Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1852-06-11

LORD TIMOTHY DExTER--WHITEFIELD' s GRAVE
DR. SPRIYG-REv. CHARLES MILTON.

to oet over the effect OF that fire. Ever since
! then no Young man could start business but he
was discouraged by the terrible tale of that aw-
! full confagraon, and the comfortable assurance
that Newburyport could never be any thing az
ter--NewburyPort Union.
/ There is great deal of meaning embodied in
the few lines above quoted. We had the honor
or the misfortune, we never have been able to
decide which, of having been born in that ancient
and silent place. Whether its naturally procli-
witty to grass, instead Of business, was OCCASION
ed by the Great Fire" which was the epoch
from which all other transactions, from the set
ting OF minister to the christening of baby,
were reckoned, has never been fully settled in
our own mind. Once or twice some of the dem
liens OF that goodly town have attempted in
some unnatural throes TO galvanize the locality
into place suspected of business. This has
been done, however, always by the aid and nsti-
CATION Of enterprising men from abroad, who,
having looked upon its beautiful natural location,
lave desired to see It flourish also as business
mart These efforts, however, have not awaited
much, as the green grass in the streets still tes-
tiies. The fact is, old Newburyport has always
been cursed with about ten times as many an
business "old fogies" as generally falls to the
lot of any place, even in federal and consesva-
tive New England. These men have kept their
money boarded in strong boxes, or have invest
ed it in some kinds Of stocks, or business, that
was not in any way connected with the interest
of the citizens of the place; and if they some
times patronized the ship builders Of BeeyilLe
in building ship, it went to Boston for its car
go and crew, and never again came near enough
to the Merrmack to see Plum Island lights, un-
less it went ashore in winters storm while
CROPPING for Boston Bay, to which place Newbu-
ryport has always taken much pleasure to paw
tribute, as she has enjoyed satisfaction in the VOL
untary exile of her onterprsing sons. IT'S true
that the steam cotton mills which were started
about ten years since threatened to do something
foT the prosperity of the place. But if few cit
liens and strangers who have come in, have
made little money, or eked out toilsome exis-
tence with few more of the comforts of life
the mass Of men, women and children who have
found employment, are poorly, almost miSerably
off to what they would have been if the terrors
of the "Great Fire" had only been sufficient to
have driven them (from their ancient haunts upon
the banks of the AIerrimack, and from Joppa
with its 'stink of fish, to the enterprisinq bust
ness places Of New York, or the daily born cit
les Of the mighty and growing West If Old
Newburyport had retained, after the memorable
epoch above referred to, but half the enterprise
OF her Marquands, Rands, Otis's, Collins, Bart
let's, Johnsons, and others, she might to-day
have had as much the start in business and pop
ulation of every city in Mass as she has the
start in beauty of location and natural advanta-
res for internal communication with the States
! on her northwest and east. But that everast-
ing cry of the Great Fire. was continually rung
in the ears Of every young man who thought of
engaging in any business; and the "old fogies"
who had the keys Of the money chest kept them
tight, and told those who applied for assistance
that Newburyport was ''no place to DO business
in since the Fire"
This venerable place, though has a thousand
"reminiscences which her exiled children love to
recur to. Lord Timothy Dexter here accumu-
lated untold wealth in adventures of " warming
pans " to the West Indies, or buying up the old
Continental money for a song, and receiving in
ofteryears full pay, principal and interest, from
the government. Here he built his mansion and
tomb. Hero he planted his orchard, and laid
out his grounds Here, upon hundred pedes-
tails in front of his grounds, stand, or stood, the
carved figures Of the Patriots of '76, and those
other heroes whose names were changed to suit
his own fancy or upon the jokes and instigations
of his ncighbors. Here was his immense bar
room, whose sides, like his own, were stuffed
and reIolent with the choicest liquors of every
land. Over his front door, if memory is not
Tcacherous, still stand Washington, Adams,
AMI Jefferson with his lifted scroll, which was
intended Cor the "DecIaration Of Lldependsnce,"
and which the beso,tcd ignoramus insisted that
his painter should call the Constitution. Here
the curious compound of humanity walked the
streets with his epaulettc and sword, followed by
his faithful [ani Just as inte!ligcnt) dog Here,
in lis bedroom Of his mansion, Ike kept his cot
/ fin; and through these streets he was conveyed,
shroulcd and cotlined, 10 his tomb in the garden.
while he was yet alive, in order that he might
know how to enjoy the funeral scene, and learn
By experience who were his friends, by the CO.
+. pjousnoss OF their tcars-0nd here he roproach-
ed his tender wife because she could not weep
over his tayccal funeral as if her best friend
was really dead. Here he drove his beautiful
cream colored horses, and splendid barouche
and sold them all in disgust when the boys in
the streets were tired Of praisng the pomp and
magniGcence Of Lord Timothy Dexter Here
was S.. Paui's Church, to which he gave one
hundred pounds on condition that the fact should
be painted or sign board and nailed upon the
front Of the gallery, where he had the saiisfac-
ton Of rea'ing it as he stood up in his devotions
as long as he lived and when he finally had his
second aud last funeral it was chQrtably or char
acters'caliy taken down.
Here, too, IS the monument of WhitcfeId-
aal here are his bones which we handled in our
boyish days as we thought of his eloquent voice
and his sstsacrdcing journeys, thirteen times
l.. l.