The Saunders family was a family of important industrialists and politicians in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

Daniel Saunders Sr.

Daniel Saunders Sr. (June 20, 1796 – October 8, 1872) was born in

Salem, New Hampshire Salem is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 30,089 at the 2020 census. Being located on Interstate 93 as the first town in New Hampshire, which lacks any state sales tax, Salem has grown into a commer ...

. His youth was spent in both Salem and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He entered the textile industry as a teen-aged apprentice. After a stint as foreman at the Abbott Mills in

Andover, Massachusetts Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646."Andover" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ed., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 387. As of th ...

, he became connected with North Andover Mills. Then Saunders built his own small mill in Andover, and in 1840 he purchased mills in Concord, New Hampshire. In 1843 he sold the

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

mills and the one in Andover in preparation for an even bigger enterprise. Daniel Saunders' new

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

near Andover was the foundation for the new city of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Daniel Sr. was also rumored to have been involved in the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

. The Daniel Saunders Elementary School is named after him.{{cite web, title=Daniel Saunders Sr. (1796–1872) Lawrence, MA « Queen City Massachusetts, url=http://queencityma.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/daniel-saunders-sr-1796-1872-lawrence-ma, accessdate=2010-04-03

Daniel Saunders Jr.

Daniel Saunders Jr. was a son of Daniel Saunders Sr. He married a Mary Livermore (not

Mary Livermore Mary Livermore (born Mary Ashton Rice; December 19, 1820May 23, 1905) was an American journalist, abolitionist, and advocate of women's rights. Her printed volumes included: ''Thirty Years Too Late,'' first published in 1847 as a prize temperance ...

), granddaughter of Samuel Livermore. Daniel Jr. was a lawyer and the 6th mayor of Lawrence, from 1860 to 1861, as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

Caleb Saunders

Caleb Saunders was a son of Daniel Saunders Sr. He was the 19th mayor of Lawrence in 1877, as a Democrat.

Charles W. Saunders

Charles Wesley Saunders (d. 1891) was a son of Daniel Saunders Sr. and the son-in-law of Nicholas Gaubert Norcross.

Charles G. Saunders

Charles Gurley Saunders (ca. 1848–1918) was the son of Daniel Saunders Jr.

Edith Saunders

Edith Saunders was one of three daughters of Daniel Saunders Jr. She was the last surviving member of this influential family.

Grafton County Lumber Company

Daniel Jr. and Charles W. founded the Grafton County Lumber Company in 1874. While the company office and sales department was in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, the logging operations centered about

Livermore, New Hampshire Livermore is an unincorporated civil township and ghost town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. It was briefly inhabited as a logging town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The site of the former village is about west of No ...

and included the Sawyer River Railroad and a large

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

. Indeed, every building in Livermore belonged to the Saunders, along with 30,000 acres of timberland. Daniel gave up his share in the company in 1880 to his son Charles G. After the death of Charles G. Saunders, the inheritance passed to his three sisters. Logging and sawmill operations continued until 1928, and the mostly-logged out land was sold to the U.S. Forest Service in 1935.

References

Political families of the United States Business families of the United States