History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 167

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 167
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 167


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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At the Democratic National Convention of 1852 the choice of a candidate for President of the United States was left by common consent to the New Hamp- shire delegation, and a caucus was called to choose the coming man. The names of Franklin Pierce and B. W. Jenness were presented. The balloting com- menced ; there were nine delegates, and, the chairman not voting, the ballot stood four for each candidate; the chairman was called upon, and he gave a vote for Mr. Pierce, which nominated him and made him Presi- dent. Had Mr. Jenness received that one vote, he would in all probability have been elected President.


He was nominated for Governor of New Hamp- shire in 1861, but withdrew in favor of Gen. Stark, in a letter to the New Hampshire Gazette, dated Straf-


ford, February 8th, which showed a statesman's com- prehension of the critical events of the times, a won- derful knowledge of constitutional law, and a love for the Union exceeded by none.


After the above date he retired to private life, al- though often importuned to be a candidate for differ- ent offices.


Judge Jenness moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to attend to the management of his financial interests, already large in that locality, in 1862, and at once engaged extensively in the lumber business, superintending the Cleveland branch, under the firm-name of B. W. Jenness & Co., while his partners attended to the manufacturing at the mills in Michigan. They did an extensive and profitable business.


Judge Jenness remained in Cleveland until his decease, Nov. 16, 1879. At a meeting of the board of lumber dealers, to pay a tribute of respect to his memory, the remarks were highly eulogistic of his life and character, and proper resolutions were adopted.


His remains were removed to Strafford, N. H., where, on the ensuing Sabbath, services were held at the Baptist Church. Rev. E. C. Cogswell, of North- wood, delivered an eloquent sermon, and the remains were interred in the family cemetery on the Shack- ford-Jenness homestead, where is erected a fine monu- ment.


In 1827, Judge Jenness married Miss Nancy Walker Shackford, a daughter of Samuel Shackford, Esq., of Strafford, N. H. She was a lady of fine edu- cation and cultivation. She died at Cleveland, May 25, 1868, and her remains are deposited by the side of her husband.


Of their two surviving children, Ellen married IIon. H. B. Wiggin, of Orange, N. J. ; Annie married Dr. H. L. Ambler, of Cleveland, Ohio, Sept. 9, 1869. He married Mira, daughter of Joshua and Martha (Huckins) Woodman, of Strafford. She is a woman of rare amiability, and thoroughly devoted to her gifted husband. They had one child, Bessie W., who inherits many of her father's personal character- istics. .


Judge Jenness was a gentleman in the highest sense of the word ; not only his public but his pri- vate life manifested this fully. Kind-hearted and generous to the poor, none ever went from his door hungry. He was a man of excellent judgment and good business ability, quick to decide and act, and possessed of so much nobleness of character and genial frankness that it was a real pleasure to coun- sel with him and to receive his advice. His was an hospitable nature, and his ardent and active tempera- ment was as earnestly engaged in securing the comfort of all by whom he was surrounded as in the compli- cated and multifarions affairs of his immense busi- ness. His was a pleasant and happy home, made more so by his inestimable wife, who always anticipated his every want, and in his last illness watched over him


Beaming HI Jungs


·


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with the devotion and tenderness that only a loving wife can give to a beloved husband. This tribute to his memory in this historical work is contributed by her. lle was rarely angry, having a most genial dis- position, and by his death the whole country lost one of its profoundest statesmen, the community an unusu- ally useful citizen, his extended circle of friends one whose place can never be fully filled, and his family a model husband and father.


JOIIN WOODMAN JEWELL.


John Woodman Jewell, son of Milton and Nancy (Colley) Jewell, was born at Bow Lake, Stratford, N. II., July 26, 1831. llis paternal grandfather, Simeon, was born in Brentwood, N. 11., July 20, 1776; married Jane French (born in Salisbury, Mass., Oct. 28, 1766, died at Sanbornton, N. H., Jan. 11, 1838) at Deerfield, N. H., May 19, 1796, and soon afterward set- tled in Northfield, N. H., as a farmer. After some years' residence there he moved to Sanbornton, where he died at about the age of sixty-six years, Sept. 10, 1832. IIe left four children,-John, Milton, Betsey, and Samuel F.,-and was known and prized for his probity and quiet, unassuming honesty and rectitudc. llis son, Milton, was born in Northfield, July 2, 1803. When about eighteen, Milton was apprenticed to learn the business of tanning and currying, after acquiring which he worked for a few years in Deer- field at his trade. In 1828 he came to Strafford, lo- cated at Bow Lake, and established a tannery there, with which he coupled the manufacturing of boots and shoes. He prospered in business until 1832, when the large dam of the Cocheco Manufacturing Company, at the outlet of Bow Lake, gave way, and his property was almost entirely ruined by the flood of escaping water. After this event he only followed his trade in a small way, but continued doing some- thing until 1865, when, his health growing very poor, he closed his business, and June 4, 1869, passed away, leaving to his descendants the record of an un- tarnished name. He married, Dec. 24, 1830, Nancy, daughter of Richard and Sarah Colley, of Madbury. She was born May 3, 1808, and died in Barrington, April 7, 1880. Their nine children were John W., Hannah E. (died young), Mary J. (Mrs. Wingate T. Preston, of Barrington), Asa W. (superintendent of water for Cocheco Manufacturing Company, at Dover), Charles M. (deceased), Cyrena T. (deceased), Enoch T. (deceased), Betsey A. (deceased), and Samuel F., of Barrington. Mr. Jewell was an unyielding Demo- erat. Both he and his wife were for years valued members of the Free-Will Baptist Church, and he was universally known as one of the most benevolent of men, and an accommodating neighbor. Ilis honesty was so rigid as to make him almost unjust to himself. Pleasant and social in his intercourse with all, he was highly esteemed.


John W. Jewell early learned to labor. When but


five years old he was tied in a chair and set to drive a horse to grind bark in his father's tan-yard, and from that day onward he has never shrank from earnest discharge of such of life's laborious duties as have fallen to his lot. He carly and thoroughly learned his father's trade. When he was eighteen, his father consenting, he commenced working for himself on a farm. After a short time he was taken ill, and returned home. The next spring he expended the money he had then earned in attending Gilman- ton Academy. Then for three successive summers he worked in a steam saw-mill, teaching school during the winter, and in the spring and fall attend- ing Strafford Seminary (now Austin Academy) and Gilmanton Academy. In 1853 he went to Newmarket as "second hand" in the cloth-room of the New- market Manufacturing Company, but soon went to Manchester, whence in a very short period of time he returned to Newmarket, and spent one year as clerk for S. A. & B. F. Haley, merchants ; then, at the urgent request of Hon. B. W. Jenness, the leading business man of Strafford, he entered his employ, and remained with him until 1864, when Mr. Jenness re- moved to Ohio, and Mr. Jewell purchased his stock of goods at Bow Lake, and has been since, and now is, the leading merchant of the town.


He has been successful and popular. His counsel has - been valued and sought in every important matter in town for years, and his cautious and at the same time progressive advice has been of public and private benefit. He is one of the standard- bearers of the Democracy of this section, and has often been honored by political trust. He has been moderator, superintendent of schools, and selectman. He represented Strafford in the State Legislature of 1862, and was sheriff of Strafford County from 1874 to 1876. He was placed in nomination in 1878 by the Democratic Senatorial Convention as its candi- date for State senator, and received by far the largest number of votes cast, but failed of an election, as he had not a majority, but a plurality,-a third ticket (Greenback) drawing sufficient votes to defeat him. For ten years he was postmaster under Pierce, Bu- chanan, and Johnson, and for a number of years has been a member of the Democratic State Committee.


He married, Oct. 9, 1853, Sarah Folsom Gale, daughter of Bartholomew Gale, of Upper Gilman- ton, now Belmont. They have three children,- Sarah A. (born Aug. 21, 1856; married Rev. W. W. Browne, of Evansville, Wis., now pastor of Free- Will Baptist Church at Gonic, N. H.), John Herbert (born Sept. 10, 1859; now partner with his father in merchandising under the firm-title of J. W. Jewell & Son), and Mertie Folsom (born Sept. 10, 1859).


Mr. Jewell has ever been active in all matters for the improvement and advancement of his town and county, and is, in the best sense of the word, a "self- made man." Commencing life without a dollar, he is to-day in ample circumstances, the result of his


.


714


HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.


business energy and thrift, and is one of the largest tax-payers in town. He occupies a very prominent position in social, political, and business circles, and is probably more extensively acquainted and known by a wider range of people than any other resident of Strafford. He is one of his native town's best representatives, is a member of United Order of Golden Cross, director in Northwood Mutual Benefit Association, and president of Bow Lake Building Association. To Mr. Jewell are the people of Bow Lake largely indebted for the shoe manufactory just completed, which, beyond doubt, will prove one of the most important industries of the future here. Through his efforts entirely have the Boston and Northern Telephone Company extended their lines to Bow Lake.


1


AARON WALDRON FOSS.


Aaron Waldron Foss, son of James B. Foss and Sarah, daughter of Aaron Waldron, was born July 20, 1824, on the homestead owned by several genera- tions of his paternal ancestors at Strafford Centre, N. H. He unites in his veins the blood of three of the most distinguished early families,-the Waldrons, the Fosses, and the Boodeys. (See Robert B. Caverly's " Annals of the Boodey Family.")


Aaron Waldron, from whom Mr. Foss was named, was born Ang. 7, 1749. He was a thrifty husbandman who, in offices of trust and otherwise, held the confi- denee of his townsmen. His homestead was in the north part of the town. He married Azariah Boodey's daughter IIannah (Azariah was son of Zechariah Boodcy, the original American progenitor of the name, who came a boy-emigrant from France, and a deserter from the French ship on which he was shipped, at Boston, in the latter part of the seventeenth cen- tury, and settled in the wilds of Madbury). She was born March 29, 1758. They reared twelve children in health and vigor in their early pioneer life. Of these Sarah, born Jan. 14, 1802, was youngest. Aaron Waldron was killed by a falling tree Dec. 9, 1820. His widow dicd Feb. 7,1830.


George Foss, of Rye, born May 10, 1721, married Mary Martin, born Sept. 20, 1726. Their children were Rachel (born Jan. 16, 1747, married a, Berry ), Judith (born May 19, 1748, married a Berry), John (born Sept. 14, 1752), Abigail (born May 9, 1754, mar- ried a Perkins), George (born Oct. 9, 1757), William and Richard (twins, born May 15, 1760), James (born May 1, 1762), Mary (born Aug. 13, 1764, married William Foss), Samuel and Nathan (born Aug. 13, 1766). He settled on Strafford Ridge, in old Barring- ton, on the lot of one hundred acres now occupied by Oliver Foss. He was a very good farmer, and served his day and generation with acceptability. His son Nathan became a farmer on a small farm of sixty-six acres, to which he made several additions; married Alice, daughter of William and Jemima Babb, had


children-three sons and three daughters-James B., George B., Richard, Sally (Mrs. William Foss), Eliza (Mrs. Joshua Foss), Harriet (Mrs. Cotton H. Foss). James B., born Oet. 1, 1795, became a farmer, had the simple educational instructions of that primitive day, married Sarah Waldron April 6, 1824, when about twenty-five years old. They had five children that attained maturity,-Aaron W., Hannah W. (Mrs. Joseph Stiles), Richard W., Adeline W. (Mrs. Charles A. Hill), Mary A. (Mrs. Gilbert Shaw). Mr. Foss lived with his father, and succeeded to the paternal lands. Like his father he worked hard, and with the primitive tools of that period wrought early and late. The hoes of that time were pounded out of iron by a blacksmith, and were fastened to a rude handle with a large "eye." The first hoe he used his father made for him out of red oak, and the edge was hardened by fire. James became a great land-owner, used to deal largely in poultry, which he conveyed to Boston ; was a shrewd, successful man of business, represented Strafford in 1842-43 in the General Court, was select- man four years, has been for years a consistent mem- ber of the Free-Will Baptist Church, and has at one time owned four hundred broad acres of land. He is now living, with good memory and well-preserved faculties, at eighty-seven years of age.


Aaron W. Foss passed his childhood and youth at his father's home, receiving the educational advan- tages of common schools and Austin Academy, and about his twenty-first year became interested in cat- tle droving in connection with farming. His natural shrewdness and business qualities were manifested in making this largely remunerative, and with a modest and unostentatious nature he is one of Straf- ford's most successful sons. He married, Aug. 12, 1849, Elizabeth O., daughter of Rev. John and Nancy (French) Caverly. Their children are Clara C. (Mrs. Calvin Rea), deceased ; Albert C., born Oct. 12, 1851, married Lillie E. Tasker ; Sarah A., born Aug. 28, 1853 (Mrs. George W. Brock); John James, born Nov. 12, 1855; and Aaron II., born Oct. 31, 1857. Mr. Foss has made himself prominent in community not only by acquiring wealth, but by his hearty co- operation with every laudable enterprise and his wise counsels. Ile represented Strafford in the State Leg- islatures of 1856 and 1857; was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1876; selectman two years, and has acted formerly with the Whig party, but of latter years with the Democrats, with whom he is in perfect sympathy. For several years he has been secretary and treasurer (as well as member) of the board of trustees of Austin Academy.


In April, 1861, all his buildings were swept away by fire, but a new and pleasant home has risen on the site of the former. Enterprising and industrious, with seven hundred acres of land showing his ability and success as an agriculturist, he is ever hospitable and generous. He well deserves the following writ- ten of him by Col. R. B. Caverly, in his " History of


Aaron WArtof


A lavely Twombly M. D.


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STRAFFORD.


the Caverly Family :" "IIe has made himself a wealthy farmer. Full of commendable aspiration, al- ways on duty, his town, as we trust, will be the better for his having lived in it. In-doors, at the hands of Elizabeth, you will always find industry, frugality, and the law of kindness. Our word for it, the neigh- bor, the friend, the poor, nor the weary-worn stranger will never find the 'latch-string' of that door pulled in."


N. C. TWOMBLY, M.D.


N. C. Twombly, M.D., son of Silas and Sally (Cav- erly ) Twombly, was born near the academy in Straf- ford, Feb. 26, 1835. His ancestors for years have been connected with this section of the country. Ralph Twombly1 had land laid out Oct. 4, 1656, and was first taxed that year at Cocheco (Dover), N. H. His will, dated Feb. 28, 1684, was " proved" Aug. 7, 1686. His wife, Elizabeth, and son John were his execu- tors. " If son John live with his mother, then they are to occupy the homestead jointly ; if not, his wife is to have one-half. If Ralph live with his mother till he is twenty-one, then he is to have £10 in money, or goods equivalent. To son Joseph, a heifer; To daughter Mary (Tebbets), 5s .; To each of the chil- dren, Elizabeth, Hope, Sarah, Esther, and William, when eighteen years of age, a cow."-(Extract from will.) Thus we see he had eight children. Ralph2 had a son William and at least one other, Ralph3. William settled in Madbury ; had four sons, -Moses, Nathaniel, Joshua, John. Moses was born in Barring- ton, where his father had located, about 1735 or 1740. He married Elizabeth Holmes, sister to Ephraim Holmes, who married Sarah Wentworth, a descend- ant of Governor Benning Wentworth. Their children were Samuel, Anthony, William, James, Hannah, Deborah, Phebe. Samuel was born in 1766, married Olive Huntress, and was a farmer and basket-maker in Strafford. His children were Hannah (married James Roe), Silas, William (married Betsey Rollins, and settled in Gilmanton), Deborah (married Nich- olas Evans, of Holderness), Samuel (a stone-mason, married Susan Durgin, settled in Newmarket, N. H., and has two grandchildren,-one, Belle Bryant, a remarkable organist, the other, Virginia, as noted an elocutionist), Enoch (married Lucretia Daniels), Moses (married a Parker, of Holderness, and settled in Maine), Daniel (born July 25, 181I, married Julia Reed, of New Bedford, Mass., and has two children,- Maria and Daniel W.), John (married Sarah Berry, and settled in Maine), Smith (died in Charleston, S. C.), Mesheck (lived and died in Lowell, Mass.), and Andrew J. (by a second marriage).


Silas Twombly, born in old Barrington (now Straf- ford), Dec. 22, 1798, was a farmer and cattle-dealer, owning about one hundred and fifty acres of land ; was a hard-working, plain, quiet, old-fashioned man ; in his younger days worked in a soap and candle fac-


tory in Massachusetts for several years, then returned to Strafford, and with industry and good deportment filled his not extensive sphere of life well; married Sally Caverly (a descendant of the Wentworths) March 18, 1822; had children,-John W. (born Dec. 22, 1822, now a prominent citizen of Mamaroneck, N. Y., and member of the Legislature of that State), Hazen (deceased), Harrison (born Sept. 25, 1826, married Harriet A. Caverly Nov. 29, 1855, and has one son, Charles H.), Silas H. (deceased ; born Nov. 19, 1829, married Ann M. Twombly, had one child, Rox- ana,-Mrs. William Shepard), Sally A., Nehemiah Caverly, Viany S. (deceased).


Nehemiah C. Twombly passed his early years on his father's farm; attended common schools and what is now Austin Academy ; was a diligent student, and when a young man acquired some reputation as a teacher by teaching three winter terms of school in Strafford and Barrington, he meanwhile working on the farm in summer. In 1861 he began the study of medicine with Dr. Charles Palmer, of Strafford, and while attending to other duties was for fifteen years a close medical student. Circumstances tending to open the way, he entered the University of Vermont, at Burlington, Vt., in 1875, and was graduated from thence June 24, 1876. After graduation he returned to his native town, and has already built up, by at- tention and skill, a promising practice. He married, Nov. 12, 1878, Elvira, daughter of Gilbert and Eliza (Durgin) Tasker, of Barnstead, N. II. (Gilbert Tas- ker was born Feb. 23, 1805, in the old town of Bar- rington ; owned a large farm in Barnstead; was one of the responsible and wealthy agriculturists of that town; married Eliza, daughter of Jonathan and Susan (Bickford) Durgin, of Northwood. Ile died Sept. 23, 1876. Mrs. Tasker makes her home with her daugh- ter.) Democratie in politics, Dr. Twombly was chosen to represent Strafford in the State Legislature of 1865. He is a justice of the peace and quorum, and has been for fifteen years ; is largely engaged in probate business, and has been selected to administer on many estates. Of a strong vital and sanguine tem- perament, he has keen powers of analysis, and, with a large fund of language, is active and energetic in defense of everything he deems for the welfare of society or the improvement of mankind, and wields the pen of a ready writer. He has been for years a pronounced supporter of Christianity,-a Second Ad- ventist in belief,-and from his outspoken nature there is never any difficulty in knowing where to find him, as there is nothing of the "time-server" in his composition.


DEACON EBENEZER SMÍTHÍ.


Ebenezer Smith? was born in Stratford, then Bar- rington, Sept. 29, 1810. He comes of two old fam- ilies, Smith and Brown.


Garland Smith, born Jan. 8, 1744, of Somersworth,


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HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.


purchased land in Barrington, N. H., from John and Sarah Drew, Aug. 29, 1766. He was a farmer, mar- ried, Dec. 31, 1767, Mary, daughter ef John Brown and his second wife (Nevens). They had ten chil- dren,-Patience, James, John, Ebenezer1, Lydia, Joseph, Garland, David, Mary, Hannah. He was of very social nature, successful in business, he ac- cumulated a large property, and his homestead in Barrington is now occupied by his descendants. He was a man of great physical strength. At one time, while loading his boat with household supplies at Portsmouth, he stood in his boat, and, reaching up as high as he could reach, took down a barrel of molasses and placed it carefully in the bottom of the boat. He died June 25, 1814. Ebenezer Smith1 was born on the homestead in Barrington, April 9, 1774. He was a farmer and a blacksmith, and married, Sept. 25, 1796, Patience, daughter of Nicholas Brown. Their children were Elizabeth, Daniel, Mary, Lydia, Sarah A., Hannah, Patience, Ebenezer2, William P. He purchased land at Strafford, Bow Lake (then Bow Pond), and in 1801 moved thither. IIere his long and uneventful life was passed, and here he died July 10, 1856, aged eighty-three. His wife died March 8, 1854. He never sought office, was a man of few words, quiet and reserved, a valued citizen with strong love for family and home, and for many years and until his death a member of the Free-Will Bap- tist Church. (John Brown, born 1688, in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands of England, was ab- ducted with his brother Daniel, two years older, and a servant lad named Duffy, about 1698, and brought to Portsmouth. Daniel died in Dover a few years thereafter. Jolin passed a short time in Portsmouth and Dover, and lived the last few years of his minority in Madbury, N. H., as a servant for one Demeritt. He knew nothing of his parents for many years, but finally found them out, and had corres- pondence with them. They were quite wealthy, but the correspondence showing the relationship being accidentally destroyed after their death, there was not sufficient legal proof to secure the estate to the chil- dren of John. He married (I) a Drew, had one son, Josiah ; (2) a Nevins, and by her had Joseph, Edward, John, Nicholas, Samuel, and Mary, who married Garland Smith. Nicholas, born Oct. 30, 1743, mar- ried Betsey Tibbetts, born Feb. 19, 1753. Their chil- dren were Reuben, Miriam, Patience (born Nov. 15, 1776), Judith, Nicholas, Mary, Daniel, Betsey, Nancy. An apple-tree set out by this Mrs. Brown in 1771, on the farm in Strafford now (1882) occupied by Azariah Foss, is to-day an immense and a vigorous tree.)


Deacon Ebenezer Smith had the country boy's educational advantages,-the common schools,-but was early learned to labor ; learned the blacksmith's trade from his father, with whom he remained as long as he lived, and also became n farmer. He married Mary, daughter of John and Sarah (Clark) Smith, of |


Barrington. ller maternal grandfather was Remem- brance Clark, of Madbury, N. H. She was born April 13, 1813. Their children were all born on the old homestead at Bow Lake. They are Sarah C. (Mrs. Daniel Otis), Olive A. (married Garland Brown, and has four children,-Sarah C., Zephyr H., Fred L., and Henry E.), Rufina ( married Sanborn Parshley, and has five children,-Ethel B., Mary E., Henry G., Ina H., and Lula B.), Anna P. (Mrs. Paul P. Brown), May Ella (Mrs. Edrick I. Foss), Ebenezer Romanzo, Athelinda L.


In April, 1858, Deacon Smith moved to his present home, where he has since resided. He owns three hundred and fifty acres of land, a saw- and grist-mill, and is justly considered one of the best men of Strafford. Quiet and unostentatious, he is as inflex- i ible as one of the old-time martyrs in following any course he deems marked out by duty. Originally a Whig, he was one of the first Abolitionists, and a Re-e publican since 1856. Since early life he bas been a member of the Free-Will Baptist Church. At the formation of the church at Bow Lake he was ordained deacon, and still holds that office in the church. His opposition to secret societies arises from a belief in their non-Christianity, and is earnest and marked, and no one who knows the man will doubt the sin- cerity of his purpose. He was anti-Masonic candi- date for Governor of New Hampshire in 1880, and is now treasurer of the "New Hampshire Anti-Masonic Christian Association." Kind and charitable in his intercourse with his fellow-men, a loving father and husband, his home has been cheered by an amiable wife and dutiful children, and he is passing down to the twilight of life with a full conviction that it is but the gateway to a better land, and blest with the trusting confidence of the entire community.




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