engineering and surveying, and finally determined to follow engineering
as a profession. He gave up school-teaching, left the "foreign shores of
Jersey" and entered the office of R. Morris Copeland and C. W. Folsom,
of Boston. His first work was the resurvey of Cambridgeport. He
afterwards worked in Dorchester and on Narragansett bay. But this new
occupation had just been engaged in when "the shot heard round the
world" was fired on Sumter, and the tocsin of war sounded the alarm.
Surveying, like all other business, came to a stand-still; the compass
was changed for a musket, distances measured by the steady tramp of the
soldiery, and the weary flagman became the lonely sentinel.
About this time the owners of the Pembroke mill and property connected
therewith, in Pembroke and Allenstown, N. H., decided to increase their
business by building a new mill twice the capacity of the one then owned
by them. Knowing Mr. Jewell to be a good draughtsman, having employed
him during the construction of the Pembroke mill, they again engaged him
for like duties. Consulting with their then resident agent, he prepared
the required working plans and drawings for the Webster mill. The work
on the building was soon under way and rapidly pushed to completion.
While thus engaged the agent at Newton died, and the immediate care of
the mills was given to Mr. Jewell until (as the treasurer said) he could
find the right man.
Finishing his work at Suncook, and having conducted the affairs of the
company at Newton in a very satisfactory manner, the treasurer tendered
him the agency of the mills. In accepting the position, his career as
agent began where, fifteen years before, he commenced the work that
fitted him so thoroughly for the successful management of the same. The
mills were in a bad condition, the machinery old, and "run down," and
the owners impatient and anxious. Nothing daunted, however, Mr. Jewell
entered heartily into the business, making such changes that at the time
he tendered his resignation he had doubled the production, and greatly
improved the quality of the goods manufactured. Looms built more than
fifty years ago, and improved by Mr. Jewell, are still running and
producing nearly as many yards per day, and of as good quality, as those
made at the present time. These mills were run throughout the war,
paying for cotton as high as one dollar a pound, and selling the cloth
for thirty-five cents a yard. Mr. Jewell was very anxious to enlist
during the exciting times of war, but was prevailed upon by the owners
to continue in charge of their works, and by the entreaties of his wife,
who was hopelessly ill, to remain at her side.
The treasurer and part owner of the mills at Newton Upper Falls was also
treasurer and large owner of the mills at Suncook. In 1865 the Suncook
company agitated the subject of enlarging their works by the addition of
another mill, and in 1867 active operations were commenced upon the
China mill, which was, when completed, the largest works of the kind
contained under one roof in the state. Mr. Jewell again fulfilled the
office of engineer and draughtsman. The company's agent at Suncook,
wishing to devote his time exclusively to the construction of the new
mill, desired that Mr. Jewell come from Newton several days each week to
look after the manufacturing in the two mills. Thus for more than two
years he acted as agent at Newton, also as superintendent of the Webster
and Pembroke mills.
In 1870, before the China mill had fairly commenced operations, the
agent resigned his position. Mr. Jewell, having at Newton proved
diligent, faithful, and capable, was appointed in his stead. Resigning
his position at Newton he removed with his family to Suncook, and
assumed the management of the triumvirate corporation, June 1, 1870.
Again he was obliged to go through nearly the same routine as at Newton.
The machinery, however, was more modern, but had been neglected,
supplies scantily distributed, and the power was inadequate to the
demand. With indomitable perseverance he has remedied the defects, by
providing reservoirs, more thoroughly utilizing the water power, adding
new and valuable improvements, putting in powerful steam apparatus
capable of running during the most severe drought. He has increased the
annual product from twelve million yards in 1874 to twenty-seven million
yards in 1880, with substantially the same machinery, showing what
tireless perseverance and devotion to duty can accomplish.
Mr. Jewell is one of the directors in the China Savings Bank, Suncook.
He is also a member of the New England Cotton Manufacturers'
Association, and of the New Hampshire club. Mr. Jewell was honored by
being appointed aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel, on Governor
Head's staff, and smilingly speaks of turning out _officially_ more
times than any one of the other members. He is a member of the Governor
Head Staff Association, an active member of the Ancient and Honorable
Artillery Company of Boston, a member of the Amoskeag Veterans of
Manchester, a member of the New Hampshire Veterans' Association, and an
honorary member of the old Twelfth New Hampshire regiment. He was
elected captain of the Jewell Rifles, named in his honor, but graciously
declined, and was made an honorary member. The Masonic fraternity also
claims him, being an active member of the "Jewell" Lodge, Suncook, also
named in his honor, and of the Trinity Royal Arch Chapter, Horace Chase
Council R. and S. M., and Mount Horeb Commandry, Concord, N. H. He is a
member of the Supreme Council, having taken all the Scottish rites up to
the 33d degree, and is an active member of the Massachusetts Consistory
S.'. P.'. R.'. S.'. 32d degree, Boston, and a member of the Connecticut
River Valley Association.
Colonel Jewell is a public-spirited citizen. To him Suncook is largely
indebted for its material advancement since his residence in this
community. Three times have his presence of mind and mechanical skill
been the means of saving the village from entire destruction by fire. To
him is the place indebted for its very effective water-works to guard
against fires in the future.
In happy combination with the great executive ability of the subject of
our sketch, are a fine literary taste and decided artistic talent. The
former has opportunity for gratification in a library rich in standard
works, and the latter is attested by the exterior architectural
decorations and interior embellishments that beautify his home. In
private life, Col. Jewell is genial, affable and approachable. In
religious thought he affiliates with the Congregationalists; but the
Sabbath is to him a day of rest.
Mr. Jewell married, in August, 1860, Mary A. Grover, daughter of Ephraim
Grover, of Newton, Mass. She died October 16, 1862. He was married the
second time, May 31, 1865, to Ella Louise Sumner, daughter of Lewis
Sumner, of Needham, Mass.
Mr. Jewell has kept aloof from politics, but is a good Republican; and,
should he be the standard-bearer of the party in any future contest, he
could probably lead his forces to victory.
[Illustration: Chas. M. Murphy]
HON. CHARLES M. MURPHY.
BY JOHN B. STEVENS, JR.
We live in days when the success of men apparently born to lives of
grinding toil is a pregnant sign of the times. Such opportunities are
now open to him who has a good order of ability, with high health and
spirits, who has all his wits about him, and feels the circulation of
his blood and the motions of his heart, that the lack of early
advantages forms no barrier to success. A striking illustration of the
truth of these statements is exhibited in the following sketch.
CHARLES M. MURPHY, son of John and Mary M. (Meader) Murphy, was born in
Alton, Belknap county, N. H., November 3, 1835. In 1842 his parents
moved to Barnstead, N. H., and settled upon the Tasker farm at the south
end of the town. Here the child grew in stature, and filled out and
braced his frame by hard manual labor.
Scanty record is left of these years of severe work and continuous
struggle; but there is little doubt that the discipline developed an
indomitable will and sturdy self-reliance--which alone enable poor men's
children to grapple with the world--that under more favorable
circumstances might never have shown their full capacity of force and
tenacity.
Again, it is widely believed--and nowhere more strongly than in opulent
cities and busy marts--that a boy is better bred on a farm, in close
contact with the ground, than elsewhere. He is quite as likely to be
generous, brave, humane, honest, and straightforward, as his city-born
contemporary; while, as to self-dependence, strength, and stamina, he
ordinarily has a great advantage over his rival.
He attended the district school, during the winter terms, until of an
age suitable to leave the parental care, when he enjoyed for two terms
the advantages of the academy at Norwich, Vt. At school it appears that
he was diligent and ambitious, and, from his great physical strength and
natural cheerfulness of temperament, very active in all athletic
exercises. Then began the severe and practical duties of life; and,
being the oldest of four boys, for some years he assisted his father in
educating and advancing the interests of his brothers. John E. Murphy
became a prominent dentist, practicing in Pittsfield, N. H., and
Marblehead, Mass., and died at the early age of thirty-five. Frank
Murphy, M. D., a graduate of Dartmouth College, practiced his profession
in Strafford and Northwood; but died in the very flush and promise of
life, at the age of twenty-nine. Albert Warren Murphy, D. D. S., a
graduate of the Philadelphia Dental College, after one year's practice
in Boston, removed, in 1872, to Paris, France, where his professional
labors brought him both credit and profit. At the expiration of two
years, an active interest in Spanish affairs and a desire to test the
business advantages of the country led him to Spain. He soon settled in
Madrid, and in 1879 was appointed dentist to the royal court.
Relieved from his generous labors at home, the subject of our sketch was
married, at the age of twenty-two, to Sabrina T. Clark, daughter of
Isaac Clark, Esq., of Barnstead, N. H., and for six months tried
independent farming; but, though fully aware what a life full of joy and
beauty and inspiration is that of the country, and not destitute of a
natural taste for rural pursuits, at the expiration of the time named he
surrendered his acres to his father, and with less than one hundred and
fifty dollars moved to Dover and began the study of dentistry with Dr.
Jefferson Smith. To this business he brought the same will power and
ability to prolong the hours of labor which marked his early life, and
in two years was pronounced competent to practice in his new calling.
Dr. Smith soon died, and the recently emancipated student not only
succeeded very largely to his practice, but enlarged and built upon it
till a reputation and an income were secured which made travel and study
easy and profitable. For eighteen years this patient, hopeful man
labored and experimented, adding each season to his knowledge and skill,
losing hardly a day except while studying for his degree at the Boston
Dental College. In 1878, as the result of long and careful study of the
business interests of the country, he withdrew entirely from his
profession and embarked his all in the precarious occupation of a
broker. Here his coolness, sagacity, and equableness of temper found
their proper field, and such a measure of success has followed as falls
to the lot of few men not bred from youth amid the fluctuations of the
stock market. In his new occupation he is indefatigable in procuring
information, and alike keen in discerning new traits in men and shrewd
in contrasting them with those which are more common and better known.
Very naturally the subject of our sketch took a lively interest in
political affairs upon becoming of age. A strong and devoted Republican,
in his adopted city his influence in local politics has been felt for
years. He was a member of the state house of representatives in 1871 and
1873; attached to the staff of Gov. Straw; appointed and confirmed as
consul to Moscow--honor declined; a member of the Chicago convention in
1880, where he stoutly supported Blaine so long as a ray of hope
remained; president of the Dover Five Cent Savings Bank--from a state of
torpor and weakness it has grown under his guiding hand into activity
and strength; elected mayor of the city of Dover in 1880, and recently
chosen for another term; recipient of the honorary degree of A. B. from
Lewis College in 1881. Through all his mature life, Col. Murphy has been
a busy man.
But the energetic and successful are not exempt from the sorrows common
to humanity. Three children, who, if spared, might put off to a distant
day the weariness that inevitably comes with advancing years, died while
young; and finally the partner of all his vicissitudes bade him a final
adieu. His second wife, Mrs. Eliza T. Hanson, widow of the late John T.
Hanson, of Dover, dispenses a gracious hospitality in the spacious and
richly furnished Cushing-street mansion.
In closing we may add, Col. Murphy combines qualities which are
generally found apart,--a love for work amounting to dedication, and a
readiness to assist the unfortunate which seems ingrained. His abode is
full of cheerfulness. No one comes there who does not receive a hearty
welcome; no one departs without feeling as if leaving a home.
[Illustration: Hy. C. Sherburne]
HENRY C. SHERBURNE.
HENRY CLAY SHERBURNE, son of Reuben R. and Sally (Rackleyft Staples)
Sherburne, was born in Charlestown, Mass., December 9, 1830. His father
was a native of Pelham and his mother of Newmarket; so, although born
outside the limits of the state, he is wholly of New Hampshire lineage.
His early education, obtained in the public schools of Boston,
terminated when he was fifteen years of age, at which time he entered
the employ of Holbrook & Tappan, hardware dealers, in whose store he
remained three years.
At the age of eighteen years he gained his first experience in railroad
business, serving as a clerk in the freight department of the Boston &
Lowell Railroad, under his father, who was agent of the upper roads
doing business with that corporation. Accepting a clerkship in the
office of the Concord Railroad, he removed to Concord in 1851. After a
year's service with the Concord Railroad, he entered the employ of the
Concord & Claremont Railroad, where he remained until 1865, a period of
thirteen years.
In July, 1865, after the adjournment of the legislature of that year, of
which he was a member from ward five, Concord, he removed to Boston,
entering into the business of railroad supplies in partnership with his
brother, Charles W. Sherburne. He remained there until March, 1880, when
he was elected president and a director of the Northern Railroad.
During his residence in Boston, in 1876, he was elected president of the
New York & Boston Despatch Express Company, which position he still
holds. In the summer of 1880 he was elected president and a director of
the Concord & Claremont and Sullivan railroads, and subsequently a
director of the Concord Railroad. In September, 1881, he was chosen
general manager of the Boston, Lowell, and Concord railroads, under the
business contracts between those roads. In 1878 he was sole trustee of
the Hinkley Locomotive-Works, upon the failure of that company, and
operated the works for about two years.
He is now a resident of ward four, Concord. He has a wife, and one
son--Henry A. Sherburne, eleven years of age.
ZIMRI S. WALLINGFORD.
BY HON. JOSHUA G. HALL.
Famous as the small farming towns of New Hampshire have been in
producing men eminent in the learned professions, they have not been
less prolific in furnishing young men who have achieved distinction and
borne great sway in what are recognized as the more practical business
pursuits. Inventors, constructors, skilled artisans, the men who have
taken the lead in developing our manufacturing interests and bringing
toward perfection intricate processes, those who have increased the
volume of trade at home and abroad, and have become merchant princes,
have come, as a rule, from the plain farm-houses and common schools of
our thousand hillsides. The stern virtues, the rigid frugality, and the
unflagging industry always insisted on in the home life, supplemented by
the limited but intensely practical learning gained in the district
school, have furnished successive generations of young men compact,
firm, and robust in their whole make-up, strong of body, clear and
vigorous of mind, the whole impress and mold of their moral natures in
harmony with right doing. These men have been a permeating force for
good through all classes of our population, and towers of strength in
our national life. The life of the subject of this sketch is a well
rounded example of such young men.
ZIMRI SCATES WALLINGFORD, the son of Samuel and Sallie (Wooster)
Wallingford, was born in Milton, in the county of Strafford, October 7,
1816.
Nicholas Wallington, who came, when a boy, in the ship "Confidence," of
London, to Boston in the year 1638, settled in Newbury, Mass., where he
married, August 30, 1654, Sarah, daughter of Henry and Bridget Travis,
who was born in 1636. He was captured on a sea-voyage, and never
returned; and his estate was settled in 1684. With his children (of whom
he had eight), the surname became _Wallingford_.
John Wallingford, son of the emigrant Nicholas, born in 1659, married
Mary, daughter of Judge John and Mary Tuttle, of Dover, N. H.; but he
lived in that part of Rowley, Mass., now known as Bradford. He had seven
children; one of these was Hon. Thomas Wallingford, of that part of
ancient Dover afterwards Somersworth, and now known as Rollinsford, who
was one of the wealthiest and most eminent men of the province,
associate justice of the supreme court from 1748 until his death, which
took place at Portsmouth, August 4, 1771. The eldest son of John
Wallingford, and grandson of the emigrant, was John Wallingford, born
December 14, 1688, settled in Rochester, N. H., and became an extensive
land-owner. His will, dated October 7, 1761, was proved January 17,
1762. His son, Peter Wallingford, who inherited the homestead and other
land in Rochester (then including Milton), made his will April 18, 1771,
which was proved August 24, 1773. His son, David Wallingford, settled
upon the lands in Milton, then a wilderness. He died in 1815, being the
father of Samuel Wallingford, who was father of Zimri S.
[Illustration: Z. S. Wallingford]
Upon his mother's side, Mr. Wallingford is descended from Rev. William
Worcester, the first minister of the church in Salisbury, Mass., and
ancestor of the eminent New England family of that name or its
equivalent, _Wooster_. Lydia Wooster, great-aunt of Mr. Wallingford, was
the wife of Gen. John Sullivan of Durham, major-general in the army of
the Revolution, and the first governor of the state of New Hampshire;
she was mother of Hon. George Sullivan of Exeter, who was
attorney-general of this state for thirty years.
In 1825 the father of Mr. Wallingford died, leaving his widow with four
children, of which this son, then nine years of age, was the eldest. At
the age of twelve he commenced learning the trade of a country
blacksmith. When he had wrought for his master as his boyish strength
would allow for two years, he determined not to be content with being
simply a blacksmith, and entered the machine-shop of the Great Falls
Manufacturing Company at Great Falls, N. H., and served a full
apprenticeship at machine-building there, in Maryland, Virginia, and in
the city of Philadelphia.
August 27, 1840, Mr. Wallingford married Alta L. G. Hilliard, daughter
of Rev. Joseph Hilliard, pastor of the Congregational church in Berwick,
Maine, from 1796 to 1827. Their children have been (1) John O.
Wallingford, who was sergeant-major, and became lieutenant in the
Fifteenth N. H. volunteers, in the war of the rebellion; was severely
wounded in the assault on Port Hudson; and was afterwards captain in the
Eighteenth N. H., an officer of great merit, whose death at his home in
Dover, March 23, 1872, was the result of disease contracted in his war
service. (2) Mary C., now wife of Sidney A., Phillips Esq.,
counselor-at-law in Framingham, Mass.; (3) Julia, residing with her
parents.
In 1844, Mr. Wallingford entered the employ of the Cocheco Manufacturing
Company, Dover, N. H., as master machine-builder, and remained in that
capacity until 1849. During that period, Mr. Wallingford and a partner,
by contract, constructed new machinery, cards, looms, dressing-frames,
and nearly everything necessary for the re-equipment of the mills. The
then new and large mill at Salmon Falls was also supplied with the new
machinery necessary, in the same manner.
In 1849 he became superintendent of the company's mills, under the then
agent, Captain Moses Paul, and upon the death of that gentleman, was, on
the first day of August, 1860, appointed agent of the company. He has
continued to fill that office to the present time. Taking into account
the great social and public influence, as well as the recognized ability
with which his predecessor had for many years administered the affairs
of the Cocheco company, the magnitude of its operations, the force and
grasp of mind necessary to carry on its affairs successfully, it was
evident to all familiar with the situation upon the death of Captain
Paul, that no ordinary man could occupy the place with credit to
himself, or to the respect of the public, or the satisfaction of the
corporation.
Fully conscious of the responsibility assumed, and full of the
determination which an ardent nature is capable of, not only to maintain
the reputation of his company but to extend its operations and raise the
standard of its manufactured goods, it is not overstating the fact to
say that in the last twenty years few manufacturing companies have made
greater strides in the extent of their works, in the quality of their
goods, or their reputation in the great markets, than has the Cocheco
under the management of Mr. Wallingford. Always strong financially, its
wheels have never, during that time, been idle in any season of panic or
monetary depression. Honorable, and ever generous to all its employes,
its machinery has never stopped for a day at the demand of any organized
strike. The pride, as well as the main business interest of Dover, Mr.
Wallingford has always made his company popular with the people; its
word proverbially is as good as its bond. The importance of the work is
seen in the fact that the mills were, when Mr. Wallingford took charge,
of a so-called capacity of fifty-seven thousand spindles; it is now one
hundred and twenty thousand; and the reputation of the goods is
world-wide. Twelve hundred operatives are on the books of his charge.
To a stranger to the home life of Dover these results seem the great
life-work of Mr. Wallingford; but such an one, in making up his
estimate, will fail to do justice to some of the elements of character
which have, by skillful adaptation, contributed to so great success. To
one so observing, the marked traits of the individual are lost sight of
in the results of his career. To those only who are personally familiar
with the individual are the real elements of success apparent. Of
course, without the strong common sense and good judgment which we sum
up as "business sagacity," Mr. Wallingford's successes would have been
failures; but, to one familiar with his daily life for a score of years,
it is apparent that the crowning excellence of his life, and the power
which has supplemented his mental force and rounded out his life, have
been his stern moral sense.