USA > New Hampshire > Sketches of successful New Hampshire men > Part 26
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In this brief sketch we have unconsciously drawn a model citizen, -a man in all the relations of life faithful to the claims of duty ; in the family, society, and the state, blameless; benevolent without ostentation, patriotic without the claim of reward, and true to every trust.
" .While we such precedents can boast at home, Keep thy Fabricius and thy Cato, Rome."
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, C CORNELIUS VAN NESS DEARBORN. EARLY as 1639, and only nineteen years after the landing of the Pilgrims, John -Wheelwright, a dissenting minister from England, gathering a company of friends removed from Massachusetts bay to Exeter in the province of New Hampshire. Among the thirty-five persons who signed the compact to form a stable and orderly colony is found the name of Godfrey Dearborn, the patriarch of the entire Dearborn family in this country. Forty years before, he was born in Exeter, England, and in 1637 landed at Massachusetts bay. He lived at Exeter ten years, and in 1649 moved to Hamp- ton, built a framed house which is still standing, became a large land-holder and town official, and died February 4, 1686. Few men of the early settlers have left a family name so widely represented as Godfrey Dearborn. His descendants are numerous in every county of New Hampshire, and are to be found in every part of New England. It is worthy of note, that among the descendants of Godfrey Dearborn the practice of medicine has been a favorite occupation. Benjamin Dearborn, of the fifth generation, graduated at Harvard in 1746, and, entering upon a successful practice at Portsmouth, died in his thirtieth year. Levi Dearborn had for forty years an extensive practice at North Hampton, and died in 1792. Edward Dearborn, born in 1776, was for half a century the medical adviser of the people of Seabrook, and acquired a handsome estate. Gen. Henry Dearborn, who gained a national reputation by his brilliant services in the Revolutionary war, and as the senior major-general of the United States army in the war of 1812, was a prac- ticing physician in Nottingham when summoned to join the first New Hampshire regiment raised in 1775. To-day several of the ablest physicians of the state bear the name. Toward the middle of the last century the Dearborn family had been quite generally distributed through Rockingham county. Peter Dearborn, the great- grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Chester in 1710. Of his children, Josiah, born in 1751, married Susannah Emerson, the daughter of Samuel Emerson, Esq., a substantial Chester farmer. He learned the trade of a shoemaker, but, on the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, entered the army as a private, and was stationed at Portsmouth under Col. Joseph Cilley. After- wards he did honorable service, first as a private, and then as lieutenant in northern New York, and finally closed his enlistment by an expedition to New- port, R. I., in 1778. Returning from the war, he and his family found a new home thirty miles westward in Weare. It was not an unfitting location. With its sixty square miles still mostly covered with a dense forest of oak, maple, and beech, with its uneven surface nowhere rising into high hills, it had a strong soil, which, when cultivated, yielded large crops of hay and grain. It was already a growing town- ship, and thirty years later became one of the four leading farming towns of the state. Here Josiah Dearborn passed his life, raising a family of eleven children, 196 CORNELIUS VAN NESS DEARBORN. nine of whom were sons. Samuel, the fifth son, and father of the subject of this sketch, was born in 1792. The district-school system was not organized in New Hampshire until 1806, and the children of that time had scanty opportuni- ties for instruction. Young Dearborn and his brothers were reaching manhood, when farming in the eastern states was depressed by the recent war with England and the occurrence of several cold summers. Migration westward had com- menced, and the Dearborns for a time debated the expediency of a removal to the Western Reserve. They at length decided to locate in Vermont, and in 1816 five of the brothers and a sister removed to Corinth, a town in the eastern part of Orange county. Here Samuel Dearborn settled upon a farm, soon after married Miss Fanny Brown, of Vershire, whose parents were natives of Chester, N. H., and here he passed a long and useful life. He died December 12, 1871, in the eightieth year of his age. His wife had died in 1836. Of scholarly tastes, he was for many years a teacher of winter schools. An active member of the Freewill Baptist denomination, his religion was a life rather than a creed. CORNELIUS VAN NESS DEARBORN, the son of Samuel and Fauny Dearborn, was born in Corinth, Vt., May 14, 1832. His name was in compliment to the then ablest statesman of the state, who had filled the offices of governor and min- ister to Spain. Cornelius was the youngest but one of seven children. His childhood was passed in a strictly agricultural community. Corinth, lying among the foothills of the Green Mountains, is one of the best farming towns in eastern Vermont. Without railway facilities, with scanty water power, its inhabitants depend for a livelihood upon the products of the soil, from which by industry they gain a substantial income. Few in Corinth have ever accumulated more than what is now regarded as a fair competency, and very few have encountered extreme poverty. A more industrious, law-abiding, practically sensible people would be difficult to find. When four years old, young Dearborn met with the saddest loss of childhood -a mother whose intelligence, forethought, and womanly virtues had been the life and light of the household. He early joined his older brothers in the labors of the farm, attending the district school for a few weeks in summer, and ten or twelve weeks each winter. When fifteen years old, he attended the spring term of the Corinth Academy, and continued at intervals for several terms later. In the winter of 1848-49, his seventeenth year not yet completed, he taught the school of a neighboring district. His success warranted his continuance as teacher in the vicinity for the five following winters. Continuing his farm labors in summer, he in the meantime developed a mechanical capacity in the making of farm implements and the designing of buildings,- a natural aptitude which has been of great service in maturer years. Soon after attaining the age of eighteen, Mr. Dearborn determined to enter upon a course of study preparatory to a professional life. Before leaving Cor- inth he commenced the reading of law with Rodney Lund, a young man who had commenced practice in the vicinity. In March, 1854, at the suggestion of his maternal uncle, Dr. W. W. Brown, he came to Manchester, and renewed his law studies in the office of Hon. Isaac W. Smith, with whom he remained till his admission to the bar in the fall of 1855. In December, 1855, he opened an office at Francestown. The town afforded a safe opening for a young practitioner, but not one for large profits. There was a time, after the close of the war of 1812, when the trade of Francestown village exceeded that of any other locality in Hillsborough county. But the opening of the railroad to Nashua, and soon after to Manchester, entirely changed the centers of trade and business, and left Francestown to become a respectable and very quiet village. 197 CORNELIUS VAN NESS DEARBORN. Hitherto, Mr. Dearborn, while entertaining positive views, had not actively participated in political discussion. But the year 1856 witnessed the consoli- dation of the anti-slavery sentiment of the country. It had already so far con- centrated its strength in New Hampshire as to have secured the state government and a unanimous representation in Congress. The nomination of John C. Fre- mont for president, in the summer of that year, hastened the organization of the anti-slavery elements of the entire North under the name of the Republican party. In common with a majority of the intelligent young men of the state, Mr. Dearborn entered into this contest with all the zeal, vigor, and enthusiasm of one whose action is untrammeled by personal or partisan ends. The campaign which followed was the most brilliant and far-reaching in its results of any in the polit- ical history of the nation. No idea ever agitated the American mind to which calculating selfishness was more foreign. Even the great uprising which brought about the war of Independence was less free from selfish motives. And, though the general result in the presidential election of that year was adverse, yet in New Hampshire, as in every state north of Pennsylvania, the returns clearly showed that the cause of freedom had acquired an over-ruling strength. In June, 1857, Mr. Dearborn was united in marriage with Miss Louie Frances Eaton, daughter of Moses W. Eaton, of Francestown, and grand-daughter of Dr. Thomas Eaton, a physician of long and extensive practice, and one of the most enterprising farmers of his time. In 1857 he was elected county treasurer, and re-elected in 1858. It was the first public position he had held, and its duties were satisfactorily discharged. In 1858 he removed to Peterborough, occupying the office of E. S. Cutter, Esq., who had recently been appointed clerk of the courts for Hillsborough county. He resided in Peterborough till 1865. During this time he was in partnership with Charles G. Cheney, and afterwards with Albert S. Scott, both of whom have since died. He represented the town in the legislature in the years 1861 and 1862, being a member of the judiciary committee. In the summer of 1865 he removed to Nashua, for the purpose of continuing the practice of his profession. An accidental purchase led to a change of occu- pation. The Nashua Telegraph had for many years been edited by Albin Beard, a genial, witty, and, withal, accomplished writer. Under him the Telegraph had acquired a marked local popularity. He died in September, 1862. Its present publishers were inexperienced writers, and illy qualified to satisfy the admirers of its former editor. The Telegraph was rapidly deteriorating in value and influence. The senior proprietor inquired of Mr. Dearborn what he would give for his half of the establishment. A somewhat nominal price was offered, and much to the surprise of Mr. Dearborn was accepted. He at once entered upon the duties of editor and financial manager. Under his direction the Telegraph was rapidly recovering its patronage and influence, but at the end of two years his health failed, and a change of occupation became a necessity. He disposed of his inter- est to the present editor, Hon. O. C. Moore, and resumed the practice of law. Since his residence at Nashua, Mr. Dearborn has contributed largely to the improvement of real estate, to the erection of improved school-buildings, and in his capacity as member of the board of education to the reconstruction and greater efficiency of the public schools. He was appointed register of probate for Hillsborough county in 1868, and held the office till 1874. For several years he was treasurer of the Nashua & Lowell Railroad, and is still one of the directors. In his official action he aided largely in sustaining the measures which have placed that corporation in the front rank of profitable railways. Nearly twenty years ago, while a resident of Peterborough, he was appointed, 198 CORNELIUS VAN NESS DEARBORN. by the governor, one of the Bank Commissioners of New Hampshire. In that capacity he became acquainted with the extent and peculiarities of the financial institutions of the state. In 1864 and 1865, he actively superintended, in his official capacity, the converting of the state banks of discount into the national banks of the present system. In March, 1866, he was appointed Examiner of the National Banks for the state of New Hampshire, a position which he still holds. He is the only person who has filled this position since the organization of the national banking system. In the discharge of the duties of Bank Examiner, official fidelity requires that the investigation shall be thorough and exhaustive. That during the past sixteen years but a single instance of defalcation has occurred resulting in loss among the forty-nine national banks in the state, is pretty conclusive evidence of a dili- gent and careful supervision. From the length of time he has held the position, he has become familiar with the indications of laxity, lenity, negligence, not to mention recklessness, which inark the first steps of danger to a banking insti- tution ; and his suggestions and warnings to bank officials have not infrequently been of advantage to the public generally as well as to stockholders, where no publicity has been gained through the press or otherwise. Personally, Mr. Dearborn is not an ostentatious, obtrusive, aggressive man. He has no fondness for newspaper notoriety, no solicitude lest he shall be over- looked by the public. In politics and religion he is liberal and tolerant, conced- ing to others the utmost freedom of opinion. Attending to his own duties, it is not his habit to interfere with the personal affairs of others. But when attacked without reason or provocation, no matter what his pretensions, his assailant will speedily find that he has need for a prudent husbandry of all his resources. Mr. Dearborn is a member of the Congregational church. His two children are sons. The older, John Eaton, born November, 1862, is acquiring a business education. The younger, George Van Ness, born August, 1869, is attending the public schools. His house is pleasantly situated on Main street, and is one of the desirable residences in the city. Still in the prime of life, his many friends have no reason to doubt that in the future, as in the past, he will be adequate to any responsibility which may devolve upon him. ٨ כי כ ب D ب רוי ب د נככ e A 2. - م . ٨٨٥ o 20) פכף AAA Ioan Bras well € C 1 4 € 1 € C C C - C U € c L - € 4 6 ( 1 - C COL. JOHN BRACEWELL, A. M. BY REV. GEO. B. SPALDING. D. D. THE subject of this sketch was born June 18, 1837, in Clitheroe, England. Clitheroe is a busy cotton-manufacturing town on the Ribble, and in the greatest cotton-manufacturing district of the world, Lancashire. The father, Miles Bracewell, from his early boyhood had been engaged in printing calico, having served his apprenticeship with James Thompson & Sons, who owned and managed the Primrose Print-Works. James Thompson was a famous manufacturer, his enterprise and liberality being known throughout Europe. For many years Miles Bracewell had charge of the "color depart- ment" in the Primrose Print-Works. He afterwards went into business for himself, and at the time of his death was the senior partner and principal owner of two print-works, -one at Oakenshaw and another at Kersal Vale. It was while the father was in the service of James Thompson, that JOHN BRACEWELL, then a very small boy, was regularly apprenticed to this distinguished manufacturer. The institution of apprenticeship, in anything like its English thoroughness, is little practiced in this country. For a long period in England the term apprentice was applied equally to such as were being taught a trade or a learned profession. The term of seven years was regarded as much a necessity for the learner in any craft, as for the scholar seeking to attain the degree of doctor, or master in the liberal arts. Although the laws which formerly made the apprenticeship compulsory have been abolished in England, yet the principle is universally recognized there in the form of a voluntary contract. Of its im- mense advantages in the way of securing the most thorough knowledge, and high- est skill in the learner, no one can doubt. Mr. John Bracewell, who probably to-day holds the foremost place among those engaged in his business in this country, is a living argument for the excellence of the apprentice system. He began his tu- telage as a lad. He began at the lowest round in the ladder of his advancement, and was long and rigidly held at each last until he could safely mount the higher one. There was a very superior French chemist employed in the Primrose Works, and no little of the boy's studies were under him. When eighteen years of age, Mr. Bracewell had established such a reputation for proficiency in the mysteries of color that he was offered a fine position in a great carpet manufactory in France, but his father advised him to decline this flat- tering offer, feeling that the responsibility was too great for one so young. That subtle but irresistible influence which for so many years has been drawing such tides of population from Europe to America was already settling the question as to the country where this young man was to work out his great success. Only a month after he had declined to go to France, he received and accepted the offer of a position as assistant manager in the Merrimack Print-Works, Lowell, Mass. There he remained five years and a half, winning for himself a distinguished reputation by the energy and skill of his management. Certainly it argues some 200 COL. JOHN BRACEWELL, A. M. unusual qualities in his work while there, some extraordinary gifts and capacities in his nature, that could have led the Cocheco Manufacturing Company to call this young man of twenty-three years of age to its most responsible position, that of superintendent of its print-works. There were no less than thirteen applicants for this office. The directors, with entire unanimity, made choice of this young- est of them all, and gave to him the unlimited charge of the most important department of their great industry. Soon after entering upon his new duties, Mr. Bracewell took advantage of the suspension of work in the manufactory, made necessary at that period of the civil war, to enlarge his scientific knowledge by attending lectures on analytic chemistry at Harvard College. He studied with great thoroughness this science during a five months' course, and at the same time directed the many repairs and changes which were being made in the print-works at Dover. With the beginning of the year 1861, Mr. Bracewell took up his residence in Dover. The remarkable enterprise and judgment of the new manager made themselves at once felt. For just twenty years he continued in his position. These years witnessed a series of brilliant successes. He showed himself to be a genius in his profession. To his originating, creative mind he joins an unusual power of adapting to his own uses suggestions coming from whatever source. By his sheer abilities, his indomitable energy, his quickness of insight, his tireless perseverance, and his perfect command of the minute details of every branch of his work, Mr. Bracewell soon lifted the Cocheco goods to the very head of their class, and held them there to the last day of his service. The production of the print-works very nearly quadrupled during this period. In 1864, Mr. Bracewell was married to Mary Harriet Hope, of Lowell, Mass., whose noble character death has made the more precious to many friends. There were born to them three daughters and one son, all of whom are living. During Mr. Bracewell's residence in Dover he endeared himself to all classes of people by his large-hearted liberality, his great geniality, and his keen per- sonal interest in whatever affected the welfare of the city or the condition of every individual in it. He was an ardent supporter of his church, which he greatly loved, and every good cause in the community. He was quick to suggest, and ready to lead any movement which was helpful to the material and moral advancement of Dover. With a view of benefiting the city, and also as a sound investment for his own advantage, Mr. Bracewell built, in 1879, a substantial and attractive block, consisting of nine stores, which spans the Cochecho river. It bids long to stand, a fitting monument of his public spirit and wise foresight. Though born and educated an Englishman, he became an ardent, patriotic American citizen from the very day that he touched American soil. His pride and hopes for America are as intense as any native son's. His love for Dover is as tender and steadfast as though its air was the first he breathed. The church with which he first united, he still regards as his home. He long served her as a most efficient superintendent of its Sunday-school, and when he was about to remove his residence from Dover, out of a great desire to see the church freed from the burden of a debt of thirteen thousand dollars, Mr. Bracewell, by his payment of a tenth of the sum, led on others to such generous donations that the debt was speedily extinguished. Mr. Bracewell may still be regarded as a New Hampshire son, and a citizen of Dover. His nature will not allow him to lose elsewhere the very great inter- est which twenty years' sojourn here has created in him. It may well be expected that he will some time return to permanently abide among friendships whose preciousness he and his host of friends so fully appreciate. In January, 1881, Mr. Bracewell received an offer to go into business at North Adams, Mass., and as the physicians thought his wife's health would be 201 COL. JOHN BRACEWELL, A. M. better there than in Dover, he decided to make the change. The directors of the Cocheco Manufacturing Company, by offer of an increase of salary of from ten thousand to fifteen thousand dollars a year, and other inducements, sought to retain Mr. Bracewell in their employment; Mr. Bracewell, however, removed to North Adams, purchasing a third interest in the Freeman Manufacturing Com- pany of that place, and the same success which was acquired in Dover has fol- lowed his abilities into the great business which he represents at North Adams. The Windsor calicoes, and other products of the Freeman Manufacturing Company, already stand in the market among the foremost of their class. In 1877, Mr. Bracewell received the degree of Master of Arts from Dart- mouth College, - a distinction well earned and worthily bestowed. During Gov. Prescott's term of office, Mr. Bracewell served as a member of his staff, with rank of colonel. Mr. Bracewell's remarkable activity has not been shut into his business. The intensity of his nature comes out to an undiminished degree in his politics, his friendships, his public spirit, and his religious faith. His sympathies are quick and universal ; his enthusiasms are communicative and inspiring ; his affections are tender and loyal. 14 ALBERT H. HAYES. Too many of the old homesteads of New Hampshire have gone to decay. Deserted and dilapidated buildings, decrepit fences, and unharvested crops of briers and weeds, where but a generation ago there were the homes of comfort, industry, and thrift, tell a sad story of what our state has done to supply the brain and brawn which have developed the resources of others. But now and then there is a farm which has not only been preserved and made to retain its old-time attractions, but improved, beautified, and adorned, by liberal outlays dictated by good judgment and cultured taste, until it has become the envy of all who admire elegant buildings, fertile fields, and fine flocks and herds. Many of these are the property of men who grew up rugged, strong, and self-reliant among our hills, went out in early manhood in quest of greater opportunities than could be found or created at home, and, having won fortunes abroad, have loyally brought them back to the town of their nativity to rescue old firesides from irreverent ownership, to erect upon old sites modern mansions, to coax from an unwilling soil great crops, to furnish people with employment and courage, and to return in a hundred ways substantial thanks for the privilege of having been born in New Hampshire. Of this class is the Hayes farm in Alton, now owned by Dr. ALBERT H. HAYES, who has brought back, from the golden sands of the Pacific, the ample means which enable him to add to the natural attractions of his lakeside birthplace all that money can command in the creation and embellishment of a country home. David Hayes, who was a sturdy farmer of Scotch descent and a native of Strafford, purchased and settled upon a farm in Alton about the year 1790. He had three sons and three daughters, and in time the oldest son, Joseph, succeeded him as the holder of the title to the farm. This son married Betsey Brewster, a daughter of George Brewster, of Wolfeborough, by whom he had eight children, of whom six still survive. The seventh was born September 6, 1836, and named Albert Hamilton. His parents were well to do and appreciated the value of an education, so that, as he grew up, while he did his share of the work on the farm, he had the advantage of the winter schools, and was afterwards sent to the academies at New Hampton and Northfield. At the age of twenty-one he had completed his studies at these institutions, and concluded that it was easier to buy farm produce than to raise it, and that a place containing more people and more money would suit him better than Alton, and, going to Boston, commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Abner Ham, of that city. Subsequently, he attended lectures at Columbia College in the District of Columbia, and graduated at a Pennsylvania university. Meantime he had served as a hospital surgeon in the army for two years, and in 1870, having acquired the necessary funds, made a prolonged European tour. 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.