State builders; an illustrated historical and biographical record of the state of New Hampshire at the beginning of the twentieth century, Part 1

Author: Willey, George Franklyn, 1869- ed; State Builders Publishing Company
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Manchester, N.H., The New Hampshire Publishing Corporation
Number of Pages: 766


USA > New Hampshire > State builders; an illustrated historical and biographical record of the state of New Hampshire at the beginning of the twentieth century > Part 1


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33



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11/17/69 Pages 385-400 missing when book was received by Fort wayne llevary.


STATE BUILDERS


Copyright, 1900, by Lamson Studio


ROAD THROUGH CRAWFORD NOTCH, WHITE MOUNTAINS


STATE BUILDERS


AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE


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AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY


BY THE STATE BUILDERS PUBLISHING COMPANY GEORGE FRANKLYN WILLEY EDITOR


THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PUBLISHING CORPORATION MANCHESTER NEW HAMPSHIRE MDCCCCIII


Copyright, 1903, by GEORGE FRANKLYN WILLEY Printed, October, 1903


The Heintzemann Press, Boston, Mass.


1448947


The Memory of The Pioneer Settlers The First of the Generations of State Builders, Who, Fearing Raught but Bod, Laid, Under Dibine Direction and Blessing, the Secure Foundation of a fair & Mightp Commonwealth


Hill 83.50 6-10-68 Www. 9498 P.O. 4211


INTRODUCTION


BY CHARLES R. CORNING


Judge of Probate, Merrimack County ; Mayor of Concord, 1903


"F "good wine needs no bush," so it may be said that a good 1 book needs no preface. And yet, the somewhat unique plan and purpose of this volume merit a brief introductory. State Builders is not only a carefully prepared biography of New Hampshire men, but it presents the political, industrial and edu- cational history of our State as well. Few works of this charac- ter have been prepared with greater care and discrimination than State Builders. Each chapter is the finished production of a writer especially competent and adapted to treat the particular subject assigned him, thereby giving to the work a character and authority decidedly unusual. Furthermore, the biographical fea- tures of the book form a convenient, authentic and exceedingly valuable collection of reference, and supplies a distinctive want in the personal history of the State. Acceptable as State Build- ers is at the present time, its value and usefulness are certain to increase with every year and form an important part of New Hampshire's literary history.


State Builders is wholly a New Hampshire biographical-his- torical undertaking conceived and completed by New Hampshire men, and dedicated to those sons of the State, living or dead, whose achievements have done so much to make the Granite State the sturdy and prosperous Commonwealth that she is. It is always pleasant to commend a book; but when a book, as in this instance, possesses positive merits of an enduring nature then commendation becomes a most agreeable duty.


CONTENTS.


PAGE


AN OUTLINE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE HISTORY


I


HON. ALBERT STILLMAN BATCHELLOR, A.M.


EDUCATION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE


60


JAMES H. FASSETT, B.A.


ECCLESIASTICAL


97


JOHN ALDEN.


AGRICULTURE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE


.


II3


NAHUM J. BACHELDER.


THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE


I34


HOSEA W. PARKER.


NOTES ON THE MEDICAL PROFESSION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 15I IRVING A. WATSON, A.M., M.D.


NEW HAMPSHIRE SAVINGS BANKS


I72


JAMES O. LYFORD.


INDUSTRIAL NEW HAMPSHIRE


182


G. A. CHENEY.


COMMERCIAL NEW HAMPSHIRE


193


G. A. CHENEY.


BIOGRAPHIES


PAGE


PAGE


Nahum J. Bachelder . 201


Hiram A. Tuttle . 223


Edward Nathan Pearson


203


Frank P. Carpenter 225


Jacob H. Gallinger 205


Mary Baker G. Eddy 227


Henry E. Burnham 208


Moody Currier . 243


Winston Churchill


210


Mrs. Moody Currier . 245


Chester B. Jordan 212


Augustus D. Ayling . 247


Frank West Rollins . 214


General Charles Williams 248


George A. Ramsdell . 216


Henry M. Baker . 250


Rt. Rev. Denis M. Bradley 218


Charles E. Staniels 252


John B. Smith . 220


Reuben H. Cheney 256


CONTENTS


PAGE


PAGE


Benjamin Franklin Prescott ..


. 259


Rt. Rev. William Woodruff Niles,


D.D. 261


John M. Hunt .


263


Frank S. Streeter .


266


Henry De Wolfe Carvelle, M.D. 376


Emil Custer, M.D. 378


Edward L. Custer


380


Joshua Gilman Hall .


382


William Lawrence Foster 384


Mary Alice Watts


280


Henry French Hollis


282


Elmer D. Goodwin 389


John H. Albin .


284


Charles A. Busiel . 392


John Hosley


286


Cyrus A. Sulloway 395


Alice M. M. Chesley, M.D. 288


Louis Ashton Thorp 397


Chancey Adams, M.D. .


290


Eli Edwin Graves, M.D. 399


Charles H. Sawyer


294


Nathaniel Everett Martin . 40I


Jane Elizabeth Hoyt, M.D.


296


Henry Robinson 403


Charles T. Means


299


Horatio K. Libbey 407


Harry Gene Sargent


30I


Lydia A. Scott 409


Eugene F. McQuesten, M.D. 304


John H. Neal, M.D. .


413


James E. Klock .


306


Captain David Wadsworth 415


Orlando B. Douglas, M.D.


308


Edson Hill . 417


John McLane .


3II


Channing Folsom


313


Joseph P. Chatel .


425


Roger G. Sullivan


315


George M. Clough


428


Hermon K. Sherburne, D.O.


317


Mrs. Mary F. Berry


430


Alonzo Elliott .


32I


John Gault . 433


Durham College


323


Daniel J. Daley


437


Ferdinand A. Stillings, M.D. 33I


Sherman E. Burroughs . 443


Rev. D. C. Babcock, D.D. 334


J. Homer Edgerley 446


George A. Marden 449


Daniel Walton Gould 454


Charles E. Sleeper 457


Thomas Fellows Clifford 460


John C. French


342


Edward Giles Leach


462


Rev. Lorin Webster


344


Frederick E. Potter, M.D.


464


Anson Colby Alexander, M.D. 467


Charles S. Collins 469


John N. McClintock 473


Alfred Randall Evans


476


John J. Donahue 479


George H. Perkins 354


John H. Roberts


482


483


Edward H. Clough


358


Augustus H. Stark


360


John Willey


487


Frederick W. Doring


363


Ira H. Adams, M.D ..


489


William H. Rollins .


365


Samuel B. Tarrante .


49I


M. E. Kean, M.D. 367


Ira Joslin Prouty, M.D. 369


William H. Nute, M.D. 370


F. S. Towle, M.D.


372


E. L. Glick .


374


Colonel William S. Pillsbury .


269


Colonel Francis W. Parker 273


Charles Robert Corning


275


Horace P. Watts


277


William T. Cass 386


Nathaniel White


421


Charles Francis Piper


329


Wallace D. Lovell 440


William Henry Weed Hinds, M.D. 337


Charles Rumford Walker


338


Joseph E. A Lanouette, M.D. .


340


Allen N. Clapp


346


Charles E. Tilton


348


William Jewett Tucker


350


Frank W. Grafton, M.D. ,


352


George H. Perkins' Memorial


353


William R. Clough


356


Edwin G. Eastman


Ebenezer Learned, M.D.


485


George Franklyn Willey


494


A NEW ENGLAND STATE


An Outline of New Hampshire History


By HON. ALBERT STILLMAN BATCHELLOR, A.M.


Editor of State Papers


John Mason, the territorial proprietor of New Hamp- shire, was the promoter of its earliest settlements. His efforts contemplated the establishment of a great man- orial estate of which he and his successors were to be the actual and titular heads. This design failed even- tually, not because Mason and those who succeeded to his rights and adopted his plans were not powerful, persistent and well sustained by the home government, but because that style and theory of proprietorship and the form of government upon which it was, from the very nature of things, dependent, could not thrive,-indeed could not survive under the conditions which developed in. New England.


This colony occupied a unique position from 1622, the year when Thomson's indenture was drawn and the first settlement definitely planned, to 1641-1643, when the four towns, Portsmouth, Dover, Hampton and Exeter, each an independent democracy, became, by their own choice, constituent parts of Massachusetts. This was the first union with the Bay colony. It was


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conditional on certain important privileges and guar- antees, accorded to the four towns by the Massachusetts General Court. The time of this union, 1641-1679, constitutes the second period of New Hampshire his- tory. It is in a large measure identical with that of Massachusetts Bay. The Masonian heirs succeeded in 1679, by influences exerted upon the home government in England, in the establishment of a separate province for the four frontier towns, then occupying a little break in the wilderness along the coast line and a few miles into the interior between Massachusetts bay and the territory of Maine.


John Cutt, a man of the people, was the first presi- dent. He died in 1681, and was succeeded by his deputy, Richard Waldron. Under a new commission, Edward Cranfield held office from 1682 to 1686, his deputy, Walter Barefoote, having been the acting Gover- nor in the latter part of the period.


The four towns were made a part of the Dominion of New England in 1686. This government, under Dudley and Andros, with its concomitants of abolished provincial legislatures and other measures absolutely abhorrent to the political sense of a large majority of the people of New England, survived only three years. The four New Hampshire towns, from the spring of 1689 to the closing half of the winter of 1689-90, gov- erned themselves in the independent democratic fashion of the first period of their history.


A second union with Massachusetts Bay was then ef- fected, and continued during a period of two years. In 1692 a province government by royal commission was re- established over the four towns. The course of events, with this unpretentious province, moved on through much adversity to the time of the achievement of a po- sition and potency among the American dependencies of the mother country, in which, eighty-three years later,


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it was able to demand independence and join in a suc- cessful defiance of the imperial power of England.


The intervening governments between 1692 and. 1775 were administered by Samuel Allen, Governor, with John Usher, John Hinckes and William Partridge, Lieutenant or acting Governors, 1692-1699; the Earl of Bellomont with William Partridge, Lieutenant Gov- ernor, 1699-1702, the Governor dying in 1701; Joseph Dudley, Governor, with William Partridge, John Usher and George Vaughan, Lieutenant Governors, 1702- 1716 (Eliseus Buegess having been appointed Governor in 1715, but declining the office); Samuel Shute, Governor, with George Vaughan and John Wentworth, Lieutenant Governors, 1716-1728; William Burnet, gov- ernor, with John Wentworth, Lieutenant Governor, 1728-1729; Jonathan Belcher, Governor, with John Wentworth and David Dunbar, Lieutenant Governors, 1730-1741; Benning Wentworth, Governor, with John Temple, Lieutenant Governor, 1741-1767; John Went- worth, Governor, with John Temple, Lieutenant Gov- ernor, 1767-1775.


Between 1675 and 1762, the people of New Hamp- shire participated in six wars against the French and Indians, aggregating thirty-eight years.


The politics of New Hampshire in the Colonial period largely related to those persistent and irrepres- sible subjects, the Masonian title and the boundary line against Massachusetts.


DARTMOUTH COLLEGE.


One of the memorable events in the term of office of John Wentworth, the last provincial governor, was the founding of Dartmouth College. The charter was issued in 1769, and the beginning effected from which a securely established and most beneficent institution has


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developed. Whatever may be said of the efforts of the Earl of Dartmouth, Gov. Wentworth and others in behalf of the infant institution,-and for this the pub- lic will ever remain under great obligations to them, -- the undisputed title of Founder must be accorded to Eleazer Wheelock. If a tablet of honor for our state builders shall ever be erected, there can be no dissent when the name of Dartmouth's first president is ac- corded high place in such a symposium. It will be within the province of the historian of education 111 New Hampshire to give Dartmouth college its deserved setting in the further extension of this work. The suc- cession of presidents, Eleazer Wheelock, 1769, John Wheelock, 1779, Francis Brown, 1815, Daniel Dana, 1820, Bennett Tyler, 1822, Nathan Lord, 1828, Asa Dodge Smith, 1863, Samuel Colcord Bartlett, 1877, William Jewett Tucker, 1893, presents a group of hon- ored names, and the mention of each suggests noble ef- fort and achievement in the cause of education, humanity and progress under the highest standards. Webster, Choate, Chase, and Stevens are enrolled with the sons of Dartmouth who, now constituting a loyal fraternity, rejoice together in the present strength and widening and deepening potency of their alma mater in her mis- sion of moulding men for the leadership of men.


THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 1774-1784.


The people of New Hampshire entered upon the active stages of a national movement for independence with deliberation and with unanimity. Perhaps no one of the colonies was so free of the so-called loyalist ele- ment as was this. The "association test" put every man to the book, either for or against the common cause. The record of signatures in nearly all the towns is preserved and the names of those who dissented or


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refused to take a position constitute a very meagre list. The population of this colony in 1775 was only 82,200. In the province militia establishment were thirteen regi- ments of foot and one regiment of cavalry, besides special organizations of cadets and of artillery. As only twelve or thirteen years had intervened between the last French and Indian war and the inauguration of forcible measures on the part of New Hampshire by the seizure of Fort William and Mary at Portsmouth in 1774, it was in accordance with the necessities of the case, under the operation of existing military law, that a large part of the body of the organized militia and a still larger part of the officers were veterans who had thoroughly learned the science of war in that intensely practical school of seven years duration, in which they were associated with the best officers and soldiers of England, and were opposed to the flower of the army of France.


The capture of the powder and ammunition of Fort William and Mary, under the leadership of John Lang- don and John Sullivan, was the first overt act of resistance in which organized force was aggressively employed against a military organization or garrison of the mother country in New Hampshire, and possibly in either of the colonies, upon the inauguration of the American Revolu- tion .* The powder taken on this occasion later supplied the patriot army assembled around Boston, and became an indispensable and historic factor in the battle of Bunker Hill.


The provincial assembly was continued in New Hampshire until Governor Wentworth's departure in 1775. A succession of conventions, beginning July 21, 1774, finally resulted in the formal organization of a legislative body on a full representation of the people, and with a definite purpose of establishing a new state government. The importance and activity of the old


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assembly diminished as that of the successive conventions was augmented.


The passing of the royal authority in the province was with very little commotion and comparatively no manifestation of violence. The convention which met in July, 1775, ordered a reorganization of the militia. and in 1777 the number of regiments had been in- creased to seventeen. The number of men enrolled was 16,710, and this comprised practically all resi- dents of military age in the state. In 1775 three regiments were formed and put under command re- spectively of John Stark, James Reed and Enoch Poor. The first two regiments were actual partici- pants in the battle of Bunker Hill, so-called, and consti- tuted more than one-half of all the Americans actually engaged, and a little later Poor's regiment joined the army assembled near Boston. John Sullivan was also a participant in that campaign under commission from Congress as brigadier general. Timothy Bedel had a regiment in Canada, recruited largely from New Hamp- shire. Thirty-three companies under Col. Wingate were guarding the sea coast. Two companies of one and a part of another were formed from volunteers out of the New Hampshire regiments in Washington's army and accompanied Arnold through Maine to Que- bec. Coos and the Connecticut valley were also guarded, and thirty-one companies were raised and sent to take the place of the Connecticut men who declined to remain longer in the siege of Boston. Col. Potter called attention to the action of the Committee of Safety in January, 1776, making John Waldron colonel and Peter Coffin major of a regiment, the rolls of which are not preserved. It may have been one which served at Winter Hill. Presumably more than five thousand men of this state were in the field in 1775.


In 1776 it was the same story of practical and un-


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flinching loyalty to the cause. Upon the successful con- clusion of the siege of Boston, March 17, 1776, Sulli- van took command of the army in Canada, which by reason of defeat, sickness, want of supplies, want of support and the arrival of large fleets and armies from England, was in a perilous situation; indeed it might perhaps be more correctly described as desperate. Sulli- van, with the aid of reinforcements sent from Wash- ington's army, including the three New Hampshire regiments under Stark, Poor and James Reed, with dis- tinguished good conduct, brought off the entire army with comparatively small loss, besides commanding in several well planned engagements with the enemy. The three regiments of the continental line were strength- ened and continued. Returning from the Canadian campaign, which relieved the northern army operating in the provinces, the New Hampshire regiments of the line were variously employed in the defence of Ticon- deroga and the neighboring strategic points. Here dysentery, small pox and putrid fever raged among the troops, and it is estimated that one-third of the New Hampshire men died of these diseases in 1776. Sulli- van, now a Major General, in recognition of his services in the Canadian campaign, had important command in the ill-fated battle of Long Island, and was there taken prisoner. After a comparatively brief detention he was exchanged. It does not appear that these regi- ments participated in the battles about New York or in the operations that culminated in putting Howe's Army on one side and Washington's on the other at the Dela- ware River in the winter of 1776-7. They distin- guished themselves at Princeton and Trenton. It is sometimes asserted that Stark himself suggested the Trenton attack. It certainly had all the characteristics of his instinctive grasp of military opportunity, and his unerring directness and celerity in execution. Bedel


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raised a new regiment in the second year of the war which operated in Canada; Pierce Long transferred his regiment from the coast defences to Ticonderoga: four additional regiments reinforced the patriot army operating in various divisions of the war area later in the year, viz .: Wyman's and Wingate's in July and August; Tash's and Baldwin's in September, and Gilman's in December. The last two named of these regiments remained with Washington's army till the spring of 1777. Thus it appears that in the year of the Declaration of Independence the state had at least nine full regiments in the field.


In 1777, the contributions of New Hampshire in men and material reached high water mark. In May large bodies of organized volunteers from the regiments of Ashley, Baldwin, Chase, Nichols, Hale, Moore, Webster, Stickney and Morey responded to urgent calls for reinforcements for Ticonderoga and the campaign against Burgoyne.


The New Hampshire regiments in the continental line continued in the service, and were distinguished for good conduct at Saratoga and at other important engage- ments and critical points. A more particular description of the sequence of events in the Saratoga campaign may be required to obviate confusion in the mind of the reader as to the progress of affairs at this juncture.


.


The two important engagements were on September 19 and October 7. Both were on Freeman's farm, Bemis' Heights. It was the second battle that was decisive of the fate of Burgoyne. The surrender took place at the Heights of Saratoga, at a place now called Schuyler- ville. The army laid down their arms within the old "Fort Hardy," built in the French War at a point on the opposite side of the Fishkill from Schuylerville. This was the place to which Burgoyne had retreated imme- diately after his defeat at the second battle of Freeman's


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farm. His army was occupied two nights and a day in this movement. Schuylerville is about ten miles distant from the scene of the battles at Freeman's farm.


In the first battle the New Hampshire troops engaged were the New Hampshire brigade under General Poor and a detachment of infantry, sometimes described as riflemen, under Major Henry Dearborn, about three hundred in number, consisting of men of Long's regi- ment, detachments of other militia, and Whitcomb's Rangers. Dearborn co-operated with Morgan in the re- pulse of Frazer's attack. Wilkinson says, "The stress of the action on our part was borne by Morgan's regi- ment and Poor's brigade." He should have coupled Dearborn's corps with Morgan's regiment in this con- nection. Judge Nesmith, in his article, "New Hamp- shire at Saratoga," gives statistics indicating that about half the man engaged, possibly more than half, were from New Hampshire, and of the losses on the part of the Americans, killed, wounded and missing, returned by Wilkinson as 321, 161, or more than half, must be credited to the New Hampshire organizations. Lieu- tenant-Colonel Coburn of Scammell's regiment and Lieutenant-Colonel Adams of Reid's regiment were among the large number of valuable men and officers which the state lost in this engagement.


In the second battle, October 7th, the New Hampshire men were again engaged in the most important fighting, and once more earned the highest commendation for their sturdy heroism. Again their losses were heavy, another Lieutenant-Colonel, Samuel Connor of Whipple's brigade, being included in the number. There are no adequate returns of the losses in this battle. It is recorded that "when Cilley first became engaged, so many of his men fell in twenty minutes that he could save himself only by falling back on reinforcements. With these the regi- ment went into the fight again with great spirit and


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fought till night. Colonel Scammell fearlessly led his regiment where the fight was hottest." Marked changes had occurred at the beginning of the year in the command of these organizations. The promotion of Col. Poor at the instance of General and Congress- man Folsom to be brigadier (thus passing by Stark) had caused a vacancy in his regiment (the second) and at the same time had given such offence to Col. Stark that he resigned from the army. James Reed had be- come blind and left the service. The second regi- ment now became the third and the third the sec- ond. The first retained its number. Joseph Cilley became colonel of the first, Nathan Hale of the second and Alexander Scammell of the third. Hale was taken prisoner at Hubbardton and George Reid became colonel and so continued till 1781. Langdon's clarion call to the New Hampshire Assembly and the conjuring with the name of Stark to raise a brigade to be thrown athwart the Burgoyne invasion is now such familiar history that it should be supererogation even to outline it to New Hampshire readers.


Stark's brigade at Bennington, consisting of the regiments of Cols. Thomas Stickney, Moses Nichols and David Hobart, struck the blow which decided the fate of Burgoyne's invasion. When Stark's men were approaching the end of their famous campaign and re- turning to their farms and their harvests, Whipple's brigade and the new bodies of volunteers gathered by Stark were forwarded with promptitude and energy for reinforcement of the northern army under Gates. With Gen. Whipple, or Gen. Stark were Drake's, Moor's, Evans', Bellows', Moulton's, Chase's, Welch's and Ger- rish's regiments. Gen. Bayley of Vermont (nominally New York) certifies to the service of a regiment in his brigade under command of Col. David Webster of Ply- mouth. This probably refers to Chase's regiment,


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which was composed of parts of Webster's, Morey's and Hobart's militia regiments,-Webster ranking as lieutenant-colonel in the last named militia regi- ment. Sloan's Orford Company and Hutchins' Haver- hill Company were probably in the Vermont regi- mental organizations. Ashley's, Bellows', Hale's and Morey's Connecticut Valley militia regiments contri- buted contingents of volunteers to reinforce Gates and complete the investment of Burgoyne. John Langdon led a company of volunteers to Saratoga of which the captain was destined to be the first presiding officer of the United States Senate, and the first lieutenant a United States Senator, while nine others who were men of conspicuous standing and commissioned officers in other organizations, served as privates in the same company. Stark, upon his return with fresh and liberal contributions of New Hampshire men for the conclud- ing movements against Burgoyne's army of invasion, with that unerring sense of correct . strategy which seemed instinctive, placed himself with two thousand men in Burgoyne's rear, held Fort Edward and all the fords below, and closed the only avenue of escape of which that commander might avail himself. It was the information that such a force under Stark had accom- plished this manœuvre that compelled Burgoyne to his decision to capitulate.




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