Biogaphries - NH Genealogy Trails

Biographies

BARKER, David, Jr.
(1797—1834)
BARKER, David, Jr., a Representative from New Hampshire; born in Stratham, N.H., January 8, 1797; attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N.H., and was graduated from Harvard University in 1815; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1819 and commenced practice in Rochester, N.H.; member of the State house of representatives in 1823, 1825, and 1826; elected as an Adams candidate to the Twentieth Congress (March 4, 1827-March 3, 1829); resumed the practice of law; was an original member of the New Hampshire Historical Society; died in Rochester, N.H., April 1, 1834; interment in the Old Rochester Cemetery.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
Contributed by A. Newell

BELL, Charles Henry
(1823—1893)
Senate Years of Service: 1879-1879
Party: Republican
BELL, Charles Henry, (nephew of Samuel Bell and cousin of James Bell), a Senator from New Hampshire; born in Chester, Rockingham County, N.H., November 18, 1823; graduated from Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., in 1844; studied law; admitted to the bar and practiced in Chester, Great Falls, and Exeter, N.H.; county solicitor for ten years; member, State house of representatives 1858-1860, serving as speaker in 1860; member, State senate 1863-1864, serving as president in 1864; appointed as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term beginning March 4, 1879, and served from March 13, 1879, to June 18, 1879, when a successor was elected; was not a candidate for election to the Senate in 1879; resumed the practice of law at Exeter and also engaged in literary pursuits; Governor of New Hampshire 1881-1883; president of the State constitutional convention in 1889; president of the New Hampshire Historical Society 1868-1887; died in Exeter, Rockingham County, N.H., November 11, 1893; interment in Exeter Cemetery.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
Contributed by A. Newell

BETTON, Silas
(1768—1822)
BETTON, Silas, a Representative from New Hampshire; born in Londonderry, N.H., August 26, 1768; studied under a private tutor, and was graduated from Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., in 1787; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Salem, Rockingham County, N.H., in 1790; member of the State house of representatives 1797-1799; member of the State senate 1801-1803; elected as a Federalist to the Eighth and Ninth Congresses (March 4, 1803-March 3, 1807); resumed the practice of law; again a member of the State house of representatives in 1810 and 1811; served as high sheriff of Rockingham County 1813-1818; died in Salem, N.H., January 22, 1822; interment in Old Parish Cemetery, Center Village, Salem, N.H.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
Contributed by A. Newell

BUTLER, Maj. Gen. Benjamin F.
MAJOR-GENERAL BENJAMIN F. BUTLER was born at Deerfield, New Hampshire, in 1818, and graduated at Waterville College, Maine. He studied law and having commenced practice at Lowell, Massachusetts, gained distinction, and was remarkable for his success in criminal cases. He supported John C. Breckinridge in the presidential campaign of 1860. When the war commenced, being then a brigadier of the Massachusetts Militia, he offered his services to support the government, and was stationed at Annapolis, where his energy and power overawed the secessionists. General Butler was in command of the land forces in the expedition against Hatteras Inlet in August, 1861, and captured Forts Hatteras and Clark, with their garrisons In March, 1862, with much energy and zeal; he raised the volunteer troops which formed the land force against New Orleans. After the bombardment of Forts' Philip and Jackson, and the fall of New Orleans, Butler landed his troops early in May, and undertook the administration of the city with a zeal, ability, and firmness that repressed secession, restored order, and brought back a prosperous condition of affairs. He was afterward relieved by General Banks, and reporting at Washington was put in command of the Departments of Virginia and North Carolina. During the siege of Petersburg and Richmond, he was in command of the army of the James, and made several unsuccessful demonstrations against the former place. After the unsuccessful attack on Fort Fisher in December, 1864, General Butler, who had commanded the land forces, in consequence of the failure, was removed from command.

(Source: A Complete History of the Great Rebellion of the Civil War in the U.S. 1861-1865 with Biographical sketches of the Principal Actors in the Great Drama. By Dr. James Moore, Published 1875)

Butler, Benjamin Franklin, soldier, lawyer, governor, congressman, was born Nov. 5, 1818, in Deerfield, N.H. In 1853 he was elected to the state legislature; in 1859 was elected to the state senate; and in 1860 was a delegate to the Charlestown convention. In 1861 he was appointed a brigadier-general; and entered actively into the civil war movements. Before the close of that year he was made a major-general, serving as such in New Orleans, Fort Darling, and various other places. At the conclusion of the civil war he resumed the practice of law in Lowell; and in 1867-79 he was a representative from Massachusetts to the fortytieth to the forty-fifth congresses. He was one of the managers of the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson. He was re-elected to the forty-first, forty-second, forty-third and forty-fifth congresses. In 1883-86 he was the thirty-second governor of Massachusetts. He died Jan. 11, 1893, in Washington, D.C.

[Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 – Transcribed by Therman Kellar]

CLARK, Rufus Wheelwright, P. E. clergyman; born, Portsmouth, N.H., (Rockingham Co) May 29, 1844; son of Rev. Rufus Wheelwright (D.D.) and Eliza Walton Clark; graduate Williams College, 1865 (A. M., 1868; D. D., 1890); General Theological Seminary, New York, 1868; married at Columbus, O., Apr. 9, 1874, Lucy G., daughter of Gov. William Dennison of Ohio. Deacon, 1867; priest, 1868; rector St. John's Church, Portsmouth, N. H., 1868-71; Trinity Church, Columbur, O., 1871-77; St. Paul's Church, Detroit, 1877-1905. Department secretary Board of Missions, 1906. Member England Society of Michigan; chaplain Society of Colonial Wars. President Michigan State Society Sons of American Revolution, Author "The Church in Thy House"; "Addresses, Religious and Patriotic." Address: 720 Jefferson Av.

(Source: The Book of Detroiters. Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis
Copyright, 1908 - Submitted by Christine Walters)

DEMERITT FAMILY

Joseph Demeritt came from Madbury, settled near where Plumer Bennett resides.

His children were:

(1) Moses,

(2) Paul,

(3) Joseph,

(4) John,

(5) Betsey,

(6) Louisa,

(7) Hannah,

(8) Lydia.

Moses married a Miss Odell of Durham, whose son Gordon lives in Nottingham;

Paul married Martha Woodman of Deerfield, one of whose daughters became the wife of the Hon. Alfred Hoitt of Durham;

and another married a Mr. Seward;

another married John Woodman of Newton;

Joseph died in the war of 1812;

John, the father of Joseph Demeritt, Esq., of Nottingham, was born January 30, 1777, lived in Nottingham, married Abigail, daughter of Robert Hill of Nottingham, born May 13, 1781; they died within ten days of each other; he was aged about eighty-seven.

Their children were :

Jacob, born July 8, 1800;

Joseph, born November 11, 1801;

Sophia, born January 8,1803;

John, born April 20, 1806;

Timothy, born March 23, 1808;

Mehitable F., born March 18, 1810;

Daniel, born July 12, 1812;

Samuel D., born May 22, 1814;

Andrew J., Sally,

Mary Ann,

Abigail.

Joseph Demeritt married Sally, daughter of Benjamin Colcord of Northwood. She was born March 10,1799, and died September 27, 1767.

Their children were:

(1) Benjamin Willard, born April 5,1827, married Eleanor A. Mills of Nova Scotia, having one daughter, Hannah Maria;

(2) Eliza Ann, born August 16, 1832; she married Byron D. Hoitt, died April 1, 1861;

(3) Joseph Edward, born May 9, 1836, married Nancy B. Tuttle, daughter of Ebenezer S. Tuttle of Nottingham, and they have three children, Eliza Ann, Sally A., and John L.;

(4) Jane, born April 11, 1838, died May 28, 1868;

(5) John Seward, born October 10, 1840, died January 14, 1873.

Mr. Demeritt has represented his town three years in the state legislature, been selectman and assistant postmaster for many years, and has been engaged in mercantile business since 1825.

[Source: History of Nottingham, Deerfield, and Northwood, NH: By Elliott Colby Cogswell, Publ. 1878; Pg. 201; Transcribe for Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

GOODRICH FAMILY

The Goodrich families descended from three Welshmen who landed at Newburyport about the year 1640. From one of these, the Goodrich family in Nottingham descended. Barnard Goodrich married Sally Carr; he lived and died in West Newbury; Barnard Goodrich, their son, married Eunice Cheney; he afterward married Sally Gove; he moved from Newbury to the south-west corner of Nottingham, in the Pawtuckaway Mountains, where he died; Barnard Goodrich, born February 27, 1769, died February 23, 1834; his first wife, Eunice Cheney, born March 4,1777, died February 17, 1807; his second wife, Sally Gove, was born October 8, 1782; the children of Barnard and Eunice Goodrich were: Moses C., born May 19, 1793, died January 17, 1858, lived in East Kingston; Jeremiah, born September 21, 1796, died March 1, 1837; he removed to Fundy; Gilman, born December 4, 1798, died October 19, 1874; he lived at Corinth, Me., and afterwards at Janesville, Wis.; Barnard, born April 2, 1800, now resides in Gardner, Me.; Betsey C., born October 20, 1802, died September 23, 1823; John, born January 9, 1805; now lives at Canaan, Me.

The children of Barnard and Sally Goodrich were: Samuel G., born March 21, 1808, died April 19, 1839; Nathan G. T., born February 27, 1810; Perley C., born March 9, 1812, died February 11, 1834; Henry 0., born August 26, 1814, died March 25,1834; David A., born March 8,1817, died November 3, 1834; Jacob T., born June 13, 1820, died November 3, 1834; Delia Jane, born February 5, 1823, died July 81, 1825.

The children of Moses C. are Jackson, Evander A., and Doratha Melissa.

The children of Jeremiah are Barnard and Samuel B.

The children of Gilman are James Munroe, Lydia, Elizabeth, and George W.

The children of Barnard are Samuel, George, and Eleanor.

The children of John are Eleanor and others.

The son of Samuel G. was Arthur D., who married Almira F. Bean of Nottingham, and died July 20, 1861; they had two children: Jay M., who now lives in Deerfield; Mary F., who married Charles G. Harvey; she died June 13. 1853, aged seventeen years, ten months.

Nathan G. T. married Betsey A. Cate of Deerfield, June 17, 1840; they have one son, George W., born August 23, 1844; Betsey A., his wife, died June 23, 1877.

[Source: History of Nottingham, Deerfield, and Northwood, NH: By Elliott Colby Cogswell, Publ. 1878; Pg. 205; Transcribe for Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

DYER, Mrs. Julia Knowlton, philanthropist, born in Deerfield, N. H., in 1829. Her father was Joseph Knowlton, and her mother Susan Dearborn. Upon Bunker Hill Monument are inscribed the names of her mother's grandfather, Nathaniel Dearborn, and of her own grandfather, Thomas Knowlton. Julia Knowlton was one of six children. Her father served in the war of 1812, and his namesake, her brother, Joseph H. Knowlton, was a member of the secret expedition against Fort Beaufort, in the Civil War. After graduation in her eighteenth year, Miss Knowlton taught a year in the high school in Manchester, N. H., where she was a successful instructor in French and English literature and higher mathematics. She became the wife, in her twenty-first year, of Micah Dyer, jr., now a lawyer of Boston. Three children were born to them, two sons and a daughter, the latter dying in infancy. The two sons still live. Dr. William K. Dyer, of Boston, and Walter Dyer. Mrs. Dyer is connected prominently with twenty-four associations, only one of which, the Castilian Club, is purely literary. She is president of the Soldiers' Home in Massachusetts, president and founder of the Charity Club, a member of the executive boards of the Home for Intemperate Women, the Helping Hand Association, and president of the local branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. For twenty-six years she has been a manager for the Home for Female Prisoners in Dedham, Mass., and is a life member of the Bostonian Society. The association appoints a board of twenty-four women, two of whom visit the Soldiers's Home each month to look after the needs of the inmates. She is a member of the Methodist Church, but she attends regularly the services of her husband's choice, in the Church of the Unity, Boston, without comment, but without affecting her own faith in the slightest. Mrs. Dyer is so engaged in philanthropic work that she hardly thinks of herself as being a leader.
(American Women, Frances Elizabeth Willard, Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, Volume 1 Copyright 1897. Transcribed by Marla Snow.)

KNOWLTON, Harry; born, Portsmouth, N.H., June 28, 1844; son of John and Nancy (Janvrin) Knowlton; educated in public and high schools of Portsmouth; married at Norfolk, Va., 1866, Marie Louise Butcher. Went to Chicago, 1866 to engage in erection of flour mill, continuing until 1871; worked in steam shop until 1872, then became inspector of boilers for the Northwest with headquarters in Chicago for the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co., has been located in Detroit as agent for Michigan, and northern portion of Ohio, same company, since 1893. Served in U.S. Navy as engineer during Civil War. Member Stationary Engineers’ Association. Republican. Congregationalist. Mason (32^o), Shriner. Recreations: Fishing and other outdoor diversions. Office: 66 Newberry Bldg. Residence: 827 Second Av.

(Source: The Book of Detroiters. Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis
Copyright, 1908 - Submitted by Christine Walters)

Deacon Samuel Lane

When those are removed from their service by death, who have been distinguished for their usefulness in life, and whose example exhibits a pattern for imitation; it is but a proper tribute of respect and gratitude so their memories; and may be an advantage to the living, to see delineated some peculiar features of such characters, to excite others to emulate their virtues.

All that is attempted on the present occasion is a plain and brief recital of some particulars, which may be profitably noticed in the character of Deacon Samuel Lane who departed this life at Stratham, December 29th, 1806, in the 89th year of his age. He was endowed by the Divine Author of every good gift, with a valuable capacity of mind, which under the cultivation of singular industry and care, through a long life, fitted him for extensive usefulness among men, and which he improved for the best purposes--His industry was great, rearely equalled by any, in the usual concerns of domestic life, and being accompanied with the strickest integrity, and punctuality, in all his transactions, it conduced to reuder him respectable, and to promote under the blessing of providence his worldly interest, of which he was bound to use in works of justice and charity as occasions presented.

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