BIOGRAPHY OF THE HON. EZEKIEL STRAW 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 434
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THE HON. EZEKIEL A. STRAW
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Ezekiel Albert Straw was born in Salisbury NH, December 19, 1819. He is
the eldest son of James B. and Mehitable (Fisk) Straw and one of a 
family of seven children, five sons and two daughters, of whom three
besides himself survive,--Miranda, wife of Benjamin F. Manning,
Abigail and James B., all resident in Manchester [NH]. His father,
after a few years' residence in this state, removed to Lowell, Mass.,
where he entered into the service of the Appleton Manufacturing
Company. Mr. Straw acquired his education in the schools of Lowell and
in the English department of Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass., where
he gave especial attention to practical mathematics.
  Upon leaving this institution, he was, in the spring of 1838, 
employed as assistant civil engineer upon the Nashua and Lowell
railway, then in process of construction. In July 1838, he was sent
by Mr. Boyden, the consulting engineer of the Amoskeag Manufacturing
Company, to take the place of T.J. Carter, the regular engineer, who
was kept from work by sickness. He came to this city July 4, 1838,
expecting to remain but a few days, and has ever since made it his
home.  This was before a mill had been built upon the eastern side of 
the river and before the Company's first public sale of land. Among his
first duties were the laying out of the lots and streets in what is now
the compact part of the city, and assisting in the construction of the
dam and canals.  In November 1844, he was sent by the Amoskeag Company
to England and Scotland to obtain the information and machinery
necessary for making and printing muslin delaines, and the success of
the Manchester Print-Works, which first introduced this manufacture
into the United States, was due to the knowledge and skill he then
acquired.  He continued in the employ of the Amoskeag Company as civil
engineer until July 1851, when he was appointed agent of the Company,
that, the mills and the machine-shops then being managed separately
under different agents.  In July 1856, the first two were united and
put in charge of Mr. Straw, and in July 1858, all three were combined
under one management and Mr. Straw assumed the entire control at
Manchester of the Company's operations.
  Mr. Straw was prominent in the early years of the town's prosperity
in connection with all its material improvements and has always
retained an interest in the city. He was a member of the committee to
provide plans and specifications for the rebuilding of the town-house
in 1844 and one of the first committee appointment to devise plans for
the introduction of water into the town. He has been connected with all
the subsequent plans for the same purpose and when the board of water
commissioners, who have had charge of the construction of the present
water-works, was appointed in 1871, he was made its president and has
held the office ever since. He was chosen in 1854 a member of the first
board of trustees of the public library and has held the office ever
since, the present library building erected in 1871, owing much to his
interest and care.
  Mr. Straw was elected in 1859 representative from Manchester to the
state legislature, was re-elected in 1860, 1861, 1862 and 1863, and 
during the last three years was chairman of the committee on finance.
In 1864 he was elected to the state senate and was re-elected in 1865,
being chosen its president the latter year. He was also chosen on the
part of the senate one of the commissioners to superindent the
rebuilding of the state-house. In 1869 he was appointed by Gov. Stearns
a member of his staff.  In 1872 he was elected by the Republicans of
New Hampshire, governor of the state and re-elected in 1873. In 1870
he was appointed by President Grant the member from New Hampshire of
the commission to arrange for the centennial celebration of the
independence of the United States, in Philadelphia PA, in 1876, and
is one of the executive board of that commission.
  Gov. Straw was the treasurer, and principal owner, of the Namaske
Mill from its organization in 1856 until its dissolution, and after
1864 its sole proprietor. In 1874 he was chosen a director of the
Langdon Mills. He was the president and one of the directors of the
Blodget Edge Tool Manufacturing Company from its organization in 1855
until its dissolution in 1862, and since that time has been a director
of the Amoskeag Axe Company which succeeded it. He was one of the first
directors of the Manchester Gas-Light Company when it was organized
in 1851, and has been its president since 1856.  Since the organization 
of the New England Cotton Manufactuers' Association, he has been its
president and president of the New Hampshire Fire Insurance Company
since it was organized in 1869. He has received the honorary degree of
master of arts from Dartmouth College. Gov. Straw was one of the 
founders of the First Unitarian society in 1842, its clerk and
treasurer from that time until 1844, its president from 1853 to 1857,
and was the chairman of the committee which built its present house
of worship.
  Gov. Straw married April 6, 1842 at Amesbury, Mass., 
Miss Charlotte Smith Webster, who died in Manchester [NH] March 15,
1852. To them were born four children--Albert, who died in infancy;
Charlotte Webster, the wiwfe of William H. Howard of Somerville, Mass.;
Hermand Foster, assistant superintendent of the Amoskeag Company's
mills in Manchester; Ellen, the wife of Henry M. Thompson, formerly
agent of the Manchester Print-Works and now agent of the Lowell
Felting Company at Lowell Mass.
  Governor straw, in our judgment, is the ablest man in New Hampshire.
In a room full of people, the judges of our courts, the managers of our
railways, the professors of our colleges, he would take the lead of all.
He is conversant with more subjects than any man we know of, whether 
art or science, manufactures or financial themes. He is a great reader
and his tenacious memory makes all he reads his own. Not long after he
came to this city, the Amoskeag Company began to look upon him as
competent to manage its whole business and it gradually fell into his
hands. In time the other corporations, the city, and the state looked
to him for advice, and for many years he has been the foremost man in
Manchester and for the past few years the leading man in shaping the
policy of the state. Of great mental capacities, he is able to turn
off a vast amount of work with the greatest ease. He never seems in a
hurry, though probably surrounded by more business than any other man in
the state. He never looks to others for his opinions, and, though 
willing to fall into line with his friends and his party in 
non-essential things, he cannot be swerved from his ideas of what is
right by political considerations or fear of unpopuliarity. He enjoys
truth and takes pleasure in doing what his judgment dictates. A very
generous man, liberal in his gifts to the poor and to all charitable
institutions, to him more than to any other man is Manchester indebted
for its great prosperity.

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