History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 49

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200

USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 49
USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 49

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Dr. McCollester in his ministerial service has enjoyed a marked degree of success. Wherever he has wrought in this direction he has left rich fruits of consecrated efforts. It has seemed to be his lot to start new religious enter- prises, to organize new elements and stimulate them with love to God and man. As a preacher he is earnest, clear and persuasive. His hearers feel his honesty and sincerity. He leaves no uncertainty as to his convictions and belief, which is in the widest Christian liberty. He is ready to give the "God-speed " to every follower of the Divine Master. His style of rhetoric is rhythmical, fervid and illustrative. His manner of delivery is sure to quicken the thought and captivate the feelings. He pos= sesses a remarkable power of making others see what he sees, and feel what he feels, and es- pecially is this true of his descriptions of places, men and things. Of late years he has laid aside his notes or manuscript in the pulpit, but never goes upon the platform without special preparation, so that he displays discipline of mind, power of language and oratorial ability. He is a student of nature, and exceedingly fond of the natural sciences as well as of the classics, and his discourses abound in illustrations from these sources, as also from history and his travels and experience in different countries. His temperament is poetical, his memory good, his intellect active, and his religious element highly developed. His qualities of voice are such as to please and move the heart and head. It is baritone in ordinary discourse, running into orotund in prayer. As he appears in the pul- pit he is free from cant, and evidently con- secrated to the work before him. In his prayer

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there is adoration, fear, trust, petition, confession and those marks of earnest devotion which are the elements of true Christianity. In person, Dr. McCollester is of medium height, full- chested, with a well-proportioned body. His head is large and forehead prominent. His complexion is light, eyes blue, and hair brown. His face expresses honesty and firm- ness for the right. He is young mentally, as well as physically, and one would not think him to be over fifty. We can hardly under- stand how he could have worked and accom- plished so much, and yet be so well preserved, but it is the result of a pure heart, pure morals and a pure life. With all his other work, he is a writer of note, a frequent contributor to re- ligious and educational journals, and his vol- ume entitled " After-Thoughts of Foreign Travels " has passed through several editions, and received the highest encomiums from the pressand such prominent men as Hiram Orcutt, LL.D., T. W. Bicknell, LL.D., Rev. J. G. Adams, D.D., and others. He is a graphic, enter- taining, suggestive and instructive writer.

Dr. McCollester is an able man, strong in mind, strong in self control, strong in will, and strong in sympathy, true to all, without de- ceit or hypocrisy, and is loved most by those who know him best. In college and church he has proved himself a successful organizer and builder in mental and spiritual things. He has been, and is now, a power in the Uni- versalist denomination. " Men may come and men may go," but the work they do lives after them, and the institutions they plant, or aid in advancing, go on after they are gathered to their fathers, and generation after generation will have just reason to bless him as their bene- factor.

Mrs. McCollester, a woman adorned with genial social qualities, quick sympathies, and all the graces of the true woman, has been a companion, helper, and comforter to her hus- band through all the labors and trials of their life. Of their five children, only one survives,

Rev. S. Lee McCollester, who is also a Univer- salist clergyman, now settled over the church of that denomination in Claremont. He is much esteemed and beloved by his people, who find in him an earnest, faithful worker in the vineyard of the Lord. He has inherited qualities from his parents which promise for him success in his chosen field of labor.

HON. RUFUS S. FROST.

Hon. Rufus S. Frost, son of Joseph and Lucy (Wheeler) Frost, was born in Marl- borough July 18, 1826. His father passed away when he was but four years of age, and, in 1833, his mother, with her family, moved to Boston, where he was placed in school, making rapid progress in the different branches pursued. At length, that he might have better advantages, he entered the Newton Academy, where he ranked high in scholarship for one of his years. His perception was keen, his reflec- tion active, his temperament hopeful and poet- ical. As a boy, he was ambitious to do for himself, and, when but twelve years old, he went, as clerk, into the dry-goods store of Messrs. J. H. & J. Osgood, remaining with them until he was twenty-one, when he became a partner of J. H. Osgood, with whom he con- tinued in the most pleasant relations for five years. Subsequently he enjoyed partnership with other firms, but, in 1866, he became the head of his own business-house, taking younger associates into his firm, as the exigencies of the times demanded, and thus has continued to do to the present time, gradually increasing his business in manufacturing and selling woolen goods.

Mr. Frost has depth and breadth of char- aeter sufficient to do business on an extensive scale. His mind and heart are too large to do things by the halves. His conceptions and in- tuitions are clear and strong, enabling him to deal with men fairly and acceptably. It has always been his good fortune to be associated in

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business with noble men ; and during nearly forty years that he has been in trade for him- self, though there have been striking ebbs and floods in the world of traffic, still he has moved on successfully, without failure or compromise, sustaining a high reputation for strict honesty and reliability.

Mr. Frost now resides in Chelsea, Mass., where he has lived since he was fourteen years old, seeing a small village develop into a large city. He has always been active in its welfare, and was twice elected, with great unan- imity, as mayor, in 1867 and 1868, and was strenuously urged to hold the office longer. In 1871 and 1872 he served as State Senator. In 1873 and 1874 he was a member of the Gov- ernor's Council. In the fall of 1874 he was nominated and elected by the Republican party in the Fourth Congressional District to the Forty-fourth Congress. While in Congress he served in committee on railroads and likewise on freedmen's affairs. In all these civic rela- tions he did great honor to himself and his con- stituency. (For twenty-two years he has been director in one of the largest banks in Boston.) In 1877 Mr. Frost was unaimously elected as president of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, and was thus chosen for seven successive years.

"Successful manufacturers are public benefac- tors, and merit the gratitude and praise of their countrymen. The nation that produces the most in proportion to its numbers will be the most prosperous and powerful. Protectionists seek to impress this truth upon the popular mind, to secure its adoption, as an axiom, by our national government. The United States possess all the natural advantages needed for the attainment of a result so desirable. It is the part of patriotism to turn these advantages to the best account, to differentiate the indus- tries of the people and to give employment to all classes of mind and capacity. Unfavorable disparities must be relieved by corrective cus- tom duties. Such views as these have actuated

Mr. Frost and his honorable associates in their praiseworthy efforts to place our country in a position among the nations in which it will be second to none either in manufactures, arts or arms."

Mr. Frost was nurtured in a Christian home, and in early life became a member of the Salem Church, Boston. When the First Congrega- tional Church of Chelsea was organized he was one of the original members. He at once identified himself with all the various activities of this society ; for years he led its choir and played the organ. He is an active worker in its Sunday-school, and was its superintendent so long as his health would permit of his serv- ing in that office. Though consecrated to his church, yet he is not bigoted. He is always clothed with a broad mantle of charity. He claims the privilege of thinking for himself, and is ready to grant this right to others. He is so constituted that the spiritual and material in his nature are nicely balanced, blending the ideal and practical in his life-work.

Mr. Frost may be justly classed as a Christian reformer, ever ready to lift up the down-trodden and preach deliverance to the enslaved. His voice has been wont to be heard on public occasions in behalf of temperance, universal education, republican institutions and the spread of the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. He is a pleasing speaker, being favored with a good voice and graceful mien, never being so material as to be cloddish, nor so aerial as to be vapory, but speaking out words and thoughts that are solid, nutritious and encouraging.

Mr. Frost loves his native town and the home of his birth, delighting to cherish the spots made sacred by ancestral footsteps. Con- sequently, as soon as he could, he secured the old family homestead for a summer residence. It is beautifully situated, commanding an ex- tensive outlook in all directions. The old Monadnock, on the one hand, and the Green Mountains, on the other, stand out in bold

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

relief, while from its verandah is to be enjoyed the loveliest of rural landscapes. Below, and in the centre of all, is the neat, white vil- lage of Marlborough, with the Minniwawa winding through it, reminding one of the fair- est corals in richest emerald settings. Surely nature has been propitious to the Frost home ; and the deeds of true men and women have made it forever memorable.

While Mr. Frost has a pleasant and inviting home at Chelsea, still it is apparent that he ex- periences the greatest delight whenever he visits the old family home, surrounded with its broad aeres and its beautiful scenery. Certainly he is gladly welcomed by the citizens of Marlbor- ough whenever he goes there, for they realize that he loves and reveres the place of his nativity. This he has proved in various ways by worthy and generous deeds. He has kindly remembered its Congregational Church by fur- nishing it with a fine organ, and in liberally assisting its society and other religious bodies of the town. But his crowning work in behalf of Marlborough has been in presenting it with a most valuable library, including a fire-proof granite building, several thousand volumes of good books and a generous fund with which to replenish it annually. What a munificent gift! What an educational power ! It is the highest charity, for it serves to quieken minds and strengthen hearts to help themselves.

He who provides a town with a good library is doing a more lasting and grander work than those who builded the pyramids of the Nile or the Parthenon of Athens or the monument of Washington, at our nation's capitol. Such an one is building for the ages. His name will live and be cherished when stone and brass shall have wasted into dust, for it is being in- scribed on the Eternal walls,-

" He lives in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial."

ELIJAH BOYDEN.

Among the families which have been identified

with the town of Marlborough for many years that of Boyden is especially worthy of record. The Boydens are of English origin, and Thomas, of Ipswich, England, came to America in the "Francis," in 1634, and settled in Water- town, Mass. He had just attained his majority and was admitted as freeman, at Ipswich, in 1647, and later removed to Medfield, where he died. Of his descendants, Elijah, of Walpole, Mass., came to Marlborough, N. H., in the spring of 1806, purchased the place known as the Aaron Stone farm. Tradition says he brought with him thirty-seven hundred dollars in silver, which he paid for the place. He was an inn-keeper and, in 1812, owned the first one-horse wagon seen in the town. He was a genial man, a good citizen and interested in whatever pertained to the welfare of the town and village. His wife was Amity Fisher, also of Walpole, Mass. Their children were Abner, George, Hannah, Oliver, Addison, William and Elijah. Mr. Boyden died July 22, 1814, aged fifty-two years. His wife survived him, dying October 29, 1841, at the age of seventy-six.

Elijah Boyden, youngest child of Elijah and Amity (Fisher) Boyden, was born in Marl- borough, N. H., August 15, 1814, a few weeks after his father's death. Although never hav- ing the guiding care of a father, he had what is almost indispensable to the making of a good man-a good mother ; and Elijah's early child- hood was passed in the environment of her sweet and pure influence.

At the age of fourteen he entered the store of his brother Abner, and remained there as clerk for about six years. During this time he formed correct business habits, and the ex- perience and training which he then received were of great practical use to him in after-life. His diligence and industry, combined with pleasant social manners, gained the confidence and good-will of the citizens of the town, and he was recommended for postmaster, to which office he was appointed when he was about eighteen. The duties of this position he dis-

Elijah Daydı

----

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charged satisfactorily for nearly three years, when he resigned, being desirous of extending his business interests, and went to Boston, and, in company with Josiah L. Crosby, engaged in merchandising on Court Street. This firm car- ried on business successfully for two years and a half, when Mr. Boyden, on account of the death of his brother Abner, sold out his inter- est in Boston and returned to Marlborough. After settling his brother's estate Elijah, in company with his brother William, took the stock of goods and store of his deceased brother and commenced trade under firm-name of W. & E. Boyden. In 1840 they erected and occu- pied their new store. In 1845, Mr. Boyden was again appointed postmaster, and held the office until 1852, when he resigned, and about the same time G. D. Richardson & Co. pur- chased the stock in trade of the Boyden brothers. In 1854, Mr. Boyden was appointed route mail-agent between Boston and Burling- ton, which office he continued to hold until 1860, when he resigned, and has since not been in active business life.

Mr. Boyden married, April 5, 1838, Anna G., daughter of Rev. Charles and Mary (Hem- enway) Cummings. "Rev. Charles Cummings was born in Seabrook in 1777 and passed his childhood in Marlborough ; was married in 1798 and settled in Sullivan. He was licensed to preach, in 1805, by the Baptist Board of Ministers, and ordained, in 1810, in Sullivan. He was instrumental in organizing churches in Keene, Swanzey, Marlborough, Hillsborough, Lyndeborough and Antrim. In 1820 he was called to the domestic missionary work. He was a man of great energy and earnestness, not shrinking from any sacrifice for the good of the cause he loved so well and labored so faithfully to sustain. He was a man of a kind, concilia- tory spirit ; humble, prayerful and zealous in every good work, and he belonged to a class that ought never to be forgotten-that class which performed the labors and endured the privations of the pioneers of the cause of re-

ligion. He never wrote his sermons ; but, in the early work of his ministry, he would select a text of Seripture before going to the field (for at that time he tilled the soil), and while laboring with his hands he mentally studied and wrought out his sermons. The last few years of his life he labored in Pottersville, and preached up to the last Sabbath but one before his death, which occurred in Roxbury, N. H., December 27, 1849." Mr. and Mrs. Boyden have an adopted daughter, Emelia, born No- vember 6, 1849, who married, September 27, 1872, Clark N. Chandler, of Keene, of the firm of Dort & Chandler, druggists. They have one child, Carl Boyden, born November 10, 1877.

Mr. Boyden is a Democrat politically, and as such, in 1865 and 1866, he received the highest vote of his party for State Senator. He has always taken a deep interest in political mat- ters, and by extensive reading has kept himself thoroughly conversant with the politics of the country, though in no sense has he been an office-seeker ; and no political or other influence can move him which does not first convince his sense of right. Careful and conservative, his keen foresight and deliberate judgment make his advice and counsel of peculiar value. He is one of the vice-presidents of the Five-Cents Savings-Bank of Keene, and a director of the Citizens' National Bank of the same eity.

In town affairs he has taken an active part, and held many responsible offices of trust. He has held the office of justice of the peace for nearly thirty years.

Universalist in his religious belief, he has contributed liberally of his time and means toward the establishment of the church of his chosen faith, and his wife, a lady of marked superiority, has been an active worker in the Sabbath-school.

A ready and fluent speaker, Mr. Boyden is often called upon on public occasions, and offici- ated as president of the day at Marlborough's Centennial celebration.

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Mr. and Mrs. Boyden have had the advan- tages of intercourse with other countries. In August, 1878, they started on a voyage to Europe, and, after sojourning for a time in England and France, they wintered under Italia's sunny skies and completed their home- ward voyage in the May following. Soon after their return to Marlborough Mr. Boyden, at the urgent solicitation of his many friends and townsmen, gave an interesting account of their travels, in his social, pleasing and attractive style, and subsequently repeated the account in a large number of the towns in the county.

Possessing an ability for the discharge of publie duties, a well-balanced judgment, almost uniformly correct in its results, and an integrity of character that was never touched by whisper or reflection, Mr. Boyden was fitted to assume and administer all the duties to which he has been called. He is a good neighbor, a warm and welcome friend, a genial companion, a wise counselor and a worthy citizen.

COLONEL WILLIAM HENRY GREENWOOD.

William Henry Greenwood, the youngest son of Asa and Luey Greenwood, was born in Dublin, N. H., March 27, 1832, but his parents removing to Marlborough when he was but a few years old, his childhood was passed there. He was more than an ordinary boy, quiet in his manners, kind in disposition, persevering in effort and possessed of a strong will. He early showed a fondness for machinery and a skill with tools, and constructed many pieces of curious handicraft in his boyhood. He inherited his mechanical tastes from his father, who was remarkable for his inventive faculties, and did much to promote the improvement of Marl- borough during his residence there, and was a strong man, mentally and morally-all of which characteristics his children largely inherited. William H. remained at Marlborough until he was eighteen years old, attending the public schools and assisting his father in the various

public works upon which the latter was en- gaged, when he entered the Norwich Univer- sity, Vermont, graduating in 1852. While at the university he easily mastered the higher mathematics, and the professor in that depart- ment, a gifted mathematician, was surprised at the original solutions and developments which Mr. Greenwood would bring before the classes. In 1852 he went to Illinois, and was employed in the construction of the Central Military Tract Railroad, now the Burlington and Quincy. Upon the completion of that road he engaged upon what was then known at the American Central Railroad, and was with that interest when the great Civil War broke out. He en- listed in the fifty-first regiment Illinois Vol- unteers January 17, 1862, and was commissioned first lieutenant of company H from enlistment, and captain of the same company and regiment from May 9, 1863.

But it was not as a line officer that Col. Green- wood made his mark. Soon after the battle of Stone River, General Rosecrans made inquiry for competent engineer officers to organize a topo- graphical service, and he was selected for this duty, and, for better facilities for seeing the coun- try, he was ordered to report to General Stanley, at that time chief of cavalry for the Army of the Cumberland. The relation then established continued to the end of the war, Colonel Green- wood remaining a part of this commander's military family until the fall of 1865. No of- ficer served in the Army of the Cumberland who was present at and participated in more battles, actions, affairs, skirmishes than Colonel Greenwood. The great battles in which he was an active participant embrace such names as Perryville, Stone River, Hoover's Gap, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, three months of Atlanta campaign (an almost continous fight, including Peach-Tree Creek, the assault on Kenesaw); finally, in the last great service of the Fourth Corps, the action at Spring Hill, the next day the battle of Franklin, and very soon the battle of Nashville, which ended the mission

HM. Greenwo

wood

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of the Army of the Cumberland in the destruc- tion of Hood's army.

It would be impossible to describe the value of such services as those rendered by Colonel Green- wood. The importance of having a staff officer who can not only carry out the orders of his commander, but, in a case of emergency, orig- inate and execute plans, can be best appreciated by those having such an officer as Colonel Green- wood. His education and experience made him a master of topography. His coolness and dar- ing fitted him to carry out orders in the face of danger. He thoroughly understood field forti- fications and many times his commander retired safely to rest because he knew Colonel Greenwood had charge of the work. In July, 1864, when General Stanley was appointed to the command of the Fourth Corps, Colonel Greenwood was com- missioned by the President lieutenant-colonel and inspector, to date from July, 1864. In this position he rendered important service in find- ing out the movements of the enemy, the dis- positions of his lines, the positions of his bat- teries. These were his constant employments, and his active, enterprising nature thrived in hard work, and detested ease and idleness. His faults, happily, were few, and were those of a man fearless and careless of danger. Many a time he rode miles through woods and thickets to communicate between detached portions of the troops, sometimes alone, or only with an orderly. Care for himself was the last thing to which to give thought. In July, 1865, the Fourth Corps landed in Texas, taking post at Victoria, Lavacca and San Antonio. Colonel Greenwood was put in charge of the Gulf and San Antonio Railroad, which had been destroyed by the rebel general John Magruder. With the burned and bended railroad iron, and such timber as could be gathered out of the Guadaloupe bot- toms, he soon had the cars running to Victoria, saving immense expense and labor. After com- pleting his work in Texas he was employed upon the Kansas Pacific Railroad. He was appointed chief engineer of this road, and while

holding this position he made surveys on the thirty-second and thirty-fifth parallels through to San Francisco. During his service for the company, he constructed one hundred and fifty miles of railroad in one hundred working days, and the last day laid ten and a quarter miles of track in 10 hours,-a feat, perhaps, never equaled in railroad construction. In 1870 he made the first general report in favor of nar- row gauge-three feet, i. e.,-railroads, and was appointed general manager of construction of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. Upon completion of the first division of this railroad he was appointed general superintendent, and remained until the road was finished to Canon City. He next went to Mexico, in company with General W. S. Rosecrans and General W. J. Palmer, with a view of constructing a national railroad in that country. While engaged in this service he visited England and the Con- tinent in the interest of this road, but failing to get the concessions asked for from the Mexican government, he returned to New York, and established himself as a civil engineer. In May, 1878, he took charge of the construction of the Pueblo and Arkansas Valley Railroad, for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé C'om- pany, and in March, 1879, took charge of the Marion and McPherson Railroad.

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History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 49

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1200

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200