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 28
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EDMUND C. COLE.
nest advocate of all matters pertaining to the pros- perity and welfare of the town. In politics he is a consistent Republican. He is a member of C'en- tral Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Welcome Rebekah Lodge, Warner Grange, Warner's
Commandery, United Order Golden Cross, and Kearsarge Division, Sons of Temperance. In all these lodges, except the Rebekahs, he has held the principal offices. Mr. Cole married, in January, 1877, Mrs. Emma B. Quimby, daughter of Asa and Sally Pattee. Of this marriage, one child, Sarah Adelaide Cole, was born. Mrs. Cole died Septem- ber 28, 1882, and August 3, 1889, Mr. Cole mar- ried Fanny H. Corey. His children of the second marriage are: Edward Everett. born in 1891; Mary Gertrude, born in 1892 ; Thomas Reed, born in 1894: and Nada Lucile Cole, born in 1896.
FELLOW'S, JOSEPH WARREN, a Leading Mem- ber of the New Hampshire Bar, comes from rugged English stock on both the paternal and maternal sides. Mr. Samuel Fellows, the emigrating ancestor of the paternal line, came to Massachusetts from Great Bowden, Nottinghamshire, England, and set- tled in Salisbury about 1639. He belonged to an agricultural race and was styled a planter in the colonial records, and became possessed of landed property to a considerable extent. The subject of this sketch is of the seventh generation in a direct line from Samuel Fellows. His great-grandfather, Joseph Fellows, served in the second expedition against Louisburg, and the powder-horn which he carried during that campaign, still in a good state of preservation, is in the possession of Mr. Fellows. Joseph Fellows removed from Salisbury to the town of Andover, New Hampshire, then called New Breton, in 1761, being the first settler, and for about a year the only resident there. The story is, that for a considerable time his only road- way from what is now Penacook to Andover was a line of spotted trees through the wilderness. A nephew bearing the same name, was a member of Captain Osgood's company at the battle of Ben- nington, and served in the campaign in which the battles of Saratoga, Stillwater, and others in that vicinity were fought. He has the credit, in the annals of those times, of having furnished his own gun and other equipments. The son of Joseph Fellows, the original settler of Andover, Stephen Fellows, and the grandson, John Fellows, were born and lived upon the farm which he cleared from the wilderness. Joseph Warren Fellows, the son of John and Polly Hilton Fellows, was born January 15, 1835, ou the homestead of Elijah Hil- ton, the maternal grandfather. On the mother's side his ancestry, the Hiltons, came from England some time about 1700, one date fixing the time of
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the emigrating ancestors at 1698 and another at 1703. General Alexander Scammel Dearborn, whose public services are well known to the country, was an ancestor upon the mother's side in a direct line. Joseph Warren Fellows, the subject of this sketch, passed his boyhood much after the manner of New Hampshire boys of that time. His father being a farmer, he learned the practical lesson of hard work and acquired habits of unremitting industry upon the farm and in the lumber swamps. He at- tended the common schools of the town and An- dover (New Hampshire) Academy, where he com- pleted the college preparatory course, entering Dartmouth College in the fall of 1854. During the winter months of his college course he taught schools in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and upon graduation in 1858 became Principal of An- dover Academy, where he remained during the academic year, 1858-'59. Being of an enterpris- ing and self-reliant disposition, he removed to Georgia in September, 1859, where he accepted the position of Principal of the Classical Department in the Brownwood Institute at Lagrange. In the spring of 1860 he became the Principal of the Marietta, Georgia, Latin School, with the expecta- tion of a permanent and satisfactory position, but the sudden prospect of war abruptly changed his plans, and after closing the academic year in June he returned to the North. His career as a teacher had been especially gratifying and but for the out- break of the war would undoubtedly have been fol- lowed with substantial success and material profit. Upon his return North Mr. Fellows wasted no time in idle regrets but entered the office of Hon. John M. Shirley in Andover and began the study of law. Since the war had completely changed his course, it is probable that no more fortunate step could have been taken. Mr. Shirley was a man of great force of character, marked originality, and thor- oughly versed in the law, the sort of man to make a deep impression upon the mind of a receptive and earnest student. In September, 1860, he en- tered the law department in the Albany University, and after completing the course of study in that institution graduated in June, 1861. He was ad- mitted to the Bar in the Court of Appeals in the State of New York, and returning soon after to New Hampshire entered the office of Pike & Barn- ard at Franklin, where he remained until January, 1862. He then located in Manchester, entered the office of Eastman & Cross, and commenced the practice of his profession. In August, 1862, he
was admitted to the Supreme Court of New Hamp- shire at Concord, and in September formed a part- nership with Captain Amos B. Shattuck of Man- chester. Once more the war had a direct influence upon his plans. Captain Shattuck had volunteered and was about to join his regiment, and this part- nership was for the purpose of taking care of his business with the intention of making it permanent upon his return from the war. But Captain Shat- tuck fell, seriously wounded, at the battle of Fred- ericksburg, December 13, 1862, and died a few days later. Mr. Fellows on the first day of January following began business alone in the office in Merchants' Exchange which he has since occupied
J. W. FELLOWS.
continuously, entering upon that career of persistent industry and fidelity to his clients which has won for him a recognized position at the Bar of his native state and has gained for him a well-earned reputation which extends far beyond its limits. In 1874 he was elected Clerk of the Concord Rail- road and soon became the Attorney for the corpo- ration in the care and management of the business which grew out of the operating of that company. He held the position of Clerk until 1884, and has continued in the employment of the Concord, the Concord & Montreal, and the Boston & Maine Railroads until the present time. It follows that while he has been successful in general practice, trying many different cases, the character of his
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professional work has been largely that pertaining to corporations, and more especially to business growing out of the operation of railroads, in which he has had probably a larger experience than any other lawyer in the state. He has been extensively engaged in matters relating to private and business corporations, having made the law relating to the powers and duties of corporations a specialty. In 1874 Mr. Fellows was appointed Judge of the Po- lice Court of the City of Manchester, which office he held until July. 1875, when he resigned the po- sition. It was to be assumed, from the rugged character of his ancestry, from the discipline of his youth, and the sharply-contested struggles of his maturer years, Judge Fellows is a man of marked independence of thought, positive in his convic- tions, and fearless in maintaining them. . \ Demo- crat from boyhood, he has always taken a deep interest in the politics of the state, and has taken an active part in every campaign, both in state and city politics, until within the last one or two elec- tions. He was long connected with the Demo- cratic State Committee, and influential in its councils, and was actively identified with the City Committee for many years, never having been a candidate himself. He has iabored earnestly and continuously for the advancement of the principles to which he steadfastly adhered. being justly recog- nized as a hard fighter, tenacious and resourceful in politics, as in the practice of his chosen profes- sion, and until recently being strongly and une- quivocally identified with the Democratic party, and a staunch champion of the doctrines for which he believed that party stood. While constantly occupied with weighty affairs calling for the best that was in him of knowledge of the law, of power of original thinking, and of resources in emer- gency, Judge Fellows has ever been ready to give of his time and energy to the promotion of the interests of the community in which he lives. In matters of religious faith he is a Unitarian, and has been intimately identified with the work and interests of that denomination in the state for more than thirty years. He has been particularly active and interested in promoting the Unitarian Grove Meetings at the Weirs, on the shores of the beauti- ful Lake Winnipiseogee, and has taken a lively and influential interest in the affairs of the differ- ent conventions of the denomination, both in the state and nation. He was one of the charter members of the Unitarian Educational Society, and is one of the Trustees of Proctor Academy, owned
by the Educational Society, and has been con- stantly and earnestly identified with the institution from its origin, it being the successor of the origi- nal Andover Academy, where he spent his school- days, and for which he cherishes a strong affection. Judge Fellows is also one of the original Grantees and Trustees of the Gale Home, for the support of indigent and destitute women, and has served as Clerk of the corporation since its organization. In secret society associations he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, but has never taken any considerable part in the management of the affairs of that society. As early as 1858. how- ever, he became a member of the Masonic Frater- nity, with which he has ever since been intimately identified. He is possessed of all the grades, including the Orders of Knighthood, and the Thir- ty-third and last grade of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. He has held very many positions in the subordinate and grand bodies of the fraternity, among others, Grand Commander of Knights Templar in the State of New Hampshire. and has been an Officer in the Grand Encampment of the United States, Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge of Masons in New Hampshire for several years, and, for the last fifteen or twenty years, a member of the Law Committees connected with the fraternity of the state and nation. He has also been a member of the Committee of Jurisprudence of the Grand Encampment of the United States for many years, and has given particular attention and study to Masonic law, a subject upon which he has per- pared a large number of thoughtful and carefully- digested opinions and reports, exerting a very con- siderable influence in developing and shaping the jurisprudence of the order. Judge Fellows mar- ried, in 1865, Susan Frances Moore, daughter of Henry E. and Susan ( Farnum) Moore. She was removed by death in 1874, and in 1878 he married Mrs. Elizabeth B. Davis. Mrs. Fellows has two daughters : May W., and Edith H. Davis, to whom the Judge has been a father in very truth, and hus- band, wife, and daughters have established a home amid most congenial surroundings, where kindly hospitality is unpretentious, and where the love of art and literature is cherished without ostentation.
GIBSON, CHARLES RAPEL, Physician, Woods. ville, was born in AAlstead, New Hampshire, May 11, 1852, son of Reuel and Emily ( Barnard ) Gib- son. Ife attended the common schools of his native town and Appleton Academy, New Ipswich,
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New Hampshire, graduating in 1872. He was graduated from the Medical School of Maine in 1875. He was subsequently House Physician and Surgeon in the Maine General Hospital at Port- land, in the years 1876 and 1877. In 1877 he began the practice of his profession in Woodsville, and has remained there ever since. Since 1884 he has held the position of Assistant Surgeon for the Con- cord & Montreal Railroad, and he is also Physi- cian to the Grafton County Almshouse. He is Local Medical Examiner for all the leading Life Insurance Companies doing business in the vi- cinity. Doctor Gibson served on the School Board in 1884 and 1885. He is President of the
C. R. GIBSON.
Woodsville Loan and Banking Company, and has been a Trustee of the Woodsville Savings Bank since its organization. He represented the town of Haverhill in the Legislature in 1897. He is a member of the New Hampshire and Vermont State Medical Societies, and has been Secretary for the White Mountain Medical Society for twenty years. He is Past Grand of the Moosilauke Lodge, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and is Vice-Presi- dent of the John L. Woods Club of Woodsville. Doctor Gibson was married January 30, 1880, to Jennie S. Park of Plymouth, New Hampshire.
GORDON, NATHANIEL, was born in the old homestead at Gordon's Hill, Exeter, New Hamp-
shire, November 26, 1820, son of John S., and Frances Gordon. He is a lineal descendant, in the sixth generation, of Alexander, a scion of the loyal Gordon family in the Highlands of Scotland. This young Alexander was a soldier in the Royal- ist army of Charles II, but was captured by Crom- well, confined for a time in the Tuthill Fields, London, and sent to America in 1651. He was held as prisoner of war at Watertown, Massachu- setts, until 1654, when he was released. He after- wards came to Exeter, New Hampshire, where in 1663 he married Mary, daughter of Nicholas Lys- son. The next year, the town voted him a grant of twenty acres of land, and he became a perma- nent resident, dying in 1697. From him and his descendants, Gordon's Hill received its name. He had eight children, of whom Thomas was born in 1678. Thomas married Elizabeth Harriman of Haverhill, was father of eleven children, and died in 1762. From Thomas's son Timothy was de- scended John S. Gordon, and from Thomas's son Nathaniel was descended Frances Gordon. The line of John S. Gordon is Timothy (1), Timothy (2), (Révolutionary soldier of bravery under Gen- eral Stark in the battles of Bunker Hill, Benning- ton, and Saratoga), and John S. Gordon. The line of Frances is Thomas, Nathaniel (1), Nathaniel (2), and Frances Gordon. John S. Gordon, like his immediate ancestors, was a quiet, unassuming farmer on Gordon's Hill. He never sought or cared for office, but was a man of influence and weight in his neighborhood, serving in his unobtru- sive way his day and generation well. His mar- riage to Frances Gordon occurred March 11, 1814, and his death in 1845. Mrs. Gordon was a supe- rior woman in mental endowments, love of nature, and social and domestic virtues in her devotion to God, and in Christian attainment. She was mar- ried at the age of twenty. There were born to her four children, three daughters and a son, of whom the daughters in their maturity preceded her to the better land. She peacefully departed this life at the house of her son, Hon. Nathaniel Gordon, in Exeter, in February, 1889, at the age of ninety-five years, four months, and sixteen days. Her son, Nathaniel, the subject of this sketch, entered Phillips Exeter Academy in the autumn of 1833, was there fitted for college, and in 1838 entered the Sophomore class of Dartmouth College, and was graduated therefrom in 1841. Each winter of his college course he taught school three months. After graduation, he taught from September, 1841,
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to May, 1842, at St. Thomas Hall, Flushing. Long Island. Going South, he passed the summer of 1842 as teacher in a Female Seminary in Balti- more, and in Washington. In September, 1842, he became tutor in a private family in Prince George's county, Maryland ; and held this position for two years. During this time, he studied law, and was admitted to the Bar, at the April term of Prince George's county in 1844. For about two years he practiced in various courts of Prince George's, Calvert, and Charles counties. He then removed to Baltimore, where he practiced for one year. In September, 1847, he returned to Exeter, where he has made his home ever since. Mr. Gordon opened a law office in Exeter. and con- tinued the practice of his profession until the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861. He has often been called upon to fill important positions of office and trust, and has ever been alive to the best interest of his constituents, discharging his duties with conscientious ability. In 1849, he was chosen Secretary and Treasurer of the Rocking- ham Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and was re-elected annually for eight years. He represented Exeter in the Legislatures of 1849 and 1850, and his district in the State Senate in 1869 and 1870. In 1870, he was chosen President of the Senate; in 1870, his name was brought for- ward by his friends as a candidate for Congress before the Republican Congressional Convention held at Dover in December, 1870. On the first ballot he received seventy-six votes out of two hundred and forty-four, the largest number cast for any candidate : eighty-five votes on the next ballot, but after the third ballot he withdrew in favor of Mr. Small, who was nominated and elected. True to his principles, Mr. Gordon has been the uncom- promising foe of slavery, and in the dark and try- ing days of 1861 was one of the boldest persons in Exeter in support of the Union, placing every dol- lar he owned and all that he could borrow in gov- ernment securities, thus showing his faith by his works. The result of this confidence was a very satisfactory accumulation of property. In 1865, he made a trip to California and Nevada in the interest of the Silver Mining Company of Boston, and remained a year. At the age of eighteen, while a Sophomore in Dartmouth College, Mr. Gordon united with the Congregational Church at Ilanover; from that time he has continued an car- nest and devoted Christian, making other matters and secular pursuits subordinate to the cause of
Christ. He has taken a deep interest in Sabbath- school work, and for ten years was a Superin- tendent of the Sabbath school of the Second Con- gregational Church of Exeter, of which he was a member. He was also a Deacon of this church for thirty years. The numerous benefactions of Mr. Gordon show he has caught the spirit of the Mas- ter. His time and his money have been freely given in aid of many good enterprises. From his interest in education, he was chosen, December 15, 1866, one of the seven members comprising the first Board of Trustees of the Robinson Female Seminary then just organized. He was also Chair- man of the Superintending School Committee of
NATHANIEL GORDON.
Exeter several years. His kindness to struggling and deserving students will long be remembered, and in 1872 he gave one thousand dollars to Phil- lips Exeter Academy for a scholarship, for such students ; in 1874, he gave one thousand more for the same purpose, and in 1881, gave to Dartmouth College one thousand dollars for a like purpose ; in 1886, he gave an additional one thousand for a scholarship. He is also one of the founders of the New Hampshire Orphans' Home, Franklin, New Hampshire. In 1885, he gave to the " Home" one thousand dollars to be added to their permanent fund, the interest alone to be expended in the sup port of the institution. In 1887, he, by an addi
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tional one thousand dollars, increased the endow- ment. The benefactions of Mr. Gordon are not limited to his native state. In 1880, he aided in the fund raised for Gencral Grant by his friends. He has been a patron of the General Theological Library of Boston, and is at this time one of its Vice-Presidents. He has placed libraries in whal- ing ships for the promotion of good morals among sailors. He has established several Sabbath- schools west of the Mississippi, and encouraged them by sending to them libraries. Mr. Gordon has also contributed liberally to the American Board of Christian Foreign Missions for the sup- port of our missionaries in heathen lands. In 1892, he gave to the Congregational Educational Society five thousand dollars as a permanent fund for the endowment of Ogden Academy in the Ter- ritory of Utah. In 1893, he gave five thousand more to the same society, making the endowment for Ogden Academy ten thousand dollars. In 1892, Mr. Gordon gave the American Board of Christian Foreign Missions five thousand dollars for the endowment of a permanent fund for Tun- cho Theological Seminary near Pekin, China. This institution is designed for the preparation of young Christian Chinamen to preach the gospel of Christ. In 1893, he gave an additional five thousand . dollars to this seminary, making the entire endowment the same as the endowment of Ogden Academy, ten thousand dollars. And he gives also to each of these last named educational institutions fifty dollars annually for the purpose of building up the libraries in each for the benefit of the students. Mr. Gordon also has a love for the grand and beautiful in nature, no less than for the enjoyment and happiness of school children. There are a pair of magnificent white oaks near the school house at the foot of Gordon's Hill where he first went to school, under which the children used to play. These oaks are centuries old, and were probably contemporaneous with the aborigines of New Hampshire. Their grandeur caught the eye of the ship-builder, in 1869, in search of timber to plough the seas. Hc coveted them for the ribs of his ships, and made a tempt- ing offer to the owner. It came to the cars of Mr. Gordon. He at once bought an acre of the land whereupon the majestic oaks were standing, and gave the land and oaks to the town of Exeter for a school-house lot. The school children will con- tinue to enjoy them for many generations, and the noble trees will stand for centuries to come,
admired by all observers. He also owns a grove of oaks of about four acres in the village of Exeter, adjoining the Academy campus, which he gives to the town of Exeter on condition that the trees are not to be cut down. This brief sketch of Mr. Gordon would be incomplete without a few words in reference to his mother. Mr. Gordon says her voice to him in childhood seemed to be the voice of God, and that he could not outgrow the feeling in manhood ; that his mother had more to do with the formation of his character than all other things of an earthly nature. It seems to him that she attained that state of mind and heart which our Saviour enjoined upon his followers in his sermon on the Mount, " Be Ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." Mr. Gordon married first, Alcina Evelyn, daughter of Moses Sanborn of Kingston, New Hampshire, December 26, 1853. Their children were: Moses Sanborn, John Thomas (died in infancy), Nathaniel, Frances Evelyn, and Mary Alcina Elizabeth. Mrs. Gordon died on the 14th of April, 1864. June 4, 1868, he again married Georgiana, daughter of John Lowe, Jr., of Exeter. Mr. Gordon's eldest son is married and lives in Texas. His youngest son is unmarried and lives in New York city. His oldest daughter is married to Professor George Lyman Kittredge of Harvard College. His younger daughter is the wife of Mr. William H. Foster, an instructor at St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire. Systematic and conservative in busi- ness, Mr. Gordon has been financially prospered, but believing that "it is not all of life, to live," his gains are not the object of his worship. In many and widely varying directions the kindness of his benefactions will be a blessing and source of happi- ness to many generations yet to come. Mr. Gor- don lives in simplicity and retirement on Pine Street in Exeter, on a small farm of about twenty acres of tillage land, meadow, and oak forest, and with Little river meandering through the meadow.
PERKINS, HOSEA BALLOU, Retired Merchant, New York, was born in Dover. New Hampshire, August 4, 1819, son of Robert and Relief (Earle) Perkins. He is descended from one of the oldest familics of New Hampshire. He was educated in. the public schools, leaving them, however, when he was fourteen years of age, and dividing the remain- ing years of his boyhood between farm and clerk life. At seventeen, with no capital save his native cnergy, and without any acquaintance in the great
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city. except a poor colored man. he went to New York to seek his fortune. MIr. Perkins began his business career in New York as a clerk in the large carpet establishment of Shaw & Carter. At the end of his second year with this firm. he declined a lib- eral salary offered him to remain with the company, and embarked in business on his own account, tak- ing as a partner his younger brother. James P. Per- kins. For twenty-five years the career of this firm of carpet merchants was steadily successful in spite of financial crises through which the country passed during that time. Notwithstanding the demands of business, Mr. Perkins was able to devote much time to other pursuits. and became well known as a pub-
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