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 22
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ORLANDO B. DOUGLAS, M.D.
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Young Douglas refused an appointment as captain, but accepted a lieutenant's commission and was pro- moted to be adjutant of his regiment. Later, by order of General Grant, he was commissioned acting assistant adjutant general on the brigade staff. He was twice wounded, in 1861 early in the war while scouting in Missouri, and a year later at Shiloh, where he was seriously wounded in the hip. He was on duty at Cincinnati, at Corinth, Mississippi, and in the provost marshal's corps at Concord, Mass., and was mustered out near the close of the war. For some years thereafter he was engaged in business, and later entered the medical department of the University of Vermont, although he received his diploma from the University Medical College of New York in 1877. Entering upon the practice of his profession in New York City, he soon attained an excellent degree of success and reputation and held many positions of importance and responsi- bility in his profession.
Turning his attention to the special subject of the ear, nose and throat, Dr. Douglas became an authority in the pathology and treatment of those organs and served upon the surgical staff of the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital for twenty-five years, conducting the throat clinics and being visited by more than two hundred thou- sand patients. In 1888, he was elected professor of dis- eases of the nose and throat in the New York Post-Grad- uate Medical School and Hospital. He was prominent in many of the medical associations, president of the Medical Society of New York city, treasurer of the New York Academy of Medicine for nine years, and has written widely upon the special subjects in which he is an au- thority.
For ten years he had a summer residence in Suncook, but in September, 1901, he purchased a residence and es-
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tablished an office permanently in Concord. Having thus enrolled himself as a resident of the Granite State Dr. Douglas is sure to perform to the full his part as a good citizen.
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JOHN McLANE
JOHN McLANE.
For nearly fifty years a resident of New Hampshire and for more than half that time at the head of a pros- perous manufacturing establishment in Milford, John McLane has long held a deserved position among the foremost men of the state. He was born in Lennoxtown, Scotland, Feb. 27th, 1852, the son of Alexander and Mary (Hay) McLane. His parents emigrated to America in 1854 and settled in Manchester, where John McLane re- ceived his education in the public schools. Fitted with a special aptitude for mechanical pursuits he becamea skilled wood worker and for many years was employed as a journeyman in the furniture trade. But his was not the stuff to remain in a subordinate position, and in 1876 he established a business for himself for the manufacture of postoffice equipments, and under his guidance the concern has grown to immense proportions, with customers all over the country. In Milford he has taken a lively in- terest in the development of the town, aside from the en- terprise conducted in his own name, and he has con- tributed liberally of time, talent and money to advance the community's welfare. He is president of the Souhe- gan National Bank, and a director in the local Building and Loan association. In 1885 he was sent to represent his town in the legis- lature, and although a new member, and not a lawyer, he was placed upon that most important legal committee, the judiciary, and was also a member of
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the committee on towns. In 1887 Mr. McLane again rep- resented Milford and was appointed chairman of the committee on insurance, and a member of the committee on the revision of the statutes. In 1891 he entered the state senate and was chosen president of that body, serv- ing with rare and successful tact. In 1893 he was again a member of the senate and was again chosen to the presi- dency, an honor which came to him by unanimous vote of his party associates, and over riding the one-term prece- dent which had been established for upwards of half a century. Mr. McLane married Mar. 10th, 1880 Ellen L. Tuck, daughter of Eben Tuck of Milford, and they have four children, three sons and a daughter. Mr. McLane attends the Congregational church, is a Mason and an Odd Fellow. His Masonic career has been re- markably brilliant, having served in all the positions in the fraternity, including that of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the state. Mr. McLane, although deep- ly engrossed in the work entailed by the management of an extensive business, has nevertheless found time for much reading and for a close and accurate study of public affairs. He is an ardent Republican and for many years has been a member of the state committee of his party, and the representative of his county (Hillsborough) in the executive committee of that body. Mr. McLane is a public speaker of more than ordinary power, endowed with exceptional qualities of judgment and with that sa- gacity which is the birthright of his race, supplementing the faithful results of public school study with wide read- ing and careful thought, and possessing a cordial manner and a dignified presence, he has appeared frequently on public occasions with marked success. Mr. McLane is a man of sterling integrity, both of mind and action.
312
CHANNING FOLSOM
CHANNING FOLSOM.
Channing Folsom, state superintendent of public in- struction, was born at Newmarket, June 1, 1848. His father, a country doctor, well realizing the benefits of a liberal education, supplemented the training afforded in the town schools by a course at Phillips-Exeter Academy, and the young man entered Dartmouth College in the class of 1870. Weak eyes and insufficient financial re- sources compelled his withdrawal from college at the end of two years, although his Alma Mater in 1885, conferred upon him the honorary degree of A. M. and in 1902 the degree of A. B. in course.
While in college Mr. Folsom, following the custom of so many Dartmouth students, taught school during the vacation, and after leaving college he entered upon teach- ing as his life work, beginning at Sandwich, Mass. From there he went to Amesbury, Mass., where he spent two years, and later had four years' experience in Ports- mouth, New Hampshire. In 1874, he went to Dover as principal of the Belknap grammar school, where he re- mained three years, when he was elected a master in the Eliot School, Boston, serving until April, 1882. In that month he was chosen superintendent of schools at Dover, and returned to New Hampshire, where he has since lived. For sixteen years he was superintendent of schools at Dover, and in 1898, upon the resignation of Fred Gow- ing, he was appointed state superintendent of public instruction, receiving successive reappointments as his terms of office have expired.
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Mr. Folsom married Nov. 12, 1870, Ruth F. Savage, of Newmarket, and has five children.
Mr. Folsom is a positive educator, both as a teacher in the schools and as a state superintendent he has shown himself a friend of true educational progress and the foe of all the non-essential and cumbersome methods which have rendered so many school programs inefficient. Coming to his present position at a time when the old methods of instruction had not yet been fully displaced by the new and when many of the new ideas had yet to prove their usefulness through practical experience, Mr. Folsom has wisely and discriminatingly forwarded the educational interests of the state. During his term of office he has seen the entire policy of the state change so far as it has related to the state's responsibility for ad- vanced education, and the so-called "Grange" school law, by means of which twenty-five thousand dollars is annu- ally distributed to the schools of the state, was drafted by him and carried through the legislature largely through his efforts. His administration of the trust imposed upon him in the distribution of this fund has been eminently conservative and successful, and he has had the privilege of seeing his ideas stamped each year with a deeper seal of public approval. He has also stimulated many a com- munity to a pride and deeper interest in the local schools, and by causing to be enacted the law providing for a group system of school superintendents he-has seen many of the existing schools brought to a still higher state of efficiency.
'Through his long residence in the state and his intimate acquaintance with New Hampshire temperaments and traditions, Mr. Folsom has been enabled to advance the cause of education by wise methods, and his assured continuance in his present post of usefulness is the guarantee that the immediate future of New Hampshire schools is bright with promise.
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ROGER G. SULLIVAN
ROGER G. SULLIVAN.
A keen and deservedly successful business man is Roger G. Sullivan, of Manchester, who was born in 1854 in Bradford, but the greater part of whose life has been spent in the city where he now lives. His educational advantages were limited and were confined to the com- mon schools of Manchester, as at the age of fourteen he began earning his own living and was at that time inden- tured to learn the carriage-painting business. At the age of nineteen, however, he embarked in business for himself as a cigar manufacturer, at first employing only two men. In 1883 he began the manufacture of what is now probably the best-known cigar in northern New England, Seven-twenty-four, and his business has grown since then by leaps and bounds, until now he employs two hundred hands and his factories have a capacity of nearly seven million cigars a year. The magnitude of his business may be judged somewhat from the fact that Mr. Sullivan's import duty payments and internal reve- nue stamp purchases amount to about $90,000 a year. His goods are sold throughout the country, and five trav- elling men are constantly employed distributing the prod- ucts of his factories. The pay-roll of his establishment is about $125,000 a year.
In addition, Mr. Sullivan is largely engaged in other lines of business in the city of Manchester and elsewhere. He is a director of the Amoskeag National bank, a direc- tor in the Manchester Traction Company, the New Hamp-
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shire Fire Insurance Company and the Union Publishing company. At York Beach, where Mr. Sullivan has erected a beautiful summer home, he is a large owner of real estate, and many of the improvements recently made at that well-known summer resort own their inception to Mr. Sullivan's enterprise and sagacity.
His home on Walnut street is one of the most at- tractive in Manchester. He married Susan C. Fernald, of Manchester, and has three children, Minna E., Susan A. and Frances E. The eldest daughter was educated at Montreal and at Northampton, Mass., and the others obtained their education at the Visitation Convent, Georgetown, District of Columbia, the eldest daughter travelling extensively in Europe after completing the course in the American schools.
Mr. Sullivan in politics is a Democrat, and is promi- nent in the Knights of Columbus.
316
HERMON K. SHERBURNE, D.O.
HERMON K. SHERBURNE.
1
One of the best known osteopathic physicians in New Hampshire is Hermon K. Sherburne of Littleton. But aside from his professional attainment he is thoroughly representative of the best citizenship in his town and state. He was born in Wilmington, Vermont, July 12, 1855. He was educated in the schools of his native town and at Montpelier (Vt.) seminary. In 1883 he married Miss Ada L. Boyce, and one child, Theodore Vail Sher- burne, was born to them. He died at the age of five years and two months. She died, April 27, 1899 having been instantly killed in a cyclone that passed over the city of Kirksville, Missouri.
The science of osteopathy early attracted the attention of Mr. Sherburne and when once he had decided to en- gage in its practice he went to Kirksville, Missouri, that he might learn the theory and practice of the science at the fountain head for it was there that the school was founded by Andrew Taylor Still. From this school he graduated in 1899 and in the same year he began active practice.
October first, 1901, Mr. Sherburne married for his second wife, Miss Mary A. Burbank, who like himself is a diplomat in osteopathy. Mr. Sherburne is a member of the American Osteopathic Association and president of the New Hampshire Osteopathic Association. In poli- tics he is a Republican while his membership in fraternal
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orders is limited to Odd Fellowship. The church home of the family is the Methodist Episcopal.
The article on Osteopathy following this sketch was written by Mr. Sherburne expressly for State Builders.
OSTEOPATHY.
BY HERMON K. SHERBURNE.
With the remarkable developments that have been made along all lines of scientific research in the closing years of the last century, perhaps there is none more im- portant, or which will fall with a greater blessing on the human race than the development and promulgation of that department of the science of medicine known as Osteopathy.
Osteopathy is a complete science of healing diseased conditions of the body without drugs and without the knife. It originated about 1874 in the brain of Dr. An- drew T. Still of Baldwin, Kansas, a regular practising physician and army surgeon.
Every invention is the result of a genius seeking to improve on old methods, so with Dr. Still convinced of the inefficacy of drug treating in acute and its absolute uselessness in chronic diseases he set about exploring for himself the unknown. Anatomy and Physiology seem to have been his favorite subjects and as has been said of him with "Indian cadavers for subjects and the broad prairies for a workshop he constantly studied Nature's se- crets in her greatest creation."
His idea as expressed in his autobiography was that God would not give us these bodies subject to attacks of disease from outside without putting into the bodies themselves the means and forces to resist the attacks.
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After nearly twenty years of untiring energy and cease- less toil, in 1892 feeling he had perfected his system suffi- ciently to give it to the world a charter was obtained from the state of Missouri to teach this new discovery and the first school was opened in Kirksville that state with an attendance of seven students.
The system soon became known and people who were sick and who had grown weary of taking medicine came to Kirksville to try the new science of healing without drugs. They were healed and returned home and their friends and neighbors came.
The news spread rapidly, not by advertising, but, by cures made, and soon there were students and patients from all over the land going to Kirksville seeking to be cured or to learn the new science. The school continued to grow until today it has between six and seven hundred students. Other schools were organized so that there are now fourteen Osteopathic colleges with seventeen hun- dred students and about twenty-five hundred Osteopathic physicians practising.
Recognition by special enactment of legislatures is a compliment never before paid to a new scientific discov- ery, since 1896 Osteopathy has received this high compli- ment from nineteen states.
Osteopathy bases its claims to rank as a science of heal- ing upon the fact that there exists a definite and fixed re- lation between an organ and the central nervous system. It may be said to be the science of treating disease through a technical manipulation by which the practitioner intelli- gently directs the inherent recuperative resources of the body to the restoration of health. It rests upon the the- ory that every diseased condition not due to a specific poison is traceable to some mechanical disorder, which, if corrected, will allow Nature to resume perfect work.
By the term mechanical obstruction is meant any direct interference to the nutritive or functional fluids or forces
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of the organ, as pressure upon a vessel or nerve by an abnormal condition of some denser tissue of the body. This will cut off the nerve force and affect the blood supply. Either of these may result in producing an abnormal function of some organ or organs and thus lead to a diseased condition.
The osteopath looks upon the body as a machine and himself as a trained human machinist adjusting it to its natural condition that it may be properly driven from the central nervous system. His work is principally done along the spinal column, from which the nerves emanate, going from' there to all the different parts of the body.
Osteopathy makes no demands on the vitality of the patient but rather increases it at every treatment.
The claims of modesty are never lost sight of. The most delicate person can undergo this treatment without the least fear of any unpleasant experience. They are al- ways adapted to the condition of the patient, never severe, and absolutely in no case harmful if given by a competent osteopathist.
The application of the treatment is very general, it having reached almost every known form of disease. Its success as a curative agent is remarkably gratifying, especially when we remember its triumphs have been made out of the failures of other systems. It ranks among its patrons some of the most noted and intellectual people of our time, as well as those in the more modest walks of life but all alike testifying to the great blessing it has been to themselves or family in restoring them to health after all other medical skill had failed. No one today should consider their case incurable until they have con- sulted an Osteopath and been properly treated by him, when it is safe to say they will make another of that now vast number who will rise up and call the name of Dr. A. T. Still, the founder of this great science, blessed.
320
ALONZO ELLIOTT
ALONZO ELLIOTT.
Alonzo Elliott, an enterprising banker, broker and busi- ness man of Manchester, was born in Augusta, Maine, July 25, 1849, and when a lad came to Tilton, N. H., with his parents. Acquiring his education in the public schools and in Tilton seminary, young Elliott began life as clerk in a store, but later, having obtained a knowledge of telegraphy, he entered the railroad service as operator at Tilton, and remained in railroad life until 1893, with a brief interval, when he was employed in commercial pursuits in the North country. From 1869 to 1893 he was employed at the Manchester station of the Concord and the Manchester & Lawrence railroads, where he earned the reputation of being the most expert ticket seller and one of the finest telegraph op- erators on the line. Retiring from railroading in 1893 he engaged in banking and insurance, in the latter capac- ity representing some twenty-five leading companies. At the time of his retirement from that branch of business in 1896 Mr. Elliott was the organizer of the Granite State Trust co., later known as the Bank of New England, of which he was treasurer until 1896. He was Secretary of the Citizens building and loan asso- ciation, vice-president, director and clerk of the Peoples Gas Light co., and director in the Garvin's Falls elec- tric power co. He was President of the Manchester Elec- tric light co., and raised the money to build the first elec- tric light plant in Manchester. He has also been actively
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identified with the development of many of Manchester's diversified industries, chief among them being the El- liott Manufacturing co., producers of knit goods, employ- ing two hundred hands. This company was established through Mr. Elliott's efforts and he was its first treasurer. Prominent among other industrial enterprises in Manches- ter with which Mr. Elliott has been closely identified are the F. M. Hoyt, and the Eureka Shoe companies, the Kim- ball carriage co., the East Side shoe company and the West Side shoe company. Mr. Elliott is also interested in many real estate ventures in the Queen City and with the late Governor James A. Weston and late John B. Var- ick owned the New Manchester house, a finely equipped and valuable piece of hotel property. His home, Brook- hurst, is one of the most attractive in that city, and his family comprises a wife, the daughter of George W. and Sarah (Mead) Weeks, whose father was for many years prominently identified with the shoe trade in Manchester, and four children. Mr. Elliott is a Mason and a Knights Templar, and a charter member of the Derryfield club. In religion he is a Unitarian, and in politics an Independ- ent. In 1902 he made an independent canvass for gov- ernor.
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CHARLES H. MURKLAND, PH.D.
DURHAM COLLEGE.
The New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts was incorporated by an act of the legis- lature passed in 1866. Section 2 of this act reads as follows: "The leading object of the College is, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in order to promote the liberal and practical edu- cation of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." As a consequence of this act the college was established in Hanover under the admin- istration and in connection with Dartmouth college. It was organized under a board of trustees appointed partly by the governor and partly by the Corporation of Dartmouth college.
The act of Congress referred to in this section is the act donating certain parcels of public land to the several states and territories for the purpose of establishing col- leges in these states. By that act a quantity of land equal to thirty thousand acres for each senator and representa- tive in Congress, was donated to each state.
Section 4 of this act of congress, approved July 2, 1862, contains the following statement of the purpose and character of the colleges to be established: The in- terest of the money derived from the sale of these do- nated lands was to be applied, "to the endowment, sup- port, and maintenance, of at least one college, where the
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leading object shall be, without excluding other scien- tific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to ag- riculture and the mechanic arts, in such a manner as the legislature of the states shall respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and profes- sions of life."
As indicated above, Section 2 of the act of the New Hampshire Legislature in 1866 is a literal quotation from this Section 4 of the act of Congress of 1862.
The land donated to the state was sold, and the money received for the same, eighty thousand dollars, is now held by the treasurer of the state in the form of state bonds, and the income, four thousand eight hundred dol- lars, is annually paid over to the treasurer of the college.
In 1890 congress provided an additional appropria- tion, which for the current year amounts to twenty-five thousand dollars. This money is to be applied "to the instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts, the Eng- lish language, and the various branches of mathematical, physical, natural and economic science, with special reference to their application in the industries of life, and to the facilities for such instruction." No part of this appropriation can be used for any other purpose, it must all be expended for teaching and for facilities for such instruction, such as books, instruments and labora- tory requirements. Everything connected with the erec- tion and repair of the buildings and the maintenance of the same must be provided for from other funds.
In 1890 the death of Benjamin Thompson of Durham brought before the state the opportunity to accept the bequest in his will. His estate, amounting thereto ap- proximately four hundred thousand dollars, was be- queathed to the state of New Hampshire, in trust, sub- ject to certain conditions indicated in his will. These
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conditions may be summarized as follows: (I) The property to be held by the state of New Hampshire for- ever, in trust, for the benefit of the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. (2) The amount to be increased by a net annual com- pound interest of four per cent for twenty years, the income of the property during that time to be available for such increase, and not to be available for the use of the college. (3) The state to guarantee an appropria- tion of three thousand dollars annually to be set aside and to be increased by a net annual compound interest of four per cent for twenty years, "to constitute a fund to erect buildings and furnish the same, stock the farm, procure apparatus, and commence a library." (4) The college to be established in the town of Durham, and on the "Warner Farm," the property of Benjamin Thomp- son at his death. In consequence of this will the legis- lature voted to accept the provisions of the will, by an act approved March 5, 1891.
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