By Muriel Bristol | July 23, 2023
Continued from Milton Mills Sketch of 1911 – 2
Asa A. Fox lost his Milton Mills grocery store to a fire in March 1876. The local Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) society rented his store’s second floor as their meeting hall and lost everything. (See Milton in the News – 1876).
THE NEW ODD FELLOWS BLOCK. For some time the project of acquiring the land and the old Congregational church building had been talked of by the members of the Miltonia Lodge of Odd Fellows No. 52, but the business was not completed until Tuesday, April 19, of last year. The land on which the church set was given to the society by the late John Nutter with the provision that if the church should be used for other purposes the land should revert to him or his heirs. The committee from the lodge first had to make arrangements with the heirs and then with the pew owners. There were a few of those whose memory of it as a sacred place and the church home of their youth, made them hesitate about selling their holdings; but the evident fact that its days as a church were numbered, and that it would be made good use of if the Odd Fellows owned it, backed up by generous offerings from the lodge committee, finally induced all to consent to the sale.
The structure has been completely remodeled inside. There are lodge and suitable ante rooms on the upper floor and down stairs is a reception room, banquet hall and modernly equipped cuisine. The Miltonia Lodge of Odd Fellows will have the credit of improving the looks of the village and furnishing the society with as good a home as possessed by any lodge in the county. The name Miltonia, that has been given to this lodge, and is also the name of the mills, would make an appropriate one for village and it is within the possibilities that eventually it will be so called.
ASA A. FOX. Undertaker. One of the occupations or professions that require peculiar and special qualifications is that of undertaker. To enter the home where his services are needed and carry the feelings and manner that will lighten the sorrows of the inmates who have suffered loss, is one of the requirements of the profession. It is not necessary that the undertaker mourn with the afflicted family but it is well that he should have a natural appreciation of the situation and be able to show it in his every act without dissimulation. We have been moved to mention these things because they are the natural qualities of Mr. Asa A. Fox who has been the undertaker in Milton Mills for twenty-seven years, and have distinguished him in his line of work. Mr. Fox was born in Milton Mills being the son of the late Asa Fox and knows intimately all the people there and in the surrounding towns and is by nature kindly-hearted and sympathetic. Long before the business became his profession he was among the first to render assistance to those whose homes had been visited by death.
Mr. Fox early in life learned the carpenter’s trade and for six years worked at that business in Lawrence and Brookline, Mass. After returning to Milton Mills he acted as express messenger between Rochester and Union when the railroad terminated as [at] that town. He filled that position for three and a half years. After that he conducted a clothing manufacturing business and also a general store. That was in the building that was burned in 1885 [1876] on the site where the Central block is now located. He built that block and later sold it to the late Henry H. Townsand.
Previous to that he had given some study to the undertaking business and was able to pass examination in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. He is a licensed embalmer in the three states and can answer any calls in them and has business in them all. Notwithstanding the fact that he is located in a small village his equipment is equal to that of the larger establishments and his rolling stock is not excelled by any in the State. He is assisted by his son, Charles D. Fox, who is thoroughly proficient in the business. He has passed his examinations in Maine and New Hampshire with the highest degree in rank. He is president of the Undertakers’ Association of New Hampshire and belongs to several secret orders.
Mr. Fox, senior, has been interested in civic affairs all his life and has been selectman of the town and in 1880 represented this class in the legislature. He was also deputy sheriff for nine years. Mr. Fox is in the truest sense a useful man whose sense of the duties and privileges of life have led him to associations that exemplify the fact. It may not be to his liking to have the matter mentioned here, but it seems fitting that mention should be made of the fact that he has invited the old persons of this and nearby villages to an annual dinner and social gathering which he has furnished at his beautiful home on School street. This custom has been six years in vogue and the enjoyment of the occasions is one of the pleasantest of each year. All persons over seventy years of age with attendants are included in the invitation. In contrast to this event Mr. Fox has several times invited the children to a May party and the event has been celebrated In the good old country style of a May pole with decorations, in bright colors, and children, overbrimming with joy, dancing around it. They were furnished a dinner and given a day of keenest enjoyment. These things are done by Mr. Fox as an expression of that natural disposition to make good use of the opportunities and favors that fortune has placed in his hands. He is the founder of the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias lodge in Milton Mills; belongs to the Grange and the United Workmen.
ASA FOX & SON. General Merchants. The firm of Asa Fox & Son has been intimately connected with the business and history of Milton Mills since 1834. At that period business was carried on in a way so different from the present methods that it would seem that there was hardly any connection between then and now; yet in this firm we have the evolved business of that period of time with all the elements of modernism and only the records and the memories of the days when there were but two shipments of goods received per year to recall the primitive system.
Mr. Elbridge Fox, who is now the senior member of the firm and is in partnership with his son, Everett F. Fox, began clerking in his father’s store when a small boy at the age of 16 was sent to Boston to buy the half-year’s stock of goods for the store. From that time to the present, he has been constantly engaged in business and has been, and is now, one of the most active men in business life on New Hampshire. The firm name has not changed from the time when it became Asa Fox & Son and the business is carried on on the same site, although new buildings have been erected. The original founder of the business died in 1887.
The junior partner was admitted to the firm when 21 years old. He is possessed of the sturdy qualities that made his father and grandfather successful men and in his turn is bearing the brunt of the hard work in the conduct of the business. He has been on the school board and is now town treasurer.
The business is that of a general country store – the stock consisting of groceries, dry and fancy goods, drugs and medicines, hardware and farming implements, furniture, and a variety of merchandise that belongs to stores of the kind. A larger or more varied stock of goods is not to be found in this section. As long as the oldest patron can remember the store has been headquarters for household supplies and will so continue for years to come.
It is a remarkable record but it is true that Mr. Elbridge W. Fox been in public life almost as long as he has been in private business. For forty-five years he has been county correspondent for the Department of Agriculture at Washington. He has held nearly every office within the gift of the town and other positions connected with the national and state governments. Since 1878 he has been supervisor of the check list (a state office in New Hampshire) and in 1899 to 1901 was a senator from the 12th district. He is a member of the Board of Health. From 1865 to 1885 he was postmaster. Mr. Fox has had an almost unequaled record in public service, yet he has never sought it and has been an unwilling official many times and has found the exactions hard, when private business demanded his constant attention. He is today in his seventy-seventh year, well, active and attending daily to his various interests, which extend beyond the bounds of the store. It is a pleasure to meet and talk with a man of his character, whose memory and active service connect the past system of business with the present. He is thoroughly abreast of the present methods and appreciates the benefits of the changes that have come and in referring to the interesting ways of the old time traders, he is contrasting to show the vast improvement and is not, as now and then some men do, sighing for a return to “the good old days.”
The business standing of the firm has been of the highest possible character for many years and the personal estimate placed upon the individual members of it are of the same degree. They are public spirited and pleasant men in all the relations of life. The village of Milton Mills is well favored in the possession of such a firm and such citizens.
Concluded in Milton Mills Sketch of 1911 – 4
References:
Find a Grave. (2013, July 31). Asa Fox. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/114673689/asa-fox
Find a Grave. (2013, July 31). Asa Augustus Fox. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/114695724/asa-augustus-fox
Find a Grave. (2013, July 31). Charles D. Fox. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/114673535/charles-d-fox
Find a Grave. (2013, July 31). Elbridge Wood Fox. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/114673509/elbridge-wood-fox
Find a Grave. (2013, August 4). Everett Fremont Fox. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/114891790/everett-fremont-fox
Find a Grave. (2013, August 12). Henry H. Townsend. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/115352239
Milton Observer 