Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men Part 26

Mr. John Bracewell, who probably to-day holds the foremost place among those engaged in his business in this country, is a living argument for the excellence of the apprentice system. He began his tutelage as a lad.

He began at the lowest round in the ladder of his advancement, and was long and rigidly held at each last until he could safely mount the higher one. There was a very superior French chemist employed in the Primrose Works, and no little of the boy's studies were under him.

When eighteen years of age, Mr. Bracewell had established such a reputation for proficiency in the mysteries of color that he was offered a fine position in a great carpet manufactory in France, but his father advised him to decline this flattering offer, feeling that the responsibility was too great for one so young. That subtle but irresistible influence which for so many years has been drawing such tides of population from Europe to America was already settling the question as to the country where this young man was to work out his great success. Only a month after he had declined to go to France, he received and accepted the offer of a position as a.s.sistant manager in the Merrimack Print-Works, Lowell, Ma.s.s. There he remained five years and a half, winning for himself a distinguished reputation by the energy and skill of his management. Certainly it argues some unusual qualities in his work while there, some extraordinary gifts and capacities in his nature, that could have led the Cocheco Manufacturing Company to call this young man of twenty-three years of age to its most responsible position, that of superintendent of its print-works. There were no less than thirteen applicants for this office. The directors, with entire unanimity, made choice of this youngest of them all, and gave to him the unlimited charge of the most important department of their great industry. Soon after entering upon his new duties, Mr. Bracewell took advantage of the suspension of work in the manufactory, made necessary at that period of the civil war, to enlarge his scientific knowledge by attending lectures on a.n.a.lytic chemistry at Harvard College. He studied with great thoroughness this science during a five months' course, and at the same time directed the many repairs and changes which were being made in the print-works at Dover. With the beginning of the year 1861, Mr. Bracewell took up his residence in Dover. The remarkable enterprise and judgment of the new manager made themselves at once felt. For just twenty years he continued in his position. These years witnessed a series of brilliant successes. He showed himself to be a genius in his profession. To his originating, creative mind he joins an unusual power of adapting to his own uses suggestions coming from whatever source. By his sheer abilities, his indomitable energy, his quickness of insight, his tireless perseverance, and his perfect command of the minute details of every branch of his work, Mr. Bracewell soon lifted the Cocheco goods to the very head of their cla.s.s, and held them there to the last day of his service. The production of the print-works very nearly quadrupled during this period.

In 1864, Mr. Bracewell was married to Mary Harriet Hope, of Lowell, Ma.s.s., whose n.o.ble character death has made the more precious to many friends. There were born to them three daughters and one son, all of whom are living.

During Mr. Bracewell's residence in Dover he endeared himself to all cla.s.ses of people by his large-hearted liberality, his great geniality, and his keen personal interest in whatever affected the welfare of the city or the condition of every individual in it. He was an ardent supporter of his church, which he greatly loved, and every good cause in the community. He was quick to suggest, and ready to lead any movement which was helpful to the material and moral advancement of Dover. With a view of benefiting the city, and also as a sound investment for his own advantage, Mr. Bracewell built, in 1879, a substantial and attractive block, consisting of nine stores, which spans the Cochecho river. It bids long to stand, a fitting monument of his public spirit and wise foresight.

Though born and educated an Englishman, he became an ardent, patriotic American citizen from the very day that he touched American soil. His pride and hopes for America are as intense as any native son's. His love for Dover is as tender and steadfast as though its air was the first he breathed. The church with which he first united, he still regards as his home. He long served her as a most efficient superintendent of its Sunday-school, and when he was about to remove his residence from Dover, out of a great desire to see the church freed from the burden of a debt of thirteen thousand dollars, Mr. Bracewell, by his payment of a tenth of the sum, led on others to such generous donations that the debt was speedily extinguished.

Mr. Bracewell may still be regarded as a New Hamps.h.i.+re son, and a citizen of Dover. His nature will not allow him to lose elsewhere the very great interest which twenty years' sojourn here has created in him.

It may well be expected that he will some time return to permanently abide among friends.h.i.+ps whose preciousness he and his host of friends so fully appreciate.

In January, 1881, Mr. Bracewell received an offer to go into business at North Adams, Ma.s.s., and as the physicians thought his wife's health would be better there than in Dover, he decided to make the change. The directors of the Cocheco Manufacturing Company, by offer of an increase of salary of from ten thousand to fifteen thousand dollars a year, and other inducements, sought to retain Mr. Bracewell in their employment; Mr. Bracewell, however, removed to North Adams, purchasing a third interest in the Freeman Manufacturing Company of that place, and the same success which was acquired in Dover has followed his abilities into the great business which he represents at North Adams. The Windsor calicoes, and other products of the Freeman Manufacturing Company, already stand in the market among the foremost of their cla.s.s.

In 1877, Mr. Bracewell received the degree of Master of Arts from Dartmouth College,--a distinction well earned and worthily bestowed.

During Gov. Prescott's term of office. Mr. Bracewell served as a member of his staff, with rank of colonel.

Mr. Bracewell's remarkable activity has not been shut into his business.

The intensity of his nature comes out to an undiminished degree in his politics, his friends.h.i.+ps, his public spirit, and his religious faith.

His sympathies are quick and universal; his enthusiasms are communicative and inspiring; his affections are tender and loyal.

ALBERT H. HAYES.

Too many of the old homesteads of New Hamps.h.i.+re have gone to decay.

Deserted and dilapidated buildings, decrepit fences, and unharvested crops of briers and weeds, where but a generation ago there were the homes of comfort, industry, and thrift, tell a sad story of what our state has done to supply the brain and brawn which have developed the resources of others. But now and then there is a farm which has not only been preserved, and made to retain its old-time attractions, but improved, beautified, and adorned, by liberal outlays dictated by good judgment and cultured taste, until it has become the envy of all who admire elegant buildings, fertile fields, and fine flocks and herds.

Many of these are the property of men who grew up rugged, strong, and self-reliant among our hills, went out in early manhood in quest of greater opportunities than could be found or created at home, and, having won fortunes abroad, have loyally brought them back to the town of their nativity to rescue old firesides from irreverent owners.h.i.+p, to erect upon old sites modern mansions, to coax from an unwilling soil great crops, to furnish people with employment and courage, and to return in a hundred ways substantial thanks for the privilege of having been born in New Hamps.h.i.+re. Of this cla.s.s is the Hayes farm in Alton, now owned by Dr. ALBERT H. HAYES, who has brought back, from the golden sands of the Pacific, the ample means which enable him to add to the natural attractions of his lakeside birthplace all that money can command in the creation and embellishment of a country home.

David Hayes, who was a st.u.r.dy farmer of Scotch descent and a native of Strafford, purchased and settled upon a farm in Alton about the year 1790. He had three sons and three daughters, and in time the oldest son, Joseph, succeeded him as the holder of the t.i.tle to the farm. This son married Betsey Brewster, a daughter of George Brewster, of Wolfeborough, by whom he had eight children, of whom six still survive. The seventh was born September 6, 1836, and named Albert Hamilton. His parents were well to do and appreciated the value of an education, so that, as he grew up, while he did his share of the work on the farm, he had the advantage of the winter schools, and was afterwards sent to the academies at New Hampton and Northfield. At the age of twenty-one he had completed his studies at these inst.i.tutions, and concluded that it was easier to buy farm produce than to raise it, and that a place containing more people and more money would suit him better than Alton, and, going to Boston, commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Abner Ham, of that city. Subsequently, he attended lectures at Columbia College in the District of Columbia, and graduated at a Pennsylvania university.

Meantime he had served as a hospital surgeon in the army for two years, and in 1870, having acquired the necessary funds, made a prolonged European tour.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A. H. Hayes]

On returning to America, Dr. Hayes extended his travels through this country, and in 1874, with an eye to business and pleasure, went to California. Here he soon became acquainted with John W. Mackey, the Bonanza king, and other prominent financiers on the coast, and as a result formed a partners.h.i.+p with J. M. Walker, a former partner of Mackey, under the firm name of Hayes & Walker. As a member of this firm, and as an a.s.sociate with Mackey, Mr. Hayes, during the next three years, did an extensive banking and brokerage business, handling a vast amount of money, and reaping handsome profits, which enabled him, a little later, to buy largely of the stock of the Bonanza mines, which were then pouring a steady stream of wealth into the laps of their owners.

Becoming convinced that this would not continue, and that other mining properties were more desirable, he sold out his interest, and after a long investigation bought outright the Red-Hill gravel mines, in Trinity county, California. This purchase, which includes eleven hundred acres of land, in which are located seven mines, and extensive water rights, upon which in that country the value of a gold mine largely depends, makes Mr. Hayes the sole owner of by far the largest and most valuable mining property held by a single individual in the state of California, and establishes his place among the few who have been able to seize and hold the glittering prize for which so many have striven since the western slope began to yield its treasures.

While thus seeking his fortune elsewhere, Mr. Hayes has retained his residence in Alton and his lively interest in all that concerns the town and state. The homestead upon which he was born is his, and he makes it his home during the summer. He has expended a large amount in improving it, a barn costing fifteen thousand dollars being among the latest additions. When the house, which he has planned to match it, is erected, the establishment will be one of the finest in the state.

In 1876, 1877, and 1878, Dr. Hayes represented Alton in the legislature.

He married, in 1877, Jessie B. Benjamin, daughter of E. M. Benjamin, Esq., of San Francisco, a relative of Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, and a lady of rare literary attainments and social accomplishments.

Their only child--Lloyd Benjamin Hayes--was born May 21, 1880.

With so much success behind him, Mr. Hayes is still a young man, as cheery and active and energetic as when he first left New Hamps.h.i.+re. He has an extensive knowledge of the world, a wide circle of acquaintances among those who shape the politics and business of the country, and hosts of friends who have been won by his unfailing good nature, liberality, and courtesy. He is pledged, when he has done making money, to come back to New Hamps.h.i.+re and spend it.

HON. GEORGE COGSWELL, A. M., M. D.

BY JOHN CROWELL, M. D.

George Cogswell was born in the town of Atkinson, N. H., February 5, 1808. He came from that st.u.r.dy stock of ancestors whose history is so closely interwoven with the early life and enterprise of New England. In 1635, John Cogswell, a prosperous Englishman of good estate and standing, established a settlement in the town of Ipswich, now Ess.e.x, Ma.s.s., on a grant of three hundred acres of land, which have remained in the Cogswell name, in regular line, to the present time. His maternal ancestor was Giles Badger, who settled in Newbury, Ma.s.s., the same year.

These families have been closely allied by marriage, and their descendants have been prominent in church and state, in medicine and in letters.

The father of the subject of this sketch, Dr. William Cogswell, was a medical pract.i.tioner of wide reputation, noted for his executive and judicial abilities. He was appointed chief surgeon of the military hospital at West Point during the Revolutionary war, closing his service in 1785, when he settled in Atkinson, N. H., practicing his profession until the close of his life, January 1, 1831. His mother was Judith Badger, daughter of Gen. Joseph Badger, Sen., of Gilmanton, N. H. She was a woman of great force of character, of devout piety and strong faith. When in her ninety-fourth year, after her earthly vision had become dim, the name of Jesus would light her face with a radiant glow of loving recognition. This devout woman united with the church in Atkinson in 1810, on which interesting occasion her husband and their three oldest children joined her in the act of consecration; and on the same day their six younger children were baptized by the pastor, Rev.

Stephen Peabody. The youngest of these nine children died in infancy.

All of the remaining eight became professors of religion, and lived to a good old age, in the enjoyment of the honors and dignities of the high official trusts committed to them. Of this large family, the subject of this sketch alone survives (1882), vigorous in his threescore years and ten, and actively engaged in the discharge of the duties of his several official trusts.

Dr. George Cogswell received his preliminary education at Atkinson Academy, where his love for scientific investigation soon became manifest. He commenced the study of medicine with his father, whose wise instruction and safe counsel did much to shape the future career of the aspiring student. In his desire for a wider culture in the line of his chosen profession, he became a private student to Reuben D. Mussey. M.

D., L.L. D., and for two years enjoyed the instruction of this distinguished lecturer on anatomy and surgery. Early in 1830, he became a pupil of John D. Fisher, M. D., of Boston, who, at that time, was the most noted auscultator in New England. Dr. Fisher showed his confidence in his ambitious student by giving him the main practical charge of the House of Industry, at that time located in South Boston. The grateful pupil held the most intimate relations with his distinguished teachers during their lives.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Geo. Cogswell.]

In 1830 he was graduated Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth College, with the honors of his cla.s.s, and the same college conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1865.

Dr. Cogswell at once commenced the practice of his profession in Bradford, Ma.s.s., in August, 1830, and soon entered into a large and successful business. He brought to his work the discipline of hard and intelligent study, and his great desire was to advance the standard of medical practice in Ess.e.x county. He was the first physician in "Ess.e.x North" who made intelligent use of auscultation and percussion in the diagnosis of disease.

In his desire for a wider knowledge in the range of his profession, especially in the line of surgery, he visited Europe in the fall of 1841, spending the succeeding winter in visiting the hospitals of Paris, and in attending the lectures of the distinguished men who at that time had attained a position in medical science surpa.s.sing, in point of investigation and practical a.n.a.lysis, that of any other city. In the following spring he visited the princ.i.p.al cities of Italy, and for a while studied in the hospitals of London. On his return to Bradford he at once resumed the practice of his profession. He boldly and successfully attempted capital operations in surgery, and became the leading surgical operator and consulting physician for a large circuit.

He fitted up a well appointed dissecting-room, and the advantages of his instruction were sought by many students, who can attest to the thoroughness of his teaching, especially in the department of surgical anatomy. His knowledge of technical anatomy was quite remarkable, and sometimes his students would contrive a plot to "stump" the "old doctor"

by an intricate quizzing upon some obscure nerve or vessel. The attempt always proved futile; but the cunning students did not enjoy the fire of questions that followed from their teacher, who all too easily perceived the "soft impeachment." The term "old doctor" was applied by the students before their preceptor was thirty years old. In 1844, Dr.

Cogswell was offered a professors.h.i.+p in the medical department of one of the leading colleges of New England, which he declined.

He early manifested his interest in the elevation of the standard of medical practice, by suggesting to his professional brethren the importance of a local organization, and through his efforts the Ess.e.x North Medical a.s.sociation was formed, composed of the leading physicians in the northern portion of the county. This society has had a vigorous growth, and is now merged into the Ma.s.sachusetts Medical Society, under the t.i.tle of the "Ess.e.x North District Medical Society." Although retired from active practice, he retains his members.h.i.+p in this society, and regularly attends the quarterly meetings, partic.i.p.ating in the scientific and practical discussions, and manifesting a lively interest in the success of the younger members.

Dr. Cogswell has been called upon to fill many positions of responsibility and trust; and since he retired from the active duties of professional life his whole time has been absorbed in the transaction of business of a public and private nature. He was elected president of the Union Bank in Haverhill, Ma.s.s., at its organization, in 1849, and was elected to the same office when that inst.i.tution became the First National Bank, in 1864, which position he still retains. For many years he has been vice-president of the Haverhill Savings Bank, and was for a time a successful railroad president.

He was an active member of the Chapman-Hall meeting in Boston, which organized the Republican party in Ma.s.sachusetts, with which party he has ever been in full accord. In 1852 he was a member of the electoral college of Ma.s.sachusetts, which gave the vote of the state for Gen.

Winfield Scott; and also a member of the college of 1864, which gave the vote of the state for Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. He was a delegate from the sixth district of Ma.s.sachusetts to the Chicago convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for president in 1860. In 1858 and 1859, he was a member of the executive council of Ma.s.sachusetts, with Nathaniel P. Banks as governor. In 1862 he was appointed, by President Lincoln, collector of internal revenue for the sixth district of Ma.s.sachusetts.

After holding this office for four years, he was removed by President Johnson, without cause; but was again appointed to the same office by President Grant, in 1870, which position he held until 1875, when this district was consolidated with two other districts. This was one of the largest and most important paying districts in the country, and under the administration of Dr. Cogswell its affairs were conducted with marked efficiency, and with absolute correctness.

Dr. Cogswell has always taken a deep interest in educational matters, and he has given some of his best service to the management of important schools. He has been, for a long time, a trustee of Atkinson Academy, and is also a trustee of the Peabody Academy of Science, in Salem, Ma.s.s.

But the crowning work of his life in the department of education has been in connection with Bradford Academy. For nearly fifty years he has been a trustee of this famous school, and during most of this time has had the entire management of its financial affairs. His efficiency in this work is best ill.u.s.trated by the success of the school in all its departments. The splendid appointments of this academy for the higher education of young ladies, the ample grounds, the perfection of the school edifice, the excellence of the teachers, and the scope of its curriculum, give it a prominence and a power not excelled by any similar inst.i.tution in the land. It may be safely estimated that Dr. Cogswell, by his long connection with this, the oldest school for young ladies in the country, has had a wider personal experience in matters of internal management, in consultation with teachers, and in advising with reference to pupils, than any man connected with an inst.i.tution of this character; and he has the pleasure, with his a.s.sociate trustees, of seeing this school, by the generosity and interest of its many friends, placed upon an enduring foundation. He was elected, in 1869, a member of the American a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science, and is also a member of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society.

In the great reforms that have occurred during the last half-century, Dr. Cogswell has given his influence by judicious advice and consistent example. He commenced active life with the temperance movement, and by precept and example has ever advanced the cause. He was also an ardent supporter of the anti-slavery movement from the beginning of that great controversy.

Dr. Cogswell is evangelical in his religious convictions, and has never departed from the traditions of his ancestors. In 1831 he became, by profession, a member of the First Parish Congregational church in Bradford, and has always been identified with its growth and prosperity.

In 1860 he a.s.sisted in forming the "Haverhill Monday Evening Club," a private organization limited to twenty-five members. This club is composed of gentlemen of literary tastes, residing in Haverhill and Bradford, and the meetings afford delightful recreation in the discussion of literary, scientific, and social topics. This is one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Ma.s.sachusetts, and its unique character has suggested similar organizations in many neighboring cities.

In 1831 he married Abigail Parker, daughter of Peter Parker, Esq., of East Bradford, now Groveland. Her ancestors were noted for intellectual ability and force of character. She was born September 6, 1808, and died July 23, 1845. The children of this marriage are as follows:--

Abby Parker, born September 25, 1832; graduated at Bradford Academy; married Hon. George F. Choate, judge of probate and insolvency of the county of Ess.e.x, Ma.s.s., October 20, 1869.