Mitton - My grandfather, George Kenneth Mitton, was born in 1874 in New Brunswick, Canada.  He was a lumberman and at age 21 came to New Hampshire with a crew and was hired by Van Dyke, an early 'lumber baron' (see Logging).   He returned to Canada and married my grandmother, Estella R. Wright, in Nova Scotia in 1903 and was living there in 1908.   He returned to NH and bought a farm in Pettyborough, a section of Lisbon, and by 1910 had moved his family here from Nova Scotia.  He raised dairy cows for many years.   Later he sold the farm and moved to Sugar Hill, where my father, George C. Mitton, the youngest of nine children, grew up.  My father married Esther Violet Grass in Franconia, NH in 1949.

See The Mitton WebSite for more on this line - (this is another one of my personal sites)

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Grass - My grandfather, James Everett Grass was born in Quincy, MA, in 1904.  He worked with his father, Henry James Grass, in the building trades in earlier years.  In 1928 he married my grandmother, Esther Elvira Towle, in Sugar Hill.  They lived in Quinsy, MA until they moved to Sugar Hill in 1931, where he worked at Peckett's as a carpenter, and also fitted skis for students of Sig Buckmier, an Austrian ski instructor.  My grandparents left the area during World War II, when they moved their family to Quincy, MA, where he worked with his brother, Albert Grass, at Grass Instruments.  The company was at that time manufacturing brainwave recording instruments, now known as electroencephalographs.   In 1944, the family moved to Franconia and he resumed his carpentry trade, building several houses in Sugar Hill and Franconia and served as tax collector, selectman, school board member, and state representative.  In 1951, a heart attack caused my grandfather to retire from carpentry.  My grandparents moved to Laconia and served as a shop instructor at the Laconia State School.  In 1953, they returned to Franconia, where he worked at home, doing fine machine work, manufacturing components for Grass Instrument Co., in Quincy, Mass.  In 1963 they moved to West Plymouth.  He died in 1985 and my grandmother died in 2000.

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Towle - My grandmother, Esther Elvira Towle, was born in Lisbon in 1909.  She was the daughter of George Allen Towle and Julia M. Howland.  She married James Everett Grass in 1949.  Her great grandfather, Levi Towle, was born in 1836 in Bethlehem, NH.  He settled in Lisbon about 1874 and was a farmer and an employee of the Parker and Young Mfg. Co.  My grandmother's Towle line has remained in New Hampshire since my 9th great grandfather settled in Hampton before 1657.  The family slowly moved north, but has remained in this state for nearly 350 years.  My Towle line is as follows: 

• Philip Towle, born about 1616, probably in England.  He  was a seaman and settled in Hampton,  where he married Isabella Astin in 1657.
• Benjamin Towle, b. 1669 in Hampton, married Sarah Bordon and settled in Hampton.
• Elisha Towle, b. 1715 in Hampton, married Ann Vittum and settled in Hampton.
• Elisha Towle, b. 1739 in Hampton, married Ann Sanborn and settled in Hampton.
• Joshua Towle, b. 1764 in Hampton, m. Olive Brown, moved to Chichester by 1790.
• Jeremiah Towle, b. abt. 1790, m. Susanna Maxfield, moved to Bethlehem.
• Levi Towle, b. 1836 in Bethlehem, m. Alice Long Stickney, lived in Lisbon and Lyman.
• Chester Towle, b. 1858 in Lancaster, m. Carrie Belle Goddard, lived in Lisbon & Lyman.
• Esther Elvira Towle, b.1909 in Lisbon, m. James Everett Grass, lived in Sugar Hill, Franconia & Plymouth.

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Howland - My great grandmother, Julia M. Howland, was born in North Woodstock, NH in 1885.  She was  the daughter of Enoch M. Howland and Ada L. Streeter.  She married George Allen Towle in Lisbon in 1906.  Julia was the 7th great granddaughter of Henry Howland, Jr., brother of John Howland of the Mayflower.  Henry arrived in Plymouth from England on the Anne, 1623.  My 5th great grandfather, George Howland, was one of the original grantees of Lisbon.  He was born about 1752 in Rhode Island, and married Mary Warner, of North Situate, RI.  The following is from the Rix manuscript: "He came to Lisbon in 1783, coming, it is said, via Richmond, NH.  He settled on lot 11, in the 7th range, being the next lot west of that of Solomon Bowles. [near the sammonhole area of the river] Sugar Hill was named by him on account of the large number of sugar maples there.  He erected the second house on Sugar Hill, which was standing in 1885.  He was a whaler in his younger days, sailing with some of the Howlands of New Bedford,[MA]. It is said that his wife felled the first tree in clearing his farm."

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Streeter - My 2nd great grandmother, Ada L. Streeter, was born in Lisbon in 1858.  She was the daugher of Adams Streeter and Mary E. Morris.  She worked for a period of time as a logging camp cook for Parker-Young Company in Lincoln woods, and married Enoch M. Howland in 1884.  He died in 1885 and in 1894 she married Elbridge Weeks.  Ada died in 1910.  My 5th great grandfather was Ebenezer Streeter.  He was born  in Douglas, MA in 1758, and was one of the original grantees of Lisbon.  The following is from the Rix manuscript: "He settled in Lisbon soon after his marriage, [to Penelope Caswell in 1775] and was the first one of the name in town. There was no family so numerous as the Streeter family, and it is said that in a certain school in Lisbon, that every scholar was a Streeter or a descendant of one, including the teacher."..."He was a Rev. soldier, Mass., pensioned Oct. 24, 1833."

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Morris - My 3rd great grandmother, Mary Emery Morris, was born in Lisbon in 1821.  She was the daughter of Samuel Morris and Anna Whitcomb.   She married Adams Streeter in 1846.   My 6th great grandfather, Henry Morris, was born in 1734 in Thompson, CT.  "He served in the French and Indian War; was Corporal in Colonel John Payson's Regiment, in the same company in which his brother Samuel was clerk.  In 1758 he was a sutler at Lake George.  He and one Cary contracted to supply the troops under Colonel Putnam in the campaign against the Indians, but in consequence of the exorbitant prices paid for army stores in New York they failed.  May 7, 1775, he enlisted and was made Corporal in the Seventh Company, Third Regiment, Connecticut troops, and afterwards Sergeant, and was discharged December 3d.  He served afterwards in the Continental Army.  He was a great pedestrian and jumper.  It was said of him that while in the army he was sent with a message from Crown Point to 'No. 4,' Charlestown, N.H., and accomplished the feat in twenty-four hours, a distance of sixty-five miles.  At the age of seventy he could clear an ordinary fence at a bound without touching his hand.  Married Hannah Frizzell of Woodstock. [CT]  He removed about 1790, to Concord (now Lisbon), N.H., where he died in 1808, and where Mrs. Morris died in 1828.  He was a Congregationalist and a good man." -  Source: A Genealogical and Historical Register of the Descendants of Edward Morris of Roxbury, Mass., and Woodstock, Conn.; by Jonathan Flynt Morris; Pub. 1887.

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Spooner - My 4th great grandmother, Dorcus Spooner, was born in Lisbon in 1797.  She was the daughter of Simeon Spooner and Priscilla Priest.   My 6th great grandfather, Bigford Spooner, was born in 1743, in Dartmouth, MA.  The following is from the Rix manuscript:   "He resided in Dartmouth, and from there he came to Lisbon previous to 1790, when the first U.S. census was taken in that year; when he was living in Lisbon, and his family consisted at that time of three sons under sixteen, a wife, and five daughters. Later he removed to Richmond, Vt., where he dropped dead in his door yard on a Sunday, at the age of 104 years."  The following is from: Records of William Spooner of Plymouth, Mass., and His Descendants Vol. I.; by Thomas Spooner; pub. 1883, Cincinnati, OH:  "Bigford Spooner was a farmer; removed from Dartmouth to Lisbon, N.H., about 1796, and later he lived near Richmond, Vt." . . . "His name is enrolled with those of the patriots of the Revolution, as having 'marched to the Jerseys,' Dec., 1776, in the company of Capt. Samuel Reed, (Col. Josiah Whiting.) This campaign was of three months' duration, for which Bigford was paid £2:14, and afterward he was in the company of Capt. B. Woodbury."  He married, first, Mary Babbitt, in 1763, in MA.  He married, second, Mary Peters, daughter of Jonathan Peters.  Many of his 17 children remained in Lisbon, including my 5th great grandfather, Simeon.  Another son, Jonathan, settled in Franconia.

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Whitcomb - My 4th great grandmother, Anna Bedel Whitcomb, was born in 1781.  She was the daughter of Major and Lidia Howe.  Anna married Samuel Morris in Lisbon in 1800.  Her father, my 5th great grandfather, Major Benjamin Whitcomb was born in Lancaster, MA in 1737.  The following is from the Rix manuscript: "He served in the French and Indian war in 1755, under General Johnson, and again in 1757, in Capt. Wilder's Co., Mass., and again in Capt. Reed's Co., Mass. in the expedition against Montreal.  In July 1776 he was living in Newbury, Vt., and was in command of a scout on the Sorel, and had mortally wounded Gen. Gordon as he was riding between Chambly and St. Johns, and took his watch and sword.  Several attempts were made to capture him, but without success.  Oct. 14 1776, he was captain of an Independent Core of Rangers until they were taken from under his command to join the Continental army by order of  Congress.  He was promoted Major, Nov. 10, 1777, and commanded a body known as Major Benjamin Whitcomb's Independent Core of Rangers from Nov. 10, 1777 to Feb. 1, 1781, the date of his last muster roll.  He came to Lisbon about 1782, and settled on Lot 1 in the gore, and on the west side of the river, and opposite of Samuel Young's lot.  Here he built the first two-story house in Lisbon.  He finally sold out to Moses Emery, and located in Savageville, so-called, where the late Edward Knight lived.   He was a miller, and ran the first grist mill in Lisbon Village."..."He was pentioned June 23, 1818, $240 per year."  He married Lydia Howe, of Westmoreland, NH.

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Source note: Rix Manuscript of the Genealogies of the Families of Lisbon, NH
By Guy S. Rix, historian from Concord, NH; published about 1912.   

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E-mail Arwen

The MittonWebsite - My WebSite for sharing genealogical information on the Mitton lines. 

My Family Tree - The genealogical work of my brother, Randall Mitton, with over 7000 of our relatives.

Lisbon, NH GenWeb Page - This is my Lisbon Town Page, which is part of the USGenWeb Project