USA > New Hampshire > Sketches of successful New Hampshire men > Part 4
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
The life of Col. Wilder is a striking instance of what an individual may accomplish by industry, indomitable perseverance, and the concentration of the intellectual powers on grand objects. Without these, no talent, no mere good fort- une could have placed him in the high position he has attained as a public bene- factor. He has been pre-eminent in the establishment and development of insti- tutions. Few gentlemen have been called upon so often, and upon such various occasions, to take the chair at public meetings or preside over constituted societies. Few have acquitted themselves so happily, whether dignity of presence, amenity of address, fluency of speech, or dispatch of business be taken into consideration. As a presiding officer he seems "to the manner born." His personal influence has been able to magnetize a half-dying body into new and active life. This strong personal characteristic is especially remarked among his friends. No one can approach him in doubt, in despondency, or in embarrassment, and leave him without a higher hope, a stronger courage and a manlier faith in himself. The energy which has impelled him to labor still exists.
In closing this sketch, we may remark that a complimentary banquet was given him, September 22, 1878, on the eightieth anniversary of his birth. On this occasion the Rev. James H. Means, D. D., his pastor for nearly thirty
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MARSHALL P. WILDER, PH. D.
years, the Hon. Charles L. Flint, secretary of the board of agriculture, the Hon. John Phelps Putnam, judge of the Massachusetts superior court, and others paid tributes to the high moral character, the benevolent disposition, and the eminent services of the honored guest of the evening.
Judge Putnam closed as follows: "Our dear old friend, we greet you. On this auspicious occasion we wish you many returns of your natal day. Serus in colum redeas, -late may you return to the heavens. And when that day comes, on which, in the onward march of life you shall fall by the way-side, may you fall as falls the golden fruit in this autumn time,-
'Sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.'""
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HON. JOHN M. PARKER.
BY WM. H. STINSON.
AMONG the many worthy sons of the old Granite State who by their busi- ness enterprise, executive ability, and genial manners have won a position on her honored roll, appears the name of JOHN McGAW PARKER, who was born in Goffstown, September 17, 1824, the eldest son of William Parker by his second marriage, one of the early settlers of the town. His mother, Hannah Adams, of Derry, was a most estimable lady, whose christian influence over her family of three children was most enobling. She was a descendant from that honored and illustrious family whose representatives were called to the executive head of our nation. She died February 26, 1869, having reached the age of four score years. We trace the ancestry of his father to Josiah Parker, who came from England to Cambridge, Mass., prior to 1700. His son, Rev. Thomas Parker, was the first settled pastor at Dracut, Mass., where he died in 1765. A son of his settled in Litchfield, this state, from whose family sprung the father of the subject of this sketch.
During his early youth, young Parker received such training and advantages as were offered by the district school, united with the best of home influences. At the age of eleven years he was placed in the academy at Hopkinton, by his father, who was desirous of giving his son the benefit of a business edu- cation ; the following year he entered old Derry academy at Derry, where his education was completed.
Displaying much aptitude for business, his father, who was engaged in the lumbering and the mercantile trade, as well as farming, placed him in his store as clerk; the succeeding year he was clerk in a store at Concord, but the next year, 1839, he returned to his home, taking charge of the business of his father, who was in failing health, and who died on the 9th of August following, at the age of sixty-four years.
His father's death necessitated changes in home affairs, and in March, 1840, he entered the store of William Whittle, at Goffstown, where he remained until twenty-one years of age; he then returned once more to his home and went into the mercantile trade at his father's old stand. This was in 1843; he continued the same until 1847, when he formed a partnership with his younger brother, David A., under the firm name of J. M. & D. A. Parker, which union continues at the present time. In addition to the mercantile and agricultural interests, they have engaged extensively in the wood and lumber business, and as the " lumber kings" in their section of 'the state their business has grown and developed into one of no inconsiderable magnitude, requiring the investment of a large capital which has accumulated through their indomitable energy and business sagacity, backed by a judgment of such soundness as years of experience can but give. The building of the N. H. Central Railroad, now the Manchester & North Weare road, chartered in 1848, added greatly to their business facilities for the trans- portation of their wood, bark, and lumber, which enterprise received their earnest encouragement.
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HON. JOHN M. PARKER.
On the 30th of November, 1854, he married Letitia C., second daughter of the late Capt. Charles Stinson, of Dunbarton, who was born March 9, 1835. Their married life has been a truly happy one, and such a kindly home as all members of the household will ever revert to with the fondest of recollections. They have three children: Charles Stinson, born November 3, 1855; Henry Woodman, born February 26, 1859; Frank Adams, born June 1, 1866. The two former, Charles and Henry, inheriting their father's traits of character for business, are merchants at Goffstown village, while Frank is pursuing his studies at Gilmanton Academy.
Since the organization of the Republican party, Mr. Parker has ever been a zealous advocate of its principles, and his abilities have been recognized most honorably by his political party in their public preferments. In 1855 he was elected a commissioner for his county, and re-elected in 1856; and a member of the state senate in 1858 and 1859. Among his associates in this body were Hon. Walter Harriman, Hon. John G. Sinclair, Hon. Austin F. Pike, and Hon. John D. Lyman. He represented his town in the legislature in 1869. In 1876, without consultation and greatly to his surprise, he was selected as the nominee, by his party, for councilor from his district, and owing to his popularity re- ceived a majority of the suffrages at the election following, in the face of a Democratic majority of six hundred in the district the year previous ; and was re- elected in 1877. At the institution of the state board of equalization, in 1879, he was commissioned by the court as one of the five members ; re-appointed in 1881, and selected as president of the board.
When the Guaranty Savings Bank of Manchester was organized, in 1879, he was elected its president, a position still retained ; and is also a member of the board of directors of the Merchants National Bank of the same city.
Mr. Parker filled the position of postmaster at the Goffstown office during a period of four years ; and he has a wide reputation in all the surrounding towns as one of the most successful auctioneers, where his services are ever in demaud. Being possessed of a judicious and candid mind, he is often called to act in the capacity of referee, where his mature judgment has assisted in the friendly adjust- ment of disputed and antagonistic questions which threatened the peace and harmony of families, neighborhoods, and towns.
His business prosperity enables him to exercise a liberal spirit towards objects and institutions that tend towards worthy ends; and he is certainly one of the most industrious of men, whether attending to the demands of the farm, the store, the lumber interests, selling of estates, or to the almost countless calls from his public and minor private duties that come crowding to his immediate notice. In all matters of a public nature he has ever taken an active interest, especially in the growth of enterprise in his native town.
Mr. Parker's love for social life allows the years to sit lightly. Of a happy, open disposition, ever approachable, at his delightful residence at Parker's station, Goffstown, presided over by his amiable and generous-hearted wife, a cordial welcome is assured all who enter his hospitable doors.
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HON. CHARLES H. BARTLETT.
CHARLES HENRY BARTLETT was born in Sunapee, N. H., October 15, 1833. He is the fourth son of John and Sarah J. (Sanborn) Bartlett, and is a lineal descendant, in the eighth generation, of Richard Bartlett, who came from England to Newbury, Mass., in the ship " Mary and John," in 1634.
The original orthography of the name was Barttelot, which is still preserved by the family in England, whose ancestral home in Stopham, Sussex county, has remained in possession of the family for nearly a thousand years, and the present occupant, Hon. Walter B. Barttelot, is the member of parliament from that county.
In the same ancestral line is found the name of Hon. Josiah Bartlett, who, as a delegate in the continental congress from New Hampshire, was the first man to vote "yea" on the passage of the declaration of independence, July 4, 1776, and the second to affix his signature thereto. All the Bartletts whose names appear in the annals of our state trace their lineage to the same ancestry.
Mr. Bartlett has four brothers, -Joseph S., who resides in Claremont, and Solomon, John Z. and George H., who reside in Sunapee; and two sisters,- Mrs. Thomas P. Smith and Mrs. John Felch. His parents are still living, at the ad- vanced age of eighty-two years, in the enjoyment of an ample competency, the fruits of a long life of earnest and cheerful labor, and the practice of a stern, self-denying economy, the characteristic of the best type of our New England husbandry.
Mr. Bartlett's early life was mainly spent upon his father's farm, laboring through the summer season and attending school during the winter. He early developed a decided taste for literary pursuits, and from childhood devoted a lib- eral share of his leisure moments to the perusal of such books as were accessible to him. He also contributed liberally to the current literature of the day, and showed remarkable facility in both prose and poetic composition. He received his academic education at the academies at Washington and New London, after which he commenced the study of law in the office of Metcalf & Barton at Newport. He studied subsequently with George & Foster at Concord, and with Morrison & Stanley at Manchester, being admitted to the bar of Hillsborough county, from the office of the latter, in 1858. In that year he began the prac- tice of his profession at Wentworth, N. H., and in 1863 removed to Manchester, where he has since resided. For some two years he was law partner with the late Hon. James U. Parker, the partnership terminating with the retirement of the latter from active business. In June, 1867, he was appointed, by Judge Clark, clerk of the United States district court for the New Hampshire district, since which time he has not actively practiced his profession, but has devoted himself to the duties of his office, which became very onerous and responsible upon the passage of the bankrupt law, about the time of his appointment. The holding of this office under the government of the United States has disqualified him from accepting any office under the state government. He was clerk of the New Hampshire senate from 1861 to 1865, Gov. Smyth's private secretary in 1865
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HON. CHARLES H. BARTLETT.
and 1866, treasurer of the state reform school in 1866 and 1867. In the same year he was unanimously chosen city solicitor, but declined a re-election, owing to his appointment as clerk of the district court. In 1872 he was elected, as the nominee of the Republican party, mayor of the city, and served till February 18, 1873, when he resigned in accordance with the policy of the national govern- ment at that time, which forbade United States officials from holding state or municipal offices. His cheerful co-operation with the administration in this mat- ter, though at the sacrifice of a most conspicuous public position, was handsomely recognized by President Grant, through Attorney-General Williams. His last offi- cial act as mayor was to order the city treasurer to pay the amount due him for salary to the Firemen's Relief Association. Mr. Bartlett has been a trustee of the Merrimack River Savings Bank from 1865 to the present time, and a trustee of the People's Savings Bank from its organization in 1874. He is also a director in the Merchants National Bank. He was the master of Washington Lodge of Freemasons from April, 1872, to April, 1874, and now holds the position of United States commissioner, to which he was appointed in 1872. The only posi- tions of trust he has held since his appointment as clerk of the United States court, are as a member of the last constitutional convention, and chairman of the commission appointed by the governor and council to investigate the affairs of the New Hampshire Insane Asylum.
Mr. Bartlett married, December 8, 1858, at Sunapee, Miss Hannah M. East- man, of Croydon, N. H., by whom he had one son, Charles Leslie, who died at the age of four years, and one daughter, Carrie Bell, a member of the Manches- ter high school.
Clarke's " History of Manchester," from which the foregoing facts are gath- ered, closes its biographical sketch of Mr. Bartlett as follows : "Mr. Bartlett has a keen, well balanced mind, whose faculties are always at his command. He thinks readily, but acts cautiously, and seldom makes a mistake. Hence he has been financially successful in almost everything he has undertaken. He is one of the most practical lawyers in the State, and was for several years in charge of the law department of the Mirror, giving general satisfaction, and his withdrawal, when his business compelled it, was a source of much regret to the readers of that paper."
In 1881, Dartmouth College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
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HON. MOODY CURRIER, LL. D. 1239372
FORTY years ago, when Manchester, now the metropolis of New Hampshire, was little more than a wasting waterfall and an unpeopled plain, a few young men who had the sagacity to see, the courage to grapple with, and the strength to control the possibilities of the location, made it their home. One of these was MOODY CURRIER, who was then seeking for a spot in which a willing hand and a busy brain could carve out a successful career. His boyhood had been spent upon a farm, where he supported himself by work during the day, and gratified his desire for knowledge by studying by the light of pitch-knots in the evening. In this manner he fitted himself to enter Hopkinton Academy, and by similar methods worked his way into and through Dartmouth College, where he gradu- ated with high honors in 1834. During his collegiate course he earned enough by teaching and other work in the vacations to pay his expenses, but his gradu- ation found him without funds, and, as the readiest way to lay the foundation of his fortune, he taught school at Concord one term and the Hopkinton Academy one year, and then accepted an invitation to take charge of the high school at Lowell, Mass., where he remained until 1841. Meantime he had read law, and in the spring of that year came to Manchester, was admitted to the bar, and formed a partnership with Hon. George W. Morrison for the practice of his profession, which continued for two years, when it was dissolved, and he pur- sued his business independently until 1848. During this time he had acquired a large and lucrative practice, and while attending to the interests of his clients had established a reputation as one of the safest and most sagacious financiers in the young city, which led the founders of the Amoskeag bank, when that institution was organized, to elect him its cashier. He accepted the position, and from that time has been prominently identified with many of the largest and most success- ful moneyed corporations in the city and state. He was cashier of the Amoskeag bank until it was re-organized as a national bank, when he was elected its president, which position he still occupies. He has been treasurer of the Amoskeag Savings Bank since its foundation, in 1852, a director of the People's Savings Bank and of the Manchester Mills since their organization. He was a director of the Blodget Edge Tool Company, and a director and treasurer of the Amoskeag Axe Company, during the existence of those corporations. He was treasurer of the Concord Railroad in 1871 and 1872; has been treasurer of the Concord & Portsmouth Railroad since 1856, president of the Eastern Railroad in New Hampshire since 1877, treasurer of the New England Loan Company since 1874, and a director of the Manchester Gas-Light Company since 1862; and has held many other places of responsibility,- in all of which his prudence, foresight, and good judgment have grasped the opportunities which have eluded so many, avoided the whirlpools in which so many have been ingulfed, and secured for stockholders and depositors regular and satisfactory dividends.
While thus adding to the fortunes of others, he has not been unmindful of his own, and is one of the wealthy men of the state, able to command whatever money will buy, and to give liberally to any cause that commends itself to his
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HON. MOODY CURRIER, LL. D.
judgment. But while it has been the business of Mr. Currier to manage vast moneyed concerns, the demands of his calling have not been permitted to choke out his love of books and study. The literary tastes, and habits of close and tireless application, which inspired the boy to struggle for and obtain a liberal education, survive in the man, and have made him a persistent student until he is one of the most accomplished scholars in the state.
While a teacher at Concord, he edited a literary journal in that city, and after coming to Manchester published and edited, for several years, a weekly newspaper. Since he became a banker he has spent much of his leisure in his well filled library, finding his recreation in adding to his knowledge of the classics, master- ing the problems of exact science, and exploring the fields of belles-lettres. He has written, for his own amusement, many poems of much merit, a volume of which was published for circulation among his friends in 1879, and he is a master of the art of expression in terse and polished prose. His scholarly attainments were recognized by Bates College in 1880, which conferred upon him the degree of LL.D.
As a citizen, Mr. Currier occupies a high place in the city with whose mate- rial growth he has been so largely identified. He is an earnest advocate of what- ever tends to her advancement, a judicious counselor, and a liberal giver. He was one of the founders of her city library, to which he has made large dona- tions, that, with one of her public fountains, attest alike his generosity and his judgment; and there have been few projects for her improvement which have not found in him a strong and ready helper.
Prior to 1852 he acted with the Democratic party, which elected him clerk of the state senate in 1843, 1844, but the agitation of the slavery question enlisted him in the ranks of the Free-soil forces, and from the organization of the Republican party he has been one of its most earnest and effective supporters. In 1856 and 1857 he was a member of the senate, being its president the latter year; and in 1860 and 1861, was a member of the governor's council, and chairman of the committee for raising and equipping the troops necessary to fill the state's quota in the war of the rebellion. In this position his business ability and methods were of great service, and to him, at least as much as to any other one man, is due the creditable reputation which the state won in that trying period.
In 1876 he was one of the presidential electors who cast the vote of New Hampshire for Hayes and Wheeler, and in 1879, had he permitted his friends to use his name, would have been a prominent candidate for the governorship in the state convention that year, as he was in the primary meetings.
Mr. Currier has been married three times. He has no children living. He resides in an elegant home in Manchester, in which are reflected his cultivated tastes and ample fortune. Though able to look back upon a long career, he is in the enjoyment of excellent health and the full strength of his manhood, and while carrying the business burdens that would crush most men, finds leisure to enjoy the fruits of his industry, frugality, and judgment.
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HON. AMASA NORCROSS.
AMASA NORCROSS, A. M., of Fitchburg, Mass., was born in Rindge, N. H., January 26, 1824. His father, Daniel Norcross, was a farmer in New Hamp- shire, and was the grandson of Jeremiah Norcross, the immigrant ancestor of the family, who arrived in this country in the year 1642, and settled at Watertown, Mass. Daniel Norcross was a man of sterling integrity, a large landholder, and the incumbent of many offices of honor and trust. His wife, nee Mary Jones, was also a native of New Hampshire.
Amasa Norcross received an excellent academic education, first in the academy of his native town, and subsequently in a similar institution at New Ipswich, N. H. Selecting the profession of law for the life exercise of his talents and energies, in 1844 he became a student in the office of the Hon. Nathaniel Wood of Fitchburg, and in 1847 was admitted to the bar. Since that time he has pursued his professional labors in the city where he now resides. He is to-day the senior member of the Fitchburg bar, and for many years he has been a recognized leader of the legal fraternity in that section of the state.
In 1858, 1859, and 1862, Mr. Norcross was a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives, having been elected thereto on the Republican ticket. In 1858 he was a member of the committee of probate and chancery, of which Governor Andrew, then a member of the house, was chairman; and in 1859 and 1862 he was a member of the judiciary committee. In August of the last- named year, he was appointed, by President Lincoln, United States assessor for the ninth congressional district of Massachusetts. The district was large, com- prising seventy-two townships. He filled the office with signal ability and satis- faction for ten years, and until the office of assessor was abolished by act of congress. In 1862 the authorities of Dartmouth College conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts.
In the session of 1859, Mr. Norcross was appointed a member of the joint committee of the senate and house of representatives to examine and amend the report of the commissioners appointed to codify the laws of the state. He gave to this work his entire attention for several months, when report was made by the committee to the adjourned session of the legislature, held in the autumn of that year. Upon this committee were several distinguished lawyers, among whom were Gen. Caleb Cushing and Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. In 1874 he was a member of the Massachusetts senate and chairman of the judiciary committee of that body. He was also chairman of the committee on federal relations. To him was assigned the honor of drafting the report which recommended rescinding the resolutions of censure upon Charles Sumner which had been passed by the legislature of Massachusetts. Previous efforts to relieve that distinguished states- man from that burden had failed; this succeeded. The rescinding resolutions reached Senator Sumner at Washington a few days before his death, and doubt- less contributed materially to soothe his last hours.
In the fall of 1876, Mr. Norcross was elected representative to congress on the Republican ticket, over his political opponent, S. O. Lamb of Greenfield.
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HON. AMASA NORCROSS.
In 1878 he was elected a second time, over the candidates of 'two political par- ties. He has been an active member of the Republican party since its organi- zation, and is now serving his third term in congress, having been again re-elected in 1880. In the several conventions resulting in his nomination and election, he was always supported by the better elements in his party.
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