for two years, and in 1850 he served as a member of the state
constitutional convention. Appointed the judge of probate for
Hillsborough county in 1851, he obtained the judicial title which clung
to him thereafter. In 1854 he was again the Democratic candidate for
mayor, but the Whig ticket was successful. A year later Judge Clarke was
tendered, by Governor Metcalf, an appointment to the bench of the
supreme court, but declined the position. As judge of probate he
discharged his duties with high public approval, but his removal from
this office, in 1856, was included in the sweeping political changes
which began in 1855. In 1858 he served as a member of the Manchester
Board of Aldermen. Soon after the death of the Hon. John Sullivan, he
was appointed, in 1863, to succeed him as attorney-general of the state;
and, receiving a re-appointment in 1868, he continued to fill the office
until his death in 1872.
From the time of his admission to the bar until he became the chief
prosecuting officer of the state, Judge Clarke was actively engaged in
private legal practice. He early acquired the reputation of a sound and
able lawyer, and obtained an extensive clientage. As attorney-general he
was highly successful in the performance of his duties, to which he
devoted himself with conscientious faithfulness. Recognizing the
semi-judicial character of his office, he did not allow the zeal of the
advocate to outweigh more important considerations, and, in cases where
a minor offense had been committed for the first time, he frequently
caused indictments to be suspended, so as to give the culprit both a
chance and a stimulus to reform. Hardened or flagrant criminals he
pursued with the rigor demanded by the interests of justice, leaving no
stone unturned in his efforts to secure their conviction. He drew all
his indictments with the greatest care, and it is said that no one of
the number was ever set aside. He took equal pains with the preparation
of evidence and of his arguments in all important causes. These cases
included a number of murder trials which attracted wide attention when
in progress, and which afforded marked proof of his legal skill. His
sense of duty being above all other considerations, he was unmoved by
all attempts to affect his official course by private appeals or by any
species of personal influence.
Judge Clarke had a marked distaste for ordinary politics and the arts of
the politician. On the few occasions when he consented to be a candidate
for an elective office, he did not seek the nomination, but accepted it
at the request of his friends. Firmly believing, however, in the
original principles of the Democratic party, he often gave his voice and
pen to their support, and was long a prominent member of that party in
New Hampshire. When the rebellion broke out he did not hesitate a moment
in regard to his political course, but was among the foremost of those
who urged all citizens to sink minor party differences and rally to
sustain the imperiled government. During this crisis he was active in
calling and addressing many public meetings, which pledged aid to the
most vigorous measures for the defense of the Union. At the great war
mass-meeting held in Concord, N. H., on the 17th of June. 1863,--which
was attended by thirty thousand people, from all parts of the state, and
was addressed by men of national eminence, including a member of
President Lincoln's cabinet,--Judge Clarke called the assembly to order,
and read the call, after which he was chosen the first vice-president.
Being dissatisfied with the attitude toward the war assumed by many of
the leaders of the Democratic party, he was largely instrumental in
organizing the zealous War Democrats of the state into a third, or
"Union," party, which nominated a separate ticket for state officers in
1862 and 1863. This organization was not maintained after the latter
year, and Judge Clarke thenceforward voted with the Republican party;
but, after the early years of the war, he refrained from any active
participation in politics, which he regarded as inconsistent with the
nature of his duties as attorney-general.
He was one of the original directors of the Manchester Bank, serving
from 1845 till 1849, and of the City Bank, with which he was connected
from 1853 till 1863. He was also a trustee of the Manchester Savings
Bank from 1852 until his death. For many years he was a trustee of the
Manchester Atheneum, and when this was succeeded by the City Library, in
1854, he was chosen a member and clerk of the board of trustees of the
latter institution, retaining both positions during the rest of his
life. He was the first treasurer of the Manchester & Lawrence Railroad
Company, holding that office from July 31, 1847, till his resignation
took effect, February 8, 1849; and he was the clerk of that company from
February 28, 1854, until he died, being also its attorney when engaged
in private legal practice. He was a trustee of Gilmanton Academy, and in
1854 was a member of the National Board of Visitors to the United States
Military Academy at West Point.
Judge Clarke was one of the earliest members of the Franklin-street
Congregational church in Manchester, and one of the original officers of
the society, to both of which he rendered valuable service.
Some mention of his personal appearance should not be omitted, as he was
a man of unusually distinguished presence, having a large, finely
proportioned figure, with a handsome, dignified head and face. Without
undue formality, his manners were invariably courteous and refined. With
excellent literary tastes, he possessed much general information, and
was very attractive in conversation. Though rigid in his sense of right
and wrong, he was eminently charitable in his views of others, having a
broad tolerance of opinions which differed from his own. His disposition
was genial, and his kindness of heart unfailing.
He was married, in 1834, to Anna Maria Greeley, only daughter of the
late Stephen L. Greeley, Esq., of Gilmanton, N. H. His wife survives
him, with four children,--Stephen Greeley, Anna Norton, Julia Cogswell,
and Greenleaf.
The death of Judge Clarke occurred at his home in Manchester on April
25, 1872, and was the cause of wide-spread sorrow. At his funeral there
was a large attendance of prominent citizens from many parts of the
state. Resolutions of regret and eulogy were adopted by the city bar,
the Hillsborough-county bar, the Manchester Common Council, and various
other bodies with which he had been connected. In the resolutions of the
common council he was spoken of as "one who, as a former member of the
city government, and its legal public adviser, served it with marked
fidelity and ability, and who, by his many virtues, had won the
confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens." His associates of the
Manchester bar declared that "he was a faithful officer, a wise
counselor, a respected citizen, and a Christian gentleman. He was
courteous in manner, efficient in duty, upright in character, and an
ornament to his profession." In the resolutions adopted by the bar of
Hillsborough county, and entered upon the records of the supreme court,
Judge Clarke was described as "a public officer faithful and upright,
discharging his official duties with signal ability; a lawyer of large
experience in his profession, of well balanced judgment and discretion,
well read in the principles of the law, and faithful alike to the court
and his client; a citizen patriotic and public-spirited; in his private
relations, a gentleman of unblemished reputation, distinguished for his
high-toned character, affable manners, and uniform courtesy; and
illustrating in his public and private life the character of a Christian
gentleman, governed by the principles which he was not ashamed to
profess."
HON. ARCHIBALD HARRIS DUNLAP.
BY REV. W. R. COCHRANE.
Mr. Dunlap comes of strong, sturdy, Presbyterian stock and Scotch
ancestry, of which he is a characteristic and worthy representative.
Archibald Dunlap came from the Scotch settlement in Ireland and located
in Chester, N. H., in 1740, or a little earlier. He married Martha Neal,
whom he found in Chester. She was of Scotch race, and her father, Joseph
Neal, was among the Presbyterians that petitioned the legislature, in
1736, to be freed from paying a second tax to support a Congregational
minister. The third child of Archibald was Maj. John Dunlap of
Revolutionary memory. Maj. John was born in Chester in 1746; married
Martha Gilmore; settled in Bedford; was a farmer on a large scale; was a
manufacturer of furniture; and acquired a large property. He was a
famous military man in his day; and on one occasion entertained his
entire regiment at his house, at his own expense. One of the incidents
of the day was the rolling out of a barrel of _New England rum_ and
setting it on end, staving in the head, and the soldiers were allowed to
help themselves to their heart's content.
John Dunlap, son of Maj. John, went to Antrim when a young man, and
built at the North Branch village in that town. He married Jennie,
daughter of Dea. Jonathan Nesmith, of Antrim, June 26, 1807. He carried
on the cabinet-making business at the Branch village many years. About
the year 1812 he introduced the manufacture of ladies' and gentlemen's
knit underclothing, and made looms for that purpose; and it was probably
the first thing of the kind ever known in this state, and was considered
a great curiosity. In 1835, Mr. Dunlap put up a factory in South
Antrim,--now known as the "silk-factory." He died December 15, 1869, in
ripe old age.
Hon. ARCHIBALD HARRIS DUNLAP, son of John and Jennie (Nesmith) Dunlap,
was born in North Branch village, Antrim, September 2, 1817. He passed
through the usual routine of country boys in that day,--hard work the
year round, except a few weeks at school in the winter. April 8, 1831,
in company with his oldest brother, the late Robert N. Dunlap, of
Zanesville, O., he left Antrim to strike out in the world for himself.
With a small bundle of effects in one hand and a pilgrim's staff in the
other, these two boys started out in the dim light of the early morning
for a journey on foot to Nashua,--nearly thirty-five miles. "Harris," as
every one then called him, was only thirteen and one half years old when
he thus turned his back upon his pleasant cottage home and faced the
battle, come as it might. This shows the stuff he was made of. The
Scotch grit and zeal and powers of endurance were manifest in that first
journey. Painters and poets have dwelt upon subjects far less worthy of
remembrance than that boy's march of thirty-five miles, inspired only by
the determination to succeed in spite of poverty and toil.
[Illustration: A. H. Dunlap.]
As the weary hours of the forenoon wore away, and they began to feel the
strain upon their physical strength, the boys consulted together as they
walked, as to what refreshments they could afford. The arguments of the
occasion are not handed down; but it was decided, considering the low
state of the treasury, that a "_glass of brandy apiece would do the most
good for the money_." (The temperance reform had not reached the people
then!) So at the next tavern, just above Mont Vernon, they called for
the brandy,--which was brought out in _one glass_,--and they divided it
as fairly as they could. Then they passed on to Amherst, and taking a
little _solid_ refreshment, such as a country store ordinarily affords,
_without_ brandy, and spending an hour for rest, then they started on
the eleven dreary miles that lay between that place and Nashua. The
younger boy said he "thought the last five miles never _would_ come to
an end;" but they _did_ end, and Nashua was reached late in the
afternoon. I have heard Mr. Dunlap say, that, however many better and
wiser boys may have reached that city, certainly a more tired one never
did than he! Saturday, April 9, his first day in Nashua in which he was
to be so prominent, he spent in looking over the place. On the Sabbath,
having been brought up to go to meeting and to the Sabbath-school, he
attended Mr. Nott's church, of which he had heard in Antrim. He was
turned into a side gallery with a lot of boys; but the solemnity of
years was upon him as he looked on that large, strange audience on his
first Sabbath of absence from home. The impression made upon him will
never be forgotten. That day he cast his anchor in with that people, and
it has held ever since. The strange country boy that looked and listened
with so much feeling that day is now, after fifty years, one of the
leading spirits in that church, while nearly all the vast audience he
looked upon have passed away! The poor boy reached the highest place! He
early became a member of the church; was deacon in the Olive-street
church from 1855 till its recent union with the Pearl-street church; was
then chosen deacon in the united or Pilgrim church; and was chairman of
their building committee in the erection of the new and stately edifice
of 1881.
About that time (1831) "Nashua Village" had begun to attract attention.
The Nashua Manufacturing Company and the Indian Head Company were
completing cotton-mills. In one of those erected by the latter company,
Col. William Boardman was setting up the heavy machinery; and for him
the boy of whom we write went to work for his _board_ until he could do
better. The colonel gave him his dinner, and that was the price of his
first half-day's work in Nashua. But that afternoon (Monday, April 10,)
Ziba Gay, Esq., manufacturer of machinery, sent for him and engaged him
for the summer. The boy of thirteen years, and stranger to all, had
found a place in the great machine-shop! Here he staid till the fall of
the same year, when he left to enter Franklin Academy, under Prof.
Benjamin M. Tyler. Remaining at this institution till the spring of
1832, he returned to Nashua and entered the service of the Nashua
Manufacturing Company, where he continued till the fall of 1834. Then,
being disabled from active labor by an accident, he left, and entered
Francestown Academy, under charge of Prof. Benj. F. Wallace. At the
close of the fall term he went home to his native town and attended the
winter district school, taught by Edward L. Vose, Esq. Here, in a small
unpainted school-house on the southward slope of "Meeting-house Hill,"
he "graduated" in the early spring of 1835. Whether the "graduating
exercises" were of a "high order" the record does not say; but certainly
they were as rich with promise as some of greater sound and name. And
now, after all this varied and often rough experience, A. H. Dunlap was
only seventeen years old! Large in body, sound in mind, fearless,
independent, upright, and tested by hard discipline, he was just the man
to succeed. At once he returned to Nashua and resumed his place in the
mills of the Nashua company, where he remained three years. Then at the
age of twenty he was made an overseer in the Indian Head mills. In this
business he remained till the spring of 1847, when he was compelled to
abandon it on account of failing health. Then he was in trade two years
in Franklin, N. H. Then (1849) he returned to Nashua and commenced the
garden-seed business, in which he has been very successful, and which he
still continues under the firm name of A. H. Dunlap & Sons. "Dunlap's
Garden Seeds" are known all over the land.
Mr. Dunlap has had the confidence of the people of Nashua, as shown by
the many trusts committed to him, and the offices he has held in the
city government. He was a representative from Nashua in the legislature
of the state two years, 1869 and 1870. In 1858 he was elected railroad
commissioner for three years. In 1864 he was chosen one of the
presidential electors for New Hampshire, and had the honor of casting
one of the electoral votes for that great and good man, Abraham Lincoln,
whom all men now have learned to love and honor. He is one of the
directors of the Nashua & Rochester Railroad, and is a trustee of the
New Hampshire Banking Company.
He has always cherished a deep interest in his native town, and his
address at her centennial celebration, in 1877, was among the best of
the many able efforts on that occasion. He aided nobly, both by
investigation and by gifts of money, in preparing the recently published
History of Antrim.
Mr. Dunlap married Lucy Jane Fogg, of Exeter, August 12, 1841. She was
the daughter of Josiah Fogg, of Raymond, and grand-daughter of Maj.
Josiah Fogg, who came from Hampton and settled, in 1752, in that part of
Chester set off as the town of Raymond in 1764. Maj. Fogg was prominent
in Chester before the separation; and paid the highest "parish and state
and war tax" in Raymond in 1777. The Fogg family is traced back in
England and Wales to the year 1112 A. D. The first of the name in this
country was Samuel Fogg, who came to Hampton in 1638.
The children of Hon. A. H. and Lucy J. (Fogg) Dunlap are James H.,
Georgie A., John F., Abbie J., and Charles H.
[Illustration: A. M. Shaw.]
HON. ALBERT M. SHAW.
BY A. W. BAKER.
ALBERT M. SHAW, of Lebanon, is a native of Poland, Me., born May 3,
1819. He came to, and has spent most of his active life in, New
Hampshire, where a wide field for the exercise of his energy and
abilities was open to him. His parents, Francis and Olive (Garland)
Shaw, had four children,--three sons and a daughter,--of whom Albert M.
is the oldest.
Mr. Shaw's father was a successful merchant, able and willing to give
his children the advantages of a fair education, and such special
training as would fit them for callings towards which their proclivities
and natural abilities inclined them. At the age of twenty, Albert,
having acquired such an education as could be obtained in the public
schools of his native state, went to Boston and spent nearly two years
in the study of civil engineering and practical work for building
railroads. He had made such progress that he was engaged to assist in
the construction of a branch railroad from the Boston & Providence road
to Stoughton, a distance of about six miles, and executed this
assignment so well that he was made superintendent of the work of
constructing a branch railroad from Natick to Framingham, and afterwards
was engaged in the construction of the Old Colony road, which occupied
him until 1845.
Previous to this, preparation had been made to build the Northern
Railroad from Concord to West Lebanon. He came to New Hampshire in 1845,
and engaged in the building of the road, and remained on the road until
the entire line was completed. With this road he has been closely
identified nearly ever since. For eighteen years he was its civil
engineer and road-master; and during the entire time that the late
ex-Governor Stearns was its president was his trusted and confidential
adviser and executive officer. He has also served in its board of
directors, and superintended the construction of its principal branches,
including the Sugar River and Peterborough & Hillsborough roads.
The activity of Mr. Shaw has, however, been by no means satisfied with
his duties upon the Northern road. Since 1848 he has been engaged in the
building of the Kennebec & Portland road in Maine, the Portsmouth road
in this state, the air-line road from Rochester to Syracuse in New York,
and that from Waterloo to Huntington mines in Canada, besides the
building of the Granite hosiery-mills at Franklin, and the carrying to a
successful conclusion many private enterprises for himself and others.
In 1872 he was called to the important position of superintendent of
road-way of the Central Vt., and its branches.
While building the Northern road he became acquainted with Caroline
Dearborn Emery, of Andover, whom he married in 1848, and soon after
located his home in the beautiful village of Lebanon, where he still
resides with his wife and two sons, William F., and Albert O., who are
engaged in business near by. His only daughter, Mary Estelle, died in
1870.
The same qualities which have made Mr. Shaw successful in business have
given him prominence in social and political life. He has always taken
great pride in Lebanon, and has been a leader in most of the projects
which have added to her beauty and stability. His support has, from the
first, helped establish her schools, strengthen her churches, and
sustain her social and charitable associations, and his enterprise has
contributed largely to her material prosperity.
In politics, Mr. Shaw is a Republican who works hard, manages shrewdly,
and gives liberally, that his party may win. He doesn't like to be
beaten, and seldom is. He has done much for his neighbors and friends,
and they have lost no opportunity to honor him. In the stormy days of
1862 and 1863, when strong men were needed, he was sent to the popular
branch of the state legislature, to which he was returned in 1881. In
1863 he was sent by the governor to look after the interests of New
Hampshire soldiers on that ever memorable field of Gettysburg, a duty
for which his warm sympathies and his executive ability eminently fitted
him. In 1876 he represented Lebanon in the constitutional convention,
and in 1878 and 1879 was the state senator from that district. He was
appointed a consul to the province of Quebec by President Lincoln in
1864, was a presidential elector in 1868, and in 1877 was one of the
three commissioners appointed by Gov. Prescott to build the new
state-prison. In all of these positions, his extensive knowledge of
public affairs, his tact in dealing with men, and his skill and courage
in overcoming opposition have enabled him to acquit himself with great
credit, and render those for whom he acted most valuable service. The
prison, which is one of the few public buildings in this country that
cost less than the estimates, is a monument to his business capacity and
strict integrity.
He is a great reader on scientific matters, is interested in books of
travel and adventure, especially in those relating to the arctic
regions, and gratifies his taste in the collection of a library.
Mr. Shaw is a Royal Arch Mason, and takes an interest in the mystic art.
He attends the Methodist church, and is a liberal contributor to all
that pertains to the success of that society. The worthy poor find in
him a sympathizing friend, always prepared to contribute to their
necessities in a most liberal manner. He is good to himself, and true
and generous to his friends. Mr. Shaw is fond of hunting and fishing,
loves the woods and streams for their own sakes, as well as for the
relief and rest they afford him; amid the busy employments of his life
some part of the season is pretty sure to find him "camped" in the wilds
of northern New Hampshire or Maine.
Mr. Shaw has many acquaintances among the prominent men of the day. As a
companion he is lively, genial, fond of fun, relishes a joke at the
expense of others, and can take one at his own expense with becoming
meekness, if it will not be otherwise spoiled.
He is at present engaged in caring for the large property interests
which have resulted from so long a term of skillful industry and
sagacious calculation.
[Illustration: B F Martin]
COL. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN MARTIN.