Grafton County NH

Biography of James H. Bean, M. D.

James H. Bean, M. D., has attained a distinctive position in connection with the medical fraternity of southern Idaho, and is now successfully engaged in practicing in Pocatello, where he also conducts a drug store. Realizing the importance of the profession, he has carefully prepared himself for his chosen life work, and spares no effort that will further perfect him along that line. By the faithful performance of each day’s duty he finds inspiration and added strength for the labors of the next, and his marked skill has secured him prestige as the representative of one of the most important … Read more

Biography of Parker W. Perry

Parker W. Perry. With the death of Parker W. Perry, which occurred on his farm in Williamsport Township of Shawnee County, March 14, 1914, there passed from the ranks of local citizenship one of the most highly respected men of that community. For upwards of forty years he had been a resident of Kansas. Of a genial and generous disposition, he had made friends wherever he was, and along with a talent for making friandships he also possessed keen business judgment and accumulated a competence for himself and family. He was of New England birth and ancestry and was born … Read more

Biography of Hon. Orvin Kincaid

HON. ORVIN KINCAID. – Mr. Kincaid’s life has embodied very much of the rough romance of an untamed and mining country, and in its entirety would read like a tail of Arabia. He is a native of the granite state, having been born in Grafton, New Hampshire, in 1821. His father, a man of powerful physique, a blacksmith of Scotch-Irish parentage, gave him a training both at school and at the forge, and took the boy with him on his removals to Massachusetts and Vermont. Upon reaching his majority young Kincaid spent eighteen months in Ohio and the old West, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Harold E. Smith

Smith, Harold E.; patent lawyer; born, Lebanon, N. H., May 2, 1882; son of Wilbur F. and Marie Antoinette Sargent Smith; educated, Dartmouth College, A. B., 1903, A. M., 1906; National University Law School, LL. B., 1908; LL. M., 1909; George Washington University, M. P. L., 1909; married, Washington, D. C. Oct. 5, 1909, Annie Stratton; one son; instructor in physics at Dartmouth College, 1903-1906, asst. physicist, National Bureau of Standards, 1906; examiner U. S. Patent Office, 1906-1910; member of firm of Hull & Smith, patent lawyers, junior partner; member Hanover Scientific Ass’n; member Gamma Alpha and Sigma Nu Phi … Read more

Biography of Hon. Ira Colby

Hon. Ira Colby, one of the leading lawyers of the State of New Hampshire, was born in Claremont, N.H., January 11, 1831, son of Ira and Polly (Foster) Colby, both of purely English descent. Their families in the various branches number many persons of distinction. On the maternal side he is descended from Reginald Foster, who came from Exeter, Devonshire, England, and settled in Ipswich, Essex County, Mass., in 1638. It has been stated in an account of the descendants of Joseph Stickney, which appeared in the New Hampshire Granite Monthly of July, 1892, that the family of this Reginald … Read more

Biography of John W. Staples, M.D.

John W. Staples, M.D., a prominent physician of Franklin Falls, N.H., and a native of Wells, Me., was born January 25, 1855. His parents, John and Ann (Wells) Staples, also natives of Wells, belonged to families that had lived in that town for a number of generations. John Staples, who was a farmer, spent his life in the place of his birth, and died in 1879. His wife had died in 1877. They had four children, one of whom died in infancy. The others were: Albert, who died when nine years old; Moses, a farmer in Wells; and John W., … Read more

Biography of David M. Currier, M.D.

David M. Currier, M.D., a successful physician of Newport, was born in Grafton, Grafton County, September 15, 1840, son of David and Rhoda (Morse) Currier. The grandfather, David Currier, presumably came from Salisbury, Mass., and located in Canaan, where he became the owner of a good tract of land, and died at the age of seventy-one years. He married February 2, 1797, Ruth Stevens, David, born February 8, 1803; Edward, born June 12, 1805; Aaron, born September 10, 1813; Dorothy, born January 28, 1799; and Hannah, born June 23, 1800. David, the father of Dr. Currier, was also a farmer. … Read more

Biography of Horace Everett Boynton, D.C., Ph. C.

HORACE EVERETT BOYNTON, D. C., Ph. C. – In the younger group of professional men in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Dr. Horace Everett Boynton is taking a leading position and his activities are reflecting credit not only upon himself but upon the school of healing of which he is a representative. A native of the State of Massachusetts, but for some years a resident of New Hampshire, Mr. Boynton is a member of a family long prominent in New England. He is a son of John Boynton, and a grandson of Joshua Boynton, the family tracing back through many generations of … Read more

Biography of Hon. Gardner Batchelder Emmons

Hon. Gardner Batchelder Emmons, a successful business man of Concord, N.H., who is now serving his first term as a State Senator, was born in Bristol, Grafton County, this State, February 18, 1847, son of Horace M. and Maria (Batchelder) Emmons. The paternal ancestors have been identified with the history of Bristol, N.H., for at least one hundred and fifty years; while the Batchelders have been inhabitants of Reading, Mass., about two hundred and fifty years. Gardner B. Emmons attended the public schools of Bristol in his boyhood, and completed his course of study in New Hampton Institute at the … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Daniel Messer

Daniel Messer, proprietor Essex House, Mattoon; was born in Piermont, Grafton Co.. N. H., A. D. 1829; his father was a farmer, and his early life was that of a farmer’s son; in addition to his common-school education, he attended for some time a seminary of a high grade, in Bradford, Vt.; at his majority be left home, and began life for himself; his first employment was that of overseeing a force of workmen on the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad; he subsequently contracted on the Buffalo, Corning & New York Railroad; in 1853, he came West, and contracted on … Read more

The Bush Family of Norwich Vermont

Captain Timothy Bush, the progenitor of this family in town, came to Norwich in the early days of its settlement (from what place is not known). He married Deborah House, and they had ten children (five of whom were born in Norwich), viz., John Bush, married Abigail Marvin and had at least one son: George Bush. Barzilla Bush. Timothy Bush. Fairbanks Bush. Alexander Bush. Bela Bush. Harry Bush. Nathaniel Bush. Mary Bush, who married Nathaniel Seaver. Lavina Bush, who married Doctor Hamilton of Lyme, New Hampshire. Captain Bush appears as a voter in town in 1772, and March 9, 1799, he was chosen one of the board … Read more

Hutchinson Family of Norwich Vermont

Hutchinson is an old and numerous family in Norwich, as well as in other parts of the country. They were among the early settlers of Massachusetts and were in Lynn and Salem in that colony as early as 1628, or 1629. A descendant of these early colonists, named Abijah, who was a tailor, removed from Salem to Windham early in the eighteenth century. His son Samuel, born about 1719, in company with his son, John, came to Norwich in 1765. They cleared an island in the Connecticut River, opposite the present residency of John W. Loveland, and planted it with … Read more

Biography of John H. Hunt

John H. Hunt, a prominent farmer and a well-known veteran of Hill, was born in Dorchester, N.H., January 8, 1826, son of Jonathan and Eliza (Holmes) Hunt. His grandfather, who was born in Lexington, Mass., kept a tavern at the time Washington took command of the Continental army. Jonathan Hunt was a carriage-builder, and also kept a lumber wharf at East Cambridge, Mass., until the Lowell railroad was built. He died at Hopkinton, N.H., at the age of eighty-four years. He first married Hannah Larkin, of Lexington, Mass. His second wife, in maidenhood Eliza B. Holmes, was the mother of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of James Cheney

James Cheney, from Hanover, N. H., located in the northern part of this town at an early date, where he resided until his death, in 1810. He reared a family of seven children, three of whom remained in the town.

Migration of Families out of Norwich VT

At the first enumeration of the inhabitants of eastern Vermont, as made by the authority of New York in 1771, Norwich was found to be the most populous of all the towns of Windsor County, having forty families and 206 inhabitants. Windsor followed with 203, and Hartford was third with 190. The aggregate population of the county (ten towns reported) was then but 1,205, mostly confined to the first and second tiers of towns west of the Connecticut River. Twenty years later, in 1791, Hartland led all the towns of the county with 1,652 inhabitants, Woodstock and Windsor coming next … Read more

Biography of Alvah Charles Ferrin

Alvah Charles Ferrin, a retired contractor and builder of Concord, who served in the United States Navy during the Civil War, was born in Plymouth, N.H., August 13, 1835, son of Daniel E. and Mary Jane (Durgin) Ferrin. His father was a native of Hebron, N.H.; and his mother was born in Buxton, Me. On the father’s side he is a descendant of Revolutionary patriots. His education, which was begun in the public schools of Lowell, Mass., where 1841, was completed when he was about sixteen years old in Hebron, N.H., to which they went in 1842. He started in … Read more

Biography of James Hale Newton

When a man’s manifold activities in the field of banking, building, and general business win for him the title of “Grand Old Man,” his place as leader is firmly established. Thus was James Hale Newton regarded in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He was of a long-established New England family, which originated in England. The pioneer ancestor was Richard Newton, who settled in Massachusetts in 1638, and afterward was admitted as freeman of the colony. For many years he lived in Sudbury, then settled in Marlborough, where with eight others he founded the township, and died’ there when nearly a hundred years old, … Read more

Biography of Arthur Eugene Ewing, M. D.

Dr. Arthur Eugene Ewing was born near Cartersville, Georgia, April 26, 1855, his parents being Whitley Thomas and Hannah Jane (Pettingill) Ewing. The father was also a practicing physician and in his college work had received the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Medicine. He provided his son with liberal educational advantages, the latter attending private schools in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1862 until 1874, when he entered Dartmouth College, where he studied for four years and received the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1878. He then took up the profession of teaching and was principal of the public … Read more

Biography of Alvah B. Chellis

Alvah B. Chellis, a leading farmer of Plainfield and the senior partner in the well-known firm, Chellis & Stickney, was born here, January 27, 1841, son, of John Pettengill and Lucinda (Bean) Chellis. The first representative of the family in this country came from Wales in 1636. His son John, born in Kingston, N.H., was the great-great-grandfather of Alvah B. Chellis. John’s son Thomas, born in Kingston about the year 1750, was in the Revolution together with all his brothers, and fought at Bunker Hill. The grandfather, Thomas Chellis, Jr., who was born at Salisbury, this State, March 24, 1785, … Read more

Cushman Family of Norwich Vermont

The Cushman family in New England dates from the year 1621, the first after the landing of the Pilgrims from the Mayflower, when Robert Cushman, who was a prominent leader and organizer of the Plymouth Colony, brought from England the earliest recruits and supplies to the wasted and famishing settlement. A century and a half later Solomon Cushman, a descendant of Robert, in the sixth generation, born at Plympton, Mass., in 1745, having married Sarah Curtis, daughter of Simeon Curtis, at Lebanon, Conn., in 1768, removed to Norwich, probably in company with the Curtis family. Solomon Cushman (afterward known as … Read more