Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men Part 18

VIRGIL C. GILMAN.

VIRGIL CHASE GILMAN was born in Unity, Sullivan county, New Hamps.h.i.+re, May 5, 1827, and was the third of a family of eight children born to Emerson and Delia (Way) Gilman.

Emerson Gilman was the oldest son and the first of twelve children born to Stephen and Dorothy (Clough) Gilman, who were married September 5, 1793. This was his second marriage, he having married Anna Huntoon, by whom he had nine children, some of whom died in infancy. Stephen Gilman was a native of Kingston, and served as a cavalry officer in the war of the Revolution. He was a descendant of Moses Gilman, who was one of three brothers,--Edward, John, and Moses,--who emigrated from Hingham, England, early in the sixteenth century.

In 1827, it was said:[4] "Edward Gilman's descendants are as numerous as the sands on the seash.o.r.e. There is hardly a state in the Union where they may not be found. The family have been in civil office from the time our colony became a royal province to the present time. John Gilman was one of the first counselors named in President Cutts's commission, and died in 1708. Col.

Peter Gilman was one of the royal counselors in 1772. Hon.

Nicholas Gilman was counselor in 1777 and 1778. Hon. John Gilman, in 1787; while the present venerable John Taylor Gilman was fourteen years, eleven in succession, our highly respected chief magistrate. His brother, Nicholas Gilman, was a member of the house of representatives in congress eight years, and in the national senate nine years. Our ecclesiastical annals have, also, Rev. Nicholas Gilman, Harvard College, 1724; and Rev.

Tristram Gilman, Harvard College, 1757, both respected clergymen and useful men."

These words are quoted in substance from Mr. Lincoln's work. "If he had written forty years later" says the author of "The Gilman Family in England and America,"[5] "he would have found the family still more numerous and many additions would have been made to his list of prominent men bearing the Gilman name. The family of Gilmans is not one furnis.h.i.+ng a few brilliant exceptions in a long list of commonplace names. Its members appear generally to have been remarkable for the quiet home virtues, and rather to have desired to be good citizens than men of great name. To an eminent degree they appear to have obtained the esteem and respect of those nearest to them, for sound judgment and sterling traits of character."

Emerson Gilman followed the trade of clothier until the introduction of machinery supplanted the hand process, when he, after pursuing the business of farmer for a few years, removed to Lowell, Ma.s.s., in 1837, relying, upon his strong and willing hands to find support for his large family and give his children the advantages of education which that city signally afforded.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Virgil C. Gilman]

The subject of this sketch was then ten years old, and made fair progress through the several grades to the high school, with which his school-days ended. He removed to Nashua in 1843, but it was not until 1851 that he entered business on his own behalf, at which time he became a.s.sociated with Messrs. Gage and Murray for the manufacture of printers'

cards of all the various kinds, also fancy-colored, embossed, and marble papers, a new business in this country at that time, which business he followed successfully for twenty-one years, and until his close and unremitting application made it necessary for him to relinquish it for a more active out-door employment. Following a natural love for rural affairs, he was not long in possessing himself of a hundred-acres farm in the south part of the city, upon the Lowell road, which he greatly improved, and indulged to some extent in the usually expensive luxury of breeding Jersey cattle, trotting-horses, and Plymouth Rock fowls. He claims to have bred the finest and fastest gaited horse ever raised in New Hamps.h.i.+re. Meantime, having realized the object sought, greatly improved health, and the office of treasurer of the Nashua Savings Bank becoming vacant by the resignation of Dr. E. Spalding, in 1876, he was elected to fill the vacancy, and still continues in this responsible position, with nearly two and a half millions of deposits committed to his watchful care and secure investment.

Never coveting office, still he has rarely refused to perform his full share of duty in the various departments of labor and responsibility incident to city affairs, from ward clerk to the mayor's chair, serving also as a.s.sessor, member of the board of education, and is now trustee of the public library, also its secretary and treasurer. To him Dartmouth College is indebted for the Gilman scholars.h.i.+p; and the board of trustees of the Orphans' Home at Franklin finds in him an interested member. He is identified with the mechanical industries of the city, having a large interest in the Nashua Iron and Steel Company, and its local director; also an owner and director in the Underhill Edge Tool Company, and Amoskeag Axe Company; also a director in the Indian Head National Bank.

In military affairs actively he is unknown, his service having commenced and ended with the "Governor's Horse-Guards," enlisting as private in Co. B, and ending as major of the battalion. His interest, however, is kept alive by honorary members.h.i.+p of "City Guards" and "Foster Rifles,"

of his adopted city.

His strong love for agricultural affairs led him to take an interest in our New Hamps.h.i.+re Agricultural Society, of whose board of trustees he was formerly a member, also one of the trustees of the New England Agricultural Society.

He was a member of the legislature of 1879, serving as chairman of committee on banks and taking a deep interest in the work of that session, and especially zealous in opposition to the taxation of church property. At the present time he is the Republican senator of the Nashua district, and honored by the chairmans.h.i.+p of the leading committee of the senate, the judiciary, no member of the legal profession holding a seat in that body at this time. How well he discharged the duties of this responsible position those can testify who had business with the committee, or those who witnessed his unremitting application and conscientious decisions.

Denominationally he is a Congregationalist, and a communicant with the First church, that was organized in 1685. An interest in its prosperity has induced him to serve as director of the society connected therewith many years, and of which he is now president, and treasurer of the Sabbath-school connected. It will thus be seen that the subject of this sketch fills many positions of responsibility and usefulness which bring no pecuniary reward, without ostentation, and no foul breath tarnishes his fair record.

Our state has among its many honored sons few whose energy, integrity, and discretion have won success in so many directions, and none who command more universal respect among all cla.s.ses. In business, politics, and social and religious circles he has been and is a leader, whose triumphs shed their blessings far and wide. Few have done so much for Nashua. No one deserves better of the state.

In 1850 he married Sarah Louisa, daughter of Gideon Newcomb, Esq., of Roxbury, by whom he had two children,--Harriet Louise, who married Charles W. Hoitt, an attorney-at-law in Nashua, and Alfred Emerson, who did not attain his second birthday.

[Ill.u.s.tration: W. Amory]

WILLIAM AMORY.

WILLIAM AMORY was born in Boston, Ma.s.s., June 15, 1804, and is the son of Thomas C. and Hannah R. (Linzee) Amory. He was one of a family of four sons and four daughters, of whom three only--two sons and one daughter--survive. His father, a merchant of Boston, died in 1812; and seven years later his son, then but fifteen years of age, entered Harvard University. He spent four years there, and soon after went to Europe to complete his education. He pursued in Germany the study of law and of general literature for a year and a half at the university in Gottingen, and for nine months at the university in Berlin. He occupied the subsequent two years and a half in travel, and returned to Boston in July, 1830, after an absence of five years. There he pursued his legal studies with Franklin Dexter and W. H. Gardiner, and in 1831 was admitted to the bar of Suffolk county, without, however, any intention of entering upon legal practice.

In that year he was chosen treasurer of the Jackson Manufacturing Company, at Nashua, N. H., and began business as a manufacturer. Without experience, and yet with a mind which study had disciplined and knowledge of the world had made keen, with remarkable energy and enterprise, he was eminently successful, and the Jackson company paid large and sure dividends for the eleven years he continued its treasurer. In 1837 he became the treasurer of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, an office which included at that time, when the plan of creating a city upon the Merrimack was just to be carried out, the responsibility and wisdom of a general manager of the company's interests, as well as the usual financial duties of a treasurer. He held that office from then till October, 1876; was treasurer of the Stark Mills, with the exception of four years and a half, from its organization, in 1839, to 1876; was a director of the Manchester Mills, and its successor, the Manchester Print-Works, from the start, in 1839, till 1871; and has been a director of the Langdon Mills from its beginning, in 1860, and its president from 1874 to 1876. When Mr. Amory tendered his resignation as treasurer of the Amoskeag company, the following complimentary resolutions were unanimously adopted by the stockholders:--

"_Resolved_, That the stockholders of this corporation have heard with regret of the resignation of their treasurer, William Amory, Esq.

"That a continuous service of thirty-nine years demands from them an expression of their appreciation of his eminent success, not only in building up an unequaled and remunerative manufacturing establishment, but in founding the largest and one of the finest cities in the state.

"For both these results they tender to him their hearty thanks, and desire to place this testimonial upon the records of the company."

In seconding the motion to adopt the above resolutions, T. Jefferson Coolidge, Esq., spoke as follows:--

"The best witness to the services of Mr. Amory as treasurer is the splendid condition of the Amoskeag company. He took it in its infancy, when it was poor. There was then but one mill of about eight thousand spindles. He leaves it, after forty years of success, with one hundred and thirty-seven thousand spindles, and more than two millions of quick capital. You have received in dividends, for forty-two years, an average of eleven per cent a year; and, if to that is added the increase of the quick capital, the company has earned fifteen per cent per annum, without taking into consideration the money spent on the plant.

To put it in another light: a stockholder of one share, costing one thousand dollars, if he allowed compound interest at the rate he received on his dividends, would find that his share had been worth to him eighty thousand dollars.

"The mills themselves are equal, if not superior, to any in New England, and contain more than twenty acres of machinery floor; and, although there are many mills in England and some here that are running more spindles, yet I believe the Amoskeag is the largest cotton-manufacturing establishment in either country producing its goods from the cotton in the bale, and turning them out actually finished for the market.

"I have said enough to show that no one can be more deserving of a vote of thanks than the retiring treasurer. Let us hope that he may be preserved for many years to aid in the counsels of the company, and to a.s.sist his successor in the arduous task that must fall to any man who takes a place which he has filled so long, so ably, and so successfully."

Mr. Amory married, in January, 1833, Miss Anna P. G. Sears, daughter of David Sears, an eminent merchant of Boston, by whom he has had six children, of whom four survive.

Mr. Amory is a man with whom, more than with almost any one else, Manchester is closely identified, and to whose accurate foresight and comprehensive views a very large proportion of its beauty and success is due. To him, as the manager of the company which gave it its first impulses in life and has ever since a.s.sisted its growth, it owes in large measure its wide streets, its pleasant squares, and its beautiful cemetery. He has pursued a liberal policy, and deserves the city's grat.i.tude. As the treasurer of the company, he has met with eminent success. A man of perfect honor and integrity, cautious and prudent, he has looked upon the funds in his possession as his only in trust, to be managed with the utmost care. Herein is to be found the secret of his success. Few men stand better than he in the business world of his native city, or elsewhere. A gentleman of culture, of the utmost polish, with a very pleasing appearance, he enjoys the affection and respect of many personal friends.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] History of Hingham, Ma.s.s., by Solomon Lincoln, Jr. Farmer & Brown, 1827.

[5] Arthur Gilman, A. M. Joel Munsell, Albany, 1869.

[Ill.u.s.tration: John McDuffee]

JOHN McDUFFEE.

By Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D. D.

To men of their own energetic stock, who, refusing all political preferment, have given comprehensive abilities, sterling integrity, and sagacious industry to the development of business, many New Hamps.h.i.+re towns owe an imperishable debt. JOHN MCDUFFEE'S record is in the prosperity of Rochester.

The name itself suggests that strong Scotch-Irish blood which endured the siege of Londonderry, in which were Mr. McDuffee's ancestors, John McDuffee and his wife, Martha, honored in tradition. John and Martha McDuffee had four sons, viz., Mansfield, Archibald, John, and Daniel.

Mansfield went to London, England; the other three came, with their parents, to America in the emigration which gave New Hamps.h.i.+re the powerful stock of Derry and Londonderry. John, the father of these sons, settled in Rochester in 1729, on land on the east side of the Cochecho river, adjoining Gonic lower falls,--the farm of eighty-five acres remaining without break in the family, and now owned by the subject of this article. The Rochester settler was, as just stated, the father of Daniel McDuffee, and also of Col. John McDuffee,--a gallant officer in the old French and Revolutionary wars, lieutenant-colonel in Col. Poor's regiment,--who, never marrying, adopted his brother Daniel's son John, and eventually made him his heir. John, the colonel's heir, was a farmer in good circ.u.mstances, married Abigail, daughter of Simon and Sarah (Ham) Torr, and was father of John McDuffee, the subject of this sketch, who was born on the farm once the colonel's, about a mile and a half from Rochester village, on the Dover road, December 6, 1803.

Of course, while working on the farm more or less, he had, for five or more years, the advantage of a good school, kept at the village by "Master" Henry H. Orne (D. C. 1812), of severe discipline and good scholars.h.i.+p, who supplemented the public school with a private one each autumn. Mr. Orne was a very successful teacher, and among the a.s.sociates of John McDuffee in this school were Thomas C. Upham, Nathaniel G.

Upham, John P. Hale, and Noah Tibbetts. In 1818, at the age of fifteen, the boy entered Franklin Academy in Dover, the first day of its existence, Thomas E. Sawyer and Richard Kimball being among his a.s.sociates, and Rev. Mr. Thayer being its princ.i.p.al. Here he fitted to enter college as soph.o.m.ore, but returned home, and, at the age of eighteen, he went into the store of his uncle, John Greenfield, at Rochester. It was a large country store, where everything was sold.

After two years' experience, being only twenty years of age, he began the same business for himself on the same square; was successful, and, after two years, took into partners.h.i.+p his uncle, Jonathan H. Torr.

During this period he was commissioned postmaster of Rochester, being not of age when appointed, and he held this office until removed on Jackson's accession to the presidency.

In the spring of the year 1831 he went to Dover, and began the same business on a broader scale, first in the Perkins block, and, in the autumn, as the first tenant of the northern store in the new Watson block, on the Landing, Ira Christie his next southern neighbor. This locality, now at an end for such purposes, was then the place of business and offices. Steady success continued to reward his energy and industry; but in February, 1833, selling to Andrew Pierce, Jr., he returned to Rochester to settle the large estate of his wife's father, Joseph Hanson, who, dying in December previous, had made him executor.

Mr. Hanson, whose daughter Joanna (by his marriage with Charity Dame) Mr. McDuffee had married June 21, 1829, was one of the three old and wealthy merchants of Rochester, Nathaniel Upham and Jonas C. March being the other two. The settlement of this extended estate and business was completed, and the accounts settled, by Mr. McDuffee's energy, in seven months; and it caused his entire abandonment of trade, although he had been eminently successful.

There was no bank in Rochester. Old traders had some connection with the Strafford Bank in Dover, and the Rockingham Bank in Portsmouth. They loaned money, instead of getting discounts. Mr. Hanson's safe, where he kept all his securities, was a small brick building back of his store, with a sheet-iron door fastened by a padlock. He kept some deposits, however, in Strafford Bank, and was a stockholder in that and in the Rockingham Bank. The three princ.i.p.al traders used to go to Boston twice a year, on horseback, to buy goods. Mr. McDuffee saw that a bank was needed. He prepared the plans, secured signatures, obtained a charter from the legislature in 1834, and the Rochester Bank was organized with ninety stockholders and a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, later increased to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, with one hundred and thirty stockholders. Of the original ninety, only two besides Mr.