USA > New Hampshire > Sketches of successful New Hampshire men > Part 33
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The faculty of Dartmouth College say : " We would record with deep sorrow the decease of Dr. Thomas R. Crosby, Professor of Animal and Vegetable Physiology in the agricultural department of the college, and Instructor in Natural History in the academical and scientific departments; and that we have a profound sense of the loss sustained by the college and the community in the departure of one who, to all the virtues that adorned his character, added such fullness, variety, and accuracy of scientific and professional attainment as fitted him for signal usefulness in the several positions he occupied."
His brother Josiah bears this testimony of him in a letter, after he had passed away : " I have always considered him equal to any of the brothers as a general scholar, and, decidedly, as the best medical scholar of us doctors ; and, › although he had not an opportunity of performing so much surgery outside the hospital as others of the family, yet what he did shows conclusively that he was competent to any emergency. He had all the requisite qualifications for a good operator, - a correct knowledge of anatomy and great self-possession."
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COL. CHARLES H. SAWYER.
BY REV. GEO. B. SPALDING, D. D.
CHARLES HENRY is the eldest son of Jonathan Sawyer, the sketch of whose life precedes this. He was born March 30, 1840, at Watertown, N. Y. At ten years of age, on the removal of his father to Dover, N. H., Charles, who had already become quite advanced in his studies, was sent to the district school in - that place. The district school, although it has been supplanted by what is regarded as an improved system of education, had its own distinctive merits. The six years' training in it, under competent teachers, was sufficient to give young Sawyer a thoroughly practical education in those branches which are found to be essential to success in business life. Books can do little more than this. Experience must complete the training process. At sixteen years of age, it being determined that Charles was to enter into the business of his father, he was placed as an apprentice in the Sawyers' woolen-mills. The business to which a young man is to devote his life affords the very best means for his edu- cation in it. It proved to be so in this instance. The young apprentice, as he progressed from one stage to another, had the finest of opportunities for acquir- ing a full knowledge of all the diversified interests and sciences which belong to such a great industry. There is scarcely a branch in natural philosophy, physics, or the mechanical arts that is not intimately connected with the manufacture of woolens. But the manufacturing processes embrace only a part of the activities and requirements of such a business as the Sawyers. They are their own buy- ers and sellers in all the great markets of our own and other lands. Superadded to mechanical knowledge and skill, there must be the large intelligence, the clear foresight, the quick, unerring judgment, which belong to the accomplished finan- cier. In this manufactory, based upon so varied knowledge, and calling into activity so many of the strong mental powers, Charles found a grand school, and such proficiency did he make in it, that when he came to his manhood he was abundantly qualified to take upon himself the duties and responsibilities of superintendent. He was appointed to this position in 1866. No small share of the distinguished success which has come to this establishment may be fairly attributable to the fidelity and perseverance in service, the keen sagacity and the great enterprise, which Charles H. Sawyer has brought to its every interest. In 1873, when the company became incorporated, he was admitted to the firm, and, at the same time, was appointed its agent and one of the directors. Since then he has been elected its president.
Mr. Sawyer has served in both branches of the Dover city government ; was a member of the New Hampshire legislature in 1869 and 1870, and again in 1876 and 1877, serving on the committee on railroads, incorporations, judiciary, national affairs, and as chairman of the committee on manufactures. In 1881 he was appointed, by Governor Bell, a member of his military staff with rank
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of colonel. Mr. Sawyer is now acting as director of the Strafford National Bank and the Portsmouth & Dover Railroad, and trustee of the Strafford Sav- ings Bank. He is a member of the Masonic order, taking a personal interest in all that concerns its prosperity. In 1867 he became a member of the Strafford Lodge, and was master in 1872 and 1873. He is a member of the St. Paul Commandry of Knights Templar, of which he has just been elected eminent commander for the fourth time.
Mr. Sawyer, in 1865, was married to Susan Ellen Cowan, daughter of Dr. James W. and Elizabeth Cowan.
Mr. Sawyer is not only a man of affairs, taking a deep personal interest in the various movements of politics, finance, and industrial life, but he is a man of large reading and is well acquainted with the best books and thoughts of the times. His judgments of men and measures are singularly free from partiality and prejudice. His conclusions are deliberately formed, and based upon a broad comprehension of all the related facts. His sense of justice is strong; his in- tellectual qualities are admirably balanced. He never is otherwise than perfectly poised. With all this he has the warmest heart, the quickest sympathies, great kindness of manner, and utmost geniality of spirit. In the reserve of his nature he withholds himself from all impetuous demonstrations; but, when the occasion demands, his influence, his advice, his friendship are put forth with command- ing effect. Nature made him on a large scale, and books and experience and increasing converse with the best phases of social life are developing him into rare strength and symmetry of character.
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Anthony Colly
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GOV. ANTHONY COLBY.
ANTHONY COLBY is known in his native state as a typical "New Hamp- 'shire man." Born and bred among the granite hills, he seemed assimilated to them, and to illustrate in his noble, cheerful life the effects of their companion- ship. His great heart, sparkling wit, fine physical vigor, and merry laugh made his presence a joy at all times, and welcome everywhere. His ancestry, on his father's side, was of English, and on his mother's, of Scotch-Irish, origin. The first member of his father's family that removed to this country settled in the town of Salisbury, Mass., in 1740. He bore the name of Anthony Colby, and was a member of the so-called "Test Association."
Joseph Colby, the father of Anthony, was born in Hopkinton, N. H., near Beech Hill, in 1762. He died in 1843. Of his brothers, two, James and Nathaniel, settled in that town, and another, David, in Manchester, near the sea, in Massachusetts. During the last century, Joseph bought a portion of land under the " Masonian Grant" from Mr. Minot. Then the restriction of owner- ship in the state was that "all the white-pine trees be reserved for masting the ships of His Majesty's royal navy." Each town was required to set apart a por- tion of land for a meeting-house, and the support of the gospel ministry ; for a school-house and the support of a school, as well as a military-parade ground.
In the organization and settlement of the town named New London, and in the needs of the settlers, both civil and religious, Joseph took an active part. He began clearing land in that part of the town now called Pleasant street, at the north end of Pleasant pond. He early established trade for himself with Newburyport and Salem. The state legislature then held its sessions in Ports- mouth. Of this, he was for fourteen consecutive years a member. He was a politieal leader, and an uncompromising Federalist. For fifty years he was a stanch member of the Baptist church, of which Rev. Job Seamans was the first pastor, and he was for some time president of the Baptist state convention.
He married Anne Heath, a direct descendant of the Richard Kelley family, of which Judge Kelley, of Exeter, was a member. Her immediate relatives took part in the Revolutionary war. Members of the family live in Newbury, Mass. The family of Joseph Colby consisted of two sons and two daughters. The eldest daughter, Sarah, married Jonathan Herrick; the second, Judith, married Perley Burpee. Both of these daughters were settled beside him. Mrs. Burpee still survives. The two sons of Joseph Colby never left their father's household. Joseph, the eldest, spent the most of his life in the gratification of his literary tastes, and a species of journalism. Anthony, born in 1795, was of a lively disposition. A pleasant vein of humor ran through his character, mak- ing him enjoy a joke, while a native prescience led him to project himself into every kind of progress. A keen insight into the character of men gave him an almost unlimited influence over them. He never passed through college, but his faculties were broadly developed by the condition into which his genial and vivid nature led him. His father's home was so guarded and in every way provided
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for, that ample opportunity was afforded him to follow the pursuits and activities that were congenial to him. He married, at an early age, Mary Everett, whose modest and refined Christian character greatly influenced him. A more favored home could hardly be imagined than that in which his three children were born, and which is still held sacred by them. The steady support of a grandfather's established character, the stimulus of a popular father, joined to the affection of a devoted grandmother and the delicate influence of a lovely mother, created an atmosphere of solid content and peace as blissful as is to be found this side of heaven. His eldest son, Daniel E. Colby, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1836. He married Martha Greenwood, and now lives in the paternal home. His daughter married, in 1851, James B. Colgate, and lives in New York, as does her brother Robert, who married Mary Colgate. Robert also graduated from Dartmouth College, and studied law with Judge Perley, at Concord, N. H.
The prominent characteristics of Anthony Colby were manly self-reliance and intrepidity, joined with quick sympathy and faithfulness in friendship, which made men trust and love him. His father's identity with the state gave him a wide knowledge of its resources, industries, and inhabitants. He was interested in the affairs of the entire state, and was always ready to sacrifice the interests of his private business for those of his townsmen. There was no neighborhood or personal difficulty in which he did not willingly take the responsibility of bring- ing help or reconciliation. His tender sympathy, benevolence, and personal au- thority were sufficient to adjust the differences and rights of all who sought his assistance. He was strictly and absolutely a temperance man, never tasting spirit- uous liquors, and always using his influence to save young men from the use of them. His nature was many-sided enough to find some points of agreement with men whose habits differed from his own.
He established a line of stages through his native town before any system of railroads had been extended through the state. He afterwards became president of the Concord & Claremont Railroad. He possessed, in an unusual degree, an ability to create in his own brain and carry into practice business activities. He saw and felt how labor could be well applied, and, while a young man, built him- self, in a part of the town then almost a forest, a grist-mill, carding and fulling mill. In 1836 he was instrumental in establishing a scythe-factory which was carried on by the use of the same water that had been used for the mills. In this enterprise he was associated with Joseph Phillips and Richard Messer, both of whom had learned the trade of scythe-making. In the vicinity there grew up directly a flourishing village.
In politics, Mr. Colby was always conservative. He was first elected a mem- ber of the New Hampshire legislature, in 1828, and afterwards held nearly every higher office of trust in the state. Daniel Webster was his personal friend. Their fathers, who lived in the same county, only about twenty miles apart, were many years associated in the legislature, of which they were mem- bers, from Salisbury and New London. The friendship between himself, Judge > Nesmith, of Franklin, and Gen. James Wilson, of Keene, was more than simple friendship,-they were delightful companions; of essentially different character- istics, the combination was perfect. Daniel Webster was their political chief, and his vacation sometimes found these men together at the Franklin "farm- house," and at the chowder parties up at the "pond." The Phenix Hotel, under the charge of Col. Abel and Maj. Ephraim Hutchins, was the central rendez- vous, where a great deal of projected statesmanship, a great deal of story telling and fruitless caucusing were indulged in, down to the revolution of 1846, when the Democrats lost their supremacy by the admission of Texas as a slave state, when John P. Hale went into the senate. Anthony Colby was then elected
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governor. Mr. Webster wrote him earnest congratulations. With the usual backsets of a radical change, the Whig party held the front until Mr. Webster made his Seventh-of-March speech in 1850, on the fugitive-slave bill. Following up that speech by another on the Revere-House steps, favoring the enforcement of that law, and addressed to New England men, in which he said, " Massachusetts takes no steps backward," he placed his friends in a most trying predicament.
Mr. Webster and his Boston body-guard made an effort to hold the Whig party solid to his position. It could not be done. The Abolitionists stood forth in full panoply, indiscriminately and precipitately aggressive, thanking God for the fugitive-slave law, and that Daniel Webster was its promoter and defender. He wrote to Gov. Colby, urging him to stand firmly by him and help bring the public mind to this new standard. The governor was perplexed. Privately he expressed himself after this fashion : "New Hampshire men vote for the fugi- tive-slave law! This whole business is like crowding a hot potato down a man's throat, and then asking him to sing 'Old Hundred."" ' He wrote Mr. Webster that he would do all that he could for him as a friend, although the law was odious to him.
There was held, that summer, a Baptist state convention. It was a full con- vention, for the churches were in a ferment, and many of them disintegrating upon the slavery issue. He was sent as a delegate from the church of which he was a member. A set of resolutions was reported, of a very violent and denun- ciatory character, directed against the fugitive-slave law, Mr. Webster, and both political parties, threatening expulsion and disfellowship to those members of churches who did not come out with an open and square protest upon this subject. The discussion was all one side until the advocates of the resolution had aired their opinions to their own satisfaction. Then the governor, seeing his oppor- tunity, quietly arose and moved an amendment to the resolution inveighing against Mr. Webster personally. He felt the fight to be a single-handed one, and would go through it alone if necessary. Presently, a candid brother seconded his amendment with a few suggestions. Other brethren applauded. Then the storm set in from the other side, and the convention became disorderly. It was as if the better elements of New England life were in one grand convocation. This was the first public discussion of the situation. The contest was as brilliant a one, on a modified scale, as any intellectual and emotional contest that we read of. The governor's only hope of reconciliation was by settling down on his own popularity with the members of the convention, and, avoiding the principles in- volved, appealing to their generosity as a personal favor. With tears in his eyes, and in faltering, grieving tones, he besought them most solemnly to spare his life-long friend the denunciation contained in that one resolution, and accept his amendment. The convention agreed to it. He sent a report of the proceedings, with an explanatory letter, to Mr. Webster; but he was not satisfied. There the matter dropped. These true-hearted friends saw, silently, the scepter of leader- ship declining in Mr. Webster's hand, and sadly lamented what they could not prevent.
No Whig had held the office of governor, until the election of Anthony Colby, since the election of Gov. Bell, an interim of seventeen years. Gov. Colby being rallied upon his one-term office, said he considered his administration the most remarkable the state ever had. . " Why so?" was asked; when with assumed gravity he answered : " Because I hace satisfied the people in one year, and no other governor ever did that."
His spirit attached him to military life. He was early promoted to the rank of major-general. This experience turned to his account, when, during the try- ing years of our late war, in 1861 he was appointed adjutant-general, and subse-
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quently provost-marshal, of New Hampshire. At this time his son Daniel E. Colby was appointed adjutant-general. The governor always alluded to this service as the saddest of his life, -to encourage and send forth to almost certain death the young men of the state whom he loved as a father. This was his last promi- nent office in state affairs ; and so faithful was he in it, that, although nearly seventy years of age, he went often to the front to acquaint himself with the condition of the soldiers and share their hardships with them ..
In 1850 he received from Dartmouth College the degree of A. M., and the same year was chosen one of the trustees of the college. He was interested in the best possible educational advantages of the young, and in every way promoted them. Through his energy, in a great degree, the academy in New London has arisen to its present flourishing condition. His son-in-law, James B. Colgate, of New York, has generously endowed it, and aided in placing it upon a solid basis. The trustees have conferred upon it the name of Colby Academy.
Gov. Colby's second wife, Eliza Messenger Richardson, of Boston, by her accomplishments and true Christian character embellished and enlivened his declining years, while the devotion of his children cheered the seclusion of his last days.
Said an illiterate woman, to strangers discussing his character in the cars, " Governor Colby carries the very demon of honesty in his face."
It was his unfailing sense of duty and trust in God that won for him the vast respect of the public, and esteem of a large circle of private friends.
Sunday evening, July 20, 1875, he died, peacefully, in the home of his father, at the age of eighty years, and was buried in the cemetery of his native town, by the side of his parents.
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Very Truly WIE Chandler
April 1882
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SECRETARY WILLIAM E. CHANDLER.
BY HON. JACOB H. ELA.
WILLIAM E. CHANDLER, the second son of Nathan S. and Mary A. Chandler, was born in Concord, N. H., December 28, 1835, and educated in the public schools of that city and the academies of Thetford, Vt., and Pembroke, N. H. He began the study of the law in the office of George & Webster and George & Foster in 1852; graduated from the Harvard Law School as LL. B. in 1855; and in 1856, before coming of age, began practicing in Concord with Francis B. Peabody, Esq., now of Chicago.
Mr. Chandler has, from early childhood, fulfilled all the expectations of his friends. At the Harvard Law School he was librarian, and graduated with prize honors for an essay on "The Introduction of the Principles of Equity Jurispru- dence into the Administration of the Common Law." He developed an early taste for politics, and a desire to aid in philanthropic movements. He delivered an address, in 1857, before the Concord Female Benevolent Association, in the Unitarian church, which at once proved him a clear and vigorous writer and thinker. The writer's first recollection of him as a lawyer was in the manage- inent of an election case before the state legislature, for the Republicans of Moultonborough, when it seemed imprudent to employ one almost a boy to manage a case such as was generally committed to lawyers of large experience ; but the result justified the selection. In June, 1859, he was appointed, by Gov. Ichabod Goodwin, law reporter of the New Hampshire supreme court, and pub- lished five volumes of the reports. He entered the service of the Republican party with great earnestness at its beginning, in 1856, and gave much of his time in the office of the state committee, to assist the movement during its early campaigns, becoming secretary first, and afterwards chairman in 1864 and 1865. The election of 1863 took place during the darkest period of the war, following the battle of Fredericksburg, when gloom and almost despair overshadowed every town in the state. It was evident to all that a draft was impending, and it seemed as though the ability of the towns and the state had been exhausted, and no more money could be raised or volunteers be found to enlist. All those opposed to the war were united and active in the Democratic party, and were aided by those Republicans who were alarmed by the burden of debt, and by those who would compromise the safety of the Union sooner than expose them- selves to be drafted to save it. It was the most important political campaign ever conducted in the state, and brought the executive ability of Mr. Chandler prominently into view, and led to his future advancement. It was the first cam- paign in which a woman took a leading part. Miss Anna Dickinson was em- ployed as one of the speakers in the canvass, and there commenced her career on the platform. She had before often spoken in anti-slavery meetings. President Lincoln watched this campaign more closely, probably, than any other outside his own state. It was the opening election of the year following a depressing
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defeat, and he felt that to lose it at such a critical time would be as disastrous in its effects upon the army and the country as the loss of a great battle. It was his interest in this election which first brought Mr. Chandler to his attention, and there is no doubt that he noted when, in the New Hampshire Republican state convention, in 1864, Mr. Chandler offered the following resolution, which was unanimously and by acclamation adopted : -
" Resolved, That Abraham Lincoln, by the exercise, during the severest and most dan- gerous crisis in the nation's history. of unequaled sagacity and statesmanship, and that moderation and prudence which experience has shown to be the highest wisdom; by his spotless integrity of personal character, above reproach and above suspicion; and by his slowly formed yet unalterable determination that the triumph of the constitution and the Union over secession and rebellion shall be the final triumph of liberty throughout the nation,-has received and merited the abiding confidence of the people to an extent never awarded any other public man since Washington; that the best interests of the country demand that the complete destruction of the rebellion and the restoration of peace, pros- perity, and the Union, should be achieved under his administration of the government; and that we therefore declare Abraham Lincoln to be the people's choice for re-election to the presidency in 1864."
The adoption of the resolution, and the conduct of the canvass in the spring of 1864 on the basis of Mr. Lincoln's renomination, resulted in a very large Republican majority ; and Mr. Chandler, who had been a member of the legisla- ture of 1862, and, at the age of twenty-seven, had been elected speaker of the house of representatives, in 1863, was again chosen speaker; and in August, 1864, presided over the legislature in which occurred the eventful conflict and riotous disturbances over the veto by Governor Gilmore of the bill allowing sol- diers in the field the right to vote. Mr. Chandler gained his earliest reputation for persistency, coolness, and moral courage in this celebrated conflict, so well remem- bered by the Republicans of the state.
In November, 1864, he was employed by the Navy Department as special counsel to prosecute the Philadelphia navy-yard frauds, and on March 9, 1865, was appointed, by President Lincoln, the first solicitor and judge-advocate- general of that department. On June 17, 1865, he was appointed first assistant secretary of the treasury, with Secretary Hugh McCulloch, and held the office over two years, resigning November 30, 1867. After his resignation, he prac- ticed law in New Hampshire and in Washington, and was solicitor of the National Life Insurance Company, and counsel and one of the proprietors of the Washington-Market Company, and engaged in some mining and railroad enterprises.
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