Joseph Batchelder was the son of Capt. Abraham Batchelder (3), and was born in Loudon in 1800. He is the descendant of Jethro, and is the direct line from the Rev. Stephen Batchelder, from England. He married Hannah H. Hill, by whom he had a family of six children, John Q. A., born March 10, 1826; Otis H., born January, 1828, died Nov. 17, 1859; Clarisa, born Jan. 6, 1830; Joseph P., born Oct. 21, 1835; Elvira A., born June 4, 1839; Roseltha, born April 17, 1845, died Sept. 20, 1860.
John Q. A. married Eliza J. Sanborn, daughter of Edmund Sanborn; has lived in Massachusetts since 25 years of age; has no children.
Otis H. married Maria Howard, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, where he was in trade until his death, and left no children.
Clarisa marries Cyrus T. Batchelder, and resides in Peabody, Massachusetts, and is engaged in trade.
Joseph P. married Elvira A. Whitney, of Canterbury, and had one child, named Alfred P.
Mr. Batchelder married, the second time, Abby J. Demmeritt. Mr. Batchelder resides upon the homestead and occupies the pleasant mansion of his father. He is a most thorough and practical farmer and an honored and respected citizen of the town. His son, Alfred P., married Nellie M. Brown, of Canterbury, and has one child, named Ernest L., which constitutes the sixth generation of Batchelders that have been born in this Batchelder mansion and have lived in the same, beginning with Jethro.
Joseph Batchelder died in Loudon March 29, 1877. He was an able, upright and a respected citizen of the town, and was always interested deeply in the cause of education, the progress of science and religion. He, with his wife, where members of the Congregational Church at the village in Loudon for many years. He was an excellent and practical farmer, having one of the finest situations in the town, upon which he has made extensive improvements. He was firm and decided in his opinions, and unyielding in the principles which he believed to the right. He did not interest himself in political matters to any extent, and was never elected to any of the ordinary offices of the town. He was successful in his acquisition of property, and at his death possessed a large and valuable estate. A relic is retained in possession of the family, which is the wig worn by Jethro, Sr, who was a bald headed man. An interesting incident is related at his birth, which is, that while going for the necessary assistance in the case, to a neighbor's, the person, in crossing a brook, caught by an elm tree for support, which uprooted and was transplanted afterward near the residence, and which measured, in July, 1885, 17 feet in circumference. In the year 1808 a bear was killed, which had two young cubs. The oil was taken from the old one. Some of it was sealed up in a small bottle, some of it which was shown the writer in 1885, it being 80 five years old. One of the cubs was killed with its mother; the other was taken to the breast of a woman who had lost a new born babe.
Mr. Batchelder, upon the 50th anniversary of his marriage, was presented, by his connection and friends, with a valuable gold headed cane, which is kept in the family and highly prized.

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