local oral town histories and general historical knowledge
Mills were an important part of life in the late 1700s and 1800s. Power could be supplied by animals such as horses or oxen or moving water. With the many steep drops and a narrow valley the Cold River was an ideal location for mills of all sorts. Many towns were located because of their proximity to mill sites. Keyes Hollow, East Acworth, South Acworth, Alstead , and Drewsville all became population centers because of the water power available and the mills that took advantage of these sites. Early on, mills functioned primarily to aid the local population. Grist mills and sawmills were common in the 1700s. One of the early mills in Alstead produced paper, a rare and expensive product. As access to the region improved more mills were built and products for the outside world were produced. Flax was an important crop and it was processed and spun for cloth. Butter was also a major export from the region. In 1889 the town of Acworth produced 34,280 lbs. of butter. Maple sugar, and now maple syrup, has been an important crop for almost two centuries. To support these crops the local mills turned out buckets, tubs, barrels and other containers used to process and ship this produce. As the industrial revolution began, many mills began producing turnings using a lathe. Clothes pins, hoe and mop handles, bobbins, chair rails, and shoe pegs were produced by the thousands. Keyes Hollow, now a little crossroads, was an important mill site in the 1800s. Up to three mills operated here. Shingles and custom lumber were cut in the saw mills and a grist mill also operated here. East Acworth , which is now less populated than Keyes Hollow also had three mills and turned out quite an array of products. Barrels, bobbins, handles, boxes, sap buckets, and butter tubs were among them. Also operating were a cider press, grain thresher, bone meal grinder, a livery and a tavern. South Acworth had between four and six mills operating at an time and they produced many of the same products as East Acworth did. Shoe pegs seems to have been the dominant export. One mill was perch precariously at the top of the waterfall that plunges into the Deep Hole. It was washed away on several occasions. Alstead, also known as Paper Mill Village, supported many mills, the most famous being the Kingsbury Paper Mill. Paper which was an expensive product, requiring rags of linen and cotton cloth which were chopped into a pulp to make the paper. Later straw was used but the quality was inferior to paper made of cloth. The mill operated from 1793 to 1880 when it was lost to fire. Drewsville also has its roots as a mill village. Col. Benjamin Bellows was one of the first to harness the waterpower of Drewsville Gorge. Over the years no less than seven mills operated along the Gorge. The last important village to the area also relied on the mills but had none of its own. Cold River , near the mouth of the river was a train stop along the Connecticut River and most of the products exported from the mills along the Cold River came here to be shipped to population centers to the south. Since the small mills along the Cold River could not compete with larger mills that could locate anywhere due to the advent of the combustion engines and then electricity, the industrial nature of these riverside towns has almost vanished. No mills operate and almost all the structures are gone, save a few houses. What is left in many spots, especially Keyes Hollow and around East Acworth , are the footings of buildings and dams that show their location and give an idea of the size of these old mill operations. All are in private hands. Cold River mill sites have been inventoried and mapped by Helen Frink. (See Conservation, Recreation and Historic Sites map.) Another source of information is the inventory performed by Dick Diehl and Bud McCullough for the Lempster Master Plan. (See Lempster Mill Sites map.) In addition to the mills discussed above by Payne, mining was an important industry in the region's history as well. The mineralization associated with the valley's geologic history provided large deposits of beryl and feldspar which were mined commercially from the mid-1800's to the mid-1900's. Pegmatite mines just outside the corridor in South Acworth provided important supplies of feldspar and beryl as well as quartz. The feldspar was shipped to the mid-west to support glass and ceramics industries there. |
Town Histories
Alstead Through the Years - 1763-1990, Helen H. Frink
New Hampshire Borns a Town, Marion Nichol Rawson
History of Mill Hollow, Herman Chase
These Acworth Hills- 1767-1988, Helen Frink, 1989
History of Acworth, J.L. Merrill, 1869
History of Walpole , NH , Volumes I & II, Martha McDonalds Frizzell, 1963
New Hampshire Borns a Town, Marion Nichol Rawson
History of Mill Hollow, Herman Chase
These Acworth Hills- 1767-1988, Helen Frink, 1989
History of Acworth, J.L. Merrill, 1869
History of Walpole , NH , Volumes I & II, Martha McDonalds Frizzell, 1963