History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 163

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1714

USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 163
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 163

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His enterprises were successful because of his in- dustry and energy, and especially because these were guided and controlled by sound judgment. His heart was warm and his sympathies quick, but his judgment was logical, and where the rights of others were in- volved, superior alike to friendships and enmities.

These qualities especially fitted him for the perform- ance of the duties which devolved upon him as Judge of Probate, and won for him, while he occupied that office, the high respect of the bar and the approbation of the public. The unfortunate and disappointed made him their confidant, and it is the privilege of few to render to such more service. He had the rare power of discerning the moral quality aud the motives of men, of weighing well their worth or worthlessness, and in its exercise he rarely made mistakes. His in- tegrity was never challenged nor suspected ; he was a man of rare personal purity ; his speech was never

McBweigh

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unclean, profane, or irreverent; he was subject to no evil habit; his whole moral nature was elevated. Reared in a Christian home, he was always attracted and controlled by religious truth. In the town where he lived he was always a constant attendant upon the Congregational Church, but it was not until 1857 that he publicly professed his faith in Christ and became a member of that church. He was always interested in its welfare, and almost his last work was with ref- erenee to the alteration of the church edifice and the enlargement of its vestry. The improvements which were made after his death were in harmony with the plans which he prepared in his life. IIe never grew old, for his heart at seventy-eight was as young as at forty, and to the last he was the companion of his children and grandchildren, no less than their coun- selor and guide. Only two or three days before his death he assisted them in the preparation of charades for private exhibition. Yet all the while he was ripening naturally and gradually for another and a better world. Taking large interest in existing things and current events in his neighborhood and State and country, he had a yet larger interest in the universal and the immortal. His hold upon the material and the apparent grew measurably less and still less, and the glories of that country of which the Scriptures make prophecy and full promise grew brighter and yet brighter, until on the morning of the 22d of Feb- ruary, 1875, as quietly and restfully as a ripened leaf falls in the autumn, he gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, -- an old man full of years,-and was gathered to his people, and his sons buried him in the place which he had prepared for himself, and the whole community mourned for him as for one of its best and most beloved citizens.

MICAJAH CURRIER BURLEIGHI.

Micajah Currier Burleigh was born in South Ber- wick, Me., Jan. 15, 1818.

His father, William Burleigh, was one of the lead- ing lawyers of York County, and at the time of his death, at the age of forty-two, was serving his third term as representative in the National Congress from the First Maine District. He had come from his father's farm in Gilmanton, N. H., to South Berwick, and won for himself an extensive practice in his pro- fession and a prominent position in the affairs of his adopted State. He left a widow, Deborah (Currier) Burleigh, and five small children, of whom the eldest, Micajah, was barely nine. The others were John Holmes, a sea-captain for several years, and after- wards a successful woolen manufacturer in South Berwick. He was also for two terms representative for this district in Congress. William, the only sur- viving member of the family, now a farmer in Iowa, Mary Currier, and Elizabeth, both of whom died un- married.

ability, finding herself left with a small property and a young and helpless family, immediately cast about for means to increase her income. But so little could she make during the next three years that she was often obliged to part with articles of household fur- niture, endeared by association, to find the where- withal to feed and elothe her little ones. The pov- erty and struggles of his mother were so distressing to the young Mieajah, that he finally obtained her reluctant consent that he might go to sea, believing that his earnings might keep her in her need. From that time on, with the exception of one or two terms each in Strafford (N. II.) Academy and New Lon- don (N. H.) Academy, and a few months spent in studying law with his uncle, Hon. John A. Burleigh, he followed the sea for fourteen years. During these years he rose from the lowest position on board a vessel to the highest, that of master, and had the sat- isfaction of knowing that his labor on the sea served to materially lighten the heavy burden resting upon his mother's shoulders at home.

Finally he yielded to her urgent entreaties, his brothers and sisters being now grown and beyond the reach of pressing necessity, and left the sea. He went into trade with the firm of Parks & Hains, of South Berwick, first as clerk and later as partner. But re- tail trade not being the business of which he desired to make a life-work, he soon left this and bought an interest with W. & E. Griffin, iron founders, then running two small foundries, one at Salmon Falls, the other at Great Falls. This connection was not a fortunate one. The result was that in the course of two or three years Mr. Burleigh had to assume the entire business of both foundries.

On the day he was thirty years old he started in business for himself with the wreck of the entire property acquired by his partners, some cash in hand, and nearly three thousand dollars more of debts than he had the wherewithal to pay.

Industry and skill put matters in good working order. The debts were paid, and an act of incorpora- tion, under the name of the Somersworth Machine Company, was procured from the New Hampshire Legislature in 1849. Soon after this he interested with himself Mr. Oliver H. Lord, an old neighbor in South Berwick, who had moved to Great Falls some years before, and having been successful in business, had retired with what he then considered a compe- tency. Mr. Lord's money was needed to enlarge the capacity of the enterprise, which was then in its in- fancy. After a careful examination nearly all of it was fortheoming, and a close personal intimacy was then formed between the two men, which continned without a jar for more than thirty years, and was sev- ered only by death. The Somersworth Machine Company was a success from the start, and is still in full and profitable operation on a seale many times larger than in the beginning. Mr. Burleigh was

Mrs. Burleigh, a woman of rare good sense and | agent, and Mr. Lord treasurer of the corporation, and

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HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

together they owned nearly all of its stock. Until 1864 they were jointly interested in the active man- agement of its affairs, but in that year the Dover Iron Foundry was purchased, and Mr. Lord took charge of it, and from that time on the original business was under control of Mr. Burleigh alone as its executive head.

Once permanently located in Somersworth, and es- tablished in business there, the public affairs of the town and State shared his attention with his private interests. He was always a man of great public spirit, and as soon as the condition of his own affairs would permit, he devoted much time to the perform- ance of those duties which the welfare of the nation demands of her best citizens.

He was early honored by the confidence of his fel- low-citizens. In 1854 he was elected one of the rep- resentatives from the town of Somersworth to the New Hampshire Legislature, and was re-elected in 1855. In 1858 and again in 1859 he was a State senator. He was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1876.

While in conversation he was clear in his mode of expression and apt in his illustrations, he was not in public either a fluent or a ready speaker. He was, therefore, never prominent in the debates of any legislative body of which he was a member, but in the important work of the committees his industry, good judgment, and strong common sense gave him an influence upon the general body of legislation not possessed by many men of more prominence in the reports of proceedings. In 1861-62 he was a member of the staff of Governor Joseph A. Gilmore. In 1855 he was elected a director of the Great Falls Bank, and held this office until the bank was reorganized under the National Bank Act in 1866, when he re- ceived the same position in the Great Falls National Bank, and continued to act until his death. In 1861 the office of president of the Somersworth Savings- Bank became vacant upon the death of John A. Bur- leigh. To this position he was also elected and re- elected until his death, being then in his twentieth year of consecutive service. To this institution, next to the care of his family and the management of his business, were his best thoughts devoted. Indeed, there were several times in its affairs when he gave to it more than to both the others. Its prosperity was his pride, and any touch of adversity certainly was more keenly felt than a like loss to his own pri- vate property. It is known that a loss in his own business would be dismissed with little more than a passing remark, while a loss to the savings-bank of perhaps a less proportionate amount, occurring at about the same thue, would cause more than one night of unrest.

On Dec. 9, 1847, he married Mary Frances Russell, of Somersworth, and of their ten children but four survive him.

William Russell, born Feb. 13, 1851, a graduate of Dartmouth College, and now a practicing lawyer in Great Falls, N. H.

Mary Elizabeth, wife of Charles W. Wright, of

To this business he devoted the best years of his | Great Falls, who, since the death of Mr. Burleigh, has life ; with it his name was inseparably connected, and succeeded in the management of the Somersworth Machine Company. from its profits he acquired most of the property which - he accumulated.

Edward Stark, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1878, and now a resident of Florida.

Charlotte Russell, the youngest of the family, and residing with her mother in Great Falls.

While a student at New London Academy, he united with the Calvinist Baptist Church, and of the denomination he remained until his death a devoted and consistent member.

In personal appearance Mr., Burleigh was a man above medium height, broad-shouldered and deep- chested, weighing when in health considerably over two hundred pounds, always erect, and usually agile in his carriage. A large massive head, features strong and regular, a clear blue eye, and a mass of dark, wavy hair, turned in his later years to silvery white, made him a marked man in all places of assemblage. His manner of address was direct, at times abrupt, but not intentionally blunt, and never malicious. He was always too kind and tender-hearted to pain even a personal enemy, and when aware that he had thoughtlessly wounded another's feelings, he always suffered as much pain as he inflicted.

In his business relations he won the respect of all with whom he came in contact. The manners of the quarter-deck never entirely forsook him, and retaining a sailor's directness of speech, he retained a directness of method as well.

It was his nature to be straightforward and up- right in all his business affairs, to gain success by an honest preponderance of mental force and foresight, not by artifice or petty cunning, and the same treat- ment he extended he always expected in return. In- capable of deceit himself, he was intolerant of it in another, and nothing excited a deeper or more lasting anger than to find that some one had been attempting to practice it upon him. For a trickster, however successful, he had no use, and next to a trickster a slanderer was the object of his cordial dislike. The sterling honesty of his dealings gave him the confi- dence of his business associates, and those who had known him longest were at his death his sincerest mourners.

It was as an active and successful business man that he was best and most widely known. He was for more than thirty years the head of an extensive manufacturing establishment. This gave him promi- nence and influence at home and a wide and varied circle of acquaintance. His success was dne to dili- gence, foresight, and judgment, rather than to thrift

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or frugality, to the acquiring rather than the retain - ing faculties and habits. He was always prudent and economical, but never close or niggardly ; he thus retained the personal friendship of all. Ilis em- ployés felt that he was their friend, that they were sure of receiving at his hand fair treatment and lib- eral pay for their labor, that their interests, as well as his own, were considered by him, and they served him well and faithfully. The long years of their deal- ings together were uniformly pleasant, strikes were unknown, and mutual confidence prevailed. His cus- tomers soon learned that he meant fairly by them too, that he had no desires to overreach or drive sharp bargains, and having dealt with him once they came again, and thus it happened that he retained at once their friendship and their trade. In his private affairs he was open-handed, generous, and liberally benevolent. His income for many years was quite large, and had he been content to live in a frugal manner he might easily have attained considerable wealth, but his expenditures always kept pace with the increase of his receipts. His own tastes were always plain and simple, and he had not one expen- sive habit; whatever increase there was benefited others, not himself. His family was large, and was generously provided for. His hospitality was bounded only by the limits of his dwelling. It was seldom that his table was bare of guests. His church was always sure of his bountiful liberality, nor did he re- strict himself to his own, to at least two others in the town he contributed regularly and freely. The poor he had always with him ; the extent of his liberality in this direction was never known except to himself, but it is certain that no poor man ever turned away from him empty-handed. His generosity was never made public by him. It is not within the recollection of his family that a single instance of it was ever learned from himself, always from the recipients of his bounty, nor was it confined to the years of his prosperity, though it was greater then. During his first winter in business, when he was harassed and in debt, he literally gave the coat from his back to a workman to enable him to attend church, and wore himself his working clothes, for he could not afford to buy others. His generosity simply grew with his ability to indulge it.

In his family his whole life was bound up. For them he lived, worked, and planned. For his own comfort he seldom took a thought, for theirs he was ever devising something. Not favored with a liberal education himself, he determined that his children should be afforded every advantage; but they were to be educated, not pampered, the advantages must be improved or they could not be enjoyed. While anx- ious for them to acquire knowledge, he was also care- ful that they should acquire habits of self-reliance and the ability to act and judge for themselves. In all their personal affairs he carefully watched over them, but always without interference, and, unless

they were going entirely astray, he preferred they should learn their mistakes by experience. He sel- dom proffered his advice unasked. It then usually came in the form of a command, but when called upon an unlimited amount of time seemed always at his children's disposal.

The disadvantages of his early years were amply made up in after-life. His education bore the stamp of no college or university, but the metal was true. Not that he became a learned or profound scholar, but while devoting all needful time to the care of liis business, he yet found leisure to acquaint himself well with all that goes to make up a well-informed man. The acquisition of knowledge was the most enjoy- able of pleasures. No book was worth reading from which something could not be learned. No man was worth knowing who had not something to im- part. He was all his life a student of books, of men, of science, of nature, and yet his fund of in- formation always seemed well-nigh exhaustless. The extent and variety of his attainments was ever a source of wonder to his chance acquaintances, Was it a elergyman or college president at the seaside, a farmer, a mechanic, an engineer, or the physician at his bedside, he was at home with them all. The con- versation seldom drifted into fields with whose paths he was not familiar.

The cause of education found him always a true and liberal friend. Intensely practical himself, he always fully appreciated the value to young men of an extensive and liberal course of study as a means to the end of making them useful and worthy citizens, and enabling then to exercise their talents for their own and their fellows' greatest good. He was for many years a trustee of South Berwick and New London Acad- emies, and both were at different time the objects of his liberality. Among the last acts of his life was to direct the payment of a promised money prize to the latter institution. The society of educated men was especially enjoyable to him, and in literary exercises he was always interested. The graduation days of these academies were always attended by him when business engagements made it possible, and were among the bright days of the year.

In 1872, Dartmouth College, of which both his sons were graduates, conferred on him the honorary de- gree of Master of Arts, and of all the honors be- stowed upon him during his life this is believed to have given him most gratification. The parchment certificate was carefully lodged in his safe with his most valuable papers. Of this institution he was also a liberal benefactor. He gave it two thousand dol- lars during his life, and by his will bequeathed it five thousand dollars more.

For more than a year before his death he was trou- bled with difficulty in breathing after rapid exercise. In the fall of 1880 he went to the Adirondacks with his second son, Edward, who had suffered from hem- orrhages from the lungs. While there his trouble in-

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HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

creased to such an extent that early in December he was compelled to return home. His physician early pronounced his case an advanced stage of Bright's disease, and hopeless. He was confined to the house from the first, and after a few weeks to his room. He suffered distressingly at times, but his mental facul- ties remained clear to the last. He was fully con- scious of his condition, almost from the first, wrote his will with his own hand, arranged his business with the utmost calmness, counseled his children, and met death as only one can who knows lie has em- ployed his talents well.

The end came March 7, 1881.

OLIVER HUBBARD LORD.

Oliver Hubbard Lord, son of Ephraim and Sally Goodwin Lord, was born in Berwick (now South Ber- wick), Me., Nov. 19, 1811. His early boyhood was passed on the old homestead, and at the early age of eleven years he commenced an apprenticeship at the saddlery business in his native town. In 1827 he removed to Salmon Falls, and Oliver, then fifteen years of age, began work in the woolen-factory at that place. Pleasing in manners and prompt and efficient in the discharge of his duties, he attracted the atten- tion of the agent, the late Joshua W. Peirce, of Greenland, who formed a warm friendship for young Lord, which lasted through life. Naturally ambitious, and perhaps being favored somewhat by the agent, he was rapidly promoted, and assigned to duties which proved to be too great a strain for his physical powers, and after an unremitting service of four years, in consequence of impaired health, he was compelled to leave the factory. He subsequently attended South Berwick Academy, and later we find him teaching school at Lebanon, Me.

May 28, 1832, he came to Great Falls, and his record from that time to the present is almost a history of the town.

He began his career here as clerk in the dry-goods store of George W. Lawton, where he remained one year, receiving fifty dollars for his services. The fol- lowing year he engaged with the firm of Torr & Bates, at the rate of one hundred dollars per year, remaining but a short time, however, and then ac- cepted the position of manager in the store of Jacob Davis, and two years later, upon furnishing twelve hundred dollars, became an equal partner with him in the business, the firm being known as Jacob Davis & Co. In 1836 he withdrew from this firm, and formed a copartnership with John B. Wood, under the firm-name of Wood & Lord, which continued until 1839. This partnership then dissolved, and Mr. Lord commenced trade alone, and continued in it with marked success until 1850, when he practically retired from the mercantile business.

Although having retired from mercantile business, he was by no means inactive. He passed a portion of

the following year in the office of the Conway Rail- road, and in June, 1851, in company with Hon. M. C. Burleigh, established the Somersworth Machine Com- pany, and took one-half of the stock. He was one of its first agents, and soon after its organization was made its treasurer, and has remained as such to the present time.

Mr. Lord was one of the incorporators of the Som- ersworth Savings-Bank, and is the only surviving member of that body. He was also a trustee from its organization to 1876, when he declined a re-election. He was also one of the incorporators of the Great Falls Bank in 1846, and was a member of the first board of directors, and continued as such until 1852, when he resigned and accepted a directorship in the Salmon Falls Bank, then just organized. Although Mr. Lord has rendered valuable aid to the above-men- tioned banking institutions, he has been more closely identified with the Somersworth Bank, in which he has ever manifested a deep interest. That the welfare of this bank has ever been close to his heart is evi- denced by the fact that he has presided at its councils as president since its incorporation, in 1855, to Jan. 1, 1882,-nearly thirty years,-when he refused a re-elec- tion on account of impaired health.

Mr. Lord has owned stock in the various manufac- turing establishments of Great Falls, and every move- ment looking to the religions, educational, or material welfare of the town has found in him an able advo- cate. He has been a member of the Forest Glade Cemetery Association twenty-five years, and been its president ten years. He is a member of the First Baptist Church, and has been a deacon since 1861.

Politically, Mr. Lord is a Republican, was formerly a Free.Soiler, member of the Liberty party, and Whig. Although not what might be called an active politi- cian, he has rendered yeoman service to the party in this town, and has been potent in its councils. He represented the town in the Legislature in 1861 and 1862.

Among the many public enterprises that Mr. Lord has given his aid to may be mentioned the Conway Railroad. In 1856 this road became embarrassed, generally believed irretrievably so. It was heavily mortgaged, its liabilities amounting to seventy-five thousand dollars, with no assets. The outlook was not a brilliant one for the stockholders. It required an assessment of sixty per cent. to carry it along, and Mr. Lord, at this gloomy period, undertook the her- culean task of raising the assessment. It was a hard and protracted struggle, but his efforts were finally crowned with success. HIe placed the road on a sound basis and subsequently became its nominal president. He was chairman of the board of trustees of the third bondholders, who took possession of the road.

In August, 1838, Mr. Lord united in marriage with Mary W. G. Stevens, daughter of Dr. Whiting Ste- vens, of Shapleigh, Me., and their family consisted of seven children, four of whom survive, two sons and

Olivin H. Lord.

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two daughters, viz. : George Boardman, who married ' Me., and treasurer and director of the Newicha- Lizzie C. Mott, and resides in Somersworth ; Mary wanick Woolen Company, at South Berwick, and has also been a director in the Great Falls Manufacturing Company since 1877. He has been prominently iden- tified with the banking interest of the town, and has been prominent in the councils of the Great Falls Bank and the Somersworth Savings-Bank since their incorporation. He is now vice-president of the latter and president of the former. A., wife of James P. Dixon, president of Colby Acad- emy, New London, N. H .; Annie A., wife of Charles E. Marston, proprietor of the Dover Iron Foundry and Machine-Works; and Edward Oliver, who mar- ried Mary B. Horne, and resides at Great Falls. He graduated at Colby University in 1877, and in 1880 received the degree of Master of Arts. He is editor and proprietor of the Free Press and Journal, one of the leading local journals of the State.

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History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 163

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1714

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1714