HISTORY OF ANTRIM, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE
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SOURCE: History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire 
Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1885, 878 pgs.
 
p. 252
ANTRIM
The town of Antrim is situated in the northwestern part of
Hillsborough County, and contains a little over thirty-three square
miles (twenty-one thousand one hundred and seventy-five acres), of
which something more than half is classified as "improved land."
The Contoocook River forms the eastern boundary of Antrim with
Bennington and Hancock on the south, Nelson and Stoddard on the west
and Hillsborough on the north. The soil of Antrim is for the most
part fertile and strong as compared with New England land in general.
Some parts are of light loam, productive, and easy to cultivate;
but the greater part is rocky and uneven. It is a soil that retains
its enrichment for a long time. There are pastures in Antrim that have
been fed or fifty or sixty years and are still good. ALong the streams
are beautiful and valuable meadows. The intervales on the Contoocook
are of surpassing fertility and loveliness. There are many fine farms
within its borders. Farm buildings are mostly neat and thrifty in
appearance, villages are attractive, and the whole face of the town is
smart and good-looking. The western part of Antrim is peculiarly rich
in pasturage. Few towns in the State can boast of fatter cattle or
finer teams.
  The mountains of Antrim are numerous, but not high or remarkable.
In the northeastern part of the town, near the junction of the
Contoocook and North Branch is Riley's Mountain, about fifteen hundred
feet high, named from Philip Riley, the first settler of the town.
Windsor Mountains form a chain on the northern boundary of the town,  
the town-line being about on the summit, and the broad southward slope
giving warm pastures and valuable forests and farms to Antrim. On the
western side of the town is a range of mountains, as a sort of
protection against cold and tempest, extending from North Branch River
on the north to Hancock on the south. This range has many summits,
among them Bald Mountain, Robb Mountain and Tuttle Mountain, the last
named being the highest--about fifteen hundred and fifty feet above
tide-water.  Bald Mountain was so called by the fathers because it was
bare and naked when first discovered. It seems that the Indians burned
it over occasionally, not suffering the flames to spread elsewhere,
and used it as a point of observation and a place of council. On its
broad and excellent pastures moose once abounded, and it was a 
superior "hunting-ground."
  The streams of Antrim of any considerable size are few. By far
the largest is the Contoocook. Its source is almot on Massachusetts
line in Rindge, and it flows a little north till it sweeps the whole
eastern boundary of this town, then turns eastward and flows into
the Merrimack above COncord, having a length of about one hundred 
miles, and a fall of over eight hundred feet.  It is crossed from
Antrim by three bridges. In passing this town (more than six miles)
its fall is very trifling. The Peterborough and Hillsborough Railroad
is along its bank. A lovelier river can hardly be found in New
England.
  North Branch River is the next in size. It rises in Washington,
flows southward through Long Pond, Stoddard, and then turns eastward
and runs about six miles in Antrim, nearly across the town, and nearly
parallel with the north line, at a distance of about a half-mile from
said line. Its length is about twenty-five miles, and its fall about
the same as that of the Contoocook in a hundred miles. It falls more
than three hundred and fifty feet in this town. Hence it is a wild,
impetuous, noisy stream, and when swollen by rains, its roar can be
heard for long distance. The water-power on this river is immense;
it has capacities for great reservoirs, is never exhausted, and
affords unsurpassed advantages to manufacturers.
  Great Brook, so named by the fathers, comes third in size. Its
actual source is in the mountains in the west part of the town.
From Gregg's Pond, through which it flows, to the Contoocook River,
into which it empties, the distance is about three miles, and the
fall about four hundred and sixty-five feet. The pond is fed by springs
discharging below the watermark, and hence this stream does not fail 
in a dry time to the same extent as other streams. Mill men here say
they can run when the wheels on the Merrimack have to stop for lack
of water.  Hence, the supply being so regular and the fall so great,
this little stream affords some of the best water privileges in the
state. Fourteen dams cross it inside of three miles, and some
excellent opportunities are still unimproved. It may safely be said
that no stram in New England of the same length affords so many and
so good privileges as Great Brook.  Meadow Brook, Cochran's Brook
and Salmon Brook are the other leading streams in the town.
  The collections of water in Antrim are neither many nor great. The
largest is Gregg's Pond, named from Samuel Gregg, who built the mill
at its outlet. This is a beautiful sheet of water about a mile long
and half a mile wide. It has mostly a hard, rocky shore, is surrounded
by high hills, and is a favorite summer resort for boating, fishing,
camping-parties, and picnics.  Antrim has also Campbell's Pond,
Steel's Pond, Rye Pond, Willard's Pond and other small bodies of
water.  From this show of mountains, streams, lakes and valleys, it
will be evident that this is a town of variable and delightful
scenery. It abounds with beautiful and romantic drives, and is
attractive and popular as a place for summer tourists and boarders
from the city.

****
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT
***
The first settlement in Antrim was made by Philip Riley, a Scotchman,
in 1744.  At that time, and for years previous, it was a matter of
great peril, on account of Indians, to venture far from the strong
settlements of the lower towns. The valley of the Contoocook was
known to explorers, and was looked upon as valuable ground, but it was
prudently avoided by settlers for many years. It was a place very dear
to the Indians. Near the river they had residences within the limits
of Antrim. They had a burial place here, and here they had fields to
raise corn for the tribe.  The first settlers found constant
evidences of the previous abode of the savages in this place. Hence,
it was a perilous undertaking when Riley and three or four neighbors
near him in Hillsborough began in this valley in 1744. Riley located
in the northeast corner of the town, near Hillsborough Bridge,
fifteen miles from any help. The surrounding towns, Deering, 
Francestown, Greenfield, Bennington, Hancock, Stoddard and Henniker,
were all a pathless and unbroken forest. The nearest neighbors, in
Hopkinton, Peterborough and New Boston, were themselves so few and
weak as to need assistance instead of being able to impart it. The
only strong settlement in New Hampshire west of Merrimack was Dunstable
(now Nashua) and this was in no condition to render assistance to
others. And when we take into account the fact that for many years
there had been almost constant warfare between the French and Indians
on one hand, and the English settlers on the other, and that the cruel
savages were scouring the forests most of the time with murderous
intent, the undertaking of a half-dozen men in the unbroken forest,
and beyond the possibility of help, seems hazardous in the extreme.
Other and stronger places petitioned the Governor for soldiers to aid
in their defense.  In 1744 and 1745 Indians swarmed along the frontier.
The settlers in some placed abandoned their settlements and returned
to the lower towns in 1745.  But Riley, and his few neighbors remained.
Nothing but their connection with the Scotch-Irish to whom the Indians
seemed to have no enmity, can account for the attacking of Hopkinton,
Charlestown, and other places, and leaving this little company safe.
The indians were accustomed to murdering the scattered and weak ones.
  April 22, 1756, the savages made an attack on the settlers in
Hopkinton, and carried off eight captives. The report of this event
carried new alarm to the few settlers of Hillsborough and Antrim. They
had no garrison-house. THey had seen Indians lurking and hiding along
the Contoocook, and supposed they would be the next object of attack.
They determined to abandon their humble yet happy dwellings at once.
Hurriedly burying some tools, and hiding others in hollow logs,
and under flat rocks, and driving their few cattle, they started over
the hills of Deering for New Boston and Londonderry.
  After this flight, Antrim had no white inhabitants for fifteen years.
But when Canada was captured from the French (1759-60) and peace after
so long a time had been restored, the settlers all along the frontier
began to creep back to their deserted cabins.  Riley was the first to
return to this section, coming back in the spring of 1761.  A thick
growth of young wood had spread over his clearing, and it was
difficult to find the cabin he had left.  His cabin alone remained 
standing. The savages had burned every other building in the
vicinity. Riley found his tools where he had concealed them, and soon
prepared to bring his family, and they were here in the wildnerness a
whole year alone.  In the spring of 1762 he received a neighbor, in
the person of Daniel McMurphy, who began a second settlement of
Hillsborough, a mile or two off.  But there was no other inhabitants
in Antrim till the spring of 1766, when seven young men came, axe in
hand, and made beginnings in the east and south part of the town.
One of them, JAMES AIKENS, moved his family here AUgust 12, 1767,
making the second family in Antrim. For two years Aiken and his family
had a hard time.  Often they felt the pinch of hunger. Bears and wolves
prowled around them by day and by night. In October 1767, his pigs
running loose were killed and torn in pieces by bears. Very little
could be raised from the soil the first year.  The nearest neighbor
was Riley, six miles off, in the northeast part of the town. The
winter following was long and severe.  Aiken and his good wife
(Molly McFarland) lost a young child in February 1768, the first death
in Antrim. There were no minister, no group of assembled mourners,
no coffin, no burial ground, no road, not even a path!  The sorrowing
father split out some rude boards from a log, and pinned them together
with wood for a casket, and then the parents covered the little dead
form in it and fastened down the heavy lid, and Aiken carried away
and buried his only child!  Two months later, April 15, 1768, Mrs.
Aiken gave birth to a daughter--the first American child born in
Antrim.  They named her Polly, and she died December 14, 1862. She was
a strong and noble woman, worthy to be the leader in the long and
honorable line of Antrim's sons and daughters.  The first male child
born in Antrim was James Aiken Jr., spring of 1772.
  Aiken carried corn to New Boston (sixteen miles) or to Peterborough
(twelve miles) on his back, to be ground, and used to speak of this 
in his after-years as the severest of all the hardships he endured.
He lived to see the town have a population of thirteen hundred, with
plenty of mills, and stores, and roads, and school-houses, and
commodious, comfortable dwellings.  He died July 27, 1817.
  The third family locating in Antrim was that of William Smith, who
came in 1771, having purchased his land the previous year for nine
cents per acre.  He located near Aiken, and they lived in great
confidence and love together till death.  After they got rich enough
to have oxen, Aiken bought a pair of Smith, and, not having ready
money, wrote a note for the same.  Smith said to Aiken, "I haven't any
desk to keep it in, so you keep it till I call for it."  Counsequently
aiken kept the note until he was ready to pay it, and then gave it to
Smith, at the same time paying it in full.  And thus Smith could
remember that the note was paid.
  The fourth family in Antrim was that of Randall Alexander, who came
in the spring of 1772.
  The fifth was that of John Gordon, who made a beginning in the north
part of the town, and struck the first blows in North Branch village.
  The sixth was that of Maurice Lynch.
  The seventh family was that of John Duncan, afterwards, "Captain
John, " "Esquire John," "Deacon John", and "Honorable John;" was a man
of some reputation; brought his goods in a cart--the first wheels ever
driven into Antrim; drove forty miles in this way, and arrived at the
door of his log house, with wife and five chidlren, September 30, 1773.
He lived till February 14, 1823, dying at the age of eighty-nine.
Was long time representative from the district of Antrim, Hancock,
Deering and Windsor; was a member of the New Hampshire Senate, was a
stirring, earnest, cheery, wide-awake and honest man.

In 1774 eight settlers and their families arrived in Antrim. This made
fifteen families and about sixty-two persons in the town. ALl summer
long the forests echoed the strokes of the woodman's axe and the crash
of falling trees. Paths were cut out for roads. The grounds about
the dwellings began to look like fields, and the new settlement was
full of hope.
  But, in the spring of 1775, the breaking out of the Revolutionary
War greatly hindered the progress of the work. This was a frontier
settlement. A terrible uncertainty pervaded everything. Every man in
Antrim capable of bearing arms was in the service more or less; but,
in spite of all discouragements, several families moved here during
the first year of the war.
  1776 was a dark year for Antrim. Its population was about eighty,
and of its men (about twenty in all) two, James Dickey, and George
Bemaine, were lost at the battle of White Plains, October 28, 1776.
  James Hutchinson was killed the previous year at Bunker Hill.
Thus one-seventh of all the Antrim citizens had fallen thus early in
the war.  But in this, as in other dark years, the women of Antrim
came forward and wrought wonders in courage and hardship. Boys
became men in work and fortitude, shrinking from no task. SO, in the
face of all obstacles, enlargement and improvement were noticeable in
the town.
  This year (April 12, 1776) the colony of New Hampshire sent out for
signature and the following paper: "We, the Subscribers, do hereby
solemnly engage and promise that we will, to the utmost of our
Power, at the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes, with Arms, oppose the
Hostile Proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies against the
United American Colonies!"
  This was, in fact, treason against the most powerful government in
the world. It placed little New Hampshire three months ahead of the
Declaration of Independence of the United States. And every man in
Antrim 'signed!"
  This year (1776) a few people of ANtrim sought to be incorporated as
a town. This shows how courageous and hopeful they were, 
notwithstanding fewness, poverty and war.  About midsummer they held
a meeting and appointed Maurice Lynch, John Duncan and Samuel Moore
a committee to petition for incorporation.
  The petition was presented (September 4, 1776) to the Legislature at
Exeter, and the usual notices were given to parties to appear for and
against at the opening of the next General Assembly of the State.
When the time came no opposition was made, and the act of incorporation
passed through its several stages, and bears date March 22, 1777.
  It was called Antrim from the old town by that name in Ireland,
occupied for generations by the ancestors of the settlers here. The
settlers in Londonderry retained that honored name, and likewise the
Scotch settlers here clung to that which was the next most memorable
and precious.  The town of Antrim, Ireland, was the shire-town of
the county of Antrim. It is a small town, but most beautifully located,
sloping toward the lake (Lough Neagh--lok na--) about as Antrim, seen
from the hills of Deering seems to slope toward the Contoocook.
Many a romance hangs about the old name.  The signification of the
name Antrim, is "habitation upon the waters," which, as is obvious,
was appropriate to the old localities, both county and town. The
inhabitants of these places in Ireland were nearly all Scotch, with
a strong dislike of the Irish, and the settlers in this town of
which we write were almost entire Scotch, and few of any other race
came to Antrim for many years.
  The first town-meeting in Antrim was at the house of "Esquire John
Duncan," May 1, 1777. The meeting was called by said John Duncan.
They were but a handful--twenty-three--but they had great hearts and
great hopes....  John Duncan was (apparently) first moderator;
Maurice Lynch first town clerk; and Thomas Stuart, James Aiken and
Richard McAllister, constituted the first Board of Selectmen.
  At this first town-meeting they "Voted to take Some Meathod to find
a Centor." This method was by survey, and the center fixed upon was
a broad common on top of "Meeting-House Hill,"--a high and commanding
summit, from which nearly all the town could be seen.  It seems to 
have been a little east of the real center, and was a mile east of the
geographic center of the enlargement of the town. They turned aside
a little for the sake of building on the top of a hill. At this
"Centor" they called a meeting (August 20, 1777) to clear ground for
a burying-place and a "Spoot to Build upon;" this town-meeting was in
the woods, under "A Read oak tree marked with the figure of Eight;"
they met at eight o'clock in the morning, each man bringing his axe,
and in about half an hour the public business was completed and
they "immediately went to work felling trees," on the "Acer, more or
less," which now constitutes the old cemetery.  They made rapid
progress that day in laying the forest low.  They were clearing the
ground where their own bones were to lie! The meeting-house was
subsequently built there, the highest landmark in the vicinity for
fifty years, and several dwelling-houses built near the church.
Only the stones placed at teh graves of these noble men remain to 
identify the spot.

The first saw-mill built in Antrim was built by John Warren, at the
Branch in 1776. The first grist-mill was built at the Branch in 177
by James Moore, before which time the settlers all went to mill to
Hillsborough, Peterborough and New Boston. THe new grist-mill was
a thing of pride and satisfaction to the town....This year also,
Antrim had her first public highway, though "barely passable for
horses," the same first road being merely a path "cut and cleared"
from the Contoocook River by the "old road," now so called, to the
Centre; thence over Meeting-House Hill to the "corn mill" at the
Branch; thence over English Hill to Hillsborough.

This year (1777) Antrim, did not forget the cause of liberty. 
One-fourth of those belonging in town capable of bearing arms were in
the army part of the year, and those at home carried forward the
"clearings," and paid the taxes of those in the field.  Several new
settlers came this year, and altogether it was a lively year for
Antrim--the year of incorporation, healthy, toilsome, struggling,
hopeful 1777.

From this time to the close of the war the troubles of this small 
frontier town were many and great.  Poverty, depreciation of currency,
absence of needed men in the army, the proprietors' resistance to
the non-resident tax, war expenses, terrible winters, the "Dark Day,"
loss of money by a dishonest town treasurer--all these together with
untold hardship in labor and perils of wild beasts, combined to make
dark and heavy the trials of this company of settlers.  Yet the
town slowly gained in population each year.  June 1, 1781, Antrim had
"Fifty families or more."  Early in 1784 a question arose as to
receiving a tract on the west of Antrim as part of the town. Stoddard,
then the most populous town in this vicinity, discovered that there
was a strip of unclaimed and unincorporated land on her western
border; and thinking this tract more desirable than that on her
east line, she laid claim to the western part, and ceased taxing an
equivalent on the ast.  The last-named part was untaxed one or two
years. But after discussion all summer, Antrim voted (Nov. 3, 1784)
to "tax the Land Unclaimed by Stodder." And this has since remained
a part of Antrim.

In 1785 the town raised its first meeting-house, having become so
weak and impoverished by the war, as to unable to do it before. The
population of Society Land (Antrim, Hancock, Bennington and part of
Greenfield) was one hundred and seventy-seven in 1775.  In 1786
the population of the town of Antrim was two hundred and eighty-nine.
In 1790 the population was five hundred and twenty-eight, nearly
doubling in four years.  But the population was not enough for
Antrim to have a representative till 1798.  Henniker, Hillsborough
and Society Land, and afterwards Henniker, Hillsborough, Antrim and
Society Land, formed a district til 1783, when a district was
formed including only ANtrim, Deering and Hancock. For about fourteen
years the district was represented by Hon. John Duncan of Antrim,
who resigned in 1796 on being elected State Senator.

The first store in Antrim was opened in the spring of 1788. Previously
the inhabitants went to trade to Amherst, New Boston, and even to
Londonderry. It was customary for the women of this town to take the
linen cloth which their own hands had manufactured, go to New Boston
on horseback with it, exchange the same for goods or money, and
return the same day, seventeen miles!  And it did not seem a severe
day's work.  A second store was opened in Antrim in 1789, and the
two stores accommodated the people till the population of the town
was more than a thousand.  Trade was far less for the same number of
persons than now, as then their wants were few.  They spun their own
yarn and wove their own cloth of every description, and raised their
own grain. The first barrel of flour was brought into Antrim in 1820.

In the year 1800, Antrim, like other towns was swept with the
dysentery scourge. One week in August there were nineteen funerals.
From July 23d to September 23d there were sixty-five deaths in this
little community, mostly children.  Fifty little graves made in the
old cemetery that year are unmarked and forgotten. But still the 
population had increased in the fall of 1800 to one thousand and
fifty-nine.  The largest population was in 1820 when it rached the
number of thirteen hundred and thirty.  At the census of 1870 it
had dwindled down to nine hundred and four, since which date there has
been considerable increase. It is now (January 1, 1885) twelve hundred
and thirty-eight.

As to religious matters, Antrim being settled almost entirely by
Scotchmen of the Presbyterian faith, formed a church of that order.
Up to the year 1836 the town and church were united in action, the
town by vote, calling the minister and paying him out of its treasury,
like any other town officer. He was called the "Town's Minister."
The first town warrant posted in Antrim had in it an article, "To See
What Money they Will Rease to Get preaching." The first sermon ever
preached in the town was in Deacon Aiken's barn, September 1775, by
Rev. William Davidson, of Londonderry. Subsequently, for ten years,
they had meetings in private houses, being too poor to build a church.
They finally raised the frame of the building June 28, 1785, and held
their first meeting within the covered frame the following Sabbath.
It took eight years to finish the building!  At the March meeting
(1788) the town chose Isaac Cochran and John Duncan a committee to go
to the Presbytery and ask them to organize a church in Antrim. In
response thereto they commissioned Rev. William Morrison, of 
Londonderry, who came here and organized the Presbyterian Church
August 2, 1788, with seventy-two members, being one third of the adults
then in town. Thus they were strong as a church from the first. But
they did not succeed in settling a pastor to their liking until 1800,
though constantly increasing in membership. Their annual sacramental
seasons were times of great interest.  Absolutely all the people
attended. The whole town kept the preceding Thursday and Friday and
Satruday with great strictness as "fast days." Neighboring ministers
were called  in, and the long-anticipated occasion was often one of
great revival.  In March 1790, the town "Voted Mr. David McLeary
Provide table Linning, twelve yds 7-8ths wide, at the town's
Coast," the same being for the long communion tables in the aisles of
the church. East pastor supplied his flock with "tokens" entitling
them to admission to the table. These were small, cheap lead coins.
Those for Antrim were marked with the letter A.  They ceased to be used
here in 1824.  A new church building was erected in 1826 and
remodeled in 1857. The membership of the old church, now in its
ninety-seventh year, numbers two hundred and seventy-four. Its 
pastorates have been as follows:
- Rev. Walter Little, settled September 3, 1800; resigned September 4,
1804
- Rev. John M. Whiton, D.D. settled September 28, 1808; resigned 
Januar 1, 1853
- Rev. John H. Bates, settled March 16, 1853; resigned July 1, 1866.
- Rev. Warren R. Cochran, began service January 1, 1868, and is 
pastor at this date.

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
A Congregational Church was organized in East Antrim October 25, 1827,
but, being reduced in numbers, it dissolved in 1843, most of its
members uniting with the Presbyterian Church.

BAPTIST CHURCH
There is now a flourishing Baptist Church in Antrim, located at the
south village.  This church was organized at the house of Joseph Eaton,
in Greenfield, December 17, 1805.  Their first meeting-house was in
that town, and was built prior to 1812.  In 1826 they had moved to
Society Land (now Bennington) and had a meeting-house there. In
April 1851, they "voted to hold the meetings all the time at South
Antrim," and this has since been the location of the church. They
worshipped in Woodbury's Hall till 1871. Their pleasant house of
worship was dedicated, free of debt, October 25, 1871. THey have a
parsonage, built in 1879. The church, was built in the pastorate of
Rev. William Hurlin, now the efficient secretary of the New Hampshire
Baptist Convention.  The pastors of the Baptist church since its
removal to Antrim have been as follows: Rev. W.W. Lovejoy,
Rev. W. Kimball, Rev. L.C. Stevens, Rev. William Hurlin (1866-73),
Rev. E. M. Shaw, Rev. W.H. Fish, Rev. E.M. Shaw, Rev. Horace F. Brown.

METHODIST CHURCH
The efforts of the Methodist denomination in Antrim began in 1838. A
class was formed at the Branch that year, which continued for a time.
In 1840 a class was formed at South Antrim. In 1851, through the
exertions of Rev. S.S. Dudley, the work was revived at the Branch
village, and the two classes were brought together into a church in
1852. The organizion numbered fifty-one members, and services were
held chiefly at the Branch. But in 1864 a meeting-house was built in
South Antrim, and dedicated October 9th of that year.  Since then the
Methodist CHurch has been at South Antrim, and has constantly gained
in numbers and in strength, so that it is now among the best of its
order outside the cities. A fine parsonage has been built this year
(1885).  Its pastors at its present location have been as follows:
Rev. E.A. Howard, Rev. A.A. Cleveland, Rev. J.W. Fulton, Rev. C.E.
Dorr, Rev. Lewis Howard, Rev. Jacob F. Spalding, Rev. J.W. Coolidge,
Rev. J.R. Bartlett, Rev. J.L. Felt (1876-79), Rev. C.F. Curl,
Rev. William Wood, Rev. N.C. Alger, Rev. A. F. Baxter.

***
MILITARY HISTORY
***
The military and patriotic record of Antrim is exceedinly honorable.
I have already said that every man in town, and every boy of
sufficient size, marched for Lexington at the first sound of battle,
with the single exception of John Gordon, who soon after enlisted
for the whole war.  There was not a male old enough to march that
did not respond to his country's call.  How many other towns can say
as much? The company from Society Land, including men and boys of
Antrim, then a part of Society Land, marched as far as Tyngsborough,
where they were met by General Stark, who complimented them in high
terms, advised them to return and plant their corn and hold themselves
"ready to march at a moment's warning."  Three men from this
settlement were in the battle of BUnker Hill, one of whom was killed,
and two from this place were lost at White Plains, all which was
before the incorporation of the town.  Two men from Antrim were
killed subsequently, and several wounded. Five months after 
incorporation a town-meeting was called to "Regulate the expense the
town has been at in respect of the war." Thus, though few and poor,
the citizens of Antrim assumed their part of the war expenses at
once; and they filled every quota, both of men and means, to the end.
About ten men from this place were in the battle of Bennington
(August 16, 1777) in a company of which Daniel Miltimore, of Antrim,
was first lieutenant; and afterwards they took part in the series of
contests which resulted in the surrender of Burgoyne.
  There were at least four men from Antrim in the last company that
was disbanded at the close of the war. The last surviving soldier of 
the army of the Revolution was Samuel Downing, of Antrim, who went
from this place to Edinburgh, NY, 1794, and died there February 19,
1867, aged one hundred and five years, two months and twenty-one days.

THE OLD MILITIA SYSTEM FOLLOWING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
  In the old militia system Antrim fell within the bounds of the
famous Twenty-Sixth Regiment, first commanded by Governor Benjamin
Pierce and afterwards by Colonel David McClure of Antrim.  By the act
of 1792 each regiment was to have a company of grenadiers, meaning
thereby a uniformed and picked and trained set of men.  The company
for this regiment was organized by General John McNiel, afterwards
distinguished in the War of 1812. McNiel [sic McNiel] was six feet
tall in height. Af first the men were picked out of Antrim, Deering,
Francestown, Greenfield, Hancock, Henniker and Hillsborough. But
because Antrim raised bigger men than other towns, the majority of 
the grenadiers belonged here from the start. With gorgeous uniform,
tall caps and high, brilliant plumes which seemed to increase the
stature of the men, this company of giants made a most imposing
appearance--the wonder of small boys, the admiration of all.  This
noted company was made up from Antrim as early as the year 1823,
and continued to flourish until the enactment of the disbanding law
of 1851, after which it did not survive many years.

THE WAR OF 1812
WHen the War of 1812 broke out a company called the Alarm List was
promptly formed here, in addition to the other companies, and it was
composed of the old men, most of whom actually bore the scars of the
Revolutionary War. It had forty members; their uniform was a large
white frock thrown over their ordinary clothing; they were under
command of Captain Peter Barker, a soldier of the Revolution, and
they actually offered their services to the Governor. Several of
them were seventy-five years old when they offered to march for their
country's defense.  Forty-four soldiers from Antrim were in the war of
1812, of whom seven, in one way or another lost their lives.

In the MEXICAN WAR there were four soldiers from Antrim, and they
were all killed.

In the WAR OF THE REBELLION (Civil War) the action of the town was
thoroughly patriotic and vigorous. There was a town-meeting called,
a resolution was passed to defend the flag and to do our part
whatever struggle might come, a committee appointed to assist
volunteers and an appropriation of money made, all within less than
three weeks of the house when the first gun was fired on Fort
Sumter.  On all the calls for volunteers, Antrim furnished twelve
MORE than her aggregate quota, furnishing one hundred and
thirty-nine men in all. Of these, thirty lost their lives on the
battle-field or by disease.  

VILLAGES
The first village in Antrim was the OLD CENTRE, on the top of
Meeting-House Hill. Going up from the south, the new building seemd
to lean against the sky.  A school-house, church, tavern and a few
dwelling-houses made up the whole. It was the chief place in town for
more than fifty years.  At the time of the town's greatest population,
it had no other meeting-house or meeting-place.  Congregations of
four or five hundred assembled there for worship. It was a spot very
dear to the fathers.  Now all is changed. The spacious and
commodious common is an ordinary field; every building is gone, and
only the ancient burial-ground remains unchanged to remind one of
departed scenes.

The BRANCH VILLAGE is situated in the north part of the town, on
North Branch river. For many years down nearly to 1840, this was the
largest and most flourishing village in the town. It was seriously
injured by the burning of its bobbin-shop and peg-shop (1846 and
1869) which were not rebuilt. It has now a store, post-office,
blacksmith's shop, chapel, school-house, large saw-mill and twenty-
five dwelling-houses. The stage from Keene to Hillsborough passes
through this village.  It has also a daily stage to the depot at 
South Antrim, four miles away.  Branch village has a delightful
situation on the river, has excellent water privileges sufficient
for a large place; is surrounded by comely and protecting hills, and
is quite a resort for summer boarders.

THE CENTRE, now so called is a small collection of buildings, hardly
to be dignified by the name of village. It is located well down the
southward slope of Meeting-House Hill, about half a mile from the site
of the old church.  The beginnings here were made by Benjamin and
Samuel Gregg, 1776-77. It is about a mile southeast of the
geographical center of the town. The situation is sightly and
attractive, and in the summer is well thronged by boarders from below,
as the popular summer boarding-house of Eben Bass, Esq. is near by.
Here is also the boarding-house of A.R.C. Pike.  The Presbyterian
Church, with its long lines of horse-sheds, the vestry, the 
town-house, school-house and eight dwellings (with barns) make up the
buildings at the Centre.

In CLINTON VILLAGE the first building was put up by Deacon Imla Wright,
in 1828 for a cotton-mill. Now there are twenty dwelling houses
(twenty-six families) six mills and factories, a store, blacksmith
shop and cooper-shop. There is also an undertaker's warerooms. This
village is one-half a mile south of the Centre, and is a thrifty,
smart village with excellent water-power.  A variety of wares made
from wood are manufactured here, consisting of bedsteads, cribs of
various kinds, window-shades, spring-beds, and pail-handles, 
besides threshing-machine, grist-mill, wheelwright-shop, cider-mill
and saw-mill.

But the chief village in Antrim is SOUTH VILLAGE, formerly called
WOODBURY VILLAGE, situated near the south line of the town, near the
Contoocook River. It has grown rapidly in the last ten years, and is
now by far the largest.  It is "beautiful for situation," being on a
ridge rising from the west bank of the Contoocook, and seen for
long distances from the hills around. It has many fine residences.
In it there are two churches, wheelwright shop, silk-factory,
two saw-mills, printing-office (where the ANTRIM REPORTER is 
published), blacksmith-shop, six stores, banking-office, shoemaker's,
jeweler's, harness-maker's, barbers, tailor's and tin-shops. Here
also are the shops of the Goodell Company, which employ about two
hundred hands, chiefly in the manufacture of cutlery. A grist-mill,
"Excelsior Shop," paper-box factory and several halls are here.
Here are flourishing lodges of Masons, Odd-Fellows, Knights of Honor,
and Good Templars.  Here are the headquarters of the Antrim Cornet
Band.  In this village there are two ministers (pastors), two
physicians, and about one hundred and twenty families. Has excellent
graded schools, streets are wide, some of them finely shaded; and
every way this is one of the liveliest, smartest, handsomest,
cleanest, healthiest and pleasantest villages to be found in
New Hampshire.
  Antrim has been for seventy-five years a fruitful town to emigrate
from....Among Antrim's more conspicuous sons are these,--
- Hon. Daniel M. Christie, LLD, one of the ablest lawyers ever produced in New Hampshire
- Hon. George W. Nesmith LLD, judge of the Supreme Court
- Hon. Luke Woodbury, judge of Probate, nominated for Governor 1851, but dying before election
- Hon. Benjamin P. Cheney, Boston
- Hon. Charles Adams Jr.
- Hon. A.H. Dunlap, Nashua
- Hon. Jacob Whittemore, of the Governor's Council and judge of the County Court
- Professor James E. Vose, the distinguished teacher and author
- Professor Benjamin F. Wallace
- Professor Joseph McKeen, LLD, NY
- Professor James W. Barker, President, New England Teacher's
Association.

Besides these a long list of ministers, doctors and lawyers might be
given, of whom a large part are young and just entering upon their
life-work.

There is not room, in this brief sketch, to enter into details of the
customs and privations of the pioneers of this town. Among our
Scotch ancestry the drinking of liquor was universal. The
minister was treated with the best drink at every house. Women drank
as well as men. It was looked upon as a rightful and pleasant custom.
In every hard job, planting, hoeing, haying, harvesting, they
calculated to have plenty of rum. If a meeting-house was to be raised
or a bridge built, the town always voted the proper supply of rum.
The first barn raised in Antrim without rum was in 1830; and the
first house built without rum was in 1845.  It was considered a great
calamity to get out of rum. If out when a friend called, they would
detain him in conversation till a small boy could run to a 
neighbors and borrow some rum. The most pious and devoted saw nothing
wrong in this.  Not half so many died from the effects of liquor as at
the present day.

Antrim was for many years an agricultural town, with much grazing and
a fruitful, though rocky soil. But within a recent period the town
has become dependent on manufacturing. There are six saw-mills in town,
as before intimated, two grist-mills, two threshing-mills, three
wheelwright-shops, four blacksmith-shops, five crib and bedstead
factories, one silk-mill besides the several mills connected with the
cutlery-works. This last, under the name of the GOODELL COMPANY,
is bar far the largest industry of the town. Here are manufactured
many kinds of fine table cutlery, which finds a large sale all over
the land. They also make untold numbers of apple-parers, slicers,
corers, peach-parers, cherry-stoners, and seed-sowers, both of hand
and horse-power. This establishment furnishes employement directly
and indirectly, for more than two hundred Antrim people, and pays to
the people thousands of dollars in cash every month. In all these
industries, and some smaller ones not mentioned, a majority of the
people of the town are now engaged.  Farming has greatly improved
here in the last ten years, but manufacturing vastly more, and
the farmer thrives all the better because of the mills that flourish
near him.

****
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
****

HON. DAVID H. GOODELL
The Goodells, Goodales and Goodalls, now so numerous in New England,
are supposed to have all descended from Robert Goodell. (For what is
known of him and his descendants, see the sketch of the family and
the line of Levi Goodale, in this history). Of the line through which
the subject of this sketch came, we have the following in the
GRANITE MONTHLY:
1. David Goodell, who resided in that part of the town of Amherst, now
included in Milford.
2. David Goodell, a son of the above, who married Elizabeth Hutchinson,
and lived in Amherst
3. David Goodell, son of David and Elizabeth, who was born in Amherst,
September 14, 1774; married Mary Raymond, of Mont Vernon, and settled
in Hillsborough; removed to Antrim in 1844, and died in 1848. His
wife died May 17, 1864, aged eighty-five.
4. Deacon Jesse R. Goodell, son of David and Mary, who was born in
Hillsborough, February 12, 1807, and removed to Antrim in 1841,
where he still resides, and is a farmer. He married, first, 
Olive Atwood Wright, of Sullivan, who was born February 28, 1807,
and died June 13, 1877. He married, second, Mrs. Ruth (Wilkins) 
Bennett. 
5. Hon. David H. Goodell, only child of Jesse R. and Olive A. was born
in Hillsborough, May 6, 1834, and removed to Antrim in 1841 with his
father and mother, and still resides there.
  From the above it would seem that David was a favorite name in the
branch of the family, as four out of vie in direct succession received
it. 
  In "Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men," it is recorded of
the mother of David H. Goodell that her parents were poor, and found
it difficult to provide for the numerous children dependent on them;
that when she was fifteen years old she left home for Boston to seek
her own living. On reaching there she had just fifty cents in her
pocket. Not finding employment in Boston, she went to Waltham, where
the first cotton-factory in the country had just commenced operations.
She obtained employment and at the end of a year and a half visited
her parents with forty dollars in her pocket.  When she was married,
eight years after this, she had saved from her earnings, five hundred
dollars.
  The parents of David H. desired that he should fare better than they
had, and that he should have a good education. Hence, when he had
learned what he could at the town school, he went for several terms
to Hancock Academy, thence to New Hampton, and graduated at
Francestown Academy in 1852.  In the fall of that year, he entered
Brown University, at Providence, R.I. and took high rank as a 
scholar. In Latin he was marked within one degree of perfect, and he
won a prize in mathematics. But in his second year his health failed
and he was obliged to return home. A year and a half on his father's
farm restored him to health, and he taught school two terms at
Hubbarston, Mass, one at Leominster, Mass, and one at New London
Literary and Scientific Institution.
  But again his health failed and he returned to Antrim with the
intention of making farming the business of his life.  In 1857, 
however, the Antrim Shovel Company was organized, and he became its
treasurer and book-keeper, and in 1858 he was appointed general agent
of the company. In 1861 the company sold out to Treadwell & Co., and
Mr. Goodell continued to act for them in the same position. In 1864
the late Oaks Ames bought the business, including the patents of the
now famous Antrim shovel, and removed it to North Easton, Mass.
  Mr. Goodell now entered into partnership with Mr. George R. Carter,
one of the firm of Treadwell & Co., and commenced the manufacture of
apple--parers on a small scale.  Having invented the "lightning
apple-parer," it was put on the market through a New York house, who
in two years sold a few hundred dozen, and thought they did well.
In 1866, Mr. Goodell resolved to sell for himself, and in a tour of
three weeks sold two thousand dozen, and thus made his invention
known through the country.
  In February 1867, the factory was burned, and as there was no
insurance, it was a total loss; but in six weeks a new shop was in
operation and five thousand dozen apple-parers were manufacatured
and sold that year.  In 1869 the patents of the Cahoon seed-sowers
were purchased, and these machines were added to the business.
In 1870 a new trouble came upon the firm.  The business of
D.H. Goodell & Co. was conducted upon the cash principle; but the 
firm had unwisely indorsed notes for Treadwell & Co. (one of the
partners being, as already stated, a member of both firms) to the 
amount of fifty thousand dollars, and the failure of Treadwell  &
Co. necessarily led to the bankruptcy of D.H. GOodell & Co. When the
Antrim property was sold at auction, Mr. Goodell bought it, and
since then has been enlarging his business every year.
  In 1872, Mr. Goodell joined in organizing the Woods Cutlery Company,
at Bennington, and carried that on in addition to his own private
business at Antrim, and in 1875 both concerns were merged in the
Goodell Company, of which Mr. Goodell is the general manager, and
of which he owns nearly the whole of the stock. The company
manufactures all kinds of table cutlery, from scale tang to
silver-plated, hot-water proof; and also numerous kinds of
apple-parers, peach-parers, potato-parers, cherry-stoners,
seed-sowers, both hand and horsepower, and Robinson's hammock chairs.
  The factories in Antrim, and Bennington are connected by a private
telephone.
  In addition to his manufacturing business, Mr. Goodell is a practical
farmer, and he has for many years managed the large farm which
formerly belonged to his father, but which is now owned by him. He
aided in organizing and was for several years the president of the
Oak Park Association, for the encouragement of agriculture and
mechanical arts; has been for a number of years one of the trustees
of the New Hampshire Agricultural Society, and since 1879 has been an
cative member of the New Hampshire BOard of Agriculture.
  Mr. Goodell has served as school committee, town clerk and
moderator.  In 1876, after a long contest, he established claim to 
have been elected as representative to the Legislature by the
Republican party, and was twice re-elected in 1877 and 1878... In
1882 he was elected a member of the Governor's Council and served his
term of two years form 1883 to 1885.  At the Republican Convention of
1884 he received one hundred and forty six votes and the candidate for
Governor, and was in reality the only candidate before the Convention,
besides the Hon. Moody Currier, whose nomination was made unanimous,
and who was elected.  Mr. Goodell is also an earnest temperance
worker, and has been vice president and is now president of the
New Hampshire State Temperance Union. He is also trustee of Colby
Academy at New London.
  On September 1, 1857, Mr. Goodell married Hannah Jane Plumer,
a daughter of Jesse T. Plumer of Goffstown. Their children are, first
Dura Dana, born September 6, 1858; and second, Richard Carter, born
August 10, 1868. The whole family are member of the Baptist Church in
Antrim. Mr. Jesse R. Goodell having for many years been one of the
deacons.
  
HON JACOB TUTTLE
The earliest record at hand of this branch of the Tuttle family is
that of Samuel-1 who was born in 1709.  In 2719 he married Martha,
daughter of Rev. Benjamin Shattuck, the first minister of
Littleton, Mass. She was born in 1712. From this union there were
nine children. Of these, the one in the line of descent was
Sampson-2 who was born August 29, 1738. He married Submit Warren,
who was born November 23, 1742.  Sampson-2 died June 7, 1815, and
his wife died July 21, 1797. They had fourteen children.
  Jacob-3, the subject of this sketch, was born in Littleton, Mass,
February 6, 1767. His childhood was passed with his parents...he was
a rugged, health boy, and was foremost in athletic sports in his
schoolboy days. His educational advantages were limited. He attended
the district school.  June 18, 1795 he married Betsey, daughter of
Isaac and ELizabeth (Trowbridge) Cummings, of Westford, Mass, and
taking his wife on horseback, started across the country for Antrim,
NH.  He had saved a small sum of money, and with it he bought a farm
in the northern border of the town. The old homestead is now occupied
by James A. Tuttle, a grandson.  Mr. Tuttle (Jacob) Opened a store for
general trade and soon had a large mercantile business, and also
carried on farming on an extensive scale.  In 1818 he moved his store
to the Branch Village and resided there for many years, accumulating
a large property. He soon became a leader in civil affairs and filled
nearly all the town offices and for sixteen years represented the
town in the General COurt. He was elected State Senator from District
No. 8 in March 1833. He was elected a member of Governor William
Badger's Council in March 1834 and served two years. He was a member
of the Electoral College in 1816. New Hampshire had eight members at
that time, who were elected by the Republican party and cast their
votes for James Monroe for President of the United States.  He was
also a "side judge" of the Court of Common Pleas, from which 
circumstance, he wore the title of "Judge Tuttle." Judge Tuttle
attended the Presbyterian Church, and was a liberal contributor for
the support of public worship. He was a kind friend and devoted
husband, and father, He died August 20 1848 at the age of eighty-one
years. His wife, who was greatly beloved for her many virtues, died
January 28, 1852.  Judge Tuttle had fourteen children: Betsey-4,
born June 13, 1796, died September 13, 1800; Jacob, born February 4,
1798, died September 3, 1800; Nancy, born January 17, 1800, died
September 24, 1800; Betsey, born July 13, 1801, died February 15, 1814;
Nancy, born April 9, 1803, died May 6, 1805; Submit R., born April 21,
1805, married James Steel, died August 3, 1833; Lucetta, born March 23,
1807, married John Sargent, died August 1, 1855; Louisa, born June 3,
1809, married Andrew C. Cochran, died January 11, 1849; Lydia S.
born June 1 1811, married Hiram Griffin, died April 1885;
James M., born July 6, 1813, married Hannah Shedd, died December 5,
1861; Susan, born July 17, 1815, married Henry D. Pierce, died
October 20, 1874; Harriet, born August 3, 1817, married David W. Grimes
died September 2, 1848; Isaac C., born September 11, 1820, married
Louisa J. Love and lives in Illinois; Mary E., the youngest daughter,
who places the engraving of her father in this work, was born
May 15, 1823. She was married to John S. Shed, of New Bedford, Mass,
May 20 1846 and lives in Antrim. There were two children from this
union--Mary J., born April 20, 1854 and ELiza A, born July 5 1857.
Mary died August 17, 1856.  Eliza A. was married January 1, 1879 to
Ruthven Childs, of Hillsborough NH, and has one child, Carrie May, 
born December 20 1879

MORRIS CHRISTIE, M.D.
Peter and William Christie signed the "Memorial to Governor Shute"
(1718) but neither of them came in the Londonderry company that
settled that town in the following year.  But Jesse Christie, probably
the son of Peter, settled in Londonderry (now East Derry) about
1725. His wife's name was Mary, and they had a daughter Mary,
born in Londonderry June 1, 1728.  Their son, George (Captain George
Christie of New Boston) was born October 3, 1731.  From this Jesse and
Mary probably sprang all of the Christies of Hillsborough County.
They were the parents (there is hardly room to doubt) of Deacon Jesse
Christie, who settled in New Boston, and was a man of high standing
in that town.  He was chosen deacon in the Presbyterian Church there
under the first pastor; was a man of strict business uprightness
and was peculiarly social and friendly; was a farmer and a mill owner,
having built the mills where afterwards the New Boston Paper-Mill
stood.  Deacon Jesse Christie married Mary Gregg, daughter of
Samuel and Mary (Moor) Gregg, and granddaughter of Captain James
and Janet (Cargil) Gregg, which Captain James was one of the original
sixteen who began in Londonderry in 1719, and was of mature years at
that date.
  Deacon Jesse and Mary (Gregg) Christie had twelve children--
Jeane, Peter, Samuel, John, Mary, Elizabeth, James, Mary Ann, Jesse,
Robert, Anna and William. Several of their sons settled in New
Brusnwick about 1790, and their descendants have come to honor there.
The mother of these twelve children was a noble woman, large in
stature and large in heart,--one of the most useful and energetic
and capable women of that early settlement. The writer well remembers
hearing old people who knew her speak of her as "a devoted Christian,
of great kindness and full of good works."
  SAMUEL CHRISTIE, third child of Deacon Jesse, was born in New
BOston, February 20, 1764. He came to Antrim in the spring of 1788
and bought a large tract of land next east of the cemetery at the "Old
Center," now known as "Meeting-House Hill." Here he made his "clearing"
and in the fall of that year he put up a small, low house, answering
well for the times, and for temporary use. Near the close of the same
year (1788) he received a companion into his new and humble home 
in the person of Zibiah Warren, daughter of Josiah and Jane
(Livingston) Warren, of New Boston. Tradition says that she was 
"very young and very fair." After a few years Mr. Christie built a
large, old-fashioned tavern, with large square rooms, enormous
fire-place and a long dancing hall. Here he "kept tavern" the rest
of his days. There was then considerable travel through the town, it
being then before the day of railroads. There was a large business on
training-days and town-meeting days; and on Sabbath-days the hearers 
of Rev. Dr. Whiton came over from the church near by to warmp up
with the subject.
  Samuel Christie died October 25, 1818, leaving eight children, 
among them Hon. Daniel M. Christie, L.L.D. of Dover; Josiah W. 
Christie, Esq of Antrim; and Mary Christie, for fifty-five years a
missionary in Ceylon, as wife of Rev. Levi Spalding.
  DR. MORRIS CHRISTIE, the subject of this sketch was the son of
Josiah and Mary (Bell) Christie, and was born in Antrim August 29,
1832. His father was a farmer and carpenter, a greater worker;
and the son had his full share, enjoying, however, from time to time,
the limited advantages of the school district school.  Afterwards
he attended the academies at Francetown, Washington and Hopkinton,
each for a time. Having had, from childhood, a desire to be a 
physician, in the summer of 1856 he took up the study of medicine with
the late Dr. Thomas Sanborn of Newport NH. In the autumn of the same
year he attended a course of lectures at Dartmouth College. THrough
the sumer of 1857 he again studied with Dr. Sanborn. In the fall of
1857 he went to New York and attended lectures in the University of
New York till the time of his graduation, March 1859. At once he
entered Charity Hospital as assistant physician, remaining there a
year. May 1, 1860 he began practice in his native town, which he has
continued with gratifying success until the present time. His
practice reaches into all the adjoining towns, and he as fairly won
a leading place in his profession. He is one having honor "in his own
country," a liberal giver, a worker in every good cause, of strong,
earnest convictions, a man characterized by large-heartedness,
outspokenness and Christian principle.
  Dr. CHristie married Susan S. Hill, daughter of George W. and
Sabrina (Woodbury) Hill, of JOhnson, Vt., July 22, 1863.
  They have one son, George W., born August 5, 1868.

DR. GILMAN KIMBALL
Dr. Gilman Kimball was born in New Chester (now Hill) NH December 8,
1804. His father, Ebnezer Kimball, was born in Wenham, Mass, but,
leaving his native place at an early age, he moved to Antrim, NH,
where soon after, he married Polly Aiken, the eldest daughter of
Deacon James Aiken, who was the first settler of that town.
  He subsequently established himself as a merchant in New Chester NH,
a small village on the Penngewasset River, about twenty-five miles 
above Concord. Here he spent the business part of his life of forty
years, educated his children in the best schools of the period, and
became a leading man in all that region in building up town
institutions and sustaining all public and moral enterprises.
  Dr. Kimball's early education was of a high order, no department of
study being omitted that was calculated to aid him in whatever
business or profession he might choose to adopt.
  At the age of twenty he entered upon the study of the medical
profession, under the tuition of the medical faculty of Dartmouth
College, and graduated in 1826, the last two years of his pupilage
having been spent in the office of Dr. Edward Reynolds, of Boston.
  During this period he attended a course of lectures at the Harvard
Medical College, and, at the same time, with other members of the
medical class, visited regularly the wards of the Massachusetts General
Hospital.  At the close of the lecture term he became a daily
attendance for a year at the United States Marine Hospital, then under
the charge of the late Dr. Solomon D. Townsend, and, during several
months of that time, was charged with the duties of resident physician
and surgeon.
  In 1827 he commenced the practice of medicine and surgery in the
small manufacturing town of Chicopee, near Springfield, Mass.
  In 1829 he left Chicopee to visit EUrope, where, for more than a
year, he pursued his studies in the medical schools and hospitals of
Paris, thus fulfilling an early cherished purpose for securing 
opportunities for professional study, which, at that time, it was
difficult, if not impossible, to obtain in his own country.
  While in Parish he availed himself of the great advantages there
offered for improvement in branches of study which he had specially
interested in before leaving home--namely anatomy and surgery.
  For this purpose he placed himself under the tuition of Professor
Auguste Berard, assistant professor of anatomy in the School of
Medicine, receiving from his daily instruction, both in anatomy and
operative surgery.
  For general instruction in surgery he selected the Hotel Dieu,
not only from its being the largest, and in many respect, the best
appointed hospital in Paris, but from its having at the head of its
surgical department, the distinguished surgeon Baron Dupuytren,
at that time the most popular as well as the ablest, teacher of surgery
on the continent of Europe, in this respect holding the same position
in France that Sir Astley Cooper did in England.
  From this eminent surgeon he received an autograph certificate,
stating the fact of his daily attendance, both in the hospital and
at his clinical lectures, from August 24, 1829 to July 1, 1830.
  Returning home in the autumn of 1830, he immediately established
himself, permanently, as physician and surgeon in the then 
comparatively small town of Lowell, Mass, and very soon became engaged
in an extensive practice.
  The measure of his professional growth and standing at home, as well
as outside the limits of Lowell, is sufficiently shown in the fact
that in 1839, he was selected by the directors of the different
manufacturing corporations of Lowell to take charge of the hospital,
established the same year, for the benefit of their mill operatives.
  In 1842 he was elected to succeed the late Dr. Willard Parker, of
New York, as professor of surgery in the medical college at
Woodstock, Vt., and the following year he was chosen to fill a similar
position in the Berkshire Medical Institution, at Pittsfield, Mass.
  At the end of four years his relations as professor at both of these
institutions were necessarily given up on account of what were 
thought to be more imporant obligations to the hospital.
  His connection with the Lowell Hospital terminated at the end of 
twenty-six years from the date of its establishment. Although, during
thsi period, he was extensively engaged in general practice, it was
in the department of surgery that his name became particularly 
prominent, several of his achievements in this line of practice having
been recorded in the leading medical and surgical periodicals in
Europe as well as in America.
  Immediately upon the breaking out of the Rebellion [Civil War] he
accompanied General Butler as brigade surgeon, first to ANnapolis,
and soon after to Fortress Monroe. At both these stations he
superintended the organization of the first military hospitals
established for the reception of the sick and wounded of the Union
army.
  Upon the appointment of General Butler to the command of the
Department of the Gulf, he was commissioned to serve on his staff as
medical director, and continued in that capacity until the embarkation
of the troops from Boston for Ship Island, when physical prostration
consequent upon exposure to a malarial climate the year before,
at Fortress Monroe, obliged him to resign. The following spring, his
health becoming somewhat improved, he reported himself to
headquarters to again ready for duty, and was immediately ordered to
join the arm of General McClellan, encamped at that time before
Yorktown. He had scarcely reached his new post, however, when 
he was again prostrated with malarial disease and forced to return
home on leave of absence. His resignation was soon after tendered
to the surgeon-general, and accepted on the ground of physical
disability.
  His services as medical officer in the Union army covered a period
of nearly an entire year....
  In ovariotomy, one of the gravest and most formidable operations
known in surgery, he has acquired an enviable distinction, both in
Europe and America--a distinction the more honorable from having been
reached in spite of a strong prevailing prejudice against the
operation on the part of the profession at large, and a still more
pronounced opposition from many of the leading surgeons in his own
vicinity.  This opposition, however, has at least been fully overcome
by the success that has crowend his large number of operations,
number at the present time, three hundred ( a number larger than that
of any other surgeon now living in this country) so that at the present
day ovariotomy is no longer a procedure which well-informed
surgeons presume to denouce [more in original document not included
here]....other surgeries he performed was two amputations of the
hip-joint, one of them successful; exsection of the elbow-joint,
followed by a new formation of the same, the patient ultimately
recovering its use, so that he was enabled to serve in the Union army
as an able-bodied soldier; ligation of the internal iliac artery,
fatal on the nineteenth day from secondary bleeding; of the external
iliac, the femoral, for aneurism, the common carotid and subclavian
arteries, all successful. Besides the three hundred cases of
ovariotomy already alluded to, he has extirpated the uterus twelve
times, with six recoveries.
  Of the contributions to medical literature, the most important
relate to ovariotomy and uterine extirpation--[a list of his
publications are found in the original document]....
  He became a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1832,
received honorary degree of M.D. from Williams College in 1837,
elected Fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the
University of New York March 1843, received honorary degree of M.D.
from Yale College in 1856, honorary degree of A.M. from Dartmouth
College in 1839, elected member of the American Gynaecological
Society in 1878, and president of the same in 1882. In 1878 he was
elected vice president of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
  He has been twice married--first time to Mary Dewar, eldest
daughter of Dr. Henry Dewar, of Edinburgh, Scotland, and second time
to Isabella Defries, daughter of Henry I. Defries of Nantucket, Mass.

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