USA > New Hampshire > Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. I > Part 119
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Mr. Ellis was an aide on the staff of Governor Busiel, 1875-96. He was a member of the house
Bertram Ellis.
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of representatives in the general court of 1897, and again in 1905 and 1907, in the last session being speaker. He represented his district in the state senate in 1899 and 1901, in the last named year being president of that body. While in the house he was for two sessions the chairman of the com- mittee on appropriations, a position of the greatest importance. These honors came to him as an earn- est expression of public feeling rather than as a result of any forced or unusual efforts in his own behalf. His thorough scholarship, his able discus- sion of the leading questions of local and national importance through the editorial columns of The Sentinel, his genial manner and general popularity. all contributed to bring him these honors in rapid succession. In 1904 Mr. Ellis was a delegate from the second district to the Republican National Con- vention at Chicago. He has always been a consis- tent Republican. For six years he was president of the Young Men's Republican Club of Keene. He is president of the Board of Education in Keenc, a trustee of the Elliot City Hospital, secretary for New Hampshire of the Harvard Law School Asso- ciation, secretary of the Harvard Club of Keene, and a member of the Wentworth, Monadnock and Country clubs of the same place. He is much inter- ested in all moral and philanthropic enterprises in the city and vicinity, and through his paper has added greatly to their efficiency.
Mr. Ellis married, June 20, 1894. Margaret Lou- ise Wheeler. of Minneapolis, Minnesota. They have no children.
Stark is a German word, and means
STARK strong. It was first applied as a de- scriptive epithet to some man distin- guished for great physical strength, and finally taken by him and transmitted to his progeny as a surname. That was ages ago. To-day the great muscular strength does not mark that man's de- scendants, but they are distinguished rather for strength of mind and intelligence. One has been pre-eminently strong in war and military matters, and also a leader in the peaceful pursuits of clear- ing the forests and cultivating the soil.
About four hundred years ago the Duchess of Burgundy sent German soldiers to England to sup- port a pretender to the English throne then oc- cupied by King Henry VII. The invading army was defeated and the survivors fled to Scotland, where many of them settled permanently. In all probability one of those soldiers was the progenitor of the Stark family in Scotland.
(1) Archibald Stark, the ancestor of the Stark family in New Hampshire, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1697, and received his education in the university of that city. When quite young he went with his father to Londonderry, in the northern part of Ireland, where he married. In 1720 he em- barked for America in company with many of his countrymen, and after a tedious voyage arrived in Boston late in autumn. Many of them were ill with small-pox, and they were not permitted to land, but went to the present town of Wiscasset, on the Maine coast, where they spent the winter. In the
following year Archibald Stark joined the Scotch- Irish settlers in the town of Londonderry, New Hampshire, where he lived until 1736. In that year his buildings were destroyed by fire, and instead of rebuilding there he removed and settled on the Thaxter grant at Amoskeag Falls, in what is now the city of Manchester. Here he cut down trees which stood on a little hill just cast of the falls, and rolled the hewn logs down to the bank of the Merrimack, and built a house which now stands at the east end of the Amoskeag bridge, and is oc- cupied by a daughter of Jonas Page. Archibald Stark was an industrious inan, a large landowner, and left an extensive property. He died on his farm in Harrytown, in Derryfield, now Manchester, June 26, 1758, and was buried in the Christian Brook cemetery, not far from his home. The bodies huried there were afterwards removed, and a low slate headstone in the southwesterly corner of Val- ley cemetery marks the spot where the remains of Archibald Stark now repose, and bears this in- scription :
"Here Lyes the Body of Mr. ARCHIBALD STARK HE Departed This Life June 25th. 1758 Aged 61 Years."
In 1896 the remains were moved to what is now known as the Stark burial lot, in Stark Park, and here his name is on the headstone with the other Starks, including the immortal General Stark.
Archibald Stark married, in Ireland, Eleanor Nichols, the daughter of a fellow emigrant from Scotland, and they were the parents of seven chil- dren before they left Ireland, all of whom died of small-pox on shipboard before arriving in America. Four sons were born in New Hampshire-William, John, Samuel and Archibald-all of whom were strong men, took part in the French and Indian wars, and at length held commissions in the service of the king.
GENERAL JOHN STARK
(II ) General John Stark, second son of Archibald and Eleanor (Nichols) Stark, was born in London-
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derry, August 28, 1728. When but eight years old he was taken by his parents to Harrytown, a strip of unincorporated land on the banks of the Merri- mack, which with portions of Chester and London- derry composed the town of Derryfield under the charter of 1751, and became Manchester in 1810. There he grew up with the rudiments of an edu- cation snatched from intervals of toil, but he had also the great advantage of his father's teaching, who, as noted above, was educated in the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He was well acquainted with the labors of the farm and forest, was a good shot and a fearless hunter, quick of apprehension. fearless in danger, decisive in action and tireless in endurance.
In 1752 William and John Stark, David Simpson and Amos Eastman, in one of their annual hunting excursions, had penetrated the forest as far north as the present site of Rumney, and there, on a tribu- tary of the Pemigewasset, were surprised by ten Indians from Canada. John was first taken captive, and his quick and courageous action saved the life of Eastman, and enabled his brother William to escape. Simpson was killed. John Stark and East- man, were taken captive to Saint Francis. Canada. Stark's action was such as to raise him to the high- est esteem among the Indians, whose sachen adopted him and honored with the title of "Little Chief." When stripped to run the gauntlet he seized an Indian's club, heat his captors off, and escaped the punishment they had planned for him. When put to hoeing corn he cut up the corn and hoed the weeds, and finally throwing his hoe into the river refused to perform the labor of a squaw. John Stark was ransomed four months later for one hundred and three dollars, which he paid out of the proceeds of a hunt on the Androscoggin the following season.
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Soon after the outbreak of hostilities between the French and English in 1755, a corps of rangers re- cruited by the famous Robert Rogers was raised in New Hampshire. These men were rugged foresters, inured to hardships and dangers, and as marksmen their aim was deadly. Stark joined this corps as lieutenant and marched to Fort Edward. They ar- rived there in season for the triple battle with the enemy under Baron Dieskau. The third battle of the day, in which the enemy was completely routed, was fought by New Hampshire troops alone. At the close of the year the forces were disbanded and Stark returned home, but soon joined another com- pany of rangers as first lieutenant, and did service at the garrisons between Lake George and the Hudson river. In the winter of 1757 Stark was an officer in an expedition under command of Major Rogers, fitted out to go down Lake George toward Ticonderoga. Learning from prisoners whom they took on the way that there was a large force of French and Indians at Ticonderoga, Rogers ordered a retreat. In single file, Rogers ahead and Stark in the rear, the company of seventy-four men marched back over the snow more than a mile. Sud- denly on ascending a hill, they found themselves face to face with double their own number of the
enemy, arranged in a crescent, with the intent of surrounding and capturing the whole party. At a distance of only five yards the rangers received a murderous discharge from two hundred and fifty guns. Some were killed and others wounded, and among the latter Major Rogers. Stark, who was on a hill about fifteen yards in the rear, opened a fierce fire on the pursuers, which allowed Rogers time to rally his men. Forming their little band in order of battle and taking the center them- selves, Rogers and Stark repelled every attack of the enemy till sunset. Rogers being wounded, the command devolved on Stark, and he realized that the safety of his men depended on their holding their ground until after dark. He was fiercely at- tacked, but would not surrender or retreat. The lock of his gun was shattered by a shot. He leaped forward and seized another from a dead Frenchman, and, stepping back to his place, fought on with the courage and obstinacy of a tiger from two o'clock till darkness closed the battle, and then re- treated with his wounded men through the night, halting in the morning on Lake George. As it was impossible for the wounded to proceed further on foot, Stark offered to push on to Fort William Henry, forty miles distance, and get aid. He had marched all the previous forenoon, fought from two o'clock until dark a vastly superior force, re- treated on foot all night, and now, in the morning, without rest, he offered to go forty miles on snow shoes after sleds for the wounded. He accom- plished this distance by evening and without waiting to rest, he started back, traveling all night and reaching his companions the next morning. The wounded were placed on sleds, and Stark returned with them to the fort, which he reached that even- ing, thus having been two nights without rest, and and having traveled on foot one hundred and twenty miles in less than forty hours.
In the attack on Ticonderoga in June, 1758, Rogers and Stark led a company of rangers in advance of Howe's force. At the close of the war Stark returned home and again engaged in the pur- suits of domestic life. He was delegate to the county congress in January 1775, which met to form plans to secure the rights of the colonists against British encroachment; and was also an active and vigilant member of the committee of safety of his town. When the news of the battle of Lexington reached him he shut down the gate of his mill, and rushing home, seized his gun, leaped upon his horse, and in ten minutes was on his way to the scene of action, calling as he rode, to his neighbors and former companions, to follow him to Medford. His wife, Molly Stark: followed the next day alone on horseback by spotted trees through the forest, carrying his clothes, staying over night and returning the next day. . Two regiments of New Hampshire men assembled, and he was elected colonel of one of them. The time until the 16th of June was spent in watching the enemy and preparing for the onset that was soon expected. Breed's Hill was fortified, and at two o'clock P. M. on the 17th Colonel Stark received orders to re-
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inforce the command of Colonel Prescott. March- ing his men through the British fire that swept Charlestown Neck, he led them up to the American lines. His station was behind a double rail fence filled with hay, between the Mystic river and the road. Stark commanded his men to reserve their fire till they could see the half gaiters of the grena- diers. Whole companies of the British fell at every discharge. Three times the enemy charged and were repulsed with slaughter; but the ammunition of the Americans giving out, they were obliged to retreat. The work of Stark and his neighbors from Amoskeag had been the most deadly of all the carnage of that bloody day. After the battle Stark's command was stationed on Winter Hill.
After the evacuation of Boston by the British, Colonel Stark joined the northern army, and the following year his regiment constituted a part of the troops sent to reinforce Washington on the Dela- ware. In the assault on Trenton, Stark commanded the advance guard of the right wing and contri- buted much toward securing the brilliant victory. He was at Washington's side in the short but ter- rible conflict at Princeton, and remained with him until the army retired to winter quarters, when he returned to New Hampshire on a recruiting ex- pedition. While here he learned that several junior officers had been promoted and himself left out of the list. He threw up his commission and retired from the army, declaring that an officer who would submit to such an indignity was not fit to be trusted. He was, however, too much of a patriot to remain indifferent to his country's welfare, and so when the general assembly of New Hampshire called him to take command of the troops which were being raised to defend the state against an invasion from Canada, he consented to assume the duty on con- dition that he should not be obliged to join the main army, should exercise his own discretion as to his movements, and be responsible to none but the authorities of New Hampshire. His conditions were accepted at once. Hence, when General Schuy- ler ordered him to lead his troops to Hudson, to be placed under general orders, he flatly refused to do so. His reply was sent to Congress, and that body emphatically condemned his course, declaring it de- structive to "military subordination and prejudicial to the common cause." All this condemnation Stark had forseen and despised. He would not yield his purpose, and though in a military point of view he was right in the course he took, as the result showed, yet it very doubtful whether he would have acted differently had it heen otherwise. The fortuitous course of events brought about the justi- fication of Stark's course, and made what was a doubtful, if not an unjustifiable action, the means of securing a great victory to the American army.
The famous battle of Bennington, stubbornly fought and brilliantly won, prepared the way for that greater victory which resulted in the complete triumph of the Continental army at Saratoga, and turned the tide of victory in favor of the colonists. The victory at Bennington marked the zenith of General Stark's military career and infused new life
and hope into the Americans. Congress, seeking to atone for its former injustice, made Stark a brig- adier-general. In 1778 he was appointed to command the northern army and stationed at Albany, but he did not remain there long. He was with General Gates in Rhode Island the following year, and the next season joined General Washington at Morris- town. and participated in the battle of Springfield in New Jersey. Subsequently he raised recruits in New England, relieved General St. Clair, served on the court martial which tried Andre, and conducted a hazardous enterprise preliminary to the contem- plated action against Staten Island by General Washington. He was eminently successful, but the enterprise miscarried. In 1781 General Stark was again assigned to the northern department, and was in command at Saratoga at the time of the sur- render of Cornwallis at Yorktown. This was the virtual close of the war. The General dismissed the militia and retired to New England. He did not return to the army in 1782, on account of broken health, but at the request of Washington visited the headquarters in 1783, and exerted his powerful in- fluence to allay the discontent of the army, which threatened most serious consequences.
On retiring from the army, General Stark de- voted himself with his accustomed assiduity to his extensive agricultural and lumbering interests which he dispensed in a way appropriate to his high stand- ing and character. He inherited considerable land from his father, and a part of the Thaxter grant became the General's home farm. His agricultural operations were on a large scale, but his lumbering was still more extensive. At one time he with two others owned the entire town of Dunbarton (then known as Starkstown), where he cut off and sawed into lumber much of the old growth standing there. From the time of his retirement from the army at the close of the Revolution until his death, General Stark devoted himself to the industries just men- tioned. He died May 8, 1822, in the ninety-fourth year of his age. His grave is marked by a granite shaft in the family burying ground near Stark Park, Manchester. A statue of bronze on a ped- estal of granite was erected by the state of New llampshire in the state house yard at Concord, in memory of General Stark, and dedicated October 23, 1840. From the oration made on that occasion by Hon. James W. Patterson, LL. D., the follow- ing extract is taken :
"As he advanced in years he developed that natural love for domestic animals which has often been observed as a beautiful characteristic of the great. He seems also, notwithstanding the distrac- tions of his military life, to have imbibed a taste for literature, especially for Johnson, Goldsmith, and the Scotch poets. His integrity and purity were so austere and his democratic instincts so strong, that his private life became as phenomenal as his public among those who knew him. Like Washington, he seems to have carried a charmed existence. He passed fourteen years amid the scenes of actual war and was often compelled to lead and hold raw troops in the very teeth of terrific combat, and yet
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was never wounded. In person he was of medium height, broad shouldered, and very athletic. His features were prominent, and his eyes of a greyish blue, flashed from beneath a bold overhanging brow. His manner was simple, frank, and manly. He knew little of the refinements of courts or the sub- tleties of the schools. His career and character were the natural and noble product of extraordinary gifts and passions. Reared in the dangers and priva- tions of frontier life and brought into action amid the perils and strenuous activities of a great revo- lution of doubtful issue, his natural quickness of perception and clear judgment, his military exper- ience and self control in danger, made his counsel valuable and his services indispensable during the war. Taking a comprehensive grasp of the whole field, and secing instantly the proper thing to do, he was sometimes impatient of the delays and inis- takes of smaller men. He scented the approach of danger with a preternatural instinct, and yet seems never to have experienced the sense of fear. His mental processes were as logical in the front of battle as in the repose of home. His will was su- preme and master of all his powers, and yet, though always self-centered, he would at times, when the frenzy of battle was upon him, hurl himself and his forces upon the enemy with the swiftness and force of a thunderbolt and sweep down all impediments. He was remarkable through life for his kindness and hospitality, especially to old companions and the poor, but had little patience with the indolent and vicious. He was not tractable nor flexible, never wept, and seldom smiled. He was too prond to fawn, and too direct and too downright to flatter."
General Stark, when at home on a furlough, in 1758, married Elizabeth (not Molly) Page, of Dun- barton (see Page, IV). There were born of this marriage, children as follows : Caleb, Archibald, John, Eleanor (died young), Eleanor, Sarah, Eliza- beth, Mary, Charles, Benjamin Franklin and Sophia. (Jolin and descendants receive extended mention in this article).
(III) Major Caleb, eldest child of Major Gen- eral Jolın and Elizabeth (Page) Stark, was born at the home of his grandfather, Captain Caleb Page, in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, December 3, 1759. His parents had been married on August 20 of the previous year while Captain John Stark was home on a furlough; but in the spring of 1759 John Stark returned to his post at Fort Edward, New York. His wife was left at home with her father, a leading and wealthy pioneer of the infant settlement. and during the father's absence at the front the child was born. In 1760 Captain John Stark resigned his commission and with his wife withdrew to his home in Derryfield (now Manchester), New Hamp- shire. Captain Page, who had conceived a strong affection for the grandson and namesake born under his roof, begged that he might be allowed to adopt the child. The parents yielded to his request, and Caleb Stark remained under the care of his grand- father till June 16, 1775. The best books of the day were procured for his education, among them Fen- ning's Dictionary and Salmon's Historical Grammar, which are still preserved in the Stark home.
The fight at Concord and Lexington stirred all the New Hampshire settlements, and John Stark, followed by his old rangers, hastened to Boston. In a few hours a regiment of nearly nine hundred men was enlisted with Stark as their colonel. Young Caleb heard the news at Dunbarton, and begged to be allowed to go. As he was but a few mionthis over fifteen his grandfather naturally ob- jected, but the boy, who. judged by his portraits, bore a strong resemblance to his father, could not be held. He privately put his clothing into a valise, and before daybreak on the morning of June 16, 1775, he took his musket, mounted a horse which had been given him by his grandfather, and ran away to the American camp. He had gone but a few miles when he met another horseman, a tall, fine looking man, who proved to be no less than the celebrated Major Robert Rogers, the ranger, who had served for five years with Stark and won fame in the French war. They journeyed together, Major Rogers insisting upon paying the road expenses, and toward nightfall the two travelers rode into Med- ford. When young Caleb reached headquarters his father said, "Well, son, what are you here for? You should have stayed at home." Finding him bent on volunteering, Colonel Stark turned Caleb over to Captain George Reid, saying, "Take him to your quarters ; tomorrow may be a busy day." On that busy day, whose history is so well known, Caleb Stark stood beside the veteran rangers of the old French war in the regiment placed by the rail fence stretched from the redoubt to Mystic river. The man next him was killed, but at close of day he was one of the survivors who, after their ammunition was gone, fell back to Winter Hill.
After the battle the troops were intrenched at Winter Hill for a time. On this height were stand- ing the handsome residences of several wealthy loyalists, and one of these. belonging to a family named Royal, was chosen by Colonel Stark as his headquarters. Madam Royal had a large family of daughters, beautiful and accomplished like herself, and while young Caleb was learning the military routine in Captain Reid's company he often spent leisure hours with his father at the Royal house. He was always grateful for this privilege, and in after life he often spoke of the benefits derived from meeting these high-bred ladies during the formative period of his manners and habits. Early in 1776 Caleb Stark was commissioned ensign in Captain Reid's company and proceeded with Sullivan's bri- gade to New York, whence in May they went to Canada. Small-pox broke out in the army, and when the adjutant of the First New Hampshire Regiment died at Chimney Point, in July, Ensign Stark was promoted to the position with the rank of lieutenant. He took part in the operations at Trenton and Princeton, New Jersey. He was at Ticonderoga in 1777: and October 7, just before the surrender of Burgoyne, he was wounded in the left arm. Between 1778 and 1781 he was aide-de- camp, brigade major and adjutant general of the northern department. then commanded by General Stark.
After the war Major Stark engaged in mercan-
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tile pursuits at Haverhill, Massachusetts, and Dun- barton, New Hampshire. In 1805-6 he engaged in English and East India trade with headquarters at Boston. He visited the East Indies in 1798 and Great Britain in ISI0, staying a year in the latter country, making purchases for himself and other Boston merchants. He kept interesting journals of his visits to foreign countries. When the war of 1812 began he closed his business in Boston and bought an establishment in Pembroke, New Hamp- shire, which he equipped for the manufacture of cotton. He continued in this business until 1830, when he sold out his interest and went to Ohio to prosccute the family claims to lands granted for military services. In 1837, after long and vexatious litigation, these claims were allowed. Major Stark was acquainted with all the presidents from Wash- ington to Harrison, inclusive. He was one of twelve Revolutionary veterans who stood by General Jack- son upon his first inauguration as president ; and lie was the youngest survivor of Bunker Hill to wit- ness the laying of the corner-stone of the monu- ment. When Lafayette performed this service he recognized Stark as a fellow soldier. In 1825. when the famous Frenchman made his triumphal progress through New England, he stayed over night as the guest of Major Stark in the Dunbarton mansion.
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