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 33
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many and as wide opportunities for the display of his innate abilities as were afforded elsewhere. This decision on his part is significant and pregnant with meaning, in view of the sequel that has come so early in his career, for he is in this year of 1903, but thirty-three and, there- fore, as the years of man are counted, but upon the threshold of middle life.
BIRTHPLACE OF GEORGE FRANKLYN WILLEY -SUMMER
The rewards that come to duty performed and laws fulfilled in physiological life are cumulative. They do not cease with a single generation unless ruthlessly and criminally disregarded. The generations of the Pilgrims and Puritans down to within fifty years were distin- guished for an undeviating adherence to the moral and ecclesiastical views and principles of the forefathers.
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These views, principles and practices were fixed charac- teristics of New England life and were the basis of American national development. They were the funda- mentals of that life.
Reared among the mountains, inured to hard work from childhood and breathing an atmosphere calculated to kindle and foster every ennobling trait in human life, it is but natural that Mr. Willey should be possessed of a wonderful capacity for work; that his intellectual dis- cernment should be capable of a quick comprehensive and like decision in the multifarious affairs that come to him daily.
The boyhood and early manhood years of Mr. Willey were passed on the ancestral farm and in attending school, but in this instance it should be understood that what is meant by his early manhood years are those comprised within his teens, for by the time he had reached his majority he had taken up what has since proved to be his life work.
A student of human nature quickly notes in Mr. Willey a strong individuality. He is a man of decidedly pro- nounced characteristics and these are so many that one sees at a glance that he possesses versatility of talent to a marked degree. Of course, he could not have all these traits and be without that one characteristic, the posses- sion of which has been the grandest power of the New Englander past and present and known as the initiative. It is the initiative in the most perfect form that makes the most successful general, the successful merchant, the like successful financier and the leader among men. It was the possession of the initiative by the men and women of New England that led them to seek the winning of the West and among the people of this section none have displayed this talent to a more marked degree than those of New Hampshire.
It was the initiative that led Mr. Willey, when a student at Pinkerton Academy, Derry, to establish a school paper
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and to become its business manager, and as long as he remained in its management it was a financial and literary success. Again, it was the initiative that led him to turn
WILLEY HOUSE, CRAWFORD NOTCH
A CENTRAL SCENE IN "SOLTAIRE." BY GEORGE FRANKLYN WILLEY
to account his ability in spare time to accept the position as a reporter for a Derry weekly paper, an arrange- ment that ended in his becoming the owner of the paper, which he conducted so successfully that after an owner-
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ship of some eighteen months he sold it at what was to him at the time a great sun. Here as a young man just entering upon his majority and but recently come from his mountain home, absolutely without money and with- out friends except as he gained them in the daily exten- sion of his acquaintanceship. Yet he saw his oppor- tunity, or rather let it be said, as it is the greater truth, he made for himself the opportunity to jump as it were into the possession of a sum that made the world look larger to him than ever before and enabled him to take a place in the ranks of the business men of his community. It was the fulfilment of that law that labor and labor alone develops a man's powers; and thus early in his life was there an exemplification of the fact that his labor was well mannered and well managed.
With the sale of his paper, Mr. Willey found himself free for another venture in the field of business and enter- prise. At this point it should be said that up to this time he had not the remotest thought of following journalism as a life work. Indeed, he now was and had been for a comparatively long while a student in medicine and ere he relinquished his studies had passed an examination for admission to the Dartmouth Medical School. His versatility, however, prompted him to undertake the preparation of what was at first planned as a pocket souvenir of the town of Derry. The work grew far beyond its original scope and its full fruition was in the form of a magnificent volume comprehending an ex- haustive history of all that part of New Hampshire in the long ago known as Nutfield and first peopled by that grand company of men and women called Scotch-Irish. From a literary stand-point the book was a success and the measure of this success is becoming more marked with the passing of time. As a financial venture its success was something phenomenal considering that Mr. Willey was at the time of its publication only twenty-five. It put him in possession of ten thousand
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dollars all his own and all gained by his daring industry and initiative. He dared to act where others hesitated and simply talked.
It was no run of good luck that transformed Mr. Willey from the poor boy of twenty into the compar- atively rich man of twenty-five. It was pure business acumen and perception and the carrying out of these qualities by industrious application.
But the initiative is at times a quality that brings disaster as well as success and Mr. Willey has in the story of his short yet eventful life, one experience of this nature, an experience that in a few brief months swept away all his previous earnings and other thousands that were either not his or that he had not earned. In 1896, the year of a presidential campaign, he entered the field of daily journalism. His political views were those born of principle and predilection. He was sincere in their holding and the wisdom of these political beliefs has nothing to do with the creation of this study of his career. One circumstance and another led to the com- plete collapse of this enterprise of the daily paper and finally to Mr. Willey's liquidation in bankruptcy. He was at the time twenty-eight years old. In eight years he had started in life and by his own unaided self had won a fortune and lost it. But, Mr. Willey in the routine of the daily paper did not lose a solitary one of these sterling characteristics that made up his rugged man- hood. He did not lose any time in repining. Hope sustained by a resolute will, a sound body and clean mind constituted his new and only stock in trade in a new venture he had determined upon. Faith in the promise that honest, well directed labor should not go unre- warded, sustained him in his new struggle. The cold, unsympathetic world looked at him and said that no man with such a handicap could succeed. He became the owner of five weekly papers which he had bought at a bankrupt sale, with the city of Manchester as the place
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of their publication. Hope, determination, courage, were needed qualities with him in those days. Step by step his path became brighter and smoother as the barriers were turned away. Again did money come to his command and as it did so, again did he exemplify the stuff of which he is made. In the short time of some- thing less than three years, he paid to his creditors some eighteen thousand dollars, not one cent of which was he under legal obligation to pay. Such an instance of moral probity and commercial integrity is deserving of the widest publicity and commendation for it, for it strength- ens one's belief that sincerity is not yet a wholly departed trait of American manhood.
But it is not alone this practical demonstration of fidelity to moral obligation that has caused Mr. Willey to be much in the "public eye" of late. In recent months he has become the active head of a corporation publishing forty-one weekly newspapers and having a paid-in capi- talization of one hundred thousand dollars. Within the current year he has made his debut as an author and this debut is rich in a promise of future triumphs along their line.
As the author of "Soltaire," a story of the White Mountains, Mr. Willey has gained much immediate fame and his fellow townsmen are earnest in their hope that his present auspicious advent into the field of litera- ture will not be allowed to lapse on account of business exactions, but be followed up by new creations of his brain and pen.
"Soltaire" has met with a most flattering success and few indeed are the papers throughout the country that have not reviewed it in extenso.
As a business man and financier, Mr. Willey has gained a prominence that is simply astonishing, consider- ing his age, his opportunities and the obstacles that he has had to overcome.
Surveying his past and discerning his present, one is
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led to wonder what the future has in store for him. The past warrants the belief that he is but on the thresh- old of a magnificent career.
Mr. Willey has vast financial interests in Nome, Alaska, and is a large holder of real estate in his home city of Manchester.
He was married in December, 1901, to Miss Jennie Louise, daughter of the late Ira H. Adams, M. D., of Derry.
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Price, $10
New Edition
WILLEY'S
BOOK OF NUTFIELD
A History of That Part of New Hamp- shire Comprised Within the Limits of the Old Township of Londonderry
From its Settlement in 1719 to the Present Time
COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES AND EDITED BY GEORGE FRANKLYN WILLEY
Biographical, Genealogical, Political, Anecdotal
ILLUSTRATED WITH HALF-TONE AND STEEL ENGRAVINGS
New Hampshire Publishing Corporation
MANCHESTER, N. H. BOSTON, MASS.
ยท THE FIRST REAL ROMANCE OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS
SOLTAIRE
CLEVELAND DAILY WORLD :
" Soltaire," by George Franklyn Willey, fully justifies its title, for it is a literary gem, a dramatic work, as fascinating as Washington Irving's legends of the Catskill Mountains.
NEW YORK JOURNAL :
Among the wealth of recent fiction, one book stands out prominently as a work of true merit and sublime fascination. This book is a little romance of the White Mountains, entitled " Soltaire." There are not many pages,-one wishes there were many more,- and yet the reader lays the book aside with a distinct sigh of regret, in a genuine glow of happiness, and with a warm feeling of sincere appreciation to the author, George Franklyn Willey, for a couple of hours of pure, un- alloyed enjoyment.
NEW YORK WORLD:
" Soltaire " is a strong, fresh romance of the White Moun- tain region. Mr. Willey's story is direct, simple, and com- pletely interesting.
This is the first time an author has paid any special atten- tion to the White Mountains -that region so full of romance and picturesqueness. Mr. Willey has not only based his story both on White Mountain legendary lore and history, but makes every page of his book breathe the invigorating and inspiring atmosphere of those grand hills, which are aptly called the
" SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA."
SOLTAIRE A Romance of the Willey Slide in the White Mountains By George Franklyn Willey
A BOOK FOR EVERYONE TO READ. PRICE, $1.25 New Hampshire Publishing Corporation
36 MERRIMACK STREET, MANCHESTER, N. H. 309 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MASS.
Price, $10
New Edition
WILLEY'S Semi-Centennial Book of Manchester 1846-1896
And Manchester Edition of the Book of Nutfield
Historic Sketches of that part of New Hampshire comprised within the limits of the Old Tyng Township, Nutfield, Harrytown, Derryfield, and Manchester, from the earliest settlements to the present time.
BY
GEORGE FRANKLYN WILLEY
Biographical, Genealogical, Political, Anecdotal ILLUSTRATED WITH 500 ENGRAVINGS
New Hampshire Publishing Corporation
MANCHESTER, N. H. BOSTON, MASS.
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