,
if consistent with the objects of this work, were I to omit mention of a
lady, Miss Hannah F. Gould, whose poetical productions gained her
well-deserved applause and many friends, and some of whose highly
pleasing verses still retain their hold upon public esteem. Reflectively,
too, we might claim some share in the distinction of the most popular
American poet of our own day; for the direct ancestors of Longfellow
were natives of our immediate vicinage. I had no intention, certainly, of
offering any tribute to the living in these memorials of the past; but
one name inevitably suggests itself, better known on 'Change, in London,
than in the place of his birth. I speak of William Wheelwright, a lad, at
the period to which these sketches refer, long resident abroad, though
occasionally brought home by the obligations and affections of family
ties, to whose enterprise, and arduous, untiring pursuit of his object
are owing steam navigation and railway lines in the southern part of this
Continent, and to whose praise the whole South American coast will
respond.

There were others and many, of high personal character and local
reputation, and not a few of strongly marked characteristics, whose
names, perhaps, would scarcely sound familiar to modern ears; but I
cannot pass over one wealthy merchant, distinguished for his strong
common sense and decided individuality, as well as for a success in
business scarcely equaled in this country, in his day,--the well-known
William Bartlett, to whose judicious bounty the chief theological
seminary of the State and its principal Academy for the instruction of
youth owe so much toward the assurance of their permanent foundation.

Nor should the memory of Oliver Putnam fail of a record, who, long absent
from his native town, provided by his will for a generous bequest, upon
which a Free School of the highest character has been long established.
Nor should due tribute be forgotten in honor of George Peabody, who,
remembering those days of his youth which were passed in acquiring habits
of business in the place, distinguished its Public Library by a
munificent gift.

There had been many other men of marked character and great local
influence: Tracys, Daltons, Greenleafs, Davenports, Hoopers, Bradburys,
Johnsons, Coffins, Bromfields, Crosses; and many more, doubtless, might
be thought worthy of mention. Among those named above, Nathaniel Tracy
was one of the wealthiest merchants of his da