Mr. Samuel Goddard was born at Sutton, Massachusetts, July 6, 1772. We have no information concerning his early life. His opportunities for education are said to have been scanty. After coming to manhood he was for several years in trade with a brother in Royalston, Mass. Here he married his first wife (Abigail Goddard of Athol, a town adjoining Royalston), and here his older children were born.
Hon. Ezra Scollay Stearns, Secretary of the State of New Hampshire since 1891, came to that office superabundantly qualified to meet its most exacting requirements. He was born in Rindge, N.H., September 1, 1838, son of Samuel and Mary Fitch (Moore) Stearns, his father being a native of Brattleboro, Vt., and his mother of Sharon, N.H. Through his mother he is connected with the Fitch family, several members of which were men of distinction during the Colonial period. The family was of Scotch-Irish origin; and the city of Fitchburg, Mass., was named in honor of John Fitch, a descendant in … Read more