Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men Part 30

While giving his closest attention to these manufacturing enterprises, Mr. Goodell has taken a warm interest in agriculture, and for many years has managed the large farm that formerly belonged to his father, which came into his possession some time since, and upon which he resides.

Here he demonstrates the principles of progressive and profitable husbandry and stock-raising, extends a hearty welcome to his friends, and enjoys the peace and plenty which are reserved for the gentleman farmer. He has been one of the trustees of the New England Agricultural Society for several years, and organized and was for a time president of the Oak Park a.s.sociation, and is an active member of the New Hampshire board of agriculture.

Mr. Goodell has always been an ardent, wide-awake, and working Republican, and when the party, under his leadership, wrested the town from the opposition in 1876, he became its representative in the legislature, to which position he was re-elected in 1877-78. In the house he established and maintained a reputation as one of the most judicious counselors and most effective speakers in the state, and commanded the confidence of his colleagues to such an extent that no measure which he advocated was defeated, and none that he opposed was successful. Among the important bills which were carried through largely by his judicious and earnest support was that for the erection of a new state-prison.

Mr. Goodell's wife was Hannah Jane Plumer, a daughter of Jesse T.

Plumer, of Goffstown. He has two children,--Dura Dana Goodell, born September 6, 1858, and Richard C. Goodell, born August 10, 1868. The family are members of the Baptist church of Antrim, as were the father and mother of Mr. Goodell.

These facts justify the claim of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, who look upon him as one of the strongest men of the state, and one for whom high honors are in reserve. Though still in his prime, he has won a position of which any man should be proud. His large manufacturing business, which has given the town new life and prosperity, is of his own creation; his farm is a model which invites healthy progress; his private character is without a blemish; his business credit above suspicion; his reputation as a citizen, neighbor, and friend is of the best; and his ability to fill any public position creditably and well is universally acknowledged.

[Ill.u.s.tration: J. G. Graves M.D.]

JOSIAH G. GRAVES, M. D.

BY B. B. WHITTEMORE.

The subject of this sketch, JOSIAH GRISWOLD GRAVES, was born July 13, 1811, in Walpole, N. H., one of the loveliest villages in the valley of the Connecticut. His father was a well-to-do farmer, and his mother a woman of the olden time, who looked well to the ways of her household,--a woman of superior mind and excellent judgment.

Not having a fancy for farming--and thus acting contrary to the wishes of his father--he left home at the age of eighteen, with his mother's blessing and one dollar in money, determined upon securing an education and fitting himself for the medical profession. He defrayed the expenses of his education by his own individual efforts and native energy of will and industry, by teaching both day and evening, and was remarkably successful in his labors. Being a natural penman, he also gave instruction in the art of penmanship.

He commenced the study of his profession in 1829. He was a student in medicine in the office of Drs. Adams and Twitch.e.l.l, of Keene, and subsequently attended medical lectures at Pittsfield, Ma.s.s., and graduated at Williamstown Medical College in 1834. Afterwards he spent six months in the office of Drs. Huntington and Graves in Lowell.

Dr. Graves commenced the practice of medicine in Nashua, N. H., September 15, 1834. At this time Nashua was a comparatively young town, the compact part of the present city having then had but ten years'

growth. He went up the Merrimack river on the old steamboat then plying on the Merrimack, landing a little below what was then the Taylor's Falls bridge. His first patient was a pauper, who was badly injured accidentally. After adequate treatment the man was placed on his feet again, a well man. Such a patient was not very remunerative, and did not tend to fill an empty pocket. This was evidenced by the fact that a carpenter who was applied to for the purpose of procuring a wood-box declined the job and refused to trust the young doctor. Necessity being the mother of invention, the doctor was obliged to construct that useful article himself. It was but a brief period, however, before energy, determination, and superior medical and surgical skill carved out for him an extensive practice. For forty years he followed his profession in Nashua and the adjoining region with untiring a.s.siduity, and with a success that has but few parallels. He loved his profession and gave to it his best powers. He was gifted in a remarkable degree with a keen insight into the nature of disease, and of course his success was in proportion to his fitness for his calling. He did not need to be told symptoms; he knew, by intuition where the break in the const.i.tution was, and how to rebuild and give new life. He was made for his profession, and not his profession for him, which is too often the case.

After several years' practice, desirous of further improvement, he took a degree at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. At the time of the rebellion the governor and council of New Hampshire appointed him a member of the Medical Board of Examiners.

For the past few years Dr. Graves has been much interested in railroads, East and West; has been a director in the Nashua & Lowell Railroad and other roads, and is now president of the Texas Trunk Railroad. He is a director in the Faneuil Hall Insurance Company, and in the Metropolitan steamship line; and is also connected with many other financial interests of a comprehensive character.

A few years ago Dr. Graves made an extensive land purchase at Scituate, Ma.s.s., containing two hundred acres or more, which he calls his "Mound Farm." It lies on an elevation, bordering on the ocean, and is considered by those familiar with the "South Sh.o.r.e" as the most eligible location, and as commanding the finest prospect oceanwards, of any in that popular and beautiful summer resort. Here the doctor has erected a few dwelling-houses, and has sold lots to others who have erected summer residences. These houses are elegantly and conveniently constructed, and so located as to enable their owners to enjoy an un.o.bstructed ocean view, as well as the ocean breezes. In one word, it is, in and of itself, a villa of extensive proportions, and is destined to become still more extensive in the future. The doctor has recently made large purchases of adjoining lands, and is already engaged in farming on a large scale, and introducing improved modes of cultivation. Here, with his family, he spends his summers, residing in Nashua or at the South during the winter.

At the age of seventy, Dr. Graves is still active and remarkably well preserved, and much more active than many younger men. He has a business office in Boston, and manages his large estate with as much foresight and sagacity as when in the prime of life and engaged in acc.u.mulating his fortune.

Dr. Graves was married to Mary W. Boardman, daughter of the late Col.

William Boardman, of Nashua, in 1846.

As a man, Dr. Graves is distinguished for his firmness. His opinions he maintains with resoluteness until good reasons induce him to change them. He means _yes_ when he says "yes," and _no_ when he says "no." He is a man of a positive character. It is needless to say, that, while such a man always has enemies, (as what man of ability and energetic character has not?) he has firm and lasting friends,--friends from the fact that they always know where to find him. Among the many self-made men whom New Hampshire has produced, he takes rank among the first; and by his indomitable energy, industry, and enterprise has not only made his mark in the world, but has achieved a reputation in his profession and business on which himself and friends may reflect with just pride.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Warren Daniell]

HON. WARREN F. DANIELL.

In almost every instance, those who, during the first half of the present century, laid about the waterfalls of New Hampshire the foundations of our manufacturing villages, builded better than they knew. They were generally men of limited means, moderate ambitions, and democratic instincts; and they established their shops and factories without expectation that they were changing worthless plains and forests into cities, or plain mechanics into millionaires. They aimed only to create productive industries in which they and their few employes, meeting on equal terms, could work together and win a fair reward for their labor. But they were skillful workmen, good managers, courageous, persistent, and equal to all their opportunities, and under their inspiration and direction their enterprises have grown into great proportions, which have made the fortunes of their owners, and called into being communities that are models of the best that skill, intelligence, and thrift can produce.

To this cla.s.s of men belonged Kendall O. and James L. Peabody and Jeremiah F. Daniell, who, fifty years ago, built a paper-mill in the forest that then grew about the falls upon the Winnipesaukee, where the wealthy, wide-awake, and beautiful village of Franklin Falls now stands.

The Peabodys, who were bakers by trade, built a small mill at this point about the year 1828. In disposing of their production as bakers they acc.u.mulated large quant.i.ties of cotton rags, and, as there was little demand for these, they built a miniature paper-mill to convert them into a more salable commodity. Their knowledge of the paper business was very limited, their machinery of the most primitive kind, and their experiment was not at first a success; but they were men not easily turned from their purposes, and, feeling that what they lacked was a practical paper-maker, one of them went to Ma.s.sachusetts in search of one. He found there Jeremiah F. Daniell, who at the age of thirty-five had seen twenty-one years of service in a paper-mill, and knew the business thoroughly. This young man had been trained in a hard school, and was by education as well as by natural abilities well qualified to prove an efficient helper to men, who, like the Peabodys, were trying to establish a new enterprise in the face of many discouragements. He began his apprenticeship when a boy of fourteen, and from that time until he reached his majority most of his scanty earnings went to support a widowed mother and orphaned brothers and sisters.

When he became of age, his entire property consisted of a suit of clothes, and a five-dollar bill which proved to be counterfeit. With these he started, carrying his shoes in his hand (as a matter of economy), to obtain employment at his trade, which he found at Pepperell. Here he remained several years, and during the time married Sarah Reed, of Harvard, Ma.s.s., by whom he had two children, Warren F., the subject of this sketch, who was born June 26, 1826, and Mary, who died in infancy. Subsequently he manufactured paper for himself in Dorchester and Methuen, Ma.s.s., and in 1833 went West. Not finding a promising opening, he returned to Ma.s.sachusetts and was met by Mr.

Peabody, who arranged for him to go to Franklin and take charge of the mill there, in which he was given an interest. This he did, and, when a few months later his family joined him, the Daniell homestead was permanently established at the head of the Merrimack. The first efforts of the young manager were directed to supplying the mill with improved machinery, a difficult task, as the owners had little money to spare, and the nearest machine-shop in which an order for that cla.s.s of machinery could be filled was at South Windham, Conn., but, finally, two eight-horse teams closed a three weeks' journey by landing in Franklin a newly invented paper-machine, and the mill was ready to run in a few months. Meantime, Mr. Daniell had purchased the interest of J. L.

Peabody, in the firm which thus became Peabody & Daniell. The machinery was scarcely in position when a fire destroyed the factory and its contents, leaving the owners, in the midst of the hard times of 1837, bankrupt in nearly everything but courage, reputation, and a determination to succeed, which enabled them, after many struggles, to rebuild and proceed in a small way with their business. The erection of the cotton-mills at Manchester soon after gave them an opportunity to purchase large amounts of paper stock at low prices, and from that time they were moderately prosperous.

The next year after the removal of Mr. Daniell from Ma.s.sachusetts his wife died, and a year later he married Annette Eastman, of Concord. His son Warren was at that time a wide-awake boy, ten years old. He had picked up a little book knowledge in the Ma.s.sachusetts schools, and in order that he might be further educated without much expense he was sent to Concord, where he worked upon a farm for his board and clothes and privilege of attending school a short time each winter, until he was fourteen, when he was called home and entered the paper-mill as an apprentice, to learn the business with which his name is now so prominently identified. It was his purpose at a later period to attend the academy at Tilton; but on the day on which the term began his father was severely burned by an accident, and he was obliged to take his place in the mill. No other time appeared when he could well be spared, and he continued working there until he was twenty-five years of age, and was a master of the trade in all its branches.

As a journeyman, his wages were one dollar and twenty-five cents per day, a sum which he found sufficient to provide, in those days of frugality, for all the needs of himself and his young wife and child. He was, however, ambitious at some future time to have a mill of his own, and with this object in view left Franklin and contracted with parties at Waterville, Me., to erect and run for them a paper-mill at that place. This occupied him for one year, when he took charge of another mill at Pepperell, Ma.s.s., where he remained until 1854. In that year his father bought out Mr. Peabody, and offered to sell him half the establishment if he would return to Franklin, which he did. The firm was then J. F. Daniell & Son, and for the next ten years the business prospered under that name. In 1864 Warren bought his father's interest, and was sole proprietor until 1870, when the mill property, which had grown from modest beginnings to be one of the largest and best known private manufacturing establishments in the state, was sold to a company of Ma.s.sachusetts capitalists who had organized as the Winnipiseogee Paper Company. Mr. Daniell then become connected with a large paper-house in Boston and removed to that city. He soon tired of life in that crowded metropolis, and, returning to his old home, he purchased a large interest in the company that had succeeded him there, and became its resident agent and manager, which position he still occupies. This company owns and operates at Franklin large paper-mills supplied with the best machinery, employs three hundred men and women, and produces nearly twenty tons of paper daily, and reflects, in its abounding success, the sagacity, energy, and enterprise of the man who plans and directs its operations, who, without the help of a liberal education or wealthy friends, has won his way by hard and patient work to a first place among the business men of New Hampshire.

Few men in our state have been so uniformly successful, and none in compa.s.sing their own success have contributed more to that of others. In climbing up, WARREN F. DANIELL has pulled no one down. The village of three thousand busy, prosperous, and happy people is largely the creation of the paper-mill, in which he has made his money, and its most creditable characteristics are in no small degree the results of his counsel and liberality. The business world acknowledges him as a man of undoubted integrity, thoroughly responsible, and eminently successful.

His townsmen and fellow-citizens of New Hampshire know him as a genial, una.s.suming man, whose good fellowship never tires, whose generosity is inexhaustible, and as one who is never too busy with his own affairs to lend a helping hand to any cause or person that deserves it; as a citizen and friend and neighbor who has shown them how to get money rapidly, and how to spend it freely, intelligently, and helpfully.

Mr. Daniell's first wife was Elizabeth D. Rundlett, of Stratham, N. H.

The marriage occurred in 1850, and Mrs. Daniell died while he was at Pepperell, in 1854. He married Abbie A. Sanger, of Concord, in October, 1860, who presides over his elegant home, which is located near the confluence of the Winnipesaukee and Pemigewa.s.set rivers, and surrounded by a broad intervale which liberal outlays have made one of the most fertile and beautiful spots in the Merrimack valley. He has five boys: Harry W., by his first wife; and Eugene S., Otis, Warren F., and Jerie R., the fruit of his second marriage.

He is an enthusiastic farmer, and owns across the river from his home a large and productive farm. He has long been the owner of the best herd of Jersey cattle in the state; his stables always contain some of the finest and fleetest horses; he admires a good dog, and is a skillful breeder of swine and poultry. He has contributed much to the introduction of improved stock, crops, and farm machinery in his neighborhood; has been active and liberal in sustaining the state and local agricultural societies, and in otherwise promoting the farming interest.

In politics, Mr. Daniell is a Democrat; and such has been his popularity among those who have known him best, that even when Franklin gave a Republican majority of seventy-five he was several times elected to represent it in the house, and subsequently was chosen a state senator two years in succession in a district which no other Democrat could have carried. He represented his party in the national convention of 1872, and has always been one of its trusted counselors and most efficient workers. That he would have been its candidate for governor and congress but for his refusal to accept the position is generally known. During the war he gave himself unreservedly to the cause of the Union as represented by the "boys in blue," voting steadily to raise and equip all the men who were needed, giving liberally of his means to provide for them and their families, and supporting, by word and deed on all occasions and in all places, the cause for which they fought.

JONATHAN SAWYER.

BY REV. GEO. B. SPALDING, D. D.

1. John Sawyer, a farmer in Lincolnshire, England, had three sons, William, Edward, and Thomas, who emigrated to this country in 1636, being pa.s.sengers in a ship commanded by Capt. Parker. They probably settled in Rowley, Ma.s.s.

2. Thomas Sawyer went to Lancaster, Ma.s.s., as early as 1647, when he was twenty-four years of age. This section of the Nashaway valley, comprising eighty square miles in extent, had been purchased in 1643 by Thomas King, of Watertown, Ma.s.s., of Scholan, sachem of the Nashaway Indians. Thomas Sawyer was one of the first six settlers. His name appears in the pet.i.tion made to the general court in 1653 for the incorporation of the town of Lancaster. In 1647, the year of his arrival, he married Mary Prescott. She was the daughter of John Prescott, to whom belongs the honor of being the first permanent inhabitant of Lancaster. The eminent historian, William H. Prescott, traces his ancestral line to this John Prescott. There were born to Thomas Sawyer and Mary Prescott eleven children. This family figures largely in that most tragic page of the history of Lancaster which tells of the ma.s.sacres and captivities of its inhabitants, and the entire destruction of the town itself by the Indians. On the land of Thomas Sawyer stood the Sawyer garrison, into which were gathered the survivors of that most murderous attack made upon the town in the winter of 1675-76. At this time his second son, Ephraim, who was at the Prescott garrison, was killed by the Indians. Thirty-two years later, 1708, the oldest son, Thomas, and his son Elias were captured by the Indians and taken to Canada. When the party reached Montreal, the father offered to put up a mill on the river Chambly, on condition that the French governor would obtain the release of all the captives. Thus the first mill in Canada was built by Thomas Sawyer. He was liberated, but his son Elias was detained for a time to teach the Canadians "the art of sawing and keeping the mill in order, and then was dismissed with rich presents."

3. Caleb Sawyer, the sixth child of Thomas, was born in 1659, in Lancaster, Ma.s.s. He married Sarah Houghton, thus effecting an alliance between two of the most prominent families who organized the town of Lancaster. Caleb Sawyer died in 1755, leaving two sons and two daughters.

4. Seth Sawyer, the oldest son of Caleb, was born in 1705; married Miss Hepsabeth Whitney; died in 1768.

5. Caleb Sawyer, the second son of Seth, was born in 1737, at Harvard, Ma.s.s., a part of Lancaster which in 1732 had been incorporated as a town by itself. He married Miss Sarah Patch in 1766. They had two sons, Phineas and Jonathan. Jonathan remained on the home farm at Harvard, which is still occupied by his descendants.

[Ill.u.s.tration: P. Sawyer]

6. Phineas Sawyer was born at Harvard, Ma.s.s., in 1768. He went to Marlborough, Ma.s.s., now Hudson, in 1800. He bought a mill property there, consisting of a saw, grist, and wire-drawing mill. In 1806 he built a cotton-mill, and operated it until the close of the war in 1815.

It required in those days immense enterprise and energy to project and carry on such a work as a cotton-factory. The machinery was procured from Rhode Island. The ginning-machine had not yet come into general use. The cotton, when received, was distributed among the farmers, to have the seeds picked out one by one by their families. It was carded and spun by water power, at the mill. It was then sent out again among the farmers to be woven into cloth. Phineas Sawyer was a man of great independence of character, self-reliant, and full of courage. These qualities, so conspicuous in his business affairs, shone out with undiminished power in his religious life. He lived at a time in Ma.s.sachusetts when Methodism was regarded with special disfavor. But Mr.

Sawyer, believing that the Methodists were right, believed so with all his heart, and the petty persecutions to which his faith was subjected only intensified his zeal and loyalty. His house was the home for all traveling Methodists, and the place where they gathered for religious worship. He was well versed in the best Methodist literature of his times. He stands forth in the annals of his church as one of the foremost men, for sagacity, boldness, and piety, in the Needham circuit.

He had for his wife a worthy helpmeet, Hannah Whitney, of Harvard. She was as ardently attached to Methodism as was her husband, and bore her full share of service and sacrifice for it in its days of weakness and persecution. The sudden death of her husband, which took place in 1820, left Mrs. Sawyer to provide for the support of twelve children, the youngest, Jonathan, being then two years old. This truly n.o.ble woman, with but little means, faced the difficulties before her with an unflinching spirit of faith and hopefulness. It required superlative fort.i.tude, finest sagacity, and sternest self-sacrifice to have enabled this mother to successfully rear these twelve children, give to them a good education, and establish all of them in respectable positions in the world. She continued to live in Marlborough some nine years, leasing the mill property. In 1829 she went to Lowell, where she lived twenty years, dying there in 1849, greatly respected by all who knew her, and held in honor and affection by her many children.

7. JONATHAN SAWYER, the subject of this sketch, was the youngest child of Phineas. He was born at Marlborough, Ma.s.s., in 1817. He went with his mother and other members of the family when he was twelve years old, to Lowell, where for the next few years he attended school. He was a member of the first cla.s.s that entered the high school of that city, having among his mates Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, Gov. E. A. Straw, and G. V.