USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > A History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, vol 2 > Part 49
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(I) William Chase, a native of England, born in 1595, came to America in Governor Winthrop's fleet in 1630, accompanied by his wife Mary and son William. He settled first in Roxbury, Massa- chusetts, where he became a member of the First Church, presided over by Rev. John Eliot, the Indian Apostle. In the autumn following his ar- rival he was propounded for freeman, and was ad- mitted May 14, 1634. About 1637 he joined the company which established a new plantation at Yarmouth, in what is now Barnstable county, Massachusetts. There he served as constable in
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1639, and continued to reside there until his death, in May, 1659. In October following his widow passed away. William Chase was a soldier against the Narragansett Indians in 1645. He had two children born after his arrival in America, namely: Mary; May, 1637, in Roxbury; and Benjamin, 1639, in Yarmouth.
(II) William (2) Chase, eldest son of William and Mary Chase, was born about 1622, in England, and accompanied his father to Yarmouth, where he lived, and died February 27, 1685. There is no record of his wife. His children were: William; Jacob; John; Elizabeth; Abraham; Joseph; Benja- min, of whom further; and Samuel.
(III) Benjamin Chase, son of William (2) Chase, lived in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and married Amey Borden, born May 30, 1678, daughter of John and Mary (Earle) Borden. She died before 1716. Children: Patience; Elizabeth; Nathan, men- tioned below; Benjamin; and Abner.
(IV) Nathan Chase, eldest son of Benjamin and Amey (Borden) Chase, was born January 13, 1704, and lived in Portsmouth, where he married, April 29, 1731, Elizabeth Shaw. Children: Borden; Holder, mentioned below; Amey, Clark, Anna, Content, Benjamin and Hannah.
(V) Holder Chase, second son of Nathan and Elizabeth (Shaw) Chase, was born August 24, 1733, in Portsmouth, and lived in that town, where he died in February, 1820. He married there, February 21, 1760, Freeborn Dennis, daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Durfee) Dennis, born August 18, 1739, in Portsmouth. Children: Nathan, died in childhood; Sarah, married Benjamin Mott, of Ports- mouth; Nathan, married Anne Sherman, of Ports- mouth, daughter of Sampson and Ruth (Fish)
Sherman; Anna, married in
Portsmouth, John Weeden, of Jamestown, Rhode Island; Eliza; Bor- den, married (first) September 12, 1802, Sarah Fol- ger, (second) Ruth Bunker, both of Nantucket, Massachusetts; Amey, died in childhood; Abner, born in Portsmouth, married there, October 5, 1803, Deborah Chace, daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Almy) Chace; Clark, mentioned below; Freeborn, died unmarried, November 23, 1819.
(VI) Clark Chase, fifth son of Holder and Free- born (Dennis) Chase, married, in Tiverton, Rhode Island, December 26, 1811, Anne Borden, daughter of Simeon and Amey (Briggs) Borden. Children: Simeon B .; Amey A., married, January 5, 1838, Humphrey Almy; Borden, mentioned below; Philip Briggs, married Sarah, daughter of William Earle and Eunice (Sherman) Cook; Sarah Freeborn, mar- ried Stephen Davol, of Fall River; Eliza, married Charles Fowler, of Brooklyn, New York; Charles, married Frances C. Pearce, of Bristol, Rhode Island; Nathaniel B., married Louise M. Pierson; Alfred Clark, married (first) Mrs. Clapp and (second) Ruth Anthony, and had children: Ruth (Mrs. Hed- ley), and Edmund.
(VII) Borden Chase, second son of Clark and Anne (Borden) Chase, was born April 5, 1816, and resided in Portsmouth, engaged in agriculture until
1875, when he removed to Fall River, Massa- chusetts. His farm was one of the handsomest of the section, and his home was noted for its bounti- ful hospitality. In 1871 he engaged in the coal business at Fall River, establishing the Fall River Coal Company, and was subsequently, for some time, interested in the Globe Coal Company of that city. For many years he was a warden of the Church of the Ascension of Fall River, where he died February 20, 1879. He married, in Ports- mouth, December 24, 1838, Elizabeth Anthony Thomas, of the city, daughter of Joseph and Han- nah S. (Anthony) Thomas. Children: 1. Annie Bor- den, married William H. Jennings. 2. Frederick, married (first) Louise Tallman, of Portsmouth; (second) Edith Snell. 3. Clark, married Emma F. Boyd, and had children. 4. Simeon Borden, men- tioned below.
(VIII) Simeon Borden Chase, youngest son of Borden and Elizabeth A. (Thomas) Chase, was born at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, January 10, 1849, and there spent the first eighteen years of his life, acquiring an education in the public schools. After graduation from business college in Provi- dence, he entered business life as a clerk in the office of the Merchants' Manufacturing Company, in Fall River, Massachusetts. In 1870 he went West, and for eighteen months was located in the State of Nebraska. In 1872 he returned to the employ of the Merchants' Manufacturing Company, of Fall River, remaining until 1875 as a bookkeeper. In the latter year he accepted a position with the Tecumseh Mills and was elected treasurer of the company. In 1882 he resigned that office and re- turned to the Merchants' Manufacturing Company, but now as treasurer of that corporation. In Feb- ruary, 1885, Mr. Chase was elected treasurer of the King Philip Mills, the largest in Fall River, an office he yet holds. From that time he has been connected officially with many Fall River manu- facturing and financial corporations, among them being the Barnaby Manufacturing Company, of which he was president; the Crystal Spring Bleach- ing and Dyeing Company; the Wampanoag Mills; the Globe Yarn Mills; the Stevens' Manufacturing Company, of which he has been the president since 1898; the Tecumseh Mills, which he serves as treas- urer; the Osborn Mills; Davol Mills; Merchants' Manufacturing Company; Stevens' Manufacturing Company; Boston Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Company; and the Fall River Manufacturing Mutual Insurance Company. All of these concerns carry his name as a director. He is also president of the Metacomet National Bank, of ' Fall River. A Republican in politics, Mr. Chase has never desired public office and has only accepted what was a clear duty, membership in City Council and on the Massachusetts State Board of Education, being appointed to the latter office by Governor Draper. He is held in high esteem in the community in which his life has been largely spent, and he re- views a life of great usefulness in aiding the de- velopment of that community.
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Simeon B. Chase married, on March 19, 1874, Louise Whitman Hills, born November 2, 1848, daughter of John E. and Mary (Whitman) Hills, and a descendant of William Hills, born in England, who came to New England on the ship "Lyon," September 16, 1632, becoming a resident of Rox- bury, Massachusetts, and later of Hartford, Con- necticut. Mr. and Mrs. Chase are the parents of five children: 1. Mary Whitman (Mrs. William Wil- son Heaton), residing at Greenwich, Connecticut, has three children: Mary, Chase and Sarah. 2. Anne Borden, wife of Philip E. Tripp, of Fall River, and they have three children: Borden, Judith, and Mary E. 3. Louise S., married George Hewitt Myers, of Washington, District of Columbia, and they have three children: Persis Chase, Mary Hewitt, and Louise Chase. 4. Genevieve, who married Richard K. Hawes, of Fall River, and they have two sons: Richard K., Jr., and Simeon Borden Chase. 5. Flor- ence, married Paul Gifford, of Fall River, and they have two children: Benjamin F. C. and Louise Whitman.
JUDGE ARTHUR MARTINEAU ALGER- When in 1876 Arthur M. Alger was awarded his degree in law, he located his home in Taunton, Massachusetts, and continued a devotee of the law until his passing in 1921, at the age of sixty- seven. He was not known as a practitioner to any great extent but as an official and jurist. In his early life he was called to public place, and as clerk, registrar and judge he compiled a rare rec- ord of efficiency and usefulness. He was an inter- ested friend and adviser of the younger generation of Taunton lawyers and these young men received valuable aid and help from the veteran. In his direction of his court he was courteous and most considerate. A probate court is a revelation in family amenities and scores of open family rup- tures were prevented and differences adjusted by Judge Alger by his sympathetic talks with the in- terested parties, ere the law was evoked. He us- ually found a common ground upon which a start toward conciliation could be made, and he achieved some surprising results as a peace-maker.
Judge Alger was an accurate student of legal history and devoted much of his time to careful research work with regard to the sources of in- formation concerning the earlier settlers of the Taunton section. He was an authority on the be- ginnings of the Cohannet settlement, and familiar with the histories of all the towns of the Old Col- ony as well as the group to the north. During the year 1878 he wrote a series of articles for the "Bris- tol County Republican," comprising the biographies of such men as Daniel Leonard, Judge Samuel White and Robert Treat Paine. His great work, however, in this line was a history of the descend- ants of Thomas Alger, his ancestor. In this work, which he brought down to the year 1875, he traced the line of descent through nearly 1,000 names. From this work it is learned that the American an- cestor was Thomas Alger, who came to New Eng-
land about 1665, Judge Alger being of the eighth American generation. He was a son of Rev. William Rounseville and Anne Langdon (Lodge) Alger, a daughter of Giles and Abigail Langdon Lodge, of Boston. Mrs. Alger was a sister of Henry Cabot Lodge, senior United States Senator from Massa- chusetts.
The line of descent from Thomas Alger and his wife, Elizabeth Packard, to Judge Arthur M. Alger is through the former's son, Israel Alger, and his wife, Patience Hayward; their son, Israel (2) Alger, and his wife, Susanna Snow; their son, Lieutenant James Alger, and his wife, Martha Kingman; their son, James (2) Alger, and his wife, Hannah Bas- sett; their son, Nahum Alger, and his wife, Cather- ine Sampson Rounseville; their son, Rev. William Rounseville Alger, and his wife, Anne Langdon Lodge; their son, Arthur Martineau Alger, whose career is herein traced.
Catherine Sampson (Rounseville) Alger, wife of Nahum Alger of the sixth generation, was a daugh- ter of Rev. William Rounseville, a Baptist clergy- man, who for over ten consecutive years repre- sented Freetown in the General Court. She was a granddaughter of Captain Levi Rounseville, who commanded a company of "minute-men" that marched from Freetown to Lexington April 19, 1775, and later was a captain in the Ninth Regi- ment of the Continental Army. Rev. William R. Alger was a graduate of the Divinity School of Harvard University, whence he was graduated in 1847, later being ordained a Unitarian clergyman. Harvard conferred upon him the honorary degree, Master of Arts, and he filled pastorates in Boston, New York City and other Massachusetts towns. He was famous as a pulpit orator and in demand as a lecturer, the chaplain of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and author of a number of books, one of which, "The Doctrine of a Future Life," passed through fourteen editions. He delivered the oration at the unveiling of the monument to Edgar Allen Poe at the Metropolitan Art Museum of New York and was in close touch with the thinkers and scholars of his day. He married Anne Langdon Lodge, also the descendant of an illustrious mem- ber of Congress. One of their sons, Captain Philip R. Alger, was for several years professor of mathe- matics at the United States Naval Academy at An- napolis and one of the foremost experts on ordnance in the country, publishing text books and various papers on that subject. A daughter, Abbie Lang- don Alger, who died in 1905, was a remarkable linguist, who translated and published a number of books.
Arthur Martineau Alger, son of Rev. William Rounseville and Anne Langdon (Lodge) Alger, was born in that part of Boston formerly Roxbury, Sep- tember 23, 1854, died at his home on Somerset ave- nue, Taunton, Massachusetts, June 2, 1921. He was educated in Boston Latin School, private schools, and in the law department of the Boston University, whence he was graduated in 1876. He read law in the office of F. B. Bryant, of Boston, and was
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admitted to the Suffolk county bar in the year of his graduation from law school. He at once located in Taunton, entering the law offices of Judge Will- iam H. Fox, continuing with him until he was appointed clerk of the District Court in 1879. He filled that office until 1893 and was chosen register of probate. During this period he also served the city as alderman for one year, as city solicitor for four years, and as mayor, in 1890, declining reelection. In 1911, while still holding the office of register, he was appointed judge of the Probate Court, succeed- ing Judge William E. Fuller. Judge Alger was endorsed for the judgeship in the form of a p.ti- tion presented to Governor Foss by John W. Cum- mings of Fall River, signed by every member of the Bristol county bar. This was an unusual endorse- ment and well deserved, for during the twenty-eight years that he had served as register he had won all hearts by his courtesy and consideration. He served as judge of the Probate Court until his death ten years later. He sat as auditor and master on several important cases and was recognized as one of the leading authorities in matters on corporation and probate law. He was the author of "Fuller's Probate Law," which began while he was register of probate, which included rulings from Judge Ful- ler, amplified later by many of his own, and which represented years of application. He was the au- thor of another book which gave him prominence, "A Treatise on Law in Relation to Promotors and the Promotion of Corporations." He was a frequent contributor to the Harvard "Law Review," and the author of several lesser treatises. He was also one of the editors of "Contributions. Biographical, His- torical, and Genealogical," published by the New England Historic and Genealogical Society.
Aside from his law interest and activities, Judge Alger was identified with a number of Taunton financial and industrial enterprises. He was a "trustee of the Taunton Savings Bank, and a director of the Taunton National Bank until its merger with the Bristol County National into the Worcester County Trust Company. He was a director of the Corr Manufacturing Company, a director of the Boston Investment Company, of the Massachusetts Real Estate Company, and one of the directors of the Old Colony Historical Society. He was senior partner of the law firm, Alger, Dean & Sullivan, of Boston, the consulting member of the firm. He was a member of the Masonic order, affiliated with Ionic Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; and a member of the Winthrop Club, of Taunton.
Probably the tribute paid by Mayor Coughlin best expressed the feelings of Taunton toward this foremost citizen: Mayor Coughlin said:
In the passing of the Honorable Arthur M. Alger, the city has lost one of its most distinguished citizens. Many years of honorable public service earned for him the admiration and the respect of those who had occasion to deal with him, and he has long heen recognized as an authority on those branches of the law in which he specialized.
In his younger years he was elected to the highest office within the gift of the citizens of Taunton, that of Mayor; and in his later years, as Judge of Prohate, he maintained the high standards of that office established by his predecessors, Judge Bennett and Judge Fuller.
Judge Alger married, April 22, 1882, Lelia C. Sanders, daughter of George B. ,and Elizabeth S. Sanders. She died October 24, 1895, leaving two daughters: Mary Lodge, wife of John D. Sullivan, graduate of Harvard University and of Harvard Law School, a practicing lawyer of Boston, mem- ber of the firm Alger, Dean & Sullivan; and Anne Langdon, wife of a Mr. Sherman, of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Both of these daughters survive their father, whose estate they inherit.
HON. WILLIAM A. COPELAND, A. B., A. M., LL.B .- Professionally prominent as a lawyer in Bristol county, Massachusetts, and with forty-three years of practice to his credit, Hon. William A. Copeland holds an outstanding position in the town of Mansfield, where he was born and where the greater part of his life has been spent. With pro- fessional interests in both Boston and Mansfield for many years, Mr. Copeland has won an enviable position in his chosen field of endeavor. Mr. Cope- land is a member of one of the very old and hon- ored families of Mansfield. He is a son of Almon and Elizabeth (Allen) Copeland, both natives of Mansfield. The father, who was a farmer by oc- cupation, died at an early age in 1880, but the mother survived him for many years, passing away at an advanced age in 1907.
William A. Copeland was born at Mansfield, Massachusetts, October 23, 1855. His education was begun in the local public schools, and he later attended Bristol Academy, at Taunton, Massa- chusetts, where he prepared for college. Entering Amherst College, he was graduated in the class of 1877, and received his Bachelor's and Master's de- grees in the arts from that institution. Later enter- ing the Boston University Law School, his gradua- tion occurred in the class of 1880, and he received the Bachelor's degree in the law. In December, 1880, Mr. Copeland was admitted to the bar of his native State, and took up the practice of his profession in Boston under his own name. Con- tinuing independently until 1905, he then became a member of the law firm of Macleod, Calver, Copeland & Dike, with offices at No. 350 Trement building, Boston. He is still affiliated with this professional organization, and they specialize on patents and trade marks. In this field of legal advance they hold a leading position and Mr. Cope- land has come to be recognized as an authority. For a number of years he conducted an office at Mansfield, but the importance of his interests in Boston led to his discontinuance of the local office a number of years ago. Mr. Copeland was, for nearly forty years, a trustee of the local public library. A Republican by political affiliation, Mr. Copeland was elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature for the years of 1882-1883, serving with honor and distinction in the deliberations of that body. He was a member of the Mansfield School Committee for six years, and was moderator of the town for fifteen years. His acceptance of public responsibility, however, has been only as it has
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BIOGRAPHICAL
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been presented to him as a duty, for he has never sought the honors or the responsibilities of office. During the World War he served on various boards governing the activities of the time.
Mr. Copeland takes a deep interest in historical subjects, particularly those touching upon the early records of the town of Mansfield. He has gathered a great deal of material on these subjects and at various times has delivered addresses of a historical nature, particularly regarding Bristol county's hon- ored past. He is one of those men who holds the highest esteem and confidence of every one of his fellow-citizens. Fraternally Mr. Copeland is affili- ated with St. James' Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is past master; Key.tone Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Bristol Commandery, Knights Templar; and Massachusetts Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which he holds the thirty-second degree; he is also a member of Aleppo Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of
the Mystic Shrine. Mr. Copeland early affiliated himself with the religious advance and has long been a member of the Congregational church. He sang in the local church choir for twenty-five years, for twenty-three years was superintendent of the Sunday school and is now a deacon, having served as a member of the general committee for a long period of time.
Hon. William A. Copeland married, on October 26, 1904, Lucy S. Fairbanks, of Mansfield, daughter of Henry H. Fairbanks, of this place, a veteran of the Civil War, and for many years a clerk in the department of the State Board of Charity, his death occurring in 1918. The mother, Emma L. (Day) Fairbanks, was born in Upton, Massachusetts. and died a number of years ago.
JOSEPH ABRAHAM BOWEN-Of permanent and benevolent significance to the city of Fall River was the life of Joseph Abraham Bowen, useful citi- zen, successful business executive, and efficient pub- lic servant. He lived to be nearly eighty-two years . of age, and from childhood until his passing, his life was one of more than ordinary usefulness. Entering the world of men and affairs as a young lad, Mr. Bowen acquired sanity of judgment and breadth of wisdom with every experience, and up to the end of his long life he felt a keen interest in public events and exercised a guiding hand in the conduct of the large coal business he had developed. Nearly a decade has passed since the streets of Fall River have known his footfall, but the inspiration of his worthy career still lives in the memory of all whose privilege it was to know him.
The Bowen family became identified with the progress of the community now known as Fall River at a very early period in the history of the settlement. John Bowen, Mr. Bowen's great-great- grandfather, was in Freetown as early as 1739. He was presumably a descendant of Richard Bowen, who came from Kittle Hill, Glamorganshire, Wales, to Weymouth, Massachusetts, in the year 1638, later settling permanently at Rehoboth. The family touches through intermarriage, since the day of
John Bowen, several of the important families of this city and of New England-Borden, Durfee, Winslow, Cook, Read, Corey, Bennett, Valentine, Bliss, Briggs and Sweet, a group of Colonial Revo- lutionary names extending to the earliest period of English settlement in New England and through every department of the public, professional, and buiness life of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. .
John Bowen, the pioneer of Fall River, was a man of large business ability, who used for the general welfare, as well as for his individual interest the practical force and excellent judgment with which he was endowed. He became the owner of extensive tracts of land in what is now the South- ern part of the city of Fall River. His homestead is still standing on South Main street, near the eminence formerly known as Bowen's Hill, al- though many changes have been made since the days when it was occupied by John Bowen and his family. John Bowen married, on July 3, 1739, Penelope Read Borden, the record of this fact be- ing the first concerning the family in the Fall River district.
Nathan Bowen, son of the pioneer and great- grandfather of Joseph A. Bowen, rendered mili- tary service in behalf of the Colonies during the Revolutionary War. His influence in the com- munity was always for progress, and he reared his children to lives of usefulness and distinction. Nathan Bowen married Hannah Cook.
Abraham Bowen, the next in line, became one of the pioneer cotton manufacturers of Fall River, and was active in the production of cotton cloth from 1813. In 1822 he became one of the eight corporators of the Pocasset Manufacturing Company, the history of which concern is an im- portant chapter in the brilliant record of industrial achievement in Fall River. In association with Oliver Chace and Dexter Wheeler, Abraham Bowen incorporated the Watuppa Reservoir Company, and was a leader in all that contributed to the welfare of the people. Evidence of the esteem in which he was held is found in the fact that he was for several years chosen to represent his district in the General Court. At the time of his death, which occurred March 9, 1824, he had filled the office of postmaster of Fall River for eight years. He mar- ried Ruth Graves, and their home was at the north- east corner of Main and Bedford streets.
Abraham (2) Bowen, son of Abraham and Ruth (Graves) Bowen, took an influential part in the business and intellectual activities of his time. En- gaged in a teaming business for a number of years, his more important commercial activity was as a member of the grain and shipping firm of Read & Bowen. For a long period of time he edited and published a periodical entitled "All Sorts," and his editorial comments upon the fancies and foibles of his time were eminently illuminative and con- structive. His death, which occurred January 24, 1889, removed from Fall River a citizen whose use- fulness was by no means to be measured by the number of his years, even though he lived to a ripe age. Abraham (2) Bowen married Sarah Ann
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Read, daughter of Major Joseph Evans and Sibyl (Valentine) Read, a direct descendant of John Read, of Newport, Rhode Island, Abraham (2) Bowen himself built the house on Rock street, in which he resided for about sixty years. There his children were born, and there his daughter, Sarah V. Bowen, has resided throughout the entire period of her life to the present time (1923). She com- pleted her eighty-fourth year, December 8, 1923.
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