Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/361

 THE

��G-KANITE MONTHLY.

��A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, HISTORY AND STATE PR OGRESS.

��VOL. I.

��MAY, 1878.

��NO. 12.

��HON. DANIEL MABCY.

��New Hampshire has but a single sea- port, and her shipping interest is neces- sarily limited, yet her one sea-port has a safe and superior harbor, and its location is naturally a most advantageous one for commanding the trade, not only of a large sectiou of New England, but far beyond, even to the great North-west. Portsmouth is, in fact, the nearest, and naturally the most, readily accessible ocean port to Ogdensburg, and had its citizens, and the people of the State of New Hampshire generally, been thor- oughly alive to their opportunity, and animated by a proper degree of local and State pride, our sea-port might have been to-day the successful rival of Boston — a great commercial emporium, command- ing a vost foreign and domestic trade.

Something has been done, however, by Portsmouth in years past, in ship-build- ing and the carrying trade, and, although it can never secure the position which it might once easily have attained, it is to be hoped that the future will witness, at least, a higher degree of prosperity in this direction than has heretofore been developed.

Among the representatives of the en- terprise and industry of Portsmouth dur- ing the past half century, there is per- haps no one more worthy of mention, or who has attained in a higher degree the respect and esteem of the community

��than the Hon. Daniel Marcy, and cer- tainly no one has been the recipient of stronger tokens of public favor. Mr. Marcy was born in Portsmouth, Novem- ber 7, 1810, being now in his sixty-eighth year. His father, Peter Marcy, was a native of Bordeaux, France, but came to this country in early youth, with Capt. George Huntress of Portsmouth, in which place he made his home, but pur- sued the occupation of a sailor, in the West India and coasting trade, attaining the position of ship-master. He married a Miss Knight, from one of the old fam- ilies of Eliott, Me., by whom he had three sons — Samuel, Peter and Daniel. When Daniel, the youngest, was a child of two years, Mrs. Marcy died, leaving the boys to their father's care. He had little time to devote to their instruction and guidance, but did the best he could for them, with the limited means at his command, and himself died, ten years later, leaving to his sons the simple her- itage of a good name and an honest ex- ample.

Samuel Marcy, the eldest of the broth- ers, went to sea, at twelve years of age, under Capt. Titus Salter. He followed a sailor's! life for a number of years, but finally engaged in business as a stevedore at New Orleans, which city he thence- forth made his home, and was quite suc- cessful in business. He married a Miss

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