was in danger from organized rebellion, none hastened to its defence with more zeal and courage than these newly made citizens. In the baptism of blood that followed, the heterogeneous mass was welded into one great people.
Hon. John C. Linehan, member of the governor's council from District 2, a whole-souled, open-hearted, and always genial citizen, is a representative of the Irish American element in New Hampshire, whom his fellow-citizens delight to honor.
He was born in Macroom, county of Cork, Ireland, in February, 1840, and is the second in a family of eight, five sons and three daughters, the children of John and Margaret Linehan. The head of the family, who was a finely educated man, came to this country in October, 1847, and his family came two years later. John C., like many other boys of his time in New England, was compelled to leave school at an early age. When 12 years old he was a doffer in the cotton mill of H. H. and J. S. Brown at Fisherville (now Penacook), N. H., and doing his best to keep up, on his side of the spinning frame. From 1852 to 1857 he remained in the mill, retiring as a section hand in the weaving department at the age of 17. From here he went to work for the Rolfe Brothers, sash, door, blind, and box manufacturers, and for three years, from 1858 to 1861, was foreman of the box department. For some years before the war he was a member of the Fisherville band, and when the Third Regiment of volunteers was organized, with seven of his comrades, he enlisted as a member of the Third band, in which he served up to the time of his discharge. The members of the band swore by their regiment, and the regiment swore by the band. One was confident that the regiment was the best in the Department of the South, and the others knew theirs was the best band; so this fraternal feeling was kept up, and is as warm to-day as it was twenty-five years ago. From 1864 to 1866 he worked for the firm of Caldwell, Amsden & Co., cabinet manufacturers. In April of the latter year he went into the grocery business with Henry F. Brown, the co-partnership lasting three years, when the interest of the latter ceased, and from April, 1869, to the present date he has been alone—twenty-one consecutive years in the same business, as a retail grocer; which is saying a good deal for the most unstable, fortune-wrecking business in the country.
A Republican politically, he has served his ward (One, of Concord) in almost every capacity, having been ward clerk, on the board of selectmen, and in both branches of the city government—council and board of aldermen. In October, 1886, he received an almost unanimous vote as candidate for councillor, but seven votes being cast against him on the first ballot. Although failing of an election at the polls, there being no choice by the people, he led his candidate for governor in 39 out of the 43 towns in the councillor district. The vote for Sawyer was 7,962, and for Linehan 8,230, or 268 ahead. His competitor, Frederick Taylor of Nelson, had 7,775, and the Prohibition ticket 661. Linehan's plurality was 455. Considering that there was no special effort made, it was a handsome run.
From 1872 to 1882 he was an ac-
