Bio: Richard Taft : Franconia, Grafton Co, New Hampshire

From Gazetteer of Grafton County, NH 1709-1886 -Franconia
Compiled & published by Hamilton Child 1886


Richard Taft.---The mountain region of New Hampshire is one of the most
delightful, health-giving and accessible of the summer resorts of the
country. Forty years ago, the business, which is now the most important in
a number of towns lying among the mountains and about their base, was in its
infancy. At the White Mountain  Notch the Crawfords kept a small hostelry,
principally for the accommodation of farmers making their annual pilgramage
to Portland. The Rosebrooks had been succeeded by Horace Fabyan, at the
stand now known by his name. A score or two of visitors from the cities made
the ascent of Mt. Washington each summer. In the Franconia Notch, near where
the Profile House now stands, Stephen C. and Joseph L. Gibbs kept the
Lafayette House, furnishing entertainment for not more than fifty guests.
Limited as was the capacity of these houses, they were ample for the
patronage of that time.

Richard Taft, then landlord of the Washington House, Lowell, Mass., had
visited the Franconia Notch, was attracted by the lovliness and grandeur of
its scenery, and with prophetic instinct saw the vast possibilities it
afforded as a summer resort. In 1849 he became proprietor of the Flume
House, a small hotel built the previous year, and from this period dates
his career as the most famous and successful of mountain landlords. Mr. Taft
was born in Barre, Vt., March 14, 1812. From boyhood he had to make his own
way in the world, and when but nine years of age, he went to Alstead, N. H.,
where he was employed for nine years on a farm, his educational advantages
being limited to the usual winter term of the district school. He began
hotel life as an employee in a tavern at North Chelmsford, Mass., in 1830.
Two years later he became one of the proprietors, a relation which lasted
three years, when he became landlord of the Washington House, Nashua, N. H.
He was afterwards in the same business at Tyngsboro, Mass., and at Lowell,
Mass. When Mr. Taft came among the mountains, the entire receipts of his
house for the first year were hardly equal to the salary which a competent
landlord now commands, yet it was considered a fairly remunerative season.
Within a decade and a half, the annual profits were wont to reach many times
that sum. When the Gibbs went to the New Crawford House, in 1852, Mr. Taft
and a partner purchased the Lafayette House property, and began the erection
of the Profile House, of which he was principal proprietor and landlord to
the time of his death. This house, built on a generous scale, was thought
to be sufficiently large for the requirements of the business for years to
come, yet the increasing popularity of its ideal landlord, and the growing
fame of the region, required its frequent enlargement, until it became one
of the most extensive and best equipped establishments of its kind in the
land. Over this vast hostelry, with its hundreds of guests, its varying
interests and its constant cares, Mr. Taft was the presiding genius. Every
department felt his impress, but his unobtrusive manners and somewhat infirm
health, led him to avoid publicity incident to his position. He seldom came
in personal contact with his guests, but those who enjoyed his intimacy
found him not only the watchful landlord, but the cultivated, genial
gentleman. May 23, 1839, he was married to Miss Lucinda Knight, of Hancock,
N. H. She was, in every way, especially fitted for the work and position of
a landlady, and it was often his remark that she had done more than her
share to establish his reputation as a hotel-keeper.

Mr. Taft gradually acquired a title to the vast tract of land extending from
the Profile farm in Franconia, by Bald Mountain, through the vally to and
beyond the Flume House, a region that for quiet and romantic beauty cannot
be surpassed by another of equal extent on the continent.

Mr. Taft had a natural aptitude for his chosen business, and his rare
sagacity brought him uniform success. It was of such magnitude as to require
his constant attention, and he seldom ventured to engage in enterprises not
contributory to it. He was largely instrumental in constructing the narrow
gauge railroad from Bethlehem Junction to the Profile House, and was its
first president. To him, more than to any other person, is due the marvelous
growth of the mountain business. He saw what it might become, and led the
way in the development of all the adjuncts required to hasten the full tide
of its success. He lived to see the fulfillment of his anticipations, and
harvest their rewards.

His methods were practical, methodical and always well considered, and he
was equal to every emergency imposed upon him by the demands of his
business. He was a close observer of human nature, and in nothing did he
diplay more sagacity than in the selection of his assistants and
subordinates. They seldom failed him. He was charitable, just and
considerate in all things. His word, like his friendship, was as much to be
relied upon and as stable as the hills he loved so well. His honor, in all
the relations of life, received that highest of tributes--it was never
brought under suspicion. Being an invalid for many years he became a great
student. He was familiar with the poets, was well read in history and in
the arts and sciences. He was especially fond of poetry, and nothing pleased
him more than those descriptive passages of Byron, which applied with such
force and beauty to the scenery of his mountain home. He died in Littleton,
N. H., February 14, 1881, leaving a wife and one daughter, Mrs. Charles F.
Eastman, of that town.


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Submitted by: Rick Giirtman rickman@worldpath.net
Date: October 26, 2000