Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. I, Part 84

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 858

USA > New Hampshire > Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. I > Part 84

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(VII) Amos, second son and fourth child of John (2) and Betsey (Towle) Tuck, was born at Parsonsfield, Maine, August 2, 1810. His father, John (2) Tuck, had moved from Hampton, New Hampshire, where six generations of the family had lived, because the elder brother Josiah had spent so much of the family property that all that was left for the younger brothers, Samuel and John, was two farms of moderate size in the unsettled region of Maine. The farm of Amos Tuck's father was in the extreme southwestern part of Parsonsfield, bordering on Province Lake, and there the boy early became inured to toil and hardship. At the age of seventeen Amos entered the academy in the neighboring town of Effingham, New Hampshire, where he began to prepare for college, meanwhile teaching during the winters. Two years later he went to Hampton to continue his studies, keeping on with his teaching till the winter of 1831, when he became a member of the freshman class of Dart- mouth College. He was graduated in 1835 at the age of twenty-five. Among Mr. Tuck's classmates was Harry Hibbard afterwards his contemporary in congress, and in the next class, 1836, was another congressional contemporary, "Long" John Went- worth, of Chicago, also Samuel C. Bartlett. after- wards president of the college, and James Wilson Grimes, subsequently United States senator from Iowa. Upon graduation Amos Tuck taught one term in the academy at Pembroke, New Hampshire, and during the following winter became preceptor of Hampton Academy where he remained, meanwhile pursuing the study of law, until the spring of 1838. At that time he resigned his position to complete his studies with Hon. James Bell, of Exeter, susbe- quently United States senator. Mr. Tuck was ad- mitted to the bar in November, 1838, and shortly afterward became a partner of Mr. Bell, then one of the leading lawyers of the state. This connection continued for eight years, during which time the firm enjoyed an extensive practice.

In 1842 Mr. Tuck was chosen representative to the New Hampshire legislature, and took an active part in the revision of the statutes enacted that year. Mr. Tuck was a Democrat at that time, but events were ripening which soon put him out of accord with the leaders of his party. It was in 1844 that Frank- lin Pierce, afterward president, decided that Jolin P. Hale, who had boldly dissented from President Tyler's proposal to annex Texas, should be de- prived of a re-nomination to congress. This de- termination to sacrifice Hale aroused Mr. Tuck, who said that if Hale was read out of the party ou ac- count of his Anti-Slavery sentiments, he (Tuck) would go with him. The crisis came when it was determined to organize an independent sentiment in the party. At the February term of court held in Exeter in 1845, Mr. Tuck with the assistance of John L. Hayes, of Portsmouth, a lawyer whose

political opinions accorded with his own, issued a call for a convention to be held on Washington's birth- day to form an independent movement to support Mr. Hale. Between two and three hundred signa- tures were secured for this petition, and on February 22, 1845, in the vestry of the old First Church in Exeter, was formed the first crystallized opposition to the extension of the slaveholders' rule in the land. The company called themselves Independent Democrats, and with the help of George G. Fogg, they subsequently established a newspaper of that name, published for many years at Concord. Mr. Fogg, a native of Gilmanton, this state, who after- wards became minister to Switzerland, was the editor and proprietor of the paper. Without doubt the Exeter convention became the nucleus of the Repub- lican party.

At this day, when the principles for which they fought, have so long been established, it is difficult to realize what courage and zeal must have animated that little band of reformers, who journeyed over snow-blocked roads to the convention at Exeter in February, 1845. Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, afterwards preacher to Harvard College, said of them: "I well remember the utter hopelessness with which the great public viewed this little band of Independents in New Hampshire. They were thought to have destroyed their political future beyond all retrieve."

The poet Whittier, between whom and Mr. Tuck existed an initimate sympathy and friendship, broke forth into a paean of joy when New Hampshire, until then the strongest Democratic state in the north, escaped from party control and placed in the senate of the United States its first Anti-Slavery member. The poem begins :

"God bless New Hampshire! From her granite peaks Once more the voice of Stark and Langdon speaks. The long-bound vassal of the exulting South For very shame her self-forged chain has broken; Torn the black seal of slavery from her mouth, And in the clear tones of her old time spoken ! Oh, all undreamed-of, all uphoped-for changes ! The Tyrant's ally proves his sternest foe ; To all his biddings, from hier mountain ranges, New Hampshire thunders an indignant No!"

There is another poem of Whittier's, little known, but found in the complete volume of his works, which was originally published in the Boston Chro- notype during 1846. There are some seventeen stanzas of eight lines each, and it is simply headed "A Letter," supposed to have been written to Honor- able Moses Norris, then representing New Hamp- shire in the senate at Washington. It is crammed full of local allusions, and as one of the rare humor- ous effusions of the poet, as well as for the reference to Mr. Tuck and the times, a few lines may be worth quoting :

We're routed, Moses, horse and foot, If there be truth in figures, With Federal Whigs in hot pursuit, And Hale, and all the "niggers."

"I dreamed that Charley took his bed, With Hale for his physician; His daily dose an old "unread And unreferred" petition. There Hayes and Tuck as nurses sat, As near as near could be. man ;

They leeched him with the "Democrat :" They blistered with the "Freeman."

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"Charley" was Charles G. Atherton, of Nashua, who had introduced the gag-law, so called, into the New Hampshire legislature : "Papers and memorials touching the subject of slavery shall be laid on the table without reading, debate or refer- ence."

The Independent movement, which seemed so hopeless at first, resulted in the election of John P. Hale to the United States senate in 1846, and of Mr. Tuck to congress in 1847. Each was the first Anti-Slavery sentiment-Joshua R. Giddings, of elected to his branch of the government. When Amos Tuck took his seat in December, there were but two other men in the house holding distinctly Anti-Slavery sentiment-Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, and Dr. John G. Palfrey, of Massachusetts, and both of these had been elected as Whigs. An- other colleague in that congress with whom Mr. Tuck formed a strong friendship was a plain, awk- ward man from Illinois-Abraham Lincoln, whose future greatness no one could have presaged at that time. Mr. Tuck was twice re-elected to congress, closing his term of service there in 1853. That was the year when he called a meeting of Anti-Slavery men of all parties with a view to better co-operation and united action. The meeting was hield, October 12, 1853, at Major Blake's hotel, later the Squam- scott House, in Exeter, and on this occasion Mr. Tuck proposed the name Republican for the new party. The credit for the christening is usually given to Horace Greeley; but his suggestion was not made till the next year; and the great honor of the name belongs to Amos Tuck.

Mr. Tuck was a member of the presidential con- ventions of 1856 and 1860, helping to nominate botlı Fremont and Lincoln, and he took an active part in the Peace Congress of 1861. President Lincoln, tendered a foreign mission to Mr. Tuck which was declined, and later offered him the appointment of naval officer at Boston, which was accepted. Mr. Tuck held the latter position until removed by Presi- dent Johnson in the fall of 1865. Subsequently he was appointed to the office of land commissioner of the Atlantic and Pacific railroad in Missouri, which caused him to make his home in St. Louis for a number of years. Between 1847 and 1857 Mr. Tuck was associated in legal partnership with Hon. Wil- liam O. Stickney, of Exeter, and afterwards with his own son-in-law, Francis O. French. Mr. Tuck traveled abroad several times, and in his later years was en- gaged with Austin Corbin of New York City, a native of Newport, this state, in railroad construc- tion on Long Island.

Amos Tuck was always greatly interested in the cause of education. He served as trustee of Dart- mouth College for ten years, of Phillips Exeter Academy nearly thirty years, took an active part . in the organization of Robinson Female Seminary at Exeter, and was president of the board of trustees for several years. An old student of the Seminary writes in grateful appreciation as follows: "Exeter is deeply and lastingly indebted to Mr. Tuck's wisdom and sagacity in the work of establishing Robinson Female Seminary. He was elected president of the first board of trustees, and spared neither time nor pains to carry out the will of the founder to supply 'such a course of education as would enable its scholars to compete and successfully, too, with their brothers throughout the world when they have to take their part in the actual duties of life.' Forty years ago the idea of the equal education of the sexes was new to many. Mr. Tuck's aim was 'to make the Seminary do for girls what the Phillips Academy does for boys ;' and to this end he planned,

with his co-adjutors, the course of study and selected the corps of instructors; and the more closely his precedents have been followed, the greater has been the genuine prosperity of the school. When the present cdifice was dedicated, in September, 1869, many and flattering were the encomiums showered upon the wisdom, judgment and indefatigable labors of Mr. Tuck. When called upon to speak, he modestly disclaimed the power attributed to him, but could not deny the ceaseless industry; ending by saying, 'The only reward I desire is the success of Robinson Seminary and the gratitude of the graduates of the first four years.' "

Amos Tuck was a man of fine personal appear- ance, pure and upright character and exemplary home life. A political opponent, who had business relations with Mr. Tuck, said of him: "He impressed inc as no other man ever did; candid, honest, un- contaminated by contact with evil, with a high and noble purpose, magnanimous, kind, generous and deferential, but firm to his convictions of duty as the eternal hills. He was in every sense a gentleman. I never expect to meet his equal." He was generous to his friends and to every good cause, and gave lib- erally of his abundant means to schools, churches, missions and temperance work. Theodore Parker said of him: "His face is a benediction." A fine mar- ble bust of Amos Tuck, presented by his daughter, Mrs. F. O. French, of New York, stands in the main hall of the State Library at Concord. The bust is the work of the noted sculptor, Daniel Chester French, a cousin of Francis O. French, and himself a native of Chester, this state.

Amos Tuck was twice married. His first wife, and the mother of his eiglit children, was Sarah Ann Nudd, daughter of David and Abigail (Emery) Nudd, who was born October 13, 1810, at Hampton, New Hampshire, and died February 21, 1847, at Exeter. The children, all but three of whom died in infancy, were Abby Elizabeth, born November 4, 1835. Charles, December 26, 1836. Ellen, April 4, 1838. Edward, June 6, 1841. Edward, August 25,

18.12. Isabella, April 25, 1844. Charles, J July 10, 18.45. Amos Otis, August 26, 1846. The children who lived to maturity were Abby Elizabeth, Ellen and the second Edward, whose sketch is given in succeeding paragraphs. Abby E. Tuck, the eldest child, married William R. Nelson, of Peekskill, New York, and had three children: Laura, Ellen Tuck and Mary Delavan. Ellen Tuck Nelson married Henry W. Stevens, son of Lyman D. Stevens, of Concord. (See Stevens, VII). Mary Delavan Nel- son married Rev. George Brinley Morgan, son of Henry K. Morgan, of Hartford, Connecticut. After the death of her first husband, Abby E. (Tuck) Nelson married Orrin F. Frye, member of the firm, Rand, Avery & Frye, of Boston. Ellen, the second daughter of Amos and Sarah (Nudd) Tuck, married, March 5, 1861, Francis O. French, grandson of Chief Justice William M. Richardson, of New Hampshire. (See Richardson, VI). Mr. French was graduated from Harvard College in 1857, became a lawyer, and afterwards a distinguished banker in New York City. The children of Mr. and Mrs. French were: Elizabeth R., who married General Eaton, of Eng- land. Amos Tuck, who married Pauline LeRoy, of Newport, Rhode Island. Benjamin B., who died young. Elsie, who married Alfred Gwynne Vander- bilt, of New York.

Amos Tuck married for his second wife, October 10, 1847, Mrs. Catherine P. Shepard, widow of Jolin G. Shepard, and daughter of John Townsend, of Salisbury, New Hampshire. She was born January 20, 1815, and died without issue October 10, 1876,

Edward Jack

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the twenty-ninth anniversary of her marriage. Amos Tuck died suddenly of apoplexy at his home in Exeter on December 11, 1879, at the age of sixty- nine years. He is buried in the cemetery of the town he loved so well, where he spent most of his life, and where he organized political movements that have helped to make history.

(VIII) Edward Tuck, the fifth child of Amos and Sarah Ann (Nudd) Tuck, was born in Exeter, August 25, 1842. He was fitted for college at Phillips Academy (Exeter), entering Dartmouth in the fall of 1859 as a sophomore. The training which he had received at Phillips Academy not only enabled him to enter college upon advanced stand- ing. but also qualified him for a high grade of work throughout his course. . He graduated from Dart- mouth in 1862 among the first men of his class. During one or more of the long winter vacations, then allowed for teaching, he studied French in a French family of culture residing in Canada.

After graduation he began the study of law in his father's office at Exeter, but owing to trouble with his eyes he went abroad for travel, continuing, as he was able, the study of French. At about this time the United States government entered upon a short experiment in examinations for the diplomatic service. Mr. Tuck took the examinations, passed with high credit, and was assigned to the Consulate in Paris. The Hon. John Bigelow was at the time consul general and the Hon. William L. Dayton, minister. Within the year of Mr. Tuck's appoint- ment Minister Dayton died, and Mr. Bigelow re- turned to this country with the body, leaving Mr. Tuck in charge of affairs at the Embassy. Upon Mr. Bigelow's appointment as minister Mr. Tuck was appointed vice-consul, and became acting consul, at Paris. In 1866 Mr. Tuck resigned to accept a position, to which he had previously been invited, in the banking house of Munroe & Company, New York and Paris. While serving in subordinate re- lations he spent a part of his time in this country and a part of the time abroad. In 1871 he was made a partner in the company, retaining this connection till 1881, when he retired from active business.

Mr. Tuck was married in 1872 at St. George's Church, London, to Julia Stell, daughter of William Shorter Stell, Esquire, of Philadelphia, but then re- siding at Manchester. England.

The career of Mr. Tuck both in the diplomatic service and in banking has been remarkable for the rapidity of his advancement-within two years from his graduation from College vice consul at Paris, and within twelve years head of the New York branch of one of the largest and most honorable of the international banking houses of the time, able at the age of thirty-nine to retire from active business. The brilliancy of his career has in it, however, no trace whatever of "high finance." but has been at every point the result of great mental alertness com- bined with moral courage, of sagacity always touch- ed with a fine sense of honor, and of undeviating integrity. No words can better describe his own business principles and methods than the words in which he set forth the principles and methods which he wished to have adopted in the conduct of the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance, which represents a part of his benefaction to Dart- mouth College.

done my father's memory the honor of attaching his name, I trust that certain elementary but vital prin- ciples, on which he greatly dwelt in his advice to young men, whether entering upon a professional or business career, may not be lost sight of in the va-

riety of technical subjects of which the regular cur- riculum is composed. Briefly. these principles or maxims are: Absolute devotion to the career which one selects, and to the interests of one's superior of- ficers or employers ; the desire and determination to do more rather than less than one's required duties ; perfect accuracy and promptness in all undertakings, and absence from one's vocabulary of the word 'forget'; never to vary a hair's breadth from the truth nor from the path of strictest honesty and honor, with perfect confidence in the wisdom of do- ing right as the surest means of achieving success. To the maxim that honesty is the best policy should be added another: that altruism is the highest and best form of egoism as a principle of conduct to be followed by those who strive for success and happi- ness in public or business relations as well as in those of private life."

Although Mr. Tuck has withdrawn from active business he retains his personal interest in financial affairs, as evidenced by his frequent contributions to the London Economist, and Statist, as well as to The Nineteenth Century. He is an intimate friend of Mr. James J. Hill, with whose projects he is identi- fied, in the way of financial support. Naturally his advice is much sought by foreign capitalists in reference to investments in American securities.

The most noticeable characteristic of Mr. Tuck is his desire that those within the range of his friendship should share in the good fortune which has attended his efforts. His private benefactions are constant and generous, though discriminating. Of his public benefactions the most marked has been the gift of $500,000 to his "Alma Mater" for pur- poses of instruction, followed by the gift of $135,000 for a recitation hall. This gift, made in 1899. bears the name of the Amos Tuck Endowment Fund, and is a memorial to his honored father, who was a graduate of Dartmouth in the class of 1835, and a trustee of the College from 1857 to 1866. The gift is significant of Mr. Tuck's thoughtful generosity, in that it was altogether unsolicited, the expression of his loyalty and affection both for his father and for his "Alma Mater."

In the celebration of Old Home Week at Strat- ham, New Hampshire, in 1905. the pleasantest fea- lure of the celebration was the unexpected presen- tation by Mr. Tuck through Dana W. Baker, Esquire, of Stratham Hill, as a public park. The desire of the people in the vicinity to set apart this high landmark having become known to Mr. Tuck he wrote to Mr. Baker: "It would be a misfortune if this beautiful hill with its grand views of the sur- rounding country and of the ocean, to which the peo- ple have had access from time immemorial, should be closed to the free use of the public, or stripped of its fine growth of timber. I fully share in the senti- ments of affection with which the inhabitants of the neighboring towns always regarded it, and I should be glad to ensure its preservation as a historic landmark and public resort by presenting the prop- erty to the town of Stratham. I will therefore be obliged if you will have a deed of the property pre- pared in the legal form and will deliver the same to the selectinen of the town in my behalf."

"In the conduct of the School to which you have ' active member of the New Hampshire IIistorical

Mr. Tuck is in various ways concerned with the efforts which are being made to recall in fitting terms the history of New Hampshire. He is an Society and is very much interested in the proposed new library building for the Society which is about to be erected in Concord-the building to be of granite, fireproof, and of Greek architecture. It may properly be added that Mrs. Tuck, who is in hearty

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sympathy with her husband in his benefactions, is actively identified with the charities of Paris, and maintains at Rueil, where their country home "Vert- Mont" is located, a beautiful hospital, with extensive grounds, for the benefit of the town.

Mr. Tuck has kept alive his early interest in literature and art. His leisure, if such it may be called, is only the larger opportunity for the exercise of a well trained mind. Though for many years a resident of Paris, Mr. Tuck keeps his house in New York, and is a member of the Metropolitan and the Union League clubs. Few men are better in- formed in regard to political as well as economic and financial conditions in this country. Through his long residence in Paris Mr. Tuck's home is one of the social centers in the American Colony, and no less recognized in the social life of the city. In 1906 he was made Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.

KENDRICK This name is sometimes spelled Kenrick and Kenerick in the early records. Several of the family set- tled in or about Boston during the first half of the seventeenth century. George Kendrick was at Scitu- ate, Massachusetts, in 1634; John was at Boston in 1639, and Caleb was at Boston in 1652.

Stephen Kendrick was born February 24, 1770, in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and was married there, October 8, 1797, 10 Thankful Howe. Their chil- dren were: Stephen, James Howe, Egbert Benson, John Benson, Mary Lowell, George Samuel, Henry Lane, Martha Thankful and William Lowell.

(I) Egbert Benson, son of Stephen and Thank- ful ( Howe) Kendrick, was born at Lebanon, New Hampshire, May 4, 1802. He was educated in the common schools of that place, and became a carpen- ter and painter. He was a Republican in politics, attended the Congregational Church, and was a member of the Masonic fraternity. On January I, 1828, Egbert Benson Kendrick married Emma Wood, daughter of Captain Joseph and Sarah Wood. She was born October 22, 1805. There are seven chil- dren: Joseph Wood Kendrick, born September 23, 1829, died August 28, 1848; Sarah Wood Kendrick, born February 14, 1831, died August 30, 1870; Emma Jane Kendrick, born January 27, 1835, deceased ; Clarissa Royce Kendrick, born December 14, 1836, died September 4, 1902; Richard Henry Kendrick, born July 14, 1840, died April 16, 1867; Francis Brown, horn June 27, 1842, died January 8, 1843; Frank Brown, whose sketch follows; Harlan Page Kendrick, born October 29. 1848, died about 1900. Egbert B. Kendrick died February 15, 1887, at the goodly age of eighty-five, and wife died Septem- ber 30, 1877.

(II) Frank Brown, third son and sixth child of Egbert Benson and Emeline (Wood) Kendrick, was born at Lebanon, New Hampshire, March 25, 1845. He was educated in the common schools of his na- tive town, and learned the jeweler's trade, at which he worked for twenty years. In 1867 he started in business for himself, manufacturing watch keys and watchmakers' tools, of which there are over three hundred different kinds. The establishment also makes electric motors and electric novelties. It is one of the largest manufacturing plants of its kind in the world, and employs over eighty people the year around. Mr. Kendrick has a partner, W. F. Davis, associated with him, and the firm name is Kendrick & Davis. Besides his own factory Mr. Kendrick has contributed much to the business pros- perity of Lebanon. He built the mill for the Mas- coma Flannel Company, of which Dr. George G.

Kennedy, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, was presi- dent, and Mr. Kendrick himself was manager and treasurer. He was also one of the builders of the Everett Knitting Mill, of which he is president and director. He is also vice-president and director of the National Bank of Lebanon. Mr. Kendrick is Republican, and represented the town in the legislature in the year 1889. On February 3, 1868, Frank Benson Kendrick married Belle Mary Goff, daughter of William Harrison and Eliza ( Barker ) Goff, who was born in Barnard, Vermont, April 25, 1845, and died at Lebanon, November 28, 1906. There are no children, but they have adopted two- Leon W. Kendrick and Christine E. Kendrick. Mr. Kendrick lives in,a substantial brick mansion built by his grandfather over one hundred years ago, which faces the square in Lebanon.

(I) John Kenrick was born in Amesbury. Massachusetts, December 17, 1764, and was killed by accident in 1806. He married Sarah Colby, born in Amesbury, January 25, 1771. They were the parents of nine children. After the death of her husband, Sarah married David Marsh.

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Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. I, Part 84

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 858

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 858