Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
present commander of the London company, as an honorary member. They are
the only two honorary members that have been elected by the company, and
both were commanders of the Honorable Artillery Company of London when
chosen. The late elegantly illustrated history of the London company
contains a portrait of Col. Wilder as he appeared in full uniform on
that occasion.
In 1839, he was induced to serve for a single term in the Massachusetts
legislature as a representative for the town of Dorchester. In 1849 he
was elected a member of Gov. Briggs's council, and the year following, a
member of the senate and its president. In 1860, he was the member for
New England of the national committee of the "Constitutional Union
party," and attended, as chairman of the Massachusetts delegation, the
National convention in Baltimore, where John Bell and Edward Everett
were nominated for president and vice-president of the United States.
He was initiated in Charity Lodge No. 18, in Troy, N. H., at the age of
twenty-five, exalted to the Royal Arch Chapter, Cheshire No. 4, and
knighted in the Boston Encampment. He was deputy grand master of the
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and was one of the six thousand Masons who
signed, Dec. 31, 1831, the celebrated "Declaration of the Freemasons of
Boston and Vicinity;" and at the fiftieth anniversary of that event,
just celebrated in Boston, Mr. Wilder responded for the survivors, six
of the signers being present. He has received all the Masonic degrees,
including the 33d, or highest and last honor of the fraternity. At the
World's Masonic convention, in 1867, at Paris, he was the only delegate
from the United States who spoke at the banquet.
On the 7th of November, 1849, a festival of the Sons of New Hampshire
was celebrated in Boston. The Hon. Daniel Webster presided, and Mr.
Wilder was the first vice-president. Fifteen hundred sons of the Granite
State were present. The association again met on the 29th of October,
1852, to participate in the obsequies of Mr. Webster at Faneuil Hall. On
this occasion the legislature and other citizens of New Hampshire were
received at the Lowell depot, and addressed by Mr. Wilder in behalf of
the sons of that state resident in Boston.
The Sons celebrated their second festival Nov. 2, 1853, at which Mr.
Wilder occupied the chair as president, and delivered one of his most
eloquent speeches. They assembled again June 20, 1861, to receive and
welcome the New Hampshire regiment of volunteers and escort them to
Music Hall, where Mr. Wilder addressed them in a patriotic speech on
their departure for the field of battle.
The two hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the settlement of
Dorchester was celebrated on the 4th of July, 1855. The oration was by
Edward Everett; Mr. Wilder presided and delivered an able address. On
the central tablet of the great pavilion was this inscription: "Marshall
P. Wilder, President of the Day. Blessed is he that turneth the waste
places into a garden, and maketh the wilderness to blossom as a rose."
In January, 1868, he was solicited to take the office of president of
the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, vacated by the death of
Gov. Andrew. He was unanimously elected, and is now serving the
fourteenth year of his presidency. At every annual meeting he has
delivered an appropriate address. In his first address he urged the
importance of procuring a suitable building for the society. In 1870, he
said: "The time has now arrived when absolute necessity, public
sentiment, and personal obligations demand that this work be done and
done quickly." Feeling himself pledged by this address, he, as chairman
of the committee then appointed, devoted three months entirely to the
object of soliciting funds, during which time more than forty thousand
dollars was generously contributed by friends of the association; and
thus the handsome edifice. No. 18 Somerset street, was procured. This
building was dedicated to the use of the society, March 18, 1871. He has
since obtained donations amounting to upwards of twelve thousand
dollars, as a fund for paying the salary of the librarian.
In 1859, he presided at the first public meeting called in Boston in
regard to the collocation of institutions on the Back Bay lands, where
the splendid edifices of the Boston Society of Natural History and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology now stand. Of the latter
institution he has been a vice-president, and the chairman of its
Society of Arts.
He was one of the twelve representative men appointed to receive the
Prince of Wales in 1860, at the banquet given him in Boston; also one of
the commissioners in behalf of the Universal Exposition in Paris, 1867,
when he was placed at the head of the committee on horticulture and the
cultivation and products of the vine, the report of which was published
by act of congress.
In 1869, he made a trip to the South for the purpose of examining its
resources; and in 1870, with a large party, he visited California. The
result of Mr. Wilder's observations have been given to the public in a
lecture before the Massachusetts state board of agriculture, which was
repeated before the Boston Mercantile Library Association, the Amherst
and the Massachusetts Agricultural colleges, Dartmouth College, the
Horticultural Society, and the merchants of Philadelphia, and bodies in
other places.
His published speeches and writings now amount to over eighty in number.
A list to the year 1873 is printed in the "Cyclopedia of American
Literature." Dartmouth College, as a testimonial to his services in
science and literature, conferred upon him, in the year 1877, the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy.
The Hon. Paul A. Chadbourne, LL. D., late president of Williams College,
in a recent memoir of Mr. Wilder remarks: "The interest which Col.
Wilder has always manifested in the progress of education, as well as
the value and felicitous style of his numerous writings, would lead one
to infer at once that his varied knowledge and culture are the results
of college education. But he is only another illustrious example of the
men who, with only small indebtedness to schools, have proved to the
world that real men can make themselves known as such without the aid of
the college, as we have abundantly learned that the college can never
make a man of one who has not in him the elements of noble manhood
before he enters its halls."
In 1820, Mr. Wilder married Miss Tryphosa Jewett, daughter of Dr.
Stephen Jewett, of Rindge, a lady of great personal attractions. She
died on a visit to that town, July 21, 1831, leaving four children. On
the 29th of August, 1833, Mr. Wilder was united to Miss Abigail,
daughter of Capt. David Baker, of Franklin, Mass., a lady of education,
accomplishments, and piety, who died of consumption April 4, 1854,
leaving five children. He was married a third time on the 8th of
September, 1855, to her sister, Miss Julia Baker, who was admirably
qualified to console him and make his dwelling cheerful, and who has two
sons, both living. No man has been more blessed in domestic life. We
know not where there would be a more pleasing picture of peace and
contentment exhibited than is found in this happy family. In all his
pursuits and avocations, Mr. Wilder seems to have realized and practiced
that grand principle which has such a bearing and influence on the whole
course of life,--the philosophy of habit, a power almost omnipotent for
good or evil. His leisure hours he devotes to his pen, which already has
filled several large volumes with descriptions and delineations of
fruits and flowers proved under his own inspection.
The life of Col. Wilder is a striking instance of what an individual may
accomplish by industry, indomitable perseverance, and the concentration
of the intellectual powers on grand objects. Without these, no talent,
no mere good fortune could have placed him in the high position he has
attained as a public benefactor. He has been pre-eminent in the
establishment and development of institutions. Few gentlemen have been
called upon so often, and upon such various occasions, to take the chair
at public meetings or preside over constituted societies. Few have
acquitted themselves so happily, whether dignity of presence, amenity of
address, fluency of speech, or dispatch of business be taken into
consideration. As a presiding officer he seems "to the manner born." His
personal influence has been able to magnetize a half-dying body into new
and active life. This strong personal characteristic is especially
remarked among his friends. No one can approach him in doubt, in
despondency, or in embarrassment, and leave him without a higher hope, a
stronger courage and a manlier faith in himself. The energy which has
impelled him to labor still exists.
In closing this sketch, we may remark that a complimentary banquet was
given him, September 22, 1878, on the eightieth anniversary of his
birth. On this occasion the Rev. James H. Means, D. D., his pastor for
nearly thirty years, the Hon. Charles L. Flint, secretary of the board
of agriculture, the Hon. John Phelps Putnam, judge of the Massachusetts
superior court, and others paid tributes to the high moral character,
the benevolent disposition, and the eminent services of the honored
guest of the evening.
Judge Putnam closed as follows: "Our dear old friend, we greet you. On
this auspicious occasion we wish you many returns of your natal day.
_Serus in coelum redeas_,--late may you return to the heavens. And
when that day comes, on which, in the onward march of life you shall
fall by the way-side, may you fall as falls the golden fruit in this
autumn time,--
'Sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.'"
HON. JOHN M. PARKER.
BY WM. H. STINSON.
Among the many worthy sons of the old Granite State who by their
business enterprise, executive ability, and genial manners have won a
position on her honored roll, appears the name of JOHN MCGAW PARKER, who
was born in Goffstown, September 17, 1824, the eldest son of William
Parker by his second marriage, one of the early settlers of the town.
His mother, Hannah Adams, of Derry, was a most estimable lady, whose
christian influence over her family of three children was most enobling.
She was a descendant from that honored and illustrious family whose
representatives were called to the executive head of our nation. She
died February 26, 1869, having reached the age of four score years. We
trace the ancestry of his father to Josiah Parker, who came from England
to Cambridge, Mass., prior to 1700. His son, Rev. Thomas Parker, was the
first settled pastor at Dracut, Mass., where he died in 1765. A son of
his settled in Litchfield, this state, from whose family sprung the
father of the subject of this sketch.
During his early youth, young Parker received such training and
advantages as were offered by the district school, united with the best
of home influences. At the age of eleven years he was placed in the
academy at Hopkinton, by his father, who was desirous of giving his son
the benefit of a business education; the following year he entered old
Derry academy at Derry, where his education was completed.
Displaying much aptitude for business, his father, who was engaged in
the lumbering and the mercantile trade, as well as farming, placed him
in his store as clerk; the succeeding year he was clerk in a store at
Concord, but the next year, 1839, he returned to his home, taking charge
of the business of his father, who was in failing health, and who died