ministry of Mr. Harris was a successful one. David Gregg, James Davidson, William Davidson, John Davidson, Jesse Anderson, Samuel Davidson, J. P. Johnson, Eleazer Barrett, James W. Perkins, Jacob E. Evans, and David McCleary were made elders. Rev. Calvin Cutler was installed over the church on April 9, 1828, where he remained till his death February 17, 1844. He was born at Guildhall, Vermont, October 10, 1791. He was graduated at Dartmouth college in 1819, at Theological seminary at Andover in 1823. During his ministry in 1834 he preached in the old house now used as the townhouse. The latter has at different times been occupied for preaching by the Methodists and Unitarians. The eldership was increased by the addition of Samuel Anderson, Jacob Harris, Silas Moore, David Campbell, and Jonathan Cochran, in 1833; in 1843, Theodore Dinsmoor, Joseph Park, Benjamin Blanchard, David A. Davidson, and Rei Hills. One hundred and fifty-eight persons united with the church between 1830 and 1844. Mr. Cutler possessed a great deal of intellectual strength and vigor. He married. June 3, 1824, Rhoda Little, of Boscawen, N. H., who died August 15, 1852. Their sons are Evart Cutler of New Haven, Connecticut, Rev. Charles Cutler of Burton, Ohio, and Rev. Carroll Cutler, D. D., President of Western Reserve College, Cleveland, Ohio. In 1845 Rev. Loren Thayer was ordained with a salary of $500. He continued with his people till his death. For more than twenty years he was pastor. In feeble health, he was dismissed April 25. 1866, and died of consumption September 19, 1869, at the age of fifty-four years. He was thrice married, his last wife being Elizabeth C. Farley, a refined and cultivated lady, who became closely identified with the interests of this people. She died March 4, 1878. Mr. Thayer's ministry was an eminently successful one, and his memory, with that of his beloved wife, is tenderly cherished. Samuel Campbell was made an elder. Rev. Joseph Lanman was installed June 2, 1868. A parsonage was built that year costing over $3,000. He was dismissed February 6, 1872, and now resides at Taylor's Falls, Minnesota. Rev. Charles Packard was installed April 29, 1873, at a salary of $800 and the use of the parsonage. The church was remodelled in 1874, and rededicated December 29, 1874. The outlay was $2600. William C. Harris, Horace Anderson, and William D. Cochran became elders of the church, December 26, 1878. Mr. Packard was born in Brookfield, Maine, October 14, 1818; graduated at Bowdoin college in 1842, at Bangor seminary in 1845. As a pastor he was faithful, as a friend he was true, as a citizen he always had the interest of society in view, and was always upon the right side. He performed his pastoral duties till January 29, 1881, when the disease which had been upon him culminated in entire prostration, and he died February 20, 1881, and is buried in Farmington, Maine. He married, in Norway, Maine, Hannah Holt, who resides with their children in Farmington, Maine. Rev. Joseph S. Cogswell, the present pastor, was born in Boscawen, N. H., October 29, 1836; was installed December 21, 1881, with pleasing prospects. The Sunday-school was organized ry of 500 volumes. in 1817, and has always been in a highly flourishing condition, and the larger part of the congregation are members. Connected with it is a valuable and largely patronized libra THOMAS FORSYTH, SIEUR DE FRONSAC. Thomas Forsyth was born in Deering, Hillsborough county, New Hampshire, September 1, 1776. His father was Captain William Forsyth (see "Forsyth Family" in Vol. VIII, page 251, of the GRANITE MONTHLY), and his mother was Jane, daughter of James Wilson, of Chester, who was at one time surveyor of the highways of Chester. Col. Robert Wilson, as recorded in the article referred to, was not the father of Jane, but was of the same family (Chase's History of Chester). Thomas Forsyth was sent while quite young to the north of Ireland in company with his older brother Robert, who afterwards entered the British army, and retired in 1802 as major of the 60th Royal Rifles, or 60th Foot, as they were then called. The county seat of the family was then in Hillsborough county, province of Ulster, Ireland, Hillsborough county, New Hampshire, being named after that of Ireland. Before he was twenty years of age an adventurous spirit took Thomas into France, where the troublous state of affairs was excited by the fumes of revolution. Sympathizing with the royalist party and anxious for distinction, he, through the friendship and introduction of Henri, Marquis de Costa, obtained a position in the se cret diplomatic service of the French Princes (1795), who were suffering exile. He afterwards became a captain in the Royalist Emegrés, and served throughout the monotonous marches of that forlorn hope of exiled royalty in Germany and along the Rhine. As an officer in the foreign guard he then entered the service of Russia (1800), but abandoned the life of peril and hardship through which he was passing to return to America in 1802. He had been decorated with the Order of St. Louis for services rendered in the diplomatic and military departments under the French Princes, and had published a political pamphlet entitled "La Diplomatie d'une Frontière," as Thomas Forsyth, Sieur de Fronsac, under which name also he was decorated with the Order of St. Louis, and served in the Emegrés and in Russia. The town of Forsath, or Forsyth, twenty miles from Bordeaux, on the Dordoyne, in France, from which, as counts, the family had derived its name, had been changed to Fronsac, after it had suffered by the invasion of the Earl of Derby, from England, in the 14th century; and this was the reason that Thomas Forsyth took the name of Fronsac to his own, according to a custom among the French nobility, and it was as Sieur de Fronsac that he was recognized in France. He was the only person born in New Hampshire who has ever received the decoration of the Order of St. Louis, which is one of the highest in Europe. When he returned to America in 1802 he settled in Savannah, Ga., where he remained for about two years. He then finally located at Portland, Me., in which place he entered into the West India trade, establishing his store and office on Ingraham's wharf. He had a moderate interest in shipping and landed property. He was junior steward of the Ancient Landmark Lodge of Free Masons in Portland. As a performer on the violincello he had, perhaps, although an amateur, no equal in Maine, while his general knowledge of music was complete in other departments. He married, in 1809, Sallie, daughter of John Pray, formerly of Savannah, Ga., who had been a captain in the colonial navy of Georgia in the Revolution, and the naval commis sioner for that commonwealth. Capt. Pray was an Irish refugee, who had married Mary, daughter of Major Joshua Hamilton, the son of Henry Hamilton, M. P. for County Donegal, and son of Lieut. Gen. Sir Gustavus Hamilton, 1st Viscount Boyne, ViceAdmiral of Ulster, Privy Councillor of Great Britain, etc. (See Burke's Peerage.) Thomas Forsyth left a family of six children at the time of his death, Dec. 21, 1849, at Portland. One other, a son, had died before him in Texas. He was a man of refined tastes and high ability, an honor to the state in which he was born, reverenced by his children, the head of his family, acknowledged as a patron of the poor, to whom he dispensed liberally, and a man loving the good and the meritorious. His faith in republics was wanting, but he recognized the ties. which bound him to his native land, and no doubt through their influence saw the greatest possibility laid out before her. Those who knew him recognized a Christian gentleman. UNREAD. BY ALICE FREESE DURGIN. As the dull day faded into murky night, "How frail thou wert! How empty, and how mean," she said, "Thou seemest, now thou liest ended, Poor hapless life! No fond delight blended With the heavy pain, to make one shadow bright." What was the sound that falling on her brokenly, As blossoms lightly blown from off a tree, Woke faintest memories of some calm, silver light, Trembling as the vision broke, she prayed with bowed head,"Dear Life! I thank Thee for the page unread." THE GRANITE MONTHLY. A NEW HAMPSHIRE MAGAZINE. Devoted to Literature, Biography, History, and State Progress. VOL. X. AUGUST, 1887. No. 8. HON. ALVIN BURLEIGH. The Plymouth Record, in advocating the choice of Mr. Burleigh for speaker of the New Hampshire house of representatives, said, "With all due respect to the candidates other localities have to offer, we have positive convictions that Grafton county can furnish a speaker for the next house of representatives who will not only prove most acceptable to the Republican party and the public generally, but one who is admirably equipped for the position by reason of his high personal character, his legal education, his familiarity with the law and judicial decisions of the state, and the rules of parliamentary practice. We mean, of course, our representative, Alvin Burleigh. The approaching session of the legislature will be one of interest to the Republican party, not only because the choice of United States senator is to be made, but because much depends upon the manner in which the contest is waged and determined. It is of the greatest importance that fairness and harmony shall be marked features of the coming meeting, in order that there may be hearty coöperation and united organization for the campaign of 1888. "The choice of speaker should be regulated by the especial needs of the occasion, and it must be apparent to all that the interests of the party and the state demand for this position a man who, first of all, is fitted for the place; and, second, one who is absolutely free from all entangling alliances and pledges, and can therefore exercise the powers and perform the duties of the office with the utmost impartiality, without fear or favor, and with that freedom and confidence natural to one thoroughly acquainted with parliamentary rules, and accustomed to the methods of judicial procedure." Before the assembling of the legislature (June, 1887) it was early manfest that Mr. Burleigh was the leading candidate for speaker, and at the Republican caucus he received 118 votes; John McLane, of Milford, received 32 votes; and John J. Bell, of Exeter, received 8 votes. The prediction as to his eminent fitness for the place has been verified by his impartial course during the time the legislature has been in session. Hon. Alvin Burleigh was born at Plymouth, December 19, 1842, and is therefore forty-four years old. He is entirely a self-made man, having taken care of himself ever since he was fifteen years of age. At that time he commenced working on a farm, and received as wages nine dollars a month. He then took up the tanners' trade, and learned it before the civil war broke out. When that began, although but nineteen years of age, he enlisted in company B, 15th regiment (at the same time with Senator Blair), and served in that regiment every day until it was disbanded. He was with the expedition of General Banks on the Mississippi, and participated in the siege and capture of Port Hudson in 1863. Since the war Mr. Burleigh has been for some years an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was judge advocate of the department of New Hampshire during the first year that Hon. M. A. Haynes was commander, and he is now commander of Penniman Post of Plymouth, and is on Department Commander O. C. Wyatt's staff for the current year. After an honorable discharge from the army he resumed his trade, and became foreman of Ward & McQuesten's tannery. In 1865 he entered Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden, N. H., and was graduated there in 1867. He entered Dartmouth col lege the same year, and was graduated in the class of 1871. He paid his way through college by working at his trade at intervals, and teaching during vacations and a part of winter terms. In 1872, the year after leaving college, he taught the high school at Woodstock, Vt. He studied law with Hon. H. W. Blair, and was admitted to the bar in 1874, and in 1875 formed a law partnership with Mr. Blair, which was continued until 1879, when Mr. Blair retired and George H. Adams came in, and the present firm of Burleigh & Adams was established. Mr. Burleigh has had an extensive and successful law practice in the state and United States courts, and his success is due to the fact that he is a sound and well read lawyer, and possesses good common-sense and practical judgment. In manner he is calm, fair, and candid. He is well informed on all public questions, and has a wide acquaintance with men and the politics of New Hampshire. In the government of public assemblies he has had considerable experience, and shows himself thoroughly informed in parliamentary law, and gifted with that peculiar tact so necessary at times to control legislative bodies. Mr. Burleigh has been a member of the board of education of Plymouth since its organization, treasurer of the board until his election to the speakership, and at present is its president. He is a trustee of the State Normal School. Personally he is not only a consistent advocate of temperance, but a teetotaler, evincing his interest in the cause by serving as president of a local temperance organization several terms, and refusing |