Various

“ Since I came to this city, death has been constantly busy in our midst. None of us who have lived here these thirty years but have witnessed its ravages, snatching from many of us our dearest treasures. He has gathered to himself many of the gifted and the good, whose memories are still fragrant; but the sincere tributes to the memory of Nathaniel White have never been equaled, I fear never will be. No person in New Hampshire has ever had the happy combination of means and disposition to bestow such noble charities as he. ”

“ Public addresses have, as occasions demanded, exhibited the thoughtful political student, a patriotic love of country, and the ripeness of the accomplished scholar. Fidelity to every engagement, good faith to every principle espoused, firmness in determination, and usefulness in every work undertaken, have insured him success. But in a life still so young, it is fair to assume that recognitions of public respect will be greater than any trusts yet given, or reputation achieved, in his profession, the field of long past battles, or the offices of public honor. ”

“ It is needless to say, that, while such a man always has enemies, (as what man of ability and energetic character has not?) he has firm and lasting friends,—friends from the fact that they always know where to find him. Among the many self-made men whom New Hampshire has produced, he takes rank among the first; and by his indomitable energy, industry, and enterprise has not only made his mark in the world, but has achieved a reputation in his profession and business on which himself and friends may reflect with just pride. ”

“ The Centennial Home for the Aged was the apple of his eye; and yet he made no large bequests to it himself, having perfect assurance that the wife, who had borne life's burdens with him, and shared his devotion to this noble benevolence, would be equally the author of her own charities and the almoner of his. As a business man and a citizen, his reputation ripened by integrity. ”

“ Jonathan Sawyer, with his vigor of mind and body still unimpaired, lives in his elegant mansion, which looks out upon a magnificent picture of wood and vale and mountain range, and down upon the busy scene of his many years of tireless industry. He loves his home, in the adornment of which his fine taste finds full play. When free from business he is always there. He loves his books, and his conversation shows an unusual breadth of reading in science, history, and politics. ”

“ Classmates, teachers, preachers, and neighbors are remembered and reverenced according to their worth. They not only enjoy his hospitality, but, if overtaken by want or misfortune, share his purse. Old and faithful servants, too, are not forgotten.
Mr. Rollins enjoys society; and in every social circle he gives more than he takes. He is the life of company; conversation never flags when he is present. His humor plays like sunshine over the surface of society. If any one fails to make his contribution to the wants of the occasion, he is roused to duty by a merry sally of humor from Mr. Rollins ”

“ Harriman in Concord, where he has now lived since 1872, is a delightful one, and no one enjoys it with more satisfaction than he himself. A great traveler, by the necessities of his public career, he has a mastering fondness for quiet domestic life, and never are his rich stores of experience, his knowledge of men, and his fine sense of humor with its exhaustless fund of material, more ready at his command than of an evening in his own house. ”

“ Few men love their life-work as he did. The practice of medicine to him was no mere trade, no secondary means of obtaining something else that outranked it, but the chosen calling of his life, to which in his young manhood he gave not only his rare mental endowments, but the rich treasures of his heart; and with the weight of eighty years resting upon him, it was his greatest comfort that he could still labor in his chosen profession. ”

“ Forty years ago, when Manchester, now the metropolis of New Hampshire, was little more than a wasting waterfall and an unpeopled plain, a few young men who had the sagacity to see, the courage to grapple with, and the strength to control the possibilities of the location, made it their home. One of these was Moody Currier, who was then seeking for a spot in which a willing hand and a busy brain could carve out a successful career. ”

“ The business world acknowledges him as a man of undoubted integrity, thoroughly responsible, and eminently successful. His townsmen and fellow-citizens of New Hampshire know him as a genial, unassuming man, whose good fellowship never tires, whose generosity is inexhaustible, and as one who is never too busy with his own affairs to lend a helping hand to any cause or person that deserves it; as a citizen and friend and neighbor who has shown them how to get money rapidly, and how to spend it freely, intelligently, and helpfully. ”

“ The well managed newspaper of to-day is not only a recorder of events, but it occupies itself with all the thoughts and doings of men, the discoveries of science, the treasures of literature, the progress of art, the acts of heroes, and the sayings and doings of Christendom. Sustained by the people, and laboring for them, it has the power to make and unmake presidents, control parties, build up free institutions, and regulate the minutest details of daily life; it becomes in one sense school-master, preacher, lawgiver, judge, jury, and policeman, in one grand combination. ”

“ God gave him talents of a high order, and he improved them all. He was honest, not from policy, but because it was his nature to be. His ambitions never clouded his convictions of duty, nor swerved him from the path which his high sense of probity and honor pointed out; and, after more than fifty years of business activity, and association with thousands of people in almost every relation in life, he could say, as he did: "I die contented. I have no ill will towards any one, and I know of no reason why any one should have any ill will against me." ”

“ Blair was a thorough-going Republican. An instinctive hatred of slavery and all its attendant iniquities inspired him as a boy to look eagerly forward to the time when he could join in the warfare against it, and when he reached his majority he lost no occasion to declare by voice and vote his convictions upon the subject. When the slaveholders raised the standard of revolt against the government, he had just begun to reap the fruits of his early struggles and see the realization of his boyish dreams of success in his profession ”

“ Amory is a man with whom, more than with almost any one else, Manchester is closely identified, and to whose accurate foresight and comprehensive views a very large proportion of its beauty and success is due. To him, as the manager of the company which gave it its first impulses in life and has ever since assisted its growth, it owes in large measure its wide streets, its pleasant squares, and its beautiful cemetery. ”

“ Pike, though he still spent his winters for some years in teaching, became a trader in cattle and a merchant in the products of the soil. By his enterprise in this, his chosen vocation, he reached the position of a foremost man of a notable class among the farmers of New England. Familiar from youth with the harvest capabilities of the rich levels and the sun-warmed hills of Sullivan county, and gifted with a quick sense to perceive the wants of modern markets, he has, by unusual energy and sagacity, fitted means to ends, and, with a Midas-touch, turned his agrarian resources into gold. ”

“ Too many of the old homesteads of New Hampshire 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. ”

“ The enterprise with which his name is identified has grown great and strong. It has made its owner rich, it has given employment to thousands of men at remunerative wages, and it has made it easier and more profitable for others to do their business. He [Pg 216] deserves all the good things he has received, for he is a true man. In every relation of life, in boyhood and manhood, in business and pleasure, he has challenged only the affection and admiration of those interested in him. His integrity is inborn, his good-nature never fails, and his energy never tires. ”

“ In Manchester, he is highly honored and respected as a citizen, whose prosperity contributed to that of others, and as a man whose integrity is beyond suspicion, and whose private life is above reproach. He has been a great help to the city in which he has acquired most of his wealth, not only in building one of her great factories in which hundreds of men have found steady and profitable employment, but in giving liberally to her charities and other institutions which have depended upon the generosity of the public, and in discharging all the duties of a public-spirited citizen. ”

“ From this brief sketch it will be seen that Mr. Blair owes his exceptional success in life to no extraneous or accidental aids. His parents were poor, and their untimely death deprived him of their counsel and example. His boyhood was a struggle with poverty, of which his youth was only a continuance. All he had, he earned. What he became, he made himself. As a man, he has shown great capacity for work and a disposition to do his best in every position. He is always intensely in earnest. He has indomitable perseverance and persistency, and never allows his abilities to rust in idleness. ”

“ Prominent among these are his perfect fidelity, industry, steady courage, and thoroughness. It is natural for him to be true, impossible for him to be false. He is ambitious, and few prize more highly the honors they win; but he is incapable of the duplicity, demagogy, and all the cheap artifices by which some men succeed. His faithfulness to his convictions does not count cost or query about consequences to himself. He is as stanch and true a friend as ever lived, and he never cheats those whom he dislikes or despises. His generosity and devotion to his family are far-reaching and untiring. ”

“ They have not only built up a prosperous and influential commonwealth at home, furnishing a talent and genius too great to be circumscribed by territorial lines, but they have greatly aided in laying the foundations and building up the newer sections of our country. Let any person pass through the mighty West, and thence to the great Northwest which to-day is doing vastly more than any section to supply the world with bread, and he will be surprised to find the great number of sons of New Hampshire who have attained reputation, position, and influence. ”

“ This child of the third generation that had occupied the same house and tilled the same soil, grew up with a stalwart physical organization and a fine loyalty to his native town, a deep interest in its rude history and traditions, and a sympathy with the common people, which in turn made him a favorite with all. To this day there is to him no spot, save his present home, to be compared with his birthplace, and there are no people so interesting and endeared as his old neighbors in the rugged hill-town. ”

“ 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 ownership, 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 Hampshire. ”

“ As chairman of the committee, and ex officio commander-in-chief of the Republican forces in New Hampshire for ten years, he was a tireless worker,—the very incarnation of energy and persistent industry. He had a genius for political organization and warfare. His vigor and magnetism surmounted all obstacles and swept away all opposition. ”

“ He claimed no right or privilege for himself, in the wide domain of nature, that he did not want others to enjoy. Hence he insisted always that the nation should immediately strike the shackles from the slave, and let the oppressed go free. Never himself under the thraldom of rum and tobacco, he wished everybody else to be free from it. He exercised the largest liberty himself, and enjoyed perfect freedom of thought and action in religious, political, and other matters; and he desired every man and woman to do the same. ”