Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/98

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��Reminiscences of Daniel Webster.

��bomton. Both father, and son were brave officers of Revolutionary stock. The father, Captain Chase Taylor, commanded a company composed chiefly of Sanbornton and Meredith men, at the battle of Bennington, on the sixteenth of August, 1777, and was there severely wounded — his left leg being broken, which disabled him for life. He died in 1805. In 17S6 he received a small pension from tfhe State. His surgeon, Josiah Chase of Canter- bury, and his Colonel, Stickney of Con- cord, each furnishing their certificates in his behalf. Early in the history of the Revolutionary war the son, Nathan Taylor, was commissioned as a Lieuten- ant in the Corps of Rangers, com- manded by Colonel Whitcomb. Lieu- tenant Taylor had the command of a small detachment of fourteen men. On the sixteenth day of June, 1777, being stationed on the western bank of Lake Champlain, at a place which has ever since been called Taylor's Creek, he was surprised by a superior force of Indians. Taylor bravely resisted this attack, and was successful in driving the enemy off, though at the expense of a severe wound in his right shoulder. Three others of his band were also wounded. Both father and son were confined at home in the same house several months before recovery from their wounds. Lieutenant Taylor re- turned to active service in the army. He afterwards received the military title of Major, and occupied many civil offices after the war in his own town, as well as in behalf of the State. He was member of the House of Representa- tives, also of the Senate and Council, for a number of years. He died in March, A. D. 1840, aged 85, much lamented.

Then there Ti'as John Taylor of Rev- olutionary fame. He and many of his

��descendants have occupied high and enviable stations in Sanbornton, and their biography and good deeds have been ably commemorated by the historian, Rev. M. T. Runnels. In adhering to the Taylor families Mr. Webster obeyed the injunctionof Solomon who said, "Thine own friend, and thy f ather'' s friend for- sake not." Mr. Webster's letter furn'shes strong evidence, that he did not for- sake "his own friend," Parker Noyes. The friendship between these men com- menced when Mr. Noyes entered the Law office of Thomas W. Thompson as early as 1798, and continued inti- mate, cordial, unabated, "fasl^' during their lives. The earthly existence of both terminated in the same year, Mr. Noyes having deceased August, 19, 1852, and Mr. Webster on the twenty- fourth of the succeeding October.

The dwelling houses of both in Franklin were within the distance of twenty rods ; their intercourse was fre- quent during the last fifty- four years of their' lives.

During the time Mr. Webster prac- ticed law in New Hampshire they often met at the same bar, and measured in- tellectual lances in various legal con- tests. These meetings were most fre- quent when Mr. Webster first settled in Boscawen in 1805, and for the next two years, before his removal to Portsmouth.

We were present in A. D. 1848, when these two friends met and recited many of the interesting and humorous events that occurred in their early practice. In those days, they often had for a vet- eran client a man who then resided in West Boscawen, now Webster, by the name of Corser. He was represented as one who loved the law, not for its pecuniary profits, but for its exciting, stimulating effects. It was said of him, that at the end of a term of the Court, once held at Hopkinton, he was found

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