Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/244

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232

��yoscpk Emerson Dozv.

��ary term, 1803. He continued in the practice, principally at Haverhill, until he located at Littleton.

He was then a Freemason, but probably had no active affiliation with any church. This was certainly the case in his later years.

In politics he was a Democrat of the brand commonly termed "dyed in the wool." He maintained an erect carriage of a form that was tall, well filled, and well proportioned. All with whom he came in contact were reminded of the characteristics of a gentleman of the old school, by his accurate and scholarly' conversa- tion, his polished manners, and his agreeable presence.

A short time before coming to Lit- tleton he married Abigail Arnold, a lady of excellent family and high character, a daughter of Hon. Jona- than Arnold, who was one of the early members of the Continental congress from Rhode Island. This gentleman is reputed to have once owned the whole of the present terri- tory of the towns of Lyndon, Sutton, and St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

Jonathan Arnold was thrice mar- ried. Gov. Arnold of Rhode Island was one of the offspring of the third marriage ; of the second was Free- love Arnold, wife of Noah Davis of Haverhill, N. H., and these were the parents of Judge Noah Davis of New York. Abigail Arnold was a child of the first marriage. Her father dying when she was only eleven years of age, she was received into the family of Hon. Charles Marsh, of Woodstock, Vermont, and thus be- came the adopted sister of the Hon. Charles P. Marsh, who recently closed a long career of honor and

��usefulness in public affairs and in the world of letters.

Abigail Arnold faithfullv followed the fortunes of her husband until her death, which occurred Nov. 30, 1824.

Their children were Catharine, who died in infancy ; James Barber and Moses Arnold, both born in Little- ton ; George Burrill, born in Lincoln ; and Charles Marsh, born in Fran- con i a.

Moses Arnold Dow became very successful in the business of pub- lishing the Waverly Magazine. He made valuable public benefactions to the towns of Littleton and Franconia, and erected an elegant monument in the village cemetery at Franconia to the memory of his father and mother, who there lie buried.

In the summer of 1883 Mr. Dow procured a large photograph of the old homestead at North Littleton to be taken with himself in the fore- ground. He told me that his mother was beside him in the spirit form, while the picture of the old home and her boy was being made ; and that she felt the same joy at his presence with her then that she did in the years long gone by, when she ca- ressed him in the cradle in that same old house.

Mr. Dow, the father, in his subse- quent marriage with Nancy Bagley of Thornton, did not better his condi- tion. Her methods of procedure may be described by the words of Bret Harte, as —

��I * * *

��fre<iiK'iit, and painful, and free."

��It is related that she made the dep- uty sheriff's recollections of his offi- cial visits to her husband's "• castle" more vivid than fragrant.

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