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 15
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STAHL. ABRAHAM M., Banker, and Dry-Goods Dealer, Berlin, was born near Cassel. Germany, March 24. 1853, son of Nehm and Sara (Metzyer) Stahl. He received a common school education, and from an early age depended upon his own re-
A. M. STAIIL ..
sources. In his business career he has been very successful. He has been engaged in the dry-goods business since 1872, and in Berlin he has been identified with many of the other leading interests of the town. For seven years he has been Presi- dent of the Berlin Savings Bank and Trust Com- pany, and for five years President of the Green Aqueduct and Land Company of the same place. He has also been a Director in the Daniel Green Land Company. He served as Representative of the General Court of the State of New Hampshire at the session of 1891. Ile is a member of the Sabatis Lodge, No. 95, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; of Coos Lodge, No. 25, Knights of Pythias. and he is also an Odd Fellow. In politics he is a Gold Democrat. Mr. Stahl was married August. 1887. to Flora Guttman of Somersworth, New Hamp- shire. He has two children : Selma Louise and Jerome Guttman Stahl.
TENNEY. CHARLES HENRY, Merchant and Manufacturer, New York, was born in Salem. New Hampshire, July 9. 18 12, son of John F. and
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Hannah (Woodbury) Tenney. He attended the town schools of Salem, and had a course at Tilton Academy. At the age of sixteen he began his business career in a grocery store at Methuen, Massachusetts. He embarked in a shoe store at the age of twenty-one and was quite successful for two years, and then started in the manufacture of hats, a business he has since continued in addition to the commission business in the same articles. He has been highly successful in business, and is one of the New Hampshire men who has made for himself a mark in the big city of New York. He is a member of the Metropolitan Club ; of the New England Society ; Union League Club ; New York
CHAS. H. TENNEY.
Athletic Club; the Reform Club; the Manhattan Club ; the Lotus Club and the Chamber of Com- merce, all of New York. In politics he is a Demo- crat. Mr. Tenney was married November 23, 1865, to Fanny G. Gleason. They have one son, Daniel G. Tenney.
STURTEVANT, EDWARD HIRAM, Manufacturer and Ex-Mayor of Franklin, was born in Craftsbury, Vermont, April 27, 1845, son of Hiram and Eliza S. (Corey) Sturtevant. His father, the only son of Ezra and Lucy Sturtevant, was a farmer early in life, but in 1853 sold his place in Craftsbury and removed to Barton, Vermont, later moving to Leb-
anon, and buying an interest in a manufactory of sash, doors, blinds, and furniture carried on by J. C. Sturtevant, and continued in this business for four years. Then selling his interest to his part- ner, he started a shoe store, continuing in this bus- iness until he retired. He died December 8, 1895. He had four children : Edward H., Mary E., now the wife of David G. Thomson, Superintendent of the Montreal Transportation Company at Montreal ; Ezra L., a lumber dealer in Chicago, and Henry H., proprietor of a department store in Zanesville, Ohio. 'The subject of this sketch attended the common schools until he was twelve years of age, and then spent four years in Barton Academy, completing the course at sixteen. He taught in the district school during the winter, and the next spring entered the employ of William Joslyn & Sons, druggists, with a view of learning the busi- ness. Two years later he obtained a position in Wellington, Ohio, as head clerk in a drug store, and there remained about two years, the last year making all the purchases of goods and having gen- eral management of the business. Poor health, largely due to the climate, compelled him to leave Ohio, and he returned to Lebanon, where he started a drug store in April, 1866. This business proved a success, and in a few months Mr. Sturte- vant sold the business at a handsome figure to Doctor I. N. Perley. Joslyn & Sons, his former employers, offered to join him in establishing a drug-store in Colebrook, and he accepted the propo- sition. The store was built and stocked with drugs, medicines, paints, oils, books, and stationery, Mr. Sturtevant having the management for the first two years. Then Mr. G. S. Joslyn, one of the sons, bought out his interest in the establishment. Mr. Sturtevant went on a trip through the states of lowa and Michigan, looking for a favorable busi- ness opening, but here again the climate failed to agree with him, and he decided to return to New England. In January, 1869, he opened a drug store in Woodstock, Vermont, taking his brother Ezra as a partner, and added boots and shoes as 'a part of the business. In April, 1874, the brothers sold out the business, Ezra Sturtevant going West and Edward HI. Sturtevant removing to Franklin, where he bought two drug stores, one at Franklin, and the other at Franklin Falls. Eventually he sold the latter store to Frank H. Chapman. In 1883 he bought a half interest in the Franklin Needle Company, taking the management and hold- ing the office of Treasurer of the concern from that
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time. Beginning with about twenty-five employees. the business has been developed until one hundred and seventy-five are now employed, and the com- pany has a trade extending throughout the United States, Canada, several South American countries and England. In 1887 Mr. Sturtevant sold his Franklin drug-store to W. M. Woodward, his duties with the manufacturing company requiring all his time and attention. He is a Director in the Frank- lin National Bank. Trustee of the Franklin Savings Bank, Director and Vice-President of the Franklin Power and Light Company. President and Director of the Franklin Falls Company, and Director in the Sulloway Mills Company. In 1893 he repre-
F .. IT. STURTEVANT.
sented the town in the Legislature, and in 1896 was Mayor of Franklin. He is a member of the Meridian Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Ma- sons of Franklin, St. Omer Chapter, Royal Arch Masons of Franklin, and Mt. Horeb Commandery of Concord. He is an Odd Fellow and a mem- ber of the Encampment and Canton. In politics he is a Republican. He is a member of the Unitarian Church Society. He married in May, 1869. Ada E. Martin, daughter of Joseph A. and Elvira I. Martin of Stratford, New Hampshire. He has two children : Eva E., born in October, 1875. and Ruth B. Sturtevant, born in October, 1881.
TETLEY, EDMUND, Lieutenant-Colonel First New Hampshire Volunteers, and Manufacturer. Laconia. was born in Bradford. Yorkshire county, England, October 26, 1842. son of William and Mary Ann (Brayshaw) Tetley. He attended the schools in England until he was twelve years of age. when with his family he came to America. At the age of nineteen he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at Portsmouth and saw some active service. Ile was at the attack on Forts Jackson and Philip, and at the capture of New Orleans by Admiral Farragut, being on board the United States sloop of war Portsmouth, which was subsequently sta- tioned at New Orleans for nearly four years. At the close of the war, he returned to Amesbury. Massachusetts. subsequently going to Appleton, Wisconsin, and then to Utica, New York. From Utica he went to Olneyville. Rhode Island, and thence to Lowell, where he obtained employment in a paper-box factory. Somewhat later he obtained a position in a paper-box factory in Methuen, from which he in turn went to Haverhill, Massa- chusetts. In 1873, he went to Laconia, where he entered the employ of F. P. Holt, manufacturer of paper boxes. Five years later Mr. Tetley suc- ceeded Mr. Holt. and has since carried on a large and successful business on his own account. Ile has two factories, one at No. 1o Arch street. Laconia, and the other at 156 Gold street, Lake- port. His business is selling to the local trade. Mr. Tetley's interest in military affairs did not cease with the war service. Soon after coming to New Hampshire he joined Company K of the Third Regiment of the State National Guard. Ile was made Lieutenant in 1873, and a year later promoted Captain, serving in this rank until his resignation in 1883. Some years later the old Company K was disbanded. whereupon Mr. Tetley organized another company which took the place in the same regiment, of which he was chosen Cap- tain. He was promoted to the rank of Major, May 8, 1894. He held this position at the time of President Mckinley's first call for volunteers, when the Third New Hampshire Regiment was selected for duty at the front, Major Tetley being in com- mand when it left the state on its way to Chatta- nooga. He has held a number of political posi- tions, among them, Selectman of Laconia ; High Sheriff of Belknap county. 1888- 90; a member of the first Laconia City Council, representing Ward 1. an office he held for two years ; member of the
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State Legislature in 1894, where he served as Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, and also on the Committee of the Soldiers' Home. He is very popular in fraternal circles, and is a member of a dozen or more organizations. In poli-
EDMUND TETLEY.
tics he is a Republican. Colonel Tetley was married December 9, 1868, to Ella F. Merrill of Lowell. Of their seven children, five are living : Edmund B., now a student in theology; Guy M., Superin- tendent of his father's factory at Laconia; Ger- trude, a resident of Lowell ; Blanche and Charles Tetley, now at school in Laconia.
THOMPSON, ARTHUR, Merchant and Manu- facturer, Warner, was born in that town, June 24, 1844, son of Robert and Susan (Bartlett) Thomp- son. His great-grandfather, Benjamin Thompson, a soldier in the Revolution, was wounded in the war, and died on the way home, after a long ser- vice. On the maternal side Mr. Thompson traces his ancestry to Adam Barttelot, an Esquire who came over with William the Conqueror, settled in Essex, England, and was buried at Stopham in 1100. Mr. Thompson's maternal great-grandfather was Simeon Bartlett, of Amesbury, Massachusetts, a prominent business man, and like his brother, Governor Josiah Bartlett, first Governor of New
Hampshire, was an ardent patriot in the Revolu- tion, and Chairman of the New Hampshire Com- mittee of Safety during the long struggle for inde- pendence. He was one of the original proprietors of the township of Warner. Arthur Thompson attended the schools of his native town and Pem- broke and Henniker Academies, being graduated from the latter in 1862. He at once began the study of medicine with Doctors Gage and Hildreth at Concord, but after four months he joined the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment and served until the close of the war. After being in the army for three months, he was detached from his regi- ment and served at different times at the head- quarters of the Second, Third, and Fourth Divi- sions of the Ninth Army Corps; and also, at the Ninth Army Corps headquarters, and at the de- fenses of Bermuda Hundred under Major-General Hartsuff. For the last eight months of the war he was on detached service by special order of General Grant. He was at the siege of Knoxville and at Vicksburg and also at all the battles engaged in by the Ninth Corps from Fredericksburg in 1862 to the fall of Petersburg in 1865. He was still under twenty-one years of age at the close of the war, but upon attaining his majority entered business at Warner. Later he spent several years in Illinois, Iowa, and New York city. Since 1875 he has resided at Warner, passing several winters in the Southern states and two seasons in California and Arizona. He was a merchant in Warner in 1875- '89, and in 1881-'94 was largely engaged in the manufacture of fruit evaporators and of evaporated goods. He sold evaporators from Maine to Arkan- sas, the general price of the factory machines being from four hundred to eight hundred dollars each. He also put in and operated evaporating plants in Virginia and North Carolina. In Warner he operated the largest evaporating plant in New Eng- land, and with one or two exceptions the largest one in the United States. He employed more men and women in Warner than any other person in town. He built a number of houses and in 1883 erected for the Patrons of Husbandry, Grange Hall which was occupied by them for nine years. He started a broom factory in 1887, but after doing some ten thousand dollars worth of business he was compelled to give it up, for the reason that help could not be hired in Warner at prices paid by similar concerns in New York and elsewhere. He moved the machinery of the plant to North Carolina and there did a fairly successful business,
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until he sold out to persons living in that state. From 1887 to 1893 he was in the real estate busi- ness in North Carolina and handled a large amount of village and mining property. His endeavors have been devoted almost wholly to business and not much to politics. He has held school offices. and has been Supervisor. Chairman of the Board of Selectmen. and Justice of the Peace for several years. He is a member of Harris Lodge, AAncient Free and Accepted Masons ; of Robert Campbell Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and Warner Grange. He is an occasional writer for a number of publications. He married October 14. 1867. Caroline Beckler of Syracuse, New York. He has two children : Caroline E. and Robert Thompson, who studied medicine for four years, taking two courses of lectures at Dartmouth College and one at Baltimore where he was graduated and received the degree of M. D. at the age of twenty-one. He is now practicing successfully at Sutton. New Hampshire. On May 12. 1898, President McKin- ley appointed Arthur Thompson Captain and Assis- tant Quartermaster United States Volunteers. He
ARTHUR THOMPSON.
was confirmed by the Senate on May 19 and joined the army at Chickamauga Park, Georgia, and owing to his experience in the Quartermaster's department during the Civil War, was at once assigned by the Assistant Quartermaster General United States
Army, as Chief Quartermaster of the Second Divi- sion, First Army Corps, and at this writing is in that position.
UPTON, JACOB KENDRICK. Assistant General Superintendent of the United States Life Saving Service, was born in Wilmot, New Hampshire. October 9, 1837. son of Daniel and Asenath (Teel) Upton. On the paternal side the family is of English descent, the line tracing back to the Con- quest. Though originally settled in Cornwall, the Uptons have for many generations maintained their seat in Westmoreland. John Upton, from whom the subject of this sketch is descended (eighth generation) was an ardent supporter of King Charles 1, and was captured with many others in a battle near the town of Upton in Worcester county, and banished by Cromwell to America in 1652. He settled in that part of Salem now known as Danvers, where he secured large holdings of land, as became an exiled Tory. His descendants are numerous in that vicinity, and are also found scattered through the whole country. Jacob Ken- drick, after passing through the public schools of his native town, attended the New London Literary and Scientific Institution, and was graduated there- from in July, 1860. Took a course in the Law School in the District of Columbia, graduating in 1866. and in the same year was admitted to the Bar. In 1863 he was appointed to a position in the United States Treasury Department, and was made Chief Clerk by promotion in March. 1877, his appointment bearing the first official signature of the Hon. John Sherman, as Secretary of the Treasury. Two years later he was appointed Assistant Secretary by Mr. Sherman, and con- tinued to serve in that capacity under Secretaries Windom and Folger. He was appointed Financial Statistician of the eleventh census, and published two folio volumes on the " Wealth, Debt, and Taxa- tion of the Country," this being probably the most exhaustive presentation of the resources and obli- gations, national, state, and local, ever made of this or any other country. Upon the completion of this work, he was transferred to the United States Treasury as Assistant General Superintendent of the Life Saving Service, a post he still retains. In 1884 be published through Lothrop & Company, Boston, a volume entitled " Money in Politics." which is now passing through its second edition. In 1895 he published "A Coin Catechism," of which a large number were in use as a Republi
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can campaign document in 1896. He has been a frequent contributor to Harper's publications and to the magazines of the country on financial and economic topics, and was one of the founders of the Cosmos Club of Washington, District of Colum-
J. K. UPTON.
bia. In politics he has always been a Republican, and especially a firm believer in the establishment and maintenance of the gold standard. He was married October 29, 1884, to Mrs. Mary de Hass Hoblibzell, second daughter of Doctor Wills de Hass, well known in the literary and scientific cir- cles of the capital. They have one child : Jacob Kendrick Upton, Jr., born January 17, 1886.
TRUESDELL, EDMUND ERSKINE, Superinten- dent and Paymaster of the China, Webster, and Pembroke Mills, Suncook, was born at Jewett City, Connecticut, March 3, 1845, son of Thomas and Mary (Boyden) Truesdell. On the paternal side he is of Scotch descent, his great-great-grandfather, Ichabod Truesdell, having come from Scotland about 1700, and settled in South Woodstock, Con- necticut. His great-grandfather, Darius Truesdell, was a soldier in the War of the Revolution and was at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777. He was wounded in the side, narrowly escaping death by a ball providentially striking a large old- fashioned pocket book in his waistcoat pocket.
Edmund Truesdell was educated in the common schools at Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts. While attending school there he worked in the cot- ton mills during vacations and at other times, and also delivered papers. He afterward took a regu- lar commercial course at Comer's Commercial Col- lege in Boston. Upon leaving school he went into the Newton Cotton Mills and was soon promoted to the office of Overseer in the Cloth Room, Ship- ping Clerk and Assistant Superintendent. The Treasurer of the Newton Mills was also Treasurer of the mills in Suncook, whither Mr. Truesdell was sent to take charge of a department at the Webster and Pembroke Mills. In 1870, he was promoted
EDMUND E. TRUESDELL.
to Superintendent and Paymaster of the China, Webster, and Pembroke Companies. He was Town Treasurer of Pembroke in 1878, '79-'80 and '81; a member of the Legislature in 1879 and again in 1880 ; and a member of the State Senate in 1887 and 1888. He is a Mason of high rank, a member of Jewell Lodge, of which he is Past Mas- ter; Hiram Chapter ; Horace Chase Council ; Mt. Horeb Commandery ; Boston Lodge of Perfection ; Giles F. Yates Council, Princes of Jerusalem ; Mt. Olivet Chapter, Rose Croix; Massachusetts Con- sistory, and Aleppo Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the New England Cot- ton Manufacturers' Association and the New
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Hampshire Club. In politics he is a Republican. He is a member of the Baptist Church at Suncook. Mr. Truesdell married June 11. 1872, Mary Wil- kins Austin, daughter of David Austin. He has one son : David Edmund Truesdell. born in 1876, now studying at Brown University. Providence.
VARNEY. DAVID BLAKE, Ex-Mayor of Man- chester, was born in Tuftonborough. New Hamp- shire, August 27, 1822, son of Luther and Lydia (Blake) Varney. On the paternal side he is of Scotch descent, and on the maternal side of Eng- lish. Mr. Varney attended the public schools of Dover, New Hampshire. In 1839 he went to Portsmouth to learn the trade of a machin- ist, returned to Dover in 1842. and removing to Manchester in 1843. entered the employ of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. He was Superintendent of the locomotive department of that company for about five years. In 1857 he opened a brass foundry and copper shop in Man- chester, in which he is still interested. He has been a Director in the Amoskeag National
D. B. VARNEY.
Bank since 187 %. and has been Treasurer of the D'orsaith Machine Company since 1881. Mr. Var- ney was a member of the New Hampshire Legis- lature from Manchester in 1871 '72, and was a member of the Senate in 1881 82. He was
Mayor of Manchester in 1889 'go. He is a mem- ber of the Derryfield Club, and of all the Masonic bodies in the city of his residence. In politics he has been a Republican since that party was formed. Mr. Varney was married June 6, 1848, to Harriet Bean Kimball of Warner, by whom he had three children, two of whom are living: Emma L., and Annie M .. now Mrs. Frederick W. Batchelder.
WEBSTER, CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN, M. D., and A. M., was born in Hampton. December 10, 1815. son of the Reverend Josiah and Elizabeth (Knight) Webster. His father was graduated from Dart- mouth College in 1798, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts and later the degree of Master of Arts. He studied theology with the Reverend Stephen Peabody of Atkinson. New Hampshire, and on November 13, 1799. was ordained to the Trinitarian Congregational ministry and installed Pastor of the Second Parish church in Ipswich (now Essex), Massachusetts, where he remained un- til June. 1808, when he was installed Pastor of the Congregational church in Hampton, New Hamp- shire. There he filled a successful pastorate until his death in IS37. Reverend Josiah Webster was the son of Nathan, a farmer of Chester, New Hamp- shire, who belonged to the same branch of the Webster family from which Daniel Webster de- scended and who traced his ancestry back to Thomas Webster, who emigrated from Ormsby, Suffolk county, England, and settled in Hampton about 1650. In England the Webster family was characterized by honor, stability, and prominence. one of its members bearing the same name as the colonist, having received the honor of Knighthood. The descendants of Thomas Webster, aside from the great expounder of the Constitution, include a long list of persons, who have become illustrious, not only in their professions, but in literature, the arts and the sciences. Claudius B. Webster was fitted for college in Hampton and was graduated from Dartmouth in 1836, being subsequently hon- ored with the degree of Master of Arts. Among his classmates at Hanover were the Reverend Sam- uel C. Bartlett, D. D., L.L. D., Ex-President of the College ; Professor Erastus Everett, L.L. D., of Brooklyn, New York ; Ex-Governor and Ex-Senator James W. Grimes, L.L. D., from lowa; Professor Ednund R. Peaslee, M. D. L.I. D., of New York city, and Hon, John Wentworth, LL .. D., Member of Congress from Illinois. Mr. Webster was for three years a Civil Engineer, and was employed in
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the laying out of the Peoria & Warsaw Railroad in Illinois after his graduation from College ; he then returned to New Hampshire and studied medicine at Boscawen with his brother, Dr. Eliphalet K. Webster, and attended a course of lectures at Dart- mouth Medical College. Later he was a student at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and was graduated in 1844. For a short time he practised his profession and then accepted a position as Principal of the Female Academy at Norwich, Connecticut, where he remained for six- teen years as an able, faithful and conscientious In- structor. In the autumn of 1862, Dr. Webster was in Washington, District of Columbia, visiting rela- tives, and the result of his visit was his resignation from the Academy at Norwich and his becoming Assistant Surgeon in the United States Army. At that time the Government had upon its hands a great responsibility in the care of the sick and dis- abled contrabands. When the Confederates were forced to move southward, they took with them all the able-bodied negroes of both sexes, leaving in their wake the ill, lame and otherwise disabled colored people. The abandoned negroes, in all degrees of destitution, naturally flocked northward to Washington. They numbered thousands and the world probably never saw a more pitiable lot of humanity. These unfortunate people were by the United States Government gathered at Camp Bar- ker, an old cavalry encampment on the outskirts of the city, the site of which is now known as the lowa Circle, upon which have been erected some of the most elegant residences in Washington. Upon this ground had been built stables for the horses and a large number of huts for the cavalrymen. The Government renovated the camp for the reception of these contrabands and appointed Dr. Webster Acting Assistant Surgeon in medical charge with nurses to assist him. Dr. Webster remained there a year and a half and during that time a temporary hospital was erected and other improvements car- ried out. His duties were of an arduous and try- ing nature, and during his service hundreds of cases of small-pox came under his care. In 1864 all the people were removed to the General Lee estate opposite Washington where the Government had erected houses for their occupancy and also a hospital. Dr. Webster continued in charge of these contrabands in their new location for some months, when he was ordered to the Southwest with head- quarters at Louisville, Kentucky, where he was put in charge of railway hospital trains that were used
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