USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Biographical review, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Essex County, Massachusetts > Part 28
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1888, and the mother on October 14, 1891. Having received his early education in the Oliver Grammar School of Lawrence, Jere- miah J. Desmond took a four years' course at Villanova College, Pennsylvania. In 1887 he entered the United States postal service, and had been mail agent between Troy and New York City for one year when a change of ad- ministration deprived him of that position. Then he became an apprentice and clerk in the drug store of H. M. Whitney. After three years spent here, having closely applied him- self to the study of drugs, he passed a success- ful examination in pharmacy. In the fall of 1893 he opened a handsome store in the brick block erected by the Desmond family, which he has since conducted.
Mr. Desmond resides with his brothers and sisters, none of whom are married. An un- compromising Democrat in politics, he has been actively interested in municipal affairs. In 1895 he was a member of the Common Council, when, besides serving on some of the more important committees of that body, he secured the erection of the new engine house, and, with the president, John P. S. Mahoney, was largely instrumental in making the semi- centennial celebration of the city the very successful and creditable event it was. He is an esteemed member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks.
RANVILLE W. PETTINGELL, for the past sixteen years the undertaker of Amesbury, was born at Rocky Hill, Salisbury, Mass., July 4, 1854. The youngest son of Amos and Mary Pettingell, he is a descendant in the eighth generation from Richard Pettingell, the earliest settler of the name.
Amos Pettingell, who was a prominent con-
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tractor and builder, erected many of the best business blocks and private residences now standing in Amesbury and Salisbury. In early life a ship-joiner, he long owned and operated a saw-mill at Clark's Pond, which was destroyed by fire many years ago. When he became an architect he readily secured orders, and was soon given the largest con- tracts to be had in the vicinity. He was a member of the Salisbury Point Baptist Church. At his death he left seven children - John S., Charles F., Annette L., Roger L., Florence H., Mary E., and Granville W. The first-born served in the Union navy, on board the ship "Young Rover," during the first year of the Civil War. Afterward he enlisted in the famous Forty-eighth Massachu- setts Volunteer Regiment, in which he served until the close of the war. Charles F. is the general manager of the C. F. Pettingell Machine Company, of Lawrence, Mass. An- nette L. married William T. Follensbce, of Amesbury. Roger L. is in business with his brother, as superintendent of the Machine Company at Lawrence. Mary E., the wife of Worthington G. Paige, resides on the old homestead at Rocky Hill, Salisbury.
Granville W. Pettingell, the youngest of his parents' children, was cducated in the common schools of his native place. After leaving school he learned the carriage-trim- ming trade, engaging for that purpose with the firm of Hume & Morrill in 1874. Five years later he went into the grocery business with Benjamin S. Blake, of Amesbury, a connec- tion that lasted three years. Then he re- turned to his trade of carriage trimmer. In 1882, upon the death of Mr. Blake, he suc- ceeded to the business, the exclusive control of which has since been in his hands.
In April of the year 1880 Mr. Pettingell married Fronia T., daughter of Deacon B. S.
and Lavonia (Tucker) Blake. Mrs. Pettin- gell has had two children - Mildred Blake and Unabelle Alice. Mr. Pettingell is a member of the Powow River Lodge, I. O. O. F .; of the Colfax Lodge of Re- becca; of Amesbury Lodge, A. O. U. W .; and of the Amesbury Merchants' Association ; and the Wannesquam Boat Club. The Vil- lage Improvement Society and other organ- izations formed for public good count him among the most influential members. He is well known as a prosperous and energetic citi- zen, actively interested in the welfare of the town.
BEN SUMNER, who was for many years
a prominent business man of New- buryport, was born in that city, March 11, 1820, son of Michael and Mary (Bart- lett) Sumner. His descent is traced to Roger Sumner, husbandman of Bicester, Oxfordshire, England, who died December 3, 1608. In 1601 this ancestor married Joane Franklin. Their only child, William, born in 1605, mar- ried Mary West and came to New England in 1636, settling in Dorchester, Mass. William Sumner became a Selectman in 1637. For more than twenty years he was a Commis- sioner ; and he was a Deputy to the General Court in 1658, 1666, 1670, 1672, 1678-81, and 1683-86. His death occurred on De- cember 9, 1688. Of his six children, the eldest was William, Jr., born in Bicester, who became a mariner and married Augustine Clement, of Dorchester. They had ten chil- dren, of whom Clement, the ninth child, was born in Boston, September 6, 1671. On May 18, 1698, Clement married Margaret Harris. He lived in Boston, where all his seven chil- dren were born. Samuel, the seventh child of Clement, born August 31, 1709, married Abi-
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gail, daughter of Samuel Frothingham, of Charlestown, who had eight children. Eben- ezer, the fifth of these, born in March, 1742, married Elizabeth Tappan, of Newburyport, and lived in that city, where his twelve chil- dren were born. Michael, the fifth child, father of Eben Sumner, was born January I, 1780. He was twice married, the first time to Esther Moody, who bore him two children. The second marriage was contracted with Mary Bartlett. whose children by him were: Rich- ard Bartlett, Mary, Eben, William, Samuel, John, Hannah Maria, and Abigail Bartlett Sumner.
Eben Sumner attended the Brown High School. When fourteen years of age he ob- tained employment in the wholesale grocery store of Mr. Wood, remaining there for nine years and receiving constant promotions. In 1843 he engaged in the retail grocery busi- ness, locating the following year on Com- mercial Wharf with John Wood & Son, im- porters. Later he and William H. Swasey formed the firm of Sumner & Swasey, com- mission merchants in the Calcutta and do- mestic trade. In 1853 Warren Currier was admitted to partnership, when the style of the firm became Sumner, Swasey & Currier. The company did considerable ship-building, and owned the vessels "Reporter," the "Ex- porter," "Daniel I. Tenney," bark "Signal," "Sea Dog," and the "Bordeaux." They made large importations of salt. In 1871 E. P. Shaw succeeded Mr. Currier without causing any alteration in the firm name. Mr. Sumner was the originator and president of the Towle Manufacturing Company, manufact- urers of silverware. At the organization of the First National Bank of Newburyport he was chosen a director. He was its president from 1889 to the time of his death. He was also the president of the Five Cent Savings
Bank, a director of the Merchants' Bank for a number of years, and, having been one of the incorporators of the Newburyport Car Manu- facturing Company, he was its treasurer for the remainder of his life.
While a loyal Republican and always warmly interested in the affairs of the city, Mr. Sumner, on account of deafness, did not care to become a candidate for office. A quiet man and of a religious nature, he was a founder of the Whitfield Congregational Church, a Deacon of the society for some years, and a member of the Executive and Parish Commit- tees from 1850. He was widely known and respected in the business community, and be- loved by a large circle of personal friends on account of his many admirable qualities of heart and mind.
His wife, Elizabeth A., is a daughter of Samuel Shaw and half-sister of the Hon. E. P. Shaw, State Treasurer of Massachusetts, whose biography appears clsewhere in this work. She has been the mother of five children, of whom two are now living: M. Fannie Sum- ncr, who resides with her mother; and Eben Sumner, Jr. Eben married Miss Hattie Richard, and has one son, Bertram Dale Sumner, who is employed in the office of the Electric Street Railway Company of Wakefield, Mass.
OHN ALEXANDER FITZHUGH, M. D., a successful physician of Ames- bury, Mass., was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, December 4, 1854, and is descended from the famous old Southern fam- ily of that name, of ancient Scottish origin.
The well-authenticated papers of which the Doctor has made a valuable collection, at great trouble and expensc, trace the line of ancestry back to Malcolm I., King of Scotland 943-54,
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through his daughter Thora. She married Sigurd, Earl of the Orkney Isles. Their son Bardolph settled in Richmondshire, England, and became the powerful Baron of Ravens- worth (Scott's "Rokeby," canto iii. p. 75, and note). Bardolph was not molested in his possessions by William the Conqueror. Barker says he possessed various manors in the time of the Conqueror. The regular pedi- gree is extant from the first to the fifteenth generation, traced by Robert Knox, of Freder- icksburg, Va. The FitzHugh barony is con- tinued seven generations by writ. The direct deseent ceased in 1508.
The names of FitzHugh and HughFitz were interchangeable until the thirteenth century. The name appears on the roll of Battle Abbey, and two of the name signed the Magna Charta of 1215. They were leaders in the Crusades, 1096-1219; were active with the Lancasters in the Wars of the Roses, 1455-85. A FitzHugh of Ravensworth married the sister of the Earl of Warwick, "the King-maker." Hume makes him a leader of the rebellion in the war against Edward IV., 1463-65. In 1508 the estate of Ravensworth and the old baronial castle fell to Thomas Dacres (see again Scott's "Rokeby " ). Catharine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII., was the grandmother of the last Lord FitzHugh, of Ravensworth. Almost the last Catholic Bishop of London was John a great-grandson of Catharine Parr and a son of Lord FitzHugh. In Yorkshire, England, near Thorsgill, is the famous Eglis- tone Abbey, founded in the reign of Henry II., 1133-1189. It still bears reminders of the FitzHugh family. At Mortham Castle, within a quarter of a mile of ancient Greta Bridge, between two majestic elms, still stands an ancient sculptured armorial monument re- moved from Eglistone Abbey, which once marked the last resting-place of many genera-
tions of FitzHughs (" Rokeby," canto ii. p. 39, published by Joseph Cushing, Baltimore, Md., 1813). The name is mentioned by the famous Captain James Cook, who was entertained by FitzHugh while in Canton, China, for whom he afterward named the sound near Vancou- ver's Island FitzHugh. Two daughters of this famous Virginia family married distin- guished abolitionists.
Of the later generations of FitzHugh, Will- iam FitzHugh was baptized at Great Barford, England, January 21, 1570. His will, dated January 2, 1632, was proved September 25, 1638. He married Margaret Smith. Their son Henry inherited newly erceted buildings in St. Paul, Bedford (Virginia Hist. Mag., 1894, p. 415). Henry, son of William and Margaret, born in 1614, died before 1684. He was a lawyer, who removed to London. By his wife, Mary, he had seven children, of whom William, the youngest, was baptized January 10, 1651 (St. Paul's Regis- ter). That he was burgess for 1701-2 is reported in the William and Mary Hist. Quarterly, 1895-96. He held this position at the time of his death. He defended Rob- ert Beverly in the celebrated case, when pros- ecuted for his refusal to hand the records over to the Royal Governor.
Colonel William FitzHugh was born in 1650 at "Bedford," England; and his estate, now situated in King George County, Virginia, was so named. His will, dated April 5, 1701, was proved December 10, 1701, in Stafford County, which then included King George. He emigrated from England to Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1670, married May 1, 1674, Sarah Tucker, born August 2, 1663, eldest daughter of John and Rose Tueker, issue five sons and one daughter. They inherited fifty-four thousand and fifty-four acres of land in Stafford and Essex Counties.
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Of their six children, the second son, Cap- tain Henry, was born February 15, 1686, died December 12, 1758. His tomb is still to be seen at "Bedford," in King George County. He married February 24, 1718, Susannah Cooke, born December 7, 1693, died Novem- ber 4, 1749. She was the daughter of Morde- cai Cooke, who patented one thousand one hundred and seventy-four acres of land in Gloucester County in 1650. Of the five chil- dren of Captain Henry and Susannah Fitz- Hugh, Major Henry, the second son and third child, born September 18, 1723, died in Feb- ruary, 1783. He married October 23, 1746, Sarah Battaille, of "Flintshire," now part of the estate of "Santee," Caroline County. His title, Major, is supposed to have been received during service in the Revolutionary War; but the records are not complete.
He had eleven children. The second son was William FitzHugh, of "Prospect Hill," Fauquier County, who removed from Staf- ford County in 1771 (Bishop Meade's "Old Churches and Families of Virginia," vol. ii. p. 192). He was born in 1750. His will is dated February 7, 1813, and was proved April 29, 1817, recorded in the Fauquier County Will Book, 1813-17, p. 324. He married in 1775 Elizabeth Deadnam, of Gloucester County, who died of small-pox about the year 1777. He married, second, Sally Diggs, grand-daughter of Governor Edward Diggs, of Virginia; and by her he had nine children.
Dr. William Deadnam FitzHugh, the only issue by the first marriage, and grandfather of Dr. FitzHugh of Amesbury, was born March 17, 1776, and died May 3, 1838. He was baptized by the Rev. William Stuart, of St. Paul's Parisb, King George County, and was reared by his grandmother, Mrs. Sally Battaille FitzHugh, at "Bedford," the old homestead. He was first married October 2, 1811, by the
Rev. Hugh Coran Boggs, to Patsie Julia Ta- laiferro, second daughter of Colonel Lawrence H. and Sally Dade Talaiferro, an old and prominent Virginian family. She was born May 8, 1782, and died between 1816 and 1818, leaving one child to survive her. He married, second, Miss Martha Stuart Thorn- ton, daughter of Colonel William Thornton, of Rappahannock County, and his wife, Mar- tha Stuart. The second wife was born about 1785, died December 19, 1861, and was buried at "Elmwood." Dr. William D. FitzHugh was a celebrated surgeon in his day, and being ambidextrous was thereby able to perform operations with remarkable swiftness and skill. By his second wife he had four chil- dren - William D., Jr., Francis T., Thomas T. L., and George W. Thomas graduated in medicine from the University of New York in 1848. His diploma is in the possession of his nephew, the subject of this sketch. He died at Stevensburg, Culpeper County, Va., of typhoid fever in 1849.
George Warren FitzHugh, third son and fourth child of Dr. William D. and Martha S. (Thornton) FitzHugh, was born February 12, 1826. Before the war his estate consisted of a plantation, several mills, and eighty negroes. He was a handsome man, six feet one inch tall, and weighed two hundred and thirty pounds. He had great physical strength and powers of endurance. He rode seventy-two miles on horseback in a single day, to be with his command at the hanging of John Brown in 1859. He possessed a genial temperament, and was very popular, being called the "Grandfather " of the Black Horse Cavalry, though, in fact, one of the youngest men in the command. He was a member of the Black Horse Cavalry from the time of its organization until 1863, when he was honor- ably discharged. He participated in the
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charge at Bull Run and in the battles of Cold Harbor and at Williamsburg. The company was merged into the Fourth Virginia Cavalry, and during the campaign Mr. FitzHugh was under General J. E. B. Stewart at the capture of the transports by the cavalry at White House Landing, a feat never before accomn- plished. He was always greatly in favor of the Union, but believed that he owed his first allegiance to his native State. All his pos- sessions were swept away during the war, "nothing being left except his hope in heaven." He died of heart disease at Grape- wood, Fauquier County, March 23, 1873, and was buried in the Presbyterian churchyard at Greenwich, Prince William County. He married first, June 13, 1849, Miss Abbie Mayo Thom, the youngest child of Colonel John Thom and his wife, Abigail DeHart (Mayo) Thom, of Powhatan, seat near Rich- mond. She was born at "Berry Hill," Cul- peper County, December 23, 1830, and died at Grapewood, Fauquier County, November 21, 1859. She is buried at Elmwood, in the same grave with her two youngest children. His
second marriage was with Miss Elizabeth Frances Gray, eldest daughter of Nathaniel N. and Sarah Ann (Edmunds) Gray, born November 19, 1840. Their only child, War- ren Gulick, was born shortly after the death of his father, July 20, 1873. The children of the first marriage are as follows: William De- Hart, born March 11, 1850, married Elizabeth Carter Grayson, who was born October 18, 1853, and died April 26, 1896; Thomas Cam- eron, born November 7, 1851, was lost at sea in 1872; Elizabeth Bland, born May 26, 1853, lives at Warrenton, Va .; John Alex- ander, December 4, 1854; Anna Blanche, born October 25, 1856, died in August, 1862, of diphtheria; Eugene Mayo, born November 16, 1858, died in infancy;
Henry Thom, born and died November 20, 1859.
John Alexander FitzHugh graduated from the medical department of the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio, March 9, 1880, and on March 10 of the fol- lowing year from the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. On August 8, 1881, he located in Amesbury, Mass., where he practised for five years. The years from 1886 to 1888 were spent by him in the St. Thomas and other hospitals in London, Eng- land. Upon his return he practised for a short period in Atlanta, Ga. Then, settling permanently in Amesbury, he married on July II, 1889, Miss Agnes Allen Somerby, daugh- ter of Samuel Somerby and his wife, Nancy Allen Currier, of Newburyport, in which city she had taught successfully in the public schools for fourteen years. The children of Dr. and Mrs. FitzHugh are: Marion Stuart, born June 10, 1890, who died of scarlet fever, December 23, 1893; Lena Grayson, who was born October 4, 1891 ; and Beulah Thornton, born June 25, 1895.
Dr. FitzHugh is very much interested in genealogical research; and he has in his pos- session many manuscripts of interest and value, among them being letters written by his remote ancestor, Colonel William Fitz- llugh. He has traced the genealogy of the Mayo family from Joseph, the grandson of William, August 17, 1656, to the present time, the ancestry including the names of many persons of historic renown, among them that of General Winfield Scott, who married a cousin . of the Doctor's grandmother. Dr. FitzHugh is a Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He has been president of the Amesbury Medical Society, of which he is an original member; and he still retains his membership in the St. Thomas Medical So-
ALFRED LANG.
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ciety, of London. He is Past District Dep- uty, G. C., of the K. of P .; Past Thrice Illustrious Master, Amesbury Council, Royal and Select Masters; and is a member of the Powow River, I. O. O. F., and Harmony En- campment, as well as of the N. E. O. P. and of various minor organizations. He is an active trustee of the Amesbury Public Library, to which he has devoted much time and at- tention ; and he is also an ex-member of the Board of Health, but has steadily refused political preferment.
LFRED LANG, a retired contractor and builder, who by long-continued honesty has acquired a competency, is spending the closing years of his useful life in a well-earned leisure at his home, 279 Broadway, Lawrence, Mass. He was born February 12, 1820, in Brookfield, Carroll County, N. H., a son of Samuel Lang.
Thomas Lang, father of Samuel, spent his entire life of fourscore and four years in the Granite State, where his birth occurred June 27, 1741. He was three times married, and he reared a family of twenty children, the eldest of whom was Thomas, Jr., born Febru- ary 12, 1766, and the youngest Olive, born December 6, 1802. He was a prosperous hus- bandman, highly respected for his sterling
integrity and Christian character. A devout follower of the Master, he dedicated his chil- dren to God in their infancy, carrying them in his arms to the baptismal font, the last- born, Olive, when he was past sixty-one years old.
Samuel Lang was born in Nottingham, N. H., October 30, 1784. He was brought up to agricultural pursuits, and made farming his life occupation. He lived in different towns
in New Hampshire in his early days, but finally settled on a farm in Brookfield, where he died at the age of sixty-seven years, in 1851. In 1808 he married Lydia Thurber, who was born August 17, 1789, and died in 1880, aged ninety-one years. They had twelve children; namely, William, a daughter that died in infancy, Caroline, Henry, Eliza, Al- fred, Mary Ann, Almira, John, Clarissa, Emily, and Lydia M. William, born in 1809, died at Ossipee, N. H., in July, 1836. Caro- line, who has never married, resides in Wake- field, N. H. Henry died in March, 1894, leaving a widow, one son, and two daughters. Eliza is the wife of John Churchill, of Law- rence. Mary Ann, widow of Isaac M. Clarke, lives in Reading, Mass. Almira is the widow of Ebenezer Garvin, of Wakefield, N. H. Clarissa is the wife of Eben Chapman, also of Wakefield, N. H. John is a resident of Lawrence. Emily, who married Joseph W. Fales, died in middle life. Lydia M., the widow of John B. Howard, resides in Wake- field, N. H. Both parents were devout mem- bers of the Methodist church. The father was quite active in town affairs, serving as Select- man and in other minor offices.
Alfred Lang in his early years received a good common-school education, and at the age of seventeen began working at the carpenter's trade. Going to Boston two years later, he remained there until 1853, profitably em- ployed as a builder. Perceiving the advan- tages offered to one of his trade in a new and rapidly growing city, he then came to Law- rence, which had just received its charter ; and from that time until his retirement from active pursuits he was one of the leading con- tractors and builders of this city. In 1854 he built a house for himself and family on West Haverhill Street, where he lived until 1874, when he removed to his present fine
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residence, which he erected at a cost of seven thousand dollars, on a lot fifty by one hundred feet.
Mr. Lang is a true Republican in his politi- cal affiliations; and, though not an aspirant for official honors, he was a member of the Common Council one term, an Alderman two years, and Supervisor of Public Property for a time.
Mr. Lang and Susan Sims Burleigh, a daughter of Ezra and Lucy (Hyde) Burleigh, of Boston, Mass., were married on April 6, 1843. They have three children, namely : William A., who is cashier of the National Bank of Reading, Mass., is married, but has no children living; Susie Maria, a graduate of the Lawrence High School and an accom- plished pianist, lives with her parents; and Albert S., who has succeeded to the business of his father, is married, and has two sons - Albert W. and Alfred E. Albert W., who was graduated from Phillips Academy, An- dover, is now in business with his father; and Alfred E. is a member of the class of 1899 at Phillips Academy. Fifty-five years ago Mr. and Mrs. Lang united with the First Christian Church of Boston, of which they have since been faithful members.
Naturally endowed with good abilities, Mr. Lang has improved his mind by reading, ob- servation, and reflection, by exercise culti- vating literary taste and skill. He has written several poems, among others worthy of note being one entitled "A Christmas Offering," descriptive of the advent, life work, and resurrection of Christ and his blessings on mankind. We take pleasure in here reproducing a prose article from his pen, an autobiographical sketch, whose object, as he says, "is to show the youth of to-day some of the differences between family suc- toms and opportunities for mental culture ex-
isting seventy years ago and those of the pres- ent time."
EARLY AND LATTER EXPERIENCES.
BY ALFRED LANG.
In the early part of the nineteenth century, upon a farm in a rural town among the Granite Hills, there lived a happy couple whose family regularly augmented until twelve children were born, among them the subject of this story. The girls being largely in the ma- jority, the boys were necessarily put to work at the tender age of seven or eight years. It was not uncommon for the writer, at that age, to accompany laboring men into the field to do light work. There began the early physical training which developed a good constitution and the capabilities for undertaking many arduous duties later in life.
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