USA > New Hampshire > New Hampshire agriculture : personal and farm sketches > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20
Mr. Woodward is a public-spirited citizen and has done much to advance the prosperity of the town in the way of building, and carrying out local improvements, putting in an efficient system of water-works, donating the land, laying out, grading, and fencing a fine ceme- tery, etc. Although his agricultural operations are
RESIDENCE OF FRANK R. WOODWARD, HILL.
123
PERSONAL AND FARM SKETCHES.
incidental in a measure they are by no means limited in extent. He has two farms-Pleasant Hill farm, just outside the village, and Birchdale, three and a half miles away. At Pleasant Hill butter-making for local consumers is the specialty, and at Birchdale milk sold at the cars is the main product. He has seven hundred acres of land altogether, much of which is in wood and timber, whose product is cut for use in his manufactur- ing.
He has expended a great deal in improving stock and in experiments on farm crops to get the most profitable forage, and has met with good success in this line, having demonstrated to the farmers of the locality that the old, worn-out farms may be made to keep a stock of cows that will yield a profit, and bring up the farms to a good state of production by first using commercial fertilizers to raise the corn crop to fill the silo. He makes his hogs help to renovate the old brush land by cutting the brush and pasturing with hogs, and in two years gets the land, which was too tough to break with the plow, in good condition for seeding down to mowing. He was a charter member and the first overseer of Pemigewasset Grange, No. 107, of Hill, and has also served as master and secretary of that organization, in whose prosperity he has ever been deeply interested as well as in that of the order at large, having been for several years an active member of the Merrimack County Pomona Grange.
He is a Royal Arch Mason, Odd Fellow, Knight of Honor, Knight of Pythias, Red Man, and Good Tem- plar, being a charter member of Hill Lodge of Good Templars, and serving for several terms as chief tem- plar. In politics he is a Democrat, and, although living in a strong Republican town, has served upon the board of education, as supervisor, and in other town offices. and in 1884 was chosen representative by a large
124
NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE.
majority. In 1885, after the session of the legislature, he resigned his office as representative and accepted the position of post-master, the same having been given without solicitation on his part. He is a member of the Christian church in Hill, a life director of the society, and has been superintendent of the Sunday-school since its organization. He also has charge of the church property.
Mr. Woodward has been twice married. Five child- ren by his first wife are all deceased. By his second wife, Ella E. Hilpert. he has one son, Harold A., born April 29, 1888. They enjoy a pleasant home life and dispense a cheerful hospitality.
SIMON A. TENNEY,
NEWPORT.
Simon A. Tenney of Newport, son of Isaac C. and Louisa D. (Buel) Tenney, was born in that town De- cember 18, 1842, being the eldest of six children, largely dependent upon the mother, who plied the needle early and late, making garments for others, that her children might grow up useful members of society. After a lim- ited schooling young Tenney commenced working out by the day, and later, by the month and year, mostly at farming, for about eight years, till at the outbreak of the war, when twenty years of age, he enlisted, serving in all two years and nineteen days in the heavy artillery. For four years subsequently he worked on a dairy and truck farm in Burlington, Mass., when he married and returned to his native town, purchasing an interval farm (Sugar Vale Farm) on the south branch of Sugar river, a mile from the village, where he has since lived and has reared a family of five children. He has greatly im-
125
PERSONAL AND FARM SKETCHES.
proved the appearance and productiveness of his farm, making a specialty of dairying. He keeps a dozen cows and has retailed the milk in the village for more than twenty years. Mr. Tenney was active in the organization of the Newport Agricultural and Mechani- cal Association, serving as secretary four years and president two, taking a leading part in the management of the town fairs. He was the first signer of the petition for the institution of Sullivan Grange and was its charter secretary, serving two years, and two years as master ; was two years a district deputy, and was chosen master of Sullivan County Pomona Grange in December, 1895. He is a Congregationalist in religion and has been super- intendent of the Sunday-school. Politically he is a Re- publican and has been honored by his party in various directions. He has served as county correspondent for the United States Department of Agriculture, and news correspondent of various farm and local papers. He is a member of the G. A. R., and past commander of Fred Smyth Post, No. 10, of Newport.
HON. WILLIAM D. BAKER,
RUMNEY.
Among those prominently identified before the public with the dairy interest, now one of the most important and progressive branches of agriculture in New Hamp- shire, is Hon. W. D. Baker of Rumney, through whose efforts, and under whose management, the New Hamp- shire butter exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, was collected, transported, arranged. and displayed. This exhibit, it will be remembered, won for the Granite state the first rank among all the states for the average excellence of its exhibits, and gave
I26
NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE.
an impetus, thereby, to the dairy business in New Hamp- shire such as could not otherwise have been experienced. A general committee of three had been appointed by the State Dairymen's Association to take the matter of this exhibit in charge, the other members of the committee being J. L. Gerrish of Webster and George W. Stanley of Langdon ; but Mr. Baker was designated by the com- mittee to take personal charge of the work, and the outcome proved the efficiency of his labor.
Mr. Baker is a native of the city of Philadelphia, born September 7, 1854. His parents, Samuel D. and Mary E. (Harris) Baker, were New Hampshire people, how- ever, the former a native of Campton and the latter of Rumney, in which latter town they located in his child- hood, on the Joshua Harris place near Quincy station, where the mother was born. He attended the town schools and Philips Exeter Academy, graduating from the latter in 1878. In 1885 he married Winnifred A. Woodbury of Island Pond, Vt., and has been since established in the pursuit of agriculture on the home place at Quincy, to which he has added largely by pur- chase, acquiring the main portion of the farm owned by the late Hon. Josiah Quincy, so that he has now about 200 acres of land, his place being known as the Elmwood Dairy Farm. His specialties are dairying and breeding, his stock being Jersey-Holstein cross breeds.
Mr. Baker has been a leading spirit in the Granite State Dairymen's Association and a director from the start, and has generally had charge of the exhibit and practical tests of the Association, and has addressed various organizations and public gatherings on practical dairy topics. He made four trips to Chicago as superin- tendent of the New Hampshire exhibit at the World's Fair, taking out 153 separate exhibits of which 103 were awarded medals and diplomas. With the October exhibit
I27
PERSONAL AND FARM SKETCHES.
he took out a display of fruit, collected at his own expense, showing 60 varieties and 250 plates of apples, the same being credited to the state, and awarded a medal and diploma. This exhibit was instrumental in creating a strong demand for New Hampshire apples at the West. A movement then inaugurated resulted in the organization of the New Hampshire Horticultural Soci- ety, of which Mr. Baker was chosen, and has contin- ued, secretary. He is also an active manager and sec- retary of the Grafton County Agricultural Society, and a vice-president of the National Dairymen's Union.
In politics, Mr. Baker is an active Republican, and prominent in public affairs, being chairman of the board of selectmen and library trustees in Rumney, member of the last state senate from the Plymouth district and chairman of the committee on agriculture in that body, and also a member of the Republican state central committee. He is an earnest Patron of Hus- bandry, has been master of Rumney Grange and of Grafton County Pomona Grange, and is also a district deputy of the State Grange.
Generally speaking, Mr. Baker is what is known as a " hustler," and few men put more zeal and energy into their work than he.
GEORGE H. WADLEIGH,
TILTON.
George H. Wadleigh, the present member of the Board of Agriculture for Belknap county, is a native of Sanbornton, a son of Joseph D. and Sarah S. (Hunt) Wadleigh, born November 17, 1850. He remained at home, assisting his father on the farm, where a specialty was the raising of a superior quality of corn, until ISSI,
I28
NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE.
when he married Lilla M., daughter of Benjamin F. and Mary S. (Smith) Cass, of Tilton, and settled in that town, where he has since had his home. Two children have made them happy-Grace M., who awaits them " over there," and Lewis J.
Mr. Wadleigh regards agriculture as a scientific pur- suit, and as a farmer puts his best thought into his work. He is progressive, awake to the demands of the times, and ready to discard old traditions whenever science has discovered new truths to take their place. His specialties are stock and poultry raising, and improve- ment is his watchword. He has recently in- troduced an excellent herd of red polled cat- tle, purchased in west- ern New York, and the first brought into the state. He believes this breed admirably adapt- GEORGE R. WADLEIGH. ed, both for stock and dairy purposes. He has a maple orchard of over six hundred trees, and ex- cels in sugar making, having been engaged in it from boyhood. The product finds a ready sale among those who have become acquainted with its merits.
He was a member of the Sanbornton Farmers' Club several years before the organization of Harmony Grange in that town, of which he was a charter mem- ber, as well as of the Belknap County Pomona Grange, having been chaplain, lecturer, and master of the for-
129
PERSONAL AND FARM SKETCHES.
mer. He was active in the organization of the Grange State Fair Association, and was chairman of the com- mittee to prepare the first premium list. He was one year superintendent of the poultry department, three years of the cattle department, six years treasurer, and is at present secretary of the association. He was ap- pointed a member of the Board of Agriculture in 1894, and has taken a deep interest in the work of the Board.
In politics Mr. Wadleigh is a Republican, and was a representative from the town of Tilton in the legislature of 1893. In Sanbornton he was an active member of the First Baptist church. That he might enjoy a more convenient church home, after his location in Tilton, he united with the Methodist Episcopal church in that place, of which he is at present treasurer, and is also superin- tendent of the Sunday-school.
HON. CHARLES McDANIEL,
SPRINGFIELD.
Among the largest landholders, best representative farmers, and most influential citizens of the county of Sullivan is Charles McDaniel of Springfield, a native of that town, born July 22, 1835, a son of James McDaniel who occupied the old homestead whereon his grand- father, of the same name, a descendant of the Scotch McDaniels of the north of Ireland, had originally settled in the latter part of the last century. Growing up on the farm, and thoroughly accustomed to its labors in all directions, the young man, like many another farmer's son, had a taste for mental as well as physical culture, and sought instruction beyond that attainable in the dis- trict school, which he secured by attendance at the academies in Andover, New London, and Canaan, and 9
130
NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE.
himself engaged in teaching, one or more terms per year, from the age of eighteen until nearly forty, making his home with his father meanwhile, and devot- ing a portion of the time to farm labor, until, upon his father's decease, he purchased the interest of the other heirs in the place, and assumed the full management thereof, with which he has since been mainly occupied.
The farm, which is located in the western portion of Springfield, has been largely increased in extent under the present owner, and now embraces about 800 acres of land, of which about 150 is in mowing and tillage, and the remainder in pasture and woodland. Aside from the home farm, however, Mr. McDaniel has about 400 acres of outland, a considerable proportion of which is in the town of Grantham. Mixed farming is pursued, with dairying as the leading feature at present. An average crop of about 125 tons of hay, supplemented by ensilage from a 75 ton silo, furnishes winter subsistence for the stock, consisting of some 50 head of neat cattle, 100 sheep, and half a dozen horses. From 15 to 20 cows are kept, butter being supplied to private custo- mers, and the balance of cream sold to the Sullivan Creamery, at Grantham.
In politics Mr. McDaniel is a Democrat, and has been much in public life, having been elected a member of the board of selectmen, and an overseer of the poor in 1862, and having since served repeatedly as chairman of the board, also as town treasurer and school commit- tee. He represented Springfield in the legislature of 1868, and again in 1891, when he was an active mem- ber of the Committee on Agriculture. He has also been voted for by his party for important county offices, and was the Democratic candidate for congress in the second district in 1894. He was for six years a member of the state board of agriculture for Sullivan county, and for
HON. CHARLES MCDANIEL.
I32
NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE.
eight years past has been a trustee of the New Hamp- shire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, devoting much attention to the interests of the institution during the period covering its removal to, and establish- ment at, Durham. In 1895 he was appointed by Gov- ernor Busiel a member of the State Board of Equalization.
In the order of Patrons of Husbandry no man in New Hampshire is better known, or more highly esteemed, than Mr. McDaniel. He was long master, and is at present secretary of Montcalm Grange, Enfield Centre ; was the first master of Mascoma Valley Pomona Grange ; three years overseer, and five years master of the State Grange, also member and secretary of its executive com- mittee, and chaplain of the National Grange from 1891 to 1893.
Mr. McDaniel is a member of Social Lodge, F. and A. M. of Enfield, and of the Chapter of the Tabernacle, Royal Arch Masons. In religion he is a Universalist. May 31, 1862, he was united in marriage with Miss Amanda M. Quimby of Springfield. They have had five children, but one of whom survives, Cora, a gradu- ate of the New Hampshire State Normal school, for several years a teacher, and now the wife of P. S. Currier of Plymouth.
GEORGE PEABODY LITTLE,
PEMBROKE.
One of the most prosperous agricultural communities in the state is to be found in the town of Pembroke. " Pembroke Street " is, in fact, a farming village, and the fertile and well cultivated fields on either side, and the substantial farm houses all along the way, are an unfail- ing delight to the eye of the passing traveler. Among the best of the many excellent farms here situated is that
I33
PERSONAL AND FARM SKETCHES.
of George P. Little, who has won a prominent position in agricultural circles, particularly as a breeder of Jersey cattle, in which line he was extensively engaged for many years.
The son of Dr. Elbridge G. and Sophronia (Peabody) Little-his mother being a sister of the noted London banker, George Peabody, for whom he was named and at whose decease he was handsomely remembered-he was born at Pembroke, N. Y., June 20, 1834. In 1846 he came, with his mother, to Pem- broke in this state to continue his education at the academy there, he having previously, for a time, attended the Lewiston, N. Y., Acad- emy. Subsequently he attended the Gymna- sium and Military In- stitute, a noted school which flourished then at the "Street" in ri- GEORGE PEABODY LITTLE. valry with the Acade- my. The winter after he was eighteen years of age he taught school in Pembroke, but went the next year to Portland, Me., where he was in mercantile business five years. Thence he went to Boston where he was similarly engaged for a time ; but having developed a strong taste for photogra- phy, he finally located in Palmyra, N. Y., where he pursued that business for ten years, until 1868, when he came back to Pembroke and purchased the farm where he now resides, erecting thereon a fine residence, spacious
RESIDENCE OF GEORGE P. LITTLE, PEMBROKE.
I35
PERSONAL AND FARM SKETCHES.
barn and other necessary buildings, effecting various other improvements, and adding to the acreage from time to time. He has about 225 acres in the home place, with back farms and woodland, to the extent of some 700 or 800 acres in all. The mowing and tillage includes about 75 acres, and the annual hay product is about 100 tons. As has been stated, Mr. Little was for many years a breeder of Jerseys-registered animals of a superior class, which he sold all over the country. He has also been a breeder of fine horses, and has bought and sold horses exten- sively, but of late he has been inclined to an easier life and has relinquished his activity in these lines.
Mr. Little has taken an active interest in public affairs in the town of his adoption, and is one of its most hon- ored and influential citizens. A Republican in politics, he had served as deputy U. S. collector of internal rev- enue while residing in New York. In Pembroke he has been several years town treasurer, three years selectman, was a representative in the legislature in 1876 and 1877 and again in 1890-'91. He was treasurer of Merrimack county four years, and a delegate in the last constitutional convention. He is a 32-degree Mason, and Knight Templar, an Odd Fellow, and deacon of the Congrega- tional church in Pembroke.
He married Elizabeth N., daughter of Daniel Knox of Pembroke, August 22, 1854. They have six children living, a son and five daughters. The son, Hon. C. B. Little, a lawyer of Bismarck, North Dakotah, has been a member of the state senate and chairman of the judi- ciary committee the last eight years. Of the daughters, Mary G. is the wife of James E. Odlin, Esq., of Lynn, Mass. ; Lizzie E. married L. F. Thurber of Nashua ; Nettie H. is Mrs. Frank E. Shepard of Concord ; Lucy B. is at home, and Clara F. the wife of Herman S. Salt of Brooklyn, N. Y.
136
NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE.
CHRISTOPHER C. SHAW,
MILFORD.
Although mainly engaged in other business, in another state, there are few names better known in agricultural circles in New Hampshire than that of Christopher C. Shaw of Milford. Mr. Shaw was born in Milford March 20, 1824, on the farm he now occupies, and which was purchased, by a paternal ancestor, from the town of Charlestown, Mass., about 1744, it having been granted by the legislature for school purposes in 1659. He comes of a patriotic family, three of his ancestors having served in the Revolutionary war, and one in the War of 1812. At eighteen years of age he was clerk of the state militia in Milford, and captain of the same a year later. At this time he commenced retailing dry goods from house to house, and, two years later, opened a country store in Milford, continuing till 1848, when he closed out and established himself in the dry goods busi- ness in Lawrence, Mass. Two years after he removed to Boston, and was similarly engaged for a time on Han- over street, but finally connected himself with the large importing and jobbing dry goods house of J. W. Blod- gett & Co., in which line he has continued, as proprietor or salesman, with the exception of about seven and a half years, immediately following the great fire of 1872, in Boston, which destroyed his business and retired him to his farm in Milford.
Attracted by the Grange movement sweeping over the great West about this time, and investigating the same, he arranged to have the first deputy of the order coming to the state, visit him at Milford. He soon re- ceived a call from General Deputy Eben Thompson, of the National Grange, and in two days Granite Grange, No. 7, was organized in Milford, with Mr. Shaw as
CHRISTOPHER G. SHAW.
I38
NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE.
master. A few weeks later the State Grange was organized, and he was elected secretary, and appointed general deputy. Subsequently, he was made purchas- ing agent for the state. In January, 1877, the state mutual fire insurance company was organized, with Mr. Shaw as president, which position he held for seven years. In December following he was chosen secretary of the Patron's Relief Association, and president of the same in January, 1893. From 1873 to 1880, when he resigned all official positions in the Grange to resume mercantile business in Boston, his time was largely spent in organizing subordinate Granges, and otherwise devel- oping the order in the state, and no man is held in greater esteem by the older members of the Grange in New Hampshire.
Mr. Shaw has been an enthusiast in the culture of fruit, and a large exhibitor of fruit, vegetables, fancy poultry, Chester county swine, and Jersey cattle at the New England and other leading fairs. He has been a trustee of the New England Agricultural, and a life member of that, and of the Massachusetts Horticultural and American Pomological Societies for many years. While making an exhibition of fruit at the Chicago Columbian Exposition, he became dissatisfied with New Hampshire's showing in this direction, and, with a few others, took action which resulted in the organization of the New Hampshire Horticultural Society, of which he was elected, and still remains, president, and which he hopes will yet become an instrument of great value in developing the agricultural resources of the state, along the lines of fruit and vegetable culture.
Politically, Mr. Shaw was born a Whig, but early became an Abolitionist, and graduated into the Republi- can party at its organization. He served the town of Milford in the legislature in 1875 and 1876, and the
139
PERSONAL AND FARM SKETCHES.
party seven years as a member of its state committee. He is strongly interested in historical matters, and is president of the Milford Historical and Genealogical Society. In religion he is a Liberalist, and is president of the Veteran Spiritualist Union of Boston. He was united in marriage, August 27, 1846, with Rebecca Peabody Hutchinson of Milford, a descendant of Captain Nathan Hutchinson, a Revolutionary soldier and one of the first settlers of the town. They have had three chil- dren, of whom two, Horatio Christopher and Charles Jacob, survive.
WILLIAM H. CHADWICK,
SUTTON.
Of rough and rugged surface, but strong soil, which responds satisfactorily to faithful cultivation, the town of Sutton, in the " back-bone " region of the state, includes a number of successful farmers among its population, of whom William H. Chadwick is a worthy representative. Mr. Chadwick occupies the old home of his father, Edmund Chadwick, in the north part of the town, and embracing 170 acres of land, with a good set of build- ings thereon. He was born August 31, 1848, educated in the town schools, and has spent his life principally upon the farm. His farming is of the mixed order, though milk production is a leading item, the same being sold at the cars in Bradford. He cuts from 35 to 40 tons of hay annually, and uses ensilage as a sup- plementary feed. His stock consists of about 25 head of neat cattle, including eight cows, three or four horses, and a small flock of sheep, from which he usually sells a few early lambs at a good profit.
Mr. Chadwick was a charter member of Sutton Grange, and has held some office in the organization
140
NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE.
nearly every year since the start, having been master four years, from 1890, and taking a strong interest in the prosperity of the order. In religion he is a Universalist, and politically a Democrat and as such was elected as the delegate from Sutton, in the last state constitutional convention, though the town is ordinarily Republican.
Mr. Chadwick has been three times married, having lost two wives by death, the first being Miss Susie Coburn of Sutton, and the second Miss Emma Morgan of Salem, Mass. A daughter by the second wife is also deceased. His present wife was Miss Effie Merrill of Sutton, by whom he has one child-a son now about two years of age.
THE COGSWELL HOMESTEAD -- GILMANTON, COL. THOMAS COGSWELL, PROPRIETOR.
Prominent among the old historic homesteads of Belknap county, is the Cogswell place in Gilmanton, embracing the contiguous estates of Gen. Joseph Badger and Col. Thomas Cogswell, natives of Haverhill, Mass., who set- tled here, the former in 1763 and the latter at the close of the Revolutionary War, throughout which he served gal- lantly with his seven brothers. General Badger was a member of the New Hampshire provincial congress and of the first constitutional convention, and was prominent in public affairs. He died in 1803. His daughter, Ruth, was the wife of Colonel Cogswell. The latter was also an influential citizen, and chief justice of the court of common pleas from 1784, until his death in 1810.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.