Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

Governor Samuel Dinsmoor (1831-1834). Dinsmoor (1766-1835) was born at Windham (NH). He graduated from Dartmouth College (Class of 1789), taught school for several years, then (1792-1795) read law at Keene. He was admitted to the Cheshire County Bar (1795)and set up a law practice at Keene.

Dinsmoor organized the Keene Light Infantry, at a time when the state militia were still important, and he was Commandant of this unit for many years. Appointed Keene Postmaster (1808), Dinsmoor was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for one term (1811-1813).

Dinsmoor next appears as a Presidential Elector for President James Monroe (1816- 1824) in the 1820 presidential election (when Monroe was so strong he lost only one electoral vote). In 1821 Dinsmoor was appointed a Councillor, and in 1823 he was named Judge Probate for Cheshire County served 1823-1831). In 1825 Dinsmoor was named to a commission to determine the Massachusetts-New Hampshire boundary line; and in 1831 he resigned his judgeship to run for Governor (as a Jackson Democrat). Dinsmoor served three consecutive terms.

Governor Dinsmoor called for establishing a state hospital for the insane, but it was ten years before the legislature respond-ed. He asked that the state's blind population be counted and their condition noted, and that the state militia be enhanced. The state was doing well economically, and the militia was in decline; the legislature felt little need to act on any of Dinsmoor's proposals.

In 1833 Keene's Ashuelot Bank made Dinsmoor their president, allowing Dinsmoor to retire from political office. He died at Keene, March 15, 1835.

Location: State House, Second Floor, Corridor, West Face, Beginning at Room 208
Portrait by Marchand (1831); Presented by a son (1873)