Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Mass., Vol 3 writes: Till his twenty-ninth year he was intimately connected with the history of his native town and mingled actively in its affairs.

They prospered and as soon as their cash capital and enlarged credit would warrant the adventure they removed to New York City and built up a large and highly profitable trade.

John Nesmith became interested in the manufacture of blankets, flannels, printing cloths, sheetings and other textile fabrics and that became eventually his principal vocation.

About 1844 his bold scheme attracted the attention it deserved from Boston capitalists, and factories began to rise at Lawrence as if by magic, and that prosperous city has amply vindicated the wisdom of its real founder, John Nesmith.

Though naturally averse to mingling in politics, and never stooping to the acts by which popularity is often won, he was elected to various offices in the city government of Lowell, where his sound practical sense and extraordinary business capacity were acknowledged and appreciated by his townsmen of both parties.

He was afterward appointed United States collector of internal revenue for his district, an office in which a zealous and active man could give tangible support to the government in its hour of greatest need by discovering the taxable property and preventing adroit evasions.

From the large fortune acquired by his tact and industry, he made generous donations to many objects of charity and benevolence which won his sympathy, and was invariably kind and hospitable to his friends and neighbors.