History of Rochester, (Strafford County) New Hampshire United States of America

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Biographies:

Isaac Adams, inventor, was born in Rochester, N. H., 1803. He had little opportunity for education, and when a boy went early to work in a factory. Later he learned the trade of a cabinet-maker, which he abandoned to go to Boston, where he became employed in a machine shop. In 1828 he invented the Adams printing press, which he improved in 1834, and as then improved the press continues to be sold in thirty different sizes and was universally used for book work in America for more than a quarter of a century. By the manufacture of these presses he accumulated considerable wealth. In 1840 he was elected to the Massachusetts senate. He died July 19, 1883.

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

Charles Francis Hall, Arctic explorer, was born in Rochester, N.H., in 1821. He was self educated, learned the trade of blacksmith and removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he kept a stationery store, did engraving and conducted a weekly journal. He gave close study to the caloric engine, then first in use, and became an omnivorous reader of literature relative to Arctic exploration. He became an enthusiast on the subject, and while accepting Captain McClintock's report of the death of Sir John Franklin and the fate of his companions, he could not accept the conclusion of the British naval officer that the entire party had perished and left no record of their exploits. He went to New York where he visited Henry Grinnell, the wealthy shipping merchant, who had already been a patron of Arctic effort in the same direction, and Grinnell, with other capitalists, fitted out Mr. Hall and gave him passage in the whaler George Henry, Capt. S. O. Buddington, bound for Cumberland gulf. The ship sailed from New London, Conn., May 29, 1860, and when blocked by the ice a few weeks later, Hall left the vessel and made his way over the ice to the northwest, with his outfit and provisions. He discovered relics of the Franklin expedition of 1877-78, lived over two years among the Esquimaux, acquired their language and learned their habits and returned to the United States, reaching New London, Conn., Sept. 13, 1862. Then by lecturing and by personal appeals he succeeded in equipping a second expedition, and again finding passage on a whaler he sailed July 1, 1864, and his boat and provisions were landed at Depot island, 64? N., 90? W. He passed five years with the Esquimaux, obtaining occasional supplies from chance whalers, and in May, 1869, he reached the southeastern coast of King Willleto's Land. His Esquimaux companions refused to give him over four days in which to search for Franklin expedition relics, but in that time he acculnulated many positive mementos of the lost explorers, including a Iraman skeleton, supposed to be that of an officer of the Erebus, and with these undisputed evidences of his partial success he retraced his steps and soon after took voyage in a whaler bound for the United States, fully convinced that no member of the Franklin expedition survived at that time. He continued his lectures, advanced the theory of an open polar sea and proposed to congress an expedition in the interests of geographical knowledge. He pleaded his views with effect, as congress voted $50,000 and directed an expedition fitted out under the direction of Mr. Hall by the U.S. navy department. The Polaris was equipped at an expense of $90,000 and was commanded by Captain Hall. Capt. S. O. Buddington, who had commanded the whaler George Henry on the first expedition of Hall, was made sailing master; Dr. Emil Bessels was chief scientist, and with twenty-four others the expedition set out from New London July 3, 1871, under consort of the U.S. frigate Congress, the frigate leaving the Poleris at God-haven, Greenland. Then the route of the Polaris was through Smith sound, Kane sea, Kennedy and Robeson channels to latitude 82? 16' N., on Aug. 29, 1871, the highest point attained by any vessel up to that time. Unable to proceed further the Polaris found winter quarters at Thank God Harbor, 80?, 38' N. During the winter Mr. Hall made a journey on sledges, reaching 80? N., which he named Cape Brevoort, and then returned to the ship, where he was stricken with apoplexy and died, and the party, left without a leader, soon after turned their faces homeward and were wrecked. Some escaped on an icefloe and were rescued April 30, 1872, and June 3, 1873. The Soci?t? de Geographic of Paris conferred upon Mr. Hall the Roqueth medal in 1875, and the British polar expedition of 1876 marked his grave, the farthest north of any then known to have been closed with a Christian prayer, and an epitaph on the tomb reads: "who sacrificed his life in the advancement of science." He published: Arctic Researches and Life among the Esquimaux (1864). Congress purchased his MS. for $15,000 and from it published Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition (1879). He died at Thank God Harbor, Greenland, Nov. 8, 1871.

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

Jonathan Peter Cushing, educator, was born in Rochester, N.H., March 12, 1793. He was prepared for college at Phillips academy, Exeter, and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1817, having procured the means for his education wholly through his own labor. After his graduation he became a tutor in Hampden-Sidney college, Virginia, and in 1819 was advanced to the chair of chemistry and natural philosophy in that institution. In 1821 he was elected its president and held the office until his death which occurred in Raleigh, N.C., April 25, 1835.

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

Daniel Lothrop, publisher, was born in Rochester, N.H., Aug. 11, 1831; son of Daniel and Sophia (Horne) Lothrop; grandson of Solomon and Mehitable (White) Lothrop, and of Deacon Jeremiah Horne, of Rochester, Vt., and a descendant of Mark Lothrop, a native of England, who immigrated to America, settling in Salem, Mass., in 1643 and in Bridgewater, Mass., in 1656. He was prepared for college, but in 1845 engaged in the drug business in Newmarket, N.H., and in 1848 established two drug stores, one in Newmarket and one in Laconia. He also bought a book-store in Dover, N.H., in 1850, and developed in his three stores a large retail book trade, adding to it a jobbing trade and a small publishing business. He opened a drug store in St. Peter, Minn., shortly afterward, and established a banking house there, but returned east in 1857. He entered business in Boston, Mass., as a publisher in 1868, making a specialty of literature for children and youth by American authors. He also elevated the standard of Sunday-school literature. In the fire of 1872 he lost heavily. Wide Awake, Babyland, The Pansy, Our Little Men and Women, Chautauqua Young Folks' Journal, and Best Things, were his contributions to periodical literature for youth. He was influential in organizing the American Institute of Civics. He was married July 25, 1860, to Ellen J., daughter of Joseph and Nancy Morrill, of Dover, N.H., and secondly Oct. 4, 1881, to Harriet Mulford, daughter of Sidney M. and Harriet (Mulford) Stone, of New Haven, Conn. He died in Boston, Mass., March 18, 1892.

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