History of Hanover, (Grafton County) New Hampshire United States of America

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Biographies:

Edmund Otis Hovey, clergyman and geologist, was born at Hanover, N.H., July 15, 1801; son of Roger, Revolutionary soldier, and Martha (Freeman) Hovey; grandson of Edmund and Margaret (KnowIton) Hovey, and of Edmund, founder of Hanover, N.H., and Martha (Otis) Freeman; and a descendant of Daniel Hovey, who came from England and settled in Ipswich, Mass., where he was a proprietor in 1637, and where he built the Hovey wharf, the first of the region. Edmund Freeman, the immigrant ancestor on the maternal side, was one of the original colonists of Plymouth, and was also the founder of Sandwich, Mass., and it is recorded that he "gave the men of Saugus twenty coats of armor." Edmund Otis Hovey was fitted for college at the Thetford academy, Vermont, under the care of the Rev. John Fitch. He taught school at Thetford, Norwich, and Hanover, thus getting the means to support himself in Dartmouth college, where he was graduated with honor in 1828. He was graduated from Andover Theological seminary in 1831, having meanwhile done vacation mission-work in Vermont and Canada. He was ordained by the presbytery of Newburyport at Bradford, Mass., in company with six other home missionaries, Sept. 96, 1831, and went at once to Fountain county, Indiana, where he labored for two years. He was one of the founders of Wabash college, Crawfordsville, Ind., Nov. 91, 1832, was one of its trustees, 1832-77; its treasurer, 1832-57, and professor of geology and chemistry, 1834-77. As financial agent he raised the first $100,000, and also secured the services of the first three presidents?Baldwin, White and Tuttle. He founded the Hovey museum, on whose shelves he placed 25,000 specimens of scientific interest. His catalogue of 10,000 specimens was still in manuscript in 1900. He was married, Oct. 5, 1831, to Mary Carter, daughter of Ezra and Martha (Ellsworth) Carter, of Peacham, Vermont. Mr. Carter was the first principal of the Caledonia county grammar school. They had two children: Horace Carter Hovey; and Mary Freeman Hovey, wire was a professor in the Kansas Agricultural college, taught in New Haven, Conn., and was for years the principal of a school for young ladies at Crawfordsville, Ind. Dr. Hovey was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1895, and contributed occasional papers to their proceedings. He received the degree of D.D. from Dartmouth in 1869. He published: History of Wabash College (1857); a few special sermons, and contributed for the magazines and newspapers. He died at Crawfordsville, Ind., March 10, 1877.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Clement Long, educator, was born in Hopkinton, N.H., Dec. 1, 1806. He was graduated from Dartmouth, A.B., 1828, A.M., 1831; studied theology at the Andover Theological seminary, 1833-34, and was ordained by the presbytery of Portage at Franklin, Ohio, April 6, 1836. He was professor of philosophy in Western Reserve college, Ohio, 1834-44, and professor of theology there, 1644-52; lecturer on intellectual philosophy and political economy at Dartmouth, 1851-52; professor of Christian theology in the Auburn Theological seminary, 1852-54; professor of intellectual philosophy and political economy at Dartmouth, 1854-61, and lecturer on moral and mental philosophy at Western Reserve college, 1860-61. He received the degree of D.D. from Dartmouth in 1849, and that of LL.D. from Western Reserve in 1860. He contributed. to Bibliotheca Sacra. He died at Hanover, N.H., Oct. 14, 1861.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Laura Dewey Bridgman, blind deaf-mute, was born at Hanover, N. H., Dec. 21, 1829. In 1831 an attack of scarlet fever left her a deaf-mute, with sight, taste and smell almost destroyed. By crude arbitrary factual signs her mother taught her to knit and sew, and to perform light household duties. Dr. Samuel G. Howe visited her in 1836, and pursuaded her parents to place her in the Perkins institution for the blind. She became totally blind about this time and but for her abnormally keen sense of touch and her inquisitiveness the task of educating her would have been hopeless. The first step was to teach her the names of objects with which she was familiar. To do this, several articles upon which the names were pasted in raised letters were given her to examine, after she had examined the names printed in raised type on a slip of paper. She was next given the individual letters and taught to form them into words, and while engaged in this work awoke to the fact that the manoeuvres she had been so stupidly performing had for their ultimate object the interchange of thought between herself and her fellow-beings. Then her soul awoke, her face became radiant, and her intellect was enlisted on the side of her teachers. The manual alphabet used in communicating with deaf-mutes was next taught her, and after that her progress was phenomenal. Every thought that flashed through her ever-active brain seemed to connect itself with the signs for its expression through her fingers. Even the fugitive ideas that jumbled through her brain when she was asleep were reflected on her fingers, and so swift and fleeting were these motions that they could not be followed by the most expert reader of the finger language. She learned nothing by intuition or imitation, as other children do, and each word had to be taught to her separately; but step by step, with infinite patience on her own part and on that of her devoted teachers, she progressed until she had learned to read and write and to converse intelligently with any one who understood her finger language. She at times assisted in teaching other children similarly afflicted, and in a diary which she kept she has recorded her great joy at the success of her efforts in this direction, She became a good seamstress, could operate a sewing machine, and make all her own clothing; and the sale of various fancy articles which she crocheted, and to which she attached her autograph, netted her a neat little sum each year. She experienced all the various passions and emotions, being especially subject to fits of anger in her younger days; she had a high moral sense, was tractable, extremely modest, cheerful, sociable and very fond of fun. Her ability to read character by touching persons with her fingers was one of the most remarkable of her special gifts. She was very devout, and after the nature of God and his relations to man and the universe were explained to her, she became a sincere and earnest Christian, joining the Baptist church, to which her parents belonged. There is little room for doubt in the light of to-day's improvements in the pedagogical methods employed with deaf-mutes, that Laura might have been taught the art of speech, for "by accident," she frequently uttered words. "I can say father, mother, doctor, baby, pie and ship with my mouth." wrote she to Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, and this testimony is corroborated by that of her teachers. She was visited by many distinguished persons, and her case was watched with the keenest interest by people in all parts of the world, especially after the appearance of Dickens's "American Notes," in which he described his impressions upon visiting her. After her death her brain was submitted to scientific examination, for the purpose of determining, so far as possible, the effect of her peculiar affliction upon its shape, size and structure. See articles by H. H. Donaldson, Ph. D., in volumes iii. and iv. of the "American Journal of Psychology," also "Life and Education of Laura Dewey Bridgman" (Boston, 1879), by Mary Swift Lamson. She died at the Perkins institute, Boston, Mass., where the greater part of her life had been spent, May 24, 1889.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Henry Sweetser Dewey, lawyer, was born in Hanover, N.H., Nov. 9, 1856; son of Maj. Israel Otis and Susan Augusta (Sweetser) Dewey; and grandson of Israel and Nancy (Hovey) Dewey and of Gen. Henry and Susan (West) Sweetser of Concord, N.H. His father was a merchant in early life and afterward a paymaster in the U.S. army. His first American ancestor, Thomas Dewey (1600-48), emigrated from Sandwich, Kent, England, became a freeman of Dorchester, Mass., in 1634; removed to Windsor, Conn., about 1638, and married widow Frances Clark, March 22, 1639. Henry Sweetser spent the years of his boyhood in the south and west where his father was stationed as paymaster. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1878 and afterward served as paymaster's clerk in the U.S. army, being stationed at Boston, 1878-80. He resigned in 1880, studied law with the Hon. Ambrose A. Ranney, was graduated from the Boston university law school in 1882, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in June, 1882, taking up practice in Boston. He served as a member of the 1st corps of cadets, M.V.M., 1880-89, was appointed judge-advocate on the staff of the 1st brigade, with rank of captain, 1889; was a member of the city council in 1885, 1886 and 1887, and of the state house of representatives, 1889, 1890 and 1891; was appointed a bar examiner for Suffolk county in 1891 and a master in chancery in 1893; was appointed a special justice of the municipal court of the city of Boston in April, 1896, and in 1897 he was made chairman of the first state board of bar examiners.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor