GREAT AMERICANS OF HISTORY SERIES.

GREAT AMERICANS' PUBLISHING CO.,

MILWAUKEE.

Copyright, 1898,

By THE UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATION

Copyright, 1903,

By H. G. CAMPBELL PUBLISHING CO

EDUC.-

PSYCH.

LIBRARY

GIFT

T has been well said, that in order to make a great man or woman, we must begin with the preceding generations, and Daniel Webster came of wonderfully good stock.

Among the Puritans who settled in New Hampshire about the year 1636 was a man who bore the name of Thomas Webster. He was said to be of Scotch extraction, but he was a Puritan of the English race, and his wife was a notable woman in her generation. Her maiden name was Susannah Batchelder, and her striking figure, powerful mentality and wonderful dark eyes, commanded the admiration of her neighbors and friends. It is thought that it was from her, that the distinguished grandson inherited a goodly proportion of his taste for literature, and a certain energy of mind for which the grandmother was noted.

Thomas Webster and his wife had several children who afterward scattered through various parts of the new state, where they earned a somewhat precarious living amidst the founding of new settlements, and among Indians who were often hostile.

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In Kingston in 1793 there was born to this family a son who was named Ebenezer. His boyhood was spent in manual labor, but with a naturally strong intellect, he managed also to pick up a little education even amidst his unfavorable surroundings.

He came of age during the French war and enlisted about 1760 in the famous corps which was known as "Roger's Rangers." In their desperate encounters with Indians and Frenchmen on the frontier, the rangers had their full share of hardship and danger, and young Webster, strong in body, and brave by nature, won the respect of his comrades in many a hard fought battle.

When the war closed, the young soldier, true to his pioneer instincts, built a log house in the northern part of Salisbury, (now Franklin) and here he brought his young wife, and began the life of a pioneer farmer, about the year 1763. At that time there was no civilization between him and the far away French settlements in Canada. The primeval woods stretched away from his very door, in an unbroken forest which was the home of dangerous wild animals, and the lurking place of treacherous bands of savages.

He was a splendid specimen of the New England race -a fit representative of ancestors, who for generations had been yoemen and pioneers. Like his mother, he was tall and large, with dark hair and eyes. Daniel used to say that his father was the handsomest man he ever saw except his brother Ezekiel. Having only the little education which he could pick up himself, under adverse circumstances, Ebenezer Webster was compelled to fight

the battle of life against heavy odds. The little family struggled on in the wilderness for ten years, and then the wife died, leaving five children.

Afterwards Mr. Webster married again, the second wife being Abigal Eastman, a young woman of sturdy New Hampshire stock, intelligent, warm hearted, and faithful- a noble wife and mother, who also bore him five children.

When the Revolutionary War broke out, Ebenezer Webster was Captain of the Salisbury militia, composed of sturdy and intelligent workingmen like himself. The news of Lexington and Concord went through the country like an electric thrill, and he quickly led his willing company, to join the increasing Continental forces at Cambridge. This company was added to the minute men, being incorporated in the militia, but serving as volunteers without pay.

These minute men were genuine patriots who having gathered in their crops, and having a month or so that they could spare, used to give their services to the country until it was time to dig their potatoes, then going home. to attend to their work and families, after which they would hurry away again to the camp and battlefield.

While Captain Webster was stationed in the vicinity of Boston, he was selected to guard with his company the camp of Washington at Dorchester Heights, and it was here that the Commander-in-Chief consulted with Webster concerning the faithfulness of his section of the country.

He would not have needed to ask if his neighbors were in earnest, if he had seen the document, which Webster had himself drawn up which reads as follows:

"We do most solemnly engage and promise, that we will, to the utmost of our power, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, with arms, oppose the hostile proceedings of

the British fleets and armies against the United American Colonies."

During the last year of his life, Daniel Webster in speaking of the signers of this pledge said: "In looking up this record, connected with the men of my birthplace, I was glad to find who were the signers, and who were the dissenters. Among the former was my father, with

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