USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Plymouth > Twenty decades in Plymouth, New Hampsire : 1763-1963 > Part 8
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Mr. Langdon erected the house at number 2, at the corner of Highland Street and the new Russell Street, and conducted his express office in one of the small, wooden buildings on the east side of Main Street. These gable roofed houses were called "The Ten Footers" and also "Peanut Row."
This Langdon Family was established in Portsmouth near the beginning of the settlement of Strawberry Banke. Their sons became wealthy shipping merchants and prominent in the government of New Hampshire.
Mr. James Langdon was the descendant of Woodbury Langdon, the brother of John who administered the oath of office to George Washington at his inaugural in 1789. Langdon Street was established before 1900 and perpetuates the name of this prominent family whose enterprising son was influential in the progress of our town during the nineteenth century.
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SECOND HIGHLAND STREET FIRE
Fires furnished excitement all too often in the village. Since 1862 when the first fire swept this corner, another three story wooden block faced High- land Street occupied by the store of Plummer Fox and his several partners. On Main Street was the store of John Tufts. Again, in 1895, fire destroyed the buildings around this corner.
Undiscouraged, Mr. Fox erected a three story brick block along Main Street with space for several stores and halls and offices above. Mr. Tufts constructed a wooden building for his drug store and the Gill Fletcher glove shop on the lower floor along Highland Street, and apartments above.
The Plymouth Record stated that the fire department purchased a hook and ladder truck in 1893, then trained a special force to man it. For a fire alarm, the town paid an annual fee to the Methodist church to sound the calls with its bell. At the next door the fire company was stationed in the same building that is now in 1963, the printing office of the Plymouth Record.
A most troublesome fire partially destroyed the wooden railroad bridge across the Pemigewasset River to the south of the village. Trains were sent over the White River Line until piles were driven to reinforce the bridge.
In December came a sudden rainstorm of thirty-six hours duration that piled the ice into a long jam. The flood washed away the piles under the bridge so that the trains again ran to White River. Fortunately, this situation developed in the winter when tourists were not traveling to the mountains.
One August day in 1893, the newspaper reported that at noon fourteen passenger cars filled with tourists arrived in Plymouth. Again, at 5 P.M. seventeen crowded cars arrived from Boston. The restaurant at the station was prepared to accommodate hundreds of diners daily.
The Pemigewasset Valley branch of the railroad was constructed in 1882 that transported many of these travelers to the hotels in North Woodstock and the Flume House in Franconia Notch.
SUMMARY
Building the second Pemigewasset Hotel, the Village Improvement So- ciety for the Common, more stores along the Russell Square, the first new Street-Russell, Shamrock Valley, a Town Hall, the Founding of Plymouth Normal School, the new Methodist Church, the Langdon Express Office, and the second fire at Main and Highland streets, all transformed the appearance of the center of the village.
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1873-1883
YOUNG LADIES' LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
A group of fourteen young women conceived a plan for a circulating library in 1873. Although they possessed neither money nor books, they took the initiative to secure both. They chose the name, "The Young Ladies Li- brary Association" and elected officers who were daughters of influential busi- ness men of the community.
To obtain the funds for books, entertainments, lectures and a fair were offered to the public with generous response for their efforts. Uncle Jim Langdon provided a room over his express office and furnished a stove, fuel and kerosene lamps as his contribution.
The books were purchased and the library opened early in 1874. Patrons paid one dollar annually. Concerts, dramatics and fairs were frequently held that increased the number of new books, until in 1875 Mr. John Bertram of Salem, Massachusetts, a summer guest at the Pemigewasset House, presented $500 to express his admiration for the constant efforts of these young women. Mr. Bertram's picture hangs in the library today.
Hon. Henry W. Blair was a member of the Congress of the United States in 1876. As a successful lawyer and statesman he realized the historical value of the first courthouse of 1774. Accordingly, he purchased what remained of its structure after the abuse it had received when a schoolhouse, paint shop and finally a wheelwright's shelter. The cupola was off, the window frames broken and the doorway defaced, but the original frame was intact.
Mr. Blair obtained the consent of Grafton County officials to remove this relic to county land where it stands today. At an expense of $1,000 the re- storation was completed. Then, a lease for ninety-nine years was given to the Young Ladies Library Association in 1876, soon to expire.
Mrs. Harl Pease relates how visitors asked her, while she served as librarian, to point to the exact spot where Daniel Webster stood when he pleaded the case of Josiah Burnham. The Association had recently laid a green carpet that was beginning to show wear from the constant desire to stand on the spot. Miss Bessie placed a table to protect this famous space on the carpet and to the curious visitors she would say, "Probably he stood about
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ـيف تربية
Young Ladies' Library (Old Courthouse )-1774. Here Daniel Webster carned his first lawyer's fee, in May of 1806.
where that table is now." Tradition describes a fireplace that originally oc- cupied the northwest corner of the room.
No record remains about a bell in the old cupola. The present cupola of the courthouse of 1889 contains a bell with the inscription around its barrel- top, "Cast by Henry N. Hooper & Co., Boston 1849." This bell was probably hung in the belfry of the second courthouse. Recently, a judge revived the custom of ringing the courthouse bell to call the court into session.
The State of New Hampshire enacted laws that control free public li- braries. A combined management of the town and the Association prevails at present, with a board of trustees elected by the town and an appropriation of tax money annually to assist in defraying the running expenses.
THE STORY ABOUT AMOS M. KIDDER
Kidder Hill was situated on both sides of the line of Hebron and Ply- mouth. Early in the 1800 period Oliver Kidder and his wife and family of seven children removed to the village of Plymouth where he died in 1854. Mrs. Kidder earned for her children by doing laundry work for her neighbors. She removed to Chelsea, Massachusetts and there her youngest son, Amos, attend- ed schools.
Amos was first a clerk in a store, then went to New York to become a banker and associated with railroad business. Fortune smiled and he founded the banking firm of A.M. Kidder & Co. At the age of thirty-six years, he returned to reside in Plymouth.
A beautiful residence on Highland Street with stables and landscaped lawns was erected. His wife was frail, and he employed servants to care for the home and his son and daughter. He was generous and friendly, although he dressed fastidiously, always carrying a cane.
He kept a span of coal black driving horses, also a tally-ho coach with a coachman dressed in livery, to handle the four spirited horses, with two Eng- lish Greyhounds dashing in the rear. He bought the Pem Farm at West Plymouth, where he employed a farm manager to grow vegetables and care for his blooded stock, with a large new house and barns provided on the place.
After seven years he bought the east side of Main Street between the Methodist church and Blake's restaurant, razed the buildings and erected the three story brick Kidder Block. The post office, and stores of various goods were displaying their wares through large plate glass windows on the first floor. The center of the second floor was a theatre, extending to the roof, the walls surrounded by balconies and a stage with a hand painted drop curtain depicting the Bay of Naples. Musicals, dramatics, lectures and town meet- ings freely used this spacious auditorium.
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Amos Mansfield Kidder and grandson Mansfield, 1837 - 1903
Mr. Kidder was influential in the legislature. He secured $60,000 from the state for a new Normal School building and gave the land now occupied by Mary Lyon Hall for a new wooden dormitory. Every week he ordered the grocery store to carry baskets of food to needy families with no mention of the giver.
Suddenly this largess ended when Mr. Kidder proposed a bond issue to hard surface Main Street to Livermore Falls. Spring mud and summer rains caused this highway to become almost impassable. Critical taxpayers began to object with most unfortunate reminders that Mr. Kidder's mother had been a washerwoman. This kindly man was extremely sensitive and these remarks cut his feeling too deeply for endurance.
Quietly he sold his property in Plymouth and departed, never to return. He died in 1903. Plymouth lost a generous, kindly citizen. When the Kidder Block was destroyed in a fire the memory of this remarkable man disappeared. Yet the Congregational Church building and chapel are monuments to his thoughtfulness and the first savings bank owes its existence to his genius.
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James Fogg Langdon, 1804 - 1887
THE TIN SHOP
A business that indicates change was established in one of the ten footers in 1875 by Mr. Charles J. Gould. He kept a hardware store and installed machines for a tin shop. Thus ended the pottery business of West Plymouth. Sheet tin was shaped into milk pans, baking pans and all household basins of all shapes and sizes to the satisfaction of housewives. The tin pedlars' carts became frequent callers at farm houses, taking rags in barter for their utensils.
THE WATER WORKS
The community was disturbed because a few cases of typhoid fever began to appear in the summertime with increasing frequency, until 1880 brought almost epidemic conditions.
Rose Lawn had become a popular summer hotel. The hostess, Mrs. Wil- liam G. Hull, was a cultured woman with literary attainments. In October
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she contracted this disease and died. Within a few days one of her guests, Mrs. Woodbury Langdon, succumbed. Two weeks later young Frank Lang- don, the only child of Woodbury Langdon, was taken by this same illness.
The word, pollution, was not spoken daily as it is heard today. Never- theless, proof that the springs along Russell Street were infected with the germs of typhoid was undisputed. Rose Lawn immediately closed.
Mr. Woodbury Langdon resolved to prevent another fatality because the water was impure. He persuaded his father, Mr. James Fogg Langdon, to invest thousands of his fortune to establish the water works for the town. Young Langdon was a graduate of Bowdoin College, and a capable business executive. He became the superintendent of the construction of a reservoir on Huckins Hill that would be filled by the hillside brooks. Then the water pipes were laid that brought pure water to the village and supplied fire protection also.
Mr. James F. Langdon died in 1887, leaving his son to continue this task to which he devoted his entire fortune but he bequeathed to his town a legacy of a water supply for future generations.
PLYMOUTH AND CAMPTON TELEPHONE COMPANY
Modern facilities were expanding rapidly in Plymouth. The area north- ward through Warren, Lincoln, Littleton and Bethlehem and southward through Center Harbor was included in an incorporation called The Plymouth and Campton Telephone Exchange Company.
Five central offices were maintained. One hundred and thirty miles of pole lines and five hundred miles of wire provided telephone service for over five hundred patrons.
This company had connections with the New England Telegraph and Telephone Company for all toll calls outside of its own area, thus bringing this region of the White Mountains in constant communication with the out- side world.
THE NATIONAL BANK
In this same year, 1881, the successful businessmen of Plymouth and the surrounding towns became stockholders in a national bank with the name that belongs to this town from its pre-historic inheritance, The Pemigewasset Na- tional Bank. Probably this Indian Sachem lived here not less than five hun- dred years ago. Strangers do not correctly pronounce his name. Certainly, something unique is perpetuated among us, whenever we speak the sachem's name.
Seven able directors were chosen. Space in the Pemigewasset Hotel was occupied by the offices until a brick building was erected in 1885 at the south
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Hon. Alvin Burleigh, 1842 - 1930
side of the Congregational church, displacing the small office building that Squire Leverett had used for his legal practice and the horsesheds of the Old Brick Store.
LAWYER ALVIN BURLEIGH
Time passes rapidly, bringing new personalities into prominence. One of these was a native son, Alvin Burleigh, another boy who by his own efforts became a successful lawyer and statesman.
Young Burleigh attended the village schools until he enlisted in the Fifteenth Regiment for New Hampshire in the Civil War when still in his teens. After receiving an honorable discharge, he prepared for college at Kim- ball Union Academy and was graduated from Dartmouth in 1871. He read law in the office of Hon. Henry W. Blair, was admitted to the Bar in 1874, then became a member of the firm of Blair and Burleigh.
After Mr. Blair became a Congressman, Mr. Burleigh joined with Mr. George Herbert Adams in a new partnership of Burleigh and Adams. Mr. Adams was graduated from Dartmouth in 1873. He also read law with Mr. Blair and was admitted to the Bar in 1876. Both of these young men became active in banking, members of the legislature, served on many boards of edu- cation, and participated in religious activities of the Methodist Church.
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SUMMARY
This decade saw the Young Ladies Library Association activated, the career of Mr. Amos M. Kidder, J. F. Gould's Tin Shop, construction of the Water Works, the Plymouth and Campton Telephone Exchange Company, the National Bank, and the firm of Burleigh and Adams.
Haying at "Clarkland" with a span of white horses, in 1920.
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1883-1893
MUSICAL SOCIETIES
This decade marks several outstanding musical events in Plymouth. A clipping from a newspaper of a century ago tells about the "county sings" that Mr. Lowell Mason came to conduct in Plymouth. Mr. Mason was the com- poser or adapter of many of the church hymns that will never be forgotten: "Blest Be the Tie That Binds," "Joy to the World" and many others. People from all over the county would gather "for musical drill" under the guidance of a distinguished teacher from Boston. The notes rather than words were practiced for musical selections.
"Many of these sings were held in the old Pemigewasset House where one could never fail to be interested in mine host, Mr. Denison R. Burnham, always dressed in his suit of blue with brass buttons, swallow tail coat, buff waistcoat, and a red bandana tie, whether in the office of his hotel or in his place with the singers." (A quote from Mrs. Martha Dana Shepard's clip- ping.)
As early as 1807 a musical society was incorporated in Plymouth, wrote Mrs. Elizabeth Nelson Blair. After the railroad permitted the singers to as- semble for several days of practicing oratorios and opera, these so-called festi- vals were held from Bethlehem to Plymouth that around 1800 were conducted by Mr. Carl Blaisdell of Laconia or accompanied by Blaisdell's Orchestral Club.
Mr. John Keniston returned from his studies in Boston in 1884 to inspire the singers of his native Plymouth to organize "The Sacred and Secular Choral Society" that Mr. Keniston conducted either in the Congregational church or after 1888 in the Kidder Hall with Mrs. Martha Dana Shepard, pianist, using a Chickering Concert Grand piano, and Miss Rena E. Merrill, organist. Solo- ists were brought from Boston to assist the chorus of eighty voices singing "The Creation" or "The Messiah."
One of the outstanding events was the presentation of "Pinafore" on the stage in Kidder Hall which received highest acclaim in 1904.
Mr. Keniston was superintendent of schools over a term of eighteen years. In 1907 he organized a joint exhibition given by all of the schools for the first time, with a gathering of old pupils and teachers at the Town Hall.
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John Keniston
Another service that this versatile musician rendered was to be super- intendent of the Sunday School at the Congregational church for many years. He devised a system of attendance cards that are preserved in record books which are most valuable because of the lists of families who were living in Plymouth during this period. Also, as choir leader and organist his contribu- tion to the church services cannot be evaluated when only devotion to a re- ligious task prevails upon a skilled musician to fulfill this position every week over a period of many years.
THE KENISTON BRASS BAND
Possibly even more famous than his choral societies was the brass band that Mr. Keniston organized in 1902. He gathered the players from a wide territory, taught the younger students to perform on various instruments, and presented band concerts throughout the summer months. This required a bandstand that through his efforts was erected on the village common.
The design of this bandstand was drawn by the grandson of the first New England architect, Charles Bulfinch. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Benja- min B. Dearborn, Elizabeth, married George Greanleaf Bulfinch, M.D., in Boston. While her son was visiting his aunt, Mrs. Plummer Fox on Russell Street, he learned that a plan for a bandstand was desired. Already a mem- ber of the firm of his grandfather, he presented the plan of the present band- stand to Mr. Keniston. The town completed the construction in 1903.
Without doubt the most famous member of this band is Mr. Harold C. Freeman, a cornetist who was a member of the 1st Army Headquarters Band,
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Bulfinch Band Stand, 1903
later becoming Pershing's Band at General Headquarters in Chaumont, France during World War I. After Mr. Keniston was no longer able to remain the leader, Mr. Freeman assumed this position, that he still fills in 1963.
Mention should not be omitted of the surveying that Mr. Keniston and his sons, Carl and Wendell, recorded throughout the town. No person had the knowledge of the original landmarks as did these three. Their records are a valuable legacy.
THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH
To the descendants of the Puritans, the Universalist denomination was anathema, yet their doctrine of universal salvation was spreading widely in 1850. Rev. James H. Shepard, a clergyman of this faith, attempted without success to establish a seminary in the vacant buildings of the Holmes Academy during this period. His desire to organize a Universalist church failed like- wise. Other preachers were briefly active before Rev. I. H. Shinn aroused sufficient enthusiasm to build the brick building on North Main Street, now the Church of the Holy Spirit, dedicated on October 28, 1884.
Miss Caroline Leverett, daughter of Squire Leverett, told the tale of how Uncle Jim Langdon, a staunch Universalist, decided to contribute generously toward the building fund. Rhoda, his wife, advised that he present his dona-
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tion so quietly that he would not be noticed at the camp meeting where these gifts were being collected. She said, "Now Jim, if you want to give something, give a good respectable sum, but don't stand up and give it publicly just to brag that we have saved a little more than some. Just go up and give it quietly." Uncle Jim followed Rhoda's advice. To his consternation the minis- ter in charge, after inquiring the name of the donor, announced that "Uncle Jim" Langdon had just handed him the sum of whatever he gave. "Oh Lord, Lord! What will Rhoda say when she reads the paper tomorrow," said Uncle Jim.
In 1903, a young graduate, Rev. Bernard C. Ruggles, was successful in his ministry for this church. Gradually the interest waned until the denomi- nation closed the doors of the church.
DAVIS BAKER KENISTON'S STORE
One of the stores in the new Kidder Block was opened by Davis Baker Keniston from Campton, selling men's clothing. Later the firm became Kenis- ton and Batchelder in the Old Brick Store. Mr. Keniston erected the spacious home now occupied by the President of Plymouth Teachers College on School Street. His son, always called "Baker," was Commissioner of Parks in Boston until his death a few years ago.
PLYMOUTH ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY
The business and professional men of Plymouth, under the provisions of voluntary corporation laws of the state, organized a company to generate electricity. In 1891, they erected a plant between the railroad tracks and the river, named the Electric Station, with facilities to generate power for arc and incandescent lights. Soon the pictures of the streets show those early arc lights swinging above the intersections, that cast their wide circles and shad- ows across the highways.
THE VENEER COMPANY
Another corporation of several businessmen operated to the south of the railroad station, The Plymouth Veneer Company. From poplar and other woods the thin material for strawberry baskets and similar containers was produced over a period of ten years. Approximately forty employees carried on this business that closed in 1901.
THE PLYMOUTH RECORD
Every town needs a newspaper yet attempts to establish a successful sheet had failed. Mr. Thomas J. Walker arrived in Plymouth in 1886. He was a
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native of Illinois, thirty years of age, and had been employed in various offices in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Walker purchased the Grafton County Journal and the Grafton County Democrat, and merged the two under the name of the Plymouth Re- cord in 1887. The printing office was located in the beautiful building that formerly housed the offices of the railroad near the station in Railroad Square. Later the business was removed to the Rollins Building on Main Street. After eight years Mr. Walker sold to Mr. E. A. Chase and Mr. Charles Wright.
This weekly newspaper was republican in politics, devoted to the pro- gressive spirit of the town, and filled its eight pages with local news that brought increasing subscribers to become a successful local newspaper.
THE VILLAGE COMMON
Until 1892 the land between the circle of streets called Russell Square was the property of George C. Spaulding, Frank W. Russell and the Congre- gational church. This sloping space had been graded and a fence surrounded it. To prevent public ownership, Mr. Russell closed the cross walks to the public at stated intervals.
At the town meeting on March 8, 1892 the selectmen were authorized to purchase this common and lay it out for a public park. The property was taken for this purpose and damages were paid to the Russell Family of $750, to Mr. Spaulding $275 and to the church $50, as recorded in the Registry of Deeds at the County Courthouse in Woodsville. After the Keniston Brass Band was organized, permission was granted to place the Bulfinch bandstand where it remains today.
FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS
From early years, organizations have been popular in Plymouth. From 1803 when the Masonic Lodge opened with the Rev. Robert Fowle of Holder- ness as the first Master, and the musical societies of 1808 to the present day, scores of orders by as many names have flourished.
The Plymouth Lodge, I.O.O.F. No. 66, with George A. Robie the Grand Master, was instituted in 1881; the Justice B. Penniman Post, G.A.R. in 1879; the Baker's River Lodge, Knights of Pythias in 1896, and the Plymouth Grange in 1896.
The Eastern Star began in 1892, the Daughters of Rebekah in 1892, and the Penniman Relief Corps in 1882, that comprised the membership of the women in the above groups.
The Masons met in several halls that were destroyed by fires together with their properties, with the exception of their records. The Odd Fellows
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and Knights occupied separate halls in the Tufts Block until this burned. The Kidder hall on the third floor became the Masonic rooms, and the Fox Block was used by the Odd Fellows.
PLYMOUTH GUARANTY SAVINGS BANK
This savings bank was incorporated in 1889 with a Board of Trustees of eleven men and a guarantee fund of $25,000. The first president was Mr. Charles H. Bowles who came to Plymouth in 1851, the progenitor of a family that has held prominent positions in the town to the present day.
The bank has conducted its business in the same building with the Pemigewasset National Bank and occupies equal space in the new building today.
After seventy-five years of successful management, the security of the deposits are insured by an increased Guaranty Fund against loss.
THE FIRST COAL DEALER
On North Main street, about on the lot where the Plymouth Furniture store is today, was the home of Joseph P. Huckins. He was listed as "the pioneer coal dealer." The age-old fuel was still wood, then purchased at about three dollars per cord, and chunks were less expensive.
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