To his work at the shoemaker's bench he joined the profession of a music teacher, and we soon find him teaching singing schools in Concord and the surrounding towns. In this he not only gained a reputation as a musician, but also a wife, Lydia Davis, one of his scholars. After his marriage he came to Fitchburg, settled on a farm in the northwest part of the town and began to break up the land. But his wife was homesick and induced him to return to Concord, where for more than a year he worked at shoemaking. Then he returned to the farm which he had left in Fitchburg, where he lived during the remainder of his life, which terminated August 5, 1807. He was the leading musician in this region, and for thirty years was the leader of the church choir. He was generally called Captain Tom Thurston.

The homestead of Captain Thomas Thurston was the farm known as the Taylor place, now occupied by George W. Taylor, in the northwest part of Fitchburg, at the end of the Thurston road, leading from the Ashby West road, just beyond Scott reservoir. It is situated on a height of land overlooking the easterly portion of the city and commands a beautiful and extensive view. Pearl hill is seen most distinctly, and further to the south and east the hills of Lunenburg, and so on in the same direction till the view takes in the Bolton hills in the distance.

The present structure is a good looking, substantial farm house, but with proofs of age in its construction and inside finish. Fully half of the westerly part of the building has been added to the original structure, and the old door-rock can still be seen where once must have been the front door. Entering the present shed, which is attached to the east of the house, one sees the original shed front as it must have been in the time of Asa Thurston. In his time, too, the outside surroundings must have given a somewhat different appearance to the place, for the for

est came nearer the house and there was less open land around.

Here Asa Thurston was born on the twelfth day of October, 1787, the fourth child and second son of Thomas Thurston, and here he grew up in a large family of good New England stock, in a typical New England home. His brothers and sisters were Thomas, Hannah, Elizabeth, Ebenezer, Polly, Cyrus, Sylvania, Mahala and Maria. The school house was near by, on the opposite side of the road from the present school house in the Page district, and here Asa went to school to Caleb Wilder, who is represented as being a "terror to rogues, big and little." When he reached the age of fourteen years there was a change in his life. He was apprenticed for seven years to John and Joseph Farwell, scythe makers, whose shop was on the south side of what is now West Main street, a short distance above the River street bridge, and he boarded with Joseph Farwell, who lived where is now the residence of Gerry B. Bartlett. The Farwell house now stands on the corner of Lunenburg street and Highland avenue. Somewhat of an event for him this must have been-the change from the farm and the school to the work of the shop and the more stirring incidents of the village.

He enjoyed life and action. Always fond of active sports, he early became proficient in wrestling, and seldom was there found an antagonist who was his superior. In those days wrestling was one of the principal diversions of the young men, and these trials of strength and agility were of common occurrence at the store, or after work at the shop, or at any place of general gathering. Asa was not the only member of his family who could wrestle. His youngest brother, Cyrus, so long and so well known in Fitchburg, although small of stature, was quick and wiry, and it was almost impossible to floor him. On one

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occasion he was wrestling with Ebenezer Torrey in Perkins' store. It was elbow and collar, and Mr. Torrey tried in vain to lay him on the floor. At last, discouraged and disgusted, he lifted him by the collar and dumped him into a hogshead of salt, amid the laughter of the crowd.

The work in the shop and life in the village were congenial to Asa. Strong, robust and active, while on his way to his work he vaulted back and forth over the rail fence all the way from the house to the shop, and at noon he would amuse himself and others by jumping in and out of a hogshead without touching the sides-a difficult and dangerous feat. While at work in the shop, or using his superfluous energy in athletic sports, there was no hint of the future, no premonition of his destiny. The Sandwich Islands, lying in heathen darkness in the far away Pacific, and the young apprentice in Fitchburg—a mysterious Providence was even then weaving the web that should join their destiny.

As he grew older, Asa's temperament led him into social life and made him a leader there. At dances and social gatherings he was brim full of life, and if there was any young man in Fitchburg who thoroughly enjoyed life it was probably Asa Thurston.

But disease and death are factors to be reckoned with in this world. In the autumn of 1805 typhoid fever was prevalent in Fitchburg, and to quite a number it proved ' fatal. Asa contracted the disease and for some time his life trembled in the balance. It is related that his elder brother, Thomas, who was studying for the ministry, watched with him one night, and that he spent a greater part of the time in prayer. The next morning, when asked about his brother, he said: "Asa will get well and be a missionary, but I shall not live long."

Mrs. Thurston nursed her son with a mother's care and devotion, and he recovered, but she was taken down