USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Biographical review : containing life sketches of leading citizens of Stafford and Belknap countries, New Hampshire > Part 31
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Timothy Perkins was also a native of Straf- ford, born September 11, 1789. He was edu- cated in the district schools and at Lincoln Academy, and after the completion of his studies he taught school for several winter terms. His summers were passed at the home farm until after his marriage, when he settled upon a tract of wild land in Holderness, N. H., which he cleared and improved. After residing here for some years, he sold the prop- erty and bought the farm in Centre Harbor where his son now resides. The rest of his life was spent in this town, and he died Feb- ruary I, ISSI. He was one of the pillars of the local Democratic party organization in his day, and his influence was felt in all its move- ments. He served as a Selectman for eighteen years; was the Chairman of that body for the greater part of that time; was Town Treasurer a number of years; represented Centre Harbor in the legislature for three terms, and was a Justice of the Peace for about forty years. He was noted throughout this section as an auctioneer, and also did a great deal of busi- ness before the Probate Court, settling many estates. His wife, Sally, was born in Straf- ford, January 8, 1795, daughter of John Jones, who was an industrious farmer and quite an extensive landowner. She became the mother of nine children, eight of whom are living, namely : William J., a resident of Centre Harbor; Emeline R., now a widow; Paul, who resides in Ashland; John S., of Holder- ness; George S., of Lakeport; Ebenezer F.,
now deceased; Alonzo, the subject of this sketch; Timothy, who died in infancy; and Charles H., also deceased. Gooding Piper, who was the husband of Emeline R., enlisted in Company I, Twelfth Regiment, New Hamp- shire Volunteers, and died while serving in the late war. Mrs. Timothy Perkins died March 23, 1867.
Alonzo Perkins acquired a public school education. At the age of nineteen he went to Lowell, Mass., where he learned the mason's trade. Subsequently he followed that calling until 1866, when his mother's illness caused him thereafter to remain at the homestead. After her death he concluded to engage in agricultural pursuits, which he has since followed; and he eventually succeeded to the ownership of the property. His farm contains eighty acres of fertile land, twenty- five of which are under cultivation. He win- ters an average of eight head of cattle. In 1890 he began to entertain summer boarders, having accommodations for sixteen at one time. His pleasant house is now well patron- ized during the heated term.
On April 7, 1857, Mr. Perkins married Henrietta C. Keyser, daughter of Nathaniel Keyser, of Shirley, Mass. He has one daugh- ter, Carrie Etta, now the wife of Ned B. San- born, of Meredith. In politics he is a Demo- crat. He was a Selectman for two years, Tax Collector and Highway Surveyor for a number of terms, was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention ; and he has been Town Clerk for the past four years. Mrs. Perkins is a mem- ber of the Free Will Baptist church.
AMUEL E. DEMERITT, a prac- tical farmer of Lee, Strafford County, was born in Tuftonboro, Carroll County, N. H., October 18, 1829,
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son of Edmund and Lois (Demerritt) Demeritt. He removed to Wolfboro, in the same county, when he was but eight years of age, and there acquired his education in public and private schools, remaining until early man- hood. In 1854 he left the charming scenery of lake Winnepesaukee, and came to Lee, where he was employed by his uncle, Andrew E. Demerritt, on the farm where he now resides. Six months later he went to Boston, Mass., being engaged for five months there- after in the commission business in that city. Going then to Dover, N. H., he worked three years in the shoe factories there, subsequently returning to Lee, where he has since resided. Mr. Demeritt owns one hundred and ninety acres of land, and successfully carries on a general farming and dairy business. In poli- tics he supports the principles of the Demo- cratic party. In 18Si he had the honor to serve his party and the town of Lee as Rep- resentative to the legislature.
On September 13, 1860, Mr. Demeritt was united in marriage with Lucy A. Dockum, of Wolfboro, N. H.
OSIAH TOWLE STURTEVANT, a retired business man of Meredith, was born June 22, 1827, at Centre Harbor, N. H., son of Ward Cotton and Lucetta (Dalton) Sturtevant. His great-grandfather, Church Sturtevant, who was a native of Hali- fax, Mass., and a pioneer settler in Centre Harbor, reared several sons, one of whom, Hosca. Sturtevant, served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Joseph Sturtevant, grandfather of Josiah T., was born in Halifax in 1770. When fourteen years old he accom- panied his parents to New Hampshire, and settled with them upon a tract of wild land at Centre Harbor. At that time there were but
two small houses and a grist-mill upon the site of the present city of Laconia. Quite a settlement had sprung up at what is known as Meredith Parade, however; but the town of Meredith contained only two farm houses, a grist-mill, and a dugout that served as the abode of the miller. The farm which Joseph Sturtevant assisted in reclaiming from the wilderness eventually fell to him, and he resided there for the rest of his life. He married Dorothy Towle, and reared three chil- dren - Ward C., Elsie, and Olive. Elsic married Jonathan Clarke, of Moultonboro; and Olive became the wife of James Jackson, of Eaton, N. H. The father was a Whig in politics; while both he and his family be- longed to the Congregationalist church.
Ward Cotton Sturtevant, the father of Jo- siah T. Sturtevant, born at Centre Harbor in 1798, was reared at the homestead, succeeded to its ownership after his father's death, and followed general farming during the rest of his active period. In politics he supported the Whig party. He was one of the organ- izers of the Congregational church at Centre Harbor, and served it as a Deacon for many years. Ward C. Sturtevant died in 1879. His wife Lucetta, a daughter of Joseph Dalton, of Deerfield, N. H., became the mother of five children; namely, Julia A., Josiah T., Mar- tha, Henry, and Mary. Julia A., now de- ceased, became the wife of Abner Z. C. Truc, of Centre Harbor. Martha is the wife of William Gordon, of Boston. Henry is resid- ing at the old homestead; and Mary died at the age of two years. The mother lived to the age of seventy-seven years.
Josiah Towle Sturtevant acquired his educa tion in the schools of Centre Harbor and Meredith. At the age of fourteen he began to learn the blacksmith's trade, which he subse- quently followed for seven years. During the
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MOSES CRAFT LATHROP.
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succeeding three years he was employed in a piano factory as a painter and varnisher. In 1858, while visiting at the homestead, he met a travelling photographer, who had a studio upon wheels. On finding that the migratory artist was desirous of selling out, Mr. Sturte- vant bought the entire outfit, and after receiv- ing a little instruction started in the business for himself. A short time later he went to Concord, where he obtained a more practical knowledge of the business. After this he continued to move about with his travelling studio between Centre Harbor and Meredith until 1860, when he, in turn, found a pur- chaser for the outfit. He then erected a per- manent gallery in Meredith, where he re- mained continuously until 1864. In this year he began to pass his winters in Laconia. He continued in the photograph business until failing health caused him to relinquish it in 1867, and after his recovery he was employed in a drug store in this town for three years. Since 1870 he has carried on quite an exten- sive business in real estate. He also deals in sewer pipe, being the only one to handle that article north of Laconia.
Some time ago, after having acquired con- siderable property, Mr. Towle retired from active occupation. He is connected with Winnepesaukee Lodge, I. O. O. F., of La- conia, and with Winnepesaukee Grange, Patrons of Husbandry. In politics he is a Republican. On September 19, 1871, he wedded Mary A. Perley, daughter of Dr. J. L. Perley, of Laconia.
OSES CRAFT LATHROP, M.D., son of William and Elizabeth (Drake) Lathrop, came to Dover, N. H., in May, 1866, and purchased and occu- pied his present residence, 16 St. John Street,
where he has since devoted himself exclusively to his profession. His birthplace, Tolland, Conn., was through six generations the ances- tral home of the Lathrops, whose lineage reaches back unbroken over three hundred and fifty years. In his admirable "Genealogical Memoir" of the Lo-Lathrop family, the Rev. E. B. Huntington, A. M., says :
" Lowthorpe is a small parish in the wapen- take of Dickering, in the East Riding of York, four and a half miles north-east from Great Driffield, having about one hundred and fifty inhabitants. It is a perpetual curacy in the archdeaconry of York. This parish gave the name to the family of Lowthrop, Lothrop, or Lathrop. The church, which was dedicated to St. Martin, and had for one of its chap- lains, in the reign of Richard, the second Robert de Louthorp, is now parly ruinated, the tower and chancel being almost entirely overgrown with ivy. It was a collegiate church from 1333, and from the style of its architecture must have been built about the time of Edward III.," 1312-77.
From the many notices of the Lowthorpes in that English parish we take this curious record: "1292 Walter de Lowthorpe is sum- moned to answer to the king, Edward I., for attempting to regulate the 'assize of beer' on all of his tenants in Lowthorpe, and other places, without a license from the king." He stoutly defended himself, insisting upon his unquestioned right "anent custom thro his ancestors without interruption, beyond the memory of man."
It was a descendant of this ancient and honorable family, whose arrival in America is recorded on page seventy-one of Governor Winthrop's journal, under date of September 18, 1634: "The 'Griffin' and another ship now arriving with about two hundred pas- sengers, Mr. Lathrop and Mr Sims, two godly
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ministers, coming in the same ship." The Rev. John Lathrop, this "godly minister," who fled from the persecutions of Laud, was welcomed by a little flock, with whom later he founded the first church in Barnstable, Mass. The first home of Mr. Lathrop was small and uncomfortable, but in 1644 he oc- cupied a more substantial structure, the frame of which, after more than two hundred and fifty years, is not only still standing, but, ac- cording to a local historian, "is now, in its remodelled form, one of the prettiest build- ings in the village, and is occupied for a par- sonage and a public library." Rev. John Lathrop was an independent thinker, a man "distinguished for worldly wisdom as well as for piety."
From him the subject of this sketch is in the eighth generation descended. His grand- father, the Rev. Rowland Lathrop, of Tolland, Conn., married Hannah Craft, sixth in descent from Lieutenant Griffin Craft, of Roxbury, Mass., emigrant from England in 1630, and for eight sessions delegate to the Massachu- setts General Court. His father, William Lathrop, who was born in 1806, and died in 1877, was a Christian gentleman of sterling worth and integrity, proprietor of land in Tol- land, Conn., and of certain mill interests in Ellington, Conn. He married Elizabeth Wolcott Drake, daughter of Francis Drake, of East Windsor, Conn., who died in her son's infancy.
His grandfather on his mother's side was the daughter of Dr. Simon Wolcott, military surgeon through the Revolutionary War, whose father, Dr. Alexander Wolcott, was the son of Major-general Roger Wolcott, Gover- nor of Connecticut, brother of Major-general Oliver Wolcott, L.L.D., Governor of Connect- icut, and signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence; uncle of Major-general Oliver
Wolcott, second, LL.D., Governor of Con- necticut.
Dr. Lathrop is an alumnus of the academies of Wilbraham and Munson, Mass. He stud- ied medicine with Dr. Marshal Calkins, now of Springfield, Mass., late Professor of Physi- ology in the Vermont University, and with the late Dr. G. M. Nichols, of Worcester, Mass., and graduated from the Worcester Medical College in 1852. The expenses of his education were met by his own exertions in manual labor and in teaching.
In 1853 he married Elizabeth Babcock, widow of the Rev. S. S. Mathews, and daugh- ter of the Rev. William S. Babcock, of Bar- rington, N.H., who was a graduate of Yale, she being a grand-daughter of Adam Babcock, of Boston, and great-grand-daughter of Judge Joshua Babcock of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, a co-founder of Brown Univer- sity. By this marriage Dr. Lathrop assumed what has proved to be the very happy relation of stepfather to the following named children : the now eminent musician, W. S. B. Mathews, of Chicago; the late Lieutenant John W. Mathews, who in 1862, at the age of seven- teen, enlisted as private in the Twenty-first Iowa Infantry; the Rev. S. S. Mathews, who founded and for ten years was pastor of the Boylston Church, Boston, and is now pastor of the Hanover Street Congregational Church, Milwaukee, Wis .; Martha A., widow of the late Dr. T. J. W. Pray, of Dover; and Mary E., wife of W. A. Burnap, Esq., of Iowa.
In early professional life Dr. Lathrop had experience of the rougher side of country prac- tice, both among the hills of New England and on the prairies of upper Des Moines. There where the log stockade was still a ne- cessity against marauding Indians, two hun- dred miles from a railroad, in the now popu- lous and ever lovely Algona, he, with some of
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the choicest of home-seekers the East has sent out, lived for a short time the rude, but health- ful, happy, life of the pioneer doctor.
In July, 1863, Dr. Lathrop began army ser- vice in the Nineteenth Iowa Infantry on a commission as Assistant Surgeon from Gover- nor Kirkwood. In the following October he was promoted to be Surgeon, Fourth Engi- neers "Corps d'Afrique," Colonel Charles L. Norton commanding. The designation of this regiment was later changed to Ninety- eighth U. S. C. I. and in the autumn of 1865 was, by consolidation, merged in the Sixty- eighth, whose surgeon, much against his inclination, he was appointed to replace. By incessant care and effort, through many difficulties, Surgeon Lathrop succeeded in raising the sanitary condition of his regi- ment to the highest degree, and was informed from headquarters that its health record stood first in the Department of the Gulf. During her husband's absence, Mrs. Lathrop, too, did efficient service for the soldiers as travelling agent of the N. W. Sanitary Commission, under the direction of its President, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, whose intimate friend- ship she still enjoys. At Brashear City, La., Dr. Lathrop was for several months Post Sur- geon ; and at New Iberia, La., by appointment of General T. W. Sherman, he served as Judge Advocate of a General Court Martial for the trial of several capital cases.
Through the winter and spring of 1866, upon a complimentary ticket from Dean Shat- tuck, of Harvard Medical School, he pursued clinical studies in Boston.
In 1880 Dr. Lathrop went to Europe, and when in London, under the skilful guidance of a hospital attaché, made the tour of its hos- pitals, attending clinics of Lister, Bryant, and other celebrities. Accompanied by his wife, he has made the following excursions : in 1886
to California; in 1887 to Washington, D.C., to the Ninth Triennial Meeting of the Inter- national Medical Association; in 1888 to Puget Sound over the Canadian Pacific Rail- road; in 1892 to Mexico, as member of the American Public Health Association.
In 1850 Dr. Lathrop joined the Pleasant Street Baptist Church of Worcester, Mass., and to this time has been a regular attendant and supporter of religious services. He is a Knight Templar of St. Paul's Commandery, and a member of various other social orders, including the G. A. R. Of the Knights of Honor he has served as State Medical Ex- aminer. He has, however, in every other circle but medical persistently withheld him- self from the honors and duties of office. Ile is ex-President of the Dover and of the Straf: ford District Medical Societies. In June, 1896, he was elected Vice-President of the New Hampshire Medical Society, which he had previously represented to various other medical societies, including the American and the Canadian.
Dr. Lathrop's decision of thirty years ago to settle in Dover, though reluctantly taken in the face of strong attractions elsewhere, and because of family sickness, has in its recollec- tion no regrets over the "might have beens" that are not more than offset by the retrospect of a very busy life and the beauty of its friend- ships. And now, after forty-five years' cx- perience of its toils and pleasures, he still pursues, with unabated vigor, the study and practise of his vocation con amore, and with a satisfactory degree of substantial success.
ANIEL WADSWORTH COE, a farmer of Centre Harbor, Belknap County, was born there, April 28, 1838, son of John and Lavinia T. (Senter)
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Coe. The genealogy of the family dates back to the sixteenth century. Robert Coe, the earliest paternal ancestor of whom there is any record, was born in Suffolkshire, England, in 1596. In April, 1634, with his wife and three sons, Robert Coe sailed from Ipswich, Suffolkshire, in the ship "Francis," and ar- rived at Boston in the following June. He settled in Watertown, Mass., where in the same year he was made a freeman. In 1635 he and his family emigrated to Wethersfield; and there, as was the custom of the early set- tlers, they traded largely with the Indians. On October 30, 1640, in pursuance of a de- cision to divide the church society, owing to a dispute among its members that the church at Watertown and Mr. Davenport, of New Haven, had fruitlessly tried to settle, Andrew Ward and Robert Coc, representing them- selves and about twenty other planters, pur- chased Reppowans (Stamford), of New Haven Colony, for the sum of thirty-three pounds. In 1643 a General Court was established at Stamford, and Robert Coe, now one of the foremost men of the colonies. was appointed an assistant Judge. Next year, in company with several other persons, he formed the first English settlement at Hempstead, Long Is- land. Eight years after, he removed to what is now called Newtown, Long Island, where he became Magistrate, and took a prominent part in all town affairs. Four years later he was one of a party to establish a settlement in Jamaica, Long Island. The land occupied by the settlers was purchased of the Indians, March 21, 1656, and the certificate of pur- chase was signed by Robert Coe and seventeen others. In 1659 he was appointed Magistrate of this town; and in May, 1664, he repre- sented Jamaica at the General Convention at Hartford, by which body he was appointed Commissioner for his town. Thereafter,
until 1672, he continued to be one of the most prominent men in that district.
Robert Coe, Jr., who was a native of Eng- land, born in 1627, and accompanied his father to America, settled in Stratford, Conn., and died in 1659. His only son, born in 1658, who grew to manhood in New Haven, at the age of thirty returned to Stratford, mar- ried Mary Hawley, became the father of ten children, and died in 1741. One of these children, Joseph Coc, born in 1686, married Abigail Robinson, and died in 1754. Joseph Coe, Jr., born in 1713, married . Han- nah Parmell, who, with her child, died in the following year. He contracted a second mar- riage in 1739 with Abigail Curtis, and died at Middlefield, Conn., in 1784, leaving ten chil- dren. These children were: James, Hannah, Abigail, Anne, Joseph, the Rev. Curtis, Eben- ezer, Joel, Abigail, and Elisha. The Rev. Curtis Coe, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born July 21, 1750. After re- ceiving his education at Brown University, where he graduated in 1776, he was ordained at Durham, N.H., November 1, 1786, and afterward preached in the Congregational church there for many years. He was honor- ably dismissed from the ministry in 1806, and died in 1829. His wife, whose maiden name was Anne Thompson, bore him eight children - Joseph, Abigail, Ebenezer, Polly, Curtis, Anne, John, and Benjamin.
John Coe, who was born in Durham, No- vember 3, 1797, obtained his education in the common schools of the town, and worked for his brother in a country store until he was twenty years old. He then started in busi - ness for himself, and thereafter carried it on successfully for ten years. He next engaged in ship-building at Durham with his brother Joseph. This was in the early days of the temperance movement, when it was customary
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among ship-builders to serve liquor in the ship-yard every day at eleven o'clock. The new firm, having decided to discontinue the practice, posted notices to that effect, but an- nouncing that in lieu of drink its money value would be added to the pay of each man. The result was a strike, but Messrs. Coe Brothers secured new men from Portsmouth to fill the places of the strikers. A few years after his marriage John Coe purchased of his father-in-law the old Senter House, which he remodelled and improved in various ways. Later he left the Senter House in charge of his son Curtis, and leased the old Marlboro Hotel in Boston, which he conducted for many years. After this he went extensively into the real estate business in Boston. His wife, Lavinia, who came from Centre Harbor, bore him six children; namely, Curtis S., Annie L., John Lyman, Ellen L., Rufus L., and Daniel W. Curtis S. married Laura Merrill; Annie L. married Charles P. Towle; Ellen L. married S. J. Quimby, M. D. ; Rufus L. mar- ried M. J. Canney; and Daniel W. married Fannie Ladd. The wife of John Coe was the daughter of Samuel M. and Lettice Alls (Bein) Senter, and she had three sisters and one brother. John Senter, one of the proprie- tors of Londonderry in 1719, was the first rep- resentative of the Senter family in Centre Harbor. He was of English birth, but he went from Long Island, New York, to Lon- donderry. His son Moses, of Centre Harbor, was the grandfather of Lavinia. In his younger days Mr. John Coe was a Democrat : but at the time of his death, April 2, 1861, he was a stanch Republican. He was ex- tremely active in politics, but had no time to fill public offices.
Daniel Wadsworth Coe spent his boyhood in Centre Harbor, laying the foundation of his education in the public schools of this place.
He subsequently attended Gilmanton Acad- emy, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., and the New Hampton Biblical Seminary and Literary Institute. He has always lived on the home farm, which he has successfully carried on since taking up the real work of life. He has given his attention chiefly to general farming.
On July 1, 1878, Mr. Coc married Miss Fannie Ladd, daughter of Seneca Ladd, of Meredith, N. H. Politically, he is a Repub- lican. In 1895 he was elected Selectman of the town, and was re-elected in 1896. He is a prominent member of Garnet Hill Grange. The sterling qualities of his ancestors are repeated in Mr. Coe, who is a most public- spirited citizen and a very genial and hospita- ble man.
OHN DEMERITT, of Madbury, Straf- ford County, Sergeant-at-arms of the New Hampshire Senate during the late session of the legislature (1897) is the worthy representative of substantial Colonial stock planted in the soil of the Granite State more than two hundred years ago.
In 1694 there came to the little town of Madbury, then a parish in Dover, one Eli de Merit, who, according to tradition, was a Huguenot refugee, fleeing from France soon after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and settling in the Isle of Jersey, where, as his will shows, being still extant, he left au
estate.
He is supposed to have descended
from
a Saxon thane of Somersetshire, Eadnoth, whose son was surnamed de Meriet, mention of whom is to be found in ancient records of 1084 and 1140. Sir John de Meriet, a descendant, was born in 1328, and died in Calais, France, in 1369; and his son, Thomas de Meriet, lived in Caen. Eli de Merit seems to have been a man of great force
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of character engendered by the stormy period in which he lived. Some of his descendants still preserve the French form of spelling the name, but it is more commonly written De- merit or Demeritt.
Eli de Merit had five sons, four of whom -- namely, Eli, John, William, and Job - mar- ried and had families. From them has sprung a race which is scattered throughout New Eng- land and other parts of the United States. One of the name and kin is the subject of the present sketch, John Demeritt, son of Ezra Edrick and Louisa (Demeritt) Demeritt, who traces his descent on both sides of the house through six generations. The paternal an- cestral line is as follows: first, Eli de Merit; second, Eli, Jr .; third, Ebenezer; fourth, Jonathan, who married his cousin Deborah, daughter of Samuel Demeritt, his father's brother; fifth, Ebenezer Thompson, who mar- ried Hannah Demeritt, daughter of Ebenezer, brother of Jonathan; and sixth, Ezra Edrick Demeritt. In the maternal line the second generation was represented by Eli de Merit's son John; the third by Major John, known as "Powder Major"; the fourth by another Major John; and the fifth by Hopley De- meritt, who married Abigail Snell, and was the father of Louisa, the wife of Ezra Edrick Demeritt. There was a John Demeritt in the fifth generation in this line, Hopley's brother, who died a young man; and one in the sixth, John W., Hopley's son, who died in child- hood.
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