USA > New Hampshire > New Hampshire men. A collection of biographical sketches, with portraits, of sons and residents of the state who have become known in commercial, professional, and political life > Part 5
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HON. GEORGE C. PRESTON.
H ON. GEORGE C. PRESTON, member of the senate of 1893 from the Ninth district, was born in Manchester, August 17, 1848, and for more than twenty years has been a resident of Henniker. His education, beyond that allowed by the public schools, was secured in the academy at Francestown ; and all his active business life has been passed in Henniker, where during all the years of his residence he has been engaged in general business under different commercial relations and firm names, at present being associated with his brother under the style of Preston Brothers, their interests not being confined to purely commercial pursuits but branching out into real estate and fruit broker- age, having built up in each of these lines an extensive and lucrative patronage. In all the circles of activity in his town Senator Preston has been prominent, and has entered into many organizations having for their object the benefit of humanity, his liberal views of life endors- ing all societies that tend to elevate the human race. To this end Senator Preston has become prominent in the Masonic fraternity, as an Odd Fellow, and as a member of the Grange. In politics Senator Preston has always been an ardent Republican, and has served his party faith- fully and well, nor has his service gone unrewarded. For four years he was postmaster of Henniker and for six years held the office of town clerk. In 1891 he was a member of the house of representatives, and was elected in 1892 to the state senate by a vote largely above his party associates on the ticket. As a legislator Senator Preston has been constantly faithful to the interests of his constituents. Beginning with his service in the house of representatives, he has lent his efforts chiefly to the securing of the rebuilding of the North Weare & Henni- ker railroad, and that at last the desire of the people of Henniker has been consummated is largely due to his earnestness and assiduity.
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HON. JOSEPH BURBEEN WALKER.
H ON. JOSEPH BURBEEN WALKER was born in Concord, June 12, 1822, and was educated at Phillips Exeter academy, and at Yale college, graduating in 1844. He studied law in the office of Hon. Charles H. Peaslee and at the Harvard law school, and was admitted to the New Hampshire bar in 1847, though he has never been an active practitioner, giving his attention to general business, which has embraced directorships in several New Hampshire railroads, sav- ings and other banks, and a continuous service for forty-six years as trustee for the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane, trustee of Phil- lips Exeter academy, and member of the board of agriculture. Mr. Walker, although but little in political life, has been a member of the house of representatives in 1866 and 1867, when he was active in his efforts for the incorporation of the New Hampshire College of Agricul- ture and the Mechanic Arts, of which institution he has always been a warm friend. In 1889 he was a member of the constitutional conven- tion, and is a member of the senate of 1893 from the Tenth district. Mr. Walker has written many agricultural and historical monographs, among them being a history of the New Hampshire Federal convention of 1788. and he has delivered many agricultural addresses at meetings of the board of agriculture, every volume of the board's reports with one exception containing some contribution from his pen. Mr. Walker has developed a high taste for forestry and was a member of the state forestry commission of 1885, and was president of the com- mission formed in 1889 and continued in that office until 1893. For many years he was a member of the school board in Concord. Mr. Walker lives the quiet life of a country gentleman upon his ancestral farm and in the oldest house in Concord. which Rev. Timothy Walker. the first minister of the town, built in 1734 and occupied until his death in 1782.
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HON. JOHN WHITAKER.
T HE senator from the Eleventh district, Hon. John Whitaker. is a native of Hopkinton, having been born in 1835, a child of Revolutionary stock. For a number of years he was engaged in the livery business in Penacook, and remained in that business until 1865, when in company with Caldwell & Amsden he went into the lumber business, continuing therein until 1887 with his partners, and since that year conducting the business for himself. In 1860 Senator Whitaker was married to Frances Caldwell and for more than forty years has been one of the prominent citizens of Penacook. He was foreman of the " Pioneer Fire Engine company " in its palmy days and for five years was assistant engineer of the Concord fire department. His first political office was held in 1859, when he was elected assessor of his ward ; and in 1862, despite the fact of an adverse party majority, he was elected to the legislature and voted faithfully for a vigorous prosecution of the war. He has also represented his ward in both branches of the city government, and is a recently appointed member of the board of water commissioners. He has but recently retired from the active conduct of the lumber business, and is now engaged in a new enterprise as manager and proprietor of a fleet of pleasure-boats upon the beautiful Contoocook river, and in this connection has been instru- mental in opening up and developing one of the most lovely of New Hampshire's suburban pleasure resorts. Senator Whitaker is a marked specimen of New Hampshire's manhood,-a magnificent physique and a power of endurance, combined with the hardihood of severe good sense, have enabled him to undertake and carry forward successfully many an enterprise of magnitude. He has had ample experience in business affairs to prove his ability, and in public life he has served with the same measure of fidelity that has brought success to his own private endeavors.
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HON. WILLIAM E. WATERHOUSE.
H ON. WILLIAM E. WATERHOUSE of Barrington, member of the New Hampshire senate from the Twelfth district, was born in Barrington, January 31, 1845, and has always been a resident of that town. He was educated in the common schools, at the high school, and at Franklin academy, Dover, and has been engaged in agricultural pursuits and general business since first entering upon the active arena of life. Coming early to prominence in the town of his birth and lifelong residence, Senator Waterhouse has held almost every office within the gift of his neighbors. For four years he was town clerk, for six years he was selectman, for two years he was county com- missioner, and has been honored with repeated continuous elections to the moderator's desk. In the general detail of political activity he has also taken a prominent part, having been for eighteen years a mem- ber of the Republican state committee, where his services have been valued and efficient for the success of the party whose principles he has espoused. Senator Waterhouse has become identified with all of the enterprises of note in his community, and as a member of the house of representatives in 1871 and 1872, he vigorously presented the views of his constituents. Upon the organization of the Concord & Roches- ter railroad he was chosen director, and is a director and president of the Barrington Creamery association. His election to the senate was hailed with joy by the citizens of his native town, irrespective of party, and in the business of the session Senator Waterhouse gave a vast measure of faithful devotion to the interests of the district which he was chosen to represent. He has taken broad views of life and has formed correct and impartial judgments upon men and affairs. In pub- lic and private work he has observed a scrupulous honor in his dealings with his fellow-men and the united esteem of those who know him is the due reward of his probity.
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HON. CLEMENT J. WOODWARD.
H ON. CLEMENT J. WOODWARD, member of the senate from the Thirteenth district, was born in Roxbury, September 7, 1850. His parents moved to Keene when he was six years old, and both have since resided there. Mr. Woodward received his educa- tion in the public schools of Keene, completing a course at the high school and at Colby academy, New London. He is treasurer and manager of the Sentinel Printing company, of which corporation he is one of the principal stockholders, and publisher of the daily Keene Evening Sentinel and weekly New Hampshire Sentinel, journals whose probity, sturdy uprightness, and wide influence but mark the make-up of the publisher. As a financier Mr. Woodward is a man of excellent judgment, and in business matters he is keen, energetic, and far-sighted. His executive ability is of a high order. He is a director of the Keene National Bank, and has been a member of the Keene city government. In politics he has always taken an active interest, all his life having been an ardent Republican. Honors have not been withheld from him by his party associates. For many years he has been a member of the Republican state committee. In 1887 he was chosen to a seat in the house of representatives, and served upon important committees, his membership embracing a seat in the railroad committee, the most important in that stirring session. His election to the senate of 1893-'94 was a merited one, and his services were such as to prove the faith of his fellow-citizens. He attends the St. James' Episcopal church. He was married October 3, 1877, and has one son now in his sixth year.
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HON. WALTER LUCIU'S GOODNOW.
H ON. WALTER LUCIUS GOODNOW. member of the senate of 1893 from the Fourteenth district. was born in Winchendon, Mass., March 1, 1851, the son of William E. and Abigail Beaman Goodnow. The family removed to New Hampshire three years later. He was educated in the public schools of Dorchester, Lyme, and Jaf- frey, and at the age of eighteen years entered the store of Spaulding & Perry at Fitzwilliam, as a clerk. In 1873 he established the firm of W. L. Goodnow & Co., at East Jaffrey, continuing as senior partner and business manager in the firm until 1891, when a corporation-The W. L. Goodnow company,- was organized and he was chosen presi- dent and treasurer. The corporation has stores at East Jaffrey, West Swanzey, and Keene. Senator Goodnow has other large business interests, and is a director of the Monadnock National Bank at East Jaffrey, and of the New Hampshire Trust company, at Manchester. He is also a member of the Boston Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of the house of representatives, from Jaffrey, in the legisla- ture of 1889 and 1890, and was elected to his present position in 1892. Senator Goodnow's success is largely due to his upright busi- ness methods, his close attention to, and thorough knowledge of, his business, and his capacity in perceiving and seizing a commercial opportunity. Entering mercantile life at an early age, he became acquainted with the most minute particulars of modern business require- ments, and has shaped his course in accordance with the trend of modern commercial life. As a legislator, Senator Goodnow, both in the house and senate, has been faithful to every interest with which he has been identified, and has given the same careful attention to affairs of the state, that he has given to his personal affairs. He is one of the bright, active, successful business men of Cheshire county.
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HON. FREEMAN HIGGINS.
TN the New Hampshire senate of 1893, as member from the Six- teenth district, sat Hon. Freeman Higgins, of Manchester, who was born in Standish, Maine, January 11, 1830, the second son in a family of eleven children and a descendant of one of the pioneers of the Pine Tree state. Mr. Higgins in his early life endured the same limi- tations that have attended so many of the successful men of New England. Mr. Higgins enjoyed but few educational advantages, and at the age of fifteen went to Lowell, Mass., where he attended school for a few terms and later went to Lawrence, Mass., and obtained em- ployment in the Essex Machine shop, where he mastered the principles of mechanics and remained until 1860, when he came to Manchester and entered the employ of the Amoskeag Co., which was at that time under contract to supply a large quantity of United States government rifles. and Mr. Higgins was placed in charge of the most intricate por- tion of this work, where he was so successful that at the close of the war he was promoted to be master mechanic of the corporation, and has since had charge of the mechanical department of the Amoskeag Co. Mr. Higgins is a stockholder and director of the First National Bank, Manchester, also of the Nashua Trust Co., Nashua, and trustee of the Merrimack River Savings Bank, Manchester. His life has been a modest one. Each of his successes has been accepted in the same quiet spirit in which it has been achieved. His activity, by reason of the calls made upon him by his increasing duties, has not permitted him to step aside from the path of his calling, yet by the earnest fidelity with which he has discharged his duties, he has won the approbation of those who know him. In calling him to his present position, the united voice of his party associates selected Mr. Higgins as a faithful representative of the interests of his district, nor was their selection made in error.
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HON. ALFRED G. FAIRBANKS.
H ON. ALFRED G. FAIRBANKS, member of the New Hamp- shire senate of 1893 from the Seventeenth district, was born in Francestown, January 16, 1822, and was educated in the common schools and at the academy in that town. Senator Fairbanks is engaged in mercantile life, and in his especial calling ranks among the first in the city of Manchester Through all his life he has been actively identified with public affairs, having been honored by appoint- ment and election to various positions entailing responsibility, and he comes to the senate, after many years of experience in different official capacities, well equipped to perform the legislative duties that fall to his lot. Senator Fairbanks first held office in 1865, when he was appoint- ed deputy sheriff; serving also as jailer until 1874. He was elected a county commissioner in 1883, and served in that capacity for six years. In 1881 he was elected to the house of representatives. Sen- ator Fairbanks, though one of the oldest members of the senate, is one of the most vigorous. His long experience in public affairs enables him to secure a prominent position in the proceedings of the senate. As a conscientious and faithful legislator, Senator Fairbanks stands preeminent. His voice is seldom heard in debate, but is never heard without respect and influence. Constant in his attendance upon his public duties he wins the esteem of his constituents, and faithful in his guardianship of their interests, he adds to his reputation for integrity. In the city of Manchester, where Senator Fairbanks has resided for nearly fifty years, he is justly regarded as one of her leading citizens in all good works. His charity is unostentatious, yet liberal : his friendship is not boastful, but cordial. Thrown constantly into asso- ciation with all classes of society by reason of his business duties, Senator Fairbanks has developed the most sterling qualities of man- hood, benevolence, sympathy, and tact.
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HON. LEONARD P. REYNOLDS.
F ROM the city of Manchester, under the recent apportionment of the senatorial districts of the state, come three members of the state senate. From the Eighteenth district, Leonard P. Reynolds is the representative, being the first Manchester Democrat to sit in the senate for many years. Mr. Reynolds was born in New Boston, Sep- tember 12, 1852, and was educated in the public schools of that town, and at Manchester. He is engaged in mercantile life as a wholesale and retail dealer in tobacco, and is worthily reckoned among the most pub- lic spirited of Manchester's citizens. Mr. Reynolds has been actively interested in public affairs in Manchester and represented a con- stituency in the city council of 1879 and again in 1880, and was elected to the board of aldermen in 1882, 1884, 1886, and 1888. His present position follows up his other honors as a compliment well- earned by faithful service to the party that has honored him, and to the citizens whose interests he has had in charge. Though coming to the senate without previous legislative experience, Mr. Reynolds has not found that a bar to his influence. His committee assignments have been important, and although his party is in the minority in the senate, his work has not failed to be marked by positive results. Mr. Reynolds is a type of the New Hampshire man who wins success by his own efforts. His business achievements have been reached by degrees, and have been rendered permanent by application to business and by the most scrupulous honor in mercantile transactions. Resid- ing in Manchester during most of his life, Mr. Reynolds has kept closely in touch with the growth and progress of the metropolis of New Hampshire, and to this fact may be attributed much of the suc- cess that attended his efforts. Thoroughly reliable, his counsel is sought by many, his advice is received with respect, and his course is emulated and admired.
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HON. JOSEPH WOODBURY HOWARD.
T' HE member of the senate of 1893 from the Nineteenth district, Hon. Joseph Woodbury Howard, was born in Washington, November 22, 1844, and was educated, in addition to preliminary study in the public schools, at Colby academy, New London. Mr. Howard is a business man, and has been for many years identified with the business interests of the city of Nashua, where he was at the head of Howard, French & Heald, furniture manufacturers and dealers, until the dissolution of that co-partnership in the present year, and is now engaged in the same line of business. In the city of Nashua, Mr. Howard has easily ranked among the foremost citizens, and has been frequently honored with election to political office, where his eminent business qualities have served him and his constituents in good stead. As selectman of his ward he merited promotion and was elected to the common council, and from there was promoted to be alderman of the city and thence came to the house of representatives in 1887, followed by an election in 1892 to his present position. He has been deeply interested in the educational welfare of his city, and for twelve years was an active member of the board of education, serving during the time when the modern school system was supplanting the methods of other days and lending his voice and vote to the support of the educa- tional methods now in vogue. Mr. Howard as a business man has experienced the satisfaction of constantly increasing success. In addi- tion to the conduct of large warerooms in the business portion of the city of Nashua, his firm has many factories in that city and also at Mil- ford, handling the product for themselves both as wholesalers and as retailers. Yet Mr. Howard's success has not been unattended by mis- fortune. He has seen valuable properties consumed by fire, yet he has never permitted himself to be daunted by such adversities. This spirit has buoyed him up and this spirit yet sustains him.
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HON. GEORGE FRANKLIN HAMMOND.
H ON. GEORGE FRANKLIN HAMMOND, member of the sen- ate of 1893 from the Twentieth district, was born, and has always lived, in Nashua. He is the son of Evan B. Hammond and of Sarah A. Adams, and was born June 8, 1858. He was educated in the high school of Nashua, and at the Bryant & Stratton commercial college in Boston. Senator Hammond has large business interests in the city of his birth and residence, being a member of the firm of F. D. Cook & Co., lumber dealers, and is one of the most prominent young men of Nashua. He has been active in the business world, and first came forward in political life in 1891, when he was chosen to the house of representatives, his service there winning for him the nom- ination as senator in 1892, a nomination that carried with it no assur- ance of election, because of the recent readjustment of the lines of the senatorial districts. Yet Senator Hammond « ntered upon the campaign with vigor and met his opponent in the very strongholds of his political faith, and wrested victory from him almost in the very face of an adverse majority. Coming to the senate Senator Hammond brought to the discharge of his duties those business-like qualities that had won for him success in the commercial world. He was not idle upon the floor, and in the committee room his service was of marked value. The legislation of the session in many particulars bore witness to his dis- cernment.
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HON. JOHN D. LYMAN.
H ON. JOHN D. LYMAN, member of the senate of 1893, was born in Milton, July 3. 1833, and since 1869 has resided in Exeter. He has served the public faithfully and constantly in various capacities, and the mere enumeration of his service is replete with sug- gestion. He has served as school committee in three towns. in 1865 was visitor to West Point Military academy : he has been trustee of the normal school, of the state college, and the New Hampshire Orphans' home: for several years he sat in the house of representatives and in the senate, and was in the constitutional convention of 1889: he has served as bank cashier and as bank commissioner ; has been president of the state temperance society, and for fifteen years was lecturer of the state grange : for three years he was secretary of state: he has been and is a member of the board of agriculture, and has been delegate to various national bodies of economic and agricultural societies. lle was the first bank commissioner to learn by test the actual amount of sav- ings-bank deposits, and was the author of the law requiring savings- banks to lay aside a guaranty fund. He has travelled extensively and spoken frequently in behalf of agriculture, and has addressed farmers' meetings in this state, Rhode Island. Massachusetts, New York city. New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Canada. To him the increasing value of the corn crop in New Hampshire is due by reason of the interest awakened by his personal offer of premiums. Many of the laws bene- ficial and necessary to the farming interests of the state were introduced by him or enacted through his influence. Mr. Lyman's industry. sagacity, discernment, and enlightenment have been to him a constant source of power, and have given him an ample equipment for oratory. He is a most popular man, and his election to the senate came by a majority of 663 in a district where 300 has been a handsome margin.
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HON. JOHN CURTIS TASKER.
H ON. JOHN CURTIS TASKER, member of the senate of 1893 from the Twenty-second district, was born in Rochester, August 17, 1844, and is the son of Thomas Jefferson Tasker and of Comfort Bickford. His education was obtained in the schools of his native city, and in Meaderborough academy at Rochester. His time un- til his nineteenth year was spent upon the farm; he then entered a shoe factory at Dover, where he was employed for three years, and was then for four years clerk in a grocery store in the same city. For eight years thereafter he was engaged in the grocery business for himself, and at the expiration of that time entered the railway mail service, con- tinuing there for several years, and is now employed as a commercial traveller. Senator Tasker has been prominent in the city of Dover, in political as well as in business circles, and has been for several years a supervisor of the check-lists of the city. In 1881 he was chosen to the house of representatives, and was accorded in 1883 a reelection. In the senate he served as chairman of the committee on labor, and gave to the measures presented to that body careful and studious atten- tion. This chairmanship was an eminently proper one for Senator Tasker to hold, as through all his life he has been accustomed to hard labor and is in deep sympathy with the efforts of the laboring man to secure the legislation necessary to keep pace with this enlightened age. Moreover, the city of Dover may be fittingly termed the parent city of the labor movement in New Hampshire, and Senator Tasker by his long residence there was well qualified for his important chair- manship. Aside from the duties laid upon him by this position, Sen- ator Tasker's work during the session was marked by his faithful adher- ence to duty. A well balanced mind, fortified by the experience of previous sessions of legislative work, made him an invaluable member of the senate, and he added much to his already honorable record.
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HON. ANDREW KILLOREN.
H ON. ANDREW KILLOREN, member of the New Hampshire senate from the Twenty-third district, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, thirty-eight years ago, and received a common school education. Mr. Killoren has been a resident of New Hampshire for many years, and has been engaged in business at Dover during the greater part of his life in the state. Mr. Killoren, as a business man, drew about himself a large circle of friends, and by his great popularity won an influence in politics that placed him in the house of representatives in 1887, where in the legislation of that long and important session he took a prominent part, and was honored with a reelection in 1889 and again in 1891, followed in 1893 by a seat in the state senate. During Mr. Killoren's legislative career covering four sessions of the general court. he has distinguished himself as a friend to the labor element in his constituency, not only in his own locality, but throughout the state. Much of the labor legislation of 1887 was urged by him in the debates in the house, and his activity on the floor, before the commit- tees, and in general among the members of the legislature, was largely instrumental in securing the passage of so much legislation favorable to the laboring man. In 1891 Mr. Killoren still further distinguished himself in this direction by introducing the bill to make Labor Day a legal holiday, and by his championship succeeded in placing this meas- ure upon the statute books of the state. Though Mr. Killoren is an intense partisan and his legislative record has never shown desertion of his principles, he has yet taken broad ground upon the important non-political legislation of the various sessions in which he has repre- sented a constituency. His advanced stand upon the question of labor legislation is but an index of his position upon other public matters. Mr. Killoren has frequently participated in the debates of the legislature, and has always been heard with respect by the body in which he has sat.
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