Timothy Messer Family from Walpole As It Was and As It Is (1880) Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by MLM, Volunteer 0000130. For the current email address, please go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000130 Copyright. All rights reserved. ************************************************************************ Full copyright notice - http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm USGenWeb Archives - http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************************ Surname: MESSER Source: Walpole As It Was and As It Is by George Aldrich, The Claremont Manufacturing Co., Claremont, N.H., 1880, pages 332-334 MESSER, TIMOTHY, one of the earliest settlers of this town, was born in Methuen, Mass., and his wife, Hannah Marble, was a native of Haverhill, Mass. Soon after marriage they moved to Connecticut, expecting to find a wilderness there; but, being disappointed, came to Walpole some time before 1760, and took up land where William T. Ramsay now lives, of Col. Benjamin Bellows. The family and their effects were poled up Connecticut rive in a double dug-out, while he drove his cow up the bank. On the above named place he toiled till a clearing was effected sufficiently large to raise 300 bushels of wheat in one year, (before mentioned,) when he was obliged to vacate the land to make a home for John Jennison, one of Col. Bellow’s step-sons. During his stay on the place he and his family underwent many privations. At one time he left his family almost destitute of food and went to Northfield, Mass., and worked for a man long enough to pay for a bushel of corn, which he got ground, and brought to Walpole, on his back, a distance of forty miles, guided by marked trees. On another occasion Mr. Messer was driven to the alternative of killing his pig, which he wished to fatten more, to supply his large family with meat, or let them suffer the pinching privations of hunger. He concluded he must kill his pig, and in returning home from a distant neighbor’s where he had been to procure a knife to slaughter it, he started a sleeping buck deer, which, in his precipitation to escape, became entangled by his horns in a fallen tree top. Mr. Messer seeing the entangled condition of the animal, sprang upon it with the agility of a catamount, and killed it on the spot. The meat afforded a temporary relief to the hunger of the family, and the skin was sufficiently large to make two pairs of breeches for the boys. He was thus enabled to keep his pig a while longer. Mr. Messer ever afterwards considered this circumstance one of Divine interposition. The births of his children cannot be given in their order of succession, as there are no data. Ch: I. Mary, m. Isaac Johnson, jr., Dec. 21, 1771, supposed to be the oldest. II. Hannah, m. Samuel Parker, Apr. 15, 1779. III. Thomas, b. July 15, 1756; m. Lydia Merriam, b. at Lexington, Mass., Dec. 26, 1758, who came to Walpole with her father, when but fourteen years old. He had a large family of children, all born in town. In 1801 he removed to Westminster, Vt., and died Jan. 27, 1811; she d. Jan. 21, 1841. Ch. 1st, Hannah, b. Dec. 9, 1783; m. Ellery Albee, of Westminster, Feb. 1814, at which place he and his wife resided during life. He d. Sept. 17, 1852; she d. Oct. 2, 1851. Ch. (1) Almeda V., resides in Westminster, unm. (2) Albert Merriam is a lawyer in Springfield, Vt. 2d, Lydia, b. Mar 11, 1789; m. Isaac Cobb, then of Walpole, May, 1813, who was a wheel- wright by trade, and the original part of C. B. Lucke’s house was his shop. He d. 1831; she d. May 19, 1876. Ch. (1) Calista A., m. William K. Church, now lives with her brother, Stephen K. Cobb, Westminster. (2) Stephen K., m. Harriet, dau. of Leonard Cragin. 3d and 4th, Calista and Verrilla, (twins) b. 1794; both d. young. 5th Nancy, b. Aug. 18, 1796; m. Sumner Albee, of Chesterfield, N.H. 6th, Verranda, b. June, 1801; m. Jehiel Fletcher, he d. in Keeseville, N.Y. 1872, 2 ch. IV. Oliver, b. Feb. 4, 1761. He had some infirmity which impaired his usefulness. V. Timothy, b. Nov. 9, 1763. VI. Abigail, never married. VII. Daniel, went to Shrewsbury, Vt., of whom but little is known VIII. Samuel, went to Shrewsbury, Vt., of whom but little is known. IX. Nathaniel, m. Betsey Mason, and for a time lived in Walpole, in the Valley, but subsequently removed to Marlow, where he spent his days and had a family. Among his children was Nathaniel, jr., who m. Betsey Town, and was the father of William Hopkins Messer, of Marlow, who m. Lucy Ann Pierce, and is the father of Jennette, the wife of Charles M. Russell, of this town. X. Phebe, m. Joel Burroughs, of Alstead, and had 12 children, all born between 1774 and 1802, with about two years intervening between their births. The first was Daniel. 2d, Joel. 3d, Thomas. 4th, Hannah. 5th, Eunice. 6th, Anna. 7th, Richard. 8th, Simon. 9th, Phebe. 10th, Polly. 11th, Annice. 12th, Cyrus. Thomas, b. in 1778, m Lois Martin, Feb. 17, 1811, and had three children or more, of whom one, is Caroline, m. Alfred W. Burt, of this town. 2d, James Martin. 3d, George. Mr. Thomas Burroughs died, after which his widow became the wife of Stephen Stearns. A daughter of Nathaniel Messer 2d, of Marlow, m. Gordon Turner, of Alstead, N.H.