USA > New Hampshire > New Hampshire agriculture : personal and farm sketches > Part 6
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Mr. Ballard was a charter member and the first secre- tary of Capital Grange, No. 113, of Concord, organized in January, 1886; was master of the same in 1889, and has been one of the most faithful and devoted members from the start, serving two years as chaplain and at pres- ent as treasurer. He has also been an active member of Merrimack County Pomona Grange from its organ-
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ization, holding the office of steward in 1890 and 1891, overseer in 1892 and 1893, and master in 1894 and 1895, and rarely being absent from his post at any meeting. He was also for two years chairman of the State Grange Committee on the Agricultural College and Experiment Station. He takes a lively interest in educational mat- ters, and served three years as a member of the school board in what is known as the "town district." In relig- ion he is a Congregationalist, being a member and deacon of the North church in Concord. He was a member of the board of assessors from ward 9 in 1894, but has held no other public office, and has sought none.
For the past twenty years, since assuming the active management of the farm, Mr. Ballard has made the pro- duction of milk for the Concord market a specialty, keep- ing a herd of about twenty cows, on an average, which are mostly natives. His land is well adapted to corn, and he plants about five acres to that crop each year, feeding the product in meal and fodder, the former being mixed with shorts and linseed. The annual hay crop is from fifty to sixty tons, which is supplemented with Hungarian to a considerable extent. The location of the farm is a pleasant one, the main portion of the tillage land occupying a fine, elevated ridge and commanding a handsome prospect, while the buildings are commodious, conveniently arranged, and in excellent repair, making, altogether, a model farm home.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE.
GEORGE W. FISHER,
BOSCAWEN.
Among the thrifty farmers and representative Patrons of Merrimack county is George W. Fisher, of Boscawen, who has been an industrious and successful tiller of the soil for nearly a quarter of a century. He is a native of New London, born June 26, 1837 ; a son of Levi and Fanny (Wilkins) Fisher. When he was five years of age, the family removed from New London to the old home of his mother, in Merrimack, where he grew to manhood. At nineteen, having received a good com- mon school education, he went to Nashua and was engaged in a sash and blind manufactory till the out- break of the Rebellion, when he enlisted in the Seventh New Hampshire Regiment, and went to the front, serv- ing in South Carolina and Florida, where the unhealthy climate killed more men than the rebel bullets, and where, in the course of two years, he lost his health and was discharged for disability, October 29, 1863.
Returning home, he had so far recovered the follow- ing spring as to be able to work, when he went to Man- chester and was employed for eight years in the sash and blind business and as a carpenter. December 14, 1865, he married Mary R., daughter of H. W. Green, of Merrimack, who died from consumption April 1, 1868. November 30, 1869, he married Esther P., daughter of Peter Coffin, of Boscawen, and in May, 1872, removed to Boscawen, upon an engagement with his father-in- law, Mr. Coffin, to work a year and assist him in build- ing a barn. At the end of the first year he engaged for another, and so continued for four years, when, in the spring of 1876, he purchased the farm of Mr. Coffin, who removed to another part of the town. Here Mr. Fisher has since been successfully engaged in farming
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on his own account. He believes in mixed farming, running to no particular specialty, but calculating, if there is a failure in any one line, to make up the loss in some other direction. He has 230 acres of land ; keeps four horses, about ten cows on an average, with oxen and young cattle ; kept sheep for many years, and finds a little poultry profitable, keeping about 100 hens. Of late he has been selling milk for the Boston market, finding this the most convenient and profitable disposi- tion of the same.
Mr. Fisher is a charter member of Ezekiel Webster Grange, of which he has been an officer for many years, including three years' service as master. He has been three years a member of the Boscawen board of selectmen, and was in 1895 elected for a second term of three years, a member of the town school com- mittee. He is a mem- ber of the Congrega- tional church at Bos- cawen Plain, and was GEORGE W. FISHER. three years superin- tendent of the Sunday- school. He is an active member of the G. A. R., has been a member of Hillsborough Lodge, No. 2, I. O. O. F., of Manchester, since 1868, and was at one time its chaplain. Politically he is a Republican, and well represents the best element of his party.
Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have reared three sons, George F.,
CASS-CARR HOMESTEAD, WILMOT.
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born in Manchester, and Winfred and Levi P., born in Boscawen. George F. is employed by Dr. Graves, of Boscawen ; Winfred, who was a partner in the grocery firm of Balch, Chandler & Co., of Penacook, died, deeply lamented, February 23, 1896; while Levi P. is at home on the farm with his parents. Both the younger sons graduated from the Bryant & Stratton Commercial Col- lege at Manchester.
CASS-CARR FARM, WILMOT. JOHN M. CARR, PROPRIETOR.
On the westerly slope of Kearsarge mountain, in the town of Wilmot (formerly Kearsarge Gore), is the sub- stantial homestead of the old New England type, now known as Cass-Carr farm. Here Benjamin Cass, a brother of Major Jonathan Cass of Exeter, who was the father of Lewis Cass, settled during the Revolution, and established a home in the wilderness. He was a black- smith as well as a farmer, and by diligence became pros- perous. He was also prominent in public affairs, and was one of the two men named in the act of incorpora- tion passed by the legislature in June, 1807, as author- ized to call the first town meeting in Wilmot. By his first wife, Abigail Bartlett of Salisbury, he had four chil- dren, including one son, Gersham Bartlett, who was the first soldier from Wilmot in the war of 1812, enlisting at twenty years of age and receiving a lieutenant's commis- sion. This son remained upon the farm. The second daughter, Elizabeth, married Nathaniel Carr, and settled near by. They had two children. Joseph Brown and Sally, who, after their parents' death, made their home at the Cass farm.
Ultimately the farm came into the possession of the son, Joseph Brown Carr, who married Mehitable Cilley,
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and became an influential citizen, conspicuous in town affairs and a colonel in the state militia. They had one son, John Moore Carr, born October 30, 1836, who, upon attaining manhood, decided to remain upon the farm. He repaired and refitted the house which his great uncle, Gersham Bartlett Cass, had erected, and there brought his wife, Rhoda E. Haskins, to whom he was married January 3, 1858.
The Cass-Carr farm, including the original lot " No. 16," conveyed to Benjamin Cass, with subsequent large accessions, comprises about 1,000 acres, largely wood and pasture. The buildings, which represent the archi- tectural efforts of four generations, are comfortable and commodious. The spacious barn, 160 feet in length, gives storage for the 150 tons of hay cut on the place, while some 400 bushels of grain are also produced annu- ally. Mixed farming is pursued, with special attention to different lines at different times. Potato culture was once a leading feature, and 3,000 bushels of potatoes produced in a year. Subsequently sheep husbandry was largely engaged in, and 250 sheep kept on the place. At present milk production is the leading fea- ture, about twenty-five cows being kept and some 7,000 cans shipped annually. Ensilage from a silo of seventy- five tons capacity constitutes an item of the food supply.
Mr. Carr is a leading and honored citizen of Wilmot, and has served his townsmen as selectman, as supervisor for several years, and in the legislature, to which he was chosen in 1881, being the first Republican elected in that strong Democratic town. He is also now serving his third term as a member of the school board. He joined Kearsarge Grange No. 87 at its re-organization in 1878 ; was five years master and two years lecturer of that grange ; is an active member of the Merrimack County Pomona Grange ; served two years as district deputy of
JOHN M. CARR.
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the State Grange, and has been twice chosen upon its executive committee, of which he is now a member. He is a vice-president of the Merrimack County Grange Fair Association, and president of the local section of the New England Milk Producers' Union. He has also been for thirty-five years a member of the Masonic fra- ternity.
His son and only child, Joseph Bertrand Carr, a prom- ising young man, died from consumption at the early age of twenty-four, eight months after his marriage with Luvia M. Collins of Wilmot. Six months later his wife died, and the son's widow, the younger Mrs. Carr, has remained at the head of the household, the guiding spirit of a true New England country home, taking an interest in all that pertains to the success of the farm work and in the social and educational welfare of the community, to whose progress Mr. Carr himself has been such an important contributing factor.
STEPHEN C. PATTEE,
WARNER.
Stephen C. Pattee of Warner traces his ancestry back directly to Sir William Pattee, physician to Crom- well and King Charles II, who was one of the founders of the Royal Society and was knighted in 1660. Peter Pattee, a son of William, born in Lansdown, England, in 1648, emigrated to Virginia in 1669, and after re- maining a few years removed to Haverhill, Mass., where he married and became the father of a family.
His great-grandson, John Pattee, a son of Capt. Asa Pattee, settled in Warner about 1786, on the farm where Stephen C. now resides, and known as " Maple Grange," and his son, Asa, inherited the place. The latter mar-
STEPHEN C. PATTEE.
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ried Sally, daughter of Stephen Colby, one of the early settlers of the town, and their son, Stephen C., the sub- ject of this sketch, ultimately came into possession of the homestead.
Mr. Pattee was born, January II, 1828. He was ed- ucated in Warner, Contoocook, and Bradford, attending select schools in the latter places, and at twenty years of age commenced teaching school in winter, which busi- ness he followed for twenty winters, in this state and Massachusetts. He has ever since been connected with educational matters, having served many terms as a mem- ber of the board of education, and having been made one of the trustees for life, of the Simonds Free High School of Warner, by the will of the donor, the late Franklin Simonds.
The agricultural operations in which Mr. Pattee has been engaged have been varied. Previous to 1862 he pursued mixed farming. He then made fine wool a specialty, and when that went down he changed to coarse wool and made lambs a specialty. He has also raised some excellent horses, which have been disposed of at paying prices, always breeding to the best, such as Mam- brino Wilkes, Almont Eagle, Vittoria, and a Son of Vik- ing. For the last six years milk production has been his leading line, his cows being grade Holstein and Jersey, which he considers best for the purpose. Each cow tests above the standard, and in 1894 they averaged $90 for milk delivered at the station. He raised wheat success- fully for many years, and was awarded a diploma and bronze medal for corn shown at the Chicago Exposition in 1893. The farm has been increased from the original sixty acres owned by his father to three hundred acres, while two new houses have been erected and two addi- tions made to the barn.
Mr. Pattee has served his town eight years as a member
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of the board of selectmen, first in 1856, at 28 years of age, and last in 1890. He also served in the state legis- lature in 1861 and 1862. In 1871 he was instrumental in organizing the Kearsarge Agricultural and Mechanical Association, which held twenty-three successful annual fairs in Warner. He has taken an active part in Grange work from the outset, and served six years as a member of the executive committee of the State Grange. He has also written much for the agricultural press, having been many years a regular paid correspondent of the People and Patriot, Boston Cultivator, New England Farmer, Country Gentleman, and Germantown Telegraph. He was at one time engaged by the Board of Agriculture to give an address on " Wheat Culture," before the Agri- cultural College at Hanover and at institutes in various localities.
Mr. Pattee was united in marriage, January 9, 1853, with Sally Currier, a true and worthy wife, who died May 5, 1895. Their three sons, all living, are Jesse B. Pattee, a lawyer, and Dr. W. H. Pattee, both of Manchester, and George Q. Pattee, now of Boston.
MAPLE GROVE FARM, ANTRIM,
HON. D. H. GOODELL, PROPRIETOR.
It is more than half a century since New Hampshire had a governor distinctively known as a farmer, but David H. Goodell, of Antrim, who occupied the execu- tive chair in 1889-'90, though generally known as a manufacturer, retains and resides upon the farm on which he was reared from childhood, and takes a strong interest in agricultural affairs. This farm, generally known as " Maple Grove farm," from the fine grove of rock-maple trees occupying the grounds in front of the
MAPLE GROVE FARM, ANTRIM.
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house, which is located at the upper end of Antrim vil- lage, was purchased by Jesse R. Goodell, father of David H., in March, 1841, when he removed from the town of Hillsborough, his son being seven years of age at the time. As originally purchased, it included 165 acres ; but with the addition of other farms and adjacent land purchased, it now embraces about 400 acres, while outlying pasture and woodland in Antrim and Hancock brings the total up to 600.
Governor Goodell, who has continued his residence on the farm, has made stock raising his prin- cipal line of farm busi- ness, excellence being the object aimed at. For a time he made a specialty of Durham stock, and established a fine reputation for the same in breeding and in butter making ; but some ten or twelve years ago his attention was called to the Hol- steins, when he pur- chased a fine blooded bull and a heifer of RICHARD C. GOODELL. that breed, and soon after added five more choice two-year-old heifers, fresh from Holland, selected for him by Dudley Miller, and has since been building up a herd of which he has every reason to be proud, and which is indeed a credit to the state. He has generally about seventy-five head, of which from twenty to twenty-five are milch cows, whose product goes to market in the shape of cream, the milk
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being retained upon the farm and fed to the calves. The specialty of this herd is cows of great butter capac- ity. Its reputation is widely extended, and many choice animals of both sexes sold therefrom in the past few years have contributed largely to the improvement of other herds, both in the immediate neighborhood and at a distance.
Governor Goodell was one of the early champions of the silo in New Hampshire, and among the first to adopt its use. He has two substantially constructed silos with a joint capacity of about 350 tons. Into these he packs the product of about thirteen acres of ensilage corn each season, and this, with the ninety tons of hay cut on the farm, furnishes ample food for his stock. Since his adoption of the ensilage system the feeding capacity of the farm has nearly trebled. He has long been an active member of the New England Agricultural Society, serving upon the board of directors, and was also for two terms the Hillsborough county member of the New Hampshire State Board of Agriculture, being appointed for three years in 1879, and reappointed in 1882, and took more than an ordinary interest in the work of that organization.
His two sons, D. Dana and Richard C., remain at home. The latter, now twenty-seven years of age, who was educated at Colby Academy, New London, and who subsequently spent some time in the West, though interested in the manufacturing establishment and hold- ing the office of vice-president of the company, has taken special interest in the farm, and is now practically in charge of the same.
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PERSONAL AND FARM SKETCHES.
AUGUSTINE R. AYERS,
NORTH BOSCAWEN.
Augustine Rogers Ayers is a native of Gilmanton, born September 28, 1839. He is a son of Jonathan and Mary (Rogers) Ayers, and through his mother a descendant in the ninth genera- tion of the noted John Rogers, the martyr ot Smithfield. Removing with his parents to Canterbury when four years of age, he was there reared on a farm and familiarized with all the details of farm life, the care of stock being one of the fea- tures which most fully commanded his devo- tion. Circumstances, however, impelled him AUGUSTINE R. AYERS. to leave the farm and engage in mercantile life in Concord, where he continued, in different lines, for about thirty-three years, with the exception of a term of service in the Union army in the late war, as a mem- ber of the Fifteenth New Hampshire Volunteers.
In 1890, feeling the need of a change for the benefit of his health, he determined to return to agriculture. His love for good horses had been indulged to a con- siderable extent while in business in Concord, and upon commencing farm operations upon the old Jacob Gerrish place at North Boscawen, he first turned his attention to the breeding of trotting horses, which he pursued for a time with success, but on the decline of this branch of
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NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE.
farm industry he changed to dairying. His attention having been directed to the Holstein-Freisian as a desir- able dairy animal, he secured, through ex-Governor Goodell and others, a few good registered animals of this breed, from the Russell importation, and has steadily increased and improved his herd, which now numbers about thirty-five head altogether, including some excel- lent representatives of the best strains. He milks about eighteen cows, giving them good ordinary care and
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RESIDENCE OF A. R. AYERS, NORTH BOSCAWEN.
making no effort for extra records, but securing very satisfactory results. He wholesales his milk at present to dealers for the Concord market, in preference to selling at the cars, now so generally done in this section.
The farm, which embraces two hundred and seventy- five acres, is finely located on the Boston & Maine rail- road, Concord division, running back from the Merri- mack river a mile and a half upon the hills. There are about seventy-five acres of river land of ready access
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and easy tillage, the balance being pasture and wood land. When Mr. Ayers took possession the farm had been much neglected, but has been greatly improved already, some forty acres having been brought into first class condition. He had eleven acres in corn in 1896, and several acres in oats and potatoes, having raised from three hundred to twelve hundred bushels of the latter each year. He has already built a 100-foot barn with cellar under the whole, a poultry house and cart house, and put in a silo of seventy-five tons capacity, and has many other improvements in contemplation. There are about six hundred apple trees on the place and in the future fruit promises to be an important product.
Mr. Ayers is an enthusiastic Patron of Husbandry, having joined Capital Grange of Concord in 1886, and transferring his membership to Ezekiel Webster Grange of Boscawen after his removal. In 1896 he was over- seer of the latter grange, while his wife was secretary and his eldest son assistant steward. He married June 4, 1873, Clara Maria, daughter of Hon. John Kimball of Concord. They have five children-Ruth Ames, John Kimball, Helen McGregor, Augustine Haines, and Ben- jamin Kimball, the eldest being a special student in Cor- nell University. Mr. Ayers is a member of the South Congregational church of Concord, Rumford Lodge, I. O. O. F., and E. E. Sturtevant Post, G. A. R.
WALTER SARGENT,
WARNER.
" Elm Farm," charmingly located in the town of Warner, about two miles above the village, on the road to Kearsarge mountain, has been the delightful summer home of numerous rest- and pleasure-seekers for many
WALTER SARGENT.
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years past. Its proprietor, Walter Sargent, is a native of the town, born December 25, 1837, his father, Abner Sargent, being then a partner of Thomas H. Bartlett in mercantile business. His first ancestor in this country was William Sargent, a son of Richard Sargent of the British Royal navy, who settled in Ipswich, Mass., in 1633, and from whom he is a lineal descendant in the eighth gen- eration.
When he was about two years of age his father sold out his business in Warner and settled on a farm in that part of Boscawen which is now Webster, where he grew to manhood, meanwhile industriously laboring upon the farm, attending the district school, and the Salisbury, Hopkinton, Franklin, and Contoocook academies, and teaching school, himself, winters, for a number of years. He also worked considerably at carpentering, and ac- quired a good knowledge of the business, which he has since found advantageous in arranging his own buildings and assisting others. At the age of twenty-five years he married Addie C., daughter of Capt. Samuel Morrill of Andover, and was for several years engaged in the man- agement of Captain Morrill's farm. Subsequently, in 1867, he removed to Warner and settled upon the farm upon which he now resides. He found the buildings somewhat out of repair, and very inconvenient, and commenced to re-build in a thorough and systematic manner, believing that " what is worth doing at all is worth doing well," and he now has a well-arranged and convenient set of farm buildings. He has also added to the acreage, so that his farm now contains about 250 acres.
In his farming operations he believes in thorough cul- tivation, and in mixed farming. He has raised some valuable colts, and breeds Delaine Merino sheep, of which he usually has wintered from fifty to seventy-five.
ELM FARM, WALTER SARGENT, PROPRIETOR. WARNER.
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His sheep show the advantages of thoroughness in breed- ing, and careful selection. His dairy is mostly Guern- sey and Jersey, from which he usually disposes of his butter to regular customers. The skim milk is fed to hogs, which tends to greatly increase the fertility of the farm. Although he is not averse to buying grain under ordinary conditions, he considers it much more advanta- geous to raise it, and believes he can raise corn cheaper than he can buy it. He usually raises from two to three hundred bushels of corn each year, besides other grain, which is all fed upon the farm.
Mr. Sargent has served his townsmen as selectman and as a member of the school board, and aided in the organization of the Simonds Free High school. He has taken an interest in all matters pertaining to agricultural progress and was for several years secretary of the Kearsarge Agricultural and Mechanical Association. He has been a member of Warner Grange since its or- ganization in 1877; was secretary of the Merrimack County Council and charter secretary of Merrimack County Pomona Grange. He retains his interest in grange work, but on account of impaired hearing is de- barred from active participation therein.
Mr. Sargent's first wife died in 1873, leaving two sons, Frank H., now assistant postmaster at Harriman, Tenn., and George H., city-editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
October 3, 1877, he married Mrs. Fannie A. ( Fellows) Shaw, youngest daughter of Dea. Richard Fellows of Salisbury, with whom he is now living, and whose gracious manner adds a charm to the ready hospitality which a host of friends and acquaintances enjoy at the Elm Farm home.
FRANK R. WOODWARD.
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PERSONAL AND FARM SKETCHES.
FRANK R. WOODWARD,
HILL.
Agriculture in New Hampshire, as well as elsewhere, has been greatly benefited by the attention of men who, having devoted themselves primarily to professional life, business, or manufacturing, have been led from love of the soil to devote their leisure, or have otherwise appro- priated time, and expended something of the profits of their business in these other lines, in the management and cultivation of farms. A fine example of this class is Frank R. Woodward of Hill, a successful manufacturer of light hardware, who has been well known in agri- cultural and Grange circles for several years past, in central New Hampshire.
Mr. Woodward is a native of the town of Salisbury, born February 9, 1845. His parents, Daniel S. and Dorcas (Adams) Woodward, both came of Revolutionary stock. They removed to Penacook (then Fisher- ville) in 1848, and in 1852 to Franklin, where in the public schools and at Noyes Academy Frank R. received his education. In 1868, he went to Manchester where he was engaged as superintendent of the Forsaith latch needle factory, which business he purchased in 1870. and, two years later, removed it to the town of Hill. In 1873, he sold out the needle business and engaged in the manufacture of glass-cutters and other light hard- ware, for which he has established a world-wide reputa- tion.
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