USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Biographical review, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Essex County, Massachusetts > Part 22
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HOMAS EMERSON COX, formerly a leading farmer of Lynnfield, was born on the home farm, July 28, 1813, of Benjamin and Clarissa (Emerson) son
Cox. The father, who came to Lynnfield from Boston when only eight years of age, lived with Deaeon Evans for six years. At the age of fourteen he began to learn the shoemaker's trade from Joshua Burnham in
f
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the house that was afterward his son's home. After finishing his apprenticeship he re- mained in Mr. Burnham's employ until he was twenty-two years of age. Then he mar- ried and removed to South Reading, the home of his wife's parents. Returning to Lynn- field in 1812, he bought of Mr. Burnham the place in which he had served his apprentice- ship, and which had been mortgaged. In 1824 he added forty acres to the estate, which originally contained some sixty acres. The old house, erected probably before the Revo- lution, is still standing, though it has re- ceived additions. Benjamin Cox carried on - farming, and at the same time did consider- able work at his trade. He died on March 3, 1873, at the age of ninety-one. His wife, who survived him, died on January 17, 1889, at the advanced age of one hundred and one years and three months. Their family com- prised eleven children, five of whom are still living; namely, Thomas E., Hubbard, George, Hannah, and Harriet. Hubbard resides in Reading, and George at Wakefield. Hannah is now Mrs. Irenas W. Newcomb, and Har- riet is Mrs. Charles Leonard Bayrd, of Wake- field. Clarissa, who married Reuben Weston, of Reading, recently died at the age of ninety- one.
Thomas Emerson Cox grew to manhood on the farm, and learned the shoemaker's trade with his father. After working for a few months in Cambridge he went to Hartford and subsequently to Union, Conn. Later he returned to Massachusetts, but soon went to Maine, spending two or three years in Sac- carappa and Portland. Returning then to his native town, he took up his residence at the farm, and in 1857 increased the estate by buy- ing a tract of one hundred and twenty acres, much of it being woodland. Upon the death of his father he bought out the interest of the
other heirs, and now owns about three hun- dred acres. While earrying on general farm- ing, he devotes the greater part of his time to milk producing; and sinee 1881 his son, Thomas E., Jr., has given his time to the farm management. On October 6, 1839, Mr. Cox was married to Lucy, daughter of Will- iam and Sally (Burnham) Gould. Mrs. Gould, who was a daughter of Joshua Burn- ham, the original owner of the Cox farm, was born and married in the old house. Lucy, now Mrs. Cox, was born in South Reading on December 22, 1818, and hence was twenty- one years of age at the time of her marriage. She has been the mother of six children - Lucy Albina, Benjamin Franklin, Abbic Jane, Caroline Pamelia, Henry Bancroft, and Thomas Emerson. Lucy Albina, who is un- married, resides with her parents. Benjamin F. and Henry B. died in childhood. Abbie Jane was instantly killed at the age of nine- teen on an occasion when her horse, taking fright, jumped upon a railroad track in front of an on-coming train. Caroline P. is Mrs. Everett Noyes, of Wakefield. Thomas E. Cox, Jr., who resides on the farm, married Elizabeth Rebecca Leavis, of Wakefield, a lady of English birth. They have two chil- dren - Harold Childs and Ralph Emerson Cox. Their son, Thomas Emerson, died at the age of sixteen months. In polities Mr. Cox, Sr., was a stanch Democrat, and he faithfully attended and supported the Univer- salist church at Wakefield. He died May 7, 1898.
OHN B. JUDKINS, founder of the carriage-building house of J. B. Jud- kins & Sons Company, was born in Freedom, N.H., in 1835, son of John and Mary (Lovering) Judkins. His grandfather was Samuel Judkins, who held a Major's com-
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mission in the Continental army during the Revolutionary War. The grandfather was a prosperous farmer of Freedom, N.H., where he died at the age of forty-five; and each of his sons-John, Peter, and Daniel-inherited a farm. John Judkins, father of John B., set- tled in Melrose in 1855, and retired from business.
In 1852 John B. Judkins came to Merrimac (then West Amesbury), and at the age of seventeen began an apprenticeship of five years as a carriage-trimmer. In 1857 he com- menced the manufacture of carriages, which he continued in several different factories in the town until 1866, when the factory now oc- cupied by the Judkins Company, and which has been enlarged several times to accommo- date the steady increase of business, was erected. The present company was incorpo- rated in 1891 with Mr. John B. Judkins as president; F. B. Judkins, treasurer; and C. H. Judkins, secretary. In 1884 Mr. Jud- kins was elected to represent the towns of Amesbury, Merrimac, and West Newbury in the legislature, and was appointed on the Committee of Manufactures. He has been for many years a director of the First National Bank, and also vice-president and trustee of the Merrimac Savings Bank. He has been identified with the Masonic and Odd Fellow- ship interests of the town for the past quarter of a century. Mr. Judkins married Laura J. Haskell, daughter of William H. Haskell, one of the most prominent citizens and lead- ing business men of the town.
T HOMAS H. LORD, a grocer of Ips- wich, is one of the best known busi- ness men of the place. Born herc March 3, 1829, son of Asa Lord, he is of good old English ancestry, the first of the
family to come to America having been Rob- ert Lord, who emigrated from England in old Colonial times.
Asa Lord, whose father, Asa, was drowned at sea when he was a young man, was born and reared in Ipswich. Besides working at his trade of shoemaker he was also engaged in a mercantile business. In 1825 he opencd a store on the site of the present grocery, not far from Lord Square, and having his dwell- ing, shop, and store connected. Besides con- ducting these he was interested in the coast trade as part owner of vessels bringing lum- ber from Maine ports. He lived to the good age of ninety-one years, passing away in Octo- ber, 1890, having been able until the previous year to be in the store most of the time. Hc married Abigail H. Hodgkins, a daughter of Captain John Hodgkins, who, now in hcr ninety-seventh year, has been confined to the house for some time. Asa was not active in politics. While he was a regular attendant of the First Congregational Church, his religious beliefs more nearly coincided with the Uni- versalist creed. He was an extensive reader, . keeping well informed on the current topics of the day. To him and his wife were born the following children: Lucy Ann, a maiden lady, who lives with her mother; Thomas H., the special subject of this sketch; two chil- dren that died in infancy; and Mary Abbic, who died in 1886, and was the wife of John A. Brown, of Ipswich.
Thomas H. Lord began to serve as clerk in his father's store when a boy. At the age of nineteen he received charge of the books. Of late years he has had entire charge of the business which, until the death of the father, was carried on under the name of Asa Lord. As a man of integrity, straightforward charac- ter and purpose, he has won the confidence of all with whom he has had dealings, and is
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respected throughout the community. A stanch Republican in politics, he is active in the party, attending most of the local con- ventions. From 1865 until 1872 he served as Selectman, Overseer, and Assessor, and one term in the same capacity since then. He is a member of the First Congregational Church, toward the support of which hc contributes liberally.
Mr. Lord was married November 13, 1859, to Miss Lucretia Smith, who was born 'in Boston. Mr. and Mrs. Lord have no children of their own. An adopted daughter, Anna Louisc Lord, has been a member of their family since she was four years old. She graduated from the Manning High School and later, in 1890, from Wellesley College. Subsequently she taught in Indianapolis, and was for three years a teacher of modern lan- guages in the University of Denver, Colorado. She has spent two years abroad in the Univer- sities of Leipsic and Göttingen, pursuing her special work, Germanic philology. Miss Lord is now in the high school at Jersey City, where she is the teacher of the German language.
ATHAN MORTIMER HAWKES, a leading member of the legal frater- nity of Essex County and a promi- nent citizen of Lynn, is notcd for his mental attainments, professional ability, and literary accomplishments. He was born November 1, 1843, in Lynnfield, formerly a part of Lynn, a son of Nathan D. Hawkes. He comes of a long line of honored and distinguished ances- try, being an eighth generation descendant of Adam Hawkes, who was born in England in 1608, came to America with Winthrop in 1630, and died in Lynn in 1671. In 1631 he married Ann Hutchinson, by whom he had two children - John and Susanna. (Susanna
married in 1649 William Cogswell, of Ips- wich.) After her death he married Sarah Hooper, by whom he had one daughter, Sarah. Adam Hawkes first located in Charlestown. In 1638, at the time of the first division of lands in Lynn, he received a grant of one hundred acres, and settled in that part of Lynn now known as North Saugus, on the homestead which has since been in the family, descending from one generation to another in unbroken succession. His son John, the first male member of the family born in America, was born in 1633, and died in 1694. He first married in 1658 Rebecca, daughter of Moses Maverick, the first magistrate of Marblehead, and Sarah (Allerton) Maverick, daughter of Isaac and Mary (Norris) Allerton, who came over in the "Mayflower," and for his second wife married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Cushman, Ruling Elder of Plymouth, and his wife, Mary, who was also the daughter of Isaac Allerton.
Moses Hawkes, the next in line of descent, was born in Lynn on November 29, 1659, and died there February 1, 1709. On May 10, 1698, he married Margaret Cogswell, of Ips- wich, this county; and their eldest child, Moses Hawkes, the second, born on March 4, 1699, was the succeeding progenitor. He was a man of prominence in his day and one of the original founders of the town of Saugus. On April 9, 1730, he married Susanna Town- send, a relative of Daniel Townsend, a minute-man, who was killed by the British at Lexington, April 19, 1775. Their son Na- than, who was born in Lynn, July 1, 1745, and died in Saugus, October 17, 1824, was the great-grandfather of Nathan M. Hawkes, the special subject of this sketch. He was very active in the management of town affairs, serving as Selectman in 1805, 1806, and 1807, during the contention between the town
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and the First Parish as to the use of the old Tunnel Meeting-house, and was for several years parish clerk. He was one of the lead- ing petitioners for the formation of the towns of Lynnfield and Saugus. On September 3, 1769, he married Sarah Hitchings, a descend- ant of Daniel Hitchings, a soldier in King Philip's War, who held the title to his lands under a deed from the Indian Sagamores. Nathan Hawkes was Ensign of Captain David Parker's company of Lynn minute-men at the Lexington alarm, April 19, 1775; and his great-grandson has the sword which he wore on that day of days, and under the sword stands the chair in which he sat when he told the story of how
·· The embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world."
Nathan Hawkes, the second, grandfather of Nathan M., was born in that part of Lynn now Saugus, January 22, 1775, and died in Sau- gus, August 22, 1862. On January 22, 1805, he married Elizabeth Tarbell, a daughter of Jonathan Tarbell, a minute-man of Danvers, who was at the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775, and a descendant of John Tarbell, of Salem Village, the leader in removing the Rev. Samuel Parris from his pastorate of the Salem Village Church after the witchcraft trials of 1692.
Nathan D. Hawkes was born in Lynn, May 4, 1811, and died in that city, April 23, 1850. On November 10, 1842, he married Tacy Pratt Hawkes, daughter of Ahijah and Theo- date (Pratt) Hawkes, who was born on the old Hawkes homestead, which has been in the family since it came into the possession of the immigrant ancestor, Adam Hawkes, in 1638.
Nathan M. Hawkes acquired his early edu- cation in the public schools of Lynn, and was graduated from the Friends' School in Provi-
dence, R.I., in 1861. He immediately began to read law in the office of Perry & Endicott, of Salem, and on the twenty-first anniversary of his birth, November 1, 1864, was, on mo- tion of Judge Endicott, admitted to the Essex County bar. He has since been actively en- gaged in the practice of his profession, and in local affairs has been prominently identified with the highest interests of his city, county, and State. From 1867 until 1879 he was Special Justice of the Lynn Police Court. From 1869 until 1872, inclusive, he was a member of the Common Council of Lynn, three years of the time being president of the board. He was also a member of the School Committee and a trustee of the public library.
In 1875, 1876, 1877, and 1878 he was a member of the General Court, and in 1879 was State Senator. At present he is a mem- ber of the Lynn Park Commission, which con- trols the Lynn Woods, that the late Charles Eliot called "the largest and most interesting, because the wildest, public domain in all New England." He is also a member of a com- mission appointed by the City Council, con- sisting of the Mayor, the City Clerk, and himself, to secure the publication of the early records of the town.
He has ever been deeply interested in liter- ary pursuits, and his frequent contributions to the press have proved a source of pleasure to innumerable readers. In 1887 and 1888 the Boston Record published a series of sketches entitled, "The Best Town to live in." Mr. Hawkes showed his appreciation of his native town by writing an article setting forth the natural and acquired charms of Lynnfield and its desirability as a place of residence. He has since published a work entitled, “In Lynn Woods with Pen and Camera, 1893." The Essex Institute has also published his "Glean- ings Relative to the Family of Adam
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Hawkes" and "Semi.historical Rambles among the Eighteenth-century Places along the Saugus River." The Magazine of Ameri- can History and the New England Magasine have printed some of Mr. Hawkes's local his- torical studies, including "The Lynn Iron Works" and "Captain Robert Bridges, Founder of the Iron Works."
He is a forcible and cloquent speaker, and is often called upon in this capacity on public occasions. Many of his addresses of this character have been published, among them being an "Address at the Dedication of the New Town Hall " at Lynnfield, January 28, 1892; an address delivered before the Esscx Agricultural Society at Haverhill, Mass., September 21, 1893; a memorial address commemorative of James Robinson Newhall, given before the Lynn Press Association, Jan- uary 17, 1894; and an address delivered be- forc the Bay State Lodge, No. 40, I. O. O. F., on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary. Mr. Hawkes is the holder in fee of one bit of real estate in Lynnfield, which has to him a pcculiar interest. It is the little enclosure which contains the mortal remains of some of his kin, including his great-grandfather, Jon- athan Tarbell, the Danvers minute-man, who was on Lexington Green, April 19, 1775.
Mr. Hawkes was married December 2, 1867, to Mary, daughter of Benajah and Cynthia Buffum, of North Berwick, Me., at the Buffum homestead. They have one child, Alice Hawkes.
Mr. Hawkes is a member of the Essex In- stitute and of the New England Historic- Genealogical Society, his taste for historic re- search and investigation making him a most desirable member of cach. He is an Odd Fellow, belonging to the Bay State Lodge, No. 40, I. O. O. F., of which he is a Past Grand. He was a charter member of the
Lynn Historical Society, and is a member of its Council. He is a member of the Society of "Mayflower " Descendants.
Since the immigrant Englishman, Adam Hawkes, pitched his tent in the wilderness outskirts of Lynn, each succeeding generation to the time of the subject of this sketch has tilled the soil on the banks of Saugus River; and possibly he, too, looks with longing eyes upon the scenes familiar to his fathers, and craves the serenity of rural life that may come after the treadmill drudgery of office work is over.
EORGE CANNING HOWARD, M.D., a popular physician of Law- rencc and a son of Samuel and Amanda (King) Howard, was born in Pom- fret, Windsor County, Vt., August 24, 1840. The paternal grandfather, Adam Howard, who was born in the town of Braintree, Mass., en- listed as a soldier in the Revolutionary army when a youth. His brother, Benoni, who set- tled in Connecticut, also served in the Revo- lution. Separated by the war, neither knew whether the other was alive or dead when it was over. On his release from military ser- vice, Adam, taking a pack on his back, walked to Vermont, crossing the Connecticut River at Lebanon or West Lebanon. He was urged to settle at West Hartford; but, the land being too level to suit him, he sought the hilly part of the State, purchasing a tract of timber land in Pomfret. At his death he was about four- score. He married a Miss Polly Mann, of Randolph, Mass., who is buried with him in the family cemetery on the old farm. They reared a family of six sons and three daugh- ters. Of these, two settled in St. Lawrence County, New York. Four stayed in Pomfret, Samuel and Seth remaining on the old home-
75.
JOHN FRENCH JOHNSON.
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stead, and Benoni and Daniel making settle- ments on either side. The first of the family to pass away was Adam, Jr., who died in Messina, N. Y., at the age of forty.
Samuel Howard, born in Pomfret, June 15, I Soo, was engaged during his active life in farming on the homestead. He died Febru- ary 24, 1874. In 1825 he was married to Amanda King, also a native of Pomfret, born in March, 1807. She died January 20, 1875, eleven months after her husband's demise and at exactly the same hour of the day. Both rest in the Pomfret cemetery. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. All their children, two sons and six daughters, attained maturity, and were well educated; and all but the youngest married. Augustin S., having graduated from Dartmouth in 1858, went West in 1861, obtained a diploma from the law department of Ann Arbor College in 1862, and settled on a tract of land. The daughters living are: Jane, the wife of Chauncy Childs, who lives in Pomfret; Ann, the widow of Carlos Tenney, residing in Hart- ford, Vt .; and Emma, the wife of Austin Howard (no relation), residing in West Hart- ford.
George Canning Howard was a student at the New London (N. H.) Academy, one of the oldest institutions in the State. During the Civil War, from February, 1863, to June, 1865, he served in the medical department of the Union army. Graduating from the medi- cal department of Dartmouth College in 1865, he began to practise almost immediately in North Attleboro, Mass. Three years later he went to Salem, N.H., where he was in active professional work for thirteen years. In July, 1882, he opened an office on the corner of Jackson and Essex Streets, Lawrence, where he is still to be found during office hours. He has a large practice, and is highly es-
teemed in this city. His handsome residence at 145 Haverhill Street was purchased by him in 1887.
On September 5, 1865, he was married to Georgiana Smith, of North Attleboro, daugh- ter of Isaac and Georgiana (Butterfield) Smith. Mr. Smith kept a country store in early life, and was later in the jewelry busi- ness in Boston with W. D. Whiting, the hus- band of his wife's sister. He died in 1854, leaving, besides a widow, Georgiana, who was then eight years old. Dr. and Mrs. Howard have two children - Florence and Fred A. The former is the wife of James Hasbrouck Le Fevre, who is a son of a Presbyterian clergyman in New Jersey, comes of Huguenot descent, and is the superintendent of the roll- ing-mill of the Pennsylvania Steel Company at Steelton, Pa. Fred A. Howard is the superintendent in a manufactory of sterling silverware in North Attleboro, Mass. The Doctor is a stanch Republican and sound money man. He is a Knight Templar of Bethany Commandery, Lawrence; a member of Phoenician Lodge of Lawrence, Mass. ; and he was D. D. G. M. of the Second Masonic District of New Hampshire in 1881 and 1882. Both he and his family attend divine worship at Grace Episcopal Church.
OHN FRENCH JOHNSON, stationer, one of the leading business men of Amesbury, was born in this town, Sep- tember 22, 1845, a son of Eleazer A. and Mary A. (French) Johnson. He is connected with many of the old families of Massachu- setts and of Rockingham County, New Hamp- shire, among which may be named the Weares, the Austins, the Bartletts, the Dows, the Frenches, the Greens, the Greenleafs, the Morrills, the Storys, the Coffins, and the Cur-
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riers. On the paternal side he is a descendant in the ninth generation of Captain Edward Johnson, who was born in Canterbury, Eng- land, in 1599, and with his family settled in Woburn, Mass., in 1636.
A prominent figure in Church and State, Edward Johnson was a man of unusual literary habits and attainments. He wrote the first history of New England published, an ac- count of the colonies from 1628 to 1650. A member of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts for a number of terms, he was Speaker of the House one terin. He was Captain of the train band at Woburn and one of the original twenty-four members who in 1637 formed the Ancient and Honorable Ar- tillery Company. He had seven children, all born in Canterbury. His son Edward died in Woburn in 1692.
Edward Johnson, Jr., was married early in 1650 to Catherine Baker, who bore him four children. Edward, third, son of Edward and Catherine (Baker) Johnson, was born in Wo- burn in November, 1650. He was Captain of a company that took part in the early Colonial wars. He married Miriam Holbrooke, by whom he had five children. His daughter Susanna represents the fourth generation in the direct line connecting the subject of this sketch with the immigrant ancestor above named. Susanna Johnson married Captain Eleazer Johnson, who was of the third genera- tion in descent from another immigrant ances- tor, William Johnson, counting down from whom John French Johnson is eighth in the male line.
William Johnson was born in Canterbury, England, in 1602, and died in Charlestown, Mass., in 1677. He lived to see one hun- dred and twenty towns settled, with a quota of sixteen thousand fighting men. He was mar- ried in 1632-34 to Elizabeth Story, and by
this union had eight children, the eldest born in England, the others in Massachusetts.
His son Isaac, born in Charlestown in 1649, fought in King William's War (1688), when the Indian allies of the French made such savage raids on the settlements in New Hamp- shire and Massachusetts. He died in Charles- town in 1711. Isaac Johnson was married in 1671 to Mary Stone. Their son, Captain Eleazer Johnson, was born in Charlestown in 1676. A master mariner, he made many long and successful voyages, and acquired consider- able wealth. He died in Charlestown, Mass., at the advanced age of ninety-two. His mar- riage to Susanna Johnson took place in 1698.
Their son Eleazer, Jr., representing the fifth generation from Captain Edward and the fourth from William Johnson, the pioneers of the family, was born in Charlestown in 1699. Married to Elizabeth Austin in 1722, he had a family of seven children, one being a son, Isaac, second, who was born in Charlestown in 1729, and whose house in that place was destroyed during the battle of Bunker Hill. His brother or, more probably, his eldest son, Eleazer, a lad in his teens, was taken prisoner at that time and carried to New York. He died in the Jersey prison ship in New York Harbor. Isaac Johnson, second, was married to Elizabeth Coffin in 1760. He died in Newburyport in 1817.
Daniel C. Johnson, son of Isaac and Eliza- beth, and grandfather of John French Johnson, was born in Newburyport in 1770. He was a man of modest, retiring disposition; and, aside from his private affairs, his chief inter- est centred in his church, in which he was prominent all his life. He died in 1828. Daniel C. Johnson was married in 1794 to Sally Avery. He had a family of nine chil- dren, Eleazer A. being the eldest son.
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Eleazer A. Johnson was born in Newbury- port in 1797. For a number of years he was engaged in manufacturing shoes, and he was connected with the Amesbury woollen-mills for more than a quarter of a century. A man of deep religious feeling, he devoted much of his time to religious affairs, and was Deacon of the Congregational church in Amesbury forty years. He died in 1885. Deacon John- son was married to Ruth Butler in 1821 and to Mary A. French, above named, in 1838. Through his mother Mr. John F. Johnson is eighth in line of descent from Ensign Abra- ham Morrill, who came to this country in 1638. The six intervening generations are represented respectively by the Hon. Isaac Morrill, Jacob Morrill, Elizabeth Morrill, Jacob Barnard, Sarah Barnard, and Mary French.
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