Maurice Eben Kimball

History of New Hampshire
By Everett S. Stackpole
Five Volumes
Vol V, P 40-1

For many years one of the principal figures in the business life of North Haverhill, New Hampshire, Maurice Eben Kimball was one of the most eminently respected and venerated of this community's members, where he so long enjoyed a reputation for the most complete and unimpeachable integrity in all his business dealings; and where he passed away in July, 1903.  He was a member of a good old New England family and a son of Charles C. and Hannah (Morris) Kimball, who were life-long residents of North Haverhill before him.  It was here that he was born in October, 1843, and here that he enjoyed the then somewhat meagre educational advantages offered by the local school.  his business career was begun on a very humble scale but by dint of perseverance, hard work and unwearying patience, he built up what eventually became one of the largest of its kind in this region.  For forty years or more, he was actively connected with the well-known general store which bore his name, and which enjoyed a long and well established patronage.  It was inevitable that a man who became so prominent in the commercial life of the community should extend his interest into other lines of enterprise and endeavor, and he became many years ago a director of the Woodsville National Bank of this place.

His activities, however, extended into departments of the community's life quite separate from personal interest or endeavor, and in his connection with the more general affairs of the place he displayed a disinterestedness and an ability which did good service for his fellow citizens and won for himself their hearty approval and esteem.  He held a large number of local town offices and also represented North Haverhill in the General Court of New Hamsphire.

Maurice Eben Kimball was united in marriage on March 7, 1867, with Gazilda C. Moran, a native of Derby, Vermont, and a daughter of Lawrence and Harriett (Brooks) Moran, old and highly respected residents of that place.  Mr. and Mrs. Kimball are the parents of the following children:  Addie M., born May 19, 1870, became the wife of Frank N. Keyser, of Haverhill; Louis Maurice, who is the subject of extended mention elsewhere in this work, and Roy E., born in 1877, now engaged in business with his elder brother.

There is much in the life of the late Maurice Eben Kimball to command admiration, but it was not more his strict adherence to the principals of right and justice that attracted men to him, than his unfailing kindness and spirit of self-sacrifice.  On the latter trait, his great popularity with all who knew him was based, while the respect of the business world was the outgrowth of a career known to be honorable, upright and without guile.  "Good business" with him did not mean necessarily volume, but quality, and everything he said and everything he sold was, in his belief, exactly as he represented it.  His personality was most pleasing, dignified and courtly, he was the personification of kindness, and no sacrifice was too great, if it brought happiness to those he loved.  His home life was ideal, and there the excellencies of his character shone forth in all their beauty.  He was a gentleman, not of the "old school" but of every school, and nowhere was he more appreciated than by those whose lives brought them into daily contact with his gentle, kindly spirit.