USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Sunapee > The story of Sunapee > Part 11
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Esther Bartlett, December 30, 1804. Married Benjamin Lovering (Hopkinton).
Rebecca Bartlett, April 20, 1807. Married Jesse Collins. George W. Bartlett, March 20, 1309. Married Polly Simons.
Irene Bartlett, June 12, 1811. Married Stephen Rowell (Newport)
Greeley Bartlett, March 10, 1816. Married Sarah A. Gove.
So, it results that Solomon Bartlett contributed blood to Straws, Putneys, Lockes, Tobys, Browns, Loverings, Collins, Simons, Rowells and Goves.
Note: These families settled in, or not far from Wendell.
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CHAPTER LXVII SHORT ITEMS OF RECORD
Thomas Pickernall and Mary, his wife, dwelt in Sunapee and raised a family of eight children between 1800 and 1816. They moved away.
Stephen Scranton and his wife, Betsey, raised the largest family in town,-fifteen children, nine girls and six boys. They lasted in Sunapee until about Civil War time. Their children were born between 1797 and 1834, and married into other families.
"Gitchel's Cove," a beach on the Lake near Roger's Shore beach, took its' name from an early family that lived not far from it on George's Mills road. Aaron Gitchell and Polly Clough Gitchell had four children between 1804 and 1811. They were married by Elder Woodward November 16, 1797. They moved away.
There was a family of Pillsburys in Sunapee from about 1785 to 1810. The head was Joseph, and wife Elizabeth, and they had children,-six boys and five girls.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Gunnison had seven children born in Wendell between 1804 and 1819,-four boys and three girls. He may have been a relative of the pioneer, Captain Samuel Gunnison.
Mr. and Mrs. Barnabas Conant had two sons and one daughter born in Wendell between 1791 and 1797 and the father died in 1847.
Lieut. Joshua Whitney came to Sunapee early and was in the War. He had ten children by his wife, Sarah,-six daughters and four sons, born between 1779 and 1795. One daughter, Ruth, married Enoch Eastman. The name, vari- ously spelled, later disappeared from the Wendell records.
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The Sisco Name did not continue many years in Wendell history although they had early families and married into other families of the town.
Stephen Phillips and wife raised a family of seven children between 1792 and 1814, but they did not remain in Wendell many years.
Job Williams and his wife, Polly, were in Wendell in 1799 to 1821, and raised a family of six children. The wife died in 1821 and it is believed the survivors of the family left town soon thereafter.
There was a large Remington Family in Wendell from 1836 for several years. Henry married Sally Gage. I used to hear about them. The name was commonly called "Rem."
Jacob Kidder and Mehitable Kidder, his wife, raised eight children in Wendell between 1803 and 1821. Their names were: Thomas, Elijah, James, Jacob, Amos, Darius, Betsey, and Sally. Said Thomas married Ruth Pike and had children: Thomas, Andrew, Orvillah, Mehitable, Sarah, Hannah, and Esther between January 1829 and 1837. This may be the New London family.
Jonathan Worster and wife, Mary Howard Worster, raised a family of nine in Wendell from October 15, 1798 to Octo- ber 24, 1817. Mr. Worcester operated a carding mill. He was succeeded by Daniel B. Colcord. The mill was moved to Otterville, some time later called "Goose Hole," a section set off to New London.
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CHAPTER LXVIII WHERE THEY ARE BURIED
The oldest cemetery was at the South End near the old Union Church, which was abandoned and removed more than seventy years ago, and the site thereof taken into the ceme- tery. Some of the Angell family were buried there. It is extended and still used.
The cemetery at the Lower Village, near the site of the other early Union Church, is full and no longer in use but is kept up. Some of the oldest families are buried there, including the Knowltons.
The "cemetery on the hill," which is about a mile north of the Lower Village, is newer than the others and larger, yet it has many old stones. The Smiths, the Sargents, Bart- letts and others are buried there.
There is a small cemetery near the old John Martin Cooper place where a few early settlers are buried, including the Young family. It is near Young's Hill.
In recent years a few Sunapee people have been buried in the Newport cemetery, near Guild. George H. Bartlett, Dr. E. C. Fisher and others are buried there.
CHAPTER LXIX SKETCHES FROM MEMORY
We ask the reader to understand before he reads the fol- lowing subject matter that it purports to be only what the writer, himself, remembers, not a set of biographies or eulo- gies. Some of these men died when the writer was, perhaps, only five years old, while others he knew longer. He has not undertaken to look up data on them or ask others about them. These lines are just the naked memories of one who is now seventy-two years old. He hopes he has not erred in think- ing that even such shadows of memory may interest a few. You see, my reader, that even two generations may reach back a long distance. For instance, I can remember well
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my grandfather Bartlett, and yet he was born the year Presi- dent George Washington died, viz, in 1799. I wish he had written what he could remember. He did not do so, but it occurred to me, the reader might not think it too personal in me to do so.
John B. Smith. The most vivid of all the old gentlemen within my personal memory, I shall mention first because he lived just across the road from father. He was John B. Smith. I can remember exactly how he looked with his fringe of white whiskers protruding in a semi-circle beneath his chin, like pictures we see of Horace Greeley. In fact, he looked much like the founder of the New York Tribune, who, by the way, was born in near-by Amherst, New Hamp- shire. Well, Deacon Smith led the singing in the Methodist Episcopal Church choir. His tenor voice, a bit nasal, was tremulous and doleful as he grew very old. But, really that singing of his, that mellow voice flowing gently from a benevolent countenance, I can hear now, in fact so clearly that I often try to imitate it. As a boy I liked it. More- over, Deacon Smith, by contrast, let me say, was an acknowl- edged inventive genius of the Edison type. I mean that absolutely. He remained in Sunapee, with meagre capital, erected shops, in all, four, patented and manufactured clothespin machinery and sold them in all the States; like- wise he manufactured and sold clothespins, plows, stoves and other articles. I remember best the telescope he invented, and how he would permit us children to look through it at Venus, Mars, and other heavenly bodies.
Deacon Smith's son, Nathan A., well filled his father's place. But when Nathan died the business ran down and stopped.
Ella Young Smith. During my time at home, Nathan and Ella Smith were the mainstay of the Methodist Episcopal Church choir and church music. They made it better than most country churches. Ella sang soprano, and sang so well that she was later engaged in a Concord church. She also
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did concert singing in a quartette. Nathan had a splendid bass voice, and, moreover, he was one of the finest men I ever knew in town.
John and Moses Sargent. These brothers were substantial men of the town during long lives,-John a carpenter, Moses a manufacturer. Moses' wife, Arabell, one of the large George family, sang in the church choir for years, was an estimable woman, and our very near neighbor. John's wife, Emily, was one of the large Young family, and aunt to Alvah and Beulah Young, whom they brought up. Moses' son, Fred M. Sargent, has spent his whole life until now, in a useful and active way in the town, doing an insurance busi- ness and having charge of the Fire Department.
George H. Bartlett would be selected by those of his gen- eration in Sunapee as the most successful of those who were born in Sunapee, and who lived there during their entire lives, and died in Sunapee. He found a way to make money on Sugar River by manufacturing hames for harnesses for horses from the ash and oak trees which abounded in Suna- pee and that, at a time when monarchs cried "my Kingdom for a horse"; and he had the salesmanship ability to extend his market to every State. Finally he had the vision to see the approach of the auto, and the corporation octopus when small concerns would be swallowed up. Moreover, George H. was a man of large proportions mentally and in every way a leader in public and Church interests. His factory gave steady employment to many of the people thereabout for a generation. His was a useful life.
William C. Sturoc. This new citizen was unlike the gen- eral run of Sunapee farm folk. He was a lawyer, writer and poet, and hence busied himself with Town Meeting and legislative matters and cases, being a member of the House of Representatives several times, and always a visitor in Concord around "session" time. There was not much law business in Sunapee. In fact, he never seemed to work,
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always going for his mail twice a day, going long before mail time, hence generally seen the centre of a group all talking and waiting for the postmaster to "change the mail" Sturoc was not of the very oldest men in town at the time, I remember. He told us about being born in Arbroath, Scot- land in 1822, said he arrived in Newport via Montreal in 1855, and studied law in the office of Congressman Edmund Burke. Then the young barrister, as he said secured board at and put out his "shingle" on the Chase House, the two-story red house that was just up the steep hill from the Hame Shop. We'll call it "Chase Hill." "Squire Sturoc" was a brilliant conversationalist, exhibiting a scholarly vocabulary, a wee bit of Scotch accent, a good reserve of reason and facts. Physically he was short and bald, wore a flowing cape, but- toned close at the neck, open below, fluttering as he strutted fast and pertly in the Sunapee breeze. It was the only man's cape in the county until the "King of Korn Alley" adopted the style. He made the native folk stare and stand aloof, as he blew by. Mr. Sturoc was a red hot Democrat, hence his usual forum was the Knowlton store, located on the river side of the road at the Harbor. I was thirteen when Mr. Sturoc was sixty. He took considerable notice of me and finally gave me his law library of perhaps a hundred volumes. His snappy articles, as a columnist, in the New- port Argus each week were live subjects of store conversa- tion. His best poem, as I think, was entitled "Lake Sunapee." I quote one of its eight verses, as follows:
"Clear mountain mirror! Who can tell but thou Hast borne the red man in his light canoe, As fleetly on thy bosom as e'en now
Thou bear'st the pale face o'er thy waters blue, And who can tell but nature's children then, Were rich and happy as the most of men?"
Mr. Sturoc published an article on Sunapee in a history of Cheshire County, New Hampshire, to which we have re- ferred herein.
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Dr. George Almond Young, of Concord, dentist, must have mention in any Sunapee sketch. I remember him especially well for he visited often at his sisters, Emily Young Sargent's and Hannah Young Muzzey's,-that is, he would "come up for week-ends" and always went to church, usually to Sun- day School. Then we noticed his generosity in church,- fine looking, well-dressed, good talker, always pleasant, why, he was one of us. He was born in Sunapee in 1834, a son of Andrew Young, who with Captain William Young and ten others, founded the Sunapee Methodist Episcopal Church in 1855. He became Postmaster at Concord in later years. His son is a dentist in Concord and still favors Sunapee.
Charles H. Bartlett, born and reared to maturity in, and a frequent visitor all his life to, Sunapee, was as interested in the Town as the Town was proud of him. The little red school house in District No. 3, Francistown Academy and Colby Academy, contributed to his education. He brought many of his Manchester friends for fishing and game expedi- tions to our waters and woods. With his wife, who was Han- nah Eastman, of Ryder Corner, his daughter, Carrie B. and her husband, the genial Charles H. Anderson, he spent his summers for many years at the home of his sister, Mrs. Abby Smith, wife of Thomas P. Smith. "Uncle Charles," as we called him, was, in his day, one of a half dozen State leaders, in finance, law and statesmanship. His fine, hand- some figure and friendly personality were known by every- one in Sunapee. The writer's father and his large family, as well as many others in Sunapee and elsewhere, owed much to this great and generous man of whom they were proud.
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CHAPTER LXX AND MORE FOLKS
Nathan P. Baker was one of the best-liked men in town, a Postmaster when the G. O. P. was in, a store-keeper all the time, always considerate of us boys, in fact of everyone, always active in Church and Sunday School, a pleasant and just man always. He was not a politician. I don't think he even read postcards. He had a beard and looked some like General Grant. His son, Hermon, graduated at Yale and is a success in Boston. Mr. Baker's wife was much loved as a Sunday School teacher.
Elder Keeler. The Rev. Samuel C. Keeler was the Metho- dist Episcopal pastor when I was a boy, a splendid friend of all the country folks, and he also preached well. His beard was like pictures of President Hayes. He liked gardening, fishing and, better still, had a splendid family. The son, Gene, was my special boy pal, in spite of crutch and cane, a good singer, now popular in Concord. The "Elder," his wife and most, if not all, the children are now deceased, except Gene, who is feeble. "Elder" Keeler was an outstanding preacher in the State, "a Methodist presiding Elder."
Healey Cunningham. A kind old eccentric, super-religious, prayed with all the families in Town at least once a year, whether willing or not, had a tin-shop near the Hame Shop, ate all his foods in milk with a spoon, from potato to pie, had long hair like girls to-day, whiskers, short of stature, shrill voice, good and generous, a bachelor. I would, on call, get balsam for him out of bulges in the bark of balsam trees, and he used it as a medicine in some way, for something or other. I never knew what. He was finally "burned out" and soon died. I never knew from whence he came. He was not an early settler.
John A. Tucker. "Albin Tucker" was a very important man in Sunapee in his day, for he employed a group of young
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women to work in his "Stiffening Shop" for many years, until about fifty years ago. That is the way I remember they called the name of the shop. It was the only means the young women in town had to get cash employment. Tucker's Shop was on the northerly side of the river near the last bridge at the Lower Village. He had a water power from a canal on the south side of the river. By the way, this canal furnished the "best swimming pool" in the lower village, and was so used for many years. But the shop has now gone, also a saw-mill near by on the south side of the river. Tucker shipped many barrels of inner shoe soles daily to the Boston market. He had three children, Ellsworth, Bert and Carrie (Jenkins). The son, Bert, carried on the business for a few years after his father's death, then took it to Stoneham for economic reasons. Ellsworth married Miss Cooper and worked in the Hame Shop. Carrie married and moved to Massachusetts. "Albin Tucker" was a fine looking man of culture and enterprise, as he appeared to me.
William Clinton Stocker. Mr. Stocker came to Sunapee about the same time as my grandfather Bartlett, and came, as I remember the story, from Grantham. He erected an excel- sior mill on a dam of the river a hundred yards or so below the tannery, where the river could be used again for power, and manufactured excelsior there for many years. Finally he gave up to the trust organizers in 1890. I recall how I marvelled at seeing the deft machines swiftly slicing off small threads from poplar wood, and how they "bailed" it for shipment. Mr. Stocker had three children, Arthur, Josie and Anna. Josie married Fred M. Sargent. She lived only a short time. Anna was bookkeeper for years in the Hame Shop office. Arthur, first a salesman, then he lived in Suna- pee many years as an electrician. Mr. Stocker owned the store building at the Harbor,-the Republican store, and re- sided in an apartment over the store. He was regarded as one of the sound and cultured citizens of the Town and county,-had a look some like James G. Blaine.
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CHAPTER LXXI STILL MORE FOLKS
Rush Everett. "Rush," as they called him, was a famous teamster in his day, famous for his "early-and-late" hours, all day and all night work, teaming with his oxen for hire, famous for his heard-a-mile holler at his cattle, and famous for possessing a prize yoke of pullers at town fairs. He was a large, whiskered gentleman who lived with his son in an old house, later torn down, and a new house built by James Perkins of Perkins and Alexander. His son, Will, was a watch repairer in the home, being a cripple on crutches. They are deceased. Rush I remember for his early and late zero trips past the house, for the icicles hanging like drapery to his long beard, and for his hand strokes to liberate them.
John Page. He was an old gentleman who lived at the Harbor near George Blodgett and worked in the Smith Shops. He had children, Frank, Arthur, Herb, Emma and Rena, as I recall. Only Rena survives, but lives in Newport. Mr. Page was a serious, sad-faced old gentleman who toiled hard and unceasingly,-a church attendant.
Josiah Scott, and Joseph Mason. Scott was a hard-working farmer and wood-lot operator who lived on a farm where the Granliden hotel has been erected, overlooking Scott's Cove. He had children, Rose and Lewis. All deceased. Scott built several houses at Guild, getting the lumber from his farm. The farm is now used for golf. The old Mason farm adjoined the Scott farm. There, my father "cut hay" for years, under lease, "fed" a 100 acre pasture which embraced all of North Point and Garnet Hill on the lake. It fell to my lot to mow and rake there in haying time, and at intervals to "drive" and "salt" "neat stock." Mason was dead then and the old house was falling in. I never saw Mason.
Erastus R. Boyce was a school master of the old school, an expert on tough schools where women teachers had been helpless to maintain discipline-an artist who was able to
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put on a "flogging act" when "big boy" on the back seat got sulky. They called him "Rame,"-strong, alert, cross-eyed, whiskered, stern. He knew all the problems in arithmetic, not problems, they called 'em "sums." "If a man rows up stream so many miles an hour and down stream so many miles an hour and passes a man going so many miles an hour"; oh, shucks I have forgotten the rest. Why, you see, that was a "sum." "Can you do it?" Rame would shout. But "Rame" was needed in his day. He could be as pleasant as a cooing dove after a "flogging" was over. But his wrath would flare up again as sudden as a brushfire. He was a bachelor, of course.
Quimby Eastman. He was a stalwart old gentleman, large and genial, as I remember him, who lived on Chase Hill, near Phillip Flanders, Solomon Bartlett and Nathan P. Baker. Quimby had a son, Anson, who was a machinist in the Smith Machine Shops, and I used to see much of him, watching him at his lathe and hearing his never-forgettable whistle, whistle the livelong day, not a tune, but just a low chu-chu whistle. At his lathe, on the street or in the store, he was always whistling. Quimby and Anson were not very much on church going, but probably at times. I do not re- call that Anson had a wife. To me he and his father seemed of the same age, a case of whiskers, and were much together. They seemed not to be poor. Folks on Chase Hill were not so poor.
Ebenezer Batchelder. He must have died when I was very young for I can faintly recall that he lived just east of the first Lower Village bridge on the river side, where Sumner Sargent lived after him, and that his yard was always full of carts and sleds, hauling-vehicles and jobbing tools. And I remember faintly how he looked. They always referred to him as "Ebb." The only other man in Sunapee with the Batchelder name I ever knew was Henry Batchelder, the long-time depot master. As I recall, he had a famous brother, a lawyer and legislator, A. T. Batchelder, living in Keene. I
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think my Batchelder names among old families may help to locate "Ebb's" ancestry.
George Dodge, attorney-at-law, and Mrs. Dodge came to Sunapee around 1880, as I remember, and kept a summer boarding house located on the knoll above Joseph P. Smith's residence. Mr. Dodge took an interest in school and town affairs, and was relied upon to oppose Mr. Sturoc in debate on any subject, political or otherwise. They were a contrast. Mrs. Dodge taught school in No. 7, 8 and 9, taught all her life, and I can testify she was a good teacher.
Lewis Goss was a leading man in the town fifty years ago. He lived in the house where my grandfather Bartlett lived his few last years in the village, was an undertaker and hame worker. His wife was Anna Johnson. They had a son, Joseph Goss, who was a policeman in Boston, and a daughter, Cora Goss, who married Arthur Fulton. With the family lived Susan Johnson Stocker, a sister of Mrs. Goss, and I re- member these sisters as singers in the Church choir. Mrs. Stocker was then a widow. She was the mother of Albert A. Stocker, at present Chairman of the Sunapee School Board, and contractor, who married Harriet Bartlett. (See Bartlett Family)
Only a few will remember the Rev. D. M. Cleveland, and that as an old man, over 80, who spoke briefly at the fu- neral of my mother who passed away January 10, 1936. But Cleveland was, in some sense, a Sunapee boy, for when a student at New London, he became closely attched to my brother Irving who died in the Academy. He risked his life to care for and bury Irving. After that he, himself, was sick for a long time at the home of Aunt Sarah Felch. He came to know many Sunapee people and all liked him-a giant in size, but as gentle as a child. He was known over the State as a colporter, a Bible dispenser, finally settled in Swanzey but had a hand-built camp on Mt. Kearsarge and passed through Sunapee often, and as often called on many
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old friends. So, for some sixty years we knew and loved him. He had no relatives in this country, until, late in life, he married, lived at New London and raised two fine children-one Irving, named for my brother. He was one of those strange, but wonderful men whom I just had to men- tion.
My mother and father. Mother lived about thirty years after father passed away at the home of his son, J. Delmar Bartlett at Lafayette, Indiana. He was nine years older than mother. I think both had happy lives among friends and good neighbors, and enjoyed their children. I wrote the following of mother in 1931 on Mother's Day:
At home by the fireside she's sitting, Our mother at ninety and one,
Perchance it's a stocking she's knitting, Or mending a hose with a "run".
What lessons in patience she teaches, As calmly she rocks in her chair!
To Heaven her soul fairly reaches, As childlike she whispers a prayer.
Life's storms have subsided behind her, Her children now all dwell away,
The joys of a mother remind her, How happy she's been in her day.
Much burdened and labored was Mother,- Nine children,-four living, five lost, I cannot imagine another More cheerfully bearing her cross.
But now she is all retrospection, The smile of a victor she wears, If sad it defies all detection, As troubles of others she shares.
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There's mirth in her laugh and eye-twinkle, Her mind is ne'er faulty or broke, And when she alludes to a wrinkle, It's always by way of a joke.
Oft backward to scenes of her childhood, Go flick'ring her thoughts like a dream, As flowers and birds and the wildwood Repass her in one endless stream.
'Tis grand, when the years are fast bringing The voyage of life where it's calm,
To view it with faith and with singing God doeth His children no harm.
CHAPTER LXXII
MY BOY FRIENDS, ETC.
Neighborhood Boys. Before I left home I knew the young men or boys of the town. I remember Alvah Young, Ellsworth Tucker, Bert Tucker, Ernest Muzzey, Clel Muzzey, Gene Muzzey, Fred Sargent, George Blodgett, Joe Cutting, Sid French, Will and Nat Gardner, Clarence Cross, Will Abbott (died), Dean Lear, Duane Lear, Frank Young, Harry Perkins, Herbert Page, Dana Hadley, Leslie Smith, Gene Keeler, Bert Eastman, Will Flanders, George Colby, Bert and Charlie Felch, Joe Tucker, Dura Rowe, John Mathews, George Gard- ner, George Abbott, Dura Chase, Ulie Emerson, Arthur Stocker, Joe Goss, Ed Fisher, Will Sleeper, Herman Baker, Herb Roach, and my brothers, Irving, Fred and Dell.
These boys varied in ages somewhat, but not so very much.
Grandfather Hiram Sargent and Grandmother Sarah Eliot Sargent were church-going people, educated above the av- erage at that time. I recall, when as a small boy, I went with them to a meeting in the old Union Church at the Lower Village. Grandsir always came to church well dressed, as I
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