Some 202 years ago, on a sunny, warm late-spring day much like today, several leaders of a small community then known as Dunstable, New Hampshire, gathered near today's Library Hill in Nashua and exchanged greetings.

Noticing that three of the men hadn't yet arrived, they lamented the condition of the "sandy roads" and "terrible sand flats" that stretched all the way from "Billrikky" (now Billerica) to well above Dunstable, conditions that caused "the stage" to "run late most every day now," said Ezekiel Greeley.

Just past 9 a.m., their leader, an attorney originally from Andover, Mass., declared that "the designated hour has arrived," granting those present the right to a legal meeting.

The attorney, Daniel Abbot, led the men to nearby Tyler's Tavern, where the owner, Moses Tyler, arra

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