HISTORY OF COLEBROOK, COOS COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE
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SOURCE: History of Coös County, New Hampshire by Georgia Merrill Drew;
Syracuse N.Y.: W.A. Fergusson & Co., 1888, 1888, 1018 pgs.

page 583
COLEBROOK is situated on the east bank of the Connecticut river, being
the fourth town from the extreme north part of the state of New
Hampshire, Pittsburg, Clarksville, and Stewartstown lying north of
it.  It is about 150 miles from Concord, thirty-six miles from 
Lancaster, and not far from the center of the county in a north and
south direction.  It is bounded north by Stewartstown, east by
Dixville, south by Columbia, and west by the Connecticut river,
across which are the towns of Lemington and Canaan in Essex county,
Vermont.  Colebrook is about ten miles in length, and four and 
one-half miles in breadth.  It contains 218 lots of 100 acres each,
eighteen lots of fifty-five acres each, and nineteen "settlers' lots,"
containing about 100 acres each, making in all about 24, 700 acres.
The early settlers who cast their lots in this town, took up, or, as
they called it "pitched upon," irregularly shaped lots, and, when the
town was lotted out some years later, these lots were not meddled with,
or reckoned in the survey, but were left, and are, to-day, the
original "settlers' lots."

The general topography of Colebrook is uneven.  On the east the
Dixville mountains slope down into the town.  Rippling down from the
same mountains the Mohawk river flows about twelve miles to the
Connecticut river, and from the northly part of the town several
branches help to swell its volume till it becomes quite a "sizable"
stream.  South of the Mohawk a high range of hills reaches back into
Columbia, and northerly from the same stream the land is bold and
hilly, but never rough or precipitous.  On the Connecticut river broad
and beautiful meadows stretch out to the sunshine, and every hill is
smooth and round, and capable of cultivation to its very top.  Few
ledges are to be found, and fields where there are many loose stones
are seldom seen.  Towards the westerl ypart of the town Beaver brook
comes down over a sharp hill, fallin in broken masses several hundred
feet, forming a beautiful cascade, and then hurrying down to meet the
Mohawk just above the Connecticut.  By these streams and their many
branches the town is well-watered, and no pasture is without its
living springs which help to make them up.
  The soil of Colebrook is almost matchless in New England.  It 
produces in abundance, and its inhabitants say, with perahs pardonable
pride, that there is not a single lot of land in town that would not
make a good farm and produce abundant crops.  The principal productions
are first of all hay; then oats, barley, buckwheat, wheat and potatoes.
There is a large amount of fine pasture land. And this, with the hay,
furnishes a large number of fat cattle and sheep, a great many of
which are shipped every year to market.  The oats, barley, wheat and
buckwheat are consumed at home.  The potatoes are partly manufactured
into potato starch, and party shipoped for sale.  The farmers of
Colebrook have taken great interest in improving their stock, and many
thoroughbred cattle are found among them.  The Devon, the Durham, the
Hereford, the Jersey, and Ayrshire, the Holstein and the Polled Angus
are all represented, and all have their respective champions.  Great
pains has also been taken to improve the breeds of horses, and no 
town in Northern New Hampshire furnishes the cities with so many
excellent horses.  The inhabitants are thrifty, intelligent, and 
industrious, and consequently largely independent.  It is a town of
much wealth, being probably the first in the state in proportion to
its population.
  So much may be said in a general way of Colebrook in its present
condition, as bearing upon the characer of its early history.  Who was
the very first settler of the town, is involved in obscurity.  Certain
it is that one hundred and twenty years go these fertile meadows were
covered with a growth of maple, elm and underbrush; the hills with
spruce, fir, pine, hemlock, maple, beech, birch and other woods, and
the foot-print of the white man was unknown.  Through these forests
roamed the bear and wolf; at the sparkling streams the moose, caribou
and deer quenched their thirst; and under every waterfall were great
numbers of the speckled trout.  In the river, the lordly salmon held
undisputed sway, and dreamed not of dams, sluices, fishways, and other
abominations, which, in time to come, should prevent his descendants
from visit the homes of their fathers.
  There was a tribe if Indians who made the town of Colebrook and 
vicinity their "stamping-groundk" and Metallak was their chief.  They
were said to be members of the Mohawk tribe, and from them the name
of the river is supposed to be derived.  They made their homes on the
hill east of the farm known as the J.F. Keazer farm, and dropped off,
a few at a time, till only their chief, Metallak, and his squaw, Molly,
remained.  Their history can be told in a few words.  They lived a
wandering life; fishing and hunting, generally together, through this
part of the country, going frequently to Lake Umbagog and the
Magalloway river.  On one of these occasions the squaw died and was
buried by Metallak on Lake Umbagog, near a rock which still bears her
name. "Moll's Rock" is well known to every visitor to that beautiful
lake.  After her death, the old chief continued his wanderings alone.
When he became quite an old man he went trapping on the Magalloway
river.  He lay down at night in his rude bark camp and slept the sleep
of the weary.  In the morning he awoke, and lay there waiting for the
sun to rise, but it rose not, and was never to rise for him again.  He
heard the birds singing, and creeping out from his camp, felt the sun
warm on his upturned face, but he could not see it.  He was stone 
blind.  Stone blind, and miles on miles away form every human being.
Cautiously he made his way over the well-known path, and, by feeling
alone, after many days he found human companionship, but he nearly
perished before doing so.  For several years he lived in blindness,
wandering about his old haunts and died, at last, a pauper.  His 
memory still lives in the two ponds bearing his name on the Magalloway
river, and a certain class of chub is known among the frequenters of
those waters as "Metallak's straners."

This township, with Columbia, formerly called Cockburn, and 
Stewartstown, was granted December 1, 1770, to Sir George Colebrook,
Sir James Cockburn, John Stewarts Esq. of London England, and John
Nelson, of Grenada, West India Islands, and this town at first
known as "Colebrook Town," after the grantee.  There were few
inhabitants, but from time to time they increased, till December 15,
1795 when the people became uneasy at being unincorporated, and took 
steps to procure a charter.

On the 15th of December 1795 the following individuals petitioned the
General Court for incorporation: Andrew McAllan, Josiah King, 
And McAllaster, Moses Smith, Ebenezer Brainard, Joseph Goddard, Isaac
COvil, Joseph Griswold, Wil'm McAllaster and Nehemiah Spencer.

Although that petition states that there were about thirty ratable
polls at that time in Colebrook, it is probably that there were not
more than fifteen men who had commenced to clear the land and make
homes for their families.  What became of McAllan and King is unknown--
the records of Colebrook having been burned July 24, 1870.  William
McAllaster and Andrew McAllaster lived on the farm now occupied by
Martin B. Noyes, and they built the square house still standing at
that place.  THey also built a saw-mill and grist-mill near the site
of the present grist-mill.  They moved to Marietta, Ohio, in 1815.

JOSEPH GODDARD lived at various places in town, but the latter part of
his life he lived on the farm now occupied by Elbridge G. Arlin.
Joseph Griswold and Nehemiah Spencer are also unknown to those now
walking in their footsteps, and no descendants of theirs are known to
be in this part of the country.

ISAAC COVIL has a better record.  He was born in Enfield, N.H. in
1749.  He removed to Colebrook about 1790, and went on to the farm
now occupied by Richard Tibbettts.  He had numerous sons and daughters,
to wit, Content, who married Asa Terry; Ruth, who married Danforth
Wallace; and Sally, who married Ephraim Benedict.  The boys were
Judah, whose wife was Charlotte Luther, and who lived on the James
M. Mathews farm; Ebenezer, whose wife was Mary Fellows, who lived on
the George E. Hammond farm, and afterwards on the Joseph Tibbetts
farm, with his father; Nathaniel and Daniel, who died unmarried.  The
children of Judah and Ebenezer have largely settled in this town and
vicinity.  The children of Judah were James, who married Clarissa
Mills; William, who married Hannah Corbett; Timothy, who married
Abiah Cogswell; John W., who married Phebe Pulsifer; Joseph Y., who
married Jane Mills; Elmira, who married Mack Springer; Mary P., who
married Charles Cooledge; Susan, who married Henry Burnham; and
Phebe A., who married Samuel E. Day.  The children of Ebenezer Covell
were Orrin, who married Julia A. Kidder; Otis E., who went to
Claifornia amont the "forty-niners" and was killed there; Loring G.,
who married Mrs. Burnside; Ezra S. and Eleanor, who died unmarried;
and Freeman P. Covell, who married Rebecca Hicks.  James and Joseph Y.,
the sons of Judah, are still living in Colebrook, as is also Freeman
P., son of Ebenezer.  The last has held many positions of trust in the
town.  For a hundred years this family has been well represented in
Colebrook, and the younger stock bid fair to do their part for the 
next hundred.
  So much for the briefest possible sketch of the petitioners for the
incorporation of Colebrook.

FROM THE INCORPORATION
  On the 11th day of June 1796, the town was incorporated.  Up to this
time there had been but little business done in the town, but it
increased rapidly from this time, till in 1800 it is said to have had
160 inhabitants, or about forty families.  From this time to 1810
the number steadily gained, when the census shows 325 souls in the
town.
  In 1803 the county of Coos was created.  At that time there was in
this town the river road, running substantially as now, a road up the
Mohawk as far as Factory Village, and then up past the John Moses
farm, over to the Reed district, and a road from the river road near
the George Heath farm up to South hill in Stewartstown.  In 1804 the
pople of this community began to see the necessity of some means of
getting to some market, not only for procuring supplies for
themselves, but also to enable them to dispose of the article of
produce which they were able to spare.  Portland, Me., was their
nearest point of trade, but there was no respectable road, on
account of the Dixville mountains, which rose between the
Connecticut valley and that of the Androscoggin.  A road was
projected and built through Dixville Notch, and each winter
thereafter the farmer of Colebrook loaded his sled with wheat, potash,
pearlash or potato-whiskey and hauled it to Portland, where he
exchanged it for molasses, salt fish, and such other necessaries as
were required for the year to come.
  There was very little money in the town, and everything was
"bartered" instead of bought.  Whiskey was quite an important article
of manufacture, being made of potatoes.  There was a still on the
river road, near Columbia line, owned by Mr. Hezekiah Parsons, another
at the Factory Village, and still another, owned by Nathan Beecher,
on the Elbridge Arlin farm.  The farmers carried the potatoes to the
still, and bartered them for whiskey at the rate of three bushels of
potatoes for one gallon of whiskey.  It was a common and frequent
beverage, and hardly any family was without it.  It is told that a
certain family used to send one of the boys to the "Factory" still
after a gallon of whiskey at a time, and he came nearly every day.
On being told that it seemed as if he had to come pretty often, he
replied: "What is a gallon of whiskey in a house when they haven't
any cow?"  Fortunately the whiskey was pure, and a person would get 
drunk and sober half a dozen times a day on it without the
disastrous effect of the spirit of modern times.
  In 1809 there was an enterprise set on foot at Hartford, Conn, which
materially increased the interests of Colebrook.  John Smith, of
Hartford, and Samuel Pratt, of Marshfield, Vt., made an agreement...
[text of agreement found in original not included here]...
Under this agreeement Samuel Pratt came to Colebrook in 1809 and
commenced work on both gentleman's lots [these lots comprised the
lots now owned by George Fairman, James B. Clough, Schuvler H.
Aldrich, and the Wellman farm now occupied by Edward W. Carleton]
and they soon after acquired, the farm now occupied by
Benjamin R. Gilman.  They cleared these lots, built buildings, and
made great improvements.  They built a saw-mill, and in 1812
commenced building a cotton factory near the site of the present
building on the Mohawk [river].  The mill was completed and labor
in the same commenced.  The wearving was done by hand, there being no
power-loom on the premises. Soon after this they built a store, for
several years known as the Pitkin store, at the Factory Village, and
stocked it with the usual variety of goods suited to the wants of
the community; and here the people brought their wheat, barley, and
other products for exchange for the necessities of life.  Previous to
this time there had been a little "grocery" store in Colebrook,
on the river road near where the old house stands, on the George W.
Heath farm, kept by a man named Elisha Bundy.  In 1815 Bellows &
Carlisle, who had been in trade at Columbia Valley, built a store 
where the old Colby store used to stand before the fire; and in 1816,
Smith & Pratt built a store on the site of the store at the corner of
Main and Pleasant streets, and commenced trade there.  These stores
were the beginning of the mercantile business in the town of
Colebrook.
  Messrs. Smith & Pratt were enterprising and pushing people, and
their efforts brought many new settlers to Colebrook.  About the
year 1800 the McAllasters had built a saw-mill and a grist-mill
near the present grist-mill site, which depended on the water from
Beaver brook alone for their power.  Smith & Pratt purchased these
mills, and realized that their power was insufficient, made a contract
with one Caleb Titus to dig through the hill from the Mohawk, and to
dig a channel to the mill-pond, and to thereby draw a part of the 
water of the Mohawk to their aid.  From 1809 or 1810 they carried on
their enterprises, and in 1815, they added to the former contracts...

***INVOICE OF 1816 - RESIDENcE OF TAX PAYERS***
By great fortunes the invoice of 1816 is preserved, and below is
given the names of the tax payers of that year with the property on
which each was taxed, and as far as possible the residence of each
at the time is given. [ALthough the original document mentions the
property, only the NAMES of the tax payers are listed here].

Mark Aldrich, Joab Aldrich, Joseph Adams, John Acres, Moses Annis,
Ozias Bissell, David Bissell, Austin Bissell, Martin Bissell, 
Benjamin Buell, Charles Baker, Harvey Barnes, David Butler, Nathan
Beecher, Ebenezer Brainard, Isaac Covil, Judah Covil, Ebenezer Covil,
Nathaniel Covil, Isaac Covil, Edmund Chamberlain, Joseph Chandler,
David Chandler, Zenas Chopin, Samuel Chandler, John Corey, Thomas
Chase, Zebediah Dinsmore Anderson Dana, Amos Dart, Phillpi Flanders,
Timothy Farrar, Thomas Flanders, Levi Grover, Daniel Harvey, Joseph
Holkins, John Hugh, Abel Hyde, Salmon Hyde, Joseph Hilliard and Charles
Hilliard, William Holkins, John Holmes, Orrin Hollister, Harris
Hollister, Jesse Keazer, James Keazer, Lyman Lombard, Joseph Loomis,
Lewis Loomis, Sylvanus W. Larnard, Caleb Little, Sylvanus Noyes,
Samuel Porter, Heirs of John Presba, Hezekiah Parsons, Jonathan
Parsons, Benjamin Spencer, Moses Stacy, John Sloane, David L. Swain,
Smith & Pratt, John Smith, David Titus, Samuel Sargent, Eleazer Titus,
John C. Titus, Caleb Titus, Eleazer Titus Jr., Eleazer Terry,
Danford Wallace.
 By an examination of the foregoing invoice it will be seen that in
1816 there were sixty-eight persons paying a poll tax in Colebrook.
There were fifty-six houses, and fourteen horses, while there were
seventy-four oxen, and 116 cows and 112 young cattle.  The proportion
of horses shows conclusively that the people relied on their own
powers of locomotion rather than on horses, and also that the
farmers performed their farm work largely with oxen--a practice which
the modern farmer would do well to imitate. 
  The years 1816 and 1817 were very cold seasons and hard ones for the
settlers in a country so far from civilization as Colebrook.  There
were heavy frosts all through the year, and the crops were badly
frost-bitten.  In 1816 the sheep that had been sheared nearly all 
died from the severe cold, and everything was cut off by severe
freezes in June and July.  Smith & Pratt had forty acres of wheat all
badly damaged.  They harvested and threshed it, but the wheat was
very poor.  The bread made from it was so soft and sticky that old 
Mrs. Pitkin said the only way they could get it out of the oven was
to rell it out on a yarn reel.  Everybody was put on a short
allowance.  The year 1817 was another bad year, though better than
 the year previous, but it required several seasons for the settlers
to recover from the blow they received in these two "cold years."
 The operations of Smith & Pratt went on smoothly, and they were doing
a good business in the mill till June 19, 1820, when the mill took
fire and was entirely consumed.  They immediately took measures to
rebuilt, and put up the lower part of a saw-mill, and put in
machinery, so as to saw out the timber they needed for the new work.
The old mill was built of wood, but they built the new one of brick,
as it stands today.  They burned the brick on the David Bissell farm,
when Dan. Stevens now lives.  They had a large gang of men at work,
and, like most men, they sometimes became boyish in their pranks.
One night the crowd drew lots to see what two men should go out
foraging and get a pig to roast at the kiln where they were burning
brick.  The lot fell on James Luther and Caleb Titus. They departed
on their errand, and soon returned, each with a dead pig on a bag.
They turned them out upon the ground, when to the astonishment of
each other, and the amusement of everybody else, Luther had stolen
his pig from Titus, and Titus had returned the compliment by stealing
his pig from Luther.
  The new mill was made a woolen-mill, and since 1822, has been run
fro the carding of wool for the farmers, and the weaving of cloth,
both for them, and for retail trade.  One many who was intimately
connected with this work, has since 1816, been a sort of land-mark in
the town.

JOHN WHITTEMORE was born in Rumford, Me., December 14, 1805.  His
father, John Whittemore Sr., moved to Dixville, N.H. when John was
seven years old.  In 1816 Mr. Whittemore commenced work in the mill of
Smith & Pratt, and followed it through the hands of various owners
for fifty-five years.  In the last fiften years his familiar form,
clad in the "swallow-tailed" coat, which he distaints to put away
for the modern abomination, has been seen almost weekly in every part
of the county, taking subscriptions for newspapers and applications
for insurance.  Eighty-two years of age, his memory is clear, his
form is erect, and his step as rapid as fifty years go.
  About 1826 Smith & Pratt failed in business, and their property in
Colebrook went into other hands, and, in a few years, was scattered
among many owners.  They had been instruments of much good to the
town, and gave it a start that is still visible in its results.
  From this time the growth of Colebrook was steadily and even; and,
year by year, the farmers, pushed the wilderness back, till today
every lot in town has its improvements.

EDUcATION
Very soon after the settlement of the town the pioneers, coming from
a country where education was highly prized, established a school in
what is now district No. 1, in Colebrook village.  On the bank of
the Mohawk, near where the barn of Francis B. Crawford now stands,
they built a log building in which school was kept and church
services held.  Here Rev. Dyer Burge, Capt. Benjamin Buell, and
James Cogswell, as early as from 1795 to 1810, wielded the birch,
and instilled into the pupils the elements of knowledge.  Reading,
spelling, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and later, geography, were
the studies pursued by the pupils.  The school-house was old, rough,
and uncomfortable, the seats roughly-hewn benches, the fire in a huge
fireplace where logs six feet long were burned--scorching the searcher
for heat in front and freezing his back--yet the scholars, clad in
homespun and home-made garments, would put to shame many a modern
pupil by their ambition and perserverance.  Later, Jonas Rolfe held
sway in this old house, and his reputation as a teacher of youth
has come down all these years to the present generation.
  When the Factory Village began to assume some proportions, a
school-house was built there.  Joseph Hilliard built this house in 
1814.  Not long after, the Loring G. Piper district was organized,
and a school-house built there, and rapidly thereafter the new school
districts were formed, till in 1885, when the school districts were
abolished, there were thirteen districts and thirteen school-houses in
the town...
  At the December session of the General Court, 1832, a charter for
Colerook academy was granted to Joseph Loomis, Daniel Harvey,
Edumund Chamerlain, Lyman Lombard, Ira Young, Lewis Loomis, Frederick
G. Messer, Albert Pitkin, Hezekiah Parsons, Jonas Rolfe and William
Hawkins.  The people were not satisfied with the common schools, and
desired something better, so that their children might proceed
father with their education.  After they procured the charter they had
no means to build an academy, and the matter remained without further
action until October 1848, when the corporation was organized, and
the following persons were chosen trustees: Nathaniel Kennison, Milton
Harvey, Pickens Boynton, Harvey Hobart, Jonas Rolfe, Hezekiah Parsons
Jr., Hazen Bedel, Daniel G. Hutchinson, John Flanders, Joseph Gleason,
Archelaus Cummings, John Harriman and Frederick G. Messer.
 At the session of the legislature, just previous to this meeting,
the state had granted to the corporation 10,000 acres of land situated
between Hall's and Indian streams, in Pittsburg, and this grant 
incited the trustees to action looking towards the erection of an
academy building.  The land was, by vote of the trustees, put on the
market at twenty-five cents per acre.  It was sold to John Bailey at
that price, and the corporation became possessor of the munificent sum
of $2,500.
  They contracted with Charles Bailey to build the academy building for
the sum of $1,200 and the present building was the result.  After a
lawsuit with Bailey, which resulted in a verdict for the corporation,
the school was put in motion and, from that time forward, it hsa had
its two terms each year, and many a pupil has gone from its walls
well fitted to battle with the world.

As has been previously stated, the first attempt at a store in
Colebrook was a little grocery, on the Health farm on the river road,
kept by Elisha Bundy.  Previous to this time there was a store at
Columbia Valley, belonging to Bellows & Carlisle, where a mill was
built, probably as early as 1790.  In 1810 Smith & Pratt opened the 
store at Factory Village, which was then the only store in town. A
little later they built a store at Colebrook village on the corner
where the store of W.E. Drew now stands.  Bellows & Carlisle built a
store where that of Mrs. Gamsby now stands, which was run by William
Cargill.  It is said that Bellows & Carlisle found fault with Cargill's
success in trade and that Cargill told them, "I have kept false books,
I have cheated in weight and measure, and got every dollar out of
people that it was possible to wring from them, and still you are not
satisfied."  Such unreasonable employers were more than Cargill could
bear, and he resigned.  Bellows & Carlisle sold out to David J.
Bundy, and in 1838, Kittredge & Colby took the store for five years.
At the end of that time Ethan Colby bought out Mr. Kittridge, and run
the business alone till 1856, when he sold to George W. Brackett.
Mr. Brackett remained here till about 1865, when he removed to the
store which formerly stood where the hardware store now is, and
remained there while he built the new store on the corner of Main
and Parsons streets now occupied by Dudley's block.  The old store of
Bellows & Carlisle, soon after Brackett left it, was run a year or
two by Rogers & Stacy, and then by Wentworth & Capen, who remained
there until July 1870.
  The corner store, now owned by W.E. Drew, was about as varied a
history.  Smith & Pratt built the store, and carried on a mercantile
buseinss there till 1820, when Albert Pitkin rented it and commenced
business for himself where he had been clerk for the three years
previous.  In 1826 Smith & Pratt failed, and, by that means, Pitkin
also failed.  In 1834 Frederick G. Messer bought the stand, rebuilt
the store, filled it with goods and there remained in trade till 1860,
when James A. Pitkin bought the business, remodelled the building,
and commenced a large and thriving trade.  He, however, a young man
just starting out with the most flattering prospects, died in August
1863.  The store and stock were sold to Crawford & Mitchell, who
carried on the business one year, when the interest of Mitchell was
purchased by Frank Aldrich, who, for fourteen years, did business as
Crawford & Aldrich.  In 1877 they sold to J.W. Cooper & Son,
succeeded later by Jesse Cooper, who run the store till 1886, when
he sold out the goods and closed the store.  For the first time for
seventy years, business was now suspended at the "corner store," but
in May 1886, W.E. Drew, of the old firm of Merrill & Drew, bought
and refitted the building and moved his goods into it.  The business
of this store has laid the foundations of several fortunes.  Albert
Pitkin, F.G. Messer, James A. Pitkin, Francis B. Crawford, and Frank
Aldrich all made themselves comfortable fortunes in trade at the
"Corner Store" and the present owner will be behind none of them in
this respect, if the "reaper" will give him a fair chance to compete.
  In 1844 Hazen Bedel was desirous of going into trade in Colebrook,
having served an apprenticeship under F.G. Messer.  The other traders
were unwilling to have him do this, and the owners of land on Main
street refused to sell him a building lot.  Determined not to be
"frozen out," he bought a lot across the Mohawk, near where Aaron B.
Hayne's house now stands, and built a small store on it.  Here he did
a large and prosperous business till 1858, when he built the large and
commodious building known as the "Bedel store" now occupied by George
H. Lang.  In company with M.S. Marshall, as H. Bedel & Co., he
continued the mercantile business in the new building for several
years, when he sold out his interest to Benjamin Gathercole, and the
firm was Gathercole & Marshall.  On Marshall's death in 1876 the
business was closed out, and the store was last filled by George H.
Lang, who now occupied the premises.
  About 1855 and 1856 Morse & Hutchinson were in trade in a store on
the hill where Walter Drew now lives, and about the same time one
Henry D. Cutler came to Colebrook and built the store so long known
as the Merrill store.  He conducted the business here for a few years,
and then it came into the hands of S.R. Merrill and E.N. Cummings,
and later into that of S.R. & S.S. Merrill.  For many years they did
business under this style, and as Merrill & Williams, and later, as
Merrill & Drew.  On the death of S.S. Merrill, W.E. Drew bought the
whole of the business, and removed it to the "corner store" and the
old store is closed, quite likely for many a year.
  About 1866 and 1867 trade seemed to take a new start in Colebrook.
George W. Brackett had built his new store.  Albert S. Eustis had
bought the Joseph Brackett store, and filled it with hardware.
Hiram C. Young had a general store next to Eustis, and John W. Savage
a building next to Young.  Volney F. Day had built a new store, and
stocked it handsomely with boots and shoes.  Joseph T. Toby had a nice
jeweler's shop, and G.S. Joslyn a drug store.  All the trade was in
a flourishing condition and all the traders prospering.  On Sunday,
July 24 1870, a fire broke out in the rear of the old Colby store,
and, as the day was hot and dry, and Colebrook had no fire department,
it was impossible for a long time to stop the progress of the flames.
Every store from Parsons street to Pleasant street was burned, with 
the tenements and offices in the row. The dwellings of Charles Parsons,
Hazel Bedel, Drew, Little, and the carriage shop of J.D. & J.R.
Little was burned, besides many barns and out-buildings.  In all about
forty buildings were consumed that day, and $75,000 worth of property.
The law offices of J.H. Dudley, E. Aldrich, W.H. Shurtleff, and 
O.P. Ray shared the conflagration, and, worse than all, the entire
records of the town were burned.  Owing to this misfortune the civil
list in this history is necessarily very incompletely.
  The citizens of Colebrook were by no means daunted by the loss
occasioned by the fire, and the ashes were not cold when steps were
taken to rebuilt the burnt district.  Before cold weather came the
stores of Crawford & Aldrich, Toby, Joslyn, Day, Young, and Eustis
were rebuilt, and reoccupied, and the buildings were all of a much
better class than those that preceded them.  The next year Mrs. Julia
A. Gamsby built the block known as Central block, and many new
dwellings were erected till 1878, when J.H. Dudley built a three-story
building on it known as Dudley's block.  Thus the entire part of the
village that had been destroyed by fire was rebuilt, and, with the
improvement made by Wentworth & Capen by building over the Toby
store, no finer row of business buildings can be found in the state.
  In 1871 Ethan Colby built a fine store on the west side of Main
street, which was occupied as soon as completed by Mr. Colby, and his
son Charles, under the firm name of Charles Colby & Co., During the
present season Ethan Colby has retired, and Charles Colby now does
business alone.  In 1885 Dr. C.C. Norris built the large block now
occupied by him which he uses as a drug store and dwelling.  In 1870
E.H. Williams built the store now occupied by him at the lower end of
Main Street, and, about the same time, the Quimby store, now occupied
by D. Stevens & Co., as a furniture store, was built.  There have
been from time to time many other traders in Colebrook either for
short periods, or they have escaped the researches of the writer, and
they, therefore, must be left out of the sketch.
  The present traders in Colebrook are: W.E. Drew, J.W. Drew, Wentworth
& Capen, H.C. Young, C. Colby, and E.H. Williams, general stock;
F.D. Whipple and G.S> Remich, jewelers; C.C. Norris and Mrs. J.B.
Coburn, druggists; V.F. Day, dry goods, millinery, and boots and shoes;
Colebrook Hardware Co., hardware; A.B. Gaskell, W.G. Lyman and W.H.
Marshall, grocers; C.C. Carleton and A.G. Day, harnessmakers;
D.Stevens & Co., furniture dealers and undertakers; E.C. Wilder,
clothing.
  The large surrounding country furnishes to COlebrook village a large
amount of trade, and in the stores can be found as fine an assortment
of goods as in any country town in the state.

**SOCIETIES**
Excelsior Lodge, No 23, I.O.O.F, was chartered in December 1886,
and already has a large membership.  The lodge room is over
Wentowrth & Capen's store.

**PHYSICIANS**
The earliest physician in Colebrook was one Dr. Goodwin. Previous to
him there had been a sort of transient doctor by the name of Laisdell
but he was not settled in Colebrook any length of time.  After Dr.
Goodwin came Dr. Thomas Flanders, who built a house which is the back
part of the Lombard house at the present time.  He remained here until
1816, when he sold out to Dr. Lyman Lombard, a sketch of whom will be
found on another page.  He was a strong man, physically and mentally,
and held many positions of honor in the town.  A few years after Dr.
Lombard came to Colebrook, Dr. Horace White settled here and built
the house now occupied by Mrs. Edward P. Tibbetts, just south of the
store of Charles Colby.  Here Horace White, for many years editor of
the "Chicago Tribune" was born.  In 1835 the doctor removed west and
Horace went into literary pursuits, and finally reached the prominent
position he so many years well filled.
  In 1838 Dr. Augustus Harris came to Colebrook and bought the Dr.
White house.  He was born in Paris, Me., September 29, 1811. He studied
medicine with Dr. MIllet, of Norway, and afterwards attended the
Medical college at Hanover, N.H.  He was then unmarried, but in
February, 1840, he wedded Miss Louisa A. Cox, of Norway, Me., They
had two beautiful daughters, both of whom died in early maidenhood.
Dr. Harris was a man of kind and generous disposition, and for 36
years his gig was daily seen in all parts of the surrounding
community.  On the 20th day of April 1874, he, by mistake, took a
potion of aconite, mistaking it for rhubarb, and died in a few
minutes.  His wife preceded him "across the river" but a few weeks.
  Erasmus Darwin Lombard was born in Colebrook, Coos county, N.H.
January 27, 1835.  His parents were Dr. Lyman and Betsey (Loomis)
Lombard, he being the fourth child and eldest son.  He commenced the
study of medicine with his father when a mere boy, subsequently
graduating at Ann Arbor, Michigan, in March 1858.  He then came to 
the home of his boyhood to assist his aged father in his professional
duties, and for twenty years no physician of Northern New Hampshire
had a more successful or extensive practice, and none won more
completely the confidence and respect of the community in which he
dwelt.  Night and day he answered to the call of rich and poor alike,
and by his faithful care and ready skill, brought relief to many a
sufferer, and hope to many a household.  Dr. Lombard was made a member
of the Masonic fraternity June 10, 1859, became a member of the
Evening Star Lodge, No. 37 of Colebrook, May 3, 1860, and was exalted
to Royal Arch Mason April 28, 1864 at Franklin chapter, No. 5, Lisbon,
N.H.  In politics he was a staunch Democrat, and a candidate for
representative at the age of twenty-five.  May 1, 1865, Dr. Lombard
married Minnie Dudley, of Hanover, N.H., and to them was born
one daughter, Bessie.  Dr. Erasmus Darwin Lombard died at the home of
his birth, July 8, 1882, in the prime of his manhood, his life plans
incomplete.  He was ill for several months preceding his death,
but bore his suffering with the greatest fortitude throughout.  He 
fought the fight bravely, and his end was peace.
     CLARK C. NORRIS is the son of March and Polly (Sleeman) Norris.
He was born in Corinth Vt, October 3, 1826.  His father was a farmer
and drover, and Clark attended the common school till he was fifteen
years of age, when he moved with his parents to Maidstone, Vt.. He
attended Lancaster academy, and Starkey academy in New York.  He then
commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Stickney, of Lancaster,
attending lectures at Dartmouth Medical college, and graduating at
Vermont Medical College, Woodstock, Vt., in 1856, since which he has
practiced his profession in Colebrook, except a short time at
Guildhall, Vt.  For the last two years he has been more particularly
engaged in the drug business, having built a handsome block at the
north end, in which he deals out medicine and does some work in his
profession.
  DR. GUY HOLBROOK was born at Lemington, Vt. in 1845, the son of
Thomas Holbrook Jr.  Guy received his early education at the common
schools and academies, and commenced the study of medicine with
Dr. Darwin Lombard, at Colebrook.  He attended Dartmouth Medical
college, the University of Michigan, and graduated at the medical
school at Albany, N.Y.  He commenced practice at St. Johnsbury, Vt.,
and afterwards removed to West Stewartstown.  He remained there
several years, when from hard labor his health broke down, and for
two years he was unable to do any work.  On his recovery he came to
Colebrook, where he built up a large and lucrative practice.  In 1885
he removed to Manchester, N.H.

**POST OFFICES**
Previous to January 5, 1811 there was no postoffice in Colebrook.
The nearest was at Columbia Valley--the largest village in Upper Coos
at the time.  On that date a postoffice was established in Colebrook,
and James Hughes was appointed postmaster; the first office was 
probably in a house which stood where Crawford's now stands. Hugh
held the office till September 8, 1817 when Thomas Flanders was
made postmaster.  He lived on the Dr. Lombard place and the office
was there.  December 22, 1819, Dr. Lyman Lombard had bought out
Flanders, and was appointed to the office, and kept it in the same
place.
  After him, one Stephen Eaton held the office a short time, and
February 12, 1824, Albert Pitkin was appointed postmaster, and held
the office ten years till February 5, 1834, during which time the
mail was distributed in the store at the corner.  On that date
Frederick G. Messer succeeded Pitkin, and kept the office at the same
place until June 4 1845, when Hazen Bedel was appointed and moved the
office over the river to the old store.  He held the position until
April 18, 1849, when Ethan Colby succeeded him, and the office was
moved back to the Bellows & Carlisle store, better known to the people
of this generation as the "old Colby store."  ... [more history of the
postoffice included in original document, but not included here].

*MILLS*
Somewhere from 1795 to 1800 the McAllasters, who lived on the Martin B.
Noyes farm, built a saw-mill and grist mill not far from where the
grist-mill isnow.  The old grist-mill stood on the site of the
starch-mill, which belonged to Crawford and others, recently removed...
[lengthy information about mills in town found in the original 
document is not included here].

**CHURCHES OF COLEBROOK [abstracts only]**

THE cONGREGATIONAL cHURCH
In 1802 Rev. John Willard came to Colebrook and organized the
"Monadnock Congregational Church." It first had but ten members:
Emily Beach, Thankful Wallace, Nathaniel Beach, Edna Porter,
William Wallace, Elizabeth Ladd, Abel Hobart, Susanna DeForest,
James Ladd and Betsey Hobart.  In 1806 Sally Thompson and Phebe
DeForest became members; in 1807 Jeremiah Eames; and in 1809,
Jonathan Bancroft and Bethiah Bancroft.In 1810 Rev. Dyer Burge became
minister and served until 1815.  During his ministry 28 members were
added including Mary each, Harvey Johnson, Timothy Lockwood, Timothy
Farrar, Anna Eames, Sarah Ashley, Hannah Goodwin, Mrs. Lockwood,
Caroline Cone, Stephen Lane, Joseph Bancroft, Nathaniel Bancroft,
Nathaniel Beach 2d, Triphena Lines, Mrs. Lane, Hannah DeForest,
Mehitable Holkins, Melinda Wallace, Patty Burnside, Lydia Osburne,
Eunitia Beach, Lydia Aldrich, Mary Kibber and Anna Curtis.  The church
seems to have been without a pastor from 1815 to 1819. About 1819-1822
Rev. Nathan Waldo preached here. He was succeeded by Rev. Andrew
Rankin (1823-1824), Rev. Orlando G. Thatcher (1925-1829).  Up to this
time there had been no church, or meeting-house in this part of the
county.  The meetings had been held in the log school-houses, sometimes
in Colebrook, sometimes in Columbia, and the meetings of the church
members were held at the dwelling house of some one of their number.
Smith & Pratt donated the land where the church now stands, to the
society, but in the time intervening between taking a deed and
building the house they had become insolvent, and their property had
passed into the hands of the Tremont Bank of Boston. In 1836 the
Tremont Bank quit-claimed the deed for the one half acre of land
to the Congregational church and society.  About 1829 a subscription
was started for building the church. Pews were sold, and the church was
built.  It was low-built with a low square tower, and was not furnished
with a bell; the people being called to church service by ringing the
academy bell after the academy was built.  The church was finished and
dedicated in the winter of 1830-31. [more information about this church
not included here].
  In 1838 and 1839 quite a colony of people went from Colebrook
and vicinity to Beloit, Wisconsin, and, among them nearly thirty
members of this church.  They were dismissed, and organized themselves
as the "First Congregational Church of Beliot."

JOSEPH B. HILL was born in Mason, N.H. November 25, 1796.  His father,
Rev. Ebenezer Hill, was pastor of the Congregational church at Mason
from 1790 till 1854, a term of sixty-four years.  Joseph B worked on
a farm and attended common schools in his youth.  He attended the
academies at Tyngsboro, Mass, and New Ipswich, N.H. and entered
Harvard Colelge October 1817.  He graduated in 1823, and taught in
various places for a few years, when he went to Tennessee, and, with
his brother, engaged in the newspaper and publishing business.
They commenced the publication of an almanac whose title said that it
was calculated by J.B. Hill; he he says, "I made every exertion in my
power to obtain the books requisite for that purpose but failed.  A
part of the calculation I 'cabbaged' by hook or by crooker, and as 
there were no visible eclipeses, I succeeded so well in making out
and remodeling the whole that I question whether one solitary reader
has been able to find a flaw in it."
  After a few years he studied law and was admitted to practice, but
never followed the profession.  Still later, he became converted
and commenced preaching.  He remained in Tennessee sixteen years,
and returned to Mason, and, as colleague with his father, served the
church as minister till April 1847.  October 3, 1847, Mr. Hill
commenced his labors in Colebrook.  Two years before he had married
Miss Harriet Brown, of Antrim.  He remained at Colebrook ten years, 
and then removed to West Stewartstown, where he remained five years.
During these fifteen years, while he remained in Coos county, he
was an earnest, honest christian, strongly identified with
temperance, purity and good morals.  He was erratic and had many
peculliarities in public and private; his style of writing was loose
and unmethodical; but he was an honest man, in earnest in every good
word and work.  He was one of the trustees of Colebrook academy for
many years...and school commissioner for Coos County.  In the spring
of 1862 he purchased a house and a few acres of land in Temple and
designed making a home for himself and family.  Mr. Hill was much
interested in the soldiers of the Rebellion in progress when he moved
to Temple, and in March 1864, he received an appointement on the
Christian commission.  He did good service on this commission, till
June 16, 1864, when, at Chattanooga, Tenn., in the night, while
attempting to get upon a train after having been to look after some
wounded soldiers, he fell beneath the car and received injuries which
caused his death.

Another man who for a long time was identified with the Congregation-
alist church was HOSEA ALDRICH.  He was born August 1, 1804, on the
farm so long owned by the Aldrich family.  His father, Mark Aldrich,
was born in Shutesbury, Mass., April 3, 1769.  His mother, becoming
a widow, bound him out to a man named Torrey, who removed to
Maidstone, Vt., where he lived till Mark Aldrich became of age.  Soon
after he came to Columbia, became acquainted with Lydia Terry, and
was married to her in 1794.  They lived at first in a log-house at
the foot of the Thompson hill for a short time, but the house having
burned, they moved to the farm now occupied by James L. Loomis,
where they lived till 1799, when he bought the farm so long known as
the Aldrich farm (Still owned by the George Aldrich estate) and lived
there till his death in 1837.  Mark Aldrich, Sr. was a man of
medium size, of a muscular and vigorous frame.  He cleared the land
where he lived, and much land for other people.  His wife, Lydia
Terry, was a strong, healthy, vigorous woman, not easily daunted,
and, in mind and body, able to cope with all the disagreeable
annoyances of a new settlement.  They had fourteen children, of 
whom HOSEA ALDRICH was seventh.  He was born August 1, 1804, at the
old home on the hill, and lived there a large part of the time till
he became of age.  He was educated at the common schools of Colebrook,
and, being an apt scholar, acquired a better education than was
general at that time.  He was quite a grammarian, and took great
pleasure in alter years in propounding difficult sentences to the
youngest people for analysis and parsing.  He taught several terms
of school when a young man and was always interested in the cause of
education.  He was for several years a member of the board of trustees
of Colebrook academy.  Early in life he became interested in religious
affairs, and became a member of the Congregational church of Colebrook.
For many years he was deacon of the church, and took great interest
in its welfare.  He married Electa Barnes, adopted daughter of
Deacon Harvey Barnes, who survives him.  He had a strong, retentive
memory, and had stored up a grreat amount of information in regard
to the early history of Colebrook and vicinity, part of which he gave
to the public in some articles published in the "Northern Sentinel"
several years ago.  He died March 30, 1886, aged eighty-one years.

THOMAS W. ATHERTON, for many years a deacon; a bachelor; born in 1810
and died December 12, 1876.

JOSEPH GLEASON, born 1805, died in 1877.

*COLEBROOK METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH*
Although Methodism was preached in Colebrook and vicinity as early
as 1816, there was no Methodist church till the year 1870.  In 1869
Rev. Moses Potter preached occasionally at the school house, and in
the following year a society was organized and the present church
edifice built.  The enterprise was largely due to the perserverance
of the late Russell Darling, those many others were interested in
the work.  The church was dedicated in September 1870, by the late
Rev Elisha Adams, D.D.  The first trustees were Russell Darling,
Orman P. Ray, Elmon H. Williams, Almon M. Grout, John Gilman, George
Marshall, Caleb Fuller, and Hazen Bedel.  There was no pastor till
April 1872, when Rev. J.H. Knott was appointed to the position.
[more information in original document not included here.]

*EAST COLEBROOK MEETING HOUSE*
In 1854 there was a move made by various persons of various denomina-
tions in the east part of Colebrook, towards building a meeting-house
in that part of town. They joined together to build this.  The house
was built and dedicated December 1854.  In 1855 a Free-will Baptist
church was organized here with Benaiah Bean as first pastor...
[more information in original document not included here]

***EARLY SETTLERS***
EDMUND CHAMBERLAIN was born in Rockingham, Vt. in 1776.  He came to
Lancaster about 1804, and remained about three years, when he came
to Colebrook and moved on to the farm now occupied by John C. Tibbetts.
His wife, before their marriage, was Polly Simonds.  Mr. Chamberlain
was an active, stirring man, and besides clearing the farm, built
the mill already alluded to on Beaver brook, and did quite a large
business in sawing lumber for his rapidly increasing neighbors. He
lived on the farm till 1816, when he purchased the Ethan Colby farm
of Timothy Farrar, and moved to the village.  He removed the old
Farrar house, and built the one now occupied by Mr. Colby, and kept
 a tavern for the accomodation of travellers.  At the annual
"Trainings" and the less frequent "musters" of the old militia,
Chamberlain's tavern was THE institution of Colebrook.  He held
important positions in the town, and was universally respected.
He died Nov 2, 1855, aged 79 years.  He had two children, Susan,
wife of Frederick G. Messer, and Mary, wife of Ethan Colby.

Among the early settlers of Colebrook was CAPT. BENJAMIN BUEL, with
his wife Violetta (Sessions) and their eldest daughter Minerva, who
came from Connecticut to this town in 1803.  They were all natives
of that state.  Benjamin, born in 1767; Violetta in 1778, and
Minerva in 1801.  Capt. Buel was an excellent scholar for those days,
an elegant penman, and a gentleman on all occasions.  He was a man of
refined tastes and sensibilities.  For many winters after he came
he taught schoool, and Edmund Chamberlain, the elder Baldwins of 
Stratford, and others of his pupils, pioneers of Coos, now dead and
gone, bore willing testimony to his high character as a man, and to
his efficiency as a teacher.  Evidently he left his impress on many
minds.  He was of a nervous, sensitive temperament, and died of a
nervous difficulty, March 24, 1829, and now sleeps his last sleep
in the old cemetery above our village.  One of his sisters married
"Esquire" (Oliver) Ingham of Canaan Vt., one of the noted men of his 
section--father of ex-Congressman Samuel Ingham, of Connecticut, and
grandfather of ex-Sheriff Bailey, of Columbia.  After settling in
Colebrook (on the Hosea Aldrich place), Benjamin and Violetta had
two more children, both daughters, added to their family, viz.,
Sharlie Maria and Abigail.  Minerva married Johnson Jordan, in 1822,
with whom she lived in this town until her death, March 13, 1853.
Maria married Sidney Allen, and lived in Chelsea, Vt.  Abigail
married Daniel Egery, and went to Beloit, Wis., to live when that
town contained less than a dozen families.  All three were noble
women, inheriting largely of their father's refinement of manners,
temperament, disposition, and tastes.  All died of the same trouble
that carried him to the other shore before his days of usefulness
were nearly spent here below.  The mother, after her husband's
decease, resided with her daughter Minerva, until the latter's death,
and then returned to her native state, where she died in 1855.  She
is still remembered by older citizens as a lady of culture,
aristocratic tendencies, and bearing.

The earliest settler on Titus Hill was DAVID TITUS.  He came to
Colebrook about 1796, and made the first start on the Moses Titus
farm, afterwards the C.E. Moses farm.  He was a hard-working
industrious man, and a successful farmer. As has been said by one of
Colebrooke's oldest living citizens, "David Tus was a father to
everybody." He had wheat, potatoes, butter, cheese, and everything
that could be raised or made on the farm, and no one who was ever in
need ever went from him empty-handed. At the time of his settlement
on Titus Hill, and for several years afterward, there was no road from
that part of the town to the village; Columbia Valley was their
trading point, and their means of reaching it was by a large road
leading past the "Lime Pond" to the mill and store there situated.
David Titus was successful as a farmer and owned quite a large tract
of land.  He had four children, one son, Moses, to whom he gave the
home farm, and three daughters.  The oldest married Gilman Corser,
and she was given the Alvin Arlin farm; the second married David
Young, and to her he gave the Harvey McAllaster farm; while to the
third daughter, who married David Hodge, he gave the farm belonging
now to the Noah Cummings estate.  He saw his children all settled 
around him, and in prosperous circumstances before he died.  Eleazer
Titus, brother of David, cleared part of the farm now occupied by the
Merrill brothers, and his son, Samuel, the John Libbey farm, they
coming to Colebrook soon after David.

In 1799 SYLVANUS NOYES came to Titus Hill from Maidstone, Vt. He was
born in Plaistow, N.H. in December 1769, and his wife, Betsey Jewitt,
was born in Landaff, in 1770.  Mr. Noyes purchased the lot of land
where George Martin lives, and the house was near the present one.
The land was a wilderness when the sturdy farmer made his  "pitch" but
hard labor and honest industry soon made the land productive.  He
had seven children who reached adult age: John, who lived in Bath and
vicinity; Mary, who married Jeremy Gage, and lived in Pittsburg and
Bath; Michael, who lived on the old farm on Titus Hill till he went
with the colony to Beloit, Wisconsin; and Mehitable, who married
Reuben Ash, and removed to Grafton county.  The fifth child was
Asa.  He was born in Colebrook, on the home farm, May 3, 1804.  There 
was a large family, and his father sometimes had hard times to make
both ends meet.  Asa worked on the farm till he was eighteen years
old.  Their "milling" was done at the Valley, and Asa, when a boy,
used to take a bag of wheat on horseback, and carry it to the mill to
be ground.  The road was through the woods all the way, and he, like
the other boys, was much afraid of the Indians.  At tone time, near 
the mill, there was a camp of Indians, all moderately drunk.  Young
Asa saw a big "buck" Indian take a squaw by the hair and drag her
across the road, which so wrought upon his fears that he got the
miller to see him safely past them.  When Asa was eighteen years old
he went down to Landaff, Lisbon and Bath, where he remained several
years, and married Lydia Eaton, from Landaff.  He then returned to
Upper Coos and cleared the farm where Enoch Kelsea lives in Columbia,
and in 1856, removed to the farm on Harvey Swell, in Colebrook, where
he yet lives at the advanced age of eighty-three years.  He has had
ten children: Mrs. Hiram Howe, Eben, Chester, Violetta (who married
Daniel Young), Gilman, Eleazer (who was in the service and was killed
in the late Rebellion), and Samuel P. lived to become men and women.
Samuel P. lives with his father, and Asa Noyes & Son are always well
represented in the fairs and shows of stock in Colebrook.  Hobart
Noyes, sixth child of Sylvanus, lived in Colebrook many years,
running the woolen factory.  He was collector of taxes in 1844-1846. 
His wife was Sarah Beecher.  Several years ago they moved to
Stewartstown where they still reside.

FREDERICK GOULD MESSER was born in Jericho Vt., December 22, 1799.
He in early life seemed to have an aptitude for mercantile life. He
was for six years clerk in a store at Lancaster, and was one year in
trade there, and one year in trade at Columbia Valley.  In 1822 he
came to Colebrook and went into business and remained in trade in this
town till 1860 when he removed to Portland, Me., where he still
resides at the advanced age of eighty-eight years.  While he lived in
Colebrook he was postmaster ten years, selectmen, town clerk for 
several years, and town treasurer.  Since he moved to Maine he has
been bank director twenty-six years, bank president many years,
alderman two years, state representative, and two years in the state
Senate.  He married Susan Chamberlain, daughter of Edmund Chamberlain,
December 21, 1828.  Mrs. Messer was born September 15, 1804, and is
still living.

ETHAN COLBY was born at Sanbornton August 29, 1810.  In 1829 he
went to St. Johnsbury, Vt., as clerk for Moses Kittredge, and
aftewards was in company with Mr. Kittredge till 1836, when he went
to Littleton and into trade with Cyrus Eastman, as Colby & Eastman.
In 1838 Mr. Colby sold out and came to Colebrook and commenced the
mercantile business in company with his old partner, Moses Kittredge,
but, at the end of five years, purchased the entire business and
remained in trade at the same place till 1856, when he sold out to
George W. Brackett and retired.  Mr. Colby was postmaster for several
years, representative in 1861, and councillor in 1862.  He was an old
line Whig, and afterwards, and still, a Repulican with very positive
ideas.  He married, Mary, daughter of Edmund Chamberlain, March 29,
1843.  They had three children, Edward (deceased), Charles (now in
trade in Colebrook) and Sarah, wife of Melrose V. Knight, for several
years in the hardware business in Colebrook.

One of the early settlers was CALEB LITTLE SR., and not long
afterwards his brother EBENEZER LITTLE followed him to Colebrook.
They came from the vicinity of Goffstown, N.H.  The Littles were
naturally mechanics, and were interested in building the mills in
town.  The sons of Caleb were Moody, Caleb Jr. and Benjamin, the
last two still living in Colebrook.  Ebenezer is also living at
a very advanced age (his children were Joseph D., John R., Eben 
who died from disease contracted in the army, and James C.); Dolly,
who married Seth W. Tirrell; Susan, who married Freeman Stevens,
from Milton, Me.; Ann, who married William T. Keyes; and Marietta,
who married William Lindsay.

ALFRED LOVERIN was born in Loudon, December 11, 1813, and came to
Colebrook with his parents in 1819.  His father lived on the
Harvey Brooks farm.  In 1838 he married Lucy Drew, sister of Hon.
Amos W. and Edwin W. Drew, and settled on the John Gould farm.
His wife died in 1842, and he afterward married Susan Fletcher.
He lived on the farm till 1873, when he removed to Colebrook village,
where he died April 7, 1884.  He was a farmer, and during the last
twenty years of his life largely interested in starch business,
both in Colebrook and in Aroostook county, Me. His wife, Susan,
still lives in the old home.

CHARLES THOMPSON, was born at East Windsor, Conn., Sept. 16, 1776.
He came to Colebrook about 1800, perhaps a little earlier.  He acted
as packman for Jeremiah Eames in making the survey of Colebrook,
Columbia and Stewartstown.  He bought a large tract of land near
where the village now is built.  Soon after he sold out and went to
Columbia Valley where he and his brother bought and rebuilt the
saw-mill.  He was a very kind-hearted, generous man, and became
bondsman for several people who had been arrested for debt.  The
result was that he lost all his property, and was himself arrested
for these debts, and taken to Lancaster jail.  Being well known, he
was not confined, but given "the liberty of the yard" as it was
called; the yard being all "out of doors" provided he did not stray
far enough so as to be unable to come to jail at night.  At length
his wife's father, Timothy Holton, paid the indebtedness and
Thompson came home.  A strange method to collect a debt!  Thompson
in jail, and Holton paying a debt for which neither had recieved a
penny.
  Mr. Holton purchased the farm below the village known as the 
Thompson farm, and about 1820, Charles Thompson went there to live,
and remained till his death, October 4, 1855.  His wife, Sally
Holton, was born October 13, 1777, and died February 28, 1862.
Their children were Mary H., who was born March 1, 1803.  She married
Grant Fuller of Stratford, became a widow, and spent the latter part
of her life at the old homestead, dying September 27, 1876.  Harriet
was born March 12, 1805.  November 9, 1826 she married William
Loomis, with whom she still lives at the advanced age of eighty-two.
Kind hearted like her father, she has been a most generous neighbor,
and, when illness visited the homes of those about her, none have been
more prompt to extend a helping hand than "Aunt Harriet."  The third
child, Charles H. Thompson, was born June 24, 1807.  With his father,
in 1820, he went on to the farm still occupied by him, and and his
home has been there for sixty-seven years.  He has never married, but
retains his youthful heart to the present day.  He has been
selectman of the town, and was representative in 1849 and 1850.  He has
been a hunter and trapper, and many a bear has yieleded to his snares.
Elizabeth M. Thompson was born May 16, 1809.  She never married, and
lived with her brother Charles.  She was a woman of literary tastes
and habits, a great reader and quite a writer.  She died September 16,
1861.  The elder Thompson was colonel of the 24th Regiment of militia.

JOSEPH LOOMIS was born at Hebron, Conn. July 7, 1766.  His wife, Anna
Bissell, to whom he was married November 26, 1789, was born October 20,
1763.  They removed to Colebrook in 1800, having purchased the farm
known as the Heath farm, on the river.  There was no house on this
place at this time, and he moved into a house on the next farm, while
he built the house lately occupied by David Heath.  He then moved into
the new house and lived there during the remainder of his life.  He 
was a strong man in every respect, and one of the leading spirits of 
the community.  On the 13th of June 1801 he was appointed a justice of
the peace for the county of Grafton, and January 30, 1805, was 
appointed "Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for one County of 
Coos."  Both these commissions are signed by John Taylor Gilman,
governor, and Joseph Pearson, secretary.  John Loomis had six children,
Abial Anson, born May 6, 1791, who died February 17, 1836; Lewis
Loomis, born May 10, 1793, who died October 18, 1869.  Lewis was a 
tall, strongly built, and muscular man, a great wrestler, and for
many years at the trainings, musters, and raisings, held the
championship against all comers.  He was sheriff and deputy sheriff
and in company with Hezekiah Parsons Jr arrested the celebrated
David Robbins for the murder of Abner Hinds and his son.  Robbins and
Hinds trapped in company, and Robbins burned the camp, having stolen
the furs.  Robbins was arrested and settled with Hinds, giving him
$350.  The next year Robbins induced Hinds and his son to go into the
woods trapping with him again, professing great penitence for what had
happened.  On this trip Robbins killed both father and son.  
Warrants were issued for his arrest, and Lewis Loomis was entrusted
with its service.  Robbins then lived out on the Magalloway river,
and Mr. Loomis, accompanied by Mr. Parsons, and one Ellingwood from
Milan, started to find him.  On reaching the house they learned that
he had gone up the river.  They followed cautiously till they found
where he had reached a point where it was necessary for him to carry
his traps by a fall, and he had gone with one load, leaving another
for which he had to return.  Concealing themselves by the path, they
awaiting his coming, but when he was about to pass them, Mr. Loomis
leaped upon his back and held him while he was bound.  He was taken
to Lancaster jail, but escaped, and was said afterwards to have been
hanged in Canada for a murder committed there.
  Lewis Loomis died October 18, 1869.  His children were Rollin, who
died unmarried; Eliza, who married Alger Baldwin; Martha, who married
Cornelius Adams; Marion, who married Lyman W. Alger, and James Lewis
Loomis who married Martha Hall.  Anna Loomis, the third child of
Joseph Loomis, married Heman Beach.  Horace Loomis, the fourth child,
lived on the home farm with his father.  Betsey Loomis, the fifth
child, married Dr. Lyman Lombard, and was a woman much loved by all
who knew her.  William Loomis, the youngest child of Joseph Loomis,
is still iving at the age of eighty-five years.  He married Harriet
Thompson, as before stated, and hand in hand they have nearly reached
the decline of life.  Their children are Maria E., wife of John L.
Harvey; Helen M., wife of Sumner Cummings; Edwin, who married Ellen
Folsom; Anson who married Sarah Garfield, and Harriet Isabel, who
married Preston Claflin.
  Mention has already been made of Mark Aldrich who married Lydia 
Terry, in connection with a sketch of Hosea Aldrich.  MARK had a huge
family, twelve children in all: Mark Jr., George, Artemas, Aurilla,
Alpheus, Jonathan Northum, Hosea, Jacob Terry, Lydia, Horatio
Nelson, Mary Tevey, and Charles.  Mark Jr. Married Polly Lovering,
and, till his death, lived on the farm now owned by T.G. Rowan
near John Brackett's.  George married Sarah Morrison.  In 1799 he
with his father moved on to the farm owned by him as well as George
at the time of their respective deaths.  He was born Nov. 21, 1796,
and died August 31, 1883.  He left one daughter, Mahala, now the
widow of Hezekiah B. Parsons.  Artemas married one Keziah Rowe, of
Eddington, Me., where he lived and died.  Aurilla died unmarried.
Alpheus married Isabel Amy, and for many years lived on the farm
southeast of the factory, now occupied by his son Schuyler H. He
had also two other sons, Samuel, who was drowned, and mark who died
several years ago.  Jonathan lived and died in Bradford, Me.  Hosea
married Electa Barnes, and a sketch of him will be found in the
church history.  His children were Ezra, now a physician in Manchester;
Melinda, unmarried, and Persis who married Charles Huntoon.  Jacob
married and lived in some place in Maine.  Lydia married Samuel
McMahon and is still living in Eddington, Me.  Horatio married
Adaline French and is still living at Bradford, Me.  Mary T. married
a man by the name of Nichols, and died at Bradford, Me.  Charles
married Lydia Hathorn and died in Maine.  He had one child, Charles S.
who runs the drug store in Colebrook.

BenJAMIN WHITTEMORE was another of the strong men among the early setttlers of Colebrook.  He was born at Rumford, Me January 1799.
He came to Colebrook soon after he became of age, when he married
Almira, daughter of Joseph Chandler.  He first lived for a time on
the Joseph Covill farm near John Brackett's, afterwards on the John F.
Gould farm in the Reed district, and, later, he moved to the farm now
occupied by Sidney B. Whittemore, where he lived till his decease.
He was one of those men who was a peacemaker among the neighbors,
being often chosen to arbitrate matters of dispute.  He was
frequently selectman, and representative from Colebrook in 1839, 1840,
1855 and 1856.  He left two sons, Harvey, unmarried, and Sidney B.,
who married Emeline Corbett.  Sidney B Whittemore has been
selectman several years, collector, county treasurer, and is at
present a member of the board of agriculture and one of the trustees
of the State Agricultural College.  He represented the town in 1885.

JOHN F. GOULD was born at Guilford, Vt October 14, 1799.  He lived
there and at Norwich, Vt. till 1834, when he removed to Colebrook,
to the old farm in the Reed district.  He died April 15, 1887.  He had
four children, all settled at Colebrook: Hannah, wife of John
Brackett; Ellen A, wife of Joseph Y. Keazer; James A. Gould who
married Helen Fletcher; and John Gould who married Julia L. Gamsby.

NOAH CUMMINGS, son of Adam and Leah Hubbard Cummings, was born
September 3, 1810 in Lyndon, Vt. and came to this town in 1828.  He
married Almira J. Kidder, March 13, 1837, who was born in Bristol, NH
February 4, 1813.  He commenced farming on the farm now occupied by
Milton Harriman, and lived there till his death, which took place
February 6, 1860.  He left two children, Daniel E. and Elvira
Cummings.  Daniel E. was in trade with H.C. Young as Young & Cummings
from 1870 to 1873, was representative of Colebrook in 1874 and 1875,
and has been town clerk since June 12, 1882.  He married Lucy A.
Eceleston, of Rocks brook, R.I. July 13, 1874.  Elvira, the daughter,
married Milton Harriman, November 9, 1882.

SAMUEL HARRIMAN was born at Bridgewater, N.H. November 8, 1814, and
moved to Stewartstown in 1820.  After a few years he came to Colebrook
and engaged in farming and afterwards in the starch business.
He cleared the Asa Noyes farm on the "Harvey Swell."  He married
Eunice Gould, daughter of Augustine Gould, March 29, 1843.

DANIEL G. HUTcHINSON came from Lyndeborough in 1819 and settled in
Colebrook.  His first wife was Nancy Capen, from Stewartsown, and
his second Eliza Blodgett, daughter of Marcena Blodgett.  For many
years he lived on the Shattuck farm and was a prominent citizen,
holding several town offices.  His son, Erasmus D Hutchinson was
born December 7, 1823, and has always made Colebrook his home.  He was
in trade a few years, has been town clerk, and represented Colebrook
in the legislature of 1863.  He calls himself a farmer, but the
amount of land he tills is small, and the sweat of his brow is easily
wiped away.  His independent means enable him to take life easily.

BENJAMIN R. GILMAN is another of Colebrook's hard-working farmers.
He was born in Columbia April 16, 1834.  During the building of the
Boston, Concord & Montreal railroad he worked at Haverhill for
W.H. Smith.  He commenced clerking for James A. Pitkin, September
1853, staying with him three years and then went into company with
him as "Pitkin & Gilman," remaining in trade till 1863 when he
retired.  He lives on the old Albert Pitkin farm at Factory Village,
and for a number of years has been also engaged in the starch business.
He married R.A. Pitkin, February 3, 1858, and they have one daughter,
Annie Gilman.  Their home is a most pleasant one, and "Ben" is one of
those happy dispositioned persons who makes himself a favorite with
everybody.  A staunch Republican, he uses the most potent and
plasible arguments to bring others to his way of thinking, and,
generally with good success.

JOnAS ROLFE has already been mentioned incidentally in these pages.
He was born at Lyme, March 26, 1793.  He married Martha P. Sloan
May 3, 1819 and came to Colebrook in 1820.  He was town clerk from
1823 to 1826 and again 1837 to 1859 inclusive, and was representative
of the town in 1857 and 1858.  He was treasurer several years about
1825.  Mr. Rolfe was a well educated man for those days and kept
school several terms in the old school-house on the bank of the
Mohawk.  He was a first-class teacher, holding the reins very firmly.
In later years he acted as justice of the peace in trying nearly all
the cases coming within his jurisdiction in this part of the country.
Of a stern and rather unyiedling disposition, he had rigid ideas of
justice, and his decisions generally stood.  He was a first-class
mechanic, and could make or mend anything from a threshing-machine
to a French clock.  His work on the houses which he finished was the
perfection of a carpenter's art.  Jonas Rolfe died October 27, 1865,
and Mrs. Rolfe, April 20, 1865.  They left six children who had
reached adult life.  Mariel W. Rolfe, born July 17, 1822, died
unmarried, January 15, 1873.  William Smith Rolfe, born December 17, 
1824.  He married Lois Hobart.  The next child was Mary E. Rolfe,
who married George S. Leavitt and died January 1880.  Morton B. Rolfe,
born August 11, 1832, now lives in Florida.  Fitz C. Rolfe, born
February 8, 1834, and Frank M. Rolfe, now living in Ohio, complete the
list.

ARCHELAUS CUMMINGS is another of those who for many years were well
known in Colebrook.  He was born in Temple, January 11, 1809, and
in his boyhood came to Pittsburg.  When he was twenty-two years of
age he married Mary Fletcher, sister of Hiram A. Fletcher, and lived
in Canaan, Vt., till 1841, when he came to Colebrook and engaged in
the shoe and leather business, which he carried on successfully for
fifteen years.  In 1850 he opened the old hotel on the north side of
the Mohawk, and kept it seventeen years.  He held the office of
deputy sheriff for a long time. He knew everybody far and wide, and
anybody wanting information on any subject had only to apply to
Archelaus Cummings, and he was sure of learning something to his
advantage.  He left three children, Edward N. who married Lucretia
Merrill, now living in Lynn, Mass; Augusta P., who married Charles
Parsons; and Anna, who married John Buckingham, of Boston, Mass.

One of the successful manufacturers of Colebrook is
BENJAMIN GATHERCOLE.  He was born in England and came to Colebrook
in 1838.  He worked out by the month when a young man, and, careful
and prudent, soon saved means enough to become interested in one of
the early starch mills.  When mills became leff profitable in Coos
county, he built several starch mills in Aroostoock county, Me., and
for the last few years, while his home has been in Colebrook, his
business has been in Maine.  A good citizen and a generous person,
those in whom he is interested have abundant reason to be gratified.

LEVI O. HICKS was born in Dalton, October 18, 1808, and came to
Colebrook nearly sixty years ago.  His wife, Betsey, was the daughter
of Benjamin Jordan, a soldier of the Revolution.  The venerable couple
lived together fifty-eight years and six months.  They had eleven
children, of whom ten are still living, nine of them in Colebrook.
Levi O. Hicks was an obliging neighbor and good citizen.

DOCUMENTS FROM TOWN REcORDS
1830, names of residents involved with road repair include: Daniel
Carr, Caleb Little 2d, Moody Little, Thomas J. Little, Asa Stoddard,
Benjamin Teal, and selectmen A. Pitkin and Jonas Mills.

**CIVIL LiST OF COLEBROOK NH**
1801. Selectmen: James Hugh, Charles Thompson, Joseph Loomis.
1815. Daniel Harvey, Ozias Bissell, John C. Titus.
1816. Daniel Harvey, Joseph Loomis, Mark Aldrich
1817. Joseph Loomis, Daniel Harvey, Mark Aldrich
1818. Hezekiah Parsons, Samuel Porter, John Corey.
1819. Hezekiah Parsons, Samuel Porter, John Corey
1820. David L. Isham, Joseph Loomis, Harvey Barns
1821. David L. Isham, Nathan Beecher
[additional civil list form 1822-1887 found in original document, not included here]

***BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES***
p 627
THE PARSONS FAMILY 
(by James I. Parsons, Esq.)
The Parsons' family that were among the early settlers of Coos and 
adjoining counties, and are found in many localities in New England,
seem to have descended from a common ancestor, Thomas Parsons, of
Great Milton, Oxfordshire, England, who married, October 19, 1855,
Katherine Hester, and was buried May 23, 1597.  His second son, Hugh,
was baptized November 23, 1563.  He married Elizabeth (Bagshaw)
Thomkins.  Deacon Benjamin Parsons, tenth child of Hugh, was baptized
March 17, 1726, and came to Massachusetts with an older brother, Hugh,
before 1645, tradition says in the "Mayflower."  Deacon Benjamin
settled in Springfield, Mass., and married Sarah, daughter of Richard
Vore, of Windsor, Conn., November 6, 1653.  He died August 24, 1689.
His fifth child, Samuel Parsons, was born October 10, 1666, and March 
18, 1683, married Hannah Hitchcock, daughter of John and Hannah
(Chapin) Hitchcock, of Springfield.  She was born September 10, 1688,
and died July 17, 1748, at Enfield, Conn., where her husband had died
February 17, 1736.  Their fifth son, Capt. Hezekiah Parsons, was born
at Enfield April 13, 1698, and died there July 11, 1748.  He married
Rebecca Burt, (who died November 18, 1724,) by whom he had a daughter.
He then married Anna Evans, who died May 3, 1744, by whom he had
seven children, the oldest of whom, Capt. Hezekiah Parsons, was born
in 1728, at Enfield, where he died August 24, 1813.  He married January
23, 1748, Sarah (Abbe) Chapin, daughter of Thomas Abbe, and widow of
Nathaniel Chapin.  She died May 12, 1785.
  He had four sons by his second wife, of whom the oldest two were
Hezekiah (3d), born February 3, [February 15, N.S.] 1752; and Major
Jabez Parsons, born July 16, 1754.  Major Jabez Parsons early became
interested in this section of New Hampshire and was mainly instrumental
in getting a considerable immigration to it.  He had a mill, and
Hezekiah did work for him in it in 1796 and 1797.  He married Martha
Terry, and an aunt, Sarah Parsons, had married a Mr. Terry.  He and
his elder brother, two or three families of the Terrys, including his
aunt's family, an uncle, an elderly man named Jonathan Parsons, and
his wife Triphena (Bement), and his son, Jonathan Jr., with a large
family, and a Mr. Bement and Joseph Goddard, who married Sarah, the
daughter of Jonathan Parsons, were among the early settlers of 
Colebrook and Columbia.  Jonathan Parsons Sr., soon died, and with his
wife have the earliest headstones in the Colebrook cemetery, marked
"T. Parsons" and "J. Parsons," made from the native rock by a younger
son.  They lived on the Charles Thompson farm.  Goddard lived opposite
E.G. Arlins, the Terrys all probably in Columbia, Jabez Parsons on the
Edmund Chamberlain farm, while Hezekiah Parsons, grandfather of George,
lived on the farm George Parsons now owns.  He was Hezekiah Parsons 3d,
but the fourth of the name; the first bearing the name being an uncle
of his grandfather.  He was born in 1752, and married Margaret Kibbee,
daughter of Isaac and Mary (Terry) Kibbee, of Enfield, Conn., a niece
of Jacob Terry, and cousin of Mrs. Jabez Parsons, in 1775.  They moved
from Enfield to Colebrook in 1789, bringing with him five sons, all
the children they ever had who lived beyond infancy.  They buried one
son before they left Enfield, and one son was born in Colebrook,
July 6, 1793, and was buried in the first burying ground on the knoll
easterly of the village school-house as were many who now occupy the
unmarked (or earliest marked) graves in our cemetery, to which the dead
were moved from that cemetery, and from the one between W.E. Drew's
store and the Mohawk.  He was the first boy, and perhaps the first
white child born in Colebrook.  The five sons, all born at Enfield,
were Hezekiah, born May 29, 1776, who died i Columbia N.H. January 11,
1857; Abdiel, born May 4, 1779, died at Quincy IL, May 12, 1851;
George, born April 10, 1781, died at Warren, Ohio, August 2, 1866;
Samuel Burt, born November 27, 1783, died at Rosendale, Wisconsin
about 1860; Jeremiah, born September 17, 1787, died at Philadelphia,
July 7, 1877.  The older sons, especially George (who became very
wealthy), were remarkable for the generous assistance they gave to
their relatives by birth or marriage, and to each other when needed,
and all of them in their last years were equally inclined to aid all
their descendants, who were quite numerous.  Jeremiah left Colebrook
in 1806 and never returned.  The others left about the same time but
returned on occasional visits.  Their father first built a log-house,
and soon, a two-story frame house a few rods north of the Columbia
line, on the east side of the river road.  He sold the farm to his son
Hezekiah, and returned to Enfield in the fall of 1799, or soon after.
He died suddenly, March 17, 1808, at Thompsonville, Conn.  His wife and
children continued their home in Colebrook.  The second son, about
1800, went on to another farm, from which he emigrated to the west 
about 1810.  The others went to school, while the mother remained at 
the head of the house, and, to a considerable degree, of the farm. She
also attended to her professional duties.  She was, from her first
settlement here, known as "Granny Parsons, the Doctor," and continued
to practice for a quarter of a century, until she moved away in 1815;
and, upon her horse at all times and seasons, was a familiar sight to
the early settlers of this and all the adjoining towns.  For a long
time the only doctor, she retrained a considerable portion of certain
branches of the practice after regular physicians had located here. 
She married Samuel Leavitt about 1817, and died at Warren, Ohio, March
5, 1841.  She had a brother, Gaius Kibbee, who brought his family to
Columbia in the fall of 1797, but probably settled there earlier
himself.  He soon moved to Bloomfield, Vt., where he had considerable
real estate, and was prominent in business and town affairs as his
family was socially.
  HEZEKIAH PARSONS was educated in the local schools and at Fryeburg,
Maine, where he attnded the academy several terms.  He was a teacher
for a few terms in our district schools.  He and his mother took care
of the family until December 12, 1802, when he married "Polly," later
called "Mary," Bevins of Middletown, Conn., daughter of Benjamin and
Sarah (Powers) Bevins, who was born January 31, 1778, and died July 3,
1862.
  He soon began to acquire real estate, and in the course of fifty
years became the largest owner of land in this portion of the state.
He owned many improved farms, and considerable tracts of timber lands
in Lemington, Canaan, Colebrook and Columbia; while his lands in
Stewartstown, Millsfield and Errol were at times a very large fraction
of the towns.  He was engaged in lumbering on the Adroscoggin from
about 1825 to about 1847, and cleared or sold his pine and other
salable lands.  After his death, tracts of his remaining spruce lands
became valuable.
  He built a still early in life and made potato-whiskey until 1825. 
He took out a patent, July 9, 1812, for an improvement in malting
and kiln drying....
  He was elected representative of the classed towns of Columbia,
Colebrook, Stewartstown, Errol and Shelburne in 1807...In 1817 and 1818
he was representative for Colebrook, Columbia, Stewartstown, Errol,
Dixville, Millsfield and College Grant; in 1817 he secured the
charter for the Stewartstown toll bridge; in 1818 he was also a
selectman and deputy sheriff, which last office he held continuously
from before 1815 to 1832, and did some business as sheriff after 1840.
In 1826 and 1827 he was represenative for Colebrook, Columbia and 
Errol.  In 1835 he served his seventh term as representative.  He was
several times one of the board of selectmen and held other town 
offices from time to time.
  He bought the saw and grist-mill in Colebrook in 1833.  He built the
buildings that George Parsons occupies, then the best in the county,
in 1843.  The mills were old, and he built a new grist mill in 1846-48.
He kept about seventy head of cattle on his home farm, besides those
in Errol and Millsfield, a dairy of twenty cows and many horses, and
a large number of sheep and hogs, and used a large portion of his
mill-tolls on the farm.
  He always had a large family.  His wife's mother, Sarah Bevins,
spent her last years with him, and died March 26, 1836, aged
eighty-seven.  His wife's brother, Ezra Bevins, came here in 1847,
and died about 1854, aged eighty-four.  His daughters, Jane, born
May 23, 1817, who died January 30, 1832; Sarah Ann, born March 29,
1813, who died January 25, 1844, and Mary, born January 9, 1809, who
survived him, and died March 26, 1863, never left home.
  His son Samuel Bevins, born September 23, 1820, was graduated in
1840 from the Rensselaer Institute, Troy, N.Y. and was a clerk for a
time at Burlington, and afterwards taught in Virginia some years;
then returned home and was active in his father's and his own business,
and died April 18, 1850.  He was a young man of great promise, very
active in the railroad movements of 1844-45 and 1847, and the Free
Soil and temperance movements of 1846 and 1848, and secretary of the
state committee.  He gained something of a reputation as a campaign
speaker at this time, throughout the state, and his death was a 
severe blow to his father.
  His son George, born May 23, 1815, always lived with him, and still
occupies the old homestead.  After the death of his parents and sister,
George married Clara Lyman Martin.  They have one child, Frederick
George, born July 31, 1871.  A daughter, Clara Bell, died in infancy.
He has the old farm and mill and a hotel, the "Dix House."
  His son Charles, born July 13, 1811, learned the wheelwright trade,
and when twenty-one went to Connecticut, as a carriage painter.  About
1836 he went to Burlington, Vt., as a carriage and sleigh manufacturer,
then turned to the manufacture of matches.  He moved to Montreal and
manufacatured matches for several years, then commenced the manufacture
of Parson's rat exterminator.  In 1850 he transferred that business to
Colebrook, where he still continues it, and has extended a great
portion of the profits in building up the village.  The Parsons House
was built by him, and the Mohawk House is owned by him.  June 2, 1860
he married Augusta, daughter of Archelaus and Mary (Fletcher) CUmmings.
They have two children, Mary Augusta, born June 11, 1866, who married
Joseph Smith Pierce, June 28, 1885; and Charles Jr. born February 6,
1871.
  His daughter Margaret born September 15, 1803, married Jonathan
Rolfe, January 4, 1824, and died June 20, 1834.  She had six children
who all died or now live near Colebrook.  Susan Jane, born September 7,
1831, married Allen Hatch Forbes; Almera B., born April 29, 1828,
married George Brower, and died November 26, 1867; Charles E., born
September 10, 1826, married Ellen Faulkner; Harriet A., born September
17, 1833, married Daniel Munroe Smith of Brunswick Vt., and died
November 19, 1880; and two who died in March 1832.  Susan lived with
Mr. Parsons from early childhood.  Almera lived with him for a long
time in childhood, and also with her family, after marriage for some
years and was provided as were Charles, Harriet, Susan, with
substantial assistance in after life by gifts and bequests.
  His son William, born March 21, 1807, married Lucy Mooney and died at
Colebrook April 1, 1839.  They had three sons, William F., born 1835;
Hiram Charles born 1836; Abdiel Charles, born 1838.  They are at the
head of various business colleges in the western states.  They all
lived for a time, and Abdiel for many years, with Mr. parsons, and had
aid about their education and subsequent business.
  Mr. Parsons, in the winter of 1833, started on a journey to the west.
He went to Cleveland O., Louisville Ky, St. Louis, "Louisiana," and
back via Wisconsin, Ohio, Montreal, etc. and visited numerous
relatives and former neighbors.  He was considering a removal to the
west.  He sold the horse with which he started, and returned on one
which he rode for the last fourteen hundred miles of his journey.
  [An anecdote regarding him capturing the murderer, Daniel Robbins,
is found in the original document, but omitted here; portions of obituary by Rev. J.B. Hill in original document, not included here]..
  HEZEKIAH PARSONS, son of Hezekiah and Mary ("Polly" Bevins) Parsons
was born in Colebrook February 11, 1805.  In him was combined much of
the energy and courage of his father, and much of the patient, quiet
kindness of his mother.  He married Sarah Merrill,daughter of James
Frye, and Sallie (Chandler) Bragg, of Errol, April 21, 1832.  They had
eight children:  Ellen Sarah, born april 6, 1833, who married November
8, 1870 Reuben Sylvester Parks of Washington D.C., son of Sylvester
and Laura A. Parks of Russell, Mass, and has since lived in Washington.
She has one child, Alice Mary, born January 6, 1872.  Mrs. Parks taught
in Warren, Ohio, for three years from 1857, also before and afterwards
in the schools and academy of Colebrook.  She was a well-known teacher 
in Columbia, Lemington, Canaan, Stratford and Lancaster before her
marriage.  Hezekiah Bragg, born March 16, 1835, married February 22,
1873, Mahala, daughter of George and Sarah (Morrison) Aldrich of
Colebrook.  He died June 11, 1882.  They had no children.  He was
postmaster of Colebrook from 1854 to 1856, register of deeds from
1858 to 1864.  He built the telegraph from Stratford to Colebrook
in 1868, and the management of that and his duties as town clerk
occupied his time until his death.
  James Ingalls, an attorney, is mentioned in the "Bench and Bar."
Mary Alice, born May 2, 1850, was graduated from Robinson Female
seminary, Execter NH in 1870, and in 1873 from the Medical department
of Howard University, Washington, D.C. in which city she has since 
practiced medicine.  She was the first woman licensed to practice,
consulted with by regular physicians, or admitted to a medical society
in that city, or, it is probably, south of Pennsylvania.  They also 
had four daughters, born December 25, 1836, January 21, 1839, March 18,
1840 and May 16, 1846, of whom none lived more than a few weeks.
  Mr. Parsons attended the academy at Haverhill, NH and some years
later that at Lancaster to qualify himself as a surveyor.  He did a 
great deal of work as a surveyor until past fifty, when he gave up all
employments requiring much walking.
  He commenced teaching at the age of sixteen at which age his father
and grandfather, and his children also became teachers, but soon took
charge of his father's still and farm, and later of his father's
lumbering and river driving on the Androscoggin until 1832, when he
married and commenced farming on the farm that his children still own.
[much more about his public service in original document not
included here]..... He died July 5, 1885.  His last words, "I am at
peace with all the world," characterized his gentle ways...
---------------------------------
page 635
Dr. LYMAN LOMBARD
[excerpts only]
Dr. Lombard descended from an early Massachusetts family; the first
American ancestor, John, settled in Springfield, Mass in 1646; The
line to Dr. Lyman is John-1, David-2, John-3, Joseph-4, Joseph-5,
Joseph-6, Lyman-7.
  Lyman, eighth child of Joseph and Mary (Faulkner) Lombard, was born
in Brimfield, Mass., March 15, 1788.  His father was a farmer, and
Lyman worked on the farm, acquiring a healthful physique, and
studied medicine with Dr. Keyes, of Brimfield.  He was in service nine
months during the War of 1812.  In 1815, after completing his medical
studies, Dr. Lombard settled in Columbia, N.H. and October 3, 1818,
purchased the residence of Dr. Thomas Flanders, in Colebrook, to which
he removed and became a life resident of the town.
  Dr. Lombard entered immediately upon the duties of his profession.
His practice soon extended over a large area; through the
Connecticut valley from Canada line on the north to Northumberland
and Guildhall on the south, and east to Erroll and Dummer.  For nearly
fifty years he toiled..riding on horseback...[It was not until after
years of practice that the luxurious article, the gig,, was brought
into requisition].  He held the commission of surgeon for the 24th
Regiment of NH militia for several years.  He received the honorary
degree of M.D. from Dartmouth college, July 27, 1860.  He was a member
of various medical societies... Of fine physique, five feet ten and
one-half inches in height, well-proportioned, of erect carriage, and 
of commanding presence, combined with a social nature and a keen sense
of humor...
  Dr. Lombard was .. a Freemason... he was "raised" to the membership
of the Evening Star Lodge February 19, 1823 and was its secretary for
many years.  In February 1859, he was one of the seven petitioners
for the restoration of the chater, and May 31, 1859, he was chosen
Worshipful Master.
  Democratic in his politics... Bred and reared in the Orthodox
Congregational faith, he became quite liberal, and never affiliated
with any church organization; yet his house was a home to
clergymen of all denominations.
  In 1820, December 21, Dr. Lombard married Betsey, daughter of
Joseph and Anna (Bissell) Loomis, a native of Hebron, Conn.
Their children were Ann Smith (Mrs. Hazen Bedel); Mary F., (died
Feburary 26, 1887), Isabel A. (Mrs. Corydon Farr); Emma E. (married
S.S. Merrill, died March 18, 1872); Erasmus D. (died July 8, 1882);
and Joseph Erastmus.  Mrs. Lombard died March 22, 1872.  She was an
intelligent lady, and ably seconded her husband in making a happy and
attractive home.  She kept a diary for over fifty years, in which were
noted matters of importance to the community.  Dr. and Mrs. Lombard
commenced house-keeping in the pleasant home where they passed long
years....
=============
page 637
COL. HAZEN BEDEL
The Bedel family is an early American one, originating in England.
Two English gentlemen, Gabriel and John Beadle, (according to Capt.
John Smith's History of Virginia, published in 1629) arrived in
Virginia in the autumn of 1608.  Samuel Bedel was an early resident
of Salem, Mass., and probably the ancestor of the Bedels of the
Upper Connecticut.  Timothy Bedel, Jr., was born in Salem, Mass. in
1737.  By his first wife, Elizabeth, he had one son, Moody, born in
Salem, N.H. May 12, 1764.  Timothy Bedel represented Salem, in 1764,
in the legislature of this state.  In 1765 he removed to Haverhill
and resided there and in Bath until his death February 24, 1787.
He was much more than an ordinary man.  He was one of the grantees
of Haverhill and Piermont, and in 1769 is given as a resident of Bath.
He had an extended and brilliant military service.  In 1754 he
served under Col. Blanchard at "No. 4"; 1755, in William Stark's
rangers, in second expedition against Crown Point; 1757, went to
Halifax as lieutenant under Col. Meserve; 1758 at the capture of
Loisburg; 1759, as lieutenant under Wolfe at the taking of Quebec;
1760, lieutenant in Capt. John Hazen's company at Isle Aux Noix, St.
Johns, Cambly and Montreal; 1761, lieutenant under Gen. Amherst,
guarding conquests on Western frontiers; 1762, went to Havana with
Royal Provincials as lieutenant, was at the six weeks' siege and
capture of that city; was appointed captin October 13, 1762, and
remained in service until after peace was declared in 1763.  During
the Revolution, as colonel, he raised and commanded a regiment,
and was a distinguished and brave officer through the war.
  Gen. Moody Bedel was an acative officer in the War of 1812, and
rendered efficient aid to his country.  He was liberally educated,
represented Haverhill and Coventry in the legislature of 1802;
made a settlement in "Indian Stream Territory" after his return from
the scenes of war; removed to Bath in 1828, where he died, January 13,
1841.  Gen. Bedel married, for his second wife, Mary Hunt, of Bath.
They had nine children.
  Col. Hazen Bedel, second son of Gen. Moody and Mary (Hunt) Bedel,
was born in the pleasant town of Haverhill, N.H. July 31, 1818.  When
he was a year old his father moved the family to "Indian Stream
Territory"; but Mrs. Bedel could not endure the hardships and
privations of her life there, and after for years she returned with
her three chldren to Haverhill.  Hazen, then five years of age,
became an inmate of Jacob William's household, where he remained,
attending school constantly until he was ten years old.  His father
then established his family at Bath, and Hazen continued his
school attendance for two years.  Here his school life closed; but he
had the advantage of a good elementary education, which, supplemented
by his habits of thought and observation, gave him what he most needed
for the line of business he ultimately entered.  He went to Montpelier
Vt. and worked with his brother, Moody, at shoemaking for two years,
then returned to Bath and made shoes two years.  An uncle, residing at
Lancaster, sent for him, and he was engaged as clerk for "Sampson &
Perkins," merchants, for three years, when they failed.  Mr. Bedel
closed up their affairs, which occupied him about a year, and by his
skillful management, he acquired a reputation as a business man of
more than ordinary ability.
August 10, 1838, Mr. Bedel came to Colebrook, and began his long life
of activity here as a clerk for F.G. Messer.  In four years' time he
became a partner with one-third interest in a building he had erected
on Factory road, now Pleasant street, and conducted this there until
1861, when he transferred it to a new building containing the Masonic
hall, which he had built on Main street, just north of the Mohawk,
and, forming the firm of H. Bedel & Co., by admitting M.S. Marshall
into partnership, carried on a general store until September 27, 1869,
when he retired from trade.  On the arrival of the Grand Trunk railway
at North Stratford, in 1852, Mr. Bedel formed a mercantile partnership
with Albe Holmes, and put up a store in that place, which they stocked
with goods, and carried on until 1862.  This building is now standing
next to the Willard House, which was also built by Mr. Bedel and Mr.
Holmes.  About 1858 Mr. Bedel came into possession of the Columbia
Valley Mills, comprising a saw, a grist, and a potato starch mill,
and has operated them since.  From 1877 he has been interested in
starch manufacturing in Aroostook county, Me., with various partners,
passing three months of each year, from September to December, in
looking after his business.
  Col. Bedel is one of Colebrook's representative men, of strict
integrity and frank courtesy....
  He married, December 15, 1847, Ann S., eldest child of Dr. Lyman
Lombard.  She has been four years the companion and helper of her
father, from whom she had received many valuable lessons that served
to qualify her in more than an ordinary degree to be the companion and
helpmeet of a man of the active and extensive relations of Col. Bedel,
and the union has been a most felicitous one.  Their children have 
been Ellen (died young), Lyman L. (died at two years), Alice (a 
student of medicine in Washington D.C.), Isabel L. (died Young), Hazen,
and Mary.
  In politics Col. Bedel has ever been a Democrat... He was appointed
postmaster of Colebrook in 1844, after conducting the office six years,
and held the position ten years.  He was a delegate to the 
Constitutional Conventions of 1850 and 1876; representative from
Colebrook in 1853 and 1854; county commissioner from 1859 to 1862;
member of Gov. Harriman's council in 1867 and 1868; judge of probate
from 1874 to 1876.  In addition to these, he has held for long periods
the important town offices; been state commissioner of roads, and
in many other and varied ways has been called upon to render service
to the state and people.  He has been treasurer of Colebrook academy
for more than thirty years.  He acquired his title of colonel from his
service in the militia in which he took great interest.
  He has been a Freemason for more than thirty years, and ranks high in
the order.  He was made a Mason, December 26, 1855, at North Star
Lodge, of Lancaster; was one of the seven petitioners for the
restoration of the charter of Evening Star Lodge of Colebrook, in 1859,
and is the only one now living; from that time to the present he has 
been an active and a useful member.  He built his store on Main street
to furnish a Masonic hall in the upper story, and leased it to the
lodge a a nominal rent for a long series of years.  He was exalted to
a Royal Arch Mason, April 26, 1864, at Franklin Chapter of Lisbon;
made Royal, Select, and Super-Excellent Master, December 14, 1876,
in Horace Chase Council of Concord; created Knight of the Red Cross,
Knight Templar, and Knight of Malta, November 9, 1868, in North Star
Commandery, Lancaster; and was District Deputy Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge in 1868 and 1869.
  During the Rebellion the duties of enlisting men to fill the town
quota devolved on Col. Bedel.  He enlisted eighty-four men, and took
charge of the relief of the families, and in this way did more service
to the country than many who went to the front.
  From early manhood to hale old age Col. Bedel has been adding to 
the welfare of his town, his country and his state.  To his exertions
and labors is largely due the establishment of the Northern Judicial
District of Coos county.  He raised the money for the court-house by
subscription, and personally supervised its construction.  He has
often been called upon to administer on estates, as referee, and as
counselor in intricate business affairs....
--------------------------
page 640
HON. SHERBURN R. MERRILL
[excerpts]
The Merrill family is of French origin, and the name was formerly
spelled "Merle."  Nathaniel Merrill was one of the first American
ancestors of this numerous family.  Many of his descendants are
prominent as clergyman, and in business and financial circles.
Nathaniel, whose wife was Susanna Jourdaine, settled in Newbury, Mass.
in 1634.  Some of his posterity moved to New Hampshire.  In 1750
Jonathan Merrill, grandfather of Sherburn R., was born in Newbury NH,
where he died about 1816.  His children were Jonathan, Abraham,
Mehitable, Sally, Samuel and Jane.
  Sherburn Rowell Merrill, oldest son of Samuel and Fanny (Bancroft)
Merrill was born in Fisherville in Newbury NH January 2, 1810.  His
mother was a native of Dunbarton, and a relative of George Bancroft,
the historian.  Sherburn resided in Newubry until 1818, when his
parents removed to Croydon.  His uncle, Daniel Hastings, took the
family, furniture, and provisions in a wagon drawn by a pair of
horses.  They first occupied a parat of Luke Paul's house situated
about three-quarters of a mile from the pice of wild land Mr. Merrill
had purchased on credit, and which he partially cleared during the
summer of 1818, working also as a day laborer for the maintenance of
his family.  In the fall he put up a log house.  The logs were
neither split nor peeled; the roof wa made of single boards, battened;
the gable ends the same.  The cellar was a hole dug in the ground,
not stoned.  The lower floor was rought boards, the upper one single
rough boards not nailed.  The chimney were rough stones, laid in clay
up to the beams; above these, split sticks and clay.  The upper story
was reached by a ladder.  The crevices in the walls were stuffed with
moss.  The door was made of single rough boards, battened, with wooden
hinges.  A stone hearth and wooden mantel completed the primitive
dwelling.  The family first occupied it in the winter of 1818-19,
and for nearly seven years this was their home.  The winter's snows
easily found entrance through the roof, and covered the bed of the
young lad from one to two inches deep.  Sherburn became early 
accustomed to work.  He assisted his father in his hard labors, and
when opportunity offered, worked for some one who could pay him
money, even if small wages; working one year for Aaron Whipple, of
Croydon, for $22, and clothing himself when fourteen.  In 1825 his
father moved to Peeling (now Woodstock).  In April of the same year,
Sherburn, now fifteen years old, shouldered his pack, walked to
Croydon, and worked for Luke Paul seven months for $7 a month; then
returned to Woodstock with all the money he had earned, which he gave
to his father.  In February 1826, Mr. Merrill and his wife went to 
Amesbury, Mass., to make the first payment on their farm.  While there
Mr. Merrill died suddenly, and Mrs. Merrill returned home nearly
peniless.  Samuel Merrill was a man of independent thought and positive
in his expressions..... He was a strong Democrat.... both he and his
wife we members of the Free Will Baptist Church... His sudden death at
the age of forty was a great loss to his wife and family of little
ones.  Of the children, four survive: Sherburn R., Joshua B., Frances
(Mrs. William Leavitt), Mary J. (Mrs. Morrill Barnard).  Mrs. Fanny B.
Merrill married, second, Joseph Sargent, of Thornton.  She was born
January 20, 1789, and died in April, 1878.
  At the time of his father's death, Sherburn was sixteen, and
Seneca S. but one year old.  Joshua b. remained at home to carry on the
farm, and, in April, Sherburn went to Croydon, worked until haying
time, when he returned home (walking the seventy-five miles in a day
and a half) to assist in cutting the hay.  To pay the outstanding
debts, they were obliged to sell all their crops and the farm.  The
following winter, and the year of 1828, Sherburn worked in Littleton.
Here he worked several weeks for E. Going, who kept him busy all day
long, and five nights out of seven, and by his employer's failure he
lost nearly all his wages.  In March, 1829, at the age of nineteen,
he started for Boston, on foot, to try his fortune, and arrived in
that city with $1.50.  He was willing to work, did not despise any
honest labor, and found employment immediately in driving a truck 
team at $12.50 a month, but, after working six weeks, and recieving
but $5.00 went to work in Brookline for one McNamara; remained two
months, and only got his pay by shrewd management.  He then returned
to Boston, and worked a week for Mr. Putnam, of Quincy Market, for
his board; his employer gave him fiften cents and told him to call
at his stand once a day, and he would endeavor to find a situation
for him.  The second day he said, "Go to Broad street to Jacob Gregg,"
He did so and Mr. Gregg hired him to drive a truck team for $12.50
a month, and he remained in his employ from August 1829 until November
1830, when he engaged with a Mr. Pratt until April 1831... [more info
in original document not included here..]
  He had "lung fever" in March 1833... his future wife's uncle,
Samuel Merrill, persuaded him to take a voyage for his health to New
Orleans on a brig he was laoding with ice for that port... They left 
Boston about January 15, 1834..Sherburn took with him furniture costing
$900 which he thought he might sell at a profit in the south...[the 
ship was destroyed by a storm].. Sherburn and others were rescued..
he returned to Boston with only $5.... 
  Mr. Merrill married March 31, 1836, Sarah B., daughter of William
Merrill of Noblesborough, Me., She died September 1877.  Their
children attaining maturity are LUCRETIA F. (Mrs. Edward N. Cummings)
who has three children, Edward Jane and John; SARAH L. (Mrs. Ira A.
Ramsay, dec.) children, Sherburn R.M., Ira A., and Louis; ELLEN L.
(Mrs. J. E. Lombard) children Darwin and Lyman; CAROLINE H. (Mrs. I.W.
Drew) children Niel, Pitt and Sara M; MARY J. (Mrs. W.H. Shurtleff)
children are Merrill and Harry.  January 1, 1879 Mr. Merrill married
Mrs. Sarah N. McDole, nee Butler.
  About the time of his marriage he purchased a house and ten acres of
land in Woodstock for $300, repaired the house and moved into it in
the middle of April.  He also bought an old grist and saw mill across
the road for which he paid $300.  In the autum and winter of 1836-37
he had them repaired at an expense of $700, but the man in charge did
not understand his business, and Mr. Merrill's money was lost.  Three
years after, he exchanged his property for a farm which he sold for
$350.  He lost by this investment over $1,000 and was in debt.  In
1837 was the great panic year, when banks suspended, little money was
afloat, business prospects were dark, failures were frequent, but,
in spite fo this, and his money losses, Mr. Merrill was not
discouraged...he went to Sandwich with a pair of horses and a sleigh,
and bought five tons of dried apples.  These he sold through the
country, taking anything he could get for a return load, and realized
$200 that winter.  In the fall of 1838 he came to Colebrook, bought
butter, and carried it to Boston and lowell, selling it at an 
advantage of seven cents per pound, and made about $100.  Later in the
season he purchased cattle and sold them on the road.. 
[more info in original document not included here, please see original
document for the remainder of his biography].

page 646
SENECA SARGENT MERRILL
[EXCERPTS ONLY]

Seneca Sargent Merrill, youngest son of Samuel & Fanny B. Merrill,
was born in Croydon, NH February 25, 1826.  His father died a
year after, and Seneca passed his early years in the home of stern
necessity and close economy.  At the age of ten he went to live
with his brother, Sherburn, and was a member of his household until
he was forty-five years. At the age of 30 yrs he went into business
for himself as a junior partner in the firm of "S.R. & S.S. Merrill,"
carrying on starch manufacturing at Kiddersville...
  Mr. Merrill married, January 10, 1871, Emma, daughter of Dr. Lyman
and Betsey (Loomis) Lombard.  She died in March 1872.  In February,
1876 he married Arvilla, daughter of Thomas and Esther (Beecher) Piper,
and widow of Samuel P. Pitkin.  To his step-daughter Mille, Mr.
Merrill manifested the tenderness of a parent.  His only child is
Seneca Sherburn Merrill, a bright lad of nine years.
  In politics Mr. Merrill was a Democrat... He was selectman in 1866
and 1867; county commissioner in 1867, 1868 and 1869; represented
Colebrook in the state legislature in the state terms of 1880-1881,
and was supervisor from 1883 until March 1886.
  He was interested in Freemasonry, and for 25 years was a member
of Evening Star Lodge, of which he was treasurer for 20 years.
He was a Royal Arch Mason of the Franklin Chapter of Lisbon.  He
belonged to no denominational sect...
-----------------------
page 648
SAMUEL KELLY REMICK
Samuel Kelly Remick, born in Danville, Vt. September 15, 1858
married Sophia Cushman in 1838, was for many years a woolen
manufacturer at Danville and Hardwick Vt., later a hotel keeper at
Hardwick and St. Johnsbury Vt.  In 1870 he purchased the Parsons
House (completed in 1862) and conducted it until 1873, when he rented
it to Edwin F. Bailey for five years (1878) and then resumed its
management.  Mr. Remick made repairs, added veranda, etc. to the 
hotel in 1871, and built a large addition in 1876.  In 1878 he
erected the Remick block and hall, and also a large tenement in
Lawrence, Mass., the year before his death.  He was a man of great
force and energy.  He died at Colebrook, December 24, 1878; his wife
died April 12, 1879.  Mr. Bailey occupied the Parsons House from 1879
until his death in May, 1884.  Edwin Small, who married Mr. Remick's
oldest child, Kate O., purchased the hotel, November 1884, and has
conducted it since.  Both Mr. & Mrs. Small do all in their power to
make their guests comfortable.

(end)