Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/435

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NORTHERN COOS. 397

the nineteenth, held at Concord, only three weeks prior to his death, and manifested there an unabated interest in music, which had ever been strongly characteristic of him.

In early life he was a member of the Free Baptist Church in New Hampton — of which his father, Rev. Simeon Dana, was the organizer and life-long pastor — and always remained a warm friend and liberal supporter of that denomination.

No Swiss mountaineer loves the Alps better than did he the granite hills of his native State. While his enthusiasm was both delightful and inspiriting, when guiding friends over them, and discoursing of their grandeur and sublim- ity. A close observer of nature in all her various aspects, well versed in wood lore, studied in the qualities and habits of our native wild flowers, while his remarkable love of the beautiful was shovyn in his care of his flower garden, " where he walked, and talked in the kindliest w\ay, culling the choicest blossoms, while the sunset of crimson and gold bathed the garden in a mellow light, and T walked on air."

During his active professional life, Dr. Dana was a member of the N. H. State Medical Society, and held many offices within its gift, being eminent as a physician and surgeon. His diagnosis and treatment were exceptionally correct and successful. In surgery he was cool, bold, and rapid, a most skil- ful operator in the use of the knife.

In a varied practice of forty-eight years, performing many new, delicate, and difficult operations, blame never attached to him.

In his family relations he was loving and tender, a genial, social companion, a faithful and true friend, enjoying a large circle of warm friends throughout the entire State.

A man of more than medium height, of powerful physique, an intellectual, handsome face, expressive of friendship, cordiality, and sympathy, which made him a welcome visitor to the lonely homes where he carried help and comfort to many hard and sore-tried lives. Dr. J. A. Dana was the father of four chil- dren : a son Rodney Curtis, who died at the age of two years ; Frank Vauder- lyn, a druggist for many years at Lynn, Mass., afterward at Ashland, a member of the N. H. Pharmaceutical Association, and who died in 1879, ^g^*' forty- two years; Mrs. Martha Dana Shepard nnd Miss Jeanie P. Dana, both of Boston. His widow and two daughters siill survive.

He died at his home in Ashland, N. H., February 14, 1SS2, of paralysis, after a brief illness of five days, sincerely lamented by friends and acquaint- ances, while the community in which his life labor has been spent mourn his loss, and will long esteem his memory.

��NORTHERN COOS.

��THE wild and beautiful scenery of the northern section of our State, should be visited to be fully appreciated. The inhabitants of that favored region realize the beauties which surround them as they gaze daily upon its magnifi- cent prospects ; the favored few who have been drawn thither by the promise of rest and quiet which its seclusion offers, return yearly to enjoy those boons, to recuperate and to have spread before them the most varied scenery of New England. The sportsmen with rod or gun will not give away to their best friends the information which will lead said friends to find the brooks and

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