Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men Part 39

Mr. c.u.mner's connection with the Masonic fraternity has been a very prominent feature of his life. He became a Mason in Lafayette Lodge, Manchester. May, 1850, and was one of the pet.i.tioners and charter members of Washington Lodge in 1857. He held many subordinate offices, and was the Worshipful Master in 1862 and 1863, and has been treasurer nearly all the time since. His keen scrutiny of its business affairs and careful management of its accounts have done much to keep his lodge in sound financial condition. In 1856 he received the capitular degrees in Mt. h.o.r.eb Royal Arch Chapter, and, after serving at almost every post in that body, became its High Priest from 1862 to 1864. He took the cryptic degrees in Adoniram Council, in May, 1857, and soon after the orders of knighthood were conferred upon him in Trinity Commandry, Knights Templar. In all these subordinate bodies he sustained an ardent and zealous membership, contributing freely to their support and aiding materially in their prosperity. In 1802 he was admitted to the degree of High Priesthood, and in 1803 received the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Rite to the 32d, inclusive, in Boston, and in September, 1881, was elected to the 33rd and last grade in Masonry. In the Grand Masonic bodies of New Hampshire he has been equally prominent, and his earnest labors and sincere devotion to their interests have been recognized and appreciated. After holding several offices in the M. E. Grand Royal Arch Chapter of New Hampshire, he was elected Grand High Priest in 1867 and 1868, and gave eminent satisfaction by his management of affairs. In the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire he held nearly all the subordinate positions, and was elected Most Worshipful Grand Master in 1872, 1873, and 1874. As the presiding officer in these grand bodies, whose duties are mostly legislative, he commanded the respect of the fraternity for fairness and impartiality, and was highly esteemed for his graceful and courteous bearing. His addresses and official papers were regarded as sound and creditable doc.u.ments by the fraternity in other jurisdictions.

If Mr. c.u.mner has been prosperous and successful in other departments of life, he has been remarkably happy and fortunate in his family and social relations. He married Miss Harriet Elizabeth Wadley, daughter of Moses D. Wadley, of Bradford, N. H., January 24, 1856. They have two sons,--Harry Wadley c.u.mner, born July 18, 1860, and Arthur Bartlett c.u.mner, born July 30, 1871. Harry Wadley graduated from the Manchester high school in 1879, with high standing in his cla.s.s and the reputation of a faithful and efficient student. He entered the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology, in Boston, in 1879, as a special student, remaining two years. In 1881 he engaged in mercantile life; and having integrity and the capacity to make the best use of his privileges and attainments, he has certainly the earnest of a prosperous and honorable life. Arthur Bartlett, a bright and beautiful boy of uncommon intelligence, has yet to climb the pathway of youth; but if aught can be predicted from such tender years he is not likely to disappoint the fond hopes of parents and friends.

In the common judgment of mankind, woman receives very little credit for the success of man in the struggles and achievements of this life. The intuitive judgment and unfaltering support with which the faithful and devoted wife aids her husband are unseen influences, the force and importance of which never have been and probably never will be understood or appreciated; and, although the remarkable success which the subject of this sketch has gained may be attributed to his ability and integrity, still the high social position to which the family have attained, and the important and very creditable purposes which they have accomplished, are equally due to the clear and well trained judgment, the watchful care and oversight of domestic affairs, and the amiable companionship of his estimable and accomplished wife. While in their relative spheres, either in the busy marts of trade or the domestic departments of life, "on change" or in the drawing-room, each to a certain extent must be judged independently, in all the economy of life her individuality and influence will be seen to have done their full share in molding the fortunes of the family.

Anxiously we strive to look behind the "cloud curtains" that veil the future and hide from view what lies in the untried ways beyond. Vainly through the shadows which the sorrows of real life cast far in advance, and into the misty lands "whence come the troops of good and evil forces," so strangely and mysteriously mingled, we gaze and endeavor to discern the hastening events upon which our happiness and success so largely depend. But if we may predict of the future by the past, if we can antic.i.p.ate what is to come by what has been accomplished, then shall the members of this family be blessed with the enjoyment of their full share of all that is happiest and best.

COL. CHANDLER E. POTTER.

Col. CHANDLER EASTMAN POTTER was a native of East Concord, N. H., born March 7, 1807, son of Joseph and Anna (Drake) Potter. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1831, taught high schools in Concord and Portsmouth several years, read law, and was admitted to the bar and practiced in Concord. In 1814 he moved to Manchester, where he owned and edited the _Manchester Democrat_ until the fall of 1848, when he sold the paper.

From 1852 to 1856 he was editor of the _Monthly Visitor_ and _Granite Farmer_. In June, 1848, he was appointed justice of the Manchester police court, succeeding Hon. Samuel D. Bell, which office he filled seven years, with honor and credit to himself. He was an able and efficient member of the Historical Society in New Hampshire, and other societies, and author of a very elaborate and correct history of Manchester. His enn.o.bling views of man and nature, and of sound, true principles were always heard with profound attention and delight. He had copiousness of ideas, and his writings were always filled with the thoughts of a comprehensive mind, instructing all who read what he wrote with a ready pen. He was interested in the study of the Indian language, and has written many sketches of Indian character, and was a contributor to Schoolcraft's Indian work. "Col. Potter was probably the best informed man and antiquarian in the state, on all topics that related to the early settlement of New Hampshire." He was genial and social, with a keen relish for humor and anecdote, friendly with all cla.s.ses. The rich and the poor found in him a true friend in time of need. He was a devoted friend of the militia organizations of the state, and second commander of the Amoskeag Veterans, a company that adopted the uniform of the continentals. They visited Washington during the administration of President Pierce, commanded by Col. Potter, who entertained the Veterans at his home, the McNeil (N. H.) mansion and birthplace of Franklin Pierce, in 1865. A grand entertainment was given them in a large tent upon the grounds.

In Dr. Loring's address to the Veterans he remarks:--

"As a strong, active, and useful son of New Hampshire, he will long be remembered, and when all to whom his form and presence were so familiar shall have pa.s.sed away,--his a.s.sociates, his family, kindred, his daily companions to whom his anecdote and good sense rendered his company desirable,--the fruits of his labor as a careful historian and annalist will remain, a valuable contribution to the literature of New Hampshire, a tribute from one who loved every incident of her early and aboriginal and heroic age. To his friends he left an honorable reputation; to his company, a record which will not be forgotten until the history of New Hampshire shall be blotted out."

Col. Potter's last able work, The Military History of New Hampshire, published in 1866, consists of two volumes, from the settlement in 1623 to the close of the war of 1812, with valuable biographical sketches.

[Ill.u.s.tration: C. E. Potter]

Judge Potter married, November 1, 1832, Clara A., daughter of John Underwood, of Portsmouth, by whom he had four children. She died March 19, 1854, and November 11, 1856, he married Frances Maria, daughter of Gen. John McNeil, of Hillsborough. After this marriage he resided at the Gov. Pierce homestead in Hillsborough during the remainder of his life.

Col. Potter loved the society of intelligent and worthy people, and welcomed all without distinction. His domestic relations gave a great charm to his existence. He died at Flint, Mich., whither he had gone with his wife on business, August 3, 1868. After the funeral ceremonies were performed at Manchester, the Veterans met at their armory and pa.s.sed the following resolution:--

"WHEREAS, an inscrutable Providence has seen fit to remove from our midst our loved and chosen commander, and we have performed the last sad rites of sepulture over his remains; therefore, be it

"_Resolved_, That in the decease of their colonel, Chandler E.

Potter, the Amoskeag Veterans have sustained an irreparable loss,--that their foremost man from the beginning, who at all times, and under all circ.u.mstances, in sunshine and in storms, unselfishly sought to promote their highest welfare, is no more,--and for each one of us to resolve that in our day and generation we will endeavor to follow his example is the highest tribute we can pay his memory. We mourn not alone. Society has lost an ornament; the state a historian whose labors, yet incompleted, in compiling and preserving her military history, will long outlive our feeble efforts."

HON. DANIEL BARNARD.

BY M. B. GOODWIN.

1. John Barnard, was among the early settlers of Ma.s.sachusetts. He came to this country in 1634, in the ship Elizabeth, from Ipswich, England, and settled in Watertown.

2. John Barnard, son of the pioneer, John Barnard, had two sons, Jonathan and Samuel.

3. Jonathan Barnard, son of John Barnard, was a resident of Amesbury, Ma.s.s. Owing to the manifold duties of a busy professional life, DANIEL BARNARD has not had the time or opportunity to trace out the genealogy of his family fully, but there is much reason for believing that this Jonathan Barnard was his great-grandfather. His great-grandfather was Captain Jonathan Barnard, inn-holder in Amesbury, who kept "The Lion's Mouth" in provincial days, was a captain in the colonial militia, and was prominent in the affairs of the town in which he lived. He was one of the sixty original grantees, in 1735, of the township of New Amesbury, or "Number One," which was afterwards granted, in 1767, by the Masonian proprietors, as Warner. His name heads the list of the grantees.

4. Charles Barnard, son of Capt. Jonathan Barnard, was a soldier in the patriot army of the Revolution, and settled in Warner, on the northeast slope of Burnt Hill.

5. Thomas Barnard, son of Charles Barnard, was born in Warner in 1782; married, first, Ruth Eastman, of Hopkinton; married, second, Phebe, his first wife's sister. In the fall of 1826 he removed, with his young family, from Warner to Orange. He died January 29, 1859; his second wife died June 30, 1845.

6. DANIEL BARNARD, son of Thomas and Phebe (Eastman) Barnard, was born in Orange, January 23, 1827. When his father, Thomas Barnard, went there and planted his home on his lot of three hundred acres on the highlands dividing the waters which flow into the Pemigewa.s.set from those which flow into the Connecticut, the whole territory was still covered by the primeval forest. But rugged, courageous hearts and hands in due time converted forest into field, and while a troupe of seven sons and a daughter was springing up in the rugged mountain home, a good farm was opened, which, with its abundant crops of gra.s.s, the stocks of cattle and very large flocks of sheep, allowed no place for idleness, summer or winter. The church and the district school stood together more than three miles off, and so continued till the subject of this notice, the fifth child of the family, was fourteen years old, no regular school being established nearer till he was eighteen years old. But the father being a man of sense and intelligence, and the mother an uncommonly bright, capable woman, they not only made the utmost exertion to give their children the full benefit of the meager chances of the district school, but also systematically supplemented these opportunities with regular study and teaching in the long winter evenings at home. The father, a good mathematician, managed the flock in arithmetic, and the mother handled them in other branches. From the age of seventeen, Daniel Barnard was granted the privilege of attending the Canaan Academy every season during the winter months, until he was twenty-one, being employed during the summer on his father's farm.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Daniel Barnard]

When he arrived at man's estate he fearlessly took his stand with the Free-soil Democrats, and was four times elected to represent his native town in the state legislature.

During this time he was intent upon securing the advantages of a college education, and with this end in view he taught school, during the winter, in Orange, Grafton, Groton, Lyme, Enfield, and Amherst, and pursued his preparatory studies at Canaan and Boscawen academies, and under the tuition of Prof. William Russell at the Normal Inst.i.tute at Reed's Ferry.

Mr. Barnard's legislative experience materially changed his plans in life; and he decided to enter at once upon his professional studies. He was well known in the house from his first appearance in that body; not merely because so youthful in appearance, but because, also, of the uncommon capacity, the sincerity and sagacity with which, in una.s.suming, almost diffident ways, he met all his duties; and in the latter sessions of the four years' service he became a leader of the Independent party in the house, and an influential member of that body. At home, during the same period, he was sleepless in his vigilance, contriving by sagacious management to hold the little band of Free-soil Democrats in a solid column, and annually to carry the town till he left it, in the autumn of 1851.

At the close of the legislative session of that year, with fixed professional aims, he went to Franklin, entered upon the study of the law in the office of Nesmith & Pike, and in 1854, on admission to the bar, became at once the junior partner with Mr. Pike, in the office where he had read his profession, Mr. Nesmith at that time retiring from the office and extensive business which he had so honorably founded and built into its large proportions. In 1863, Mr. Barnard withdrew from the firm and established himself alone in his profession in the same village, rapidly rising into the very large, wide, and lucrative business which for more than eighteen years has allowed him not so much as a week, or scarcely a day, of vacation in the year. During this period he has had as many students in his office constantly as the circ.u.mstances of his office would admit, and has nearly all the time had a partner in a temporary way. His partner now is his eldest son, William M. Barnard, who graduated at Dartmouth College with superior rank, in 1876, at the age of twenty years; studied his profession in his father's office and at the Boston Law School; and was admitted to the bar and into partnership with his father in 1879. In relation to the business of the office, it is perfectly safe to add that there has been no time within the last fifteen years in which there has not been a formidable amount of business piled up awaiting attention, notwithstanding the most sleepless and indefatigable industry which Mr. Barnard has brought to his duties. For the last ten years he has not only regularly attended all the courts in the counties of Merrimack, Belknap, and the Plymouth sessions of Grafton, but has constantly attended the United States circuit courts, practicing in bankrupt, patent, and revenue cases.

The esteem in which Mr. Barnard is held by the immediate community in which he lives may be casually mentioned. Though never seeking office, he has been often chosen to places of responsibility by his townsmen. In 1860 and 1862 he represented the town of Franklin in the legislature; and in all political contests in the town in which he has been candidate for the suffrages of his townsmen he has always run much ahead of the party ticket. In 1865 and 1866 he was a member of the state senate, presiding over that body in the latter-named year; in 1870 and 1871 he was a member of the governor's council; and in 1872 was a member of the Republican national convention at Philadelphia. He was solicitor of Merrimack county from 1867 till declining re-appointment in 1872, the position being again tendered to him and declined in 1877. He was a firm, earnest supporter of the homestead-exemption law of 1850, which was opposed by most of the profession through the state, and introduced the resolution in the house which first gave the members a daily paper.

As a member of the senate in 1867, he took a profound interest in the amendment of the federal const.i.tution prohibiting slavery, making an able and effective argument in its support in that body.

In the cause of education he has always been a foremost friend in Franklin and throughout the state. His own early struggles have doubtless contributed to make him peculiarly a friend of the common school, and his experience as a teacher in his early years gives him practical wisdom in the cause. While studying his profession in Franklin, he was from year to year employed in the Teachers' Inst.i.tutes, which did a large work in awakening higher ideas of the mission of the common school in New Hampshire during that period, and in that business he was in nearly every county of the state. In 1867, the honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon Mr. Barnard by Dartmouth College.

Mr. Barnard has been prominently identified with all the leading industries which have been established in Franklin, and which have so remarkably built up the town within the last twenty years; procured the charters and helped organize all the great corporations; has been a continuous trustee of the Franklin Library a.s.sociation since its establishment, more than fifteen years since, and a trustee of the Franklin Savings Bank since its establishment, in 1865; legal counsel of the Franklin Falls Company from its organization, in 1864, and the last eight years its local agent; and is a director and vice-president of the Franklin National Bank, recently organized in that town.

As a lawyer, Mr. Barnard ranks very high in the profession, his advice being eagerly sought by the humblest client and the most influential corporations; but no person, however poor, with a meritorious cause, was ever turned away from his office to make room for a richer or more powerful client. His client's cause becomes his, and his whole energy is directed to winning for his employer what he believes he should have.

His terse and logical arguments are especially powerful before a jury; and his eloquent voice has been often heard in legislative halls, leading and guiding the law-making a.s.semblies, and in political meetings, sustaining the motives and policy of his party.

In the social, humane, and religious work of the community, he has always been active and efficient, generous almost to a fault in every good enterprise; and in these spheres of duty he has ever had the efficient co-operation of a cultivated, and, it is not too much to add, a model Christian wife,--Amelia, only child of Rev. William Morse, a Unitarian clergyman of Chelmsford, Ma.s.s., at the time of the marriage,--to whom he was married November 8, 1854. Mr. Morse, now deceased, was one of the pioneer clergymen of the Unitarian faith in this country, was many years pastor of the Callow-Hill-street church, Philadelphia, and an able and excellent minister. His wife was Sophronia, daughter of Abner Kneeland, of Boston, an able and upright man, whose trial on the technical charge of blasphemy, but really for the publication of heretical religious doctrines, was a most noted episode in New England forty years ago. Mrs. Morse was a n.o.ble woman.

Mr. Morse and his wife resided during the last years of their pleasant lives in Franklin, near their daughter, who watched with singular tenderness over the closing years of the parents to whom she is indebted for superior training as well as superior ability. Their union has been blessed with seven children, six of whom, four sons and two daughters, are living.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Respectfully

William P. Riddle]

WILLIAM P. RIDDLE.

The lives men live and the character of communities lived in are retroactive. Written or unwritten, the good and ill of them swell the tide of human progress, which ebbs and flows by force of individual influences. Time and place are accidental to birth, but often determine conditions that shape fortune. In New England, in the last century, men achieved and wore the iron crown, and their descendants inherited traits of mental and moral character that make material for biography.

The subject of this sketch was of the third generation of his family in the town of Bedford, N. H., the place of his nativity. In origin the family Was of Anglo-Norman extraction. The name of Riddle appears in the English and Scotch genealogies, and is traceable back into the ninth century. Gaen Riddle, of Scotch descent, the head of his branch of the family in this country, came over and settled in Bedford, N. H., about the year 1737, and was one of the original settlers of that town.

WILLIAM P. RIDDLE, of whom is the present memoir, was the grandson of Gaen Riddle, and the son of Isaac,--a man of prominence in the affairs and events of his time and locality. William P. inherited in a marked degree his father's characteristics. Born on the 6th day of April, 1789, during the period of the formation of our const.i.tutional government, he became early imbued with the ideas of nationality. His youth was pa.s.sed at the district school, upon the farm, and about his father's business, in which he displayed aptness and activity. At the old Atkinson Academy, in New Hampshire, he ultimately acquired what education it was his privilege to obtain, and for a short time taught school in his native town.

In 1811, Mr. Riddle located in Piscataquog, a village in Bedford, situated on the Merrimack river, and now apart of the city of Manchester. There he took charge of his father's mercantile affairs.

Business soon increased in importance, which led to the formation of the partnership of Isaac Riddle & Sons, in 1817. This firm eventually extended its business operations throughout central New England. They owned and carried on stores, warehouses, lumber-yards, saw and grain mills at Bedford and Piscataquog, and also operated cotton and nail factories, and lumber and grain mills, on the Souhegan at Merrimack. At the latter place they erected dwelling-houses, stores, and a hotel, whence it came to be known as Riddle's Village, and was an active and thriving place.

During this time the project of constructing the "Union Locks and Ca.n.a.ls," on the Merrimack river, was inaugurated,--an enterprise which rendered that river navigable for boats and barges to the capital of the state of New Hampshire, and opened up water communication with Boston.

With this achievement Mr. Riddle became identified, manifesting energy and foresight. Taking advantage of the facilities thus afforded for inland navigation, the firm of Isaac Riddle & Sons established a warehouse in Boston, together with a line of ca.n.a.l-boats, and in connection with their other extensive business entered actively into the carrying-trade. This water transportation was continued by Mr. Riddle after the dissolution of his firm in 1830, and until the opening of the Nashua & Concord Railroad.

At the decease of his father, the old firm was dissolved, and Mr. Riddle a.s.sumed and carried on the business in his own name, both at Merrimack and Bedford. He supplied the region round about with merchandise, and furnished lumber largely for the cities of Nashua, Lowell, Newburyport, Boston, and Providence, supplying the navy-yard at Charlestown with spars and ship-timber, Boston, and Lowell, and other large cities with lumber for public buildings and bridges, and the railways of New England with ties and contract lumber, and shipped railroad sleepers to the West Indies. The old "yellow store" at Piscataquog Bridge was the scene of many of these transactions. It was a busy mart. Here were bought and bartered domestic products, wood, timber and lumber from all the outlying country, in exchange for groceries and merchandise, which in turn were transported down the Merrimack to the markets of Ma.s.sachusetts.