transcribed by Jim Keim
(from pp42-43)
“The Dartmouth Hotel (Hanover Inn) lot of half an acre (7 1/3 rods wide and 11 rods long), extending originally from the Green to the Tontine lot, was given by the College in 1778 to General Ebenezer Brewster of Preston, Conn., for a building lot, by way of partial inducement to him to settle here as College steward. It was not intended as a tavern, but the General, after occupying for a year or two the adjoining house, which he hired of Dr. Crane, built, about 1780, a frame house on the northwest corner of his lot, and unexpectedly to the authorities set up a tavern, which he continued personally to keep until 1802, when he leased the stand to Deacon Benoni Dewey, who kept it some seven years as “Dewey’s Coffee House,” and was then followed by John Bush in 1809 and by William W. Poole from 1810 to 1813.
The business outgrew the old house and the
General’s son, Colonel Amos Brewster, was desirous to build a new and
larger
one, but the old gentleman was unalterably opposed to the plan.
At
last, in 1813, the General was persuaded to make visit to his
niece
at Haverhill, and the Colonel took advantage of his absence to remove
the
old house and to begin with a rush the new Dartmouth Hotel on the same
site.”
(from Chapter XV “Militia and Military Service”, p172)
“The militia of Hanover in two companies stood, at the close of the Revolution, uner the command of Captain Thomas Durkee and Captain Joshua Hendee. These companies formed a part of the Seventeenth Regiment, which included companies from the towns of Lebanon, Hanover, Lyme, Enfield, Grafton, Cardigan, and Dorchester, and was commanded by Colonel Jonathan Chase of Cornish.
In June, 1780, this regiment with those of Colonels Hale, Bellows, Ellis and Morey comprised the Third Brigade, but though the General Assembly recommended that the command of the brigade be given to one of the three colonels, Bellows, Hale, or Chase, no appointment is recorded. In 1784, Colonel Chase having been made colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment, Ebenezer Brewster of Hanover was appointed colonel of the regiment, which was denominated the twenty-fourth, and made a parth of the Sixth Brigade.”
(pp172-173)
“By the Act of December 27, 1792, our
regiment
was transferred into the Second Division of the Sixth Brigade and
divided
into two battalions, commanded by a lieutenant-colonel and two
majors.
The First Battalion comprised the companies of Lebanon, Enfield, Canann
and Grafton, and the second those of Hanover, Lyme, Dorchester, and
Orange.
The regiment was thence-forth numbered the twenty-third; Otis Freeman
of
Hanover was appointed lieutenant-colonel commanding, and Ebenezer
Brewster
was appointed general of the brigade.”
©2006 by Linda Boorom