THE STATE SENATE OF 1879-80.
��295
��Lancaster Mills Manufacturing Com- pany, at Lancaster, Mass., and in 1849 went to California, where he remained six years, engaged in mining and in trade. In 1855 he returned to the old homestead in Hillsborough, where he has since resided. He has been a member of the board of selectmen of his town for twelve years, was in the Legislature in 1864 and 1865, and a member of the last Constitutional Con- vention. He has taken a lively inter- est in agricultural as well as political and public affairs, and was one of the leading spirits in the organization of the Contoocook Agricultural Society. His good judgment is largely and safe- ly relied upon by his fellow citizens in all business matters. He is an earnest Democrat, but has always received more than a straight party support, when a candidate for office. Few members of the Senate • have exerted greater influence during the session than Mr. Cooledge, and the judgment of none was more highly respected. He frequently occupied the chair, to the satisfaction of all, and served upon the Committees on State Institutions, Banks and Manufactures'. He married, in July, 1855, Sarah N., daughter of Simeon W. Jones, a prominent citizen of the town of Washington, by whom he has three children. He has been a member of the Masonic organization for twenty years past.
Nehemiah G. Ordway, of Warner, Senator from the Ninth or Merrimack District, has been extensively known in public life for the past twenty years. He was born in Warner, Nov. 10, 1828, and passed his youth in that town, laboring upon his grand- father's farm, and as a clerk in differ- ent stores in the village. At the age of nineteen he purchased a stock of goods, and commenced business for himself as a country merchant. He served as doorkeeper of the House of Representatives at Concord, in 1855, and again in 1856. During the latter year he was appointed Sheriff of Mer- rimack County and removed to Con- cord, where he also held the office of City Marshal the following year. An
��active and zealous Republican, he was made chairman of the State Committee of his party in i860, and in 1861 re- ceived an appointment as special agent of the Post -Office Department for New England. In 1863 he was elected Sergeant-at-Arms of the National House of Representatives, at Washington, which position he held for twelve years, until the Democracy regained ascend- ancy in that body. Returning to New Hampshire, and taking up his residence in his native town, where he had ever retained a citizen's interest, Mr. Ord- way was elected a representative to the State Legislature in T855, although the town had long been strongly Democrat- ic, and re-elected in 18 76 and 1877, tak- ing an active part in the deliberations of that body each year. He served in 1875 and 1876 as chairman of the Railroad Committe, and in 1877 was chairman of the Committee on Finance. He served in the Constitutional Conven- tion of 1876, and was prominent in the debates in that body. In November, 1877 he was appointed a member of the Tax Commission, established by act of the Legislature at the previous session, and devoted much time and labor to the work in which the commission en- gaged, the fruits of which were seen in a large number of bills reported to the next session of the Legislature, bearing upon the subject of taxation, and which engrossed the attention of that body to a very considerable extent, some of which, in modified form, found their way upon the statute book. Although not a member of the legislature in 1878, Mr. Ordway was in attendance during most of the session, engaged before va- rious committees, urging the adoption of the several measures reported by the tax commission.
During the late session of the Senate he served as chairman of two commit- tees, those on Banks and Elections, and was also .a member of the commit- tee on Towns ; but devoted his atten- tion and labor in the main to railroad affairs, making a single-handed contest against the railroad corporations, in an effort to secure legislation looking to he reduction and equalization of fares
�� �
