USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Biographical review, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Essex County, Massachusetts > Part 33
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Mr. Woodbury was married to Mehitable Ames, of Andover, Mass., the birthplace of her parents. Her grandfather or great-grand- father came to Andover from the State of Maine; and the house that he built is still standing on the old farm, which is now owned by Moses B. Ames, a brother of Mrs. Wood- bury. She is the mother of five children ; namely, Mary A., Moses E., Emma Jane, Sarah Amanda, and Simeon A. Mary A. Woodbury is now the wife of Ingraham Dodge. Moses E., who is also married, resides at 72 Bradford Street. Of his five children, two are living. Emma Jane, the wife of Rufus W. Wheelock, has had three children, of whom
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two are living. Sarah Amanda, wife of Sid- ney H. Brigham, who has been in the post- office some thirty years, has one daughter. Simeon A. Woodbury, unmarried and living at home, is managing the real estate business of the firm of E. Woodbury & Co. with his brother-in-law, Rufus W. Wheelock. Their offiee is at 553 Essex Street, where it has been located for ten years. Mrs. Woodbury has been in poor health for a number of years. Previously a Demoerat in polities, Mr. Wood- bury beeamc a staneh Republican at the com- meneement of the Civil War. He was one of the oldest members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Lawrenee. In religious belief he was a Congregationalist. He died in October, 1897.
URRAY BROTHERS COMPANY, wholesale grocers and reeeivers of produce and provisions in Law- rence and Haverhill, Mass., are among the best known business mcn of Essex County. George E. and Charles N. Murray are Maine men, sons of Lewis and Belle (Goodwin) Mur- ray, of Lebanon, York County. George Mur- ray, father of Lewis, born in Lebanon, Me., about the year 1781, died in 1853. Hc was a son of Deaeon Thomas Murray, of Lebanon, who died when about forty-two years old. George married Dorcas Bean, of Sanford, Me., who survived him ten years, dying at the age of seventy-seven. They rest in the family burial-ground on the old farm, where his father settled when the distriet was a wilder- ness. Besides carrying on the farm, George Murray also worked as a shoemaker.
Lewis Murray sueccedcd his father on the farm, settling upon it after his marriage. Be- fore that he taught sehool for a time. When his children were young, most of the food and
clothing was produced on the farm. The boys many years after remembered when their plain elothing was made by their mother from the raw material, her deft fingers earding, spin- ning, weaving, eutting, and sewing pants and blouses. Of the six children, five attained maturity - George E., Charles N., Frank L:, Cora Belle, and Mary I. Mary became the wife of Charles V. Richardson, of Sanford, Me. The father, a staneh Republican, has filled many of the town offices. Fraternally, . he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is senior Deaeon of the First Baptist Church, with which he has long been connected.
George E. , Murray, born November 24, 1854, graduated at Colby University, Water- ville, Me., in 1879, having taught during va- cations to pay his college expenses. On Au- gust I of that year he eame to Lawrence, and began a retail business in the basement of the Franklin House with his brother, Charles N., as partner, forming the firm of Murray Brothers. After remaining there for three years, they removed to the Ordway Block, and opened the Pacific Cash Store, where they built up a large business, employing eight clerks and five teams. In 1887 they bought the grain and produce business of Milton, Bonney & Co., and for two years ran both stores. Selling the Pacific Cash Store to Walker & Jewell, they then embarked in the wholesale grocery business in the old Bonney Bloek, and have sinee done a thriving busi- ncss. In 1892 the present corporation was formed with a eapital stoek of thirty thousand dollars and the following offieers: George E. Murray, president ; Charles N. Murray, trcas- urer; W. D. Currier, clerk; and George E. Murray, Charles N. Murray, W. D. Curricr, and Edward Devlin, directors. Up to April I, 1897, their stand was 544 and 546 Essex
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Street, Lawrence. Then, the business having outgrown those quarters, they leased and moved to the building at 617 Common Street, near the Boston & Maine passenger station, which is ninety by thirty-five feet, and four stories in height. They occupy the entire building, including the basement, in which they have a spacious cold storage for butter, eggs, etc. Being on the Boston & Maine Railroad spur, and having an hydraulic elevator, their facil- ities for receiving and shipping goods are ex- ceptionally good, while the light and airy offices are fitted up with the latest and best conveniences. A branch house has been in Haverhill since 1893.
In 1885, on Thanksgiving Day, George E. Murray married Cora B. Tuttle, of Athens, Me. She is a daughter of James H. and Amanda (Grant) Tuttle. Up to six months ago her four grandparents as well as both of her parents were living. Her grandfather Grant, now well into the nineties, is still bright and active. Mr. Murray built his finc home in Andover in 1893, and has lived there since. While he votes for Republican candi- dates, his time is so fully occupied that he finds little leisure for politics. A member of the First Baptist Church, he is a Deacon and a teacher of the adult Bible class. He and his brothers are bright, genial gentlemen so- cially, and their success in business attests the high estecm in which they are held.
RESS BROTHERS, carriage manufact- urers, doing a successful business at 101 to 113 Common Street, Law- rence, are one of the most reputable houses in the city. There are two brothers in the firm, Herman and Otto Kress, both natives of Reuss, Germany, the former born in 1846, and the later in 1856. Henry Kress, the
father, spent his life in Germany. A hand- loom weaver by trade, he lived in humble cir- cumstances. Honest and industrious, he was respected throughout the community. . Hc was a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal faith, laboring for love and receiving no mone- tary remuneration. When he died at the age of sixty years, he had planned to visit this country. His wife died at the age of fifty-five years. They had six children - five sons and a daughter; namely, Edward, Herman, Otto, Louis, Eberhardt, and Emma. Edward, now the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in Defiance, Ohio, came to this country in 1869. Herman and Louis came in the follow- ing year. Louis died in August of the samc year, being then nineteen years of age. Otto came in 1871. Eberhardt married, and re- mained in the Fatherland on the old homc- stead where his parents were laid to rest.
Herman and Otto Kress came dircct to Lawrence. Not having any capital to engage in business for themselves, they learned the wagon-maker's trade. Herman hired out to Frederick Marquard on Haverhill Street, and within two ycars became a partner. In 1874 he bought his partner's interest, and moved the factory to 100 Concord Strect, where he did business for three years. Mr. Marquard repurchased the business in 1877, and Herman was employed by J. M. Graham on the wood- work of carriages. After spending seven years at this, he again started in business for himself. In 1886 his brother, Otto F. Kress, who had been in business. in Salem, N. H., became his partner. Their combined energies enabled them, within a year, to buy out Mr. Graham, who had previously done all the iron work. Since then, round by round, they have mounted the ladder of success until to-day they stand the sole proprietors of the large plant and flourishing business of the leading
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carriage manufactory in the city. Having started in 1877 in an old dwelling-house of a twenty-two foot frontage, and employing but two men, they now occupy a lot one hundred and two feet front by ninety-three feet deep; a three-story frame building sixty by forty- seven feet, besides a dwelling, lumber sheds, and barn ; and they employ a force of nineteen men. Their present shop is fitted with modern machinery and every improvement that ingenuity can devise for carrying on their work advantageously. They make a great variety of heavy and light wagons and sleighs, and in every department the quality of the work is kept to a high standard. They also do general repairing and blacksmith work. In their most adverse days, by untiring energy and perseverance, they kept the business on a solid basis, always meeting their obligations by paying one hundred cents on the dollar. Now, besides doing a large local business, they ship goods to all parts of New England and to New York. They have built from the foundation, as their parents were too poor to give them more than a good home training.
Herman Kress was married in 1870 to Emily Miller, of Falkenheim, Germany, who came to the country in the same ship with him. Of their seven children, two died in infancy. Those living are: Fred, Edward F., Benjamin Franklin, Minnie, and Samuel. Samuel is a boy of twelve. Fred, a mechanic, is employed in the shop. The two youngest children are in school. The family reside at 55 Woodland Street, which was built by Mr. Kress after his marriage. Otto Kress was married on December 1, 1876, to Lizzie J. Fuller, of Thomaston, Me., a daughter of Asa and Mary (Snow) Fuller. Both their children are living, namely : Edward F., a young man of twenty, who is a blacksmith in the shop; and Eva Belle, aged fourteen, attending the
public schools. They live at 21 Valley Street, which has been their home since 1877. In politics the Kress Brothers are Republi- cans, but with strong prohibition tendencies. Herman Kress is an active worker in the Ger- man Methodist Episcopal church, while Otto is connected with the Garden Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Both are class leaders.
OHN BRODHEAD PIKE, a promi- nent citizen of Salisbury, was born in this town on New Year's Day, 1836, son of Caleb and Mary (Pike) Pike. He is a descendant in the seventh generation of Major Robert Pike, so justly famed in early Colonial days for sound judgment and clear- headed common sense, coupled with great ability and unbounded courage.
Major Pike was born in Langford, England, in 1616. He came to Salisbury in 1638; and from that time, for fifty years on, his name is connected with almost every event of impor- tance in the history of the town. He was Representative to General Court, Lieutenant, Captain, Colonel, Major-general, a nian of physical strength as well as mental and moral powers. It is related that on the voyage com- ing to America, he asked for larger rations, and upon the captain's asking, "What can you do more than others to deserve it?" he seized an iron bar, and bent it nearly double across his knee. The astounded captain ex- claimed, "Bend it back again, and I will double your rations!" This the young man did with apparent ease. Major Pike in many ways was far ahead of his times. He scorned the petty bigotries and narrowness of his age, and had a mind broad, charitable, and hu- mane. As early as 1643 he was one of seven townsmen in full charge of the town affairs. In 1654 he demanded of the General Court of
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Massachusetts the release of Thomas Macy, immortalized by Whittier, and of Joseph Pear- ley, who had been sentenced to fine and im- prisonment for preaching the word of God without having been ordained. In those days the decrees of the General Court were held as infallible, almost sacred; and the Major's boldness created consternation on all sides. He declared that the men who voted for the measure violated their oaths as freemen, that their act was an outrage against liberty, both civil and ecclesiastical, and that he, more- over, stood ready to make his statement good. By way of punishment he was fined and dis- qualified for holding office, but so necessary were his advice and judgment to the welfare of the colony that the disqualification was soon removed.
Many other interesting incidents in his life are told: one, of his being arrested and fined for profaning the Lord's Day by starting be- fore sundown on Sunday to cross the Merri- mack in order to get an early start for Boston, before the ice should break up; another inci- dent tells of his dispute with the great preacher, Wheelwright. The redoubtable Major, as magistrate, refused to acknowledge the supremacy of the church, and for his heresy was excommunicated, although it was not long before he was reinstated. He en- tered into the matter of the witchcraft perse- cutions with all the zeal of his nature, and denounced the cruel sacrifice of human life when no other man in the colony dared raise a murmur of protest. It is a matter of history that his action had great weight in checking the craze. His manly action in defence of Quakers, who were ordered to be whipped from Dover to Boston, ten lashes in each town, is well known through Whittier's poem concerning the Salisbury constable. His humane treatment of the Indians during King
Philip's War also does honor to the Major, whose soul was as generous as it was bold. He was on the Governor's Council for a quar- ter of a century; and, wherever the battle was to be fought for humanity, justice, and free- dom, there every time would the valiant Major be found, throwing the full weight of his in- fluence as champion.
History has left meagre records of the de- scendants of Major Pike until recent times. The successive ancestors in this line have been as follows: Moses, born 1654; Elias, born 1692; Moses, second, born 1717; Moses, third, born 1750, who died 1845; and Caleb, father of Mr. John B. Pike. Moses Pike, third, was a man of unusual physical strength ; and many are the deeds of prowess related of him. He enlisted early in the Provincial army in the Revolution, and came home on a furlough prior to June 17, 1775. His brother Elias, who took his place as substi- tute, was in the battle of Bunker Hill, and was severely wounded by a bullet in the leg.
Caleb Pike, son of Moses, third, built the house now occupied by his son John B., in 1814. His children were: James, Caleb, Moses, Mary E., and John B. James married Mary, daughter of the Rev. John Brodhead, an eminent divine, and has two children: James Thornton, of Newfield, N. H .; and Anna Ger- trude, now Mrs. Charles B. Kendall, of Bos- ton. James was a graduate of Middletown, and an eloquent and active preacher of the Metho- dist Episcopal church. He was Presiding Elder of the Third District of New Hamp- shire for a great many years. He was always interested in politics, and was candidate for governor, receiving nearly the required num- ber of votes for election. From 1855 to 1859 he was in Congress. During the war he was Colonel of the Sixteenth New Hampshire Regiment, in the division of General Banks,
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of whom he was a personal friend. Moses Pike was killed in 1896 by receiving a kick from a horse, and his widow is living in Mr. John Pike's family. Mary E. Pike is now Mrs. Pettingell.
John B. Pike's birthplace was the home- stead which was granted in 1638 to Major Pike, and has been in the family ever since. He was educated in the Putnam Free High School at Newburyport, and has been engaged in farming and blacksmithing, as were his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. He has passed all his life in his native town, with the exception of the time he was in the Civil War. He enlisted in August, 1862, was with General Banks at Port Hudson, and was at Donaldsonville, went to Baton Rouge, and up the river in a steamer to Cairo, and came home by rail. After returning from the war, Mr. Pike engaged in blacksmith work. On his farm Mr. Pike cuts a large amount of salt hay. He pays considerable attention to fruit culture and poultry raising. Two years ago his fruit crop was eight hundred and sixty barrels, and last year three hundred. In April he averages daily thirty-three dozen eggs.
Mr. Pike was married on June 19, 1867, to Ella F. Hughes. Their children are: Emma F., born July 25, 1868, now living at home, who has been a teacher of music at Science Hill School, near Louisville, Ky., for five years; Maurice C., born July 5, 1870, also at home; Fannie A., born September 11, 1872, who is married to F. A. Hardy, of Derry, N. H., superintendent in the shoe factory in that town; Bessie H., born October 2, 1874, a teacher in Natick; Lizzie, born January 6, 1877; Mary E., born June 13, 1880; Katy A., born July 19, 1881; and Jessie Blaine, born December 28, 1885, who died October 18, 1889.
BEN PARSONS, the founder of Fatherland Farm, was the second son of the Rev. Moses Parsons, who was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Byfield, Newbury, June 20, 1745, and who during that summer removed his family from Gloucester to the old parsonage in this parish now owned in the family of the late Hon. Isaac Wheelwright, in which mansion Eben was born February 27, 1746. As a boy, he attended the town school until the opening of Dummer Academy in 1763, when he became a pupil of that institution in charge of the famous Master Moody.
It is said of him that after leaving Dummer School he preferred business to the college education which was offered him by his father, and that accordingly he took his clothing in a bundle, and, with his shoes under his arm, started off on foot for Gloucester, declaring that, when he had earned money enough to do so, he should come back and buy the Dummer farm at Newbury Falls. In Gloucester, Eben Parsons engaged in fishing off the coast of Cape Ann, but soon extended the business, acquiring several vessels of his own, by which he obtained the means to engage largely in commercial pursuits, later on sending his ships to all foreign ports then open to trade. He finally became one of the largest importers in the country, and had the reputation of being, in old-time parlance, "a princely mer- chant."
In May of 1767 Mr. Parsons was married to Mary, daughter of Colonel John Gorham, of Barnstable; and a few years later he removed to Boston, where he had purchased a large and valuable estate as a home for himself and fam- ily. The house was situated on Summer Street, its garden and grounds occupying all the space between what are now Otis and Winthrop Places; while his cow pastured over
EBEN PARSONS.
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the way on what was afterward called Church Green on account of its being occupied by the edifice of the Unitarian society which bore that name -"Church Green Society." The narrow passage-way just below Devonshire on Summer Street was the path to Mr. Parsons's barn, and is the only landmark now remaining of his home there.
In the year 1801 the subject of our sketch, being then fifty-five years of age, carried out his declared intention of returning to his na- tive town and buying the Dummer place. Deeds recorded in Salem court-house attest to the fact that the first piece of land purchased by him in connection with this farm was bought from Richard Dummer and wife under date of September 10 of that year. The next parcels of land were bought from Shubael Dummer and wife and Simeon Danforth and wife under dates of June 3 and 4, 1803. Other deeds of land purchased by him are re- corded in the same place. The present man- sion was built by Mr. Parsons in 1802, as evi- denced by the discovery, during late repairs, of coins of that date beneath hearthstones of the main house and cottage adjoining, which latter was built for a seed-house, having origi- nally many small rooms divided into compart- ments for the storage of farm products in that line.
The house and other buildings being com- pleted, the owner set about improving the premises by the building of solid walls of hewn stone, which was brought in vessels from Cape Ann quarries to Newburyport, and thence transported by gundelows over Parker River to the farm. These walls were built seven feet in height and three feet wide, with a foundation of proportionate strength beneath the surface. Gate-posts of hammered granite were set deep into the earth at all openings in the massive walls, these, and the many-barred
wooden gates which swung between, being furnished with wrought iron hinges, latches, and staples of gigantic size, secured by mam- moth padlocks, the keys to which were each attached to a large slip of brass or wood on which was inscribed the name of the particu- lar gate to which it belonged. These keys were kept in a portable mahogany closet made for the purpose, which is now in possession of the writer, as also some of the ancient, ponderous keys, though the gates to which they were the open sesame - like the strong hands that operated them - have long since crumbled to decay. Well-curbs and troughs were constructed from the same stanch mate- rial as the walls and gate-posts, these being fastened into shape by huge bolts of copper soldered into openings drilled in the stone for this purpose.
Meanwhile improvements on the land were going on; and during the years of 1808 and 1809 a marshy tract on the northern side of the farm was reclaimed or manufactured into a fertile field by means of a very stout wall, impervious to water, being constructed along the margin of the Falls River at this point, and the entire space of bog filled in with stones and gravel, topped with loam, all of which ingredients were respectively drawn from neighboring premises by ox-team, and spread into level space by hand labor. The name of this new-made portion of the farm was Sewall's Point, as given in old letters of Mr. Parsons to his foreman, Jeremiah Allen, under whose supervision the work was- carried on. The owner was then residing in his Boston home, which was not given up until after the death of his wife, September 10, 1810. But frequent visits were made by himself and fam- ily to this country place, which, out of regard for his father's memory and love for his native town, he had named Fatherland Farm,
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The journeys to Byfield were sometimes made by stage over the old turnpike, but more fre- quently in his own family coach, with driver and footman in the old-time livery. These ar- rivals created not a little sensation among the inhabitants of this rural district, as aged citi- zens of Newbury have enjoyed recalling and describing to the writer; and marvellous tales they tell of boxes and bags of silver coin brought over the road by oxen, with which to recompense the army of artisans of various kinds employed upon the premises.
However this may have been, we have rea- son to believe that vast sums of money were expended by the owners to bring this goodly heritage into the high state of cultivation and beauty in which it was left for the occupancy of the next tenant and heir. The record for 1814 shows that the farm taxes of Eben Par- sons were seven hundred and forty-four dollars and twenty cents, his real estate being valued at sixteen thousand four hundred dollars, and his personal property at eighty thousand dol- lars. At this period Mr. Parsons was a resi- dent of Byfield, having removed hither soon after the decease of his wife. He was deeply interested in agriculture, and was a large con- tributor in many ways to the advancement of that science, using his commercial facilities in aid of this by the importation of fine breeds of cattle, sheep, and swine for the improve- ment of American stock, and by bringing from other countries various kinds of seeds, grain, and grasses, as well as scions from foreign fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs.
He was fond of experiment in matters re- lating to farming; and, while his efforts in this way might not all have been satisfactory to himself, they were in many instances highly successful, results being such as to encourage repetition.
Mr. Parsons was a man with ideas far ahead
of the time in which he lived, and his opin- ions upon subjects connected with the pursuits in which he was engaged were often sought by men of the highest standing in commercial and agricultural affairs. Though not so renowned as his younger brother, the eminent jurist and chief justice of the commonwealth, yet he was possessed of great ability, and was probably as useful to the community in other ways as Theophilus was on the bench.
Eben Parsons died in his country home No- vember 2, 1819, at the age of seventy-four years. His remains, with those of other mem- bers of the family, rest in a tomb in the old Byfield cemetery, which was erected a year later by his son Gorham, agreeably to his father's intention.
Of thirteen children born to Mr. and Mrs. Eben Parsons, this son was the only one who survived the years of childhood. Gorham Parsons was born in Gloucester, July 27, 1768. His early years were spent in that town and in Boston, excepting the time he was a pupil at Dummer Academy. In April of 1790 he was married to Sarah, daughter of Captain Thomas Parsons, of Newburyport. After residing a few years in Boston, he purchased a large and valuable estate in Brighton, and made his home there, embellishing the place with lav- ish hand. Having inherited his father's fondness for agriculture, he spared no pains in the cultivation of his farm and in the produc- tion of choice fruits. He also continued the importation of fine cattle, sheep, and swine. After the death of his father he kept up the Byfield farm in addition to the Brighton es- tate, but continued . to reside at the. latter place until after the death of Mrs. Parsons, who preferred the home there to Fatherland Farm. She passed away on December 8, 1837, soon after which event that property was sold and Mr. Gorham Parsons came to Byfield
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