the Indian wars, Colonel, afterward General, Jonathan Moulton went out
with a scouting party from Dover. After numerous adventures, they met
with and attacked a party of six Indians, near a place now known as
Clark's Landing, on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee, all of whom fell in
the skirmish which ensued, with one exception. The colonel had a large
dog with him, which, after the affray was over, he placed upon the track
of the escaped Indian. The dog ran on the shore a short distance, and
then struck off on to the ice. The party followed, and as they
approached the entrance of what is now Green bay they saw in the
distance that the dog had the Indian down upon the ice; and when they
got to the spot the Indian was dead,--killed by the dog.
The active services of the general in these border wars had made him, at
an early age, well and favorably known to the leading men of that day.
His numerous raids and scouts, in the region occupied by the Ossipee
tribes, had made him well acquainted with the then wilderness, and with
the adjacent country upon the western shores of the lake, and no doubt
secured to him the land grant which he obtained, in common with many of
his companions in arms. He was rightly placed at the head of the
grantees, by the Masonian proprietors, and the town of Moultonborough,
which was named after him, perpetuates the memory of his rugged virtues
and of his enterprising character. His descendants have been inhabitants
of Moultonborough and of Center Harbor to the present time. After
obtaining this grant, the general devoted much of the remainder of his
life in promoting the settlement and the development of this new
territory. Among other things in this direction, he obtained from Gov.
Wentworth the grant of land now known as the town of New Hampton, which
was formerly a part of Moultonborough gore, and then called
"Moultonborough Addition." The following amusing account of the way in
which Gen. Moulton secured this last grant appears in "Fogg's
Gazetteer," and is to be found in other histories of those early
times:--
[Illustration: John C. Coulton.]
"In 1703, Gen. Jonathan Moulton, of Hampton, having an ox
weighing one thousand four hundred pounds, fattened for the
purpose, hoisted a flag upon his horns, and drove him to
Portsmouth as a present to Gov. Wentworth. The general refused
any compensation for the ox, but said he would like a charter of
a small gore of land he had discovered adjoining the town of
Moultonborough, of which he was one of the principal
proprietors. The governor granted this simple request of General
Moulton, and he called it New Hampton, in honor of his native
town. This small gore of land contained nineteen thousand four
hundred and twenty-two acres, a part of which now constitutes
Center Harbor."
Thus it appears that General Moulton, by his energy and enterprise,
largely contributed to the formation of three towns,--one named New
Hampton, by him; another named Moultonborough, for him; and the third,
Center Harbor, was carved from a part of his grant called
"Moultonborough Addition."
* * * * *
The following is the genealogical order:--
1. Gen. Jonathan Moulton, born in Hampton, N. H., June 30, 1726. Jan. 7,
1749, he married Abigail Smith. He died in 1788.
2. Benning Moulton, son of Jonathan Moulton and Abigail (Smith) Moulton,
born May 21, 1761. He married Sally Lovett, Nov. 7, 1782. He settled in
Center Harbor in 1783, and there died Dec. 23, 1834.
3. Jonathan Smith Moulton, son of Benning Moulton and Sally (Lovett)
Moulton, born at Center Harbor, Dec. 14, 1785. He married Deborah Neal.
He died Nov. 15, 1855.
4. JOHN CARROLL MOULTON, son of Jonathan Smith Moulton and Deborah
(Neal) Moulton, born in Center Harbor, Dec. 24, 1810. In addition to the
ordinary opportunities of the district school, in his native town, he
attended Holmes Academy at Plymouth, N. H., where for several terms he
pursued his studies under the instruction of the late Samuel Burns, who
ranked among the foremost teachers of his time. To perfect himself in
mathematical studies, for which he showed an early and natural aptitude,
he placed himself under the tuition of Master Dudley Leavitt, the noted
"almanac-maker," who, for many years, opened an annual term of high
school in Meredith, where he taught all the advanced branches of
mathematics to pupils, who in that day flocked from every part of the
country to place themselves at the feet of this great mathematical
Gamaliel. These studies he ardently pursued far beyond the limits of the
ordinary academical course, and they seem to have impressed upon him a
permanent proficiency often called for and manifested in the various
large business transactions with which he has been connected for so many
years. During the intervals of schools he assisted his father--who was
in trade and a large farmer--as clerk and general assistant in his
extensive business. In 1831, at about the age twenty, he opened a store
and commenced trade at Sandwich. N. H., where he remained about a year,
when he returned, and resumed the same business at Center Harbor.
July 15, 1833, he married Nellie B. Senter. He then opened a hotel in
what has since grown to be one of the famous boarding-houses at Center
Harbor, and, with the aid of his brilliant and accomplished wife, united
the duties of landlord and merchant, which employments he continued
there for several years. In 1836, Lake Village, N. H., began to attract
attention as a place of large prospective business, and Mr. Moulton left
Center Harbor, and opened a store at that place. He also engaged in
manufacturing, and continued in these employments for several years.
In 1841 he removed to Laconia, then known the world over as Meredith
Bridge, and took charge of the Belknap Hotel. This being the only stage
house of that lively place, it was usually inundated with the stream of
public travel peculiar to those times. He continued this business about
two years, when he opened a bookstore and an apothecary-shop in a
building which stood on the site now occupied by the post-office and the
national bank. He was soon after appointed postmaster,--in the latter
part of Tyler's administration; was re-appointed by President Polk,
through whose term he held the office, which he continued to do a short
time during the term of President Taylor, when, being a life-long
Democrat, he was removed. He was re-appointed by President Pierce, and
also by President Buchanan, during whose terms he held the office, which
he continued to do a short time under President Lincoln, when he was
superseded by the appointment of a Republican. Thus he held the office
of postmaster during part of the terms of three Republican, and the full
terms of three Democratic administrations, making his term of office
about sixteen years in all. The duties of his long term of service were
performed in a manner universally acceptable and satisfactory to the
public.
In 1848 the Boston, Concord, & Montreal Railroad was built and completed
from Concord to Plymouth. In anticipation of this event the firm of
Charles Ranlet & Co. built large and extensive car-works at Laconia,
which they designed particularly for the construction of freight-cars.
The firm commenced and carried on the business until the decease of the
senior partner, in 1860, when the works were suspended. In 1861, Mr.
Moulton became a partner, and by his great energy and business capacity
has developed a large business, which employs some two hundred men, most
of whom are skilled workmen. The monthly pay-roll is about eight
thousand dollars. The works have been repeatedly enlarged, and several
extensive buildings erected, to accommodate the increase of business.
For several years, passenger-cars of the finest style and finish, as
well as freight-cars, have been built at their works, and their annual
gross earnings are to be reckoned at several hundred thousand dollars.
In February, 1881, these car-shops, with most of their machinery and
contents, were burned to the ground, only some of the out-buildings
being saved. Before the ruins were done smoking, lumber began to be
hauled upon the ground, and in thirty days from the fire cars were being
built in new shops which had been erected on the old foundations. Mr.
Moulton was then over seventy years of age, and was well able to retire
from business, with an ample competence, to the quiet repose which most
men desire as the closing blessing of an active and arduous life.
In 1871 and 1872 he was chosen senator from district number six, and
performed his official duties with his accustomed promptness and
fidelity, and to the satisfaction of his constituents. He was also
elected councilor for district number two in 1874. In 1876 he was one of
the delegates to the Democratic national convention held at St. Louis,
which nominated Samuel J. Tilden for the presidency, and in the ensuing
presidential campaign was one of the candidates on the Democratic ticket
for elector.
In 1865, rapid growth of the manufacturing, commercial, and other
business interests at Laconia and Lake Village suggested to him the
great need of added financial facilities. To meet these demands, it was
necessary to procure a charter from the government to establish a
national bank at Laconia. Almost insurmountable obstacles to success in
this enterprise were encountered, and finally overcome. The charter was
procured, and the bank established, largely by the active and persistent
labor of the subject of this sketch. Upon the organization of the
Laconia National Bank, he was chosen its first president, and has
continuously and acceptably held the position to the present time. It
may well be said, that the impartiality with which the accommodations of
this bank have been extended to promote all hopeful enterprises has done
much to advance the growth and prosperity of the place.
For several years, Mr. Moulton was a stockholder in the Gilford Hosiery
Corporation at Laconia. In 1868 he became sole owner of the entire stock
and property. He has steadily continued its successful operation, with
an annual product of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, until now.
The factory employs about one hundred and fifty hands, mostly females,
at the mill, and gives employment to many households in the surrounding
country. Mr. Moulton and Benjamin K. Thurston are joint owners of the
extensive flouring and grain mill of Laconia. He is also a large owner
of the stock in the Laconia Gas-light Company, and has done much to
place this important pioneer enterprise upon the solid basis it now
holds among the public improvements of this growing town.
Mr. Moulton is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is
one of the charter members of Winnipisseogee Lodge No. 7, which was
established at Laconia in 1842, and is now one of the Uniformed
Patriarchs of the order.
His domestic and family relations are as follows:--
July 15, 1833, he married Nellie B. Senter, of Center Harbor, who was
the daughter of Samuel M. Senter. Her ancestor, Col. Joseph Senter, and
Ebenezer Chamberlain were the first settlers in that town in 1765 and
1767. She died Nov. 18, 1860, at Laconia. Five children were born to
them, of whom three survive.
Edwin Carroll Moulton was born May 25, 1834, and died Nov. 13, 1867. He
married Augusta Ranlet, of Laconia, daughter of Charles Ranlet; and
their only child, Nelly Augusta Moulton, still survives. He was an
active business man, full of promise, and many friends still cherish his
memory.
Samuel Moore Senter Moulton was born Aug. 1, 1837, and resides at
Laconia. May 2, 1861, he enlisted, and served in the New Hampshire
volunteers. July 26, 1861, he enlisted in the regular army of the United
States, and served three years during the rebellion, with the mounted
troops. Since the war he is employed as book-keeper, clerk, and
paymaster in the car factories above referred to. He was one of the
selectmen of Laconia for the years 1868 and 1869; and was representative
of the town to the legislature for the years 1876 and 1877. He married
Martha B. Thurston, daughter of Benjamin E. Thurston, who is well known.
He served as representative to the legislature from the town of
Moultonborough in Carroll county, for the years 1867 and 1868, after
which he removed to, and now resides in, Laconia, which town he
represented in the legislature in 1881. He was also high sheriff of
Belknap county in the years 1874 and 1875.
William Hale Moulton was born July 20, 1844, died March 10, 1849.
Horatio Francis Moulton was born Jan. 24, 1848. During the war he was
three years in the United States navy. He was one of the naval cadets,
and intended to pass his life in the United States service, but was
prevented by pulmonary disease. He married Ella S. Melcher, of
Springfield, Mass., daughter of William Melcher, and has a family of
three young children. He is superintendent of the Gilford Hosiery
Company, and has been so for many years.
Ida Lettice Moulton, was born June 4, 1850. She married Joshua B.
Holden, of Boston, Mass., and they have a young family of four children.
Mr. Moulton married his second wife, Sarah A. McDougal, Aug. 18, 1866.
Her many virtues and useful charities have endeared her to a large
circle of warm friends.
The lives of men who are absorbed in the exacting duties of many
diversified and burdensome pursuits are not crowded with incidents which
interest remote posterity; but the successful and many-sided enterprises
of such men exert a wide and beneficial influence in their day and
generation. Such a man is Mr. Moulton. He has always been an
open-handed, public-spirited citizen. To him, and to two or three
others, we owe the building of the finest church in Laconia and the
support of a liberal ministry. Long after he has passed away, the town
of his adoption will continue to exhibit many evidences of his liberal
contributions to whatever tended to promote the growth of the town, the
prosperity of its business, or the public welfare.
[Illustration: A. W. Sulloway]
HON. ALVAH W. SULLOWAY.
By H. H. Metcalf.
From an industrial, as well as a political standpoint, the town of
Franklin has long occupied a prominent position in the state. Highly
favored by nature with the facilities most conducive to the development
of manufacturing industry, there has grown up within its limits, or been
attracted thereto from other localities, a large class of citizens
possessing the enterprise, energy, and sagacity requisite to the most
advantageous use of those facilities. There are, indeed, few among our
New England towns of corresponding size, which include among their
inhabitants a larger number of active and successful business men, or
whose progress has been signalized during the last quarter of a century
by a more substantial industrial development.
ALVAH W. SULLOWAY is one of the best-known, most practical, energetic,
and public-spirited among the enterprising business men of this
prosperous and progressive town. While the state of Massachusetts has
drawn from our midst a large proportion of the men whose labors have
brought the prosperity and distinction which that proud old commonwealth
enjoys, she has given New Hampshire in return some of her own sons,
whose efforts have contributed in no small degree to advance the honor
and welfare of the state of their adoption. Among these is the subject
of this sketch. Born in Framingham, Mass., Dec. 25, 1838, Mr. Sulloway
is now in his forty-fourth year. He is the only son and eldest child of
Israel W. and Adeline (Richardson) Sulloway, to whom three daughters
were also born, two of whom are living, one unmarried, and the other the
wife of Herbert Bailey, Esq., a prominent manufacturer of the town of
Claremont. Israel W. Sulloway is a native of Boston, and sprang from
revolutionary ancestry on both the paternal and the maternal side, his
mother being a Woodbury of Salem, daughter of Capt. Israel Woodbury, who
served in the patriot army throughout the war for independence. He
engaged in manufacturing service in youth, and was for some time an
overseer in the Saxonville woolen mill. When his son Alvah was about ten
years of age, he removed to the town of Enfield in this state, where he
engaged in the manufacture of yarn hosiery. Here he introduced the
process of manufacturing the celebrated Shaker socks by machinery, being
the first manufacturer to engage in the enterprise, where he established
a prosperous business, which he carried on about sixteen years, when he
sold out to his son-in-law, Mr. Bailey, and retired from active life,
locating at Waltham, Mass., where he still resides. In his father's mill
at Enfield, Alvah W. Sulloway gained that practical knowledge of the
business in which he has since been engaged, which constituted the sure
foundation of the success he has attained therein. He secured a good
academical education at Canaan, Barre, Vt., and the Green Mountain
Liberal Institute at South Woodstock; but spent a considerable portion
of his time between the age of ten and twenty-one years in active labor
in the mill, thoroughly familiarizing himself with the various
processes in hosiery manufacture, and the general conduct of business in
that important line of industry.
Upon attaining his majority, with that ambitious and independent spirit
which so generally characterizes the youth of New England, and to which
the development and prosperity of all sections of our country are so
largely due, Mr. Sulloway determined to go into business for himself.
His purpose received the ready sanction and encouragement of his father,
and after due deliberation he formed a partnership with Walter Aiken of
Franklin, in the manufacture of hosiery. The partnership continued for
about four years, when it was dissolved by mutual consent, and another
firm was organized, which put in operation a new mill. This firm
consisted of Mr. Sulloway and Frank H. Daniell of Franklin, who carried
on business together until 1869, when Mr. Daniell withdrew, and Mr.
Sulloway has since been sole proprietor. The mill is situated upon the
lower power of the Winnipesaukee, opposite the mills of the
Winnipiseogee Paper Company, the power being used in common by the two
establishments. The building is of brick, three stories high, with
basement, contains four sets of woolen machinery, with about
seventy-five knitting-machines, and furnishes employment for about
ninety operatives, besides a large number of women in the vicinity, and
surrounding towns, whose labor is required in finishing the work which
the machines leave incomplete. The goods manufactured are the Shaker
socks, or half-hose, of which about three hundred dozen pairs are
produced daily, giving an annual product of about one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. The monthly pay-roll averages about two thousand five
hundred dollars, aside from the amount paid for outside labor.
Mr. Sulloway is a business man in the true sense of the term, and as
such he has been thus far eminently successful. But while devoting his
energies and ability to the development of his own business interests,
and thereby indirectly conferring large benefit upon the community in
which he moves, he has never failed to contribute, by direct personal
effort, to the advancement of all measures of public utility and
material progress; and to his labor and encouragement, personally and
pecuniarily, as much as to any other among its many enterprising and
public-spirited citizens, the town of Franklin is indebted for the
advanced position which it holds, when regarded from a business, social,
or educational standpoint. He was a prime mover in the organization of
the Franklin National Bank, which went into operation in November, 1879,
and has been president of the institution from the start. He has also
been a trustee of the Franklin Savings Bank ever since its
establishment, and for several years past a member of the committee of
investment. In 1880 he was chosen a member of the board of directors of
the Northern Railroad, which position he still holds.
In politics, Mr. Sulloway is an ardent Democrat, an earnest and
enthusiastic worker in the party cause; and his labors in this direction
have been largely instrumental in bringing his party into ascendency in
Franklin, which was for many years one of the hardest-contested
political battle grounds in the state, numbering, as it does, among its
citizens several of the most active leaders of the two great parties. In
1871, although the town was then decidedly Republican, he was chosen a
member of the state legislature from Franklin, and was re-elected the
following year. In 1874, and again in 1875, he was elected to the same
position. In the legislature, as everywhere else, he proved himself a
thoroughly practical man, devoting himself actively to business, and
leaving speech-making to those inclined to talk rather than work. In
1871, he served on the committee on elections; in 1872, upon railroads;
in 1874 was chairman of the committee on manufactures, where his close
acquaintance with manufacturing interests fitted him for most efficient
service; and in 1875 was again a member of the elections committee. In
1874, when the Democratic party managers set to work systematically to
win a victory in the state, Mr. Sulloway was nominated for railroad
commissioner upon the ticket headed by James A. Weston for governor.
Although there was no choice by the people in the election that year,
the Democracy won a substantial victory, in that they secured a majority
in the legislature, and the election of their candidates for governor
and railroad commissioner followed at the hands of that body. To this
triumph of his party in the state, the energetic labor of Mr. Sulloway
in the general conduct of the campaign contributed in no small degree.
As a member of the board of railroad commissioners for the term of three
years, the last year as chairman of the board, he rendered the state
efficient service, carrying into his official labors, so far as they
extended, the same practical sagacity and judgment exercised in his own
private business.
In January, 1877, Mr. Sulloway was nominated by the Democracy of the
second district as their candidate for congress, against Major James F.
Briggs of Manchester, the Republican nominee. The district was strongly
Republican, and that party had a popular candidate in the field; yet Mr.
Sulloway, with no expectation of an election, made a vigorous canvass,
and ran largely ahead of his ticket. He was also the candidate of his
party in the district at the next election, and again in 1880, making
lively work for his successful opponent, Major Briggs, on each occasion.
He has been an active member of the Democratic state committee for more
than ten years past, and for the greater portion of the time a member of
the executive committee of that body, having direct charge of the
campaign work. He was a member of the New Hampshire delegation in the
national convention at St. Louis in 1876, which nominated Samuel J.
Tilden for the presidency, and was an enthusiastic supporter of the
great New York reformer, not only in convention, but also in the
subsequent campaign in which he was actively engaged as a member of the
Democratic national committee from this state. In 1880 he was again a
delegate to the national convention of his party, at Cincinnati, where
Gen. Hancock was nominated, and was again elected as the New Hampshire
member of the national committee, holding the position until the present
time.
In religion, Mr. Sulloway is an adherent of the liberal faith. He was
reared a Universalist, and is now an active member of the Unitarian
society in Franklin, a young but flourishing organization which is
already taking active measures for the erection of a fine church
edifice. In this organization, as in business and politics, Mr. Sulloway
is an earnest worker, and his labor and encouragement have contributed
materially to its success. He is a trustee of this society, and, with
Governor Bell, a vice-president of the New Hampshire Unitarian
Association. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the
Unitarian Educational Society, under whose auspices the liberal
educational institution known as Proctor Academy, at Andover, is
conducted.