Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
1640,--a grant which for over two hundred and forty years has been in
the possession of the Pillsbury family. Following him, next came in the
line of descent Caleb Pillsbury, who was born January 26, 1717, for
several years and at the time of his decease a member of the
Massachusetts provincial legislature. Caleb Pillsbury left a son
Micajah, who was born in Amesbury, Mass., May 22, 1763, and married
Sarah Sargent. The result of this union was four daughters, and four
sons--Stephen, Joseph, John, and Moses. With this family Micajah
Pillsbury removed to Sutton, N. H., where he remained until his death,
in 1802, occupying various positions of town trust. His wife survived
him several years. Of these sons, Stephen Pillsbury was a Baptist
clergyman, who died in Londonderry. The other brothers, including John
Pillsbury, the father of the subject of this sketch, were all
magistrates of the town of Sutton. The youngest sister married Nathan
Andrews, a gentleman well known in the annals of Sutton.
John Pillsbury was born in 1789. He was prominent in the town affairs of
Sutton, being a selectman for several years, and representing the town
in the state legislature. He was also a captain in the militia in those
days of the fife and drum, when a commission had a significance. On
April 2, 1811, he married Susan Wadleigh, daughter of Benjamin Wadleigh,
a settler in Sutton in 1771. Benjamin Wadleigh was a descendant of
Robert Wadleigh of Exeter, a member of the provincial legislature of
Massachusetts. On the maternal side the ancestry was good. The maternal
grandmother was the daughter of Ebenezer Kezar, who, it is related,
concealed the girl whom he afterwards married, under a pile of boards,
at the time Mrs. Duston was captured, in 1697. He was identified with
the early history of Sutton in many ways.
As we have said, John and Susan Pillsbury were the father and mother of
the subject of these lines. They were a hardy, vigorous, and exemplary
parent stock. To them were born five children, to wit: Simon Wadleigh
Pillsbury, born June 22, 1812; George Alfred, August 29, 1816; Dolly W.,
September 6, 1818; John Sargent, July 29, 1827; and Benjamin Franklin,
March 29, 1831. All of the children received the common-school education
of those days; but Simon W., whose natural fondness for study
distinguished him as a young man, gave his attention to special branches
of study, particularly mathematics, in which he became known as one of
the best in the state. He delivered the first public lecture in Sutton
on the subject of temperance. But too much study wore down his health,
and he died in 1836, cutting short a promising future.
Of the other brothers, John Sargent is too well known to need mention.
When a boy of sixteen he became a clerk for his brother, George Alfred,
at Warner, N. H. In 1848 he formed a business partnership with Walter
Harriman in Warner, neither of these two men in those days dreaming that
in the future one would be the governor of a state on the Atlantic
seaboard, and the other of one on the banks of the great Mississippi. In
1854 John S. settled in Minnesota, at the Falls of St. Anthony, around
which has grown up the beautiful city of Minneapolis, with a population
of sixty thousand. He shortly entered into the hardware trade, in which
he built up the largest business in the state, acquiring a fortune,
serving for a dozen years or more as state senator, and finally being
elected governor for three successive terms of two years each, being the
only governor of Minnesota accorded a third term. His entire
administration, which ceased in January, 1882, was a remarkable one,
characterized by many acts of wisdom, chief among which was the
adjustment of the dishonored state bonds issued at an early day for
railroad purposes.
The remaining brother, Benjamin F. Pillsbury, remained in Sutton until
1878, where he filled many places of trust, being elected selectman,
treasurer, and state representative. In 1878 he removed to Granite Falls
in western Minnesota, where he is extensively engaged in the real
estate, grain, and lumber business, and is reckoned one of the leading
citizens of his section.
But we have been drawn somewhat from the subject of this article. As we
have stated, George Alfred Pillsbury was born in Sutton, N. H., August
29, 1816. He received a thorough common-school education in the
rudimentary branches. Of a very quick and active temperament, he very
early in life had a strong determination to enter business for himself.
At the age of eighteen he became a clerk to a Boston merchant. After a
year's experience there, he returned to Sutton and entered into the
manufacture of stoves and sheet-iron ware, in company with a cousin,
John C. Pillsbury. He continued in this business until February 1840,
when he went to Warner into the store of John H. Pearson, where he
remained until the following July, when he purchased the business on his
own account, and continued in it for some eight years. In the spring of
1848 he entered into a wholesale dry-goods house in Boston, and in 1849
again returned to Warner and engaged in business there until the spring
of 1851, when he sold out his interest and went out of mercantile
business entirely. During his residence in Warner he was postmaster from
1844 to 1849, was selectman in 1847 and 1849, town treasurer in 1849,
and a representative to the general court in 1850 and 1851. He was also
selected as chairman of the committee appointed to build the Merrimack
county jail in Concord, in 1851-52, with the general superintendence of
the construction of the work, which was most faithfully done.
In November, 1851, Mr. Pillsbury was appointed purchasing agent of the
Concord Railroad, and commenced his duties in the following December,
having in the meantime moved his family to Concord. For nearly
twenty-four years he occupied this position, and discharged its duties
with rare business ability, showing wise judgment in all his purchases,
which amounted to more than three million dollars, and settling more
cases of claims against the corporation for alleged injuries to persons
and property than all the other officers of the road. He had great
quickness of perception and promptness in action, two wonderful business
qualities, which, when rightly used, always bring success.
During his residence of twenty-seven years in Concord, he gradually
acquired a position which all may envy. Various positions of trust, both
in public matters and as a private adviser, were discharged by him most
faithfully. He was one of the committee appointed by the Union
school-district to build the high school and several other school
buildings. He was also interested in the erection of several of the
handsome business blocks and fine residences in the city.
In the year 1864, Mr. Pillsbury, with others, established the First
National Bank of Concord. From the first he was one of the directors,
and in 1866 became its president, which position he held until his
departure from the state. He was also more instrumental than any other
person in organizing the National Savings Bank in 1867. Of the savings
bank he was the first president, and held the position until 1874, when
he resigned. During Mr. Pillsbury's management of the First National
Bank, it became, in proportion to its capital stock, the strongest bank
in the state. Up to December, 1873, when the treasurer was discovered to
be a defaulter to a large amount, the savings bank was one of the most
successful in the state; but this defalcation, with the general crash in
business, required its closing up. Its total deposits up to the time
mentioned exceeded three million dollars. The bank finally paid its
depositors nearly dollar for dollar and interest, notwithstanding the
large defalcation by its treasurer.
Mr. Pillsbury was elected a representative to the general court from
ward five, in 1871 and 1872, and was appointed chairman of the committee
on the apportionment of public taxes during the session of the
legislature in 1872. For several years Mr. Pillsbury was a member of the
city councils of Concord, and his intimate knowledge of public affairs
led the people to twice elect him as mayor, a position the duties of
which he discharged with that rare ability which had characterized all
his other affairs; and it was during this time that he decided, after
much consideration, and with deep reluctance, to leave Concord and move
to Minneapolis, Minn., where he had already acquired large interests.
When this resolution was made public, it drew forth strong and
wide-spread protests from the citizens and neighbors whom he had served
so long, for they felt the state could illy afford to lose such a man.
But of this we will speak later.
During his residence in Concord he was identified with all measures to
promote the public good. Both by his business judgment and his ready
purse did he aid the benevolent and religious organizations. He was
actively engaged in establishing the Centennial Home of Concord, for the
aged, making large contributions and serving at a trustee. He was also a
generous giver to the Orphans' Home at Franklin, and was a trustee from
the time of its foundation until he left the state. In 1876 he was
appointed, by the city councils, chairman of a committee of three to
appraise all the real estate of the city for taxation purposes. Several
objects attest his generosity and public spirit, among which might be
mentioned the gift to the city of the fine bell in the tower of the
Board of Trade building, and the handsome organ in the First Baptist
church,--a joint gift from himself and his son, Hon. Charles A.
Pillsbury, of Minneapolis. He also made several large contributions
towards building and endowing the academy at New London.
Upon his preparing to leave Concord for the West, in the spring of 1878,
expressions of regret came to him from all sources. Complimentary
resolutions were unanimously adopted by both branches of the city
government, and by the First National Bank, the latter testifying most
emphatically to his integrity and superior business qualities. The First
Baptist church, of which he was an active member during his residence in
Concord, and its society also passed similar resolutions. The Webster
club, composed of some fifty of the leading citizens, also adopted
resolutions regretting deeply his departure. A private testimonial
signed by over three hundred of the leading citizens of all branches of
business, all the members of the city government, all the banking
officers and professional men, was presented, and on the eve of his
departure an elegant bronze statue was presented to himself and wife by
members of the First Baptist church. In church affairs and acts of
private charity he had always shown a strong interest, which drew him
friends from all classes of people.
Coming to Minneapolis he was at once recognized, and from the moment he
established himself there he took an assured position. He at once
entered actively into the milling business (in which he had long been
interested) in the firm of C. A. Pillsbury & Co., composed of himself,
his brother, Gov. J. S. Pillsbury, and his two sons, Hon. C. A.
Pillsbury and Fred C. Pillsbury,--to-day the largest producers of flour
in the world, operating five large flouring-mills with a capacity of
seven thousand five hundred barrels per day. The business of this firm,
while selling a large amount of flour in the United States, has been
gradually directed to the European trade, supplying the foreign markets
with the very best brands of breadstuffs. To-day there is not a European
market in which their flour is not sold extensively and given the
highest quotations.
Mr. Pillsbury, much against his wishes, has been crowded again into