USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 51
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ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION.
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In politics, Mr. Colby was always conservative. He was first elected a member of the New Hampshire legislature in 1828, and afterwards held nearly every higher office of trust in the State. Daniel Webster was his personal friend. Their fathers, who lived in the same county, only about twenty miles apart, were many years associated in the legislature of which they were members, from Salisbury and New London. The friend- ship between himself, Judge Nesmith, of Franklin, and General James Wilson, of Keene, was more than simple friendship,- they were delightful companions; of essentially different cha- racteristics, the combination was perfect. Daniel Webster was their political chief, and his vacation sometimes found these men together at the Franklin " farm-house," and at the chowder parties up at the "pond." The Phenix Hotel, under the charge of Colonel Abel and Major Ephraim Hutchins, was the central rendezvous, where a great deal of projected statesmanship, a great deal of story telling and fruitless caucusing were indulged in, down to the revolution of 1846, when the Democrats lost their supremacy by the admission of Texas as a slave State, when John P. Hale went into the Senate. When Mr. Colby was elected governor, Mr. Webster wrote him earnest congratu- lations.
No Whig had held the office of governor, until the election of Anthony Colby, since the election of Governor Bell, an interim of seventeen years. Governor Colby being rallied upon his one-term office, said he considered his administration the most remarkable the State ever had. "Why so?" was asked ; when with assumed gravity he answered : "Because I have satisfied the people in one year, and no other governor ever did that."
The city of Manchester was incorporated in 1846. The rise, growth and prosperity of this, the largest city in the State, has been almost wholly dependent upon its great manufacturing interests. There are now in the city five large corporations, with an aggregate capital of many million dollars, besides many other manufacturing establishments of less importance.
In 1830 an examination of the territory bordering on the east
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[1846
bank of the river, a short distance below the falls, developed the fact that there were splendid sites for mills at that point.
A large number of Boston capitalists united and resolved to lay the foundations of a great manufacturing town. Accord- ingly, in the year 1831, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was incorporated. The Company secured a title to all the water power upon the Merrimack at Manchester, Hooksett, and at Garvin's Falls, below Concord. Upwards of fifteen hundred acres of land on the east side of the river at Manchester were purchased.
Those lands extended from the falls south for a distance of about a mile and a half, and a mile in an easterly direction. A new town was laid out, the streets crossing each other at right angles. A new stone dam and two canals with guard locks were also constructed.
It was the plan of the company to furnish other companies with sites and power for mills, and to erect such mills to be op- erated on their own account, and at the same time to sell their lands for stores, dwelling-houses, etc. The first mill in the new town was erected by the Amoskeag Company for the Stark Cor- poration in 1838. The Amoskeag Company also built a machine shop and foundry the same year, and in 1839 the company built two mills on their own account. In 1843 the company erected another mill. These were followed by others at various times, until now the company is said to be the largest in the world.
The Stark Mills Company was incorporated in 1838.
The Manchester Mills enterprise was originally incorporated in 1839 by the name of the Merrimack Mills. In 1849 its name was changed to the Manchester Print Works. During the war, and a few years succeeding, this company was very successful, and very high dividends were paid. But in a year or two later misfortunes overtook the company, until finally the whole prop- erty was sold to pay the debts, and a new company which was incorporated purchased the property and commenced great im- provements.
The Langdon Mills Company was incorporated in 1857 and
A.S. Obendanz
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commenced operation in 1860. The success of the company for several years during and succeeding the war was very re- markable. About the year 1865 an annual dividend of fifty per cent. upon the capital stock was paid.
Among the other manufacturing interests at Manchester are the Manchester Locomotive Works, managed by Hon. Aretas Blood, in which as many as seven hundred hands have been employed, and Hon. A. P. Olzendam's Hosiery Mill, which employs three hundred hands.
Abraham P. Olzendam was born in Barmen, Prussia, October 10, 1821. His father was a chemist. At the age of eighteen he was initiated into the mys- teries of his father's business ; proved an apt scholar; and soon became an expert in the application of scientific principles to the mixing of colors and the dyeing of fabrics. His active mind found congenial study in political econ- omy. The demands of his countrymen for liberty were seconded by him, and with the enthusiasm of youth he entered heartily into the plans of his fellow patriots for the amelioration of his country. Hopeless of accomplishing the herculean task of freeing his people, despairing of gaining at home that place among his fellows which his inborn ability warranted him in demanding, he quietly bade farewell to his fatherland, and embarked for America at the age of twenty-seven. The good ship, " General Washington," brought him over, and he landed in New York. June 13, 1848, hastening at once to the consti- tuted authorities to signify his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States.
His skill as a dyer readily gave him employment in the neighborhood of Boston. Within a few months he launched his own commercial bark, enter- ing into business on his own account. Various fortunes attended his efforts for the next ten years. In 1858 he became a citizen of Manchester, at first accepting employment in the Manchester Mills, afterward in the Amoskeag Mills, until 1863, when he commenced the manufacture of hosiery by the use of machinery. From a small beginning he has built up a very extensive business, employing more than three hundred operatives at the mill, and affording pin money for a thousand women for miles around, using nearly a thousand tons of wool every year, and preparing for the market about one hundred thousand pairs of stockings each month.
In 1SSS he purchased the Namaska Mill, in which he carries on his exten- sive manufacturing operations.
Such mechanical skill and business capacity as his was sure to win for him a foremost place in commercial pursuits. Mr. Olzendam cast his first vote for Franklin Pierce. Since then he has been a Republican, joining the party at its very outset, and ever being a quiet worker for its interests. In 1873 and 1874 he was elected to represent Manchester in the legislature. In 1885 he was a member of the State Senate, but has never sought political preferment.
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For many years he has been identified with the First Unitarian Church of Manchester, having served several terms as director, and frequently acting on important committees when executive action was demanded. In 1862 Mr. Olzendam became an Odd Fellow, and a few years later was initiated into the mysteries of Masonry, and now gracefully wears the title of Sir Knight. Since its organization, in 1874, he has been a trustee of the People's Savings Bank.
October 1, 1851, he was married to Theresa Lohrer, of Dresden, Saxony. They were the parents of eight children, of whom Clementine Olzendam, Alexander H. Olzendam, Gustavus Olzendam, Sidonia Olzendam, and Louis Olzendam survive and reside at home. After the death of the mother of these children Mr. Olzendam was joined in marriage to Mrs. Susie J. Carling.
The family occupy a spacious residence in the northeast part of Manchester, surrounded by grounds carefully cultivated.
" Mr. Olzendam has risen to a very honorable position in Manchester, pri- marily by closely attending to his business as a manufacturer, and since then, in addition, by showing himself an excellent citizen, liberal, high-minded, disposed to do what he can to aid every benevolent object and to further the growth and prosperity of the city. Manchester is better for his coming and his staying. A genial gentleman, he enjoys the acquaintance and confidence of a large number of warm personal friends. Many men, as fortune favors them, withdraw more and more from society, and give out less and less towards it, but society feels his prosperity and enjoys with him his success."1
Such is the welcome which New Hampshire extends to men of foreign birth who settle in the State.
In 1847 J. W. Williams was elected governor.
Hon. Jared Warner Williams was born in West Woodstock, Conn., in 1796. He was graduated at Brown University in 1818; read law at the Litchfield (Conn.) Law School ; and came to Lancaster in 1822, where he commenced the practice of his profession, and was a resident until his death.
Mr. Williams was elected representative of Lancaster in 1830-31 ; was register of Probate from 1832 to 1837; in 1833 he was chosen to the State Senate; in 1834 and 1835 he was president of that body ; in 1837 he entered Congress from the "Sixth District," and served four years. He was governor of the State in 1847-48; in 1852 was made judge of Probate ; in 1853 he filled the vacancy in the United States Senate occasioned by the death of Hon. C. G. Atherton ; in 1864 he was a delegate to the Chicago convention. In addition to these political distinc- tions, Governor Williams received the degree of A. M. from
I Clark's History of Manchester.
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Dartmouth College in 1825 ; and that of LL. D. from Brown Uni- versity in 1852. He died in September, 1864, aged sixty-eight years. He was a gentleman of the highest type of character, winning social qualities, and rare abilities. His various honors sat easy upon him, and vanity did not manifest itself.
The Mexican war commenced in the spring of 1846. General Zachary Taylor soon after led an expedition into Mexico and won the battles of Palo Alto, Monterey, and Buena Vista. Among his officers were Lieutenant Joseph H. Potter and Major W. W. S. Bliss.
In General Winfield Scott's successful invasion of the country the following year, many New Hampshire men won distinction : Colonel Franklin Pierce, Dr. John D. Walker, Captains T. F. Rowe, E. A. Kimball, J. W. Thompson, and Daniel Batchelder, Lieutenants George Bowers, John H. Jackson, Thomas J. Whipple, Daniel H. Cram, Thomas P. Pierce, John Bedel, and most of the non-commissioned officers and privates of companies C and H of the 9th regiment United States army.
The Mexican war having resulted in large acquisition of ter- ritory by the United States, and gold having been discovered on the Pacific Slope, a great drain was made on the energetic young men of the State, who rushed to California to better their for- tunes. For fifty years the fertile prairies of the West had also been steadily alluring not only the young men but whole families from their hillside and valley farms.
Samuel Dinsmoor, jr., was elected governor in 1849.
Samuel Dinsmoor, jr., was admitted to the bar in 1819, but was not enrolled as an attorney at Keene until 1823. He was the son of Governor Samuel Dinsmoor; born May 8, 1799; grad- uated at Dartmouth College in 1815; and was associated with General James Miller in the practice of law in Arkansas. In 1826 and 1827, and in 1829 and 1830, he was clerk of the Sen- ate ; for several years he was postmaster ; the cashier of Ash- uelot Bank, later its president ; in 1849, 1850, and 1851 gover- nor of New Hampshire. He died February 24, 1869.
In 1850 the expenses of the legislative, executive, and judi- ciary departments of the State amounted to $36, 142.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1850
There were three trains daily each way between Concord and Boston, both by way of the Concord Railroad and of the Man- chester and Lawrence. Passengers taking the ten A. M. train from Concord arrived in Boston in time to take the four P. M. steamboat train for New York. By the Northern Railroad one could reach Montpelier and Wells River; by the Contoocook, Hillsborough ; by the Boston, Concord and Montreal, Lake Winnipiseogee, by way of Meredith Bridge. In the United States at that time there were seven thousand six hundred and seventy-seven miles in operation. Nathaniel White and Benja- min P. Cheney had charge of the express business over most of the New Hampshire Railroads. John Gibson conducted the Eagle Coffee House, and John Gass the American House.
A constitutional convention met in Concord early in Novem- ber, 1850. Of the two hundred and ninety members, one hun- dred and fifty-seven were farmers, twenty-nine lawyers, and thirty merchants. Franklin Pierce was chosen president, re- ceiving two hundred and fifty-seven votes out of two hundred and sixty-four cast ; and Thomas J. Whipple was chosen secretary almost as unanimously. Among the delegates were -
William Plumer, Jr. Gilman Marston. Uri Lamprey. Bradbury Bartlett.
Joel Eastman. Cyrus Barton.
George Minot.
Jonathan Eastman.
Levi Woodbury,
Henry Putney.
Ichabod Bartlett.
George W. Nesmith.
Ichabod Goodwin.
Jesse Gault, Jr.
Thomas E. Sawyer.
Asa P. Cate.
Benning W. Jenness.
Aaron Whittemore.
James Bell. N. G. Upham.
Andrew Wallace.
L. W. Noyes.
Charles G. Atherton.
George W. Hammond. Levi Chamberlain.
William Haile.
Dyer H. Sanborn.
Ira Whitcher. Edwin D. Sanborn.
William P. Weeks. Hazen Bedel.
Isaac Spaulding.
The State was strongly Democratic at that time, the State Senate that year having only one in the opposition. After a session of about fifty days a new constitution was agreed upon
1852]
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and submitted to the people; but it found no favor with the Whigs, and was rejected.
The Democratic State convention met at Concord during the session of the legislature and nominated John Atwood, of New Boston, as their candidate for governor. From some injudicious statements of their candidate, he was repudiated by the party, led by the Cheshire Republican, Newport Argus, Dover Gasette, and Concord Patriot, and upon the reassembling of the convention. in 1851 he received only three of the two hundred and five votes cast. A serious bolt was the consequence, and Samuel Dins moor, jr., the Democratic candidate, lacked several thousand votes of a majority.
In the nomination of 1851 the Democratic party at first made choice of Luke Woodbury, of Antrim, for their standard beare: the following year, but he "was gathered to his fathers" in August.
Dr. Noah Martin was elected governor in 1852. Dr. Martin was a descendant of the Scotch-Irish settlers of Londonderry He was born in Epsom in July, 1801, graduated at the Dart. mouth Medical College in 1824, and the next year settled in Great Falls. In 1834 he settled in Dover. He was represen tative in 1830, 1832, and 1837, and State senator in 1835 and 1836. He was re-elected governor in 1853. He died in Dover in June, 1880. He was a Democrat, well read on a great variety of subjects, proficient in law as well as medicine, and a states- man from his native good sense and judgment.
1 The result of the fall elections of 1852 was that Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire was elected president, having carried twenty-seven States, choosing two hundred and fifty-four elec- tors ; General Scott, the Whig candidate, having carried only four States - Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky, and Ten- nessee, choosing forty-two electors.
President Franklin Pierce, son of Governor Benjamin Pierce, was born in Hillsborough in November, 1804; graduated from Bowdoin College in 1824; studied law with Judge Woodbury and Judge Parker ; was a zealous Demo- crat ; elected to represent Hillsborough in 1829; speaker of the House in 1832 ar d 1833 ; elected to Congress in IS33, to the Senate in 1837, resigning in 1842.
: W. D. Northend.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1852
He declined the position of attorney-general of the United States in 1846. He volunteered in a Concord company for the Mexican war; was appointed colonel of the 9th Regiment United States army; brigadier-general in March, 1847; was wounded at battle of Contreras in August; resigned in December at the close of the war. In 1850 he was president of the convention for revising the constitution of the State. " The special feature of his inau- gural address was the support of slavery in the United States, and the an- nouncement of his determination that the Fugitive Slave Act should be strictly enforced. This was the keynote of his administration, and pregnant with vital consequences to the country. From it came during his term the Ostend conference and ' manifesto,' the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and the troubles in Kansas and Nebraska, which crystallized the opposing forces into the Republican party, and led later to the great Rebellion." 1 He died in October, 1869.
2 The countess of Rumford died in December, 1852, at the age of seventy- eight. The Rolfe-Rumford house occupies a very pleasant site but a few rods from the Merrimack river, on a slight eminence that overlooks that stream.
Her home, the Rolfe-Rumford house, was built in 1764 by Colonel Ben- jamin Rolfe. Colonel Rolfe was a great man in the colony in ante-Revolu- tionary days, the son of Henry Rolfe, one of the original grantees of Pena- cook. He was a man of scholarly attainments, having graduated at Harvard in 1728. Able, wealthy, and enterprising, he was a man of authority, holding the highest offices of the settlement. He was the town clerk of Rumford for many years, and was the first one chosen to represent the town in the Gen- eral Assembly of New Hampshire. In 1745 he held the commission of colo- nel in the province under Governor Benning Wentworth, By inheritance and his own industry he acquired a large property, and was by far the wealth- iest person in Concord. He lived according to his means, after the fashion of the day. His large estate was worked by slaves and servants to the num- ber of a dozen. He purchased and owned the first chaise ever used in Con- cord, in 1767. It had, says Dr. Bouton, a standing canvas top, and probably cost about $60, which would be about equal to the sum of $240 in these days.
This old-time magnate lived a bachelor until he was nearly sixty. At that age he lost his heart to Miss Sarah Walker, the oldest daughter of Rev. Tim- othy Walker, who was thirty years his junior. Miss Walker was beautiful and accomplished. The Rolfes at the " South End," and the Walkers at the "North End," with the Coffins, Eastmans, Bradleys, and Stickneys between, were the aristocracy of old Rumford. They lived differently from the other people, usurped most of the offices, and controlled the business and social interests of the town. The marriage, therefore, of Colonel Rolfe and Miss Walker must have been one of the grand events of the colony. It occurred in the year 1769. That this union of May and December was otherwise than a happy one we have no reason for believing, but it was very short. In Dec- ember, 1771, Colonel Rolfe died, leaving his widow the wealthiest person in the settlement.
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1 Encyclopedia Britannica.
3 Fred Myron Colby.
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About this time there came to Concord, from Woburn, Mass., a young man by the name of Benjamin Thompson. Though a mere youth in years, he was wonderfully matured in mind. He was a good scholar, and developed hand- somely in personal appearance. He was engaged at once as the teacher of Rumford Academy.
Thompson was a philosopher by nature, and nothing could divert him from his philosophical researches and mechanical pursuits. Handy with tools and full of inventive genius, he spent his spare time in all sorts of ex- periments on subjects suggested by his reading. Naturally gay and fond of society, he entered into all the manly sports of the time while at Concord. He was the most expert skater and swimmer among the young men. At the social evening parties he was a favorite. With his experiments in chemistry and philosophy, his feats of swimming and skating upon the Merrimack and Horse-shoe Pond, his genial and engaging manners at all times and places, he for a time was very popular among old and young at Rumford.
At Mr. Walker's Thompson often met the young widow, Mrs. Rolfe. They married sometime before January, 1773, at Parson Walker's house, and the poor schoolmaster became the richest man in Rumford.
Mr. and Mrs. Thompson inaugurated a style of living at the Rumford house that completely threw in the shade anything of the kind previously. While attending a military review at Dover, Thompson attracted the atten- tion of Governor Wentworth.
The distinguished friendship of the royal governor won for Thompson the appointment of major in the 11th regiment of the New Hampshire militia, "over the heads of all the old officers." This gained for him the enmity of all his superseded rivals, and of some others who envied him his good fortune.
In the family mansion was born their daughter, Sarah, the afterward benevolent countess of Rumford, October 18, 1774. A few happy, prosper- ous months went by. Blest in his family relations, honored for his position and his culture, the intimate friend of Wentworth, of Wheelock, the president of Dartmouth College, of Parson Walker, and other eminent and learned mnen, Benjamin Thompson seemed riding on the highest wave of prosperity and happiness. Upon this brilliant day burst the storm of the Revolution.
Benjamin Thompson was as yet but twenty-two years of age. His sudden rise, his unvarying prosperity, and, more than all, the governor's favor, had made him enemies, and a grand combination was made to crush him. Though inclined to the patriot cause, he was denounced as a Tory. Even the influence of the Walkers, who were ardent patriots, and known as such, could not save him. Fearing violence from a mob of village patriots, if he remained, young Thompson fled from his home in the night. The jealous officers con- tinued to malign him, and the rumors spread through the American army. Suspected without cause, and wishing to obtain a commission in the patriot army, he demanded an inquiry. It resulted in a drawn verdict. After vainly trying to live down the ill odor by zealous army work on the American side, and finding himself still in danger from suspicion and hostility, he gave up the patriot cause in disgust, and fled to the British in Boston.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1854
Going to England at the close of the Revolution, he obtained service under the elector of Bavaria, and upon his departure was knighted, by which he became Sir Benjamin Thompson. In the public garden of Bavaria his statue stands, of heroic size, as the patron genius of the place. The elector also honored him by conferring upon him several of the highest offices in the empire. He was a member of the Council of State; major-general; knight of Poland; commander-in-chief of the army; minister of war; chief of the regency in the elector's absence ; and count of the Holy Roman Empire. To this latter title he added Rumford, in honor of his old home in America. He left Bavaria only as minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary to the court of St. James, with a pension for life. Count Rumford had never ceased his interest in philosophical investigations, and while in England engaged in experiments whose fruits came home to every man's kitchen and fireside. Lady Sarah Thompson, his wife, died in 1792. Mrs. Thompson's son by her first marriage, Paul Rolfe, by inheritance became the owner of the house and estate in Concord, and died in July, 1819, and his half sister became his heiress. She saw life as few saw it. She was a queen of society. She was never married. Tired of courts and their flatteries, after her return to Amer- ica, in 1845, she spent the remainder of her life in a quiet circle of society, aloof from the stir of city life, with an adopted daughter for her companion.
Governor Nathaniel B. Baker, the son of Lieutenant Abel Baker, of Concord, was born in Henniker, Sept. 29, 1819. He graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1839; read law with Messrs. Pierce and Fowler ; and, from 1841 to 1845, was one of the proprietors and editors of the New Hampshire Pat- riot. In 1841 he was quartermaster of the Eleventh regiment ;" was appointed adjutant of the same in 1842, and held the office the following year. In 1844 and 1845 he was aide to Governor Steele, with rank of colonel. In 1846 he was appointed clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, and of the Superior Court for the county of Merrimack. He was representative from Concord, and speaker of the House of Representatives, in 1850 and 1851, and elector of president and vice-president in 1852. In 1854 he was elected governor of New Hampshire, and served as chief magistrate one year. Subsequently he took up his residence in Clinton, Iowa, having an appointment as attorney for the railroad in that vicinity. At the commencement of the war he was appointed adjutant-general of Iowa, and held that office, having performed its duties during the trials of the Rebellion with his usual promptness and energy, until the close of the war.1
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