History of the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire, Part 47

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 47

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A large proportion of the railroad employees have their homes and boarding places in Woodsville, and this has necessitated the opening of streets, the erection of dwellings, and while there has never been any boom year in building, there has been a gradual growth, all the more healthy because gradual.

Woodsville, however, is more than a railroad village, though the basis of its growth and prosperity will be found in its becoming a railroad centre. It was this which brought the court house and the county offices from the Corner. The Corner had become side-tracked, while Woodsville by its exceptional railroad service extending in all directions was brought into close touch with every town in the county. The railroad needed for its shops, roundhouse, its constantly increasing number of locomotives, and its freight yards an adequate water supply and electric lighting as much as did residences and stores, hence the Woodsville Aqueduct Company, organized in 1885. Had it not been for the exceptionally excellent ship- ping facilities furnished by the railroads, Woodsville would have known nothing of wholesale houses and wholesale trade. There was a railroad need of protection from fires, as well as a general need and the Woodsville Fire District was created by the Legislature of 1887.

Railroad employees making their homes in Woodsville were young or middle-aged men, and the proportion of children of school age to the whole population largely exceeded that of other sections of the town, when in 1885 the school district system was abandoned and a return was made to the old town system, because in several districts there were not a sufficient number of scholars to maintain a school. Woodsville had outgrown its little two hundred and fifty-five dollar schoolhouse at the foot of Clay hill, and the Union High School district had been created by the addition of the Pine Plain district and a small section in Bath north of the Ammonoosuc, and a new two-story schoolhouse had been erected in 1872-73. This was outgrown in a few years, and in 1901 the large brick schoolhouse was erected on the same site at a cost of $20,000.

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There was strong opposition to this building, its opponents claiming that it would never be filled with pupils, but that its empty rooms would stand for years a monument to the folly of those who believed that Woodsville was still destined to grow. But school facilities were still further de- manded, and to meet this demand, the fine new building was erected in 1913 on Kings Plain at a cost of $30,000 for high school purposes only. This building was authorized, and a building committee chosen at a regular meeting of the voters of the district without opposition and almost without discussion, in striking contrast to the long drawn out attempts to secure for the district its first schoolhouse at the foot of Clay hill.

The Woodsville district, No. 13, was established in 1840, and the first meeting of the voters, called by the selectmen, was held the 20th of May in that year. At this meeting Russell King, Nathaniel Dickinson and Jona. B. Rowell were chosen a committee "to report a plan for a school- house and the expense for building the same and the site and cost for the same." The meeting adjourned till the third Wednesday in October, but on that date as there was no one in attendance no meeting was held and nothing more appears in the district records concerning a schoolhouse until the annual meeting of 1847 when it was voted to appoint a commit- tee to "see whether we join with Bath district or not or whether we four- nish a place in our own district for a school." At an adjourned meeting April 9 it was "voted to appoint Russell King to ascertain the legal course about meeting to build a schoolhouse."

It appears that up to this time the district had joined with the Bath district across the river, and that union schools had been maintained in the little schoolhouse on the Ammonoosuc River road west of what is now known as the Burton place. Once or twice it had been voted to unite with district No. 4 in Haverhill, the house being at the junction of the roads leading from North Haverhill to Bath, and over the hill to Swiftwater, known as the Pine Plain schoolhouse. Adjourned meetings were held May 4, May 22, and June 12, all at the store of John L. Woods, which was the place of all public meetings. At this meeting it was voted to build a schoolhouse and Mr. Witherell was appointed a committee to fix upon a location, and secure a title to the land, and Messrs. Witherell, King and Hall were appointed a building committee, and to report the cost of building to the next meeting. At an adjourned meeting July 3, Mr. Witherell reported that he had not been able to secure "a piece of ground to set the house on." Adjourned meetings were held August 28, Septem- ber 25, and October 9, at which latter meeting it was voted to raise two hundred and twenty dollars "to defray the expenses of building a school- house and location for said house to be built by the first day of December next."

It seems that it was then found that these votes and proceedings had

CENTRAL STREET, WOODSVILLE, IN 1890, SHOWING THE E. B. MANN RESIDENCE

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not been legal, and it was necessary to begin anew. So at meetings called on petition of four voters and held November 4, 6 and 20, 1847, the matter was taken up in earnest and it was voted to build a new schoolhouse, that Messrs. Woods, King and Hall be a building committee, that D. P. Kimball be a committee to lay out the spot for the house and assess the damage therefor by agreement with J. L. Woods and that two hundred and twenty dollars be raised to build the house and furnish the location. It was then voted to raise thirty-one dollars in addition to the last men- tioned sum "to defray the expense of furnishing stove and stovepipe and out building making two hundred and fifty-one dollars in all." There were adjourned meetings December 4, and December 11, but no business appears to have been transacted. In the meantime Mr. Woods of the committee had proceeded to build the house and it might be supposed that the long-drawn-out building proceedings were ended, but not so, the school meeting habit had become pretty nearly a fixed one. A meet- ing called on petition of voters was held at the newly built house January 17, 1848, "to see if the district will vote to build a schoolhouse, or pur- chase the one already built, raise money and take money therefrom."

At this meeting it was voted that Russell King, George Witherell, and J. W. Morrison examine the house and "see what alterations should be made if any, and see if the district will take that house on what reduction in the price."

The report of the committee made at an adjourned meeting January 22 is one of decided interest as indicating the character of Woodsville's first schoolhouse and the methods of transacting school district business in the middle of the last century :

WHEREAS, Mr. Russell King, George Witherell, and J. W. Morrison have been ap- pointed at a school meeting held at the store of J. L. Woods Esq. in Haverhill January 17, 1848, for the purpose of examining the house lately built by J. L. Woods Esq. for the purpose of a schoolhouse, what alterations are necessary or should be made to make it such a house as was contracted for by Alba Hall and Russell King with the said Woods and report at a subsequent meeting:

Therefore, we, the said committee, beg leave to report-that the seats and writing desks are too narrow and too high, and were imperfectly put up and finished, therefore they should be taken down and rebuilt. The window casements are too narrow and new ones should be put up. In many places the lathing is so imperfectly put on not nailed as should be from which cause the plastering will soon be off and have to be re- paired. There is wanting some finish about the entry door, the lathing in the entry should come off in part and put on more substantial and plastered or sealed up with seasoned boards. And the work generally is done in a very slighty and imperfect, shammy coarse manner in the inside of the house, the chimney is not what it should be, there- fore a new one is required and some of the lumber was imperfectly seasoned we think from appearances. After due examination we are of the opinion it will cost twenty-one dollars to make these repairs or amendments and put up three more seats for small scholars, one in front and one on each side of the teachers desk which we think should have been done when the house was built.

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We, therefore, recommend that the said Woods make the foregoing alterations and amendments to be done in good faith with good materials and in a workmanlike manner, or make twenty-one dollars deduction from his original contract made with the said Hall and King, being two hundred and fifteen dollars, that the district raise money to pay for the said house, otherwise build a new one.

There was no mistaking the character of this report, or the temper of the voters of the district which at once according to the records "ex- cepted" it. An adjournment was had for a week to give Captain Woods time to consider this ultimatum, and at the adjourned meeting it was

Voted, to except of the schoolhouse built by J. L. Woods with twenty-one dollars deduction from the two hundred and fifteen dollars agreeable to the report of committee making one hundred and ninety-four dollars that the district are to pay for the house.

Voted to raise two hundred and fifty-five dollars for the purpose of purchasing the school- house built by J. L. Woods Esq. and fitting it up and furnishing stove, out buildings and other apparatus and fixings for the same and location.

Russell King was chosen a committee to make the "alterations and amendments" recommended at a cost not exceeding twenty-one dollars, and the meeting adjourned to February 1, at which time an agent was appointed to take a lease of the location, receive "the money from the town when collected and pay it over to them that it belongs to." "Voted, to adjourn sine die (without day)."

The schoolhouse was thus completed, and was occupied for district schools until the completion of the new two story house, in December, 1872, which was erected at a cost of $5,980.36. It had been voted unan- imously at a meeting held December 16, 1871, to build this house at a cost not exceeding $6,000, and only two adjourned meetings were neces- sary to decide upon location. No less than twenty-one meetings of the voters of the district were held relative to building the original school- house before the final adjournment "sine die (without day) February 1, 1848, but the district was determined that there should be no graft, or rake off, that it should get the worth of its $255. After being used for school purposes for twenty-five years the house, still standing on the original site, was sold at public auction to A. H. Burton for the sum of $87.50; transformed into a dwelling house, it is now owned by Ezra B. Mann.

With the exception of the residence of the late E. B. Miller, which was built and at first occupied for a store, the building now occupied as a meat and provision market just across the so-called dry bridge, the building known as "the brick store" built by H. W. Ramsey southeast of Highland Street crossing, containing tenements, and a large and commodious store, occupied in 1883 by Stickney Pray, then by S. P. Stickney and Stickney Bros. who were succeeded by C. O. Whitcher, then by Cyrus Cameron, now the plumbing and hardware establishment of Rhelt P. Scruggs, and the wholesale warehouses of Armour & Co. and the Holbrook Grocery Co.,

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the shops and stores and business establishments of the village have been located on the south and west of the railroad tracks, a section which has also become the most desirable residence district. The next store after the Weeks block was built by George S. Cummings, and first occupied by A. H. Burton, who was succeeded by Deming & Abbott, by Percy Deming, by F. P. Pray, later by S. A. Barrows, and then by E. A. Sargent who in 1912 erected on the site the three-story brick block, the ground floor of which he occupies as a department store, and the two upper floors contain suites and offices. This Burton store was followed by the erection by Cum- mings in 1869 of the building at the corner of Court and Central streets, which was occupied by himself and partner, C. B. Drake as a drug store on the street floor, and by himself as a residence above. E. B. Mann suc- ceeded Mr. Drake in 1872, the firm name being that of E. B. Mann & Co. Ai Willoughby succeeded Mr. Cummings in the firm, and the business was conducted in this store until the completion of the Opera Block in 1889, when the business was removed to the store in that building which had been specially arranged for it. On the death of Mr. Willoughby in May, 1905, Ira W. Mann succeeded him, the firm name remaining un- changed. The weather-beaten sign of E. B. Mann & Co., on the Court Street side of the building is that of the oldest business establishment in the village, its life extending (1916) over a period of forty-four years.

The Opera block was erected in 1890-91 by the Woodsville Opera Building Association, from plans furnished by C. W. & C. P. Damon, architects of Haverhill, Mass. The builders were S. S. Ordway & Co., of Worcester, Mass., and the contract price of the building was $25,000, ex- clusive of land and furnishings. The ground floor has been occupied since the completion of the building by the Woodsville Guaranty Savings Bank, the Woodsville Loan and Banking Co., and its successor the Woodsville National Bank: the store of E. B. Mann & Co .: the post office until the removal to Odd Fellows Block, since by the jewelry store of Doe Bros. and at present by the jewelry store of C. Tabor Gates, the general merchandise store of Howe & Gordon, and their successors, Mann & Mann, and E. B. Mann, J. M. Howe agent. On the southern end of the block is the Opera hall, with stage, scenery, opera chairs on floor and in bal- cony, artistically and tastefully decorated, with a seating capacity of six hundred, a hall in which any village may well take pride. At the present time the Railroad Club, an organization of railroad employees which succeeded the Railroad Y. M. C. A., occupies nearly the whole of the third floor, while on the second floor are the offices of Attorneys C. H. Hosford and Fred S. Wright, and the dental rooms of Dr. F. G. Weeks, and Dr. P. E. Speed.

Odd Fellows Block, a three-story brick building, on Central Street was erected in 1903 at a cost of about $35,000 on the site of the Music Hall

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Building which was burned, and which contained Odd Fellows Hall, be- sides offices and stores. The new block has on its street floor the post office, and the furniture store and undertaking establishment of the Woodsville Furniture Co. The second floor front, is the telephone central, the law office of R. U. Smith, the shop of the Woodsville Printing Co., the offices of F. P. Dearth, insurance, and of A. E. Davis deputy sheriff; the rear of this floor has the banquet room with its fine appoint- ments of Moosehillock Lodge and third floor is occupied by the lodge and anterooms.

The Tilton Block, another three-story brick veneer building, erected by S. D. Tilton in 1896-97, might also be called the Knights of Pythias Block, since its upper story contains the hall, banquet and other rooms of the local lodge K. of P. There are two tenements on the second floor and two stores on the street floor. One of these has been occupied from the completion of the building for the hardware store of E. H. Lother, and the other for groceries, boots and shoes successively by the Crown Bros., H. A. Hibbard, W. J. Beattie, G. L. Lampher and at present by Batchelder & Libby, clothing and men's furnishing goods. Another substantial block, the Mulliken (erected on Central Street by the late Adna F. Mulliken in 1900) was burned in the spring of 1916. It was occupied for stores and offices of Drs. O. D. Eastman and P. E. Speed, and for the home of Mrs. Mulliken. The stores of Earl F. Mulliken, hardware; Batchelder & Libby, clothing, etc., and Linn Miller, groceries, were on the street floor. The building was a fine one, and its burning entailed a serious loss not only to owner and occupants, but to the village as well. Henderson's Block erected in 1913 on the site of the Parker House, which was burned in the winter of 1911-12, is the latest of the large brick blocks. It was erected by D. Henderson, primarily to furnish room for his moving picture theatre which he had run for a year or so previously in the building which had been for many years occupied by Lewis Barter & Co., the Northern Supply Co., and various other parties as a flour, grain and feed store. The block cost upwards of $30,000 and aside from its theatre accommodations is occupied by pool room, and by a boot and shoe repair shop in the basement, the store of L. Kugelman and a res- taurant on the street floor, and for a hotel on the European plan.

Woodsville's first hotel was the Parker House erected first as a boarding house by Mrs. Hortense Ramsey, and sold to John L. Davis in 1872, and first occupied as a hotel by E. G. Parker, who gave it its name and who was its efficient landlord for about ten years. He was succeeded by D. L. Hawkins and Eugene Nutting, until Oscar D. Johnson purchased the property of Mr. Parker and run it for five or six years, when he sold it to W. H. Richardson a well-known North Country hotel man. He was succeeded by J. E. Hamilton, later by Chase B. Woodman, when it was

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purchased by C. H. Hosford, and the rooms on the two upper floors were connected into the Hotel Wentworth adjoining, and the street floor be- came occupied by a barber shop and periodical store, and by Scharffer's restaurant until it burned in 1912.

The Mount Gardner House was also built a little later by John L. Davis, at the westerly end of Central Street near the site of the building recently used for moving pictures, and by Batchelder & Libby for a clothing store. It was managed at first by Francis Richardson, then by I. K. George and then by Truman Glover until it was burned in 1886.

The Brunswick was another hotel on Central Street near St. Luke's Church built by I. K. George by whom it was managed until it passed into the hands of O. D. Johnson, who changed the name to Hotel Johnson. Mr. Johnson was an experienced hotel man, but for some reason or other, location being undoubtedly an adverse factor, the hotel was not a success. Matters were not improved when the property passed into the hands of Chester Abbott and under various names it was run by various persons until it was also burned in 1912; the site is now occupied by a meat market and grocery store.

The Hotel Wentworth was built by A. H. Leighton and opened to the public in June, 1891. It is a substantial brick building with twenty-five large guest rooms, located just opposite the railroad station and is open all night as well as day. It has all modern improvements, and has been and is Woodsville's one successful hotel, its only drawback being lack of rooms for guests. It gained an enviable reputation under the manage- ment of Mr. Leighton and H. G. LaPierre, and no hotel in the state is a greater favorite with the travelling public than is the Wentworth at pres- ent managed by W. F. Wormwood.

Aside from these brick business blocks mentioned, Woodsville has had its ample supply of smaller buildings used for shops and stores and among firms and individuals who have been in business in the past, have been succeeded by others and have been factors in the growth and develop- ment of the village, may be mentioned, Barzilla M. Blake the first barber, and the builder, among other buildings of the Music Hall Block which he sold to the Tabor brothers; E. W. Balkum, blacksmith; Isaac Eastman, boot and shoe manufacturer; Alexander Woodman, Henry Holt, I. W. Morrison, Jonathan B. Rowell, Alba Hall, Nathaniel Dickin- son, Horatio Hibbard, George Witherell, Addison Ring, carpenter, who was succeeded by his son George Ring; Edson B. Hadlock, who had a sawmill on Ammonoosuc Street, just opposite the Nutting place; Ephriam F. Bartlett, David Parker, George Ramsey, Henry W. Ramsey, Joseph M. Cheney.

Lewis Barter & Co. had a wholesale flour, grain and feed store, after- wards Henderson's Palace Theatre, and were succeeded in this business

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by Bailey & Davison (Langden Bailey and George Davison), by the Northern Supply Co. and later by E. H. Thayer and C. H. Johnson. Q. A. Scott was for years in trade in the Weeks block, first in partnership with A. H. Leighton, and later by himself, E. D. Carpenter conducted a successful furniture and undertaking business. The predecessors of the present jewellers, were W. K. Wallace, F. E. Kittredge, A. D. Phillips, and Doe Bros. C. W. Sawyer & Co., preceded Geo. H. Clark in the drug business. E. D. Collins who came from Claremont with his son L. E. Collins, conducted for several years an extensive business in bottling soft drinks. William Ricker came from Groton, Vt., and was a large dealer in cattle and swine.

In 1860 the store of Charles M. Weeks stood solitary and alone as Woodsville's place of business. In 1830, when John L. Woods bought the Styfield sawmill, there were but two houses in what is now Woods- ville, the Brock house, on Ammonoosuc Street and the farmhouse belong- ing to the Tuttles, known later as the Alba Hall house, still standing in the southern part of the village, Woodsville's oldest building, and occu- pied by Robert Parks.

The following business directory for 1917, tells its own story:

Auctioneers, C. S. Newell, J. M. Nutter; automobile dealers and garages, C. L. Bailey, Davis & Clough, Dana Wiggin, E. F. Mulliken; baker, C. N. Davison; banks, Woodsville National, Woodsville Guaranty Savings; bicycle dealer, George H. Clark; blacksmiths, Leo Mason, T. U. Sherman; brick manufacturer, Newton Lang; books and station- ery, newspapers and periodicals, E. B. Mann & Co .; carpenters, builders and general contractors, Cummings Construction Co., J. R. Lowe, George Ring, C. H. Johnson, Fred S. White, George E. Shortsleeve; cement brick manufacturer, C. H. Johnson; clothing, R. Stahl & Co., the Batchelder- Libby Co., E. A. Sargent; coal, James Kearney, Mrs. Mary D. Randall; confectionery and fruit, R. E. Christopher; creamery, Woodsville- Lyndonville Creamery; crockery, china and glassware, V. L. Carpenter & Son, E. H. Lother; dentists, E. S. Miller, F. G. Weeks, S. S. Baker, P. E. Speed; dry goods, E. B. Mann, Levi Kugelman, the Sargent Co .; drain and sewer pipe, E. B. Mann & Co .; eating houses and cafés, F. H. Battis, J. H. Scharffer, B. L. Mitchell; electric lighting, Woodsville Aqueduct Co .; fancy goods, the Sargent Co., V. L. Carpenter & Son; explosives, E. B. Mann & Co. (dynamite); flour and grain, L. C. Butler; furni- ture, carpets, etc., the Woodsville Furniture Co .; general store, E. B. Mann; grocers, the Holbrook Grocery Co. (wholesale, S. C. Blodgett, Mgr.), M. W. Field, C. N. Davison, E. B. Mann, the F. H. Mann Co .; gents' furnishings, E. A. Sargent, R. Stahl & Co., Batchelder-Libby Co .; hardware and tools, R. R. Scruggs, E. H. Lother; harness maker, H. G. Smith; horse dealers, Kimball & Nutter; hospital, Cottage Hospital;

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hotels, Hotel Wentworth, Hendersons; ice dealer, N. J. Miller; insurance, R. T. Bartlett, W. F. Whitcher, F. P. Dearth, S. W. Mann; justices, R. T. Bartlett, Dexter D. Dow, George E. Cummings, W. F. Whitcher, C. H. Hosford, E. B. Mann, R. U. Smith, F. S. Wright; jewellers, C. Tabor Gates, R. E. Boemig; laundry, Woodsville Steam Laundry; lawyers, C. H. Hosford, E. W. Smith, R. U. Smith, F. S. Wright; library, Woods- ville Free Library; lumber manufacturer and dealer, D. S. Stone; masons, John A. Thornton, L. A. Moran; meats and provisions, Armour & Co. (wholesale, E. E. Craig, Mgr.), C. A. Butson, W. L. Hartwell; news- papers and job printing, the Woodsville News, Commercial Printing Co. (F. E. Thayer, Mgr.), notaries, R. T. Bartlett, E. B. Mann, F. S. Wright, H. B. Knight, R. U. Smith, F. L. Sargent; opera house, E. B. Mann, Mgr., J. M. Howe, Treas .; osteopath physicians, Vernon H. Edson, Anna Edson; painters, C. H. Bickford, C. O. Whitcher, Joseph Barney, F. H. Palmer; paints, oils and paper hangings, E. B. Mann & Co .; photog- rapher and photo supplies, G. F. Hobart; physicians, E. M. Miller, O. D. Eastman, S. K. Dearborn, F. E. Speare; plumbing and heating, R. R. Scruggs, pool rooms, F. H. Battis, R. E. Henderson; sewing ma- chines, D. R. Rouhan; shoe dealers, Batchelder-Libbey Co., R. Stahl & Co., E. A. Sargent; stables, Davis & Clough, Kimball & Nutter (sales); tailor, E. Gobeille; undertaker, D. R. Rouhan; variety store, V. L. Car- penter & Son; wood dealers, Kimball & Nutter, James Kearney.

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History of the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire, Part 47

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