ancestress, Elizabeth (Hull) Heard, whom the old historians call a
"brave gentlewoman," who held her garrison house, the frontier fort
in Dover in the Indian wars, and successfully defended it in the
massacre of 1689. The father of the subject of this sketch was a
man of sterling qualities, strong in mind and will, but commanding
love as well as respect. The mother was a woman of outward beauty
and beauty of soul alike; with high ideals and reverent
conscientiousness. Her influence over her boys was life-long. The
home was a centre of intelligent intercourse, a sample of the
simplicity but earnestness of many of the best New Hampshire
homesteads."[A]

[Footnote A: Rec. Alonzo H. Quint, D.D. in _Granite Monthly_.]

Descended, as is here evident, from men and women accustomed to govern,
legislate, protect, guide and represent the people, it is not surprising
to find the Lothrops of the present day of this branch standing in high
places, shaping affairs, and devising fresh and far-reaching measures
for the general good.

Daniel Lothrop was the youngest of the three sons of Daniel and Sophia
Home Lothrop. The family residence was on Haven's Hill, in Rochester,
and it was an ideal home in its laws, influences and pleasures. Under
the guidance of the wise and gentle mother young Daniel developed in a
sound body a mind intent on lofty aims, even in childhood, and a
character early distinguished for sturdy uprightness. Here, too, on the
farm was instilled into him the faith of his fathers, brought through
many generations, and he openly acknowledged his allegiance to an
Evangelical Church at the age of eleven.

As a boy Daniel is remembered as possessing a retentive and singularly
accurate memory; as very studious, seeking eagerly for knowledge, and
rapidly absorbing it. His intuitive mastery of the relations of numbers,
his grasp of the values and mysteries of the higher mathematics, was
early remarkable. It might be reasonably expected of the child of seven
who was brought down from the primary benches and lifted up to the
blackboard to demonstrate a difficult problem in cube root to the big
boys and girls of the upper class that he should make rapid and
masterful business combinations in later life.

At the age of fourteen he was sufficiently advanced in his studies to
enter college, but judicious friends restrained him in order that his
physique might be brought up to h