History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 52

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1168

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Since his residence at Nashua, Mr. Dearborn has contributed largely to the improvement of real estate, to the erection of improved school buildings and to the reconstruction and greater efficiency of the public schools. He was appointed register of Probate for Hillsborough County in 1868, and held the office till 1874.

For several years he was treasurer of the Nashua and Lowell Railroad, and is still one of the directors. In his official action he aided largely in sustaining the measures which have placed that corporation in the front rank of profitable railways. He is also the treas- urer of the Underhill Edge-Tool Company, and is at this time president of the Board of Education.

In 1863, while a resident of Peterborough, he was appointed by the Governor one of the bank commis- sioners of New Hampshire. In that capacity he be- came acquainted with the extent and peculiarities of the financial institutions of the State. In 1864 and 1865 he actively superintended, in his official capac- ity, the converting of the State banks of discount into the national banks of the present system. In March, 1866, he was appointed examiner of the national banks for the State of New Hampshire, a position which he still holds. He is the only person who has filled this position since the organization of the na- tional banking system.

In the discharge of the duties of bank examiner, official fidelity requires that the investigation shall be thorough and exhaustive. That during the past eighteen years but a single instance of defalcation has occurred resulting in loss among the forty-nine na- tional banks in the State is pretty conclusive evidence of a diligent and careful supervision. From the length of time he has held the position, he has become familiar with the indications of laxity, lenity, negli- gence, not to mention recklessness, which mark the first steps of danger to a banking institution ; and his suggestions and warnings to bank officials have not infrequently been of advantage to the public gener-

ally, as well as to stockholders, where no publicity has been gained through the press or otherwise.

Personally, Mr. Dearborn is not an ostentatious, ob- trusive, aggressive man. He has no fondness for newspaper notoriety, no solicitude lest he should be overlooked by the publie, and has a special dislike for unmeaning titles. In politics and religion he is lib- eral and tolerant, conceding to others the utmost free- dom of opinion. Attending to his own duties, it is not his habit to interfere with the personal affairs of others. But when attacked without reason or provo- eation, no matter what his pretensions, his assailant will speedily find that he has need of a prudent hus- bandry of his resources.

Mr. Dearborn is a member of the Congregational Church. His two children are sons. The older, John Eaton, born November, 1862, is acquiring a business education, and is at this time clerk for his father in the office of the Edge-Tool Works. The younger, George Van Ness, born in August, 1869, is attending the public schools. His house is pleasantly situated on Main Street, and is one of the desirable residences in the city. Still in the prime of life, his many friends have no reason to doubt that in the future, as in the past, he will be adequate to any responsibility which may devolve upon him.

HORACE W. GILMAN.1

Horace Way Gilman was born in Unity, N. H., on December 6, 1833. He is the younger brother of Virgil C. Gilman, a sketch of whose life is given in the preceding pages, and hence it is not necessary to write of his ancestry and parentage. Removing, with his parents, to Lowell, in 1837, he also came with them to Nashua in 1844, in the eleventh year of his age.

For several years his boyhood alternated between the cotton-mill and the public school, both of which, no doubt, taught him some useful lessons in practical life. When fifteen years old he went to West Spring- field, Mass., working in the cotton-mill one year, and returning to Nashua in 1850.

In the winter of 1852-53, Mr. Gilman taught a dis- triet school in Nashua, in 1853-54 in Hudson and in the two winters following in the grammar school at Belvidere and at the Harbor, in this city.

In the mean time, having gained some knowledge of the card and paper manufacturing business as a workman in the employ of Gage, Murray & Co., in 1856 he went, with Mr. John Dobler, to Albany, N. Y., where the firm of Dobler & Gilman started a card and paper manufactory, which has since become a large and profitable business in that city. In the spring of 1861, Mr. Gilman disposed of his interest, and returned to Nashua. In January, 1862, he bought a one-fourth interest in the firm of Gage, Murray & Co., and was assigned the charge of the financial department.

1 By John II. Goodale.

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

In 1869, when the Nashua Card and Glazed Paper Company was organized under a legislative charter, Mr. Gilman became its treasurer, a position which he has held ever since. His attention is still chiefly given to the interests of this company.

In 1872 he became half-owner and treasurer of the Contoocook Valley Paper-Mill, at West Henniker, and retained the interest till 1879. In 1883 and 1884 he was director and president of the Underhill Edge- Tool Company, is at this time a director and vice- president of the Davidson Loan Company, at Wichita, Kan., and is also a director of the Second National Bank in this city. In a business point of view, it is no exaggeration to say that no man in this city has shown a larger ability and more uniform success than the subject of this sketch.

Of late years Mr. Gilman has given some time to travel, having visited the most of the States and, with his family, made the tour of the Southwestern Terri- tories and the States of the Pacific coast.

In his political views Mr. Gilman is a decided Republican, but is a business man and not a politi- cian. Least of all is he an office-seeker. With an ability above that of a majority of the men who have been the chief magistrates of this State during the past thirty years, Mr. Gilman has never had the gubernatorial nor any other political bee in his hat, and never will have. He has not, however, shunned responsibility in public matters, having served as assessor and member of the Board of Education in city affairs, and was a member of the last State Con- stitutional Convention.

In denominational association Mr. Gilman is a Methodist ; was a delegate in 1866 to the Centennial Convention to celebrate the preaching of the first Methodist sermon in New England, by Jesse Lee ; in 1872 was a delegate to the General Conference at Brooklyn, N. Y .; and in 1884 to the centennial of the American Methodist Church, held at Baltimore. He is one of the vice-presidents of the New England Educational Society of the denomination, and a vice- president of New England Methodist Historical Society. In the building of the Main Street Church and in supporting the interests of the society he has been a generous contributor.

In his domestic relations Mr. Gilman has had his usual good fortune. In December, 1854, he married Miss Adaline W. Marsh, danghter of Fitch P. Marsh, of Hudson. They have two sons. The oldest, Wil- liam V., was born November 25. 1856, and is a resi- dent of Nashua. He is a director and the paymaster of the Nashua Card and Glazed Paper Company. The younger, Edward M., was born September 26, 1862, and is associated with his father as H. W. Gil- man & Son, of the castern agency of the Davidson Loan Company, of Kansas,

A spacious and well-arranged residence on Prospect Street is the home of Mr. Gilman and his family for the most of the year; but for fifteen years they have

passed the summer at their seaside home, at Cottage City, Martha's Vineyard, a well-known resort during the warm season.

VIRGIL C. GILMAN.

Virgil Chase Gilman was born in Unity, Sullivan County, N. H., May 5, 1827, and was the third of a family of eight children born to Emerson and Delia (Way) Gilman.

Emerson Gilman was the oldest son and the first of twelve children born to Stephen and Dorothy (Clough) Gilman, who were married September 5, 1793. This was his second marriage, he having married Anna Huntoon, by whom he had nine children, some of whom died in infancy. Stephen Gilman was a native of Kingston, and served as a cavalry officer in the War of the Revolution. He was a descendant of Moses Gilman, who was one of three brothers-Edward, John and Moses-who emigrated from Hingham, England, early in the sixteenth century.

In 1827 it was said: "Edward Gilman's descendants are as numerous as the sands on the sea-shore. There is hardly a State in the Union where they may not be found. The family have been in civil office from the time our colony became a royal province to the present time. John Gilman was one of the first counselors named in President Cutts' commission, and died in 1708. Colonel Peter Gilman was one of the royal counselors in 1772. Hon. Nicholas Gilman was coun- selor in 1777 and 1778, Hon. John Gilman in 1787, while the present venerable John Taylor Gilman was fourteen years, cleven in succession, our highly respected chief magistrate. His brother, Nicholas Gilman, was a member of the House of Representa- tives in Congress eight years and in the national Senate nine years. Our ecclesiastical annals have, also, Rev. Nicholas Gilman, Harvard College, 1724, and Rev. Tristram Gilman, Harvard College, 1757, both respected clergymen and useful men."

These words are quoted in substance from Mr. Lin - coln's work. "If he had written forty years later," says the author of "The Gilman Family in England and America," "he would have found the family still more numerous, and many additions would have been made to his list of prominent men bearing the Gilman name. The family of Gilmans is not one furnishing a few brilliant exceptions in a long list of common- place names. Its members appear generally to have been remarkable for the quiet home virtues, and rather to have desired to be good citizens than men of great name. To an eminent degree they appear to have obtained the esteem and respect of those nearest to them for sound judgment and sterling traits of character."

Emerson Gilman followed the trade of clothier until the introduction of machinery supplanted the hand process, when he, after pursuing the business of farmer for a few years, removed to Lowell, Mass., in 1837, relying upon his strong and willing hands to find

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support for his large family and give his children the advantages of education which that city signally afforded.

The subject of this sketch was then ten years old, and made fair progress through the several grades to the High School, with which his school-days ended. He removed to Nashua in 1843, but it was not until 1851 that he entered business on his own behalf, at which time he became associated with Messrs. Gage & Murray for the manufacture of printers' cards of all the various kinds, also fancy-colored, embossed and marble papers, a new business in this country at that time, which business he followed successfully for twenty-one years, and until his close and unremitting application made it necessary for him to relinquish it for a more active out-door employment. Following a natural love for rural affairs, he was not long in possessing himself of a hundred-acre farm, in the south part of the city, upon the Lowell road, which he greatly improved, and indulged to some extent in the usually expensive luxury of breeding Jersey cat- tle, trotting-horses and Plymouth Rock fowls. He claims to have bred the finest and fastest-gaited horse ever raised in New Hampshire. Meantime, having realized the object sought, greatly improved health, and the office of treasurer of the Nashua Savings-Bank becoming vacant by the resignation of Dr. E. Spald- ing, in 1876, he was elected to fill the vacancy, and still continues in this responsible position, with nearly two and a half millions of deposits committed to his watchful care and secure investment.

Never coveting office, still he has rarely refused to perform his full share of duty in the various depart- ments of labor and responsibility incident to city affairs, from ward clerk to the mayor's chair, serving also as assessor, member of the Board of Education, and is now trustee of the Public Library, also its sec- retary and treasurer. To him Dartmouth College is indebted for the Gilman scholarship, and the board of trustees of the Orphans' Home at Franklin finds in him an interested member. Ile is identified with the mechanical industries of the city, having a large interest in the Nashna Iron and Steel Company, and being its local director; also an owner and director in the Underhill Edge-Tool Company and Amoskeag Axe Company; also a director in the Indian Head National Bank.

In military affairs actively he is unknown, his ser- vice having commenced and ended with the Gover- nor's Horse-Guards, enlisting as private in Company B and ending as major of the battalion. His interest, however, is kept alive by honorary membership of City Guards and Foster Rifles of his adopted city.

His strong love for agricultural affairs led him to take an interest in our New Hampshire Agricultural Society, of whose board of trustees he was formerly a member, also one of the trustees of the New England Agricultural Society.

ing as chairman of committee on banks and taking a deep interest in the work of that session, and espe- cially zealous in opposition to the taxation of church property. In 1883 he was the Republican Senator from the Nashua district, and was honored by the chairmanship of the leading committee of the Senate, the judiciary, no member of the legal profession hold- ing a seat in that body at that time. How well he discharged the duties of this responsible position those can testify who had business with the committee, or those who witnessed his unremitting application and conscientious decisions.

Denominationally, he is a Congregationalist, and a communicant with the First Church, that was organ- ized in 1685. An interest in its prosperity has in- duced him to serve as director of the society connected therewith many years, and of which he is now presi- dent, and treasurer of the Sabbath-school connected. It will thus be seen that the subject of this sketch fills many positions of responsibility and usefulness, which bring no pecuniary reward, without ostenta- tion, and no foul breath tarnishes his fair record.

Our State has among its many honored sons few whose energy, integrity and discretion have won suc- cess in so many directions, and none who command more universal respect among all classes. In business, politics and social and religious circles he has been and is a leader, whose triumphs shed their blessings far and wide. Few have done so much for Nashua. No one deserves better of the State.

In 1850 he married Sarah Louisa, daughter of Gid- eon Newcomb, Esq., of Roxbury, by whom he had two children,-Harriet Louise, who married Charles W. Hoitt, an attorney-at-law in Nashua, and Alfred Emerson, who did not attain his second birth-day.

HON. ARCHIBALD H. DUNLAP.

One ofthe best elements of our American civilization is the Scotch-Irish. Possessed of clear, cool-headed common sense, industry, integrity, and remarkably successful in all the varied branches of financial, business and legislative action, the descendants of the old Londonderry stock have held conspicuous and trustworthy positions, the duties of which have al- most universally been discharged in a manner show- ing the clearest knowledge of these varied duties, and a determination to fulfill these responsibilities with honesty and fidelity. Not officious, nor loudly self- asserting, they quietly bring to their labors a faith- fulness and energy that surely accomplishes their end.

Hon. Archibald Harris Dunlap, son of John and Jennie (Nesmith) Dunlap, was born in North Branch village, Antrim, September 2, 1817. He is of the fourth generation in direct descent from the emigrant Archibald Dunlap, who came from the Scotch settle- ment in Ireland, and located in Chester, N. H., about the year 1740. The line is Archibald1, Major John2,

He was a member of the Legislature of 1879, serv- John3, Archibald H.4

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Archibald' married Martha Neal, of Chester. She was of Scotch ancestry, and her father, Joseph Neal, was among the Presbyterians who petitioned the Legislature, in 1736, to be freed from paying a second tax to support a Congregational minister. The third child of Archibald was Major John Dun- lap, of Revolutionary memory. He was born in Chester in 1746, married Martha Gilmore, settled in Bedford, owned and carried on a large farm, was also a manufacturer of furniture, and his industry and energy were rewarded with financial success. As a military man he was well known in his day, and his hospitality and liberality were shown by his en- tertaining on one occasion his entire regiment. His son John inherited his father's business character- isties, and early left Chester, went to Antrim, and made his home,at the North Branch village of that town. Ile married, June 26, 1807, Jennie, daughter of Deacon Jonathan Nesmith, of Antrim. He was in the cabinet-making business for many years, and was prob - ably the first to introduce the manufacture of knit underclothing in this State, and also made looms for that purpose. This was about the year 1812, and was deemed a great curiosity. In 1835 he erected a factory in South Antrim (now known as the Silk- Factory). His busy life closed December 15, 1869, at the advanced age of eighty-five.

Archibald H. Dunlap, while yet a lad of thirteen, showed that he had inherited the Scotch zeal and powers of endurance; he, with his elder brother, Robert, left home at early morning with a bundle in one hand and a staff in the other, to walk to Nashua, a distance of thirty-five miles, which place they reached late in the afternoon. The next day, Satur- day, Archibald passed in looking over the town, and his first Sabbath he attended the church of which Rev. Mr. Nott was pastor. "That day he cast his anchor in with that people, and it has held ever since."

At this time, 1831, the Nashua Manufacturing Com- pany and the Indian Head Company were completing cotton-mills, and on Monday, the third day after his arrival, Archibald was engaged by Ziba Gay, manu- facturer of machinery, to work for him through the summer. In the fall he entered Franklin Acad- emy, then under charge of Professor Benjamin M. Tyler, remaining until spring. Returning to Nashua, he was employed by the Nashua Manufacturing Com- pany for over two years, when, being disabled from active labor, he attended Francestown Academy for a term, and one term at Antrim, finishing his school education.

And now, after this varied experience of work and study, of large stature, sound in mind, fearless, in- dependent, upright, industrious and persevering, all of which attributes promise success, Archibald makes Nashua his home, and at the age of twenty was an overseer of the Indian Head Mills, which position he occupied until 1847, when failing health

obliged him to relinquish it. The next two years he passed in business in Franklin, N. H., and in 1849 he removed to Nashua, of which place he has since been a resident, and commenced the garden seed business, in which he has been very successful, and "Dunlap's Garden Seeds " are known all over the land. The business is now conducted by A. H. Dunlap & Sons.

Mr. Dunlap married, August 12, 1841, Lucy Jane, daughter of Josiah Fogg, of Exeter, N. H., and granddaughter of Major Josiah Fogg. Major Fogg came from Hampton in 1752, and settled in that part of Chester which, in 1764, was set off as the town of Raymond. He was a very prominent man in Chester, paid the highest "parish, State and war tax" in Raymond in 1777, and rendered great service in the Revolution. The Fogg family can trace their ances- try back in England and Wales to the year 1112. The first American ancestor was Samuel Fogg, who came to Hampton in 1638. The family is an able one, and its members have been distinguished in various ways, William Perry Fogg (Mrs. Dunlap's brother) is a writer and traveler of some note; au- thor of " Arabistan," "Round the World Letters," etc. The children of Archibald H. and Lucy J. (Fogg) Dunlap are James H., Georgie A., John P. (deceased), Abbie J. and Charles H.

Mr. Dunlap has the confidence and esteem of the people of Nashua, as shown by the many trusts com- mitted to him and the offices he has held in the city government. In 1858 he was elected railroad com- missioner of the State for three years. In 1864 he was chosen one of the Presidential electors for New Hampshire, and had the honor of casting one of the electoral votes for Abraham Lincoln. He repre- sented Nashua in the State Legislature in 1869-70. He is one of the directors of the Nashua and Rochester Railroad, and is a trustee of the New Hampshire Banking Company.

He has always been interested in whatever per- tained to the welfare and improvement of his native town, and at her centennial, in 1877, his address was very able and appropriate. He also generously aided with his time and money in the preparation of the recently-published " History of Antrim." From the terraces of the grounds of his pleasant home Mr. Dun- lap can view Mount Monadnock and its surrounding hills, which often were gazed upon by him with ad- miration while a mere lad in his native town. In his religious views Mr. Dunlap is a Congregationalist, and he was deacon in the Olive Street Church (where he attended service his first Sabbath in Nashua, poor and a stranger) from 1855 till its recent union with the Pearl Street Church ; was then chosen deacon in the United, or Pilgrim Church, and is now the oldest deacon, and was chairman of their building commit- tee in the erection of the new and stately edifice of 1881. Politically, he is a Republican.

Mr. Dunlap is one of the best types of a self-

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made man, and his success is due to his energy, in- dustry and steady, active attention to his business. He is characterized by strong social feeling, and has many friends. In his public life he has always been a faithful and devoted servant to public interests. Upright and conscientious in his convictions, sin- cere in his desire for the right, he is a worthy repre- sentative of his strong and sturdy ancestry.

THE HOWARD FAMILY.

The name of Howard is another form of Haward or Hereward, and is identified with the most brilliant achievements in various departments of knightly and honorable service in England, and is one of the proudest families in that fair land. We extract the following early transatlantic history of the family from "Burke's Heraldic Register," an English work, valuable for its learning, research and accuracy, and a standard authority in family history :

" Howard, Duke of Norfolk .- The illustrious House of Norfolk derives in the male line from William Howard, 'a learned and reverend judge' of the reign of Edward I., and with him the authentic pedigree com- mences. Dugdale sought in vain amid the mists of remote ages for a clue to the family's earlier origin. The alliance of the judge's descendants, Sir Robert Howard, Knight, with Margaret, elder daughter of Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, was the source whence flowed to after gen- erations ' All the blood of all the Howards.' Margaret de Mowbray was great-granddaughter and heiress of Thomas Plantagenet, surnamed De Brotherton, eldest son of King Edward I., by Margaret, his second wife, daughter of Philip the Hardy, of France. This great alliance may be re- garded as the foundation-stone on which was erected the subsequent grandeur of the House of Norfolk ; but the brilliant halo which en- circles the coronet of the Howards owes its splendor to the heroic achievements of the successive chiefs on whom its honor devolved. John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, fell at Bosworth, manfully adhering to Richard III .; his son, the Earl of Surrey, was the hero of Flodden, and the latter's grandson is ever memorable as the first poet of his age :

""" The gentle Surrey loved his lyre, Who hath not heard of Surrey's fame ! Ilis was the hero's soul of fire, And his the Bard's immortal name !'

" In more recent times the hereditary gallantry of the race continued to shine conspicuously forth ; and to a Iloward was reserved the honor of overthrowing the mighty power of spain, and crushing the ' Invinci- ble Armada.' In point of mere antiquity there are several nobles who far exceed the ITowards ; but what family pervades all our national annals with such frequent mention, and often involved in circumstances of such Intense interest! As heroes, poets, politicians, courtiers, patrons of lit- erature, state victims to tyranny and feudal chiefs, they have been con- stantly before us for four centuries. ' In the drama of life,' says an elo- quent writer, 'they have exhibited every variety of character, good and bad ; and a tale of their vices, as well as of their virtues, is full of instruc- tion, and would excite anxious sympathy or indignant censure. Nostory of romance or tragic drama can exhibit more incidents to enhance atten- tion or move the heart than would a comprehensive account of this house, written with eloquence and pathos.' On their escutcheon is the motto-Sola virtus invictu."

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History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 52

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1168

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1168