Mr. Balch is, moreover, a man whose private character is above suspicion, a citizen whose public duties are never left to others, a friend whose fealty is never doubted, and an acquaintance whose courtesy, candor, and affability command universal respect and good will. He has been too modest to ask, and too busy to accept, political honors; but his influence has been potent in advancing the party to which he belongs, and in shaping the policy of the city in which he resides. In affairs of state and city, as in business matters, he makes little noise; but his work tells, and his convictions of duty bring substantial results. He was commissioned a colonel of the state militia in 1879, and served on Gov. Head's staff for two years.
In July, 1867, Mr. Balch married Miss Emeline R. Brooks, daughter of Rev. Nahum Brooks, then of Bath, Me., but now of Manchester, who presides over and dispenses the hospitalities of his pleasant home.
HON. JOHN CARROLL MOULTON.
BY COL. THOMAS J. WHIPPLE.
The ancestors of Hon. John C. Moulton were among the fifty-six inhabitants from the county of Norfolk, England, who first settled in the town of Hampton, then Winnicumet, in the year 1638. The names of John Molton and Thomas Molton appear in a partial list of these original settlers, which may be found in "Belknap's History of New Hampshire." Vol. I. p. 37.
General Jonathan Moulton was a descendant of this family, and the great-grandfather of John C. Moulton. He was born in Hampton, N. H., June 30, 1726, and died at Hampton, in the year 1788, at the age of sixty-two. He was a large proprietor in lands, and several flourishing towns in the interior of this state owe their early settlement to his exertions and influence. This fact is mentioned in "Farmer & Moore's Gazetteer," published in 1823. When he was thirty-seven years old, the town of Moultonborough was granted to him and sixty-one others, by the Masonian proprietors, November 17, 1763. He was already noted for the distinguished service which he had rendered in the Indian wars, which ended with the Ossipee tribe, along the northerly borders of Moultonborough, in 1763. Many of his adventures during this bloody period have been preserved and transmitted to the present time; enough, indeed, to fill a large space in this brief sketch. It may be well to preserve one of these incidents in this record:—
An octogenarian in the vicinity of Moultonborough relates that, during the Indian wars, Colonel, afterward General, Jonathan Moulton went out with a scouting party from Dover. After numerous adventures, they met with and attacked a party of six Indians, near a place now known as Clark's Landing, on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee, all of whom fell in the skirmish which ensued, with one exception. The colonel had a large dog with him, which, after the affray was over, he placed upon the track of the escaped Indian. The dog ran on the shore a short distance, and then struck off on to the ice. The party followed, and as they approached the entrance of what is now Green bay they saw in the distance that the dog had the Indian down upon the ice; and when they got to the spot the Indian was dead,—killed by the dog.
The active services of the general in these border wars had made him, at an early age, well and favorably known to the leading men of that day. His numerous raids and scouts, in the region occupied by the Ossipee tribes, had made him well acquainted with the then wilderness, and with the adjacent country upon the western shores of the lake, and no doubt secured to him the land grant which he obtained, in common with many of his companions in arms. He was rightly placed at the head of the grantees, by the Masonian proprietors, and the town of Moultonborough, which was named after him, perpetuates the memory of his rugged virtues and of his enterprising character. His descendants have been inhabitants of Moultonborough and of Center Harbor to the present time. After obtaining this grant, the general devoted much of the remainder of his life in promoting the settlement and the development of this new territory. Among other things in this direction, he obtained from Gov. Wentworth the grant of land now known as the town of New Hampton, which was formerly a part of Moultonborough gore, and then called "Moultonborough Addition." The following amusing account of the way in which Gen. Moulton secured this last grant appears in "Fogg's Gazetteer," and is to be found in other histories of those early times:—