Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
directors, and superintended the construction of its principal branches,
including the Sugar River and Peterborough & Hillsborough roads.
The activity of Mr. Shaw has, however, been by no means satisfied with
his duties upon the Northern road. Since 1848 he has been engaged in the
building of the Kennebec & Portland road in Maine, the Portsmouth road
in this state, the air-line road from Rochester to Syracuse in New York,
and that from Waterloo to Huntington mines in Canada, besides the
building of the Granite hosiery-mills at Franklin, and the carrying to a
successful conclusion many private enterprises for himself and others.
In 1872 he was called to the important position of superintendent of
road-way of the Central Vt., and its branches.
While building the Northern road he became acquainted with Caroline
Dearborn Emery, of Andover, whom he married in 1848, and soon after
located his home in the beautiful village of Lebanon, where he still
resides with his wife and two sons, William F., and Albert O., who are
engaged in business near by. His only daughter, Mary Estelle, died in
1870.
The same qualities which have made Mr. Shaw successful in business have
given him prominence in social and political life. He has always taken
great pride in Lebanon, and has been a leader in most of the projects
which have added to her beauty and stability. His support has, from the
first, helped establish her schools, strengthen her churches, and
sustain her social and charitable associations, and his enterprise has
contributed largely to her material prosperity.
In politics, Mr. Shaw is a Republican who works hard, manages shrewdly,
and gives liberally, that his party may win. He doesn't like to be
beaten, and seldom is. He has done much for his neighbors and friends,
and they have lost no opportunity to honor him. In the stormy days of
1862 and 1863, when strong men were needed, he was sent to the popular
branch of the state legislature, to which he was returned in 1881. In
1863 he was sent by the governor to look after the interests of New
Hampshire soldiers on that ever memorable field of Gettysburg, a duty
for which his warm sympathies and his executive ability eminently fitted
him. In 1876 he represented Lebanon in the constitutional convention,
and in 1878 and 1879 was the state senator from that district. He was
appointed a consul to the province of Quebec by President Lincoln in
1864, was a presidential elector in 1868, and in 1877 was one of the
three commissioners appointed by Gov. Prescott to build the new
state-prison. In all of these positions, his extensive knowledge of
public affairs, his tact in dealing with men, and his skill and courage
in overcoming opposition have enabled him to acquit himself with great
credit, and render those for whom he acted most valuable service. The
prison, which is one of the few public buildings in this country that
cost less than the estimates, is a monument to his business capacity and
strict integrity.
He is a great reader on scientific matters, is interested in books of
travel and adventure, especially in those relating to the arctic
regions, and gratifies his taste in the collection of a library.
Mr. Shaw is a Royal Arch Mason, and takes an interest in the mystic art.
He attends the Methodist church, and is a liberal contributor to all
that pertains to the success of that society. The worthy poor find in
him a sympathizing friend, always prepared to contribute to their
necessities in a most liberal manner. He is good to himself, and true
and generous to his friends. Mr. Shaw is fond of hunting and fishing,
loves the woods and streams for their own sakes, as well as for the
relief and rest they afford him; amid the busy employments of his life
some part of the season is pretty sure to find him "camped" in the wilds
of northern New Hampshire or Maine.
Mr. Shaw has many acquaintances among the prominent men of the day. As a
companion he is lively, genial, fond of fun, relishes a joke at the
expense of others, and can take one at his own expense with becoming
meekness, if it will not be otherwise spoiled.
He is at present engaged in caring for the large property interests
which have resulted from so long a term of skillful industry and
sagacious calculation.
COL. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN MARTIN.
BENJAMIN F. MARTIN, who has been prominently identified with the
paper-making industry of New England for many years, and is widely known
as one of Manchester's wealthy and influential citizens, is the son of a
Vermont farmer. His parents were Truman and Mary (Noyes) Martin, whose
homestead was at Peacham, where they resided with their five sons and
four daughters. Their son Benjamin Franklin was born July 21, 1813, and
passed his youth at home, attending the short district schools, and
filling the long vacations with farm work and the few recreations that
were then open to farmers' boys. He also had the advantage of some
instruction at the Peacham Academy, and when he arrived at the age of
eighteen was thought to be sufficiently educated in books to begin a
business career, to which he was naturally inclined. He accordingly went
to Meredith Bridge, now Laconia, to learn paper-making in a mill owned
by an older brother. He spent one year in this mill, and then next
served as a journeyman in one at Millbury, Mass., where he acquired a
thorough knowledge of the business. Mr. Martin then formed a partnership
with a brother-in-law, the late Thomas Rice, for the manufacture of
paper at Newton Lower Falls, Mass., where he remained until 1844, when
he removed to Middleton, Mass., and purchased a mill there, which he
successfully operated for nine years. In 1853 he had arranged to locate
in Lawrence, Mass., but the inducements offered him to go to Manchester
were sufficient to change his plans, and he at once commenced the
erection of a mill at Amoskeag Falls. This was soon completed, and in it
Mr. Martin carried on for twelve years an extensive and profitable
business. In 1865 he sold it to Hudson Keeney, but four years later
repurchased it, and continued to operate it until 1874, when he sold the
establishment to John Hoyt & Co., and retired to enjoy the fruits of his
well directed industry and sagacity.
The demands of his business have left Mr. Martin little time for
office-holding; but in 1857 and 1858 he represented ward three in the
common council, and in 1860 was a member of the board of aldermen. In
1863 and 1864 he was a member of the state legislature, and also served
as a colonel on the staff of Gov. Gilmore. In 1860 he was a delegate to
the national convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln.
He was elected a director of the Merrimack River Bank when it was
organized, in 1854, and was chosen its president in 1859, but resigned
the next year. He was one of the first trustees of the Merrimack River
Five Cent Savings Bank, and its vice-president in 1860. He was a
director of the Manchester Bank under its state charter, and has since
held a similar position in the Manchester National Bank, and is a
trustee in the Manchester Savings Bank. He has long been connected with
the Portsmouth and Manchester & Lawrence railroads as a director, and
since 1878 has been president of the Manchester & Lawrence. He is now
president of the Manchester Gas Company.
Col. Martin married, January 3, 1836, Mary Ann Rice, of Boston, a sister
of Hon. Alexander H. and Willard Rice, by whom he has had three
daughters, Fanny R., the wife of Hon. George B. Chandler, being the only
one now living.
Mr. Martin is, in the best sense of the term, a successful business man.
He is a master of the art of paper-making, which was carried in his mill
to a high degree of perfection. His standing in the commercial world is
such as only a long and uninterrupted course of honorable dealing and
unexceptional promptness in responding to every obligation secures. He
was quick to see the possibilities of his business, always ready to
improve opportunities, and judicious in the execution of all his plans.
In Manchester, he is highly honored and respected as a citizen, whose
prosperity contributed to that of others, and as a man whose integrity
is beyond suspicion, and whose private life is above reproach. He has
been a great help to the city in which he has acquired most of his
wealth, not only in building one of her great factories in which
hundreds of men have found steady and profitable employment, but in
giving liberally to her charities and other institutions which have
depended upon the generosity of the public, and in discharging all the
duties of a public-spirited citizen. He has long been one of the chief
supporters of the Episcopal church, where he worships, and a willing
helper of the Republican party, with which he has always acted. His home
is one of the most elegant in Manchester; and it is the home of good
taste, comfort, happiness, and hospitality.
HON. DEXTER RICHARDS.
BY JOSEPH W. PARMELEE.
From the twelve immigrants of the name of Richards that originally came
from England to this country, at different times, in the years from 1630
to 1728, have come, as may be seen by the records of the New England
Historic-Genealogical Society, in Boston, a great number of descendants,
who, from the beginning, have borne a royal part in the toils and trials
and hardships of our early time, and who are to-day represented in the
learned professions, the arts, commerce, and manufactures, and general
business of this great country.
The sixth of these immigrants, in point of time, was Edward Richards, a
passenger in the ship Lion, from London, who landed in Boston, September
16, 1632. His brother, Nathaniel, was also a passenger. Nathaniel
afterward joined the party of Rev. Mr. Hooker,--a memorable
expedition,--and with it traversed the then howling wilderness to the
valley of the Connecticut, and was among the founders of Hartford.
Edward Richards was, for a time, resident at Cambridge, Mass., where he
married, September 10, 1638, Susan Hunting. He was afterward one of the
sixty-two original proprietors of the town of Dedham, near Boston, where
he lived, and died in 1684, and where many of his descendants are to be
found at this time. We follow the descent of the line from Edward (1),
through John (2), John (3), John (4), Abiathar (5), to Sylvanus in the
sixth generation, who, about the beginning of this century, moved, with
his family, to Newport, N. H., where he settled on a large tract of land
in the western part of the township, on what is known as the old road to
Claremont. The place is now (1882) in possession of Shepard H. Cutting.
Mr. Richards was, for some years, one of the largest land-holders and
tax-payers in the town. In connection with his farming business he kept
a way-side inn, where rest and refreshment awaited the dusty and chilly
traveler,--man and beast. This was nearly three-quarters of a century
before the scream of the locomotive was ever heard in this part of New
Hampshire, a time when the people were mostly dependent upon their own
resources, in regard to methods of travel and transportation.
About the year 1812, Sylvanus Richards moved to Newport Village, and
became the proprietor of the "Rising Sun" tavern, a house originally
built and occupied as a public house by Gordon Buell, the father of the
late Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, of Philadelphia, the accomplished writer and
editor of the _Lady's Book_. It was in this house that DEXTER RICHARDS
was born.
Of the four children, all sons, born to Sylvanus and Lucy (Richardson)
his wife, was Seth Richards (7), born in Dedham, Mass., February 20,
1792, who grew up to aid him in his business, and ultimately succeeded