Anson Dale of Boston, Massachusetts, purchased the house at 20 Westminster Street from Aaron P. Howland on 18 February 1842. He did not hold it long, for he in turn sold it two years later to Otis Bardwell on 31 August 1844.
He must have been a restless soul, for he was reportedly one of 176 passengers on the sailing ship Sweden, which left Boston 1 March 1849, sailing around South America to San Francisco, according to records preserved at the Mystic Seaport Museum.
He must have returned from the California gold fields a rich man, but suffered setbacks later in life. An item published in The National Eagle (1 February 1855, p. 2, Col. 5) reports:
“Anson Dale of Walpole, committed suicide a few days since by cutting his throat with a razor. The cause of his self-destruction is supposed to have been late pecuniary losses. He had saved some seven or eight thousand dollars in California, and invested a portion of it in Cheshire Railroad stock. Its depreciation weighed heavily upon his mind. He had also lost about one thousand dollars within a few days by the failure of a Boston firm. These losses, although aside from the amounts involved in them he had property enough, undoubtedly led him to commit the rash act.”
His will dated 13 January 1855 devised all his property to his wife Sarah Dale and named her executor; the will does not name any children. He committed suicide four days later, on 17 January 1855. His date of death is recorded on his tombstone in the Walpole Village Cemetery.
Sources
Cheshire Co. NH Deed Book 145, p. 237 (Howland to Dale).
Cheshire Co. NH Deed Book 151, p. 431 (Dale to Bardwell).
The National Eagle, Claremont, NH, 1 February 1855, p. 2, Col. 5.
Cheshire Co. NH Will Book 79-80 (1848-1869), p. 262 (Will of Anson Dale).
Photograph Credit: Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey (1959).
Aaron Howland House 