The Thayer Family

A Brief History

After the Hartwells, the Thayers were the richest family in town. Lyman Thayer arrived from Massachusetts in 1859 as clerk and timekeeper of Hartwell Timber Co., kept its time book, paid its crews and in time became its treasurer. His wife, Lavinia, outlived him and kept their house. Their son Everett ran the mill as superintendent from 1896 and was the company's largest creditor when it was sold.

When the town's trust opened the Institute in 1918, Everett became the trust's first treasurer. His son Prescott later held the same post and helped carry the torch at the first Founders Festival in 1957.

Family Tree

• Lyman Thayer (1836 to 1904), clerk, paymaster and treasurer of the company, married Lavinia Pratt (1842 to 1915)
  • Everett Thayer (1866 to 1941), mill superintendent, then the trust's first treasurer
    • Prescott Thayer (1902 to 1979), treasurer of the trust
      • Ronald Thayer (1938 to 2011)
        • Curtis Thayer (born 1968), mayor

Family Timeline

1862 - The Landing

From that year Lyman paid the crews, after first squaring their store accounts with Orrin Lathrop, whose store had opened on the mill road as the mill began cutting.

1882 - The Steam Donkey

In Lyman's books from these years, the same crews on the same day rates cut more lumber every month.

1896 - The Old-Growth Survey

Elias Hartwell slowed the cutting and put the crews on shorter hours. Everett Thayer, then thirty, took charge of the mill as superintendent and ran it at the slower pace.

1911 - Hartwell's Will

Everett's loans to the company were secured on the mill and the works, so he was paid first from their sale. At that sale he bought the timberlands.

1918 - The Institute

Everett became the first treasurer of the town's trust, which opened the Institute on the Hartwell estate that year. He had spent the years since the will arguing that the estate should be sold.

2026 - Briarmont Today

Curtis Thayer, Lyman's great-great-grandson, is mayor of Briarmont.

The Thayer legacy across Briarmont

Lyman's time book, rain days and stoppages included, is in the college archive. The trust's ledgers are kept with the county clerk at Town Hall, signed as treasurer first by Everett and later by Prescott.

Out of character. A player may play a descendant or in-law of the Thayer family with the owner's OK; ask staff first. Curtis Thayer is an NPC role cast by staff, and Lyman, Lavinia, Everett, Prescott and Ronald Thayer are NPCs.

---

This is a family hub page. It brings the Thayer story together even though its people, places and institutions are filed under the shelves where readers would naturally look for them.