Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/12

 4 THE SENATE AND ITS PRESIDENTS— HON. DAVID H. BUFFUM.

��therefore, is a representative of the dom- inant class, as well as of the political ma- jority in the body over which he presides.

Hon. David H. Buffum, President of the Senate, whose portrait accompanies this article, is a native of the State of Maine, which State, by the way, has con- tributed comparatively few to the list of the public men of New Hampshire, al- though on our part we have furnished Maine several of her ablest and most dis- tinguished citizens, including Fessenden, Clifford, Cutting, Plaisted, and others of both State and National reputation. Mr. Buffum was born in North Berwick, No- vember 10, 1820, being now fifty-seven years of age. He was the eldest child and only son of Timothy and Anna (Aus- tin) Buffum. His father died when he was only six years of age, leaving his mother— a daughter of Nathaniel Austin of Dover Neck — with very little proper- ty and three small children, there being two daughters, younger than himself, both of whom are now living, one being the widow of the late John H. Burleigh of South Berwick, and the other the wife of Isaac P. Evans of Richmond, Ind. After his father's decease, he was taken into the family of an uncle, Benajah Buf- fum, with whom he remained until he was seventeen years of age, engaged for the larger portion of the time in a coun- try store, of which his uncle was the pro- prietor, and where he laid the foundation for his subsequent eminently successful business career. His educational advanta- ges up to this time, were only such as were afforded by the common school ; but of these he had made the best possi- ble use.

When he was seventeen years of age, his uncle sold out and went to Lynn, Mass., where he engaged in business. He accompanied his uncle, but remained with him but a few months, returning to his native place, where he made his home for a time with his step-father, Mr. Wm. Hussey— his mother having married a second time. He attended the fall term of South Berwick Academy the follow- ing autumn, and in the winter, being then eighteen years old, taught a district school in North Berwick. In the spring

��following he again attended the Acade- my. He had commenced teaching again the next autumn, but left his school to accept a position as clerk in the general store of William and Hiram Hanson in the village of Great Falls, Somersworth, which place has ever since been his home. He remained in the employ of the Han- son's about two years, when, being then twenty-one years of age, he bought the interest of William Hanson in the store and went into partnership with Hiram, under the firm name of Hanson & Buf- fum. Two years later the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Buffum commenc- ed the erection of the large brick block, known as Buffum's Block, upon the op- posite side of High street from the old stand. This block contained three stores, one of which Mr. Buffum occupied him- self, in the same business in which he had been engaged, until March, 1847, when he disposed of the business to attend to his duties as cashier of the Great Falls Bank, to which position he was chosen the previous year, and which he held for a term of seventeen years, until 1863, having also for six years been treasurer of the Somersworth Savings Bank. In 1863, Mr. Buffum resigned as cashier and treasurer of the banks, to take the man- agement of the Great Falls Woolen Mill, a corporation which he had been chiefly instrumental in organizing, and whose manufactory had been commenced the previous year, under a joint stock ar- rangement. He held the position ©f agent, treasurer and general manager of the corporation for ten years, devoting himself untiringly to the business, which he conducted with great success. The capital stock of the corporation, which was originally $50,000, was subsequently increased, from the earnings, to $100,000. In 1873, having impaired his health by close and continued application to busi- ness, Mr. Buffum withdrew from the ac- tive management of the affairs of the corporation, and was succeeded by his brother-in-law, Mr. Stickney, the pres- ent agent. He spent several months in the autumn of that year in Colorado, and the spring of 1874 in California, and re- turned home with restored health.

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