0045. Ebenezer Meader (1746 - 1826)
Born: 1746
Died: 1826
0045. Ebenezer Meader (1746 - 1826)
Ebenezer Meader, son of Samuel Meader (1711-a.1773) [0017] and his wife [Elizabeth or Mary], was born in Durham, NH on October 22, 1746 and died, probably in Wolfeboro, NH, on July 28, 1826, in his 80th year.
He owned the first cow and the first pig in Wolfeboro. He planted the first apple trees, raised the first apples from them, and made cider by pounding the apples on an anvil.
He moved from Durham to Wolfeboro when a young man. On October 18, 1770 he bought a farm of Thomas Taylor for $200. Soon after, he went home to Durham and spent a few days with his friends. On his return, his father gave him a cow and a pig. On account of the difficulty of driving swine, he carried the pig two miles, but the little porker was too much for him, and he taught it to follow the cow. Both animals arrived safely.
Travel in those days was difficult, as there were but a few roads in the country. There was a road from Durham to Rochester, but from there to Wolfeboro there was only a footpath and spotted [i.e., blazed] trees. By this route Ebenezer Meader walked from Wolfeboro to Durham and back, a distance of 35 miles each way.
He was a blacksmith by trade and considered a genius in iron work. He made nails for carpenters, plows, pitchforks, axes, shovels, hoes and andirons. It is said that there was but one blacksmith within twenty miles of Wolfeboro. So much were his services appreciated that when he was drafted during the Revolutionary War, the citizens of Wolfeboro and the adjacent villages came together and kept him at home by hiring a substitute to go to war in his place, one Enoch Thomas, for whose family the villagers provided.
Ebenezer Meader was elected a member of the Board of Selectmen in 1777 and annually thereafter for 13 years. The 1790 Census indicates he was then living in Wolfeborough [sic] with a family of one adult male, two males under 16 and two females.
He married:
1) Susanna Joy on December 26, 1773. She was born November 16, 1750 and died February 15, 1803.
The children of Ebenezer Meader and Susanna Joy were:
1391 i. Hannah Meader, born March 25, 1774 three months after her parents' marriage. She died in February, 1786, in her twelfth year.
1392 ii. Elizabeth Meader, born October 9, 1776 and died unmarried in June, 1830.
0116 iii. Samuel Meader, born April 13, 1778 and died March 13, 1847.
1393 iv. Ebenezer Meader, born April 9, 1780 and died in February, 1786.
0117 v. Susanna Joy Meader, born February 18, 1783 and died December 25, 1819.
1394 vi. Jacob Joy Meader, born March 12, 1785 and died in February, 1786.
1395 vii. Ebenezer Meader, born June 10, 1787 and died in the West Indies in August, 1833. He did not marry.
0118 viii. Hannah Meader, born June 20, 1789 and died June 1, 1827.
0119 ix. Abigail Meader, born May 3, 1793 and died June 12, 1839.
2) Sarah Young on June 20, 1806. She was the daughter of Jeremiah Young and was born in March, 1769 and died April 25, 1844. There were no children of this marriage.