Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/327

 CHESTER PIKE.

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��east bank of the Connecticut river, im- mediately opposite the farm of the Hon. William M. Evarts, late secretary of state, situated in Windsor, Yt., which is of about equal dimensions, and, in fact, the largest farm in Vermont. Mr. Evarts raises about the same amount of stock, hay, and produce as Captain Pike. On both of these farms may be found all the modern appliances, such as mowing and reaping machines, seed- ers for sowing grain, two- horse cultiva- tors for hoeing corn, most of the work being done by machinery, the same as upon the largest farms of the West."

Any man might be proud of such a record, but it is only a part of the truth.

In a single season, Mr. Pike often buys, for re-sale, from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty-five tons of poultry, and between two and three hundred thousand pounds of wool. Beside the above, he has for many years purchased annually, for the Bos- ton market, in the interest of the firm of Lamson, Dudley & Pike, of which he is a member, great numbers of cat- tle and sheep. During the last thirty years Mr. Pike has found an outlet for that restless energy and enterprise, which these pursuits and the occupa- tion of farming and stock-growing can not exhaust, in an extensive lumber bus- iness. All this, it should be borne in mind, is in addition to the extensive cultivation and stock-growing on his own farm.

Notwithstanding the variety and ex- tent of his purely business transactions, Mr. Pike has also found leisure to fill with efficiency many stations in the public service. At one period of his career, during several successive years, he was selectman of Cornish. This led the way to other offices. He who had discharged with faithfulness and skill the responsibilities in the town, was deemed worthy to be honored with higher duties, and Mr. Pike found himself, in 1859, i860, and 1861, the incumbent of the office of county commissioner for Sullivan county. At the end of his third term, his fellow- townsmen withdrew him from the cora-

��missionship, which he had ably filled, and made him their representative to the general court for 1862, and again for 1863. He made an intelligent and active legislator, and soon became fa- miliar with the business of the house. The estimate which was put upon his services and standing in the house is seen in the fact that in his first year he served on the committee on manu- factures, and, in his second year, was made chairman __ of the committee on banks, which, at the time, was one of the most difficult and responsible po- sitions in the house. If Mr. Pike did not often attempt to influence legisla- tion by debate, he had what Wirt at- tributes to Jefferson, "the out-of-door talent of chamber consultation," and used it with good effect. The years 1862 and 1863 were two of the most anxious and trying years of the civil war, and perplexing propositions were brought before the legislature for solu- tion. There were sharp antagonisms and earnest debates among the strong men of those sessions ; questions of jurisdiction and policy touching the national defense and the rights of states, new to legislation and embit- tered by party rancor, became the sub- jects of action ; the frequent calls for men and money to meet the demand which the prolonged and sanguinary conflict made upon the state, gave to the legislation of the period unprec- edented interest and importance. Through it all, no man was more active, more true, or more patriotic than Capt. Pike.

In 1863, the subject of our sketch was appointed provost-marshal of the third New Hampshire district, and during that and the two succeeding years, when the war-cloud hung heavy and dark on the southern horizon, he discharged the duties of this delicate and difficult office with unusual ability, and received from Mr. Frye, the pro- vost-marshal-general, the highest pos- sible commendation for the integrity and success with which he adminis- tered the affairs of his department of the public service. Associated with

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