Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men Part 13

To organize and direct successfully such varied and extended operations, outlined here only in part, required a mind strong in perception and purpose. A union of these qualities, with that adventurous spirit which led the youth of eighteen to the sources of the Orinoco and the pampas of the Amazon in pursuit of wealth, const.i.tuted a mental alliance which could well measure the possibilities of a new country and avail himself of their fulfillment.

In all this time Mr. Tilton enjoyed excellent health and immunity from serious accident. After living amidst the steaming malaria of tropical lagoons, sleeping by the side of his mustang on the plains, blockaded by the storms of the Sierras, a.s.sailed by the hostile Apaches, he returns to his native hills unscathed, with a sound const.i.tution and the early purpose of his will fully accomplished.

Mr. Tilton's munificence has manifested itself most liberally to his townsmen within two years. In that time he has erected and conveyed to them a town hall finished in an elegant and substantial manner. It contains a market and town office, a store and post-office, all commodiously arranged, no expense being spared which would add to convenience. They return to the treasury a handsome rental. The hall proper is easily approached, is finished in hard wood, as is all the interior of the building. It is artistically frescoed in water-colors and gilt, lighted with gas, has a stage fitted with drop-curtains, changes of scenery, a beautiful proscenium, proper furniture, a Steinway piano, all after the most approved styles. The building, with its appointments, is the admiration of visitors and the pride of towns-people. He has placed an iron bridge, the present season, from Main street to Island Park, costing over eighteen hundred dollars. The public are allowed at all times to use and occupy this delightful resort. Its airy summerhouse, built after an European model, surrounded by works of art, is unmatched in loveliness. For remodeling one of the village churches he contributed more than three thousand dollars; and donated five hundred towards an iron bridge between Tilton and Northfield, which act results in two by the towns named. He expended a large sum in the purchase of land and improving it for a public park near by the village, and, including the gift of the fine town hall, January 4, 1881, must have appropriated forty thousand dollars for the pleasure and benefit of his townsmen. During this period he has paid thousands of dollars for improvements on his own premises, giving employment to a large force of laborers and mechanics.

Mr. Tilton's elegant and s.p.a.cious residence is situated on an eminence commanding a magnificent prospect, and overlooks the village that bears his name. When built, a few years since, it was deemed one of the best in central New Hamps.h.i.+re. In the last two years it has been materially improved, while large additions have been constructed, consisting of an extensive conservatory and aviary on the one side of the main building, and a s.p.a.cious drawing-room on the other; it is unequaled in its appointments, perhaps, in New England. It is twenty-eight feet by thirty-eight feet in area, and twenty-two feet in height. Seven thousand five hundred feet of mahogany were used to complete it. To the height of four feet the most elaborate work in wainscoting is produced, while pilasters in the same wood, ornate in their design, extend from the floor on either side and meet in the ceiling above. This arrangement in finish running at right angles leaves the walls and surface overhead checked into panels, either square or oblong, each of which is filled with an individual conception of the artist, but collectively form a general design. An exquisitely designed gablet holds the porcelain tiled fire front, its three sides partly filled with French plate mirrors, and a Swiss styled hooding covers the apex which contains the clock. Carpets and rugs, drapery and furniture, mirrors and chandeliers, were manufactured for the room. We know the owner is averse to anything that attracts attention to himself. The public on proper occasions have had the pleasure of seeing these premises; and what we have here recited has been gathered from sources that have been open to all.

Mr. Tilton is cordial and pleasant in his intercourse with his neighbors and acquaintances, and in feelings and tastes one of the people. The steel portrait is an excellent one. He is in the prime of manhood and intellect.

Through life, so far, he seems to have been conscious that his capacity was for business and not politics. He has never sought or held public office, and says he never will. The frequent mention of his name in political circles and sometimes in the press, in such connection, is not inspired by him.

He comes back to a common welcome after thirty years of incessant labor, from amidst surroundings, which, if detailed, would seem stranger than fiction.

Mr. Tilton was married December 29, and sailed in the "Gallia" from New York for Liverpool, January 4, 1882. We understand it is the intention of the happy pair, if Providence permits, to stay abroad as long as pleasure or profit can be derived from their trip.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chas. E. Balch]

COL. CHARLES E. BALCH.

Charles Edward Balch was born in Francestown in 1834, and is the son of Mason and Hannah Balch, his mother being a daughter of Joshua Holt, of Greenfield. His boyhood was spent upon a farm, and his education was obtained in the common schools and Francestown Academy. When eighteen years of age he began life for himself as a book-keeper in the dry-goods store of Barton & Co., in Manchester, and two years later had so established himself in the confidence of the managers of the Manchester Savings Bank that he was called to a clerks.h.i.+p in that inst.i.tution. In this position his industry, courtesy, and excellent judgment won good opinions from all with whom he came in contact, and when the Manchester National Bank was organized, in 1865, he was chosen its cas.h.i.+er, and has filled this responsible position ever since. He has also been a trustee of the Manchester Savings Bank since 1862, is a member of its investing committee, treasurer of the Manchester Gas-Light Company, a director and member of the finance committee of the New Hamps.h.i.+re Fire Insurance Company, and a trustee of many large estates. In all these positions, Mr. Balch has proved himself a sagacious, careful, and safe financier.

The banks to which he has given the most of his time and energies reflect in their strength and uniform success his honesty, reliability, and prudence; and those whose funds have been intrusted to his management have always found their confidence justified by steady and satisfactory returns.

Mr. Balch is, moreover, a man whose private character is above suspicion, a citizen whose public duties are never left to others, a friend whose fealty is never doubted, and an acquaintance whose courtesy, candor, and affability command universal respect and good will. He has been too modest to ask, and too busy to accept, political honors; but his influence has been potent in advancing the party to which he belongs, and in shaping the policy of the city in which he resides. In affairs of state and city, as in business matters, he makes little noise; but his work tells, and his convictions of duty bring substantial results. He was commissioned a colonel of the state militia in 1879, and served on Gov. Head's staff for two years.

In July, 1867, Mr. Balch married Miss Emeline R. Brooks, daughter of Rev. Nahum Brooks, then of Bath, Me., but now of Manchester, who presides over and dispenses the hospitalities of his pleasant home.

HON. JOHN CARROLL MOULTON.

BY COL. THOMAS J. WHIPPLE.

The ancestors of Hon. JOHN C. MOULTON were among the fifty-six inhabitants from the county of Norfolk, England, who first settled in the town of Hampton, then Winnic.u.met, in the year 1638. The names of John Molton and Thomas Molton appear in a partial list of these original settlers, which may be found in "Belknap's History of New Hamps.h.i.+re."

Vol. I. p. 37.

General Jonathan Moulton was a descendant of this family, and the great-grandfather of John C. Moulton. He was born in Hampton, N. H., June 30, 1726, and died at Hampton, in the year 1788, at the age of sixty-two. He was a large proprietor in lands, and several flouris.h.i.+ng towns in the interior of this state owe their early settlement to his exertions and influence. This fact is mentioned in "Farmer & Moore's Gazetteer," published in 1823. When he was thirty-seven years old, the town of Moultonborough was granted to him and sixty-one others, by the Masonian proprietors, November 17, 1763. He was already noted for the distinguished service which he had rendered in the Indian wars, which ended with the Ossipee tribe, along the northerly borders of Moultonborough, in 1763. Many of his adventures during this b.l.o.o.d.y period have been preserved and transmitted to the present time; enough, indeed, to fill a large s.p.a.ce in this brief sketch. It may be well to preserve one of these incidents in this record:--

An octogenarian in the vicinity of Moultonborough relates that, during the Indian wars, Colonel, afterward General, Jonathan Moulton went out with a scouting party from Dover. After numerous adventures, they met with and attacked a party of six Indians, near a place now known as Clark's Landing, on the sh.o.r.e of Lake Winnipesaukee, all of whom fell in the skirmish which ensued, with one exception. The colonel had a large dog with him, which, after the affray was over, he placed upon the track of the escaped Indian. The dog ran on the sh.o.r.e a short distance, and then struck off on to the ice. The party followed, and as they approached the entrance of what is now Green bay they saw in the distance that the dog had the Indian down upon the ice; and when they got to the spot the Indian was dead,--killed by the dog.

The active services of the general in these border wars had made him, at an early age, well and favorably known to the leading men of that day.

His numerous raids and scouts, in the region occupied by the Ossipee tribes, had made him well acquainted with the then wilderness, and with the adjacent country upon the western sh.o.r.es of the lake, and no doubt secured to him the land grant which he obtained, in common with many of his companions in arms. He was rightly placed at the head of the grantees, by the Masonian proprietors, and the town of Moultonborough, which was named after him, perpetuates the memory of his rugged virtues and of his enterprising character. His descendants have been inhabitants of Moultonborough and of Center Harbor to the present time. After obtaining this grant, the general devoted much of the remainder of his life in promoting the settlement and the development of this new territory. Among other things in this direction, he obtained from Gov.

Wentworth the grant of land now known as the town of New Hampton, which was formerly a part of Moultonborough gore, and then called "Moultonborough Addition." The following amusing account of the way in which Gen. Moulton secured this last grant appears in "Fogg's Gazetteer," and is to be found in other histories of those early times:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: John C. Coulton.]

"In 1703, Gen. Jonathan Moulton, of Hampton, having an ox weighing one thousand four hundred pounds, fattened for the purpose, hoisted a flag upon his horns, and drove him to Portsmouth as a present to Gov. Wentworth. The general refused any compensation for the ox, but said he would like a charter of a small gore of land he had discovered adjoining the town of Moultonborough, of which he was one of the princ.i.p.al proprietors. The governor granted this simple request of General Moulton, and he called it New Hampton, in honor of his native town. This small gore of land contained nineteen thousand four hundred and twenty-two acres, a part of which now const.i.tutes Center Harbor."

Thus it appears that General Moulton, by his energy and enterprise, largely contributed to the formation of three towns,--one named New Hampton, by him; another named Moultonborough, for him; and the third, Center Harbor, was carved from a part of his grant called "Moultonborough Addition."

The following is the genealogical order:--

1. Gen. Jonathan Moulton, born in Hampton, N. H., June 30, 1726. Jan. 7, 1749, he married Abigail Smith. He died in 1788.

2. Benning Moulton, son of Jonathan Moulton and Abigail (Smith) Moulton, born May 21, 1761. He married Sally Lovett, Nov. 7, 1782. He settled in Center Harbor in 1783, and there died Dec. 23, 1834.

3. Jonathan Smith Moulton, son of Benning Moulton and Sally (Lovett) Moulton, born at Center Harbor, Dec. 14, 1785. He married Deborah Neal.

He died Nov. 15, 1855.

4. JOHN CARROLL MOULTON, son of Jonathan Smith Moulton and Deborah (Neal) Moulton, born in Center Harbor, Dec. 24, 1810. In addition to the ordinary opportunities of the district school, in his native town, he attended Holmes Academy at Plymouth, N. H., where for several terms he pursued his studies under the instruction of the late Samuel Burns, who ranked among the foremost teachers of his time. To perfect himself in mathematical studies, for which he showed an early and natural apt.i.tude, he placed himself under the tuition of Master Dudley Leavitt, the noted "almanac-maker," who, for many years, opened an annual term of high school in Meredith, where he taught all the advanced branches of mathematics to pupils, who in that day flocked from every part of the country to place themselves at the feet of this great mathematical Gamaliel. These studies he ardently pursued far beyond the limits of the ordinary academical course, and they seem to have impressed upon him a permanent proficiency often called for and manifested in the various large business transactions with which he has been connected for so many years. During the intervals of schools he a.s.sisted his father--who was in trade and a large farmer--as clerk and general a.s.sistant in his extensive business. In 1831, at about the age twenty, he opened a store and commenced trade at Sandwich. N. H., where he remained about a year, when he returned, and resumed the same business at Center Harbor.

July 15, 1833, he married Nellie B. Senter. He then opened a hotel in what has since grown to be one of the famous boarding-houses at Center Harbor, and, with the aid of his brilliant and accomplished wife, united the duties of landlord and merchant, which employments he continued there for several years. In 1836, Lake Village, N. H., began to attract attention as a place of large prospective business, and Mr. Moulton left Center Harbor, and opened a store at that place. He also engaged in manufacturing, and continued in these employments for several years.

In 1841 he removed to Laconia, then known the world over as Meredith Bridge, and took charge of the Belknap Hotel. This being the only stage house of that lively place, it was usually inundated with the stream of public travel peculiar to those times. He continued this business about two years, when he opened a bookstore and an apothecary-shop in a building which stood on the site now occupied by the post-office and the national bank. He was soon after appointed postmaster,--in the latter part of Tyler's administration; was re-appointed by President Polk, through whose term he held the office, which he continued to do a short time during the term of President Taylor, when, being a life-long Democrat, he was removed. He was re-appointed by President Pierce, and also by President Buchanan, during whose terms he held the office, which he continued to do a short time under President Lincoln, when he was superseded by the appointment of a Republican. Thus he held the office of postmaster during part of the terms of three Republican, and the full terms of three Democratic administrations, making his term of office about sixteen years in all. The duties of his long term of service were performed in a manner universally acceptable and satisfactory to the public.

In 1848 the Boston, Concord, & Montreal Railroad was built and completed from Concord to Plymouth. In antic.i.p.ation of this event the firm of Charles Ranlet & Co. built large and extensive car-works at Laconia, which they designed particularly for the construction of freight-cars.

The firm commenced and carried on the business until the decease of the senior partner, in 1860, when the works were suspended. In 1861, Mr.

Moulton became a partner, and by his great energy and business capacity has developed a large business, which employs some two hundred men, most of whom are skilled workmen. The monthly pay-roll is about eight thousand dollars. The works have been repeatedly enlarged, and several extensive buildings erected, to accommodate the increase of business.

For several years, pa.s.senger-cars of the finest style and finish, as well as freight-cars, have been built at their works, and their annual gross earnings are to be reckoned at several hundred thousand dollars.

In February, 1881, these car-shops, with most of their machinery and contents, were burned to the ground, only some of the out-buildings being saved. Before the ruins were done smoking, lumber began to be hauled upon the ground, and in thirty days from the fire cars were being built in new shops which had been erected on the old foundations. Mr.

Moulton was then over seventy years of age, and was well able to retire from business, with an ample competence, to the quiet repose which most men desire as the closing blessing of an active and arduous life.

In 1871 and 1872 he was chosen senator from district number six, and performed his official duties with his accustomed promptness and fidelity, and to the satisfaction of his const.i.tuents. He was also elected councilor for district number two in 1874. In 1876 he was one of the delegates to the Democratic national convention held at St. Louis, which nominated Samuel J. Tilden for the presidency, and in the ensuing presidential campaign was one of the candidates on the Democratic ticket for elector.

In 1865, rapid growth of the manufacturing, commercial, and other business interests at Laconia and Lake Village suggested to him the great need of added financial facilities. To meet these demands, it was necessary to procure a charter from the government to establish a national bank at Laconia. Almost insurmountable obstacles to success in this enterprise were encountered, and finally overcome. The charter was procured, and the bank established, largely by the active and persistent labor of the subject of this sketch. Upon the organization of the Laconia National Bank, he was chosen its first president, and has continuously and acceptably held the position to the present time. It may well be said, that the impartiality with which the accommodations of this bank have been extended to promote all hopeful enterprises has done much to advance the growth and prosperity of the place.

For several years, Mr. Moulton was a stockholder in the Gilford Hosiery Corporation at Laconia. In 1868 he became sole owner of the entire stock and property. He has steadily continued its successful operation, with an annual product of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, until now.

The factory employs about one hundred and fifty hands, mostly females, at the mill, and gives employment to many households in the surrounding country. Mr. Moulton and Benjamin K. Thurston are joint owners of the extensive flouring and grain mill of Laconia. He is also a large owner of the stock in the Laconia Gas-light Company, and has done much to place this important pioneer enterprise upon the solid basis it now holds among the public improvements of this growing town.

Mr. Moulton is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is one of the charter members of Winnip.i.s.seogee Lodge No. 7, which was established at Laconia in 1842, and is now one of the Uniformed Patriarchs of the order.

His domestic and family relations are as follows:--

July 15, 1833, he married Nellie B. Senter, of Center Harbor, who was the daughter of Samuel M. Senter. Her ancestor, Col. Joseph Senter, and Ebenezer Chamberlain were the first settlers in that town in 1765 and 1767. She died Nov. 18, 1860, at Laconia. Five children were born to them, of whom three survive.

Edwin Carroll Moulton was born May 25, 1834, and died Nov. 13, 1867. He married Augusta Ranlet, of Laconia, daughter of Charles Ranlet; and their only child, Nelly Augusta Moulton, still survives. He was an active business man, full of promise, and many friends still cherish his memory.

Samuel Moore Senter Moulton was born Aug. 1, 1837, and resides at Laconia. May 2, 1861, he enlisted, and served in the New Hamps.h.i.+re volunteers. July 26, 1861, he enlisted in the regular army of the United States, and served three years during the rebellion, with the mounted troops. Since the war he is employed as book-keeper, clerk, and paymaster in the car factories above referred to. He was one of the selectmen of Laconia for the years 1868 and 1869; and was representative of the town to the legislature for the years 1876 and 1877. He married Martha B. Thurston, daughter of Benjamin E. Thurston, who is well known.

He served as representative to the legislature from the town of Moultonborough in Carroll county, for the years 1867 and 1868, after which he removed to, and now resides in, Laconia, which town he represented in the legislature in 1881. He was also high sheriff of Belknap county in the years 1874 and 1875.

William Hale Moulton was born July 20, 1844, died March 10, 1849.