Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/323

 SKETCH OF LITTLETON. 293

road, extended the line to Lancaster and Fabyan's, Littleton enjoyed the ad- vantage of being a railroad terminus, which contributed materially to its devel- opment as a trade center.

Li 1824, when Mr. Truman Stevens, the oldest man in the place now en- gaged in active business, came to Littleton from Barnet, Vt., and commenced work as a harness maker, which business he has pursued to the present time, with the excei)tion of a few years spent in travel as an agent for the Messrs. Fair- Itanks, of St. Johnsbury, there were only thirteen houses in Littleton Village. The " Little store," so called, or the " Yellow " store, as it came to be known in contradistinction to the '• Red" store which was previously the only one in the jjlace, had just been erected, and a room in the second story, the first one finished, was occupied by Mr. Stevens as his shop. This building, which was for many vears occupied for mercantile purposes, was subsequently moved back from the street and converted into a dwelling house, being the same now oc- cupied by Mrs. E. S. Woolson. It was in this store that Mr. George B. Red- ington, long known as one of the prominent business men of the town and still in active life, commenced his mercantile career in 1829, having removed from the town of Chadestown, and here it was that he sold West India rum and mo- lasses at seventy-five cents per gallon, t iking in exchange Franconia bar iron at two dollars and a half per hundred. In the same year that Mr. Stevens came to town, John Farr, Esq., another well-known citizen, a native of the town, commenced active life as a clerk in the old "Red " store, for Messrs. W. & A. Brackett. This store was erected some twenty years before, by Major Ephraim Curtis, of Charlestown. who came here and engaged in trade, the Bracketts, who came from the same town, having been employed by him as clerks. This store stood on the site now occupied by the Methodist church edifice. It was subsequently removed, and, like its rival, the "Yellow " store, transformed into a dwelling — that at the corner of Pleasant and High streets, now occupied by Mr. S. O. Parker. Mr. Josiah Kilburn, father of the Kilburn brothers, of ster- eoscopic view fame, who is still living and in the enjoyment of good health at the age of eighty-one years, a native of the town of Walpole, also came to Littleton, in 1824, and engaged in business as a wool-carder and cloth dresser, continuing in the same for eleven years. He then engaged for a time in farm- ing, but in 1847 established a foundery and machine shop, carrying on the busi- ness with his son, B. W. Kilburn, as a partner after 185 i, until last year, when he leased the establishment to Graham brothers. At the time when the three men referred to, Messrs. Stevens, Farr, and Kilburn, all of whom are living, commenced their active life in town, fifty-eight years ago, there was an alder swamp, bordered by a log fence, all along the lower side -of what is now Main street, and where is now the finest row of business buildings to be found in northern New Hampshire.

Littleton is a part of the territory originally granted as Chiswick. Subse- quently it was called Apthorp. In 1 784 it was divided, forming the present towns of Littleton and Dalton. The first town meeting in Littleton appears to have been held on the nineteenth day of July, 1787, at the house of Nathan Caswell, the first settler in the town, the same having been called by John Young, by authority granted by the legislature, who by the same authority served as moderator. At this meeting Robert Charlton was chosen clerk, Samuel Larnard, John Chase and Perley Williams, selectmen, and Sargent Currier, con- stable. Until 1809 the town was classed with various others, the arrangement being changed at different times, for the purpose of choosing a representative to the General Court. The first resident of Littleton chosen representative, was James Williams, in 1794. The next was James Rankin, in 1798; then David Goodall, from 1800 to 1806 inclusive, the class then including Littleton, Dalton 2

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