John Shackford Kimball
 

Information taken from:
The Granite Monthly, Oct, 1909

John Shackford Kimball, a resident of Hopkinton, NH for more than a third of a century, son of David and Abigail (Perkins) Kimball, born in Pembroke April 28, 1812, had been trained for the law, and for a time followed the profession.  He was educated at New Hampton Academy, where he was one of the founders of the Social Fraternity Library. He studied his profession with District Attorney Haynes of Portland and at the Harvard Law School, and was for several years the junior partner of that eminent Boston lawyer Robert Rantoul, but was obliged to relinquish the profession on account of ill health, and became senior partner in a large wholesale dry goods and grocery house in Burlington, Ia., becoming the eastern buyer and retaining his residence in Boston.  In 1854 he purchased the Governor Harvey estate in Hopkinton and there established his legal residence, though dividing his time between Hopkinton and Boston.   He took an active part in public affairs in town and state;  was Hopkinton's representative in the Legislature in 1866 and 1867, and a member of the staff of Gov. Walter Harriman during the latter's incumbency.  He was a man of generous nature and much public spirit.  In October, 1843, he married Mary Eldredge, daughter of Dr. John and Mary (Jameson) Stevens, by whom he had five children -- John Stevens, Robert Rantoul, Mary Grace, Kate Pearl and George A. S.  He died in Boston April 19, 1888.  The daughters retain the Hopkinton home, now known as "The Homestead."