Category: History

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | August 1, 2019

Here is extracted the Milton business listing section from the Dover Directory of 1905-06. This Milton business listing is more comprehensive than many that have been available to us in prior years.

The bolded upper-case entries (with page numbers) were those that had purchased supplementary advertisements. We may deal with those advertisements in a separate article.

The abbreviations used were defined elsewhere in the directory as A.S.M.M. (or A.S., M.M.) for Acton [ME] Side; Far. for Farmington, NH; Leb. for Lebanon, ME, as in Lebanon, Lebanon Bridge, and Lebanon Side (Leb. s.); M. for Milton; M.M. for Milton Mills; p o for Post Office (or n p o for near Post Office); and prop. for proprietor.

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MILTON

BUSINESS DIRECTORY

EMBRACING

A Classified List of all Trades, Professions and Pursuits in Milton, for the years 1905-06, arranged Alphabetically for each Trade, thus exhibiting, at a glance, the full address and Special Business of its Citizens.

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Twenty miles northwest of Dover. R.R. stations at Milton, Union and Hayes, on B.&M. R.R., northern division. Milton Mills four miles from Union, stage twice daily. It was originally a part of Rochester. Incorporated June 11, 1802. Farming and manufacturing are the principal employments. Area, 25,000 acres. Population, 1,625.

Selectmen – Haven R. Jewett, Jos. H. Avery, Chas. A. Jones. Town Clerk – Harry L. Avery. Treasurer – Everett F. Fox. School Board – Forest L. Marsh, M.A.H. Hart, Frank G. Horne. Treasurer School Board – Forest L. Marsh. Board of Health – Dr. M.A.H. Hart, E.W. Fox, Harry D. Coles. Postmasters – Joseph H. Avery, Milton; E.T. Libby, Milton Mills. Deputy Sheriff, Charles D. Fox, Milton Mills. Constables, Hazen W. Downs, Charles E. Remick.

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Agricultural Implements.

• FOX, ASA & SONS, Milton Mills – See p 797
• MURRAY, D., Milton Mills – See p 797
• PLUMMER, B.B., Plummer’s Ridge – See p 795

Apothecary.

• WILLEY, J.H., 2 Main – See p 795

Architect and Designer.

(Water Power Plants.)

• JONES, I.W., Main, opp. Leb. bridge – See p 794

Bakery.

• Horne, H.F. (dealer), Main

Barrel Headings.

• Mayo, L.S. & Sons Co., Leb. side, M.

Bicycle Repairer.

• Knight, W.C., Toppan

Blacksmiths.

• DUNTLEY, I.W., See p 791
• RUDD, ALFRED A., 20 Main, M.M. – See p 796
• WENTWORTH, J.E., 71 Main, M.M. – See p. 798
• YOUNG, JAMES C., Leb. s. M. – See p 795

Blanket Mfr.

• TOWNSEND, H.H. ESTATE, M.M. – See p 794

Boarding Houses.

• BLAISDELL, S.G. MRS., Charles on hill
• Hall, W.C. Mrs., Charles
• Hodgdon, E.A. Mrs., 9 Church
• Lindsey, M.E. Mrs., River, A.S.M.M.
• PRESCOTT, C.H., Main – See p 795
• Ramsdell, E.E. Mrs., A.S. at bridge, M.M.
• Rowe, E.I. Mrs., 10 So. Main, M.M.

Boats to Let.

• Brown, Everett E., B.&M. depot

Boot and Shoe Dealers.

• Flye, A.M., 41 Main, M.M.
• FOX, ASA & SON, Milton Mills – See p 797
• Mason, H.S., Main
• PINKHAM, N.G., Main – See p 793
• WILLEY, J.D., Main – See p 793

Boot and Shoe Maker and Repairer.

• Page, Joseph, Main opp depot

Boot and Shoe Machinery and Repairer.

• PLUMMER, H., 28 Silver – See p 794

Boot and Shoe Mfrs.

• BOYNTON SHOE CO., Milton Mills – See p 794
• Thayer, N.B. & Co., Charles

Building Material.

• AVERY, JONES & ROBERTS, Main – See p 791
• EDGECOMB, C.R., 41 Leb rd, M.M. – See p 796

Butchers.

• HORNE, C.A., Main – See p 795
• Pike, R.S., Milton Mills

Carpenters and Builders.

• AVERY, JONES & ROBERTS – See page 791
• Rines, Mark, Milton Mills
• SHAW, A.B., Milton Mills – See page 797
• Simes, Edward S., Milton Mills
• SIMES, GEO. E., Milton Mills – See page 797
• Webber, Everett S., South Main
• WEBBER, ROYAL K., South Main – See page 791
• WENTWORTH, HIRAM, 31-35 Church, Milton Mills – See p 796

Carriage Repairers.

• Ayers, H.E. (painter), Milton Mills
• DUNTLEY, IRA W., Main – See page 791
• PRESCOTT, A.O., 11 Leb rd, A.S., M.M. – see page 798
• YOUNG, J.C., Leb s., Milton – See page 795

Churches and Clergymen.

• Cong, M.P. Dickey, pastor, 17 South Main, Milton
• Cong, ___________, pastor, Milton Mills
• F. Bap, Charles B. Osborne, 4 Church, Milton
• F. Bap, E.W. Churchill, pastor, Milton Mills
• Methodist, W. Holmes, pastor, Milton Mills
• Union Nute Chapel, Robert M. Peacock, pastor, Nute ridge, Milton

Cigars and Tobacco.

• LIBBY, E.T., 15 Main, Milton Mills – See page 797
• MUCCI, N., 44 Main, Milton Mills – See page 798
• PAGE, ROBERT, 23 Main, Milton Mills – See page 798
• WILLEY, J.H., 2 Main, Milton – See page 795

Civil and Hydraulic Engineer.

• JONES, I.W., Main opp Leb bridge – See page 794

Clothing.

• Horne, J.E., Milton Mills
• LOVERING, J.S., 27 Church, Milton Mills -See page 798
• Mason, H.S., Main

Coal and Wood.

• Downs, H.W., 7 Silver
• Pinkham, J.D., 8 Silver

Coffins and Caskets.

• FOX, ASA A., 10 School, Milton Mills – See page 797

Confectionary and Fruit.

• Horne, H.F., Main
• Knight, E.G., Main
• LIBBY, E.T., Milton Mills – See page 797
• MUCCI, N., 44 Main, Milton Mills – See page 798
• WILLEY, J.H., 2 Main – See p 795

Conveyancer, Claim and Collection Agents.

• FOX, E.W., Milton Mills – See page 797
• MARSH, F.L., Milton Mills – See front cover

Crockery and Glassware.

• FOX, ASA & SON, Milton Mills – See page 797
• WHITEHOUSE BROS., Main – See page 792
• WILLEY, J.D., Main, Milton – See page 793

Dentist.

• Reynolds, Everett G., M.M.

Deputy Sheriff.

• Fox, C.D., 10 School, M.M.

Designer of Water Power Plants.

• JONES, I.W., Main, opp Leb. bridge, Milton – See page 794

Dressmakers.

• Corkery, D.G. Miss
• Rowe, E.I. Mrs., 10 So. Main

Dry and Fancy Goods.

• FOX, ASA & SON, Milton Mills – See page 797
• HART, LENA M., Main n p o – See page 781
• Jones, C.D., Main
• LOVERING, G.S., 27 Church, Milton Mills – See page 798

Embalmer.

• FOX, ASA A., 10 School, Milton Mills – See page 797

Engineer (Civil.)

• JONES, I.W., Main, opp Leb. bridge, Milton – See page 794

Express Company.

• American Express Co., H.A. Beaton, agent, Milton; C.H. Fox, Milton Mills

Farm Products.

• AVERY, B.H., 21 South Main – See page 792
• HAYES, C.L., South Milton – See page 795

Fish and Oyster Dealer.

• WENTWORTH, E.L., 14 Mill n Charles – See page 792

Flour and Grain.

• WHITEHOUSE BROS., Main – See page 792
• WILLEY, J.D., Main – See page 793

Furniture.

• FOX, ASA & SON, Milton Mills – See page 797
• MILLER, W.S., 46 Main, M.M. – See page 798

General Stores.

• Flye, Arthur M., 41 Main, M.M.
• FOX, ASA & SON, Milton Mills – See page 797
• Lowd, F.H., 7 Main, M.M.
• WILLEY, J.D., Main – See p 793

Gents’ Furnishings.

• FOX, ASA & SON, Milton Mills – See page 797
• Horne, J.E., 25 Main
• LOVERING, G.S., 27 Church, M.M. – See page 798
• Mason, H.S., Main, Milton

Grain and Feed.

• EDGECOMB, C.R., 41 Leb rd, A.S., M.M. – See p 796

Grist Mill.

• EDGECOMB, C.R., 41 Leb rd, A.S., M.M. – See p 796

Grocers.

• BLAISDELL, S.G., Main, opp Leb bridge – See page 793
• Flye, A.M., 41 Main, M.M.
• FOX, ASA & SON, Milton Mills – See page 797
• HALL, W.C. & CO., Charles – See page 793
• Knight, E.G., Milton
• Lowd, F.H., 7 Main, M.M.
• MUCCI, N. (fancy), 44 Main, M.M. – See page 798
• WHITEHOUSE BROS., Main – See page 792
• WILLEY, J.D., – See p 793

Hairdressers.

• Hargraves, William F., Milton
• PAGE, ROBERT, Milton Mills – See page 797
• Stackpole, C.A., Main, Milton

Hardware.

• FOX, ASA & SON, Milton Mills – See page 797
• MURRAY, DANIEL, Milton M. – See p 797
• WILLEY, J.D., – See p 793

Harness Makers and Repairers.

• Page, Joseph, Main, opp depot
• Sanborn, Frank M., Milton Mills

Hats, Caps, etc.

• FOX, ASA & SON, Milton Mills – See page 797
• Horne, J.E., Milton Mills
• Mason, H.S., Main

Hay Dealers.

• WILLEY, J.D., – See p 793

Horseshoer.

• RUDD, ALFRED A., 20 Main, M.M. – See p 796
• DUNTLEY, IRA W., Main – See page 791
• WENTWORTH, J.E., 71 Main – See page 798
• YOUNG, J.C., Milton Mills – See page 795

Hotels.

• CENTRAL HOUSE, J.H. Lord, Milton Mills – See page 796
• MILTON HOTEL, C.L. Bodwell – See page 791
• MILTONIA HOUSE, C.H. Prescott – See page 795
• PHOENIX HOUSE, F.M. Chamberlin prop – See page 792
• “THE SANDS” (summer), Milton pond, F.M. Chamberlin – See page 792

House Decorators.

• GILMORE BROS., Milton – See page 791
• MILLS, W.F., Milton Mills – See page 796

Ice Cream and Soda.

• LIBBY, E.T., Milton Mills – See page 797

Ice Dealer (Retail).

• CLEMENT, JOHN B., Plummer’s Ridge, M. – See page 795

Ice Dealers (Wholesale).

• Downing, J.R.
• Marblehead Ice Co.
• Union Ice Co.

Insurance Agents.

• Gage, J.M., Main, opp drug store.
• MARSH, FORREST M., Milton Mills – See front cover

Jewelry and Watches.

• LIBBY, E.T., Main, Milton Mills – See page 797

Justices of the Peace.

• AVERY, B.H., 21 So. Main – See page 792
• AVERY, H.L., Main – See page 791
• FOX, E.F., Milton Mills – See page 797
• FOX, E.W., Milton Mills – See page 797
• Goodwin, G.H., W. Milton
• JONES, CHARLES H., So. Main, 1 mile out – See page 793
• MARSH, F.L., Milton Mills – See front cover
• PLUMMER, B.B., Plummer’s Ridge – See page 795
• Wentworth, L.H., W. Milton

Ladder Mfr. (Steel).

• Cantelo Mfg. Co., Avery bldg, Lebanon side, M.

Ladies Furnishings.

• HART, LENA M., Main n p o – See page 791

Laundry Agents.

• Hargraves, W.F., Main
• Knights, E.G., Main
• LIBBY, E.T., Milton Mills – See page 797
• PAGE, ROBERT, 22 Main, M.M. – See page 797
• WILLEY, J.H., Main cor Silver – See page 795

Lawyers.

• MARSH, FORREST L., Milton Mills – See front cover

Leather Board Mfrs.

• Milton Leather Board Co.
• SPAULDING, J. & SONS CO. – See page 794

Libraries.

• Milton Free Public Library, John U. Simes, librarian (600 volumes), Milton Mills
• Nute Library, Mrs. F. Haley, librarian, Milton

Lumbermen.

• AVERY, JONES & ROBERTS – See page 791
• EDGECOMB, C.R. (dealer and sawyer), M. Mills – See page 796
• Plummer, G.L. (p o Union)

Machinist.

• PLUMMER, HAZEN, 28 Silver – See page 794

Manufacturing Companies.

• BOYNTON SHOE CO. (shoes), Milton Mills – See page 794
• United Box Board and Paper Co. (paper and card board)
• SPAULDING, J. & SONS CO. (leather board and counters) – See page 794
• TOWNSEND, H.H. (Estate), (blankets), Milton Mills – See page 794

Market Gardener.

• FALL, G.G., So. Main – See page 792

Masons and Plasterers.

• Rines, T.G., Remick av., Milton

Milkmen.

• AVERY, B.F., 21 So. Main – See page 792
• Buck, Herman L., Springvale rd, A.S., M.M.
• Hapgood, W., Milton Mills
• HAYES, L.C., So. Milton – See page 795
• NUTE, GEORGE E., Nute Ridge, Milton, See page 792

Millinery.

• Betts, E.E. Miss, Milton Mills
• Corkery, Daisy G., Main
• Horne, Olive A. Mrs., M.M.

Mill Supplies.

• Mayo, L.S. & Sons Co., picker sticks, levers, arms, etc., Leb. side, M. – See page 348

Music Teachers.

• DICKEY, M.S. (piano), 13 So. Main – See page 795
• Jones, F.P. (piano), Plummer’s Ridge, M.
• Kimball, Annie M. (piano), 10 Maple
• Wentworth, Mary A. (piano), 35 Church, M.M.

Newspapers and Periodicals.

• LIBBY, E.T., at p o M.M. – See page 797
• PINKHAM, N.G., Main, Milton – See page 793

Notaries Public.

• FOX, E.F., Milton Mills – See page 797
• FOX, E.W., Milton Mills – See page 797
• Looney, Walter E., 54 So. Main, Milton
• MARSH, FORREST L., Milton Mills – See front cover
• Wentworth, G.C.S., Main, M.

Oysters, Clams, Etc.

• HORNE, C.A., Main, opp Leb. bridge – See page 795
• WENTWORTH, E.L., 14 Mill, Milton – See page 792

Painters (Sign).

• SHULMAIER, H.R., 15 Allens, Berwick, Me. – See Somersworth page 323

Painters and Paperhangers.

• Connolly, T., Milton Mills
• MILLS, WILLIAM F., Milton Mills – See page 796
• Pinkham, Thomas H., 9 Maple
• GILMORE BROS., 15 Silver and 14 So. Main – See page 791
• Toppan, J.Q.A., M. Hotel, Toppan

Paints and Oils.

• FOX, ASA & SON, Milton Mills – See page 797
• WHITEHOUSE BROS., Main, M. – See page 792
• WILLEY, J.D. – See page 793

Paper Mfrs.

• United Box Board and Paper Co., off So. Main, Milton

Physicians.

• BUCKLEY, J.J., 16 So. Main, M. – See page 793
• GROSS, C.J., Milton Mills – See page 797
• Hart, M.A.H., 30 So. Main
• PILLSBURY, W.E., Milton Mills – See page 796
• WEEKS, F.S., 42 Main, M.M. – See page 798

Plumber.

• MURRAY, D., Milton Mills – See page 797

Pool Rooms.

• Hargraves, William F., Main

Provisions.

• BLAISDELL, S.G., Main – See page 793
• HORNE, C.A., Main, off Leb. bridge – See page 795
• Pike, R.S., Milton Mills
• Wentworth, George E., Main

Railroad.

• BOSTON & MAINE R.R. – See page 34

Saw Mills.

• AVERY, JONES & ROBERTS – See page 791
• EDGECOMB, C.R., Leb. rd, A.S., M.M. – See page 796
• Plumer, G.L., p o Union

School.

• Milton Grammar School, R.M. Looney, 8 Church, Milton
• Nute Free High School, C.E. Kelley, principal, 15 Far. rd, Milton

Soap Mfrs.

• Chamberlin, S.G., Milton Mills

Stables.

• CHAMBERLIN, F.M. – See page 792
• LORD, J.H., Milton Mills – See page 792
• MILTON HOTEL STABLES, Charles – See page 791

Stoves and Tinware.

• MURRAY, D., Milton Mills – See page 797

Teamsters and Truckmen.

• CLEMENT, JOHN B., Milton – See page 795
• Pinkham, J.D., 8 Silver, Milton

Telephone Company.

• N.E. TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH CO. – See page 35

Toilet Articles.

• WILLEY, J.H., Main, Milton – See page 795

Undertaker.

• FOX, ASA A., Milton Mills – See page 797

Wheelwrights.

• DUNTLEY, IRA B., Main – See page 791
• PRESCOTT, A.O., A.S., M.M – See page 798
• RUDD, A.T., (iron work), 20 Main, M.M. – See page 796
• WENTWORTH, J.E., 71 Main, M.M. – See page 798

Wood Dealers.

• AVERY, B.F., 21 So. Main – See page 792
• AVERY, JONES & ROBERTS, Main, Milton – See page 791
• BODWELL, C.S., Milton Hotel, Toppan – See page 791
• CLEMENTS, JOHN B., Milton – See page 795
• Downs, H.W., 7 Silver, Milton
• HAYES, L.C., So. Milton – See page 795
• JONES, C.A., So. Main – See page 793
• Jones, F.P., Plummer’s ridge
• Pinkham, J.D., 8 Silver, M.

Woolen Goods Mfr.

• TOWNSEND, H.H. (blankets) – See page 794

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Previous in sequence: Milton Businesses in 1904; next in sequence: Milton Businesses in 1909

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References:

Bass and Company. (1905). Dover, Somersworth, Rochester, and Strafford County, N.H., Directory, 1905. Dover, NH: Bass and Company, 466 Central Avenue.

By Muriel Bristol | July 28, 2019

In perusing the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census schedules for Milton, as I am wont to do, I came across a rather unusual enumeration from a leather-board factory in South Milton.

The census enumerator, Bard B. Plummer, visited the site on April 23, 1910. He passed from the household of “Henery” B. Hayes, a farmer (home farm), aged fifty-six years (b. NH), to that of the mill superintendent. (Recorded on Page 3 of 32 Milton pages).

William A. Dickson, a leather-board mill superintendent, aged thirty-five years (b. MA), headed a Milton [“Milton-Town”] household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of sixteen years), Hattie Dickson, aged thirty-four years (b. MA); his children, Marion I. Dickson, aged fourteen years (b. MA), Hazel M. Dickson, aged five years (b. NH), and Carolyn P. Dickson, aged two years (b. NH); and his in-laws William V. Newell, aged sixty-six years (b. MA), and Lucy H. Newell, aged sixty-six years (b. MA). The Newells had been married forty-six years, during which time she had been the mother of five children, of whom four were still living.

So far so good. Mr. Plummer passed next to a sort of worker’s hotel, dormitory, or barracks. Some forty leather-board mill laborers “boarded” there. They were all recorded as Alien immigrants, i.e., they were not yet Naturalized citizens. None of them spoke English. He gave their non-Yankee names a serious mangling.

[Ed. note: Recording the citizenship status of alien immigrants in the census was neither new nor unusual].

Plummer enumerated first the head of household, Thomas Peatri, aged thirty-four years (b. Greece). He had been longest in the U.S., having arrived in 1900. Under the CITIZENSHIP column, he was classed still as an Alien, i.e., not yet Naturalized. One supposes he had acquired in ten years some English and knew our little ways, and that was why he was taken to be “Head.” The others were all “Boarders.”

Next came nine other Greeks, also Aliens who had arrived between 1906 and 1909. Their names were mangled as Alec Porpas, aged twenty years (b. Greece), Uperslatey Kenaser, aged thirty years (b. Greece), John Punplato, aged thirty-eight years (b. Greece), Alcano Yunjar, aged nineteen years (b. Greece), George Stocklin, aged thirty-seven years (b. Greece), Spenta Chacton, aged eighteen years (b. Greece), John Delussule, aged forty years (b. Greece), Apostola Dumas, aged twenty-four years (b. Greece), and James Prapleton, aged twenty-six years (b. Greece).

Plummer hit a brick wall when he recorded the next twenty-six leather-board mill workers. Where he should have continued with the “NAME of each person whose place of abode on April 15, 1910, was in this family,” he instead wrote down their distinguishing numbers, #1 through #26, as issued them by the mill, and the explanation:

Impossible to get any thing from them more [-illegible-] for their names or any thing else.

They were all recorded as Aliens, who had immigrated between 1908 and 1910. A different and presumably later hand, perhaps that of Plummer’s census supervisor, noted that

These Greeks could not be enumerated better as they are only known as numbers in the factory and are going and coming every few days.

Finally Plummer enumerated four Italian workers who had names, although he recorded mangled versions of them: Antonio Dumnrio, aged twenty-five years (b. Italy), Giuseppe Palmapo, aged twenty-one years (b. Italy), Sauda Oamfans, aged eight years (b. Italy), and Aemelio De Bartolemo, aged twenty-two years (b. Italy). They too were all recorded as Aliens, who had immigrated between 1906 and 1908.

Previously, we have seen these Greek mill laborers – or some others using their numbers – when they aided the victim of Milton’s Murderous Lover – 1907. (The newspapers gave different versions of her French Canadian name in nearly every article).

We should note in closing that one of New Hampshire’s early settlers was “John Ammisoone the Greek,” who was at Great Island [now New Castle], NH, as early as 1659. God only knows his true name. His many descendants go by the name Amazeen.

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My mother Thetis tells me that there are two ways in which I may meet my end. If I stay here and fight, I will not return alive but my name will live forever: whereas if I go home my name will die, but it will be long ere death shall take me. – Homer, the Illiad

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References:

Noyes, Sybil, Libby, Charles T., and Davis, Walter G. (1991). Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | July 25, 2019

In this rather full year, we encounter an offer of Porter ice fresh from the pond, a Federal income tax proposed, a poverty ball, a fire at the Salmon River Paper mill, Ralph Farnham freshly remembered, a shoe magnate’s will proved, a power-boat injury, the Milton Shoe company resuming work, lady sales agents wanted, a realtor’s advertisement, a Boston Ice company conflagration, shoe stitchers wanted, a Women’s Relief Corps inspection, a backstabbing on a state highway road-gang, penstock boilermakers wanted, and a beer arrest (with that name confusion again).

This was also the year of Milton and the Eastern Route – 1909.

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Milton ice merchant John O. Porter offered a discount price for ice taken directly from the pond.

ICE. BEST QUALITY, now loading from water; price right; large or small contracts. JOHN O. PORTER, Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, February 22, 1909).

This option would save him the storage costs, which his client would then take upon himself, thus allowing Porter to sell his ice with the “price right.”

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At the national level, Democrat U.S. Senators decided in this year to put forward a constitutional amendment that would authorize Federal income taxation.

DEMOCRATS’ TARIFF VIEWS. Want the Income Tax and Reduction on the Necessaries of Life. Washington, April 15. – For more than four hours the Democratic members of the senate conferred in an effort to agree upon a policy toward tariff legislation. At the end of that time it was announced that they had decided to support an income tax amendment and would present a solid front against any Republican opposition to an income tax for raising revenue. The conference also went on record favoring a general reduction on tariff schedules, particularly those relating to the necessaries of life (Portsmouth Herald, April 15, 1909).

Ironically,  their announcement came on April 15. It was proposed originally to “touch” only a handful of millionaires. We all know how that has “progressed” over time.

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A Poverty Ball was a low-cost social event to which attendees were expected to wear their old clothes. Such costume balls were common from the 1890s through the 1930s. (“Terpsichorean” means dancing).

Odd Items from Everywhere. At a poverty ball given by the Terpsichorean club of Milton, N.H., the dancers were obliged to copy the order on plain baggage tags from a poster on the wall. All the refreshments the tired couples got during the intermission was cold water and ice cream. The ice cream was served on paper plates, and there was but one plate to a couple (Boston Globe, June 5, 1909).

The most ragged couple at a poverty ball might win a prize. People dressed too well might be fined. In this case, other frills have been omitted too. There were no dance cards: attendees are using baggage tags. (Might it have been held at the train station?) Refreshments were minimal and served on paper plates.

THE COUNTRY DANCE. The dance held at country homes, or the small summer or winter resort begins at an earlier hour than the dance in the city, and is more informal. In summer men often wear flannels and girls simple little evening dresses. The whole affair, including supper, is laid along simple lines, although, of course, in the matter of invitations, as well as the principles of etiquette, a dance in one place is the same as a dance in another. Special features, and, consequently, greater fun, are more possible at the country dance than at the formal city affair. The barn dance, the masquerade, a “Poverty Ball” where even the family dog questions ragged but picturesque costumes, the Mother Goose party, Calico Ball – all these are possible to the country hostess and may be entirely impromptu. Refreshments should be correspondingly simple (Lutes, 1923).

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William S. Lowe was born in Missouri, circa 1855. He married in St. Luke’s Church in Denison, TX, August 6, 1878, Margaret E. “Maggie” Hughes. They lived in Texas, as late as 1880, Missouri, circa 1882-83, Ohio, circa 1884-85, and Lima, Missouri, in 1900.

William S. Lowe was president of the Salmon River Paper Company, in Milton, NH, from about 1905. He took up a paper mill described (in 1909) as having been established “about thirty years” before. (The Milton Manufacturing Co. appeared as a paper manufacturer in the Milton business directories of 1887, 1889, 1892, 1894; the Strafford Paper Co. so appeared in 1898; C.D. Brown & Co. in 1901; and the United Box Board and Paper Co. in 1904 (where our sequence currently ends)).

SALMON RIVER PAPER CO. (W.S. Lowe, Pres. and Treas.; M.H. Lowe, Vice Pres.; C.L. Lowe, Sec.) S.P., at mill. Two 800-lb., two 1200-lb., and one 2800-lb. Beating and three Jordan engines; one Four Cylinder and forty-seven Dryers. Water and Steam. Widest trimmed sheet, 75 inches. 48,000 lbs., 24 hours. High Grade Patent Whites and Colors, Single and Double Lined Manilas for Lithographic Work and Clay Coating; also Paraffined, Waxed and Waterproof Boards (Vance, 1908).

Note that the Salmon River Paper Company’s Vice President was Lowe’s wife, Maggie Hughes Lowe, and its Secretary was his middle daughter, Clara Louise Hughes.

W.S. Lowe was one of many manufacturers that lobbied a Congressional committee for a removal or reduction of wood tariffs in November 1908.

MILTON, N.H., November 16, 1908.

COMMITTEE on WOOD PULP IMPORTERS, New York.

GENTLEMEN: Regarding the tariff on mechanical and chemical wood pulp, this company is very much opposed to any increase of the duty; it would work an unnecessary hardship on consumers. We are paying now $42 for unbleached sulphite, the highest price I can remember. The duty on mechanical pulp should be taken off entirely. The price of this commodity is not regulated by duty but entirely by the water supply, and the ability of the grinders to operate. A drought creates high prices; plenty of water power, low prices. It is a low-priced product normally and the high freight rates from Canada and elsewhere makes a sufficiently high natural duty to always give domestic pulp an advantage of from $2 to $4 per ton. Yours truly, W.S. LOWE, Treasurer (U.S. House, 1908).

Fire destroyed the Salmon River Paper company on the night of Friday, June 10, 1910.

PAPER MILLS BURN. Salmon River Plant Loss Will Be $100,000. Fire at Milton, N.H., Due to Boiler Room Chimney. ROCHESTER, N.H., June 10 – One hundred employes were thrown out of employment and a property loss of $100,000 was caused by the destruction by fire of the Salmon River paper mills in the town of Milton, eight miles from this place, tonight. The blaze is supposed to have started about the chimney in the boiler room of the factory, which was a two-story wooden building. A heavy rain had wet the roofs of adjoining buildings and saved them from catching. W.S. Lowe of Portsmouth was the proprietor of the plant. The business was the manufacture of paper novelties. Mr. Lowe had partial insurance on the property (Boston Globe, June 11, 1909).

Fire Destroys Paper Mills. Milton, N.H., June 11. – One hundred hands were thrown out of employment and a property loss of $100,000 was caused by the destruction by fire of the Salmon River paper mills The blaze is supposed to have started in the boiler room {Portsmouth Herald, June 11, 1909).

MIGHT BUILD IN PORTSMOUTH. If the Water Power Supply Was Right for His Needs. W.S. Lowe, proprietor of the Salmon River Paper company’s plant at Milton, stated to a Herald reporter this morning that [it] is doubtful if he rebuilt his plant there. Said he: “I wish Portsmouth had water power near at hand. I should like to build my mill here as I would have a good labor market which is a question at Milton.” The fire started in the oil and waste house. The plant which was burned at Milton on Thursday night, was built about thirty years ago, and had been several times repaired. The equipment, however, was up to date, the paper machine having been installed six years ago at a cost of over $40,000. There were six beater engines and jordans in the mill. The power was mostly water, but there were two engines, one about 200-horse power, the other of half the size. The large one ran the paper machine, the small one helped in times of low water. About forty men were employed in two shifts, fifteen on the night shift, the others by day, with a pay roll of 500 to $800 per week (Portsmouth Herald, June 12, 1909).

W.S. Lowe did not rebuild. He returned instead to Missouri before year’s end. William S. Lowe, a paper manufacturer, aged fifty-five years (b. MO), headed a Kansas City, MO, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of thirty-two years), Margaret Lowe, aged fifty-one years (b. Canada (Eng.)), his children, Clara Louisa Lowe, aged twenty-eight years (b. MO), and Edna Lowe, aged twenty-six years (b. OH). Margaret Lowe was the mother of three children, of whom three were still living. They resided in a rented house at 2615 Forest Street.

MEANS A NEW MILL. Clash is Averted Between Two Big Companies. Great Falls and Spauldings Settle Water Privileges. MILTON. N.H., Aug. 9. – The threatened legal clash between the Great Falls manufacturing company of Somersworth and the J. Spaulding & Sons Co. of North Rochester, over the water privilege at the old flume, just below where the mill of the Salmon river paper company was burned last May [June], has been averted by the leasing of the water privilege by the Spauldings from their upper mill to the site of the burned mill. As a result the Great Falls company this morning called off its crew that was set at work last month to build a dam for a proposed electric power station. On this site the Spauldings will erect a leather board mill that will employ 500 hands. They are also negotiating for the water privileges held by the United boxboard and paper company under a lease from the Great Falls manufacturing company that runs until 1923. These rights include the site of the burned paper mill. As the paper company has no further use for the privilege it is understood that it will shortly sublet it to the Spaulding company. This will mean another mill for Milton. The Great Falls company owns the entire water privileges of the river from its mills at Somersworth to the Milton ponds (Boston Globe, August 10, 1909).

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A Milton revolutionary soldier, Ralph Farnum – who had been the last living veteran of the Battle of Bunker Hill – was freshly remembered in a queries column of the Boston Globe, as he had been in articles printed during his final Boston visit in 1860, in which he had an audience with the King of England.

Last Survivor of Bunker Hill. To the Editor of the People’s Column – In answer to your request in the Globe of June 22, the last survivor of the battle of Bunker Hill was Ralph Varnum. A number of people of Milton, N.H., saw him take the team at that time, and one of them was named Samuel T.W. Duntlly. Ralph Varnum is buried in Acton, Me., and Eli Wentworth post 80 [89], G.A.R. places a flag on his grave every year. Milton, N.H. George I. Jordan (Boston Globe, June 29, 1909).

Farnum “took the team” in the sense that he served in the revolutionaries’ baggage train.

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Then shall our names, Familiar in [their] mouths as household words, … Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d. – Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, Scene III

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Publication of probate information, even that of ordinary decedents, was a commonplace in newspapers of the past. In this case, the legatee in question was N.B. Thayer, founder of the N.B. Thayer & Co. shoe firm, which had a factory at Milton.

Noah Blanchard Thayer was born in Weymouth, MA, January 6, 1830 son of Nicholas and Thais (Shaw) Thayer. He married Lucy M. Newcomb. She was born in Randolph, MA, August 2, 1833, daughter of Samuel and Lucy L. (Blanchard) Newcomb. She died in 1895.

N.B. Thayer & Co. shoe manufacturers appeared in the Milton business directories of 1892, 1894, 1898, and 1904 (where our sequence currently ends).

Noah B. Thayer was one of six men who stood as sureties for the Weymouth tax collector’s $30,000 bond in March 1893. That tax collector paid off his mortgage, put all his property in his wife’s name, and skipped town with the remaining tax money. A “Bad Check Was Left Behind as Souvenir” (Boston Globe, December 5, 1894).

Noah B. Thayer, a shoe mfr., aged seventy years (b. MA), headed a Weymouth, MA, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his daughter, Carrie McBride, a widow, aged thirty years (b. MA), his grandchildren, Edwin T. McBride, at school, aged six years (b. MA), and Margarie McBride, aged four years (b. MA), and his servant, Julia Keefe, a servant, aged twenty-four years (b. MA).

N.B. Thayer & Co., Inc., had “big” shoe factories at East Rochester and Milton, N.H., which were said to be “among the busiest in the country” in 1908 (Boot & Shoe Recorder, 1908). He died in Weymouth, MA, June 29, 1909.

WILL OF NOAH B. THAYER. Weymouth Man Leaves Bequests of $3000 for Son and Daughter. DEDHAM. July 10 – The will of the late Noah B. Thayer of Weymouth has been filed with the Norfolk registry of probate. The will was drawn April 27, 1906, and an accompanying codicil was drawn Sept 6, 1906. By the will $3000 is left to one son, Frank H. Thayer. To one daughter, Carrie M. McBride, is left $3000, and all the household goods and furniture. The remainder of the property is left to the children, Frank H. and Elmer F. Thayer and Carrie M. McBrlde. Frank H. Thayer is suggested for executor (Boston Globe, July 10, 1909).

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Power-boats would have been a relatively recent development on the Three Ponds. It would seem that the injury was received inside the boat.

Boy Hurt in Power Boat. MILTON, N.H., Aug. 9 – While going from Northeast pond to Milton station early this morning Chester Batchelder, aged 12, of Lynn, caught his leg under the propeller shaft of the power boat and had the flesh badly torn and the bones broken. He was taken to the Lynn hospital (Boston Globe, August 10, 1909).

Ralph C. Bachelor, a shoe shop foreman, aged forty-two years (b. MA), headed a Lynn, MA, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his (second) wife (of eleven years), Bertha J. Bachelor, aged thirty-nine years (b. MA), and his children, Chester F. Bachelor, aged sixteen years (b. MA), and Everett B. Bachelor, aged fourteen years (b. MA). They resided at 20 Rand Street, which home they owned free-and-clear.

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The Milton Shoe Co. appeared in Milton business directories of 1901, but not in that of 1904 (where our sequence currently ends). Here they are resuming production after a long hiatus.

HAD LONG BEEN IDLE. Factory of the Milton, N.H., Shoe Company Resumes Operations. MILTON, N.H., Aug. 13 – The large factory of the Milton shoe company, which has long been idle, has resumed operations. About 400 persons are employed (Boston Globe, August 13, 1909).

MALE HELP WANTED. WANTED – Two first-class vampers; steady work and extra good pay. Apply to MILTON SHOE CO., Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, September 13, 1909).

Charles C. Keene may have been superintendent at the factory at this time. (He resigned from that position in August 1912 (Boot & Shoe Recorder, 1912)). The Milton Shoe Company, of Milton, N.H., manufacturers of children’s shoes, reportedly went into receivership in 1915.

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The Warranty Shoe Manufacturing Company, at Milton Mills, sought lady shoe sales agents. These advertisements appeared in newspapers published in Norwich, CT, Boston, MA, and Barre, Burlington, Montpelier, and Rutland, VT.

WANTED. LADY AGENTS wanted. Hustlers earn $15 to $18 per week. Write us. Warranty Shoe Mfg. Co., Milton Mills, N.H. (Burlington Free Press, August 18, 1909).

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A Milton realtor sought to sell property of all sorts, including even livestock, anywhere in New Hampshire. Apparently, it was to be done by mail.

THE REAL ESTATE MARKET. If you have a Store, Farm, Timber Lot or Live Stock anywhere in N.H., for sale, address Box 75, Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, October 3, 1909).

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Sparks from a passing B&M railroad locomotive caused a serious fire at the Boston Ice Company during the evening of Saturday, October 9.

Here we learn that the Boston Ice Company had also tenements for its employees, as did other firms in town. The ice company’s ice houses, stables, and tenements were situated at modern Utah Way.

NEW ENGLAND BRIEFS. The plant of the Boston ice company at Milton, N.H., with 13 houses, a stable and four loaded railroad cars was destroyed by fire last night. Treas. F.J. Bartlett in Boston last night estimated the loss to be about $75,000. Employes in nearby tenements had hard work to save their homes (Boston Globe, October 10, 1909).

One hopes that the horses (if any there were) got out of the stable. Rebuilding began soon after the fire.

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The Andrews-Wasgatt Company, of Everret, MA, shoe manufacturers, who had advertised in the prior year for vampers, were seeking stitchers.

FEMALE HELP WANTED. STITCHERS on all parts of misses’ shoes. ANDREWS, WASGATT CO, Milton Mills, N.H. (Boston Globe, October 28, 1909).

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Mrs. Emily E. “Emma” (Miller) Looney, acting in her capacity as Department President of the [Women’s] Relief Corps, was to inspect the State Relief Corps. The Women’s Relief Corps was the women’s auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R) Civil War veterans’ organization. (Her husband, the Hon. Charles H. Looney, had died in Milton Mills, April 23, 1902).

Personals. Department President Mrs. Emma E. Looney of Milton, N.H., will inspect the State Relief Corps on Friday afternoon, at G.A.R. hall (Portsmouth Herald, October 29, 1909).

Emma E. Looney, a widow, aged fifty-six years (b. NH), headed a Milton [“Milton 3-Ponds”] household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. He household included her children, Walter Looney, a clerk at Central House, aged thirty-two years (b. NH), Robert M. Looney, a grammar school teacher [principal of the Milton Grammar school in 1905], aged thirty years (b. NH), Harry N. Looney, a shoe factory cutter, aged twenty-seven years, and John H. Looney, aged twenty-four years (b. NH). She owned their house free-and-clear, without any mortgage. [They resided at 54 South Main street in 1905].

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A state road-gang laborer on the new Eastern route state highway perpetrated a serious assault upon another laborer.

STABBED IN THE BACK. Man Known Only as Philip, from Boston, Victim of Row at Milton, N.H. – Police Seek Joseph Crapna. MILTON, N.H., Nov 23. As the result of a row among laborers employed on the new state highway, a man who is known only by his first name, Philip, is suffering from a stab in the back, inflicted, it is alleged, by Joseph Crapna, aged 30, who escaped after the encounter, and who is being sought by Chief of Police James Rines. The affray occurred late Sunday night at lodgings in the Hart building. It is said that liquor flowed freely, and that the principals became excited over some old trouble. Philip had only recently joined the men, coming here from Boston. During the altercation Crapna suddenly pulled a stiletto, it is said, and stabbed Philip in the upper portion of the back, making an ugly gash near the shoulder blade. Crapna quickly disappeared. The victim bled profusely, but it is reported he will recover (Boston Globe, November 23, 1909).

There do not seem to have been any follow-up articles, so it might be that Joseph Crapna was never apprehended.

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Penstock work would be work upon the sluice gate or water intake structures of a dam, of which Milton had several.

MALE HELP WANTED. TWO BOILERMAKERS wanted at once for penstock work at Milton, N.H. L. DOUGHTON, Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, December 16, 1909).

Mr. L. Doughton has proven somewhat difficult to pin down. He may have been a mill superintendent or possibly an out-of-town dam contractor of some sort.

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As we have seen, several factories in Milton had their own tenements, or residences, on their grounds for worker housing. A number of Italian and Greek immigrant workers were so domiciled in South Milton. (We encountered them previously helping the victim of Milton’s Murderous Lover in 1907).

On this occasion, we encounter an Italian immigrant factory worker running afoul of New Hampshire’s restrictive liquor licensing. We may recall that their factory housing was situated two miles out from Three-Ponds village. He had some bottles of beer, which he either vended or gave away to some of the other workers with whom he resided. For that he was arrested for “keeping liquor for sale,” which violated several aspects of the liquor law.

(If one were working a ten to twelve-hour workday, six days a week, and marooned in a workers’ tenement in the woods of South Milton, one might consider it a beneficial service, rather than otherwise, to have access to a bottle of beer after a hard day’s work).

Beer Seized at Milton, N.H. ROCHESTER, N.H., Dec. 23. Deputy Sheriff Frank I. Smith and Deputy Sheriff Elmer Clark of Dover and Deputy Sheriff William Hartford and policeman Harrison Rhines of Milton raided the boarding house of Demarta Odberton at Milton Tuesday night and seized a quantity of beer. Yesterday, before Judge Lawrence V. McGill, he was charged with keeping malt liquor for sale and was held in $200 bonds for the superior court (Boston Globe, [Thursday,] December 23, 1909).

Apart from the absurdities attendant to the liquor laws, we may again experience the hilarity arising from the various officials’ utter inability to comprehend the accused’s Italian name. The accused’s name was definitely not Demarta Odberton, nor anything like that.

We shall encounter the unfortunate Mr. Odberton, under yet other names, as he passes through the various court proceedings of the following year.

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1908; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1910

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References:

Chilton Company. (1908). Boot & Shoe Recorder. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=CPAxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA58

Chilton Company. (1912). Boot & Shoe Recorder. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=vto-AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA4-PA21

Find a Grave. (2008, October 5). Noah Blanchard Thayer. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/30324570

Lutes, Della T. (1923). The Gracious Hostess: A Book of Etiquette. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=W6YvAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA212

U.S. House of Representatives. (1908). Pulp and Paper Investigation Hearings, April 25, 1908. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=Q91CAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA3193

Vance Publishing Corp. (1908). Lockwood’s Directory of the Paper and Stationary Trade. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=6A8AAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA94

Wikipedia. (2019, January 24). Henry B. Quinby. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_B._Quinby

Wikipedia. (2019, July 12). Penstock. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penstock

 

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | July 21, 2019

In 1909, New Hampshire’s governor and his council chose the routes through which proposed (and legislatively-authorized) western, middle, and eastern state highways would run.

The news articles quoted here identify forthrightly the motivations of those making the choices. Their objects were more political than strictly economic or geographic ones: providing road access for less-developed low-population northern areas of the state, at the expense of taxpayers in the remainder of the state.

That the final selections addressed primarily political purposes, rather than purely engineering ones, was evidenced by the large attendance of the “prominent men” of the affected areas, and the “considerable pressure” that they brought to bear. The opinions of accomplished engineers were not mentioned as being relevant at all.

The prominent men of the northern logging industry and the Boston & Maine railroad would have had their “say” also. (The Conway branch of the B&M railroad aligned more closely with the route ultimately chosen). A cynic might suppose that it was their say that was dispositive.

The various possible Eastern route alternatives, which must have concerned Milton most nearly, ran largely over existing roads, at least so far as the mountain “notches.” As such, the choices were mostly a question of State officials “claiming” or “designating” particular existing roads as being henceforth “their” own state highway.

The routes passed over at this time would become state highways eventually. The chosen Eastern route took on the name “White Mountain Highway” at the Rochester-Milton town line.

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In late July 1909, the governor and his council had not yet decided whether or not the Eastern route would run from Rochester through Milton, Wakefield, Ossipee, Tamworth, and Albany to Conway, as it does now. It might have run instead from Rochester through Farmington, New Durham, to Alton (as NH Route 11 runs now), then to Wolfeboro, Tamworth, Albany, and Madison to Conway.

GOVERNOR AND COUNSEL LISTEN TO ARGUMENTS FOR ROAD LOCATION. Governor Henry B. Quinby and the members of his council were in Concord Wednesday and gave up most of their time to a hearing of all parties interested in lay-out of the boulevard on the east side of the state authorized by the highway bill passed the last session of the legislature. There are to be three of these trunk lines, the east side, the central and the west side, and to date the route of the former seems to be the most seriously in dispute. From the coast the location of the road to Rochester is agreed upon. On leaving Rochester, however, the question is how shall it reach the mountains, the objective point of all the highways. There are two routes suggested, one through Milton Mills, Wakefield and Ossipee, and the other through Farmington, New Durham, Alton and Wolfboro, and then via Tamworth and Albany to Conway, or via Ossipee and Chocorua to Conway; or through Ossipee and Madison to Conway. The great interest in the proposition was shown by the large attendance of prominent men representing the towns through which it is desired the road should pass, which compelled the use of the supreme court room in the state library building. The hearing opened at 11:00 o’clock with the governor and the advisers occupying the bench and working under the notice that ten minutes would be given to the claims of each town interested. It took until nearly two o’clock before the final word had been said and an adjournment taken (Portsmouth Herald, July 22, 1909).

By mid-September 1909, the governor and his council made up their minds to continue the Eastern route from Rochester through Milton, rather than through Farmington. Milton was not specifically mentioned in the article, although it is what lies between the mentioned locations of Rochester and Wakefield.

ROUTES FOR THE STATE HIGHWAYS. The Big Undertaking of the State of New Hampshire. CONCORD, Sept. 18. – The governor and council at their meeting on Friday took up the location of the West Side road and, after considerable discussion, established the route, thereby completing the designation of the three trunk lines, as provided by act of the last legislature, and for the construction of which $1,000,000 was appropriated.

The road, as determined by them begins at the state line between Northfield, Mass., and Hinsdale, N.H., passes through Hinsdale, Winchester and West Swanzey to Keene; thence through Gilsum, Lempster and Goshen to Newport; thence through Croyden and Grantham to Hanover; thence following the Connecticut river, passes through the villages of Lyme and Orford, Piermont, Haverhill to Woodsville; thence through Bath and Lisbon villages lo Littleton; thence from Littleton over the hill by the Glessner estate to Bethlehem street; from Bethlehem street to the Twin Mountain House; thence from the Twin Mountain House to Whitefield, continuing through Lancaster, Northumberland, Groveton, Stratford and Columbia to the northerly terminus of the line at Colebrook.

There has been much pressure brought to bear upon the governor and council for other routes as well as for the route selected by them, and particularly from the vicinity of Rindge and Fitzwilliam, as well from Claremont and Newport. The route from Keene to Newport is through many small towns and over a country that has no means of transportation except over the highway. Besides furnishing better transportation facilities for the towns, this road it is believed, will open for development the territory that has previously been little known. There are no forbidding grades on the route, and there is plenty of material along the entire route for construction.

The middle road, previously selected, will enter the state at Nashua and have its northern terminal in a junction with the west side road at Twin Mountain, its route taking it through Manchester, Concord, Franklin, Laconia, Plymouth, Woodstock and other towns.

The East side road, also previously selected, will follow the ocean boulevard to Portsmouth, thence via Dover, the edge of Somersworth, Rochester, Wakefield, Conway, Pinkham Notch, Berlin, Errol and Dixville Notch, to Colebrook, which will be the terminal of both the Eastern and the Western roads.

The Crawford Notch road between Glen and Twin Mountain will afford a route through the heart of the mountains from the East road to the junction of the middle and West roads (Portsmouth Herald, September 9, 1909).

All of this was mirrored at the Town level. Historically, most New England roads have been privately built, for their owners’ purposes, and then, at some point, “accepted” by their respective Towns as being Town roads.

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If we didn’t have state coercion, the argument runs, there would be no roads. There’d be a Sears store over there, and your house over here, and everyone involved would be standing there scratching their heads. – Thomas Woods

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See also Milton, Straight Thru (North), in 1918, Milton and the Spaulding Turnpike, and Trip to Wildcat Shortened

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References:

Wikipedia. (2019, January 24). Henry B. Quinby. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_B._Quinby

Wikipedia. (2019, July 14). Logrolling. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logrolling

Wikipedia. (2019, June 25). New Hampshire Route 16. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_Route_16

 

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | July 18, 2019

In this year, we encounter another Massachusetts ice shortage, a farm worker wanted, a Nute High school field trip, Rev. Dickey’s correspondence, and vampers wanted at Milton Mills.

This was also the year of the Hennessey kidnapping.

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Massachusetts’ own ice harvest was again marginal, with Milton’s ice harvest again cited as one of its alternate sources.

ICE FAMINE THREATENING. Massachusetts So Far Has Very Little. Cutting in Progress to North With Fair Thickness. Cape and Rhode Island Districts Worst Off. Three weeks will probably settle the fate of the ice crop in New England for 1908. Ice dealers to the north of Boston are fairly confident of securing an ordinary supply, but to the south conditions are far from satisfactory. Last year at this time the ice houses were full and the companies were putting ln extra supplies. A considerable quantity of this surplus is still on hand and an attempt will be made to carry It over, notably about 250,000 tons on the Penobscot belonging to the American Ice company. There is also considerable last year’s ice in other parts of New England, but the small dealers are nearly cleaned out and are becoming anxious about the crop. The average thickness of the ice north of the Massachusetts line and 20 miles inland is about 10 inches. In some sections it runs to 12 or 13 Inches, and a little has been harvested. In the Berkshire hills and the Green mountains there is of course no danger of a famine, and dealers in other parts of Vermont see no cause for alarm, although lake Champlain is not yet closed in. Cutting has begun at Agawam, Mass., near Springfield with nine inches; at Milton, N.H., with 12 Inches; at Montpelier, Vt., with 12 inches; and at Holden, near Worcester, with 11 inches. It Is along the coast from Portsmouth, N.H., south that the famine threatens, especially at Plymouth, along cape Cod, and in Rhode Island. The average thickness of the ice on the ponds about Middleboro is not more than a few inches and some of the larger ponds are not frozen except along the edges. There is no ice at all on cape Cod. Dealers in those sections say that if the ponds and lakes do not show 8 or 10 inches by Feb 10 the local crop will again be a failure and that New Hampshire and Maine will have to furnish the supply for the summer. In former years the ice companies along the Penobscot harvested two or three million tons and the work gave employment to thousands of men. The capacity of the houses of the American ice company on the Kennebec at the present time is less than 500,000 tons, as many of the plants have been burned or gone into decay. The same is partly true of those on the Penobscot (Boston Globe, January 20, 1908).

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MALE HELP WANTED. MAN wanted to do general work on farm. Address E.L.S., Milton, N.H; Box 229 (Boston Globe, February 20, 1908).

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Here we find Nute High School Principal Clarence E. Kelley and Mrs. Mary B. (Plummer) Wallingford escorting fourteen students on a week’s trip to Washington, DC.

FOR WASHINGTON TRIP. Seventy-One Tourists Leave Boston Tonight for National Capital. Fifteen students and an instructor from the Milton, N.H., high school, 71 tourists from various parts of this state, 9 from Rhode Island, 7 from other parts of New Hampshire than Milton, and 2 from New York will start this evening on an excursion to Washington organized by George E. Marsters of 298 Washington st. The party will be conducted by Frank W. Lund. and the stayawav sightseeing will continue for one week. Here are the names of the fortunate ones: Miss Eliza L. Baker, Miss Josie M. [Calkins] Clakins, Miss Inez M. Colbath, Miss Elva M. Gowan, Miss S.B. Hutchins, Miss Rosamond E. Piper, Miss Marlon Tuttle, Miss Frances G. Wadleigh, Mr. Paul G. Baker, Mr. L.S. Drew, Mr. C.F. Hayes, Mr. C.P. Moulton, Mr. C.E. Piper, Mr. Dana C. Tuttle, Mr. Clarence E. Kelley, Mrs. Mary B. Wallingford, Milton, N.H. high school; Mr. and Mrs. C.W. Jenness, Farmington. N.H.; Mr. Horace J. Batchelder. Haverhill; Mr. Frank J. Batchelder, Haverhill; Mrs. E.B. Parsons, Springfield; Miss Josephine F. Ellis, Winthrop Beach; Miss Florence J. Weddleton, Chelsea; Mrs. S.J. Hatch, Boston; Mrs. L.A. Coombs, Shelburne: Mrs. W.H. Wright, Roxbury; Miss Maude R. Wright, Roxbury: Mrs. G.H. Hayes, Winthrop; Miss A.H. Hayes, Winthrop: Miss E. McWane. Newtonville; Mrs. Robert B. Edes, Newton; Miss Grace Montgomery, Newton; Mrs. J.H. Jones, Dorchester; Mrs. A.W. Hole, Dorchester; Mrs. Walter White, Malden; Mr. Wm. Murphy, Roxbury; Mr. Wm. D. Murphy. Roxbury; Mr. Thomas J. Murphy, Roxbury; Mr. and Mrs. H.N. Tucker, Boston; Mrs. F.B. Pratt, Boston; Mrs. G.O. North, Boston; Mrs. Geo. Lane, Winthrop; Mr. E.W. Marshall, Portsmouth, N.H.; Mrs. E.W. Marshall, Portsmouth, N.H.; Mrs. Geo. E. Miller, Suncook, N.H; Master J.G. Seaver, Woburn; Mrs. C.B. Holmes, Boston; Mrs. J.H. Robinson, Boston; Mr. Henry McCarty, Boston; Mrs. Henry McCarty, Boston; Mrs. M.B. Green, Boston: Miss Rebecca Bent, Somerville; Miss Emma B. Willcomb, Maynard; Mrs. L. Anderson, Boston; Mrs. A.B. Shepard, Andover; Miss Georgia Shepard, Andover; Miss Floretta Vining, Hull; Mrs. Edward Clark, Hull; Mrs. George Bates, Boston; Mrs. Adelia Page, Dorchester; Mrs. J.L. Gibbs, Waltham; Miss Grace T. Richards, Dorchester; Mrs. R.E. Page, Arlington; Miss Cora Watts, East Boston; Mrs. A.M. Gove. Dorchester; Mrs. Charles T. Crane. Braintree; Mrs. Belle Austrup, Worcester; Mrs. George Beane, Worcester; Miss Flora M. Scott, Worcester: Mrs. J.L. Scott, Worcester; Mr. and Mrs. George F. Morgan, Cambridge; Mr. and Mrs. S.C. Colbath. Alton, N.H.; Miss Mary Hallissey, Dorchester; Miss Alice R. Capen, Boston; Mrs. J.W. Ryan, Dorchester; Miss R.B. Ryan, Dorchester; Miss G.L. Ryan, Dorchester; Mr. and Mrs. A.S. Harriman, Haverhill; Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Dexter, Lowell; Mrs. A.F. Dearborn, South Acton; Mr. L. Coffin, Newton; Mr. I.A. McManus, Newton; Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Bates, Leominster; Mrs. C. Hemenway, Worcester; Mrs. Rufus Dixon, Worcester; Mr. and Mrs. W.L. Kirschner, New York; Mr. L.S. Whalen, Dorchester; Miss Susie Manchester, Newport, R.I.; Miss Lillie Manchester, Newport, R.I.: Miss Louise Goffe, Newport, R.I.: Miss Kate Stratford, Newport, R.I., Mr. Walter Sherman. Newport, R.I.; Mr. Harry Alger, Newport, R.I.; Mr. J. Paul Cozzens, Newport, R.I.; Mr. William Weaver, Newport, R.I.; Mr. Robert Shepley, Newport, R.I.; Messrs. Leland and Lawton, Boston; Mr. A.E. Clary, Boston; Miss Catherine Paulint (Boston Globe, April 17, 1908).

George E. Marsters ran a Boston tourist agency. His advertisements mentioned his representing foreign and American steamship lines, railways, hotels and resorts. He was willing to arrange tours under escort, private cars, foreign money, exchange, drafts, and letters of credit. He would have arranged for the escort, Frank W. Lund, who was himself a ticket, tourist, or travel agent, resident in Nashua, NH, as early as 1902.

Mrs. Wallingford was likely along as chaperone. She was the widow of Samuel W. Wallingford, who had died in 1899. She appeared as a farmer, aged fifty-five years (b. NH), in the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. Her household included her sister, Frances W. Twombly, aged forty-nine years (b. NH), and her brother-in-law, John Twombly, a retired physician, aged fifty-one years (b. NH). Neither sister had any children.

Jessie Calkins, aged thirteen years (b. ME); Elva Gowan, aged nine years (b. NH); Rosamond E. Piper, aged eleven years (b. NH), and her brother Charles E. Piper, aged ten years (b. NH); Charles T. Hayes, aged nine years (b. NH), were all Milton students, although not yet attending the high school, at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. They would have been aged between seventeen and twenty-one years at the time of the Washington trip.

Not all of Nute High school’s students necessarily lived in Milton. Nute High school also admitted “tuition students” from elsewhere. Iniz M. Colbath, aged ten years (b. NH); Lyle S. Drew, aged nine years (b. NH); Blanche S. Hutchins, aged ten years (b. NH); Dana C. Tuttle, aged eleven years (b. NH), and his sister, Marion Tuttle, aged nine years (b. NH), and Fanny G. Wadleigh, aged nine years (b. MA), all resided in Wakefield, NH, in 1900.  They would have been aged between seventeen and nineteen years at the time of the Washington trip.

Carroll P. Moulton, aged ten years (b. NH), resided in Ossipee, NH in 1900. Eliza L. Baker, aged twelve years (b. VT) and her brother, Paul G. Baker, aged ten years (b. VT), resided in Vergennes, VT, in 1900. They would have been aged between eighteen and twenty years at the time of the Washington trip.

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Rev. Francis, former pastor of Ludlow, MA’s First Congregational church read out some letters from another former pastor, Rev. Myron P. Dickey of Milton.

GIVES LUDLOW $10,000. Old-Home Sunday Cheered by C.D. Rood. Many People Attend First Congregational Church. LUDLOW CENTER, Aug. 9. Just 275 persons attended “Old-home Sunday” at the First congregational church today and of those 21 men and 18 women were more than 60 years of age. An important matter was the receipt of a letter from Charles D. Rood stating that he had forwarded $10,000 for the benefit of Ludlow. The anthem “Invitation,” sung by a large chorus in the back gallery, began the service, and as they used to do, the congregation turned and faced them. Rev. Mr. Francis, pastor from 1895 to 1905, presided. He read letters from Rev. M.P. Dickey of Milton, N.H. a former pastor, and Mrs. Julius P. Bodfish of Washington, D.C. Rev. Mr. Rice of Agawam spoke. The congregation took their dinner under the trees (Boston Globe, August 10, 1908).

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The Andrews-Wasgatt shoe company of Everett, MA, set up a branch factory in Milton Mills in this year. (They had experienced a strike at their Everett plant in 1907).

FEMALE HELP WANTED. VAMPERS on flat bed machines. ANDREWS-WASGATT CO, Milton Mills, N.H. (Boston Globe, December 27, 1908).

One of its partners, Herbert P. Wasgatt took his seat as alderman-at-large and chairman of the board of aldermen in Everett in January 1909 (Boston Globe, January 5, 1909).

The Andrews-Wasgatt company appears to have been active at Milton Mills through at least 1913 (Shoe & Leather, 1914; Boston Globe, January 7, 1924). Timson and Company, of West Epping, NH, purchased Andrews-Wasgatt’s Milton Mills factory in 1915 and moved their operation there.

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1907; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1909

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References:

Shoe and Leather Reporter Company. (1914). Shoe and Leather Reporter Annual. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=st0-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA284

 

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | July 11, 2019

In this year, we encounter a temporary worker, more Arctic weather, a Milton invalid, a dancing rabbit novelty, a Milton minister in Portsmouth, Mrs. Demeritt still seeking her au pair, and some hydraulic consulting.

This was also the year of Milton’s murderous lover.

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Victor W. “Vic” Stewart was born in Hardwick, VT, February 16, 1874, son of William H.H. and Emma J. (Wakefield) Stewart. He married in Hardwick, November 25, 1896, Lulu L. Meader. She was born in Walden, VT, January 8, 1874, daughter of Stephen and Priscilla Meader.

Victor W. Stuart, a granite cutter, aged twenty-six years (b. VT), and his wife (of three years), Lulu L. Stuart, a dressmaker, aged twenty-six years (b. VT), lodged at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census in the Hardwick, VT, household of William Taylor, an attorney, aged thirty-six years (b. VT).

HARDWICK. Vic Stewart, who has been working in Milton, N.H., has returned home (St. Johnsbury Republican, January 8, 1907).

Mr. Stewart worked probably on one of Milton’s ice-harvesting crews, although he might conceivably have been employed temporarily in a shoe or leather-board factory. (He made it home to Hardwick just in time for his wife’s birthday).

Victor W. Stuart, a granite shed lumper, aged thirty-six years (b. VT), headed a Hardwick, VT, household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of thirteen years, Lulu L. Stuart, aged thirty-six years (b. VT), and his niece, Priscilla E. McGinnis, aged three years (b. NH). Lulu was not a mother. They owned their home on North Main Street (with a mortgage).

Victor Wakefield Stewart, of Hardwick, VT, aged forty-four years, registered for the WW I military draft in St. Johnsbury, VT, September 12, 1918. He worked for George B. Shepman, of Hardwick, VT, as a teamster and sawmill hand. His nearest relative was his wife, Lulu M. Stewart, of Hardwick, VT. He was described as a tall man, with a medium build, blue eyes, and brown hair.

Lulu L. (Meader) Stewart died in Hardwick, VT, March 5, 1945. Victor W. Stewart died in Hardwick, VT, August 13, 1955.

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Milton Mills experienced some Arctic weather, even colder than that of 1904.

DOWN TO 50 BELOW. That is the Report From West Ossipee, N.H. – Many Towns Report 40 Below. PORTSMOUTH, N.H., Jan 24 – Reports from points along the Conway division of the Boston & Maine railroad show that this morning was the coldest for years. At Conway Junction it was 40 below, Milton Mills 42, Union 40, Wolfboro 32, Tuftonboro 40, Pine River 46, Madison 42, West Ossipee 50, Conway Center 47, Jackson 36, Conway 40, Great Works 42. All existing records for low temperature in this city were broken when at 7 a.m. in several places about the West End, the thermometer registered 28 below zero and at the street railroad car barn it was 32 below. The extreme low temperature threw train schedules on the B&M RR away out of the regular time, the freight trains being several hours late, while passenger trains were considerably off. From north of here reports have been received that it was the coldest for half a century. Greenland was 20 below and Newcastle, on the harbor front was 10 below, the coldest for 50 years (Boston Globe, January 24, 1907).

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A Milton invalid corresponded with others through the Each and All Society pages published in newspapers.

OBJECTS AND AIMS OF EACH AND ALL. PERHAPS some of you, seeing this page for the first time, wonder just what the Each and All Society really is; what there is about its aims and objects to create so widespread an interest among “young girls of all ages.” The society was founded in February, 1905, with Christine Terhune Herrick for its president and with an almost instant membership of girls from nearly every State in the Union and in Canada. Its object is to help girls help themselves by developing their talents into something the world wants; to solve difficult problems – the sort a girl wants a calm, unbiased, out-of-the family opinion upon and to promote the exchange of general help. Any girl may belong. There is no red tape about it. The sending of your name for membership gives you the range of every opportunity the society boasts. And Mrs. Herrick stands ready to welcome, to advise and to help.

From a Shut-In. I hasten to answer your call for letters from shut-ins. I have been confined to my bed for fifteen months with spinal trouble the result of an injury. I enjoy the Each and All page so much, and I have been meaning to send a message to my sister shut-ins for some time, as I cannot take up a great number of correspondents. It costs too much of the strength I am so carefully trying to win back, to say nothing of expense, so I have thought of sending a wee message of hope through you.

You ask what I most long for. Well, just now it is for a return to health so that I can take my proper place in the home. A family in which there are a number of growing boys and girls needs a mother that can be “up and doing,” especially when the income is so limited as ours. I covet strength, also, that I may work and earn money to help lift the heavy burden of debt left by my illness, and that of two of the children, who had a long run of typhoid last winter. I wish I had means to have a specialist come to see me.

Some day I shall need a wheel chair, I am sure; and I like pretty, dainty things. I love to read, and should be glad of some of the reading matter offered, and this is enough of my longings. If it is best for me to have any of them gratified, the way will be opened. I am sure. Now for what helps:

First and foremost, “God is our refuge and strength.” I don’t want to preach to the sisters, but there is a Heavenly Father and a Friend who never forgets even the least of His helpless, suffering children. Next, I count a strong determination to get better, D.V. [Deo Volente: God Willing]. By will power and work I have regained the use of my right hand. At Christmas time it was paralyzed – only a little power left in the thumb. My doctor told me the other day that I might feel proud of that hand, as it was only my own persistent efforts that had brought it back as supple as ever, only still a little weak. I worked, darning stockings, trying to scribble – I had enough strength left in my thumb to hold a pencil or needle against the contracted, helpless fingers. I opened out the hand and slept on it. As power began to come in, I played imaginary “five-finger” exercises on the bed quilt and wiggled my fingers in all possible shapes; so that now I can sew, knit, crochet, and write fairly well. Work is a blessing. I find and I do not feel quite such a burden as long as I can mend all the stockings, sew on buttons, do a little light sewing, etc. Just now I am knitting a sweater for one of the girls. I want to take up my writing again, but have not felt equal to a very great effort as yet. 

I love music so well and hear little. I used to play the piano, and wish I could get a guitar now. I think I could play it as I can a banjo. Once I had a great pleasure. A very fine violinist came and played for me all one evening. Another time a neighbor brought in his graphophone. There’s a hint for you girls – so many pianos lie silent in homes when elderly or sick people would love to have you play for them, an hour or two; or you could take your guitars, graphophones or other instruments. If you have a musicale, go out in the “highways and bring In the halt and maimed,” who are doubtless too proud to even hint how music will do to make them forget their miserable condition. A.L.P. (Milton, N.H.) (Los Angeles Times, February 3, 1907).

A Mrs. F.J.N., of Milton, N.H. was also an Each and All Society correspondent (Los Angeles Times, February 10, 1907; April 28, 1907).

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A Milton Mills entrepreneur set themselves up as a mail-order distributor of novelties and toys. In this case, the novelty advertised appears to have been a wind-up dancing rabbit.

WANTED – AGENTS. AGENTS WANTED – Dancing rabbit, latest and cutest thing out; ever changeable; always amusing; price 25c. MILTON NOVELTY CO., Milton Mills, N.H. (Indianapolis News, February 9, 1907).

A nearly identical advertisement included the additional information that the dancing rabbit was made of rubber.

AGENTS WANTED. DANCING RABBIT. Made entirely of rubber; latest and cutest thing out; ever changeable, always amusing. 25¢. Illustrated catalogue free. McNeil & Co.. Kenosha, Wis. 171 (Des Moines Register, December 1, 1907).

Various department and other stores around the country included dancing rabbits among their Easter toys and novelty advertising.

Easter Novelties Shown in Basement in Great Numbers. Easter rabbits, 5¢ to $1.25; Dancing rabbits, 49¢ to $1.00, Jumping rabbits, each 25¢; Walking chickens, each 25¢; Fox chasing chickens, 25¢; Easter baskets, 5¢ to 75¢; Downy little ducks, 5¢ to $1.00; Color for eggs, 6 shades, 5¢ (Carlisle Evening Herald (Carlisle, PA), March 22, 1907).

It might be said that the dancing rabbit toy “had legs.” In 1946, the Habob Company of 41 West 19th Street, New York, NY, included them among its offerings: novelty pencil boxes, fire chief hats, bulk bubble pipes, plastic aeroplanes, nose catchers, dancing rabbits, pistol clappers, Old Maid card games, bead dolls, and tattoo transfers (Chain Store Publishing Company, 1946).

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Rev. Charles D. Osborne of Milton, NH, was the guest preacher at Portsmouth’s Pearl Street Free Baptist Church on Sunday, June 2, 1907.

Pearl Street Free Baptist Church. Preaching at 10.30 by Rev. Charles D. Osborne of Milton, N.H. Subject, “A Great Secret.” Evening service at 7.30, conducted by Rev. Mr. Osborne. Subject, “The Prince of Healers and How to be Healed.” Everybody welcome (Portsmouth Herald, June 1, 1907).

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Mrs. Demeritt sought still for her au pair, as she had in the previous year. This time, she wrote to the Each and All Society mentioned above.

A Chance for Some One. l would like to ask if all the women and girls of today have become “office help,” or if there is none between the ages of 30 and 60 who would be willing to “keep house” in a quiet place, with a good home and good wages and with her rights fully considered? Mr. M.A.D. (Milton, N. H.).

Here is an opportunity for some woman. I hope the right one may get it. She would, of course, be glad to exchange references (Los Angeles Times, June 23, 1907).

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Ira W. Jones, Milton’s home-town hydraulic engineer was off consulting in Montpelier, VT.

ENGINEER’S REPORT. Hydraulic Expert Again Visits Kinney’s Mills. I.W. Jones, hydraulic engineer, of Milton, N.H., went back to his home last night after making another inspection of the water privileges owned by Messrs. Corry, Deavitt and Frost at Kinney’s mills. A contour map has been prepared showing the various sources of water supply and the lowest points in that neighborhood where it would be possible to erect power plants. Mr. Jones has reported to the syndicate his observations on the various dam sites, the possibilities of each and the probable cost of construction. It is reported that Mr. Jones is very favorably impressed .with the water privileges owned by the syndicate. The Montpelier men have not yet decided how large a plant they will put in. They can do two things, the first, build a plant that will supply their street railroad with possibly a small amount of juice for sale, or build a large plant with plenty of juice for sale. Such a development will involve the investment of a large amount’ of money (Montpelier Evening Argus, August 28, 1907).

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1906; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1908

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References:

Find a Grave. (2012, July 8). Arthur J. Marcoux. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/93325461

Wikipedia. (2019, July 7). Christine Terhune Herrick. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Terhune_Herrick

 

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | July 4, 2019

In this year, we encounter a Massachusetts ice scarcity, a ministerial anecdote, an au pair wanted, a train connection missed, two apparent arson fires, Nute High school bullies, a new ice season, and pullers-over wanted at Milton Mills.

This was also the first year (beginning September 1) in which New Hampshire motorists were required to have automobile registrations and driver’s licenses.

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Massachusetts had significant warm stretches during the winter of 1905-06, which interfered with its ice harvest.

Ice Scarce in Lynn. [Lynn Item] The Lynn ice men are not cutting much ice just now in any form. The Lynn Ice Co., M.S. Coolidge, and Z.J. Chase & Sons, who are working at Milton, N.H., have been bothered there by weather, warm spells coming along to interfere with the piling up of ice in the houses there. The Lynn Ice Co. has not cut a pound in Lynn this winter, though the engines have been ready to strike at any minute. Dealers who have cut on Sluice, Floating Bridge, Cedar and Spring ponds have a few tiers in. but not enough to more than carry along the daily trade. All the ice dealers have been buying ice where they have been able to find it outside of Lynn, and some of the New Hampshire men who have small ponds and are near railways have been selling briskly. Far up in New Hampshire there is a plenty, but the cost of getting it to the cities is high, and the cost of lumber is also so high and the lumber so scarce that it is almost impossible to get it on the spot quickly enough to cover the stacks of ice made, and that means melting pretty fast where the sun strikes the cakes.

At Milton, N.H., Tuesday night, there was a big blow. Report came to Lynn today that some of the local firms had lost ice houses, but later the information reached Lynn that the houses that were put out of business for a while are those of the Boston Ice Co., which was building 13 new houses there. The uprights were erected and boarding in had begun, but a high wind during the night blew the standing timbers down and the work will have to be gone over again The Boston Ice Co. people say that where they need 450,000 tons they have but 100,000. and they don’t know what to do any more than the Lynn dealers. Providence, R.I., and New Bedford and Fall River are without ice, or will be after April 1, if some cannot be found to fill the houses.

“I have been m the ice business 25 years,” said a Lynn man today, “and the situation is the worst I ever knew. A man who has been in the trade 19 years told me the other day that he never saw anything like it. We don’t know what to do and that’s a fact. We can just plug along cutting what we can in Milton and trusting that something will happen to fill our houses. We are in a fix and wondering. Yes, ice will be high for next summer. I don’t see how it can be helped. It is costing high to get what little we can find as it is, and if we have to go farther north then the cost will jump to bigger figures and that means that the retail trade must go up.” (Fitchburg Sentinel, March 2, 1906).

ICE SHORTAGE, Hallstram Says It Is Here Already. Avers Dealers Will Have Hard Time Till New Crops. Fourteen Icemen Indicted in Philadelphia. Charles W. Hallstram, secretary of the Massachusetts ice dealers’ association, treasurer of the Union ice company, and prominent among the Ice dealers recently summoned before the grand jury, says it will be a tight squeak for Boston to get through warm weather without a shortage of ice. “Our company,” said Mr. Hallstram, “last week used up the entire supply of one of our houses, where it would ordinarily last two weeks at least. There were 2500 tons of ice in that house, but it was all used up in a week. “People who do not understand the situation may talk as they will, but the fact is there is a shortage of ice, and many of the dealers will find it pretty hard work to drag along until the new crop comes. “Our company has only four houses left with ice up at Milton, N.H. At Wilmington, Mass, we have six small houses full since last year. We supply the fish trade mostly, and I know that we will have a pretty hard time to pull through with what supply we have.” Mr. Hallstram said his company put their price up only 50 cents a ton this year, and that the price now is $3 a ton (Boston Globe, August 8, 1906).

See also Milton’s Ice Harvest of 1906 and Milton’s Ice Industry.

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Elder Daniel B. Goodwin seems to have been the last of Milton’s Christian Church Elders – 1846-1888. He had died in Milton, October 10, 1888, and was here remembered nearly twenty years later for his large hands.

Mr. Goodwin’s Hands. A story comes from Milton, N.H., of an old clergyman named Goodwin. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man and was said to have the largest hands of any man for miles around. One noon a young man named Allen was taking dinner at the elder’s house. It was the elder’s custom to ask a blessing at the table, and Allen had not been used to this sort of thing, for instead of waiting he began to eat. The elder raised his hand with restraining gesture and said: “Pause, young man.” “Paws,” was the reply, “I should think they was paws.” – Chicago Inter Ocean (Funk & Wagners, 1906).

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Berthold Isaac Demeritt married in Milton, July 9, 1892, Musetta Ardella Dorr. He was born in Newfield, ME, November 30, 1874, son of David and Hannah A. (Nason) DeMeritt; she was born in Milton, NH, in July 1875, [adopted?] daughter of Simon C. and Hannah W. (Hill) Dorr.

Bert DeMeritt, a packer of boots and shoes, aged twenty-five years (b. ME), headed a Boston, MA, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of eight years), Musetta A. DeMeritt, aged twenty-four years (b. ME [SIC]), and his daughters, Merribel DeMeritt, aged six years (b. NH), and Bonneville DeMeritt, aged five years (b. NH). They resided in a rented two-family house at 48 Fairview Street, which they shared with the household of John Hunter, a gas collector, aged thirty-eight years (b. Scotland). Musetta was the mother of four children, of whom two were still living.

Exchange of Ideas in Members’ Letters. Who Needs This Work? I would like very much to have a lady, from 40 to 60, help with care of three children, mostly. She could do whatever she wished of the other work, with the price accordingly. I would rather help care for them, but I must have help, and some one well recommended, whom I could trust, who would be willing to stay with them so I could go out of doors. I would try to make it a pleasant home in every way – the help are one with the family here In the country. We are near churches, postoffice and healthy mountains, woods and water. It is an ideal place for one who cares more for country quiet than city streets. I would like to hear from any one answering these requirements, with good references. I will try to have a fair understanding, as regards price and privileges, and will return answers to all with any information asked for. House very convenient and roomy. Children made to mind and respect elders. One girl, two boys, 1 years to 2 months. Mrs. M.A. De M. (Milton, N.H.). An excellent chance for some one. (Los Angeles Times, April 29, 1906).

Berthold I. DeMeritt, a shoe factory foreman, aged thirty-five years (b. ME), headed a Milton household at the time of the Thirteenth (1910) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of seventeen years), Musetta DeMeritt, aged thirty-four years (b. NH), and his children, Bonneville I. DeMeritt, aged fifteen years (b. NH), Bruce R. DeMeritt, aged seven years (b. NH), Roscoe E. DeMeritt, aged four years, Delphine H. DeMeritt, aged two years, and Hannah D. DeMeritt, aged four months (b. NH). Musetta was the mother of eight children, of whom five were still living.

Mrs. M.A. Demeritt donated flowers to the New England Hospital for Women and Children, in Boston, MA, in 1918-19 (See Mrs. DeMerritt’s Arbutus).

Berthold I. DeMeritt died in Milton Mills, January 11, 1940. Musetta A. (Dorr) DeMeritt died in Rochester, NH, April 12, 1946.

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Edgar M. Churchill, a clergyman, aged forty-one years (b. ME), headed an Acton, ME, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of eight years), Amy M. Churchill, aged thirty-one years (b. ME), and his daughter, Dorothy M. Churchill, aged three years (b. ME). (Their household appeared on the same page as that of Eugene H. Ayer (see below).

CHURCH NOTES. There were no services in the Free Baptist church Sunday owing to the detainment in North Conway, N.H., of the Rev. A.W. Churchill of Milton, N.H., who was to have supplied there. Mr. Church understood that the summer train service was in effect and so missed connections. He will have charge of the services at the church next Sunday (St. Johnsbury Republican, May 9, 1906).

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Jacob F. Staples married in Milton, March 9, 1863, Amaney J. Pike. Rev. James Doldt performed the ceremony.

Jacob F. Staples appeared on Page 5 of Milton in the Veterans Schedule of 1890. He and his family seem to have been missed in the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. The Milton section of the Dover Directory of 1900 listed him as a farmer, boarding at H.W. Staples. Harry W. Staples appeared as a farmer, on the U.V. [Union Village] road, 2 m. west of M.M. [Milton Mills].

FAMILY BURNED OUT TWICE. Town of Milton, N.H. Stirred Up Over Two Fires Which Officials Believe to Have Been of incendiary Origin. MILTON, N.H., Aug 7. This town is considerably stirred up over what is believed to have been two incendiary fires. On the morning of June 2, between the hours of 2 and 3, the home of Jacob F. Staples, about one mile out of the village on the road to Union, was burned, together with the barn which contained five horses, other live stock and farming implements. When the family, which consisted of Mr. Staples and his wife, his son Harry and the latter’s child, awakened, the house was one mass of flames and the occupants had barely time to get out without saving any of their effects. They moved to a small house owned by the son, and their neighbors assisted them in furnishing their new home. Early Sunday July 29 this house, together with the barn, three horses and wagons were completely destroyed by fire. As in the case of the previous fire, the family barely escaped with their lives. Owing to the circumstances connected with both fires the selectmen of the town have placed the matter in the hands of county solicitor Dwight Hall, and a systematic investigation will be made in hope of clearing up the mystery (Boston Globe, August 7, 1906).

Jacob F. Staples made out his last will in Milton, October 4, 1906. He devised his farm tools of every description to his son, Harry W. Staples; $1 to his daughter, Susie A. Hatch, wife of Frank Hatch of Kennebunk, ME; and all the rest and residue to his wife, Amancy J. Staples, who was also named as executrix. The will was proved November 7, 1906, i.e., Jacob F. Staples had by then died.

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Eugene H. Ayer, a carriage painter, aged forty-five years (b. ME), headed an Acton, ME, household at the time of the Twelfth (1900) Federal Census. His household included his wife (of seventeen years), Charlotte Ayer, aged thirty-six years (b. NY), and his children, William Ayer, at school, aged ten years (b. [Parsonfield,] ME), Francese Ayer, aged seven years (b. ME), and Gladys H. Ayer, aged three years (b. ME). (Their household appeared on the same page as that of Rev. Edgar M. Churchill (see above)).

VICTIM OF HAZING. William Ayer Suffering from Blood Poisoning Said to Have Been Caused by Milton, N.H., High Schoolmates. MILTON MILLS, N.H., Sept. 19. William Ayer, 15, son of Eugene Ayer of this place, is suffering from blood poisoning it is caused, it is alleged, by being hazed by the sophomores of the Nute high school at Milton, which young Ayer entered this fall (Boston Globe, September 19, 1906).

Mr. Clarence E. Kelley was Nute High school principal at the time, and Misses Anna F. Berry and Theresa A. Gerould were the teachers. Despite this Nute High school experience, William R. Ayer went on to become a teacher too. He attended three years of college. He was a teacher, resident on Church Street in Milton Mills, in 1917; and a grammar school teacher, resident in Milton Mills, in 1920. He was a farmer, resident on Church Street in Milton Mills, in 1930 and 1940.

William R. Ayer died in 1954.

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Here we find two of Milton’s ice merchants attempting to put the ice shortages of the winter of 1905-06 behind them. Hopefully, the winter of 1906-07 would be more successful.

MALE HELP WANTED. WANTED – 2 or 3 laborers to go to Milton, N.H. Apply to J.R. DOWNING CO, 128 Kenrick st., Brighton, at office or by phone, 2t* n13 (Boston Globe, November 13, 1906).

FOR SALE. ICE. NEW ICE, f.o.b. Milton, N.H., $1 per ton, railroad weight. Address JOHN O. PORTER, Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, December 9, 1906).

Porter states his terms as being F.O.B.. i.e., the “sale” took place when the ice was loaded at Milton. Ownership, loss in transit, and any liability, all shifted at that time to the buyer.

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The Boynton Shoe Company had been active in various locations since at least 1898. Its founder, William H. Boynton, died in Marblehead, MA, in December 1901. It had a Candia, NH, operation from around 1903. It first advertised for a stock-fitter for women’s and misses’ shoes at a Milton Mills branch in October 1904. (Boynton was the successor there of the Gale Shoe Company).

MALE HELP WANTED. PULLERS-OVER and operator, McKay sewer, steady work, good chance for family to move where they can all have work. BOYNTON SHOE CO. Milton Mills, N.H., or ANDREWS CO., Everett. SuW d23 (Boston Globe, December 26, 1906).

(Details of a Puller-Over’s task may be found in Milton in the News – 1901). The Boynton Shoe Company produced shoes at Milton Mills through at least 1908.

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1905; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1907

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References:

Beehive (MA Historical Society). (2014, February 7). The McKay Stitcher: The Machine That Revolutionized Footwear Production. Retrieved from www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2014/02/the-mckay-stitcher-the-machine-that-revolutionized-footwear-production/

Find a Grave. (2013, August 12). William R. Ayer. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/115348574

Sampson & Murdock Company. (1908). New England Business Directory and Gazetteer for 1908. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=11ZEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA460

Wikipedia. (2019, June 23). FOB (Shipping). Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOB_(shipping)

Wikipedia. (2018, August 27). Gordon McKay. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_McKay

 

By Muriel Bristol | June 30, 2019

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.

Private Operators – Isaac H. Atherton, Everett B. Cooley, Frank E. Fernald, Arthur M. Flye, Asa A. Fox, Charles D. Fox, Harry G. Grover, Forrest L. Marsh, Robert S. Pike, Hazen Plummer, John C. Townsend, Joseph E. Willey.

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”).

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For a rather brief description of the main route through Milton in this period (1917-18), see also Milton, Straight Thru (North), in 1918.

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… 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).

Continued in Milton Automobiles in 1909-10

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References:

NH General Court. (1908). Secretary of State’s Report. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=ok0bAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA2-PA127

NH Secretary of State. (1909). Laws of the State of New Hampshire. Retrieved from books.google.com/books?id=VZ1GAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA528