General George Stark / US Army

General George Stark was born in Manchester, NH April 9, 1823. His grandfather, Major General John Stark (b1728 – d1822), was known as the “hero of Bennington,” serving during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. George Stark was not known so much for his military prowess as for his abilities as a civil engineer.

George Stark attended the Manchester public schools until he was nine years old. He then spent time at academies in Pembroke and Milford. He concentrated on mathematics, which would serve him well in the future. When his school days ended, he returned to Manchester and began his career as an assistant with the chief engineer and surveyor of the preliminary surveys for the canals, factories, and streets of the burgeoning city of Manchester. He was employed as an assistant for one year, and when not at work, he attended the academies at Bedford and Sanbornton and the high school at Lowell, MA.

In 1836, he was employed with the staff of engineers engaged in locating the Nashua & Lowell railroad. The next year, and until 1846, he spent in alternate seasons of field work with engineers and study at the academies. Following the completion of the Nashua & Lowell railroad, he was engaged in locating the road between Nashua and Concord, and later was employed in the same capacity on the Northern Road. In 1843, he surveyed and built one of the canals in Manchester. In 1844, he surveyed the Vermont Central railroad, and in 1845, the Old Colony Railroad. 

The next three years he spent in drawings for mill work and in making a survey to supply Manchester with water from Massabesic Lake. After this, he was employed on the Nashua & Wilton Railroad, on the Stony Brook and Boston Railroad, Concord & Montreal Railroad, on the latter being the chief engineer. 

In 1849, after a season of rest because of ill-health, he assumed the duties of treasurer and assistant superintendent of the Nashua & Lowell Railroad. He held this position until 1852, when he was appointed superintendent of the Hudson River Railroad. He had been in his last position for little more than a year when he was urged to become the superintendent of the Nashua and Lowell Railroad and its branches. In 1857, he became the manager of the Boston & Lowell Railroad and its branches. 

After his resignation as manager of the Boston & Lowell system, Stark was engaged in several other railroad schemes, notably the Northern Pacific, in which corporation he was a director and vice-president. During his last years, he was in the banking business in New York and Nashua with his son, John V. Stark.

Although General Stark’s life was a busy one, he found time to interest himself in public affairs. In 1857, NH Governor William Haile commissioned him as Brigadier General of the Third Brigade of the New Hampshire Militia. In 1860, he was commissioned Colonel of the Governor’s Horse Guards, and in 1861, in the capacity of Brigadier General, he proceeded to Portsmouth and took charge of the troops that were rendezvousing there for service in the Civil War. 

In political life, General Stark was identified with the Democratic party, although he was never considered an active partisan. In the four years succeeding 1856, he represented Ward One in the legislature, in 1860 and 1861, he was his party’s candidate for governor, and in 1863 and 1864, he was a candidate for the Nashua mayoralty. 

General Stark’s biographer, W. H. Herrick, said, “In personality, General Stark was characterized by a quiet, deliberate yet courteous manner that was not disturbed by the varied conditions and incidents of business life. This trait of a habitual mental equipoise was a peculiarity that impressed itself permanently on an observer.”

Herrick goes on about Stark’s Nashua home, “His family residence at Nashua, though showing no taste for ostentation or display, is an elegant structure in the villa style, furnished with every comfort and convenience and adorned with works of art.”

General Stark was married in 1845 to Elizabeth A. Parker, daughter of Daniel Parker of Bedford. She died in 1846. In 1848, he was united in marriage with Mary G. Bowers, daughter of Col. Joseph Bowers of Chelmsford, Mass. His two children are John F. and Emma. General George Stark died in Nashua on April 13, 1892, and is buried at the Universalist Church Cemetery in Nashua.

In 1856, General Stark built a beautiful home for himself and his family, in which he would reside until his death. Built at 22 Concord St., at the confluence of Manchester and Concord Streets, in the Italian villa style, the design was inspired by designs shown in books by Andrew Jackson Downing, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival style of architecture. He was also a noted landscape designer and horticulturist. The Stark House remained in the Stark family until 1928, when it was acquired by the First Church of Christ Scientists. Today, it provides professional office space.  

Source: History of the City of Nashua, NH, from the Earliest Settlement of Old Dunstable to the Year 1895 by Judge Edward E. Parker / Published by Telegraph Publishing Company 1897

Edited for brevity and clarity and submitted by Gary Ledoux

US Service Personnel Profiles
By Gary Ledoux February 17, 2026