THE FARM OF THE FIRST MINISTER. 



Our gallant leader, Captain Humphrey, and his associates 

 upon the board of agriculture, have this year transferred our 

 summer outing from Boar's Head and the ocean shore to ancient 

 Aquedoctan and the placid waters of Winnepesauke lake. 



The fact that he has heretofore safely steered our craft along 

 a coast where the headlands are sharp and the east winds often 

 strong, gives confidence in his future pilotage over these placid 

 waters which, coquetting with the mountains, reflect the smile 

 of the Great Spirit by day and the stars which he has set in his 

 firmament by night. 



We are here for a good time, but skilled as is our leader, we 

 must not depend upon him entirely for its attainment. Cooper- 

 ation should be our watchword in the prosecution of our pleas- 

 ures and all our great interests as well. It was not General 

 Grant alone who forced the surrender of Richmond, in 1865, 

 but the pressure of the great armies whom he led to victory. 



The announcement of my subject suggests three inquiries : 



1. Where was this farm ? 



2. Who was the first minister? 



3. What of his farming? 



To answer these will be my present endeavor. 



I. 



Where was the first minister's farm? 



On the 17th day of January, 1726, the general court of Mas- 

 sachusetts Bay granted to one hundred prospective settlers a 

 plantation seven miles square, lying on its northern border and 

 on both sides of the Merrimack river, at a place called by the 

 Indians, Pennycook. 



This was known at first as the Plantation of Pennycook. In 

 1733 it was incorporated by Massachusetts as the town of Rum- 

 ford, which name it bore until 1765, when it was again incor- 

 porated by New Hampshire as Concord, by which designation 

 it has ever since been known. To avoid confusion from these 



