Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

Joseph A. Gilmore (1863-64). Born Weston (VT); Concord (NH) businessman/RR superintendent. In politics from 1858.

Gilmore (1811-1867) was one of fourteen children; married at age twenty-one (1832), he was the father of eleven. He attended common school, professed the Baptist religion, and at the time of his marriage was running a store in Boston. Gilmore moved to Concord within the decade and opened a wholesale grocery store in 1842. He became a construction agent for the Concord & Claremont RR (1848), then superintendent of the Concord RR and 175 miles of related lines/leased tracks (1856).

Gilmore had been an anti-slavery Whig in his politics, but by 1858 he had become a part of the new Republican Party. He was elected to the State Senate (1858), and was reelected and made president of the Senate (1859). He won the governorship in 1863, and was reelected in 1864.

As governor, Gilmore arranged for the state to borrow $1.5 million-an immense sum, used to pay bounties for soldiers and "bounty hunters" who helped sign up New Hampshire men for the Civil War. Under Gilmore's leadership the state exceeded its mandated quotas of soldiers. He retired in poor health and died in 1867.

Location: State House, Second Floor
Portrait by A. Tenney; Presented by 1872