14 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
OLD MILLS OF MANCHESTER. 
{Continued from page 1.] 
into the early 1800’s, as Deacon 
Low remembers it well. It was 
last owned by Ingersol & Kitfield. 
At the mouth of Chubb’s Creek, 
in West Manchester, near the resi- 
dence of R. C. Hooper, was a grist 
mill, built by John Eastcot, and 
known as Eastcot’s mill. The town 
records speaks of him in 1743. This 
mill continued in use up to the time 
the Eastern railroad was built in 
1847. It was reached by what is 
now Boardman avenue. It was a 
tide mill and ground the grain in 
the west section of the town. 
Another tide mill was the Forster 
grist mill. This was built by Wm. 
Bennett and,afterwards owned by 
Major Israel Forster and built over 
by him in 1804. My father fixed 
this mill twice for Mr. Forster in 
his day. One great trouble in these 
tide mills was the eels; they would 
eat through the piling and make the 
dam leak. After the fire in 1871 
Wm. Johnson bought the turbine 
wheel of Rust & Marshall and put 
in the old mill which was fixed over 
again and used by Mr. Johnson in 
his furniture business until he re- 
tired some twenty years ago. 
Near Bennett’s ice pond there 
was a saw mill that, I think, might 
have been built by this same Wm. 
Bennett. I cannot find much about 
it, only “an old dam by a mill site, 
but no mill by a dam site.” 
The mill at Town Landing, near 
the police station, was built as a 
grist mill, the town history says, in 
1644—the early records, 1669—by 
John Knowlton. This mill was 
used for grinding corn until 1825, 
when it was sold by Obed Carter to 
John P. Allen for $500. He changed 
it to a saw mill and also put in 
steam. It was the cause of the great 
fire of 1836, as it started in the 
boiler room. The mill was rebuilt 
and used by him in his furniture 
business until his failure in 1850. 
It was then purchased by Samuel 
Knight, Burnham & Gentlee; they 
sold it to J. F. & Rufus Stanley. It 
was next sold in 1860 to Daniel W. 
Friend and used by him in his 
janufacture of mackerel kits. He 
sold it to Rust & Marshall in 1865 
or 6. It burned again, April 26, 
1871. They were in the furniture 
business and at once built the mill 
now owned by Roberts & Hoare, 
where they continued the business’ 
as long as it pant 
There was a saw mill on School 
street, just above the arch bridge, 
built by Samuel Friend. The logs 
were piled all along what used to be 
the Cheever field. I find this mill 
mentioned in the town records in 
1668, 1693 and again in 1700; in the 
latter place it refers to it as “where 
the old saw mill stood.” 
The Baker saw mill was built by 
John Knowlton, Sr., I think from 
1690 to 1700, though the town his- 
tory has it 1705. This was always 
kept in the family,— Woodbury and 
John Osborn, two of the early own- 
ers, being connected by marriage. 
It was purchased of Osborn by 
Robert Baker in 1815, and was an 
old mill then. It has been built over 
twice by my father. This has been 
the principal mill in town, having 
the best water power. Before 1850 
it did most of the mill work for the 
cabinet shops besides. Cyrus Dodge 
and the Stone mill starting about 
1847 took this part away. I can 
well remember seeing that old ma- 
chinery rusting out and spent many 
a day playing with it; there was 
a shingle mill, jig saw, wood lathe, 
iron lathe, planer, slit saw and ve- 
neer saw—yes, and I remember, 
too, getting spanked by America 
Burnham and sent home, as he said, 
“to save my life.” There has not 
been any sawing done for twenty- 
five years, and we shall soon say 
like the rest, “where the old mill 
stood.” 
Another old mill built by J. P. Al- 
len to saw veneers. stood about 
where Lincoln street crosses Saw 
Mill brook. This mill had to be 
abandoned, as the dam could not be 
made air tight on account of quick- 
sand; so it was sold to F. P. Gent- 
lee and changed into a rough dwell- 
ing for his men. Later Manuel Sil- 
va bought it and moved it to his 
place on Forest street, converting it 
into a barn, which was torn down 
when Philip Dexter put up his 
greenhouses a few years ago. 
After finding that Cyrus Dodge 
had procured the right to build a 
mill on the river at the south end 
of our~ Marine Park, J. P. Allen 
bought the right of him and built 
another mill to saw veneers. This 
run only a short time and burned 
sometime between 1850 and 1856. 
The Stone mill, also owned by Mr. 
Allen, some time in the sixties, was 
destroyed by the boiler bursting. It 
was then purchased by John Knight 
and changed to a dwelling, was left 
tc the town at his death. 
The early records of 1771 speak 
of a wind mill to grind corn, which 
the history says was built on the 
Plains near where the Essex Coun- 
try club now is. 
Daniel W. Friend had a_ small 
steam mill near Lewis Morgan’s 
shop. It was burned on the night 
it was sold. 
In 1850, Kelham & Fitz started 
on the landing a_ horse-tread-mill, 
btuit soon changed to steam in the 
building now used by J. W. Carter 
for a stable. 
Leach & Annable’s mill was built 
about 1870. Another interesting 
mill was built by Capt. Thomas 
Leach. There was always some- 
thing doing when the captain was 
around. He had just cut and hauled 
twelve or fifteen cords of wood for 
his own use, and conceived the 
idea that a wind mill could saw it 
much easier than he could with a 
buck saw; so he got his mill all 
fixed. When it was all ready, half 
the town came to see it start; but, 
alas! the captain had forgotten to 
rig a break, so when the mill start- 
ed and the saw bound when half- 
way through, that stick went up 
and down, up and down, until 
everything was torn to pieces, the 
mill a wreck. The captain went 
out of the wind mill business. 
Salem Commercial School. 
The commencement exercises of 
the Salem Commercial school will 
be held this year in Salem theatre, 
on Friday, June 30. This is always 
of interest to many North Shore 
people, the attendance at the school 
being made up largely of young 
men and women from this section. 
If you would like the latest and 
newest up-to-date Hat call on Mlle 
Keyou, Gloucester. * 
The paper that goes into 
the homes is the most 
valuable medium for Sum- 
mer Resort advertising. 
Unequalled in this re- 
spect by any other paper 
in New England, The 
Boston Herald is without 
question the best medium 
for Summer Resort adver- 
tising in America. 
Combining as it does 
both quality and quantity, 
it brings far better results 
than all other Boston 
papers combined. 
Special cash discount of 
10% for three insertions 
in one week; special cash 
discount of 25% for eight 
insertions in one month. 
Rates are I2%c per line 
solid and 25c per line dis- 
played. 
