USA > Vermont > Windham County > Londonderry > The history with genealogical sketches of Londonderry > Part 7
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A few rods below this site once stood a building containing machinery for carding wool and dressing cloth, but the date of its erection as well as other details concerning it are now in obscurity.
In fact so many different mills or buildings have stood upon this stream in the first fifty rods of its course that it is well nigh impossible, from the records, aided by tradition and the recollections of the oldest inhabitants, to describe any one of them with a satisfactory degree of certainty, but they must have been cheaply built and therefore short lived.
At, or very near, the point where the stream is first crossed by the high- way below the lake was oncea small shopoccupied by one Jotham Cram who, it is said, built it not far from 1800 and who there made some iron castings and forgings in a small way. There is no evidence in the records of his ever having had title to any land in that vicinity nor any reference in any records to the existence of a shop there, but a part of it was still in existence when the saw mill built by Castanus B. Park was raised.
This saw mill last mentioned was later, as it is said, moved a little far- ther down the stream to the place where it now stands, in ruin, and where it has stood since about 1875.
Some forty rods farther down the stream, and after it has turned from a westerly to a southerly course, are the remains of an old log dam and the foundation walls of a building on the left bank of the brook. Practically no definite information as to who built it or at what date it was done can be obtained. The oldest inhabitants can tell nothing about it, save one who re- ports that he heard it talked about in his boyhood and understands it never did much, if any, business and that it burned or was, in some way, destroyed prior to 1800.
July 9, 1793 Andrew Morrison executed a deed to John Patterson wherein the property conveyed was described as "a saw mill standing on the brook that runs out of the grate pond known as Mill Brook." No further descrip- tion is given of the mill or of the land whereon it stood.
This could not have been the mill up at the pond for Morrison took con- veyance from Sam'l. Thompson ten days later (July 19, 1793), of a tract of
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25 acres which included the upper mills, and held these premises until the October following when he conveyed the same to Joseph Pine.
It is probable that Morrison built this lower mill, and also that it stood on land then owned by Patterson, which would afford an explanation of the form of description used in the deed of Morrison to Patterson mentioned above. At some time prior to 1793 George McMurphy erected a mill at about the same place where the Buxton tannery was later built and the same was kept in operation until the dam at the outlet of the "Great Pond" gave way, when this mill, the dam and a quantity of sawn lumber piled near the mill were all swept away; the lumber for the most part lodging on the Thompson meadows. The date of this occurrence cannot be determined but, after the loss of this mill, McMurphy built a mill in that part of the town now Windham taking deed of its site together with additional land Oct. 1, 1793, after the erection of that new mill.
The first tannery, in the town was located a little north of the stage road about half a mile easterly from Thompsonburg, where ruins of the old dam as well as remnants of the foundations of the buildings can still be seen. Nathan Buxton, who went from this town to New Hampshire to learn the tanner's trade, here cleared a spot for his tannery and put up his building in 1824. The first building erected here by Mr. Buxton was 26 x 40 and two stories high, the upper part being designed as tenement for use of his family.
Just as Mr. Buxton had begun to tan his first leather there the building was destroyed by fire. The following summer, with the help of friends and neighbors, he rebuilt the tannery and then moved his family into the upper story. He began with only three vats and had to go to Andover to grind his bark, not then having equipment for that purpose at his own building.
Under these adverse circumstances and conditions he tanned the first leather and there also made the first harness ever made in town.
He lived in this building and operated the tannery for eleven years, when he became blind and was obliged to go out of business.
The tannery passed into other hands and was operated until 1866 or 1867 when it was abandoned. The main building, an old block structure, was taken down in 1885 by the then owner of the land and at that time all the other buildings had gone to decay.
Nearly opposite the dwelling house on the "Captain James farm," and on the right bank of the stream, David Thompson, about 1828, put up a build- ing for John Calef and Lifus Eddy, designed for a wagon shop. No business in that line was ever done there, but some time later a part of it was occupied by wool carding machinery which Isaiah Hesselton had brought up from the Harrington shop near the mouth of the brook.
Hesselton here ran this machinery for some years and then removed it to Weston, Vt. The building was taken down in 1844 and used in constructing
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The History of Londonderry
a barn on the old Sam'l. Thompson farm, later known as the Josiah Goddard farm.
The old stone dam and high foundation walls just below the road and a few rods lower on the stream were built by David Thompson, who put up and operated a saw mill there for some years and until it was destroyed by fire. He rebuilt on the same site and the establishment was long known as the Thompson mill. Some years prior to his death in 1843 the mill passed in- to the control of his son Nathaniel and continued in use until burned, in 1858, at which time it had passed to other hands.
Still lower on the stream, and about where an old dam now remains, somewhere about 1821, William Buckley built what was designed for an ex- tensive establishment, for those days and this locality, and for a time there carried on the business of carding wool and dressing cloth.
The business did not come up to his expectations; he became financially involved, and at last gave up the business.
The old dam now remaining on that site, and a mill which was later des- troyed by fire, were erected about 1871 by Joseph Bailey and his son, George F. Bailey, who moved the frame of the old Staples mill on Utley Branch and here set it up. Later, because of insufficient power furnished by the brook, steam power was added by subsequent owners and finally the water power was abandoned and the latest operation of the mill was by steam alone. The mill itself was taken down and moved away in 1921.
Between this mill site and the point where the stream crosses the high- way in Thompsonburg, Jonathan Melendy formerly had a blacksmith shop containing a trip hammer operated by power furnished by the brook. This was built by Benjamin Wood prior to 1828, while Rogers Thompson owned the land, but has long been out of existence, nothing being left to mark its site at this date.
About three fourths of a mile above the mouth of this brook Andrew Mason, in 1861, built a saw mill on the opposite side of the road from the brook, taking the water across in a spout under the roadway. This mill, from its location and appearance, acquired the designation of "the dry land saw mill," but practically no work was ever done by it, a very few logs at most having been sawn the first season and none thereafter.
Just above the junction of this stream with West River, and on the eas- terly side of the channel, may still be seen an old canal extending down the stream some rods from an old log dam, the lower part of which is still in quite substantial condition. This dam was built about 1826 by Emery Har- rington and the old canal conducted the water to an overshot wheel standing just below the point where are now the remains of the tannery dam, and near the highway. This wheel supplied the power for a wool carding machine in a small building which now forms a part of the dwelling house just east of the mouth of the Brook.
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In the early spring of 1842, Silas Whitman built a saw mill on the bank a little back of this building, which he then caused to be removed. About the first work done by this new saw mill was the cutting out of timber for the covered bridge now standing across West River in South Londonderry vil- lage. The mill continued in operation under different owners until it burned in April, 1865.
On the opposite side of the stream a tannery was put up about 1827 by Ezra Davis who first obtained power for his works by taking the water across the channel in an elevated aqueduct from the old canal above men- tioned, but later, and previous to March, 1838, he built the lower dam, the ruins of which are now seen at the upper end of the tannery building which now occupies the site though long since closed to the business to which it was first dedicated. By an accident at the raising of the timbers for the elevated aqueduct above mentioned Ashael Covey lost his life, being crushed be- tween two heavy pieces of the frame.
In the spring of 1838, Davis sold out to Ephriam Walker who used the original building and carried on the tanning business for many years.
This building stood until 1865 when it was torn down by Calvin B. Walk- er and Henry A. Walker, sons of Ephriam, and the building still standing was erected by them. In common with the other small tanneries in our country towns this one, once the seat of a thriving business, gradually de- clined in its output and since 1885 has been closed.
Of all the mills and shops thus far mentioned, all on this one small stream, not one remains active and the waters of the brook run idly from the lake to the river without turning a wheel.
Upon "Cook's Brook" three waterpower mills have in the past been in operation, occupying, however, but two sites, though now only parts of the old foundation walls and, possibly, a few charred and rotting timbers re- main of any. The mill known to the later generation as the Eddy mill stood just below the point where the highway leading to Rawsonville crosses the stream and was erected about 1859 by Silas Allbe. It had stood idle for many years before its destruction and was consumed by fire communicated from an adjoining dwelling house in 1887.
This site had previously been occupied by a mill which was begun in the fall of 1828 by Thomas Dunham and finished the following spring by Ara Whitman, who, with his brother Ira, took a deed of the same from Dunham in July, 1829. This earlier mill had become a total ruin long before the second one was built.
The other mill on this stream, known as "the Livermore mill," was in that part of the town formerly known as Aiken's Gore, having been built in 1840 by Samuel Livermore. In 1889, the water power being insufficient for the amount of business to be done, steam power was added and the business of manufacturing lumber, chair backs, turned stock, &c. was kept up until
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the summer of 1890 when the building and its contents were entirely de- stroyed by fire. The following year a new steam mill was erected by F. S. & J. L. Livermore, grandsons of Samuel, a short distance southerly from the water mill site, and the mill there, was operated a part of each year by other owners, its product being practically all rough lumber and boards; but it, too, has passed out of existence.
Another mill within the limits of Aiken's Gore, or partly within that ter- ritory and part in the town of Jamaica, the town line passing through the building, was built by Flint Richardson about 1839 or 1840 on what is known as Mill Brook. In the fall of 1868, Reverend Adna Newton became the owner of this mill and replaced the old building with a larger one containing more machinery. This mill did considerable business under his management until 1879. At that time the proprietor, Newton, lived in a house close by the mill. This house burned in 1879 and the mill was abandoned, Newton mov- ing his operations to a mill farther up the same stream in the town of Win- hall.
On Flood Brook, just below the Landgrove line, once stood a saw mill lo- cally known as the Warner mill, though sometimes called the Rumrill mill. The date of its construction cannot be stated, but it was prior to 1846. In the spring of that year it was conveyed by Selah Warner to John L. Rumrill and continued in use in a small way until about 1875. This mill and a dwell- ing adjoining stood in a clearing a little south of the highway leading from Londonderry (North village) to Peru, but both mill and dwelling have been abandoned and gone wholly to ruin.
On Utley Branch some thirty rods below the Landgrove line one Jotham Cram began the construction of a dam, planning to erect a powder mill there. The dam was attached to the ledge in the bed of the stream by large iron bolts fixed in the rock and extending through the lower timbers of the dam. Even this care failed to make the structure permanent. The dam, such part as was in fact constructed, was carried away by the stream and the whole project then came to an end. All vestiges of this dam, including the bolts set in the rock, have within a comparatively few years entirely disappeared.
Mark Staples had a mill on this same stream, standing beside the high- way near the farm house of Charles D. Moffit, formerly "the Staples place," as locally known. This mill dates from about 1855 and the dam connected with it was quite a distance up the Branch on the meadow across which the water was taken in an open canal heading along the side of the bank to the mill where it turned an overshot wheel, so called. Later this mill passed into the hands of Joseph Bailey who, with his son, George F., removed the build- ing to Thompsonburg where it was set up on, or near, the site of the old Buckley establishment.
Upon Winhall River, just above its junction with West River, are the ruins of a mill, recently fallen down, on the site of one originally built by
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David Hazen about 1838 and which was supplied with power by water taken by canal from the dam some twenty rods up the stream.
The first mill at this place burned about 1856 and was rebuilt by Nathan Wyman. A considerable amount of business has been done at this site, but the buildings have been so many times and so extensively repaired that to term it the old Wyman mill would recall the old lady's stockings which had lasted so long "by knitting new feet every other winter and new legs be- tween times."
Some distance above this point and close to the Jamaica line stands the mill of Adrill P. Williams & Son, formerly known as the Henry J. Stewart mill, which continues in operation to this time. The dam is a low structure barely over the line in Jamaica and the water passes across a point of land for some twenty rods and then reaches the wheel with a head of about fifteen feet. Alanson B. Chase and Alfred Goodale put up a mill here in 1847' or 1848 which stood for a few years and was then destroyed by fire. Chase sold out before this fire and Goodale with his father, Timothy Goodale, were op- erating it at that time. They soon rebuilt and the new mill was substantially the same building that now occupies the site.
The first mill on West River within this town was built in 1785 by Captain Edward Aiken at the north village on practically the same ground now occupied by the saw mill and grist mill of Williams Brothers.
The original dam and building have been replaced and then again rebuilt until the whole is practically new. The original mud sill of the first dam here was a very large pine log and remained in position until 1880 when it was found in so good state of preservation on its removal that some lumber was sawn from it, a part of which was used in the building of the Peabody Hotel ("Riverside Inn"), at the south village in 1882. In 1880, the high water swept away the dam and part of the mill building, but both were promptly rebuilt by Alonzo A. Curtis who then owned the site. This prop- erty has passed through many hands and at different times been quite generally known through this region by a variety of names; some derived from the names of its owners, and some from names of those who operated the mill as lessees or otherwise. In some of the old records the premises are referred to as "Chubbuck's Mills," presumably from one Hosea Chubbuck who is said to have run the mill for a time, though his name is not found in the chain of record title to the property as ever having had any title thereto.
In 1867, a joint stock company was formed under the name of "The Londonderry Water Power Association" and the Company made a dam across the river a little below the present mill of Williams Brothers and erected a large frame building on the southerly side of the main street in the North village, to which the water was taken in a long wooden tube. This building was designed and equipped for a woolen factory and was so oper- ated to some extent until 1871. The matters of the Association then became
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involved in litigation and for several years the property was idle, the machinery being removed. In 1883 Freeman W. Williams purchased the individual rights of the shareholders and refitted the premises as a machine shop. He continued to operate this shop, both making new machinery and doing general repair work, until 1894 when he sold to Horace A. Hayward. After Hayward's death the shop was used for a while by new owners as a machine shop and then went into a decline from which it has not made recovery.
The settlement at the village of South Londonderry was begun in 1806 when Benjamin Baldwin and Levi Richardson came from Andover, pitched a lot which covered a considerable part of the village site, including the mill site, and built a saw mill and grist mill where the mills stood until recently, just above the covered bridge. This "pitched lot" was conveyed to Richard- son in 1808 by deed from James Rogers (son of Colonel James Rogers). About five years later a Mr. Danforth put in a wool carding machine which is said to have been under the same roof with the saw mill and the grist mill. Later a carding mill and cloth dressing establishment was put in operation where L. T. Landman's Clothing Store now stands, just below the bridge. In the "great freshet" in the spring of 1842, all these buildings, with bridge and some other frame buildings, were swept away, but all were soon rebuilt and the sites occupied for the same purposes as before. Some years later, about 1831, a small building between the grist mill and the bridge was erected by Isaac Richardson for a cooper shop. This building burned in 1845 and was rebuilt. It has been used for many purposes since then and is now unoccupied. The building below the bridge was used for various purposes after the machinery was taken out, principally as a store, under various occupants; first as the old "Union Store," the like of which were for many years common in our New England country towns. At one time it was used as a cheese factory and for many different purposes until, in 1891, it was raised up, thoroughly repaired and refitted, the ground floor as a store and the second story for dwelling purposes.
About 1834, Jotham Cram, with the financial aid of Alfred Pierce and Hezron White, built a dam across West River about where the present dam connected with the old "sash and blind shop" stands, and erected a small powder mill on the southerly side of the river. The powder made there, and but little was made, proved more of a success as a fuel than as an explosive, and it is said that the building was at a later date used as a blacksmith shop, for forging, etc.
Vague rumors have drifted down through the years that there were not then wanting strong suspicions that base coin was one of the products of this plant. In the "great freshet" of 1842, this building joined the other mills from above and went sailing away with them.
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In 1861, Sem Pierce, Jr. purchased this site, put in a dam and erected the building known as the "sash and blind shop" now standing. The following year Mr. Pierce sold the plant to Amasa A. Chase and for several years thereafter the business of making doors, sash and window blinds was there carried on by different owners.
In 1858, Sem Pierce, Jr. and L. K. Howard purchased the old church building on the "Patch," took out the pulpit and pews and used it as a paint shop for finishing carriages and sleighs made by them at their shop adjoin- ing the dwelling house next above the old church. In 1863, they moved the building across the highway and, enlarging it, made of it the carriage shop where they and their successors for a long time made a high-grade of car- riages and sleighs, but the plant long standing idle is now a garage and grain store. Power for this shop, when it was in operation, was obtained from a wheel set under the sash and blind shop by lease of rights from owner of that power.
In 1847, Silas Whitman built a dam and mill opposite his residence and operated it for some years as a saw mill and in the manufacture of chair stock, etc. It then passed into other hands and, in August 1875, while owned by John Farnum, was entirely destroyed by fire, and has never been rebuilt.
About 1838, David Hazen began the erection of a dam on West River a little distance above the mouth of Winhall River, but before it was com- pleted a freshet carried away all that had been built and Hazen then abandoned that project and built the mill near the mouth of Winhall River, which he sold to Ezra Ingalls in 1842, where the mill of Nathan Wyman later stood.
In 1894, Charles B. Alexander, who had acquired an interest in the grist mill at South Londonderry, set up an electric light plant in a small addition to the mill which he erected for that purpose. This plant was in use several years but then gave way to a larger and more reliable service from another, and outside, source.
The latest water power to be harnessed and utilized in town is that of Horace G. Alexander & Son on West River midway between the two villages. Here the senior member of this firm built a dam and mill in 1896, taking the water down beside the highway from the dam to the mill just below the iron bridge, where a fall of thirty feet is obtained, making this, as it is claimed, the best power on the river in its whole course.
Why this power remained so long unused and undeveloped it is difficult to understand. Here large quantities of lumber have been manufactured and a considerable business in manufacturing plane-wood stock, lag stock and material for "pickers" in textile mills. Of the latter it is said this mill fur- nished, for a series of years, more than any other in New England.
It is believed that the list already given includes all the water power es- tablishments that have ever been built in the territory now embraced in
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the limits of Londonderry. In addition to these there have been quite a num- ber of temporary mills operated by steam power and set up for the purpose of cutting out the timber on certain wood-lots, the product being alto- gether rough timbers and boards.
It is said that, at one time, there was a shop in the northeasterly part of the town, on the John Greeley place at "North Windham," where bobbins were made by machinery operated by horse power.
In the early days manufacture of potash and "pearl ash" or "salts of lye" was carried on, as in practically all other towns in this locality, and the product had almost the standing of legal tender.
Several establishments devoted to this industry and of greater or less pre- tentions existed in different parts of the town, the last of the old buildings recalling that industry having stood, until 1890, a little east of the main street in the village of South Londonderry.
The Montague Paper Co. of Turners Falls, Mass., in 1888, put up a sub- stantial frame building with machinery, operated by steam power, for cut- ting up and preparing spruce, poplar, &c. for pulp stock, on the small flat on the southerly side of the river opposite the Walker tannery. This building was burned in 1893 and was not rebuilt.
About 1834, a brick yard was established on the right bank of the river in the south village and was operated by John Whitcomb, Thomas S. Viall and Israel Whitcomb, at different times, covering a period of a very few years. The clay was taken from the bank just back of the yard, where the railroad now passes, and, in preparing the railway roadbed, some boards or planks which had lain at the bottom of a part of the old clay pit were dis- covered quite deeply covered in the earth. At this yard were made the brick from which were constructed the Baptist Church building, the Clark Ald- rich house, now the home of H. G. Alexander, and the house on "the square" in the south village, the home of Marvin J. Howard, as well as some smaller lots.
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