History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 5

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 5
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 5

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view in the Superior Court for Rockingham County to determine the title to this land. Such action was brought by them, and at the September term, 1778, of that court, they recovered judgment for the land, costs of court and costs of former litigation. On the 14th of September, 1778, the sheriff put them into possession of the property from which their father had been wrongfully ejected fourteen years before. Sarah, daughter of Philip, one of these sons, was the wife of Governor William Plumer and the mother of his children.

Symonds Fowler, the tenth of fourteen children of Philip (third), born in Ipswich, Mass., August 20, 1734, removed to New Market, N. H., with his father, in 1743, where he married, July 12, 1756, Hannah Weeks, born in the old brick house in Greenland, N. H., August 12, 1738. By the will of his father he inherited a farm adjoining the station at New Mar- ket Junction, on the Concord and Portsmouth and Bos- ton and Maine Railroads, upon which he lived un- til he removed, in 1778, to a farm in the western part of Epsom, N. H., upon Suncook River, where he re- sided until his death, April 6, 1821. His wife, Han- nah, died there December 9, 1807.

Benjamin Fowler, the sixth of eleven children of Symonds, was born at New Market, N. H., June 16, 1769; removed with his father to Epsom, N. H., in 1778; married in Pembroke, N. H., January 15, 1795, Mehitable Ladd, only child of John and Jerusha (Lovejoy) Ladd, of that town, and granddaughter of Captain Trueworthy and Mehitable (Harriman) Ladd, of Kingston, N. H. He settled in Pembroke, after his marriage, on a farm he purchased, and died there July 24, 1832. His widow survived him until September 9, 1853.

Asa Fowler, the ninth of eleven children of Benja- min and Mehitable (Ladd) Fowler, was born in Pem- broke, N. H., February 23, 1811. His childhood was spent on his father's farm, his means of educa- tion after he was seven or eight years of age being limited to eight or nine weeks of winter school, his services after that age in summer being required in farm-work. There were very few books to which he had access, except the Bible and ordinary school- books, and his early reading was confined to these. At the age of fourteen he had a very severe attack of typhoid fever, which left him in such enfeebled con- dition as to be incapable of severe manual labor. Un- der these circumstances he was sent to the Blanchard Academy, in his native town, then under the charge of Hon. John Vose, but with no other intention than that he might become qualified to instruct a com- mon district school. But with opportunity to learn and to read, a desire for a liberal education was awakened, and, by alternately working upon his father's farm in the spring and summer, attending the academy in the fall and teaching school in win- ter, he succeeded in not only fitting himself for col- lege, but in preparing to enter the sophomore class,

BENCH AND BAR.

having attended school only sixty weeks after he commenced the study of Latin. With so meagre and defective a training, he entered the sophomore class at Dartmouth College at the opening of the fall term, 1830, and although he taught school every winter, was able, nevertheless, to maintain a highly respect- able standing until his graduation, in 1833, when, among the parts assigned to the graduating class ac- cording to scholarship, an English oration was given him. He was never absent or unprepared at any re- citation during his three years' course. In his junior year he was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, as being in the first third of his class. He has never sought or received any honorary degree from his Alma Mater. After leaving college he taught the academy at Topsfield, Mass., for a single term in the fall of 1833, thereby raising sufficient funds to liquidate all indebtedness incurred to defray his college expenses, over and above what he received from his father's estate. Immediately upon leaving Topsfield, having determined to adopt the legal pro- fession, he entered his name as a student in the office of James Sullivan, Esq., then in practice in Pem- broke, occupying the office of the Hon. Boswell Stev- ens, disabled by a paralytic attack, from which he never recovered. He continued to read books from Mr. Sullivan's library through the following winter. In March, 1834, he came to Concord, N. H., where he has since resided, and entered the office of Hon. Charles H. Peaslee, then a rising young lawyer, and continued with him until admitted to the Merrimack County bar, in February, 1837. While a student in General Peaslee's office, he and Hon. Moody Currier, then a teacher in Concord, undertook the editorship, as a matter of amusement and with no hope of pecu- niary reward, of a small literary paper, called the Literary Gazette. It was published weekly for six months, and then once a fortnight for another six months. After Mr. Currier retired from the editor- ship, Cyrus P. Bradley, a youth of wonderful preco- city, and the author, when a mere boy, of a "Life of Governor Isaac Hill," became associated with Mr. Fowler in the management of the Gazette. During a considerable portion of the period in which he pur- sued the study of the law, Mr. Fowler supported him- self by writing for other papers. In June, 1835, he was elected clerk of the New Hampshire Senate, which office he continued to hold by annual elec- tions for six successive years, discharging its duties to universal satisfaction. In 1846 he was appointed by the Hon. Levi Woodbury United States commis- sioner for the district of New Hampshire, which of- fiee he held at the time of his death. In 1845 he was a member of the New Hampshire House of Repre- sentatives from Concord and served as chairman of the judiciary committee. Again, in 1847 and 1848, he was one of the Representatives of Concord in that body and served upon the same committee in both years. In 1855 he was nominated by the Independ- 2

ent Democrats, or Free-Soilers, as their candidate for Governor, and was frequently assured by prominent Know-Nothings that if he would join their order he might and would be made their candidate, also; but he was deaf to all such suggestions. After that party came into power and decided to change the judiciary system of the State, he was engaged to draft the bill for that purpose, which subsequently became a law. Afterwards, at the earnest and repeated solicitation of Governor Metcalf, although at first he absolutely declined to do so, he accepted a position on the bench of the Supreme Court as associate justice, which he continued to hold, at a great pecuniary sacrifice, from August 1, 1855, to February 1, 1861, when he voluntarily resigned it. During this period of five and a half years he performed his full share of the arduous labors of a judge of our highest judicial tribunal, and gave general satisfaction to the bar and the public. If his opinions at the law terms as re- ported are not so labored as those of some of his asso- ciates, they are more numerous and not less sound and clear.

Immediately upon his resignation, Judge Fowler was appointed by the Governor and Council a dele- gate from New Hampshire to the Peace Congress, which met in Washington in February, 1861, for the purpose of averting, if possible, the threatened se- cession of the Southern States from the Union, and continued its sessions through the entire month. His associate delegates were Hon. Levi Chamberlain, of Keene, and Hon. Amos Tuck, of Exeter. In 1861 he was appointed solicitor for the county of Merrimack, and held the office uutil he resigned, in 1865, upon his being appointed one of the commissioners to revise the statutes of the State. He was associated in that commission with Hon. Samuel D. Bell, of Manchester, and Hon. George Y. Sawyer, of Nashua. Upon it he labored diligently and successfully, alone superin- tending the printing of the commissioners' report, and, subsequently, the printing of the General Stat- utes as finally adopted by the Legislature of 1867. He also attended almost constantly, during the whole period of that Legislature, upon the sessions of the joint select committee to whom the report of the commissioners was referred, and greatly aided in procuring the speedy action of that committee, and the final adoption of the report of the commissioners, as amended by the General Court, without protraet- ing the session beyond its usual length. In 1871 and again in 1872, Judge Fowler was a member of the House of Representatives from Ward Six, in Concord, serving on the judiciary committee in 1871, and pre- siding over the deliberations of the House, as Speaker, in 1872, with dignity, impartiality and complete success.

Judge Fowler was one of the most diligent, labori- ous and successful lawyers in the State, and the ex- tent of his practice for many years has rarely been exceeded. In September, 1838, after practicing alone

HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

for a year and a half, he formed a co-partnership with the late President Pierce, which continued until April, 1845. During this period of six years and a half, their practice was probably as extensive as that of any individual or firm in the State. General Pierce engaged in the trial of causes as an advocate in nearly every county, while Judge Fowler attended chiefly to office business, the preparation of causes for trial and briefs for argument at the law terms of court. Hon. John Y. Mugridge completed his preparatory studies in Judge Fowler's office, and upon his ad- mission to the bar, in 1854, Judge Fowler formed a business connection with him for one year, which expired about the time of Judge Fowler's appoint- ment to the bench. Soon after his resignation of the judgeship, in 1861, he entered into partnership with Hon. William E. Chandler, which continued until Mr. Chandler's appointment as Solicitor of the Navy, in 1864.

During his long residence in Concord, Judge Fow- ler was quite familiar with the forms of legislation, and probably drafted more bills for our Legislature than any other man, living or dead. He originated many laws and procured their enactment, when not a member of the Legislature. Among those thus orig- inated and procured to be enacted may be mentioned the statute authorizing school districts to unite for the purpose of maintaining High Schools, and that authorizing towns to establish and maintain public libraries. He worked zealously with General Peaslee to secure the establishment of the Asylum for the Insane, was very active and persistent in securing the establishment of a Public Library in Concord and a High School in Union District. He always showed a deep interest in the cause of public educa- tion, and for more than twenty successive years served as prudential committee or a member of the Board of Education in Concord. He was always fond of literary pursuits, and has an extensive and well- selected miscellaneous library. For the last three or four years of his life he belonged to a class in English Literature, whose weekly meetings, during the winter season, were devoted, with much pleasure and profit, to reading the works and discussing the lives, character and times of English and American authors of reputation. He was more or less connected with various moneyed institutions. He was a director of the State Capital Bank from its organization under a State charter until his appointment to the bench, when he resigned. He was a director and president of the First National Bank from its organization until he lost confidence in its cashier, when he disposed of his stock and resigned. He was for many years a director of the Manchester and Lawrence Railroad, and for several years its president. In his religious sentiments he was a liberal Unitarian, and took a prominent part in the work of the society in Concord, serving for several years as the superintendent of its Sunday-school, and showing his interest in it by

leaving it a legacy of one thousand dollars in his will, the interest on which sum to be devoted to the support of liberal preaching. Educated a Democrat, but with strong anti-slavery convictions, he acted with the Democratic party until its devotion to the extension of slavery compelled its abandonment in 1846, and for the next ten years he acted as an Independent Democrat. Upon the formation of the Republican party he joined it, and continued in its ranks until, in 1875, he resumed his connection with the Democracy.

In the spring of 1877, forty years from his admis- sion to the bar, Judge Fowler determined to retire from active practice. A severe illness in the fall of that year confirmed his resolution. Before his full recovery, by the advice of his physician, he decided to visit Europe. Accompanied by his wife, daughter and third son, he left Boston on the 13th of April, 1878, and returned to New York on the 17th of Oc- tober following, having, during his absence, visited the principal points of interest in England, Scotland, . Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Bohe- mia, Saxony, Prussia, Hanover, Holland, Belgium, Germany and France. He returned home with re- newed strength and energy, and passed the next four years in the full enjoyment of health and happiness, in the quiet of his pleasant home in Concord and his beautiful cottage by the sea, near Rye Beach.

In October, 1882, the great sorrow of his life came upon him in the loss of his dearly-beloved wife, after a long and painful illness. He had been peculiarly fortunate in his domestic relations. On the 13th of July, 1837, he married the daughter of Robert and Polly Dole (Cilley) Knox, of Epsom, N. H., and granddaughter of General Joseph Cilley, of the Rev- olution, Mary Dole Cilley Knox, by whom he had five children,-four sons and one daughter, -- all now living.

In the winter of 1882-83, Judge Fowler had a severe attack of gastric fever at Richmond, Va., while on his way to Florida for his health. After a long convalescence at St. Augustine, Fla., he fully re- covered his health and spent the entire winter and spring in the South.

In November, 1883, he again went abroad, spend- ing six delightful months in Nice, Mentone and Italy, returning in May to New Hampshire after a month's sojourn in Paris and London.

Again, in November, 1884, he went away from his Concord home, and sought the warmer climate of California, spending the greater part of the winter at Monterey. Here he again suffered from attacks of gastritis, and, after a trip down to Santa Barbara, was very ill at San Francisco, and died at San Rafael, Cal., on the 26th of April, A.D., 1885. His re- mains were embalmed and brought to Concord, and were huried, May 9th, from his residence.

HON. J. EVERETT SARGENT, LL.D .- Judge Sar- gent, now of Concord, has been well known through- out the State for more than a quarter of a century.

1.8 Sang

BENCH AND BAR.

Besides an extensive legislative acquaintance, he has, as judge of the different courts and as chief justice of the State, held terms of court in every shire-town and half-shire town in every county in the State. He has been emphatically the architect of his own fortune, and by his energy and perseverance has reached the highest post of honor in his profession in his native State. He is genial and social with his friends; he loves a joke, and belongs to that small class of men "who never grow old." He loves his home, his family and his books. No man enjoys the study of history and of poetry, of philosophy and of fiction, better than he, while law and theology come in for a share of attention. He is a kind neighbor, a respected citizen, a ripe scholar, a wise legislator, an upright judge aud an honest man.

In the year 1781, Peter Sargent, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, moved from Hopkinton, N. H., to New London, at that time equally well known as Heidelberg. This locality had been known by this latter name for a quarter of a century or more. It was granted by the Masonian proprietors, July 7, 1773, to Jonas Minot, and others as the "Ad- dition of Alexandria." It was first settled in 1775, and was incorporated as a town by the Legislature, June 25, 1779. Peter Sargent, who thus moved into the town two years after its incorporation, was one of ten brothers, all born in Amesbury, Mass., who settled as follows: Amasa, Ezekiel, Thomas and Moses al- ways lived at Amesbury ; James settled in Methuen, Mass .; Peter, Nathan and Stephen came to Hopkin- ton, N. H., and settled there; and Abner and Eben- ezer came to Warner, N. H., and settled there. These ten brothers, with four sisters, were the children of Deacon Stephen Sargent, of Amesbury, Mass.

(Christopher Sargent, an older brother of Deacon Stephen, graduated at Harvard, entered the ministry and was the first settled minister of Methuen, Mass. His eldest son, Nathaniel Peaslee Sargent, graduated at Harvard, practiced law at Haverhill and was for many years a judge of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, and was chief justice of the State in 1790 and 1791, when he died, aged sixty.)

Stephen Sargent was the son of Thomas (second), who was the son of Thomas (first), who was the son of William Sargent. Stephen married Judith Ord- way, of West Newbury, Mass., September 26, 1730, was chosen deacon of the Second Congregational Church in Amesbury, May 10, 1757, and died Oc- tober 2, 1773, aged sixty-three.

William Sargent was born in England about 1602, and was the son of Richard Sargent, an officer in the royal navy. William came to this country when a young man, married Judith Perkins for his first wife, who died about 1633, when he, with several daughters, was one of the twelve men who commenced the settle- ment at Ipswich that year. He soon after went to Newbury, and helped form a settlement there. Soon after, about 1638, he, with several others, commenced

a settlement at Hampton, and about 1640 he re- moved to Salisbury, and was one of the eighteen original proprietors, or commoners, who settled in New Salisbury, since known as Amesbury. His second wife's name was Elizabeth, by whom he had two sons, Thomas and William. He had several lots of land assigned him at different times, and was one of the selectmen of the town in 1667. He died in 1675, aged seventy-three.

Thomas Sargent, son of William, was born April 11, 1643, at Amesbury; married Rachel Barnes, Jan- uary 2, 1667-68, and had children, among whom was Thomas, Jr., born at Amesbury, November 15, 1676, who married Mary Stevens, December 17, 1702, and was the father of Stephen, whose family has been mentioned, and who was born at Amesbury, Sep- tember 14, 1710.

Peter Sargent, son of Stephen, married Ruth Nichols, of Amesbury, and moved to Hopkinton, N. H., about 1763, where they lived some eighteen years and raised a large family, and, when he went to New London, took them all with him. His chil- dren were Anthony, Abigail, Ruth, Judith, Peter, Ebenezer, Amasa, John, Molly, Ezekiel, Stephen, William and Lois. These all came from Hopkin- ton to New London in 1781, except Lois, who was born subsequently in New London.

Ebenezer (the son of Peter), the father of the judge, was born in Hopkinton in 1768, and was, of course, thirteen years old when he came to New London with his father's family. After becoming of age he procured him a farm, and, on the 25th of No- vember, 1792, he married Prudence Chase, of Wen- dell (now Sunapee), the daughter of John and Rutb (Hills) Chase. They had ten children, as follows: Anna, Rebekah, Ruth, Seth Freeman, Aaron Lea- land, Sylvanus Thayer, Lois, Laura, Jonathan Kit- tredge and Jonathan Everett. Jonathan Kittredge died young; the other nine lived to mature age, and five of them-three sons and two daughters-still sur- vive. The parents had only a very limited educa- tion, having been taught to read and to write a little, the schools of those early times only furnish- ing instruction in these two branches. They always lived upon a farm, securing what was then considered as a competence, and both died in New London, hav- ing lived together more than sixty-five years.

The following, then, is the order of descent :

1. Richard Sargent, of England.

2. William, son of Richard, born in England, 1602.

3. Thomas, son of William, born in Amesbury, April, 1643.

4. Thomas, Jr., son of Thomas, born in Amesbury, November, 1676.

5. Stephen, son of Thomas, Jr., born in Amesbury, September, 1710.

6. Peter, son of Stephen, born at Amesbury, No- vember 2, 1736.

HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

7. Ebenezer, son of Peter, born at Hopkinton, N. H., April 3, 1768.

8. Jonathan Everett Sargent was born at New London, N. H., October 23, 1816. He lived at home, working upon the farm until he was seventeen years of age, and, being the youngest child, his father had arranged for him to live at home and take care of his parents, and have the farm at their decease.

While living at home his advantages for schooling were very limited, being confined to eight weeks winter school each year, the farm affording too much work to allow of his attending the summer school after he was nine or ten years of age. He attended one term at Hopkinton Academy and one term at a private school at home before he was seven- teen. For years he had been thirsting for knowledge, and had resolved that, if any way could be provided for taking care of his parents in their old age, he would obtain an education. When abont sixteen his youngest sister was married, and she, with her husband, made an arrangement with her parents under which they moved upon the homestead farm and assumed the care of her parents for life. So, at seventeen, Everett, as he was always called, arranged with his father that he was to have the remaining four years of his time till twenty-one, instead of the sum which his older brothers had received upon arriving of age. He was to clothe himself and pay his own bills, and call for nothing more from his father.

This arrangement was made in the summer of 1833, and that fall he worked in the saddler's shop near his father's and taught school the next winter; and in the spring of 1834 he went to Hopkinton Academy, then under the charge of Mr. Enoch L. Childs, where he remained through the season. He taught school the next winter, and then went, in the spring of 1835, to Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden, where he remained, under the instruction of Mr. Cyrus S. Richards, until commencement in 1836, when he entered Dartmouth College. After he had thus, without assistance, fitted himself for and entered college, his father, very unexpectedly to him, gave him fifty dollars to pay his expenses the first term, and offered to loan him a few hundred dollars, if he should need, in his college course, but that it must be considered as an honorary debt, to be repaid, with interest, after graduation.

But, by teaching school every winter and two fall terms in Canaan Academy during his course, he earned enough to pay all his expenses in college with the exception of two hundred dollars, which he bor- rowed of his father, and gave him his note for the same, with interest, which he adjusted within a few years after graduation. Though out of college two terms, besides winters in teaching and another term on account of sickness, yet he was always ready at each examination to be examined with his class in all the studies they had been over, and always took a

high stand at these examinations. He was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and grad- uated in 1840 among the first in his class.

He had long before this made up his mind to turn his attention to the law as a profession, and he ac- cordingly began the study of the law at once with Hon. Wm. P. Weeks, of Canaan, and remained with him till the spring of 1841, when he was advised by his physician to go South for his health. He went first to Washington, soon after to Alexandria, D. C., where he taught a High School, then to Maryland, where he remained a year in a family school, when, having regained his health, he returned to New Hampshire in September, 1842. He had, upon his arrival in Washington, entered his name as a law student in the office of Hon. David A. Hall, of that city, and continued the study of the law under his direction while engaged in teaching, and he was ad- mitted to the bar in the courts of the District of Columbia in April, 1842, only about twenty months after leaving college. By the role of that court, any one might be admitted upon examination without regard to the length of time he had studied. So he was examined in open court by Chief Justice Cranch and his associates upon the bench, and was admitted.

After returning home he continued his legal studies with Mr. Weeks until the July law term, in Sullivan County, in 1843, when he was admitted to the bar in the Superior Court of Judicature in this State. He then went into company with Mr. Weeks at Canaan, where he remained till 1847, when he removed to Wentworth, and opened an office there. He had been appointed solicitor for Grafton County in No- vember, 1844, while at Canaan, and he at once com- menced a lucrative business at Wentworth; was re- appointed solicitor, in 1849, for five years more, thus holding the office for ten years, to 1854, performing the dnties to the entire acceptance of the county and the people. He declined a reappointment.

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 5

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