concentration of all his mental faculties on any subject which
interested him, were the predominant peculiarities of the early
manhood of Mr. George. When he came to the bar, he manifested a
power of felicitous language, and a largeness of vocabulary,
which were rarely to be seen even in the most practiced
speakers. He never prepared beforehand the words of his spoken
utterances, either at the bar, in the committee-room, or on the
stump. Whatever he could see and understand at all, he saw and
understood clearly. The strength of his feelings, the enormous
power and range of his vocabulary, added to this clearness of
vision, made mere verbal preparation unnecessary for him. His
speaking was made up of a clear perception of the turning-point
of his case, and then of pungent epigram, sparkling paradox,
rattling attack, vivid repartee, hearty humor, and, when
occasion called for, of a fearlessness of denunciation of what
he believed to be wrong or unjust or unfair, which made him,
even at the outset of his brilliant career, a dangerous
antagonist for the most practiced and powerful members of the
New Hampshire bar."
Though not retiring from general practice, Col. George has devoted his
attention largely to railroad law for many years past, having accepted,
in 1867, the position of solicitor for the Boston & Lowell Railroad, and
established an office in Boston for the transaction of business in
connection with that position. For nearly twenty years previous to that
date he had served as clerk and counsel of the Concord Railroad
corporation, and had already become familiar with the law of railways
and their general relations to the public. To-day there is no higher
living authority upon railroad law in New England than Col. George,--no
man who understands more thoroughly or can state more clearly the
respective rights, duties, and obligations of railroad corporations and
the people, in relation to each other, a general understanding of which
is becoming more and more essential to the fullest measure of our
national prosperity. His public addresses upon the subject, his
arguments before legislative committees, courts, and juries, are models
of clearness and cogency, admirable in construction and convincing in
effect.
Notwithstanding his uninterrupted devotion to the law, Col. George is no
less generally known in politics than at the bar. Well grounded in the
faith of the Democratic party in his youthful years, his intimate
association with Pierce, Peaslee, and other distinguished leaders of
that organization in his early manhood served to intensify his feelings
and convictions in that regard, so he has ever been a ready and zealous
exponent of Democratic principles and a champion of the Democratic
cause, contributing his services without stint in conventions, in
committee work, and upon the stump, doing able and brilliant service in
the latter direction in all parts of the state, and in almost every
campaign for the past thirty-five years. He long since came to be
regarded as one of the most powerful and effective political debaters in
the state. His efforts upon the stump are characterized by the same
earnestness, the same sledge-hammer logic, and the same comprehensive
array of facts, as at the bar. His mode of warfare, political as well
as legal, is of the Napoleonic order. He never assumes the defensive,
and if placed in such position by any combination of circumstances he
soon transforms it into one of active aggression.
From 1851 to 1853, inclusive, Col. George served as chairman of the
Democratic state committee, and again in 1856. In 1852 he was also
selected as the New Hampshire member of the Democratic national
committee, and he was especially active in the campaign, both in the
state and the country at large, which resulted in the election of his
friend, Gen. Pierce, to the presidency. His service upon the national
committee continued until 1860. He was a member of the Democratic
national convention in 1856, and chairman of the state delegation in the
national convention at Cincinnati, in 1880. At the state convention of
his party, in September of that year, he presided, delivering, upon
assuming the chair, one of the ablest addresses ever heard upon a
similar occasion.
His party having been in the minority in New Hampshire for the past
twenty-five years, he has been comparatively little in public office.
Aside from the non-partisan positions heretofore mentioned, he was for
three years--in 1847, 1848, and again in 1850--clerk of the state
senate. In 1853 he was chosen a member of the legislature, but resigned
his seat to accept the office of United States attorney. In this
connection it may be mentioned that in 1855 he was tendered, by
President Pierce, the office of secretary of the territory of Minnesota,
which he at first was inclined to accept, but, after deliberation,
determined to forego the chances for political promotion ordinarily
involved in an appointment of that character, and remain with his
friends and his law practice in his own state. In 1850, Col. George
received the Democratic nomination for congress in the second district,
and again in 1863, when he made a vigorous canvass, and was defeated by
a very close vote. In 1866 he received the votes of the Democratic
members of the legislature as their candidate for United States senator.
Had he deserted his party and allied himself with the majority when the
Republicans came into ascendency, he might readily have commanded the
highest honors in the gift of the state, as others less able than
himself have done; but his position in the honest regard of the people,
irrespective of party, is far higher to-day for having remained true to
his convictions and steadfast and active in their maintenance.
His military title comes from his service as chief of the staff of Gov.
Dinsmoor from 1848 to 1850. He was also for several years commander in
the brilliant and popular organization known as the "Governor's
Horse-Guards." As a popular orator, outside the domain of law and
politics, Col. George also takes high rank. His oration upon Daniel
Webster, at the recent centennial celebration of the birth of that most
illustrious son of New Hampshire, under the auspices of the Webster club
of Concord, is surpassed in power and felicity of expression by none
which the event anywhere called forth.
Col. George was united in marriage, in September, 1849, with Miss Susan
Ann Brigham, daughter of Capt. Levi Brigham, of Boston, who died May 10,
1862, leaving five children, three sons and two daughters. In July,
1864, he married Miss Salvadora Meade Graham, daughter of Col. James D.
Graham of the United States engineers, by whom he has one child, a
daughter. His eldest son, John Paul, graduated at Dartmouth College in
1878, entered the Harvard Law School, and is now a student-at-law in the
office of George & Foster. His second son, Charles Peaslee, graduated in
June, 1881, at the naval school at Annapolis, and is now a midshipman in
the U. S. navy. His third son, Benjamin Pierce, is a member of the
sophomore class in Dartmouth College. His eldest daughter, Jane
Appleton, is the wife of Mr. Henry E. Bacon, and resides in Portland,
Me.; his second daughter, Anne Brigham, is at home; while the youngest
daughter, Charlotte Graham, is at school in Washington, D. C.
The family residence of Col. George is the old paternal mansion on North
Main street, in Concord, wherein he was born. He has also an excellent
farm a few miles out of the city, in Hopkinton, where he makes his
summer home, and where, in his little leisure from professional labor,
he indulges a fondness for rural pursuits, and especially for the
breeding and care of domestic animals, which was one of the
characteristics of his boyhood. Incidental as this may be, his farm is
known as one of the most highly cultivated in the section where it is
located, and his horses and Jersey cattle are the admiration of all
lovers of good stock.
As a citizen, Col. George is public-spirited, and freely devotes his
time and energies to the furtherance of every movement and the advocacy
of every measure which he believes calculated to promote the material or
educational welfare of the community. No man in Concord has done more
than he to advance the prosperity of the city in every essential regard.
The efficiency of the public schools has ever been an object of deep
interest to him; and as a private citizen, as a member of building
committees, and in the board of education, he has given his services
freely in perfecting the admirably equipped public-school system, which
is far from the least of the attractions which render our capital city
one of the most desirable places of residence in New England.
The general extension of the railway system of the state, to which most
that has been accomplished in the development of its material resources
for the last twenty-five years is due, has ever found an enthusiastic
supporter in Col. George, who has been and still is directly connected
with several railroad enterprises in different sections, which have
proved of great local and general advantage.
Few men have more or warmer friends than Col. George. A man of positive
opinions, frankly and honestly declared, he commands the sincere respect
of those with whom he comes in contact in all the relations of life,
private, social, public, and professional. Formidable as an opponent, he
is nevertheless fair and honorable, as he is true and faithful as a
friend and ally. He is a prominent member of the Masonic order, having
attained the rank of sovereign grand inspector-general of the 33d
degree, and a member of the "Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite of the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States."
This brief sketch can perhaps be no more appropriately concluded than in
the following language of the gentleman (Sidney Webster, Esq.,)
heretofore quoted:
"Years of incessant toil, while they have diminished somewhat
the energetic temperament and the exuberant animal spirits of
Col. George's youth, and have naturally softened his once blunt
and almost brusque manner in debate, have not diminished the
real force and strength of his genuine character, for character
is just what Col. George has always had. As the ripples of his
experience spread over a wider and wider area, he may have less
and less confidence in the infallibility of any man's opinions,
and less belief in the importance to society of any one man's
action; but Col. George has reached and passed his half century
with his mental faculties and his moral faculties improving and
strengthening, year by year. New Hampshire has to-day very few
among her living sons better equipped to do triumphant battle
for her in the high places of the world."
[Illustration: Wm G Means]
WILLIAM GORDON MEANS.
WILLIAM GORDON MEANS, for sixteen years clerk and paymaster of the
Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, and afterwards treasurer of the
Manchester Locomotive-Works, was born at Amherst, Hillsborough county,
April 27, 1815. He is of the third generation in descent from Col.
Robert Means, who came to New Hampshire from Stewartstown, Ireland, in
1766, and commenced business at Merrimack, with Dea. Jacob McGaw, who
emigrated to this country about the same year. This partnership, which
had prospered, was dissolved when Amherst became the shire town, and
Col. Means opened a store there, in which he prosecuted a successful
business. A man of great energy, he was prominent in the affairs of the
town; elected its representative at the general court three times, also
a member of the senate three years, and councilor for Hillsborough
county, his name is identified with the most important measures of that
period.
Col. Means had a large family. Several of the daughters were married to
gentlemen who subsequently attained great distinction in the learned
professions. Of the sons, Robert became a lawyer, and David McGregor,
who bore the name of his mother (a daughter of Rev. David McGregor of
Londonderry), succeeded his father as a merchant. He married Catherine,
daughter of Hon. Joshua Atherton, who is described as a woman of
vigorous understanding and positive convictions, ready in conversation,
and of sprightly and pleasing manners. By this marriage, David McG.
Means had three sons and six daughters, of whom the subject of this
sketch was the third son and the fourth child, receiving the name of his
uncle, Hon. William Gordon, at that time a lawyer of great promise in
Amherst.
Among his schoolmates, William G. Means is remembered as a quick-witted
boy, fond of adventure, and overflowing with fun. The schools in Amherst
at that date did not furnish advantages of a high order. Aside from the
training of the household, the youth had no superior privileges, except
a few terms at Pinkerton Academy, Derry, then under the care of Abel F.
Hildreth, an eminent teacher. For parts of three years he attended this
school, in company with his brother James, Edward and Alfred Spalding,
E. D. Boylston, and other students from Amherst.
In the autumn of 1830, Mr. Means went to Boston, and entered the store
of Daniel McGregor, then a dealer in dry goods,--finding employment,
after an apprenticeship of four or five years, in the house of Robert
Appleton & Co. By the commercial crisis of 1837, like hundreds of young
men similarly situated, he was thrown out of employment, and returned to
his home in Amherst. These years of service in Boston were not without
their valuable uses, though a new direction was soon to be given to his
capacity for business. He saw the perils that beset the career of the
tradesman, and learned the wisdom of that conservatism which underlies
the avenues of success in mercantile pursuits. While living in Boston,
he became interested in the lady who was subsequently to share his
fortunes and build his house.
In March, 1838, Mr. Means became clerk of the Amoskeag Manufacturing
Company at Manchester, taking charge of the books and pay-rolls of the
land and water-power department, then under the direction of Robert
Read, Esq. The city had no existence except in the plans of the
projectors. There was not a mill on the east side of the river, not a
building except the scattered farm-houses; the canal had been laid out,
a site for a cotton mill set off, but nothing was finished. It was
during this constructive period of the city's history that he was
occupied with the oversight of workmen, the execution of land sales, and
the varied duties of the Amoskeag counting-room, thus gathering the
knowledge and experience which qualified him for the important agencies
that have since engrossed his time.
In 1854, desiring a more independent position, he resigned his place in
the Amoskeag company, and united with O. W. Bailey, Aretas Blood, and
Joseph M. Stone in organizing a company for building railway engines. By
the act of incorporation, they took the name of "Manchester
Locomotive-Works." Without adequate capital, and with adverse times, the
projectors of the enterprise had a weary struggle before them. Having no
reputation as builders, and with limited capacity for production, it was
not easy to obtain patronage; but with the pluck and persistence which
deserved success, the proprietors determined to make only first-class
engines. At the end of ten years they had gained a position which
commanded wide confidence, and they then began to divide profits. Since
that time, with occasional interruptions, the business has steadily
increased, so that, in the number, size, and weight of the engines now
constructed, the product of a month often exceeds in value the entire
product of some previous years.
In 1858, Mr. Means was elected treasurer of the Salmon Falls
Manufacturing Company. The mills of this company were in the eastern
portion of the state, and for convenience of access he removed his
family to Andover, Mass., still retaining his place as treasurer of the
locomotive-works, and having an office for the business of both
companies in Boston. Under his management the condition of the Salmon
Falls company was much improved. The capital stock of the company was,
by cash payment to its stockholders, reduced from $1,000,000 to
$600,000. New mills were erected, and the productive capacity of the
concern enlarged by one-fourth, without any assessments or sacrifices on
the part of the stockholders,--a result which illustrates beyond dispute
the good judgment and skill of the management. Mr. Means resigned the
treasurership September 1, 1877.
On the 26th day of February, 1840, Mr. Means was married to Martha
Allen, daughter of Bethuel and Martha (Bent) Allen, of Newton, Mass.
They have had eight children, of whom six are now living,--four sons and
two daughters. The sons, as they have reached manhood, have found
employment in the corporations with which the father is connected.
In politics, Mr. Means has been Whig and Republican. Conversant with the
affairs of government, and a careful observer of public men, he has
manifested a generous appreciation of the good qualities of those with
whom he did not agree. Loving justice, and abhorring the wrongs by which
any class of his fellow-men suffered injury, he strongly adhered to the
principles and steadfastly upheld the policy of the party with which he
voted. In 1854 he was elected representative from ward three in
Manchester, and served one term in the house at Concord. Having removed
from ward three, he was not returned a second time.
In religion, Mr. Means has firmly held to the evangelical system of
doctrine. In early manhood he made profession of his faith by uniting
with the Congregational church in his native town; transferring his
membership to the Hanover-street church in Manchester, and thence to the
South church in Andover, with successive chances of residence. In all
of these places he has proved a stanch friend of the ministry and a
liberal supporter of Christian institutions. A man of clear convictions
and of marked independence of character, he has not stood aloof from the
community, but, cherishing a hearty respect for human nature, he has
taken an active part in the popular movements in behalf of education and
local improvements. To the appeals for charitable aid, whether coming
from individuals or churches or institutions of learning, the response
has been cordial. The establishment of the Means prizes at Phillips
Academy illustrates his discriminating beneficence. In times of
difficulty and depression he has been helpful in bearing burdens, making
good deficiencies, and quietly upholding the cause he had espoused. For
a few years past the family have spent the winter season in Boston; but,
whether in city or country, the man is unchanged. He is still interested
in the welfare of the church and the state, thoughtful of his friends
and former associates, considerate of neighbors, and bestowing sympathy
and assistance where they are needed, seeks to keep alive the ancient
virtues of New England life, and maintain the best standards of service
and citizenship.
EX-GOVERNOR FREDERICK SMYTH.
FREDERICK SMYTH was born March 19, 1819, in Candia, Rockingham county,
N. H. His ancestors were farmers, men and women of thrift and
intelligence. He was trained in the hardest kind of farm labor,
receiving, in addition, such education as the good common schools of
that town could give, supplemented by a brief course at Phillips Academy
at Andover, Mass. With a view to further education, he taught school
several winters, and in 1839 found employment at the store of George
Porter, Esq., in Manchester. Elm street was then a sandy and uninviting
thoroughfare, with only one other store. At the end of the year Mr.
Smyth's employer persuaded him to give up the idea of a college
education and adopt a mercantile life. He soon became a partner in the
business, which was successfully carried on until 1849, in which year he
was elected city clerk,--the beginning of a long official career, local
and national.
In 1852, Mr. Smyth was elected mayor, the city then containing a
population of fifteen thousand. Mayor Smyth's first message contained
many practical suggestions; for instance, that the police or school
committee be empowered to take vagrant children from the streets and put
them in school; that proper sidewalks be constructed and maintained; and
that a special committee be appointed to confer with the corporations in
regard to the introduction of pure water. In May of that year he set
trees on Elm street, the commons, and about land owned by the city. To
this matter the mayor gave his personal attention, and not only at that
time but every year since, with few exceptions, has inspected the trees
and given notice to the proper authorities of any lack. This thorough
attention to detail, and desire for doing the work belonging to his
office personally and not by proxy, was characteristic of Mayor Smyth.
In March, 1853, he was re-elected by an increased majority, and the year
was marked by the annexation of parts of Bedford and Goffstown to
Manchester, and by the rebuilding of the Amoskeag Falls bridge.
The subject of lighting the streets with gas was first introduced to the
attention of the city councils at that time, and a few lamps
experimentally established. The free public library was also urged,--a
recommendation then somewhat in advance of the popular sentiment. It
was, however, advocated by the late Hon. Samuel D. Bell and some others,
and was finally carried through both branches of the city government
without serious opposition. It has resulted in the establishment of a
library of which any city might be proud, and a building for its
accommodation costing, with the recent annex, nearly forty thousand
dollars. A special vote of the trustees at that time recorded their
appreciation of Mayor Smyth's effective exertions in the matter. Having
been a third time elected mayor and with still increased majority, the
annual message of 1854 set forth the working plan of the library,
proposed a change of city charter to allow the consolidation of
school-districts, and again urged the imperative need of a supply of
pure water. At the close of this term of office he declined a
re-election, but was soon appointed, by the governor, chairman of a
committee to locate and build a house of "reformation for juvenile
offenders." His associates in this work were the late Hon. Matthew
Harvey, ex-governor, and judge of the United States circuit court, and
Hon. Hosea Eaton.
[Illustration: Frederick Smyth
GOVERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 1865-66]
The first report of the commissioners was a vindication of the humane
policy of the state, containing a sketch of what had been done in this
and other countries for the reform of young offenders, with a full
report of progress made. In May, 1858, the house was dedicated to its
purpose with appropriate ceremonies, and the commissioners were
complimented by Gov. Haile for the fidelity with which the task was
accomplished. While engaged in the supervision of this work, Mr. Smyth
represented ward three in Manchester in the legislature of 1857 and
1858. He was made treasurer of the reform school and of the N. H.
Agricultural Society, holding the latter office during ten years of its
greatest usefulness. It was in this time, Judge Nesmith being president,
that Daniel Webster spoke at one of the annual fairs in Manchester to
the farmers of his native state, and Edward Everett made one of those
matchless speeches which lives in perennial beauty like the landscape it
describes. Mr. Smyth was at the same time a director of the U. S.
Agricultural Society, manager of the fairs held by that association at
Louisville, Richmond, Chicago, and Cincinnati, and vice-president of the
American Pomological Society. Such varied activities having brought him
favorably to the attention of people throughout the state, he received
some votes in the convention which nominated the Hon. Ichabod Goodwin
for governor. The next year Mr. Smyth was made president of the
convention. In 1860 he was appointed, by Secretary Chase, an agent to
receive subscriptions to the national loan, and being cashier and
principal business manager of the Merrimack River Bank and of the
savings bank, he invested largely for them in government bonds. The bank
of discount soon after became known as the "First National Bank."