Historical Background of the Col. Paul Wentworth House in Salmon Falls Village
by Nelson Lawry
That the Col. Paul Wentworth house (c1701) is one of the oldest surviving dwellings constructed in New Hampshire constitutes a factor of the greatest importance. Moreover, the temporal aspect goes hand in glove with another compelling factor: the building's original location. The structure was not one of the many fashionable houses built in gentrified and relatively safe Portsmouth, but rather it stood in splendid isolation in a mill village at the edge of the frontier. Although perhaps not a mansion, as some have described it, this large, handsome structure is an elegant one, all the moreso for having been placed in Salmon Falls, with its attendant perils. Indeed, Paul Wentworth built his house in the brief interval between the two bloodiest wars fought on New Hampshire soil. One may admire his cavalier spirit In the face of the Indian and French threat, although at the same time acknowledging that such imprudence bordered on hubris in creating a splendid and tempting target, when the frontier at the turn of the 17th/18th centuries was anything but secure.
While the large-scale raid by Hertel and Hopehood
on Salmon Falls in March 1690 had been confined to the Maine side
of the Newichawannock River, still its memory was hardly distant,
and the killing of settlers on the New Hampshire side by smaller
bands of tribesmen had taken place later in King William's War.
There was certainly no guarantee that future raids would not visit
the western side, a possibility underscored in October 1703 by the
death from ambush of a soldier reconnoitering the New Hampshire
bank just downriver from Salmon Falls village. This violent act
early in Queen Anne's War must have given pause to Wentworth
regarding the survival of his new house. Nonetheless, in spite of
these dangerous circumstances, just seven months later, Paul
Wentworth brought his bride, the former Abra Brown, up from
Salisbury, Massachusetts, to live in their new home.
Thus it can be said that the Colonel Paul Wentworth house is far more than a rare historic property and a symbol of the success of New Hampshire industry - Wentworth acquired his wealth as a sawmiller and lumber merchant - but of the resolve of persons such as Paul and Abra Wentworth to bring civilization (and yes, luxury) to the American frontier.
After the death of Paul Wentworth in 1748, descendant members of the line of Ezekiel Wentworth, including Colonel John Wentworth and Major John B. Wentworth, in their turn became legatees and subsequently residents, and so the Paul Wentworth house continued to be the home of the village squire. That symbolic status ended with the advent of the Salmon Falls cotton mills, at which time the large mill agent's house overlooking Front and South Streets replaced the Wentworth house as the most Important and influential in the village. Milling, whether traditional or textile, continued as the dominant revenue-generating activity in which residents of the village were engaged, and the domicile of the individual who exercised operational management was perceived accordingly.
A
Publication of ARCH
The Association for Rollinsford Culture and History
©2003 - 2006