History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 8

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 8
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 8

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There are, undoubtedly, many men at the bar, in this and other States, as well grounded in legal prin- ciples as Colonel George, and even more familiar with the text-books, who have fallen far short of the suc- cess he has attained. It is one thing to be able to state abstract legal principles, and quite another cor- rectly to apply those principles to the facts in any given case. It has ever been the habit of Colonel George, in the conduct of a cause, to thoroughly fam- iliarize himself with all the facts and .circumstances connected therewith. The mastery of the cause itself leaves little difficulty in the determination of the law bearing thereon, and it is the strongest guaranty of lic addresses upon the subject, his arguments before success in its management before a jury; and it is in

the conduct of jury causes that Colonel George has won the greater measure of his success. Gifted with great perceptive powers and a ready knowledge of men, and familiar as he ever is with the cause in hand, in all its bearings, he is never taken at a disad- vantage, no matter how able or alert the opposing counsel. In handling witnesses, and especially in cross-examination, he has shown unusual tact and ability. He reads the mind of a witness almost intu- itively, and understands how to bring out the essen- tial facts even from the most reluctant, and to do so in the manner best calculated to make the desired impression upon the minds of the jury. As an advo- cate, he is equaled by few and excelled by none of our New Hampshire lawyers; yet his power in this regard consists in the systematic, logical and intensely earnest presentation of all the facts which go to make up and strengthen his cause, and to destroy or weaken that of his opponents, rather than in the oratory which abounds in eloquently rounded periods and impassioned appeals. In this connection may well be quoted the words of one who, knowing Colonel George from youth, has written of him as follows:

"Inteuse earnestness, and a faculty of an immediate and powerful concentration of all his mental faculties on any subject which interested him, were the predominant peculiarities of the early manhood of Mr. George. When he came to the bar, he manifested a power of felicitous language, and a largeness of vocabulary, which were rarely to he seen even in the most practiced speakers. He never prepared beforehand the words of his spoken utterauces, either at the bar, in the committee-room or on the stump. Whatever he could see and understand at all, he saw and understood clearly. The strength of his feelings, the enormous power and range of his vocabulary, added to this clearness of vision, made mere verhal preparation unnecessary for him. His speaking was made up of a clear perception of the turning-point of his case, and then of pungent epigram, sparkling paradox, rattling attack, vivid repartee, hearty humor and, when occasion called for, of a fearlessness of dennn- ciation of what he believed to be wrong or unjust or unfair, which made him, even at the outset of his brilliant career, a dangerous antagonist for the most practiced and powerful members of the New Hampshire bar.""

Though not retiring from general practice, Colonel George has devoted his attention largely to railroad law for many years past, having accepted, in 1867, the position of solicitor for the Boston and Lowell Railroad, and established an office in Boston for the transaction of business in connection with that posi- tion. He retired from this position in 1884. For nearly twenty years previous to that date he had served as clerk and counsel of the Concord Railroad corporation, and had already become familiar with the law of railways and their general relations to the public. To-day there is no higher living authority upon railroad law in New England than Colonel George,-no man who understands more thoroughly or can state more clearly the respective rights, duties and obligations of railroad corporations and the peo- ple in relation to each other, a general understanding of which is becoming more and more essential to the fullest measure of our national prosperity. His pub- legislative committees, courts and juries, are models

HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

of clearness and cogency, admirable in construction and convincing in effect.

Notwithstanding his uninterrupted devotion to the law, Colonel George is no less generally known in politics than at the bar. Well grounded in the faith of the Democratic party in his youthful years, his intimate association with Pierce, Peaslee and other distinguished leaders of that organization in his early manhood served to intensify his feelings and convic- tions in that regard; so he has ever been a ready and zealous exponent of Democratic principles and a champion of the Democratic cause, contributing his services without stint in conventions, in committee work and upon the stump, doing able and brilliant service in the latter direction in all parts of the State, and in almost every campaign for the past thirty-five years. He long since came to be regarded as one of the most powerful and effective political debaters in the State. His efforts upon the stump are character- ized by the same earnestness, the same stedge-hammer logic and the same comprehensive array of facts as at the bar. His mode of warfare, political as well as legal, is of the Napoleonic order. He never assumes the defensive, and if placed in such position by any combination of circumstances, he soon transforms it into one of active aggression.

From 1851 to 1853, inclusive, Colonel George served as chairman of the Democratic State Committee, and again in 1856. In 1852 he was also selected as the New Hampshire member of the Democratic National Committee, and he was especially active in the cam- paign, both in the State and the country at large, which resulted in the election of his friend, General Pierce, to the Presidency. His service upon the National Committee continued until 1860. He was a member of the Democratic National Convention in 1856, and chairman of the State delegation in the National Convention at Cincinnati, in 1880. At the State Convention of his party, in September of that year, he presided, delivering, upon assuming the chair, one of the ablest addresses ever heard upon a similar occasion.

His party having been in the minority in New Hampshire for the past twenty-five years, he has been comparatively little in public office. Aside from the non-partisan positions heretofore mentioned, he was for three years-in 1847, 1848 and again in 1850- clerk of the State Senate. In 1853 he was chosen a member of the Legislature, but resigned his seat to accept the office of United States attorney. In this connection it may be mentioned that in 1855 he was tendered, by President Pierce, the office of sec- retary of the Territory of Minnesota, which he at first was inclined to accept, but, after deliberation, determined to forego the chances for political pro- motion ordinarily involved in an appointment of that character, and remain with his friends and his law practice in his own State. In 1859, Colonel George received the Democratic nomination for Congress in

the Second District, and again in 1863, when he made a vigorous canvass, and was defeated by a very close vote. In 1866 he received the votes of the Demo- cratic members of the Legislature as their candi- date for United States Senator. Had he deserted his party and allied himself with the majority when the Republicans came into ascendency, he might readily have commanded the highest honors in the gift of the State, as others less able than himself have done ; but his position in the honest regard of the people, irre- spective of party, is far higher to-day for having remained true to his convictions and steadfast and active in their maintenance.

His military title comes from his service as chief of the staff of Governor Dinsmoor from 1848 to 1850. He was also for several years commander in the brilliant and popular organization known as the "Governor's Horse-Guards." As a popular orator, outside the domain of law and politics, Colonel George also takes high rank. His oration upon Daniel Webster, at the centennial celebration of the birth of that most illustrious son of New Hampshire, under the auspices of the Webster Club of Concord, is surpassed in power and felicity of expression by none which the event anywhere called forth.

Colonel George was united in marriage, in Septem- ber, 1849, with Miss Susan Ann Brigham, daughter of Captain Levi Brigham, of Boston, who died May 10, 1862, leaving five children, three sons and two daughters,-viz. : John Paul, Charles Peaslee, Ben- jamin Pierce, Jane Appleton, Anne Brigham. In July, 1864, he married Miss Salvadora Meade Graham, daughter of Colonel James D. Graham, of the United States engineers, by whom he has one child, Charlotte Graham.

The family residence of Colonel George is the old paternal mansion on North Main Street, in Concord, wherein he was born. He has also an excellent farm a few miles out of the city, in Hopkinton, where he makes his summer home, and where, in his little leisure from professional labor, he indulges a fond- ness for rural pursuits, and especially for the breeding and care of domestic animals, which was one of the characteristics of his boyhood. Incidental as this may be, his farm is known as one of the most highly cultivated in the section where it is located, and his horses and Jersey cattle are the admiration of all lovers of good stock.

As a citizen, Colonel George is public-spirited, and freely devotes his time and energies to the further- ance of every movement and the advocacy of every measure which he believes calculated to promote the material or educational welfare of the community. No man in Concord has done more than he to advance the prosperity of the city in every essential regard. The efficiency of the public schools has ever been an object of deep interest to him; and as a private citizen, as a member of building Committees and in the Board of Education, he has given his services

Damit Parmare

BENCH AND BAR.

freely in perfecting the admirably-equipped public- school system, which is far from the least of the at- tractions which render our capital city one of the most desirable places of residence in New England.

The general extension of the railway system of the State, to which most that has been accomplished in the development of its material resources for the last twenty-five years is due, has ever found an en- thusiastic supporter in Colonel George, who has been and still is directly connected with several railroad enterprises in different sections, which have proved of great local and general advantage.

Few men have more or warmer friends than Colo- nel George. A man of positive opinions, frankly and honestly delared, he commands the sincere re- spect of those with whom he comes in contact in all the relations of life, private, social, public and pro- fessional. Formidable as an opponent, he is never- theless fair and honorable, as he is true and faithful as a friend and ally. He is a prominent member of the Masonic order, having attained the rank of Sove- reign Grand Inspector-General of the Thirty-third Degree. and a member of the "Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of the North- ern Jurisdiction of the United States."

This brief sketch can, perhaps, be no more appro- ately concluded than in the following language of the gentleman (Sidney Webster, Esq.) heretofore quoted:

" Years of incessant toil, while they have diminished somewhat the energetic temperament and the exuberant animal spirits of Colonel George's youth, and have naturally softened his once blunt and almost brusque manner in debate, have not diminished the real force and strength of his genuine character, for character is just what Colonel George has always had. As tbe ripples of his experience spread over a wider and wider area, he may have less and less confidence in the infallibility of any man's opinions, and less belief in the importance to society of any one man's action ; but Colonel George has reached and passed his half-cen- tury with his mental faculties and his moral faculties improving and strengthening year by year. New Hampshire has to-day very few among her living sons hetter equipped to do triumphant battle for her in the high places of the world."

HON. DANIEL BARNARD .- 1. John Barnard was among the earlier settlers of Massachusetts. He came to this country in 1634, in the ship " Elizabeth," from Ipswich, England, and settled in Watertown.

2. John Barnard, son of the pioneer John Barnard, had two sons,-Jonathan and Samuel.

3. Jonathan Barnard, inn-holder in Amesbury, who kept "The Lion's Mouth " in provincial days, was a captain in the colonial militia, and was prominent in the affairs of the town in which he lived. His name heads the list of the sixty original grantees, in 1735, of the township of New Amesbury, or "Number One," which was afterwards granted, in 1767, by the Masonian proprietors, as Warner.

4. Charles Barnard, son of Jonathan, was a soldier in the patriot army of the Revolution, and settled in Warner.

sister. In the fall of 1826 he removed, with his fan- ily, from Warner to Orange. He died January 29, 1859. His wife, Phebe, died June 30, 1845.

6. Daniel Barnard, son of Thomas and Phebe Bar- nard, was born in Orange, N. H., January 23, 1827.

This town, though it received some settlers under its original name of Cardigan as early as 1773, was in 1826, for the most part, still an unbroken wilderness. When Thomas Barnard went up there and planted his home on his lot of three hundred acres on the highlands dividing the waters which flow into the Pemigewassett from those which flow into the Con- necticut, the whole territory was still covered by the primeval forest. The church and the district school stood together more than three miles off, and so con- tinued till the subject of this notice, the fifth child of the family, was fourteen years old, no regular school being established nearer till he was eighteen years old. But the father being a man of sense and intelligence, and the mother an uncommonly bright, capable woman, they not only made the utmost exertion to give their children the full benefit of the meagre chances of the district school, but also systematically supplemented these opportunities with regular study and teaching in the long winter evenings at home. The father, a good mathematician, managed the flock in arithmetic, and the mother handled them in other branches. At the age of seventeen Daniel was at the academy in Canaan, several miles from home, during the winter, and subsequently continued to work on the farm in the summers and study at the academy in the winters till he became of age.

During this time he was anxiously endeavoring to secure the advantages of a college education, and with this end in view, pursued his preparatory studies at the Canaan and Boscawen Academies, and at the Normal Institute at Reed's Ferry, under the tuition of Professor William Russell, teaching during the winter seasons.

When he arrived at mau's estate he took his stand with the Free-Soil Democrats, and was elected to rep- resent the town of Orange in the popular branch of the Legislature in the years 1848, '49, '50 and '51.

Mr. Barnard was well known in the House from his first appearance in that body, not merely because so youthful in appearance, but because, also, of the un- common capacity, the sincerity and sagacity with which, in unassuming, almost diffident ways, he met all his duties; and in the latter sessions of the four years' service he became a leader of the Independent party in the House, an influential member of that body. At home during the same period he was sleep- less in his vigilance contriving by sagacious manage- ment to hold the little band of Free-Soil Democrats in a solid column, and annually to carry the town till he left, in the autumn of 1851.

5. Thomas Barnard, son of Charles Barnard, was His legislative experience causing him to materially change his plans for the future, he decided to enter born in Warner in 1782; married, first, Ruth East- man, of Hopkinton ; second, Phebe, his first wife's | at once upon the study of law, and at the close of the

HSTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

legislative session of 1851 he entered the law-office of Nesmith & Pike, in Franklin.

In 1854, on admission to the bar, he became at once the junior partner with Mr. Pike in the office in which he had read his profession, Mr. Nesmith at that time retiring from the office and extensive busi- ness which he had so honorably founded and built into its large proportions. In 1863, Mr. Barnard withdrew from the firm and established himself alone in his profession in the same village, rapidly rising into the very large, wide and lucrative business which for more than fifteen years has allowed him not so much as a week or scarcely a day of vacation in the year. During this period he has had as many stu- dents in his office constantly as the circumstances of his office would admit, and has nearly all the time had a partner in a temporary way. His partner now is his eldest son, who was graduated at Dartmouth College, with superior rank, in 1876, at the age of twenty years, studied his profession in his father's office and at the Boston Law School, and was admitted to the bar and into partnership with his father in 1879. In relation to the business of the office, it is perfectly safe to add that there has been no time within the last ten years in which there has not been a formida- ble amount of business piled np awaiting attention, notwithstanding the most sleepless, indefatigable in- dustry which Mr. Barnard has brought to his duties. For many years he has not only regularly attended all the courts in the counties of Merrimack, Belknap, and the Plymouth sessions of Grafton, but has con- stantly attended the United States Circuit Courts, practicing in bankrupt, patent and revenue cases. The reports of the courts fully support the statements here made on this subject.

The esteem in which Mr. Barnard is held by the immediate community in which he lives has been casually mentioned. Though never seeking office, he has been often chosen to places of responsibility by his towusmen. In 1860 and 1862 he represented the town in the Legislature, and in all political con- tests in the town in which he has been candidate for the suffrages of his townsmen he has always run much ahead of the party ticket. In 1865 and 1866 he was a member of the State Senate, presiding over that body in the latter-named year ; in 1870 and 1871 he was a member of the Governor's Council, and in 1872 was a member of the National Republican Con- vention at Philadelphia. He was solicitor of Merri- mack County from 1867 till 1872, when he declined a reappointment, again declining the position in 1877. He was a firm, earnest supporter of the homestead- exemption law of 1850, which was opposed by most of the legal profession in the Legislature, and introduced the resolution in the House which first gave the members a daily paper. As a member of the Senate in 1867 he took a profound interest in the amendment of the Federal Constitution prohibiting slavery, making an able and effective argument, which was

published at the time, in its support in that body. In the cause of education he has always been a foremost friend in Franklin and throughout the State. His own early struggles have doubtless con- tributed to make him peculiarly a friend of the con- mon school, and his experience as a teacher in his early years gives him practical wisdom in the cause. While studying his profession in Franklin he was, from year to year employed in the teachers' institutes, which did a large work in awakening higher ideas of the mission of the common school in New Hampshire during that period, and in that business he was in nearly every county of the State. Sensible of his own personal misfortune in having so little early chance for schooling, his voice and his open hand are always on the side which aims to give enlargement to the edu- cation of the masses of the people, and in his own family is seen his appreciation of the higher grades of education. In 1867 the honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by Dartmouth Col- lege.

Mr. Barnard has been prominently identified with all the leading industries which have been established in Franklin, and which have so remarkably built up the town within the last twenty years. He procured the charters and helped organize all the large cor- porations ; has been a continuous trustee of the Franklin Library Association since its establishment, more than fifteen years ago, and a trustee of the Franklin Savings-Bank since its establishment, in 1865; legal counsel of the Franklin Falls Company from its organization, in 1864, and for many years its local agent, and is, and has been from the first, a director and vice-president of the Franklin National Bank, organized in that town in 1880.

As a lawyer Mr. Barnard ranks very high in the profession, his advice being eagerly sought by all clas- ses, but no person, however poor, with a meritorions cause was ever turned away from his office to make room for a richer or more powerful client. His client's cause becomes his, and his whole energy is directed to winning for him what he believes he should have. His terse and logical arguments are especially powerful before a jury, and his eloquent voice has often been heard in legislative halls, leading and guiding the law-making assemblies, and in po- litical meetings sustaining the motives and policy of his party

In the social, humane and religions work of the community he has always been active and efficient, generous almost to a fault in every good enterprise, and in these spheres of duty he has ever had the efficient co-operation of a cultivated and, it is not too much to add, a model Christian wife,-Amelia, only child of Rev. William Morse, a Unitarian clergyman, of Chelmsford, Mass., at the time of the marriage,- to whom he was married November 8, 1854. Mr. Morse, now deceased, was one of the pioneer clergy- men of the Unitarian faith in this country, was many

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years pastor of the Callowhill Street Church, Phila- delphia, and an able and excellent minister. His wife was Sophronia, daughter of Abner Kneeland, of Boston, an able and upright man, whose trial on the technical charge of blasphemy, but really for the publication of heretical religious doctrines, was a most noted episode in New England forty years ago. Mrs. Morse was a noble woman. Mr. Morse and his wife resided during the last years of their pleasant lives in Franklin, near their daughter, who watched with singular tenderness over the closing years of the parents to whom she is indebted for superior train- ings, as well as superior ability.

Their union has been blessed with seven children, six of whom-four sons and two daughters-are now living.

William Morse, the eldest son, has been mentioned.

James Ellery, the second son, entered Dartmouth College, but left at the end of his sophomore year, and is in business in Boston.

Charles Daniel and Frank Eugene are both at school, the former being a student at Phillips Exeter Academy.

Emma Sophronia, the elder of the two daughters, is married to Captain Samuel Pray, of Portsmouth, N. H.

Mary Amelia was graduated at Smith College in 1881, and lives at home.

JOSEPH B. WALKER is the son of Captain Joseph Walker, and the great-grandson of Rev. Timothy Walker, the first minister of Concord. He was born on the paternal farm June 12, 1822. He was fitted for college largely at Exeter, and graduated at Yale in 1844. He studied law in the office of Hon. Charles H. Peaslee, of Concord, and at the Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the New Hampshire bar in March, 1847.

A year or two after his admission to the bar he re- linquished his profession, and has since been devoted to general business.

He inherited the family farm, one of the largest in Concord, which he has greatly improved by working, draining, fertilizing, etc., thereby trebling its produc- tiveness.

From 1845 to 1866, when its third charter expired, Mr. Walker was a director of the Merrimack County Bank. This was a State institution, and its managers not caring to continue it as a national bauk, its cxis- tence ceased with its third charter, after a successful career of sixty years. In 1865 he was elected presi- dent of the New Hampshire Savings-Bank, in Concord, one of the oldest institutions for savings in New Hampshire, and remained at its head until 1874. Upon its organization in 1880 he was elected one of the directors of the Mechanics' National Bank, and is still a member of that board.

About 1847 he was elected clerk of the board of directors of the Northern Railroad and, a few years later, a director, which two offices he held for several

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 8

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