USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Biographical review : containing life sketches of leading citizens of Stafford and Belknap countries, New Hampshire > Part 23
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Mr. Sinclair united with the Methodist Episcopal church in 1873, and has taken a deep interest in all movements for the uplift- ing of humanity. He has served his town as a member of the School Board, and is much interested in all educational questions. In politics he is a Republican, but he has never sought political preferment. He has written many articles upon mechanical subjects and upon questions of local historical interest. He is a prominent and active Mason. He was made an F. & A. M. at Oriental Lodge, of Bridgton, Me., in 1869, and demitted to Hu- mane Lodge of Rochester. He took chapter degrees in Oriental Chapter, Bridgton, Me., in 1873, and demitted to become a charter member of Temple Chapter of Rochester. He has been P. H. P., and in virtue of having held that office he received the degrees of High Priesthood at Concord, under the direction of the late John J. Bell, of Exeter. He was a member of Orphan Council and St. Paul Com- mandery of Dover, and demitted to become charter member of Palestine Commandery at Rochester in 1896.
Mr. Sinclair is a Director of the Rochester Building & Loan Association, and one of the incorporators of the Norway Plains National Bank. He is also a charter member of the
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JOHN L. PERLEY.
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National Association of Woollen and Worsted Overseers, which was organized in 1883, with Mr. Sinclair as temporary Chairman. A few osefevers met in Boston at the Institute of Tilinology Building, and from that meeting the organization grew. Mr. Sinclair was one uf its first Vice-Presidents, and has always been an active and influential member.
On January 30, 1870, Mr. Sinclair married Miss Eleanor Perry Hill, a lady of Scotch- Irish descent. She was born in Selkirk, Scotland, and came to America with her par- ents when only five years old. For a time Mr. Hill, her father, lived in New York City, whence he removed to Ohio, where his wife died in 1861, and he then came with his daughter to Maine. Mrs. Eleanor P. H. Sin- clair died April 21, 1878, leaving two chil- dren. In 1880 Mr. Sinclair married Miss Carrie Manson, a lady who had been educated at Wolfeboro Academy, and had for some time been a teacher. Of this union have been born two children - Angie M. and John Everett.
OHN LANGDON PERLEY, M.D., was one of the leading men of Belknap County in the early part of this cen- tury ; and in Laconia, the home of his family for many years, he was very influential in financial and political affairs. Born in La- conia (at that time Meredith Bridge), June 10, 1805, he was the son of Stephen and Mehitable (Ladd) Perley. Of Stephen Perley, who might be called the architect of the fortunes of Laconia, an extended account will be found elsewhere in this work. The Ladd family, too, to which the Doctor's mother belonged, was prominent in the early history of this place.
John Langdon Perley was graduated at Bow- doin College, Brunswick, Me., in 1829, and
studied medicine with Dr. John Durkee, of Laconia. He was actively engaged in profes- sional practice until about forty years of age, and then retired in order to give his attention to other matters in which he had become in- terested. In 1837 he went West, and, spend- ing some time in that comparatively flawless and unsettled country, returned to his boy- hood's home with renewed interest in its wel- fare. Owning a vast extent of woodland in this vicinity, he was extensively engaged for years in farming and the manufacture of lum- ber; and at East Tilton he owned a saw-mill, a grist-mill, and the water privilege. He event- ually sold the Tilton property. Dr. Perley was one of the incorporators of the Meredith Bridge Savings Bank, and was a member of the Board of Trustees and its President for some time. He was also active in incorporat- ing the Belknap Savings Bank, of which he was President until about ten years previous to his death, when he resigned. A member of the old Whig party, he was appointed Post- master of Laconia in 1829, the last year of John Quincy Adams's administration; and in that year he was appointed by Governor Ben- jamin Pierce Surgeon of the Twenty-ninth Regiment of New Hampshire militia. Elected to the State legislature in 1834, he distin- guished himself as a disinterested champion of .. the people's rights. He it was who introduced and obtained the passage of the bill to reduce the governor's salary from two thousand dol- lars to one thousand dollars, believing that the salary should be nominal only, and that the honor of being governor of the State should satisfy the candidate. No change has been made in the governor's salary since his time. Dr. Perley lived to the age of eighty-three years and four months. The portrait of Dr. Perley accompanying this sketch was taken at the age of fifty-eight years.
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On February 20, 1839, he was united in marriage with Dora, daughter of Josiah and Betsey (Potter) Rundlett, of Gilmanton, N. H. Their union was blessed by five children - John L., D. Augusta, Mary P., Lewis S., and Clara E. John L. Perley, who was born in December, 1839, enlisted in August, 1861, in Troop M, New England Cavalry, and the fol- lowing November was promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant. Taken ill in May, 1862, he returned home, and died shortly after from the effects of exposure during his military ser- vice. D. Augusta is the wife of Jacob San- born, of Laconia, and has one child, Pearl Smith Sanborn. Mary P. was married in Sep- tember, 1871, to Josiah T. Sturtevant, a native of Centre Harbor, Belknap County, N. H., who was for a time engaged in the manufacture of hosiery in Meredith, and who also managed a drug store in that town, where he is now ex- tensively engaged in the real estate business. Mr. Sturtevant is a member of the Republican party. He is affiliated with two of the leading fraternal orders of this section, belonging to the Odd Fellows and the Meredith Grange. In religious matters his sympathies are with the Congregational denomination, his father having been a Deacon of the Congregational church.
Lewis S. Perley attended Gilford Academy, then took a year's course of special study in Boston, and finished his educational training at Professor Hyatt's Academy in Pennsylvania. He has had much work to do as a civil en- gineer; and he manages the home farm, an estate of one hundred acres, largely devoted to raising hay. Mr. Lewis S. Perley also is a Republican in politics. He is a member of Winipiseogee Lodge, No. 7, I. O. O. F. In 1888 he was united in marriage with Clara L. Knowlton, of Meredith. They have two children, Lew K. and Marion Louise, aged re-
spectively six and three years. Clara E. Per- ley is the wife of Dr. A. L. Norris, residing on Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridgeport, Mass. She is the mother of three children : Albert P., a student at the Boston Institute of Technology; C. Maud, attending the Cam- bridgeport High School; and Grace M.
RANK W. CORSON, an active and enterprising business man of East Rochester, N. H., was born June 2, 1852, in the village of East Rochester, about a mile from the post-office, this having also been the birthplace of his father, the late Willard Corson. His grandfather, Joseph Corson, who came to Rochester from Dover in the early part of the present century, was probably the first of the Corson family to lo- cate in this section of Strafford County. Willard Corson, whose death occurred in Rochester in 1888, was here engaged in agri- cultural pursuits during his active life, carry- ing on all branches of husbandry with much success. His wife, in maidenhood Lydia Wingate, of this town, bore him four chil- dren; namely, Myra, Eliza, Frank W., and Joseph W. Eliza is the wife of Charles W. Corson, of East Rochester; and Joseph W. is in the provision business in New York City.
Frank W. Corson attended the public schools of Rochester in his earlier years. He subsequently studied for several winters at Lebanon Academy, devoting his summers to farm work. After this he learned the carpen- ter's trade, at which he worked for some time, continuing, however, to reside with his par- ents. In 1877, or thereabout, he began work- ing for the Cocheco Woollen Manufacturing Company in East Rochester, remaining with them for a period of thirteen years. Desiring then to establish himself in some permanent
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business, he formed a copartnership with (. !! Knox, and with him purchased the mill of John C. Shorey. In this place he has since Unten profitably engaged in the manufacture of boxes and lumber of all kinds.
In 1878, November 28, Mr. Corson married Sabia T. Cowell, of West Lebanon, Me. They have now three children, namely: S. Gertrude, born June 5, 1882; Mildred A., Forr June 27, 1888; and F. Verne, born March 4, 1894. Mr. Corson has taken an ac- tive interest in local affairs, in which he has been prominent during a large portion of his life, invariably supporting the Republican party. In 1887 and 1888 he was elected to the lower branch of the State legislature, and attended the long session made famous by the great railway fight. In 1893 he was elected to the City Council from Ward One, and while there served on the Water Works Committee. He served for two years on the School Board, and has been ward Selectman for six years, or since the incorporation of Rochester as a city. Mr. Corson is a charter member of Cocheco Lodge, No. 39, I. O. O. F., of East Rochester, and was its first Vice Grand, and has since occupied all the chairs. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is serving as one of its official board.
EV. DANIEL CLARKE KNOWLES, A.M., D.D., Ladd Professor of Moral and Biblical Science at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary and Female College, Tilton, N.H., and a veteran of the Civil War, was born in Yardville, N. J., January 4, 1836. His parents, Enoch and Alice C. (Hughes) Knowles, were natives of New Jersey. His great-grandfather, John Knowles, Sr., was born in Titusville, N. J., where he resided as long as he lived. He |
owned land upon the Delaware River, near the point where General Washington made his famous crossing.
John Knowles, Jr., son of John, Sr., and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a lifelong resident of Titusville, and one of the prominent men of that town in his day. The maiden name of his wife was Elizabeth Farley.
Enoch Knowles, son of John, Jr., was born in Titusville in 1805. He was reared to agri- cultural pursuits, and remained at the home- stead until his marriage, at which time he settled in Yardville, upon a farm belonging to his wife's parents. This property, which eventually came to his possession, consisted of two hundred acres of tillable land; and, besides taking care of a peach orchard of four thousand trees, he devoted considerable atten- tion to the raising of cattle and sheep. He carried on general farming and fruit raising with unusual energy until 1862, when he re- tired from active life. Although his school opportunities were meagre, his natural ability enabled him to make good use of what little education he had acquired. In politics he was originally a Democrat, but joined the Repub- lican party at its formation. Though not an aspirant for political prominence, he held some of the minor town offices. He was an earnest advocate of temperance and total absti- nence and an able speaker in behalf of the cause. He was at one time a candidate for the legislature; and, being assured of the liquor vote, provided he would not use his in- fluence against the traffic, he replied that, if it was necessary for him to go to the legis- lature upon a liquor cask, he preferred to re- main at home. His wife, Alice C. Hughes, was born in Yardville in 1804, daughter of Joseph and Mary Hughes, the former of whom died in 1846, aged eighty-two, and the latter in 1842, aged eighty-one.
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Mr. and Mrs. Enoch Knowles were the parents of seven children, as follows: Sarah A .; Mary; the Rev. Joseph Hughes; John Fletcher; the Rev. Daniel C., the subject of this sketch; Emma L. ; and Enoch. Sarah A. became the wife of the Rev. Abram Palmer, of Newark, N. J. Mary died in 1857. The Rev. "Joseph Hughes Knowles is a member of the Newark Conference and Secretary of the American Sabbath Union. He was, in a great measure, instrumental in having the Colum- bian Exposition at Chicago closed on Sundays. John Fletcher Knowles resides in Orange, N.J. Emma L. Knowles is a missionary in India, and has a school located at Darjeeling, which is eight thousand feet above the level of the sea. Enoch resides in Pennington, N.J. The father and mother both united with the Methodist Episcopal church when young; and the father, who was a local preacher, was active in religious matters until his death, which occurred February 4, 1877.
Daniel Clarke Knowles prepared for college at the Pennington (N. J. ) Seminary, and was graduated at the Wesleyan University, Middle- town, Conn., with the class of 1858. After completing his collegiate course he became teacher of mathematics at the Poultney (Vt. ) Academy, in 1859 was teacher of languages at the Pittsburg (Pa.) Female College, and in the following year he was appointed to the same position at the Pennington Seminary and Female Collegiate Institute. In May, 1861, he began the organization of a company for service in the Civil War, and the one hundred and one men that he recruited were mustered in on August 21 of the same year. He was com- missioned Captain, and served at Hilton Head and at Fort Pulaski. He had charge of estab- lishing a battery on Jones's Island to cut off the enemy's approach to that fort, and during the siege was stricken with malaria, which he
had contracted while camping in the swamps. By the advice of physicians he was compelled to resign in order to save his life; and what promised to be a notable, as well as an honor- able, military career ended in 1862.
He returned to Pennington Seminary, and in 1863 was elected its President, a position which he filled for four years. In 1864 he joined the New Jersey Conference, in 1866 was made a Deacon, and in 1868 an Elder. In 1867 he was transferred to the New Hamp- shire Conference, and was assigned to the Haverhill Street Methodist Church, Lawrence, Mass., where he remained for three years. In 1870 he was transferred to the New England Conference, and assigned to St. Paul's Church, Lowell, Mass. In 1872 he was stationed at St. Paul's Church, Lynn, Mas's., and in 1876 was assigned to Malden, Mass. In 1878 he was retransferred to the New Hampshire Con- ference, and again took charge of the Haver- hill Street Church in Lawrence. His health failing while there, he spent several months at Clifton Springs. Upon his recovery he in 1882 took charge of the Methodist Episcopal church in Plymouth, N. H., where he remained two years; and in 1884 he was appointed agent of the New Hampshire Conference Seminary and Female College, in which capacity he raised and collected fifty-five thousand dollars for the erection of new buildings. He was elected its President in 1885; and he ably filled that position until 1891, when he was forced to resign on account of feeble health. The malarial poison that his system absorbed while in the army, and which had produced years of suffering, at last located in his foot ; and he was obliged to have it amputated. In 1892 Dr. Knowles was appointed Treasurer and General Agent of the New Hampshire Conference Seminary, a position that he still holds, besides filling the Ladd Chair of Moral
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and Biblical Science, which he took in 1896. In isso he was a delegate to the General Con- ference at Cincinnati, and in 1882 was elected a Trustee of the Wesleyan University, Middle- town, Conn. He was a member of the Ecu- menical Council at Washington, D.C., in IS91, but was unable to be present, as he was then confined to the hospital.
On November 10, 1863, Dr. Knowles was united in marriage with Lucia M. Barrows, daughter of the Rev. L. D. Barrows, D.D., of the New Hampshire Conference. Mrs. Knowles has been the mother of two children ; namely, Nina Elbert and Frederic Lawrence. Nina E. died in Malden, Mass., in 1875, aged eight years. Frederic Lawrence Knowles was graduated at the Wesleyan University in 1894, and at Harvard University in 1896. He is at present teacher of literature at the New Hamp- shire Conference Seminary.
Dr. Knowles cast his first Presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, and continued to sup- port the Republican party until 1884. He then became a Prohibitionist, and has twice been that party's candidate for Congress from the Second District. In 1894 he was the Pro- hibition candidate for Governor. He is a member of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity and the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Wesleyan University.
BEN E. BERRY, one of the best-known residents of New Durham, and an ex- member of the legislature, was born in this town, October 18, 1831, son of Eben B. and Mercy R. (Hurd) Berry. His grand- father, John Berry, an Englishman, was a pioneer settler in New Durham. Eben B. Berry was a lifelong resident of this town, and for many years was engaged in manufacturing agricultural implements and in general farm- ing. He was a good business man, and an
influential citizen, and his activity and enter- prise were very beneficial to the community. He served for a number of years on the Board of Selectmen (one year of which he was Chair- man), was Overseer of the Poor, and also acted as a Notary Public. He was drafted during the War of 1812, but not called into active service. He died in 1865, aged sixty-eight years. His wife, Mercy R. (Hurd) Berry, was a daughter of John Hurd, who served on General Washington's staff during the Revo- lutionary War. She became the mother of eight children, of whom the only survivor is Eben E., the subject of this sketch.
Eben E. Berry attended the Farmington High School, and subsequently completed his studies at the West Lebanon Academy. He learned the shoemaker's trade, which he fol- lowed for some years during the summer sea- son, and he taught school in the adjoining towns during several winter terms. In 1856 he bought his present farm of one hundred and thirty acres, located at Scruton's Corner, and when not occupied in attending to its cultiva- tion he is engaged in surveying land, having performed much work of that kind in Strafford and Belknap Counties. In politics he is a Democrat. He served as Tax Collector in 1856 and 1857, was superintendent of schools nineteen years, and was for two years a mem- ber of the Board of Education, and is now serving for the third year. He was a Select- man fifteen years. He has acted as police officer, has been a Justice of the Peace for over thirty years, and was elected a Repre- sentative to the legislature in 1895. He is interested in the New Durham Fire Insurance Company, and has been its Secretary and Treasurer for the past ten years.
February 1, 1855, Mr. Berry married Lucy M. Chesley, of this town, and of their five children three are living, namely : Ida L.,
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wife of James Glidden; Lyman E. ; and Percey C.
Mr. Berry has occupied the principal chairs of Fraternal Lodge, F. & A. M., of Farming- ton, and is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the Free Baptist church, and has acted as Clerk and Treasurer therein for the past twelve years.
ON. ELLERY A. HIBBARD, of Laconia, senior member of the Belk- nap County Bar, and a former Judge of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, is a widely known and influential citizen, having for many years taken an active part in the con- duct of public affairs. He was born in St. Johnsbury, Vt., July 31, 1826, a son of Silas and Olive (Albee) Hibbard.
Several generations of Hibbards have lived and died in Concord, Vt. David, Judge Hib- bard's grandfather, who was a resident of that town during the greater part of his life, was a Revolutionary soldier. He had a family of twelve children. His son Silas, the Judge's father, was in the hotel business a number of years, and later was engaged in general farm- ing. He died before he was forty years old. He was an uncle of the Hon. Harry Hibbard, of Bath, N. H. His wife, Olive, a native of Chesterfield, N. H., was a daughter of Zuriel Albee, of Littleton, N.H. She died in 1874, aged eighty-two. At the time of her hus- band's death she was left with five young chil- dren and a small property, and was able to give the children only very limited educational opportunities. Three of these children are now living.
Ellery A. Hibbard was nine years old when his father died. He attended the district school as regularly as circumstances would
permit, and afterward studied at an academy at Derby, Vt. His mother's training and his early independence brought out strongly his powers of self-reliance, and he worked per- severingly through the course of study neces- sary to fit him for the bar. He taught school one term, and studied in different law offices, including those of Nathan B. Felton and Charles R. Morrison, of Haverhill, N.H., and Henry F. French, of Exeter, N.H. Ad- mitted to the bar in Plymouth, N. H., in July, 1849, he immediately commenced practice in that town; and in January, 1853, he became a resident of Laconia (then Meredith Bridge), N.H. In course of time he won a place among the ablest and most successful lawyers in the State, and acquired a large business. In 1870, when the famous litigation between the Concord and the Northern Railroads was on the docket, and the most powerful legal talent in New Hampshire was employed by the rival corporations, Mr. Hibbard was re- tained as one of the council for the Northern Railroad, and made one of the arguments on each occasion when the case was in court. He was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court in March, 1873, and was on the bench till August, 1874, when the law under which the judges were appointed was repealed; nomi- nated again under the new law, he declined to serve. .
In politics a firm and consistent Democrat, though never a violent partisan, Judge Hib- bard has long been an especial favorite with his own party, and highly esteemed by the Re- publicans. He presided from 1862 to 1873, inclusive, as Moderator of town meetings in Laconia. At the June session of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1852, he was elected assistant clerk, and at the No- vember session he was chosen clerk, being honored with re-election in 1853 and 1854.
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He was the last Democratic clerk of the House until the partial triumph of the Democracy in 1871. In 1865 he was elected to the legislat- ure from Laconia, and in the following year he was re-elected. The first year he was on the Committee on Finance, and the second year on the Judiciary Committee and many special committees, aiding the plan for the adoption of the new State Library, and the es- tablishment of the College of Agriculture and Mechanical Art . He was also one of three appointed by Governor Tuttle to put the col- lege at Durham on a legal basis to remove from Hanover, which was endowed by a large grant of land by the general government. In 1862 he, with Samuel B. Page and William C. Sturoc, led the minority of the House, and (quoting from the "History of the Forty-sec- ond Congress ") "he drew up the minority re- port, which presented briefly and forcibly the reasons against the ratification of the Four- teenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. He subsequently maintained his views on the subject in an able and exhaus- tive speech." While in the House Mr. Hib- bard never spoke except when he had a point to make, and his words then were concise and forcible, and had great influence with the members. He has done good service on the stump, and in the memorable campaign in Pennsylvania in the fall of 1864 he made sev- eral speeches in the western part of the State. He was the Democratic member from Belknap County in the Johnson Convention in Phila- delphia in 1866. In 1869, though he did not desire it, his friends in the First District nominated him on the Democratic ticket for Congress. The party, however, was hope- lessly in the minority from the start, and the full Republican State and Congressional ticket was elected.
"In 1871," as the history further records,
"he was nominated for Representative to the Forty-second Congress, and was elected, al- though for the period of sixteen years pre- vious New Hampshire had been represented only for a single term by a Democrat. Tak- ing his seat as a member of the Forty-second Congress, Mr. Hibbard was appointed on the Committee on Patents. He seldom addressed the House; always, however, when he occu- pied the floor he spoke with earnestness and effect in support of his convictions. He spoke in opposition to the bill to devote the pro- ceeds of the public lands for the creation of an educational fund for the education of the people, on the ground that, if there must be a donation for the benefit of the States that were too poor to provide for the education of their people, it should be by a specific donation in money, and of a sum definite and uniform from year to year, so that the various States and districts for whose benefit it is to be created shall receive the same amount every year, and shall know beforehand what sum they may rely upon, and not be dependent on the constantly fluctuating sales of the public lands." His nomination for Congress had been supported, not only by his own party, but also by the Labor Reform party; and he ably represented the interests of the people. Always active in opposing schemes for robbing the masses, he was particularly earnest in frustrating the plunderings of the Union Pa- cific Railroad ; and as a member of the Com- mittee on Patents he did much to prevent the extension of unjust monopolies.
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