Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/399

 NEW LONDON CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.

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��ties, and came safely home when the war was over. I remember him as he used to come to church on Sunday, and other days, for he was a man who loved his God as well as his country, and he knew no fear in the service of either. Levi Everett was another man whom I well remember. He lived near my father, and I never wearied of listening to him when he was telling his stories about the wars and the battles he had seen. Then there was Moses Trussell, with one arm gone from below the elbow. I knew him well. I un- derstood that he lost his arm in the war, but did not know where, or when, or how ; but a paper has recently been found that explains these matters, of which I have a copy that I will read you. (This paper is published at length in the second volume of the Granite Monthly, page 2 70.) Such were some of the men of those days. Mr. Trussell, you will remember, had been here in 1 7 74 and cleared a piece of land ; the next year he went to Bunker Hill, and in thirty years' from his first visit, he re- turned to live and spend the rest of his days here, and died in New London.

So in the war of 181 2, New London did her full proportion. At the first alarm of war many left and joined the regular army and followed its fortunes through the war, like Capt. Currier, of whom I have spoken. But few, com- paratively, were called into active ser- vice from this state in that war ; but whenever the call came the men were ready. I find that among the com- panies that were called out and ordered to Portsmouth there were, in Capt. Jonathan Bean's company, one sergeant, Robert Knowlton from New London, and four privates, John Davis, David Marshall, Nathaniel Messer and David Gile ; and that in Capt. Silas Call's company, Stephen Sargent was first lieutenant, and Capt. Call having died before his term was out, said Sargent was in command of the company for a time. There were in the same com- pany, as privates, Samuel Messer, Zenas Herrick, and Nathan Smith, all from New London.

And in the late war of the rebellion

��New London did not falter, but promptly met the call of the country and sent her' sons to the conflict without reserve, as they were needed, furnishing such offi- cers as Capt. Andrew J- Sargent, Major George W. Everett of the ninth regi- ment, and Lieut. Col. J. M. Clough of the eighteenth regiment, who, since the war was over, is doing good service in our state militia, as a brigadier-general. The town also furnished men for the ranks in the various stations and places where they were needed, who were true as steel and faithful unto death to the trust reposed in them. The repu- tation of the town for patriotism is established beyond a peradventure.

That the town is a place of good morals would follow almost naturally from the tact that the people of the town are an agricultural people, who have always believed that a good edu- cation is of the highest consequence, and have had good schools, and for the last forty years a very good academy. These facts, in connection with the reli- gious training of the people under such men as Elder Seamans and his succes- sors, could hardly fail to make the population what it has been, — an in- dustrious, an intelligent, a patriotic, a moral, and a happy people. Where - ever the criminals come from that fill our jails and prisons, very few of them have ever come from New London, or ever will, until the town forgets the les- sons of the first hundred years of its history.

There are a few more general facts and a few more individual notices that I desire to refer to.

The following persons have gradu- ated from college, who were natives or residents of New London at the time, with the year of graduation :

John H. Slack, Dartmouth College, 1811.

Benjamin Woodbury, Dartmouth College, 181 7.

J. Everett Farnum, Waterville Col- lege, now Colby University, 1833.

Daniel P. Woodbury, West Point,

i833. Francis A Gates, Waterville College,

1836.

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