Balch Sawmill
New Ipswich Historical Society
Balch Sawmill
A view of the mill on Balch Pond, located at Gibson Four Corners. Reasonably certain this is now called Gibson Pond near the intersection of Route 123A and Willard Road.
Balch Pond (Postcard)
On this day - March 17, 1898
William Jurian Kaula diary
17 MAR 1898
More explorations with Mr. D. The sun shone for a little while in the morning but the afternoon left us in the usual heavy gloom with a leaden sky. I made an attempt to go out and paint and succeeded in getting something after a couple of hours work on a small canvas. There are some primroses and violets in bloom in our yard. I also saw two yellow butterflies fluttering about on the hillside while the sun was out this morning. Birds, too, seem plentiful. The larks were singing away high overhead hundreds of feet up, the other birds I do not know.
On this day - March 17, 1909
James Roger diary entry
17th (Wednesday)
Snow in morning and occasional flurries during the day, wind westerly. David fixing up in carriage house, and helping Willard_Lonie in afternoon. I cleaned up wood shed and will sell tickets tonight at Ladies Entertainment in Union Hall. Sold 100 tickets receipts: $1500. The drama was fairly well staged.
Reader’s Corner
Bill Niemi discovered this 1912 news clipping for a rental of the Ely House.
In the early 50s I was aware of only 1 sawmill in operation at the time: Maki's sawmill on River Rd. It was operated by Walter Maki's brother who still ran the mill with one arm after losing one arm in that mill. He also ploughed gardens for people, driving and shifting with 1 arm. My father and I brought our hand-cut logs to that mill for the lumber used to build our house on River Rd. No electricity on River Rd at that time.
Hazel Balch once told my father that there was a sawmill or some other small factory on our pond on Kangas Road. My cousin Randy Kangas said that his father Toivo said that when they dredged the pond they found planks. It’s hard to know what was going on down there.