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The National cyclopædia of American biography : being the history of the United States as illustrated in the lives of the founders, builders, and defenders of the republic, and of the men and women who are doing the work and moulding the thought of the present time, edited by distinguished biographers, selected from each state, revised and approved by the most eminent historians, scholars, and statesmen of the day . of state, wasborn at Salisbury, N. H., Jan. 18, 1782. Hisfather was a man of sterling character, but limitedmeans, who had served with credit during the Frenchwar, and at its close
The National cyclopædia of American biography : being the history of the United States as illustrated in the lives of the founders, builders, and defenders of the republic, and of the men and women who are doing the work and moulding the thought of the present time, edited by distinguished biographers, selected from each state, revised and approved by the most eminent historians, scholars, and statesmen of the day . of state, wasborn at Salisbury, N. H., Jan. 18, 1782. Hisfather was a man of sterling character, but limitedmeans, who had served with credit during the Frenchwar, and at its close settled in that portion of thenewly formed town of Salisbury, which is nowknown as Franklin. The place was then on the ex-treme border of civilization, and in a state of naturalwildness; but by the labor of his own hands he soonconverted it into a productive farm, capable ofyielding a comfortable support to his family. Onthe breaking out of the revolutionary war he tookservice as a private, but soon rose to the rank ofmajor, in wliich capacity he especially distinguishedhimself at the battl e of Bennington. Daniel Websterwas his second son, and he was born while his fatherwas still away from home with the army. Theearly j^ears of the son were spent upon his fathersfarm in that sparsely settled frontier settlement,where schools and competent teachers were as yetunknown. His earliest instruction was received. ^%i^ #^^^^5^ OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. 37 from his mother, a woman of character and intelli-gence, but, the lad showing apt parts, and anavidity for knowledge, it was decided by his fatherto send him to college, and he about a years preparation at the ExeterAcademy, and under the tuition of the Rev. SamuelWood in the adjoining town of Boscawen. Ofhis life at Exeter, his classmate, the late James , once wrote in a private letter: He wasthen about fourteen; was attending to Englishgrammar, arithmetic, etc.; always very prompt andcorrect in his re
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