SKETCHES OF SUCCESSFUL
New Hampshire Men

Illustrated with Steel Portraits.

MANCHESTER:
JOHN B. CLARKE.
1882.
Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1882, by
JOHN B. CLARKE,
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.

This volume contains portraits and biographical sketches of eighty-eight New Hampshire men whose deserved success in their several callings has made them conspicuous in the professional, business, and political world. It should be the first of a series,—the beginning of a work so extensive as to include similar presentations in regard to all the prominent men of our state, when it would exceed in value and interest to New Hampshire people all other publications of a biographical nature. The glory of our state centers in and is reflected from her great men and noble women, whose history should be familiar to all who by birth or association are interested in her fame and welfare, and especially to those in whose hands rests her future, and who may need the strengthening influence of their example. To this end this volume will contribute. Its preparation has occupied a long time, and involved much labor and expense. My connection with it has been that of a publisher, whose duties I have endeavored to discharge faithfully and acceptably. All else is to be credited to others. The sketches are printed in the order in which they were furnished.

JOHN B. CLARKE.

Manchester, N. H., July, 1882.

CONTENTS.

Page
Adams, Charles, Jr. [278]
Adams, Phinehas [166]
Amory, William [151]
Balch, Charles E. [113]
Barnard, Daniel [304]
Bartlett, Charles H. [33]
Barton, Levi Winter [50]
Blair, Henry William [285]
Bracewell, John [199]
Briggs, James F. [294]
Bryant, Napoleon B. [187]
Buffum, David Hanson [276]
Carpenter, Josiah [43]
Chandler, George Byron [185]
Chandler, William E. [255]
Cheney, Gilman [215]
Cheney, Person C. [162]
Clark, Joseph Bond [179]
Clarke, John B. [311]
Clarke, William C. [261]
Cogswell, Francis [177]
Cogswell, George [204]
Cogswell, Thomas [160]
Cogswell, William [137]
Colby, Anthony [251]
Crosby, Asa and Sons [243]
Cumner, Nathaniel Wentworth [297]
Currier, Moody [35]
Daniell, Warren F. [237]
Dearborn, Cornelius Van Ness [195]
Dunlap, Archibald Harris [264]
Edgerly, Martin V. B. [130]
French, John C. [157]
George, John Hatch [98]
Gilman, Virgil C. [148]
Goodell, David H. [233]
Goodwin, Ichabod [133]
Graves, Josiah G. [235]
Griffin, Simon G. [58]
Hall, Daniel [229]
Harriman, Walter [74]
Hayes, Albert H. [202]
Head, Natt [223]
Jewell, David Lyman [63]
Kent, Henry O. [21]
Kimball, John [89]
Marsh, Charles [184]
Martin, Benjamin Franklin [269]
Maxfield, Rufus A. [289]
McDuffee, John [153]
Means, William Gordon [103]
Miner, Alonzo A. [16]
Moulton, John Carroll [114]
Murphy, Charles M. [67]
Nesmith, George W. [180]
Norcross, Amasa [37]
Parker, John M. [31]
Peabody, Charles A. [209]
Pillsbury, George Alfred [39]
Pillsbury, Oliver [191]
Pierce, Thomas P. [127]
Pike, Chester [123]
Potter, Chandler E. [302]
Prescott, Benjamin F. [281]
Richards, Dexter [271]
Riddle, William P. [307]
Rollins, Edward Ashton [143]
Rollins, Edward H. [217]
Sargent, Jonathan Everett [93]
Sawyer, Charles H. [249]
Sawyer, Jonathan [240]
Shaw, Albert M. [267]
Sherburne, Henry C. [69]
Smyth, Frederick [106]
Spalding, Edward [81]
Spalding, George Burley [291]
Stark, George [9]
Sulloway, Alvah W. [119]
Tilton, Charles Elliott [110]
Tuttle, Hiram A. [14]
Wallace, Rodney [56]
Wallingford, Zimri S. [70]
Weston, James A. [85]
Wheeler, Samuel Metcalf [79]
White, Jeremiah W. [140]
White, Nathaniel [172]
Wilder, Marshall P. [25]
Williams, Charles [47]

Geo. Stark

GEN. GEORGE STARK.

BY H. W. HERRICK.

In the remarkable development of railroad traffic in this country within the last fifty years, many prominent men of our state identified with this interest have achieved an enviable success. A leading position among these representative men will be accorded to General George Stark, who, within the last forty years, has been associated with the successful organization and management of several of the most wealthy and influential of these corporations. Beginning at an early age with some of the first of these enterprises in New England, he has been identified with their history; and he has also had, within the last five years, a controlling hand in the resuscitation and extension of the great Northern Pacific line, that will soon span the continent from the great lakes to the Pacific ocean. This successful business career has been honorably distinguished, inasmuch as it has, in all its phases, recognized the sound business principles that govern supply and demand in the legitimate carrying-trade. As the leading medium between the producer and consumer, the railroad interest thrives only with the prosperity and good will of both; and in this, its legitimate sphere, seeks neither to control production or traffic, except in those reciprocal relations which contribute to the public good.

The influences attending the early life of Gen. Stark favored the development of the qualities of character that have made his business career marked and successful. His father, Frederick G. Stark, was the son of John, the third of the children of Major-General John Stark, the hero of Bennington, the latter being, therefore, the third in ancestral order removed from the subject of this sketch. George Stark was born at Manchester, N. H., April 9, 1823, a few months after the death of his illustrious military ancestor. His father at this time occupied the old manor-house formerly owned by Judge Blodget, originator of the famous Blodget canal. This time-honored structure has been destroyed by the demand of modern improvements, and its site, at the entrance of the canal around Amoskeag Falls, is now only marked by the ruins of the sheds connected with it. The locks and canals, in connection with like works on the Merrimack river, were owned by the Union Locks and Canal Company, and Frederick G. Stark occupied the position of general superintendent and manager. He was also proprietor of a general-supply store for river-men and the population adjacent, and was, moreover, land surveyor for the neighboring country. He also held the position of general magistrate, and was, withal, the most influential man of the vicinity, leading in all commercial enterprise and traffic. He died in 1861.

The early days of young Stark were favored with the oversight and directing influence of an excellent mother,—a lady of genial, kindly character, rare mental qualities, and showing a benevolent and christian solicitude both for her own family and general society in the neighborhood. She died in 1856. Of the four children, Juliet (Mrs. Henry C. Gillis) died in 1840; Emma (Mrs. J. G. Cilley) died in 1859; William, the youngest, well remembered as possessing rare literary abilities, and known as author and poet, died in 1873.

At the age of nine years George was taken from the schools of the Amoskeag district, and for the succeeding four years studied in the academies of Pembroke and Milford. His mental culture in these advanced schools was chiefly in the line of mathematics, yet natural aptitude and diligence supplied in after life many deficiencies in education. At the close of his school-days in Pembroke and Milford George returned to Manchester, in 1836, finding the scenes of his childhood transformed from their previous quiet to a busy preparation, by engineers and laborers, for the new city of Manchester. The young school-boy was placed as assistant with the chief engineer and surveyor, Uriah A. Boyden, and worked one season on the preliminary surveys for the canal, factories, and streets of the embryo city. During this season, and a few years succeeding, when not employed on surveys, he attended the academies of Bedford, Sanbornton, and the high school at Lowell, Mass.,—the last being then under the charge of Moody Currier, Esq. In the autumn of 1836, at the early age of fourteen, he was employed with the staff of engineers engaged in the locating surveys of the Nashua & Lowell Railroad. This line, only fifteen miles in length, was two years in process of building, giving an amusing contrast to the long routes now located and built in one season. The years 1839 and 1840 were spent in alternate seasons of field work with the engineers and study at the academies.

Upon the completion of the Nashua & Lowell road, the enterprising business men of Concord had ready for the engineers the work of further locating the line from Nashua to Concord. This extension of thirty-six miles was commenced in 1841, and our young surveyor, then only seventeen years old, was complimented with the post of assistant engineer, and given the charge of portions of the line, both in the surveys and laying the track. At the close of this service he was employed for a time on the preliminary surveys of the Northern Railroad.

In 1843, Stark was invited by the Land and Water Power Company of Manchester to enter its service, make surveys, and superintend the building of the lower canal. This work was finished in the same year in which it was begun. The following season we find him engaged on surveys for the Vermont Central, and subsequently on the Old Colony Railroad, where he first served as assistant, and afterwards as resident engineer, in which position he remained until the completion of the work in 1845. From this period to the year 1847 he was in the service of his old friend and employer, Mr. Boyden, engaged on surveys and drawings for mill-work. At the close of his engagement with Mr. Boyden, Stark returned to Manchester and spent a good part of the season in making surveys and drawing a map of the compact part of the city, with reference to drainage. He also made a survey, accompanied with a report, upon the feasibility of supplying the city with water from Massabesic lake.

The success of the new lines of railroad in New Hampshire stimulated interest in this form of investment, and several new roads and extensions were projected. The Nashua & Wilton and Stony Brook lines were the first lateral roads built, as feeders to the trunk roads of the Merrimack valley, and Stark was appointed chief engineer of both. On the completion of these lines, the Boston, Concord, & Montreal road, which had been built from Concord to Sanbornton, was extended northward, and the post of chief engineer was offered to Stark. His health failing in the summer of 1849, while engaged in this work, he left business cares and spent several months in recuperation, accepting, in the autumn of the same year, the situation of treasurer and assistant superintendent of the Nashua & Lowell Railroad, then under the management of Judge Charles F. Gove. This position was held until the early part of 1852, when he received the high compliment of an appointment as superintendent of the Hudson River Railroad. He had been in this position but little more than a year when an urgent offer was made to him to take the office vacated by the resignation of Judge Gove, the superintendent of the Nashua & Lowell Railroad and its branches. This position, being more congenial than that of the New York road, was accepted, and he entered upon the duties of his new situation at once.

In 1857, four years after his appointment to the last mentioned office, he was offered the post of managing agent of the Boston & Lowell road and its branches, in connection with the Nashua & Lowell line. The magnitude of the operations of these two roads, with their auxiliary lines, was very great, and in their management required executive ability of the first order. The responsibilities of the position were onerous, and involved the appointment of superintendents, subordinate officers, and foremen, determining a code of regulations for their guidance, the adjustment of time-tables, tariff-rates, and fares, the purchase of supplies, and many other cares incident to the working of a complex and extended carrying-trade. The manner in which these duties were discharged was attested by the smooth working of the organization in its details, and the satisfactory results to the stockholders. In this period of service, which included about eighteen years, the great depot on Causeway street, Boston, was erected under the general management and supervision of Gen. Stark. In its first inception, this magnificent building, with its approaches, was intended to furnish terminal facilities for two or more roads. A contract to that effect was completed with the Massachusetts Central road. Negotiations were also entered into with the Eastern Railroad Company for a joint occupancy of the building, and a proposal was obtained from that company to pay fifty thousand dollars annual rental, besides bearing a proportionate share of the running expenses. Stark submitted this proposal to his associates, recommending its acceptance; but it was declined, on the ground of inadequate compensation, the president of the Boston & Lowell and Nashua & Lowell roads saying, in his written reply to Stark:—

"While the income is certainly important to us, we have built the station for our own accommodation, with our eyes open, and I think our directors won't flinch from our position and divide with them, unless they pay well for it."

The unsuccessful termination of this negotiation, and the want of accord in other matters of general policy between Stark and some of the then prominent directors of his roads, embarrassed him in his duties, and he resigned the position of general manager in March, 1875, but retained his seat in the board of directors until the following year. During his business connection with the combined roads of the Merrimack lower valley, the influence of Gen. Stark in developing great public business interests is recognized by all familiar with the subject. The far-reaching and comprehensive plans for a direct through line connecting Boston with the West, realized in 1863 by connection of the lines of the Merrimack valley, Vermont Central, Ogdensburg, and other roads, were the direct result of Stark's labors and influence; and he was manager, for several years, of the line from Boston to Ogdensburg.

Upon leaving his position as general manager of the Boston & Lowell and connecting lines, Stark was chosen, in the spring of the same year (1875), by the bondholders of the Northern Pacific Railroad, as one of a committee of six to re-organize and resuscitate that enterprise, left in its well remembered dilapidated condition by the financial panic of 1873. After carefully investigating the condition of affairs and the actual and prospective resources of the road, a plan of re-organization was submitted by the committee, accepted by the bondholders, and the road taken out of the hands of the receiver. In September following, a board of new officers was chosen, in which we find the name of Gen. Stark as vice-president and director. To these positions he had an annual re-election until by resignation he severed his connection with the corporation in 1879. The magnitude of the Northern Pacific road and its branches is well known to the public; to detail its operations and resources would require too much space here, even if presented in the most condensed form. Intended ultimately to connect the great northern lakes with the Pacific coast, its entire length, when completed, will exceed two thousand miles,—as long as the combined length of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific roads. At the time of the election of Gen. Stark to its management about five hundred and fifty miles of the track were operated; at the present time nearly a thousand miles of track are laid, including over a hundred miles on the Pacific coast. After retiring from active service in the Northern Pacific road, Gen. Stark established, in connection with his son, J. F. Stark, a banking-house in New York city.

Though most of his business connections have been in the railroad interest, Gen. Stark has found time for attention to duties in other directions. In 1857 he was commissioned, by Gov. Haile of New Hampshire, as brigadier-general of the third brigade of New Hampshire militia. In 1860 he accepted the post of colonel commanding of the Governor's Horse-Guards, an organization comprising the elite of the military men of the State. In 1861, in the capacity of brigadier-general, he received orders from Governor Goodwin to proceed to Portsmouth and take charge of the organization of troops, at the opening of the rebellion. The promptness and efficiency with which this service was performed is still fresh in the memory of the public, and the state owes the management of this recruiting station much of the credit attached to New Hampshire for promptly responding to the call of the general government. At one time fifteen hundred troops were at this station, waiting orders from the war department.

Gen. Stark has not been prominent in political life, or identified with the intrigues and contests of political partisanship. The political affinities of his ancestors were with the Democratic party, and he has been identified with it, yet promptly breaking the restraints of strictly party lines at the call of patriotism, as at the opening of the late civil war. In the four years succeeding 1856 he represented the first ward of Nashua in the state legislature, and in 1860 and 1861 was the candidate of the Democratic party for governor. While at this period party spirit was embittered and active, and the Republicans largely in the ascendant, the conservative and popular character of their leader gave the Democrats a handsome gain in the popular vote.

The qualities of character that contribute to success in large fields of commercial enterprise are sometimes difficult to define, while their influence is apparent and is seen and felt by all. A prominent trait is great deliberation in reaching decisions, yet firmness in maintaining them. Sagacious insight of character in choosing agents and subordinates, while holding them to a strict accountability, is also a quality of executive merit. We see this last trait in a marked degree in the small sums represented in the items, "damages" and "gratuities," in all reports of the railroad management of Gen. Stark. Every employe, from the highest to the lowest position, on roads under his superintendence, had printed instructions of duties, to which he was required to assent. Under no circumstances were men retained in important posts who used intoxicating liquors, and no cafe or restaurant connected with the stations was allowed to keep alcoholic drinks for sale.

In personnel Gen. Stark is characterized by a quiet, deliberate, yet courteous manner that is not disturbed by the varied conditions and incidents of business life. This trait of an habitual mental equipoise is a peculiarity that impresses itself prominently on an observer. He has a natural, unrestrained manner in conversation, and social qualities that are freely manifested in company with tested and worthy friends. As a writer of business documents and reports he manifests power, method, and perspicuity, and his manuscript shows a careful arrangement, neatness and precision of chirography quite remarkable in one of his extensive business experience. At the age of fifty-eight he is yet in the full tide and vigor of business life. His family residence at Nashua, though showing no taste for ostentation or display, is an elegant structure in the villa style, furnished with every comfort and convenience, and adorned with works of art.

Gen. Stark was married, in 1845, to Elizabeth A. Parker, daughter of Daniel Parker, of Bedford, N. H. She died in 1846. In 1848 he was united by marriage to Mary G. Bowers, daughter of Col. Joseph Bowers, of Chelmsford, Mass. His two children are John F. and Emma G. Stark.

HON. HIRAM A. TUTTLE.

BY JOHN WHEELER, M. D.

Hon. Hiram A. Tuttle was born in Barnstead, October 16, 1837, being the elder of a family of two sons. His father, George Tuttle, and his grandfather, Col. John Tuttle, were also natives of the same town. His great-grandfather, John Tuttle, settled in Barnstead in 1776, coming there from that locality in Dover known as "Back River," where a part of the Tuttle family had resided since the settlement there of their emigrant ancestor, John Tuttle, who came from England before 1641.

His mother, Judith Mason Davis, is a descendant from Samuel Davis, a soldier of the Revolution, and one of the primeval settlers of Barnstead. Brave soldiers of the Davis family from four generations have represented that town in the four great wars in which the country has been engaged.

When Mr. Tuttle was nine years of age he moved, with his father's family, to the adjoining town of Pittsfield, where he attended the public schools and Pittsfield Academy, while the latter was under the charge, successively, of I. F. Folsom, Lewis W. Clark, and Prof. Dyer H. Sanborn.

After having been engaged in several vocations, in all of which he showed industry and faithfulness, at the age of seventeen years he became connected with the clothing establishment of Lincoln & Shaw, of Concord, where he remained several years. The ability and zeal which he exhibited while there won for him the confidence and respect of his employers, who established him in the management of a branch store in Pittsfield, of which he soon became the proprietor. His business increased gradually at first, and then rapidly till his establishment had gained an extensive patronage, and ranked among the largest clothing-houses in the State. It is so favorably remembered by former residents and patrons that orders are received for goods from distant states and territories. Mr. Tuttle has also been interested in real estate. He has built many dwelling-houses, including a fine residence for himself, and the best business buildings in the village. In many ways he has promoted the growth, social and business interests, and general prosperity of his adopted town. He is a trustee of the savings bank, a director of the national bank, and a trustee of the academy in Pittsfield.

Hiram A. Tuttle

When he had attained his majority, in 1859, he expressed his intention of casting his first vote with the Republicans, although all his relatives belonged to the Democratic party. The Democrats of Pittsfield had been victorious and powerful since the days of Jackson, under such distinguished leaders as Moses Norris, Jr., Charles H. Butters, and Lewis W. Clark, all being able lawyers, impressive public speakers, and having popular manners. Mr. Norris, a native of the town, represented it repeatedly in the legislature, was speaker of the house twice, a councilor, representative in congress four years, and was elected to the United States senate for six years while residing here. The ability and courteous manners of Mr. Clark (now Judge Lewis W. Clark) made him no less popular than Mr. Norris, with all classes, during the shorter time he was in business life in town. Seeing in young Tuttle qualities that might make him troublesome if opposed to them, but useful if in accord with their party, the Democrats used their most eminent persuasive powers to induce him to cleave to the party of all his kindred and vote with the hitherto victorious; but he obeyed his convictions and remained true to the Republican party. In 1860 the Republicans, though so long hopelessly beaten, made a sharp contest. When the day of election came, Mr. Clark was elected moderator, having been a most acceptable presiding officer for several years. The election of town clerk was made the test of the strength of the two parties. After a very exciting ballot, Mr. Tuttle was elected town clerk and the Democrats were beaten for the first time in thirty-three years. Although Pittsfield has a Democratic majority under normal circumstances, Mr. Tuttle has received the support of a large majority of its votes at times when his name has been presented for position. In 1873 and 1874 he was representative to the legislature. In 1876 he received an appointment, with the rank of colonel, on the staff of Governor Cheney, and with the governor and staff visited the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. He was elected a member of the executive council from the second district in 1878, and was re-elected in 1879, under the new constitution, for the term of two years.

Mr. Tuttle has been very successful in all that he has undertaken; but his thrift has never made him arrogant or indifferent. He has cheerfully shared with others the results of the good fortune that Providence has granted him. He is an agreeable and companionable gentleman in all the honorable relations of life. As a citizen, neighbor, and friend, he is held in the highest estimation. He has furnished employment for many, and has been kind to the poor, very respectful to the aged, charitable to the erring, and a sympathizing helper of the embarrassed and unfortunate. Few men have more or firmer personal friends whose friendship is founded on kindness and substantial favors received. He gives with remarkable generosity to all charitable objects presented to him, and is very hospitable in his pleasant home. Mr. Tuttle accepts the Christian religion, and worships with the Congregational church. While he contributes very liberally for the support of the denomination of his choice, he does not withhold a helping hand from the other religious sects in his town. In his domestic relations he has been very fortunate. He married, in 1859, Miss Mary C. French, the only child of John L. French, Esq., formerly cashier of the Pittsfield bank. Their only child,—Hattie French Tuttle,—born January 17, 1861, is a member of the junior class in Wellesley College.

REV. ALONZO A. MINER, D. D.

BY REV. GEORGE H. EMERSON, D. D.

The subject of this sketch owes his name to the grace of one of England's greatest kings. In the wars between England and France, to which belongs the renown of Cressy and Poictiers, the English sovereigns accepted such assistance in munitions and men as their subjects could proffer. Henry Bullman of Mendippe Hills, Somersetshire, was a miner. He fitted out a company of one hundred, armed with battle-axes, many of them laborers in his mines, and presented the same to Edward III. for his use in Continental conquest. In his gratitude Edward conferred upon him a coat of arms and gave him the name of "Miner." This honored subject, and the first of the name of Miner, died in 1359. From him descended Thomas Miner, who came to Boston with the elder Winthrop in 1630. Charles Miner, of the fifth generation from Thomas, was a Revolutionary soldier. At the close of the war he removed from Connecticut to New Hampshire.

A descendant of King Edward's friend, seventh in descent from Thomas, the grandson of Charles, Alonzo Ames Miner was the son of Benajah Ames and Amanda (Cary) Miner,—an only son and the second of five children. He was born at Lempster, Sullivan county, N. H., Aug. 17, 1814.

Grace Miner, granddaughter of Thomas, above named, married Samuel Grant, Jr., of Windsor, Conn., April 11, 1688. From that union descended Ulysses S. Grant, ex-President of the United States.

The subject of this sketch inherited neither fortune nor even health. Mental powers, a constitutional integrity, and a lack of the lower ambitions came as his only birthright. All else is his by conquest. Till the years of late boyhood he was an invalid. His opportunities for education in the village school were very intermittent. His feeble health and a grave uncertainty as to his ever reaching mature manhood constantly broke in upon the systematic training of the school. He filled out the school studies in the invalid's chair at home. None predicted for him length of days. Even the cautious physician made thirty years the utmost limit of life allotted him. He, however, supplemented his broken studies with academic training at Hopkinton, Lebanon, and Franklin, N. H., and at Cavendish, Vt. Beginning public life as a school-teacher at the age of sixteen, he took charge of the village school, alternating this labor with his studies at the academies. His pupilage at Cavendish was soon followed by promotion. Mr. John Garvin was the principal. He was a very zealous Calvinist. Young Miner was a no less zealous Universalist. It was at a time when sectarian lines were sharply drawn. It was then a custom with zealous Calvinists to regard Universalists, not simply as unsound in doctrine, but also as wicked in life and conduct! But Mr. Garvin saw something in the young pupil that dispelled the prejudice. He took him into partnership in the management of the school in 1834. In this position young Miner served a year.

A. A. Miner

In 1835, certain gentlemen of Unity, proposing to establish an academy at that village, saw in Mr. Miner, now near his majority, their man. He accepted their proposition. The school, named the "Scientific and Military Academy," was for both sexes, with military training for boys. Four years of his principalship were successful beyond expectation. In some of the terms the number of scholars reached one hundred and fifty. August 24, 1836, he was married to Maria S. Perley of Lempster, who entered the school as preceptress. She has ever been his faithful and devoted helpmeet.

Not a few of those who have strong sympathy with Dr. Miner's theological belief are persuaded that there was something providential in his call to the ministry of the Universalist church,—the service he has rendered that body being so great, in several regards so exceptional. He does not appear to have been converted to Universalism. He literally was a "born Universalist." While anxious friends assigned but a narrow limit to so frail a constitution, the invalid felt that his place was to be in the ministry of the Universalist church. Of this he made no secret. It became a matter of course that on reaching maturity he would become a preacher of the faith he so deeply cherished.

The success of the Unity school might have fixed another in the profession of teaching. It had no weight in diverting Mr. Miner from what he deemed a higher call. Several of his patrons solicited him to begin his ministry in Unity in connection with his school duties. He complied. In February, 1838, he preached his first sermon in Chester, Vt. In the following May he began a regular ministry, preaching half of the time in Unity, and devoting the other half to a circuit which included about twenty of the neighboring villages. After six months of this twofold labor he resigned his principalship; but he was persuaded to remain yet another year,—all the time filling his appointments on Sunday. At the New Hampshire convention of Universalists, held at Nashua, June, 1839, he was ordained to the sacred office. In the November succeeding he was called to the pastorate of the Universalist church at Methuen, Mass. Such was the success of his new labors that a reputation for very exceptional gifts as an orator, logician, and preacher, spread. It was seen that his call to a larger and more exacting field of duty was but a question of early time.

In the city of Lowell, the Rev. Abel C. Thomas had met with extraordinary success as pastor of the Second Universalist church. After a pastorate of little less than three years he resigned to accept a call to Brooklyn, N. Y. Certain of his parishioners said to him, in the hearing of the writer of this sketch, that his withdrawal would be a calamity to the Lowell parish. Grateful for this tribute he replied: "Put into the pulpit the man I will name, and I pledge you that the church shall go on prospering and to prosper." There was a pause and all ears were both curious and anxious. Mr. Thomas added: "That man is A. A. Miner." A unanimous call of the committee and of the congregation was extended. On the first Sunday of July 1842, the Rev. A. A. Miner preached his introductory sermon as pastor of the Lowell Second Universalist parish. The prediction of Mr. Thomas proved true. In a pastorate of six years Mr. Miner greatly strengthened, materially and spiritually, the church to which he ministered. In cordial co-operation with the pastor of the First Universalist church,—at first Rev. Thomas B. Thayer, and afterwards Rev. E. G. Brooks,—he labored with eminent success. The citizens soon discovered that the new minister was of "many-sided talents." Then began that drain upon his strength, branching off, according to his specialties, into as many channels, whereby he has been, perhaps, as thoroughly and as variously "utilized" as any man of this period. Then began trusts, official positions on school boards, charity boards, and every other conceivable board, the faithful performance of any one of which would have made an average reputation,—all discharged by one person, and he never having a thoroughly healthy day, presents simply a marvel.

During an early year of his Lowell ministry, a crisis came in the career of the Universalist church; and Lowell happened to be its turning point. There was a Universalist paper published at Lowell, the Star of Bethlehem. It was edited by the Universalist pastors. A third parish had been founded, and the Rev. H. G. Smith became its pastor. He was associated with Messrs. Miner and Brooks in the management of the paper, each contributing over his own signature. About the year 1842 the Unitarian ministry was suddenly rent by one of its ministers, in ability, magnetism, and rhetorical skill without a peer among his brethren,—the Rev. Theodore Parker. He had adopted German rationalism in regard to the Bible and Christianity, and by the boldness of his utterances and the felicity of his manner was rapidly forming that radical wing which to-day appears to dominate in the Unitarian body. Such a leading was not likely to be restricted to any one sect. Was it to enter and change the character of the Universalist movement? The Rev. Mr. Smith showed that he was thoroughly imbued with the new doctrine; and he was rapidly making converts among the younger members of his ministerial fraternity. Rev. Messrs. Miner and Brooks, fully persuaded that the new idea was a false one, thought that they foresaw that its free acceptance by the Universalist ministry and people would at an early day endanger the stability of their church. They met the issue without reserve and with no regard to consequences personal to themselves. In the pulpit and in the paper they vigorously protested against the course of Mr. Smith. An anxious discussion followed, and it spread. It was taken into the ecclesiastical body, the Boston Association, where a resolution deprecating and protesting against the "deistical innovation" was passed by a strong majority. This was in 1847. A few years later the writer of this inquired of the Rev. Thomas Whittemore in regard to that rationalistic excitement. His answer was, "Miner and Brooks took it in hand at Lowell and the Association killed it." This episode apparently weakened the Universalist cause in Lowell. The writer is one of the large number who have no doubt that the promptness and thoroughness of the Lowell pastors averted a calamity.

May 1, 1848, Mr. Miner was called to the pastorate of the School-street church, Boston. Having the entire confidence of his renowned senior, the Rev. Hosea Ballou, he rapidly worked disaffection out of the parish, thoroughly organized it, got the more than confidence of its leading members; and he has carried it forward to the present day with a degree of high success seldom paralleled in any denomination. In the early part of the year 1851 his people decided to enlarge the edifice. The closing of services while the reconstruction was in progress gave Mr. Miner an opportunity to recruit his wasted strength by European travel. In June, 1852, Rev. Hosea Ballou died full of honors. Another call upon his administrative ability as president of Tufts College led to the settlement of associate pastors. But, apart from these interludes, Dr. Miner has been the sole pastor since the death of Mr. Ballou.

In the movement to found Tufts College, of the very small number of devoted friends, Dr. Miner has not occupied a second place. Subscribing himself liberally, a few of his parishioners felt the contagion of example and made generous pledges. The Rev. Otis A. Skinner, D. D., was the first agent for collecting funds, and with heroic perseverance in this pioneer work he raised the larger part of $100,000,—the minimum upon which the work could begin. This, however, was but a beginning. The assets to-day are not far from one million dollars. The influence of Dr. Miner in reaching this result has been pre-eminent. The corner-stone was laid in 1853. Mr. Miner giving the address. On the death of its first president, Rev. Hosea Ballou, 2d, D. D., Mr. Miner was constrained to accept the presidency. He was inaugurated, July 9, 1862. Previous to this, the principal trust, he had served the college as trustee, secretary, and treasurer. It was largely by his devices that the money was raised to meet the current expenses during the infancy and the poverty of the institution.

In 1863 Harvard College conferred upon him the honorary S. T. D. He had received the honorary A. M. from Tufts in 1861; and that of LL. D. was conferred by Tufts in 1875. His presidency continued till 1875, at which date he acceded to the urgent call of his parish, and resigned the presidency of the college and took the sole pastorate of his church, which, in 1872, had dedicated the large and costly temple at the corner of Columbus avenue and Clarendon street, in which it has worshiped from that date to the present. Again his labor was effective. Out of the pulpit as well as in it, giving his heart and energy to its interests, the old parish entered upon a new era of prosperity. A pastor does well who holds to himself one generation. Dr. Miner now has under his influence a third generation, and the "spell" is not weakened. In the period of his pastorates, he has conducted more than one thousand eight hundred funeral services, and solemnized more than two thousand five hundred weddings.

On removing to Boston, in 1848, Mr. Miner found himself in the center of new calls upon his "many-sided" talents. He was seen to be financier, organizer, popular leader, platform orator. Thence "missions" multiplied and increased. The limits of this sketch permit but the baldest statement of his labors, all of which he has rendered with singular skill. Of course he was put upon the school board of the city. Then the state made demands, and he is now serving a second term of eight years on the state board of education. At a dinner given in his honor on occasion of his departure for a short period to California, the then Gov. Washburn bore testimony to the inventiveness and far-reaching wisdom with which he was aiding to advance the educational interests of the commonwealth. He has been six years chairman of the board of visitors of the state normal art school. He has served as one of the overseers of Harvard College. He is one of the "hundred orators," having delivered the Fourth of July oration in Boston in 1855. Add to such duties constant lecturing before lyceums, temperance meetings, and peace societies, his frequent addresses at academic commencements, and membership of various associations which we have not space to mention,—how so many offices can be discharged, and all with acknowledged fidelity, is a question that perplexes. In the way of duty he has made enemies. But neither friends nor foes ever accused him of seeking any of these high responsibilities. In every instance the position sought the man. His pre-eminent gift has seemed to the writer to consist in speaking to a point and with a view to a particular effect. When he appeared before the legislative committee to plead for a state grant to Tufts College, the committee unanimously reported in favor,—one of the members adding that the eloquence with which the claim had been urged had convinced the committee that it was a claim. The late Samuel Burbank of Lowell gave the writer this incident: Dr. Miner had occasion to address a meeting of stockholders of an insurance company whose affairs had got into a bad way. When he was through, the late Samuel Lawrence, turning to Mr. Burbank, said: "That is the Universalist minister,—well, if he will abandon his pulpit he may have charge of any of our manufactories at any salary he may ask."

Like his faith, Dr. Miner's interest in the temperance reform is a "born conviction." From his youth to his present hour, he has never wavered in his belief that the drinking curse is the giant evil. In the pulpit, the lyceum, the caucus, on the platform, he has labored to create and enforce law to resist the ever threatening danger. In politics he makes it the chief state issue, and in 1878 was the candidate of the Prohibition party for governor of Massachusetts. In 1867 he led before the legislative committee the protest against the repeal of the prohibitory law, in opposition to the efforts of Gov. Andrew. His speech on that occasion has become an arsenal of facts pertaining to the ethics and the practicability of the statute. Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D., said to the writer of this: "Your Dr. Miner has made a great speech,—a very great one: it will never be answered." For ten years he has been the president of the Temperance Alliance. In token of his great service before the legislature, the Alliance presented him a costly Dore Bible. He also had another "token" in the shape of threatened violence and the defacement of his house. This was meant as dishonor. Dishonor? Could the apostle articulate his thought, for what titles Jerusalem could have conferred would he exchange the "forty stripes save one?"

But in all these varied toils, his church and faith have had the uppermost place. By instinct and habit an extemporaneous speaker, the one field he has least worked is that of literature with the pen. An occasional article for the church periodicals and a Sunday-school manual have at times occupied him. But most of his published works were spoken, and taken down by reporters. He is one of some half-dozen Boston preachers who are favorites with the reporters of the Boston dailies. "Old Forts Taken," his latest publication, was the rhetoric of his "off hand" speaking, save as the transcript of the reporter may have been revised. But, whether laboring by speech or pen, he has never permitted any duty or position to hold other than a second place beside his duties to the church of his love.

In the movement which has transformed the once scattered societies of his denomination into a compact, organized, and working church, no one has rendered a more effective service. Of its first Home Mission he is literally the pioneer. No one more faithfully represents the controversial and aggressive spirit of the doctrines of his Church; but no one has done more to make that church effective for practical righteousness and Christian worship. He has now reached the decline, not of his powers, nor of his zeal, nor of his work, but only of his years. May the evening of his days be as serene and pleasant as his youth and maturity have been industrious, faithful, and true.

Henry O. Kent

COL. HENRY O. KENT.

BY H. H. METCALF.

Among the best known of the representative men of New Hampshire, Col. Henry O. Kent of Lancaster is conceded a prominent position. The Kent family is of English origin, the first of the name in this country being among the settlers of old Newbury, Mass., in 1635. John Kent, a scion of this stock, died in 1780, at Cape Ann, Mass., aged eighty years. His son, Jacob, born at Chebacco (now Essex), Mass., in 1726, settled in Plaistow in this state. In 1760, a regiment commanded by Col. John Goffe was raised in New Hampshire for the invasion of Canada, one company of which was officered by John Hazen, captain; Jacob Kent (above named), first lieutenant; and Timothy Beadle, second lieutenant. This regiment marched to Number Four (Charlestown), cutting a road through the forest to the Green Mountains, and thence to Crown Point on Lake Champlain, where they took water transportation. After a successful campaign they returned through the wilderness, via the Newbury meadows or the "Cohos country," with the fertility of which region Lieut.-Col. Jacob Bayley, Capt. Hazen, and Lieutenants Kent and Beadle were so favorably impressed that they determined to return and found a settlement. The project was soon carried out, Bayley and Kent locating on the western, and Hazen and Beadle on the eastern, side of the river, from which settlements sprang the towns of Newbury and Haverhill. Jacob Kent died at Newbury, in 1812, at the age of eighty-six years. He was a noted man in his section, commander of the first company of militia in the towns of Newbury and Haverhill "in our province of New Hampshire," as says his commission, signed in 1764 by Benning Wentworth, which, with his sword, borne in two wars, is now in Col. Kent's possession. During the Revolution, while burdened with the cares of the infant settlement, he was an earnest actor in the scenes which gave us our independence. He was colonel of the forces in his vicinity, and on the advance of Burgoyne started with his regiment for the field, and was present with it at the capitulation at Saratoga. The original homestead is still in the family, Col. Jacob Kent—a gentleman through a long life well known in the political, military, and social circles of Vermont—being the present owner.

Jacob Kent, first named, left three sons,—Jacob, John, and Joseph. John Kent, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, settled in the town of Lyman, where he died in 1842, leaving four sons and one daughter. The father of Col. Kent—Richard Peabody Kent—was one of these sons, his mother, Tabitha Peabody, being a daughter of Lieutenant Richard Peabody of the Revolutionary army. He is still in active business in Lancaster, where he settled and engaged in mercantile pursuits in 1828. During this long career his affairs have been transacted with scrupulous integrity, exactitude, and honor. Though never in public life, he has always taken a deep interest in the material and educational welfare of the community. On the maternal side the ancestry of Col. Kent is traced to Richard Mann, "a planter in the family of Elder Brewster," who was one of the colony of the Mayflower. From him descended that John Mann, born December 25, 1743, who was the first permanent settler of the town of Orford, N. H., October, 1765. To him were born fifteen children, of whom Solomon Mann was well known in the state. Emily, second daughter of Solomon Mann, married Henry Oakes, an active and well known business man at Waterford and Fairlee, Vt. To Henry and Emily (Mann) Oakes were born three daughters and a son. One of the daughters, Emily Mann Oakes, was married to Richard P. Kent at Littleton, June 5, 1832. To this union there were born three children—sons—Henry Oakes, Edward Richard, and Charles Nelson.

Henry Oakes Kent was born in Lancaster, February 7, 1834. He attended the district school and Lancaster Academy, and graduated from Norwich Military University in the class of 1854, receiving later the degree of A. M. He studied law with Hon Jacob Benton, and was admitted to the bar at Lancaster in May, 1858. Soon after, he became the proprietor of the Coos Republican, and assumed the editorial and business management of that paper, his strong interest in political affairs and the fortunes of the Republican party, with which he was actively indentified, impelling him to this step, in taking which he relinquished the prospect of a successful and distinguished career at the bar. In the management of the Republican, both financial and editorial, he displayed rare skill and ability. His leading articles were always strong, vigorous, earnest, and secured for his paper, notwithstanding its remote location from the Capital, an influential position among the party journals of the state. It is safe to say that from the time when he assumed its management until 1870, when he sold it,—a period of twelve years,—no paper in the state rendered more efficient support to the party with which it was allied, or advocated more heartily all measures tending to advance the material prosperity of the section in which it was located, than did the Coos Republican under the direction of Col. Kent.

Since 1870 he has attended to a large and growing general office business, to which he had previously given more or less attention, and also to the interests of the Savings Bank for the County of Coos, for which institution he secured the charter in 1868, and of which he is and has been a trustee and the treasurer. He is also an owner and manager of the Lancaster paper-mill; is treasurer of the Pleasant Valley Starch Company, and is president of the Lancaster and Kilkenny Railroad Company, a corporation organized to develop the resources of the adjoining forest town of Kilkenny. The encouragement of local enterprise and industry has, indeed, always been one of his characteristics.

As has been indicated, Col. Kent entered political life as a Republican, and was an active advocate of the cause and policy of that party, with pen and voice, until after the election of Gen. Grant to the presidency. In 1855, when but twenty-one years of age, he was chosen assistant clerk of the house of representatives, and re-elected the following year. In 1857 he was chosen clerk of the house, discharging the duties of that office, for three successive years, with a readiness and efficiency which have never been excelled by any incumbent. In those days the previous question was not in vogue, and roll-calls were frequent. So familiar did Col. Kent become with the roll, which embraced over three hundred names, that he called it from memory, and it is related that, having called the roll nineteen times in one day, it became so impressed upon his mind that he called it over at night in his sleep, after retiring at the Eagle. In 1862 he was chosen a representative from Lancaster, and served with marked ability, his previous experience as clerk admirably fitting him for the discharge of legislative duties. He served that year as chairman of the committee on military affairs; a position of great importance, considering the fact that we were then in the midst of the war period. His next appearance in the legislature was in 1868, when he served as chairman of the committee on railroads, and again in 1869, when he was at the head of the finance committee. During each year of his legislative service he occupied a prominent position among the leaders of his party in the house, displaying marked ability in debate, and energy and industry in the committee-room.

In 1858 a commission was appointed, by the states of Maine and New Hampshire, "to ascertain, survey, and mark" the boundary between them. The line had been established in 1784, and revised in 1825, when Ichabod Bartlett and John W. Weeks were the commissioners on the part of New Hampshire. The duty of representing this state upon the commission of 1858 was assigned to Col. Kent, and the work was performed during the autumn of that year, through the wilderness, from the Crown Monument, as far south as the towns of Fryeburg and Conway. Col. Kent's connection with this work is perpetuated in the mountain bearing his name, on the northeastern frontier, laid down on the state map of 1860, and in subsequent surveys. In 1864 he was one of the presidential electors of this state, and from 1866 to 1868 inclusive, he was one of the bank commissioners.

At the outbreak of the rebellion Col. Kent volunteered in aid of the Union cause. He was ordered to Concord by Gov. Goodwin, commissioned assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of colonel, and assigned to duty in the recruiting service. Raising a company in a few days at Lancaster, he was ordered to Portsmouth, where he aided to organize and send out the Second Regiment and to fit the garrison at Fort Constitution. He continued on duty as assistant adjutant-general (the only one ever appointed in New Hampshire) until after the earlier regiments had left the state; but when a call was issued for three additional regiments from New Hampshire, in the fall of 1862, he was commissioned colonel of the Seventeenth, which was raised mainly by his personal efforts and upon the strength of his name, and organized and thoroughly drilled and disciplined under his command. Under the exigencies of the service, however, and by orders received from the secretary of war, the regiment was consolidated with the Second, whose ranks had become heavily depleted, the men being transferred and the officers necessarily mustered out, the governor in "general orders," regretting the necessity for this action and complimenting the Seventeenth for its high discipline and soldierly demeanor. As it was, few men, if any, in the state, did more than Col. Kent to promote the efficiency of the service, and to maintain the reputation of New Hampshire for prompt and patriotic effort in the Union cause,—a cause which he sustained by pen and voice and active personal effort throughout the entire struggle. He has been connected with the Grand Army of the Republic since its organization, is past commander of his Post, and is a frequent and popular speaker at the Veterans' reunions and on Memorial-day occasions.

Col. Kent was an active member of the organization known as the "Governor's Horse-Guards," which was formed for parade on the occasion of the annual inauguration of the governor, in which he held the office of major in 1860, and rode as colonel in 1863, 1864, and 1865.

In his association with, and labor for, the Republican party, Col. Kent was actuated by his opposition to the institution of slavery, which he regarded as prejudicial to the republic. He maintained his convictions earnestly, yet candidly, in his paper and on the stump. But after the war and the downfall of slavery, he favored the burial of past issues and sectional bitterness, and the restoration of fraternal relations, as essential to the general prosperity of the country. Regarding the policy of the administration as inimical to such result, he was unable to sustain it. He therefore disposed of his paper, which as a party organ he could not conscientiously carry to the opposition, and engaged in the development and organization of the Liberal movement, which resulted in the Cincinnati convention and the nomination of Horace Greeley for president in 1872. He participated in that convention, and was a member of the National and chairman of the State Liberal Republican committee in 1872 and 1873. In 1873 the Liberals ran an independent state ticket, but united with the Democracy on a common platform in 1874. The resolutions of the Liberal convention, announcing such purpose, were presented in the Democratic convention by Col. Kent, whose appearance and announcement elicited strong demonstrations of enthusiasm in that body. The campaign thus opened, ended in the election of a Democratic governor and legislature,—a result to which the earnest labors of Col. Kent largely contributed. In recognition of his efficient services, as well as acknowledged ability, he was accorded the Democratic congressional nomination in the third district in 1875, and again in 1877 and 1878. In each of the attendant canvasses, he spoke continuously, and ran largely ahead of his party vote, especially in his own town and vicinity. In all subsequent campaigns Col. Kent has heartily devoted his energies to the furtherance of Democratic principles, and has been active upon the stump in New Hampshire and outside the state, and always with numerous calls and large audiences.

Col. Kent is now fully engaged in the direction of his business concerns, which furnish an ample field for his energies and talent; yet he has in no degree abated his interest in public and political affairs. As has been said, he has given earnest encouragement to all enterprises calculated to promote the material welfare and prosperity of his section. In the advancement of educational interests he has also been earnestly engaged. He is a trustee and chairman of the executive committee of the corporation of Lancaster Academy, and is also a trustee of Norwich University, and president of the "Associated Alumni and Past Cadets" of that institution. In 1875 he addressed the Associated Alumni at their reunion, and in 1876, by request, delivered an address at commencement which for its eloquence and patriotic sentiments secured hearty and general commendation. He was, last year, one of the corporators of the Yorktown Centennial Association, named by the legislature of Virginia. He has long been prominent in the Masonic order, having passed the chair in North Star Lodge at Lancaster, and frequently been district deputy grand master. In 1868 and 1869 he was grand commander of the order of Knights Templars and appendant orders for the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. In 1880 he was made the recipient of a past masters badge of solid gold, from the Masons of his section.

Col. Kent was married, in Boston, January 11, 1859, to Berenice A. Rowell. They have two children, a daughter,—Berenice Emily,—born October 31, 1866, and a son,—Henry Percy,—born March 8, 1870. His religious associations are with the Episcopal church, and he is, with his family, a regular attendant upon the service of St. Paul's at Lancaster.

Of fine presence, genial and courteous manners, and strong personal magnetism, public spirited, generous, and obliging, his popularity in his section is great, as is evidenced by the large vote which he always receives when his name is upon the ticket, in his own town. Still young, endowed with strong mental powers, well known as a writer and public speaker, ambitious and courageous, it is fair to presume that he will yet attain still greater prominence and usefulness in public and private life.

Marshall P. Wilder
PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITES STATES AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

Portrait taken at the age of seventy.

MARSHALL P. WILDER, PH. D.

BY JOHN WARD DEAN, A. M.,

Librarian of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society.

There are few men in our community whose lives afford as striking an example of what can be achieved by concentration of power and unconquerable perseverance as does that of Col. Wilder. The bare enumeration of the important positions he has held, and still holds, and the self-sacrificing labors he has performed is abundant evidence of the extraordinary talent and ability, and the personal power and influence, which have enabled him to take a front rank as a benefactor to mankind.

Marshall Pinckney Wilder, whose christian names were given in honor of Chief-Justice Marshall and General Pinckney, eminent statesmen at the time he was born, was the oldest son of Samuel Locke Wilder, Esq., of Rindge, N. H., and was born in that town, September 22, 1798. His father, a nephew of the Rev. Samuel Locke, D.D., president of Harvard College, for whom he was named, was thirteen years a representative in the New Hampshire legislature, a member of the Congregational church in Rindge and held important town offices there. His mother, Anna, daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Crombie) Sherwin, (married May 2, 1797,) a lady of great moral worth, was, as her son is, a warm admirer of the beauties of nature.

The Wilders are an ancient English family, which the "Book of the Wilders," published a few years ago, traces to Nicholas Wilder, a military chieftain in the army of the Earl of Richmond at the battle of Bosworth, 1485. There is strong presumptive evidence that the American family is an offshoot from this. President Chadbourne in his life of Col. Wilder, and the author of the "Book of the Wilders," give reasons for this opinion. The paternal ancestors of Col. Wilder in this country performed meritorious services in the Indian wars, in the American revolution, and in Shays' rebellion. His grandfather was one of the seven delegates from the county of Worcester, in the Massachusetts convention of 1788, for ratifying the constitution of the United States, who voted in favor of it. Isaac Goodwin, Esq., in the Worcester Magazine, Vol. II. page 45, bears this testimony: "Of all the ancient Lancaster families, there is no one that has sustained so many important offices as that of Wilder."

At the age of four Marshall was sent to school, and at twelve he entered New Ipswich Academy, his father desiring to give him a collegiate education, with reference to a profession. When he reached the age of sixteen, his father gave him the choice, either to qualify himself for a farmer, or for a merchant, or to fit for college. He chose to be a farmer; and to this choice may we attribute in no small degree the mental and physical energy which has distinguished so many years of his life. But the business of his father increased so much that he was taken into the store. He here acquired such habits of industry that at the age of twenty-one he became a partner, and was appointed postmaster of Rindge.

In 1825, he sought a wider field of action and removed to Boston. Here he began business under the firm name of Wilder & Payson, in Union street, then as Wilder & Smith, in North Market street, and next in his own name, at No. 3, Central wharf. In 1837 he became a partner in the commission house of Parker, Blanchard, & Wilder, Water street, next Parker, Wilder, & Parker, Pearl street, and now Parker, Wilder, & Co., Winthrop square. Mr. Wilder is the oldest commission merchant in domestic fabrics in active business in Boston. He has passed through various crises of commercial embarrassments, and yet he has never failed to meet his obligations. He was an original director in the Hamilton, now Hamilton National, Bank, and in the National Insurance Company. The latter trust he has held over forty years, and he is now in his fiftieth year in the former. He has been a director in the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company for nearly forty years, and also a director in other similar institutions.

But trade and the acquisition of wealth have not been the all-engrossing pursuits of his life. His inherent love of rural pursuits led him, in 1832, to purchase a house in Dorchester originally built by Gov. Increase Sumner, where, after devoting a proper time to business, he gave his leisure to horticulture and agriculture. He spared no expense, he rested from no efforts, to instill into the public mind a love of an employment so honorable and useful. He cultivated his own grounds, imported seeds, plants, and trees, and endeavored by his example to encourage labor and elevate the rank of the husbandman. His garden, green-houses, and a forest of fruit-trees occupied the time he could spare from business, and here he has prosecuted his favorite investigations, year after year, for half a century, to the present day.

Soon after the Massachusetts Horticultural Society was formed, Mr. Wilder was associated with the late Gen. Henry A. S. Dearborn, its first president, and from that time till now has been one of its most efficient members, having two years since delivered the oration on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary. One of the most important acts of this society was the purchase of Mount Auburn for a cemetery and an ornamental garden. On the separation of the cemetery from the society, in 1835, through Mr. Wilder's influence, committees were appointed by the two corporations, Judge Story being chairman of the cemetery committee, and Mr. Wilder of the society committee. The situation was fraught with great difficulties; but Mr. Wilder's conservative course, everywhere acknowledged, overcame them all, and enabled the society to erect an elegant hall in School street, and afterwards the splendid building it now occupies in Tremont street, the most magnificent horticultural hall in the world. In 1840 he was chosen president, and held the office for eight successive years. During his presidency the hall in School street was erected, and two triennial festivals were held in Faneuil Hall, which are particularly worthy of notice. The first was opened September 11, 1845, and the second on the fiftieth anniversary of his birth, September 22, 1848, when he retired from the office of president, and the society voted him a silver pitcher valued at one hundred and fifty dollars, and caused his portrait to be placed in its hall. As president of this association he headed a circular for a convention of fruit-growers, which was held in New York, October 10, 1848, when the American Pomological Society was formed. He was chosen its first president, and he still holds that office, being in his thirty-third year of service. Its biennial meetings have been held in New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Boston, Rochester, St. Louis, Richmond, Chicago, and Baltimore. On these occasions President Wilder has made appropriate addresses. The last meeting was held September, 1881, at Boston, where he presided with his usual vigor and propriety, at the advanced age of eighty-three.

In February, 1849, the Norfolk Agricultural Society was formed. Mr. Wilder was chosen president, and the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, vice-president. Before this society, his first address on agricultural education was delivered. This was the first general effort in that cause in this country. He was president twenty years, and on his retirement he was constituted honorary president, and a resolution was passed recognizing his eminent ability and usefulness in promoting the arts of horticulture and agriculture, and his personal excellence in every department of life. He next directed his efforts to establishing the Massachusetts board of agriculture, organized, as the Massachusetts Central Board of Agriculture, at a meeting of delegates of agricultural societies in the state, September, 1851, in response to a circular issued by him as president, of the Norfolk Agricultural Society. He was elected president, and held the office till 1852, when it became a department of the state, and he is now the senior member of that board. In 1858 the Massachusetts School of Agriculture was incorporated, and he was chosen president; but before the school was opened congress granted land to the several states for agricultural colleges, and in 1865 the legislature incorporated the Massachusetts Agricultural College. He was named the first trustee. In 1871 the first class was graduated, and in 1878 he had the honor of conferring the degree of Bachelor of Science on twenty young gentlemen graduates. He delivered addresses on both occasions. In 1852, through his instrumentality, the United States Agricultural Society was organized at Washington. This society, of which he was president for the first six years, exercised a beneficial influence till the breaking out of the late civil war. He is a member of many horticultural and agricultural societies in this and foreign lands.

Col. Wilder, at an early age, took an interest in military affairs. At sixteen he was enrolled in the New Hampshire militia, and at twenty-one he was commissioned adjutant. He organized and equipped the Rindge Light Infantry, and was chosen its captain. At twenty-five he was elected lieutenant-colonel, and at twenty-six was commissioned as colonel of the Twelfth Regiment.

Soon after his removal to Boston he joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. In 1856 he was chosen commander of the corps, having four times previously declined nominations. He entered into correspondence with Prince Albert, commander of the Royal Artillery Company of London, founded in 1537, of which this corps, chartered in 1638, is the only offspring. This correspondence established a friendly intercourse between the two companies. In June, 1857, Prince Albert was chosen a special honorary member of our company, and twenty-one years later, in 1878, Col. Wilder, who then celebrated the fiftieth or golden anniversary of his own membership, nominated the Prince of Wales, the present commander of the London company, as an honorary member. They are the only two honorary members that have been elected by the company, and both were commanders of the Honorable Artillery Company of London when chosen. The late elegantly illustrated history of the London company contains a portrait of Col. Wilder as he appeared in full uniform on that occasion.

In 1839, he was induced to serve for a single term in the Massachusetts legislature as a representative for the town of Dorchester. In 1849 he was elected a member of Gov. Briggs's council, and the year following, a member of the senate and its president. In 1860, he was the member for New England of the national committee of the "Constitutional Union party," and attended, as chairman of the Massachusetts delegation, the National convention in Baltimore, where John Bell and Edward Everett were nominated for president and vice-president of the United States.

He was initiated in Charity Lodge No. 18, in Troy, N. H., at the age of twenty-five, exalted to the Royal Arch Chapter, Cheshire No. 4, and knighted in the Boston Encampment. He was deputy grand master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and was one of the six thousand Masons who signed, Dec. 31, 1831, the celebrated "Declaration of the Freemasons of Boston and Vicinity;" and at the fiftieth anniversary of that event, just celebrated in Boston, Mr. Wilder responded for the survivors, six of the signers being present. He has received all the Masonic degrees, including the 33d, or highest and last honor of the fraternity. At the World's Masonic convention, in 1867, at Paris, he was the only delegate from the United States who spoke at the banquet.

On the 7th of November, 1849, a festival of the Sons of New Hampshire was celebrated in Boston. The Hon. Daniel Webster presided, and Mr. Wilder was the first vice-president. Fifteen hundred sons of the Granite State were present. The association again met on the 29th of October, 1852, to participate in the obsequies of Mr. Webster at Faneuil Hall. On this occasion the legislature and other citizens of New Hampshire were received at the Lowell depot, and addressed by Mr. Wilder in behalf of the sons of that state resident in Boston.

The Sons celebrated their second festival Nov. 2, 1853, at which Mr. Wilder occupied the chair as president, and delivered one of his most eloquent speeches. They assembled again June 20, 1861, to receive and welcome the New Hampshire regiment of volunteers and escort them to Music Hall, where Mr. Wilder addressed them in a patriotic speech on their departure for the field of battle.

The two hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the settlement of Dorchester was celebrated on the 4th of July, 1855. The oration was by Edward Everett; Mr. Wilder presided and delivered an able address. On the central tablet of the great pavilion was this inscription: "Marshall P. Wilder, President of the Day. Blessed is he that turneth the waste places into a garden, and maketh the wilderness to blossom as a rose."

In January, 1868, he was solicited to take the office of president of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, vacated by the death of Gov. Andrew. He was unanimously elected, and is now serving the fourteenth year of his presidency. At every annual meeting he has delivered an appropriate address. In his first address he urged the importance of procuring a suitable building for the society. In 1870, he said: "The time has now arrived when absolute necessity, public sentiment, and personal obligations demand that this work be done and done quickly." Feeling himself pledged by this address, he, as chairman of the committee then appointed, devoted three months entirely to the object of soliciting funds, during which time more than forty thousand dollars was generously contributed by friends of the association; and thus the handsome edifice. No. 18 Somerset street, was procured. This building was dedicated to the use of the society, March 18, 1871. He has since obtained donations amounting to upwards of twelve thousand dollars, as a fund for paying the salary of the librarian.

In 1859, he presided at the first public meeting called in Boston in regard to the collocation of institutions on the Back Bay lands, where the splendid edifices of the Boston Society of Natural History and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology now stand. Of the latter institution he has been a vice-president, and the chairman of its Society of Arts.

He was one of the twelve representative men appointed to receive the Prince of Wales in 1860, at the banquet given him in Boston; also one of the commissioners in behalf of the Universal Exposition in Paris, 1867, when he was placed at the head of the committee on horticulture and the cultivation and products of the vine, the report of which was published by act of congress.

In 1869, he made a trip to the South for the purpose of examining its resources; and in 1870, with a large party, he visited California. The result of Mr. Wilder's observations have been given to the public in a lecture before the Massachusetts state board of agriculture, which was repeated before the Boston Mercantile Library Association, the Amherst and the Massachusetts Agricultural colleges, Dartmouth College, the Horticultural Society, and the merchants of Philadelphia, and bodies in other places.

His published speeches and writings now amount to over eighty in number. A list to the year 1873 is printed in the "Cyclopedia of American Literature." Dartmouth College, as a testimonial to his services in science and literature, conferred upon him, in the year 1877, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

The Hon. Paul A. Chadbourne, LL. D., late president of Williams College, in a recent memoir of Mr. Wilder remarks: "The interest which Col. Wilder has always manifested in the progress of education, as well as the value and felicitous style of his numerous writings, would lead one to infer at once that his varied knowledge and culture are the results of college education. But he is only another illustrious example of the men who, with only small indebtedness to schools, have proved to the world that real men can make themselves known as such without the aid of the college, as we have abundantly learned that the college can never make a man of one who has not in him the elements of noble manhood before he enters its halls."

In 1820, Mr. Wilder married Miss Tryphosa Jewett, daughter of Dr. Stephen Jewett, of Rindge, a lady of great personal attractions. She died on a visit to that town, July 21, 1831, leaving four children. On the 29th of August, 1833, Mr. Wilder was united to Miss Abigail, daughter of Capt. David Baker, of Franklin, Mass., a lady of education, accomplishments, and piety, who died of consumption April 4, 1854, leaving five children. He was married a third time on the 8th of September, 1855, to her sister, Miss Julia Baker, who was admirably qualified to console him and make his dwelling cheerful, and who has two sons, both living. No man has been more blessed in domestic life. We know not where there would be a more pleasing picture of peace and contentment exhibited than is found in this happy family. In all his pursuits and avocations, Mr. Wilder seems to have realized and practiced that grand principle which has such a bearing and influence on the whole course of life,—the philosophy of habit, a power almost omnipotent for good or evil. His leisure hours he devotes to his pen, which already has filled several large volumes with descriptions and delineations of fruits and flowers proved under his own inspection.

The life of Col. Wilder is a striking instance of what an individual may accomplish by industry, indomitable perseverance, and the concentration of the intellectual powers on grand objects. Without these, no talent, no mere good fortune could have placed him in the high position he has attained as a public benefactor. He has been pre-eminent in the establishment and development of institutions. Few gentlemen have been called upon so often, and upon such various occasions, to take the chair at public meetings or preside over constituted societies. Few have acquitted themselves so happily, whether dignity of presence, amenity of address, fluency of speech, or dispatch of business be taken into consideration. As a presiding officer he seems "to the manner born." His personal influence has been able to magnetize a half-dying body into new and active life. This strong personal characteristic is especially remarked among his friends. No one can approach him in doubt, in despondency, or in embarrassment, and leave him without a higher hope, a stronger courage and a manlier faith in himself. The energy which has impelled him to labor still exists.

In closing this sketch, we may remark that a complimentary banquet was given him, September 22, 1878, on the eightieth anniversary of his birth. On this occasion the Rev. James H. Means, D. D., his pastor for nearly thirty years, the Hon. Charles L. Flint, secretary of the board of agriculture, the Hon. John Phelps Putnam, judge of the Massachusetts superior court, and others paid tributes to the high moral character, the benevolent disposition, and the eminent services of the honored guest of the evening.

Judge Putnam closed as follows: "Our dear old friend, we greet you. On this auspicious occasion we wish you many returns of your natal day. Serus in cœlum redeas,—late may you return to the heavens. And when that day comes, on which, in the onward march of life you shall fall by the way-side, may you fall as falls the golden fruit in this autumn time,—

'Sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.'"

John M. Parker

HON. JOHN M. PARKER.

BY WM. H. STINSON.

Among the many worthy sons of the old Granite State who by their business enterprise, executive ability, and genial manners have won a position on her honored roll, appears the name of John McGaw Parker, who was born in Goffstown, September 17, 1824, the eldest son of William Parker by his second marriage, one of the early settlers of the town. His mother, Hannah Adams, of Derry, was a most estimable lady, whose christian influence over her family of three children was most enobling. She was a descendant from that honored and illustrious family whose representatives were called to the executive head of our nation. She died February 26, 1869, having reached the age of four score years. We trace the ancestry of his father to Josiah Parker, who came from England to Cambridge, Mass., prior to 1700. His son, Rev. Thomas Parker, was the first settled pastor at Dracut, Mass., where he died in 1765. A son of his settled in Litchfield, this state, from whose family sprung the father of the subject of this sketch.

During his early youth, young Parker received such training and advantages as were offered by the district school, united with the best of home influences. At the age of eleven years he was placed in the academy at Hopkinton, by his father, who was desirous of giving his son the benefit of a business education; the following year he entered old Derry academy at Derry, where his education was completed.

Displaying much aptitude for business, his father, who was engaged in the lumbering and the mercantile trade, as well as farming, placed him in his store as clerk; the succeeding year he was clerk in a store at Concord, but the next year, 1839, he returned to his home, taking charge of the business of his father, who was in failing health, and who died on the 9th of August following, at the age of sixty-four years.

His father's death necessitated changes in home affairs, and in March, 1840, he entered the store of William Whittle, at Goffstown, where he remained until twenty-one years of age; he then returned once more to his home and went into the mercantile trade at his father's old stand. This was in 1843; he continued the same until 1847, when he formed a partnership with his younger brother, David A., under the firm name of J. M. & D. A. Parker, which union continues at the present time. In addition to the mercantile and agricultural interests, they have engaged extensively in the wood and lumber business, and as the "lumber kings" in their section of the state their business has grown and developed into one of no inconsiderable magnitude, requiring the investment of a large capital which has accumulated through their indomitable energy and business sagacity, backed by a judgment of such soundness as years of experience can but give. The building of the N. H. Central Railroad, now the Manchester & North Weare road, chartered in 1848, added greatly to their business facilities for the transportation of their wood, bark, and lumber, which enterprise received their earnest encouragement.

On the 30th of November, 1854, he married Letitia C., second daughter of the late Capt. Charles Stinson, of Dunbarton, who was born March 9, 1835. Their married life has been a truly happy one, and such a kindly home as all members of the household will ever revert to with the fondest of recollections. They have three children: Charles Stinson, born November 3, 1855; Henry Woodman, born February 26, 1859; Frank Adams, born June 1, 1866. The two former, Charles and Henry, inheriting their father's traits of character for business, are merchants at Goffstown village, while Frank is pursuing his studies at Gilmanton Academy.

Since the organization of the Republican party, Mr. Parker has ever been a zealous advocate of its principles, and his abilities have been recognized most honorably by his political party in their public preferments. In 1855 he was elected a commissioner for his county, and re-elected in 1856; and a member of the state senate in 1858 and 1859. Among his associates in this body were Hon. Walter Harriman, Hon. John G. Sinclair, Hon. Austin F. Pike, and Hon. John D. Lyman. He represented his town in the legislature in 1869. In 1876, without consultation and greatly to his surprise, he was selected as the nominee, by his party, for councilor from his district, and owing to his popularity received a majority of the suffrages at the election following, in the face of a Democratic majority of six hundred in the district the year previous; and was re-elected in 1877. At the institution of the state board of equalization, in 1879, he was commissioned by the court as one of the five members; re-appointed in 1881, and selected as president of the board.

When the Guaranty Savings Bank of Manchester was organized, in 1879, he was elected its president, a position still retained; and is also a member of the board of directors of the Merchants National Bank of the same city.

Mr. Parker filled the position of postmaster at the Goffstown office during a period of four years; and he has a wide reputation in all the surrounding towns as one of the most successful auctioneers, where his services are ever in demand. Being possessed of a judicious and candid mind, he is often called to act in the capacity of referee, where his mature judgment has assisted in the friendly adjustment of disputed and antagonistic questions which threatened the peace and harmony of families, neighborhoods, and towns.

His business prosperity enables him to exercise a liberal spirit towards objects and institutions that tend towards worthy ends; and he is certainly one of the most industrious of men, whether attending to the demands of the farm, the store, the lumber interests, selling of estates, or to the almost countless calls from his public and minor private duties that come crowding to his immediate notice. In all matters of a public nature he has ever taken an active interest, especially in the growth of enterprise in his native town.

Mr. Parker's love for social life allows the years to sit lightly. Of a happy, open disposition, ever approachable, at his delightful residence at Parker's station, Goffstown, presided over by his amiable and generous-hearted wife, a cordial welcome is assured all who enter his hospitable doors.

Chas. H. Bartlett.

HON. CHARLES H. BARTLETT.

Charles Henry Bartlett was born in Sunapee, N. H., October 15, 1833. He is the fourth son of John and Sarah J. (Sanborn) Bartlett, and is a lineal descendant, in the eighth generation, of Richard Bartlett, who came from England to Newbury, Mass., in the ship "Mary and John," in 1634.

The original orthography of the name was Barttelot, which is still preserved by the family in England, whose ancestral home in Stopham, Sussex county, has remained in possession of the family for nearly a thousand years, and the present occupant, Hon. Walter B. Barttelot, is the member of parliament from that county.

In the same ancestral line is found the name of Hon. Josiah Bartlett, who, as a delegate in the continental congress from New Hampshire, was the first man to vote "yea" on the passage of the declaration of independence, July 4, 1776, and the second to affix his signature thereto. All the Bartletts whose names appear in the annals of our state trace their lineage to the same ancestry.

Mr. Bartlett has four brothers,—Joseph S., who resides in Claremont, and Solomon, John Z. and George H., who reside in Sunapee; and two sisters,—Mrs. Thomas P. Smith and Mrs. John Felch. His parents are still living, at the advanced age of eighty-two years, in the enjoyment of an ample competency, the fruits of a long life of earnest and cheerful labor, and the practice of a stern, self-denying economy, the characteristic of the best type of our New England husbandry.

Mr. Bartlett's early life was mainly spent upon his father's farm, laboring through the summer season and attending school during the winter. He early developed a decided taste for literary pursuits, and from childhood devoted a liberal share of his leisure moments to the perusal of such books as were accessible to him. He also contributed liberally to the current literature of the day, and showed remarkable facility in both prose and poetic composition. He received his academic education at the academies at Washington and New London, after which he commenced the study of law in the office of Metcalf & Barton at Newport. He studied subsequently with George & Foster at Concord, and with Morrison & Stanley at Manchester, being admitted to the bar of Hillsborough county, from the office of the latter, in 1858. In that year he began the practice of his profession at Wentworth, N. H., and in 1863 removed to Manchester, where he has since resided. For some two years he was law partner with the late Hon. James U. Parker, the partnership terminating with the retirement of the latter from active business. In June, 1867, he was appointed, by Judge Clark, clerk of the United States district court for the New Hampshire district, since which time he has not actively practiced his profession, but has devoted himself to the duties of his office, which became very onerous and responsible upon the passage of the bankrupt law, about the time of his appointment. The holding of this office under the government of the United States has disqualified him from accepting any office under the state government. He was clerk of the New Hampshire senate from 1861 to 1865, Gov. Smyth's private secretary in 1865 and 1866, treasurer of the state reform school in 1866 and 1867. In the same year he was unanimously chosen city solicitor, but declined a re-election, owing to his appointment as clerk of the district court. In 1872 he was elected, as the nominee of the Republican party, mayor of the city, and served till February 18, 1873, when he resigned in accordance with the policy of the national government at that time, which forbade United States officials from holding state or municipal offices. His cheerful co-operation with the administration in this matter, though at the sacrifice of a most conspicuous public position, was handsomely recognized by President Grant, through Attorney-General Williams. His last official act as mayor was to order the city treasurer to pay the amount due him for salary to the Firemen's Relief Association. Mr. Bartlett has been a trustee of the Merrimack River Savings Bank from 1865 to the present time, and a trustee of the People's Savings Bank from its organization in 1874. He is also a director in the Merchants National Bank. He was the master of Washington Lodge of Freemasons from April, 1872, to April, 1874, and now holds the position of United States commissioner, to which he was appointed in 1872. The only positions of trust he has held since his appointment as clerk of the United States court, are as a member of the last constitutional convention, and chairman of the commission appointed by the governor and council to investigate the affairs of the New Hampshire Insane Asylum.

Mr. Bartlett married, December 8, 1858, at Sunapee, Miss Hannah M. Eastman, of Croydon, N. H., by whom he had one son, Charles Leslie, who died at the age of four years, and one daughter, Carrie Bell, a member of the Manchester high school.

Clarke's "History of Manchester," from which the foregoing facts are gathered, closes its biographical sketch of Mr. Bartlett as follows: "Mr. Bartlett has a keen, well balanced mind, whose faculties are always at his command. He thinks readily, but acts cautiously, and seldom makes a mistake. Hence he has been financially successful in almost everything he has undertaken. He is one of the most practical lawyers in the State, and was for several years in charge of the law department of the Mirror, giving general satisfaction, and his withdrawal, when his business compelled it, was a source of much regret to the readers of that paper."

In 1881, Dartmouth College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.

Moody Currier

HON. MOODY CURRIER, LL. D.

Forty years ago, when Manchester, now the metropolis of New Hampshire, was little more than a wasting waterfall and an unpeopled plain, a few young men who had the sagacity to see, the courage to grapple with, and the strength to control the possibilities of the location, made it their home. One of these was Moody Currier, who was then seeking for a spot in which a willing hand and a busy brain could carve out a successful career. His boyhood had been spent upon a farm, where he supported himself by work during the day, and gratified his desire for knowledge by studying by the light of pitch-knots in the evening. In this manner he fitted himself to enter Hopkinton Academy, and by similar methods worked his way into and through Dartmouth College, where he graduated with high honors in 1834. During his collegiate course he earned enough by teaching and other work in the vacations to pay his expenses, but his graduation found him without funds, and, as the readiest way to lay the foundation of his fortune, he taught school at Concord one term and the Hopkinton Academy one year, and then accepted an invitation to take charge of the high school at Lowell, Mass., where he remained until 1841. Meantime he had read law, and in the spring of that year came to Manchester, was admitted to the bar, and formed a partnership with Hon. George W. Morrison for the practice of his profession, which continued for two years, when it was dissolved, and he pursued his business independently until 1848. During this time he had acquired a large and lucrative practice, and while attending to the interests of his clients had established a reputation as one of the safest and most sagacious financiers in the young city, which led the founders of the Amoskeag bank, when that institution was organized, to elect him its cashier. He accepted the position, and from that time has been prominently identified with many of the largest and most successful moneyed corporations in the city and state. He was cashier of the Amoskeag bank until it was re-organized as a national bank, when he was elected its president, which position he still occupies. He has been treasurer of the Amoskeag Savings Bank since its foundation, in 1852, a director of the People's Savings Bank and of the Manchester Mills since their organization. He was a director of the Blodget Edge Tool Company, and a director and treasurer of the Amoskeag Axe Company, during the existence of those corporations. He was treasurer of the Concord Railroad in 1871 and 1872; has been treasurer of the Concord & Portsmouth Railroad since 1856, president of the Eastern Railroad in New Hampshire since 1877, treasurer of the New England Loan Company since 1874, and a director of the Manchester Gas-Light Company since 1862; and has held many other places of responsibility,—in all of which his prudence, foresight, and good judgment have grasped the opportunities which have eluded so many, avoided the whirlpools in which so many have been ingulfed, and secured for stockholders and depositors regular and satisfactory dividends.

While thus adding to the fortunes of others, he has not been unmindful of his own, and is one of the wealthy men of the state, able to command whatever money will buy, and to give liberally to any cause that commends itself to his judgment. But while it has been the business of Mr. Currier to manage vast moneyed concerns, the demands of his calling have not been permitted to choke out his love of books and study. The literary tastes, and habits of close and tireless application, which inspired the boy to struggle for and obtain a liberal education, survive in the man, and have made him a persistent student until he is one of the most accomplished scholars in the state.

While a teacher at Concord, he edited a literary journal in that city, and after coming to Manchester published and edited, for several years, a weekly newspaper. Since he became a banker he has spent much of his leisure in his well filled library, finding his recreation in adding to his knowledge of the classics, mastering the problems of exact science, and exploring the fields of belles-lettres. He has written, for his own amusement, many poems of much merit, a volume of which was published for circulation among his friends in 1879, and he is a master of the art of expression in terse and polished prose. His scholarly attainments were recognized by Bates College in 1880, which conferred upon him the degree of LL.D.

As a citizen, Mr. Currier occupies a high place in the city with whose material growth he has been so largely identified. He is an earnest advocate of whatever tends to her advancement, a judicious counselor, and a liberal giver. He was one of the founders of her city library, to which he has made large donations, that, with one of her public fountains, attest alike his generosity and his judgment; and there have been few projects for her improvement which have not found in him a strong and ready helper.

Prior to 1852 he acted with the Democratic party, which elected him clerk of the state senate in 1843, 1844, but the agitation of the slavery question enlisted him in the ranks of the Free-soil forces, and from the organization of the Republican party he has been one of its most earnest and effective supporters. In 1856 and 1857 he was a member of the senate, being its president the latter year; and in 1860 and 1861, was a member of the governor's council, and chairman of the committee for raising and equipping the troops necessary to fill the state's quota in the war of the rebellion. In this position his business ability and methods were of great service, and to him, at least as much as to any other one man, is due the creditable reputation which the state won in that trying period.

In 1876 he was one of the presidential electors who cast the vote of New Hampshire for Hayes and Wheeler, and in 1879, had he permitted his friends to use his name, would have been a prominent candidate for the governorship in the state convention that year, as he was in the primary meetings.

Mr. Currier has been married three times. He has no children living. He resides in an elegant home in Manchester, in which are reflected his cultivated tastes and ample fortune. Though able to look back upon a long career, he is in the enjoyment of excellent health and the full strength of his manhood, and while carrying the business burdens that would crush most men, finds leisure to enjoy the fruits of his industry, frugality, and judgment.

A. Norcross

HON. AMASA NORCROSS.

Amasa Norcross, A. M., of Fitchburg, Mass., was born in Rindge, N. H., January 26, 1824. His father, Daniel Norcross, was a farmer in New Hampshire, and was the grandson of Jeremiah Norcross, the immigrant ancestor of the family, who arrived in this country in the year 1642, and settled at Watertown, Mass. Daniel Norcross was a man of sterling integrity, a large land-holder, and the incumbent of many offices of honor and trust. His wife, nee Mary Jones, was also a native of New Hampshire.

Amasa Norcross received an excellent academic education, first in the academy of his native town, and subsequently in a similar institution at New Ipswich, N. H. Selecting the profession of law for the life exercise of his talents and energies, in 1844 he became a student in the office of the Hon. Nathaniel Wood of Fitchburg, and in 1847 was admitted to the bar. Since that time he has pursued his professional labors in the city where he now resides. He is to-day the senior member of the Fitchburg bar, and for many years he has been a recognized leader of the legal fraternity in that section of the state.

In 1858, 1859, and 1862, Mr. Norcross was a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives, having been elected thereto on the Republican ticket. In 1858 he was a member of the committee of probate and chancery, of which Governor Andrew, then a member of the house, was chairman; and in 1859 and 1862 he was a member of the judiciary committee. In August of the last-named year, he was appointed, by President Lincoln, United States assessor for the ninth congressional district of Massachusetts. The district was large, comprising seventy-two townships. He filled the office with signal ability and satisfaction for ten years, and until the office of assessor was abolished by act of congress. In 1862 the authorities of Dartmouth College conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts.

In the session of 1859, Mr. Norcross was appointed a member of the joint committee of the senate and house of representatives to examine and amend the report of the commissioners appointed to codify the laws of the state. He gave to this work his entire attention for several months, when report was made by the committee to the adjourned session of the legislature, held in the autumn of that year. Upon this committee were several distinguished lawyers, among whom were Gen. Caleb Cushing and Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. In 1874 he was a member of the Massachusetts senate and chairman of the judiciary committee of that body. He was also chairman of the committee on federal relations. To him was assigned the honor of drafting the report which recommended rescinding the resolutions of censure upon Charles Sumner which had been passed by the legislature of Massachusetts. Previous efforts to relieve that distinguished statesman from that burden had failed; this succeeded. The rescinding resolutions reached Senator Sumner at Washington a few days before his death, and doubtless contributed materially to soothe his last hours.

In the fall of 1876, Mr. Norcross was elected representative to congress on the Republican ticket, over his political opponent, S. O. Lamb of Greenfield. In 1878 he was elected a second time, over the candidates of two political parties. He has been an active member of the Republican party since its organization, and is now serving his third term in congress, having been again re-elected in 1880. In the several conventions resulting in his nomination and election, he was always supported by the better elements in his party.

Local affairs have always received a proportionate share of Mr. Norcross's attention. On the organization of the city government of Fitchburg, in 1873, he received the honor of first election to the mayoralty of the new city. He was re-elected the following year. In the administration of its affairs his executive ability was marked. Necessary public improvements were effected, and all bear tokens of his excellent judgment and skill. With financial and other public organizations he has been, for many years, prominently identified. He is a director in the Rollstone National Bank of Fitchburg, in the Worcester North Savings Institution, and in the Fitchburg Fire Insurance Company.

The interest of Mr. Norcross in benevolent and educational institutions has been deep and constant, and he has done much for their advancement. He took an active part in organizing the Fitchburg Benevolent Union, was its first president, and he is now one of its life members. For fifteen years he has been a trustee of the Lawrence Academy at Groton, Mass. By act of the legislature of Massachusetts he was made one of the original members of the corporation known as the Cushing Academy, located at Ashburnham, and by the same act was designated as the member authorized to call the first meeting of the trustees, of which board he is still a member. He has contributed largely to the organizing and building up of this now flourishing academy. For more than thirty years the labors of Mr. Norcross connected with his large legal practice have been arduous and continuous.

In June, 1852, he was married to S. Augusta, daughter of Benjamin and Rebecca Wallis, of Ashby, Mass. She died March 4, 1869.

Geo. A. Pillsbury

HON. GEORGE ALFRED PILLSBURY.

BY FRANK H. CARLETON.

New Hampshire is a small state, yet her sons and daughters are scattered far and wide. They have not only built up a prosperous and influential commonwealth at home, furnishing a talent and genius too great to be circumscribed by territorial lines, but they have greatly aided in laying the foundations and building up the newer sections of our country. Let any person pass through the mighty West, and thence to the great Northwest which to-day is doing vastly more than any section to supply the world with bread, and he will be surprised to find the great number of sons of New Hampshire who have attained reputation, position, and influence. In the highest ranks of commerce, at the bar, and from the pulpit, they wield a great influence. Their names are too numerous to be enumerated, yet it is to but few that the distinction is given of being distinguished in two states, and these as far apart as Minnesota and New Hampshire. To this small but honored class belongs the subject of this brief sketch, George Alfred Pillsbury, one of a family whose name suggests high qualities.

The family history has been traced as far back as Joshua Pillsbury, who settled a grant of land at what is now Newburyport, Mass., in the year 1640,—a grant which for over two hundred and forty years has been in the possession of the Pillsbury family. Following him, next came in the line of descent Caleb Pillsbury, who was born January 26, 1717, for several years and at the time of his decease a member of the Massachusetts provincial legislature. Caleb Pillsbury left a son Micajah, who was born in Amesbury, Mass., May 22, 1763, and married Sarah Sargent. The result of this union was four daughters, and four sons—Stephen, Joseph, John, and Moses. With this family Micajah Pillsbury removed to Sutton, N. H., where he remained until his death, in 1802, occupying various positions of town trust. His wife survived him several years. Of these sons, Stephen Pillsbury was a Baptist clergyman, who died in Londonderry. The other brothers, including John Pillsbury, the father of the subject of this sketch, were all magistrates of the town of Sutton. The youngest sister married Nathan Andrews, a gentleman well known in the annals of Sutton.

John Pillsbury was born in 1789. He was prominent in the town affairs of Sutton, being a selectman for several years, and representing the town in the state legislature. He was also a captain in the militia in those days of the fife and drum, when a commission had a significance. On April 2, 1811, he married Susan Wadleigh, daughter of Benjamin Wadleigh, a settler in Sutton in 1771. Benjamin Wadleigh was a descendant of Robert Wadleigh of Exeter, a member of the provincial legislature of Massachusetts. On the maternal side the ancestry was good. The maternal grandmother was the daughter of Ebenezer Kezar, who, it is related, concealed the girl whom he afterwards married, under a pile of boards, at the time Mrs. Duston was captured, in 1697. He was identified with the early history of Sutton in many ways.

As we have said, John and Susan Pillsbury were the father and mother of the subject of these lines. They were a hardy, vigorous, and exemplary parent stock. To them were born five children, to wit: Simon Wadleigh Pillsbury, born June 22, 1812; George Alfred, August 29, 1816; Dolly W., September 6, 1818; John Sargent, July 29, 1827; and Benjamin Franklin, March 29, 1831. All of the children received the common-school education of those days; but Simon W., whose natural fondness for study distinguished him as a young man, gave his attention to special branches of study, particularly mathematics, in which he became known as one of the best in the state. He delivered the first public lecture in Sutton on the subject of temperance. But too much study wore down his health, and he died in 1836, cutting short a promising future.

Of the other brothers, John Sargent is too well known to need mention. When a boy of sixteen he became a clerk for his brother, George Alfred, at Warner, N. H. In 1848 he formed a business partnership with Walter Harriman in Warner, neither of these two men in those days dreaming that in the future one would be the governor of a state on the Atlantic seaboard, and the other of one on the banks of the great Mississippi. In 1854 John S. settled in Minnesota, at the Falls of St. Anthony, around which has grown up the beautiful city of Minneapolis, with a population of sixty thousand. He shortly entered into the hardware trade, in which he built up the largest business in the state, acquiring a fortune, serving for a dozen years or more as state senator, and finally being elected governor for three successive terms of two years each, being the only governor of Minnesota accorded a third term. His entire administration, which ceased in January, 1882, was a remarkable one, characterized by many acts of wisdom, chief among which was the adjustment of the dishonored state bonds issued at an early day for railroad purposes.

The remaining brother, Benjamin F. Pillsbury, remained in Sutton until 1878, where he filled many places of trust, being elected selectman, treasurer, and state representative. In 1878 he removed to Granite Falls in western Minnesota, where he is extensively engaged in the real estate, grain, and lumber business, and is reckoned one of the leading citizens of his section.

But we have been drawn somewhat from the subject of this article. As we have stated, George Alfred Pillsbury was born in Sutton, N. H., August 29, 1816. He received a thorough common-school education in the rudimentary branches. Of a very quick and active temperament, he very early in life had a strong determination to enter business for himself. At the age of eighteen he became a clerk to a Boston merchant. After a year's experience there, he returned to Sutton and entered into the manufacture of stoves and sheet-iron ware, in company with a cousin, John C. Pillsbury. He continued in this business until February 1840, when he went to Warner into the store of John H. Pearson, where he remained until the following July, when he purchased the business on his own account, and continued in it for some eight years. In the spring of 1848 he entered into a wholesale dry-goods house in Boston, and in 1849 again returned to Warner and engaged in business there until the spring of 1851, when he sold out his interest and went out of mercantile business entirely. During his residence in Warner he was postmaster from 1844 to 1849, was selectman in 1847 and 1849, town treasurer in 1849, and a representative to the general court in 1850 and 1851. He was also selected as chairman of the committee appointed to build the Merrimack county jail in Concord, in 1851-52, with the general superintendence of the construction of the work, which was most faithfully done.

In November, 1851, Mr. Pillsbury was appointed purchasing agent of the Concord Railroad, and commenced his duties in the following December, having in the meantime moved his family to Concord. For nearly twenty-four years he occupied this position, and discharged its duties with rare business ability, showing wise judgment in all his purchases, which amounted to more than three million dollars, and settling more cases of claims against the corporation for alleged injuries to persons and property than all the other officers of the road. He had great quickness of perception and promptness in action, two wonderful business qualities, which, when rightly used, always bring success.

During his residence of twenty-seven years in Concord, he gradually acquired a position which all may envy. Various positions of trust, both in public matters and as a private adviser, were discharged by him most faithfully. He was one of the committee appointed by the Union school-district to build the high school and several other school buildings. He was also interested in the erection of several of the handsome business blocks and fine residences in the city.

In the year 1864, Mr. Pillsbury, with others, established the First National Bank of Concord. From the first he was one of the directors, and in 1866 became its president, which position he held until his departure from the state. He was also more instrumental than any other person in organizing the National Savings Bank in 1867. Of the savings bank he was the first president, and held the position until 1874, when he resigned. During Mr. Pillsbury's management of the First National Bank, it became, in proportion to its capital stock, the strongest bank in the state. Up to December, 1873, when the treasurer was discovered to be a defaulter to a large amount, the savings bank was one of the most successful in the state; but this defalcation, with the general crash in business, required its closing up. Its total deposits up to the time mentioned exceeded three million dollars. The bank finally paid its depositors nearly dollar for dollar and interest, notwithstanding the large defalcation by its treasurer.

Mr. Pillsbury was elected a representative to the general court from ward five, in 1871 and 1872, and was appointed chairman of the committee on the apportionment of public taxes during the session of the legislature in 1872. For several years Mr. Pillsbury was a member of the city councils of Concord, and his intimate knowledge of public affairs led the people to twice elect him as mayor, a position the duties of which he discharged with that rare ability which had characterized all his other affairs; and it was during this time that he decided, after much consideration, and with deep reluctance, to leave Concord and move to Minneapolis, Minn., where he had already acquired large interests. When this resolution was made public, it drew forth strong and wide-spread protests from the citizens and neighbors whom he had served so long, for they felt the state could illy afford to lose such a man. But of this we will speak later.

During his residence in Concord he was identified with all measures to promote the public good. Both by his business judgment and his ready purse did he aid the benevolent and religious organizations. He was actively engaged in establishing the Centennial Home of Concord, for the aged, making large contributions and serving at a trustee. He was also a generous giver to the Orphans' Home at Franklin, and was a trustee from the time of its foundation until he left the state. In 1876 he was appointed, by the city councils, chairman of a committee of three to appraise all the real estate of the city for taxation purposes. Several objects attest his generosity and public spirit, among which might be mentioned the gift to the city of the fine bell in the tower of the Board of Trade building, and the handsome organ in the First Baptist church,—a joint gift from himself and his son, Hon. Charles A. Pillsbury, of Minneapolis. He also made several large contributions towards building and endowing the academy at New London.

Upon his preparing to leave Concord for the West, in the spring of 1878, expressions of regret came to him from all sources. Complimentary resolutions were unanimously adopted by both branches of the city government, and by the First National Bank, the latter testifying most emphatically to his integrity and superior business qualities. The First Baptist church, of which he was an active member during his residence in Concord, and its society also passed similar resolutions. The Webster club, composed of some fifty of the leading citizens, also adopted resolutions regretting deeply his departure. A private testimonial signed by over three hundred of the leading citizens of all branches of business, all the members of the city government, all the banking officers and professional men, was presented, and on the eve of his departure an elegant bronze statue was presented to himself and wife by members of the First Baptist church. In church affairs and acts of private charity he had always shown a strong interest, which drew him friends from all classes of people.

Coming to Minneapolis he was at once recognized, and from the moment he established himself there he took an assured position. He at once entered actively into the milling business (in which he had long been interested) in the firm of C. A. Pillsbury & Co., composed of himself, his brother, Gov. J. S. Pillsbury, and his two sons, Hon. C. A. Pillsbury and Fred C. Pillsbury,—to-day the largest producers of flour in the world, operating five large flouring-mills with a capacity of seven thousand five hundred barrels per day. The business of this firm, while selling a large amount of flour in the United States, has been gradually directed to the European trade, supplying the foreign markets with the very best brands of breadstuffs. To-day there is not a European market in which their flour is not sold extensively and given the highest quotations.

Mr. Pillsbury, much against his wishes, has been crowded again into public life in Minnesota, and only a few weeks since, while on a trip to the Pacific coast, in company with President Villard, to look after the interests of the Northern Pacific Railroad, he was elected a member of the city council of Minneapolis. He is also president of the Board of Trade, vice-president of the Northwestern National Bank, president of the Minneapolis Free Dispensary, and president of the Minnesota Baptist State Association.

Despite his years, Mr. Pillsbury has all the activity and impulses of a man of forty. He is a great friend of young men, aiding them not only by advice but in a practical manner, and, without seeking popularity, finding himself beloved by all. In the city of his adoption he has built himself a handsome residence with spacious grounds. His love for his old home manifests itself in all his tastes, and in his residence he has wrought in the beautiful New Hampshire granite brought from his old home in Concord.

In 1841, Mr. Pillsbury married Margaret S. Carleton, a lady beloved by all, who has always busied herself in acts of goodness and benevolence. No one has ever known her but to love her. From this marriage three children were born, two sons and a daughter,—Charles A., born October 3, 1842; Mary Adda, born April 25, 1848; and Fred C., born August 27, 1852. Mary Adda died May 11, 1849. Charles A. graduated at Dartmouth College in 1863; has been an active and successful business man in Minneapolis for the past twelve years, for the last four years has been a member of the state senate, and is a man greatly respected by all. Fred C. is a practical business man, possessed of sound judgment, and is rapidly making his way in the world.

It is needless to speak of the qualities which have given a gentleman like George A. Pillsbury the position and influence of which we have spoken. They are apparent to all. Starting with integrity and great strength of purpose, possessed of a keen perception, a shrewd judge of men, and an impressive bearing, he has attained an eminence which all may admire. Well may New Hampshire point with pride to such a man.

Josiah Carpenter

JOSIAH CARPENTER ESQ.

BY H. H. METCALF.

The men who make and whose lives illustrate the material prosperity and progress of a nation or people are those, as a rule, whose life and labor have been devoted in the main to the financial, commercial, and business interests of the country. Politicians, stump-orators, and office-holders of long continuance in place and power, may attain greater celebrity or a wider transient popularity, and move more effectually for the time being the tide of public sentiment; yet the influence which moves the deep and silent yet strong and resistless currents which make for the substantial progress and development of the race, is that which is exercised by the active, energetic, and persistent man of business, whose ready and thorough conception of the demands of industry, trade, and finance, and whose prompt action at their behest, make him not only the master of his own fortune, but, to a great extent, that of others. Of this class of men the subject of this sketch is a prominent representative in this state.

Josiah Carpenter was born in the town of Chichester, May 31, 1829. His ancestry goes back in direct line to William Carpenter, who in the year 1638, at the age of sixty-two years, embarked with his son William, aged thirty-three, and his wife, Abigail, and their four children, for America, sailing in the ship "Bevis," from the port of Southampton, England, and making their home at Weymouth, Mass. From Joseph, one of the four children named, the line of descent runs through Benjamin, born January 15, 1657, John, born March 25, 1691, and John, born January 4, 1728, to Josiah, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, and for whom he was named. The senior Josiah Carpenter was born in Stafford, Conn., October 6, 1762, being one of a family of five sons and two daughters. Himself and three of his brothers served in the patriot army in the war of the Revolution, one of the brothers being killed while on sentinel duty at Roxbury Neck. He graduated with the highest honors from Dartmouth College in the class of 1787, studied for the ministry, and, November 2, 1791, was ordained and installed pastor of the First Congregational church in Chichester, which pastorate he retained for a period of nearly forty years, establishing and maintaining a reputation for geniality, benevolence, and hospitality which gained for him the affectionate regard and esteem of his people. Throughout his entire career as a citizen and a minister of the gospel, he labored earnestly and diligently to advance every undertaking which had for its object the public good, or the advancement of the cause of religious truth, as he understood it. He married, April 13, 1790, Hannah Morrill, of Canterbury; and their children were Nancy, David Morrill, John Thurston, Clarissa, Hannah, and Oliver, none of whom are now living.

The second child—David Morrill Carpenter—was born in Chichester, November 16, 1793, and, after receiving a good academic education, commenced active life in his native town in the capacity of a country merchant, which business he followed with much success for many years; but subsequently turned his attention to agriculture, becoming the owner of an extensive farm, which he cultivated for several years in a most successful manner. Notwithstanding the constant demands of his private occupation, which, as his success demonstrated, were never neglected, a great portion of his time during the period of his active life was always claimed by the public duties imposed by his fellow-citizens. Almost continually for twenty-five years he held one or more town offices, being several years chosen as the representative of his town in the state legislature, the duties of which position he discharged with ability and fidelity. He served as a member of the board of commissioners for Merrimack county, and was also, for more than thirty years, one of the trustees of the Merrimack County Savings Bank of Concord; he was also for a long time a director of the Mechanics Bank of that city; and was almost invariably in attendance upon the weekly meetings of the boards of the respective institutions. January 13, 1818, he was united in marriage with Mary, daughter of Jonathan Chesley Perkins, of Wells, Maine, who married Hannah Dennett, of Portsmouth, December 6, 1787, and shortly removed with his young wife to the town of Loudon in this state, adjoining Chichester, which was then almost a wilderness, where he cleared up a large farm, became a prosperous and influential citizen of the town, and reared a family of six children, of whom Mary, above mentioned, was the fourth. The children of David M. and Mary (Perkins) Carpenter were Charles H., Josiah, the subject of this sketch, Clara A., Sarah L., and Frank P., besides two daughters, who died in early life. In 1850, Mr. Carpenter removed to the town of Epsom, where he purchased a large farm, in the management of which his son Josiah was associated with him, upon which he remained until he retired from active business, in 1858, in which year he removed to Concord, where he resided until his death, December 9, 1873, seven years subsequent to the death of his wife, who departed this life, November 4, 1866, at the age of sixty-eight years. A man of wide influence, universally exerted for good, he lived beloved and died respected. He had been a soldier in the war of 1812, enlisting at the outbreak of hostilities, although but a boy at the time; yet, like his father, who had served in the Revolution, he would never accept from the government the pension to which he was legally entitled.

Charles H., the eldest son and child of David M. Carpenter, resides in the town of Chichester, where he has always had his residence, and where he has won a reputation, not only as one of the successful farmers, but most prominent citizens, of the town and of the county. His farming property embraces more than a thousand acres of land. He is also quite extensively engaged as a dealer in real estate and lumber. Clara A., the eldest surviving daughter, is the wife of Samuel C. Merrill, a prosperous flour manufacturer and flour and grain dealer, of Paterson, N. J., formerly a well known wholesale merchant of Manchester. Sarah L. married Prof. James W. Webster, of Maiden, Mass., a teacher of experience and ability, now and for many years past principal of the Hancock school, Boston, formerly a successful teacher in Concord. Frank P., the youngest son, is a member of the enterprising and well known firm of Drake & Carpenter of Manchester, who are extensively engaged in the wholesale flour and grain trade.

The subject of this sketch,—Josiah, the second son of David Morrill Carpenter,—although engaged to some extent in boyhood in assisting his father upon the farm, secured an academical education at Pembroke and Pittsfield academies, and at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary at Sanbornton Bridge (now Tilton). Very early in life he manifested an aptitude for business, and engaged for some time in youth in the purchase and sale of live stock, not only in this section but at the Southwest. Returning home from Kentucky about the time his father removed to Epsom, he engaged with him in extensive farming operations in that town. He received, soon after, an appointment as deputy-sheriff for the county of Merrimack, and also for the counties of Belknap and Hillsborough, which position he held for several years, and in which he transacted a large amount of business. For three or four years previous to his father's removal to Concord, the entire management of the farm was substantially in his hands, which, together with his official business and individual enterprises in different directions, gave ample scope for his energy and capacity.

In 1858 the farm in Epsom was sold, and, his father having removed to Concord, Mr. Carpenter, in April of that year, established his residence in the town of Pittsfield, having been tendered and accepted the cashiership of the Pittsfield bank. He discharged the duties of that position so satisfactorily that upon its conversion to a national bank, in 1864, he was continued as cashier and also made a member of the board of directors. He continued his residence in Pittsfield until the spring of 1877, remaining all the while in management of the bank's affairs, while at the same time engaging in various lines of business in his own behalf. Nor did he fail to devote attention to public affairs. Never a politician, but always a stanch Democrat, he took no little interest in the success of his party, as well as the welfare of the town and community. He was frequently intrusted with official responsibilities by his fellow-citizens of Pittsfield, and represented them in the legislature in 1862 and 1863.

In the fall of 1863, his health having become impaired from overwork, he went South to spend the winter, upon the advice of his physicians, going first to New Orleans, whence he made a trip up the river, where he had a fine opportunity for viewing the operations of the army in that quarter, the time being soon after Gen. Butler's occupancy of the city. Later in the season he visited Cuba, where he remained some time, returning in the spring greatly invigorated, and with improved general health. He was elected treasurer of Merrimack county in 1872, and again the following year, receiving at each election a support considerably in excess of his party vote. Long prominent in the councils of his party in his section of the state, he has served also, at different times, as a member of the Democratic state committee.

In March, 1877, desiring a more extensive field of business operation, Mr. Carpenter resigned his position as cashier of the Pittsfield National Bank and removed to the city of Manchester, where, with characteristic vigor and enterprise, he immediately set about the work of procuring a charter for and organizing the Second National Bank of Manchester, of which institution he has been a director and cashier since its organization. The national bank being well established, he assisted in securing a charter for and organizing the Mechanics Savings Bank, of which he has been from the first a trustee and the treasurer. Both these institutions, under his skillful supervision, have attained a prosperous and flourishing condition. Aside from his general banking operations, he has in Manchester, as elsewhere, dealt extensively in notes, bonds, and real estate, and has been, for the past few years, quite largely engaged in building. In company with ex-Gov. Smyth, he is proprietor of Smyth and Carpenter's block, on Elm street, the northern half of which has recently been completed. This block is four stories high and basement; has a frontage, on Elm street, of two hundred feet, a depth of one hundred feet; contains ten stores on the first floor, with offices and tenements above; and is, beyond question, the largest brick block in the state in the ownership of any single firm.

Mr. Carpenter has always manifested an interest in educational affairs, and has been specially interested in the establishment and prosperity of the Holderness School for Boys, located at Holderness in this state, under the auspices of the Episcopalian denomination, with which he is associated. He has been one of the trustees of this school from the inception of the enterprise, and is also the treasurer. He devoted much time and personal care to the work of remodeling the buildings at the outset, and, since then, to their enlargement as the growth and success of the school has demanded.

September 1, 1858, Mr. Carpenter was united in marriage with Georgianna Butters Drake, born January 15, 1836, a lady of fine mental capacity and attainments, endowed with the graces and virtues essential to true womanhood, and at home alike in the social as well as the domestic circle. She was the only daughter and eldest child of the late Col. James Drake of Pittsfield, a prominent citizen of that town, well known in public life, who filled various responsible offices, including that of state senator, and who died April 7, 1870. He was a descendant of the celebrated Sir Francis Drake, the English explorer and naval commander who was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, and attained the rank of vice-admiral of the British navy. The family were among the earliest settlers of New England, and trace their ancestry more than six hundred years. The elder brother of Mrs. Carpenter—Frank J. Drake—is the partner of Mr. Carpenter's younger brother—Frank P.—in the firm of Drake & Carpenter, heretofore mentioned, while her younger brother—Nathaniel S.—is in business at Pittsfield.

Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter,—-a daughter, Georgia Ella, born October 13, 1859, an accomplished young lady who resides with her parents, and a son who died in infancy. Their residence is a fine brick mansion, among the most substantial in the city, on north Elm street, at the corner of Sagamore.

Mr. Carpenter is now in the prime of life, though his business career has already been more extended and successful than that of most men of similar vocation who have been engaged a lifetime therein. Filling various positions of trust and responsibility, public and corporate, with the greatest acceptability; of sound judgment, strong will, quick perception and a practical, well balanced mind, and unquestioned integrity of action; enjoying the general confidence of the public, and in a special degree that of those persons obliged or accustomed to seek advice or assistance from others, in matters of business,—his success may indeed be regarded as far greater than that of those ordinarily known as fortunate business men, while there yet remains, in the ordinary course of life, ample time for farther successes and greater achievements.

Chas. Williams

HON. CHARLES WILLIAMS.

BY O. C. MOORE.

It has long seemed to the writer that the successful organizer of modern industry deserved a high place in public estimation. The qualities usually found in such a person constitute as rare a combination as can be found in any department of human activity. Those qualities are industry, probity, intelligence, judgment, and executive ability. These virtues will always be found to lie at the foundation of a well ordered and prosperous state. When to these are added enterprise and energy, there is little wanting either to the successful individual or to the growing community. It is to this class of men that New England owes much of its pre-eminence to-day. What the pioneer settlers did to smooth the path for their successors; what the forefathers of the Revolution contributed to establish a new government and place it upon a self-supporting basis,—the men who established the industrial enterprises of New England have done for their posterity and the perpetuity of republican institutions. If New England should be stripped to-morrow of her mills, shops, and foundries, and the wealth and institutions that they in turn have created, New England would be but little more than an obscure and unenterprising hill country, with a diminishing population and lessening influence. She would have a noble and inspiring history, but her glory would be departed.

Hon. Charles Williams, the subject of this sketch, belongs to the untitled American nobility of organizers of industry. He comes of an old industrial stock, and can trace his lineage back, through six generations of workers, to a stalwart ancestor in old Wales. The Williamses formed a large part of the population of Wales, "somewhat like the O's of Ireland and the Mac's of Scotland." It is an interesting fact that the ancestor of Oliver Cromwell, in the fourth remove, was a Williams, known as Morgan ap Williams, of Glamorganshire, Wales, a gentleman of property, who married a sister of Lord Thomas Cromwell, afterwards Earl of Essex. Carlyle speaks of the Protector as "Cromwell alias Williams." The "Encyclopedia Americana" states positively that the genealogy of Cromwell is traced to Richard Williams, who assumed the name of Cromwell from his maternal uncle, Thomas Cromwell, secretary of state to Henry VIII.

However this may be, Richard Williams, the sixth remove in a direct line from the subject of this sketch, came to America from Glamorganshire, Wales, in 1632, and settled in Taunton, Mass. Among his descendants were Hon. John Mason Williams, a distinguished jurist of Massachusetts; Gen. Seth Williams, of Augusta, Me., a graduate of West Point, and a distinguished officer in the Mexican war; Hon. Ruel Williams, of Augusta, Me.; and Hon. Lemuel Williams, a member of congress from Massachusetts. It is a coincidence of note that the occupation of the subject of this sketch, as well as that of his lineal descendants, follows the distinctive characteristic of the Welch ancestry. Glamorganshire is famous for its iron and coal mines, and its iron-works are on the most extensive scale, it having sixty blast furnaces, some of which give employment to six thousand men.

The direct descent from Richard Williams of Taunton is as follows: Benjamin Williams, settled in Easton, Mass.; Josiah Williams, settled at Bridgewater, Mass. Seth Williams, the great-grandfather of Mr. Williams, was born at Bridgewater, May 21, 1722. At the age of eighteen he went to Easton, Mass., and took up one thousand acres of government land. He married Susannah Forbes, of Bridgewater, and built the homestead now standing in Easton. Edward Williams, his son, married Sarah Lothrop, of Bridgewater, in 1772, still retaining the "homestead," where Lieut. Seth Williams, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born January 29, 1776. He was a tanner by trade, and took part in the war of 1812. He married Sarah Mitchael, daughter of Colonel Mitchael, of Bridgewater, Mass., an active man in the Revolutionary war, and for many years a member of the legislature from Easton. They were married in 1800, and lived near the "homestead." They had eight children, Charles, the present subject, being the third son, born at Easton, August 1, 1816.

The first seventeen years of his life were spent on the farm, receiving such rudimentary education as could be obtained at a district school. At the age of eighteen he apprenticed himself to Gen. Shepherd Leach, proprietor of the "Easton Iron-Works," for the term of four years, to learn the foundry business, with a compensation of twenty-five dollars for the first year, fifty dollars for the second, seventy-five dollars for the third, and one hundred and twenty-five dollars for the fourth. By the death of Gen. Leach the contract was surrendered; but young Williams still continued in the employ of his successor, Mr. Lincoln Drake, until the panic of 1837. In this stagnation of business at the East, he determined to go West, and purchased several hundred acres of land near Springfield, Ill. The now flourishing capital of the state was then represented by a few dwelling-houses, one church, and a small hotel. This "New West" could then boast of no railroads, and the difficulty of getting produce to market, which was mainly by flat-boats down the Mississippi, offered but little attraction to farming, and he returned East. For two years he was employed in the foundry at North Chelmsford, Mass., and the subsequent three years in the Amoskeag foundry at Manchester, N. H.

Mr. Williams came to Nashua in 1845, at the age of twenty-nine, endowed with good health, correct habits, and an honorable ambition. In company with his elder brother, Seth, they established the foundry business, under the firm name of S. & C. Williams, erecting a building eighty by one hundred feet, and the business commenced. It was in the same year that two other important and still flourishing industries were begun in Nashua,—the manufacture of shuttles and bobbins by J. & E. Baldwin, and the manufacture of mortise-locks and doorknobs by L. W. Noyes and David Baldwin. This was the day of small beginnings, and only twenty-five hands were employed in the foundry for several years. The business grew steadily, however, and everything seemed propitious. On the second of July, 1849, a fire broke out in the works, and, in spite of all exertions, the entire property was consumed, including all the patterns. The total loss was estimated at forty thousand dollars. It was a staggering blow, as these young men had no insurance. Men of less courage and energy would have succumbed to such a misfortune; but on the very day of the fire the work of rebuilding was begun, and pushed with rapidity, a brick structure taking the place of the wood one destroyed. The partnership of S. & C. Williams was dissolved in 1859, and the business has since been continued by Charles. His brother Seth has been extensively employed in similar business. The business of the Williams foundry in Nashua has steadily increased, and was never more extensive than to-day. The pay-roll shows one hundred and twenty-five hands employed.

Strict attention to business, unyielding integrity, and thorough mastery of his calling have been Mr. Williams's secret of success. He was one of five who organized the Second National Bank, and has since held the position of vice-president of the bank. Mr. Williams was elected a member of the common council soon after the organization of the city, in 1853, but from that time until 1876 he neither sought nor held any political office. In this centennial year, however, his party turned instinctively towards him as its most available candidate for mayor, and at the nominating caucus he received an almost unanimous nomination. The nomination was ratified, and Mr. Williams became the centennial mayor of Nashua. His administration was characterized by the same prudence, fidelity, and success that have crowned his business career. He was nominated for re-election, and the nomination was ratified at the polls by an increased vote and a largely increased majority. One of the social events of Mr. Williams's term of service was the visit of President Hayes and his cabinet to the city, and at the mayor's residence, which was elaborately decorated for the occasion, Mrs. Hayes held a public reception, which was attended by a great throng of people from the city and the surrounding towns.

In his domestic relations Mr. Williams has been one of the most fortunate and happiest of men. In 1846 he married Eliza A. Weston, a cultivated christian woman, and a devoted wife and mother, daughter of Capt. Sutheric Weston, of Antrim, N. H.; both are members of the First Congregational church, Nashua, Rev. Frederick Alvord, pastor. Three children have blessed the union. Seth Weston Williams, born April 15, 1849, a graduate of Yale College, class of 1873, and of Bellevue Medical College, New York. After travel and study in Europe he returned to his native land, and had just entered on the practice of his profession, with the brightest prospects of usefulness and eminence, holding a responsible appointment in Bellevue Hospital, when, on a visit to Portland, he was attacked with congestion of the brain, which terminated his promising career at the age of thirty. The other children are Charles Alden Williams, born August 18, 1851, married October 26, 1881, Kate N. Piper; he was graduated from the scientific department at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., under Dr. William Taylor, in 1870, and further pursued the same course of study at the school of Technology in Boston, Mass., and will succeed his father in business; and Mrs. Marian Williams-Viets, born March 4, 1854, married, November 8, 1878, Herbert Allen Viets, of Troy, New York.

Feeling in himself the want of an early education, Mr. Williams spared no pains in bestowing superior advantages upon his children, all of whom received a liberal education. In 1873 he planned a year's travel abroad with his family, but the critical condition of business in the country at that time prevented his leaving home. The plan was carried out, however, under the care of Dr. Seth Williams, the trip covering the tour of the Continent, and of the Orient as far east as Damascus.

HON. LEVI WINTER BARTON.

BY REV. J. W. ADAMS.

Ancestral excellence is an invaluable legacy. As a rule, "blood will tell," and the marked physical, mental, and moral traits of a prominent family are likely to re-appear in many successive generations. And, added to this hereditary wealth, comes the inspiration of a noble example, suggesting the possibility and the desirability of worthy, helpful living. The subject of this sketch was fortunate in this regard. In the garnered wealth of a vigorous, talented, and virtuous ancestry, he has "a goodly heritage."

From an abundance of reliable data, we extract only so much from the genealogical record as is necessary to the integrity of the direct lines from a very distant past to the present.

Levi W. Barton's parents were Bezaleel Barton, 2d, and Hannah (Powers) Barton. Let us glance at the maternal ancestry.

The family of Power (or Le Poer, as formerly written) was of Norman extraction, and settled in England at the conquest of that kingdom by the Normans, under William, duke of Normandy, in the person of Power, or Le Poer, who is recorded in "Battle Abbey" as one of the commanders at the battle of Hastings, in 1066. Soon after, Sir John Le Poer resided in Poershayse, Devonshire, England.

In 1172, one of his descendants, Sir Roger Le Poer, went with Earl Stougbon in his invasion and partial conquest of Ireland, where he greatly distinguished himself, and received large grants of land. He was the ancestor of a succession of distinguished men, among whom were Sir Nicholas Le Poer, who had a summons to parliament, in 1375, as Baron Le Poer, and Sir Richard, Sir Peter, Sir Eustace, and Sir Arnold Le Poer. The barony, descending by writ to heirs, female as well as male, is now held by the Marquis of Waterford. The Earl of Lynn, for a term of one hundred years, and the Marquis of Waterford, were of that descent, through Lady Catharine Poer. The family was also a distinguished one in England, from the Norman conquest down. In 1187, Richard Poer of this line, high sheriff of Gloucestershire, Eng., was killed defending the "Lord's Day;" and Sir Henry Le Poer distinguished himself greatly as a commander under the Duke of Wellington. This remarkable family has outlived the dynasties of the Conqueror, the Plantaganets, the Tudors, and the Stuarts, and flourishes yet. Since the time of Queen Elizabeth, they have returned to their early orthography of Power; and finally, in America, have added the "s," making it Powers.

Walter Powers, the ancestor of all the Powers families of Croydon, N. H., was born in 1639. He came to Salem, Mass., in 1654. He married, January 11, 1660, Trial, daughter of Deacon Ralph Shepherd. They moved to Nashoba, and he died there in 1708. The town, in 1715, was incorporated by the name of Littleton (Mass.).

L. W. Barton

Of the nine children of Walter and Trial Powers, the eldest, William, was born in 1661, and married, 1688, Mary Bank.

Of the nine children of William and Mary (Bank) Powers, William, 2d, was b. 1691, in Nashoba, and m., 1713, Lydia Perham.

Of the four children of William, 2d, and Lydia (Perham) Powers, Lemuel was b. in 1714, and m. Thankful Leland, of Grafton, Mass., daughter of Capt. James Leland. All except the eldest of their children settled in Croydon. N. H.; and two of his sons served Croydon as soldiers in the Revolution. Although not an "original grantee of Croydon," he owned "proprietors' rights" at an early day, and often attended "proprietors'" meetings at the inn of his brother-in-law, Lieut. Phinehas Leland, as moderator. He died in Northbridge, Mass., 1792.

Of the ten children of Lieut. Lemuel and Thankful (Leland) Powers, Ezekiel was b. in Grafton, Mass., March 16, 1745, and m., Jan. 28, 1767, Hannah Hall of Uxbridge, Mass., who was daughter of Lieut. Edward and Lydia (Brown) Hall. Levi W. Barton was her great-grandson. They came to Croydon in 1767. He was a prominent citizen, and held here many offices of trust. He was a man of industry and indomitable energy. He d. in Croydon, Nov. 11, 1808. His widow d. Oct. 21, 1835.

Of the seven children of Ezekiel and Hannah (Hall) Powers, Ezekiel, 2d (the first male child born in Croydon), was b. May 2, 1771. He m. Susannah Rice, Jan. 18, 1790.

Of the six children of Ezekiel, 2d, and Susannah (Rice) Powers, Hannah (mother of Levi W.) was b. Feb. 20, 1795, and m. Bezaleel Barton.

Edward Hall (the earliest ancestor of Lieut. Edward Hall, who settled in Croydon about 1774) was at Duxbury, Mass., in 1637, and d. at Rehoboth, Nov. 27, 1671. The direct line by generations is: 1st, Edward; 2d, Benjamin; 3d, Edward; 4th, Lieut. Edward, b. in Wrentham, Mass., July 18, 1727; went with his father in 1740 to Uxbridge, where he held commissions under the king of Great Britain. He m., Aug. 17, 1747, Lydia Brown. About 1774 they came to Croydon, N. H., where he was moderator, March, 1775, tax-collector and constable, 1778, and selectman, 1784, 1785, and 1786. He d. in Croydon, Dec. 28, 1807. His widow d. Aug. 10, 1819. 5th, Hannah, b. Oct. 1, 1749, who m. Ezekiel Powers and settled in Croydon. At this point the Hall unites with the Powers genealogy, and the last-named persons were great-grandparents of Levi W. Barton.

The Bartons are of English descent. Without undertaking to be precise as to the details of kinship, we are able to identify the following as among their earliest ancestry in New England. Marmaduke Barton was in Salem, Mass., as early as 1638. Edward was in Salem in 1640. Rufus fled from the persecution of the Dutch at Manhattan, N. Y., and settled in Portsmouth, R. I., in 1640, and died 1648.

Mrs. Eliza Barton testified in an important case at Piscataqua, N. H., in 1656. Edward, undoubtedly the one living in Salem in 1640, and husband of Eliza Barton, came to Exeter, N. H., in 1657, and died at Cape Porpoise, Jan., 1671. Benjamin Barton of Warwick, son of Rufus Barton, m., June 9, 1669, Susannah Everton. Edward Barton, son of Edward of Exeter, took the freeman's oath in 1674. Doctor John Barton (probably son of Doctor James Barton) m., April 20, 1676, Lydia Roberts of Salem, Mass.

James Barton, b. in 1643, came to Boston, Mass., before 1670. He d. in Weston, Mass., in 1729. Samuel Barton (probably son of Doctor James Barton) was b. in 1666. He testified in a witch case (in favor of the witch, be it said to his credit) in Salem, Mass., in 1691. Stephen Barton was at Bristol (then in Mass.) in 1690. Col. William Barton, b. in Providence, in 1747,—who with a small body of men crossed Narragansett bay on the night of July 20, 1777, passed, unnoticed, three British vessels, landed, reached the quarters of the English general, Prescott, and captured him, and for which, history informs us, he received from congress the gift of a sword, a commission as colonel, and a tract of land in Vermont,—was a descendant of Samuel Barton and Hannah his wife, ancestors of the Bartons of Croydon. They were living in Framingham, Mass., as early as 1690, and moved to Oxford, Mass., in 1716, where his will was proved Sept. 23, 1738. Of their eight children, Samuel was b. in Framingham, Oct. 8, 1691; and in., May 23, 1715, Elizabeth Bellows.

Of the children of Samuel and Elizabeth (Bellows) Barton, Bezaleel was b. July 20, 1722, and m., April 30, 1747, Phebe Carlton, a lady noted for her beauty.

Of the children of Bezaleel and Phebe (Carlton) Barton, were Phebe (one of whose grand-daughters was the wife of Dr. Judson), Bezaleel, Benjamin, and Peter who was b. at Sutton. Mass., Sept. 3, 1763, and went with his parents to Royalston. Mass., in 1764, where he m. Hepsibeth Baker, Nov. 12, 1789. Bezaleel Barton and his sons, Bezaleel, Benjamin, and Peter, served Royalston as soldiers in the Revolution. Bezaleel, senior, was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill.

Peter and Hepsibeth (Baker) Barton came to Croydon, N. H., in 1793, where he resided until 1824, when he removed to Sunapee, where he d. Sept. 24, 1825. He was chosen selectman of Croydon from 1801 to 1805, inclusive. He shared largely the confidence of the public, and was noted for his strict integrity. Of his thirteen children born in Croydon, Bezaleel, 2d, was b. July, 1794, and m. Hannah Powers, daughter of Ezekiel Powers, at which point the Barton and Powers genealogies unite.

Of the children of Bezaleel Barton, 2d, and Hannah (Powers) Barton, Levi Winter was b. March 1, 1818.

The father, a man of marked social qualities, and frank and genial in his bearing, died before the son had reached his majority, and previous to this business had taken the father from home, so that most of the responsibilities of the family rested upon the mother. But it is no idle pun upon her maiden name to say that she was a power in that household. She exercised a healthful and unchallenged discipline. Her intuitive vision saw every material necessity of the family; her unsurpassed executive capacity was equal to every demand; and, what is quite as essential to the formation of a symmetrical character, her moral and religious precepts and example compelled a recognition of the claims of God and man. The sick and the poor of her neighborhood were often greatly indebted to her for the wisdom of her counsels, the abundance of her alms-deeds, and the warmth of her sympathy. Universally venerated and esteemed, she died in Croydon, Sept. 14, 1881, aged 86 years.

Inheriting the best qualities of such an ancestry, molded and inspired by such a mother, and in boyhood acquiring his fiber in the severe but practical school of tireless industry, rigid economy, and heroic self-denial and self-reliance, we might anticipate for Mr. Barton a character and a career which would place him among the best and foremost citizens of his state, and entitle him to an important chapter in its history. We hazard nothing when we say that he has made that anticipation a reality, and that he has afforded us another conspicuous example of what the humblest may achieve under the fostering genius of republican institutions.

His district-school education, often interrupted by demands upon his manual labor, consisted of ten brief winter terms. At eighteen he assumed the responsibility of his own education and support. He had no money, but he had what is better, courage and muscle. He went to work. His books were always near by, so that, whenever there was a leisure moment, "the horny hands of toil" would grasp and his hungry mind would feast upon them. He would brook no discouragements. No hours were allowed to run to waste. Often on rainy days he would call on his old friend, John Cooper, Esq., to receive instruction. These efforts, supplemented by a term under Dr. Miner of Boston, qualified him to teach in the common schools. But for awile he devoted himself chiefly to farming.

At twenty-one he married Miss Mary A. Pike, one of Newport's worthiest young ladies. She died the next year, leaving an infant son, Col. Ira McL. Barton, now deceased. The death of his wife was a severe blow to one in whose nature the domestic element is so marked. With the light of his home gone out, and with his life-plan destroyed, he seemed almost paralyzed for a time. But the bent steel of his intense personality was sure to react. The second year after this bereavement he entered Kimball Union Academy, to pursue a classical course under that distinguished teacher, Dr. Cyrus Richards. Having but one hundred dollars when he entered, he was compelled to teach winters and to toil with his hands during the summer vacations; but his uncompromising zeal carried him successfully through the three years' course. We cannot repress our admiration for the young man whom neither bereavement nor poverty could crush, but who, in spite of the most disheartening circumstances, earns the right to stand in the front rank with his most brilliant competitors. This he did.

In the same spirit, and still relying upon his own exertions for means, he entered Dartmouth College in 1844, and honorably graduated in 1848. His oration, on graduation, was highly commended by the public journals of the day. At the commencement and close of the terms, he would make the journeys to and from college, twenty-one miles, on foot. During his senior year he studied law with Hon. Daniel Blaisdell of Hanover.

After graduating, Mr. Barton taught five terms in the Canaan Academy, and at the same time was a law student with Judge Kittredge. During this period he was appointed postmaster of Canaan. In the early part of 1851 he left Canaan, and completed his legal studies with Messrs. Metcalf & Corbin of Newport, and was there admitted to the bar in the July following. In 1854 he formed a law partnership with Hon. Ralph Metcalf, which continued until Mr. Metcalf was elected governor. He then became the law partner of Shepherd L. Bowers, Esq., with whom he was associated until 1859. Notwithstanding his extensive law practice, Mr. Barton has been engaged, to a considerable extent, in building, farming, stock-raising, and fruit-growing. No man with equal means has contributed more to the growth and permanent improvement of the village of Newport. None Have done more by their own personal industry to convert rough fields into attractive streets, luxuriant gardens, and pleasant homes. Taught from childhood to cultivate the soil, he has, all along through his busy life, found his highest enjoyment in turning aside from the turmoil of professional labors to the more genial occupation of agricultural pursuits.

As evidence of his superior legal abilities, and of the public esteem in which he is held, we point to the following record: He was register of deeds for Sullivan county from 1855 to 1857, inclusive; county solicitor from 1859 to 1864; representative to the state legislature in 1863, 1864, 1875, 1876, and 1877; and state senator in 1867 and 1868. During all these seven years of service in both houses, he was a member of the judiciary committee, and for five years its chairman. In 1866 he was chairman of the board of commissioners appointed to audit the war debt of the state. In 1876 he was a member of the convention which revised the state constitution; and was chosen Republican elector of president and vice-president of the United States. Gov. Harriman appointed him bank commissioner, but he declined the office. Gov. Prescott appointed him, in 1877, one of the commissioners to revise and codify the statutes of New Hampshire.

His many friends have fondly hoped to see him elected to congress. It is conceded that his abilities and his fidelity to important public trusts reveal his eminent fitness for such a position. But local divisions, for which he is in no way responsible, have thus far prevented his nomination. His name has come twice before the nominating conventions, and each time with a very flattering vote.

When Mr. Barton commenced the practice of law in Newport, he found there able rivals for the honors of the profession, whose reputations were well established. I cannot better express the truth than to use the language of a writer who, speaking of this period of his life, says:—

"The field seemed to be fully and ably occupied, but from the outset his success was assured. It immediately became apparent that he would bring to the discharge of the duties of his new position the same energy and devotion to principle which had hitherto characterized his actions. From that time to the present, he has enjoyed the confidence of the public. As counselor, he is cautious and careful, dissuading from, rather than urging on, litigation. As an advocate, he is eloquent, zealous, bold, and persistent. His faithfulness and devotion to the interests of his clients have often been a subject of remark."

Mr. Barton's legislative experience began in 1863, that intensely feverish period of the rebellion. The Democratic party was represented by its ablest orators and most skillful parliamentarians. They were artful, bitter, and desperate. The majority could not afford to waste or misapply its resources. Competent leadership was essential to the utilization of the Republican strength. Fortunately this was found. It came from the ranks of the "raw recruits." Wary and watchful, alert and forcible, Mr. Barton promptly and successfully met the assaults of the opposition, and sometimes "carried the war into Africa." The house soon acknowledged his leadership,—a leadership which he maintained at the subsequent sessions. The soldiers will never forget his fearless advocacy of the measure allowing them to vote in the field. This cost him his re-appointment as solicitor; but he was not the man to sacrifice so sacred a principle for the loaves and fishes of office. In 1875 and 1876 he occupied the responsible position of chairman of the Republican legislative caucus. In the sessions of 1876 and 1877, the Manchester Mirror, Independent Stateman, and other papers spoke in the highest terms of his service, giving him the credit of punctual attendance, praiseworthy diligence, and of ably championing the best measures that were enacted, and pointing him out as a probable candidate for the national congress. His long and able legislative experience has never been stained by political corruption, or by the betrayal of any moral question. John Cooper, Esq., in the Granite Monthly of May, 1879, has truthfully said: "Through all these years of political life he presents a record without a blemish."

Mr. Barton is a man of well proportioned, commanding physique, and is well preserved by temperate living and total abstinence from all intoxicants and narcotics. He is also a man of fluent and agreeable speech, of fine conversational powers, and is the inspiration of every social circle which he enters. At home as well as abroad, in private as well as in public life, he is the invariable advocate of every moral and social reform. He is an honor to the Masonic fraternity, whose principles he worthily represents. He is the warm and helpful friend of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which he belongs; but he has an unaffected contempt for all sectarian narrowness. His sense of justice is intuitive, his sympathy quick, and in its exercise he regards neither state nor condition. The destitute and forsaken always find in him a true friend. From boyhood he has been an avowed and uncompromising opposer of slavery, and of whatever oppresses the masses, whether white or black. If he sometimes asserts and maintains his opinions with earnestness and warmth, he never does so with malice. In the advocacy of what he deems to be just, he is never turned aside by motives of self-interest.

In 1852 he married Miss Lizzie F. Jewett, of Hollis,—a cultured, christian lady. Her amiability, good sense, and force of character render her every way worthy of her distinguished husband. Their "silver wedding" was observed in 1877, and was honored by a large circle of friends. Besides other tokens of appreciation bestowed at that time, Hon. Edmund Burke presented, in behalf of the donors, an elegant silver service.

Their children are Herbert J., Florence F., Natt L., and Jesse M. The eldest son, Herbert J. Barton, was born September 27, 1853. He prepared for college at Tilton, and graduated at Dartmouth in the class of 1876. He has taught with great success in Providence, R. I., also for two years as principal in the Newport high school, and, still later, as principal in the high school of Waukegan, Ill. In 1881 he was admitted to the bar of Illinois at Chicago, and is now associated in practice with his father. He married, August 21, 1877, Miss Sarah L. Dodge, daughter of Leander F. Dodge of Newport, a very intelligent and worthy young lady. The son has many of the elements which have contributed to the father's success, and we expect his native state will hear from him. Florence F. graduated from the Newport high school in 1881, and is a young lady of fine promise.

In conclusion we remark, Mr. Barton stands well at home. Conscious of his personal integrity and of the worthiness of his aims, his well earned honors clustering thickly upon him, beloved by his family and community, and cheered by the favor of Providence, he may with great propriety congratulate himself that he has not lived in vain. And as his physical and intellectual forces seem not in the least abated, we may fondly hope that his fellow-citizens may for many years to come enjoy the benefits of his practical wisdom and patriotic devotion; and that his posterity may as nobly sustain the name of Barton as he has the names of those from whom he descended.

HON. RODNEY WALLACE.

Rodney Wallace, of Fitchburg, Mass., was born in New Ipswich, N. H., December 21, 1823. He is the son of David and Roxanna Wallace, who spent the latter years of life at Rindge in the same state.

Whether the family is of English or Scotch origin is extremely difficult to decide. If the orthography of the last century is correct, then it is English; if not, Scotch. The point possesses more genealogical than real importance. People are free to change their names as they list, and have always exercised that privilege; and under either garb the name has been borne by noble and distinguished men in the Old World.

The first of this family who came to this country settled in Ipswich, Mass. Benoni Wallis removed from this place to Lunenburg, Mass., and there married, on the 2d of July, 1755, Rebecca Brown, of Lynn. They continued to reside in Lunenburg until her death, August 25, 1790. He died March 15, 1792. David Wallis, son of Benoni, was born October 10, 1760. He married Susannah Conn, and died in Ashburnham, January 14, 1842. David Wallace, son of David and Susannah (Conn) Wallis, was born in Ashburnham, July 14, 1797. He married, July 8, 1821, Roxanna Gowen, of New Ipswich, and removed to Rindge in 1846, where he died May 29, 1857. She died in Fitchburg, February 27, 1876. In the exercise of his own right and discretion, he restored what he doubtless held to be the original spelling of his name, and always wrote it Wallace.

Rodney Wallace, when twelve years of age, went from home to work upon a farm for the sum of forty dollars for the first year, with the privilege of attending school eight weeks in the winter; and from this time until arriving at the age of twenty he worked for wages, attending school from eight to ten weeks in the winter. His education was thus acquired, during the few winter months, in the common country schools of that time. From the age of twenty until his removal to Fitchburg, he was employed and intrusted with business for the late Dr. Stephen Jewett, of Rindge, N. H.

In 1853 he removed to Fitchburg and became a member of the firm of Shepley & Wallace, wholesale dealers in books, stationery, etc., which firm, under this name and the name of R. Wallace & Co., became one of the best known firms in this line of business in New England. After several years of successful management of that business, he withdrew from the firm, engaged in the manufacture of paper, and connected himself with several other manufacturing interests in Fitchburg. In whatever interest Mr. Wallace has been engaged, he has not only been fortunate in its pecuniary issues, but also in the speedy command of the confidence and respect of his associates. True moral principle has been united with unquestioned probity, business tact, and liberal, intelligent management, and he is held in high estimation, both as a citizen and as a friend. His usefulness has been approved by long, earnest, and efficient service; and his liberality, by unostentatious but generous donations to the support of many laudable undertakings.

Rodney Wallace

In 1865, Mr. Wallace entered into the business of manufacturing paper with three other gentlemen, under the name of the Fitchburg Paper Company. One by one these gentlemen sold their respective interests to Mr. Wallace, and in 1868 he became sole owner of the entire property. From that time until the present day he has carried on the business under the old firm name of the Fitchburg Paper Company. He has, since he became sole owner, made large additions of land to the property, rebuilt the original mill and filled it with the most improved machinery, erected a new mill with the latest improvements of every kind, and built additional store-houses, etc., until he has increased the producing capacity from two thousand five hundred pounds per day, to sixteen thousand pounds of hanging, card, and glazing paper per day of twenty-four hours. The mills, the ample store-houses, the out-buildings and dwelling-houses make up a little village, wanting nothing but distance from the city to claim a name of its own.

For the direction of several monetary and corporate interests his services have been frequently sought. He has been president and director of the Fitchburg Gas-Light Company since 1864; a director of the Fitchburg National Bank since 1866; partner in the Fitchburg Woolen Mill Company, with the Hon. Wm. H. Vose and Hon. Rufus S. Frost, since 1867; a director of the Putnam Machine Company since 1864; and has just been chosen director of the Parkhill Manufacturing Company, recently organized for the manufacture of ginghams. For several years he has been a trustee of the Fitchburg Savings Bank, a director of the Fitchburg Mutual Fire Insurance Company, president of the Fitchburg Board of Trade (four years), a director of the Fitchburg Railroad Company, and a trustee of Smith College, Northampton, Mass.

Though thoroughly patriotic and keenly alive to the importance of current issues, the magnitude of the private and corporate interests committed to his care would not permit the alienation of close personal attention from them to political matters, and whatever offices he has held have sought him, instead of his seeking them.

He was a selectman in the years 1864, 1865, and 1867, and a representative to the general court in 1874, but declined a re-election the following year, on account of ill health. He was a member of the governor's council in 1880 and 1881, and has just been re-elected to serve in the same position the present year.

Mr. Wallace was married, on the 1st of December, 1853, to Sophia, youngest daughter of Thomas Ingalls, Esq., of Rindge. She died June 20, 1871, leaving two sons. The eldest, Herbert I., born February 17, 1856, is a graduate of Harvard College, class of 1877; and the younger, George R., obtained his education in the Fitchburg high school, and a two years' special course in the Institute of Technology, Boston. They are both now with their father. Mr. Wallace married, for his second wife, Sophia F. Bailey, of Woodstock, Vt., on the 28th day of December, 1876.

GEN. SIMON G. GRIFFIN.

BY REV. A. B. CRAWFORD.

Gen. Griffin was born in Nelson, N. H., on the 9th of August, 1824. His ancestors, as far back as they can be traced, were prominent men in the communities where they lived, gifted with more than ordinary intellect and force of character.

His grandfather, Samuel Griffin, Esq., came from Methuen, Mass., soon after the Revolutionary war, married a daughter of Rev. Jacob Foster, at that time the settled minister at "Packersfield," now Nelson, and took up his residence in that town. His superior abilities soon brought him forward to fill responsible positions, and for many years he represented the town in the legislature, and held the highest town offices. Both he and the General's maternal grandfather, Nehemiah Wright, were patriot soldiers in the Revolutionary army, and both were present at the battle of Bunker Hill.

His father, Nathan Griffin, was equally gifted with the earlier progenitors of the race; but, losing his health in the prime of his manhood, the care of rearing the family of seven children fell upon the mother. Her maiden name was Sally Wright,—one of the loveliest of her sex, both in person and character,—and the General owes much to her wise counsels and careful training. She died recently, at the age of ninety-four, in the full possession of her mental faculties.