Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
In 1874, Col. Pierce was elected a member of the New Hampshire state
senate, the only candidate of his party ever elected from that district;
and in 1875 and 1876 he was sheriff of Hillsborough county. While
unwavering in his attachment to, and support of, the Democratic party,
he is not rabid in his policy or partisan in his associations. When
President Hayes visited Nashua, in 1877, he was selected by the city
government as chairman of the committee of arrangements; and no citizen
took a more efficient part in securing a proper observance of the
obsequies of President Garfield. He and his family are attendants of the
Universalist church.
In his social and domestic relations, Col. Pierce has been fortunate. Of
his two children, the eldest, Mrs. Julia M., wife of William N. Johnson,
resides at West Henniker, where her husband is a paper manufacturer; his
son, Mr. Frank Pierce, is associated with him in business.
A few years since, having purchased the homestead of the late Gen. J. G.
Foster, he built a spacious and elegant residence. Situated on an
acclivity on the north side of the Nashua river, surrounded by ample
grounds and stately trees, it is a home of rare attractions. Col. Pierce
is still in the prime of active life, and his past record, as well as
his present position, is a guarantee that he will ably and faithfully
meet the responsibilities of the future.
COL. MARTIN V. B. EDGERLY.
BY H. H. METCALF.
In these days of varying fortune in business life, and in this country
especially, where property is accumulated or lost more readily and
frequently than in any other land, the beneficent nature of the
institution of life assurance has come to be very generally appreciated.
This institution, which, so far as its general establishment is
concerned, is peculiarly an American one, is indeed a natural outgrowth
of our social and business system, and is coming to be more fully
recognized, from year to year, in one form or another, as the only
medium through which men in general business, or most of the avocations
of life, may make substantially sure provision for the support of their
families or those depending upon them, in case of their own removal by
death before acquiring a competency, or after the loss of the same
through business reverses or adventitious circumstances. The man who
stands before the public as a leading representative of an institution
of such importance becomes properly a person of note in the business
community; and when he is endowed with those powers and qualities of
mind which naturally bring him into prominence in social and political
circles and the general activities of life, he may well be classed among
those who are esteemed representative men of the times in the state and
section wherein he resides, and which is the field of his active labor.
Such a man is the subject of this sketch.
MARTIN VAN BUREN EDGERLY is a native of the town of Barnstead,--a town,
by the way, which has sent out its productions into the world in the
form of able, energetic men,--men of strong minds in strong bodies, who
have made their mark in the world, and stand at the front in the various
fields of activity in which they have engaged. In the domain of law, of
theology, of politics, and of general business, the sons of Barnstead
hold high rank, as is abundantly demonstrated by reference to the names
of Lewis W. Clark, Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, John G. Sinclair, and John P.
Newell. Mr. Edgerly was the fifth of nine children--five sons and four
daughters--of Samuel J. and Eliza (Bickford) Edgerly, born September 26,
1833. Samuel J. Edgerly was a man of far more than ordinary intelligence
and mental activity, who, but for the misfortune of disease, which
impaired his physical powers in early life;, would have become
unquestionably a leading spirit in public affairs. As it was, he was
recognized by all with whom he came in contact in life as a man of
strong mind and decided character. He was a descendant, upon the
maternal side, and was named in honor of that Col. Samuel Johnson who
was one of the early settlers of the town of Northwood, and of whom it
is said, in sketching the history of that town, that upon the first
night of his abode within its limits he slept upon the ground between
two rocks, with a quilt or piece of canvas for covering.
When a lad of twelve years, Col. Edgerly removed with his parents to
Manchester. He attended the public schools for a time, but at an early
age entered the service of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, being
engaged at first in the mills and afterwards in the machine-shop; but,
after several years, becoming dissatisfied with the dull routine of
mechanical labor, and desirous of testing his powers in the field of
business, in October, 1856, at the age of twenty-three, he embarked in
trade as a joint proprietor of a drug-store with Mr. Lewis H. Parker. He
was thus engaged but a short time, however, removing the following year
to the town of Pittsfield, where he soon established himself in the
insurance business, taking the agency of various companies, fire and
life. This, it may be truly said, was the actual starting point in his
career. He found in this business a field of labor congenial to his
tastes, and peculiarly adapted to the development and exercise of the
distinctive powers of mind and body with which he is endowed; and he
entered into his work with heart and soul. He was not long in
discovering the special line of effort to which he was best adapted, and
which gave the best promise of substantial success in response to such
effort; nor were the managers of the business in question long in
ascertaining, from the character of the work already accomplished, the
direction in which their own advantage lay; and so it came about in a
short time, that after a visit to the company's office in Springfield,
made upon the solicitation of the president, Col. Edgerly became
exclusively the agent of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
Company, relinquishing all other agencies, and devoting his entire
efforts to the interests of the company.
So thorough and satisfactory was the work which he accomplished, that a
year later he was given the general agency of the company for the state
of New Hampshire, with headquarters at Manchester, to which city he
removed with his family, when, in 1863, he was given charge of the
business for Vermont and northern New York in addition to this state.
Under his efficient management and supervision the business of the
company increased to a remarkable degree in the entire territory of
which he had control, until the net annual receipts in premiums upon new
policies, in New Hampshire alone, had risen from substantially nothing
in 1859, when he first commenced work, to nearly seventy-five thousand
dollars in 1866, representing the proceeds from the issue of a thousand
policies, covering an aggregate insurance of more than a million and a
half of dollars. This remarkable success was due, not simply to the work
of personal solicitation, in which line Col. Edgerly has no superiors,
but more especially to the keen discernment and ready knowledge of men
with which he is endowed, enabling him to select proper agents and
judiciously supervise their work.
In 1868 he accepted the position of superintendent of the company's
agencies throughout the country. For two years he labored as none but a
physically robust and mentally active man can, establishing agencies and
working up the business of the company throughout the West, while
retaining and directing his own special work in the East. This double
labor was too arduous, even for a man of his powers, and in 1870 he
resigned the position of superintendent, and confined his work to his
former field in New Hampshire, Vermont, and northern New York. In
September, 1874, however, he was induced to accept charge of the
company's agency in Boston, in addition to his other duties, and since
that date he has divided his time and labor between the two positions,
efficiently directing the work of both, and largely increasing the
business at the Boston office. In January last he was made a member of
the board of directors of the company which he has so long and
faithfully served, and which owes its prosperity, in no small degree, to
his intelligent efforts.
Col. Edgerly has been a Democrat from youth, and has ever manifested a
lively interest in political affairs, although he has had neither the
time nor inclination to enter, to any extent, upon the duties of public
position, even had it been in the power of his party to confer the same.
He has, however, in such time as he was able to command, done a great
deal of party work in different campaigns; and in 1874 was elected a
member of the board of aldermen, although his ward was strongly
Republican at the time, thus demonstrating his personal popularity and
the esteem in which he is held in the community where he resides. He has
frequently served as a member of the Democratic state committee, and as
treasurer of the same, and a member of the executive committee; also, as
chairman of the Democratic city committee in Manchester. He was a
delegate from New Hampshire to the Democratic national convention at
Baltimore, in 1872, which nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency,
and was the New Hampshire member of the Democratic national committee
from 1872 to 1876. Again, in 1880, he was chosen a delegate-at-large to
the national convention of his party. In 1871 he was appointed, by Gov.
Weston, chief of staff; and in 1873 and 1874 he held the position of
commander of the Amoskeag Veterans, of which organization he has long
been an active and popular member. In 1874 he was appointed, by
President Grant, an alternate commissioner to represent New Hampshire at
the centennial exposition and celebration in Philadelphia.
Actively and closely as he has been engaged in his chosen line of
business, Col. Edgerly has lent his aid and judgment to some extent to
the encouragement and direction of other business enterprises. He has
been many years a trustee of the Merrimack River Savings Bank and a
director of the Suncook Valley Railroad, of which latter enterprise he
was among the active promoters. He was also, for a time, a director of
the City National Bank. In his religious associations he is an
Episcopalian, and is an active member and officer of Grace church in
Manchester. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows and Masonic bodies in
the city of his residence.
March 7, 1854, Col. Edgerly was united in marriage with Miss Alvina
Barney of Danbury, by whom he has had three children, two of whom are
now living, a son and daughter,--Clinton Johnson, born December 16,
1857, and Mabel Clayton, born October 18, 1859.
Col. Edgerly is a man of fine personal appearance, genial manners, and a
ready appreciation of the demands of friendship and society, as well as
those of business. There are few men of greater personal popularity in
his city or state, and none who command more fully the confidence of
those with whom they are brought into relationship, whether in business
or in social life. Yet under fifty years of age, he has, it may
naturally be assumed, many years of successful effort yet before him,
and many more in which to enjoy the substantial reward of his labor.
HON. ICHABOD GOODWIN.
BY FRANK GOODWIN.
Mr. Goodwin is the eldest son of Samuel Goodwin and Nancy Thompson
Gerrish, and was born in that part of Berwick which is now North
Berwick, in the state of Maine. He is descended, on both father's and
mother's side, from families of very great colonial importance. The