Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men Part 32

To those of us who had been most intimately a.s.sociated with our departed friend, who had enjoyed his teachings, his counsels, and his generous kindness, the news of his death came as a heavy shock. But he still lives in the remembrance of his distinguished services, in the unfading affection and grat.i.tude of his pupils, and in the many hearts whose burdens he has lifted. Verily, '_Extinctus amabitur idem!_'"--_Obituary notice of Dr. J. W. Barstow._

PROF. ALPHEUS CROSBY.

PROF. ALPHEUS CROSBY, ninth son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich, October 13, 1810, died in Salem, Ma.s.s., April 17, 1874. He married for his first wife, Abigail Grant Jones Cutler, daughter of Joseph and Abi C. Grant (Jones) Cutler, of Newburyport, Ma.s.s., August 27, 1834, who died in Paris, France, March 25, 1837. He married, for his second wife, Martha Kingman, daughter of Joseph Kingman, Esq., of West Bridgewater, Ma.s.s., a teacher in the Normal School, Salem, Ma.s.s. He was childless.

Professor Hagar says: "When in his tenth year he was taken to Hanover, the seat of Dartmouth College, and was placed temporarily under Professor Adams in algebra and Euclid, under Professor James Marsh in Latin, and under Tutor Rufus Choate in Greek; and these gentlemen p.r.o.nounced him fitted for college. He was subsequently put to the study of Hebrew, under the Rev. John L. Parkhurst, and was sent to Exeter Academy; but in 1823 he entered college, pa.s.sed through the four years' course of study without a rival and far beyond rivalry. His power of acquisition and retention was marvelous.

"After his graduation, he spent four years at Hanover; the first, as the preceptor of Moor's Indian Charity School, and the following three as tutor in the college. He subsequently spent nearly two years at the Theological Seminary in Andover, Ma.s.s.

He was appointed to a professorship of Latin and Greek in 1833.

In 1847 he was released from the Latin and became professor of Greek only, which office he held until 1849, when he resigned; but he remained professor _emeritus_ until his death."

Professor Crosby was one of the earnest Greek scholars of eminence that New England can boast, being precocious in his scholarship, and so a little in advance of Professor Felton, of Cambridge, who was a year or two older. Both graduated in 1827, Felton at Harvard, and Crosby at Dartmouth; and this, as it happens, was the year in which the first Greek lexicon, with definitions in English, came into the hands of pupils in any part of the world. It was the work of John Pickering, a Salem man, who for many years stood almost alone as a great Greek scholar in America, having preceded Crosby and Felton by more than thirty years. The young men took up the work where Pickering laid it down, and began not long after they became Greek professors in their respective colleges (Felton in 1832, and Crosby in 1833,) the task of preparing grammars, readers, and editions of authors, for the studious youth of the land. Crosby's Greek grammar and his edition of Xenophon's Anabasis soon came into common use, and have been of great service in promoting the elementary instruction of thousands of Greek scholars since; as also have Felton's Reader and his editions of Aristophanes, etc. The learning of Hadley, Goodwin, and other recent professors has gone beyond that of these pioneers in extent and accuracy, but it is doubtful whether they have done so much for rudimentary scholarship.

Professor Crosby belonged not to us alone, but to all New England,--to the whole land. Our country is poorer by the loss of an eminent scholar, one of that small band of cla.s.sical scholars in America who are known and honored at foreign seats of learning. In the latest, freshest, and most original Greek grammar of Professor Clyde, of Edinburgh, the author acknowledges his obligations to four distinguished scholars, three Europeans and one American; and the American is Professor Crosby.

Professor Crosby published "A Greek and General Grammar"; "Greek Tables"; "Greek Lessons"; an edition of Xenophon's Anabasis; "Eclogae Latinae"; "First Lessons in Geometry"; also many religious and political tracts, and elementary school-books, which have been widely useful among the freedmen and Indians.

PROF. THOMAS R. CROSBY, M. D.

PROF. THOMAS RUSSELL CROSBY, M. D., youngest son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Gilmanton, N. H., October 22, 1816, and died at Hanover, March 1, 1872. He married Louisa Partridge Burton, daughter of Col. Oliver Burton, U. S. A. He graduated D. C. 1841, taking also, at the same time, his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He practiced in Meriden and Manchester, was chief surgeon in Columbian College Hospital, in Washington, D. C., during the war, became professor in the Medical College in that city, and afterwards professor in Dartmouth College.

During much of his professional life he was an invalid, but was indefatigable in habits of study, steadily advancing to posts of honor and reward, both as pract.i.tioner and teacher.

The faculty of Dartmouth College say: "We would record with deep sorrow the decease of Dr. Thomas R. Crosby, Professor of Animal and Vegetable Physiology in the agricultural department of the college, and Instructor in Natural History in the academical and scientific departments; and that we have a profound sense of the loss sustained by the college and the community in the departure of one who, to all the virtues that adorned his character, added such fullness, variety, and accuracy of scientific and professional attainment as fitted him for signal usefulness in the several positions he occupied."

His brother Josiah bears this testimony of him in a letter, after he had pa.s.sed away: "I have always considered him equal to any of the brothers as a general scholar, and, decidedly, as the best medical scholar of us doctors; and, although he had not an opportunity of performing so much surgery outside the hospital as others of the family, yet what he did shows conclusively that he was competent to any emergency. He had all the requisite qualifications for a good operator,--a correct knowledge of anatomy and great self-possession."

[Ill.u.s.tration: C H Sawyer]

COL. CHARLES H. SAWYER.

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

Charles Henry is the eldest son of Jonathan Sawyer, the sketch of whose life precedes this. He was born March 30, 1840, at Watertown. N. Y. At ten years of age, on the removal of his father to Dover, N. H., Charles, who had already become quite advanced in his studies, was sent to the district school in that place. The district school, although it has been supplanted by what is regarded as an improved system of education, had its own distinctive merits. The six years' training in it, under competent teachers, was sufficient to give young Sawyer a thoroughly practical education in those branches which are found to be essential to success in business life. Books can do little more than this. Experience must complete the training process. At sixteen years of age, it being determined that Charles was to enter into the business of his father, he was placed as an apprentice in the Sawyers' woolen-mills. The business to which a young man is to devote his life affords the very best means for his education in it. It proved to be so in this instance. The young apprentice, as he progressed from one stage to another, had the finest of opportunities for acquiring a full knowledge of all the diversified interests and sciences which belong to such a great industry. There is scarcely a branch in natural philosophy, physics, or the mechanical arts that is not intimately connected with the manufacture of woolens. But the manufacturing processes embrace only a part of the activities and requirements of such a business as the Sawyers. They are their own buyers and sellers in all the great markets of our own and other lands.

Superadded to mechanical knowledge and skill, there must be the large intelligence, the clear foresight, the quick, unerring judgment, which belong to the accomplished financier. In this manufactory, based upon so varied knowledge, and calling into activity so many of the strong mental powers, Charles found a grand school, and such proficiency did he make in it, that when he came to his manhood he was abundantly qualified to take upon himself the duties and responsibilities of superintendent. He was appointed to this position in 1866. No small share of the distinguished success which has come to this establishment may be fairly attributable to the fidelity and perseverance in service, the keen sagacity and the great enterprise, which Charles H. Sawyer has brought to its every interest. In 1873, when the company became incorporated, he was admitted to the firm, and, at the same time, was appointed its agent and one of the directors. Since then he has been elected its president.

Mr. Sawyer has served in both branches of the Dover city government; was a member of the New Hampshire legislature in 1869 and 1870, and again in 1876 and 1877, serving on the committee on railroads, incorporations, judiciary, national affairs, and as chairman of the committee on manufactures. In 1881 he was appointed, by Governor Bell, a member of his military staff with rank of colonel. Mr. Sawyer is now acting as director of the Strafford National Bank and the Portsmouth & Dover Railroad, and trustee of the Strafford Savings Bank. He is a member of the Masonic order, taking a personal interest in all that concerns its prosperity. In 1867 he became a member of the Strafford Lodge, and was master in 1872 and 1873. He is a member of the St. Paul Commandry of Knights Templar, of which he has just been elected eminent commander for the fourth time.

Mr. Sawyer, in 1865, was married to Susan Ellen Cowan, daughter of Dr.

James W. and Elizabeth Cowan.

Mr. Sawyer is not only a man of affairs, taking a deep personal interest in the various movements of politics, finance, and industrial life, but he is a man of large reading and is well acquainted with the best books and thoughts of the times. His judgments of men and measures are singularly free from partiality and prejudice. His conclusions are deliberately formed, and based upon a broad comprehension of all the related facts. His sense of justice is strong; his intellectual qualities are admirably balanced. He never is otherwise than perfectly poised. With all this he has the warmest heart, the quickest sympathies, great kindness of manner, and utmost geniality of spirit. In the reserve of his nature he withholds himself from all impetuous demonstrations; but, when the occasion demands, his influence, his advice, his friendship are put forth with commanding effect. Nature made him on a large scale, and books and experience and increasing converse with the best phases of social life are developing him into rare strength and symmetry of character.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Anthony Colby]

GOV. ANTHONY COLBY.

ANTHONY COLBY is known in his native state as a typical "New Hampshire man." Born and bred among the granite hills, he seemed a.s.similated to them, and to ill.u.s.trate in his n.o.ble, cheerful life the effects of their companionship. His great heart, sparkling wit, fine physical vigor, and merry laugh made his presence a joy at all times, and welcome everywhere. His ancestry, on his father's side, was of English, and on his mother's, of Scotch-Irish, origin. The first member of his father's family that removed to this country settled in the town of Salisbury, Ma.s.s., in 1740. He bore the name of Anthony Colby, and was a member of the so-called "Test a.s.sociation."

Joseph Colby, the father of Anthony, was born in Hopkinton, N. H., near Beech Hill, in 1762. He died in 1843. Of his brothers, two, James and Nathaniel, settled in that town, and another, David, in Manchester, near the sea, in Ma.s.sachusetts. During the last century, Joseph bought a portion of land under the "Masonian Grant" from Mr. Minot. Then the restriction of ownership in the state was that "all the white-pine trees be reserved for masting the ships of His Majesty's royal navy." Each town was required to set apart a portion of land for a meeting-house, and the support of the gospel ministry; for a school-house and the support of a school, as well as a military-parade ground.

In the organization and settlement of the town named New London, and in the needs of the settlers, both civil and religious, Joseph took an active part. He began clearing land in that part of the town now called Pleasant street, at the north end of Pleasant pond. He early established trade for himself with Newburyport and Salem. The state legislature then held its sessions in Portsmouth. Of this, he was for fourteen consecutive years a member. He was a political leader, and an uncompromising Federalist. For fifty years he was a stanch member of the Baptist church, of which Rev. Job Seamans was the first pastor, and he was for some time president of the Baptist state convention.

He married Anne Heath, a direct descendant of the Richard Kelley family, of which Judge Kelley, of Exeter, was a member. Her immediate relatives took part in the Revolutionary war. Members of the family live in Newbury, Ma.s.s. The family of Joseph Colby consisted of two sons and two daughters. The eldest daughter, Sarah, married Jonathan Herrick; the second, Judith, married Perley Burpee. Both of these daughters were settled beside him. Mrs. Burpee still survives. The two sons of Joseph Colby never left their father's household. Joseph, the eldest, spent the most of his life in the gratification of his literary tastes, and a species of journalism. Anthony, born in 1795, was of a lively disposition. A pleasant vein of humor ran through his character, making him enjoy a joke, while a native prescience led him to project himself into every kind of progress. A keen insight into the character of men gave him an almost unlimited influence over them. He never pa.s.sed through college, but his faculties were broadly developed by the condition into which his genial and vivid nature led him. His father's home was so guarded and in every way provided for, that ample opportunity was afforded him to follow the pursuits and activities that were congenial to him. He married, at an early age, Mary Everett, whose modest and refined Christian character greatly influenced him. A more favored home could hardly be imagined than that in which his three children were born, and which is still held sacred by them. The steady support of a grandfather's established character, the stimulus of a popular father, joined to the affection of a devoted grandmother and the delicate influence of a lovely mother, created an atmosphere, of solid content and peace as blissful as is to be found this side of heaven. His eldest son, Daniel E. Colby, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1836.

He married Martha Greenwood, and now lives in the paternal home. His daughter married, in 1851, James B. Colgate, and lives in New York, as does her brother Robert, who married Mary Colgate. Robert also graduated from Dartmouth College, and studied law with Judge Perley, at Concord, N. H.

The prominent characteristics of Anthony Colby were manly self-reliance and intrepidity, joined with quick sympathy and faithfulness in friendship, which made men trust and love him. His father's ident.i.ty with the state gave him a wide knowledge of its resources, industries, and inhabitants. He was interested in the affairs of the entire state, and was always ready to sacrifice the interests of his private business for those of his townsmen. There was no neighborhood or personal difficulty in which he did not willingly take the responsibility of bringing help or reconciliation. His tender sympathy, benevolence, and personal authority were sufficient to adjust the differences and rights of all who sought his a.s.sistance. He was strictly and absolutely a temperance man, never tasting spirituous liquors, and always using his influence to save young men from the use of them. His nature was many-sided enough to find some points of agreement with men whose habits differed from his own.

He established a line of stages through his native town before any system of railroads had been extended through the state. He afterwards became president of the Concord & Claremont Railroad. He possessed, in an unusual degree, an ability to create in his own brain and carry into practice business activities. He saw and felt how labor could be well applied, and, while a young man, built himself, in a part of the town then almost a forest, a grist-mill, carding and fulling mill. In 1836 he was instrumental in establishing a scythe-factory which was carried on by the use of the same water that had been used for the mills. In this enterprise he was a.s.sociated with Joseph Phillips and Richard Messer, both of whom had learned the trade of scythe-making. In the vicinity there grew up directly a flourishing village.

In politics, Mr. Colby was always conservative. He was first elected a member of the New Hampshire legislature, in 1828, and afterwards held nearly every higher office of trust in the state. Daniel Webster was his personal friend. Their fathers, who lived in the same county, only about twenty miles apart, were many years a.s.sociated in the legislature, of which they were members, from Salisbury and New London. The friendship between himself, Judge Nesmith, of Franklin, and Gen. James Wilson, of Keene, was _more_ than simple friendship,--they were delightful companions; of essentially different characteristics, the combination was perfect. Daniel Webster was their political chief, and his vacation sometimes found these men together at the Franklin "farm-house," and at the chowder parties up at the "pond." The Phenix Hotel, under the charge of Col. Abel and Maj. Ephraim Hutchins, was the central rendezvous, where a great deal of projected statesmanship, a great deal of story telling and fruitless caucusing were indulged in, down to the revolution of 1846, when the Democrats lost their supremacy by the admission of Texas as a slave state, when John P. Hale went into the senate. Anthony Colby was then elected governor. Mr. Webster wrote him earliest congratulations. With the usual backsets of a radical change, the Whig party held the front until Mr. Webster made his Seventh-of-March speech in 1850, on the fugitive-slave bill. Following up that speech by another on the Revere-House steps, favoring the enforcement of that law, and addressed to New England men, in which he said, "Ma.s.sachusetts takes no steps backward," he placed his friends in a most trying predicament.

Mr. Webster and his Boston body-guard made an effort to hold the Whig party solid to his position. It could not be done. The Abolitionists stood forth in full panoply, indiscriminately and precipitately aggressive, thanking G.o.d for the fugitive-slave law, and that Daniel Webster was its promoter and defender. He wrote to Gov. Colby, urging him to stand firmly by him and help bring the public mind to this new standard. The governor was perplexed. Privately he expressed himself after this fashion: "New Hampshire men vote for the fugitive-slave law!

This whole business is like crowding a hot potato down a man's throat, and then asking him to sing 'Old Hundred.'" He wrote Mr. Webster that he would do all that he could for him as a friend, although the law was odious to him.

There was held, that summer, a Baptist state convention. It was a full convention, for the churches were in a ferment, and many of them disintegrating upon the slavery issue. He was sent as a delegate from the church of which he was a member. A set of resolutions was reported, of a very violent and denunciatory character, directed against the fugitive-slave law, Mr. Webster, and both political parties, threatening expulsion and disfellowship to those members of churches who did not come out with an open and square protest upon this subject. The discussion was all one side until the advocates of the resolution had aired their opinions to their own satisfaction. Then, the governor, seeing his opportunity, quietly arose and moved an amendment to the resolution inveighing against Mr. Webster personally. He felt the fight to be a single-handed one, and would go through it alone if necessary.

Presently, a candid brother seconded his amendment with a few suggestions. Other brethren applauded. Then the storm set in from the other side, and the convention became disorderly. It was as if the better elements of New England life were in one grand convocation. This was the first public discussion of the situation. The contest was as brilliant a one, on a modified scale, as any intellectual and emotional contest that we read of. The governor's only hope of reconciliation was by settling down on his own popularity with the members of the convention, and, avoiding the principles involved, appealing to their generosity as a personal favor. With tears in his eyes and in faltering, grieving tones, he besought them most solemnly to spare his life-long friend the denunciation contained in that one resolution, and accept his amendment. The convention agreed to it. He sent a report of the proceedings, with an explanatory letter, to Mr. Webster: but he was not satisfied. There the matter dropped. These true-hearted friends saw, silently, the scepter of leadership declining in Mr. Webster's hand, and sadly lamented, what they could not prevent.

No Whig had held the office of governor, until the election of Anthony Colby, since the election of Gov. Bell, an interim of seventeen years.

Gov. Colby being rallied upon his one-term office, said he considered his administration the most remarkable the state ever had. "Why so?" was asked; when with a.s.sumed gravity he answered: "Because _I have satisfied the people in one year_, and no other governor ever did that."

His spirit attached him to military life. He was early promoted to the rank of major-general. This experience turned to his account, when, during the trying years of our late war, in 1861 he was appointed adjutant-general, and subsequently provost-marshal, of New Hampshire.

At this time his son Daniel E. Colby was appointed adjutant-general. The governor always alluded to this service as the saddest of his life,--to encourage and send forth to almost certain death the young men of the state whom he loved as a father. This was his last prominent office in state affairs; and so faithful was he in it, that, although nearly seventy years of age, he went often to the front to acquaint himself with the condition of the soldiers and share their hardships with them.

In 1850 he received from Dartmouth College the degree of A. M., and the same year was chosen one of the trustees of the college. He was interested in the best possible educational advantages of the young, and in every way promoted them. Through his energy, in a great degree, the academy in New London has arisen to its present flourishing condition.

His son-in-law, James B. Colgate, of New York, has generously endowed it, and aided in placing it upon a solid basis. The trustees have conferred upon it the name of Colby Academy.

Gov. Colby's second wife, Eliza Messenger Richardson, of Boston, by her accomplishments and true Christian character embellished and enlivened his declining years, while the devotion of his children cheered the seclusion of his last days.

Said an illiterate woman, to strangers discussing his character in the cars, "Governor Colby carries the very _demon_ of honesty in his face."

It was his unfailing sense of duty and trust in G.o.d that won for him the vast respect of the public, and esteem of a large circle of private friends.

Sunday evening, July 20, 1875, he died, peacefully, in the home of his father, at the age of eighty years, and was buried in the cemetery of his native town, by the side of his parents.