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UMASS/AMHERST
312066008605805
REPRESENTATIVE FAMILIES
NORTHAMPTON
QC) 9 3 DATE DUE
11. 7983519
UNIV. OF MASSACHUSETTS/AMHERST LIBRARY
III
F 74 N86 W24
Track In nakney - architect
GIFT TO
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LIBRARY
from
SIDNEY KAPLAN
REPRESENTATIVE FAMILIES OF NORTHAMPTON
PAINTED BY REMBRANT PEAL
ENGRAVED BY W. C. EDWARDS
Jonathan Edwards
Representative Families of Northampton
A Demonstration of What High Character, Good Ancestry and Heredity have Accomplished in a New England Town
Greatest of earthly honors, from the great And good to be descended. They alone Against a great and noble ancestry cry out Who have none of their own. -Ben Jonson
VOLUME I
Northampton Picturesque Publishing Company 1917
The F. A. Bassette Company Printers Springfield, Mass.
DEDICATION
I DEDICATE this work to those worthy citizens of my native town, Christopher Clarke and the late Henry S. Gere, who, several years ago, gave me the first impulse to engage in the enterprise.
Certainly there can be no doubt of the worthi- ness of the subjects of this dedication, because their public services have been often recognized and were most glowingly and properly recounted on the eightieth birthday of each of them, at largely at- tended public banquets of their fellow citizens and co-workers.
At the close of Northampton's Quarter-Mil- lennial year, 1904, (during which I was associated with Mr. Gere in a part of the preparations for the celebration and, later, in the publication of the book authorized by the City Council, to describe that memorable affair) he suggested that I under- take the work of publishing another book, giving the histories of Northampton families of the pres- ent time. Christopher Clarke, who had been im- portuned, by others, to attempt such a task, was unable to consider it, but assured me of his hearty co-operation. Thus encouraged by the assurance of these two most worthy citizens of the "grand old town," I finally started the work, which will, I hope, be useful to the generations which come after us.
CHARLES F. WARNER.
Northampton, Massachusetts,
January 1, 1917.
CONTENTS
Introductory Note 11
Character 13
Some Notes on Pride of Ancestry . 15
Jonathan Edwards .
19
With frontispiece portrait and three other illustrations.
The Edwards Family 28 With two portraits and one other illustration.
New Englanders as Doers of the World's Work 36
Some Other Early Northampton Celebrities 37
Christopher Clarke
41
With portrait and three other illustrations.
Henry S. Gere 53
With portrait and three other illustrations.
L. Clark Seelye
66
With portrait.
The Williston Family .
75
With portrait and coat of arms.
The Shepherd Family .
.
93
With three portraits and eleven other illustrations.
Edward H. R. Lyman 128
With portrait and view on the Lyman estate. .
The Williams Family
133
With portrait and view of family residence.
.
The (Sydenham Clark) Parsons Family
With five portraits and five other illustrations.
145
Lewis J. Dudley . .
172
With portrait and view of "Shady Lawn."
Silas M. Smith
179
With two portraits.
Charles G. Starkweather
187
With portrait.
Arthur Watson
192
With portrait.
William Phillips Strickland .
195
With two portraits.
.
9
10
Contents
Charles N. Clark With portrait.
. 209
Merritt Clark
215
With portrait and three other illustrations.
Haynes H. Chilson
With portrait.
228
Haynes H. Chilson, Jr. With portrait.
232
Hiram Day
236
With portrait.
Gerald Stanley Lee
241
With portrait and three other illustrations.
Henry C. Hallett
255
With portrait.
Richard W. Irwin
With portrait.
The O'Donnell Family
With portrait and two other illustrations.
Theobald M. Connor
297
With four portraits.
314
With portrait.
The Draper Family
With portrait and two other illustrations.
Edwin W. Higbee
331
With portrait and two other illustrations.
Clarence D. Chase
343
With portrait.
347
Dr. J. B. Learned
352
With portrait and view of family residence.
James D. Atkins
368
With portrait.
The Parsons Family of Florence
With portrait and two other illustrations.
373
George A. Burr
With portrait and three other illustrations.
General John L. Otis
With portrait.
Joseph C. Martin
With portrait.
408
.
387
402
Harry E. Bicknell
With portrait.
319
Chauncey H. Pierce
261
269
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
T HIS volume is not an account of Northampton fam- ilies of the past. Its object is to record the family histories of the present generation. The accom- plishments of the Northampton families of today have not before appeared in a bound volume, but should be recorded while they are fresh in the minds of those best acquainted with them.
What would we not give now for a contemporary writer's text and illustrative record concerning the lives and material possessions of Jonathan Edwards, Seth Pomeroy, Major Hawley, Caleb Strong, and numerous other lesser worthies who might be named?
There are many of our own generation who, if they have not yet become so famous, by such stress of the times as those in which the great men of the past lived, have been equally honored in the living present age, by worthy pro- fessional, political and business accomplishments, and who have a right to a niche in the local hall of fame. They are men who have given of their best thought and acts to the community in which they so long have lived and will prob- ably yet receive, in popular approval, something showing real, lasting esteem for what they have done.
For obvious reasons the pages following the sketch of Jonathan Edwards and his family are confined to the records of a limited number of local living families. There are many other deserving subjects, but time and tide wait for no man, and this publication has already been too long delayed.
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Representative Families of Northampton
The real animus of this work is to show what human beings can accomplish, not by glorifying their ancestors, but by inspiration from the best examples of their forbears and emulation of their good deeds - thus ensuring the building up of noble individual character.
Jonathan Edwards is taken as the leading example in this work because he represented the best type of humanity of his time. This may seem almost incredible when some of the severest of his ministerial utterances are considered. But actions speak louder than words, and Mr. Edwards gave the world the most powerful evidence of what a truly righteous life can accomplish - that is, if the old adage, "Blood will tell," holds good, and it certainly did in his case, as sociological statistics show.
No one can doubt the facts gathered by scientific so- ciologists showing how sterling and honest character affects the upbuilding of a community and nation.
All honor to the Millers, Cooks, Clarks, Bartletts, Kings, Rootes, Parsons, Hannums, Phelps, and the host of other early settlers. Their work was of the same kind, in a meas- ure. They laid the foundation of our civic liberties and sowed the seed, that the Hawleys, Pomeroys, Strongs, and Edwardses might the easier reap. Then, after these, came the names of a richer civilization - the Whitneys, Dwights, Hopkins, Bates, Mills, Allens, Ashmuns, Hunts, Deweys, Hinckleys, Stoddards, Judds, Williams, Willistons, Warners, and a host of others.
History has already been written. It is not necessary to repeat what has been told of these old worthies so many times, but it is hoped that what is said in the following pages will make still more clear the fact that the best New England ancestry is something to be proud of and of which we cannot learn too much.
CHARACTER
Character is higher than intellect.
- Emerson
A man that makes a character makes foes. - Bayard Taylor
When a man dies they who survive him ask what property he has left behind. The angel who bends over the dying man asks what good deeds he has sent before him. - Koran
Good name, in man and woman, dear, my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash: 'tis something, nothing, 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed.
- Shakespeare in Othello
We live in deeds, not years, in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives Who thinks most - feels the noblest - acts the best. Life's but a means unto an end - that end Beginning, means an end to all things - God Why will we live and not be glorious? We never can be deathless till we die.
- Bailey
The sweet remembrance of the just Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust. - Psalms, 112: 6
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. - St. Paul, in Philippians, 4: 8
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14 Representative Families of Northampton
A king may make a belted knight, A marquis, duke an' a' that, But an honest man's aboon his might - Gude faith, he mauna fa' that. - Robert Burns
The true grandeur of nations is in those qualities which consti- tute the true greatness of the individual. - Charles Sumner
I do distrust the poet who discerns No character or glory in his time.
- Browning
Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell character. - Lavater
When, upon a trial, a man calls witnesses as to his character and those witnesses only say that they never heard, or do not know any- thing ill of him, it intimates, at best, a neutral and insignificant char- acter. - Lord Chesterfield
BEAUTY OF CHARACTER
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more beautiful and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd: And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ownest: So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. - Shakespeare
Peace to the just man's memory - let it grow Greener with years and blossom through the flight Of time, let the mimic canvas show His calm, benevolent features; let the light Stream on his deeds of love, that shunned the sight Of all but heaven, and in the book of fame The glorious record of his virtues write.
- Bryant
SOME NOTES ON PRIDE OF ANCESTRY
W HATEVER one may think of individual and fam- ily pride in the ancestral tree of which they are branches, one has to concede there is some war- rant for it, because good ancestors, as a rule, produce good descendants.
It must therefore interest readers of this volume to listen to the opinions of men of bygone ages on this subject. The fact that these authorities differ somewhat, in their estimate of the value of good ancestry, is not surprising. It only goes to show that the real difference in the minds of the disputants is as to the moral and practical value which may be drawn from good ancestry and the uselessness of its mere possession.
It is by no means derogatory to the objectors to pride of ancestry that "they spurn the idle pratings of the great," for the objectors often reached greater heights of real fame than the merely hereditary nobility, who, excepting some who wore crowns and coronets, rarely made any lasting imprint on the pages of history to their moral credit.
To voice the sentiments of these disputants let us quote an anonymous author of the English middle ages, who says:
"It is indeed a blessing when the virtues Of noble races are hereditary And do derive themselves from the imitation Of virtuous ancestors."
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Representative Families of Northampton
And then Percival, of the seventeenth century, who says:
"I am one who finds within me a nobility That spurns the idle pratings of the great,
And their mean boast of what their fathers were,
While they themselves are fools effeminate,
The scorn of all who know the worth of mind and virtue."
The important point to be remembered is, of course, that pride of ancestry has no excuse unless its possessor accom- panies it with some personal accomplishment of use to the world, and makes it a spur to the building up of a noble char- acter. Ben Jonson best expresses this when he says:
"Hang all your rooms with a large pedigree, 'Tis virtue alone is true nobility,
Which virtue from your father, ripe, may fall. Study illustrious him and you have all."
It is interesting, in this connection, to note that not so very long ago (1813) Junot duc d'Abrantes said, when he was asked about his ancestry, "I know nothing about it. I am my own ancestor." There seems to be something approaching a parallel to this quotation from Plutarch's writings, as follows:
"To Harmodius, descended from the ancient Harmodius, when he reviled Iphicrates (a shoemaker's son) for his mean birth, 'My nobility begins in me, but yours ends in you.' "
Undoubtedly Lord Bacon and Addison were instructed by the spectacle of their times when they wrote:
(Lord Bacon): "It is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle not in decay; how much more an ancient family which have stood against the waves and weathers of time."
(Addison): "Title and ancestry render a good name illustrious, but an ill one contemptible."
It was Goldsmith who said:
His ancestors have been more and more solicitous to keep up the breed of their dogs and horses than their children."
17
Some Notes on Pride of Ancestry
And the poet Young had his more or less righteous fling at ancestral glorification, in saying:
"They that on glorious ancestors enlarge
Produce their debt instead of their discharge."
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who was something of a humorist, said:
"Our ancestors are very good kind of folks, but they are the last people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with."
Yet from time immemorial mankind has glorified its ancestors. Tacitus said:
"Think of your ancestors and posterity."
Plutarch said:
"It is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors."
Juvenal, in spite of the derivation which might be made from his cheerful name, must have been an old-time pessi- mist, for he thus groans:
"Of what avail are pedigrees, or to derive one's blood from a long train of lofty ancestors."
But Juvenal probably did not consider that the incen- tive to do as well as, if not better than our ancestors, is often born of the emulative pride we have in them.
And what Latin scholar has not construed these more cheerful lines from Virgil:
"The battle is in your hands, men; now let each be mindful of his wife and his home. Now recall the great deeds and glory of your ancestors."
Shakespeare gives the encouraging word, too:
" All his ancestors gone before him have done't
And all his ancestors that come after him may."
Sallust takes this philosophic view:
"Distinguished ancestors shed a powerful light on their descend- ants and forbid the concealment either of their merits or demerits."
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Representative Families of Northampton
It was Froude, in his "Short Studies on Great Subjects," who said this seemingly shocking thing:
"In every department of life - in its business and pleasures, in its beliefs and in its theories, in its material developments and in its spiritual connections - we thank God that we are not like our fathers."
And thus scorchingly says Colton:
"The pride of ancestry is a superstructure of the most imposing height, but resting on the most flimsy foundations."
With Young:
"He stands for fame on his forefather's feet, By heraldry proved valiant or discreet."
But Lord Macaulay may well be quoted in rejoinder:
"A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered by remote descendants."
And that renowned Irish orator and statesman, Edmund Burke, said:
"People will not look forward to posterity who never look back- ward to their ancestors."
Holy Writ, too:
Let us now praise famous men and the fathers that begat us. -Ecclesiasticus.
However, to conclude this discussion of a well-defended controversy on both sides, nothing was probably better said or more fairly, in reference to this matter, than by Bishop Warburton, in the English House of Lords - as is reported on the occasion of a dispute (concerning nobility in individu- als) between a peer of noble family and one of a new creation. The Bishop said that:
"High birth was a thing which he never knew any one to dis- parage except those who had it not; and he never knew any one make any boast of it who had any thing else to be proud of."
Jonathan Edwards
The Edwards Coat of Arms
19
11
11
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11
JONATHAN EDWARDS Northampton's Most Famous Citizen
W HEN one comes to consider the names of those men foremost in local history, the name of Jonathan Edwards stands pre-eminent as Northampton's most famous citizen. Others preceded and came after him whose fame also gave honor and luster to this town of their residence, but Jonathan Edwards had world-wide renown.
He was born at East Windsor, Connecticut, October 5, 1703, and he served as pastor of the First Church in North- ampton a few months over twenty-three years. While in this place he largely made the theological record for which he later became so famous.
Jonathan Edwards gave, in his family progenitorship, in Northampton, magnificent evidence of what character, knowledge, and good citizenship can produce in the world. He was fortunate in his marriage with a young woman of rare spiritual and material accomplishments - Sarah Pier- pont - and Mr. Edwards' courtship and the marital life of both form a most interesting story which should be perused by the leisurely reader.
Within the limits of this volume it is more desirable to show what Mr. Edwards accomplished toward the upbuilding of character and righteous and useful citizenship, rather than to attempt a discussion of his theological opinions and the differences he had with his parishioners.
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Representative Families of Northampton
Young Edwards was a remarkably precocious lad, and entered college at the age of thirteen. His father, Timothy Edwards, was a graduate of Harvard and received two de- grees at graduation, on the same day - one, the Bachelor of Arts, in the morning, and that of Master of Arts in the after- noon. Jonathan Edwards, the son, received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Yale College at seventeen years of age. In his second year at college and the thirteenth year of his age, he read Locke on "The Human Understanding," so it is recorded, "with much delight and profit."
His uncommon genius, by which he was formed for close- ness of thought and deep penetration, now began to discover itself. Taking Locke's book in his hand, not long before his death, he said to some of his select friends who were with him that he was beyond expression entertained and pleased with it, when he read it in his youth at college; that he was as much engaged, and had "more satisfaction and pleasure in studying it than the most greedy miser in gathering up handfuls of silver and gold from some newly discovered treasure."
Though he became proficient in all the arts and sciences and had an uncommon taste for natural philosophy, yet moral philosophy or theology was his favorite study.
He lived at college about two years after he took his first degree, preparing for the work of the ministry. He was first applied to by a number of ministers in New England, who were instructed to act in behalf of the English Presbyte- rians at New York, as a fit person to be sent to them. In compliance with their request he went to New York in August, 1722, and preached there to general acceptance about eight months. But the society was small, and Mr. Edwards did not think it was prosperous enough to settle a minister with a rational prospect of success. He therefore
Desk on which Mr. Edwards wrote his book, "The Freedom of the Will"
Tankard presented to Mr. Edwards by his parishioners at Northampton
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Jonathan Edwards
returned to his father's house, where he spent the summer in close study. In September, 1723, he received the degree of Master of Arts, and about the same time he had several invitations to preach as a candidate for settlement, but he was chosen tutor of Yale College the next spring, and retired to the college for two years following.
While thus engaged he was applied to by the people of Northampton to settle here, with his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, who by reason of his great age, stood in need of assistance. He therefore resigned his tutorship in September, 1726, accepted this invitation, and was ordained as colleague with Mr. Stoddard, February 15, 1727, in the twenty-fourth year of his age.
The story of his dismissal from the First Church of Northampton is a distressing one, but hardly worth repeating here. Suffice it to say that the dismissal was due largely to Mr. Edwards' praiseworthy zeal in exposing corruptions among the youth of influential families of his congregation, though the "half-way covenant" agitation may have had something to do with it. But there is abundant evidence that many who opposed him were later sorry for their course. Among them was his young cousin, Major Joseph Hawley, who threw himself into the agitation with all the impetuosity of youth, but not long afterward, when Mr. Edwards was in the Stockbridge Indian mission, he wrote a lengthy letter of apology to him, in which he took a most humble and contrite position (fairly abasing himself) in confessing what he termed his "sin" in the matter. Not only did Major Hawley write to Mr. Edwards, but to several of the latter's friends, apologizing to them, and also caused his apology to be published in a Boston weekly newspaper.
Mr. Edwards took up his work among the Stockbridge Indians in 1751, and stayed with them seven years. In Feb-
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Representative Families of Northampton
ruary, 1758, he was called to the presidency of New Jersey College at Princeton, to succeed Aaron Burr. He had been settled there less than a month when, notwithstanding he had been vaccinated, he was stricken with smallpox (then raging in the country), and died, after a short illness, March 22d, in the fiftieth year of his age.
What more can be said of this remarkable man than has been already written in various books, memorials, and addresses? The latest public testimonial of wide importance was the memorial service at the First Church in Northamp- ton, June 22, 1900, just 150 years after his dismissal from this parish. The tributes then paid to the great theologian's memory by Rev. Alexander V. G. Allen, professor at Cam- bridge; by Rev. Egbert G. Smith, professor in Andover Seminary; Rev. George A. Gordon, D.D., of the Old South Church in Boston; Rev. Henry T. Rose, of the First Church; and Prof. H. Norman Gardiner, M.A., of Smith College, covered about all that had not already been said. These with other tributes can be found in the public libraries.
To return to a more intimate consideration of Mr. Edwards' life it is worth while to read some of the resolutions he made during his early life. His diaries intimate that he must have submitted himself to close self-examination, and he formulated a series of seventy or more resolutions, a por- tion of which, follows. These resolutions were not put one side, to be soon forgotten. They were introduced with the memoranda: "Remember to read these resolutions once a week."
"Resolved, That I will do whatever I think to be most to God's Glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration without any consideration of the time, whether now or never so many ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the advantage and good of mankind. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and great whatsoever.
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Jonathan Edwards
"Resolved, to live with all my might while I do live.
"Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
"Resolved, to be endeavoring to find out fit objects for charity and liberality.
"Resolved, never to do anything out of revenge.
"Resolved, never to suffer the least motions of anger to irrational beings.
"Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
"Resolved, to maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.
"Resolved, to never do anything which if I should see in another I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.
"Resolved, always to do what I can towards maintaining and establishing peace, when it can be done without over-balancing detri- ment in other respects.
"Resolved, in narrations never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity.
"Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some par- ticular good call for it.
"Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent, what wrong I have committed and wherein I have denied myself.
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