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. II > Part 24
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The Pillsbury brothers were associated in busi- ness the greater part of their lives. When con- venient they and their families resided in the same house, having a common purse and living as one family in the greatest harmony. After moving to Tilton they built and occupied a very large and handsome house commanding a grand and beauti- ful view of the surrounding country. Their deaths occurred on the same day of the month, November 26, one in 1801. and the other in 1895.
(II1) Caleb, sixth child and third son of Moses
and Susannalı (Worth) Pillsbury, was born in New- bury. July 27, 1681, and died in Amesbury, in 1759, aged seventy-eight. He moved with his family to Amesbury in 1727, where he soon became a leading man in town affairs. The act which made his name famous in local annals was the carrying out of the scheme to tunnel Pond Ridge in order that the waters of Lake Attitash might flow more directly into Powwow river, and also to drain a large meadow to the northward of the lake that its crop of hay might be more valuable and more easily harvested. This was a great engineering feat for the time, and was planned by Caleb Pillsbury and Orlando Bagley. The actual labor of digging through the ridge was performed by two men named Ring and Nutter. Tradition says they took their pay in a barrel of West India rum; or, as it was spelled in those days, "rhum." The amount of the inventory of Caleb's property, both real and per- sonal, taken June 25, 1759, was £256, 6s., 7d. He married in Newbury, February II, 1703, Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Morss, of Amesbury. Their children were: Benjamin. Caleb, Susannah, Saralı, Esther, Hannah and Judith.
(IV) Captain Caleb, second son and child of Caleb and Sarah (Morss) Pillsbury, was born in Newbury, January 26, 1717, and died in Amesbury, February 7. 1778. He was the favorite son and residuary legatee of his father, of whose estate he was administrator. During his lifetime he was one of the most prominent citizens of the town of Amesbury, and held at one time or another almost every office within the gift of the people. He was repeatedly chosen selectman, representative to the general court and to the provincial congress. He was a captain of the militia under the royal author- ity, and his commission under the king's name, signed by Governor Hutchinson, is carefully pre- served by one of his grandsons. He was captain of the little company of fifteen minute-men who marched from Amesbury to Cambridge on the Lex- ington alarm. The muster roll may be found in the state house in Boston among the revolutionary papers. It is interesting to note that out of the members of the company four were named Pills- bury; indeed, Caleb and his five sons were at dif- ferent times in the Continental army. The inven- tory of his property, taken June 4, 1778, amounted to upwards of 2,200 pounds, a large sum for the time. He married (first), July 8. 1742. Sarah Kim- ball, of Amesbury. She died in 1761, and he mar- ried (second), Mrs. Mehitable (Buswell) Smith, of Kingston. New Hampshire, the intention of marriage being published November 7, 1761. The children by the first wife were: Joshua, Susannah, Sarah, Moses, Caleb, Elizabeth and Micajah. The only child of the second wife was Isaac.
(V) Micajah, fourth son and seventh child of Caleb and Sarah (Kimball) Pillsbury, was born. in Amesbury, May 4, 1761, and died in Sutton, New Hampshire, in ISO1, aged forty. He was a black- smith by trade, and a soldier in the Revolution. He enlisted in the Continental army November 10, 1777, at the age of sixteen, and was a private in Captain Oliver Titcomb's company, Colonel Jacob Gerrish's regiment of guards, and served to April 2, 1778, four months, twenty-four days at Charlestown and Cambridge. This regiment was raised to guard Lieutenant-General Burgoyne's army after his sur- render. In February, 1795, he moved from Ames- bury to Sutton, where he lived till his death. He settled in the southerly part of the town, on the road
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leading from South Sutton to Fishersfield (New- bury), near the top of what was called Coburn's or Dodge's liill. He was a respected citizen and filled several offices of trust, among which was that of selectman, to which he was elected in 1797. He was frequently called upon by his fellow townsmen to settle matters in controversy between them, and acted as a judge or referee. He married, March 15, 1781, Sarah Sargent, of Amesbury, daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Kendrick) Sargent, who died in Sutton, 1843, aged eighty. Their children were: Stephen, Joseph, Moses, John, Sally, Betsey, Nancy and Dolly.
(VI) Rev. Stephen, eldest child of Micajah and Sarah (Sargent) Pillsbury, was born in Ames- bury, October 30, 1781, and died in Londonderry, New Hampshire, January 22, 1851, in the seventieth year of his age. In his early life he was noted as a school teacher. He was ordained to the gospel minister in June, 1815, and settled as a Baptist clergyman at Hebron. He subsequently resided in Sutton, Dunbarton, and Londonderry. His ministry extended through thirty-five years, fourteen of which were passed in Londonderry. He was one of the very first persons in the state to espouse the tem- perance reform movement, and he published an appeal on the subject to the people, and another to rum-sellers, never sparing any effort tending for good to his fellow-men. He represented Sutton in the legislature about 1833, as a Democrat, but when the Free Soil party was formed he entered its ranks for freedom and union. At Londonderry lie was active as superintending school committee for many years, and always identified himself with the cause of education. On the last day of his labor he attended a wedding and a funeral. He was one of the most correct, exemplary Christian gentlemen of lis day-prudent, amiable, and unselfish, and was respected by all who had an opportunity to know him. He came to be regarded as one of the fathers of the denomination with which he was so long connected. Mrs. Pillsbury declared a short time before her death that her bcloved husband never spoke a harsh word to her in his life. He married, March 3, 1816, Lavinia Hobart, born in Hebron, New Hampshire, October 31, 1795, daughter of Jo- siah and Joanna (Hazelton) Hobart, of Hebron. (See Hobart VII). She died in Concord, October 21, 187I, aged seventy-six. She was the possessor of rare intellectual powers, was a graceful writer of prose and verse, and the possessor of a fine artistic taste. Her Christian character was a bright example of faith, devotion and helpfulness. She composed several excellent religious hymns, and con- tributed valuable articles to the pages of the Mother's Assistant Magisine. The children of Ste- phen and Lavinia Pillsbury were: Mary Bartlett, Lavinia Hobart, Josiah Hobart, Stephen, Edwin, Ann Judson, Adoniram Judson, Williamn Stoughton and Leonard Hobart. (The last named receives extended mention in this article).
(VII) Colonel William Stoughton, eighth child and fifth son of Rev. Stephen and Lavinia (Hobart) Pillsbury, was born in Sutton, March 16, 1833. His education has been gained chiefly in the school of practical life. At the age of fourteen he began to learn the trade of shoemaker, and subsequently be- came a skillful cutter of stock. At twenty years of age he started a shoe factory at Cilleysville, An- dover, for his brother Stephen, and was superin- tendent of the extensive establishment for a year or more. He was afterwards employed at Marl-
boro, Massachusetts. Up to the time he attained his majority he gave all his carnings over a plain living for himself for the support of his widowed mother and to aid others in need at the time. When twenty-one years of age he consequently did not possess a dollar in money. Soon, however, he was engaged with a firm of shoe manufacturers just starting in business at Derry, now West Derry. About a year later he had the entire charge of the business as agent, and so continued during the ex- istence of the firm. When this firm went out of business Mr. Pillsbury made a journey to Kansas, where he used what inoney he had saved to advan- tage. Returning east he remained occupied in busi- ness affairs until the opening of the war of the Re- bellion. He enlisted in his country's service, and was commissioned first lieutenant of Company I, Fourth New Hampshire Regiment, and left for the seat of war in September, 1861. After reaching Annapolis he met with an acident of so serious a character that he resigned and returned north. A few months later, his health having improved, and the call for three hundred thousand men being is- sued, he was appointed recruiting officer for the Ninth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers. He was commissioned first lieutenant of Company A. His regiment proceeded to Washington and was in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. It was at the battle of South Mountain that Lieutenant Pillsbury gave proof of his vigilance, perception and knowledge of tactics, which without doubt saved a portion of the companies of his regiment from almost sure destruction. His company was leading a charge upon a large force of the enemy, who were driven through a piece of woods and dis- appeared while the union forces moved into an open field adjoining. The enemy formed under the pro- tection of a battery, and their movements were ob- served by Lieutenant Pillsbury who halted his men and fell back sufficiently to avoid the fire of the bat- tery and to be supported by other forces just at the moment when Major General Reno rode along the line into the ambush and received a terrible volley from the rebels screened by the woods, and was instantly killed, very near the same ground oc- cupied a few moments before by Company A and other union forces.
Disabled by a severe attack of pneumonia, he resigned his commission, and as soon as he was able to perform a little service in business he engaged in Wheeling, Virginia, superintending a party of ex- perts in training men there in the making of shoes by the most desirable New England method. As soon as his health seemed restored he returned to Londonderry, raised for the town its quota of thirty men under the last great call (1864), and was com- missioned first lieutenant of Company D, unattached artillery, Captain George W. Colbath, of Dover, commanding. The company served in several of the forts in the first and second divisions of the de- fenses of the capital. He commanded for a time the battery Garesche in De Russey's division. Later he was appointed ordnance officer of the First Bri- gade, Harding's Division, and was stationed at Fort Reno, Maryland, where he remained until the close of the war. He was mustered out at Concord, June 19, 1865.
A month later he engaged in manufacturing shoes at Londonderry, and successfully prosecuted the business there until the need of larger buildings induced him to move his machinery to Derry Depot. After the removal to that place he formed a busi-
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ness connection with the Boston house of E. P. Phillips & Company, which continued until the dis- solution of that firm. Soon after that event he be- came agent for the noted firm of Clement, Cofburn & Company, of Boston, later Colburn, Fuller & Company, shoe manufacturers at West Derry. Dur- ing this agency the business has increased until from an annual trade of $75.000 it has reached the sum of over a million dollars a year. Upwards of four hundred and fifty persons are now employed in this establishment of the firm at West Derry. Additions to the factory afford room for about one hundred more operatives, as the pressure of the trade may require. Nearly four hundred different styles of ladies boots and shoes are made for Amer- ican and foreign trade. The especial effort in pro- duction is to attain all serviceable qualities and durability. The product of this factory is sold all over the United States, the West Indies, the west coast of South America, Egypt, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and in several European markets. Mr. Pillsbury is a lifelong Republican, and has filled various offices of trust and honor. In 1868 he was elected one of the commissioners of Rock- ingham county, and held that office until 1872. in this position he performed valuable service in or- ganizing the system of conducting county affairs, embracing the institution of a new method for car- ing for the paupers at the county farm. Chiefly through his influence and zealous efforts came the appropriation for the erection of the asylum build- ing for the accommodation of the insane poor of the county, with results as good as at the state asylum at Concord, while saving largely in ex- pense, the enterprise has proven the soundness and practicability of the plan. In fact, while patients are as well treated as formerly, the cost of the asylum building was saved the first year it was occupied. Colonel Pillsbury was the original mover in the effort to check the overwhelming extent of the "tramp nuisance" in New Hampshire. The action he inaugurated culminated in the law for the suppression of vagrancy that has accomplished so much good in this state. and which has been gen- erally copied in other states.
In Londonderry, Colonel Pillsbury has served as moderator at town meetings for nineteen years. Ile has also represented his town in the legislature, was elected to the state senate in 1901, is a justice of the peace and chairman of the Leech library at Londonderry. In June, 1877. he was appointed aide- de-camp, with the rank of colonel on the staff of Governor B. F. Prescott. fle was also a member of Governor David Hf. Goodell's council, 1889 to 1891.
Colonel Pillsbury's life has been one of unre- mitting activity, crowned with success. He has wasted no time in idle dreams, but having used his time and energy for practical purposes, he can now look back upon a period of active usefulness of much greater duration than falls to the lot of the ordinary business man. It has been said of him : "Ilis notable business success is due, among other reasons, to his industry, his high sense of honor, his heartiness, and his especially remarkable talent for systemizing , and for the organization and prompt execution of his plans. His almost invari- able accurate judgment of men is the secret of his power to fit the right man in the right place. when positions of responsibility and importance are concerned. Personally Colonel Pillsbury is exceed- ingly attractive and cordial in manner. A truc gentlemanly feeling characterizes his intercourse
with all who meet him in business or society. He is a remarkably active and well preserved man for his age, and attends to business affairs at his office with the same diligence, promptness, and dispatch that characterized his earlier years. He is an ac- tive member of Wesley B. Knight Post. Grand Army of the Republic, has served as junior and senior vice-commander, Department of New Hamp- shire, and in April, 1907, was elected department commander. He was a member of the executive committee of the national council of administration of the order under General Russell A. Alger, and in 1905 attended the national department encamp- ment at Denver, Colorado. He was made a Mason in Lafayette Lodge, of Manchester, March, 1865, and is a member of the following named bodies : St. Mark's Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Derry; Trinity Commandery ; Edward A. Raymond Consistory, and Aleppo Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the New Hampshire Club. Religiously he is connected with the Presbyterian Church, and for many years has been a trustee of the society of that denomination in Londonderry. He is not a sectarian. His spirit is liberal and broadly tolerant. He once paid the expenses of frescoing and painting a Methodist Church, when the society little expected such aid from a person of another denomination.
Colonel Pillsbury married in Londonderry, April 15. 14:6 Martha Silver Crowell, who was born September 27, 1836, daughter of Peter and Harriet ( Hardy) Crowell, of Londonderry. Her grand- father, Samuel Crowell, was a soldier of the Re- volution, and settled at Londonderry from Essex county, Massachusetts, immediately after the close of that war. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church. April 15, 1906, was the fiftieth anniver- sary of the wedding of Colonel and Mrs. Pillsbury, and the event was celebrated with great eclat at their beautiful home in Londonderry, April 14, of that year, the event being celebrated on that day because the 15th of April came on Sunday. The golden anniversary celebration was a social incident of magnitude, upwards of three hundred and fifty invitations having been sent out, and friends at- tended from far and near to attest their regard for the couple whose half century of marital happiness was so felicitously celebrated. Nine children were born of this marriage, of whom five died in infancy. Of those who grew to mature age. Rosecrans W. is mentioned below: Charles H. L. is in Denver, Colorado: Harriet I .. is the wife of Wallace P. Mack, of Londonderry: Ulysses Grant died April, 1905, aged twenty-eight.
(VIII) Hon. Rosecrans W. Pillsbury, eldest son and third child of Colonel William S. and Sarah A. (Crowell) Pillsbury, was born in Londonderry, September 18. 1863. He attended the town schools of Londonderry, Pinkerton Academy, and the Man- chester High School, and entered Dartmouth Col- lege with the class of 1885, but on account of ill health was compelled to leave before the comple- tion of his course. He studied law in the Boston Law School and in the office of Judge Robert J. Peaslee in Manchester. He was admitted to the bar in 1800, and for several years had an office in Manchester and in Derry. All of this time he owned and conducted a box factory in West Derry, making both paper and wooden boxes for the shoe trade. Of late years he has devoted practically all of his attention to industrial rather than to professional activities, as his interests in the former line have
Rosecrans It Pillsbury,
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been increased mnost markedly. He is the junior member and manager of the shoe firm of W. S. and R. W. Pillsbury, which operates the oldest fac- tory in Derry ( which is also the oldest in the state) and has been several times enlarged, a further ac- count of which is given in this sketch of Colonel WV. S. Pillsbury, next preceding this. He owns and personally manages the farm of three hundred acres upon which he lives in Londonderry, about a mile distant from the village of West Derry. Here he cuts about one hundred and fifty tons of hay annually, all of which with other field crops is fed upon the place. He is one of the largest milk pro- ducers in that section, has extensive orchards and poultry yards which contain six hundred hens. Hle was president of the Magnet Publishing Company, which has its headquarters in West Derry, has one of the best equipped plants for job printing in the state, and printed and published the Magnet, a monthly magazine which had a circulation exceed- ing one hundred thousand copies a month. This magazine he sold October, 1906. Early in 1906 Mr. Pillsbury became the chief stockholder in the Union Publishing Company, proprietors of the Manchester Union, and has since taken control of its manage- ment as a newspaper, with most satisfactory results, concerning both the reading public and the owners. The paper is the leading journal of the state, and compares to the disadvantage of the Boston journals in giving general news of the world. He is a direc- tor of the Greene Consolidated Copper Company, one of the largest mining companies of its kind in the world. He is a director of the Shoe and Leather Association of Boston, and president of the Boot and Shoe Club of Boston, and for fifteen years past has been a director of the Manchester National Bank, president of the First National Bank of Derry, and treasurer of the Nutfield Savings Bank.
Mr. Pillsbury is a Republican and has long ex- ereised a powerful influence in the political affairs of the state. This is due, not so much to his long time of public service as to the energy and enthusi- asm he has shown in accomplishing whatever he has undertaken. The only town office he has ever held is that of moderator, which place he has filled for the last twenty years. He served as a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1887, being then the youngest member of that body. lle was a dele- gate to the convention of 1902, being the unanimous choice of the town; was chairman of the committee on permanent organization, and one of the most active members of the committee. He was an earnest advocate of the town as against the district system of representation, and in favor of local op- tion in exempting new industries from taxation for a definite term of years. He has represented the town of Londonderry in the house of representa- tives three terms, at the sessions of 1897, 1899 and 1905, and was a member of the judiciary committee at each session. In 1897 he was also a member of the committee on liquor laws; in 1899 also on na- tional affairs, and in 1905 also chairman of the com- mittee on retrenchment and reform, heading a move- ment to procure a readjustment of the state sys- tem of taxation and expenditures, with other needed reforms. At the second session mentioned he was also chairman of a special committee to investigate the subject of the cost of state printing. This com- mittee conducted several hearings and recommended the abolishment of the office of state printer, which recommendation was adopted. By this change it is estimated by competent authority an average of at least $10,000 a year has resulted to the state
treasury. This is the only conspicuous act of retrench- ment which has been adopted by legislative act for many years. Throughout his legislative service Mr. Pillsbury has consistently stood for the largest measure of local self-government and local option, and to secure a just conduct of affairs with the least practicable expense to those who bear the burdens of government. At his first session he introduced and put through a bill giving the town the option of having highway district agents, one instead of three road agents. At the second session he took an aggressive stand for the repear of all moieties, and won the contest. At the last session he drafted and introduced a bill providing for an inheritance tax, and was active in getting it through the later stages of legislation. It was he who made the sug- gestion that was adopted as the practical way out of the complications over the fifty-eight hour bill which was passed by the house after it was under- stood what the attitude of the senate was toward it. Mr. Pillsbury recommended as a compromise and a practical test of the workings of the plan, that the proposed fifty-eight hours a week be made to apply to the months of July and August only. The bill in that form finally passed. At all of these sessions Mr. Pillsbury was one of the most active debaters, never hesitating to let his position on a measure be well known, or diffident about adding informa- tion upon any subject, if he felt it would contribute to more intelligent action on the part of the mem- bers. He never dodged. The more important or hotly contested the subject, the more eager was he to take part in its settlement, and in the way that seemed to him for the best interests of the public. When near the close of the last session a resolution was unanimously adopted instructing his com- mittee in retrenchment and reform to make inquiries and report by bill wherein there might be a reduc- tion in state expenses without detriment to the state's interests, he accepted the command in good faith. His committee was called together at once, and early reported a measure providing that no bill of a state officer or employee for services or cx- penses, except salaries provided by statute, shall be approved by the governor and council or paid by the state treasurer unless it is accompanied by a certificate under oath of said officer or employee that the service has been actually performed and the expenses actually incurred ; and another taking from the councilors mileage, but increasing their per diem pay. Both these measures became laws without opposition. The committee, because of the nearness to the close of the session, and their manifest in- ability for that reason to go into any extensive in- quiry, caused it to be known that it would report any measure which seemed to be offered in good faith, and let it stand on its merits. In this way measures to abolish the state board of agriculture, the labor bureau, and to consolidate the school for feeble-minded children with the state hospital. were presented. Some of the leaders who had favored the resolution desired all action under it suppressed, but Mr. Pillsbury insisted that the subject be threshed out. In this way the first mentioned measure was brought to a vote in the house, and defeated by the narrow margin of but thirteen votes. A senate bill to require the purchase of supplies by state institutions in the open market, would have been quietly dropped in the house in the last days of the session but for the insistence of Mr. Pillsbury that it be carried to a vote, which resulted in its passage.
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