Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

Ezekiel A. Straw (1872-1874). Born Salisbury (NH); with Amoskeag Manufacturing. In state politics from 1859.

Ezekiel Straw's (1819-1882) father was a surveyor and overseer of a cotton mill. Shortly after the boy's birth the family moved to Lowell (MA) where Ezekiel attended public schools and then Phillips Andover Academy (Andover, MA). He left Andover at age 19 (1838).

In 1838 Straw joined Amoskeag Manufacturing Company (Manchester, NH) as an engineer. He surveyed lots for the company, and constructed dams and canals; he also founded (1842) Manchester's First Unitarian Society.

In 1844 Straw was sent to England to obtain machinery and information for Manchester Print Works. He was appointed agent for Amoskeag's land department and water and power departments (1851), and then (1858) put in charge of all of Amoskeag's Manchester operations. This latter appointment was an immense responsibility and it put Straw in the spotlight. Amoskeag was Manchester and Straw was asked to provide plans and specifications for the city's water works and then to be president of the facility.

Straw served as a Republican legislator from Manchester (1859/64) and was a State Senator (1864/6; President of the Senate (1865/6). He served on the staff of Governor Onslow Stearns (1869) and in 1870 was appointed to the to the executive board of the Planning Commission for the 1876 Centennial Exposition to be held at Philadelphia. He was nominated for governor and won the election (1872); he was reelected in 1873.

Governor Straw worked to reduce the war debt which the state had taken over from impoverished post-war towns. He recommended a program of manual and industrial training in the schools to create a more capable workforce. He suggested "local option" as a way to deal with the furor surrounding public sale of liquor. His election in March 1872 was also an early indication that President Ulysses S. Grant would be renominated by the Republican national convention.

Straw retired in 1874 from politics but not from public life. He served as director of the Langdon Mills and as president of Manchester Gas Light, New England Cotton Manufacturing, New Hampshire Fire Insurance, Amoskeag Axe Company, and a host of other concerns. He was a New Hampshire delegate to the 1876 Republican national convention. He died in 1882.

Location: State House, Second Floor
Portrait by A. Tenney, 1865; Presented by Mr. Straw