David Sumner, Hartland Lumber Baron

Rafting lumber down the Connecticut River was a common economic activity in the late 18^th century. The forests in Southern New England were becoming depleted, so increasing numbers of entrepreneurs in Northern New England took advantage of the burgeoning lumber market, cutting trees and shipping them down the river to be processed in sawmills downstream. The first real lumber baron on the Connecticut River was David Sumner of Hartland.

David Sumner was born into a fairly wealthy Claremont, New Hampshire family in 1776. His father was determined that he would graduate from college, but David was more interested in business than in academics. As a young adult, he trained in the mercantile business at Lyman's Store in White River Junction, then established his own store in Hartland.

In 1805, David married Martha Brandon Foxcroft, the daughter of a doctor in Brookfield, Masschusetts. He became an important person in Hartland. He was elected captain of the Hartland militia in the War of 1812, was a state legislator, justice of the peace, and Hartland's postmaster for 20 years. Often a storekeeper would be the postmaster, as the store was the logical place to have a post office. David became quite wealthy from these various ventures, and he also inherited an estate from his father.

In colonial New Hampshire, Governor Wentworth set aside 500 acres for himself in each township. These tracts of land were called “The Governor's Rights”. David's father, Benjamin Sumner, had purchased the Claremont tract from the Governor, and David inherited that land from him when he died. In 1816, David purchased several more “Governor's Rights” tracts from Governor Wentworth's widow. These tracts were in northern Vermont and New Hampshire, and contained huge quantities of lumber.

With these land acquisitions, David Sumner entered the lumber business. He employed crews of lumbermen to cut wood in the north country, then raft it down the Connecticut River. There were three canal and lock systems on the Connecticut River, at Wilder, Hartland, and Bellows Falls. Perez Gallup owned the canal and locks at Hartland, but when he died, Sumner bought the property from his estate, improved the canal and locks, and built a sawmill there. He built a second sawmill in Dalton, New Hampshire, which was run by his nephew. His fortune increasing by leaps and bounds, he built a mansion for himself and his wife, which is still standing in Hartland, and is now a Bed and Breakfast Inn.

In 1825, David Sumner's crews moved two million board feet of lumber from the Johns River in Dalton, New Hampshire to the mill at Hartland. That year, many of the logs were mast logs, which were still very valuable. Although they were more valuable, mast logs were so long and big that they often caused log jams. One of these log jams took 15 to 20 men a full day to pick apart, costing Sumner $8. That same year, thieves in Haverhill and Orford stole some of the logs.

Most of Sumner's logs were sent loose down the Connecticut River to Hartland, but often at Hartland, some were grouped into rafts and sent further South to be sawn into lumber under a contract. These rafts were piled high with shingles, potash and other wood products, destined for the Southern New England market. In 1832 a raft of three boxes of three boxes contained 26,614 board feet of lumber and shingles, headed down the Connecticut.

These huge boxes had to be dismantled to go through canals and over falls, and if the river was low it made things much harder for the crew. In 1824, the combination of low water and huge logs caused log jams at Millers Falls and Hadley Falls, Massachusetts, and the crew had to use crews of hired oxen working from the riverbank to break the jam. This was the heavy equipment available in that day. During this process, one man was drowned.

Driving logs downriver was dangerous work, especially in jams. The men actually “rode the logs”, even while trying to untangle a log jam. A sudden shift in logs could mean that a log driver would lose his footing and fall into the river. Many men who went for an impromptu swim simply made for the river's edge and emerged unharmed. Some, however, were overtaken by the current and swept downstream. Worse, a leg or arm could get pinned or crushed in a log jam, and a badly injured person can hardly swim to shore in fast current.

It was unusual for the drivers to make it all the way to Southern Massachusetts or Connecticut without encountering some type of difficulty. In 1824, they arrived at South Hadley Falls with 28 rafts loaded with wood products. It was Sunday, and neither the canal crews nor the Sumner crews would work. Finally, with enough extra money and persuasion, the crews went into action and the logs successfully went over the falls and the other products were safely transported through the locks.