USA > New Hampshire > Sketches of successful New Hampshire men > Part 38
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From the first, Mr. Blair was a thorough-going Republican. An instinctive hatred of slavery and all its attendant iniquities inspired him as a boy to look eagerly forward to the time when he could join in the warfare against it, and when he reached his majority he lost no occasion to declare by voice and vote his convictions upon the subject. When the slaveholders raised the standard of revolt against the government, he had just begun to reap the fruits of his early struggles and see the realization of his boyish dreams of success in his pro- fession ; but every call for men served to render him uncomfortable at home, and while the Twelfth Regiment was being recruited he put away his books and briefs and tried to join it, but failed to pass the surgeon's examination. He then enlisted as a private in the Fifteenth Regiment, and was chosen captain of Com- pany B. Before leaving the state he was commissioned major by Gov. Berry, in which capacity he went to Louisiana. Soon after his arrival there the dis- ability of his superior officers left him in command of the regiment, and from that time the drill and discipline which made it one of the best in the service were his work. In the assault upon Port Hudson, in May, 1863, he was severely wounded by a minie-ball, in the right arm, and was carried to the
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HON. HENRY WILLIAM BLAIR.
hospital to recover ; but, learning a few days later that another attack on that rebel stronghold was to be made, he insisted on disregarding the commands of the surgeons by joining his command, and, with his arm in a sling, led his men, who had the right of the column, in the ill-fated charge of June 14. Here he was shot again in the same arm by a bullet, which tore open the old wound; but he refused to leave his troops, and remained with them until he could take them from the field. About this time he was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, and, as such, brought it home when its term of service had expired. He reached Concord little more than a bodily wreck, and for some days his life hung by a thread; but careful nursing by his devoted wife and friends restored him to sufficient strength to warrant his removal to his old home on the banks of the Pemigewasset.
A long season of suffering and disability from wounds and disease contracted in the army followed his return; but he gradually regained his health sufficiently to resume the practice of law at Plymouth, in which the court records show him to have been remarkably successful. He had a legal mind, had fitted himself for the bar with great thoroughness, prepared his cases carefully and patiently, and managed them skillfully, seldom failing to obtain a verdict. The Grafton- county bar was at that time noted for the ability and learning of its members, and he was rapidly working his way to a prominent place among them, when he turned aside to enter political life, -a step which many of the eminent men with whom he was associated in the trial of causes regard even now as a great . mistake, his brilliant success in the field of politics failing, in their estimation, to compensate for what he was capable of achieving in the law. For several years he practiced alone ; but in 1875 formed a partnership with Alvin Burleigh, which continued until his election to the senate.
In 1866, Mr. Blair was elected a representative to the popular branch of the state legislature, and there began the political service which has since made him so widely known. The next year he was promoted to the state senate by the voters of the eleventh district, and in 1868 was re-elected. In 1872 the third district, composed of the counties of Coos, Grafton, Sullivan, and Cheshire, elected a Democrat to congress; and in 1874 the Republicans, looking about for a candidate under whose lead they could redeem it, found him in Mr. Blair, whose reputation as a soldier, clean record as a citizen, personal popularity, and inde- fatigable industry and zeal dictated his enthusiastic nomination, and after an exciting campaign secured his election to the forty-fourth congress. In 1876 he was again elected, and in 1878 declined a renomination. The next summer the term of United States Senator Wadleigh expired, and Mr. Blair came forward as a candidate for the succession. He was earnestly supported by the younger men of the party, by the temperance and soldier elements; and, though his com- petitors were the ablest men in the state, he bore away the great prize, and imme- diately entered upon the discharge of his duties at Washington, to which he has since devoted himself.
Mr. Blair's election to the national senate was largely due to the record he had made in the house, and to his remarkable faculty of winning and retaining the hearty friendship of nearly all with whom he had ever been associated. From his youth up he had held radical views upon public questions; and the per- sistency and zeal with which he advanced and defended these under all circum- stances convinced even his opponents of his entire sincerity, and bound to him his coworkers with locks of steel. Men liked him because he was cordial, frank, and earnest, and respected him because he had ability, industry, and courage ; and so they rallied around him with a devotion and faith which overcame all opposition.
288
HON. HENRY WILLIAM BLAIR.
During the four years he represented the third district in the house, he served upon the committees on Railroads and Accounts, and several special committees. In the senate of the forty-sixth congress, upon the committees on Education and Labor, Agriculture, Transportation, Routes to the Seaboard, Election Frauds, Pensions, and Exodus of the Colored People: and in the present congress is chair- man of the senate committee on Education and Labor, and a member of those on Pensions, Public Lands, Agriculture, and Woman Suffrage.
Soon after entering the house he introduced and advocated with great ability a proposition to amend the national constitution so as to prohibit the manufac- ture or sale of distilled spirits in the United States after 1890, a measure which gave him a national reputation, and caused him to be recognized by the temper- ance people of the country as their leader and champion in the national capitol. The woman suffragists have also found in him a vigorous and unwearying de- fender ; and his speeches in support of his bill to extend government aid to the common schools of the South are among the most carefully prepared and con- clusive arguments on that subject. When the financial policy of the country became a subject of discussion, and many of its strongest minds were carried from their moorings by the Greenback cyclone, Senator Blair stood sturdily for an honest currency and strict honesty in dealing with the government creditors, and by his speeches in congress and on the stump contributed in no small degree to the triumph of those principles and the incidental success of the Republican party. The veteran soldier has always found in him a friend who lost no oppor- tunity to speak and vote for the most liberal pension laws, and who never tired in responding to individual calls for assistance at the department. His other service as a senator has been most conspicuous in his speeches against the Texas Pacific Railroad Subsidies, upon Foreign Markets and Commerce, Election Frauds in the South, the Exodus of Colored People, the Japanese Indemnity Fund, the Public Land Bill, and the Commission of Inquiry into the Liquor Traffic ; his eulogies upon Henry Wilson, Zachariah Chandler, and Evarts W. Farr; and his reports on numerous subjects which have claimed the attention of his committees. He is rarely absent from his seat, and when present never declines to vote. His first term expires March 3, 1885.
From this brief sketch it will be seen that Mr. Blair owes his exceptional success in life to no extraneous or accidental aids. His parents were poor, and their untimely death deprived him of their counsel and example. His boyhood was a struggle with poverty, of which his youth was only a continuance. All he had, he earned. What he became, he made himself. As a man, he has shown great capacity for work and a disposition to do his best in every position. He is always intensely in earnest. He has indomitable perseverance and persistency, and never allows his abilities to rust in idleness. He is an outspoken and aggres- sive but practical reformer ; a radical but sagacious Republican. Though his early advantages were few, he has been a voracious reader and a close student, and does not lack for the help which familiarity with books gives. He is an easy writer and a fluent speaker. He is generous to a fault ; and his most prominent weakness is a disposition to magnify his obligations to his friends.
Senator Blair married Eliza Nelson, the daughter of a Methodist clergyman, of Groton, and has one son, - Henry Patterson Blair, - aged fourteen years.
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C c V - - € - € 4 € 4 ECC € € C C € C C CC c C C ccCC CCC C € C C y ככ. כ C C -- C RUFUS A. MAXFIELD. BY J. P. RUFUS A. MAXFIELD was born in Nashua, N. H., on the fifth day of March, 1835. His father, Stephen C. Maxfield, was a native of Newbury, Vt., was mar- ried to Clarissa Staples, a native of Chichester, N. H., at Nashua N. H., when the now populous city was but a small village. There were ten children born to them. Four died quite young; six are now living, viz. : the subject of this sketch ; James G. Maxfield, M. D., surgeon at the National Home for disabled volunteer soldiers at Togus, Me .; J. P. Maxfield, treasurer of the Hiscox File Manufac- turing Company, at West Chelmsford, Mass., who resides in Lowell, Mass .; Stephen W. Maxfield, a mechanic, now living in Nashua; Susan T. and Helen A. ; the former married and resides in Wolfeborough, N. H., the latter in Low- ell, Mass., with the widowed mother, who is still living at the ripe age of seventy years. Stephen C., the father, was employed for seventeen years by the Nashua Manufacturing Company, and was a faithful servant to his employers. He early became identified with the Methodist denomination, and was among the most zealous workers in building up the two societies in those early days. He died in Lowell, Mass., August 10, 1862, having lived a consistent Christian life, at the age of fifty-three years. When Rufus was eight years old he was employed in the carding department of the Nashua company's mills during his school vacations. It was here that he was first taught the rudiments of cotton-manufacture. For awhile he worked as back boy in the mule-spinning department. In 1846 the family removed to Lowell, Mass. After attending school here for a short time he again went into the mill in the carding department on the Lawrence corporation. From here he was transferred to the mule-spinning department. In 1853 he left the mill tem- porarily to attend school at Northfield, N. H., where he remained two years, when he returned to the mill and to his mule-spinning. He passed through the vari- ous grades until he reached the position of second overseer. He was married on the 10th of May, 1856, to Mary A. Spaulding, daughter of Joshua Spaulding, of Pepperell, Mass. Soon after the breaking out of the war of the rebellion, the mills of Lowell suspended operations, and thousands were thrown out of employment, Mr. Max- field among the rest. In 1863 he entered the employ of the Naumkeag Mill, at Salem, Mass., as second overseer under Charles D. McDuffie, Esq., who had charge of all the spinning in these mills. Mr. McDuffie is now agent of the Manchester Mills, Manchester, N. H. Mr. Maxfield remained in the employ of the Naumkeag Mill until the close of the war, when, the corporations in Lowell resuming operations, he was tendered the position of overseer of the mule-spin- ning in the hosiery-mill of the Lawrence Manufacturing Company, who were then starting. Here he remained until the spring of 1866, when he took charge of the mule-spinning in number five mill, then the largest mill owned by the 290 RUFUS A. MAXFIELD. Lawrence company. During the latter part of 1868 he had charge of all the spinning in this mill. In 1869 he was appointed superintendent of Ida Hill Mill, Troy, N. Y. Under adverse circumstances, with a mill cramped for power, and with old ma- chinery very much out of repair, he was very successful, earning satisfactory profits for the owners. In the year 1872, the management of the Tremont and Suffolk Mills in Lowell, Mass., offered him the position of superintendent of their large mills, where, under Thomas S. Shaw, Esq., agent, he remained until 1875. During his connection with this company, the quality of the Canton flannels, which are a " specialty " with these mills, was brought up to a standard that made them rank among the first in the market, commanding ready sales and good prices. The directors of the Nashua Manufacturing Company, on the death of Oliver Hussey, Esq., in January, 1875, realizing the qualifications of Mr. Maxfield for such a position, appointed him agent of their large mills in Nashua, N. H. During Mr. Maxfield's administration to the present time, there have been ex- tensive alterations and improvements in the direction of economy of manufacture and increased production, so that the reputation of the company that owned the model mills of New England has been maintained. Thus we find the boy who at eight years of age took his first lesson in cotton-manufacture, returning, after the lapse of thirty-two years, to the same mills as agent. Little did the youth dream what thirty-two years would bring to pass in his career. Socially Mr. Maxfield is a very agreeable gentleman ; and, while he has devoted his energies during all these years to his chosen calling, he has found time to con- nect himself by social ties to beneficiary organizations, thus lending his influence to the great work in which they are engaged. He was prominent for many years in the management of the affairs of Mechanics Lodge of Odd Fellows of Lowell, Mass., passing through the various positions until now he is one of the " Past Grands " of this lodge. He is also a member of Pentucket Lodge of Masons, Royal Arch Chapter, Ahasuerus Council, and Pilgrim Commandry of that city. He is a regular attendant of the Methodist church, and is respected by the people of Nashua for his upright and honorable course of life. He is prompt to decide questions that come before him; but his decisions, though firm, are tempered with that affability of manner which relieves them of much of the harshness that many men manifest. May he be spared many years to pursue his favorite calling; and may the day be far distant when the Nashua Manufacturing Company shall lose his services, or the city of Nashua lose so worthy a citizen. مـ ب ٨٨ ٨ د د ب A A د د ٨ فرد فرد فرد د د ٥,٥ , د ٦ ـم ٥ ں د ـاب A A ( ((رررر ) ) ) ر ٨ ر ٢ م Gears Sparring 1 ٢٠ ٢ C € 1 أية 1 C 5 ( ( 1 C (CL ( 1 با C CCC C بـ ب البا ب CC C € - CC GEORGE BURLEY SPALDING, D. D. BY REV. A. H. QUINT, D. D. GEORGE BURLEY SPALDING, the present pastor of the First church in Dover, was born in Montpelier, Vt., August 11, 1835, son of Dr. James and Eliza (Reed) Spalding. The line of American descent on the paternal side was as follows: Edward, of Chelmsford, Mass., immigrant ; Benjamin, whose will was proved April 5, 1670 ; Edward, of Canterbury, Conn .; Ephraim, of Connecti- cut ; Reuben, of Connecticut; Reuben, who married Jerusha Carpenter, and lived in Sharon, Vt. ; Dr. James ; and Rev. George Burley. Deacon Reuben Spalding, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was one of the early settlers of Vermont, whose life was not more remarkable for his toils, privations, and energy as a pioneer in a new country, than for his unbending Christian integrity. He entered Sharon in 1769, and lived on the same farm eighty years. He was a member of the church sixty-one years, and deacon forty- two years. He was distinguished for " the best qualities of the old New Eng- land Puritanism." Dr. James Spalding was the third of twelve children, and for many years a successful practitioner of medicine in Montpelier, Vt., but especially eminent in surgery. He graduated at the Dartmouth Medical School at the age of twenty years. He was more than forty years a member of the Vermont Medical Society ; its secretary over twenty years, its president in 1866, 1867, and 1868. " His life," says a printed sketch, " was that of the good Samaritan, a life of toil, prayer, and sympathy for others." By the line of Reed, the family is of the same blood with Rev. Dr. Gardiner Spring and Rev. Dr. Edwards A. Park. The grandmother of Dr. George B. Spalding, and the grandfather of the late Senator Matthew H. Carpenter, were sister and brother. George Burley Spalding was the seventh of nine children. He fitted for college at the Washington County Academy, Montpelier, and graduated at the University of Vermont in 1856, being twenty-one years of age. He read law one year in Montpelier, with Hon. Charles W. Willard, and then went to Talla- hassee, Fla., where he read law another year with Judge W. C. M. Davis. While in the South, he was a regular correspondent of the New York Courier and Enquirer, of which his brother, James Reed Spalding, was one of the editors. As such he attended the noted Southern commercial convention in Sa- vannah, in 1858, where Yancey, Rhett, Barnwell, and DeBow poured out their hot invective. In the following year he mingled with the great southern leaders, on the eve of the great events which were soon to burst upon the country. Doubt- less in his law study and in his intercourse with men in different phases of society, he acquired that practical acquaintance with human nature which makes available his instinctive and common-sense power of meeting all classes of men. 292 GEORGE BURLEY SPALDING, D. D. Flattering offers were made him by Judge Davis to remain and enter into practice with that eminent lawyer, at a large assured income. But Mr. Spalding had already changed his purpose for life. He returned North, abandoned the law, and began the study of theology in the Union Theological Seminary in New York city in 1858. Here he remained two years. Here, also, he did regular editorial work on the New York World, of which his brother was founder, and subsequently wrote for the columns of the New York Times. This expe- rience enabled him, later, to write, for five years, a large portion of the editorial leaders of the Watchman and Reflector. While in Union Seminary, his spirit of independence and industry was so strong that he supported himself entirely by his literary work. Leaving New York, he entered Andover Theological Semi- nary, where, after one year's study, he graduated in 1861. On the 5th of October of that year he was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Vergennes, Vt., a position to which he had, in fact, been called before his graduation, as well as to another field. He resigned his successful pastorate at Vergennes, August 1, 1864, to accept a call to the Park church, Hartford, Conn., formerly Dr. Bushnell's, where he was installed September 28. He resigned that charge, and was dismissed March 23, 1869, and was installed pastor of the First church in Dover, September 1, following. This church is the second in point of age in this state, being organized in December, 1638, and preceded by Hampton only. The old Exeter First church itself later, became extinct in 1642, and the present First church of Exeter dates from 1698 only. The Dover First parish dates from October, 1633, and is un- questionably the oldest in New Hampshire. A long line of able men has been on the roll of the pastors of that venerable church. Under none has it been so strong and so influential as under Dr. Spalding. Its numbers have largely in- creased ; its pews are at a constant premium ; its pew-occupants number men of the highest distinction in the state. Three years since, the whole of the hand- some church edifice was refitted at an expense of over twelve thousand dollars, besides the amount necessary to purchase the pew property, and no debt remains. An elegant and commodious parsonage has also been purchased and paid for. Without disparagement to others, it is safe to say that public opinion accords to Mr. Spalding a foremost place among the ministers of New Hampshire. Certainly no pastor of the ancient First church ever had a greater public respect or a deeper personal affection. His administration of a strong and thinking society goes on without even a ripple. He has been frequently called to attend distant councils, some of great and even national interest, and some where delicate ques- tions required the wisest consideration ; and in all cases his calm and deliberate judgment has had an influence inferior to none. One of these was the great Brooklyn Council, of national interest, in 1876. In his preaching, one has to study him to get the secret of his influence. There is nothing in it to startle. There is no dramatic exhibition. It is the far- thest possible from the sensational. There are never any protruding logical bones. He never indulges in any prettinesses of diction. But a critical analysis (the last thing one thinks of in listening to him) reveals the elements of his power. His themes are always elevated themes. One sees the most earnest convictions held in perfect independence and honesty ; a natural development of thought in an always fresh and orderly way ; a diction as clear as a pellucid brook ; illustra- tions drawn from wide observation, always simple and frequently beautiful ; a genial, sometimes intense, glow pervading his whole discourse; and a dignified but simple manliness throughout. Fully six feet in height, and with liberally de- veloped physique, he impresses one at first mainly with the idea of manly strength. But it takes no great time to see that commanding intellectual abili- 293 GEORGE BURLEY SPALDING, D. D. ties are fully parallel with his physique ; and those who hear him, and especially those who know him, find an equal development of a generous nature which in- clines always to sympathy, and with which he answers, in public and private, to every appeal to his helpful power. In doctrine he is understood to hold the main tenets of what is called old theology, but as forces rather than dogmas, and liberally instead of severely applied. Mr. Spalding's literary work has been extensive, but mainly upon current newspaper periodicals. This has given him, of course, a valuable directness and clearness of expression. A few sermons and other productions have been pub- lished: A sermon on God's Presence and Purpose in the War, November 26, 1863; a discourse commemorative of Gen. Samuel P. Strong, February 28, 1864 ; a discourse on the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Dover, May 18, 1873 ;. a discourse commemorative of the character and career of Hon. John P. Hale, November 27, 1873, which the poet Whittier characterized in the highest terms, -a fine specimen of judicious analysis, in which he does justice to the pioneer of the anti-slavery cause in the United States senate,-a justice now lately apparently purposely ignored out of a desire to magnify a brilliant but later laborer. The Relation of the Church to Children, November 6, 1873. The Dover Pulpit in the Revolution, July 9, 1876,-for which he searched and well used the man- uscript of his eminent predecessor, Dr. Jeremy Belknap. The fiftieth anniver- sary of the organization of the Conference of Churches of Strafford county, June 18, 1878. The Idea and Necessity of Normal-School Training, December 26, 1878. Annual Report of the Trustees of the State Normal School, June, 1879. Memorial on the Death of Garfield, September, 1881. Historical discourse on the one-hundredth anniversary of the Piscataqua Association, October 26, 1881. On the death of Wells Waldron, November 13, 1881. On the death of John Riley Varney, May 5, 1882. In addition, however, to his other work, he has been, and is, the editor of the New Hampshire Journal, a successful weekly in the interest of the Congre- gational churches, from which some of his keen editorials have met with favor throughout the country. Mr. Spalding was a member of the constitutional convention of New Hamp- shire which met January 8, 1877. He represented Dover in the New Hampshire house of representatives in 1877. He is also a trustee of the state normal school, by appointment of the governor and council, his first appointment, for two years, being made in 1876, and his chairmanship of that board commencing soon after and now continuing. He became a member of the school committee of Dover in 1875, and still continues, having been its chairman from 1876. He was chosen trustee and one of the executive committee of the New Hampshire Missionary Society in 1873; and still retains each position. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Dartmouth College in 1878. 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.