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 T H K

��GRANITE MONTHLY

A NEW HAMPSHIEE MAGAZINE, Devoted to Literature, Biography, History, and State Progress.

��Vol. VII.

��JULY AND AUGUST, 1884.

��Nos. 7 & 8

��CAPTAIN GEORGE HAMILTON PERKINS, U.S.N.

By Captain George E. Belknap, U.S.N.

��In passing up the Concord and Claremont Railroad from Concord, the observant traveler has doubtless noticed the substantial and comfortable-looking homestead with large and trim front yard, shaded by thickly planted and generous topped maples, on the right- hand side of the road after crossing the bridge that spans

" Contoocook's bright and brimming river,"

at the pleasant-looking village of Con- toocookville in the northern part of Hopkinton.

There, under that inviting roof, the subject of this sketch, George Hamil- ton Perkins, the eldest son in a family of eight children, was born, October 20, 1836.

His father, the Honorable Hamilton Eliot Perkins, inherited all the land in that part of the town, and, in early life, in addition to professional work as a counsellor- at-law and member of the Merrimack County bar, built the mills at Contoocookville, and was, in fact, the founder of the thriving settlement at that point.

His paternal grandfather, Roger Eliot

��Perkins, came to Hopkinton from the vicinity of Salem, Massachusetts, when a young man, and by his energy, enter- prise, and pubhc spirit, soon impressed his individuality upon the community, and became one of the leading citizens of the town.

His mother was Miss Clara Bartlett George, daughter of the late John George, Esquire, of Concord, whose ancestors were among the early settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts. He is said to have been a man of active tem- perament, prompt in business, stout in heart, bluff of speech, honest in pur- pose, and never failing in any way those who had dealings with him.

As "the child is father of the man," so the boyhood and youth of Captain Perkins gave earnest of those qualities which in his young manhood the rude tests of the sea and the grim crises of war developed to the full. " No matter " was his first plainly spoken phrase, a hint of childish obstinacy that foreshadowed the persistence of maturer years. Among other feats of his boyish daring, it is told that when a mere child, hardly into his first

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