Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/84

This page needs to be proofread.

66

��rHE GRANITE MONTHLY.

��ter of Joseph Hastings ; had eleven (children, and died Sept. 27, 1771.

5. Joseph Cuti'er was born May 13, 1752, al Lexington, Mass.; mar- ried Rachel, daughter of Nehemiah Hobart ; was a farmer, and settled in faffrey, N. H., where he died June 25, E840.

6. Daniel Cuher was born Feb- ruary 2, 1 784, in Jaffrey ; married Nov. fS, 1806, Sally, daughter of Col. Tim- othy and Rebecca (Bateman) Jones, .)f Bedford, Mass. He was a promi- nent farmer in Jaffrey, and died Sept.

��2:1, 1868.

��;. Leonard Richardson Cuitek, son of Daniel and Sally (Jones) Cutter, >vas born in Jaffrey July i, 1825. He received bis- early education in the public schools of Jaffrey, and at the Melville Academy. At the age of seventeen he gave up the idea of ob- taining a classical education, and, for three winter's, he was engaged in teach- ing, working during the summers on his father's farm, and building up a robust frame.

Ten months before he arrived at man's estate; he left his native town and sought employment in Boston. His services were secured by Joseph Mann, a retail -grocer, with whom he re- mained for six years, when he suc- ceeded -to the business. For the next ten years he- conducted a retail gro- cery concern.

About i860 Mr. Cutter embarked ill the real estate business, — a line in which he has been eminently success- ful. Herein his creative genius and executive ability have had full sway. He was the first builder who erected tenement houses in Boston, drawing the plans: himself, without the assist- ance of an architect.

Having implicit confidence in the ra))id growth and ultimate prosperity of his adopted city, he has invested largely and wisely in real estate ; and his good judg'ment is demonstrated by the steady accretion of his projjerty, until, to-day, his name is high on the roll of -the money kings of the city.

��The fact that he has become the owner of a piece of property is a cer- tificate of its worth, and its advance in value is sometimes the work of min- utes, not of hours or davs.

Mr. Cutter's city residence, on the corner of Beacon and Arlington streets, is one of the land-marks of the city, and is famed as one of the most ele- gant and substantial private structures in New England. Its interior is chastely yet sumptuously furnished, every where indicating the refined taste of its owner. The summer home of the family is a charming mansion, built of granite, beneath the shadows of old Monadnock, in Mr. Cutter's na- tive town of Jaffrey.

In politics Mr. Cutter v.'as an old line Whig, a firm believer in Daniel Webster, and upon the decadence of that party he affiliated with the De- mocracy. In 1859 he first became actively interested in politics, accept- ing a place on the Board of Assessors, to which he was elected by the city council. In 1870 he was elected a member of the Board of Aldermen, and for three successive years was re- elected. In 1873 he was chairman of the board, and for some weeks was acting Mayor of the city — an office which he filled with ability and discre- tion.

As an alderman he assisted, in 1873, in the organization of the Board of Health, and served on the commit- tees on claims, police, fire depart- ment and paving, usually in the capac- ity of chairman.

His sterling good sense has been of great advantage to the city. He is conversant with all the wants of the public. Of undoubted integrity, he is thoroughly independent. No clique can flatter or force him. He looks to what is right, and does it, regardless of consequences.

From 1871, for twelve years, Mr. Cutter served on the Board of Wa- ter Commissinners ; for the last four years in the capacity of chairman. In this office his ability, efficiency, faith- fulness, integrity and rapacity, have

�� �