Automobiles would have been available since the 1890s, for those Milton “automobilists” that could afford them.
In 1905, the New Hampshire legislature enacted “An Act Relative to Motor Vehicles and the Operation Thereof.” It established for the first time, among other things, registration of motor vehicles, license plates, licensing of drivers, fees for those things, and speed limits. (Massachusetts had enacted its version in 1903).
AUTO LAW IN EFFECT. Concord, N.H., May 2. New Hampshire’s first law for the regulation of automobiles has gone into effect. It requires the registration and numbering of all automobiles and motor cycles, the registration of manufacturers and dealers, and the licensing of operators. The speed limits are 20 miles an hour without and eight miles an hour within business districts (Fitchburg Sentinel, May 2, 1905).
Speed limits were set at 8 miles-per-hour (mph) in business districts (simply defined as a quarter-mile stretch of buildings set 100 feet apart or less) and at 20 mph everywhere else.
There were no Stop signs or any other signage at all. Motorists were required to slow down when proceeding through intersections situated on curved stretches of road, when proceeding down steep hills, or when crossing bridges. They were to honk their horns when proceeding through the intersections situated on curves, as well as slowing down.
Persons who daily cross streets where speedy automobiles ply should feel at liberty to vote themselves Carnegie medals any day without waiting for the official award (Portsmouth Herald, February 5, 1906).
Automobile owners were to pay $3 to register their motor vehicles. Registrations, as well as operator licenses, were obtained by mail from the NH Secretary of State. (There was no inspection for the automobile nor any driving test for its driver). License plates were simply a number followed by the state designation “NH.” Two plates were required, front and back, for which the motorist was charged $1 apiece.
By way of comparison, we have seen that the first-class cook at the Hotel Milton received payment of $1 per day for her services. Had she a motor vehicle, which seems unlikely, it would have cost her most of a week’s pay to register it and outfit it with license plates.
Automobile prices ran between $1,650 and $1,750 dollars in advertisements of 1906. Their 4-cylinder motors generated, depending upon the brand and model, between 20 and 28 horsepower. One (The Model 14 Rambler) had a 3-speed sliding gear transmission that delivered its horsepower by direct drive to the rear axle. Another (the Apperson) advertised “Every Car a Special Car, Built for the Owner.”
So, automobiles were expensive. They were the “horseless” substitute for a horse and carriage, which were also expensive. Most people walked, hired a horse and carriage, took a trolley (in cities), or traveled longer distances by train.
(We might recall that Henry Ford’s market success would come through price reductions based upon the use of standardized parts and assembly-line factory processes).
Those traveling in motorcars were much exposed to wind and weather. Clothing merchants advertised a range of Men’s Driving and Automobile Coats. At the lower price points were Manchurian Sheep-Lined Auto Coats ($18.50). From there, one might move upscale through China Dog-Lined Coats, the same but with Otter collars, Best Quality Dog-Lined Coats, Galloway Coats, and, at the top of the line, Natural Raccoon-Lined Coats ($75.00). And, of course, a hat, gloves, and goggles.
Drivers of this period obtained their driver’s license by mail. Many, if not most, of these early automobiles would not have been operated in the wintertime. Drivers mentioned a process of disassembly, maintenance, and storage of cars over the winter. For those that continued to drive throughout the year, many models had no windshield wipers. (Some had no windshield). One winter driver told of keeping a bucket of glycerin in the front seat of his delivery truck during a snowstorm, and stopping periodically to sponge some of it on the windshield.
According to the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s Report for 1908, Milton had between 12 and 16 registered automobiles, and 2 registered motorcycles, at any one time during the year ending August 31, 1907.
Those registrations marked with an asterisk had cancelled their registration at some point during the 1906-07 year. Most of those had also another registration. One supposes they had cancelled the registration for one car when they obtained another (which would affect the total number of cars registered at any one time).
Milton had 12 licensed drivers, 3 licensed livery drivers, and no traffic violations in its first year (1906-07).
Motor Vehicle Statistics.
REGISTRATIONS, LICENSES, AND VIOLATIONS FOR THE YEAR ENDING AUGUST 31, 1907.
Strafford County. Milton.
Automobiles – Leslie C. Brock, 838; Everett B. Cooley, 1821; Frank E. Fernald, 609; Arthur M. Flye, 1017; Asa A. Fox, 473*, 1464; Harry C. Grover, 1638*, 1783; Forrest L. Marsh, 1025; Robert S. Pike, 1177; Hazen Plummer, 902; Alfred T. Rudd, 616; John E. Townsend, 204*, 1055; John C. Townsend, 1497*, 1662.
Motor Cycles – Isaac H. Atherton, C89; Joseph E. Willey, C181.
Professional Chauffeurs – Isaac H. Atherton, Frank D. Stevens, Carl B. Tarbell.
*Registration cancelled during the year.
By way of comparison, Rochester had between 43 and 49 registered automobiles and 4 registered motorcycles. Farmington had between 11 and 13 registered automobiles and 2 registered motorcycles. Middleton had but 1 registered automobile. Wakefield had 5 registered automobiles and 1 registered motorcycle.
Registration fees for automobiles rose to $10 in 1909, while those for motorcycles dropped to $2. Speed limits increased to 10 mph in business districts and 25 mph everywhere else.
(We may note that it did not cost any more for a clerk to register an automobile in the Secretary of State’s book than it did to register a motorcycle. Automobiles were already being seen as a state revenue “cash cow”).
… Autos and trucks require less than one-fourth the barn and yard space needed for animal transportation. This alone effects a large saving. One of the chief objections I have heard urged against autos and trucks is that they scare horses and cannot go over muddy and sandy roads. The remark that was once applied to whisky is applicable to motors. All are good, but some are better than others (Boston Globe, February 25, 1912).
In this year, we encounter a grisly accidental death in South Milton, the candidacy of a former Milton resident, the alleged Jones poisoning murderer imprisoned still – for debt, vampers wanted, a Milton school teacher hired in Quincy, the Strafford Savings Bank embezzler being released, a stolen horse and carriage, and a frigid football game.
Here we find a horrible accidental death in what must surely be a contender for worst job interview ever.
Head Battered by Fly Wheel. Rochester, N.H. – Jan. 25. Lawrence Chauvette, 35 years old, fell against the fly wheel of the engine in Drew’s sawmill at South Milton and was instantly killed. His head was crushed to a pulp. Chauvette is said to have been drinking, but he visited the mill in search of work (North Adams Transcript, January 25, 1905).
Milton vital records put the Canadian native’s age at “about” forty years. Dr. M.A.H. Hart, of Milton, certified the accidental death in a saw mill of this teamster. Dr. Hart gave intoxication as the contributing cause. Chauvette was buried in the Milton Town Farm cemetery, January 24, 1905, by A.A. Fox, undertaker, of Milton Mills.
“The use of alcohol and drugs may adversely affect the ability of a person to work in a safe manner.”
Charles R. Morse, one of seven candidates for three vacant seats on the Winthrop, MA, Board of Selectmen, had resided in Milton as a child, between circa 1857 and 1865.
Darwin Morse, a farmer, aged forty-seven years (b. NH), headed a Milton household at the time of the Eighth (1860) Federal Census. His household included Phoebe A. [(Huntress)] Morse, aged thirty-three years (b. NH), Charles R. Morse, aged nine years (b. NH), William Huntress, a gentleman, aged eighty-one years (b. NH), and Dorcas [(Dore)] Huntress, aged sixty-six years (b. NH). Darwin Morse had real estate valued at $10,000 and personal estate valued at $30,000.
(The Federal government assessed Phoebe A. Morse’s brother (and Charles R. Morse’s maternal uncle), William H. Huntress, for his hotel, livery stable, horse and carriage, and liquor license in Milton’s US Excise Tax of May 1864).
Charles R. Morse is a lawyer and is prominent in town affairs. Born in Natick In 1851, where the first six years of his life was spent, moving with his parents to Milton, N.H., where farm work occupied his attention during his boyhood, attending school during the winter time at Wolfboro academy. In 1865 he returned to Natick. and in 1871 entered the law office of F.F. Hurd, brother-in-law to Gen. B.F. Butler, and in whose office a portion of the next seven years were spent in the study of law. Mr. Morse located permanently in Boston in 1877, and has been a resident of Winthrop since 1890 (Boston Globe, March 23, 1905).
Charles Ruel Morse died in Dorchester, Boston, MA, October 8, 1925.
Here we find Milton’s alleged poisoning murderer of 1897 still confined in the Strafford County jail for debt.
HE PREFERS JAIL, A.W. Jones Won’t Take Debtor’s Oath. Milton, N.H, Man Petitioned Court, Then Refused to Appear. DOVER, N.H., May 16. – Alfred W. Jones of Milton, who petitioned the superior court from the Strafford county jail where he has been confined six years for debt, for release from imprisonment, refused at almost the last moment to appear before the commissioners appointed by the court to hear his petition, and so will continue to live behind jail bars. The hearing on the Jones petition was set for today at the county courthouse before Hon. William P. Nason and Robert Doe as commissioners. Jones sent word last evening to his counsel. James McCabe, that he had changed his mind and did not wish to press his application for release. The hearing accordingly did not take place (Boston Globe, May 27, 1905).
The “debtor’s oath” or “poor debtor’s oath” was a sort of bankruptcy. Taking the oath was an admission of insolvency and would permit liquidation of the debtor’s assets to at least partially satisfy his creditors. After which the debtor would be freed to start over.
Refusing to take the oath might preserve the debtor’s assets, but would also ensure his continued residence in jail.
N.B. Thayer & Company sought two female vampers for its Milton shoe factory.
Parts of a Shoe, including the Vamp (Diagram: Podiatry Today)
A vamp is the part of a shoe that covers the forepart of the foot, possibly including the toe and instep (depending upon the style of shoe). The vampers sought here were female workers that made vamps. Similar advertisements mention vampers as operating two-needle Singer sewing machines.
FEMALE HELP WANTED. VAMPERS – Wanted, 2 first-class cylinder vampers on boys’ shoes. N.B. THAYER & Co., Milton, N.H. dSu7t Je20 (Boston Globe, June 23, 1905).
We see again the typographer’s code at the conclusion. This advertisement was to run both daily and Sunday, for seven times, from June 20.
Here another Milton school teacher (and principal) is identified. Walter Harold Bentley was born in Brookline, MA, May 24, 1878, son of David B. and Esther A. (Boyden) Bentley.
David B. Bentley, a school teacher, aged sixty-eight years (b. Canada (Eng.)), headed a Bridgewater, MA, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of thirty-eight years), Esther A. Bentley, aged fifty-nine years (b. MA), his son, Walter H. Bentley, a day laborer, aged twenty-two years (b. MA), and his boarders, Rachel Parker, a servant, aged twenty-three years (b. Canada (Eng.)), Howard H. Stiles, a shoe shop rounder, aged twenty-one years (b. NY), Frank C. Weeks, water works superintendent, aged seventy-four years (b. VT), Ethel E. Thomas, a school teacher, aged twenty-five years (b. ME), Nancy J. Westgate, a school teacher, aged twenty-four years (b. MA), Edna L. White, a school teacher, aged twenty-six years (b. MA), and Archie C. Osborne, a druggist, aged thirty-two years (b. NH).
Mr. Bentley’s tenure as a Milton school teacher would have been brief, only a year or two, likely beginning around the 1900-01 academic year. (His obituaries say he was a principal in Milton, probably at the Grammar School). He taught next in Dover, NH, and was principal of the Walnut-sq. grammar school in Haverhill, MA, by the 1903-04 academic year (Boston Globe, June 16, 1904).
A number of [Quincy, MA] grammar schools will have new teachers. Walter H. Bentley is principal of the Coddington school, vice Miss Mary A. Dearborn, who resigned after a service of over 30 years. Mr. Bentley is a graduate of the Bridgewater normal school, class of 1900, and has taught at Milton. N.H., Dover, N.H. (Boston Globe, September 11, 1905).
[The “vice” above is Latin for “in place of.” Coddington’s Principal Dearborn was replaced by Principal Bentley].
Walter H. Bentley, a public school teacher, aged thirty-one years (b. MA), headed a Quincy, MA, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Harriet A. Bentley, aged twenty-three years (b. MA), and his father, David Bentley, a widower, aged seventy-seven years (b. Canada (Eng.)). They resided in a mortgaged house at 104 Underwood Avenue.
Walter H. Bentley resigned his principalship at Quincy’s Coddington school at the close of the 1910-11 academic year (Boston Globe, April 26, 1911). He was subsequently proprietor / teacher of a boys’ camp, resident in Winchester, MA, in 1920; a camp director, resident in Winchester, MA, in 1930; and a camp director, resident in Winchester, MA, in 1940.
Some 25 years ago [circa 1941-42], Walter H. Bentley of Winchester, who taught at Gov. Dummer Academy and other schools and started a boys camp at Wolfeboro, N.H., in 1909, wrote a letter on this subject. It was printed in a pamphlet to parents, and the letter is quoted in the last publication of the camp, now conducted by his son, Bradford M. Bentley, also of Winchester. Said the founder in part: “Wyanoke is like a big family. It is made up of boys – little fellows of 8 or 9 who need constant and sympathetic care and understanding; sturdy, active youngsters of 12 or 13, who need plenty to do and steady, wise direction; big, growing youths of 15 and 16, who are beginning to think of what life means, and who need inspiration and the daily comradeship of mature men who understand them. All of these boys benefit greatly from the community life of the camp. Many campers come from small families. At camp they learn that everything, even fun, is to be shared, and that the duties well done and consideration for others bring satisfaction and friends. Boys like and need to ‘run with the pack’ and a Summer home cannot fill this need as a camp does” (Boston Globe, April 30, 1967).
Walter H. Bentley died in Winchester, MA, January 30, 1945.
Deaths and Funerals. Walter H. Bentley. WINCHESTER, Jan. 30. Walter H. Bentley, 66, of 24 Central St., founder of several Summer camps for boys and girls, died today at his home. A graduate of Bridgewater Normal School, he was principal of schools in Milton and Dover, N.H., Haverhill and Quincy, and was associated for a time with Governor Dummer Academy. In 1904 he helped found the Medomak Camp for Boys and in 1909 he opened Camp Wyanoke, Wolfeboro, N.H., now directed by his son, Bradford M. Bentley. He also founded Camp Winnemont for Girls, West Ossipee, N.H. Besides his son he leaves a wife. Funeral services will be held in the Ripley Memorial Chapel of the First Congregational Church Thursday at 2:30. Burial will be in Wolfeboro, N.H. (Boston Globe, January 31, 1945).
Camps Founder Dies in Massachusetts. Boston, Feb. 1 (AP) – Walter H. Bentley, 66, a pioneer in the founding of children’s summer camps, died Tuesday. A resident of Winchester, Bentley was principal of schools in Milton, Dover, N.H., Haverhill and Quincy during his early years as an educator. He operated his own camps, Wyanoke for boys at Wolfeboro, N.H., and Winnemont for girls at West Ossipee, N.H. Burial will be in Wolfeboro, N.H. (Portsmouth Herald, February 1, 1945).
The Dover bank embezzler of 1903 served out two years of his two-to-three-year sentence and was released.
MATHES IS RELEASED. Ex-Treasurer of Stafford Savings Bank of Dover, N.H., Returns to That City. CONCORD, N.H., Oct. 21. – Albert O. Mathes of Dover, one time treasurer of the Strafford savings bank in that city, was released from the state prison in this city today, having completed the minimum term of an indeterminate sentence imposed upon him two years ago for the embezzlement of the funds of his institution. Gov. McLane and his council gave Mathes a pardon at their last meeting, the effect of which was to annul the parole feature of his sentence and to restore him at once to the full privileges of citizenship. Mathes went from this city to Dover, where old friends are said to have secured a position for him (Boston Globe, October 21, 1905).
Albert O. Mathes died in Dover, NH, July 20, 1907.
Rev. E.W. Churchill of Milton Mills gave an address before a Freewill Baptist quarterly meeting held in West Lebanon, ME.
FREE BAPTISTS IN SESSION. New Durham Quarterly Meeting on at West Lebanon, Me. WEST LEBANON, Me, Oct 25. – The New Durham, N.H. quarterly meeting of Free Baptists is in session at the Free Baptist church here. Today’s program began at 9:30, with a testimony and prayer meeting, led by Rev G.L. Lowell of Northwood, N.H. The conference sermon was preached at 11 by Rev. Hibbert Lockhart of Rochester, N.H. This afternoon the woman’s missionary society met, Mrs. Flora L. Hill presiding. The reports showed the society to be in a flourishing condition. Rev E.W. Churchill of Milton Mills, N.H. gave an address. There was a solo by Mrs. Lura J. Bagley of East Rochester. An evangelistic service was held this evening by Rev. Walter J. Malvern of Gonic. Tomorrow amendments to the constitution will be discussed, among them being a change of name of the association, and a change of the time of the annual meeting (Boston Globe, October 26, 1905).
At Milton. N.H., last Wednesday, a dark bay horse of 1100 pounds and one white hind foot, attached to a Kimball open buggy and wearing an open bridle, was stolen. Any information will be gladly received by the local police (Fitchburg Sentinel, [Monday,] November 27, 1905).
No indication of owner or whether the horse and buggy were recovered.
How cold was it?
EDITORIAL POINTS. It was so cold Thanksgiving day that a football game at Milton, N.H., was cancelled, and the brutal feature of the game which forces delicate women to sit for hours slowly freezing to death was thus abolished (Boston Globe, December 4, 1905).
Last week’s Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting had some few points of interest.
Chief Krauss added some new expense requests. An upgraded police phone system was added to his nautical items already on the agenda. His combined police-pursuit / boat-hauling vehicle was described as having been approved already at a prior meeting. He sought only permission to include the prior unnecessary boat-hauling vehicle in a trade-in deal for the new unnecessary police-pursuit / boat-hauling vehicle.
The Town (or Town Police) boat dock “Concern” was the damaged Town boat dock that had damaged also the Town Police boat. Or vice versa. It seems that the dock is inadequate at its current length, as more dock length is needed when the pond water level goes down. No one could have predicted that (as it goes down every year). Thus the damage to the dock, and to the boat.
There was some discussion of whether some beach funds might be redirected to cover some or all of this. We know that is unlikely, at least to any significant degree, as the Milton Town Beach Has Its Own Government. But the BOS chose to pretend that such a thing might happen, for purposes of discussion.
Note well that the other side of the ponds has no corresponding Lebanon Police navy. In fact, our larger neighbor (population 6,031 in 2010), has had no police department at all since 1991. An effort to create one was defeated at the ballot in 2009 (498 (60.8%) to 321 (39.2%)). (They rely on state and county police).
One looks in vain for the nightly light of a burning Lebanon reflected in the ponds, or for its daily riots, or its pond pirates, or for its warlords fighting over territories within it.
Thank God the bridge is down and that we have a Police navy.
Under Old Business, the Town Administrator put forward a suggested September Saturday meeting, in which a combined BOS and Budget Committee would hear the departmental budget presentations. The board was in favor of this. The administrator would next seek similar approval from the Budget Committee.
Chairman Thibeault asked Town Administrator Ernest Creveling about the current budget.
Town Administrator Creveling: We’ve already started working on [Budget] things. One of the things we’re working on is we’ve put together a spreadsheet and gave it to all the department heads. Because we’re on a Default Budget and I wanted people to go through it and analyze their budgets and take a look at exactly what it is and exactly what it is they think they absolutely need to spend, these are all absolute necessities, things that are dealing with public safety, employee safety, contracts – the police phone system may become one of those things – it is important to be able to reach the police department and leave messages if you have to, so they are are things in the process of going through that exercise.
The Town Administrator has here suggested to the department heads a sort of “party line”: express all your desired budget increases in terms of either public or personnel safety. Yes, that should do the trick.
Creveling: Hopefully, that will give us an amount that we can sort of pool together out of each line item, for a total, so that we know, if other things pop up, we’re able to pull from there, and once we get through that, I’ll make sure that you all get a copy and are you’re fully aware of what we’ve done.
Selectman Rawson: It seems a good idea.
From there, they moved on to the payroll aspect of next year’s budget. Note that they begin with the assumption that the baseline is correct and that there will be an increase above that. It is then just a question of how large that increase will be.
Chairman Thibeault: Alright. Did you also want to discuss the guidance on the employee wages for 2020, or is that just …
Creveling: Well, on … Oh, yes, we can do that as well. As far as putting budgets together, people are starting to do that now. So, as far … in the recent past, you’ve gone 2% for merit and 1.7% for Cost of Living. People just wanted to know if that is what they should move forward with in the budget development, at this point.
Now, as we have mentioned previously, very few in the real world might expect to receive any Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) increase at all. (We have heard that Social Security recipients recently got some pittance, after a gap of some years without any). But, based upon this discussion, 2% raises and additional annual COLA would seem to be de rigueur in Milton Town budget thinking.
Which might go some ways at least towards explaining why Town budgets increase always faster than – usually double – the rate of inflation.
What might “our” representatives have to say? Doubtless something innovative, something bold.
Selectman Rawson: Yeah, I’m fine with that. It’s always been that way, since my tenure of being in town.
Creveling: If you look at the New England region, its been that for the last couple of years.
The Argumentum ad Populum fallacy. Your mother has an answer for that: If all the other Towns were jumping off a bridge, would you jump off too?
Thibeault: I’m alright with that. Erin, do you want …
Vice-Chairwoman Hutchings: That’s … that’s … I mean you’re just pulling it together to look at it, so …
It seems fairly obvious that once you tell the department heads to assume 3.7% raises, they are going to budget 3.7% raises and that will be what you will “look at” later. Then will come the unanimous approval of what they will have before them.
So, you see, they just lost the budget increase battle right there. Not much of a struggle to represent the taxpayers’ interests, was it?
Creveling: Right, right. By no means is it a final budget. It would just give people guidance on what to use.
One hears around town several variations of the old saw: If one does again what one always has done before, one might reasonably expect to get again what one has always gotten before. In our case, that would be budgets and taxes that rise at twice the rate of inflation.
Chairman Thibeault is fond of talking about “out of the box” solutions. One commenter suggested that we might replace the BOS with a simple computer “app” to be always just “fine with that.”
Magic BOS-Ball
I thought perhaps a Magic 8-Ball, which would at least give a negative answer one-quarter of the time. Each board member would give it a shake and read off their answer.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose [The more things change, the more they remain the same] – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
In this year, we encounter some cutters wanted at a shoe factory, another masked ball at the A.O.U.W. hall, some Arctic weather, the Milton & Lebanon Building Association founded, another table girl wanted, a wife wanted, a fireside quilt completed, puppies for sale, a suspicious death, and a smoke-filled room.
The N.B. Thayer & Company’s shoe factory was hiring.
MALE HELP WANTED. TAP CUTTER – Wanted, first-class tap cutter, Walker dies. N.B. THAYER & CO., Milton, N.H. SSu (Boston Globe, [Saturday,] January 3, 1904).
MALE HELP WANTED. CUTTERS – Wanted, 2 first-class outside cutters for box calf and vici. N.B. THAYER & CO., Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, [Sunday,] January 3, 1904).
One may note again the typesetter’s notation or code to themselves [SSu] concluding the first advertisement: this advertisement was to be printed in both the Saturday and Sunday editions. Remember too that the typesetters would be reading their own notation, as well as everything else, in reverse.
Here we have another masked ball at the A.O.U.W. [Ancient Order of United Workmen] hall in Milton, this one sponsored by the Milton dramatic club.
ANNUAL MASQUE BALL. Entertainment Given at Milton, N.H., by Dramatic Club of That Place. MILTON, N.H., Jan. 8. – The Milton dramatic club gave its second annual masked ball at A.O.U.W. hall tonight. There were 92 couples in the march, which was led by Mr. and Mrs. Fred S. Hartford. The ball officers were Fred S. Hartford, chief marshal; Samuel E. Drew, Frank S. Norton, aids; George A. Gilmore, George V. Paey, Samuel Swett, assistants. Among those present were:
Mr. John Hartigan, Mr. Charles Parker, Mr. Herbert Finnegan, Mr. W. Wentworth, Mr. & Mrs. E. Looney, Mr. Herbert Willey, Mr. Harry Page, Mr. William Elliott, Mr. Frank Burke, Mr. Fred Downs, Miss Alice Brock, Miss Annie Marcoux, Miss Annie Young, Miss Clara Hurd, Miss M. O’Loughlin, Miss Florence Dore, Mr. Frank Cassidy, Mr. Ernest Leighton, Miss Mary Varney, Miss Grace Pike, Miss Grace Stone,
Mrs. Piercy, Mr. & Mrs. C. Wingate, Mr. & Mrs. J. O’Loughlin, Mr. Frank Jones, Mr. Philip Irish, Mr. Walter Randall, Mr. James Howard, Mr. William Dore, Mr. & Mrs. Leslie Hayes, Mr. Scott Randall, Miss Effie Howard, Mr. & Mrs. J. Marcoux, Miss Blanche Tnfts, Mr. Charles Drew, Mr. & Mrs. Charles Page, Mr. Herbert Dow, Mr. Fred Emery, Mrs. John Daniels, Mr. & Mrs. Fred Horne, Miss Lizzie Stead, Miss Blanch Dore (Boston Globe, January 9, 1904).
This event may be compared with that held in the same hall by the Milton social club in 1899.
Milton may be considered to be in the northern part of the south, for weather reports affecting the seacoast, but also in the southern part of the north, for weather reports affecting the White Mountains.
ARCTIC N.H, SECTIONS. From 14 to 18 Below in Portsmouth – Conway Has It 46, West Ossipee 41 and Wolfboro 30. PORTSMOUTH. N.H., Jan 19. Today is the coldest of the present season in this city, the mercury this morning ranging from 14 to 18 degrees below zero, and all outdoor work is practically suspended. Reports from points along the northern division of the Boston & Maine railroad are as follows: Conway 46 degrees below, West Ossipee 41 degrees below, Union 35 degrees below, Wolfboro 30 degrees below, Milton 19 degrees below, Conway Junction 20 degrees below (Boston Globe, January 19, 1904).
In this case, Milton seems to have been comparatively lucky in experiencing weather more akin to the northern part of the south, while Arctic weather affected the White Mountains to its north so severely.
A number of prominent men founded the Milton & Lebanon Building Association.
Maine Corporations. AUGUSTA, Feb. 28 – The following companies filed articles of incorporation last week.
Milton & Lebanon Building Association, Lebanon. Capital – $10,000. Promoters, F.H. Thayer, Boston; Joseph H. Avery, B.B. Plummer, J. Gardner Alden, Milton; Ira W. Jones, Lebanon (Boston Globe, February 28, 1904).
The table girl sought here either replaces or supplements the one hired by the Milton Hotel in December of the previous year.
FEMALE HELP WANTED. WANTED – Experienced table girl, permanent position and good wages. Milton Hotel, Milton. N.H. (Boston Globe, March 13, 1904).
If one has a farm, but is not a farmer, one might want to hire a farm couple to run the place.
MALE HELP WANTED. WANTED – Couple on farm, to do general farm work, 3 miles from village; state wages wanted. Address E.L.S., Milton, N.H., Box 229 (Boston Globe, March 18, 1904).
There were no “state wages,” as minimum wages were still many years in the future and even then usually exempted farm labor. The advertiser E.L.S. meant simply that they would like applicants to declare or state what wages they would consider to take the job.
MATRIMONIAL. WIFE WANTED – A strictly temperate man of 85 wants a kind and loving wife. Address H.P. CURTIS, Box 69, Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, August 20, 1904).
“There may be snow on the rooftop, but there is fire in the furnace.”
Cyrus Frink Hart was born in Milton, June 3, 1821, son of John and Elizabeth (Nutter) Hart. He married in Milton, September 12, 1845, Mary Lydia “Lydia” Witham. She was born October 25, 1823.
Cyrus F. and Lydia M. (Witham) Hart had a farm at Milton Mills.
Cyrus F. Hart, a farmer, aged seventy-eight years (b. NH), headed a Milton (Milton Mills Village”) household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of sixty-four years), Lydia Hart, aged seventy-six years (b. NH). She was the mother of six children, of whom only one was still living. They owned their farm free-and-clear, without any mortgage. Their household appeared in the enumeration between those of Hiram Young, a farmer, aged forty-six years (b. ME), and Hiram Wentworth, a carpenter, aged fifty-six years (b. NH).
Cyrus F. Hart died in Milton Mills, July 27, 1902. Here we find his widow, Mrs. Lydia (Witham) Hart, having completed her fireside quilt, just in time for the winter of 1904-05.
Odd Items from Everywhere. Mrs. Lydia Hart, of Milton Mills, N.H., aged 82 years, has just completed what she calls a “Fireside quilt,” which she has pieced entirely with her own hands (Boston Globe, October 19, 1904).
Lydia (Witham) Hart died in Milton Mills, February 1, 1907.
Fred M. Chamberlain, proprietor of the Phoenix House hotel (next to depot), advertised a litter of puppies for sale.
DOGS, CATS, ETC. FOR SALE – 1 extra good rabbit dog, $25; others, not so good, for sale. Write F.M. CHAMBERLAIN, Phœnix house, Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, October 30, 1904).
Shove Shannon Symonds was born in Salem, MA, September 19, 1848, son of Jonathan S. and Elizabeth G. (Nichols) Symonds.
Shove S. Symonds, a painter, aged fifty-two years (b. MA), headed a Salem, MA, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife, M. Estelle Symonds, aged thirty-seven years (b. MA). He owned the two-family dwelling at 113 North Street, which they shared with the household of George Spence, a machinist, aged fifty years (b. ME).
S.S. Symonds appeared at the Milton A.O.U.W. “smoke talk” as a visiting speaker from the A.O.U.W. Massachusetts Grand Lodge’s Committee on Laws.
ANCIENT ORDER OF UNITED WORKMEN. Strafford lodge of Milton, N.H. will have a smoke talk Tuesday evening. S.S. Symonds of the law committee will be the speaker (Boston Globe, November 27, 1904).
Shove S. Symonds was still a member of A.O.U.W. Committee on Laws in 1920. He died in Salem, MA, in 1928.
Here we learn of the suspicious death in Rochester, NH, of Herman C. Dyer of Milton.
Charles Dyer, a farmer, aged fifty-seven years (b. ME), headed a Milton household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of thirty-two years), Martha A. [(Drew)] Dyer, aged fifty-six years (b. NH), and his children, Herman C. Dyer, a paper mill operative, aged thirty-one years (b. NH), Annie M. [(Dyer)] Bailey, a shoe shop vamper, aged twenty-nine years, Benjamin Dyer, a farm laborer, aged twenty-six years (b. NH), Hattie M. Dyer, a button-hole finisher, aged twenty-four years (b. NH), and [her twin], Nettie M. Dyer, runs button-hole machine, aged twenty-four years (b. NH). Their farm appeared in the enumeration between the households of Charles A. Ricker, a farmer, aged forty-five years (b. NH), and Kimball S. Goodall, a farmer, aged sixty-eight years (b. NH).
THINK MAN, NOT TRAIN, KILLED HIM. Richard Farrell Arrested on Suspicion of Concern in Dyer’s Death. ROCHESTER. N.H., Dec. 4. – As the result of an investigation of the death of Herman C. Dyer, whose body was found shortly after 6 last night – between the rails of the northern division of the Boston & Maine about halfway between the Portland-st and Winter-st crossings. Richard Farrell is under arrest on suspicion of being concerned in Dyer’s death.
Halfway Between the Portland-st. and Winter-st. Crossings
The investigation is being conducted by the medical referee, Dr. John H. Neal, who today made an autopsy on the body with Drs. M.B. Sullivan and Harry O. Cbesley of Dover. It was thought at first that Dyer was struck and killed by either the 5:55 train or the 6:08 train, both southbound, but after the body had been examined, indications of possible violence were discovered.
The body had been found in the track by Harry Hoyt, who stumbled over it in the darkness. A careful examination of the spot where the body lay, which was about 300 yards from the station, showed that the body had been dragged to the middle of the track from outside the rail. A pool of blood partly inside and partly outside the rail was found about 20 feet away. The body rested face up on ties at a switch, which are higher than those near it. The fact that the injury was on the back of the head, instead of the face, is considered a suspicious circumstance. The place is a dark one, some distance from the electric lights.
There were two Harry Hoyts in Rochester: one aged nineteen years and the other aged seventeen years.
Later in the night the police were notified by R.M. Perkins, who lives nearest the place where the body lay, that he heard a pistol shot a little after 6 in the direction of the railroad.
Ironically, R.M. Perkins was a manufacturer and dealer of marble monuments and headstones. His shop stood opposite the G.F. & C.R.R. [Great Falls & Conway Railroad] station in Rochester. His house was at 15 Heaton street.
Meantime it had been learned that Dyer had been in company during the day with Farrell, that they had visited several saloons together and had also driven in a livery team to a roadhouse on the Farmington road. It was reported that Dyer had a considerable sum of money with him. When his clothing was searched only 46 cents was found.
Farrell was arrested in Central sq., about 12:30 by Asst. City Marshal Albert F. Wilkinson and locked up. He was told that he was suspected of murdering Dyer, but he denied all knowledge of the alleged crime. He admitted having been with Dyer during the day. The charge against Farrell will depend upon the nature of the report Medical Referee Neal will make tomorrow forenoon to County Solicitor Scott of Dover.
Dr. Neal declined to make a statement tonight as to the result of the autopsy, as Solicitor Scott had requested that the details be withheld until tomorrow. Dr. Neal would neither confirm nor deny the report that a bullet had been extracted from Dyer’s head nor say whether the discolorations found on the side of the head last night, and supposed to be coal dust or sand, were powder marks. The absence of a large portion of Dyer’s skull, extending from the base of the brain to near the top of the head, is expected to bear out the theory that he was shot at close range or was clubbed to death.
The officials are now confident that Dyer could not have been hit by any train. It is learned that he was seen in the vicinity walking along the track after the 6:08 train had gone, and his body was found and removed before the 6:34 north-bound train arrived from Somersworth.
Mrs. Charles Dyer, the dead man’s mother, was seen at her home in Milton today. She said that Charles Chesley, a Milton man, informed her today that he went to Rochester last night, arriving there on the 6:08 train, and that he saw her son near the Portland-st crossing and spoke to him. She did not learn from Chesley whether another man was with Dyer. Mrs. Dyer said that her son left Milton for Rochester Saturday morning at 8:30. She asked him when he would return.
Charles Chesley, a farm laborer, aged twenty-eight years (b. NH), had resided in the Milton household of his uncle, Laraila [?] Chesley, a farmer, aged eighty years (b. NH), at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census.
“You’ll see me when I come back,” he said, an answer he was wont to give, his mother stated. As to the amount of money Dyer had when he left, Mrs. Dyer said that before going he paid her the board money he owed her, and that he had more than $19 beside. She thought he must have had about that sum on leaving town.
Dyer had been employed at the Milton leather-board mill 19 years. He was accustomed to take liquor occasionally, but has borne a good reputation. He was 35 years old. He is survived by his parents and three sisters, Mrs. Nettie Ellis and Mrs. Jacob Legro of Milton, and Mrs. Annie Bailey or Boston. The family is grief-stricken over the tragedy.
The Milton Leather-board company established itself in Milton around 1885. Dyer would have been one of its earlier employees. (He was an “operator,” i.e., he operated a machine). Its mill in Milton had burned down in January 1902, but had been rebuilt rather quickly.
Farrell is 30 years old. He came to this city from Lowell five years ago. He has no regular occupation, except that he is often employed as a piano player at road houses. Farrell was taken to the office of City Solicitor Felker today and closely questioned by Solicitor Felker and City Marshall Allen. Later he was questioned by County Solicitor Scott, who was present also at the autopsy (Boston Globe, December 5, 1904).
Farrell’s arrest for “a suspicion of a concern” seems rather slim in terms of “probable cause.” He has not left much in the way of a documentary record in either Lowell, MA, or Rochester, NH. Perhaps that is part and parcel of being a piano player in a succession of roadhouses.
FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED. Rochester, N.H., Dec. 5. Because the body of Herman C. Dyer of Milton, N.H., which was found on the tracks of the Boston and Maine railroad Saturday evening, showed little of the usual mutilation attending a railroad fatality, the police arrested Richard Farrell of Lowell, Mass, by occupation a musician, on suspicion of being concerned in Dyer’s death. An autopsy was held, the result of which the authorities would not disclose (Fitchburg Sentinel (Fitchburg, MA), December 5, 1904).
KILLED BY FALL. Belief Now Held in the Dyer Case at Rochester – Charges Against Farrell Likely to be Dropped. DOVER, N.H., Dec. 7. – County Solicitor Scott was asked today what effect the story of Mrs. Guptill and Miss Ellis of Somersworth, concerning the man whom they saw board the down train from Rochester, last Saturday evening, and jump off after it had got well under way, and who is thought to have been Herman C. Dyer, would have upon the murder charge against Richard Farrell. Mr. Scott replied: “That will probably be the end of it. A hearing will be held at 2 o’clock this afternoon at Rochester, when the state’s charge against Farrell will probably be dropped. There is now practically no doubt that Dyer was killed by falling off the train” (Boston Globe, December 7, 1904).
The Rochester Town Clerk, H.L. Worcester, recorded Dyer’s December 3rd death in Rochester, NH, somewhat belatedly, on December 31, 1904, as informed by [Dr.] John H. Neal, medical referee. The cause of death given was “Accident on Rail Road.” For the duration of the illness, usually more relevant for some ailment or disease, Neal laconically answered “Short.”
“They afterwards took me to a dancing saloon [in Leadville, CO,] where I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across. Over the piano was printed a notice: PLEASE DO NOT SHOOT THE PIANIST. HE IS DOING HIS BEST. The mortality among pianists in that place is marvelous.” – Oscar Wilde, Impressions of America
In this year, we encounter a bank embezzler, an escape artist, and a table girl wanted at the Milton Hotel.
Albert Orlando Mathes was born in Milton, in July 1842, son of Robert and Mary S. (Moulton) Mathes. He married in Woburn, MA, December 15, 1880, Mary J. Drew, he of Dover, NH, and she of Woburn. He was a bank teller.
Albert O. Mathes, a bank clerk, aged fifty-seven years (b. NH), headed a Dover, NH, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of nineteen years), Mary J. Mathes, aged fifty-two years (b. MA), and his daughter Lura J. Mathes, at school, aged fifteen years (b. NH). They resided at 56 Silver Street in Dover. His mother-in-law, Mary Y. Drew, a widow, aged seventy-six years (b. NH), and her daughter [his sister-in-law], Harriet W. Drew, also a bank clerk, aged forty-six years (b. MA), resided next door at 58 Silver Street.
Albert O. Mathes, of Dover, NH, featured in Milton’s Centennial, August 30, 1902, in presenting a memorial clock (for the steeple of the Congregational church), as well as arranging for a display of historical artifacts.
CASHIER MATHES INJURED. Dover Banker Fell Between the Cars at Milton. Albert O. Mathes, cashier of the Strafford Savings bank of Dover and will known in this city, fell between the cars at Milton, while getting off the train, at noon on Thursday. One of his legs was so badly crushed it is believed it will be necessary to amputate the member below the knee. Mr. Mathes has been ill for the last week and is subject to dizzy spells. It is thought that he had one of these spells and lost his balance while alighting from the moving train (Portsmouth Herald, May 1, 1903).
ADMITS WRONG-DOING. Treasurer of Strafford Savings Bank a Defaulter. FIRST TOOK CASH IN 1890. Became Involved In Speculation and Had Never Been Successful – Used Money of Personal Friends and Covered Up Shortage For Years. Dover, N.H., June 1. The bank commissioners of New Hampshire announced that Albert O. Mathes, for 35 years treasurer of the Strafford Five Cents Savings bank of this city, is a defaulter to the amount of $15,452.43. The officials of the bank have placed the facts in the hands of Attorney General Eastman. Mathes has an accident insurance policy for $7500 which he has turned over to the bank, and has real estate valued at $8000 in this city, which will also be placed at the bank’s disposal. In addition he was under $50,000 bonds furnished by a Baltimore guaranty company. Mathes, who had been in ill health, went to Milton, N.H., on April 29, where his mother resided, and met with an accident, having his leg cut off by falling under a train. President Brown of the bank first had his attention called to the irregularities when complaints began to come in from depositors that they had more money on deposit in the bank than their passbooks gave them credit for. Mr. Brown went to Milton and asked the treasurer about these discrepancies, and the latter admitted to him that he had taken in all $15,400, which was just the amount that was revealed by a more thorough examination of the depositors’ passbooks. Mathes said he first began to take the money in 1890. About that time a friend gave him $1000 with which to speculate, the profits to be shared jointly. He speculated with it and lost, and in order to make good his losses he took money from the deposits of personal friends who had deposited money in the bank and had left their passbooks with him for safe keeping. For two years, he said, he had continued to speculate, and he had never been successful in his ventures. For the past eight years, however, he said be had not speculated at all, but had simply tried to keep his shortage covered up. Notices were sent out to depositors on April 1 to bring in their books for verification and the officials made their examination on April 28, the day before Mathes started for Milton. The Strafford Savings bank is the fifth in Dover in which a defalcation has occurred within a dozen years, the Dover National and the Dover Five Cents Savings bank having failed about 11 years ago through the peculations of Isaac Abbott, the cashier and treasurer. Abbott burned his books and committed suicide on his wife’s grave. By the defalcation of Harry Hough of the Cocheco National and Cocheco Savings banks, who is now in prison, those institutions were wrecked four years ago (North Adams Transcript, June 1, 1903).
OPEN AS USUAL. The Strafford Savings bank of Dover opened its doors as usual on Monday morning at nine o’clock, for all the world as if its treasurer, Albert O. Mathes, were not charged with defalcation of the institution’s funds to the amount of over $15,000. Every official was at his post, and business was transacted without the slightest hitch. There has been no run on the bank by the depositors, nor any indication that they or the public in general have lost confidence in the least in the institution (Portsmouth Herald, June 2, 1903).
HELD IN $6000 BAIL. – Albert O. Mathes Charged with Embezzling $10,000 from Savings Bank at Dover, N.H. DOVER, N.H., July 20. – Albert O. Mathes, ex-treasurer of the Stafford savings bank, came down from Milton this morning and was placed under arrest at the police station on the charge of embezzlement of $10,000 of the funds of the bank. Immediately after voluntarily giving himself up he was arraigned before Judge Frost in the police court. Last Wednesday the alleged defaulting treasurer wrote to County Solicitor Scott that he was ready to be arrested, and asked when it would be convenient to have the arraignment. He desired to come to Dover and have the papers served on him here. Col. Scott designated Monday morning at 9 as the most convenient time, and requested him to come then. Mr. Mathes accordingly came from Milton today on the first train. He was met by his counsel, Hon. John Kivel, and they proceeded to the police station, where Sheriff George W. Parker served the warrant. The ex-treasurer appeared much emaciated, but his strength has been steadily increasing since the accident at Milton last spring, which cost him his leg. He now gets about readily on crutches. At the arraignment counsel Kivel waived the reading of the warrant, but did not enter a plea in the case, as his client desired to do that. Mr. Mathes, upon the advice of his counsel, decided to plead not guilty, in order that the respondent might derive the advantage of such a plea in case any defect should be found in the expected indictment. The court held Mathes for appearance before the September term of the superior court, and fixed his bail at $6000, which was immediately furnished. The bondsmen are John T.W. Ham of this city and Amos M. Roberts of Milton. Solicitor Scott stated after the arraignment that he believed it to be Mathes’ intention to plead guilty before the superior court, when the case comes up for final disposal. He based his opinion on Mathes’ declaration before the police court that he desired to plead guilty. Mr. Mathes returned on the 10:40 train to Milton, where he is staying at his mother’s home. Mathes’ expressed intention to plead guilty is not surprising, in view of the fact that he made a clean breast of his wrong-doings before Pres. Brown and other officers of the bank. Although Mathes had never been placed under arrest formally, it has been known for some time that a warrant for his detention on the charge or embezzlement was in the possession or the county solicitor. The paper was issued by the court shortly after the examination of the books of the Strafford bank disclosed a large defalcation. Suspicion was at once attached to Mathes, and soon afterward the severance of the relations of Mathes as treasurer of the bank was announced. The reason the government did not arrest the bank treasurer was that he met with an accident at Milton. as a result of which he had been confined indoors until today, when the doctor permitted him to come to Dover for the court proceedings (Boston Globe, July 20, 1903).
Mathes’ Shortage Made Good. DOVER. N.H., Aug. 4 – The Strafford savings bank of this city has received payment in full from the fidelity concern which furnished bonds for Albert O. Mathes, the former cashier, now under arrest. The shortage was about $12,000 (Boston Globe, August 4, 1903).
GOES TO PRISON. Albert O. Mathes Pleads Guilty in Dover. Embezzled $10,000 From the Strafford Savings Bank. Sentenced to Two or Three Years at Hard Labor and Costs. DOVER, N.H., Oct. 22. – The arraignment of Albert O. Mathes. ex-treasurer of the Strafford savings bank of this city, indicted at the September term of the superior court for the alleged embezzlement of $10,000 of the bank’s funds, May 1, 1903, took place at 9:30 this morning in the superior court. The ex-official came down from his mother’s home at Milton on the 8:30 train, and walked on crutches to the courthouse. where he was met by hits counsel, Hon. J.S.H. Frink of Portsmouth, and Hon. John Kivel of this city. Half an hour later he walked into the courtroom, appearing remarkably cool and well prepared for the ordeal, although somewhat pale and emaciated. Before the arraignment a 20-minute conference was held in the judge’s private room between Judge Stone, Atty. Gen. Eastman, County Solicitor Scott and Mathes’ counsel. Attorney Frink waived the reading of the indictment. Mathes’ plea was then called for by the clerk. Rising from his seat, Mathes replied. “I am guilty.” Mr. Frink then addressed the court at length in an argument for a mild sentence on the ground of extenuating circumstances. Atty. Gen. Eastman said that while his sympathies were touched by the appeal of the respondent’s counsel, he, as a representative of the people, must do his duty toward securing the ends of justice, and should ask for a reasonably long sentence. Judge Stone then sentenced Mathes to not more than three years nor less than two at hard labor in the state prison and to pay the costs of prosecution. Mathes received the sentence with emotion. The maximum penalty in this state for a crime of this nature is five years. A mittimus was immediately prepared and the ex-treasurer was taken to Concord by Sheriff Parker on the 19:40 train. This was done in order that Mathes might begin serving his sentence today. No member of Mathes family was present at the arraignment. The farewells were said at his mother’s home at Milton this morning (Boston Globe, October 23, 1903).
Mrs. Albert O. Mathes had her house at 58 Silver Street in the Dover directory of 1905. Lura Mathes, an employee at C.M. Co. [Cocheco Manufacturing Company], boarded there with her.
Albert O. Mathes was released from the state prison in Concord, NH, October 21, 1905. (He served two years). He died in Dover, NH, July 20, 1907.
John Ray married in Sanford, ME, May 17, 1902, Cassendania B. “Cassie” McDaniels, both of Sanford. He was born in Liverpool, England, circa 1878-79, son of John and Mabel (Pickett) Ray, and she in East Wakefield, NH, March 27, 1882, daughter of Samuel L. and Mary E. (Sanborn) McDaniels. Ray was a sailor.
John Ray Goes to Jail. SANFORD, Me., July 28 – John Ray, known as “Sailor Jack,” who escaped from officer Tibbetts last Thursday after having been sentenced in the municipal court to pay $3 and costs or serve 30 days in jail for intoxication, was recaptured by Tibbetts at Milton Mills last night. Ray was committed to jail this morning to serve the sentence for intoxication (Boston Globe, July 29, 1903).
One might not be too terribly surprised to find that Cassie divorced Sailor Jack. She married (2nd) in Boston, MA, July 21, 1906, Hubert E. Reish, she a mill operative, of Portsmouth, NH, aged twenty-four years, and he a blacksmith, of Indianapolis, IN, aged twenty-two years.
Mary E. McDaniels, a shoe shop trimmer, aged forty-four years (b. ME), headed an Acton, ME, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. Her household included her children, Cassendania Reish, aged twenty-eight years (b. NH), Sewall McDaniels, a farmer (working out), aged nineteen years (b. ME), Curtis H. McDaniels, a worsted mill laborer, aged seventeen years (b. ME), and Luella McDaniels, a shoe shop cementer, aged thirteen years (b. ME).
Cassie B. Reish died in Wolfeboro, NH, September 16, 1915, aged thirty-three years. She had resided there for one year, having previously resided in Boston.
FEMALE HELP WANTED. TABLE GIRL. Wanted, experienced table girl – permanent position and good wages, Milton hotel. Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, December 27, 1903).
Whoever this table girl might have been, she would have served, among many others, May Bogan and her daughter Louise, the future poet laureate.
In this year, the busy first of Milton’s second century, we encounter another mill fire, a Milton farm for sale, a machinist wanted, Mr. Dearborn’s runaway horse, a photographer wanted, the death of the Hon. Charles H. Looney, a sales opportunity, an ice house fire, Mrs. Pinfold’s poetry, the Exeter death of a Milton native, the unsinkable Mrs. Dobbyn, the Milton centennial (plus one) celebration, a Milton hotel for sale, and the Socialist gubernatorial candidate who was educated in Milton Mills.
This was the year in which Milton’s Centennial was celebrated, on Saturday, August 30, 1902. By the same logic as that used for the transition from the nineteenth century (1801-1900) to the twentieth (1901-2000), this would have been actually in the first year of Milton’s second century (1902-2001), rather than its centennial year (which was the year before: 1802-1901)).
Schoolboy T.C. Wentworth of Milton Mills posed his geometry problem in March.
The Milton Leather-Board Company mill had been in operation from at least 1885. The company was based in Boston, MA. Frank E. Norton was its superintendent, and had been since 1893.
In the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census, thirty-one Milton residents identified themselves as leatherboard mill employees: Durel Berry, a worker; George W. Berryman, a hand; Onesime Blouin, an operative; Peter Boucher, a beater; Edwin A. Burke, a wetter; Herbert Colson; Ernest F. Dickson, an operative; William Dickson, an operative; William A. Dickson, an operative; Henry Dugnette, a beater; Herbert A. Duntley, a dryer; Herman Dyer, an operator; George S. Earl, a stripper; Arthur G. Ellis, a hand; Clymer G. Goodwin, a worker; Charles Ham; Frank Kenney, a molder; Algernon Kendall, a molder; Jason Kendall; Herbert Kenney, a hand; Lizzie Kingston, an operative; William McAllister, a hand; L. Marshall, a beater; Frank E. Norton, superintendent; Thomas Plummer, a hand; Lillian Pugsley, a skiver; George W. Rand, Jerome Reagan, an operative, John Sullivan, a dryer; John Thyng, an operative; Pearl Thyng, an operative. Hiram S. Cate was a retired leatherboard hand.
ONE MAN BADLY BURNED. Milton, N.H., Leather Board Mills Destroyed by Fire. Loss Between $55.000 and $60,000. MILTON. N.H., Jan. 8. – The Milton leather board mills here, were burned early today, causing a loss between $55,000 and $60,000. One man was badly burned. The fire started from an overheated pulley. As the result 75 men are thrown out of employment. The mill and yards cover over two acres. A large quantity of lumber was piled upon the premises and was destroyed. The steam plant of the mill had recently been fitted up with an additional new engine, and steam apparatus at a cost of $30,000. The factory has been running night and day for some time past (Boston Globe, January 8, 1902).
Construction of a new mill on the same site began very soon after the fire.
Here we find a Milton farm for sale by its “city owner,” who had evidently put a lot of money into it.
City Owner Expended $40,000 – Is unencumbered, offered for $12,000, and will please you if you are looking for a first class farm beautifully situated 1 1-2 miles from station in Milton, N.H., 87 miles from Boston; 250 acres cuts 100 tons hay; keeps 22 cows and 6 horses and sell hay; milk sold at wholesale; 100 apple trees; other fruit; trout brook; 2-story house, 13 high rooms and L; open fireplaces; piazzas; nice lawn and shade trees; fine new barn, 100×40 clapboarded and painted; cellar; old barn, 80×30, cellar, carriage house 40×40, with storeroom above; 3 poultry houses with yards, icehouse, etc., all in good repair. Apply to CHAPIN’S FARM AGENCY, 1 Herald Bldg., Boston (New England Farmer, January 11, 1902).
But note how that selling city owner offers the house for what the market will bear and has not been sidetracked into any “sunk cost fallacies.”
The Milton company desiring a first-class machinist was not specified.
MALE HELP WANTED. WANTED – Machinist of first-class ability, to go to Milton, N.H.; steady situation will be given to a reliable man capable of taking charge; positively no drunkards. D 11, Globe office (Boston Globe, January 24, 1902).
Note that the market solution to drunkenness did not require prohibition: just do not hire drunkards. They are not reliable.
RECORD RUNAWAY. Gelding, Owned by Dover, N.H., Man, Unhurt After Run of 22 or 25 Miles. DOVER, N.H., March 2. The runaway record for this section was probably beaten last evening by the phenomenal run of Thomas H. Dearborn’s fast pacing gelding, which, while hitched to a light buggy, started from Mr. Dearborn’s residence on Silver st. and was not stopped or captured until it reached a point four miles above Milton. It was a run of from 22 to 25 miles. The frightened gelding tore down through Central av. and the business section at a clip that startled the hundreds of people on the street at the time. No one dared to stop it. It passed through Central sq., crossed the bridge and turned into 2d st., passing several teams without a mishap. From 2d st. it made its way to 6th st. and struck the Rochester road. The horse left the wrecked buggy between three and four miles beyond East Rochester. It was caught by a Milton resident near Milton Mills. Mr. Dearborn learned of the capture this morning and recovered the animal, which was found to be unhurt (Boston Globe, March 3, 1902).
Thomas H. Dearborn resided at 120 Silver Street in Dover. He was a partner, with Frank N. French, in Thomas H. Dearborn & Company, which was a dry goods and kitchenware store at 452-54 Central Avenue in Dover.
He received an appointment as Dover’s postmaster, May 8, 1928, a position he held until his death in Dover, December 30, 1932.
J.E. Townsend and J.S. Elkins appeared, separately, as photographers in the Milton business directories of 1901 and 1904.
MALE HELP WANTED. – MAN who understands photograph and ferrotype business. Address Lock Box 160, Milton Mills, N.H. (Boston Globe, March 23, 1902).
John E. Townsend was a son of mill owner Henry H. Townsend. He was superintendent of his father’s mill. Dr. Jeremiah S. Elkins was a Farmington physician. Neither man seems to have been primarily a photographer, which perhaps explains why one, or the other, or even someone else altogether, might advertise for a “man who understands the photograph and ferrotype business.” (A ferrotype is a type of tintype photograph).
Here we bid farewell to the Hon. Charles H. Looney, who was Milton’s former Postmaster, former town official, former NH State Representative, former NH State Senator, and, at the time of his death, Deputy Collector of Customs in Portsmouth, NH.
HON. CHARLES H. LOONEY. Deputy Collector of This Port Dies at His Home in Milton. Word was received here at 10:30 o’clock this Wednesday morning of the death at his home in Milton early in the morning hours of Hon. Charles H. Looney, deputy collector of customs of this port. Deceased suffered an apoplectic stroke Tuesday afternoon and from the first there was no hope for the sufferer. He lingered until 12:30 this Wednesday morning when he breathed his last. Hon. Charles H. Looney was horn Milton in 1849. He was educated in the public schools of his own town and at Berwick academy. After graduation he entered into business and was successful for a number of years. He drifted into politics and after holding all town offices of trust was made postmaster. In the years 1885-86 he represented his town in the legislature and the two following years he put in as state senator. He was appointed inspector of customs in 1890 and in 1892 was promoted to Deputy Collector which office he held until November, 1894. Again in 1898 he was appointed Collector and held the same at the time of his death. Deceased leaves a wife and four grown-up sons on whom the sudden blow falls with almost crushing force. He was a man of essentially home qualities and was bound up in the four sons in whom he took great pride. He was a member of the Congregational church and also a Free Mason. The funeral will be held Saturday afternoon at two o’clock in Milton and the collector’s office in this city will undoubtedly be closed that afternoon in order that the collector and inspectors may attend the obsequies (Portsmouth Herald, April 23, 1902).
Customs was a much more important Federal revenue stream prior to passage of the Income Tax in 1911. His son, Walter E. Looney, succeeded him as Deputy Collector of Customs. Another son, Robert M. Looney, was Principal of the Milton Grammar School.
The M.F. Perfume company sought sales agents for its perfumes and flavorings. The agents would receive a 50% cut.
AGENTS, PARTNERS, ETC. AGENTS wanted for perfumes and flavorings, 50 percent. M.F. Perfume Co., Box 160, Milton. N.H. (Boston Globe, May 4, 1902).
The “M.F.” of “M.F. Perfume Company” stood for Martha Francis. Martha Francis was a St. Louis, MO, individual who sold a recipe for making perfumes and a method for selling the product.
A Chance to Make Money. I have been selling Perfumes for the past 6 months. I make them myself at home and sell to friends and neighbors. Have made $710. Everyone buys a bottle. For 50¢ worth of material I make Perfume that cost $2.00 in drug stores. I first made it for my own use only, but the curiosity of friends as to where I procured such exquisite odors prompted me to sell it. I clear from $25.00 to $35.00 per week. I do not canvas, people come and send to me for the perfumes. Any intelligent person can do as well as I do. For 42¢ in stamps I send you the formula for making all kinds of perfumes and a sample bottle prepaid. I also help you get started in the business. MARTHA FRANCIS, 3453 Laclede Avenue, St. Louis, Mo. (Christian Nation, 1900).
Someone at P.O. Box 160 in Milton decided evidently to give it a try. After a time, Martha Francis began selling completed products for distribution, rather than ingredients for the clients to complete themselves. Her advertisements ran through in papers throughout the country through at least 1914.
Another serious fire came in May, this time through a lightning strike on an ice house. Milton’s Ice Industry experienced ice house fires in at least the years 1902, 1909, 1927, 1931, and 1944.
LOSS $50,000. Lightning Strikes Houses of Boston Ice Company at Milton, N.H. – 12 Burned. DORCHESTER. N.H., May 25. – Lightning struck the ice houses of the Boston Ice company at Milton last night, and 12, six of which were filled with ice. were burned. The loss is placed at $50,000 fully insured (Boston Globe, May 26, 1902).
The Boston Ice company’s ice houses were located at modern Utah Way (Foster’s Daily Democrat, 2014)
Annie Elisabeth Lewis was born in Windsor, England, in December 1868, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Jones) Pinfold. She emigrated to the United States with her parents in 1875.
John Lewis, a book-keeper, aged thirty-seven years (b. England), headed a Milton (“Milton Mills Village”) household at the time of the Tenth (1880) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Elisabeth Lewis, keeping house, aged thirty-seven years (b. England), and his children, John W. Lewis, works in store, aged thirteen years (b. England), Annie E. Lewis, at home, aged eleven years (b. England), Edwin J. Lewis, at home, aged nine years (b. England), Amy J. Lewis, at home, aged seven years (b. England), Alice S. Lewis, at home, aged five years (b. England), and Alfred W. Lewis, at home, aged one year (b. ME). Their household appeared in the enumeration between the household of Luther B. Roberts, a storekeeper, aged thirty-four years (b. ME), and that of Charles J. Berry, a clerk in a store, aged forty-three years (b. NH).
She married, circa 1885-86, William Pinfold. He was born in Reading, Berkshire, England, April 27, 1864, son of Joseph and Lucy E. (Lewis) Pinfold. He emigrated to the United States in 1881.
Annie Lewis Pinfold
William Pinfold, a mill hand, aged thirty-five years (b. England), headed an Acton, ME, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of fourteen years), Annie Pinfold, aged thirty-one years (b. England), and his children, Lucy E. Pinfold, aged thirteen years (b. England), Ellen L. Pinfold, aged eleven years (b. ME), Amey E. Pinfold, aged eight years (b. ME), Edwin J. Pinfold, aged seven years (b. ME), and William J. Pinfold, aged six years (b. ME). Annie was the mother of ten children, of whom five were still living.
Annie L. Pinfold was born in Windsor, England in 1870 [SIC]. She later lived in a small town near the border of Maine and New Hampshire. She started writing short stories for Sunday school publications but then started writing hymns (Shapiro, 1916).
William Pinfold appeared in the Milton section of the Dover directory of 1902 as an employee of the W. [Waumbeck] mill, resident at 36 Lebanon road, Acton s., Milton Mills.
Annie E. (Lewis) Pinfold of Milton Mills sent the following poems to the Boston Globe in 1902. (She was then aged thirty-three years). (See References for some other works, including hymn lyrics, short stories, and a novella).
A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION.
Said the big pussy cat to the little pussy cat, “Pray why are you never still? With your gambols and raps you disturb my naps. Till I fear you will make me ill.”
Said the little pussy cat to the big pussy cat, “Pray, why do you never play? If you knew the delight of a romp or a fight, You would never sleep all the day.”
Said the big pussy cat to the little pussy cat, “I once was a kitten like you; But to squander my days in such foolish ways Was a thing I never did do.”
Said the little pussy cat to the big pussy cat, “Then you were a fine young dunce; I say frolic and play thro’ the livelong day, For we can’t be kittens but once.”
Annie Lewis Pinfold, Milton Mills, N.H. (Boston Globe, July 10, 1902).
ME AN’ THE PUPPIES AN’ PETE
No; course we’re not lonesome out here by ourselfs, When the rest of the children’s at school, An’ mama is busy an’ says, “Run an’ play Outdoors where it’s shady and cool;” There’s a swing an’ a hammock an’ nice cubby-house – It’s the boo-ful-est yard on our street. An’ we have jest the best times together all day, Me an’ the puppies an’ Pete.
It’s fine hide-an’-seek in the tall grass an’ weeds They bark ‘stead of hollerin’ “Tag!” My! You’d laugh if you saw how they pull when they play “Tug-o’-war” with an old piece of rag. Sometimes they steal Pete an’ run off to the barn Guess they ‘magine he’s something to eat Then I chase ’em, bad dogs, an’ we have a big fight, Me an’ the puppies an’ Pete.
When we’re tired and hungry an’ all out of breath, “Please, a cookie!” we beg at the door. My mama, she knows that they all ‘spect a bite, Most always brings out three or four. Then we sit on the steps while we eat ’em an’ rest An’ get ready to run out an’ meet The childrens an’ papa when dinner time comes, Me an’ the puppies an’ Pete.
Annie Lewis Pinfold (Boston Globe, June 22, 1902).
William Pinfold died in Acton, ME, October 28, 1920. Annie E. (Lewis) Pinfold died in Gonic, Rochester, NH, October 24, 1921.
Here we learn of the death of another Milton native, this time in Exeter. Milton elected him Town Moderator, circa 1844, and sent him to Concord as state representative for the 1853-54 biennium.
He too may have been a Milton district school teacher for a time, perhaps in the 1840s, as he began his career as a teacher while still resident in Milton, and taught school in “various towns.” (Milton was not specifically identified as one of them).
HON. JOHN D. LYMAN DEAD. Was Prominent Citizen of Exeter, N.H., and Secretary of State from 1867 to 1870. EXETER, N.H., July 31 – Hon. John D. Lyman, one of Exeter’s most prominent citizens. and well known throughout the state, died this morning at 1 o’clock. Though until quite recently in apparent vigorous health, he had long suffered from an organic trouble, and a fall a few weeks ago, while ascending a stairway at his home, hastened the end.
Hon. John Dearborn Lyman was born in Milton, N.H., July 3, 1823.
He was brought up on a farm and was educated in the public schools and at Gilmanton academy.
He began business life when a young man as a teacher. He taught school in various towns in this state. and for quite a long time was a teacher in Dover.
At an early age Mr. Lyman took an active interest in politics in his native town, so much so that when only 21 years of age he was elected moderator of the annual town meeting.
In 1853 and 1854 he represented his [Milton] town in the legislature.
About 1860 he moved to Farmington, where he was cashier of the bank, and while living there in 1867 he was for three years secretary of the state under Gov. Harriman. He was also state. senator and represented the town of Farmington In the lower house.
He was appointed bank commissioner, and during his service as such was the first man to learn by test the actual amount of savings bank deposits, and was the author of the law requiring savings banks to lay aside a guaranty fund.
While commissioner. he was instrumental in detecting the big defalcation of Ellery Albee, treasurer of the savings bank at Winchester, and had him brought to justice.
In 1868 Mr. Lyman became a resident of this [Exeter] town, which he served faithfully and constantly in various capacities.
He was sent as a representative from this town to the state legislature in 1874-1875 and again in 1890-1891. He was a member of the constitutional convention in 1889 and was returned to the general court in 1893 as a member of the senate.
He married Miss Laura Cass of Alexander, who survives him as does one son, John S. Lyman. who is engaged in business in New York city.
He also left two daughters, Mrs. Minnie Hitchings, wife of Hector M. Hitchings of New York, and Mrs. Annie Warren, wife of Prof. Henry P. Warren, principal of the academy in Albany (Boston Globe, July 31, 1902).
Here we meet an intrepid rusticator, Mrs. Dobbyn, who proved herself to be the right woman in the right place at the right time. Brava!, Mrs. Dobbyn.
SAVED A GIRL FROM DROWNING. Heroic Act of Mrs. Mary E. Dobbyn of Charlestown At Milton N.H. Mrs. Mary E. Dobbyn, wife of Sergt. John F. Dobbyn of [Boston police] division 2, was the means of saving the life of a young woman Wednesday, and is now the heroine of the New Hampshire town of Milton where the incident took place. Mrs. Dobbyn and her husband and three boys have been spending their vacation in Milton, where a number of others from Boston and vicinity have also been stopping. Mrs. Dobbyn in her younger days, when she was Miss Counihan, was accustomed like all young people of Charlestown neck, where she lived, to go the beach near the Alford-st. bridge to bathe. Here she became so accustomed to the water, and to caring for herself and others, in it, and was noted as one of the most expert swimmers among the young girls. To this knowledge and ability, gained in her youth. a Cambridge young woman owes today the fact that she is alive. The young woman with two of her friends went to bathe in the lake at Milton. None of the party knew how to swim. One of them got beyond her depth, and the others, unable to help her themselves, screamed for assistance. Mrs. Dobbyn happened to be passing and heard the screams. She ran to the lake side, and from her knowledge of such scenes grasped the situation at once. The drowning girl was struggling to keep her head above the water. Her strength was exhausted and she was fast losing power even to struggle. There was not an instant to he lost, and without waiting to remove any of her garments, Mrs. Dobbyn plunged in and swam to the girl, who had sunk exhausted under the surface. She had got so far down that her rescuer had to dive to reach her. She grasped the clothing of the insensible girl and brought her body to the surface and struck out for the shore. In the meantime, the cries of the other girls brought a number of people, among them a physician, who set to work to restore life to the apparently dead girl as soon as Mrs. Dobbyn brought her to land. After an hour of hard and constant labor, the girl was resuscitated. Mrs. Dobbyn is a Charlestown girl by birth, and has passed all her life in that section of the [Boston] city. She is a graduate of the Bunker Hill grammar school, and well known and respected by all those among whom she has passed her life. About 15 years ago she married John F. Dobbyn, and now three sturdy boys, Richard aged 14, Edward 12, and John 10 years of age, make up their happy family. Mrs. Dobbyn is a motherly woman, sympathetic and thoughtful of others. No one appeals to her for neighborly assistance without getting it. Her brave act of personal sacrifice to save the life of another is said by a neighbor to be entirely within her character as they have known it for years. Sergt. and Mrs. Dobbyn with their boys return from their vacation tomorrow. (Boston Globe, August 29, 1902).
The Massachusetts Humane Society awarded Mrs. Dobbyn its silver life-saving medal in March of the following year. The rescued girl was identified as Catherine A. Mahoney, of North Cambridge, MA (Boston Globe, March 22, 1903).
John F. Dobbyn, a city police officer, aged forty-nine years (b. MA), headed a Boston, MA, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of twenty-two years), Mary E. Dobbyn, aged forty-seven years (b. MA), and his children, Richard J. Dobbyn, a clerk in the US Navy Yard [i.e., the Charlestown Navy Yard], aged twenty-two years, Edward N. Dobbyn, aged twenty years, and John F. Dobbyn, aged eighteen years. They resided at 70 Pearl Street, in Boston’s Ward Three.
John F. Dobbyn died in Boston, MA, December 9, 1927. His heroic wife, Mary E. (Counihan) Dobbyn, died in Boston, MA, December 12, 1946.
President Theodore Roosevelt visited Dover, NH, on a “whistle-stop” tour, on Tuesday, August 26, 1902. His train arrived from Haverhill, MA, at noon. He made a fifteen-minute speech in Franklin Square before a throng of 15,000 people. [You may see a photograph on the wall at the Wentworth-Douglas Hospital]. He was on the train again, headed for Old Orchard Beach, ME, at 12:27 PM.
The following Boston Globe editorial asks why Milton did not invite him to its centennial celebration, which took place on Saturday, August 30, 1902.
EDITORIAL POINTS. How did it happen that Milton, N.H., didn’t get the President to help yesterday in the celebration of its first centennial? (Boston Globe, August 31, 1902).
That might have been nice, but it would have involved him hanging around for the intervening three days.
William M. Ostrander, a Philadelphia business broker, with many branch offices, including one in Boston, MA, offered a Milton hotel business for sale.
BUSINESS BARGAINS. If interested in any of the following offers, write at once for full particulars. If you buy a business through me, and at any time within two years you should decide that it is not just what you want, I will resell it for you, charging no commission for my services.
[Excerpt from lengthy list of businesses all over the country:]
Hotel, livery stable and 4 A. land, Milton, N.H., 50 rooms. ½ mi. to R.R. $8,000.
WM. M. OSTRANDER. HOME OFFICE. Suite 1446, North American Building, PHILADELPHIA. BRANCH OFFICES: Commercial Cable Bldg., New York; Chamber of Commerce, Chicago; Pemberton Bldg., Boston: Commonwealth Trust Bldg., St. Louis; St. Paul Bldg., Cincinnati; N.Y. Life Bldg., Kansas City; N.Y. Life Bldg., Minneapolis; Pioneer Bldg., Seattle; Ernest-Cranmer Bldg., Denver; Claus Spreckels Bldg., San Francisco; Stimson Block, Los Angeles; Gould Bldg., Atlanta; Stockton-Budd Bldg., Jacksonville (Minneapolis Star-Tribune, August 31, 1902).
The Boston Globe published a lengthy political article profiling the five candidates running for Massachusetts Governor. They were the Democrat party’s Col. William Gaston, the Republican party’s Lt. Governor John L. Bates, the Prohibition party’s William H. Partridge, the Socialist party’s John C. Chase, and the Socialist-Labor party’s Michael T. Berry.
Here is excerpted only the profile of the Socialist party’s John C. Chase, because his mother for a time kept a boarding house in Milton Mills, from about 1875, and he received “the foundation” of his education in a Milton district school.
John C. Chase. The Socialist candidate is a Haverhill man and a shoemaker by trade. He is only 32 years of age and is one of the leaders of his party in the State, having been elected Mayor of Haverhill in 1898. He was born in Gilmanton, N.H., May 27, 1870. His father [Levi H. Chase] died when he was 5 years of age and his mother [Lynthia E. (Bunker) Chase] removed to Milton Mills. N.H., where she opened up a boarding house. Her son became her helpmate. He managed between working summer in the woolen mills and winter in his mother’s kitchen to attend the old-fashioned “district school” and to lay the foundation of his education. Later the family removed to Barnstead, N.H., and here he learned the trade of shoemaking. Here, too, he completed his education. He was popular with the young men of the town, but his mother had the first call upon him. The lack of time and the conditions under which he obtained his education made John Chase a Socialist. He grew up suffering from the wrong conditions of society. He went to work in the mills earlier than most boys, because his mother was poor. He got into the shoe-making trade just when the shoemakers were fighting to better their conditions. He removed to Haverhill when he was 20 years of age and became prominent in the labor unions. Later still he became interested in the People’s Party in Haverhill and was the local organizer of the Social Democrats. Through his work with these people, he was given a clerkship in the co-operative store which was started by the Social Democrats, and he made a success of this business (Boston Globe, October 10, 1902).
Linthia E. Chase, a pantaloon maker, aged forty-five years (b. NH), headed a Milton (“Milton Mills Village”) household at the time of the Tenth (1880) Federal Census. Her household included her children, David M. Chase, works in woolen mill, aged eighteen years (b. NH), Lewis E. Chase, at house, aged fourteen years (b. NH), John C. Chase, at house, aged nine years (b. NH), and Alice M. Chase, at house, aged five years (b. NH), and her boarders, John Lowry, watchman in mill, aged twenty-two years (b. NH), and Leonard Reed, works in felt mill, aged twenty-four years (b. NH).
John C. Chase might have worked for a time in a Milton woolen mill, probably in the mid 1880s. He and his mother were already in Barnstead, NH, if not in their next stop of Haverhill, MA, before the time of the Milton Mills Shoe Strike of 1889.
Chase’s advocacy of socialism might be excused or explained at this early period, just fifty years after publication of the Communist Manifesto, and before it had been implemented by any national government. Marx formed the First International in London, England, in 1864. It dissolved in Philadelphia, PA, in 1876. The Second International was formed in Paris in 1889. It dissolved in 1916 over issues arising out of WW I. The Bolshevik revolution of 1917 would be Socialism’s first full-scale outing.
Since then, at least 100 million people have been murdered by Socialist governments. Due to this horrifying fact, many assert that anyone advocating this misguided, oppressive, and blood-stained philosophy should be shunned utterly by polite society. Socialists should be rejected to the same extent, if not even more so, as are the equally despicable National Socialists (Nazis), whose body count was “only” half that racked up by international Socialists.
The Austrian economist Ludwig Von Mises explained in his 1919 treatise – Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth – exactly why Socialism is both illogical and functionally impossible. It lacks a price mechanism by which resources can be allocated to their best use. Mises termed this the “Socialist Calculation problem.”
(The Hayekian Knowledge Problem, which government planners prefer to ignore, is considered by economists to be a derivative of the Socialist Calculation Problem, as Newtonian physics is a local condition of Quantum physics, and Euclidean geometry is a subset of Non-Euclidean geometry).
Republican Lt. Governor John L. Bates won the Massachusetts gubernatorial election of November 1902.
John C. Chase ran subsequently for Governor of New York and Governor of Ohio. He died in New Brighton, PA, January 27, 1937.
Shapiro, Dianne. (1916). The Singers and Their Songs: Sketches of Living Gospel Hymn Writers, Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916)
The Milton Board of Selectmen (BOS) have posted their agenda for a Public BOS meeting to be held Monday, June 17, beginning at 6:00 PM.
The Public portion of the agenda has New Business, Old Business, Other Business, and some housekeeping items.
Under New Business are scheduled two agenda items or, rather, two Town officials, each of them with two or more sub-items: 1) Library Director Betsy Baker, a) Library Update, and b) July 4th, Parade Information; 2) Police Chief R. Krauss, a) Axon Evidence Camera Storage Contract, b) Town Dock Concern, and c) Vehicle Purchase.
1) Library Director Betsy Baker is on the agenda to provide a MFPL update and some parade information.
Library Update. There were to be repairs, funded by a grant. How is that going?
July 4th, Parade Information. Presumably dates, times, and route of the Fourth of July parade.
2) Police Chief R. Krauss is on the agenda because he would like to spend more money.
Axon Evidence Camera Storage Contract. Axon is a body camera company. In April 2017, it offered body cameras “free” for a year, with payments to follow at the end of the year. Those payments were then said to be $400 per camera and $200 per docking. There would be a perpetual ongoing charge of $80 per camera per year for data storage (CNN, 2017). One supposes those quoted costs may have risen since 2017.
Town Dock Concern. The Chief has a Concern about the Town Dock. How many knew we even had one? Many taxpayers have a concern about increased Town spending. Does the Town government and the Chief share their concern?
Vehicle Purchase. This item might be a return of the multi-purpose pursuit vehicle/boat trailer hauler mentioned at previous meetings. This would be necessary because we do not need another pursuit vehicle and because the DPW has already vehicles capable of pulling a boat trailer.
Under Old Business are scheduled two items: 3) Budget Follow Up; and 4) Status of 565 White Mountain Highway.
3) Budget Follow Up. A Default budget, the BOS is on a default budget, although one might wonder if they know this.
4) Status of 565 White Mountain Highway. Obviously, this building remains a problem. A recent visit did not find the previously discussed fencing in place. One supposes this will be about a tear-down.
Other Business That May Come Before the Board has no scheduled items.
Next, there will be the approval of prior minutes (from the BOS meeting of June 3, 2019), the expenditure report, Public Comments “Pertaining to Topics Discussed,” Town Administrator comments, and BOS comments.
In this first year of the twentieth century, we encounter a Milton Mills headwaiter as victim of a larceny, Principal Wiggin of North Troy, VT, as the new Nute High School principal, a trolley line proposed, shoe lasters wanted by the Milton Shoe Company, the Medford death of an ante-bellum Milton teacher, and denials of a Lynn “Ice Trust.”
This year marked Milton’s true centennial year – its hundredth year – despite the fact that all of the centennial celebrations would take place in the following year of 1902. (The year 1902 was actually the first year of Milton’s second hundred years, as the founding year 1802 had been the first year of its first hundred years).
You may see this same logic working – or being confused – with birthdays (and in cemeteries). Someone who has reached their hundredth birthday, say in June, 1901, might be said then to be “aged” one hundred years. (Or, on old gravestones, “aetas” or “aet.,” which is Latin for “aged”). Prior to their next birthday, they might be said also, and with equal validity, to be “in” their hundred-and-first year.
This was also the year in which Mary H. “May” (Shields) Bogan, and her daughter, the four-year-old poet-laureate-to-be, Louise B. Bogan (1897-1970), moved from Livermore Falls, ME, and took up residence in the Hotel Milton (or Milton Hotel).
The Hotel Milton sent a horse-drawn carriage to meet passengers at the train station, and Louise remembered riding in this carriage the day she and her mother arrived, seeing the name of the town set out in coleus and begonia beds as they rode into Milton. In the distance she saw “a long high blue mass … above the trees.” “Is it the sea?” she asked her mother. “No,” May replied, “it is the mountains” (Frank, 1986).
The Bogans left Milton for Ballardville, MA, in 1904. (They were in Boston by 1910).
Boston police inspectors Patterson and Rooney arrested a Salem, MA, man for a larceny that took place in Milton Mills, NH.
Will Return to Milton Mills. N.H. Inspectors Patterson and Rooney arrested in the North End last night Edward P. Abbott, aged 21, of Salem, who is wanted at Milton Mills, N.H., on a charge of the larceny of $38 from Crosby H. Prescott last Thursday. Abbott says he will return without requisition papers (Boston Globe, January 27, 1901).
The alleged thief, Edward P. Abbott, was born in Bethlehem, NH, July 28, 1879, son of Charles S. and Arabella (Nourse) Abbott. He married in Salem, MA, August 2, 1900, Martha M. Newport, both of Salem. He was a railroad brakeman and she a shoeworker.
Sentences Imposed at Dover, N.H. DOVER, N.H., Feb 18. – In the supreme court this morning these sentences were imposed by Judge Young: James Burke of Dover, for larceny, one year at hard labor in state prison; James Friell of Somersworth, for obstructing an officer who was attempting his arrest, six months in jail, sentence suspended during good behavior; Edward P. Abbott of Milton, larceny, one year in jail, sentence suspended during good behavior; John Stanton of Somersworth, larceny and obstructing an officer, six months in jail, sentence suspended. Harry Benson of Biddeford, Me, indicted for the larceny of carriage robes and blankets, valued at $15, from D. Frank Hanson of Somersworth. retracted his plea of not guilty and pleaded guilty to larceny of $9. He was represented by counsel on the question of sentence. The case was continued for sentence (Boston Glover, February 18, 1901).
The victim, Crosby Hanson Prescott, was born in Acton, ME, October 7, 1850, son of Sewall W. and Marilla M. (Hersom) Prescott. He married in Rochester, NH, October 15, 1885, Annie F. Hurd, both natives and residents of Acton, and both aged thirty-five years. He was a waiter.
C.H. Prescott was proprietor of Prescott House (and a livery stable) in the Milton (Milton Mills) directory of 1889. He was proprietor of the Hotel Prescott, on Main street in Milton Mills, in the directory of 1892, and of an unnamed Summer Boarding House, in Milton Mills, in the directories of 1894, 1898, and 1901. (He was not so listed in 1904).
Crosby H. Prescott, a hotel head waiter, aged forty-nine years (b. ME), headed a Milton (“Milton Mills Village”) household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of fifteen years), Annie F. Prescott, aged forty-five years (b. ME), and his children, Lillian R. Prescott, at school, aged fourteen years (b. ME), Marion M. Prescott, at school, aged twelve years (b. NH), and Ruth H. Prescott, at school, aged eight years (b. NH), and his boarders, Clara A. Perkins, closing on shoes, aged twenty-six years (b. ME), and Nellie B. Pike, a shoe-lining maker, aged twenty years (b. MA). Annie F. Prescott was the mother of four children, of whom three were still living.
Crosby H. Prescott moved to Farmington, NH, where he was a shoe treer in a shoe factory, aged fifty-nine years, in 1910, and a school janitor, aged sixty-nine years, in 1920. He died in Farmington, December 8, 1921.
Arthur D. Wiggin came to Milton as Nute High School’s third principal. He remained for two academic years.
Barton. Arthur D. Wiggin, who has for two years taught the North Troy high school, has been unanimously elected to the principalship of the Nute high school at Milton, N.H. This is an institution endowed with one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Mr. Wiggin’s salary will be $1200.00 per year (Orleans County Monitor (Barton, VT), July 1, 1901).
We should note that his unanimous election was one of the Nute trustees and not that of any Town board.
There were some preliminary discussions and survey work in this year about connecting Milton and Milton Mills to Sanford, ME, with an electric trolley line.
STATE NEWS. Milton Mills hopes to be on an electric line in the near future (Portsmouth Herald, July 5, 1901).
PROPOSED NEW ROAD TO ROCHESTER. Rochester, Dec. 26. – There is a movement on foot to build a trolley line from Sanford to this city in the early spring. Civil engineers have already been engaged to survey for the road as much as possible during the winter months. There are two routes under consideration, one to run from Springvale to Milton Mills and Milton, and then to Rochester. The other route is through Lebanon and East Rochester (Boston Globe, December 26, 1901).
If either route ever came to fruition, it did not last for long. A trolley timetable of 1912 mentioned electric trolley lines between Springvale and Sanford, ME, from which connections to Portsmouth and Dover, NH, and Biddeford and Kennebunk, ME, might be made. Rochester, NH, connected by electric trolley with East Rochester, as well as with Gonic, Somersworth, and Dover.
There was no mention of any connections from Springvale, ME, to either Milton Mills, or Milton, nor was there any alternate route from Lebanon, ME, to East Rochester. Nor did Rochester connect with Milton, except by Milton’s Railroad Line.
For those with an economic turn of mind, the following contemporary item regarding the Portsmouth livery business vis-à-vis their new electric trolley line might be of interest.
PICKUPS AT RANDOM. “The trolleys have well nigh killed the livery business for us,” said a [Portsmouth] stable man on Tuesday, to a reporter. “I believe that every stable keeper in this city, if truthful, would admit that he has weathered the winter at a net loss. Funerals and boarders are about all that is left us for revenue. However, I look for a change. As the trolley novelty wears off, the people who are fond of a drive will desire to keep away from the beaten track of the electrics, and some of us are brightening up and adding to our stock to appeal directly and especially to this class” (Portsmouth Herald, March 27, 1901).
This is an instructive example of the “creative destruction” inherent in free market processes. The creation or adoption of a new innovation, in this case electric trolley lines, necessarily involves the destruction or replacement of the prior paradigm, in this case local travel by horse-drawn livery carriages.
Despite the hopes of the Portsmouth stable man, his horse-drawn livery business had largely had its day in the sun. Some industries, when faced with such developments, turn to government for protective restrictions and subsidies. Obviously, that is a “political” solution – application of government force – rather than a free market one.
The NH Legislature allowed the Milton Shoe Company to incorporate in 1901. It appeared in the Milton business directory of 1901 (although not in that of 1904). Milton Shoe Company help-wanted advertisements may be found from June 1901 through February 1914.
Male Help Wanted. WANTED. Some good pullers-over on lasting machine, also a few good shoemakers on other parts; no trouble; steady work, good prices. Milton Shoe Co., Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, July 21, 1901).
Pair of wooden shoe lasts (Photo: Noemi Singer)
Lasts were foot-shaped wooden forms (usually a pair of them). A laster (or puller-over) would stretch or pull a pre-cut and sewn leather upper over the last with pliers and tack it down. The innersole and sole would be sewn (or glued) then to the leather upper.
More efficient shoe-lasting machinery had come into use in the 1880s and replaced the hand-lasting process.
The Milton Fibreboard Company purchased the Milton factory and water-power privileges, formerly operated as the Milton Shoe Company, in 1916.
Milton native Benjamin Brackett Dorr died in Medford, MA, August 31, 1901, and the Boston Globe obituary called him, evidently in error, Dudley B. Dorr. [A Dudley A. Dorr did exist somewhere]. Benjamin B. Dorr was born in Milton, circa 1815, son of Benjamin and Mary H. “Polly” (Brackett) Dorr.
Benjamin Dorr was a storekeeper in Milton in 1850, and a shoe manufacturer in New Hampton, NH, in 1860, prior to becoming a clothing salesman in Medford, MA, in or after 1862.
Death of Dudley B. Dorr. MEDFORD, Sept 1. This city lost another of its old and respected citizens last evening in the person of Dudley B. Dorr, 86 years old. He was born in Milton, N.H., where be was engaged for many years in educational work. Coming to Medford 40 years ago he became a clothing salesman and was well known in the Boston trade. He leaves a wife [Mary H. “Polly” (Ward) Dorr] and four children, Frederick Dorr, Henry Dorr, Mrs. Chas. R. [Annette W.] Drew, and Mrs. B.B. [Mary A.] Savary. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity of this city. The funeral will take place at 4 p.m. Monday (Boston Globe, September 2, 1901).
Medford’s Mt. Herman lodge of Masons initiated Benjamin B. Dorr, April 10, 1862; passed him May 22, 1862; and raised him, June 26, 1862. His membership dated from October 1862.
What must be interesting for Milton readers is the information that Dorr “was engaged for many years in educational work” in Milton, NH. It would seem from this statement that Dorr was a Milton district school teacher of an early period (sometime in the 1830s through 1850s). (That is, a generation or two after the Milton Teacher of 1796-1805).
An artificial ice manufacturer, the Commonwealth Hygienic Ice company, is here said to have been trying to “corner” the ice market at Lynn, MA. The Lynn Ice Company (as well as Z.J. Chase), was mentioned as a natural ice supplier, who cut most of its supply as a part of Milton’s Ice Industry.
DENY THAT A DEAL IS ON. Lynn Ice Dealers Say That They Do Not Intend to Sell Out, as Intimated, to the Trust. LYNN. Dec 27. The Commonwealth hygienic ice company. with plants for the making of artificial ice in Boston and Providence, is endeavoring to gain control of the different ice companies in this city, and it is reported that it has options on every concern with the exception of one. Fred E. Baker of this city is the local representative of the new concern and has conducted all the negotiations. even going so far as to secure options on land in different parts of the city where the new plant may be located if all the deal goes through. One of these locations is at the foot of Commercial st., and the other at the foot of Washington st., at Lynn beach, on the Heffernan and Woodbury property. The promoters of the new scheme have held many meetings and last night Dr. Fuffman of Boston, who is at the head of the company in that city, was in this city discussing affairs. None of the local icemen was present at the conference and all deny that there is a deal on foot or that they will sell out and join an ice trust. Representatives of the Lynn ice company, Spring pond ice company, McGregor & Bacheller, Independent ice company, Z.J. Chase and Coolidge & Marshall say that while there has been talk of forming a new company it has all been on the side of the promoters, and that they have not given an option on their plants. All these concerns deal in natural ice and cut their supply from ponds in this vicinity, with the exception of the Lynn ice company. which gets the most of its supply from Milton. N H. (Boston Globe, December 27, 1901).
Although the artificial ice suppliers would prevail in the end, that would not be for some years to come.
“I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!” – Louise Bogan
In this year, we encounter a Miss Kane as a Milton school teacher, a drug store under new management, the Spaulding Brothers’ father, Marblehead Ice Company ice for sale, another forest fire, and Miss Hussey’s candidacy for favorite New England teacher.
One might debate, as was done in the years 2000 and 2001, whether 1900 or 1901 was the fin-de-siècle year. For our part, we are taking this year of 1900 to be the last of the nineteenth century (1801-1900), and the following year of 1901 to be the first of the twentieth century (1901-2000).
Miss Lillian Wood Kane taught in the Milton Grammar school during the 1899-00 academic year.
GROTON. Lillian W. Kane is teaching a graded school in Milton, N.H. (Fitchburg Sentinel (Fitchburg, MA), April 20, 1900).
She was born in 1868, daughter of Owen E. and Mary E. (Wood) Kane. She attended Groton High School.
Miss Lillian Kane taught for six weeks in 1891, as a substitute teacher in Charlemont, MA, replacing a teacher whose mother had died (Fitchburg Sentinel, May 20, 1891). She stood in for Miss Jennie Boynton at the Groton post office in the summer of 1896, and returned to her school in Millis, MA, in the fall (Fitchburg Sentinel, May 7, 1896; Fitchburg Sentinel, December 9, 1896).
Mary E. Kane, a dressmaker, aged sixty years (b. VT), headed a Groton, MA, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census (in June 1900). Her household included her daughter, Lillian W. Kane, a school teacher, aged thirty-one years (b. MA). Theirs was a rented house.
Lillian W. Kane was one of the three teachers at the Butler School in Groton, MA, during the 1905-06 academic year. The head teacher, Ina E. Cobb, received a salary of $500, Lillian W. Kane received $396, and Mary E. Parker received $380.
Lillian W. Kane was treasurer of the Groton Historical Society in 1909. Her salary as a teacher in the Butler School in Groton had risen to $407 in that year.
Mary E. Kane, a widow, aged seventy years (b. VT), headed a Groton, MA, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. Her household included her daughter, Lillian W. Kane, a public school teacher, aged thirty-three [forty-three] years (b. MA). They occupied a rented house on Main Street.
Miss Kane taught subsequently in Providence, RI, for some years (Fitchburg Sentinel, May 3, 1927).
Lillian W. Kane died in Groton, MA, April 17, 1945 (Fitchburg Sentinel, February 7, 1946).
James Herbert Willey of Rollinsford, NH, purchased the Milton drug store that he would run for many years.
NEW ENGLAND. Miscellaneous. Herbert Willey of Salmon Falls has purchased the drug business of Henry T. Hayes Milton NH (Merck, 1900).
Charles W. Evans, a shoe counter maker, aged thirty-one years (b. NH), headed a Milton (“Milton Village”) household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of eight years), Alice M. Evans, aged twenty-three years (b. NH), his children, Robert C. Evans, at school, aged seven years (b. NH), and Sumner S. Evans, at school, aged six years (b. NH), his mother-in-law, Abby Tibbetts, aged fifty-nine years (b. ME), his brother-in-law, Charles Tibbetts, a day laborer, aged twenty-four years (b. NH), and his lodger, J. Herbert Willey, a druggist, aged twenty-five years (b. NH).
Jonas Spaulding, Jr., regretted the removal of some equipment from his original base to the Milton branch of his sons’ successor company.
TOWNSEND HARBOR. It is said that Jonas Spaulding, father of the Spaulding Bros, actually shed tears when the last piece of counter-making machinery was recently shipped to Milton, N.H. This has been the home of the Spaulding family for several generations. Mr. Spaulding is very much attached to the Harbor, and spends all his leisure time here (Fitchburg Sentinel (Fitchburg, MA), August 3, 1900).
Jonas Spaulding, Jr., died in Andover, MA, November 10, 1900.
DEATHS. SPAULDING. – ln Andover, Nov. 10, Jonas Spaulding, 67 yrs., 9 mos. Funeral from the church at Townsend Harbor, Mass., Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 2 p.m. (Boston Globe, November 11, 1900).
Tons upon tons of block ice were cut by Milton’s ice industry in the winter and stored along the shores of two of Milton’s Three Ponds. The ice houses were among the largest structures in town, if not the largest, and would have dominated the view around the ponds.
ICE For Sale – Superior quality, carload lots; is on Boston & Maine R.R., at Milton, N.H. Address JOHN O. PORTER, Marblehead, Mass. (Boston Globe, September 9, 1900).
John O. Porter of the Marblehead Ice Company advertises his here as being conveniently close to the railroad line.
LOSS OF $10,000. Big Fire North of Farmington, N.H, Has Been Out of Control for a Week. ROCHESTER, N.H., Sept 10 – The big forest fire which has been burning near Middleton has at last been got under control. Another fire is destroying much timber in Milton, N.H., and West Lebanon, Me. Another big fire is burning to the north of Farmington, N.H., and has been out of control for a week. Much smoke follows the path of the fire and at night the blaze can be seen for miles around. It has already caused a loss of $10,000 on timber owned by the New Durham lumber company. The fire was started by farmers, who were searing a pasture to get a better berry crop next season. The blaze got away from them and spread into the timber. Rain only will stop the fire (Boston Globe, September 11, 1900).
Minnie Eula Hussey was born in Acton, ME, May 23, 1878, daughter of Benjamin B. and Charlotte A. (Huff) Hussey.
In this year, the Boston Globe ran a promotional contest in which the New England teacher with the most votes would win a trip to Washington, DC. In order to vote, one had to clip and mail a ballot printed in the newspaper.
Milton’s Favorite Teacher.
Now, Milton people, far and near, Just listen to this call, Please cut your votes from out The Globe And be sure and save them all. Make them out for Miss Minnie Hussey, Old Milton’s favorite teacher, Then send them to The Boston Globe, For they are sure to reach her.
The Boston Globe will do the rest, And we shall be contented If Miss Hussey goes to Washington, For Milton will be well represented.
Milton, N.H. B.F.D. (Boston Globe, December 24, 1900).
She generated much student enthusiasm in a brief time. She was a Bridgewater, MA, teacher during the 1899-1900 academic year, who maintained a Milton address with M.B. Plummer. Moses B. Plummer was a farmer, whose farmstead was at Plummer’s Ridge (3½ miles N). Miss M. Eula Hussey, a teacher, had her home with M.B. Plummer, in the Milton section of the Dover directory of 1902.
Miss Hussey married in Manchester, NH, August 12, 1903, James. J. Buckley, both of Milton. He was born in Dover, NH, February 19, 1877, son of Daniel and Catherine (McCarthy) Buckley.
James J. Buckley, a physician (general practice), aged thirty-three years (b. NH), headed a Milton (“Milton 3-Ponds Village”) household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of five years), Minnie E. Buckley, aged thirty-one years (b. ME).
James J. Buckley died November 4, 1930. Eula H. (Hussey) Buckley died in Dover, NH, March 31, 1961.
A get-well card was sent to Mrs. Eula Buckley, past department president and a member of [Moses N. Collins Relief] Corps No. 36, who is a patient at Wentworth Hospital, Dover (Portsmouth Herald, March 18, 1961).
Mark Twain was a member of the American Anti-Imperialist League and, as such, opposed US military adventures overseas. He penned for publication by the American Red Cross the following short anti-imperialist speech of greeting from the nineteenth century to the twentieth.
A salutation-speech from the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth, taken down in short-hand by Mark Twain.
I bring you the stately matron named Christendom, returning bedraggled, besmirched, and dishonored, from pirate raids in Kiaochow, Manchuria, South Africa, and the Philippines, with her soul full of meanness, her pocket full of boodle, and her mouth full of pious hypocrisies. Give her soap and towel, but hide the looking glass.
Mark Twain. New York, December 29, 1900.
He listed the imperialist misadventures of several nations, including also the continued US occupation of the Philippines.
In this year, we encounter a new hotel, a masked ball, a forest fire, an employment opportunity, baseball games, incorporation of the Milton Water Works, a prohibitionist on the prowl, some construction by the Spaulding Brothers, a shoe factory for rent, Wentworth’s clothing store for sale, and the accidental death of a dam worker.
Personally Conducted, By Land and Sea. Mr. Fred M. Chamberlain, proprietor of the Phoenix House at Milton, N.H., is to build a new hotel in that town just north of his present house, which will be modern in every particular, and when finished, one of the best equipped and furnished hotels in that section of the country (Boston Home Journal, January 21, 1899).
The new hotel contemplated here was likely “The Sands” summer hotel, built at Meeting House pond, and which Chamberlain managed in later years.
The Milton social club threw its third annual masquerade ball at the Ancient Order of United Workmen (A.O.U.W) hall in Milton (as opposed to Milton Mills).
NEW HAMPSHIRE ALL AMASK. – Milton Social Club Helped by Others to Make Merry. MILTON, N.H., Feb 4 – The third annual masquerade of the Milton social club took place at A.O.U.W. hall last night. E.A. Hodgdon acted as floor director, assisted by the following aids: F.E. Fernald, Ernest Kenniston, J.M. Dolan, Eddie Meagher, Harry Warren. The members of the reception committee were Fred Hartford, George Paey, Fred Doe, Michael Mack, Wilbur Knight and William Stacey. Several large parties were present from adjoining towns and cities. including Dover, Somersworth, Rochester, Farmington, Milton Mills, Sanbornville, Union, New Durham, Wakefield. There were 20 numbers on the dance order. Supper was served at intermission in the banquet hall. There were 75 couples In the grand march, led by Mr. and Mrs. E.A. Hodgdon, Among those present were:
Mr. Alex Champion, Mr. J. Bert Brock, Mr. William Brock, Mr. Edward Feineman, Mr. Ned Dreyfus, Mr. Sammy Rosenfield, Mr. George Walker, Mr. Rosco Allen, Miss Grace Farnum, Mr. Arthur Stone, Mr. Fred Hartford, Mr. and Mrs. H. Flanders, Mr. Fred E. Drew, Mr. Wilbur Wentworth, Mr. Edward Chipman, Mr. Ray Mooney, Mr. Michael Mack, Mr. George Paey, Mr. Lew O’Laughlin, Miss Josie Downs, Miss Annie O’Laughlin, Mr. Frank O’Laughlin, Mr. F.H. Gale, Mr. & Mrs. H. Hayes, Mr. Ernest Kenniston, Mr. Fred Randall,
Mr. C.H. Lowrey, Mr. Samuel Wallace, Miss Fannie Wallace, Mr. Walter Wallace, Mr. Walter Mooney, Miss Daisy Dane, Miss Blanche Harris, Miss Dora Davis, Mr. Edward Knight, Mr. & Mrs. C. Bailey, Mr. & Mrs. Harry Dore, Mr. Arthur Foote, Mr. George Evans, Mr. & Mrs B. Demerritt, Mr. Fred Hayes, Mr. A.W. Card, Miss Florence P. Miller, Mr. & Mrs. W. Randall, Mr. George Perry, Mr. Fred Card, Mr. Edward Marston, Mr. George Marston, Mr. Henry Nutter, Mr. Wm. E. Patterson, Miss Dora Young.
The ring contest was won by Miss Winnie Marston first and Miss Daisy Dane second, two rings being given to those selling the largest number of tickets (Boston Globe, February 4, 1899).
Here we have an account of a forest fire on Milton’s border. Those fighting it, at least on its southern side, were a private crew from the Portland and Rochester Railroad.
FIRE BORDERS TWO STATES. Flames Ravage Wooded District Between Milton, N H, and Lebanon Me. SPRINGVALE, Me, May 5. Fire burned over a large portion of the wooded district between Milton, N.H, and Lebanon, Me., today, and under pressure of a strong breeze is threatened a far greater region, especially between Alfred and South Waterloo. A crew from the Portland & Rochester road headed off the fire at the south side this afternoon, and the chances are good that the blaze will exhaust Itself. No building has been burned (Boston Globe, May 6, 1899).
The Portland & Rochester railroad went through several mergers. Its old name was here used. The Boston & Maine leased its track in 1886, which was often a prelude to a takeover or merger. In July 1899, the Boston & Maine railroad, which by that time already owned five-sixths of the Portland & Rochester stock, bought the remaining stock in a one-for-one exchange for Boston & Maine stock.
Female stitchers continued to be in demand at the N.B. Thayer & Co. shoe factory; table girls too.
Female Help Wanted. STITCHERS wanted – Experienced stitchers in shoe factory on men’s work; also table girls. N. B. THAYER & CO., Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, June 7, 1899).
Milton fielded a competitive amateur baseball team in this year. It consistently beat the soldiers of Battery M in Portsmouth, NH. (Stationed there during the Spanish-American War).
MILTON 27, BATTERY M 9. The Battery M base ball team went to Milton on Tuesday and played the nine there. The soldier boys put up a good game but lost by the score of twenty-seven to nine (Portsmouth Herald, May 31, 1899).
BATTERY M VS MILTON. The Battery M baseball team is playing the Miltons at the bicycle park this afternoon. The battery boys are striving to wipe out that defeat which the Milton nine inflicted upon them Memorial day. Both teams have their very strongest combinations in the field. A good sized crowd is watching the game (Portsmouth Herald, June 17, 1899).
MILTON’S 22; BATTERY M 1. The Milton town team came to this city on Saturday afternoon and at the bicycle park defeated Battery M’s crack team of ball tossers by a score of twenty-two to one. It was a very one-side game and the Battery boys were not in it for a minute. They were out of their class. The Milton team returned on the evening train (Portsmouth Herald, June 19, 1899).
ABOUT THE STATE. The Union cemetery association of Wakefield and the Milton Water Works company have filed articles of incorporation with the secretary of state (Portsmouth Herald, July 20, 1899).
This private corporation was established ” … for the purpose of bringing water into the town of Milton and villages therein, for domestic and mechanical purposes, the extinguishment of fires, and such other purposes as may be deemed necessary and proper” (NH Secretary of State, 1901).
The same corporation was also known as Milton Water & Power. (Some small amount of electricity had been generated in Milton as early as 1890).
MILTON, N.H. – The Milton Water & Power Company has been formed by S. Lyman [Hayes], president, H.L. Avery, secretary and treasurer (Electrical World, 1899).
Prohibitionists were still afoot. The mention of Milton is likely an error for Wilton, it being the Hillsborough County Sheriff who was making a nuisance of himself (as well as the complaining ex-Governor, who was also based in Hillsborough County).
ABOUT THE STATE. Ex-Governor Goodell of Antrim has been after the liquor dealers again. Sheriff Doane of Hillsboro county made searches at quite a number of places in Amherst, Milton, and Milford, Saturday, on complaints made by Mr. Goodell (Portsmouth Herald, July 24, 1899).
J. Spaulding & Sons put contracts out for bid for the construction of a large new leatherboard factory in North Rochester, NH. It was to include a large raceway and dam, a separate boiler house and bleachery, and a residential complex.
FOR A NEW PLANT. Contracts to Be Let Friday at North Rochester, N.H. NORTH ROCHESTER, N.H, Aug, 10 – The contracts for the construction of a big leatherboard manufacturing plant for the firm of J. Spaulding & Sons, now doing business at Milton, N.H., and Townsend, Mass, are to be let Friday. The contracts call for the construction of a mammoth dam, a canal 500 feet in length, a three-story factory 250 feet long and 50 feet wide, to contain 50,000 feet of floor space, a boiler house to contain two boilers, and a bleachery 150 feet long and 40 feet wide. Also a raceway from the proposed factory 200 feet in length. The total expense of the undertaking has been estimated at $75,000, and the city of Rochester has given favorable consideration to the proposition to exempt the concern from taxation for a period of 10 years. The plant will employ 300 hands when running at its fullest capacity. Dwellings for the accommodation of the operatives are to be erected, and it is expected that before the 1st of February, 1900, a thriving village will be established where now there is nothing but a broad expanse of field and forest. The preliminary surveys have been made and the plans drafted (Boston Globe, August 10, 1899).
Note Rochester’s “encouragement” of ten years without taxes. Ten years seemed to be the standard inducement. It is a nice round number.
(Note also that the advertisement following concerns a Milton building used as a shoe factory for a period of – wait for it – ten years. In the absence of ongoing “encouragement,” the business just goes away (See PawSox Put One Over the Fence)).
This vacant Milton factory advertised for lease would seem to have been occupied by either Burley & Usher, or one of several other short-lived shoe companies.
FACTORY TO LET! SIZE 150×40 ft, 4 stories, plank under floors, water power, steam heat, automatic sprinklers, side track to elevator; situated on main line of B&M railroad; freights from Boston 13c per 100; used during the last 10 years for a shoe factory; rent and power free to right parties; 300 excellent operatives in town. For further particulars inquire of Board of Trade, Milton, N.H. H.B. AMEY, Secretary (Boston Globe, October 6, 1899).
Milton apparently had for a time a Board of Trade, i.e., a sort of chamber of commerce. Harry Amey, an attorney, aged thirty-one years (b. NH), was its secretary. He lived in “Milton Village” in 1900.
Harry Wentworth (son of Hiram) appeared as both a dry goods merchant and a merchant tailor in Milton business directories of 1894, 1898; and as a merchant tailor only in that of 1901.
Business Chances. FOR SALE. – An excellent chance for a clothing and furnishing business in a manuf. village. For particulars H.E. WENTWORTH, Milton Mills, N.H. (Boston Globe, November 11, 1899).
Harry E. Wentworth, a farmer, aged thirty years (b. NH), headed an Acton, ME, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of two years), Hattie M. [(Lowd)] Wentworth, aged twenty-seven years (b. ME), and [her] widowed mother, Melissie [(Buck)] Wentworth [actually Lowd], a housekeeper, aged fifty-five years.
Martin Murphy came to Milton from Worcester, MA, to work on the “mammoth” dam being built for new J. Spaulding & Sons leatherboard factory in North Rochester, NH. (See August above). Poor Murphy died from an injury received while trying to board an electric trolley on High Street in Somersworth, NH, while it was still moving.
Martin Murphy Dies from Injuries. SOMERSWORTH, N.H., Dec. 7. Martin Murphy of Worcester, Mass., who was injured by falling from an electric car here last night, died this morning as the result of his injuries. Murphy had been employed at Milton, N.H., where a large dam is being constructed. He was 35 years old (Boston Globe, [Thursday,] December 7, 1899).
Dr. L.E. Grant of Somersworth, NH, attributed Murphy’s death to “Concussion of the Brain,” from which injury he lingered for five hours. The contributing cause was “Killed by Electric Cars.”
Remains Sent to Worcester. SOMERSWORTH, N.H., Dec. 8 – The remains of Martin Murphy of Worcester, who was fatally injured Wednesday evening in this city while attempting to board a moving electric car, were shipped to Worcester today at the request of relatives of the dead man (Boston Globe, [Saturday,] December 9, 1899).
Automobile prices ran between $1,650 and $1,750 dollars in advertisements of 1906. Their 4-cylinder motors generated, depending upon the brand and model, between 20 and 28 horsepower. One (The Model 14 Rambler) had a 3-speed sliding gear transmission that delivered its horsepower by direct drive to the rear axle. Another (the Apperson) advertised “Every Car a Special Car, Built for the Owner.”
CASHIER MATHES INJURED. Dover Banker Fell Between the Cars at Milton. Albert O. Mathes, cashier of the Strafford Savings bank of Dover and will known in this city, fell between the cars at Milton, while getting off the train, at noon on Thursday. One of his legs was so badly crushed it is believed it will be necessary to amputate the member below the knee. Mr. Mathes has been ill for the last week and is subject to dizzy spells. It is thought that he had one of these spells and lost his balance while alighting from the moving train (Portsmouth Herald, May 1, 1903).
No; course we’re not lonesome out here by ourselfs, 
HON. JOHN D. LYMAN DEAD. Was Prominent Citizen of Exeter, N.H., and Secretary of State from 1867 to 1870. EXETER, N.H., July 31 – Hon. John D. Lyman, one of Exeter’s most prominent citizens. and well known throughout the state, died this morning at 1 o’clock. Though until quite recently in apparent vigorous health, he had long suffered from an organic trouble, and a fall a few weeks ago, while ascending a stairway at his home, hastened the end. 
SAVED A GIRL FROM DROWNING. Heroic Act of Mrs. Mary E. Dobbyn of Charlestown At Milton N.H. Mrs. Mary E. Dobbyn, wife of Sergt. John F. Dobbyn of [Boston police] division 2, was the means of saving the life of a young woman Wednesday, and is now the heroine of the New Hampshire town of Milton where the incident took place. Mrs. Dobbyn and her husband and three boys have been spending their vacation in Milton, where a number of others from Boston and vicinity have also been stopping. Mrs. Dobbyn in her younger days, when she was Miss Counihan, was accustomed like all young people of Charlestown neck, where she lived, to go the beach near the Alford-st. bridge to bathe. Here she became so accustomed to the water, and to caring for herself and others, in it, and was noted as one of the most expert swimmers among the young girls. To this knowledge and ability, gained in her youth. a Cambridge young woman owes today the fact that she is alive. The young woman with two of her friends went to bathe in the lake at Milton. None of the party knew how to swim. One of them got beyond her depth, and the others, unable to help her themselves, screamed for assistance. Mrs. Dobbyn happened to be passing and heard the screams. She ran to the lake side, and from her knowledge of such scenes grasped the situation at once. The drowning girl was struggling to keep her head above the water. Her strength was exhausted and she was fast losing power even to struggle. There was not an instant to he lost, and without waiting to remove any of her garments, Mrs. Dobbyn plunged in and swam to the girl, who had sunk exhausted under the surface. She had got so far down that her rescuer had to dive to reach her. She grasped the clothing of the insensible girl and brought her body to the surface and struck out for the shore. In the meantime, the cries of the other girls brought a number of people, among them a physician, who set to work to restore life to the apparently dead girl as soon as Mrs. Dobbyn brought her to land. After an hour of hard and constant labor, the girl was resuscitated. Mrs. Dobbyn is a Charlestown girl by birth, and has passed all her life in that section of the [Boston] city. She is a graduate of the Bunker Hill grammar school, and well known and respected by all those among whom she has passed her life. About 15 years ago she married John F. Dobbyn, and now three sturdy boys, Richard aged 14, Edward 12, and John 10 years of age, make up their happy family. Mrs. Dobbyn is a motherly woman, sympathetic and thoughtful of others. No one appeals to her for neighborly assistance without getting it. Her brave act of personal sacrifice to save the life of another is said by a neighbor to be entirely within her character as they have known it for years. Sergt. and Mrs. Dobbyn with their boys return from their vacation tomorrow. (Boston Globe, August 29, 1902).
John C. Chase. The Socialist candidate is a Haverhill man and a shoemaker by trade. He is only 32 years of age and is one of the leaders of his party in the State, having been elected Mayor of Haverhill in 1898. He was born in Gilmanton, N.H., May 27, 1870. His father [Levi H. Chase] died when he was 5 years of age and his mother [Lynthia E. (Bunker) Chase] removed to Milton Mills. N.H., where she opened up a boarding house. Her son became her helpmate. He managed between working summer in the woolen mills and winter in his mother’s kitchen to attend the old-fashioned “district school” and to lay the foundation of his education. Later the family removed to Barnstead, N.H., and here he learned the trade of shoemaking. Here, too, he completed his education. He was popular with the young men of the town, but his mother had the first call upon him. The lack of time and the conditions under which he obtained his education made John Chase a Socialist. He grew up suffering from the wrong conditions of society. He went to work in the mills earlier than most boys, because his mother was poor. He got into the shoe-making trade just when the shoemakers were fighting to better their conditions. He removed to Haverhill when he was 20 years of age and became prominent in the labor unions. Later still he became interested in the People’s Party in Haverhill and was the local organizer of the Social Democrats. Through his work with these people, he was given a clerkship in the co-operative store which was started by the Social Democrats, and he made a success of this business (Boston Globe, October 10, 1902).
The Hotel Milton sent a horse-drawn carriage to meet passengers at the train station, and Louise remembered riding in this carriage the day she and her mother arrived, seeing the name of the town set out in coleus and begonia beds as they rode into Milton. In the distance she saw “a long high blue mass … above the trees.” “Is it the sea?” she asked her mother. “No,” May replied, “it is the mountains” (Frank, 1986).
Jonas Spaulding, Jr., regretted the removal of some equipment from his original base to the Milton branch of his sons’ successor company.
Milton Observer 