USA > New Hampshire > Men of progress; biographical sketches and portraits of leaders in business and professional life in and of the state of New Hampshire > Part 11
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The new library building was erected under his care and supervision, and he contributed toward it in order to have it properly built. Mr. Upton has always been an active Republican. On June 28, 1853, he was married to Sarah M. Duncan, daugh-
PETER UPTON.
ter of Hiram Duncan of Jaffrey, former partner of Mr. Upton. They have three children: Mary A., now Mrs. W. L. Goodnow ; Hiram Duncan Upton of Manchester, New Hampshire; and Alice W., now Mrs. S. B. Pearmain of Boston.
WILDER, CHRISTOPHER WALKER, Bank Treas- urer, Conway, New Hampshire, was born in Lan- caster, Massachusetts, January 7, 1829, son of Eli- sha and Emily (Pollard) Wilder. He is of English descent, being in the sixth generation from Thomas Wilder, who came from Lancaster and settled in the town of the same name in Massachusetts. It is interesting to note that in a signature, July 1, 1659, to a Covenant, entered into by the first set- tlers of Lancaster, he spelled his name Wyelder. The subject of this sketch was educated in the com- mon schools and in the Academy at Fryeburg, Maine. Upon the death of his mother, his father had found a home for the three children with an aunt in Conway, New Hampshire. After serving an apprenticeship in the trade of harness making
and carriage trimming, Christopher Wilder com- menced business in Conway Village, then a stage center, in 1850, and continued to carry on the same until 1875. While a member of the Legislature in 1869, he succeeded in obtaining the charter of the Conway Savings Bank, assisted in its organization the following years, and has ever since been con- nected with the institution as a Trustee. For eleven years, he served as Assistant Treasurer and Secretary, and since 1885, has been its Treasurer. In 1871 he was appointed Register of the Probate Court by Governor Weston, holding the position five years, and has been in practice in that court up to the present time. He was Commissioner for Carroll county in 1860-63, member of the Board of Selectmen of Conway in 1864, 1865, 1866, 1867, a Representative to the State Legislature in 1868 and 1869, and again a Selectman in 1877 and 1878. He is an Odd Fellow, having been a member of the Saco Valley Lodge, No. 21, from 1854 to 1892, and of Swift River Lodge, No. 84, from 1892 up to the present time. He is a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Society in Conway Village. In poli-
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CHRISTOPHER W. WILDER.
tics he is a Democrat. Mr. Wilder was married November 25, 1852, to Sophia Greenwood of Farm- ington, Maine. They have had three children : George Sidney, Annette A., Fred G., and Henry P. Wilder. The last named only is living.
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TWITCHELL, ALBERT SOBIESKI, Lawyer. Gor- ham, was born in Bethel, Maine, September 16, 1840, son of Joseph A. and Orinda L. (Mason) Twitchell. He is a descendant of two of the oldest families who settled in Oxford county, Maine. He
ALBERT S. TWITCHELL.
received his education in Gould's Academy in his native town. He left school at the age of sixteen and taught for a time in the common schools. During the Civil War, he served as an enlisted soldier. Ile studied law and was admitted to the Bar at Paris, Maine, at the September term, 1865, and to the New Hampshire Bar, at Lancaster, at the October term, 1866. Beginning the practice of his profession at Gorham in 1866, he has remained there ever since. He was Selectman of the town for three years and has been a member of the School Board for the past twelve years. For three years, he was Railroad Commissioner for New Hampshire and Commissary General of New Hampshire for two years. He served as Consul at Santiago de Cuba, under President Harrison. He was President of the New Hampshire Veterans' Association for two years ; has been Judge Advo- cate and Junior and Senior Vice-Commander, De- partinent New Hampshire Grand Army of the Republic, and is at present the Department Com- mander. Mr. Twitchell is a Thirty-second degree Mason ; a member of John F. Willis Post No. 59.
Gorham : an Odd Fellow, a member of Glen Lodge at the same place : a member of Bramhall Lodge No. 3. Knights of Pythias. Portland, Maine, and is President of the Gorham Five Cent Savings Bank. In politics he is a Republican, from principle rather than policy. He married May 7, 1869. Emma A. Howland of Gorham. They had two children : Harold P., born May 31. 1875. who died May 23. 1883 : and Rita May Twitchell, born May 16, 1889.
WALLACE. SUMNER. Shoe Manufacturer. Rochester, was born in that place March 7, 1856, son of Ebenezer G. and Sarah E. (Greenfield) Wal- lace. On his father's side, he is of Scotch-Irish descent and on his mother's. English. He received his early education in the public schools and at the Academy in his native town. Later, he prepared for college at the South Berwick Academy, entered Dartmouth and was graduated in 1877. For a number of years after leaving college, he worked in the shop at the bench and is now a member of the firm of E. G. & E. Wallace, manufacturers of boots
SUMNER WALLACE.
and shoes. He is President of the Rochester Loan and Banking Company, and of the Union Electric Company, a Director of the Great Falls Manufac- turing Company of the Strafford Manufacturing Company, of the Star Belting Company, of the
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Standard Rivet Company, Boston, of the Union National Bank of Omaha, of the First National Bank of Carroll, Iowa, of the Manchester & Law- rence Railroad, and of the Baltimore & Annapolis Short Line Railroad. He is a Trustee of the Roch- ester Library. In 1878 Mr. Wallace was Super- visor of the check-list, in 1885 was a member of the Legislature, and for a number of years was a member of the State Central Committee. He has been through the chairs in the Odd Fellows, and is a Mason and a Knight of the Essenic Order, He was married January 30, 1884, to Harriet Z. Curtis. They have one son : Scott Wallace.
ALLEN, JAMES FRANKLIN, Indian Department at Washington, District of Columbia, a resident of Rockville, Maryland, was born in Hopkinton, New
JAMES F. ALLEN.
Hampshire, August 13, 1841, son of Jonathan Leach and Caroline Brown (Allison) Allen. He is descended in the paternal line in the seventh gen- eration from William Allen, who came from Eng- land to Cape Ann, now Gloucester, for and with the Dorchester Company in 1624, and went to Naum- keag, now Salem, three years later, and in 1640 moved to Manchester, Massachusetts, then called Jeffries' Creek. Jonathan Allen in the fourth gen- eration from William, removed to Hopkinton, New Hampshire, in 1780, where he died in 1792, and
where his descendants lived down to 1863. Mr. Allen's maternal grandfather, James Allison, lived for many years in Dunbarton, of which town he was Postmaster, and represented it in the Legislature in 1827-'28. His great-grandfather came to this country in 1718, and settled with the Scotch-Irish Colony in Londonderry. He attended the common schools of Hopkinton, and Hopkinton and Pem- broke Academies. He was graduated from Dart- mouth College in the class of 1862; studied law with the Hon. Mason W. Tappan for about six months, and graduated with the class of the Law Department of Columbian College, Washington, District of Columbia, June 12, 1866. He was admitted to the Bar June 12 of that year. From December 23, 1863, to December 31, 1875, he was employed as a clerk in the office of the Third Audi- tor of the Treasury of Washington, resigning this office to engage in the practice of law and claims business until March 7, 1881, when he was ap- pointed to a clerkship in the War Department. He resigned February 14, 1882, to accept a position in the Indian Department which he holds at the pres- ent time, having been promoted through all the various grades. Hle was a Commissioner to negotiate with the Nez Perce Indians, November 14, 1892, and thus employed until February 18, 1893. He is a member of the Town Council, Rockville, Mary- land, 1896-'98. He is a Mason and Past Master of the Pentalpha Lodge, No. 23, Washington, Dis- trict of Columbia, and Montgomery Lodge, No. 195, Rockville, Maryland, Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons ; Past High Priest Mount Vernon Chapter, No. 3, Washington, District of Columbia, and Montgomery Chapter, No. 33, Rockville, Mary- land, Royal Arch Masons ; Past Illustrious Master, King Solomon Council, No. 13, Royal and Select Master, Rockville, Maryland ; Past Commander of the Columbia Commandery, No. 2, Knights Tem- plar, Washington, District of Columbia, and at present Junior Warden of the Grand Lodge of Masons of Maryland. He is a Republican, but has not been active in politics. Mr. Allen was married October 25, 1866, to Julia A. Dow, and August 28, 1888, to Lilabel Maus.
ALLISON, GEORGE AUGUSTUS, for many years a leading merchant of Boston, and who died in that city in January, 1898, was a New Hampshire man and a native of Warner. He was born September 14, 1843, son of James and Mary (Ireland) Allison. His father was a native of Dunbarton, and was
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born in 1784. On the paternal side, Mr. Allison traces his descent from Clan MacAllister of the Scotch-Irish race. It is recorded in 1718 that Samuel Allison, then twenty-eight years of age, left Londonderry, Ireland. for Boston. The next year he moved to Nutfield. now Londonderry, New Hampshire, where in the cemetery his gravestone may be seen. When George AAllison was two years old the family moved from Warner to Manchester, and again in 1853 to Goffstown. The boy at- tended the district school, and a little later studied Greek, his instructor being the minister of his par- ish. He became a student of Pembroke Academy, where he was known for his diligent attention to his books. When he was fifteen years old he walked from the Academy to Concord and back, a distance of fifteen miles, to hear a lecture by
G. A. ALLISON.
Edward Everett. He took an academical course at Pembroke with the hope of going to Dartmouth and fitting for medicine, but circumstances did not per- init the carrying out of this plan, and he went into the employ of his brother, in Concord, who was a pharmacist. By the time he was eighteen. Mr. Allison was recognized as a competent and especially accurate druggist. He finally graduated from the retail to the wholesale business of a druggist, and in 1869 became a partner in the firm of Poor, Towne & Company, of Boston. In 1878 Mr. . Alli-
son went into the wholesale Hour business with the firm of Dorr. Heald & Co., which soon became Dorr, Allison & Co., and for the remaining twenty years of his life he was widely known in that line of trade. Among his business acquaint- ances all over the country, he enjoyed a marked degree of confidence, and at his decease, tributes of regard were received by his family and firm from about forty of the best known business concerns in the flour trade in the country. In 1865. Mr. Alli- son took up his residence in Cambridge, where he soon became a factor of good in the life of the city. For two years he was a member of the Common Council, for two more an Alderman, and for four years served on the School Board. He was a Director of the Chamber of Commerce for five years, was Treasurer of the Sons of New Hampshire, and Auditor of the Colonial Club. He held many important positions in the North Avenue Baptist church, of which he became a member in 1870. At the time of his death he was Vice-President of the Cambridge Club. He was a member of the Amer- ican Order of United Workmen, and Royal Arca- num. In politics he was always a Republican. Mr. AAllison was married November 12, 1864, and left three children.
AMEN, HARLAN PAGE, Principal of Phillips Exeter Academy, was born at Sinking Spring, Highland county, Ohio, April 14, 1853. son of Daniel and Sarah Jane (Barbour) Amen. On the paternal side, his ancestors were of the Huguenot stock, who went from France to Switzerland, where representatives of the family still live, some of them having held high public offices in recent years. Durst Ammen, for religious and political reasons, left Switzerland for America. His descendants (Ammen and Amen by name) have lived mostly in Virginia and Ohio. Admiral Daniel Ammen and General Jacob Amen are representatives of the Virginia and Ohio family. Harlan P. Amen attended the com- mon schools of his native town, and in 1868 and 1870 studied at the Portsmouth High School. The story of his struggle for an education, and his success as a teacher and student, is an inspiration in itself. While he was a pupil of the Portsmouth Iligh School. he found it necessary to earn some money. He became a clerk in the Valley Book- store, a wholesale and retail establishment, the pro- prietor of which was Captain W. W. Reilly. Here he kept the books, and acted as stock-boy. While he was bookkeeper, a fire did great damage to the
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store, and Mr. Amen's efforts in saving the account books, and a part of the stock, led to his employer presenting him a watch, the first timekeeper he ever possessed. He studied hard, during his clerkship, and was much encouraged in his ambi- tion for an education by his former principal of the High School, as well as by a minister and physi- cian in his native town. When he came East, and began his studies at Exeter in 1872, he found him- self with only thirty-five dollars in his pocket, but he obtained various employments, including tutor- ing, etc., and was able to support himself and lay by seventy-five dollars in his last year, when he won the Gordon scholarship, the second largest prize
HARLAN P. AMEN.
(one hundred and twenty dollars), then existing in the school. His closest competitor was William De Witt Hyde, now President of Bowdoin College. Mr. Hyde and Mr. Amen were room-mates at Exeter, and afterwards at Harvard, and have been close friends ever since. Mr. Amen entered Har- vard College with honors in 1875, and was gradu- ated in 1879, having won a scholarship in each year of his course. He began teaching, immedi- ately upon his graduation from Harvard, and became an Instructor in Riverview Academy, Poughkeepsie, New York, in the fall of 1879. After three years, he accepted an offer as equal partner with Otis Bisbee and Joseph B. Bisbee in
the firm of Bisbee, Son & Amen, to manage the business affairs of the Academy. When he began teaching in 1879, the total enrolment of students at Riverview was forty-one. The school had been losing ground for many years, but after 1879-'80 the number of students steadily increased until it reached a maximum of one hundred and eighty- four, a year or two before he left the school. In 1885, Mr. Otis Bisbee died. The school then came into the hands of his son and Mr. Amen, as equal principals and proprietors. This partnership continued until June, 1895, when Mr. Amen left Riverview to become Principal of Phillips Exeter Academy. There his administration has been markedly successful. He was honored with the degree of A. M. by Williams College in 1886, and in 1888 was elected an honorary member of the American Whig Society, of Princeton University. He is a member of the Twilight Club and Univer- sity Club of New York ; the Appalachian Mountain Club and University Club of Boston; the Ameri- can Archæological Society, the American Philologi- cal Society, member and officer of several educa- tional organizations, etc. In 1892, he spent four months on a trip abroad, visiting the public schools of England,-Rugby, Eton, Harrow, Winchester, St. Paul's, Cheltenham, Charterhouse, and others, as well as a number of the leading secondary schools of Germany and France. Mr. Amen mar- ried, April 5, 1882, Mary B. Rawson of Whitins- ville, Massachusetts. He has four children : Mar- garet Rawson, Elizabeth Wheeler, Rachel Perne, and John Harlan Amen.
BRANCH, OLIVER ERNESTO, Ex-United States District Attorney for New Hampshire, Manchester, was born in Madison, Lake county, Ohio, July 19, 1847, son of William Witter and Lucy J. (Bartram) Branch. His father, who was born at Aurelius, Cayuga county, New York, August 31, 1804, was a lawyer, and one of the Judges of the Court of Com- mon Pleas for Lake county. He obtained the char- ter for the Cleveland, Plainsville & Ashtabula Rail- road in 1848, and was chief promoter of the road which afterwards developed into the great Lake Shore System. William Branch was the eldest son of Deacon William Branch of Preston, Connecticut, born September 3, 1760. He was a soldier of the Revolution, enlisted in 1777, fought through the war under Washington's command; was at Mon- mouth, Germantown, Fort Mifflin, and Yorktown ; wintered at Valley Forge; was one of Major
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Andre's guards during his trial, and helped take him down from the gallows. On the disbanding of the army, he received a " badge of merit " for six years' service, signed by Washington. He was the son of Samuel Branch of Preston, Connecticut. born September 3, 1701. who was the son of Peter Branch, one of the founders of Preston, Connecticut, born at Marshfield, Massachusetts, 1659. and died at Preston, December 27. 1713. John Branch of Scituate, Massachusetts, father of Peter, was born in Holden. England. 1628. He was the son of Peter Branch of that place. a carpenter, who sailed for America, with his son. in the ship " Castle," in 1638, and who died on the voyage. The boy, afterwards known as " John Branch of Scituate," married Mary Speed of Marshfield. in 1652. Peter Branch of Preston married Hannah Lincoln, in 1684. She was the daughter of Thomas and Mary (Austin) Lincoln, and granddaughter of Thomas Lincoln, the miller who built and owned the mill at Taunton, Massachusetts, in which the three com- missioners from Boston met King Philip. in April. 1681. to ask for an explanation of his hostile acts. Lucy J. (Bartram) Branch. mother of the subject of this sketch, was the daughter of Uriah and Re- becca (Williams) Bartram. She was born at Fair- field. Huntington county, Connecticut, May 25. 1816, and died at Madison, Ohio, May 17, 1897. She was the granddaughter of Daniel and Ann (Merchant) Bartram of Reading. Connecticut. Daniel Bartram was born at Reading, October 23. 1745 : and Ann Merchant at Fairfield. in 1769. Daniel Bartram was a soldier of the Revolution, and was the son of Daniel Bartram of Fairfield, who was born in 1702, and moved to Reading in 1733. He was the son of John Bartram of Fair- field, who was the son of John Bartram of the same place. Ann Merchant was the daughter of Elinor (Chauncey) Merchant, who was a descen- dant of Israel Chauncey of New Haven, son of the Reverend Charles Chauncey, the second President of Harvard College. On the paternal side. the lineage of Oliver E. Branch includes, besides the families mentioned, Lamb, Witter, Tracy, Wheeler. Williams, Wolcott, and Parke; and on the maternal side, besides those mentioned, Richmond, Gilbert, Chapin. Griswold, and Williams. Mr. Branch attended the public schools of Madison, Madison Seminary, and Whitestown Seminary, at Whites- borough, New York. He entered Hamilton Col- lege in September, 1869, being graduated June 25. 1873. Upon leaving college, he was Principal of
Forestville Free Academy and Union School, at Forestville, New York, for two years. He entered Columbia College Law School in September, 1875, and was graduated in May, 1877. He was Instruc- tor in Latin and History in the Brooklyn Polytech- nic and Collegiate Institute, at Brooklyn, from September, 1876, to June. 1877. He received the degree of A. M. from Hamilton in 1876, and from Dartmouth in 1896. Mr. Branch was admitted to the Bar, in New York, in June, 1877, and in New Hampshire in June, 1884. He began the practice of law in New York, with his brother, in the fall of 1877. and remained there until 1883. when he moved to New Hampshire, and engaged in literary
O. E. BRANCH.
work in Weare. He was elected in 1887 to the New Hampshire Legislature, and took a leading part in the famous railroad fight of that session. and was re-elected in 1889, when he was the Demo- cratie candidate for Speaker. Since 1889 he has been in active practice in Manchester, New Hamp- shire, removing there from Weare, in 1891. He has been counsel for the Boston & Maine Railroad and all important litigation for the last ten years. Among the many suits in which he has been engaged were the quo warranto proceedings brought by Harry Bingham et als. in 1891, vs. S. S. Jewell. Clerk of the House of Representatives of New Hampshire, for the control of the organization of
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the Legislature ; the suit brought by the Manches- ter & Lawrence Railroad vs. the Concord Railroad corporation, growing out of the operation of the Lawrence Railroad by the Concord, from 1856 to 1887 ; the protracted litigation between the Boston & Maine and the Concord & Montreal Railroad, prior to the consolidation of the two systems; in the suit of Pike vs. the New Hampshire Trust Company, involving the lease of the land on which the Kennard building, in Manchester, was erected. He was leading counsel for the Manchester & Law- rence road in the suit brought to recover claims of the state amounting to six hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars. Ile has made a special practice of corporation law, and has a large corporation client- age. Mr. Branch was appointed United States District Attorney for the District of New Hamp- shire, by President Cleveland, March 15, 1894, and held the office four years. He was Moderator for the town of Weare from 1884 to 1892. He is Vice-President of the New England Association of the Hamilton College Alumni, and of the New England Association of the Delta Upsilon Frater- nity. He is also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and of the Delta Upsilon, of Hamilton College. He has always been a Democrat, and has taken an active part on the stump in every campaign since the presidential election in 1868. He was permanent Chairman of the Democratic State Convention, of New Hampshire, in 1892. Mr. Branch married at Weare, October 17, 1878, Sarah M. Chase. They have four children : Oliver Winslow, Dorothy Witter, Frederick William, and Randolph Wellington Branch.
CHENEY, PERSON COLBY, Ex-Governor, Ex- Senator, and Ex-Minister to Switzerland, Manches- ter, was born in Holderness, New Hampshire, Feb- ruary 25, 1828, son of Moses Cheney, a well known paper manufacturer. He comes of good old New England stock. Mr. Cheney attended the acade- mies at Peterborough and Hancock, New Hamp- shire, and Parsonfield, Maine. He early became acquainted with the details of the paper business, and in 1847 assumed the management of the paper mill at Peterborough. In 1854 he became a mem- ber of the firm of Cheney, Hadley & Gowing. He removed to Manchester in 1866, becoming a dealer in paper stock and manufacturers' supplies, and also engaged in the paper manufacture at Goffs- town. New Hampshire, as a member of the firm of Cheney & Thorpe. He is now at the head of the
P. C. Cheney Company. Mr. Cheney early became interested in politics, and represented the town of Peterborough in the Legislature in 1853-'54. He entered ardently into the events of 1860-'61 and zealously aided and promoted the preparation of
P. C. CHENEY.
the State for the struggle to maintain the Union. In due time he offered his personal services, and in August, 1862, was appointed Quartermaster of the Thirteenth Regiment, Colonel A. F. Stevens. Mr. Cheney was taken seriously ill in January, 1863, and after three months' sickness was com- pelled to resign, but he sent a substitute to the ser- vice. He was a Railroad Commissioner for three years. Shortly after removing to Manchester, he became prominent in the Republican party, and was elected Mayor of the city in 1872, one of the marked features of his successful administration being the introduction of the fire alarm telegraph system. He declined a renomination as Mayor, but was elected Governor. 1875-'76. Governor Cheney was appointed United States Senator in the fall of 1886, to fill the unexpired term of Austin F. Pike, and in 1888 he was one of the delegates at large to the Republican National Convention. He was chosen a member of the Republican National Committee to succeed the Hon. E. H. Rollins, was re-elected in 1892 and still holds the position. In December, 1892, President Harrison appointed him
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Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Switzerland, which post he held until June 29. 1893. Mr. Cheney was one of the Directors of the Peterborough Bank at the time he removed to Man- chester, and has been President of the Peoples' Savings Bank of Manchester since its organization in 1874. He is a member of the Altemont Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; of Peterborough Chapter, No. 12, Royal Arch Masons; of Peterbor- ough Lodge, No. 15. Independent Order of Odd Fellows; of Louis Bell Post, Grand Army of the Republic : of the Massachusetts Loyal Legion, and of the Army of the Potomac. In 1872 he was elected a Trustee of Bates College, and founded a scholarship in that institution. .At the close of his gubernatorial service, Dartmouth College conferred upon him the degree of A. M. Although he has always been a liberal contributor to many religious organizations, his membership is with the Unitarian Society. Mr. Cheney married May 22. 1850. S. Anna, daughter of Samuel Morrison Moore of Bron- son, Michigan, who died January 7, 1858. Ile married June 29. 1859, Mrs. Sarah (White) Keith, daughter of Jonathan White, one of the earliest manufacturers of Lowell. Mrs. Cheney has been a leader in Manchester's society for years, and both her public and private charities are numerous. For twenty years she has been President of the Women's Aid and Relief Society of Manchester. Governor Cheney has one child, Agnes Anna, born October 22. 1869. now the wife of Charles H. Fish. Agent of the Cocheco Manufacturing Company of Dover, New Hampshire. His grandchildren are, Sarah Cheney Fish, born May 10, 1889; Mary Jarvis Fish, born June 30. 1890, and Agnes Cheney Fish, born January 30. 1897.
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