Prince Hastings is recorded as living in Warner by the 1820 census. His small home was high in the Mink Hills next to a small wetland now known as “Chocolate Swamp.” Prince probably worked as a laborer for local farms. It is not known what brought him to Warner or where he came from but the 1820 census indicates several other African-American families in Warner (Clark, Haskell, Cary, and Jackson). Perhaps Prince traveled to Warner with them.
Anthony Clark may have been small of stature (5’3″) but he loomed large with his ability to play fiddle and call a dance. He ran week-long dancing classes at various halls and inns in western Merrimack County and was called a “dancing master.” Theresa Harvey, writing in 1823, recalls Clark at a muster, followed by a party at her Uncle Jonathan’s Musterfield Farm in Sutton:
“…As soon as possible after the dinner tables were cleared away, the hall was made ready for the dancers…Anthony Clark, the fiddler and dancing master, probably did more toward instructing the young people in the arts and graces of politeness and good manners than any other man of his day and generation…”
