In the prosecution of the business up to this time, the parties interested had been singularly favored by circumstances that brought disaster to many other firms and business men throughout our northern towns and cities. We have reference to the great civil war that about this time (1861-65) so much disturbed the commerce of the country. Of the gray twilled flannels produced by the Sugar River mills, a large stock had accumulated at this time. The goods were well adapted to the wants of laborers, and particularly the soldiers in the Union army. The war created a demand; prices appreciated; the machinery was kept running night and day; the flannels found ready sale as fast as they could be produced; and the success of the Sugar River mills was henceforth assured. In the mean time, the establishment had been greatly enlarged and improved, and was turning out about eight hundred thousand yards of flannel yearly.
In 1872, Seth Mason Richards, the eldest son of Dexter Richards, a young man just entered upon his majority, was admitted to a partnership with his father. Enlargements and improvements have continued from time to time, and the condition of the establishment at this date (1882) may be stated as follows: Dexter Richards & Son, proprietors; capital stock, $150,000. S. M. Richards, superintendent; Arthur R. Chase, secretary. It gives steady employment to eighty-five operatives; runs eight sets of cards, forty-four narrow looms, fifteen spinning-machines; works up two hundred and eighty thousand pounds of cotton and wool, and turns out annually nearly one million yards of gray twilled flannel. The trade-mark (D. R. P.) of these goods is well known, among dealers and others, throughout the country, and the products of the factory find market and ready sale through commission merchants in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
Up to the year 1871, the manufacturing and agricultural interests of Newport and the towns adjoining had achieved all the prosperity it was possible for them to attain without railroad facilities to enable them to compete successfully with other places in the enjoyment of such facilities. As early as 1848, the Concord & Claremont Railroad Company had been incorporated, and in 1850 the road had been put in operation to Bradford. From Bradford to Claremont the rugged nature of the route was appalling to engineers and contractors, and particularly so to capitalists who were expected to construct the road. The enterprise here came to a stand. Further efforts, legislative and otherwise, to continue the work, were made without success, and for twenty-one years the heavy-laden stages and teams continued to toil on over the weary hills, to and fro, waiting for some able and friendly hand to establish a new order of things, and deliver them. In the meantime, the war of the rebellion, that had absorbed the thought and labor and capital of the country, had come and gone, and "enterprises of great pith and moment," that had long slumbered, were again revived,—day dawned again upon the Sugar River Railroad.
In the year 1866, mainly through the influence of Dexter Richards, then a member of the legislature, and his enterprise as a citizen, the Sugar River Railroad Company, now known as the Concord & Claremont Railroad Company, was chartered. The means to revive and continue the building of the road through to Claremont were furnished by the Northern Railroad Company, aided by large assessments on the towns on the route of the road. The town of Newport, by official act, became responsible for forty-five thousand dollars, or about five per cent on its valuation. In addition to this amount, the further sum of twenty thousand dollars was required to assure the continuance and completion of the work. Of this amount, Mr. Richards became liable for eleven thousand dollars, and other parties interested made up the remaining nine thousand dollars. The assurance of sixty-five thousand dollars from the town of Newport secured the construction of the road through to Claremont beyond a doubt. The road was soon afterward completed, and the first regular train from Bradford to Claremont passed through Newport, September 16, 1872.
It was also through the instrumentality of Mr. Richards, that in July, 1866, the wires of the Western Union Telegraph Company were extended and in operation to this town. Of the one thousand dollars subscribed by citizens of Newport to secure this great facility of communication, three-fourths of the amount were paid by him.
Mr. Richards has identified himself with the friends of education, and Dartmouth College particularly, by the endowment of a scholarship in that venerable and favorite institution of learning. He has also contributed liberally to the support of Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden, of which he is one of the trustees. He is also one of the founders and benefactors of the Orphans' Home, at Franklin, and a trustee of the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane, at Concord, benevolent institutions that are an honor to our state.
The Congregational church and society, of Newport, of which Mr. Richards has been for many years a member, are greatly indebted to him for their present substantial prosperity. He has identified himself not only with the ample support of the ministry of this time-honored church, its mission work, its charities, local and remote; its Sunday-school,—of which, up to 1878, when he retired from the position, he had been for more than twenty years the superintendent,—but with the improvements and additions to its buildings and grounds, and the erection of its parsonage. At an expense of some two thousand five hundred dollars, he has placed a large and fine-toned organ in the choir, as a memorial of a beloved daughter (Elizabeth) who died in the year 1868, in the twenty-first year of her age.
To complete the list of interests that wait on Mr. Richards for his attention, we find his name as one of the directors of the Eastern Railroad in New Hampshire; and, also, one of the directors of the N. H. Fire Insurance Company, at Manchester. He is the president of the First National Bank of Newport. He was also one of the founders and the first president of the Newport Savings Bank, chartered July 1, 1868, and now in successful operation.
He married, January 27, 1847, Louisa Frances, daughter of the late Dr. Mason Hatch, a long time highly esteemed physician and citizen of Newport. Of the six children born to them in the years from 1847 to 1867, three only survive: Seth Mason, born June 6, 1850, now a partner with his father in the Sugar River mills establishment, in which he has exhibited superior business qualities, and bids fair to become a useful and influential citizen of the town and state. Josephine Ellen, born October 30, 1855, a graduate of the Female Seminary, at Andover, Mass., and the founder of a scholarship in honor of her alma mater. During the years 1880 and 1881, Miss Richards, with a party of friends, sought entertainment and culture from an extended tour in Europe, visiting Egypt and Palestine in the course of their trip. William Francis, born January 28, 1867, is now (1882) a student connected with Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.
The Richards family have a delightful cottage at Straw's Point, Rye Beach, where an unaffected hospitality, as well as the breath of the sea, await their friends during the summer months.