USA > New Hampshire > New Hampshire agriculture : personal and farm sketches > Part 4
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HON. JOSEPH B. WALKER.
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Montreal railroad lines, command the admiring attention of travellers, entering or leaving the city at the north.
This farm was first owned and occupied by the Rev. Timothy Walker, the noted " first minister" of Concord, great-grandfather of the present owner, and one of the original settlers of the place in 1730, who received a pro- prietor's share in the lands of the township. At his decease, in 1782, the farm descended to his son, Judge Timothy Walker, who conveyed it to his son, Capt. Joseph Walker, and at the latter's decease it descended to his son Joseph B., the present owner, then a lad of ten years, who did not take possession until 1852, it having been meanwhile leased to tenants, and finally coming into his hands, in a generally reduced condition.
Possessed only of such limited practical knowledge of agriculture as he retained from the experience of his childhood, Mr. Walker realized, very soon after assum- ing the management of the farm, that much must be done to bring it into a satisfactorily productive condi- tion, and that he was ignorant of the proper manner in which to go to work to accomplish it. He commenced by adopting the programme of his neighbors, raising a little of everything and not much of any one thing. He soon found this plan unprofitable, and finally arrived at the conclusion that he must raise something which would insure a substantial financial return. Upon due consid- eration hay production was selected as the special line to be followed.
To bring his farm into proper condition for successful operation and comfortable occupancy has required the cutting of some fifteen acres of willow and alder bushes, the drainage of thirty acres of bog land, the turning over of every acre of tillage land on the farm, the re-building of all the fences, and the modification and repair of nearly all the buildings ; all of which has been accom-
SCENE ON FARM OF HON. J. B. WALKER, CONCORD.
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plished, while in the meantime Mr. Walker has secured a thorough, practical knowledge of his chosen branch of agriculture. He has raised his average annual hay pro- duct from sixty to one hundred and seventy-five tons, and has at the same time greatly improved its quality. He has entirely abandoned cattle husbandry, his entire stock consisting of three horses, a pair of oxen, and one cow, stable manure from the city being purchased to sustain the fertility, while the hay crop is sold at a good price in the local market. Under his plan of management all his tillage land, which includes something over one hundred acres, the balance of over two hundred being pasture and forest, is brought under the plow about once in five years, and an average crop of from a ton and a half to two tons of hay per acre is secured.
No man in New Hampshire has manifested greater respect for the cause of agriculture than Mr. Walker, or done more to command for it the respect of others and to encourage young men in devoting themselves to its pur- suit. Coming of an educated and cultured ancestry ; inheriting decided literary tastes ; early acquiring habits of study ; securing a first-class collegiate and professional education ; with the ability and position to command the greatest triumphs at the bar, in the field of literature or in public and political life, he, nevertheless, deliberately at the outset of his career, returned to his ancestral farm, and, by no means relinquishing his scholarly habits and tastes, has since devoted himself to the work of demon- strating, not only that agriculture in New Hampshire can be made to pay, financially, but that its pursuit is in no degree incompatible with the fullest measure of intellect- ual development, and the highest social position.
Ever since the organization of the State Board of Agriculture in 1870, Mr. Walker has been one of the principal speakers at the meetings and institutes of that
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organization, discussing practical subjects, such as " Drainage," " Forestry," and " Hay Production," with which he has become familiar through his own experi- ence. Indeed, with a single exception, every one of the twenty-four volumes of reports issued by the secretary of the board contains one or more of his papers or addresses.
Serving in the state legislature in 1866 and 1867 he was directly concerned in the legislation establishing and putting in operation the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts ; was a member of its original board of trustees, favored the removal of the institution to Durham, and delivered the historical address at the laying of the corner stone of the main college build- ing. Of wide reading and extended travel, he has also spoken and written much upon historical and general subjects. Aside from the legislative service mentioned, Mr. Walker was a member of the constitutional conven- tion of 1889 and of the state senate in 1893-4. He was many years a member of the Concord school board and has been a trustee of the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane and secretary of the board since 1847. In reli- gion he is a Congregationalist and in politics a Repub- lican.
Mr. Walker was born June 12, 1822 ; fitted for college at Phillips Exeter Academy ; graduated from Yale in 1844 ; studied law in Concord and at the Harvard law school ; was admitted to the bar in 1847, and married Eliz- abeth Lord Upham, daughter of the late Hon. Nathaniel G. Upham, May 1, 1850. Their children are, Charles Al- fred Walker, M. D., of Concord ; Susan Burbeen, now Mrs. Charles M. Gilbert of Savannah, Ga. ; Nathaniel Upham, a lawyer in Boston ; Mary Bell, who died at the age of ten years; Eliza Lord, residing at home, and Joseph Timothy, of Savannah.
FARM BUILDINGS OF JAMES M. CONNOR, HOPKINTON.
0
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JAMES M. CONNOR,
HOPKINTON.
Of no New Hampshire farmer can it be more truthfully said " He is the architect of his own fortune," than of James M. Connor of Hopkinton ; and none has been more successful in his work, when all the circumstances of the case are considered. Mr. Connor was born in Henniker, August 21, 1828. His father was James Connor, a farmer of limited means and poor health, who removed to Hopkinton when James M. was about five years old. The only education he received was derived from a few weeks' attendance upon the district school each year before he was fourteen years of age, after which time he was engaged in farm labor and carpenter- ing in this state and in New York, being engaged at the latter trade two or three years after attaining his majority.
In 1852, he returned to Hopkinton, bought a fifty acre lot some two miles from the village, and commenced farming on his own account. He improved the land, got some buildings on it, paid off his debt, and in about a dozen years sold it for $800, and bought a 100 acre farm one mile out on the Henniker road where he has ever since resided, running in debt for the larger part of the price-$2,400. Here the main work of his life has been done and well done. He has largely removed the rocks, underdrained the soil, more than doubled the productive capacity of his farm, paid his indebtedness, erected a fine set of new farm buildings, supplied him- self with all the conveniences of farm life, and laid by something for the rainy day which may come to all.
For more than thirty years dairying has been Mr. Connor's specialty, and butter making the particular line in which he is engaged. Excellence in production
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was his object in the start, and attaining and maintaining this, by conscientious effort, through experimentation and the use of the best and most improved appliances, he has had no difficulty in securing and retaining a market for his product among the private families of Concord, for twenty-five or thirty of which he furnishes table butter from week to week, together with pork, lard, eggs, and other by-products. Some of these families have been his customers since he first commenced retailing his butter in the city.
Mr. Connor keeps ten or twelve cows, and markets from 2,500 to 3,000 pounds of butter per annum. His cows are largely grade Guernseys, many of which are good for 300 pounds of butter each per an- num. He keeps swine as the natural accom- paniment of the dairy, and sells from a ton to a ton and a half of pork annually. He cuts forty tons of hay, or more, and raises a considerable amount of corn, both as a com- JAMES M. CONNOR. plete crop and for en- silage, having a silo of sixty tons capacity. His farm produces also a good amount of excellent fruit. He was awarded by the Chicago World's Fair management two medals and diplomas for superior exhibits of butter and corn.
Mr. Connor was actively instrumental in the organiza-
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tion of the Granite State Dairymen's association, estab- lished in 1884, having long advocated the same in the public prints, has been its president from the start, and has devoted much thought and labor to the promotion of its work, which has given New Hampshire a place in the front rank of dairy states as regards the superiority of its butter product. In the order, Patrons of Husbandry, Mr. Connor has long been prominent. He was a charter member and secretary of Union grange, organized in May, 1875, has filled most of its offices including that of master for three terms, was the first master of the Merri- mack County council, and master of Merrimack County Pomona grange for 1896. He was for six years a member of the executive committee of the State grange, and has been chairman of other important committees of that body, notably those on taxation and the Agricultural college, taking deep interest in the work of the latter especially. For many years Mr. Connor has written to a considera- ble extent for the press upon practical agricultural subjects, and since his connection with the grange has become known as an earnest and effective speaker upon various subjects in which farmers are interested, and with which he is familiar, and he has been heard with interest and profit in agricultural gatherings in different sections.
Mr. Connor has been twice married, first to Judith M .. daughter of Ira A. Putney of Hopkinton, by whom he had four children, a son and three daughters, and, after her death, to Mrs. Catherine S. Watson (née Hoyt) of Warner, a native of Newport, his present companion and helpmeet. Politically he is a Democrat, having served in town offices when his party was in power, and having been its candidate for state senator. He is a member of the Congregational church in Hopkinton, and was for several years superintendent of the Sunday school.
JAMES E. SHEPARD.
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JAMES E. SHEPARD,
NEW LONDON.
One of the best-known citizens and most extensive farmers in central New Hampshire is James Eli Shepard of New London-a town, by the way, which, although located back in the Kearsarge mountain region, away from railroad facilities, is favored with a strong soil, and is one of the best agricultural towns in the county. Here are many prosperous farmers, among whom Mr. Shepard holds first rank; and here, too, is a most intelligent community, the influence of that well-known educational institution, Colby Academy, and the pres- ence of large numbers of city boarders in the summer season for many years past, attracted by the pure air and beautiful scenery of this elevated region, contribut- ing in a large degree to raise the intellectual standard of the people.
Mr. Shepard is a native of New London, born March 13, 1842, and has always resided in that town. He was educated in the common schools and at the Colby Academy, and in 1863, at the age of twenty-one years. was united in marriage with Miss Lucia Nelson, and engaged in farming in his native town, which has ever since been his occupation, although since 1870 he has also been extensively engaged in lumbering in his own and adjacent towns.
His present home farm, known as the " Sheepfold." embraces about 250 acres of land, much of which is in an excellent state of cultivation. It is situated in the southeastern part of the town, about two miles from New London village and a mile and a half from Scythe- ville, now Elkins, his post-office address. It is about five miles from Kearsarge mountain, which is directly to the east and is seen to excellent advantage, and six 5
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miles from Sunapee lake. Aside from the home farm Mr. Shepard has about 1,000 acres of outlands, mostly pasturing and woodland, in New London and Wilmot. The farm produces from 100 to 150 tons of hay annually. Six hundred bushels of oats were also produced in 1895, together with 100 bushels of rye, twelve acres of corn, and an acre of potatoes. Of the corn about 100 tons were cut into the silo. The stock consists of eighteen horses and about seventy head of cattle, of which forty are thoroughbred Jerseys, bred by the late Henry Ward Beecher, Samuel J. Tilden, and Stilson Hutchins, and purchased from the latter at his Governor's Island farm, in Lake Winnipiseogee, in the fall of 1893. Milk pro- duction is the leading feature of Mr. Shepard's farm operations, the milk supply for Colby Academy being furnished by him, and the balance of his product being sold to Hood, and delivered at the Potter Place station.
He became a member of the order of Patrons of Hus- bandry in 1882, joining Kearsarge Grange at Wilmot Flat, before New London Grange was organized. Sub- sequently he was instrumental in the organization of the latter, was its first master, and was twice re-elected to that position. He was also for two years president of the Merrimack County Council, and was the first master of Merrimack County Pomona Grange, No. 3, organized at Contoocook in the spring of 1886, holding this posi- tion also for two years, and devoting much time and effort to the success of the organization, which ranks among the first in the state. He was one of the most active promoters of the New Hampshire Grange Fair association, was its second president and held the office for three successive years. He was also for four years assistant steward of the State Grange, four years over- seer, and is now a member of the executive committee of that organization. Few men have done more than
". SHEEPFOLD," HOME OF JAMES E. SHEPARD, NEW LONDON.
. ...........
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he to advance the interests of the Grange in New Hamp- shire, and no one who has not filled the Master's chair is more widely or deservedly popular.
Politically Mr. Shepard is a Democrat, and, living in a strong Republican town, has not held public position, as might otherwise have been the case. He was, how- ever, elected as the delegate from New London to the last constitutional convention, being the first Democrat in town chosen to any important office in a period of forty years. He has been prominent in his own party affairs for many years, and was the Democratic candidate for state senator in his district in 1890. In religion he is a Baptist, and a member of the church of that denomina- tion in New London. He is also a strong friend of Colby Academy, and has been for several years past a member of its board of trustees; and when, after the disastrous fire which destroyed the fine academy building a few years since, there was danger of the discontinuance of the school, or its removal to some other location, Mr. Shepard was a leading spirit in the movement by which funds were raised to insure the continuance of the insti- tution in New London.
Mr. and Mrs. Shepard have six children-three sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Charles E., mar- ried Maude Hersey. They have three children, and live on New London hill. He is proprietor of the stage line between New London and Potter Place, and is exten- sively engaged in the livery business, having a stable in New London and another at Potter Place, also two farms. The eldest daughter, Lucy Nelson, a graduate of the Emerson School of Oratory at Boston, is the wife of Wilfred Burpee, of Brown & Burpee, opticians, of Manchester, where she resides. Frank S., the second son, married Stella Hersey and has located on a farm in Sutton, believing that by perseverance and economy
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agriculture may be made to pay, even in a New Hamp- shire hill town. The second daughter, Mary E., is a student at Smith College, Northampton, Mass., class of '97 . Mark N., and Emily T., the youngest children, are at home, students at Colby Academy.
A pleasant home life and a generous hospitality make " Sheepfold " an attractive resort for a large circle of friends and acquaintances, who are ever cordially wel- comed.
JAMES L. GERRISH,
WEBSTER.
James L. Gerrish, who has written instructively for the agricultural department of the People and Patriot over the nom-de-plume of " Will Tell," for many years in the recent past, was born in the town of Webster. May II, 1838, on the 400-acre homestead, upon which he still resides with his brother, Dea. H. H. Gerrish, and which was originally settled by his grandfather. Moses Gerrish, who went from Boscawen directly into the forest, over one hundred years ago. The location proved a pleasant one, commanding an attractive land- scape and fine mountain view.
His great-grandfather, Colonel Henry Gerrish of Boscawen, marched to Medford, Mass., as captain of minute men after the Battle of Lexington, was lieutenant- colonel in Stickney's regiment in the Bennington cam- paign, and was present at the surrender of Burgoyne. Through him the family genealogy is traced back eight generations to Captain William Gerrish, who came from Bristol, England, to Newbury, Mass., in 1639. Dea. Jeremiah Gerrish, father of James L., died in 1843, in the midst of a useful life. His mother, who was Jane
JAMES L. GERRISH.
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Little, daughter of Dea. Enoch Little, Sr., of Webster, lived until 1877. She had the pluck and energy to raise and educate five children from the farm, the subject of this sketch being five years old at his father's death, and the youngest of the family. He has lived on the homestead all his life, except when absent at school and during one year's service in the army during the late war, when he served as a member of Company E, Sixteenth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers, having been promoted and mustered out with the regiment in August, 1863. His education, aside from that gained in the district and private schools of the town, was gained in the academies at Hopkinton, Reeds Ferry, and Boscawen.
Mr. Gerrish has spent much time and considerable money in experimenting in the breeding of sheep, of Channel Island cattle, in the application of fertilizers, and in forestry. He built up a good dairy herd before the Granite State Dairymen's Association was formed, has been secretary of that organization for the last eight years, and was largely instrumental in securing a state appropriation in aid of its work. He is an officer in the Guernsey Dairy Company at Contoocook, and has also secured the evidence necessary to found a state herd- book for the Guernsey breed. He established a middle breed of sheep, between the wool and mutton breeds, and has often addressed farmers' institutes, with the board of agriculture, under the direction of both the present and former secretary, upon this and other subjects. His forestry experiments have covered a long series of years, and he has now an experimental acre of pines, which the state, through the secretary of the Forestry Commission, has sought to secure. He commenced early in life to condense his farming and make it intensive and produc- tive. He made and is still making double cropping a
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hobby, raising two or three fodder crops on the same land each season, to the extent of available fertilizers.
Mr. Gerrish is a Republican in politics, and has been honored by his townsmen with the various offices in their gift, serving as selectman in 1875-77, and representing the town in the legislature in 1883, when he was made chairman of the Agricultural College committee.
He is a member of the Congregational church, deeply interested in the welfare of the church and Sunday- school in town. He has been a Patron of Husbandry several years, and has served as Lecturer in his home grange-Daniel Webster, No. 100,-and in the Merri- mack County Pomona Grange.
Mr. Gerrish has been twice married-to Sarah B. Chandler of Penacook, December 22, 1864, by whom he had three children, two now living, Edwin C., a graduate of the New Hampshire Agricultural College, now employed in the office of a large corporation in Lowell; and Mabel A., in school at Brookline, Mass. His first wife died a few years since, and January 9, 1894, he married Mrs. Mary S. Kenevel of Fort Scott, Kansas.
BELA GRAVES,
EAST UNITY.
Eighty-seven years ago John Graves, a young man of courage and character, settled near the south-eastern corner of the town of Unity upon a farm, the larger por- tion of which was covered with heavy hemlock forest. Here he established a home, reclaimed the land, and reared a large family. He was twice married, his first. wife being Rhoda Gilman ; his second, Phebe Way, the latter a daughter of John Way, an influential citizen of
BELA GRAVES.
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Lempster. He lived to see smooth and productive fields where he had cut and burned the forest, and of his twelve children, six reached adult life, the youngest by the second marriage being the subject of this sketch.
Bela Graves was born June 23, 1836, in the house where he now resides, was educated in the district school at East Unity, with a few terms of academic instruction, the last two being at the Newbury (Ver- mont) seminary. Commencing at eighteen he taught district school winters, for twelve years, the balance of his time being devoted to farm work. He has been twice married, first, October 15, 1862, to Emma M., and, after her death, November 5, 1873, to Eliza M., daughters of Reuben Shepardson, of Claremont. He has five children living : Stella M., wife of E. L. Houghton, of Walpole; John F. Graves, of Newport ; Grace E., a pupil in the Newport high school, and Richard C. and Helen L., the " little folks at home."
Mr. Graves has held many of the offices in town, and is at the present time a trustee of the school fund and a member of the school board, having been elected for the third time last spring. He has been the candidate of his party (Democratic) for county commissioner and other important offices. While devoted to the principles of his party, he has not been a politician in the ordi- nary sense, will not stoop to the use of modern political methods, and never held an office which he worked to secure. When the new school law went into effect, he labored to adapt his town to the new order of things, and succeeded, the number of schools being reduced from eleven to seven, and their efficiency materially increased. His efforts in this direction made him unpopular with a certain class, as quite a sum of money was required for new schoolhouses and repairs ; but he has the satisfaction of knowing that his town has a finer
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lot of school-rooms than can be found in any other rural town in the county.
As a farmer, Mr. Graves is engaged in making milk for the Boston market. He has seventeen cows, but expects to be able to increase the number soon, as his farm is yearly becoming more productive. His crops are twice as great as they were ten years ago, and the limit is by no means reached. Nine years ago he built a new barn, acknowledged to be the best in town, which has a capacity of twenty-five cows in stable room and feed storage. He has about 250 acres of land, of which some thirty-five or forty are in mowing and tillage, and the balance wood and pasture.
Mr. Graves has strong faith in the future of New Hampshire agriculture, provided it be conducted upon well-chosen lines. He believes there is a great field here in fruit culture and poultry, for men of enterprise adapted to the business, and that the dairy can be made profitable in all sections where forage can be cheaply produced. He holds that hay should be a specialty on many more farms than at present, and that a little more brain and a little more muscle would work wonders in many cases. He was made a member of the state board of agriculture for Sullivan county in 1893, and has given earnest attention to his duties in that capacity.
PROF. WM. H. CALDWELL,
PETERBOROUGH.
A prominent position in the ranks of the educated and progressive dairymen of New Hampshire is occupied by Wm. H. Caldwell of Peterborough, secretary of the American Guernsey Cattle Club. Secretary Caldwell is a native of the town where he now resides, born April
GROUP OF GUERNSEYS, CLOVER RIDGE FARM.
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