CREEK ROAD GANG
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Autobiography of
Nathaniel Watson Ladd
Part 1
The following is an excerpt from an autobiographical manuscript by Nathaniel Watson Ladd, born in New Hamshire in 1848. Ladd eventually became a lawyer and was active in the Boston legal community and in Boston politics in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In his manuscript, he describes his childhood, upbringing, education, and early working years. We will print a further excerpt from the manuscript in the November issue.
I have lived a life of self denial and never married, which I esteem one of the greatest errors of my life, born in the so called Lower Village of Derry, New Hampshire, January 7th, 1848, on the right hand side, half way up the first hill on the road to Manchester. I am thus particular because of an incident that occurred there. I have always been a lover of the beautiful in Nature and Art. In the yard, in front of that house stood two horse chestnut trees and my Mother had the habit of putting me in the cradle under one of them and I distinctly remember how beautiful the blossoms looked.
My parents moved from that place to Epping Corner, New Hampshire in the Fall of my second year of life, and thus I know that my memory goes back to when I was less than a year and a half old. My brother Frank was born at Epping Corner under conditions not as favorable as those where I was born. The room was damp and he always suffered from poor health. In a short time my parents moved to an ancestral farm of the Ladd family about three miles South. Their life there was quite hard, the farm was small. The only place of obtaining water was a well without curbing several hundred yards down the hill from the house. My brother John was born there. My sister, a year and a half older than I, was born in Exeter.
On this ancestral farm I developed all or nearly all, the traits of a "bad boy." My father, who was a well educated man and had been a school teacher, gave his four children their choice, to go to school or stay at home and work, and if they staid (sic) at home they would have to work hard all day. I was the only one who elected to stay at home and work, so that, at the age of fourteen, when my father died, and I went to live on a farm in Tilton, N.H., I could not subtract one sum from another.
When I was seven years old, my Father called me to him and said, "My boy, your Mother and I have taken care of you for seven years. I want you to understand from this time on, you have to earn your own living." The work he gave me to do was to cut alders of sled length, suitable for stove use, and gave me a man's axe to do it with. He never showed me how, but my Mother took the axe and showed me it could be done. Then I tried. It was about all I could do to lift the axe and it came down on the stick with only a little more than its own weight, but after a time the stick cam off, and in all my life, I have never experienced so great delight as that gave me. The second one came off easier and the next easier still and in time I discovered that it was not too hard for me to prepare the wood to keep one fire going during that Winter which was the limit that my Father fixed, and I can now say that my Father never did a better thing for me than that.
About a year later my Father, who was then lecturing on Phrenology and selling Supporters, found a place for me on a farm in East Concord, N.H. with a family by the name of Mann. I was there only a few months when the man died suddenly, but I remember riding to the little Church in East Concord with a great deal of pleasure every Sunday, and the farm was on a hillside with a beautiful outlook.
At the age of eleven, while living at home, I learned the shoe-makers trade and could make the kind of shoes that were then being made by nearly all the members of our family, my Father obtaining the stock from Haverhill or Lynn, driving there with his own team and taking the shoes back in cases. And in this way a small sum of money was raised which enabled him to buy a small place in Derry, where we moved in 1860.
The farm at North River, where we lived for ten years of my boyhood, was situated near a stream of water which emptied into the Piscataqua River and was called North River, and in that river my great, great grandfather, who built the house and called it his Mansion House, was drowned on the 4th of July, 1798 in what is known as the "Ladd Hole" when he went there to take a bath.
Further up the river, just above the bridge on the road to Lee was the swimming place where the neighborhood boys were accustomed to go swimming. None of us could swim. One day I happened to be in alone just after a rain, had hold of the end of a long plank. All at once the plank slipped out of my hands and I did what my Father had told me to do, put my left foot down quickly to the bottom, but could not touch it, and the swift current was taking me over a deep place of thirty or forty yards in length. I expected to be drowned, but thought of my Mother, and how badly she would feel if I were drowned, and then and there decided that I would not be drowned, and laid on top of the water without moving hand or foot til the current took me down to a shallow place, when I got out easily and was so delighted with the experience that I ran back on the bank and went down again and again for about a dozen times and never had any trouble about swimming after that, in my opinion, a clear case of the exercise of mind over matter. The next time we were in swimming, my brother Frank exclaimed, "He can swim" and I was the first of the boys to learn.
My Father was very fond of fishing in that river and one afternoon or evening, he and I were fishing there when I thought my hook was caught in a snag. I hesitated to speak to him because I did not wish to annoy him, but finally I informed him my hook was caught to a snag. He looked at the line for a moment and then said, "Pull away, you have got an eel." I pulled and saw that when the eel was about over my head it came off the hook. Father said, "Grab it," which I did, with both hands, and it was the largest fish we caught that night.
At that time, with his house backing on that river, lived a farmer, our nearest neighbor, whose red-headed niece kept house for him. She used to call me her beau. I have always been fond of the society of ladies and have generally preferred those with red hair. I presume this was because it would take a red-headed one to control me. I did not take much stock in her calling me her beau because I was only eight or nine and she was twenty-five or thirty, but I made no serious opposition, because she gave me many a "goody."
At that early period in my life I had not been sufficiently taught the difference between meum and tuum and one day I stole a block plane from that farmer. I think he and my Mother were the only people besides myself, who ever knew of that fact, and it was never a subject of conversation between us. For my Mother had such a severe experience from the precariousness of professional income that she had decided that I should be a mechanic and I think she and the farmer made a settlement with regard to that block plane which I have at the present time. I ought to have been severely punished and certainly would have been if my Father, who was really no more honest than my Mother, had known about it, and I think this trait in my character, at that time, was one of the reasons why my Grandfather Ladd wished to have me live with him for a time.
At the time of the County Fair in Dover, about twelve miles from our home, my Father told me if I succeeded in finishing the digging of a certain piece of potatoes, I should have the privilege of going to the Fair. I finished the digging at dusk the day before. His plan was to teach me a lesson of self reliance. He took my two younger brothers on the load of hay with him, but he planned to have me, as my Mother supposed, walk the whole distance. My Father was the only son and the "baby" in his family with three older sisters, and those sisters were taught that it would not do for a male child to cry and the moment he cried something had to be done for him. He felt that he was too much pampered and his boys should not be brought up in that way. There was a slight difference of opinion between my Mother and Father as to how the family life should be lived. She did not think I ought to walk so far, so she interviewed a neighbor who was going there and learned the time they were going to start, put up my lunch, and was very anxious that I should get on the road ahead of them. When they came along, the invited me to ride, which I did, in the rear part of the wagon. When they got to Dover, they paid no further attention to me and I got out.
Much interested in what was going on in the City, I happened to go to the landing where a Company of soldiers came up from Portsmouth. I followed them through the street and out into the Country, but I was not interested in the Country. I had lived there all my life. I wanted to see what was going on in the City and turned back. I enjoyed myself all day and in the latter part of the afternoon, wandered into a grocery store to eat my lunch. The proprietor afterward told me that he noticed I did not throw the egg shells on the sawdust around the stove, but carefully folded them up in a paper and put them in my pocket. It was quite cold outside and the time came when he wanted to close up the store. I went out onto the sidewalk a very disconsolate boy and wondering what I should do. I had not found Father. The proprietor noticed I was despondent and asked me about myself. I told him all the circumstances of my being there. He realized I had made a mistake in not following the soldiers and reaching the Camp Ground and said, "I have a boy about your age and you can sleep with him tonight and in the morning I will direct you the way to the Fair Grounds." He did that and gave me a good breakfast in the morning and started me on my way. I shall always have a warm place in my heart for anybody by the name of Skinner.
I found my Father at the entrance to the Fair Ground somewhat worried about his boy, but he said thereafter he could always depend on me to find my way in the world.
My parents moved from that place to Epping Corner, New Hampshire in the Fall of my second year of life, and thus I know that my memory goes back to when I was less than a year and a half old. My brother Frank was born at Epping Corner under conditions not as favorable as those where I was born. The room was damp and he always suffered from poor health. In a short time my parents moved to an ancestral farm of the Ladd family about three miles South. Their life there was quite hard, the farm was small. The only place of obtaining water was a well without curbing several hundred yards down the hill from the house. My brother John was born there. My sister, a year and a half older than I, was born in Exeter.
On this ancestral farm I developed all or nearly all, the traits of a "bad boy." My father, who was a well educated man and had been a school teacher, gave his four children their choice, to go to school or stay at home and work, and if they staid (sic) at home they would have to work hard all day. I was the only one who elected to stay at home and work, so that, at the age of fourteen, when my father died, and I went to live on a farm in Tilton, N.H., I could not subtract one sum from another.
When I was seven years old, my Father called me to him and said, "My boy, your Mother and I have taken care of you for seven years. I want you to understand from this time on, you have to earn your own living." The work he gave me to do was to cut alders of sled length, suitable for stove use, and gave me a man's axe to do it with. He never showed me how, but my Mother took the axe and showed me it could be done. Then I tried. It was about all I could do to lift the axe and it came down on the stick with only a little more than its own weight, but after a time the stick cam off, and in all my life, I have never experienced so great delight as that gave me. The second one came off easier and the next easier still and in time I discovered that it was not too hard for me to prepare the wood to keep one fire going during that Winter which was the limit that my Father fixed, and I can now say that my Father never did a better thing for me than that.
About a year later my Father, who was then lecturing on Phrenology and selling Supporters, found a place for me on a farm in East Concord, N.H. with a family by the name of Mann. I was there only a few months when the man died suddenly, but I remember riding to the little Church in East Concord with a great deal of pleasure every Sunday, and the farm was on a hillside with a beautiful outlook.
At the age of eleven, while living at home, I learned the shoe-makers trade and could make the kind of shoes that were then being made by nearly all the members of our family, my Father obtaining the stock from Haverhill or Lynn, driving there with his own team and taking the shoes back in cases. And in this way a small sum of money was raised which enabled him to buy a small place in Derry, where we moved in 1860.
The farm at North River, where we lived for ten years of my boyhood, was situated near a stream of water which emptied into the Piscataqua River and was called North River, and in that river my great, great grandfather, who built the house and called it his Mansion House, was drowned on the 4th of July, 1798 in what is known as the "Ladd Hole" when he went there to take a bath.
Further up the river, just above the bridge on the road to Lee was the swimming place where the neighborhood boys were accustomed to go swimming. None of us could swim. One day I happened to be in alone just after a rain, had hold of the end of a long plank. All at once the plank slipped out of my hands and I did what my Father had told me to do, put my left foot down quickly to the bottom, but could not touch it, and the swift current was taking me over a deep place of thirty or forty yards in length. I expected to be drowned, but thought of my Mother, and how badly she would feel if I were drowned, and then and there decided that I would not be drowned, and laid on top of the water without moving hand or foot til the current took me down to a shallow place, when I got out easily and was so delighted with the experience that I ran back on the bank and went down again and again for about a dozen times and never had any trouble about swimming after that, in my opinion, a clear case of the exercise of mind over matter. The next time we were in swimming, my brother Frank exclaimed, "He can swim" and I was the first of the boys to learn.
My Father was very fond of fishing in that river and one afternoon or evening, he and I were fishing there when I thought my hook was caught in a snag. I hesitated to speak to him because I did not wish to annoy him, but finally I informed him my hook was caught to a snag. He looked at the line for a moment and then said, "Pull away, you have got an eel." I pulled and saw that when the eel was about over my head it came off the hook. Father said, "Grab it," which I did, with both hands, and it was the largest fish we caught that night.
At that time, with his house backing on that river, lived a farmer, our nearest neighbor, whose red-headed niece kept house for him. She used to call me her beau. I have always been fond of the society of ladies and have generally preferred those with red hair. I presume this was because it would take a red-headed one to control me. I did not take much stock in her calling me her beau because I was only eight or nine and she was twenty-five or thirty, but I made no serious opposition, because she gave me many a "goody."
At that early period in my life I had not been sufficiently taught the difference between meum and tuum and one day I stole a block plane from that farmer. I think he and my Mother were the only people besides myself, who ever knew of that fact, and it was never a subject of conversation between us. For my Mother had such a severe experience from the precariousness of professional income that she had decided that I should be a mechanic and I think she and the farmer made a settlement with regard to that block plane which I have at the present time. I ought to have been severely punished and certainly would have been if my Father, who was really no more honest than my Mother, had known about it, and I think this trait in my character, at that time, was one of the reasons why my Grandfather Ladd wished to have me live with him for a time.
At the time of the County Fair in Dover, about twelve miles from our home, my Father told me if I succeeded in finishing the digging of a certain piece of potatoes, I should have the privilege of going to the Fair. I finished the digging at dusk the day before. His plan was to teach me a lesson of self reliance. He took my two younger brothers on the load of hay with him, but he planned to have me, as my Mother supposed, walk the whole distance. My Father was the only son and the "baby" in his family with three older sisters, and those sisters were taught that it would not do for a male child to cry and the moment he cried something had to be done for him. He felt that he was too much pampered and his boys should not be brought up in that way. There was a slight difference of opinion between my Mother and Father as to how the family life should be lived. She did not think I ought to walk so far, so she interviewed a neighbor who was going there and learned the time they were going to start, put up my lunch, and was very anxious that I should get on the road ahead of them. When they came along, the invited me to ride, which I did, in the rear part of the wagon. When they got to Dover, they paid no further attention to me and I got out.
Much interested in what was going on in the City, I happened to go to the landing where a Company of soldiers came up from Portsmouth. I followed them through the street and out into the Country, but I was not interested in the Country. I had lived there all my life. I wanted to see what was going on in the City and turned back. I enjoyed myself all day and in the latter part of the afternoon, wandered into a grocery store to eat my lunch. The proprietor afterward told me that he noticed I did not throw the egg shells on the sawdust around the stove, but carefully folded them up in a paper and put them in my pocket. It was quite cold outside and the time came when he wanted to close up the store. I went out onto the sidewalk a very disconsolate boy and wondering what I should do. I had not found Father. The proprietor noticed I was despondent and asked me about myself. I told him all the circumstances of my being there. He realized I had made a mistake in not following the soldiers and reaching the Camp Ground and said, "I have a boy about your age and you can sleep with him tonight and in the morning I will direct you the way to the Fair Grounds." He did that and gave me a good breakfast in the morning and started me on my way. I shall always have a warm place in my heart for anybody by the name of Skinner.
I found my Father at the entrance to the Fair Ground somewhat worried about his boy, but he said thereafter he could always depend on me to find my way in the world.
