Will Tear Down Old Mill in New Ipswich

And sell the machinery

January 7, 1932

NEW IPSWICH, N. H., Jan. 7 1932

R. E. Dempsey of Greenville, N. H., has purchased the icehouse and ice business owned and operated by Wilmore D. Ashley for the past 19 years. He will fill the icehouse and continue the business, as he did last summer. 

   Mr. Ashley retains the old mill, but will sell the machinery and tear down the building, as he is janitor of the academy and owner of the Ames dormitory, and this work requires all his time. 

   This mill has an interesting history. It was built about 1790 and used as a grist mill. It was first owned by Stephen Farrar, who built the house now owned by Elmer Aho. A bolting machine for wheat flour, the first in town, was introduced in 1793. Previous to that time the flour used was sifted by hand sieves. In 1816 a carding machine was added. 

   It is known as the old starch factory and farmers in the early days sold their potatoes here for 12 cents a bushel. In 1860-65 cotton batting was manufactured here. About 1870 Charles C. Bellows purchased the mill privilege and made washing machines, spring beds and creasign[sic] machines there. After the death of Mr. Bellows the work was carried on by Dr. F. N. Gibson for many years. Mr. Ashley has used the building as a grist and sawmill and has rebuilt the dam in order to harvest a larger amount of ice.

Starch Mill

The Starch Mill was on Thayer Road near the Furnace Brook Bridge. It was on the upstream side of the road, and on the downstream side there was the cigar box factory..

One Hundred Formulas

George Carmichael donated a copy of Stephen A. Thayer’s “One Hundred Formulas” which was published in 1883. It contains recipes from everything from printing ink to pain killers. Here is one for the kids:

WARNING: Please don’t try any of these “remedies”, many contain ingredients which have been shown to be harmful.

James Roger diary entry

November 5th 1908 (Thursday)

Hard frost (14 degrees) Cloudy after a few flakes of snow in afternoon. David down town on roads. I picked out some lumber out of dump, and split it. Also filled boiler. Shifted down the pullets tonight to hen house from brooder house.