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 31
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and other heroic leaders as James Russell Lowell describes him :
" Beyond, a crater in each eye, Sways brown, broad-should red Pillsbury, Who tears up words like trees by the roots, A Theseus in stout cowhide boots,
The wager of eternal war
Against the loathsome Minotaur,
To whom we sacrifice each year The best blood of our Athens here.
A terrible denouncer he.
Old Sinai burns unquenchably
Upon his lips ; he well might be a Hot blazing soul from fierce Juclea,- Habakkuk, Ezra, or Hosea,- His words burn as with iron searers."
And this strong man, " who looked daggers but never used one," never flinched, in the face of peril.
PARKER PILLSBURY.
detestation, and obloquy, "to dare for the right." The great work of Parker Pillsbury, and the esteem in which he was held by his fellow laborers in this truly heroic period of the Republic, may be judged from the following citations : " Could you know him and his history," wrote Wendell Phillips to Elizabeth Pease, in 1853, " you would value him. Originally a wagoner, he earned enough to get educated. When just ready to be settled, the Faculty of Ando- ver Theological Seminary threatened him that they would never recommend him to a parish unless he gave tip speaking in anti-slavery meetings. He
chose us, and sacrificed all the benefits (worldly and pecuniary) of his hard-earned education. His course since has been worthy of this beginning." William Lloyd Garrison wrote the following, just after passing the three-score and ten milestone of life : " Dear Friend Pillsbury- I did not mean that a fortnight should elapse before answering your let- ter, the receipt of which gave me much pleasure. not alone because of the stirring memories of Auld Lang Syne awakened by it, but also for its very kind and fraternal spirit. Your coming into the field of conflict was specially timely, and displayed on your part rare moral courage and a martyr readi- ness to meet whatever of religious obloquy, popular derision, social outlawry, mobocratic violence, or deadly peril, might confront you as the outspoken and uncompromising advocate of immediate and unconditional emancipation. For then the aspect of things was peculiarly disheartening, a formidable schism existing in the anti-slavery ranks, and the pro-slavery elements of the country in furious com- motion. But you stood at your post with the faith- fulness of an Abdiel; and whether men would hear or forbear, you did not at any time to the end of the struggle. fail to speak in thunder tones in the ear of the nation, exposing its blood-guiltiness, warning it of the wrath to come, and setting forth the duty of thorough repentance and restitution. If you re- sorted to a ram's horn instead of a silver trumpet, it was because thus only, could the walls of our slave- holding Jericho be shaken to their overthrow,-you, too, have seen of the travail of your soul, and may well be satisfied, Laus Deo." Said Wendell Phil- lips, in 1860: " We are charged with lacking fore- sight, and said to exaggerate. This charge of exaggeration brings to my mind a fact I mentioned last month in Horticultural Hall. The theatres in many of our large cities bring out, night after night, all the radical doctrines and all the startling scenes of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' They preach immediate emancipation ; and slaves shoot their hunters, to loud applause. Two years ago, sitting in this hall. I was myself somewhat startled by the assertion of my friend, Parker Pillsbury, that the theatres would receive the Gospel of anti-slavery truth earlier than the churches. A hiss went up from the galleries, and many in the audience were shocked by the remark. Fasked myself whether I could endorse such a statement, and felt I could not. I could not believe it to be true. Only two years have passed, and what was then deemed rant and fanaticism, by seven out of ten who heard it.
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has proved true. The theatre bowing to its audi- ence, has preached immediate emancipation and given us the whole of ' Uncle Tom,' while the pul- pit is either silent or hostile, and in the columns of the theological papers, the work is subjected to criti- cism, to reproach, and its author to severe rebuke. Do not, friends, therefore set down as extravagant, every statement which your experience does not warrant. It may be that you and I have not studied the signs of the times quite as accurately as the speaker. Going up and down the land, coming into close contact with the feelings and prejudices of the community, he is sometimes a better judge than you are of its present state." Mr. Pillsbury edited the National Standard in 1866. In 1868 and 1870, he was the Editor, with Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, of the Revolution, a journal devoted to the cause of Woman's Suffrage, and published in New York city. Afterwards he was a lecturer for Free Reli- gious Societies in Salem and Toledo, Ohio, Battle Creek, Michigan, and other Western towns and cities. Most of his time since the abolition of slav- ery has been spent in the direction of radical reform in religion and social economy. To this end he has published numerous pamphlets, which, while characterized by keen satire, are also full of a deep sense of religious freedom and fellowship, means which he believed were ultimately to unite mankind in a Universal Scientific Religion. On January 1, 1840, he married Sarah H. Sargent, daughter of Doctor John L. and Sally (Wilkins) Sargent, of Concord, New Hampshire. The home life of Mr. Pillsbury was delightful and happy, the domestic atmosphere invigorating and wholesome. Mrs. Pillsbury was born in Loudon, New Hampshire, and was not only an ardent sympathizer with her husband in his anti-slavery work, but a helpmeet in every sense. What ostracism she underwent in social life because of her husband's and her own opinion ! She withdrew from the church in which her life was inwrought, rather than partake of the Communion at the hands of a minister who sanc- tioned the slavery of human beings. But she lived to see the triumph of. the cause for which she and her devoted husband sacrificed so much. Mr. Pills- bury was one of the Trustees in charge of a fund of $40,000, bequeathed in 1859, by Charles F. Hovey, a philanthropic merchant of Boston, to be used in behalf of anti-slavery, woman's rights, and other reforms. Exigencies of the Civil War and the needs of the colored race made such demands on this fund that the whole amount was expended be-
fore any of it could be devoted to its other purposes, dear alike to its testator and to Mr. Pillsbury, among them being the movement to secure lasting peace among nations. Mr. and Mrs. Pillsbury always made their home in Concord, New Hampshire. They had but one child, Helen Buffum, who was born June 14, 1843. She married Hon. Parsons Brainard Cogswell, Ex-Mayor of Concord, and one of New Hampshire's best-known journalists, and the founder of The Daily Monitor. Parker Pills- bury's most valuable contribution to historical liter- ature is contained in his "Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles," published in 1883. A touching incident which occurred, shows somewhat the appreciation of the race which Mr. Pillsbury so nobly helped to emancipate. On a beautiful day in the summer of 1897, a party of colored students from South Caro- lina, headed by their President, called upon Mr. and Mrs. Pillsbury, at their home in Concord. They came to bless their aged benefactors, and to pour out their plaintive songs of thanksgiving and benediction upon the family ; the serene and benign countenance of the wife and mother, happy in well- doing, the strong but mellowed face of the hero reformer, who had "dared to be right, dared to be true," and who had felt that he had a "work that no other could do." It was a picture good to look upon, for it renewed one's faith in the potency of ideas, and the ultimate triumph of right. Just a year later, July 7, 1898, this reformer, hero, and honest man, left this world, which is the better for his having lived in it.
PELTON, FRANK BAILEY, Supervising Principal of Public Schools, Littleton, was born in Lyme, New Hampshire, April 23, 1872, son of David Brewster and Mary Moore (Bailey) Pelton. He is descended from good, old English stock. In a recently published genealogy the Pelton family is traced back to 1086 A. D. His great-grandfather, Joseph Pelton, was a Revolutionary soldier and a pioneer settler of Lyme. On the maternal side his great-great-grandfather was a Major in the Con- tinental Army in the Revolution and a settler of Bath, New Hampshire. Professor Pelton received his early education in the schools of Lyme and Hanover. It was the ambition of his youth to be graduated from Dartmouth, and though his means were straitened, he pluckily set himself to the task of making his ambition a fact. Without instructor or adviser he completed his preparatory
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studies, and in June, 1889. he passed his examina- tions for admission to the college. During his course at Dartmouth he supported himself by teaching in winter and working in summer, and in 1893 was graduated with his class, receiving the B. A. degree. He received his M. A. in 1896. For a year after graduation he was Principal of the High School at Wilton, New Hampshire, and then accepted his present position in Littleton. Under his charge the schools of the town have progressed steadily, and the number of pupils from other places has increased. The schools have been regraded and the High School curriculum now meets the maximum requirements of all colleges.
F. B. PELTON.
This school has graduates in Dartmouth, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Boston University, Boston Law School, and Buffalo University. Through Pro- fessor Pelton's efforts it has one of the best school laboratories in the state. Littleton has twice shown its appreciation of his work by substantial and unsolicited increases in salary. He was President of the Grafton County Teachers' Association in 1896-'97. and a member of the State Board of Examiners of Teachers in 1897. He is a member of the Kappa Kappa Kappa Society, the Masons, and the Coashauke Club. In politics he is a Republican. He is unmarried.
STONE, CHARLES F., Ex-Naval Officer of Port of Boston. Lawyer, Laconia and Manchester, was born May 21. 1843, son of Levi H. and Clarissa (Os- good) Stone. He is a great-grandson of Deacon Mathias Stone, one of the early settlers of the town of Claremont, whence his grandfather, John Stone, with three of his brothers emigrated in 1794 to Northern Vermont, being among the first settlers of the town of Cabot, where they cleared up farms and reared large families. John Stone had ten children and of his seven sons, four became Congregational ministers, Levi H., the second son, being one of the number. Charles F. Stone was the youngest of eight children by the first wife of Levi H. Stone, and his mother dying at his birth, he was immediately taken to the home of his grandfather. John Stone, where he re- mained until he reached manhood. His father was a very able preacher and pulpit orator of the first rank. He held a number of pastorates, the last being at Pawlet. For two sessions he was Chap- lain of the Vermont State Senate. He was a strong Union man at the time of the war and spoke at many war meetings for the encouragement of en- listments, his efforts being rewarded by the direct results in rallying volunteers. The Reverend Levi Stone was a Chaplain of the First Vermont Regi- ment, and four of his sons were in the Union ser- vice during the war, --- two of them were taken pris- oners of war, one being confined at Libby and the other at Andersonville. For several years after the close of his last pastorate Mr. Stone was Agent for the Vermont Temperance Society. He died at Castleton, in 1891, at the age of eighty-five years. The boyhood of the subject of this sketch was passed upon his grandfather's farm, where though his educational advantages were necessarily lim- ited, he won a vigorous physique and where there sprang up a determination to make a mark in the world. At the age of twenty he started out strong in the determination to acquire an education to enter upon a profession. He attended the academy of Barre, Vermont, and for two years fitted for col- lege, entering Middlebury in 1865, being graduated in the class of 1869. He paid his own way at the college. as be paid it at the academy. In the win- ter he taught in the district school and also in sing- ing schools. He was an excellent musician, natur- ally, and from his nineteenth year until his voice was weakened by an attack of pneumonia, a period of twenty-five years, he was Director of a choir in
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one place or another. After his graduation from college, he became a law student in the office of Ex-Governor John W. Stewart of Middlebury, and at the same time served for a year as Principal of a graded school of that place. In 1870 he went to Laconia, continuing the study of his profession in the office of Hon. Ellery A. Hibbard. He was ad- mitted to the Bar in 1872 and was taken into part- nership by the late George W. Stevens, a connec- tion which continued for a year. For the next seven years, Mr. Stone practiced alone, meeting with much success, and devoting himself to his pro- fessional labors. He formed a partnership with Erastus P. Jewell in 1880, under the name of Jew-
C. F. STONE.
ell & Stone, which still continues. Mr. Stone was reared as a Republican in politics. He was an anti-slavery man, and all through the reconstruc- tion period and some years later, he continued in alliance with this party, although he took no active part in the political affairs beyond the town organi- zation. About twenty years ago, however, he be- came dissatisfied with the Republican policy in connection with financial and revenue matters, and ceased his affiliations with the organization. Upon the opening of the Presidential campaign in 1880, Mr. Stone took the stump for Hancock and Eng- lish, and proved a most effective campaign orator. He was made Chairman of the Democratic State
Committee in 1882, to which position 'he was twice re-elected. During all these years he continued one of the most active members of the party cam- paigners. He was a member of the State Legisla- ture from Laconia in 1883-'84, and again in 1887- '88. At the former session he served upon the Committees on National Affairs and Railroads, and in the latter upon the Judiciary and State Normal School Committees. In railroad fights of these sessions, Mr. Stone took a prominent part. He was commissioned Naval Officer at Boston, July 3, 1894, and upon the expiration of his term in the spring of 1898, he resumed the practice of law in this state, and opened a branch office of his law firm in Manchester. At all times, Mr. Stone has been greatly interested in educational affairs in Laconia, and was a member of the Board of Edu- cation and served as President of the Board; for two years he was a member of the Board of Trus- tees of the State Normal School. Mr. Stone be- came a Mason at the age of twenty-one. He is a member of the Patrons of Husbandry, and belongs to Laconia Grange, and Belknap County Pomona Grange. He married, July 7, 1870, Minnie A. Nichols of Sudbury, Vermont, who died September 22, 1875, leaving one daughter, Flora M. Stone. Mr. Stone married September 12, 1896, Mrs. Isa- bel Smith Munsey of Laconia. In religious mat- ters, Mr. Stone is of the progressive and liberal type and has long been connected actively with the Laconia Unitarian church.
AMSDEN, CHARLES HUBBARD, was born in Bos- cawen, New Hampshire, July 8, 1848, son of Henry H. and Mary (Muzzey) Amsden. After completing his course in the public schools he attended Apple- ton Academy, New Ipswich, New Hampshire, and upon the completion of his studies he entered the employ of his father in the furniture manufacturing business, being placed in charge of his office. During the vacation season of his early school-days, and subsequently, he passed his time in the factory, where he became familiar with the trade in all its branches, as well as with the difficulties and annoy- ances under which the workmen labored, an experi- ence which afterwards served him in good stead, enabling him to fully sympathize with them and understand their position. In a short time a co-partnership was formed under the firm name of H. H. Amsden & Sons. The father and brother, George H., died soon after, leaving Charles H. as
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the sole survivor of the name. He made extensive additions to the property from time to time as the needs of the business required, and for more than twenty years conducted the most extensive furni- ture manufacturing business in New England. He was also largely interested in the lumber business. the latter being conducted under the firm name of John Whitaker & Company. He was one of the organizers of the Concord Axle Company, and for a time its President and largest stockholder. He is at the present time a member of the Board of Directors of the Granite State Fire Insurance Com- pany, and the Portland & Ogdensburgh Railroad. By reason of a combination of circumstances,
CHARLES H. AMSDEN.
reverses overtook him in the panic of 1893, at which time he gave up business. Soon after, he accepted the position of Deputy Naval Officer, Boston, which relation he now sustains. Mr. Amsden has always taken great interest in what- ever contributed to the growth and prosperity of the community. It was through his instrumentali- ties that the developments at West Penacook were carried out, resulting in the establishment of the Concord Manufacturing Company's business at that place and the extension of the Concord Street Rail- way to Contoocook River Park, he giving the right of way and selling a large tract of land at a nomi- nal price. In 1874 '75 he represented his ward in
the city of Concord on the Board of Aldermen, and he was a member of the State Senate in 1883. and candidate for Governor in 1888 and 1890. During the World's Exposition in Chicago in 1892 he was a member of the State Board of Commissioners and President of that body. Upon the agita- tion of the advisability of introducing water into Boscawen from Great Pond, he was a strong advo- cate of the project, believing it to be for the public good. He was Chairman of the Board of Com- missioners, and it was largely through his interest that a precinct was formed and favorable action taken towards installing the system and the work carried on to completion. thus furnishing the town of Boscawen, and that portion of Concord lying north of the Contoocook river, with one of the best systems of water supply to be found in the state. Few men in the state have done more towards its advancement, or are better known and more highly respected. Although unfortunate in a material point of view, Mr. Amsden still retains a wealth of friends. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, being a member of Horace Chase Lodge of Pena- cook, Mount Horeb Commandery of Concord, and Aleppo Temple of Boston. He was married Octo- ber 29, 1870, to Helen A. Brown of Penacook. Of this union there were born three children : Henry Hubbard, born July 15, 1872 ; Mary Ardelle, born January 31. 1878, died October 20, 1883 ; and Ardelle Brown Amsden, born December 3. 1885, died June 10, 1887. Mrs. Amsden died August 6, 1891.
REED, WILLIAM J., of Park Hill, an official of the United States Senate, was born in Westmore- land, New Hampshire, March 17, 1841, son of John and Eunice (Cobb) Reed. His great-grandfather, Simeon Cobb, was a Captain of Infantry in the Revolutionary War. and one of the earliest settlers of Westmoreland ; his grandfather, Simeon Cobb, 2d, who was prominent in the affairs of the state, and a Brigadier-General of state troops, built several locks in the Erie Canal. His father. John Reed, a railroad contractor, died in the West, when the sub- ject of this sketch was but fourteen years old. Mr. Reed attended the common schools of his native town, Valley Seminary, and Westmoreland Semin- ary. Upon his graduation he became a clerk for J. W. Leonard of Park Hill, with whom he remained for nine years. Subsequently he was engaged in the produce business up to 1890. He has always been an active Republican. For twelve years he
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was a member of the School Board of his native town, taking a keen interest in the welfare of the schoo's. In 1878 he was elected to the Legislature, and in the following year declined a renomination. He was elected to the House in 1887 and 1889, and to the Senate in 1895. He has been an earnest
WM. J. REED.
supporter of William E. Chandler, and claims the honor of being the only member of the Legislature to vote for Mr. Chandler in three elections to the United States Senate. During the fifty-first Con- gress Mr. Reed served as an official of the National House, and during the fifty-second as an official of the Senate. In 1892 he was connected with a wholesale produce house in Providence, but was soon urged to return to Westmoreland and accept a nomination to the State Senate. This he did and in 1894 was elected to that body. Two years later he resumed his Senate position in Washington. Mr. Reed is a music lover, and a member of the District Choral Society of Washington. He is a member of the National and State Grange. He married in 1865 Pauline E. Griffin of Somerville, Massachu- setts, who died October 24, 1873. His second wife, to whom he was married June 16, 1876, was Lizzie Irene Waters, daughter of William and Caro- line Waters of Millbury, Massachusetts. He has one son : Wilfred G. Reed, born July 10, 1870, who is an electrical engineer.
GOVE, JESSE MORSE, Lawyer, Boston, Massa- chusetts, was born in Weare, New Hampshire, December 11, 1852, son of Dana Buzzell and Susan (Morse) Gove. He is of English descent, his paternal ancestors coming to this country about 1642, and his maternal ancestors about 1636. He was educated in the private and public schools of Lowell, Massachusetts. He studied law with his father in Boston, and was admitted to the Bar, May 5, 1875. Since this time, he has been in active practice in Boston. In 1881, he was a member of the Common Council of that city ; in 1888 and '89 a member of the Board of Aldermen, and in 1883, 1884, and 1885, a member of the Massachusetts Legislature. He is a Mason and Knights Templar. In politics Mr. Gove is a Republican, and was a delegate to the National Conventions of his party in 1884, 1888, 1892, and 1896. He married, August 16, 1882, Agnes E. Ballantyne. They have two children : Dana Ballantyne and Edward James Gove.
HARVEY, ALBION K. P., Physician, Somers- worth, was born in Dixfield, Maine, May 9, 1855, son of Albert and Satira (Eastman) Harvey. His father was the son of Daniel W. Harvey, one of the pioneers of Oxford county. His mother was the daughter of William Eastman, of Rumford, Maine, also an Oxford county pioneer. His father was a farmer, and enlisted in the Thirtieth Maine Regi- ment in February, 1864, and received a mortal wound in the battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, in June, 1864. Doctor Harvey was educated in the common schools until he was fourteen years of age, when he attended Yarmouth and Hebron Acad- emies, where he prepared for college. He was first employed in a drug store in Boston for three years, and then began the study of medicine with Doctor H. C. Bradford, of Lewiston, Maine. After three years, he was graduated from the Chicago Homœo- pathic Medical College, in 1884. Since then he has taken five courses in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, and still makes a ' practice of going there every year. He began the practice of his profession in Lewiston, in 1884, re- maining there eleven years. In January, 1895, he removed to Somersworth, where he has practiced . ever since. Doctor Harvey is a member of the Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire Homce- opathic Medical Associations, of the Boston Surgi- cal Society, and the Somersworth Club. For two years of his residence in Lewiston he was City Phy-
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sician. In politics he is an Independent, and in religion a Congregationalist. He was married, No- vember 11, 1878, to Fanny G. Niles, of Canton. Maine, the daughter of a soldier who fell in the Civil War.
HASLET. GEORGE W., Mill Superintendent, Hillsborough, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, October 24, 1859, son of George and Eliza (Ham- ilton) Haslet. His father was born in Hallowell, Maine, and his mother in Searsmont, Maine. Mr. Haslet was educated in the common schools of Boston and of Somerville, Massachusetts. After completing his education he entered the employ of Rufus T. Frost & Company, dry goods commission merchants of Boston, remaining with them three years. In ISSo he went to Hillsborough and ac- cepted a position as bookkeeper for the Hillsbor- ough Woolen Mill. After a time he became Super- intendent of the mill. which position he still occu- pies. The mill employs about one hundred and eighty hands, and manufactures woolen goods of all grades. Mr. Haslet is Vice-President of the First National Bank in Hillsborough. a member of the School Board. Trustee of the Fuller Public Library, and was for six years Fire Commissioner of the town. He is a Thirty-second Degree Mason, a member of Mount Horeb Commandery, Knights Templar, and is the Secretary and Past Master of Harmony Lodge of Hillsborough. He is a Con- gregationalist, and in politics is a Republican. In October, 1885, Mr. Haslet was married to Mary G. Dutton, of Hillsborough, who died in February, 1887.
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