Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/13

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��GRANITE MONTHLY,

A NEW HAMPSHIRE MAGAZINE

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

��Vol. YII.

��OCTOBER, 1883.

��^o. 1.

��CAPr. JOHN WEBSTER.

��Y,\ ei.isha a. keep.

��The most important and valuable element in the composition of a pros- perous community is that which de- velops and supports its common labor interests, and provides the great masses with the means of life.

The cultured and educated classes are in a measure independent, and able to secure for themselves living success and its opportunities.

But a large part of our population are not only dependent upon their daily labor for the means of subsist- ence, but upon others to give them opportunities. They have no power or faculty of organization. There are thousands in every department of life who can work faithfully and well for others, but are wholl\- incapable of independent action, lacking ability to plan and execute for themselves. They are often at the mercy of unscru- pulous leaders, who use them as blind tools for the actjuirement of selfish ends, letting them wear out their lives without reward.

Hence, among those who do the most good in the world are surely the men who seek to provide oppor- tunity for work, and justly reward hon- est toil. A life spent in the interests of the poorer classes, and in enlarging the field of industry, and in raising the day-laborer to a position of inde- pendence, is one most worthily spent,

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��and deserving of far greater reward than the career of a successful pro- fessional, or ])olitician, gained by the " tricks of the trade," and for no one's good.

Among these who have develo])ed the manufacturing interests of our state, and sought to raise the standard and condition of that vast class in our New f^ngland populace — mill opera- tives — to comfortable and independ- ent relations, may be placed the name of Capt. John Webster, the subject of this sketch.

In a small manufacturing place the '■corporation" is foremost of the powers that shape the history of the town, and give it identity and charac- ter, and whether for gooci or ill, de- pends much upon the character and influence of those who direct its affairs.

To give any correct account of the life of Capt. John Webster, necessarily involves much of the history of the Newmarket Manufacturing Company, as he was associated with its manage- ment for so many years, and became so identified with its fortunes as to render the two almost inseparable.

The subject of this sketch was born in Salem, Mass., Sept. lo, 1804. He was the son of Elijah C. and Sallie (Dole) Webster, who removed to Salem from Kingston in this state not lonji before his birth. The familv de-

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