The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Webster, Ebenezer

WEBSTER. I. Ebenezer, an American patriot, father of Daniel Webster, born in Kingston, N. H., in 1739, died in Salisbury (now Franklin), N. H., in 1806. He served under Gen. Amherst in the “old French war,” and in 1761 was one of the original settlers of that part of the town of Salisbury now known as Franklin, then the northernmost New England settlement. He was a farmer and innkeeper, and at the outbreak of the revolution led the Salisbury militia to Cambridge. Subsequently he fought at White Plains and Bennington, was at West Point during the treason of Arnold, and served in other campaigns until the close of the war, when he had attained the rank of colonel of militia. He was at various times a member of one or the other branch of the legislature, and from 1791 till his death was judge of the court of common pleas of Hillsborough co. II. Ezekiel, eldest son of the preceding by his second wife, born in Salisbury, March 11, 1780, died in Concord, April 10, 1829. He graduated at Dartmouth college in 1804, studied law, and rose to eminence in his profession. He also served in the state legislature. He died instantaneously of disease of the heart while trying a cause in Concord.