USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Wilton > History of the town of Wilton, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, with a genealogical register > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
Lawyers. For many years Wilton had no lawyers. Hon. Charles H. Burns, J. L. Spring. Esq., and W. H. Grant, Esq .. have officiated in this capacity. Mr. Burns resides in Wilton, but has his office in Nashua.
* See Chapter XIII.
154
HISTORY OF WILTON.
AUTHORS.
Abiel Abbot, D. D., wrote a History of Andover and a Genealogical Register of the Abbot Family.
Samuel Abbot, Esq., scientifie investigations. Hon. Charles H. Ather- ton in his Memoir of Mr. Abbot, printed in the Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society, Volume VI., pages 205-211, says: " In 1828 when the 'Pneumatic Paradox, as it was called, was attracting the at- tention of scholars, and no satisfactory explanation of it had been found, he first suggested its true theory. This was afterwards experimentally proved by his nephew. Prof. Joseph II. Abbot, in an article published in the American Journal of Science and Arts. In 1837-8 he detected the fallacy of the instrument called the . Geometer,' to which the attention of Congress was then called as a discovery in magnetism. by which the lat- itude as well as the North Pole was supposed to be indicated."
John Abbot. a work on mechanical inventions made by him.
Joseph Hale Abbot, articles in the American Journal of Science and Arts, and in scientific reviews.
Samuel Barrett, D. D .. tracts and sermons : a volume of sermons, with a memoir by Lewis G. Pray.
Thomas Beede, sermons and orations.
Warren Burton, District School as It Was; The Scenery Shower; Cul- ture of the Observing Faculties in the Family and the School; Helps to Education in the Houses of our Country: Cheering Views of Man and Providence: White Slavery, a New Emancipation Cause.
1. 1. Livermore. Priestley's Corruptions of Christianity. abridged : Lectures to Young Men : Marriage Offering : Christian Hymns, compiled : Commentary on the New Testament, 6 volumes: volume of discourses ; War with Mexico Reviewed: reviews and occasional sermons: Anti- Tobacco; History of Wilton.
Sarah W. Livermore, fugitive poems.
Ephraim Peabody, fugitive poems; a volume of sermons, with a memoir by S. A. Eliot ; Christian Days and Thoughts; Lessons on the Old Testament : occasional sermons and articles in reviews.
Sewall Putnam, History of Wilton.
Uriah Smith, traets and pamphlets; Diagram of Parliamentary Rules ; A Word for the Sabbath: The United States in Prophecy: Synopsis of the Present Truth : The Sanctuary and its Cleansing; Man's Nature and Destiny : Thoughts on the Books of Daniel and the Revelation.
Rebecca Smith, a volume of poems, with the life and experience of her daughter, Annie R. Smith.
INVENTORS.
John Abbot invented an hydraulic motor.
Samuel Abbot, machinery for the manufacture of potato starch.
Daniel Cragin. a bending machine for the manufacture of dry meas- ures, &c. : a machine for sealing measures : a machine for pressing in the bottoms of measures and boxes, and other machines for labor saving in the manufacture of measures and boxes.
155
INVENTORS.
Henry A. Holt, a universal wood worker, combining in one machine a double saw-table, an irregular moulder. a buzz planer, a boring machine and a lathe: a box machine for manufacturing locked corner boxes, in which the stock is ent to a proper length, and both ends are eut to lock together at one operation.
Henry Hopkins, machinery for manufacturing boxes.
Messrs. Flint and Gray. a patent on a wagon seat.
Uriah Smith, an automatic folding school seat, patented, and manu- factured by The Union School Furniture Company.
Lucinda Spalding, a method of weaving seamless bags.
1
CHAPTER XV.
LIBRARIES, READING ROOM, AND READING CLUB.
The opportunities for reading in the early days were rare. The age of magazines had not arrived. Even professional libraries of law, medicine and theology were meagre. Juvenile literature was almost unknown. The Bible and a few school books were the chief reliance for moral and intellectual stimulus. But the Hebrew and 'Christian Scriptures contained an education in themselves, and, as Prof. Huxley has declared, formed the basis of our English civiliza- tion. Watts's Psalms and Hymns and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Prog- ress were in most homes, and they were no small factors in mould- ing the character of the New England people. But variety is the spice of life, and soon tastes were developed which demanded a wider intellectual range and a more generous culture.
COLUMBIAN LIBRARY.
The Columbian Library was incorporated June 9. 1803; Ebene- zer Rockwood, Jonathan Burton and Philip Putnam being the corporate members. The records and catalogne of the library have not been found. Among the books, which are recalled, were Ihunt- er's Sacred Biography, Miss Edgeworth's Tales, and John Adams's Defence of the Constitution of the United States, in three volumes. About the year 1820 the company was dissolved and the books were sold or divided among the stockholders.
READING ROOM.
The Free Sunday Reading Room was established about 1830, by the exertions of a few public-spirited persons, in the hall of Has- kell & Whitney's brick store near the church. It was designed especially for the benefit of those who lived at a distance and could not return home during the short intermission on Sunday between the forenoon and afternoon services. Books and tracts, chiefly
157
LIBRARIES.
upon moral and religious subjects, were provided, and were open to the use of all without payment. Afterwards the books were re- moved to the church. and what remained were merged in the Sun- day School Library, which also furnished reading for young and old. All were destroyed when the old meeting-house was burned.
MINISTERIAL LIBRARY.
The Ministerial Library, connected with the First Congregational Church, and designed especially for the use of the pastor, was established and incorporated Dec. 22, 1824 ; the corporate members being Rev. Thomas Beede, Eliphalet Putnam, Ezra Abbot, Samuel Abbot and Timothy Parkhurst. The active mover in this matter was Rev. Abiel Abbot, D. D., of Peterborough, who was also one of the earliest founders of free public libraries in this country. The library is placed in charge of five trustees, who fill their own board. The annual income of an endowment fund is devoted to the purchase of books. The number of volumes is over 1000. The library is kept in the parsonage in the centre of the town, and is open to the use of all the ministers of the town of whatever denomination, and also to citizens of the town by payment of a small subscription.
PARISH LIBRARY.
A Parish Library, also connected with the First Congregational Church, and accessible to all the members of the parish, was opened for circulation in October, 1838. It contained about four hundred volumes. It was kept in the old meeting-house, and when the house was burned the books were all destroyed.
SUNDAY SCHOOL LIBRARIES.
The Sunday School Libraries, belonging to the several churches, contain a large number of volumes, which are for the use of the teachers and scholars of the Sunday schools of the religious socie- ties.
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
This enterprise was due originally to the labors of Rev. Aubrey M. Pendleton, pastor of the Unitarian Church in East Wilton from 1869 to 1875. Mr. Pendleton had previously been actively con- cerned in the Free Public Library of Peterborough. In March, 1871, he began to collect funds, and continued to do so during that and the following year, 1872. The subscription paper read as follows :
In order to establish and maintain a Public Library in Wilton, we, the undersigned, agree to give the sims severally set against our names ; said
158
HISTORY OF WILTON.
Library to be located in the village of East Wilton, and to be held for the use and benefit of all the inhabitants of the town on such terms and condi- tions as shall be hereafter determined by the subscribers.
The whole amount raised was $2059, and almost all of it was giv- en by residents of Wilton. Mr. Pendleton collected $1500 ; Hon. Charles H. Burns and Mr. Pendleton together, $151; Mr. Burns alone, $145 ; Mr. P. H. Putnam, $174; while $20 or $30 came in without solicitation.
A Library Association was then formed and nine trustees were chosen, three of whom were elected annually, as three went out of office each year. A room was hired, and all the funds were ex- pended in books and furniture. The library was then opened to the subscribers of the fund, of whom there were two hundred.
In March, 1872, the town of Wilton voted to raise and appropri- ate $500 annually for the library, and it was opened to all the in- habitants of Wilton, and to non-resident subscribers. The vote of the town was as follows :
Voted, That the sum of $500 be raised and appropriated for the sup- port and improvement of the Wilton library; the sum to be expended under the direction of the selectmen and the trustees of the Wilton Li- brary Association : and the said library to be open to the free use of all the citizens of said town in consideration of said appropriation.
Rev. Mr. Pendleton and Hon. C. H. Burns were the principal managers, and a fine selection of books was made. While it was adapted to popular wants. standard authors only were admitted, and trash was resolutely kept out. It was pronounced by compe- tent judges to be the best village library they had seen. The town appropriated $500 a year for two years. Two thousand volumes were collected, and a catalogue was prepared and printed. The annual circulation of books reached about 7000 volumes to 750 per- sons.
But December 2, 1874, a fire broke out in a building adjoining the library and destroyed almost all the improvements that had been made in the village for fifteen years. The library was one of the victims. The book cases, part of the furniture, nearly the whole edition of the printed catalogues and 750 volumes of books were destroyed, to the value of $1271. The insurance made good two-thirds of this loss, so that the actual money loss was about $400. This was a most disheartening set-back to the library, and a great discouragement to its chief founders and helpers, among whom Mr. Pendleton was the devoted leader.
159
LADIES' READING ROOM.
The town failing to continue its appropriation of $500 annually, the library was endowed with $2000, of which a friend of Mr. Pen- dleton contributed $1200. The sum of $500 was set apart from the insurance, and $300 was procured elsewhere. A dollar a year was then charged for the use of the library, and the enterprise was put upon its feet again. By March, 1876, the library had an in- come of $350 a year. The charge to nsers of the library was re- duced to seventy-five cents a year. Other donations were made and the endowment rose to $3000, and later to $4200. The annual tariff for users of the books was reduced in 1876 to fifty cents. In 1877 the town appropriated $300 a year. on the guarantee of $200 for its support by the founder of the library, and subsequently $250 on the guarantee of $250 from the same source. As soon as the town made appropriations, the library was made free to all the citi- zens, and so continued till the time it was destroyed. New books were added, and at the close of 1880 they numbered 3100 volumes.
But January 20, 1881, came another devastating fire." The li- brary was entirely destroyed, not a book or other article escaped, except what chanced to be outside of the building. As the books had been called in for the annual examination, but a small number remained in the hands of the readers. The property destroyed was worth more than $4000, and as the insurance had lapsed, it was all irretrievably lost. Various propositions have been offered and at- tempts made since the fire to revive the library. but thus far notli- ing has been accomplished. The remaining effects and the unex- pended funds have been placed in the hands of five trustees. It is understood that measures will be taken ere long to reestablish a free public library.
THE LADIES READING CLUB.
The literary society known as the Ladies' Reading Club was organized February 10, 1886, for the purpose of mutual improve- ment and amusement. The meetings are held fortnightly on Wednesday evenings from October to July. The officers con- sist of a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, and an executive committee of three, all of whom hold their respec- tive offices for six consecutive meetings. The librarian is elect- ed for one year. The yearly membership fee is twenty-five cents for active members and fifty cents for honorary members. A li- brary of one hundred and fourteen volumes has been purchased with the money received from the membership fees, and from the
160
HISTORY OF WILTON.
proceeds of a public entertainment given April 28, 1887. There is also a balance in the treasury. The whole number of members for the year ending June 30, 1887, was forty-six.
The following list gives approximately the number of volumes in each of the libraries remaining in Wilton :
The library of the First Congregational Church, 400 volumes; of the Second Congregational Church, 700: of the Baptist Church, 400; of the Liberal Christian Church, 400; of the Ladies' Reading Club. 114; in school district No. 5. 500; Ministerial library, 1000.
There are also valuable libraries in town belonging to professional men and other citizens.
CHAPTER XVI.
MILLS, MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIES.
When Benjamin Franklin travelled through New England more than a hundred years ago, he forecast its destiny, for he predicted that its numerous and rapid streams, with their immense water- power, would make it a great manufacturing community. The dis- tinctive qualities of the inhabitants, their intelligence, skill and in- ventiveness, lead to the same conclusion. The mechanical power and the character of the people both combine to make mechanics and manufactures leading interests. Water and wind will usually be cheaper propellants than steam and electricity. The course of events since Franklin's time has justified his sagacity. For the oc- cupations of countries are largely determined by climate, geological formation, and the race of men. The sea-coast and islands make a community of sailors, merchants and fishermen. The plains and prairies destine men to husbandry ; the hills and mountains, to graz- ing and mining ; the brooks and rivers, to manufactures, and so on to the end of the chapter ..
The early settlers of Wilton had to contend with many difficul- ties. They had no mills, no boards, no clapboards, no shingles. The first burial was in a rude coffin, hollowed out of a tree, with a slab hewn from the same tree for a lid. The houses were built of logs, and earth supplied the place of mortar. The axe was the chief tool. For glass, mica was used ; for floors, the ground ; for window-frames, lead ; for chimneys, clay ; for plates, wooden platters ; for roofs, split rails and earth ; for guide-boards, blazed trees, and for road-beds, "corduroy," or logs and poles. At first there was no mill to grind the corn nearer than Dunstable, and aft- erwards Milford. The pioneer must travel miles and miles along a solitary path through the wild woods with his bag of grain on his back, or on a sled, to reach a grist mill, and must return the same weary way to supply breadstuffs for his wife and children.
162
HISTORY OF WILTON.
The grantors of the town set apart two lots of eighty acres each to encourage the building of mills. The first mill in Wilton was the grist mill at Barnes's Falls, built by Samuel Greele, the grand- father of Deacon Samuel Greele of Boston. It was on lot number 14, in the fourth range, being one of the lots drawn for mills. The first saw-mill was that of Jacob Putnam, situated a short distance west of the southeast corner of lot number 15, and was very near the line between the lots numbered 14 and 15 in the fifth range. A saw and grist mill was built by Captain Nathan Hutchinson at the East village on the same spot where one stands now. On lot number 20 in the fourth range, on the brook that flows by the pres- ent glass-house at South Lyndeborough, a few rods above where it unites with Stony River, a grist mill was erected by Dea. John Bur- ton. These mills were all erected before the Revolution. At the West village on Gambol Brook, near where the knob factory of Samuel Smith now stands, was formerly a mill for grinding grain and fulling cloth which, was owned by Uriah Smith. It was burned in 1781 or 1782, but the remains of the dam may yet be seen. Rev. Jonathan Livermore built a saw mill on Gambol Brook about the time of the Revolution. His son Nathan carried on the milling business for many years. The site is still occupied by his descend- ants for a saw mill, with machinery for making shingles and staves.
At the time of the centennial celebration in 1839, the following record was made of the industries of the town :
There are now eight saw mills in operation: five grist mills: three tanneries : two fulling mills: one bobbin factory: one cotton factory. burnt in 1839, and not vet rebuilt ; one starch factory, owned and carried on by people from Wilton [Messrs. Ezra and Samuel Abbot] but itself in the border of Mason: four blacksmiths. ten shoemakers, including jour- neymen : two cabinet makers; one hatter: three stores : two taverns.
One of the most serious changes in the industries of the country has been the virtual abolition of the system of apprenticeship. When our forefathers came over the sea, they brought the Euro- pean method of initiation into the industrial trades by a long period, usually seven years, of careful training and practice. When an ap- prentice, or negro boy, ran away it was customary to advertise him and offer one cent reward. It is questionable whether mechanical work is as thoroughly done under the present system as under the old one, where years of careful training and practice under experi- enced master workmen habituated the apprentice to accuracy and skill in every detail of his trade.
163
MANUFACTURE OF POTATO STARCH.
ORIGIN OF THE MANUFACTURE OF POTATO STARCH, BY ABIEL ABBOT.
Before the War of 1812 potatoes were easily raised in this region, with larger crops per aere than at present. But there was little sale for them, and the low price did not admit of transporting them far to a market. These facts suggested to the mind of Samuel Ab- bot, Esq., the desirableness of obtaining the more valuable part of the potato in a form less bulky, and suited to a greater variety of important uses. Discussion of the matter with his brother, Deacon Ezra Abbot, led them to consider by what means this might be ac- complished. Experiments to obtain sugar resulted only in grape sugar, or glucose ; and this idea was abandoned. Starch in small quantity for domestic use had been previously obtained from pota- toes by means of a hand grater and subsequent washings. But to obtain it in large quantity with machinery and a greater power was not known ever to have been attempted. To do this successfully would not only create a better market for potatoes, but it promised remuneration for expense by furnishing a valuable article for ex- tensive consumption. Mutual interchange of ideas on the subject finally led to action.
Early in the fall of 1811, as appears, a building about twenty feet square was erected, at his own expense, by Ezra Abbot, near his house, the lower story for a horse to turn a shaft connected in the second story with machinery for washing and grating the pota- toes ; the same story to have apparatus for cleansing the starch with water made to flow in from a small brook, also a set of wide, shallow drawers with fire underneath for drying it, the whole cost- ing about $200. Months passed before the machinery was all in place. Meanwhile its object excited much wonderment in the neighborhood. From an evasive answer to some inquisitive per- son, that it was "to make Free-masons by water," it was styled " Free-masons' Hall." After it was started " no admittance " on the door continued the mystery some time longer.
The first starch seems to have been made in the spring of 1812 ; and for five or six years Ezra Abbot continued to manufacture starch in mild weather of fall and spring, from potatoes only of his own raising, kept in winter in his house cellar and taken to the mill as wanted. He had machinery to work only about a dozen bushels at a time, and did not work every day ; he made one year about 6000 pounds of starch, at the rate of eight pounds of starch to each bushel of potatoes. For a market, he made repeated visits to Bos-
164
HISTORY OF WILTON.
ton, Salem, Newburyport, Andover and other towns, selling some and leaving some to be sold on account ; he sold at eight cents a pound, but traders often put it as high as twenty cents. It was used in fam- ilies for puddings and otherwise, and was recommended by drug- gists as a delicate food for invalids. About 1817 JJohn Smith, Esq., of Peterborough, after many failures, succeeded in making of it good size for use in cotton manufacture ; and about the same time Mr. Paul Moody at Waltham experimented with it for the same purpose, long in vain, but with hints from Mr. Smith, and having a lot of it on hand, persevered till he succeeded and wanted more. Ezra Abbot's first mill was an experiment, to try machinery and a market. Being now well assured of both, Ezra and Samuel Abbot decided to build on a larger scale.
In 1818 the site of an old disused sawmill in the near border of Mason was purchased, and much labor expended in preparing the spot by blasting out rocks to make room for potatoes, building : stone dam, quarrying other stone for the mill, &c. Up to this time Samuel Abbot had been in practice of the law at Dunstable and afterwards at Ipswich, Massachusetts. But in November, 1818, he removed to Wilton, and henceforth the brothers gave their united energies to the business under the firm name of E. & S. Abbot. For many months they were much together, especially in evenings and far into the night, consulting and devising the requisite machin- ery, much of which differed from that in the first mill and involved the application of new principles. As their plans became settled, the construction of the machinery was put in the hands of different mechanics under bonds not to divulge. As the spring of 1819 opened, the farmers of adjacent towns were engaged to plant more or less land with potatoes, and in the fall to bring them the crops at a fixed price per bushel. Meanwhile the building was erected. 60 by 30 feet, the lower story of stone, with an L for storing starch. To get in all the machinery and properly adjust it, they found to be a work of time. It was March. 1820, when they com- menced operation on their three thousand bushels of potatoes, and before all were worked up the water became warm and required the use of ice. At first they received potatoes by measuring loads for cubic inches and reducing to bushels, in a year or two by weighing loads and empty carts in a frame, but in a few years they changed the frame for Fairbanks's platform scales. There being no law for the weight of a bushel of potatoes, they adopted as an average of weighings by themselves and neighbors, the rule of sixty-four pounds
165
MANUFACTURE OF POTATO STARCH.
to the bushel. As crops were light or abundant, their stocks of pota- toes varied in quantity : being for seven years less than six thou- sand bushels a year: for eleven years, between six and ten thousand ; for seven years, from ten to fifteen thousand ; in other years more ; their largest stock, in 1830, was over twenty-six thou- sand bushels. Farmers within six or eight miles or more found it a cash market for their potatoes. The crops of different seasons differed in quality ; and some kinds were richer in starch than others. "Long Reds," for instance, yielded well per acre, but not so well in starch.
Experience and observation gradually taught the partners im- proved processes, especially in securing the finer, lighter starch, which, being of nearly the same specific gravity as the light part of the refuse or " grains," had been difficult to separate. But their best skill did not suffice to obtain all the starch of the potato. Of the ten, twelve or more pounds in a bushel, according to quality, more or less escaped with the "grains," to be fed to cattle and hogs, and more or less flowed off with the potato juice into the brook to donble and treble the hay crops in the meadows below. The amount of starch obtained per bushel in different years ranged from seven and one-third to nine and two-thirds pounds : being in five years less than eight pounds, in seven years more than nine pounds, and averaging about eight and one-half pounds per bushel of 64 pounds. The quantity of starch manufactured also varied greatly, from 10g tons in 1820 to 1193 tons in 1830-31; being in the first six years 161 tons, in the next six years 357 tons, and in the seven years 1840 to 1846, 255 tons. The data for several years are not found. There was immediate demand for their starch at Peterborough and at Waltham. In a year or two cotton mills were erected in Lowell, Nashua and other places, which called for starch, and there was no difficulty in disposing of all they could make. The wholesale price ranged at different times from three and one- half to five and one half-cents a pound.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.