Part 26

1. JAMES, b. Oct. 5, 1783; m. Polly Taylor April 10, 1810; cleared and settled west of the pond and west of the Steele place, on land now George Brown's,--often called the Boyd place; went thence to Solon, N. Y., in 1822, with six children. There his wife d. in 1846. In 1852 he m. 2d, Mrs. Susan Clark; moved to Waukon, Io., and d. there in 1862. He had children:--

_Mary_, (b. in 1811; d. in infancy.)

_Mary E._, (b. in 1812; m. John Stillman of Cortlandville, N. Y., in 1833; went to Waukon, Io., in 1857, where they now live.)

_Rev. John T. G._, (b. in 1814; studied at Cazenovia Seminary; m. Harriet N. Taylor; entered the Methodist ministry; was a faithful and able man; d. while pastor, at the age of 36.)

_Hannah E._, (b. in 1816; m. John Reed; moved to Waukon, Io., in 1857, and d. there in 1877.)

_Abigail S._, (b. in 1818; became second wife of Isaac Barker in 1847; went to Waukon, Io., in 1854.)

_Mark W._, (b. in 1820; d. unm., at Solon, N. Y., in 1848.)

_James A._, (b. in 1822; carried to Solon, N. Y., when an infant; went thence to Illinois in 1844; m. Laura Post.)

_George W._, (b. in Solon, N. Y., in 1825; m. Mary C. Farrar of Fairfield, Vt.; resides at Waukon, Io.)

_Dr. Milton W._, (b. in 1828; m. Margaret Donoughue in 1852; is now physician and druggist at Waukon, Io.)

_Woodbury T._, (by second wife; b. in 1852; remains at Solon, N. Y.)

2. JEAN, now called "Jane," or "Jenny;" b. May 14, 1787; m. John Dunlap, June 26, 1807, and d. March 29, 1835.

3. THOMAS D., b. March 22, 1789; m. Martha Weeks, March 30, 1813; succeeded his father on the homestead. His first wife d. in 1828, aged 35, and he m. 2d, Nancy Gregg, Feb. 4, 1830. He d. Sept. 10, 1841, aged 52. The second wife d. Feb. 9, 1856, aged 63. He was known in town as "Capt. Nesmith;" was captain of the "Antrim Grenadiers," and was often marshal of the day on special occasions. He was a useful man, and d. in his prime. His children were:--

_Robert W._, (b. May 3, 1814; m. Olive Dunlap of Bedford, June 1, 1839; settled in Jefferson, Tex., and d. at Sulphur Springs in that state, Nov. 28, 1866. He left two daughters: Oriette, now in the Metropolitan Railroad office, Boston; and Sally Y., who m. Com. Decatur Morris, and lives in Little Rock, Ark.)

_Jonathan_, (b. Jan. 24, 1816; m. Marietta F. Morrill of Franklin, Nov. 15, 1841; inherited the homestead of his father and grandfather, sold the same in 1865, and two or three years later moved to Hancock, where he now resides. He was the last of the name in town. At one time there were three Dea. Nesmiths in town, known as "Dea. James," "Dea. Arthur," and "Dea. Jonathan," and they each had nine children,--making, with sisters and friends, nearly forty by that name in this place. Jonathan's children are: Jennie M., who was b. Sept. 23, 1842,--an excellent teacher; Thomas S., who was b. May 12, 1846, and d. at the age of three years; Fannie H., who was b. Dec. 8, 1848, and m. Frank H. Baldwin, June 19, 1876, residing in Keene; Annie M. T., who was b. Sept. 12, 1852; Abbie Isabel, who was b. Nov. 15, 1854, and d. 1856; Miles G., who was b. Sept. 26, 1857; Addie M., who was b. Jan. 27, 1860; and John S., who was b. May 5, 1863.)

_Sarah E._, (b. Dec. 24, 1818, m. John W. Buttrick, and lives in Lawrence, Mass.)

_Miles_, (b. Feb. 2, 1821; went to California in 1849, and was driver for the California Stage Company; the horses became unmanageable, and the whole team was thrown down a fearful precipice near Virginia City, Nev., by which the driver, all the horses, and most of the passengers were instantly killed. This sad event occurred in December, 1862.)

_Harriet F._, (b. Feb. 2, 1823, m. Walker Flanders, and lives in Lawrence, Mass.)

_Martha J._, (b. June 9, 1825; m. Isaac P. Cochran of Windham, Nov. 12, 1846.)

_Melvin_, (b. Dec. 20, 1830; d. in Sacramento, Cal., Dec. 31, 1853.)

_Hiram G._, (b. Feb. 18, 1833; d. in Jefferson, Tex., in 1857.)

_Nancy R._, (b. Jan. 24, 1836, m. Josiah Melville, and lives in Nelson.)

4. ADAM, b. March 5, 1792; m. Rebecca Dale; settled in Beverly, Mass., and d. Jan. 15, 1865.

5. MARY D., "Molly Dinsmore" on town record, b. April 11, 1794; called "Long Mary," being tall in form; a talented, respected, and Christian woman; d. unm. April 6, 1874.

6. MARGARET, b. May 4, 1796; d. unm. in 1827.

7. ISABEL, b. March 6, 1798; d. unm. March 8, 1862.

8. HON. GEORGE W., b. Oct. 23, 1800; was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1820; m. Mary M. Brooks; settled in the practice of law at Franklin; was long judge of the New Hampshire supreme court, remaining on the bench until relieved by the constitutional limitation of years. Is now president of the N. H. Orphans' Home, and trustee of Dartmouth College; is a man of noble principles and honored life, enjoying in his old age the highest confidence and esteem of men. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Dartmouth College. He stands among the best and noblest of the sons of New Hampshire, and is an honor to his native town.

CHARLES MARSH.

Yankee courage, integrity, and judgment have won no more substantial or more splendid triumphs in the business world than are reflected from the dry-goods palace of Jordan, Marsh, & Co., a house whose grand successes have made it famous throughout the mercantile world. The foundations of this magnificent establishment were laid in 1851 and 1852, by three young men, two of whom were natives of New Hampshire. The head of the firm, Eben D. Jordan, when fourteen years old had gone up to Boston from his home in Maine, and began his business career as an errand boy, and in a short time had been promoted to a clerkship, in which position he made himself master of the dry-goods business, and while doing it became acquainted with two other young men, Benjamin L. and CHARLES MARSH, who had left their father's house in Chesterfield, N. H., and sought in Boston an opening in which pluck, push, and perseverance, unaided by influential friends or unearned capital, could carry them on to success.

In 1852, Messrs. Jordan and Benjamin L. Marsh established the firm of Jordan, Marsh, & Co., and the next year Charles Marsh, then a clerk in the store of Pearl, Smith, & Co., was admitted as a partner. The house began in a small way; it had behind it little but the splendid courage and the remarkable abilities of the three young partners; but these were sufficient to win a fair share of business, and a reputation which was better than money, and in a short time it was firmly established in the confidence of the mercantile world and the good will of the public. In eight years the business had grown to two million dollars per annum, and since that time it has steadily and rapidly increased, until the firm controls the dry-goods market of New England, and, in many lines, of the entire country.

The elder Marsh died in 1856, leaving his partners to carry on and complete the grand enterprises he had helped project and begin. His brother still remains to share with Mr. Jordan the triumphs of the firm. In the early days of the business, Charles Marsh was an active salesman, and was accounted one of the best ever known in Boston. Afterwards, he took charge of the wholesale department, which has since been and still is under his personal supervision.

In commercial circles and in the store he has a clearly defined and high rank as a manager, with rare combination of talents. His coolness, his thorough knowledge of the business, his level-headed judgment, and organizing and executive capacity are abundantly attested in the great and rapid growth of the wholesale business. He is a balanced man; and how necessary this quality is to success in an enterprise of this magnitude, only those who have seen houses go to wreck for lack of it can tell. The elements of personal popularity in his character, and his extensive acquaintance throughout the country, help to explain his success. For nearly thirty years his steady hand has been felt at the helm, and yet he seems to-day only in the prime of his powers.

HON. GEORGE BYRON CHANDLER.

The subject of this sketch is a member of a family that has long occupied a prominent and honorable place in New Hampshire history. His parents, Adam and Sally (McAllister) Chandler, were worthy representatives of the strong-minded, able-bodied, industrious, and successful citizens who in the early part of the century tilled the farms and shaped affairs in our farming towns. They resided upon a fertile farm in Bedford, which was the birthplace of their four children. Of these, the three sons--Henry, John M., and George Byron--are all citizens of Manchester, and are now engaged in the banking business. The only daughter is dead. The boys spent their boyhood upon the farm, doing their share of the work; but their parents were solicitous that they should be fitted for some more profitable calling, and gave them all the school privileges of the neighborhood, which were afterwards supplemented by academical instruction at several state academies.

His home work, his studies at Piscataquog, Gilmanton, Hopkinton, and Reed's Ferry academies, and his duties as a teacher at Amoskeag, Bedford, and Nashua, occupied the boyhood of GEORGE BYRON CHANDLER until the age of twenty-one, after which he spent one year as a civil engineer in the employ of the Boston, Concord, & Montreal Railroad.

In the spring of 1854 he decided to devote himself to a business instead of a professional career, and, coming to Manchester, entered the grocery house of Kidder & Duncklee as a book-keeper. The next year he was offered a similar position in the Amoskeag Bank, which he accepted, and filled so acceptably that eighteen months later he was promoted to the teller's counter, and remained there until the organization of the Amoskeag National Bank, in 1864, when he was elected its cashier and entered upon the discharge of the duties of this responsible position, which he still holds. That he has won in it the continuing confidence of its managers, who are among the most sagacious of financiers, and the hearty approval of its numerous owners and patrons, is the best testimony to his fidelity and efficiency. His success in this capacity led the trustees of People's Savings Bank, when it was organized, to select him as its treasurer, and the success of this institution is another reflection of his patient and skillful work. These two banks, of which he is the chief executive, are among the strongest in the country; and it is much for him to be proud of that they have grown so great in resources and public confidence during his administration.

Mr. Chandler has also been prominently, honorably, and profitably identified with many other financial enterprises which have been conspicuous for their success. He has been the treasurer of the New Hampshire Fire Insurance Company since its organization in 1870; he was for five years a director of the Manchester & Lawrence Railroad, and has been for several years its treasurer; he was a director of the Blodget Edge Tool Company and of the Amoskeag Axe Company, during their existence; and he has been for years constantly intrusted with numerous private trusts involving the management of most extensive and important interests.

Mr. Chandler has an ample fortune, and a large income which he scatters with a free hand. He gives liberally and buys freely. The representatives of a worthy object who appeal to him for aid seldom go away empty. His residence and grounds, which occupy an entire square, are among the most costly and attractive in the city, and are noted as the home of good taste, elegance, and hearty hospitality. He is a leader in social life and active in city affairs. For several years he has been an officer of the Amoskeag Veterans, and is now president of the New Hampshire Club, composed of the leading business men of New Hampshire, which he was largely instrumental in organizing. He has read much, and traveled extensively in this country, and has a wide acquaintance with its distinguished men, and a valuable knowledge of the resources, customs, and characteristics of its several sections, which he has often been called upon to utilize for the benefit of others in lectures before schools and also in addresses before public assemblies.

From his early days Mr. Chandler has been an active member of the Unitarian Society in Manchester, and has served for years as one of its directors and president. Like other organizations with which he has been identified, this has been frequently indebted to him for liberal donations in money and a zealous support in many ways.

In 1874, the Democratic party of the Manchester district elected him to the state senate, where he served with credit to himself and the city. He declined a renomination.

In 1862, Mr. Chandler married Miss Flora A., daughter of Hon. Darwin J. Daniels, an ex-mayor of Manchester, who died in May, 1868, leaving an infant daughter, who did not long survive her mother.

His second wife, who now presides over his mansion, is the only daughter of Col. B. F. Martin, of Manchester, to whom he was married in 1870. Three children--Benjamin Martin, Alexander Rice, and Byron--are the fruit of this union. Of these, the oldest and youngest are living.

HON. NAPOLEON B. BRYANT.

BY HON. J. M. SHIRLEY.

The subject of this sketch was born at East Andover, N. H., on February 25, 1825. His mother was of Revolutionary stock, and from one of the oldest families in town; and was one of those sunny-souled "Mothers in Israel," who, half a century ago, were alike the glory and honor of our New England homes. His father was a man of high character and fine natural endowments; but was in straitened circumstances. As there was no lawyer in that part of the town where he lived, nor within several miles, he acted as a magistrate, trial and otherwise, for many years; and his services were sought in making deeds, wills, and contracts, formulating notices and the like, organizing voluntary corporations, settling the estates of deceased persons, and in this class of business usually intrusted to lawyers. His son grew up in this atmosphere, the influence of which, with his father's strong desires, determined the choice of his profession.

The world lavishes its praise upon, and often loads with honors, the self-made man, for that implies a successful one. It too often forgets the rugged path which leads thereto, and the hard discipline--the heroic treatment that so often kills--which enables him to attain that position. As a rule, it crowns with honors the victors as they sweep the summit-heights, but furnishes no headstone for the dead that mark the ascent and block the pathway.

Young Bryant had the hard lot so common "among the hills;" but he had health, hope, courage, ambition, and the glow-fire of a fervid imagination, which enabled him to succeed when others

"By the wayside fell and perished, Weary with the march of life."

Until ten years of age, he had the limited educational advantages afforded by the district school, gaining one term at a private school when about seven, by walking two miles and a half each way, daily, to attend it. At ten he entered the high school at Franklin, taught by Master Tyler of Andover, an author of some note and a teacher of high repute in those days, and remained for half a term,--all that the limited means of the family would permit. A similar privilege was accorded at eleven and again at twelve. At the age of fourteen he borrowed money enough of a relative to defray the expense of an entire term at Boscawen Academy, then under the charge of Mr. Ballard, of Concord, a graduate of Dartmouth, giving his note therefor, which he repaid with interest at the end of three years. Here he studied trigonometry and surveying, and for several years afterwards earned considerable sums to aid him in prosecuting his studies by surveying in his own and adjoining towns. When fourteen he "cast off the lines" and assumed the entire burden of his support and education. To aid in this work he commenced teaching when fifteen, and taught every winter until he left college. Thus lacking means, he drifted about, a term at a time, among the various academies in the state, at Concord, Claremont, Gilmanton, and New London, until he entered New Hampton, joining a class which was to fit for college in one year from that time. Here, through the kindness of the faculty, he took the studies of the freshman year, entered the sophomore class at Waterville at the same time his fellow-classmates entered as freshmen. At the academies and in college he developed an intense passion for debate, and took a leading part in all the lyceums at home and the societies connected with the various institutions of learning he attended, to which he undoubtedly owes much of the freedom and ease that have since characterized his efforts on the hustings and at the bar.

When he was about twelve, his father gathered at his house the _debris_ of what had been an excellent town library. The son reveled in this feast of good things, reading everything from Goldsmith's "Animated Nature," to Paley's Philosophy. With boyish enthusiasm he devoured the pages of Rollin, without the slightest idea, that, except when the old Jansenist relied upon others, he was reading romance instead of history. This gave a new impetus to his desire for what was then termed a "liberal education." At twenty-two he entered the office of an eminent law firm---Nesmith & Pike--at Franklin, and after something less than two years' hard study went to Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1848; was admitted to the bar of Grafton county at the November term of the same year, and, having opened an office at Bristol in that county in November, 1848, upon his admission, entered upon the active practice of his profession.

At twenty-five he was elected one of the commissioners of the county of Grafton and held the office for three years, being chairman of the board two years. At twenty-nine he was appointed prosecuting attorney (solicitor) for that county, and discharged its duties with marked efficiency. In 1853 he removed from Bristol to Plymouth; and from that time was engaged on one side or the other of nearly every important cause there tried by the jury.

The county of Grafton was created in 1771. It was a large county and had for its shire towns Haverhill on the Connecticut and Plymouth on the Pemigewasset. It had at the outset, as it now has, a bar of exceptional character and ability. Some of the greatest forensic and legal battles of the century--like the celebrated Dartmouth College case of national reputation--were lost and won here. Over the highest court, Smith, Richardson, and Parker, a triad of illustrious chief-justices presided, followed by Gilchrist, Woods, and Perley, but little less distinguished. Here, in the olden time, Jeremiah Mason, the foremost jurist of his day, Daniel and Ezekiel Webster, the Sullivans, and their compeers, "rode the circuit" after the custom in the mother country. These great advocates, after exhaustive preparation; spoke to crowded court-rooms, the people flocking to these entertainments like men to a feast. Then oratory was in demand at the bar; but now, in its place, is required a dry summary, as terse and pointed as an auditor's statement of accounts.

When Mr. Bryant became actively engaged in jury trials, the bar was not what it once was, for Livermore, Olcott,--the father-in-law of Choate,--Woodward, and others were in their graves; Woods and Wilcox were on the bench; Ira Perley had removed to Concord; and Joe Bell had left the state. But there were Goodall, with his varied experience and eventful life; Felton, active, precise and mathematical; Duncan, whose earlier efforts were regarded by competent critics as at least equal to those of his famous brother-in-law, Choate; Harry Hibbard, scholar, lawyer and statesman; that dark haired "giant of the mountains," Bingham; Bellows and Sargent, since chief-justices,--headed by their acknowledged leader, Josiah Quincy, one of the most practical, sagacious, and clear-headed men in the state. Here, too, occasionally came Perley, with combative blood, incisive speech, and immense law learning, to enter the lists with that child of genius and prince of cross-examiners and advocates, Franklin Pierce. It was no child's play for a young man to withstand the "cut and thrust" of such, and contest for supremacy with them before twelve men.

Lawyers know that those who are almost invincible before a referee, auditor, chancellor, or the full bench, are often failures before a jury. Nothing tests or taxes a lawyer's nerve, knowledge of men, tact, readiness, fertility in resource, and the power of reconstruction or combination, like a jury trial, and he only who has been through it--unless it be the woman who is so unfortunate as to be his wife--can fully appreciate the strain of the minute and laborious preparation which precedes, the anxious days without food and nights without sleep which attend the progress of the trial, and the collapse after the verdict, especially if it be an adverse one, when a young practitioner is pitted against one of the leaders. It is a hard experience; but it schools him in his work, and enures him to the hardships of campaigning. Mr. Bryant tried his first cause before a jury, against Mr. Quincy, and won. The veteran congratulated his youthful opponent and predicted his success at the bar. At the next term he was pitted against his old instructor, Mr. Pike, and one of the judges wrote his father a note highly complimenting the efforts of the son in that important and exciting trial.

In 1855, Mr. Bryant removed to Concord and entered into partnership with Lyman T. Flint, Esq., who had assisted him at New Hampton in fitting for the sophomore year. His practice soon extended to Belknap and Hillsborough, while he retained his hold in Merrimack and upon his old clients in Grafton, where he attended the courts as before.

Mr. Bryant had hitherto acted with the Democratic party, in whose faith he had been reared, but in 1856, in common with thousands more, in the whirlwind which swept the North after the passage of the Nebraska bill, and the troubles which had arisen in Kansas, he supported by voice and vote the nomination of John C. Fremont, speaking in all the large towns and in nearly every county in the state. From that time until he left the state in 1860, he probably made more stump-speeches than any other man in it. In 1857 he was elected representative from ward six in Concord, was re-elected in 1858 and 1859, and was speaker the last two years. He originated and carried through, against a violent opposition, the act making parties witnesses. At this day the act seems eminently proper; but then it was regarded by many as portentous of evil, subversive of social order, and revolutionary in the extreme. Its constitutionality as applied to pending suits was affirmed in Rich _vs._ Flanders (39 N. H., 304), against the dissent of two of the six judges, Chief-Justice Bell and Judge Bellows, who, as a member, had strenuously opposed its passage.