Capt. Leonard Hobart Pillsbury Biography from History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire
From: Patricia Cooper - pcooper@peaknet.net

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

Page 1204

  CAPT. LEONARD HOBART PILLSBURY, proprietor of a flourish-
ing house furnishing company in Derry, N. H., and a veteran of the 
Civil War, was born in Dunbarton, N. H., in 1835, a son of Rev. Stephen 
and Lavinia (Hobart) Pillsbury. His father was a Baptist minister. When 
only one year old Capt. Pillsbury came to Londonderry with his parents 
in the very year that the City of Manchester was founded, there being 
at that time only two houses on its present site. In Londonderry he was 
reared to manhood, being largely instructed by his parents and an older 
brother and sister.
In 1855, being sternly opposed to human slavery, as were both his 
parents,he joined the anti-slavery emigrants who went courageously to 
the New Territory , as the Poet Whittier wrote,
        "To rear a wall of men on Freedom's southern line
         And plant beside the cotton tree the rugged northern pine."
He remained in Kansas three years, pre-empting his quarter section of
land, and at one time carrying one of Beecher's rifles in those 
turbulent Bor-

Page 1205

der Ruffian" times. He then returned to his native state and entered 
the Phillips Exeter Academy, from which he was graduated in 1862. In 
the spring of that year he enlisted in Company A, Ninth New Hampshire 
Infantry, being mustered in as captain of the company August 23, 1862, 
and was ordered south with his company the same month. He joined the 
Army of the Potomac in time to take part in the battles of South 
Mountain and Antietam. He also took part in the fighting at 
Fredericksburg, Vicksburg and Jackson, and participated in many smaller 
engagements. After taking part in the battle at Jackson, Mississippi, 
under Sherman against Johnson, the troops returned to Vicksburg, where 
he had previously witnessed the fall of that city. His company, through 
battles and hardships, being now reduced to seven men fit for duty, he 
was granted leave to return home, but was later assigned to special 
duty in the revenue service in New York City, where his mission was to 
watch for and seize all goods "Contraband of War." He was never 
seriously wounded, although hit by a piece of shell at Antietam. After
the war Capt. Pillsbury spent two years as an officer of the customs in 
New. York City. In 1866 he located in Manhattan, Kansas, and for two 
years was associated with his brother, Josiah H. Pillsbury, In 
conducting an independent newspaper there named "The Manhattan 
Independent." The next five years he spent in stock-raising in Kansas, 
after which he was appointed deputy clerk in the United States Court 
and court commissioner at Memphis, Tenn., where he remained for five 
years. He then returned to New Hampshire and located in Derry, 
conducting a general mercantile business there for ten years. At the 
end of that time he established his present business in which he has 
ever since been engaged"successfully. He has served as a member of the 
legislature and of the constitutional convention and three years as
police judge in Derry. He resides on and owns the Elmwood farm, a fine
property of 60 acres lying on the State Road from Manchester to 
Lawrence,one north of Derry. Capt. Pillsbury was married August 23, 
1862, to Evelyn Sanborn of Kingston, N. H., his marriage taking place 
on the same ay on which he was mustered in as captain of Company A, 
Ninth New Hampshire volunteers. Only two days later he left for the 
seat of war. He and his wife are the parents of four sons and one 
daughter, namely: Frederick S., engaged in the real estate business in 
Watertown, Mass. ; Ambrose Burnside, who resides in Derry and is 
associated with his father in the house furnishing business; Edwin S" 
president and general manager of the Century Electric Co, of St. Louis, 
Mo. ; William S, of East St. Louis, Illinois,and Grace L. Crocker, of 
Belmont, Mass., wife of Josiah H. Cracker. They have ten grandchildren 
they celabrated theur golden wedding on the 23d August, 1912, the 
occasion being quite a notable one and largely attended by
many friends from distant states. Capt. Pillsbury, who is often 
addressed as "Judge Pillsbury ," is a member of the Baptist Church of 
Derry and was one of its founders, only a few of whom now survive. He 
was for 25 years the superintendent of its Sunday School, He is also a 
member and a past commander of the Wesley B. Knight post of the 
G.A.R.;president of the Regimental Association of the Ninth Veterans, 
and has 45 years been an " active member and one of the vice presidents 
of the American Peace Society, and deeply interested in whatever 
concerns the happiness, education and elevation of the"race.

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