USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > Rochester > History of the town of Rochester, New Hampshire, from 1722 to 1890, Vol. I > Part 39
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The period of greatest interest in Mr. Hale's senatorial career centers around his first term, when he stood alone, or almost alone, in the thick of the conflict, undaunted, and dealing blows to the oppressor on every side. There were no weak places in his armor, and neither threats, attacks, nor allurements could shake his constancy. When this term expired, the Democratic party had obtained control in New Hampshire; but two years later, in 1855, they lost it, and Mr. Hale was again elected for four years, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of Charles G. Atherton. He was again re-elected for a full term in 1858. He was conspicuous in this term for his integrity and fearless independence in exposing the mal-administration and extravagance of the navy department, while acting as chairman of the naval committee of the Senate.
Mr. Hale was nominated as the Free-Soil candidate for the presidency in 1847, but declined after the nomination of Mr. Van Buren at the Buffalo convention in 1848. He was again nom- inated for president by the Free-Soil convention in 1852, with George W. Julian for vice-president, and received at the Novem- ber election 155,850 votes.
At the close of his senatorial career in 1865 Mr. Hale was appointed Minister to Spain by President Lincoln, and was absent five years, much of the time in ill health. He came home with
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a broken constitution. His health, which had always been perfect up to the time of the well-remembered National Hotel sickness, was never so good afterwards.
He lived to see the full triumph of his efforts to rid the land of slavery, and the freedmen, with the ballot, placed as citizens under the protection of the constitution, and died November 19, 1873, bearing with him the blessings of millions who had been raised from the sorrow and degradation of human servitude, and of mil- lions more who had admired his unselfish fidelity to the cause he had espoused, and his unwavering integrity.
DOMINICUS HANSON.
DOMINICUS HANSON, son of Joseph and Charity (Dame) Hanson, was born Aug. 23, 1813, in the same house in Rochester where he now (1888) resides.
His father was born in Dover Dec. 18, 1764, and died at Roch- ester Dec. 19, 1832. He married Charity Dame March 4, 1798. She was born in Rochester Sept. 1, 1775, and died Feb. 3, 1833. They had ten children. 1. Humphrey, deceased, a druggist. 2. Mary D., deceased, wife of Dr. James Farrington, deceased, of Rochester, a distinguished physician and member of Congress from New Hampshire (p. 345). 3. Hannah, died in infancy. 4. Joseph S., died at twenty-five; was a druggist. 5. Meribah, deceased, wife of Dr. Joseph H. Smith, late of Lowell, Mass. (p. 300). 6. Joanna, deceased, wife of John McDuffee of Rochester (p. 380). 7. An infant, not named. 8. Hester Ann, deceased, wife of Daniel M. Mooney. 9. DOMINICUS, the subject of this sketch. 10. Asa P., a corn and flour dealer in Newton City, Iowa.
Joseph Hanson came to Rochester from Dover when a young man, and immediately engaged in the general grocery and mer- cantile business, which he successfully followed till within a few years of his death. He was a man of excellent judgment, good common sense, shrewd, cautious, industrious, and economical. He built the first brick store ever erected in Strafford county, probably about 1810 or 1812. The roof, doors, and window-shutters were of tin. At a very early day he made a brick vault for the safe deposit of his papers, etc. He inaugurated many useful schemes which have had a tendency for good, and his name is
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(Dominicus Hounson
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held in grateful remembrance by those who knew him. He was justly considered one of the best business men of his day, and the ample fortune left to his family fully attests this estimate of him. - He was a Whig in politics, but was averse to holding any office, preferring to attend to his own private matters, hence his great success for one of those days.
Mrs. Hanson was a member of the Methodist Church, and he was an attendant and supporter of the various churches, though not a member of any, rather leaning towards Universalism.
DOMINICUS HANSON received the advantages of a common-school education until he was some fifteen years of age, and this was supplemented by an academic education at Rochester Academy, Parsonsfield Seminary, Me., and Hopkinton and Pembroke, N. H. In 1830 he commenced the drug business as an apprentice to his brother-in-law, Dr. Smith, and served him two years, when in 1832 he bought Dr. Smith's interest, and continued in the business till the fire of December, 1880, except some two or three years when away at school. Immediately after the fire he built on the same spot a fine store now occupied by Burnham.
As an evidence of the confidence reposed in Mr. Hanson as an honest and trustworthy gentleman, we may mention that at the earnest solicitation of the business men of his native town, he issued scrip of the respective denominations - 10 cts., 25 cts., and 50 cts., - to the amount of $8,000, which reads as follows : -
"STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, Rochester, Sept. 27, 1862. " For value received, I promise to pay on demand, in current Bank Bills, in sums of one dollar and upwards, at my place of business. "DOMINICUS HANSON."
This scrip was issued when there was a scarcity of circulating money during the great civil war, and before the general govern- ment had issued any money. Circulating throughout New England, it was never refused, and was promptly redeemed when the general government made its issue. " Honest Dominicus," as he has been known by his friends for long years! Who ever saw the goodly village of Norway Plains but recalls his prim, pressed-brick two-story apothecary store, with its circular front, once the most stylish store in the whole State of New Hampshire? its long- remembered and excellent brick sidewalk in front, dating back
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to time immemorial, before this prospective city knew the luxury of sidewalks? its broad stone steps, always a delight to the innu- merable patrons of this popular resort, who climbed them with the assurance of safe foothold and excellent reception beyond ?
If Noah could by any means be compelled to refit and re-arrange the ark, and take in all that he considered necessary to stock a new world, he couldn't collect the six or eight million invaluable articles which were here gathered together from the four corners of the earth (or " coming the next day ") unless he had the nearly miraculous experience of our subject, and to acquire such an expe- rience would cost a frightful expenditure of both time and money.
Mr. Hanson is now (1888) seventy-five years of age, a little less than six feet in height, stands erect, possesses rather a commanding figure, moves quickly like an active young man of twenty-five. His hair, always inclined to brown, is silvered with age. He is of a markedly nervous organization, his thin-cut face bearing its certain evidence. Nothing about his face or general appearance is strongly marked above many other men you may meet in the course of a day's ride in any portion of Yankee land; by that sign you can judge the man.
If ever wit and drollery overflowed in one person, here it is. I know of no two faces in the country that so nearly resemble each other as that of "Honest Dominicus" and the happy countenance of America's humorist, "Mark Twain." The general impression left by the two faces is the same, -the same mysterious gleam, sure token of the mental flash, occurs in each, and the wit and humor of each are fully recognized among his friends. The par- allel holds good still further : in neither case can the purpose or intent be solved. A matter of the lightest import may be treated with ponderous gravity befitting a funeral oration, and while either of the two is discoursing with lengthened face upon the topic, the bystanders are convulsed with laughter. On the contrary, many things which bewilder the brains of common people are heartily laughed at by them. Like all puzzling human enigmas both these worthies have become idealized in the affectionate regard of many friends. But Mr. Hanson is a study. In him lie the gentle graces, geniality, cute Yankee sense, and the subtile and evanescent essence of fun. In him dwells a constant gleam of drollery, always welcome as sunshine in winter, or flowers in May. The mirth
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which overflows in his happy moments is all the more welcome because of the uncertainty of its aim. It may be gentle invective of society's shams; perhaps a tinge of sarcasm wittily said lightens his efforts.
In politics he has been a life-long Democrat of the old school. He was an earnest supporter of General Jackson for the presidency for the second term, though not old enough to vote. He cast his first presidential vote for Martin Van Buren, and has voted at every election since. Without his knowledge he was appointed postmaster of his native village by President Jackson, ere his majority, and he continued to hold the same position under Van Buren's and Harrison's administrations. He has been director of the Norway Plains Savings Bank for many years.
He married Betsey S., daughter of Simon Chase, a prominent merchant in Rochester, Sept. 19, 1839. She was born in Milton, August 4, 1814. Of this union two sons have been born, -Charles A. C., born in Rochester, August 18, 1844, and George W., born July 6, 1854, and died January 6, 1856.
JAMES HERVEY EDGERLY.
BY HON. C. W. FOLSOM.
The character and prosperity of every community depend largely upon a few leading minds that to a great extent form and mold public opinion. Rochester has been specially fortunate in devel- oping men illustrious for their energy, industry, and integrity. Prominent among these stands JAMES HERVEY EDGERLY, who for half a century has been thoroughly identified with every step of progress pertaining to the best interests of the town of his adoption. His good sense and wise counsels have had much to do in shaping the destinies of Rochester, in whose activities and advancement he has always borne an honorable and conspicuous part.
JAMES H. EDGERLY was born in Farmington, Jan. 28, 1814, of the seventh generation from Thomas Edgerly, an Englishman, who settled in Durham in 1665. On his maternal side his ancestry in the Roberts line contained a mixture of Scotch-Irish blood. At the age of ten years he removed with his parents to Great Falls, where they remained nine years, and then returned to Farmington.
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Having acquired a good common school education he satisfied his higher aspirations by attending the academies at Wolfeborough and Rochester, and the Institute at New Hampton, supplementing a thoroughly practical education by teaching school winters. His father intended him for the law, but his tastes were for mechanics, and he was apprenticed to his uncle, the late Hon. Josiah B. Edgerly, a carriage manufacturer at Farmington. In January, 1835, he went to Great Falls, where he worked at his trade for one year. The next year he was a journeyman in Boston at good wages. Then came the financial crash of 1837, when business was at a stand-still, and workmen all over the country were thrown out of employment. The young man from the granite hills with indomitable will and laudable ambition took up his march to the westward, and found employment in St. Louis, Mo. After about a year he again migrated to Burlington, Iowa. After a few months' labor he was attacked with fever and ague, and, as the only chance of recovery, was finally obliged to return home in the fall of 1838. In September, 1839, he came to Rochester, where he opened a carriage shop, and began also the business of an undertaker. Here for nearly fifty years he has honored an honorable employment by a life of industry and usefulness. In all his business relations, as well as in the various positions of trust to which he has been called, he has been guided by that noblest of virtues, fidelity. Lacking neither the information nor the courage to maintain his principles, his sphere of usefulness may have been greater than as if he had been a lawyer.
Possessed of a military spirit even from boyhood, in 1834 he was commissioned captain, in 1840 adjutant of the Thirty-ninth Regiment, and three years later was appointed brigade inspector. In 1849 he was unanimously chosen captain of the "Rochester Phalanx," an independent company composed of many of the first young men of the town, and continued in command till the military system of the State was changed in 1856.
He held the office of deputy sheriff from 1844 to 1847, and acted as guard at the execution of Andrew Howard (p. 312). He had been selected by Sheriff Hoyt to assist in the execution, but another deputy asked Mr. Edgerly to change places with him. "Certainly," said Mr. Edgerly; "while I would not shirk my duty, I have no wish to be particularly prominent in swinging a poor wretch into eternity."
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In 1844 Mr. Edgerly was appointed justice of the peace, and acted as such forty years, declining to again qualify in 1884. In 1853 he was made an associate justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and remained a sound adviser until the system of courts was changed.
Mr. Edgerly was made a Mason Nov. 16, 1850; was Master of Humane Lodge from 1854 to 1858, and again in 1861; was treas- urer from 1873 to 1884; and D. D. G. Master in 1858-59. He was a charter member of Temple Chapter of R. A. M., and is a Knight Templar.
In politics Mr. Edgerly was originally a Democrat, but dissented from his party in regard to the Fugitive Slave Law, the Dred Scott Decision, and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. After its repeal, believing that " squatter sovereignty " applied to Kansas, he became a "Douglas Democrat." But when rebellion arose he laid aside all party affiliations, and to the full extent of his power and influence supported the administration in its suppression, and advocated the second election of Abraham Lincoln. The pres- ervation of the Union, with its flag floating over the whole country, was to him the paramount principle, and no man in the town of Rochester is held in higher esteem by the soldiers of the Grand Army than he. They remember him as one who stood by them and their families, and in word and deed proved himself the patriot- citizen, the friend who fought for them at home while they were fighting for freedom at the front.
In 1866 he was appointed judge of probate for Strafford county, and held the office till removed for political reasons by the Dem- ocratic State administration in 1874.
The life of Judge Edgerly has been long and eventful, full of interesting incidents which illustrated the character of the man. Just after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, a slave fleeing to Canada came one night to the house of the late Hon. J. H. Ela. The United States officers were in close pursuit, and as Mr. Ela was a noted abolitionist, he feared they would find their victim without fail if he kept him in hiding at his own house. So he went to Mr. Edgerly, who being a well-known Democrat would be unsuspected, and stated the case: how the poor fellow had been hunted from the rice swamps of Carolina, chased by blood- hounds, and traveling by night with the North star for his guide,
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resting in the woods by day, had now so nearly reached the land of freedom, and what a death blow to his hopes it would be now to be captured and sent back to slavery. Mr. Edgerly had been walking the room with rapid strides, his great heart filled with indignation against the law, and with no hesitation became "a conductor on the underground railroad." By his aid, advice, and money the slave escaped to Canada. This is only one of many incidents showing that his heart was always in the right place, and by which he won a firm hold on the love and respect of his fellow townsmen.
The writer of this hasty sketch remembers him best when, as a member of the school committee, he made frequent visits to the schools, and became almost a father to hundreds of boys and girls who are now men and women. Though the silver threads are mixed with the dark ones of our heads, and many have left the old home for other States, yet none of those who attended the Main-street school in those days will ever forget honest-hearted, free-spoken, bluff, good-natured Judge Edgerly, who made all their interests his interests.
SAMUEL JAMESON VARNEY.
SAMUEL J. VARNEY, son of Capt. Phineas Varney, was born at Gonic in 1814. His father sailed in command of the privateer brig Mars from Portsmouth, and was never heard from. Mr. Varney left home in 1831, and served an apprenticeship in the " Dover Gazette " office, with John T. Gibbs. In 1835 he purchased " The Iris," at Methuen, Mass., and changed it to the "Methuen Falls Gazette." After four years he sold out, and having spent a short time in the West, he bought the "Vox Populi " at Lowell, Mass., which he published from 1841 to 1850, when he bought the "Lowell Courier and Journal." In 1855 he bought back the "Vox Populi " and published it till his decease, Nov. 11, 1859. In 1836 he married Mary Jane, daughter of Stephen Place of Rochester. She died in 1850 leaving five children. In 1851 he married Ruth Stewart, who survived him with two children. In 1850-51 he was a member of the common council, and of the board of aldermen in 1852 and 1859. The printers of Lowell and other citizens in large numbers attended his funeral. An obituary
. Row Ezekiel Tem
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notice says : - " All works of benevolence and philanthropy were sure of his co-operation. In social life he was unusually happy and considerate of the comfort of others. The needy never came to him in vain, and the sick and suffering never lacked his ten- derest care. His place is not easily filled. The good he did will long survive him, and there are many of our citizens who will till life's end consecrate a warm corner of their hearts to his memory."
REV. EZEKIEL TRUE.
Henry True came from England and settled in Salem, Mass., where he married a daughter of Capt. Robert Pike and had two sons, the elder of whom was Capt. Henry True. He married Jane Bradbury and had four children, among whom was Dea. John True, who married Martha Morrell and had five children. Their second son, Ezekiel, married Mary Morrell and settled at Salisbury Plain, Mass. Among their ten children was Jacob, who settled in Salis- bury, N. H., and married Lydia Dow. The fourth of their six children was Ezekiel, born at Salisbury, Feb. 6, 1780. He married Nancy Nutting, daughter of one of the first settlers of Corinth, Vt., and had eight children. He owned a farm but was a house carpenter by trade, and his four boys did most of the farm work.
EZEKIEL TRUE, the youngest of the four, was born at Corinth, Vt., June 5, 1814. In his boyhood he had a great liking for books and study, and farming was to him a tiresome drudgery. From twelve years of age he cherished an intense purpose to obtain education enough to teach a common school. His school privileges were limited to about two months each winter, and yet by his persevering energy he passed the examination, obtaining a teacher's certificate at the age of seventeen, and taught a two- months' school with commendable success, receiving eight dollars a month and board. For the next four years he worked on the farm in the summer, attended the Academy at Bradford, Vt., in the fall, and taught school in the winter.
From a very early age he was seriously inclined, and deeply anxious in regard to personal religion. He was converted in 1828, and joined the Free Will Baptist Church in Corinth, March 20, 1830. Impressed with the conviction that the ministry must be his life work, he preached his first sermon July 5, 1835, from
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Matthew 16: 26. He continued to preach through the summer, and in the winter traveled, holding meetings in various places through Northern Vermont, but with no marked success. Feeling the need of a better education he went to North Parsonsfield Seminary in Maine, the only academy then belonging to his denomination. His father gave him twenty dollars, and by the aid of teaching winters, he acquired a common academic education. After leaving school he held meetings in Cornish, Me., resulting in sixty or seventy conversions.
He was ordained at Corinth, Vt., June 22, 1837, and in Jan- uary, 1838, became pastor of the Free Will Baptist Church in Portsmouth, where he remained three years, adding the labors of a city missionary to the regular pastoral work. During this time about one hundred were added to the church. For thirty-five years he preached without the loss of a single Sabbath, and was in labors abundant for nearly ten years more. Having been pastor in Wells, South Berwick, and Saco, Me., and in Portsmouth, Ashland, Pittsfield, Lake Village, Alton, Gilford, and Farmington, N. H., he spent his last years in Rochester, where he founded the Rochester Village Free Will Baptist Church, and where he died Feb. 18, 1883 (p. 283-5).
In November, 1839, he married Sylvia M. Hobbs of Wells, Me., whose natural abilities, education, and rare spiritual gifts qualified her to be a most efficient helpmeet in all his work. She died April 30, 1881. In June, 1882, he married Mrs. Clara D. Smith, who survives him.
Mr. True was a man of untiring energy, wholly devoted to his work. He served on the school board in most of the towns where he resided. He preached not less than four thousand and five hundred sermons, attended about five hundred funerals, married three hundred and fifty couples, and baptized about three hundred persons. His genial, social disposition won him many friends who still hold his name in affectionate remembrance.
DR. JASPER H. YORK.
JASPER HAZEN YORK was born in Lee, Feb. 27, 1816, and died in Dover, April 7, 1874. When he was two years of age his parents moved from Lee to Rochester, which place remained his
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home till he made one for himself in South Boston. He was the third son of John and Rebecca York. His father was a suc- cessful farmer, retiring in his disposition, but widely known and respected for his honesty, integrity, and good common sense. His mother was a woman of great strength of character and wonder- fully successful in impressing her own superior mental power upon her children.
In early boyhood he was noted for his love of books and stu- dious habits. As he grew older the passion for an education took complete possession of him, and nothing short of a profession would satisfy his ambition. His father used every inducement to have him remain on the farm, but when he became convinced that this was utterly repugnant to the boy's desires, he reluctantly gave his consent that this son should choose his own life work.
After leaving the public schools he continued his studies at Phillips Exeter Academy. Then for several years he taught school in Kittery, Me., Dover, N. H., and other places. As a teacher he was wonderfully successful, not only in the public schools but in after years when he had a continuous succession of medical students in his office. He always took great interest in educational affairs, serving with signal success on the school committee in Boston for many years, proving himself one of the most efficient men that board ever had.
He graduated from Harvard Medical College with honor in the year 1845. He soon settled in South Boston and immediately acquired a good practice. He was early noted for his surgical skill -in fact he had nearly all the surgery in South Boston - and also for his skill in diagnosis, seeming to arrive at correct conclu- sions almost intuitively. In every way he proved himself an able, skillful physician, winning the confidence of his patients and the respect of other medical men. Soon after he settled in South Boston he entered heartily into the anti-slavery movement, using freely his influence and his money to advance the interest of the cause, and ardently supporting Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, and Theodore Parker in their warfare upon the great evil of slavery.
His parents were Free Will Baptists and he had been brought up in that faith, but about this time his religious thought under-
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went a change, so that he connected himself with the society over which Theodore Parker was pastor.
When the Know-Nothing party sprang into its ephemeral exist- ence, and the Roman Catholics of Boston and elsewhere endeav- ored to put it down, Dr. York took strong sides with that party, because he believed in free thought, free speech, and absolutely free government, and did not believe in uneducated, irresponsible men from other countries dominating and ruling native-born citizens. For the active part he took in this he came near being mobbed by the Catholics. He was fearless to the highest degree, a man of decided convictions, and always ready to defend them, with his life if necessary.
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