Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/199

 JOHN HARRIS.

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��JOHN HARRIS.

��BY C. C. LORD.

��John Harris was born in Harvard, Mass., October 13, 1769 ; he came to Hopkinton, N. H., in 1794 ; he resid- ed in Hopkinton till his death, on the 23d of April. 1845.

Generally speaking, a biographical sketch is supposed to record the lead- ing features of a life that is or was in some sense a special factor of society. Hence the individual commemorated represents in some way the public life of his time. Therefore to com- prehend John Harris intelligently, one must have a definitely correct concep- tion of the general state of that soci- ety in which he lived. We refer now to past society in Hopkinton, for we propose to speak of John Harris more particularly as a Hopkinton man.

When John Harris came to Hop- kinton, the township was compara- tively a new one, just redeemed from the wilderness. Consequently, Hop- kinton may be said to have been at that time pre-eminently a rural town. Yet Hopkinton was then a thriving town, as it was growing in enterprise and population every day. Hopkinton kept on growing till about 1830. On that year the enumeration of the United States census showed a population of 2,474 persons — the highest census ever taken in the town. Since then the population of Hopkin- ton has been almost steadily declin- ing. John Harris came to Hopkinton at the age of 25, or, we may say, when he was a full-fledged young man; in 1830, he was 61 years old. So we may add that Hopkinton's gen- eral declension and John Harris' indi- vidual declension, began about the same time. In this accidental fact, we see apparent support of the theory of a co-relation between the life of a community and that of one who prominently figures in it.

In its earliest days, Hopkinton was a rural township by virtue of the brief

��life of its community. Hopkinton is to-day a rural township in conse- quence of her comparative distance from the great centres of traffic and trade. But there was a time when Hopkinton was something more than a rural township. When Hopkinton was a commercial centre ; when here was one of the most noted public taverns between Boston and Montreal ; when Hopkinton was a half-shire town of old Hillsborough county ; when, in a period of nine years, the General Court of New Hampshire met here four times : — this was when Hopkinton counted among its resi- dents a fair portion of the elite of New England society. In Hopkin- ton were then great gentlemen and fine ladies, who cultivated a style of living that made them as distinct from the strictly rural inhabitants of the town as a blossom is distinct from a leaf.

Nor must we too lightly consider the elements of social distinction ob- taining in the olden time in a town like Hopkinton, if we are to maintain a true relation of facts. In many re- spects, New England society has changed within less than a century. Within this limit, there was a time when the position of a high-toned gentleman or lady did not imply so much social condescension and indis- crimination as it now does in the same relative circles. Consequently there was once a kind of social caste where we now see almost nothing like it. Hence higher and lower in society then meant vastly more than they now do. As a result of this condi- tion of things, there was less inter- communication between classes of so- ciety, and more antipathy and sus- picion, than now prevail. The people of wealth, culture, refinement and per- sonal influence had a natural dread of social contamination in the prospect of

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