By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | September 30, 2018
I came across the following obituary while doing some Post Office research. Dr. Stephen Drew practiced as Milton’s physician for over fifty years. (He was for a brief time also Postmaster of the Milton Post Office).
OBITUARY OF DR STEPHEN DREW
BY DR HALEY OF MILTON
Dr. Stephen Drew studied medicine with Dr. Ayer of Newfield, Me., attended medical lectures at Harvard University and at other medical colleges, and received his diploma in medicine about the year 1815. He first practiced his profession for more than a year at Conway, in this State, thence he removed to Milton, N.H., where he faithfully and zealously followed his profession until about four years ago, when his strong and almost invincible frame began to yield to the relentless ravages of age and disease. He was in active practice, in this and adjoining towns, fifty-three years. Indeed, he did not entirely cease office practice until a little before his death, March 1872, so we may as well say fifty-seven years in all.
He came to Milton at the same time that Dr. James Farrington went to Rochester. Dr. Pray was also at Rochester, Dr. Hammond at Farmington and Dr. Russell at Wakefield. These fathers in medicine have all passed away most of them long ago. Had Dr. Drew lived until April, 1872, he would have been eighty one years of age. He lived to see his own generation almost all pass away, another enter upon and pass well across the stage of action, and a third generation appear and pass through infancy and childhood into youth and early manhood.
The Milton of fifty-six years ago was very different from the Milton of to-day. Says a reliable informant: “At that early period the large tract of country over which his visits extended was a wilderness in comparison with to-day. Very few good roads, but many bridle paths, making it necessary for him to perform much of his labor on horseback, subjecting him to much inconvenience and exposure.”
He was eminent as a surgeon, preeminent as a practitioner of medicine. He was honored by his peers and revered by his younger brethren. In many respects, he was a model physician. In a word he was a physician. He brought to his profession a life-long enthusiasm, which kept him, to last, well in the advance of medical knowledge. His extensive experience, keen observation and quick reason him to anticipate many an advance in medical practice. He was studious, energetic, laborious, unwearying.
In the “sick room” he was calm and self-possessed. No ordinary or extraordinary danger or unlooked-for emergency could throw him off his guard. To the full extent of knowledge, resources and skill, he was able to do all [that] could be done for his patients. The results of all his experience, the accumulations of his extensive research, hastened in orderly array to his aid.
Then, too, he was wisely deliberate in his opinions actions, never hasty, inconsiderate or rash. And being prudently cautious in his determinations, he had great firmness in carrying them out. Yet he was liberal in his treatment of those who differed from him. He was willing candidly to weigh the reasons for modes of practice other than his own; and as he sought new light he was ready to welcome it from whatever source.
Another grand qualification in a physician, he was thoroughly trustworthy. The secrets of his patients and of their families, whether directly or indirectly communicated to him, were inviolably safe in his keeping. His own family never knew anything of the secret history of his patients. A wise head, an attentive ear, a sharp and open eye, but a silent tongue.
He was an old-time gentleman, a gentleman through and through, a man of culture in mind and heart and manners, a man whose manhood could not long be concealed.
He was benevolent, that basis quality of character, out of which all true politeness springs, and from which it gets its strength. He was the poor man’s friend, the poor man’s willing servant. He served as faithfully in the abode of poverty as in the mansion of wealth.
He was indeed “the beloved physician.” Into hundreds, thousands of families has he repeatedly entered as a messenger of hope and help. Thousands of lives, by the blessing of God, has he been the means of prolonging. Thousands have been comforted by him in hours of bitter pain and sorrow, or conducted by him through imminent peril. Yea, until this generation, and the generation after, shall all have passed away, he will continue to be in the remembrances and traditions of multitudes, “the beloved PHYSICIAN.”
In his last years he came fully into the light and life of Christ. The very day before his death he spent largely with his Bible and book of prayer. God was preparing him for his speedy exit from the scenes of this life and entrance into the glories of the life everlasting?
The Milton Board of Selectmen (BOS) have posted their agenda for a BOS meeting to be held Monday, October 1.
The meeting is scheduled to begin with a Non-Public preliminary session at 5:00 PM. That agenda has two Non-Public items classed as 91-A:3 II (a) and 91-A:3 II (c).
91-A:3 II (a). The dismissal, promotion, or compensation of any public employee or the disciplining of such employee, or the investigation of any charges against him or her, unless the employee affected (1) has a right to a meeting and (2) requests that the meeting be open, in which case the request shall be granted.
The first matter (the “a” item) suggests that some Town employee is getting either a kick in the pants, a pat on the back, or a kiss in the mail.
91-A:3 II (c). Matters which, if discussed in public, would likely affect adversely the reputation of any person, other than a member of the public body itself, unless such person requests an open meeting. This exemption shall extend to any application for assistance or tax abatement or waiver of a fee, fine, or other levy, if based on inability to pay or poverty of the applicant.
The second matter (the “c” item) might relate again to the recent tax abatement process. Although one would think they would have worked their way through those by now. It might by now be one of the other reasons cited in by the code.
The BOS intend to adjourn their Non-Public BOS session at approximately (*) 6:00 PM, when they intend to return to Public session.
The Public portion of the agenda has new business, old business, the next wave of departmental budget presentations, and the approval of minutes.
Under new business is scheduled: 1) Town Planner Contract Acceptance (Heather Thibodeau), 2) 2019-2024 CIP Discussion (Ryan Thibeault), and 3) Conservation Commission Non-Voting Member Position Discussion.
The CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) is the method by which the departments fast-track their “capital” expenses past the ballot. By definition, government has no capital. No one invests in it. It has no income apart from what it levies in taxes and fees. Government is a consumer and its inventory consists of consumption goods purchased with tax money. For that reason, some have termed this the Tax Acceleration Plan (TAP) instead.
Under old business is scheduled: 4) Downtown Parking Discussion Follow up (Rich Krauss), 5) Townhouse Heating/Cooling Discussion Follow up (Erin Hutchings), 6) Recreation Revenue and Office Discussion (Ryan Thibeault), and 7) Selectmen Discussion of Budget Presentations from 9.24.18
Chief Krauss returns to speak again on downtown parking issues. Winter is coming. Townhouse heating problems appear for the fifth time.
Chairman Thibeault will speak on Recreation Revenue. In prior meetings, the BOS was unable to distinguish between beach admittance money and boat ramp money. The Recreation Office discussion likely proceeds from Selectman Lucier’s expressed desire to shut down the Beach’s satellite office for the winter.
The BOS will discuss the prior (September 24) meeting’s annual departmental budget submissions. That bears watching. The prior meeting’s installment of departmental budget submissions included Economic Development, Budget Committee, Fire, Emergency Management, Library, Welfare, Town Clerk/Tax Collector, and Outside Appropriations. (Not in that order).
This meeting’s installment of departmental budget submissions includes (time permitting): Planning & Code Enforcement, Planning Board, Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA), Conservation, Town Administration, Government Buildings, Solid Waste, Highway, and Debt Services.
By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | September 25, 2018
A puzzle posed by British puzzler Henry Ernest Dudeney. It was published in the Strand magazine in April 1930.
Smith, Jones and Robinson are the driver, fireman and guard on a train, but not necessarily in that order. The train carries three passengers, coincidentally with the same surnames, but identified with a “Mr.”: Mr. Jones, Mr. Smith and Mr. Robinson.
Mr. Robinson lives in Leeds. The guard lives halfway between Leeds and Sheffield. Mr. Jones’s salary is £1,000 2s. 1d. per annum. Smith can beat the fireman at billiards. The guard’s nearest neighbour (one of the passengers) earns exactly three times as much as the guard. The guard’s namesake lives in Sheffield.
What is the name of the engine driver?
The salary amount of £1,000 2s. 1d., or one thousand pounds, two shillings and one penny, is significant only in that it is not evenly divisible by three.
[Answer to Puzzle #5 to follow in the next Puzzle]
Return – the sheep is on one side and the wolf and cabbage are on the other
Take the cabbage over
Return with the sheep – the cabbage is on one side and the sheep and wolf (and farmer) are on the other
Take the wolf over
Return – the wolf and cabbage are on one side and the sheep is on the other
Take sheep over – all three have crossed over
Thus there are seven crossings, four forward and three back.
This river-crossing puzzle has spawned many “cosmetic” variations, such as fox, goose, and beans, and has appeared in the folklore of many lands. It appeared in the Simpsons episode Gone Maggie Gone with Homer Simpson trying to shuttle Maggie, Santa’s Little Helper, and a Jar of Rat Poison that Looked like Candy.
One of our more “waggish” commenters suggests a cosmetic variation of a selectman, a taxpayer, and the taxpayer’s money.
Prior to the Declaration of Independence, Mount Independence had a less grandiose name: Rattlesnake Hill.
Two years previously, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys had surprised and captured Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775. He famously did so “In the name of Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress.” He was certainly an interesting man. He had rebelled against New York prior to the Revolution. He was a rebel’s rebel. The Revolution just sort of joined him. Guns from Fort Ticonderoga had been sledged to Boston, where they were used to expel the British from that city. Under threat of those guns, mounted on Dorchester heights, the British “evacuated” on their fleet to occupy New York City instead. (Boston celebrates a city government holiday on “Evacuation Day,” which is coincidentally also St. Patrick’s Day).
Fort Ticonderoga had been built by the French in 1755 and had seen better days. It stood on the New York side of the narrow bottom of Lake Champlain at its river outlet. It had been built with an eye to blocking any approach from the south (up the Hudson River from Albany and New York). Its strong defenses were less formidable when approached from the north (down Lake Champlain from Canada).
To improve those defenses, the Colonial forces built an ancillary fortress on Rattlesnake Hill in 1776. That was a sort of hilly semi-peninsula on the Vermont side (modern Orwell, VT) of the lake. They constructed also a rough military road, with log planking and bridges to span wet places, between there and Hubbardton, Vermont, and a pontoon bridge over to Fort Ticonderoga. News of the Declaration of Independence came there on July 18, 1776 and Rattlesnake Hill became Mount Independence.
British General Guy Carleton arrived there from Canada with his army in October 1776. He abandoned this initial invasion attempt when he saw the double-fortressed position with its approximately 12,000 defenders. Most of the Colonial forces dispersed to their homes for the winter not long after. Their enlistments had expired. Only a skeleton force of 2,500 remained to hold the forts over the winter.
The British planned a much more serious invasion attempt for 1777. They hoped to split New England off from the rest of the colonies. To accomplish this, General John Burgoyne’s army would proceed south across Lake Champlain from Canada and General Gage’s army would come north up the Hudson River from New York City. They planned to meet in Albany, control the Hudson River, and thus split the colonies in two.
All three Continental regiments of the New Hampshire Line marched westward from New Hampshire in May 1777 in order to reinforce Fort Ticonderoga’s skeleton garrison. It took them six or seven weeks to get there.
At the head of the Second Regiment, its commander, Colonel Nathan Hale (not the famous spy, but another one from Rindge, NH) rode on horseback with his staff. The Second Regiment’s national and regimental colors flapped in the breeze.
The Regimental and National Flags of the 2nd Regiment, New Hampshire Line
The colors they carried before them had been made in Boston in April 1777. The buff-colored national flag’s ring of thirteen interlocked state rings was based on a Benjamin Franklin design. It had also been used on Continental currency the year before. Its motto “We Are One” appeared in the center of the rings. The blue-colored regimental flag had a shield with “NH 2nd Regt” upon it and a banner or scroll appeared above with the motto “The Glory Not the Prey.” The two cantons were “mocks” or variations on the British Union Jack.
Colonial soldiers and engineers had built encampments for three brigades (enlarged or reinforced regiments) at Mount Independence in 1776. The defenses in progress there included a large shore battery, with a another horseshoe-shaped battery or citadel above it. They also built storehouses, workshops and had begun a star-shaped picket fort. Some of this work continued in the spring of 1777, including the beginnings of three new batteries along the peninsula’s eastern shore.
Mount Independence was as yet an unarmed and undefended construction project. When the New Hampshire regiments arrived, they joined the skeleton garrison of Fort Ticonderoga.
British General John Burgoyne and his army of 7,800 British and Hessian soldiers arrived soon after at nearby Fort Crown Point on June 30, 1777. It was unoccupied and his presence went unnoticed. He next had his troops drag cannons up onto the summit of Mount Defiance (Sugarloaf Hill), which overlooked both Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence. (“Where a goat can go, a man can go; and where a man can go, he can drag a gun.” – British Major General William Phillips, as his men brought cannon to the top of Mount Defiance in 1777). The British occupation of Mount Defiance remained completely unnoticed until July 5, when some British-allied Indians lit a fire there.
The Colonial commander, General St. Clair, was completely surprised. British guns overlooked Fort Ticonderoga now, which made it completely untenable. He had little choice but to order an immediate evacuation of Fort Ticonderoga. The Colonial forces snuck out that night across the pontoon bridge to Mount Independence, under its British guns, and from there down the military log road to Hubbardton. They were headed for the Rutland, Vermont area.
Most of the sick and wounded were taken to bateaux boats at Skenesborough (now Whitehall, New York), while that was still possible. The baggage went there too.
Battle of Hubbardton
Colonel Seth Warner commanded the rear guard covering the Continental retreat toward Rutland, Vermont. His detail included his own Green Mountain Boys and Colonel Hale’s Second New Hampshire regiment. There were also some stragglers from other units, as well as some number of sick and wounded men.
Colonel Warner paused in Hubbardton, Vermont, on July 6, 1777, while the main force escaped down the Castleton road. He set his men to felling trees to make a obstacle of downward-facing branches on Monument Hill and to extend that position on either flank. The British did not appear that day and Colonel Warner decided to spend the night.
The next morning, July 7, at 5:00 AM, Colonel Warner’s pickets spotted approaching British scouts. There was an exchange of gunfire and the scouts retreated. A more substantial British force arrived at the bottom of Monument Hill at 6:30 AM. They attacked and were repulsed.
The British regrouped, attacked again, and were repulsed again. British General Fraser sent now for his Hessians. Meanwhile, his Grenadiers climbed the Pittsford Ridge beyond the Colonial east flank in order to block their escape route down the Castleton road.
The Hessian reinforcements arrived about 8:30 AM and counter-attacked on the Colonial northern flank, where the British were being hard-pressed. The Second’s commander, Col. Hale, and a detachment of seventy Second Regiment men were captured. Colonel Warner decided it was time to go. The Colonials withdrew across the Pittsford Ridge as best they could.
This is considered to have been a British victory, as they held the field when it was all over, but the rear guard had accomplished its mission. They forced the British to stop, deploy their forces, and fight. All of this took time, valuable time. After the battle, British General Fraser gave up his pursuit of the Colonial main body entirely.
The Battle of Hubbardton involved approximately 2,230 troops – 1,000 to 1,200 Americans, 850 British, and 180 Germans fighting for the British. It resulted in the deaths of 41 American, 50 British, and 10 German soldiers. Of the 244 wounded, 96 were American, 134 British, and 14 German. The British took 234 American prisoners. Total casualties, including prisoners, were roughly 27 percent of all participating troops.
Milton’s Private Enoch Wingate was wounded during this rear guard action. Captain Rowell’s next muster roll listed him as one of sixteen men that had been “Missing since July 7th.”
The Second New Hampshire Regiment continued to regard the captured Colonel Hale as its commander. His name headed all their paperwork, until as late as January 1779, when Lt. Colonel George Reid was listed as commander. Hale died in captivity in September 1780.
The fancy Regimental flags also went missing. They had been packed away with the baggage on the bateaux at Skenesborough to go down river. The British got the lot.
And next came Bemis Heights? Yes.
To be continued in Milton’s Winter Soldier, Part Three
National Archives. (n.d.) Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
The Milton Board of Selectmen (BOS) have posted their agenda for a BOS meeting to be held Monday, September 24.
The meeting is scheduled to begin with a Non-Public preliminary session at 5:00 PM. That agenda has three Non-Public items classed as 91-A:3 II (c), 91-A:3 II (j), and 91-A:3 II (c).
91-A:3 II (c). Matters which, if discussed in public, would likely affect adversely the reputation of any person, other than a member of the public body itself, unless such person requests an open meeting. This exemption shall extend to any application for assistance or tax abatement or waiver of a fee, fine, or other levy, if based on inability to pay or poverty of the applicant.
The first and third matters (the “c” items) appear to relate again to the recent tax abatement process.
To Repeat. In November, the BOS made a serious error in setting the 2017 tax rate. It affected all of the taxpayers, i.e., about 2,700 taxpayers, to a very large degree. Various figures have been given, ranging as high as $1.4 million. In December, the BOS suggested that those affected should file for abatements, which was a bit of shell game. An abatement fund of $20,000 could not possibly resolve an unauthorized tax levy of $1.4 million. This would be the fourth meeting that devoted agenda time to hearing abatements or appeals of rejected abatements.
91-A:3 II (j). Consideration of confidential, commercial, or financial information that is exempt from public disclosure under RSA 91-A:5, IV in an adjudicative proceeding pursuant to RSA 541 [Rehearings and Appeals in Certain Cases] or RSA 541-A [Administrative Procedure Act].
The second item (the “j” item) might also relate to abatements. Of course, it could be anything at all. It has been suggested to us since last time that it might have to do with discussing revisions of employee manuals and employee insurance buyouts, issues that have been mentioned in the open sessions.
The BOS intend to adjourn their Non-Public BOS session at approximately (*) 6:00 PM, when they intend to return to Public session.
The Public portion of the agenda has new business, old business, and the approval of minutes.
Under new business is scheduled: 1) Recording Clerk Agreement (Danielle Marique), and 2) Milton EOP Acceptance (Nick Marique).
We tried to research the somewhat cryptic acronym EOP, which will no doubt be explained (and accepted) in the meeting, but cannot decide to what those initials might refer. Possibilities include, but are not limited to:
Early Oil Project (the development of the Chirag oilfield),
Earth orientation parameters, a collection of parameters that describe irregularities in the rotation of the Earth,
Electroosmotic pump, a device that generates flow using an electric field,
Enhanced Outpatient Program, a program in the California Department of Corrections to provide care to mentally challenged inmates,
Ethernet over Power, a type of home networking in power-line communication,
Executive Office of the President of the United States, a part of the executive branch of the United States government often referred to as the White House,
Exchange Online Protection, an email filtering service, part of Microsoft’s Exchange Online family,
External occipital protuberance, part of the human skull, and
Hellenic Cycling Federation (Greek: Ελληνικη Ομοσπονδια Ποδηλασιας), the governing body of cycle racing in Greece.
None of these seem to be likely. It could refer to anything at all. Bureaucracies love their alphabet soup (and chapter heading numbers).
Under old business is scheduled: 3) Employee Handbook Update (Heather Thibodeau), 4) Insurance Buyout Discussion Follow up (Heather Thibodeau), 5) Town Report Printing Cost Discussion (Heather Thibodeau), 6) Building Permit Fees & Policy Discussion Follow up (Heather Thibodeau), and 7) Townhouse Heating/Cooling Discussion Follow up (Erin Hutchings).
The Employee Handbook and Employee Insurance Buyout items return from last time. Townhouse heating problems appear for the fourth time.
The Town Report Printing Cost discussion will be where they break it to Selectman Lucier that printing two Town Report publications could not possibly be cheaper than printing one. (After a diversion of staff resources to confirming the obvious). He has not noticed evidently that the tax assessment information he remembers as being in the back of the Town Report in days of yore is now available in an online system (Avitar) instead. A system for which we are already paying quite a bit.
Perhaps we could save the cost of printing two reports by just printing the URL of the Avitar database in the one report?
As for wanting to publish the names of tax delinquents in the Town Report. It is not difficult to see where that might end badly, very badly.
By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | September 21, 2018
Milton, N.H.
Strafford co. The Salmon Fall river washes its whole E. boundary, a distance of 13 miles; and a branch of the same river crosses, from the S. part of Wakefield, and unites near the centre of the E. Boundary. Teneriffe, a bold and rocky mountain, extends along the E. part of Milton, near which lies Milton pond, of considerable size, connecting with the Salmon Fall river. This town was formerly a part of Rochester, from which it was detached in 1802. It lies 40 miles N.E. from Concord, and 20 N.W. by N. from Dover. Population, 1830, 1,273.
On a warm April day, an older Milton man, Enoch Wingate, stood before Judge Richard Dame in the Strafford Court of Common Pleas in Dover. He had a tale to tell, or, in proper legal parlance, a “declaration” to make.
On this seventh day of April 1818 before me the Subscriber, one of the Judges of the Court of Common pleas for the County of Strafford in the first District in the state of Newhampshire, personally appears Enoch Wingate aged Sixty four years, resident in the town of Milton in the county of Strafford and state of Newhampshire aforesaid, who being by me first affirmed according to law doth on his solemn affirmation make the following declaration in order to obtain the provisions made by the late act of Congress intitled An act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and naval Service of the united states in the revolutionary war.
That the said Enoch Wingate inlisted at Rochester in the state of Newhampshire in the company commanded by Captain William Rowell in the Newhampshire line Second Regiment commanded by Col. Hale in the month of April or May 1777.
That he continued to serve in said Corps in the Service of the United States untill the 22 day of June 1780, when he was discharged from said Service at Dover in the State of Newhampshire having Served three years for which he enlisted.
That he was wounded in retreating from mount Independence, rejoined the army at Bemis heights, was at the taking of Gen. Burgoyne’s Army, marched to Pennsylvania, was in the Battle of Monmouth in 1778, was with General Sullivan in the Indian Country. –
And that he is in reduced Circumstances and stands in need of the assistance of his country for support. And that he has no other evidence of his said service except the discharge hereto annexed.
Solemnly affirmed to be true and declared before me, the day and year aforesaid.
Outside, after court, I caught up with him near a tavern. Sire Wingate, you certainly saw a lot of hard service. I’d like to hear about it. It’s a warm day. Here, have a seat in the shade, let me get you a nice, cool cider.
Enoch Wingate was about twenty-three years old when he walked from the Milton-to-be part of Rochester into Rochester as-is. It was a late April morning in 1777. He probably went to participate in a militia training day. These were festive occasions – a sort of holiday almost – featuring muster gingerbread, hard cider, rum, music, and, of course, some militia drills and training.
Colonel Stephen Evans of the Fourth New Hampshire Militia Regiment sent his sergeants out from Exeter. He wanted men for the New Hampshire Line regiments. The Continental Line was a reorganization of the existing state regiments into Continental regiments. General Washington had sought – begged really – for longer enlistments and a more professional structure.
The New Hampshire Line would consist of three Continental regiments manned with New Hampshire’s quota of volunteers or, if there were not sufficient volunteers, New Hampshire’s draftees. The older New Hampshire state regiments were the base on which these new regiments would be built. For instance, the 8th New Hampshire Regiment became the core of the new Second Regiment, New Hampshire Line. The new enlistment terms would be for three years, rather than one or less.
Likely, Wingate had read (or heard read) Thomas Paine’s recently-published polemic Common Sense. It began:
THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. …
The sergeants were persuasive too. The Rochester militiamen had all seen newspapers that told of General Washington’s victories last winter at Trenton and Princeton over the British and their Hessian mercenaries. The sergeants pointed out that most of those soldiers’ enlistments had expired already. Who would now fill the ranks? Who will preserve our liberty? New Hampshire needs you. (And there is that enlistment bounty too – £20).
Wingate was one of the twenty-three Rochester men (and one from Wolfeborough) that enlisted that day. His younger cousin (or brother), Daniel Wingate, Jr., signed up too. Col. Evans recruited for the First Regiment, but the two Wingates ended up in Captain William Rowell’s Eighth Company, in the Second Regiment, New Hampshire Line.
In a week or two, all that they had to settle their affairs and make their goodbyes, they marched. From Rochester, they likely marched next either to Exeter, the capital, or to Portsmouth, where their guns awaited them. The Continental Congress had purchased three thousand French muskets. The Mercury delivered a partial shipment from Nantes, France, to Portsmouth that very same month. Those muskets would be enough to outfit some, if not all, of the New Hampshire Line regiments.
The men called them “Charlesville” muskets, because they were made at the armory in Charleville-Mézières, France. They were the newer model, the 1766 one, not the older 1763 model. (There would be a 1777 model next). They fired a smaller 69-caliber bullet versus the British Brown Bess’ 75-caliber. The ammunition was lighter to carry. The muskets were lighter also than the British Brown Bess muskets while still having good stopping power. They were accurate out to 110 yards against a mass of men. The ramrod had been redesigned. They were long and sleek, with a bayonet way out on the business end.
Wingate’s had a walnut stock and its State, battalion, and serial number were stamped on the barrel: NH 2 B No. – well, forty-one years on, he forgets the exact number – 500something.
But how came you to be wounded at Mount Independence? For that matter, where is it and what happened there?
Aah, I could tell you something about that, he said, while looking into his empty mug.
National Archives. (n.d.) Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | September 18, 2018
The eighth-century English scholar Alcuin devised the following puzzle for the Emperor Charlemagne.
A traveler comes to a riverbank with a wolf, a goat and a head of cabbage. To his chagrin, he notes that there is only one boat for crossing over, which can carry no more than two passengers — the traveler and either one of the two animals or the cabbage. As the traveler knows, if left alone together, the goat will eat the cabbage and the wolf will eat the goat. The wolf does not eat cabbage. How does the traveler transport his animals and his cabbage to the other side intact in a minimum number of back-and-forth trips?
[Answer to Puzzle #4 to follow in the next Puzzle]
Turn on a switch and leave it on for several minutes. Then turn it off and turn on a second switch. Go to the attic. One light is burning: the one that switched on second and is still active. Feel the two bulbs that are not burning. One of them is still warm from having been switched on by the first switch for several minutes. By a process of elimination, the remaining bulb (the cool one) is activated by the third switch that was never used.
By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | September 15, 2018
An extract from the Farmington Weekly Courier of Friday, February 5, 1864.
A Letter from Milton Mills:
Milton Mills, Jan. 29, 1864 –
I am pleased to know, that someone has the courage and “goaheaditiveness” to start a paper in this part of the county, and hope it may prove as profitable to its Editor as interesting to its patron. News in this (the Northeast) corner of the county, is at this time quite meager. It is now the sleighing, and the farmers and wood men are busily engaged in carrying to market their surplus stock of wood, which this winter brings them a good round price, compared with the prices of former winters.
Some of the lovers of the “finny tribe” in this locality are enjoying the luxury of fishing upon Horn and Garvin Ponds, for pickerel, these pleasant days, with good “luck,” and this, as you well know, Mr. Editor, is fine sport, when you have plenty of “Tom Cod” for bait, and a “nibble” every now and then from each line.
Business in this locality is very good, with plenty of work for those disposed to “earn their living by the sweat of their brow” and otherwise.
The flannel Mill of John Townsend, Esq., is now in full blast, (and, by the way, it is reported to be the best woolen mill in New England) and turns out about thirteen thousand yards of flannel per week, which finds a ready sale in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. There is some prospect of having a new mill, put up the coming season, by our enterprising citizen, Edward Brierly, who is now engaged quite extensively in the printing and finishing of flannels, table covers, balmoral skirts, etc.
We boast of but four regular stores in our quiet little village, that of Asa Fox & son, Bray C. Simes, John U. Simes and Asa Jewett, all of which are doing a fair amount of business. We have beside these, three or four places where groceries, etc., are sold, much to the disadvantage of the regular trade. There is probably not a village of the size of this in New Hampshire, where so much blacksmith work is done, as in this — We have now four blacksmiths, (working early and late) and plenty of work for four more.
We are furnished daily, in this out-of-the-way locality, with the Boston morning and evening papers, by our friend Elbridge W. Fox, of the firm of Asa Fox & son, who also has charge of the Express Office of Canney & Co.
Did I say “this out-of-the-way locality?” Yes. Well, it is true in some respects, for we are situated four long miles east of the “head of locomotion” of the Great Falls & Conway Railroad at Union; but thanks to our enterprising Expressmen, Messrs. Canney & Co., we are provided with a good span of “chestnuts” and when once “aboard,” the “ribbons” in the hands of the faithful messenger and careful driver – Asa A. Fox — we are soon there.
One thing, among the many, that we need to give our village a more lively and business like appearance, is a shoe manufacturer; one with means and energy, capable of doing a large business, for we have plenty of good work men in this vicinity that would gladly make shoes for a home manufacturer, rather [than] freight stock from Rochester, Dover, Haverhill and Lynn.
But enough of this. People are beginning to talk politics, now the conventions are over. Excuse me, Mr. Editor, you don’t talk politics in your paper, so I will stop. More Anon.
Vulpes.
N.B. The pseudonym Vulpes is Latin for “Fox.”
For more about the Great Falls & Conway Railroad, see our piece on Milton’s Railroad Line.
References:
Farmington Weekly Courier. (1864, February 5). A Letter from Milton Mills. Farmington, NH
By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | September 14, 2018
MILTON’S CENTENNIAL
Events of the Day
The centennial celebration of the town of Milton, held August 30, 1902, was in honor of the one hundredth anniversary of the first town meeting. This meeting convened at the tavern of Lieut. Elijah Horne, August 30 1802, only a short time after the charter, which gave Milton its independent existence, had been signed by Governor Gilman. This instrument had been granted at the June session of the legislature of New Hampshire at the petition and largely through the efforts of Capt. Beard Plumer, one of the representatives from Rochester, who, with others, felt that the time had come for Milton to sever the ties which bound her to the mother town.
At the annual meeting held in March, 1902, it was voted to celebrate in an appropriate manner the closing of the first century of the town’s existence. An appropriation was made and a general committee selected. As a result of the able and painstaking efforts of this committee, together with those chosen to assist, the observance of the centennial was made eminently fitting to mark the close of the first century of Milton’s history.
Saturday, August 30, 1902, was a beautiful day; there was scarcely a cloud in the sky and the temperature was ideal for the purposes of the occasion. Sunrise was accompanied with the ringing of bells and a cannon salute of thirty-three guns. One hundred guns were fired during the day, a second thirty-three at noon and the remainder at sunset. Although the celebration had practically begun on Friday night with the huge bonfire on the summit of the historic Mt. Teneriffe, it was not until Saturday morning that the guests commenced to arrive in large numbers.
Every incoming train was heavily laden and hundreds came in teams from surrounding towns. It was the largest crowd that Milton ever saw being variously estimated by the press at from seven to ten thousand.
From 8.30 to 10 o’clock field and water sports were held; from 9 to 10 o’clock the Hanson American band of Rochester gave a concert on the Upper square. Then came the street parade. This was a fine feature of the day, including many beautifully trimmed floats and private teams, bicycles, and not a few grotesque and humorous make-ups. The marshal was Major Charles J. Berry, Milton Mills, N.H.; assistant marshal, James F. Reynolds, Wakefield, Mass.; aides, Clifford A. Berry and Charles Manser, Milton Mills; Walter Holden, Wakefield, Mass.; Scott Ramsdell, Samuel E. Drew, and Fred S. Hartford, Milton.
Following the parade a good old fashioned New England dinner was served in large tents, on the Nute High School grounds, to over two thousand people. It was at high noon, also, that the new town clock in the Congregational Church was officially started. This was presented to the town of Milton by Mr. Albert O. Mathes of Dover, N.H., as a memorial to the Rev. James Doldt, who was pastor of the Congregational Church from 1850 to 1871.
Promptly at two o’clock the commemorative exercises began in the grove, on the Nute High School grounds, Hon. Elbridge W. Fox, of Milton Mills, Ex-Senator from this district, presiding as President of the day. In addition to those upon the official programme, Mayor Bradley of Rochester spoke in behalf of the mother town and Mr. Edward P. Nichols of Lexington, Mass., treasurer of the Great Falls Manufacturing Company, delivered a short address. The violin used as an accompaniment to the singing was played by Miss Annie B. Kimball, of Milton, while the old violincello which took the place of the church organ in the early days of the town, was restrung and played by Mr. Sumner Hodsdon of Dover, N.H.
One of the most attractive and appropriate features of the day was the collection of antiquities in the old Worcester House, itself past one hundred years in age. These rare and valuable articles, from 75 to 200 or more years old, and gathered from many sources, by Mr. Albert O. Mathes of Dover N.H., were intimately connected with the early history of the town. Many of the interesting buildings in the village had placards placed upon them, giving the date of their erection and other matters of interest. Among these were the following: The home of Dr. Stephen Drew, 1820-1873, built by John Bergin in 1773; the house in which Lewis W. Nute was born; the building formerly the Union meetinghouse, 1838-1859; John Fish’s house, 1794, where was located the first post-office in 1818; the site of the first tavern built in 1787 by Benjamin Palmer; the house of Thomas Leighton, 1810-1860; the site of the house of Gilman Jewett, first town clerk, 1800; the site of the first tannery, owned by John Bergin, 1773.
The celebration was in every respect an unqualified success, and reflected the greatest credit upon all concerned. All of those present, whether natives of the town or friends, felt that the observance was in every way worthy of the occasion and of Milton.
Mitchell-Cony Co. (1908). The Town Register Farmington, Milton, Wakefield, Middleton, Brookfield, 1907-8. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=qXwUAAAAYAAJ
