STARK, John, soldier, born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, 28 August, 1728; died in Manchester, New Hampshire, 8 May, 1822. His father emigrated from the north of Ireland and settled on the extreme frontier of New Hampshire in near neighborhood to the Indians, owned extensive tracts of land about Amoskeag falls, and was an original proprietor of Dunbarton (then called Starkstown). Here the son grew up with few advantages of book education, but with abundant training in hunting and all athletic employments. He made frequent hunting-excursions into the forest, and on one of these occasions, in 1752, was taken prisoner by the savages, and retained in captivity till he was ransomed by the colony of Massachusetts. The bold and defiant bearing of Stark excited the admiration of his savage captors, and after the initiatory ceremony of running the gantlet, in which he took the unexpected part of using his club on the Indians, he was released from the drudgery usually imposed on captives, and was called by them "the young chief." The knowledge he thus gained of forest life and of the topography of the border was of great service in subsequent conflicts with the Indians. 

In 1755 he was appointed a lieutenant in Major Robert Rogers's famous corps of rangers, and served with it, soon rising to the rank of captain, through all the campaigns around Lake George and Lake Champlain, where traditions still exist of his sagacity and bravery. At the close of the war he retired from the army and engaged in farming at Derryfield (now Manchester, New Hampshire), and so continued till tidings reached him of the battle of Lexington. Promptly he then mounted his horse, and, at the head of several hundred of his neighbors, set out to join the army at Cambridge. Being there appointed colonel, he in one day organized a regiment of eight hundred hardy backwoodsmen. 

On 17 June, 1775, he was stationed about three miles north of Boston, in a position from which he had a full view of Banker's and Breed's hills. Seeing that a battle was inevitable, he waited for no orders, but set out at once for the ground, which he reached just before the conflict began. He led his men into the fight, saying: "Boys, aim at their waistbands "--an order that has become historical. His ammunition giving out, he was forced to retreat, which he did with much deliberation, leading his men under a hot fire, but in good order, across Charlestown neck to Merlin hill. After the evacuation of Boston he marched with his regiment to New York. He was subsequently ordered to Canada, and then rejoining Washington, was with him at Trenton and Princeton. Having been slighted, as he thought, in the promotions, he resigned his commission and retired to his farm. 

When information arrived that General Arthur St. Clair had retreated and Ticonderoga had been taken, New Hampshire flew to arms, and called for Stark to command her troops. He consented on condition that he should not be subject to any orders but his own; and to this the council of state agreed, because the men would not march without him. Setting out with a small force for Bennington, he there learned that Burgoyne had dispatched Colonel Frederick Baum with 500 men to seize the stores collected at that place. Sending out expresses to call in the militia of the neighborhood, Stark marched out to meet him, hearing of which, Baum entrenched himself in a strong position about six miles from Bennington, and sent to Burgoyne for re-enforcements. Before they could arrive, Stark attacked him on 16 August, 1777. Tradition says that he called to his men as he led them to the assault: "There they are, boys. We beat them today, or Molly Stark's a widow !"--another of his sentences that has gone into history. Doubts have been cast on its authenticity, for Mrs. Stark's name was Elizabeth. 

The second British force of 500 men, under Colonel Breymann, presently arriving on the scene, was likewise totally defeated. Of the 1,000 British, not more than a hundred escaped, all the rest being killed or captured, a result of great importance, as it led ultimately to the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga. Colonel Baum, who was mortally wounded, said of the provincials: "They fought more like hell-hounds than soldiers." The American loss was only about seventy. Washington spoke of it immediately as "the great stroke struck by General Stark near Bennington "; and Baroness Riedesel, then in the British camp, wrote: "This unfortunate event paralyzed our operations." 

For this victory Stark was made a brigadier-general, 4 October, 1777, and given the thanks of congress. He continued in active service during the remainder of the war, displaying everywhere distinguished ability and commanding the northern department in 1778 and 1781. In 1783 he retired to his farm, where he lived in republican simplicity till his death at the age of ninety-three. When he was eighty-nine years old congress allowed him a pension of sixty dollars per month ; but with his simple tastes and habits this was not essential to his comfort. He was a good type of the class of men who gave success to the American Revolution With the exception of General Thomas Sumter, he was the last surviving general of the Revolutionary army. He was buried on his own grounds on the east bank of Merrimack river at Manchester, where a simple granite obelisk was placed in 1829 to mark his resting-place. The citizens of Manchester planted memorial trees around it in 1876. In August, 1887, the corner-stone was laid in Bennington of the monument seen in the illustration, it is an obelisk of limestone, 301 feet high from foundation to apex. It is also proposed to erect at Manchester a massive equestrian statue in bronze of the general. Stark's biography was written by Edward Everett in Sparks's "American Biography." See also his "Life and Official Correspondence," by his grandson, Caleb Stark (Concord, New Hampshire, 1860).

--His brother, William Stark, soldier, born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, 12 April, 1724; died on Long Island, New York, about 1776, acquired a good education, and was among the first to whom the proprietors granted lands in Londonderry. Previous to the erection of a public meeting-house the town-meetings were held at his home. He served in the old French war, and, as a captain of rangers on the northern frontier, was at Ticonderoga, and fought under General Jeffrey Amherst at Louisburg and General James Wolfe at Quebec. At the beginning of the Revolution lie applied for the command of a regiment, but another officer was preferred by the New Hampshire assembly, and deeming this an insult, he entered the British service as colonel. He endeavored to persuade his brother John to adopt this course, but without success. He is described as possessing great bravery and hardihood, but as wanting in moral firmness. His name appears in the banishment and proscription act of New Hampshire, and his estate was confiscated. He was a proprietor of Piggwacket (now Fryeburg, Maine), and a hill there was named for him. His death was caused by a fall from his horse.-

-John's son, CALEB STARK, merchant, born in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, 3 December, 1759; died on his estate in Oxford township, Ohio, 26 August, 1838, served at the age of fifteen as ensign in his father's regiment at Bunker Hill, and remained with the army until the close of the war, rising to the rank of brigade-major. He then engaged in commerce in Boston, and removed in 1828 to Ohio.--Caleb's son, Caleb Stark, author, born in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, 21 November, 1804; died there, 1 February, 1864, was graduated at Harvard in 1823, studied law in Litchfield, and afterward in New York city, and began to practice in Cincinnati, Ohio, but soon removed to Concord, New Hampshire, and subsequently to Dunbarton, New Hampshire, retiring from his profession. He was a member of the New Hampshire legislature, and was the author of "Reminiscences of the French War, containing Rogers's Expeditions with the New England Rangers, and an Account of the Life and Military Service of John Stark" (Concord, 1831);" Memoir and Official Correspondence of Gem John Stark; with Notices of other Officers of the Revolution" (1860): and a " History of Dunbarton, New Hampshire, from the Grant by Mason's Assigns in 1751 to 1860" (1860).

--John's great-grandson, William Stark, lawyer, born in Manchester, New Hampshire, about 1820; died in Somerville, Massachusetts, 29 October, 1873, was graduated at Williams in 1850, studied law, was admitted to the bar of New York in 1851, and practiced in Nassau. In 1853 he removed to Manchester, remaining there until 1870, when he was placed in the McLean asylum in Somerville, Massachusetts, as his faculties had become impaired. Previously he had devoted himself to literary pursuits and to the care of a large collection of rare birds and animals. His park in Manchester, which was open to the public, was widely known. He wrote several poems, and frequently lectured.