USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Boscawen > The history of Boscawen and Webster [N.H.] from 1733 to 1878 > Part 29
USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Webster > The history of Boscawen and Webster [N.H.] from 1733 to 1878 > Part 29
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Of books, Mr. Coffin has published "My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field," issued 1863; " Following the Flag," 1865 ; "Winning his Way," 1865; "Four Years of Fighting," 1866 ; "Our New Way Round the World," 1869; "The Seat of Empire," 1871; "Caleb Krinkle," 1874; "The Boys of '76," 1876. Another volume, "The Story of Liberty," will be issued in the spring of 1878.
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The honorary degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by Amherst college in 1870. He is an active member of the New England Genealogical and Historical Society, and has contributed to the library of that institution many valuable manuscripts re- lating to the late Rebellion. He has been elected a member of the American Geographical Society, honorary member of the N. H. Historical Society, and member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He has made many addresses on public occasions, and given more than five hundred lectures before lyceums. He gave the centennial oration in his native town, July 4, 1876, and at the request of his fellow-citizens has compiled the history of Boscawen and Webster.
COFFIN, NEHEMIAH C.
Nehemiah Cogswell Coffin, son of Moses and Susanna (Farnum) Coffin, was born March 24, 1815. He prepared for college at Meriden academy, graduated at Dartmouth in 1836, taught the academy at Wolfeborough two years, studied theology at Andover, Mass., and at Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian church, Fearing, Ohio, Sept. 10, 1843. From thence he removed to Bremen, Ohio, where he preached two years, and from thence to Hebron, Ohio, where he remained six years.
In 1851 he became connected with the female seminary at Granville, and was pastor at Piqua, Ohio, from 1852 to 1860. His health failing, he removed to Marblehead, near Sandusky, and gave his attention to the cultivation of the grape, thinking by rural occupation to regain his health. He married Miss Susan Rust, of Wolfeborough [see Gen.]. He died Jan. 9, 1868, after a life of much usefulness, lamented by all who knew him.
CORSER, REV. ENOCH,
Was born in Boscawen Jan. 2, 1787. . He was the son of David Corser, and great-great-grandson of John, who (as is believed) was born in Scotland in 1678, emigrated to this country abont 1690 [see Gen. ].
Possessing an active intellect and a natural fondness for study, Enoch Corser early decided to obtain a liberal education. After a term of study at Salisbury academy, he completed his pre-
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paratory course under the tuition of Rev. Samuel Wood, was ad- mitted to Middlebury college, Vt., 1807, and graduated in 1811.
Upon leaving college he opened a grammar school in Danvers, Mass., following the occupation two and a half years, when he be- gan the study of theology with Rev. Walter Harris, D. D., of Dunbarton, and in the following year, 1815, was licensed to preach. After some months of labor at Middleton, Mass., and Colebrook, N. H., he began preaching in London, where he was settled in March, 1817. In the following May he married Miss Sally Gerrish, daughter of Col. Joseph Gerrish, of Boscawen.
He remained in Loudon till 1837, when, after preaching a short time at Meredith Village, he accepted a situation with the church at Sanbornton Bridge, preaching as "stated supply," teaching also a part of the time in the academy till 1843. During the fol- lowing year he supplied the church at Plymouth, and at Lyndon, Vt. In 1845 he began pastoral labor at Epping, where he re- mained till 1848, when he removed to Boscawen, supplying the pulpit at Fisherville and other places.
In 1850, while fulfilling an engagement at Warner, he was prostrated by paralysis, but from which he recovered, and began preaching again in his old parish in Loudon, where he remained two years, till prostrated by sickness. He continued to reside in Boscawen till his death, Jan. 17, 1868.
He was a man of great intellectual ability, rarely wrote his dis- courses, was earnest, forcible, and at times eloquent in the pre- sentation of truth, an excellent pastor, and beloved by those who attended upon his ministrations.
CORSER, CALEB B., COL.
He was the second son of David and Judith (Burbank) Corser, and was born in Boscawen Oct. 14, 1803. His father's family emigrated to western New York, 1821, and settled first near Canandaigua, and from thence removed to Ogden, Monroe county. He was united in marriage, 1828, to Henrietta S. Spencer, of Spencerport, who died in 1840. His second wife was R. Maria Chapman, of East Haddam, Conn., who survives him.
He was a farmer, but was elected a magistrate, and during his term of office, which continued for more than twenty years, none
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of his decisions were overruled by a higher court. One marked feature was his promptness in the discharge of every duty. His word was as good as his bond. He was alive to all progressive movements, plain in his manner of life, and liberal in his benefac- tions.
During the outbreak upon the Canadian frontier he commanded a regiment of riflemen, but there was no occasion for actual ser- vice. He was often called upon to serve the public as a member of the state assembly. In 1863 he settled in Rochester, where he died April 26, 1875, honored and respected by his fellow- citizens.
CHANDLER, ABIEL R.
Abiel Rolfe Chandler was born in Boscawen Aug. 25, 1805, son of Nathan and Jane (Rolfe) Chandler. He married Eliza J. Mor- rison, of Boscawen, and settled on a farm west of Fisherville. He was several years selectman and representative [see Town Offi- cers]. In 1852 he moved to Lawrence, accepting a situation in the employ of the Essex company, where he still resides [see Gen. ].
COGSWELL, JOHN C.,
Came to Boscawen at the date of his first marriage, November, 1821, purchased the place now owned by T. P. Raymond, and es- tablished himself in the business of tanning and currying, in which he was eminently successful. He was a valuable and highly esteemed citizen, holding during his life several town offices of re- sponsibility. His death occurred Jan. 14, 1841. He was a lineal descendant of Lord Humphrey Cogswell, an English nobleman of the fifteenth century, and of John Cogswell, a London merchant, who came to this country in 1635, and settled in Essex, Mass., then called Chebacco, where many of his descendants now reside.
CURRIER, MOODY, HON.,
Was born in Boscawen, April 22, 1806. At an carly age his parents moved to Dunbarton, and thence to Bow, where his early years were passed on a farm, attending the district school about six weeks during the winter. He had an insatiable desire for
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information, and devoured all the books he could lay his hands on, reading through the long winter evenings by the light of a pitch- pine knot, or a tallow candle.
He fitted for college at Hopkinton academy, and graduated at Dartmouth in 1834.
Soon after leaving college he taught school in Concord, and, in company with Hon. Asa Fowler, edited the New Hampshire Lit- erary Gazette. He was afterwards principal of the Hopkinton academy for one year, and in 1836 became principal of the high school at Lowell, Mass. He held that position for five years, and in 1841 removed to Manchester, where he has since continued to reside. During his residence at Hopkinton and Lowell he stud- ied law, and on going to Manchester was admitted to the bar, and became a law partner with Hon. George W. Morrison. In 1842 he purchased an interest in a weekly newspaper, the Man- chester Democrat, and devoted a part of his time to editorial labors for about a year. His partnership with Mr. Morrison was dissolved in 1843, but he continued in the practice of his profes- sion independently until 1848. In that year the Amoskeag Bank was organized, and he became its cashier, and has continued in the banking business since that time.
Upon the organization of the Amoskeag Savings Bank, in 1852, he became its treasurer, and still holds the office. When the Amoskeag National Bank was organized to succeed the old Amos- keag Bank, in 1864, he became its president. He has been a di- rector in the People's Bank at Manchester since it was organized, in 1874 ; a director in the Blodgett Edge Tool Company during the existence of the corporation; president and treasurer of the Amoskeag Axe Company since its organization, in 1862 ; a direc- tor in the Manchester Gas Light Company since 1862 ; a director in the Manchester Mills since the organization of the corporation, in 1874; treasurer of the Concord & Portsmouth Railroad Com- pany since 1856 ; treasurer of the Concord Railroad Company in 1871 and 1872; and is now treasurer of the New England Loan Company, and president of the Eastern Railroad Company in New Hampshire.
He was clerk of the New Hampshire senate in 1843 and 1844, and was elected a member of that body from the third district in 1856 and 1857, and was president of the senate in the latter
Moody barrier
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year. He was elected councillor in 1860 and 1861, and was chair- man of the war committee of the council during the first fifteen months of the war of the Rebellion. In that position he exhib- ited great ability and energy, and rendered efficient service to the state and the nation. He entered with his whole soul into the business of raising and equipping troops, and won great praise from all parties for his efforts in this direction. The first eight regiments of infantry, the 1st New Hampshire Battery, together with four companies of cavalry and three companies of sharp- shooters, were organized, equipped, and sent to the front with the utmost despatch, while Mr. Currier was at the head of the war committee. In compliment to him, the rendezvous of the 8th Reg- iment at Manchester was named "Camp Currier."
Mr. Currier has been three times married. His first wife was Miss Lucretia Dustin, to whom he was married December 8, 1836. His second wife, to whom he was married September 5, 1847, was Miss Mary W. Kidder. He was married to Miss Hannah A. Slade, his present wife, November 16, 1869.
He has had three children, one of whom, Charles M. Currier, survives, and is the teller of the Amoskeag National Bank.
Mr. Currier has an ardent temperament, and versatile talent. His practical judgment is shown in the success of the banking in- stitutions which he has managed for many years, and also in the success of the various other enterprises with which he has been connected in an official capacity. He is methodical and cautious in his habits, and has always sustained the reputation of being honorable and upright in all his business relations.
He maintains a high rank as a scholar, and, unlike many other men who have enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education, he has throughout his whole life taken a strong interest in the study of literature, science, and philosophy. He retains a taste for the ancient classics, and is quite familiar with the French, German, and several other modern languages; he has written many pieces of poetry, at intervals of leisure, which are very creditable in taste and composition. He is an independent thinker upon all sub- jects, and, though he is decided in his convictions and frank in the avowal of his opinions, cherishes a tolerant spirit, and en- tertains the highest respect for those with whom he is obliged to differ.
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By industry and prudence he has acquired a handsome fortune, and his residence is a model of taste. He is liberal in his gifts to worthy objects, and especially to those which relate to in- tellectual culture. In 1876 he presented to the Manchester city library upwards of seven hundred volumes of valuable books,- standard, classical, illustrated, ecclesiastical, and scientific. These books were numbered and classed in the catalogue of the library as the "Currier donation." In acknowledgment of this generous gift, resolutions of thanks to Mr. Currier were passed in both branches of the city government, and by the board of trustees of the city library.
He has been for many years a member of the Unitarian society of Manchester, and one of its most liberal benefactors.
DIX, TIMOTHY, LIEUT .- COL.
The subject of this notice, after having passed several years as a clerk in the mercantile house of Col. Means, at Amherst, N. H., settled in Boscawen with his father, Timothy Dix, and his grand- father, Jonathan Dix, about the year 1790. The latter died in Boscawen at the age of 94 years, and his son at Pembroke, in 1824, at the age of 73. Timothy Dix, Sr., the father of Col. Dix, was for several years post-master on Boscawen Plain, and is noticed in the historical collections of the state as distin- guished for "integrity, faithfulness, firmness, promptitude, deci- sion, and strong attachment to the cause of his country."
He raised a company of soldiers during the Revolutionary war, and was familiarly known during his life as Lieut. Dix.
Col. Timothy Dix was a man of great activity and enterprise, and gave a vigorous impulse to improvements in the town, and particularly in the village of his residence, known as Boscawen Plain.
The character of the district school, which was far in advance of most others at that period, was largely due to his earnest and persevering efforts. The teachers were usually engaged by him, and were selected with a careful regard to their talents and social standing. Among them were Gen. Fessenden, of Portland, Me., father of the late senator from that state, and the accomplished Grace Fletcher, the first wife of Daniel Webster.
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
While Col. Dix was engaged in mercantile transactions, on an extended scale for a country merchant, he purchased a township in the northern part of the state, which bears his name, and which has recently become renowned for its bold and romantic scenery. By the terms of the sale, he was to make certain im- provements within a given time; but in consequence of severe losses in his business, caused chiefly by the embargo during the administrations of Jefferson and Madison, he was unable to fulfil his engagements, and the ownership of the town passed into other hands.
At the commencement of the war of 1812, he was appointed a major in a New Hampshire regiment, and was soon afterwards transferred to the 14th Regiment of U. S. Infantry, a battalion of which was recruited under his superintendence, in Maryland.
Early in the spring of 1813 he marched from Baltimore to Sackett's Harbor with the troops he had raised, and in the fall of that year he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, the colonel having been captured by the enemy on the Niagara fron- tier. He took command of the entire regiment.
He had been prostrated by fever during the summer, and was offered the command of Sackett's Harbor by Gen. Wilkinson, when the latter was organizing his expedition down the St. Lawrence against Montreal, and though strongly solicited by physicians to remain, he refused to give up command of his regiment, which formed a part of the expedition.
In the descent of the St. Lawrence it constituted the rear guard of the army, which was encamped on the Canadian bank of the river, near Chrystler's fields, on the 10th of October. Early in the morning it was attacked by a fleet of British gunboats, which hung upon the rear of the American forces, and brought on the battle on the 11th. He had the day before been seized with a vio- lent inflammatory attack of pneumonia, and was borne by his ยท son, John A. Dix, and two other officers of his regiment, under the fire of the enemy, to his boat, in which he died two days after- wards.
Col. Dix was not only a man of excellent business capacity, of unconquerable determination in all he undertook, and of indefati- gable industry, but he was an accomplished draughtsman, a taste- ful musician, and a leader among his fellow-citizens in all intel-
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lectual pursuits and undertakings. His descendants have inher- ited his fondness for mental and personal accomplishments, and some of them have acquired a distinguished reputation in the field, in the forum, in literature, and in the fine arts. He was a man of fine presence, of remarkably courteous and gentlemanly bearing, and carried into his intercourse with others a degree of frankness and freedom from assumption which won for him the kind feeling of those with whom he was associated. He was for several years the representative in the legislature of the town which he had greatly benefited by his enterprise and by the special exertions which he made to promote the interests of education.
DIX, JOHN ADAMS, GOV.
John Adams Dix was born in Boscawen, N. H., on the 24th day of July, A. D. 1798. His father, Col. Timothy Dix, Jr., was one of the most enterprising citizens of the town. His grandfather, Timo- thy Dix, is still remembered by some of the survivors of the period as an upright and intelligent man, and as post-master for many years. His great-grandfather, Jonathan Dix, died in the village at the age of 94.
John Adams Dix, when ten years of age, was placed under the tuition of the Rev. Dr. Wood, by whom many of the first young men in the state of New Hampshire were trained in classical lit- erature for college. The following year he was sent to Salisbury academy, of which Col. Long, afterwards an eminent topographical engineer in the service of the United States, was preceptor. In 1810 he became a student at Exeter academy, during the presi- dency of the Rev. Dr. Abbot, and there continued his classical studies. In both those institutions he gave promise of the dis- tinction which he gained in after years as a public speaker. At the commencement of the year 1811 his father sent him to a col- lege in Montreal, for the purpose of acquiring the French language, where he remained until July, 1812. In that month all Americans upwards of fourteen years of age were ordered to leave Canada, in consequence of the declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain. From July to December he continued his studies under private tutors in Boston, and made rapid progress in Latin, Greek, Spanish, mathematics, and elocution.
John A. no
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In December, 1812, he received his first commission in the army, and was ordered to report to his father, who was then in Maryland, raising the 14th Regiment of Infantry. In March, 1813, he re- signed his cadet's appointment, received the commission of ensign in his father's regiment, and in the following month joined the army at Sackett's Harbor. His father, being then in command of the 14th Infantry, was attacked by severe illness, which in- creased to such a degree that he was unable to walk; and he was borne, by his son and a brother officer, under the fire of the enemy, on the morning of the battle of Chrystler's fields, to a boat on the St. Lawrence, in which he died as the army was landing at French Mills. During the war, young Dix,-who, before he was fifteen years of age, was acting adjutant of an independent battal- ion of the regular army, commanded by Major Timothy Upham, -filled several staff appointments, and was afterwards for several years aide-de-camp to Major-General Jacob Brown, when the lat- ter was at the head of the American army. While holding these appointments, with a view to returning to private life he com- menced the study of the law, under William Wirt, then attorney- general of the United States. On resigning his commission in the army, he was admitted to the bar in the city of Washington.
In 1828, at the village of Cooperstown, N. Y., Mr. Dix com- menced the practice of the law. In 1831, he received the ap- pointment of adjutant-general of the state, and removed to Albany. In 1833, he was made secretary of the state. While adjutant- general, he made a report on the militia system; and while secre- tary of state, he made a report on the education of common-school teachers, and another on the geology of the state. These papers are marked by extraordinary ability, and have ever been regarded as standards in those departments of knowledge. He was called upon, without previous consultation with him, by the legislature, to report a plan for a geological survey, in the spring of 1835 ; and, without any previous knowledge on the subject, he prepared himself, by indefatigable labor during the summer, for the per- formance of the service, and was able to present his report at the opening of the session of the legislature in the ensuing January. It was adopted, and made the basis of the important work, whose record, in some twenty quarto volumes, is well known to the sei- entific community.
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
General Dix went to Europe in the year 1842, and returned in 1844. In January, 1845, he was chosen a senator of the United States in place of Silas Wright, who had been elected governor of the state of New York in the month of November preceding. His first effort was a speech on the Oregon question, delivered in the senate, Feb. 18 and 19, 1846. It placed him at once in the front rank of public orators and statesmen. When he took his seat, Col. Benton, the veteran senator from Missouri, rose and said,-
"I propose to speak to a branch of this question-not the branch of it on which the senator from New York on my right [Mr. Dix] has spoken. If I had intended to speak on that branch, I should have given up the design after hearing his speech of yesterday and to-day. It has left nothing for me to say on the point of title, familiar as I have been with that subject for thirty years. He has placed the American title to the Columbia and to the coast north of it on ground from which it can never be re- moved, and which must put an end to the argument wherever that speech is read. A speech more perfect in its proofs, better sus- tained by history, more crowded with material pertinent to the is- sue, more satisfactory to all lovers of truth and justice, more judiciously conceived and vigorously executed, I have never heard delivered ; and I make my congratulations to that senator on the service he has rendered to his country, and the honor he has gained for himself by its delivery."
The position thus acquired was in no respect impaired by his subsequent service in the senate. In his speeches on the ware- house system, French spoliations, the Mexican war, the Roman mission, slavery, and other questions, he displayed the same abil- ity and thorough mastery of his subjects. Charles Sumner once said, to a friend, that he should recommend to any young man, pre- paring himself for public life, to study the speeches of Gen. Dix in preference to any others, as models of ability, eloquence, and senatorial dignity.
In the year 1853, at the urgent request of President Pierce, he accepted the office of assistant treasurer in the city of New York, and was relieved, at his own solicitation, at the end of six months, after having received and disbursed some sixty millions of dollars. Early in 1860, the postmaster in the same city having absconded
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with $150,000 of the public money, Gen. Dix was called upon by President Buchanan to take that office. He held it until January, 1861, when, on the occurrence of another and a far more urgent emergency, his services were again in request, and he was ap- pointed secretary of the treasury after the desertion of Cobb, who became one of the leaders in the movement to overthrow the gov- ernment. It was while in that position that Gen. Dix gave the remarkable order, which sent a thrill through the breasts of all American patriots, when the secessionists were taking forcible possession of the mints, forts, arsenals, and revenue cutters of the United States. Having been advised by his agent that a captain of one of those cutters refused to obey his orders, he directed the lieutenant to arrest him, and treat him as a mutineer if he resist- ed, closing his dispatch with the command, which will be remem- bered as long as the nation endures,-" If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot."
On the 16th of May, 1861, General Dix was appointed major- general of U. S. volunteers ; and, after superintending the raising of eleven regiments in New York, he was assigned to the com- mand of the department embracing the states of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, and established his head-quarters at Bal- timore. Maryland was at that time in a state of semi-rebellion, and there is little doubt that an ordinance of secession would have been passed if the leaders in the legislature had not been arrested. Gen. Dix immediately proceeded to fortify the city, and, by a judi- cious combination of firmness and conciliation, the state was car- ried in the ensuing fall by a majority of thirty thousand for the Union. This important service was followed by a successful expe- dition, which he organized and sent to the eastern shore of Virgin- ia, dispersing the secessionist forces, and restoring that important district to the Union. In the following year he was ordered to Fortress Monroe, and succeeded Gen. Mcclellan in the command of the Department of Virginia. His chief services in this depart- ment were in the defence of Suffolk, after an investment of a month by a greatly superior force, and his movement against Richmond, which contributed to the sudden return of Gen. Lee's army to Virginia, after the battle of Gettysburg. He was imme- diately afterwards ordered to New York during the riots got up to defeat the draft, and, after completing it, was continued in com-
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