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 9
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The college graduates of Dunbarton may also, very prop- erly, acknowledge a debt of gratitude to their native town on account of its natural scenery. The scenes which surround us in childhood, may be regarded as among the most import- ant of those influences which contribute to the formation of character ; and if there is any spot on earth where the natu- ral scenery is well adapted to exert a salutary influence, that
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spot is to be found in our dear, old native town. A person who is brought up on these lofty hills, where he may gaze upon these vast and beautiful prospects, ought not to become a man of narrow views. The impression made by these natural scenes, ought to find its way to the mind and heart, and the opportunity of seeing so much of nature at a single glance, should lead to the habit of taking extensive views in the moral world. In this way, and in many others, this natural scenery in childhood, and the recollections of it in later years, should prove very beneficial to the scholar.
The college graduates of Dunbarton also owe very much to the interest which the good people of this town have always felt in the subject of education. The citizen's of this place have generally manifested a deep interest in those who were seeking the benefit of a public education, and this may be one great reason why so many have been encouraged to pursue a course of study in college, and, speaking as I now do in be- half of the graduates, I feel that I cannot express too much obligation to the people of Dunbarton for the interest they have uniformly manifested in the cause of education, and in those who are-in some measure-associated with that cause.
No. 14. The Children of Dunbarton :- The delight of their parents in the present, and the hope of all for the fu- ture .:
Response by Rev. Silvanus Hayward.
Mr. President and Friends :- If there be a man whose heart is not warmed by the presence of children, he is far from be- ing one to be envied. Children serve to keep life fresh and ever new. Even in old age, parents and grandparents live over again their boyish and girlish days in the persons of their children and grandchildren. We are thus interested and de- lighted in what our children now are,-in witnessing the hi- larity of their sports, and the eager unfolding of their minds to receive the treasures of knowledge poured in upon every side. But the great thought connected with children is the thought of the future. I never look upon a child but I think of the probabilities of existence bound up in that little frame.
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We have here had tributes paid to the memory of all classes of the Past and the Present. Divines, Physicians, Lawyers, Soldiers, and men of Peace, all have their place in your thoughts and your words to-day. One man speaks for one, another for another. But I speak for all. For the children -our children-represent all these classes in the Future. Look upon the children and you see the hope of Dunbarton for the next hundred years. The Dunbarton of a century to come will be just what they make it.
Speaking then, in behalf of the coming generation of men and women, in the name of your children, I would say, Fathers and Mothers, we thank you for this day long to be remembered by us. We thank you for the pleasures we here enjoy. We thank you for the stories which to-day you have told us of the deeds and renown of our great-grandfathers. And we now ask that in looking back thus to your ancestors, you will not forget us. We ask you to remember that your influence and example, and the privileges you give us will serve to shape and determine our future lives. Let them then, be such as to make us just what you desire us to be- come. Remember that our characters will be just what you make them. Give us good school-houses well filled with all the means of storing our minds with useful knowledge. Give us good meeting-houses, attractive and commodious, where the pure gospel shall be preached, and the Sabbath School shall open its doors to give us a knowledge of bible truths. And especially let our home influences, your example and instruction be such as to elevate and improve our minds and hearts. Such as we see you, we shall endeavor to become, except that we shall try to advance farther than you in what- ever direction you take the lead. If you set before us higli- minded christian characters, adorned with noble-hearted, open handed generosity, or if, on the other hand, you choose to show that the great end of your existence is to save and accumulate money, regardless of honor, public-spirit and christian benevolence,-in either case, we shall imitate you. Your characters will be reflected in us.
We ask you then, to influence us to the noblest, purest course of life. We ask you to give us all the privileges and advantages that this modern age can bestow. And we pledge ourselves to improve them well. We will advance in propor- tion to the privileges you furnish us. And in our turn will we bestow still greater advantages upon those who come after us. Then shall your " sons be as plants grown up in their
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youth, and your daughters as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace." Thus shall Dunbarton be every- where known as a pattern, not only of morality and intelli- gence, but of unselfish charity and manly generosity. And our children, also, gathering from all parts of the land, shall celebrate her second Centennial, and commemorate with thankful hearts the wisdom and virtues of their fathers and mothers,-the children of to-day.
No. 15. The absent Sons and Daughters of Dunbarton. Response by Frank A. Putney.
Mr. President, Respected Townspeople, and Friends : I do not know why I am called upon to respond to a sentiment here to-day, while there are so many others in this grand as- sembly, more befitting the theme and the occasion.
I speak to you with diffidence, for I cannot but feel myself a stranger. My school-life, varied only by an occasional and short vacation, and latterly, my connection of nearly four years with the army, have narrowed my acquaintance with you, and kept me for the greater part away from among these dear familiar spots, which we, in after life, but learn to love so well.
It were needless to speak of the occasion that has assem- bled us here on this bright and beautiful autumnal morning, and it were also needless to make mention of the settlement of our loved and honored town, or any of the incidents con- nected with her career, for they must be familiar to you all, from the time, when, one century ago, those iron arms and sturdy chests commenced battling with the giants of the wood, when the boundless expanse of the majestic forest was un- broken save by the waving meadows and sparkling waters, and the stillness of the air unbroken save by the timid footfall of the industrious beaver, the angry howling of the beasts of prey, or the startling war-whoop of the hostile Indian, down to to-day, when native historians have so eloquently chroni- cled her progress, and native bards so sweetly sung her praise.
'Tis a pleasing study for the eye to look upon the assembly here to-day, when every heart seems glad.
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I see dancing, prattling children, unconscious of the nature of the occasion, yet confident from the assuring smiles of all, that the hour is one of joy. I see young manhood in all its pride of strength and aspiration, eager and ardent to begin the great battle of life. I see the laughing eye and rosy cheek of fair maidens, whose willing hearts and dextrous fingers have converted the grim and dingy walls of this time-honored old edifice before which we stand, almost into a bower of par- adise. I see stern fathers and smiling dames, whose open purses and capacious side-boards have furnished the bounte- ous collation which we have so much enjoyed. And I see, too, still further back, those whose brows have been furrowed by so many years of care, whose heads have been tinged by the frosts of so many winters, but whose hearts are affection- ate and youthful still.
We can imagine their thoughts as they gaze upon this scene. These orchards planted by their own hands, these forests sub- dued by their own industry, the rock, the stream, the wood, the heartlistone around which they and their children have sat, where they have seen so much to love, and learned so much to remember. These are sacred scenes to them-these bring back memories to their minds, that nothing else can,- these are their homes, the homes of their children and their childrens' children.
But there are others, sons and daughters of Dunbarton, who are not with us here to-day, whom distance or circumstances have forbidden the pleasure of taking part in this commemo- ration, but who, through numerous letters of regret, tender us their well-wishes, and sympathetic cooperation. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, in the busy cities and smiling villages of the interior, on the fertile prairies of the vast West, and among the sunny valleys of the golden garden of the world, they are helping to develop the products of the soil, to unfold the hidden riches of the mine, and to bring out and apply the hitherto undiscovered myste- ries of natural and artificial science, thius adding to the power, the wealth and honor of our country. God bless and prosper them. We can but wish them well.
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No. 16. Our Returned Soldiers :-
Our country's saviors, and our township's pride, Our real heroes, patriotic, brave and true, Who knowing how to dare, knew also how to do.
Response by Lieut. Marcus M. Holmes.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :- The long list of exercises yet remaining upon the programme, and the sun already hid behind yon western hills, admonish me to be brief.
I rejoice that I am included among those mentioned in the heading of the sentiment just read, and that the true and brave men, in whose behalf I am called upon to speak, need no words of mine to prove that " knowing how to dare," they " knew also how to do."
We are thankful, although many of our comrades sleep their last sleep, that so many of us are permitted to be here to-day. Our soldier's life with its many temptations, its daily privations and its unknown dangers, has passed away. The cause in which we engaged has been successful. No armed band bears aloft a hostile flag within the limits of the repub- lic, and quietly but gladly we return to our chosen pursuits in civil life.
Let us all hope that, if a century hence, when the citizens of Dunbarton shall assemble to commemorate its two hun- dredth birthday, there shall be occasion to offer such a senti- ment as the one just proposed, that it will apply to soldiers in a foreign and not a domestic war.
No. 17. Our Invited Guests.
Response by Hon. N. G. Upham of Concord.
Mr. Upham said he considered it an honor and a pleasure to be called upon to speak in behalf of the invited guests, because he knew he expressed their unanimous sentiment when he said they were highly gratified in being present on this Centennial Anniversary of the settlement of the town.
It is always an occasion of interest when we are called upon, after long recurring periods, to look back upon the
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history of the past, compare it with the responsibilities of the present, and look onward to the future. To-day always bears within it the promise of to-morrow. If the citizens of a town are distinguished during the first fifty years of its his- tory, by their efficiency, industry and high moral character, such you may reasonably expect, will be their history the coming fifty years. If such has been their character the past century, such you have reason to hope it will continue to be.
Dunbarton was settled by an enterprising, laborious popu- lation, who came here for the purpose of building up perma- nent homes. They worked not for the day merely, but with a wise forecast, for the best interests of themselves and their posterity. They selected this long upland slope of hills, then crowned with the giant growth of centuries, knowing that its soil bore, within it, the means of sustenance, and its breezy atmosphere gave assurance of health, and that, with their own good efforts, and the blessings of God upon them, they might lay the foundation of a thrifty town and aid in upbuild- ing the high destinies of a great and glorious country.
Here they have lived and labored, illustrating through va- rious generations, the worth of an honored and pious ances- try ; rearing their children in the faith of their fathers, main- taining among them a high order of intellectual culture and rendering them worthy successors of a goodly heritage. All around us to-day we see the evidences of thrift and content- ment ; cultivated fields and happy homes ; highly developed moral sensibilities and bright-eyed intelligence.
There are many subjects connected with your history, and others connected with those public duties incumbent upon us as citizens of a favored country, on which we might like to remark, but the lateness of the hour will not allow us to de- · tain you farther.
We can only say that we are most happy to greet you and be with you on this occasion ; to trace our ancestry, or that of those dear to us, from this ancient home. We thank you for your cordial reception and liberal hospitalities. We join you in all the happy associations and sacred remembrances of the past, and we bid you God speed, as we take leave of you, bearing with you the bright banners of hope into the coming century.
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No. 18. Our Fallen Soldiers :- Martyrs to. Truth, Liberty and Law ;- their memories are always glorious and shall be always green.
Response by Capt. David A. Macurdy, of Webster.
Mr. President and Fellow-citizens of my native Town, and of a yet noble, glorious, undivided Country :- I feel incompe- tent to do justice to the noble sentiment just uttered, but as your committee, through the Rev. Mr. Hayward, have kindly invited me to respond to this sentiment on this occasion, as a native of Dunbarton I did not feel at liberty to refuse to com- ply with the request. Yet it is with diffidence that I appear before you to-day to make this response, feeling sensible of my incompetence to do the subject justice, but hoping you will cast the mantle of charity over my failings, and remem- bering that I am a soldier, (not an orator,) I will be very brief. My business during the past three years has called for actions more than words.
Many of those within the sound of my voice, have, during the past four years, suffered and toiled through the long and weary night of darkness and gloom, with strong faith in the justness of our cause, and that the God of Battles who guided our grandfathers safely through the long dark struggle of the Revolution, would eventually bring us safely out of all our troubles, a united, happy people, and the priceless blessing of liberty handed down to us by the Revolutionary fathers, we would transmit to our posterity unimpaired, baptized anew in the blood of the bravest and best of our land. Our sacrifices have not been in vain. The dear old flag now defiantly floats all over our land, and as we have waited patiently but anx- iously through the long weary years of the past, years filled with gloomy, disconsolate defeats as well as glorious victory, we have reason to thank God and rejoice that before our vic- torious armies, this wicked, hell-born rebellion has been put down, and to-day sweet peace smiles all over our land, from the Canadas to the Gulf, from the Atlantic to the Pacific shores. And the dear old flag under which we have met the rebel hosts in deadly conflict, and again and again rallied beneath its folds and met the enemies of our country, now proudly floats upon every hill-top and in every valley throughout the length and breadth of our whole land. I say we have reason to rejoice and be glad that peace, with its unnumbered blessings, now smiles upon us. Fellow soldiers, the hunger and fatigue,
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the danger and exposure, and hardship and suffering of the past four years are not to be endured by us again. They are to be remembered and talked of as of the past. The war is over ; no more shall the beat of the drum, the echoes of the fife or the bugle blast call you from the peaceful pursuits of civil life to deeds of daring and of death, but you can now return to your farm, your counting-room or your workshop with the proud satisfaction, that when the dark breakers of disunion were tossing the old ship, and she seemed just ready to sink, and when traitors, even here among our granite hills, were aiding by their words and sympathies the monster re- bellion, then you manfully rallied to the rescue, and have no- bly and bravely fought the battles of our country, and the hideous monster rebellion is dead and burried, although some of its children yet live, the old chief within the walls of Fort Monroe, others scattered around in different forts-some beg- ging pardon of the President, others exiles in a foreign land, looking vainly to see the shores which they left in the hope of returning despotically to rule. Some of you come back maimed and crippled for life, others with constitutions broken and health ruined ; but, fellow soldiers, your sufferings have not been in vain, but to save a nation's flag, a nation's honor, and a nation bears you on its lists of heroes. But the tear of regret, of sorrow, fills the eye when we remember the bloody battlefields of Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettys- burg, Port Hudson, Opequan, Vicksburg, Spottsylvania, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek and Petersburg, and hundreds of others as bloody, and those brave and true men who so nobly fought by your side, and to-day are sleeping the long sleep of death. As you recall their memories, their smiling counte- nances and hopeful and cheerful dispositions, and remember how in a soldier's grave you laid their mangled bodies away `there on the battlefield to rest until the resurrection morn ; and others, wounded and bleeding, you carried from the field to linger and die in a southern climate far away from home and friends, that they, too, cannot rejoice over the downfall of rebellion, and with you return to the embrace of the loved ones at home.
Well may we weep for those brave and true men ; they were our brothers and sons, and the best of our nation's blood has been freely poured out. Dunbarton mourns to- day amid her rejoicing for her martyr dead ; "martyrs to truth, liberty and law. Their memories are always glorious and shall be ever green." But when we consider that they have
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fallen as soidiers love to fall, that their sufferings and death were not in vain, but to save a nation's flag, a nation's honor, the eye loses the tear, their graves are ours, our country's flag for which they died shall wave in triumph over them un- til the last trumpet shall sound, their graves shall be kept sa- cred, their memories shall be enshrined in the hearts of a gen- erous people, and we offer the mourning friends a soldier's sympathy, who have lost husband, son or brother during gal- lant duty for Truth, Liberty and Law. We know how to sympathize with you, for a loved brother's bones lie bleach- ing on Virginia's soil. And let us not be unmindful of the mourning widows and orphan children whose husbands and fathers have perished in defence of the old flag, give them substantial tokens of your regards, and remember, you who have not been permitted to share in the dangers and hard- ships of the campaign, that you owe the living heroes a debt which you never can repay ; you know but little of the sac- rifices they have made and the dangers and hardships endur- ed for the nation's life. And, my fellow soldiers, we who have survived the terrible conflict of the past four years, and are permitted to return to the embraces of the loved ones at home and the peaceful pursuits of civil life, let us make as good and faithful citizens as we have been soldiers, then we shall have the proud satisfaction of having done cur duty faithfully to our country in its time of need, and to our fel- low men. And to the misguided people of the South, to the rank and file of the rebel armies, we offer pardon, at the same time we demand that justice be meted out to the lead- ers, to those who have murdered our brothers by the thou- sand in the southern prison pens. It is difficult to conceive of punishment for those men too severe. The trial of Wirz, now going on at Washington, is daily developing facts in con- nection with the Andersonville prison too revolting to be mentioned here. Thousands have there suffered and died from starvation, martyrs to Truth, Liberty and Law. Their memories shall be ever cherished by a grateful people. Their graves, although far from the homes they loved, where no wife, mother or sister can scatter flowers or wet with their tears, shall ever be kept sacred. We trust that sweet peace will smile on our beloved land for all time to come, but if treason shall again raise its unholy head, if traitors shall again assail the old flag, our swords, our muskets, our lives are pledged on our country's altar, and we swear by the graves of our dead brothers, scattered all over the South, we swear
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by the grave of our murdered President, that hereafter trai- tors shall receive a traitor's reward, and the assassin the as- sassin's doom.
No. 19. Dunbarton for the next hundred years.
Response by Rev. E. O. Jameson of Salisbury, Mass.
Being called upon to respond to the Future of Dunbar- ton, I beg leave to do so by reading from the Book of Pro. phecies the things that are written, concerning this goodly land and the inhabitants thereof :
For it came to pass in the first year of the reign of one called Frederick, whose surname was Smyth, when he was Governor in the land of New Hampshire, in the ninth month and thirteenth day of the month, that all the people that were born and dwelt in the region called Dunbarton, as- sembled with one accord in one place.
For it was a hundred years since their fathers had gotten the land in possession. And it seemed good unto the elders and scribes and chief men to make proclamation and assem- ble the people and observe a day of feasting and congratula- tion over the past and of rejoicing over the bright prospects of the future.
And so word went forth and the people flocked together, and sons and daughters came from far, so that there was a large multitude both of men and women and children.
And when many had risen up and spoken in the great as- semblage, and the people were made glad by the things that their sons heard. Then rose up Ephraim one of the least among the gospel prophets, and he stood and prophesied of things that should come to pass.
And these are the saying and prophecies which Eplıraim prophesied in the cars of the people when they celebrated the first Centennial in the land of their fathers :
" Unto me, who am least of all the prophets, who are call- ed prophets is it given to speak of things that shall come to pass in this land, where, for generations, our fathers have lived and within whose sacred soil their ashes now peacefully repose.
And now be it known unto you, O, ye people, that this goodly land of our fathers shall not cease to be called as it is this day, to the end of time.
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Dunbarton shall be the name thereof to the latest genera- tion. Nor shall the stranger and the foreigner possess and cultivate your fields, but your lands shall be to you, and your children after you, for a perpetual possession. And it shall come to pass that the fruitfulness of your lands shall be great- ly increased. Your wide acres shall become as gardens, and your waste places fruitful fields. Your meadow lands shall redden with cranberries in abundance. Your hills, even to their summits, shall wave and shake like Lebanon with ripen- ing grain and the golden corn., Your wild woodlands shall become as cultivated fields. Your streams shall nourish swarms of the finny tribes, and turn the mighty waterwheels of enterprise and manufacture.
By the genius and industry of the people will the natural resources of land and water be developed to a wonderful ex- tent. Agriculture will continue to be the chosen and chief pursuit of your sons. Yet not as the father will the son cul- tivate the paternal estate. Newly invented implements of husbandry will displace and supersede those in present use. Labor-saving machines will be largely introduced so that farm- ing, once regarded drudgery, will become a pleasurable pas- time. Wealth will increase, greater conveniences of living will be introduced and men of taste and elegance of archi- tecture will beautify your homes !
With the increase of enterprise and wealth will come also improvements in every direction. Your educational inter- ests will receive greater attention, and a new impulse will be given to your schools. Your public schools will ere long be conducted on a new plan and more liberally patron- ized and endowed.
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