Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/191

 THE-

��GRANITE MONTHLY,

A NEW HAMPSHIRE MAGAZINE

Devoted to Literature, Biography, History, and State Progress.

Vol. Y. MAKCH, 1882. ^o. 6.

HON. BENNING MOULT ON BEAN.

��BY JOHN N. McCLINTOCK.

DURING the early part of the present century, New Hampshire held a more important station among her sister States than ever before or since. Her population was relatively larger than at any other period ; her hill-sides and valleys were cultivated by an enlightened, hardy, brave and liberty-loving yeomanry ; her public servants were intellectual giants, who by their wisdom and genius, added to the importance of the State ; and her talented sons were called to the highest posts of honor in the gift of other communities. Some have had their share of public praise ; others, who modestly pursued their ways, who were the peers of their contemporaries, and added luster to the State by their work and character, it will become our pleasing duty to put on record.

Nestling among the hills and mountains to the north of Lake Winni- piseogee, and fringed by its sinuous shores, lies the town of Moulton- borough, its lowest level five hundred feet above the Ocean. Nearly a cen- tury ago, January 9, 1782, on a homestead, of which his father was the original proprietor, was born Benning Moulton Bean. The place is well-known and a comfortable farm-house marks the spot. From its doors can be seen to the south the broad exi)anse of the beautiful lake, its shore a mile distant, while on every side rise the grand old granite hills which make New Hampshire famous.

The town of Moultonborough was granted by the Masonian proprietors, November 17, 1 763, to Col. Jonathan Moulton and sixty-one others, princi- pally from Hampton. Ezekiel Moulton and a it\s families commenced a settlement the next year, and were followed the succeeding season by the body of the early settlers, among whom no doubt were Moody Bean and his young wife, afterwards the parents of Benning M. Bean. .

Moody Bean, the pioneer, was a native of Brentwood, of Scotch descent, and was the father of six sons of whom Benning Moulton, named in honor of the first proprietor, was the fourth. The oldest, Moody, took up his residence in Kentucky, and was never heard from afterwards ; of the two next, David and Jonathan, twins, the former settled in Moultonborough and died at a good old age ; Samuel, the fifth son, was a merchant and lived many years in Meredith Village ; Josiah, the youngest, settled iu the town of Holderness, at a village called Squam Bridge, as a hotel keeper and merchant.

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