daughter of Capt. Stephen Hoyt, of Warner, who died two years
afterwards; and again in 1844, to his present wife, Miss Almira R.
Andrews. By the latter marriage he has had three children. Georgia, the
only daughter, is the wife of Joseph R. Leeson, an enterprising importer
of Boston. Walter Channing, the oldest son, married Miss Mabel Perkins,
of Portsmouth. He is a promising and successful lawyer, living at
Exeter, and solicitor of Rockingham county. The younger son, Benjamin E.
having prepared himself for the medical profession at some of the best
schools in the land, took his degree at Dartmouth College in 1877, and
began practice in Manchester. But his health soon failing, after patient
and determined efforts for its recovery, and after attempting in another
place to resume his professional work, he died at his father's home in
Concord, in May, 1880, lamented, not only by his own family, but by a
large circle of devoted and enthusiastic friends. His wife, so early
bereaved, was Miss Jessie B., only daughter of the late Col. Isaac W.
Farmer, of Manchester. A biographical paper read before the N. H.
Medical Society, by Dr. A. H. Crosby (a physician of wide reputation),
and printed, portrays the character of Dr. Harriman in generous outline,
and fine and tender tinting, and from it we know that he was a young man
of high integrity, large capacities for friendship, and superior
equipment for his life-work. There are two grandsons to represent the
family, one in the home of each of the governor's surviving children.
The home of Gov. Harriman in Concord, where he has now lived since 1872,
is a delightful one, and no one enjoys it with more satisfaction than he
himself. A great traveler, by the necessities of his public career, he
has a mastering fondness for quiet domestic life, and never are his rich
stores of experience, his knowledge of men, and his fine sense of humor
with its exhaustless fund of material, more ready at his command than of
an evening in his own house. He writes for various of the standard
publications of New England, and no time hangs wearisome on his mind. He
wears the honorary degree of A. M., conferred by Dartmouth College in
1867. A good citizen and neighbor, a delightful companion, free and
familiar and sympathetic with all persons, his intellectual power now at
high noon, and never better able to serve his time than now, it would
seem that many years of useful activity are before him ere the restful
evening descends.
[Illustration: Sam M Wheeler]
HON. SAMUEL METCALF WHEELER.
HON. SAMUEL METCALF WHEELER was born in Newport, N. H., May 11, 1823. He
was the only son--having one sister--of Albira and Melinda (Metcalf)
Wheeler, who came of families of remarkably vigorous constitution and
decided longevity; and from his ancestry, doubtless, Mr. Wheeler
inherits the intellectual and physical ability which has made him so
careful in breadth of study, and so successful as a legal adviser at the
bar and in legislative debate and action.
Mr. Wheeler's early education was obtained in the seminary at Claremont,
N. H., the military academy at Windsor, Vt., at Newbury Seminary, Vt.,
and in private instruction in the languages.
In 1844 he entered upon the study of law in the office of Walker &
Slade, at Royalton, Vt.; seven months later he entered that of Tracy &
Converse at Woodstock, Vt., where he remained two years and a half; and
for some months afterwards he read law with Hon. Ralph Metcalf, an
ex-governor of New Hampshire, from whose office he was admitted to the
bar in 1847. He commenced practice in Newport, where he remained about a
year. The next four or five years he practiced in Fisherville, and in
1853 he removed to Dover, where he at once entered upon a large and
successful practice, and where he still remains. At first he was in
business connection with John H. Wiggin. Esq., which lasted for two
years. Subsequently, in 1858, he associated with himself Hon. Joshua G.
Hall, then commencing practice, and the law firm of "Wheeler & Hall"
continued for eight years. Since that time. Mr. Wheeler, while having
the assistance made necessary by his practice, has remained without a
partner.
As a lawyer, Mr. Wheeler has long been recognized as a leader. His
natural abilities, strengthened and brightened by patient study, which
has made him familiar with the law and precedents, and his learning,
supplemented by the power to see all the features of a case and a
conscientious devotion to the interest of his client, make him a safe
adviser. His particular success, however, has undoubtedly been in the
trial of jury causes, where his extensive study, quickness of
perception, tact, and forensic ability, and a habit of thought which
grasps particulars into a whole, tending to one strong impression upon
listeners, have been the elements which have made him very strong.
Mr. Wheeler was from the first one of the pillars of Republican strength
in Strafford county; and when the party in Dover has needed some one to
represent it with conspicuous ability it has very often called upon him.
He represented that city in the legislature in 1864, 1865, 1868, 1869,
and 1870, and in 1876 was a member of the constitutional convention of
New Hampshire. In the house, he was on the judiciary committee in 1864,
and its chairman in 1865, also chairman of the finance committee in
1868; and in the constitutional convention was chairman of one of the
four only leading committees, vis., that on the bill of rights.
In 1869 he was chosen speaker of the house, receiving nearly all the
votes of his party in caucus, and much beyond his party vote in the
house. He was rechosen in 1870, again receiving more than the vote of
his party. As a member of the house, he was always recognized as a
leader whose counsel it was safe to follow and whose opposition was
generally fatal; and, as speaker, he was distinguished for his dignity,
courtesy, and knowledge of parliamentary law. He was several times the
leading Republican candidate for congress in the first district, and the
peculiar methods by which other men were put into the place which the
people demanded he should fill have disgraced and weakened the party in
that section ever since.
In the year 1866, Mr. Wheeler received the honorary degree of Master of
Arts from Dartmouth College. He was president of the Dover National Bank
from 1858 to 1874.
Mr. Wheeler married, December 31, 1848, Priscilla E., daughter of Joseph
W. and Phebe (Wheeler) Clement, of Franklin, N. H. They have but one
child,--Helen Maud,--born March 27, 1858. Mr. Wheeler is still in the
prime of successful practice in Dover.
[Illustration: Edward Spalding]
HON. EDWARD SPALDING, M. D.
The subject of this sketch, born at Amherst, N. H., September 15, 1813,
was the son of Dr. Matthias Spalding, who was of the fifth generation in
direct descent from Edward Spalding, who came to New England about 1632,
and settled first at Braintree, Mass., removing a few years later to
Chelmsford, Mass., of which he was one of the earliest proprietors. Col.
Simeon Spalding married, for his second wife, Mrs. Abigail Wilson, whose
maiden name was Johnson, the fourth generation in descent from Edward
Johnson of Woburn, who came from Kent county, England. Matthias Spalding
was one of the youngest of her children, born at Chelmsford, June 25,
1769, and graduated at Harvard College in 1798. Adopting the medical
profession, he went abroad to perfect his education by attending
lectures in London. Having a natural aptitude for the practice of
medicine and surgery, with this superior training, he was soon
distinguished for his successful treatment of disease, and his services
were widely sought.
In 1806, after the settlement of Matthias Spalding at Amherst, he
married Rebecca Wentworth, daughter of Hon. Joshua Atherton, and sister
of Charles H. Atherton, an eminent lawyer and father of Hon. Charles G.
Atherton, late United States senator. Mrs. Spalding was a woman of a
refined nature and elegant manners. Of eight children, Edward was the
first son and the fourth child. Favored in his parentage, he was also
favored in the circumstances and companionships of his early life. The
society of Amherst embraced a number of families of superior talents and
education. Among the children of these families he was an active, manly,
and generous boy, fond of fishing and athletic sports, and popular with
his schoolmates.
When eleven years of age he was sent to Chelmsford, to be under the
instruction of Rev. Abiel Abbott. At thirteen, he was one of a company
of Amherst lads who became students at Pinkerton Academy, in Derry, then
in charge of Abel F. Hildreth, a celebrated master in those days. While
preparing for college, he was associated with Jarvis Gregg, Stephen
Chase, James F. Joy, and James McCollom, who were subsequently
distinguished as scholars, becoming tutors in the college at Hanover,
after graduation. In college young Spalding made good use of his
opportunities, and counted among his friends and classmates at Dartmouth
Rev. F. A. Adams, Ph. D., Prof. Joseph C. Bodwell, D. D., Hon. J. F.
Joy, LL. D., John Lord, LL. D., Judge Fowler of Concord, and Rev. E.
Quincy S. Waldron, president of Borromeo College, Md.
In the autumn following his graduation, in 1833, young Spalding went to
Lexington, Ky., hoping to obtain employment as a teacher. The effort to
establish a private classical school in Lexington, though widely
advertised, was not successful. The patronage did not answer to the
promises of the ambitious prospectus, and, after a trial of a few weeks,
the enterprise was abandoned as unremunerative. The West was not to be
the scene of Dr. Spalding's life, nor teaching his employment.
Mr. Spalding returned to New England in the spring of 1834, and
commenced the study of medicine in the office of his father at Amherst.
He attended three courses of lectures in the Harvard Medical School at
Boston, and was graduated at that institution in the summer of 1837.
Having spent a few months riding with his father, and observing his
treatment of the sick, he decided to enter on what seemed a promising
field for a physician at Nashua. Accepting an invitation from the elder
Dr. Eldredge, he became a partner with him in practice. After this
partnership was dissolved the business increased, and he gained for
himself an extensive and valuable patronage. He enjoyed the confidence
of a large circle of families, and his success as a physician had given
him an enviable reputation. In the meantime he had been called to assume
responsibilities of a fiduciary nature, involving such care and labor as
seriously to interfere with his professional engagements. The transition
to these new employments was the natural sequence of the excellent
judgment and rare capacity for business which he manifested. The
accuracy and promptitude with which his accounts were rendered to the
probate, and the just consideration for the feelings and interests of
all persons concerned in the settlement of the estates committed to his
trust, brought such a pressure of occupation that he was compelled to
relinquish his profession.
He had now been in practice twenty-five years, and satisfactory as his
services as a physician had been to the community, he was yet to perform
an imperative and valuable service by his judicious management of
important trusts and his earnest co-operation in the direction and
enlargement of new enterprises. In addition to his engagements in the
settlement of large estates, he became interested in banking,
manufacturing, and railroads, holding various offices of labor and
responsibility in these institutions and corporations. He was for
several years treasurer of the Nashua Savings Bank and subsequently its
president. He was one of the original projectors of the "Pennichuck
Water-Works," of which company he is president. A director in both of
the large cotton manufacturing companies which have contributed so much
to the prosperity of the city, he has also fulfilled similar duties in
other corporations elsewhere. For a time a director, he has become the
president, of the Indian Head National Bank.
In municipal and town offices he has performed important duties, taking
a lively interest in the progress of popular education. He has been a
member of the school committee a large portion of the time that he has
lived in Nashua, and is now chairman of the board of education. A member
of the New Hampshire Historical Society, his encouragement and
assistance are gratefully acknowledged by several gentlemen who have
been engaged in the preparation and publication of genealogical and town
histories. He has also been actively engaged in building up the city
library, of which he has been a trustee from the beginning of the
enterprise.
Never seeking political preferment, and personally disinclined to the
strife for political distinctions, he was elected mayor of the city in
1864, and served as delegate to the Baltimore convention in the same
year. He was a member of the state convention for the revision of the
constitution in 1876, and councilor for two years during the
administration of his Excellency Governor Prescott, 1878 and 1879.
In 1866 he was elected a trustee of Dartmouth College, a position which
he still retains, and in which he has contributed to the substantial
prosperity of the institution by frequent, unobtrusive gifts, and the
steady service of a loyal and judicious mind. He has also represented
Dartmouth College as a trustee of the College of Agriculture and the
Mechanic Arts during the whole period of its existence as a department
of instruction.
On the 23d of June, 1842, Dr. Spalding was united in marriage with Dora
Everett, second daughter of Joseph and Mary Appleton Barrett, of New
Ipswich, a family associated favorably with the history of the town so
widely known by the character and achievements of its sons. By this
marriage Dr. Spalding had three children, of whom two daughters are
living; the second child, a son. Edward Atherton, died November 10,
1863, aged eleven years and two months. With this exception, the life of
Dr. Spalding has been singularly exempt from afflictive changes. Happy
in the circle of his kindred and the connections formed by marriage, his
home has been a welcome resort to the youth of both families, while the
older generation was tenderly cared for by the thoughtful and continued
ministrations of this son and his companion.
As might be inferred from what has been said of the general esteem in
which Dr. Spalding is held, he has many personal friends among men of
thoughtful and scholarly habits. Himself a student, and thoroughly awake
to whatever affects the nation's welfare, he has been a careful reader
of current history. He has marked the progress of the various moral and
political questions that agitate the minds of the people and shape the
legislation of the country, with deep concern that the issues might be
favorable to the principles of truth and righteousness. A sincere
believer in the teachings of our Divine Lord, he has recognized as a
Christian the claims of the country, as well as the claims of the city
where he dwells. A liberal and constant contributor to the institutions
which are organized to extend the knowledge of Christ throughout the
world, he is known as the patron and advocate of missions at home and
abroad. For many years he has been the president of the New Hampshire
Bible Society. He has cheerfully borne his full proportion of the
expenses incident to the maintenance of the local institutions of public
worship and religious instruction in the church and society with which
he is connected. When the meeting-house of the First Congregational
church was burned, he at once proposed to his friend, Mr. Isaac
Spalding, that they two should each give ten thousand dollars towards
the cost of rebuilding,--a proposition to which Mr. Spalding promptly
assented, thus insuring the immediate erection of the commodious and
pleasant edifice which that church now owns.
With such a variety of offices and engrossing employments still
demanding his attention, we should anticipate that the duties would
become burdensome, and the skillful hand lose something of its cunning;
but the Doctor is still vigorous and works easily. This continued
capacity for labor is doubtless owing to the natural endowments of a man
who has nurtured his forces by avoiding excesses on the one hand, and on
the other by carefully husbanding his strength. He has not only arranged
his business on system, but he has resolutely reserved to himself,
annually, seasons of almost absolute rest. Retaining his early fondness
for fishing, for a few weeks in every year he has resorted to the
mountain streams and inland lakes of northern New England for his
favorite recreation. In these excursions he has sought the head waters
of most of our rivers, and become acquainted with the grand and
beautiful scenery of the mountain region. He has learned the haunts and
habits of all the fish to be found in our streams, and of the birds that
frequent our forests. By this method has he renewed his youth, while,
with others of congenial tastes, he has made his knowledge tributary to
the public good, by joint efforts to restore the migratory fishes to the
waters of the state, from which, by artificial obstructions, they have
been shut out. The board of fish and game commissioners for New
Hampshire, of which Dr. Spalding is chairman, is an outgrowth of this
joint endeavor that promises to enlarge the piscatory resources of the
state.
With this record of the number and variety of trusts which are still in
his hands, and the appointments that he must meet daily, and from week
to week, it is evident that the Doctor is still capable of continuous
labor. His grateful testimony addressed to his classmates is, "I have
enjoyed almost uninterrupted health, and a degree of happiness and
prosperity far beyond the common lot." The sources of his good fortune
are not to be sought in extraordinary gifts or peculiar helps. Beginning
life with a sound mind and sound body, he has cherished both by regular
habits and studious industry. By fidelity and painstaking in business,
by generous and considerate treatment of others, by using his influence
and property in befriending the needy and helping young men struggling
with adverse circumstances, by cherishing the friendship of good men in
all classes of society, and in daily recognition of his need of guidance
and wisdom from God,--he has escaped the envy and conflicts which beset
a selfish and ambitious career. Happy in his employments, and enjoying
the good that followed his exertions, men have witnessed his advancement
with pleasure and sought to do him honor. His life illustrates the value
of those personal excellences which all may cultivate, and shows the
readiness of mankind to recognize their worth. To such as are seeking to
do right and serve their generation, the example is encouraging, and
assures us that energy, integrity, and beneficence are not without
rewards.
[Illustration: Yours truly
James A. Weston]
HON. JAMES A. WESTON.
By H. H. Metcalf.
Much has been written in praise of Manchester, the foremost city of the
state in size and importance, in the extent and variety of its
manufacturing establishments and in the energy, activity, and public
spirit of its citizens. It has been called, also, the "city of
governors," and four of the nine living ex-chief-magistrates of the
state have their residence within its borders; while still another,
residing in the immediate vicinity, is reckoned as substantially a
Manchester man. Yet, after all, but one native of Manchester has ever
held the office of governor of New Hampshire. What is far more
remarkable is the fact, that of twenty men who have been chosen mayor of
Manchester, one alone was born within its limits. He and Manchester's
only native born governor are one and the same,--the subject of this
sketch,--a man who, from the work he has accomplished, as well as from
the distinction he has received at the hands of his fellow-citizens, has
long been accorded a conspicuous position among the representative men
of his city and state.
JAMES ADAMS WESTON was born in Manchester, August 27, 1827. He is a
descendant of the seventh generation from John Weston, of
Buckinghamshire, England, who aided in establishing the colony at
Weymouth (then Wiscasset), Mass., where he went into mercantile
business, being among the first to engage in the colonial trade.
Returning to England a few years subsequently, he suddenly died there;
but in 1644, John Weston, a young son of the deceased, made his way to
America, where he joined some of his kindred who had emigrated in the
mean time. He finally settled in Reading, Mass., and was the progenitor
of the family of which James A. Weston is a representative.[1]
In 1803, Amos Weston, a descendant of John, removed from Reading, with
his family, and settled in Manchester, then Derryfield. He was a farmer
by occupation, and located in the southeastern part of the town. This
Amos Weston was a man of character and influence, and was a member of
the committee, chosen in March, 1810, to petition the legislature to
change the name of Derryfield to Manchester. A son of the above, Amos
Weston, Jr., removed with his parents to Derryfield, and located upon
land adjoining that of his father, clearing up from the wilderness the
farm since well known in Manchester as the "Weston place." He married
Betsy, a daughter of Col. Robert Wilson, of Londonderry, a leading
citizen of the town, whose father, James Wilson, came from Londonderry,
Ireland, more than one hundred and fifty years ago, and settled at the
place now known as Wilson's Crossing. Amos Weston, Jr., was a man of
strong mind and sound judgment, and was much in the public service. He
officiated as town clerk five years; as selectman, fifteen years, being
eleven years chairman of the board; was three times the representative
from Manchester in the legislature; and a member of the constitutional
convention of 1850. From his union with Betsy Wilson--an estimable and
exemplary woman--five children resulted. Of these, the youngest, James
A. Weston, is the sole survivor.
Like most sons of New Hampshire farmers, Mr. Weston passed a
considerable portion of his time in youth in tilling the soil; but
secured a substantial education at the district school and the
Manchester and Piscataquog academies. With a strong aptitude for
mathematics, he soon determined to apply himself to the study of civil
engineering, with a view to making that his avocation in life, teaching
school winters in the meantime. So rapidly did he prepare himself for
his chosen occupation that at the age of nineteen years he was appointed
assistant civil engineer of the Concord Railroad, and immediately (in
1846) commenced work in superintending the laying of the second track of
that road. In 1849 he was promoted to the position of chief engineer,
which he held for a long series of years. For several years, also, he
discharged the duties of road master and master of transportation of the
Concord and Manchester & Lawrence railroads. As chief engineer of the
Concord & Portsmouth Railroad, he superintended the construction of a
considerable portion of the line, as he subsequently did that of the
Suncook Valley Railroad. As a civil engineer, he occupies a place in the
front rank in his profession in New England; and his services have been
in demand far beyond his ability to respond, in making surveys for
proposed railways, water-works, etc. Prominent among the public works
with which he has been connected in this capacity, may be mentioned the
Concord water-works, supplying the capital city with water from Penacook
lake, for which he made the survey, and whose construction he
superintended.
In his political convictions and associations, Mr. Weston has been a
Democrat from youth. Never a machine politician, or even a zealous
partisan, though a devoted supporter of the principles and policy of his
party, he has won and held the personal respect of both friends and
opponents in political affairs; so that, when a candidate for public
office (which he has never been except at the urgent solicitation of
those who regarded his candidacy essential to party success), he has
never failed of strong popular support, measurably exceeding that of his
party strength alone. In 1861 he was persuaded to accept the Democratic
nomination for mayor of the city. Previous to this time Manchester had
almost universally been regarded as a Republican or Whig city. The year
previous to Mr. Weston's nomination the Republican candidate had been
elected by nearly four hundred and fifty majority. He was defeated,
however, by a majority of about two hundred and fifty; while the
following year he came within eighteen votes of defeating the opposing
candidate, ex-Mayor Theodore T. Abbot, who received on a former occasion
a larger vote than had ever been cast for any other candidate.