LOWER INTERVALE IN THE OLD DAYS

 

By Priscilla Jones Kleinpeter

For the Plymouth Historical Society

There were a lot of Curriers living in Lower Intervale and Glove Hollow many years ago. Most were related somehow and were hard-working folks.  Some of the Curriers had large families; some farmed, some were in the glove manufacturing industry, one, Dean Currier, was an educated man and a “white collar worker.” He left these notes many years ago about life down in Lower Intervale:

He said, “The earlier road was west of the present highway and ran along the height, going up somewhere before reaching the Cold Spring. His mother told him of going to a party up there somewhere, perhaps at a Lovejoys. The first home of Uncle Sam Currier was up there. Later Uncle Sam’s house was on the east side of the present road, the barn on the west. The house burned. It stood near the present site of the little hot-dog and cold drink stand which is no longer occupied. (PJK – have no idea where this was) The house owned by Charles Cook was built by Thomas Glynn (PJK – now called “The Italian Farmhouse). His father, Stephen Glynn, came to Plymouth about 1840. He was an Irishman, settled on Plymouth Mountain, on the section known as Pike Hill. Tom Glynn worked for Colonel John Keniston, who lived on lower Main Street and was one of the rich men of the town. When Colonel Keniston learned that a romance was going on between his daughter, Martha Jane and his hostler, Tom Glynn, he said a plenty, and threatened her with being disinherited. She married her Glynn, may have eloped, and her father evidently relented, for he helped them, buying the land around the pond now known as Glynn Pond, for them. Glynn and his brother had a mill there, and later a tannery. The latter business was for a time suvvessful, but Tom finally sold to his brother, David Glynn, and he lost a good deal when the glove business dwindled. When Colonel Keniston and his wife died, Mrs. Tom Glynn, as one of the heirs, was well-to-do and she built the Charles Cook House. Their adopted daughter, Gustie (Hammond), lived there after her father’s death, and married Charles Cook. Gustie Hammond Glynn Cook was a daughter of Rufus Hammond who probably lived in some part of New Hampton. Her mother was a sister of Mr. Dalton’s mother. Mrs. Hammond was Melissa Robinson. Gustie was adopted by the Glynns when very small, possibly seven or eight. Another child, Minnie, was also adopted, but was not of equally excellent character, and seems to have disappeared from the picture.”

The notes go on to say that Tom’s brother, David Glynn lived in a house farther north on the road to Plymouth village. He lived there until he died. He had served in the Civil War, came back crippled and received a good pension, according to Mr. Currier’s note. He had a daughter, Ethel, who, at the time the note was written, was living in the southern part of the state. Eventually, David Glynn’s home burned. Another place just north of the Glynn place was that of “Uncle Sam Currier.” It was owned by a Mr. Robinson at the time it was burned, according to Miss Blodgett – so says Dean Currier’s note.

Mr. Currier did not know where the early road came down from the height. He thought perhaps it was east of the Henry Currier home (now a cellar hole) and the remnants of an orchard. The road did not run as it does now, but went down onto the intervale. There are some cellar holes there. He thought the change probably happened gradually, for roads were mere rough tracks and easily changed in those days.

In another set of notes (again, undated) Mr. Currier talks about the house at the lowest point in the Hollow originally being a mill, probably a saw mill, as there were no mill stones found there. The property was owned by Moses Hadley until 1819 when he sold it to the Curriers.. Samuel remained there from 1820 or so until about 1828, then sold it to his brother, Aaron. Aaron bought a large white house back on the hill, probably on the back road, so called, the one running up over Thurlow. He took the house down and built the large house later occupied by the Houstons, above the D.H. Currier house. It was built exactly as the original house, except that a timber was broken off at the end where it joined at the corner, and the house was smaller than the original as well. Dean Currier was a small boy when the house was built, having been born in 1822

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 The mill mentioned earlier had been made into a small house and Samuel C. Heath lived there for a time, and his son, later adopted and known as Alvin Burleigh, was born there. In 1842, when Dean Currier married, he bought the place and rebuilt it. .

The Manson Brown home was owned at one time by Walter Blair. He was from Holderness and was a prominent man, a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and later of the Probate Court. He married twice and raised a large family, most of his children being girls. Walter Blair died unexpectedly at age 53.

Dean Currier was the son of Daniel Currier and was born in 1861. In 1895 he married Emma C. Tenney, daughter of Lemuel Tenney. They had four children – Phebe, who married Leslie Hodden and Laura, who married Charles Bowles. Cornelius married someone named Hincle or Hinde, and Esther married the Rev. Jordan Howard. Dean Currier was a selectman for four years, a director of the Pemigewasset National Bank, and a trustee of the Plymouth Guaranty Savings Bank. In 1899 he resigned these positions and moved to Colebrook, where he worked at the Colebrook National Bank and the Colebrook Guaranty Savings Bank. In 1949, Dean Currier passed away and in 1955, his beloved Emma joined him in eternal sleep.

NOTE: the above article in quotes was undated, but was probably written sometime in the 1940s.