Where ever there was a stable, the blacksmith shop wasn’t far away. Before the appearance of the automobile and mechanized farm equipment, the blacksmith was a necessity.
Early Town Blacksmiths 1668-1800
1668 – Charles Glidden (1632-1707) was Newmarket’s earliest recorded blacksmith. He left Devon, England in 1660 had settled in the Strawberry Bank area of Portsmouth, staying there for seven years working as both blacksmith and constable. Shortly before 29 Sep 1668 he received a grant of land along Lamprey River (in the area north of Wadleigh Falls). He was also granted land in the area of Bald Hill Road. Glidden remained in town until his death. In the publication The Descendants of Charles Glidden of Portsmouth and Exeter New Hampshire, (pub. by George Walter Chamberlain, Boston 1925), he is listed as:
“Certainly he was the one of the earliest village blacksmiths of Ancient Portsmouth and New Market in New Hampshire. He sold his homestall in Portsmouth to Richard Martyn and moved up the Piscataqua river to Lamprey river and to what was then the eastern part of Exeter and later became New Market.”…
Charles Glidden is also mentioned in (Records of the Quarterly Courts of Essex Count:y, 5:152):
“In New Market, he entered upon the life of a planter, five years passed with no reference to him until he, along with six other men living at Lamprey River, were all admonished by the Court held at Salisbury on 8 April 1673 “for not frequenting the public worship of God on the Lord’s Day”
The court did not take into account they lived eight miles from a meeting house and attendance was an undue burden. The same court in 1675 disclosed a ruling concerning three loads of spoilt hay which had been stacked and fenced in “Glidden’s field near the landing place at Lampreele river” —which tells us he owned land close to the town landing. Later deeds of his son Richard indicate that some of this land would be adjacent to the area in the salt water river known as Sandy Banks.
In 1686 he was issued a license to “Keepe a Publick house.” Thus the blacksmith had become a planter, and finally an innholder. An 1826 map drawn up by Seth Shackford shows a mark listed as “Glidden’s Cellar” a few rods west of the current St. Mary Church. This may have been the original site of his homestead.
In 1697/8 the town of Exeter granted him wages and subsistence reimbursement as compensation under a “Charge of Claims” for serving as a soldier in Exeter garrisons between 31 Aug & 28 Sep 1696. The town of Exeter also granted him 100 acres of land on Feb 21, 1697.
1726 – Two of Newmarket’s other early blacksmiths were from the same family. One was Samuel Brackett born in Greenland in 1705. He built his home and business around 1726 just west of the bridge over the Piscassic river on Wadleigh Falls Road. His father (as noted in the Brackett Family Genealogy) had given him “ a one-half interest in the property at Wadleigh’s Falls”. An interesting note of conjecture: as Samuel Brackett would have been Wentworth Cheswill’s neighbor, it is probable (but not proven) that he may have been Cheswill’s blacksmith during his rides for the Committee of Safety.
1795 –Samuel’s grandson John Brackett, also a blacksmith, was born in Newmarket in 1774 to Samuel’s son Joshua. John married Mehitable Wiggin in 1795. Their oldest son John (b.1796) died in 1826 from an accidental fall in a mill leaving a widow Elizabeth (Murrary) Brackett and five children. He had not gone into the blacksmith trade like his forebears though. Rather than the heat of the forge, he became a tanner and shoemaker—a cooler but smellier occupation.
Typical of the era, many times the oldest sons would remain working on the family farms, while younger sons, many as young as 12 or 14 were often apprenticed out to a tradesman such as a blacksmith or wheelwright. The learning could last for almost 8-10 years. In this period, the master would provide food and lodging to the apprentice who, for his part, was expected to obey without questioning and learn a trade. After the master was satisfied that the apprentice had sufficiently learned the trade, he would set him free.
1775 – Deacon James Cram (1730-1809) was living in Newmarket prior to 1776. During the Revolution Deacon Cram built fire rafts at Newington in October 1775 under Col. Joseph Smith. He also signed the Association Oath. He, along with Wentworth Cheswill and Icabod Hilton, “comprised a committee to Procure the Men that be wanting to fill up the Town Quota in the Continental Army during the War and report at the adjournment of the town Meeting March 5, 1781”. The notice was posted on the parish house door.
This segment of the 1800 Savage Map shows two blacksmith shops:
1) Deacon James Cram’s on the main road across from his estate;
2) the shop owned bu S. Smart, near the bridge over the creek.
1780s –The Deacon had taught his sons James and William the blacksmith trade. Cram’s estate was along the waterfront by a ravine on the east side of today’s Main Street and opposite the Willey Hotel. His shop was situated just south of the Hotel Willey, at the Barnard Building (Site No. 28). James Cram (1768-1852) was known to “shoe oxen in the barn, casting them upon straw, no slings being used in those days. James also made ropes, the boys helping him.” James was also a soldier in the War of 1812; he later had a shop in Newfields located by the Elm House. He died at age 84 and is buried in Riverside Cemetery. His brother, William Cram (1751-1860) had a blacksmith shop at Rockingham Junction (later turned into the Hanson Cottage before 1900). Before the NMCo purchased Deacon Cram’s house and barn, a Mr. Ramsey lived there. He made wheels for foot power with which to spin linen thread. (NEWMARKET IN 1800. Newmarket Advertiser Apr 2, 1887)
Town Blacksmiths 1800-1900
1813 – John Dearborn, Jr. (1760-1826) a blacksmith living in town was accused on January 28 of purchasing items with a promissory note for payment to Simeon Lock of Deerfield for: 20 pounds of mackerel, 6 bushels of charcoal and 4 bushels of coal for a total of $3.28. After several unsuccessful attempts to get his money, Lock swore to a complaint of theft in front of Wentworth Cheswill on April 30, 1816, and the summons to court was served by Constable Nathaniel Sias of Newmarket. The final Disposition was June 1, 1816 in front of Justice Wentworth Cheswill. The guilty verdict brought payment for Mr. Lock and total Court fine of $10 and 50 cents (the 50 cents was Constable Sais’s service fee).
A veteran of the U.S. War of Independence, on Jan 24, 1777, John Dearborn enlisted at age 17 from Hampton as a Private in Captain Richard Ware’s Company, 3rd NH Regiment. He served until 1779. He died in 1826 and is buried in the Dearborn/Edith Kelsey farm lot.
1823/24 – When the Newmarket Manufacturing Company started construction, blacksmith support was a priority. The first mill agent, Stephen Hanson most likely would have brought blacksmiths over from the Dover mills to work here. (He was known for seeking out the Dover factory girls who previously worked for him to relocate to Newmarket.) The blacksmith shop was built in the millyard. The company would employ local blacksmiths over the next 100 years.
1829 – Nathan Stackpole (1796 -1870) was living in Newmarket and working as a blacksmith prior to 1830. Four of his sons were involved in the blacksmith/iron moulding trades: Reuben, Charles, Nathaniel and John T. Stackpole.
1830 – Jacob Burley (1783-1840) was a farmer and a blacksmith. He was the 3rd generation of the Burley family to live at the homestead at the top of Bald Hill Road.
1844 – Jethro Blake (1797-1876) married Sarah Lamos of Lee (1822-1902), and the couple moved to town. Living at the end of Central Street near Spring Street, Jethro was a blacksmith employed by the Newmarket Manufacturing Company. After Jethro died at age 79; Sarah remained in the house on Central Street until her passing in 1902. They had four children.
Jethro was a Veteran of the War of 1812. At age 17, he enlisted on Sept. 12, 1814, from Hampton (his birthplace) as a Private in Capt. P. Towle’s Company, NH Militia. However, the day before his enlistment, on Sept. 11, 1814, the US soundly defeated the British fleet on Lake Champlain in Battle of Plattsburg. That victory led to the Peace Treaty signed in December 1814—and to Jethro’s discharge in upper New York State, a little over a week after his enlistment.
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1850 Census schedule indicates some interesting statistics on two blacksmith businesses in town:
Capital invested Raw MaterialsValue/Raw Materials
John M.Towle $600 6 tons iron & steel $480 w/3 men
(Towle & the Garland brothers)
Nathan Stackpole $600 6 tons iron & steel $480 w/2 men working
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1830-1880 — Daniel Shaw Neally (1799-1880) was born in Nottingham, but in 1825 he was a blacksmith working in Cambridgeport, MA. He married Mary Jane Burleigh of Lee, NH (1804-c. 1880), and when they settled in Newmarket after 1830, Daniel continued as a blacksmith for over 40 years . In the 1872 town directory he was still listed as “Daniel S. Nealley, blacksmith, house, Loversland[1] road.” At that time he was over 70 years old; hopefully he was at the forge only part time by then.
And he’s not to be confused with Daniel D. Neally, who was a carriage maker and wheelwright here during the late 1800s.
1850 –Stackpole Brothers— Reuben Stackpole, a “Master Blacksmith” ran this shop on Exeter Street with his two brothers Charles and Nathan, Jr. Rueben was born in Newmarket in 1832 and married Lydia M Papson in 1853. He was living and working in Newmarket at the time of his marriage. The Stackpole Brothers Blacksmith shop was operational prior to 1872.
Rueben continued to work until his death in 1895, one month shy of his 64th birthday.
Rueben’s brother Nathan, Jr. (1829-1893) married Ruth Ross in Lawrence, MA on June 16, 1850 where he was working as a confectioner. After 1850 he joined his two brothers in the Newmarket shop. Sometime before 1880, Nathan and his wife left Newmarket and moved to LaGrange, Illinois where he worked as a blacksmith. He died in 1893 in an elevator accident at 63 years old. He is buried in Oakwoods Cemetery in Pullman, IL.
Just 2 weeks before Nathan’s marriage, on June 2, 1850 his brother John Temple Stackpole (1827-1901) also got married in Lawrence. He was a blacksmith, and worked as an iron molder.
During the Civil War, John joined his friend Jeremiah Young, and the two men left Newmarket for Portsmouth where they enlisted in the US Navy serving on the USS Kearsarge. The USS Kearsarge is best known for its famous sea engagement with the CSS Alabama off Cherbourg, France on June 19, 1864. John took part in that naval battle.
Brother Charles P. (1820 -1889) was working as a blacksmith in 1850 and 1865 in Lawrence, MA. Between 1865 and 1870 he and his wife Emily moved back to town and he joined his two brothers Rueben and Nathan in the Exeter Street business. (His son Charles S. Stackpole worked at the Leavitt-Waterson store on Main Street.) Both father and son later moved back to Lawrence, MA where Charles Sr. died at age 69, still actively working as a blacksmith; son Charles S. died at age 64 in 1908. Both are buried in Lawrence.
1865 – Cryus R. Rand (1844-1927). During the Civil War, Mr. Rand enlisted in 1863 at age 19 as a fireman and coal heaver in the US Navy Regiment. He was
assigned to the USS Agawam, and was discharged in 1865.
At the war’s end he came to Newmarket and worked as a blacksmith. On 16 Aug 1874 at age 36 he married Emma (Mary Augustie) Meader in Newmarket, living on Central Street. The 1880 census lists their two sons Lewis & George, working alongside Cyrus for the NMCo.
When the Spanish American War broke out, his wartime experience sent him to the Portsmouth Naval shipyard to work in the blacksmith shop there. He was still smithing at the yard when he was 65 years old in 1910. At age 83 he died on Jan 14, 1927. He had been a town resident for over 60 years and during all that time he remained active in Town affairs and the G.A.R., serving on many Town and Post boards.
In the Exeter Newsletter report on the Spanish American War (published May 13, 1898) it stated: There is one man in Newmarket who has a special interest in the victory of Commodore Dewey. He is Cyrus R. Rand who served with him in The Rebellion on the Agawam, in 1864-1865. Mr. Rand says Commodore Dewey is a born fighter and one of the bravest men he ever saw.
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The 1872 Newmarket Town Directory lists a total of ten separate working blacksmith shops—compared to just three in 1924.
1872 1924
Bennett Company (hardware store) Daniel Brady, Opp. Kent Place
Ebenezer Chapman Frank & Harold Lang, Water St.
Albert Firman A.T. Stackpole, Exeter St
Charles & Thomas Garland
Joseph F. Grant,
Daniel S. Neally
William R. Nowell
Cyrus Rand
Charles C. Rowe
Stackpole Brothers: Charles, Nathaniel & Reuben
Thomas Tuttle (in charge of NMCo. Blacksmith Shop)
There were also three Wheelwrights / carriage makers:
Daniel D. Neally, Nathaniel Leavitt, &William Treadwell
And: Oliver Copeland who changed profession from wheelwright to photographer
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1880 – Albert Temple Stackpole (1858-1928) AKA “A.T.”
When Reuben Stackpole’s son “A.T.” married Ida J. Smart (Oct. 22, 1881), he was 24 years old and working as a blacksmith. After his uncles left the business sometime after 1880, the shop was known as Stackpole & Son.
Shoeing horses in the shop could be challenging, and accidents were not uncommon, as evident when on “On Dec 16, 1893, while a horse owned by Burnham Buzzell of Lee was being shod at the shop of R. Stackpole & Son, it became unmanageable, and rearing up lost its balance and fell over on its head, killing it almost instantly”. (The Newmarket Advertiser).
In 1894 A.T. began selling and repairing bicycles at his shop. The bicycle business was so successful, that in the next two years he remodeled his shop, adding large windows where he could better display them. As bicycles grabbed hold with the public, he also rented them out for hire and featured ladies’ bikes with added safety features. He also sold roller skates when that craze sprang up in 1905.
After his father Reuben died in 1895, A.T changed the name of the business, adding a new sign outside his shop with lettering of “A.T. Stackpole Blacksmith” made entirely from neatly silvered horseshoes.
His house on Prescott Street was over a wetland; and in the May-June rainy spells he caught trout under his workshop –about 20 in his “trout preserve” between ’86 and ’89.
A.T. served as a captain and later a deputy chief of the Newmarket Fire Department, an experience that
helped him take control during the chaos of July 4th, 1898 at Hampton Beach during the Newmarket Day Outing at Hampton Beach. A surprise cyclone touched down and destroyed the beach pavilion, trapping dozens of people. Although cut and badly bruised when the pavilion collapsed, A.T. worked to rescue other victims buried in the debris.
Three other Newmarket residents were caught in the demolished structure: William B. Small, Richard Starling and James Carney – and despite them all suffering minor injuries, they assisted A.T. in removing other victims caught under the structure. After getting everyone out and accounted for, the four men hunted up their bicycles; finding all four undamaged, they peddled home.
In 1907 A.T. left town to work as a blacksmith at the McClean Asylum in Waverly, MA, for considerably more money. Several other Newmarket men did likewise. There they lived in dormitory style buildings close to the Asylum, while their families usually stayed in Newmarket.
A.T. returned to town 12 years later to work in the NMCo blacksmith shop. In 1924 he was living at 19 Exeter St. and still working for NMCO. He died 4 years later. His obituary read in part:
Mr. Stackpole died December 20, at his son Harry’s home on Prescott Street after several weeks’ illness. Mr. Stackpole was a lifelong democrat, and had served as town treasurer and representative. He was a musician of Co. G. First Regiment, New Hampshire National Guard from 1875 until 1881, and for many years a drummer in the Newmarket Cornet Band, being a great lover of music.
At the time of his death in 1928 he was survived by his son Harry W. Stackpole and his family. Harry did not follow his father’s profession, instead he worked for the Newmarket Water Department. However, Harry was a bicycling enthusiast, and both father and son would pedal to Boston to attend bicycle shows and conventions. A.T.’s wife Ida Jane had died in 1912 at age 47. They are both buried in Riverside Cemetery.
A.T. Stackpole and the Town Seal
A.T. Stackpole was an excellent draftsman who designed Newmarket’s original town seal. The seal was in Town Hall for years, when his great-grandson Karl Gilbert (1940-2011), also a talented
artist, recreated the stained glass rendition of A.T.’s seal which now hangs in the Town Council Chambers.
Chosen by the Town Heritage Committee as 2006’s Keeper of the Heritage, Karl wrote:
Albert loved the outdoors and as an accomplished artist, enjoyed sketching wildlife. His sketchbook contains many drawings of the wildlife as it existed along the Lamprey River.
As a State Legislator, he often brought his sketchbook to Concord in an attempt to record the atmosphere in Representatives Hall. He would sometimes sketch members as they spoke at the podium, and would pen short rhymes depicting the speaker or his topic.
Prior to completing his services to the Town that he loved, Albert Stackpole found himself sitting on ”Split Rock” across the Lamprey viewing “his” town, attempting to record for us what Newmarket meant to him. With his pen he left us the image of a community in its infancy, a community that chose the shores of the Lamprey to build its homes, schools, houses of government and worship, and shops and mills of commerce.
This sketch was later to become the Town Seal of Newmarket, first appearing on Town documents in or about 1902. I am honored to have had the opportunity and the ability to reproduce, one hundred years later, my great-grandfather’s vision of Newmarket.”
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Other Town Blacksmiths before 1900
1883 NMCo blacksmith Gilman Doeg resigned due to illness. William H. Nowell, a blacksmith who had earlier worked with the Garland Brothers took his place.
1891 – In Early February Frank Lang hired Warren D. Jones, Jr. in 1891. Born in Newmarket in 1865 he was son of Warren Jones, Sr. (a farmer and iron moulder) and Ruth Smith. By age 15 he
was an accomplished blacksmith. A popular young man in town, he had been active in the Fire Department, assigned to Tiger No. 1. However, the young man was beset by a tumultuous personal life, and he only stayed until the spring of 1891 leaving his parents and his sister who all worked in the cotton mills.
Once hired by Frank Lang, he married Carrie Heath, a divorcee from Dover; however, her former husband brought charges of bigamy as was recorded in this Feb. 28 1891 news article in The Newmarket Advertiser. The charges apparently were dropped; and in April Warren and Carrie were remarried in Portsmouth by Newmarket merchant Ed Richardson. The couple remained in Portsmouth.
The following year the couple returned to town and Frank Lang once again hired Warren back. But he soon left for the Stackpole shop. Unfortunately, early in 1893 Warren was severely injured at work. (Frank Foley was employed by Stackpole to take his place.) The couple then moved to Dover where Warren died at age 31 in 1896. He is buried in Riverside.
1892– 1893 The Wadleigh Falls area had trouble keeping a blacksmith. The following items appeared in The Newmarket Advertiser:1891 – Aug 1 – Mr. Joseph Emo, a well-known blacksmith in Lee attempted suicide in Nottingham by cutting his throat twice and slashing his arms badly. He was taken to the County farm till he gets well. He is a good workman, but it is the old story of “putting an enemy into the mouth to steal the brains away.”
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1892 – Jesse Hunt (1857-1927 ) received his citizenship in Rockingham Superior Court while living in Newmarket. He, along with his wife and five children had left England in 1872. Jesse worked in the NMCo. blacksmith shop, and his two oldest two daughters Bertha (age 16) and Ann (age 15) were spinners in the cotton mill. The family left town for about ten years when he joined the blacksmith shop at the Navy Yard. He returned to oversee the NMCo. shop in 1910, remaining here until 1916. The family then returned to Portsmouth, where he later died in 1927 at the age of 70.
1893– In a Nov. 11 news item: William J. Frost (1853-1947) has opened a blacksmith shop in Durham. T.W. Atherton, recently working with Stackpole and sons has been engaged by Mr. Frost to work for him as a horse shoer.
1894 – Civil War veteran John S. Varney (1838-1914) came here from Lowell, MA and was a blacksmith in town for 20 years before his sudden death in 1914 at the home of Sam Roper. John had three sons—all of whom also served during the Civil War. None of them ever became a blacksmith.
1894– In June, Christopher J. Folds (1854 -1902) a blacksmith in Newmarket married Miss Flora E. Grant also of Newmarket in Sanford, ME. They moved to Raymond, where Mr. Folds opened a blacksmith business there. In October the following year he returned to Newmarket and constructed a blacksmith shop behind the John Smart house on Packer’s Falls Rd.
The following is from his obituary printed August 1902:
Mr. Folds was born in Ireland, he emigrated when but a lad and learned the blacksmith trade which he followed until failing health forced him to give it up. About seventeen years ago he came to Newmarket from Dover. He was a great lover of music and was a musician of considerable merit. He was the leader of the Newmarket Cornet Band for a number of years as well as another orchestra, and sang in the choir of St. Mary Church for several years. He was survived by his wife, his mother and a sister. He was buried in Dover.
1899 news item: E.H. Blaisdell of Exeter leased the blacksmith shop over the creek, near Twombly’s carriage shop and will open for business on Monday July 24, 1899. Horseshoeing = $1.00 from his ad.
In 1893 Blaisdell had a shop in Lee which he left soon after opening to try his luck in Nottingham Center. He didn’t last long in Newmarket either, as there were no ads published within 2 weeks of his opening, nor was there any notice of his leaving. He just vanished.
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Blacksmiths After 1900
1900 – Lewis M. George (1873-1951) hired Frank Fogg of North Hampton to work in his shop. Frank was primarily a farmer who worked as a blacksmith’s assistant. In April 1901, Harry W. Haines & J. Elmer Kent purchased the blacksmith shop and business of C.J. Folds and they hired Lewis George, [George was formerly employed by Lewis A. Walker when Walker owned the Lang shop on Water Street]. For a few weeks he continued doing business at Mr. Folds’ old location until the shop was moved to the lot in the rear of Kent’s stable. Mr. George continued working in his own shop until he sold out to Daniel Brady in 1907 and moved his family to Manchester, NH. There he continued working as a blacksmith, despite being kicked in the knee by a horse and laid up for several weeks. He continued smithing throughout WW I.
1903 – On Sep 25 four burglaries occurred in town. The first was at A.T. Stackpole’s blacksmith shop where tools were taken and used to break into Priest’s Clothing store, A.H. Place Drug Store and Sovereigns of Industry Office. All doors were pried open.
1904 — John L. Hersom, longtime wheelwright gave up his business but kept his shop on Exeter Street just south of the Mathes wooden tenement where he operated a livery and stable.
1907 – Frank. E. Fellows (1851-prior to 1934), a blacksmith at NMCo was hired by the RR to work on the double tracks being laid through Madbury. When that job ended, he returned to the NMCo blacksmith shop. Frank also ran a poolroom and cigar shop, as well as The People’s Bargain Store on Main Street. After the cigar shop caught fire and the Bargain Store was sold at auction, Frank and his wife moved to Dover in 1910. Frank later returned to the NMCo shop in 1916.
1910 – In April, Jesse Hunt left the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard blacksmith shop to once again resume his position in the blacksmith shop of the NMCo. He replaced Frank. E. Fellows.
Daniel J. Brady: A successfull old-time blacksmith in business 1907-1946
1907 – Daniel J. Brady (1874-1949) moved to Newmarket from Boston in March and bought out George Lewis’s blacksmith shop behind the Catholic School. (He ran this shop there until he retired in 1946.) In June 1910 he married Adaline Varney of Newmarket. He purchased the former A.F. Haines farm on Wadleigh Falls Road which he ran until his sons eventually took it over. It became a successful dairy farm known for almost 75 years as “The Brady Farm.”
He was a wheelwright as well as blacksmith, and with the coming of the automobile he adjusted and in 1911 installed a vulcanizing machine at his blacksmith shop and advertised he was prepared to do all kinds of automobile repairing. Successful as blacksmith, wheelwright and farmer, he retired in 1946 when taken ill; he died 3 years later.
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In December 1931 this notice appeared in the editorial section of the local paper.
That notice sparked the following ad a few weeks later:
Blacksmiths During and After WW II
During WW II many Newmarket residents went to work at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and many worked in one of the several blacksmith shops there. Wilbur Ham was one, and he recruited his daughter’s mother-in-law Eva Demers Carmichael. She was the first woman ever hired in the Blacksmith Shop. Her job was to operate the large shop crane and move huge pieces of metal. She recalled the shop was “extremely hot” and all the men she worked with were professional and gentlemen, not what she expected in a wartime blacksmith shop.
Wilbur also recruited three of his daughters; one was Helen (Ham) Filion who became one of the many “Rosie the Riveters” during WW II.
After the war, blacksmith training obtained at the yard came in handy for many in the private sector, especially in the auto repair industry, farm equipment repair, machine shops, and heavy construction work. Helen Filion continued arc welding and was the primary riveter in her husband’s business, Filion Construction on Elm Street.
However, no one who worked in the Shipyard Blacksmith Shop during wartime, ever returned to civilian life in town to open his/her own Blacksmith Shop. Many Newmarket residents after WW II have found employment in one of the Navy Yard welding shops.
There was an exception in 1949 when Anthony Carpenter (1892-1964) of Nashua opened a blacksmith shop in the old Tiger #1 fire house on Main Street. He was employed at the Ship yard during WW II and temproarily livied in Dover. for a brief period of time in ‘49 he honed up and repaired axes, carriage wheels and old “plugs” before ,oving back to Nashua.
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