USA > New Hampshire > State builders; an illustrated historical and biographical record of the state of New Hampshire at the beginning of the twentieth century > Part 19
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Mr. Cheney was born in Arcola, Minn., February 14, 1856, the son of Frederick Porter and Louise B. (Hill) Cheney. Both parents were born and reared in Glover, Vt., and in that town they were married, migrating at once to Minnesota. Happening to return to Vermont on a visit in the early sixties to see the invalid father of the senior Mr. Cheney, the intended visit lengthened into his decision to remain permanently. He was drafted into the army, went to the county seat, and paid his $300 com-
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mutation money, and returned home and enlisted of his own accord. It would, indeed, be interesting to know if there was such another instance of devotion to principle as this. Certain it is that there were not many.
Reuben Howard was, therefore, brought up in Ver- mont. He attended the schools of Glover and Barton, working on farms during vacations. After leaving school he was a clerk in a country store for two years. Later he became a clerk in the office of the division superintendent of freight at White River Junction, Vt., and finally he himself became superintendent and lived at White River Junction for twelve years. He was offered and accepted a special agency of the Mutual Life Insurance Company in Manchester. Instant and signal success followed this venture, and he was shortly after joined by his brother, Fred N. The first year they doubled the amount of in- surance ever written by the company in the same length of time. The New Hampshire state agency was next given them, and still later Vermont was added to their territory. In the fifteen years of the continuance of the firm of Cheney & Cheney it wrote $25,000,000 worth of insurance for the Mutual Life.
Mr. Cheney is a thirty-second degree Mason, and be- longs to the Derryfield and Calumet clubs in Manchester, the New Hampshire club of Boston, and the Amoskeag Veterans.
In 1876 he married Miss Nellie A. Burroughs of Glov- er, Vt. They have a most interesting family of six child- ren, four sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Roy- don W., graduated at Harvard in 1901, and is now in the office with his father. The second son, Clinton Howard, is his father's private secretary. He is developing fine ar- tistic tastes, and his work with pen and brush is most ex- cellent. A third son, Frederick W., is also in the office, while the fourth is a student. The daughters are, respec- tively, May Louise and Ruby Lucille.
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PRESCOTT, Governor of New Hampshire, 1878-1879
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PRESCOTT.
A noteworthy figure in the line of eminent chief magis- trates who have adorned the governorship of New Hamp- shire is Benjamin Franklin Prescott, who was born in Epping Feb. 26, 1833, and who died in that town Feb. 21, 1895. He fitted for college at the Phillips- Exeter academy and was graduated from Dartmouth in 1856. His next few years were occupied with teaching, and the study of law, and in 1860 he was admitted to the bar. For one year he practised his profession, and then being drawn into journalism through a recognition of his literary gifts he was for five years a member of the staff of the New Hampshire Statesman. Gov. Pres- cott's journalistic career covered the exciting period of the Civil War, and his contributions to the columns of his newspaper during those years were recognized as no slight factor in maintaining the consistent patriotism of New Hampshire. In 1865 he was appointed a special agent of the U. S. Treasury Department and remained in that service for four years. Gov. Prescott was one of the founders of the Republican party and was advanced to positions of trust in the party management. In 1859 he was elected Secretary of the Republican State Com- mittee and served in that capacity for fifteen years. In 1872 he was honored with the election of Secretary of State and was three times re-elected. In 1877 by a pro- cess of natural selection he was elevated to the governor- ship and was re-elected in 1878. In 1880 he was chair-
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man of the New Hampshire delegates to the Republican National Convention at Chicago. In 1887 he was ap- pointed a member of the State Board of Railroad Com- missioners and was reappointed in 1890, retiring in 1893. Governor Prescott was a man of marked literary, histor- ical and oratorical gifts, a wide and discriminating mind and possessed of sound learning, to which he added keen judgment, unfailing discernment and an almost unlimited capacity for hard work. Through sheer force of intellect, supplemented with indomitable perseverance he rose to high positions and was warmly welcomed in the society of statesmen and scholars. He was a fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain, and during his term as Governor was the guest at Montreal of the then Governor General of Canada, the Marquis of Lorne and his Marchioness, the Princess Louise, and in the presence of royalty New Hampshire's chief magistrate was by no means ill at ease. He was for many years Vice-President of the New Hampshire Historical Society and was President of the Bennington Battle Field Monument Association during all the years of its effort to erect the magnificent memorial now stand- ing on the field of that famous conflict. He was deeply interested in the educational institutions of the state, was for many years Trustee of the state College, and was one of the first Alumni of Dartmouth to be honored by his fellows with an election to the board of trustees of that Institution. This honor came to Governor Pres- cott in 1878, and he held it until his death.
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RT. REV. WILLIAM WOODRUFF NILES, D.D., Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
BISHOP WILLIAM W. NILES, D. D.
Rt. Rev. William Woodruff Niles, Bishop of New Hampshire, was born in Hatley, Quebec, May 24, 1832. His preliminary education was received at the Charles- ton Academy in his native village, at Derby, Vermont; and in 1857, he was graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. He studied theology at the Berkeley Divinity School, where he was graduated in 1861, and in that year he was ordained deacon by the bishop of Con- necticut. His first charge was as rector of St. Philip's Church at Wiscasset, Me., where he remained for three years, and where in May, 1862, he was elevated to the priesthood. For six years he was professor of Latin in Trinity College, and during three years of this time served as rector of St. John's Church at Warehouse Point, Conn.
Being elected to the bishopric of New Hampshire, he was consecrated in St. Paul's Church, Concord, on St. Matthew's Day, 1870. In that same year he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Trinity College, a like honor coming to him from Dartmouth College in 1875. In 1896, he was made Doctor of Laws by his Alma Mater, and about this time Doctor of Civil Law by Bishop's College in Quebec.
The work of this energetic churchman can hardly be summarized within the brief limits of this sketch. Under his direction all the interests of the diocese have flour- ished wonderfully. Deeply interested in advancing the
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educational facilities of the state he has been instrumental not only in promoting the welfare of St. Paul's School, a noted institution for boys which he found already well established in his diocese upon his coming here, but he has also brought into being the well-endowed and thor- oughly equipped Holderness School for boys, and the successful St. Mary's School for Girls at Concord. The number of parishes in the diocese has been largely in- creased under his stimulating and aggressive leadership, the value of church property has been many times multi- plied, and the activity of the diocese in all lines has been materially advanced.
In the House of Bishops of the American Church, he now being one of the senior members, Bishop Niles is a tower of strength, serving as an active member of many of the most important boards for the promotion of church work.
Bishop Niles is a scholar of brilliant attainment and has performed great labors, being a member of the com- mittee of the General Convention for the revision of the list of chapters of Scripture to be read in church; of the committee of revision of the Prayer Book; and of that for the revision of marginal readings in the Bible.
Bishop Niles was married June 5, 1862, to Bertha Olmsted, a descendant from one of the settlers of Hart- ford, and he has four living children. His home estab- lished in Concord at the episcopal residence erected for him by the diocese is a centre of much culture and hospi- tality, and he moves among the people of the state be- loved and venerated, a faithful shepherd of his flock, a good citizen and a sterling friend to humanity.
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JOHN M. HUNT
JOHN M. HUNT.
John M. Hunt was born at Dracut, Mass., March 31st, 1797; died at Nashua, Oct. 30th, 1885. He was a son of Israel Hunt, born Aug. 27th, 1758, died March 2nd, 1850, and Catherine (Nowell) Hunt, born June 15th, 1765, died May 15th, 1850. Their ancestors came from England in the seventeenth century and were among the early settlers in Massachusetts Bay colony. Their de- scendants have been among the pioneers in near and re- mote sections of this continent and many of them have distinguished themselves in the service of their country, in the professions and employments that developed that civilization which was the crowning glory of the nine- teenth century.
Mr. Hunt obtained a common school education, and beyond that, for he was a well informed man on topics of general interest, was self taught. From 1803 until his death in 1885 he was one of the best known residents of Nashua. In the beginning of his honorable career he was in trade at the "Harbor" in a store that stood in the south triangle where the Lowell and Dunstable roads form a junction. He was also interested in a linen manufactur- ing enterprise, the mill of which was located on the site of the present Vale mill. The business was not success- ful. In 1820 he was appointed postmaster of Nashua, which office he held until July 1841. During all these years, and in fact all during his active career, he took part in town affairs and performed the duties of citizenship
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with fidelity to every trust, being town clerk and chairman of the board of selectmen in 1830, 1833, 1834, 1835 and 1836, and instrumental in causing the first town report to be issued to the taxpayers in printed form. When the Nashua State bank, chartered at the June session of the legislature in 1835, was organized in 1836, he was ap- pointed cashier, which position of trust he held until the bank closed its business in October, 1866. Hon. Isaac Spalding was president of the bank during its entire life, and it was a matter of pride with him and Mr. Hunt that the institution never lost a dollar by a bad investment, and that when its affairs were liquidated it paid its stock- holders their principal and a handsome dividend in addi- tion to the dividends paid yearly when it did business.
As a citizen, neighbor and friend, no man of his genera- tion stood higher in the regard of the community. He was democratic in all his ways and dealings; a man whose influence in the community was always on the side of justice, morality and religion. Mr. Hunt was a regular attendant at the Unitarian church and a member of Ris- ing Sun lodge, A. F. and A. M., of which he was senior warden in 1826 and worshipful master in 1827. January 28th, 1833, Mr. Hunt was united in marriage with Mary Ann Munroe, who was born in Lexington, Mass., Oct. 3Ist, 1812; died at Nashua Dec. 1, 1894. She was a daughter of Thomas Munroe, born March 30th, 1785, died July 8th, 1854, and Elizabeth (Jewett) Munroe, born Sept. 8th, 1785, died Nov. 23rd, 1848. Mrs. Hunt's ancestors were among the first English' settlers in Massa- chusetts, and a great number of their decendants have made their mark in the world and have served, and are still serving in honorable professions and callings. Mrs. Hunt came to Nashua with her parents when she was a child and her home was here until her death. She was a constant attendant at the Unitarian church and very much interested in its work. In fact, she left a bequest to the
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society. Also a bequest to establish the John M. Hunt Home for aged couples and aged men, and a sufficient sum to build and maintain the Home, in memory of her husband. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hunt; the first born April 8th, 1839, died in infancy; second, Mary E. born April 10th, 1842, unmarried. Mrs. Hunt was a woman of retiring disposition, of modest deport- ment and domestic tastes, devoted to her family.
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FRANK S. STREETER.
Frank S. Streeter, president of the New Hampshire state constitutional convention of 1902, and a recognized leader at the bar of Northern New England, was born in Charleston, Vermont, August 5, 1853, and completed his preparatory course for college at St. Johnsbury academy in that state. Entering Dartmouth he graduated in 1874, having among his classmates Frank N. Parsons, who be- came Chief Justice of the New Hampshire supreme court; Edwin G. Eastman, who became Attorney General of the state in 1902; Samuel W. McCall and Samuel J. Powers, both congressmen from Massachusetts.
Immediately following his graduation from Dart- mouth Mr. Streeter served for a while as principal of the high school in Ottumwa, Iowa, but soon relinquished teaching to enter upon the study of law, the practice of which he designed as his life work and for which profes- sion he was eminently equipped by nature and inclination. He became a student at law in the town of Bath and in the office of the late Chief Justice Alonzo P. Carpenter, who is remembered by his associates and contemporaries at the Bar as having possessed one of the best trained judicial minds that ever added lustre and renown to the New Hampshire bench.
Admitted to the bar in 1877 he opened an office in the town of Orford but maintained it for only a few months, leaving Orford for that wider field, the city of Concord, to enter which he was urged by those who had thus early recognized his ability and promise as a lawyer. It was in the autumn of 1877 that he arrived in Concord and
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entered upon that professional career which was des- tined to be of so great credit to himself and the bar of the state. During the greater part of his first two years in Concord he had as a partner in practice Gen. John H. Albin. Later the firm of Chase & Streeter was formed and continued for more than twelve years, when it was succeeded by that of Streeter & Hollis.
Practically from the beginning of his professional career Mr. Streeter has been identified with that line of practice having to do with corporation law, a line that always exacts the finest talent, tact and acumen it is pos- sible for the lawyer to display, as it is likewise the most inviting field for the practitioner of to-day. For a num- ber of years he has most acceptably served, in the position of general counsel, such vast commercial interests as the Boston and Maine railroad, the New England Telephone and Telegraph company, and the Western Union Tele- graph company. His realm of a more private practice is large, exclusive, and of a most varied nature.
But it is not alone as a member of the legal profession that Mr. Streeter has gained prominence and the sincere approbation of the people. He has recognized and met the obligations of good citizenship, and that in a wholly disinterested manner. He is first of all true to what he owes his fellow man and state as a member of society. He is, and naturally so, a leader of the Republican forces in New Hampshire, and if the list of his political offices is a short one it is because he has asked his political asso- ciates to bestow their favors upon others rather than upon himself. He yielded to the wishes of his party friends to become a member of the state legislature in 1885, and in 1902 by the vote of all parties he became a member of the constitutional convention. By an ex- tremely flattering vote he was chosen president of the convention, and that by a body of men among whom were the intellectual leaders of the state. At the time of his election he had not completed the fiftieth year of his age, and thus his election to the high office at such
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an age emphasized all the more the estimate placed upon him by his convention associates.
In 1892 he presided over the Republican state conven- tion, which nominated Gov. John B. Smith, and in 1896 he was sent as delegate-at-large to the National conven- tion at St. Louis, where he served on the committee on resolutions, and was powerfully instrumental in securing the platform declaration in favor of the gold standard. In 1900 he declined a proffered election to represent New Hampshire on the Republican National committee. For many years he has been a member of the Republican State committee, and since 1896 he has represented Mer- rimack county on the executive committee of that body.
From the day of his graduation from Dartmouth col- lege Mr. Streeter has been among the most active and influential of its alumni. He is a life member of his alma mater's board of trustees as such representing the alumni.
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COLONEL WILLIAM S. PILLSBURY
COL. WILLIAM S. PILLSBURY.
In the industrial development of Derry, its towns- people are agreed that the chief meed of praise should be accorded Col. William Staughton Pillsbury, who was practically the founder and the real builder of the town's present great shoe-manufacturing industry. He has been instant, in season and out of season, in fostering and furthering along all commercial and industrial enter- prises. Born in the town of Londonderry, he represents a family famous in the annals of state and nation, and especially for what they accomplished in American in- dustrial life. The Pillsburys of flour fame were his kinsmen, while his own immediate family was conspicu- ous likewise in the ecclesiastical, political, and educa- tional life of New Hampshire. His father was the Rev. Stephen Pillsbury, a clergyman of the Baptist denomina- tion, whose pastorates in Sutton, Dunbarton, and Lon- donderry covered a period of thirty-five years. Colonel Pillsbury's mother was born Lavinia Hobart, and throughout her life of seventy-six years was esteemed for the nobility of her character, as an exemplar of the Chris- tian life, and for her intellectual accomplishments. Colonel Pillsbury was born in Londonderry, and this is his present place of residence. The family homestead is a short two miles from his office and factories in Derry.
Colonel Pillsbury has a most honorable war record, which began with service as first lieutenant in the Fourth New Hampshire regiment. Later he was commissioned first lieutenant in the Ninth New Hampshire, serving in the same company of which his brother, Leonard Hobart,
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was the captain, a circumstance which indicates with what esteem the then boys were held in the community and state. With his company he participated in the battle of South Mountain, and in this he distinguished himself by the discovery of a movement by the Confed- erates in time to save his company from a probable ter- rible loss. Just as Lieutenant Pillsbury had safely led his command from the ambush in which it had nearly fallen, Major-General Jesse Reno, commander of the Union forces, rode along the line and in the direction of the Confederate position in which they were supported by a battery. Lieutenant Pillsbury pointing out the loca- tion of the enemy warned Reno of his danger, but the warning was unheeded, and scarcely three minutes later General Reno was killed, and in his death the Union cause lost one of its ablest commanders.
Another incident in the army career of Colonel Pills- bury has a distinct and highly important bearing on the much discussed question whether Barbara Frietchie, the heroine of Whittier's poem, was a real or fictitious per- sonage. Colonel Pillsbury is emphatic in asserting that she was not a creation of the gifted poet's imagination, and his testimony as to the genuineness of her existence, and that she did wave the Stars and Stripes as Stonewall Jackson and his army marched "all day long through Frederick town," is to the point and convincing. Colonel Pillsbury says that as his regiment, as part of the Union army, followed Jackson and the Confederates through Frederick, a resident of the town pointed out to him a house with the remark that only the day before an aged Unionist woman had waved from its window the Stars and Stripes as the Confederates marched on. Whittier had not then, in all probability, heard of the incident, much less penned the words that thrilled the whole North with patriotism, and renewed its faith in the cause of the perpetuity of the Union. The resident of Frederick spoke to Lieutenant Pillsbury, as his company made a tempo- rary halt, and there is not the slightest ground for pre- suming that Barbara Frietchie and her flag were a mental
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creation of this citizen of Frederick. These incidents of the warning to General Reno and of the genuineness of the personality of Barbara Frietchie are published now for the first time in a personal narrative of Colonel Pillsbury.
At the conclusion of the war between the states, Lieu- tenant Pillsbury returned home and at once re-engaged in shoe manufacturing, a business he had learned in all its many details prior to his service in the army. He at first engaged in the making of shoes in his native Lon- donderry, but ere long began manufacturing in Derry, where his business life has since been passed.
At the time of his going to Derry to engage in busi- ness, the West or Depot village, as it was then called, was a mere hamlet of a few scattered houses, and the building that served the utmost purpose of his factory was no larger than an ordinary dwelling. Step by step the little plant has grown until to-day it has a capacity that gives employment to some six hundred employees, and is equipped throughout with the latest devised ma- chinery. In course of time he admitted into partnership, in his shoe manufacturing enterprise, a son, Rosecrans W., under the firm name of W. S. & R. W. Pillsbury. This house ranks with the most progressive and pros- perous business interests in the state. Continuous growth has been the law of the plant, and this expansion from the little beginning is significantly portrayed in the en- graved letter head of the firm. In the illustration is the original factory and near to it the present great plant, the whole silently yet most effectively setting forth the history of the grand success of the enterprise.
Colonel Pillsbury is a man not only of great courage and energy, but one who knows the value of method and system. He possesses to a marked degree that faculty known as the initiative and the skill, the persistency, and insistency to carry out that which he originates. He likes business for its own sake and is ever ready to do that which will add to the advantage of Derry and his own home town, Londonderry. He has been much in
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political life. Away back in 1868 he was a commissioner for Rockingham county. As a county commissioner he proved a most efficient official. In 1877 he was an aide on the staff of Governor Prescott and from that date has borne the title of "colonel." As a "good citizen" he has actively participated in Londonderry's town affairs. For near a generation he served as moderator, as trustee of the public library, and on committees almost without end. He served a term as a member of the legislature many years ago, and was a member of the senate, his term ex- piring with the year 1902. His church home is the Congregational. He is a Mason, and member of various business and social organizations. He has always been a liberal contributor in both Londonderry and Derry. He is democratic, whole-souled, and sympathetic, and his going and coming among the people of Derry has ever been an inspiration to the people but never more so than to-day. His home is a beautiful one, solid and substan- tial, warm and cheery like its owner. Quite recently Colonel Pillsbury has given a valuable piece of land as the site for a new proposed municipal building in Derry. For thirty years it has been his wont to visit his Boston office four or five times a week, and he has long possessed a wide acquaintance among the shoe trade from the At- lantic to the Pacific.
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COLONEL FRANCIS W. PARKER
COL. F. W. PARKER.
Colonel Francis W. Parker, world famed educator, was born in that part of the town of Bedford now included in the city of Manchester, October 9, 1837, and died at Pass Christian, Missouri, March 2, 1902.
In his youth he worked on a farm and pursued steadily the idea of gaining an education. First he attended the district school at Piscataquog and later, in succession, the academies in Bedford, Mont Vernon and Hopkinton.
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