wool becoming before long the most important part
of their business. The South American trade de-
veloped a new, or rather a hitherto unsuspected, talent
in young Simpson— that of an inventor iu mechanical
appliances, which was as important to his after- success
in life as was his sound judgment in commercial af-
fairs. These two talents combined made him success-
ful in business from the outset and enabled him in the
end to amass a large fortuue.

It often happens that the inventor lacks the balance-
wheel, and others profit by his ingenuity, but in Mr.
Simpson's case his mechanical genius was combined
with practical knowledge and being applied to his
business, the profits inured to his own benefit. The
wool which they imported from South America was so
burry that it very materially reduced its market



1816



HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.



value, as at this time all the burrs had to be removed
by hand, thereby entailing a very heavy expense to
make it fit for iiianul'acturing purposes. Mr. Simp-
son's attention was at this time directed to a crude
invention for removing the burrs from the wool by
machinery, the idea of which to him seemed good,
although the mechanism was an absolute failure.
Mr. Simpson, by his perseverance and the use of his
inventive ability, finally succeeded, after repealed dis-
appointments, discouragements and the expenditure
of a large pan of his fortune, in bringing the machine
to a successful issue. This machine is practically to-
day used on every set of cards employed in woolen
manufacturing in the world.

It was only by the most pei-sistent effjrts and per-
fect confidence in his ability to succeed in whatever
he undertook, united with an obstinate determination
never to be beaten, that he succeeded in this, his first
and one might almost say his most difficult and impor-
tant invention.

About this time his partner, Mr. Otis, died, and Mr.
Simpson kept on by himself in his mercantile bus-
iness, to which was added various inventions, all of
which were connected with the woolen business.
After the burring-machine was perfected and there
was a certainty of large profits from its operations, he
sold it to Whitwell, Bond & Co., importers of wool and
largely interested in the woolen mills at Jacksonville,
but the disastrous times of 1837 caused a failure of
the firm, who made an assignment in favor of their
wool creditors, of whom Mr. Simpson was one, and
who also held notes of theirs for the burring-machine
which he had sold to them. Owing to this failure, the
Saxonville Mills were reorganized under the name of
the New England Worsted Company, of which Mr.
Simpson became the agent. He continued his mer-
cantile business, importing large quantities of wool
for the mills, and keeping his position as agent until
1867, when the wide-spread financial disasters caused
the failure of the mills, leaving Mr. Simpson one of
the largest creditors. At this time he, in connection
with a friend, purchased the mills from the other
creditors, from which time, under his sole manage-
ment, it had a marvelous prosperity. Shortly after-
wards he built and started the Roxbury Carpet Mills
in connection with the woolen-mills at Saxonville,
and continued his active connection with these man-
ufacturing interests until his death.

At the «ge of twenty-four Mr. Simpson married Miss
Elizabeth Kilbam, a beautiful girl of sixteen, daughter
of Mr. Jonathan Kilham, a Boston merchant with
whom he passed a happy married life of nearly fifty
years. She bore him five children, of w hom three sur-
vived their parents, — a son, Mr. Frank E. Simpson, of
Boston, and two daughters, Mrs. W. W. Seely and
Miss Grace Simpson.

A few years before his death Mr. Simpson married
a second time, taking for his wife Miss Evangeline
Marrs, of Saxonville, with whom he lived until his



death, December 21, 1884. He left no children by his
second wife.

A man who amassed such 'a fortune and won the
affectionate re.<pect of all who knew him must have
been endowed with remarkable qualities of mind and
character, and such Mr. Simpson possessed in an
abundant degree. In the first place, he had a won-
derfully clear intellect ; he formed his plans and knew
to the minutest detail what needed to be done to carry
them out. Even when his business had grown to vast
proportions, he was not satisfied with the general su-
pervision, but he looked after every department with
assiduity which would have broken down a feebler
man at an early age. He had great tenacity of will,
as was indicated by his sticking to his invention for
wool-cleaning when others were discouraged and
wished to give it up. And he required those under
him to carry out his plans, although he was a kind and
considerate man to all his employees. He had the
instinct for business, so that whatever he undertook
turned to profit, and while some thought it was luck,
in reality it was intelligence, promptness in decision,
a careful supervision of the business in all its details
and an indomitable will which turned a seeming de-
feat into victory.

Mr. .Simpson was not merely a business man, but
he was also one of the most benevolent and kindly of
men, attached to his friends and doing acts of benefi-
cence of general benefit to the public, and especially
to those in his own employ. An illustration of the
care he had for his workmen was furnished in what
followed when the mills burned down, about a year
before his death. The condition of business at the
time did not seem to warrant the rebuilding, but when
he saw his people out of work and needing the wages
thus lost by the fire, he decided to rebuild at once,
and that the people might not suffer in the meanwhile,
he made provision to aid those who had families de-
pendent on them for support until there was steady
work for them in the rebuilt mill.

The poor man who was willing to work and needed
employment was certain to find in Mr.Simpsonakind
and sympathizing friend, who would provide some-
thing for him to do if possible, and it would almost
seem even if it were not possible. As an instance of
this, at the time when there were so many unemployed
men tramping through the country he purchased large
tracts of woodland in the vicinity of his Saxonville
home, upon which he employed any man who came
to him asking for work. These lauds he converted
into beautiful parks by clearing, draining and making
roads, thus giving employment (and that was his prin-
cipal motive) to many unemployed men for several
years. At one time he had over three hundred men
on his private pay-roll employed in this work, and
after the parks were completed he threw them open to
the public.

The public benefactions of Mr. Simpson were munifi-
cent, especially those made to his native town. The



THE iS£W YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY




C^^C^t-cTH, ^ i>V2-/'C/' •«•* -^



y.



NEWBURYPORT.



1817



increase of books in the Newburyport Public Library
rendered an enlargement of the library building nec-
essary. This need was represented to Mr. Simpson,
who very generously contributed $18,000, which was
tlie greater part of the expenditure of making the en-
largements. In commemoration of this gift the addi-
tion was named the Simpson Annex. He also contrib-
uted largely for the improvement of the Mall in New-
buryport and an annuity of a thousand dollars for
watering the streets during the summer, which he
made perpetual in his will. He also contributed some
thirty thousand dollars to a new college building at
Wellesley fcollege.

Such a life as his is one of beneficence. His large
fortune was won by the application of extraordinary
talents to supplying the wants of his fellow-men by
inventions and manufactures of general benefit, and
it was generously used by its possessor when it was
gained. He left a name honored and beloved by all
who had had dealings with him and especially by
those who had been in his employ. The people of
his native town remember him with gratitude, and a
few older men who knew him from youth and were
most intimately acquainted with him are those who
honor and respect him most, and that is saying much,
since there are few distinguished men who bear well
the test of intimate acquaintance and continue heroes
to the friends of their boyhood. That test Mr. Simp-
son bore, and it is the highest testimonial to his char-
acter and ability, not excepting the monuments of
his beneficence, public and private, which have been
mentioned.

Among the many eminent men produced by New-
buryport the name of Michael Hodge Simpson will
always bear an honorable place.



HON. AAEON AUGUSTUS SARGENT.'

Hon. Aaron Augustus Sargent, recently deceased in
California, in which State he had resided for nearly
forty years, and which conferred upon him the
highest positions and honors it had to give, was em-
phatically an Essex County man. Here, in Newbury-
port, he was born in 1827 ; here he passed his early
life, and here he married his wife. His father was
here before him, and for two hundred and fifty years
his ancestors had lived on the banks of the Merrimac.
William Sargent, the first of the name in Massachu-
setts, was among the firstsettlersof Salisbury in 1640,
and had his residence only two miles north of New-
buryport, in the First Parish, where was located his
village lot, and near by were his tillage and wood-
lands, his pastures and his seaside meadows ; and
largely his descendants may now be found in Salis-
bury, Araesbury and Merrimac ; but no one of them
ever attained the celebrity of Aaron A. Sargent.

He was what "in Yankee land" is called a "self-



114*



By Georgo J. L. Colby.



made man," rising rapidly through all the grades of
public life, to the highest save the Presidency of the
Republic, by his own power. Never did he gain one
step by accident, wealth, partial friends or any ex-
traneous or fortuitous event. He enjoyed not one
advantage that is not to-day within the reach of every
boy in the city or county in which he was born and
bred ; and, therefore, the lesson of his life deserves
to be recorded that it may be the study of the youth
to whose fathers he was personally known. This one
advantage he had: nature had given him a sound,
well-balanced mind in a strong and healthy body,
and it had endowed him with a will that never failed
to carry him through difficulties, wherever and when-
ever they appeared. He early perceived that his
future must be of his own making ; and beseemed to
have taken from the first this motto: "Whatever
man has done is within the possibilities that belong
to me, as the inheritance from my fathers." It was
therefore given to him to pluck greatness from seem-
ing nothing, and from the humblest beginnings to
make an enduring fame. The schools of his native
town were open to him, and in them he obtained the
rudiments of education, and laid the foundations of
a great and noble life, a life which was pure, up-
right, moral, well-spent and progressive, as will ap-
pear in this narrative.

His father, who was a practical man and a mechanic,
designed that he should learn some handicraft that
would assure him a livelihood on his reaching man's
estate, and so placed him in one or two situations
where he could have a trade or business; but they
were not suited to his tastes, nor to the ambitions,
meritorious and honorable, that gave visions to his
youth and inspired his later years. Dissatisfied with
the labors of a cabinet-maker and the duties of a
clerk, though then, as ever, he endeavored to do his
best in any situation he might be called to fill, he
sought a place in the printing-office of a daily news-
paper, the Courier, published by the late Enoch
Hale, in Newburyport. There he fed his love of knowl-
edge while he learned the art of type-setting, and
there were his first efforts at authorship. We call to
mind a series of papers, criticisms on "the manners
and matter" of the several clergymen of the town,
that first attracted public attention, causing general
comment. These were followed by well-written essays
upon various topics, so that when not more than
eighteen years old he had won a local reputation in
literature. All the time he was a hard student — read-
ing was his delight, his recreation, his life. He was
never known to be idle, and the hours of sleep were
shortened at both ends that he might the better be
prepared for the work that was before him. Like an
athlete in the old Grecian games, he made ready for
the race ; he prepared for the struggle; he longed for
the battle when yet it was afar off.

At the age of twenty he struck out into the deeper
waters of the world for himself, to try his chance and



1818



HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.



bear his burdens. For a time he was at his trade, as
a printer, in Philadelphia, " following in the foot-
steps of that illustrious type-setter, Benjamin Frank-
lin." Thence he moved on to Washington City,
where he formed the acquaintance of a Represent-
ative in Congress from the State of New York, — a
man of strong mind, but limited literary attainments,
for whom he acted as private secretary. They were
friends and of mutual benefit to each other. This
work now was to his liking. He formed an exten-
sive acquaintance with eminent men; the Congress-
ional Library was open to him; he could hear the
debates of great men on great questions, and feel the
inspiration of the voices and the manners of that
trinity of statesmen to whom the world listened, — of
Webster, the miglny power, of Clay, the eloquent
orator, and of Calhoun, the most splendid logician of
that era. He could see and converse with statesmen
and scholars such as this country had not seen before
or known since,— men who moved the world upward
and onward. Perhaps these were the happiest days
of his life. He w:is American thoroughly and fully ;
every heart-throb was for his country, and every
prayer for the glory of the republic, and here was
the American government before him. He was a
student, thoroughly devoted to literature, morals,
politics, and no university in America or Europe
could aflbrd him so much instruction for his coming
career.

We know not the course of his thoughts, " The
wiud bloweth where it listcth," but this must have
been patent to his sagacious and watchful mind; that
for the accomplishment of his purposes he must have
means of action. The story of the foolish virgins
who were in the dark because they had forgotten
their oil ; the loss of Bunker Hill to the patriots of
1775 because they were short of ammunition, could
not have been lost on him ; and, therefore, it was not
surprising that, on the first announcement of the dis-
covery of gold in California, he was ready to emigrate
to the Pacific coast. Perhaps he had previously an-
ticipated such a migration, since he had made the
acquaintance of Fremont, and learned from him of
the " goodly land " which waited the advent of those
who would possess it. Be that as it may, he started
with other Argonauts, from Baltimore, early in 1849,
for San Francisco, wVCape Horn. Touching at Rio,
Dom Pedro entertained the Americans by a public
reception, and was highly pleased with the manly de-
portment and general intelligence of Mr. Sargent.
This seems to have been his first lesson in diplomacy.
Sailing thence, he gave all his time to his books till
he reached Valparaiso, Chili, where he left the ship,
and spent some time in learning the resources and
opportunities opening in South America. He was
then on the track of an older townsman, William
Wheelwright, whose fame fills that country, and
found others I'rom his native town there engaged in
commercial operations. Obtaining the position of



supercargo on another ship, he continued his voyage,
and passed the Golden Gate in December, ten
months from his leaving Baltimore.

Probably never a man landed in California with
prospects less promising, who reached any great emi-
nence, and he would have been among the last of
whom anybody but a prophet would have said: "In
less than forty years this young man, twenty-two
years old, without money, without business and with-
out a friend to help him, will be the first man of this
great State, and in political honors above them all."
But so it was, and so inscrutable are the ways of Prov-
idence. What is he to do? Something must be done,
and done atonce. The country was full of printera. for
they ever are in advance of the foremost wave of civili-
zation. His first venture was in lightering ships — re-
ceiving the cargoes in scows and transporting the
merchandise up the Sacramento and San Joaquin
Rivers. This he followed with all the energy that
ever attended his labors. Then he plied the pick and
the shovel in practical mining ; and for a time held a
situation on the San Francisco Courier, the first Whig
paper in the State, and in 1851 he was setting type on
the Nevada Journal, of which he soon became editor,
and the next year he was prominent in politics, which
were intensely exciting, in the struggle between
Northern and Southern men for dominancy in the
State. He carried himself so bravely through that
crisis as to win credit and renown.

Two years later, having turned his attention to the
law, he was admitted to the bar in Nevada County,
and at once entered upon the practice of his profe*-
sion with marked success, and the very next year he
was elected district attorney. It will not, of course,
be claimed that he immediately became a greiit law-
yer, for the law is not a profession in which miracles
are wrought, and there were learned counselors and
attorneys at the Nevada bar ; but he had all the ele-
ments of a great lawyer to be developed, — industry,
without which genius fails and brilliancy grows dim ;
then, the determination, which was ever his rule, to
do his best in every case that came before him, and
to know all the facts and the law relating to the
cause to be tried. This ever brings success ; for, feel-
ing the foundation sure beneath him, he is prepared
for his duty, while the unprepared contestant is
sure of defeat. He succeeded so well as to gain the
approval of his clients and the applause of the peo-
ple. He was the leading counsel in some of the most
important cases ever tried in California; and at the
time of his death he had pending in the courts land
suits involving millions of dollars.

Leaving him as a lawyer, we notice him next in
politics and statemanship. In 1851) he headed the
Fremont Presidential ticket, and from the start
adhered to the Republican party. In 1860 he was a
delegate to the National Convention that nominated
Lincoln, and in ISCl was himself elected to Congress.
Thus wc find him iu ten years rising from a acowman



NEWBUKYPOET.



1819



oil the Sacramento to represent one of the greatest
and richest States in the National Legislature. At
tlie end of the term he returned to the law and to
hi-i mining interests demanding his attention.

In 1868 he was re-elected to Congress, and so well
served his constituents that a third time he was
elected to the House in 1870 ; and in the same year
w.as chosen by the Legislature for a full term as Sen-
ator, which made him twelve years at Washington,
devoting all his energies to further the interests of
the Pacific coast. He drew the bill for the first Pa-
cific Railroad, and advocated it to its enactment. His
action in favor of the mint at San Francisco, and of
the navy-yard at Vallejo, and, in fact, of all measures
in the interest of the Pacific States, was fully up to
the demands of people in that eventful era. He
especially met their prejudices and their wishes on the
('hinese question, and was the first man to remove
this national issue from the "Sand Lots" to Wash-
ington, and lift it above the Kearneys to the plane of
statesmanship. He saw the evil to his State ; inves-
tigated, reported and suggested the remedy which
was applied. We may not stop to notice the many
topics of importance he was compelled to discuss,
and on which he was acknowledged to be one of the
ablest debaters in the House or Senate ; and when he
finished his service there, he retired with clean
hands and a pure heart. He had not aggrandized
himself to the injury of others. He had not enriched
himself at the expense of his State or his country.
Millions were within his reach, but he touched them
not with the point of his finger; indeed, if he had
never seen Congress his estate at death would have
been many times bigger than it was. He was educated
a Puritan, and he lived and died true to his convic-
tions. He was loyal at heart in life, and as patriotic
in legislation as was his grandfather in the Continen-
tal army.

In 1882 he was appointed minister plenipotentiary
to Germany. It was a very good appointment, as he
had the qualifications for the place. In addition to his
experience at home, and his reputation as a states-
man, he was an excellent German scholar, and could
converse fluently in French, which is the language
of diplomacy in Europe; and better than all, he had
a clear head and a brave heart. He had fought the
battles of life and overcome every obstacle with a
courage that never quailed in human presence.
He was to stand before the German Caesar and to
meet his prime minister, who thinks himself master
of the world. He did it, this printer-boy, present-
ing his case as he would in the Senate chamber of
the United States, defending American rights as be-
came a man. Unfortunately, the government
allowed the publication of his private despatches,
which occasioned his resignation. The confidence
of our government in him, however, was not lost, and
President Arthur immediately nominated him minis-
ter to Russia, which nomination was confirmed bv



the Senate without the usual reference to a commit-
tee. He preferred to come home to the more lucrative
business of the law, and declined the appointment.
It stands, however, to his credit that he was appoint-
ed to two first-class foreign missions, which has not
fallen to the lot of any other man in the Pacific
States, and to but very few in any other State of the
Union. It is by no means clear, had his life been
prolonged, that even the highest honors of his coun-
try would not have been conferred upon him.

We have said that Mr. Sargent was true to his con-
victions, and had the courage to abide by them
through "good or evil report." He was progressive
and often proposed action in advance of his time, as in
suflrage unlimited by sex, or the enfranchisement of
women. When he was a candidate for the Senate an
opposing journalist charged this as an offense. He
made no reply. Thereupon the journalist exultingly
asked: "Will he dare deny it? " Still he was silent.
But shortly there was a female suffrage convention
held in San Francisco; he attended and made a radi-
cal speech in favor of woman suffrage, at the close
saying, "They have my views now and can make the
most of them ; I would not conceal them to be Sena-
tor ! " This was in 1872 ; in both houses of Congress
he advocated equal suffrage for both sexes.

In hii domestic relations Mr. Sargent was fortunate
and happy. In 1852 he married Miss Ellen Clark, of
Newbury port, an estimable lady, who survives him.
To them were born two daughters and a son, all of
whom he educated to practical duties and callings,
and they have shown that they inherited the abili-
ties of their parents. The son, George, has succeeded
to the place of his father in the law-office ; Lizzie
has been thoroughly educated in the schools of this
country and Germany as a physician, and in the
treatment of the eye and ear is ihe highest authority
in California ; Ella is a popular writer for the news-
paper press and magazines.

On the death of Mr. Sargent, in August, 1887, there
was universal mourning in California. All personal
feeling and political animosities disappeared, and the
people vied with each other in their tokens of respect
for the dead. The many associations to which he
belonged hastened to eulogize his character. At his
funeral more than a hundred carriages were in the
procession, and the grave in which he was laid was
literally filled with flowers. The newspapers over-
flowed with kindly words, and could have said no
more had he died President of the United States. He
sleeps his last sleep far from the place of his birth,
but where the people had learned to trust, respect
and love him. His name passes into the history of
his country, and his fiime will be more enduring than
brass and more pure and white than the marble that