86 





did not operate, wire entirely .lead this (.prniL', 

 and, on removing ti.ein, tlie root was lound to lie 

 literally eaten up. 'I'he l>orers wmd.l p..s>^ up- 

 ward a\. iar as the quince went, l.ul were not 

 found, in any instance, lo have passeil mio ti.e 



''This operation may be in^efnlly resoited to in 

 a creat variety of case.. Where trees are >;.rdled 

 al.out the roots l.y iniee in winter, they may ne 

 caved in this way. There are many pear trees, 

 also, which, havin- attained a good size, ha^e be- 

 come sltmted in c..nse.,uence ot the stock ben,}£ 

 a sucker Iron, an old tree. In such cases, and 

 all others, where .nore vitality ar,d vtjror .s neces- 

 Kiry ir. consequen,-e ol delect m the root, the 

 trees may be renovated l.y this process. We are 

 thererore, i.iclined to look upon .t to he, as .t has 

 been luouonnced to be by some very tntelligettt 

 horticulimists from abroad to whom we have ex- 

 hibited the lesulis, a most important and nselnl 

 discovery. 



er boys of^hTl^vrence family, one of whotn | takes bis life in his hand away fron. wife, child" - 

 ^ .. . . . :.- .!,_ „ =„ ..rt.. .„„ nr..Mripi,rU IS a mere tultance, would I.e 



CONCOUD, N. H., JUNE 30, 1847. 



The Millionaires of New England. 



Nearly forty years ago we use'l to notice in the 

 Uenlinel and other Boston newspapers— for long 

 subsequent to that time the old comity of Mid- 

 dlesex had no paper printed within its limits— 

 the calls of successive meetinss and proceedings 

 of the " Middlesex Society of Husbandmen." As 

 this was our own native county, we always took 

 piide ill the farming operations of that region ; 

 but the best practical farmers and gardeners of 

 that county living near Boston giue iliemselves 

 110 time to be expended in lancy farming— they 

 contented themselves with the c.\eicise of their 

 labor and ingenuity to give the earth its best stim- 

 ulants and appear earliest in the market with the 

 best and earliest animal and vegetable produc- 

 tions. Their long course of vigilance conld 

 scarcely fail in n series of years to make these 

 farmers of a few acres wealthy and independent. 

 Farther in the countiy there was li class of farm- 

 ers larger in their number of acres and men of 

 more leisure— growers of grain and vegetables 

 mainly for home consumpiioii, relying on the dai- 

 ry, and on the growth of cattle and horses, sheep 

 and swine, eggs and poultry, for the market. The 

 gains of this kind of tanners have generally been 

 small ill cash annually realized— the gains have 

 been more marked in those cases where farm la- 

 bor has improved the capacity of the soil while 

 obtaining successive annual crops. Where the 

 production of a farm was annually less, the oc- 

 cupant has commonly been obliged to " pull up 

 etukes" and go further into the bush. 



The " MitlfUesex Society of Husbandmen" was 

 composed mainly of the better farmeis of the in- 

 terior: long did the name of the independent 

 farmer of Gioton, Amos Lawrknck, appear in 

 the call of the meetings of thi.-i Society. The 

 town of Groton, nearly central in old Miildlesex, 

 in early limes had its beanliftil main street and 

 village, second in the Interior of the county only 

 to old Ct.ncord, then the seal of the Middlesex 

 courts. Like New Ipswich in our own State, 

 twenty miles northwesterly of Groljon, this had 

 its well en<lowed and well supported, academy or 

 high school in early limes, in which ihat instruc- 

 tion was common not to be had in the scanty 

 teachings of our first common schools. The late 

 Chief Justice Uichard.-on.a nolive of the Granite 

 Slate, was lor several years preceptor of tlie Gro- 

 lou acudeniy, and taught airioiig others the farm- 



only we believe was instructed in the course pre 

 paratory to college honors : the late Luther Law- 

 rence, when we first knew of him, was a junior 

 partner of Timothy Bigplow,a disiinguishcd law- 

 yer, and many years speaker of the house of rep- 

 resentatives of the Bay State : Samuel Dana, from 

 Amherst in this Slate, was the political and pro- 

 fessional rival ol Mr. Bigelow.and with Mr. Dana 

 William M. Richardson uommeneed in partner- 

 ship his career as a lawyer. Luther Lawrence 

 became eminent afterwards at Groton both as a 

 politician and lawjer; but the more successlid 

 career of his brothers at Boston who were among 

 the founders of Lowell, v, hid. in twenty-five yeai s 

 has grown into a city of the interior larger than 

 Boston was at the time of which we are writing, 

 induced Mr. Lawrence to leave bis profession ai 

 Groton and remove to Lowell, as the place of 

 more easv acquisition of wealth. Having resided 

 there several years, the death of this gentleman 

 will be recollected as having taken place from a 

 fall in a floom of one of the mill factories. 



In the history of ihi.-t country and its business 

 we iiavB known isolated individuals rising to em- 

 inence as men of wealth obtained by speculation 

 or mercantile enterprise. Forty years ago Wil- 

 liam Gray of Salem, whose ships traversed every 

 ocean an.l visited the ports of every clime, was 

 considered the rich man of New England : be- 

 fore his death, however, his property was greatly 

 reduced by the system of privileged piracy pur- 

 sued by the belligerLiit governments of Kiirope 

 who preyed ujion the American merchants with 

 that impunity which the stronger in some cases 

 practises towards the weaker nation. Stephen 

 Girard was then and iiftcrwards the rich man of 

 the United Stales : probably John Jacob Astor 

 of New York wonhl, in the presence of all other 

 men of great and accumulating weallh, be takei 



rcn and friends, is a mere liiltance, would be 

 proof of our position. 



On a former occasion we noticed in the \ isilor 

 the repeated generous mm ificence of the wealthy 

 senior of the Appleton family. To ibis we might 

 add the generous gift of another of tbiit name, 

 William Appleton, of ten thnnsand dollars for 

 the erection and endowment of a Proteslant Epis- 

 copal church. Of the Lawrem-es, the eldest of 

 the family has been generous in a series of years - 

 beyond almost any other wealthy man of the 

 country. The el.lest of the family of farmer- 

 hrothers, and almost old enough lo be the father 

 of some of them, Amos Lawrence first went to 

 Boston and there commenced business as a mer- 

 chant: to this business and that of mannnjclur- 

 ing investmenis he is understood lo have inlro- 

 diiced four brothers of the same family, to wit : 

 Luther, William, Abbott and Samuel. In conse- 

 quence of feeble health the elder brother of lal 

 years had partially retired from business. Al y 

 a year ago it was reported of him that he had in 

 tended lo give away in ehariiiible objects the in- 

 come of his vast properly not taken from busi- 

 ness inveslmenia so as to have no accumulation 

 from that source. Mistaking the actual amo-inl, 

 he found at the end of the tern, forty thousand 

 dollars and more which he was troubled what to 



do with ! 



Common fame has given to Abholl Lawrence, 

 ayotingerbi other, the grand accumulation and 

 greatest probable weallh of any man of New 

 Euiiland of his age, who has not inherited nn 

 original fortune. The wealth of the father ex- 

 tended probably not beyonil the means of the fir»l 

 education of the sons. The house and farm buihl- 

 ings at Groton we believe are kept as an heir- 

 loom in the family: a few years since ihey were 

 pointed out to us at the fiiM and only time we 



of lale| 



Al.outI 



had in-' 



tnen of i'leal and acciimnlaling weaiii), lie i.iKtii ,.^....^- -- ,.„.,„ „„i|, 



time. These are all isolated cases of wealth.- 

 Groton and New Ipswich have each furnished 

 families more llian one or two of whom have 

 grown into wealth with even a more certain and 

 rapid progress, than the i.-olaicd cases named — 

 we mean iht Lawrences and the Applet<ins. In 

 the great enterprises of these two families great 

 risqnes have been cnconiilered. It has been said 

 of one of them that, in the time of general revul- 

 sion about the year 18o4, an assignment for a 

 greater failuic than liad ever yet taken place in 

 New England was all prepared in writing and 

 only prevented by timely relief offered by oilier 

 men of wealth who had not gone so deep as that 



house. 



We make no pretensions lo a knowledge of the 



business and wealth of the, Lawrences and ihe 

 Appletons other than ihe common report; but 

 we must, -suppose, as well from the large accu- 

 mulations of others engaged in the same busi- 

 iies.-', as from their accnmulaled and frequent gifts 

 for charitable and public objecls, that their in 



marked political character we have nothing lodo: 

 he has niuh.ublcdiy been guided in his course, 

 like most other put. lie men, by his own inleresi, 

 To bis generous patronage of young men in busi- 

 ness—to his honorable bearing as a merchant— 

 the general sentiment unites in his favor. I 



The business . if manufactures has been higblj 

 prospered within the last few years: Ahholt Luwl- 

 rence has had a greater investment in these ihirt 

 any other man in ihe country. Only see wilfc 

 what ease capital in manufaciuies can be create* 

 The city of Lawrence, by an accnmiilation of'W 

 falls of the Merrimack below Lowell, project^ 

 only alionl two years ago, has grown iipwiili4 

 population of some six or seven thousand soiih 

 within the last two yeai-.s. Mr. Lawrence was ill^ 

 dnccd to furnish the means for starting this pro 

 ject at the instance of a gentleman whose wbM 

 known talents as a practical engineer bad wdt 

 secured his confitlence : the water power was co»- 

 ceiitialed at an inconveuie.ice and expense of 

 some hundred thousands of dollars greater tlwn 



nunc oojecis, luai mti. ...- - ■ rr, L.«i» 



crease of wealth in the las, three or four years at o.her positions on the .same rt.er The whote 



hat been rapid beyond all precedent in this conn- stock in the concern was in the first mstime. J 



nas iietu lapi I icj i . , .. „ i^f^n.., ihn emrt t bore the advance ol » 



try. Looking al the progress of ow rich men, it 

 will be seen that wealth rolls up like the snow- 

 ball : long, long do the majority of mankind work 

 before the beginning of accumulation. The re- 

 sult of much labor and effort is the increase of 

 riches to those who do not put forth their hands 

 to labor-it goes to the capital, rather than the 

 laboremphijed. The gieal wealth gained by the 

 men who have invested capital in three and four 

 years voyages to the whale fisheries of distant 

 seas, whore the shaie of the cotnmon suiloj- who 



Allied— from the start it bore the advance ofy 

 per cent, above par. Every preparation '0 

 made and every engine set in motion for ll* 

 building of a new city. Canals were dug— hiilM- 

 in.'s both on corporation and private account weW 

 commenced. Whole frames and materials for 

 houses prepared in the coiinlry above were lukeil 

 hy circuitous railroad routes. Corporation l«ls 

 for houses and stores in the new city, iidvnnc^ 

 from a first to a second public sale lo the liigl" 

 prices of eighty cents and a dollar a foot. Ha» 



-J 



