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The Mack Family and Marlow New Hampshire
A. Gary Anderson
Although The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints usually looks to Vermont for its historical origins with the birth of Joseph Smith at Sharon, there is an interesting phase of history connected with his ancestors in neighboring New Hampshire. Solomon Mack, Joseph Smith's maternal grandfather and resident of Lyme, Connecticut, migrated to Marlow, New Hampshire, to become the first resident of the area in 1761.
This move was undoubtedly prompted by the excitement created by the granting of township charters in 1761 on both sides of the Connecticut River in what are now the states of New Hampshire and Vermont. Governor Benning Wentworth had granted 68 charters on 7 October 1761, one of which was Marlow, named after an old English town. The charters provided opportunity for inexpensive land. Most of the original grantees sold their rights to those who became actual settlers. How soon the grantees first visited the township is uncertain. Samuel Gustin, one of the grantees, had been in the area at least by the summer of 1764, and built a cabin. The township proprietors held several meetings in Lyme during the latter part of 1764 and decided to meet on 8 October 1765 in Marlow at Samuel Gustin's dwelling.
Samuel Gustin and Joseph Tubbs, another grantee, made an interesting discovery as they journeyed to Gustin's cabin in Marlow to keep the appointment:
On their way to his place these two men were given a great surprise, for just before they reached the Ashuelot, or to be exact, at the comer, of the village cemetery of the present time, they found a cabin. It proved to be that of Solomon Mack-a wanderer-having no home until he came to New Hampshire. In an autobiography he says after his marriage, in about 1761 he went into the back country to clear himself a farm. Being of Lyme he knew of the course of this grant to the men of that town, where better then could he locate? Mr. Hayward in his History of Gilsum, where Mack later lived, dying there in 1820 says, "Solomon Mack and his wife Lydia had five children born to them in Marlow." The earliest date given being 1764, but there was one, at least born before that. In early layouts mention is made of Mack's "old" house beside the path that leads to the Ashuelot. These facts make it evident that Solomon and Lydia were the pioneer settlers of Marlow. Can we of today imagine the hardihood, the courage, the desire for gain, that would prompt a young couple to establish a home alone in the solitude of such a wilderness with the nearest neighbor fifteen miles away?
Solomon Mack had the hearty, adventurous spirit to become the first resident and pioneer of Marlow. His own account reflects the challenge he and his family faced, "When we moved there it was no other than a desolate and dreary wilderness. Only four families resided within forty miles."