In municipal and town offices he has performed important duties, taking a lively interest in the progress of popular education. He has been a member of the school committee a large portion of the time that he has lived in Nashua, and is now chairman of the board of education. A member of the New Hampshire Historical Society, his encouragement and assistance are gratefully acknowledged by several gentlemen who have been engaged in the preparation and publication of genealogical and town histories. He has also been actively engaged in building up the city library, of which he has been a trustee from the beginning of the enterprise. Never seeking political preferment, and personally disinclined to the strife for political distinctions, he was elected mayor of the city in 1864, and served as delegate to the Baltimore convention in the same year. He was a member of the state convention for the revision of the constitution in 1876, and councilor for two years during the administration of his Excellency Governor Prescott, 1878 and 1879. In 1866 he was elected a trustee of Dartmouth College, a position which he still retains, and in which he has contributed to the substantial prosperity of the institution by frequent, unobtrusive gifts, and the steady service of a loyal and judicious mind. He has also represented Dartmouth College as a trustee of the College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts during the whole period of its existence as a department of instruction. On the 23d of June, 1842, Dr. Spalding was united in marriage with Dora Everett, second daughter of Joseph and Mary Appleton Barrett, of New Ipswich, a family associated favorably with the history of the town so widely known by the character and achievements of its sons. By this marriage Dr. Spalding had three children, of whom two daughters are living; the second child, a son. Edward Atherton, died November 10, 1863, aged eleven years and two months. With this exception, the life of Dr. Spalding has been singularly exempt from afflictive changes. Happy in the circle of his kindred and the connections formed by marriage, his home has been a welcome resort to the youth of both families, while the older generation was tenderly cared for by the thoughtful and continued ministrations of this son and his companion.