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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��till 1779- In 1783 and 1784 he served in the Continental Congress, where he is said to have exerted a marked influence. From 1784 to 1789 he served as one of the judges of the state court of common pleas, but was elected a representative to the first congress, serving till March 4, 1 79 1. In 1783 and 1794 he was president of the New Hampshire sen- ate, and was afterward elected to the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh con- gress, serving from December 7, 1795, to March 4, 1803. Few men in the early history of the state exerted a wider or more beneficial influence than the Rev. Abiel Foster. He died at Canterbury, February 6, 1806.
John Taylor Oilman is perhaps best known to students of New Hamp- shire, as the man who held for the longest period the chief executive of- fice, but his title to fame rests on a much broader foundation. He was born at Exeter, December 19, 1753, and was one of the minute men who marched from Exeter to Cambridge, on receiving intelligence of the battle of Lexington, in 1775. His father was for a long time receiver-general of the province, and afterward of the state, and he was for several years assistant to his father. In 1 780 he attended a convention of the states at Hartford, and in 1 782-1 783 was a delegate from New Hampshire to the Continental Congress. From 1783 to 1791 he was one of the commissioners to set- tle the accounts between the different states ; was treasurer of the state in 1783 and again in 179 1. In 1794 he was elected governor as a Federalist, and was re-elected each year till 1805, when he was defeated by John Lang- don, Democrat, by nearly 4000 majori- ty. In 1 81 2 he was again the Feder- al candidate, but failing a majority of votes by the people, his opponent William Plumer, was elected by the legislature. In 1813 he was again elected governor by a majority of 500 votes, and was re-elected in 1 8 14 and 18 15, each time by about the same majority. In 1816 he de-
��clined a re-election and died at Exe- ter, August 2i, 1828. Gov. Oilman well earned the title of being the Federal governor par excellence of the state.
His brother, Nicholas Oilman, was born at Exeter in 1762, and served in the Revolutionary war as lieutenant, captain, adjutant and adjutant-general. From 1786 to 1788 he was the young- est member of the Congress of the Confederation. He was a member of the first, second, third and fourth congresses, serving till March 3, 1797, when he took his seat in the United States senate as a Democrat. His election to this position was the first break in the New England Fed- eralists in the senate, who up to this had been solidly Federal. He was re-elected in 1805, and again in 181 1, and died at Philadelphia, on his way home, May 3, 18 14. Congress had adjourned April 18. During his sen- atorial career he was as ardent a Dem- ocrat as was his brother John Taylor, a Federalist.
Pierce Long was a native of Ports- mouth ; born in 1739, he became, on reaching manhood, a partner with his father in the shipping business. In 1775 he was a delegate to the provin- cial congress of New Hampshire, and on the breaking out of hostilities served in the Revolutionary army as colonel of the First New Hampshire Regiment, especially distinguishing himself at Ticonderoga. In 1784, 1785, and part of 1786, he was an efficient member of the Continental Congress. He was a member of the executive council, 1 786-1 789, and member also of the state constitutional convention of 1788. In 1889 he was appointed by President Washing- ton collector of customs at Ports- mouth, where he died, April 3, 1799.
Paine Wingate was another of New Hampshire's members of the Conti- nental Congress who was liberally ed- ucated. He was born at Amesbury, Mass., May 14, 1739, and graduated at Harvard in 1759. Like Abiel Foster he studied theology, and De-
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