Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/299

 �THE

RANITE neNTHLY.

A NEW HAMPSHIRE MAGAZINE. T)evoted to Literature, 'Biography, History, and State Progress.

��Vol. X. SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER, 1887. Nos. 9 & 10.

��HON. AMOS J. BLAKE.

��Amos J. Blake was horu in Riudge, Cheshire county, New Hampsliire, October 20, 1836, where liis parents, Ebenezer Blake and Hepsibeth Jew- ett, were also born, and resided until the dates of their deaths. He was their eighth child and seventh son.

His grandfather, Deacon Eleazer Blake, the immediate ancestor of the Blake family of Rindge, was born in Wreutham, Mass., April 1, 17.57. In 1775, after the battle of Lexington, he enlisted in the Revolutionary war, and marched with a company from his native town, under command of Capt. Crowell, and arrived at Roxbury on the morning of April 20, and contin- ue in the patriot army during the entire war. He participated in the siege of Boston, and on the day of the battle of Bunker Hill he, with others, was engaged in fortifying Prospect hill, where he witnessed the bloody engagement of June 17. His regiment was sent to New York, and joined the army under Gen. Gates, where he participated in the triumphs

��of the patriots over Gen. Burgoyne, and bore an honorable part in the memorable battles of Stillwater and Saratoga. The following winter he endured the exposure and nakedness of Valley Forge. The following spring and summer he was with the army immediately under the command of Gen. Washington.

In 1780, then in Col. Shepard's reg- iment, he was appointed sergeant, and in 1782 was detailed assistant quar- termaster of the Fourth Massachusetts Brigade, in which line of service he continued until his discharge, June 12, 1783. at "Camp New Windsor," New York, from whence he travelled on foot a distance of 220 miles to his home in Wrentham, where he arrived June 21, after a continuous service in the Revolutionary war of more than eiglit years.

In the autumn following his dis- charge, accompanied by his brothei Ebenezer, who had also sei'ved four years in the army, he visited Coos county. New Hampshire, where he

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