Deacon Richard Hale won the warmest regard of
all who knew him. His advice and help were
sought, both in political and religious affairs, to the
full limit of the time at his command.

His farm was among the best in that section.
The house that he first occupied, probably one
already on the place, was as comfortable and convenient
as the usual homes of the earlier colonists.
Later a larger house was built, big enough to accommodate
a family of a dozen or more, and many
guests as well. The house in which Nathan lived
as a boy is still standing, and has fortunately
come down to us with almost no mutilation.

Though the forms and the voices of those who
dwelt in them have long since vanished, there still
linger about these vacant rooms the most tender
and inspiring memories of the lives once developing
there, now gone forward; nothing wasted or lost,
as we will believe, of anything permanent they
strove for or cared for in their dear, earthly home.

To this home Richard Hale, married May
2, 1746, at the age of twenty-nine, brought his
young bride, Elizabeth Strong. If Richard Hale's
pedigree was a good one, his wife, Elizabeth Strong,
came from a family even more finely endowed.
The first of her ancestors who came to America
was Elder John Strong. He was one of the found-

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