History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 163

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 163
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 163

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' From a sketch by Rev. 8. C. Beane, with some additions.

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His "schooling" was obtained at the Harriman dis- trict school and at the academy in the adjoining town of Hopkinton.

When hardly more than a boy, he made a success- ful trial of the excellent self-discipline of school- teaching, and at different times taught in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and New Jersey. While in the latter State, at the age of twenty-two, he became deeply interested in the principles of Liberal Christiauity (the form of religious faith to which he always held), and occasionally wrote ser- mons, which were well received from the pulpit, and some of which found their way into print. It was certain, from his early youth, that nature designed him for a public speaker, the rare oratorical gifts which afterwards distinguished him having shown themselves gradually and prophetically in the district school-house and the village academy. This tenta- tive experience in preaching, undertaken of his own motion and without conferring with flesh and blood, resulted in his settlement, in 1841, over the Univer- salist Church in Harvard, Mass., where he remained in active service four years. Returning now to Warner, and soon leaving the pulpit altogether, he became the senior partner in trade with John S. Pillsbury, late Governor of Minnesota, probably the only instance in our history where two young busi- ness partners in a retired country town have after- wards become the chief executives of different States.

In 1849, Mr. Harriman was elected by his towns- men to the New Hampshire House of Representa- tives, where he almost immediately became promi- nent as a leader in debate on the Democratic side. Of his record as a party man little needs to be said, except that from first to last, and whatever his affilia- tions, he displayed great independence in espousing measures and principles which commended them- selves to his judgment and conscience, even when it put him in a minority with his political associates. In his first legislative term, on the question of com- muting the death sentence of a woman who was sen- tenced to be hung for murder, he not only advocated such commutation, but was a leader in the movement for the abolition of capital punishment altogether, to which purpose he always stood committed. In the Legislature of 1850 he was the leading advocate of the Homestead Exemption Law, at which time a reso- lution was adopted submitting the question to the people. The voters of the State gave their approval at the next March election, and in the following June the act was consummated. No Legislature has dared to repeal it, and the foresight and courage of its authors and earliest advocates have been so approved by thirty years of experience that it is doubtful if a single citizen can be found to-day who would desire to undo their work.

It was no accident or trifling smartness that could give a man prominence in those two Legislatures of a third of a century ago. Among the men of marked

ability, now deceased, who held seats in those years were Horton D. Walker, Samuel H. Ayer, Lemuel N. Pattee, Edmund Parker, Samuel Lee, John Pres- ton, William Haile, Richard Jenness, William P. Weeks, Thomas E. Sawyer, W. H. Y. Hackett, Na- thaniel B. Baker, Charles F. Gove, Thomas M. Ed- wards, Josiah Quincy and scores of others, now living, of equal merit. In this galaxy of brilliant minds it is no exaggeration to say that, young as he was, Mr. Harriman was an honored peer in legislative duty and debate. Besides the two years named he repre- rented Warner again in the House in 1858, when he was his party's candidate for Speaker. He also rep- resented District No. 8 in the State Senate in 1859 and 1860. In 1853 and 1854 he held the responsible position of State treasurer. Appointed, in 1856, by the President of the United States, on a board of commissioners, with ex-Congressmon James H. Relf, of Missouri, and Colonel William Spencer, of Ohio, to classify and appraise Indian lands in Kansas, he spent a year of official service in that inviting terri- tory, then turbulent with ruffianism. Border raids, burnings and murder were daily occurrences; but the duties of this office were faithfully attended to, and no breath of complaint was ever heard against the delicate work of the board.

During the reign of that un-American political heresy popularly called Know-Nothingism, in 1854, 1855 and 1856, Mr. Harriman was its firm and un- yielding enemy. In a discussion of this question with Hon. Cyrus Barton, at Loudon Centre, Mr. Harriman had closed his first speech, aud Mr. Barton has just begun a reply, when he dropped dead upon the platform, a tragedy which lingered sadly in the memory of his friendly antagonist of that day.

The outbreak of the Civil War began an era in the life of every public man in the nation. It projected issues which made party allegiance a secondary affair. It sent many earnest and honest men across the party line, while some of our best citizens simply took their stand for the time being outside all political folds, independent and ready for whatever calls the ex- igencies of the country might give forth. In that fateful spring of 1861, Mr. Harriman became the editor and one of the proprietors of the Weekly Union at Manchester, which heartily espoused the war policy of Mr. Lincoln's administration for the preser- vation of the republic, and thus found himself the leader and spokesman of what were known as the " War Democrats." He was placed in nomination as a candidate for Governor of the State at a large mass convention of this class of voters, held at Manchester in February, 1863, and the movement resulted in defeating a choice by the people and throwing the election into the Legislature.

No man nttered braver or more eloquent words for the Union cause than Mr. Harriman, and his tongue and pen were an important element in the rousing of the citizens of New Hampshire to the graver duties

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HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

of the hour. In August, 1862, he was made colonel of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment of Volun- teers. He led his regiment to the field, and was at its head most of the time until the close of the war, except the four months, from May to September, 1864, when he was an inmate of Confederate prisons. With some other captured Union officers, he was for seven weeks of this time imprisoned in that part of Charles- ton, S. C., which was most exposed to the fire of the Union guns from Morris Island; bnt, providentially, thongh that part of the doomed city was destroyed, no harm came to him from the guns of his fellow-loyal- ists.

The first set battle in which the Eleventh Regiment bore a part was that of Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, when, with unflinching conrage, Colonel Har- riman and his men faced the dreadful carnage of that long day before Marye's Heights, less than three months after their arrival in the field. The loss of the regiment in this engagement was terrific. Passing over much (for want of space) that is thrill- ing and praiseworthy, we find the Eleventh, under their colonel, at the front in the battle of the Wilder- ness, May 6, 1864, where they made a daring and stubborn onset on the Confederate entrenchments, carrying before them two successive lines of the enemy's works. But among the five thousand Union men that were captured in that bloody engagement, the commander of the Eleventh New Hampshire was included. Colonel Harriman and the survivors of his charge were present at the final grapple of the war, before Petersburg, and on the 3d day of April, 1865, he led a brigade of nine regiments (a force three times as great as the whole American Army at Bun- ker Hill) into that fated city on the heels of Lee's fleeing command. The war was now virtually ended; the surrender of Lee at Appomattox followed six days afterward, and the Eleventh Regiment, of proud and honorable record, was mustered out of service the following June. Their commander was appointed brigadier-general United States Volunteers, by brevet, " for gallant condnet during the war," to date from March 13, 1865.

On his arrival home, at the close of the war, Gen- eral Harriman was elected to the office of Secretary of State by the Legislature then in session, and he at once entered upon the duties of the office, which he held two years, and until his promotion to the gubernatorial chair. In the large Republican Con- vention, consisting of six hundred and seventy-five delegates, and held at Concord in 1867, he was nomi- nated on the first ballot as candidate for Governor of the State. One of the most salient and memorable inci- dents connected with this period was the joint eanvass, made by amicable arrangement between General Har- riman and the Hon. John G. Sinclair, the Democratic candidate. Such canvasses are not uncommon in the West and South ; but in New England, and with men of such forensic ability as the distinguished nominees

posessed, it was an event fraught with great popular interest, and which drew forth, possibly, the most earnest and eloquent discussions of questions to which a New England people has ever listened. Many flattering notices were given of these discussions ; there were thirteen in all. Commenting on one of the number, a leading newspaper said of General Harriman : "Soaring above all petty personal alln- sions, he held the andience as if spell-bound, and made all his hearers, for the time being, lovers of the whole country-of the Union, of liberty and inde- pendence throughout the world. He spoke not as a politician, but as a patriot, a statesman, a philan- thropist, and his noble sentiments had such power of conviction that it was impossible to ward off the results by argument." His election followed by a decisive majority.

The campaign of 1868 occurred at a time when a strong reaction was setting against the Republican party throughout the country. Fresh candidates for the Presidency were about to be nominated; the im- peachment of Andrew Johnson was in progress; military rule had been established in the South ; utter financial ruin was hotly foretold ; and the dominant party was suffering crushing reverses in many of the States. To add to the discouragements of this party in New Hampshire, when the municipal election came on, in December, Portsmouth and Manchester rolled up adverse majorities, and the tide was tending strongly in one direction. Encouraged by such promising signs the Democratic party held its State Convention at the early day of the 14th of November. Their old and tried war-horse, John G. Sinclair, was again put upon the track, and his election was, by that party, deemed a foregone conclusion. A long and fierce contest ensned. Governor Harriman met his fellow-citizens face to face in every section of the State. He addressed immense meetings, holding one every secular day for six weeks, and failing to meet no appointment on account of weariness, storms or any other cause. He was triumphantly re-elected, obtaining a larger vote than any candidate for office had ever before received in New Hampshire.

Of Governor Harriman's administration of the af- fairs of the State, in its principal features, with the exacting duties and the keen prudence required of the chief executive in those days of large indebted- ness, unbalanced accounts and new legislation to meet the new and unprecedented demands, his con- stitnents seem to have been hearty and unanimous in their approval. Their feelings may be summed up and expressed in the words of the Boston Journal when it said : "The administration of Governor Har- riman will take rank among the best that New Hamp- shire has ever had."

General Harriman was appointed naval officer of the port of Boston by President Grant in April, 1869, which office he accepted after the expiration of his gubernatorial term, in June following. He was re-

Benfa Evans

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WARNER.

appointed in 1873 for a term of four years. The affairs of this office were conducted in such a manner as to preclude any word of criticism.

General Harriman engaged in political canvasses repeatedly in most of the Northern States, and in 1872 he participated extensively in the State campaign in North Carolina. In this later canvass the key-note of the national campaign was pitched, and the result of the desperate contest there in August made the re- election of General Grant in November a certainty.

Thousands have warmly testified to the rare ora- torical powers of the subject of this sketch, the Meri- den (Connecticut) Recorder being one of the number. That paper says of him : " As a platform speaker we never heard his equal. His delivery is fine, his logic clear as a crystal, his manner easy and natural and his physical force tremendous. With a voice clear and distinct as a trumpet, of immense compass, vol- ume and power, his influence over an audience is complete. He affects nothing, but proceeds at once to the work in hand, and from the very outset carries his hearers with him, rising at times with the in- spiration of his theme to the loftiest flights of elo- quence."

In 1881, General Harriman was chosen to the Leg- islature from Concord, and in the Hall of Represent- atives, where he had stood over thirty years before, he took a fearless and independent position on the great questions that were agitated at that session. In 1882 he made an extended tour through Europe and portions of Asia and Africa, visiting London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Alexandria, Cairo, Jerusalem and many other places of note, going to the heart of the great pyramid and bathing in the Dead Sea and the waters of Jordan. On his return he wrote a book of his travels, which was his last work, entitled " In the Orient." The book is characteristic of the author, who saw much in a short time, and taking one rapidly through that interesting country, on foot and horse- back, where brave armies fought and where patri- archs, prophets and Apostles went. The book was published by Lee & Shepard, of Boston, and two editions have been sold.

General Harriman was twice married : first, in 1841, to Miss Apphia K. Hoyt, daughter of Captain Ste- phen Hoyt, of Warner, who died two years afterwards ; and again, in 1844, to Miss Almira R. Andrews, of Warner, who survives him. By the latter marriage he had three children,-Georgia, the only daughter, is the wife of Joseph R. Leeson, an importer, of Bos- ton ; Walter C., the oldest son, a lawyer in Boston ; the younger son, Benjamin E., having prepared him- self for the medical profession at some of the best schools in the land, took his degree at Dartmouth College in 1877 and began practice in Manchester, N. H .; but his health soon failing, after patient and determined efforts for its recovery, and after attempt- ing, in Troy, N. H., to follow his profession, where, in a short space of time, he acquired a large practice and

aroused the strongest feelings of friendship and sym- pathy of the people, he returned to his father's home in Concord, where he died of consumption and a heart difficulty May 23, 1880, lamented not only by his own family, but by a large circle of devoted and enthusi- astic friends. His wife, so early bereaved, was Miss Jessie B., only daughter of the late Colonel Isaac W. Farmer, of Manchester.

A biographical paper, read before the New Hamp- shire Medical Society by Dr. A. H. Crosby, a phy- sician of wide reputation, and printed, portrays the character of Dr. Harriman in generous outline and fine and tender tinting. He was a young man of a keen mind and of high integrity, large capacities for friendship and superior equipment for his life-work. There are two grandsons and one granddaughter of General Harriman's surviving children to represent the family.

In the month of July, 1883, General Harriman was prostrated, although apparently in his usual health, with cerebral embolism, resulting in aphasia, and al- though he made a wonderful and unexpected recov- ery therefrom, it was evident that his days on earth were hastening to a close. Early in the spring of 1884 he became confined to his home. Calmly he awaited the great transition, as the shadows gathered about him, with the oft-expressed wish that it might come suddenly and that his days of weariness might not be prolonged.

Like passing into a deep sleep, he died on the morning of July 25th. His remains repose in Pine Grove Cemetery, beneath a tall granite shaft, among his kindred, where the waters of the river ripple be- low and in full view of the hills that overshadow the place of his birth.

BENJAMIN EVANS.

Benjamin Evans, son of Tappan Evans, was born at Newburyport in 1772, but was brought to Warner with the family before 1780. His mother was called the " handsomest woman in Newburyport," and the son was a man of striking personal appearance. The writer has been unable to gather many facts in rela- tion to the early life of this noted man. His educa- tion was limited, but, having commanding natural abilities, he wielded a large influence in Warner and in the State for many years. He married a Miss Wadleigh (an aunt of the late Judge Wadleigh, of Sutton) and commenced life at Roby's Corner. There he had a farm and saw-mill, the mill being a few rods below the present river bridge. In 1803 he went into mercantile business at South Sutton and at once became a prominent and influential man in the town. Though he only remained at Sutton four years, he served several times as moderator at town-meetings and several times as selectman. In 1807 he returned to Warner and made his home from that time through life at the village.

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HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

He was the leading business man in town for a long period of time; besides carrying on his country store, he dealt largely in cattle.

He lived some twenty-five or thirty years in what is now known as the Bates house, and the remainder of his life at the Porter house. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. He knew every man in town and could readily call each man by name. He served as moderator of town-meetings, as selectman and as representative to the General Court a great many years.

He was elected Senator in old District No. 8 in 1830, and was in the Governor's Council in 1836 and 1837. He was appointed sheriff of Merrimack County in 1838 and held this, his last office, till 1843, the year before his decease.

His children were Abigail, married Reuben Porter ; Susan, died in infancy; Susan (2d) married Dr. Eaton; Lucinda, married Nathan S. Colby; Sophronia, married Stephen C. Badger; Sarah, married H. D. Robertson; Hannah M., married Abner Woodman (he was a farmer and did considerable justice business in settling estates in the town of Warner); Benja- min, the last child, died at the age of six years. Mrs. Hannah M. Woodman1 is the only surviving child of the late Benjamin Evans, and furnishes this illustra- tion as a tribute to her father's memory.

LEVI BARTLETT.

Levi Bartlett, oldest son of Joseph Bartlett, was born in Warner, N. H., April 29, 1793, and is, there- fore, at this date, ninety-two years of age.

His grandfather, Simeon Bartlett, of Amesbury, Mass. (a brother of Governor Josiah Bartlett, of Kingston, N. H., who was first after General Han- cock to vote for and to sign the " Declaration of In- dependence "), was one of the original proprietors of the town of Warner, and he gave to his three sons, Joseph, Richard and Simeon, valuable tracts of land in the then newly-settled township.

The Bartlett family are from Stopham, Sussex County, England. John and Richard, progenitors of most of the name in this country, came over iu 1634 and 1635, and settled at Newbury. They trace back their family for over eight hundred years of unbroken pedigree. Sir Walter B. Barttelot, a lineal descendant of Adam Barttelot, who came over with William, the Conqueror, now inherits the old family estate, con- sisting of some seven or eight thousand acres.

Sir Walter is member of Parliament, a Conserva- tive and a stanch supporter of the Queen.

The subject of the present sketch, Levi Bartlett, of Warner, was early employed in his father's store, at the Lower village. A country store was then, even

more than now, the centre of all masculine gather- ings for the interchange of news and political and re- ligious ideas. The incidents of the Revolutionary War were still fresh in the minds of the old habitués of the place, and the lad, always eager for informa- tion, listened with breathless interest to tales of daring and heroic deeds, and gazed with flashing eye as some old veteran of the war "shouldered his crutch and showed how fields were won." Added to the history of his country they orally delivered were the contents of the town library, kept at his father's store, and sup- plied, among other works, with copies of most of the popular histories then extant,-Hume, Gibbon, Gold- smith, etc.,-and while the rest of the family were gathered of an evening in the " east room " for social and neighborly converse, the young man, stretched on the old-fashioned kitchen settle, read, by the light of a tallow candle, or possibly by a blazing pine-knot, his- tory, Shakespeare, translations of Virgil and Homer, or whatever else of poetry or romance those early times afforded. His extreme predilection for agriculture was fostered, if not induced, by the "Georgics," read at that susceptible age. Opportunities for education were very limited in those days, and the common dis- trict school did not set ordinary pupils very far on the road to knowledge. Private instruction, through a couple of winters, by Hon. Henry B. Chase, then a rising young lawyer of the town, and a "finishing term " at Amesbury Academy were all the additional scholastic advantages enjoyed by Mr. Bartlett. This rather meagre training was, however, largely supple- mented in his case by constant, varied and extensive reading, and by a critical study, in later years, of geology, chemistry and other works connected with what was then dubbed, rather sneeringly, by the pop- ular voice as " scientific farming." He was sent early to Newburyport to the book-store of Thomas & Whip- ple, and later to the store of his uncle, James Thorn- dike, of Salem, Mass., with the expectation that he would engage in mercantile pursuits. But he had little taste for " trade" and the embargo and non- intercourse with foreign nations, owing to the un- friendly and exasperating conduct of England, which worked so disastrously upon the fortunes of those once opulent merchants in the "City by the Sea," completed the disgust of young Bartlett for that oc- cupation. The trade of tanner and currier appeared to him the only safe and lucrative business, and his father arranged to set him up accordingly.

He pursued this avocation for several years, but the passion for agriculture, which had all this time found vent in the cultivation of fruits and flowers, grew too powerful to be resisted, and he left what was fast be- coming a lucrative employment for the pursuit of farming, which he has since followed.

He hegan at once to write for agricultural papers, experimented largely in different ways of managing crops, adopted most of the new theories of scientific men in relation to the constitution of the soil and its

I since the above was written Mrs. Woodman has passed away. She died May 26, 1885.

Levi Bartlett

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WARNER.

adaptation to certain growths, etc. His opinions and writings were favorably received, and he, as pioneer in a new field, since pretty thoroughly investigated, was considered "anthority" on most points relating to improved agriculture.

In 1834, Mr. Bartlett was invited to become a regn- lar contributor to the New England Farmer, and from that date till after he had passed his eightieth year he wrote regularly for various agricultural periodicals. He was special correspondent and associate editor of the Boston Journal of Agriculture during its brief life. He wrote constantly for the Country Gentleman, oc- casionally for the Farmer's Monthly Visitor, The Statesman and Manchester Mirror and many other papers. He was for a time associate editor of the Bos- ton Cultivator. His writings have been published in various States of the Union, and not unfrequently copied into English papers.

When an Advisory Board of Agriculture met at the Patent Office, Washington, D. C., in 1859, Mr. Bartlett was selected by a committee of that board to represent New Hampshire, and he was present during its session of eight days.

A year later, when a series of important lectures on scientific agriculture was to be given at Yale College, Hon. Henry B. French, then of Exeter, late Assistant Secretary of the Treasury at Washington, and Mr. Bartlett were invited from this State to be present.

After he had passed his eightieth birthday he began and completed a "Genealogy of the Bartlett Family," which has been largely called for all over the country.

The work cost a vast amount of labor and research, and proved a very trying labor for the aged com- piler.

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 163

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