Part 53

GEORGE BURLEY SPALDING, D. D.

BY REV. A. H. QUINT. D. D.

GEORGE BURLEY SPALDING, the present pastor of the First church in Dover, was born in Montpelier, Vt., August 11, 1835, son of Dr. James Eliza (Reed) Spalding. The line of American descent on the paternal side as follows: Edward, of Chelmsford, Mass., immigrant; Benjamin, whose will was proved April 5, 1670; Edward, of Canterbury, Conn.; Ephraim, of Connecticut; Reuben, of Connecticut; Reuben, who married Jerusha Carpenter, and lived in Sharon, Vt.; Dr. James; and Rev. George Burley.

Deacon Reuben Spalding, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was one of the early settlers of Vermont, whose life was not more remarkable for his toils, privations, and energy as a pioneer in a new country, than for his unbending Christian integrity. He entered Sharon in 1769, and lived on the same farm eighty years. He was a member of the church sixty-one years, and deacon forty-two years. He was distinguished for "the best qualities of the old New England Puritanism."

Dr. James Spalding was the third of twelve children, and for many years a successful practitioner of medicine in Montpelier, Vt., but especially eminent in surgery. He graduated at the Dartmouth Medical School at the age of twenty years. He was more than forty years a member of the Vermont Medical Society; its secretary over twenty years, its president in 1866, 1867, and 1868. "His life," says a printed sketch, "was that of the good Samaritan, a life of toil, prayer, and sympathy for others."

By the line of Reed, the family is of the same blood with Rev. Dr. Gardiner Spring and Rev. Dr. Edwards A. Park. The grandmother of Dr. George B. Spalding, and the grandfather of the late Senator Matthew H. Carpenter, were sister and brother.

George Burley Spalding was the seventh of nine children. He fitted for college at the Washington County Academy, Montpelier, and graduated at the University of Vermont in 1856, being twenty-one years of age. He read law one year in Montpelier, with Hon. Charles W. Willard, and then went to Tallahassee, Fla., where he read law another year with Judge W. C. M. Davis. While in the South, he was a regular correspondent of the New York Courier and Enquirer, of which his brother, James Reed Spalding, was one of the editors. As such he attended the noted Southern commercial convention in Savannah, in 1858, where Yancey, Rhett, Barnwell, and DeBow poured out their hot invective. In the following year he mingled with the great southern leaders, on the eve of the great events which were soon to burst upon the country. Doubtless in his law study and in his intercourse with men in different phases of society, he acquired that practical acquaintance with human nature which makes available his instinctive and common-sense power of meeting all classes of men.

Flattering offers were made him by Judge Davis to remain and enter into practice with that eminent lawyer, at a large assured income. But Mr. Spalding had already changed his purpose for life. He returned North, abandoned the law, and began the study of theology in the Union Theological Seminary in New York city in 1858. Here he remained two years. Here, also, he did regular editorial work on the New York World, of which his brother was founder, and subsequently wrote for the columns of the New York Times. This experience enabled him, later, to write, for five years, a large portion of the editorial leaders of the Watchman and Reflector. While in Union Seminary, his spirit of independence and industry was so strong that he supported himself entirely by his literary work. Leaving New York, he entered Andover Theological Seminary, where, after one year's study, he graduated in 1861. On the 5th of October of that year he was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Vergennes, Vt., a position to which he had, in fact, been called before his graduation, as well as to another field. He resigned his successful pastorate at Vergennes, August 1, 1864, to accept a call to the Park church, Hartford, Conn., formerly Dr. Bushnell's, where he was installed September 28. He resigned that charge, and was dismissed March 23, 1869, and was installed pastor of the First church in Dover, September 1, following.

This church is the second in point of age in this state, being organized in December, 1638, and preceded by Hampton only. The old Exeter First church itself later, became extinct in 1642, and the present First church of Exeter dates from 1698 only. The Dover First parish dates from October, 1633, and is unquestionably the oldest in New Hampshire. A long line of able men has been on the roll of the pastors of that venerable church. Under none has it been so strong and so influential as under Dr. Spalding. Its numbers have largely increased; its pews are at a constant premium; its pew-occupants number men of the highest distinction in the state. Three years since, the whole of the handsome church edifice was refitted at an expense of over twelve thousand dollars, besides the amount necessary to purchase the pew property, and no debt remains. An elegant and commodious parsonage has also been purchased and paid for. Without disparagement to others, it is safe to say that public opinion accords to Mr. Spalding a foremost place among the ministers of New Hampshire. Certainly no pastor of the ancient First church ever had a greater public respect or a deeper personal affection. His administration of a strong and thinking society goes on without even a ripple. He has been frequently called to attend distant councils, some of great and even national interest, and some where delicate questions required the wisest consideration; and in all cases his calm and deliberate judgment has had an influence inferior to none. One of these was the great Brooklyn Council, of national interest, in 1876.

In his preaching, one has to study him to get the secret of his influence. There is nothing in it to startle. There is no dramatic exhibition. It is the farthest possible from the sensational. There are never any protruding logical bones. He never indulges in any prettinesses of diction. But a critical analysis (the last thing one thinks of in listening to him) reveals the elements of his power. His themes are always elevated themes. One sees the most earnest convictions held in perfect independence and honesty; a natural development of thought in an always fresh and orderly way; a diction as clear as a pellucid brook; illustrations drawn from wide observation, always simple and frequently beautiful; a genial, sometimes intense, glow pervading his whole discourse; and a dignified but simple manliness throughout. Fully six feet in height, and with liberally developed physique, he impresses one at first mainly with the idea of manly strength. But it takes no great time to see that commanding intellectual abilities are fully parallel with his physique; and those who hear him, and especially those who know him, find an equal development of a generous nature which inclines always to sympathy, and with which he answers, in public and private, to every appeal to his helpful power. In doctrine he is understood to hold the main tenets of what is called old theology, but as forces rather than dogmas, and liberally instead of severely applied.

Mr. Spalding's literary work has been extensive, but mainly upon current newspaper periodicals. This has given him, of course, a valuable directness and clearness of expression. A few sermons and other productions have been published: A sermon on God's Presence and Purpose in the War, November 26, 1863; a discourse commemorative of Gen. Samuel P. Strong, February 28, 1864; a discourse on the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Dover, May 18, 1873; a discourse commemorative of the character and career of Hon. John P. Hale, November 27, 1873, which the poet Whittier characterized in the highest terms,--a fine specimen of judicious analysis, in which he does justice to the pioneer of the anti-slavery cause in the United States senate,--a justice now lately apparently purposely ignored out of a desire to magnify a brilliant but later laborer. The Relation of the Church to Children, November 6, 1873. The Dover Pulpit in the Revolution, July 9, 1876,--for which he searched and well used the manuscript of his eminent predecessor, Dr. Jeremy Belknap. The fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the Conference of Churches of Strafford county, June 18, 1878. The Idea and Necessity of Normal-School Training, December 26, 1878. Annual Report of the Trustees of the State Normal School, June, 1879. Memorial on the Death of Garfield, September, 1881. Historical discourse on the one-hundredth anniversary of the Piscataqua Association, October 26, 1881. On the death of Wells Waldron, November 13, 1881. On the death of John Riley Varney, May 5, 1882.

In addition, however, to his other work, he has been, and is, the editor of the New Hampshire Journal, a successful weekly in the interest of the Congregational churches, from which some of his keen editorials have met with favor throughout the country.

Mr. Spalding was a member of the constitutional convention of New Hampshire which met January 8, 1877. He represented Dover in the New Hampshire house of representatives in 1877. He is also a trustee of the state normal school, by appointment of the governor and council, his first appointment, for two years, being made in 1876, and his chairmanship of that board commencing soon after and now continuing. He became a member of the school committee of Dover in 1875, and still continues, having been its chairman from 1876. He was chosen trustee and one of the executive committee of the New Hampshire Missionary Society is 1873; and still retains each position. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Dartmouth College in 1878.

Dr. Spalding married Sarah Livingston, daughter of Rev. Dr. John W. Olmstead, manager and editor of the Watchman and Reflector; her mother, Mary, was daughter of Richard Montgomery Livingston, a lawyer of Saratoga, N.Y. Their children are Mary Livingston, Martha Reed, Catherine Olmstead (who died August 29, 1881, aged fourteen), Gertrude Parker, and George Brown.

JAMES F. BRIGGS.

BY HENRY M. PUTNEY.

John and Nancy (Franklin) Briggs were of that class of working Englishmen who had the courage to flee from hard surroundings which no strength could overcome, and seek in a new world, among strangers, a chance to improve their condition. They were factory operatives at Bury, Lancashire county, England, where their son JAMES F. was born, October 23, 1827. When he was fourteen months old they took passage on an emigrant ship for America, and after a rough voyage of more than seven weeks landed in Boston, March 4, 1829. Going direct to Andover, Mass., the father found employment in a woolen-factory there. From that place he removed to Saugus, where he worked a short time, and from thence to Amesbury, which was the family home until 1836. In the fall of that year the father, in company with two brothers, bought a small woolen-factory at Holderness, now Ashland, N. H., and, having established his home near by, commenced business on his own account, in manufacturing woolen cloths. But few operatives were needed to run this mill, and they were mainly the three proprietors and their children, among whom was the boy James, then a lad nine years old, who had begun to earn his living in a factory before the removal from Massachusetts, the family circumstances being such that all had to contribute to its support as soon as they were able. He was continuously employed in the mill for the next five years; but during this time he had learned enough of books to make him ambitious to know more; and, as the affairs of the family were fairly prosperous, at the age of fourteen he was sent to the academy at Newbury, Vt., and afterwards to the one at Tilton. Being an expert operative, able to take the wool from the fleece and convert it into cloth, by working in the factory a part of each year he earned the money to pay his expenses at these institutions one or more terms every year until 1848, when he arranged to commence the study of law with Hon. William C. Thompson, at Plymouth; but in February of that year his father died leaving a family of eight children, six of whom were younger than James, in destitute circumstances. This affliction, which threw the care of the family largely upon the young man, compelled him to change somewhat his plans; but he did not for a moment lose sight of the object he had in view, and, as he could not enter the law office at Plymouth, he borrowed books from it and pursued his studies during such time as he could get at home, for a year, when he entered the office of Hon. Joseph Burrows, then a practicing lawyer at Holderness.

J. F. Briggs]

In 1849 the family removed to Fisherville, in order that the younger children might obtain employment in the factory there, and he completed his studies in the office of Judge Butler, from which he was admitted to the bar in 1851. A few months later he commenced the practice of law at Hillsborough Bridge, whither he went a perfect stranger, without money or reputation. But he had ability and energy, was willing to work, knew how to live within a small income until he could make it larger, and little by little he gained clients and friends, who gave him a lucrative practice, accepted his counsel, followed his leadership, and established his reputation as the most popular and influential man of the town. In 1856, 1857, and 1858, he was sent by a nearly unanimous vote to represent Hillsborough in the legislature, where he was at once accorded a prominent position as a member of the judiciary committee, and the third year was honored by the nomination of his party for the speakership. At this time he acted with the Democratic party, and continued to do so until the war of the rebellion, when he felt that all loyal men should unite to save the Union and maintain the national authority, and, having been nominated by the Democracy of his district for councilor upon a platform which enunciated peace-at-any-price doctrines, to which he could not assent, he declined the nomination, and from that day has been an ardent, active, and enthusiastic Republican.

While the Eleventh Regiment was being recruited, he tendered his services to the governor of the state and was appointed quartermaster on the staff of Col. Harriman. In this capacity he served through the battles of Fredericksburg, the military operations in Kentucky, and the Mississippi-river expeditions which resulted in the capture of Vicksburg and Jackson, for about a year, when he was prostrated by the malaria of the southern swamps, and compelled to resign and return to his home in Hillsborough.

During his absence in the field, and the illness which succeeded his return, his legal business had become somewhat demoralized, and on the recovery of his health he concluded to start anew in a wider field of action in Manchester, to which city he removed in 1871, forming a partnership with Hon. Henry H. Huse, which still exists. Manchester gave him a cordial welcome. Her mill operatives and other mechanics greeted him as an honored graduate of their school, who in his after triumphs had never forgotten the hard road by which he had journeyed to success; her lawyers and clients were already well acquainted with his professional abilities; her soldiers recognized him as an old companion in arms, and her politicians as an earnest Republican who could and would be a tower of strength in every campaign. Under these circumstances he did not have to wait for business or political preferment. Soon after opening his office he was appointed city solicitor, and in 1874 he was elected to the legislature from ward three. Two years later he was chosen senator from the Manchester district, and in the same year was sent to the constitutional convention.

In all these positions he won reputation and friends to such an extent that in 1877 he was nominated for congress without substantial opposition, and elected by a large majority. At the expiration of his first term he was unanimously renominated, and after an exciting campaign was re-elected by a majority of eight hundred and forty-nine over the combined Democratic and Greenback vote. Two years afterwards it became a question whether he should be returned. The traditions and prejudices of the district were strongly against a third term. Four other able and deserving men were ambitious to succeed him, and he declined to push for the nomination, but accepted a call to take the stump in Maine, leaving it for his friends to determine whether his name should be used in the convention. To one of these, who wrote him that he ought to return from Maine and attend to his canvass, he replied: "I am assured that I can be of considerable service here, and, as it is of vastly more importance that the cause shall triumph in this state next Monday than that I shall be renominated, I must remain and trust to you and others to decide whether it is best to send me back to Washington. Whatever that decision may be, I shall be satisfied." The convention met just after the disastrous defeat of the party in Maine, and when it appeared that there was only a desperate chance for its nominee to be elected. It decided that if any man could succeed he could, and a few days after he took the stump. Manchester, which was counted a doubtful city when the convention assembled, gave him more than eight hundred majority, and the rest of the district swelled this to fourteen hundred and eighty.

In congress, Mr. Briggs has been from the first a faithful, hard-working member, always in his seat, tireless in serving his constituents, especially the veteran soldiers, and conscientiously devoted to the discharge of all his duties. In the forty-fifth congress he was a member of the committee on Patents; in the forty-sixth, of the committee on Naval Affairs; and in the present, the forty-seventh, is chairman of the committee on Expenditures in the War Department, and a member of the Judiciary and Reform in the Civil Service. No member of the house commands a more perfect confidence in his associates, and few, if any, are able to accomplish so much. He succeeds at Washington as he did at home, by quiet, patient, persistent work, and is satisfied with results rather than with brilliant outbursts and noisy exhibitions of his rhetorical powers.

Mr. Briggs married Roxana Smith, the daughter of Obadiah and Eliza M. Smith, of New Hampton, and has had three children, all of whom are living. The oldest, a son, was educated at West Point, and served four years in the army, when he resigned, and is now engaged in the manufacturing business in Trenton, N. J. Two daughters reside with their parents in Manchester.

In concluding this brief sketch, written without the knowledge of its subject, the author feels that it will fail to satisfy those who have known Mr. Briggs intimately without some direct reference to the qualities which characterize him in all positions in life. Prominent among these are his perfect fidelity, industry, steady courage, and thoroughness. It is natural for him to be true, impossible for him to be false. He is ambitious, and few prize more highly the honors they win; but he is incapable of the duplicity, demagogy, and all the cheap artifices by which some men succeed. His faithfulness to his convictions does not count cost or query about consequences to himself. He is as stanch and true a friend as ever lived, and he never cheats those whom he dislikes or despises. His generosity and devotion to his family are far-reaching and untiring. He is a public-spirited citizen, a kind neighbor, and a pleasant companion. He is always approachable, patient, and considerate. In every cause in which he enlists he is a hard worker and a free giver. He knows how to wait, and how to look beyond temporary reverses to the complete triumph which he always believes will crown and establish the right. He never frets, and never rests until the result is secure. His private life is without a stain, and the fierce light of the hottest campaign has disclosed no shadow of a blot upon his public record. His sympathies are with the people, and his head and hands are controlled by his heart. These qualities have made James F. Briggs what he is. They have supplied the place of early advantages, influential friends, and fortune. They have carried him from the woolen-mill, working for a few cents a day, to the national house of representatives, commissioned to speak and act for the largest and richest district in New Hampshire. They have made him strong at the bar, popular at the polls, and influential in congress.

NATHAN WENTWORTH CUMNER.

BY J. W. FELLOWS.

The ancestors of the Cumner family were of English origin. The name is first discovered in the period following the supremacy of the Norman rule,--the return from the dynasty of the Conqueror to the ascendency of the English-Saxon line. It was first spelled Comnor, and later Cumnor, meaning "hospitality to strangers," or a "place of hospitality," and comes through the Saxon branch. To this period may be referred the formation of many English family names,--often derived from some unimportant circumstance, or suggested by personal characteristics. These became marks of distinction, new titles to manhood, and were proudly bequeathed by father to son,--"inherited sur-names."