1889 History - Biography - Daniel M. Skinner

Daniel Moulton Skinner, son of Elijah and Abigail (Moulton) Skinner, was born in Sandwich, April 14, 1825. His grandfather, Jedediah Skinner, came from Connecticut to North Sandwich about 1800. He was a noted singer and taught many singing-schools. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. His sons Elijah and Clark engaged in trade in separate stores at Skinner Corners. Clark built up a brisk business there. He was drowned in 1830 while fording Mad river near Thornton.

Elijah Skinner at an early day removed his stock of goods to the Centre, and for many years was a zealous and useful citizen. He was born in Lyme, Conn., September 30, 1786, and died January 22, 1871. He was above medium height, quick and lively, with fiery red hair that stood out straight from his head. He was of unbounded hospitality, and responded to every call on him for aid. He may be styled the father of Methodism here, as his house was the free hotel of that denomination; in 1824 he gave up merchandising to build the church which he had persuaded General Hoit to join him in erecting. This was completed in 1825. Elijah and his father were the first two members of the society established here. Elijah Skinner was a prominent Freemason; he never aspired to public office: represented Sandwich in the legislature of 1844 and 1845, and universally bore the reputation of being an honest man. He possessed an active and mechanical mind with great inventive powers, and in many ways was fifty years ahead of his times.

He foresaw the rapid strides of invention, and talked of railroads, locomotives, sending news along wires by electricity and conversing in the same manner, years before these improvements were developed, and people fancied him almost insane. From 1825 he took contracts to erect buildings and gave much time to invention. He secured fourteen patents on important scientific principles. He invented a serpentine water-wheel about 1810, but found that practically the same thing had been patented in France. He was greatly disappointed, but shut himself up in a room and soon developed what he termed an endless screw, one of which he placed in a mill which he erected at the outlet of Lake Winnipiseogee. Among his specifications in his application for a patent was one claiming that this wheel might be used to propel boats; and it is probable that this was the first discovery and application of the screw propeller as a motive-power. He also invented a lock to simultaneously lock and unlock a series of locks. This principle is now universally used in locking cells in prisons, etc. He first introduced stoves into Sandwich and claimed to be the inventor of the elevated oven. In 1836 he patented an improvement in fireplaces, and many of his last years were devoted to the improvements of flues to prevent smoky chimneys and to the manufacture and improvement of stoves, and many of his make were sold through Belknap and Carroll counties as the Hoit and Sherman stove. In 1845 he purchased the tin-shop of John Fellows, placed his son Daniel in charge of it, and shortly after built a shop where Hosea Pettingill now lives, where Daniel conducted business for some time and also learned the shoe business of a man in his employ. Elijah then purchased the meeting-house he built in 1825, finished it as a dwelling and a tin-shop. Here in 1856 Daniel began the manufacture of shoes, which in a short time was transferred to a new shop on the same lot. Elijah Skinner was of too generous a nature to acquire wealth, and Daniel faithfully discharged the duties of a good son to his parents, caring for them in their last days. Mr. Skinner married, December 3, 1807, Lydia Page, who died January 27, 1810. Her daughter Eliza became Mrs. George W. Mann. September 13, 1810, Mr. Skinner married Abigail, daughter of Daniel Moulton, in early life a privateersman in the Continental service of the Revolution. They had four children: Polly (Mrs. Hosea Pettingill); Lydia (Mrs. James M. Smith); Cyrus (dec.), and Daniel M. Mrs. Skinner was born December 9, 1782, and died April 3, 1872. She was a quiet worker in church matters, and there, as in her family, her presence was felt to be a power, and the record of her is "a Christian character of lovely womanhood."

Daniel M. Skinner inherited inventive powers of a high order, and aided his father in his inventions and in making patterns. Like many New England boys, Daniel was better educated in the school of labor than in that of books, and after working at carpentering and in tin and iron work, in 1857 he was a shoe manufacturer, employing fifteen men. By the hard times of that year he lost his entire property, but after a few months his Boston creditors reestablished him in business, which, although giving employment to forty, proved unremunerative. He then went to Manchester to work in a tin-shop to support the large family dependent on him. Here his attention was attracted to a rapidly selling pie-lifter. He soon devised a much better one, but had not the means to patent it. A daughter furnished the money, and thousands of the articles were manufactured and sold at good profits. In 1870 Mr. Skinner resumed shoe manufacturing in the building he now uses as a tin-shop; he employed thirty-five hands and continued five years. But he was to acquire a competence and prosperity only through his God-given powers of invention. He nearly perfected a mowing-machine, but was forced to abandon it for lack of funds. The same thing occurred with a railroad to ascend mountains, the idea of which he developed long before Marsh projected the one on Mount Washington. He invented a steam clothes-washer, which well met a popular demand.

October 23, 1883, Mr. Skinner obtained a patent for a parcel transmitter, which was much noticed by machinists and merchants, and was the precursor of that wonderful combination of mechanical skill, Skinner's instantaneous cash-transmitter. This was so decidedly superior to anything of the kind extant that it was evident a fortune could be obtained from it, but not being able to properly place it on the market and defend suits that would necessarily arise, in 1887 Mr. Skinner sold his interest in it to the Lamson Store-service Company for enough to make him comfortable for life. He is now enjoying a mental rest, but we predict that another pleasant surprise for the scientific world is now in its formative period in his active brain.

Mr. Skinner was much interested in the old militia organization. He was advanced from private to captain at his first training, and attained the rank of major in the Nineteenth Regiment. He is a Republican, and was a member of the defunct Bear Camp lodge, I. O. O. F., and held the position of D. D. G. Master in the order. A quiet, retiring citizen, he seeks no office; in his darkest days he kept faith with his creditors, and he has ever been a kind son, husband, and father. He married, September 7, 1845, Sarah P., daughter of Samuel and Lois Stratton. Her paternal grandfather was an Englishman who made a settlement on the present site of Lawrence, Mass., served in the Continental army of the Revolution, and took part in the battle of Bunker Hill. Her maternal grandfather, Cornelius Dinsmoor, served seven years in the Revolution, from Ossipee. Their surviving children are Clara M. (Mrs. David Hammond); Flora S. (Mrs. Charles A. Hammond); Cyrus E.; Daniel W.; Walter L.; Lucien C., and Olive L.

Contributed 2022 Jul 11 by Norma Hass, extracted from History of Carroll County, New Hampshire by Georgia Drew Merrill, published in 1889, pages 727-729.