Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/130

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122

��yohn Stark.

��Under the authority of this resolu- tion, George Stark, of Nashua, was commissioned to investigate the sub- ject, and his report will be made to the governor and council before the meeting of the next legislature.

The design which he will recom- mend is a bronze equestrian statue, of heroic size, mounted on a suitable granite pedestal, the bronze work being about twelve feet and the gran- ite work eighteen feet high, making the whole monument about thirty feet in height. He will also recommend that it be placed on the spot where Gen. Stark was buried, about oue mile north of the City Hall in Man- chester, on the east bank of the Merrimack river.

This spot was selected by Gen. Stark himself for his burial-place. It is upon elevated ground overlook- ing the river, and the monument, when erected upon it, will be con- spicuously visible from the railroad, as well as from the street which runs parallel to the river, past the old Stark place. A square of two acres has been reserved, and will be pre- sented to the state for this purpose, if the design is carried out. The very artistic design which will accom- pany the report of the commissioner, and be recommended by him, we show an outline copy of in the accom- panying engraving.

Many biograpliers have written the life of John Stark. His connection with the earlier events of the country has made his name familiar to read- ers of American history. But such a brief review of his career as may be compressed into the limits of a maga- zine article will, under the existing cir- cumstances, possess fresh interest.

��The Stark family of New Hamp- shire descended from Archibald Stark, a Scotchman, born at Glas- gow in 1697. He was educated at the university of his native city, and when twenty-three j'ears of age came to America with the Scotch-Irish emigrants who settled Londonderry. He afterwards removed to Derryfield, now Manchester, where he died in 1758, and was buried in what was known as "Christian's Brook Ceme- tery," a private burying-ground, on land now built over in the city, — the few remains of persons buried there, with the accompanying head-stones, having been removed to other ceme- teries. A quaint, low head-stone of slate, in the south-westerly corner of the "Valley Cemetery" of the city of Manchester, is one of those that were thus removed. It bears this inscription :

Here Lyes the Body of Mr.

Archibald Stark He

Departed this Life June 25th

1768 Aged 61 years.

Stark is a German name, and is said to have been brought to Scot- land about four hundred years ago, in the reign of Henry Vllth of Eng- land, by German soldiery, who were sent over by the Duchess of Bur- gundy to support the claims of one of the pretenders to the English throne. The invading army being defeated, the survivors fled to Scot- land, and some of them settled per- manently in that country, and are supposed to be the remote ancestry of the Stai'ks of New Hampshire.

Archibald Stark had four sons, — William, John, Samuel, and Archi- bald, — all of whom held commissions in the British service during the

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