USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Biographical review : containing life sketches of leading citizens of Stafford and Belknap countries, New Hampshire > Part 18
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Andrew Philbrick, George A. Philbricks' father, born in Hampton, August 27, 1803, was eleven years old when his parents settled in Sanbornton. He succeeded to the owner- ship of the homestead, now the property of his son, and included within the township of Til- ton. He carried on farming during the active period of his life, and was respected as an honorable man and a useful citizen. Fond of reading, he was well informed on all the ques- tions of his day ; but he never aspired to polit- ical prominence. On November 15, 1832, he married his cousin, Ruth H. Philbrick, who was born April 13, 1807, daughter of Reuben Philbrick, of Sanbornton. By her he became the father of seven children - Rebecca L., Charles R., Sarah Ann, Oliver D., Nelson A., Hulda J., and George A. Rebecca L. is now the widow of Charles Henry Jaques, late of East Tilton; Charles R. resides in Buda, Ill. ; and Oliver D. is a resident of East Til- ton. Andrew Philbrick died in April, 1887, and his wife on December 11, 1876. Both were active members of the Methodist Epis- copal church.
George Andrew Philbrick acquired his edu- cation in the district schools. He has always resided at the homestead, which came into his possession after his father's death. The estate contains ninety-five acres of land, about twenty-five of which he cultivates, raising general farm products. He keeps seven cows, two horses, and a small flock of sheep. The Philbrick House, which he erected in 1882, is situated about one mile from the railroad station and the post-office. The main build- ing is thirty-eight feet square; and the ell is thirty-eight by twenty, with an addition twenty-four by twenty fect. Pleasantly located, overlooking Winnisquam Lake, which is a beautiful sheet of water surrounded by wooded hills, the house accommodates forty
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guests. The locality is healthy, as well as picturesque, and affords a pleasant and agree- able retreat during the heated term.
Mr. Philbrick married Anna M. Nelson, daughter of Hiram Nelson, formerly of San- bornton. In politics he supports the Repub- lican party, and he is a member of the Winnisquam Grange.
EORGE W. PARKER, proprietor of a hack, livery, sale, and feed stable in Dover, Strafford County, N.H., is carrying on a substantial business, and is one of the best known men in his line in the city. Ile was born April 24, 1847, in Compton, Province of Quebec, a son of Daniel P. and Cynthia I. Parker. He was brought up on a. farm, and during his younger days assisted his parents in the daily routine of an agricultural life, the chores about the house naturally falling to his share ; and during the winter seasons he was constant in his attendance at the district school. When eighteen years old Mr. Parker started in life for himself, and has since been a self-supporting member of society. Going first to Lowell, Mass., he worked for two years with .E. T. Brigham, one of the leading pho- tographers of that city. Coming subsequently to Dover, he was engaged in similar work in a studio here for five years. He then entered an entirely new field of labor, opening a bakery, which he managed about three years, at the end of that time becoming the proprietor of a meat market, which he conducted seven years. He then disposed of his shop, and purchased his present business, in which he is meeting with undisputed success, having a well stocked and thoroughly equipped stable in a most favor- able location.
On the first day of January, 1869, Mr. Par- ker married Miss Mary Hall, a native of Gar-
land, Me. ; and of their union one child has been born - Bessie I. Parker. Politically, Mr. Parker is identified with the Republican party, in which he is an active worker; and he is now serving his third term as Deputy Sheriff of Strafford County. He belongs to various secret organizations, being a member of Strafford Lodge, No. 29, F. & A. M., of Dover; of Olive Branch Lodge, No. 6, K. of P., of this city, of which he is Past Chancel- lor; and member of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire. Mr. Parker is not identified with any church, but contributes toward the main- tenance of the First Congregational Church, of which his wife and daughter are members.
BRAHAM L. MORRISON, whose widow resides in Laconia, was the last of the old stage-drivers of the Winnepesaukce valley. He was born Decem- ber 4, IS18, in Sanbornton, N. H., son of Abraham and Hannah (Lane) Morrison. His parents had twelve children, of whom the sur- vivors are Daniels T. and Mrs. Judith Fogg, of Methuen, Mass. ; and Samuel W., of San- bornton. In 1842 Mr. Morrison came to Laconia, and became the driver of the stage running between here and Holderness, now Ashland. In the great fire of 1846 the stable on Gove Place was burned, and with it the stage and fittings. He next became the proprietor of the Farmer Hotel, which was on the route of several stage lines, including that running to Concord, and conducted it for eleven years. Beginning in 1856, he had charge of the Willard House for thirteen years, and then disposed of it to George H. Everett. After that he embarked in livery-keeping on Gove Place, where he was in business up to about 1886, when he sold out and retired. In his early life Mr. Morrison had a stage
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line running to Centre Harbor; and until the introduction of the railway in 1848 he and the late John Little, also of Laconia, made the trips alternately. In his later years Mr. Morrison was in poor health. Soon after a visit to Brockton, Mass., to spend Thanks- giving, he was taken sick with his last illness, and thereafter gradually failed until his death by a paralytic shock, on March 11, 1896. Mr. Morrison was a loyal Republican. In the Presidential campaign of 1840 he cast his vote for William Henry Harrison. In 1861 and 1862 he represented the town of Gilford in the New Hampshire legislature. He was a charter member of Mount Belknap Lodge, No. 20, K. of P. When able he attended ser- vice at the Free Baptist Church of Laconia, and was several times elected a member of its Financial Committee. In his life he con- formed to the principles of the Golden Rule.
Mr. Morrison was twice married, on the first occasion to Susan Whipple, of Sanborn- ton, who died by burning, August 6, 1868. She bore him three children - George A., Curtis, and Nellie Maria. On May 17, 1871, he married Mrs. Betsy Elizabeth Stevens, a daughter of James and Rebecca (Wyett) Howe, of New Hampton. Her father, a contractor and builder, who also carried on farming quite extensively, retired about ten years before his death. The great grandfather of James Howe served in the Continental army during the war of independence. Rebecca (Wyett) Howe was a daughter of Deacon Wyett, an old resident of Campton ; and her mother was a descendant of John Rogers, of Pilgrim fame. Her first mar- riage was contracted with a Mr. Daniel Wilson, of Holderness, by whom she had four children - Myra, Hannah, David, and Daniel. James Howe, by a previous marriage with a Miss Nancy Drake, of New Hampton, had four chil- dren - Lorenzo G., James M., Henry D., and
Nancy D. Eight children were the fruit of their second union; namely, Horace F., Jo- siah S., Aaron M. (a physician), Harriet S., Martha D., William G., George W., and Betsy Elizabeth. James Howe, born Febru- ary 19, 1786, died January 6, 1864, in his seventy-eighth year; and his wife, Rebecca, was born June 22, 1787, and died August 6, 1876, aged eighty-nine years. She was a devout Christian. Prior to her union with Abraham L. Morrison, Betsy Elizabeth Howe married Charles Stevens, of Gilmanton, who was for several years the proprietor of the Mount Belknap House at Lakeport. Mrs. Morrison now lives with a daughter by her former marriage, Mrs. Nellie M. Cox, who was the widow of Eben Hoyt, formerly of La- conia. Mr. Hoyt dealt extensively in pianos and organs for several years in Laconia and Manchester. He died March 5, 1894, aged fifty-one. Mrs. Cox, who was educated at New Hampton Academy, possesses a rich con- tralto voice ; is a member of the Oberon Ladies' Quartette of Laconia, with which she has sung for the past seven years; and is a member of the North Congregational Church choir. She is an artist as well as musician, and her skill in painting is shown in the works that adorn the walls of her home. Her present husband, George Burnham Cox, whom she married February 10, 1897, is a lawyer of La- conia. She is the mother of two children : Alice Louise, who died at the age of fourteen years; and Louis E., now a boy of twelve. Mrs. Cox has one brother, W. M. Stevens, a farmer in Belmont.
OSEPH B. SAWYER, a well-known citizen of Dover, is now living retired from active business pursuits. His birth occurred November 20, 1832, in the
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house he owns and occupies, it having been erected by his father, the late Levi Sawyer, in the early part of the present century.
Levi Sawyer was born, bred, and spent the major portion of his life in Dover, following the trade of a blacksmith most of the time. He was a man of acknowledged integrity, lib- eral in his beliefs, broad in his charity, and a prominent member of the Society of Friends ; and his death, which took place after he had attained a venerable age, was deeply deplored by all who knew him. On July 7, 1826, he married Hannah G. Pinkham, a daughter of Joseph and Betty Green Pinkham, whose union was solemnized at Amesbury, Mass., in 1785. She was a lifelong and respected resident of Dover, a woman of remarkable mental ability and an active worker in the cause of temper- ance and other reform movements. She was also a forcible speaker and for many years a prominent preacher in the Friends' church. She became the mother of five children, two of whom died young. The others were: Joseph B., the special subject of this sketch; Lydia E., who died in 1895; and L. Newell, a con- tracting freight agent on the Northern Pacific Railway, now a resident of Chicago, Ill.
Joseph B. Sawyer completed his school life at the Friends' Boarding-school in Providence, R. I., after which he remained with his parents until attaining his majority. Going then to Titusville, Pa., he engaged in the oil business, which was then in its infancy. At first he worked for others; but in a short time he allied himself with a stock company which leased land, and conducted some very success- ful operations. He settled permanently in the Keystone State, making his residence in Pittsburg. Mr. Sawyer became one of the best known oil men in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and amassed a fair competency. In 1888, on account of ill health, he disposed of
his interests in the oil regions, and returning to Dover purchased the home in which his childhood days were spent, where he is now resting from his labors.
Mr. Sawyer married November 7, 1894, Miss Abbie M. Sturtevant, of Springfield, Mass., who presides over their pleasant and hospitable home. Politically, Mr. Sawyer supports the principles of the Democratic party ; and he attends worship at the Friends' Meeting, having never departed from the faith to which he was bred.
HARLES M. BAILEY, a prosperous hardware merchant of Rochester, doing a large business in hardware, plumbing, and steam-fitting, was born April 20, 1847, in Littleton, N. H., son of H. M. and Harriet M. (Burt) Bailey. The father was born in 1813 in Peacham, Vt., which was his place of residence up to 1851. Then he removed to Manchester, N. H., where he was engaged in the hardware business until his retirement on account of poor health in 1872, and died at the age of sixty-five years. He was a prominent Republican politician, and, though not an office-seeker, served in the Man- chester City Council for a number of years. His wife died aged about thirty-six years.
Charles M. Bailey went with his parents to Manchester when four years old, and there chiefly spent his boyhood. Up to fifteen years of age he was an attendant of the public schools. He afterward was a clerk in his father's store until his father went out of busi- ness. Then he started for himself in the hard- ware business at Pittsfield, N. H., and subse- quently conducted a grain and flour store there. In 1886 he purchased his present store in Rochester, and thereafter, still living in Pitts- field, managed all three enterprises until
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1891. In that year he sold out his Pittsfield stores and came to Rochester, taking posses- sion of a residence previously built by him, and which is one of the finest in the city. Be- sides doing a general hardware business, he gives special attention to plumbing and the putting in of steam-heating apparatus.
In 1867 Mr. Bailey was joined in marriage with Miss Charlotte F. Joadro, of Manchester, N. H., who was born in Lowell, Mass. For- merly a Democrat in politics and quite a prom- inent worker for the party, though he would accept no office, he has recently become a Republican. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, having membership in Corinthian Blue Lodge of Pittsfield, Temple Chapter and Palestine Commandery of Rochester, Edward A. Raymond Consistory (Scottish" Rite) of Nashua, and Aleppo Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Bos- ton. Though not a church member, he con- tributes liberally toward the support of church work.
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AMES M. ROWE, D. D.S., a success- ful dentist of Barnstead for many years, was born in Holderness, N. H., January 18, 1834. His parents, John and Susan Rowe, had seven children, of whom four are living ; namely, George, Elizabeth, Hannah, and Marion. With a fair education he studied dentistry in Lynn, Mass., with Dr. A. Trowe, after which he took up practice in Rochester,. N. H. A year of work there caused his health to give way; and he came to Barnstead, and resided here for a number of years. Then his strength returned, and he went to Concord and resumed professional work. Soon after, again obliged to abandon city work on account of the confinement incident thereto, he returned to Barnstead and took up his work in a way that permitted of his being more or less in the open
air. After a while his dental practice covered a circuit of twenty miles about Barnstead. Outside his profession he took especial interest in educational work, and he was prominent as a member of the Advent church.
On November 11, 1857, Dr. Rowe married Miss Emma S. Clark, of Ipswich, Mass. She is a daughter of Enoch Clark, who was born in Barnstead, son of Enoch, Sr., a large land- owner in Barnstead. Mr. Clark, a carpenter by trade, removed to Newburyport, Mass., where he was a building contractor. Before leaving Barnstead, he served as Town Treas- urer and Selectman, and also represented the town in the legislature for two years and in an extra session. In politics he was a Democrat. He married Sabrina Thurlow, a descendant of Lord Thurlow, of England. She was born in 1799, and died January 8, 1889. Her ances- tor, Lord Thurlow, on November 19, 1664, in the sixteenth year of the reign of Charles II., was granted a coat of arms representing Jacob's staff fixed horizontally on a field. The first of the family in America was Thomas Thurlow, who came over in 1633, and settled finally in Newburyport, before its incorpora- tion as a town. His son, Thomas, was the father of Stephen Thurlow, a sea captain, who married Eunice Thurlow. Stephen and Eu- nice were the parents of Sabrina Thurlow, who became the wife of Enoch Clark. Besides Mrs. Rowe, Mr. Clark had three other chil- dren - Sarah Ann, Rufus, and Harriett. Sarah Ann married William B. Clark, Rufus married Emily Hodgdon, and Harriett is the wife of George H. Cilley.
Dr. James M. Rowe and his wife had nine children ; namely, Eugene A., Edward W., Arthur J., Frank H., Walter C., Florence E., Forrest C., Charles F., and Freddie. Edward is. practising dentistry in Manchester, and Eugene and Frank are following the same pro-
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BYRON W. BROWN.
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fession in Concord. Arthur was in trade a few years, and during that time served as Post- master of South Barnstead. He is now, with his brother Walter, attending Dartmouth Col- lege, taking a medical course in the same class. Florence, Forrest, and Charles are at home. Dr. Rowe died in Barnstead, June IS, 1 896.
B YRON WEEKS BROWN, a retired lumber manufacturer of East Tilton, and an ex-member of the New Hampshire legislature, was born in Went- worth, N. H., October 23, 1833, son of Josiah P. and Nancy M. (Brown) Brown. His great- grandfather, Benjamin Brown, who was born August 28, 1736, and resided in North Hamp- ton, N. H., died March 12, 1799. Benjamin's wife, Mary Brown, who was born January 19, 1739, died in 1823. Benjamin Brown (sec- ond), grandfather of Byron W., was born in North . Hampton, July 21, 1771. In his younger days he followed the sea. Afterward he settled on a farm of sixty-two and a half acres in Sanbornton, N. H., spent the rest of his active period in tilling the soil, and died May 12, 1848. He married Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Philbrook, who died July 27, 1853, aged eighty-three years. Of their five children, Josiah P. was the eldest.
Josiah P. Brown was born in North Hamp- ton, December 24, 1797. An infant when his parents moved to this locality, he was reared and educated here. After reaching his major- ity he followed the sea in the coasting trade for two or three summers, spending the winters employed upon tarms or in the lumber camps. In 1824 he moved to Wentworth, where he bought sixty acres of wild land, and converted it into a good farm. He also en- gaged extensively in lumbering, which was at that time in its infancy, and followed it for
the rest of his active period. His active and industrious life closed March 22, 1877. In politics he was a Democrat, and he served the town with ability as a member of the Board of Selectmen. His wife, Nancy, who was a daughter of Theodore Brown, of Northfield, N. H., had by him fourteen children, of whom thirteen reached maturity. Of these, seven are living, namely: Bradbury T., of Tilton; Sarah Jane, the wife of the Rev. Josiah D. Cross, a native of Springfield, N. H. ; Dorinda A., who first married M. T. Noyes, and is now the widow of J. Henry Webster; Hannah E., who successively married Moses P. Chase and Horatio C. Blood, of Wentworth; Byron W., the subject of this sketch; and Asa A. and Alphonso, who are both residing in Went- worth. The others were: Benjamin F., Jo- seph, John G., Alonzo, Marshall J., Mary A., and Martha A. Mary was the wife of Lyman A. Conant, and Martha was the wife of Gilbert Waldron. The parents were members of the Free Baptist church.
Byron Weeks Brown attended the district school in Wentworth. At the age of nineteen he hired a farm, which he carried on for two years. For the succeeding four years he was unable to labor on account of a lingering ill- ness. Upon his recovery in 1859 he went to Tilton, where he was employed in his brother's saw-mill for two and a half years. He next went to Watertown, Mass., as lum- ber inspector at the United States Arsenal. After holding that position for two years he returned to Tilton, and resumed work with his brother. On January 1, 1865, he bought the entire establishment, comprising a saw-mill and a grist-mill. The management of these received his exclusive attention until 1873, when he started a saw-mill in Wentworth. In 1882 he sold a half-interest in the Wentworth mill to his brother, Asa A. Brown; in 1886
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he disposed of his Tilton enterprise to the P. C. Cheney Pulp Company ; and two years later he sold his remaining interest in the Wentworth mill to his brother. At one time he employed as many as seventy-five men and ninety-six horses and oxen in cutting and hauling logs, and during the summer season his regular mill force was from fifteen to twenty men. He is now living in retirement upon a small farm, where he raises sufficient produce for his own use.
On July 6, 1863, Mr. Brown was joined in marriage with Lucinda True Johnson, daugh- ter of Joseph Johnson, of Sanbornton. In 1873 and 1874 Mr. Brown represented this town in the legislature as a Democrat. During his first term he served upon the Committees on Election and Woman Suffrage, and during his second term he was a member of the Fi- nancial Committee. Both he and Mrs. Brown attend the Free Baptist church.
MASA PRAY, a well-to-do farmer of Rochester, was born April 23, 1838, in a house located but a few rods from the one in which he now resides, son of the late Ezra H. Pray. His grandfather, Pelatiah Pray, was for many years engaged in school teaching in Berwick, York County, Me., where he was well known to more than one generation of children.
Ezra H. Pray, who was born and reared in Berwick, worked as a farm hand in his early life. Subsequently he came from Berwick to Rochester, purchased a tract of timber land here, on it cleared a homestead, and thereafter was occupied in its cultivation until his death in 1866. In the winter seasons, when there was but little to do on the farm besides at- tending to the stock, he engaged in lumbering and butchering. While he never manifested
a desire for public office, he was a zealous supporter of the Whig party. He married Miss Hannah Tibbetts, of Rochester; and they reared five children. These were: Dud- ley, now a resident of South Boston, Mass .; Charles, who taught school in Buffalo, N. Y., and was afterward engaged in surveying for a new railway at St. Anthony's Falls, Minne- sota, and died at Buffalo in 1852; Ezra, who was for some time a practising physician in Bos- ton, Mass., served four years in the United States Navy, after which he studied dentistry, and now resides on the old homestead; Amasa, the subject of this sketch; and Lydia, the widow of Dr. George N. Thompson, late of Boston.
Amasa Pray completed his schooling at West Lebanon, N.H. He afterward assisted in the work of the farm, remaining with his parents until the breaking out of the late Re- bellion. Then, in prompt response to the call for volunteers, he enlisted in Company F, Fourth New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. Going at once to the front, he was an active participant in the engagement at Fort Sumter, and was also at those of Morris Island, Port Royal, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine. In the fall of 1864, having been honorably dis- charged from the service at the expiration of his term of enlistment, Mr. Pray returned to the old homestead, where he remained until his marriage, when he established his present home. He has forty-eight acres of land de- voted to general agriculture, although he makes somewhat a specialty of dairying, man- ufacturing about sixty pounds of butter per week. He also does some teaming and other work for the town of Rochester.
On September 18, 1865, Mr. Pray married Miss Laura, a daughter of Samuel Trickey, of this town. They have had five children, as follows : Emma, now the wife of Will Varney,
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of East Rochester; Mary J., who died in Bos- 'ton, September 29, 1893, aged twenty-three years ; Charles E., who lives at home; George A., of Rochester; and .Edwin, a resident of Lynn, Mass. Mr. Pray has never had any in- clination to hold public office, but he has been a faithful adherent of the Republican party. He has been a Mason of Humane Lodge, No. !I, of this town, since 1865; and he is a comrade of Sampson Post, No. 22, G. A. R.
I.MER J. LORD, an enterprising wheel- wright and lumber manufacturer, and the only undertaker in Gilmanton, was born in Barnstead, N. H., March 22, 1862. His grandfather, John Lord, came to this country from England, in company with his brother Benjamin. Benjamin, who settled in New York City, engaged in the real estate business, became a wealthy broker, and died about the year 1870, leaving a large amount of property to his relatives. John Lord settled in Maine, and died a comparatively young man.
Jacob Lord, the father of Elmer J., after spending his earlier years in Berwick, Me., moved from there to Barnstead, where he fol- lowed the trade of wheelwright until 1861. In that year he enlisted as a private in the Fourteenth Regiment, New Hampshire Vol- unteers, for service in the Civil War. In the army he contracted a disease which incapaci- tated him for service. He died soon after his return home, and his remains were interred in Berwick. He married Martha Stanley, of Shapleigh, Me., whose death occurred shortly after the birth of Elmer J., the subject of this sketch. She left two other children - Martha and Sarah. Martha is now the wife of Hiram Young, of Beverly, Mass. ; and Sarah married Willmirth Merrill, who died in Gloucester, Mass., October 25, 1896.
Elmer J. Lord was educated in public and private schools of Barnstead and at the Pitts- field Academy. When his studies were com- pleted, he entered Sanderson's dry-goods store in Pittsfield as a . clerk, and remained there two years. He then engaged in carriage building, and later became an undertaker, a business that he followed in Rochester, N. H., for two years. In September, 1886, on account of failing health, he moved to Gil- manton Iron Works, and resumed the carriage- building and undertaker's business in this town. He has lately associated himself with J. P. Hussey, in the lumber manufacturing business. This firm operate a saw-mill, and supply a large amount of lumber for building purposes in Gilmanton and other towns. Mr. Lord began the study of undertaking with Professor Clarke, of Springfield, Ohio. He is a member of the New England Association of Undertakers, and by attending its lectures in Boston he is conversant with the most ad- vanced ideas relative to the business.
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