'"
Manchester was the residence of John Stark, a hero of two wars,
and survivor of a third, and at his death the last but one of the
American generals of the Revolution. He was born in the
adjoining town of Londonderry, then Nutfield, in 1728. As early
as 1752, he was taken prisoner by the Indians while hunting in
the wilderness near Baker's River; he performed notable service
as a captain of rangers in the French war; commanded a regiment
of the New Hampshire militia at the battle of Bunker Hill; and
fought and won the battle of Bennington in 1777. He was past
service in the last war, and died here in 1822, at the age of 94.
His monument stands upon the second bank of the river, about a
mile and a half above the falls, and commands a prospect several
miles up and down the Merrimack. It suggested how much more
impressive in the landscape is the tomb of a hero than the
dwellings of the inglorious living. Who is most dead,--a hero by
whose monument you stand, or his descendants of whom you have
never heard?
The graves of Pasaconaway and Wannalancet are marked by no
monument on the bank of their native river.
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