Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/111

 BIRTHPLACE OF GEN. STARK.

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��Husbandry, which organization he was one of the pioneers in forming.

As Director and President of the State Agricultural Society* which latter posi- tion he has held constantly since 1S68, Gen. Head has labored zealously to pro • mote the welfare of the farming interest in the State, and the success which has attended the annual exhibitions of the Society proves conclusively that his ef- forts have not been in vain. He origin- ated the movement looking to the hold- ing of Farmers' Conventions in New Hampshire, the first holden in the State, and we believe the first in the country, having been gotten up at Manchester in 1868, mainly through his efforts and un- der his direction. At this meeting prom- inent friends of agriculture throughout New England and New York were pres- ent and made addresses, and much was done to give fresh impetus to agricul-

��tural progress in the State. In 1869 he was appointed by the Governor and Council one of the Trustees of the State Agricultural College.

Gen. Head was united in marriage, Nov. 18, 1863, with Miss Abbie M. San- ford of Lowell, Mass., by whom he has had three children, two of whom, both daughters — Annie twelve and Alice eight years of age — are living. He is now just fifty years of age, having been born May 20, 1828, and is in the full prime of his physical and mental powers. That he may live long, not only to enjoy the comforts and honors which he has won by his constant and varied labors and faithful discharge of duty, but also to render the State and his fellow-men many more years of valuable service, is the hope of his thousands of friends in all parts of the Granite State, and be- yond her borders.

��BIRTHPLACE OF GEN. STARE.

��[The following article was recently published as a communication in the Boston Journal. Since its publication the correctness of the writer's assertion has been questioned by the Man- chester Mirror, which paper states that a great-granddaughter of Gen. Stark— Mrs. N. E. Morrill — is now lining in that city, and that she knows it to have been generally understood in her childhood, that her illustrious ancestor, whom she well remembers, was born upon the Atlantic Ocean during his mother's passage to this country. That his early childhood was passed in the territory now known as Derry, is unquestionably true, and probably upon the spot described by the writer.]

��Seven cities of Greece contended for the honor of Homer's birthplace. More than half this number of towns are em- ulous of the honor of having given to the world New Hampshire's greatest hero. Londonderry, Derryfield, Derry, the mythical Nuffield and substantial Man- chester, are by various authorities as- signed as the place where John Stark first saw the light of day. Edward Ev- erett, in his biography of Stark, solemn- ly gives Nutfield as his birthplace, the truth being that there never was any Nut- field for anybody to be born in. That was as unreal a name as " Molly Stark," though both were properly used on oc- casion.

Now a familiarity with Everett's biogra- phy of Gen. Stark is as much a part of a New Hampshire boy's education as the Ten Commandments and Lord's Prayer.

��It ought to be just as familiar to every boy in the whole country ; but Everett, in that case, needs to be as correct as Scrip- ture itself. As now pnuted he certainly is not. A brief recital of the history of the naming of these different towns will set this matter right and clear up the con- confusion now existing as to the birth- place of Gen. Stark. There was an in- definite; and extensive tract of land in the region of what is now Manchester, and to the southeast of it, called before it was settled by the whites, Nutfield, on account of the abundance of walnuts, chestnuts and butternuts which it pro- duced. The original settlers of London- derry, arriving on this tract in 1719, called their settlement after this familiar name; but when Stark was born, in 1728, a town had been incorporated, which they named Londonderry from their old

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