Drury Family from Walpole As It Was and As It Is (1880) Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by MLM, Volunteer 0000130. For the current email address, please go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000130 Copyright. All rights reserved. ************************************************************************ Full copyright notice - http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm USGenWeb Archives - http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************************ Surname: DRURY Source: Walpole As It Was and As It Is by George Aldrich, The Claremont Manufacturing Co., Claremont, N.H., 1880, pages 241-244 DRURY. The name of Manoah Drury is found in the town records as early as 1776; and, almost yearly for many years afterwards, his name occurs as one of the subordinate tow n officers. He first settled on Derry Hill on a place lying west of the residence of Stansbury Dinsmore. By the old inhabitants he is represented to have been fashioned purposely for pioneer life, being rough and daring in early life. In his mature years be was converted, and joined Mr. Fessenden’s church, and when the old meeting house was built he signified his readiness to support the gospel by purchasing five pews. Nothing is known of his wife excepting that her name was Martha. In the latter part of his life he lived in a house that once stood a few rods west of the residence of Oliver Hall. The personal appearance of his children, it is said, was anything but prepossessing, nature having made a striking contrast between symmetry and angularity of person. They were all very tall and large, and of dark complexion, their height varying from six feet to six feet seven inches, the females in the family not being an exception. Although forbidding in appearance, they were harmless in disposition and fond of fun and jokes, never sparing their own want of personal charms, as a subject for jokes. Ch. I. Sampson, b. Nov. 12, 1774; d young. II. Martha, b. Sept. 14, 1776; m. Allen Watkins, Sept. 1797. III. Sampson, b. Nov. 23, 1778; m. Ruth Sherman, Jan. 14, 1812. Ch. 1st, Lucien. b. May 19, 1812; 2d, Thomas, b. Aug. 21, 1814; 3d, Nancy, b. Feb. 17,1817; 4th, Amanda, b. Dec. 5, 1819; 5th, Sarah, b. June 21, 1820; 6th, David, b. May 17, 1822; 7th, Andrew Jackson, b. Aug. 21, 1824; 8th, Persis Annie; b. March 5, 1828. Many anecdotes have been related of Sampson Drury. Among the great number are the following. At one time a family of strangers moved into the neighborhood where he resided and at the same time an Indian doctor was known to be in town. The stranger woman having a sick child, and Sampson passing the house, she mistook him for the Indian doctor and called him in to treat her child. Sampson gravely responded to her call, and, seeing that the child was most likely troubled with worms, recommended some common medicine, by which it obtained immediate relief. The reputation of the Indian, for skill in treating infants immediately spread throughout the neighborhood, and it was many weeks before she found out that her fancied Indian doctor was no other than one of her neighbors. At another time he and his sister Persis, who was plain looking, like himself, were riding in a wagon through the village, and perceiving several people standing about, he nagged up his horse to his best speed requesting her at the same time to be sure and cover her face so that no one could see it. IV. Elijah, b. Nov. 14,1773. His children by his wife Grace, were 1st, Luke, b. Feb. 18, 1804; 2d, Nathan Nichols, b. Aug. 30, 1805; 3d, Thomas Madison, b. May 21, 1808; 4th, Addison, bap. 1808. Perhaps there were more, but the above names are all that are found in the record of births. Elijah worshipped his bottle and at times its contents overcame his sobriety, when the wags in the village would embrace the opportunity of playing off some joke upon him. One day he came into the village mounted on his faithful Rosinante and stopped at the public house kept by Maj. Grant, where John Jennison now resides. It was very evident about sundown that he had worshipped too long at the shrine of Bacchus, and is he was urged by the wags to speedily make for home, they stating at the same time that they would help him to mount his horse. He finally consented to start and found his horse at the door ready to mount. Some of the wags during their parley with him had procured a rope and made one end of it fast to the hitching post, while the other end was tied to the crupper of the saddle. When he was safely astride his horse one of the party unbuckled the girth and at the same time gave the old horse a sudden start by applying a switch. Mutters soon came to a crisis; the tug between Elijah’s hands and the old horse’s mouth was sharp and spirited; but Rosinante was the winner. Elijah, dropping the reins and grabbing the old horse by the tail, broke his fall, which otherwise might have proved serious. The rope magically went out of sight, and the cause of the sudden mishap long remained to Elijah a profound mystery. At one time when he chanced to be on Boston Common where an itinerant speaker was holding forth on some subject in which he was interested, he took a seat immediately in front of the speaker. When the speaker had closed his remarks he wanted some one to "pass round the hat" for his benefit. Elijah, appearing to him to be the right sort of a man for the purpose, was invited, and he accepted without reluctance. He collected about fourteen dollars and was soon seen making off with his collection, when he was hailed and requested to return it. His reply to the summons was "Let every dog do his own begging" and went on unmolested. He invited his friends to a drinking bout in the evening and spent the fourteen dollars with his comrades. He is said to have been a voracious eater, and the following story, in substance, is related of him. At one time he went to Keene to market some farm produce, and among other things he had a quarter of lamb, which he sold to Davis Carpenter, who then kept the old Goldsmith tavern on Carpenter’s hill, for two shillings. On his return, late in the day, having gone without his dinner, he called for a meal at Carpenter’s. The quarter of lamb had just been roasted and was, with other things, placed on the table before him. When he has completed his dinner it was found that not only the quarter of lamb had wholly disappeared; but also other toothsome etceteras in proportion, for all of which he had paid twenty-five cents. V. David, b. Nov. 23,1780. VI. Molly, b. Dec. 29, 1782. VII. Persis, b. Mar. 1, 1789, never married. VIII. Austin, birth not known. He was living in Boston not many years since, engaged as a truckman. He partook of the size and physical strength of his brothers and sisters.