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

Our database does not include an historic photo for Boscawen, (Merrimack County) New Hampshire, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Biographies:

Moody Currier, governor of New Hampshire was born in Boscawen, N.H., April 22, 1806. His parents were in humble circumstances and he was brought up to farm work, employing his leisure time in studying. He prepared himself for college and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1834 with high honors. After graduation he was principal of the school in Lowell, Mass., for several years, devoting his leisure to the study of law, and was admitted to the bar of Hillsboro county, N.H., in 1841. He practised in Manchester, N.H., for several years and then abandoned the law for finance. He established and was president of the Amoskeag bank, the Amoskeag savings bank and the Amoskcag national bank. He also established the People's savings bank. He was very largely engaged in the manufacturing and railroad interests of the state. He was state senator for two terms; president of the senate in 1857; governor's councillor; presidential elector in 1876, and governor in 1885-87 He was learned in ancient and modern literature, in reading and writing the French,. Spanish, German and Italian languages, and in the sciences. He received the degree of LL. D. from Bates in 1881 and from Dartmouth in 1885. He published a volume of poems in 1880. He died in Manchester, N.H., Aug. 23, 1898.

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

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

George Thomas White Patrick, educator, was born in North Boscawen, N.H, Aug. 19, 1857: son of John and Harriet (White) Patrick; grandson of William and Mary (Gerrish) Patrick, and of Thomas and Mary (May) White, and a descendant of Matthew Patrick, of Scotch-Irish stock, who settled in Western (Warren), Mass., about 1731, and of William White, who came from Norfolk county, England, to Massachusetts in 1610. He was graduated from the State University of Iowa, A.B., 1878, and from Yale university, B.D., 1885, took a post-graduate course in philosophy and psychology at Johns Hopkins, 1885-87, and received from there the degree of Ph.D. in 1888, having been twice appointed to a fellowship in philosophy in that institution. In 1887 he became professor of philosophy in the State University of Iowa; in 1902 was the editor of the university's Studies in Psychology, and became the head of its department of philosophy and psychology. He was married, Nov. 28, 1889, to Maud, daughter of William and Jeannette (Buck) Lyall. He was a student at Leipzig university, 1894. He is the author of: The Fragments of the Work of Heraclitus of Ephesus (1889), and many contributions to scientific periodicals, notably the Popular Science Monthly.

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