William A. Hanscom of Portsmouth, NH Biography from A History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire (1915)

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Source: A History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and Representative Citizens
         by Charles A. Hazlett, Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, Ill, 1915

Page 1094

   WILLIAM A. HANSCOM, in former years a well known resident of
Portsmouth, was born in South Berwick, Me., in April, 1840, a son of Jothan
and Sarah (Warren) Hanscom.  He was educated in the public schools of
his native town and after a residence of some time in Portsmouth engaged
in the hardware business with a brother in Haverhill, Mass., where he passed
away February 7, 1886.  The estimation in which he was held may be best
expressed by quoting from an obituary notice which appeared in a local
paper:
   "Mr. William A. Hanscom, who passed to his rest Sunday morning,
February 7th, was a good type of the highest class of the men who have
made New England famous.  Of great business integrity, a good son and a
devoted and faithful husband, his hand was always open to the calls of
deserving poverty, and in his many charities he obeyed the scriptural injunc-
tion to the letter, and his right hand knew not what his left hand did.  As
a citizen he felt always a deep interest in public affairs and his views on mat-
ters of local interest were clear and well expressed.  In social life he was a

Pages 1095 and 1096 contained a portrait for a different biography.

Page 1097

warm friend and his loss will be mourned by the entire community in which
he had been for so many years a prominent citizen.  'An honest man is the
noblest work of God,' and most assuredly there passed away on that bright
winter Sabbath morning a man who in all his dealings merited that proud
appelation."