BIOGRAPHY OF COL. BENJAMIN F. MARTIN of Manchester NH
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On a web site about GENEALOGY AND HISTORY OF MANCHESTER NEW HAMPSHIRE 
TRANSCRIBED BY JANICE BROWN 
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however use of this text file, other than for personal use, is 
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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 417
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COL. B.F. MARTIN
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Benjamin Franklin Martin was born July 21, 1813, at Peacham, VT.  He is
the son of Truman and Mary (Noyes) Martin and one of a family of five
sons and four daughters, of whom but two besides himself survive,
Truman and Hannah N., who live on the homestead at Peacham. He assited
his father in farming, acquiring meanwhile an education in the common
schools and at Peacham Academy, until he was eighteen years of age, when
he went to Meredith Bridge (now Laconia) to learn the trade of a
paper-marker in his brother's mill. He spent one year there and then
went to Millbury, Mass., and worked a year as a journeyman in a paper
mill. At the end of that time he went into business with his 
brother-in-law, the late Thomas Rice, at Newton Lower Falls, Mass.,
where he manufactured paper until 1844, when the parternship was
dissolved and he bought a mill at Middleton, Mass, and remained there
nine years.
  In 1853 he had perfected arrangements to remove to Lawrence, Mass.,
but in consequence of some inducements which were offered him, he came
to Manchester instead and built the Amoskeag paper-mill upon the upper
canal just above what are now the Langdon mills. He sold it in 1865
to Hudson Keeney but bought it again four years later and continued in
business as a manufacturer of paper until 1874, when he retired,
selling his mill to John Hoyt & Company.
  Mr. Martin was elected by the Republicans of ward three a member of
the common council in 1857 and 1858, alderman in 1860, and
representative to the state legislature in 1863 and 1864. He acquired
the rank of colonel by service upon Gov. Gilmore's staff in 1863 and
1864, and was a delegate to the national Republican convention at
Chicago which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President in 1860. In
1859 he was assistant engineer of the fire department. He was elected
a director of the Merrimack River Bank upon its organization in 1845,
becames its president in 1859, and dissolved his connection with it the
next year.  Upon the organization of the Merrimack River Five Cents
Savings Institution in 1858, he became of its trustees and was elected
vice-president in 1860, resigning soon after.  In 1860 he was chosen
to succeed David Gillis as a director in the Manchester Bank, and, upon
the formation of the Manchester National Bank, was elected a director.
In 1865 he was chosen a trustee of the Manchester Savings Bank and now
holds both of these positions.  He has been a director of the Manchester
and Lawrence Railroad for the past ten years and a director of the
Concord and Portsmouth Railroad since its name was changed from that
of the Portsmouth and Concord Railroad.
  Col. Martin married January 3, 1836, Mary Ann RIce, a sister of the
Hon. Alexander H. and Willard RIce, of Boston, by whom he has had three
daughters, of whom Fanny R., the wife of Hon. George B. Chandler of
Manchester, is living.
  Col. Martin is a man with a strong mind, clear and quick to see,
practical, well balanced, and his strong constitution and active
temperament have enabled him to do a large business during his life and
to do it with great success. He is a very generous man, gives liberally
to all benevolent enterprises and is one of the chief supporters of
Grace church. He makes a good citizen and has been repeatedly spoken of
for state senator and mayor.  A man of courteous, gentlemanly,
dignified bearing, of a strong social nature, he has many warm
personal friends.

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