Davis Home on Mill Property

Transcription

1 Davis Home on Mill Property This house may have been used by members of the Davis family. Later it was referred to as the tenement located behind the Capt. Francis Davis house. It was probably torn down in Capt. Francis Davis built the first saw and gristmill on the island between It wasn t long before other industries were developed by various family members.

2 Contoocook Power & Light Company This covered raceway located on the east side of the river delivered water to generate power for the production of electricity to Contoocook, Hopkinton and Warner.

3 Contoocook Power & Light Company Building the raceway in 1908.

4 Contoocook Power & Light Company Interior

5 Contoocook Power & Light Company Interior Fred Davis, grandson of Aquila Davis, operated the power plant for many years.

6 Ruins of the Kearsarge Mills John Beane sketched this image for his article, Township Number One for the Granite Monthly. The article chronicled the history of the Davis family and Davisville and lamented the closing of the mill and the number of vacant homes in the neighborhood. However, over the next several decades several boarding houses opened up in the neighborhood to cater to summer tourists.

7 Placement of Boulders It was not uncommon for mill operators to manipulate the shoreline and the rocks and boulders located in the water, on ledges, or along river banks. These boulders were placed on the ledge to deflect water from the edges of the island. The whole island is lined with rocks, many of them have been strategically placed into position to protect the banks from erosion.

8 The Dams below the Mill It appears in the image that poured concrete has been added to the dam in the foreground while the dam in the back ground might still be wood cribbing. Notice the placement of rocks in the middle of the photograph protecting the island and pushing water to the sluiceway.

9 Davisville Mill Complex The Davisville Tavern and the Country Store are located in the background. The saw mill is in the foreground and the paper mill is located behind that. The purpose of the long narrow roofed building in not clear at this point. One guess was it might have been used to dry strawboard. Imagine the whine of the saws, the buzz of activity when workers and logs arrive at the mill, and the smell of paper being manufactured. That was the sound and smell of money being made!

10 The Falls This is another image of the Davis house and tenement in the background. There were several small buildings or sheds surrounding it. The present day Crawford house on Dustin Road is located in the background

11 The Davis Paper Mill on the Warner River This set of buildings were built in 1870 after Henry Carter s paper mill burned in The new building contained a machine shop to manufacture Walter Scott Davis s newly patented turbine water wheels. A threshing mill was also attached to thresh grain for farmers and straw for the manufacture of strawboard, an early type of cardboard. In this era there were no state or town laws about dumping mill waste into rivers.

12 Davisville Tavern It was probably after Aquila Davis died in 1835 that his sons, Nathaniel and james, expanded the Francis Davis house and built the store. The extended part of the house made room for a tavern and a dining room, and the new addition held a kitchen and two carriage houses downstairs and a ballroom upstairs. The ball room had benches along the sides and a raised platform for the musicians. Lost Davisville: Forgotten New Hampshire History by Fernanda Harrington

13 Bird s Eye View of Davisville Village Notice how open the view is from behind Crawford s house (2014) on Dustin Road. The Davisville Tavern and Store are located in the background. The Davisville Mill complex sits below the tavern. Many of the houses in the area were built by Davis family members to house their large families. Several of the Davis men settled in other areas of Warner and built mills. Wells Davis settled in the North Village and operated a gristmill. His son Francis lived in the Minks and later Henniker and operated a sawmill.

14 Dams and Mill Pond There are two dams in this photograph. The one in the foreground has a boom to hold logs from tumbling down river. The logs were stored here and then pulled up the ramp to the saw mill to be cut into various grades of lumber. A boat is located near the shed in the foreground. Maybe at some point the neighborhood boys would go fishing up the Warner river near Gunner s Point.

15 1858 Map of Warner This map provides clues about where the mills were located along the river. Notice the mill pond and the narrow constriction in the river which indicates the location of the dam. The saw and grist mill at this time were located on the island below the falls. The blacksmith shop was located across from the school. Members and relatives of the Davis family lived in the neighborhood.

16 The End of the Davis Mill Era In 1879 the mill sawed 500,000 feet of lumber for making boxes. The business employed forty men and manufactured 700 tons of strawboard valued at $75,000. By 1886 Walter and Henry Davis sold the mill to the American Strawboard Company. By 1892 it was known as Kearsarge Mills. In 1897 Henry and his nephew, Horace repurchase the mill to make paper box boards. The business closed in 1903.

17 The Mill Yard The two buildings in the foreground may have been used for light storage as there are no chimneys to indicate they were heated. Lumber is stacked neatly into piles for shipment. Finished product would be hauled to the Dimond Railroad Station over a mile away. The cost of transporting goods was one of the factors that led to the closing of the mill. The Davis family would open a paper mill in West Hopkinton by The new location had more water power and was near a railroad junction.

18 Henry Russell Davis recalled working here after graduating from Simonds Free High School in He worked twelve hours a day, either from midnight to 12 noon, or 12 noon to midnight, six days a week for $7.50. He had to fire four boilers with 4 foot cords of wood that had been dumped from wagons or sleds down into a pit. On Sundays two men would clean the boilers.

19 A Load of Logs to the Mill The first brick house in Davisville was built in 1830 by Nathan Davis. Nathan operated the sawmill. He died in 1841, leaving his widow Judith, daughter Augusta and son Hilliard, to manage the farm. The home remained in the Davis family until the death of Marion Terry in the late 1980s.

20 The Island This image shows the raceways that powered the grist and sawmill which were located here until they burned in Henry Carter had purchased the gristmill in 1866 to convert it to manufacture paper. The deed required him to take out fire insurance valued at $1,000. There is a unique penstock made of brick at the head of the raceway for the sawmill which would have been located on the right and the grist mill on the left.

21 Walls and Walls of Stone Turn around and admire the stone work on the embankment above you. There appears to be a road built down to the mills on the island. Bricks were manufactured at Dimonds Corner and in Davisville to build the three brick houses and the chimneys in the area. Please do not move or remove any of the objects you find on or sticking out of the ground because they provide clues about what might have been at their location.

22 Freshet of 1826 All of the mills and bridges along the Warner River were destroyed in this flood. There had been several industries located in Davisville. The saw and grist mill, a mill for grinding lead, an iron foundry that made andirons and clock weights, a tin yard, plaster mill, brickyard, blacksmith shop, tannery, and a fulling mill for processing wool for cloth were washed down river. It wasn t long before many of these industries were rebuilt.

23 Contoocook Power & Light Company This brick power plant was built in Power was turned on and the electric lights lit on Warner s Main Street on December 13, This station was used to generate electricity for Contoocook, Hopkinton, and Warner. About 1912 NH Power took over the property and later Public Service Company owned it. In the 1960s the building was torn down.