Hale House

In 1790, Eliphalet Kimball moved to Orford and became the primary physician for the town. One of his daughters, Jane, married Samuel Hale who, in 1851, built this home on Bridge Street. The house served as a resident for an apothecary, a jeweler, and a dentist. A photograph taken the year the Civil War ended shows a sign with a large tooth, a mortar and a pestle, and a clock. Was one man engaged in all three businesses? The 1860 census lists Samuel Hale, age 48, as married to Jane with a ten-year old daughter, and as a dentist, apothecary and a jeweler. Hale must have been successful in his diversified businesses for he temporarily owned the Hinkley/Bissell home on the Ridge.