USA > New Hampshire > Carroll County > Sandwich > Sandwich, New Hampshire, 1763-1963 : bi-centennial observance, August 18 through August 24. > Part 2
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For some unknown reason, except that it would have been a talking point when interviewing prospective settlers, the Proprietor's agents employed a Deputy Royal Surveyor to measure the distance from Sand- wich to the sea. He started on the south boundary and on the east bank of Red Hill River, and traveling by many courses, "shunning every moun- tain and considerable hill," he found the distance, on a straight line south twenty-six degrees east, to be sixty-one and a half miles, about thirty rods to the eastward of Rye Beach.
The work of the Proprietors gradually lessened as settling proceeded and many sold their shares, represented by land in Sandwich. Richard Sinkler was the only one of the Proprietors known to have actually cleared his land and lived upon it. It seems reasonable to suppose that the ma- jority interest had by this time been acquired by residents of the town. So it is not surprising to find that the Proprietor's meeting of November 14, 1805, was held at the inn of Nehemiah Cram at Cram's Corner (East Sandwich). Later meetings in Sandwich were held in the office of Lawyer Freeman and the houses of Ezekial French, and General Daniel Hoit. The last meeting of the Proprietors was held on Dec. 11, 1827, when the affairs of the corporation wound up by voting to transfer all of the funds remaining to the town in trust for keeping primary schools. This sum, it was stated, "to remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which shall be annually appropriated." At every Town Meeting we see this final decis- ion of the Proprietors come to life in the Town Warrant, an article "To raise and appropriate the sum of $133.92 to pay interest (to school district) of School Fund Note."
As a result of that second grant which Governor Wentworth made to Sandwich there were land disputes in 1768 with Tamworth, settled a year later, and with Moultonboro which went on for twenty years, and was finally settled in favor of Sandwich. There was also a dispute between this town and the Masonian Proprietors, prompted by the same gentleman who stirred up the Moultonboro trouble, but that, too, was adjusted in time.
In 1864 a family named Brown living just a short distance from the town line, but in Waterville, found it difficult to vote. It proved feasible for Sandwich to acquire this small area, which brought about the slight irregularity of the northeasterly corner of the Sandwich Town Line. This is the only change from the original Sandwich grants.
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Daniel Beede is the dominant character in the early history of Sand- wich. He was a Proprietor and one of the group who came here in No- vember 1767-probably the leader since he had been here before. They felled trees and built a log cabin the very day they arrived, and snow fell that night.
His fifty acres included land over the top of Wentworth Hill. and down to Red Hill Pond, bounded on east and south by land of Orlando Weed. His other acreage included one hundred acres west of this lot on top of the hill. About 1777 he built his "mansion" just below the present Wentworth house, and it stood until about 1850 when the present house was built. His children, of whom there were twelve, all settled around him, as well as his nephews and some of his wife's people. His house, in those early days, offered hospitality to all travelers. Early town meetings were held there, and most of the early town business was transacted in Beede's home.
Daniel Beede was a surveyor and a man of business. He was the first town clerk, serving from 1773 to 1794. He was on the first Board of Selectmen and delegate to the fifth Provincial Congress at Exeter in December 1775. He was many times representative to the General Court from 1775 to 1795, and in June of that year he was named a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Strafford County, which office he held until 1799. As first Justice of the Peace in Sandwich he performed the mar- riages of many inhabitants. On December 21, 1775, when the Revolu- tionary Convention was held at Exeter, Judge Beede was the delegate from Sandwich. The president of the Convention was John Wentworth, the father of Paul Wentworth who in later years owned the Beede farm.
Daniel Beede died in April 1799, and is buried under a field stone marker in the little cemetery on the Wentworth grounds.
THE SURVEY
The town was surveyed during the period 1769 - 1771. The lots in the low lands were of various areas in acreage but in the highlands the lots were of 100 acres each. The range lines were run westerly to easterly, starting on the Campton Town line side. According to some of the old deeds there was an allowance of four rods on each range line for a rangeway road. The lot lines were southerly to northerly and only two rods allowed for roads.
The ninth range line commencing at the Campton-Sandwich town line was the starting point for the range lines, why, we could not find out. In rerunning some of these range lines we found traces of the original survey marks. Such as at a corner of a range line and a lot line, where the copy of the original deed said to a certain point, "SAID corner being marked by a stake and mound of stones." Digging down carefully we found a "mound of stones" and in the center decayed wood. We found the "lines" were as straight and true as possible and the measurements exact.
In searching the records for the survey for the Parker-Young Co.
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we found that two lots of 100 acres each were in the name of a family of Franz-Jose.
The Parker-Young Co. started their survey in 1919 and I believe completed in 1921. I believe in the winter of 1919-1920 the late Judge Joseph Mathews of Concord was searching certain records at the Court House in Ossipee. He noticed reference to "Church Lots" and searching further found that King George the Third, of England had granted to the Episcopal Guild of New Hampshire seven 100 acre lots in the Town of Sandwich, I believe the records state that the grant was for 999 years with renewal for 999 more. These lots were not all together, they, no doubt contained the best stands of Pine (old Growth) in the township. As the story was told, King George the Third was the head of the Episcopal Church of England, also the head of the Episcopal Guild of New Hamp- shire. These Pine trees were marked with the Kings mark and as part of the taxes due to crown by the people of Sandwich, they were to deliver these Pine trees to Portsmouth to be used as spars and masts in the kings ships.
Some stories relative to the number of oxen used to haul the "spar" to Portsmouth vary; one was ten teams or twenty oxen and the other 20 teams or forty oxen.
The Parker-Young Co. had purchased the land and standing timber from the Publishers Paper Co., a subsidiary of the International Paper Co. The Episcopal Guild of New Hampshire then brought suit against the Parker-Young Co. While the litigation was in progress all the logs cut from the church lots were so marked "church Logs" and a record kept of the total cubic feet cut. The Company had already cut over some of the lots, an estimate was made after considerable investigation, such as counting the number of stumps and measuring the stumps left in the various lot areas. As the timber cut was "virgin spruce" and the spruce was of first grade in quality, settlement was made by the Parker- Young Co. to the Episcopal Guild of New Hampshire. The Parker-Young Co. collected from the Publishers Paper Co.
H. C. Gibson
OLD TIMES, OLD CUSTOMS
To review and edit the many important events which have transpired in Sandwich during the past 200 years, would fill several volumes and take endless hours to record. We can only give you some of the highlights of the old customs, names and places, which we hope will afford you in- terest and amusement.
Names of Old Locations
Barvel Whang Hard scrable-
Mackeral Corners Dishwater Pond
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OLD TIMES AND OLD CUSTOMS
Chaises - wagons and sleigh were unknown.
People went to church on foot or horseback - wife rode postillion - whole families went to church on ox-sled.
Furniture was very simple - all made of wood of native trees.
Iron, copper and tin used for cooking.
Fireplaces only heat, burned logs 3 or 4 feet in length - with oven in back.
The half house 20 feet square - was small - low and cold.
Double house 40 x 20 - indicated progress and wealth. It was designed for shelter not for comfort or elegance.
Books were few - newspapers seldom seen. News from England took 5 or 6 months to reach inland towns.
Inns or taverns were found every 4 to eight miles, prices as follows: Feed for travelers' teams half-baiting of hay - 4 cents.
Whole baiting - 8 cents.
2 quarts of oats - 6 cents.
Bar room fireplace always had loggerhead, hot at all times, for making "flip." A loggerhead was a long handled iron tool with bulb on the end which when heated was used for heating flip, etc.
Flip was made of beer made from pumpkin dried on the crane in the kitchen fireplace and a few dried apple skins and a little bran.
Half mug flip or half-gill was 6 cents.
On the table was found shortcake and the ever present bottle of rum.
Women's pay was 50 cents a week.
Farmers paid their help $9 or $10 a month - some in clothing and the rest in cash.
Carpenters' wages $1 a day.
Apprentices served 6 or 7 years and were paid $10 the first year, $20 the second, $30 the third and so on to clothe themselves.
Breakfast consisted of potatoes roasted in the ashes - a bannoch (oat- meal cake baked on griddle) made of meal and water baked on maple chip set before the fire.
Poch was plentiful.
If hash was served, all ate from same platter - without plates or table- cloth.
Apprentices had for supper a bowl of scalded milk and a brown crust or bean porridge or "poprobin".
No tumblers - said, "Please pass the mug."
Privations - living many miles from seaport towns - all heavy articles such as salt, iron or lead had to be transported on backs of men or horses. One man once walked 80 miles through woods to a lower settlement for a bushel of salt and returned with it on his back.
Many times bears would steal their pigs and stored supplies.
Meal and water and dried fish without salt was often their diet for days when game was shy or storms prevented hunting.
Suffered from inadequate legislation - patience tried to the utmost when
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they sent petition after petition to the legislature without receiving an answer until years had passed.
Always made arrangements for preaching the gospel and the education of their children as soon as possible.
Garments were all made in the family.
In warm weather all went barefooted - Shoemaker went from house to house to "shoe the families".
In winter, men sometimes wore deerskin garments - in summer tow and linen.
Grayish white "great coat" lasted a life time.
Boots unknown - shoes worn to church - but carried in hand until almost there.
Food was simple - Rye and Indian corn principal grains used.
One common food "bean porridge", also broiled corn.
Boiled meat - turnips and brown bread was a substantial dinner. Pud- dings were common - Fine meal bread sweetened with maple sugar - or West India molasses - Hasty pudding and milk.
A bowl of toddy consisted of 1/2 pint rum - mixed with sugar and water and was regarded as a drink for 4 persons.
Town officers were supplied with liquor at expense of the town.
At the "vendue" of 2 vagrants in 1784 in Wolfeboro, 21 bowls of toddy were drunk at the expense of the town.
At the sale of pews of the Wolfeboro meeting house in 1791 liquors were provided by the selectmen.
Notwithstanding drunkenness was not very common.
Four towns had duly elected selectmen in 1773 - Conway, Abriel Lovejoy and John Webster - Sandwich, Bagley Weed and Daniel Beede - Moul- tonboro, Bradbury Richardson and John Adams - Wolfeboro, Benjamin Folsom, Thomas Taylor and James Connor.
The road to Thornton through Sandwich Notch, called the old country road, was opened in 1796.
In 1804 the "Great Ossipee Turnpike" was chartered to run from Thornton through Sandwich, Tamworth, Effingham and Ossipee to the state line. Jonathan Moulton sold his soul to the devil for bootful of gold - to be turned down the chimney - then he cut the toe off the boot so it wouldn't fill up.
Moses Hall used to heat a plank to stand on while chopping wood barefoot. The old tip-top chair table used by Moses Hall when he lived up in Sand- which Notch, is the one in the dining room in the Sandwich Historical Building at present.
Notes from talks given by Jesse Ambrose and Ryvers Ainger Feb. 23, 1962 at Quimby School
Cast iron runners will slide over bare ground easier than steel ones will. Ryve started regular drive for Phon Smith in 1913 - last run Feb. 22, 1962.
Holland St. Stops at Dead-Man's Curve.
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Used to use 14 horses driving stage from West Ossipee to Sandwich - Center Harbor - Meredith and return.
Politics in Sandwich - furnished 3 sheriffs.
Jesse Ambrose sent sample from his gravel pit down to Concord by Col. Hoyt, who took sample from his own pit in place of Jesse's.
Sandwich had third tree farm in Carroll County, (Jesse's) - nineteenth in the state.
Never send flowers to anyone who has given up all hope!
Sandwich Fair was incorporated between 1915 and 1920.
Jesse's father used to haul oats to Dover in ox-cart, 60 miles, for 4 cents a bushel.
Hitching weight for horses, also used a 4 ft. log of wood.
Aristas Grant, a local dentist, took a swig of whiskey and pulled wrong tooth three times. One of the summer boarders had a toothache, so went to Grant who took out his dental tools, then took out his revolver saying, "Sometimes you have to shoot them out!" Boarder took off and was never seen again !
These remarks were all recorded on tape at Quimby School.
THE LOWER CORNER
The group of settlers who came into Sandwich in the fall of 1768 were a self-reliant people who immediately set to work cutting down trees and building log cabins. They cleared land for cultivation, hunted most of their food until forests became pastures and sheep and cattle were introduced.
A grist mill was built, turning grain into flour, and the "up-and-down" saw mill made it possible to saw boards and build frame or plank houses. Doubtless the later settlers never had to live in log cabins; for, between the close of the American Revolution and the year 1800, many soldiers came in with their families to settle, and they included men of many trades. Before Benjamin Burley opened his store about 1785, men traveled on foot to the lake, crossed it by boat, and again walked to Gil- manton where they bought supplies and carried them home on their backs. Much business was carried on by barter, money being scarce.
The country was rough and rude; there was a great deal of work and little play. The houses were small, the clothing coarse homespun, and the manner of the people blunt but kind. One of the bright lights in the little settlement at Lower Corner was Mrs. Daniel Little, whose husband bought Mr. Burley's store and ran it for twenty years. She was an educated and accomplished lady, "who by her influence softened the rough manners and careless language of her cherished families, and raised the young people of her neighborhood to a grade of refinement
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which gave new character and interest to the village." On her husband's death she married Jeremiah Furber.
The first postoffice in Sandwich was opened at the Lower Corner in 1812, possibly in the Weed homestead. Judge Crosby, who had settled on Wentworth Hill with Daniel Beede wrote in his family memoirs that it was the earliest mail he knew of, and was brought once a week from Dover by an old Mr. Bragg on horseback, tooting a tin horn. He brought the "Dover Sun" to town and told the news and must have been a welcome sight to these villagers, cut off from the world as they were.
When Daniel Little died in 1816 he was given a Masonic funeral. He was a member of a small but enthusiastic lodge in Moultonboro, "The Morning Star," later moved to Wolfeboro. Dr. Asa Crosby, the first doctor in Sandwich, and James Otis Freeman, the first lawyer, were also members.
For many years the Lower Corner was a thriving business com- munity. In 1792 there were two taverns, a turner of wooden ware, a hatter, a harness maker and a general store which Jeremiah Furber con- tinued on Little's death. Mills and a potash industry were established on Little's or Potash Pond. In 1820 Paul Wentworth opened his store. Daniel Wicks Vittum who ran it for him went west in 1836 with John Wentworth who later became the first mayor of Chicago. In 1836 Wil- liam M. Weed worked in Furber's store, and in 1845 he built the red brick building which has housed a general store ever since. In 1839 Col. Joseph Wentworth opened a store further up the hill which he conducted for thirty years. In 1848 William Weed began the study of law with Samuel Emerson who had moved to Moultonboro, and in 1874 he was admitted to the bar and had his law office on the second floor of the brick store. In 1872 Paul Wentworth, son of Colonel Joseph, began the practice of law and used for his office the building in which his father had kept store.
From 1837 to 1849 Sandwich Academy flourished on Wentworth Hill, with Aaron Beede Hoyt maintaining a high level of instruction. The Corner also had its church, first near Little's Pond, later next to the brick store. In 1880 services were discontinued.
Isaac Adams, who had been an apprentice here in his boyhood, re- turned to the Lower Corner in the 1850's. He had become very wealthy as a result of his invention of the cylinder printing press. He bought a great many properties at high prices in this area, during and after the Civil War, and either tore the buildings down or let them rot away. In consequence the Lower Corner area became largely depopulated and could no longer maintain its former prosperous commercial and social life. While he was building his great stone wall and maintaining his huge farm which people came from miles away to see, he gave employment to many men at wages above the prevailing scale. With his death in 1881 all this ended; his lands were divided among his heirs, and eventually sold. Chestnut Manor, home for many years of Mrs. Alice Moorehouse, daughter
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Red Brick Store, Lower Corners
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of Arven Blanchard, and more recently home of the Late W. Leroy White, was originally the Isaac Adams estate.
Arven Blanchard, who kept the brick store for forty years, com- mencing in the 1840's, was postmaster for thirty-five.
In 1875 three stage routes passed thru Lower Corner: one from Conway up Image Hill, thru the Corner and on to Meredith, driven by Allen ; another went to Wolfeboro, Frank Nelson, driver; and a third went from West Ossipee to the Center, thence thru the Corner and on to Meredith, driven first by Peter Hines with four good horses, and later by Ed Ainger (Cyrus Edson Ainger) Ryvers' father. Horses were chang- ed at several points, including Center Harbor, and it took fourteen horses to complete a day's run. Later the route was changed, starting there- after from the Center and going both ways. In the days of the stage coach, it was the ambition of every small boy to become a stagecoach driver. They were the local heroes of that time.
Heavy snows in the winter were a great problem. Granville Smith and Frank Bryer used three yoke of Weed's oxen to break the roads which were blocked up for nearly two months every winter. In later years they rolled the snow to pack it into a hard surface. This snow road would thaw in places and make deep holes which the roadmen had to keep filled in.
In 1883 Charles Blanchard, son of Arven, began printing "The Sand- wich Reporter" and provided the town with a weekly newspaper. His sister Alice helped him with the typesetting. In 1896 he sold the paper to Conway people and went to Boston to work, Alice Moorhouse having established a printing business there, the Blanchard Printing Co., which is still a going concern under the ownership of her son, Alfred Moorhouse. Mr. Moorhouse maintains a residence in Center Sandwich for vacation living.
The Lower Corner gradually lost its prestige as a center; its big houses are closed winters or completely idle; its church and schools are gone. It has but one grocer and T. D. Gotshall's silver jewelry shop, both of these located in the old red brick store. It looks to the Center for its social and religious life. But Lower Corner has mountain scenery which is unsurpassed, and those who live there would not change places with anyone in the world!
WHITEFACE AND NORTH SANDWICH
Even as Lower Corner was becoming a thriving community, settlers were pushing on into the country beyond.
The McCrillis family came to Whiteface Intervale in 1780, their ances- tor Henry McCrillis arriving two years after his father-in-law, John McGaf- fey. Henry was a soldier of the revolution, born in Epsom. His wife
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Margaret, with their two eldest children, made the journey on horseback; Henry on foot drew their goods on a sled. They had come to Lower Corner, thence to Whiteface thru dense forests following blazed trees. Margaret's father, John McGaffey and family, were already settled near the Whiteface River, and later moved to the location of the (Woodbury) Brick House which he built in 1817.
David McCrillis, son of Henry in 1810 built the Ambrose house on the Intervale ; Oliver Lee Ambrose of the Center bought it in 1868. In time his son Langdon C. Ambrose took on the management of the farm, and the latter's son, Jesse, succeeded him and works it today with his son Langdon.
The Sandwich Range of Mountains and the great intervale which lies at their feet are the dominant features of Whiteface. Whiteface Mountain was first climbed by white men, it is said, in 1827 or 1828, when a party of seventeen started off on what was considered a great undertaking. Sim- eon Varney, Asa Fowler and John Folsom were among them. After 1840 trips up the mountain became more common, not only on foot but on horseback !
Over the years there were many interesting mills in Whiteface; it had its church, the Congregational or Brick Church; and the Whiteface Schoolhouse was so populated that the district had to be divided.
About 1782 Henry Weed came to the Whiteface area of Sandwich, attracted by the waterpower which he found on the Swift River. He threw a dam across the ledges of the North Branch and raised the water to the height of the breast wheel, twenty feet or more in diameter. Wooden gears and shafting were contrived to turn the mill stones on the several floors and the other machinery used for grinding grain. There was a grist mill, and in the basement a set of stones for grinding salt; another set on the first floor for wheat, and the second and top floors had stones for grinding corn.
This was one of the earliest mills to have a bolt or sieve for sifting the flour, and a son of the millowner invented a device for removing chaff, called a smut mill. This invention was patented in the term of Andrew Jackson as President. Waste water, after leaving the mill, passed thru a canal where, with water from the South Branch, it gave power to an old sawmill with an up-and-down saw, located near the road. There was still in the group another mill with machinery for carding wool. This had no power of its own, but received power from the sawmill by means of wooden shafting. So for three generations of Henry Weeds the old mills ran until, obsolete and out of repair, they went to ruin. Outside mill men bought the land and privileges and put up a new plant which turned out excelsior and later spool stock, but one day during a great freshet the whole plant was washed away.
North Sandwich was settled in the years between the close of the Revolution and the end of the 18th century by soldiers and their families from the southern part of New Hampshire. They brought to the town such names as Skinner, Corliss, Quinby, Fellows, Wallace, Hoyt, Gilman and Bean, and trades such as the settlers could well use to make life
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TOWN HALL
Sandwich Town Hall
POST OFFICE
. ....
Sandwich Post Office
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more comfortable in the wilderness. The rich ground produced heavily, potatoes, corn, wheat, and apples being grown in abundance.
It may not be commonly known that the Town Hall in North Sandwich, built in the late 1840's, was the town hall for all of Sandwich. Previously public meetings had been held in the White Church, but with the Town Hall completed, all town meetings and elections were held in it. It was here in 1849 that it was voted to issue Town Reports. The building was torn down in 1895, probably in disrepair, and since then the Town Hall has been in the Center.
The history of North Sandwich including the Quaker neighborhood and Maple Ridge, is fascinating, telling of the big families that popu- lated the area, and how busy they were with the duties of farm and home. Church, town-meeting, grange, barn-raisings, apple-cutting parties, corner store, and singing school afforded an active social life. As Charles F. Fellows, Mabel Quinby and Cornelius Weygandt wrote in "The Seven-Mile Round"-one of the Sandwich Historical Society's books: "Old times, too, were good times in North Sandwich."
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