Carroll County
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A history, and even an historical sketch, of
Wolfeborough during the last three quarters of a century that should fail to
give some notice of Samuel Avery would, to every one who ever knew the man, he
obviously very defective, if not indeed the play of "Hamlet with Hamlet left
out." Yet the work of preparing such a biographical notice of him as our full
sense of his worth dictates is not without difficulties. His was one of those
unassuming and noiseless lives that so touch society at every turn and in every
phase, in the interests of virtue, honesty, and good order, as to be a sort of
modified ubiquity, always felt and always respected, yet never visible as an
embodiment of officious meddling.
So far as the facts have been
ascertained, it is safe to say that Samuel Avery descended from an ancestry
preeminent for their moral worth. In the early years of Boston and several of
the ancient towns in its vicinity there were families bearing the name of Avery
which stood high in the esteem of the people, and included, even in the first
two or three generations, an unusual number of educated and professional men,
clergymen and physicians being especially noted. Among the latter Dr. William
Avery, who was born in England, 1619, and came to this country in 1650, lived in
Boston, and died there in 1686. Some of his descendants early settled in
Franklin county, Massachusetts, where have been found many highly respected
families of the name.
Another and doubtless a near relative of Dr.
William was Christopher Avery, who is said by an old writer to have come from
Salisbury, in county Hants, England, and was among the first settlers of eastern
Massachusetts. In 1646 he was on the board of selectmen in Gloucester, and for
several subsequent years remained in that position. In 1658 he removed to
Boston, and in 1666 he finally settled in New London, Conn. Among his children
born in England was James, born in 1620, who married, November 10, 1643, Joanna
Greenslade, of Boston. With a large and highly esteemed family, he also removed
to New London, where his descendants have been well known and respected for many
years. This James was for some time a representative. He was also a captain, and
in King Philip's War was in command of the Pequoit allied force.
Among
the sons of James was John, born February 10, 1654, who is believed to be
identical with the John who settled in the southeastern part of New Hampshire,
and in 1689, when thirty-five years of age, solicited the protection of
Massachusetts, which at that time largely controlled the new settlements of the
former colony. There can be but little, if any, doubt, indeed it seems to be
fairly demonstrable, that this John was the father of John Avery, of Stratham,
the grandfather of Samuel Avery, of Wolfeborough. If this be so, the generations
may easily be traced as: Samuel6, Joshua5, John4, John3, James2, Christopher1.
Of the seven children of John and Bridget Avery, of Stratham, the two
youngest, Joshua and Josiah, were twins, born October 28, 1740. Joshua married,
November 24, 1768, Hannah Clark, who was born December 18, 1747. They had seven
children, of whom the youngest was Samuel, subsequently of Wolfeborough. He was
born in Stratham, May 9, 1785. Nothing in his childhood and younger manhood
seems to have distinguished his experience and career from the common lot of
youth in those days. If, however, as we have reason to believe, "the child was
father of the man," he was ever trustworthy, of steady habits, of irreproachable
character, and of even and noiseless demeanor. When yet a young man he received
a lieutenant's commission in the artillery company of his native town. Marrying,
January 13, 1814, Mary Moody Clark, he and his young wife, during the same
month, fixed their home and entered upon their lifework in Wolfeborough. Mr.
Avery had lived the previous year with his older brother, Daniel, a prominent
business man of Meredith Bridge, now Laconia, and when he started in life as a
married man he supposed himself to be the possessor of from four to five hundred
dollars. He purchased the real estate on which he passed his subsequent life and
on which his oldest son still lives. There were then only a small house of one
story and a barn. There were also a store and a cooper's shop, both of which he
opened for business. The store being destroyed by fire in March, 1824, he in the
course of a year built another in which he or his sons, who succeeded him,
continued merchandising till 1865. In connection with his other occupations, he
at various times engaged in blacksmithing, shoemaking, harness-making, milling,
coopering, and farming. In 1836, with Stephen and Daniel Pickering and Hon.
Nathaniel Rogers, he engaged in woolen manufacturing, which they conducted for
several years, till the factory was consumed by fire.
The various
departments of Mr. Avery's business made him emphatically a busy man. This
pressing care and his lack of robust health, as well as his personal taste,
disinclined him to public official life. Yet in 1819, 1820, 1821, 1830, and in
1831, he held the office of town clerk, and in 1825, 1830, and 1835, he was on
the board of selectmen.
Mr. Avery took a warm interest in the
Wolfeborough and Tuftonborough Academy from the outset of the enterprise. After
it was incorporated (January 20, 1820) its friends intended to erect a suitable
school building by means of a stock company, that should issue two hundred
shares at ten dollars each. It was found, however, that only one hundred and
fifty of these shares were sold to fifty-three holders, and the enterprise
stopped for want of funds. Mr. Avery felt so strongly the importance of
finishing the building already erected, and had so much faith in its usefulness,
that he took forty-three of the remaining shares, thus giving a new impulse and
new hopefulness to the work. The building was soon in readiness for occupancy.
John P. Cleveland (the late Dr. Cleveland) opened the school as its first
principal, and it met then and later in its history a degree of success which
far exceeded expectation. Many prominent men from Wolfeborough and elsewhere
there laid the foundations of their success in various professions. There Henry
Wilson began his career in education, finding his home, as many others did, in
Mr. Avery's family. And when, many years afterward, he visited the place as
Vice-President of the United States, it was with deep emotion, and his eyes
filled with tears as the old school building and his old home were both in full
view, that he said, though in the presence of many friends: "For all I am, I am
indebted to Mr. Avery. It was through his influence and kindness I received my
education in the academy when I was without money and discouraged, and when all
others refused to aid me."
Mr Avery was a corporate member of the board
of trustees of the academy, and. with several others, held a deed of the
property in trust. He was also a member and a liberal supporter of the
Congregational society from its organization until his death.
In every
department of his life Mr. Avery was known and trusted as an honest man. No one
ever accused him of meanness or fraud. And he ever aimed to train his sons to
habits of living and doing business which should command the confidence of the
community. When one of them was a lad of from thirteen to fourteen years of age
he secured for him a position in the store of one of the most enterprising
traders in a large, distant town. Calling upon him a few weeks afterward to see
how he succeeded in his new relations, he was gratified to find that between the
merchant and the boy there was a feeling of mutual kindliness; but, learning
that the former was addicted to methods of trade not strictly and squarely
honest, he quietly took his son from the position he thought too full of
temptation and incompatible with the formation of the strictly honest business
character which he desired him to possess.
Though less demonstrative
than many in the social relations of life, Mr. Avery was ever keenly alive to
the incidents that touched them both in his own family and in the community. A
few quiet words, uttered just at the right moment, often revealed a busy mind
and a sympathetic heart. Contrary to what many would have expected, this was
sometimes true of him on the mirthful side of life. There are those still who
remember with what zest he used to relate an incident which, in the early days
of his office as town clerk, amused a whole assembly. According to the custom of
the times, he embraced an opportunity after the sermon at a public religious
meeting for publishing the bans of matrimony between certain well-known parties.
As the sermon had criticized with some severity the doctrines of Universalism, a
man who had embraced those doctrines and was troubled with some deafness hastily
inferred that Mr. Avery was expressing a wish that such a sermon might never be
heard there again, at once arose and said, "I second Mr. Avery's motion." The
effect of his manoeuvre upon the assembly was not assuring. And the enjoyment of
his discomfiture on discovering his mistake was to him who was supposed to have
made the motion not limited by the occasion.
Mr. Avery's last years,
though often affected by frail health and sometimes considerable suffering, were
in the main free from seriously disturbing incident. His last sickness, which he
bore without complaint, was long and exhausting. He died peacefully, trusting in
Christ, October 5, 1858, and was borne to his grave sincerely mourned and
universally respected.
No account of Samuel Avery can be complete that
does not include some notice of his wife, Mary Moody Clark, the oldest daughter
of Joseph and Comfort (Weeks) Clark, of Greenland, N. H., was born in that town
August 25, 1795, and was a lineal descendant of Nathaniel Clark, one of the
first settlers of Newbury, Mass., her line of descent being Joseph5, Greenleaf4,
Enoch3, Henry2, Nathaniel1. At her marriage she was young, small, and beautiful,
but, as ever afterwards, ful] of life and energy. When she settled in
Wolfeborough many of her friends thought of her as in a wilderness, which very
little was known except that it was a desolation. In later life she used to
amuse her children by telling them of the curiosity which, soon after her coming
to Wolfeborough, some of the people had to see Mr. Avery's young bride. Much had
been said concerning her as the latest wonder, but a few only had verified the
rumors by actual sight. At length one, more resolute than the rest, declared
that he would see her for himself. He went accordingly to the house and knocked
at the door. The door being opened by Mrs. Avery, he asked her if Mrs. Avery was
at home and desired that she would bring him a mug of cider. So particularly
anxious did he seem that Mrs. Avery should herself get and bring it, that she at
once suspected his object. She however, brought "the cider, which he drank, and,
returning to the store whence he had come, reported, with evident
disappointment, that he had failed to see Mrs. Avery, but saw instead a small
young girl, who came to the door and insisted on waiting upon him, though he
specially requested her to ask Mrs. Avery to bring what he wished.
Few
men have been so blessed in the marriage relation as Mr. Avery in his union with
Mary Moody Clark. The heart of her husband fully trusted in her. As the eldest
daughter in a large family in her early home, a special responsibility was
thrown upon her which admirably trained her for her life as a wife and mother.
Capable, energetic, prudent, hospitable, kind, sympathetic, are only some of the
adjectives that describe her character. In the home circle, in society, in the
church, in social life, in the abode of suffering and distress, everywhere she
was ready for needed service. After the opening of the academy it seemed to be
considered a matter of course that she should board the preceptor, and it seemed
to be the special aim of pupils from abroad to secure, if possible, a home in
her family. Her children cannot recall the time in that well-remembered past
when her house was not the attraction of friends from near and from afar, and
the almost unbroken rush of people from various parts of New England and
elsewhere made it more like a public house than the abode of a private family.
But her sunny face and slight figure flitting here and there, ministering alike
to family and to guests, somehow never failed to meet every emergency. There
were occasions so unlooked-for and so full of difficulties, not to say seeming
impossibilities, that they would have appalled into despair almost any other
woman, yet, with wonderful equanimity and cheerfulness, she successfully met
them all, till her numerous guests were sometimes tempted to believe that to her
marvelous executive there had been added a creative power.
Meanwhile
Mrs. Avery never neglected her own family. She was ever watchful over her
children, efficiently controlling and faithfully instructing them, and uniformly
prompt in attendance with them upon the Sabbath services. Sometimes, when there
was no other religious meeting, she went with them to that of the Quakers,
where, upon board seats supported by wooden blocks, they often sat for a whole
hour in profound silence, longing for the "break-up" and the closing
hand-shaking.
Mrs. Avery was peculiarly the friend of the poor. All who
suffered from pecuniary needs which could not otherwise be supplied seemed moved
as by a law to go to her, and she never failed, in some way, to help them. After
her death various garments were found which she had neatly mended and kept in
readiness for needy children here and there, as their wants should become known
to her.
Mrs. Avery survived her husband between seventeen and eighteen
years, and to the last was always a most welcome member of every circle in which
she moved. Her last sickness was short and severe, resulting in her death, March
6, 1876. At the funeral service, held in the Congregational church which she had
long loved, her pastor, Rev. George H. Tilton, read, in connection with very
tenderly appreciative remarks, Proverbs 31: 10-31, a portion of Scripture never
more appropriate, and added a somewhat extended account of her religious
experience, which, not long before, he had committed to paper as dictated by her
own lips.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Avery were: 1. Augustine Decatur,
born October 16, 1814. 2. Joseph Lorenzo, born January 12, 1817. 3. Anne Eliza,
born November 25, 1819.
The two sons of Mr. Avery married sisters, and
have always been in company in their business, sharing equally in all gains and
losses. Both have remained in Wolfeborough, both are members and supporters,
like their father before them, of the Congregational society; and, though both
have sustained various offices of trust, both have often declined to be
candidates for offices, preferring a life of untrammeled freedom from the cares
of official responsibility.
Augustine D. Avery has, however, been town
clerk and town treasurer, each for several years; representative for three
years, county commissioner one or two terms, a corporate member of the
Wolfeborough Savings Bank, and was elected, but never served, as a trustee of
the academy.
[Mr Avery is a man of unusual information concerning all
branches or commercial activity in this section, reads ana understands good
literature, has a strong and energetic nature, and, having once taken hold of
the handle of the plow, does not look back until the furrow is turned. He, like
his brother, is a pleasant, courteous gentleman, whom it is a pleasure to know.
He has been one of those most interested in the history of Wolfeborough, and,
proud of her record, has done much to preserve it. Both Augustine and Joseph are
highly valued citizens, and are justly classed among the best representatives of
Carroll county. — Editor.]
He married, December 26, 1854, Sarah
Elizabeth, daughter of Dudley Leavitt and Sarah Ann (Wiggin) Libby, of
Wolfeborough. They have had five children: 1. Mary Elizabeth, born November 16,
1855; died October 20, 1856. 2. Dudley Libby, born August 11, 1857; died June
24, 1874; 3. Samuel Augustine, born March 5, 1860; died August 27, 1861. 4.
Samuel, born March 11,1862. 5. Belle, born March 27, 1866. The oldest son, in
the bright morning of his young and promising manhood, lost his life by drowning
in the Winnipiseogee lake.
Joseph L. Avery has also sustained the
offices of town clerk and town treasurer, and was a corporate member and trustee
of the Wolfeborough Savings Bank, and its first treasurer. Since leaving the
last-named office he has been on the board of examiners. He was on Governor
Weston's staff with the rank of colonel. He was a trustee of the Tuftonborough
and Wolfeborough Academy from the time his father retired from the board till
the adoption of the name of "Brewster Free School," of which he is a corporate
member and trustee. During the construction of the Wolfeborough railroad, Mr.
Avery was treasurer, and has been a director to the present. As treasurer he was
not required to give any bond, and, in the interest of the road, he often found
it necessary to take journeys partly by night and through miles of an
unfrequented region alone, and with many thousands of dollars in charge; yet,
though sometimes in apparent peril, he escaped unfriendly molestation. He
married Helen Maria Libby January 8, 1857. They have had two children: 1. Joseph
William, born August 14, 1867; died October 16, 1867. 2. Joseph Clifton, born
June 1, 1874.
Anne Eliza, the only daughter of Samuel and Mary M.
(Clark) Avery, married, November 6, 1839, Rev. Leander Thompson, of Woburn,
Mass. Soon after their marriage they sailed with others for Syria and the Holy
Land as missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions. During their sojourn of several years in that country, a series of
four terrible wars, very unexpectedly to them, desolated a large portion of the
missionary field and seriously interrupted the missionary work. The unavoidable
cares and anxieties, and sometimes great perils, which attended such scenes, and
the prostrating effects of the extreme heat of the climate, at length completely
broke down the health of some of the missionaries, and among them was Mr.
Thompson. After a long and very dangerous illness in the city of Jerusalem,
whither he had fled for safety from the perils of war, an illness from which he
has never fully recovered, he was advised and thought it best to return with his
family to the United States. Here, though never regaining his former vigor, he
has been twice a pastor; first, for seven years, in South Hadley, Mass., and
later, for thirteen years, in West Amesbury (now Merrimac), Mass. Besides this
he has been acting pastor in Wolfeborough one year, and in his native town of
Woburn, Mass., between three and four years. In this last place he has with his
family resided for several years without a pastoral charge.
Mr. and Mrs.
Thompson have had six children, the first born in the city of Jerusalem, the
second in the city of Beirut. Only two are now living, four having died in
childhood. One, Everett Augustine, born March 28, 1847, graduated from Amherst
College in 1871, and for many years has taught the classics and natural history
in the high schools of Woburn and Springfield, Mass. The youngest son and child,
Samuel Avery, born in Wolfeborough, October 16, 1850, married, November 27,
1879, Harriet Ella, daughter of Dexter Carter, Esq., of Woburn, where he resides
and is engaged in business. They have two children: 1. Amy Carter, born October
22, 1881. 2. Everett Leander, born May 12, 1884.
Contributed 2022 Jul 07 by Norma Hass, extracted from History of Carroll County, New Hampshire by Georgia Drew Merrill, published in 1889, pages 373-380.
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