USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > Rochester > History of the town of Rochester, New Hampshire, from 1722 to 1890, Vol. I > Part 35
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Mr. Barker married Oct. 2, 1823, Mary, eldest daughter of Hon. Nathaniel Upham, and died April 1, 1834, leaving two children : - David, who died at the age of thirteen, and Mary.
3. BENJAMIN BARKER, born Rochester Oct. 16, 1799. He lived for a time at Great Falls in the employ of the manufacturing company, but soon returned to Rochester. In 1838 he went as far West as St. Louis, thinking to find a place to locate, but was disappointed in the country, and was glad to get back. He and
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his brother soon after began the manufacture of blankets, but were not very successful. He then " kept store" for some years, and was afterwards in the lumber business with his brother. He owned a sawmill and gristmill for many years, and at one time manufactured lasts in the upper part of the mill. In 1834 he was chosen deacon in the Congregational Church, and few men ever filled that office more worthily; for the most prominent thing in Deacon Barker's life was his religion. He was a praying man, constant at the social meetings of the church, and in his closet, or "prayer retreat," still reverently remembered by his surviving daughter. He was also a working man, holding Sunday Schools for years in Milton and other out-districts. The good results of his labor cannot be estimated. A man who met him in Boston said " Mr. Barker, I owe all my success in life to you, -to that Sunday School at Milton."
Deacon Barker married first, Aug. 13, 1827, Eliza W. March, who died Jan. 14, 1836; second, Jan. 14, 1839, Charity Tebbets, who died Sept. 1, 1874. He died Dec. 18, 1873. He had three children : - George W., Caroline M., and Eliza M., only the second of whom is now living.
4. Thomas Simpson Barker, born Rochester July 24, 1802; went South and died there March 31, 1826.
5. William Barker, born Rochester Dec. 23, 1804; went South to settle his brother's estate, and died there Sept. 23, 1827.
6. George Barker, born Rochester Oct. 19, 1807. He was in business, as mentioned in previous sketches, with his brother and brother-in-law, in trade and manufacture. He resided seven years in Dover, and later in life removed to South Berwick, Me., where he died Oct. 18, 1880. He married, June 25, 1831, Emily J. March, who died at South Berwick, Me., Aug. 6, 1871. She was a lovely Christian woman, and much lamented. They had six children : - Charles A., Anna S., residing in South Berwick, Me., George F., residing in Chicago, Ill., Jonas M., John M., and Emily M., of whom only two survived childhood.
7. Maria Barker, born Rochester Dec. 14, 1810; died Oct. 1, 1819.
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HON. NOAH TEBBETS.
NOAH TEBBETS, the youngest son of James and Mary (Nutter) Tebbets, was born Dec. 26, 1802, at Rochester, where his ancestors had lived for more than one hundred years. His father, James Tebbets, was a blacksmith, and had his "shop" for many years on Main street where the old " Union Store " building now is, and was a man noted for his industry and integrity. He died at Rochester in November, 1854, aged eighty-two years.
Noah Tebbets as a boy was fond of books, quick to learn, and determined to be educated. He was prepared for college at the academies at Wakefield, N. H., and Saco, Me., and entered Dartmouth University, but when the Supreme Court of the United States demolished the University, he, with others, entered Bowdoin College, where he graduated in 1822. In college his scholarship was extensive and thorough. He was the third scholar in his class at graduation. At commencement the salutatory was assigned him, and later a Latin "Master's oration."
After his graduation Mr. Tebbets studied law in his native village with Jeremiah H. Woodman, Esq., for three years, and in 1825 was admitted to the bar of York County, Me., and com- menced practice at North Parsonsfield, Me. In 1827 he moved to " Middle Village," Parsonsfield, Me., and entered into part- nership with the Hon. Rufus McIntyre, then a member of Con- gress. His practice extended through York County, Me., and " Old Strafford " in New Hampshire.
June 3, 1828, he married Mary Esther, the eldest daughter of J. H. Woodman, Esq., of Rochester. He remained at Parsons- field seven years, where he was superintending school committee nearly all the time, and by his labors and care brought the schools of Parsonsfield to a very high degree of excellence.
In 1834 Mr. Tebbets removed to his old home, Rochester, where he continued the practice of his profession until his death. As a lawyer he never favored litigation, nor allowed his clients to become involved in the law, if he could keep them out of it. He believed that his highest duty as a lawyer was to be a peacemaker. As a citizen he was public spirited and constantly striving to advance all social and educational enterprises. He was promi- nently active in re-establishing the social library in this village,
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and was the first librarian under the new charter (p. 183). He was ever the friend of progress, and believed that ancient ideas should give way to a more liberal policy, and did much for the improvement of schoolhouses, teachers, and scholars. He was an active temperance man in those early days when it cost something to denounce the sale of liquors, and by his addresses throughout the State sought to interest the people in the temperance cause. His sympathy with his fellowmen was unbounded, and was shown not alone in words but in action as well.
In politics Mr. Tebbets was a Democrat and received the full confidence and support of his party, while he did not hesitate to oppose the party leaders when their actions seemed to him unwise or unfair. He had no taste for political preferment, and though often urged to be a candidate for office, he refused to leave the quiet and peace of private life. He loved his home and his family, and would not have surrendered them for all the shadows of fame that might flit across his path. In 1842, when the laws of the State were to be revised, and a great struggle was made in the temperance interest, he consented to be a candidate for the Legislature, and was elected by a large majority. In the Legislature he was a member of the judiciary and banking com- mittees. In January, 1843, Mr. Tebbets was appointed by Gov- ernor Hubbard a circuit justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He accepted the position with feelings of great distrust of his own ability, but how well he discharged the duties of the office can be told by the following tribute to his memory from his life-long friend, the late Hon. John P. Hale, who, in speaking of Judge Tebbets's appointment and character as a jurist, said : - ". Perhaps injustice is done to no one else when it is said that no appoint- ment is recollected to have been made by the Executive of this State, within the memory of the speaker, which was received with more satisfaction by the whole community than was that of Judge Tebbets. His character, disposition, and habits of thought emi- nently qualified him for success in the office to which he was promoted. His great integrity, his even temper, his suavity of manner, his clear perception, his modest distrust of his own powers, which induced him to listen patiently and respectfully to the arguments and suggestions of others, and the clearness and dis- tinctness with which he announced the results to which his reflec-
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tions had led him, were such estimable and rare qualities for a judge, that his friends and the public had already formed and were cherishing the most favorable anticipations of his reputation and usefulness in his judicial career. He never sank the gentle- man in the judge, but always treated every one who had occasion to transact business with him on the bench, with such urbanity and kindness, that it is believed he never, even by accident, wounded the feelings of the humblest individual who approached him."
A friend who knew him from childhood says that "the trait of character which most eminently distinguished him was, after all, his integrity. It seemed impressed on his whole mien, and to be beaming forth in all his actions. Even a stranger when intro- duced into his presence seemed at once to feel the assurance that he was dealing with an honest man, and that no concealment or disguise was necessary."
While holding a term of court at Gilford, in August, 1844, he was suddenly attacked with typhoid fever, which compelled him to adjourn the court and return home on the 30th of August. He died Sept. 9, 1844, at the age of forty-one years and eight months, and his body lies buried in the "Old Graveyard" in Rochester.
Judge Tebbets had six children, one of whom, 'James, died in infancy.
His eldest son, THEODORE TEBBETS, was born in Parsonsfield, Me., April 1, 1831. A studious and scholarly boy, he found himself at his father's death mainly dependent upon his own exer- tions to secure an education. He fitted for college at Phillips Academy at Exeter, and graduated at Harvard with high honors, in the class of 1851. He was professor in the classical depart- ment at Phillips Academy one year, and graduated from the Divinity School at Cambridge, Mass., July 17, 1855. On the 19th of September following he was ordained pastor of the First Uni- tarian Society at Lowell, Mass. After preaching two Sundays he was prostrated by a severe illness which compelled his resignation. He so far recovered that he was installed pastor of the First Uni- tarian Parish at Medford, Mass., April 15, 1857. He was forced a second time to resign on account of failing health, and died in New York City, Jan. 29, 1863. He married, in 1857, Ellen,
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daughter of John Sever, of Kingston, Mass., whom he left a widow with one son, John S. Tebbets, now residing in Kansas City, Mo.
The only daughter of Judge Tebbets, Sarah C., is now living in Rochester. She married Hon. George C. Peavey of Strafford, who died in 1876.
Hall W. Tebbets, his third son, died at Lynn., Mass., in 1880, leaving a widow and four children.
Charles B. Tebbets, the fourth son, is one of the wealthiest and most extensive shoe manufacturers in Lynn, Mass.
The youngest son, Noah Tebbets, bears the name of his honored father, on the day of whose burial he was born. He is now a lawyer residing in Brooklyn, N. Y. Two of these sons, Hall W. and Noah, were in the Union army in the war of the Rebellion, and Noah Tebbets was one of the "Guard of Honor" over the remains of the late General U. S. Grant from Mt. McGregor to Riverside Park (p. 231).
Judge Tebbets's widow died at Rochester aged seventy-one years, beloved and blessed by all who knew her. She was indeed a fitting companion for such a man as Judge Tebbets, and her memory will ever be precious to the many who came in contact with her.
In conclusion it can be truthfully said that the fine qualities of Judge Tebbets's character were harmonized and crowned by a religious consecration. He reverently attributed all that was good and true in his character, to God working in him to do and to will, while he humbly confessed how far he fell below the stand- ard of Christian manliness presented in the Gospel and life of Jesus. In public and in private, at fitting times, he avowed his dependence on God for all his happiness in this life, and for all his hopes of immortality, and he trusted in the love of our Savior, always seeking to cherish a sense of his accountability to the Giver of every good and perfect gift.
WHITEHOUSE.
BY HON. CHARLES S. WHITEHOUSE.
The village of Gonic (an abbreviation of the Indian name Squam- anagonick) is pleasantly situated in the southerly part of Roch- ester, on the banks of the Cocheco river. Sixty years ago it had
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only a dozen or so houses of the old-fashioned New England type and value. It had two small stores, where the farmers of that neighborhood exchanged their limited produce for an equally limited amount of calico, pins, needles, molasses, salt fish, and New England rum. It had no village church, no commodious schoolhouse, no flourishing factory, no neat dwelling-houses. It had a sawmill, which was run in the spring and the fall of the year to get out the small quantity of lumber required by the farmers. It had a gristmill, which was run the year round, "by fits and starts," as the harvest of corn, wheat, and rye required. It had a brickyard where some one, usually the village store- keeper, nearly every summer made a small kiln of seventy-five or a hundred thousand bricks, to be peddled out the following fall and winter. Its few inhabitants had but a limited amount of this world's goods, and not very exalted aspirations for the treas- ures of the world to come. The neighboring farmers were fore- handed, well to do, had good farms, were fairly industrious, went to church once in a while, were politically zealous at town meetings, patriotic at fall musters, and generally bibulous and hilarious at both, paid their taxes (with some grumbling), and were sublimely indifferent to doing things in any way different from the way their fathers did before them.
In this year of our Lord 1888, Gonic presents a very different appearance from sixty years ago. Its pretty, modern-built church, with an average congregation of nearly two hundred, its Sabbath School of seventy-five or more children, its convenient school- house with ninety to a hundred scholars, its prosperous factory paying over $4,000 monthly for labor to its one hundred and fifty industrious and contented operatives, its seven brickyards making from sixteen to twenty million bricks yearly, and consuming eight to ten thousand cords of wood in burning them, its stores, post-office, and at one time a bank, its public hall, engine company, machine shop, blacksmithy, railroads and depots, neat dwelling- houses, social and moral societies, make it what it is, a pleasant and thriving New England village. And this change, this growth in moral, intellectual, and material prosperity from sixty years ago, is largely if not wholly the result of one man's enterprise and energy, and that man was NICHOLAS VARNEY WHITEHOUSE.
The Whitehouse family is supposed to be of Welsh extraction,
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and tradition has it that three brothers (the common legend of American ancestry) emigrated to this country in its early settle- ment, and made homes in different parts of New England, and that from these descended all who bear the name of Whitehouse. This tradition is vague, as most traditions are.
The parents of the subject of this paper were Israel and Olive (Varney) Whitehouse. The father, Israel Whitehouse, was born near Gonic in 1778, and died March 1, 1841. He was brought up a shoemaker and cobbler, in the fall, winter, and spring going from house to house, with his kit of tools rolled up in a leather apron, repairing the old and making new boots and shoes for the neighboring families. He was a well-meaning man with but limited education, simple in his habits, somewhat choleric in tem- per, as his sons often found out, contented to drift along in the world if he had enough to eat and drink, and indifferent in some ways about his family. The mother, Olive (Varney) Whitehouse, was ambitious, and as far as the limited means at her command would permit, strove diligently to better her own and her chil- dren's welfare, and it was from her that two of the boys derived many of the qualities which afterwards made them prosperous business men and respected citizens. Their children were three sons, Nicholas, Enoch, and Silas. The youngest (Silas) learned the trade of shoemaker, as did his brothers, and worked at it most of the time in the winter. In the summer he was a brickmaker. He was a pleasant, amiable man, kind and obliging, but with little force and energy. He was never married, and died of consump- tion April 1, 1854, aged 43 years.
Enoch, who was born Sep- tember 1, 1807, left the family roof when sixteen or seventeen years of age, to learn the hatters' trade with his uncle, Isaac Varney, an honored, influential, and wealthy Quaker of North Berwick, Me. After completing his apprenticeship, he worked as a journeyman in Haverhill, and in Chelmsford, now Lowell, Mass., for a few years, when his health becoming impaired, he returned to Gonic. He was in company with his brother Nicholas a few years as a country storekeeper. Afterwards he had a store in Dover, N. H., for a short time, and finally moved to Rochester, where he ever after lived. He was a very industrious and prudent man, keen at a trade, and saving of his gains. The stinted ad- vantages of his boyhood life and early manhood made him so,
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and the prosperity of later life failed to eradicate or modify these qualities. He did not possess the restless enterprise and energy of his elder brother, Nicholas, nor that buoyant, enthusiastic spirit which characterized the latter, but his careful business habits, joined with a naturally cautious judgment and frugal tastes, brought him a handsome competence. He married Mary Ann McDuffee of Rochester, daughter of John McDuffee, in 1837, and died March 8, 1879, aged seventy-two years, leaving a widow, but no children.
Nicholas, or as he was generally known by his simple initials, N. V. WHITEHOUSE, was born in Gonic, Oct. 22, 1802, in a house that stood on the spot now occupied by the dwelling of William H. Felker. His early boyhood was one of deprivation and neglect, with but little effort on the part of his father to give him the benefit that the district school of six weeks in summer, and the same number in winter, might have afforded. It was work, work, from his carliest remembrance. When twelve years old he was put to work, like most boys of poor parents, either helping his father or the neighbors in such work as a boy of that age could do. After this time of life the six weeks' summer schooling was dis- pensed with, and what education he obtained was from the winter term. When fifteen years old he had learned something of the shoemakers' trade and often accompanied his father in his shoe- making trips among the neighboring farmers. When but seven- teen years old he walked to Boston, the journey occupying two days, and found work with one "Master Griggs," in Brookline, Mass. Here he remained two years, working on a farm for $10 per month, and his board. At this early age he showed a marked ability for general business matters. This, united with a genial manner and unquestioning honesty, gained the confidence of - " Master Griggs" so fully that, in a month or two after hiring with him, he was intrusted with the driving of the market wagon into Boston every other morning and selling the products of the farm. At the end of two years he returned to Gonic. The fol- lowing spring he worked in Salmon Falls, in the wheel pits and foundation trenches of the factory which was being built there that season. He remained at such rough work but a few weeks, as it was gradually breaking down a constitution which, at this period of his life, was rather delicate. Again he returned
N.V. Whitehouse
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to Gonic, and this time became clerk for John Plummer, in the village store, a cheap wooden building which then stood on what is now the village square. Here he exhibited the same aptitude for business, the same energy and enthusiasm, that characterized him all through life. When not quite twenty-three years old he built the brick store, still standing, though recently greatly im- proved and modernized by his son, stocked it with the goods required at that time in a country store, and began trading for himself.
The following year he fitted up the story over the store as a dwelling, furnished it in a simple manner, and on the 31st day of July, 1825, did what he used to say was " the best day's work of his life," by marrying Susan, the daughter of Stephen and Elisabeth (Chesley) Place.
For the following three or four years he was busily engaged in trading, when, having trusted out much of his stock and " hard times " coming on, he failed. His creditors took what remained of his stock and, in the language of those days, "shut him up." Nothing daunted or discouraged, he began to look about to get started again, and about this time went to New York to try for something, but getting homesick after three weeks' absence from his young wife and family, he returned. His well-known integrity, energy, and ability soon brought to his assistance friends who helped him start again, and in 1830 he was once more embarked in trade. In the fall of 1833 he closed up his store in Gonic, moved to Dover, and opened a store on "the Landing," as it was called, in the Sawyer brick block. The surroundings being dis- tasteful to him, or the business not proving all he anticipated, he moved back to Gonic the following spring.
For the next five or six years he made business lively in the little village. He bought the old sawmill and privilege, enlarged and improved that and the gristmill attached, built an addition for making linseed oil, another addition for making plow handles and plow beams, enlarged the gristmill and improved the pro- cesses for making flour and meal, bought and operated wood lots, manufactured lumber, and dealt largely in wood with parties in Dover, made bricks, ground plaster, and established wool carding and cloth dressing. This latter business gave him reputation beyond the limits of his native town. The mill was esteemed the
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best equipped for those times, doing the best work of any in the county, and brought custom from every town in the county, and many beyond. It was the beginning of what was to be the leading occupation of his life, and the present Gonic Mills.
About 1838 certain parties by the name of Hibbard and Carr leased the wool-carding rooms, and persuaded him to enlarge them and put in additional machinery for the manufacture of guernsey cloth, and also to become responsible for some of their wool purchases. Things went along smoothly for a while, when one night Hibbard and Carr ran away, leaving him a small lot of stock, supplies, and unfinished goods, some debts, and but a slight knowledge of the details of manufacturing. Not a whit discouraged by the unpromising outlook, he quickly took in the situation of affairs, and soon after associated himself with John Lees and Edmund E. Thompson, two practiced manufacturers, and continued the business for a few years, but soon became embarrassed again. The business was badly managed, a vexatious lawsuit growing out of the loan of the surplus revenue from the town followed, and he was again harassed. His property was attached, and complete failure again stared him in the face. Many of the older citizens of the town can yet recall the intense feeling raised by this quarrel over the "surplus revenue," which was intensified by Mr. Whitehouse's pronounced partisanship as a Whig. The town meetings, quarrels, lawsuits, discussions, and wrangles were interminable. The town sold his property at auction, his credit was gone, and his honesty and integrity impeached. In spite of all this, good was to come out of it. His energy and activity disarmed his enemies, his patience and fortitude shamed the lukewarm and indifferent, and a small circle of stanch friends stood by him through thick and thin. It showed his townsmen the kind of man they had to deal with, and that however adverse circumstances might combine to prostrate him for the time, he
couldn't be kept down. No sooner was the pressure slacked
than he was on his feet again. He never lost his pluck and
energy. When matters looked the worst, his life-long friend, John McDuffee of Rochester, bought up the whole property, leased it to Mr. Whitehouse, and relieved him from his perplexities and embarrassments. This was about 1843, and for the next five years he had prosperous sailing. He enlarged and improved the mill
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property, changing much of the old machinery and adding new, converted the mill into a woolen flannel mill, discarded some of his minor operations, and settled down to be a flannel manufacturer. Parker, Wilder & Co. of Boston were associated with Mr. White- house, and the business connection formed then continued for thirty-five years, almost to the time of Mr. Whitehouse's death. This business association with Parker, Wilder & Co. has been of incalculable benefit to the town of Rochester. From it have grown the present extensive establishments at Gonic and East Rochester, and, consequently, two thriving villages. But Mr. Whitehouse's success was doomed to a fresh misfortune. It seemed as though the "fickle jade, Fortune," was determined to test his powers of endurance and fortitude, for on the night of the 20th of June, 1848, the whole property was consumed by fire - not a stick left standing, and only a small amount of un- finished goods and stock being saved. This was a severe blow, and for a few days this earnest, intrepid man seemed crushed. But his mental depression was brief. In less than a month he had made a settlement with the insurance companies, cleared away the wreck, and was cheerily preparing plans for rebuilding. The following year (1849) found a new mill built and four sets of machinery in successful operation. He continued till August, 1859, when, with Parker, Wilder & Co., he organized the present Gonic Manufacturing Company, and became its president, agent, and manager, and continued so until his final retirement from the company in 1877.
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