This early 19th century house along the Mill Brook in Randolph is known locally and in its National and State Register nominations as “The Cooperage”.
David Tuttle owned and operated his cooperage business from this house on Gristmill Road. Tuttle made the barrels for the mills along the Mill Brook, particularly William Mott’s gristmill. The 18th-19th c. industrial area along the brook, including The Cooperage, is now the Mott Hollow Historic District.
The three house paintings in the Gallery all have a family connection to Percy Hough’s wife Susan Mott Hough. That connection is as follows:
Percy Hough married Susan (called Sue) Mott of Rockaway, a descendant of David Tuttle the cooper and his wife Mary (Dalrymple) Tuttle of Millbrook.
Sue (Mott) Hough’s grandmother was Susan Tuttle Morrison, David Tuttle’s eldest child. Susan Tuttle (Morrison) grew up in The Cooperage. Sue Mott Hough’s mother was Francis Tuttle, daughter of Susan Tuttle and David Morrison.
Sue Mott (Hough) was also a descendant of William Mott, who owned the gristmill in Mott Hollow, through her father Alexander Mott. David Tuttle made the barrels for the gristmill grain at The Cooperage.
Marion Tuttle McElroy, who with her husband Ervin owned the McElroy House in Rockaway, was the daughter of Sue Hoagland Tuttle, whose father was Henry Tuttle the younger son of David and Mary Tuttle of The Cooperage.
Marion McElroy commented in an interview that it was most likely her mother Sue Hoagland Tuttle who asked Hough to paint The Cooperage as a companion painting to the Miller-Alger House in Boonton that Hough had already painted. Sue Hoagland was a descendant of William Alger who owned the Boonton house.
