USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Manchester > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 6
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hudson > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 6
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Londonderry > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 6
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Derry > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 6
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Windham > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 6
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Salem > The Londonderry celebration. Exercises on the 150th anniversary of the settlement of old Nutfield, comprising the towns of Londonderry, Derry, Windham, and parts of Manchester, Hudson and Salem, N.H., June 10, 1869. > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
to avaken the popul .
state and the service 1
October 2, 100 1.
of 1516. ES ileeu rome
offre of the Theuy Gangs PO admitted to the bay & do the year 1920.
Moredich, be che
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
HON. SAMUEL D. BELL, LL. D.
BY HON. CHARLES H. BELL, OF EXETER, N. HI.
[From the N. E. Hist. and Genealogical Register.]
IT Is seldom that a life has been passed of greater useful- ness than that of the late Chief Justice Bell, of New Hampshire. He was never in the most conspicuous field of public employment, nor were his labors of a character to awaken the popular admiration ; but for many years he occupied a most important and responsible position in his state, and the service he rendered to the community was constant and of inestimable value.
Samuel Dana Bell was born in Francestown, N. H., October 9, 1798. His father was the Hon. Samuel Bell, LL. D., a judge of the Superior Court, four years governor of New Hampshire, and twelve years a senator of the United States. His mother was a daughter of the Hon. Samuel Dana, of Amherst, N. H.
He manifested, at an early age, the love of study which distinguished him through life. He entered Harvard Col- lege in his fourteenth year, and was graduated in the class of 1816. He then commenced the study of the law in the office of the Hon. George Sullivan, of Exeter, and was admitted to the bar of the county of Rockingham early in the year 1820.
The first few months of his professional life he passed in Meredith, in the present county of Belknap, but within the
78
year he established himself in Chester, then a town of some note, and the home of several gentlemen of cultiva- tion and distinction. Entering into practice there, he soon acquired a reputation for being a sagacious, learned and trustworthy lawyer, and obtained an ample business and the full confidence of the community. In the year 1823, he was appointed solicitor of the county of Rockingham for the term of five years. In 1825 and 1826, he was elected a representative in the state legislature, and in the latter year was placed upon a commission to revise the statutes of the state. In 1827 and 1828, he was chosen clerk of the house of representatives, and in the latter year was reappointed county solicitor, which office, however, he declined.
Mr. Bell remained in Chester ten years, and then took up his residence in Exeter, the half-shire town of the county of Rockingham, where he discharged the duties of cashier of the Exeter Bank for some years, though with- out relinquishing his legal studies, or even the whole of his practice.
In 1836 he determined to devote his entire time to his profession, and with that view removed to Concord, the capital of the state ; but it soon being apparent that Man- chester was to become the leading town of New Hamp- shire, and upon receiving the appointment of general attor- ney to the company chiefly concerned in its advancement, he determined to make that place his home, and fixed his residence there in 1839.
In 1840 Mr. Bell was placed at the head of a commis- sion for another revision of the statutes. To this work, the greater part of which fell to his share, he gave un- wearied care and research. It was completed in about two years, and in a manner which admirably met the urgent wants of the legal profession and of the community.
In 1846- Manchester had found the need of a city char- ter, and Mr. Bell, at the desire of the leading citizens,
79
accepted the office of judge of the police court, which he held long enough to fix upon that tribunal the impress of his own accurate and systematic habits; and, two years later, he received the appointment of circuit judge of the Common Pleas throughout the state. This office he held until 1849, when he was placed upon the bench of the Superior Court, the highest tribunal of the state. In 1859 he was elected to the position of Chief Justice, which he retained until his resignation in 1864.
It was his intention from this time to relinquish all pro- fessional employment, and he declined every retainer, even those of a permanent and lucrative character, and which · were offered him in a form to encroach little upon his pur- suits or leisure. In 1866, however, on being again ap- pointed at the head of a commission to revise the statutes, lie did not refuse his assent, but with his usual diligence and fidelity acquitted himself of the arduous duty, which was accomplished so speedily that the work was before the legislature in season to be adopted at the ordinary brief session in 1867.
This was the last public service upon which Judge Bell was engaged. His health had been delicate for some years before, and about this time he was prostrated by an attack of inflammatory rheumatism, from which he never re- covered. He lingered in a condition of great helplessness for a year after, bearing his privations and occasional suf- ferings with cheerfulness, and died at his residence in Manchester, on the 31st day of July, 1868.
Judge Bell received from nature an inquiring disposition, a retentive memory, and a love of order and method, to which he added habits of untiring application. He was never inclined to out-door occupations, and almost the whole of his time, out of the court-room, was passed in his office or library. He found his amusement and recreation, as well as his employment, in his books and pen.
His profession was, of course, the first object of his
80
study. He pursued it to an extent and in directions far beyond the usual range of lawyers, even of the foremost rank. He not only made himself master of the common law and equity systems, from the works of the early sages . of the profession down to the latest reported cases, but was scarcely less familiar with the civil law, the French code, the jurisprudence of Scotland, and even the legislation of each of the United States. From all these sources he drew reasons, analogies and illustrations, to fortify and en- rich his judicial opinions.
He possessed rare personal qualifications for a position upon the bench. Dignified in appearance and bearing, he was distinguished for patience and courtesy. He made abundant allowance for the diffident and the slow ; but he had no tolerance for conceit and impudence. He had all an honorable man's aversion to meanness and the lower arts of the profession ; he used his position and authority to promote no partisan or partial purposes. Knowing no favorites, he rather imposed severer terms on those whom he might be expected. to favor, when they chanced to ask for some indulgence from the court. With his methodical, laborious habits, it may well be supposed that the duties of his position were always promptly discharged. No cause languished in his court by reason of the unreadiness of the judge.
He was a man of very decided opinions. Quick in his impressions, he was ready enough to yield them for suffi- cient cause; but when he had deliberately arrived at a con- clusion, it was after a careful examination and reasoning, and he did not easily abandon it. It is not surprising that those who were so unfortunate as to disagree with him sometimes thought him unduly tenacious and hard to move ; but it is believed that not even the most vehement opponent ever doubted his sincerity and the honesty of his convictions.
It is somewhat remarkable that Judge Bell, being no
81
little of a " black-letter lawyer," and living, as it were, so much in the past, was not a determined foe to innovations upon antiquas vias. But he was, on the contrary, quite ready to recognize the operations of the spirit of the age upon the legal system, and was by no means slow to embody in the statutes, and even in his judicial opinions, the growth of modern sentiment in amelioration of the ruder doctrines of the early law.
The purity of Judge Bell's public and private life de- serves to be mentioned, to his honor. The ermine which he wore was unsullied indeed ; no shade of wrong or dis- honor ever fell upon his name. In a long life, so great a part of which was passed in the discharge of official em- ployments, many as were the persons who must have been disappointed by his acts and opinions, no one of them ever ventured to cast a reflection upon his motives or his con- duct. He went down to his grave with his fair fame wear- ing its life-long lustre, and with the sincere respect of even those who most widely differed from him.
His studies were by no means limited to his profession. He was a great general reader, and his stores of knowl- edge upon matters unconnected with the law were remark- able ; but he gave more special attention to history and the kindred subjects of biography, genealogy and topography, to mechanics and the natural sciences. In these depart- ments he was satisfied with no half-knowledge, and it was his habit to keep himself fully informed of every fresh pub- lication and discovery.
It may not be uninteresting to mention the field of his- torical investigation in which he was most engaged. Per- haps there was no subject on which he bestowed more labor than that of the carly history of his own state, and in connection with it, the first European settlements upon the eastern shores of New England. By long study and diligent research of scattered and neglected sources of in- formation, this had become familiar ground to him, and it
6
1
82
is much to be regretted that the exacting nature of his em- ployments did not allow him the leisure to embody his knowledge on a subject so full of interest and so little understood, in a form to be available to others.
He did, indeed, make some progress in gathering the materials for a work which was to him a labor of love, upon the Judicial History of New Hampshire. Through- out his life he had assiduously collected all that was to be learned from record and tradition, of the courts, the ju- diciary and the bar, of his state. His own recollection extended over the period of half a century, and to the times of the "giants of the law," and his memory was richly stored with the anecdotes and sketches of personal character, so apt to be rejected as trifling by grave histo- rians, but which give a living interest to the bare outlines, which are all that usually survive to us of the persons and things of the past generations. No one could have per- formed such an undertaking so well as Judge Bell, had his health permitted him to complete it; but before he had brought his work up to the close of the first century, it was interrupted by the hand of disease, and was never resumed. It is to be hoped that even the fragment of a work of so much interest and value will not be suffered to pass into oblivion.
Immersed in study as he was, Judge Bell had no want of interest in plans for the public advantage. Manchester, his home, now a thriving city of some thirty thousand souls, was, when he fixed his abode there, a mere village, with its future all undetermined. Upon its few leading inhabitants depended the question of its subsequent moral, material and social status. Judge Bell entered with inter- est into every scheme for the prospective welfare of the town. Among the public enterprises which he was greatly instrumental in establishing, was that of the City Library, which, in spite of all drawbacks, is to-day extensive, valua- ble, and incalculably useful to the people ; and being fixed
83
upon a liberal and permanent basis, will ere long be among the foremost institutions of its kind, and will remain a fit- ting monument of the wisdom and forecast which laid its foundation.
Judge Bell was an early member of the New Hampshire Historical Society, and for years held its principal offices. He prepared two valuable papers upon historical subjects, which he read before that society, and contributed largely to several volumes of its published collections. He was always earnest in his efforts for its maintenance and wel- fare, and at one time assumed alone considerable pecuniary liabilities which were weighing heavily upon the institution. He retained his interest in it to the last, and was upon its committee of publication up to the time of his decease.
Such is a mere outline of some of the more prominent characteristics of one who was a learned jurist, a ripe scholar, and an upright and earnest man. Yet it cannot but be felt how poorly and unworthily it will indicate to those who never knew him the high and unselfish aims, the symmetrical character, the useful and exemplary life, and the beneficent influence, which are held in so tender re- membrance by the circle of his friends.
Judge Bell's descent was as follows :
PATERNAL.
Matthew Bell, a native of Scotland, emigrated to Ireland some years before the siege of Londonderry, at which he was present, and had two sons (known): Matthew, who emigrated to New York, and John Bell,2 born near Colrain, in Ireland, 1679; married, 171-, Elizabeth Todd ; came to this country about 1719, and settled in Londonderry, N. H., and died there July 8, 1743. They had six daughters and three sons, of whom the youngest was John Bell,3 born in Londonderry, N. H., August 15, 1730 ; married, December 21, 1758, Mary Ann Gilmore, and died [in Londonderry, November 30, 1825. They had seven daughters and five
84
sons, of whom the sixth child and third son was Samuel Bell,4 born in Londonderry, February 9, 1770; married, first, May 26, 1797, Mehitable Bowen Dana, by whom he had two daughters and four sons; and second, July 4, 1826, Lucy Giddings Smith, by whom he had four sons, and died in Chester, N. H., December 23, 1850. His first child by his first marriage was Samuel Dana Bell5.
MATERNAL.
Richard Dana was born in England, emigrated to this country, and married, in 164-, Ann Bullard, in Cambridge, Mass., and died there April 2, 1690. They had four daughters and seven sons, of whom the seventh child and sixth son was Benjamin Dana,2 born in Cambridge, Febru- ary 20, 1660 ; married, May 23, 1688, Mary Buckminster, and died in Cambridge, August 13, 1738. They had three daughters and seven sons, of whom the seventh child and sixth son was William Dana,3 born in Cambridge, October 11, 1703 ; married, in 1735, Mary Greene, and died in Cambridge, May 17, 1770. They had three daughters and six sons, of whom the second son and child was Samuel Dana,4 born in Cambridge, January 14, 1739; married, May 6, 1762, Anna Kenrick, and died in Amherst, N. H., April 1, 1798. They had six sons and six daughters, of whom the fourth daughter and tenth child was Mehitable Bowen Dana,5 born in Groton, Mass., November 8, 1780; married, May 26, 1797, Samuel Bell, and died in Amherst, N. H., September 17, 1810. Her first child was Samuel Dana Bell.6
85
HON. E. H. DERBY.
ELIAS HASKET DERBY was born in Salem, Mass., September 24, 1803, and removed with his father, the late General E. H. Derby, to Londondery, N. H., in 1815. After a pre- paratory course of five years at the Pinkerton Academy, he entered Harvard University, in 1820, as a Londonderry boy, and graduated with the third part, the Latin Oration, for the Bachelor's and Master's Degree.
While in college he was distinguished as a classical scholar, and for close application to study. He read law with the Hon. Daniel Webster, then at the zenith of his fame.
In 1827 he opened an office in Boston, embarking at first in general practice, but for the last thirty years he has made railway questions a specialty; his eminence in that direction often bringing him in conflict with Curtis, Loring, Choate and Webster. He has done much to shape the rail- way legislation of the country.
Mr. Derby, while pursuing his profession, has served also in the direction of the Western and Fitchburg lines, al- ways advocating a liberal policy. He presided over the Old Colony and Metropolitan lines when they required a skillful pilot.
While achieving legal eminence, Mr. Derby has not for- saken the pleasant walks of literature which inspired and charmed his college days. The " Edinburgh Review," the " Atlantic Monthly," and, indeed, nearly all the leading magazines at home and abroad, have been enriched by articles from his pen. He is also the author of "Two Months Abroad," " The Catholic," "The Overland Route to the Pacific," and many reports on the British Provinces, the Fisheries, and kindred subjects, written while Com- missioner of the United States, all of which had wide cir- culation.
86
Mr. Derby has contributed to the progress of public im- provement. He was actively engaged in opening steam communication on the coast of Maine, and his resolutions, endorsed by a meeting of Boston merchants, led Cunard to enlarge his steamships from eight hundred to eleven · hundred and fifty tons, and to make Boston his terminus, in place of Halifax.
During our late struggle the country was indebted to him for the spirit with which he took up and pursued the construction of ironclads, and one of his letters, read on the floor of Congress by the Hon. E. B. Washburn, once a student in his office, in which he predicted a great national calamity if Congress failed to pass the bill, under which the first monitor was built, is supposed to have carried the measure.
His success in life has enabled him to aid others, and to educate four sons for the learned professions.
REV. C. M. DINSMORE.
CADFORD M. DINSMORE, son of John T. G. Dinsmore, was born in Windham, N. H., August 20, 1826. Subseqently his parents moved to Derry. His time, during his minority, was divided between laboring on the farm, attending school and teaching. He pursued his preparatory studies at the Pinkerton Academy and the Seminary at Sanbornton Bridge, and graduated at the Wesleyan University, Mid- dletown, Conn., in the class of 1851. He studied theology at Concord, N. H. Before entering the ministry, he was principal of the Academy at Andover.
November 23, 1852, he married Miss Cornelia P. Hall, of Colchester, Conn. Since he joined the New Hampshire Annual Conference of the Methodist Espiscopal Church, he has been stationed at the following places, viz. : Peter-
FT.Stuart_Boston
Pratt Lead
87
borough, Rindge, Newmarket, Suncook, Lawrence, Mass., Great Falls, Newport, Keene and Portsmouth.
In 1854 he was elected a member of the Legislature, and in 1866 received the appointment of Commissioner of Common Schools for Sullivan County and member of the Board of Education for the state. During the late war he served for a time in the Christian Commission, chiefly at Fortress Monroe and Petersburg.
Mr. Dinsmore is an able and highly successful preacher of the gospel in the denomination to which he belongs. His energy of character and general ability have won for him an enviable position in the New Hampshire Con- ference.
ADJUTANT-GENERAL NATT HEAD.
ADJUTANT- GENERAL NATT HEAD was born in Hooksett, N. H., May 20, 1828. His father, Colonel John Head, who died in 1836, was a farmer and a heavy lumber dealer, and an esteemed and valuable citizen. The son continued the business of the father, and, in connection with a brother, is still extensively engaged in farming, lumbering, and the manufacture of brick. He was early successful in busi- ness, and soon gained an enviable reputation for enterprise, integrity and honorable dealing. These qualities have given General Head prominence in various matters of pub- lic concern. He built the line of railroad from Suncook to Hooksett, and that from Suncook to Pittsfield. He also re- built the United States Military Asylum at Augusta, Maine, the first structure having been destroyed by fire.
In the financial world he has attained a high rank, and is a director of the First National Bank, and a trustec of the Merrimack River Savings Bank, of Manchester, president of
.
88
the China Savings Bank, of Suncook, and a director of the Suncook Valley Railroad.
In civil affairs he exhibits marked executive talent, and has filled various town offices, and in 1861 and 1862 he represented Hooksett in the Legislature.
As a practical farmer, he has always taken a deep inter- est in agriculture, and has been a long time a director of the State Society, and is now its president and a life mem- ber. In 1869 he was appointed by the Governor and Council a trustee of the New Hampshire College of Agri- culture and the Mechanic Arts.
From his father, who was many years an officer in the State Militia, and from his paternal grandfather, Captain Nathaniel Head, who served meritoriously as an officer through the Revolutionary war, General Head inherited military taste and spirit. He is a member of the National Lancers of Boston, and of the Battalion of Amoskeag Vet- erans, of Manchester, of which corps he is the commander. In 1863 he was appointed chief of the Governor's staff, and in 1864 was made by Governor Gilmore Adjutant-, Inspector- and Quartermaster-General of the State of New Hampshire. He was called to this position at a time when the nation was in one of the most important crises of the great civil war, and when the loyal people of New Hamp- shire were straining every nerve to raise the men called for under the President's proclamation of the preceding month. During the remainder of the war he rendered the country important aid. No state in the Union had a more faithful, efficient and popular Adjutant-General than New Hampshire. The clerical duties of the office were performed in an admirable manner, and the meth- od by which the records of our soldiers were persis- tently hunted up and placed on file, and the order and sys- tem exhibited in carrying on and preserving the extensive and valuable correspondence of the department, are worthy of the highest praise. Many letters are now preserved in
89
the office, from the highest civil and military officers of New Hampshire, from Adjutant-Generals of various states, and from the War and other departments at Washington, all testifying to the excellence of the system inaugurated, and to the highly efficient manner in which the affairs of the office were conducted.
The reports of the department, during the administra- tion of General Head, not only give the name and history of every officer and soldier who entered the service from New Hampshire, but they contain biographical sketches of all the field officers from our state who were killed in battle, or who died from disease during the war, together with a brief history of all the regiments, giving their principal move- ments from their departure to their return home. These reports further include the military history of New Hamp- shire from 1623 to 1861, the records of which period were collected with great perseverance and under many discour- agements, from various sources in this and other states, and from the rolls of the War Department at Washington, thus making the reports, as a whole, a work of great value to our people of the present day, and at the same time con- stituting an invaluable contribution to the military history of the nation, while its worth to posterity cannot be esti- mated.
As a citizen, General Head occupies a high and popular position, by reason of his genial and courteous manners and his large public spirit, while his constant and un- wearied devotion to the " Boys in Blue" secured for him the highest respect and esteem, and won for him the en- during title of " The Soldiers' Friend."
2
90
HON. GEORGE W. PATTERSON.
GEORGE WASHINGTON PATTERSON was born in Londonderry, N. H., November 11, 1799. He was the youngest of the twelve children of Deacon Thomas Patterson and Eliza- beth Wallace, eleven of whom reached mature life. His early years were mainly spent in assisting his father and brothers in the cultivation of the paternal acres, picking up what education he could from a few brief terms at the common school and at the Pinkerton Academy.
He occupied himself, during the winter of 1817-18, in teaching a district school in Pelham, N. H. In June fol- lowing he went to Western New York, where he laid the foundation of his fortune in the manufacture of fanning mills. In the spring of 1824, he purchased a farm in Leicester, Livingston County, N. Y., built the first framed house in that vicinity, and became a farmer. Here he re- mained until 1841, when he removed to Westfield, N. Y., where he now lives, to take charge of the business of the Holland Land Company, a position just vacated by the Hon. W. H. Seward, who had been chosen governor.
Mr. Patterson has been called to suffer his full share of the burdens and responsibilities of public life. Passing over without mention the many minor offices which he has filled, he was member of the New York Assembly in 1831, '32, '34, '35, '36, '37, '38, '39 and '40, the last two of which he was Speaker. In the autumn of 1848 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of New York for two years, on the same ticket with Hamilton Fish as Governor. Besides these offices, he held for many years state positions of great responsibility at Albany and New York, under ap- pointment of Governors Seward, Clark and Morgan.
In 1825 he married Hannah Whiting Dickey, daughter of the late John Dickey, Esq., of Londonderry, N. H. They have two children, George Washington, jr., who is a
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.