History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 100

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1520

USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 100
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 100

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

DYER H. SANBORN, a native of Gilmanton, was born July 29, 1799, being a son of David E. Sanborn and Hannah Hook. He was educated at Gilford Academy and Dartmouth College, from which he re- ceived the degree of A.M. He followed the profes- sion of a teacher the larger part of his life, assuming numerous responsible positions in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. He came to Hopkinton as the preceptor of Hopkinton Academy in 1854, and he re- sided here till his death, in 1871. He held numerous civil offices. He was commissioner of schools of Sul- livan County in 1850 and 1851. He represented Sanbornton in the Legislature in 1845 and 1846, and also Washington in 1850, being also a member of the Constitutional Convention of that year. He was many years a local Methodist preacher. He was chaplain of the New Hampshire House of Repre sentatives in 1846. He was a Royal Arch Mason, and

chaplain of the Grand Lodge from 1849 to 1856. In 1836, he published an " Analytical Grammar," which passed through seven editions in teu years ; in 1846, he published a "Normal School Grammar," which passed through eight editions in five years. He was postmaster of Hopkinton from 1858 till his death. During the Presidency of Franklin Pierce, he was for a time a clerk in the Interior Department of the gov- ernment. Professor Sanborn was twice married. His first wife was Harriet W. Tucker, of Deerfield ; his second, Mrs. Abigail Glidden, of Sanbornton Bridge (now 'Tilton). He had one son by his first wife; he died at Washington, in 1852, aged ten years.

FRANKLIN W. FISK, a son of Ebenezer Fisk and Hannah Proctor, was born in Hopkinton in 1820. He lived in Hopkinton till the age of thirteen. From 1835 to 1841, he was a student at Phillips Academy, Exeter, being at times a teacher. He was in Yale College from 1845 to 1849 ; in Yale Theological Sem- inary from 1849 to 1852; tutor in college in 1851 and 1852. He was licensed to preach in 1852; was a stu- dent in Andover Theological Seminary a portion of 1853; traveled in Europe the same year. While abroad he was appointed to the position of professor in Beloit College, Wisconsin ; was professor of rhetoric and English literature from 1854 to 1859. He was ordained to the ministry in 1859. He was Wisconsin professor of sacred rhetoric in the Chicago Theological Seminary from 1859 to 1869. In 1871-72, he visited Europe again and attended lectures three months at the University of Berlin. He has the degree of D.D. from Olivet College, Michigan. He is now professor in the Chicago Theological Sem- inary. Professor Fisk married Mrs. Amelia Allen Austin, of Woodstock, Ct., in 1854; she died in 1881 ; they had three children.

JOAB N. PATTERSON, son of Joab Patterson and Mary Lovering, was born in Contoocook January 2, 1835. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1860. In 1861, ou the breaking out of the war, he enlisted and took out papers as an enlisting officer. He en- listed a company of men at Contoocook and took them to Portsmouth, where they were massed in the Second Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers. Patterson was commissioned a first lieutenant; in 1862, he was promoted to captain ; in 1864 to lieuten- ant-colonel ; in 1865, to colonel ; in 1865, also, he was made brevet brigadier-general of United States Vol- unteers. In 1866, he represented Hopkinton in the State Legislature; in 1867, he was appointed United States marshal of New Hampshire. In 1866-67, he was colonel of the First Regiment of New Hampshire Militia, and was brigadier-general of the First Bri- gade from 1868 to 1870. He became colonel of the First Regiment of the New Hampshire National Guard in 1878. General Patterson married Sarah Cilley Bouton, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Bouton, D.D., of Concord, in 1867, and by whom he has three children. He has resided in Concord since 1868.

410

HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

SILAS KETCHAM, a native of Barre, Vt., was born December 4, 1835, being a son of Silas Ketcham and Cynthia Doty. In 1851, his father moved to Hopkin- ton, where the son learned the trade of a shoemaker, following it till 1858. He then entered Hopkinton Academy and began a course of intellectual study, which he continued till his death, in 1880. He was prevented from entering college by ill health, but he graduated from Bangor Theological Seminary in 1863, pursuing the full course and supporting his family by his trade. He studied higher mathematics and ac- quired a knowledge of French, Spanish and Italian. He was first settled at Wardsborough, Vt., and also oc- cupied pastoral charges in Bristol, Maplewood, Mass., and Windsor, Ct. He at one time resided in Brattle- borough, Vt., and was associated editorially in the conduct of the Vermont Weekly, and Semi- Weekly Record, and the Vermont School Journal, leaving Brat- tleborough to go to Bristol. He was chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Free-Masons of New Hamp- shire from 1871 to 1875. He was an omnivorous reader and collected thousands of books and pamphlets. He was connected with varions societies devoted to benevolence and the promotion of historic and genealogical research, and published numerous dis- courses and pamphlets. He was the founder of the New Hampshire Antiquarian Society and was its president a short time before his death. He left an unfinished "Dictionary of New Hampshire Biogra- phy." Rev. Mr. Ketcham died in Boston, Mass., while on a temporary visit to his friend, Rev. Harlan P. Gage. His remains were buried in Contoocook, where his brother, George H. Ketcham, now lives. In 1860, Silas Ketcham married Georgia C., daughter of Elbridge Hardy, of Amherst, N. H., by whom he had two sons,-George C. and Edmund. Mrs. Ketcham now resides in Newport.

FREDERICK G. SANBORN, a native of Sanborton Bridge (now Tilton), was born January 22, 1836, be- ing the son of Eliphalet and Abigail Glidden. His father dying, his mother afterwards became the second wife of Professor Dyer H. Sanborn. Frederick Glid- den received an academic education and became a clerk in a store in Hopkinton and afterwards a book- keeper in Chicago, Ill. Again he became a clerk in Sherbrook, Ct., and a commercial agent for a com- mission-house in Portland, Me. Upon the event of the war of 1861, he enlisted in the Fifth Maine Vol- unteers, and was promoted through all the grades of non-commissioned office to the position of captain. He was detailed as brigade inspector and adjutant-gen- eral of the Second Brigade, First Division, Sixth Corps, and was in all the principal battles of the Army of the Potomac. In 1864, in autumn, he had charge of eighty men in Tennessee, getting timber of the Cum- berland River for General Sherman's bridges. He was in the First Battalion of Massachusetts Cavalry in the winter and spring of 1865, and was transferred, by order of the Secretary of War, to the United

States army, and detailed for duty as clerk in the Surgeon-General's office at Washington, D. C. He was wounded at Gaines' Hill and Cold Harbor. Since the war, Captain Sanborn has resided much of the time in Hopkinton. In 1880, he married Sophia W. Rogers, of Hopkinton.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

CAPTAIN PAUL, R. GEORGE.1

The New England of the early part of this cen- tury, and its men and events, are naturally subjects of a sort of filial regard to its resident sons, as well as to the men of New England descent in whatever part of this broad land they may be citizens; for New Eng- land, to borrow the phrase of Hawthorne, is to all. intents and purposes the "Old Home" of a vast fraction of the energetic population of the Western and Middle States. To them it is historic soil, in which lies the dust of their ancestors, and whither they make pilgrimages of sentiment and recreation.

The New England of the first part of this century was a homogeneous community. Its people were mostly of English stock, but with such peculiarities and traits as generations born and reared in a New World environment would naturally take on and ex- hibit. There was not then the constant intercourse with Europe which is now so seriously sophisticating and affecting a multitude of Americans. In the early part of the century there was the genuine Yan- kee, pure and simple, the true son of the New World soil. Immigration had not then seriously diluted the population, which was socially, morally and intel- lectually of a higher average than any other commu- nity ever attained. It is no wonder, then, that this old-fashioned New England and its noteworthy men have become the subjects of so much historic and bio- graphic thought. They were then, indeed, New Englanders who were racy of the soil. Every section of Yankeeland then produced its quota of remarkable characters who deserved commemoration ; for old- fashioned New England was as rich and fertile in its productions of such original characters as Scotland has been at any period of its history.

It is the duty of the ready writers of to-day to see to it that every such character of native growth shall have its dne meed of biographic notice, so that future generations may know what manner of men preceded them on this Novanglian soil, who have made it famous by their genius, thrift, energy and enter- prise.

Prominent in this class of New England men was Captain Paul Rolfe George, who was born in Con- cord, N. H., on the 25th of August, 1807. He was

1 By Colonel John H. George.

411

HOPKINTON.

named for Paul Rolfe, son of Benjamin Rolfe, both very prominent citizens in the early days of Concord. The latter married Sarah, eldest daughter of the Rev. Timothy Walker. After his death his widow mar- ried Benjamin Thompson, widely known as Count Rumford.

Captain George's father, John George, Esq., lived in early life in the adjoining town of Hopkinton, where he was born May 26, 1780. His grandfather moved to that town after the middle of the last cen- tury from Haverhill, Mass., to which place his ances- tors had emigrated from England in the preceding century. Early in the present century his grand- father, having in 1784 moved to Warner, N. H., Jo- cated in Topsham, Vt., then a wilderness, with such of a large family as were then too young to be self- supporting. He cleared and subsequently cultivated a large farm on what is known as " George's Hill," in that town, where he died February 4, 1822. Captain George's paternal grandmother was the daughter of Captain Harriman, a retired sea-captain, who settled in Hopkinton from Salem, Mass., about the time his father came from Haverhill. These ancestors, on both sides, were noted for self-reliance, persistence and force of character.

Captain George's mother, Ruth Bradley, was a de- scendant of one of the representative families of the early settlers of Concord, from whom he inherited, with a somewhat delicate constitution, a quickness and brightness of intellect and clearness of percep- tion which became in after-life his almost marvelous characteristics.

His father was from childhood thoroughly self-de- pendent. Learning the hatters' trade, he followed that vocation through his early life. He was also for many years an inn-keeper, a director of a leading bank, a deputy-sheriff, an administrator of estates and a practical farmer, displaying in all his business affairs great energy, fidelity and unswerving integrity. He had by his first wife three children,-Paul Rolfe, the subject of this sketch ; Clarissa Bartlett, wife of Hon. Hamilton E. Perkins; and Susan Emery, who died in early life. By his second wife, Mary Hatch, he had one son, John Hatch, who still resides at the family homestead. He died at Concord, N. H., where he had lived for nearly fifty years, January 9, 1843.

Captain George was educated in the public schools of Concord, but he was too nervously restive in his boyhood and early youth to devote himself to study. His love of trade, embracing in its subjects his jack- knife, clothing and boots in daily use, as well as the most valuable property he possessed in after-life, was a passion with him. An intimate friend and associ- ate of his youth says that after he was fifteen years old he had scarcely ever the same suit of clothes or pair of boots two days in succession. Many ludicrous anecdotes are told of this marked peculiarity, which was apparently founded not so much in a desire for

gain as in the love of trade. Among his purchases and swappings before he was twenty-one years of age could be reckoned, besides almost innumerable horses, carriages and various kinds of other property, an en- tire cireus and its accompanying paraphernalia.

Soon after he came of age he leased the old Co- lumbian, then the most noted hotel in Concord, which he himself kept for a considerable time. His elerk was Nathaniel White, and Charles H. Norton had charge of his stable. The former subsequently . be- came one of the proprietors of the United States and Canada Express, distinguished alike for his great wealth and liberality, while the latter was owner for many years of the principal livery stable in Concord. Messrs. White and Norton were through life intimate friends and neighbors, and it is not exaggeration to say that no two citizens of Concord ever died more generally beloved or more sincerely lamented. Their affection for Captain George was lifelong and unwa- vering, and was heartily reciprocated.

Soon after the sale of his interest in the Columbian Hotel be removed to Lowell, then rapidly growing in- to importance as the chief manufacturing locality of New England, and there opened a large dry-goods store in company with his cousin, Charles L. Emery, under the firm-name of George & Emery. Subse- quently his health began to fail, and he disposed of his store, and by the advice of his physician went South to avert the tendency to pulmonary consump- tion, with which he was seriously threatened, and from which his pluck and will-power alone rescued him. He spent several months at Washington, where he made the intimate acquaintance of many men of prominence from all parts of the country. Upon his return he was appointed to a position in the Boston custom-house, under the collectorship of Hon. David Henshaw.

Captain George had a natural taste for politics, and a special love for the excitement incident to political controversy ; and the bitter quarrel which followed the veto of the bank charter by President Tyler gave him the special opportunity to display his peculiar power. He became an ardent defender of the Presi- dent and the intimate of Caleb Cushing, Henry A. Wise and other young and vigorous statesmen who constituted what was then known as the Tylerfuard. He was appointed by the President naval store-keep- er at Brooklyn, N. Y., a position which he held until liis active and openly-expressed sympathy with the employés of the navy-yard, in their opposition to an official order that a government vessel should be sent elsewhere for repairs, caused a quarrel with the de- partment which resulted in his removal from office. Subsequently, in company with Caleb Cushing, Robert Rantoul and a few other intimate friends, he made the journey up the Mississippi River to the present sites of St. Paul and Minneapolis, then a wilderness with scarcely a single white inhabitant. They also visited St. Croix Falls, and continued their

412

HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

trip across the country to Lake Superior, with the view of making Minnesota their future home. They made large investments in land near St. Croix Falls, and sent out quite a number of settlers and agents. The Mexican War breaking out soon after their re- turn to New England, General Cushing was appoint- ed colonel of the Massachusetts regiment, and se- lected Captain George as his quartermaster. They both served during the war. While they were absent in Mexico their Minnesota property was sadly ne- glected, and this neglect, coupled with the rapid set- tlement of the territory and the occupancy by settlers of the purchased lands, caused all sorts of conflicting claims, and rendered the investment an unprofitable one to all concerned, particularly to General Cushing, who retained his landed interest with its annoying burden of litigation to the time of his decease.

After the Mexican War Captain George spent sev- eral years in business in New York City. Subse- quently he published a fine farm on Contoocook River, in Hopkinton, N. H., on the line of the Con- cord and Claremont Railroad and about ten miles from Concord. He was very fond of horses and cat- tle, and specially devoted the next ten years to their care and to the cultivation and improvement of his farm, which became, under his enthusiastic manage- ment, one of the finest and most productive in the county. He also took a lively and continuous interest in the material improvement, through the develop- ment and utilization of its water-power, of the village near which his farin is located, and in this respect he was doubtless the most enterprising citizen of the town.

In 1855 he married Caroline, only daughter of William Livingston, of Lowell, Mass., and she still remains his widow. He left no children. Mr. Liv- ingston, as a merchant and business man, had few equals in activity, energy and success. The same year, 1855, Captain George represented Hopkinton in the State Legislature, and later traveled over Europe with his wife, leisurely visiting the principal cities and other localities of special interest.

Upon the breaking out of the Civil War, in 1861, he brought his large military experience in the Mex- ican War to the aid of the State in fitting out the early New Hampshire regiments, which, it is believed, went to the war unsurpassed in the thoroughness of their outfit.

Captain George had from early manhood been an intimate friend of General Butler's. They had for years lived side by side at Lowell, and years of friendship ripened into mutual confidence, love and admiration. Captain George believed unreservedly, with an unwavering conviction, in General Butler's genius aud ability in all respects, civil and military ; and in General Butler's view his friend had no supe- rior in brains and executive force. Captain George was especially anxious for the independent command subsequently given the general in the authority to

raise the New England division, and was vigorously active in assisting, by suggestion and otherwise, in se- curing it from President Lincoln. Upon his appoint- ment as general of this division General Butler se- lected Captain. George as his quartermaster, whose experience, faithfulness and executive capacity en- abled him to fit out the expedition to New Orleans with an unprecedented thoroughness and alacrity. Probably no disappointment of General Butler's life exceeded that caused by the personal ill-feeling on the part of a prominent politician which prevented Captain George's official confirmation, and thus de- prived him of the aid and services of the man whom, of all others, he desired by his side in the trying ordeal through which he was passing.

General Butler, in a recent letter to the writer, says,-

" My early acquaintanco with Captain George ripened into the closest intimacy. Being some ton or twelve years older than myself, I was ac- customied to listen to his suggestions in political and business matters with the ntmost deference. I only onunciate a simple truth when I say- that during a long acquaintance with the most prominent men of the country I have never met any man with a mind so inventive, so full of resources as to every phase of political and business life, so thoroughily discriminating as to facts and theories, and so thoroughly capable of dis- tinctive appreciation of the capabilities, powers and abilities of public men. His comprehension on all these subjects was intuitive, and an ex- perience of more than twenty years since bis death has confirmed his judgment in every case within my knowledge. He entered the Mexican War as a quartermaster of volunteers. He so thoroughly won his way by his business tact and energy that upon the capture of the city of Mex- ico General Scott selected him as the controlling quartermaster at his headquarters-a position never given before to a volunteer officer, and hardly since. When President Lincoln gave me authority to raise troops in New England to form part of the expedition which resulted in the capture of New Orleans, I was exceedingly anxions that Captain George should be its quartermaster. Being then of independent fortune, and advanced in years, I doubted his acceptance of the position. His love of country and his personal friendship, at my earnest solicitation, moved him so to do. Ile entered upon that duty with the vigor and enthusiasm of youth. From that honr I had personally se concern with any detail as to the supplies of every description so important to the success of the enterprise. Captain George did it all. He was so wonderfully faithin), and had such comprehension of the needs, that I venture to say there was never another military expedition so thoroughly fitted in every part with all needed supplies. When I sailed for Ship Island I left Cap- tain George in New England, that he might settle his numerous accounts, to come later, and bring with him the remainder of our supplies. In my alsonce his name came up for confirmation before the Senate. Owing to somo political feeling between him and a Senator from his State, he failed of confirmation. I was therefore left at Ship Island without any quartermaster, save a young regimental ono, who probably never had seen a quartermaster's return ; and so I was acting quarter- master of the division for somo three months, till after the capture of New Orleans. After Captain Georgo's death it became necessary that I should take part in settling his final accounts with the department, and thus I became acquainted with the great acenracy with which he kept his accounts.

" Captain George had a very sympathetic heart. He was greatly be- loved by all the fellow-members of the staff, and especially hy all the officers of the division. I Diouroed his death with as deep grief as any ono could, savo a wife, child or brother."

Upon the completion of the outfit and the depart- ure of the division for New Orleans, Captain George returned to his farm, which became the Mecca of prominent men from all sections of the country, where he dispensed a lavish hospitality.

Early in the year 1864 he spent several weeks with his brother at the old family homestead, visiting the

Mattias Davis

413

HOPKINTON.

friends and associates of his boyhood and youth. It was his farewell visit to his birth-place. Soon after his return home he was taken suddenly ill, and on the 29th of February he closed a life of constant ac- tivity at his farm in Hopkinton, surrounded by his relatives and friends, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. He was buried in the family lot, in Blossom Hill Cemetery, in Concord, where a fine granite mon- ument marks his resting-place.

Such is a brief account of the life, and some of its incidents, of the subject of this sketch. It will be seen that Captain George's career was a checkered and varied one, full of the variety of pursuit, specu- lative ventures and political incidents which mark the career of an able and energetic American during the period in which he lived. But, after all, he was chiefly interesting on his own personal account, and for himself, for he was, in his psychological organi- zation, a man of genius. He had an element of striking individuality which differentiated him from everybody else. There was no mistaking him for any other person than himself. His conversational powers were remarkable, and as a talker on the current men and politics of his time he could not be surpassed. His talk was like the effervescence of champagne. It sparkled with wit, sarcasm and irony.

But he was not merely an eloquent and most inter- esting talker. He was full of practical sense and knowledge, the result of a life's experience in both peace and war. He was the intimate friend and asso- ciate of such remarkable public men as Franklin Pierce, William L. Marcy, Caleb Cushing, Levi Woodbury, Robert Rantoul, David K. Cartter, Hen- ry A. Wise, Isaac Hill and B. F. Butler, and it is not too much to say, that though they were his supe- riors in reputation and in social and political influ- ence, they were under special obligations to him for suggestions and advice which his almost intuitive knowledge of the state of public feeling at any given emergency enabled him to give, and which they fully appreciated. He was in every way qualified to be the "guide, philosopher and friend " of great political and party leaders, for he thoroughly understood the varying moods of the people, being a man of the people himself. He was not debarred from popular intercourse by too much personal greatness and con- ceit of himself. His wit and brilliant conversational powers made him a favorite in all places of popular resort : thus he knew the masses from his own knowl- edge, and not at second-hand.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 100

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1520

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1520