USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Newmarket > Old Newmarket, New Hampshire; historical sketches > Part 4
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What is now Railroad Common was once a part of the estate of Colonel Joseph Smith. The family grave- yard was east of the present railroad station. There were slate gravestones standing there in 1868.
The first police station or town lockup was near what is now the corner of Main Street and Maple Avenue. It was a nine by twelve log house and in the last years of its usefulness it was open to all comers, a convenient place to
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sober up. Just beyond, towards the west, in the middle of the road, stood a huge oak tree. Travel passed around it on either side. It was there in 1657 when this road was a "convientante cart waie." In 1752 when the road to Wadley's Grant was laid out, this tree was spared. Nearly one hundred years later (1848) the selectmen decided to widen and straighten the road. The oak tree was cut down. The same year the lockup was hauled to the town poor-farm. This farm extended over a large area from the Exeter Road near the Pound and the Pine Hill school house eastward nearly to tide water.
The ancient dwelling house of Paul Chapman still stands in almost its original form, at the junction of the Packers Falls and Lee Roads.
Wentworth Cheswell was prominent in the history of Newmarket as citizen, soldier and scrivener. He was edu- cated at Dummer Academy, then as now a good school for boys. He became a prosperous business man of old New- market, three times elected selectman, six years assessor, active in the parish until the year of his death in 1817. He was born in Newmarket in 1746. He served in the Revolutionary War. At the time of his death he owned all the land bordering on the Wadleys Falls Road from his house which stood where Jesse Carpenter's house is now, west to Moonlight Bridge and northerly to the bridge where the pumping station is. A large house on the south side of the road near Moonlight Bridge was doubtless built by him. He was at one time joint owner with Benjamin Mead of the Colonel Joseph Smith house and estate. He owned property near the town landing. A well, which was the west boundary mark of his land, is now under the side-
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walk in front of "Bill's Lunch" on Main Street. The house where the late Arthur Dearborn lived was Cheswell prop- erty, and his two youngest daughters, Martha and Abigail, lived there until their deaths in 1860 and 1862. On the corner opposite the brick house was a one-story Cheswell building. It was used as a school house and later, in 1862, as Nathaniel Robinson's bakeshop. Next to this on Main Street was a two-story house with a very narrow front yard. This was also Cheswell property, destroyed in the big fire of 1866.
The mansion house of Wentworth Cheswell was built in 1766. It faced the south and it was founded upon a rock. The foundation wall of the east end of the house was a part of this ledge. In 1863 the house looked old but not dejected. Its solid, oak timbers had resisted decay. The hand-wrought nails and spikes held boards and beams in their original position and the great, central chimney received the flames from the wide fire-places with as much safety as when it was built. Time had colored the house uniformly and well. It contained fifteen rooms. The front door opened upon a smooth, wide, stone, portico floor. Round pillars of wood in each corner upheld the roof which was joined onto the house. From this stone floor five stone steps led to the front walk, and five on either side led to flagstone walks which extended the width of the house. In the angles formed by the stone steps, phlox, sweet williams and marigolds brilliantly grew on the west side; but on the east only rosemary and striped grass flour- ished. On either side of the wide front door, extending the width of the house, was a wall of cut stone solidly built from the flagstone walk, about four feet high. Doubtless
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this was the face of the foundation wall. It projected from the house and was topped by a slanting, shingled roof about two feet wide. This roofed wall seemed a part of the house. There were two windows above and below on the west side of the front door, and on the east side, one window above and below. The rooms were panelled and were not low storied. Huge beams ran horizontally through the ceilings of the four larger rooms. In the outside corners were upright beams. These gave an appearance of strength and solidity which did not detract from the beauty of the rooms. To one who had been familiar with this house in the youth of its existence it would seem to have fallen from its high estate; but the dignity, strength and beauty of colonial architecture was apparent, even when it had withstood the changes of a century. It was beautiful for situation. There were four stately elm trees in the wide front yard. Stone walls bounded it on either side. Outside the front gate a bank of green grass grew quite to the narrow road. A tall, old balm-of-gilead tree stood near the gate, from whose branches medicinal buds fell to the ground and were care- fully gathered for the healing of the neighborhood. To the west and north there were one hundred and sixty acres of garden, orchard, pasture and woodland to Pigeon Hill, with its dark road winding through the old growth pines to the Piscassic River.
The mansion house of Wentworth Cheswell and the Colonel Joseph Smith three-story brick house, with its upper and lower piazzas, its terraced lawns and its splendid trees, we should have cherished. They were old landmarks, examples of colonial architecture rarely seen in New Eng- land today.
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Some of us may remember this brick house (which stood where the Catholic Church is today) when it was the property of Dr. George W. Kittredge. He was a bachelor, and this house was seldom opened to visitors. From the early days until 1845 it was a place of social distinction. Under the ownership of Dr. Kittredge the grounds were kept fruitful and beautiful. He was a very popular man as physician and citizen. All the George K.'s in town were named for him. Public spirited and democratic, his influ- ence in town affairs was considerable. Little children grew up with kindly regard for him in remembrance of the lib- erty given them to go into his orchard each morning on the way to school and take all the plums, peaches, pears and apples they could find on the ground. Woe to the child who failed to be honorable. For him the gates were henceforth closed. Dr. Kittredge, in his one-seated, two- wheeled chaise, went daily on his round through the village, and all the country roads knew him well.
In 1823 Benjamin Lovering and his wife, Ruth, were the owners of the brick house estate. The old apple orchard on the south side of the road opposite the brick house had at this time acquired the name of Lovering's Orchard. It extended from the Cheswell house that stood on the corner where now Dr. Butler lives, down the old road to Exeter, as far as the tan yard at the foot of the hill, thence turning northerly and following the high ground to Tenney's Corner, where now John H. Griffin's store is, then on the Lee Road to the starting point. Tasker's Lane was then a cart way through Lovering's Orchard. A large red gate on the main road gave entrance to this cart way.
William Tenney was a lawyer. He owned a house and
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office that stood where the telephone exchange and the Stone store are now. A rope walk, the relic of shipbuild- ing times, was behind his residence. He owned land and a one-story house where the stone house now is at the head of Exeter Street. His land extended from Cheswell's well to Chapman's Wharf and to the east boundary of Lover- ing's Orchard. This locality was called Tenney's Corner.
Isaac Furber kept a tavern. Its location was behind the present bank building and the store of Philip La Branche. The front yard extended to the road. Beside its picket fence, poppies and hollyhocks grew. "Uncle Isaac" sold to Benjamin F. Tuttle, who kept tavern there until "Pa Tuttle" built for his son the brick hotel, now called the Newmarco Club. The Isaac Furber house was torn down in 1862. Olive Simpson and her daughter, Mary, were its last occupants. Olive used to stutter and was an exhorter in prayer meeting.
The Arthur Branscomb tavern stood on the site of the Star Theatre, and the Branscomb store was where later B. F. Haley built a clothing shop and dry goods store. This is now owned by Joseph A. Brisson.
The Murrays owned a house and hillside apple orchard where Chapel Street now is. Branscomb's land extended alongside Murray's up the hill. Jewett Tasker, the father of the late Charles E., built a house for himself beyond Murray's Orchard at the top of the hill. It is still standing, occupied by Eugene Keniston.
A part of the estate of Walter Bryant, with land owned by Dr. George W. Gale, Sheriff Brown and Edward and Walter Smith, included, in 1823, land from what was after- ward High Street to Rundlett's Tavern, now the Willey
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House. At this time Elm Street was called Piscassic Road ; and there was no High, Central, Chapel or Church Streets.
Wiggin Doe owned a small house on the top of the hill, a short distance south of Picked Rock Bridge. It was built against the hill, one story on the west side. On the highway or river side this cottage of wood was supported by a substantial, brick basement, the outside door of which opened upon the highway not ten feet distant. The east upper windows of this little house gave an unobstructed view of the natural falls of the Lamprey, the tides of Salt River and the wooded eastern shore, where in earlier days the Indian wigwams stood. The Lubberland Road was in view as far as the lone house of Widow Scriggins, at the edge of the woods. On the west or hill side of this Wiggin Doe house the windows overlooked the Bryant graveyard, distant pine woods, and nearby the homes of his neighbors, Savage, Doe and Pinder. Deacon Daniel Chapman's house was on the hill west of the bridge. The boundary line between Newmarket and Durham crossed the bridge and divided the Chapman farm. The house was in Newmarket; the back yard, barn and most of the farm was in Durham.
A NEW INDUSTRY AND A LAWSUIT
On the twenty-sixth day of March, 1823, when the stage from Newburyport came in, it brought the forerun- ners of changes that were soon to come to Newmarket. Four strangers alighted at the Branscomb Tavern. The next day they were taking a general survey of the village; but their interest seemed to center at Ebenezer Smith's sawmill below the falls.
They departed as they came. One week later a per- suasive Quaker, with his thees and thous, accompanied by a group of surveyors, gave rise to a persistent rumor that a company had been formed in Salem, Massachusetts, to build and operate a cotton factory in Newmarket.
On the twenty-first day of April, Ebenezer Smith's saw and grist mill and mill privilege was sold to Stephen Hanson. One boundary point of this mill privilege was the Picked Rock under the bridge, and the southern bound- ary was the Bryant Rock, so called, which stood twenty rods from the foot of the falls and at highwater mark four rods from the road leading from Dover to Exeter.
Stephen Hanson, the Quaker, and Daniel Durell, his co-worker, secured the services of Seth R. Shackford, of Newmarket, Seth Walker, of Durham, and Schoolmaster John Smith, of Salem, all practical surveyors, and each
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with his chain men was soon surveying about town and all along the Lamprey River to the source of mill power at Pawtuckaway.
By the help of numerous deeds of land at this time, one can easily imagine the topic of conversation in the taverns and on the street; the careful calculations around the home firesides of the gain to be made by selling the home place to this pleasant mannered Quaker, who seemed not over-anxious to buy, but who made very plain the advantage of selling.
Those who had neither house nor land to sell talked of better days coming. There would be a great demand for labor. There was no lack of news. Each day brought surprises. The Packers Falls mill and mill privilege, Pis- cassic mill, the old Piscassic House and estate, William Tenney's store, house and land on Main Street, the Savage house on Piscassic Road, the Doe and Pinder houses and lands, wharf number 5, Cram's Wharf and blacksmith shop, Elm Tree Wharf, Branscomb's store and land adjoin- ing, the property of Gale and Cram on Water Street, the Lovering estate with its brick house, and even the sand- pits on the Sias farm had become the property of the New- market Manufacturing Company before mid summer. Much of the real estate bought by the Company appears to have been for speculative purposes.
When the Company began preparations for the build- ing of a mill the southern boundary of the mill privilege was the Bryant Rock near the road, and twenty rods from the foot of the falls. This landmark was as well known as the Picked Rock under the bridge. As early as 1647 in the liberty given by the town of Exeter to Edward Gilman to set up a sawmill at Lamprey River Lower Falls, the
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southern boundary was the same as was granted to Robert Coffin in 1701. In 1766 and again in 1796 the southern boundary of this mill privilege was the same as in 1647, "twenty rods from the foot of the falls to the Bryant Rock by the side of the road." This rock was also the northern boundary mark of the old Bryant estate.
In 1804 Joseph Young, administrator of the estate of John Bryant, sold this land to Paul Chapman, and Chap- man conveyed the land in question to Edward and Walter Smith. Around this rock a legal battle was fought. The Bryant Rock was blown up and removed by the Company's agent. The Smith Brothers claimed trespass, and brought suit against Philip Chase, of Salem, general agent of the Newmarket Manufacturing Company.
The evidence in this case is interesting. Many of the old residents testified or gave depositions for plaintiff or defendant. The town was divided, many favoring the new enterprise which was bringing money and business into the village; others saw wanton destruction, the exodus of old residents, and the lawlessness of a great corporation overriding the rights of individuals.
One day Reuben French and Mrs. Benjamin Lovering stood with others by the side of the road while the Bryant Rock was being removed. Reuben said to Mrs. Lovering "This company have encroached on the Scriptures." She, not so well versed in Bible lore, said "What do you mean ?" Reuben replied, "They have removed the Bryant Rock and the Bible says 'Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark which they of old time have set in thine inheritance.' "
The building of Number 1 Mill was begun early in
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the spring. The contract with the promoters, Messrs. Durell and Hanson, was cancelled July 3; and on July 14, 1823, Stephen Hanson, of Dover, was offered the position of local agent of the Newmarket Manufacturing Company at a yearly salary of six hundred dollars, which position he accepted and held until January, 1826. It was stipulated in the contract that if he lost any time it would mean a loss of pay. The Company agreed to pay his board every day that he was actually in their service.
A careful estimate had been made of the difference in the cost of brick and stone for the building of the mill. If built of brick the cost would be one thousand and ninety- one dollars less; but the wise directors chose the more expensive but enduring stone.
The estate of the widow of Daniel Chapman was sold at public auction and was bought by Agent Hanson for the Company. The old Chapman house was removed and the brick house was built on the site. This for many years was known as the Agent's House.
A part of Piscassic Road was renamed Elm Street. It extended from Main Street or Road past the old spring pump to the top of the hill, where it terminated at a large red gate. Beyond this point the road was a cart way, sub- ject to gates and bars as late as 1865. After Riverside Cemetery was located this way was more frequently used and became known as Cemetery Road. It was never legally laid out except by long use ..
On the south side of Elm Street the Company. built four two-story, double tenement houses and a small, one- story cottage near the spring pump. On the north side of the street a one-story engine house and four double tenement, story and a half houses were built.
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The town discontinued the old road by the river side and laid out a road from what is now Water Street away from the river and over the hill to Picked Rock Bridge. On the west side of this new road near the top of the hill, three large brick blocks were soon in process of building. Benjamin Brooks, then superintendent of the Company's machine shop, built the block known by his name at the south end of the hill. The Company laid out a short street parallel to Elm Street and, as it was on the highest part of the hill, they named it High Street. Houses were soon being built on both sides of this short street which con- nected with Spring Street or, as it was then called, Spring Pump Road.
The Company wanted to lay out a street from Main, at the foot of the hill, to Spring Street, parallel to High Street. This would cut through the land of Dr. George W. Gale, Sheriff Brown and Edward and Walter Smith. Gale and Brown readily sold to the agent; but the Smith broth- ers, still fighting the trespass case, held up the laying-out of this street. Then David and Betsey Murray saw their opportunity. They sent the following terse note to the agent: "We will open up a road thirty-five feet wide, on the south side of our house for the sum of five hundred dollars. (Signed) Elizabeth Murray. David Murray." This offer was at once accepted, and the street we call Chapel Street was opened from Main to Spring Street through the Murray apple orchard.
The fighting spirit of the gentle Quaker, Agent Ste- phen Hanson, is clearly shown in letters written to School- master Smith, the Salem surveyor, when the trial of the case, Smith vs. Chase, was pending.
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"Friend John Smith: I was this day informed that Edward Smith is a going to Salem to make another attempt to take thy deposition; and if he should, we hope thou wilt give him the same treatment thee did before-drive him from thy school-room. We wish thee not to give thy deposition at all, whether money is tendered thee or not, we holding ourselves responsible to thee for all damages sus- tained, and thee holding thyself in readiness to attend court when called for. Thee need not give thyself any uneasiness about thy loss in the school last winter by Edward attempting to take thy deposition, as the Company will make thee satisfied. We want thee on Tuesday next to attend in surveying, and whatever thy engagements are, or may be, thou must not disappoint us, as it is neces- sary thou shouldst attend. (Signed) STEPHEN HANSON, Agent."
Another letter dated February 16, 1826: "Friend Smith: Thee very well knows that thy presence will be necessary at Portsmouth on next Tuesday; and as we have told thee that thou shouldst be paid for all thy loss in the school and all thy trouble and expense while thy attention is called in any business in the action of Smith vs. Chase, we believe thy feelings are such as will not require us to give thee any further notice more than to say that we shall want thee there at all events on the spot on Tuesday forenoon in the Smith action against Chase. We shall not detain thee for only one week. Thou need not adjourn thy school any longer than for that time. Should thee suffer any loss by this detention we give this voucher: That all thy loss shall be made up to thee. Therefore death or sickness so as thou can not be brought on a bed in the stage
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is the only excuse for thy not coming. Arrive at Ports- mouth on Tuesday next at ten of the clock. We can not proceed one step towards a trial without thee. STEPHEN HANSON, Agent."
This case was in court from September, 1823, to Sep- tember, 1826. The levy of the execution in favor of the Company was upon Smith's land lying between the high- way and low water mark. By this levy the Manufactur- ing Company obtained title to the water front to the south limit of its present yard.
Three years after this time negotiations were in prog- ress for the forty-foot strip of land for a street through the property of Walter and Edward Smith. Philip Chase, of Salem, general agent of the Company, in answer to a letter from Walter Smith, received November 29, 1829, wrote: "The Murrays have been given better terms for their land than would have been paid them if it had been certain that a street could have been put through your land. And since we have a street through Murray's orchard it is a matter of perfect indifference to us whether there is another street or not. However, we are willing to abide by the proposal hitherto made."
Seth Walker, of Durham, surveyor, made a map of this part of the town in the summer of 1832, on which this street is not indicated. It was laid out in October of that year.
The terms of peace between the nations involved in the World War were settled in a shorter time than was the contest over Bryant Rock and this forty-foot strip of land now known as Central Street.
Nine years had passed since the Bryant Rock was
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removed. Few, indeed, were the citizens who opposed by word or deed the innovations constantly being made by the Company. These had been years of prosperity. The center of the town had changed its location. There could be no argument about that. Industry had done the trick.
Building operations were not confined to the Manufac- turing Company. A foundry was located near Chapman's Wharf, and a machine shop nearby was using the first steam engine brought into the town. Farmers readily sold all the produce they could raise. Carpenters, machinists, blacksmiths, shoemakers, brick and stone masons, hod car- riers and teamsters made Newmarket a busy town and a noisy one. Number One Mill was sending out unusual industrial music throughout the long day, for Number One was in operation almost before the town could realize that it had met with a great change. The construction of Num- ber Two Mill was begun before Number One was finished. The plans for Number Three Mill were drafted and its foundations well under way before the machinery in Num- ber Two Mill was in operation.
But the Manufacturing Company found they had another fly in their ointment. Right here there is a neces- sity for a brief biography. : Wiggin Doe, a descendant of the pioneer, Nicholas Doe, was born in 1758. He had a wife and an unmarried daughter, Deborah, living at home. Evidently he was a man of stout opinions. It might well be that he was so strongly attached to the little house on the hill that money could have no influence over his deci- sion to keep his home in spite of changed conditions. This Wiggin Doe house and its occupants were quite out of place in the midst of so much industrial activity. The
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blasting of rocks in construction work on the mill dam, the huge piles of lumber, stone and sand, the coming and going of heavily laden teams, the medley of sounds from the small army of workmen, the clanking of busy looms, must have been quite bewildering to the occupants of the house in the midst of it. This situation interested the towns- people, but occasioned no great wave of sentiment for those concerned. "As stubborn as Wiggin Doe" is a saying that has come down to us through the years. Yet there is evi- dence that Wiggin Doe had little faith in his own ability to hold fast against the odds of the situation and the gen- erous offers of the Company to buy his house. Perhaps the sentiment of the old song, "Whatever brawls disturb the street there should be peace at home," may have influ- enced him; for in the late summer of 1823 he deeded his house and land to his daughter Deborah. She stoutly held the domestic citadel for nine years while three large mills, a dam, bridges, a canal, sawmill, blacksmith and machine shops were built, and for nearly twelve hours each day were the very near and noisy neighbors of the Doe household.
Wiggin Doe passed away from this earthly turmoil in 1831 at the age of seventy-three years. The Company renewed its many offers to buy the Doe house and land. Deborah immediately accepted, but under conditions. The Company bought a house that stood across the road in front of the Rundlett Tavern. This they removed to Chapel Street and fitted it for occupancy. Mrs. Doe and Deborah accepted from the Company the rental of one-half of this house. A contract was drawn up and signed by the agent and by Deborah, the Company agreeing to pay to
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Deborah five hundred dollars "to peaceably remove from the house upon the death of her mother." Evidently the life tenantcy and the five hundred dollars was the purchase price of the Wiggin Doe house. The agent immediately wrote to the Salem office asking "What shall we do with the Doe house in the middle of the road?" The answer came "Make it the office of the Company." The brick oven is still in evidence.
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