Jacob Kent, first named, left three sons,--Jacob, John, and Joseph. John Kent, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, settled in the town of Lyman, where he died in 1842, leaving four sons and one daughter. The father of Col. Kent--Richard Peabody Kent--was one of these sons, his mother, Tabitha Peabody, being a daughter of Lieutenant Richard Peabody of the Revolutionary army. He is still in active business in Lancaster, where he settled and engaged in mercantile pursuits in 1828. During this long career his affairs have been transacted with scrupulous integrity, exactitude, and honor. Though never in public life, he has always taken a deep interest in the material and educational welfare of the community. On the maternal side the ancestry of Col. Kent is traced to Richard Mann, "a planter in the family of Elder Brewster," who was one of the colony of the Mayflower. From him descended that John Mann, born December 25, 1743, who was the first permanent settler of the town of Orford, N. H., October, 1765. To him were born fifteen children, of whom Solomon Mann was well known in the state. Emily, second daughter of Solomon Mann, married Henry Oakes, an active and well known business man at Waterford and Fairlee, Vt. To Henry and Emily (Mann) Oakes were born three daughters and a son. One of the daughters, Emily Mann Oakes, was married to Richard P. Kent at Littleton, June 5, 1832. To this union there were born three children--sons--Henry Oakes, Edward Richard, and Charles Nelson. HENRY OAKES KENT was born in Lancaster, February 7, 1834. He attended the district school and Lancaster Academy, and graduated from Norwich Military University in the class of 1854, receiving later the degree of A. M. He studied law with Hon Jacob Benton, and was admitted to the bar at Lancaster in May, 1858. Soon after, he became the proprietor of the _Coos Republican_, and assumed the editorial and business management of that paper, his strong interest in political affairs and the fortunes of the Republican party, with which he was actively indentified, impelling him to this step, in taking which he relinquished the prospect of a successful and distinguished career at the bar. In the management of the _Republican_, both financial and editorial, he displayed rare skill and ability. His leading articles were always strong, vigorous, earnest, and secured for his paper, notwithstanding its remote location from the Capital, an influential position among the party journals of the state. It is safe to say that from the time when he assumed its management until 1870, when he sold it,--a period of twelve years,--no paper in the state rendered more efficient support to the party with which it was allied, or advocated more heartily all measures tending to advance the material prosperity of the section in which it was located, than did the _Coos Republican_ under the direction of Col. Kent.