1:HE tNI^LlJEI^CE OF EARLY SETTLERS. 197 



none of whom has gained a wide reputation. On the 

 other hand, the southern township is widely known to- 

 day for its moral and religious character, its wealth ^ 

 and liberality, and for the exceptionally large number of 

 young men and women it sends to colleges and semina- 

 ries. It has furnished many members of the state legis- 

 lature and senate. It has been fruitful of ministers and 

 educators, some of whom have gained a national reputa- 

 tion. From this little village of a few hundred 'inhabi- 

 tants have gone forth men to college professorships, East 

 and West, to the Supreme Bench of the state, and to the 

 United States Congress. The general character of these 

 two townships was fixed at the beginning of the century. 

 Their founders placed a stamp upon them which abides. 



The town of Boscawen, New Hampshire, was settled 

 in 1734, by a colony of Massachusetts people. Scarcely 

 were they settled, when they took steps to secure " some 

 suitable man and a Christian learned " to preach the gos- 

 pel. The original stock was good, and the formative in- 

 fluences were Christian. We now find that its collegiate 

 and professional record contains more than 130 names, 

 among which there are those of two missionaries, six 

 journalists, twenty-one lawyers, thirty five physicians, 

 and forty-two ministers. Among the eminent men 

 whom this town has produced are General John A. Dix 

 and William Pitt Fessenden. 



When Northampton, Massachusetts, was settled, in 

 1654, it was " way out west" on the frontier. Among 

 the early settlers in the then wilderness, who shaped 

 the character and history of the town, were the Aliens, 

 Bartletts, Bridgmans, Clapps, Dwights, Elliotts, Haw- 

 leys, Kings, Lymans, Mathers, Parsons, Stoddards, 

 Strongs, Tappans, and Wrights. The town early became 

 distinguished for its marked religious character and its 

 educational advantages. For a century and a quarter 



1 Though the northern township had the advantage of a better soil, the 

 assessed valuation of real and personal property in the southern now (1885) 

 exceeds that of the other by fifty-six per cent. Godliness is profitable to 

 the life that now is. 



