Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/363

 THE ASCENDANTS OF JOSEPH STICKNEY.

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��plead them. The record of the atrocious intolerance of number 235 has lived, but with it his reproving letter to the tyrannical Charles I, and the fact that he struck many other sturdy blows for civil and religious liberty. As a law- giver, he was the Moses of Massachusetts, if not of x'Vmerica.

Lest I be suspected of being less willing to reveal, in the cause of science, the weaknesses of my own ascendants, than those of Mr. Stickney's, it is due to me to state that all of the two hundred and fifty-four, except his two par- ents and two paternal grand-parents, are also mine. We have no reason to believe that number 191 had more agency in making Mr. Joseph Stickney what he is, than any of the other one hundred and twenty-seven that also belong to the seventh' generation. Did all have equal agency? If any obtained ascendency over the rest in transmitting their mental, moral, and physical peculiarities to Mr. Stickney, to what was it due? All the descendants of those who were vic- tims of the witchcraft delusion, all of the inhabitants of Salem and Andover whose fame has suffered on this account, can not better testify to their abhor- rence of the dark acts of 1692, than by an annual celebration of the birthday of Rev. Francis Dane, the hoary headed old hero of 76 years of age, who re- tained his common sense and manly courage when every body else was par- alyzed.

Jan. 1, 1811; enlisted for Oxford war 1797; was leader of the choir.

G. Mary Ann Odlin. or Audley, was boru in Exeter, Sept. 24, 1772, and died in Concord. Jan. 21, 1866; was at one time the largest tax-payer; owned in Con- cord, from Gov. Stearns's to the Eagle, and from Main st. to the river; also, land on the east side, and from the jail to Rum Hill; of dignity and worth; be- came blind near the close of life.

��SHORT BIOGRAPHIES.

1. Lucretia Gibson, Mr. Stickney's mother, was born in Francestown, Oct. 10, 1809, married there, Dec. 25, 1832, and died in Concord, May 31, 1840. She was well educated at Miss Willard's, at Troy, N. Y., and much beloved. In giv- ing birth to her son Joseph she died, aged 30. next to the shortest lived of this list of 254. Was 12th and double 11th cousin to her husband.

2. Joseph Pearson Stickney was born in Concord, Oct. 9, 1796, and died there, Apr. 19, 1877; owned a line of stages; was an extensive farmer; built several blocks of stores; was representative, se- lectman, and a director of the P. & C. R. R. and mairied second, in Beverly, Aug. 31, 1843, EHzabeth W., daughter of Col. Abram Edwards.

��3. John Gibson, born in Merrimack, Jan. 27, 1767; married tirst in Hillsbo- rough, Aug. 12, 1790, Hannah ,

widow of William Quigley, of Frances- town, and second, in Concord. Sept. 1803; kept a store and tavern in F.; ijuilt the second X. H. turnpike in 1801; was rep- resentative from 1813 to 1815; and a di- rector of a bank in Amherst in 1811. He died in Francestown, Apr. 26, 1821, the richest man who, up to that time, had livedin Hillsborough Couut}^ Less than $10 of debt could be found at the time of his death.

4. Mary Gale was born in Concord, July 19, 1773, and died in Francestown, Sept. 4, 1857; a woman of great ability.

5. Thomas Stickney, jr., was born in Concord, July 18, 1769, married in Ex- eter, Oct. 13, 1792. and died in Concord,

��7. Samuel Gibson, jr., was born in Bos- ton, Aug. 24, 1737, liiarried before 1764, lived in Merrimack from 1764 to 1815, and died in Amherst. Nov. 3, 1820. In 1751 he went to Fort-AVilliam Heniy, and was one of the few to escape Indian massacre after the surrender to Montcalm; is re- membered by one as much superior to his brothers; by another as a kindly old man, and by a third as the best dressed man of the town; wore to church a pur- ple velvet coat, short clothes, knee and shoe buckles, and three cornered hat; had thirteen children. His farm was in the north-west part of the town.

8. Elizabeth Stewart was born in Lon- donderry. N. H.,1738. and died in Mer- rimack. Feb. 3, 1815; was skilled in sick- ness, and often ministered to her neigh- bors.

9. Daniel Gale, blacksmith, was born in Haverhill, Mass., Apr. 5, 1739; mar- ried in Rumford in 1760 or 1761, and died in Concord, Aug. 16, 1800; had four- teen children.

10. Ruth Ciirter was l)orn in Rumford, Jan. 26, 1744;ind "45, and died in Con- cord, Apr. 1. 1833.

11. Col. Thomas Stickney was born in Bi'adford, Mass., June 15, 1729; his iuten-

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