clerk of the state senate in 1843, 1844, but the agitation of the
slavery question enlisted him in the ranks of the Free-soil forces, and
from the organization of the Republican party he has been one of its
most earnest and effective supporters. In 1856 and 1857 he was a member
of the senate, being its president the latter year; and in 1860 and
1861, was a member of the governor's council, and chairman of the
committee for raising and equipping the troops necessary to fill the
state's quota in the war of the rebellion. In this position his business
ability and methods were of great service, and to him, at least as much
as to any other one man, is due the creditable reputation which the
state won in that trying period.
In 1876 he was one of the presidential electors who cast the vote of New
Hampshire for Hayes and Wheeler, and in 1879, had he permitted his
friends to use his name, would have been a prominent candidate for the
governorship in the state convention that year, as he was in the primary
meetings.
Mr. Currier has been married three times. He has no children living. He
resides in an elegant home in Manchester, in which are reflected his
cultivated tastes and ample fortune. Though able to look back upon a
long career, he is in the enjoyment of excellent health and the full
strength of his manhood, and while carrying the business burdens that
would crush most men, finds leisure to enjoy the fruits of his industry,
frugality, and judgment.
[Illustration: A. Norcross]
HON. AMASA NORCROSS.
Amasa Norcross, A. M., of Fitchburg, Mass., was born in Rindge, N. H.,
January 26, 1824. His father, Daniel Norcross, was a farmer in New
Hampshire, and was the grandson of Jeremiah Norcross, the immigrant
ancestor of the family, who arrived in this country in the year 1642,
and settled at Watertown, Mass. Daniel Norcross was a man of sterling
integrity, a large land-holder, and the incumbent of many offices of
honor and trust. His wife, _nee_ Mary Jones, was also a native of New
Hampshire.
Amasa Norcross received an excellent academic education, first in the
academy of his native town, and subsequently in a similar institution at
New Ipswich, N. H. Selecting the profession of law for the life exercise
of his talents and energies, in 1844 he became a student in the office
of the Hon. Nathaniel Wood of Fitchburg, and in 1847 was admitted to the
bar. Since that time he has pursued his professional labors in the city
where he now resides. He is to-day the senior member of the Fitchburg
bar, and for many years he has been a recognized leader of the legal
fraternity in that section of the state.
In 1858, 1859, and 1862, Mr. Norcross was a member of the Massachusetts
house of representatives, having been elected thereto on the Republican
ticket. In 1858 he was a member of the committee of probate and
chancery, of which Governor Andrew, then a member of the house, was
chairman; and in 1859 and 1862 he was a member of the judiciary
committee. In August of the last-named year, he was appointed, by
President Lincoln, United States assessor for the ninth congressional
district of Massachusetts. The district was large, comprising
seventy-two townships. He filled the office with signal ability and
satisfaction for ten years, and until the office of assessor was
abolished by act of congress. In 1862 the authorities of Dartmouth
College conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts.
In the session of 1859, Mr. Norcross was appointed a member of the joint
committee of the senate and house of representatives to examine and
amend the report of the commissioners appointed to codify the laws of
the state. He gave to this work his entire attention for several months,
when report was made by the committee to the adjourned session of the
legislature, held in the autumn of that year. Upon this committee were
several distinguished lawyers, among whom were Gen. Caleb Cushing and
Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. In 1874 he was a member of the Massachusetts
senate and chairman of the judiciary committee of that body. He was also
chairman of the committee on federal relations. To him was assigned the
honor of drafting the report which recommended rescinding the
resolutions of censure upon Charles Sumner which had been passed by the
legislature of Massachusetts. Previous efforts to relieve that
distinguished statesman from that burden had failed; this succeeded. The
rescinding resolutions reached Senator Sumner at Washington a few days
before his death, and doubtless contributed materially to soothe his
last hours.
In the fall of 1876, Mr. Norcross was elected representative to congress
on the Republican ticket, over his political opponent, S. O. Lamb of
Greenfield. In 1878 he was elected a second time, over the candidates
of two political parties. He has been an active member of the Republican
party since its organization, and is now serving his third term in
congress, having been again re-elected in 1880. In the several
conventions resulting in his nomination and election, he was always
supported by the better elements in his party.
Local affairs have always received a proportionate share of Mr.
Norcross's attention. On the organization of the city government of
Fitchburg, in 1873, he received the honor of first election to the
mayoralty of the new city. He was re-elected the following year. In the
administration of its affairs his executive ability was marked.
Necessary public improvements were effected, and all bear tokens of his
excellent judgment and skill. With financial and other public
organizations he has been, for many years, prominently identified. He is
a director in the Rollstone National Bank of Fitchburg, in the Worcester
North Savings Institution, and in the Fitchburg Fire Insurance Company.
The interest of Mr. Norcross in benevolent and educational institutions
has been deep and constant, and he has done much for their advancement.
He took an active part in organizing the Fitchburg Benevolent Union, was
its first president, and he is now one of its life members. For fifteen
years he has been a trustee of the Lawrence Academy at Groton, Mass. By
act of the legislature of Massachusetts he was made one of the original
members of the corporation known as the Cushing Academy, located at
Ashburnham, and by the same act was designated as the member authorized
to call the first meeting of the trustees, of which board he is still a
member. He has contributed largely to the organizing and building up of
this now flourishing academy. For more than thirty years the labors of
Mr. Norcross connected with his large legal practice have been arduous
and continuous.
In June, 1852, he was married to S. Augusta, daughter of Benjamin and
Rebecca Wallis, of Ashby, Mass. She died March 4, 1869.
[Illustration: Geo. A. Pillsbury]
HON. GEORGE ALFRED PILLSBURY.
BY FRANK H. CARLETON.
New Hampshire is a small state, yet her sons and daughters are scattered
far and wide. They have not only built up a prosperous and influential
commonwealth at home, furnishing a talent and genius too great to be
circumscribed by territorial lines, but they have greatly aided in
laying the foundations and building up the newer sections of our
country. Let any person pass through the mighty West, and thence to the
great Northwest which to-day is doing vastly more than any section to
supply the world with bread, and he will be surprised to find the great
number of sons of New Hampshire who have attained reputation, position,
and influence. In the highest ranks of commerce, at the bar, and from
the pulpit, they wield a great influence. Their names are too numerous
to be enumerated, yet it is to but few that the distinction is given of
being distinguished in two states, and these as far apart as Minnesota
and New Hampshire. To this small but honored class belongs the subject
of this brief sketch, GEORGE ALFRED PILLSBURY, one of a family whose
name suggests high qualities.
The family history has been traced as far back as Joshua Pillsbury, who
settled a grant of land at what is now Newburyport, Mass., in the year
1640,--a grant which for over two hundred and forty years has been in
the possession of the Pillsbury family. Following him, next came in the
line of descent Caleb Pillsbury, who was born January 26, 1717, for
several years and at the time of his decease a member of the
Massachusetts provincial legislature. Caleb Pillsbury left a son
Micajah, who was born in Amesbury, Mass., May 22, 1763, and married
Sarah Sargent. The result of this union was four daughters, and four
sons--Stephen, Joseph, John, and Moses. With this family Micajah
Pillsbury removed to Sutton, N. H., where he remained until his death,
in 1802, occupying various positions of town trust. His wife survived
him several years. Of these sons, Stephen Pillsbury was a Baptist
clergyman, who died in Londonderry. The other brothers, including John
Pillsbury, the father of the subject of this sketch, were all
magistrates of the town of Sutton. The youngest sister married Nathan
Andrews, a gentleman well known in the annals of Sutton.
John Pillsbury was born in 1789. He was prominent in the town affairs of
Sutton, being a selectman for several years, and representing the town
in the state legislature. He was also a captain in the militia in those
days of the fife and drum, when a commission had a significance. On
April 2, 1811, he married Susan Wadleigh, daughter of Benjamin Wadleigh,
a settler in Sutton in 1771. Benjamin Wadleigh was a descendant of
Robert Wadleigh of Exeter, a member of the provincial legislature of
Massachusetts. On the maternal side the ancestry was good. The maternal
grandmother was the daughter of Ebenezer Kezar, who, it is related,
concealed the girl whom he afterwards married, under a pile of boards,
at the time Mrs. Duston was captured, in 1697. He was identified with
the early history of Sutton in many ways.
As we have said, John and Susan Pillsbury were the father and mother of
the subject of these lines. They were a hardy, vigorous, and exemplary
parent stock. To them were born five children, to wit: Simon Wadleigh
Pillsbury, born June 22, 1812; George Alfred, August 29, 1816; Dolly W.,
September 6, 1818; John Sargent, July 29, 1827; and Benjamin Franklin,
March 29, 1831. All of the children received the common-school education
of those days; but Simon W., whose natural fondness for study
distinguished him as a young man, gave his attention to special branches
of study, particularly mathematics, in which he became known as one of
the best in the state. He delivered the first public lecture in Sutton
on the subject of temperance. But too much study wore down his health,
and he died in 1836, cutting short a promising future.
Of the other brothers, John Sargent is too well known to need mention.
When a boy of sixteen he became a clerk for his brother, George Alfred,
at Warner, N. H. In 1848 he formed a business partnership with Walter
Harriman in Warner, neither of these two men in those days dreaming that
in the future one would be the governor of a state on the Atlantic
seaboard, and the other of one on the banks of the great Mississippi. In
1854 John S. settled in Minnesota, at the Falls of St. Anthony, around
which has grown up the beautiful city of Minneapolis, with a population
of sixty thousand. He shortly entered into the hardware trade, in which
he built up the largest business in the state, acquiring a fortune,
serving for a dozen years or more as state senator, and finally being
elected governor for three successive terms of two years each, being the
only governor of Minnesota accorded a third term. His entire
administration, which ceased in January, 1882, was a remarkable one,
characterized by many acts of wisdom, chief among which was the
adjustment of the dishonored state bonds issued at an early day for
railroad purposes.
The remaining brother, Benjamin F. Pillsbury, remained in Sutton until
1878, where he filled many places of trust, being elected selectman,
treasurer, and state representative. In 1878 he removed to Granite Falls
in western Minnesota, where he is extensively engaged in the real
estate, grain, and lumber business, and is reckoned one of the leading
citizens of his section.
But we have been drawn somewhat from the subject of this article. As we
have stated, George Alfred Pillsbury was born in Sutton, N. H., August
29, 1816. He received a thorough common-school education in the
rudimentary branches. Of a very quick and active temperament, he very
early in life had a strong determination to enter business for himself.
At the age of eighteen he became a clerk to a Boston merchant. After a
year's experience there, he returned to Sutton and entered into the
manufacture of stoves and sheet-iron ware, in company with a cousin,
John C. Pillsbury. He continued in this business until February 1840,
when he went to Warner into the store of John H. Pearson, where he
remained until the following July, when he purchased the business on his
own account, and continued in it for some eight years. In the spring of
1848 he entered into a wholesale dry-goods house in Boston, and in 1849
again returned to Warner and engaged in business there until the spring
of 1851, when he sold out his interest and went out of mercantile
business entirely. During his residence in Warner he was postmaster from
1844 to 1849, was selectman in 1847 and 1849, town treasurer in 1849,
and a representative to the general court in 1850 and 1851. He was also
selected as chairman of the committee appointed to build the Merrimack
county jail in Concord, in 1851-52, with the general superintendence of
the construction of the work, which was most faithfully done.
In November, 1851, Mr. Pillsbury was appointed purchasing agent of the
Concord Railroad, and commenced his duties in the following December,
having in the meantime moved his family to Concord. For nearly
twenty-four years he occupied this position, and discharged its duties
with rare business ability, showing wise judgment in all his purchases,
which amounted to more than three million dollars, and settling more
cases of claims against the corporation for alleged injuries to persons
and property than all the other officers of the road. He had great
quickness of perception and promptness in action, two wonderful business
qualities, which, when rightly used, always bring success.
During his residence of twenty-seven years in Concord, he gradually
acquired a position which all may envy. Various positions of trust, both
in public matters and as a private adviser, were discharged by him most
faithfully. He was one of the committee appointed by the Union
school-district to build the high school and several other school
buildings. He was also interested in the erection of several of the
handsome business blocks and fine residences in the city.
In the year 1864, Mr. Pillsbury, with others, established the First
National Bank of Concord. From the first he was one of the directors,
and in 1866 became its president, which position he held until his
departure from the state. He was also more instrumental than any other
person in organizing the National Savings Bank in 1867. Of the savings
bank he was the first president, and held the position until 1874, when
he resigned. During Mr. Pillsbury's management of the First National
Bank, it became, in proportion to its capital stock, the strongest bank
in the state. Up to December, 1873, when the treasurer was discovered to
be a defaulter to a large amount, the savings bank was one of the most
successful in the state; but this defalcation, with the general crash in
business, required its closing up. Its total deposits up to the time
mentioned exceeded three million dollars. The bank finally paid its
depositors nearly dollar for dollar and interest, notwithstanding the
large defalcation by its treasurer.
Mr. Pillsbury was elected a representative to the general court from
ward five, in 1871 and 1872, and was appointed chairman of the committee
on the apportionment of public taxes during the session of the
legislature in 1872. For several years Mr. Pillsbury was a member of the
city councils of Concord, and his intimate knowledge of public affairs
led the people to twice elect him as mayor, a position the duties of
which he discharged with that rare ability which had characterized all
his other affairs; and it was during this time that he decided, after
much consideration, and with deep reluctance, to leave Concord and move
to Minneapolis, Minn., where he had already acquired large interests.
When this resolution was made public, it drew forth strong and
wide-spread protests from the citizens and neighbors whom he had served
so long, for they felt the state could illy afford to lose such a man.
But of this we will speak later.
During his residence in Concord he was identified with all measures to
promote the public good. Both by his business judgment and his ready
purse did he aid the benevolent and religious organizations. He was
actively engaged in establishing the Centennial Home of Concord, for the
aged, making large contributions and serving at a trustee. He was also a
generous giver to the Orphans' Home at Franklin, and was a trustee from
the time of its foundation until he left the state. In 1876 he was
appointed, by the city councils, chairman of a committee of three to
appraise all the real estate of the city for taxation purposes. Several
objects attest his generosity and public spirit, among which might be
mentioned the gift to the city of the fine bell in the tower of the
Board of Trade building, and the handsome organ in the First Baptist
church,--a joint gift from himself and his son, Hon. Charles A.
Pillsbury, of Minneapolis. He also made several large contributions
towards building and endowing the academy at New London.
Upon his preparing to leave Concord for the West, in the spring of 1878,
expressions of regret came to him from all sources. Complimentary
resolutions were unanimously adopted by both branches of the city
government, and by the First National Bank, the latter testifying most
emphatically to his integrity and superior business qualities. The First
Baptist church, of which he was an active member during his residence in
Concord, and its society also passed similar resolutions. The Webster
club, composed of some fifty of the leading citizens, also adopted
resolutions regretting deeply his departure. A private testimonial
signed by over three hundred of the leading citizens of all branches of
business, all the members of the city government, all the banking
officers and professional men, was presented, and on the eve of his
departure an elegant bronze statue was presented to himself and wife by
members of the First Baptist church. In church affairs and acts of
private charity he had always shown a strong interest, which drew him
friends from all classes of people.
Coming to Minneapolis he was at once recognized, and from the moment he
established himself there he took an assured position. He at once
entered actively into the milling business (in which he had long been
interested) in the firm of C. A. Pillsbury & Co., composed of himself,
his brother, Gov. J. S. Pillsbury, and his two sons, Hon. C. A.
Pillsbury and Fred C. Pillsbury,--to-day the largest producers of flour
in the world, operating five large flouring-mills with a capacity of
seven thousand five hundred barrels per day. The business of this firm,
while selling a large amount of flour in the United States, has been
gradually directed to the European trade, supplying the foreign markets
with the very best brands of breadstuffs. To-day there is not a European
market in which their flour is not sold extensively and given the
highest quotations.
Mr. Pillsbury, much against his wishes, has been crowded again into
public life in Minnesota, and only a few weeks since, while on a trip to
the Pacific coast, in company with President Villard, to look after the
interests of the Northern Pacific Railroad, he was elected a member of
the city council of Minneapolis. He is also president of the Board of
Trade, vice-president of the Northwestern National Bank, president of
the Minneapolis Free Dispensary, and president of the Minnesota Baptist
State Association.
Despite his years, Mr. Pillsbury has all the activity and impulses of a
man of forty. He is a great friend of young men, aiding them not only by
advice but in a practical manner, and, without seeking popularity,
finding himself beloved by all. In the city of his adoption he has built
himself a handsome residence with spacious grounds. His love for his old
home manifests itself in all his tastes, and in his residence he has
wrought in the beautiful New Hampshire granite brought from his old home
in Concord.
In 1841, Mr. Pillsbury married Margaret S. Carleton, a lady beloved by
all, who has always busied herself in acts of goodness and benevolence.
No one has ever known her but to love her. From this marriage three
children were born, two sons and a daughter,--Charles A., born October
3, 1842; Mary Adda, born April 25, 1848; and Fred C., born August 27,
1852. Mary Adda died May 11, 1849. Charles A. graduated at Dartmouth
College in 1863; has been an active and successful business man in
Minneapolis for the past twelve years, for the last four years has been
a member of the state senate, and is a man greatly respected by all.
Fred C. is a practical business man, possessed of sound judgment, and is
rapidly making his way in the world.
It is needless to speak of the qualities which have given a gentleman
like George A. Pillsbury the position and influence of which we have
spoken. They are apparent to all. Starting with integrity and great
strength of purpose, possessed of a keen perception, a shrewd judge of
men, and an impressive bearing, he has attained an eminence which all
may admire. Well may New Hampshire point with pride to such a man.
[Illustration: Josiah Carpenter]
JOSIAH CARPENTER ESQ.
BY H. H. METCALF.
The men who make and whose lives illustrate the material prosperity and
progress of a nation or people are those, as a rule, whose life and
labor have been devoted in the main to the financial, commercial, and
business interests of the country. Politicians, stump-orators, and
office-holders of long continuance in place and power, may attain
greater celebrity or a wider transient popularity, and move more
effectually for the time being the tide of public sentiment; yet the
influence which moves the deep and silent yet strong and resistless
currents which make for the substantial progress and development of the
race, is that which is exercised by the active, energetic, and
persistent man of business, whose ready and thorough conception of the
demands of industry, trade, and finance, and whose prompt action at
their behest, make him not only the master of his own fortune, but, to a
great extent, that of others. Of this class of men the subject of this
sketch is a prominent representative in this state.