In 1839, Mr. Pillsbury left New England and went to New Jersey, where he opened a tuition school, there being no free schools in the state at that time. There, though an entire stranger, he gained the confidence of the whole community at once, and held it during eight years of successful work. During the last six years of this time he taught the academy at Bound Brook, Somerset county. While there he married Matilda Nevius, who died in 1847, leaving a young daughter, an only child. The position which Mr. Pillsbury acquired among the educators of New Jersey may be learned from the fact that he was prominent among the few gentlemen who held the first school convention at the capital, over which he presided, and which was followed by similar conventions in other cities. The movement thus begun resulted in the establishment of public instruction in that state. To have been a leading spirit in the accomplishment of so beneficent a work, in a sojourn of only eight years, should be a perpetual honor to the life of any man. At the end of this time, Mr. Pillsbury's health having become impaired, he returned to his native place, where he purchased the paternal homestead and entered again upon the work of his boyhood. For seventeen years he followed the life of a farmer, but did not move in its old empirical ruts. He applied the knowledge and improved methods which modern investigation has given to agriculture, and in a little time doubled the productive power of his farm. The successful factor in every industry is brains, and in this case even New Hampshire farming proved no exception to the rule. In 1850, Mr. Pillsbury contracted a second marriage with Miss Sarah Wilkins, of Henniker, his present esteemed and accomplished wife.