Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
Notwithstanding his uninterrupted devotion to the law, Col. George is no
less generally known in politics than at the bar. Well grounded in the
faith of the Democratic party in his youthful years, his intimate
association with Pierce, Peaslee, and other distinguished leaders of
that organization in his early manhood served to intensify his feelings
and convictions in that regard, so he has ever been a ready and zealous
exponent of Democratic principles and a champion of the Democratic
cause, contributing his services without stint in conventions, in
committee work, and upon the stump, doing able and brilliant service in
the latter direction in all parts of the state, and in almost every
campaign for the past thirty-five years. He long since came to be
regarded as one of the most powerful and effective political debaters in
the state. His efforts upon the stump are characterized by the same
earnestness, the same sledge-hammer logic, and the same comprehensive
array of facts, as at the bar. His mode of warfare, political as well
as legal, is of the Napoleonic order. He never assumes the defensive,
and if placed in such position by any combination of circumstances he
soon transforms it into one of active aggression.
From 1851 to 1853, inclusive, Col. George served as chairman of the
Democratic state committee, and again in 1856. In 1852 he was also
selected as the New Hampshire member of the Democratic national
committee, and he was especially active in the campaign, both in the
state and the country at large, which resulted in the election of his
friend, Gen. Pierce, to the presidency. His service upon the national
committee continued until 1860. He was a member of the Democratic
national convention in 1856, and chairman of the state delegation in the
national convention at Cincinnati, in 1880. At the state convention of
his party, in September of that year, he presided, delivering, upon
assuming the chair, one of the ablest addresses ever heard upon a
similar occasion.
His party having been in the minority in New Hampshire for the past
twenty-five years, he has been comparatively little in public office.
Aside from the non-partisan positions heretofore mentioned, he was for
three years--in 1847, 1848, and again in 1850--clerk of the state
senate. In 1853 he was chosen a member of the legislature, but resigned
his seat to accept the office of United States attorney. In this
connection it may be mentioned that in 1855 he was tendered, by
President Pierce, the office of secretary of the territory of Minnesota,
which he at first was inclined to accept, but, after deliberation,
determined to forego the chances for political promotion ordinarily
involved in an appointment of that character, and remain with his
friends and his law practice in his own state. In 1850, Col. George
received the Democratic nomination for congress in the second district,
and again in 1863, when he made a vigorous canvass, and was defeated by
a very close vote. In 1866 he received the votes of the Democratic
members of the legislature as their candidate for United States senator.
Had he deserted his party and allied himself with the majority when the
Republicans came into ascendency, he might readily have commanded the
highest honors in the gift of the state, as others less able than
himself have done; but his position in the honest regard of the people,
irrespective of party, is far higher to-day for having remained true to
his convictions and steadfast and active in their maintenance.
His military title comes from his service as chief of the staff of Gov.
Dinsmoor from 1848 to 1850. He was also for several years commander in
the brilliant and popular organization known as the "Governor's
Horse-Guards." As a popular orator, outside the domain of law and
politics, Col. George also takes high rank. His oration upon Daniel
Webster, at the recent centennial celebration of the birth of that most
illustrious son of New Hampshire, under the auspices of the Webster club
of Concord, is surpassed in power and felicity of expression by none
which the event anywhere called forth.
Col. George was united in marriage, in September, 1849, with Miss Susan
Ann Brigham, daughter of Capt. Levi Brigham, of Boston, who died May 10,
1862, leaving five children, three sons and two daughters. In July,
1864, he married Miss Salvadora Meade Graham, daughter of Col. James D.
Graham of the United States engineers, by whom he has one child, a
daughter. His eldest son, John Paul, graduated at Dartmouth College in
1878, entered the Harvard Law School, and is now a student-at-law in the
office of George & Foster. His second son, Charles Peaslee, graduated in
June, 1881, at the naval school at Annapolis, and is now a midshipman in
the U. S. navy. His third son, Benjamin Pierce, is a member of the
sophomore class in Dartmouth College. His eldest daughter, Jane
Appleton, is the wife of Mr. Henry E. Bacon, and resides in Portland,
Me.; his second daughter, Anne Brigham, is at home; while the youngest
daughter, Charlotte Graham, is at school in Washington, D. C.
The family residence of Col. George is the old paternal mansion on North
Main street, in Concord, wherein he was born. He has also an excellent
farm a few miles out of the city, in Hopkinton, where he makes his
summer home, and where, in his little leisure from professional labor,
he indulges a fondness for rural pursuits, and especially for the
breeding and care of domestic animals, which was one of the
characteristics of his boyhood. Incidental as this may be, his farm is
known as one of the most highly cultivated in the section where it is
located, and his horses and Jersey cattle are the admiration of all
lovers of good stock.
As a citizen, Col. George is public-spirited, and freely devotes his
time and energies to the furtherance of every movement and the advocacy
of every measure which he believes calculated to promote the material or
educational welfare of the community. No man in Concord has done more
than he to advance the prosperity of the city in every essential regard.
The efficiency of the public schools has ever been an object of deep
interest to him; and as a private citizen, as a member of building
committees, and in the board of education, he has given his services
freely in perfecting the admirably equipped public-school system, which
is far from the least of the attractions which render our capital city
one of the most desirable places of residence in New England.
The general extension of the railway system of the state, to which most
that has been accomplished in the development of its material resources
for the last twenty-five years is due, has ever found an enthusiastic
supporter in Col. George, who has been and still is directly connected
with several railroad enterprises in different sections, which have
proved of great local and general advantage.
Few men have more or warmer friends than Col. George. A man of positive
opinions, frankly and honestly declared, he commands the sincere respect
of those with whom he comes in contact in all the relations of life,
private, social, public, and professional. Formidable as an opponent, he
is nevertheless fair and honorable, as he is true and faithful as a
friend and ally. He is a prominent member of the Masonic order, having
attained the rank of sovereign grand inspector-general of the 33d
degree, and a member of the "Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite of the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States."
This brief sketch can perhaps be no more appropriately concluded than in
the following language of the gentleman (Sidney Webster, Esq.,)
heretofore quoted:
"Years of incessant toil, while they have diminished somewhat
the energetic temperament and the exuberant animal spirits of
Col. George's youth, and have naturally softened his once blunt
and almost brusque manner in debate, have not diminished the
real force and strength of his genuine character, for character
is just what Col. George has always had. As the ripples of his
experience spread over a wider and wider area, he may have less
and less confidence in the infallibility of any man's opinions,
and less belief in the importance to society of any one man's
action; but Col. George has reached and passed his half century
with his mental faculties and his moral faculties improving and
strengthening, year by year. New Hampshire has to-day very few
among her living sons better equipped to do triumphant battle
for her in the high places of the world."
WILLIAM GORDON MEANS.
WILLIAM GORDON MEANS, for sixteen years clerk and paymaster of the
Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, and afterwards treasurer of the
Manchester Locomotive-Works, was born at Amherst, Hillsborough county,
April 27, 1815. He is of the third generation in descent from Col.
Robert Means, who came to New Hampshire from Stewartstown, Ireland, in
1766, and commenced business at Merrimack, with Dea. Jacob McGaw, who
emigrated to this country about the same year. This partnership, which
had prospered, was dissolved when Amherst became the shire town, and
Col. Means opened a store there, in which he prosecuted a successful
business. A man of great energy, he was prominent in the affairs of the
town; elected its representative at the general court three times, also
a member of the senate three years, and councilor for Hillsborough
county, his name is identified with the most important measures of that
period.
Col. Means had a large family. Several of the daughters were married to
gentlemen who subsequently attained great distinction in the learned
professions. Of the sons, Robert became a lawyer, and David McGregor,
who bore the name of his mother (a daughter of Rev. David McGregor of
Londonderry), succeeded his father as a merchant. He married Catherine,
daughter of Hon. Joshua Atherton, who is described as a woman of
vigorous understanding and positive convictions, ready in conversation,
and of sprightly and pleasing manners. By this marriage, David McG.
Means had three sons and six daughters, of whom the subject of this
sketch was the third son and the fourth child, receiving the name of his
uncle, Hon. William Gordon, at that time a lawyer of great promise in
Amherst.
Among his schoolmates, William G. Means is remembered as a quick-witted
boy, fond of adventure, and overflowing with fun. The schools in Amherst
at that date did not furnish advantages of a high order. Aside from the
training of the household, the youth had no superior privileges, except
a few terms at Pinkerton Academy, Derry, then under the care of Abel F.
Hildreth, an eminent teacher. For parts of three years he attended this
school, in company with his brother James, Edward and Alfred Spalding,
E. D. Boylston, and other students from Amherst.
In the autumn of 1830, Mr. Means went to Boston, and entered the store
of Daniel McGregor, then a dealer in dry goods,--finding employment,
after an apprenticeship of four or five years, in the house of Robert
Appleton & Co. By the commercial crisis of 1837, like hundreds of young
men similarly situated, he was thrown out of employment, and returned to
his home in Amherst. These years of service in Boston were not without
their valuable uses, though a new direction was soon to be given to his
capacity for business. He saw the perils that beset the career of the
tradesman, and learned the wisdom of that conservatism which underlies
the avenues of success in mercantile pursuits. While living in Boston,
he became interested in the lady who was subsequently to share his
fortunes and build his house.
In March, 1838, Mr. Means became clerk of the Amoskeag Manufacturing