Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/165

 MEMOIR OF EBENEZER WEBSTER.

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��[From the Statesman Supplement, Christmas, 1858.]

MEMOIR OF EBENEZER WEBSTER, FATHER OF DANIEL

WEBSTER.

��BY GEO. W. XESMITH, LL. D.

��In the political canvass in our state which closed with the March election, 1858, it was publicly stated by some of the speakers that Judge Webster, the father of Hon. Daniel Webster, could neither read nor write. Now, in the course of the last summer, we spent some time in investigating the history of Judge Webster. We have sufficient evidence in Franklin and Salisbury to satisfy the most skeptical that he could not only read and write, spell and cipher, but he knew how to lend the means to found a state. Daniel Webster, in his autobiography, and in his letter to Mr. Blatchford, of New York, gives us a brief but too modest an outline of die life of his father. At the risk of being tedious, we propose to show some of the acts, or works, that gave him his deserved influence and fame in this region.

Ebenezer W'ebster was born in Kingston, in 1739. He resided many years with Major Ebenezer Stevens, an influential citizen of that town, and one of the first proprietors of Salisbury. Salisbury was granted in 1749, and first named Stevenstown, in honor of Major Stevens. It was incorporated as Salisbury, 1767. Judge Webster settled in Stevenstown as early as 1 76 1 .* Previous to this time he had served as a soldier in the French war, and once afterward. He was married to Mehita- ble Smith, his first wife, January 8, 1 76 1. His first two children, Olle, a daughter, and 'Ebenezer, his son, died while young. His third child was Susannah, born October, 1766; marri- ed John Colby, who recently died in Franklin. He had also, by his first

town, he was called Ebenezer Webster, jr. In 1694, Kingston was granted to James Preseott and Ebenezer Webster and others, of Hampton. He descended lroin this ancestry.
 * When Judge Webster first settled in Stevens-

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��wife, two sons — David, who died some years since at Stanstead ; also Joseph, who died in Salisbury. His first wife died March 28, 1774. Judge Webster again married — Abigail Eastman, Octo- ber 12, 1774. By his last wife he had five children ; viz., Mehitable, Abigail (who married Wm. Hadduck) ; Eze- kiel, born March n, 1780; Daniel, born January 18, 1782. and Sarah, born May 13, 1 7S4. Judge Webster died in April, 1806, in the house now occupied by R. L. Tay, Esq., and, with his last wife and many of his chil- dren, now lies buried in the grave- yard originally taken from the Elms farm. For the first seven years of his life, after he settled on the farm now occupied by John Taylor, in Franklin, he lived in a log cabin, located in the orchard west of the highway, and near Punch Brook. Then he was able to erect a house of one story, of about the same figure and size as that now occupied by William Cross, near said premises. It was in this house that Daniel Webster was born. In 1784, Judge Webster removed to the tavern house, near his interval farm, and occupied that until 1800, when he ex- changed his tavern house with William Hadduck for that where he died.

In 1 76 1, Capt. John Webster, Eliph- alet Gale and Judge Webster erected the first saw- mill in Stevenstown, on Punch Brook, on his homestead, near his cabin.

In June, 1764, Matthew Pettengill, Stephen Call and Ebenezer Webster, were the sole highway surveyors of Stevenstown. In 1765, the proprietors voted to give Ebenezer Webster and Benjamin Sanborn two hundred acres of common land, in consideration that they furnish a privilege for a grist-mill, erect a mill and keep it In repair for

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