Transcription of the David Buffum Family History section from Walpole As It Was and As It Is by George Aldrich, The Claremont Manufacturing Co., Claremont, N.H., 1880, page 217.
BUFFUM, DAVID, the seventh son of Joseph, was b. April 15,1803 and came to W. in 1820 and went into the store of his brother William, where he remained three years as clerk, and at the expiration of that time became a partner, under the style of W. & D. Buffum, and continued fourteen years, when he formed a copartnership with Thomas H. Seaver. This firm continued three years. In 1840 Henry H. Baxter was his partner six months, when he took Francis Bellows as a partner. This firm dissolved at the expiration of four years, and from 1844 to 1850 he was in business alone. In 1861 he took his son Thomas in as a partner which partnership continued five years. In 1828 he was captain of the rifle company in this town, and was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 20th regiment in New Hampshire in l829-30. He was a member of the General Court in 1849-50, and also of the Convention called to revise the State Constitution, in 1876.
Mr. Buffum has exercised a marked influence in the civic interests of the town the past fifty years, although he has held but few town offices. His long business life and good judgment have admirably fitted him to give counsel to his townsmen in their multifarious private dealings, which has been often sought. When the War of the Rebellion broke out, although a strong Democrat, he was one of the first to sustain the government, in furnishing men and means to suppress the Rebellion. In December, 1829, he married Mary Hubbard, daughter of Hon. [page 218] Thomas and Eleanor (Foster) Bellows, by whom he has two children, I. Thomas Bellows, b. Sept. 8, 1830; m. Ann Rebecca, daughter of Frederick and Mary Ann (Watkins) Kilburn (See Ap.) II. Ann Reynolds, b. Aug. 29, 1834.