19 h 31 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 19 h 31 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does success look like in a land of hill farms, town meetings, and mills?
Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men gathers short portraits of governors, generals, lawyers, and industrialists who shape the Granite State. These lives lead from New England farms and villages toward public office, military service, and business. Along the way, the collection brings the state's hills, mills, and towns into view through the people who leave their mark there.
Written by several contributors in the nineteenth century, these sketches celebrate local achievement. Their main strands include humble beginnings, public service and law, military duty, and industry. Read them for the lives they record, but also for the values they praise: courage, leadership, and the rise from modest circumstances to influence.
What you’ll discover
- From farms to influence Follow lives that connect modest village beginnings with a place in the state's public life.
- Public service and law Meet governors, legislators, and lawyers in a state with strong traditions of local government.
- Soldiers and duty Explore portraits that honor courage, leadership, and the willingness to leave home for a larger cause.
- Mills, railroads, and trade See how business builders help change towns through manufacturing, transport, and trade.
- Success through local eyes Discover what these warm portraits reveal about the ideals their nineteenth-century contributors choose to celebrate.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you like real lives, family histories, and the story of how railroads, mills, banks, and courts shaped New England. It suits readers of biography and local history.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Individual lives reveal a state's ambitions
- Work becomes an education of its own
- Fair treatment supports growing businesses
- Honesty gives money its security
- Legal authority grows from preparation
- Public office means accepting responsibility
- Learning and care serve the community
- Success travels while home ties remain
- Success leads back to public service
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Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
At fourteen, George Stark joins a railroad survey, and the sketches that follow show how others rise just as fast.
Challenging10–20 hours to read2 languages
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In short
At fourteen, George Stark joins a crew of engineers surveying the Nashua and Lowell Railroad. Within a lifetime he manages two great railroad lines in Massachusetts, helps rescue the Northern Pacific, and runs for governor of his state.
Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men at a glance
- Reading time
- About 11 h8 h 45 min fast, 13 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 156,900 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A fourteen-year-old surveyor becomes a railroad master
General George Stark opens the collection. Born in Manchester in 1823, he is the great-grandson of General John Stark, the hero of Bennington. His father runs the locks and canals at Amoskeag Falls, so the boy grows up where trade and engineering meet.
At fourteen he joins the engineers surveying the Nashua and Lowell Railroad. At seventeen he is an assistant engineer on the extension to Concord. Each job adds a skill, and by twenty-six he is treasurer of the line. In 1857 he becomes managing agent of the Boston and Lowell, where he sets schedules, freight rates, and fares. In 1875 he helps revive the Northern Pacific after the panic of 1873.
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Details
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- Level
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Cite this edition
Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/sketches-of-successful-new-hampshire-men.
Sketches of successful New Hampshire men. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/sketches-of-successful-new-hampshire-men
Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/sketches-of-successful-new-hampshire-men.
@book{anonymous2026sketches,
title = {Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/sketches-of-successful-new-hampshire-men}
}
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What is Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men about?
It is a collection of short biographies of New Hampshire people who rose in railroads, mills, banking, law, politics, the ministry, and medicine. Each sketch traces ancestry, schooling, career, public service, and family life.
Who wrote Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men?
Many authors wrote it, each sketch under its own name or from earlier histories. Contributors include H. H. Metcalf, Rev. George B. Spalding, Hon. Daniel Hall, and John Ward Dean, all writing in the early 1880s.
Who are the best-known people in the book?
The collection includes General George Stark, Governor Walter Harriman, Governor Natt Head, Senator Henry Blair, General Simon Griffin, Moody Currier, and Marshall Wilder, along with many mill owners, bankers, lawyers, and ministers.
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