Potatoes. So many spuds, not enough uses for them.
At least that was the case in the early 1800s, when scientist and inventor Samuel Abbot of Wilton set about finding a way to manufacture potato starch on a large scale. Back in those days, manufacturers made the stuff by hand, grating the potatoes, steaming them and washing them. It was too costly to do on a large scale.
But in 1811, Abbot, along with his brother, Ezra Abbot, came up with a way to make 6,000 pounds of starch in one year, using machinery specially designed for the task. It was used as “a delicate food for invalids and in the form of puddings,” the Jaffrey 1937 town history reports.
Soon, however, a new use for found for the stuff. With the growth of cotton mills in those days, potato starch became prized for its utility as sizing for cotton cloth. The Jaffrey Mills, which were making white sheeting at the time, purchased starch from the Abbots’ Wilton factory.
“Increased business made necessary the erection of a larger factory at Wilton,” the historians wrote, “when it was soon found that the enterprise was faced with a serious hazard from fire, due to the requirements for drying the product in shallow wooden trays about six feet long and three feet wide in racks over woodburning furnaces. The new factory soon was destroyed by fire, Ezra Abbot nearly losing his life by inhaling fumes from the burning starch. The mill was rebuilt, and burned a few years later with great loss and no insurance. Again it was rebuilt and the business continued.”
A couple of Jaffrey men had been keeping their eyes on the Wilton business, and decided to set up a starch factory in their town. Oliver and Eldad Prescott offered to set up a factory in town for the Abbots in return for a partnership in the business. The Abbots agreed, and in 1832 Samuel came to town to build and oversee the new mill, located in Squantum Village.
“An immense cellar, forty feet by fifty feet between walls and twelve feet or more deep, was dug for potato storage. A new dam for power was erected and clean water for manufacturing was conducted through a two-inch lead pipe by gravity from the spring to the south formerly used by Captain Sherwin for his “potash.” Platform scales were installed across the road and potatoes bought in bulk with an established weight per bushel. Tradition is that in one season thirty thousand bushels were in storage. Prices averaged seventeen cents a bushel, seemingly low, but the market was sure; the crop was easy to raise and the business brought money into town.”
Abbot became a well-respected Jaffrey resident. The men who sold him their potato crops often asked for his advice. He taught evening school sessions and held lyceums for the students in school district No. 1 and helped them with their academics.
He was to live in town only seven years, however. “On the second day of January, 1839, the starch factory was destroyed by fire. During his residence in Jaffrey Mr. Abbot, a bachelor, boarded at the house across the road from the factory, but to guard against fire he had his office and sleeping room in the factory building. The alarm of fire was given about sunset, soon after operations had ceased for the day, and Abbot with others was at supper. Having securities and other valuable papers in a trunk in his room, he left the table in haste, entered the burning building and did not return. With no means to combat the fire the flames spread rapidly and it was supposed that he was overcome by smoke and fumes.”
Abbot’s loss was keenly felt by townspeople, who assembled the day after the fire to watch as the factory owner’s remains were removed in a basket.
The fire did not mark the end of the potato starch business in town, however. The Prescotts rebuilt, at a cost of $5,000, using brick, iron doors and masonry walls to discourage fire. The business continued until the early 1830s, when a potato disease, coupled with the development of large starch factories in Maine, led to a decline. The factory shut down.
So ended the potato starch business in Jaffrey.
A Look Back originally appeared in the Monadnock Ledger.