History of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire

The first navigators of the Lakes Region were the Indians in their canoes. "The Carry" on Forest Road in Wolfeboro, a narrow strip of land separating Winter Harbor from the big lake, was used by the Indians when carrying their canoes across to save the long trip around Wolfeboro Neck. At "The Carry" now is an historic marker describing Indian usage of the carrying place. Indians used the lakes to obtain a supply of foods, fish, game, and "peltry" a collection of fur-bearing skins, for their clothing and moccasins. Indian arrowheads have been found in various parts of the town. An exhibit is on display at the Libby Museum of arrowheads and other Indian relies such as stone axes, chisels and stone tools found in Wolfeboro. Parker's History Of Wolfeborough states that a stone hearth was discovered on the southern shore of Lake Wentworth, as well as several caches of Indian artifacts. Parker also tells us that within the limits of Pine Hill Cemetery on Route 109A, when Wolfeboro was first settled, was a cleared spot of ground called "The Indian Dance."

In 1759, the original proprietors of Wolfeboro divided the town into four equal tracts of nine square miles each. These were subdivided into a total of twenty lots. Three of these were reserved for public uses. One was for schools and one was for "the minister of the gospel." The third was for public uses and ten acres of this land were set aside as a public tract to be used for a town square, training field, burying ground, or for other public use. The white pine trees on these public lots received special attention. All white pines suitable for use as masts or other timbers in his majesty's ships were reserved. Trees then growing or any that grew in the future were specifically to be earmarked for the Royal Navy. The remaining seventeen tracts were for the settlers to clear and establish their homesteads. By 1804 the lots had increased to twenty-four as revealed in the Henry Rust map published in the 1974 edition of the Parker History of Wolfeborough. A copy of this map may be seen at the Wolfeboro National Bank on Brickyard Hill.

Town meetings were held in private homes before the first town house was built in 1792. The town house, located at Wolfeboro Center, was fitted with pews and served for years as a church. After 1890, Brewster Memorial Hall was used for town meetings which were held on the second floor. The present town hall, known as Brewster Memorial Hall, was built in 1890 with funds provided under the will of John Brewster. For forty years or more, the first floor was rented to stores, but today the district court and town offices have taken over. The tower clock strikes every hour on the Paul Revere bell which came from the Wolfeboro and Tuftonboro Academy.

In 1792, Wolfeboro hired a town minister, Rev. Ebenezer Alien. His salary was paid by a minister's tax levied on all taxpayers. The town-meeting house, at Wolfeboro Center, was equipped with pews, paid for by pew-holders, most of whom were Congregationalists. But there were some Baptists and Quakers in the town and they objected to paying the minister's tax. They petitioned the town to separate the business of the town from that of the parish. The town rejected the petition. Thomas Cotton then petitioned the town meeting to release him from paying the minister's tax. The town refused, and so in that fall of 1802, the tax assessor assessed Thomas Cotton $1.92 for the minister's tax. Cotton refused to pay so the assessor took one of Cotton's cows in January 1803, and sold it at public auction. Expectedly, Cotton sued the town but the county court in Dover delayed it until 1806. The town finally settled out of court, paying Cotton $20.00 for the cow. Altogether, it cost the town $75.00, and taxation for ministerial support ended in Wolfeboro.

The 1804 map of Wolfeboro land-owners properties show #16 tract belonging to David Sewall. Its 440 acres included a strip-bordered by Smith River and extending along Wolfeboro Bay and around Sewall Point and back across North Main Street to the river. In 1889, Col. Edward Dickinson of New York, built the first summer home on Sewall Road called "Ferncliffe" on a ten acre site with shorefront of 600 feet. This summer home had thirteen rooms, a wind-mill, a bath-house, a boathouse, and a stone wharf one hundred and forty feet long! Many other summer visitors, attracted by the beauty of Wolfeboro Bay and the big lake, built summer homes on Sewall Road. Today, many of these fine homes have been winterized, serving as year-round residences for Wolfeboro citizens lucky enough to acquire Sewall Road property. Others have built summer homes on Wolfeboro Neck, South Wolfeboro Bay, Rust Pond, Crescent Lake, and Lake Wentworth - all located in Wolfeboro, America's Oldest

Captain John Smith in 1614 discovered the Piscataqua River, which lies between Maine and New Hampshire. In 1629, Captain John Mason obtained from the Council of Plymouth, England, a grant for some N.H. land. This grant encompassed land from the middle of the Piscataqua River west across to the headwaters of the Merrimack River between the 40th and the 44th parallel, north latitude. Wolfeboro was within this area. The land went through various grants, claims and counterclaims until 1746 when the whole interest in these New Hampshire lands was conveyed to Mark Wentworth, John Wentwcrth, sons of Governor Benning Wentworth and eleven other shareholders. The total price paid for this property was only 1500 pounds. These thirteen shareholders were the proprietors of Mason's Patent of the Masonian Property which is now Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. The area of the land involved was 36 square miles.

In 1759, the original proprietors of Wolfeboro divided the town into four equal tracts of nine square miles each. These were subdivided into a total of twenty lots. Three of these were reserved for public uses. One was for schools and one was for "the minister of the gospel." The third was for public uses and ten acres of this land were set aside as a public tract to be used for a town square, training field, burying ground, or for other public use. The white pine trees on these public lots received special attention. All white pines suitable for use as masts or other timbers in his majesty's ships were reserved. Trees then growing or any that grew in the future were specifically to be earmarked for the Royal Navy. The remaining seventeen tracts were for the settlers to clear and establish their homesteads. By 1804 the lots had increased to twenty-four as revealed in the Henry Rust map published in the 1974 edition of the Parker History of Wolfeborough. A copy of this map may be seen at the Wolfeboro National Bank on Brickyard Hill.

By the end of 1759, there were twenty-four proprietors of Wolfeboro. At a meeting of these twenty-four in Portsmouth, Nov. 14, 1759, Daniel Pierce was appointed moderator and David Sewall, clerk, and a name was chosen for the town. On September 13, 1759, General James Wolfe, a British officer, led his troops to victory against the French on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec, Canada. This great land was thus held as an English colony. General Wolfe died on the battlefield, but, his fame became widespread and the proprietors of the new town named it in his honor - but spelled it Wolf-Borough. Many have wondered why General Wolfe's name was chosen but history says that Wolfe had previously associated with New Hampshire soldiery in military expeditions on the eastern coast of the country and was a very popular officer. There is no record that General Wolfe ever came to or through Wolfeboro but his fame has spread for over 200 years by the town named in his honor.

Town meetings were held in private homes before the first town house was built in 1792. The town house, located at Wolfeboro Center, was fitted with pews and served for years as a church. After 1890, Brewster Memorial Hall was used for town meetings which were held on the second floor. The present town hall, known as Brewster Memorial Hall, was built in 1890 with funds provided under the will of John Brewster. For forty years or more, the first floor was rented to stores, but today the district court and town offices have taken over. The tower clock strikes every hour on the Paul Revere bell which came from the Wolfeboro and Tuftonboro Academy.

In 1792, Wolfeboro hired a town minister, Rev. Ebenezer Alien. His salary was paid by a minister's tax levied on all taxpayers. The town-meeting house, at Wolfeboro Center, was equipped with pews, paid for by pew-holders, most of whom were Congregationalists. But there were some Baptists and Quakers in the town and they objected to paying the minister's tax. They petitioned the town to separate the business of the town from that of the parish. The town rejected the petition. Thomas Cotton then petitioned the town meeting to release him from paying the minister's tax. The town refused, and so in that fall of 1802, the tax assessor assessed Thomas Cotton $1.92 for the minister's tax. Cotton refused to pay so the assessor took one of Cotton's cows in January 1803, and sold it at public auction. Expectedly, Cotton sued the town but the county court in Dover delayed it until 1806. The town finally settled out of court, paying Cotton $20.00 for the cow. Altogether, it cost the town $75.00, and taxation for ministerial support ended in Wolfeboro.

Summer Resort.

Governor John Wentworth... Wolfeboro's claim to fame as the oldest summer resort in America is based on the building of a large summer mansion on the shores of Lake Wentworth in 1771 by Colonial Governor John Wentworth. A beautiful replica of this mansion is displayed in the Clark House on South Main Street. Governor Wentworth was one of the proprietors of Wolfeboro, owning several tracts of land just north of the lake which bears his name. He had a great interest from 1759 on in developing the town. He spent 3 years in England (1763-66) and was appointed August 11, 1766, by King George as Governor of New Hampshire and surveyor of the King's woods in North America. Returning to America in 1767 at the age of 30, he received a royal welcome from the people of Portsmouth, his native town. Two years later, he married a Portsmouth widow, Frances Deering Atkinson. Deering and Francestown, N.H. were named in her honor. The oncoming revolution finally drove Governor and Lady Wentworth out of the state and eventually to England. Loyal to the King, Governor Wentworth was named Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia in 1792. He lived in Halifax until his death in 1820 at the age of 93.

Charles Carroll... of Carrollton Carroll County, where Wolfeboro is located, is one of thirteen Carroll Counties in the United States, all named after Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland. He was born in Annapolis in 1737 and died in 1832 at 95 years of age. While not a citizen of Wolfeboro, he was a great American patriot, and famous because he was the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was a member of the Continental Congress, a close friend of George Washington, and a U.S. Senator. He was known as the richest man in America, owning 12,700 acres. He originally held slaves but later became an abolitionist. He helped start the Bank of North America and was one of the founders of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He became a public idol greatly admired by the nation. Carroll County can be proud of its famous namesake. John Brewster... John Brewster was a farm boy, a native of Wolfeboro, who became its greatest benefactor. A descendant of Elder William Brewster of Pilgrim fame, John Brewster, born in 1812, attended the Wolfeboro and Tuftonboro Academy in the fall of 1828 and later taught school at the age of 16 at Milton. At age 17, he kept his uncle's general store in Rochester. At 18, he worked in the Hale Hardware Store at Dover Landing until he was 23. During the evenings he worked in Dover dry goods stores, learning much about textiles. With his savings plus a loan, he went to Boston and started a dry goods store. It prospered and in 1845 he formed a wholesale dry goods firm. In 1851, he formed a banking enterprise so successful that by 1861 his firm handled U.S. Government bond sales for all New England, averaging one half million dollars per week in sales. After the Civil War, his firm sold railroad, state and municipal bonds. He retired as a millionaire in 1883 and he died in 1886. During his lifetime, he came back to Wolfeboro every year. In his will, he provided ample funds for the Brewster Library, Brewster Memorial Hall and Brewster

Free Academy.

Henry Wilson... Wolfeboro's most illustrious personality was Henry Wilson, born Jeremiah Colbath in Farmington in 1812. He later had his name legally changed to Henry Wilson. Born into poor circumstances, he had little schooling but improved his knowledge by reading history and biography - nearly 1000 volumes by 1833. He went to Natick, Massachusetts and learned shoemaking, but his health made it necessary to give that up so he took a trip to Washington, D.C. observing the federal government and slavery in Maryland and the District of Columbia. He became a strong anti-slavery advocate. To further his education, in the winter of 1836, he attended the Wolfeboro and Tuftonboro Academy and also taught at Mink Brook. He boarded with Samuel Avery who helped and encouraged him and who was his lifelong friend. Henry Wilson became a man of high moral character and he was a lifelong abstainer. Leaving Wolfeboro, he returned to the shoe business in Natick and produced in his shoe career 664,000 pairs. He was elected to the Massachusetts legislature and became a Brigadier-General in the state militia. He was later elected to the U.S. Senate where he was chairman of the Militia Committee during the Civil War. He was elected Vice President of the United States in 1872, but died before completing his term in 1875. His body lay in state in the Capitol rotunda upon orders of President Grant. Henry Wilson is a proud part of Wolfeboro history.
Greenleaf B. Clark... Greenleaf B. Clark was a Wolfeboro benefactor whose life spanned the last half of the 19th century and a third of the 20th. He owned the house on South Main Street built by his grandfather in 1778, located across from Huggins Hospital. The original property included 86 acres extending to Clark's Point on Lake Winnipesaukee. Mr. Clark, known as Green Clark, laid out Green Street and Clark Road and sold lots for numerous homes. He also bought up houses in town, turning them into rental properties. In 1886, he was on the building committee for the Unitarian Church which cost $6000 to build and was at that time, the most costly church in town. It is now the Masonic Temple. He bought the four-story shoe shop on Lehner Street, now owned by the town, and used it to house several businesses. When Carpenter School was built in 1925, Mr. Clark bought the old Pickering School building, moved it to a new site, and turned it into a basketball hall for the youth of the town. Upon his death, the Clark Homestead and Clark Park were left to the town. The Wolfeboro Historical Society opens the Clark House each summer to the public as an early American living museum.

James H. Martin... The first President of the Wolfeboro National Bank was James H. Martin, a native son of Wolfeboro, who held many public offices and who gave generously to local causes. Born in 1841, Mr. Martin ran the farm which was part of the original Governor Wentworth property for a number of years. His wife was Mary Huggins and the farm he ran was the Huggins Family Farm. Mr. Martin did a great deal of surveying and administered a large number of estates. In 1887, he moved into a fine home he had built on South Main Street in Wolfeboro. This property is now St. Cecilia's Church. As a public servant, Mr. Martin was selectman for five terms, a member of the Wolfeboro School board and in 1884 was a member of the general court. When the first hospital in Wolfeboro was started in the early 1900s, Dr. Fred Clew and Dr. Nathaniel H. Scott pioneered the project. Dr. Scott, who was Mr. Martin's family physician, persuaded Mr. Martin to give the first $10,000. This he did with the stipulation that it should be called Huggins Hospital, honoring his wife's family name.

Mary Cotton Redpath... Mary Cotton Redpath, a Wolfeboro native, together with her second husband, James Redpath, were responsible for the founding of Memorial Day or Decoration Day, as it was first called. Mary was a staunch abolitionist and prior to the Civil War, she and her husband made their home in Maiden, Mass., a station on the underground railroad which helped runaway slaves get to Canada and freedom. James Redpath was a Civil War correspondent for the New York Tribune. At the end of the Civil War, he and Mary were in Charleston, South Carolina. There, they saw the neglected graves of the soldiers in the prisoners' corral. After a memorial service at Zion Church, Mary and some friends placed flowers on the neglected graves. This was in May, 1865, when the nation still mourned President Lincoln's death. The Redpaths later petitioned Congress to make May 30th a national holiday of remembrance for those who died in service. The tradition of placing flowers on veterans graves became a national custom each May 30th. Mary Cotton Redpath died in August, 1914, and was buried in the Cotton family plot on Cotton Mountain Road.
George A. Carpenter... George A. Carpenter was a poor boy who grew up to great wealth. As a young man, he went to Boston and made his fortune in real estate. He used to say he could stay in bed mornings thinking up deals to make more money than his friends who went to work. He acquired valuable property in Brookline, Mass. He was self-made and self-educated. He returned to Wolfeboro, built a beautiful home at the end of Green Street which is now owned by Brewster Academy. He served in the N.H. Legislature from 1894 to 1898. He was a great friend and supporter of U.S. Senator George Moses of New Hampshire. Remembering his own early poverty, George Carpenter, provided funds for clothing and food to the needy people of the town. He used to drive through the town in a rubber-tired buggy and throw loilipops and candy to any children along the way. He owned valuable real estate on Sewall Road and later sold lots for summer homes. He also owned property on Umbrella Point on Wolfeboro Neck. When Carpenter School was built in 1925, he gave $26,000 towards its construction and the school was named in his honor.

Laura I. Mattoon... Summer camps for boys and girls have been a part of Wolfeboro's summer resort fame. Laura I. Mattoon, an exceptional teacher from the New York area, started Camp Kehonka for girls in 1902. Today, it is one of the oldest and finest girls camps in the United States. Miss Mattoon was a pioneer in the field of camping. She taught her campers many of the pleasures, values, and skills of outdoor life. Some of these skills included canoeing, swimming, hiking and nature study. She shared in the publication of the Camper's Guidance Manual which emphasized character development and skills in outdoor activities, arts and crafts, music, drama, and nature studies. For 15 years, Laura Mattoon was secretary of the American Camping Association. Her skill in making camping an important means of building character has benefited thousands of girls from all parts of the world.

Wolfeboro is located on the eastern end of Lake Winnipesaukee, the largest lake in New Hampshire. Earlier spelled, "Winnipiseogee", it was legally changed by the legislature to "Winnipesaukee" in 1931. Indian lore has it that Ahanton, chief of one of the Winnipesaukee tribes, was away on a trip from the Meredith area when a young brave named Kona (the Eagle) came courting the chief's daughter, Ellacoya. She fell in love with Kona, but the father was angered because Kona dared to court Ellacoya in the chief's absence. He threatened to kill Kona but Ellacoya stepped between them. Kona showed no fear so the chief consented to his daughter's marriage. After days of celebration and feasting, a canoe party accompanied the couple across the lake, but a dark cloud covered the sun and a threatening storm began to turn the water black. Just when the party was going to turn back for safety, the sun broke through the clouds guiding the couple safely to the other shore. Chief Ahanton cried out: "Here is the Smile of the Great Spirit, Winnipesaukee!"

Two centuries ago, boating on Lake Winnipesaukee grew beyond the canoe stage. Gundalows, small sail-rigged freight boats were widely used in the seacoast area. On Lake Winnipesaukee, they hauled lumber and other freight to the various ports. Next came horseboats, barges big enough to carry lumber, hay, etc. For motive power, they had a paddle wheel on each side turned by a treadmill. Horses walking on the treadmill kept the paddle wheels turning. Some horseboats used two animals side-by-side. These crafts were truly one horse power or two horse power boats. An excellent model of a horseboat is exhibited at the Clark House on South Main Street.

In 1838, at Lakeport, the first steamboat was built - the Belknap - 96 feet long and 33 feet wide. This side-wheeler was powered by a steam engine salvaged from a sawmill. The Belknap ran successfully for 8 years but was finally shipwrecked in a nor'easter in 1841 while towing a raft of logs. It ran aground on a small island near Center Harbor, which was named Steamboat Island. The Belknap sank but the engine was salvaged.

SideWheelers... Following the Belknap were a dozen or more of similar vessels which plied the lake waters for the next half century. Most famous of these was the "Lady of the Lake". The Lady was built at Lakeport in 1848-49 and was owned by the Concord and Montreal Railroad. The railroad station at the Weirs was adjacent to the pier where the Lady docked. The Lady made daily trips around the lake and carried up to 400 passengers and their baggage. The largest boat on the lake, she was 125 feet long with 35 foot beam. She had a tall smoke stack right behind the pilot house. Her walking beam, which moved the paddle wheels, was about midship. The Cocheco Railroad, later to become the Boston and Maine, had a terminal at Alton Bay. To compete with the Lady the railroad built the Dover, later called the Chocoma. Still another sidewheeler, the "Jim Bell", was also doing lake business. This competition came to a head when the famous Mount Washington made her first trip July 4, 1872, and by 1880, the heyday of the sidewheeler was reached.

The Mount Washington... The most famous side-wheeler on the big lake, the Mount Washington, was built at Alton Bay for the Boston and Maine Railroad. Built to carry 1200 passengers, the old Mount was 178 feet long with a beam of 48 feet. Flat-bottomed, she drew only 8 feet of water. One fall, when the lake was low, she went aground at the Wolfeboro dock, finally churning herself loose with her powerful one cylinder engine. Measuring 42" in diameter, the engine had a stroke of 10 feet and at full speed, the Mount was the fastest boat on the lake. Motorboats used to ride the rolling waves in her wake like a roller coaster. Waiting passengers at the Wolfeboro dock could tell in advance when the Mount was coming by the smoke rising above Sewall Road minutes before she rounded Sewall's Point. In 1920, the B & M sold the Mount to Captain Lavallee who ran her until 1939 when she was destroyed by fire. The sound of her whistle and her bell and her paddle wheels no longer proclaimed her famous presence on the lake, although its successor, the present "Mount" came on the lake in 1940, and still makes its rounds daily.

One hundred years ago the big lake was used to float logs to sawmills on the shore. Timber would be cut and hauled to the water's edge, then assembled into long rafts, held together by poles laid across them and nailed to them. These rafts were then assembled into larger rafts held together by a log boom encircling the smaller rafts. These large log rafts were towed by steamboat or motorboat to sawmills on shore. At Wolfeboro, the large rafts were towed to a row of piles, extending from the mouth of Smith River to the end of Lake Street. Then, one by one, the smaller rafts were towed under the bridge and up the river to a sawmill located across from the railroad station. There the separate logs were hauled up into the mill and cut up into planks or beams. The sawmill stood where Brown's Repair Shop now stands on Mill Street.

The Pavillion Hotel, later called the Kingswood Inn, was one of Wolfeboro's largest building and was located on South Main Street at what is now Brewster Academy's playing field. Built in 1849, the inn lasted only 50 years, and was torn down in 1899.

The day of the grand lake and mountain hotels was rather short. Most of them like the equally spacious Hobbs-is-Inn, located at the site of the present post office, had passed from the scene early in the 1900's. The Railroad Comes to Wolfeboro Before the railroad came to Wolfeboro, freight was either hauled to town by ox teams or carried in the summer by lake steamers from Weirs or Alton Bay. In winter, it was brought from Alton Bay by ox teams across the ice. Wolfeboro leaders finally decided the time had come to have rail connections with the outside world. On July ], 1868, they raised $35,000 and the Wolfeboro Railroad Company was chartered. The 12-mile line would connect Wolfeborough with Wolfeborough Junction - later renamed Sanbornville. The original $35,000 was not sufficient to complete the project and on September 20, 1869, Wolfeboro voted another $35,000 to be paid one half when the railroad was brought up to grade and one half on completion. On August 19, 1872, the first locomotive hauled five passenger coaches into town with whistles screeching and citizens were given free rides to Sanbornville all day long. Three stations - Wolfeborough, Wolfeboro Falls, and Cotton Valley sold passenger tickets and handled freight business. The Wolfeborough Railroad now operates mainly as a summer tourist attraction.

Passenger Trains... For 60 years, starting in 1872, the Boston and Maine Railroad carried people in and out of Wolfeboro. Three trains in and out of town each week day, connected the town, via Sanbornville, with the main line from Dover to North Conway. Puffing steam and soft-coal smoke, bells ringing and whistles blowing, those trains rambled down the track loaded with passengers, mail, express, bread and baggage - the latter carried free. Tickets were cheap and 500-mile mileage books cost 2e per mile and were much used by traveling salesmen. The average train consisted of the engine and tender, a baggage car with smoking section, and one or two passenger cars. Locomotive #639, was built by the B & M and came into service in 1890 as #157 - North Wind. It was in service on the Wolfeboro branch before it was scrapped in 1915, and is a fond memory to railroad buffs.

In the early decades of the 20th century, before school buses became prevalent, the so-called "Train Kids" attended Brewster Free Academy. Each school day, some twenty or so students from Ossipee, Wakefield, Sanbornville, Brookfield, and Cotton Valley came to school via the daily freight train. Equipped with a passenger coach, the freight left Sanbornville at 7:35 a.m. Train Kids from Center Ossipee and Ossipee had to leave home plenty early to catch the train to Wolfeboro. Some of the boys would get off at Wolfeboro Falls and walk to Brewster. The Train Kids all arrived at school early. There they had a special room where they could wait for the chapel exercises which started the school day. The Train Kids returned home via the 4 p.m. passenger train, the morning freight having long since departed. Two Train Kids became U.S. Congressmen - William N. Rogers, BFA '09, of Wakefield and Chester M. Merrow, BFA '25, of Moultonville. They were each elected for several terms to serve their native state in Washington.

Local cobblers made boots and shoes in Wolfeboro's early days. During the Civil War, many farmers had small shops near their homes where they made boots for the Union soldiers. In 1873, the Lake Boot and Shoe Co., started shoe manufacturing and in 1883, the Wolfeborough Steam Power Company built a large shoe factory on Lehner Street. This building was four stories high and 200 feet long with 2 ells, 36 x 75 ft. Two shoe companies occupied this building which burned in 1887. It was rebuilt and occupied by Spalding and Swett. This large factory was torn down about 25 years later except for the west ell, which stands on Lehner Street and is three stories high. The Municipal Electric Plant and the Community Center are now located where the main building once stood. Another smaller factory just east of the big plant was also used for shops by the C. K. Fox Co. Later, it was used for other businesses including a sardine packing plant during World War II. This building is now owned by the town and houses several small businesses.

Before automobiles were common in the early 1900s, horses furnished most of the power for transportation of people and freight except for the railroads. Every horse had to be fitted with horseshoes by local blacksmiths although some farmers shed their own horses. Blacksmiths also did a lot of heavy iron work, making such things as hinges for barndoors and fence gates. They also made such tools as long handled ice chisels for cutting holes in the ice. In Wolfeboro, there was a blacksmith shop on Mill Street and one on Union Street, corner of Lehner Street. There was also one at Wolfeboro Falls near the railroad crossing. The shop on Union Street had a sling for shoeing oxen allowing them to be lifted up and shed in mid-air. When Al Crosby ran that shop in later years, he hammered out the beautiful wrought iron frames and supports which held the "Wolfeboro, the Oldest Summer Resort in America" signs at each town line. Boys, who used to watch as the blacksmiths clanged out horseshoes, glowing red from the forge, were often given a ring which the blacksmith made from an iron horseshoe nail and which the boy wore until his finger got rusty.

In the first two or three decades of the 20th century, lumbering was a major industry in the Wolfeboro area. There were numerous portable sawmills run by steam. These were located usually near the railroad so the rough boards could be loaded onto flat cars and carried to Rochester, Dover, or Boston to be made into finished lumber. Horsedrawn wagons or sleds would haul the boards from the sawmills to the nearest railroad station - Wolfeboro, or Wolfeboro Falls, Fernald or Cotton Valley. When the portable saw mill had finished in one area, it was taken apart and hauled to the next stand of timber. Thousands of carloads of boards were shipped from town bringing in a sizeable income to the sawmill operators, and the lumber dealers. The sawdust from the sawmills was often used in ice houses for packing and storing large cakes of ice until the time came to dig it out for use in refrigerators in the summer time. Many homeowners also used sawdust to bank their houses in the winter to keep out the cold, an early form of home insulation.

Excelsior, once a common product used to pack fragile items for shipping in wooden boxes, and also used for filling in mattresses, is not seen much today. Excelsior is a shredded wood product made from poplar or other soft woods. It comes from the machines like coarse wool in various sizes. Today, excelsior has largely been replaced by foam and plastic products, but it is still used to make pads for the bottom of cartons in which day old chicks are shipped. After excelsior had been shaved off the remnant sticks of poplar, they were sold to local housewives years ago for kindling wood at $4.00 per dumpcart load. This was sixty years ago when woodstoves were in common use. Two excelsior mills were operated at Wolfeboro Falls. The Hutchins mill started around 1885 - employed 15 men and turned out four or five carloads of baled excelsior a week. The Berry mill came into operation in 1900 and produced several carloads of excelsior per week. Both mills used water power from Smith River. Until 1980 the Berry mill made exceisior pads. The Hutchins mill now produces Damart, the insulating material for under-clothing used by winter sports enthusiasts.

Started in 1804, the first library in Wolfeboro was known as the Republican Social Library. At the start, shares cost $2.00 each - later $3.00, and members of the library paid a tax of 34 cents a year. They could take out a book for two months. Today, the time limit is three weeks. At the start, about 90 books were purchased and several volumes were contributed by association members. Various citizens served as librarian. Thomas Rust served for twenty years, 1823-1843. In 1850, some fifty persons were members of the association. The library was considered a valuable institution and many persons acquired a stock of knowledge that could not have been obtained otherwise. But during its later years, few additions were obtained and in 1888 it was finally sold at auction.
The Brewster Library, established under the will of John Brewster, was located in a wing of Brewster Memorial Hall and opened in March of 1890. The town formed a library commission which operated a library jointly with the Brewster Library, using the same librarian. By 1900, there were 1750 volumes. Since 1979, the town has operated the Wolfeboro Public Library in a new building on South Main Street with some 25,000 volumes available. the a new building on 25,000 volumes. . The Brewster Library no longer exixts as an independent entity.

The first hospital in Wolfeboro was a 12-bed facility in a house which stood near the site of Kingswood Regional High School. James H. Martin gave the first $10,000 toward its purchase. Dedicated in 1907, the building was replaced by the new Huggins Hospital on South Main Street which was dedicated in 1924 as a memorial to John Huggins. In 1950, the hospital was enlarged and had a capacity of 56 beds. The largest expansion took place in 1970 when the Sinclair Patient Care Center was added at a cost of $3 million. The new center was dedicated in 1972 as a memorial to Jennie H. Sinclair, whose bequest of a ~1 million endowment to Huggins Hospital made it possible to complete this major project. Mrs. Sinclair, a longtime summer resident of Wolfeboro gave generous support to church, temperance, and many local charities. In 1980, the Bartsch Emergency Service Center was added to the hospital. Mr. Bartsch, a former member of the hospital board of trustees, generously provided for much of the cost of this important new wing.

John Brewster attended the Wolfeboro and Tuftonboro Academy in 1818. Some sixty years later, under his will, the Academy charter was amended and the name was changed to Brewster Free Academy - to provide a free high school education to local students. He left $500,000 to the school and his support was to continue as long as the property remained tax exempt. It included a sizeable tract between South Main Street and the lake front. John Brewster's Will also stipulated that the school must be non-sectarian and students must attend daily devotions and "divine services on Sunday." "Formation of character" was to be the aim of the school. The first Brewster Free Academy building was erected on a beautiful site between South Main Street and Wolfeboro Bay, at a cost of $150,000. This burned in 1903 and the present building opened in 1905. When Kingswood Regional High School opened in 1964, B.F.A. became Brewster Academy, an important private school, which receives some support under John Brewster's Will.

The first electric plant in Wolfeboro was installed at Clew's sawmill on Mill Street in 1897. The commissioners had $6000 to spend for dynamo, streetlights, and wiring. The first dynamo cost $2000 and used steam from the sawmill boiler. The original 100 streetlights were a far cry from those in use today. To economize, the streetlights were turned off at midnight and were not turned on at all on moonlit nights. Approximately 1700 domestic lights were installed and at 10 lights per home, they served perhaps 170 customers. Wolfeboro outgrew the original plant and in 1924, built a new power house on Lehner Street. First it was coal powered and later was used as fuel oil. Today, the company buys power from Public Service of N.H., but the local power plant is ready on a stand-by basis should a power failure occur, and also sees occasional winter use. The Municipal Electric Department currently serves some 3600 customers.