Dea. Milton Chaplain, son of Squier Moses Chaplin, was born in thesoutheastern part of this town, in 1805. He attended a district school and the academy at Amherst, Mass. In the year 1824, when nineteen years of age, he “bought his time” during his minority and built a small shop in which he began the manufacture of clothes pins, being the first to make them in town. The method employed when he began was to turn them all in a lathe then cut the slot with a circular saw, when they were finished by boys and girls by hand. At the same time, he began the manufacture of mop-handles. In 1839, he established warehouses in Buffalo, N. Y., and later on in other parts of the West. He sent out salesmen with teams to sell washboards, rolling-pins, etc. His was the first water-power shop for the manufacture of wooden-ware in Cheshire county. He sold out to his brother Elisha and his cousin Levi Bent, who manufactured the goods, which he bought and sold, employing sixteen peddlers. He dealt at wholesale in those goods in Boston for four years, then sold out, went to Adrain. Mich., and engaged in the dry goods trade, which he continued until 1861. He has been treasurer of the Fitzwilliam Savings bank for ten years. He has been an extensive traveler, visiting thirty-two states and territories, and has a memory richly stored with knowledge gained in his travels. He married Caroline, daughter of John J. Allen, of this town, in November, 1830, and has had three children. His son Elliot is a farmer in Delaware county. Iowa. His surviving daughter, Alicia, is the wife of Charles Newton, of this town. Milton Chaplin has officiated as town treasurer and selectman of this town.
