Latham, Arthur, 1759-1843

found: NUCMC data from Thetford Historical Society (Thetford, Vt.) for Latham family papers, 1812-2000(Arthur Latham (1759-1843); b. in East Bridgewater, Mass., the son of Nehemiah and Lucy (Harris) Latham; he served during the RevolutionaryWar at Bunker Hill and in New York and along the Hudson; and saw Major Andre executed for treason; a carpenter, he moved in 1780 with his tools to Lyme, N.H., when his aunt Jane was the wife of the first minister in town, Jonathan Conant; he first settled on the Dorchester Road east of town; a cousin, Rufus Conant, who had been a peddler, persuaded him to set up a store in the front part of his carpenter shop; he moved to Lyme village in 1790, and in partnership with Conant ran a store where the Lyme General Store now is; he married Mary Post in 1782; In 1790 he bought land in town from Jonathan Conant, and probably later built the house which is now Dowd's Tavern; in 1811 he was on a committee to build a new church, and in the process he was deeded the old meeting house if he would move it to where it now is (Nichols' Hardware) and would continue to have town meetings upstairs from his store; he became Lyme's first postmaster in 1812, and had the post office in the store; he ran the store until 1828, specializing in buying wool to ship to mills in Massachusetts; after he retired, his sons Bezer and Arthur continued to run the store until his death; he is buried in a sarcophagus across the street from the Lyme church)