USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Manchester > Willey's semi-centennial book of Manchester, 1846-1896, comprised within the limits of the old Tyng Township, Nutfield, Harrytown, Derryfield, and Manchester, from the earliest settlements to the present time > Part 28
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parents moved to Claremont, N. H., where he lived until the war broke out. His father, Har- vey M. Wakefield, was a machinist who worked at his trade until 1861 and then enlisted in the Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers. He died in July, 1862, from injuries received while at work on the famous Grapevine bridge which Col. Cross, with his Fifth New Hampshire Regiment, built across the Chickahominy river, near Richmond. His mother's name was Mary Ray, a daughter of
DR. GEORGE L. WAKEFIELD.
Reuben Ray, who was a soldier under Gen. Wash- ington during the Revolution. Young Wakefield received his education in the public schools and at the Claremont Academy until the time of his enlistment, which was in his graduating year. News came of his father's death, July 25, 1862, and he enlisted the following day, being mustcred into Company G, Ninth New Hampshire Regi- ment, at Concord, Aug. 13, two months before his sixteenth birthday. He served every day with his regiment until Oct. 1, 1864, when his right elbow was shattered by a minie ball, which necessitated
While in the service he began the study of medicine with Dr. A. J. Moulton, a comrade in his company. In March, 1866, he went to Pepin county, Wisconsin, where he continued his studies with Dr. T. M. Sims of Durand, and began the practice of medicine in 1870. Later he took a special course in gynecology under Prof Ludlum at the Hahnemann Medical College in Chicago. Although political honors were frequently offered him in Wisconsin, he always declined them. preferring to use his influence in the " third house " in securing the passage of bills to improve the highways in Pepin and Pierce counties. As chair- man of a committee of river improvements elected by the people of his town, Dr. Wakefield urged upon Congress the establishment of a harbor of refuge at Stockholm, Wis., and pushed the work to a successful issue. The residents of the Wis- consin side of Lake Pepin will long remember the doctor's work in securing the passage of the har- bor bill. Besides attending to a large medical practice, the doctor conducted a drug store and
2.16
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
acted as agent of the St. Louis & St. Paul steam- necrologist, and is surgeon of the Ninth New boat line. He also represented several commis- sion houses, thus keeping the trade at home and contributing toward the rapid building of the town of Stockholm. In 1884 he was selected by Gov. Rusk, with nineteen others, as a guard of honor to attend the funeral of Gen. Grant in New York, and in the same year he was a delegate to the national encampment of the Grand Army. Hc was first commander of Chas. Coleman Post No. 82, department of Wisconsin, and twiee after was commander, and a very active G. A. R. member.
In 1888 Dr. Wakefield returned to New Hampshire, where he has sinee quietly pursued the practice of medicine. ] He is an earnest student of his profession and attends special elinies in Boston in diseases of women, in which specialty he has achieved great sueeess, and he is a valued member of the New Hampshire Homco- pathie Society. The doctor has been president,
Hampshire Veteran Association at the Weirs. As a member of the publishing committee of the Ninth Regiment History, he rendered most valuable services in the compilation of that ines- timable work. He has been senior vice eomman- der of Grimes Post No. 25, G. A. R., member of the eouneil of administration of the department of New Hampshire ; colonel commanding, Command No. 3, U. V. U .; second deputy commander, department of New Hampshire, and in 1892 was a member of the national eneampment of the U. V. U. at Boston.
Dr. Wakefield was married Jan. 1, 1870, to Miss Sarah Ann Conger, who bore him three children, two of whom are now living: Eleeta E., born June 21, 1872, a graduate of the Durand High School, and George H., born Dee. 24, 1874, a carpenter by trade, who resides with his parents,
LOWELL
WESTON TERRACE, CORNER LOWELL AND CHESTNUT STREETS. - (SEE PAGE 243.)
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WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
FRANK P. KIMBALL, son of John H. and Veterans, and is active and prominent in fraternal Mary Kimball, was born March 18, 1852, in Chelsea, Mass. After attending the public schools of Jamaica Plain and graduating from Comer's Commercial College in Boston, he had two ycars
FRANK P. KIMBALL.
of mercantile experience in a dry goods house in that city. Coming to Manchester in 1869, he learned the trade of stone mason and was employed for ten years by the Amoskeag com- pany and by Moses D. Stokes. Returning to mercantile life in 1880, he entered the clothing store of C. J. Senter, where he remained until 1885, when he purchased Hiram Tarbell's clothing stock and went into business for himself. The following year he bought Mr. Senter's stock and showed his enterprise by disposing of it at a great profit. Since then his business has developed rapidly and to such an extent that in 1894 he leased the Weston, Hill & Fitts block for a term of years and moved into what is considered one of the finest stores in the state. He employs about twenty salesmen, and his stock is always one of the largest to be found in New England. Mr. Kimball is captain of Company B, Amoskeag
organizations, being a member of Washington Lodge of Masons, Mount Horeb Royal Arch Chapter, and Trinity Commandery, also member of Manchester Lodge of Elks, and of the U. A. M. He is also a member of the Derryfield Club. Mr. Kimball's business carcer in Manchester has been enterprising and prosperous.
B. F. McDONNELL was born Dec. 17, 1866, in Manchester. After graduating from the Lincoln-strcet school in 1883, he took a course in the Bryant & Stratton Business College, and then was employed for a time as bookkeeper for the firm of O. P. Stone & Co. In 1885 he decided to learn the art of fresco painting and interior decorating, and became an apprentice under C. J. Schumacher, the well known painter of Boston.
B. F. MCDONNELL.
Having mastered the art, he went into business in Manchester in May, 1891, establishing the firm of McDonnell & Foster, and since March, 1892, has been in business alone. His place is at 839 Elm street.
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WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
A UGUSTUS A. E. BRIEN, M. D., son of Alfred and Louise (Genest) Brien, was born at St. Simcon, P. Q., Oct. 10, 1859. His ancestors were among the early settlers of the country in
DR. A. A. E. BRIEN.
Hyacinthe, P. Q., being a student at the latter institution about two years. In 1879 he was graduated at the Jacques-Cartier Normal School at Montreal, after which he studied medieine in the office of E. R. St. Jacques, M. D., and attended lectures at the Victoria Medieal College, Montreal, where he was graduated with the degree of M. D., and was awarded a diploma in 1883. Immediately following his graduation he located at Suncook, where he praetised ten years, and engaged in a general drug business in which he still retains an interest. In 1892 he opened an office in Man- chester, where his sueeess has been of a decided character. While residing at Suneook he served the town five years as its official physician. He is a member of the staff of Notre Dame Hospital. Dr. Brien was united in marriage Nov. 20, 1889, with Heloise Langelier, daughter of Theophile Langelier, a wholesale merchant of St. Hyacinthe, and Victorine (Laflamme) Langelier. Two ehil- dren have been born to them : Armand, May 10, 1890 ; Helene, Jan. 25, 1893.
O LD TAX RECEIPT .- Mrs. S. A. Stearns of East Manchester is in possession of a well preserved copy of a tax receipt, made out to her father, Jonathan Wood, bearing the signature of Jonas L. Parker, who was murdered in Man- chester March 25, 1845. The receipt is herewith
which St. Simeon is located, his father having been a well-to-do merehant at that place. Dr. Brien was educated in the public schools of his native place and at St. Hyacinthe College, St. reproduced. (See "Chapter of Tragedies," p. 249.)
K
Home Wood
Your tax in Manchester
for 1844, is committed to JONAS L. PARKER, for collection, viz:
-Dollars.
Cents ..
State, County, Town, and School,
145
School House,
Highway Tax,
59
Received Payment,-
L. L. Parker. $
2.25
Collector.
Gleaner Press.
A CHAPTER OF TRAGEDIES.
FOR a community of cosmopolitan character, 85-86-87-88-89, Melvin J. Jenkins; 1890-91, H. W. Longa; 1892, Michael J. Hcaly. The first board of police commissioners consisted of Isaac L. Heath, Noah S. Clark and Frank P. Carpenter. Upon the resignation of I. L. Heath, who suc- ceeded N. P. Hunt as judge of the police court in May, 1895, David Perkins was appointed his successor on the police commission.
It is a remarkable fact that in a half a century and more Manchester has been startled by only two premeditated murders. Other scrious crimes have been few and far between. The first known murder by a citizen of Manchester was committed on April 4, 1821, when Daniel D. Farmer assaulted a woman of hard character, named Anna Ayer, at a house in Goffstown, by striking her on the head in a fit of anger. The woman died nine days later. Farmer was arrested, tried the following October, found guilty of murder in the first degrec, and was hanged Jan. 23, 1822.
Sept. 24, 1829, Jeremiah Johnson, a member of the Manchester Rifle company, was killed by Elbridge Ford in a fracas at the annual Goffstown muster. The soldiers had offended some gamblers on the muster field, a fight ensucd, during which Ford struck Johnson on the head with a club, fracturing his skull. Johnson died the next day. Ford was tried for manslaughter in October, 1840, sentenced to state prison for five years, but was pardoned after three years.
The most noted tragedy in the history of Manchester was the Parker murder, which was committed on the evening of March 26, 1845. Jonas L. Parker, who had been tax collector the year before, lived on Manchester street, near Elm. Late in the evening named a man called Parker to his door and said that a Mrs. Bean wanted to see him at Janesville on urgent business. Parker accompanied the man up Manchester street to the Old Falls road, then on the outskirts of the town. Soon after cries of murder were heard, but no attention was paid to them. The next morning the dead body of Parker was found near the corner of Manchester and Maple streets. There were cvidences of a terrible struggle. Parker's throat was cut, and a butcher knife and razor lay by his
23
249
Manchester, both as a town and a city, has been comparatively free from crimes of a serious nature. Before Manchester began to take on the first signs of becoming a manufacturing place, the peace and dignity of the town was looked after by sheriffs and constables, but on Oct. 26, 1839, the citizens of the town voted to establish a system of police, the selectmen appointing a board of police consisting of Mace Moulton, Jacob G. Cilley, James Wallace, Henry S. Whitney, Nehemiah Chase, Joseph M. Rowell, and Stephen C. Hall. Upon the incorporation as a city, a police court was established and a city marshal annually elected thereafter. The "lobby," as it was termed in the early days, was for many years located in one corner of the basement of the city hall, the city marshal having an office on the first floor, and the police court being held in a room in Riddle's block until 1857, when it was held in city hall building. The present police station (sec page 194), corner of Manchester and Chestnut streets, was built in 1885 at a cost of about $30,000, and the police department of the city ranks high for its efficiency. Until 1894 the department was con- trolled by the mayor and aldermen, but in that year the police commission was appointed by the governor. The first justice of the police court was Samuel D. Bell, and his successors up to the present have been : Chandler E. Potter, Isaac W. Smith, Samucl Upton, Joseph W. Fellows, John P. Bartlett, Nathan P. Hunt, and Isaac L. Heath. The first city marshal of Manchester, clected in 1846, was George T. Clark. Succeeding marshals up to the present, are: 1847, Daniel L. Stevens; 1848-49, Robert Means; 1850, Joseph M. Rowcll; 1851-52, D. L. Stevens; 1853-54, William H. Hill ; 1855, Samuel Hall ; 1856-57-58, Henry G. Lowell ; 1859, I. W. Farmer ; 1860, John L. Kelly; 1861-62, William B. Patten; 1863, John S. Yeaton ; 1864, Henry Clough; 1865, Benj. C. Haynes; 1866, Henry Clough ; 1867-68-69-70- 71-72, William B. Patten ; 1873, Gilman H. Kim- ball; 1874-75, Darwin A. Simons; 1877, C. C. Keniston; 1878, Daniel R. Prescott ; 1879-80, H. W. Longa ; 1881-82, A. D. Stark; 1883-84-
250
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
side. His pocketbook containing a large sum of place. On Jan. 22 of that year, Dennis Shea, who money was taken. All sigus indicated that two lived in a block at 511 Elm street, struck his wife persons had been concerned in the murder. The on the head with a flatiron, fracturing her skull, and causing her death two days later. Immediately after assaulting his wife Shea cut his throat with a razor and died in a few moments. The tragedy was eaused by a family row.
town offered a reward of $500 and the state $1,000 for the apprehension of the murderers, but no tangible clues were obtained until 1848, when Asa and Henry T. Wentworth, brothers, who formerly kept a tavern at Janesville, were arrested in Saeo, Me., and charged with the murder. After a long examination, both were discharged. In May, 1850, they were re-arrested, together with Horaee Went- worth of Lowell and one William C. Clark. They
On March 17, 1872, John Burke and his wife beeame engaged in a drunken dispute in their house, eorner of Elm and Park streets, during which he struek her on the head with a piece of eordwood, eausing her death soon after. Burke
CALLORS
ELM STREET, MANCHESTER .-- LOOKING NORTH.
were ably defended by Gen. Franklin Pieree and other noted counsel, and after a searching examina- tion, Horace Wentworth and Clark were dis- charged, and the two brothers held in $5,000 bonds for trial. The prosecution soon after decided that the evidenee was not strong enough to warrant holding them, eonsequently the grand jury found no bill, the Wentworths were discharged, and the slayers of Jonas L. Parker remain unknown to this day.
The eity was remarkably free from tragedies from this time until 1872, when two murders took
was tried at the court session in Amherst, found guilty of manslaughter in the first degree, and senteneed to fourteen years in state prison.
Aug. 30, 1880, a tragedy oeeurred in a house on Belmont street, East Manehester. Edgar F. Colburn, a young married earpenter, and William E. Beauregard, aged seventeen, were indulging in friendly sports, playing tramp and chasing each other around the house. In a thoughtless moment Colburn grabbed an old musket supposed to be unloaded, aimed it directly at Beauregard's throat, and fired. The gun was loaded and the vietim
251
WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
fell dead in his tracks. Colburn was indicted for manslaughter in the second degree, recommended to the mercy of the court, and sentenced to one year in state prison.
Sept. 30, 1880, Pierre Edward Powers, aged eighteen, flung a ragged-edged, broken bottle at John Blanchard, aged twenty-three, which resulted in the latter's death in twenty minutes. Powers and some companions jostled against Blanchard, who pushed Powers down. They had some words, a bottle in Powers's pocket broke and neck was hurled at Blanchard, striking him in the jugular vein. Powers was at once arrested, held for man- slaughter, and sentenced to state prison for five years.
Fifteen years elapsed before the fair fame of Manchester was again blotted by a crime in which a life was lost in consequence. In the evening of March 3, 1895, a drunken row took place at 34 Middle street between James, commonly called "Slasher" Welch, and John O'Brien, a Milford man. Both visited the house of Welch's brother- in-law, where the tragedy occurred, and in the melee Welch threw O'Brien down stairs, jumped upon his body, fractured his skull, and inflicted injuries from which he died during the night. Welch was indicted for murder, but plcaded guilty of manslaughter in the second degree, and was sentenced, May 23, to eight years in state prison.
The most cold-blooded tragedy since the famous Parker murder was enacted in the watch room of the police station at II o'clock in the night of May 21, 1895, when ex-Patrolman Fred A. Stockwell deliberately fired five shots at Sergeant Henry McAllister of the police force, three bullets hitting him and causing death in a few seconds. Stockwell had resigned from the force a week previously rather than suffer an investigation for neglect of duty, and had been drinking heavily and making threats against Scrgeant McAllister, whom he suspected of reporting him for his misdc- meanors. Stockwell had also becn mixed up with several women, claiming that he was unmarried, and he charged McAllister with informing his wife concerning his infidelities. He had openly threatened, in the presence of police officers, to take the sergeant's life, but little attention was paid to him. His threats were regarded as the freaks of a high temper and not considered as
serious. After the murder, Stockwell coolly said he was glad of it. Hc is now confined in the county jail awaiting trial. The line of his defence will be on the ground of insanity. The murderer is twenty-seven years old.
W ILLIAM T. MORSE was born in Chester Aug. 14, 1857. Hc received his cducation in that town, graduating at Chester Academy under Prof. Jacob T. Choate. He then taught school two ycars in Belmont, resigning his position
WILLIAM T. MORSE.
to accept a clerkship in C. S. Wilcomb & Son's storc in Chester. In November, 1885, he married Miss Mary Little Currier, a granddaughter of David Dustin of North Salem. She is the sixth in dircct descent from the noted Hannah Dustin. They have two children, Marian Ida, born Novem- ber, 1886, and Louis William, born November, 1889. In May, 1889, Mr. Morse became literary editor of the Derry News, for which paper he had worked as general agent and correspondent from its inception. In the spring of 1889 he built a residenec on Mt. Washington, near Derry Depot. where he and his family still live.
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WILLEY'S BOOK OF NUTFIELD.
M JANCHESTER TOWN HOUSE OF 1841. They had been gone from the building scarcely an -This building, begun in 1841 and com- pleted the following year at an expense of $17,000 including the cost of the lot, was a brick structure with stone trimmings. Its dimensions were ninety feet on Elm and sixty fect on Market street. It was the second building used for town business, the previous one being an old structure at East Manchester, altered from a meeting-house and subsequently changed to a dwelling, which is still to be seen near the cemetery in that locality. The site originally selected for the town house was at the northwest corner of Merrimack common, but a change was afterward made to Elm and Market streets, as being more central for town business. The postoffice was located in the south- east corner of the building ; three stores and a printing office were also on this floor, with the main en- trance and vestibule on Elm street as now changed in the pres- ent building. On the second floor were two law offices and the town clerk's office, the remaining space being taken up by a fine hall sixty-three by OLD TOWN HOUSE, MANCHESTER. seventy feet. The armory of the Stark Guards was in the attic. On the land north of the building, where the Patten block now stands, was a flourishing vegetable gar- den in which pole beans, corn, and cucumbers were cultivated with profit to the owner.
This old town house, a most substantial struc- ture, had an existence of only about three years, for it was destroyed by fire in August, 1844. The day before the fire the military company occupying the attic had been on parade, and two of the younger members were detailed to clean the mus- kets and store the remaining ammunition. About the noon hour the boys, in playing with some of the cartridges, marked figures on the floor with a train of powder and flashed them with matches. panie, however, was of short duration.
hour when smoke was seen coming from the attic windows and an alarm of fire was sounded. The day was hot and dry, and the building was destroyed within an hour. It was surmised that the flashing powder, communicating with shavings beneath the single floor of the attic, had smould- ered there until the heat foreed the fire into an open and rapid flame. The walls being of brick and the roof slated, the first crash was caused by the falling of the tower, with the bell, clock, and gilt eagle, the whole coming down at the same instant, straight into the cellar. The present building was begun soon after, and completed in 1846. It has done good service for forty-nine years. The view of the old town house, herewith presented, was engraved by H. W. Herrick in 1844 from a sketch made in the autumn of 1843.
IN the original ehar- ter granted in June, 1722, to the town of Londonderry in the name of George III. by Gov. Samuel Shute and the coun- eil was a provision requiring the " men and inhabitants to render and pay for the same, to us, our successors, or to such officer or officers as shall be appointed to receive the same, the annual quit-rent or acknowledgement of one peck of potatoes, on the first day of October, yearly, for- ever." The charter did not say what was to be done with the potatoes, but for several years they were turned over to Gov. Shute's representatives. Finally the payment was neglected, and there are now many bushels of potatoes due, according to the charter, from the town to some one. In 1863 some wag created a small panie by starting the rumor that in consequence of its long neglect the town was to be deprived of its charter The
WEST MANCHESTER IN 1768.
BY REV. JESSE G. McMURPHY.
T HE old Indian trails from camping grounds tribes, and others stood in friendly relations that
to fishing stands, and from tribal villages to distant hunting regions, gradually became the white man's lines of communication. After the period of foot travel the same paths, with slight changes, were used for more frequent saddlebag traffic, and eventually were laid out as highways, two or four rods wide, and fenced for stages and other vehicles. From the carliest settlement of white people on the Massachusetts Bay, almost exactly a hundred years before the occupation of Nutfield, it was known that well defined paths led from the coast inland toward the northwest. There were famous sites for fishing along the Merrimack river, and several tribes of Indians lived at intervals throughout the course of this abundant storehouse of nature. Beyond, and farther toward the setting sun, were immense tracts of country abounding in deer, moose, and buffalo. With the increasing population of the Massachusetts Bay colony and the destruction of game in the forests and fish in the streams, the Indians moved farther from the coast, but their trails were followed closely by the aggressive settlers. The Indian villages became trading posts and for some indefinite period presented the sin- gular appearance of being inhabited by both Indians and white people. The old Indians, incapable of earning a subsistence by hunting or fishing, preferred to trust to the clemency and favor of the white population rather than to go farther inland with their tribes and probably perish of starvation and neglect. Many of the white men of adventurous habits became allied with the
permitted them to settle upon waste or unoccu- picd lands quite apart from the laid out lands. Consequently the records of towns and counties abound in references to older settlers whose names do not appear in any charter. Some of these prior settlers were expelled forcibly, but generally a compromise was resorted to and the occupant allowed to hold for life.
The old Indian trail from the coast through Haverhill and Nutficld by Amoskeag Falls into the Connecticut valley was familiar to the colonists before the charter of Londonderry was issued. The Amoskeag path became an cstablished and laid out highway as soon as the land along its course was allotted under the charter. The inhabitants of the town learned from the Indians of the abundance of fish at a place upon the Mer- rimack river known as Amoskeag Falls, and so important became the privilege of fishing in that vicinity that the shores of the river were parcelled and sold for stands, designated by certain names in some way characteristic. The following tran- script of such a document may be of interest to the reader :
Know all men by these presents that I Alexander Mac- murphy of Williamsburg in the county of Hampshire and com- monwealth of the Massachusetts, Gentleman, for and in con- sideration of the sum of five pounds lawful money to me in hand before the delivery hereof well and truly paid by Archibald Mac- murphy of Londonderry in the county of Rockingham in the State of New Hampshire, Esq .. the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, have given granted bargained and sold and by these presents do fully, freely and absolutely give grant. bargain. sell and convey and confirm unto him the said Archibald Mac-
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