USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > Biographical review : containing life sketches of leading citizens of Stafford and Belknap countries, New Hampshire > Part 51
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
About 1838 he began a woollen manufactur- ing business, which he carried on until stopped by the burning of his mill in 1848; but the following year he had a new mill built, and four sets of machinery in successful operation. He conducted this up to 1859, when, with Parker, Wilder & Co., he helped to organize the present Gonic Manufacturing Company, of which he was. made President, Agent, and Manager, and continued to act in these various capacities until 1877, when he withdrew from the company. In 1863 he, with Mr. John Hall, Mr. Samuel B. Rindge, of Boston, and four others, obtained the charter for the Cocheco Woollen Manufacturing Company at East Rochester, of which he was President until his death. His influence will also long be felt in other lines. In 1856 the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Rochester was char- tered largely through his efforts; the Gonic Five Cent Savings Bank was established by him; and he was one of the original Directors in the Nashua & Rochester Railroad, holding the position until his death. As a young man, Mr. Whitehouse took great interest in military affairs, and all through life was an earnest advocate of citizen soldiery. In 1826 he was made Quartermaster Sergeant of the Thirty-ninth Regiment, and in 1829 he was commissioned by Governor Benjamin Pierce, Captain and Adjutant in the same regiment.
In politics Mr. Whitehouse exercised a leading influence, not only in his own town,
----
442
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
but throughout the county and State. He was a Whig, and always an ardent advocate of the American system of protection to home in- dustries, following closely the views of the great Kentucky statesman, Henry Clay. In 1837 Mr. Whitehouse, with a few others, being instrumental in wresting the political control of the town from the Democratic party, which had held it for many years, was elected Moderator and Representative to the State legislature, and re-elected to the latter office the following year. Upon its advent, he espoused the doctrines of the Know Nothing party, and, entering heartily into the campaign of 1855, was a prominent candidate before the convention for member of Congress. A] though he did not receive that nomination, he was nominated and elected a member of the Governor's Council. The following year he was defeated, but won the election the next year. He served under Governor Ralph Met- calf and Governor William Haile. When the War of the Rebellion broke out, he took an ac- tive part in everything relating to raising the town's quota of troops, and gave one hundred dollars to the first twenty men who enlisted in Rochester. His keen perception of the pecul- iar situation of political affairs at this time, united with excellent judgment of men, made him an important factor in preparing the way for the Republican party, and from its forma- tion to the day of his death he was a Republi- can of the most pronounced type. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention, and more than once was favorably talked of for Governor of New Hampshire.
While he never subscribed to the creed of any church, he was a liberal friend to all. In early life he was a constant attendant at the Congregational church, but in 1840 was in- strumental in building the Free Will Baptist church in Gonic, and thenceforward made it
his church home, contributing liberally toward its support and for the remodelling and re- building of the same at different times; and within the portals of his own home ministers and laymen were always sure of a warm wel- come and generous hospitality. In his family relations he was considerate, self-sacrificing, and full of the tenderest affection. In society he was ever a bright and genial spirit. He was frequently called to preside at public meetings, and always acquitted himself with tact and ability. Few men have been born in Rochester who have excelled him in deeds of unostentatious charity, or who have exerted a more potent influence in promoting the busi- ness and social interests of the town. Gonic Village has been built up almost wholly by the manufacturing enterprises created and conducted by him for so many years.
Mr. Whitehouse died November 21, 1878. His wife, Susan, survived him nearly ten years, dying in May, 1888. Six children were born of their union, namely: Elizabeth Ann; Charles Sidney; Enoch Freeman; Emily J .; Albert M., who died in childhood; and Arthur D. Only two - namely, Charles Sidney and Emily J. who married Joseph Varney, of Wolf- boro, N.H .- are living at this date.
[For the greater part of the foregoing account of the life of the Hon. Nicholas Varney Whitehouse, we are in- debted to the History of Rochester, for whose pages it was written by his son, the Hon. Charles S. Whitehouse. ]
HARLES SIDNEY WHITEHOUSE. --- The ancestors of the Whitehouse family who are supposed to have come to this country from Wales in the carly Colonial times, located in different parts of New England. From these immigrants most of those who now bear the name have de- scended.
443 - 444
------
445
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
The writer of this sketch cannot trace the immediate line of this branch of the family with any accuracy earlier than May 12, 1722, when the name of one "Edwd Whithouse" appears as a "third share proprietor" in the schedule of the original proprietors of the town of Rochester, N. H., under charter of the same date granted by King George III. There were many families by the name in Rochester and the adjoining towns prior to 1770. They were people in moderate circum- stances - laborers, farmers, and mechanics. Some of them of a later date, however, were of marked ability and prominence in the com- munity - notably, the Hon. George L. Whitehouse (1797-1887), of Farmington, N. H., a civil engineer, builder of railroads, Sheriff, Register of Deeds, and Judge in the Court of Common Pleas; and the Hon. N. V. Whitehouse (1802-78), father of the subject of this sketch. Turner Whitehouse, a direct ancestor of George L. Whitehouse, mentioned above, was one of the one hundred and ninety- eight citizens of Rochester who, October 15, 1776, signed the declaration: "We, the sub- scribers, do hereby solemnly engage and promise that we will, to the utmost of our power, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, with arms, oppose the hostile proceedings of the British fleet and armies against the United American Colonies." Israel Whitehouse (1778-1841), father of N. V. Whitehouse, served for a time at Portsmouth, N. H., in the War of IS12, in Captain Andrew Pierce's company, and also in Captain John Haven's company. On the mother's side the Places were numerous in town. The Rev. Joseph Haven, during his pastorate from 1776 to 1824, records the baptism and marriage of seventy-two persons by the name of Place. The Rev. Enoch Place (1786-1865) for fifty- seven years a minister of the Free Will Bap-
1
tist faith, was an immediate connection of the family. Several of the name of Place served in the Colonial war against the French and Indians as early as 1748; and. in the Revolu- tionary War of 1776 there were many by the name of Place as the old records show. Colonel David Place (1741-1824), an ancestor in the direct line, was a noted man. He served as Captain and afterward as Colonel through the Revolutionary War. He raised and commanded a company in the Second Continental Regiment, under Colonel James Reed, in 1776. At the close of the war and until his death he exercised a marked influ- ence in all town matters, as did many others, near or remotely connected with Susan Place Whitehouse, in the business, social, and re- ligious affairs of Rochester. Colonel David Place was the son of Richard Place (supposed to have come from Devonshire, England, with his father, John Place, about 1688), who set- tled in Newington, N. H. Richard Place married his cousin, Susannah Thompson, daughter of Noah Thompson, of Berwick, Me. Colonel David Place had seven chil- dren. The fourth child was Stephen Place, who married Elizabeth Chesley, daughter of James Chesley, who lived to the age of one hundred and one years. Stephen and Eliza- beth (Chesley) Place had seven children, the second child being Susan Thompson Placc (1803-88), who married Nicholas V. White- house and was the mother of the subject of this paper. (See sketch of Nicholas V. Whitehouse.) Charles Sidney Whitehouse is the second child of his parents, and was born in Gonic, September 3, 1827, in a room over the store at this date (March 20, 1897) OCCU- pied by Nahum Yeaton & Co.
From childhood till thirteen years old he attended the village school. In 1840 he was sent to the academy at Centre Strafford,
446
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
N. H., where he remained two terms, under the instruction of Francis W. Upham, a native of Rochester and one of a family of seven sons, all of whom became distinguished in their. lives. Mr. Upham was then a young man twenty-three years old. He afterward studied law with Robert Rantoul, of Boston, and later was for many years a Professor of Mental Philosophy in Rutgers College in New Jersey. In the summers of 1841 and 1842 young Whitehouse was at the academy in Durham, N.H. In the fall and winter of these years he attended the academy in Rochester, then under the charge of Harrison C. Hobart, from whom he received instruction and advice which moulded his future life. Master Ho- bart, at that time just graduated from Dart- mouth College, was an excellent teacher, a shrewd observer, who understood boys and just how to handle them. He became a noted man in after years in Wisconsin, where he attained eminence in the political affairs of the State, and in the war of the Rebellion was a Colonel and General.
In 1843 Mr. Whitehouse was entered in Phillips Exeter Academy, where he remained continuously for two years, and was nearly fitted for college when ill health made it necessary to abandon any further schooling. Soon after he became a clerk in the store of E. & W. Andrews, of Dover, N. H., but re- mained there only a little over a year, and in the early part of 1846 went to work for Ben- jamin T. Hardy in his dry-goods store in Lowell, where he remained till January, 1848, when he returned home to Gonic, and entered the mill of his father to learn the woolen manufacturing business, which became his oc- cupation for the next thirty years of his life. This year he was twenty-one years old, and cast his first vote for Zachary Taylor for Pres- ident. In the following year he with others
organized the Rochester Phalanx, a military company made up from the prominent young men of the town. It had but a brief exist - ence, being disbanded in 1856. In 1851, through his personal efforts, a post-office was established in the village; and he became the first Postmaster, holding the office twenty-six years. In 1852 he was the leading spirit in forming Tiger Engine Company, and was its Treasurer for many years. Being of an active temperament, politics had a fascination for him; and from this time forward he entered heartily into the political affairs of the time. An earnest Whig, as his father was before him, no political move in town or county was made that he did not have a hand in. Early and late, summer and winter, he was alert to further the success of his party. In 1854-55 he was a potent factor in the political evolu- tion that gave birth to the Republican party in New Hampshire, and which dethroned the Democratic party in both town and State in 1855, the election of Ralph Metcalf as Gov- ernor being the result. He was appointed by Governor Metcalf one of his aides, . and re- ceived the honorary title of Colonel, a title which has clung to him ever since. When the Fremont campaign of 1856 opened at Wolf- boro, September 8, he joined with his brother Freeman, George and Smith Scates (two young men from Milton, then at work in Rochester), and William Beedle, in organiz- ing a Fremont Glee Club, and sang at that gathering, which was presided over by the Hon. John P. Hale. Mr. Hale was so im- pressed with the power and influence such singing would exert in a political campaign that he urged them to continue in the work ; and from that date till after the election in November their services were in constant de- mand at mass meetings, flag raisings, and other political gatherings. Many of the
----- -- ---
447
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
songs sung by the club were written by Colo- nel Whitehouse, and were very popular. No one can fully estimate the influence their singing had on their audiences. Many of the opposite party attended to listen to the sing- ing, when no persuasion would induce them to listen to the arguments of the speakers. Brass bands were at a discount beside these enthusiastic troubadours. By the middle of Bachanan's administration it was evident that a crisis was approaching which would test the principles of a free government and the pa- triotism, valor, and endurance of the people. Wise men looked at the course of events with apprehension. The very air was surcharged with anxiety and fear. Lincoln was inaugu- rated, and the hurricane of civil war burst upon the people.
Enthusiastic war meetings in Rochester were of frequent occurrence; and in all Colo- nel Whitehouse was a participant, encourag- ing with earnest speech and with money the enlistments, and giving aid, advice, and care to many families whose head had gone as a soldier. He was untiring in the work of the Sanitary Commission, in giving entertain- ments, and raising money in various ways to purchase comforts for those at the front. In 1858 the Gonic Manufacturing Company was incorporated, with his father as agent and him as superintendent and clerk. These positions he held till the fall of 1875. He represented Rochester in the lower branch of the legis- lature of 1862, and in 1863 and 1864 was elected to the State Senate, associating in the lutter body with such men as Onslow Stearns, Charles H. Bell, and Ezekiel Straw, all three of whom were afterward Governors of the State, and Isaac W. Smith and George A. Bingham, who were afterward Judges of the Supreme Court. While in the legislature he was zealous in every measure calculated to en-
courage enlistments or aid for the families of those who had gone to the war. Since the war ended, the surviving soldiers have had no more generous or sympathetic friend than Colonel Whitehouse.
During this period, in 1861, with John Hall, N. V. Whitehouse, Samuel B. Rindge, of Boston, and a few others, he organized the Cocheco Woolen Company at East Rochester; and in 1862-63 he supervised the build- ing of the large brick mill of the Gonie Com- pany, improved its water-power, and made and encouraged others to make many improve- ments in and about the village.
In 1868, combining with the local fire en- gine company and the town, he projected and built Gonic Hall, a model building for public entertainments, shows, and festivals, and fully equipped it with scenery. Unfortu- nately for the village, it was destroyed by fire, January 6, 1885. His ardent temperament, energy, and pride in his native village, led him irresistibly to encourage and assist any scheme which he thought would benefit the community in which he lived, whether it was building the village school-house in 1858, remodelling the village church in 1872, acting as superintendent of its Sabbath-school, teach- ing the children to sing, leading and sustain- ing its choir, or planning and conducting its festivals.
In 1872 he was chosen by the Republican party one of the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention which nominated General Grant for his second term, and in 1874, with I. W. Springfield and a few others, he founded the Rochester Town Fair, an institution which has been phenomenal in its growth, and of incalculable benefit to the town and city for twenty years, and will be more in the future. In 1875 he was nominated by the Republicans of the First Congressional District as candi-
448
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
date for member of Congress after a spirited contest in the convention, in which eight or ten prominent men of the party were candi- dates; and, although he conducted the cam- paign with vigor and credit to himself, he was defeated by his Democratic opponent, Mr. Frank Jones, of Portsmouth. Declining a re- nomination, which meant an election in 1877, he devoted himself to his duties with the Gonic Manufacturing Company. In the Au- gust following ( 1875), however, he severed his connection with the Gonic Company, and as- sumed the management of the Cocheco Woolen Mills at East Rochester, in which the family had large interests. Here he remained nearly five years.
The improvement of the company's prop- erty, the beautifying of some of the streets with shade trees, and the encouragement he gave for building a new school-house on an enlarged lot, are some of the results of his life in this thriving village. In 1878 his father died, and in the carly part of 1880 he retired from the woolen business permanently. In
1882 he was appointed Weigher in the Boston Custom-house (under Roland Worthington, Collector), where he remained about three years, until retired by a change of administra- tion. During this time, however, he was appointed by Governor Charles H. Bell the first State Auditor under the new law, and re- appointed in 1883, and the same year he again represented Rochester in the legislature.
In the Presidential election of 1888, with Judge George W. Nesmith, Charles D. Mc- Duffee (a native of Rochester), and Frank Cofran, he was elected presidential elector, and with these cast the vote of the State for Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton.
For several years prior to 1891 the expedi- ency of changing from a town to a city or- ganization had been discussed by the leading
men of Rochester, but no one had appeared to direct the movement or to attempt to crystal- lize public sentiment in its favor. Colonel Whitehouse took hold of the matter, and with Henry Kimball, a lawyer of Rochester, formu- lated a charter, which was approved and passed by the legislature of 1891. During the sum- mer he busied himself so persistently in creat- . ing a favorable sentiment among the people for the change that the town adopted the charter by a large majority, and in December elected him the city's first Mayor. He was inaugurated January 6, 1892, and served one year. In the fall of 1893 he was elected Councilman from Ward Three for three years, and January 1, 1897, retired from all further participation in public affairs.
He married Ellen Francis Foster, of Nor- way, Me., September 30, 1852, and has two children: Walter Barker Whitehouse, born September 25, 1854; and Alice Atherton Whitehouse, born November 9, 1862. The latter married W. C Sanborn, and lives in Rochester.
This sketch would be incomplete without reference to the influence Colonel Whitehouse has exerted for fifty years in musical matters, not only in Rochester, but in the county and State. In early life he recognized the value of music, not only in the church, but in the social life of the community. He was im- pressed with its influence, particularly on the young, in leading to a purer and more refined daily life and a clearer perception of beauty in nature and art. The young men and women who have been stimulated by his ad- vice, and encouraged to cultivate their musical taste for their own and the community's good, cannot be numbered. In the church, the school-room, and the social gathering this in- fluence has been constant and abiding, and has radiated to the adjoining towns. The church
~
449-450
BEIGE,
1:0
451
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
owes a large debt of gratitude to him for the work he has done in this line. The choirs he has directed, the choral societies he has organ- ized, and the concerts he has gotten up, are innumerable. At this date he is President of the New Hampshire Music Teachers' Asso- ciation, which is exerting a great influence in promoting the study of music in the State. This paper cannot be concluded any better than in the following extract from McDuffee's History of Rochester, written by the Hon. Charles W. Folsom of the Rochester Courier :
"Colonel Whitehouse's life has been one of ceaseless activity. His mental energy, in- domitable will, tenacious memory, his habit of investigating all theories before accepting them as facts, and his diligence in studying all intellectual as well as commercial or po- litical questions, have marked him out as a predestined leader in society. His sharp in- sight into the character of the many classes of people with whom his business has brought him into contact has enabled him to maintain a strong bond of sympathy between himself and those he has employed. Few men have a more genuine regard for the common brotherhood of man than he, and to this fact much of his popularity is naturally due. He has great local pride; and as a recognized leader, quick in thought and prompt in action, he awakens sluggish minds and even old fogy- ism into useful activity. His influence in- duced the people to plant shade trees and or- nament their houses and grounds, till the result is a beautiful little country village. The meeting-house at Gonic was dilapidated, the services thinly attended, and the faithful few much discouraged. Becoming superin- tendent of the Sunday-school, Mr. Whitehouse organized and led a choir, and then very materially aided in rebuilding the present beautiful church edifice. He has been inter-
ested and active in school affairs and in the fire department of the town. To his execu- tive ability as superintendent of the first town fair was due in a great measure its success. His natural musical gifts have enabled him to create a healthy musical sentiment in the com- munity. As far back as 1842 or 1843 he sang in the old Congregational church on the Com- mon. From that time till the present there has not been an 'Old Folks' Concert' or a choral union in the details of which he has not had a prominent part. His earnest work in all these public affairs has not been for notoriety, but to accomplish results for the public good. He is a writer of no small abil - ity, pleasing and convincing as a speaker, and generally carrying his point.
"Rochester has been fortunate in having a citizen so thoroughly public-spirited and pos- sessed of so. solid sense as Charles Sidney Whitehouse."
March 20, 1897.
[NOTE .- The compiler of this paper acknowledges his obligation to McDuffce's History of Rochester for many of the facts contained herein and the courtesy which permitted their use. ]
JNOCH FREEMAN WHITEHOUSE, the second son and third child of Nich- olas Varney and Susan (Place) Whitehouse, was born in 1830.
In early childhood it became evident that he possessed more than ordinary musical abil- ity, and upon reaching manhood his voice de - veloped unusual richness and power, and he became one of the finest and sweetest ballad singers the country has ever produced. He first came before the general public as a member of Ossian's Bards, under the leadership of the noted Ossian E. Dodge, and subsequently be- came manager of a company called "White-
--
--
452
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
house's New England Bards." After that he spent a few years at home, and when he started out again he went alone, to be met, as before, wherever he went by full houses and apprecia- tive audiences. A master also of the guitar, he thrilled his heaters by his playing as well as by his singing; and the press was enthu- siastic in their praise of his accomplishments. Ilis power as a singer was wonderful, and few Rochester men have been more widely known or more greatly beloved than he became through his musical talent. His personal friends were equally charmed and attracted by his qualities of mind and character. Tender- hearted and generous in the extreme, he was constantly giving away large sums to assist the needy and unfortunate. Mr. Whitehouse was for some years the Cashier of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Rochester, which has become the First National Bank of Gonic,
On December 3, 1861, he married. Abbie McDuffee. He lived less than four years after, being drowned near the Isles of Shoals, August 28, 1865, together with his brother-in- Jaw, Joseph McDuffee, by the capsizing of the boat, in which they were fishing.
HORACE DREW, a thrifty and well- to-do farmer of Gilmanton, was born
. in Barnstead, N. II., August 26, 1835, son of James and Hannah (Clark) Drew. His grandfather, Joseph Drew, settled in Loudon, N.H., upon land now known as the Town Farm. Having afterward sold that property, Joseph bought of an Englishman living in Portsmouth, a tract of two thousand acres bor- dering upon Half-a-moon Pond. For this land, which was situated in the towns of Alton and Barnstead, he is said to have paid six thousand dollars. In February, 1773, he married Jane Scranton, and she became the
mother of twelve children; namely, Lydia, Ebenezer, Joseph, Betsey, Anna, Thomas, Martha, John, Eliza, Samuel, Susan, and James. Lydia became Mrs. Durgin; Betsey married a Mr. Edgerly; Martha wedded Thomas Proctor, of Alton, N.H .; and Susan became Mrs. Langeley, and resided in Barn- stead. Of grandfather Drew's great-grand- father and wife, the following story is told : The couple were captured by Indians, who separated into two parties, each taking a prisoner. Mrs. Drew suffered the anguish of seeing her new-born babe killed in her presence. Some two years afterward her hus- band succeeded in making bis escape, and re- turned to his farm. About four years after the capture, on learning that the tribe which had taken Mrs. Drew was visiting Portsmouth, her husband went to that settlement with a hope of hearing something of his wife. Al- though her face was bronzed from long-contin- ued exposure, and she was in general appear- ance an Indian, he suspected she was his long- lost wife. She also recognized him, but was not sure, until she sang a familiar song, when the recognition was complete on the part of both. Her husband succeeded in obtaining her release by paying a ransom amounting to one hundred and fifty dollars, and they re- turned to their old home in the vicinity of Durham or Lee, N H. After a long life of prosperity, which was made happy by the birth of several children, they both died the same day, and were buried in one grave.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.