USA > New Hampshire > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of New Hampshire > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01085 8683
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/menofprogressbio00hern_1
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MEN OF PROGRESS
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND PORTRAITS
OF
LEADERS IN BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE
LY AND OF THE
State of New Hampshire
COMPILED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF RICHARD HERNDON
EDITED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE MANCHESTER UNION
BOSTON NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE 1898
COPYRIGHT 1898
BY
RICHARD HERNDON
RUMFORD PRINTING CO., CONCORD.
1220893
MEN OF PROGRESS.
ABBOTT, HENRY, born in Keene, October 5. 1832. was for many years a leading citizen of Win- chester and died in that place February 12, 1898. He was the son of Daniel and Polly (Brown) Ab- bott, and was of the eighth generation from George Abbott of Andover, Massachusetts. He attended the common schools of Surry. the Academy at Mar- low, and Mt. Cæsar Academy at Swanzey. At the age of eighteen he went South as the agent of a New York publishing house. For a year he taught in Warsaw. Pennsylvania, and for two years more was employed by a large lumber company at Ridge- way in that state. Returning to Keene. he engaged in business as a clerk and later as a member of the firm of Nims, Gates & Abbott. Selling out his in- terest, he spent a year in travel, returning to Keene and again entering business. In 1863, he went to Washington, becoming a clerk of the United States Sanitary Commission. He was sent as sanitary agent, in the spring of 1864, with the Burnside Corps in General Grant's campaign from the Rapi- dan to Petersburg, and was present at the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania. North Anna, and Cold Harbor. Illness compelled him to return home. It was his intention to return to the front, but while he was convalescing, he was elected Cashier of the Winchester State Bank, which in March, 1865, was changed to a National Bank. Mr. Abbott remaining its Cashier until his death. From 1865 he held the office of Town Treasurer. For eleven years in suc- cession he was Moderator. A zealous Republican. he served as Chairman of the Executive Committee, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1890. and attended many county and state conven- tions. In 1869 and 1870 he represented Winches- ter in the Legislature. During his first term he was chairman of a special committee to examine state prisons, and was a prominent member of the Com- mittee on Railroads. In his second year he was Chairman of the first Insurance Committee formed in the House. When he was a member of the State
Senate in 1873 and 1874, he served on the Commit- tee on Banking and Finance and on the Judiciary. He was a tireless worker, and aided largely in se- curing the passage of a number of important meas- ures. among them several dealing with banking and insurance. As an orator, Mr. Abbott took a leading place in the state, both in stump speaking and in the delivery of more formal addresses. When, in 1894,
HENRY ABBOTT.
the descendants of Captain Thomas Harvey, an officer in the Revolutionary Army, dedicated a mon- ument in Surry to his memory, Mr. Abbott, himself one of the descendants, delivered the address, pay- ing eloquent tribute to the soldier and pioneer. He was always foremost in promoting the welfare of his town, and the Winchester Library, built at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars, was erected largely through his efforts. He was a Mason, a member of Philesian
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
ANTHOINE, ISAIAH GILMAN, Physician and Surgeon, Nashua, was born in Windham, Maine, March 25, 1846, son of John and Mary A. (Gil- man) Anthoine. He received his early educa- tion in the High School at Windham Centre and Kent's Hill and North Bridgton Academies, and prepared for college at Westbrook Seminary, gradu- ating from the seminary in 1868. He was a mem- ber of the class of 1872 in Dartmouth College up to his Junior year. In 1866 he had begun the study of medicine with Dr. Sturges of Windham, Maine, and later he studied with Dr. Jenness of Saccarappa and Doctors S. H. Weeks and William Warren Greene of Portland, Maine. He attended
I. G. ANTHOINE.
two courses of lectures at the Portland School for Medical Instruction, and then entered Bowdoin Medical College, from which he graduated in 1874, In 1891 he took a post-graduate course at the Boston Polyclinic. From July, 1874, to November, 1892, he practised medicine in Antrim, New Hamp- shire, and then removed to Nashua. He is a mem- ber of the New Hampshire Medical Society, Centre District Medical Society, of which he is an Ex- President, Nashua Medical Society, and American Medical Association. In 1884 he was a delegate to Dartmouth Medical College. From 1878 to 1884 he was Superintendent of Schools at Antrim. He is a member of the Nashua Board of Education. He
is an Odd Fellow and a Mason. In politics he is a Republican. Dr. Anthoine was married on January 2, 1877, to Katie I. Preston, of Antrim. They have two children: Harry M., born October 2, 1879, and Mary E. Anthoine, born August 11, 1885.
BACHELDER, JOHN, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, whose inventions made possible the modern sewing machine, was born in Weare, New Hampshire, March 7, 1817, son of William and Mary (Bailey) Bachelder. He had a public school and academic education, and for three years was a teacher, after which he became an accountant in Boston, in con- nection with the transportation company doing business on the Middlesex Canal. Subsequently he formed a partnership in the transportation trade, but the completion of the railway to Manchester put an end to the enterprise. Mr. Bachelder then turned to the dry goods business and the manufac- ture of silk and worsted trimmings. In the winter of 1846 he went to Europe to purchase goods and arrange for an importing house in Boston, steps which led to the formation of the prosperous firm of Bachelder, Burr & Company. A few months later, in 1847, Elias Howe had a sewing machine on exhibition in Boston, a curious piece of mech- anism but of little value from a practical stand- point. Mr. Bachelder became deeply interested in the machine, and after much study came to the belief that it could be vastly improved. After much experimenting privately at his home, he took a shop, mastered the trade of machinist, and de- veloped his works until he had a dozen men em- ployed. That he might devote himself wholly to his undertaking he gave up his profitable importing business, and devoted five years and all his means (about twelve thousand dollars) to his task. To meet expenses he was forced to borrow about four thousand dollars from his friends ; and when finally he found it necessary to sell his patents, he realized only enough to pay his debts. Howe, Singer, Baker, and others who subsequently became famous in connection with sewing machines, frequently visited his shop and saw his machines at work. W. E. Baker of the Grover & Baker Company, saw one of Mr. Bachelder's experimental machines, using one vertical and one horizontal needle, and the company subsequently built a machine which was practically the same, with the exception that a curved under needle was substituted for a straight horizontal one. A clumsy stitch had been pro-
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
duced by the Bachelder machine of this type, which used two threads of equal size, and the inventor had not patented the device, but in other hands it was found that a smaller under thread obviated the trouble, and success was achieved. The most important feature of the Bachelder patent, however, the horizontal supporting table, the continuous feed, and the vertical straight needle are there, which no sewing machine in use to-day could do without. His model deposited at the Patent Office showed clearly enough what he had invented, but the patent failed to protect him fully. After his indirect sale to the Singer Company, it was reissued and made to cover all the points of the invention. There was subsequent litigation by the famous sewing machine combination, Singer, Wheeler & Wilson, and Grover & Baker, with Howe, but eventually a settlement was effected. Many calculations have been made of the value of the Bachelder patent. In the last year of its exist- ence one company reported sales of two hundred and sixty thousand machines, and on the day it expired the price of machines was reduced from sixty to thirty dollars. In other words, the protection in one year reached the sum of seven million eight hundred thousand dollars. Indeed, experts have figured the total value of the patent at over one hundred million dollars. " Bachelder," says a work on American inventors, "was the first man in the world who ever built a sewing machine having a horizontal bed-piece or table on which the cloth was supported, a perpendicular, eye-pointed needle, a needle-plate, a continuous feed, and a device for pressing the cloth in the vicinity of the needle with a yielding pressure, five elements which are now found in every modern sewing machine, and with- out which they would be substantially worthless." It may be remarked that when Mr. Bachelder tried to introduce his machine, he encountered the sub- stantial opposition of the journeymen tailors of Boston, and for a time they prolonged the day of hand sewing. After his experience as an inventor he engaged in cotton manufacturing at Lisbon, Connecticut, where he encountered the disasters of fire and business depression. A venture in woolen manufacturing also failed to be remunerative. He served as Postmaster and Town Treasurer of Lisbon, was a Director of the First National Bank of Norwich, and a Trustee of the Chelsea Savings Bank. In 1875 he removed to Napa, California, establishing a manufacturing plant, in which he lost heavily. Soon after he retired from active business
life. He has always been interested in literary matters, and has published a book, " A. D. 2050," suggested by Bellamy's " Looking Backward." He was Secretary of the Franklin Association, Boston, in 1841 and 1842, and Secretary of the West Cam- bridge Lyceum in 1851 and President in 1852. While in California he became interested in libra- ries, and was for some years a Trustee of the Napa Library, of which he was President when he left California. Subsequently he has resided in Mil- waukee. He has taken an interest in politics, and while a resident of Connecticut was President of the First Fremont Club in his district, in " The Path- finder's " presidential campaign. Mr. Bachelder
JOHN BACHELDER.
married September 5, 1843, Adaline Wason, who died November 28, 1893, but a few months after the celebration of their golden wedding. They had three children : Emma Louise (Johnson), Her- man Lindner, who died March 21, 1891, and Charles Sumner Bacheller, now in charge of the chemical department of the Western Beet Sugar Company of California.
BAILEY, WILLIAM WALLACE, a leading Lawyer and Business Man of Nashua, was born in Hopkin- ton, New Hampshire, November 11, 1829, son of Thomas and Jemima ( Smith) Bailey. He gradu- ated from Dartmouth College in 1854. He began
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
his legal studies with George & Foster of Concord, later attending the Albany Law School, from which he was graduated in 1856. His first practice was in Nashua, and there he has since remained. From the beginning of his professional career, he has enjoyed an enviable reputation. In 1863-'64, he was a Representative in the State Legislature, and was a candidate for State Senator. He was a can- didate for Elector at Large in 1884, and for Congress in 1886. He was City Solicitor of Nashua in 1884. In business and social life, he has had many and varied interests. From 1 1871 to 1874, he was President of the Wilton Railroad. Since 1871, he has been a Director of the Nashua & Lowell road, and its Treasurer since 1891. He has been Presi- dent of the Nashua Savings Bank for fifteen years, a Director of the Indian Head National Bank since 1894, and President of the Hillsboro Mills Manu- facturing Company. For four years from 1871, he was a Trustee of the New Hampshire Agricultural College. For over a score of years he has been a Trustee of the Nashua City Library, and he is also a Trustee of the State library. In 1895 and 1896,
W. W. BAILEY.
he was President of the New Hampshire Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. In politics Mr. Bailey is a Democrat. On September 21, 1858, he married Mary Boardman, daughter of Alfred Greeley of Nashua. Their children are: Marion
Greeley, born August 19, 1859, died July 12, 1867 ; Caroline Webster, born March 30, 1862, died August 12, 1891 ; William Thomas, born November 19, 1869, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1891, and subsequently a student in Harvard Medi- cal School; and Helen Greeley Bailey, born March 9, 1873. Mr. Bailey has done faithful and good work in his profession, and as a public man, has enjoyed the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens.
BARTON, HUBBARD ALONZO, Senior Editor of the New Hampshire Argus and Spectator, Newport, was born in Croydon, New Hampshire, May 12, 1842, son of Caleb L. and Bethiah ( Tuck) Barton. His family is of English stock, its founders in this country having come here prior to 1636. Of their decendants, many have been prominent in the profes- sions and other walks of life. The great-great-grand- father of the subject of this sketch was a near rela- tive of General Barton of Revolutionary fame, and was killed at Bunker Hill. The great-grandfather, Benjamin Barton, Jr., with two of his brothers, entered the army and fought at Bunker Hill, Bennington, West Point, and New York city. He married Mahitable Frye in 1779, removed to Croy- den in 1784, and there was honored with nearly all the offices in the gift of his town. For seventeen years he was a Selectman and for fifteen Chairman of the Board. His son John was a successful farm- er, as was his grandson Caleb, who was born Feb- ruary 5, 1815, and who is now retired from active life. Hubbard A. Barton received his education in the common schools of his native town, and under the tuition of John Cooper, a noted instructor. In his youth he developed a strong taste for journalism and wrote frequently for the press. In April, 1879, in company with W. W. Prescott, he purchased the Argus and Spectator, a Democratic newspaper established at Newport in 1823, by his great uncle, Cyrus Barton, a journalist of high repute. Since the fall of 1880, the firm of Barton & Wheeler have published the paper, which, under Mr. Barton's , editorial charge, has developed greatly, enlarged its forms, acquired new machinery, and widened its circulation. Aside from his labors in his own office, he is correspondent of the New York Herald for Sullivan county. He was the successful Super- intendent of the Schools of Croyden from 1872 to 1879. He is a member of Mount Vernon Lodge, No. 15, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Tabernacle Chapter, No. 19, Royal Arch Masons,
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
serving as High Priest for two years ; Sullivan Com- mandery Knights Templar; Newport Lodge, No. 42, Knights of Pythias ; Granite State Club, and New England Suburban Press Association. Ile is a Trus-
HI. A. BARTON.
tee of the Richards Free Library. In politics he is- a Jeffersonian Democrat, firmly believing in a strict construction of, and adherence to, the nation's con stitution as the only safeguard of personal freedom and popular rule. As a political writer, he has been dignified and conservative. Mr. Barton was married April 27. 1882, to Ella L. Wilmarth, daugh- ter of the late Jonathan M. Wilmarth of Newport. They have one child : Henry Wilmarth Barton born September 16, 1890.
BLOOD, ARETAS, whose death November 24. 1897, deprived Manchester of one of her largest manufacturers and best of influential citizens, was born in Weathersfield, Vermont, October 8, 1816. son of Nathaniel and Roxellana (Proctor) Blood. He came of sturdy New England stock, being de- scended from James Blood who came to this coun- try from England and settled in Concord, Massa- chusetts, in 1639. The family was prominent in the early history of Groton and Pepperell, Massa- chusetts, and in the days of the Revolution gave its (nota of soldiers to the Patriots' Army ; Sewall Blood, grandfather of the subject of this sketch,
being one of those who served in this war. His son, Nathaniel, died in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1876, having reached the advanced age of eighty- seven years. Aretas Blood spent his boyhood upon his father's farm, taking advantage of the schools of the town, and bearing his full share of the toil of the farm. At the age of seventeen he was appren- ticed to a blacksmith, and worked at the forge for two years and a half, and then turned to something a little broader which gave him more opportunity for the exercise of his mechanical and inventive bent. In 1840 he went to Evansville, Indiana, where for a year he followed his trade of machinist. Upon his return to the East he was employed suc- cessfully in North Chelmsford, Lowell, and Law- rence, Massachusetts, where in the latter place he was given charge of the manufacture of the tools, implements, and machinery for a large machine shop then in the course of erection. His ability and in- dustry won him promotion, and soon he assumed the management of the establishment. Mr. Blood removed to Manchester in September, 1853, where, associated with Oliver W. Bailey, he established the Vulcan works, under the firm name of Bailey, Blood & Company, the business being the manufacture of locomotives. In the spring of 1854 new buildings were erected, and in the same year the company was incorporated as the Manchester Locomotive Works, with Oliver W. Bailey as its first agent. He was succeeded by Mr. Blood in the active manage- ment three years later. The company's operations grew steadily, hundreds of locomotives being built, and in 1872, Mr. Blood bought the fire engine busi- ness of the Amoskeag Company, together with the patents and good will. The machine was remodeled and is now the old engine only in name. At the works are now constructed between fifty and one hundred fire engines a year, besides other fire appa- ratus, hose carriages, etc. Mr. Blood built the first horseless engine used in this country. The loco- motive department of the works has a capacity of being characterized by great executive ability, in- domitable industry, foresight, good judgment, and sound common sense. Mr. Blood was also Presi- dent and Treasurer of the Nashua Iron and Steel Company ; President of the Ames Manufacturing Company, of Chicopee, Massachusetts; Treasurer of the Globe Nail Company of Boston, Massachu- setts ; President of the Amoskeag Paper Company of Manchester ; Owner and Treasurer of the Man- chester Hardware Company of Manchester ; Treas- urer and Principal Owner of the Manchester Sash
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
and Blind Factory, Manchester; President and Owner of the B. H. Piper Company, Manchester, which manufactures axe handles, spokes, base-ball bats, and the like ; Director of the Merrimack River
ARETAS BLOOD.
Bank from 1860 to 1868; Director of the Manches- ter National Bank from 1874 to 1877, and from that time until his death President of the Second National Bank ; Director of the Wakefield Rattan Company of Boston, Massachusetts; the largest stockholder and the President of the Columbia Cot- ton Mills of Columbia, South Carolina ; also con- nected with the Water Power Company of the same place; Vice-President and Director of the Burgess Sulphite Fibre Company of Berlin, New Hamp- shire; owner of a large peg mill in Lisbon ; the largest New Hampshire Stockholder of the Manchester Mills, and was elected President of the same succeeding Dexter Richards, receiving a re- election ; and Director of the Boston & Maine Rail- road for several years. How Mr. Blood retained his active control of these interests, which only in- creased with his years, nobody knows. Age brought him no rest, for his indomitable determination and will would not let him retire. The methods of the modern business man he never used. He knew no private secretary, no stenographer awaited his call, no typewriter clicked off his business letters. Much of his success he attributed to the early training he
received from his mother. In politics Mr. Blood was a staunch Republican. His first vote was cast for William Henry Harrison. While he was never very active in politics his endorsement always car- ried weight and he served in a number of offices. He was twice Alderman, and was a Garfield Elec- tor. Although unostentatious in his charities he gave liberally to all worthy objects that met his ap- proval. An instance of his generosity was the gift to the Woman's Aid of Relief Society of Manches- ter of twenty-five thousand dollars, which made it possible for the society to acquire the building now used as its home. Mr. Blood married September 4, 1845, Lavina Kendall. He had two daughters : Nora, wife of Frank P. Carpenter, and Emma, wife of Dr. L. Melville French of Manchester.
BROWN, ELISHA RHODES, Banker, Dover, was born in Pawtuxet, Rhode Island, March 28, 1847, son of Colville Dana and Mary Eliza (Rhodes) Brown. He is the seventh in descent from Chad Brown of Providence, and ninth in descent from Roger Williams of Providence on his mother's side.
E. R. BROWN.
He entered the Strafford National Bank, December 10, 1867, and was elected Cashier, January 1, 1876, Vice-President, June 30, 1890, and President in January, 1897. On March 25, 1876, he was elected Corporator of Strafford Savings Bank, Trustee,
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MEN OF PROGRESS.
March 31, 1883, Vice-President. March 24, 1890, and President, October 12, 1891. He is a Direc- tor in the Manchester & Lawrence Railroad, the Dover & Winnepisseogee Railroad. West Amesbury Branch Railroad. the Dover Gas Light Company. the Dover Improvement Association, the Eliot Bridge Company; and is a Trustee in the Pine Hill Cemetery, the Children's Home, and the Home for Aged People. He is a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and Deacon and Treasurer of the First Congregational Church of Dover. He is a mem- ber of the Sons of the Revolution and of the Society of the Colonial Wars. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Brown was married October 18, 1870, to Frances Bickford, daughter of Dr. Alphonso Bickford of Dover. They have four sons : Alphonso Bickford, born January 23, 1872, a graduate of Andover, Yale College, and the Har- vard Medical School : Harold Winthrop. born November 8, 1875. a graduate of Andover and of Harvard College ; and Raymond Goold and Philip Carter Brown, twins, born August 27, 1885.
BURNHAM, HOSEA BALLOU, Physician, Man- chester, was born in Chester (now Auburn), New Hampshire, October 15. 1829, son of Miles and Salome (Hall) Burnham. On the paternal side he is descended from Robert Burnham, who emigrated from Bristol, England, in 1635. On the maternal side he traces his descent from Deacon Richard Hall of Bradford, Massachusetts. He attended the district schools of Chester, Gilmanton Academy, New Hampshire Conference Seminary at Tilton, and Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecti- cut, until the close of the Junior year when he was forced to give up his college course owing to ill health, due to over study. Some time later he began the study of medicine and surgery in the office of the late Dr. W. D. Buck of Manchester. He attended lectures at Berkshire Medical College, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Harvard Medical College, Boston, and the Vermont Medical College at Wood- stock, where he received the degree of M. D. in 1853. He subsequently took a course at the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city. Dr. Burnham began general practice in 1854 in the town of Epping, removing to Manchester in 1888. He was appointed Physician to the Rockingham County Almshouse and the Insane Asylum con- nected therewith in 1871, hokling this position until 1888, and was United States Examining Surgeon
for Pensions from 1872-'SS. He was appointed on the staff of the Elliot Hospital in Manchester in 1889, holding this post until 1896, when he re- signed on account of ill health, and was elected to
H. B. BURNHAM.
the consulting staff. He is a member of the Rock- ingham District Medical Society, of the New Hampshire Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. While a resident of Rocking- ham county he was frequently called into court to testify as a medical or surgical expert. During the thirty-eight years of his active professional work he was frequently called in consultation with other physicians, and had a large surgical practice. Since his removal to Manchester, he has been very frequently called in consultation especially in his former field of practice. He is at present practi- cally retired from active practice of his profession on account of ill health. He has a large library and spends much of his time with his books. He was Superintendent of Schools in Epping. 1870-'81 ; a member of the State Legislature in 1885 '86; Vice-President and Chairman of the Investing Committee of the Epping Savings Bank from 1872 to 1889. He is a Mason, a Past Master of Sulli- van Lodge. No. 19, Free and Accepted Masons of Epping ; a member of Lafayette Lodge of Man- chester, and of St. Alban Chapter, Royal Arch Masons of Exeter. He has not been active inpoli-
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