Orford Historical Society Programs

Edited by Arthur S. Pease

East Orford Homesteads and Residents: Mt. Cube to Gilman's Corner

Memories of Glenn F. Pease and Theda Howard Pease 

[Recorded in 1979, transcribed in 2000, edited in 2014 by Arthur S. Pease]

The following is an edited transcript of interviews with my father and mother, Glenn and Theda Pease, regarding their memories of the people and places near our family home in East Orford. It was done in1979, after Dad had his first strokes but when his memory was still good. I asked them to tell me who had lived in various places as far back as they could remember. The “I" in each case is Dad, as he answered most of the questions, while some additional information is from Ma, either then or in the summer of 2000. Some answers dealt with their personal memory and some were based on information they had heard from others. I made additions and changes in 2014. My questions are in brackets. Memories are fallible and I'm sure there are mistakes and omissions. I would welcome corrections and additions.

Thomson Home:

[Owned by Merrill & Morrison – 1892 Hurd Atlas map] Bert Dow lived there a while and then there was a Jackson lived there a while. Jess and Victoria [Downing] Currier lived there before I got through school, so it was probably in 1915 or 1916 when he moved there, as I got through school in 1921. [They moved to Alabama in the early 50s, then to Hendersonville, N.C.] Mel Thomson bought it of Jess and moved there in 1954. It is called Mt. Cube Farm.

Hook Sr. Home:

 [Then move down to Lester Hook, Sr. – who lived there when you were growing up?] Will and Ida Learned lived there. [J.H. Gillman – 1892 Hurd Atlas map]

Hook Home:

[When did Bud Hook build his place?] He built it sometime after Mel moved up here, because Bud went to work for him. He worked picking up milk for a while and then he and Marian built the house, sometime in the mid-fifties. Before Bud built his house, Uncle Scott Johnson and Aunt Maria, Ma’s sister and her husband, lived in a house there – the barn was across the road. I don’t know just when the barn did burn. I think the house just fell down, as I can remember a sort of cellar under an old stone where I used to go in there. I don’t remember who built or lived in the little place just beyond Buds.

Turpin Home:

Warren  Chase built that for Holden from down to Hanover, he was a cook. Then MacMackin bought it from Holden. 

Thomson Home:

Then there was the Gould Place, where Uncle Henry [brother of Samuel Pease, Glenn’s grandfather] and Aunt Abbie Pease used to live, years ago. Glenn went to school to Abbie. [There was the house where it is now and the barn across the road.] Above the house was the upper barn, which burned. Then there was a big shed and hog pen. Henry was my father's uncle and lived there when I was a boy. He sold it to Wilfred Jones and Jones sold to Bert Clark, whose wife was a sister to Jones. Bert Clark came from out Indian Pond country - they had the ________ place, because they swapped that place towards the place out here. Clark sold it to Gould, who did some farming there, cause she got throwed off the manure spreader and broke a leg. Gould sold the place to Mel – they bought that before they bought Jess Currier’s place, probably around 1951 or 52, cause I used the land up there, for pasture and hay, for several years. [We also kept young cattle in the barn for a few years.] Peter Thomson built the house up in the field [across Rt. 25-A] 10 or 15 years ago. Pete then gutted the main house and rebuilt it as it stands today.

Chase Home:

This was the Chase and Julia Pease place – Chase was a brother to Uncle Henry. He was there when I was a boy. In 1915 or 16, Chase Pease fell from an apple tree he was grafting and only lived a day or 

so. Then, their son Clarence Pease and wife Addie lived there a while. Addie also taught in the school here. Then they moved to Wentworth and had a small store for a while. Their daughter, Judy Pease, still lives in their house in Wentworth [This house stands – barely – at the corner of Rt. 25-A & Rt. 25]. Bill and Flora Ingerson were living there when the house burned in March  of 1928. Stanley Chase bought the farm from the Pease estate in 1940-41. He kept a few cattle but never sent milk. There were two barns across the road. I tore down the hoss-barn for the lumber when I built [the east end] my barn in 1942. Next is a one-acre site, which was part of the Chase Pease place. Eleanor’s mother, Inez Perry lived in that house for a while and Bud and Marian Hook lived there when they first came up here. Now Stanley and Eleanor’s daughter Shirley and her husband Alton Deblois live there.

Gale-Perry Home:

Mary Gale lived  there, then after her husband [Charles] died, Harry Goodwin, who is an own cousin of mine, came up there from Sanborton to work for her. She paid the taxes and bills and he had what he could make off the place. He farmed it and sent cream, separated it and sent it down to Wentworth. He married Mrs. Gale’s daughter, Bertha. There was a hoss-barn right next to the road and the cow barn down across the barnyard. I tore down the cow barn and had the lumber to use. [The big house on this site burned in 1958.] The present house was one Leighton Perry built after the fire – part of that was a camp they moved in there and part they built. [This was later owned by Susan and Mark Drabick. He put up a windmill and also installed a low-head hydro plant in the brook up the hill to the south.] Next was the house Tony Perry built, partly by adding on to a camp they moved in there as well. 

Sherburn-Pease Home:

There was about 100 acres in the farm when Luther Perry Sherburn bought it from Alanson Haines in October, 1866 for $2,400.  Mabel Sherburn, Luther’s daughter, married Francis Pease in 1887. They went to live in Pike and at some point moved to Ellsworth Hill, Wentworth, where Francis worked for his father, Samuel and lived in the end of his house. In the early1890’s, Samuel moved to Franconia, NH.  Sometime before January of 1895, Francis, Mabel and family moved here, where Francis worked for Luther Sherburn, his father-in-law, for a year but they didn’t get along, so the family followed Samuel Pease to Franconia. Harriet Blodgett Sherburn, Mabel’s step-mother, died in 1893 and Luther lived alone until he told Mabel that if she and her husband would move here and take care of him until he died, he would give her the place. [However, she did pay him $1,000 for the place] The combination of inducement and duty apparently worked and the Pease family made its last move, to Sunset View Farm here on 25-A, around the turn of the century. Glenn Francis [5/17/06] was born here on his mother’s thirty-eighth birthday, the only boy after six girls. Francis Pease died of a heart attack or stroke on their anniversary, February 5, 1925. He hadn’t been very well for a few years and the farm and barns were run down. Glenn gradually fixed up the barns and got the land back into production. The house and attached shed burned on September 5, 1957, and the house was rebuilt on the same site with the help of many friends and neighbors, organized by Mel Thomson. In 1973, after Francis Pease retired from the Air Force, he and Evelyn had a manufactured home placed in the field at the end of the Pease house. [Now owned by Glenn and Theda’s grandson, Harry Pease]

Ladd Home:

That place down here was an apple house. Ma [Mabel] sold them the land – Charles and Oscar Ladd and Walter Mack. There is just a quarter of an acre of land they used to build an apple house in the late 1930s. They raised apples over to Mrs. Baer’s  - they had a grader in there and sold apples out of there. Then when they gave up, they bought Walter out and Os tore off his end and took it down to his place and built a garage. Charlie then made the remaining half into a house, where Charlie and Florence lived until they died. Charlie and Oscar were born and brought up down at the foot of the hill where Oscar and Mae lived, which was their parent’s home. Their father had a little store there. Charlie’s house was moved in later years and there is a manufactured home there now.

Old County Road:

Down the road a little ways, just this side [west] of the brook, a road turns to the right. This was called the "Old County Road" and used to go over to Ellsworth Hill, Sanders Hill and on down to Wentworth. [Dad's Uncle Horace Pease lived on Ellsworth Hill in the Sam Pease place and when Dad was 9, Uncle Horace gave him a small ox yoke to use on a pair of steers. Dad always said he lugged it home himself. I have the yoke, which still has some blue paint on it and has the name "J.F. Crockett" stenciled into both sides.]

Nutter Home:

This was called the Tibbetts place, where Charlie Ladd lived for a while. Evelyn Nutter bought the house during WWII, while her husband Ken was in the Army. Ted Nutter bought from his father and lives there now. [In 1955, Dad bought the 10 acres across the brook which had gone with this place.]

Pushee Home:

This was the Davistown or East Orford School, built in 1903 as the schoolhouse for this area of town, for less than $1,000. Glenn went to school there and teachers boarded at Mrs. Gales or with Mabel Pease for a few years. [Alice Herrin and Lucy Worthington bought it sometime in the 1930s and arranged it as a sort of civil defense shelter, with beds, medical supplies, etc., during WWII. They sold it to Gerald Pease in 1952 and he converted it to a one-family house. Gerald sold to the Belt family in 1971 and they sold to Frank Pushee. It is now owned by Mike Carter, Gerald Pease’s step-grandson.] Before this school was built, the schoolhouse was across from Ted Nutter's home, between the road and the brook. Mabel Sherburn Pease went to school there. 

Pease Home:

Gerald built this house in 1971-72 and later built the barn and sugarhouse. [The sugarhouse is now owned by Gerald’s step-son, Richard Carter]

Pease Home: 

Gerald and Toni built their new house across the road in 1998-99 and are living there, having sold their former house.

House on right above Gerald Pease’s new house:

This came from over at Mrs. Baer’s, that was what they used to call the Doll House. She had that built around 1920 and that was where the fella who took care of the dogs used to live. It was moved over here last summer [1978]. 

Tatham Home:

Part of that land went with the Chase Pease place and Stanley Chase sold Don a chunk of land there. Don built the house in the 1950s. 

Bischoff Home:

This was the old Savage place; Mrs. Savage was a sister to Fred Mack. Dr. and Mrs. Baer then owned it, as part of the land on both sides of the road. Dr. Baer was a surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he pioneered the use of maggots to clean out wounds. During his service in WW I, he had discovered that soldiers who had lain on the field for a day or two and had maggots in their wounds often recovered faster than those without maggots. This was accepted practice until the advent of antibiotics in the 1940s. They harvested apples from the orchards and also raised chow dogs. Alice Herrin bought the property from Mrs. Baer and later she and Lucy Worthington shared ownership of it. [I think this was always owned by Lucy or at least was in later years.] [Now Rothstein]

Baer\Bischoff Home:

Opposite the Bischoff driveway was the Doll House [see above] and a house originally built as an apple house. Grey Shelter, as this house was called, had six-inch studding [unusual at that time] because it was intended to be insulated as an apple storage house but was never used for that purpose. The grading of apples was done in the barn on the property. There were several small buildings on the left side of the road, which were built as dog houses for their Chow dogs. Some of those doghouses were moved to Camp Merriwood to be cabins for the campers. When we moved the biggest one, I got some big skids and we got it pulled out into the road. Then I had Brad Morey come out with the town truck, an old Army truck. I had one end of the skids on a set of big dump-cart wheels that the town had and was hitched on behind the truck. Then Dewey Chase came up with his dozer and got right in between the skids so as to steer the load. When we got to the driveway to Merriwood, I told Brad to cut in where he could and told Dick Sanborn, driving the dozer, to push the skids right around. We got around the corner easily and when we stopped, Gordon Miller said that was where he wanted it, so that was where we left it. 

Ralph  and Ibby Bischoff bought Grey Shelter [in 1946] and came there summers for many years before moving to Orford full time. Ibby was a Fauver, daughter of one of the owner/founders of Camp Pemigewasset. Ralph and Ibby later bought the Herrin/Worthington home and have done extensive renovations to the house and grounds.

Mack\Hayes House:

Beyond the cemetery is a little house that Fred Mack built, working with Ray Clifford. They rented it for a time and then after Fred died in 1938, they sold it to a Crosby. Someone else then owned it before Gardner Hayes bought it. When Gardner died, the house was sold to Quentin Mack. 

Mack Home:

Up to the left beyond the cemetery was the Fred and Mabel [Ramsey] Mack homestead. When he died in 1938, Ralph Mack [their son] and Maurice Chase [their son-in-law] bought the place and Ralph sent milk for a little while. Fred Mack’s wife, Mabel, was Mabel Pease’s niece. Finally, Ralph bought Maurice out and Maurice moved down onto the Pond Road. Ralph then sold the farm to Louis and Jean Gratz, moved out to the Street [and built the house which Stacy Thomson now owns on the hill before the school.] Jean Gratz and Ibby Bischoff had gone to school together and the Gratz’s were visiting the Bischoffs and began talking about their desire to buy a place in this area. They went over to look at the Mack place and soon bought it. Louis was an editor for Time-Life. The Gratz’s sold the place to the Glicks in the mid-1970s and moved to California to be with Jean’s mother. 

Bischoff Home:

This was the Charlie Woods place when I was a kid. His daughter Jessie married Alphonse Fillian, who lived and logged in Orfordville for many years. [Several of their children & grandchildren still live in town.] It was farmed some but I don’t think he sent milk. Then Joe Saia raised potatoes there for a few years, [mostly to supply his restaurant in Hanover, the Green Lantern]. In the mid-1970s, Dave Bischoff bought this place.

McGinnis Home:

Up the hill on the right beyond the Charlie Woods place is where Henry and Jane McGinnis lived. [Henry was a well-known artist and his wife Jane taught art and music for years in the Orford schools.] I don’t know how many years he lived there but I think Donahue built the place for him. Out beyond McGinnis’ used to be the old Clough place, later bought by Alan Thorndyke, and he still owns it. That went right down across and Thorndyke owned the old meadow barn which used to be in beyond Carnes, beyond the road that goes down to the Town Beach [out toward Twin Bridges.] Kilpac’s now own the McGinnis place.

Tomlinson Home:

Above there is the old Sargent place. They used to send milk. I helped Henry Horton when he shingled the big barn there. McMurrow bought it from Sargent and then sold it to another couple. In the mid-1970s, the Tomlinsons sold the Alice Bean place [on Rt. 25-A, west of the end of Mt. Cube] and bought this place.

Mack Home:

Virgil Prettyman, one of the founders of Camp Moosilauke, bought the first place on the road [Prettyman Road] out toward the head of the pond [Twin Bridges Road & Upper Baker Pond]. [Then the Widneys, who had children in school in the 1960s, bought it] This was then sold to Carnes[sp] [and later to Quentin Mack.] [There was also an Epstein family here when I was a kid.]

Prettyman Cottage:

Later, Virgil Prettyman’s son, Lambert, built the place to the right of Twin Bridges Road, out on the point. Young Lambert [Virgil’s grandson] still owns that place out there. Porter Miller, owner of Camp Moosilauke, now owns [it.] [Confusing to me – I’m not sure if Port owns this place or if his is another home.]

Bowen/Ryan Cottage:

Up on the right as you come along the Pond Road from Piermont Heights toward 25-A is the a cottage built for Mr. Bowen[?] from Wentworth. There was a pine tree growing right up through the piazza. One summer there was a thunder storm and a man lay on the bed in the cottage. The lightning came in and took the shoes right off him. They took out some of the pine and a E.P.R. Ryan bought it afterwards – they used to come there summers. He was a dentist from out in New York. Mildred Mack, Walter’s sister, went out to stay with the Ryans one year.

Sunset Ranch Camp:

I can’t remember who started the camp here. Saug[sp] had run it for a while, then there was a Leonard, I think. [Then it was Sunset Ranch Camp.] Roland and Martha Durham bought that. [Their son, Bud Durham now lives there.] Virgil and Will Prettyman had some of the next camps along the pond side built in there and the Millers bought them from them. By the 1960s, there were summer cottages for Gordon “Moose” and Janet Miller and the families of their son’s, Porter and Gary. The Millers owned and operated both Camp Merriwood and Camp Moosilauke. 

On the right beyond the Ryan Cottage:

Harry Goodwin had the place built up in there. Harry had owned the place where Ruth Brown lives now [see Brown home below] and that land went back up and down to the Pond Road. His son Everett lived there a while and it is now rented in the summertime. Next on the right was Maurice and Irene Chase’s place and the next one was built by Cope and Evelyn Mack Corpieri. Both of these were built in the 1950s. Later, the Degnans bought the Corpieri house and Phil Liebrock bought of Degnan.

On the left beyond the Miller’s cottages:

The Knight’s folks were there summers and this was then bought by Gardner and Jeanette Hayes [Gardner  was President of Frog, Switch and Mfg. Co of Carlisle, PA.] [Their daughter, Eleanor Dyke, lives in Orfordville.] Then there was the Flanders’ cottage right next to the pond – Miller bought that. Then there were the two little Horton cottages that Miller also bought.

On the right beyond Liebrock’s cottage:

First is the little one owned by Gordon Miller, where Johnny Burke, who had the riding hosses at the camp, stayed during camp season. Then was another little place where Rufus and Maywood Chase lived. That was one of the sleeping boxes moved down there from up in back of Harry Daisey’s house. Rufus bought it of Will Prettyman and Stanley [Chase] and I moved it down there for a house. Ann Chase, Warren’s mother, lived right on the corner there, where Irene and Maurice live. 

Dan Simpson used to own that place and he give it to Ann, as I understand. She kept house for him for years. [From John B. Chase’s 1892 Diary: “9\5  worked on hill Annie got mad again and run away with her Spiritual adviser Danny Simpson.  She got John W. Chase to try and shoot me with gun  9\6  dug potatoes and picked apples  Annie down to Wentworth to Mrs. H.P. Chase’s on one of her bad fites  Mr. D.Y. Simpson goes with her. 10\7 cut bushes Frank Cross cam Annie got mad and run away the boys went first. 10\16 [Sunday] staid home all day Annie and the boys went up to the school house to meeting”]

Edith Chase was Dan Simpson’s daughter, who married Warren Chase. They lived and both died there on the corner and had five children: Guy, Rufus, Marian, Maurice, and Stanley. 

Gilman/Simpson Place:

Years ago that was the Gilman place and was then owned by Dan Simpson. Later this was the Infirmary for Camps Merriwood and Moosilauke.

Daisey Home:

Will Prettyman, one of the founders of Camp Moosilauke, lived here on the right going up the hill on 25-A. Then, Harry and Myrtle Daisey bought it and still live there. Myrtle was Maywood Chase’s daughter. [Their son’s, Roy [Indian Pond Rd.] and Earnie [Cottonstone Farm] both live in Orford.]

Ladd/Santy Home:

Up the hill beyond Daisey’s is where Oscar and Charlie Ladd grew up and later Oscar lived there with his wife, Lindsey Mae Perry Ladd. Rachel Santy has lived with them since she was a teenager and still lives there.

Chase Home:

Further up the hill, back up from the road, lived old John B. Chase, father to Warren and John W. Alma Chase lived there in the 1950s and 1960s. [The Orford Historical Society owns several of John B. Chase’s diaries and 100 or so letters sent to him by family members. I am in the process of transcribing them.]

Brown [Ruth] Home:

Years ago Chester Pease lived there. He was a son of Chase Pease and brother to Clarence. Mrs. Baer bought that of Chester and later sold it to Charlie Ladd. [It was vacant the winter after fire destroyed our house in 1957 and Dad, Ma and I lived there until our new house was finished, in April of 1958].