Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/79

 THE SPEAKERSHIP,

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���HON. AUGUSTUS A. WOOLSON.

��Woolson of Concord, a successful educa- tor of many years experience, and hus- band of the celebrated authoress and pub- lic lecturer, Mrs. Abby Goold Woolson.

Elijah Woolson was among the early settlers of Lisbon. His son Amos, father of the Speaker, has resided most of his life in that town, following the occupa- tion of a tailor. Another son, E. S. Woolson, engaged in the same business ^at Littleton, where he became a promi- nent citizen and died a few years since. Still another, Theron Woolson, went West and settled at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where he became distinguished in public life, was Mayor of the city and a mem- ber of the State Senate. His son, John S. Woolson, who was engaged in the Na- val service during the late war, and was upon the Housatonic when blown up in Charleston Harbor, is now a leading lawyer of Iowa, and has been offered, but declined, an election to Congress.

��Speaker Woolson's educational advan- tages were not extensive, his father's circumstances not being sufficiently easy to admit of his bestowing a liberal educa- tion upon his children, and even requir- ing their assistance in his work to some extent. He attended the district school until fourteen years of age, after which he worked in his father's shop for some time, but secured the advantage of a few terms' attendance at the Academies at Newbury, Vt., and at Meriden in this State. At the age of twenty-one he went to Minnesota, where he remained about two years, engaged in teaching school, as clerk in a store, and such oth- er employment as he was able to secure. In two years, however, he had enough of Western life to satisfy him that the old Granite State was preferable as a resi- dence, and he returned to his native town-, where he has ever since resided.

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