An American Family History

Documents Relating to the Dwinnell Family
from A History of the Town of Keene
by Simon Goodell Griffin, Frank H. Whitcomb, Octavius Applegate, Jr.

Rev. Aaron Hall was born in Cheshire, Ct., in 1751; graduated at Yale in 1772; received the degree of A. M. in 1775, from both Yale and Dartmouth; preached in Keene as a candidate in the summer of 1777, was called in December, and ordained Feb. 18, 1778;

married, 1782, Sarah, daughter of Thomas Baker, Esq., of Keene. Their children were: Sally, born 1783, married Elijah Parker; Aaron, born 1785, married Julia Ann Hitchcock; David, born 1786; and Nabby, born 1788, who died 1790.

He married, second, in 1790, Hannah Hitchcock, of Cheshire, Ct., and had two daughters, Hannah, born 1791, and Nabby Ann, born 1793.

In 1788, he was the delegate from Keene to the constitutional convention of New Hampshire that accepted the proposed Federal constitution and assured the establishment of the United States government at that time; and his oration, delivered in Keene on the 30th of June, when the town celebrated the ratification of that Federal constitution, was published in the New Hampshire Recorder and also in pamphlet form.

During his long, peaceful and happy ministry, the original structure of the present First Congregational meetinghouse was built, in 1786, 211 members were added to the church and 871 persons were baptized. He died Aug. 12, 1814, in the sixty-third year of his age and the thirty-seventh of his ministry, respected and beloved by all.

August 27, 1792, the town

Voted to sett off Doctr. Blake's Corner of the Town as a seperate School District, consisting of the following families — viz. John Conoly, Timothy Conoly, Doctr. Obadiah Blake, Royal Blake, Abijah Metcalf, Frederick Metcalf, Joseph Brown, Isaac Wyman, Thomas Dwinell, Josiah Ellis, Elijah Baker, & Ebenezer Baker.

The Blake, Conoly (Colony), and Wyman farms still remain in possession of the descendants of those families. The Baker place is owned by Prof. Bracq, and the Dwinell place, off the road, west, by Edwin V. Aldrich.

Keene, Cheshire County, New Hampshire was settled after 1736 and was a fort protecting Massachusetts during the French and Indian Wars. It was called Upper Ashuelot. When New Hampshire separated from Massachusetts in 1741 it became Keene, New Hampshire. During King George's War, the village was attacked and burned.