USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > Mirror to America : a history of New London, New Hampshire, 1900-1950 > Part 9
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 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62
Joseph M. Clough, who enlisted as private in 1861, returned to New London in 1865 as Brigadier General, one of the highest ranking officers in the army.
* Descendants
89
NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900 - 1950
EPISODE SEVEN
FROM HISTORY'S RECORD
Revolutionary Soldiers, 1812 Soldiers, Civil War Soldiers, World War Soldiers.
World War Soldiers - Frank Butler, Arthur Heath, Herbert Poole, Matthew Kristl, Duncan Rowe, George Pierce, Charles Gordon, George B. Watts, Fred Rayno.
History: It is written on my record, the story of the years, for I am History. First, the clearing of the wilderness and the building of the home from which the pioneers of New London have gone forth to build again.
History: They have builded a town, a New London. Instead of towers and battlements, the hills. Instead of kings and queens, the un- known hewers and builders. Instead of pomp and circumstance, the moving on in quiet ways of uprightness and integrity, and an honorable growth and progress; a New London - whose battlements are the strength and beauty of the hills.
History, Martha Stanley.
NOTES FOR CHAPTER FOUR
The quotation at the head of this chapter is by Donald C. Peattie in American Heartwood, New York, 1949, p. 107.
1Lord, History, pp. 12-16.
2ibid, pp. 545-52.
3The original Revolutionary War musket used by Moses Trussell during the struggle for American independence was presented to the Town of New London at the time of the sesquicentennial in 1929. It is now preserved in the glass case on the left side of the Town Hall; state- ment of Mrs. Flora Trussell Blood to the Writer, June 7, 1950. Another feature of the sesquicentennial was the appearance in the pageant of the chaise of Governor Anthony Colby, handsomely restored and refurbished for the occasion.
Part Two: A New Variety in Human Relationships
5
The Coming of the Automobile and Electricity
"The study of . .. local history is important because it is a study of our national roots. Many of the great moments of our national history were played on a local stage and have a local history. The American Revolution began on Lexington common and at Concord bridge."
- Whitefield J. Bell, Jr.
1. Beginnings of the Motor Age
The immensity of the revolution wrought in American life by the invention and popularization of the automobile is better appreciated today than during the early years of the century. The vantage point of 1950 gives a perspective that was lacking to contemporaries who watched the "horse and buggy age" imperceptibly give way to the era of gasoline and motor.1 The effect of the automobile on highways in New London since 1900 has been discussed in Chapter III. In this chapter other local ramifications of the motor age will be examined.
In order to understand the situation in New London, one must first note some of the larger aspects of the automobile. On August 31, 1899 Mr. and Mrs. F. O. Stanley of Newton, Massachusetts, drove their "Stanley steamer" up Mount Washington in the first successful ascent of the famous New Hampshire peak by motor car. It fired the imaginations of
93
94
A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
that generation and fittingly inaugurated the motor age in the Granite State.2 The next year, the country witnessed the original Automobile Show in New York. In 1901 for the first time in our history the picture of an automobile appeared on a U. S. postage stamp. In 1906 came the first Glidden Tour, and in 1908 the world-renowned "Model T" was in- troduced.3 The upward curve of automobile registration in New Hampshire is indicative of what was happening in New London as well as throughout the nation:4
Registration of Passenger Cars and Trucks in New Hampshire
Year
Number of Registrations
1905
704
1915
13,449
1925
81,222
1935
115,924
1945
122,861
1950
151,000
The first motor car in New London was purchased by Dr. C. A. Lamson in 1903, and a year later Henry W. Kidder likewise acquired an automobile. By 1906 the Town Report mentioned three automobiles as being locally owned. In 1912 there were eleven, and from that year forward the curve of ownership rose steadily until in 1949 690 ownership permits were issued by the Town Clerk. Meantime, the posssession of horses steadily declined from a figure of 299 in 1900 to 56 in 1949. The last notable "Coaching Parade" in New Lon- don's history came in August, 1906, with 30 teams, 20 horse- back riders, several tallyhos, and many floats.5 In 1911 Charles E. Shepard abandoned his historic Concord Coach in favor of a "Stanley steamer," and operated that on the Potter Place run for many years.6
Another striking result of the coming of the motor car to New London was the rapid decline of steamboat traffic on
95
NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900 - 1950
Lake Sunapee. Wrote one of the key figures in that business many years later:7
"On a beautiful July morning in 1910, as the steamboat 'Armenia White' was swinging into Sunapee Harbor, Captain Frank Woodsum blew the whistle signal from the pilot house. The writer was the Purser on the 'White' at that time, and the whistle meant that Captain Frank wanted to see me in the pilot house.
"As I entered the door, the Captain said: 'Do you see what I see there at the dock?' I took the glasses and looked, and there at the landing stood the first Model-T Ford we had seen in Sunapee. Captain Frank, arms folded and steering the ship with feet and knees, as he so often did, said solemnly, "There, my boy, is the end of the steamboat.' How right he was may be seen from the following facts.
"In that year, 1910, the 'Lady Woodsum' burned and sank near Lake Sunapee Station. In 1917, the 'Armenia White,' the queen of the Lake, was decommissioned, tied up at Georges Mills, and a few years later sold for scrap. In 1925 the 'Weet- amo' was stripped and the hull sunk just off Pinecliff Landing. The 'Ascutney' stopped running in 1932, and was sold to the junkman. In 1933 the 'Kearsarge,' the last of the old-time fleet, was tied up at Lake Sunapee Station to rust for several years, and was finally sold to the same junkman.
"The end of the 'Kearsarge' marked the end of an era, an interesting and romantic era. Automobiles brought the end to steamboating on Lake Sunapee and proved Captain Woodsum to be a true prophet."
As motor cars increased in number, it became obvious that persons and places intended for their service and repair were essential. The cars of the pre-World War I era carried acetylene tanks on the running boards to furnish gas for lighting, and these must frequently be replenished. Constant "tinkering" on the machinery was necessary, and tires often caused trouble. In the early days it was natural to take an ailing car to a skilled blacksmith for repairs, (as to Eugene Adams in Elkins), but this proved to be only a temporary expedient. What was really needed was a garage and service station specializing in that field alone. In 1911 the Kidder Garage was opened by William M. Kidder, at the Four Corners on New London Hill, on the very site of the homestead in which he had been born, but which had burned in 1906. In 1912 Joseph Cutting, Mr. Kidder's brother-in-law, joined him in the business and it became the Kidder Garage Com-
96
A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
pany. This partnership was dissolved in 1928, but the old name was revived in 1945 when William Foster Kidder re- turned from his service in World War II, and became a partner with his father.8
The sweep of the automobile age soon prompted the establishment of other enterprises to serve the motor car. In 1917 A. Stanley Little, son-in-law to Charles E. Shepard, opened a garage business at the Shepard stables. In 1924 he purchased property on Main Street from Fred A. Pressey, and moved the garage to its present site. Many additions and improvements to the buildings came in ensuing years. After a disastrous fire which destroyed his principal structure in August, 1944, Mr. Little erected the handsome fireproof building in which business was carried on in 1950. Following his return from military service in World War II, Arthur S. Little, Jr. entered the firm in partnership with his father; in July, 1947, the enterprise was incorporated under the name, A. S. Little and Son. Following the senior Little's death in 1948, Arthur S. Little, Jr. brought his brother-in-law, Herbert O. Williams, into the business, and these two were the pro- prietors at mid-century.
Soon other garages appeared. Early in the 1920's two such establishments not functioning in 1950 were active. One was Goings' Garage on the road between New London and Blodgett's Landing, operated by George M. Goings, and the other was Cranehurst Garage on Main Street, operated by Allen O. Crane and son. In 1934 A. Louis Rayno built a service station at Low Plain, keeping it in successful opera- tion until his death in 1938. Forrest Loverin then ran it until 1942, after which Carl Holman became the proprietor. It was acquired by Edwin F. Edmunds in 1950. In the autumn of 1938 Harold W. Buker, Jr. began managing a newly-built service station on the Main Street of New London, next to the drug store, keeping it in operation until the beginning of World War II. Following the close of hostilities, it was re- opened by Edwin F. Edmunds in 1945. G. Winchester Dean began his successful garage and filling station on New Lon-
97
NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900 - 1950
don's Main Street in 1940. In the 1920's Mason Emery had a garage in Elkins, but it was discontinued after the great depression of 1929. Not until Roy Marshall opened his new garage and service station in 1947 did Elkins again have such a business of its own.
The town's first taxi was probably that operated by George Gordon, handy man at the Kidder Garage in its open- ing years. Allen O. Crane and son, Charles E. Shepard, and Elmer E. Adams and son soon followed in the business of carrying passengers for hire. In the 1940's Karl E. Sholes, Earl Rowe and son, and Edwin F. Edmunds all built-up efficient auto livery services. In 1949 Edwin F. Edmunds was granted a permanent permit by the Interstate Commerce Commission for charter operations by bus from New London to all points in New England and in New York State. He enlarged his fleet of buses and cars, and served many Colby Junior College students and summer residents. He also operated daily bus service to Potter Place, alike in winter and summer; and, in cooperation with William A. Colburn, transported the children to the New London Central School. Regular service to Newport and Claremont, however, in 1950 was still being furnished by an out-of-town company.9
Thus the internal combustion engine on wheels - pas- senger car, truck, tractor, and bus - came to New London. Pessimists might decry the gasoline age, and sigh nostalgically for the horse and buggy era.10 The hitching rails, watering troughs, and horse-sheds disappeared; blacksmith shops and stables became only a memory; and people travelled more easily in and out of New London to Newport, to Claremont, to Franklin, to Concord, or even further, than they had once moved'from their farms to the village stores. Traffic on Main Street was so heavy in the summer months that a full-time police officer at the Four Corners became necessary after World War II. On a Saturday afternoon in the fall, a football game at Hanover would attract dozens of New London cars. Sunday night movies in Newport were equally popular. New London lost its old-time isolation, and, while still a charm-
98
A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
ing New England village, became closely linked with the mobility and variety of American life.
2. Light and Power Since 1900
New London's situation in 1900 with regard to artificial light has been set forth in Chapter One. Lamps burning kerosene were the standard type of lighting equipment in homes and in public places. Many were the schemes devised to get brighter and more effective light from this type of illumination. The lure of newer methods of lighting, how- ever, proved irresistible to progressive minds in the Town. As early as 1902 an enterprising group of Elkins citizens talked of a locally-owned hydroelectric power company for that vil- lage, but nothing came of the plans.11 Four years later, how- ever, a different kind of endeavor achieved success. In May, 1906, the New London Acetylene Gas Company was formed; its officers were Charles E. Shepard, president; William M. Kidder, general manager; and N. W. Colby, secretary-treas- urer.12 The new concern promptly erected a generating plant in the shape of a small stone building, still standing in 1950 behind the original Academy on Main Street. From this place of manufacture the gas was carried by underground pipes to the New London Baptist Church, the Town Hall, the stables, the hotel, the two local stores closest to the Four Corners, and to about twenty residences in the vicinity. By late June of 1906 the "gas works" were in operation, and a month later several acetylene street lamps were functioning on an experimental basis.18
At the March meeting in 1907 the Town voted $300 to the new company for the permanent operation of fifteen gas street lights in New London. A similar appropriation was made annually for the next few years. Despite its superiority to kerosene lamps as a source of illumination, acetylene gas, however, was not the final answer to the local lighting prob- lem. Plant operations were often difficult in cold weather,14 and the area of coverage was too small to meet the needs of most of the people in Town. The thoughts of New Londoners
99
NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900 - 1950
turned increasingly to electricity as a source of light and power for the community. In March, 1915, the voters ap- proved an ordinance granting the Sunapee Electric Light and Power Company a franchise to construct and maintain electric lines along the public highways of New London.15 On Octo- ber 7, 1915, this corporation voted to build a transmission line from its existing generating station to New London, and on December 28, 1915, the same company purchased the fran- chise of the New London Acetylene Gas Company for the sum of $2,000.16
Construction on the transmission line into New London began in the fall of 1915 and was completed in the spring of the following year. During the intervening winter months William M. Kidder, assisted by Ernest E. Welch of Franklin, "wired" a number of houses and business establishments on Main Street. In April, 1916, the age of electricity dawned in New London. The first structures to be lighted by electric bulbs were the home of William M. Kidder - then in the building which in 1950 housed the First National Store - , and the general store at the Four Corners. Even before these were turned on, however, the March Town Meeting had ap- propriated $400 to be expended in maintaining fifty electric lights along the streets in the center of the Town.
Such were the beginnings of electricity in New London. Steadily in the years which followed the service was extended to other portions of the Town. By 1930 the power lines were in Elkins and had reached the northern end of Pleasant Street. In that year street lighting appropriations exceeded $1,000 annually, while in 1950 the cost of such service had risen to $2,000. There was a continual demand for more and better illumination along the roads, and each year the Budget Board and Town Meeting struggled with the problem. As electricity became a commonplace, the poles along the highway seemed increasingly unsightly to many, and a feeling grew that they ought to be removed to back streets or else the transmission lines along Main Street should be put underground.17
Perhaps even more striking, however, than the changes
100
A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
in street lighting was the impact of electricity on the homes and places of business in Town. In poetical form Mrs. Gay has skillfully described the transformation which rapidly took place in the life of most local people:18
A FAITHFUL MAID
In nineteen hundred and sixteen I felt I had become a Queen, For instead of working day and night, I found living a great delight.
For an old lady came to work for me And she's the best help I ever did see. She works all day, and the night alike And never gets mad when treated right.
She milks the cows, churns the cream, Sweeps the floors up nice and clean, Washes the clothes a snowy white And irons them too, to my delight.
She mixes the bread, stirs the cake,
Heats the oven to bake; Bakes it to a golden brown, Then off she goes with me to town.
When we return she lights the house, Although she is quiet as a mouse. She cooks the dinner, whips the cream, While I sit down to think and dream.
She brings me music from afar, Tells who is the latest star, What soap to use to become fair, What tonic to put on my hair.
What bread to eat to make me strong, How to keep from going wrong. What vitamins and pills to take To drive away the stomach ache. I could not ask for more, you see, And her name is Electricity.
Sober statistics tell the same story. In 1920, for example, fewer than 12% of New Hampshire farmers had electric power available to them; in 1950 almost 95% of Granite State farms were electrified. While these percentages were for the State as a whole, they were closely applicable to New London itself. What this means in a reduction of drudgery and in safety and convenience on the farm, only those who lived with- out electricity can appreciate.
101
NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900-1950
With the arrival of electricty the great recreation of the early twentieth century came to New London. In 1920 the first movies were shown in Whipple Memorial Hall.19 Spons- ored by a group of Colby Academy students, with the hearty support of Headmaster Gaius H. Barrett, they were pro- jected by an inexpensive machine surrounded with cloth curtains in lieu of an operator's booth. The next year, Wil- liam M. Kidder made arrangement with the Town whereby he bought a first-class projector, erected a fireproof booth in the gallery of the Town Hall, and began his long service as motion picture entrepreneur for the community. By a mutu- ally satisfactory agreement, from the beginning Colby Academy and later Colby Junior College assumed responsibil- ity for movies in the academic year, while Mr. Kidder himself handled them in the summer. With the single exception of 1948, there have been movies in New London at all seasons of the year since 1921. For the first nine years, the local mov- ing pictures were "silent"; Merle C. Gay played the drums and Helen Pressey frequently furnished the piano accompaniment deemed essential to motion pictures in those days. In 1930, however, the first equipment for sound films was installed by Mr. Kidder, and has been steadily improved since.20
The coming of electricity meant the appearance of a new variety of business in New London. Among local men who first specialized in wiring and electrical installations were William M. Kidder, Ernest E. Welch, Charles E. Gay, and George MacDonald in Elkins. Several of the Town's stores handled electrical appliances, as did some individuals in the community. The first local radios were home-made sets built by Nathaniel H. Colby and Raymond Knight during World War I. Station KDKA began its national broadcasts in 1920; crystals sets and bed-spring aerials rapidly gave way to radio tubes; the Federal Radio Commission was established in 1927; and radio speedily became a commonplace in New London homes. Locally, a good business in the care and servicing of radio equipment was carried on by Claude M. Prew. By the 1930's oil burners for domestic heating were be-
102
A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
coming numerous in New London, and plumbers and furnace men had perforce to know something of electricity as well. Early in 1949 Donald K. Sieburg installed in his home the Town's first television equipment. In New London, as else- where, the story of radio seemed likely to repeat itself in this new area of entertainment. While parents debated the virtues of television, additional installations consistently increased.21 At mid-century, Donald K. Sieburg and Claude M. Prew were the local experts in the television field.
Wondrous as was the age of electricity in New London and elsewhere, it had one great weakness: the individual be- came ever more helpless in case the power line failed. Whereas in 1916 such failure would have meant only inconvenience in lighting, by 1950 it implied the lack of heat, the inability to cook, the break-down of refrigeration, the stoppage of clocks, the loss of washing and ironing equipment, and a score of other household and business appliances. Everything de- pended on a smooth and steady supply of power over the long lines of copper wire leading from distant generating stations. This, in turn, meant that natural disasters assumed a new importance. When heavy sleet storms struck New London, as in 1929, 1940, and 1943, they broke the power lines and caused inconvenience and distress for some hours at a time. The great hurricane of September, 1938, although certainly not the first such storm to sweep across the Town, left diffi- culties in its wake greatly in excess of previous blows.22 Despite all efforts, in 1938 it took three days of frantic repair work before power could be restored to the Main Street of New London, and much more time before similar restora- tion of service was possible in outlying districts. Many a New London family during those days revived ancient methods of cooking, heating water, and lighting a house after dark. In the summer months thunderstorms sometimes caused similar interruptions for shorter periods. Yet, for better or for worse, New London people, like all other Americans, by 1950 stood firmly committed to the age of electricity, and on the whole found it overwhelmingly good.
103
NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1900-1950
NOTES FOR CHAPTER FIVE
The quotation at the head of this chapter is from an article by White- field J. Bell Jr., in American Heritage, February, 1949, p. 12.
1Consider, for example, such recent books as Lee S. White, Farewell to Model T, New York, 1936; L. R. Lohr, Fifty Years of Motor Cars, 1895- 1945, Princeton University Press, 1946; Lloyd Morris, Not So Long Ago, New York, 1949, pp. 221-401; R. E. Anderson, The Story of the American Automobile, Washington, D. C., 1950; and M. M. Musselman, Get a Horse!, New York, 1950. In his museum at Peterborough, N. H., Major A. E. Goyette had on display in 1950 a considerable number of early American automobiles.
2See George Woodbury, The Story of a Stanley Steamer, New York, 1950, pp. 173-174. New London's neighboring Town of Sunapee claims the invention of a steam-powered carriage as early as 1869; see the New- port Guardian and Kearsarge-Sunapee Sun, December 9, 1948.
3See J. T. Adams, ed., Album of American History, IV, pp. 141, 250, 279.
4Data in a memorandum to the author from New Hampshire Motor Vehicle Commissioner Frederick N. Clarke, February 27, 1950.
5F. J-T., August 16, 1906. There is a vivid description of a New London coaching parade in the great days of the horse and buggy age in Summer Rest, August, 1891. pp. 5-8. Indicative of the varieties of vehicles then available is the list of such conveyances in E. V. Mitchell, The Horse and Buggy Age in New England, New York, 1937, pp. 25-26. This list contains thirty types of conveyance, beginning with "Barouche," and ending with "Wagonettes." See also George F. Marlowe, Coaching Roads of Old New England, New York, 1945.
As the automobile developed from a curiosity to a commonplace, horses went through a long period of equine adjustment to the new age. About 1910 Herbert B. Swett of New London devised automatic blinders for his horse. As an automobile approached, Mr. Swett would pull a cord and flaps would gently close over the animal's eyes. Thus the old and new in transportation passed in safety for both.
6The actual date of the change from horses to automobile was May 15, 1911; F. J-T., May 18, 1911. Arthur Gould, brother-in-law to Charles E. Shepard, was the first driver of the new car.
7Letter of B. A. Hoban to the writer, November 4, 1946. In the summer of 1950 a small revival of steamboating on Lake Sunapee was undertaken.
8Among the younger Kidder's cherished possessions on display at the garage after 1949 was a handsome two-cylinder Ford car, Model 1904.
9A committee of New London people, appearing before the New Hampshire Public Service Commission, objected to the establishment of this bus line; F. J-T., March 29, 1928.
10Indicative of the dour attitude of some people was the lament that the motor car was responsible for the introduction of the gypsy moth into New London! F. J-T., July 30, 1908.
104
A HISTORY OF NEW LONDON
11F. J-T., March 7, 1902.
12Ibid., May 3, 1906.
13Ibid., June 28, 1906; July 26, 1906.
14In the unusually cold month of January, 1911, the gas pipes were frozen and out of service for an entire week; F. J-T., January 19, 1911.
15The Sunapee Electric Light and Power Company had been incorpor- ated in 1896. In 1915 it was owned and controlled by the Newport Electric Light Company. The Newport Electric Light Company and its affiliates became a part of the New Hampshire Power Company on December 31, 1923. This, in turn, was absorbed by the Public Service Company of New Hampshire, following the latter's incorporation on August 16, 1926.
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.