Part 38

The subject of this sketch was born June 18, 1837, in Clitheroe, England. Clitheroe is a busy cotton-manufacturing town on the Ribble, and in the greatest cotton-manufacturing district of the world, Lancashire.

The father, Miles Bracewell, from his early boyhood had been engaged in printing calico, having served his apprenticeship with James Thompson & Sons, who owned and managed the Primrose Print-Works. James Thompson was a famous manufacturer, his enterprise and liberality being known throughout Europe. For many years Miles Bracewell had charge of the "color department" in the Primrose Print-Works. He afterwards went into business for himself, and at the time of his death was the senior partner and principal owner of two print-works,--one at Oakenshaw and another at Kersal Vale.

It was while the father was in the service of James Thompson, that JOHN BRACEWELL, then a very small boy, was regularly apprenticed to this distinguished manufacturer. The institution of apprenticeship, in anything like its English thoroughness, is little practiced in this country. For a long period in England the term apprentice was applied equally to such as were being taught a trade or a learned profession. The term of seven years was regarded as much a necessity for the learner in any craft, as for the scholar seeking to attain the degree of doctor, or master in the liberal arts. Although the laws which formerly made the apprenticeship compulsory have been abolished in England, yet the principle is universally recognized there in the form of a voluntary contract. Of its immense advantages in the way of securing the most thorough knowledge, and highest skill in the learner, no one can doubt. Mr. John Bracewell, who probably to-day holds the foremost place among those engaged in his business in this country, is a living argument for the excellence of the apprentice system. He began his tutelage as a lad. He began at the lowest round in the ladder of his advancement, and was long and rigidly held at each last until he could safely mount the higher one. There was a very superior French chemist employed in the Primrose Works, and no little of the boy's studies were under him.

When eighteen years of age, Mr. Bracewell had established such a reputation for proficiency in the mysteries of color that he was offered a fine position in a great carpet manufactory in France, but his father advised him to decline this flattering offer, feeling that the responsibility was too great for one so young. That subtle but irresistible influence which for so many years has been drawing such tides of population from Europe to America was already settling the question as to the country where this young man was to work out his great success. Only a month after he had declined to go to France, he received and accepted the offer of a position as assistant manager in the Merrimack Print-Works, Lowell, Mass. There he remained five years and a half, winning for himself a distinguished reputation by the energy and skill of his management. Certainly it argues some unusual qualities in his work while there, some extraordinary gifts and capacities in his nature, that could have led the Cocheco Manufacturing Company to call this young man of twenty-three years of age to its most responsible position, that of superintendent of its print-works. There were no less than thirteen applicants for this office. The directors, with entire unanimity, made choice of this youngest of them all, and gave to him the unlimited charge of the most important department of their great industry. Soon after entering upon his new duties, Mr. Bracewell took advantage of the suspension of work in the manufactory, made necessary at that period of the civil war, to enlarge his scientific knowledge by attending lectures on analytic chemistry at Harvard College. He studied with great thoroughness this science during a five months' course, and at the same time directed the many repairs and changes which were being made in the print-works at Dover. With the beginning of the year 1861, Mr. Bracewell took up his residence in Dover. The remarkable enterprise and judgment of the new manager made themselves at once felt. For just twenty years he continued in his position. These years witnessed a series of brilliant successes. He showed himself to be a genius in his profession. To his originating, creative mind he joins an unusual power of adapting to his own uses suggestions coming from whatever source. By his sheer abilities, his indomitable energy, his quickness of insight, his tireless perseverance, and his perfect command of the minute details of every branch of his work, Mr. Bracewell soon lifted the Cocheco goods to the very head of their class, and held them there to the last day of his service. The production of the print-works very nearly quadrupled during this period.

In 1864, Mr. Bracewell was married to Mary Harriet Hope, of Lowell, Mass., whose noble character death has made the more precious to many friends. There were born to them three daughters and one son, all of whom are living.

During Mr. Bracewell's residence in Dover he endeared himself to all classes of people by his large-hearted liberality, his great geniality, and his keen personal interest in whatever affected the welfare of the city or the condition of every individual in it. He was an ardent supporter of his church, which he greatly loved, and every good cause in the community. He was quick to suggest, and ready to lead any movement which was helpful to the material and moral advancement of Dover. With a view of benefiting the city, and also as a sound investment for his own advantage, Mr. Bracewell built, in 1879, a substantial and attractive block, consisting of nine stores, which spans the Cochecho river. It bids long to stand, a fitting monument of his public spirit and wise foresight.

Though born and educated an Englishman, he became an ardent, patriotic American citizen from the very day that he touched American soil. His pride and hopes for America are as intense as any native son's. His love for Dover is as tender and steadfast as though its air was the first he breathed. The church with which he first united, he still regards as his home. He long served her as a most efficient superintendent of its Sunday-school, and when he was about to remove his residence from Dover, out of a great desire to see the church freed from the burden of a debt of thirteen thousand dollars, Mr. Bracewell, by his payment of a tenth of the sum, led on others to such generous donations that the debt was speedily extinguished.

Mr. Bracewell may still be regarded as a New Hampshire son, and a citizen of Dover. His nature will not allow him to lose elsewhere the very great interest which twenty years' sojourn here has created in him. It may well be expected that he will some time return to permanently abide among friendships whose preciousness he and his host of friends so fully appreciate.

In January, 1881, Mr. Bracewell received an offer to go into business at North Adams, Mass., and as the physicians thought his wife's health would be better there than in Dover, he decided to make the change. The directors of the Cocheco Manufacturing Company, by offer of an increase of salary of from ten thousand to fifteen thousand dollars a year, and other inducements, sought to retain Mr. Bracewell in their employment; Mr. Bracewell, however, removed to North Adams, purchasing a third interest in the Freeman Manufacturing Company of that place, and the same success which was acquired in Dover has followed his abilities into the great business which he represents at North Adams. The Windsor calicoes, and other products of the Freeman Manufacturing Company, already stand in the market among the foremost of their class.

In 1877, Mr. Bracewell received the degree of Master of Arts from Dartmouth College,--a distinction well earned and worthily bestowed. During Gov. Prescott's term of office. Mr. Bracewell served as a member of his staff, with rank of colonel.

Mr. Bracewell's remarkable activity has not been shut into his business. The intensity of his nature comes out to an undiminished degree in his politics, his friendships, his public spirit, and his religious faith. His sympathies are quick and universal; his enthusiasms are communicative and inspiring; his affections are tender and loyal.

ALBERT H. HAYES.

Too many of the old homesteads of New Hampshire have gone to decay. Deserted and dilapidated buildings, decrepit fences, and unharvested crops of briers and weeds, where but a generation ago there were the homes of comfort, industry, and thrift, tell a sad story of what our state has done to supply the brain and brawn which have developed the resources of others. But now and then there is a farm which has not only been preserved, and made to retain its old-time attractions, but improved, beautified, and adorned, by liberal outlays dictated by good judgment and cultured taste, until it has become the envy of all who admire elegant buildings, fertile fields, and fine flocks and herds. Many of these are the property of men who grew up rugged, strong, and self-reliant among our hills, went out in early manhood in quest of greater opportunities than could be found or created at home, and, having won fortunes abroad, have loyally brought them back to the town of their nativity to rescue old firesides from irreverent ownership, to erect upon old sites modern mansions, to coax from an unwilling soil great crops, to furnish people with employment and courage, and to return in a hundred ways substantial thanks for the privilege of having been born in New Hampshire. Of this class is the Hayes farm in Alton, now owned by Dr. ALBERT H. HAYES, who has brought back, from the golden sands of the Pacific, the ample means which enable him to add to the natural attractions of his lakeside birthplace all that money can command in the creation and embellishment of a country home.

David Hayes, who was a sturdy farmer of Scotch descent and a native of Strafford, purchased and settled upon a farm in Alton about the year 1790. He had three sons and three daughters, and in time the oldest son, Joseph, succeeded him as the holder of the title to the farm. This son married Betsey Brewster, a daughter of George Brewster, of Wolfeborough, by whom he had eight children, of whom six still survive. The seventh was born September 6, 1836, and named Albert Hamilton. His parents were well to do and appreciated the value of an education, so that, as he grew up, while he did his share of the work on the farm, he had the advantage of the winter schools, and was afterwards sent to the academies at New Hampton and Northfield. At the age of twenty-one he had completed his studies at these institutions, and concluded that it was easier to buy farm produce than to raise it, and that a place containing more people and more money would suit him better than Alton, and, going to Boston, commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Abner Ham, of that city. Subsequently, he attended lectures at Columbia College in the District of Columbia, and graduated at a Pennsylvania university. Meantime he had served as a hospital surgeon in the army for two years, and in 1870, having acquired the necessary funds, made a prolonged European tour.

On returning to America, Dr. Hayes extended his travels through this country, and in 1874, with an eye to business and pleasure, went to California. Here he soon became acquainted with John W. Mackey, the Bonanza king, and other prominent financiers on the coast, and as a result formed a partnership with J. M. Walker, a former partner of Mackey, under the firm name of Hayes & Walker. As a member of this firm, and as an associate with Mackey, Mr. Hayes, during the next three years, did an extensive banking and brokerage business, handling a vast amount of money, and reaping handsome profits, which enabled him, a little later, to buy largely of the stock of the Bonanza mines, which were then pouring a steady stream of wealth into the laps of their owners. Becoming convinced that this would not continue, and that other mining properties were more desirable, he sold out his interest, and after a long investigation bought outright the Red-Hill gravel mines, in Trinity county, California. This purchase, which includes eleven hundred acres of land, in which are located seven mines, and extensive water rights, upon which in that country the value of a gold mine largely depends, makes Mr. Hayes the sole owner of by far the largest and most valuable mining property held by a single individual in the state of California, and establishes his place among the few who have been able to seize and hold the glittering prize for which so many have striven since the western slope began to yield its treasures.

While thus seeking his fortune elsewhere, Mr. Hayes has retained his residence in Alton and his lively interest in all that concerns the town and state. The homestead upon which he was born is his, and he makes it his home during the summer. He has expended a large amount in improving it, a barn costing fifteen thousand dollars being among the latest additions. When the house, which he has planned to match it, is erected, the establishment will be one of the finest in the state.

In 1876, 1877, and 1878, Dr. Hayes represented Alton in the legislature.

He married, in 1877, Jessie B. Benjamin, daughter of E. M. Benjamin, Esq., of San Francisco, a relative of Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, and a lady of rare literary attainments and social accomplishments. Their only child--Lloyd Benjamin Hayes--was born May 21, 1880.

With so much success behind him, Mr. Hayes is still a young man, as cheery and active and energetic as when he first left New Hampshire. He has an extensive knowledge of the world, a wide circle of acquaintances among those who shape the politics and business of the country, and hosts of friends who have been won by his unfailing good nature, liberality, and courtesy. He is pledged, when he has done making money, to come back to New Hampshire and spend it.

HON. GEORGE COGSWELL, A. M., M. D.

BY JOHN CROWELL, M. D.

George Cogswell was born in the town of Atkinson, N. H., February 5, 1808. He came from that sturdy stock of ancestors whose history is so closely interwoven with the early life and enterprise of New England. In 1635, John Cogswell, a prosperous Englishman of good estate and standing, established a settlement in the town of Ipswich, now Essex, Mass., on a grant of three hundred acres of land, which have remained in the Cogswell name, in regular line, to the present time. His maternal ancestor was Giles Badger, who settled in Newbury, Mass., the same year. These families have been closely allied by marriage, and their descendants have been prominent in church and state, in medicine and in letters.

The father of the subject of this sketch, Dr. William Cogswell, was a medical practitioner of wide reputation, noted for his executive and judicial abilities. He was appointed chief surgeon of the military hospital at West Point during the Revolutionary war, closing his service in 1785, when he settled in Atkinson, N. H., practicing his profession until the close of his life, January 1, 1831. His mother was Judith Badger, daughter of Gen. Joseph Badger, Sen., of Gilmanton, N. H. She was a woman of great force of character, of devout piety and strong faith. When in her ninety-fourth year, after her earthly vision had become dim, the name of Jesus would light her face with a radiant glow of loving recognition. This devout woman united with the church in Atkinson in 1810, on which interesting occasion her husband and their three oldest children joined her in the act of consecration; and on the same day their six younger children were baptized by the pastor, Rev. Stephen Peabody. The youngest of these nine children died in infancy. All of the remaining eight became professors of religion, and lived to a good old age, in the enjoyment of the honors and dignities of the high official trusts committed to them. Of this large family, the subject of this sketch alone survives (1882), vigorous in his threescore years and ten, and actively engaged in the discharge of the duties of his several official trusts.

Dr. George Cogswell received his preliminary education at Atkinson Academy, where his love for scientific investigation soon became manifest. He commenced the study of medicine with his father, whose wise instruction and safe counsel did much to shape the future career of the aspiring student. In his desire for a wider culture in the line of his chosen profession, he became a private student to Reuben D. Mussey. M. D., L.L. D., and for two years enjoyed the instruction of this distinguished lecturer on anatomy and surgery. Early in 1830, he became a pupil of John D. Fisher, M. D., of Boston, who, at that time, was the most noted auscultator in New England. Dr. Fisher showed his confidence in his ambitious student by giving him the main practical charge of the House of Industry, at that time located in South Boston. The grateful pupil held the most intimate relations with his distinguished teachers during their lives.

In 1830 he was graduated Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth College, with the honors of his class, and the same college conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1865.

Dr. Cogswell at once commenced the practice of his profession in Bradford, Mass., in August, 1830, and soon entered into a large and successful business. He brought to his work the discipline of hard and intelligent study, and his great desire was to advance the standard of medical practice in Essex county. He was the first physician in "Essex North" who made intelligent use of auscultation and percussion in the diagnosis of disease.

In his desire for a wider knowledge in the range of his profession, especially in the line of surgery, he visited Europe in the fall of 1841, spending the succeeding winter in visiting the hospitals of Paris, and in attending the lectures of the distinguished men who at that time had attained a position in medical science surpassing, in point of investigation and practical analysis, that of any other city. In the following spring he visited the principal cities of Italy, and for a while studied in the hospitals of London. On his return to Bradford he at once resumed the practice of his profession. He boldly and successfully attempted capital operations in surgery, and became the leading surgical operator and consulting physician for a large circuit. He fitted up a well appointed dissecting-room, and the advantages of his instruction were sought by many students, who can attest to the thoroughness of his teaching, especially in the department of surgical anatomy. His knowledge of technical anatomy was quite remarkable, and sometimes his students would contrive a plot to "stump" the "old doctor" by an intricate quizzing upon some obscure nerve or vessel. The attempt always proved futile; but the cunning students did not enjoy the fire of questions that followed from their teacher, who all too easily perceived the "soft impeachment." The term "old doctor" was applied by the students before their preceptor was thirty years old. In 1844, Dr. Cogswell was offered a professorship in the medical department of one of the leading colleges of New England, which he declined.

He early manifested his interest in the elevation of the standard of medical practice, by suggesting to his professional brethren the importance of a local organization, and through his efforts the Essex North Medical Association was formed, composed of the leading physicians in the northern portion of the county. This society has had a vigorous growth, and is now merged into the Massachusetts Medical Society, under the title of the "Essex North District Medical Society." Although retired from active practice, he retains his membership in this society, and regularly attends the quarterly meetings, participating in the scientific and practical discussions, and manifesting a lively interest in the success of the younger members.