USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Ancient Middlesex with brief biographical sketches of the men who have served the country officially since its settlement > Part 3
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"Stay, Wanderer !
"Rumford, the Friend of Mankind,
"By Genius, Taste, and Love inspired,
"Changed this once Desert Place
"into what thou now beholdest. "To him
"Who rooted out the greatest of "public Evils,
"Idleness and Mendicity,
"Relieved and instructed the Poor.
"And founded many Institutions
"For the Education of our Youth. "Go, Wanderer,
"And strive to equal him
"In Genius and Activity, "And 11s "In Gratitude."
A replica of this memorial stands in the grounds of the public library building at Woburn, the gift of a public-spirited citizen. and from it the likeness was taken which is introduced herewith.
Elias Howe,
Who established his claim as inventor of the sewing machine, while working in Lowell, in company with an inventive genius named Wackenfeldt, who was employed by the Merrimac corporation, perfected some of the important features of his machine, out of which he finally received in royalties not less than two million dollars, while his former assistant remained in humble circumstances.
Charles Goodyear,
Noted the world over as a pioneer in the modern process of treating India rubber, lived in Woburn while experimenting with the vulcanizing compound. Meeting with repeated failure, he became so poor that he had no money with which to decently bury a dead child, the corpse being carted to the grave in a job-
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wagon. Both he and his family would have starved, had not a kind-hearted neighbor relieved his urgent necessities with a loan of three dollars when all others denounced and passed him by as a vain and delusive dreamer. His experiments were con- ducted in the old silk inill at East Woburn, and success finally came as the result of an accidental placing of a lump of his com- position upon a hot stove, by which it was vulcanized, thus re- vealing the proper treatment. He had previously been unsuc- cessful in business, having failed in 1830, and during the next ten years was many times imprisoned for debt. Others profited by his inventions, and while he was decorated with high honors by the leading powers of Europe, he died comparatively poor.
Alvan Clark,
Alvan Clark
As early as 1826, was working ten hours a day for nine dollars a week, as an engraver in a mill at East Chelmsford, now Lowell. His marriage, from which a son was born in Lowell, was the first one recorded in that town. After concluding his contract, he painted portraits and miniatures until 1844, when, in company with his son, who had obtained some experience at Andover, he commenced the manufacture of telescopes in Cam- bridge, where they produced some of the most famous and powerful astronomical instruments of their day, rivaling the work of lense grinders in all ages.
Samuel F. B. Morse
Sam FB more
Was another native of Middlesex, whose birthplace, the Edes Mansion, may still be seen on Main street, Charlestown. This building is an historic edifice, being the first house erected
ANCIENT MIDDLESEX. 35
after the wanton destruction of the town by the British during the battle of Bunker Hill. He was born April ?? , 1791, and died April 2, 1842, aged eighty-one. His father was Rev. Jedediah Morse, a noted minister of the First Church in Charlestown, where he preached from 1789 to 1820. He was also distin- guished as the "Father of American Geography." At the age of fourteen, Samuel entered Vale College. After his graduation, he became a pupil of Washington Allston, the greatest American artist of his period. One of Morse's creations, "The Dying Hercules," exhibited in 1813 at the Royal Academy, London, received the gold medal of the Adelphi Society of Arts. His success as a painter, while considerable, did not equal his ambi- tions, and he turned to electro-magnetism, a science in which he had previously experimented. The investigations of this re- markable genius finally produced the electric telegraph, thus harnessing for the purposes of man an element to be so widely developed in later years as to stamp him as the principal inventive benefactor of his age. It is seventy years since he entered the wilderness of electricity to develop and conserve its subtle power. Others have followed, but their brilliant achievements have failed to eclipse the marvelous triumphs of those early instruments, which, at the magical touch of the master's key, girdled the earth with human thought, and to this day are supreme in command of the telegraphic art.
Let us turn for patriotic inspiration to that never-to-be-for- gotten genius of our own times, the "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,"
Oliver Wendell Holmes,
Oliver Wendell Holmes.
An illustrious son of Middlesex, born opposite the college green in the historic house of his sire, a famous minister of Cam- bridge. This mansion was selected by Artemus Ward, general- in-chief of the Continental army, as his headquarters immediately succeeding the battle of Lexington, and within its walls was planned the occupation of Bunker Hill. Therein was also written
a
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that stirring and wonderful hymn dedicated to "Old Ironsides." In this house Washington frequently consulted with his generals and from it the lamented patriot. Dr. Joseph Warren, who, though he had been commissioned a Major-General, and was President of the Provincial Congress, then in session at Water- town, went out never to return, on the memorable morning of the Seventeenth of June, 1:25, to take part in the eventful battle of Bunker Hill. Half sick and greatly fatigued, he stopped here in the hours of the early dawn for rest and refreshment. It is known that he spent the entire day and a portion of the evening attending to his Congressional duties, and it has been asserted that the balance of the night was passed in the practice of his pro- fession, administering in a case of child-birth-a striking ex- ample of the scriptural injunction, "in the midst of life we are in death."
Oliver Holden,
Oliver Kolden
Of Charlestown, was another Middlesex County boy of the Colonial and Revolutionary period. Born in the little agricul- tural town of Shirley, September 18, 1265, he was for many years a carpenter and contractor, finally drifting through natural affinity into the business of music selling and publishing. In 1488, at the age of twenty-three, he went to Charlestown, where he supported himself for a period by hard work with the saw and . plane, gifted in the spirit of harmony, but quite unknown to fame. In 1793 he published a collection of sacred music, under the title of "Union Harmony," in which appeared the music of "Coronation," with words ascribed to "Rev. Mr. Medley." This must have been a plagiarism, as the original hymn was written in 1480, by Rev. Edward Peronnet, an English non-conformist, who died in Canterbury in 1792, without having listened to the inspir- ing melody of his immortal song, as rendered by the genius of Oliver Holden. In the wide range of Christian harmony, no hymn of the century appeals more directly to the reverential emo-
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tions of the human soul, or inspires loftier sentiments of devout adoration from those untold millions who "hail the power of Jesus' name and crown him Lord of all." The tune was first sung at the dedication of the Pearl-street Church in Charlestown, which stood nearly opposite the house where the composer passed away, September 4, 1844, aged seventy-nine. He was Worship- ful Master of King Solomon's Lodge, A. F. and A. M., of Charlestown, from 1497 to 1800.
Hon. Ephraim Wales Bull,
Of Concord, was born in Boston March 4, 1806. He was a gold-beater by trade, and conducted the business in Boston, until ill health induced him to settle in Concord about the year 1836. Here he was interested in horticulture, but continued to carry on his trade for several years with a few workmen. Observing a vine which had sprung up and grown to maturity on his land, evidently a seedling of the native Fox grape of New England, he found the fruit better than the wild grape, upon which he planted its seed as an experiment, obtaining in 1849 a grape which has revolutionized the viticulture of North America, forcing its way into every garden and vineyard of consequence in the temperate zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific, being hardy throughout the North. It was introduced commercially by Mr. Hovey, the dis- tinguished horticulturist, in 1853. As soon as its merits became generally known, it was pronounced the most important type of the American grape, a position from which, after half a century of cultivation, it has not been dethroned. Indigenous to the soil of ancient Middlesex, it shares high honors with the Baldwin and Porter apples, contributing with them satisfaction to the con- sumer, while adding millions to the coffers of cultivators, not only in New England, but throughout the great West. The original vine is still preserved through a sucker from its roots. Beyond the fame attached to the production of a variety of uni- versal merit, Mr. Bull received little of substantial value from his important discovery, others reaping most of the pecuniary re- wards. In political matters Mr. Bull was very active as a Whig in the campaign of 1840, and as a "Native American" in 1856
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and 1857, being a member of the House of Representatives in the former year, and a Senator in 1857. He was a member of the State Board of Agriculture twelve years, Chairman of Se- lectmen, and a useful member of the school committee of Con- cord. Surviving to a great age, outliving his family, and being unable to work or to care for his estate, it faded away, and he died in deep poverty, September 30, 1895, aged ninety. The Con- cord grape is his lasting memorial.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler,
James P. Istischer- James 1851.
Late of London, the super-eminent artist, was a son of Mid- dlesex, born in Lowell in 1834, and christened in "Old Saint Annes" church, as recorded on its baptismal register, November 9, 1834. His father was Major George Washington Whistler, a graduate of West Point, who resigned from the service, and went to Lowell in 1834, entering into the employ of the Locks and Canal Company as chief engineer in charge of their extensive works for the construction of locomotives and machinery for rail- roads and mills. While there he constructed for the Boston & Lowell railroad several engines fashioned after the one they had imported from London, which was built by Robert Stephenson, the first man in the world to successfully demonstrate the use of locomotives. Mr. Whistler was afterwards employed in various sections of the United States in great public and private enter- prises, among them being the Western railroad from Springfield to Albany. In 1842 he was called to Russia by the Czar to build, as engineer in charge, the first railroad of importance in that em- pire. It connected St. Petersburg with Moscow. In the former city he was attacked with cholera during a severe epidemic, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He died April 9, 1849, sincerely lamented, having successfully performed the great work with which he had been intrusted. His remains were sent to America and first buried in Boston, but finally removed to
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Stonington, Conn. He was one of the most distinguished engi- neers which this country has ever produced. His son, James Abbott McNeill, was also educated at West Point, or, at least, spent three years there, having been discharged June 16, 1854, "for deficiency in chemistry," but standing at the head of his class in drawing. HIe drifted finally to Paris, following his artistic tastes, where he studied for a time under an eminent teacher, and was well known in the Latin quarter. In 1863, at the age of twenty-nine, he settled in London, remaining there during the balance of his career, devoting with tireless energy his remark- able talents in the development of original and striking concep- tions in the realm of art. The products of his brush have been scattered far and wide, provoking interesting discussion among skilful and critical connoisseurs in many lands, while his etch- ings, if we are to accept the extravagant tributes of enthusiastic admirers, are unsurpassed even by the great masters. In his chosen profession he was undoubtedly a genius of magnitude, and it is possible that history may crown him as first of his pe- riod. It is a matter of historic interest to know that Major John Whistler, the grandfather of this erratic genius, was an Eng- lishman who came to America in the British army, serving under Burgoyne at Saratoga, where he was captured. After being hon- orably discharged in England, he returned to America and settled for a time in Maryland. IIe afterwards enlisted in the army of the United States, and was severely wounded in an engagement with the Indians. He was promoted to captain and finally be- came a major by brevet. He died in the service of his adopted country, with a record of able and faithful duty courageously per- formed.
Lowell, April 18, 1904.
My Dear Sir: I am not able to give you the date of the birth of Mr. Whistler; but he was baptized in St. Anne's Church on November 9, 1834 (being the son of George Washington and Anna Matilda), by the late Rev. D. Edson, then the rector.
I think Mrs. J. B. Francis, 68 Mansur street, Lowell, can give you the birth date. My parish register does not.
Very truly yours, A. St. John Chambre, Rector.
Mr. Levi S. Gould, Melrose.
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Lowell, April 20, 1904.
Mr. Gould :-
Dear Sir: Your letter is just received, asking of James Whistler. Mr. Whistler came to Lowell in 1834, and Mr. Francis, my husband, came with him then. I do not know of the birthday of James Whistler. but he was born on Worthen street, about the fifteenth of July, after the family came to Lowell. This is the best I can do for you.
Yours sincerely. S. W. Francis.
The "Whistler" house was the home of Mrs. Francis for twenty-five years .- [Ed.
May 16, 1904. Mr. Levi S. Gould, 280 Main street, Melrose, Mass. :-
My Dear Sir: In reply to your letter of the thirteenth inst. inquiring about the date and place of birth of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, I beg to say that the records of the Military Academy show that he en- tered here on July I, 1851. under the name of James A. (Abbott) Whist- ler; aged at that time, sixteen years and eleven months. He was ap- pointed at large, and his place of residence was in Pomfret. Windham county, Connecticut. At the end of his second year's course, in 1853, he was absent with leave, on account of ill health. On June 16, 1854, he was discharged from the academy for deficiency in chemistry. At that time he stood at the head of his class in drawing and No. 39 in philosophy, the total number in the class being forty-two. He recorded his place of birth as Massachusetts.
Very respectfully, F. W. Coe, Captain, Artillery Corps. Adjutant.
Headquarters United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. October 10, 1904. Mr. Levi S. Gould, 280 Main street, Melrose, Massachusetts: -
My Dear Sir: In reply to your request of the 5th inst. for a tracing of the signature of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, I beg to say that I have had made and enclose a photographic reproduction of his signature as it appears on the records of the Military Academy, July Ist, 1851. You will note that at the time he entered here the " McNeill " was not in his name.
Very respectfully, F. W. Coe, Captain, Artillery Corps, Adjutant.
The foregoing correspondence should settle the debated question as to the native place of the artist .- [Ed.
HON. EPHRAIM WALES BULL OF CONCORD. He Originated the "Concord " Grape Which was Introduced in 1849. Born March 4, 1806. Died September 30, 1895. See page 37.
REV. JOHN ELIOT, "APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS,"
From an Ancient Painting Discovered in a London Junk Shop. Born 1604, died 1690.
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Rev. John Eliot,
John Eliot
Known throughout the Christian world as "The Apostle of the Indians of North America," is inseparably connected with the annals of ancient Middlesex. No history thereof can be consid- ered complete which fails to deal with his sincere and earnest consecration to the civil advancement and the moral and spiritual uplifting of those semi-nomadic tribes which hunted, fished, and generally inhabited the confines of the Charles and Merrimack. The memory of this remarkable man has received a fitting tribute in this generation from all the people of the Commonwealth, in the heroie figure of the "Apostle" preaching to the natives, as de- picted in the mural painting recently finished, on the walls of the Memorial Rotunda in the State House, by order of the General Court.
He was born at Nazing, County of Essex. in 1604, and edu- cated at Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating therefrom in 1623. He came to America in the "Lion" (Captain William Pierce), ar- riving at Nantasket November 2, 1631. Among his fellow pas- sengers were the wife and children of Governor John Winthrop. It was a tedious voyage of ten weeks. On a subsequent trip of the same vessel came his betrothed, gentle Anna Mountfort. to whom he was married in October, 1632, a few days after her arrival. In the same year he was appointed pastor of the church in Roxbury, holding this position during a period of fifty-eight years, until the day of his death, which occurred on the twentieth of May, 1690, aged eighty-six. In addition to his pas- toral duties, he was devoted to the civilizing and Christianizing of the Indians of Middlesex County, among whom he persistently labored for more than half a century. He was a man of sincere charity, with an irresistible impulse to uplift and benefit humanity. It is said of him that the parish treasurer, knowing his weakness, on one occasion when paying his salary, tied it up in a handkerchief with many hard knots. On his way home he stopped to console a poor woman who was sick and destitute, and. wishing to help her with a portion of his salary, he endeav-
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ored to untie the several knots which his cautious friend had so carefully tied, but, finding it impossible, left the bundle upon the table, saying that it was evidently the Lord's will that she should have the whole of it ! As early as 1646, he had so far mastered the Mohican dialect, principally used by the Massachusetts tribes, as to be able, in their own tongue, to preach to the savages gatl . ered within the confines of the present city of Newton, in a "warm, sheltered valley" called Nonantum, or "Noonatomen," signifying a place of rejoicing.
In this arduous and heroic work, often performed at the risk of his life. he was greatly assisted by a young Pequot captive who had been apprenticed, or practically enslaved to a Dorchester planter, in accordance with a custom too often resorted to by our English ancestors.
He also received much aid and comfort from Daniel Gookin, elsewhere mentioned as the "Indian historian." who was a lifelong friend, and by whom he was frequently accompanied. On one occasion he was threatened by an Indian with death for promulgating the gospel. His reply was: "I am about the work of the great God, and he is with me. Touch me if you dare." The first Bible printed in America in any tongue was published in Middlesex County, at Cambridge, in 1663. It was in the In- dian language, and was translated by John Eliot, aided by one Job Nestuan, an aborigine who had become an excellent lin- guist. Faithful to the cause of the English, he was slain while fighting in their ranks against King Philip.
Marmaduke Johnson Samuel Green. 1652.
The printers of this now priceless treasure were Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson, both of whom were often men- tioned in the earliest records of the town of Cambridge.
Samuel Green, if his family traditions are correct, came over with Winthrop, having as an intimate fellow passenger Hon. Thomas Dudley, afterwards chosen many times as Governor and Deputy Governor, with whom, according to the story (said to be of his own relating), he slept on shore in an empty cask until
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better quarters could be provided. He was Town Clerk of Cambridge from 1694 to 1699, and Clerk of Writs from 165? to the day of his death. He was a commissioned officer in the famous "train-band" more than sixty years, becoming its Captain it: 1689 at the advanced age of seventy-five. After assuming the management of the "Day press," he was the only master printer in New England for nearly half a century.
Marmaduke Johnson came to America under a contract signed April 21, 1660, with the London "Society for propagating the gospel in New England," for the purpose of assisting in the printing of an Indian Bible under the direction of "Mr. John Eliot and Mr. Greene." The limit of time was three years, and the salary forty pounds per annum.
He was probably the first journeyman printer in America who had served a regular apprenticeship, as Day, who preceded him, being of another trade, probably took it up as a side issue, working at first in a clumsy way, and Mr. Green entered into it apparently as a business venture, on the advice of others. In 1662 he was indiscreet enough to captivate the affections of Mr. Green's daughter without first obtaining the sanction of her father. Such a proceeding in Puritan times was not only consid- ered as a gross breach of social decorum, but positively scan- dalous in the eyes of the law. Johnson was forced into court and fined five pounds, which he refused to pay. Subsequently he was ordered to leave the country within six weeks and placed under bonds to do so. As the culprit was still under contract to complete another year of service in getting out the Bible, then well under way, he could not be spared from that important work, and so the General Court was appealed to and an act passed which enabled him to remain.
The lassie, who was the underlying cause of all this trouble. proved as fickle as many others of her sex. for she found another lover before poor Johnson was able to satisfy the court by official proof that his former wife was really deceased, not "diseased," as the wretched orthography of the recording officer had gravely set forth. After completing his contract, he finally married a worthy woman, and nothing further was heard of the case against him.
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Fofo glower.
The press used in printing Mr. Eliot's Bible was the first one set up on the British North American continent. It was origi- nally operated by Stephen [ Steven] Day, who agreed to come to New England for the purpose in 1638. The press was brought over by Rev. Jose Glover, who sailed from England, accompanied by Day, in 1638. Mr. Glover died on the passage, and his widow had it set up. She subsequently married Rev. Henry Dunster, the first president of Harvard College, and thus the control of the press passed into his hands, and to a certain extent appears to have been used as an adjunct of that institution. The first product of this press was the "Freeman's Oath," which was struck off in March, 1639. In 1649 the plant seems to have been transferred to Mr. Green, who appears to have conducted it about half a century. Day, to whom must be ascribed the im- mortal honor of setting up and running off the first form in British North America, was described as a "locksmith" in the ancient records relating to his emigration. He lived in Cam- bridge until 1668, when he died, at the age of seventy-five, in poverty, thus establishing a precedent in the dissipation of worldly wealth quite generally followed by members of his craft to the present generation.
Graven Day 1657: HENRY Dunghar
Mr. Eliot also edited an Indian grammar, and at other times published catechisms and primers for the use and instruction of his converts, as well as other works of general interest or of broader application. He was the first man in America to lift up his voice against the treatment and vassalage of negroes and the
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selling of Indian captives into slavery, although it was genera- tions before the seed thus sown blossomed and bore the fruits of general emancipation.
For their courageous defense of the "praying Indians," while popular clamor was at its height in 1645, both Daniel Gookin and Thomas Danforth (afterwards Deputy Governor), his steadfast associates, were posted and threatened with death by an tin- reasoning and infuriated populace. Mr. Eliot's age, then being upwards of seventy, and his profession, probably saved him from similar treatment.
Major-General Daniel Gookin
Daniel Gostin Son. Affistant 1682
Originally came with his father to Virginia in 1621 from County of Kent, England, afterwards residing in Roxbury about three years, there forming the acquaintanceship of Mr. Eliot. He moved to Cambridge in 1647, where he passed the remainder of his days. He was licenser of the printing press in 1663. His public services to ancient Middlesex, especially in the militia, were eminent, and his labor in behalf of the "praying Indians" may best be judged from the works of his pen as their faithful historian. He was Lieutenant of the train-band of Cambridge in 1637, Captain in 1638, and rose to the position of Commander- in-Chief of the Middlesex County militia during King Philip's war. He was also Major-General of all the forces of the colony in 1681.
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