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At Gilmanton they were welcomed by the Winthrop Gilman family, Great grandfather of Peter and Aunt Sarah Fullington Nelson, whose husband, John Nelson, was a goldsmith. The Gilmans had a family party for them the night before they left to continue their journey to Portsmouth, and they were truly surprised at the aunts, uncles, and cousins who called to participate in the “get-acquainted” affair.
They stopped to fish in one or two of the beautiful small lakes on the way to Durham where they left the main road to go to Newmarket and Newfie1ds.
The Mitchel1s and Fo1soms of this area were so delighted with a visit from Benjamin and Betsy's grandchildren that they feasted and talked and questioned them until way into the night. Next day they were escorted around the town and shown Benjamin's tavern and the place where he anchored his boat in the finger of the Bay which comes up to Newfie1ds.
As they jogged happily along the road to Exeter, William turned sidewise on his horse and very solemnly said to his wife, "Hannah, you won't forget to sprinkle some sawdust on the children's porridge once in a while, will you?" Unable to believe that she was hearing correctly, Hannah pulled on the near line and asked, "What did you say, William?" William solemnly repeated his request, "How si11y~" said Hannah just as the cart wheel went over a rock, almost upsetting her. "Why would I be doing that?" "Well," replied William, hardly able to refrain from laughing at the frown on his wife's face, "I remember father Ben saying that all Folsom wives were supposed to sprinkle sawdust on the children's porridge so they wouldn't forget that they were suppose~ to be carpenters."
"Exeter! Now this is where the Fo1soms and Gilmans settled when they first came to America," said Hannah.
"No," spoke up William quickly. "Those people in Newfields have you all mixed up. The immigrant grandparents, Edward Gilman and John Folsom, came with the Reverend Peck from England in 1638. At first they were granted land at Hingham, Massachusetts, where many of their relatives and neighbors from Hingham, England, were already located. Grandfather Gilman had eight square miles at Skeehonic (Rehoboth near Plymouth) and John Fq1som was granted four acres along the "P1ayne" and then land and a permit to use the water in certain streams to erect saw mills. So you see, the Folsoms have been in the lumber business ever since that time. Edward Gilman came to Exeter in 1650, the same time the Reverend Samuel Dudley did. Samuel Dudley was Sarah Lyford Folsom's grandfather. He came to Exeter as pastor of the congregation after Wheelwright left. John Folsom didn't come to Exeter until after his son Ephraim^ was born in 1659. He set right out to build more sawmills in Exeter so his sons wouldn't forget how to run them."
"I don’t know things like that about my people. How do you know all that?” asked Hannah.
"Well, Ben used to think and talk a lot about his people while he was lying in bed after the bear got him. He used to talk a lot about them to keep from thinking about being crippled, I guess," William replied.