Charles N. Clough, Selectman of Canterbury and a well-known farmer, was born here, January 15, 1849, son of Colonel David M. and Almira (Batchelder) Clough. He belongs to an old and prominent family. His great-grandfather, Leavitt Clough, Sr., was likewise born in Canterbury, where he also lived and died. Leavitt Clough, Jr., was a farmer and a Justice of the Peace in his native town.
Colonel David M. Clough, popularly known as “Corn King,” who belongs to the third generation of Cloughs in Canterbury, was born June 9, 1805. He was educated in the district schools of his native place and at the Gilmanton Academy. At the age of eighteen he began to teach school, and he subsequently followed that occupation for several years. In 1832 he removed to Gilmanton, where he lived for the next ten years. In 1856, returning to the old homestead, he bought the farm now owned by his son, and there was engaged in farming and the real estate business for the remainder of his life. He died January 31, 1886. Three times he received the nomination of the Democratic party for the Governor’s Council, and he was elected to this office for the first term of Governor Weston’s administration. He represented the town in the State legislature for two years, and served it as Selectman for four years. He was twice married, first on October 25, 1828, to Almira Batchelder, who was born June 7, 1805, daughter of Ebenezer Batchelder. She had borne him five children, when she died November 5, 1851. The second marriage, performed June 17, 1856, united him with Mrs. Caroline Gibson Towne, of Canterbury, daughter of Samuel Towne, Jr. There were no children by this second marriage. Mrs. Caroline Clough, now eighty-two years old, resides with her stepson, Henry L. Clough, in Canterbury. Colonel Clough’s children by his first wife were: Elmira, Henry Leavitt, Mary S., Edwin Davis, and Charles N. Elmira, born in 1830, died August 9, 1838. Henry Leavitt, born February 17, 1837, married Belle H. Shaw, of Concord, March 31, 1887, and has one child, Elmira E., born November 25, 1887. He carried on a grocery business in Concord for thirteen years; but now he resides at the old homestead, where in summer he entertains about twenty boarders. Mary S., born in 1836, died August 2, 1838. Edwin Davis, born October 5, 1843, married Eliza Jane Couch, and now resides in Concord, where he is engaged in the cider and vinegar business.
Charles N. Clough, the youngest child of his parents, attended the district schools and Gilmanton College. Since his marriage Mr. Clough has devoted his attention almost exclusively to farming. He now owns three hundred acres of well-improved farm land in Canterbury township, on the Merrimac Intervale. Canterbury, which office he now holds. In politics he is a Democrat, and he takes an active interest in the affairs of the town. He is a Mason of Horace Chase Lodge, No. 62, of Penacook, N.H.; and a member of the local grange of Patrons of Husbandry, of which he was Overseer for some time. His wife, whose maiden name was Emma T. Morrill, and who came from Brighton, Mass., has made him the father of two children. Their son, David Morrill, was born in 1879, and their daughter, Caroline G., in 1886. Both parents are members of the Baptist church at Penacook. Many old family relics which have been in the possession of the Cloughs for many years are now owned by Mr. Clough and his brother Henry.