The "Dearborn of Dearborn Park"
The “Dearborn” of Dearborn Park
In 1976 the Town built and dedicated Dearborn Park. The Dearborn is General Henry Dearborn. Truth be told Dearborn for much of his life lived elsewhere. But he was born here in 1751 in the Dearborn family garrison house on Post Road, the youngest of twelve children of Simon Dearborn and Sarah Marston Dearborn. The family moved to Epping when Henry was still a child although two brothers remained in North Hampton.
Henry was a six foot tall athletic hunk with brains, a member of the gentry. His favorite sport when young was wrestling but he reportedly excelled in all sports, often held on holidays, at militia training, house and barn raisings, and other community events. As a youngish man during the Revolution, Dearborn after setting up camp near Peekskill NY, wrote that he walked four miles to find level ground for a game of ball. (Ball may refer to a form of soccer and rugby).
Prior to the Revolution, Henry apprenticed with a practicing physician, Dr. Hall Jackson, in Portsmouth after previously studying with Dr. Samuel Shepard in Nottingham. When Shepard decided to go into the ministry, Dearborn acquired his medical practice.
As the Revolution was brewing, Dearborn organized a militia company, to which he was elected captain. That company fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. They then volunteered to join Col. Benedict Arnold's ill-fated expedition to take Quebec. Ill-fated because Dearborn and most of the Americans were taken prisoner when they tried storming the city in a snowstorm on New Year’s Eve. Dearborn was exchanged for British prisoners in March 1777.
Back with the Continental Army, Dearborn was promoted to Major and took part in the campaign against Burgoyne and fought at the battles of Ticonderoga and Freeman's Farm and later the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey, that battle occurring during a 100 degree heat wave. He was with Washington at Valley Forge and served on the commander in chief's staff during the battle of Yorktown.
After the war, Dearborn lived for a while in Exeter where he was the prime mover in establishing the Order of the Cincinnati for New Hampshire. At this time, he purchased a large tract of land along the Kennebec River in Maine and moved there. Rather than return to the practice of medicine, he remained a soldier with the Maine militia, reaching the rank of brigadier general in 1787 and major general in 1789. In September of that year, George Washington appointed him Marshal, one of the first group of Marshals in the new republic created by the first Congress in the Judiciary Act of 1789, the same legislation that established the Federal judicial system.
Dearborn was elected to Congress as one of Jefferson's Democratic Republicans in 1793 and served two terms. After the election of 1800 President Jefferson appointed Dearborn Secretary of War, the first New Hampshire native to hold a cabinet position. He served in that position through Jefferson’s two terms in office. While Secretary of War, Dearborn ordered the construction of a fort on the western shores of Lake Michigan. From that fort grew the city of Chicago.
During Madison’s administration Dearborn was appointed to collect duties from the port of Boston, a position he held until the War of 1812 broke out and he was appointed senior major general of the United States Army. Although Dearborn had been a capable militia commander, his grasp over the entire northeastern sector of war proved flawed. Dearborn initiated assaults on Canada and had moderate successes in York and at Fort George in 1813, but his inability to reinforce Brigadier General William Hull in Detroit proved fatal to his military career. Dearborn was recalled from the field on July 6, 1813, and served out the rest of his military service in an administrative role.
President Madison later nominated him to the office of Secretary of War. A storm of public protest and Federalist opposition in Congress forced the administration to withdraw the nomination. Dearborn retired to Massachusetts. He did serve as the Minister to Portugal for about two years, before again retiring to private life in 1824. He lived in Roxbury, just outside Boston, until his death in 1829.
Past North Hampton residents were justly proud of their native son, and honored him with a monument located near the site of his birthplace in North Hampton, just south of the intersection of Exeter and Post Roads. The next time there is a bonfire or fireworks or an athletic game at Dearborn Park, think of Henry and how he would have enjoyed the competition and community festivities.