USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Derry > Willey's book of Nutfield; a history of that part of New Hampshire comprised within the limits of the old township of Londonberry, from its settlement in 1719 to the present time > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51
extremely difficult to walk among the monu- a lonely road little frequented. After the re- ments of the departed.
o hiş digo
Thy 07th 101789; In the 73"
Non Thomas Wallace
IN THE 95 YEAR OF HERANGE
LIFE SEPT 2R THE 2 A.D.1771
TH. MAS WHO DEPARTED THIS
THE WIFE OF THE ABOVE SAID
AISO THE BODY OF BARBRA
IN THE BEYFAR OF His ACE-
DYED AGUSTY22 A·D 17/4.
FATHER OF THE ABOVE. WHO
MO THOHAS WALLACE THE
AS.ALSO THE BODY OF
THE FIRST EVER BULL
5 pm 2 6YEAR WHY02733AGE
DVEDM
LTHD
W.W.
HELI ARM
THE HILL GRAVEYARD, LONDONDERRY.
moval of the meeting house and congregation that once worshipped near by, the circumstances that made the old hill graveyard a fitting burial place were altered, and few found occasion to use these grounds or even visit them. During
The graveyard was given to the parish. or to the constituency the meeting house was sup- posed to represent, by Matthew Clark, who held the property as a part of his second division of land, his homestead being situated in the Eng-
HENE LY!
WILLIAM WAL
THE ABOVESAID 141 M. LWAS
THE BODY OF
yr
31
WILLET'S BOOK OF NUT FIELD.
lish Range. Many of the English Range people elected to take their second divisions along this hill, which became another range the next in order west of the Eayers Range. A highway was laid out through this range, and on the highest point of land a site was selected for the meeting house of the west parish, supposed to include those people living on the west side of Beaver Brook. The meeting house stood on the east side of the highway, and the graveyard was just opposite upon the west side. It was a grand and sightly place in fact, overlooking the site of the first meeting house and parish on the east side of Beaver Brook, for the eye could see far beyond and around.
After long years of desertion the chance visitors to this hallowed ground began to com- plain of the neglect and want of proper respect for the memory of so many noble and worthy pioneers there laid away to mingle their dust with the stubborn clay of a region that proved itself too hard for reclamation, and ask that something be done to keep the cattle from pas- turing and treading over the peaceful and de- fenceless tenants of these early graves. The walls had fallen down, the gravestones were broken and jumbled together promiscuously, and the original location of many of them was doubt- ful. Something has been done to restore the walls and clear the grounds and straighten a few of the reclining slabs.
Just inside the entrance a row of dark mon- uments tells a story of nearly a whole genera- tion of the McColloms, the aged and the younger, the father and the family. And yet they are not dead, but living in the affections and lives of thousands whom they touched in some way, or in the other annals and experiences of other towns and cities where numerous members of the McCollom family have tried again the exper- iment of settlement.
the Bells and the Pinkertons. After locating these old worthies the barren features of the landscape are forgotten in the fraternal bonds of good fellowship that is known to have pre- vailed among kindred families in early days. There were some distinguished men in those times, and their titles of office generally signi- fied a real and appreciated work among men. The McColloms came from their farm near the old Wallace Pond, afterwards called Scobie's Pond. The Wallaces lived by that pond and attended the west parish meetings, and some noted names are found among the stones of the graveyard. The Scobies that lived by the pond left many traditions long after the name disap- peared from the list of the living. The Scobies too are represented among the tenants of the hill graveyard. There are monuments of small and ancient designs erected to the memory of the Craigs, the Alexanders, and the Oughtter- sons. There were buried the Thompsons, Camp- bells, Taggarts, Dickeys, Clarks, Aikens, Macks and McAllisters. Doubtless hundreds of persons were interred there without any marking stones.
John Barnard gave up his homestead on the south side of Westrunning Brook for lands in the region known as the Canada Ranges, and became a resident of the west parish instead of the east. The Aikens and McKeens took up tracts of land there, and the records upon the grave stones indicate a strong original organiza- tion of this parish.
There are distinguished names that will never be forgotten, for they are bound up in the his- tory of religious societies and the foundations of permanent literary and social institutions. The founder and benefactor of Pinkerton Academy lies buried there and the increasing usefulness of that school of learning will cause this old graveyard to be cared for and visited more and more with the lapse of time and the decadence of the Puritan stock that once covered these hills and valleys and turned the wilderness into fruitful fields and industriously fenced the waste places.
A little farther on one reads of the decease of generations of Duncans and immediately recalls the familiar faces of the latest types of a departed name and the numberless legends of the fireside connected with the intercourse and It is well to consider the vigor and man- daily conversations between these families and hood of the pioneers who coined money out of
35
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUT FIELD.
stony rock in the wilderness. A spirit of intense ter when the snow was too deep to find the rivalry was displayed at intervals and it led to stone, and thus with the enjoyment of a few winter terms in the honored old Pinkerton Academy he succeeded in obtaining a fair edu- cation. Like the average New England boy of forty-five years ago he started out at eighteen years of age as a Yankee schoolmaster. Upon divisions and strife, but seldom does it happen that any great achievement is recorded which does not have its origin in some form of party spirit. Without the strife and rivalry which differences of opinion and strength of conviction produce, there are invariably indolence, lack of ambition and frequent occasions for intemper- ance and licentiousness. The vigorous fighting for principle and the strife of emulation to excel in good works mark the healthy and prosperous people. That people will undergo so many privations for the sake of defending the relig- ious principles they advocate is a pretty certain evidence of a favoring Providence, and under such circumstances the body of the faithful in- creases by accessions from within and without, whereas in the tranquil and non-militant con- dition faith grows cold and its roots and branches decay and .perish for want of vital action.
The sun that is setting over the hills and casting long shadows upon the graves of buried ancestors and pleasing memories of busy indus- tries is discovered to be rising upon still vaster industries and grander achievements in more favorable lands conducted and advanced by the settlers and irresistible energies of this same persistent Gaelic or Celtic race that has become dominant as a power wherever the progress of events has opened a pathway.
G EORGE WILLARD PERKINS was born in Derry, Oct. 23, 1832, on the old Bell Farm, about one mile north of the West Vil- lage. His parents were Deacon John and Mary Searle Perkins. When about ten years of age his father sold the Bell Farm and after living in the village a year or more, bought the Nesmith Farm, two miles south of the West Village. It was on this last farm that George grew to man- hood, wrestled with the fates of hard-working, poor, economical, New England boyhood, wore homespun clothing, picked stone and hauled them out on the highway (where they yet re- main), attended school a few months each win-
GEORGE WILLARD PERKINS.
1136732
arriving at his majority he made teaching a per- manent business for two years and filled with a reasonable degree of satisfaction the position of grammar school teacher in South Danvers, (now Peabody) Mass., until the autumn of 1855.
New England society of forty-five years ago being a society of caste almost as much as the Oriental nations are to-day, the degrees of respectability being conferred according to the kind of house a boy was born in and the amount of bank stock his father owned, the
36
WILLEYS BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
subject of this sketch, at the age of twenty- three years, decided to leave many things dear in his native town and seek a home in the then new West. He secured a position as clerk in JOSIAH GOODWIN, the son of Deacon Joshua and Elizabeth Goodwin, was born, Nov. 28, 1807, in Londonderry, N. H. Nov. 24, 1831, he was married at Milford, N. II., a general merchandise store in Wethersfield, Ill., by Rev. Humphrey Moore, D. D., to Esther, at a salary of twenty dollars a month, and daughter of Abram and Hepzibah Jones, who was born Dec. 5, 1810, in Hillsboro, N. H. began work in September, 1855. In this posi- tion he made a passable tape measurer and molasses drawer, and in consideration of the niggardly sum received as compensation for his work, together with other good and sufficient reasons, he cheated his employer out of his old- est daughter, Miss Ellen E. Little, to whom he was married July 13, 1857, and thus secured with Yankee thrift and ingenuity, not only his first great bargain in the west, but his honored and worthy companion for these thirty-seven intervening years. The goddess of fortune smiled and frowned alternately on the eastern arrival until at the end of about fifteen years he with his wife and four children "moved west," to Fremont County, Iowa, his present home.
Here he engaged in farming, which in that country means grain and stock raising, fattening for the market in the past twenty years several thousand head of cattle and hogs. He had been a member of the old First Congregational Church in Derry, and a charter member of the first Sunday school organized there. In his Iowa home he was superintendent of the Congrega- tional Sunday school twenty-one years.
Not unlike many other Yankee boys who have become westernized, he mixed a little in politics of the stalwart Republican sort, and after holding some County offices was, in Novem- ber, 1889, elected for four years to the State Senate of Iowa. In November, 1892, he was elected a member of the State Board of Rail- road Commissioners, which office he yet holds, and to fill which he has temporarily removed to Des Moines, the capital of the State.
He remembers very kindly the dear old hills of his Derry home and the kind friends who spoke with a smile to cheer his boyish steps and help them up the hill so hard to climb for the boy of fifty years ago who was born poor.
JOSIAH GOODWIN.
This union remained unbroken until March 9, 1888, when the wife was called away by death, after fifty-seven peaceful years of continuous life on the old homestead farm, where their journey in wedlock began. Five children were born to them: Daniel, Henry, John, Esther Miranda, and Joseph Stone. The happy golden wedding of the aged couple was celebrated Nov. 24, 1881, and a host of relatives and friends, with greeting, gift and song, came to pay their timely tribute of love and respect and enjoy the hospitality of the old homestead. Per- haps no resident of the town was better known and for so many years more highly esteemed than Mr. Goodwin. He was a man of great physical strength and possessed of exceptional powers of endurance. Applying himself to hard labor as if it were a pastime, he found no need
37
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUT FIELD.
or time or place for labor-saving devices to lighten or supplement his oft-tested powers. A kind neighbor and generous to the extent of his means. many a wayfaring traveller went forth from his home strengthened and refreshed. Mr. Goodwin was thoroughly conversant with the Bible, which he statedly read and literally inter- preted. With a faith which nothing could shake he put all his trust in Him who became "the end of the law for righteousness." For more than sixty years he was a member of the Presbyterian Church and active as superintendent or teacher in the Sabbath school. After a long and painful illness death came to his release July 29, 1893.
R EV. JOSHUA W. WELLMAN, D. D., son of Deacon James Ripley and Phebe (Wyman) Wellman, was born in Cornish, Sulli- van County, N. H., Nov. 28, 1821. He was fitted for college at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden N. H., and was graduated from Dart- mouth College in 1846. During his college course he taught one winter in Upton, Mass., a part of one autumn in an academy in Bradford, N. H., and two winters in East Randolph (now Holbrook), Mass. After graduating at Dart- mouth he taught during two terms in Kimball Union Academy, and then was principal for two terms of the academy in Rochester, Mass. In the autumn of 1847 he taught again in the acad- emy at Meriden, N. H., and at the close of the term entered Andover Theological Seminary. He taught again in Kimball Union Academy in the autumn of 1848, and was graduated from Andover Seminary in 1850. After spending one year at Andover as resident licentiate, he was ordained to the Christian ministry and installed as pastor of the historic First Church in Derry, N. H., June 18, 1851, where he labored five years. He was installed pastor of the Eliot Church. Newton, Mass., June 11, 1856, and was dismissed Oct. 23, 1873. His pastorate here in- cluded the exciting period of the Civil War. In the second year of the conflict he visited the army in Virginia, and was at Yorktown during the battle at Williamsburg, and after the battle
saw something of the horrors of war. He was strongly opposed to slavery, and supported the war as necessary to save the Union. His plain statement of his views in his sermons produced considerable excitement at a time when some believed that the pulpit should be silent on
REV. JOSHUA WYMAN WELLMAN, D. D.
such subjects. He continued, however. in every way which seemed to him to be proper, to help forward the cause of justice, liberty and union. The church became eminently patriotic. and twenty-seven men from the congregation enlisted for the war. During this pastorate the small church of hardly a hundred members grew to be one of the largest and most prominent churches in the Commonwealth. March 25. 1874, Dr. Wellman was installed pastor of the ancient First Church in Malden, Mass .. the his- tory of which, written by him, is found in the "History of Middlesex County, Mass." Under
38
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUT FIELD.
his care this church also grew into a large and tee of Phillips Academy and Andover Theo- influential body. He remained in this pastorate logical Seminary; and for about twenty-five years has been a member of the executive committee of the Congregational Board of Ministerial Aid in Massachusetts, of which board he was one of the founders. He has been for many years a director in the American College and Education Society (now the Congregational Education Society), and for several years has been, and is now, chairman of its Board of Directors. He until May 6, 1883, since which time he has not been settled, but has continued to preach, sup- plying pulpits in various places, while devoting much of his leisure to literary work. Oct. 24, 1854, he married Miss Ellen M. Holbrook, daughter of Caleb Strong and Prudence ( Durfee) Holbrook of East Randolph (now Holbrook), Mass. Their children are: Arthur Holbrook,
FIRST CHURCH, EAST DERRY.
born Oct. 30, 1855; Edward Wyman, born March 15, 1857; died April 17, 1891; Ellen Holbrook, born Nov. 8, 1858, married Robert Cushman King; and Annie Durfee, born July 5, 1862. Dr. Wellman was elected a corporate member of the American Board of Commission- ers for Foreign Missions in 1867, and he has been one of the managers of the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society since 1870. Since the same year he has been a trus-
is a member of the New England Historic, Genealogical Society, and a corporate member of the General Theological Library of Boston. He was the first to advocate the formation of the Congregational Club of Boston and vicinity. Olivet College in 1868, and Dartmouth College in 1870, honored him with the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He has published numerous ser- mons, addresses and articles on educational and religious subjects.
39
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
R
AYMOND CHANDLER DRISKO, the eld- boyhood he had felt himself called to the ministry. Before the completion of his seminary work he
est son of E. H. and Elizabeth R. Drisko, was born in Columbia Falls, Me., Aug. 22, was invited to become pastor of the First Con-
REV. R. C. DRISKO.
MRS. R. C. DRISKO.
1852. He was educated in the schools of his native town, at the high school in Harrington and at the seminary in Bucksport, Me. Mr. Drisko taught school for several years in his own and adjoining towns, and suc- ceeded, while supervisor of schools of Jonesboro, in se- curing the adoption of the town system of schools ten years prior to the com- pulsory system of the State, marking a new era in the educational interests of that town. In September, 1882, he entered the Bangor The- ological Seminary and took the complete course of study of that institution, grad- uating June 3, 1885. From
MARGARET NEWCOMB DRISKO.
gregational Church of Derby, Vt., and to this office he was ordained and installed June 25. 1885. During his pastorate of more than five years in Derby he served two years on the School Board of Orleans County. He was called from Derby to become acting pastor of the First Church in Derry, N. H., where he remained a little more than three years. and then accepted the pas- torate of the First Congre- gational Church. Alfred, Me .. where he is now laboring. July 27, ISS7, he married Miss Laura Isabelle Drisko. They have one child. Mar- garet Newcomb. born in .Derby. Vt .. June 16. 1890.
THE SHOE INDUSTRY OF DERRY DEPOT.
TI PHIE greatest benefactor of the human race half of the eighteen tenement houses and the or of any community in minor divisions of store, at that time the only one at the Depot. a commonwealth is the individual whose plans of business involve and provide occupation for the largest number of his fellow-citizens; and the organization of skilled and unskilled labor- ers into mutually supporting corporations has marked a wonderful era of development and material prosperity in the history of this coun- try. The time has passed when every man worked on an independent plan, and with his own hands raised, produced and provided for his family every article of food, clothing or fur- niture. Then the indispensable articles of sub- sistence were few, whereas in the present, under the influences of combined activities and the classification of labor, the average condition of the family is much superior to the most thrifty among the people of the generation preceding this.
The winter that had promised so little comfort to the discouraged families at the Depot sud- denly assumed a kindly aspect in the resump- tion of business and the confidence established at once by one whose reputation and experience had been fairly earned. Previous to this change of location Colonel Pillsbury had allowed much of the work upon his boots and shoes to be done at the homes of those employed. The cutting and finishing had been done at the shop, but the binding, fitting and bottoming were done outside. A change was immediately made in the distribution of labor, so that the fitting and bottoming were done at the factory and only the binding allowed to go outside. The work at the factory improved with the introduction of new patterns and more perfect distribution of the details. The town received an impulse in the disposition of those employed in the factory to remain and purchase land and build houses for permanent occupation. The office now used by Colonel Pillsbury, for several years, before he purchased it for the accommodation of his assistants in the correspondence and book- keeping of the factory, was the schoolhouse of District No. II.
On the last day of November, 1870, there was little sign of prosperity or happiness in that portion of the town commonly called the Depot. The buildings then standing, few in number, were only partially occupied, and the absence of paint and finish, and the untidiness of the yards and surrounding fields indicated the discontent and hopeless condition of the small community. The boot and shoe factory which had been built for At the time when he started anew the lapsed boot and shoe industry at the Depot, the whole number of voters in that district could easily have been crowded into that building, whereas at the present time, the eligible school voters as shown by the check list are between twelve and thirteen hundred. This growth of Derry Depot has been steady and permanent, the larger number of houses being owned by the occupants, and many of them are substan- tially constructed and not devoid of taste in ornamentation. the firm of Currier & Boyd about fifteen years before this period and the few tenement houses in the rear were participants in the general stagnation of industry. For two years there had been no sound of belt, wheel, machinery, engine or laborers in the shop. On the first day of December of that year a new departure was inaugurated, that has proved a blessing to the community and town. Hon. W. S. Pillsbury had been engaged in the manufacture of shoes for several years in Londonderry, and had felt the necessity for more room and better accom- Great improvements have been made in labor-saving machines from the commencement until the present and the capacity of the factory has been increased from time to time to meet modations with nearer access to railroad com- munications. The idle shop and tenements at the Depot gave him the advantages he desired. He purchased the boot and shoe factory, one- the requirements of the business. An average
William J. Paulabray
WILLEN'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
43
outlay of ten dollars a day since December 1, 1870, would not exceed the expense of all the new ma- chinery added to lessen the labor in the hands of those employed, and notwithstanding these labor- saving changes, the number of laborers has steadily increased. The expenditures for machines to facil- itate work is estimated at not less than sixty thou- sand dollars, exclusive of the power and boilers. Quite recently a large boiler has been purchased and put in the factory, with the attachments and
tension of the original building to its present size, that the workmen might accomplish more work with less expenditure of strength, and have abun- dant space in which to move. The length of the original building used for the factory was eighty- two feet. Additions have been made in various di- rections, so that the equivalent length of the fac- tory, if placed in one line, would be four hundred and thirty feet. The buildings have been painted and improved by changes that tend to secure them
OLD SHOE FACTORY, DERRY DEPOT.
engine, of which the capacity is estimated at one against damage by fire. The roofs, first covered with wooden shingles, are now entirely closed in by state and iron. Electricity furnishes the means of lighting when the daylight fails, or in the winter when the days are short. hundred and forty horse power, a little in excess of the requirements, which are satisfied with one hun- dred and twenty-five horse power. The new en- gine replaces two old ones that had become inade- quate to the work, a seventy-five and a twenty horse The shoe factories of the Depot are practically under one management, and dependent upon the plans and wishes of one man, who is the moving and controlling power. The old shop, which Colo- power. The first boiler of the factory generated a steam force of only fifteen horse power. These improvements have been in the interest of those employed by Colonel Pillsbury, as was also the ex- nel Pillsbury bought in 1870, is not more fully un-
I
-4-4
WILLERS BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
der his charge and supervision than the new shop vices, and there has been no interruption except that was built a few years ago by the Derry Build- ing Association, and in 1888 was enlarged and offered to him in the interest of the stockholders and citizens, who believed he had the ability and judgment to make the investment profitable to them and the town. Colonel Pillsbury has the en- tire confidence and support of the corporation of Colburn & Fuller, whose names appear in the title of the firm, their interests being divided and dis-
JOHN T. WHITELEY. Foreman of the Cutting Room.
persed to other towns and places, and chiefly lim- ited to a compensation for capital.
In the old and new shops from six hundred to seven hundred persons are employed. About three fifths of this working force are males, and two fifths women and girls. The average wages of the men is one dollar and eighty cents a day, and that of the women and girls one dollar and forty- five cents. In the payment of wages there has been little change in the period of twenty-four years. A quarter of a century has come and gone, ever bringing the laborer an even price for his ser-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.