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 ■THE.

��GRANITE MONTHLY.

��A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, HISTORY, AND STATE PROGRESS.

��YOL. II.

��JUNE, 1879.

��NO. 9.

��BON. ONSLOW STEARNS.

��A large proportion of the men who have been elected to the chief magis- tracy of our state, have been to a greater or less extent engaged in political life during a considerable period of their existence. The men of essentially busi- ness tastes and occupation, who have been called to the gubernatorial chair, have been exceptions to the general rule. Nor is our state different from others in this regard. Everywhere, as a rule, the public offices which the peo- ple have at their disposal, are conferred upon men who have devoted their time and attention to politics and partisan management. Among the more con- spicuous exceptions to this rule in this state, is the case of the late ex-Gov. Stearns, who, although a man of decided political convictions, was in no sense of the word a politician, and was never in any degree concerned in party manage- ment. Mr. Stearns was a business man in the full sense of the term, and, thoroughly identified as he was with the railroad interest of the state from its inception till the day of his death, he was unquestionably, from first to last, the most conspicuous representative of that interest in New Hampshire. A brief sketch of his career cannot fail to prove interesting to the readers of this magazine.

��Onslow Stearns was born in Biller- ica, Mass., August 30, 1S10. The farm upon which he was reared, and which still remains in the family, being now owned by an older brother, Franklin Stearns, was the property and homestead of his grandfather, Hon. Isaac Stearns, a prominent and influential citizen of Middlesex County, and a soldier in the old French War, who was at one time a member of the Executive Council of the state and held other honorable and responsible offices. His father, John Stearns, who was also a farmer and suc- ceeded in possession of the homestead, was killed in the prime of life by a rail- road accident at Woburn. William Stearns, a brother of John and uncle of Onslow, was a soldier in the Revolu- tion and fought at the battle Lexington. Onslow Stearns remained at home, laboring upon the farm and availing himself of such educational privileges as the public schools afforded, until seventeen years of age, when he went to Boston and engaged as a clerk in the house of Howe & Holbrook, afterward J. C. Howe & Co., where he remained about three years, and then left to join his brother, John O. Stearns, since famous as a railroad contractor and builder, who, then in Virginia, was en- gaged in the construction of the Chesa-

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