Nathaniel Gordon (1820 - 1908)
Born and died at Exeter (NH).
Teacher; lawyer; state legislator; philanthropist.
Portrait by N. B. Onthank, 1873.
Presented to the State by Mr. Gordon, 1873.

Gordon (1820 - 1908) was born and died at Exeter (NH), the sixth generation of his family to do so. He entered Phillips Exeter Academy at age thirteen (1833) and entered Dartmouth College as a sophomore. He graduated with the Class of 1841.

As a Dartmouth undergraduate Gordon taught school during the winter terms for each of his three years. After graduation he continued teaching, in schools at Flushing, Long Island, and Baltimore (MD, 1841 - 1842). He spent the next two years as a tutor for a family living in Prince George's County (MD), and Read law while tutoring. In 1844 Gordon was admitted to the Maryland Bar, and he practiced law at various county courts before returning to Exeter (NH) in September 1847. Gordon practiced law at Exeter the rest of his life.

Gordon served as Secretary and Treasurer of Rockingham Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company (1849 - 1857). He was a State Representative (1849, 1850), and a State Senator (1869, 1870). In 1870 Gordon was President of the Senate.

During the Civil War Gordon invested all the money he had or could borrow in U. S. Government securities. When the Union Army won the War, Gordon became a wealthy man. For the rest of his life made substantial contributions to educational institutions, and to Christian missions in the American West and in China. He contributed to student scholarships, and to endowment funds. In 1880 Gordon contributed substantially to a fund to help former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant (President 1868 - 1876) avert bankruptcy. As early as 1869 he helped preserve forested lands at Exeter from developers, efforts which were in advance of their time.

References: Richard Herndon, ed., Men of Progress...in...New Hampshire (1898).