Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/314

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282

��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

��Sunapee ; married Jane Sanborn, of Springfield. He died in 1882, aged 83. His wife died in 1882, aged 82.

Charles Henry Bartlett was born in Sunapee, N. H., October 15, 1833. He is the fourth son of John and Sarah J. (Sanborn) Bartlett, and is a lineal descendant, in the eighth generation, of Richard Bartlett, who came from England to Newbury, Mass., in the ship " Mary and John," in 1634.

The original orthography of the name was Barttelot, which is still pre- served by the family in England, whose ancestral home in Stopham, Sussex county, has remained in possession of the family for nearly a thousand years, and the present occupant, Hon. Wal- ter B. Barttelot, is the member of par- liament from that county.

In the same ancestral line is found the name of Hon. Josiah Bartlett, who, as a delegate in the Continental Con- gress from New Hampshire, was the first man to vote " yes" on the passage of the declaration of independence, July 4, 1776, and the second to affix; his signature thereto. All the Bart- letts whose names appear in the an- nals of our state, trace their lineage to the same ancestry.

Mr. Bartlett has four brothers — Jo- seph S., who resides in Claremont, and Solomon, John Z., and George H., who reside in Sunapee ; and two sis- ters — Mrs. Thomas P. Smith and Mrs. John Felch. His parents passed away at the advanced age of eighty-two years, in the enjoyment of an ample competency, the fruits of a long life of earnest and cheerful labor, and the practice of a stern, self-denying econo- my, a characteristic of the best type of our New England husbandry.

Mr. Bartlett's early life was mainly spent upon his father's farm, laboring through the summer season and at- tending school during the winter. He early developed a decided taste for literary pursuits, and from childhood devoted a liberal share of his leisure moments to the perusal of such books as were accessible to him. He also contributed liberally to the current lit-

��erature of the day, and showed re- markable facility in both prose and poetic composition. He received his education at the academies at Wash- ington and New London, after which he commenced the study of law in the office of Metcalf and Barton at Newport. He studied subsequently with George and Foster at Concord, and with Morrison and Stanley at Manches- ter, being admitted to the bar of Hills- borough county, from the office of the latter, in 1858. In that year he began the practice of his profession at Went- worth, N. H., and in 1863 removed to Manchester, where he has since resid- ed. For some two years he was law partner with the late Hon. James U. Parker, the partnership terminating with the retirement of the latter from active business. In June, 1867, he was appointed, by Judge Clark, clerk of the United States district court for the New Hampshire district, since which time he has not actively prac- ticed his profession, but has devoted himself to the duties of his office, which became very onerous and re- sponsible upon the passage of the bankrupt law, about the time of his ap- pointment. The holding of this office under the government of the United States has disqualified him from ac- cepting any office under the state gov- ernment. He was clerk of the New Hampshire senate from 1S61 to 1865, Gov. Smyth's private secretary in 1S65 and 1866, treasurer of the state reform school in 1S66 and 1867. In the same year he was unanimously chosen city solicitor, but declined a re-elec- tion, owing to his appointment as clerk of the district court. In 1872 he was elected, as the nominee of the Repub- lican party, mayor of the city, and served till February 18, 1873, when he resigned in accordance with the policy of the national government at that time, which forbade United States officials from holding state or munici- pal offices. His cheerful co-operation with the administration in this matter, though at a sacrifice of a most conspic- uous public position, was handsomely

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