USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Merrimack and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 59
USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Merrimack and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 59
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1882, with Harriet Strobridge, who was born in Meriden village, town of Plainfield, Sulli- van County, N.H., daughter of Oliver B. and Lucinda (Spaulding) Strobridge. Her father died when she was ten years old. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Wyman was a milliner in St. Johnsbury, Vt., and in Manchester, N.H. Her mother, Mrs. Strobridge, resides with her. Mr. Wyman is a member of Crescent Lodge and Encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has been quite active in the affairs of the lodge, and was at one time a member of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire.
YRUS E. BAKER, M.D., of Clare- mont, Sullivan County, N. H., the well-known physician and oculist, was born in Plainfield, this State, April 9, 1835, son of Dimic and Hannah (Colby) Baker. He is of the eighth generation in descent from Jeffrey Baker, who came from England, and was one of the original settlers of Windsor, Conn.
Jeffrey Baker married November 25, 1642, Joan Rockwell. They had five children, one of them being a son, Joseph, born June 18, 1655, who married Hannah Cook Buckland, January 30, 1677. Five children were the fruit of this union. Joseph Baker's son, Joseph, Jr., born April 13, 1678, was mar- ried on July 8, 1702, to Hannah Pomroy, by whom he had Joseph, Jr., second, and Sam- uel; and by his second wife, Abigail Bissel, he had John, Hannah, Jacob, Abigail, Ebene- zer, Daniel, Heman, Titus, and Abigail. Joseph, Jr., second, died January 29, 1754; his wife, Abigail, died February 13, 1768. Their son, Heman, the next in this line, was born April 27, 1719. He married Lois Gil- bert, November 24, 1747, and had the follow-
In 1853 Mr. Wyman first joined in mar- riage with Mary E. Coggswell, who died in 1879. She was a daughter of George W. Coggswell, Henniker. Mr. Wyman con- tracted a second marriage on January 10, | ing children : Heman, Jr., who was a soldier
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during the Revolutionary War, was taken prisoner, and died three months after his dis- charge; Anna; Deborah; John; Oliver, who became a doctor of medicine; Abigail; Lois; Delight; and Lydia. Oliver Baker, son of Heman, was born at Tolland, Conn., October 5, 1755, and died October 3, 1811. He mar- ried Dorcas Dimic, March 23, 1780. She was born September 23, 1760, and died Octo- ber 3, 1849. Their children were: Heman; Diantha; Zinia and Lina, who were twins; Oliver, Jr .; Semantha; Dimic; Dorcas; Lodema; Elizabeth; and Mary. Heman died March 16, 1845. Lina died August 27, 1808. Dorcas died July 26, 1825. Semantha died August 1, 1826.
Dimic Baker, son of Oliver Baker, M. D., was born March 18, 1793, in Plainfield, N.H., where he lived until his death, which oc- curred March 19, 1876. He was a prosperous farmer and wool producer, a shrewd buyer and seller, and one of the strongest and most prominent men of the town. He married June 2, 1822, Hannah Colby, who was born February 7, 1794, and died March 17, 1856. It had been his noble aim to leave his chil- dren the legacy of a good education. The children were five in number, as follows: Elias, who died November 11, 1884; Edward D., who was an able lawyer, as shown by a brief memoir on another page; Hannah A .; Helen F .; and Cyrus E., the direct subject of the present sketch.
At the age of eighteen Cyrus E. Baker, although not a college graduate, began teach- ing school, being called from Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N.H., while taking his Latin course. He followed this occupation during the winter, and in the spring returned to the academy to complete the course. On reaching his majority, and having received a fair education, he learned of the sale by the
United States government of the "Delaware Trust Lands" in the West, which were then open for pre- emption, and started in the spring of 1857 for "bleeding Kansas," so called, to become a squatter and purchaser of a portion of said lands, where for months he witnessed all the horrors of the Southern sys- tem of human bondage and their enmity to the Union cause, taking his chances among them as a Union man, standing for the per- sonal protection of James Lane and John Brown's sons, and the cause they espoused, their father having been killed a few months before for his Union principles.
Locating among the wilds of Kansas, some eight miles north of what is now the city of Topeka, he stayed there about six months; and then, having secured his lands, he re- turned to his home in New Hampshire, with the fullest convictions of the injustice of human slavery and Southern rule. He after- ward attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, where he was grad- uated in 1862, ranking high in his class. He seemed to have inherited an aptitude for his profession, there having been in his fam- ily several eminent physicians. While an undergraduate, he was for a time usher to the noted Dr. Alonzo Clark, one of the professors at the college, with whom he was a favorite.
After receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine, Dr. Baker was for several months house physician in the New York City Hospi- tal, receiving within that time two promotions, and finally becoming "acting house physician " there. He left this fine position to enter the army, enlisting as acting assistant surgeon in the United States Army, and serving with efficiency in the Departments of Virginia and North Carolina, having taken this step from the purest motives of duty and of loyalty to his country, which spirit had been character-
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istic of his ancestors. During his service in the army he stood by the operating-table upon the field of action; and he also treated cases of small-pox and fevers and other dis- eases among the colored as well as the white troops. He was once ordered to establish a small-pox hospital, which was placed in his charge. Always doing his best work, in all cases he used his theoretical as well as his practical knowledge, and became an excep- tionally efficient and valuable physician, al- ways willing and loyal, never murmuring at ove work and extra hours. The intimate knowledge of small-pox thus acquired came to his aid in after years, when in 1895 this dreaded disease gained an entrance into the town of Claremont. The physicians of the town were baffled; and it was not until Dr. Baker was consulted, and he consented to take charge, that the epidemic was stopped. Many a home is grateful to him for his skilled treatment of this disease. He was equally successful in cases of typhoid fever.
In August, 1862, while marching with McClellan from Harris's Landing to Fortress Monroe, the Doctor received a severe sun- stroke, from the effects of which he has never fully recovered. Though he did not at once leave the army, his health was so seriously impaired that he was finally honorably dis- charged; and he returned to Claremont, where he took up his practice, and where he has been established ever since the war. He now receives a pension from the government. He is justly proud of his war record; and, undoubtedly, no physician or soldier served his country more faithfully than did Dr. Cyrus E. Baker. In later years, owing to the fact of continued ill health, he has made a specialty of the study of the eye, and has accomplished more in this direction than has any other physician in Claremont. Since the
organization of the Grand Army of the Repub- lic at Claremont he has been surgeon of the fraternity. He was for some time a member of the Sullivan Commandery of Masons; but, owing to the illness and deafness which were the result of the sunstroke received in the army, he was obliged to resign from both societies. He is a member of the Congrega- tional church, and in politics he is a Republi- can.
Dr. Baker has twice married. By his first wife, Martha Jane Preston, of Weathersfield, Vt., he had one daughter, Alice, who died at the age of fourteen years. The Doctor and his second wife, Elizabeth Ann Erskine, daughter of Hiram Erskine, of Claremont, have had four children, namely: Georgietta, who was graduated at the Stevens High School, and died at the age of twenty years; Edgar H. and Eugene A., twins, who died in infancy; and Walter E., their only living child, who is now attending the Stevens High School.
EORGE H. BARTLETT, a prosper- ous manufacturer of Sunapee, was born in that town, September 28, 1841, son of John and Sarah (Sanborn) Bart- lett, natives respectively of Deering and Springfield, N.H. He belongs to an old family. One of his ancestors was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. John Bartlett, his grandfather, was a farmer in Deering, and died at a good old age. John's son, also named John, was a pioneer of Suna- pee. This John came here on horseback, and took up new and almost wild land. The re- mainder of his life was spent in Sunapee, where he left the reputation of an energetic man. He lived to the ripe age of eighty- three years, and his wife lived to be eighty- two. They were both supporters of the Meth-
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odist Episcopal church, and in politics he was a Democrat. Of their eight children five are living. One is John Bartlett, the present Representative to Concord from the town of Sunapee. General Charles H. Bartlett, of Manchester, N.H., is another.
George H. Bartlett passed his boyhood in his native place, receiving the education af- forded by the common schools, supplemented by a course at New London Academy. His first experience in business was obtained in a sash and blind factory in Manchester, and he was a box-maker there for some time. Later on he returned to Sunapee, and en- gaged in his present business - the manufact- ure of hames. He and Mr. W. H. H. Cowles established the industry there in 1865, and it was started on a small scale compared with its extent at the present time. At first they made the Concord hame. They continued in business till 1882, when Mr. Cowles sold his interest to Irving G. Rowell, who is now in business with Mr. Bartlett at Sunapee in the same concern. The firm name was Bartlett & Rowell until January, 1896, when the firm was again enlarged, and incorporated under the name of the Consolidated Hame Company. This latter company has the largest hame plant in the United States to-day, and is at present composed of the two firms of Bartlett & Rowell, of Sunapee, and Baker, Carr & Co., of Andover, N. H. They employ about sixty hands at each factory, and generally run for the greater part of the year. The original factory at Sunapee was destroyed by fire in January, 1893. It was immediately rebuilt on a much larger and improved plan. There is now a very good set of new, neat frame buildings and excellent water-power drawn from the Sugar River. To this the firm has added a brass foundry. At present they man- ufacture the common wood hame, also a fancy
hame and an iron one. The factory in An- dover, N.H., while made up of older build- ings, is about the same in the other details.
Mr. Bartlett has always been actively in- terested in the- affairs of his native town. From 1888 to 1892 he was Treasurer of Sullivan County. He is now a member of the Sunapee School Board, and he held the office of Sergeant-at-arms in the State Senate in the year 1880-81. He has been quite active in political matters, and is a stanch Republican. His religious belief is the Methodist Episcopal creed, and for the past sixteen years he has been the superintendent of the Sunday-school connected with the local society. He is rightly classed among the leading men of his town, and has been largely instrumental in the upbuilding of the Con- solidated Hame Company in Sunapee. He is a man of courteous, affable address, and stands very high in the estimation of his townspeople. Mr. Bartlett was married in 1864 to Sarah A. Cowles, of Claremont, N. H. They have two children -- Ernest P. and Mary I.
AVID SARGENT, a well - known farmer and cattle dealer of Dunbar- ton, Merrimack County, N. H., was born in this town in 1833, son of Eliphalet R. and Lydia (Wells) Sargent. His paternal grandfather, Thomas, was a native of Goffs- town, N. H., in which place, also, he died. He was a farmer by occupation.
Eliphalet R. Sargent was born in Goffs- town, Hillsborough County, N.H. He ac- quired a common - school education in his native town, after which he engaged in farm- ing during the rest of his active life. In politics he was a Republican; and he served as Selectman and as Representative to the legislature two years, besides filling other
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offices. He and his wife, Lydia Wells Sar- gent, reared nine children. Mr. Sargent died at the age of eighty-two years.
David Sargent, who was the next to the youngest of his parents' four sons, was educated in the schools of Dunbarton and Derry, N.H. He then went to work on the farm, where he still remains. His enterprising spirit has led him to engage in the manufacture of lumber, and he has also dealt extensively in cattle. Some time ago he made a tour through the West, visiting Salt Lake City and many other important places, including some in Cali- fornia. Mr. Sargent married Mary Ann, daughter of John and Mehitable (Smith) Woodburn, of Londonderry, N.H. ; and they have reared five children, namely: Fred D. Sargent, born February 5, 1858; Mary Lizzie, born February 13, 1860; John W., born September 6, 1867; Frank H., born April 12, 1873; and Nat A., born September 15, 1878. Mrs. Sargent's father was an uncle of Horace Greeley. Mr. Sargent is a Republican in politics.
EORGE COOK, M.D., a prominent physician of Concord, was born at Dover, this State, November 16, 1848, son of Solomon and Susan Ann (Hayes) Cook. His early education was obtained in the Concord High School and in Franklin Academy. In 1865 he began to read medi- cine with Drs. Charles P. Gage and Granville P. Conn, of Concord. Also he attended a course of lectures on medicine at Burlington, Vt., and two courses at the School of Medi- cine of Dartmouth College. After graduat- ing from the last-named school in 1869, he immediately began the practice of his profes- sion in Henniker, N. H., where he remained for a year. During the next five years, from 1870 to 1875, he was at Hillsborough, this
State, and while there won for himself wide recognition as an able and skilful practi- tioner. In 1872 he had charge of seventeen cases of small-pox. He was made Superin- tendent of Schools at Hillsborough in 1874. In May of the following year he came to Con- cord, where he has since resided.
Dr. Cook is a member of the Centre Dis- trict Medical Society, and in 1882 was its president. He is also a member of the Asso- ciation of Military Surgeons of the United States, of the American Medical Association, and of the New Hampshire State Medical Society. In 1890 he was senior delegate of the last-named society to Dartmouth College, and delivered an address before the graduating class on "The Physician as an Educator." During the small-pox epidemic in Montreal in 1885 Dr. Cook was appointed Inspector for the State Board of Health of New. Hamp- shire. He had charge of the small-pox epi- demic in May and June, 1895, when he was engaged for six weeks, attending twenty-six cases. He was a member of the City Board of Health from 1878 to 1884, from 1889 to 1893 he was examining surgeon for pensions, while at present he is surgeon to the Mar- garet Pillsbury General Hospital and physi- cian to the Odd Fellows Home in Concord. He is also president of the New Hampshire Association of Boards of Health, and presi- dent of the State Board of Medical Examiners, representing the New Hampshire Medical Society under the medical registration law.
In politics Dr. Cook is a Republican; and he was sent as Representative to the State legislature in 1883-84, serving during his term as chairman of the Committee on Mili- tary Affairs. In 1879 he was commissioned Assistant Surgeon of the New Hampshire National Guard. In 1882 he was promoted to the post of Surgeon. Two years later he
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was made Medical Director, and in 1893 and 1894 was Surgeon-general.
Dr. Cook has given especial attention to the treatment and prevention of small-pox and to the questions which confront the army physician. He is the author of a paper en- titled "Small-pox," published in the Transac- tions of the New Hampshire Medical Society in 1873, and of another, "Hygiene of the Camp," General Orders, Adjutant - general's office, 1884. Fraternally, he is a member of Eureka Lodge, No. 70, F. & A. M .; of Valley Lodge, No. 43, I. O. O. F., of Hillsborough ; of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and of the Sons of Veterans Camp, Thomas Leaver, No. 4, of Concord.
IMOTHY B. ROSSITER, one of the wealthiest men in Claremont, was born there, September 18, 1807, son of Sher- man and Olive (Baldwin) Rossiter. Sir Ed- ward Rossiter, the founder of the family, with his son and son's wife, Dr. and Mrs. Bray Rossiter, embarked from Plymouth, England, on the ship "Mary and John," March 20, 1630, and arrived at Nantasket, Mass., May 30, 1630. They began a settlement at Mat- tapan, and in the spring of 1636 removed to Windsor, Conn. Sir Edward Rossiter, who was chosen in London in 1629 to serve as an assistant to Governor Winthrop, died soon after his arrival in the colonies. Dr. Bray Rossiter, his son, removed in 1650 to Guil- ford, Conn., where he became a planter, and purchased in 1651 the Desbourough estate. Dr. Rossiter died September 30, 1672, leav- ing ten children. Josiah Rossiter, a son of the Doctor, born at Windsor, removed with his father to Guilford. For ten years, between the years 1700 and 1711, he was Assistant Governor in the colony of Connecticut,
and for some years Recorder and Justice of the Peace. He had seventeen children. His death occurred January 31, 1716. The- ophilus, his son, born February 12, 1696, married Abigail Pierson, November 18, 1725, became the father of fourteen children, and died April 9, 1770. His son, Captain Will- iam, who was born February 11, 1740, mar- ried Submit Chittenden, February 18, 1768, and died December 28, 1820, leaving eleven children.
Sherman Rossiter, the father of Timothy B. Rossiter, born April 20, 1775, leaving Guilford, Conn., came up the Connecticut River to Claremont when that section was nearly all wilderness. He was one of the first settlers of the eastern part of the town. His death occurred in his sixty-fourth year. His wife, Olive, who was a daughter of Tim- othy Baldwin, of Guilford, had eight children - William, Pomeroy M., Luzern S., Stephen F., Chittenden, Lorett, Submit, and Timothy B. William was a merchant of Claremont. When but twenty-four years of age he engaged in business. He was Selectman a number of years and a Representative to the General Court. He died February 29, 1860, leaving three children - Sarah, Adelaide, and Albert. Pomeroy M., deceased, married Elizabeth Tucker, who bore him one child. Luzern S. married Elizabeth Dart, who bore him four children. Stephen F. married Maria A. Marshall, and had four children. Figuring prominently in local politics, he has been Selectman, Representative, County Commis- sioner, and Tax Collector. In January, 1897, he was appointed President of the Claremont National Bank. Chittenden, also deceased, married Charlotte Converse, and left four children. Lorett, deceased, married William Tutherly, and had three children. Her hus- band has held various offices in the town gov-
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ernment. Submit, deceased, married Edmund Wheeler, of Newport, N. H., a prominent cit - izen of the place, and had one child.
Timothy B. received a common-school edu- cation. After his marriage he settled in Newport, N. H., where he devoted himself successfully to agriculture for twenty-two years. On April 1, 1858, he removed to Claremont, and bought the farm of Nathaniel Goss. He then began farming on a large scale, and by his industry, frugality, and scientific methods of work has steadily pros- pered, accumulating a handsome property, becoming virtually a private banker. He is considered one of the wealthiest men in the town. When celebrating his golden wedding in 1886, he received the heartiest congratulations from friends and neighbors.
In May, 1836, he married Elvira Dustin, who was born December 14, 1809, daughter of Moody Dustin. Mr. and Mrs. Rossiter are in excellent health to-day, and he still attends to his duties about the farm. They are mem- bers of the Congregational church. They had two sons and one daughter. George, one of the sons, married Caroline Gleason, of Plain- field, N. H., and had three children - Charles, Edward, and Robert. The second child, named Edward, died in December, 1879. Ellen, the third child, died at the age of four and one-half year.
ENJAMIN LYMAN CULVER, late
a retired resident of Pembroke, Merrimack County, N. H., who died December 6, 1896, was born in Norwich, Vt., August 10, 1830, son of the Rev. Lyman and Fanny (Hovey) Culver. The Culver fam- ily is of French origin, and is said to have been founded in America by Benjamin L. Culver's great-grandfather, John Culver, who,
it is thought, emigrated from Paris, France. He settled in Connecticut, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits for the rest of his life.
His son, James Culver, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Connecti- cut ; and in early life he settled in Vermont. He served in the French and Indian War. The active period of his life was spent in till- ing the soil. He married; and he and his wife, who both lived to a good old age, reared a family of eight children. The parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and noted for their religious zeal. Two of their sons became ministers, and the Rev. David Culver preached in Pembroke in 1824.
Lyman Culver, Benjamin L. Culver's father, was born in Willington, Conn. ; and at the age of seven years he accompanied his parents to Norwich, Vt. His boyhood and youth were passed upon a farm, and his leisure hours were devoted to study. He was practically a self- educated man ; and at the age of twenty-two, having fitted himself for the ministry, he be- came a Methodist preacher. Two years later he espoused the Calvinist Baptist faith, which he earnestly adhered to for the rest of his life ; and he preached in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts for fifty years. He was one of the most estimable and devout Baptist clergymen of his day, and was sincerely loved by a large number of friends and acquaint- ances in different parts of New England. The Rev. Lyman Culver died in Harrisville, now Chesham, N. H., at the age of seventy- nine years. His wife, formerly Fanny Hovey, was a daughter of Edmund Hovey, of Crafts- bury, Vt. She became the mother of eleven children, two of whom are now living, namely : Betsey Hovey, who married Zophar Willard, of Harrisville, N. H., and whose only daugh- ter, Addie E., is the wife of Frank S. Harris,
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of Troy, N. H. ; and Sarepta S., who married Charles J. Smith, of Chesham, N. H., and has three children - Herman P., Flora A., and Charles M. A daughter named Caroline Ar- villa, who died a few weeks ago, in June, 1897, was the wife of John H. Emmons, of . Danbury, N. H., and had two children - Car- rie F. and Retta E. Another daughter, Fan- nie. Bell, is also deceased; and a son Levi died on his plantation at Taylor, Tex. ' The mother, Mrs. Fanny H. Culver, died at the age of seventy-six years.
Benjamin Lyman Culver was educated in the public schools in his native State, attending both common and high schools, and resided with his parents until he was sixteen years old. He then went to Boston; and, after living in that city two years, he went to Manchester, N. H., where he learned the art of photogra- phy. He applied himself thereafter to his calling in various parts of New England, till in 1865 he settled in Pembroke, where he con- ducted the business of a photographic studio some sixteen years. He finally relinquished photography, which he had followed success- fully for thirty years; and for two years he was here engaged in the millinery and fancy- goods trade. Having acquired sufficient means with which to pass the rest of his life in rest and recreation, he in 1882 retired from active business pursuits, and spent his time leisurely at his pleasant home in the village of Suncook until his decease at the date above mentioned.
On January 24, 1856, Mr. Culver was united in marriage with Miranda G. Knowl- ton, daughter of Ariel P. and Abigail (Lee) Knowlton. Her father was a native of Hop- kinton, N. H .; and her mother was born in Manchester, Mass. Mrs. Culver is of English ancestry ; and her paternal grandparents were Daniel H. and Mary (Stocker) Knowlton, of
Hopkinton. Daniel H. Knowlton was a blacksmith and a farmer. He supported the Whig party in politics, and in his religious views was a Congregationalist. He lived to be seventy-one years old, and his wife to be over seventy. Mrs. Culver's mother was a daughter of Amos Lee, and a grand-daughter of Edward Lee, of Manchester, Mass., a sea- faring man, who for many years was engaged in foreign trade. He was noted for his piety and religious zeal. He died at the age of over seventy years. Ariel P. Knowlton, Mrs. Cul- ver's father, was a boot and shoe manufacturer of Hopkinton. He was originally a Whig, but later a Republican, and was very conserva- tive in his political views. He was deeply interested in educational matters, and served upon the School Committee for many years. He died at the age of seventy-one years, and his wife lived to be seventy-five. They were members of the Congregational church.
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