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 21
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RUNDLETT, LOUIS JOHN, Superintendent of the public schools of Concord, was born in Bed- ford, New Hampshire, March 14, 1858, son of William Ayers and Louisa (McPherson) Rundlett. His grandfather, Thomas Rundlett, was among the early settlers of Manchester and was of English stock, by trade a hatter. He died at the age of 74. On the maternal side, his grandfather, Stephen McPherson, of Scotch descent, was one of the early settlers of Bedford and a farmer. He died at the age of ninety-six. Mr. Rundlett attended the pub- lic schools of Manchester and Bedford, entered Dartmouth College, took a classical course and was graduated in the class of 1881. He taught in Boscawen in the winter of 1881-'82; in Fisher- ville, now Penacook, in 1882-'85, when he was appointed Superintendent of Schools of Concord, a position he now holds. He has the degree of A. M. Mr. Rundlett won his education by his own pluck and determination. The first seventeen years of his life he spent on a farm in Bedford.
He worked his own way through the city schools of Manchester, and through college. During his stay in Hanover he was prominent in athletics, and was for three years pitcher of the college nine. At the close of his course he had offers to pitch on
L. J. RUNDLETT.
the Worcester and Detroit League teams, but declined them. He has been highly successful as an instructor and has received a number of offers to leave Concord, but has been retained in that city by frequent increase in salary. He is profi- cient on the violin, an able elocutionist and a suc- cessful painter in oils. He is a member of the Wonolancet Club of Concord ; the Horace Chase Lodge of Penacook ; Trinity Royal Arch Chapter ; the Horace Chase Council, as well as Mount Horeb Commandery, Knights Templar. In poli- tics Mr. Rundlett is a Democrat. He was married September 6, 1892, to Carrie Belle Copley of New Britain, Connecticut. They have one child : Cop- ley McPherson Rundlett.
SHAPLEY, J. HAMILTON, Lawyer, Exeter, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, March 25., 1810, son of James and Sarah (Champney) Shap- ley. His father was President of the Bank at Portsmouth, also a prominent shipmaster; he de- scended from Alexander Shapley who came to this country in 1635, and his mother was a grand-
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daughter of Joseph Champney, a minister of Beverly, Massachusetts. He is descended from good old New England stock. The Champneys came to this country in company with the first minister of Cambridge. Mr. Shapley received his education in the common schools of Portsmouth and at the academy in that place. He studied law with Ichabod Bartlett, who defied Henry Clay in Congress, and was admitted to the Bar in 1840. Since 1837 he has been connected with the courts. and is at present the oldest member of the Bar in the county. He was Register of Probate for five years, Justice of the Peace, Recorder of Deeds and was the leading counsel in the Betty Farmer case.
J. HAMILTON SHAPLEV.
At the age of nineteen he took a trip to the Medi- terranean, and also to New Orleans. Mr. Shapley has always been a Republican and his first public vote was cast for John Quincy Adams. He also voted for William Henry Harrison. Mr. Shapley was President of the branch of the United States Bank at Portsmouth, also a prominent owner of shipping and merchants.
SMITH, ROBERT BAXTER, Mechanical Engineer. Ilooksett, was born in Tunbridge, Vermont, No- vember 11, 1871, son of Charles B. and Martha A. (Saunders) Smith. On the paternal side he is of English stock, being descended from Colonel Wil- liam Smith, who fought in the French and Indian wars, and among whose descendants are numbered
soldiers in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the War with Mexico, and 1861. On the maternal side he has among his ancestors William Bradford, and Joseph Saunders, the Scotch dissenter. He attended the public schools of Tunbridge, and the Chelsea (Vermont) Academy, and afterwards re- ceived private instruction, while carrying on gen- eral contracting work. He was graduated from Tufts College, in the classical course, with the degree of A. B. in 1895, and during his course de- voted much attention to general engineering and chemical research as well as the regular work of the class. He also took a special course in me- chanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previous to his technical studies he became thoroughly acquainted with all depart- ments of woolen and cotton mills. In 1894-'95 he was Laboratory Instructor in Physics at Tufts, and in 1895-'96 was Instructor in Physical Sciences at the Somerville High School. He also engaged during his college course in architectural work with a contracting firm. From 1895 he has carried on the work of a general consulting engineer. He
ROBERT B. SMITHI.
now holds the positions of Agent of the Hooksett Mills, Agent of the Crefeld Company, and Mana- ger and Chief Engineer of the Merrimack Electric Company and installed the first long distance high voltage transmission of electric power in this coun-
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try. Now engaged also in the construction of a reduction plant at Hooksett for the electrical sepa- ration of lead and zinc from the natural ores of New England. Mr. Smith is a member of Washington Lodge of Masons in Vermont, St. Paul's Chapter, Boston, Massachusetts; Sons of Veterans, Ameri- can Society of Mechanical Engineers, Boston Ath- letic Association, and Tufts Chapter of Delta Upsi- lon Fraternity.
SPAULDING, OLIVER LYMAN, Assistant Sec- retary of the Treasury, Washington, was born in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, August 2, 1833, son of Lyman and Susan (Marshall) Spaulding. In the paternal line he is of English descent. The fam- ily removed to the West in Mr. Spaulding's youth and settled in Medina, Michigan. Mr. Spaulding, who had prepared for college while working on a farm in New Hampshire, attended Oberlin College, graduating in 1855. For three years he was en- gaged as teacher in different high schools in Ohio and ;Michigan, but at the same time he carried on
O. 1 .. SPAULDING.
the study of law and was admitted to the Bar in 1858, beginning his practice at St. Johns, Michi- gan, where he has since resided. Mr. Spaulding had become well established in his profession, and was beginning to reap the success which his years of labor had gained for him, when the War of the
Rebellion opened. Moved by an impulse of patri- otism and a sense of duty, he responded to the call for volunteers and offered his services to the coun- try. In July, 1862, he recruited a company which became Company A of the Twenty-third Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and of which he be- came Captain. The regiment was mustered ip, in September, 1862, and was mustered out June 28, 1865, at Salisbury, North Carolina, In the inter- vening period it saw its full share of hard service, with plenty of fighting and marching, this service extending over a wide range of territory, and in- cluding some of the severest engagements of the war. He was with the regiment during the entire time, and received successive promotions to the rank of Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel, and Brevet Brigadier-General. He was at the siege of Knoxville, Resaca, Georgia, Lost Mountain, Kene- saw Mountain, Atlanta, Franklin, Nashville, and Fort Anderson, and he took part in the closing battles of the war in North Carolina. In his army service he won the reputation of a brave soldier and discreet commander, gaining his brevet title of Brigadier-General for gallant conduct and meritori- ous service in the field. At the close of the war he returned to his home and his practice in St. Johns. As a lawyer he has been highly successful and has been proved particularly able before a jury, his method being direct, forceful and practical. Esti- mated by his prominence in the law and the extent of his public services General Spaulding is among the first citizens of Michigan. He was elected a Regent of the University of Michigan in 1858. He was elected Secretary of the State of Michigan in 1866, and was re-elected in 1868. In 1871 he was tendered and declined an appointment as United States District Judge of the Territory of Utah. In 1875 he was appointed Special Agent of the United States Treasury Department, a position he held until March, 1881, when he resigned it to take a seat in Congress, to which he had been elected in 1880. Through a change in the boundaries of the district and a fusion of opposing parties, he was defeated for re-election, though he ran nearly a thousand ahead of his ticket and lost the election by but thirty-two votes. He declined a nomina- tion in 1884. In 1883, General Spaulding was Chairman of the Government Commission sent to the Sandwich Islands to investigate alleged viola- tions of the Hawaiian Reciprocity Treaty. In June, 1885, he was again appointed Special Agent of the Treasury, but resigned in the following
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December. Again in 1889, he accepted the position of Special Agent, which he held until his appoint- ment as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in July, 1890. On the coming in of the Democratic administration in 1893 he resigned his office and returned to the practice of his profession in Michi- gan, For several years he was a member of the Republican State Committee of Michigan, and in 1896 was a Delegate to the Republican National Convention. President Mckinley reappointed him Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in 1897. General Spaulding is prominent in Masonry. He has been Grand Master of the Grand Lodge ; Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter. Royal Arch Masons ; Grand Master of the Grand Coun- cil of Royal and Select Masters : and Grand Com- mander of the Grand Commandery, Knights Tem- plar of Michigan. He is a communicant of St. John's Episcopal church and has been Senior Warden for the past twenty-five years. General Spaulding married, May 29, 1856, Jennie Mead, of Hillsdale, Michigan, who died November 9. 1857. April 12, 1859, he married Martha Minerva Mead, a sister of his first wife. She died November 20. 1861. August 12, 1863, he married Mary Cecilia Swegles, daughter of Hon. John Swegles, formerly Auditor General of Michigan.
STANTON. LUCIUS MANLIUS. Manufacturer, New York, was born in Wakefield, New Hamp- shire, August 28, 1839, son of Jacob Clark and Nancy (Cook) Stanton. He comes of good old New England stock. The Stanton family were residents of Rochester, New Hampshire, many years before 1800. On the maternal side his grandfather was Colonel Benjamin Cooke, of Wakefield. Mr. Stanton was educated at Bey- erly and Salem, Massachusetts, and attended the public schools from 1843 to 1855. His early boy- hood was passed on a farm. His first business experience was in 1855-'56, as a clerk in a store and post office at Winchester, Massachusetts. For about five years he was a salesman in a dry-goods house in Boston, but in 1861 he went to New York, as salesman in the silk department of A. T. Stewart & Company. From 1861 to 1869 he was connected with the wholesale dry-goods trade, as salesman, traveler, and buyer, after which he was associated with his younger brother, T. Gilman Stanton, in the firm of Stanton Brothers, which firm did a successful business for a quarter of a century, when T. Gilman Stanton retired, giving
his good will in the long-established business to his nephews, Gilman S., and Frederick E. Stanton, sons of Lucius Stanton, who continue the manu- facture of silk goods under the firm name of Stan- ton Brothers. Mr. Stanton is a member of the
LUCIUS M. STANTON.
New England Society of New York; of the Colo- nial Club; of the Unitarian Club ; of the West End Association, and the Republican Club. In politics he is a Republican. He married, Novem- ber 28, 1870, Mary Augusta Shattuck, daughter of Isaac Shattuck of Arlington, Massachusetts. He has two sons : Gilman Shattuck, born in 1872, and Frederick Everett Stanton, born in 1873.
STEARNS, Oxstow, twice Governor of New Hampshire, and one of the best known railroad men in New England, was born in Billerica, Massa- chusetts, August 30, 1810, and died in Concord, New Hampshire, December 29, 1878. He was the son of John Stearns, a prosperous farmer of Billerica, and a grandson of Isaac Stearns, a well-known and influential citizen of Middlesex county, Massachu- setts, who held various local and state offices, and was for several years a member of the Executive Council. Onslow Stearns remained at home, at- tending school and academy and working on his father's farm until he was seventeen years of age. In 1827 he went to Boston and was employed as
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clerk in the dry-goods jobbing house of Howe & Holbrook, a firm afterwards better known as J. C. Howe & Company. In 1830 he went to Virginia, and was employed by his brother, John O. Stearns, in the engineering department of the construction
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ONSLOW STEARNS.
of the Chesapeake & Ohio canal. In 1833 he be- came associated with his brother in contracts for the construction of various railroads, among which were the Philadelphia & Columbia, the German- town, the Philadelphia & Trenton, the Philadelphia & Norristown, the Delaware & Atlantic, the Cam- den & Amboy, the Brooklyn & Jamaica, the Phila- delphia, Wilmington & Baltimore, the Elizabeth- town & Somerville, and the Baltimore & Ohio rail- roads. In 1837, after his connection with these enterprises had terminated, he became contractor in the construction of the Charlestown Branch Rail- road in Massachusetts and of the Wilmington & Haverhill Railroad. 'The former of these became a part of the Fitchburg Railroad, and the latter a part of the Boston & Maine. He also completed the construction of the Nashua & Lowell Railroad, of which road, on its completion in 1838, he be- came Superintendent. In 1845 he resigned his position as Superintendent and was appointed Agent of the Northern Railroad of New Hamp- shire for the purpose of building its road from Con- cord to West Lebanon. In May, 1852, he was
chosen President of the Northern Railroad, and held the position until his death, twenty-seven years later. Mr. Stearns was also General Super- intendent of the Vermont Central Railroad from 1852 to 1855, a short time a Director in the Ogdensburgh Railroad, and from 1857 to 1875 a Director in the Nashua & Lowell Railroad. He was also for a time President of the Sullivan Rail- road, the Contoocook Valley, and the Concord & Claremont railroads. In the management of the various railroads with which he was connected, Mr. Stearns won a reputation for enterprise and shrewdness which few New England men acquired, and his services were sought beyond the geographi- cal limits to which his operations had been con- fined. In July, 1866, ne was chosen President of the Old Colony & Newport Railroad, as the Old Colony Road was at that time called, and during his administration the Cape Cod Railroad and the New Bedford & Taunton Railroad were consoli- dated with the Old Colony & Newport, under the name of the Old Colony Railroad. The South Shore and the Duxbury & Cohasset railroads were also added to the System, and the Old Colony Steamboat Company was formed and purchased the boats of the Narragansett Steamship Company. Of the Steamboat Company he was also made President. In 1874 Mr. Stearns was chosen Presi- dent of the Concord Railroad, and held that posi- tion until his death. In November, 1877, he re- signed the office of President of the Old Colony Railroad, finding that its duties superadded to those in other directions were making serious in- roads on his health. To the performance of all these duties he brought perhaps a more thorough equipment than was possessed by any man in New England, and one surpassed in completeness by few men in the country. Beginning his career at the foundation of railroad construction, there was no department in railroad management with the details of which he was not familiar. Few men have had imposed on them more arduous labors. To the performance of these he devoted not only his days, but many hours of the night, and to the pressure of their burden may be attributed his comparatively early death. Nor did railroad inter- ests absorb the whole of his time. In 1862 he was chosen a Republican member of the New Hamp- shire Senate, and in 1863, having been re-chosen, was President of that body. In 1864 he was a Delegate-at-large from New Hampshire to the Re- publican National Convention at Baltimore, and on
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the 7th of January, 1869, was nominated for Gov- ernor. He was inaugurated June 3 in that year. He was re-chosen the next year in opposition to his wishes and served for a second term. During his administration, which was characterized by a wise conservatism and an economical management of the finances of the state, the state debt was re- duced nearly one third and the state tax more than one half. As chief magistrate he gave close atten- tion to details, and no interest failed to receive his patient and careful study. Mr. Stearns was mar- ried June 27, 1845, to Mary A., daughter of the Hon. Adin Holbrook of Lowell, Massachusetts. She died July 27, 1895. One son and four daugh- ters survive him. In 1846 he made Concord his permanent home.
STEARNS, EZRA S., Secretary of State of New Hampshire, was born in Rindge, New Hamp- shire, September 1, 1838, son of Samuel and Mary (Moore) Stearns. He received his education in the public schools, by means of private tutors, and in Chester, New Jersey. He taught school for a
EZRA S. STEARNS.
time in the latter place. For several years he was connected with publishing houses in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, and subsequently was Manager and Editor of a newspaper in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. In 1875 he published a history of Rindge, and in 1887 one of Ashburnham, Massa-
chusetts, both works of great value in point of historical accuracy and literary skill. He was Moderator of Rindge for more than twenty years, State Senator in 1887-'89, and a member of the Legislature in 1864-'65-'66-'67, and 1870. While he was holding a seat in the House in 1891, he was elected Secretary of State. Among the duties of his first year in this office was the inauguration of the Australian ballot system in New Hampshire, and in this, as in other duties of the position, Mr. Stearns acquitted himself with high credit. In 1887 Dartmouth College conferred upon him the degree of A. M. He is a member and Vice-Presi- dent of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, member of the American Antiquarian Society, of the New Hampshire and other histori- cal societies, and from time to time he has con- tributed many articles upon the early history of his native state.
SWART, WILLIAM DRUMMOND, Manufacturer, Nashua, was born in Margaretville, New York, July 9, 1856, son of William R. and Eliza (Drum- mond) Swart. His ancestors on both sides came from Holland and were among the first European settlers of New York state, locating at and near Kingston on the Hudson river. His great-grand- father, son of Samuel Swart, lost his entire pos- sessions at the time the British burned the city of Kingston, during the Revolutionary War, and his grandfather, Samuel Swart, served throughout the War of 1812 with honor and distinction. On the maternal side he traces his ancestry back nine generations to Walerandt Du Mont, who married in Kingston, January 13, 1664, Margaret Hendrick, and who was at that time serving on the staff of the Noble Lord Director, General Stuyvesant, in the Netherlandish service, stationed at Kingston, New York. William Drummond Swart was educated in the public schools of Margaretville and at the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts, finishing at the age of eighteen. After leaving school, he was in the employ of Evans, Peak & Company, of New York city, wholesale dry goods merchants, for five years ; and with Bates, Reed & Cooley in the same business, two years. In 1881, he engaged in the decorative art business which he carried on successfully in Newark, New Jersey, for seven years. After spending two years in travel in this country, he located in Nashua, New Hamp- shire, in February, 1890, going into the retail lum- ber business with Charles A. Roby, under the firm
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name of Roby & Swart. Two years later the firm purchased the edge tool works in the same city and added a wood working plant. In 1894 the retail business was consolidated with F. D. Cook & Com- pany, Roby & Swart retaining the manufacturing
W. D. SWART.
and wholesale business under the name of Roby & Swart Manufacturing Company. Mr. Swart is a Director in the former company and Director and Treasurer in the latter. He is also a Director in the Nashua Machine Company, in the Nashua Trust Company, and Director and Treasurer of the Nashua Building Company. In 1893 to 1895 he was President of the Board of Trade. He was a mem- ber of the Common Council from 1893 to 1895, being President for two years, and has been Fire Commissioner from 1895 to the present time. He was appointed Colonel on Governor Ramsdell's staff in 1897. He is a Thirty-second Degree Mason and a member of Rising Sun Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Aaron P. Hughes Council, St. George Chapter, and Commandery of the E. A. Raymond Consistory and of the Aaron P. Hughes Lodge of Perfection, Ancient and Accepted Scot- tish Rites, He is a Director of the Congrega- tional Church Society. In politics, Mr. Swart has always been a Republican. He married, October 7, 1890, Lizzie A., daughter of Luther A. Roby of Nashua. They have two children : Elizabeth and William Roby Swart.
SWEET, ROBERT VAUGHAN, Physician and Ex- Mayor of Rochester, was born in Port Byron, New York, April 25, 1865, son of Vaughan and Judah (Ferris) Sweet. His father was of Huguenot and his mother of Scotch descent. He received his early education in the Academy in his native town, entered Cornell University, and was graduated in June, 1885. He was principal of the Rose Union School in Rose, New York, during the following school year, and then studied medicine in the New York Medical College, being graduated in 1888. Beginning the practice of his profession imme- diately in Rochester, he has remained there ever since. In December, 1894, he was elected Mayor,
ROBERT V. SWEET.
though the city has a large Republican majority. Refusing a renomination, on account of ill health, he left home at the expiration of his term of office and spent a year in travel, both in this country and abroad. Dr. Sweet is a Knights Templar and Com- mander of Palestine Commandery. In politics he is an independent Democrat. He married June 28, 1892, Josephine, daughter of E. G. Wallace, of the firm of E. G. & E. Wallace. They have three children : Pauline, Carlyle Wallace, and Robert Vaughan Sweet, Jr.
WALLACE, ALONZO STEWART, Physician, Nashua, was born in Bristol, Maine, February 17, 1847, son of David and Margaret Wallace. He is
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of Irish and English descent. His grandfather, David Wallace, was one of the pioneers of New Hampshire. He was educated in the district and high schools of his native place. From the high school he entered Lincoln Academy at New Castle, Maine, walking a distance of ten miles every Mon- day morning, taking food for the week with him, and returning Friday nights. The best he could do was to attend two terms a year, and in order to accomplish this and also to assist his parents, he at first went to sea as a sailor during the summers, until by courage and capacity he rose to the posi- tion of First Mate of a barque. AAs his book knowl- edge increased, he filled other positions of honor and trust, and by teaching between terms he at last graduated with honors. Although at his graduation he was able to pass the examination to enter Bow- doin, he entered the Maine Conference Seminary at Bucksport and fitted to teach higher grades of studies. During this time he was Superintendent of Schools in his native town. From 1869 to 1872, he taught in Maine and Massachusetts, being at one time Principal of the High School at Rockport,
A. S. WALLACE.
Maine. He held office at the Reformatory School in Boston at two different times, the second time as Principal, being very successful with this work and gaining the confidence of the boys. While holding this position, he made the acquaintance of Doctor
S. H. Durgin, and through his influence began the study of medicine and surgery. He pursued the study of anatomy and physiology while still a teacher, and after thorough preparation under the instruction of Professors Brackett of Bowdoin, and Green of Portland, he entered the medical department of Bowdoin. Later he was a student at Portland, and finally entered the medical depart- ment of Dartmouth, where he was graduated in 1874. His first practice was at the Massachusetts State Lunatic Hospital at Northampton, where he remained for six months, resigning to accept the position of Assistant Physician of the Port of Bos- ton. He was promoted to Port Physician, which position he filled with great honor and credit, resign- ing in 1879. From this time until 1888, he practiced very successfully in Brookline, New Hampshire. He then removed to Rochester, New Hampshire. After remaining there one year, he settled in Nashua in 1889, where he has gained a very large practice. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and the New Hampshire Medical Society. Doctor Wallace is a Congregationalist. He is an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Pythias, belonging to the United Order of the Golden Cross and the Pilgrim Fathers, and has recently become a Thirty-second degree Mason. He mar- ried Mary F., only daughter of Charles and Har- riet Maynard of Lowell. They have four children : Arthur Lowell, born October 12, 1877 : Edith May- nard, born March 24, 1879 ; Edna June, born June 8, 1880, and Ina Wallace, born February 21, 1890.
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