In Webster We Trust

The carriageway leading from the road to the house, Daniel Webster once wrote of his Marshfield estate, was "not bold and impudent, right up straight to the front door, like the march of a collumn of soldiers, but winding over pf the lower parts of the ground, sheltering itself among trees and hedges, and getting possession at last, more by grace than force, as other achievements are best made."

By winding process, not impudence, the town of Marshfield, Massachusetts, will take possession of what's left of the Webster estate, with plans to preserve it for future generations. The town's application for a state grant has been approved, adding the necessary funds to those approved at last spring's town meeting. The papers passed in October.

For more than five years, a small, underfunded organization called the Daniel Webster Preservation Trust has patiently worked to preserve, forever, the remaining core of an estate that once covered 2,000 acres. Some Dartmouth grads are involved, including Otis Carney '55, Peter Forbes '83 (the regional director for the Trust for Public Land), and Paul Tsongas '62, who has agreed to add his name to the project.

While more than 600 acres of farmland and marshland had earlier been set aside for conservation, very little of Webster's property remains in its original state. Most of the land has long since been sub-divided and turned into residential housing. Webster's law office was moved and set up as a museum. The barns have burned or been demolished. The original farmhouse burned and was rebuilt by Webster's daughter-in-law. That building is at the center of just 16 acres being preserved and maintained by the Webster Trust. But as Webster himself said of the property, "There is good land enough, if people would but work it well & manure it."

Thanks tosome Greeners,Black Dan'sestate existsnow andforever,one andinseparable.