30 CENTENNIAL HISTORY
I have also to recall the District School, and my playmates on the Green, and the climbing up the steeple on the lightning rod, by the aid of both hands and toes. The Green was a goose pasture in those days, and we boys used to chase them about trying to make them shed their quills for pens to be used in school. I recall other scenes and incidents more grave, as the tolling of the passing bell and the procession moving toward the grave-yard. We who were born here have a rich inheritance, and are the debtors of the goodly men and women whose names today are on our lips. There were Col. Potter, Benjamin Clark, Benjamin Riggs, Gould Smith, Jonah and Alfred Treat, Deacon Aaron Clark, Merwin Beach, Squire Treat, Joseph Pardee, and many others. The influence of these men is felt here still, and will be throughout eternity. The lessons in temperance, religion, and social righteousness which such men taught in church, in Sunday School, and in every-day life, cannot be lightly spoken of, but will always be prized. The seed they sowed is still springing up and bringing forth fruit. Their influence will still lead men into the light of God, and in eternity there will be rejoicing that this church was organized one hundred years ago in the town of Orange.