Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/302

 2 74 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

of the city government, served three years as an alderman, was a member of the state legislature in 1836 and again in 1850 ; was mayor of the city in 1857, and died in 1863. ^'^^- Sargeant was born in Unity, February 11, 1823. He went to Lowell at sixteen, and was engaged for several years as a clerk in the bookstore of Col. Abijah Watson. He subsequently spent three years in New York, then returned to Lowell where he went into business for himself in the book trade. He served for five years as a member of the common council and was three times president of that body. He was mayor of Lowell in i860 and again the following year. He died in 1870.

Ambrose Lawrence, who served as mayor in 1855, is a native of the town of Boscawen and is sixty-six years of age. He went to Lowell at twenty-one years of age and worked as a machinist for a year in the employ of the Suf- folk corporation. He then went south, and remained a year in Georgia, where he studied and practiced dentistry. Returning to Lowell he there engaged in dental practice, where he remained until some ten years ago, when he removed to Boston. He has for a number of years held the professorship of mechani- cal dentistry and metallurgy in the Boston Dental College. While in Lowell he also served as a member of both branches of the city government, and on the school committee.

The four New Hampshire born ex-mayors of Lowell, still residents of the city, are Sewall G. Mack, Josiah G. Peabody, Jonathan P. Folsom and Francis Jewett, all of whom are actively and extensively engaged in business at the present time. Mr. Mack was born in Wilton, Nov. 8, 1813, but removed with his parents to the town of Amherst, where he resided till 1840, when he went to Lowell and engaged in the stove and tin business as a manufacturer and dealer. He has occupied the same location (123 & 125 Market St.) up to the present time, and has conducted a very large business for many years. He has served in both branches of the city government, and was mayor in 1853. He was also a member of the legislature in 1862. He has been a director of the Railroad Bank for thirty-five years, has also long been a director of the Stony Brook Railroad, and president of the Lowell Gas Company. Mr. Peabody was born in Portsmouth, Dec. 21, 1808. He lived at Haverhill, Mass. several years in early youth, but went to Lowell in 1824 and learned the trade of carpenter and builder, which occupation he pursued for many years. While yet an ap- prentice he superintended the erection of the main building of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company. While engaged as a manufacturer and builder he erected many large buildings in Lowell — churches, mills, etc. — also the lunatic asylum building at Taunton, and the custom house at Gloucester. Since 1858 he has been engaged in the manufacture of doors, sash and blinds, on an ex- tensive scale, at the Wamesit Steam Mills, which he was instrumental in estab- lishing. Mr. Peabody has taken a deep interest in public and municipal affairs and has done much to advance the prosperity of the city. He was many years a member of the board of fire engineers, and a long time commander of the Mechanics' Phalanx, a popular military organization. He has frequently served in the common council and board of aldermen, was a member of the legislature in 1837. and again in 1855, and of the executive council of the state in 1856. He has been three times chosen mayor, serving in 1865 and 1866, and again in 1872. Mr. Folsom was born in Tamworth in 1820, but removed in childhood to Great Falls, where he remained till 1840, with the exception of a short time at Rochester, where he served as clerk in a store. In the latter year he went to Lowell, and was engaged for two years as a dry goods clerk. Going south he located in Benson, Alabama, where he remained six years, serv- ing for some time as postmister of that place. He returned to Lowell in 1848, and in 1850 commenced business for himself as a dry goods dealer, which he

�� �