xxvii-16 Silent and hushed are her spindles, Her factories, looms, and wheels, To her children all she sends greeting, Where 'er through the world they may roam, For them is her loving heart beating While to-day she welcomes them home. "Nursed at her bosom of granite," She stands for the Spirit of Progress, About her she gathers her children, But leaves each his own work to do :- Some will be heard in the forum, - THE SMITHS AND WALKERS OF PETERBOROUGH, EXETER, W AND SPRINGFIELD. By F. B. Sanborn. |ILLIAM SMITH, of Moneymar, in northern Ireland, on his father's side Scotch, and English by his mother, emigrated to New Hampshire with the Scotch-Irish who settled Derry and Londonderry, Nutfield (now Manchester), and the Monadnoc townships, round the mountain of that name. He was in Peterborough (named for the gallant earl of that century) before 1750, and there married, December 31, 1751, Elizabeth Morison, granddaughter of Samuel Morison and Margaret Wallace (of Sir William Wallace's race), who had suffered in the famous siege of Derry. Elizabeth herself was born in Londonderry, N. H. She inherited and transmitted from her mother, according to family tradition, "all the wit and smartness of the Morisons and Smiths." Her most illustrious son, Jeremiah Smith, son of William, was born in a log house, near the present Smith homestead (which was built in 1770), Nov. 29, 1759; he was one of a large family, very few of whose descendants now remain in Peterborough, which they almost founded, and long controlled, or shared its control. His elder brother, James Smith, of Cavendish, Vt., was the father of Sarah, who married James Walker, Esq., of Rindge, and was the favorite niece of Judge Smith; a younger brother, Samuel Smith, built the first factory in Peterborough, and drew down the scattered village from the hilltops to the lovely valley where it now nestles, around the windings of its two rivers. Jeremiah, who lived to be called "the handsomest old man and the wittiest wise man" in New Hampshire, was early designated for a studious and distinguished career. Without neglecting the rude labors of his father's great farm, he read and remembered everything that came in his way. At twelve, when he "could reap as much rye in a day as a man," he began to study Latin with an Irish hedge-schoolmaster; at seventeen he entered Harvard college, but was drawn away for two months to fight under Stark at Bennington. Stark at Bennington. His captain, Stephen Parker of New Ipswich, the next hilltown, on the morning of the fight ordered the lad upon some duty that appeared to be safe, not wishing to have his neighbor's boy killed in his first campaign. But when the battle was hot, and Stark was charging the Hessian intrenchments, Captain Parker saw Jerry Smith by his side. "What are you here for?" "Oh, sir, I thought I ought to follow my captain." His gun was disabled by a British bullet; he caught another from a dying comrade, and At the age of thirty, then (June 17, 1790), Smith was a member of the legislature for the third time, and was to conduct an impeachment against Hon. Woodbury Langdon, one of the handsomest and ablest at Concord. Such rapid promotion for so young a man-he was not quite thirty-one when chosen to Congress would have been remarkable, had he not been well known and won the confidence of his townsmen and constituents by his integ- men of the time in New Hampshire, court. rity, wit, eloquence, and good looks; and then a justice of the highest the last a thing never to be despised in the contention for popular honors. It was this confidence which caused him to be chosen for the prosecution of his old college president's cousin, the elegant and influential brother of Gov. John Langdon of Portsmouth. Of Judge Langdon's character, William Plumer, afterwards United States senator and governor, has given a varying opinion, but at the impeachment, he favored the accused, and voted against it. Four years earlier, Plumer made this con |