USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Annals of King's Chapel from the Puritan age of New England to the present day > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
" The third son of the Judge was Dr. Charles Lowell, Minister of the West Church in Boston, whose apostolic character and impressive elo- quence are still fondly remembered by the elders in our churches.
1 Many of his tributes to these and or are separately printed in pamphlet other eminent persons are included in form. the published volumes of his discourses, 2 See ante, pp. 464-466.
527
THE MINISTRY OF EPHRAIM PEABODY.
" In the next generation of this family we find John Lowell, Jr., who founded the Lowell Institute with an ample endowment for the free in- struction and entertainment of the people of Boston forever. Also John Amory Lowell (1798-1881),1. . . who, if he were not eminent in business circles, as an expert and authority in relation to the financial, commercial, and industrial interests of the coun- try, would enjoy sufficient distinction as a student of classical literature, as It Lowell an adept in the natural sciences, as the man who brought Agassiz over and planted him in America, as an efficient promoter of good knowledge, individually and in connection with learned societies, and as an occupant of a seat in the highest gov- erning board of our University, as his father was, and his grandfather and his uncle before him.
" To complete the trio of distinguished cousins in this generation as in the preceding, we have our well-known poet and all accomplished Har- vard professor, James Russell Lowell, who received the highest literary diploma from Oxford and Cambridge in England. No other American, I believe, has received this recognition from both these universities, and only four or five from either one of them.
" Passing on to the next or fourth generation, we have John Lowell, the jurist, who now occupies with distinguished ability and success the same seat on the United States District Bench which his great-grandfather filled three quarters of a century ago.2 Also, General Charles Russell Lowell, and his brother, Lieutenant James Jackson Lowell, grandsons of Dr. Charles Lowell, who both fell in the late war, -the former in the battle of Cedar Creek, and the latter at Nelson's Farm, in Virginia. These young men had but just reaped the very highest collegiate honors which Harvard has to bestow on her sons at graduating, when at the call of duty they gave themselves for their country, - thus adding, let us think, as much lustre to the name they bore as if they had lived in peace at home to fulfil the brilliant promise of their youth. I must not omit here
I In accordance with notice, a meet- ing of the Proprietors of King's Chapel was held after morning service on Sun- day, October 11, 1863.
The Senior Warden read the notice of the meeting called for the purpose of considering the offer made by John A. Lowell, Esq., of three painted glass win- dows procured by him for insertion in the chancel. A copy of Mr. Lowell's letter on the subject will be found in the Records of the Vestry.
On motion of Mr. Sidney Bartlett, it was voted, ---
"That the Proprietors of King's Chapel accept the generous gift of painted windows for the chancel, made
to the Chapel by our friend and fellow- worshipper, John A. Lowell, Esq .; that we heartily sympathise in the feelings which prompted him to this munificent act ; and that we offer him our warmest thanks for so remembering our vener- able place of worship during his absence from this country."
Mr. Lowell was a Vestryman from 1829 till 1845, and Junior Warden 1840- 1842.
2 Judge Lowell, also a member of this Parish, was appointed to the District Bench, March 11, 1865 (the last judicial appointment made by President Lincoln), and to the Bench of the Circuit Court in December, IS7S.
528
ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
the mention of a kinsman of these young men, of the Lowell stock on the maternal side, - Lieutenant William Lowell Putnam, who was killed in battle at Ball's Bluff. In the remembrance of their common friends he is always associated with his two cousins as their peer in the admirable traits of their characters, and in the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice by which they were animated.
"Others who have borne or still bear the same name with honor might be mentioned, but I have taken liberties enough with private biographies." 1
Mention has just been made of Judge SAMUEL SUMNER WILDE." He strikingly resembled the Duke of Wellington. " The first impression he made on a stranger was that of stern- ness and severity, but a better acquaintance was sure to dis- cover a heart full of tenderness and sensibility." All his nine children attained adult age. We copy one or two paragraphs from Dr. Peabody's memorial discourse : -
" He was the last surviving member of that Convention [the so-called ' Hartford Convention '] which had the singular fortune to be largely com- posed of the wisest, ablest, and most patriotic men of New England, and which popular opinion, with the pertinacious bitterness of party preju- dice, has regarded as having been made up of traitors. Still later, he was a member of that remarkable body of men to whom, in 1820, was com- mitted the revision of the Constitution of this Commonwealth. His term of judicial service extended over more than the lifetime of a generation ; and when, at the age of eighty-one, on account of physical infirmities, he resigned his office, the united voice of his own profession, and the universal feeling of the Commonwealth, of whose interests he had so long been one of the guardians, bear testimony to the magnitude of the public loss, and to the high estimate placed on the value of his judicial labors. The first time I saw him on the bench, an eminent member of his own profession, in whose company I was, said to me : . Be good enough to look at the Judge, and say if his face is not a remarkable one, - if it is not one which belongs to the office.' As I looked on the
1 Annual Report of the School Com- mittee of the City of Boston for 1875, pp. 234, 235-
2 Judge Wilde was born in Taunton, Feb. 5, 1771, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1789, and studied law with David Leonard Barnes of Taunton, afterwards United States District Judge. In 1792 he married Eunice, daughter of Gen. David Cobb, and in the same year was admitted to the bar of Bristol Co., Mass. He removed to Maine, under the patronage of Gen. Henry Knox, and be- gan the practice of the law in Waldobor- ough, Lincoln Co., removing thence to
Warren, and later to Hallowell. Ile soon took a high rank at the bar. In IS15 he was appointed by Governor Strong to a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. On the separation of Maine from Mas- sachusetts, in 1820, he removed to New- buryport, where his wife died, June 6, 1826, and his daughter Caroline (wife of Hon. Caleb Cushing), Aug. 30, 1832. In 1831 he removed to Boston. Hle re- signed his judgeship, Nov. 5, 1850, and died June 22, 1855, in his eighty fifth year.
529
THE MINISTRY OF EPHRAIM PEABODY.
calm, thoughtful, but most decided and resolute countenance, it seemed to me that my friend was not wrong in thinking it might be taken to represent the idea of Justice."
"In early life," added Dr. Peabody, " he was deeply interested in the theological controversies of the day, and was familiar with the theological treatises then held in most repute." In his last years he was especially interested in the question " how much, specifically, has Christianity added to ' natural religion ' as to our knowledge of religious and moral truth."
WVe copy here the testimonial of another : 1 __
" In the days of his childhood, he was trained in the doctrines of Calvin ; but with all his respect for his mother's teaching, he could not, as youth advanced into manhood, accept this faith ; and as in those New England days there seemed to be no middle ground, he connected himself with the Unitarian Society at King's Chapel."
ROBERT GOULD SHAW, an eminent merchant, was also a member of the Parish.
He " was grandson of Francis Shaw, who was born in Boston, March 29, 1721.2 His father, Francis Shaw, Jr. (born July 28, 1748), was a brother of Major Samuel Shaw, of whom Honorable Josiah Quincy wrote a Memoir. In 1770, Francis, Sr., with Robert Gould of Boston, and Lane, Son, Frazier & Co., London bankers, got from the Crown a present of a township of land in Maine, and fixed upon a location which they named Gouldsborough. Francis, Jr., who had been educated by Mr. Gould, was sent down as agent. The Revolution stopped all this promise. At the close of the war, they attempted to renew business operations, but died, - Francis, Sr., in Boston, October 18, 1784 ; and Francis, Jr., at Gouldsborough, April 17, 1735. Robert Gould Shaw was born at Gouldsborough, June 4, 1776. He had no advantages of education, and the little schooling he received could be reckoned by months. When thirteen years old he was sent to Boston, to the care of his uncle, Major Samuel Shaw, but became apprentice to his uncle William, who sent him, at the age of seventeen, to take charge of the Goulds- borough property, which he had acquired, and which the boy wound up in three years, to his uncle's great satisfaction. In 1799 he began an auction and commission business, and in 1805 formed a business part- nership, under the title of Messrs. Tuckerman, Shaw, & Rogers. He was in England from 1805 to 1807. At this time, with others, he bought a large territory in the valley of the Kennebec, a profitable but anxious operation. In 1810 the partnership was dissolved, and he entered on a
1 Memoir of Judge Wilde in the Me- morial Biographies of the New-Eng. Hist. Gen. Society, ii. 378.
2 Memoir of Robert Gould Shaw, by VOL. II. - 34
Francis G. Shaw, in the Memorial Bio- graphies of the New- Eng. Hist. Gen. Society, ii. 38.
530
ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
more general business on his own account (first on Kilby Street, then on Central Wharf, and lastly Commercial Wharf), associating with himself Mr. William Perkins,1 who had been brought up in his counting-room, and four of his own sons, successively. He owned many vessels, and had a commerce extending all over the world. He made large investments in real estate, and was interested in the great improvements of the water- front of the North End and in the development of Noddle's Island (East Boston). He was representative in the General Court in 1829-30, and in 1835, and Presidential elector in 1852. He married, February 2, 1809, Elizabeth Willard Parkman, born March 31, 1785, daughter of Samuel Parkman, and his second wife, Sarah Rogers. They attended church, first at Federal Street, then at the New North, and later at King's Chapel."
Said one who knew him well, -
" Mr. Shaw never made any professions of religion, but he was a very conscientious and deeply religious man. . . . In his later years, he be-
1 WILLIAM PERKINS was born in Bos- ton, October 4, 1804, and died at his residence here on July 13, 1887. Ile was a Vestryman of King's Chapel from 1863 to 1887. He was the son of Samuel Perkins, a merchant of Boston, and bore the name of his grandfather; Captain William Perkins, who commanded a company in Little's regiment and did gallant service at the Battle of Bunker Hill.' He was for many years Treasurer of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Society of Cincinnati, of which his grand- father had been one of the original members, and the prosperous condition of the financial affairs of that venerable institution is largely to be attributed to his careful and judicious management. He was deeply interested in many of our most cherished charitable associations, and throughout his life gave generously to them, not only in pecuniary contribu- tion, but in long and faithful service, where his unquestioned financial skill was of the highest importance. IIe was equally ready where persons of limited means sought his advice and assistance in their humble affairs. Simple in man- ners and readily approachable by all,
punctual and precise in business, scru- pulous in honesty, industrious and ener- getic in action, the city in which he dwelt was better and happier for his presence in it during the whole of his long business life. That life began, when, as a boy of fourteen years, he entered the counting-room of Robert G. Shaw, and ended only with his death at eighty- three, thus covering a space of nearly seventy years. Although Mr. Perkins's early education was strictly commercial, his later life found him engaged in the affairs of banking and insurance. Ile was President and Director respectively of two of the most important of these companies; and the day before his death he was present at the meetings of both, and took his nsual part in the discussion of their business transactions. During the evening, while at home, he was at- tacked by a brain disease of a paralytic character; and in a few hours, without conscious suffering, this useful life came serenely to its end (Tribute of the Ilon. Charles Devens before the Bunker Hill Monument Association at its An- nual Meeting, June 17, 1888, and printed in its Proceedings, pp. 18-19.)
1 Col. William Perkins,1 born in Boston, 1742, served through the Revolution. Samuel 2 had a large carpet (painting) factory in Rox- bury ; died 1846. William, 3 Treasurer of the Cincinnati, born in Boston, 1804; married Nov. 12, 1835, Catherine Callender, daughter of John Amory of Dorchester. Their children were - (1) James Amory, born July 9, 1836 ;
killed at Morris Island, Aug. 26, 1863. (2) William Edward, born March 23, 1838. (3) Robert Shaw, born July 6, 1842 ; died June 8, 1873. (4) Helen Amory, born May 25, 1846; married John Homans, M.D., born Nov.25, 1836. (Memorials of Mass. Society of the Cincinnati, by F. S. Drake, edition of 1873, PP. 417-419.)
531
THE MINISTRY OF EPHRAIM PEABODY.
came an enthusiastic believer in modern Spiritualism, . . . but he needed no help from [mediums] to strengthen his belief in immortality, which was never shaken."
Mrs. Shaw died April 14, 1853. He shortly after took to his bed, and died on May 3, following. " When a friend spoke to him of 'dying in Christ,' a look of amazement came over his face, and he said ' We live in Christ.'" He left a large bequest to found the " Shaw Asylum for Mariners' Children."
The subjoined biographical notices further illustrate this period of our history : -
NATHAN APPLETON was born in New Ipswich, N. H., Octo- ber 6, 1779, and died in Boston, July 14, 1861.
Although his first journey to Boston, in 1794, would seem to indicate that he was a lad of very humble fortunes, he was by no means without advantages of family and education. Few families, indeed, in New Eng- land, and not a great many in Old England, can be traced farther back than his own, through a respectable ancestry, and by an unquestioned pedigree. Among the Harleian manuscripts in the British Museum is found a genealogy reaching back to John Appulton of Great Waldling- field, in the county of Suffolk, who was living there in 1396, and whose funeral monument in the parish church of that village, in 1416, was duly decorated (according to Weever) with " three apples gules, leaves and stalks vert." 1
Following down the history of the family on American soil through five generations, - all of them illustrated by names associated with valu- able services in Church or State, in peace or war, in some honorable pro- fession or in some no less honorable department of useful industry, during the larger part of the time at Ipswich, in Massachusetts, where the first emigrant settled, and more recently at New Ipswich, in New Hampshire, - we come to the subject of our memoir. He was the seventh son of Isaac Appleton, whose habitual title of " Deacon " was doubtless a just recognition of the gravity of his character, and of the interest which he took in the religious institutions of the community in which he lived.
A full account of Mr. Appleton's life would embrace an account of the
1 Samuel Appleton came to New Eng- land in 1635, and settled at Ipswich, Massachusetts; he had married Judith Everard in 1616. His son Samuel (1625-1696) was a major in King Phil- ip's War, and was active in resistance to the claims of Andros. He married (1651) Hannah Paine of Ipswich ; their son Isaac, born 1664, married Priscilla
Baker of Topsfield, to whom was born Isaac in 1704. Isaac married Elizabeth Sawyer, of Wells, Maine ; and their son Isaac (born 1731), who married Mary Adams of Concord, Massachusetts, 1760, was the father of Nathan and Samuel, the subjects of the two sketches given in the text. The family is still represented on the list of Proprietors of this Church.
532
ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
first introduction of the power-loom into this country, and of the original establishment of the cotton manufacture at Lowell. The part which he took in so important an enterprise cannot be omitted in ever so brief a mention of him ; nor can it be so well described in any other language than his own, as given in a pamphlet I published under his own name. His narrative not merely unfolds the marvellous rise and progress of a great branch of American industry, but exhibits strikingly the capacity of one who was largely concerned in the undertaking to depict its various stages with simplicity, precision, and perfect candor. The tes- timony which he bears to the merits of others, and especially to the pre-eminent services of Mr. Lowell, is of no small historical value. It is the testimony not merely of a witness, but of an actor ; and the seeming disclaimer of any particular credit for himself is altogether in keeping with his character, and furnishes a happy illustration of his unassuming disposition. Posterity will not fail to recognize him as one of the found- ers of that great manufacturing city, to which he boasts only to have given the name of his friend.
Mr. Appleton entered the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1815, and was re-elected one of the Boston representatives in 1816, 1821, 1823, 1824, and 1827. In 1830 he was chosen a member of the House of Representatives of the United States, after one of the most exciting and closely-contested political struggles which Boston has ever witnessed. Declining a re-election in 1832, he was induced to resume the Boston seat in Congress, for a few months, in 1842. It so happened that some of the most important discussions which have ever occurred on the sub- ject of the tariff, in our national legislature, were exactly coincident with his terms of service. Perhaps it would be more just to say that he was selected for the candidacy, and induced to accept it, at these particular times, with a special view to his ability to grapple with the questions which were then plainly impending. Certain it is that he was there at the right moment, for his own reputation, for the advantage of his con- stituents, and, still more, for the right understanding of those great problems of public policy with which his personal experience and prac- tical sense had peculiarly fitted him to deal.
Persistent courage and inflexible integrity were the two leading ele- ments of Mr. Appleton's character, and constituted the secrets of his great success. To these, more than to anything else, he owed both his fortune and his fame. He displayed his boldness by embarking in un- tried enterprises, by advocating unpopular doctrines, by resisting popular prejudices, by confronting the most powerful and accomplished opponents in oral or written argument, and by shrinking from no controversy into which the independent expression of his opinions might lead him. His integrity was manifested where all the world might read it, - in the daily dealings of a long mercantile career, and in the principles which he incul- cated in so many forms of moral, commercial, and financial discussion.
1 Introduction of Power-loom, and Origin of Lowell, 1858, pp. 36.
)
ن
533
THE MINISTRY OF EPHRAIM PEABODY.
" The truth is," said Mr. Appleton, " when I had succeeded in laying up a moderate property, - say two hundred thousand dollars, - I was quite content, and intended to retire altogether from business. It was al- together accidental that I have ever gone further. I have explained something of this in my late pamphlet on the history of Lowell and the Cotton Manufacture. It was wholly accident that I went into that busi- ness ; and the truth is, that my mind has always been devoted to many other things rather than money-making. That has never been a passion with me, or ever a subject of much concern. Accident, and not effort, has made me a rich man." He was a liberal, public-spirited gentleman. whose charity began at home, but did not end there ; who made hand- some provision for a hospitable household and a numerous family, without limiting his benevolence within the range of domestic obligations or per- sonal ties. He was not ostentatious of his bounty, either in life or death, nor did he seek celebrity for his name by any single and signal endow- ment ; but he never looked with indifference on the humane and philan- thropic enterprises of the day, nor declined to unite in sustaining those institutions of education and science which are the glory of his time. His sense of justice and his distaste for display prevailed even here ; and he preferred being known as " doing his share " in any public cause, to being remarked upon for extraordinary munificence.1'
SAMUEL APPLETON (1766-1853), a Vestryman of King's Chapel from 1830 till 1840, a brother of Nathan and a cousin of William Appleton,2 was for many years a well-known mer- chant of Boston, who did much to make the name of a Boston
1 We quote from a Memoir by the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings for October, 1861, v. 249-308.
Mr. Appleton was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the American Antiquarian Society, and President of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company at the time of his death. Harvard College gave him the honorary degree of A. M. in 1844, and that of L.L.D. in 1855.
2 In a Memoir of the HIon. William Appleton, written for the Massachusetts lIistorical Society (Proceedings, v. 446, et seq.), the Rev. Dr. Chandler Robbins observes : -
"The instances must be very rare, in which, in a single city, four individuals of one kindred and name, and in the same grade of natural descent, have contemporaneously made their own way from humble beginnings to such high distinction in the same calling as was lately attained by the three brothers,
Samuel, Nathan. and Ebenezer Appleton, and their cousin William."
William Appleton, the son of the Rev. Joseph Appleton (B. U. 1772), was born in the North Parish of Brook field, Mass., Nov. 16, 1786, and died in Long- wood, Feb. 15, 1862. A devout Episco- palian, he was prominently connected with St. Paul's Church in Boston. His philanthropy kept pace with his rapidly increasing wealth; and St. Stephen's Church, and the Appleton wards of the McLean Asylum for the Insane, among other evidences of his munificence, bear silent but eloquent testimony to his large- ness of heart. He was President of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and of the Boston Branch of the Bank of the United States, - a position for which his extraordinary abilities as a merchant eminently qualified him. He served three terms in Congress, sitting for Bos- ton, - the last term beginning at the time of President Lincoln's accession to office.
534
ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
merchant synonymous with energy, enterprise, and sterling integrity.
He was one of the old-school merchants, having come to Boston in 1794, at the age of twenty-eight, to engage in the business of importing and selling at wholesale English dry-goods. The old merchants of Boston had the advantage of the present generation in being so much nearer the hardy pioneer life, which taught self-reliance, endurance, and economy, and indifference to artificial wants ; they had also no dangers from savage neighbors, as the early fathers had, but coming as they often did from remote towns, sparsely settled and barren of luxury, they had been nurtured on self-denial and economy.
For some years before his death, Mr. Appleton made it a rule to dis- burse his entire income each year. As a consequence, the list of his benefactions is a long one. Few benevolent associations but at some time appealed to him, and seldom were such appeals made in vain. In many instances trustees of public charities were surprised by the opportune liberality of his unsought contributions. Such were the gifts of one thousand dollars to the Boston Female Asylum in 1844, and again in 1845 ; of ten thousand dollars to Dartmouth College in 1845, and of five thousand dollars to the New Ipswich Academy in 1850. While he did not wait for his death to benefit others, he was still able in his will to devise a princely sum ($200,000) for distribution by his executors for " scientific, literary, religious, and charitable purposes." Among the objects to which portions of this sum were applied by the trustees were the following : To Harvard College, $50,000; Sailors' Snug Harbor, $20,000 ; New Ipswich (Appleton) Academy, $20,000 ; Dartmouth College, $15,000 ; Massachusetts Historical Society, $10,000 ; Massachusetts General Hospital, $10,000 ; American Academy of Arts and Sciences, $10,000 ; Amherst College, $10,000. The donation to Harvard College was applied to building the beautiful Appleton Chapel. He had no children. He married (November, 1819) Mrs. Mary (Lecain) Gore,1 and his married life seems to have been exceptionally happy. His wife survived him many years, and died May 19, 1870. Calm and serene, conscious of a well-spent life, he made his home a centre from which radiated cheer and sympathy for all good objects, and helpfulness to a large circle.2
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.