Samuel B. Lovering

The first of the Lovering family of whom we have any authentic record was Moses Lovering, of Exeter, New Hampshire. He married Nellie Taylor, of Exeter, by whom he had a family of 13 children, 9 boys and 4 girls, viz: Willerby, Nellie, Osgood, Taylor, Nancy, Moses, Jesse, Mary, Zebulon, John, Daniel, William and Sarah. Of these, the first 11 were born in Exeter, the latter two in Loudon. One remarkable facts in a family so large was that they all lived to be from 40 to 90 years of age. They were all married and had families; two of them, Moses and William, were twice married; Mary was the first who died (about 1815), and William died in Springfield (1865).

And the year 1787, Moses Lovering, with his family, left Exeter to make his home in the then sparsely settled region now the populous and thrifty town of Loudon. Their household goods were brought in an ox team, while the ladies road on horseback about 50 miles along a forest pathway over the hills to their future home, a 100 acre lot on the site of Mr. S. B. Lovering's present abode. There was a primitive affair dignified by the title of a mill on the place, and which, by diligence and patience, they could grind a bushel or so of corn. There were none of the comforts, or what would be considered at the present-day the necessities, of civilized life, surrounding them in their frontier home; but with the resolute will which characterized the grand old pioneers of our American civilization, they went earnestly and hopefully to work and soon converted the forest clad hills into smiling fields teaming with cereal productions, and gradually gathered around them property and conveniences. They from time to time added to the original hundred acres until they possessed a landed estate of over 500 acres. The boys were ingenious as well as industrious; all of them could skillfully handle carpenter's tools, and possessed the various requisite qualities and accomplishments for successful pioneers.

In course of time all the brothers married and settled in Loudon, and as each one took to himself a companion, the other brothers would all join together and build for the newly wedded couple a house to live in. In that early day there was no public school system in vogue, there were no school houses, and the only tutorship the children of the neighborhood could obtain was when occasionally an itinerary teacher would come into a community and teach for a few months at a private house, when those children who lived near enough and whose parents were able to pay for their tuition were privileged to attend. Moses Lovering, with a family of 13 children to rear and support, and poor in purse, could not afford to send his children away to school and so they were comparatively uneducated. Some of the boys so far educated themselves as to be able to attend to their business affairs without outside aid in such matters as required record or correspondence, but they all felt severely the need of better education. They were very steadfast in their affection for each other, and each frequently visited the other at their respective homes; and the long winter evenings were spends in social conversation around the hearth stones of those huge old fireplaces, where roared and cracked the blazing wood fires of our grandsires' days.

About 1816, William and Osgood moved to Stewartstown, New Hampshire, Taylor to Canada, Daniel and William to Springfield, Hampshire. From there Daniel went to the West and died. The others died in Loudon and vicinity. The boys were all Democrats in politics.

Zebulon Lovering, the father of Samuel B., was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, July 15, 1777. He married, Jan. 21, 1807, Abigail Buswell, who was born in Kingston, New Hampshire (1787). Upon the death of his father, Moses, Zebulon inherited the homestead in Loudon and resided there until the close of his life. They had 10 children, Samuel B.; Almira, born Sept. 10, 1811, married Kingsley Mason; Anis J., born February 12, 1814, married George W. Neal; Sarah B., born Aug. 14, 1816, married James McAustin; Louisa, born February 17, 1819, married Aaron B. Young; Lara L., born February 27, 1822, married Rev. Stephen Eastman; Abigail, born August 11, 1824, married Osni P. Hamblet; and Alonzo B., born April 13, 1827, married Sarah Davis. Zebulon died December 21, 1830; Mrs. Lovering, Aug. 21, 1861.

Samuel B. Lovering, the eldest child of Zebulon, was born April 13, 1808. In his boyhood days the district schools were usually kept about three months and a year. He began attendance at these went about eight years of age, and continued until he was 18. After he kept lessons of Master Timothy Gleason in writing and arithmetic. He was brought up to work on the farm and at the mill. The year he attended his majority his father died, and the care of his widowed mother and the smaller children devolved upon him. His father left the farm to him upon the decease of his mother. Soon after his father's death he rebuilt the old mill, converting it into a sawmill, and it has been run as such every sinse, sawing lumber, boards, shingles and laths, averaging about 150,000 per year. He has, from time to time, made additions to the real estate he inherited from his father, and now owns about 400 acres of land. He has been a successful and prosperous farmer. He united with the Methodist Episcopal Church when he was about 30 years of age, and from that time to present he has been a consistent member. He is fond of music and accomplished as a singer and instrumental performer. He led the choir in his church for 20 years, and an old militia days he played the clarinet at the muster-grounds for 15 years. He has served his town as selectman and representative to the Legislature. He has been justice of the peace for nearly 40 years, and has been in Probate Court business since his first appointment, and has settled many estates and held other positions of trust.

He married, December 18, 1834, Mary S. Rogers, of Northfield; she was born April 22, 1811, and was a lineal descendant of John Rogers, the martyr. The children were;

Nancy A., born January 31, 1836; married Josiah Young, and lives at Clarksville, New Hampshire.

James E., born March 7, 1838; married Jennie Hamilton, a school teacher, of Brookline, New York. He was for several years manager of the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company, at Jersey City; now lives at Webster, Florida.

Harlan P., born June 12, 1843; married Eliza Wentworth, of Boston, resides at Tampa, Florida.

Abigail M., born May 14, 1845; married Augustus A. Arling, and farmer in Canterbury. He died, and she married George Simmons, of Boston, Massachusetts.

Clara A., born Nov. 18, 1848; died Nov. 5, 1855.

Frank O., born June 1, 1856; died July 7, 1862.

Mrs. Lovering died Nov. 11, 1858

Mr. Lovering's second wife was Lucy Grace, of Hillsboro, New Hampshire. They were married Sept. 4, 1859. She was born February 10, 1826. Their children were:

Clara a, born July 19, 1860; Mary Herman W. Mudgett, M.D.; now resides at Moore's Forks, New York.

Frank O., born April 2, 1863.

Edwin E., born April 7, 1865. Both the latter are at the old homestead, assisting their father in the conduct of the mill and farm.

Mrs. Lovering died March 17, 1878.

Mr. Lovering married in Concord, New Hampshire, Nov. 11, 1880, his present wife, Lavinia Hoyt, of Fisherville, (now Pennacook). She was born every 26, 1832. She is the daughter of Deacon Benjamin Hoyt, deacon of the First Baptist Church of Pennacook from its organization until his death, Sept. 6, 1864. Mrs. Lovering has been a member of the same church since her 19th year. She for many years taught a class of girls at the Sabbath School there, and all of them have subsequently united with the Church.

Deacon Benjamin Hoyt was noted for his moral integrity and strict piety. He was a successful farmer and a highly respected citizen of his town. He was descended from John Hoyt, one of the original settlers of Salisbury, Massachusetts. (For a more extended ancestral history of the Hoyt -- or Hoitt family, see biography of Thomas L. Hoitt, in this volume).

Mrs. Lovering's mother was Hannah Eastman, a descendant of Capt. Ebenezer Eastman, who in early life followed the seas, and was one of the pioneer settlers of ancient Pennacook (now Concord, New Hampshire). Another of her ancestors was Capt. Joseph Eastman, who figured in the French and Indian War. Mrs. Hoyt was a very pious woman, and when her husband, the Deacon, was absent from home, attending evening meetings, she would talk and pray with her children, and teach them the importance of God's word; all of them have since become members of the Church.

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