[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12987-12988]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THORNTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE

 Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I wish to recognize of the 
250th anniversary of Thornton, NH. Nestled in the beautiful 
Pemigewasset River Valley in the White Mountains, the land that became 
Thornton was originally granted to a small group of settlers on July 6, 
1763 and subsequently incorporated in 1781. Thornton is named for one 
of those original settlers, Matthew Thornton, who would later become 
the first speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and New 
Hampshire's delegate to the Continental Congress. Thornton, who signed 
Declaration of Independence, was an early and vocal advocate for 
compete independence from England.
  Thornton was also the birthplace of Moses Cheney, an abolitionist and 
conductor on the Underground Railroad. Cheney founded and oversaw the 
printing of the Morning Star, an abolitionist Freewill Baptist 
newspaper distributed in New England from 1833 to 1874. Cheney's two 
sons added to their father's legacy through their own notable 
contributions to New England. Elder son Oren Cheney was the founder and 
first president of Bates College in Maine, and his younger brother 
Person Cheney served as a U.S. Senator and Governor of New Hampshire.
  Thornton's original colonial meetinghouse, built in 1789, still 
stands in the center of town. Meetinghouses like this are considered 
the birthplace of small town democracy. This building hosted town 
meetings from 1790 to 1954. Today, it is being painstakingly restored 
by the Thornton Historical Society for future use as a museum to house 
the town's artifacts and documents from its long and proud history.
  I honor this town's strong heritage and wish its citizens a wonderful 
sestercentennial celebration.

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