USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 31
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The Exeter Machine Works is the name of a company which has existed in the town for almost a generation. Its buildings,
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which also include an iron foundry, are situated near the railroad station. The chief manufactures are steam engines, sectional boilers, shafting, machinery, etc., and a specialty is made of steam heating apparatus. The work of the company is widely and favorably known. The present officers are, Charles U. Bell, president ; William Burlingame, treasurer; C. U. Bell, A. G. Dewey, W. Burlingame and J. K. Burlingame, directors.
The Brass Works of E. Folsom & Co. have been in operation about twenty years. The firm manufacture brass and iron fittings, pipes and the like, for steam, water and gas. Their buildings are near those of the Machine Works, and their business has always been thoroughly well conducted. The partners are Eben Folsom, Josiah J. Folsom and J. F. Wiggin.
The Exeter Gas Light Company, mentioned in a former chap- ter, was chartered in 1854. Their works are situated at the corner of Green and Water streets. The officers are F. H. Odiorne, president, Austin M. Copp, treasurer, and Arthur F. Cooper, superintendent.
The Exeter Water Works have their reservoirs and pumping apparatus on Portsmouth avenue, and a stand pipe on Prospect hill. The officers are Edwin G. Eastman, president, Elbert Wheeler, treasurer, and Charles H. Johnson, collector.
There are other companies and business establishments in the town, worthy of mention, as the Rockingham Machine Company, turning ont machines for burnishing the heels of boots and shoes, the Tile Drain Manufactory of George W. Wiggin, and the Exeter Coal Company, of which George W. Clark is agent. It is not the purpose of this work, however, to furnish a business guide or directory.
THE EARLIER MERCHANTS.
Exeter, being at the head of tide water and of navigation, se- cured early an important trade with the towns farther inland. This it has never entirely lost, though the springing up of new centres of business and the substitution of improved modes of transportation of merchandise, have tempted the more distant places to carry their traffic elsewhere.
Several of the early merchants have been named in the account of ship-building. Indeed, every one engaged in that business dealt also in the commodities which his workmen required, and furnished them with necessaries as part of their wages.
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In the earlier days, not far from the middle of the last century, Colonel Daniel Gilman, Samuel Gilman, Zebulon Giddinge, Dr. John Giddinge and John Phillips were among the other principal merchants ; then followed William Elliot, Peter and Eliphalet Coffin, John Emery, Joseph Lamson, Jr., and Ward C. Dean. Eliphalet Ladd began to trade about the beginning of the Revolu- tion, and was enterprising and very snecessful.
At a later date, John T. Gilman, Joseph S. Gilman, Gilman and Moses, Gideon Lamson and Simon Wiggin were among the leading men in business, and still later, John Gardner, Daniel Ranlet, Elliot and James, Josiah Gilman Smith, Charles Conner, Nathaniel Weeks, S. B. Stevens, William H. Clark, Thomas Lovering, Thomas Conner, and Joseph T. Porter of the firm of Porter and Thyng.
These, of course, are but a few, and perhaps not all the most important, of the many who have been engaged in mercantile pur- suits in the town. The list, however, includes persons whose business lives extend over the period of more than a century, and down to a date within the memory of the present generation. It would be impracticable to attempt more, here.
One business house is exceptional in its hereditary character. Ward Clark Dean commenced trade on Water street about the year 1770. His son-in-law, John Gardner, entered his store as his clerk soon after the year 1800, and continned with him until Mr. Dean retired in 1823. Mr. Gardner then succeeded him in the business with his son, George Gardner, as his partner ; George Gardner continued the business in 1848, with John P. P. Kelly as his partner, until 1857, when John E. Gardner, the great-grandson of the founder of the business, became partner of Mr. Kelly, and has so remained up to this time.
It ought also to be remembered, to the credit of our fathers, that women were not debarred, in the olden time, from their nat- ural right to engage in merchandise. The widow of the Rev. Nicholas Gilman, near the middle of the last century, kept a shop, as well as managed a considerable landed estate ; and a daughter of Ward Clark Dean, a generation or more later, was a rival of her father in trade, and is said to have been by no means nnsuc- cessful in enticing away his customers.
BANKS.
The old Exeter Bank was chartered in 1803. Before that time money accommodations were probably obtainable by Exeter people
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from a bank in Portsmouth, of which Oliver Peabody, and after- wards John T. Gilman, was the president.
The Exeter Bank had originally a capital of two hundred thou- sand dollars. Jeremiah Smith was the president, and Nathaniel Rogers the first cashier. Afterwards, John Rogers succeeded to the post of cashier ; and about 1830 Samnel D. Bell, for about five years ; and then Timothy Farrar, who continued in it until the charter of the bank expired by limitation ; it having been re- newed in 1824 for the term of twenty years.
The Exeter Bank was kept in a building of one story at the corner of Centre and Water streets, afterwards occupied for a number of years by the Atlantic and Rockingham Fire Insurance Companies. The bank had quite a history. In its earlier days the cashier had occasion once to be absent from his post, and re- quested Mr. L., one of the directors, to take his place. That gentleman, very obligingly consented, though entirely inexpe- rienced in the duties. This was before the time when country banks had arrangements with banks in the city to redeem their circulation, and when they were liable to be called upon at any time to pay a considerable amount of their own bills in other money. So the cashier left in the drawer a sufficient sum to meet such a demand.
While the temporary cashier was in control, a person entered the bank and presented a draft for two hundred dollars and up- wards for payment, and received for it four bills, supposed by Mr. L. to be for fifty dollars, but in reality for five hundred dollars each, and the balance in smaller currency. The receiver took away the money, but soon after returned and asked Mr. L. if the bank rectified mistakes. "No, sir," said the quasi cashier, " after a man has taken his money and gone ont, no mistakes are cor- rected." The customer departed.
When the cashier returned home and reckoned up the day's business, he found his cash eighteen hundred dollars short. He interrogated his substitute, who told him about the transaction mentioned. " Where did you get the fifty dollar bills from?" in- quired the cashier. The partition was pointed out. " Those," said the cashier, "are bills for five hundred dollars." The other was astounded, and said he did not know that there were any of that denomination.
The bank called upon the person who had thus been overpaid, to refund the money. But he refused, probably salving his con-
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science with the answer made him at the time, that "no mistakes were corrected." The bank brought a suit against him to compel restoration. The matter was bitterly contested, for the defendant had influential friends. In the end the bank recovered back the amount of the overpayment. But a little episode at the trial is worth relating. The jury were sent out into their room to delib- erate upon the case just at nightfall. It was found that there was a wide difference of opinion among them. So they fell to argning the matter. One of their number, a small tradesman, who was used to going to bed early, grew drowsy, and quietly lay down upon a bench in a dark corner and went to sleep. His absence was not noticed by the others, and they continued to discuss the questions in the case till well towards morning. The arguments advanced by those who favored the defendant were one by one overthrown and abandoned, and at length it appeared that there was no one who would not acquiesce in a verdict for the bank. A ballot was then taken, when it appeared that only eleven had voted. The sleeper was roused. The foreman explained the question to him. "Well," said he, "I am in favor of giving the defendant a verdict." The foreman answered, that there were others of the jury who were at first of the same opinion, but after fully consid- ering the case they had one after another changed their minds, and were now all in favor of the plaintiff. "Well," said the accom- modating juror, " if you gentlemen have been discussing this matter all night, and have all agreed for the plaintiff, you may put me down for the plaintiff too."
The old Exeter Bank was doubtless extremely well managed, for its time. But a modern cracksman would laugh to scorn its pro- tections against plunder. Its locks were primitive, with keys that were large enough for weapons of offence. Now-a-days they would not stand an hour against a burglar. But in 1828 the art of breaking banks was in its infancy. And when a gang of thieves from Rhode Island robbed the Exeter Bank, as they did in that year, they found it necessary to take at least two or three weeks to make the necessary preparations. It is a wonder that their purpose was not discovered. They had one or two huts or haunts in the neighboring woods where they remained and prepared their false keys by day, and at night came into the village and tested their work, in the locks of the bank. At length they succeeded in entering the stone vault, and took therefrom about thirty thou- sand dollars in bills, and some hard money, with which they made
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off. The story of the detection of the guilty parties is a long one, and much of the ingenuity displayed in the process, does not appear in the published report of the trial. A quantity of the money was found hidden under a stone wall. The stolen bills that they passed were a chief means of fastening the crime upon the robbers ; and it is said that some incrusted silver coin which Ebenezer Clifford had brought up in his diving-bell from a wrecked ship at the bottom of the ocean, and deposited in the bank, fur- nished another clue. It is sufficient to say that the depredators were discovered, and brought to trial, and after a full hearing sentenced to imprisonment, and the greater part of the stolen property was recovered.
The Exeter Savings Bank was incorporated in 1828, and man- aged in connection with the Exeter Bank. John Houston was the first president and Samuel D. Bell, treasurer. Afterwards William Perry was chosen president, and Timothy Farrar, treasurer. The business of the Savings Bank was in 1842 wound up and closed, but in 1851 it was revived, and carried on in the building of the Granite State Bank. Woodbridge Odlin was chosen president and Samuel H. Stevens, treasurer, who was afterwards succeeded by N. Appleton Shute. Upon the flight of the latter in 1873, after having embezzled a great part of the funds, the Savings Bank went into the hands of a receiver, and the residue of its assets were distributed ratably among the depositors.
The second bank of discount in the town was incorporated in 1830, and styled the Granite Bank. Its capital was two hundred thousand dollars. John Harvey was the president until about 1844, when James Bell was chosen. James Burley was the cashier. It continued in business until 1851 and was then re- chartered under the name of the Granite State Bank, and the capital was reduced one-half. Moses Sanborn was then made president, and Samuel II. Stevens, cashier. Joseph T. Gilman afterwards became president, and N. Appleton Shute, cashier. After Mr. Gilman's death in 1862, Abner Merrill was elected president, and held the office until 1877, the bank in the mean- time having been organized under the national laws. Mr. Merrill was succeeded in the office of president by his three sons, in turn, Jeremiah L. Merrill, Benjamin L. Merrill and Charles A. Merrill. In January, 1873, the cashier, N. Appleton Shute, became a defaulter to a large amount and fled the country. The deficit was made up by the stockholders and the bank kept on, Warren F. Putnam being chosen cashier.
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After the decease of Dr. Charles A. Merrill, Benjamin F. Folsom was chosen president, and subsequently Charles E. Bying- ton was elected cashier in place of W. F. Putnam. They still hold their offices. The directors of the Granite State National Bank are Benjamin F. Folsom, Eben Folsom, John E. Gardner, Warren F. Putnam and Amos C. Chase ; and there is one vacaney.
In 1868 the Union Five Cents Savings Bank was incorporated, and opened with Joshua Getchell as president and Joseph S. Parsons as treasurer. The successive presidents since have been William B. Morrill, Charles Burley, William P. Moulton and W. H. C. Follansby ; the treasurers, Frank P. Cram and Sarah C. Clark.
After the Exeter Savings Bank went into the receiver's hands in 1873, the Squamseot Savings Bank was incorporated. Its first president was Obadiah Duston, who was followed by Joseph Janvrin. George B. Webster is now the president, Francis Hilliard, treasurer, and William HI. Belknap, cashier.
INSURANCE COMPANIES.
Fifty years ago, when mutual insurance was in vogue, Exeter was quite a centre for that business. In 1832 was incorporated the Rockingham Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of which Na- thaniel Gilman, Jr., was made president, John T. Burnham, see- retary, and James Burley, treasurer. In 1837 John Harvey was chosen president, and in 1838, Timothy Farrar. In 1839 there was a change of directors, attended with some feeling, but the president and seeretary remained in office, with John Sullivan as treasurer. In 1843 James Burley was elected president, Isaac L. Folsom, secretary, and Jeremiah Dearborn, treasurer. This board of officers continued till about 1852, when Moses Sanborn became president, William P. Moulton, secretary, and John Tyrrell, treasurer. Five years afterwards, John S. Wells was chosen to the presidency, and Joseph C. Ililliard to the treasurership, Wil- liam P. Moulton remaining secretary. The company had been very successful, and issued policies on a large amount of property.
The Atlantic Mutual Fire Insurance Company was chartered in 1847. Its business must have been limited prior to 1856, when we find that it was managed by the same executive officers as the Rockingham. This continued to be the case for several years. Charles Conner succeeded John S. Wells as president of both
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companies about 1863, and remained with W. P. Moulton and J. C. Hilliard as officers of the Rockingham until about 1866, when its affairs were wound up. The business of the Atlantic was carried on with Charles Conner as president, and Joseph S. Parsons as secretary and treasurer, nutil about 1871, when that company, too, succumbed to the growing preference for insurance in stock companies.
The Rockingham Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company was incorporated in 1833. For some years little was heard of it, but in 1856 William Conner was its president, William P. Moulton, the secretary, and Joseph C. Hilliard, treasurer. John S. Wells succeeded Mr. Conner as president, and was succeeded by Charles Conner. Then William Conner was again chosen president, and held the office until his decease a year or two since. Charles E. Lane was secretary and treasurer a few years, and then George W. Wiggin was elected, about 1866, to those offices, and held them till 1874. The present officers are George B. Webster, pres- ident, and Henry A. Shute, secretary and treasurer. As its name imports, this company confines its insurance to farm buildings, or equivalent risks. It is now the oldest company in the town.
In 1885 the insurance of property in New Hampshire against fire, was mostly in stock companies existing out of the State. On account of a law enacted by the Legislature in that year, they, by a concerted action, determined to take no more risks in New Hampshire. It became necessary, therefore, that other means of insurance should be provided at home, and without delay.
The Exeter Mutual Fire Insurance Company was the first new company organized in the State to meet the new condition of things. It was put in operation under the general law of the State on the fifteenth day of October, 1886. Charles H. Bell was chosen president, and Arthur B. Fuller, secretary and treasurer. In 1887 Mr. Fuller resigned his offices, and George W. Weston was elected in his place. This and the Rockingham Farmers' are the only insurance companies now in the town.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
CHAPTER XVIII.
JUDGES AND LAWYERS.
JOIIN GILMAN, the second son of Edward Gilman, Sr., born in England January 10, 1624, came to Exeter before 1650, and immediately became a prominent citizen. From the first he was concerned with his brother Edward in mills and lumber. After Edward was lost at sea in 1653, he inherited much of the latter's property, and took his place in developing the resources of the town. He was chosen selectman more than one-half the years between 1650 and 1680; was repeatedly elected commissioner to end small causes ; and appointed upon committees to care for the town's interests. He had several handsome grants of land from the town, and a special right of a grist-mill. In the two years before New Hampshire was emancipated from the Massachusetts government he held the office of associate (judge) of the old Norfolk county court.
In 1680 Mr. Gilman was made a councillor of the newly erected province of New Hampshire, and in 1682 a judge of the Court of Pleas ; but in 1683 he was by Governor Cranfield relieved of both offices. It is needless to say that his reputation in the province did not suffer by reason of his removal. In 1693 he was chosen by his townsmen a delegate to the Assembly, and was made Speaker of the House, and again chosen in 1697.
He married, June 30, 1657, Elizabeth, daughter of James Treworgy (from which came the popular Christian name of True- worthy), and had six sons and ten daughters, and very numerous descendants. He built the "log house" opposite the Great bridge, which is still standing. He died July 24, 1708.
Robert Wadleigh was accepted as an inhabitant of Exeter Sep- tember 26, 1676, at which time he probably removed there with his family. He was then a man of mature years, and had five sons, some of them tending towards manhood. He had lived in Wells, Maine, more than twenty years before, and in 1666 pur-
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chased a considerable tract of land at a place since known as Wadleigh's falls on Lamprey river in the present town of Lee, one- half of which he conveyed to Nicholas Listen. There Mr. Wad- leigh lived until he came to Exeter. He soon became known to the people of Exeter, and was chosen to responsible positions. In 1680 he was a deputy to the General Assembly, of which he acted as clerk. In 1681 the inhabitants made him a grant of two hun- dred acres of land, and the next year his tax was the highest in the town.
A year afterwards he was sued by an agent of Mason, probably for the possession of some of his lands, and by exceptional good fortune won the verdict of the jury. His antagonist took an appeal to the king, upon which Wadleigh determined to go himself to England to look after his interests. He had a further reason for so doing, in the fact that his three sons were at that time under condemnation for taking part in " Gove's rebellion " against Governor Cranfield's tyrannical administration. The impression which Wadleigh made upon the Privy Council must have been favorable, for he was, after his return, appointed a justice of the peace and councillor of the province, doubtless on their recom- mendation.
Mr. Wadleigh continued to receive marks of the confidence of his townsmen, and of the provincial authorities. In 1692 he was appointed one of the justices of the Court of Common Pleas, and, a year afterwards, a judge of the Superior Court. This position he continued to fill until 1697. IIe died in Exeter not far from the year 1700. His descendants are somewhat numerous, and the name is still kept up in the town and vicinity.
Kinsley Hall was a son of Ralph Hall, one of the signers of the Combination, and was born in Exeter in 1652. He was a captain in the militia, an office then of no small repute, and served the town in various capacities, which denote the popular appreciation of his ability and intelligence. He was one of the selectmen for some years, moderator, and deputy to the General Assembly in 1694 and 1695. He was also a councillor of the province, appointed in 1698, and a judge of the Superior Court from 1697 to 1698, and again from 1698 to 1699. He married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Dudley, and, after her decease, a second wife, and had several children, by whom the name has been preserved in the town until very recently. Judge Hall died in 1736.
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Peter Cofiin was born in Devonshire, England, in 1630 or 1631. He came to this country young, and removed to Dover before 1650. There he became a merchant, and was interested with Major Richard Waldron in a trucking house for dealing with the Indians. He was a lientenant in service in Philip's Indian war, and was elected while in Dover to various town offices, and re- ceived some of the minor judicial appointments. He was quite successful in the accumulation of property. In 1689 when the garrisons at Dover were attacked by the savages and Major Waldron was killed, Mr. Coffin's house was entered, and the Indians compelled him to scatter among them handfuls of silver money, of which they found a bag full, that they might scramble for it.
IIe fortunately escaped from their hands. Shortly afterwards his house and buildings were burned, and he removed to Exeter in 1690, and was received an inhabitant by a vote of the town, and land was granted him for a wharf. Ile immediately engaged in business there, and was selected by the town to serve on impor- tant committees, and twice chosen moderator. In 1692 he was appointed a councillor of the province, and in 1697 Chief Justice of the Superior Court. This position he held for a year, and until a change of governors. In 1699 he was commissioned an asso- ciate justice of the same court, and continued in office until 1712.
He died March 21, 1715, and this obituary notice was published in The Boston News Letter of March 25 :
On Monday the 21st current, died at Exeter the honorable Peter Coffin, Esq., in the 85th year of his age, who was late judge of his Majesty's Superior Court of judicature, and first member of his Majesty's Council of this province, a gentleman very serviceable both in Church and State.
He left five sons and four danghters. His son Robert, born in 1667, resided in Exeter, and married Joanna, daughter of John Gilman, and widow of Henry Dyer. He died in 1710 without issue. His son Tristram also lived in Exeter and had four chil- dren, of whom two, daughters, married Bartholomew and Benja- min, sons of Jonathan Thing.
Richard Hilton was a son of Captain William Hilton and grand- son of Edward Hilton, and lived in that part of Exeter which is now South Newmarket. He served as one of the selectmen for seven years, between 1693 and 1715, and was a judge of the
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Superior Court in 1698 and 1699. Little is known of him besides, except that he married his cousin Ann, daughter of Edward Hilton, Jr.
Nicholas Gilman was a son of Councillor John Gilman, and was born in Exeter December 26, 1678. He was a farmer and mer- chant. He lived in Exeter village on the south side of Front street, on the spot where the late John Williams built his brick house, afterwards occupied by Isaac Flagg. In 1729 he was com- missioned a justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and held his seat on that bench for about a year, when he resigned in order to give his whole time to his private business. But in 1732, on re- ceiving the appointment of judge of the Superior Court, he ac- cepted it and performed the duties until 1740, and then retired to private life. He died in 1741, leaving children, several of whom occupied distinguished positions. He was a man of large property, and the owner of several slaves.
Samuel Gilman was a son of the foregoing, and was born in Exeter May 1, 1698. He was twice married and had children, who all died before him. He had an ample estate, and lived in the house on the south side of Water street, afterwards the home of Judge Oliver Peabody. He kept a public house there for a number of years, was a colonel in the militia, and was appointed to the bench of the Superior Court the same year that his father left it. He discharged his judicial duties for seven years. All accounts agree in representing him to be a man of the highest character, universally respected and esteemed. He lived to the age of eighty-six.
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