Excerpt from History of Newbury, Vermont: From the Discovery of the Co�s Country to Present Time; With Genealogical Records of Many Families

Seventy years ago, in the autumn of 1831, Rev. Clark Perry, then pastor of the Congregational church in this town, delivered an historical address embodying the results of the inquiries which he had made among the oldest people as to the early events of the settlement of the town, and the period of the Revolutionary War.

He lamented that all who had borne an active part in those events had been allowed to pass away without any pains being taken to gather from them the full particulars of those years, and that in consequence of that neglect, the time had passed when a complete history of the town could be written.

A period precisely equal to that which had elapsed since the first white men wintered in the Coos Country, to the date of Mr. Perry's address, has passed since his time, and it would seem useless to attempt, at this late date, what could not be properly done seventy years ago.

Yet the attempt has been made to gather the annals of the town, and the result is now submitted to the considerate judgment of those most interested in its history.

It is to Rev. Clark Perry that we owe the preservation of so much relating to our early years. He interested himself in the days of old. And imparted to others somewhat of his enthusiasm.

After Mr. Perry went away, Mr. David Johnson took up what was to him a most congenial task, that of collecting the papers of his father, Col. Thomas Johnson, and he thus preserved, incidentally, much of our early history.

Of the collections of Mr. Perry and Mr. Johnson, Rev. Grant Powers had the full use in preparing his historical sketches ofthe Coos Country, in 1846. Had Mr. Powers realized the interest which would one day be attached to all the memorials of those early years, he might have been more accurate in his statements, and have given honor to all to whom honor was due. But he allowed his own prejudices and those of others to influence the narrative; he neglected, for reasons well known to himself, to mention many of the most prominent men in Newbury and Haverhill, and, as a result, his work, while graphic and interesting, is unreliable as a history of either town, and is chiefly remarkable for what it does not say.

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