By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | November 8, 2018
The Nute Memorial Chapel or Nute Ridge Bible Chapel, at 99 Nute Ridge Road in West Milton, NH, was dedicated on Thursday, October 23, 1890.
MILTON HAS A CHAPEL.
Dedication of Building Paid for by the Nute Executors.
MILTON, N.H., October 23. – The chapel erected under the provisions of the will of Lewis W. Nute by his executors, Charles H. Moulton and Henry E. Cobb, was dedicated this afternoon in the presence of a large assembly. The building is a brick structure calculated to accommodate the presence of 150 people, with a library attached, the cost being about $10,000.
The exercises were as follows: Introductory addresses by the executors and delivery of keys; opening prayer, Rev. J. Manter of Milton; anthem; Scripture reading, Rev. Frank Haley of Milton; choir selection; sermon, Rev. E.B. Webb, D.D., of Wellesley, Mass.; dedicatory prayer, Rev. W.I. Sweet of Farmington; response; solo by W.H. Dunham; hymn by the congregation; closing prayer and benediction by Rev. H.H. Hamilton, pastor of the chapel.
The trustees of the chapel fund are Charles H. Moulton, Henry E. Cobb, and Jerome Jones (Boston Globe, October 24, 1890).
Lewis W. Nute was born in West Milton, NH, February 17, 1820, son of Ezekiel and Dorcas (Worster) Nute. He became a successful Boston leather merchant and shoe manufacturer. He died “at the homestead” on Nute Ridge in West Milton, NH, September 5, 1888. His wife Priscilla (Farrar) Nute had predeceased him in 1886. They are buried together in Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Cambridge, MA (where the inscribed date is at variance with published obituaries).
Rev. John S. Manter was the Milton Baptist minister, Rev. Frank Haley was the Milton Congregational minister, Rev. Edwin B. Webb, D.D., was a prominent Massachusetts Congregational minister, and Rev. William I. Sweet was the Farmington Congregational minister (1888-92).
Rev. Haley was also a trustee of the Nute High School and Library, as well as its Librarian, until his death in 1904. (He had also practiced as a physician for a time; among his published works were an appreciation or eulogy of Dr. Stephen Drew).
The current pastor is Rev. Robert E. Walsh.
References:
Find a Grave. (2014, March 21). Lewis Worster Nute. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/126657931
Nute Ridge Bible Chapel. (2013). Nute Ridge Bible Chapel. Retrieved from nute-chapel.org/
Milton Observer 