Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/83

 BENJAMIN' LEAR, THE HERMIT OF'SAGAMORE.

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��research, many incidents connected with the history of his native town, which would otherwise have been un- recorded and lost. " Ramble" num- bered 42, relates to Sagamore creek, — the origin of its name, the residences which skirt its romantic shore, the bridge which spans its bewitching waters, and some of the peculiarities of the odd and eccentric character who forms the subject of this sketch.

The references to Benjamin Lear are substantially in accord with the infor- mation we obtained when a youth from the " oldest inhabitant," and also from our grandmother, Margaret ( Lear ) Neal, who was a relative of the '•Her- mit" — a cousin of some degree. She occasionally visited the *' Hermitage," and received calls from its occupant when he came to the " Bank," as he in- variably called the compact part of Portsmouth, where she resided. This was the ancient name of our goodly city, which he, attimes, visited, perhaps once or twice annually. We have also in mind many events of his life which have not heretofore been printed, and which will be embodied in this sketch.

Benjamin Lear died at his home, near the beautiful Sagamore, in Ports- mouth, N. H, December 17, 1802, aged 82 years.

His mother died in 1775, at the ad- vanced age of 103, in the cottage built on the land her son Benjamin had in- herited from his father. Savage, in his " Genealogical Dictionary," mentions a Mrs. Lear who died at Portsmouth, N. H., in the year 1775. aged 105. It is related of her, that when she reached the age of 102 years, she heard a bell tolling for a funeral, an immemorial custom of Portsmouth still observed. She remarked to visiting friends, "Oh, when will the bell toll for me ? It seems to me that the bell will never toll for me. I am afraid I shall never die."

The farm on which Benjamin Lear lived, and which he inherited, was sit- uated on the south side of Sagamore creek, just west of the road leading from Sagamore bridge to Rye, about midway up the creek from Little Har-

��bor. The bridge was built in 1850, previous to which time no traveled road existed there.

The foundation of the Hermit's cabin is a few rods west of the only house now on the premises. The cellar was not large, as the excavation for it was under but a portion of the building. Some of the stone under- pinning, and bricks belonging to the chimney remain, and the spot where both the house and barn were located can be easily designated.

The stone wall, which is covered by the house recently removed from Greenland by Josiah F. Adams, the present owner of the farm, was in good condition when the cellar was cleared of the debris which partially filled it. This site has often been represented as the spot which had been occupied by the Hermit's cot. But it belonged to the house built by Miss Hannah Randall, who frequently ferried to the opposite shore any one desirious of crossing the creek, and needing assist- ance. Many have supposed that she was a sister of Benjamin Lear, but she was only a neighbor, whose parents lived at one time on the banks of the creek below where Hannah "run the ferry." After her father and mother became aged, she built a small house on the spot where that of Mr. Adams now stands, and with them occupied it. James Randall survived his wife, and Hannah kindly "took care of him."

There was a sister, Mrs. Gowdy, the cellar of whose house is in the immediate vicinity, but nearer the old Peverley Hill road leading from Ports- mouth Plains to Odiorne's Point. La- fayette, one of the roads now used to reach Sagamore, was not built until 1825. One of his two sisters, Benjamin Lear buried in the valley where his own body was subsequently interred. The family burial-ground was on the point of land just beyond Bull Rock, where the graves of the other members of the family are to be found. The Hermit remarked, when one of the sisters died, that they did not fully

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