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��BARNSTEAD REUNION.
��hour, it is fitting for us to recount the hardships of our fathers in the wilder- ness. How they felled the forest, and builded their log houses ; how they open- ed to sunlight the lands, and scattered their seeds in the unplowed soil; how they, few in numbers, builded school houses and churches, and opened roads, and by their devotion, enterprise, and in- dustry, laid the foundation for society, and posterity. The axe that struck deep into the heart of the forest did more. It builded communities and towns ; it builded cities, and states ; it sowed the seeds of a government, and they grew a powerful nation ; and out from this un- broken wilderness, the noblest people of earth have grown, and the honor is due to our fathers, who did the labor.
Our ancestors, most of them, have passed away ; they are sleeping to-day beneath the soil on which they labored ; they have left us a rich legacy ; it would be ungenerous for us to neglect them or to forget their memory. So, to-night, as we gather around this table, let us tell of their virtues, their heroism, their devo- tion, their energy and enterprise, for in telling of their virtues and energy we do them honor.
We are to speak of the early settle- ment and first public acts iu the history of Barnstead. Time will only permit me to speak of & few. I wish the work had fallen to other hands. I see men here who should have spoken, for they could do it better than I. I know of no person- al reminiscences to relate ; what I have to offer is a few facts gathered from the history of Barnstead, given us by Dr. Jewett, about as he has given them, and if I fail to interest you, you must fill in the picture by your table talk which will come after.
The granting of a charter for the town of Barnstead was given to Rev. Joseph Adams, and others, of Newington, by Lieutenant Governor Wentworth, in 1727. It was then a wilderness, with few en- couragements for new settlers ; and ow- ing to the hostilities of the Indians, and various causes, permanent settlements were not made till 1765. The town lay along the thoroughfare between Lake Winnipiseogee and the shore towns of
��Portsmouth and Dover. In 1768, settlers began to move up this thoroughfare, and locate upon their lands, purchasing them of the charter proprietors in lots of sixty and of one hundred acres. Often they were sold for non-payment of taxes, the owners in Newington probably consider- ing them of little value. At this time farms were laid out, and spaces for roads left between every tier of lots, the lands bordering on the town of Pittsfield being taken first.
The old charter reads, " That all mast trees growing on said tract of land were reserved, for the better order, rule, and government of said town."
The first record of any sale of lands after the survey of the town, was in 1667 ; this lot was bought by Benj. Nutter of Newington, being lot No. 37. It con- tained one hundred acres, and was the laBd now owned by C. S. George, Esq., south of the Parade, on the Province road.* Many of the charter members and owners of these lands from 1727 to 1761, are names familiar to us all, names that have figured in the town's history ever since. It would be interesting to follow these families, but I simply call to mind their names, such as Nutter, Pickering. Walker, Ayers, Brock, Shackford, Davis, Hodgdon, Tebbets, Dennett, Clark, Wentworth, Bunker, Cinclair, Colbath, Garland, Locke, Pitman, Parshley, Pen- dergast, Hall, Mungey. and others you can recall.
Ebenezer Adams was the first person who, with a family, settled in Barnstead. (No date given.) He located on a lot near the north line of Barrington, (now Strafford.) He was a son of Rev. John Adams' one of the charter proprietors. Col. Richard Cinclair was the second; and it is said that his wife, in the absence of her husband, brought hay on a hand sled from Newington, a distance of thirty miles, to keep her cow from starving. Probably if the cow had to depend upon our girls of to-day, for hay, provided in this way, the cow would come out spring
��* I do not find in the history of Barnstead, by Dr. Jewett, the date of the survey of the town. It seems to rne the above date is incorrect, for Dr. Jewett, page 49, says : " No lots were sold, nor permanent houses built, prior to the year 1765," and yet on page 72 he says, the first lot, &c, was bought in 1667.
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