Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/107

 STARK PLACE, DUMBARTON. 87

was often consulted by the leading officers. Mad he devoted himself more to the public, it is hard to conceive what offices might not have been conferred upon him. lint he was not an office seeker, and more ambitious men secured the honors.

By his wife Sarah, Major Stark was the father of eleven children, five sons and six daughters. His eldest son, Caleb, inherited the mansion at Dunbarton, and the surrounding estate. He was a writer of repute^ being the author of a valuable memoir of his father and grandfather. He died in 1865, and two sisters, Harriet and Charlotte Stark, succeeded him in the possession of the estate. Charlotte at present survives, and though now quite advanced in years, is one of the most pleasant and beautiful old ladie.i to be met with. Here in the old family mansion, amid a hundred consecrated memories, she lives in hospitable state, the Lady Bountiful of the n-^ighborhood. A nephew and a niece reside under the same roof, the solace and delight of her declining years. These latter are twice ennobled by the accident of exalted parentage, for on their mother's side they trace descent from Robert xMorris, the great financier of the Revolution, and signer of the Declaration of Independence ; Lieut. Charles F. Morris, who was slain at Molino del Rey, near Mexico, in 1847 ; and Commodore Henry W. Morris, who died near Pensacola, in 1864, were their uncles. What is quite as remarkable, Mr. Charles F. Morris Stark married, a f.-w years since, Miss McNeil, a grand-daughter of Gen. John McNeil, a famous New Hampshire worthy.

At a short distance from the old mansion is the famous Stark cemetery, where the dust of most of the family dead is lying. It is beautifully located near the highway, surrounded by an iron i)aling. The waters of a small pond bound one side of the graveyard, and a mill is in sight whose activity is in contrast to the quietness of this spot. Tall, romantic evergreens wave their branches over- head. The spot is picturesque and lovely, and one almost forgets to be sad while contemplating its scenic charms. The May sunshine shone through the vista, flashing like silver upon the old mill pond, and wreathing a halo of glory around the lordly tombs of those who slept beneath my feet. The musical notes of singing birds arose from the green shrubbery. The great pines tossed their branches in a murmuring rhythm over my head. To die and to be buried there, it was a pleasant thought.

On a little knoll rises a granite monument of chaste design. We walk up to it and read the following inscription : —

IN MEMORY OF

MAJOR CALEB STARK,

eldest son of Major-General John Stark, Under whose command he served his country in the war for American Inde- pendence. He entered the army at the age of sixteen, as quartermaster of the ist N. H. Regiment ; was afterward adjutant of the same, and subsequently brigade major and aid-de-ciimp to Gen. Stark. He was present at the battle of Bunker's Hill, in 1775 ; at Trenton, in 1776; at Princeton; and in the actions of September 1 9th and October 7th, i777,whichim- mediately preceded the surrender of Burgoyne. Born December 3, 1759. Died August 26, 1838.

Life's fitful fever over he rests here quietly ; the clarion of a war trumpet could not disturb him. His wife, the beautiful Sarah McKinstry, sleeps beside him in the same calm slumber. She died September 1 1, 1S39, aged seventy-two.

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