Lord, Charles Chase

The following data is extracted from Merrimack and Sullivan Counties, New Hampshire Biographies.

Charles Chase Lord, Justice of the Peace, Notary Public, and the local historian of Hopkinton, is the second child and first son of Charles and Sarah (Hubbard) Lord. Born in South Berwick, Me., July 7, 1841, he is a lineal descendant, in the seventh generation, of Nathan Lord, who emigrated to America from Stackpole Court, Pembroke, Wales, and settled in ancient Kittery, Me., before 1652. In South Berwick, once a part of ancient Kittery, is a homestead of which Nathan Lord became a proprietor in 1676, and which is now in the possession of his descendants, the estate being situated in a district called "Old Fields."

Sarah Hubbard, who became the mother of Charles Chase Lord, was born in Hopkinton, N.H., daughter of John and Ruth (Chase) Hubbard. On her mother's side she descended from the famous Chase family that has figured so prominently in both English and American history.

In 1845 Charles Chase Lord, scarcely four years of age, awoke to recollection and found his home in New Market, N.H., where his father, a machinist, was eventually engaged as a contractor and builder of cotton machines for the late Samuel Brooks. This precocious little fellow was then able to read all those forms of composition usually put into the hands of young children, he having no memory of the time when the process of learning to read began. In 1846, in consequence of imperfect health, his father sought partial occupation upon the soil, and moved his family to a farm in Hopkinton, living there the most of the time afterward until his death in 1884. Charles Chase Lord enjoyed the advantages of the common school, and also received instruction for several terms in a private academy. At one time he made up his mind to enter the medical profession; but, like his father, a constant sufferer from physical infirmities, such a course for him was simply impossible. Largely by the advice of personal friends, he was induced to try the Christian New York, Massachusetts, and Michigan, Mr. Lord returned to Hopkinton in 1871. With some journalistic experience acquired as editor of a rural weekly newspaper in the State of New York, he began supporting himself in part by furnishing news and articles for various local and other publications. Subsequently he became a school officer, in which capacity he has served thirteen years. Being of a judicial turn of mind, and by the advice of friends, he secured commissions as Justice of the Peace and Notary Public, and has repeatedly in his own town and elsewhere presided at justice trials, besides acting as a general adviser of his neighbors and townsmen on a variety of legal subjects.

Mr. Lord's literary tastes prompted him to compile "Life and Times in Hopkinton, N.H. ," a volume containing nearly six hundred pages of local history, biography, and statistics, published by the town in 1890. He has also written and published a series of three local sketches, "Mary Woodwell ," "The Lookout," and "Abraham Kimball ," each containing a chapter of early romantic history told in blank verse, interspersed with original articles in rhyme. At the request of friends in Concord, N.H., Mr. Lord wrote and published "Poems of Penacook ," which contain many items of the early history and traditions of New Hampshire. Besides many metrical effusions in various periodicals, he is represented in "The Poets of New Hampshire " and the "Poets of Maine ," volumes recently published. In 1873 and for the two or three ensuing years he was employed in the State teachers' institutes, both as a reporter and as a lecturer, his special themes of instruction being anatomy, physiology, and hygiene, as applicable to the uses of parents and teachers.

In 1880 Mr. Lord was the United States enumerator of the census for the district of Hopkinton. Of late years, being specially interested and practically skilled in the art of research, he has done considerable work in making historical investigations for people and persons from different places. He was the projector of the organization of the Sons and Daughters of Nathan Lord, which has held two reunions in South Berwick, Me., and of which he is the corresponding secretary, as well as the chairman of its historical committee. Mr. Lord has never married.

Source: Merrimack and Sullivan Counties, New Hampshire Biographies

  Go Back