Page:One of a thousand.djvu/496

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482 PILLSBURY. PILLSBUKV. His first engagement was for a few weeks at North Falmouth, where he was, how- ever, induced to remain for three years. In 1840 he accepted the call of the Con- gregational church at Rowley to become its pastor, where his life-work has been so beautiful in its results and so pleasant in all its relations. In 1841 he married Deborah, only child of Hon. Daniel and Polly (Adams) Adams, of Newbury. In r 868 blindness made it necessary to terminate a pastorate of twenty-eight years, during which the church had a constant religious growth. Since his resignation he has preached nearly every Sunday at the house of correction in Ipswich, where his labors have been much appreciated and highly blest. PILLSBURY, ALBERT E., son of Josiah W. and Elizabeth (Dinsmoor) Pillsbury, was born in Milford, Hillsborough county, N. H., August 19, 1S49. His father grad- uated at Dartmouth in 1840 and intended to follow a profession, but the state of his health obliged him to take to farming, and the subject of this sketch was born and reared a farmer's son. Having passed through the common and high schools of Milford, he prepared for college at Appleton Academy, New Ipswich, N. H., and Lawrence Academy, Groton, Mass. He entered Harvard College in the class of 1871, but did not remain to grad- uate. After leaving college he taught school one year in Sterling, 111., and stud- ied law there, with his uncle, Hon. James Dinsmoor ; was admitted to the bar in Illinois, and later in Massachusetts, and has since 187 1 been inactive practice in Boston. He was married in Newbury, Vt., July 9, 1889, to Louise F. (Johnson) Wheeler, daughter of Edward C. and Delia M. (Smith) Johnson. Mr. Pillsbury was several years vice- president, and one year president, of the Mercantile Library Association of Boston, and is still one of its trustees ; is a member of the corporation of the Franklin Savings Bank, and a director in the United States Trust and Safe Deposit Company. He entered public life as a member of the House of Representatives from ward 17, Boston, 1876, '77, and '78 ; was elected to the Senate from the 6th Suffolk district for 1884, '85, and '86, and was president of that body in 1885 -'86, receiving each year a unanimous vote of his fellow-members. In the House in 1876 he was chairman of the committee on elections, and a member of the committee on constitutional amend- ments. He also served on the judiciary and other committees in 1877 and '78. In the Senate in 1884 he was chairman of the joint committee on the Hoosac Tunnel Railroad, a member of the committee on judiciary, and chairman of the special com- mittee on the bribery investigation. In 18S7 he was tendered by Governor Ames, and declined, the appointment of judge- advocate-general. In the fall of that year he was a candidate for attorney-general in the Republican state convention and re- ceived the largest vote cast, the nomination being finally made by a less number of votes on a formal ballot. In 1888 he was tendered by Governor Ames, and declined, an appointment to the bench of the super- ior court, and in 18S9 he was tendered by Mayor Hart, and declined, the appointment of corporation counsel of the city of Bos- ton, being unwilling to accept a public position which involved the entire abandon- ment of his private practice. In 1888 he was chosen president of the national association of the Pillsbury family at its first gathering at Newburyport, where the family in this country originated, and where the house built by " Daniel Pilsbery," in 1699-1700, and ever since occupied by some member of the family, still stands, and which is now believed to be the oldest in Newburyport. Mr. Pillsbury has already won an envia- ble reputation among the intelligent and progressive element of the political party with which he has always been identified, and the people of the State, irrespective of party affiliations, recognize in his integrity, his conscientious devotion to duty, and his acknowledged ability in his chosen profes- sion, elements destined to place him in still higher and more responsible positions in civil life. PILLSBURY, John Elliott, son of John Gilman and Elizabeth Wimble (Smith) Pillsbury, was born in Lowell, Middlesex county, December 15, 1846. He attended the public schools in Low- ell until his removal in 1856, then at Chelsea until 1859, and then at intervals studied in private and public schools until he entered the naval academy at Annapolis, Md., in 1862. Previous to his choice of life-work, he was employed in the store of J. D. Wilcox & Co., for a few months, and was a page in the House of Representatives, Washing- ton, D. C, from December, 1S59, to August, 1862. He was appointed midship- man " at large," at the naval academy by President Lincoln in September, 1862.