294
��THE STATE SENATE OF 1879-80.
��many years in the legislature, and was also a member of the Senate and of the Executive Council. Hon. Jere- miah Blodgett, of Wentworth, is his un- cle. He received a thorough educa- tion at the Canaan Academy, read law with Hon. Wm. P. Weeks and Anson S. Marshall, and commenced the prac- tice of his profession at Canaan in Dec, 1862. In 1867 he removed to Franklin, where he has since been en- gaged in legal practice, having been in partnership with Hon. Austin F. Pike until March last. Mr. Blodgett has been four years a member of the House of Representatives from Franklin, tak- ing a leading position upon the Demo- cratic side, and was an active member of the Constitutional Convention of 1876. He has taken strong interest in political affairs, and was chairman of the Democratic State Committee in 1876 and 1877.
Mr. Blodgett received the compli- ment of a nomination for President of the Senate by the Democratic mem- bers, served upon thejudiciary, Incorpo- rations, and Finance Committees, and took a prominent part in the debates as well as the ordinary legislative work of the session.
In June, i860, he was united in mar- riage with Sarah A., daughter of Rev. M. Gerould. They have one child, a daughter, now a member of Wellesley Female College.
Dudley C. Colman, of the Winni- pesaukee District, or No. Six, is a na- tive and resident of Brookfield, fifty- one years of age in September next. His father was Charles Colman, a farmer and school teacher of Brookfield. He received a good education in the com- mon schools and at Wakefield Academy ; taught school and was engaged in farm- ing until thirty years of age, since which time he has been engaged in trade in the flour and grain business and country store, at Wakefield and Brookfield. He has been promi- nent in town affairs ; has been selectman and town treasurer ten years ; repre- sented Brookfield in the Legislature in 1863 and 1864, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1876.
��He is a man of sound judgement but few words, and served efficiently upon the Judiciary Committee, and also upon the committees on Towns and Claims.
Mr. Colman, although a decided Re- publican, represented a district ordi- narily strongly Democractic, owing his position to a failure to elect on the part of the people, through the diver- sion of a considerable portion of the Democratic vote to the " Greenback " candidate, and a consequent choice by the Legislature in joint convention. In the absence of political measures of a partisan character, from the delibera- tions of the Legislature this year, how- ever, the people of the Sixth District generally cannot fail to be satisfied with the action of their Senator, whose conduct has been creditable, both to himself and his district.
Albert Pitts, of the Sullivan Dis- trict, No. Seven, is by occupation a commercial traveller, and has been for several years past a selling agent for the extensive dry goods firm of Brown, Durell & Co., Boston, travelling in the counties of Cheshire, Sullivan and Grafton. He resided for a time in Lebanon and afterward in Walpole, but has been for the past eight years a citizen of Charlestown. He married, in 1869, Alice S. Saunders, of Fall River, Mass., but has no children. He is a member of Franklin Lodge, F. & A. M., at Lebanon. He has been somewhat active in local politics, but held uo public office previous to his election to the Senate, in which body he developed much aptness for legisla- tive work, and served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, and a member of the Committee on State Institutions.
Cornelius Cooledge, of Hillsbor- ough, Senator from the Eighth, or Hillsborough District, is a native of that town, a son of Lemuel Cooledge, born Oct. 16, 1828. He received a common school education, and at fif- teen years of age started out to make his way in life. He first went to Bos- ton where he was for some time a clerk in a grocery store, was afterwards for two years in the service of the
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