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��MAJOR-GENERAL AMOS SHEPARD.
��residents. Of the daughter by Polly Underwood I have not been able to ascertain the name. When the older sons came to Alstead is not cer- tain, but it is probable that all save Jona- than and Amos came in 1 771. ' To the above-mentioned petition only Oliver and his father were signers, indicating that the others were not then freeholders.
Amos Shepard, the fourth son of Jonathan, became a noted man in New Hampshire. I have never met with any account of him in print or other- wise. But he was, for about thirty-five years, the most conspicuous man in Alstead, holding as to wealth, influence, and public service, much the same relation to that town that Col. Benja- min Bellows did to Walpole.
In 1878, Elijah Bingham, Esq., who was born in Lempster (24 February, 1800) but lived in Alstead, as a student - at-law and business-man, mostly from 1820 to 1835, presented to the New Hampshire Antiquarian Society all that are extant of Gen. Shepard's private papers. Mr. Bingham was a student of Dartmouth College at one time, but did not complete his course ; studied law with his brother, James H. Bing- ham, Esq., (D. C. 1 801) ; removed to Cleveland in ^835, and has been for many years an honored and respecfed citizen of his adopted city. He mar- ried Thankful-Cadwell, a daughter of Major Samuel Hutchinson, 'of Alstead, in 1827, who is still living. At the time of Gen. .Shepard's decease, Maj. Hutchinson was his partner in business, to the whole of which he succeeded. He was also a legatee by, and sole exe- cutor of, Gen. Shepard's last will and testament ; guardian of the Avidow's interest during her life-time ; becoming also executor of her will, and residuary legatee of her estate.*
Among these papers appear to be all Gen. Shepard's commissions, both
- Major Hutchinson's mother, the wife
of Rev. Elisha Hutchinson (D. C, 1775), of Pomfret, Vermont, was a sister to Gen. Amos Shepard's wife; and Major Hutchinson's daughter, who married Elijah Bingham, Esq., ahove named, was a grand-niece of Mrs. Shepard, and was named for her.
��civil and military, signed by Gov. Jonathan Trumbull, of Connecticut, Presidents Meshec Weare, Josiah Bart- lett and John Langdon, and Gov. John Taylor Oilman, of New Hampshire. Also, most of the deeds of conveyance to him of real estate in Alstead and vicinity, of which at least sixty-five are on record in Cheshire County, besides some in Vermont ; several military orders, and papers relating to his ser- vice in the army and militia ; many indentures of the partnerships he formed for the carrying on of the vari- ous branches of his extensive affairs, in his own and other towns ; his own and his wife's wills ; and his memo- randum and account books from 1777 to 1 784. All these (save the account books) have been copied and indexed in Volume VII, of the Society's Man- uscript Historical Collections, and from them the present sketch has been mostly made up. By them much light has been thrown upon the em- ployments and condition of the first settlers of Alstead, the location of farms and dwellings, and many other things not touched upon in this paper. Gen. Amos Shepard was born in Coventry, Connecticut, in 1 746, and died in Alstead, 1 January, 181 2. Of his early life nothing appears in these sources of information. It is plain that his education was not extensive, al- though, like so many of the shrewd settlers of his day, he had learned the art of surveying land. But his syntax was scarcely according to Lindley Mur- ray, and his orthography was decidedly phonetic. He married Thankful Cad- well, of Hartford, and settled in New Haven, where he was a freeholder as early as 1772 (see New Haven Rec- ords, "Ledger Book" 35, p. 350). In this deed he is described as a "join- er," which trade is found, after his removal to New Hampshire, to include the manufacture of coffins, cooperage, and household furniture.
He was commissioned a second lieutenant by Gov. Trumbull, 1 May, 1775, and accompanied the expedition which invaded Canada, under Gen. Richard Montgomery, in the summer
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