Item: i108501

Authentic Medal of:

United States – George Washington
New Hampshire – Francestown’s Frances Deering Wentworth
Bronze 41mm (27.66 grams)
FRANCESTOWN N H INCORPORATED 1772 FRANCES DEERING WENTWORTH, Frances facing 1/2 right.
Scene of Town.

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Francestown is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,610 at the 2020 census. The village of Francestown, population 201 in 2020, is in the center of the town.

Incorporated in 1772, Francestown takes its name from Frances Deering Wentworth, the wife of colonial governor John Wentworth. There were 928 residents when the first census was taken in 1790. For some time the town used its location on the Second New Hampshire Turnpike, the only route between Boston and Vermont, to collect a toll of one cent per mile from coaches and wagons. High-quality soapstone was mined in Francestown from 1792 to 1912. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 30.4 square miles (78.7 km2), of which 29.8 square miles (77.2 km2) are land and 0.58 square miles (1.5 km2) are water, making up 1.85% of the town. The highest point in Francestown is the summit of Crotched Mountain, at 2,066 feet (630 m) above sea level, on the town’s western border. Francestown lies fully within the Merrimack River watershed, entirely via tributaries of the Piscataquog River. The town is crossed by state routes 47 and 136.

Frances Deering Wentworth (1745–1813) was born into a wealthy and well-connected family. Her parents were Samuel Wentworth and Elizabeth Deering. When she was a young teenager, she had fallen in love with her first cousin, John Wentworth. However, he was too invested in establishing his career, and he left America to go to London. In London he managed his family’s business. Back in America, Frances was 16 and fell in love with another one of her first cousins, Theodore Atkinson. They wed on May 13, 1762 and moved into their new home in 1765 in Portsmouth. During this time, Theodore commissioned John Singleton Copley to paint a portrait of his wife to display in their home.

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Of the 50 U.S. states, New Hampshire is the fifth smallest by area and the tenth least populous, with a little over 1.3 million residents. Concord is the state capital, while Manchester is the largest city. New Hampshire’s motto, “Live Free or Die”, reflects its role in the American Revolutionary War; its nickname, “The Granite State”, refers to its extensive granite formations and quarries. It is best known nationwide for holding the first primary in the U.S. presidential election cycle, giving rise to the phrase “As New Hampshire goes, so goes the nation”.

New Hampshire was inhabited for thousands of years by Algonquian-speaking peoples such as the Abenaki. Europeans arrived in the early 17th century, with the English establishing some of the earliest nonindigenous settlements. The Province of New Hampshire was established in 1629, named after the English county of Hampshire. Following mounting tensions between the British colonies and the crown during the 1760s, New Hampshire saw one of the earliest overt acts of rebellion, with the seizing of Fort William and Mary from the British in 1774. In January 1776, it became the first of the British North American colonies to establish an independent government and its own state constitution; six months later, it signed the United States Declaration of Independence and contributed troops, ships, and supplies in the war against Britain. In June 1788 it was the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, bringing that document into effect.

Through the mid-19th century, New Hampshire was an active center of abolitionism, and fielded close to 32,000 men for the Union during the U.S. Civil War. After the war, the state saw rapid industrialization and population growth, becoming a center of textile manufacturing, shoemaking, and papermaking; the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester was at one time the largest cotton textile plant in the world. The Merrimack and Connecticut rivers were lined with industrial mills, most of which employed workers from Canada and Europe; French Canadians formed the most significant influx of immigrants, and today roughly a quarter of all New Hampshire residents claim French American ancestry, second only to Maine.

Reflecting a nationwide trend, New Hampshire’s industrial sector declined after the Second World War; since 1950, its economy has heavily diversified to include financial and professional services, real estate, education, and transportation, with manufacturing still higher than the national average. Beginning in the 1980s, its population surged as major highways connected it to the Greater Boston and led to more bedroom communities. In the 21st century, New Hampshire is among the wealthiest states in the U.S., with the seventh highest median household income and some of the lowest rates of poverty, unemployment, and crime. It is one of only nine states without an income tax, and has no taxes on sales, capital gains, or inheritance; consequently, its overall tax burden is the lowest in the U.S. after Florida. New Hampshire ranks among the top ten states in metrics such as governance, healthcare, socioeconomic opportunity, and fiscal stability.

With its mountainous and heavily forested terrain, New Hampshire has a growing tourism sector centered on outdoor recreation. It has some of the highest ski mountains on the East Coast and is a major destination for winter sports; Mount Monadnock is among the most climbed mountains in the U.S. Other activities include observing the fall foliage, summer cottages along many lakes and the seacoast, motor sports at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Motorcycle Week, a popular motorcycle rally held in Weirs Beach in Laconia. The White Mountain National Forest links the Vermont and Maine portions of the Appalachian Trail, and has the Mount Washington Auto Road, where visitors may drive to the top of 6,288-foot (1,917 m) Mount Washington.

George Washington  (February 22, 1732  – December 14, 1799) was the  first President of the United States (1789-1797), the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War , and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States . He  presided over the convention that drafted the United States Constitution , which replaced the Articles of Confederation and remains the  supreme law of the land .

Washington was elected president as the unanimous choice of the electors in the elections of both 1788-1789 and 1792 . He oversaw the creation of a strong,  well-financed national government that maintained neutrality in the wars raging  in Europe, suppressed rebellion, and won acceptance among Americans of all  types. Washington established many forms in government still used today, such as  the cabinet system and inaugural address . His retirement after two  terms and the peaceful transition from his presidency to that of John Adams established a tradition that  continued up until Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to a third  term. Washington has been widely hailed as “father  of his country” even during his lifetime.

Washington was born into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia ; his wealthy planter family  owned tobacco plantations and slaves, that he inherited. Although Washington  owned hundreds of slaves throughout his lifetime, his views on slavery evolved,  and he desired to free them and abolish slavery. After both his father and older  brother died when he was young, Washington became personally and professionally  attached to the powerful William Fairfax , who promoted his career as a  surveyor and soldier. Washington quickly became a senior officer in the colonial  forces during the first stages of the French and Indian War . Chosen by the Second Continental Congress in 1775 to be  commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution,  Washington managed to force the British out of Boston in 1776, but  was defeated and almost captured later that year when he lost New York City . After crossing the Delaware River in the dead of  winter, he defeated the British in two battles, retook New  Jersey and restored momentum to the Patriot cause.

Because of his strategy, Revolutionary forces captured two major British  armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781 . Historians laud Washington  for his selection and supervision of his generals, encouragement of morale and  ability to hold together the army, coordination with the state governors and  state militia units, relations with Congress and attention to supplies,  logistics, and training. In battle, however, Washington was repeatedly  outmaneuvered by British generals with larger armies. After victory had been  finalized in 1783, Washington resigned as Commander-in-chief rather than seize  power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to American republicanism .

Dissatisfied with the Continental Congress , in 1787 Washington  presided over the Constitutional Convention that devised a new federal government for the United States. Elected unanimously as the first President of  the United States in 1789, he attempted to bring rival factions together to  unify the nation. He supported Alexander Hamilton ‘s programs to pay off all  state and national debt, to implement an effective tax system and to create a  national bank, despite opposition from Thomas Jefferson .

Washington proclaimed the United States neutral in the wars raging in Europe  after 1793. He avoided war with Great Britain and guaranteed a decade of peace  and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795, despite intense opposition  from the Jeffersonians . Although he never officially  joined the Federalist Party , he supported its programs. Washington’s Farewell Address was an  influential primer on republican virtue and a warning against  partisanship, sectionalism, and involvement in foreign wars. He retired from the  presidency in 1797 and returned to his home in Mount Vernon , and domestic life where he  managed a variety of enterprises. He freed all his slaves by his final will.

Washington had a vision of a great and powerful nation that would be built on  republican lines using federal power. He sought to use the national government  to preserve liberty, improve infrastructure, open the western lands, promote  commerce, found a permanent capital, reduce regional tensions and promote a  spirit of American nationalism. At his death, Washington was eulogized as “first in war, first in peace, and  first in the hearts of his countrymen” by Henry Lee .

The Federalists made him the symbol of their party but for many years, the  Jeffersonians continued to distrust his influence and delayed building the Washington Monument . As the leader of the first  successful revolution against a colonial empire in world history, Washington  became an international icon for liberation and nationalism. He is consistently ranked among the top three  presidents of the United States, according to polls of both scholars and the  general public.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km²), the United States is the world’s third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe’s 3.9 million square miles (10.1 million km²). With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital’s federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries.

Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, and the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776. The war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery. By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, and its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the country’s status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The Rights Acts of 1964, 1965 and 1968 outlaws discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U.S. Moon landing. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world’s sole superpower.

The United States is the world’s oldest surviving federation. It is a federal republic and a representative democracy. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States (OAS), and other international organizations. The United States is a highly developed country, with the world’s largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for approximately a quarter of global GDP. The U.S. economy is largely post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world’s largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U.S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country.

Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank very high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, and worker productivity. The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, and is a leading political, cultural, and scientific force internationally.