Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men Part 34

William C. Clarke pursued his early studies at Atkinson Academy, of which his maternal grandfather was one of the founders, and then entered Dartmouth College, at the age of eighteen years. He was graduated with high honors in the cla.s.s of 1832, which included Professors Noyes and Sanborn, of Dartmouth, and the late Samuel H. Taylor, LL.D., the noted instructor at Andover, Ma.s.s. Immediately becoming princ.i.p.al of Gilmanton Academy, he held the position for one year, while beginning the study of law. He continued his legal studies in the Harvard Law School, in the office of Stephen Moody, at Gilmanton, and in that of Stephen C. Lyford, at Meredith Bridge, now Laconia, N. H. On his admission to the bar, in 1836, he began practice in the latter town, and on the creation of Belknap county, at the close of 1840, he was appointed county solicitor.

He held this position until the spring of 1844, when he removed to Manchester, and continued the practice of his profession. Two years later he was one of a committee of seven chosen by the town to pet.i.tion the legislature for a city charter, and at the first city election, in August, 1846, was the Democratic candidate for mayor. There being two other candidates, there was no choice, and he withdrew his name before the second ballot, in September. In the same year, however, he consented to act as chief engineer of the fire department of the young city, and he retained this position till the close of 1848, having a number of leading citizens as his a.s.sistants.

In 1849 he was elected to the office of city solicitor, which he held for two years, and in 1850 he served as a member of the state const.i.tutional convention. Appointed the judge of probate for Hillsborough county in 1851, he obtained the judicial t.i.tle 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 Hamps.h.i.+re. 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 ma.s.s-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 a.s.sembly to order, and read the call, after which he was chosen the first vice-president.

Being dissatisfied with the att.i.tude toward the war a.s.sumed 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 partic.i.p.ation 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 inst.i.tution, 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 a.s.sociates 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 ill.u.s.trating 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, st.u.r.dy, 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 pet.i.tioned 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 pa.s.sed 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 "_gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s_,--and they divided it as fairly as they could. Then they pa.s.sed 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! Sat.u.r.day, 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 pa.s.sed 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 inst.i.tution 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 Hamps.h.i.+re, 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 Hamps.h.i.+re 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 n.o.bly, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 Hamps.h.i.+re, 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 a.s.sist in the construction of a branch railroad from the Boston & Providence road to Stoughton, a distance of about six miles, and executed this a.s.signment 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 Hamps.h.i.+re 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 princ.i.p.al 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 a.s.sociations, 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 Hamps.h.i.+re 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 const.i.tutional 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 fis.h.i.+ng, 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 Hamps.h.i.+re 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: B F Martin]

COL. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN MARTIN.

BENJAMIN F. MARTIN, who has been prominently identified with the paper-making industry of New England for many years, and is widely known as one of Manchester's wealthy and influential citizens, is the son of a Vermont farmer. His parents were Truman and Mary (Noyes) Martin, whose homestead was at Peacham, where they resided with their five sons and four daughters. Their son Benjamin Franklin was born July 21, 1813, and pa.s.sed his youth at home, attending the short district schools, and filling the long vacations with farm work and the few recreations that were then open to farmers' boys. He also had the advantage of some instruction at the Peacham Academy, and when he arrived at the age of eighteen was thought to be sufficiently educated in books to begin a business career, to which he was naturally inclined. He accordingly went to Meredith Bridge, now Laconia, to learn paper-making in a mill owned by an older brother. He spent one year in this mill, and then next served as a journeyman in one at Millbury, Ma.s.s., where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the business. Mr. Martin then formed a partners.h.i.+p with a brother-in-law, the late Thomas Rice, for the manufacture of paper at Newton Lower Falls, Ma.s.s., where he remained until 1844, when he removed to Middleton, Ma.s.s., and purchased a mill there, which he successfully operated for nine years. In 1853 he had arranged to locate in Lawrence, Ma.s.s., but the inducements offered him to go to Manchester were sufficient to change his plans, and he at once commenced the erection of a mill at Amoskeag Falls. This was soon completed, and in it Mr. Martin carried on for twelve years an extensive and profitable business. In 1865 he sold it to Hudson Keeney, but four years later repurchased it, and continued to operate it until 1874, when he sold the establishment to John Hoyt & Co., and retired to enjoy the fruits of his well directed industry and sagacity.