Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
Mr. Barnard has been prominently identified with all the leading
industries which have been established in Franklin, and which have so
remarkably built up the town within the last twenty years; procured the
charters and helped organize all the great corporations; has been a
continuous trustee of the Franklin Library Association since its
establishment, more than fifteen years since, and a trustee of the
Franklin Savings Bank since its establishment, in 1865; legal counsel of
the Franklin Falls Company from its organization, in 1864, and the last
eight years its local agent; and is a director and vice-president of the
Franklin National Bank, recently organized in that town.
As a lawyer, Mr. Barnard ranks very high in the profession, his advice
being eagerly sought by the humblest client and the most influential
corporations; but no person, however poor, with a meritorious cause, was
ever turned away from his office to make room for a richer or more
powerful client. His client's cause becomes his, and his whole energy is
directed to winning for his employer what he believes he should have.
His terse and logical arguments are especially powerful before a jury;
and his eloquent voice has been often heard in legislative halls,
leading and guiding the law-making assemblies, and in political
meetings, sustaining the motives and policy of his party.
In the social, humane, and religious work of the community, he has
always been active and efficient, generous almost to a fault in every
good enterprise; and in these spheres of duty he has ever had the
efficient co-operation of a cultivated, and, it is not too much to add,
a model Christian wife,--Amelia, only child of Rev. William Morse, a
Unitarian clergyman of Chelmsford, Mass., at the time of the
marriage,--to whom he was married November 8, 1854. Mr. Morse, now
deceased, was one of the pioneer clergymen of the Unitarian faith in
this country, was many years pastor of the Callow-Hill-street church,
Philadelphia, and an able and excellent minister. His wife was
Sophronia, daughter of Abner Kneeland, of Boston, an able and upright
man, whose trial on the technical charge of blasphemy, but really for
the publication of heretical religious doctrines, was a most noted
episode in New England forty years ago. Mrs. Morse was a noble woman.
Mr. Morse and his wife resided during the last years of their pleasant
lives in Franklin, near their daughter, who watched with singular
tenderness over the closing years of the parents to whom she is indebted
for superior training as well as superior ability. Their union has been
blessed with seven children, six of whom, four sons and two daughters,
are living.
WILLIAM P. RIDDLE.
The lives men live and the character of communities lived in are
retroactive. Written or unwritten, the good and ill of them swell the
tide of human progress, which ebbs and flows by force of individual
influences. Time and place are accidental to birth, but often determine
conditions that shape fortune. In New England, in the last century, men
achieved and wore the iron crown, and their descendants inherited traits
of mental and moral character that make material for biography.
The subject of this sketch was of the third generation of his family in
the town of Bedford, N. H., the place of his nativity. In origin the
family Was of Anglo-Norman extraction. The name of Riddle appears in the
English and Scotch genealogies, and is traceable back into the ninth
century. Gaen Riddle, of Scotch descent, the head of his branch of the
family in this country, came over and settled in Bedford, N. H., about
the year 1737, and was one of the original settlers of that town.
WILLIAM P. RIDDLE, of whom is the present memoir, was the grandson of
Gaen Riddle, and the son of Isaac,--a man of prominence in the affairs
and events of his time and locality. William P. inherited in a marked
degree his father's characteristics. Born on the 6th day of April, 1789,
during the period of the formation of our constitutional government, he
became early imbued with the ideas of nationality. His youth was passed
at the district school, upon the farm, and about his father's business,
in which he displayed aptness and activity. At the old Atkinson Academy,
in New Hampshire, he ultimately acquired what education it was his
privilege to obtain, and for a short time taught school in his native
town.
In 1811, Mr. Riddle located in Piscataquog, a village in Bedford,
situated on the Merrimack river, and now apart of the city of
Manchester. There he took charge of his father's mercantile affairs.
Business soon increased in importance, which led to the formation of the
partnership of Isaac Riddle & Sons, in 1817. This firm eventually
extended its business operations throughout central New England. They
owned and carried on stores, warehouses, lumber-yards, saw and grain
mills at Bedford and Piscataquog, and also operated cotton and nail
factories, and lumber and grain mills, on the Souhegan at Merrimack. At
the latter place they erected dwelling-houses, stores, and a hotel,
whence it came to be known as Riddle's Village, and was an active and
thriving place.
During this time the project of constructing the "Union Locks and
Canals," on the Merrimack river, was inaugurated,--an enterprise which
rendered that river navigable for boats and barges to the capital of the
state of New Hampshire, and opened up water communication with Boston.
With this achievement Mr. Riddle became identified, manifesting energy
and foresight. Taking advantage of the facilities thus afforded for
inland navigation, the firm of Isaac Riddle & Sons established a
warehouse in Boston, together with a line of canal-boats, and in
connection with their other extensive business entered actively into the
carrying-trade. This water transportation was continued by Mr. Riddle
after the dissolution of his firm in 1830, and until the opening of the
Nashua & Concord Railroad.
At the decease of his father, the old firm was dissolved, and Mr. Riddle
assumed and carried on the business in his own name, both at Merrimack
and Bedford. He supplied the region round about with merchandise, and
furnished lumber largely for the cities of Nashua, Lowell, Newburyport,
Boston, and Providence, supplying the navy-yard at Charlestown with
spars and ship-timber, Boston, and Lowell, and other large cities with
lumber for public buildings and bridges, and the railways of New England
with ties and contract lumber, and shipped railroad sleepers to the West
Indies. The old "yellow store" at Piscataquog Bridge was the scene of
many of these transactions. It was a busy mart. Here were bought and
bartered domestic products, wood, timber and lumber from all the
outlying country, in exchange for groceries and merchandise, which in
turn were transported down the Merrimack to the markets of
Massachusetts.
During this latter period of his business activity, Mr. Riddle also
dealt extensively in hops, buying them throughout New Hampshire,
Vermont, and Canada, and shipping and marketing them in Boston, New
York, and Philadelphia, and in some instances exporting them. In 1846 he
was appointed inspector-general of hops for New Hampshire, the culture
of which having become of important concern to the farmers of the state.
In this capacity he was favorably known and respected among hop-growers
and merchants of New England. In 1848 the Piscataquog steam-mills were
erected by him, and successfully operated for several years. Thus were
continued and carried on mercantile pursuits and business enterprises
until his retirement, about the year 1860, filling up a busy life of
upwards of half a century.
Early in life Mr. Riddle evinced a taste for military affairs. At the
age of twenty-five years he organized a company known as the Bedford
Grenadiers, and was chosen its first captain. Five years afterwards he
was promoted to the rank of major of the "Old Ninth Regiment." The next
year he became lieutenant-colonel, and on June 15, 1824, was promoted to
the colonelcy of the regiment, and was in command for seven years. The
"Old Ninth" was then composed of ten full infantry companies, two rifle
companies, one artillery company, and one cavalry company, and for
discipline and efficiency ranked first in the state. In June, 1831, Col.
Riddle was promoted brigadier-general; and on the 25th of June, 1833,
was further promoted to the rank of major-general of the division, which
military office he held till his resignation. Thus he had filled all the
offices of military rank within the state.
Mr. Riddle married, in 1824, Miss Sarah Ferguson, daughter of Capt. John
Ferguson, of Dunbarton,--a soldier of the Revolution who fought at
Bunker's Hill. Of this union there were seven children. After his
marriage he continued to reside in Piscataquog, living on the present
homestead till his death.
In civil life, Gen. Riddle also held offices of trust. He was
representative at the legislature, county road commissioner, justice of
the peace and of the quorum, trustee of institutions, on committees of
public matters, and frequently moderator at the town-meetings. In 1820
he was chairman of a committee chosen to build Piscataquog
meeting-house, a matter of some church importance to the town of
Bedford; and some twenty years later he was on the committee to remodel
it into an academy, of which he was made and continued a trustee, and in
which he exercised a lively interest. It was his pleasure to promote
public education in every way. The common school, the academy, and the
college received his patronage and fostering consideration. As the
town's committee, he superintended the early construction of bridges
across the Piscataquog and Merrimack rivers; in 1825, rebuilt the
McGregor bridge, now the location of the new iron bridge on Bridge
street, Manchester; and at a later period was the president of the
Granite Bridge Company, which erected the lattice toll-bridge at
Merrill's Falls.
In the "Masonic Fraternity," Mr. Riddle was prominent, becoming a member
of the order in 1823. The following year he helped found the Lafayette
Lodge in Piscataquog, being a charter member. He gave liberally to the
support of this lodge, both in funds and effort, supplying it with a
hall for meetings and work for twenty-five years. He was the last
surviving member of its early projectors. The old Lafayette Lodge was
among the very few in the state during the anti-Mason troubles that held
its regular communications unbroken. He was also a member of the Mt.
Horeb Chapter, and of Trinity Commandry of Knights Templar.
About agriculture he found time to exercise his taste. He owned several
farms, and cultivated them with success, experimenting with crops, and
giving results to the public. He was a patron of the state and county
fairs, and sought in many ways to advance and encourage the best
interests of husbandry. Hop-raising was a specialty with him, and
through his methods and example the culture of hops within the state was
extended and improved.
In 1854, after the incorporation of the city of Manchester, at a time
when there seemed to be little interest manifested in military affairs
in the state, Gen. Riddle undertook and assisted in the organization of
the Amoskeag Veterans, now so well known and respected. In its origin
the corps was a military association, composed of many of the most
prominent and worthy citizens of the community. From such an association
a battalion was formed, and Gen. Riddle chosen its first commander. The
success of this movement gave an impetus to the military spirit of the
day, and was the means of inaugurating a new militia system for the