Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

George A. Ramsdell (1897-1899). Born Milford; Peterborough lawyer, then Nashua political figure and businessman. In state politics from 1861.

One of eight children, Ramsdell (1834-1900) attended Appleton Academy (McCollom Institute) at Mont Vernon (NH), and Amherst College (MA) for one year (1853/4). He then read law and was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1857. Ramsdell set up a practice in Peterborough, but soon (1861/2) was made treasurer of Hillsborough County. He then served as Clerk of Hillsborough County Supreme Court (1864/87), living in Nashua from 1866 on.

At Nashua, Ramsdell was a strong Republican, and a director of railroads, banks, educational institutions and manufacturing companies. He was a member of the state legislature (1869/72), a member of the 1876 State Constitutional Convention, and a member of the Executive Council (1891/2). He declined an 1893 offer of an appointment to State Supreme Court, lost the 1894 Republican nomination to be governor (to Charles A. Busiel), but won the 1896 nomination by acclamation.

Nationally, the Democrats' 1896 nomination of William Jennings Bryan was a disaster for the party. In New Hampshire Bryan was a long-term disaster for the Democrats. Not until 1912, and the split between Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft, was there a Democrat in the New Hampshire governor's chair (Samuel A. Felker).

Ramsdell won election by a wide margin. As governor he favored economy. He pushed for a licensing board to review the applications for permission to practice medicine and surgery, and for the age of consent to be lowered to sixteen. In 1898 he raised and equipped a New Hampshire regiment for the Spanish American War.

Location: State House, Second Floor
Portrait by E. Wyatt Kimball, 1897