Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/68

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54

��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

��here several years, and then built another log-house and moved up where the buildings have since been, and the road extended up to this point originally, and then went on bearing to the west, by the farms formerly known as the Kezer and the Stetson farms, and thence over Beech Hill to Warren.

Ephraim Paige died in Wentworth, November 4, 1802, aged 72. and Han- nah, his wife, died there July 9, 1813, aged 75.

Enoch Paige, the brother of Ephra- im, was born in Salisbury, Mass., Sep- tember 29, 1 741. He was twice mar- ried in Salisbury. By his first wife he had three daughters ; by his second wife he had no children. His eldest daughter Mary was Ebenezer Gove's first wife, but she dying, he married Mary Davis as before stated. Enoch moved his family to Wentworth about 1775, and settled near where Samuel Currier's house afterward stood, now occupied by Samuel G. Currier. He had spent much time in town before he moved there. He acted as a sur- veyor in running out the lands and in establishing the lines and bounds. Probably no one did more than he did in procuring settlers in the town and in aiding and assisting the early immi- grants. Upon the organization of the town in 1779 and in the years that fol- lowed, Mr. Paige filled most of the important offices in town.

He was town-clerk from 1 795 to 1800 inclusive. He was chosen its first representative to the General As- sembly at lilxeter, in 1781, and soon after he was appointed one of the judges of the inferior court for the county of Grafton.

After coming to Wentworth, and in the year 1779, he married for his third wife widow Mary Taylor, of Plymouth, N. H., whose maiden name was Wor- cester. She died in the year 1800. They had six children, Persis, Enoch, Benjamin, John, Ephraim, and Samuel Worcester, the first born in i 780, and the last in 1791. He was generally known as Major Enoch Paige. He

��died much respected in 1829, aged' 88.

Dr. Peter L. Hoyt, who lived in, Wentworth and died there some dozeii years ago, wrote a history of Went- worth, which I have seen in manu- script, in which he collected many facts, and anecdotes about the early settlers in the town. He is my authority for stating that Major Enoch Paige was a judge in that county, and he relates an anecdote concerning him, as follows : " A good anecdote is told of the Judge while attending court at Plymouth at one time. It was at the period when all great men and especially all judges and ministers wore powdered wigs. Judge Paige, in consideration of the dignity of his office, had provided himself with one of the most approved and latest style. While at Plymouth he boarded in the family of one Jo- seph Kimball, who subsec^uently moved into Wentworth, upon what has since been known as the Dr. Knowlton farm, on the east side of the river. Kimball had a daughter Hannah, who after- ward married Capt. John Paige of this town. Judge Paige one night, on retiring to bed, left his wig hanging in the sitting-room. In the morning Hannah, full of fun and frolic, put it on her head as she went to the barn- yard to milk. But it made her look so odd and grotesquely that the cows were all frightened at her appearance, and she could not get near one of them. She was finally compelled to take it off, and hanging it on a stake in the fence by the side of the yard, she had no further difficulty in ap- proaching the cows. She hastily fin- ished her milking so as to get back before the Judge should arise and miss, his emblem of judicial authority, which was so unnatural as to frighten the cows. Afterward, while residing as neighbors in this town, she and the Judge had many jokes and many hearty laughs over this incident."

Enoch Paige, Esq., son of the above, was born November 15, 1782, and in- the later part of his life was almost universally known as Master Paige..

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