Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/54

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50

��New Hampshire State Senate.

��tain Stephen Gerrish was a pioneer in Boscawen. His oldest son, Colonel Henry Gerrish, was a veteran of the Revokition. His third son, Major Enoch Gerrish, born June 23, 1750, was the grandfather of our senator- elect, and died May 1, 1821. Isaac Gerrish was born Nov. 27, 1782, and was an honored citizen of Boscawen. Senator Gerrish obtained his educa- tion at the academies in Boscawen, Franklin, and Meriden. At the age of twenty years he inlierited his father's estate, and for twenty years he cultivated one of the largest farms in Merrimack county. He was colo- nel of the Twenty-First Regiment New Hampshire militia. After the sale of his farm in 1865, he settled in Concord, where he has been called to represent his ward in the legislature (1881-82). He married, May 23, 1854, Miranda O., daughter of Joseph S. and Harriet N. Lawrence. Their children are Frank L. Gerrish, a farmer of Boscawen, and Miss Lizzie M. Gerrish, who resides with her parents.

Oliver Dennett Savs^yer, Republi- can senator from the Amherst district, is a resident of Weare, where he has lived since he was four years of age. He is the son of Daniel and Dorcas Hodgdon Sawyer, — the former a na- tive of Henniker, and the latter of Weare, — and was born in Portland, Maine, Nov. 19, 1839, during the temporary residence of his parents in that city. His parents belonged to the Society of Friends, and young Sawyer was brought up in the faith. He is proud of his descent, in the eighth generation, from William Saw- yer, who emigrated from England to America in 1632, and commenced pio-

��neer life in Newbury, now Newbury- port, Massachusetts. Oliver received his education in New London, and later at the Friends' school at Provi- dence, Rhode Island. His family, on both sides, were old-fashioned, anti-slavery Quakers, and in early life he was imbued with abolition principles. He was educated to feel keenly the inhumanity and cruelty of human slavery, and long before his majority was working for the success of the anti-slavery cause. He has ever been a total abstainer from all alcoholic drinks, and a firm friend to all measures intended to suppress this evil in our land. A working man all his life, in full sympathy with the working men and women of our coun- try, the cry of distress has never found a deaf ear, but has reached a sympa- thetic listener in him, as a large num- ber of poor people in his vicinity can testify. Alwa^'s working and giving freely to every project for the im- provement of the people, he is fore- most in all good works. He was ap- pointed post-master in 1869, and held that office until removed as an offen- sive partisan in 1885. He was a delegate from Weare to the last Con- stitutional Convention. His father started the first store in North Weare, and after he left school Mr. Sawyer was associated with him in business, until the foimer's death in 1885. Since then he has carried on the busi- ness, now established for nearly half a century, and is known as a substan- tial business man, who received his full party vote in the last election.

Hon. Franklin Worcester, sena- tor-elect from the Peterborough dis- trict, is the sou of John Newton and Sarah (Holden) Worcester, of HoUis,

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