A little town history.

The history of New London, New Hampshire, has been well documented in three sequential town histories: Myra Lord's A History of the Town of New London (1899), J. Duane Squires's Mirror to America (1950), and Ann Page Stecker's Our Voices, Our Town (2000). Selected photographs have also been reproduced in Images of America: New London, compiled by Leanne Keary. These are excellent references for town history and family genealogy.  Additional questions about families and town events may be directed to the Town Archives, the repository for all such information in New London.

SETTLEMENT

SETTLEMENT

Trekking north from Hopkinton, NH, Moses Trussell made his first attempt to settle in New London in 1774. He built a shelter, cleared land, and planted corn the next spring. At the end of the summer, he returned to harvest his crop, already taken by bears and other animals. He left disappointed, served in the Revolutionary War, and did not return to New London until 1804.

Meanwhile, others came and stayed. By the time of its incorporation in June, 1779, New London was home to 16 families, residing on a small portion of the town’s 137 survey lots (of 150 acres each). The land was granted in 1773 by the Masonian Proprietors to Jonas Minot of Concord (MA) and a small group from the Londonderry (NH) area. They would attract settlers by giving them land and later profit by selling the remaining land, made more valuable by the new roads, mills, schools, and meeting-house constructed by the earlier settlers.

At the first town meeting on August 3, 1779, selectmen were chosen and the town government organized. The settlers built farms and roads and mills. By 1786 a school had been built. Their labor needed elsewhere, children attended school for just three months of the year.

In March, 1786, construction of a meeting-house and adjoining burying-ground was approved.  A new town census tallied 219 inhabitants. Eight families had moved from Attleboro (MA), where they attended a Baptist church led by the Rev. Job Seamans. In 1787, voters called him “as a minister of the Gospel,”  offering “three pounds in cash and thirty-seven pounds in labor and grain and other produce,” plus moving expenses.  He accepted in March, 1788. Two years later, the 1790 census counted 311 residents.

SCYTHEVILLE

ScythevilleMap

Map of Scytheville


The area around present day Elkins, NH, was frequented by the Penacook tribe of Algonquin some 3,000 years ago. Artifacts found around Pleasant Lake relate to pottery-making, fishing, and hunting. The first white settlers were clustered at the north end of the lake in the late 1700s. 

Elkins is named for Dr. John Elkins, a physician who served the community from 1875 to 1888. In appreciation for his work and his wife's generosity, the village was named for him posthumously in 1896.

Earlier, this section of New London appeared on maps as "Scythe Factory Village" or "Scytheville", taking its name from the scythe blade manufacturer founded in 1835 by Richard Messer, Joseph Phillips and Anthony Colby. Still in their twenties, Messer and Phillips had learned the business in Fitchburg, MA, while Colby provided the water rights but no capital.

All of the necessary iron, steel, and coal had to be hauled by oxen from the nearest railhead at Concord, NH. In 1845, the Northern Railroad arrived in Potter Place, shortening the teamsters' trip by twenty-five miles.

The scythe works operated for over fifty years, employed almost a hundred workers, and shipped products around the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe. A dozen 3-ton grindstones and fourteen trip-hammers were powered by water running through a series of three dams and millponds. Among the many other mills sharing this power supply were a saw mill, shingle mill, grist mill, cider mill, hosiery mill, carding mill, and tannery.

In 1880, the New London Scythe Co. shipped over 120,000 scythe blades, 12,000 hay knives, and 6,000 axe blades. 

By October 1888 the grinding and hammering were silenced, as the industry moved closer to raw materials and distribution centers, and as agriculture became more mechanized. Water power no longer offered a competitive advantage. The company's property, plant and equipment, which earlier had been valued at $150,000, was sold at auction for $9,650.

Within a year and a half, the village's population dropped from 300 to 75, and the area began a slow transition to other water-related enterprises: tourism and recreation.

OTTERVILLE

Wayside Chapel


For many decades the settlement along the outlet of Little Lake Sunapee, between that body of water and Otter Pond, has been called "Otterville." Portions of the area were annexed by the town of New London in 1804 and 1817.

In 1812, Amasa Sargent "removed to Goosehole... where he built a saw-and-grist mill over the brook." This was the first industrial enterprise along this stream. Nine years later the mill was sold to Jacob Harvey of Sutton. Ownership changed hands many times in later years, ending with Hiram A. Eastman. This particular mill operated continuously for more than 125 years.

In 1823 there was also a carding mill in Otterville run by J.P. Sabin and John Page, Jr. Under their management the mill prospered so much that a large boarding house and general store were established. The cloth mill was purchased by John W. Taylor in 1848, and for the next 50 years he dressed cloth and carded rolls there. He also ran the general store.

Otterville also had a long series of blacksmiths, shoemakers, and other small businesses. Among the those keeping store "at the bridge" were John W. Taylor, Moses A. Fellows, and Fred Farwell. The latter owned the store until well into the 20th century.

John Taylor turned the second floor of his store into a social hall, and here Otterville had its parties and general meetings. Mr. Taylor introduced religious services shortly after the Civil War. In 1894 Mrs. Sanford Fisher donated land for a proposed Union Chapel, finally dedicated on August 17, 1902. After WWII, the NH Route 11 was redirected away from the Chapel and the settled part of Otterville. The mills closed as their services were no longer needed, and the blacksmith shop closed as automobiles gained popularity.

[Notes: There is a historical marker erected by the Town of New London in 1967 near the Otterville bridge. This article was abridged from Historical Sketches of New London, New Hampshire, 1977. Photos courtesy of New London Town Archives.]

SCHOOLHOUSES


The Kearsarge Regional School District, to which New London belongs, opened a new Middle School in March, 2008. This $25 million facility in Sutton, NH, replaces the New London Central School, which had been expanded to create the regional middle school. The fate of its New London campus is uncertain.

On October 12, 1942, the $80,000 New London Central School was dedicated after a year of construction. It replaced a smaller school at the Four Corners (Main & Pleasant intersection). Facing Ervin Edmunds's IGA store, Bill Kidder's Garage, and Tracy Memorial Library, the old building sat vacant. Paint peeled. Windows broke.

The first one-room schoolhouse at the Four Corners was built in 1804 at a cost of $140. By 1854, the Superintendent reported that "the schoolhouses in some of the districts are bad beyond endurance," and in 1862 the original District #3 schoolhouse was finally sold and moved down South Pleasant Street. A larger, one-room schoolhouse was built in its place. This served the neighborhood until 1906, when a four-room building was needed to accommodate the consolidation of three district schools—made possible by improved transportation over New London's hills. In 1932, when local high school students could no longer attend Colby Academy, they were moved into the two upper-story classrooms in this building, which was at once overcrowded.

In 1942, the New London Central School was constructed on land behind Main Street after the previously selected site was abandoned. All proposals for using the old school building failed, and the public "eyesore" was razed in 1948. Its salvaged materials were used to construct the Professional Building (today's WNTK) on Newport Road. Once the terms of Ezekiel Sargent's 1829 property deed were modified, the central Town Parking Lot was created.

[Newspaper articles courtesy of the New London Town Archives.]

Time Series Study: Taking shape.

Time Series Study: Taking shape.

Time Series Study: Development patterns.

Time Series Study: Development patterns.
preserving & presenting our history