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. IV, Part 94

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: 878

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. IV > Part 94

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However, Mr. Smith's labors are not limited to the electrical business. He has other interests in Manchester. He is a trustee of the Manchester Savings Bank, one of the largest savings institu- tions of the state, and vice president of the Man- chester Garment Company. He assists in every movement for the welfare of the city. He is one of the foremost workers in the Manchester Insti- tute of Arts and Sciences. In politics he is a staunch Republican, but has never sought or held an elective office. Socially he is a member and director of the Derryfield Club, a leading social club of New Hampshire. In Odd Fellowship he is a charter member of Ridgely Lodge and a member of Wonolancet Encampment, and of Canton Ridgely. But it is in the work of the ancient and honorable fraternity of Free Masonry that Mr. Smith has found his chief diversion from his daily duties. He is a member of Washington Lodge, Mount Horeb Royal Arch Chapter, Adoniram Council. and Trin- ity Commandery of Knights Templar, all of Man- chester. He is a past master of Adoniram Council, and a past grand master of the Grand Council of New Hampshire. In the bodies working the An- cient and Accepted Scottish Rite, he has received signal honors. He is a member of the bodies at

I Brodie Smith

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Nashua, New Hampshire, and received the degrees up to and including the thirty-second. In 1905, at Indianapolis, Indiana, he was given the last degree of the Scottish Rite, the thirty-third, a privilege and an honor which comes to but few Masons. He is a trustee of the Masonic Home, which is located in this city.

Mr. Smith is unmarried, but maintains a com- fortable home, where his aged inother and sisters reside with himn.

(Eighth Family.)

A large number of Smitlis were among

SMITH the emigrants from Old England to New England in Colonial days. The line of descent from Samuel Smith of unknown antece- dents but probably a native of England, are traced in this sketch.

(I) Samuel Smith, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, is first mentioned in the records of that town under date of November 30, 1683, when he married Abi- gail Emerson. She lived to the age of more than one hundred and two years, and is believed to have moved in her old age to Hudson, New Hampshire, where it is believed she died.

(II) Samuel (2) Smith, son of Samuel (1) and Abigail (Emerson) Smith, was born May I, 1696. He settled in Hudson and married Hannah Page, daughter of Abraham and Judith (Worthen) Page, who had settled in Hudson in 1710. (Their son, Page Smith, and descendants receive mention in this article.)

(III) John Smith, who was probably a son of Samuel (2) Smith, resided in Nottingham West, now Hudson. No further record of him is ob- tainable.

(IV) Samuel (3), son of John Smith, was born in Nottingham West, and was married in Pel- ham, October IS, 1857, to Agnes Grimes, of that town. They had two sons, Samuel and Alex- ander.

(V) Alexander, second son of Samuel (3) and Agnes (Grimes) Smith, was born August 24. 1793, in Nottingham West. He was a blacksmith by occupation and lived in Londonderry, where he died in 1859. He was a Presbyterian and a Democrat. He married, February 19, 1822, Sarah Melvin of Peterboro. She died 1888. Their seven children were: Reuben A., Sarah A., Daniel D., Clarissa N., Mary J., Charles S. and Walter A.

(VI) Reuben A., eldest child of Alexander and Sarah (Melvin) Smith, was born in London- derry, March S, 1823, and died in Auburn, Febru- ary 16, 1903. He learned the shoemaker's trade, and after working at that for a short period re- moved to Weare, where he bought and cultivated a farm. In politics he was a Republican, and in church affiliations a Universalist. He married, Oc- tober, 1848, Laura J. Jones, of Bradford, who was well educated and was for a time a teacher. She was a member of the Universalist Church. Two children were born of this union: Story A., whose sketch follows, and Etta L., who married Henry C. Jones, of York Beach, Maine.

(III) Page, the eleventh child of Samuel (2) and Hannah (Page) Smith, was born February 28, 1750. Family record says he marched with a company to Cambridge at the time of the Lexing- ton alarm. The revolutionary rolls of New Hamp- shire give his name as on the pay roll of a number of men under the command of Captain James Ford, who marched from Nottingham West for Ticonde- roga, when he served a short time as a private, be- ginning June 30, 1777. He was a deacon in the Congregational Church of Pelham, and held town offices. He married Lydia, daughter of John and

Lydia (Marsh) Haseltine. She was noted for her wonderful ability as an arithmatician, solving men- tally and very quickly difficult problems. Several of her sons inherited this ability, though much less in degree. She had a knowledge of medicinal herbs, and was often called upon to give relief to her neighbors when they were ill.

(IV) Alvan, son of Page and Lydia (Hasel- tine) Smith, was born January 30, 1793. He was a typical country school master of the olden time, being eagerly sought after to serve as master of schools where the young men in attendance were particularly unruly. It is said that he invariably enforced a rigid discipline, and was never success- fully defied by any pupil, however muscular or accustomed to overawe his teacher. He was select- man of Hudson many years, and filled the office of superintendent of schools for several years. He married Patty Robinson, born in Hudson, October 25, 1800, and died December 15, 1825, aged twenty- five years. She was descended from several of the old Scotch-Irish families which settled in London- derry, New Hampshire, in 1719, notable among them being the Andersons and Davidsons. Her parents were David and Martha (Anderson) Robinson.

(V) David Onslow, only child of Alvan and Patty (Robinson) Smith, was born November 12, 1823, at Hudson, and died February 15, 1906, aged eighty-two. He studied at Nashua Literary Insti- tute and Pinkerton Academy of Derry, New Hampshire. For several years he taught public and private schools in his own and neighboring towns with great success. In 1850 he graduated from Harvard Medical School. There he was a favorite pupil of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, then a professor in that institution, and graduated with honor, winning the prize offered to the student pass- ing the best examination in surgery. After gradu- ation he settled in Hudson, where he soon had a large practice. For nearly twenty years he was superintendent of the public schools in Hudson, one of the graded schools being named in his honor. In early manhood he held the office of captain in the state militia. In politics he was a Republican, and was a member of the constitutional convention of 1889. Greatly interested in music, he taught singing schools in several towns, and for a number of years served as conductor of a chorus recruited from a half dozen surrounding towns. He also com- posed considerable music of merit. He was a mem- ber of the Hudson Baptist Church, to which he presented a fine pipe organ, and with his wife and brother-in-law a large vestry.

He married, August 30, 1855, Mary Hannah Greeley, born October 30, 1832, and died in Hudson, December 27, 1867, aged thirty-five years, daughter of Reuben and Joanna Colby (Merrill) Greely, of Hudson. Reuben Greeley, sixth in line from An- drew Grele, the emigrant, was a very prominent man in his town and county, filling many offices with great credit to himself. He was a lifelong resident of Hudson, in which town Joseph Grele, son of the emigrant, settled in his old age. Joanna was the daughter of Rev. Daniel Merrill, a Baptist clergyman of considerable note, who when a mere youth enlisted for a term of three years in the Continental 'army, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis. Subsequently he graduated from Dartmouth College. He was the author of several pamphlets and books on religious subjects, and several of his sermons have been printed. While pastor at Sedgwick, Maine, he represented his dis- trict in the Massachusetts general court at Boston, and later, when Maine had became a state, he served as a member of the governor's council. The found-

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ing of Waterville College, now known as Colby College, was largely the result of his persistent ef- forts. The children of David and Mary Smith are : Minnie Eugenie, Martha Robinson, Herbert L. and Henry O. Minnie Eugenie was born June 5, 1856, educated at Salem Normal School, Salem, Massa- chusetts, and married William H. Bruce, druggist of Groton, Massachusetts. Martha Robinson, born July 21, 1859, was educated at the Nashua Literary Insti- tute, and the New England Conservatory of Music. Sketches of Herbert L. and Henry O. follow. One son, Edmund Greeley, died in early youth.

(VI) Herbert Llewellyn, third child and eld- est son of David O. and Mary H. (Greeley) Smith, was born in Hudson, January 9, 1862. He com- pleted his preparatory course in 1878 by graduating from the Nashua high school, and went from there to Dartmouth College, from which he graduated with the class of 1882. He afterward entered Har- vard Medical School, where he received the degree of M. D. in 1887. During his years of student life he assisted in the payment of his expenses by teach- ing the village school at Hanover, 1882-83, and by teaching English and s shorthand writing the Boston evening high school, 1883-87. In 1886-87 he was house surgeon in the Boston City Hospital ; assistant superintendent of that institution in 1887- 89; and acting superintendent a portion of that time. Entering the practice of medicine in Boston, in 1889, he was professor of surgery in the Boston Dental College from 1889 to 1896; surgeon to out patients and assistant surgeon in the Boston City Hospital from 1890 to 1896. He studied in London, Paris, and Vienna, in 1891-92; was secretary of the Suf- folk District Medical Society from 1891 to 1896; secretary of the Boston Medical Association from 1892 to 1896; professor of clinical surgery in Tufts Medical School in 1895-96, and made special study of fractures of the elbow joint and devised a method of treatment which has since been used extensively in hospital practice and recommended by authorities. While at the hospital he invented apparatus and instruments now in general use.

In 1896, after an attack of pneumonia, his health failed and he was obliged to give up work for a year, and remained during that time at the old home in Hudson. He opened an office in 1897 in Nashua, and has since then been engaged in practice there, where he has taken high rank in both medical and surgical circles. He has been a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the New Hampshire Medical Society, the American Medical Associa- tion, the New Hampshire Surgical Club, and the Nashua Medical Association. He is a member of the staff of the Nashua Emergency Hospital. In ad- dition to attending to the numerous and exacting demands of a large practice, he has prepared and published various medical papers, including those on original operations for fractures of the elbow joint and cleft palate.

Dr. Smith is a Republican in politics, but has never held political office. For several years he was hospital steward of the First Regiment, Massa- chusetts Volunteer Militia. He is a member of the Baptist Church, a director in the Nashua Young Men's Christian Association ; a trustee of the Young Women's Christian Association, and a director of the Protestant Orphanage. His connections with secret societies include the two greatest fraternal orders, the Masons and the Odd Fellows. He is a member of Hudson Lodge, No. 94, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Nashoonon Encampment, and Canton A, of Nashua. He is a member of the Ancient York Lodge, No. 89, Ancient Free and Ac-

cepted Masons; Meridian Royal Arch Chapter, No. 9; Israel Hunt Council, No. 8; St. George Com- mandery, Knights Templar; Edward A. Raymond Consistory, thirty-second degree, of Nashua, also Bektash Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

Dr. Herbert L. Smith married, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, September 24, 1890, Charlotte S. De Wolfe, born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 22, 1867, daughter of Lewis E. and Louisa (Graves) DeWolfe, of Charlestown, both of whom were natives of Nova Scotia. The father was for many years a prominent tailor in Charlestown. He was a musician of note, leading choruses and choirs in various churches. Miss De Wolfe graduated from Charles- town high school, the Boston girls' high school, and the Boston Normal school. She has always been prominent in musical circles as a pianist and a vocalist. The children of this union have been four : Theodora Lottchen, born in Vienna, Austria, Jan- uary 18, 1892, and died in Charlestown, February 18, 1899. Although but seven years old at the time of her death, she gave evidence of much musical ability, as might have been expected from the family history of both parents. David Onslow, born in Boston, November 22, 1894. From infancy he lived with his parental grandfather until the death of the latter. Llewellyn DeWolfe, born in Nashua, April 18, 1898. Marion Louise, born in Nashua, February 3, 1900.

(VI) Henry Onslow, second son and fourth child of David O. and Mary H. (Greeley) Smith, was born in Hudson, New Hampshire, December 18, 1864. After graduating from the Nashua high school in 1882, he studied at Dartmouth College two years. He then matriculated at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, from which he was graduated in 1887: He was assistant physician in Kings County Hospital, New York, from April, 1887, to May, 1888. At the latter date he returned to Hudson, where he has since practiced his profes- sion with success. He is a member of the New Hampshire Medical Society, and the American Medi- cal Association. His political affiliations are with the Republican party. He has been a member of the Hudson School board for six years ; health officer and chairman of the board of health over fifteen years; and trustee and treasurer of the Greeley Public Library since it was established. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Hudson, and for many years was its clerk and treasurer, also a director of the Nashua Protestant Orphanage Asso- ciation. He is a member of Hudson Lodge, No. 94, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Nashoonon Encampment, and Canton A., of Nashua.

Dr. Smith married, September 4, 1889, Marcia A. Deering, born June 3, 1867, daughter of Isaac N. and Almira (Guptill) Deering, of Waterboro, Maine. She graduated from Westbrook Seminary, Portland, in 1886, and taught school from that time till her marriage. Isaac N. Deering, of the seventh genera- tion from George Deering, the emigrant, lived on the large ancestral farm and carried on an exten- sive lumbering and ice business. He served in nearly all the town offices, also as representative in the legis- lature, and sheriff of York county. Dr. and Mrs. Smith have one child, Deering Greeley Smith, born June 5, 1896.

(Ninth Family.)

In the year 1718 a considerable number SMITH of "Inhabitants of ye North of Ireland" presented a memorial to the governing authorities of the province of New Hampshire in which was expressed "a sincere and hearty inclina-

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tion to Transport ourselves to that very excellent and renowned Plantation upon our obtaining from his Excellency suitable incouragement" to that end. Among the more than three hundred names which were signed to the memorial were seven who bore the name of Smith, and two whose family name was Ker; yet among those who came to occupy the lands ·set off to them in pursuance of the memorial there were none of either of the names mentioned.

The colony at Londonderry was planted in the year 1719 by immigrants from the north of Ireland, and contemporaneous with that event one Thomas Smith, who also was born in the north of Ireland, came to America and first appeared in New Hamp- shire history as one of the grantees of the town of Chester; not, however, as one of the original proprietors, but as successor to the property rights of Richard Swain, and was admitted as a grantee by the committee of the proprietors. Among the first settlers of Chester were others of the name of Smith, but whether of the same family as Thomas history gives us no account. There was one John Smith, who is vaguely mentioned as a brother of Thomas but the statement finds no corroboration. Another name prominently mentioned in early Che- ster history is that of John Ker (otherwise Karr and Carr), whose sister Thomas Smith married and founded a family which in each succeeding generation from his time have been men of achieve- ment, prominently identified with the civil and politi- cal history of the state.

(I) Lieutenant Thomas Smith was born in the north of Ireland, and is known to have been in the town of Chester as early as the year 1720 and while there is no present means to determine whether he was of the family of Smiths whose members joined in the memorial to the provincial governor, it is fair to assume that such was the case and that he came to this country from the north of Ireland with the first colony of Scotch and English immi- grants who planted the settlement at Londonderry, New Hampshire. Tradition says that Thomas Smith first settled in Hampton, and from there soon went to Chester, but there is nothing to support this supposition and his name is not found in any of the records of that town. From what is disclosed by town records and the chronicles of earlier writers it is evident that Thomas Smith was possessed of a resolute and determined character and great phy- sical as well as moral courage, and it is clear that he was a man of considerable influence among the settlers. He was constable in 1724, lot-layer from 1725 to 1727, selectman in 1728 and fence viewer in 1729. He was a member of the military company formed in the town in 1731 and was chosen lieu- tenant in 1732, hence the title by which he was after- ward known. In 1724 he and John Karr, his brother- in-law, were captured by a band of prowling Indians. At the time Karr was about eighteen years old, and with Smith was engaged in making a brush fence to secure the latter's cow from the savages, when they were surprised at the report of a gun and a bullet passing between them, just touching Smith. The Indians then sprang upon the whites and in the struggle that followed Smith endeavored to use the butt of his musket on the head of the leader, the notorious Joe English, but missed his aim and was captured, and the unfortunate two, closely guarded, were started off in the direction of Canada. At night they were securely bound and carefully watched, but during the course of the second night Smith managed to free himself without discovery by his captors, then released Karr and both made

their way back to the settlement on the night of the third day after they were taken.

About 1734 or '35 Thomas Smith sold his lands in Chester and went to New Boston before the grant of that town had been made. He settled in the northeast part of the town, on what is now known as "the plain" where lie built a cabin and cleared a small piece of land by girdling the trees and burning over the ground. For nearly two years he was the solitary inhabitant of that region, and was the pioneer of the town. Near his house the proprietors afterward built sixty dwellings, a grist and saw mill and a meeting house; but this was not done until the pioneer had lived several years in the town. Here, as before in Chester, he was once the object of an Indian attack, but managed to escape without harm. He then left the town for a time and on com- ing back brought his family with him. A few years afterward he procured from the proprietors, either by purchase or settlement, a large tract of land in the northwest part of the town, near the great meadows, which remained in the possession of his descendants until about twenty years ago.

Thomas Smith built the first frame house in New Boston and was a man of substance and influence, although he appears not to have taken much part in public affairs. Of his family life little is known except that he married a sister of John Karr and had several sons, who like himself, were upright men, thrifty and prosperous, qualities which have charac- terized their descendants in all later generations. Among his children were his sons: Samuel, James (who is said to have perished with cold on the road from his father's house to Parker's in Goffstown), Reuben (who was a soldier of the Revolution and afterward settled in Maine) and John.

(II) John Smith, better known in New Boston town history as Deacon John Smith, came with his father from Chester. His first wife was a daughter of William McNiel, whose home in New Boston was about a mile from the house of Thomas Smith. By his first wife Deacon John Smith had five chil- dren : Martha, Sarah, Janey, Mary and John. His second wife was Ann Brown, of Francestown, who bore him fourteen children: Janey, Thomas, Eliza- beth, William, David, Susanna, Ann, Samuel, Martha, Reuben, Elizabeth, Robert, James D. and in infant child who died unnamed.

(III) David, son of Deacon John and Ann (Brown) Smith, married Eleanor Giddings, and had thirteen children.

(IV) Ammi, son of David and Eleanor (Gid- dings) Smith, was born in the town of Acworth, Sullivan county, New Hampshire, in the month of August, 1800. He early became connected with the lumber industry, and operated a saw mill at Hillsborough for some years, conducting a profitable business. About 1833 he went to Saxton's River, Vermont, and engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods, which he continued for fourteen years with marked success. In 1847 he moved to Hillsborough, retired from business, and died December 24, 1887. Mr. Smith was married, in 1826, to Lydia F. Butler, daughter of Dr. Elijah and Lydia (Fifield) Butler, of Weare; she was born in Weare, New Hampshire, August 29, 1802, and died at Hillsborough in April, 1865. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Eliza Ann, Frank Pierce, John Butler, Cynthia Jane, Lydia Ellen, and three who died in early childhood. Eliza Ann married Frederick W. Gould, of Hillsborough.

(V) John Butler, son of Ammi and Lydia ( But- ler) Smith, was born at Saxton's River, Vermont,

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April 12, 1838, and was nine years old when his father returned to New Hampshire and took up his residence at Hillsborough Bridge. He was educated in the public schools of Hillsborough and Frances- town Academy, in the latter taking a college pre- paratory course, but a short time before graduation left the academy and went to work in a general store in New Boston; at that time he was seventeen years of age. When he attained his majority he engaged in business for himself. For a time he was in the dry goods jobbing trade in Boston, afterward car- ried on a tinware business at Saxton's River, Ver- mont, his old home and birthplace, and still later was a druggist in the city of Manchester, New Hampshire. Neither of these undertakings were particularly profitable from a financial standpoint, nor were they carried on at pecuniary loss, but taken together furnished an excellent business experience and training and gave the young man an opportunity to measure his own capacity for future enterprises and therefore were years well spent in his early business career. In 1864, being then a little more than twenty-five years old, Mr. Smith began the manufacture of knit goods at Washington, New Hampshire. At the end of a year he moved the works to Weare and after another year to Hills- borough, where he found a better location both for manufacture and shipping, and where he established his equipment in a mill built by him for that purpose. The business was started in a small way, for his means were not large, and from the outset of his career his cardinal business principle was to operate and live within the extent of his own capital and not hazard an end which could not be reasonably well calculated from the beginning. This quality in the man never has been called timidity, for no man who knows John Butler Smith and has watched his reasonable success in private business life, or his public career, will assume to charge him with lack of courage in any respect. For more than thirty years he has been known as a prudent man of affairs, with an excellent capacity for measuring ultimate results, whether in the transaction of private con- cerns or the still more uncertain operations of state politics.

In Hillsborough he stands today at the head of one of the greatest industries in the county outside the cities of Nashua and Manchester, and what- ever success has attended his efforts has been the result of his own foresight and judgment. In 1882 his manufacturing interests were incorporated under the name of Contoocook Mills Company, and since that time he has been its president and active man- aging officer. The company under normal conditions employs about two hundred and fifty hands and has principal distributing centers for its product in New York City and Boston. Besides his manufac- turing and mercantile investments he is owner of considerable real property in various parts of New Hampshire and in the city of Boston, and president of the Hillsborough Guaranty Savings Bank; and notwithstanding the constant demands upon his time in connection with personal affairs he has found time to take a loyal citizen's interest in local and gen- eral politics, and for more than twenty years has been an influential factor in the councils of the Re- publican party in New Hampshire. In 1884 he was an alternate delegate from this state to the national Republican convention at Chicago, and in the fall of that year was a presidential elector on his party ticket. From 1887 to 1889 he was a member of the governor's council, and in 1890 was chairman of the state Republican central committee. In 1888 he was a candidate for nomination in the state conven-

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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. IV, Part 94

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: 878

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: 878