History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 86

Author: Hazlett, Charles A
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 1390

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Hampshire. His name and influence have been and are potent in banking, insurance, railroad and other circles; and his home city has shown its apprecia- tion of his wisdom, experience and public spirit by conferring upon him all the more important honors and responsibilities within its gift. A lifelong resident of New Hampshire and one of her most valuable citizens, his activ- ities have been by no means confined to her limits, his professional and per- sonal reputation, on the contrary, being as high in other states as in his own.

Judge Page was born in North Hampton, Rockingham County, N. H., August 22, 1845, in the tenth generation from Robert Page of Ormsby, County of Norfolk, England, whose son Robert, came from England and settled in Hampton, New Hampshire, in 1639. Judge Page's ancestors in succeeding generations were farmers and good citizens of Hampton and North Hampton. His father, Captain Simon Dow Page of the state militia, married Judith Rollins of Loudon and to them one son and three daughters were born.

The son, Calvin, spent his boyhood on his father's farm, attended the district schools in North Hampton and later was a student at the famous Phillips Academy in Exeter, where he fitted for Harvard College. Entering that institution in 1864 as a member of its sophomore class, he was soon com- pelled by lack of funds to withdraw and returned to his father's house for a winter and spring of farm work and wood chopping.

In the following summer, however, the way of his future career opened before him and on July 19, 1865, he entered as a student the law office of the late Hon. Albert R. Hatch in Portsmouth.

Here Judge Page worked for his board as well as for his instruction in legal lore by keeping his perceptor's books and making himself generally useful about the office. He found time, however, for such application to his studies as enabled him to pass the state bar examinations and to be admitted to the bar of New Hampshire in 1868. Immediately he entered upon the practice of his profession in Portsmouth and so has continued ever since. He was president of the State Bar Association in 1904-5, and the annual address to the members of the bar by him dwelt principally upon the illegiti- mate use of the lobby in the legislature and the evil results of the then common free pass system.

As a lawyer Judge Page was and is one of the most successful in the state, his large and lucrative practice covering a wide range of territory, clientage and character of cases. In 1910 the demands upon his time and strength became so heavy and exhausting that he practically retired from general practice, retaining, however, his more important connections, such as the care and management of the great Frank Jones estate, of which he is an executor and trustee. Those who remember how keen a judge of men Mr. Jones was will appreciate the compliment to Judge Page implied in his choice for these responsible and onerous positions.

To give the reader an adequate idea as to how varied and important Judge Page's relations to the world of business have been and are, it will be necessary only to list some of his chief official positions, past and present, in this con- nection, as follows: President of the New Hampshire National Bank of Portsmouth ; Portsmouth Trust and Guarantee Company; Granite State Fire Insurance Company ; Portsmouth Fire Association; Portsmouth Shoe Com- pany; Suncook Waterworks Company; Eastman Freight Car Heater Com- pany; Eastman Produce Company: Piscataqua Fire Insurance Company ; Manchester and Lawrence Railroad, and Laconia Car Company Works;

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Member of the American Committee of Management of the Frank Jones Brewing Company ; director in the Upper Coos Railroad and in the Concord and Portsmouth Railroad, etc.

It is the solid success, the careful conservatism, the helpful upbuilding characteristic of Calvin Page as a business man upon which his friends lay equal stress with his brilliance as a lawyer, and his knowledge, experience and ability in public affairs, in urging his choice to the office to which he now aspires. Truly remarkable, in fact, is the ability with which throughout his career Judge Page has driven the difficult triple hitch of law, business and public service.

Always a Democrat, Judge Page, as a stanch and uncompromising member and leader of the minority party in the state, has been, up to this time, out of the line of approach to the highest elective offices; but in his home town his fellow citizens have been choosing him to office after office for two score years, and President Cleveland in each of his two terms as chief executive of the nation was prompt to recognize Judge Page by appointing him to the important place of collector of internal revenue for the District of New Hampshire, embracing the states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, a position which he has thus filled for eight years.

Twice, in 1884-1885 and again in 1899-1900, he has been Mayor Page of Portsmouth. For more than thirty years a member of the board of educa- tion and chairman of the high school committee, he has had great part in making the schools of the city one of the chief sources of its just pride. He has been city solicitor, judge of the municipal court, and member of the board of water commissioners.

In 1888 Judge Page was elected a delegate to the convention which assembled in Concord, January 2, 1889, to propose amendments to the consti- tution of the state. It was a notable gathering, with Charles H. Bell of Exeter as its president and among its members such men as Isaac W. Smith, James F. Briggs, Henry E. Burnham, Charles H. Bartlett and David Cross of Manchester, Benjamin A. Kimball and Joseph B. Walker of Concord. John W. Sanborn of Wakefield, Frank N. Parsons, Isaac N. Blodgett and Alvah W. Sulloway of Franklin, William S. Ladd of Lancaster, Robert M. Wallace of Milford, Ellery A. Hibbard of Laconia, Ira Colby of Claremont and Dexter Richards of Newport. Judge Page had a prominent part in the work of convention, the principal results of which were the change in time of legislative sessions from June to January and the compensation of mem- bers by a fixed salary instead of a per diem.

He was himself one of the first to test the practical workings of these changes, for in November, 1892, he was elected to the New Hampshire State Senate of 1893 from the Twenty-fourth District and was the Democratic candidate for president of the senate. At this important session Senator Page served on the committees on judiciary, railroads, banks and finance, being chairman of the last-named, and the worth of his work was remembered through a decade, so that in 1902 he was elected from the same district to take the same seat in the State Senate of 1903.

At this session he introduced and advocated for the first time in our legis- lature a bill for the election of United States senators by the people. Though the measure was opposed by the Republican majority of the Senate and failed to become a law then, Judge Page has lived to see it become the law not only of this state, but of a large number of the states of the Union by the votes of all parties. He also opposed the lobby and publicly called attention to its

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acts. Naturally he now asserts that he was the first progressive legislator in the state, being the first to publicly advocate and work for the things which every political party has recently hastened to favor ; and he declares that the very men who then opposed him and his progressive measures are now the loudest shouters for them, and are using his ideas and his proposed laws of 1903 as their own later inventions.

Judge Page is a member of St. John's Lodge, F. & A. M., and of DeWitt Clinton Commandery, K. T., of Portsmouth, being the oldest living past com- mander of the latter body. He belongs to the Warwick Club, Portsmouth, and to various other clubs, societies and associations in his own city and else- where. He is a Unitarian in religious belief.

His spacious and hospitable residence is one of the finest in Portsmouth, famous as a city of beautiful and historic homes, and its magnificent flower garden is one of the show places of the region. Judge Page married, January 7, 1870, Arabella J. Moran. Their daughter, Agnes, married Colonel John H. Bartlett of Portsmouth and they have a son, Calvin Page Bartlett. born October 8, 1901.

This sketch would not be complete did it not refer to Judge Page's part in the famous Peace Conference of the delegates from Russia and Japan, brought about in August, 1905, by the mediations of President Roosevelt-the most famous gathering the world had ever known. For this mid-summer meeting the President naturally sought a spot in our state where the cool breezes at the mountains or the ocean would tend to calmness and comfort. The great Hotel Wentworth at Newcastle was then a part of the estate of Frank Jones, of which Judge Page was trustee. Under a clause in Mr. Jones's will giving his trustees power to do anything with his estate that they thought he, him- self, would do if living at the time, Judge Page, through the president and Governor McLane, invited the peace delegates to the number of nearly one hundred, including all their attaches, to live at the big hotel free of charge so long as the conference should last; and the delegates and all their attend- ants from both nations lived there for more than thirty days at a cost to the Jones estate of over twenty-five thousand dollars. And as is well known, in recognition of the hospitality of the Jones estate and its trustees, Japan and Russia each gave to the state of New Hampshire ten thousand dollars, the income of which is annually distributed among the charitable institutions of the state.

Judge Page's long and useful career, so filled with private enterprise and public service, is now, as may be learned even from this brief outline, at the height of its achievement. The solid success, personal, professional, political, won by this son of New Hampshire, is the more notable because it has come through his own unaided efforts in the face of many obstacles and difficulties. And appreciation by his fellows of what his efforts have meant to the com- munity as well as to himself have taken other forms than the many already mentioned, including, notably, the conferring upon him of the honorary degree of Master of Arts by Dartmouth College in 1902.

Of brisk and vigorous, yet pleasing personality, widely experienced and keenly observant, Judge Page is as delightful companion in social and private life as he is a strong and influential figure in his public relations.

STEWART EVERETT ROWE, lawyer, of Exeter, N. H., is a man who, although young, has taken a large and useful part in public affairs. He was born in Kensington, N. H., January 22, 1881, a son of Benjamin

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F. and Hattie A. (Trewett) Rowe. The father, born in Kensington, N. H., October 22, 1845, died June 12, 1910. He was a farmer by oc- cupation, and a veteran of the Civil war, being a member of Moses N. Collins Post, G. A. R., at Exeter, of which he was also senior vice commander. His wife, born in Franklin, Vt., November 10, 1855, died December 31, 1912. They were the parents of two sons: Stewart E., subject of this sketch, and Gilman S., born March 22, 1895, who grad- uated from Exeter high school in class of 1914, being class orator.

Stewart Everett Rowe began his education in the district schools of Kensington, N. H. He graduated from Exeter High School as class orator in 1899, and from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1904 as class poet. Beginning the study of law under Gen. E. G. Eastman, under whom he continued to study for three years, he subsequently attended for two years the Boston University Law School, and was admitted to the bar July 1, 19II, after which he opened his present office in Exeter. Although his career as a lawyer has been comparatively short, he has already shown marked ability and his future success seems assured.

A member of the Republican party Mr. Rowe has taken a very active part in public life. He has served in various local offices, such as modera- tor, town clerk, member of the school board for the district of Ken- sington, as library trustee, tax collector, justice of the peace and notary public, and was also for seven years sealer of weights and measures for Rockingham County. He has been a delegate to several Republican conventions, and was secretary to the last Republican State Conven- tion. He was also among the active and younger members of the Constitutional Convention of New Hampshire in 1912, being a delegate from Kensington, N. H., and served as a member of the Committee on Future Mode of Amending the Constitution. In the campaign of 1912 Mr. Rowe spent two weeks on the stump, covering the lower part of New Hampshire in the interests of the Republican party. He was most of the time in company with Ex-governor Quimby and Ex-con- gressman Sulloway.

A man of marked literary ability, he has been a frequent contribu- tor in verse and prose to various publications and has received personal letters of thanks from Ex-president William H. Taft and Ex-president Theodore Roosevelt for campaign poems written in their behalf. Many of his literary productions have appeared in the Granite Monthly. Mr. Rowe's society affiliations include membership in the Sons of Veterans, in which he is a past officer; the Junior Order of American Mechanics ; Patrons of Husbandry; the Gamma Eta Gamma Fraternity, the G. L. Soule Society, the Rockingham County Republican Club, and the Swam- scott Club of Exeter.

Mr. Rowe was married March 26, 1913, to Miss Lillian A. Whitman, who was born May 23, 1876, at West Barnstable, on Cape Cod, Mass., where their wedding was celebrated. Mrs. Rowe's parents were Josiah B. and Lydia A. (Whitman) Whitman, both natives of Massachusetts, the father being a music dealer at West Barnstable. In the Whitman family were but two children, a son who was drowned at the age of eight years, and Lillian, who is now Mrs. Rowe. Mrs. Rowe is a grad- uate of Dean Academy, Franklin, Mass., in both the English and musi- cal courses and was for three years a student at the New England Con- servatory of Music, Boston, Mass., where she pursued her elocutionary

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studies under the late Prof. S. R. Kelley. She has also had the advantage of two years' travel in Europe and South America, and during a year spent in Brazil she was admitted to membership and received a diploma from the Centro Musical de Rio de Janeiro. She has taught music to some extent and as an elocutionist has appeared in public in many parts of the United States, going out on tours. Her work in this line has been very favorably received everywhere.

ALBERT C. BUSWELL, M. D., a well known practitioner of medi- cine at Epping, N. H., ranks high in his profession in Rockingham County. He was born in Wilmot, N. H., October 3, 1853, and is a son of Hiram and Mary Jane (Frazier) Buswell. Hiram Buswell, the father, was born in New Chester, N. H., and during his early career was a railroad man. Later he followed agricultural pursuits. He died in 1893. Mrs. Mary Jane Buswell was born in Bethlehem, N. Y., but two miles from the state capital. Her death occurred in 1878.

Albert C. Buswell was but three years old when he began receiving instruction in the primary department of the schools in Nashua. He continued in that department until he was seven, and then entered the grammar department. At the remarkably early age of ten years he entered high school, which he attended three years and then two years in the academy at North Weare. From 1869 to 1871 he attended Colby Academy at New London, graduating at eighteen years of age. He taught country school during 1871 and 1872, and while thus engaged determined upon the field of medicine as his sphere of action. In further- ance of this decision he secured a position in the drug store, and began reading medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. Alfred Dearborn at East Ware. He later studied under guidance of Dr. G. W. Currier at Nashua three years. Entering medical college at Brunswick, Me., in 1876, he continued his studies until the degree of M. D. was conferred upon him in June, 1878. He began general practice at Amherst, N. H., but after two years established an office in New York City, where he practiced one year. In 1881 he came to Epping, where during a con- tinuous practice of thirty-three years he became firmly entrenched in the goodwill and affection of the people.

January 7, 1879, Dr. Buswell was married to Miss Lillian H. Wilcox, a daughter of William R. Wilcox, who was formerly a hardware man and later was connected with the City Guaranty Savings Bank of Nashua. Nine children were born of this union: George, deceased, who was born in 1879; Sula May, educated in the schools of Nashua, and now residing with her father; William W., deceased, born in 1883; Wilcox F., who was born July 1, 1884, is married and resides at Nashua ; Charles D., born August 5, 1885, who is married and lives in Oklahoma; Samuel G., born May 27, 1888. married and residing in Epping ; Holt W., born July 24, 1894, who is a graduate of Dartmouth University, now in business in Baltimore, Md .; Lillian, born June 13, 1894, but now is deceased ; and Albert C., Jr., who is a freshman at Dartmouth College. Novem- ber 6, 1902, this family was called upon to mourn, by death, the loss of the beloved wife and mother, and she was laid to rest in Woodlawn Cemetery at Nashua. Religiously the family was reared in the Baptist faith.

Dr. Buswell is a member of the American Medical Association, the

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New Hampshire State Medical Society and the Rockingham County Medical Society. He served the county body as secretary and treas- urer for seven years, and now serves as its representative. He has been an active member of the school board and chairman of the board of health for a period of twenty years. He represents numerous insurance companies as medical examiner, among them the New York Mutual Life, the Pennsylvania Mutual Life and the National Mutual Life. The Doctor is a Democrat in politics. Fraternally he is a Mason, is Past Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and belongs to the Patrons of Husbandry.

HON. HENRY AUGUSTUS YEATON, who has been prominently identified with the civil, political and business history of the city of Ports- mouth and the county of Rockingham for more than forty years, was born in Portsmouth, N. H., August 6, 1840, and has spent almost his entire life in this city. He was educated in its public schools, and after leaving school engaged as a clerk in the hardware store of Hon. John H. Bailey. He subsequently left the store for a few years of sea-faring life, returning home to learn the trade of a carpenter under his father's instruction. In 1864, while working at this trade in the United States Navy Yard at Portsmouth, he met with an accident which made it im- possible for him to follow his chosen vocation any longer, and he became local agent for the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, meeting with marked success. In 1865 he entered the office of Joshua Brooks, flour and grain merchant, and became a partner in this business in the following year, it being conducted under the firm name of Joshua Brooks & Co. This was the real beginning of his career as a business man, and he has continued with this concern to the present time, although dur- ing the interval of forty years changes have taken place in the person- nel of the old firm as originally established. Mr. Yeaton eventually succeeded to the interest of his former partner, and when his own son came to his majority he became junior partner in the present firm, which for many years has been known to all trade circles as H. A. Yeaton & Son.

Mr. Yeaton is a successful and substantial business man, and while his time has been pretty well occupied with private affairs, he has also taken an earnest interest in local and state politics. A pronounced Re- publican, he has never been regarded as being in any sense a politician. He has served as selectman and member of the board of aldermen of Portsmouth, as representative to the General Court, and in 1899-1900 was a member of the New Hampshire state senate. He belongs to the Sons of the Revolution and to Piscataqua Lodge, I. O. O. F. In re- ligion he is a Baptist, a member of Middle Street Baptist Church, and chairman of its board of wardens, a member of the board of trustees of the New Hampshire Baptist State Convention, and chairman of its finance committee. For many years he has been a director in the First National Bank and a trustee of the Piscataqua Savings Bank, both of Portsmouth ; a director in the Young Men's Christian Association, and a trustee of the Portsmouth Hospital and of the Howard Benevolent Society. Since its organization in 1891 he has been managing director and treasurer of the Piscataqua Navigation Company and is credited by his fellow directors as being largely instrumental in the uniform suc- cess that has attended that company.

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In January, 1861, Mr. Yeaton married Ara Abby Brooks. She was born November 23, 1840, a daughter of Joshua Brooks, with whom Mr. Yeaton became associated in business. Of this marriage two children were born, Winifred and Harry .B. Winifred became the wife of Albert E. Rand, a grocer of Portsmouth, and of this union four children were born : Margaret, Norman E., Wallis S. and Elinor. Harry B. Yeaton, who is the present mayor of Portsmouth, married Mary E. Ferguson, and to them have been born six children, Ruth A., Philip O., Dorothy, Donald F., Carolyn F. and Frederick T.

MAJOR DAVID URCH, secretary and treasurer of the New Castle Bridge Company of Portsmouth, N. H., was born in Newport, Wales, April 14, 1844. He is a son of Ephraim and Maria (Sherman) Urch, respectively natives of Glastonbury, England, and Bridgewater, Eng- land. Six generations of the family on the maternal side lived in Bridge- water, Somersetshire, England. Ephraim Urch was a willow worker, making baskets and willow furniture. After his marriage he removed to Newport, Wales, where he lived until 1849. In the spring of that year he sailed for America, taking passage on the vessel that brought iron for the construction of the Concord Railroad. Locating in Ports- mouth, he engaged in the work of his trade. Also, for a number of years he was toll collector for the New Castle bridges. In 1863 he went to Chicago, and, opening a store for the sale of willow goods, resided during the rest of his life in the vicinity of the "Windy City," gaining a comfortable livelihood. His wife, who lived for several years with her daughter, Mrs. Hammond Spinney, in Eliot, Me., was a member of one of the oldest families of Bridgwater, Somersetshire, England, and was a typical English lady. She reared ten children-Mary Ann, Rosanna, Lizzie, Ephraim, Ellen, David, Abram, Henry E., John C. and George W.

David Urch was four and a half years old when he came to this country, accompanying his mother. The father had left Wales the preceding spring to make a home for his family in the new country. The child had a rough passage in the sailing vessel "Abalina," and it was thirty days before the passengers were safely landed in Boston. David was reared and received his early education in Portsmouth, and finished his course of study at a college in Chicago. He became an ex- pert willow and rattan worker and assisted in the factory, and in his father's store as clerk. He had been anxious to go to the war in 1861, in Captain Side's company, with the Second New Hampshire Regiment, but his father had prevented him. The family was living in Effingham, Ill., in 1864. One day there, while returning home to dinner, Mr. Urch fell a little behind when near a railroad track that crossed the street, and a freight train separated him from the rest of the family. Jumping on one of the cars, he was taken to Mattoon, Ill., and enlisted in Com- pany C, One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. This was in March, 1864, and he was one of the hundred day men. The regi- ment was sent directly to St. Louis, thence to Jefferson City. Here it was assigned garrison duty for some time, and was engaged in sup- pressing the. bands of guerrillas that infested the country. Mr. Urch was honorably discharged in November, 1864. Soon after he returned to Portsmouth, where he was employed for a few months on the gov- ernment works at Fort Constitution, New Castle, N. H. He then went

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to Manchester, N. H., and opened a store for the sale of willow and rattan furniture, and conducted it for five years. The two years follow- ing he was in the same business in New Lenox, and then for a short time he was a resident of Portland, Me. His next venture was the open- ing of a similar store in Portsmouth, N. H., which he managed until 1876. In that year he became connected with the New Castle Bridge Company, and has since collected the tolls for them. Mr. Urch still takes an interest in his old trade of willow and rattan working, at which he is an expert. His work is all done by hand from his own designs and is of a high degree of artistic merit, commanding admiration from all who see it.

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History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 86

Author: Hazlett, Charles A Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold Number of Pages: 1390

Author: Hazlett, Charles A
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 1390