Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
for two years, when it was dissolved, and he pursued his business
independently until 1848. During this time he had acquired a large and
lucrative practice, and while attending to the interests of his clients
had established a reputation as one of the safest and most sagacious
financiers in the young city, which led the founders of the Amoskeag
bank, when that institution was organized, to elect him its cashier. He
accepted the position, and from that time has been prominently
identified with many of the largest and most successful moneyed
corporations in the city and state. He was cashier of the Amoskeag bank
until it was re-organized as a national bank, when he was elected its
president, which position he still occupies. He has been treasurer of
the Amoskeag Savings Bank since its foundation, in 1852, a director of
the People's Savings Bank and of the Manchester Mills since their
organization. He was a director of the Blodget Edge Tool Company, and a
director and treasurer of the Amoskeag Axe Company, during the existence
of those corporations. He was treasurer of the Concord Railroad in 1871
and 1872; has been treasurer of the Concord & Portsmouth Railroad since
1856, president of the Eastern Railroad in New Hampshire since 1877,
treasurer of the New England Loan Company since 1874, and a director of
the Manchester Gas-Light Company since 1862; and has held many other
places of responsibility,--in all of which his prudence, foresight, and
good judgment have grasped the opportunities which have eluded so many,
avoided the whirlpools in which so many have been ingulfed, and secured
for stockholders and depositors regular and satisfactory dividends.
While thus adding to the fortunes of others, he has not been unmindful
of his own, and is one of the wealthy men of the state, able to command
whatever money will buy, and to give liberally to any cause that
commends itself to his judgment. But while it has been the business of
Mr. Currier to manage vast moneyed concerns, the demands of his calling
have not been permitted to choke out his love of books and study. The
literary tastes, and habits of close and tireless application, which
inspired the boy to struggle for and obtain a liberal education, survive
in the man, and have made him a persistent student until he is one of
the most accomplished scholars in the state.
While a teacher at Concord, he edited a literary journal in that city,
and after coming to Manchester published and edited, for several years,
a weekly newspaper. Since he became a banker he has spent much of his
leisure in his well filled library, finding his recreation in adding to
his knowledge of the classics, mastering the problems of exact science,
and exploring the fields of _belles-lettres_. He has written, for his
own amusement, many poems of much merit, a volume of which was published
for circulation among his friends in 1879, and he is a master of the art
of expression in terse and polished prose. His scholarly attainments
were recognized by Bates College in 1880, which conferred upon him the
degree of LL.D.
As a citizen, Mr. Currier occupies a high place in the city with whose
material growth he has been so largely identified. He is an earnest
advocate of whatever tends to her advancement, a judicious counselor,
and a liberal giver. He was one of the founders of her city library, to
which he has made large donations, that, with one of her public
fountains, attest alike his generosity and his judgment; and there have
been few projects for her improvement which have not found in him a
strong and ready helper.
Prior to 1852 he acted with the Democratic party, which elected him
clerk of the state senate in 1843, 1844, but the agitation of the
slavery question enlisted him in the ranks of the Free-soil forces, and
from the organization of the Republican party he has been one of its
most earnest and effective supporters. In 1856 and 1857 he was a member
of the senate, being its president the latter year; and in 1860 and
1861, was a member of the governor's council, and chairman of the
committee for raising and equipping the troops necessary to fill the
state's quota in the war of the rebellion. In this position his business
ability and methods were of great service, and to him, at least as much
as to any other one man, is due the creditable reputation which the
state won in that trying period.
In 1876 he was one of the presidential electors who cast the vote of New
Hampshire for Hayes and Wheeler, and in 1879, had he permitted his
friends to use his name, would have been a prominent candidate for the
governorship in the state convention that year, as he was in the primary
meetings.
Mr. Currier has been married three times. He has no children living. He
resides in an elegant home in Manchester, in which are reflected his
cultivated tastes and ample fortune. Though able to look back upon a
long career, he is in the enjoyment of excellent health and the full
strength of his manhood, and while carrying the business burdens that
would crush most men, finds leisure to enjoy the fruits of his industry,
frugality, and judgment.
HON. AMASA NORCROSS.
Amasa Norcross, A. M., of Fitchburg, Mass., was born in Rindge, N. H.,
January 26, 1824. His father, Daniel Norcross, was a farmer in New
Hampshire, and was the grandson of Jeremiah Norcross, the immigrant
ancestor of the family, who arrived in this country in the year 1642,
and settled at Watertown, Mass. Daniel Norcross was a man of sterling
integrity, a large land-holder, and the incumbent of many offices of
honor and trust. His wife, _nee_ Mary Jones, was also a native of New
Hampshire.
Amasa Norcross received an excellent academic education, first in the
academy of his native town, and subsequently in a similar institution at
New Ipswich, N. H. Selecting the profession of law for the life exercise
of his talents and energies, in 1844 he became a student in the office
of the Hon. Nathaniel Wood of Fitchburg, and in 1847 was admitted to the
bar. Since that time he has pursued his professional labors in the city
where he now resides. He is to-day the senior member of the Fitchburg
bar, and for many years he has been a recognized leader of the legal
fraternity in that section of the state.
In 1858, 1859, and 1862, Mr. Norcross was a member of the Massachusetts
house of representatives, having been elected thereto on the Republican
ticket. In 1858 he was a member of the committee of probate and
chancery, of which Governor Andrew, then a member of the house, was
chairman; and in 1859 and 1862 he was a member of the judiciary
committee. In August of the last-named year, he was appointed, by
President Lincoln, United States assessor for the ninth congressional
district of Massachusetts. The district was large, comprising
seventy-two townships. He filled the office with signal ability and
satisfaction for ten years, and until the office of assessor was
abolished by act of congress. In 1862 the authorities of Dartmouth
College conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts.
In the session of 1859, Mr. Norcross was appointed a member of the joint
committee of the senate and house of representatives to examine and
amend the report of the commissioners appointed to codify the laws of
the state. He gave to this work his entire attention for several months,
when report was made by the committee to the adjourned session of the
legislature, held in the autumn of that year. Upon this committee were
several distinguished lawyers, among whom were Gen. Caleb Cushing and
Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. In 1874 he was a member of the Massachusetts
senate and chairman of the judiciary committee of that body. He was also
chairman of the committee on federal relations. To him was assigned the
honor of drafting the report which recommended rescinding the
resolutions of censure upon Charles Sumner which had been passed by the
legislature of Massachusetts. Previous efforts to relieve that
distinguished statesman from that burden had failed; this succeeded. The
rescinding resolutions reached Senator Sumner at Washington a few days
before his death, and doubtless contributed materially to soothe his
last hours.
In the fall of 1876, Mr. Norcross was elected representative to congress
on the Republican ticket, over his political opponent, S. O. Lamb of
Greenfield. In 1878 he was elected a second time, over the candidates
of two political parties. He has been an active member of the Republican
party since its organization, and is now serving his third term in
congress, having been again re-elected in 1880. In the several
conventions resulting in his nomination and election, he was always
supported by the better elements in his party.
Local affairs have always received a proportionate share of Mr.
Norcross's attention. On the organization of the city government of
Fitchburg, in 1873, he received the honor of first election to the
mayoralty of the new city. He was re-elected the following year. In the
administration of its affairs his executive ability was marked.
Necessary public improvements were effected, and all bear tokens of his
excellent judgment and skill. With financial and other public
organizations he has been, for many years, prominently identified. He is
a director in the Rollstone National Bank of Fitchburg, in the Worcester
North Savings Institution, and in the Fitchburg Fire Insurance Company.
The interest of Mr. Norcross in benevolent and educational institutions
has been deep and constant, and he has done much for their advancement.
He took an active part in organizing the Fitchburg Benevolent Union, was
its first president, and he is now one of its life members. For fifteen
years he has been a trustee of the Lawrence Academy at Groton, Mass. By
act of the legislature of Massachusetts he was made one of the original
members of the corporation known as the Cushing Academy, located at
Ashburnham, and by the same act was designated as the member authorized
to call the first meeting of the trustees, of which board he is still a
member. He has contributed largely to the organizing and building up of
this now flourishing academy. For more than thirty years the labors of
Mr. Norcross connected with his large legal practice have been arduous
and continuous.
In June, 1852, he was married to S. Augusta, daughter of Benjamin and
Rebecca Wallis, of Ashby, Mass. She died March 4, 1869.
HON. GEORGE ALFRED PILLSBURY.
BY FRANK H. CARLETON.
New Hampshire is a small state, yet her sons and daughters are scattered
far and wide. They have not only built up a prosperous and influential
commonwealth at home, furnishing a talent and genius too great to be
circumscribed by territorial lines, but they have greatly aided in
laying the foundations and building up the newer sections of our
country. Let any person pass through the mighty West, and thence to the
great Northwest which to-day is doing vastly more than any section to
supply the world with bread, and he will be surprised to find the great
number of sons of New Hampshire who have attained reputation, position,
and influence. In the highest ranks of commerce, at the bar, and from
the pulpit, they wield a great influence. Their names are too numerous
to be enumerated, yet it is to but few that the distinction is given of
being distinguished in two states, and these as far apart as Minnesota
and New Hampshire. To this small but honored class belongs the subject
of this brief sketch, GEORGE ALFRED PILLSBURY, one of a family whose
name suggests high qualities.
The family history has been traced as far back as Joshua Pillsbury, who
settled a grant of land at what is now Newburyport, Mass., in the year