New biography profiles local founding father Ebenezer Smith

MEREDITH – As the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in 2026, there is renewed focus on the efforts of national founding fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and others. A new book published this summer by the Meredith Historical Society adds a local name to that pantheon.

“Ebenezer Smith, Meredith’s Prime Mover: Biography of a Local, State, and National Founding Father” by Rudy VanVeghten delves deep into the life and times of the one individual who championed the cause of settling the township that today encompasses Meredith, Laconia, and Center Harbor Village.

“Every town had one,” VanVeghten wrote in the book’s introduction. “In neighboring Gilmanton it was Joseph Badger. Over in Moultonborough it was Jonathan Moulton. Here in Meredith, the prime mover—the individual who through hard work, perseverance, and support of his fellow settlers is most responsible for the establishment of a new town — was Ebenezer Smith.”

Beginning with Smith’s ancestry and birth in Ipswich, Massachusetts, the book follows the life of Ebenezer Smith through his work in promoting Meredith’s settlement, his decades-long service as the town’s leading selectman, his militia leadership during the American Revolution, his work as a representative and senator in the New Hampshire legislature, and even a theory by a Dartmouth history professor about how Smith possibly saved the U.S. Constitution from defeat in 1788.

For more information, visit meredithhistoricalsocietynh.org.