Chas. M. MurphyChas. M. Murphy
We live in days when the success of men apparently born to lives of grinding toil is a pregnant sign of the times. Such opportunities are now open to him who has a good order of ability, with high health and spirits, who has all his wits about him, and feels the circulation of his blood and the motions of his heart, that the lack of early advantages forms no barrier to success. A striking illustration of the truth of these statements is exhibited in the following sketch.
Charles M. Murphy, son of John and Mary M. (Meader) Murphy, was born in Alton, Belknap county, N. H., November 3, 1835. In 1842 his parents moved to Barnstead, N. H., and settled upon the Tasker farm at the south end of the town. Here the child grew in stature, and filled out and braced his frame by hard manual labor.
Scanty record is left of these years of severe work and continuous struggle; but there is little doubt that the discipline developed an indomitable will and sturdy self-reliance—which alone enable poor men's children to grapple with the world—that under more favorable circumstances might never have shown their full capacity of force and tenacity.
Again, it is widely believed—and nowhere more strongly than in opulent cities and busy marts—that a boy is better bred on a farm, in close contact with the ground, than elsewhere. He is quite as likely to be generous, brave, humane, honest, and straightforward, as his city-born contemporary; while, as to self-dependence, strength, and stamina, he ordinarily has a great advantage over his rival.
He attended the district school, during the winter terms, until of an age suitable to leave the parental care, when he enjoyed for two terms the advantages of the academy at Norwich, Vt. At school it appears that he was diligent and ambitious, and, from his great physical strength and natural cheerfulness of temperament, very active in all athletic exercises. Then began the severe and practical duties of life; and, being the oldest of four boys, for some years he assisted his father in educating and advancing the interests of his brothers. John E. Murphy became a prominent dentist, practicing in Pittsfield, N. H., and Marblehead, Mass., and died at the early age of thirty-five. Frank Murphy, M. D., a graduate of Dartmouth College, practiced his profession in Strafford and Northwood; but died in the very flush and promise of life, at the age of twenty-nine. Albert Warren Murphy, D. D. S., a graduate of the Philadelphia Dental College, after one year's practice in Boston, removed, in 1872, to Paris, France, where his professional labors brought him both credit and profit. At the expiration of two years, an active interest in Spanish affairs and a desire to test the business advantages of the country led him to Spain. He soon settled in Madrid, and in 1879 was appointed dentist to the royal court.
Relieved from his generous labors at home, the subject of our sketch was married, at the age of twenty-two, to Sabrina T. Clark, daughter of Isaac Clark, Esq., of Barnstead, N. H., and for six months tried independent farming; but, though fully aware what a life full of joy and beauty and inspiration is that of the country, and not destitute of a natural taste for rural pursuits, at the expiration of the time named he surrendered his acres to his father, and with less than one hundred and fifty dollars moved to Dover and began the study of dentistry with Dr. Jefferson Smith. To this business he brought the same will power and ability to prolong the hours of labor which marked his early life, and in two years was pronounced competent to practice in his new calling. Dr. Smith soon died, and the recently emancipated student not only succeeded very largely to his practice, but enlarged and built upon it till a reputation and an income were secured which made travel and study easy and profitable. For eighteen years this patient, hopeful man labored and experimented, adding each season to his knowledge and skill, losing hardly a day except while studying for his degree at the Boston Dental College. In 1878, as the result of long and careful study of the business interests of the country, he withdrew entirely from his profession and embarked his all in the precarious occupation of a broker. Here his coolness, sagacity, and equableness of temper found their proper field, and such a measure of success has followed as falls to the lot of few men not bred from youth amid the fluctuations of the stock market. In his new occupation he is indefatigable in procuring information, and alike keen in discerning new traits in men and shrewd in contrasting them with those which are more common and better known.
Very naturally the subject of our sketch took a lively interest in political affairs upon becoming of age. A strong and devoted Republican, in his adopted city his influence in local politics has been felt for years. He was a member of the state house of representatives in 1871 and 1873; attached to the staff of Gov. Straw; appointed and confirmed as consul to Moscow—honor declined; a member of the Chicago convention in 1880, where he stoutly supported Blaine so long as a ray of hope remained; president of the Dover Five Cent Savings Bank—from a state of torpor and weakness it has grown under his guiding hand into activity and strength; elected mayor of the city of Dover in 1880, and recently chosen for another term; recipient of the honorary degree of A. B. from Lewis College in 1881. Through all his mature life, Col. Murphy has been a busy man.
But the energetic and successful are not exempt from the sorrows common to humanity. Three children, who, if spared, might put off to a distant day the weariness that inevitably comes with advancing years, died while young; and finally the partner of all his vicissitudes bade him a final adieu. His second wife, Mrs. Eliza T. Hanson, widow of the late John T. Hanson, of Dover, dispenses a gracious hospitality in the spacious and richly furnished Cushing-street mansion.
In closing we may add, Col. Murphy combines qualities which are generally found apart,—a love for work amounting to dedication, and a readiness to assist the unfortunate which seems ingrained. His abode is full of cheerfulness. No one comes there who does not receive a hearty welcome; no one departs without feeling as if leaving a home.
Hy. C. SherburneHy. C. Sherburne
Henry Clay Sherburne, son of Reuben R. and Sally (Rackleyft Staples) Sherburne, was born in Charlestown, Mass., December 9, 1830. His father was a native of Pelham and his mother of Newmarket; so, although born outside the limits of the state, he is wholly of New Hampshire lineage. His early education, obtained in the public schools of Boston, terminated when he was fifteen years of age, at which time he entered the employ of Holbrook & Tappan, hardware dealers, in whose store he remained three years.
At the age of eighteen years he gained his first experience in railroad business, serving as a clerk in the freight department of the Boston & Lowell Railroad, under his father, who was agent of the upper roads doing business with that corporation. Accepting a clerkship in the office of the Concord Railroad, he removed to Concord in 1851. After a year's service with the Concord Railroad, he entered the employ of the Concord & Claremont Railroad, where he remained until 1865, a period of thirteen years.
In July, 1865, after the adjournment of the legislature of that year, of which he was a member from ward five, Concord, he removed to Boston, entering into the business of railroad supplies in partnership with his brother, Charles W. Sherburne. He remained there until March, 1880, when he was elected president and a director of the Northern Railroad.
During his residence in Boston, in 1876, he was elected president of the New York & Boston Despatch Express Company, which position he still holds. In the summer of 1880 he was elected president and a director of the Concord & Claremont and Sullivan railroads, and subsequently a director of the Concord Railroad. In September, 1881, he was chosen general manager of the Boston, Lowell, and Concord railroads, under the business contracts between those roads. In 1878 he was sole trustee of the Hinkley Locomotive-Works, upon the failure of that company, and operated the works for about two years.
He is now a resident of ward four, Concord. He has a wife, and one son—Henry A. Sherburne, eleven years of age.
Famous as the small farming towns of New Hampshire have been in producing men eminent in the learned professions, they have not been less prolific in furnishing young men who have achieved distinction and borne great sway in what are recognized as the more practical business pursuits. Inventors, constructors, skilled artisans, the men who have taken the lead in developing our manufacturing interests and bringing toward perfection intricate processes, those who have increased the volume of trade at home and abroad, and have become merchant princes, have come, as a rule, from the plain farm-houses and common schools of our thousand hillsides. The stern virtues, the rigid frugality, and the unflagging industry always insisted on in the home life, supplemented by the limited but intensely practical learning gained in the district school, have furnished successive generations of young men compact, firm, and robust in their whole make-up, strong of body, clear and vigorous of mind, the whole impress and mold of their moral natures in harmony with right doing. These men have been a permeating force for good through all classes of our population, and towers of strength in our national life. The life of the subject of this sketch is a well rounded example of such young men.
Zimri Scates Wallingford, the son of Samuel and Sallie (Wooster) Wallingford, was born in Milton, in the county of Strafford, October 7, 1816.
Nicholas Wallington, who came, when a boy, in the ship "Confidence," of London, to Boston in the year 1638, settled in Newbury, Mass., where he married, August 30, 1654, Sarah, daughter of Henry and Bridget Travis, who was born in 1636. He was captured on a sea-voyage, and never returned; and his estate was settled in 1684. With his children (of whom he had eight), the surname becameWallingford.
John Wallingford, son of the emigrant Nicholas, born in 1659, married Mary, daughter of Judge John and Mary Tuttle, of Dover, N. H.; but he lived in that part of Rowley, Mass., now known as Bradford. He had seven children; one of these was Hon. Thomas Wallingford, of that part of ancient Dover afterwards Somersworth, and now known as Rollinsford, who was one of the wealthiest and most eminent men of the province, associate justice of the supreme court from 1748 until his death, which took place at Portsmouth, August 4, 1771. The eldest son of John Wallingford, and grandson of the emigrant, was John Wallingford, born December 14, 1688, settled in Rochester, N. H., and became an extensive land-owner. His will, dated October 7, 1761, was proved January 17, 1762. His son, Peter Wallingford, who inherited the homestead and other land in Rochester (then including Milton), made his will April 18, 1771, which was proved August 24, 1773. His son, David Wallingford, settled upon the lands in Milton, then a wilderness. He died in 1815, being the father of Samuel Wallingford, who was father of Zimri S.
Z. S. WallingfordZ. S. Wallingford
Upon his mother's side, Mr. Wallingford is descended from Rev. William Worcester, the first minister of the church in Salisbury, Mass., and ancestor of the eminent New England family of that name or its equivalent,Wooster. Lydia Wooster, great-aunt of Mr. Wallingford, was the wife of Gen. John Sullivan of Durham, major-general in the army of the Revolution, and the first governor of the state of New Hampshire; she was mother of Hon. George Sullivan of Exeter, who was attorney-general of this state for thirty years.
In 1825 the father of Mr. Wallingford died, leaving his widow with four children, of which this son, then nine years of age, was the eldest. At the age of twelve he commenced learning the trade of a country blacksmith. When he had wrought for his master as his boyish strength would allow for two years, he determined not to be content with being simply a blacksmith, and entered the machine-shop of the Great Falls Manufacturing Company at Great Falls, N. H., and served a full apprenticeship at machine-building there, in Maryland, Virginia, and in the city of Philadelphia.
August 27, 1840, Mr. Wallingford married Alta L. G. Hilliard, daughter of Rev. Joseph Hilliard, pastor of the Congregational church in Berwick, Maine, from 1796 to 1827. Their children have been (1) John O. Wallingford, who was sergeant-major, and became lieutenant in the Fifteenth N. H. volunteers, in the war of the rebellion; was severely wounded in the assault on Port Hudson; and was afterwards captain in the Eighteenth N. H., an officer of great merit, whose death at his home in Dover, March 23, 1872, was the result of disease contracted in his war service. (2) Mary C., now wife of Sidney A., Phillips Esq., counselor-at-law in Framingham, Mass.; (3) Julia, residing with her parents.
In 1844, Mr. Wallingford entered the employ of the Cocheco Manufacturing Company, Dover, N. H., as master machine-builder, and remained in that capacity until 1849. During that period, Mr. Wallingford and a partner, by contract, constructed new machinery, cards, looms, dressing-frames, and nearly everything necessary for the re-equipment of the mills. The then new and large mill at Salmon Falls was also supplied with the new machinery necessary, in the same manner.
In 1849 he became superintendent of the company's mills, under the then agent, Captain Moses Paul, and upon the death of that gentleman, was, on the first day of August, 1860, appointed agent of the company. He has continued to fill that office to the present time. Taking into account the great social and public influence, as well as the recognized ability with which his predecessor had for many years administered the affairs of the Cocheco company, the magnitude of its operations, the force and grasp of mind necessary to carry on its affairs successfully, it was evident to all familiar with the situation upon the death of Captain Paul, that no ordinary man could occupy the place with credit to himself, or to the respect of the public, or the satisfaction of the corporation.
Fully conscious of the responsibility assumed, and full of the determination which an ardent nature is capable of, not only to maintain the reputation of his company but to extend its operations and raise the standard of its manufactured goods, it is not overstating the fact to say that in the last twenty years few manufacturing companies have made greater strides in the extent of their works, in the quality of their goods, or their reputation in the great markets, than has the Cocheco under the management of Mr. Wallingford. Always strong financially, its wheels have never, during that time, been idle in any season of panic or monetary depression. Honorable, and ever generous to all its employes, its machinery has never stopped for a day at the demand of any organized strike. The pride, as well as the main business interest of Dover, Mr. Wallingfordhas always made his company popular with the people; its word proverbially is as good as its bond. The importance of the work is seen in the fact that the mills were, when Mr. Wallingford took charge, of a so-called capacity of fifty-seven thousand spindles; it is now one hundred and twenty thousand; and the reputation of the goods is world-wide. Twelve hundred operatives are on the books of his charge.
To a stranger to the home life of Dover these results seem the great life-work of Mr. Wallingford; but such an one, in making up his estimate, will fail to do justice to some of the elements of character which have, by skillful adaptation, contributed to so great success. To one so observing, the marked traits of the individual are lost sight of in the results of his career. To those only who are personally familiar with the individual are the real elements of success apparent. Of course, without the strong common sense and good judgment which we sum up as "business sagacity," Mr. Wallingford's successes would have been failures; but, to one familiar with his daily life for a score of years, it is apparent that the crowning excellence of his life, and the power which has supplemented his mental force and rounded out his life, have been his stern moral sense.
Perhaps the most noticeable trait in his character from childhood has been his love of justice and right, and his hatred of wrong and injustice in all its forms. Under such a man, no employe, no matter how humble his position, could be deprived of his just consideration; no interest of his corporation could be allowed to ask from the public authorities any indulgence or advantage not fairly to be accorded to the smallest tax-payer. Had he gone no farther than to insist on this exact counterpoise of right and interest, as between employer and employe, and between the interest represented by him and the public interest, his course would have stood out in marked contrast with the conduct of too many clothed with the brief authority of corporate power. Had this strict observance of the relative rights of all concerned been as nicely regarded by associated capital generally as it has been by the Cocheco company under the management of Mr. Wallingford and his lamented predecessor, no "brotherhood" for the protection of labor, no "strikes" organized and pushed to bring too exacting employers to their senses and to an observance of the common rights of humanity, would have had an existence, and none would have had occasion to view with jealous eye the apprehended encroachment of corporate power on private right. But while so insisting on justice in everything, no man has a kindlier vein of character, or a warmer sympathy for deserving objects of charity. Impulsive, naturally, no distressed individual or deserving cause appeals to him in vain, or long awaits the open hand of a cheerful giver.
To a man so endowed by nature, so grounded in right principles, and so delighting in the exercise of a warm christian charity, we may naturally expect the result that we see in this man's life,—success in his undertakings, the high regard of all who know him, and the kindliest relations between the community at large and the important private interests represented by him in his official capacity.
Fifty years ago, when the subject of this sketch, a mere child, was leaving his widowed mother's side to learn his trade, the public mind was just beginning to be aroused from its long lethargy to a consideration of the abolition of slavery in the United States. The sleep of men over the subject had been long, and their consciences seem hardly to have suffered a disturbing dream. Church as well as state was a participator in the system, and with unbecoming haste rose up to put beyond its fellowship and pale the first agitators of emancipation. Garrison had just been released, through the kindness of Arthur Tappan, from an imprisonment of forty-nine days in Baltimore jail, for saying in a newspaper that the taking of a cargo of negro slaves from Baltimore to New Orleans was an act of"domestic piracy," and was issuing the first number of theLiberator, taking for his motto, "My country is the world, my countrymen are all mankind;" and declaring, "I am in earnest, I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, I will be heard."
The agitation of the abolition of slavery, which was to end only with emancipation, had thus begun. The discussion found its way into the public prints, and among the thinking circles of all rural New England. The blacksmith's apprentice read what the newspapers had to say, and listened to the neighborhood discussions on the great question. His sense of justice and humanity was aroused, and he adopted the motto and declaration of purpose as announced by Garrison; and from early youth till the time when Lincoln's proclamation assured the full success of the object aimed at, Mr. Wallingford was the earnest friend of the slave and the active promoter of all schemes looking to his emancipation. With Garrison, Phillips, Parker, Douglas, Rogers, and the other leading anti-slavery men, he was a hearty co-worker, and for years on terms of warm personal friendship.
During the winter of 1849-50, Hon. Jeremiah Clemens of Alabama made a speech in the United States senate, in which he claimed that northern mechanics and laborers stood upon a level with southern slaves, and that the lot of the latter was in fact envious when compared with that of the former classes. This speech at once called out from Hon. John P. Hale, then a member of the senate, a reply in keeping with the demands of the occasion and with the great powers of Mr. Hale as an orator. Soon after, a meeting of the mechanics of Dover was held, at which Mr. Wallingford presided, and at which resolutions expressing the feelings of the meeting toward Mr. Clemens's speech were passed, and a copy furnished to that gentleman by Mr. Wallingford. Upon the receipt of these resolutions, Senator Clemens published in theNew York Heralda letter addressed to Mr. Wallingford, propounding ten questions. These questions were framed, evidently, with the design, not so much of getting information about the actual condition of the workingmen of the free states as to draw from Mr. Wallingford some material that could be turned to the disadvantage of the system of free labor. Mr. Wallingford replied through the press, February 6, 1850, in a letter which at once answered the impulsive and haughty "owner of men," and triumphantly vindicated our system of free labor. For directness of reply, density, and clearness of style, few published letters have equaled it. It must have afforded Mr. Clemens material for reflection, and it is not known that he afterwards assailed the workingmen of the nation.
From the formation of the Republican party, Mr. Wallingford has been one of its active supporters. Though no man has been more decided in his political convictions, or more frank in giving expression to them, no one has been more tolerant of the opinions of others, or more scrupulous in his methods of political warfare. Despising the tricks of the mere partisan, and abhorring politics as a trade, he has always been content to rest the success of his party on an open, free discussion of the issues involved. Not deeming it consistent with his obligations to his company to spend his time in the public service, he has refused to accede to the repeated propositions of his political friends to support him for important official positions; but he was a member of the constitutional constitution of 1876, and presidential elector for 1876, casting his vote for Hayes and Wheeler. He is and has been for years, president of the Savings Bank for the County of Strafford, a director of the Strafford National Bank, president of the Dover Library Association, and a director in the Dover & Winnipesaukee Railroad. In his religious belief Mr. Wallingford is a Unitarian, and an active member of the Unitarian society in Dover.
The name of no New Hampshire man of the present generation is more broadly known than that ofWalter Harriman. His distinguished services to the state, both in the legislature and in the executive chair; his honorable service as an officer of the Union army; the important trusts he has held at the hands of one and another of our national administrations; and, not least, his brilliant gifts as an orator, which have made him always welcome to the lyceum platform and have caused him to be widely and eagerly sought for in every important election campaign for many years,—combine to make him one of the most conspicuous men in our commonwealth.
The Harriman family is of English origin. Rev. Ezekiel Rogers, a man of eminence in the church, was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1590. He graduated at the University of Cambridge, in 1610. Becoming a dissenter from the Church of England, after twenty-five years of faithful service, his ministerial functions were suspended. He says of himself: "For refusing to read that accursed book that allowed sports on God's holy Sabbath, I was suspended, and by it and other sad signs driven, with many of my hearers, into New England." This stanch Puritan arrived on these shores in 1638. In his devoted flock there was an orphan lad, sixteen years of age, named Leonard Harriman, and from this youthful adventurer the subject of our sketch descended, being of the seventh generation. Rogers selected for his colony an unoccupied tract of country between Salem and Newburyport, Mass., to which he gave the name of Rowley, that being the name of the parish in Yorkshire to which he had long ministered.
The oldest son of Leonard Harriman was massacred, with ninety of his comrades,—"the flower of Essex county,"—in King Philip's war, September 18, 1675, at Bloody Brook. The great-grandfather of Walter Harriman saw eight years of hard service in the French and Revolutionary wars. His grandfather settled in the wilds of Warner, at the foot of the Mink hills, but lost his life, by an accident, at the early age of twenty-eight. His father, the late Benjamin E. Harriman, was a man of character and influence through an honorable life. He reared a large family at the ancestral home in Warner, where the subject of our sketch, being the third son, was born April 8, 1817.
Muscle and intellect and the heroic virtues can have no better nursery than the rugged farm-life of New England, and the Warner homestead was a challenge and stimulus to the qualities that were needed in the future man of affairs. This child of the third generation that had occupied the same house and tilled the same soil, grew up with a stalwart physical organization and a fine loyalty to his native town, a deep interest in its rude history and traditions, and a sympathy with the common people, which in turn made him a favorite with all. To this day there is to him no spot, save his present home, to be compared with his birthplace, and there are no people so interesting and endeared as his old neighbors in the rugged hill-town. He has recently written a history of Warner, which is regarded as "one of the most systematic, comprehensive, and generally interesting works of the kind yet given to the public in the state." The Harriman home still remains in the possession of the family, and, though the ex-governor now resides in Concord, he spends many a day in every year amidst the old familiar scenes. His "schooling" was obtained at the Harriman district school, and at the academy in the adjoining town of Hopkinton.
Walter HarrimanWalter Harriman
When hardly more than a boy, he made a successful trial of the excellent self-discipline of school-teaching, and at different times taught in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. While in the latter state, at the age of twenty-two, he became deeply interested in the principles of Liberal Christianity (the form of religious faith which he has steadfastly held to this day), and occasionally wrote sermons, which were well received from the pulpit, and some of which found their way into print. It was certain from his early youth that nature designed him for a public speaker, the rare oratorical gifts which afterwards distinguished him having shown themselves gradually and prophetically in the district school-house and the village academy. This tentative experience in preaching, undertaken of his own motion and without conferring with flesh and blood, resulted in his settlement, in 1841, over the Universalist church in Harvard, Mass., where he remained in active service four years. Returning now to Warner, and soon leaving the pulpit altogether, he became the senior partner in trade with John S. Pillsbury, late governor of Minnesota,—probably the only instance in our history where two young business partners in a retired country town have afterwards become the chief executives of different states.
In 1849, Mr. Harriman was elected by his townsmen to the New Hampshire house of representatives, where he almost immediately became prominent as a leader in debate on the Democratic side. Of his record as a party man little need to be said, except that from first to last, and whatever his affiliations, he has shown great independence in espousing measures and principles which commended themselves to his judgment and conscience, even when it put him in a minority with his political associates. In his first legislative term, on the question of commuting the death sentence of a woman who was sentenced to be hung for murder, he not only advocated such commutation, but was a leader in the movement for the abolition of capital punishment altogether, to which purpose he has ever since stood committed. In the legislature of 1850, he was the leading advocate of the homestead exemption law, at which time a resolution was adopted, submitting the question to the people. The voters of the state gave their approval at the next March election, and in the following June the act was consummated. No legislature has dared to repeal it, and the foresight and courage of its authors and earliest advocates have been so approved by thirty years of experience that it is doubtful if a single citizen can be found to-day who would desire to undo their work.
It was no accident or trifling smartness that could give a man prominence in those two legislatures of a third of a century ago. Among the men of marked ability, now deceased, who held seats in those years, were Horton D. Walker, Samuel H. Ayer, Lemuel N. Pattee, Edmund Parker, Samuel Lee, John Preston, William Haile, Richard Jenness, William P. Weeks, Thomas E. Sawyer, Wm. H. Y. Hackett, Nathaniel B. Baker, Charles F. Gove, Thomas M. Edwards, Josiah Quincy, and scores of others, now living, of equal merit. In this galaxy of brilliant minds, it is no exaggeration to say that, young as he was, Mr. Harriman was an honored peer in legislative duty and debate. Besides the two years named, he represented Warner again in the house in 1858, when he was his party's candidate for speaker. He also represented district No. 8 in the state senate in 1859 and 1860. In 1853 and 1854 he held the responsible office of state treasurer.Appointed in 1856, by the President of the United States, on a board of commissioners (with ex-Congressman James H. Relfe of Missouri, and Col. Wm. Spencer of Ohio), to classify and appraise Indian lands in Kansas, he spent a year of official service in that inviting territory, then turbulent with ruffianism. Border raids, burnings, and murder were daily occurrences. But the duties of this office were faithfully attended to, and no breath of complaint was overheard against the delicate work of this board.
During the reign of that un-American political heresy, popularly called Know-Nothingism, in 1854, 1855, and 1856, Mr. Harriman was its firm and unyielding enemy. In a discussion of this question with Hon. Cyrus Barton at Loudon Center, Mr. Harriman had closed his first speech, and Mr. Barton had just begun a reply, when he dropped dead on the platform,—a tragedy which lingers sadly in the memory of his friendly antagonist of that day.
The outbreak of the civil war began an era in the life of every public man in the nation. It projected issues which made party allegiance a secondary affair. It sent many honest and earnest men across the party lines, while some of our best citizens simply took their stand for the time being outside all political folds, independent, and ready for whatever calls the exigencies of the country might give forth. In that fateful spring of 1861, Mr. Harriman became the editor and one of the proprietors of theWeekly Unionat Manchester, which heartily espoused the war policy of Mr. Lincoln's administration for the preservation of the republic, and thus found himself the leader and spokesman of what were known as the "War Democrats." He was placed in nomination as a candidate for governor of the state, at a large mass convention of this class of voters, held at Manchester in February, 1863, and this movement resulted in defeating a choice by the people and throwing the election into the legislature.
No man uttered braver or more eloquent words for the Union cause than Mr. Harriman, and his tongue and pen were an important element in the rousing of the citizens of New Hampshire to the graver duties of the hour. In August, 1862, he was made colonel of the Eleventh New Hampshire regiment of volunteers. He led this regiment to the field, and was at its head most of the time until the close of the war, except the four months, from May to September, 1864, when he was an inmate of Confederate prisons. With some other captured Union officers, he was, for seven weeks of this time, imprisoned in that part of Charleston, S. C, which was most exposed to the fire of the Union guns from Morris island, but providentially, though that part of the doomed city was destroyed, no harm came to him from the guns of his fellow-loyalists.
The first set battle in which the Eleventh Regiment bore a part was that of Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, when, with unflinching courage, Col. Harriman and his men faced the dreadful carnage of that long day before Marye's Height, less than three months after their arrival in the field. The loss of the regiment in this engagement was terrific. Passing over much (for want of space) that is thrilling and praiseworthy, we find the Eleventh under their colonel, at the front, in the battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864, when they made a daring and stubborn onset on the Confederate intrenchments, carrying before them two successive lines of the enemy's works. But among the five thousand Union men that were captured in that bloody engagement, the commander of the Eleventh N. H. was included. Col. Harriman and the survivors of his charge were present at the final grapple of the war before Petersburg, and on the 3d day of April, 1865, he led a brigade of nine large regiments (a force three times as great as the whole American army at Bunker Hill) into that fated city, on the heels of Lee's fleeing command. The war was now virtually ended, the surrender of Lee at Appomattox followed six days afterwards, and the Eleventh Regiment, ofproud and honorable record, was mustered out of service in the following June. Their commander was appointed Brigadier-General U. S. V., by brevet, "for gallant conduct during the war," to date from March 13, 1865.
On his arrival home, at the close of the war, Gen. Harriman was elected to the office of secretary of state, by the legislature then in session, and he at once entered upon the duties of the office, which he held two years, and until his promotion to the gubernatorial chair. In the large Republican convention, consisting of six hundred and seventy-five delegates, and held at Concord in January, 1867, he was nominated, on the first ballot, as candidate for governor of the state. One of the most salient and memorable incidents connected with this period was the joint canvass made, by amicable arrangement, between Gen. Harriman and the Hon. John G. Sinclair, the Democratic candidate. Such canvasses are not uncommon in the West and South; but in New England, and with two men of such forensic ability as these distinguished nominees possessed, it was an event fraught with great popular interest, and which drew forth, possibly, the most earnest and eloquent discussions of questions to which a New England people has ever listened. Many flattering notices were given of these discussions. There were thirteen in all. Commenting on one of the number, a leading newspaper said of Gen. Harriman: "Soaring above all petty personal allusions, he held the audience as if spell-bound, and made all his hearers, for the time being, lovers of the whole country,—of the Union, of liberty, and independence throughout the world. He spoke not as a politician, but as a patriot, a statesman, a philanthropist, and his noble sentiments had such power of conviction that it was impossible to ward off the results by argument." His election followed by a decisive majority.
The campaign of 1868 occurred at a time when a strong reaction was setting against the Republican party throughout the country. Fresh candidates for the presidency were about to be nominated; the impeachment of Andrew Johnson was in progress; military rule had been established in the South; utter financial ruin was hotly foretold; and the dominant party was suffering crushing reverses in many of the leading states. To add to the discouragements of this party in New Hampshire, when the municipal elections came on in December, Portsmouth and Manchester rolled up adverse majorities, and the tide was tending strongly in one direction. Encouraged by such promising signs, the Democratic party held its state convention at the early day of the 14th of November. Their old and tried war-horse, John G. Sinclair, was again put upon the track, and his election was, by the party, deemed a foregone conclusion. A long and fierce contest ensued. Gov. Harriman met his fellow-citizens, face to face, in every section of the state. He addressed immense meetings, holding one every secular day for six weeks, and failing to meet no appointment on account of weariness, storms, or any other cause. He was triumphantly re-elected, obtaining a larger vote than any candidate for office had ever before received in New Hampshire.
Of Gov. Harriman's administration of the affairs of the state, in its principal features, with the exacting duties and the keen prudence required of the chief executive in those days of large indebtedness, unbalanced accounts, and new legislation to meet the new and unprecedented demands, his constituents seem to have been hearty and unanimous in their approval. Their feelings may be summed up and expressed in the words of theBoston Journal, when it said: "The administration of Gov. Harriman will take rank among the best that New Hampshire has ever had."
General Harriman was appointed naval officer of the port of Boston, by President Grant, in April, 1869, which office he accepted after the expiration of his gubernatorial term in June following. He was re-appointed in 1873, for a term of four years. The affairs of this office were conducted in such manner as to preclude any word of criticism.
Gen. Harriman has engaged in political canvasses repeatedly in most of the northern states, and in 1872 he participated extensively in the state campaign in North Carolina. In this latter canvass, the key-note of the national campaign was pitched, and the result of the desperate contest there in August made the re-election of Gen. Grant in November a certainty.
Thousands have warmly testified to the rare oratorical powers of the subject of this sketch, theMeriden(Conn.)Recorderbeing one of the number. That paper says of him: "As a platform speaker, we never heard his equal. His delivery is fine, his logic clear as crystal, his manner easy and natural, and his physical force tremendous. With a voice clear and distinct as a trumpet, of immense compass, volume, and power, his influence over an audience is complete. He affects nothing, but proceeds at once to the work in hand, and from the very outset carries his hearers with him, rising, at times, with the inspiration of his theme, to the loftiest flights of eloquence."
Gov. Harriman has been twice married; first, in 1841, to Miss Apphia K., 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.
Sam M WheelerSam M Wheeler
Hon. Samuel Metcalf Wheelerwas 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. Hewas 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.