History of the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire, Part 45

Author: Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Concord, N.H. : Rumford press]
Number of Pages: 838

USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Haverhill > History of the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire > Part 45

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The first sawmill was at North Haverhill on Poole Brook, and there was connected with this some sort of a gristmill. This was built by the proprietors of Haverhill and Newbury acting jointly, it having been voted by the Haverhill proprietors at the last meeting held by them in Hamp- stead March 27, 1764, "to give the proprietors of Newbury one half the privilege of the mills in Haverhill for fourteen years next to come." Previous to this, March 1, 1764, the right to build the mills at Haverhill, had been sold at a public vendue held in Plaistow to Jesse Johnson, John Hazen and Jacob Bayley in partnership for $297, but it does not appear that anything ever came of this partnership, unless the single mill erected by Haverhill and Newbury was a result. Attention was directed to Hos- mer's, Oliverian Brook. As early as November 20, 1764, it was voted by the proprietors to give Timothy Bedel and Elisha Lock the whole privi- lege of the lower falls on Hosmer's Brook with the whole lands laid out for said privilege, provided they complete two mills by the 20th of November, 1765, one a sawmill and the other a gristmill on said falls. Other privilege to build a sawmill and gristmills on Hosmer's Brook were voted April 1, 1768, John Hazen dissenting. It was perhaps this dissent which led the same meeting to a vote "to leave a privilege for mills on the Mill Brook (Poole) so called above the old saw and gristmills which were built by the proprietors of Haverhill and Newbury." This was not utilized, however, for years. Mills and manufacturies went to the Brook.

It was not till 1808, after the Fisher farm had come into the market, that another mill was built, where the present one now stands, and this with the gristmill lower down, and the privilege where once stood the Powers sawmill has been the only utilization of Poole Brook in the village or near its mouth. The stream was dammed at two other places, one a little to the north of the Union Meeting House, which furnished power for a small sawmill built by John C. Deming, belonging in its later years to Abner Chase, and later for a starch factory. Further down the stream on the road from Union Meeting House to Brier Hill was the sawmill of Aaron P. Glazier, and later owned by the Wilson Brothers, Josiah F. and Jonathan. This power was used for a few seasons after its abandonment as a sawmill for a starch mill. A sawmill was built by Obadiah Swasey in partnership with Richard Gookin in 1808 after the purchase of the Fisher farm. Swasey was a man of great activity (see Swasey Genealogy), an expert mechanic, and his mill became at once an important industry.

As a hamlet began to grow around Swasey's Mills, it was discovered that the slabs from the great white pine logs which were being sawed and which, accounted as refuse could be had for little or nothing, made excellent battening for the roofs of barns and houses, and also for the walls, and they began to be more freely used for that purpose giving the hamlet at least a more picturesque appearance than shingles and clapboards

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would have done, just as the name "Slab City" was more picturesque than Swasey's Mills. In later years the Whitmans, Willard and his sons, carried on a somewhat extensive carriage and sleigh manufacturing business, succeeded later still by John M. Getchell and George E. Eastman. The Pikes, Newhall and his brothers, burned brick for some years in a yard near the present railroad station, but except for sawmills, and these only lasted until the forests were extinct, North Haverhill has had no manufacturing industries.

And its stores have been the ordinary country store. Just who was the first to open a store is uncertain. Col. Asa Porter supplied his neigh- bors with various articles of merchandise, as did also Nathaniel Merrill and Obadiah Swasey, as appear from accounts filed by them in the probate records against certain parties, but it is not till 1805 that one Christopher Seaton is taxed for $500 stock in trade. As this same year James London, Ross Coon, Jacob Williams, Joseph Bliss, Samuel Brooks, John Osgood, Montgomery & Mitchell, Richard Gookin, residents of the Corner and Brook, were each taxed for stock in trade, it is evident where the stores in town were located. But Seaton had his successors as proprietors of country stores, and while at times there has not been more than one general store at the village there have sometimes been two or three, and some of the merchants have conducted a large and various business. Among the earliest were Joshua Morse, John Hall, Aaron Martin, the Hibbards, Thomas Hall, Caleb Webster, Russell Hurd and later Samuel B. Rodgers, James Glynn, T. K. Whitman, J. N. Judson. The experiment of a union or co-operative store was tried for a time in the fifties, but was not successful. Other and later merchants have been Morse & Kelsea, Cotton & Kelsea, Joseph B. Cotton, Cotton & Nelson, Enoch R. Weeks, Morris E. Kimball, Newell C. Wright, W. W. Millen, Charles H. Wetherbee, M. E. Kimball Estate, and Kimball Bros., Chas. F. Southard, Morse & Cryan. During the war of the rebellion, J. B. Cotton was postmaster, and his store was something of a news centre, as were indeed most country stores of that period. It was the custom on the arrival of the afternoon mail for some one to secure possession of Mr. Cotton's copy of the Boston Daily Journal and read the war news to the assembled throng while the postmaster was assorting the mail. The reader was frequently a former schoolmaster and town official, a pretty fair reader with all, and possessed of excellent voice. One afternoon just after a big battle in which a New Hampshire regiment was engaged, he read the name of a Haverhill boy, "seriously wounded in the abdomen," "Where is that?" interrupted an interested old farmer. "Why in the neck of course," replied the reader withering his interrupter with a look of scorn.

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North Haverhill and its adjoining territory has been a home of farmers. Other sections of the town have had its trade and manufacturing. Its present business directory is a brief one: Blacksmith, W. F. Pike; carpenters, W. W. Coburn, J. M. Getchell; carriage mfg. and repairer, W. G. Upton; coal dealers, Kimball Bros., F. S. Sleeper & Co .; creamery, North Haverhill Creamery; eavestroughs and stanchions, L. E. Glazier, W. B. Titus; general stores, Kimball Bros., Cryan & Morse, E. V. Scott, C. F. Southard; garage and automobiles, E. M. Clark; flour and grain, F. S. Sleeper & Co .; granite workers, the Jesseman Granite Co .; lumber dealers, and sawmills, F. Bacon, Clifford Lumber Co., E. M. Clark; notary, Albert F. Kimball; painters, M. H. Clifford, Moores Clough, N. H. Noyes, W. M. Kimball; mason, P. A. Tragansa.

Among the men and families at the village who have exercised large influence and have been more or less prominent in town affairs, and of whom some account is given in other chapters may be mentioned Major Nathaniel Merrill who, though one of the original proprietors of the town, lived at first in Bath and Newbury, and came to Haverhill at the close of the Revolution and lived on the farm at the north of the village known as the Eastman farm. Obadiah Swasey and his sons, and Timothy A. Edson, who were owners of the Hazen farm, the Eastmans, William, Moses, Hubert, Eber, the Blaisdels, the Farmans, the Jacksons, the Meaders, the Merrills, David and Schuyler, the Whitmans, the Cliffords, the Glynns, James, Isaac the blind showman, and Samuel familiarly known as "Dad" Glynn, Newhall Pike, station agent, brick maker and bark dealer. Newhall Pike and James Glynn were both ardent Methodists, and were in the habit of preferring charges against each other so that church trials were not infrequent. There were the Cliffords, the Nelsons, the Noyes, Joseph Powers, sheriff and executive councillor, the Fishers and Sleepers, David Whitcher, Jason G. Blood, the Wetherbees, the Warrens, the Wrights, Enoch R. Weeks, merchant and for many years town clerk, the Wilmots and the Gales, the Kimballs, Charles and his sons Morris and John, these and others made up a society which gave the village its local color which in many respects it still retains.

With the passing of the Porters, Col. Hurd, A. S. Crocker, Timothy Barron, Ephraim Wesson and Joshua Howard at Horse Meadow, Horse Meadow remained one of the most prosperous of the prosperous farming communities of the town, and among its leading citizens were Moses, Aaron and Samuel F. Southard, George Woodward and his sons, Dudley C. and Daniel P. Kimball who sold the county their farm, now "the County Farm," almshouse, jail and house of correction, the Morses, Stephen, John C., John N., and Lafayette, and Arthur C. Clough. Among the early

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settlers on Brier Hill were the Carrs, Deacon Daniel', Major Samuel, with descendants numerous, many of whom have been prominent in town affairs, and some of whom have won distinction abroad. Richard French, famous in his day as hunter and trapper, had numerous descendants among whom Joseph, Daniel, Andrew and Nahum W. are well remem- bered. It was and is a prosperous farming community. On the road from Brier Hill to Center Haverhill the Wilson brothers, Josiah F. and Jonathan, farmers and mill owners were prominent in town affairs. Josiah F. was widely known for his religious views, or rather for his radical agnosticism. A pronounced Democrat in politics he held many positions of trust in town affairs, his pronounced atheistic views militating, however, against his usefulness and influence. As justice of the peace in taking acknowledgment of legal papers, he was careful to crase the abbreviation "A. D." "In the year of our Lord," using just the date or sometimes the words "in the year of the Independence of the United States," instead. He was at least consistent in his atheism.

At the Centre among the prominent families were those of the Morse brothers, David, Stephen, Daniel, Isaac and Jacob, who came from Hebron, the three latter of whom were prominent in the political life of the town, Jacob being a staunch Democrat, and Isaac and Daniel, Whigs, all serving as selectmen and as representatives in the General Court; the Bacon brothers, J. Reed and Asa; the Glaziers, James and his sons, Aaron P., Luke C. and James; the Bisbees, Gad, and his sons, George W., Levi, Daniel W .; the Clarks, Jonathan and his sons, Jeremiah A., James B., Ira B. and Jonathan C .; the Hildreths, Ephraim and Samuel; the Battis, Horace and sons; the Hurlberts; the Haywards, Alvah and Benjamin F .; the Youngs, Milton and Manson; the Wells Brothers, who came from Benton, George and Caleb; the Smiths; Haines; Browns, Jonas G. and son, Rev. George E .; the Metcalfs; the Davises; Zebulon Carey; Moody Mann, and Isaac Carleton; the Gleasons and Hardys. With the excep- tion of the Fayette Bacon sawmill, and the granite quarrying at French Pond, the industry at the Centre has been exclusively that of farming, and the farms for the most part have been productive, and their cultiva- tion has added to the prosperity of the town. During the life of the Baptist Church at the village many of its members and supporters lived at the Centre, though the Union Meeting House, now the property of the Advent Church has been the religious centre. In recent years, since the passing of the members of the Morse, Bisbee, Bacon, Glazier, Haywood and Wells families, by death and removal, there has been less of political activity and influence on the part of the farmers at the Centre. The drift has been toward the village.

1 The fifth Daniel is owner and occupant of the Daniel Carr homestead, and there is a sixth Daniel now, 1916, a little over a year old.

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Haverhill has had several bands for furnishing instrumental music, but perhaps the most notable was the North Haverhill Cornet Band, organized in the late fifties of the last century under the leadership of James Ward Sampson, a painter who came to North Haverhill from Lynn, Mass., where he had married a daughter of Kimball Tyler, Jr., of Benton, and established himself at his trade. He was an accomplished musician, who inspired great enthusiasm among the members of the organization, which under his direction and teaching became especially proficient. It fur- nished music for at least one election, and the voters of Haverhill at the fateful presidential election of 1860 cast their ballots under the inspiration of music. Under date of November 6, 1860, these two entries appear in the town clerk's record: "Voted, that the North Haverhill Band be invited to play while votes are coming in," and "Voted, that the thanks of the meeting be presented to the band for their excellent and enlivening music." The breaking up of this band was an honorable one. No less than twelve of its members including the leader, Sampson, enlisted in 1862 as musicians in Co. G, of the 11th Regt. N. H. Vols. They were James W. Sampson, Cyrus Alden, Levi B. Bisbee, Martin V. B. Cady, Daniel J. Coburn, Jonathan C. Pennock, Joseph Willis, Thomas Baxter, Hiram S. Carr, Ira B. Gould, Moody C. Marston, Orrin M. Whitman. Others of the band would have enlisted, had they been able to pass surgeon's examination, so that it may be fairly said that the band enlisted as a body, an honor which the North Haverhill Cornet Band shared with no other in the state.

There was a mysterious disappearance in 1833 which has never been satisfactorily cleared up. On the evening of October 21 a pedler, Ezra D. Blaisdell of Peeling (Woodstock) in the employ of John Rogers of Plymouth, left his team at the home of William Dudley, at the Centre where he was to spend the night. After his team had been cared for he started to go to the home of one Connor, about three fourths of a mile distant by road to see a young man named Coburn, who owed him for goods. He is said to have left Connor's between 8 and 9 o'clock to return to Dudley's, and was not seen afterwards. Not returning to Dudley's, two or three days later a search by not less than three hundred people under the leadership of Capt. Daniel Batchelder was instituted, and lasted for several days, fields, swamps, forests being carefully examined, houses searched without finding any trace of the missing man. There was much excitement at the time, and all sorts of rumors were rife. It was said that during the night of the 22d an ox-cart was heard being driven quietly down over an old logging road towards North Haverhill, and the fact that Dudley was plowing all day in the rain on the 23d contrary to any former custom of his, and that he soon after sold out and went West attracted suspicion to him, but there was nothing more than suspicion. Some thirty years

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later part of a human skeleton was unearthed in a field near the logging road which was thought by many to be the bones of the missing man, but the mystery of his disappearance was never solved.

With the growth of the town and the increase in the number of voters the question of a permanent place of holding town meetings began to be agitated and, as early as 1831, articles relative to the matter began to appear in the town meeting warrants, and all sorts of propositions were made. The carly town meetings were held in the houses of voters, or of licensed innholders, or the old court house on the Plain which is once at least in the records designated as the "state house," and later in the meeting houses of the South, and North parishes. Neither of the two last named were satisfactory, and a proposition to shingle these two places of worship for the privilege of holding town meetings in them alternately was voted down at the annual meeting of 1831. In 1832 the selectmen were instructed to report, at the November meeting, a suitable plan, proper place of location and probable expense of building a town- house, and they were authorized to provide at the expense of the town a suitable place to hold town meetings until a town hall shall be built. It does not appear that any report was made, and the practice of holding the meetings at the old meeting houses alternately was continued. In 1834 it was voted not to build a town house. At the annual meeting in 1836, an article proposing to hire the Union meeting house for town meetings was dismissed, and nine years later at a special meeting, Septem- ber 23, 1845, similar action was taken on an article relative to building a town house. In these intervening nine years the question of the pur- chase of a farm for the support of the poor had been agitated and settled by the purchase in 1838 of the farm, just below the village near the outlet of Poole Brook into the Connecticut, which was so long occupied as a poor farm and abandoned only after nearly all paupers became county instead of town charges in 1868.

At the annual town meeting in 1846, the selectmen were instructed to report plan for a town house at the next annual meeting. There is no record of any action at the meeting of 1847, but at the annual meeting in the Horse Meadow meeting house in 1848, John Page, D. C. Kimball, Abiel Deming, Samuel Carr and John Carr were appointed a committee to report concerning the expediency of building a town house and its probable cost. This committee made its report at a special meeting held at Horse Meadow, April 1, and the matter was taken up in earnest. Five votes were passed:

1. To build a town house to be located near the Union meeting house.

2. To raise the sum of $1,500 to defray expense of building and purchase of land necessary.

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3. That moderator appoint a committee of three to superintend the building of the house to be completed in time for the November election. The moderator named Josiah J. Wilson, Nathaniel Rix and Simeon Haines.

4. That moderator appoint a committee of five to fix upon a plan and report it to the building committee in May. John R. Reding, Samuel Carr, D. C. Kimball, Isaac Morse and Eber Eastman were named as this committee.

5 That the building committee select and purchase location and receive title as agents for the town.

The house was erected of stone a little distance from the Union meeting house on the road leading to Haverhill Corner, and was occupied first for annual town meeting in March, 1849, the selectmen having warned the meeting before the building was accepted by the town. The building committee had greatly exceeded the appropriation in the erection of the building and there was a bitter opposition to its acceptance, but the action of the selectmen in posting a warrant for the meeting of 1849 on the door and calling the meeting in the new building was claimed by many to be a virtual acceptance on the part of the town. The meeting this year was one of wild disorder, and was the only time in the history of the town that the article calling for ballots for state and county offices was dis- missed without action. No action was taken on the report of the build- ing committee, but at the annual meeting of 1850 it was voted that a committee of seven, Luther Butler, David Carr, Jr., Aaron Southard, Russell King, and the selectmen, John R. Reding, Isaac F. Allen and Jotham Horne, examine the accounts and vouchers of Josiah F. Wilson, Nathaniel Rix, and Simeon Haines, town house building committee, look into the whole matter, decide upon what is just and equitable as to the claims, and that the selectmen be authorized to settle and adjust the same in accordance with the opinion of the committee. At a special meeting held October 8, 1850, it was voted to pay the claim of the building com- mittee, as reported by the committee of seven, with interest from March 1, 1849.

The location of this house was never satisfactory, and after upwards of thirty years' use during which it was the scene of many animated and exciting contests, with rough-house sometimes predominating, it was abandoned and sold when in 1883, the new town hall was built at North Haverhill under the direction of the selectmen, Caleb Wells, Ira Whitcher and Charles W. Pike, at a cost of about $2,000. This building, con- structed of wood, is commodious and well adapted for town meeting purposes, political rallies, dramatic entertainments, and public meetings,

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and with the repairs and improvements made in 1914 is a hall which is a credit to the town.

A brick town clerk's office, with fireproof vaults, was erected in 1895, nearby, thus guaranteeing the safety of the records and official documents and papers from destruction by fire. North Haverhill thus became the official centre of the township, and was the logical location for the soldiers' monument erected by the town in conjunction with the Woman's Relief Corps, and which was duly dedicated on the occasion of the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of the town in September, 1912. The town also contributed a thousand dollars toward the erection in 1914 of the beautiful free library building on Main Street, nearly opposite the Methodist Episcopal Church, though no aid had been given the other two free libraries for building purposes. This appropriation was somewhat in the nature of a recognition that the village had shown a large measure of public spirit through its Village Improvement Society, and had already become and was destined to be- come still more the civic centre of the town.

Friday, September 20, 1912, was not only a notable day in the history of the town, but was a memorable one for the village of North Haverhill. It was the occasion of the dedication of a monument in commemoration of the services of Haverhill's soldiers, and of exercises in observance of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Haverhill's settlement. Nevers' Second Regiment Band of Concord furnished music for the day. The parade of the pupils of the schools of the town, six hundred strong, escort- ing the Veterans of the War for the Union, the escort suggesting the hope, the escorted the glory, of the nation, was one of the features of the day. The dedication of the monument with dedicatory address by Hon. Alfred S. Roe of Worcester, Mass., was impressively interesting, Hon. Henry W. Keyes presiding over the exercises, which consisted, besides the dedicatory address, of the rendering of the G. A. R. ritual, and an address by Mrs. Ellen Benton Fisher of the Woman's Relief Corps. A bountiful lunch was served at the noon hour and the lunch sheds were crowded. The anniversary exercises were held in the afternoon in the town hall, which was crowded to its utmost capacity. The Rev. John Barstow of Lee, Mass., presided, and the historical address was given by William F. Whitcher. The museum of antiques and articles of local historical interest in Village Hall was thronged the entire day, and the demonstration of old-time household industries was especially interesting. The concert in the evening, by "Ye bigge choir of singers," all arrayed in their best store clothes, was the crowning event of what was a day of successful events.

The committees having charge of the exercises and events of the day were: On Anniversary Observance, chosen by the town: William F.

SOLDIERS' MONUMENT AT NORTH HAVERHILL

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Whitcher, Henry W. Keyes, Maurice H. Randall, E. Bertram Pike, Wilbur F. Eastman; Mr. Pike being unable to serve, Walter Burbeck was appointed in his place. This committee added to their number the fol- lowing, from different sections of the town, who rendered most efficient service: Jesse R. Squires, Miss Jennie Westgate, Mrs. N. Della Carbee, Mrs. Henry C. Stearns, Henry S. Bailey, Miss Jennie Buck, Herbert E. Smith, Mrs. C. W. Sherwell, Mrs. Eben Morrill, Mrs. Amos M. Pike, Miss Annie K. Filley, Louis M. Kimball, William G. Upton, Miss Kath- erine Morse, Mrs. Ida Carr, Mrs. Lillian Ray Miller and Miss Luvia E. Mann. On Soldiers' Monument, chosen by the town: Henry W. Keyes, William F. Whitcher, Wilbur F. True (Mr. True was unable to serve and his place was left unfilled); chosen by Natt Westgate Post, G. A. R .: Charles J. Pike, Frank B. Carr, Joseph Willis; chosen by Woman's Relief Corps: Mrs. Ida Carr, Mrs. Luella Kimball, Mrs. Mary French.

At the annual town meeting in March the sum of $300 was voted for the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of settlement, and a committee of five appointed to make the necessary arrangements, and a further sum of $2,000 was also voted for the erection of a soldiers' monument, and a committee of three was elected, to be increased later by three members from Natt Westgate Post and by three from the Woman's Relief Corps, making in all a committee of nine. The commit- tee was authorized to select a site for a monument, to fix upon design, purchase and erect the same. After careful planning and examination of other memorials in New Hampshire and elsewhere a design was unan- imously chosen, the monument purchased at a cost of approximately $2,600, all of which in excess of what the town had voted had already been raised, not in one year, nor in two, but by persistent labor through many seasons of the Woman's Relief Corps.

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History of the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire, Part 45

Author: Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918 Publication date: 1919 Publisher: [Concord, N.H. : Rumford press] Number of Pages: 838

Author: Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Concord, N.H. : Rumford press]
Number of Pages: 838