Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/151

Rh largest individual stockholder, and of each was the first treasurer. When the Conway road reached Rochester, Mr. McDuffee resigned its treasurership. The other road, after various difficulties, became the Dover and Winnipesaukee by the incorporation of its bond-holders, and Mr. McDuffee continued to be a director. Rochester was thus doubly accommodated; but another avenue was needed, and Mr. McDuffee took part in the Portland and Rochester, which secured a route eastward, of which road he was a director; and he invested liberally in the Rochester and Nashua, which opened a line to the west. The result has been that Rochester is the "billing-point," and its various manufacturing interests have felt its impetus.

The beauty of the "McDuffee Block" in Rochester, built by him in 1868, exhibits the owner's public spirit.

As a Mason he joined Humane Lodge on the very day he became "of lawful age."

In religion, Mr. McDuffee was brought up under good old Parson Joseph Haven, and has remained a liberal supporter of the Congregational Society.

In politics he was an earnest Whig. His first vote was for the electors who chose John Quincy Adams president, and his postmastership was ended by Andrew Jackson. He has always been a decided Republican.

Mr. McDuffee's great amount of labor has been possible only by the vigorous constitution which he inherited. The boy who, before he left home, "carried the forward swath" in the hay-field made the man who now accomplishes an amount of work which would surprise many younger men. Monday is always given to the Strafford Bank at Dover; Tuesday he presides at the Rochester Bank meeting; Wednesday, at the Savings bank; and no day is idle.

Of Mr. McDuffee's happy domestic relations nothing need be said. Of his eight children, naming them in the order of birth, (1) Joseph, who followed the sea, died (single) on the ocean, at the age of thirty-five. (2) Franklin, left two sons, John Edgar and Willis. (3) John Randolph, graduated at the Chandler Scientific Department in 1857, was a civil engineer in Rochester, and died single, aged twenty-five. (4) Anna M. is the wife of Frank S. Brown of Hartford, Conn., of the firm of Brown, Thompson, & Co. She has one son and two daughters. (5) Mary Abbie is the wife of Charles K. Chase, a merchant in Rochester, and has two daughters. (6) Sarah, died single. (7) George, the only surviving son, is engaged in extensive grain, mill, and lumber business in Rochester. He married, first, Lizzie Hanson, who died leaving a son; afterward he married, second, Nellie, daughter of Dr. James Farrington of Rochester, her father being nephew of Dr. James Farrington M.C. (8) Oliver, died in infancy.

Judged by the sucess of his work as a banker, as developing by a liberal and wise help every worthy manufacturing enterprise, and as foremost in the building of the various railways centering in Rochester, it is clear that Mr. McDuffee nobly comes into the list of those spoken of in our first paragraph, whose record is in the prosperity of his native town, where ability, sagacity, integrity, and kindness have united to make that record, as well as his own personal success.