Jonathan Russell, who, with Adams, Bayard, Clay and Gallatin, negotiated the treaty of Ghent, and who met rather an ignominious defeat afterward in an attempt to measure lances with John Quincy Adams; the Hastings family, three of whom were eminent lawyers, two of them having represented the district in Congress; were of a generation that passed from the stage at about the time of Judge Thayer's birth.
The people were fond of discussing public questions, not only in town meeting, but in neighborhood gatherings and debating societies.

The Judge used often to tell of the eager interest with which in his boyhood he listened to these encounters.

There were two men, one of whom survived until Judge Thayer came to manhood, the other of whom died recently in an honored old age, who were less known abroad than those I have named, but who exerted a powerful influence upon the community and upon the character of the observant and impressible boy.

One of them was Dan Hill, the other the Reverend Adin Ballou.
Dan Hill was one of the most remarkable men Worcester County ever contained.

He was not bred to the bar, and was without the advantage of what is called a liberal education.