USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > Rochester > History of the town of Rochester, New Hampshire, from 1722 to 1890, Vol. I > Part 46
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The first drug-store was one side of the old Hanson store (p. 394), where Humphrey Hanson kept an assortment of roots and herbs with a few drugs. As the business increased he moved into the adjoining store, which he occupied till his death in 1824. Joseph Hanson, Jr., then took the business till he also died after a few years. It was then sold to Dr. Joseph Smith, who employed Dominicus Hanson as clerk, whose father bought him the business. After two years, feeling the need of more education, Dominicus sold the medicines to the doctors, and let the store to Weeks the hatter. While he was away at school, the store burned down. After graduating from Hopkinton Academy, he returned and re- built in 1837. His new store had the finest front and the largest panes of glass of any in the county, and was packed from cellar to roof with almost everything nameable in the drug line (p. 396). This was all burned in December, 1880. Mr. Hanson rebuilt immediately, and in June, 1884, leased the store to R. Dewitt Burnham, the present occupant.
The change from the old methods of tailoring began early in the present century. John Roberts, Jr., came to Rochester in 1812, and opened a tailor's shop at the lower end of the street, near the present railroad crossing. His business was large, ex- tending to all the neighboring towns. He soon added that of merchant tailor, and after a few years removed to where J. J. Meader now is. He took into partnership his former apprentice, Thomas C. Davis, who carried on the business for many years
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with James Pirie for assistant and afterwards partner. Perhaps the change in this business, since the century came in, is not so great as in some others, yet Roberts would certainly have been surprised to step into the large clothing stores of to-day, the oldest of which is that of the Feinemans, who began business here nearly forty years ago. They deal in both custom and ready-made goods, making a specialty of the former, and having the largest custom business in this vicinity.
Blacksmithing must have been nearly coeval with farming, but like other trades its beginning is obscure. One of the early black- smiths of the last century was Jacob Hanson, who lived where his grandson Samuel now resides. From about 1780 to 1800 Josiah Wentworth had a blacksmith's shop where is now Dodge's building on Central Square, and lived in a small house opposite. Silas Wentworth came from Rockport, Mass., in 1834, and built a small shop where the townhouse now stands. The next year he bought the old schoolhouse (p. 165), aad moved it to the same spot for a blacksmith's shop. It was afterwards moved to Went- worth street, where it is still occupied by his son.
Before 1812 Eliphalet Horne had a nail shop in part of his mill. He bought old Spanish hoops from hogsheads and casks, cut the nails and headed them by hand. About 1850 James M. Fessenden began the manufacture of files near where the "upper mill " stands, and continued the business for about ten years. The first tin-worker here was Alfred D. Kelley in 1849, followed the next year by Meader & Glidden.
In 1877 C. E. Clark started a machine shop. In 1888 he built a foundry and established the "Rochester Foundry and Machine Company." They have a large general business, while making a specialty of Mr. Clark's inventions. A foundry for brass and iron was started in 1879 by Harrison Soule. Nine years later he built a much larger shop, where he makes several hundred Hussey plows every year, and does repairing for factories in all the region. J. W. Berry and W. N. Morrison are connected with this foundry as machinists. In 1883 J. H. Duntley opened a shop for "jobbing and edge-tools."
T. H. Edgerly started a carriage shop in 1865, where he makes the higher grades of light carriages, and has established a wide
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reputation for first-class work. In 1883 Edwin Welch began the manufacture of heavy carriages.
Gold, silver, and nickel electro-plating is carried on by E. H. Corson. He also makes a specialty of bicycles; is the author of the "Star Rider's Manual of Bicycling;" publishes the "Star Advocate," a bicycle monthly with a circulation of one thousand, and has made several inventions, especially the "Corson Star saddle," which is coming into general use among "cyclists."
In 1889 a very important new industry was introduced into Rochester by the Kiesel Fire-Brick Company. They own ledges of mica silex on Blue Job, which will furnish an unlimited supply of suitable material. The rock is first crushed and pulverized, and after molding each brick is subjected to a pressure of two hundred tons before burning. The product is claimed to be the best brick in the world, able to resist the most powerful acids and alkalies, as well as the most intense heat. They manufacture all sizes and shapes of bricks, blocks and slabs, crucibles, cupels, muffles, stove-linings, etc. The general manager is G. M. Brown, with H. C. Ingraham as superintendent of the works. When running in full, some two hundred workmen will be employed.
The gradual development of lights for public and domestic use, from the torch of "fat pine" and the tallow candle, through whale oil, "lard oil," camphene, " burning fluid," gas, gasoline, "rosin oil," and kerosene, to the electric light of the present, is one of the best illustrations of progress in modern civilization. After considerable agitation of the subject, an Exeter company in 1885 put in six street lights, and about three times as many store lights on the Ball electric system. By January, 1887, the street lights had increased to thirty-one. This company sold to the Thomson-Houston company, who put in a new plant for incandescent lights in the fall of 1886, and extended the lines to Gonic and East Rochester, now running seventy-five street lights, besides lighting nearly all places of business.
As already suggested, tanneries, on a small scale, were very numerous in the early days. Seven years were then deemed
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necessary to produce good leather, and the farmers largely did their own tanning. Now the best leather is produced in a few days, by the power of steam, and no farmer can furnish hides enough to pay for the equipment necessary to tan them. No accurate list can now be given of the shoemakers of this period who went from house to house to ply their trade (p. 137), nor of their immediate successors, who labored in more permanent shops. No kind of business has had more changes than this, passing through the time of "poor old Hannah binding shoes," when half-made shoes were distributed from family to family for " stitching and binding," to the immense establishments of to-day where every process from cutting to pegging is rushed through by machinery with almost incredible rapidity. The beginning of what may be called shoe manufacturing in Rochester was early in the year 1843, when Richard Hayes of Natick, Mass., started a small factory here, continuing the business about five years. Abram A. Perley was in a store opposite the bank, about 1848-50, where he cut shoes and had them made up by such as would take them. He was followed by Joseph Varney & Co., and after- wards by Levi W. Allen. James Bodge cut and manufactured shoes in Dodge's building about 1853, and was followed by J. D. & D. J. Evans. Micajah Wentworth began the manufacture of " brogans " in a small shop above the Bridge, in 1854. The next year he went into company with David Hayes, in a shop at the corner of Wakefield and Summer streets. In 1857 he was in company with W. B. K. Hodgdon in what is now Worcester & Greenfield's store. After one year they built a large double shop near where the railroad station now is. In the fall of 1859 they each built separate shops near by, and in 1860 let the large shop, one half to N. T. & J. B. Kimball, and the other half to Hutchins & Coburn. The same year S. J. & R. B. Wentworth had a shoe factory at the end of Wentworth street. In 1858, before hiring of Hodgdon & Wentworth, N. T. Kimball & Son from Farmington had started a shoe factory in Hall's old tannery, which had been unoccupied for seven years. Charles Johnson continued the business there for some years after. In 1869 sundry citizens built a shop on Elm street, which they let to J. L. Duntley, who carried on an extensive shoe business for thirteen years. A company of citizens built a shop back of Wakefield-street schoolhouse, which
32
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they leased to F. W. Breed of Lynn, Mass., for five years from January, 1885, with the privilege of then renewing the lease for another five years.
One of the most important industries of Rochester is the exten- sive leather and shoe business of the Wallaces. Ebenezer G. and Edwin Wallace are twin sons of Rev. Linzey and Abigail (Gowell) Wallace of Berwick, Me., where they were born January 5, 1823. At the age of seventeen Ebenezer was apprenticed to Oliver Hill of Berwick to learn the trade of a tanner and currier, while his brother remained on the farm. His pay was forty dollars a year and his board. But by working extra hours and holidays, he managed to save over a hundred dollars during his apprenticeship. The two brothers then went to Exeter Academy, taking the full course in preparation for college. While here, they met expenses by tanning calf-skins during the hours that could be spared from school duties. Nevertheless, by diligence in study, they found themselves promoted to the first division, when it became neces- sary to divide the class to which they belonged. After leaving Exeter, Edwin returned home and worked on the farm summers, teaching school in the winter. Ebenezer went to Rochester, and worked at his trade in the tannery of Horne & Hall, and also at Furber's in Farmington. Seized with the gold fever, he sold his stock to his brother, and joined the "Bay State Company," who went to California in the spring of 1849. He returned after three years of fair success in the mines. In May, 1853, he married Sarah E. Greenfield (p. 420), and after a year in Concord, returned to Rochester. They have two sons, both graduates of Dartmouth (p. 459), and three daughters, graduates of Lasell Seminary, Au- burndale, Mass. Ebenezer G. Wallace served two years as repre- sentative to the Legislature, and was a member of the Constitu- tional Convention of 1876.
During the absence of E. G. Wallace in California, his brother Edwin had been engaged in the leather business at Rochester, with varying success. One incident indicates his characteristic energy and integrity. Having become financially embarrassed on account of the failure of parties who owed him considerable sums, his principal creditors voluntarily offered to settle with him for fifty cents on a dollar. But he firmly refused, saying that every man should be paid in full, and so managed that every demand
EG Wallace
EdwinWallace
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was met, without a single note going to protest. Mr. Wallace was a member of the House of Representatives in 1870, and of the state Senate the following year. He married, first, Susan R., daughter of William Whitehouse of Rochester, who died leaving one daughter, the late wife of H. D. Jacobs of Brooklyn, N. Y. About 1859 he married Mary E., daughter of Seneca Landers of Woodstock, Me., where she was born January 13, 1836. She died November 10, 1889, leaving one son and two daughters. She was one of the " best known and most universally beloved" of Rochester people. A member of the Congregational church, her life, characterized by " Christian womanliness," was one which was well " worth living." The funeral text, " She hath done what she could," was specially appropriate to her life in all its public and private relations.
In 1858 the firm of E. G. & E. Wallace was formed. One took charge of the tannery, and the other of the curry-shop, em- ploying six or eight hands. After a few years they bought out the concern which had been owned by Onion & Richards, and gradually enlarged the business. At the beginning of the war they were largely tanning calf-skins, and the market suddenly failed them. They concluded to work up the stock themselves, and thus began boot making. Soon after they also began the shoe business on a small scale, employing Lafayette Wiggin to superintend the work. He was a man of skill and experience, trusted by the firm and popular with the help, and was kept at his post as a tried and successful manager for nearly thirty years. In June, 1883, he retired from business on account of failing health. From small beginnings the business of the Wallaces has become the largest of the kind in the State. Their tannery works occupy five acres of ground, and their boot and shoe business is in two brick factories, one of three stories, 36×179 feet in dimen- sions, with a wing 36×65 feet; the other of four stories, 50×120 feet in size. These are supplied with the best modern machinery operated by a steam engine of one hundred and twenty horse power. About four thousand pairs of shoes are turned out daily, and their goods have a high reputation for quality, style, dura- bility, and cheapness. Besides their Rochester business, they have large interests in other corporations in various parts of the country. Thoroughly identified with the best interests of the town, to their
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enterprise and energy Rochester owes much of its present growth and prosperity.
The physical features of the town evidently marked it out as " foreordained " to manufacturing. The extensive water-power of the Cocheco and the Salmon Falls rivers would certainly be utilized. Saw-mills and grist mills were, as everywhere, an early necessity. As no one man in those times was able to build such mills, the farmers of a neighborhood would join together and build one on shares, cach share entitling the owner to the use of the mill for one day. Such a twenty-four share saw-mill was built very early where the "Upper Mill" stands. David Barker bought this mill which he afterwards sold to the "Mechanics Manufacturing Com- pany." It remained standing till the brick mill was built about
1862. A grist mill was established lower down on the opposite side of the river, which after many years became dilapidated by neglect and was finally swept away by a freshet. Benjamin Barker built a saw and grist-mill on the same side of the river below the present property of the "Norway Plains Company." Hanscam
& McDuffee bought and remodeled these mills, and carried on the business, with a grain store in McDuffee Block a part of the time, from 1876 till 1887, when Fremont Goodwin began the manufac- ture of paper boxes, and a year later established the firm of Goodwin, Trask & Company. The saw and grist mills are still retained, but their principal business is the manufacture of both paper and wooden boxes, house frames, and fittings. Using an- nually one hundred tons of straw-board, and forty tons of paper, and more than six hundred thousand feet of lumber, they supply not only the manufacturers of this town, but largely those of Dover and Great Falls, also of Springvale and Saccarappa, Me. In May, 1887, George E. Varney built a steam grist mill on Me- chanics' Square, and has built up an extensive grain trade. A sash and blind factory with a large business was established in 1876, near the Union Railway Station, by J. H. Meserve.
About 1788 Jabez Dame and Col. John McDuffee established a fulling mill on the present site of the "Norway Plains Upper Mill." Afterwards Caleb Dame carried on business here for a time and then sold to David Barker, Jr. The real beginning of the modern type of woolen manufacture in Rochester was the introduction of a carding machine by Eliphalet Horne in 1811.
HELIOTYPE PRINTING CO.
NORWAY PLAINS COMPANY'S NO. 3 MILL.
BOSTON, MASS.
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His shop, owned by David Barker, was near where the " Middle Mill" now stands, and people came from far and near to see the wonderful process of making rolls by machinery. This building was burned the following year, and Mr. Barker erected a two- story mill on the same spot, where in addition to carding, he introduced the manufacture of cotton yarn. Barker & Chapman carried on business here for many years, and about 1833 began the manufacture of blankets.
In 1834 the "Mechanics Company" was incorporated, consist- ing of Algernon S. Howard, Richard Kimball, Joseph Anthony, and their associates, all of Great Falls. They built the "Lower Mill," where they made blankets for six or seven years, when they failed, having sunk their whole capital, and paid no debts.
In 1837 the "Rochester Company" was organized, but never did any business.
In 1842 George Gledghill took the "Upper Mill" at Rochester Village and advertised that he had twenty years' experience, and would take wool on shares or by the yard, to manufacture into "blanketing, flannels, fulled cloth, cassimere, satinet, gray-mixed, indigo blue, or any other color, -country produce taken for work, -agents at a distance to forward wool or cloth."
After the failure of the Mechanics Company, the "Gonic Com- pany" was formed, but met with poor success, and in 1846 N. D. Wetmore and J. D. Sturtevant bought a controlling interest in the property. The first year they cleared $20,000, and then sep- arated, Wetmore selling out his share.
John D. Sturtevant, of German descent, was the fifth of the eight children of Perez and Dorothy (Kimball) Sturtevant, and was born at Center Harbor July 4, 1816. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a cloth dresser at Peacham, Vt. By at- tending school winters he obtained a good common school edu- cation by the time his apprenticeship was ended. For the next ten years he was engaged in woolen manufacture in various places from Vermont to Virginia. In 1840 he was appointed superin- tendent of the Whitney Blanket Mills at Lowell, Mass. In 1842 he bought one of the mills and carried on the business for about four years, when he came to Rochester. By honesty, industry, and prompt business habits he acquired a large fortune. He mar- ried October 16, 1841, Adeline, daughter of Joshua and Dorcas
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(Jones) Bradley, and died at Boston, Mass., July 5, 1889. They had three children : - Edwin A., who died at the age of twenty; Frances A., wife of Amasa Clarke of Boston, and Ellen B., wife of Edward Steese of the same place.
The "Norway Plains Company," in which Mr. Sturtevant was the leading spirit, was chartered in 1846. They had a paid-up capital of $60,000, and eight sets of machinery in a group of wooden buildings, running upon blankets. Exposed at that early period to little competition, they were steadily successful. At the World's Fair in New York in 1853, their blankets took the pre- mium over all competitors. They gradually rebuilt and enlarged their plant till, after the lapse of twenty years from the first start, all the old wooden buildings, except the store-house, had been replaced by brick ones; a new mill had been erected upon the upper dam; the machinery had been increased from cight to thirty sets, and the paid-up capital from $60,000 to $250,000. The stim- ulus imparted to the blanket manufacture by the peremptory wants of the Government during the civil war, gave rise to a very severe competition. From 1883 to the present time the business has afforded a very inadequate return upon invested capital.
BANKS.
The growing activity of trade and manufactures soon demanded banking facilities of its own for the thriving village of Norway Plains (p. 369).
* ROCHESTER BANK was incorporated by an act of Legislature approved July 5, 1834, and the first meeting of the stockholders was held the 16th of August following, when by-laws were adopted, and James Farrington, Nehemiah Eastman, Charles Dennett, Moses Hale, John Greenfield, Simon Chase, and John A. Burleigh were elected directors. September 29th John McDuffee, Jr., was chosen cashier and held the office till the closing of the bank, twenty years later. It was voted that the bank business hours be from 9 to 12 A. M., and from 2 to 5 P. M., but in no case to be after sunset. March 2, 1835, James Farrington was chosen president, and the bank began business May 1, with $100,000 capital, and ninety stockholders, of whom John McDuffee and
* The following sketch of the Rochester Banks was mainly furnished by Henry M. Plumer, Cashier.
HELIOTYPE PRINTING CO.
NORWAY PLAINS COMPANY'S NO. I AND NO. 2 MILLS.
OSTON. MA99
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Dominicus Hanson are the only survivors. February 20, 1850, it was voted to increase the capital stock to $120,000. On the expi- ration of the charter at the end of twenty years, it was voted to close the bank and sell its real estate to the new bank then being organized. The last board of directors consisted of Simon Chase, James Farrington, John Greenfield, Charles Dennett, James C. Cole, Dominicus Hanson, and Jeremy Wingate. The presidents from the beginning were James Farrington four years, John Greenfield three years, and Simon Chase the last thirteen years.
The new Rochester Bank was incorporated by an act approved June 30, 1853, and began business April 1, 1854, with a capital of $80,000. The directors were John McDuffee, Jr., Charles Dennett, James C. Cole, Dominicus Hanson, Stephen M. Mathes, Enoch Whitehouse, and Watson Hayes. John McDuffee, Jr., was chosen president, and Franklin McDuffee, cashier; both of whom retained their offices through the existence of the bank.
It is interesting to listen to incidents in the history of the bank, and the early methods of business as now related by the vener- able president whose life has been identified with the banking interests of this town for about sixty years, - a case almost without parallel in the whole country. The deposits for the first twenty years averaged less than $5,000, while the town now carries a business deposit in the banks of this village of about $125,000. At that time about one draft a week was drawn, it being all written out with the greatest formality and painstaking.
The first visit of the bank commissioner, then newly appointed, will illustrate the difference between the past and the present methods of business. It was in the spring when the traveling was very bad, not more than two or three sleighs passing through the day. Mr. McDuffee was somewhat ill, and concluded he would close the bank at noon for the day. Just as he was leaving, a man met him, saying he was the Bank Commissioner, had come from Exeter to examine the bank, that it wouldn't take long, that he didn't know anything about banks and didn't expect to ; that he had taken the office only for the pay he could get, and the better he was paid the sooner he would get through. So they went back to the bank, and Mr. McDuffee showed him his last statement. The man read it over, saying, "Real estate - where is that ?" "This building," was the answer. "Specie - where is
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that?" "In those bags." "Notes- where are they?" "In that drawer." The statement was then copied and sworn to, and the examination was over. He then asked about the bank at Wolfe- borough, which was known to be in a precarious condition, and wanted to know if they had money so as to pay him, for the traveling was bad, and he didn't want to go up there, unless he was likely to be paid for it.
This being the only bank between Dover and Canada received a large share of business from drovers passing through this sec- tion of the State. Counterfeiters were plenty, as their trade was made easy by each bank having a different plate for its bills. They, as well as forgers who were not so rare customers as bank officers might wish, could easily escape, as the present facilities for detection and capture did not then exist.
One day a man brought several notes for discount, representing himself to be one Nutter who was reputed to be a man of pro- perty. Mr. McDuffce asked him to return in an hour, as he must first consult the directors. While they were considering the mat- ter, he happened to observe that the notes, though dated one or two years apart, were all cut from the same piece of paper. Just as he made the discovery, the man came in. Placing the notes together showing that they had been written on the same half sheet of paper, he asked him to explain. The man seemed only amused, saying that he had used the same kind of paper for years, and it must have happened by a wonderful coincidence. It oc- curred to Mr. McDuffee that Nutter would be known at Dodge's hotel. Asking the man to stop with the directors, he went over to Dodge's. Just as he was stepping into the hotel, he looked back and saw that the man had sauntered out of the bank, and was standing on the steps. Not finding Mr. Dodge he came out at once, and then saw the man jump over the fence and run. John Greenfield started in pursuit with his little dog, but taking to the nearest woods the man escaped. Mr. McDuffee watched for him with a sheriff, near Hayes's crossing, half the night, but without success. It afterwards appeared that the man, whose name was Canney, went over into Maine, where he was soon after sent to the state prison for life for robbery and murder.
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