Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/174

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

164

��Bii'thflace of Gen. Henry Dcarhor.

��n.

��the church went down. In the under- pinning I saw a small hole, and was told that that was where the little van- dals of the town crept in, and crawled under the building, pushed open the trap-door in the porch, and got into the church. Then they gathered up the tubes of the organ, the brass caudle- sticks, &c., and hastened out with

��their booty to the nearest junk store. Behind the church a few tall marble and slate stones are leaning. On thera we read the names of the old settlers. One stood above the rest : the marble seemed white, and the stone almost seemed proud of the sweet name carved in large letters on its smooth surface, — "Faith Tavlor."

��BIRTHPLACE OF GEN. HENRY DEARBORN. By John Wentworth, LL. D.

��In preparing my address to be de- livered at the unveiling of the memo- rial tal)let to mark the site of old Fort Dearborn in Chicago, May 21, 1881, I vainly endeavored to ascertain the birth-place of Gen. Henry Dearborn, under whose administration of the War Department Chicago's first fort was erected in 1804. One of our principal streets is Dearborn avenue, named for him. His portrait by Gil- bert Stewart has recently been pur- chased of the family, and nov/ adorns the walls of our Calumet club. My address closed as follows : "We have now marked the site and written the history of old Fort Dearborn, with that of the statesman and soldier who constructed it. All else has given way to the march of commerce. But tlie name remains, — a name associat- ed with all the thrilling scenes of the American Kevolution from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, from the capture of Biu-goyne to that of Cornwallis."

Whilst passing the summer of 1886 in the viciuitv of Rve Beach, I thought I winild dt'vote some of my leisure time to ascertaining the location of the old Dearl)orn residence. Calling upon an old Dartmoutli College asso-

��ciate, Joseph Dow, at Hampton, who by them.

��had gained considerable reputation as a historian, and making known ray wishes, he referred me to Cornet Brown, an aged gentleman who was possessed of a remarkable memory, who lived about a mile from North Hampton depot. From Cornet Brown's house, the Dearborn house was pointed out near by. I found it in the possession of the widow of Samuel Warner, who some years ago was well known as a member of the New Hampshire legislature from North Hampton. She took me to the room in which the general was born in 1751, and gave me a fuH history of the premises. The house is in a good state of preservation. Gen. Dearborn died June 6, 1829, at Rox- bury, Mass. The confusion as to the place of his birth arises from the fact that after studying medicine and practising a little at different places, he finally settled at Nottingham, from which place he raised his company and marched it to Bunker Hill. My object is not to write the history of one of the most distinguished men that New Hampshire ever produced, but to inform the summer visitors of Portsmouth and vicinity that within an hour's drive, over a good road, in the oldest settled portion of North Hampton, just across the railroad track at the depot, they can find a historic mansion heretofore unvisited

�� �