Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men Part 3

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chas. H. Bartlett.]

HON. CHARLES H. BARTLETT.

CHARLES HENRY BARTLETT was born in Sunapee, N. H., October 15, 1833. He is the fourth son of John and Sarah J. (Sanborn) Bartlett, and is a lineal descendant, in the eighth generation, of Richard Bartlett, who came from England to Newbury, Ma.s.s., in the ship "Mary and John," in 1634.

The original orthography of the name was Barttelot, which is still preserved by the family in England, whose ancestral home in Stopham, Suss.e.x county, has remained in possession of the family for nearly a thousand years, and the present occupant, Hon. Walter B. Barttelot, is the member of parliament from that county.

In the same ancestral line is found the name of Hon. Josiah Bartlett, who, as a delegate in the continental congress from New Hampshire, was the first man to vote "yea" on the pa.s.sage of the declaration of independence, July 4, 1776, and the second to affix his signature thereto. All the Bartletts whose names appear in the annals of our state trace their lineage to the same ancestry.

Mr. Bartlett has four brothers,--Joseph S., who resides in Claremont, and Solomon, John Z. and George H., who reside in Sunapee; and two sisters,--Mrs. Thomas P. Smith and Mrs. John Felch. His parents are still living, at the advanced age of eighty-two years, in the enjoyment of an ample competency, the fruits of a long life of earnest and cheerful labor, and the practice of a stern, self-denying economy, the characteristic of the best type of our New England husbandry.

Mr. Bartlett's early life was mainly spent upon his father's farm, laboring through the summer season and attending school during the winter. He early developed a decided taste for literary pursuits, and from childhood devoted a liberal share of his leisure moments to the perusal of such books as were accessible to him. He also contributed liberally to the current literature of the day, and showed remarkable facility in both prose and poetic composition. He received his academic education at the academies at Washington and New London, after which he commenced the study of law in the office of Metcalf & Barton at Newport.

He studied subsequently with George & Foster at Concord, and with Morrison & Stanley at Manchester, being admitted to the bar of Hillsborough county, from the office of the latter, in 1858. In that year he began the practice of his profession at Wentworth, N. H., and in 1863 removed to Manchester, where he has since resided. For some two years he was law partner with the late Hon. James U. Parker, the partnership terminating with the retirement of the latter from active business. In June, 1867, he was appointed, by Judge Clark, clerk of the United States district court for the New Hampshire district, since which time he has not actively practiced his profession, but has devoted himself to the duties of his office, which became very onerous and responsible upon the pa.s.sage of the bankrupt law, about the time of his appointment. The holding of this office under the government of the United States has disqualified him from accepting any office under the state government. He was clerk of the New Hampshire senate from 1861 to 1865, Gov. Smyth's private secretary in 1865 and 1866, treasurer of the state reform school in 1866 and 1867. In the same year he was unanimously chosen city solicitor, but declined a re-election, owing to his appointment as clerk of the district court. In 1872 he was elected, as the nominee of the Republican party, mayor of the city, and served till February 18, 1873, when he resigned in accordance with the policy of the national government at that time, which forbade United States officials from holding state or munic.i.p.al offices. His cheerful co-operation with the administration in this matter, though at the sacrifice of a most conspicuous public position, was handsomely recognized by President Grant, through Attorney-General Williams. His last official act as mayor was to order the city treasurer to pay the amount due him for salary to the Firemen's Relief a.s.sociation. Mr.

Bartlett has been a trustee of the Merrimack River Savings Bank from 1865 to the present time, and a trustee of the People's Savings Bank from its organization in 1874. He is also a director in the Merchants National Bank. He was the master of Washington Lodge of Freemasons from April, 1872, to April, 1874, and now holds the position of United States commissioner, to which he was appointed in 1872. The only positions of trust he has held since his appointment as clerk of the United States court, are as a member of the last const.i.tutional convention, and chairman of the commission appointed by the governor and council to investigate the affairs of the New Hampshire Insane Asylum.

Mr. Bartlett married, December 8, 1858, at Sunapee, Miss Hannah M.

Eastman, of Croydon, N. H., by whom he had one son, Charles Leslie, who died at the age of four years, and one daughter, Carrie Bell, a member of the Manchester high school.

Clarke's "History of Manchester," from which the foregoing facts are gathered, closes its biographical sketch of Mr. Bartlett as follows: "Mr. Bartlett has a keen, well balanced mind, whose faculties are always at his command. He thinks readily, but acts cautiously, and seldom makes a mistake. Hence he has been financially successful in almost everything he has undertaken. He is one of the most practical lawyers in the State, and was for several years in charge of the law department of the _Mirror_, giving general satisfaction, and his withdrawal, when his business compelled it, was a source of much regret to the readers of that paper."

In 1881, Dartmouth College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Moody Currier]

HON. MOODY CURRIER, LL. D.

Forty years ago, when Manchester, now the metropolis of New Hampshire, was little more than a wasting waterfall and an unpeopled plain, a few young men who had the sagacity to see, the courage to grapple with, and the strength to control the possibilities of the location, made it their home. One of these was MOODY CURRIER, who was then seeking for a spot in which a willing hand and a busy brain could carve out a successful career. His boyhood had been spent upon a farm, where he supported himself by work during the day, and gratified his desire for knowledge by studying by the light of pitch-knots in the evening. In this manner he fitted himself to enter Hopkinton Academy, and by similar methods worked his way into and through Dartmouth College, where he graduated with high honors in 1834. During his collegiate course he earned enough by teaching and other work in the vacations to pay his expenses, but his graduation found him without funds, and, as the readiest way to lay the foundation of his fortune, he taught school at Concord one term and the Hopkinton Academy one year, and then accepted an invitation to take charge of the high school at Lowell, Ma.s.s., where he remained until 1841. Meantime he had read law, and in the spring of that year came to Manchester, was admitted to the bar, and formed a partnership with Hon.

George W. Morrison for the practice of his profession, which continued for two years, when it was dissolved, and he pursued his business independently until 1848. During this time he had acquired a large and lucrative practice, and while attending to the interests of his clients had established a reputation as one of the safest and most sagacious financiers in the young city, which led the founders of the Amoskeag bank, when that inst.i.tution was organized, to elect him its cashier. He accepted the position, and from that time has been prominently identified with many of the largest and most successful moneyed corporations in the city and state. He was cashier of the Amoskeag bank until it was re-organized as a national bank, when he was elected its president, which position he still occupies. He has been treasurer of the Amoskeag Savings Bank since its foundation, in 1852, a director of the People's Savings Bank and of the Manchester Mills since their organization. He was a director of the Blodget Edge Tool Company, and a director and treasurer of the Amoskeag Axe Company, during the existence of those corporations. He was treasurer of the Concord Railroad in 1871 and 1872; has been treasurer of the Concord & Portsmouth Railroad since 1856, president of the Eastern Railroad in New Hampshire since 1877, treasurer of the New England Loan Company since 1874, and a director of the Manchester Gas-Light Company since 1862; and has held many other places of responsibility,--in all of which his prudence, foresight, and good judgment have grasped the opportunities which have eluded so many, avoided the whirlpools in which so many have been ingulfed, and secured for stockholders and depositors regular and satisfactory dividends.

While thus adding to the fortunes of others, he has not been unmindful of his own, and is one of the wealthy men of the state, able to command whatever money will buy, and to give liberally to any cause that commends itself to his judgment. But while it has been the business of Mr. Currier to manage vast moneyed concerns, the demands of his calling have not been permitted to choke out his love of books and study. The literary tastes, and habits of close and tireless application, which inspired the boy to struggle for and obtain a liberal education, survive in the man, and have made him a persistent student until he is one of the most accomplished scholars in the state.

While a teacher at Concord, he edited a literary journal in that city, and after coming to Manchester published and edited, for several years, a weekly newspaper. Since he became a banker he has spent much of his leisure in his well filled library, finding his recreation in adding to his knowledge of the cla.s.sics, mastering the problems of exact science, and exploring the fields of _belles-lettres_. He has written, for his own amus.e.m.e.nt, many poems of much merit, a volume of which was published for circulation among his friends in 1879, and he is a master of the art of expression in terse and polished prose. His scholarly attainments were recognized by Bates College in 1880, which conferred upon him the degree of LL.D.

As a citizen, Mr. Currier occupies a high place in the city with whose material growth he has been so largely identified. He is an earnest advocate of whatever tends to her advancement, a judicious counselor, and a liberal giver. He was one of the founders of her city library, to which he has made large donations, that, with one of her public fountains, attest alike his generosity and his judgment; and there have been few projects for her improvement which have not found in him a strong and ready helper.

Prior to 1852 he acted with the Democratic party, which elected him clerk of the state senate in 1843, 1844, but the agitation of the slavery question enlisted him in the ranks of the Free-soil forces, and from the organization of the Republican party he has been one of its most earnest and effective supporters. In 1856 and 1857 he was a member of the senate, being its president the latter year; and in 1860 and 1861, was a member of the governor's council, and chairman of the committee for raising and equipping the troops necessary to fill the state's quota in the war of the rebellion. In this position his business ability and methods were of great service, and to him, at least as much as to any other one man, is due the creditable reputation which the state won in that trying period.

In 1876 he was one of the presidential electors who cast the vote of New Hampshire for Hayes and Wheeler, and in 1879, had he permitted his friends to use his name, would have been a prominent candidate for the governorship in the state convention that year, as he was in the primary meetings.

Mr. Currier has been married three times. He has no children living. He resides in an elegant home in Manchester, in which are reflected his cultivated tastes and ample fortune. Though able to look back upon a long career, he is in the enjoyment of excellent health and the full strength of his manhood, and while carrying the business burdens that would crush most men, finds leisure to enjoy the fruits of his industry, frugality, and judgment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A. Norcross]

HON. AMASA NORCROSS.

Amasa Norcross, A. M., of Fitchburg, Ma.s.s., was born in Rindge, N. H., January 26, 1824. His father, Daniel Norcross, was a farmer in New Hampshire, and was the grandson of Jeremiah Norcross, the immigrant ancestor of the family, who arrived in this country in the year 1642, and settled at Watertown, Ma.s.s. Daniel Norcross was a man of sterling integrity, a large land-holder, and the inc.u.mbent of many offices of honor and trust. His wife, _nee_ Mary Jones, was also a native of New Hampshire.

Amasa Norcross received an excellent academic education, first in the academy of his native town, and subsequently in a similar inst.i.tution at New Ipswich, N. H. Selecting the profession of law for the life exercise of his talents and energies, in 1844 he became a student in the office of the Hon. Nathaniel Wood of Fitchburg, and in 1847 was admitted to the bar. Since that time he has pursued his professional labors in the city where he now resides. He is to-day the senior member of the Fitchburg bar, and for many years he has been a recognized leader of the legal fraternity in that section of the state.

In 1858, 1859, and 1862, Mr. Norcross was a member of the Ma.s.sachusetts house of representatives, having been elected thereto on the Republican ticket. In 1858 he was a member of the committee of probate and chancery, of which Governor Andrew, then a member of the house, was chairman; and in 1859 and 1862 he was a member of the judiciary committee. In August of the last-named year, he was appointed, by President Lincoln, United States a.s.sessor for the ninth congressional district of Ma.s.sachusetts. The district was large, comprising seventy-two townships. He filled the office with signal ability and satisfaction for ten years, and until the office of a.s.sessor was abolished by act of congress. In 1862 the authorities of Dartmouth College conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts.

In the session of 1859, Mr. Norcross was appointed a member of the joint committee of the senate and house of representatives to examine and amend the report of the commissioners appointed to codify the laws of the state. He gave to this work his entire attention for several months, when report was made by the committee to the adjourned session of the legislature, held in the autumn of that year. Upon this committee were several distinguished lawyers, among whom were Gen. Caleb Cushing and Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. In 1874 he was a member of the Ma.s.sachusetts senate and chairman of the judiciary committee of that body. He was also chairman of the committee on federal relations. To him was a.s.signed the honor of drafting the report which recommended rescinding the resolutions of censure upon Charles Sumner which had been pa.s.sed by the legislature of Ma.s.sachusetts. Previous efforts to relieve that distinguished statesman from that burden had failed; this succeeded. The rescinding resolutions reached Senator Sumner at Washington a few days before his death, and doubtless contributed materially to soothe his last hours.

In the fall of 1876, Mr. Norcross was elected representative to congress on the Republican ticket, over his political opponent, S. O. Lamb of Greenfield. In 1878 he was elected a second time, over the candidates of two political parties. He has been an active member of the Republican party since its organization, and is now serving his third term in congress, having been again re-elected in 1880. In the several conventions resulting in his nomination and election, he was always supported by the better elements in his party.

Local affairs have always received a proportionate share of Mr.

Norcross's attention. On the organization of the city government of Fitchburg, in 1873, he received the honor of first election to the mayoralty of the new city. He was re-elected the following year. In the administration of its affairs his executive ability was marked.

Necessary public improvements were effected, and all bear tokens of his excellent judgment and skill. With financial and other public organizations he has been, for many years, prominently identified. He is a director in the Rollstone National Bank of Fitchburg, in the Worcester North Savings Inst.i.tution, and in the Fitchburg Fire Insurance Company.

The interest of Mr. Norcross in benevolent and educational inst.i.tutions has been deep and constant, and he has done much for their advancement.

He took an active part in organizing the Fitchburg Benevolent Union, was its first president, and he is now one of its life members. For fifteen years he has been a trustee of the Lawrence Academy at Groton, Ma.s.s. By act of the legislature of Ma.s.sachusetts he was made one of the original members of the corporation known as the Cushing Academy, located at Ashburnham, and by the same act was designated as the member authorized to call the first meeting of the trustees, of which board he is still a member. He has contributed largely to the organizing and building up of this now flourishing academy. For more than thirty years the labors of Mr. Norcross connected with his large legal practice have been arduous and continuous.

In June, 1852, he was married to S. Augusta, daughter of Benjamin and Rebecca Wallis, of Ashby, Ma.s.s. She died March 4, 1869.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Geo. A. Pillsbury]

HON. GEORGE ALFRED PILLSBURY.

BY FRANK H. CARLETON.

New Hampshire is a small state, yet her sons and daughters are scattered far and wide. They have not only built up a prosperous and influential commonwealth at home, furnishing a talent and genius too great to be circ.u.mscribed by territorial lines, but they have greatly aided in laying the foundations and building up the newer sections of our country. Let any person pa.s.s through the mighty West, and thence to the great Northwest which to-day is doing vastly more than any section to supply the world with bread, and he will be surprised to find the great number of sons of New Hampshire who have attained reputation, position, and influence. In the highest ranks of commerce, at the bar, and from the pulpit, they wield a great influence. Their names are too numerous to be enumerated, yet it is to but few that the distinction is given of being distinguished in two states, and these as far apart as Minnesota and New Hampshire. To this small but honored cla.s.s belongs the subject of this brief sketch, GEORGE ALFRED PILLSBURY, one of a family whose name suggests high qualities.

The family history has been traced as far back as Joshua Pillsbury, who settled a grant of land at what is now Newburyport, Ma.s.s., in the year 1640,--a grant which for over two hundred and forty years has been in the possession of the Pillsbury family. Following him, next came in the line of descent Caleb Pillsbury, who was born January 26, 1717, for several years and at the time of his decease a member of the Ma.s.sachusetts provincial legislature. Caleb Pillsbury left a son Micajah, who was born in Amesbury, Ma.s.s., May 22, 1763, and married Sarah Sargent. The result of this union was four daughters, and four sons--Stephen, Joseph, John, and Moses. With this family Micajah Pillsbury removed to Sutton, N. H., where he remained until his death, in 1802, occupying various positions of town trust. His wife survived him several years. Of these sons, Stephen Pillsbury was a Baptist clergyman, who died in Londonderry. The other brothers, including John Pillsbury, the father of the subject of this sketch, were all magistrates of the town of Sutton. The youngest sister married Nathan Andrews, a gentleman well known in the annals of Sutton.

John Pillsbury was born in 1789. He was prominent in the town affairs of Sutton, being a selectman for several years, and representing the town in the state legislature. He was also a captain in the militia in those days of the fife and drum, when a commission had a significance. On April 2, 1811, he married Susan Wadleigh, daughter of Benjamin Wadleigh, a settler in Sutton in 1771. Benjamin Wadleigh was a descendant of Robert Wadleigh of Exeter, a member of the provincial legislature of Ma.s.sachusetts. On the maternal side the ancestry was good. The maternal grandmother was the daughter of Ebenezer Kezar, who, it is related, concealed the girl whom he afterwards married, under a pile of boards, at the time Mrs. Duston was captured, in 1697. He was identified with the early history of Sutton in many ways.

As we have said, John and Susan Pillsbury were the father and mother of the subject of these lines. They were a hardy, vigorous, and exemplary parent stock. To them were born five children, to wit: Simon Wadleigh Pillsbury, born June 22, 1812; George Alfred, August 29, 1816; Dolly W., September 6, 1818; John Sargent, July 29, 1827; and Benjamin Franklin, March 29, 1831. All of the children received the common-school education of those days; but Simon W., whose natural fondness for study distinguished him as a young man, gave his attention to special branches of study, particularly mathematics, in which he became known as one of the best in the state. He delivered the first public lecture in Sutton on the subject of temperance. But too much study wore down his health, and he died in 1836, cutting short a promising future.

Of the other brothers, John Sargent is too well known to need mention.

When a boy of sixteen he became a clerk for his brother, George Alfred, at Warner, N. H. In 1848 he formed a business partnership with Walter Harriman in Warner, neither of these two men in those days dreaming that in the future one would be the governor of a state on the Atlantic seaboard, and the other of one on the banks of the great Mississippi. In 1854 John S. settled in Minnesota, at the Falls of St. Anthony, around which has grown up the beautiful city of Minneapolis, with a population of sixty thousand. He shortly entered into the hardware trade, in which he built up the largest business in the state, acquiring a fortune, serving for a dozen years or more as state senator, and finally being elected governor for three successive terms of two years each, being the only governor of Minnesota accorded a third term. His entire administration, which ceased in January, 1882, was a remarkable one, characterized by many acts of wisdom, chief among which was the adjustment of the dishonored state bonds issued at an early day for railroad purposes.

The remaining brother, Benjamin F. Pillsbury, remained in Sutton until 1878, where he filled many places of trust, being elected selectman, treasurer, and state representative. In 1878 he removed to Granite Falls in western Minnesota, where he is extensively engaged in the real estate, grain, and lumber business, and is reckoned one of the leading citizens of his section.