Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
Warren F. and Frank H. Daniell. They have two children, a daughter and
son,--the eldest, Alice, born August 5, 1871, and Richard Woodbury, born
February 15, 1876. Their home is a fine modern residence, erected in
1877, beautifully located in a bend of the Winnipesaukee river,
surrounded by handsome grounds, with all its appointments conducive to
the comfort of the family and the host of friends who share their
generous hospitality.
Mr. Sulloway is a man of keen perceptive powers and ready judgement, so
that he is enabled to form conclusions upon all practical questions
presented with more than ordinary promptness and accuracy. His opinion
in all matters of public interest and concern in the community in which
he resides is as frequently sought and carries as great weight as that
of any other man, to say the least, and the same also may be said of his
advice in private business affairs. He is frank and outspoken at all
times, and never hesitates to say just what he thinks when called upon
to express himself in any direction. He has many warm friends, and
enjoys a full measure of popularity in social as well as in public and
business circles. He was a moving spirit in the organization of the "New
Hampshire Club," an association formed by New Hampshire men doing
business in Boston, for social entertainment, and has been a leading
member of the same from the start. Endowed with an active mind and
healthy and vigorous bodily powers, he has great capacity for labor, and
will, unquestionably, accomplish even more substantial results in the
future than have already attended his efforts.
CHESTER PIKE.
The subject of this sketch was born July 30, 1829, in the town of
Cornish, N. H. Mr. Pike may be said to be possessed of prescriptive
rights in the township of his nativity and residence, for, planted of
others, it was by blood of his blood nurtured into permanence and
prosperity.
As the traits of the parent re-appear in the qualities of the child, so
the annals of the stock from whence he sprang mingle inseparably with
the chronicles of this many-hilled town by the Connecticut. His
great-grandfather and great-grandmother Chase were the first white
persons to settle in Cornish, and in every mention of early citizens
will be found the names of Pike, Bryant, and Chase, whose blood blends
with his. The friendship arising from nearness of residence and a common
industry, which from the first had bound these families together, was
soon strengthened and made permanent by the stronger tie of
intermarriage.
In 1827, Eben Pike, who was the eldest son of Ebenezer and Mary Marcy
Pike, of Cornish, was united in marriage with the daughter of Capt.
Sylvanus Bryant and Sarah Chase Bryant, of the same place. This lady, on
her mother's side, was a cousin to the statesman, Salmon P. Chase, who
for many years represented Ohio in the senate of the United States, and
at the time of his death, as chief-justice of the supreme court, wore
with undiminished honor and dignity the mantle of the great Marshall.
The earliest fruit of this union was Chester Pike, whose life we are now
tracing. A later son, John B. Pike, a mail-route agent between Boston
and St. Albans, an efficient officer and courteous gentleman, is now a
resident of Lebanon, in this state. The oldest son still resides in his
native town and not far from the spot where his grandparents first
settled, in the broad, picturesque valley of the Connecticut, hard by
the village of Windsor, and under the shadows of Ascutney. To one so
located, the relics of the past are objects of enduring interest. The
very hills and valleys must awaken memories of the olden time and kindle
associations of the ancestral home, which will perpetuate the virtues
and the aspirations of the dead. He can but experience something of the
feeling of the descendants of the old families of England, who live upon
their ancient estates, and saunter in the halls of old castles, or under
the shadows of gnarled trees that were planted centuries ago by the
founders of their line, whose ashes long since mingled with, and became
a part of, their inalienable homesteads. The remembrance of the brave
fathers and fair mothers who lived in the heroic past is their richest
inheritance.
In his earlier years, obedient to the custom of the fathers, Mr. Pike
attended the district school. This institution, original to New England,
discharges a function in the training of the young which, to our mind,
some of the methods and more ambitious inventions of modern educators
fail to fulfill. In the district school, if properly taught, are secured
habits of faithfulness and diligence, and a permanent knowledge of
elementary branches, which are of daily practical use in the life of
the people. There, too, the silly conceits and factitious distinctions
of society are broken down, as children see that success is achieved by
brains, not money; by industry, not social standing. In this, sometimes
rough but general intercourse of youth, democratic ways and independence
of thought are acquired, and the seeds of a true manhood and womanhood
are planted. Our system of public schools is in harmony with the
organism of the state, and in them our children imbibe a spirit of
obedience to wholesome, legitimate authority, and so become conservative
of public discipline and order. Men learn to rule by learning to obey.
It was here that Mr. Pike laid the foundations of character.
Later, he was for a time a scholar in the academy at Hartland, Vt. After
a season of study there, he matriculated in that long-time famous and
still existing center of pro-collegiate education, the Kimball Union
Academy at Meriden, N. H. The principal, at that time, was the Rev.
Cyrus Richards, and under his guidance several terms were passed in the
acquisition of the more abstruse learning of the books. But the months
drift by, and at the age of fifteen Mr. Pike graduates from the schools
and passes on to the sterner duties of manhood and of life. The winter
months of the six ensuing years are filled up with the active work of
the pedagogue, and the summer seasons in constant, laborious work upon
the home farm.
During this period he was ripening the lessons of his pupilage and
maturing plans for the future. At the age of twenty-one, Mr. Pike,
though he still spent his winters for some years in teaching, became a
trader in cattle and a merchant in the products of the soil. By his
enterprise in this, his chosen vocation, he reached the position of a
foremost man of a notable class among the farmers of New England.
Familiar from youth with the harvest capabilities of the rich levels and
the sun-warmed hills of Sullivan county, and gifted with a quick sense
to perceive the wants of modern markets, he has, by unusual energy and
sagacity, fitted means to ends, and, with a Midas-touch, turned his
agrarian resources into gold. His success teaches the lesson that the
New England farm has no less potential wealth at present than in times
past, if skill but holds the handles of the plow. Let the modern farmer
cling to the old homestead and the paternal acres, and take counsel with
the progressive science of soil-enrichment; let him employ the same
skill in the cultivation of his farm and the management of his stock,
let him use the same enterprise in utilizing markets, and the same
economy in the disposition of his funds, which are necessary in other
employments,--and his success is sure.
We would here quote from a leading paper of the state a few lines
pertinent to our narrative:--
"Capt. Chester Pike, of Cornish, has one of the largest, if not
the largest, farm in the state. It contains about one thousand
acres of land, divided into wood, mowing, tillage, and pasture
land; forty acres in corn, and seventy acres in wheat, rye,
oats, barley, and potatoes. Last season he raised six thousand
eight hundred baskets of corn. He has one hundred and thirty
head of cattle, three hundred sheep, thirty-seven horses, and
forty hogs, and raises hay enough to keep his stock through the
season, or about three hundred tons. Capt. Pike's farm lies in
the town of Cornish, on the east bank of the Connecticut river,
immediately opposite the farm of the Hon. William M. Evarts,
late secretary of state, situated in Windsor. Vt., which is of
about equal dimensions, and, in fact, the largest farm in
Vermont. Mr. Evarts raises about the same amount of stock, hay,
and produce as Capt. Pike. On both of these farms may be found
all the modern appliances, such as mowing and reaping machines,
seeders for sowing grain, two-horse cultivators for hoeing corn,
most of the work being done by machinery, the same as upon the
largest farms of the West."
Any man might be proud of such a record, but it is only a part of the
truth. In single seasons, Mr. Pike often buys, for resale, from
seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five tons of poultry, and between
two and three hundred thousand pounds of wool. Besides the above, he has
for many years purchased annually, for the Boston market, in the
interest of the firm of Lamson, Dudley, & Pike, of which he is a member,
great numbers of cattle and sheep. During the thirty years, Mr. Pike has
found an outlet for that restless energy and enterprise which these
pursuits and the occupation of farming and stock-growing cannot exhaust,
in an extensive lumber business. All this, it should be borne in mind,
is in addition to the extensive cultivation and stock-growing on his own
farm.
Notwithstanding the variety and extent of his purely business
transactions, Mr. Pike has also found leisure to fill with efficiency
many stations in the public service. At one period of his career, during
several successive years he was selectman of Cornish. This led the way
to other offices. He who had discharged with faithfulness and skill the
responsibilities in the town, was deemed worthy to be honored with
higher duties, and Mr. Pike found himself, in 1859, 1860, and 1861, the
incumbent of the office of county commissioner for Sullivan county. At
the end of his third term, his fellow-townsmen withdrew him from the
commissionship, which he had ably filled, and made him their
representative to the general court for 1862, and again for 1863. He
made an intelligent and active legislator, and soon became familiar with
the business of the house. The estimate which was put upon his services
and standing in the house is seen in the fact that in his first year he
served on the committee on manufactures, and, in his second year, was
made chairman of the committee on banks, which at the time was one of
the most difficult and responsible positions in the house. If Mr. Pike
did not often attempt to influence legislation by debate, he had what
Wirt attributes to Jefferson, "the out-of-door talent of chamber
consultation," and used it with good effect. The years 1862 and 1863
were two of the most anxious and trying years of the civil war, and
perplexing propositions were brought before the legislature for
solution. There were sharp antagonisms and earnest debates among the
strong men of those sessions; questions of jurisdiction and policy
touching the national defense and the rights of states, new to
legislation and embittered by party rancor, became the subjects of
action; the frequent calls for men and money to meet the demand which
the prolonged and sanguinary conflict made upon the state gave to the
legislation of the period unprecedented interest and importance. Through
it all, no man was more active, more true, or more patriotic, than Capt.
Pike.
In 1863, the subject of our sketch was appointed provost-marshal of the