On 31 August 1944, Anson Dale conveyed the property to Otis Bardwell. According to George Aldrich, in Walpole As It Was and As It Is, containing the Complete Civil History of the Town from 1749 to 1879 (1880):
“Otis Bardwell was born in Deerfield, Mass, Oct. 17, 1792, and was the son of Thomas and Catharine (Belding) Bardwell, who had a family of twelve children, eight of whom lived to maturity, four of the number having been our town’s people. He married first, Dec. 23, 1818, Abigail, daughter of Abijah and Artemesia (Blake) Foster, of Keene, N. H., b. Aug. 14, 1799, ch. I. Abigail Foster, b. July 11, 1824, d. in infancy. II. Catharine Artemesia, b. July 12,1826, d. in infancy. III. Mary Ann, b Jan. 6,1827, m. Edmund Foster Cook, Feb. 23, 1847 and had 9 ch. 4 of whom are living. 1st Mary F., 2d Mabel, 3d Otis Bardwell, 4th Helen Temple. IV. Harriet Otis, b. July 26,1829. V. Sarah Bellows, b. Jan. 14, 1832; m. Horace W. Eaton, May 1, 1856; d. Feb. 21, 1876. Abigail, wife of Otis Bardwell, d., Oct. 14,1832. He m. a second time Mary, b. Sep. 2, 1800, a sister of his first wife who d. Dec. 13, 1875; he d. Mar. 27, 1871.”
“Mr. Bardwell began life as a stage driver, but being a man of energy and good calculation he soon became a proprietor, and in a short time was one of the owners of all the mail lines of staging in the vicinity.”
“In the month of January 1819, about three weeks after his first marriage, in driving over Carpenter’s Hill, he discovered an apple tree in full a bloom, from which he picked blossoms for the lady passengers, and brought home a bouquet for his bride.”
“Soon after 1820 he purchased of Thomas Redington the house where Henry Allen now lives, and resided there some twenty-five years. In 1849 when the Cheshire Railroad was completed, he bought a plot of land in Rutland, Vt. and built the well known “Bardwell House,” where, in conjunction with his son-in-law, E. Foster Cook, he kept a public house for a number of years.”
“He was the first president of the first Walpole Savings Bank and was the custodian of considerable property left in trust by others. His second wife was a model woman and a consistent member of the Congregational church in this town for many years, and one of the leading spirits. She carried out her profession in her daily walk, being always the first of her neighbors at the house of those who were sick and in affliction. Her hand always went with her generous nature in bestowing little comforts on those that were poor and needy as well as those that were sick.”
Otis Bardwell died intestate in 1871, and his widow, Mary, survived him to 1875. His daughters Mary A. Cooke (1827-1891) (joined by her husband, Edmund F. Cooke (1814-1907)) and Harriet O. Bardwell (1829-1872) conveyed the property on 14 April 1886 to Alfred W. Burt.
Sources
Cheshire Co. NH Deed Book 151, p. 431 (Dale to Bardwell).
Cheshire Co .NH Deed Book 283, p. 51 (Bardwell Heirs to Burt).
George Aldrich, Walpole As It Was and As It Is, containing the Complete Civil History of the Town from 1749 to 1879 (Claremont, NH: The Claremont Manufacturing Co., 1880), pp. 191-192.
Cheshire Co. NH Estate Files B1080-B1131, 1869-1872.
Photograph Credit: Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey (1959).
Aaron Howland House 