Chapter XV: Part 15

Col. Hall had long taken a deep interest in political affairs. To him they represented principles. In 1873 he was president of the Republican state convention at Concord. He had been for some years a member of the Republican state committee, when, in December, 1873, his abilities as a leader and executive were recognized in his selection as chairman of that committee. He so remained until 1877, and conducted the campaigns, state and national, of 1874, 1875, and 1876. These were critical years for the Republican party. The nearly even balance of parties in New Hampshire, the vigor and intensity with which the battles are always fought, and the skill necessary in every department, demand abilities and energies of the highest order. The years mentioned surpassed ordinary years in political danger to the Republicans. It is sufficient to say that Col. Hall conducted the last three campaigns to a triumphant issue. So decisive were the successive victories that the tide was turned, and from that time the state has not swerved from Republican allegiance.

In 1876, Col. Hall was chairman of the New Hampshire delegation to the Republican national convention at Cincinnati, being chosen at large, unpledged, and with scarce a dissenting vote. Seven delegates voted from first to last for James G. Blaine; but Col. Hall, with ex-Gov. Straw and Hon. Charles H. Burns, voted six times for Mr. Bristow, and on the decisive ballot for Rutherford B. Hayes.

In 1876 and 1877, Mr. Hall was, by appointment of Gov. Cheney, reporter of the decisions of the supreme court of New Hampshire, and in that honorable position published vols. 56 and 57, New Hampshire Reports.

In 1877 he succeeded Gov. Harriman as naval officer at the port of Boston. This office is co-ordinate with that of collector, upon which it is a check. Mr. Hall's business habits, his keen insight, his perfect accuracy, and the ruling principle of his life to do everything well and thoroughly, there came into operation. He quietly mastered the details as well as the general work of the department. Regularly at his post, his office became a model in its management, and was commended in the highest terms by the proper officers. When, therefore, his term expired, he was re-appointed for another four years, by President Arthur, with no serious opposition.

Mr. Hall married, January 25, 1877, Sophia, daughter of Jonathan T. and Sarah (Hanson) Dodge, of Rochester, and has one son, Arthur Wellesley Hall, born August 30, 1878. The beautiful house erected and occupied by him in Dover, and adorned with cultivated taste, has not its least charm in the steadily increasing library of carefully selected literature, to whose study he devotes the hours not required by official duties.

He attends the First church of Dover, the Congregational church, where his emigrant ancestor held office two centuries and a quarter ago. He is a radical teetotaler, and deeply interested in the cause of temperance. It is his personal request to have his great love for the horse, and, indeed, for all animals, spoken of in this sketch.

Mr. Hall's gentle, courteous, and unassuming manners do not meet the common idea of the bold and sagacious politician. His modest conversation will suggest scholarly instincts, but requires time to show the breadth of his culture. Public addresses have, as occasions demanded, exhibited the thoughtful political student, a patriotic love of country, and the ripeness of the accomplished scholar. Fidelity to every engagement, good faith to every principle espoused, firmness in determination, and usefulness in every work undertaken, have insured him success. But in a life still so young, it is fair to assume that recognitions of public respect will be greater than any trusts yet given, or reputation achieved, in his profession, the field of long past battles, or the offices of public honor.

HON. DAVID H. GOODELL.

Olive Atwood Wright was one of a large family of children. Her parents, who lived in Sullivan, were very poor and found it difficult to provide for the many who were dependent upon them, and when Olive was fifteen years of age she left home and started for Boston in search of an opportunity to earn her own living. On arriving in that city she had just fifty cents, and finding no employment there she proceeded to Waltham, where the first cotton-factory in the country had just commenced operations. Here she found some old acquaintances; but they refused to recognize her on account of her poverty. She, however, obtained the privilege of working in the factory, and at the end of a year visited her parents with eighty times as much money in her pocket as she had when the stage left her in Boston. Eight years later she had saved from her earnings five hundred dollars, and having married a young farmer, Jesse R. Goodell, went to live with him upon the homestead which had belonged to his ancestors, in Hillsborough. This couple were the parents of DAVID H. GOODELL, who was an only child, and was born May 6, 1834. The family remained upon the Hillsborough farm until 1841, when it was sold and they removed to another in the adjoining town of Antrim.

The parents, who had had but very limited school privileges, felt keenly the importance of an education, and were desirous of having their son obtain one. They accordingly, when he had mastered the studies of the common school, sent him to Hancock Academy several terms, and then to New Hampton, and he graduated at Francestown in the summer of 1852, and in the fall entered Brown University. Here he took high rank as a scholar, winning a prize in mathematics, and marking within one degree of perfect in Latin; but his health failed him during the sophomore year, and he was compelled to return to his home. The next year and a half he spent upon his father's farm, and, having recovered his health, resumed work as a teacher, in which he was engaged two terms at Hubbardston, Mass., one at New London Literary and Scientific Institution, and one at Leominster, Mass.

A sedentary life did not agree with Mr. Goodell, however, and he again went to Antrim with the intention of making farming his permanent business. Soon after, the Antrim Shovel Company was organised, and he was called from the farm to act as its treasurer and book-keeper. A year later, in 1858, he was appointed general agent of the company, and served in this capacity six years, the three last as the agent of Treadwell & Co., of Boston, who had purchased the business of the original company. In 1864, Oakes Ames bought the business, including the patents covering the now famous Antrim shovel, and moved it to North Easton, Mass., and Mr. Goodell in company with George R. Carter, one of the firm of Treadwell & Co., began in a small way the manufacture of apple-parers. He invented what is known as the "lightning apple-parer," and put it upon the market through a New York house, which sold the first two years a few hundred dozen. This they considered a good business; but Mr. Goodell was not satisfied, and the next year took the road himself, and in three weeks' time he sold two thousand dozen, and made the invention known throughout the country.

In 1867 the factory was burned, and, as the firm carried no insurance, it lost everything; but in six weeks it had a new shop in operation, and was able to supply the demand for the next year, which rose to five thousand dozen. In 1870 another calamity overtook the enterprise. The firm of Goodell & Co. owed at that time seven hundred and sixty-one dollars, but it had indorsed, to accommodate one of the partners, the notes of Treadwell & Co. to the amount of fifty thousand dollars, and the failure of this firm sent both into bankruptcy. The result of this trouble was that Mr. Goodell bought the property himself, borrowed money and paid its debts, paid for it out of his first year's profits, and has since been able to greatly enlarge the business without signing a note for himself or anybody else, or accepting any of the pecuniary help which has been freely offered him.

Up to 1872 he directed his energies mainly to the manufacture and sale of parers; but in that year he helped organize the Wood Cutlery Company at Bennington, and in 1875 united it with his private business and transferred the whole to the Goodell Company, of which he owns a large share of the stock and is the manager and controlling spirit. The business of this company has steadily increased until it employs one hundred and fifty hands, and pays for labor more than fifty thousand dollars annually. It manufactures all kinds of table cutlery, Cahoon seed-sowers, apple and potato-parers, and cherry-stoners.

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 Association, 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.

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 Twitchell, of Keene, and subsequently attended medical lectures at Pittsfield, Mass., 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 assiduity, 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 constitution 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, Mass., 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 Shore" 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 unobstructed 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 accumulating 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.

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 class 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 accumulated large quantities 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 Massachusetts 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, Mass., 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, Mass., and in 1833 went West. Not finding a promising opening, he returned to Massachusetts 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 class 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 Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts 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, Mass., 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 Massachusetts 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 compassing 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, unassuming 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 Pemigewasset 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 passengers in a ship commanded by Capt. Parker. They probably settled in Rowley, Mass.

2. Thomas Sawyer went to Lancaster, Mass., 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, Mass., of Scholan, sachem of the Nashaway Indians. Thomas Sawyer was one of the first six settlers. His name appears in the petition 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 massacres 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, Mass. 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, Mass., 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.

6. Phineas Sawyer was born at Harvard, Mass., in 1768. He went to Marlborough, Mass., 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 Massachusetts 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 noble woman, with but little means, faced the difficulties before her with an unflinching spirit of faith and hopefulness. It required superlative fortitude, 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, Mass., 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 class that entered the high school of that city, having among his mates Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, Gov. E. A. Straw, and G. V. Fox, assistant secretary of the navy during the civil war. Bishop Thomas M. Clark was the principal of this school. On account of a severe sickness, young Sawyer at sixteen years of age left school, and while recruiting his health made a visit to his brother, Alfred Ira Sawyer, who, after some experience as a dyer at Amesbury and Great Falls, had come in 1824 to Dover, N. H., where he was operating a grist-mill, a custom carding and cloth-dressing mill, converting this last into a flannel-mill. Jonathan remained in Dover two years, going to school and working for his brother. In the fall of 1835 he returned to Lowell. His mother, for the purpose of conferring upon her son a more complete education, sent him to the great Methodist school at Wilbraham, which at that time was a most flourishing preparatory school for the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn. Here he remained two terms, when, at nineteen years of age, returning to Lowell, he went into a woolen establishment as a dyer. Afterwards he went into this business on his own account, and continued in it until 1839.

During the latter part of this time he was not so engrossed in his business but that he found time to make frequent visits to New Ipswich, where Miss Martha Perkins, of Barnard, Vt., was attending school. In 1839 they were married, and went to Watertown, N.Y., where Mr. Sawyer became the superintendent of the Hamilton Woolen Company. After two and a half years, Mr. Sawyer went into business for the manufacture of satinets. In 1850, his brother Alfred having died at Dover, N. H., the year before, and the children being too young to carry on the business, Mr. Jonathan Sawyer assumed its control in connection with his brother Zenas. Two years later Zenas retired, and Francis A. Sawyer, who had been a prominent builder in Boston, became a partner with Jonathan, the object being to continue the manufacture of woolen flannels. In 1858 the property below known as the "Moses mill," another flannel manufactory, was purchased. This mill was enlarged in 1860 to four sets of machinery, again in 1863 to eight, and in 1880 and 1882 to sixteen sets. The old machinery is now completely replaced by new. The old mill, started in 1832, was in 1872 replaced by the present substantial structure, which contains fourteen sets of machinery, with preparing and finishing machinery for thirty sets in both mills.

Since 1866 the attention of these noted manufacturers has been entirely devoted to the manufacture of fine fancy cassimere cloths and suitings. Already they have established for these goods a foremost place in their class. At the Centennial Exhibition, at Philadelphia, a medal and diploma were awarded the Sawyer goods, for their "high intrinsic merit." The business has, since 1873, been carried on as a corporation, having a capital of six hundred thousand dollars. The corporation consists of the old firm of F. A.[7] and J. Sawyer, and Charles H. Sawyer, the present agent of the establishment. In 1866 this company made a bold innovation on the method that was so long in vogue among manufacturers, of consigning their goods to commission houses. The undertaking upon which this company entered, of selling their own goods, was met with great opposition; but their boldness and foresight have already been justified by the success which they have made, and the adoption of their methods by other manufacturers. This establishment can now look back upon a half-century of remarkable history. The unmarred reputation for strictest integrity which these managers have won, their far-reaching enterprise, and the unsurpassed excellences of their fabrics, have enabled them to prosperously pass through all the financial depressions and panics which so many times have swept over the country during this long period.

Mr. Jonathan Sawyer, with his vigor of mind and body still unimpaired, lives in his elegant mansion, which looks out upon a magnificent picture of wood and vale and mountain range, and down upon the busy scene of his many years of tireless industry. He loves his home, in the adornment of which his fine taste finds full play. When free from business he is always there. He loves his books, and his conversation shows an unusual breadth of reading in science, history, and politics. He is possessed of a strong, clear intellect, a calm, dispassionate judgment, and sympathies which always bring him to the side of the wronged and the suffering. At a time when anti-slavery sentiments were unpopular, Mr. Sawyer was free in their utterance, and was among the first to form the Free-soil party. Since the organization of the Republican party, Mr. Sawyer has been among its strongest supporters. He has persistently declined the many offices of honor and profit which those acquainted with his large intelligence and sagacity and stainless honesty have sought to confer upon him. He is abundantly content to exercise his business powers in developing still more the great manufactory, and his affections upon his large household and his chosen friends, and his public spirit in helping every worthy cause and person in the community.

The children of Mr. Sawyer, all of whom have grown up to maturity, are Charles Henry, Mary Elizabeth, Francis Asbury, Roswell Douglas, Martha Frances, Alice May, Frederic Jonathan.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] Francis A. Sawyer died June 16, 1881.

DR. ASA CROSBY AND SONS.

BY S. P. HADLEY.

In giving a notice of Judge Crosby of Lowell, Mass., as originally contemplated, at his request and with the consent of the publisher, I am desired to give it in the character of a family notice, or rather of the father and sons, now all deceased except the judge.

DR. ASA CROSBY, the father, was born in Amherst (now Milford), N. H., July 15, 1765, and died at Hanover, N. H., April 12, 1836. He married Betsey Hoit, daughter of Judge Nathan Hoit, an officer in the Revolutionary war, and judge of the court of common pleas. He was in the sixth generation from Simon of Cambridge, Mass., who arrived in the "Susan and Ellyn" in 1635, the direct line being Simon, Simon, Josiah, Josiah, and Josiah his father, born in Billerica, Mass., November 24, 1730. Sarah Fitch, his mother, was born in Bedford, Mass., March 25, 1732. The Crosby families mostly inhabited Billerica, Mass., where many of the descendants still reside, although some lived in the ancient town of Braintree, Mass., and others on Cape Cod. His father settled in Amherst, N. H., where he died October 15, 1763. His mother lived until September 16, 1825. The following notice of Dr. Crosby, written by Prof. R. D. Mussey of Dartmouth College, is taken from the _Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_, Vol. XIV.:--

"Dr. Asa Crosby was an uncommon man. At the age of twenty-one he
commenced practice in Strafford county, N. H., and continued in
full practice forty-six years. He was a distinguished member of
the profession, both in physic and surgery; and in the latter
branch he performed some very important and difficult
operations. Indeed, for many years he was the principal operator
for an extensive district of country. He was one of those
self-taught men, whose force of intellect breaks through the
most appalling obstacles, and rises unaided to skill and
reputation. Although deprived of a systematic course of
professional instruction, having commenced practice before
medical schools were established in New England, he provided
himself with a good library, and spent his leisure hours, and
even moments, among his books. He drew around him young men as
pupils, between twenty and thirty of whom may be reckoned as
educated by him; and, what is much to his credit, many of them
are now distinguished men.

"Dr. Crosby was for many years a member of the Church of Christ,
and died in the full hope of a better life.

"The medical profession in New Hampshire is not a little
indebted to Dr. Crosby, inasmuch as he was one of the few who
interested themselves in procuring the charter of the State
Medical Society, of which he was an active and zealous member
for thirty years. The honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine was
conferred on him by Dartmouth College in 1811."

JOSIAH CROSBY, M. D.

DR. JOSIAH CROSBY, third son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich, N. H., February 1, 1794, and died in Manchester, N. H., January 7, 1875. He married Olive Light Avery, daughter of Daniel Avery, a merchant and manufacturer of Gilford, N. H., February 9, 1829. He studied his profession with his father, and the distinguished Prof. Nathan Smith of Dartmouth College. His early practice was in Concord, N. H., and Lowell, Mass., but his professional life-work was in Manchester, N. H., from 1844 to his death. The following extracts are taken from an obituary notice of him read before the New Hampshire Medical Society by Dr. W. W. Wilkins, of Manchester:--

"Here (Manchester, N. H.,) for thirty years he was the unrivaled
head of the profession. Here he originated the method of making
extensions of fractured limbs by the use of adhesive strips,
which gave him a high reputation with surgeons in Europe as well
as at home; and, later, he invented the 'invalid bed' which has
so tenderly held the patient, without a strain or jar, while the
bed-clothes could be changed or wounds cared for, or, by
dropping a belt or two, prevent local pressure and irritation.
The skillful physician, the christian gentleman, and
sympathizing friend were combinations of character in him rarely
excelled.

"Those who have known Dr. Josiah Crosby, who have had the
privilege of his acquaintance, been honored by his confidence,
and felt the influence of his pure example, will feel more
deeply than any words of mine express, the loss we have met in
his death. Few men love their life-work as he did. The practice
of medicine to him was no mere trade, no secondary means of
obtaining something else that outranked it, but the chosen
calling of his life, to which in his young manhood he gave not
only his rare mental endowments, but the rich treasures of his
heart; and with the weight of eighty years resting upon him, it
was his greatest comfort that he could still labor in his chosen
profession.

"His habits of study, that had been early formed, followed him
into old age. New theories and discoveries in medical science
were carefully criticised; the medical journals, to which he was
a liberal subscriber, were read; and he was better posted in
regard to the medical literature of the day than a majority of
the young men in the profession.

"He exerted a strong influence on the profession itself. The
quiet dignity of his character was felt by all who came in
contact with him. No unguarded words passed his lips in regard
to members of the profession that were absent that would not
have been as freely expressed in their presence.

"The same elements of character made him a superior surgeon. His
operations were complete. He had abundant resources, and, if the
ordinary methods of treatment failed, was ever ready to supply
their place by extraordinary methods. His contributions to
medical science were of a character that reflected the highest
honor upon him as a physician and skillful surgeon, and placed
him in no mean rank as a benefactor of his race.

"He never indulged in sports, or frequented watering-places. His
church, his home, and his professional duties filled to the full
his days and years, and too many sleepless nights. His
sympathies for the sick, his great benevolence, his love of
neighbor as of himself, formed the mainspring of his life
labors.

"We have known him in his strength, and we shall always
recollect him as the strong, self-reliant, active physician. We
are more than grateful for his record. Life is the sum total of
so many days and years, to which may be added the little real
good one has been permitted to accomplish in a lifetime. Looking
back over these fifty years, can we compute the worth of such a
life?"

His widow still lives, as also his son, Dr. George A. Crosby, of Manchester, an eminent physician and surgeon.

JUDGE NATHAN CROSBY.

NATHAN CROSBY, fourth son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich, N. H., February 12, 1798; was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1820: read law with Stephen Moody, Esq., of Gilmanton, and Asa Freeman, of Dover, N. H., and was admitted to the bar in Strafford county in 1823. He practiced law a dozen years, mostly in Gilmanton, N. H., and Amesbury and Newburyport, Mass., until 1838, when he removed to Boston, at the call of the Massachusetts Temperance Union, to conduct two important features of the temperance cause,--the acceptance of the teetotal pledge for the ardent-spirits pledge, and prohibition for license, and to organize societies based upon those principles throughout the commonwealth. He was also editor of the _Massachusetts Temperance Journal_, the _Cold Water Army_ and _Temperance Almanac_, and various other publications.

Subsequently, in 1843, he removed to Lowell, and was employed by the manufacturing companies of that city to purchase the large lakes in New Hampshire whose waters supply the Merrimack river, and secured for the companies one hundred thousand acres of water. Before this service was fully accomplished, he received the appointment of standing justice of the police court of Lowell, upon the resignation of the late Hon. Joseph Locke, who had held the office thirteen years. Judge Crosby was qualified May 19, 1846. This position he still holds. He has rarely failed of holding the civil terms of the court during his entire period of service. In the discharge of the duties of a local magistrate,--a position peculiarly trying, placed, as those duties are, so near the people in all their differences, controversies, temptations, follies, and depravities,--he has been at all times humane, conscientious, incorruptible, and just, aiming to do right.

In all works of philanthropy and reform, no one has a kinder heart, or a more willing or generous hand. His frequent appeals to the public, through the press, upon the temperance issues of the day have been characterized by great power, earnestness, and practical wisdom, and have been widely read and approved. He has never held political office, but has been in the ranks of the Federal, Whig, and Republican parties. He was the first man in the country to give one hundred dollars for the sanitary relief of Union soldiers in the late rebellion, and to form a soldiers' relief association, of which he was president during the war. He was the first college graduate from the town of his birth, and the last of four of his class who received the degree of Doctor of Laws.

His literary productions consist of "Obituary Notices for 1857 and 1858," in two volumes, "First Half Century of Dartmouth College," eulogies upon Judge Wilde and Hon. Tappan Wentworth, "Notices of Distinguished Men of Essex County, Mass.," the last being especially illustrative of Choate, Cushing, and Rantoul, and letters and appeals to the citizens of Lowell upon the temperance issues of 1880 and 1881. He has a nervous, but animated and entertaining style. His "First Half Century of Dartmouth College" is a model in its way, while his "Crosby Family," a genealogical work, is not the dry and uninteresting reading such literature usually is, but is entertaining, even to the general reader, for its reminiscences of individuals, and its pleasant pictures of old times in New Hampshire.

He has always cherished a deep interest in Dartmouth College, and to no slight extent has, by personal effort, brought about events which have been of substantial benefit to that ancient seat of learning.

Judge Crosby has been twice married. His first wife, Rebecca Marquand Moody, was a daughter of Stephen Moody, Esq., of Gilmanton, by whom he had nine children, of which number five are now living, namely, Frances Coffin, wife of Dr. Henry A. Martin, of Boston; Hon. Stephen Moody Crosby, of Boston; Maria Stocker, wife of the late Maj. Alexander McD. Lyon, of Erie, Penn.; Ellen Grant, wife of N. G. Norcross, Esq., of Lowell, and Susan Coffin, wife of Charles Francis, son of James B. Francis, of Lowell, the distinguished engineer. His daughter, Rebecca Marquand, widow of the late Z. B. Caverly, United States _charge d'affaires_ at Peru, a highly accomplished and widely esteemed lady, was, with her daughter, lost on the "Schiller," a German steamer, off the English coast, in the spring of 1875,--a disaster which, at the time, created profound sorrow throughout the country. He married, May 19, 1870, Matilda, daughter of James Pickens, of Boston, and widow of Dr. J. W. Fearing, of Providence, R. I., who still lives.

Personally, the judge is a fine exemplification of the good results of temperance, self-care, and habitual good humor; and one meeting him for the first time, and noting his firm step and erect carriage, would hardly think him older than a man of sixty.

DIXI CROSBY, M. D.

DR. DIXI CROSBY, fifth son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich, February 8, 1800, and died at Hanover, September 26, 1873. He married Mary Jane Moody, daughter of Stephen Moody, of Gilmanton, a distinguished lawyer, July 2, 1827. His academical preparation for his profession was quite limited; but being quick to learn, and with uncommon powers of memory, he made rapid progress in the study and practice of his profession and early became a prominent surgeon and physician, practicing in Gilmanton and Laconia till called to fill the chair of surgery in the Dartmouth Medical College, as successor of Professor R. D. Muzzey. He was placed at the head of the Medical College, in 1838, and held the place with great ability and distinction until nearly the time of his death.

His son, Prof. Alpheus B. Crosby, a young man of remarkable distinction, who died August 9, 1877, succeeded him. Another and older son is an eminent physician in Concord, N. H.

"Dr. Crosby, though a surgeon by nature and by preference, was
in no modern sense a _specialist_. His professional labors
covered the whole range of medicine. His professorship included
obstetrics as well as surgery, and his practice in this
department was exceptionally large. His surgical diocese
extended from Lake Champlain to Boston. Of the special
operations of Dr. Crosby we do not propose here to speak in
detail. It is sufficient to mention that, in 1824, he devised a
new and ingenious mode of reducing metacarpo-phalangeal
dislocation. In 1836 he removed the arm, scapula, and
three-quarters of the clavicle, at a single operation, for the
first time in the history of surgery. He was the first to open
abscess of the hip-joint. He performed his operations without
ever having seen them performed, almost without exception. Dr.
Crosby was not what may be called a _rapid_ operator. "An
operation, gentlemen," he often said to his clinical students,
"is _soon_ enough done when it is _well_ enough done." And with
him it was never done otherwise than _well_.

At the outbreak of the rebellion, Dr. Crosby served in the
provost-marshal's office at a great sacrifice for many months,
attending to his practice chiefly at night. As years and honors
accumulated, Dr. Crosby still continued his work, though his
constitutional vigor was impaired by the severity of the New
Hampshire winters and by his unremitting labor. At length,
having reached man's limit of threescore years and ten, he
withdrew from active practice, and in 1870 resigned his chair in
the college.