BIOGRAPHY OF COL. MARTIN V.B. EDGERLY of Manchester NH
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Information located at http://www.nh.searchroots.com/Manchester
On a web site about GENEALOGY AND HISTORY OF MANCHESTER NEW HAMPSHIRE 
TRANSCRIBED BY JANICE BROWN 
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The original source of this information is in the public domain, 
however use of this text file, other than for personal use, is 
restricted without written permission from the transcriber 
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SOURCE:
Manchester, A Brief Record of its Past and A Picture of Its Present, 
including an account of is settlement and its growth as town and city; 
a history of its schools, churches, societies, banks, post-offices, 
newspapers and manufactures; a description of its government, police 
and fire department, public buildings, library, water-works, 
cemeteries, streets, streams, railways and bridges; a complete list of 
the selectmen, moderators and clerks of the town and members of the 
councils, marshals and engineers of the city, with the state of the 
cote for mayor at each election; the story of its part in the war of 
the rebellion with a complete list of its soldiers who went ot the war; 
and sketches of its representative citizens; Manchester N.H.; John B. 
Clark; 1875
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page 403
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COL. M.V. B. EDGERLY
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Martin Van Buren Edgerly was born in Barnstead, NH September 26, 1833.
He is the son of Samuel J. and Eliza (Bickford) Edgerly and was one of
a family of nine children, five sons and four daughters, of whom five
besides himself survives.  Andrew J. of North Haverhill NH, is
adjutant-general of the state [of NH]; Josehp G., Clarence M.,
and Araminta C. are all residents in this city [Manchester NH], 
the first having been for the past eight years its superintendent of
public instruction, the second an insurance agent, and the last a 
teacher in the public schools; Hannah A. is the wife of Ambrose
Pearson, a civil engineer of Wilton NH.
  The subject of this sketch came to this city with his parents when
twelve years old, went to school for a time and then worked in the
mills and machine-shop of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, where
he remained until October 1856, when he opened a drug-store in company
with Lewis H. Parker. In a little less than a year he removed to
Pittsfield NH, and in 1859 he entered into the insurance business,
becoming an agent of several companies, among which was the
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company of Springfield, Mass.
In 1860 he was apppointed by that company its general agent for New
Hampshire and opened an office in Manchester, whither he removed in 
November 1863, having become the general agent also for Vermont and
northern New York. In 1868 he was appointed superintendent of all the
company's agencies and spent two years in establishing agencies in
the west, while retaining his own at home.  In 1870 he resigned his
place as superintendent but continued in charge of the northern New
York, Vermont and New Hampshire agencies and in September 1874
accepted in addition, the Boston agency, the oldest in the country.
  Mr. Edgerly acquired the rank of colonel by services as the chief
of Governor Weston's staff in 1871, was a delegate in 1872 to the
national Democratic convention at Baltimore which nominated Horace
Greeley for President, was the treasurer of the Democratic state
committee in 1871 and 1872, and is now a member from New Hampshire of
the Democratic national executive committee. He served as alderman
of this city from ward four in 1874. He has been a trustee of the
Merrimack River Savings Bank since 1864, a director of the New
Hampshire Fire Insurance Company sinces its organization in 1869,
a director of the Suncook Valley Railroad since 1871 and was
commander of the Amoskeag Veterans in 1873 and 1874. In December 1874
he was appointed by President Grant as alternate commissioner to
represent the state of New Hampshire at the centennial celebration
of the nation in 1876 at Philadelphia PA.
  Col. Edgerly married March 7, 1854, Miss Alvina Barney of Danbury,
by whom he has had three children of whom two are living--Clinton
Johnson and Mabel Clayton.
  Mr. Edgerly is a man of excellent business habits and a remarkable
executive ability. He has a strong, clear mind, determines what is to
be done and then does it at once. This combination of discernment
and energy have given him his great success in the insurance business,
greater than that of any other man in New Hampshire. He is a man of
fine personal appearance, which with his social nature have enabled
him to gather about himself a host of personal friends. He is
perfectly honorable in his dealings, is a good citizen and has been
often talked of as the Democratic candidate for mayor of the city and
for other and higher political offices, but has steadily and sensibly
declined, with rare exception, to allow the use of his name.

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