This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------F44901B801C9DBC6E719BF12 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --------------F44901B801C9DBC6E719BF12 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Received: from mail7.bellsouth.net (mail7.bellsouth.net [205.152.16.4]) by mail3.lig.bellsouth.net (3.3.5alt/0.75.2) with ESMTP id GAA23641 for <jronan@lig.bellsouth.net>; Mon, 27 Mar 2000 06:48:31 -0500 (EST) Received: from bl-14.rootsweb.com (bl-14.rootsweb.com [209.85.6.30]) by mail7.bellsouth.net (3.3.5alt/0.75.2) with ESMTP id FAA00380 for <jronan@bellsouth.net>; Mon, 27 Mar 2000 05:55:21 -0500 (EST) Received: (from slist@localhost) by bl-14.rootsweb.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id DAA07730; Mon, 27 Mar 2000 03:48:10 -0800 (PST) Resent-Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 03:48:10 -0800 (PST) X-Original-Sender: TVick65536@aol.com Mon Mar 27 03:48:07 2000 From: TVick65536@aol.com Message-ID: <34.3053c7c.2610a452@aol.com> Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 06:47:30 EST Old-To: NHDATA-L@rootsweb.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 66 Subject: [NHDATA-L] Biography: Stephen Youngman French, Hillsborough Co., NH Part 1 Resent-Message-ID: <xACQB.A.G4B.4p034@bl-14.rootsweb.com> To: NHDATA-L@rootsweb.com Resent-From: NHDATA-L@rootsweb.com X-Mailing-List: <NHDATA-L@rootsweb.com> archive/latest/19 X-Loop: NHDATA-L@rootsweb.com Precedence: list Resent-Sender: NHDATA-L-request@rootsweb.com X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 Biography: Stephen Youngman French, Hillsborough Co., NH Part 1 Granite State Magazine An Illustrated Monthly Devoted to the History, Story, Scenery, Industry and Interest of New Hampshire Edited By George Waldo Browne Volume I. January to June, 1906 Manchester, N.H.: Granite State Publishing Company 1906 pg. 298-302 "Leather French" By An Old-Timer It is doubtful many will accord to the subject of the present sketch the dignity of belonging to a class deserving of a written biography, yet often a single deed in an otherwise wasted life will rescue it from oblivion. So it seems to me that the life of the humble man whose name by which he was best known stands at the head of this article deserves some tribute of recognition, some written word that may keep his memory alive. Stephen Youngman French, for that was the name which was given him by his parents, was the only son of Joseph and Mary (Youngman) French, and was born in Hollis, N. H., September 23, 1781. His father was a soldier in the Revolution, fought in the battle of Bunker Hill, and did meritorious service elsewhere. Stephen, while not considered as a particularly bright boy, was looked upon as one with fair prospects in life. Ere he reached manhood, however, he seemed to have met his fate in the person of a winsome country maiden a few years his senior. There is nothing to show that his love was reciprocated, and the youth immediately grew melancholy. It is probable that this was an inherent trait of character, likely to assert itself at the first provocation. At any rate, Stephen French began to show such marked tendencies in that direction that his parents sent him away from home, hoping that a change might prove beneficial to him. He had distant relatives in Exeter, Me., and thither he was sent with the tears of a hopeful mother and the prayers of an anxious father. The change of scene did not effect the alteration that was anticipated, and within a few years the young man, instead of living with those who desired to treat him kindly, retired from their midst and lived in a rude cabin built of sods and sticks of wood, in a desolate piece of country known in local geography as "The Hurricane." This was a tract of land that was looked upon as unfit for even a clearing, and the remains of a forest slaughtered by lumbermen were left to decay where they had fallen, while briars, weeds and brushwood sprang up into a tangled mass of undergrowth. The abandonment by the simple-minded youth of the comforts of life created only a ripple of conversation in the gossip of the town, and his course was soon looked upon as a natural outcome of such a shiftless beginning, for nine out of ten considered him too lazy to earn his living in the ordinary way. Let that be as it may, the young hermit set himself about making a small clearing in the midst of his unpromising surroundings, and on the small patch of cultivated soil, poor as it was, he managed to raise corn and vegetables enough to afford him food for sustenance, with the few extra supplies given him. ==== NHDATA Mailing List ==== Visit the NH US GenWeb Archives at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/nh/nhfiles.htm and find out what we are all about. Sincerely, David C. Young File Manager of the New Hampshire US GenWeb Archives --------------F44901B801C9DBC6E719BF12--