STREET RR CHARTER:

3/22/01: Two bills in NH legislature re: RR committee hearing on charter for RR. Tues. am house passed 2 bills charter of Hampton and Seabrook street railroad and amending the Black Rock and Salisbury Beach road. Gave Lovell interests right to build rr if Shaw interests fail to builD within time limit. Result is a victory for Lovell interests as Shaw can't finish by Oct. 1 deadline. By agreement, Shaw will not build. Lovell has begun construction.

3/29/01: Legislature passes bill to incorporate EH&A S RR employees relief Association.

3/29/01: Legislature passed bill to ratify S R Lease to EH&A S R of Amesbury and Hampton Street Railway to the EH&A S RR.

SCHEDULES:

3/22/01: Schedule of EHA Street Railway, also B&M railroad schedule for winter.

5/16/02: Schedule in effect after the bridge opened was Exeter cars to run direct to beach and Newburyport cars also, running by way of Whittier's on an hourly schedule. Haverhill cars come to the Casino on half-hour schedule and return by the Seabrook route.

DIVIDENDS:

4/26/01: State RR Commissioners report. Nine S R's in state and only EH&A (4 ½%) and Manchester lines paid dividends.

5/3/01: Dividend of $2 per share paid as of May 1, 1901.

10/18/01: Dividend of 3 cents per share voted and Lovell appointed to new office as general manager at adjourned annual meeting.

FINANCIAL MATTERS:

6/28/01: Wallace D. Lovell and associates were authorized by the NH Board of Railway Commissioners to issue stocks and bonds for the Seabrook and Hampton electric railway equal to $100,000.

1/10/02: 1901 report of RR Commissioners lists EH&A receipts for the year of $105,298.50. Lovell to spend $80,000 at Seabrook Beach. Every street railway for which he has received charter will be operating by July 1902 and his total expense will be $5 million.

12/13/01: Lovell and associates sell the EH&A, plus their other lines to the New Hampshire Traction Company. Sale includes franchises and all property including the HB terminal buildings. New company is a syndicate of NY and Boston people and have capital of $1 million. Sale allows Lovell and associates to continue their work on lines to the west (Manchester, Nashua, etc.) into connection with the existing lines.

7/4/02: details of merger explained further. Combined properties will have 135 miles of track, pleasure resorts and beaches, electric lighting in Exeter and Portsmouth and serve a population of 300,000.

5/27/04: Six of nine street railways in NH failed to make a profit last year including the EH&A which lost $29,322 and the S&HB which lost $458. After June 1, the EH&A fares will increase. 10/8/07 Apparently EH&A is on hard times for it has a receiver, Allan Hollis of Concord. Says the EH&A is now separate from the other Lovell (rr) properties. Says the line represents an outlay of probably 1 - 2 million dollars and that outstanding investor bonds total $225,000. Because it was part of the larger system, it was difficult for the receiver to determine what its operational costs were. But has not run profitably enough to return a fair investment. One solution is to shut down for the costly winter months, saving several thousands of dollars.The other alternative is to increase fares from the current .5 to .6 cents. "Are the people of the community willing to pay for transportation enough to enable the owners to operate the road and realize a scant return upon a reduced capital from which all water has been removed." Rate was increased. Six cents for a 3-mile ride.

11/15/07: Announce EH&A with all of its HB buildings to be sold in January by order of the court.

3/13/08: Charles H. Tenney, representing a committee of bond holders bids $250,000 at auction to buy the EH&A.

4/3/08: On April 1, the EH&A is split into two departments, one to be called the Exeter and Hampton Electric Company (formerly the lighting department) and the railway system which keeps the same name.

5/15/08: Allen Hollis, former receiver of the road, is now president. The reorganized system is being spruced up with repairs to all beach holdings and new open cars which the company is building in Hampton. Six new cars, each with fourteen seats, can seat six on each seat.

2/16/11: Letter from Allen Hollis, President of the EH&A to Merrill H. Browne, person who has been sending long letters to the paper about the RR, HBIC and other town issues. Hollis says number of fares for the year ending June 30, 1909, were $866,952. (no figures for 1910 but the total rates was slightly less).

3/29/01: Legislature passes bill to incorporate EH&A S RR Employees Relief Association

3/29/01: Legislature passed bill to ratify S R Lease to EH&A S R of Amesbury and Hampton Street Railway to the EH&A S RR.

3/22/01: Schedule of EHA Street Railway, also 8 railroad schedule for winter. 5/16/02 schedule in effect after the bridge opened was Exeter cars to run direct to beach and Newburyport cars also, running by way of Whittier's on an hourly schedule. Haverhill cars come to the Casino on half hour schedule and return by the Seabrook route.

4/12/01: H. B. Brown and Fred Perkins sent over to the Seabrook Marsh, Tuesday, two large loads of plan(sic), wheelbarrows, etc., to be used in the connection of the electric road across the marsh. The same day 30 Italians arrived on Wednesday began work. It is a large and difficult job.

12/6/01: James I. Swift brings suit against Misses Mace, of the General Moulton House, to recover his costs in fumigating and cleaning the house after its occupancy by Italians, suit privately settled.

6/14/01: Cowles and Childs of Northampton, MA, will build bridge across Hampton River and Black Water River.

2/7/02: Brown and Perkins finish their work on road across the marsh.

6/14/01: H. B. Brown received contract for electric road construction from bridge to completion of South Seabrook line.

8/23/01: Seabrook and Hampton Beach lines absorbed into, the EH & A system so that management will have 100 miles of lines under its control.

1/03/02: Bridge rent agreement, calling for the payment of the SR to the Granite State Land Company to pay $4,250 annually has been changed to $3,000 semi-annually with the Land Co. to make repairs to everything on bridge except its own tracks and wires.

6/7/01: EH & A Company pushing fast. Work across Seabrook marsh has reached the beach and only a few weeks before RR building will begin. Bridge piles have been arriving and pile drivers expect to begin work at once.

9/6/01: Monday was busiest of the season for the EH & A with every car in use and largest number of fares collected. For the week 44,000 riders. John Akerman, baggagemaster and one assistant had to handle all the trunks. Monday more people at the beach than ever before. Some people had to wait four hours to get a car.

4/19/01: Facts on Seabrook ERR. Work began end of last week at 7 am. 26 Italians arrived to work to build highway 1/2 mile across the marsh from (south point) South Seabrook to the beach. Rev. William Rand rang Congregational Church bell, cannon fired and one hour celebration. Messrs Brown and Perkins of Hampton will build highway and electric RR will run to one side. Highway will be 30 ft wide. This section will allow connection between Hampton Beach and Haverhill, four feet of Marsh material will be laid down, then 18 inches of gravel. Sides of road protected with rr sleepers driven on a slant beside road with hemlock plank spiked on. Black Water river bridge over 200 feet long. Length of boulevard bridge across Hampton River is 4130 feet. Wallace D. Lovell, president of EH&A RR, Ralph Hood, civil engineer.

10/11/01: Seabrook and Hampton Beach link opened last week. Begins at Smithtown and goes down Walton road, under B & M RR to corner with former New Road, now Washington road to South Main Street and leaves village at South Dock road which has been extended one half mile towards march. One half mile route across marshes built, graded five feet high, 30 ft wide. After leaving marsh crosses beach hills near Majors rock to junction with Salisbury line, curves north to travel one and half miles to terminus, where workmen are finishing Hampton River Bridge. New route will save half hour for cars running from Haverhill to Hampton Beach and aid the development of Seabrook Beach, most of which has been purchased by Lovell.

7/5/01: Record breaking travel from Portsmouth to Hampton Beach. Many appreciate not having to change cars enroute. From 11 am, cars were run every two hours. Every open car but one was in service.

6/28/01: Wallace B. Lovell and associates were authorized by the NH Board of Railway Commissioners to issue stocks and bonds for the Seabrook and Hampton electric railway equal to $100,000.

1/10/02: 1901 report of RR Commissioners lists EH&A receipts for the year 1901, $105,298.50. Lovell to spend $80,000 at Seabrook Beach. Every street railway for which he has received charter will be operating by July 1902 and his total expense will be $5 million.

12/13/01: Lovell and associates sell the EH&A, plus their other lines to the New Hampshire Traction Company. Sale includes franchises and all property including the HB terminal buildings. New Co. is a syndicate of NV and Boston people and have capital of $1 million. Sale allows Lovell and associates to continue their work on lines to the west (Manchester, Nashua, etc.) into connection with the existing lines.

7/4/02: details of merger explained further. Combined properties will have 135 miles of track, pleasure resorts and beaches, electric lighting in Exeter and Portsmouth serve a population of 300,000.

2/14/02: Newspaper speculates that Lovell still owns a controlling interest in the NH Traction Company and that he still is interested in what happens to Hampton Beach, that the change of ownership was for financial reasons. Suggests that the new 40 room hotel being built for Edwin Janvrin of Hampton Falls is really a Lovell project. Meanwhile, land between the Casino and the river is being sub-divided into lots and are belong advertised. Since there is controversy regarding the ownership of land along the NH coast, the lots will "doubtless be in the form of quit-claim deeds."

5/27/04: Six of nine street railways in NH failed to make a profit last year including the EH&A which lost $29.322 and the S&HB which lost $458. After June 1, the EH&A fares will increase.

10/8/07: Apparently EH&A is on hard times for it has a receiver, Allan Hollis of Concord. Says the EH&A is now separate from the other Lovell properties. Says the line represents an outlay of probably 1/2 million dollars and that outstanding investor bonds total $225,000. Because it was part of the larger system was difficult for the receiver to determine what its operational costs were. But has not run profitably enough to to return a fair investment. One solution is to shut down for the costly winter months, saving several thousands of dollars.The other alternative is to increase fares from the current .5 to .6 cents. "Are the people of the community willing to pay for transportation enough to enable the owners to operate the road and realize a scant return upon a reduced capital from which all water has been removed." Rate was increased. Six cents for a 3-mile ride.

7/5/01: Electric Railroad is being extended to the northerly approach of the Hampton River Bridge and the rails will soon be laid of the section from the fish houses to the center of the river.

11/15/07: Announce EH&A with all of its HB buildings to be sold in January by order of the court.

3/13/08: Charles H. Tenney, representing a committee of bond holders bids $250,000 at auction to buy the EH&A.

4/3/08: On April 1, the EH&A is split into two departments, one to be called the Exeter and Hampton Electric Company (formerly the lighting department) and the railway system which keeps the same name.

5/15/08: Allen Hollis, former receiver of the road, is now president. The reorganized system is being spruced up with repairs to all beach holdings and new open cars which the company is building in Hampton. Six new cars, each with fourteen seats, can seat six on each seat.

2/16/11: Letter from Allen Hollis, President of the EH&A to Merrill H. Browne, person who has been sending long letters to the paper about the RR, HBIC and other town issues. Hollis says number of fares for the year ending June 30, 09, were 866,952. (no figures for 10 but the total rates were slightly less).

7/25/02: 100 press people hosted at beach by Lovell. Toastmasters Charles L. Buswell, editor of Nashua Press who called Lovell "the man who has done more than any living man to promote a system of electric railroads in New Hampshire."

4/26/01: State RR Commissioners report. Nine S R's in state and only EH&A (4 ½%) and Manchester lines paid dividends

5/31/01: Dividend of $2 per share paid as of May 1.

10/18/01: Dividend of 3 cents per share voted and Lovell appointed to new office as general manager at adjourned annual meeting.

5/3/01: Ground broken Monday, Bow street Portsmouth for $500,000 electric light plant of Portsmouth Gas. Electric Light & Power Company which will also provide power for Lovell system electric railways.

7/25/02: After next Thursday, the power for the EH&A will come from the Rockingham Light and Power Company plant on Daniel Street, Portsmouth.

5/17/01: Wallace Lovell says electric SR from Exeter to Portsmouth will be started late this summer and that one from Portsmouth to Hampton along Lafayette road will begin within a year.

5/17/01: 27 conductors and 27 motormen now employed by EH&A S R 8116101 A fifty ton dynamo arrived for installation in Hampton Power house along with new boilers and a new engine. The equipment will power the Haverhill, Plaistow and Newton railways.

11/3/01: EH&A with build a second brick car barn, three times the capacity of present car barn, with six tracks. Will be located on the opposite side of the road from the old station. 420,000 bricks will be used, requiring 50 car loads.

9/6/01: Elder William A. Rand drives first wagon across the road to Seabrook Beach. Road work began April 10 by Brown and Perkins. is a 30 ft wide road and railway bed and it is expected rails will be laid to the beach within a few days.. Black Water River bridge is 400 feet long. Line from Smithtown to Hampton Beach expected to be ready by October and Lovell expects to sell lots at Seabrook Beach in spring.

4/18/02: John Herlyck of Hampton, conductor on first car from Exeter to HB, July 9, 1897.

3/23/06: Lovell dies on Monday, born 1854.

2/18/07: John Moulton, oiler for the EH&A is the track oiler. Daily walks from Hampton to Exeter oiling switches and greasing curves and watching for obstructions or needed repairs. Takes car back to Whittier's, then walks to Smithtown, then car back to Whittier's and walks the beach route to Casino and the North Hampton line, then returns home. He carries a large milk can of lubricant over his left shoulder, a stick through the handle. Age 46. Twenty miles a day walking.

3/8/07: Fire on Friday night destroys car barn and all open cars inside. Loss at $30-35,000.

2/9/11: Mass meeting scheduled to discuss better service for the EH&A. Representatives of the company expected to be present. Ladies are cordially invited. Rash of letters, mainly from Merrill H. Browne who is the instigator of the above meeting, discuss this situation in the papers.

2/16/11: above meeting held and a committee of three (Merrill H. Brown, Charles Francis Adams and George T. Lindsay)are chosen to meet with EH&A to discuss problems and seek concessions from the company. One problem is the reduction of service in the winter months.

4/6/11: Committee above passes resolutions asking Hollis for waiting room in front of the B&M station and locating the transfer point here instead of at Whittier's, reduction in some fares, change is nature of some cars whereas some are called special and others chartered, to discontinue said cars, reduction in expenses of the Casino property, reduction of Supt. salary "In view of his practices and work," changing the schedule of some cars to meet B&M schedule, and increasing crews wages.

5/4/11: Hollis letter (after meeting with the committee) to above: Agreed to provide a shelter adjacent to the B&M station if B&M agrees and if it can be built inexpensively; does not think moving the transfer point from Whittier's to the "new " waiting room is feasible. Will consider some fare changes and will change some and see if the public responds. Apparently some people were boycotting the SR due to the extra one cent increase from five to six cents. Hollis said he wanted to return to five cents but couldn't do it yet and the boycott was hurting. Wouldn't change fares for the excursion cars since the price had been in effect for many years and had been paid without objection. Expenses of the Casino for the nine months ending March 31, 11, was $1537.61 more for repairs, insurance, taxes, etc., than was taken as income from the property. Gave his support to the work and effort of MacAdams, the Supt....."has worked hard and conscientiously to build up an impoverished street railway..." Also said couldn't afford to pay workers any more wages at present.

6/8/11: B&M agrees to rent fifty foot square plot in front of the station for the SR waiting room for a nominal fee.

7/13/11: Supt. J. A. MacAdams received shock of 19,000 volts while talking on the telephone with engineer E. J. Stickney. MacAdams seriously injured. Caused probably from the crossing of as high tension wire with the phone line.

8/17/11: Lewis Lamprey letter in paper to EH&A complains that the rate from Hampton Falls to the Casino is 6 cents (for about six miles) while the rate from Hampton Village to North Beach is 12 cents, and that because of high rate, tourists sand local people are deprived of travelling to North Beach. Complaint made to the Public Service Commission who order the SR to satisfy the complaint.

9/2/11: Citizens Committee again files petition with the Public Service Commission asking for 1 either a reduction of fare from 6 to 5 cents over each fare limit, or a reduction in the number of fare limits , 2 erection of a waiting room in front of the B&M Depot and construction of a siding to make this the transfer point, 3 end of discrimination on charges between special cars and regular cars, 4 reduction of round trip fare from exeter to Hampton Beach of 25 cents instead of 40, 5 improved winter service between Hampton Village and the Beach.

10/26/11: Seabrook and HB S R petitions Public Service Commission to discontinue service from Nov to April on the line from corner of Washington and Collins street to the beach due to lack of business. 11/23/1 1 Permission granted.

11/23/11: EH&A petitions to shut down their line from Whittier's to the beach for the winter(Dec. 1 to May 1). To be heard at public hearing on Dec. 6 along with petition from the town committee and from Merrill H. Browne who petitioned for a general improvement in service. No record in paper as to whether or not this was granted but see next item.

7/30/14: SR petitioned to run winter cars as far as the Casino and not to stop at the Hampton Beach House where there is no waiting station. Petitioners claimed 20 school children live at the beach and the walk to the HB Hotel is hazardous in the winter. Hollis said was dangerous to run the cars over that distance plus the financial status of the sr was very bad. He asked for the cooperation of beach residents.

4/18/15: EH&R contemplates running the tracks from the Ashworth behind the major buildings down Marsh avenue to eliminate congestion on the boulevard.

7/27/16: Board of Trade Company with Sr schedule changes and fares which they feel keep more people from the beach, especially those who come from Massachusetts. They feel transfers should be allowed between the two lines serving the beach so that it won't cost ten cents to ride between the bridge and Cutlers. Board suggests the B&M build a spur to the beach to run excursions.

12/9/09: Souvenir edition. Built as the Exeter Street Railway in 1897 to run from Exeter Depot to Hampton Beach, one of many built by Lovell. First car was run over the line on July 1. Leonard Cotton was first superintendent. First season saw many people come to beach and people began to build cottagers. The next year (1898 or 1899?) tracks laid from Whittier's to Amesbury, under the name EH&A Street Railway. Current sup't. (1909) is J. A. MacAdams whose uncle gave the name MacAdamize to road building.

[Footnotes: EH&A S RR -- Exeter, Hampton & Amesbury Street Railway.
B&M -- Boston and Maine [Railroad]
SR -- Street Railway
RR -- Railroad]

{End of Part I}