Author: Muriel Bristol

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | December 30, 2018

Here we find again the inhabitants of Milton stoutly opposing slavery. In this instance, Senator William P. Fessenden, an anti-slavery Whig from Maine, submitted to the US Senate the petition of 340 male voters of Milton, NH, for a repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

Their petition was referred to committee, i.e., ignored.

Congress Thursday. In the Senate. Mr. Fessenden presented a petition signed by over 340 voters of the town of Milton, N.H., the birthplace of President Pierce, praying for a repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law – referred. The bill to establish a line of steamers between the ports of San Francisco and Shanghai, in China, was then taken up, when Mr. Seward supported the bill in an earnest and forcible speech, and when he concluded, the bill was laid aside to take up the bill appropriating $10,000,000 for the ratification of the Mexican Treaty, which was received from the House. The bill was immediately passed by a vote of 34 to 6. After an Executive Session, the Senate adjourned (Hartford Courant, July 1, 1854).

The Milton of 1850 had 1,629 inhabitants, consisting of 307 households residing in 295 dwellings. (That makes for an average of 5.31 inhabitants per household and 5.52 inhabitants per dwelling). Of those 1,629 inhabitants, 861 were males and 768 were females. (This ratio is rather male heavy). Some 431 of those male inhabitants were of voting age.

So, the 340 anti-slavery petitioners of 1854 represented nearly eight-tenths (78.9%) of Milton’s 431 eligible male voters. We might justly take pride in them.

One of the principal methods used by those opposing the Fugitive Slave Law was jury nullification. Jurors simply refused to convict those on trial for aiding fugitive slaves. They were well within their rights to do so. They held the Fugitive Slave Law to be invalid.

It has always been, and still is, a juror’s absolute right to judge the validity of the laws being prosecuted, as well as the facts of any particular case. NH’s constitution, as well as its laws, explicitly recognize and acknowledge what was already a juror’s natural right.

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See also Milton and Abolitionism and Milton in the News – 1838

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1853; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1857

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References:

FIJA. (2018). Fully Informed Jury Association. Retrieved from fija.org/

NH General Court. (2012). RSA 519:23-a – Right of Accused. Retrieved from www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/LIII/519/519-23-a.htm

Wikipedia. (2018, December 6). Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_Slave_Act_of_1850

Wikipedia. (2018, November 8). Jury Nullification. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification

Wikipedia. (2018, November 6). William P. Fessenden. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_P._Fessenden

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | December 27, 2018

Construction on the Great Falls & Conway Railroad was “near” Milton, NH, when this blasting accident occurred on Thursday, December 23, 1852.

Three men who were at work on the Great Falls and Conway Railroad, near Milton, N.H., on the 23d ult., were severely injured by tbe premature explosion of a blast. One of them had an eye blown out (New York Times, January 13, 1853).

SAD ACCIDENT – On Thursday, the 23d ult., as some workmen on the first section of the Great Falls and Conway Railroad at Milton, N.H., were engaged in blasting on a ledge, the powder took fire from a spark produced from striking the tamping iron against the rock when “tamping down,” severely injuring three of the workmen. One man had an eye blown out, and was otherwise injured about the head, and the other two were severely burnt by the powder (Orleans County Gazette (Irasburgh, VT), January 29, 1853).

Nothing in this report indicates whether the “first section” of the railroad line had progressed “near to” Milton or just beyond it.

AN INTERESTING CLIPPING. The following paragraph of local interest is clipped from the Boston Journal’s department, “News of Fifty Years Ago.”

“Railroad Project. A meeting was to have been held at Portsmouth last evening to take measures to secure the construction of a railroad from Great Falls to Eliot. The Portsmouth Journal states that the whole expense of the construction of the road from Eliot, a little less than six miles, to Great Falls is about $100,000. About $60,000 of this sum has already been subscribed, and a subscription of $20,000 from Portsmouth would warrant its immediate construction. This would be a branch or extension of the Great Falls or Conway road, which is open from Great Falls to Milton, thirteen miles, and 300 men are now on the road between that place and Wakefield, nine miles further.” (Portsmouth Herald, February 3, 1903).

This Portsmouth Herald article of February 1903 reprints a Portsmouth Journal article of fifty years earlier, i.e., February 1853. It has the railroad open already as far as Milton, with 300 men working between there and Wakefield. The December 1852 blasting accident mentioned above must have happened in the stretch between Milton and Union, but closer to Milton.

The Great Falls & Conway Railroad reached Wakefield’s Union village by 1855.

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1848; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1854

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By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | December 25, 2018

Here follow more Federal requests for proposals (RFP) for post roads or routes. First, route 236, which would run thrice a week from Great Falls, i.e., Somersworth, NH, to Eaton, NH, and back, with Milton as a stop along the way.

NEW HAMPSHIRE. 236. From Great Falls at 1 p.m., Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday By Rochester, Chestnut Hill, Milton, Union, Wakefield, North Wakefield, Ossipee, Centre Ossipee, West Ossipee, and Eaton. To Conway, by 4 a.m. next days, 60 miles and back between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Next, a “special” satellite post road or route that ran thrice a week from Milton to Milton Mills, and back.

Special Offices. Proposals are invited for supplying the following offices in New Hampshire for the nett [SIC] proceeds of said offices, respectively – limited to a sum to be named in the proposals in each case: Albany from Conway, 4 miles and back, once a week. Alstead from New Alstead, 3½ miles and back, twice a week. Bedford from Manchester, 4 miles and back, three times a week. Drewsville from Bellows Falls, 3 miles and back, three times a week. Hanover Centre from Hanover, 6 miles and back, once a week. Harrisville from Dublin, 4 miles and back, once a week. Holderness Centre from Holderness, 4 miles and back, once a weak. Hudson from Nashua, 3 miles and back, three times a week. Jackson from Lower Bartlett, 5 miles and back, twice a week. Landaff from Bath, 4½ miles and back, twice a week. Londonderry from Derry, 4 miles and back, three times a week. Loudon Ridge from Gilmanton, 3 miles and back, twice a week. Lyndeboro from South Lyndeboro, 3 miles and back, twice a week. Milton Mills from Milton, 5 miles and back, three times a week. Nelson from Nelson Factory, 3 miles and back, twice a week. New Durham from Farmington, 5 miles and back, once a week. North Londonderry from Manchester, 6 miles and back, twice a week. North Salem from Salem, 4 miles and back, once a week. North Sandwich from Centre Sandwich, 6½ miles and back, once a week. North Weymouth from Quincy, 3 miles and back, three times a week. Orfordville from Orford, 2 miles and back, three times a week. Poplin from Raymond, 4 miles and back, once a week. Roxbury from Keene, 5 miles and back, once a week. Rye from Portsmouth, 5½ miles and back, twice a week. South Bradford from Bradford, 2½ miles and lack, twice a week. South Kingston from Newtown, 4 miles and back, twice a week. Surry from Keene, 6 miles and back, twice a week. Sutton from Warner, 9 miles and back, three times a week. West Boscawen from Boscawen, 7 miles and back, twice a week. West Windham from Windham, 3½ miles and back,  twice a week (Washington Union, December 31, 1848).

This was likely the final post office route proposals for route 236, as defined above. The Portsmouth, Great Falls and Conway railroad would reach South Milton, by 1850, and Union, by 1855. Thereafter, mail for Milton would come by train.

Likely, the special route from Milton to Milton Mills became instead a special route from Union station to Milton Mills.

See also Milton in the News – 1827, Milton in the News – 1839, and Milton’s First Postmasters (1818-c1840)

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1845; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1853

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By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | December 23, 2018

Milton buildings burned frequently. It had partly to do with their construction methods and materials, everything being made of wood, including wooden roof shingles, and partly to do with heating with fires. Heat was provided by open hearth fires, then the more efficient but more intensely-hot wood stoves, and, later, coal fires.

FIRE AND LOSS OF LIFE. A correspondent of the Bee at Rochester, N.H., writes that a fire broke out on the 17th at Milton Three Ponds, which consumed the new and excellent yarn mill of Messrs. A.S. Howard & Co. – Loss about §12,000, and no insurance. A very worthy young man, the son of John H. Varney, who was a watchman in the mill, was burnt to death (Baltimore Daily Commercial, November 24, 1845).

The mills at Milton, (N.H.,) owned by Messrs. A.S. Howard & Co., and occupied for the manufacture of cotton yarn, were entirely destroyed by fire last week. Loss $12,000. A man who was asleep in the loft was burnt to death (Columbian Fountain (Washington, DC), November 27, 1845).

Fires. A correspondent of the Boston Bee, writing from Rochester, N.H., states that a fire broke out on the 17th at Milton Three points, which consumed the new and excellent yarn mill of Messrs. A.S. Howard & Co. Loss about $12,000, and no insurance. A very worthy young man, the son of John A. Varney, who was a watchman in the mill, was burned to death (Daily National Pilot (Buffalo, NY), November 27, 1845).

Except for the death of the unfortunate young watchman, Caleb Varney, this was a relatively routine fire by Milton standards. And Milton was not alone in experiencing such “conflagrations.” Dover lost a whole block of wooden storefronts in 1847, and its railroad station in 1848, just to name a few. Rochester and Portsmouth suffered very severe fires over the years.

Algernon Sidney Howard was born in Tamworth, NH, October 17, 1796, son of David and Rebecca (Whitman) Howard. He died in Sangerville, ME, August 5, 1859.

In 1834 the “Mechanics Company” was incorporated consisting of Algernon S. Howard, Richard Kimball, Joseph Anthony, and their associates, all of Great Falls. They built the [Rochester] “Lower Mill,” where they made blankets for six or seven years, when they failed, having sunk their whole capital, and paid no debts (McDuffie, 1892).

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1843; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1848

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References:

McDuffie, Franklin. (1892). History of the Town of Rochester, New Hampshire, from 1722 to 1890. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=RY0-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA247

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | December 21, 2018

Andrew Howard, of Rochester, NH, robbed and murdered Miss Phebe Hanson, aged sixty-three years, at her home in the Meaderboro district of Rochester, NH, on Tuesday, September 19, 1843.

That is really a Rochester story. Milton residents appear here only peripherally, as members of an “indignant” crowd of 10,000 onlookers, who were present outside the Dover jail for the November 1845 execution of the murderer.

The Exeter News-Letter says that the gallows had been erected and preparations all made for the execution of Andrew Howard, at Dover, (N.H.) before the Governor arrived with a reprieve. The people who had come from Barrington and Bowpond, Squannemagonic and the Dock, the Three Ponds and Crown Point, Barnstead and the Bear country, to see the sight, were very indignant at the interference of the Governor. The Dover Gazette estimates that there were 10,000 strangers in that town on that day (Weekly National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), November 29, 1845).

Apart from the indignation, which was quite strong (many subsequent demonstrations), our principal interest lies in the names of the places from which the 10,000 people came. Barnstead and Barrington are obvious. Three Ponds is Milton. The Dock is the Puddle Dock district of Farmington, Squannemagonic is the Gonic district of Rochester, and Bow Pond and Crown Point are districts of Strafford. Bear Country remains a mystery.

The murderer Howard was eventually hanged at the Dover jail at 1:40 PM, Wednesday, July 8, 1846. He was then twenty-three years of age.

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1842; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1845

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By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | December 20, 2018

Milton had over a foot of snow in late November 1842, which “much impeded” local travel.

Snow. At Milton, N.H., about 20 miles from Dover, the snow, ten days ago, was 14 inches deep, and travelling was much impeded in consequence (Philadelphia Public Ledger, December 8, 1842).

That would not seem to be an outlandish amount of snow for Milton, although it might have been a bit early in the season. (Such as we have had this year). Perhaps a run-of-the-mill news item for New England seemed more notable further south in Philadelphia.

No one plowed the roads. Some might travel by horse. For the few that possessed a horse and a carriage, they might now break out their sleigh. In the Christmas song “Over the River and Through the Woods,” the family is traveling by sleigh to Grandmother’s house. Larger places might have “rolled” their roads, packing down the snow, which would facilitate travel by sleigh.

Most would have simply trudged through the snow, either with snowshoes or without, or just stayed put where they were. Various church denominations reported low attendance and closures, sometimes for weeks at a time.

It was a good thing that they had earlier engaged in “making hay while the sun shines,” so they might feed their animals now. New England farmhouses frequently had the barn attached or connected to the house by an enclosed passage. No need to go outside.

They would have laid in a good supply of firewood before winter. Historians have estimated that the average Colonial-era household consumed an acre of woodland every year in their open hearths. Many households would by now have a Ben Franklin-style wood stove. Much more efficient. Smart guy, that Ben.

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1839; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1843

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