Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
Railroad to take charge of the new machine and car shops then building
at Concord. He was appointed master mechanic of the Concord Railroad in
1850, and retained the position eight years, when he relinquished
mechanical labor for other pursuits. As a mechanic, Mr. Kimball
inherited a great natural aptitude, and has few superiors. His sound
judgment and skill were in constant requisition in the responsible
office in the railroad service he held for so many years; and the
experience and training there acquired have been of great value to the
city and state when his services have been demanded by his
fellow-citizens.
In 1856, Mr. Kimball was elected to the common council of the city of
Concord. In 1857 he was re-elected, and was chosen president of that
body. In 1858 he was elected a member of the state legislature; and was
re-elected in 1859, serving as chairman of the committee on
state-prison. From the year 1859 to the year 1862, Mr. Kimball served
the city of Concord as collector of taxes and city marshal. In 1862 he
was appointed, by President Lincoln, collector of internal revenue for
the second district of New Hampshire, including the counties of
Merrimack and Hillsborough, and held the office for seven years,
collecting and paying over to the treasurer of the United States nearly
seven millions of dollars.
In 1872, Mr. Kimball was elected mayor of Concord, and was re-elected to
this honorable and responsible office in 1873, 1874, and 1875.
Immediately after Mr. Kimball assumed the duties of this office a severe
freshet either carried away or rendered impassable five of the seven
bridges spanning the Merrimack and Contoocook rivers. The work of
rebuilding these structures devolved immediately upon him, as
superintendent of roads and bridges. The Federal bridge and the bridge
at Fisherville, both of iron, are monuments of his progressive ideas.
During his administration the system of water supply from Long pond was
carried on to successful completion, and the purest of water has since
been at the command of every citizen. This work required a large sum of
money, which was so carefully expended that no one has felt the burden
save as a blessing. The fire department was invested with new dignity by
the city government during those years. The firemen had their demands
for appropriate buildings fully satisfied, and are proud, as is the
whole city, of the beautiful central fire station and other buildings of
the department, which compare favorably with any in the country.
Aside from his mechanical skill, Mr. Kimball long since won the enviable
reputation of an able and successful financier. In 1870, upon the
organization of the Merrimack County Savings Bank, he was elected its
treasurer, and has held the office ever since. To him, for many years,
have been intrusted the settlement of estates, the management of trust
funds, and the care of the property of widows and orphans. As treasurer
of the New Hampshire Bible Society and Orphans' Home, he has given to
those institutions the benefit of his financial experience.
For the benefit of the city of Concord, the mechanical skill and
financial ability of Mr. Kimball were fully exercised. During his term
of office as mayor he was one of the water commissioners, _ex officio_,
and president of the board in 1875. He was subsequently appointed a
water commissioner, in 1877, for a term of three years; re-appointed in
1880, and has been president of the board since his first appointment.
Upon the death of Hon. Nathaniel White, Mr. Kimball was elected
president of the Concord Gas-Light Company, having held the office of
director for several years. What little credit is due a member of the
constitutional convention of 1876 is his. He represented the fifth ward
in Concord, and served the convention acceptably as chairman of its
finance committee.
The demand for a new state-prison, in union with the philanthropic ideas
of the age, culminated, in the year 1877, in an act of the legislature
providing for a new state-prison, and granting for the purpose a very
moderate appropriation, hedged in by every possible safeguard. The
governor, Benjamin F. Prescott, with the advice of his council,
immediately upon the passage of the law appointed three commissioners to
carry into effect the provisions of the act. Mr. Kimball was chosen
chairman of the board. Upon these commissioners has devolved the duty of
constructing the massive pile of buildings known as the new
state-prison, commodious for the officers, humane and comfortable for
the inmates, acceptable to the authorities and the people, and within
the limits of the appropriation. In the autumn of 1880 the structure was
appropriately dedicated to its future uses, by fitting ceremony. Col.
John H. George, of Concord, delivered the address, and in closing
said:--
"It is a matter of further and warm congratulation that its
erection has been intrusted to a competent commission; that good
judgment and intelligent investigation have characterized the
plan; that no corrupt jobbery has polluted its construction; and
that for every dollar expended a fair and honest result has been
obtained. And in this connection it is but just to say that the
fitness and labors of the chairman of the board especially
should receive public recognition. To the successful performance
of the duties of his office he brought unusual mechanical skill
and large experience in the construction of public works."
In 1880, when the Manchester & Keene Railroad was placed in the hands of
the court, Mr. Kimball was appointed, by Chief-Justice Doe, one of the
trustees. In November, 1880, Mr. Kimball was chosen a senator from
district number ten, and upon the organization of the legislature in
June, 1881, he was elected to the office of president of the senate, in
importance the second office in the state. As presiding officer, he is
dignified, courteous, and impartial. He carried to the position a fund
of information, a wealth of experience, controlled by sound judgment,
and strong convictions.
Politically, Mr. Kimball is a Republican. For fifteen years, since 1863,
he has been treasurer of the Republican state committee. With him right
takes precedence of policy. It takes no finesse to know on what side he
is to be found. In his dealings he is upright, has confidence in himself
and in his own judgment, and it is hard to swerve him. He is frank and
free in his general intercourse, bluff and often brusque in manner, but
never discourteous. He is a man of large and progressive views, and
actuated by the most conscientious motives. His character for integrity
is without blemish, and as firmly established as the granite hills.
In 1843 he joined the church at his old home in Boscawen, and ever since
has affiliated with the Congregationalists. For many years he has been a
member of the South Congregational church of Concord. He is eminently a
man of affairs,--of acts, not words. His reading is of a scientific
character, varied by genealogical and historical research.
In person, Mr. Kimball is of commanding presence and muscular figure,
inclined to be spare, but of apparently great physical powers. In
private life he is a devoted friend, a kind neighbor, an esteemed
citizen, and a charitable, tolerant, self-reliant man.
In early manhood, May 27, 1846, Mr. Kimball was joined in marriage to
Maria H. Phillips, of Rupert, Vermont. Their only child, Clara Maria
Kimball, born March 20, 1848, was married June 4, 1873, to Augustine R.
Ayers, a successful merchant of Concord. Five children--Ruth Ames, John
Kimball, Helen McGregor, Joseph Sherburne,[2] and Josiah Phillips--have
been born to them.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Deceased.
JONATHAN EVERETT SARGENT, LL.D
by J. N. McCLINTOCK.
JUDGE SARGENT, now of Concord, has been well known throughout the state
for more than a quarter of a century. Besides an extensive legislative
acquaintance, he has, as judge of the different courts and as
chief-justice of the state, held terms of court in every shire town and
half-shire town in every county in the state. He has been emphatically
the architect of his own fortune, and by his energy and perseverance has
reached the highest post of honor in his profession in his native state.
He is genial and social with his friends; he loves a joke, and belongs
to that small class of men "who never grow old." He loves his home, his
family, and his books. No man enjoys the study of history and of poetry,
of philosophy and of fiction, better than he, while law and theology
come in for a share of attention,--a kind neighbor, a respected citizen,
a ripe scholar, a wise legislator, an upright judge, an honest man.
In the year 1781, Peter Sargent, the grandfather of the subject of this
sketch, moved from Hopkinton. N. H., to New London, at that time equally
well known as Heidleburg. This locality had been known by this latter
name for nearly a quarter of a century. It was granted by the Masonian
proprietors, July 7, 1773, to Jonas Minot and others, as the "Addition
of Alexandria." It was first settled in 1775, and was incorporated as a
town by the legislature, June 25, 1779. Peter Sargent, who thus moved
into the town two years after its incorporation, was one of ten
brothers, all born in Amesbury, Mass., who settled as follows: Amasa,
Ezekiel, Thomas, and Moses always lived at Amesbury; James settled in
Methuen, Mass.; Peter, Nathan, and Stephen came to Hopkinton, N. H., and
settled there; and Abner and Ebenezer came to Warner, N. H., and settled
there. These ten brothers, with four sisters, were the children of
Deacon Stephen Sargent, of Amesbury, Mass.
[Christopher Sargent, an older brother of Deacon Stephen, graduated at
Harvard, entered the ministry, and was the first settled minister of
Methuen, Mass. His eldest son, Nathaniel Peaslee Sargent, graduated at
Harvard, practiced law at Haverhill, and was for many years a judge of
the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts, and was chief justice of
the state in 1790 and 1791, when he died aged sixty.]
Deacon Stephen Sargent was the son of Thomas, 2d, who was the son of
Thomas, 1st, who was the son of William Sargent. Stephen married Judith
Ordway, of West Newbury, Mass., September 26, 1730; was chosen deacon of
the Second Congregational church in Amesbury, May 10, 1757; and died
October 2, 1773.
William Sargent was born in England about 1602, and was the son of
Richard Sargent, an officer in the royal navy. It is believed he came to
Virginia at an early day, with William Barnes, John Hoyt, and others. He
married Judith Perkins for his first wife, who died about 1633, when he,
with several daughters, was one of the twelve men who commenced the
settlement of Ipswich, Mass., that year. He soon after went to Newbury
and helped form a settlement there; and about 1638 he, with several
others, commenced a settlement at Hampton. He soon after, about 1640,
removed to Salisbury, and was one of the eighteen original proprietors,
or commoners, who settled in New Salisbury, since known as Amesbury. His
second wife's name was Elizabeth, by whom he had two sons, Thomas and
William. He had several lots of land assigned him at different times;
was one of the selectmen of the town in 1667. He died in 1675, aged
seventy-three.
Peter Sargent married Ruth Nichols, of Amesbury or Newbury, Mass., and
came to Hopkinton, N. H., in 1763 or 1764, where they lived some
eighteen years, and raised a large family, and when he went to New
London took them all with him. His children were Anthony, Abigail, Ruth,
Judith, Peter, Ebenezer, Amasa, John, Molly, Ezekiel, Stephen, William,
and Lois. These all came from Hopkinton to New London in 1781, except