Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/300

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2 72 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

The total valuation of the town of Bristol for taxation purposes is about ^550,000, and the amount raised by taxation last year was somewhat in excess of $11,000. The total population, by the census of 1S80, was 1353. Of this population more than three-fourths is embraced within the village limits, or Union school district. There are about two hundred and twenty-five dwellings in the village, most of them in good repair, and some fine residences, — notably those of Cyrus Taylor. Geo. M. Cavis, D. H. Rice and Samuel FoUansbee. A fire precinct has been established, with a thorough organization and ample facilities for the extinguishment of fires.

DISTINGUISHED RESIDENTS.

Quite a number of men who have attained distinction in public or business life, have been natives, or at some time residents of Bristol. Hon. Josiah Minot, of Concord, who was a native of this town, has been mentionerl in con- nection with the lawyers, as also, has the late ex-Gov. Ralph Metcalf and ex- Speaker Napoleon B. Bryant, both of v/hom practiced law here for a time. Ex- Gov. Nathaniel S. Berry was for many years one of the leading citizens of the town. He was a native of Bath, Me., learned the tanner's trade in the town of Bath in this state, settled in Bristol in 1S19, the year the town was incor- porated, and established himself in business as a tanner in the location now occupied by the Chemical Pulp Co.'s mills, and remained in town till 1840, when he removed to Hebron. He was governor of New Hampshire in 1860- 61, and had previously held various responsible ofihces. He is still living, at the age of eighty-five years, making his home with his daughter, in Milwaukee. A son, William A. Berry, of the firm of Mason & Berry, still resides in Bristol.

Hon. Levi P. Morton, present United States minister to France, is a son of the late Rev. Daniel O. Morton, who was for many years pastor of the Congre- gational church in this town, and resided here with his father in his youth.

Sherburne S. Merrill, of Milwaukee, general superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad, controlling four thousand miles of railway lines, a native of Alexandria, was many years a resident of Bristol, and for a time kept a hotel upon the sight of the present Bristol House. He was Lieutenant Colonel of the Thirty-fourth New fiampshire regiment in the latter part of the old militia days.

Solomon S. Sleeper, of Cambridge, Mass., a prominent wholesale grocer in Boston, who has held various public offices and has gained large wealth, is a native of Bristol, and here grew up to manhood.

Benjamin F. Flanders, Collector of the Port of New Orleans, is also a native of the town.

Nor is the fair sex to be neglected in this connection. Helen P. Worthen, a native of this town, now Mrs. Dr. Webster, has attained distinction in the medical profession. She has been resident physican at Vassar College, and is now in practice in New Bedford, Mass.

Anna Douglass Greene, a daughter of William Greene, now Mrs. Robinson, a native and resident of Bristol, is the " Marion Douglass" of literature, whose writings are well known throughout New England.

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