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Site No. 46: 9, 11 & 24 Spring Street. Not far from here near Central and Spring Streets was the ancient spring that gave this street its name. Early colonists came up here to fetch water long before these houses were built.
#9 Spring Street was home to US Naval Surgeon Dr. Thomas W. Leach. The house was built prior to 1836 which was the year he was here. In 1925 Richard W. Turcotte was born here as well and became a Doctor of Internal Medicine with a practice in Maine.
# 11 Spring Street, the house on the corner of Chapel Street, was home to Pastor Isaac White and his family. He was a dynamic preacher for the Newmarket Congregational Church from 1865 to 1887. During his tenure, the church building was enlarged, remodeled, and furnished with a valuable organ; and the tower was ornamented with a clock and made vocal with a bell. His wife Hannah was the quintessential pastor’s wife, and his eldest son grew up to become a missionary in Japan, later ministering to Japanese immigrant communities in California. It ran in the family.
#24 Spring Street , on the west side of the street opposite Chapel Street is the large house on the hill. Constructed in July 1880 by Dr. Samuel Greene, it had a main room set up for a library with built in cabinetry designed for medical use. There was also space for more than one physician (Newmarket’s first Medical profession building). Other physicians who worked from this building included Doctors Wing, Louis P. Beaudet, and George H. Towle. Dr. Towle practiced medicine here for 33 years. He was an automobile enthusiast, and his last car was a new 1935 Pontiac, specially designed as a Doctor’s car. Its top speed was about 45 mph and it included a completely outfitted medical bag. Sadly, Dr. Towle died of a heart attack five months after he bought the car.
Your next stop is around the corner to your left, at the intersection of Chapel and Granite Streets.
END OF AUDIO TEXT: See below for photos and more information.
9 Spring Street -Dr. Leach born in Newmarket, he was the eldest son of Thomas and Sarah (Wiggin) Leach. He attended town schools and then taking an interest in the medical profession, he studied for several years with Dr. George Kittredge. He went on to college and graduated from Harvard Medical School in March 1857. He enlisted as an Assistant Surgeon at the age of 22 on 28 July 1858 into the US Navy in Philadelphia. Commissioned to Full Surgeon on 21 May 1862, and then he was promoted to Full Medical Inspector on 5 Apr 1875.
During the Civil War he was assigned to naval ships in both the Atlantic and Gulf Blockade Squadrons. He ended the War assigned to Naval Hospital, New York and he later served at the Naval Academy, Annapolis. It was after 26 and a half years as a Naval Medical Officer and obtaining the rank of Commander that he retired from the Navy in 1885 due to illness.
Although assigned to several ships and naval bases throughout the county during his career, he always listed his home as Newmarket. He returned to the old homestead at 9 Spring Street upon his retirement and spent most of his time in further
medical study and reading. He died 29 Dec 1894 in Newmarket of heart disease and is buried in Riverside cemetery, attending physician was Dr. Samuel Greene. He was a member of the Methodist Church and Rising Star Masonic Lodge. At his funeral, Dr. Thomas Hiland, US Army retired wrote: “Dr. Leach never paraded his knowledge and skill, and few knew that he was one of our best medical men and of our most learned men. He was kind, true and charitable.” Dr. Leach left behind his only family member, a brother George Leach with whom he shared the Spring Street home.
In his will, he left his part of the house to his sister-in-law, Mrs. George Leach who had looked after him during his illness. After her husband George died, she moved to Dover and sold the house to the Turcotte family.
‘The house was later rented to Joseph Oscar and Marie Nelda( Labranche) Turcotte who married in 1924 in Newmarket. Joseph (1889-1945) worked in a pharmacy, and Nelda (1894-1976) was a mill operative who joined her husband in the drug store business. They eventually went from renters to homeowners and purchased the home.
Joseph worked for 20 years as a clerk in Dearborn Drug Store until he acquired the business when Dearborn died in 1910. (See Site # 26 the Bank Building) He and Nelda expanded and opened their own business Turcotte Pharmacy in Exeter which they operated until Joseph’s death in 1945. After her husband’s death, Nelda sold the pharmacy businesses. The Newmarket store was sold to Phillip LaBranche, her inephew; however she continued to clerk in the store for several years thereafter.
Their son Dr. Richard W. Turcotte was born in 1925 in Newmarket and grew up in the house; he worked at the family pharmacy in his youth, and was graduated in June 1953 from Laval University in Quebec with a Doctor of Medicine degree. He reported directly to a hospital in New Haven, Conn. where he served his internship. He eventually set up residency in Lewiston Maine specializing in Internal Medicine. He died there in 1995. He had been willed the Spring Street property and his daughter Caroline lived there after his death. A trained pharmacist, she graduated from Massachusetts School of Pharmacy in Boston.
While Pastor Isaac White’s tenure in Newmarket is well documented, there is nothing written about where he and his family lived.
We have an entry dated April 22, 1839 of a plot of land for a Parsonage laid out on Spring Street. Seth Walker of Durham was a land surveyor hired by the NMCo in the 1820’s and 30’s to plot the Lamprey River and other sites around town. This entry printed here is from his notebook on file with the New Market Historical Society.
Thanks to some shared research among local
historians, this photo answers the question. It was taken by a Oliver H. Copeland who was a photographer living in Newmarket between 1865 and 1875. On the back of the photo was written “Isaac White’s residence, Newmarket, NH”.
This enhancement was made from the original stereoscopic card loaned to us by Ron Lemieux.
Both its previous ownership and the year of its construction remain uncertain. A 1857 map of downtown shows a building here, but it is not clearly labeled. Taking into account Seth Walker’s notation, the house was built between 1839 and 1857.
The following bio of Pastor White touches on the atmosphere of Newmarket during the crucial years of the Civil War and after.
PASTOR - NEWMARKET CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 1865-1887
ISAAC CUSHING WHITE (1822-1907) was a descendant of Peregrine White, who was born on the Mayflower. Rev White however, was born in Abington, MA. He was educated at Roxbury Latin School and was graduated from Oberlin College in 1845. He graduated from the Seminary in 1849, having entered late in the junior year, and having been at his home in Roxbury between the college and the seminary course.
(photo Rev Isaac White) |
He was licensed to preach in April 1849, and ordained in October 1850. He served as pastor at North Abington, Nantucket and Boston Highlands between 1850 and 1865. From 1862 to 1865 he would occasionally preach at various New England Congregational churches when a call went out to fill in for illness or vacations or openings “between engagements”. (Pastors in many Protestant churches often found themselves in disagreement during the 19th century over dogma and interpretation.)
During one or two of these visiting trips to Newmarket, both he and the congregation clicked. The congregation and the town church were a vocal “abolitionist” force and a community rallying point during the Civil War. In June of 1865 he was offered and accepted the ministry in Newmarket; and here he remained for 22 years until July 1887.
He had married Hannah Bartlett Sampson in 1860. Hannah served the town as the quintessential pastor’s wife—all the while raising two sons and two daughters who were brought up in this house. Two of the children had been born in Massachusetts: Schuler and Hattie. [1]; their other two children, Isaac and Mary were both born in Newmarket. [2]
He was described as being “a profound student, deeply thoughtful, with an easy command of “The Mother Tongue,” his sermons were interesting, instructive and elevating; and at times he was eloquent with the depth of feeling which overflowed from a pure heart. He combined a loving, genial disposition with a quiet dignity, which helped to make him an ideal minister as well as a gentleman of the old school.”
In 1874 there was another general spiritual awakening and under his earnest efforts some 35 parishioners professed a saving knowledge of Christ and were received by him with fellowship and membership in this church.
Upon the observance of the semi-centennial of this church, in an historic sermon, he said: “During the present pastorate….82 have been added to the membership of the church, and this place of worship has been enlarged, remodeled, beautified and furnished with a valuable organ, and the tower has been ornamented and made vocal with a clock and bell, at an expense of $8,000.”
While in Newmarket he was a member of Rising Star Lodge, A. F. and A. M., which for twenty years he served as chaplain, and at the termination of this service, his brethren elected him to an honorary life membership.
In June, 1887, after a faithful service of nearly a quarter of a century, he resigned and moved to Scotland, Mass., where for a short time he continued to minister. Later, due to his age and increasing health problems he moved to Plymouth where he died in 1907, one month shy of his 85th birthday.
[1] Schuler became a minister after graduating from Harvard College (1884) and Yale Divinity School (1890). He was a missionary of the American Board at Okayama, Japan until 1919 when he moved to California to minister to Japanese immigrant communities. He died in Pasadena at age 78. His sister Harriet (“Hattie”) became a school teacher in MA and RI; she never married and died in Boston at age 61.
[2] Isaac Frank White became a printer. When Frank left town with his family in 1887 he was serenaded by the Newmarket Drum Corps of which he had been a member. He died at age 44 in Plymouth, MA. His sister Mary married George Tolman and moved to Bridgewater, MA to raise a family. After the death of Reverend White, her mother Hannah lived with Mary until her passing in 1916.
# Dr. Samuel Green, 24 Spring Street Doctor’s Office
Spring Street, has long been home to many Newmarket Doctors. However, the most impressive home/office was built in July 1880. At the time the staff of the Newmarket Advertiser wrote:
“We paid a visit to Dr. S.H. Greene’s new house, now in the process of erection, the other evening. The location, on Spring Street at the head of Chapel Street, is a very commanding one, and is certainly elevated sufficiently to obtain good air, and all of it there is in circulation. The house is roomy and everything is arranged with a view to the convenience of the inmates. The conservatory, which occupies a sunny position at the south-east angle of the main house, is quite a novel sight for Newmarket. There being non other in town. The Doctor hopes to move in by September.”
(Photo taken of the Old Dr. Greene residence in winter on Spring Street. The house and barn/garage are still standing in 2022, although turned into apartments decades ago.)
The house was so constructed that a main room held an extensive library and cabinetry designed for medical use. Planned as a medical practice with office space for more than one doctor. Dr. Greene opened his medical space to other Newmarket physicans: a Doctor Wing also worked out of this building, as did Dr. Louis Beaudet. Doctor Beaudet catered to the Canadian French patients,
The Doctor was born in Newmarket, although some sources list the Town of Durham as his birthplace. He was the son of Simon P. Greene (1810-1849) and Sarah Augusta (Smith) Greene (1808- ?)
who were living in Durham, although Sarah’s family was from Newmarket. Simon clerked for a business in Dover before 1844 when the family moved to Boston where their son Charles was born in 1842. Simon died there in 1849 and Sarah returned to Newmarket, where she still had family.
(photo: from a newspaper clipping of his obituary, in 1911)
Samuel started his early education in Pittsfield, NH (his father’s birthplace), then in Gilmanton and Atkinson NH Academies. He then spent three years in Wisconsin and New York. He attended a course of lectures at Harvard in 1857, and in the fall of the same year he attended Dartmouth, returning to Harvard in 1859 and graduating in 1860. He came back to Durham and a couple of weeks after his graduation on July 2nd, he married Malvina “Mallie” R. Baker (1836-1915) in Newmarket. She was the daughter of Andrew and Mary J. Baker also of Newmarket. He began his own practice in Durham for six years before moving to Newmarket where he bought the practice of Dr. William Folsom, which he then continued for 50 years.
Dr. Greene, besides being a busy physician, was an active member of the Lamprey Grange, the Newmarket Congregational Church, and the Masons; he served many offices in all those organizations.
A strong Republican in politics, he served the Town of Newmarket as town moderator, supervisor of elections, State Representative. He served on the local school board, on the board of health, as town coroner and even as county fish warden. Over the years he attended many Republican County and state conventions.
He was appointed in 1883 as Postmaster for eight years under Republican Presidents Arthur and Harrison. The doctor replaced another doctor, Dr. Charles A Morse a strong Democrat who served as postmaster for two administrations under Democratic President Harding.
(photo: Samuel Greene built this 3 story building in 1870 now known as the Kingman Building. See Walking Tour Site # 33)
An active 50-year Mason, Doctor Greene was elected to many offices over the years of the Rising Star Lodge which was housed in the three- story wooden structure he built in 1873. It is still known as “the Masonic Block” today. He leased the third floor for 20 years (a space of 27x42 feet) to the Masons for $100 per annum. The building remained with the Masons until it sold in 2020. Initially Doctor Greene had his practice in the Main Street building and Al Place ran the drug store on the bottom Floor.
He later moved to the other side of Central Street and built a second story onto the existing building; he created the bay window overhang that makes that
structure at Central and Main Street so unique. His was a busy practice, and he soon outgrew the space, so he purchased the Spring Street Lot in 1880, moving his family and practice to #24 Spring Street.
(photo of building at Central and Main Streets with the jutting bay window overhang he installed for his new office)
In 1893 Dr. Greene was one of the founders of the Newmarket Water Works. The corporation was created to build a water system bringing water into the village. In 1901 The town bought the system from the Newmarket Water Works for a price of $83,000. The actual cost of the system including land rights, piping, hydrants, valves, engineering, engine wheel, penstocks, buildings, etc. was $63,090 —netting the founders almost $20,000.
Dr. Greene was shrewd in business and in real estate. He purchased over 150 acres of farmland in the Hallsville section of Packer’s Falls Road. He subdivided and sold off sections over the years keeping 50 acres as the Greene Family Homestead, which he later gave to his son Walter. He was also a very trusted man, and his name reappears as executor of many estates in the County Probate Office.
In May 1910 Dr. Samuel Greene completed fifty years of active practice of medicine. Forty-four of those years were spent building his very successful practice in Newmarket. He died a year later in 1911. He was buried from the Congregational Church and members of the medical profession and the Masonic lodges from Newmarket and surrounding towns attended his funeral. Businesses and schools closed in tribute to his passing.
From Dr. Greene’s Obituary published in the Portsmouth Herald:
“ …Dr. Samuel H. Greene, for over 50 years a doctor of medicine in Newmarket, died of heart trouble in his home. The Doctor had just given up his office and was not doing much in this line. It was a shock to quite a number of people, as he had been seen on the streets, but a few days before. He had been the “Family Doctor“ of our father’s day, and we always went to him with our aches and pains, ambitions, disappointments, etc. always receiving a willing hand and good advice. Modest and self-retiring, forgetful of self, he sought to do good as he found opportunity…”
After his death, his wife Mallie moved to 100 Main Street. She had been active in the Community Church, the Newmarket Women’s Club and the Pocahontas (the woman’s auxiliary to the Redmen’s Club). She had been ill for a number of years, dying in February 1915 at age 78 of heart failure following a severe case of “Lagrippe”. Funeral services were held at her Main Street home, and she is buried in the family plot at Riverside Cemetery.
It is one of those vagaries of history: a man who built several buildings in town which are still standing over 100 years later has none of them named after him; a man who owned scores of property including a very popular race track, has no street named in his honor; the man who was much admired by many, but remembered by few.
Dr. Charles H. Towle lived and had his practice on Church Street until 1916 when he sold his home and set up practice at the 24 Spring Street in the former residence of Doctor Green. Doctor Towle ran an active medical practice until his death in 1935 at age 64. He, his wife Kate and her sister Lucy Varney, lived in the building. Lucy worked as his secretary and bookkeeper. He was the boy’s camp physician at “Camp Glenrock” on the Warren Smith Farm during the summer of 1916.
Born in Deerfield, N,H, he was the son of Dr. George H. Towle and Pantha (Tucker) Towle. Dr. Towle practiced medicine in Newmarket from 1902 to 1935 for 33 years. Schools and local stores were closed during the funeral hours out of respect to one of the town’s best-known citizens. He was graduated from Dartmouth College 1897, practiced medicine 1902-1935 in Newmarket. On 10 January 1905 he married Miss Kate Varney, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Charles Varney in town. His Office Hours were always published in the Newmarket Advertiser:
7 to 9 a.m. / 1 to 3 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. tel# 105-2 and 105-3.
Like Dr. Greene, George was active in Town politics and was voted in 1910 as a selectman on the “Citizens Reform Ticket”. He was Town Moderator and a delegate to the NH Constitutional
Convention in 1930. After the Newmarket Manufacturing Company closed its doors and moved all operations to Massachusetts, leaving a huge unemployment void in August 1930, Dr. Towle was on the formative committee of the Newmarket Chamber of Commerce intended to promote businesses and commerce for the empty mills.
He was an avid motorist, changing cars every couple of years. He often took lengthy road trips with family and friends.
His last purchase was a brand new 1935 Pontiac especially designed as a Doctor’s car. It’s top speed was about 45 mph and it was built to drive on dirt roads. It has wood in in the undercarriage frame. The battery is under the driver’s feet and the spare tire is behind the passenger seat. It had a completely outfitted medical bag and a large storage cubby behind the driver’s seat.
Dr. Towle died five months after its purchase, and his wife sold the car to Newmarket High School teacher Charles Greenwood who drove it to Texas when he entered the service. The car was eventual made its way back to New Hampshire and was purchased by a Loret Simonds, of Keene NH who restored the vehicle to it’s former glory. She proudly displays it at various car and suto shows throughout the state.
After 1935 the building was sold and made into apartments. Since then it has been changed hands multiple times, but always remained as a residential apartment house.
One of the early residence listed for a physician was the 13 Spring Street home of Dr. Benjamin N. Towle (1829-1910) who was a surgeon during the Civil War. His practice was the old Wentworth
Cheswill store after it had been moved to South Main Street. There is no known relationship to Dr. George Towle listed above. Dr. Benjamin Towle’s practice ran about ten years between 1857 and prior to 1870.
Dr. Benjamin N. Towle - Civil War Surgeon, his military service is detailed in Walking Tour Site # 13 the G.A.R. monument.
He and his wife Albronia resided in Newmarket, when he set up his practice before the start of the War. The 1860 census lists his occupation as a physician with a personal worth of $650.
At the end of his term of service, Dr. Towle was offered a continuance of his position in the hospital as a contract surgeon. However, he declined and returned to Newmarket in August 1863 to continue his practice. By 1870 he had moved to Effingham (near his childhood home) and set up his physician’s practice there. He was born 17 Jan 1829 in Freedom, NH to Lovell Towle (1801-1891) and Mary (Bennett) Towle (1809-1892), He studied in Parsonfield, ME and graduated in 1852 at age 23. He went on to Dartmouth, receiving a degree in 1856 — the same year that he married Albronia L. Demeritt (1837-1873) in Effingham, NH. They had a son, George W. Towle in 1865. After Albronia died, he married her sister Mary in June 1876. Dr. Towle died 28 Sep 1910 in Effingham, NH and is buried in Effingham Falls Cemetery.[1]
[1] Source: History of the Fifteenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers, 1862-1863 By Charles McGregor
Doctor Beaudet purchased a house at 16 Spring Street and moved in in 1917, but his practice was out of Dr. Greene’s building. The Doctor and his 1st wife Aglace (Paquin) Beaudet (1855- 1906) immigrated from French Canada with three of their children in 1890. He purchased a house on Chapel Street, but then rented that out and moved by 1900 to 16 Spring Street. He had his first office on the second floor of the Barnard building and 
administered mostly to the French Canadians in town. In July 1904 Doctor Beaudet opened his doors to his patients between 7 to 8 p.m. each night so that Dr. Henry Bates, an Optometrist in Exeter could hold free eye exams. In 1905 he moved his offices a block up the street to Doctor Greene’s old suite at the corner of Central and Main Streets. The doctor was on the executive board of a new organization associated with the Forresters to teach new French Canadian residents, with the goal of enabling them to attain citizenship and vote. He also served on the Democratic caucus to the Constitutional Convention, and as a Library Trustee.
The Alec Roberge Connection
In March 1900 saloon keeper Alec Roberge was shot in the head by his son Joseph. Both Doctor Greene and Beaudet were called to the scene by Polie Chief Gordon. They carried Mr. Roberge upstairs over the saloon to Doctor Beaudet’s office in the Barnard building. They decided not to probe for the bullet due to the patient’s serious condition and the location of the wound. A Manchester Specialist was called and responed to town. He too recommended no attempt to remove the bullet. Roberge was sent to the Carney Hospital in Boston and remained there for two weeks before being sent home to recover. He regained the power of speech, but the bullet remained lodged between the plates of his skull at the top of his head. While he was recovering at home a legal attachment was placed on his goods at his saloon and he was forced to close his business. Sometime later, the bullet had dislodged itself into such a position that Dr. Beaudet successfully removed it.
In April 1902 Dr. Beaudet was indicted and went on trial for practicing medicine without a permit; however, he was not convicted and has no criminal record. The charge may have been quashed at court, or he was found not quilty. We have no record of the indictment or the exact date and charge of an offense. There was some indication that it involved the Roberge case.
In 1905 Alec is back in the liquor business buying the old saloon on Central Street of Gideon MaCarthy from his widow. In Feb 1909 Alec’s wife died of pneumonia and in 1910 his liquor license was revoked and his saloon closed for selling alchol to minors. Alec then sold or transferred his house on Prescot Street to his son Charles who left town to work in Newburyport.
During his time in Newmarket, Louis Beaudet was well trained by Dr. Greene in the real estate business. He owned rental property on Chapel Street and an empty lot on Prescott Street. Then in 1918 Dr. Beaudet purchased Alec Roberge’s house on Prescot Street adjacent to his own lot. The following year he bought an old milk house owned by the Maine railroad line which stood near Shackford’s crossing. He moved the large shed to Prescott street, attached it to Alec’s former house and converted the connected buildings into a small tenement. The building is still standing.
In 1906 the Doctor’s wife Aglace died of stomach cancer, she is buried in her hometown of St-Pierre-Les-Becquets, Quebec, Canada. The following year he married Octavia LeCLec (1864-1924) in Canada. They met in Newmarket where Octavia was teaching for three years at the French Catholic School on Zion’s Hill. They returned to Canada in 1910 and adopted an infant and named her Octavia as well. The Couple returned to Newmaket making this their home until 1924 when Octavia died of a stroke at age 40.
Dr. Beaudet left Newmarket after almost 32 years of practice and moved with his daughter Octavia to West Manchester where they would be closer to his son Alphie and his family. The Doctor continued to practice medicine there until his death in December 1933. He and his sencond wife are both buried at Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Manchester in the same lot as his son Alphie and his wife Ida.
Louis and Aglace’s children:
1) Louis A Beaudet (1877-1955) AKA Alphie married in 1901 in South Berwick, ME a Miss Ida Marcotte (1865-1936) . She had been a clerk in Pinkham’s shoe store, downstairs from Dr. Beaudet’s first office in the Barnard Building. The couple moved to Fall River, Mass. where Alphee had been hired in a clerical position with a furniture manufacturer in that city. They later moved to Goffstown by 1917 and he was working at a poultry far. He enlisted in WW I with the 101st engineers from Goffstown.
2) Marie Eleonore (b. 1881) In 1900 she also was a school teacher in the parochial school in town. She married in 1902 to Joseph Lafred Romeo Perrault in St-Pierre-Les-Becquets, Quebec, Canada. They had five children and remained in Canada.
3) Joseph Anselme (1883 ) was a grocer in Exeter in July 1904 when he married Delia Lavoie.
4) Doctor Elphege Alcime (1890- 1963 at age 73)
Elphege grew up in Newmarket, graduated from Tufts College in Medicine in June 1915 and left to do his internship at the French Hospital in Lewiston, Maine. During WW I he enlisted in the US military and was a Major in the Medical Corps. While practicing medicine in Manchester, NH he married in 1922 a Miss Isabell Brodie(1884-1982 age 97). She was born in Scotland and working in Manchester as a stenographer. He stayed inthe military employed in 1935 as a doctor working in a VA Hospital in Livermore, CA. They had three children: Philip, Thomas and Elizabeth. Elpgege and his wife are both buried in the Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, CA.
5) Marie Jeanne Zephirine Beaudet (b. 1894 ) married Louis Barber a steel and spring maker for American Steel in Worchester, MA.
His adopted daughter Octavia Beaudet (b 1910, d. 2000) married in Manchester in 1934 to Louis P. Morin (age 24) a shipping clerk in Newmarket the son of Louis S and Alice (Trottier) Morin.