History of Boscawen, (Merrimack County) New Hampshire United States of America

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Biographies:

Moses Gerrish Farmer, pioneer electrician, was born in Boscawen, N.H., Feb. 9, 1820; son of Col. John and Sally (Gerrish) Farmer. His earliest ancestors in America were Isabella (Barbage) Farmer (widow of John Farmer) and her son Edward who was born in Ansley, Warwickshire, England, in 1641 and came to Billerica, Mass., 1670-73; and Capt. William Gerrish who was born in Bristol, Somersetshire, England, in 1617, came to New England in 1639 and was married to Mrs. Joanna Oliver, widow of John Oilver of Newbury. Moses attended Phillips academy, Andover, Mass., 1837-40, and Dartmouth college, 1840-43, illness preventing his graduation from the latter. He taught school at Eliot, Maine, and at Dover, N.H., until 1847. In 1845 he began the study of electrical science with reference to its industrial application and laid the foundation for electrical engineering in the United States. He invented several electro-motors and in 1846 constructed a miniature railroad track and electro-magnetic engine which he exhibited for the first time, July 26, 1847, in Dover, N.H., and later in various towns, lecturing upon the subject of electro-magnetism and its applications. In December, 1847, he was employed at South Framingham, Mass., with F. O. J. Smith, who was engaged in constructing the telegraph line from New York to Boston, and in July, 1848, he removed to Salem, Mass., where he had charge of the telegraph office till 1849, when he left it to open some new offices on the Vermont and Boston line, beginning at Manchester, N.H. While there he invented the open circuit automatic repeater. In South Framingham he invented an electric striking device for fire-alarm service which he exhibited in Boston in 1849. In 1851 he planned and constructed the telegraph fire-alarm system in Boston and was its superintendent till 1853. In 1849 he made an electro-magnetic clock with dead beat escapement and continuity-preserving circuit-breaker, which was in use in the Boston fire-alarm office many years. Prior to 1850 he invented an electric grid broiler upon which he broiled steak. Between 1852 and 1855 he constructed an apparatus by which he was enabled to transmit four messages simultaneously over a single wire; devised the printing telegraph; was the first to make use of the "unison stop"; and the first to suggest the use of the continuity-pre-serving key in the duplex telegraph. In 1852-53 he constructed an instrument for determining the velocity of sound. In 1855 he successfully deposited aluminum from its chloride solution, which never had been accomplished before, and also deposited copper in a condition both hard and brittle, a great achievement in electro-metallurgy. In 1856 he constructed for the Dudley observatory, Albany, N.Y., a chronograph and system of electric clocks. In 1856 he commenced the business of electrotyping, and produced the first under-cut electrotype in America, from a gutta-percha mould. In 1857-58, he invented the automatic repeater and the double current system of duplex telegraphy, the automatic regulator for incandescent lighting systems, and devised an electro-magnetic apparatus to show the height of water in steam boilers. In July, 1859, he lighted the parlor of his home in Salem, Mass., with incandescent electric lights. In September, 1859, he discovered the law of the (now-called) "self-exciting dynamo" and between that time and 1866 built the first dynamo machine, "an invention which," says Prof. A. E. Dolbear, "has made possible all the electrical industries of today." With this machine in 1868 he lighted a private residence in Cambridge, Mass., with forty incandescent lamps in multiple series and with absolute regulation at the dynamo. Between 1864 and 1868 he perfected a thermo-electric battery and in 1868 constructed the largest one ever built for the deposition of copper upon steel to produce the American-compound telegraph wire. In the latter part of 1869 he was employed to examine and report upon the condition of the land lines and cables of the New York, Newfoundland and London telegraph company, and as a result of these investigations invented a new insulator. In 1860-63 he made alloys of aluminum with copper and other metals which closely resembled 18-karat gold and which is now in common use among jewelers. He was professor of electrical science at the U.S. naval torpedo station at Newport, R.I., 1872-81, and invented the machines for firing torpedoes. He resigned because of ill health and removed to Eliot, Maine. He was married, Dec. 25, 1844, to Hannah Tobey, daughter of Richard Shapleigh of Berwick. Maine, and their only daughter, Sarah Jane, established in 1894 the Greenacre Assembly at Greenacre-on-the-Piscataqua, Eliot, Maine, and in 1896 at the same place the Monsalvat school for the comparative study of religion. Mr. Farmer was a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences, a member of the Institute of technology, of the Essex institute, of the American society of mechanical engineers, and of the English institution of electrical engineers, and was the first American elected to honorary membership by the American institute of electrical engineers. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Dartmouth in 1853 and was elected a member of the American association for the advancement of science in 1855. He died in Chicago, Ill., May 25, 1893.

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

Nathaniel Greene, journalist, was born in Boscawen, N.H., May 20, 1797. He attended the common schools and in 1809 apprenticed himself to the proprietor of tire New Hampshire Patriot in Concord. Subsequently he became editor of the Concord Gazette, and in 1814 took the management of the New Hampshire Gazette at Portsmouth. He conducted the Haverhill, Mass., Gazette, 1815-17, and in May of the latter year established the Essex Patriot. In 1821 he removed to Boston, Mass., and there established the Boston Statesman which subsequently became the leading Democratic journal of the state. He was postmaster of Boston, 1829-40 and 1845-49. He then went to Paris, France, where he lived till 1861 engaging in literary work. On his return to the United States he made his residence in Boston. Besides numerous poems and other contributions to periodicals, mostly under the pen-name "Boscawen," he published a number of translations including: History of Italy, by G. Sforzosi (1836); Tales from the German (1837); Tales From the German. Italian and French (1843); and Improvisations (1852). He died in Boston, Mass., Nov. 29, 1877.

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

Charles Carleton Coffin, author, was born in Boscawen, N. H., July 26, 1823; son of Thomas and Hannah (Kilburn), grandson of Peter and Rebecca (Hazeltine), great-grandson of John and Judith (Greenleaf), great-great grandson of Nathaniel and Sarah (Brocklebank) Dole and great-great-great grandson of Tristram Coffin, Jr., who settled in Salisbury, Mass., in 1642, when ten years old, with his father Tristram of Brixton, England. Charles was brought up on his father's farm, attended the district school, and had one winter's instruction in the village academy. He learned surveying and found employment with the surveying parties laying out the first railroads in New Hampshire. In 1849 he put up a telegraph line connecting the Cambridge observatory with the telegraph lines in Boston to secure uniform time for despatching the trains. He also had charge of the construction of the telegraph fire alarm in Boston. In 1854 he was employed as a writer on the Boston Journal and was assistant editor of the Boston Atlas. He made a tour of the United States in the interest of the Journal in 1858 and his letters attracted much attention. In 1861 he became the war correspondent, and his letters signed "Carleton" were vivid descriptions of passing events at the front. In 1866 he went to Europe and reported the Austro-Prussian war, returning home through Greece, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, India, China and Japan, crossing to San Francisco and overland to Boston. His letters to the Journal kept its readers in touch with the whole world. He lectured extensively in the United States after 1868 and represented Boston in the state legislature for two terms, 1884-85, and in the senate in 1890. His early association with veteran Revolutionary heroes and his subsequent experience as an army correspondent, furnished him an immense fund from which to draw in writing his books for boys. On Feb. 18, 1846, he was married to Sallie, daughter of John Farmer of Boscawen, N. H., and Mr. and Mrs. Coffin celebrated their golden wedding in 1896. He was a member of the New England historic genealogical society, to the library of which he gave many valuable manuscripts relating to the civil war and also the key of the slave pen at Richmond, Va. He was also a member of the American geographical society and of the American association for the advancement of science. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Amherst in 1870. Among his books are The Great Commercial Prize (1858); Days and Nights on the Battlefield (1864); Following the Flag and Winning His Way (1865); Four Years of Fighting (1866); Our New Way Round the World (1869); The Seat of Empire (1870); Caleb Krinkle (1875); Story of Liberty (1878); Boys of '76 (1879); Old Times in the Colonies (1880); Life of Garfield (1880); Building the Nation (1883); Drum Beat of the Nation (1887); Marching to Victory (1888); Freedom Triumphant (1891); Life of Lincoln (l892); Daughters of the Revolution, 1769-1776 (1895); and Dan of Millbrook (1896). He died in Brookline, Mass., March 2, 1896.

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

Charles Gordon Greene, journalist, was born in Boscawen, N.H., July 1, 1804. In 1813 by the death of his father he was left to the care of his brother Nathaniel, who entered him at Bradford academy under the tuition of Benjamin Greenleaf. After finishing at the academy he passed some time in apprenticeship at his brother's printing office in Haverhill, and in 1822 followed Nathaniel to Boston, Mass., and entered the office of the Statesman. In 1825 he removed to Taunton, Mass., where he managed the Free Press but returned to Boston in 1826 and published the Spectator, which he soon abandoned to resume his place in the office of the Statesman. In 1827 he published the National Palladium in Philadelphia and in 1828 the United States Telegraph in Washington, D.C. After the election of Jackson to the presidency he returned to Boston and purchased a part of the Statesman of which he became sole owner after several years. In 1831 he established the Boston Post which he conducted till 1875. He served several terms in the Massachusetts legislature, was aide to Governor Morton in 1840, was appointed naval officer of Boston by President Pierce in 1853, and by President Buchanan in 1857. He died in Boston, Mass., Sept. 27, 1886.

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