USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Warner > The history of Warner, New Hampshire, for one hundred and forty- four years, from 1735 to 1879 > Part 28
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MANUFACTURES.
by Samuel K. Page, of Henniker, who was burnt out in the summer of 1878.
Bartlett's excelsior factory comes next, which takes the place of the Stevens carriage and churn shops. Mr. Bartlett and two or three sons are engaged in business here.
Stephen C. Pierce, a manufacturer of chairs, comes next; and Oliver P. Reddington, manufacturer of hubs and clothes-pins, next.
Waterloo (great falls) has been a manufacturing point almost from the first settlement of the town. Nathaniel Bean erected saw- and grist-mills here at least a hundred years ago; and there was a day when the little village could boast of a tannery, a clothing- mill, a trip-hammer, and a paper-mill.
In 1816, Daniel Bean, Henry B. Chase, and John Kimball erected a paper-mill, in which all grades of paper, from the finest note to the coarsest wrapping, were manufactured. Noah T. Andrews was the work- man who built the wheels and the gearing. The first dam was twenty rods above the mill. Wm. Parker, of Boston, bought out the original owners, and the mill was under the control of Gibbs & Greenleaf a number of years. Then a Mr. Foley had possession; then Mr. Newton; then Mr. Churchill.
Modern mills, with improved machinery, sprang up round about, and the Waterloo mill could not compete with them in the manufacture of paper. Not far from
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HISTORY OF WARNER.
1842 the gate was shut down, and the wheels ceased revolving. The dam and the mill soon went to decay.
Samuel Couch, who afterwards carried on black- smithing near Smith's Corner, had a shop at these falls, just below the grist-mill, which shop was supplied with a trip-hammer accompaniment.
Dudley Morrill and Nicodemus Watson, about 1812, built a clothing-mill and carding-mill at the falls. This mill went into the hands of David Watson and Clark Sargent, and then into the hands of Frederick Eaton. Levi Bartlett came into possession, and converted the mill into a tannery.
Daniel Bean, Jr., carried on the bakery business here for a year or two; but it was given up shortly after his decease in 1853.
There is now a saw-mill and grist-mill at the falls, the property of N. G. Ordway,
At Warner village, the first grist-mill was near the Edmund S. Davis house. Jacob Davis owned it at one time. It was destroyed by fire many years ago. The saw-mill that nearly occupies the site of the old grist- mill was built by Robert Thompson. The grist-mill and carding-mill, on the other side of the river, were built by Capt. Nicholas Fowler and Nathan S. Colby in 1830. These mills have been occupied by several parties. For a number of years prior to 1844 they were owned by Timothy D. Robertson.
John Ela came up from Derry in 1844, and bought
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MANUFACTURES.
Mr. Robertson out ; and John C. Ela, son of the former, became sole proprietor in 1878.
At Davisville there was once an iron foundry, where various articles were manufactured, such as hand-irons, clock-weights, and the like. Old iron was run up and used for these purposes instead of ore. Woollen cloth was also manufactured there; but the cloth-mill went down stream in the great August freshet of 1826.
The leading business there now is the manufacture of what is called straw board. Walter Scott and Hen- ry C., sons of Nathaniel A. Davis, and grandsons of Gen. Aquila, are the proprietors of these mills.
John Davis, 3d, who came to Warner from Salem, Mass., and his son, are carrying on the tannery busi- ness on Willow brook. The sons of Moses K. Clark have built a shingle-mill, with a threshing-machine attachment, on the same brook, to take the place of one recently destroyed by fire. Francis M. Watson and son have also a factory for the manufacture of various kinds of wares on the same stream.
Just above B. F. Harriman's carriage-shop on Silver brook, is the site of the old saw-mill and grist-mill and distillery of Wells Davis.
Francis Davis (a son of Wells) had a large farm, a grist-mill, and a saw-mill, on Harriman brook, where he was actively engaged the best part of his life. In his old age he erected another mill on the same
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HISTORY OF WARNER.
stream, but within the township of Henniker, where he died at the age of 80.
Dea. Ezra Barrett manufactured scythe-snaths at Warner village. David H. Foster manufactured rakes on Bartlett brook. There was a brickyard on Silver brook, near the Willaby Colby road, and another by Isaac Dow's, near Pleasant pond.
Capt. Nicholas Evans, a brother to Benjamin, had a tannery near his house (now the Henry H. Davis" house) on Pumpkin Hill road.
There was a grist-mill on Willow brook, near A. D. Farnum's. John Morgan had a shop on the rivulet at New Market, where he turned out wooden bowls, mortars, trays, &c. There is limestone in Joppa, near Josiah C. Hardy's, and many years ago lime was man- ufactured there.
" Potter Dimond" manufactured earthen ware at Dimond's Corner. He had a large, two-story shop or factory, the foundations of which are yet distinctly seen. His son, Col. Hiram Dimond, was at one time engaged in trade at that corner, which was quite a business centre.
WALTER SCOTT DAVIS. Davisville, in the south- easterly corner of the town, is one of the beautiful villages of Warner. It has the finest water-power to be found on the "Almsbury" river, and the proprietors of Number One, quick to avail themselves of every advantage, placed their first mills there. It is a man-
Walter J. Davis
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WALTER SCOTT DAVIS.
ufacturing village, though D. C. Hubbard is engaged in mercantile business, and Charles Davis, Charles P. Sawyer, Theodore S. Davis, and others there, are among our best farmers. The village takes its name from the Davis family, who, from the first settlement at the " old camp," have been in continuous possession of the falls.
The subject of this sketch is a grandson of Gen. Aquila Davis, and a son of Nathaniel A., the names of whose children (now living) are as follows : Stephen C., Walter S., Gilman, Lucretia A., Mary E., Stillman C., and Henry C.
W. Scott Davis was born at Davisville, July 29, 1834. He obtained an excellent education, for, besides enjoying the advantages of a good district school, he was a student at a high school in Contoocook, at Gil- manton academy, at Tubbs Union academy in Wash- ington, at Thetford (Vt.) academy, and at the New London Scientific Institution. He earned money enough in teaching schools during the winter seasons to pay all the expenses of board, books, tuition, and clothing, incurred at these several academies.
In 1854, at the age of 20 years, he went into busi- ness with Samuel H. Dow. The firm dealt largely in hemlock bark, in wood, and in lumber, for some ten years or more. In 1865 he formed a partnership with Paine Davis, which carried on the same business, with farming added. This partnership was dissolved in
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HISTORY OF WARNER.
1871, Paine retaining the wood and bark branch, and W. S. the· lumber branch, of the business. The same year the latter entered into partnership with George W. Dow, in the paper (or straw board) business. Davis bought Dow out in the fall of 1875, and took his brother, Henry C., into company with him, and this firm still continues. They manufacture 600 tons ($40,000 worth) of straw board annually, and the firm stands deservedly high wherever known. They have also a grist-mill, a saw-mill, and a threshing-machine, all run by water.
In 1870, Mr. Davis invented improvements in tur- bine water-wheels, for which he received letters patent in February, 1871.
He lived at Davisville till April, 1874, when he removed to Contoocook. In March, 1878, he was elected representative to the general court from Hop- kinton, and was known as an influential member of the House. He declined the nomination that was. tendered him at the next election.
May 3, 1857, Mr. Davis married Miss Dollie Jones, daughter of Daniel Jones, senior, who was a particu- lar friend, and at one time a partner in the lumber business with Gen. Aquila Davis. Six children have been born to these parents, three of whom died of scarlet fever in the spring of 1869, one died in infan- cy in 1874, and two survive.
CHAPTER XXXV.
FATAL CASUALTIES-SUICIDES-PRIVATIONS-WOMAN LOST- WILD BEASTS-WITCHCRAFT.
THE casualties by which inhabitants of Warner have lost their lives have been of frequent oc- currence, and the following catalogue, though large, probably does not embrace them all. As dates are wanting in many cases, no attempt has been made to place these casualties in the exact order of their oc- currence.
Capt. Francis Davis (the founder of Davisville) was drowned at Derry, Nov. 26, 1784.
Ebenezer Sargent, father of Dea. James, was killed at the pres- ent Willaby Colby place, by falling down a flight of stairs.
John Weed, in crossing Bagley's bridge, fell over into the river and was drowned. This took place about the year 1785.
A child of Isaac French was smothered in bed. Mr. and Mrs. French lived near the Gould road and Bartlett's brook. They were not overstocked with intelligence. A young child of theirs, which was well at bedtime, was dead in the morning. On hear- ing of this sudden death, the neighbors came in and inquired how long the child had been sick, and the father said,-" It went to bed as well as ever 't was in the world, but when it waked up 't was dead's a hammer !" "Yes," said his amiable spouse, "and you was the instimigator of it, for you rolled over and squshed it to death !"
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HISTORY OF WARNER.
Paine Davis, son of Francis, was killed by a falling tree about 1790.
David Stevens, whose home was either on Waldron's hill, or in the Badger neighborhood, was killed in rolling a large boulder down a precipice, between the old Gilmore and Putney farms.
Asa Harriman was killed by a falling tree March 9, 1794.
A young daughter of Wells Davis was drowned in a well, at the North village, about 1795.
Alonzo, a son of Major William H. Ballard, was burnt up with the house of Mr. B. while the parents were at church.
Levi Bartlett, an insane man, lost his life in a house that was consumed by fire, near Richard Bartlett's, in the year 1800.
Miriam Goodwin and Judith Elliot, two young ladies, were drowned in the river near where the Fair Ground bridge now stands. One of these was the daughter of Ezekiel Goodwin, at the Dea. Bailey place, and the other the daughter of Isaac Elliot, near the Capt. Nat. Flanders place. A tree had fallen across the river at this point, on which people were accustomed to pass and repass. There was a bridge over the river, but it was down where the depot now is. These girls came down from home, crossed the river, hand in hand, on the trunk of this tree, went to Dr. Hall's, and to another place, to invite their young friends to a party, and then started on their return. Both were drowned. Their bodies were recovered the next day, one's hand firmly clasped in that of the other. This occurred not far from 1805.
. Jonathan Watson, of Joppa, son of Dea. Parmenas, and father of Capt. Cyrus, was thrown from the tongue under the wheel of a loaded cart and killed, Sept. 4, 1820.
Samuel Savory and a child of Daniel Savory, Miss Anna Richardson and a child of Peter Flanders, were killed by the tor- nado (as stated on a preceding page) Sept. 9, 1821.
Asa Sargent, son of Benjamin Sargent, senior, of Tory Hill, was killed by a fall in the barn.
William Colby, son of David, senior, was drowned in Warner river, in the great freshet of Feb. 14, 1824.
Thorndike Felton, son of Timothy, was frozen to death in the winter of 1828.
Daniel Flood, a son of the original Daniel, was drowned in the Pemigewasset at Franklin.
537
FATAL CASUALTIES.
Dummer Pattee was thrown from a wagon loaded with furni- ture, and instantly killed, on the plain near Mrs. Pearson's, about the year 1833.
Mrs. Stewart, wife of Capt. John Stewart, was thrown from a wagon and killed, Sept. 24, 1834.
A child of H. G. Harris got a fresh-shelled bean into its throat. The mother ran with the child to Dr. Eaton's, but it was hardly alive when she reached there, and she carried it back dead.
John Roby, of Schoodac, was found dead in the road, the weather being severely cold.
Harvey Currier, of Joppa, was found dead in a pasture, town- meeting night, 1837.
Albert Morrill, of Joppa, was found dead in the road in the winter of 1838.
Cyrus Colby's house was destroyed by fire about the year 1840, and a child of his perished in the flames.
Samuel Savory was found dead in the road, in the winter season.
Mrs. John Foster lost her life from her clothes taking fire, about the year 1845.
Mr. John Foster, who came from Hudson to Warner in 1830, was drowned at the dam on Willow brook in 1850.
Imri Whitcomb, son of John, was killed in sledding wood, in the neighborhood of 1845.
John Fisk fell from a saw-mill on Stevens brook, and was killed. He left a family of sons and daughters, one of the latter being the wife of Gov. Pillsbury, of Minnesota.
Lorenzo Colby, a son of Barnard, was drowned at Melvin's mill in 1850, aged about twenty years.
Joseph Fisk, son of John, was drowned in Warner river in 1851, aged about 17.
1
A son of Abel B. Waldron was also drowned in Warner river.
A son of Lorenzo Ferrin was drowned at the old John Colby abutment in Warner river.
Samuel Kelley, a youth from fifteen to twenty years of age, son of Caleb, was drowned at Waterloo.
A son of T. D. Robertson was drowned at the Badger bridge in Warner river.
Elliot C. Badger fell down a flight of stairs, and was instantly killed.
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HISTORY OF WARNER.
Mrs. Frederick Eaton lost her life by being thrown from a wagon near Ela's bridge, about 1860. Dea. Frederick Eaton was a brother to Dr. Jacob, now of Harvard, Mass., to Rev. Dr. Ea- ton, of Palmyra, N. Y., and to John Eaton, late of Sutton, who was the father of Gen. John, Lucius, Frederick, Charles, and perhaps others.
A child of Mr. Hurd, on the Plain, lost its life by falling into a pail of scalding water.
A child of William H. Bean, Jr., of Waterloo, lost its life in the same manner.
Tappan Osgood was found frozen to death near Smith's Corner.
John Hall, a son of Oliver, was killed on the railroad below Bagley's bridge.
Martin Bean bled to death in the woods, from a cut in the foot.
Nathaniel A. Davis, son of Gen. Aquila, fell from a stack of boards at his mill, about twelve years ago, and died from the effects of the fall.
Nehemiah Ordway, enfeebled by age, made a misstep on the Willaby Colby road, fell down the embankment into the river, and was drowned.
Webster B. Davis received a fatal hurt from a fall at Ela's saw-mill.
Capt. Joseph Jewell's buildings were destroyed by fire in 1868, and a son of his perished in the flames.
Miss Comfort Peasley, whose home was at the corner where Stillman Cheney resides, was run over and killed by a train of cars at Enfield.
Henry Trumbull, of Schoodac, was accidentally killed in load- ing a gun in 1877.
SUICIDES.
Mrs. Watkins, wife of the second Abner, threw herself into a well about the year 1816. Her home was at the Fairbanks place.
Lucy Kelley, daughter of Caleb Kelley, senior, an insane young woman, hung herself in 1831.
Levi Osgood, on the Slaughter Brook road, cut his throat about the year 1836.
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PRIVATIONS.
Mrs. Cutting, wife of Rev. Geo. W. Cutting, an insane woman, hung herself in 1838.
Timothy Flanders hung himself at the North village in 1839.
A Mrs. Brown, who lived at Davisville, hung herself in 1840, or near that time.
Henry L. Trumbull, on Tory Hill, hung himself about the year 1845.
Stephen Sanborn, at the Jonathan Straw place, hung himself in 1867.
Alfred Davis, at the Lower Village, shot himself with a gun not far from 1870.
PRIVATIONS.
The first settlers of any country are compelled to suffer privations and hardships peculiar to their situa- tion, but they are exempt from many of the exac- tions and annoyances that pertain to older communi- ties. This is a life of compensations, and possibly the pioneers in the wilderness may gain on one hand as much as they lose on another. What if our ances- tors did bore with a pod-auger, tap with a gouge, mow with a straight snath, light their houses with pine knots, eat with wooden spoons, and drink from a gourd : their lives were as happy as ours are at the present day.
For the first ten years there were none but log houses in town. The first frame house was built by David Bagley in 1774, the year the town was incor- porated. Francis Davis and Reuben Kimball built frame houses the next year.
Everybody "went to meeting," but on the severest 34
1
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HISTORY OF WARNER.
December day the smell of fire was not there known. The walls of the church edifice were as cold as an iceberg, and as destitute of finish and ornament as the cave of Macpelah.
In mid-winter, when the snow was deep, and the roads impassable for horses or cattle, three men went to Hopkinton (five or six miles) and brought back two or three women on hand-sleds, for help in cases of sickness.
Some of the inhabitants on the Gould road cut hay on the Harriman meadow, on the south side of the Minks, before any settlement had been made there, and hauled it home on hand-sleds in the winter, a distance of two or three miles.
At an early day the beavers constructed a dam across Willow brook, at the foot of the Harris mead- ow ; a pond was created, the bushes were killed, and the grass grew tall and rank. Tradition says two men, by the name of Hadley, came from below War- ner, cut and stacked the hay on this meadow, drove up cattle, and kept them on it through the winter. These men amused themselves in tending their stock, and in hunting and fishing. They built their hut against a large hollow pine log, on the east side of the meadow. Towards spring their dog gave unmis- takable signs of the presence of game. [This is tra- dition.] They cut through the thin crust of the log, and came directly upon a bear, which they immedi-
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PRIVATIONS.
ately dispatched. These young men afterwards set- tled near Dimond's Corner, but soon left for a newer country.
The luxury of a post-office, or newspaper, or letter, was not known for years after the settlement of the town.
Store-keepers kept nothing but articles of down- right necessity (if rum and tobacco be excepted). The light goods which now fill the drawers and shelves of the country store were not wanted, and could not have been paid for had they been wanted.
There were no carriages, and but few horses. The little travel which the first inhabitants indulged in was made by ox-teams or on horseback.
There were no matches. Fire was kept by burying up coals or pine knots in the ashes. To provide against an exigency, some families procured a little steel bar, a flint rock, and a piece of dry, decayed wood, called punk. The punk would catch the spark of fire which a concussion between the rock and steel produced. But only a few families had this appli- ance, and fire often had to be sought for at the houses of the neighbors. This was not altogether back in the " dark ages." The writer, in his day, has been out in quest of fire more than once.
Household furniture was very scant, and farming implements were rude and poor. Grain was threshed, in many instances, on the smooth ledges of the hills.
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HISTORY OF WARNER.
Barn floors were small and inadequate; the mountain sides were rough, and while the kernel might easily be carried down, the straw, being bulky and compara- tively worthless, might be left. There can be pointed out to-day, on the mountains of Warner, " threshing- floors," perhaps not unlike that of Ornan the Jebusite, on Mount Moriah.
WOMAN LOST.
In 1796 the widow of Asa Harriman, finding her cows had not come up one night as usual, started in pursuit of them just before dark. She became bewil- dered, and had no idea which way pointed towards home. She pursued the forest paths for hours. At length a dim light was discernible. It was at the house of Benjamin Badger, which was not less than two and a half miles from her own, in a straight line, and there was no road of any kind leading from one of these houses to the other. It was now ten o'clock. Mr. Badger took his lantern and escorted the lost woman home. Reaching there, they found the three youngest children asleep on the floor, but the oldest, a girl of eight years, was gone. It was now midnight. The young children told them that Nancy went to find her mother, and had not come back. They at once started in search of the missing girl, and in a wood-path, at least half a mile from home, they found her fast asleep, at the side of a log, where, as the
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WILD BEASTS.
mother always expressed it, " she had cried herself to sleep."
This girl afterwards became the wife of Captain Thomas Stewart, and among her children now living are Col. Thomas W. and John H. Stewart, merchant tailors of Concord. €
WILD BEASTS.
In former times wild beasts roamed through the forests of Warner, as well as elsewhere. Solomon An- nis shot a large wild-cat in 1766. Abner Watkins and Thomas Annis killed a bear on the Mink Hills, in 1769.
Wolves were somewhat troublesome to the first settlers. In some seasons they destroyed large num- bers of lambs.
Dr. Long, in his " sketches," alludes to the case of two young men who were driven from Pumpkin hill by a bear. As good old Mrs. Caleb Jones used to tell the story, it ran thus: These two young men came up from Kingston (her native town). They had bar- gained for a wild lot, at or very near the highest point on Pumpkin hill, but they had paid no money and got no deed. They came on with their axes, and commenced in the early summer. They built a rude shanty, the front end of which was entirely open, and the rear end came against the stub of an old tree that had been broken down. There was a wide aper-
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HISTORY OF WARNER.
ture, also, at that end, called the window. While these young adventurers were peacefully partaking of their meridian meal one day, an old bear climbed up the stump, and gazed in belligerently upon them. They instantly sprung : they stood not on the order of their going, but went. They made the best time they could. Nathaniel Bean was near the road as they threw themselves down the hill, by him, on a dead run, one of them bare-headed. Bean sang out, " What's the rush ?" but, like Job, they answered not a word. When they reached Tappan Evans's, they sank down in utter exhaustion. After wiping the profusion of sweat from their faces, they told their tale. Evans gave the destitute one an old hat; they took their departure from town ; and Pumpkin hill and the old bear knew them no more.
The Savorys caught a bear on the mountain in 1821, and Isaac Cheney, of Wilmot, caught another at a later day.
In the winter of 1833 B. E. Harriman and Marden Seavey caught a large deer. They started him up in the great woods between Nathaniel Page's old farm and How's tavern.
WITCHCRAFT.
Coleridge did not believe in ghosts ; " he had seen too many of them." But some of our ancestors did believe in ghosts for the same reason : they had seen both ghosts and witches with their own eyes, and of
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WITCHCRAFT.
course that settled the question. The names of good, respectable Warner people might be given, who ap- peared to believe in this mischievous delusion without a doubt. They would declare, on their oaths, that they had seen and recognized witches riding through the air on a broomstick! (They always would ride a broomstick!) One man saw a witch riding in this manner, who flew so low that her toe-nails ripped the shingles from the ridge-pole of his house, there being no weather-boards to protect them. The names of half a dozen of the inhabitants of Warner, who were considered witches and accused of crime, might be given, but they are withheld.
Among the province laws of New Hampshire, the following, which was enacted by the General Assem- bly at Portsmouth in 1679, is found :
If any Christian, soe called, be a witch, yt is, hath, or con- sulted with a familiar spirit, he or they shall be put to death.
Though the disgrace of enacting a law like this at- taches to New Hampshire, and justly, it is a great sat- isfaction to know that the law, or such as that, was never executed within the limits of the province. No innocent blood has ever been shed in New Hamp- shire on account of witchcraft. But persons have · been accused of this crime, and put on trial for their lives. The following is one of the cases of this char- acter.
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HISTORY OF WARNER.
COMPLAINT OF SUSANNAH TRIMMINGS OF LITTLE HARBOR.
On Lord's day 30th of March, at night, going home with Good- wife Barton, she separated from her at the freshet next her house. On her return she heard a rustling in the woods, and there did appear to her old Goodwife Walford. She asked me where my consort was. I answered, I had none. She said, thy consort is at home by this time ; lend me a pound of cotton. I told her I had but two pounds in the house, and would not spare any to my mother. She said I had better have done it; that my sorrow was great, and it should be greater-for I was going a great journey, but should never come there. She then left me, and I was struck as with a clap of fire on my back, and she vanished towards the water-side, in my apprehension in the shape of a cat. She had on her head a white linen hood tied under her chin, and her waistcoat and petticoat were red.
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