Publishments and Marriages in Rumford. Three Boston Judges. The Claremont Ashleys. The Leeman Family: Pioneers of West Dunstable. 140 120 239 305 In the Woods. (From the German.) Mary H. Wheeler. In Mosquito Land. George Bancroft Griffith. 184 Clarence H. Pearson. 316 THE GRANITE MONTHLY VOL. XIV. JANUARY, 1892. NO. 1. REV. FRANKLIN D. AYER, D. D. BY JOHN C. ORDWAY, The Ayer family, of English origin, came early to this country, and were among the first permanent settlers of Haverhill, Mass. The paternal ancestors of the subject of this sketch located in the westerly portion of the township. The great-grandfather occupied the farm, still in the possession of his descendants, situated on the banks of the Merrimack, about two miles up the river from the present city. The grandfather, John Ayer, born in Haverhill, in 1767, was an early settler of St. Johnsbury, Vt. He went there a young man in 1786, and spent his life on the farm. which he cleared, and died in 1854, at the age of eightyseven years. Nathan Ayer, the father, was born in St. Johnsbury, Vt., February 11, 1805, and his wife in Westminster, Vt., in 1813. Both are still living, having passed their lives in St. Johnsbury and Newbury, Vt., Lowell, Mass., and Concord, N. H. FRANKLIN DEMING AYER, only son of Nathan and Phila Ann (Hallett) Ayer, was born in St. Johnsbury, December 19, 1832. As a prominent divine once said of another, he made no mistake in the choice of his ancestry; they were men of talent and influence, notable for their industry, ability, and good citizenship. Dr. Ayer's early education was received in the public schools of his native town, long noted as a place of excep tional culture, and for the excellence of its educational advantages. In the fall of 1848, he entered Newbury (Vt.) Seminary, to prepare himself for college, from which institution he graduated in July, 1852. He entered Dartmouth College in September of the same year, in a class of fiftyeight members. During his collegiate course he was member of the Theological Society, Society of Inquiry, Delta Kappa Epsilon, United Fraternity.-assistant librarian of the latter for two years, and president of the same the senior fall term. Like many of the college students, he made use of the long vacations in teaching school, exhibiting in that pursuit an even and cheerful deportment, and displaying an acute understanding of human nature and the most desirable ways of approaching and interesting widely differing minds, that won for him marked success, and made his services eagerly sought for. Of his character as a college student, Hon. James W. Patterson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, then professor of mathematics in that institution, says,—" He was faithful and industrious in the discharge of every duty, an excellent scholar and conscientious Christian student in all his relations. He had the respect and confidence of every member of the faculty, and was highly esteemed and greatly beloved by his classmates." He graduated July 29, 1856, in a class of sixty, among whom were ex-Governor Prescott of New Hampshire, ex-Lieut.-Governor Hinckley of Vermont, Judge Caleb Blodgett of the superior court of Massachusetts, and many others who have since become distinguished in public life. He was class-day orator, and his address is remembered as a scholarly production of great merit. In the fall of the same year (1856), he entered the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass., for preparation for the ministry, a calling to which he had aspired from the first, manifesting here as in college the same diligence in study, earnestly striving for marked excellence in the discharge of every duty assigned him. He graduated with distinction, August 4, 1859; was ordained and installed pastor over the First Congregational Church in Milford, N. H., May 1, 1861, and continued in that relationship, to the great acceptance of the church and society, for nearly six and a half years, with a single interruption of a few |