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A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

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;1745, 1746.] REV. BENJAMIN DOOLITTLE. 233salary as m<strong>in</strong>ister be<strong>in</strong>g seventy-five pounds <strong>in</strong> irredeemableMassachusetts paper, while his medical<strong>and</strong> surgical practice brought him full four hundreda year. He <strong>of</strong>fered to comply with the wishes <strong>of</strong> hisflock if they would add that amount to his salary, —which they were not prepared to do, <strong>and</strong> the m<strong>in</strong>istercont<strong>in</strong>ued his heterogeneous labors as before.As the position <strong>of</strong> his house on the village streetseems to have been regarded as strategic, the townvoted t<strong>of</strong>ortify it with a blockhouse <strong>and</strong> a stockade,for the benefit both <strong>of</strong> the occupant <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> all thevillagers. This was accord<strong>in</strong>gly done, at the cost <strong>of</strong>eighteen pounds, seven shill<strong>in</strong>gs, <strong>and</strong> sixpence forthe blockliouse, <strong>and</strong> a farther charge for the stockade<strong>and</strong> thenceforth Mr. Doolittle could write his sermons<strong>and</strong> mix his doses <strong>in</strong> ]3eace. To his other call<strong>in</strong>gshe added that <strong>of</strong> historiographer. When, aftera m<strong>in</strong>istry <strong>of</strong> thirty-six years, the thrifty pastor wasbusied one day with hammer <strong>and</strong> nails <strong>in</strong> mend<strong>in</strong>gthe fence <strong>of</strong> his yard, he suddenly dropped dead froma stroke <strong>of</strong> heart-disease, — to the grief <strong>of</strong> all <strong>North</strong>field;<strong>and</strong> his papers be<strong>in</strong>g searched, a record wasfound <strong>in</strong> his h<strong>and</strong>writ<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> the <strong>in</strong>roads <strong>of</strong> the enemythat had happened <strong>in</strong>his time on or near the Massachusettsborder. Be<strong>in</strong>g rightly thought worthy <strong>of</strong>publication, it was pr<strong>in</strong>ted at Boston <strong>in</strong> a d<strong>in</strong>gypamphlet, now extremely rare, <strong>and</strong> much prized byantiquarians. 11 A short Narrative <strong>of</strong> Mischief done by the French <strong>and</strong> IndianEnemy, on the Western Frontiers <strong>of</strong> the Prov<strong>in</strong>ce <strong>of</strong> the Massachusetts

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