Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
on the 9th of August following, at the age of sixty-four years.
His father's death necessitated changes in home affairs, and in March,
1840, he entered the store of William Whittle, at Goffstown, where he
remained until twenty-one years of age; he then returned once more to
his home and went into the mercantile trade at his father's old stand.
This was in 1843; he continued the same until 1847, when he formed a
partnership with his younger brother, David A., under the firm name of
J. M. & D. A. Parker, which union continues at the present time. In
addition to the mercantile and agricultural interests, they have engaged
extensively in the wood and lumber business, and as the "lumber kings"
in their section of the state their business has grown and developed
into one of no inconsiderable magnitude, requiring the investment of a
large capital which has accumulated through their indomitable energy and
business sagacity, backed by a judgment of such soundness as years of
experience can but give. The building of the N. H. Central Railroad, now
the Manchester & North Weare road, chartered in 1848, added greatly to
their business facilities for the transportation of their wood, bark,
and lumber, which enterprise received their earnest encouragement.
On the 30th of November, 1854, he married Letitia C., second daughter of
the late Capt. Charles Stinson, of Dunbarton, who was born March 9,
1835. Their married life has been a truly happy one, and such a kindly
home as all members of the household will ever revert to with the
fondest of recollections. They have three children: Charles Stinson,
born November 3, 1855; Henry Woodman, born February 26, 1859; Frank
Adams, born June 1, 1866. The two former, Charles and Henry, inheriting
their father's traits of character for business, are merchants at
Goffstown village, while Frank is pursuing his studies at Gilmanton
Academy.
Since the organization of the Republican party, Mr. Parker has ever been
a zealous advocate of its principles, and his abilities have been
recognized most honorably by his political party in their public
preferments. In 1855 he was elected a commissioner for his county, and
re-elected in 1856; and a member of the state senate in 1858 and 1859.
Among his associates in this body were Hon. Walter Harriman, Hon. John
G. Sinclair, Hon. Austin F. Pike, and Hon. John D. Lyman. He represented
his town in the legislature in 1869. In 1876, without consultation and
greatly to his surprise, he was selected as the nominee, by his party,
for councilor from his district, and owing to his popularity received a
majority of the suffrages at the election following, in the face of a
Democratic majority of six hundred in the district the year previous;
and was re-elected in 1877. At the institution of the state board of
equalization, in 1879, he was commissioned by the court as one of the
five members; re-appointed in 1881, and selected as president of the
board.
When the Guaranty Savings Bank of Manchester was organized, in 1879, he
was elected its president, a position still retained; and is also a
member of the board of directors of the Merchants National Bank of the
same city.
Mr. Parker filled the position of postmaster at the Goffstown office
during a period of four years; and he has a wide reputation in all the
surrounding towns as one of the most successful auctioneers, where his
services are ever in demand. Being possessed of a judicious and candid
mind, he is often called to act in the capacity of referee, where his
mature judgment has assisted in the friendly adjustment of disputed and
antagonistic questions which threatened the peace and harmony of
families, neighborhoods, and towns.
His business prosperity enables him to exercise a liberal spirit towards
objects and institutions that tend towards worthy ends; and he is
certainly one of the most industrious of men, whether attending to the
demands of the farm, the store, the lumber interests, selling of
estates, or to the almost countless calls from his public and minor
private duties that come crowding to his immediate notice. In all
matters of a public nature he has ever taken an active interest,
especially in the growth of enterprise in his native town.
Mr. Parker's love for social life allows the years to sit lightly. Of a
happy, open disposition, ever approachable, at his delightful residence
at Parker's station, Goffstown, presided over by his amiable and
generous-hearted wife, a cordial welcome is assured all who enter his
hospitable doors.
HON. CHARLES H. BARTLETT.
CHARLES HENRY BARTLETT was born in Sunapee, N. H., October 15, 1833. He
is the fourth son of John and Sarah J. (Sanborn) Bartlett, and is a
lineal descendant, in the eighth generation, of Richard Bartlett, who
came from England to Newbury, Mass., in the ship "Mary and John," in
1634.
The original orthography of the name was Barttelot, which is still
preserved by the family in England, whose ancestral home in Stopham,
Sussex county, has remained in possession of the family for nearly a
thousand years, and the present occupant, Hon. Walter B. Barttelot, is
the member of parliament from that county.
In the same ancestral line is found the name of Hon. Josiah Bartlett,
who, as a delegate in the continental congress from New Hampshire, was
the first man to vote "yea" on the passage of the declaration of
independence, July 4, 1776, and the second to affix his signature
thereto. All the Bartletts whose names appear in the annals of our state
trace their lineage to the same ancestry.
Mr. Bartlett has four brothers,--Joseph S., who resides in Claremont,
and Solomon, John Z. and George H., who reside in Sunapee; and two
sisters,--Mrs. Thomas P. Smith and Mrs. John Felch. His parents are
still living, at the advanced age of eighty-two years, in the enjoyment
of an ample competency, the fruits of a long life of earnest and
cheerful labor, and the practice of a stern, self-denying economy, the
characteristic of the best type of our New England husbandry.
Mr. Bartlett's early life was mainly spent upon his father's farm,
laboring through the summer season and attending school during the
winter. He early developed a decided taste for literary pursuits, and
from childhood devoted a liberal share of his leisure moments to the
perusal of such books as were accessible to him. He also contributed
liberally to the current literature of the day, and showed remarkable
facility in both prose and poetic composition. He received his academic
education at the academies at Washington and New London, after which he
commenced the study of law in the office of Metcalf & Barton at Newport.
He studied subsequently with George & Foster at Concord, and with
Morrison & Stanley at Manchester, being admitted to the bar of
Hillsborough county, from the office of the latter, in 1858. In that
year he began the practice of his profession at Wentworth, N. H., and in
1863 removed to Manchester, where he has since resided. For some two
years he was law partner with the late Hon. James U. Parker, the
partnership terminating with the retirement of the latter from active
business. In June, 1867, he was appointed, by Judge Clark, clerk of the
United States district court for the New Hampshire district, since which
time he has not actively practiced his profession, but has devoted
himself to the duties of his office, which became very onerous and
responsible upon the passage of the bankrupt law, about the time of his
appointment. The holding of this office under the government of the
United States has disqualified him from accepting any office under the
state government. He was clerk of the New Hampshire senate from 1861 to
1865, Gov. Smyth's private secretary in 1865 and 1866, treasurer of the
state reform school in 1866 and 1867. In the same year he was
unanimously chosen city solicitor, but declined a re-election, owing to
his appointment as clerk of the district court. In 1872 he was elected,
as the nominee of the Republican party, mayor of the city, and served
till February 18, 1873, when he resigned in accordance with the policy
of the national government at that time, which forbade United States
officials from holding state or municipal offices. His cheerful
co-operation with the administration in this matter, though at the
sacrifice of a most conspicuous public position, was handsomely
recognized by President Grant, through Attorney-General Williams. His
last official act as mayor was to order the city treasurer to pay the
amount due him for salary to the Firemen's Relief Association. Mr.
Bartlett has been a trustee of the Merrimack River Savings Bank from
1865 to the present time, and a trustee of the People's Savings Bank
from its organization in 1874. He is also a director in the Merchants
National Bank. He was the master of Washington Lodge of Freemasons from
April, 1872, to April, 1874, and now holds the position of United States
commissioner, to which he was appointed in 1872. The only positions of
trust he has held since his appointment as clerk of the United States
court, are as a member of the last constitutional convention, and
chairman of the commission appointed by the governor and council to
investigate the affairs of the New Hampshire Insane Asylum.
Mr. Bartlett married, December 8, 1858, at Sunapee, Miss Hannah M.
Eastman, of Croydon, N. H., by whom he had one son, Charles Leslie, who
died at the age of four years, and one daughter, Carrie Bell, a member
of the Manchester high school.
Clarke's "History of Manchester," from which the foregoing facts are
gathered, closes its biographical sketch of Mr. Bartlett as follows:
"Mr. Bartlett has a keen, well balanced mind, whose faculties are always
at his command. He thinks readily, but acts cautiously, and seldom makes
a mistake. Hence he has been financially successful in almost everything
he has undertaken. He is one of the most practical lawyers in the State,
and was for several years in charge of the law department of the
_Mirror_, giving general satisfaction, and his withdrawal, when his
business compelled it, was a source of much regret to the readers of
that paper."
In 1881, Dartmouth College conferred upon him the honorary degree of
Master of Arts.
HON. MOODY CURRIER, LL. D.
Forty years ago, when Manchester, now the metropolis of New Hampshire,
was little more than a wasting waterfall and an unpeopled plain, a few
young men who had the sagacity to see, the courage to grapple with, and
the strength to control the possibilities of the location, made it their
home. One of these was MOODY CURRIER, who was then seeking for a spot in
which a willing hand and a busy brain could carve out a successful
career. His boyhood had been spent upon a farm, where he supported
himself by work during the day, and gratified his desire for knowledge
by studying by the light of pitch-knots in the evening. In this manner
he fitted himself to enter Hopkinton Academy, and by similar methods
worked his way into and through Dartmouth College, where he graduated
with high honors in 1834. During his collegiate course he earned enough
by teaching and other work in the vacations to pay his expenses, but his
graduation found him without funds, and, as the readiest way to lay the
foundation of his fortune, he taught school at Concord one term and the
Hopkinton Academy one year, and then accepted an invitation to take
charge of the high school at Lowell, Mass., where he remained until
1841. Meantime he had read law, and in the spring of that year came to
Manchester, was admitted to the bar, and formed a partnership with Hon.
George W. Morrison for the practice of his profession, which continued