Warren DaniellWarren Daniell
In almost every instance, those who, during the first half of the present century, laid about the waterfalls of New Hampshire the foundations of our manufacturing villages, builded better than they knew. They were generally men of limited means, moderate ambitions, and democratic instincts; and they established their shops and factories without expectation that they were changing worthless plains and forests into cities, or plain mechanics into millionaires. They aimed only to create productive industries in which they and their few employes, meeting on equal terms, could work together and win a fair reward for their labor. But they were skillful workmen, good managers, courageous, persistent, and equal to all their opportunities, and under their inspiration and direction their enterprises have grown into great proportions, which have made the fortunes of their owners, and called into being communities that are models of the best that skill, intelligence, and thrift can produce.
To this class of men belonged Kendall O. and James L. Peabody and Jeremiah F. Daniell, who, fifty years ago, built a paper-mill in the forest that then grew about the falls upon the Winnipesaukee, where the wealthy, wide-awake, and beautiful village of Franklin Falls now stands. The Peabodys, who were bakers by trade, built a small mill at this point about the year 1828. In disposing of their production as bakers they accumulated large quantities of cotton rags, and, as there was little demand for these, they built a miniature paper-mill to convert them into a more salable commodity. Their knowledge of the paper business was very limited, their machinery of the most primitive kind, and their experiment was not at first a success; but they were men not easily turned from their purposes, and, feeling that what they lacked was a practical paper-maker, one of them went to Massachusetts in search of one. He found there Jeremiah F. Daniell, who at the age of thirty-five had seen twenty-one years of service in a paper-mill, and knew the business thoroughly. This young man had been trained in a hard school, and was by education as well as by natural abilities well qualified to prove an efficient helper to men, who, like the Peabodys, were trying to establish a new enterprise in the face of many discouragements. He began his apprenticeship when a boy of fourteen, and from that time until he reached his majority most of his scanty earnings went to support a widowed mother and orphaned brothers and sisters.
When he became of age, his entire property consisted of a suit of clothes, and a five-dollar bill which proved to be counterfeit. With these he started, carrying his shoes in his hand (as a matter of economy), to obtain employment at his trade, which he found at Pepperell. Here he remained several years, and during the time married Sarah Reed, of Harvard, Mass., by whom he had two children, Warren F., the subject of this sketch, who was born June 26, 1826, and Mary, who died in infancy. Subsequently he manufactured paper for himself in Dorchester and Methuen, Mass., and in 1833 went West. Not finding a promising opening, he returned to Massachusetts and was met by Mr. Peabody,who arranged for him to go to Franklin and take charge of the mill there, in which he was given an interest. This he did, and, when a few months later his family joined him, the Daniell homestead was permanently established at the head of the Merrimack. The first efforts of the young manager were directed to supplying the mill with improved machinery, a difficult task, as the owners had little money to spare, and the nearest machine-shop in which an order for that class of machinery could be filled was at South Windham, Conn., but, finally, two eight-horse teams closed a three weeks' journey by landing in Franklin a newly invented paper-machine, and the mill was ready to run in a few months. Meantime, Mr. Daniell had purchased the interest of J. L. Peabody, in the firm which thus became Peabody & Daniell. The machinery was scarcely in position when a fire destroyed the factory and its contents, leaving the owners, in the midst of the hard times of 1837, bankrupt in nearly everything but courage, reputation, and a determination to succeed, which enabled them, after many struggles, to rebuild and proceed in a small way with their business. The erection of the cotton-mills at Manchester soon after gave them an opportunity to purchase large amounts of paper stock at low prices, and from that time they were moderately prosperous.
The next year after the removal of Mr. Daniell from Massachusetts his wife died, and a year later he married Annette Eastman, of Concord. His son Warren was at that time a wide-awake boy, ten years old. He had picked up a little book knowledge in the Massachusetts schools, and in order that he might be further educated without much expense he was sent to Concord, where he worked upon a farm for his board and clothes and privilege of attending school a short time each winter, until he was fourteen, when he was called home and entered the paper-mill as an apprentice, to learn the business with which his name is now so prominently identified. It was his purpose at a later period to attend the academy at Tilton; but on the day on which the term began his father was severely burned by an accident, and he was obliged to take his place in the mill. No other time appeared when he could well be spared, and he continued working there until he was twenty-five years of age, and was a master of the trade in all its branches.
As a journeyman, his wages were one dollar and twenty-five cents per day, a sum which he found sufficient to provide, in those days of frugality, for all the needs of himself and his young wife and child. He was, however, ambitious at some future time to have a mill of his own, and with this object in view left Franklin and contracted with parties at Waterville, Me., to erect and run for them a paper-mill at that place. This occupied him for one year, when he took charge of another mill at Pepperell, Mass., where he remained until 1854. In that year his father bought out Mr. Peabody, and offered to sell him half the establishment if he would return to Franklin, which he did. The firm was then J. F. Daniell & Son, and for the next ten years the business prospered under that name. In 1864 Warren bought his father's interest, and was sole proprietor until 1870, when the mill property, which had grown from modest beginnings to be one of the largest and best known private manufacturing establishments in the state, was sold to a company of Massachusetts capitalists who had organized as the Winnipiseogee Paper Company. Mr. Daniell then become connected with a large paper-house in Boston and removed to that city. He soon tired of life in that crowded metropolis, and, returning to his old home, he purchased a large interest in the company that had succeeded him there, and became its resident agent and manager, which position he still occupies. This company owns and operates at Franklin large paper-mills supplied with the best machinery, employs three hundred men and women, and produces nearly twenty tons ofpaper daily, and reflects, in its abounding success, the sagacity, energy, and enterprise of the man who plans and directs its operations, who, without the help of a liberal education or wealthy friends, has won his way by hard and patient work to a first place among the business men of New Hampshire.
Few men in our state have been so uniformly successful, and none in compassing their own success have contributed more to that of others. In climbing up,Warren F. Daniellhas pulled no one down. The village of three thousand busy, prosperous, and happy people is largely the creation of the paper-mill, in which he has made his money, and its most creditable characteristics are in no small degree the results of his counsel and liberality. The business world acknowledges him as a man of undoubted integrity, thoroughly responsible, and eminently successful. His townsmen and fellow-citizens of New Hampshire know him as a genial, unassuming man, whose good fellowship never tires, whose generosity is inexhaustible, and as one who is never too busy with his own affairs to lend a helping hand to any cause or person that deserves it; as a citizen and friend and neighbor who has shown them how to get money rapidly, and how to spend it freely, intelligently, and helpfully.
Mr. Daniell's first wife was Elizabeth D. Rundlett, of Stratham, N. H. The marriage occurred in 1850, and Mrs. Daniell died while he was at Pepperell, in 1854. He married Abbie A. Sanger, of Concord, in October, 1860, who presides over his elegant home, which is located near the confluence of the Winnipesaukee and Pemigewasset rivers, and surrounded by a broad intervale which liberal outlays have made one of the most fertile and beautiful spots in the Merrimack valley. He has five boys: Harry W., by his first wife; and Eugene S., Otis, Warren F., and Jerie R., the fruit of his second marriage.
He is an enthusiastic farmer, and owns across the river from his home a large and productive farm. He has long been the owner of the best herd of Jersey cattle in the state; his stables always contain some of the finest and fleetest horses; he admires a good dog, and is a skillful breeder of swine and poultry. He has contributed much to the introduction of improved stock, crops, and farm machinery in his neighborhood; has been active and liberal in sustaining the state and local agricultural societies, and in otherwise promoting the farming interest.
In politics, Mr. Daniell is a Democrat; and such has been his popularity among those who have known him best, that even when Franklin gave a Republican majority of seventy-five he was several times elected to represent it in the house, and subsequently was chosen a state senator two years in succession in a district which no other Democrat could have carried. He represented his party in the national convention of 1872, and has always been one of its trusted counselors and most efficient workers. That he would have been its candidate for governor and congress but for his refusal to accept the position is generally known. During the war he gave himself unreservedly to the cause of the Union as represented by the "boys in blue," voting steadily to raise and equip all the men who were needed, giving liberally of his means to provide for them and their families, and supporting, by word and deed on all occasions and in all places, the cause for which they fought.
1. John Sawyer, a farmer in Lincolnshire, England, had three sons, William, Edward, and Thomas, who emigrated to this country in 1636, being passengers in a ship commanded by Capt. Parker. They probably settled in Rowley, Mass.
2. Thomas Sawyer went to Lancaster, Mass., as early as 1647, when he was twenty-four years of age. This section of the Nashaway valley, comprising eighty square miles in extent, had been purchased in 1643 by Thomas King, of Watertown, Mass., of Scholan, sachem of the Nashaway Indians. Thomas Sawyer was one of the first six settlers. His name appears in the petition made to the general court in 1653 for the incorporation of the town of Lancaster. In 1647, the year of his arrival, he married Mary Prescott. She was the daughter of John Prescott, to whom belongs the honor of being the first permanent inhabitant of Lancaster. The eminent historian, William H. Prescott, traces his ancestral line to this John Prescott. There were born to Thomas Sawyer and Mary Prescott eleven children. This family figures largely in that most tragic page of the history of Lancaster which tells of the massacres and captivities of its inhabitants, and the entire destruction of the town itself by the Indians. On the land of Thomas Sawyer stood the Sawyer garrison, into which were gathered the survivors of that most murderous attack made upon the town in the winter of 1675-76. At this time his second son, Ephraim, who was at the Prescott garrison, was killed by the Indians. Thirty-two years later, 1708, the oldest son, Thomas, and his son Elias were captured by the Indians and taken to Canada. When the party reached Montreal, the father offered to put up a mill on the river Chambly, on condition that the French governor would obtain the release of all the captives. Thus the first mill in Canada was built by Thomas Sawyer. He was liberated, but his son Elias was detained for a time to teach the Canadians "the art of sawing and keeping the mill in order, and then was dismissed with rich presents."
3. Caleb Sawyer, the sixth child of Thomas, was born in 1659, in Lancaster, Mass. He married Sarah Houghton, thus effecting an alliance between two of the most prominent families who organized the town of Lancaster. Caleb Sawyer died in 1755, leaving two sons and two daughters.
4. Seth Sawyer, the oldest son of Caleb, was born in 1705; married Miss Hepsabeth Whitney; died in 1768.
5. Caleb Sawyer, the second son of Seth, was born in 1737, at Harvard, Mass., a part of Lancaster which in 1732 had been incorporated as a town by itself. He married Miss Sarah Patch in 1766. They had two sons, Phineas and Jonathan. Jonathan remained on the home farm at Harvard, which is still occupied by his descendants.
P. SawyerP. Sawyer
6. Phineas Sawyer was born at Harvard, Mass., in 1768. He went to Marlborough, Mass., now Hudson, in 1800. He bought a mill property there, consisting of a saw, grist, and wire-drawing mill. In 1806 he built a cotton-mill, and operated it until the close of the war in 1815. It required in those days immense enterprise and energy to project and carry on such a work as a cotton-factory. The machinery was procured from Rhode Island. The ginning-machine had not yet come into general use. The cotton, when received, was distributed among the farmers, to have the seeds picked out one by one by their families. It was carded and spun by water power, at the mill. It was then sent out again among the farmers to be woven into cloth. Phineas Sawyer was a man of great independence of character, self-reliant, and full of courage. These qualities, so conspicuous in his business affairs, shone out with undiminished power in his religious life. He lived at a time in Massachusetts when Methodism was regarded with special disfavor. But Mr. Sawyer, believing that the Methodists were right, believed so with all his heart, and the petty persecutions to which his faith was subjected only intensified his zeal and loyalty. His house was the home for all traveling Methodists, and the place where they gathered for religious worship. He was well versed in the best Methodist literature of his times. He stands forth in the annals of his church as one of the foremost men, for sagacity, boldness, and piety, in the Needham circuit. He had for his wife a worthy helpmeet, Hannah Whitney, of Harvard. She was as ardently attached to Methodism as was her husband, and bore her full share of service and sacrifice for it in its days of weakness and persecution. The sudden death of her husband, which took place in 1820, left Mrs. Sawyer to provide for the support of twelve children, the youngest, Jonathan, being then two years old. This truly noble woman, with but little means, faced the difficulties before her with an unflinching spirit of faith and hopefulness. It required superlative fortitude, finest sagacity, and sternest self-sacrifice to have enabled this mother to successfully rear these twelve children, give to them a good education, and establish all of them in respectable positions in the world. She continued to live in Marlborough some nine years, leasing the mill property. In 1829 she went to Lowell, where she lived twenty years, dying there in 1849, greatly respected by all who knew her, and held in honor and affection by her many children.
7.Jonathan Sawyer, the subject of this sketch, was the youngest child of Phineas. He was born at Marlborough, Mass., in 1817. He went with his mother and other members of the family when he was twelve years old, to Lowell, where for the next few years he attended school. He was a member of the first class that entered the high school of that city, having among his mates Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, Gov. E. A. Straw, and G. V. Fox, assistant secretary of the navy during the civil war. Bishop Thomas M. Clark was the principal of this school. On account of a severe sickness, young Sawyer at sixteen years of age left school, and while recruiting his health made a visit to his brother, Alfred Ira Sawyer, who, after some experience as a dyer at Amesbury and Great Falls, had come in 1824 to Dover, N. H., where he was operating a grist-mill, a custom carding and cloth-dressing mill, converting this last into a flannel-mill. Jonathan remained in Dover two years, going to school and working for his brother. In the fall of 1835 he returned to Lowell. His mother, for the purpose of conferring upon her son a more complete education, sent him to the great Methodist school at Wilbraham, which at that time was a most flourishing preparatory school for the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn. Here he remained two terms, when, at nineteen years of age, returning to Lowell, he went into a woolen establishment as a dyer. Afterwards he went into this business on his own account, and continued in it until 1839.
During the latter part of this time he was not so engrossed in his business but that he found time to make frequent visits to New Ipswich, where Miss Martha Perkins, of Barnard, Vt., was attending school. In 1839 they were married, and went to Watertown, N.Y., where Mr. Sawyer became the superintendentof the Hamilton Woolen Company. After two and a half years, Mr. Sawyer went into business for the manufacture of satinets. In 1850, his brother Alfred having died at Dover, N. H., the year before, and the children being too young to carry on the business, Mr. Jonathan Sawyer assumed its control in connection with his brother Zenas. Two years later Zenas retired, and Francis A. Sawyer, who had been a prominent builder in Boston, became a partner with Jonathan, the object being to continue the manufacture of woolen flannels. In 1858 the property below known as the "Moses mill," another flannel manufactory, was purchased. This mill was enlarged in 1860 to four sets of machinery, again in 1863 to eight, and in 1880 and 1882 to sixteen sets. The old machinery is now completely replaced by new. The old mill, started in 1832, was in 1872 replaced by the present substantial structure, which contains fourteen sets of machinery, with preparing and finishing machinery for thirty sets in both mills.
Since 1866 the attention of these noted manufacturers has been entirely devoted to the manufacture of fine fancy cassimere cloths and suitings. Already they have established for these goods a foremost place in their class. At the Centennial Exhibition, at Philadelphia, a medal and diploma were awarded the Sawyer goods, for their "high intrinsic merit." The business has, since 1873, been carried on as a corporation, having a capital of six hundred thousand dollars. The corporation consists of the old firm of F. A.[7]and J. Sawyer, and Charles H. Sawyer, the present agent of the establishment. In 1866 this company made a bold innovation on the method that was so long in vogue among manufacturers, of consigning their goods to commission houses. The undertaking upon which this company entered, of selling their own goods, was met with great opposition; but their boldness and foresight have already been justified by the success which they have made, and the adoption of their methods by other manufacturers. This establishment can now look back upon a half-century of remarkable history. The unmarred reputation for strictest integrity which these managers have won, their far-reaching enterprise, and the unsurpassed excellences of their fabrics, have enabled them to prosperously pass through all the financial depressions and panics which so many times have swept over the country during this long period.
Mr. Jonathan Sawyer, with his vigor of mind and body still unimpaired, lives in his elegant mansion, which looks out upon a magnificent picture of wood and vale and mountain range, and down upon the busy scene of his many years of tireless industry. He loves his home, in the adornment of which his fine taste finds full play. When free from business he is always there. He loves his books, and his conversation shows an unusual breadth of reading in science, history, and politics. He is possessed of a strong, clear intellect, a calm, dispassionate judgment, and sympathies which always bring him to the side of the wronged and the suffering. At a time when anti-slavery sentiments were unpopular, Mr. Sawyer was free in their utterance, and was among the first to form the Free-soil party. Since the organization of the Republican party, Mr. Sawyer has been among its strongest supporters. He has persistently declined the many offices of honor and profit which those acquainted with his large intelligence and sagacity and stainless honesty have sought to confer upon him. He is abundantly content to exercise his business powers in developing still more the great manufactory, and his affections upon his large household and his chosen friends, and his public spirit in helping every worthy cause and person in the community.
The children of Mr. Sawyer, all of whom have grown up to maturity, are Charles Henry, Mary Elizabeth, Francis Asbury, Roswell Douglas, Martha Frances, Alice May, Frederic Jonathan.
ASA CROSBY MD AND SONSASA CROSBY MD AND SONS
In giving a notice of Judge Crosby of Lowell, Mass., as originally contemplated, at his request and with the consent of the publisher, I am desired to give it in the character of a family notice, or rather of the father and sons, now all deceased except the judge.
Dr. Asa Crosby, the father, was born in Amherst (now Milford), N. H., July 15, 1765, and died at Hanover, N. H., April 12, 1836. He married Betsey Hoit, daughter of Judge Nathan Hoit, an officer in the Revolutionary war, and judge of the court of common pleas. He was in the sixth generation from Simon of Cambridge, Mass., who arrived in the "Susan and Ellyn" in 1635, the direct line being Simon, Simon, Josiah, Josiah, and Josiah his father, born in Billerica, Mass., November 24, 1730. Sarah Fitch, his mother, was born in Bedford, Mass., March 25, 1732. The Crosby families mostly inhabited Billerica, Mass., where many of the descendants still reside, although some lived in the ancient town of Braintree, Mass., and others on Cape Cod. His father settled in Amherst, N. H., where he died October 15, 1763. His mother lived until September 16, 1825. The following notice of Dr. Crosby, written by Prof. R. D. Mussey of Dartmouth College, is taken from theBoston Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. XIV.:—
"Dr. Asa Crosby was an uncommon man. At the age of twenty-one he commenced practice in Strafford county, N. H., and continued in full practice forty-six years. He was a distinguished member of the profession, both in physic and surgery; and in the latter branch he performed some very important and difficult operations. Indeed, for many years he was the principal operator for an extensive district of country. He was one of those self-taught men, whose force of intellect breaks through the most appalling obstacles, and rises unaided to skill and reputation. Although deprived of a systematic course of professional instruction, having commenced practice before medical schools were established in New England, he provided himself with a good library, and spent his leisure hours, and even moments, among his books. He drew around him young men as pupils, between twenty and thirty of whom may be reckoned as educated by him; and, what is much to his credit, many of them are now distinguished men."Dr. Crosby was for many years a member of the Church of Christ, and died in the full hope of a better life."The medical profession in New Hampshire is not a little indebted to Dr. Crosby, inasmuch as he was one of the few who interested themselves in procuring the charter of the State Medical Society, of which he was an active and zealous member for thirty years. The honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred on him by Dartmouth College in 1811."
"Dr. Asa Crosby was an uncommon man. At the age of twenty-one he commenced practice in Strafford county, N. H., and continued in full practice forty-six years. He was a distinguished member of the profession, both in physic and surgery; and in the latter branch he performed some very important and difficult operations. Indeed, for many years he was the principal operator for an extensive district of country. He was one of those self-taught men, whose force of intellect breaks through the most appalling obstacles, and rises unaided to skill and reputation. Although deprived of a systematic course of professional instruction, having commenced practice before medical schools were established in New England, he provided himself with a good library, and spent his leisure hours, and even moments, among his books. He drew around him young men as pupils, between twenty and thirty of whom may be reckoned as educated by him; and, what is much to his credit, many of them are now distinguished men.
"Dr. Crosby was for many years a member of the Church of Christ, and died in the full hope of a better life.
"The medical profession in New Hampshire is not a little indebted to Dr. Crosby, inasmuch as he was one of the few who interested themselves in procuring the charter of the State Medical Society, of which he was an active and zealous member for thirty years. The honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred on him by Dartmouth College in 1811."
Dr. Josiah Crosby, third son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich, N. H., February 1, 1794, and died in Manchester, N. H., January 7, 1875. He married Olive Light Avery, daughter of Daniel Avery, a merchant and manufacturer of Gilford, N. H., February 9, 1829. He studied his profession with his father, and the distinguished Prof. Nathan Smith of Dartmouth College. His early practice was in Concord, N. H., and Lowell, Mass., but his professional life-work was in Manchester, N. H., from 1844 to his death. The following extracts are taken from an obituary notice of him read before the New Hampshire Medical Society by Dr. W. W. Wilkins, of Manchester:—
"Here (Manchester, N. H.,) for thirty years he was the unrivaled head of the profession. Here he originated the method of making extensions of fractured limbs by the use of adhesive strips, which gave him a high reputation with surgeons in Europe as well as at home; and, later, he invented the 'invalid bed' which has so tenderly held the patient, without a strain or jar, while the bed-clothes could be changed or wounds cared for, or, by dropping a belt or two, prevent local pressure and irritation. The skillful physician, the christian gentleman, and sympathizing friend were combinations of character in him rarely excelled."Those who have known Dr. Josiah Crosby, who have had the privilege of his acquaintance, been honored by his confidence, and felt the influence of his pure example, will feel more deeply than any words of mine express, the loss we have met in his death. Few men love their life-work as he did. The practice of medicine to him was no mere trade, no secondary means of obtaining something else that outranked it, but the chosen calling of his life, to which in his young manhood he gave not only his rare mental endowments, but the rich treasures of his heart; and with the weight of eighty years resting upon him, it was his greatest comfort that he could still labor in his chosen profession."His habits of study, that had been early formed, followed him into old age. New theories and discoveries in medical science were carefully criticised; the medical journals, to which he was a liberal subscriber, were read; and he was better posted in regard to the medical literature of the day than a majority of the young men in the profession."He exerted a strong influence on the profession itself. The quiet dignity of his character was felt by all who came in contact with him. No unguarded words passed his lips in regard to members of the profession that were absent that would not have been as freely expressed in their presence."The same elements of character made him a superior surgeon. His operations were complete. He had abundant resources, and, if the ordinary methods of treatment failed, was ever ready to supply their place by extraordinary methods. His contributions to medical science were of a character that reflected the highest honor upon him as a physician and skillful surgeon, and placed him in no mean rank as a benefactor of his race."He never indulged in sports, or frequented watering-places. His church, his home, and his professional duties filled to the full his days and years, and too many sleepless nights. His sympathies for the sick, his great benevolence, his love of neighbor as of himself, formed the mainspring of his life labors."We have known him in his strength, and we shall always recollect him as the strong, self-reliant, active physician. We are more than grateful for his record. Life is the sum total of so many days and years, to which may be addedthe little real good one has been permitted to accomplish in a lifetime. Looking back over these fifty years, can we compute the worth of such a life?"
"Here (Manchester, N. H.,) for thirty years he was the unrivaled head of the profession. Here he originated the method of making extensions of fractured limbs by the use of adhesive strips, which gave him a high reputation with surgeons in Europe as well as at home; and, later, he invented the 'invalid bed' which has so tenderly held the patient, without a strain or jar, while the bed-clothes could be changed or wounds cared for, or, by dropping a belt or two, prevent local pressure and irritation. The skillful physician, the christian gentleman, and sympathizing friend were combinations of character in him rarely excelled.
"Those who have known Dr. Josiah Crosby, who have had the privilege of his acquaintance, been honored by his confidence, and felt the influence of his pure example, will feel more deeply than any words of mine express, the loss we have met in his death. Few men love their life-work as he did. The practice of medicine to him was no mere trade, no secondary means of obtaining something else that outranked it, but the chosen calling of his life, to which in his young manhood he gave not only his rare mental endowments, but the rich treasures of his heart; and with the weight of eighty years resting upon him, it was his greatest comfort that he could still labor in his chosen profession.
"His habits of study, that had been early formed, followed him into old age. New theories and discoveries in medical science were carefully criticised; the medical journals, to which he was a liberal subscriber, were read; and he was better posted in regard to the medical literature of the day than a majority of the young men in the profession.
"He exerted a strong influence on the profession itself. The quiet dignity of his character was felt by all who came in contact with him. No unguarded words passed his lips in regard to members of the profession that were absent that would not have been as freely expressed in their presence.
"The same elements of character made him a superior surgeon. His operations were complete. He had abundant resources, and, if the ordinary methods of treatment failed, was ever ready to supply their place by extraordinary methods. His contributions to medical science were of a character that reflected the highest honor upon him as a physician and skillful surgeon, and placed him in no mean rank as a benefactor of his race.
"He never indulged in sports, or frequented watering-places. His church, his home, and his professional duties filled to the full his days and years, and too many sleepless nights. His sympathies for the sick, his great benevolence, his love of neighbor as of himself, formed the mainspring of his life labors.
"We have known him in his strength, and we shall always recollect him as the strong, self-reliant, active physician. We are more than grateful for his record. Life is the sum total of so many days and years, to which may be addedthe little real good one has been permitted to accomplish in a lifetime. Looking back over these fifty years, can we compute the worth of such a life?"
His widow still lives, as also his son, Dr. George A. Crosby, of Manchester, an eminent physician and surgeon.
Nathan Crosby, fourth son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich, N. H., February 12, 1798; was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1820: read law with Stephen Moody, Esq., of Gilmanton, and Asa Freeman, of Dover, N. H., and was admitted to the bar in Strafford county in 1823. He practiced law a dozen years, mostly in Gilmanton, N. H., and Amesbury and Newburyport, Mass., until 1838, when he removed to Boston, at the call of the Massachusetts Temperance Union, to conduct two important features of the temperance cause,—the acceptance of the teetotal pledge for the ardent-spirits pledge, and prohibition for license, and to organize societies based upon those principles throughout the commonwealth. He was also editor of theMassachusetts Temperance Journal, theCold Water ArmyandTemperance Almanac, and various other publications.
Subsequently, in 1843, he removed to Lowell, and was employed by the manufacturing companies of that city to purchase the large lakes in New Hampshire whose waters supply the Merrimack river, and secured for the companies one hundred thousand acres of water. Before this service was fully accomplished, he received the appointment of standing justice of the police court of Lowell, upon the resignation of the late Hon. Joseph Locke, who had held the office thirteen years. Judge Crosby was qualified May 19, 1846. This position he still holds. He has rarely failed of holding the civil terms of the court during his entire period of service. In the discharge of the duties of a local magistrate,—a position peculiarly trying, placed, as those duties are, so near the people in all their differences, controversies, temptations, follies, and depravities,—he has been at all times humane, conscientious, incorruptible, and just, aiming to do right.
In all works of philanthropy and reform, no one has a kinder heart, or a more willing or generous hand. His frequent appeals to the public, through the press, upon the temperance issues of the day have been characterized by great power, earnestness, and practical wisdom, and have been widely read and approved. He has never held political office, but has been in the ranks of the Federal, Whig, and Republican parties. He was the first man in the country to give one hundred dollars for the sanitary relief of Union soldiers in the late rebellion, and to form a soldiers' relief association, of which he was president during the war. He was the first college graduate from the town of his birth, and the last of four of his class who received the degree of Doctor of Laws.
His literary productions consist of "Obituary Notices for 1857 and 1858," in two volumes, "First Half Century of Dartmouth College," eulogies upon Judge Wilde and Hon. Tappan Wentworth, "Notices of Distinguished Men of Essex County, Mass.," the last being especially illustrative of Choate, Cushing, and Rantoul, and letters and appeals to the citizens of Lowell upon the temperance issues of 1880 and 1881. He has a nervous, but animated and entertaining style. His "First Half Century of Dartmouth College" is a model in its way, while his "Crosby Family," a genealogical work, is not the dry and uninteresting reading such literature usually is, but is entertaining, even to the general reader, for its reminiscences of individuals, and its pleasant pictures of old times in New Hampshire.
He has always cherished a deep interest in Dartmouth College, and to no slight extent has, by personal effort, brought about events which have been of substantial benefit to that ancient seat of learning.
Judge Crosby has been twice married. His first wife, Rebecca Marquand Moody, was a daughter of Stephen Moody, Esq., of Gilmanton, by whom he had nine children, of which number five are now living, namely, Frances Coffin, wife of Dr. Henry A. Martin, of Boston; Hon. Stephen Moody Crosby, of Boston; Maria Stocker, wife of the late Maj. Alexander McD. Lyon, of Erie, Penn.; Ellen Grant, wife of N. G. Norcross, Esq., of Lowell, and Susan Coffin, wife of Charles Francis, son of James B. Francis, of Lowell, the distinguished engineer. His daughter, Rebecca Marquand, widow of the late Z. B. Caverly, United Statescharge d'affairesat Peru, a highly accomplished and widely esteemed lady, was, with her daughter, lost on the "Schiller," a German steamer, off the English coast, in the spring of 1875,—a disaster which, at the time, created profound sorrow throughout the country. He married, May 19, 1870, Matilda, daughter of James Pickens, of Boston, and widow of Dr. J. W. Fearing, of Providence, R. I., who still lives.
Personally, the judge is a fine exemplification of the good results of temperance, self-care, and habitual good humor; and one meeting him for the first time, and noting his firm step and erect carriage, would hardly think him older than a man of sixty.
Dr. Dixi Crosby, fifth son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich, February 8, 1800, and died at Hanover, September 26, 1873. He married Mary Jane Moody, daughter of Stephen Moody, of Gilmanton, a distinguished lawyer, July 2, 1827. His academical preparation for his profession was quite limited; but being quick to learn, and with uncommon powers of memory, he made rapid progress in the study and practice of his profession and early became a prominent surgeon and physician, practicing in Gilmanton and Laconia till called to fill the chair of surgery in the Dartmouth Medical College, as successor of Professor R. D. Muzzey. He was placed at the head of the Medical College, in 1838, and held the place with great ability and distinction until nearly the time of his death.
His son, Prof. Alpheus B. Crosby, a young man of remarkable distinction, who died August 9, 1877, succeeded him. Another and older son is an eminent physician in Concord, N. H.
"Dr. Crosby, though a surgeon by nature and by preference, was in no modern sense aspecialist. His professional labors covered the whole range of medicine. His professorship included obstetrics as well as surgery, and his practice in this department was exceptionally large. His surgical diocese extended from Lake Champlain to Boston. Of the special operations of Dr. Crosby we do not propose here to speak in detail. It is sufficient to mention that, in 1824, he devised a new and ingenious mode of reducing metacarpo-phalangeal dislocation. In 1836 he removed the arm, scapula, and three-quarters of the clavicle, at a single operation, for the first time in the history of surgery. He was the first to open abscess of the hip-joint. He performed his operations without ever having seen them performed, almost without exception. Dr. Crosby was not what may be called arapidoperator. "An operation, gentlemen," he often said to his clinical students, "issoonenough done when it iswellenough done." And with him it was never done otherwise thanwell.At the outbreak of the rebellion, Dr. Crosby served in the provost-marshal'soffice at a great sacrifice for many months, attending to his practice chiefly at night. As years and honors accumulated, Dr. Crosby still continued his work, though his constitutional vigor was impaired by the severity of the New Hampshire winters and by his unremitting labor. At length, having reached man's limit of threescore years and ten, he withdrew from active practice, and in 1870 resigned his chair in the college.Dr. Crosby furnishes a beautiful and rare instance of a completed life. He early fixed his aim,—he reached it; he did all he attempted, and he did it well. 'Nihil tetigit, quod non ornavit.'To those of us who had been most intimately associated with our departed friend, who had enjoyed his teachings, his counsels, and his generous kindness, the news of his death came as a heavy shock. But he still lives in the remembrance of his distinguished services, in the unfading affection and gratitude of his pupils, and in the many hearts whose burdens he has lifted. Verily, 'Extinctus amabitur idem!'"—Obituary notice of Dr. J. W. Barstow.
"Dr. Crosby, though a surgeon by nature and by preference, was in no modern sense aspecialist. His professional labors covered the whole range of medicine. His professorship included obstetrics as well as surgery, and his practice in this department was exceptionally large. His surgical diocese extended from Lake Champlain to Boston. Of the special operations of Dr. Crosby we do not propose here to speak in detail. It is sufficient to mention that, in 1824, he devised a new and ingenious mode of reducing metacarpo-phalangeal dislocation. In 1836 he removed the arm, scapula, and three-quarters of the clavicle, at a single operation, for the first time in the history of surgery. He was the first to open abscess of the hip-joint. He performed his operations without ever having seen them performed, almost without exception. Dr. Crosby was not what may be called arapidoperator. "An operation, gentlemen," he often said to his clinical students, "issoonenough done when it iswellenough done." And with him it was never done otherwise thanwell.
At the outbreak of the rebellion, Dr. Crosby served in the provost-marshal'soffice at a great sacrifice for many months, attending to his practice chiefly at night. As years and honors accumulated, Dr. Crosby still continued his work, though his constitutional vigor was impaired by the severity of the New Hampshire winters and by his unremitting labor. At length, having reached man's limit of threescore years and ten, he withdrew from active practice, and in 1870 resigned his chair in the college.
Dr. Crosby furnishes a beautiful and rare instance of a completed life. He early fixed his aim,—he reached it; he did all he attempted, and he did it well. 'Nihil tetigit, quod non ornavit.'
To those of us who had been most intimately associated with our departed friend, who had enjoyed his teachings, his counsels, and his generous kindness, the news of his death came as a heavy shock. But he still lives in the remembrance of his distinguished services, in the unfading affection and gratitude of his pupils, and in the many hearts whose burdens he has lifted. Verily, 'Extinctus amabitur idem!'"—Obituary notice of Dr. J. W. Barstow.
Prof. Alpheus Crosby, ninth son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Sandwich, October 13, 1810, died in Salem, Mass., April 17, 1874. He married for his first wife, Abigail Grant Jones Cutler, daughter of Joseph and Abi C. Grant (Jones) Cutler, of Newburyport, Mass., August 27, 1834, who died in Paris, France, March 25, 1837. He married, for his second wife, Martha Kingman, daughter of Joseph Kingman, Esq., of West Bridgewater, Mass., a teacher in the Normal School, Salem, Mass. He was childless.
Professor Hagar says: "When in his tenth year he was taken to Hanover, the seat of Dartmouth College, and was placed temporarily under Professor Adams in algebra and Euclid, under Professor James Marsh in Latin, and under Tutor Rufus Choate in Greek; and these gentlemen pronounced him fitted for college. He was subsequently put to the study of Hebrew, under the Rev. John L. Parkhurst, and was sent to Exeter Academy; but in 1823 he entered college, passed through the four years' course of study without a rival and far beyond rivalry. His power of acquisition and retention was marvelous."After his graduation, he spent four years at Hanover; the first, as the preceptor of Moor's Indian Charity School, and the following three as tutor in the college. He subsequently spent nearly two years at the Theological Seminary in Andover, Mass. He was appointed to a professorship of Latin and Greek in 1833. In 1847 he was released from the Latin and became professor of Greek only, which office he held until 1849, when he resigned; but he remained professoremeritusuntil his death."
Professor Hagar says: "When in his tenth year he was taken to Hanover, the seat of Dartmouth College, and was placed temporarily under Professor Adams in algebra and Euclid, under Professor James Marsh in Latin, and under Tutor Rufus Choate in Greek; and these gentlemen pronounced him fitted for college. He was subsequently put to the study of Hebrew, under the Rev. John L. Parkhurst, and was sent to Exeter Academy; but in 1823 he entered college, passed through the four years' course of study without a rival and far beyond rivalry. His power of acquisition and retention was marvelous.
"After his graduation, he spent four years at Hanover; the first, as the preceptor of Moor's Indian Charity School, and the following three as tutor in the college. He subsequently spent nearly two years at the Theological Seminary in Andover, Mass. He was appointed to a professorship of Latin and Greek in 1833. In 1847 he was released from the Latin and became professor of Greek only, which office he held until 1849, when he resigned; but he remained professoremeritusuntil his death."
Professor Crosby was one of the earnest Greek scholars of eminence that New England can boast, being precocious in his scholarship, and so a little in advance of Professor Felton, of Cambridge, who was a year or two older. Both graduated in 1827, Felton at Harvard, and Crosby at Dartmouth; and this, as it happens, was the year in which the first Greek lexicon, with definitions in English, came into the hands of pupils in any part of the world. It was the work of John Pickering, a Salem man, who for many years stood almost alone as a great Greek scholar in America, having preceded Crosby and Felton by more than thirty years. The young men took up the work where Pickering laid it down, and began not long after they became Greek professors in their respective colleges (Felton in 1832, and Crosby in 1833,) the task of preparinggrammars, readers, and editions of authors, for the studious youth of the land. Crosby's Greek grammar and his edition of Xenophon's Anabasis soon came into common use, and have been of great service in promoting the elementary instruction of thousands of Greek scholars since; as also have Felton's Reader and his editions of Aristophanes, etc. The learning of Hadley, Goodwin, and other recent professors has gone beyond that of these pioneers in extent and accuracy, but it is doubtful whether they have done so much for rudimentary scholarship.
Professor Crosby belonged not to us alone, but to all New England,—to the whole land. Our country is poorer by the loss of an eminent scholar, one of that small band of classical scholars in America who are known and honored at foreign seats of learning. In the latest, freshest, and most original Greek grammar of Professor Clyde, of Edinburgh, the author acknowledges his obligations to four distinguished scholars, three Europeans and one American; and the American is Professor Crosby.
Professor Crosby published "A Greek and General Grammar"; "Greek Tables"; "Greek Lessons"; an edition of Xenophon's Anabasis; "Eclogæ Latinæ"; "First Lessons in Geometry"; also many religious and political tracts, and elementary school-books, which have been widely useful among the freedmen and Indians.
Prof. Thomas Russell Crosby, M. D., youngest son of Dr. Asa Crosby, was born in Gilmanton, N. H., October 22, 1816, and died at Hanover, March 1, 1872. He married Louisa Partridge Burton, daughter of Col. Oliver Burton, U. S. A. He graduated D. C. 1841, taking also, at the same time, his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He practiced in Meriden and Manchester, was chief surgeon in Columbian College Hospital, in Washington, D. C., during the war, became professor in the Medical College in that city, and afterwards professor in Dartmouth College. During much of his professional life he was an invalid, but was indefatigable in habits of study, steadily advancing to posts of honor and reward, both as practitioner and teacher.
The faculty of Dartmouth College say: "We would record with deep sorrow the decease of Dr. Thomas R. Crosby, Professor of Animal and Vegetable Physiology in the agricultural department of the college, and Instructor in Natural History in the academical and scientific departments; and that we have a profound sense of the loss sustained by the college and the community in the departure of one who, to all the virtues that adorned his character, added such fullness, variety, and accuracy of scientific and professional attainment as fitted him for signal usefulness in the several positions he occupied."
His brother Josiah bears this testimony of him in a letter, after he had passed away: "I have always considered him equal to any of the brothers as a general scholar, and, decidedly, as the best medical scholar of us doctors; and, although he had not an opportunity of performing so much surgery outside the hospital as others of the family, yet what he did shows conclusively that he was competent to any emergency. He had all the requisite qualifications for a good operator,—a correct knowledge of anatomy and great self-possession."
C H SawyerC H Sawyer
Charles Henry is the eldest son of Jonathan Sawyer, the sketch of whose life precedes this. He was born March 30, 1840, at Watertown. N. Y. At ten years of age, on the removal of his father to Dover, N. H., Charles, who had already become quite advanced in his studies, was sent to the district school in that place. The district school, although it has been supplanted by what is regarded as an improved system of education, had its own distinctive merits. The six years' training in it, under competent teachers, was sufficient to give young Sawyer a thoroughly practical education in those branches which are found to be essential to success in business life. Books can do little more than this. Experience must complete the training process. At sixteen years of age, it being determined that Charles was to enter into the business of his father, he was placed as an apprentice in the Sawyers' woolen-mills. The business to which a young man is to devote his life affords the very best means for his education in it. It proved to be so in this instance. The young apprentice, as he progressed from one stage to another, had the finest of opportunities for acquiring a full knowledge of all the diversified interests and sciences which belong to such a great industry. There is scarcely a branch in natural philosophy, physics, or the mechanical arts that is not intimately connected with the manufacture of woolens. But the manufacturing processes embrace only a part of the activities and requirements of such a business as the Sawyers. They are their own buyers and sellers in all the great markets of our own and other lands. Superadded to mechanical knowledge and skill, there must be the large intelligence, the clear foresight, the quick, unerring judgment, which belong to the accomplished financier. In this manufactory, based upon so varied knowledge, and calling into activity so many of the strong mental powers, Charles found a grand school, and such proficiency did he make in it, that when he came to his manhood he was abundantly qualified to take upon himself the duties and responsibilities of superintendent. He was appointed to this position in 1866. No small share of the distinguished success which has come to this establishment may be fairly attributable to the fidelity and perseverance in service, the keen sagacity and the great enterprise, which Charles H. Sawyer has brought to its every interest. In 1873, when the company became incorporated, he was admitted to the firm, and, at the same time, was appointed its agent and one of the directors. Since then he has been elected its president.
Mr. Sawyer has served in both branches of the Dover city government; was a member of the New Hampshire legislature in 1869 and 1870, and again in 1876 and 1877, serving on the committee on railroads, incorporations, judiciary, national affairs, and as chairman of the committee on manufactures. In 1881 he was appointed, by Governor Bell, a member of his military staff with rankof colonel. Mr. Sawyer is now acting as director of the Strafford National Bank and the Portsmouth & Dover Railroad, and trustee of the Strafford Savings Bank. He is a member of the Masonic order, taking a personal interest in all that concerns its prosperity. In 1867 he became a member of the Strafford Lodge, and was master in 1872 and 1873. He is a member of the St. Paul Commandry of Knights Templar, of which he has just been elected eminent commander for the fourth time.
Mr. Sawyer, in 1865, was married to Susan Ellen Cowan, daughter of Dr. James W. and Elizabeth Cowan.
Mr. Sawyer is not only a man of affairs, taking a deep personal interest in the various movements of politics, finance, and industrial life, but he is a man of large reading and is well acquainted with the best books and thoughts of the times. His judgments of men and measures are singularly free from partiality and prejudice. His conclusions are deliberately formed, and based upon a broad comprehension of all the related facts. His sense of justice is strong; his intellectual qualities are admirably balanced. He never is otherwise than perfectly poised. With all this he has the warmest heart, the quickest sympathies, great kindness of manner, and utmost geniality of spirit. In the reserve of his nature he withholds himself from all impetuous demonstrations; but, when the occasion demands, his influence, his advice, his friendship are put forth with commanding effect. Nature made him on a large scale, and books and experience and increasing converse with the best phases of social life are developing him into rare strength and symmetry of character.