A.
GEORGE AMSDEN
Mr. Amsden was a dealer in toilet articles, fancy goods, and filled prescriptions at the Town Hall Drug Store. As a registered pharmacist, Mr. Amsden kept a good supply of drugs, medicines, and chemicals on hand. A registered pharmacist’s assistant was employed to help with the work. Prescriptions were filled at all hours when needed. Mr. Amsden was a Vermont native. His working area covered a 75 by 20 foot space at the Town Hall. In addition to his assistant, there are two additional employees to assist the customers in the main store.
F.S. BATCHELDER
Foster Smith Batchelder was born in Thornton, NH and came to Plymouth in 1876. He was a wheelwright and was employed in carriage building and repairing. His business was located on North Main Street in town. Mr. Batchelder gave particular attention to making light and heavy carriages to order. His repair business kept him busy along with his primary trade, building quality, safe carriages. In August of 1899, Mr. Batchelder died of brain disease. He was the father of eight.
WILLIAM C. & CHARLES F. BAYLEY
William Cochran Bayley and Charles Flanders Bayley were the twin sons of Timothy Eastman Bayley and Susan G. Cochran. William was a grocer and marketman. He and Charles operated as retail dealers in meats, provisions, fish, oysters, a full line of groceries and West India goods. They supplied meats and goods to the local hotels and boarding house in town, as well as to individual consumers. The brothers started their business in 1886 and operate a slaughter house in connection with their businesses, putting them in a position to fill the largest orders on short notice. Three assistants worked alongside the hard-working Bayley brothers.
I.D. CAMPBELL
Mr. Campbell operated as a merchant tailor at No. 2 Kidder Building in Plymouth. He often said, “clothes don’t make a man any more than knowledge of etiquette makes a gentleman, but good clothes like good manners are the outward and visible sign of good breeding, and an assured position in the world.” He was an experienced and skilful merchant tailor who created garments exceptional in material, style, fit and workmanship, at reasonable rates. His work area utilized about 25 by 75 feet and contained a good supply of both foreign and domestic fabrics for gentlemen’s wear. Staple goods were always in stock, with all tastes to be catered to. Mr. Campbell employed ten efficient assistants to help out in his fast growing business.
JASON FLETCHER DRAPER
The Draper brothers, sons of Nathaniel Draper were the leading manufacturers of gloves and mittens in the industry. After the deaths of his uncle and his father, Jason eventually succeeded them in the business. In 1881 he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, John F. Maynard under the firm name of Draper and Maynard. The company was located first in Ashland for about nine years before moving into a new factory in Plymouth in 1900. There the company realized an increased business in the manufacture and sale of gloves and sporting goods. The two-story factory measured 30 by 60 feet, with a three-story tannery measuring 30 by 50 feet in size, with a two-story wing. The machinery was run by water-power and orders were being filled within a short turn around time. A dozen salesmen traveled the northeast taking orders for the demand on the various styles of gloves and sporting goods.
JOHN GILL FLETCHER
Gill Fletcher manufactured buck gloves on Highland Street in Plymouth in 1890. He turned out from twelve hundred to eighteen hundred dozen pair each year. He was a native of Groton, NH and established his buck glove business in 1881. His shop was comprised of one floor and a basement on Highland Street, covering 30 square feet. He hired four assistants for the shop and employed about 200 women to work in their homes doing the finishing work.
PLUMMER
FOX
Plummer Fox was a dealer in general merchandise. He paid the highest prices in the region for country produce. A native of Woodstock, NH, Mr. Fox came to Plymouth in 1859. He clerked for three years in the Webster, Russell & Co., business and in 1862, in company with John Mason, he opened a store in the building formerly occupied by Benjamin R. Dearborn. In 1877 the firm became Fox and Dearborn until it was dissolved in 1879. Active in civic affairs, Plummer Fox served as a Selectman in 1882 and 1883. His business enterprise was comprised of three floors and a basement with a total of 12,000 feet of floor space. Four employees assisted Mr. Fox in his daily management of the store.
FRED GEORGE
Plymouth native Fred George operated the steam laundry at Railroad Square. He is careful in his work, taking extra care with the most delicate fabrics. Mr. George established his enterprise in 1889 and had already built up a thriving business in 1890. He employed several experienced assistants. The laundry work of all kinds was done on short notice and could either be picked up or delivered, free of charge.
CHARLES J. GOULD
His store was located in the Morton’s Block in Plymouth, and Charlie Gould dealt in stoves, ranges, furnaces, tin and glassware, kitchen furnishings, Brittania, Japanese, and Wooden Ware, pumps, lead pipes, zinc, and much more. The original business was founded by Mr. Thomas Pressey, who was succeeded in 1880, by Mr. William G. Flanders and Mr. Gould. In 1885 Charles Gould became the sole proprietor. He arrived in Plymouth in 1875 and worked a few years in the Russell-Webster store. He was elected Selectman in 1898, 1899, and 1900. He also once served as Town Treasurer. His store was housed on two floors, both measuring 25 by 75 feet, and he also utilized a storeroom on the second floor. Additionally, he used two large stock rooms at his residence on South Main Street. Plumbing and general repair work was done by experienced workmen, frequently on short notice. Mr. Gould catered to the hotel and summer boarding house business in the area as well as to the individual customer. Because he carried such a large stock he was able to offer special discounts on some large orders. Rags, rubber and metals of all kinds were bought and sold by Mr. Gould at his place of business.
DR. D.H. HALLENBECK
H.S. HEATH
H.S. Heath was a photographer and dealer in albums, frames of all types and offered the instantaneous process of taking pictures, in the Hodge’s Block in Plymouth. Mr. Heath, a Manchester, NH native. Offered first-class work. He began operations in Plymouth in 1885 and succeeded Mr. George W. Lincoln. Mr. Heath and his able assistants were always ready and willing to give special attemtion to children and families. A branch studio is located in Ashland in the Central Block, where Mr. Heath worked on Tuesdays, the rest of his time being spent in the main studio in Plymouth.
JOSEPH PRESCOTT HUCKINS
DAVIS B. KENISTON
W.I. LEE
WALTER W. MASON
JOHN MASON
BENJAMIN PERVIER MERRILL
J.W. PIPER
J.W. Piper was one of the most widely known Plymouth businessmen, for his honorable and enterprising methods of doing business. A Holderness native, J.W. Piper began selling meat and other food products in 1880 at his store located on Plymouth’s Main Street. His store is stocked with canned goods, fresh, salted, and pickled fish, as well as a variety of meats and other food products. He butchered about 100 head of cattle each year and in addition to selling the meat, he also sold the hides and the tallow. In 1888 he became the proprietor of The Plymouth House. He worked hard to make every guest feel entirely at home and to be as comfortable as possible with a good room, a good bed, and good service. The table was lavishly supplied with the best the market could afford, the cooking was excellent, and the prices moderate.
F.W. POOLE
A dealer in watches, jewelry, silverware, stationery, fancy goods, artists’ materials, etc., Mr. Poole gave special attention to all kinds of repairing. He sold spectacles and eyeglasses and as an Optician he was able to ground lenses to order. His attractive store was located on Plymouth’s Main Street. He was the only practicing Optician north of Manchester in 1890. Patients consulted him on the treatment of all visual defects such as astigmatism, myopia, hypermetropie, presbyopia, anisometropie, and complicated cases which common eyeglasses could not correct.
FRANK HERBERT ROLLINS
Frank Rollins, a New Hampshire native carried on the manufacture of buck gloves from 1878 to 1888 and again in 1890. He worked in an eight-room building on North Main Street in Plymouth and created exceeded two thousand dozen per year. He was also an agent for the People’s Insurance Company of Manchester, NH, Phenix of Brooklyn, NY, Insurance Company of North America, California of San Francisco, and Home Manufacturers’ of Concord, NH.
WILLIAM W. & FRANK W. RUSSELL
The enterprise conducted under the name of Webster, Russell & Co., had been carried on by the same family for almost a century in 1890. It was established by Moor Russell in 1798 and in 1890 it was co-managed by his grandsons, William and Frank. William graduated from Gilmanton and Meriden Academies after completing courses in advance studies. For seven years he clerked in the family store, which was then named Russell & Webster. In 1853 when his Uncle Charles retired, he became a member of the succeeding firm, a position he held until his death. His younger brother, Frank was a student at Miss Gilmore’s private school in Concord, Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Boston Latin School, and the Commercial Institute in New Haven, Connecticut. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1864, graduating in 1868. becoming a second lieutenant in the 6th U.S. Cavalry, where he was stationed in the South and in the West. He resigned in 1872 and returned to his hometown of Plymouth and entered into the family business. Major Russell was active in the New Hampshire National Guard and in 1884 he was commissioned a Captain and an aide on the staff of General Daniel M. White. From 1885 to 1889 he was an assistant inspector-general with the rank of Major.
F.J. SANBORN
J.A. & L.A. SMITH
JOHN S. TUFTS
John Sullivan Tufts came to Plymouth in 1861 and opened a dry goods store near the site of the Fox Block, which was burned. He then built a brick building on the site and it also burned. He opened a drug store in Gill Fletcher’s Glove Shop and in 1880 he erected the Tufts Building and continued in trade in the building until his death of organic heart disease in 1888. He dealt in drugs, medicines, toilet articles, fancy articles, cigars, and filled prescriptions. His business was located at No. 1 Highland Street. After John’s death in 1888 the business was taken over by Mr. W.W. Tufts. John’s son, Nahum Wight Tufts was a pharmacists in business with his father, but he also died in 1888 of tuberculosis. The premises was comprised of a 30 by 60 store and a well appointed laboratory. W.M. Peppard managed the business, along with two able assistants.