THE

HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL

REGISTER.

OCTOBER, 1878.

I

MEMOIR OF NATHANIEL GREENE.

Communicated by CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN, Esq., of Boston.

N the death of Nathaniel Greene, who died November 29, 1877, the country lost one of the most distinguished journalists of the middle period of the century. The accompanying brief biographical sketch is from the history of Boscawen and Webster, N. H., just published, together with the portrait, engraved from a photograph taken in Paris during Mr. Greene's last visit to that city, representing him as he appeared after attaining the age allotted to man. The readers of the REGISTER are indebted to Mrs. Charlotte G. Cumston, daughter of Col. Charles G. Greene and niece of Nathaniel, for the truthful likeness.

The early years of Mr. Greene, of which the sketch makes slight mention, were passed in Boscawen on his father's farm, where he learned those habits of industry that were manifested through life. John Adams Dix was one of his playmates, and Daniel Webster, born in the adjoining town of Salisbury, seven miles distant, was a frequent visitor at the house of Nathaniel Greene, Senior. The suject of this notice, a few months before his death, narrated an anecdote incident to one of Daniel's visits. It was in June, the season for hoeing corn, and Nathaniel Greene, Jr., though only ten years of age, was doing the work of a man in the field. "I will help hoe the corn," said Daniel, who, obtaining a hoe, went bravely to work. But he had many stories to tell of his trout-catching and his gunning exploits. He could not talk and work at the same time;,

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but while talking, leaned upon the handle of the implement. In consequence he soon found himself in rear of the gang; then giving a strike with his hoe and kicking the earth with his foot, to make it look new, or skipping a hill altogether, he moved on to the front. He was determined to keep ahead! His strategy at length attracted the attention of one of the "hired" men, who said: "Dan, you are a buster at hocing, but a'n't you a little afraid you'll break your hoe-handle working so hard?"

Daniel Webster was the senior of Greene and Dix. He was a young lawyer while they were attending the district school; but he was a boarder in the family of Col. Timothy Dix, who was a near neighbor of the father of Greenc. The young lawyer had ample time for fishing, and Nathaniel Greene often accompanied him to "Great" pond, three miles distant, which abounded with pickerel, or strolled with him along the trout brook. On Sunday, the young lawyer and his two younger companions might all have been scen at the village church. Little did the good people of Boscawen comprehend the great future before the dark-eyed, awkward young graduate from Dartmouth, who had hung out his sign over Timothy Dix's store; who was interested in everything relating to the public welfare; was clerk of the school district, one of the assessors of the religious society, and had purchased a bassoon for the choir. Nor did the staid farmers of Boscawen know how much that bright-eyed boy, seated in the pew of Timothy Dix, would do for his country as the century should roll away; how he would, by a stroke of his pen, thrill the hearts of twenty million people:If any man attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot!"

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As little did the people know that the eldest son of Nathaniel Greene, Esq., one of the leading citizens of their town, would become a moulder of public opinion-an author, translator and poet.

The present generation knows but little of Nathaniel Greene, beyond the fact that he was the founder of the Boston Post newspaper; but there was a period when he was known throughout the country as a political writer. His opinions, as expressed in editorial articles, were republished from Maine to Louisiana. Scholarly in his tastes, his political aspirations never extended beyond the position which be held so many years-postmaster of Boston. He preferred the power

that his position as an editor gave him, to any more exalted station that he might have obtained during the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren. In those days, when there were no telegraphs nor railroads, an editor of a leading political paper occupied a position of great influence. He was the mouth-piece of a party, the trumpeter who sounded the charge in political battles. There was no independent press. A paper like that conducted by Mr. Greene, gave the key note, which was taken up by the entire chorus of party newspapers. From its establishment, through all the years of Nathaniel Greene's and his brother Col. Charles G. Greene's connection with the press, the paper which they conducted was renowned for its ability and sagacity. It was a leader of thought and opinion. The measure of the influence exercised by Nathaniel Greene may not be compared with that of Daniel Webster and John Adams Dix. It was in a different sphere of life: theirs was in the Senate, in diplomacy, upon the platform and in the forum; his in the quiet country and city home-exercised daily through a period of years. He was no speaker. His voice never was heard in public assemblies, yet the whole community was influenced by his opinions. In his day and generation his was a power, felt not only in the homes of the people, but in the White House at Washington, for he was ever held in high esteem by Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren and John Tyler.

The sketch of his life in the history of Boscawen and Webster was necessarily brief, and I have deemed it due to his memory to prefix these few words to the biography of that third one of the remarkable trio seen on Sundays, during the early years of the century, in the Boscawen meeting-house.

NATHANIEL GREENE was born in Boscawen, May 20, 1797. He was christened Peter; but having great respect for the memory of his father, by permission of the legislature of Massachusetts he took the name of Nathaniel.

Educational advantages at the beginning of the century were limited to eight or ten weeks of schooling in the winter, and a term of about the same length in summer. Two of his teachers wereMiss Lucy Hartwell, who afterwards became the wife of Col. Timothy Dix, and Rev. Henry Coleman, then a young man, who subsequently was a minister in Salem, Mass., and who distinguished himself as a writer on agricultural subjects. One of Mr. Greene's schoolmates was John Adams Dix. Together they stood with their