maintained the highest standing in the market.
Since the year 1864 Hervey Kent has been the treasurer and agent.
The other officers of the company are Eben Dale, president ; Eben Dale, Hervey Kent, Thomas Appleton, John W. Farwell and William J. Dale, Jr., directors.
OTIIER WATER-MILLS.
Above the fall in the Little river, which has been mentioned, are two others within the township of Exeter. The one nearest the village was improved almost a century ago, in operating Barker's fulling-mill. Upon the other, further up the stream, near the line of Brentwood, has been erected a saw-mill. The water power of each is somewhat limited.
We have it upon the authority of a gentleman of veracity, some years since deceased, that there was, in former times, a saw-mill carried by the water of Kimming's brook. The brook is fed by springs, and flowed originally through a forest, so that it is easy
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to believe that its volume of water was once much greater than it now is.
Below the main falls of the river, and on the western side, more than half a century ago, was built a tide-mill for grinding bark for tanning purposes, by John Rogers and Joseph Furnald. The building is still standing, though it is a number of years since it was employed for its original use.
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CHAPTER XVII.
BUSINESS AND TRADE.
As has already been stated, the main reliance of the inhabitants, in the early times, for the means of support, was upon the growth of the forest. And lumbering continued to be their chief occupa- tion for upwards of a hundred years, and until the soil was well nigh stripped of its finest timber. It was a pernicious employ- ment for the moral and material welfare of the community. The traders indeed found it profitable. They bought the timber and paid for it in merchandise, then rafted the logs down the river, or had them cut up in the mills into small lumber, which they sent off in coasters, realizing large profits from either transaction. But the lumbermen themselves worked hard, fared hard, and were too apt to drink hard. Agriculture, which should have been their principal dependence, was neglected. The owners of farms that might have been made profitable, failed to raise products enough for their own subsistence, and lived upon Virginia corn and pork, which they bought from the traders. Their great ambition was to keep up their teams of working oxen to haul their lumber to mar- ket. At night they gathered in the numerous taverns and spent the hours in drinking and coarse merriment. They were poor in the midst of plenty, and destitute of all wholesome ambition.
It is not easy to estimate the quantity of timber which was car- ried away from the town while the process of deforesting was going on. Some vague idea of it may, perhaps, be formed from the dealings of a single person. In 1754 Colonel John Phillips, then a principal trader in Exeter, sold to Colonel Warner of Portsmouth, one hundred and twenty-five thousand four hundred twenty-seven feet of boards and lumber ; in 1757, nearly the same quantity, and in 1759, one hundred and fifty-nine thousand eight hundred eighty-six feet.
After the peace of 1763 things changed for the better. The cul- tivation of the soil was seen to be indispensable; the owners of
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lands turned to farming for their support, and thrift and prosper- ity gradually took the place of imprudence and poverty.
SIIIP-BUILDING.
From a very early period the various kinds of craft to navigate the river, the great highway, from the light canoe to the sturdy gundalow, were constructed in Exeter. From those it was an easy transition to build vessels for sailing along the coasts, and for ocean voyages. As early as 1651 Edward Gilman, Jr., had upon the stocks a vessel of about fifty tons burden. In the returns of the custom-house in Portsmouth for three months in the year 1692, two clearances from Exeter for Boston are found; one of the sloop "Endeavor" of Exeter, twenty tons burden, plantation built, having on board six thousand of pipe staves, and four hun- dred feet of pine planks ; the other of the sloop "Elizabeth" of Exeter, of twenty tons, Francis Lyford, commander, plantation built, having on board one thousand feet of boards, four thousand staves, fourteen thousand of treenails, fifteen hundred feet of pine planks and joist. Within the same period, the arrival of the same sloop "Endeavor" is noted, from Hampton, laden with hay. This shows one of the little rounds of the coasting trade. The vessel took to Boston manufactured lumber sold from Exeter ; then probably returned as far as Hampton with merchandise, the proceeds of the sale, which was there exchanged for hay, an abso- lute necessity to the lumbermen of Exeter, who, as yet, had not mowing land enough to subsist their hard worked teams through the long winters.
As time went on, the building of larger vessels became an im- portant and profitable industry in Exeter. The river was of suffi- cient depth to allow the passage of a ship of four or five hundred tons, and few so large were required for the commerce of the earlier part of the last century. Most of the voyages to the West Indies and across the Atlantic were made in vessels of not more than one-half that tonnage, and those were the routes most com- mon and most profitable to the New England merchants. Some of the vessels launched from the Exeter ship-yards remained the property of the builders, and were employed in commerce between that place and foreign or domestic ports, but more were contracted for by Portsmouth merchants, or sold in England or elsewhere.
So lucrative had this branch of manufactures become, that shortly after the middle of the last century several gentlemen
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of energy and means were attracted to the town to engage in it. Between 1750 and 1760, John Montgomery, a partner of Joshna Wentworth of Portsmouth, came to Exeter and set up in the busi- ness of ship-building and trade in lumber. A little later, Enoch Poor of Andover moved into town, and engaged in the same call- ing. Charles Rundlett and Zebulon Giddinge were also among the ship-builders of that day.
In 1761 the partnership of Gilman, Folsom & Gilman was formed, which dealt extensively in lumber and built many vessels. Their trade with the ports of the West Indies and with London was more considerable than that of any other concern in the town. The fifteen or twenty years before the Revolution were the golden period of ship-building in Exeter. As many as twenty-two ves- sels, great and small, it is said, have been upon the stocks there in a single season ; and from eight to ten was the usnal annual product.
The water side must have presented a busy scene in those times. From the lower falls down as far as meeting-house hill on the west side of the river, ship and lumber-yards stretched almost continuously between the stores and wharves. On the streets, a little way back, were blacksmith shops, where the roar of the forge and the ringing blows of the hammer were heard from morn- ing till night, making a fitting accompaniment to the sounds of the shipwright's adze and the calker's mallet which arose from the hulls propped up on the ways, waiting the hour when they should take their plunge into the element for which they were destined. Wages were good, and money was abundant. From the lumber- man who furnished the framework to the nice joiner who wronght the elaborate finish of the cabin, all concerned in the business en- joyed their increased shares of comforts and luxuries, and devoutly drank to the standing toast, - success to ship-building.
But the War of the Revolution put a stop to all this activity. Capitalists would not risk their money in building vessels which could not sail from our ports without the risk of capture by the king's armed cruisers, and the blacksmiths and ship carpenters who were thrown ont of employment enlisted in the military ser- vice or entered privateers. Still, a few vessels were kept in use. In 1776 Captain Eliphalet Ladd was permitted by the Legislature to make a voyage to two or three West India ports, on condition that he should bring back, if procurable, certain military stores for the use of the State.
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After the war was over, ship-building was resumed, but not to the same extent as before. Colonel James Hackett was employed in it, as were also Joseph Swasey, Gideon Lamson, Daniel Conner and others.
On the fourth of July, 1793, we are informed by a newspaper of the time, "the field pieces in the town fired salutes in honor of the day, and were answered from the Indiaman now on the stocks, being beautifully decorated with French and American colors." In his sketch of Exeter, in 1795, Dr. Samuel Tenney stated that four or five vessels of various burdens were then an- nually built in the town, and about the same number were em- ployed in foreign trade. Among the deaths recorded in an Exeter paper dated August 20, 1799, is that of Mr. Nathaniel Cotton, aged twenty-three, " on board schooner Amity of this port."
The ship-building interest gradually decreased in the town, after the coming in of the present century, though the manufacture of sail-cloth and twine and many blacksmiths' shops are remem- bered by our oldest citizens. One who recently deceased, used to describe a large vessel of probably five hundred tons that he saw on the stocks, the bowsprit of which projected beyond the fronts of the adjacent buildings, into Water street, between Spring and Centre streets. A vessel of that size had so great a draft of water that it had to be buoyed up by empty hogsheads in order to pass down the river at ordinary tide.
The second war with England, and the measures which preceded it, put a final period to the building of ships in Exeter. For a generation the occupation which had formerly been so prosperous fell entirely into disuse. But in the year 1836, a schooner of from one to two hundred tons was set upon the stocks on the river near meeting-honse hill, and launched, fully rigged. The enterprising builder was Nathan Moulton of Hampton Falls. She took in a cargo of potatoes, and sailed, it is believed, for Philadelphia. With that effort, it is feared that ship-building in Exeter breathed its last.
The river has long ceased to be the great thoroughfare for sup- plying the town with necessaries from abroad. The railroads, by the inducements of greater rapidity and cheapness, have appro- priated nine-tenths of that kind of transportation. But many heavy and bulky articles still come up the river from Porstmouth by the old conveyance of "Furnald's packet." The navigation of the channel had become so obstructed, some years ago, by rocks
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and shoals, that it was found necessary to petition Congress for an appropriation for its improvement. It was granted and wisely expended. Coasters now bring cargoes of coal directly to the wharves without transshipment. But the days of the old-time activity on the river will never be repeated, unless there should be a reversion, in the carriage of merchandise, to the earlier methods.
POTTERY.
The potter's art, one of the earliest inventions of man, must have been practised in Exeter near the middle of the last century. Nathaniel Libbee, who died about 1756, was described in a deed of the time as "potter." Jabez Dodge was established in busi- ness as a manufacturer of earthen-ware in 1794, and advertised for an apprentice in June, of that year, From that time to the present, the business has been maintained. Among those con- cerned in it were Samuel Dodge, William Philbrick, Oliver Osborne, Samuel Leavitt, Asa D. Lamson and F. H. Lamson. The ware produced was generally of the brown kind, for household use, although the present proprietor has an ambition to give a more artistic character to his work. Mr. Osborne for many years man- ufactured what were called portable furnaces of earthen-ware, which answered well the wants of the housewife, and had a large sale.
DUCK MANUFACTORY.
About the year 1790 Thomas Odiorne began in Exeter the man- ufacture of duck or sail cloth, the first in the State. His factory was on the present Green street, then called Carpenter's lane, probably from the fact that it had been largely occupied by ship carpenters. The only power employed was that of human muscles. The State Legislature encouraged the work by paying a bounty of seven shillings on each bolt of duck produced. Eight spinners of warp, and about the same number of weavers, were employed in the mill, and the weft was spun in private families. After a few years the establishment passed into the hands of four young men who prosecuted the business for a time, when it was discontinued.
SADDLERY AND CARRIAGES.
The manufacture of saddlery was early, and for a long time one of the principal and lucrative industries of the town. It was asserted, at the close of the last century, that a greater quantity
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of saddlery was made in Exeter than in any other place north of Philadelphia.
The first light carriage used in the town, according to tra- dition, was introduced by the Rev. Daniel Rogers, about the year 1754. It was of two wheels, and without a top, much like what, in later times, was termed a gig. It was then called a " chair."* Before that time Mr. Rogers always rode to his meetings on horse- back. A few years afterwards, Brigadier Peter Gilman brought into town the first fall-back chaise with a square top. Chaise, carriage and harness making became subsequently a very consid- erable business in Exeter, for a long period, extending from the latter part of the last century down to near the present time. It is still carried on, but not to the same extent as formerly.
Among the most considerable past and present manufacturers of carriages in the town may be mentioned J. Coffin Smith, James and William Odlin, John Lamson, Daniel Williams, George Smith, Woodbridge Odlin, Robert and Henry Shute, William and Joel Lane, Benjamin Brown, John Dodge, Daniel and James F. Melcher, Lewis Mitchell, Oliver W. Smith, Head and Jewell, William L. Gooch, E. G. and J. G. Robinson, J. C. Safford, J. M. Clark and A. J. Fogg.
HATS ; WOOL ; LEATIIER.
Hat making was an important trade in Exeter, a century ago, when it was conducted in comparatively small establishments and before the aid of steam had been called in to expedite the work and multiply the products. The family of Leavitts are said to have been engaged, for two or three generations, in this branch of industry. Connected with it, of course, was the traffic in furs and skins. This latter, in process of time, exceeded the other part of the business in amount and consequence. Theodore Moses and Abner Merrill were two prominent men of the town, who owed much of their success to this trade. John F. Moses, a son of the former, and Jeremiah L., Joseph and Benjamin L. Merrill, sons of the latter, became afterwards dealers in wool on a large scale, and accumulated much property from it. William Lane, Wood- bridge Odlin and Luke Julian were also very prosperous wool merchants. At the present time Henry C. Moses, son of John F. Moses, and George N. Julian, son of Luke Julian, resident in Exeter, are each engaged in similar business in Boston.
*Tradition errs here. The Rev. Nicholas Gilman owned a "chair " in 1737.
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Another employment which flourished for some time in the town, was that of tanning and currying leather. Academy street, long ago, received its unsavory alias of "Tan lane " from being the headquarters of this industry. Edmund Pearson is one of the earliest remembered tanners, and his son, Nathaniel, succeeded him. Jeremiah Dow, Jeremiah Robinson and Retire HI. Parker were among the principal men afterwards concerned in the busi- ness, in the same street. The decline of that interest closed one after another of the establishments, and the burning of John F. Moses's morocco factory a few years since removed the last vestige of the trade, once so actively and profitably pursned in that locality.
The manufacture of boots and shoes for a while occupied a good number of hands in Exeter. Stephen L. Gordon, Jeremiah L. Robinson and others met with variable degrees of success in the business, but it never took a very firm root in the town, in those days. Of late it has been revived, with vastly improved facilities and machinery. The Exeter Boot and Shoe Company have added within a few years a new and productive industry to the town, and are reaping an assured success from their enterprise.
James Derby, an energetic machinist, started several undertak- ings in Exeter, about half a century since, none of which, how- ever, proved permanent. At one time he was concerned with others in book publishing. They proposed to issue the Bible with Scott's commentaries, in six or eight large volumes ; but having completed the New Testament in two volumes, they went no farther. He set in operation machine works, at two several times, the last between 1840 and 1850, in the brick shops on Sonth street. Several other citizens were interested with him, there, in the manufacture of steam and gas pipes, the first estab- lishment for the purpose in New England, as was alleged. It was subsequently disposed of to J. B. Richardson and S. T. San- born. Some wooden buildings used in the fabrication of the pipe having been destroyed by fire, the proprietors transferred the busi- ness to Boston.
The brick machine shop was then occupied for a time as a brewery, in which J. M. Lovering and I. S. Brown were inter- ested, but the undertaking proved unsuccessful. It has been used since that time for the building of carriages.
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