By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | March 7, 2019
In this year, we encounter a fatal equine accident, some thievery, another mill fire, the passing of an elderly veteran, more stocking by the fish commissioner, and some minister shopping.
The Rev. Willis A. Hadley came to the Union Congregational Church in Milton Mills from Rye, NH, where he had offered a strong sermon.
New England Items. The Rev. Willis S. Hadley, late of Rye, N.H., has received a unanimous call from the Congregational Church at Milton Mills to become its pastor (Boston Globe, January 21, 1879).
Poor Mr. Charles Chase had a fatal encounter with a horse.
EASTERN NEW HAMPSHIRE. Charles Chase, of Milton Mills, was fatally injured, Tuesday, 7th. He was kicked by a horse in the throat, and died in a few minutes (Vermont Journal (Windsor, VT), January 25, 1879).
Two burglars from Great Falls [Somersworth, NH] broke into a storehouse at Milton Three Ponds in late January.
NEW ENGLAND NEWS. NEW HAMPSHIRE. In default of $2000 bail, George Whitehouse and Richard Pine of Great Falls were committed to jail Wednesday to await trial for stealing a sleigh, harness and robes from George H. Jones, and a quantity of flour and grain from Daniel Corkery at Milton, Sunday night (Boston Post, January 30, 1879).
Summary of News. George Whitehouse and Richard Pike, of Great Falls, N.H., were last week arrested for breaking and entering a storehouse at Milton Three Ponds, and stealing therefrom several barrels of flour, the property of Daniel Corkery. They also stole a horse and pung to carry away their plunder, but the heavy load broke down the pung, and hence their arrest (Argus and Patriot (Montpelier, VT), February 5, 1879).
The burglars probably came by train. The stolen getaway “pung” may be defined as a low boxlike one-horse sleigh. (This was winter in Milton).
The same George Whitehouse, with the aid of two other ne’er-do-wells, had robbed a pedler in the ironically-named Fair Play saloon in Great Falls in the prior year (Boston Globe, April 22, 1878).
The owner of the flour barrels managed Milton’s relatively-new railroad depot. Daniel Corkery, depot master, aged thirty-nine years (b. New Brunswick), headed a Milton household at the time of the Tenth (1880) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Lizzie A. Corkery, keeping house, aged thirty-two years (b. NH), and his daughters, Annie J. Corkery, aged fourteen years (b. NH), and Daisy A. Corkery, aged four months (b. NH, in January).
George H. Jones, a farmer, aged fifty-four years (b. NH), headed also a Milton household at the time of the Tenth (1880) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Lucy J. [(Varney)] Jones, keeping house, aged fifty-three years (b. NH), and his sons, Charles H. Jones, aged twenty-seven years (b. NH), and Ira W. Jones, sets water wheels, aged twenty-five years (b. NH).
Milton resident Luther Hayes lost his Portsmouth, NH, saw mill.
New England Items. The saw mill belonging to Luther Hayes at Portsmouth, N.H., was burned yesterday afternoon. Loss, $2000; no insurance (Boston Globe, February 11, 1879).
Luther Hayes of South Milton had appeared as a justice of the peace, and as proprietor of a grist, lumber, saw, and shingle mill, in the Milton business directory of 1877.
We encounter him again in his role of NH Fish Commissioner in October of this year (see below).
Joseph Page was born in neighboring Wakefield, NH, August 7, 1795, son of Josiah Page.
OBITUARY. Joseph Page, an old and respected citizen of Milton Mills, N.H., died at that place September 20, aged 84 years. He was a veteran of the war of 1812, in which he served faithfully (Boston Post, September 29, 1879).
Joseph Page enlisted in Captain James Hardy’s militia company (August 11, 1814): Nathaniel Abbott, Frederic Ballard, James L. Gowdy, Stephen Grant, Daniel Page, Joseph Page, Hiram Pierce, Obadiah Witham, all of Wakefield; and James Drew, Joseph Pitman, George Stevens, and Stephen Young, all of Brookfield. (Their experience would have been similar to that of Milton’s militia company in the War of 1812).
He married October 7, 1816, Lydia Staples Remick. Their children were born in Wakefield between then and the mid-1830s. They moved from Wakefield to Milton Mills prior to 1850.
Joseph Page, a farmer, aged seventy-four years (b. NH), headed a Milton household at the time of the Ninth (1870) Federal Census. His household included Lydia S. Page, keeping house, aged seventy-five years (b. NH), Josiah Page, a farm laborer, aged thirty-six years (b. NH), Hannah E. Page, a housekeeper, aged twenty-nine years (b. NH), Amanda M. Page, at school, aged seven years (b. NH), Clara M. Page, aged two months (b. NH), and Haven Jewett, a farm laborer, aged thirteen years (b. NH).
Lydia S. (Remick) Page died in Milton, March 6, 1871.
NEW HAMPSHIRE. The Fish Commissioner, Luther Hayes, has been engaged the past week in stocking Langley and Pea Porridge ponds in Nottingham with black bass (Boston Post, October 9, 1879).
NH Fish Commissioner Hayes, of West Milton, stocked also ponds in Milton, in 1878, and Peterborough, NH, in 1880.
Next we have several ministerial candidates auditioning, as it were, to “supply” pulpits.
Sutton. The Rev. B.A. Sherwood of Milton Mills, N.H., occupied the desk Sunday forenoon as a candidate for the pastorate of the church. We learn the committee intend to secure his services as soon as possible if the people will sign liberally and raise his salary. The church has been without a pastor and regular preaching since Mr. Atwood closed his labors last March (St. Johnsbury Caledonian, October 24, 1879).
Rev. Charles E. Stowe married in Cambridge, MA, May 26, 1879, Susan M. Monroe. Despite what it said in the following article, he became minister in Saco, ME. He wrote his mother from Saco in December 1879 and entertained her there in the summer of 1880 (Butte Miner, June 30, 1880).
PERSONAL AND POLITICAL. MRS. HARRIOT BEECHER STOWE’s son Charles has engaged to supply the Congregational pulpit at Milton, N.H. for a year (Pittsburgh Daily Post, October 31, 1879).
Stowe’s mother, Harriet Beecher Stowe, was a well-known abolitionist, as well as having been the author of the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Although he did not “settle” in Milton, he likely gave at least one audition sermon there and perhaps visited from Saco.
Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1878; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1880
References:
Find a Grave. (2010, March 8). Luther Hayes. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/49429209/luther-hayes
Find a Grave. (2015, August 5). Rev. Willis Augustus Hadley. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/150217793
Wikipedia. (2018). Harriet Beecher Stowe. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Beecher_Stowe
Milton Observer 