Yesteryear Meredith’s Interesting Past

By Kathi Caldwell-Hopper

Those who drive through Meredith in the summer months experience a bustling, well-populated town with plenty of shops and restaurants. Tourists love Meredith because it is on the water and there are many things to do, from eating out, taking the Sculpture Walk around town to browsing all sorts of shops.

Meredith was granted in 1748 and first called Palmerstown after Samuel Palmer, a land grant holder from the Seacoast region of New Hampshire. Meredith was incorporated in 1768, and years later, in 1855, the southeasterly portion of the town was divided and incorporated as Laconia.

It was not until after 1748 that any great degree of settlement began, due to the recurring Indian wars. Of the 60 original petitioners from Exeter, Hampton, Nottingham and Stratham who were granted the tract of land north of the Winnipesaukee River, few wished to relocate to Meredith for safety reasons.

When settlers finally began to trickle to the area, they arrived via a narrow trail just wide enough for a man on horseback. The trail was 26 miles long and harrowing at best. It was over this crude road that Ebenezer Smith brought ironwork for the first sawmill in Mere- dith. He built the mill at the Weirs with Joshua Folsom and Thomas Brown in 1765. Because of the mill, lumber became available to build homes and more families were attracted to the area.

Travel was difficult and done only during daylight hours. There was no way to tell exactly where you were going after dark and there were few road signs. Those who traveled made use of the many taverns along the roads in Meredith for an overnight stay.

On Parade Road, between Laconia and Meredith, there were the Daven- port, Young and Farrar Taverns. Some taverns operated out of a home, offering beer, cider and food, as well as overnight lodgings.

A man who would go on to become well respected in Meredith and elsewhere was born in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire in 1773. Dudley Leavitt attended school but briefly as a child, later teaching himself mathematics and science from his parent’s home. He showed great aptitude and began to study astronomy and make astronomical calculations when he was still a young man.

Leavitt later married Judith Glidden of Gilmanton and studied Greek and Latin with the local pastor. In 1806, Dudley Leavitt settled in Meredith, where he purchased 50 acres for farming. Because he loved books and learning, he began to conduct school in his home, as well as working as a farmer.

However, Dudley Leavitt is best known today as the editor of the Old Farmer’s Almanac. He founded the publication, playing an important role in Meredith’s history.

Students came from near and far to study under him at the Meredith Academick School, held in his home. He farmed his land and until age 75, ran the school and taught at least part-time.

Leavitt published his first almanac in 1797, under the title of the New England Calendar or Almanac. Mr. Leavitt was not wealthy and could not afford for more than one illustration to be printed in his first almanac - a picture of the sun.

Dudley Leavitt penned the entire first edition: it had his weather predictions, and agricultural advice. It was a successful publication, and the circulation grew to 60,000 readers a year by

• Yesteryear continued on page 4

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Kathy Larson the time of Leavitt’s passing in 1851.

Another well-respected Meredith resident was Seneca Ladd. He was born in Loudon, New Hampshire in 1819, and like Dudley Leavitt, Ladd was a free thinker and independent. School was not easy at the time for someone like Ladd, who was not a standard, successful scholar. He attended school until he was about 10 years old and went on to further schooling as a teenager. He also helped his parents with farming and harvesting of crops.

In his early teens, Ladd was sent to learn the carriage maker’s trade in Raymond, New Hampshire. He was a quick study and proved to have a high mechanical aptitude. Ladd also had a good grasp of the financial world.

Always looking for new challenges, Ladd moved to the Lakes Region and ran a carriage makers business in Meredith for two years. He then moved to Boston for a year learning how to construct pianofortes for Timothy Gilbert, in the second manufactory of the kind established in the United States.

Ladd came back to Meredith in the summer of 1839. He had saved his money and was a true entrepreneur. He saw that pianoforte making was in its infancy and becoming popular. Getting involved in the business would put him ahead of the curve. Ladd purchased a mill building and opened a carriage manufactory. He was ready to enter business on a large scale, which was financially risky for a man in his 20s. But Ladd was successful and saw the manufactory thrive.

But in 1850, his entire plant was destroyed by fire, and the contents burned. Ladd leased a cotton factory, and manufactured pianos and melodeons. Once again, Ladd’s business thrived, and he ran the piano and melodeon factory in Meredith and in Boston for about 20 years.

Ladd was by then wealthy; he was known as a skilled piano manufacturer. He was observant and noticed how young working people – some in his factory - were irresponsible with their pay packets. It concerned him to watch his employees fritter away their hard-earned pay. He advised his employees to save some of their wages and he took their financial problems seriously. Thus, opening a bank seemed to be the answer to Ladd’s concerns: his employees would have a place to save their money and Ladd could start a new business (a bank).

In November of 1869, Ladd and his associates procured a charter from the Legislature and established the Meredith Village Savings Bank. Ladd was named treasurer (equivalent to a president and CEO in today’s world). The bank’s home was on Main Street in Meredith. By this time, he had ceased operation of his piano manufacturing business. For the next years, Ladd threw all his energies into banking.

Ladd was well known and respected in Meredith. It was written of Ladd in “The History of Merrimack and Belknap Counties, New Hampshire, 1885”: “His education has given him a mental character of strength and ability far beyond that attained by the usual curriculum of a college course, and on any of the grave subjects under discussion among scholars his opinion is listened to with earnest- ness and commands respect. He has never used tobacco or alcohol in any form and has battled strongly against the rum traffic. In politics, his votes have always been cast in favor of universal freedom. The Liberty, Abolition and Republican parties have, in turn, received his warmest support and most active services, and in all social and public matters he has ever been in accord with the most advanced and progressive minds.”

Seneca Ladd remained active throughout his life and when he died in 1892, he left behind a small family but a large community of friends, business associates and fellow scholars.

By the 1800s, mills in the town employed many and among the largest was the Meredith Shook and Lumber Co., which had about 60 workers.

In 1876, Samuel Hodgson leased the power and mills of the Mechanics Assoc. and made mittens in his shop for about a year. Soon, Hodgson’s associate, a Mr. Abal, patented an automatic knitting machine for knitting socks. In 1877 Hodgson started manufacturing stockings in Meredith. It was a successful business, and new buildings were erected to triple the capacity of the mill. By 1885, the mill employed around 160 people, mostly women, before it was destroyed by fire in 1887.

Among other businesses in Meredith in the 1800s was the Hosiery Mill owned by Allie and Minot Hall. The mill was among the largest businesses in the town during the mid-1800s. The Hall brothers manufactured a high-quality grade of pure linen. The mill was commonly known as the Meredith Flax Mill, and it greatly boosted Meredith’s economy. The mill burned and it was a terrible loss to the town. Allie Hall eventually bought out the entire business and established the Meredith Linen Mill and ran it for many years.

With the establishment of more businesses over the years, Meredith needed lodging establishments for workers and businessmen; another industry sprang up when hotels and taverns opened.

One of the earliest was the Farrar Tavern, built before 1782, and owned by Mary Farrar. Another early tavern was the Davenport Tavern, serving as a stagecoach stop for many years. Other taverns were the Willard Hotel, which came into being in the 1840s; the Fogg Tavern; the Old Folsom Tavern; the Cerro-Gordon House, and the Simpson Inn.

By the turn of the century, the era of the White Mountain grand hotels was coming into its own. This high style of vacationing changed the way travelers and innkeepers thought about the hotel business. Soon the word “tourist” was part of the vocabulary around Lake Winnipesaukee. Right in their front yard, was the big lake and all the recreation any vacationer could desire.

Meredith, like all other lake towns, changed over the years of the 1900s, from industry and mills to a full-fledged vacation Mecca. By the mid-1900s, cottages and hotels welcomed summer and fall foliage tourists.

Eventually, the old mill buildings in downtown Meredith were renovated and turned into a group of quaint shops. New restaurants, a summer theatre, a winter ice fishing derby and many fall foliage bus tours have find Meredith to be a beautiful tourist town on the shores of Winnipesaukee.