Lotie Irenus Minard (1837-1913)

Portrait from the History of the City of Nashua, New Hampshire, 1897.

   Snappily dressed and sporting a fine example of a 19th-century mustache, three-term New Hampshire state legislator Lotie Irenus Minard was a lifelong resident of Nashua, being born in that city on April 7, 1857, the son of Charles F. and Sarah (Gay) Minard. He would attend the public schools of Nashua and the Crosby Academy and as a young man went into railroad work, which he would follow for four years.

  In the late 1870s Minard entered into the shoe-making trade, and after several years of private work joined the manufacturing firm of Moody, Estabrook, and Anderson in Nashua. Minard would be employed there for seven years and in the mid-1890s was involved in the concrete business in his native city. On October 1, 1884, Lotie Minard married in Nashua to Josephine Hebert (1858-1934), to whom he was wed for nearly thirty years. The couple would remain childless.

  Remarked as having a keen interest in the political life of Nashua, Lotie I. Minard's first run at public office came in 1884 when he was elected to represent Ward 6 on Nashua's Common Council. In 1885 and 1886 he sat on the Nashua Board of Aldermen and in 1890 was elected to his first term in the state legislature, serving in the session of 1891-92. Minard would be returned to the legislature in November 1896, garnering 316 votes on election day. During the 1897-99 session, he would serve on the committee on the Revision of Statutes and won his third term in the house in November 1898.

From the Souvenir of New Hampshire Legislators, 1897.

   After his third term in 1901, Minard returned to his business interests in Nashua, serving as the treasurer of the Nashua Concrete Co. He returned to political life in 1908 when he began service as a Hillsborough County Commissioner, serving in that post for an indeterminate length of time. Minard died in Nashua on February 24, 1913, at age 63. He was survived by his wife Josephine, who, following her death in 1934, was interred alongside her husband at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashua.

Atwood Bond Meservey (1831-1901)

From the History of Merrimack and Belknap Counties, New Hampshire, 1885.

   New Hampshire clergyman Atwood Bond Meservey is yet another example of a New England-based minister who also carved out a career in politics, in his case being a one-term member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Like Silenus H. Fellows, Pearl Castle Abbey, and Cola Di Rienzi Meacham, Meservey walked the line between the ministry and politics, and also gained distinction as an educator, serving as principal of the New Hampton Literary Institution for three decades.

    A native of Appleton, Maine, Atwood Bond Meservey was born in that town on September 30, 1831, being the son of William and Elvina Bond Meservey. Atwood Meservey resided on his family's farm until age nineteen and attended both the Kent's Hill Seminary and the New Hampton Literary Institution. He continued his studies at Andover University and Brown University (from which he received his A.M. degree in 1862) and later received his Philosophy and Divinity doctorates from Bates College.

   Ordained as a minister in the Free Baptist church in 1861, Meservey accepted a pastorate at the Free-Will Baptist church in Meredith, New Hampshire. He remained there for one year and in 1862 left his pastorate to join the faculty of the New Hampton Literary Institution, where he would be a professor of mathematics and natural sciences. After a five-year stint at that school, Meservey spent one year as principal at the Northwood Seminary before returning to New Hampton. In 1868 he was named as New Hampton's principal, continuing in that role until his retirement thirty years later.

   Atwood B. Meservey married his first wife Elizabeth Bean in 1861, with whom he had one daughter, Lizzie. Following Elizabeth Meservey's death in 1862, he remarried to Loanna Meade in 1871. The couple would have one child, John Edwin, who died in infancy. Widowed for the second time in 1880, Meservey remarried in 1883 to Clara Bell Fall, who, before she died in 1887, bore one son, Arthur Bond (1884-1952). Arthur Bond Meservey would follow his father into a career in academics, being a Professor of Physics at Dartmouth University for over forty years.

The New Hampton Literary Institution as it looked during Meservey's tenure.

   In addition to his lengthy tenure at New Hampton Atwood Meservey was the author of several textbooks, dealing with subjects such as banking, book-keeping, and political economics. Of these works, "Meservey's Book Keeping" proved to have the widest influence, as it was "In use in over five hundred schools in various towns and cities of New England and in over ninety academies and seminaries." Meservey would also author two works of non-fiction, "Through Struggle to Victory" and "Drifting and Resisting".

   Meservey's one instance of involvement in politics occurred in 1866 when he was elected as New Hampton's representative to the New Hampshire state legislature. Serving during the 1867-1868 house session, Meservey sat on the house committee on education. After leaving the legislature Meservey continued his work at the New Hampton Institute until his retirement in 1898. He resided in New Hampton until his death at age 69 on February 20, 1901, having succumbed to a "complicated disease of the kidneys." Meservey was interred at the New Hampton Village Cemetery and later was acknowledged by the Granite State Monthly as

"A man of marked ability, of sound judgement, of phenomenal tact in school management, and of affable disposition, he will be remembered and revered by the thousands of students who have come under his tuition."

From the Centennial Souvenir of the New Hampshire Yearly Meeting of Free Baptists, 1892.

Mortier Lafayette Morrison (1836-1919)

Portrait from the Granite State Monthly, 1895.

    Lifelong Peterborough, New Hampshire resident Mortier Lafayette Morrison's life bears a slight similarity to Grosvenor Austin Curtice, profiled here back on December 14th. Both of these oddly named men were lifelong residents of New Hampshire and both were veterans of the Civil War. Both went on to become prominent local officeholders in their respective towns and both served terms in the New Hampshire legislature. Interestingly, both Morrison and Curtis served together during the 1881-83 session, the latter in the state senate and the former in the house.

   Born in Peterborough on July 2, 1836, Mortier Lafayette Morrison was the son of Abraham Perkins (1807-1870) and Mary Robbe Morrison. A prominent Peterborough figure in his own right, Abraham P. Morrison was the owner of a paper mill as well as a three-term state representative, serving in the legislative sessions of 1848, 1862, and 1863. The eldest of two children, Mortier L. Morrison was "prevented in early life from attending school as he wished" due to "severe necrosis of the tibia", and later was affected by typhoid fever. With this long bout of ill health, young Mortier was largely self-educated, and after reaching age nineteen followed his father into the paper-making trade. 

    In August 1862 Morrison enlisted for service in the Civil War, and a little over a month after enlisting was named as Quarter Master's Sergeant of the 13th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. He succeeded future Governor and U.S. Senator Person Colby Cheney in that post and served until his discharge in mid-1865. On August 9, 1861, Morrison married Susan Gates, with whom he had one daughter, Alice (1862-1925). Their marriage proved to be short, as Susan died less than a year later on May 1, 1862. He would remarry in March 1866 to Caroline Brooks, their union seeing the births of two further children, Mary Brooks (born 1868) and Abraham Perkins (born 1870.)

   After returning home from the war Mortier Morrison took on the management of his father's paper mill, which he sold to the firm of Adams and Nay in June 1870. In April 1873 he was selected as treasurer of the Peterborough Savings Bank, an office that he would continue to hold until his death forty-six years later. In addition to his time as treasurer, Morrison would hold several other local offices in Peterborough, including a twenty-five-year stint as town moderator, and from 1868-1870 served as town selectman. 

   In 1878 Mortier L. Morrison was elected to the first of three terms as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Taking his seat at the start of the 1879 session, Morrison served as a member of the committee on Banks. He would be elected to another term in 1881 and in 1915 won his third term in the house. Further political honors came Morrison's way following his first two terms in the house, as he served as Peterborough's delegate to the 1902-03 New Hampshire State Constitutional Convention. In 1918 he was again tapped to represent Peterborough at the State Constitutional Convention of 1918-19 but died during the recess of the convention, his death occurring at Peterborough on May 1, 1919, the fifty-sixth anniversary of the death of his first wife Susan. 

  A longstanding member of the G.A.R., as well as a Mason and Odd Fellows Lodge member, Mortier L. Morrison was preceded in death by his second wife Caroline in 1906 and his son Abraham in 1913. In an unusual twist, there are two possible burial locations for Morrison, as his name is located on his first wife's stone in the Peterborough Village Cemetery as well as on another headstone at the Pine Hill Cemetery, also located in Peterborough. All in all very curious!

A Mortier L. Morrison G.A.R. encampment ribbon from 1919.

Grosvenor Austin Curtice (1842-1907), Grosvenor Downes McCubrey (1858-1950), Grosvenor McKinley Goad (1893-1968)

Grosvenor Curtice, from the Granite State Monthly, Volume 47.

    A member of both houses of the New Hampshire state legislature, lifelong Granite State native Grosvenor Austin Curtice was a well-known resident of Merrimack County, being a merchant and farmer in that area for many years. Born in the village of Lempster on March 31, 1842, Grosvenor A. Curtice was the son of Samuel and Leonora Sweatt Curtice. The Curtice family moved from Lempster to Windsor, New Hampshire when Grosvenor was three, and he continued to reside there until he relocated to the Merrimack County town of Contoocook in 1861. 

   In the year after his resettlement, Curtice enlisted for service in Co. D, Seventh New Hampshire Volunteers, and would serve with that regiment until the war's conclusion, having attained the rank of captain. He is also recorded as having "captured a rebel captain and several of his men" at Fort Fisher in North Carolina. 

   Following his return to Contoocook Curtice married in 1866 to Sara Augusta Johnson, who died three years following their marriage. He would marry his second wife Augusta Wilson (1849-1909) in 1876, their union lasting until Curtice's death in 1907. 

   In the years following his first marriage, Grosvenor Curtice established a reputation as one of Contoocook's prominent merchants. A member of the general merchandise firm of Curtice, Rand, and Co., Curtice also held several political offices in his adopted hometown. From 1867-68 he served as town clerk and from 1869-1871 was town treasurer, later being returned to the latter office to serve from 1874-1878. Curtice would also serve Contoocook as its postmaster, and in 1875 was elected to his first term in the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

  In 1877 Curtice won a second term in the state house and three years later began a two-year term in the state Senate, defeating Democratic candidate Charles Amsden by a vote of 1,981 to 1,823. Taking his seat at the start of the 1881-83 term, Curtice held seats on the committees on Engrossed Bills, the Judiciary, and Military Affairs. At the conclusion of his Senate service, Curtice was selected to serve as a member of the Executive Council, being on the staff of then-Governor Samuel Whitney Hale.

  An active Mason and member of the Odd Fellows Lodge, Grosvenor Curtice returned to public life in 1906 when President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him as U.S. Pension Agent for the District of New Hampshire and Vermont. Curtice would hold that post until his death in Contoocook on September 29, 1907, at age 65.  His wife Augusta survived him by two years, dying on August 28, 1909. Both were interred at the Contoocook Village Cemetery.

A death notice for Curtice from the Los Angeles Herald, October 7, 1907.

Portrait from the Minnesota Legislative Manual, 1929-30.

    Another "Grosvenor" who made his name known in politics was two-term Minnesota state senator Grosvenor Downes McCubrey. A native of Maine, McCubrey was born near the town of Calais on May 4, 1858. He attended school in the state of his birth and in 1882 relocated to Minnesota. Three years following his resettlement McCubrey relocated to Barnesville in Clay County, where he would reside for nearly twenty years.

  For many years following his removal to Barnesville McCubrey engaged in the insurance business and also operated a mercantile store. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he served in a number of local political offices. From 1889-1897 he served as U.S. Postmaster at Barnesville and following his relocation to Moorhead, Minnesota in 1901 served that city as its treasurer and justice of the peace. In 1901 he was elected as clerk of the district court at Moorhead and served twenty-four years in that office. 

   In November 1926 McCubrey was elected to represent Minnesota's 49th district in the state Senate and during his first term (1927-31) served on the following committees: Civil Administration, Crime and Crime Prevention, Municipal Affairs, Public Institutions and Buildings, the Soldiers Home, Temperance, and Towns and Counties. Reelected to the Senate in 1930, McCubrey served another four-year term and held seats on three new Senate committees, those being Civil Administration, and Finance and Reapportionment. He would also chair the committee on State and County Fairs.

   Little is known of McCubrey's life following his leaving the Senate in 1935. Beginning in 1940 he took office as Moorhead city justice and was still the incumbent in that office at the time of his death at age 92 on December 24, 1950.  He was later buried at the Barnesville City Cemetery in Barnesville, Minnesota. One should also note that McCubrey's first name is spelled either "Grosvenor" or "Grovenor", the former being listed in his obituary and the latter being engraved on his headstone.

McCubrey's obituary from 1950.

From the Richmond Times Dispatch, July 12, 1964.

  On January 6, 2023, another politically involved "Grosvenor" was discovered--Grosvenor McKinley Goad of Carroll County, Virginia. A three-time delegate to the Republican National Convention from Virginia, Goad was born in that state on August 13, 1893, the son of Dexter and Martha (Quesinberry) Goad. 

  Goad married Julia Ethel Faddis (1894-1992) in September 1917 and later had one daughter, Ethel Marie (1922-2014). A dentist in the town of Hillsville for many years, he was elected president of the Virginia State Dental Association in 1941 for a one-year term. Active in Republican politics in his state for decades, Goad served as chair of the fifth district finance committee and was elected as part of the Virginia delegation to the Republican National Convention in 1952, when Dwight Eisenhower was nominated for the presidency. He again served as a delegate to the 1960 convention held in Chicago, and in 1964 backed Barry Goldwater at that year's national convention in  California.

  Grosvenor M. Goad died in Virginia on November 2, 1968, aged 75, and was survived by his wife Julia. Both were interred at the North End Cemetery in Hillsville.

Treffle George Levesque (1896-1977)

Treffle G. Levesque, from the Nashua Telegraph, May 5, 1969.

    Anyone (politically inclined or otherwise) with a first name like "Treffle" is worthy of more than just a few descriptive lines, and in the case of Treffle George Levesque ( a two-term New Hampshire state representative), several newspaper archives have yielded a fair amount of information that will make my job of writing about him slightly easier! Unlike 90% of the folks profiled here, Mr. Levesque's unusual name wasn't discovered online but was instead located via the 1967-1968 edition of Who's Who In American Politics, a recent purchase from a local book sale. This work has helped field nearly thirty new oddly named persons, some of which will make their way onto the site here.

  The story of this oddly named New Hampshire native begins with his birth in the city of Nashua on August 3, 1896. The son of Joseph M. and Clara April Levesque, Treffle G. Levesque's education took place in the Nashua school system and following the completion of schooling was employed by the J.F. McElwain Co., a shoe manufacturing business noted as being "the largest employer of labor in New Hampshire." He married his first wife Marie Brodeur in Nashua and would later have four children: J. Gerard, Paul, Estelle, and Elizabeth.

   Both before and after his time in state government Levesque was a member (and past Governor) of the Nashua Moose Lodge and in May 1969 was honored by that organization, receiving the Pilgrim Degree of Merit. Levesque is noted as being "the first Nashuan to gain the honor" and in addition to Moose Lodge activities was a member of the Fraternal Cribbage League, becoming president of that organization in 1967.

   In November 1964 Treffle Levesque won election to the New Hampshire State House of Representatives from Nashua's seventh ward, garnering 1534 votes. He would be reelected in November 1966, serving until the close of the session in January 1969. Widowed in the mid-1950s, Levesque remarried first to Viola Duchesnes, who died in 1965. He remarried again in 1966 to Lena Dubray Doyle, and following her passing in 1972 he remarried to Blanche Berube (1898-1991), who would survive him upon his death, which occurred at a Nashua hospital on March 19, 1977.  A burial location for Levesque is unknown at this time but is presumed to be somewhere in the Nashua vicinity, where he had lived for all of his life.

                    Treffle Levesque (located on the extreme left), from the Nashua Telegraph, Dec. 5, 1975.

Havillah Carlos Judson (1853-1928), Havilah Burritt Hinman (1851-1908)

From the 1917 South Dakota Blue Book.

    South Dakota has had a number of oddly named political figures and judges pop up here on the site over the past two and half years, the most recent being Cando resident Fountain Land Thompson, who represented South Dakota in the U.S. Senate for a short time. With the following write-up on Havillah Carlos Judson, a state representative from Meade County, the amount of strangely named South Dakotans grows ever larger, and the name "Havilah" is known to have had biblical origins, being described as both a given name, as well as the name of an ancient region mentioned in the book of Genesis.

   Havillah C. Judson was born in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin on September 23, 1853, one of three children born to David Wells and Mary Catherine Reed Judson. His family later removed to Winnebago County in that state where he received his early schooling. The Judson family relocated to Minnesota in the mid-1860s, where young Havillah worked at farming and attended school. The early 1870s saw him move to Vermillion, South Dakota along with his brother Lucius, and during this period was employed at a sawmill, and later took on a position managing freight between the cities of Rapid City and Deadwood.

   The History of South Dakota, Volume III notes that Judson eventually accumulated enough income to form his own freighting business, and around 1886 purchased a ranch in the Elk Creek region. He would leave the freighting industry around this same time and over the succeeding years engaged in stock raising and farming. Judson married Lois Oliver on January 19, 1886, and later had three children: Mabel Catherine (1899-1978), Alcena Judson (1887-1950) and Shirley Oliver (born 1909).  

  Havilah Judson continued to farm on his Elk Creek property until 1901 when it was destroyed by fire. Following this fire Judson resided on another ranch near Elk Creek "which he managed for an Eastern company", and due to his success in the cattle industry earned the recognition as one "of the progressive and representative men of this section of the state." Judson is later recorded as residing in Viewfield in Meade County, and in 1916 was elected as one of that county's two representatives to the South Dakota State Legislature. 

  Judson's term in the state legislature extended from 1917-1919 and little else is known of his life following his service, with the exception being his death at age 75 in Rapid City on March 14, 1928. His wife Lois survived him by nearly 30 years, dying at age 91 in 1956. Judson was later interred at the New Underwood Cemetery in Pennington County, South Dakota.

From the Genealogical and Family History of New Hampshire, Volume 4, 1908.

   Another "Havillah" who made his name known in public life was Havilah Burritt Hinman of Coos County, New Hampshire. This obscure gentleman represented the aforementioned county in the New Hampshire State House of Representatives in 1879 and had earlier occupied numerous local offices in Stratford, including that of tax collector and town selectman.

   Born on February 19, 1851, in Essex County, Vermont, Havilah Hinman was the son of Harvey and Harriet Hugh Hinman. He moved with his family to Stratford, New Hampshire shortly after his birth and would go on to attend the public schools of that town. After completing his schooling he became employed as a clerk for the Grand Trunk Railroad Co., serving in this capacity for four years. Following the resignation from his clerkship, Hinman began branching out on his own, becoming a farmer and stable owner in Stratford, as well as operating a hotel. Havilah Hinman married in 1873 to Kate May Barrett (1855-1911) and later had several children, including John Holmes Hinman (1885-1981), one of the founders of the International Paper Co. 

   During his short life, Havilah B. Hinman served as Stratford, New Hampshire town auditor and tax collector, and was a town selectman for nearly two decades. Hinman was also the deputy sheriff of Coos County for nearly a decade. He is also noted as being a dealer in lumber and real estate in Coos County, and was active in several fraternal and civic organizations, being a past master of the Coos County Grange, a past chancellor of the Stratford Knights of Pythias Lodge, and was a member of the Island Pond Lodge #44 of Free and Accepted Masons in Island Pond, Vermont.

  Havilah Hinman won election to the New Hampshire State House of Representatives in November 1878 and during the 1879 term held a seat on the house committee on Fisheries and Game. In 1903 he was Stratford's delegate to the New Hampshire State Constitutional Convention being held in Concord. Hinman died five years later of a cerebral hemorrhage on January 10, 1908, shortly before his 57th birthday. His wife Kate survived him by three years and following her death was interred alongside her husband at the Fairview Cemetery in North Stratford, New Hampshire.

Mederique Raoul Maynard (1869-1943)

                                             From the New Hampshire Legislators Souvenir, Vol. I, 1897.

   Being bestowed an unusual name like Mederique Raoul Maynard should entitle someone to more than just a passing glance, and while Mr. Maynard's service as a New Hampshire state representative is obviously noteworthy, only one biographical snippet exists that gives any sort of background on Maynard's life, that being a few lines in the 1897 edition of the Souvenir of New Hampshire Legislators, Volume 1. Despite the lack of information on Maynard, genealogical websites such as ancestry.com and family search have helped fill in some of the blanks when it came to compiling the following piece.
  A native son of Massachusetts, Mederique Raoul Maynard was a son of Joseph B. and Melina Blais Maynard, being born in the city of Lowell on March 31, 1869. An alternate birth date for him is given as March 30, 1870, and his early education was obtained in the Lowell public schools. He later moved with his family to Manchester, New Hampshire in 1881 and continued his schooling there. The Souvenir of New Hampshire Legislators gives note that Maynard became employed in "the mills for a time, being employed first on the Amory, then on the Stark, in the carding department, passing from one grade to another until he occupied the position of third hand."
   Following his stint as a millhand, Maynard began to learn the trade of gas and pipe fitting, later forming a plumbing business under the name of Maynard and Hevey. In November 1896 the 27-year-old Maynard was elected to represent Manchester's Ninth ward in the State House of Representatives. Taking his seat at the beginning of the 1897 term, Maynard was named to the committee on the Agricultural College and married during his term on November 9, 1898, to Marie Ann (also given as Marion) Gadbois and had one son, Eugene J. Maynard (recorded as age 17 in the 1920 U.S. Census.)
   After his term concluded in 1899 Maynard returned to private life in Manchester and was also a member of the Lafayette Guards in the First Regiment of the New Hampshire National Guard. Sources of the time also record Maynard as being a fireman, and a 1901 Manchester Directory notes that he was a Captain with Engine and Ladder Co. No. 6. In the early 1900s he was elected to the Manchester Board of Aldermen, and in 1907 became one of the founding members of the National League of Manchester.
   Sometime after 1930, Mederique Maynard removed from New Hampshire to California, where he resided for the remainder of his life. A California death index listing reveals that he died in Los Angeles on October 6, 1943, aged either 73 or 74. A burial location for Maynard is also unknown at this time.