Part 18

In 1872, Mr. Kimball was elected mayor of Concord, and was re-elected to this honorable and responsible office in 1873, 1874, and 1875. Immediately after Mr. Kimball assumed the duties of this office a severe freshet either carried away or rendered impassable five of the seven bridges spanning the Merrimack and Contoocook rivers. The work of rebuilding these structures devolved immediately upon him, as superintendent of roads and bridges. The Federal bridge and the bridge at Fisherville, both of iron, are monuments of his progressive ideas. During his administration the system of water supply from Long pond was carried on to successful completion, and the purest of water has since been at the command of every citizen. This work required a large sum of money, which was so carefully expended that no one has felt the burden save as a blessing. The fire department was invested with new dignity by the city government during those years. The firemen had their demands for appropriate buildings fully satisfied, and are proud, as is the whole city, of the beautiful central fire station and other buildings of the department, which compare favorably with any in the country.

Aside from his mechanical skill, Mr. Kimball long since won the enviable reputation of an able and successful financier. In 1870, upon the organization of the Merrimack County Savings Bank, he was elected its treasurer, and has held the office ever since. To him, for many years, have been intrusted the settlement of estates, the management of trust funds, and the care of the property of widows and orphans. As treasurer of the New Hampshire Bible Society and Orphans' Home, he has given to those institutions the benefit of his financial experience.

For the benefit of the city of Concord, the mechanical skill and financial ability of Mr. Kimball were fully exercised. During his term of office as mayor he was one of the water commissioners, ex officio, and president of the board in 1875. He was subsequently appointed a water commissioner, in 1877, for a term of three years; re-appointed in 1880, and has been president of the board since his first appointment. Upon the death of Hon. Nathaniel White, Mr. Kimball was elected president of the Concord Gas-Light Company, having held the office of director for several years. What little credit is due a member of the constitutional convention of 1876 is his. He represented the fifth ward in Concord, and served the convention acceptably as chairman of its finance committee.

The demand for a new state-prison, in union with the philanthropic ideas of the age, culminated, in the year 1877, in an act of the legislature providing for a new state-prison, and granting for the purpose a very moderate appropriation, hedged in by every possible safeguard. The governor, Benjamin F. Prescott, with the advice of his council, immediately upon the passage of the law appointed three commissioners to carry into effect the provisions of the act. Mr. Kimball was chosen chairman of the board. Upon these commissioners has devolved the duty of constructing the massive pile of buildings known as the new state-prison, commodious for the officers, humane and comfortable for the inmates, acceptable to the authorities and the people, and within the limits of the appropriation. In the autumn of 1880 the structure was appropriately dedicated to its future uses, by fitting ceremony. Col. John H. George, of Concord, delivered the address, and in closing said:--

"It is a matter of further and warm congratulation that its erection has been intrusted to a competent commission; that good judgment and intelligent investigation have characterized the plan; that no corrupt jobbery has polluted its construction; and that for every dollar expended a fair and honest result has been obtained. And in this connection it is but just to say that the fitness and labors of the chairman of the board especially should receive public recognition. To the successful performance of the duties of his office he brought unusual mechanical skill and large experience in the construction of public works."

In 1880, when the Manchester & Keene Railroad was placed in the hands of the court, Mr. Kimball was appointed, by Chief-Justice Doe, one of the trustees. In November, 1880, Mr. Kimball was chosen a senator from district number ten, and upon the organization of the legislature in June, 1881, he was elected to the office of president of the senate, in importance the second office in the state. As presiding officer, he is dignified, courteous, and impartial. He carried to the position a fund of information, a wealth of experience, controlled by sound judgment, and strong convictions.

Politically, Mr. Kimball is a Republican. For fifteen years, since 1863, he has been treasurer of the Republican state committee. With him right takes precedence of policy. It takes no finesse to know on what side he is to be found. In his dealings he is upright, has confidence in himself and in his own judgment, and it is hard to swerve him. He is frank and free in his general intercourse, bluff and often brusque in manner, but never discourteous. He is a man of large and progressive views, and actuated by the most conscientious motives. His character for integrity is without blemish, and as firmly established as the granite hills.

In 1843 he joined the church at his old home in Boscawen, and ever since has affiliated with the Congregationalists. For many years he has been a member of the South Congregational church of Concord. He is eminently a man of affairs,--of acts, not words. His reading is of a scientific character, varied by genealogical and historical research.

In person, Mr. Kimball is of commanding presence and muscular figure, inclined to be spare, but of apparently great physical powers. In private life he is a devoted friend, a kind neighbor, an esteemed citizen, and a charitable, tolerant, self-reliant man.

In early manhood, May 27, 1846, Mr. Kimball was joined in marriage to Maria H. Phillips, of Rupert, Vermont. Their only child, Clara Maria Kimball, born March 20, 1848, was married June 4, 1873, to Augustine R. Ayers, a successful merchant of Concord. Five children--Ruth Ames, John Kimball, Helen McGregor, Joseph Sherburne, and Josiah Phillips--have been born to them.

FOOTNOTES:

Deceased.

JONATHAN EVERETT SARGENT, LL.D

by J. N. McCLINTOCK.

JUDGE SARGENT, now of Concord, has been well known throughout the state for more than a quarter of a century. Besides an extensive legislative acquaintance, he has, as judge of the different courts and as chief-justice of the state, held terms of court in every shire town and half-shire town in every county in the state. He has been emphatically the architect of his own fortune, and by his energy and perseverance has reached the highest post of honor in his profession in his native state. He is genial and social with his friends; he loves a joke, and belongs to that small class of men "who never grow old." He loves his home, his family, and his books. No man enjoys the study of history and of poetry, of philosophy and of fiction, better than he, while law and theology come in for a share of attention,--a kind neighbor, a respected citizen, a ripe scholar, a wise legislator, an upright judge, an honest man.

In the year 1781, Peter Sargent, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, moved from Hopkinton. N. H., to New London, at that time equally well known as Heidleburg. This locality had been known by this latter name for nearly a quarter of a century. It was granted by the Masonian proprietors, July 7, 1773, to Jonas Minot and others, as the "Addition of Alexandria." It was first settled in 1775, and was incorporated as a town by the legislature, June 25, 1779. Peter Sargent, who thus moved into the town two years after its incorporation, was one of ten brothers, all born in Amesbury, Mass., who settled as follows: Amasa, Ezekiel, Thomas, and Moses always lived at Amesbury; James settled in Methuen, Mass.; Peter, Nathan, and Stephen came to Hopkinton, N. H., and settled there; and Abner and Ebenezer came to Warner, N. H., and settled there. These ten brothers, with four sisters, were the children of Deacon Stephen Sargent, of Amesbury, Mass.

Deacon Stephen Sargent was the son of Thomas, 2d, who was the son of Thomas, 1st, who was the son of William Sargent. Stephen married Judith Ordway, of West Newbury, Mass., September 26, 1730; was chosen deacon of the Second Congregational church in Amesbury, May 10, 1757; and died October 2, 1773.

William Sargent was born in England about 1602, and was the son of Richard Sargent, an officer in the royal navy. It is believed he came to Virginia at an early day, with William Barnes, John Hoyt, and others. He married Judith Perkins for his first wife, who died about 1633, when he, with several daughters, was one of the twelve men who commenced the settlement of Ipswich, Mass., that year. He soon after went to Newbury and helped form a settlement there; and about 1638 he, with several others, commenced a settlement at Hampton. He soon after, about 1640, removed to Salisbury, and was one of the eighteen original proprietors, or commoners, who settled in New Salisbury, since known as Amesbury. His second wife's name was Elizabeth, by whom he had two sons, Thomas and William. He had several lots of land assigned him at different times; was one of the selectmen of the town in 1667. He died in 1675, aged seventy-three.

Peter Sargent married Ruth Nichols, of Amesbury or Newbury, Mass., and came to Hopkinton, N. H., in 1763 or 1764, where they lived some eighteen years, and raised a large family, and when he went to New London took them all with him. His children were Anthony, Abigail, Ruth, Judith, Peter, Ebenezer, Amasa, John, Molly, Ezekiel, Stephen, William, and Lois. These all came from Hopkinton to New London in 1781, except Lois, who was born subsequently in New London.

Ebenezer, the father of the judge, was born in Hopkinton, April 3, 1768, and was, of course, thirteen years old when he came to New London with his father's family. After becoming of age he procured him a farm, and, on the 25th of November, 1792, he married Prudence Chase, of Wendell (now Sunapee), the daughter of John and Ruth (Hills) Chase. They had ten children, as follows: Anna, Rebekah, Ruth, Seth Freeman, Aaron Lealand, Sylvanus Thayer, Lois, Laura, Jonathan Kittredge, and Jonathan Everett. Jonathan Kittredge died young, the other nine lived to mature age, and five of them, three sons and two daughters, still survive. The parents always lived upon a farm, securing what was then considered as a competence, and both died in New London, having lived together more than sixty-five years.

The following, then, is the order of descent:--

1. Richard Sargent, of England. 2. William, son of Richard, born in 1602. 3. Thomas, son of William, born in April, 1643. 4. Thomas, Jr., son of Thomas, born in November, 1676. 5. Stephen, son of Thomas. Jr., born in September, 1710. 6. Peter, son of Stephen, born about 1740. 7. Ebenezer, son of Peter, born in April, 1768.

8. JONATHAN EVERETT SARGENT, was born at New London, October 23, 1816. He lived at home, working upon the farm until he was seventeen years of age, and, being the youngest child, his father had arranged for him to live at home and take care of his parents, and have the farm at their decease. The son, however, had little love for the farm, and, as soon as the care and support of his parents could be provided for in another way, he arranged with his father that he was to have the remaining four years of his time till twenty-one, was to clothe himself, and pay his own bills, and call for nothing more from his father. He fitted for college at Hopkinton Academy, and at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, and in 1836 entered Dartmouth College, having paid his way by teaching school winters and laboring in vacations. By teaching school every winter and two fall terms in Canaan Academy during his college course, he earned enough to pay all his expenses in college with the exception of $200, which he borrowed of his father, and repaid the same, with interest, within two years. Though out of college two terms, besides winters in teaching, and another term on account of sickness, yet he was always ready at each examination to be examined with his class. He was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and graduated, in 1840, among the first in his class.

Mr. Sargent had long before this made up his mind to turn his attention to the law as a profession, and he accordingly began the study of the law at once with Hon. William P. Weeks, of Canaan, and remained with him till the spring of 1841, when he was advised by his physician to go South for his health. He went first to Washington, soon after to Alexandria, D. C., where he taught a high school, then to Maryland, where he remained a year in a family school, when, having regained his health, he returned to New Hampshire in September, 1842. He had, upon his arrival in Washington, entered his name as a law student in the office of Hon. David A. Hall of that city, and continued the study of the law under his direction, while engaged in teaching, and he was admitted to the bar in the courts of the District of Columbia in April, 1842, only about twenty months after leaving college. By the rule of that court any one might be admitted upon examination, without regard to the length of time he had studied; and he was examined in open court by Chief-Justice Cranch and his associates upon the bench, and was admitted.

After returning home, he continued his legal studies with Mr. Weeks until the July law term, in Sullivan county, in 1843, when he was admitted to the bar in the superior court of judicature in this state. He then went into company with Mr. Weeks at Canaan, where he remained till 1847, when he removed to Wentworth and opened an office there. He had been appointed solicitor for Grafton county in November, 1844, while at Canaan, and he at once commenced a lucrative business at Wentworth; was re-appointed solicitor in 1849 for five years more, thus holding the office for ten years, to 1854, performing the duties to the entire acceptance of the county and the people. He declined a re-appointment.

In 1851 he was first elected a member of the legislature from Wentworth, and served as chairman of the committee on incorporations. The next year he was re-elected, and was made chairman of the judiciary committee; and in 1853 he was again a member, and was nominated with great unanimity and elected speaker of the house of representatives. He served with ability and impartiality and to the general acceptance of the members. The next winter a new man was to be selected as a candidate for senator in his district, and he was nominated, and was elected in March, in a close district, by about three hundred majority. He was elected president of the senate in 1854. He was renominated in the spring of 1855, but the Know-Nothing movement that year carried everything before it, and he was defeated, with nearly all the other Democratic nominees in the state.

On April 2, 1855, he was appointed a circuit justice of the court of common pleas for the state. But in June of that year the old courts were abolished, mainly upon political grounds, and new ones organized, and new judges appointed. Judge Sargent received a request from Gov. Metcalf that he would accept the second place on the bench of the new court of common pleas. This offer had not been expected, but upon consultation with friends it was accepted, and Judge Sargent was appointed an associate justice of the court of common pleas. He acted as judge of the new court of common pleas for four years, until 1859, when, by a statute of that year, that court was abolished, and one new judge was to be added to the supreme judicial court, making the number of supreme judges six instead of five, as before. Judge Sargent was immediately appointed to that place on the supreme bench. He was then the youngest member of the court in age, as well as in the date of his commission. He remained upon the bench of that court just fifteen years, from 1859 to 1874. In March, 1873, upon the death of Chief-Justice Bellows, Judge Sargent was appointed chief-justice of the state, which place he held until August, 1874, when the court was again overturned to make room for the appointees of the prevailing political party. Chief-Justice Sargent, at the time of his appointment as chief-justice, had become the oldest judge upon the bench, both in age and date of commission. His written opinions are contained in the sixteen volumes of the New Hampshire Reports, from the 39th to the 54th, inclusive, numbering about three hundred in all. Many of these are leading opinions upon various subjects, and show great learning and research.

After the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the attempt to make Kansas a slave state, Judge Sargent acted with the Republican party.