Former Owners of 26 Main Street

This is part one of a multi-part post. The house on 26 Main Street was built almost 190 years ago. But despite its age, there have been very few owners and for 178 years the home was owned by one family. These posts will explore the history of the former owners and discuss how Snapdragon Inn will tell their stories in our marketing, design, and continued care of 26 Main Street.

Former Owners of 26 Main Street:
John P. Skinner (original builder of the home)
William Maxwell Evarts
Mrs. Elizabeth H. Perkins (William Maxwell Evarts Daughter)
William Maxwell Perkins
Bertha Perkins Frothingham
Perry & Jill Seale
Snapdragon Inn


PART ONE: John P. Skinner

John P. Skinner was born in Connecticut, March 10, 1788. He was the son of Captain Benjamin and Sarah C. (Manning) Skinner. Captain Benjamin Skinner was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and while he was in the army his wife was left at home to take care of the farm and cattle. He died of spotted fever at fifty years of age.

John P. Skinner was for thirty years proprietor of a stage line along the Connecticut River from Haverhill, N.H., to Hartford, Conn. He made his headquarters at Windsor, where he owned quite a number of farms besides village property; and while engaged in running the stages he kept from eighty to one hundred horses. In his young days, previous to the advent of railroads, it was his custom to cart his farm products to Boston for a market; and these trips usually required two weeks in which to go and return.

He started in life as a poor boy, and his accumulation of property was the result of that patient industry and firm determination to succeed which characterized the progressive farmer and business man of his generation. He was widely known and sincerely respected as an honorable, upright man, one who could always be depended upon to meet his obligations punctually; and his record is looked upon with pride by his descendants. He was a member of the Baptist church nearly sixty years. He died August 29, 1867.

Source: Merrimack and Sullivan Counties, New Hampshire Biographies