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 20
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KING, RUFUS HORNE, Physician, Wolfboro, was born in Wakefield, New Hampshire, September 26, 1821, adopted son of William Horne and Sally Horne of Wolfboro, New Hampshire. He attended Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, taking the classical course, and was graduated in 1844. Hle then studied medicine with Doctor George B. Garland of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and with Doctor J. F. Hall of Wolfboro. He attended the old Tremont Medical School in Boston, when Doc-
tor Oliver Wendell Holmes was connected with the school as tutor, and says : " I have always remem- bered a remark he made to me one morning on my first attempt at dissection, viz., he didn't think I had become quite a king of the scalpel." He was gradu- ated with honors from the Medical Department of Bowdoin College in 1847. Hle began practice in ^ Kittery, Maine, in the same year, and remained there seven years, then removed to Newton, Massa-
R. H. KING.
chusetts, and later to Newark, New Jersey. In 1860 he settled in Wolfboro, where he has remained ever since. He is one of the leading physicians of Carroll county, and is highly respected in the com- munity. He held the office of Examining Surgeon from 1868 to 1884. He is a member of the State Medical Society, and of the Carroll County Medi- cal Society. He is a member of the First Unita- rian Society of Wolfboro. In politics Doctor King is a Republican.
LANGDON, WOODBURY, one of the most influ- ential business men of New York, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, October 22, 1836, son of Woodbury and Frances (Cutter) Langdon. He was fitted at the Portsmouth Grammar School, but did not enter college. His commercial career was begun in Boston, but in 1863 he removed to New York to represent the house of Frothingham
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& Company of the former city. He was admitted to partnership in 1868, and two years later the firm was changed to Joy, Langdon & Company. It is to-day one of the oldest and best known commis- sion houses in the country. Mr. Langdon is a man of many interests. He is a Director of the Central National Bank. National Bank of Commerce, Ger- man American Fire Insurance Company, and New York Life Insurance Company. also Director Title Guarantee & Trust Company. He is a Vice-Presi- dent of the New York Chamber of Commerce, and since ISSS has been a member of the Executive Committee. In 1890 he was made a member of the Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners of the City and County of New York. He was a Direc-
WOODBURY LANGDON.
tor of the New England Society, a member of the Union League Club, and has been its Vice-Presi- dent since 1889. In politics he is an ardent Re- publican. He married in 1896, Elizabeth Elwyn, daughter of Alfred Elwyn.
LINCOLN, NATHAN SMITH, Physician, Wash- ington, District of Columbia, was born in Gardner, Massachusetts, son of Reverend Increase Summer and Gracia Eliza (Smith) Lincoln. His ancestors on both sides were English, his father being a descendant of the famous Lincolns of Hingham, Massachusetts, who emigrated to this country in
1635, and to which President Lincoln also belonged. On the maternal side he is descended from Rever- end Peter Bulkley of Bulkley Manor, England. His great-grandfather was General Jonathan Chase of Revolutionary fame, and it is a curious coincidence that while on the one side, General Chase drew up the articles of surrender for Burgoyne's army at Saratoga, General Benjamin Lincoln received the sword of Cornwallis, when he surrendered to Wash- ington at Yorktown. Doctor Lincoln's family is distinguished, not only in war but in the ranks of science and learning. His grandfather, Doctor Nathan Smith, was the most celebrated surgeon of his day, having founded the medical schools of Yale and Dartmouth, and occupying the Surgical chair of Vale at the time of his death in 1829. He was also Professor of Surgery at Bowdoin College and at the University of Vermont. At the time of Doctor Lincoln's birth and for many years after, his father, Reverend Increase S. Lincoln, held the pas- torate of the First Congregational church of Gard- ner, Massachusetts. He was widely known as a scholar and associated himself with the abolition party at an early stage of its existence, being a
N. S. LINCOLN.
warm friend of Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison. He died in 1890, at the age of ninety- one, at that time being the oldest Unitarian minis- ter in the United States, and having been actively
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engaged in the ministry for sixty-five years. Doc- tor Lincoln was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1850, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws and Master of Arts, and since then that of Doctor of Laws, from his Alma Mater. He attended med- ical lectures at the University of Maryland, receiv- ing his degree from that institution in 1852. Until January, 1854, he practiced in Baltimore and since that date, has resided in Washington, holding many offices of distinction. In 1857 he was elected Professor of Chemistry in the Columbian Univer- sity ; in 1859, he was made Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine; in 1860, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, and in 1861, Professor of Surgery, holding the latter chair until 1874, when he resigned on account of the pressure of private practice. In 1861, he was appointed by President Lincoln, Surgeon to the District of Columbia Vol- unteers. He was Surgeon-in-Chief of the hospitals established in Washington by the Quartermaster's Department in 1861. In 1866 he was elected one of the Surgeons of the Providence Hospital, resign- ing in 1875. For a number of years he was Phy- sician to the Deaf Mute College and to several other institutions. He has made surgery a specialty, and has performed successfully a large number of important operations, including amputation at the hip joint, lithotomy, removing tumors from the region of the head and neck, ligation of the large arteries, etc. Doctor Lincoln is a member of the District of Columbia Medical Association, being Vice-Presi- dent in 1872 and President in 1875 and 1876; a member of the American Medical Society, Presi- dent of the Alumni Association of the University of Maryland and a member of the Philosophical Soci- ety of Washington. Doctor Lincoln married in 1877, Miss Jeanie T. Gould, daughter of the late Judge George Gould of the Supreme Court Bench of the State of New York, and Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals. He has two children by this marriage : George Gould and Natalie Sumner Lin- coln.
OSGOOD, ADDISON NEWTON, Lumberman, Sun- cook, was born in Allenstown, New Hampshire, March 16, 1836, son of Ira B. and Alice (Prescott) Osgood. He traces his descent from Christopher Osgood, of Ipswich, England, who died in 1650, and belongs to the seventh generation of the family in this country. The subject of this sketch received his education in the common schools of his native town and at Pembroke Academy. After leaving
school he spent three years in Boston. In 1860, he settled in Pembroke, where he engaged in lum- bering, preparing his lumber for the market on the site of the old mill once owned by his father. He has been most successful in his business enter-
A. N. OSGOOD.
prises, and owns much valuable real estate in Pem- broke and Allenstown. Mr. Osgood was a member of the Legislature in 1878 and 1879, and was a member of the Board of Selectmen of Pembroke for a number of years. He is a Thirty-second Degree Mason, an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Pyth- ias, a Patron of Husbandry, and is affiliated with the Grange of Pembroke. He is a member of the Methodist Church. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Osgood was married, December 17, 1865, to Mary E., daughter of William A. and Julia (Upham) Phelps.
McQUESTEN, EUGENE F., Physician and Sur- geon, Nashua, was born in Litchfield, New Hamp- shire, October 11, 1843, son of Isaac and Margaret Ann (Chase) McQuesten. His family, resident in Litchfield since 1735, is of Scotch-Irish origin, the pioneer ancestor being William McQuesten, who emigrated from the north of Ireland (Coleraine). Doctor McQuesten received his education in the public schools of Nashua, graduating from the High School in 1860. He then entered Blanchard
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Academy. Pembroke, and after a two years' course entered the Scientific Department of Dartmouth College. Two years later he began the study of medicine with Doctor Josiah G. Graves, of Nashua. He attended one course of lectures at Dartmouth College, and two courses at the Jefferson Medical College, receiving the degree of M. D. from the latter institution. March 10, 1866. In 1872 and in 1892 he took a full course of lectures at the medical college from which he received his degree. After a few months' practice in Lynn, Massachusetts, Doc- tor McQuesten began the practice of medicine in Nashua. January 1. 1867. He is to-day the oldest practicing physician in the city, although by no means the oldest physician in point of years. He has enjoyed many honors at the hands of the public as well as at the hands of his fellow physicians, and is to-day one of the most widely known and re- spected physicians in the state. He was City Phy- sician in 1871 : Secretary of the Board of Education in 1871-72: a Representative to the General Court from Ward Two in 1873- 74, and was Secretary of the Board of Pension Examiners from 1893 to 1897. Doctor McQuesten's practice is general, and is,
E. F M.QUESTEN.
beyond dispute, the largest in the city. He is espe- cially noted as a surgeon, and is frequently called upon to perform difficult operations in all sections of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. He is a member of the American Medical Association,
American Association of Railway Surgeons, the New Hampshire Medical Society, holding the office of President in 1895: the Nashua Medical Society, of which he was President in 1892, and of the New York Medico-Legal Society. He is a Mason, a member of the Blue Lodge. Chapter, Knights Tem- plar, and Mystic Shrine. He has traveled exten- sively, both in this country and abroad. He is not only a good physician but is also a good citizen, taking an earnest, active interest in every progres- sive movement. While in politics he has always been a Democrat, until the Bryan campaign, and, at times, has taken an active part in public affairs, he has never allowed his political interests to interfere in the least with his professional work. In 1868, he married Lizzie M., daughter of Solomon Spalding, of Nashua. She died in 1877. He married, in 1879, Mary Abbie, daughter of Joseph A. Howard, of the same place. She died in 1885, and in May, 1887, he married Anna E., daughter of William R. Spalding, of Lawrence, Massachusetts. They have three children : Philip, Josephine, and Eugene F. McQuesten, Jr.
PILLSBURY, ALBERT ENOCH, Ex-Attorney- General of Massachusetts, Boston, was born in Milford. New Hampshire, August 19, 1849. son of Josiah Webster and Elizabeth (Dinsmoor) Pills- bury. On the paternal side he is of English descent, through William Pillsbury, who came from Derbyshire and settled in Newbury (now Newbury- port), Massachusetts, in 1641. His great-grand- father, Parker Pillsbury. was a soldier of the Revolutionary War. His father was educated for a professional career. being graduated from Dart- mouth in 1840, but in view of his health was com- pelled to adopt an out-door life, and became a farmer. On the maternal side he is descended from John Barnet and John Dinsmoor, original Scotch settlers of Londonderry, New Hampshire. Mr. Pillsbury attended the High School in his native town, Appleton Academy, New Ipswich, New Hampshire, and Lawrence Academy, Groton, Massachusetts, where he graduated and entered Harvard in 1867, but did not finish the course. leaving college to teach school and to study law in the West. He read law with James Dinsmoor, his uncle, at Sterling, Illinois, and was admitted to the Bar of that state. Returning to the East, he was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1871, settled in Boston and began the practice of his profession the same year. As a lawyer he has been highly
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successful. Ile is counsel for numerous large cor- porations and for some years past has devoted himself principally to this class of business, having declined judicial and other public positions. He has published a number of legal arguments and addresses, and contributed to legal and other
ALBERT E. PILLSBURY.
periodicals. Mr. Pillsbury was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1876, 1877, and 1878. From the beginning he took his place among the leaders. He was elected to the Senate of 1884, and was twice re-elected. In 1885, he was unani- mously chosen President of the Senate, an honor again conferred upon him a year later. From 1891 to 1893 inclusive he was Attorney-General of the Commonwealth. He was prominently mentioned for the Republican nomination for Governor in 1892, and was the leading candidate for the nomi- nation against Governor Greenhalge in 1893. Mr. Pillsbury was President of the Mercantile Library Association in 1879; he has been the President and a Director of the United States Trust Com- pany since its organization, and a Trustee of the Franklin Savings Bank for about ten years. Since 1896 he has been Lecturer on Constitutional Law in the Law School of Boston University, and he was recently appointed a Commissioner to revise the charter of the City of Boston. He is a member of the Algonquin, Art, and University Clubs; of the Massachusetts, Middlesex, and other political
clubs ; Vice-President of the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; a member of the American Academy of Political and Social Science; and various other scientific, charitable, and literary societies. Mr. Pillsbury delivered the annual oration before the Boston City Government on the Fourth of July, 1890. The honorary degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by Harvard Col- lege in 1891.
PEARSON, EDWARD NATHAN, Manager of the Rumford Printing Company, Concord, was born in Webster, September 7, 1859, son of John C. and
E. N. PEARSON.
Lizzie S. (Colby) Pearson. He was prepared for college at the Warner High School and at Pen- acook Academy, entered Dartmouth, and was grad- uated in the class of 1881. He then taught for a year in the public schools of Washington, District of Columbia. He was Associate Editor of the Concord Evening Monitor and Independent States- men from 1882 to 1890; Managing Editor of the same from 1890 to 1898, and Business Manager of the Republican Press Association from 1892 to 1898. January 1, 1898, he resigned the two posi- tions last named to become Manager of the Rum- ford Printing Company, a corporation organized by him to assume by purchase the general printing business of the Republican Press Association. He was elected Public Printer by the Legislature in
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1893, and re-elected in 1895. Mr. Pearson was married, December 6, 1882, to Addie M. Sargent. of Lebanon. They have four children : Edward N., Jr., Robert H .. John W .. and Mildred Pearson.
PEARSON, JOHN COUCH, Penacook, President of the Rumford Printing Company of Concord. was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire, May 26, 1835, son of Nathan and Eliza (Couch) Pear- son. He was educated in the common schools, at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, and at the Merrimack Normal Institute, Reed's Ferry, New Hampshire. He followed the vocation of farmer and wool grower in Webster until 1871, when he engaged in mercantile pursuits. continuing the lat- ter for a short time in Penacook, to which place he removed in 1876, and where he has since resided.
J. C. PEARSON
Mr. Pearson was a member of the Legislature in 1871, 1872, and 1887, and was State Senator in 1889. He has also served as County Commis- sioner, has filled various town offices, and is a Director in banking and other corporations. He married Lizzie S. Colby of Nashua. They have three sons: Edward N., of Concord, John W., of Boston, and Harlan C. Pearson of Concord, gradu- ates of Dartmouth College in 1881, 1883, and 1893 respectively.
PEARSON, JOHN HARRIS, Concord, was born in Sutton, New Hampshire, March 17, 1818, son of Thomas and Abigail (Ambrose) Pearson. His mother was the daughter of Elder Ambrose, for many years Baptist minister at Sutton. Her great- grandfather was a relative of Lord Nelson, and came from England and settled in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He was also a Baptist minister. Mr. Pearson's earlier educational advantages were limited. Later he attended the school at Henni- ker and Hopkinton Academy. He has been in business since he was twenty-one years of age. He built the Penacook Flour Mills and was in the flour and grain business in Depot Square for twenty-five years. He was also engaged for a time in the man- ufacture of flour in Akron. Ohio, and at Ogdens- burgh, New York. Mr. Pearson stands in the first rank of New Hampshire business men. He was the first man in Concord to bring flour and grain in large quantities from the West. He is known as " the great New Hampshire Railroad fighter." He has won his way in the world by hard and persevering work. For years he was a
J. II. PEARSON.
Director in the Concord & Montreal Railroad, and is now next to the largest stockholder in the road. He is an Episcopalian and a Mason. Mr. Pearson has been a Democrat all his life. In 1839 he was married to Mary Ann, daughter of Samuel Butter-
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field ; she died in 1879. They had one son : Charles Pearson, who was graduated from Dartmouth Col- lege, and died in 1883. Having lost his first wife, Mr. Pearson in 1889 was married to Jessie Ridgeley, daughter of the late Colonel Jesse A. Gove, United States Army, who was killed in the Civil War.
PERKINS, ALBERT ALONZO, Bank President and Treasurer, Somersworth, was born in Ossi- pee, New Hampshire, March 6, 1826, son of Levi and Maria (Desmazes) Perkins; and died March 16, 1898. His father was a native of Wells, Maine, and a descendant of one of the early English set- tlers of that region. His mother was born in New- buryport, Massachusetts, her father having come to America from France near the close of the last century. The subject of this sketch attended the district schools and for several terms the academies of Effingham and Wakefield. At the age of twenty- one, he bought a country store in his native village and conducted it for five years. In November, 1852, he was chosen Treasurer of the Great Falls & Conway Railroad. He was an officer of the road in Somersworth and was chosen Superinten-
A. A. PERKINS.
dent in 1853, when the road was in a feeble condi- tion. Mr. Perkins devoted his energies to build- ing up the line, extending it from Milton to North Conway, and from Somersworth to Conway Junc- tion. In 1873 his health being somewhat impaired,
he resigned the position and for several years spent the winters in Florida and the summers in the North. In 1876, he was elected Treasurer of the Somersworth Savings Bank. He was also elected President of the Great Falls National Bank. He was a member of the School Committee, and was Alderman for three terms. In 1859 and 1860, he was a member of the General Court. In 1845, Mr. Perkins was married to Abby Crosby Bean of Gilmanton, New Hampshire, who died in 1891. He was again married in November, 1892, to Mrs. Harriet Bates LeGro, widow of Captain Edgar B. LeGro of Somersworth.
PORTER, ROYAL HERVEY, Banker, Keene, was born in Wendell, Franklin county, Massachusetts, August 21, 1827, son of Noah and Nabby (Comins) Porter. He is of English stock, being a descend- ant in the seventh generation from John Porter, who was born in Dorset, England, in 1596, and came to this country, settling in Hingham, Massa- chusetts, in 1635. He was educated in the com- mon schools and at New Salem Academy, Williston Seminary, and at Northfield, New Hampshire. He worked on his father's farm in the summers until he was twenty-one, attending school in the winters up to the time he was sixteen, when he commenced teaching, and taught terms in New Salem and Hardwick, Massachusetts, and at Keene, West- moreland, Marlborough, and Dublin, New Hamp- shire. At the age of twenty-one he became a teacher in a public school at Laurel, Maryland, and remained there a year, boarding with the father of Senator Gorman, who was his pupil. He then accepted a position as Principal in a private school in Georgetown, District of Columbia, and held it for two years, when he was appointed Discount Clerk in the Farmers & Mechanics' Bank of that city, a position he held for about three years. Mr. Porter, during his residence in the District of Columbia, frequently visited the Capitol, where he heard many of the famous orators and statesmen of the day : Sumner, Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Ben- ton, Cass, Cobb, Hale, Mann and others, and wit- nessed many dramatic scenes of those stormy times, among them the vote in the House of Rep- resentatives on the repeal of the Missouri Compro- mise. He was elected Cashier of the Cheshire Bank of Keene, and entered upon his duties Octo- ber 1, 1855. He held the position until January 1, 1898, when he was elected Vice-President, and his son, Walter R., who had been associated with him in
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the bank for eighteen years, was chosen Cashier to succeed him. In January. 1864. the bank became a national institution, and increased its capital from one hundred thousand dollars to two hundred thou- sand dollars. His term of office-over forty-two years
R. 11. PORTER.
- was probably longer than is to the credit of any other Cashier in the state. During all this time the bank enjoyed prosperity, never failing to pay a semi-annual dividend besides accumulating a large surplus fund. Mr. Porter was County Treasurer for three years ; Town and City Treasurer for fifteen years, which office he holds at the present time; State Senator two years, 1875-'76, being Chairman of the Banking and Judiciary Committees ; Trustee of the State Norma! School, and President of the Board during the same years. He is a Mason, a member of Lodge of the Temple, Cheshire Royal Arch Chapter and Hugh de Payens Commandery. In politics he has always been a Republican, but believes that municipal government should be con- dueted upon business principles, irrespective of pol- itics. Mr. Porter was married May 27, 1852, to Maria M. Thompson. They had three children : Ada M., Alice G., and Walter R. Porter. On Jan- uary 12, 1869, he was married to Emilie M. Wheaton, and one daughter, Emilie W. Porter, was born to them. On September 4, 1873, he married Ellen E. Dickinson.
ROBINSON, JOHN LOMBARD, for many years a leading Physician and Surgeon of Manchester, and who died in that city June 13. 1896, was born in Pembroke, New Hampshire, January 2. 1835, son of Samuel and Betsy (Webster) Robinson. He comes of old Puritanic stock, being descended from John Robinson, the first preacher of Ply- mouth. His mother, born Betsy Webster, was sec- ond cousin of Daniel Webster, the famous states- man. John L. Robinson attended the common schools and academy of Pembroke, and then went to Wilbraham Academy in Massachusetts. He took two courses at Dartmouth, and was graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1859. He began his practice in Wenham. Massachusetts, March, 1859. Doctor Robinson became deeply interested in that place, and for twenty years made it his home. When the war broke out he became Assist- ant Surgeon of the Eighth Regiment of Massachu- setts Volunteers (nine months men) and served with that regiment and was mustered in, 1862. He was stationed in Newberne, North Carolina, with the regiment, participating with it in the various cam-
JOHN 1 .. ROBINSON.
paigns and expeditions in the Department of North Carolina, and at Fortress Monroe, Baltimore, Mary- land Heights, on the route to join the Army of the Potomac. He was mustered out August 7. 1863. In July. 1864, he was appointed Surgeon of the
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Eighth Massachusetts Militia, and was on duty with the regiment near Baltimore. He was mustered out of the United States Service, November 10, 1864, but continued his services with the Massa- chusetts Volunteers, until his resignation, January 13, 1865. Upon his removal to Manchester, Doctor Robinson quickly took a leading position among the men of his profession. He was an active member of the Elliott Hospital Staff for four years, when he resigned this post, being elected consult- ing member, and so continued until his death. He was a member of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, and at the time of his death was one of its Vice-Presidents. He was a member of the Eighth Massachusetts Veterans' Association ; of Louis Bell Post, Grand Army of the Republic of Manchester; of the Manchester Art Association ; a Fellow with the Massachusetts Medical Society for thirty-seven years; a Fellow with the New Hampshire Medical Society ; a Mason, and a member of the Chapter of Washington Lodge of Manchester. He was received as companion with the first class militia order of Loyal Legions of the United States, April 3, 1889. In politics, Doctor Robinson was a Republican, although he was far from a partisan. He was a member of the Frank- lin Street Congregational Church of Manchester. He married Phoebe Ann Hadley of Wenham, Mas- sachusetts. They had two children : John Frank- lin and Annie Maria Robinson.
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