History of Northwood, (Rockingham County) New Hampshire United States of America

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Biographies:

John Lauris Blake, clergyman, was born at Northwood, N.H., Dec. 21, 1788. He learned the trade of cabinet making, pursuing his studies meantime until he prepared himself for college. In 1812 he was graduated from Brown university, and in 1813 was licensed as a Congregational minister. In 1815 he was admitted to holy orders in the Protestant Episcopal church, and in the same year organized a parish, St. Paul's, at Pawtucket, where he remained five years. Returning to New Hampshire in 1820 he became pastor of the churches at Concord and Hopkinton, and he established, in the former city, a young ladies' seminary which he moved to Boston in 1822. This school was discontinued in 1830. Dr. Blake was rector of St. Matthew's church, Boston, from 1824 to 1832, when he resigned to give his attention to literary work. He edited the Literary Advertiser and the Gospel Advocate for a number of years and took an active interest in the Boston public schools, serving on the school committee. His published books include: "A Text Book of Geography and Chronology" (1814); "Anecdotes of American Indians" (1835); "Biographical Dictionary" (1835, 13th ed., 1856); the work was thoroughly revised and republished under the title, "Universal Biographical Dictionary"; "The Family Encyclop?dia of Useful Knowledge and General Literature" (1834); "Farm and Fireside" (1852); "Farmer's Every Day Book" (1852); "Evidences of Christianity" (1852); "Modern Farmer" (1853); and "A Cyclop?dia of Modern Agriculture" (1856). He also wrote a number of small books for children's libraries, including, "Book of Nature Laid Open"; "Wonders of the Earth," and "Wonders of Art" (1852.) He died in Orange, N.J., July 6, 1857.

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

Francis Samuel Drake, author, was born in Northwood, N.H., Feb. 22, 1828; son of Samuel Gardner Drake. He completed the public school course in his native city, entered his father's bookstore in Boston, and was later employed in a counting house. In 1862 he followed his brother, Samuel Adams Drake, to Leavenworth, Kan., and for five years engaged in bookselling, returning to Boston at the end of that time. He published: A Dictionary of American Biography (1872); Memorial of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati (1873); Life of General Henry Knox (1873); The Town of Roxbury (1873); Tea Leaves (1884); and Indian History for Young Folks (1885). He died in Washington, D.C., Feb. 22, 1885.

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

Hall Jackson Kelley, pioneer, was born in Northwood, N.H., Feb. 28, 1790. He was graduated from Middlebury college, A.B., 1818, A.M., 1820, and settled in Boston, Mass., as master of a grammar school. He was employed by a railroad company in Maine as a surveyor, and also planned a canal to be built from Boston to the Connecticut river and a railroad from the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz. He projected a settlement west of the Rocky Mountains in 1817, and in 1829 procured from the Massachusetts 1egislature an act of incorporation of the "American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of Oregon Territory." He organized several parties for the settlement of this territory in 1831, one of which, a party of Americans from Monterey, Mexico, succeeded in reaching Oregon, where they were promptly expelled by the Hudson Bay company, and Mr. Kelley returned to Boston and abandoned all further colonization projects. He received the degree of A.M. from Harvard in 1820. He is the author of: Geographical Memoir of Oregon, the first map of that territory and a manual for the guidance of emigrants (1830); A History of the Settlement of Oregon and of the Interior of Upper California and of Persecutions and Afflictions of Forty Years' Continuance, endured by the Author (1868). He died in Palmer, Mass., Jan. 17, 1874.

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