Ebenezer B. Sargent, one of the best known farmers of Pittsfield and a veteran of the Civil War, was born in London, N.H., April 11, 1821, son of Ebenezer and Annie (Batchelder) Sargent. Benjamin Sargent, the father of Ebenezer, served as a scout under General Washington during the Revolutionary War, and later became a Baptist minister. He preached in Pittsfield from 1808 to 1819, and died at the age of fifty-eight years. The maiden name of his wife was Eunice Lindell. Of their seven children who reached maturity Ebenezer, the second son, was born in Bow, N.H., in 1789. He learned the carpenter’s trade in Pittsfield, and followed it in Pittsfield, Loudon, and Epsom until he was fifty years old. The remainder of his life was passed in farming, and he died in Pittsfield at the age of seventy-five years. Originally a Whig in politics, he later joined the Free Soil party. His wife reached the age of eighty-eight. Both were members of the Baptist church.
Ebenezer B. Sargent passed his early boyhood in Loudon and Epsom, and was educated in the schools of Pittsfield. He subsequently learned the shoemaker’s trade, at which he worked for many years in this town. After the breaking out of the Civil War he enlisted as a private in the First New Hampshire Artillery, and in the service was detached from his regiment and placed on duty in the Maryland Hospital at Camp Sumner, where he was until the close of the war. After his return to Pittsfield he engaged in agricultural pursuits. He owns a farm of thirty acres, and has cultivated his property successfully since relinquishing his former calling. In politics he is a Republican. He receives a pension for his services in the war; and he is a comrade of Post W. K. Cobb, No. 29, G. A. R., of Pittsfield. He is a member of the Free Will Baptist church.
On October 9, 1849, Mr. Sargent married Abigail Philbrick, of Epsom. She was the mother of nine children, of whom there are living-Almira M., Abbie F., Charles C., and Mary E. Abbie F. is the wife of Edwin C. Emerson, of Pittsfield; and her children are: Winnifred R., Hattie B., Eva M., and Abbie B. Charles C. married Edith L. Knowlton, of this town, and has a family of five children-Grace E., Low G., Ralph L., Charles R., and Edith P. Mary E. successively married Charles H. Whipple and Clarence Huntoon, and has one son by her first union, Ralph C. Mrs. Ebenezer B. Sargent died at the age of sixty-five years. She was a member of the Free Will Baptist church.