The city of Manchester, the manufacturing metropolis of the State, a city of whose rapid growth and development every citizen of New Hampshire is justly proud, standing in the front rank among the manufacturing cities of the country, and wanting only the completion of one or two short links of railway, demanded alike by local and general interests, to make her second only to Worcester among the great business centers of New England, takes precedence of other New Hampshire cities and towns, not alone on the score of greater population and more extensive manufacturing enterprises. Her church edifices, her schools and public buildings, her business blocks and elegant private residences are all of superior order. Nor is it in these respects only that Manchester excels. She reckons among her citizens a remarkable proportion of the prominent and influential public men of the State. Among these may be mentioned four of the eight living exGovernors of the State, three ex-Congressmen, one ex-United States Senator and present Judge of the United States District Court, one member of Congress now in service, three Justices of the Supreme Court, two ex-Justices, and a score of others who have been conspicu

ous in various departments of public service and political life. Of these, ex-Gov. Straw may be mentioned as among the more prominent; and certainly there is no one who through his entire active career has been more intimately connected with the growth and progress of the city than he, not only from his position as the active manager of its largest and most powerful manufacturing corporation, but from strong personal interest in the welfare and progress of his adopted city.

EZEKIEL A. STRAW was born Dec. 30, 1819, in the town of Salisbury—in a region, by the way, which has given to the state and nation some of the most illustrious names of onr political history. His father, James B. Straw, a man of much energy and decision of character, had a family of seven children, two daughters and five sons, of whom Ezekiel A. was the eldest. During his childhood the family removed to Lowell, Mass., where his father engaged in the service of the Appleton Manufacturing Company. He attended the public schools of that city. acquiring the rudiments of a thorough English education, which was supplemented through an attendance of some time at Phillips Exe

ter Academy, where he devoted himself more especially to the study of mathematics, in the higher departments of which he became proficient. In the spring of 1838, being then under twenty years of age, he obtained a situation as Assistant Civil Engineer upon the Nashua and Lowell Railroad, which was then being built, the last four miles of which was the initial work in the railway system of our State. Here he manifested a degree of practical attainment and skill which soon attracted attention, and in July following, Mr. Carter, the engineer of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Co. at Manchester, being taken ill, he was sent for, through the agency of Mr. Boyden, the consulting engineer, to perform temporarily the duties of the position. He at once responded to the call, going to Manchester thirty-nine years ago on the fourth of July last, for what he supposed was to be a few weeks of professional service, but what has proved a lifetime of arduous and efficient but well appreciated and generously remunerated labor. He has remained in the active service of the Amoskeag Corporation from that day to this. He commenced work for the company when it had scarcely entered upon the career of active development which has placed it at the head of the manufacturing corporations of the world, and the now important and prosperous city was a boarding-house village of

some twenty-five hundred inhabitants. The first work in which he engaged was upon the dam and canals, then in process of construction, and in laying out the lots and streets where the business portion of the city now stands, the land occupied by which then being the property of the Amoskeag Co., to whose liberality, it may be said, the city is largely indebted for its parks and public grounds, and other substantial contributions. He remained in the company's service as engineer for thirteen years, being absent for a time in Europe, where he was sent in 1844, to secure the necessary information and machinery for the printing of muslin delaines, in the manufacture of which the company were already engaged to some extent in their mill at Hooksett, but which they were unable to print successfully. Having secured, through Mr. Straw's tact, ingenuity and powers of observation, the essentials for successful work in this line, a new mill was erected for the prosecution of this branch of industry, and what is now known as the Manchester Print Works commenced operation in 1846, under the direction of a new company made up mainly of the same members as the Amoskeag.

In 1851, Mr. Straw was appointed to the position of agent of the land and water power department of the Amoskeag Company. Five years later the machine

shops were also put in his charge, and in 1858 the mills were added, so that he then became the active manager of the entire business of this great company, a position which he has holden to the present time, and to the duties of which he has given the best efforts and energies of a life characterized by great physical endurance and extraordinary mental power. To the sound practical judgment, clear comprehension and eminent executive abilities of Mr. Straw, the great success of this now gigantic corporation is largely due, so that the large and almost princely salary which he receives is fully merited.

Although of necessity closely and constantly engaged in the discharge of his responsible and laborious duties as agent of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, Mr. Straw has always taken great interest in the welfare of his adopted city, and has contributed as much, at least, as any other, individually as well as in his capacity of agent of its leading corporation, in carrying forward all enterprises tending to promote the prosperity of Manchester. He was especially active in promoting the scheme for the introduction of a plentiful supply of water into the city, and has been for several years, a member and president of the board of water commissioners. He is also, and has been for more than twenty years one of the trustees of the Manchester Public Library, and was among the active spirits in securing the erection of the elegant building in which it is now located. He was one of the first directors and has been for twenty years president of the Manchester Gas Light Company. He is also, and has been from its organization in 1869, president of the New Hampshire Fire Insurance Company, which corporation has its headquarters in Manchester, and of which ex-Gov. Weston of the same city is vice president. He is president of the New England Cotton Manufacturers Association, which position may be regarded as a high testimonial to his ability, and thorough knowledge of the interests which the organization was formed to promote.

In politics Mr. Straw, although a decided Republican, has never been a bitter

partisan, nor has he at any time been what is known as a politician in the general sense. Though often called into the public service, it was never through any efforts of his own, nor as a reward for party services, for such in the ordinary sense he had never rendered. He was elected a member of the House of Representatives from Manchester, for five successive years, from 1859 to 1863, inclusive, and served efficiently, for the last three years, as chairman of the committee on finance, at that time-the war period-one of the most important of the legislative Committees. He was emphatically a working member, never sought to shine in debate, and whenever he spoke it was simply to express a sound practical opinion upon some really important question. In 1864 he was chosen a member of the Senate, and was re-elected the following year, when he was chosen to the position of president of that body. At the Republican State Convention in January, 1872, Mr. Straw's name was presented for the gubernatorial nomination, by those who justly believed him to be one of the strongest possible candidates that the party could put in the field. He was nominated on the first ballot, receiving 304 votes to 222 for Horton D. Walker of Portsmouth, and 30 for Samuel W. Hale of Keene. At the election in March he was chosen over Gov. Weston, the Democratic candidate. receiving a plurality of about two thousand, and a majority of one thousand, about a thousand votes having been cast for Lemuel C. Cooper of Croydon, the Labor Reform candidate.

In the office of chief magistrate of the State, which he filled for two years, being re-elected in 1873, Mr. Straw maintained his independence of character, and acted throughout as his own judgment dictated, looking only to the best interests of the people, as viewed from his standpoint. Although more than once party managers were disposed to criticise his action, they never swerved him in the least from the course which he believed to be right. There may have been more brilliant men in the Executive chair in this State, but certainly none during the last twenty years, who brought to

the position a higher degree of executive ability and practical knowledge of affairs, or who was more universally governed in the performance of his duties by his own convictions of right, regardless of the demands of mere partisans.

Since 1873, Mr. Straw has not been engaged in public service, except as a member of the Centennial Commission from this State, to which position he was appointed by President Grant. In this capacity he labored with great zeal, and did much to contribute to the success of the great exposition, especially so far as the New Hampshire department was concerned.

Gov. Straw was a member of the New Hampshire delegation in the Republican National Convention at Cincinnati last year, and was one of the three delegates who from the first opposed the nomination of Mr. Blaine, giving their votes at first to Gen. Bristow, and subsequently to Mr. Hayes.

Notwithstanding the magnitude of his business cares, which have ever received full attention, and which have involved not alone the management of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company's extensive operations, but also a share in the direction of other enterprises. including that of the Langdon Mills, the Blodgett Edge Tool Company, and Amoskeag Axe Company, as well as the control for some time of the Namaske Mills, of which he was the principal, and for a time, sole, owner, until their consolidation with the Amoskeag, he has found time and opportunity for a vast amount of general reading and practical observation, so that, with a mind endowed with rare powers of comprehension and analysis, and with a most retentive memory, he has secured a large fund of information in almost every department of useful knowledge, which he is able to utilize upon all occasions. Some years since he received from Dartmouth College the honorary degree of Master of Arts, a distinction which in his case certainly was well merited.

Mr. Straw married Miss Charlotte S. Webster at Amesbury, Mass., in April,

1842, by whom he had four children, two sons and two daughters. One of the sons died in infancy. The other, Herman Foster Straw, is now assistant superintendent of the Amoskeag Mills. One daughter became the wife of Wm. H. Howard of Somerville, Mass., and the other of Henry M. Thompson, formerly agent of the Manchester Print Works, and now agent of the Lowell Felting Company at Lowell, Mass. Mrs. Straw died in 1852, and Mr. Straw has never remarried.

In religious belief Gov. Straw is a Unitarian of the advanced order, with broad and liberal views. He was one of the founders of the First Unitarian Society of Manchester, of which organization he has served as clerk and treasurer, and for some years as president, and was chairman of the building committee which erected the church edifice in which the society now worships.

The home of Gov. Straw is a stately brick mansion, among the largest private residences in the State, without exterior ornamentation, but elegantly finished and richly furnished throughout. It is situated upon Elm St., in the upper part of the city, surrounded by spacious and well kept grounds, embracing several acres of land which was a gift from the corporation which he has served so long and efficiently. It commands a broad and extensive view, especially to the westward, overlooking the valley of the Merrimack, with the Uucanoonucks standing out boldly in the background. The house is connected by telegraph with the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company's office, so that he can be consulted or give directions concerning important matters at any time withont leaving his room.

Gov. Straw is now but fifty-eight years of age, in the full vigor of his intellectual powers, and endowed as he is with a strong physical constitution, notwithstanding the vast amount of labor he has performed, may reasonably look forward to many years of useful activity and honorable achievement.