USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Sutton > The history of Sutton, New Hampshire : consisting of the historical collections of Erastus Wadleigh, Esq., and A. H. Worthen, part 1 > Part 18
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Mrs. Persons's lot, which she received from her husband, was what is now the North Village. Afterwards Deacon Harvey bought the northerly half of the lot.
The three sons of Mrs. Persons married in Sut- ton, and continued to live here for several years, but finally went to Corinth, Me., and settled there. John married a daughter of Phineas Stevens; Joseph married Ednah, daughter of Capt. William Pressey; Polly married Francis Whittier, Jr .; Betsey married Hunting, of New London.
Polly, daughter of Thomas and Abigail, a very lovely girl of fourteen, died of spotted fever when it raged here in 1816. She was sick only two hours.
Young girls were sometimes bound out in fami- lies, their period of service being limited to the age of eighteen years. In return for their labor they had their home in the family, instruction in the various branches of work customary for women, their support and clothing, some school education, and, if about being married, a present for a wed- ding outfit was not lacking.
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
The following memoranda of the clothing and other things provided for two young girls, who at different dates had been thus located in the same family as the two young men before named, were found bound up in the same package with the others, and are in the handwriting of Mrs. Harvey, who appears to have managed the female side of the house herself.
The things that were paid by, Matthew Harvey and his wife to their sister, Jane Sargent, for her services done for them before she was 18 years old.
July 20, 1794-
One Chintz Gown
Four Home made Gowns
Four Short wrappers,-middling good.
Two Woolen Aprons and two Linen Aprons.
One checkered Apron, and one old apron
One Black cloak
One mean [medium] Red Skirt
One Green Skirt-half worn.
Two every day coats [skirts ] more than half worn.
One Shawl, and Black Handkerchiefs
Three Home-made Handkerchiefs,-one white one,
Three Pair Stockings
Two Pair old Shoes-One Pair New Shoes.
Three Shifts-One Old White Skirt, One Hat.
One Coverlid-Two Sheets, Two Pillows and Pillow cases
One Chest, with a Drawer
Six Chairs-No bottoms to two of them.
One year-old Heifer Six Sheep-One Pig.
One White Table. One Bedstead.
Thirteen Pounds Flax
Twenty-four Pounds Feathers
Four Plates, One Frying Pan, One Fire Shovel.
This Jane Sargent married Jonathan Eaton, and became the mother of eleven children. She was a
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APPRENTICES.
very good woman, much respected, and died in 1864, having reached the great age of 91 years.
MEMORANDUM NO. 2.
Jenny Cram's Clothes when she left my family, Nov. 1796. New Cloak Chintz Gown Home-made Gown
Two Waistcoats
Two Old Woolen Coats [Skirts ] One outer Skirt
Three New Wrappers
Two New Aprons
Two Old Aprons
Three New Handkerchiefs
Three single Handkerchiefs
. One White Handkerchief
Two pair Good Shoes
Four pair good Stockings,
Two Good Shifts
Two Old Shifts One hat
One pair Gloves One pair Buckles.
In these modern days, when clothing and the material from which to make it are so easily obtain- able, it seems very strange that a piece of half-worn clothing should be thought worth mentioning. But we must remember that most of the cloth then in use was hand-made, and every yard of it represent- ed a great deal of labor, from the raising of the flax and the wool to the finished garment. The chintz gown was probably the only piece of "boughten " goods in the above list, and was as highly valued and as carefully kept as a silk dress is at the pres- ent day.
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
AN INFANT'S WARDROBE.
People who could obtain a handsome outfit for a baby were just as willing to do it long years ago as are the people of the present day to do the same, but some could not get what they admired, and, of course, got what they could. An aged lady, who twenty years ago was living in Sutton, related the following:
I once went to see a neighbor with her new-born infant. The first time it was ever dressed it was clothed in a black woollen pet- ticoat and short gown, with an apron of checked blue and white linen tied around its waist, with the strings brought forward like a woman's apron. I nursed the mother for one week, which was as long as any one ever thought of keeping a nurse, and she paid me therefor fifty cents' worth of butter. Fifty cents per week was as much as any nurse at that time expected to receive for her pay.
The same informant said,-
The first calico dress I ever had was when I was fourteen years old. It was bought in Newburyport, and paid for in tow cloth, which I spun and wove myself. The dress lasted me for years. It was kept carefully in a drawer, and only worn to "meeting."
Joseph Towne kept a store in Hopkinton, and many of the Sutton people went there to trade. Afterwards Esq. Bartlett opened a store in Warner, and got most of the Sutton trade.
After the spinning and weaving for the family were all done, the next thing was to manufacture a web of thirty or thirty-five yards of tow, cotton, or linen cloth, the best of which would sell for forty- two cents per yard. Some one, usually the male head of the fam- ily, would take the roll of cloth on the horse behind him, with the saddle-bags filled with oats for the horse, and luncheon for himself, and proceed to the nearest store at Warner, Hopkinton, or Newbury- port, and exchange the cloth for tea, coffee, spices, &c., enough to supply the moderate wants of a family for a year, fill his saddle- bags with those groceries, and return without paying out any money for expenses on the road except for lodging for himself and horse, the saddle-bags not being capacious enough to furnish that.
283
APPRENTICES.
The way in which the girls used to become own- ers of their cows was like the following account by the same lady :
When Grandfather Sargent, of Amesbury, came to make his annual visits to our mother, he was wont to present myself and sister Polly with a quarter of a dollar each. This money was kept for us till we had together fifteen shillings. Then father took it and bought a calf with it. The calf he kept till it was itself a cow and the mother of a calf. Then he let out both "to double," as it was termed, i. e., at the end of four years there was returned to him two cows and two calves, and the man that took the first cow and calf from him had the same number of cows and calves,-three cows and four calves being the descendants of the original calf."
The two following cases illustrate how young men could establish themselves for life:
Ebenezer Eaton came from Haverhill to serve his minority with Deacon Joseph Greeley, soon after the latter moved into Sutton. The boy was then fourteen years of age, and he served seven years. In the time he received his food, clothes, and a knowledge of the trade of blacksmith. After his term of apprenticeship expired, Deacon Greeley hired him two or three years for a hundred dollars a year. This money he saved almost entirely, and bought some land where it was cheap in the town of Lebanon, went there and built his house, princi- pally with his own hands. For such parts as he could not do himself he paid the carpenter by work- ing at blacksmithing for him. Being a blacksmith, he could make his own nails, latches, &c. During the time of his residence with Deacon Greeley he made the acquaintance of Miss Susan Colburn, daughter of Leonard Colburn, who worked at spin-
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
ning in the same family. When his house was ready for occupancy they were married and removed to Lebanon. She made him a most excellent wife, and he became, for that time and place, quite wealthy-worth four or five thousand dollars.
Asa Stevens, a son of Phineas Stevens, went to work for Deacon Greeley, perhaps about 1800, for fifty dollars a year and his board. For the first year's work he received for his pay a yoke of oxen, then valued at fifty dollars. He continued to work about five years, saving all his money. At the end of that time he bought his wild land, costing prob- ably about $250, and was then an independent and well-to-do farmer. He married Miss Lydia Heath, and lived in the south part of the town, near his father.
MILLS.
Tradition and circumstances indicate that Ezra Jones built the first grist-mill where recommended by the committee of 1761. Previous to the exist- ence of JJones's mill, Sutton settlers went to Davis- ville, Warner, to get their work done. Jones's mill was partly made by voluntary aid of settlers.
Quimby's mill, at Mill Village, was made soon after by Moses Quimby.
In 1784, soon after the incorporation of the town, several roads were made to and from these mills, and we find no record of roads made in town till about this time. The grantees made roads from settler to settler, or rather spotted lines, i. e., they marked trees to indicate the course through woods, which answered the purpose of guide- boards, not only for men but for oxen also. Mr. Jacob Mastin remembered to have heard the aged people say that the oxen soon became very expert in reading the directions and way-marks thus pointed out. When a man was going through a piece of cleared land he would drive his oxen yoked together, and when he came to woods again, he would unyoke them, and, carrying the yoke himself, let them go singly through the forest. In making this transit, they used much sagacity, care- fully turning their eyes from side to side in search of the spots made by the axe of former pioneers.
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
About this time there were, perhaps, eighty or ninety tax-payers in town.
Jones's mill was succeeded by mills farther up- near the meadow.
We find, in 1799, Daniel Andrew (Mr. Quimby having died), Ezra Jones, Ezra Jones, Jr., Ichabod Roby, and Jacob Quimby, were taxed for mills.
Also, in 1801, James Harvey (clothier works), Samuel Bean, Jacob Davis (near W. Little's shop), and Jonathan Eaton, had saw-mills.
In 1803, Benjamin Fowler, Benjamin Wells, Jon- athan Harvey, Joseph Pearson, widow Quimby, and Stephen Woodward had mills.
Daniel Andrew became owner of Quimby's mills, he being son-in-law of Quimby.
Ichabod Roby had a saw-mill on Stevens brook.
Jonathan Eaton's mill was where Kezar's mill is, and was subsequently owned by Jonathan Harvey, Stephen Woodward, Benjamin Wells, Nathan Leach, Jacob Bean, and others.
James Harvey was a clothier. His works were below the upper dam above the Couch saw-mill.
Deacon Fowler's saw-mill was on Fowler's brook, a little above the bridge between S. S. Felch's and Thomas Roby's.
Clothing-mills and carding-machines came into use rather early in this century.
Carding, spinning, and weaving were formerly done by hand. In the clothing-mills the cloth was taken from the hand-loom, fulled, colored, and pressed, ready for the tailor. The first factory in the state was built in 1803, at New Ipswich.
About 1820 a cotton factory, run by Mr. Hale of
.
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MILLS.
Haverhill, was in operation a short time in the extreme south part of Sutton.
The clothing-mills of James Harvey and Philip Nelson, Jr., were made previous to 1810.
Henry Carleton, John Harvey, and Joseph Greeley owned the upper mills at Mill Village.
Joseph Peters carried on the clothes works and grist-mill nearly fifteen years, till the clothing-mill was abandoned.
Ephraim Bean and John Andrew built clothing works about 1820, a little below Putney's saw-mill, at the foot of the falls, on the east side of the stream.
Capt. Enoch Page owned Jones's mills in 1812.
The carding-machine just above the N. A. Davis grist-mill was taken away about 1840, by which date most cloth was made in factories.
Linen cloth from flax was much made and used in the early part of this century.
About 1826 Joseph Pike bought the Andrew mills and the farm therewith connected.
Near the same time N. A. Davis purchased the Nelson clothing-mills, and soon after introduced the circular clapboard-mill and shingle-mill.
The Ichabod Roby saw-mill was torn down, or left unoccupied, about 1830.
The Fowler mill was burned down soon after this time, and another built by the Hazens on premises now owned by Thomas Roby. This has now gone to decay.
Col. Philip S. Harvey had a saw-mill on what has since been the Capt. Emery Bailey farm.
The Ordway saw-mill was on Stevens brook,
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
near the old Reddington place. It has now gone to decay.
The George C. Eaton mill, made much later, was below the Ordway mill. It burned down.
The Adams mill, below South Sutton, and now owned by Elliott & McAllister, was built near 1823, and was owned by JJoseph and Henry Adams.
A saw-mill at the outlet of Long pond, partly in Bradford, was owned by Hezekiah Blaisdell and his son John. It has been removed. At the time of the great freshet of 1826, a saw-mill stood a few rods south-east of Moses Moody's house, and was washed away, and also a house near by.
A grist-mill was erected at Mill Village by N. A. Davis about 1841, and since owned and used by W. H. Marshall & Son for carriage manufacturing and other mechanical purposes.
Quimby's mill was abandoned, and another made where Couch's saw-mill stands.
In 1829 this mill was torn down, and another one made. This grist-mill was torn down and a saw- mill erected by Capt. Nicholas Rowell.
The present saw-mill (D. Couch) was made by Story and Rowell about 1855.
Capt. Nicholas Rowell erected a grist-mill after the abandonment of the upper mill, below Nelson's excelsior shop (and also a rake shop), where Dur- gin's has since been. Subsequently the mill was converted into a saw-mill, and owned by Stephen Woodward, T. J. Chadwick, O. G. Story, and others,-and afterwards was used as a bobbin shop by Carroll & Putney and Parker & Nichols, and was burned down while the latter firm owned it.
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MILLS.
The lower excelsior shop of Joseph P. Nelson was erected by Oren Nelson. The shop previously erect- ed by Oren Nelson as a bobbin shop was burned.
The upper excelsior shop of Joseph P. Nelson was made by Stephen Woodward, but Mr. Nelson made several additions to it.
William Little's clothes-pin shop was made by him and his brother, H. K. Little. The site of the old Andrew saw-mill, sold to Pike, then to T. San- born, then to D. Couch and others, is now (1887) owned and occupied by Fred Putney, and has a cir- cular saw, planing machine, shingle machine, and other machinery.
The present grist-mill was erected by George Chadwick, and owned by his brother, Harvey W. Chadwick.
The old Jonathan Eaton mill above Kezar's pond has several times been rebuilt, and has passed through the hands of many owners. For the past few years it has been owned by J. H. Kezar, who, with his sons, manufactures a great amount of lum- ber into boxes of various kinds for packing goods. He has planing-machines and all other machines suitable for his purposes and business.
In 1814 Rev. William Dodge owned the lower mills below the South Village. Joseph and Moses Pillsbury once owned them. Dudley Morrill and B. F. Adams built mills and clothier's works, includ- ing carding-machine, and subsequently sold them to N. A. Davis, who sold them to Rodney J. Bing- ham. These mills have been removed or destroyed.
D. R. Abbott's shop, Mill Village, was built by William Hart and W. H. Marshall about 1841, 19
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
subsequently owned by Asa Gee and used as a blacksmith-shop, then sold to Eri Colby, who sold it to Moses Woodward who used it as a carriage- shop, who sold it to D. R. Abbott. It has since been removed.
A shingle-mill was built below South Sutton on the Warner road, and owned by Captain John Pillsbury, and afterwards by others. It is now removed or gone to decay.
A shingle-mill was made below North Sutton, at the junction of the Wilmot and Warner roads, owned by Hezekiah Davis and Elisha Davis, and by others. It is now gone to decay.
Formerly there was a shingle-mill near the Palmers, not far from Warner line. A shingle- mill owned by James Buzzell was located on the stream in the woods below South Sutton.
The early saw-mills were of rude construction. The foot- and head-blocks were stationary. They had overshot water-wheels, and the water was poured on to them from a trough. Ezekiel Davis carried the crank of one of them, weighing one hun- dred and fifty pounds, over Kearsarge, from where is now Franklin, to Sutton.
The corn-mills had no bolt, and but one run of stones. They were built on planks over the rocks below. The hopper was in the upper story, and the meal ran into a box below.
TANNERIES.
There were several tanneries in town,-one owned by Henry Dearborn where N. Clay lives, one owned by Enoch Page at South Sutton, one
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MILLS.
near the present residence of John Huntoon, very early; about 1830 one at North Sutton, owned by Dea. Benjamin Farrar and Moses Putney (near Mrs. B. P. Sargent's). A little later there was one at Mill Village, owned by John Pressey and Benjamin Peaslee.
POTASHI MAKING.
There were in 1823 two potash mannfactories, one at North and one at South Sutton. Previously there was one at Mill Village owned by J. and P. Nelson, and one at foot of Kimball hill owned by Captain James Taylor.
The making of " salts " was an early and neces- sary business of the first settlers. This was often done in the primeval forests, where the ashes were made by burning the trees cut down to clear the land for cultivation. With the rudest implements and utensils the lye was extracted and boiled down to salts in large potash kettles, and afterwards the salts were melted and refined for market.
In 1823 there were in town three grist-mills, eight saw-mills, two being on Stevens brook and one on Fowler's, three clothing-mills, one carding- machine, three bark-mills (propelled by horse- power), and three tanneries.
In 1880 Sutton had one grist-mill, four saw-mills, two carriage-shops connected with water-power, two excelsior-shops, one clothespin-shop. All these mills are on the stream running into and out of Kezar's pond. Two of the saw-mills have planing- mills, and all have shingle-mills, and circular saws for making laths and for other purposes.
WARNING OUT OF TOWN.
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By a law of the province of New Hampshire, passed in 1719 and continued in force till long after the Revolution, all persons having dwelt in a town for three months without being legally warned to depart became inhabitants, and, in case of inability to support themselves, from sickness or other cause, must, on their application, be relieved by the town. By the same law the town could protect itself from the risk of liability to support new comers by warn- ing them to leave town within three months after their first coming, providing against the increase of paupers by this harsh process.
By an act passed in 1771 the time for this warn- ing to leave was extended to one year. The war- rant for this " warning ont," as it was called, was issued by the selectmen to a constable, commanding the new comer to depart from the town within a time fixed in the warrant ; and in case of his neglect to leave, the law authorized the issuing of a second warrant for his removal to his former residence, passing him from constable to constable if need should be, as each officer reached the limit of his own town or district. If the person so removed afterwards returned, he could be dealt with as a " vagabond," and sent to the house of correction.
It is very evident that the persons so "warned " did not ordinarily obey this summons to leave, nor
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WARNING OUT OF TOWN.
does it appear that they were expected to do so. In some cases their continued residence in town proved fortunate for the town, they becoming some of its best and most useful citizens.
It is but just to say here that the province laws, which sanctioned this barbarous custom of " warn- ing out " prospective papers, also provided for the election by towns of overseers of the poor to pro- vide for their wants.
As the years passed on the law regarding warn- ing out became practically a dead letter before its erasure from the statute-book, as have several other laws, which, though founded in what was consid- ered a wise prudence, have proved cruel in their operation.
It does not appear to have been enforced to any great extent in Sutton. Capt. Amos Pressey, how- ever, informed the writer many years ago that he was once called upon as constable by the selectmen to serve their warning upon a certain I. D., thus notifying him that his room was considered better than his company. In his own quaint, inimitable manner, Capt. Pressey related the details of his performance of this duty:
" The man subsisted," he said, "by begging, petty thieving, and, when these methods failed, by a little desultory work. I found him. for a wonder, at work in a stony field, barefooted and hatless, hoeing a little unpromising-looking corn. As I approached him, and my eye and my mind took him and his conditions all in,-he so mean in appearance, so despicable, so utterly incapable of doing any great harm,-a very poor subject he seemed to be whereon to exert and assert the majesty of the law. In fact. I felt much impressed with the profound littleness of the law, and the extreme meanness of the whole proceeding in relation to it. Furthermore,
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
I concluded that in case other towns should do the same as we were doing, the man would find no resting-place for his bare feet, and he might as well be warned off the face of the earth at once, and done with it. Filled with this idea, I drew near him, and half jestingly and half in earnest made known to him the nature of my errand by saying in a somewhat solemn, portentous tone,-
"' Mr. D., I have come to warn you off the face of the earth !'
"Not perceiving the joke, and probably having private reasons for dreading the presence of an officer of the law, never dreaming that I had in any way exceeded my authority in my style of addressing him, the man looked up in consternation, speechless for a few minutes, and then found the use of his tongue enough to utter the petition, stammering and trembling, 'Won't you let me get my hat before I go?'
"'O yes,' I answered, 'no need of any especial hurry,' and I tried to remove his fears. He, however, made tracks for the house, and I never saw him again. He disappeared from the town, and his mother and sister, with whom he lived, soon followed. Whether they were ever permitted to find a resting-place on earth before they found one beneath it, I never knew. At any rate, Sutton people heard no more of the D's."
All localities and communities, however elevated may be their social and moral standard, have some- times in their midst exceptional persons, who seem connected with nobody, to come from nobody knows where, or for what cause or purpose, and to belong nowhere, who, by reason of thriftless habits and moral delinquency, become as the scum on the social waves, mere drift-wood on the tide of life. If Sutton has, now and then, found within her bor- ders one of these nondescripts, it is not surprising, but one thing is sure, that very few persons have ever lived here who deserved to be " warned out. of town."
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DEBTS AND DEBTORS.
During the first quarter of the present century very little money was in circulation, and the credit system of doing business was universal. Conse- quently, lawyers found enough to do. Almost everything, of any value whatever, could be attached for debt.
The property exempt from attachment was as follows: Wearing apparel, one bed, bedstead, and bedding, Bibles and school-books, one cow, one swine. If the debtor was a mechanic, twenty dol- lars in tools instead of the cow was exempted. In 1811 a further exemption of six sheep and their fleeces was made.
The following is a copy of a Writ of Attachment for Debt:
State of New Hampshire. Merrimac ss.
To the sheriff of any county in this state, or his Deputy.
We command yon to attach the goods or estate of P. N. jr., of Sutton in said county, to the value of Thirty Dollars, and for want thereof to take the body of the said P. (if he may be found within your precinct) and him safely keep so that you have him before our justices of our Court of Common Pleas to be holden at Concord within and for said County of Merrimack on the 2nd Tuesday of April next then and there in our said Court to answer unto J. T. of Charlestown in our County of Cheshire, joined in a plea of the case that the said P. at Hopkinton to wit at Concord on the tenth day of February Anno Domini, 1823, by his Promissory note in writing of that date by him subscribed for value received promised one
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HISTORY OF SUTTON.
Andrew Leach to pay him or his order the sum of fourteen dollars and eighty three cents with interest for the same sum till paid and the said Andrew Leach then and there afterwards to wit on the same day at Concord by his endorsement of the same note in writ- ing with his own proper hand subscribed for valne received ordered the contents thereof then due and unpaid, to be paid to the Plain- tiff, of all which the said P. had notice and thereby became liable, and in consideration thereof then and there promised the Pl'ff to pay him the contents of the same note according to the tenor thereof and the endorsement thereon, Yet the same P. though requested, has never paid the same, but neglects and refuses so to do, To the damage of the said Pl'ff as he says in the sum of Thirty Dollars, which shall then and there be made to appear, with other due damages. And have you there this Writ with your doings thereon.
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