under electric lights the supply for which is brought on a simple wire, was once a wilderness, and in the last century the farmers worked in their fields with the flint lock musket leaning against a stump, for protection rather than pleasure, and cattle roamed at large and took their chances among the wild and savage beasts. That right here, on this spot, the scenes of frontier life have been enacted in real earnest and have passed into the history which we read without fully realizing that it is more authentic than the tales of fiction.

For these reasons and under existing conditions I hold that it would be wise and proper for this association to take some steps to induce the city to perpetuate this relic, and restore or permit the association to restore as far the remaining material will allow, the walls which have fallen, so as to show a design of something more than a pile of rocks, and lead to questions and answers which will keep alive the knowledge that we still have one link which connects us with the dim and distant past.

The people of the present seem to be seeking to make their own mark, and change everything that passes through their hands to make it conform with the present idea of symmetry or beauty, or style which too often lacks both of the other features named. We expend large sums in removing rocks and exterminating native shrubs, and as much more constructing “rockwork" and planting foreign shrubs which would disgrace any native hedgerow, and, after all this outlay to destroy natural objects for the sake of imitating them, the imitation is a failure and the change is no improvement.

save it from the Let the willows

Therefore let us claim this one spot and present epidemic of change and destruction. and wild cherry trees grow inside if they will; but have the outer walls exposed to view to show that there was system in the "madness" which preserved it.

Sketch of Dunbarton, N. H.

BY ELLA MILLS.

66

Dunbarton is a town set upon a hill which cannot be hid." The highest point of land is on the farm of Benjamin Lord, north of the Center, and is 779 feet above the sea level. From that spot, and from many other places nearly as high, the views of hills and mountains are beautiful and grand beyond description.

The twin Uncanoonucs are near neighbors on the south, Monadnock, farther off on the south-west, and Kearsarge twenty miles to the north west. On the northern horizon are seen Mount Washington and other peaks of the White Mountains.

The longest hill in town is the mile-long Mills hill, and midway on its slope live descendants of Thomas Mills, one of the first settlers. Among other hills are Duncanowett, Hammond, Tenney, Grapevine, Harris, Legache, and Prospect Hills.

No rivers run through the town, but there are numerous brooks where trout fishing is pursued with more or less success. No body of water is large enough to be called a lake, but Gorham Pond is a beautiful sheet of water and on its banks picnics are held. Stark's and Kimball's Ponds have furnished water power for mills, the latter, owned by Willie F. Paige, is still in use. Long Pond, in the south part of the town, was the scene of a tragedy in 1879, when Moses Merrill, an officer at the State Industrial School, Manchester, was drowned in an ineffectual attempt to save an inmate of that institution.

One portion of the south part of the town is called Skeeterburo, another Mountalona, so named by James Rogers, one of the first settlers, from the place in Ireland from whence he

came.1 East of the Center is Guinea, so called because some negroes once lived there. The village of North Dunbarton is also called Page's Corner; and not far away to the eastward is a hill known as Onestack, because one large stack of hay stood there for many years. A brook bears the same name.

Those who know Dunbarton only in the present can hardly realize that 1450 people ever lived there at one time, but that was the census in 1820. The first census, taken 1767, was 271. In 1840 it was 1067; in 1890, only 523. The last census gave about 575.

The first settlement was made in 17402 by James Rogers and Joseph Putney on the land known as the "Great Meadows," now owned by James M. Bailey. They were driven away by the Indians for a time. A stone now marks the spot where stood the only apple tree spared by the Indians. Probably the first boy born in town belonged to one of these families. James Rogers was shot by Ebenezer Ayer, who mistook him in the dark for a bear, as he wore a bearskin coat. He was the father of Major Robert Rogers, celebrated as the leader of the rauger corps of the French and Indian wars. About 1751 William Stinson, John settled in the west part of the town. as Mills, was the first girl born in town. log cabin on the farm now owned by John C. and George F. Mills.

Hogg, and Thomas Mills Sarah, daughter of ThomHer birthplace was a

For fourteen years the town was called Starkstown in honor of Archibald Stark, one of the first land owners (though not a resident), and father of General John Stark. In 1765 the town was incorporated, and was named, with a slight change,

1. The early writers generally credited James Rogers with being of ScotchIrish nativity, owing to the fact that he was confused with another person of the same name who lived in Londonderry. (See Drummond's “James Rogers of Dunbarton and James Rogers of Londonderry.") The Dunbarton Rogers was undoubtedly of English (irth, in which case the term "Mountalona," or "Montelony," must have had some other derivation than that commonly ascribed to it. - EDITOR.

2. Probably 17839. and the Rogers family at least came from Massachusetts. This with the Putney or Pudney famity seem to have been located in the winter of 1839 1840.- EDITOR.

for Dumbarton3 in Scotland near which place Stark and other emigrants had lived.

Dunbarton was one of the towns taken from Hillsborough County to form the County of Merrimack. Its centennial was duly celebrated and attended by a vast concourse of invited guests and towns people. A report of its proceedings was compiled by Rev. Sylvanus Hayward. Though small in area and population, Dunbarton occupies a large place in the hearts of its sons and daughters. However dear our adopted homes may become, we still feel that "whatever skies above us rise the

hills, the hills are home.”

At the centennial Rev. George A. Putnam paid a glowing tribute to his native town, saying: "Dunbarton is one of the most intelligent and best educated communities in New Eng. land. I think it will be hard to find another place where, in proportion to its population, so many young men have been liberally educated and have entered some of the learned professions, where so many young men and women have become first class teachers of common schools. My own observation has been altogether in favor of Dunbarton in this particular. And it is clear as any historic fact the superior education of Dunbarton's children has been largely due to her religious institutions and Christian teachers."

That the town is also honored by her neighbors is shown by the following instances: Many years ago it was said that a Dartmouth student from an adjoining town, when asked from what town he came, answered:" From the town next to Dunbarton." Recently the chairman of the school board in Goffstown, in his annual report, compared the town favorably to Dunbarton with regard to the number of college graduates.

Very soon after the permanent settlement of the town, a committe was appointed to build a meeting-house at Dunbarton Center. It was finished previous to 1767, and stood in the middle of the common. Before that time it is related that

3. From Dumbritton, the ancient name given to a fort raised by the Brittons on the north bank of the Clyde in early times. — EDITOR.

"Mr. McGregor preached in the open air, on the spot now consecrated as the resting place of the dead." This first building was a low, frame structure, without pews, with seats of rough planks resting on chestnut logs, and a pulpit constructed of rough boards. It was replaced in about twenty years by the building now known as the Town House. This was used only for political purposes after the erection of the third church on the west side of the highway.

About thirty years ago the interior of the old building was greatly changed, the upper part being made into a hall while the square pews were removed from the lower part, only the high pulpit remaining. A selectmen's room was finished in one corner, and in 1892, a room for the public library. The outside remains practically unchanged.

The Rocky Hill Church at Amesbury, Mass., much like this at Dunbarton, is still used in summer only. There is no way of warming it, and people of the present day would not endure the hardships their ancestors bore without a murmur. The third church was built in 1836 on the site of a dwelling house owned by William Stark; in 1884 it was remodelled, the pews modernized and the ceiling frescoed.

The vestry formerly stood on the opposite of the common and contained two rooms; prayer meetings were held in the lower room, while up stairs was the only hall in town. There were held the singing schools, and the lyceum of long ago; also several fall terms of high schools; among the teachers were Mark Bailey, William E. Bunten, and Henry M. Putney. More than twenty-five years ago the vestry was removed to its present location near the church and made more convenient and attractive.

For about nineteen years the church had no settled pastor. In 1789 Walter Harris was called, and was ordained August 26. He preached more than forty years. Every man in town was required to contribute to his support for a time until some of the other religious societies rebelled. The "History of Dunbarton " says: "Dr. Harris appropriated the proprietors' grant for the