At an adjourned meeting of the annual election held March 20, 1888, a committee, consisting of Samuel Upton, George B. Stevens and George P. Hadley, was appointed by the moderator to report upon that portion of the article in the warrant relating "to establishing and maintaining a public library."

The committee at the proper time reported as follows: That they had before them a communication from Miss Lucy A. Rogers, in which she donates to the town one hundred and fifty books as a nucleus for a free library, to be known in honor of her father as "The Rogers Library."

Many of the books are now in a case prepared for them in the selectmen's room; they are covered, numbered and catalogued, and the balance are expected to be thus prepared in a few days. We find also that through her influence several families in town have contributed books, and others propose to do so. We are also informed that a library belonging to a book club, formerly existing, has been added to this number, increasing the library to about three hundred volumes. We are informed also that Miss Rogers proposes to add to the number already donated as she may in the future be able to do. She imposes no conditions upon her gift, unless it may be in reference to its name, and that it shall be free. She makes certain suggestions to its management, and mentions three persons whom she would like to have on the Board of Trustees. We think her wish should have proper consideration, and have so far as we are able embodied them in the following resolutions, which we offer for your acceptance:

Resolved: That we extent our thanks to those who have contributed books for a library, and especially to Miss Lucy S. Rogers for her donation of books and her aid in preparing them for use.
Resolved: That we accept these gifts and establish with them a free library for the use of the citizens of Goffstown, to be known as "The Rogers Library," and that the sum of fifty dollars be annually appropriated to defray the expense of the same and purchase books therefor.
Resolved: That the library be kept in the town hall building and be under the care of a board of five trustees, whose term of office shall be five years, to be appointed by the selectmen, provided, however, that those appointed this year shall be for the term of one, two, three, four and five years, as the appointment of each shall designate.
Resolved: That the Board of Trustees shall have the control of the library, shall appoint a librarian, select and purchase the books, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting their use and distribution, and shall, on the first day of March in each year, make report of their doing, the condition of the library and the needs of the same, to be printed in the town report.
Resolved: That the clerk be requested to send a copy of these resolutions to Miss Rogers.

SAMUEL UPTON, GEORGE B. STEVENS, GEORGE P. HADLEY.

The town "Voted that the report of the committee be accepted and adopted, and that the report with the resolutions be recorded in the records of the town."

The town also "Voted to appropriate the sum of fifty dollars annually towards the support of a town library." Samuel Upton, George B. Stevens, Frank Johnson, George E. Whitney, and F. P. Stevens were appointed trustees, and they immediately accepted the gifts before mentioned, which consisted of four hundred volumes, and a large number of pamphlets and magazines from Miss Lucy A. Rogers of Boston, Mass., one hundred volumes from the Goffstown Book Club, and seventy-five dollars from the Lufkin Library.

The books were deposited in a room in the southwesterly corner of the town house. Miss Isadore Johnson and Miss Sophronia Richards were appointed librarian and assistant librarian, and the report of 1888 says "that they have been faithful and accommodating, doing a large amount of work for which they have received no compensation. They deserve and are entitled to the thanks of every citizen in town."

Early in the summer of 1888, Mr. Frank E. Paige published a catalogue of the hooks then in the library, six hundred and four volumes. The catalogue proved very helpful to the patrons of the library. Frank Johnson was chosen treasurer, and his receipts were 362.61, including the fifty dollars voted by the town, and his disbursements were $58.65. Twenty-two volumes were purchased and forty-eight contributed by individuals. The library was opened on Saturdays from 4 to 8 P. M. The trustees extended their thanks to those who had given books and hoped to be remembered in the same way many times during the coming year. Thus ended the first year of the existence of the library.

The books remained in their first quarters until the reconstruction of the town house in 1889, when they were removed to the vestry of the Congregational Church, where they remained seven months, and on the 18th of December they were placed in the room designed for their reception, in the northwest corner of the town house; here they remained until the completion of the present library building.

The subject of a public library and memorial building was brought before the voters at the annual election in March, 1907, and at this time Mr. Frank A. Parker offered to give the land where the present library building now stands, said offer to remain open one year; and further agreed to remove all buildings on the lot. A "vote of thanks was extended Mr. Parker for his generous offer," and Frank A. Parker, Robert M. Gordon and Charles Morgrage were appointed a committee to investigate and report at the next annual meeting.

In accordance with the instructions at the next annual meeting, March 10, 1908, Robert M. Gordon made a report of the investigations of said committee in respect to design and cost of construction of library buildings, and the town "voted to borrow the sum of $14,000, to build a public library and memorial hall and give the town notes for the same, $1,000 and the interest to be paid each year. And a committee was elected to attend to the construction of said building, consisting of Frank A. Parker, Robert M. Gordon, Charles L. Davis, George W. Colby and George L. Eaton. The following resolution was also unanimously adopted:

   "WHEREAS, Mr. Frank A. Parker, a worthy townsman, has very generously offered to donate to the town of Goffstown a lot upon which to construct a library building, provided the town accepts the same, therefore be it resolved, that the townspeople extend their thanks to Mr. Parker, for his interest in the welfare of Goffstown, and his public generosity, and that the town, by its vote this day, has signified its acceptance of said gift, and its willingness to place thereon a suitable library building."

The work of removing the buildings and grading the ground was commenced in the early spring of 1908, and the building was constructed and turned over to the building committee in the spring of 1909. H. M. Francis and Sons were the supervising architects, and received for plans $634.21. The Hutchinson Building Company of Concord were the contractors, receiving, therefor, the sum of $12,000. The lamps upon the front side of the building were donated by the late Mrs. H. H. Hobson of Nashua, a former resident of Goffstown.

The incidental and accidental finishing and furnishing was continued through the summer, and on the 2nd day of October, 1909, immediately preceding the dedicatory exercises at a special town meeting, the report of Frank A. Parker, treasurer of building committee, was read and accepted, and the committee discharged.

A "vote of thanks was extended the committee for the faithful manner in which the work had been conducted." Resolutions were also passed "thanking Mr. Harry Hobson and Mrs. Robinson, son and daughter of Mrs. Harrison Hobson, late of Nashua, for the munificent gift of bronze lamps placed at the front entrance of the Memorial Library, donated by their mother."

DEDICATION OF MEMORIAL LIBRARY AT GOFFSTOWN, N. H.,
OCTOBER 2, 1909

DEDICATION EXERCISES AT OPERA HOUSE, AT 3 O'CLOCK P. M.

Program

Music by Institute Orchestra Prayer--Rev. E. C. Goodwin Vocal Solo--Mrs. Mae Clough Poore Dedication Address--Rev. C. W. Dockrell Memorial Address to Veterans of Civil War--Dr. Frank Blaisdell Vocal Solo, Our Dear Old Home--Mrs. Mae Clough Poore Address in Memory of Soldiers of Former Wars--George P. Hadley Address--Hon. D. A. Taggart Vocal Solo--Mrs. Mae Clough Poore Original Poem written and read by Moses Gage Shirley Music by Institute Orchestra

   George W. Colby, Chairman of Committee on Building and of Committee on Arrangements, President of the Exercises

ADDRESS IN MEMORY OF SOLDIERS OF FORMER WARS BY
GEORGE P. HADLEY
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
   For the first time in the history of Goffstown the names of those dead and living heroes, who took a part in all of the struggles in the history of the country, are inscribed upon tablets, tablets dedicated to their everlasting honor. Their brave work on sea and land is now a part of the imperishable record of this country. In the language of the lamented Lincoln, "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."
   There is a vote recorded on the old records of the town of Goffstown, that the town took the money appropriated for the support of schools and bought powder and munitions of war for the defense of the colonies, which shows that the early settlers had a spirit of patriotism, and in all wars from that day the people of this town have taken an active part.
   It is a time-honored custom to commemorate, by shaft, monument and tablet, the valor and heroism of those who perilled their lives in their country's cause. It has existed almost since the earliest records; nations and people have set up monuments and inscriptions to commemorate events of conquest, discovery, places of death, and in fact notable events of almost every kind, not only to mark for the present, but that succeeding generations may know the history of the past.
   When the children of Israel had passed over Jordan, the Lord said unto Joshua: "Take you twelve men out of the people and command them, saying, take ye hence out of the midst of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests which bore the ark stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you and leave them where you shall lodge this night. That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come what mean these stones, then ye shall answer them that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever, that all the people might know the hand of the Lord is mighty." So in time to come, when your children's children shall ask what mean these names, history shall say to them, when the mother country demanded aid in the old French War; when the colonies decided to resist tyranny to be free and independent forever; when in 1812 the United States said to England You can not fire upon our ships with impunity; when in 1861 a gigantic and red-handed rebellion tried to overthrow this government, establish perpetually human slavery, and drive freedom from the land; history will say to them, These are the names of those who helped save the Union; and in the blood of some of these brave men, the Nation dipped a sword and wrote on that parchment, called the Constitution of the United States, that human slavery and involuntary servitude shall no more exist in this fair land, except as a punishment for crime.
   Who were these men and who were their ancestors? Let us see. They are the descendants, some of them, of those who have come out of great tribulation and been persecuted for righteousness sake, for love of country, liberty and of God, leaving England, on account of persecution during the reign of James the First, and Charles the First. In 1629, five ships came to Salem, bringing more than two hundred souls. This was called the Massachusetts Colony, and John Endicott was chosen governor. The next year Governor John Winthrop came with eight hundred more. Thus the colony was strong at the start. Macaulay speaks of them as follows: '~We would speak of the Puritans as the most remarkable body of men the world has ever produced. They recognize no title to superiority but the divine favor; those had little reason to laugh at them who encountered them in halls of debate or on fields of battle." From this company at Salem, they spread into Ipswich, Rowley, Essex, Methuen, Amesbury, etc., and from these towns, some of their descendants emigrated to Goffstown and settled on the north side of the Piscataquog River.
   In Scotland, on the accession of James the Second to the throne, the Protestants or Presbyterians began to be terribly persecuted. He was a small, bigoted soul. Under him was a cruel leader, Claverhouse, whom many of you have heard spoken of with abhorrence. Robberies, murders, and brutality were on every hand.
   Now, quite a number of years before this, in 1612, delegations from Scotland had settled in Londonderry in Ireland. Matters grew so bad in Scotland that the Protestants or Presbyterians decided to emigrate to Londonderry in Ireland where those had gone years before. Rut in Ireland things began to grow bad, and the people looked to William of Orange to he their leader. James escaped to France and then resolved to regain the crown. He raised an army and went to Ireland, where he received vast accessions, and then resolved to conquer the country, by marching to Scotland and then sweeping down upon England. He started with high hopes, but when he encountered the Scotch Presbyterians in the City of Londonderry, they refused to surrender, and his whole army outnumbering the defenders of the city, five to one attempted the work of capture. King James demanded a surrender; he advanced within three hundred feet of the gate of the city, when he was met with a shout of "No Surrender," and a volley which killed his aide, and he ran like a frightened child. April 17, 1689, the siege began, suffering, privation, hardship long continued, the rays of the hot, scorching sun, scanty provisions and death. At length the English ships appeared in the river, broke the boom and raised the siege July 30, 1689, a siege of one hundred and four days. Some of the defenders and their children emigrated to America and settled in Londonderry in New Hampshire, 1719, and from Londonderry moved to Bedford and the southern part of Goffstown.
   Ancient classical history records that a dispute arose between the Cyreneans and Carthaginians about the boundary of their territories, and it was mutually agreed that, at a stated hour, two men should depart from each city and walk toward each other, and wherever they met there they should fix the boundaries of their country.
   The Philaeni brothers accordingly departed from Carthage, and met the Cyreneans when they had advanced far into their territory. The Cyreneans accused the Philaeni brothers of leaving Carthage before the appointed hour, and therefore they must retire, or be buried in the sand. The Philaeni refused, were overpowered by the Cyreneans, and buried in the sand.
   The Carthaginians, to commemorate the patriotic deeds of the Philaeni brothers who had sacrificed their lives that the extent of their country might not he diminished, raised two altars on the place where their bodies had been buried, which are called to this day the Philaeni Altars.
   On the Plains of Marathon, more than 2,000 years ago, the Persian Army of over one hundred thousand men, commanded by Darius, met a little band of Athenians of not over ten thousand. The Persians had overrun the Median, Lydian, Babylonian and Egyptian Empires. The Athenians resolved that their country should not be conquered, and when the rays of the setting sun descended, they fell on the defeated Persian Army. A monument was set up on the field, in honor of those brave sons of Athens, and the names inscribed thereon of those who on the Plains of Marathon died.
   On the battlefield of Thermopylae, where Leonidas met the army of Xerxes and the three hundred Spartans died at the pass, a tablet bears this simple inscription: "Go tell the Spartans thou that passeth by, that here obedient to their laws we lie." Among the names on yonder tablet are those who died for each of those reasons; names of men who died that the territory might not be diminished; names of men who died that their honor might not be tarnished; names of men who died obedient to the laws.

THE FRENCH WAR
   New Hampshire men were strong, resolute men, used to hardship and exposure: Joshua Martin wounded near Lake Champlain, 1757; William McDougall carried to France, a prisoner; Peter Dow, Benjamin Richards, John Little and John Butterfield were at Louisburg, Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and the Plains of Abraham.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR
   In the First New Hampshire Regiment at Bunker Hill, mustered April 23, 1775, the Third Company was commanded by Samuel Richards; Moses Little, Lieutenant, and Jesse Carr, Second Lieutenant; of the fifty-two men in the company, thirty-six were from Goffstown.
   In December, 1775, when General Sullivan sent to New Hampshire an urgent request for men because the Connecticut troops had left him, Joshua Martin with a company of men marched at once to Winter Hill and there remained until the British evacuated Boston.
   Again when men were wanted and New Hampshire decided to enlist her men for the war, and not for short terms as they had done previously, Samuel Blodget commanded the Eighth Company, Second New Hampshire Regiment--Samuel Blodget of Goffstown and most of his company from Goffstown. He it was who afterwards built the canal at Manchester.
   Again, on July 1, 1777, men were wanted, and the exact reading is: "From Goffstown and vicinity, forty-two men under Lieut.-Col. Moses Kelly marched for the relief of Ticonderoga." In 1778, a French fleet was sent upon our coasts to operate against the British then in possession of Rhode Island. While the French admiral was to operate against them seaward, General Sullivan was to attack them on land. New Hampshire furnished a brigade of troops, and Col. Moses Kelly commanded a regiment, Col. Robert McGregor, Adjutant, and a large part of the Fifth Company, of which Moses Little was Lieutenant, was from Goffstown.
   The men of the Revolution were ever ready, and went at short notice. They were at Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, Camden, Bennington, Trenton, Saratoga and Yorktown. They were in the first conflict and remained till the last.
"They left the plowshare in the mould,
The flocks and herds without a fold,
The sickle in the unshorn grain,
The corn hall garnered on the plain,
And mustered in their simple dress
For wrongs to seek a stern redress.
To right those wrongs come weal come woe,
To perish or o'ercome the foe."
   What a halo of glory surrounds the names of those Revolutionary soldiers; names as imperishable as the stars of heaven, and which will live in the hearts of a grateful people so long as the hills shall stand.
   At the laying of the corner stone of Bunker Hill Monument, fifty years after the battle, when Daniel Webster spoke to the remnant of the Revolutionary Army he spoke to Goffstown soldiers, and at the completion, in 1843, likewise men whose names are on yonder tablet were there.

WAR OF 1812
A company of about fifty men from Weare, New Boston and Goffstown, commanded by Phineas Stone of Weare, met on the common and marched to Portsmouth. The first day they went to Derry and slept in a barn. When they arrived at Portsmouth the company was increased by men from Tamworth and Sandwich, so the company numbered one hundred and six men.
   Of those who died in the War of the Rebellion, their names to some of you will revive old associations and feelings of sadness; they were comrades of yours. They shared the tent, endured hardships and braved death on the same battlefields with you. You know their record. No words of mine are needed to tell you what they suffered, and how they met death.
   On the roll of honor from 1861 to 1865 are those who died at Fair Oaks, James Island, Second Bull Run, Louisiana, Gettsyburg, Fort Wagner, Drurys Bluff, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and before Petersburg.
"Rest on embalmed and sainted dead,
Dear as the life you gave,
No impious footsteps ere shall tread,
The herbage of your grave.
Nor shall your glory he forgot,
While Fame her record keeps,
Or Honor points the sacred spot
Where Valor proudly sleeps."
   There is another list; a list of those who died in prison. Should you desire to witness true heroism, go with me to the prisons of the South; go with me to Andersonville, Libbey, Danville, Va., and Salisbury, N. C., where rest the dust of some of your comrades. Without food, shelter or clothing, exposed to the blazing sun of summer, and to the cold of winter, with no protection. Shot down like a dog, if in their weakness they tottled beyond the line, to step over which was death.
   They saw their comrades die one by one, and buried in unmarked graves, or left for the beast or fowls of the air to devour. They saw the gates swing open, and saw the opportunity to escape the death they knew awaited them if they would only renounce their allegiance to the old flag and bear the standard of the South. Did they embrace the opportunity? "No!" they said, "In the face of all that we have suffered, and whatever else you may inflict, do not ask us to forsake the old flag, which we have followed on so many bloody fields, and which has been the winding sheet of so many of our comrades. Do not ask us to renounce the government to which we swore to be true."
   Died in prison did I say? "They never die who perish in a good cause. The block may soak their gore, their limbs be strung to city gates and castle walls. But still their spirit walks abroad."
   Although no costly casket enclosed their remains, no cinerary urn holds their ashes, no monumental pile points its shaft toward Heaven over the last resting place, theirs is a greater heritage being held in lasting remembrance by a grateful people.
   Of the names on the tablet you ask me where are those who once answered to them. By far the great majority have crossed the silent river. A few are here. They and you are of that class who, when the country called, were ready to respond, and will, as long as this government shall stand, receive the encomiums of a thankful people, and be held in everlasting honor.

Poem written by Moses Gage Shirley, and read by him at the Dedication of the Goffstown Memorial Library, October 2,1909:

OUR LIBRARY

March 8, 1910, at the annual meeting the name was changed from Rogers Free Library to Goffstown Public Library.