The Fletcher Memorial Library owes its existence to two sisters from Hampton, Harriet and Eliza Durkee. The personal lives of the two women are not well documented, but as the library celebrates its 100th anniversary, it’s intriguing to uncover what does exist about them.

The sisters were two of three children of William Ladd Durkee and Ede Roxanna Holt, who married on December 14, 1828 in Hampton. Harriet was born in 1825, brother John in 1829 and Eliza in 1830. In a time when illegitimacy was frowned upon, Harriet was born in 1825, three years before her parents married. It appears that her parents made some attempts to hide the year of her birth. She is not listed in the town collection of births, nor is the year of her birth recorded next to her name in the Holt family genealogy, unlike the other two children. Her name was also omitted in a news article about William’s election to the state legislature. (Ede was also five months pregnant with John when they married, but pregnant brides were not rare at the time, contrary to popular belief).

Both the Durkee and Holt families were prominent in Hampton, and despite the circumstance of Harriet’s birth, the family was well respected in town over the years. When William died in 1878, the notice in the Willimantic Journal read, “William Durkee, who has been sick for some time past, with congestion of the lungs, died on Sunday, March 3. Mr. Durkee was universally esteemed and respected by all who knew him. He had filled nearly all the town offices, was representative of the session in 1848, was deputy sheriff for ten years and was a lifelong democrat.” Ede passed away in 1886.

Harriet

In 1847, Harriet married Asa Austin Fletcher of Mendon, Massachusetts in Manchester, Connecticut. Rev. B.F. Northrop officiated. Asa was a descendant of one of the first settlers in Concord, Massachusetts, Robert Fletcher. The 1850 federal census shows Asa and Harriet living with his elderly aunt (listed as a pauper) and their infant daughter, Eliza Durkee Fletcher, in Mendon. Asa’s occupation was listed as “clicker” for a manufacturing company. A clicker was, “One who made eyelet holes or uppers in boots using a machine which clicked, or a person in charge of the final stage of layout before printing in the print industry, or the servant of a salesman who stood at the door to invite customers in.” By 1860, Asa and Harriet were living in Franklin, Massachusetts as ‘hotel keepers’ with their two children, Eliza age 11 and Austin Barklay age 9, as well as 16 boarders. Among their boarders were students from the new Universalist private school in Franklin, Dean Academy.

The Fletchers did very well. Bertha Albee Gaskell’s grandfather was a childhood friend of their son, Austin Barclay Fletcher. In 1967, Bertha reminisced about visiting ‘Auntie Harriet’, “They were very wealthy then and had a very fine house with servants, and a stable. It adjoined the cemetery. It was a 3-story mansion, and to me it was a grand home – I think it was the equal of any in town at that period.” Austin’s friend, Arthur Pierce, recalled “His father and mother were prominent in Franklin community and church life, and there remain in the town many pleasant memories of their public spirit and fine neighborliness. Mr. Fletcher, Sr., was in business in the town, and Mrs. Fletcher had the supervision of the boarding department of Dean Academy”. Asa served as steward of Dean Academy for several years.

Between 1875 and 1890, Asa and Austin built the still extant Fletcher Block in Franklin. The Franklin Register wrote, “when completed (it) will be an ornament to the street and a monument to Fletcher’s good judgment, taste and active public spirit.”Asa was elected to various town offices, serving as selectman, overseer of the poor and a member of the Board of Assessors.

An interesting incident was reported in 1884. Harriet was called as a witness in the trial of a young servant girl accused of poisoning members of the Rev. Dr. Fletcher family, relatives of Asa’s. Harriet testified that she saw the servant at the Fletcher house frequently and that she saw her near the room of a victim, Mrs. Bartlett. The servant was eventually acquitted due to conflicting evidence.

Asa and Harriet’s daughter, Eliza Durkee Fletcher, married Heman C. Benson from Upton. They had one son, Austin Fletcher Benson, born in 1869. Heman died in 1870 of consumption and Eliza moved back into the boarding house with her 8-month-old son. Eliza died in 1881 at the age of 32, also of consumption.

Their son, Austin Barclay Fletcher became an attorney, a banker, a professor, a member of the Board of Trustees at both Tufts and Boston University, and a millionaire. He married Hortense Follett of Wrentham in 1882. The New York Times and the Boston Globe ran lengthy stories about the wedding, at which Reverend A.A. Minor, former President of Tufts University, officiated. The ceremony and reception, which took place in the home of the bride’s parents, included “several hundred guests”. The gifts were many and lavish.

Austin and Hortense had no children. Hortense died in 1905, Austin in July 1923. He left the bulk of his $3 million estate to Tufts University. He also left money to the towns of Mendon and Franklin for a hospital, libraries and other philanthropic causes. Prior to his death, he gifted $10,000 to Hampton for the purchase of the current library building, books and equipment.

Several of Austin’s cousins were apparently angry that they received nothing from his fortune in his will. They contested it in court, claiming undue influence, and Hampton feared that the $10,000 gift would revert back to his estate. However, the cousins settled for $35,000, the amount it would have cost them to go to trial, and in 1924 Austin’s attorney made known “the permanency of the gift.”

Eliza

In 1850 Connecticut, Eliza and John were still living in the Durkee farmhouse on Main Street in Hampton. There are mentions of Eliza in the Willimantic Journal that provide glimpses of her life over the years. On May 31, 1876, Eliza was among a group of women who furnished flowers to decorate the graves of two soldiers to honor Memorial Day. On a boisterous July 4, 1877, “Bells were rung, pistols fired off, and everything that boys could connive at to make a noise. The antiques and horribles created quite a scare going from one end of the street to another.” Finally, “A picnic was held under the noble ash tree of Miss Eliza Durkee, and prompt at noon the company assembled around the table ready to do justice to the viands spread before them. There was a cool breeze, and everyone reports a splendid time.”

The sisters clearly remained close, visiting back and forth. Harriet came to Hampton in November 1889 during a festival to raise funds for the Hampton library. When Asa Fletcher, “a well-known citizen of Franklin” died on October 29, 1891, Eliza spent that Christmas in Franklin with her grieving sister. The next July, Eliza was once again in Franklin caring for her sister “who is very ill”. Harriet died on July 9, 1892.

Eliza never married and continued to live in Hampton alone in the house she grew up in. Her passion was working with the Hampton Library Association to establish a free public library for the town. Eliza raised funds, purchased books, and ran a library from her own home. Mary Jewett, 95-years-old in 1961, recalled visiting that library as a young girl. But Eliza’s most long-lasting contribution to the library was the bequest in her will.

Eliza died on April 20, 1905. After leaving personal items to friends, cousins and her nephew Austin Barclay Fletcher, she directed the remainder of her property to be “converted to money” which was to be used to purchase books for a library to be “of free use to the inhabitants” and to establish a Durkee Fund for the town to continue acquiring books. In 1906, the Durkee home was sold at auction, and the proceeds established the Durkee Fund, as she wished. That bequest, along with the $10,000 gift from her wealthy nephew in memory of his mother, enabled the purchase of the current library.

In 1907, a town meeting appointed a committee to request that the legislature pass a resolution allowing the $2800 from the Eliza Durkee fund to be used for care and maintenance of the library rather solely for book purchases. “Residents voted it should be”.
Eliza’s will cast some puzzling light on her social relationships. The first person mentioned, even before the library and her family, was D. Clifford Barrows of Willimantic. Barrows was a jeweler who also sold stereoscopes and fancy goods. Born in 1852, he was married and had children. In 1901, he was elected Willimantic’s mayor. It’s unclear how he and Eliza met, but based on the items she bequeathed him and the significance of listing him first, they must have become close friends. She left him her “cherry desk, two sets of shoe buckles, one riding spur, all the buttons marked with the letter “D”, two silver sleeve buttons, one large pewter platter, two pewter basins, two pewter plates, and her pewter porringer.”

Eliza and Harriet are buried in Hampton’s South Cemetery with their parents and John, who died in 1898.