THOMAS GREEN FESSENDEN.

Thomas Green Fessenden was the eldest of nine children of the Rev.
Thomas Fessenden. He was born on the 22d of April, 1771, at Walpole, in
New Hampshire, where his father, a man of learning and talent, was long
settled in the ministry. On the maternal side, likewise, he was of
clerical extraction; his mother, whose piety and amiable qualities are
remembered by her descendants, being the daughter of the Rev. Samuel
Kendal of New Salem. The early education of Thomas Green was chiefly at
the common school of his native place, under the tuition of students
from the college at Hanover; and such was his progress, that he became
himself the instructor of a school in New Salem at the age of sixteen.
He spent most of his youthful days, however, in bodily labor upon the
farm, thus contributing to the support of a numerous family; and the
practical knowledge of agriculture which he then obtained was long
afterwards applied to the service of the public. Opportunities for
cultivating his mind were afforded him, not only in his father's
library, but by the more miscellaneous contents of a large bookstore.
He had passed the age of twenty-one when his inclination for mental
pursuits determined him to become a student at Dartmouth College. His
father being able to give but little assistance, his chief resources at,
college consisted in his wages as teacher of a village school during the
vacations. At times, also, he gave instruction to an evening class in
psalmody.

From his childhood upward, Mr. Fessenden had shown symptoms of that