COL. JAMES ARMSTRONG,
Charleston, S. C.
COL. WILLIAM H. DONOVAN,
Lawrence, Mass.
FOUR MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY.
THE IRISH PIONEERS AND FOUNDERS OF PETERBOROUGH, NEW HAMPSHIRE.[[6]]
BY JAMES F. BRENNAN, OF PETERBOROUGH.
Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen:
My memory leads me back over a comparatively brief part of the time covered by the recollections of the gray haired men and women who are here present. I was born in this beautiful village; my first hallowed recollections cluster here; its territory is familiar to me; I know its people and something of its history, and wherever I go my mind reverts with pride to this good old town.
It is with great pleasure that I accept the honor of responding to this toast, and in what I have to say shall not refer to the comparatively modern generation of Irishmen—Murphy, Brennan, Hamill, Noone, and scores of others—and their descendants, who have helped to build up this town, and whose history should be left for a résumé of fifty years hence, but to those early settlers who came across the ocean, and their descendants; men who risked all, even life itself, to make this spot a fit place for the abode of man.