The Granite Monthly. Vol. II. No. 7. Apr., 1879 A New Hampshire Magazine devoted to Literature, History, and State Progress

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——THE—— GRANITE MONTHLY. A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, HISTORY, AND STATE PROGRESS. VOL. II. APRIL, 1879. NO. 7.

COL. JOHN HATCH GEORGE.

When a biographer encounters the duty of describing, in the abstract, a character which demands greater elaboration in order to do it reasonable justice, he must be excused for the roughness of the outlines, which, with the proper shadings thrown in, would give his descriptive picture more satisfactory approximation to its required fidelity. In the present instance limitation of space, and partial opportunity to glean matters of fact and incident suitable for biographical record, justify the claim on the reader for such excuse. In so far as details are given, however, they will be found correct.

JOHN HATCH GEORGE, son of John George, Esq., and Mary Hatch, his wife by a second marriage, was born in the house in Concord, N. H., now the Colonel’s residence in that city, on the twentieth day of November, 1824, and is now, therefore, in his fifty-fifth year. The native place of his father was Hopkinton, but from his early manhood until the period of his death he was a resident in Concord, where he held the common respect of the citizens as a man of great energy and of unalloyed integrity. He died in 1843. Mary Hatch, mother of the subject of this sketch, survived her husband four years. She was a daughter of Samuel Hatch, Esq., of Greenland. Of the same family were the father of Hon. Albert R. Hatch of Portsmouth, and the mother of John S. H. Frink, Esq., both of whom stand high in professional and political relations in New Hampshire—worthy descendants of a worthy ancestry, noted for great native abilities, honesty, industry and perseverance.

The boyhood of Col. George, as contemporaries say, was unmarked by any special indication of that decided description which sometimes heralds a boy’s preference for a life pursuit. He was slow neither at learning or at play. If he had a prevailing passion it was for the possession and care of domestic animals, on which he lavished great wealth of kindness, a quality which has grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength. His farm manager is authority for the opinion that “he would kill his animals with kindness were they so unfortunate as to have his constant personal attendance.” His love for rural pursuits was a hereditament, and also clings to him with increasing vigor unto this day.

He was educated at the public schools in Concord, and was fitted for college at the Old Academy in that city. He entered as a student at Dartmouth college in 1840, without having any special profession in future view, and deported himself with credit while there. When his father died, some three years afterward, he had to resign his college course, but his graduating degree, and that of Master of Arts, was subsequently conferred on him by the Faculty of Dartmouth.

It was fortunate for him, and largely also due to the promising character of young George, at this most important period of his life, that his family enjoyed the friendship of Ex-President Franklin Pierce. All who were privileged with the personal acquaintance of that eminent man knew the peculiar skill he had in the discovery of latent merit among the youth whom he honored with his friendship, and the more than kindly interest he took in many, who, only for his encouragement, would have lacked the spirit to aspire. Without previous consultation concerning his inclination towards the study of law, Gen. Pierce invited young George to enter his office and prepare for admission to the bar. That the youth had what is called “a legal mind” had been a quiet discovery made by his friend and patron, who was then at the head of the law-firm, in Concord, of Pierce & Fowler. Here, for three years, Col. George applied himself diligently to his studies, passed a reputable examination, and was admitted to the bar in 1846, and at once entered into partnership with Gen. Peaslee, and on the practice of law under the firm-name of Peaslee and George, which united interest continued until 1851, when he formed a copartnership with Sidney Webster, Esq.

Prior to his majority Col. George had been hovering round the verge of politics, and, at every circuit of the whirlpool he was drawn nearer to its vortex. For many years, and with but few interruptions, the Democracy had guided the politics of New Hampshire up to 1847, when the Colonel held his first public office as clerk of the State Senate. This office he filled in 1848, and again in 1850. In 1849 he was appointed Solicitor for the county of Merrimack, re-appointed in 1854, and removed by address, solely for political reasons, in 1856.

The same year in which he was made Solicitor for Merrimack county he was married to Miss Susan Ann Brigham, daughter of Levi Brigham, Esq., of Boston. Mrs. George died in 1863, leaving five children—three sons and two daughters. In 1865 he was again married to Miss Salvadora Meade Graham, daughter of Col. James D. Graham, of the United States Engineers. He has had one daughter by this marriage. His eldest son, John Paul, graduated last year at Dartmouth college, and is now studying at Harvard Law School. His eldest daughter, Jane Pierce, is married to Mr. H. E. Bacon, of Portland, Maine, and his second son, Charles Peaslee, is at the United States Naval School at Annapolis, Md. A son and daughter—Benjamin Pierce and Ann Brigham—are at home.

Famous as the bar of New Hampshire has been for its eminent men, few of their number gained, so early in their legal career as did Col. George, such reputation for skill and devotion to the interests of clients. His success was remarkable, and yet it was simply the meet reward of the most devoted study and perseverance in professional duty. Gifted with a powerful physical organization he accomplished miracles of labor in the legal and political fields. He was fortunate in the sympathy and aid he received in both relations from his partners, Gen. Peaslee and Sidney Webster, Esq., and until the latter gentleman, in 1852, became the private Secretary of President Franklin Pierce, when the brief copartnery was dissolved. In 1853 he formed another partnership with Judge William L. Foster, with which Hon. Charles P. Sanborn, ex-Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, subsequently became associate. The firms thus severally constituted held high reputation in the locality and state, and managed, with admirable skill, and great success, many of the prominent civil and criminal cases in Merrimack, Grafton, and other counties in the state. Our gleanings are defective in their record of the leading cases—civil and criminal—in which Col. George had prominence as leading counsel, as public prosecutor, or otherwise. He was prosecutor in the case of State v. Haskell, a negro man, and wife, in 1855, when sentence of death passed on Haskell for murder, which doom was commuted to imprisonment for life. Being officially engaged on this trial the memory of the writer enables him to state that the conduct of this case by the prosecutor was managed with great skill, and without that redundancy of immaterial testimony, and surplusage of words in argument, which very often render trial proceedings, which ought to be of grave and dignified character, almost ludicrous. Other capital cases, defended by Col. George, and followed by acquittals, were those of State v. Scammel, tried in Grafton county; State v. Young, tried in Rockingham county, and State v. Sawyer, decided in Grafton county. Among Col. George’s more memorable civil cases were those of Smith v. the Boston, Concord and Montreal railroad; Concord railroad v. Clough; Frost v. the city of Concord; Tufts’ Brick Company v. Boston and Lowell railroad, and, recently, and still unfinished, the suit Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the pier accident case at Salem.

In 1851 and during the two succeeding years, and again in 1856, he was chairman of the Democratic state committee, during which he did much active service. He was especially prominent in organizing the Presidential campaign which resulted in the election of his intimate personal friend—Gen. Franklin Pierce. From 1852 until 1860 he was a member of the national Democratic committee; and, from 1853 until 1858, he was United States Attorney for New Hampshire. In 1853 he was elected a member of the state legislature, but he resigned his seat on accepting the appointment of U. S. Attorney.

It may properly be mentioned here that Col. George had a narrow escape from becoming Secretary for the territory of Minnesota. That appointment was offered him and accepted, and all arrangements were made to enable him to go to the north-west. On going to Washington he was informed by President Pierce that he need not hasten his departure for a couple of weeks, nor until the President and he should have an opportunity to talk over old home matters; but some business having been left undone in New Hampshire by the colonel, he sought permission to return and complete it, for which he had leave. On arriving at home such was the pressure brought to bear on him by his old clients, and such the importance and value of new encouragements presented him, as to induce him to give up the Minnesota appointment and resume his profession in Concord, greatly to the satisfaction of his friends in social, political and business relations.

Although primarily, in his military career, he was a member of that numerous body which hold colonelcies by a merely ornamental tenure, it cannot be said of him that he “never set a squadron in the field;” for, besides being aid-de-camp and chief of staff of Gov. Dinsmore during three years, up to 1850, for several years from the organization he commanded company A. of the “Governor’s Horse Guards,” one of the finest, best equipped and most thoroughly drilled cavalry corps in New England, and one in which the people of the state had just pride.

From 1847 until 1866, Col. George was clerk and counsel for the Concord railroad. In 1867 he moved his office to Boston, he having accepted the position of Solicitor for the Boston and Lowell and associate railroads—a position he now holds. He has a peculiar fitness for this office, through his being thoroughly conversant with railroads, their laws and modes of their management. In February, 1870, at the special request of the leading citizens of Concord, he delivered a public address on “Railroads and their Management,” which was exhaustive of the subject and created great local as well as wide national interest. It was reported by a shorthand expert, published and extensively circulated, and is held as reliable authority regarding the theory of railroad management. His connection with railroads has been intimate and extended. He is director of the Mount Washington, the Profile and Franconia, and also of the Peterborough railways. He was one of the originators and earliest advocates of the Concord and Claremont and Contoocook Valley roads, and has aided largely in the construction of the various lines which have conserved to Concord its centrality. There are ways and means whereby men receive much popular reputation and credit for services as hollow and objectless as those of Col. George were substantial and valuable; yet it is but just to say in behalf of the wise and discriminating among our people that they put the genuine patriotic value on his efforts and esteem the man accordingly as a people’s friend.