Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
block, consisting of nine stores, which spans the Cochecho river. It
bids long to stand, a fitting monument of his public spirit and wise
foresight.
Though born and educated an Englishman, he became an ardent, patriotic
American citizen from the very day that he touched American soil. His
pride and hopes for America are as intense as any native son's. His love
for Dover is as tender and steadfast as though its air was the first he
breathed. The church with which he first united, he still regards as his
home. He long served her as a most efficient superintendent of its
Sunday-school, and when he was about to remove his residence from Dover,
out of a great desire to see the church freed from the burden of a debt
of thirteen thousand dollars, Mr. Bracewell, by his payment of a tenth
of the sum, led on others to such generous donations that the debt was
speedily extinguished.
Mr. Bracewell may still be regarded as a New Hampshire son, and a
citizen of Dover. His nature will not allow him to lose elsewhere the
very great interest which twenty years' sojourn here has created in him.
It may well be expected that he will some time return to permanently
abide among friendships whose preciousness he and his host of friends so
fully appreciate.
In January, 1881, Mr. Bracewell received an offer to go into business at
North Adams, Mass., and as the physicians thought his wife's health
would be better there than in Dover, he decided to make the change. The
directors of the Cocheco Manufacturing Company, by offer of an increase
of salary of from ten thousand to fifteen thousand dollars a year, and
other inducements, sought to retain Mr. Bracewell in their employment;
Mr. Bracewell, however, removed to North Adams, purchasing a third
interest in the Freeman Manufacturing Company of that place, and the
same success which was acquired in Dover has followed his abilities into
the great business which he represents at North Adams. The Windsor
calicoes, and other products of the Freeman Manufacturing Company,
already stand in the market among the foremost of their class.
In 1877, Mr. Bracewell received the degree of Master of Arts from
Dartmouth College,--a distinction well earned and worthily bestowed.
During Gov. Prescott's term of office. Mr. Bracewell served as a member
of his staff, with rank of colonel.
Mr. Bracewell's remarkable activity has not been shut into his business.
The intensity of his nature comes out to an undiminished degree in his
politics, his friendships, his public spirit, and his religious faith.
His sympathies are quick and universal; his enthusiasms are
communicative and inspiring; his affections are tender and loyal.
ALBERT H. HAYES.
Too many of the old homesteads of New Hampshire have gone to decay.
Deserted and dilapidated buildings, decrepit fences, and unharvested
crops of briers and weeds, where but a generation ago there were the
homes of comfort, industry, and thrift, tell a sad story of what our
state has done to supply the brain and brawn which have developed the
resources of others. But now and then there is a farm which has not only
been preserved, and made to retain its old-time attractions, but
improved, beautified, and adorned, by liberal outlays dictated by good
judgment and cultured taste, until it has become the envy of all who
admire elegant buildings, fertile fields, and fine flocks and herds.
Many of these are the property of men who grew up rugged, strong, and
self-reliant among our hills, went out in early manhood in quest of
greater opportunities than could be found or created at home, and,
having won fortunes abroad, have loyally brought them back to the town
of their nativity to rescue old firesides from irreverent ownership, to
erect upon old sites modern mansions, to coax from an unwilling soil
great crops, to furnish people with employment and courage, and to
return in a hundred ways substantial thanks for the privilege of having
been born in New Hampshire. Of this class is the Hayes farm in Alton,
now owned by Dr. ALBERT H. HAYES, who has brought back, from the golden
sands of the Pacific, the ample means which enable him to add to the
natural attractions of his lakeside birthplace all that money can
command in the creation and embellishment of a country home.
David Hayes, who was a sturdy farmer of Scotch descent and a native of
Strafford, purchased and settled upon a farm in Alton about the year
1790. He had three sons and three daughters, and in time the oldest son,
Joseph, succeeded him as the holder of the title to the farm. This son
married Betsey Brewster, a daughter of George Brewster, of Wolfeborough,
by whom he had eight children, of whom six still survive. The seventh
was born September 6, 1836, and named Albert Hamilton. His parents were
well to do and appreciated the value of an education, so that, as he
grew up, while he did his share of the work on the farm, he had the
advantage of the winter schools, and was afterwards sent to the
academies at New Hampton and Northfield. At the age of twenty-one he had
completed his studies at these institutions, and concluded that it was
easier to buy farm produce than to raise it, and that a place containing
more people and more money would suit him better than Alton, and, going
to Boston, commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Abner Ham, of that
city. Subsequently, he attended lectures at Columbia College in the
District of Columbia, and graduated at a Pennsylvania university.
Meantime he had served as a hospital surgeon in the army for two years,
and in 1870, having acquired the necessary funds, made a prolonged
European tour.
On returning to America, Dr. Hayes extended his travels through this
country, and in 1874, with an eye to business and pleasure, went to
California. Here he soon became acquainted with John W. Mackey, the
Bonanza king, and other prominent financiers on the coast, and as a
result formed a partnership with J. M. Walker, a former partner of
Mackey, under the firm name of Hayes & Walker. As a member of this firm,
and as an associate with Mackey, Mr. Hayes, during the next three years,
did an extensive banking and brokerage business, handling a vast amount
of money, and reaping handsome profits, which enabled him, a little
later, to buy largely of the stock of the Bonanza mines, which were then
pouring a steady stream of wealth into the laps of their owners.
Becoming convinced that this would not continue, and that other mining
properties were more desirable, he sold out his interest, and after a
long investigation bought outright the Red-Hill gravel mines, in Trinity
county, California. This purchase, which includes eleven hundred acres
of land, in which are located seven mines, and extensive water rights,
upon which in that country the value of a gold mine largely depends,
makes Mr. Hayes the sole owner of by far the largest and most valuable
mining property held by a single individual in the state of California,
and establishes his place among the few who have been able to seize and
hold the glittering prize for which so many have striven since the
western slope began to yield its treasures.
While thus seeking his fortune elsewhere, Mr. Hayes has retained his
residence in Alton and his lively interest in all that concerns the town
and state. The homestead upon which he was born is his, and he makes it
his home during the summer. He has expended a large amount in improving
it, a barn costing fifteen thousand dollars being among the latest
additions. When the house, which he has planned to match it, is erected,
the establishment will be one of the finest in the state.
In 1876, 1877, and 1878, Dr. Hayes represented Alton in the legislature.
He married, in 1877, Jessie B. Benjamin, daughter of E. M. Benjamin,
Esq., of San Francisco, a relative of Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana,
and a lady of rare literary attainments and social accomplishments.
Their only child--Lloyd Benjamin Hayes--was born May 21, 1880.
With so much success behind him, Mr. Hayes is still a young man, as
cheery and active and energetic as when he first left New Hampshire. He
has an extensive knowledge of the world, a wide circle of acquaintances
among those who shape the politics and business of the country, and
hosts of friends who have been won by his unfailing good nature,
liberality, and courtesy. He is pledged, when he has done making money,
to come back to New Hampshire and spend it.
HON. GEORGE COGSWELL, A. M., M. D.
BY JOHN CROWELL, M. D.
George Cogswell was born in the town of Atkinson, N. H., February 5,
1808. He came from that sturdy stock of ancestors whose history is so
closely interwoven with the early life and enterprise of New England. In
1635, John Cogswell, a prosperous Englishman of good estate and
standing, established a settlement in the town of Ipswich, now Essex,
Mass., on a grant of three hundred acres of land, which have remained in
the Cogswell name, in regular line, to the present time. His maternal
ancestor was Giles Badger, who settled in Newbury, Mass., the same year.
These families have been closely allied by marriage, and their
descendants have been prominent in church and state, in medicine and in
letters.
The father of the subject of this sketch, Dr. William Cogswell, was a
medical practitioner of wide reputation, noted for his executive and
judicial abilities. He was appointed chief surgeon of the military
hospital at West Point during the Revolutionary war, closing his service
in 1785, when he settled in Atkinson, N. H., practicing his profession
until the close of his life, January 1, 1831. His mother was Judith
Badger, daughter of Gen. Joseph Badger, Sen., of Gilmanton, N. H. She
was a woman of great force of character, of devout piety and strong
faith. When in her ninety-fourth year, after her earthly vision had
become dim, the name of Jesus would light her face with a radiant glow
of loving recognition. This devout woman united with the church in
Atkinson in 1810, on which interesting occasion her husband and their
three oldest children joined her in the act of consecration; and on the
same day their six younger children were baptized by the pastor, Rev.
Stephen Peabody. The youngest of these nine children died in infancy.
All of the remaining eight became professors of religion, and lived to a
good old age, in the enjoyment of the honors and dignities of the high
official trusts committed to them. Of this large family, the subject of
this sketch alone survives (1882), vigorous in his threescore years and
ten, and actively engaged in the discharge of the duties of his several
official trusts.
Dr. George Cogswell received his preliminary education at Atkinson
Academy, where his love for scientific investigation soon became
manifest. He commenced the study of medicine with his father, whose wise
instruction and safe counsel did much to shape the future career of the
aspiring student. In his desire for a wider culture in the line of his
chosen profession, he became a private student to Reuben D. Mussey. M.
D., L.L. D., and for two years enjoyed the instruction of this
distinguished lecturer on anatomy and surgery. Early in 1830, he became
a pupil of John D. Fisher, M. D., of Boston, who, at that time, was the
most noted auscultator in New England. Dr. Fisher showed his confidence
in his ambitious student by giving him the main practical charge of the
House of Industry, at that time located in South Boston. The grateful
pupil held the most intimate relations with his distinguished teachers
during their lives.
In 1830 he was graduated Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth College, with
the honors of his class, and the same college conferred upon him the