USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Dunbarton > Record of the centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town of Dunbarton, N.H., on Wednesday, September 13, 1865 > Part 8
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numerous to mention," instead of the gnarled and crabbed cider apple which our fathers had. Pears, peaches and plums, besides many smaller fruits, come in by way of dessert. The culture of flowers and shrubs also, evinces no less of improve- ment than the other products of the farm.
All this change has been brought about through the intelli- gence and the industry of the man of the soil.
What shall be said of the implements of husbandry ? What they were a hundred years ago I know not. Of course they were rude and inconvenient. But even since my own recollection, the improvement in these has been almost beyond imagination. Instead of forks, rakes, and scythes, such as our fathers used, we hear people talk of mowing machines, horse rakes, hay tedders and horse hay forks. Instead of the wooden, straight handled hickory up plow, we have the smooth, easy running cast iron. In hoes, carts and carriages of all kinds, we notice the same great degree of advancement. So of many other things which I need not name.
As an agricultural community, Dunbarton has fully kept pace with all her sister towns. Where do you find better sustained churches, according to the number of its popula- tion ? Where in any farming community do you find better regulated schools, although they are far from being what they should be ? Where will you find better farm-houses with better appendages, or kept in better repair ? As for barns, she is ahead of almost any neighboring town.
Such, in a few brief words, is the character of those men who have cultivated these hills 'and valleys within the last hundred years. Such too, the improvements they have made. But I should do injustice to those noble women who have travelled the weary journey of life with them, did I allow them to pass unnoticed here. They have proved themselves competent for arduous labors, and granted cheerful aid in all the way of. life. Who but they spun the tow, the flax, and the wool, and manufactured them into clothing for the benefit of the husband and children, and in many instances furnished the necessaries of the family by the proceeds of their toil ? They, too, bestowed upon those men that womanly love, sympathy and encouragement which man always needs in whatever sphere of life he moves. To these mothers as well as sires, belong the honor of making the agricultural interests of Dunbarton what they are to-day. Their influence does not end here. They have sent out many a noble son and daugh- ter to grace the walks of life in almost every sphere, Farm-
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ers, Lawyers, Doctors, and Ministers not a few. Some have returned to us on this occasion. Others are far away in dis- tant places, while some have fallen and their ashes lie mingled with the soil of almost every state of the Union.
We can boast of no great and gifted statesmen, who, after the turmoils and strife of a political life, have retired to the peace and quietude of the country. But we have others ' equally worthy of our esteem and admiration. Among them I gladly refer you to him, to whom we have listened with so much interest this morning as the orator of this occasion, who, after the trials and perplexities of the school-room for many successive years, has fallen back to his own productive acres. We also have a son-in-law who is now Ex-Governor of our own little State. He, too, is a farmer, and his possession lies within the nativity of his better half. Others there are, by no means unworthy, would time permit, to be named in connection with these.
Farmers of Dunbarton at home or abroad :- Ours is a noble calling. Let us never be ashamed of hard hands or brown faces. We also can claim a noble ancestry, who with their sufferings and hardships in making old Starkstown what she is to-day, should never be forgotten.
No. 10. Our Mechanics : May their memory be cherished and their value appreciated by the present and future genera- tions of the town.
Response by Leroy R. Mills.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :- In this sentiment we have a three-fold cord well entwined, which the inspired penman has declared "is not easily broken." In the history of the past, we have had the Religious, Literary, Legal, Med- ical, and Agricultural interests of the town presented to our minds in all the power with which cloquence and argument could enforce them, nor would I detract one jot or tittle of their importance, or the sacredness of their memory ; but only add that all has not been told of our good Old Mother Town.
Although Dunbarton is emphatically a Farming town, yet her sons and daughters have not been insensible to the many
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other useful and refined arts. Among these, Mechanics have held a prominent place.
Need I speak of their value ? If so, look about you and be- hold the monuments that our fathers reared, that in silence speak of genius and labor; the mills they built to saw and grind,-the stately mansions they raised and adorned ;- all are silent reporters of the skill and energy in generations that have gone to their long home. Their names and worthy deeds should we keep in grateful remembrance.
Of some of these will I speak.
Of Mill-wrights, we record the names of Simeon and Levi Palmer, Eben and Samuel Gould, and Eben Bailey.
Of Wheel-wrights :- John Ferguson.
Of Carpenters and Joiners :- Wm. Tenney, who framed and finished our venerable Old Town House, Shubael Tenney, John Garvin, John Leach, Robert Fulton, David and Moses Eliot.
Of Painters :- James Stinson.
Of Masons :- Timothy Jones, Henry M. Putnam and John Burnham.
Of Blacksmiths :- Moses Poor, John Jameson, Wm. Brown, Eben Chase, John Gould, Abel Currier, Jared Fuller, Jona- than Waite, Richard Parkinson, and Jonathan Ireland.
Of Shoemakers :- Hugh Jameson, John Wilson, Wm. Cur- tice, Joseph Twiss, and Jesse Sargent.
Of Tanners :- Wm. Parker, Jonas Hastings, John Caris, Obadiah and Wm. Woodbury.
Of Tailors and Tailoresses :- Thomas George, Robert Dins- more, Adaline Curtice, Ann Stinson and Hannah Colby.
Of Coopers :-- Moses Colby, Abraham Burnham, William Beard, Perley P. and Aaron Ray, John Mills and Isaac Bar- nard.
Of Pumpmakers :- Thomas Hammond.
These all have done their work and gone to their reward. Others, doubtless, lived and acted, but their names were not at hand, for me to record.
Of those of the present day, we have not time to speak, as they are too numerous to mention. Suffice it to say, the rest of these trades are practiced by citizens of the town, and some others have arisen to give beauty and stability to our domestic institutions, and perpetuate the memory of by-gone days.
May the mantle of the cherished dead rest upon the living. Most of these are with us to-day, to share our joy, and "wel- come home" each wandering son and daughter that has re-
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turned to mingle with us in songs of grateful praise to our kind and gracious God, for his guardian care and watchful Providence, that has been around and within us hitherto.
Let us keep in mind the past, to enliven the present, and inspire us in the future to noble deeds, and persevering efforts in climbing the hill of Science and Art. May our zeal never cool, and our energy never tire, until from its lofty summit we shout the note of victory.
No. 11. The Starks :- Soldiers in time of War, Historians and Poets in time of Peace ; an honor to the State that gave them birth, and an ornament to the society in which they lived ;- we cherish and revere the memory of the departed, and we honor the worth of those now living.
At the request of the Misses Stark, Hon. Horace Chase of Hopkinton, gave the following Response :
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : On an occasion like the present, there are some thoughts which irresistibly force themselves upon the attention.
A reflective mind cannot forbear to contrast the condition to-day of the town which now celebrates its hundredth birth- day, with that which existed in its infancy, and to inquire what was the moving and primary cause which has produced the wonderful improvements that we witness among us and about us.
This country, then a pathless wilderness, is now covered with cultivated fields, yielding all the necessaries, and many of the comforts and luxuries of life-then inhabited by the wild beasts of prey and savage tribes of Indians equally wild, and, if possible, more ferocious-now its hills and valleys are dotted over with civilized habitations, the abodes of peace, plenty, prosperity, and, above all, christianity.
We are standing on what then might be called the frontiers of an infant colony, the young and feeble offspring of Euro- pean civilization, now in the rear guard of a great and power- ful nation which has swept like a resistless deluge through the the valleys and over the mountains of New England, along the
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shores of the great Lakes, and across the prairies of the mighty West, arrested in its course only by the waves of the Pacific Ocean.
It is but natural then, to inquire whence these mighty changes, and what are the causes which produced these stu- pendous results. Our growth from weak and feeble colonies originally under the government of Great Britian, to a great, powerful and independent nation, is undoubtedly owing to many and various co-operating causes which I do not propose, nor would the limits of my remarks allow me to discuss ; but I may be allowed to say that, with sentiments of just pride and reverence, mingled with a sense of the obligations on our own part, arising from the relation, we can assert, it was our fathers and our fathers' fathers who first set this ball in mo- tion, and began the creation of this new world.
We go back but two or three generations to find the in- trepid little band which forms our order of nobility, not, it is true, decorated with the insignia of rank, originating in an old and artificial state of society, but nature's own noblemen, the true Knights Errant of their age-born to battle with diffi- culties and conquer them-to court danger and survive it -- men not educated in the refinement of Courts, nor in the tech- nicalities of European laws, nor in the dialectics of the Uni- versities, but men of stalwart arms, honest hearts and clear heads, amply competent to deal with the practicalities of their time, and, as we have the proof before our eyes, in the results of a hundred years, to lay the foundation of a mighty empire, and a system of Democratic government, such as never entered the imagination of dreaming philosophers.
Among these heroes of a hundred years since, perhaps no one can be found more truly a representative man, both in his personal character and personal history, than Major-General John Stark, one of the original proprietors of your town, a man, in person of medium size but strongly knit frame, with, as the saying is, " no loose flesh," but all bone and muscle, made for use, and capable of great endurance ; possessed of a daring and adventurous spirit-perfectly insensible to any feelings of personal danger, as early evinced in his contests with the Indians and his conduct when a prisoner in their hands-receiving a fine practical military education, in the old French and Indian wars, where he, like most of his revolu- tionary compeers, got all his knowledge of the art of war- frank and outspoken in manner, unhesitating and decided in opinion, clear-headed and independent in thought, as ready
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to act as to think-he was just the kind of man to whom all ordinary minds look in time of difficuly and danger, and whom, even men themselves qualified to lead, are ready to accept as their Chieftain.
When came the terrible life and death struggle of the Rev- olutionary War, it was casy for those who knew his personal history, to predict that the man, who, when a youngster, had struck up the guns of savages aimed at his brother's life, when to do so seemed certain death to himself, would think no sac- rifice too great for his beloved country, and that so long as his countrymen were swayed by the young warrior whose indom- itable pride would never allow him, as a prisoner, to submit to the degradation of compulsory labor or corporeal punish- ment, they would never submit to oppression, but having de- termined on resistance, would conquer their independence or perish in the last ditch.
And the expectations of those who understood the char- acter of John Stark were never disappointed.
He was emphatically the man for the times and the occa- sion, a man with whom honor was an end, and life merely a means, valuable or worthless, and worse than worthless, as it could be used in the great contest for freedom and right, or must be dragged out in unmanly submission to tyranny and opppression. As generous and openhanded as the day, John Stark was not the man to withhold millions for defence ; but to yield one cent for tribute, he must have ceased to be John Stark, or the true model of any other Stark whom I ever knew or heard of.
But why dwell longer on the character of this great Revo- lutionary hero, on the romantic incidents of his early life or the glorious achievements of his mature manhood ? These must be familiar to you all ; history has recorded them, poe- try has found in them a pleasing theme for immortal verse.
He has failed to read the story of his country's trials and triumphs who knows not of the Stark of Bennington, him who led the sons of New Hampshire over the borders of their native mountains, (for, thank God, the hillsides of the old Granite State have never yet been pressed by the foot of the invader,) to a glorious victory which turned back the tide of successful invasion, about to sweep with resistless fury over a despondent and almost exhausted land.
My friends, I should do injustice to my own feelings, and I doubt not, to yours as well, should I confine myself to a consideration of the character and services of Gen. John
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Stark alone. It has been my good fortune to enjoy a per- sonal acquaintance and intercourse with many of the Stark family, descendants of Gen. John Stark, at different periods of my life ; they have been my neighbors and my friends and I can truly say that the same traits of character exhibi- ted in exalted public stations by Gen. Stark were and are pos- sessed by his descendants and kinsmen, and shown by them, in their less conspicuous but always useful sphere of life. His brother, Archibald Stark, served as a lieutenant in the Ranger Corps in the old French war, was one of the first grantees of your town where he long resided and died at a very advanced age, in Hopkinton, N. H., at the residence of his son James, who was a surgeon in the U. S. army in the war of 1812, a skillful physician, very quiet in manner, clear headed and of resolute will, highly respected while living and deeply lamented when dead.
Caleb, son of Gen. John Stark, was a man of marked ability-a worthy son of a worthy sire-and as a writer, I should judge more talented than his father, owing probably to better advantages in acquiring an education. The open- ing scenes of the Revolution found him a stripling of sixteen years, but not too young in his own estimation to do yeoman's duty in the service of his country. The remonstrance of af- fection failed to keep him from the field of honor, and after taking part as a private volunteer in the battle of Bunker's Hill, he continued to serve in various capacities throughout the war, the close of which found him a Major in the con- tinental army. He was, as a writer, possessed of a forcible and vigorous style, clear ideas and powerful logic.
Of his son Caleb Stark, Esq., late a resident of your town and well known to most of those who hear me, I can scarce- Jy speak save with the partiality of personal friendship ; but I think you will agree with me when I say, that added to spotless integrity he possessed a fine education and excellent literary taste and ability, and that there never breathed a man of more genial and hospitable nature, a truer gentleman or more generous friend.
The sole surviving male representative of the Stark family, now resident in your town, is here to-day in the person of my young friend, Charles Frederick Morris Stark, and as I have spoken at some length of his paternal ancestry, it may not be inappropriate to allude briefly to his ancestry on the maternal side.
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He is the lineal descendant of Robert Morris of Revolu- tionary celebrity, an eminent merchant of Philadelphia, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, at one time Treasurer of the United States and the great financier of his day, who devoted not only his financial skill but his own private credit to achieving that independence, the blessings of which we have so long enjoyed and which we fondly hope our descendants will maintain and enjoy to the latest genera- tion.
I doubt not the noble qualities of head and heart exhibited by his revolutionary ancestors and likewise by his uncle and namesake, Charles Frederick Morris, who fell in the fight of Molino Del Rey, and by his uncle, Commodore Henry W. Morris, who died of disease contracted in the service of his country during the late rebellion, are shared by our youthful friend, and need only the maturity of manhood and the trump- et-call of his country which stirred the hearts of his illustri- ous kinsmen, to bring forth the fruits of heroic action and glorious achievements.
I am sure that to all the surviving members of the Stark family the toast to which I have endeavored to respond does no more than justice. I will not, however, enlarge upon this topic because however much it may be due to their merit, I know it would not be grateful to their modesty.
Allow me in their behalf to return their thanks for the very kind and complimentary manner in which allusion has been made to them, and to assure you that the high esteem ex- pressed toward them is most heartily reciprocated.
They feel with you that we should in the language of your sentiment, cherish and revere the memories of the departed soldiers, statesmen and patriots of the last eventful century, no matter of what state, town or family. Let us, my friends, not fail to render to them the tribute so justly due of that honor, which, next to their country's freedom and welfare, is the richest reward for their toils and sacrifices.
Let us imbue ourselves with and teach to our children those high sentiments of honor, that generous spirit of self-sacrifice, that stern, unflinching allegiance to duty and love of coun- try which distinguished our heroic fathers, and let us adopt those ideas and practice those habits of republican simplicity which governed their actions, for thus may we best preserve and transmit unimpaired to our posterity the rich inheritance of civil and religious liberty which they have bequeathed to us, and thus our names shall be held in grateful remembrance
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when Dunbarton in 1965 shall again celebrate the centennial anniversary of the first day of her municipal existence.
No. 12. The Ladies of Dunbarton :- "True Marys," who in this street-sweeping age, are " keepers at home," briglit exemplars of the domestic virtues, the light and joy of every home, their presence shall purify and bless.
Response by Col. William Kent of Boston, Mass .:
Mr. President :- I suppose I am indebted to the fact that I am half Dunbarton, (the better half,) for the privilege of addressing you on this occasion ; at any rate I am gratified to be present, to unite with the good people of Dunbarton in this interesting service. I recognize in the sentiment just read, the language of one of Dunbarton's most gifted sons,* who, if he had been here in bodily presence, would not only have richly enjoyed this gathering of the sons and daughters of his native town, but have largely contributed by his genial spirit and brilliant talents to the interest of the occasion.
If, Mr. President, departed spirits are cognizant of what takes place on earth, may we not suppose that his noble and pure spirit is now hovering around us and participating in the enjoyment of the present scene.
It appears to me, sir, that the sentiment is a just and true one, as applied to the ladies of this ancient and respectable . town, remote from the allurements and temptations of city life. The ancient mothers of this Israel who have mostly passed on to a higher, led a quiet domestic life, in the regular and faithful discharge of all the duties devolving upon them as wives and mothers, and almost literally exemplified Solomon's description of a virtuous woman : "She seeketh wool and flax and worketh diligently with her hands ; she riseth while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household ; she layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff; she looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness."
With the pulpit services and parochial duties of those faithful servants of God, who for so many years ministered to
*Chancellor Hoyt, of the University of St. Louis.
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this people, they generally were well fortified in religious and moral principles.
Given to hospitality, not grudgingly, they ministered of their abundance to the comfort and entertainment of their friends and the relief of the sick and suffering among them. With no taste for the favorites of fashion, they let their "adorning be not the outward adorning or plaiting of hair, (no waterfalls in those days,) nor of wearing of gold or put- ting on of apparel, but a meek and quiet spirit which in the sight of God is of great price." "In this manner did the holy women of old, who trusted in God, adorn themselves."
The impress of their characters has been in a great degree stamped upon their descendants. With the increased advan tages of education, (in no town of its size has it been more generally diffused,) the present generation have in an un- common degree exhibited the morality, industry and simplic- ity of the mothers. Their education is not of that kind which delights itself in outward exhibition, but practical in its application to all the various duties and situations in which they are placed, whether to grace the parlor, and intellectual- ly to entertain their friends, or in attention to the humbler but not less necessary duties of the domestic affairs of the household.
The ladies here do not consider that a finished education wholly consists in " working a fine screen, dancing a polka, drumming a sentimental tune upon a piano, or writing a love note upon gilt-edged perfumed letter paper to some gilt edged perfumed dandy."
In the fashionable world the ladies here are not distinguish- ed for the street sweeping dresses so annoying to the unsus- pecting pedestrian, who, if by chance he steps upon one, (a liability that he is continually exposed in large cities,) is al- most sure to receive the frown if not the outward expression of anger.
It was my fortune or misfortune the other day in Boston, to step upon one of these unnatural dresses, and received the sharp rebuke " that no gentleman would step upon a lady's dress." My only reply was, " Madam, your dress is very long, but your ad-dress is very short." The ladies herc, to their credit be it spoken, so far as I have observed, are like their deportment, chaste and unassuming.
Mr. President, the time usually allotted to services of this kind has expired, although the subject is far from being ex-
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hausted, but I will close by remarking that wherever there are any Colebs in search of a wife, I would recommend that they should do as I did-come to the hills of Dunbarton.
No. 13. The A. B's of Dunbarton, extensively known and as extensively honored.
Response by Rev. Abraham Burnham, of Hooksett.
The college graduates of Dunbarton owe very much to their native place. A most important part of their education is that which they acquired here among these rocks and hills. It is here that they received those early lessons which have given direction to their course of life. And what have they learned in this school of their nativity ? They have learned the ne- cessity of hard labor-a lesson which must be learned by every one who would be successful in professional life. No man can reasonably expect to be useful in any learned profession without hard and perservering labors, and if he becomes ac- quainted with this necessity at an early period of life, he will have so much the better opportunity to prepare himself for the business of his calling, and to become successful in it.
This lesson is generally learned very early by those who are brought up on these rugged farms. Here the farmer must work or die, and his children grow up with the impression that they who will not work, ought to die, and when they go out into the world, they go with the expectation that they must labor hard and wait patiently for the reward of their toil. If they devote life to study, they naturally feel the benefit of their early impressions, and they must be greatly at fault if they do not profit by the stern lessons to be learned from the hard and stony ground.
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