From The Connecticut River Valley in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire: Historical Sketches by Lyman S. Hayes, Tuttle Co., Marble City Press, Rutland, VT., 1929, page 196:
DANIEL WEBSTER SPOKE IN BELLOWS FALLS THE DAY AFTER THE STRATTON CONVENTION
Wednesday, July 8, 1840, Daniel Webster spoke in Bellows Falls to an audience which at that time was probably the largest gathering of people ever held in this immediate vicinity. He was on his way back from the memorable convention held on Stratton mountain. He spoke from the upper piazza of the Mansion House, a hotel that, from 1826 until it was burned in 1857, stood on the west side of the Square, the front piazza of which was where the front of the store occupied by Fenton & Hennessey now is.
Rockingham citizens had been very active in making and carrying out the arrangements for the great "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" or "Hard Cider" connvention at Stratton and had taken their full share in the arrangements for, and the carrying out of, this monster gathering, which numbered several thousand people, on the side of the mountain between Windham and Bennnington counties the day before.
Throughout the convention, the late Capt. Walter Taylor of Bellows Falls was the chief marshal of the Rockingham forces and assisted many other delegations in a similar capacity. William Henry of Bellows Falls, later a member of Congress, was on a committee upon resolutions of the convention, and was nominated as its candidate for presidential elector, to which position he was later elected. Cyrus Locke, a prominent citizen of Saxtons River, was one of the vice-presidents of the connvention and John W. Moore, editor of the Bellows Falls Gazette, was on-e of the secretaries. It was estimated [197] that at least 250 people attended the convention from this town.
Up to the time of the assembling of the convention no arrangement had been made, nor had it been deemed possible that Daniel Webster would visit Bellows Falls. On account of the prominent part which Rockingham took in the convention, and at the urgent request of its large delegation, Mr. Webster, Tuesday morning, decided he would return this way and speak to a Bellows Falls audience Wednesday afternoon. Although the notice was very short, and there were no telephones or telegraph in those days, a crowd estimated at over three thousand people had gathered, filling the whole public square as far down Bridge and Westminster Streets as the eye could reach.
It was the middle of the afternoon before the barouche that brought Mr. Webster, coming by the way of Grafton, Cambridgeport and Saxtons River, reached the Mansion House where he was entertained while here. Its proprietor at that time was Capt. Theodore Griswold.
Mr. Webster soon appeared upon the upper balcony of the hotel and, being introduced, spoke in his expressive and eloquent manner for about an hour and a half. A number of those present have told the writer many years ago of the breathless silence of the great audience, except when they gave forth their mighty cheers. Gates Perry, Jr., of Saxtons River and Deputy Sheriff Timothy H. Hall of Westminster kept order, and tradition says you could have heard a pin drop in any part of the Square.
During Mr. Webster's stay in Bellows Falls it is known that he went into two other houses besides the [198] hotel. These were the house on the Old Terrace now owned by James H. Williams, then by Solon Grout, a prominent politician of those days, and the small house near the south end of Atkinson Street known as the Charles Hapgood house, now owned by A. G. Rice. Mr. Webster went from here to Keene where he spoke the next day to a large audience.
The Mansion House, where Mr. Webster was entertained and from which he spoke, was built by James I. Cutler & Co. in 1826 and was destroyed by fire Novemmber 17, 1857.