Ancestors & Family
George A. Pillsbury
George was my namesake and the first Pillsbury I remember as part of my family lore. He was the great-great-grandfather that stood out for having been the mayor of both New Hampshire’s capital, Concord, and Minnesota’s largest city, Minneapolis. A person who always put his family first, he was active in business, politics and community affairs.
George was born in the small town of Sutton, New Hampshire, some 100 miles northwest of Boston, not far from Lake Sunapee and New London.
He grew up going to local schools—very local, given the town’s small size. As soon as he turned 18, he set off to Boston to earn money and help out the family. He found work at the Boylston Market, a grocery and fruit store run by a former neighbor from Sutton. After a year, his family called him back home to Sutton.
His entrepreneurial nature led him to start a small business with his cousin, making stoves and sheet iron ware. When that didn’t work out, he went back to retail and moved down the road to the larger town of Warner to work in its general store. Within a year, he had become its owner and married Maine-born Margaret Carlton. Brother John, who later in life would become governor of Minnesota, soon joined him in Warner.
Success with the general store led George into public service. He served as selectman, town treasurer, and postmaster. Before leaving Warner, he would serve a term as representative in the New Hampshire state legislature as well. He stayed another decade in Warner before moving with his family to the growing city of Concord, New Hampshire, which he got to know during his term as Warner’s representative.
With the construction of the Concord Railroad, George secured a position as its purchasing agent, a role he held while he lived there with his family for the next 24 years. While working with the railroad, George learned finance as an organizer, director and president of the First National Bank.
He was again elected to the state legislature, this time in Concord, where in 1876 he would become mayor.
George and Margaret were active in any number of civic organizations in Warner and Concord. They may be best known as founders and benefactors of the Concord Hospital and the Pillsbury Free Library in Warner, still thriving today.
What was first known as The Margaret Pillsbury General Hospital in Concord, New Hampshire was funded by George as a gift to her on their 50th wedding anniversary. It later merged with the Hospital for Women and Children to become the Concord Hospital , with a focus on serving those who could least afford medical care.
At the Free Library’s 1891 dedication ceremonies, which George traveled from Minnesota to attend, he said it was his wish that “all the people of Warner, young and old, rich and poor alike, may realize all the benefits that a free public library can give.”
Move to Minnesota
Around the time George became mayor of Concord, his brother John left New Hampshire to move to Minnesota. His sons Fred and my great grandfather Charles would soon follow.
In 1878, George and his family decided to relocate to Minneapolis and join them. He wanted to be close to his sons and their families. He worked with his brother John and son Charles to build the Pillsbury Flour company. They saw a future in the Mississippi Rivers’s St. Anthony Falls area to provide power to process Midwest wheat into flour. Success was anything but overnight. It took new European technology, the advent of the railroad, and investment in their employees and local community to find a future—lessons they took with them from their experience in the smaller towns of New Hampshire.
Minnesota Politics
Encouraged by his family and driven by a lifetime of public service, he ran for and won election to the Minneapolis Board of Education and then as an alderman soon to be named president of the city council. His Lincoln-style republicanism translated well in a state that in 1850 voted 63% for Lincoln, second only to Vermont.
George would be recruited to run for mayor, defeating a controversial incumbent on the platform of good government and reining in an explosion of saloons and related unrest. In this he sided with the city’s growing number of women and families. At the age of 69 he lost a rematch with the former mayor who would later face multiple prosecutions for political corruption, extortion, and racketeering.
As many times as he ran for office, George was always more of a public servant than politician. In the 1885 History of New Hampshire’s Bellknap and Merrimack counties he was said to be “a gentleman of great personal magnetism, genial and affable in his demeanor.” All who approached him were sure of kind greeting and attentive response. George set a high standard for his commitment to community, civic engagement, and family for generations to follow.