AUDIO TEXT:
Site No. 20. The New Wooden Creighton Block.
At the age of 90, James Brackett Creighton wrote his autobiography—giving us a vivid picture of the times and the places where he lived. Born in Exeter in 1789, he became orphaned when he was quite young. During his apprenticeship to learn the textile trade, at one point 14-year-old James drove a wagon carrying a carding machine to Lancaster—a distance of about 60 miles. He quickly made a name for himself, and he became a successful woolen miller, settling in Epping where he married Sarah Dow.
When the Newmarket Manufacturing Company set up shop here, James Creighton saw potential for other ventures. The family moved here in 1826, and he operated the mill’s first company store and post office on this site in an earlier building. Within a few years, James was elected to the state legislature and became an aide to the governor—which earned him the honorific title of “Colonel”. And in 1840 he was president of the New Hampshire State Senate.
After finishing his brick building in 1834, James set up a new store there, while his son Zebulon continued trading here in the old location. Known as “Z. Dow” he was a founder of the Newmarket Bank, and like his father, he also invested in real estate: between 1831 and 1855 either he or his father had owned just about every tract of land in the waterfront area between Water Street and today’s Creighton Street.
And then there’s Z. Dow’s wife Susan. Shortly after the fire of 1866 destroyed the original building on this site, Z. Dow died, leaving everything to his widow. Two years later, Susan had this building constructed—the New Wooden Creighton Block, now over 150 years old. She rented it out—but not to anyone who was selling alcohol.
At her death in 1899, Susan Creighton was the third highest taxpayer in town. She left this building to the Congregational Church who rented it out for many years. From 1931 to 1966 it housed the Newmarket Post Office.
James Creighton also had his share of heartbreak. His wife Sarah died of smallpox in 1836. His daughter Martha became partially deranged after her minister husband abandoned her, leaving her with a small boy. She lived on for years as a recluse in the Creighton farmhouse on Wadleigh Falls Road, cared for by her family. Martha’s abandoned son James Brackett Creighton Drew grew up to abandon his own wife later on. But that’s another story you can read online.
Head down Water Street to Site 21— Schanda Park, where there’s lots of seating.
END OF AUDIO TEXT. See below for photos and more information.
XXX
Site No. 20 (141 Main St.) NEW WOODEN CREIGHTON BLOCK. (1869-70) James B. Creighton ran NMCo’s early company store here in 1826. That building burned to the ground in the major downtown fire of 1866. That’s why this one is “new.”
– orphan, young apprentice, expert clothier, Militia officer, tradesman, speculator, landowner, developer, postmaster, state legislator
James B. Creighton was one of the most prominent figures in Newmarket’s nineteenth century history, and an article published in the 1908 February-March issue of The Granite Monthly in
Concord, NH mentions that he “had written his own story”. James was almost 91 years old when he wrote his autobiography. He had outlived his two wives and two of his four children.
In 2010 George F. Walker, Jr. transcribed this 17-page document. He and Ralph Jackson wrote a volume of detailed history of the Creighton family. We are very fortunate that Mr. Walker donated that work to the New Market Historical Society, giving us a permanent record that captures the life of James B. Creighton and his family. It adds immeasurably to the rich history of Newmarket from about the era from 35 years before until 25 years after the Civil War.
The following is a brief retelling of his professional life in Epping and here in Newmarket after the end of the War of 1812. Italicized sections are taken directly from his autobiography.
Born in 1789 in Exeter NH, James Brackett Creighton was an infant when his father, a teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy died. In order to survive, his mother took in students as boarders. When James was nine, his mother remarried Lt. Jeremiah Calfe, and the family, “in a double sleigh removed to his farm & residence in Sanbornton, where they remained receiving kind & friendly treatment from the husband, father-in-law & his branch of the family”
James’ mother apprenticed him to a clothier in Haverhill, NH in 1803 to learn the textile trade. At one point, 14-year-old James drove a wagon carrying a carding machine to Lancaster—a distance of about 60 miles. While in Lancaster, he proved himself in the business by designing a remedy that fixed the misaligned rollers on the machine. Thus at a young age he establish a reputation for creative innovation and hard work.
When his apprenticeship concluded, Creighton went into partnership with a Mr. Wilson of Wadleigh Falls in Lee, NH. Here he managed the mill for half the profits. Two years later he moved to Epping and bought land and a “mill privilege” where he set up his own mill for carding wool and dressing cloth.
During the War of 1812, he joined the Epping Militia, which at one point was assigned to guard Portsmouth. He also furnished several thousand yards of cloth for soldiers of the Army. At the close of the War, Creighton was promoted to rank of Captain; he remained in the militia until he had fulfilled his four years of duty.
After the war he married Sarah Dow, daughter of Lt. Zebulon Dow of Epping; and the couple started their family. By 1814, they were living in a newly-built house across the road from his mill. He continued his business of carding, fulling, dying and selling woolen goods in Epping for about eleven years.
As was typical of the time, he purchased the wool and had it carded (picking the raw wool clean and aligning the fibers). The wool was then usually hired out to farm families to spin and weave into lengths of cloth at the family homestead. The wool would then return to the mill for finishing, which involved:
“fulling” (washing and thickening by shrinking);
dyeing in various colors – usually navy blue;
drying, while stretched on “tenterhooks” to “tenter bars”; and
“dressing” (brushing to raise the nap making it softer, smoother and depending on the final design, sometimes making it fuzzier.
The wool was sent to Portsmouth for passage to other parts of the country. Creighton also mentions the making of cheap wool hats, which went south for the use of Negro slaves.
The business of cloth fulling exposed him to an awful lot of wet and cold. During his last few years in Epping, he suffered several attacks of inflammation of the throat, the last of which came near to terminating his life. On the advice of doctors, Creighton rented out his mill and moved his family to Wadleigh Falls in Lee and began the business of trading in company with Gardner Towle. The following year (1824) as the Newmarket Manufacturing Company continued to acquire land along the Newmarket waterfront, Gardner Towle invested in a piece of that land by “the creek.” (Site 21, Schanda Park is near “the creek”.)
James Creighton must have seen potential in Newmarket as well. He wrote:
“I hired of the N.M Manufacturing Co. a store in New Market on the South East corner made by turning Easterly from Main Street to the wharf opposite the Orthodox Meeting House lot…and commenced trade there in the fall of 1826 where I kept a Grocery & Variety Store. My Son Z. Dow Creighton then about 12 years old gave me much assistance”.
His family would move five times during its first eight years in town. They rented three tenements in town—first by the creek with Nathanial Young—which turned out to be too cold. They moved on to Joseph R. Doe’s house (the fish dealer and shouting tax collector at Site No. 18), followed by a stint closer to the mills in a tenement with Benjamin Brooks. By 1831 he had acquired the creek-side land that Gardner Towle had earlier purchased from Nathanial Young, and the building began:
“…built a one & half story dwelling house on the Southeasterly side of the creek…built a small Stable & shed adjoining…”
[Creighton rented this property out once his family had moved into the brick Creighton Block (Site No. 19) This was typical of his approach—whether Epping, Wadleigh Falls or Newmarket, he usually kept physical control of his properties, leasing when possible, even after his retirement up until his death.]
“After finishing my dwelling house, moved my family into that, and while doing business in the before mentioned Store I took a large quantity of dry hardwood in exchange for goods, sent most of the wood to Portsmouth. I also in company with my brothers-in-law John Dow & Daniel Emerson, bought a wood lot in the Southerly part of Nottingham, which we stripped of its growth & sent the wood to Portsmouth market, and after taking the wood & timber from the lot, sold the land”.
Needless to say, Creighton was a busy man. The planning and construction of the “Brick Creighton Block” (after World War II it became known as the American Legion) is a story unto itself, and is described in Site No. 19. James B. Creighton and his family moved into the new building in 1834. He resided there until 1847, but he held onto his portion of that building until his demise in 1882.
In 1834 Creighton also bought property on Wadleigh Falls Road; here he began construction on what would become his retirement property.
While in Epping he was elected town clerk, held the office one year, but declined public office thereafter. However, once in Newmarket he did keep getting appointed to office:
During our residence at New Market Village and while trading in Factory Co. store I was appointed Post Master, kept the Post Office in the store for a year or more, but as the Agents of the
Company desired to have the office kept nearer the Factory I resigned and Benj. Coe, who was trading in another store of theirs[1] nearer the Factory was appointed Post Master.
In 1829, although he did not run for political office, he was nominated and elected as both Town Moderator and Representative to the State Legislature. Once in the Legislature he received a commission of Justice of the Peace, and in 1830 he served as an aide to Governor Harvey; this last service earned him the honorific of “Colonel” Creighton. Later on he also served on the Newmarket Superintending School Committee (1850-1853).
In 1831 he was again elected to the House of Representatives; in 1839 and 1840 he was elected to the Senate. In 1840 he was appointed President of the N.H. State Senate.
In 1849 the southerly part of New Market became incorporated by the name of South New Market; and Col. Creighton was appointed on the part of New Market to divide the town property line between the two towns.
Around the time of the War of 1812, James married Sarah Dow (1790-1835) in Epping. They had three children who survived to adulthood: a son Zebulon Dow Creighton (1812-1876) named after Sarah’s father [in 1859 Zebulon legally changed his name to “Z. Dow Creighton”]; and two daughters: Martha March Creighton (1817-1892) and Eliza Eastman Creighton (1820-1884).
His son had been working in the Newmarket store while also attending the local school, but “The education of my son Z. D. Creighton not being so good as I wished to have it, I sent him to school at Greenland Academy, but he remained but a few months before he became discontented and desired to come home, said he had much rather be in the store, and not being able to persuade him willingly to remain there longer, took him into the store, gave him one full half my stock of goods, took a new set of Books, and we traded together partners in the business until my stores in the brick building were finished.
As he had done for his son, he sent both his daughters off for a better education. Martha went to Hampton Academy, and then to the Academy at Newfields. She became a teacher at Sanbornton or Franklin and later at New Market. Eliza attended both the Pittsfield Academy and The Newfields Academy and found work as a schoolteacher in the town of Durham. As was written in teacher contracts in those days, both women were required to quit teaching once they married.
In 1836, while living in the Brick Block, his wife Sarah Dow Creighton died of smallpox. Her death caused not only bereavement but a high fear throughout the town that the disease might spread. Fortunately it did not; and the Colonel eventually remarried.
Z. Dow continued successfully doing business in town working out of the original wood store (a.k.a. “the old factory store”) he shared with his father at the corner of Water and Main Street, beside the Community Church. In 1831 he hired Benjamin Watson when Lovering’s orchard went up for sale (nine lots between Exeter Street and Tasker’s Lane) and built a large house on Lot #1. In 1835 he married Susan Elizabeth Woodbury (1818-1899) in Northwood and they moved into the new house.
Z. Dow was appointed Postmaster of South Newmarket for several years. In town he was elected member of the State Legislature, held the office of Justice of the Peace, and also held the office of Selectman in 1860; but, like his father, was more focused on finance than politics. He invested heavily in the stock market and in real estate. In their study of the Creighton family and Newmarket history, George Walker and Ralph Jackson noted:
At one time or another between the years of 1831 and 1855 James B. Creighton and/or his son Z. Dow Creighton held the ownership of every tract of land in the waterfront area identified [between Water Street and what would become Creighton Street] … with the exception of the northerly end of the brick building. This was truly the Creighton neighborhood. They both owned many other properties outside of the neighborhood. Except for their homes these were primarily rental properties.[2]
One of the founders of the Newmarket Bank, Z. Dow Creighton was its first president. Incorporated in 1855 as a state bank with capital of $80,000, it was later reorganized under U.S. banking laws and became the New Market National Bank. During the time Z. Dow was involved with the bank, it remained solvent. (Samuel Abbot Haley was chosen as cashier, and held that office until his death in 1891—at which time depositors in the savings bank found they had lost all their savings. Site No. 26 describes the run on the bank and how it emerged from insolvency.)
His father’s 3-story brick building survived the Great Fire of February 6, 1866, which completely destroyed the wooden buildings along Main Street between Water St and the creek. Four buildings, with tailor shops and tenements were leveled in the fire. Z. Dow’s store was burned to the ground.
Z. Dow never rebuilt his store. Exactly ten months after the fire, he died, leaving a very wealthy widow and an eight-year-old daughter. He was 53; both his father and his widow lived for many years after.
His daughter Lizzie Anna St. Clair Creighton (1858-1888) attended the Robinson Female Seminary in Exeter in 1870. She later married the dentist Dr. Alger W. French of Dover. After they moved to Portland ME, Lizzie Anna and Alger had a daughter Susan St. Clair French in 1878. The child died seven months later of congestion of the lungs. Lizzie Anna became despondent and was later declared incompetent to handle her affairs. A probate court declared her “insane” and granted Alger guardianship in Nov 1886. The couple moved to Minneapolis where Lizzie Anna died suddenly of “a brain disorder” in 1888. Her remains were brought back to Newmarket, and she was buried in Riverside Cemetery. Alger returned to his practice in Minneapolis where he remarried in 1892 and raised a family. His family later moved to Palo Alto, California where he died in 1913.
Susan never remarried. She was a shrewd and savvy businesswoman who—like her husband— invested in real estate and stocks. When Z. Dow died, his estate listed no stocks, no bank accounts, no bonds—and only $80 in cash. Most of his estate amounted to $25,000 in uncollected small notes and uncollected mortgages. Most of his assets (possibly for fear of litigation) were in his wife’s name, which was unusual for that era.
Even prior to her husband’s death Susan had purchased several pieces of property (believed to be with her husband’s full knowledge and financing) such as the old Branscomb’s Tavern and several buildings on South Street. It was explicitly written in the deed that it was “to hold to her sole and separate use free from the interference or control of her husband”.
Two years after her husband died, as the burnt shell of his store remained a blackened eyesore, two men from Kittery approached her wanting to buy the building. She was adamant that she would only agree to an arrangement whereby:
1) she retain ownership of the property;
2) they get a mortgage to build a store on it as long as they;
3) did not sell alcohol or any “spirits”.
The store was rebuilt; later she bought out the mortgage, and Woodridge W. Durell moved his dry goods business into the building. For over 100 years it was known locally as the “Wooden Creighton Block”. When she died in 1899, Susan left that building as well as her residence on Tasker Lane to the Newmarket Congregational Church.
In a lot of her dealings, she showed a business acumen (albeit a rather ruthless one) rare for women of that time:
When her daughter married Dr. Alger French, Susan purchased and furnished an elegant house in Portland Maine. At her insistence, in 1880 the couple signed over to her their right, title, interest
and estate in the Newmarket homestead formerly occupied by Z. Dow Creighton.
On June 12th 1888 eight days after Lizzie Anna died in Minnesota, she had Dr. French sign over to her any right, title and interest in his wife’s property in Newmarket. Once he signed off, she immediately made a will.
Yet she was often very generous, donating considerable amounts of money to the church and local charities. Over the years there were various and repeated gifts to the church, the G.A.R., the Women’s Relief Corps, orphanages, and several other community, missionary and temperance organizations. Other gifts included:
By the end of the 19th century, Susan was the third highest property tax payer in town, trailing only NMCo and J.W. Barnard. At her death in 1899, she left an estate of $69,586, (in 2022 it would have a value of $ 2,400,000), the major items inventoried were:
6 items of real estate including 15 tenements - $17,000
60 common shares in four stocks valued at 6,000
43 bonds and notes in 16 institutions 34,000
Cash 1,000
After all the codicils and contested court filings the bulk of her estate was distributed as:
The most controversial and contested of her bequests was her last codicil, signed on her deathbed on August 24, 1899: she willed to Abbie Emerson ten shares of capital stock in B&M RR valued at $1,000.
According to the newspapers of the day, Abbie was 17 years old when she was employed as a live-in maid by Mrs. Creighton and paid $1 a week for 40 years and never received a raise.
Abbie contested the will in court providing a diary she claimed was written by Susan Creighton which would have given Abbie $10,000. She further stated that Susan was not only of unsound mind the day she died, but was insane—as had been her mother Mrs. Woodbury who had lived in the same residence until her death.
A highly publicized trial was held in 1902, three years after Susan’s passing. Witnesses testified and were cross-examined; histories of family mental instability were made and refuted. Just prior to the judge’s ruling a settlement was reached between Abbie’s attorney and Timothy Joy, Executor of the estate: to pay Abbie $1,750 (which in 2021 would be $55,553). With the additional payment, the judge proved the will valid.
The transcript of the trial contains the testimony of Miss Alice Abbott, a schoolteacher and confidante to Mrs. Creighton. Alice was at her side and witnessed Susan sign the last codicil to her will. Much to chagrin of Abbie Emerson’s Attorneys, Miss Abbott’s testimony (the transcript may be read in the Creighton Family History) paints a detailed picture of Susan Elizabeth Creighton, a woman of resolve, determination, and definitive opinion — even in the face of death.
James Creighton’s daughter Martha was named after his sister Martha (Creighton) March. After her education and several years of teaching, Martha married the Rev. Henry Drew, a poor travelling Methodist preacher. The couple lived in the Brick block with Martha’s father.
Rev. Henry Drew was the minister of the Methodist Church in Rye, NH in 1843, followed by two years in Rochester, NH. In 1849 he established a Methodist congregation in Salmon Falls, NH where he held the prayer meetings for his 24 parishioners in the Town Hall. Then, in 1851 he left the area and headed west, abandoning his wife and son.
Although never legally divorced, there he lived with/”married” Miss Eliza Faville in Wisconsin. They had five children. In his will he left all his estate to his new wife and their three youngest
children. To his and Martha’s son James Brackett Creighton Drew, he left all his professional papers.
Henry died in February 1876. Two months earlier James B. Creighton had made a codicil to his will acknowledging his runaway son-in-law: “I also give and bequeath unto Henry Drew who was formerly the husband of my daughter March M. Drew the sum of one dollar.”
After her abandonment, his wife in Newmarket was financially supported by her father and her Aunt Martha March. Henry’s conduct towards her was such that she suffered emotionally to the point of partial derangement. A recluse, she never ventured out of the home.
In the 1880 census Martha was listed as divorced, but her death record indicates she was legally a widow. She died in Newmarket in January 1892 of Influenza. She lived secluded in the top floor of the Creighton farmhouse, in the care of George F. Walker with funds left by her father and aunt.
James B.C. Drew (1843-1924) was Martha and Henry Drew’s only child. He attended the Newmarket District School after he was abandoned by his father. When he reached early adulthood, he set out to find his father who he met in Wisconsin; and in the 1860 census, he was listed in the household. But the stay was short-lived, and his Uncle Z. Dow Creighton financed his continued education and paid Drew’s way to law school in New York.
After law school he returned to Wisconsin and set up a practice. During the Civil war James enlisted in the 35th Wisconsin Infantry as a 2nd Lt. in January 1864, mustering out in March 1865. He participated at the Battle of Spanish Fort and Battle of Fort Blakeley. (He received a military pension in 1890 while living in Rockland, New York. It listed him as receiving a flesh wound to his shoulder while in battle.)
After the war, Drew settled in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and became a local lawyer. At the urging of friends who had powerful allies in Florida, he was appointed Attorney General for the State of Florida in 1871 by then- Governor Harrison Reed.[3]
Drew then moved to Jacksonville, Florida to take office, abandoning his first wife, Winifred, in Oshkosh. Like his mother, Winifred went mad; but unlike his mother who was cared for by James Creighton, poor Winifred ended up in the Winnebago county poor house.
Drew arrived in Florida during a complicated political brouhaha within the Florida Republican Party. It involved the second
impeachment of Governor Reed; and as part of the fallout, Drew lost his new position. In retaliation, Drew created his own “Liberal Republican Party” and ran for Governor. When that failed, he rejoined the old Republican Party, and President Ulysses S. Grant nominated him for the position of U.S. Attorney – 5th District in Florida.
He was finally confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1874—only after a contentious fight put up by Reed loyalists in Florida. At this point,Drew had a law office in Jacksonville, FL and some land in Washington DC with a second residence, where he stayed with his second wife and their son.
After leaving his position as United States Attorney around 1880, Drew permanently settled in Washington, D.C. and opened a lucrative private law firm in the city. He worked as a broker for several railroads in West Virginia. In 1894, he helped the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad purchase 54,000 acres land near Horse Creek, West Virginia, which allowed for the connection of the railroad to the Kanawha River.
After James B.C. Drew’s second wife died, he married a third time, retired, and left for Europe, only to return at the outbreak of WWI. He lived in Philadelphia before moving to the Ravenswood Mansion in St. Albans, WV. He also owned the Cummer House in Jacksonville, Fl and spent winters there. He died there in 1924 after a brief illness. He is buried in Jacksonville’s Evergreen Cemetery and is interred with his third wife.
It is not known if he ever obtained his father’s “professional papers,” although he did share an uncanny personal history with the man.
After teaching in the town of Durham, in 1846 James Creighton’s daughter Eliza Eastman at age 26 married an attorney 23 years her senior, Ira St. Clair of Deerfield. James notes in his autobiography that Ira, a widower, “was very kind & affectionate towards her. Judge St Clair sustained a high character for Honesty, Integrity and fairness in all his dealing & a good councilor in Law.”
Ira St. Clair was appointed in 1848 to the position of Rockingham Probate Court Judge; Eliza and the Judge lived together in his home at Deerfield Parade for almost 40 years. They had no descendants. He died leaving a large estate in land, buildings, bonds and money. His widow well provided for, but Eliza died in July 1884 at age 64 of “nervous exhaustion”.
There is every indication that Eliza and her husband were much valued members of the Creighton flock. Ira was the Executor for the estate of Eliza’s brother Z. Dow Creighton when he died. And two of the Creighton nieces had the middle name of “St. Clair”.
In 1837 James B. Creighton married Charlotte C. Murray, the daughter of Timothy and Elizabeth (Chapman) Murray of Newmarket. They lived together for most of their marriage on the Creighton farm on Wadleigh Falls Rd. Together they had a daughter Sarah Julia Creighton (1837-1863) named by his second wife in memory of his first wife Sarah. Sarah J. had musical talent, and was taught the pianoforte by her cousin Martha Walker who resided with the family on the Creighton farm on Wadleigh Falls Road. Sarah was described in Col. Creighton’s autobiography as “slender in person, & not able to do, or endure much hard labor. But her disposition very pleasant and she was well educated in Music & Literature”.
In 1859 Sarah J. married George F. Walker from Barnstead, who was Charlotte’s nephew. He boarded with the family and had been a clerk in Z. Dow Creighton’s store. Once married, they remained living in a separate section of the farmhouse with their in-laws until Sarah’s death in 1863. She was not quite 26 years old.
James wrote in his autobiography: “Her dear Mother [Charlotte] never seemed to enjoy much pleasure in life, after the death of her dear & only daughter [Sarah], visited & seated herself by the side of her daughter’s grave (when the weather & her health would permit) twice in a week during her remaining life which was about three years”.
Along with Sarah and George Walker, another boarder at the Creighton’s farm was a daughter of James’ cousin, Alice Brackett (1836-1905). Alice was a schoolteacher in town, and during the period of James’ wife Charlotte’s bereavement and her absences to visit relatives in Rhode Island, Alice would take over as housekeeper for James, and caretaker for the recluse Martha Drew in the upstairs room.
Two years after his wife Sarah’s death, George F. Walker married Alice Brackett in 1865 with the blessings of his Creighton in-laws. George purchased a piece of land, adjoining the Creighton farm from Z. Dow and built a farm and outbuildings. The newlyweds moved down the road and started life as a farming couple on what has since been called “The Walker Farm”. There they had five children: Martha Brackett Walker (1867-1946), John Walker (1868-1933), Mary Rose Walker (1869-1871), Lewis Alcott Walker (1871-1934), and James Brackett Creighton Walker (1875-1955).
James Brackett Creighton doted on the Walker children as though they were his own grandchildren.
In his autobiography, Creighton describes his family’s survival after the death of his father—his mother taking in boarders, her second marriage with the move by sleigh in the winter to Sanbornton, and James being apprenticed out at such a young age. We know that he kept in close contact with his sister Martha Creighton March; and she was very much a part of James’ family support system. What he does not mention is how he felt concerning being an orphan. Perhaps actions speak louder than words.
Susan Woodberry Creighton, financial benefactor of the Orphanage in Franklin, NH was not the only Creighton to help orphans. Her father-in-law did his part too. It was usually in the form of offering work to teenage boys, following the same pattern of his early life. Here are a few examples:
James hired two young teenage boys to work for him—John E. Diman and William L. Caswell.
In 1870, John Diman was 14 years old, living and working at the Creighton farm. Not much is known of him, other than he had been born in New Hampshire. He may have been part of the Canadian Diman farming family in Stratham who had three boys: James, George and an unnamed boy all born within a short period of years from each other. (As a young man, George Diman had moved a feed and grain business into Varney’s Meat Market which was adjacent to the Creighton Block.)
William Caswell was orphaned at age nine. His father Joshua Caswell, during the Civil War was wounded at the Battle of Nelson Farm in VA in June 1862 and died of his wounds two weeks
later. He had enlisted 10 months earlier from Roxbury, MA as a Private with Co, G in the 1st Massachussets Infantry. William’s mother died shortly after in 1863, and William came under the care of a court appointed guardian who sent him to a relative’s farm in Northwood.
As detailed in his obituary, when he was ten years old, Mr. Creighton approached him and brought him to Newmarket where he worked for him for 20 years. William lived with the Creighton family until sometime after 1872 when he married. He was a farm laborer, a carpenter, a sailor and a fisherman. Later he was the first employee of the Newmarket Water and Sewer Department and remained with the Departrment until his death in 1924. In many printed April newpaper accounts, William was usually the first man to take his motorboat out on the Lamprey River once the ice left.
Another young man in the employ of James Creighton was Joseph Pinkham. Pinkham was born in the old Doe Garrison on Bay Road to John and Betsy (Smith) Pinkham in 1827. When Joseph was five years old his father died.
He grew up on the farm and went to local schools. As a youth Joseph was sought out by James Creighton who offered him a job which he gladly accepted. He went on to work for the Colonel’s son Z. Dow Creighton in his store. Pinkham became interested in photography and in the 1850’s he opened “Pinkham’s Daguerrean Rooms”. It was Newmarket’s first daguerreotype business and was located in one of Z. Dow’s buildings on Main Street. (It is listed on the 1857 map of Lamprey River Village.) Joseph later opened a general store to which he also added clothing manufacture. He retired from active business life in the early 1870s.
Joseph Pinkham had learned a variety of skills from both the Creightons—father and son. For over half a century Joseph had been prominent in the business, social and political affairs of the Town. He had been a Justice of the Peace for over 25 years and a Notary Public since 1893. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1895-96.
In the 1880s he became a stock, bond and mortgage broker working out of his nephew’s boot and shoe store. He dealt in residential, commercial and farm mortgages, as well as US Government bonds; but he specialized in stocks, primarily railroad stocks for Boston & Maine, Boston & Albany, Union & Pacific lines.
He belonged to several societies. Through his efforts the Lamprey River Grange was instituted in 1896; he also belonged to the Knights of Pythias, and he held offices in both organizations. Joseph was a lifelong resident of Newmarket, never married and died after a brief illness in 1903 at age 76.
Deeply interested in historical and genealogical studies, Joseph’s obituary lists all the local, state and New England historical organizations he belonged to. He was a valued resource for articles which ran in The Newmarket Advertiser.
The Newmarket Advertiser began operations in the Brick Creighton Block in 1873. The editor of the paper was F.H. Pinkham, one of Joseph’s nephews.
Footnotes:
[1] That would have been the NMCo’s much-hated Company Store in the Brooks building farther up on Main Street. After 1850, Mill Agent John Webster disbanded the Company Store. Competitive markets opened up along Main Street, and downtown commerce thrived.
[2]The Honorable J. B. Creighton, George Walker & Ralph Jackson, 2014. p. 73.
[3] Harrison Reed also had ties to Wisconsin: his family had moved there in 1836; and he and two of his brothers were active in politics. One brother was a judge.