Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/13

 THE

��GRANITE MONTHLY,

A NEW HAMPSHIRE MAGAZINE

Devoted to Literature, Biography, History, and State Progress.

��Yol. VI.

��OCTOBEK, 1882.

��]STo. 1.

��SAMUEL WHITNEY HALE.

��BY JACOB H. GALLINGER, M. D.

��Samuel W. Hale, son of Samuel and Saloma (Whitney) Hale, was born in Fitchburg, Mass., April 2, 1823. His grandfather, Moses Hale, came to Fitchburg from old Newbury, and was a farmer by occupation. Samuel Hale was also a farmer. Mr. Hale's youth was passed on the old homestead, where vigorous out-door labor formed and molded a strong constitution in- herited from a long line of pure yeo- man ancestry. At his mother's side he received the great truths of moral- ity and Christianity, while his father impressed upon him the importance of honor and strict integrity, the two characteristics forming a sturdy New England character, ashamed of wrong, fearless in the right, and staunch in the principles of true manhood. The parents were not overburdened with the riches of this world, and at an early age the boy added his efforts to the struggle to maintain the family. He had the advantages of the district school and the academy of his native town, and received a thorough elemen- tary education, while his thirst for knowledge was further appeased by study through the long winter even- ings, the page of the well -conned book, being lighted by the fitful glare of the tallow dip.

From the age of fourteen years he clothed himself, earning his money at odd hours by sawing fire-wood, and

��by other similar employments. At the age of twenty-two Mr. Hale left his father's home in search of fame and fortune. An older brother, John, was established in trade in Dublin, N. H.. and thither he was drawn. He early developed a remarkable business ca- pacity and executive ability. The years spent in Dublin strengthened his self-confidence in the race for wealth and eminence, established his high moral character, and laid the founda- tion for a successful business and polit- ical career, — a career that justly places him in the front rank of New Hamp- shire's self-made men.

MANUFACTURER.

In 1859 Mr. Hale removed to Keene, a field offering wider opportu- nities for his industry and talent. The next year he embarked in the manu- facture of chairs, in a small way, at Keene, employing about twenty men. Under Mr. Hale's management the business has greatly prospered. The works have been materially enlarg- ed, and employment is now given to one hundred workmen on the premises, and to some five hundred women and children outside of the manufactory, in Keene and neighboring towns.

Mr. Hale is largely interested in the purchase and sale of shoe pegs, his sales in some years having amounted to the enormous quantity of one thou-

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