USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Biographical review, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Essex County, Massachusetts > Part 42
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 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
Lillian Seavers attended the common and high schools of Lawrence, and afterward grad- uated at Cannon's Commercial College. Pos- sessed of more than ordinary ability and hav- ing a taste for music, she is now studying this art, and is at the same time teaching.
Mr. Seavers has been an Odd Fellow since he reached his majority, having membership in Monadnock Lodge, No. 445, of which he is a Past Grand and has been the treasurer for the past twelve years; in Kearsarge En- campment, No. 36; and in Ruth Lodge, D. of R., to which his wife and daughter also belong. He is also a member of Laurie Senate, K. A. E. O .; of Mayflower Colony, U. O. P. F .; and of Phoenician Lodge, A. F. & A. M. While independent in politics, he favors the principles of the Republican party. He resides at 19 Pearl Street, where in 1890 he built his pleasant and cosey house. In 1896 he also erected the double house now occupying part of his lot.
OHN HENRY DEARBORN, M.D., a very skilful and successful physician of Beverly, is a native of New Hamp- shire, born in the town of Candia, May 23, 1855. He is a son of John C. and Mary A. (Griffin) Dearborn, and the thirty-fifth mem- ber of the Dearborn family in New Hampshire to obtain the degree of Doctor of Medicine. The grandfather, John Dearborn, also born in New Hampshire, spent his life there as a farmer in the town of Danville, and died at the age of eighty-three. He married Judith Webster, of Kingston, N. HI., who died at the age of eighty-five. Of their five children, Malvina, the widow of William Moore, late of Sutton, N.H., is the only survivor.
John C. Dearborn, the second son of John, was born in Hawk (now known as Danville),
400
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
N. H., September 5, 1816. He was first mar- ried on December 7, 1837, to Mary S. Col- cord, of Kingston, N. H., who was born July 18, 1816. There were no children by that union. His second marriage, which took place on September 15, 1842, united him with Mary A. Griffin, a daughter of Benjamin and Polly Philipps Griffin, born in Raymond, N. H., May 22, 1824. He died in 1889, aged seventy-three years. His widow continues to reside in Candia. They were the parents of ten children, born as follows: Harriet M., October 18, 1843; Woodbury D., April 29, 1845; Mary J., March 1, 1847; Ira S., May 27, 1849; Almon L., September 19, 1851; John D., May 20, 1853; John Henry, the sub- ject of this biography; Edwin B., December 15, 1857; Burton I., August 30, 1859; and Jenness E., April 7, 1862. Harriet M. mar- ried June 2, 1861, Edwin J. Godfrey, of Candia, and has two sons: Oscar, born Feb- ruary 8, 1868; and Harry E., born June 14, 1875. Oscar Godfrey married February II, 1889, Edith F. McClary, of North Andover, Mass., who was born in 1872. They had two children : Charlotte E., born July 10, 1891 ; and Agnes M., born April 26, 1894. Harry E. Godfrey, who is unmarried, resides in Candia. Woodbury D. Dearborn, a resident of Candia, on April 11, 1869, married Anna F. Lakin, who was born May 7, 1842. They have no children. Mary J. Dearborn on De- cember 9, 1865, married Nathan W. Magoon, of Raymond, N. H., who was born March I, 1847. Their children are: Rosa B., born January 16, 1867; Sidney E., born August 23, 1869; and Alice M., born September 15, 1870. On June 12, 1895, Sidney E. Magoon married Viola E. Bean, who was born June 12, 1870. Ira S. Dearborn married on Feb- ruary 19, 1870, Henrietta Cumberland, born at Calais, Me., March 22, 1850, who has two
children : Minnie F., born December 7, 1870; and Henry S., born August 4, 1872. Almon L. Dearborn was married August 20, 1875, to Harriet E. Roberts, who was born February 22, 1843. They have no children. John D. Dearborn died April 17, 1854, not quite eleven months old. Edwin B. married Bertha C. Bailey, who was born in West Newbury, Mass., December 12, 1866. They have one child, Viola, born September 23, 1887. Bur- ton I. Dearborn died March 12, 1888, as the result of an accident on the Old Colony Rail- road at Boston. Jenness E. Dearborn mar- ried Laura E. Bartlett, of Brentwood, N. H., and has two children : Leon E., born June 29, 1885; and Eunice M., born January 28, 1890.
The early education of John H. Dearborn was obtained in the public schools of Candia. In 1873 he entered Tilton Academy, Tilton, N.H. Two years later he began to study medicine ' under the direction of Dr. T. M. Gould, of Raymond, N.H., and in August, 1875, was admitted into Dartmouth College, paying out of his own means the expenses of the course. He became a student in Bellevue Medical College, New York City, in 1877, and graduated from Dartmouth in 1878. He then entered practice in Kingston, N. H., where he remained up to 1882. During the next three years he was located in Rochester, N. H. In February, 1885, he came to Bev- erly, where he has since built up a large and lucrative practice. Very successful in his treatment of diseases, he has earned the repu- tation of one of the most skilful practitioners in Essex County. He is also a graduate of the New Hampshire State Board of Pharmacy. On December 25, 1879, Dr. Dearborn mar- ried Lilla B. Towle, a daughter of Darius and Ilannah M. (Diamond) Towle, of Kingston, N.H. They have no children. In politics the Doctor is a Republican. In 1888 and
401
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
ISS9 he was town physician of Beverly. A member of the Board of Health for two years, he was its chairman for one of these years. He is a member of the American Public Health Association, comprising representa- tives of the United States, Canada, and Mex- ico. In 1880 he served as a delegate from the Rockingham Medical Society of New Hampshire to the convention of the American Medical Association held in New York City. He represented Ward Five in Beverly's first Board of Aldermen, having been elected thereto in 1895, and took a prominent part in the city's affairs during his term. The Doc- tor is a member of A. O. U. W., also of the I. O. O. F., having affiliation with Bass River Lodge, No. 41, of Beverly, and with the en- campment and Patriarchs Militant.
ILLIAM G. ELLIS was one of the most prominent and influential men of Amesbury in his time. He was born in Elgin, Scotland, May 30, 1832. When gold was discovered in Australia, he went to that country, and remained there seven years, returning to Scotland in 1861. In that period he endured all the hardships of the pioneer, never sleeping under a roof, and finding a bed of pine boughs a luxury. He worked one claim for seven weeks, taking out two hundred and twenty-five ounces of gold. When he left Australia he sailed for America.
It was something of a coincidence that Mr. Ellis, while wandering one day in the moun- tains of his native land, should find a torn copy of the Villager, probably sent by some one in Amesbury to friends in Scotland, on which he read an account of a fair, designed to aid the soldiers, held in Mill No. 8, in the year 1863, by the Amesbury ladies. Having arrived in this country in 1863, he worked
as a common laborer at whatever employment he could find, although he brought with him twenty-five hundred dollars in gold. At that time, gold being at its highest premium, he sold his hoard, thereby doubling the amount, and invested the proceeds in government bonds at 7.20. This he did in opposition to the ad- vice of friends, to whom he replied, believing firmly in the perpetuity of the Union, that, if the government fell, all values would be de- stroyed. He had worked in the mills at An- dover for some time when he obtained em- ployment in James Hume's carriage factory in Amesbury. In time he mastered the busi- ness, and formed a partnership with A. M. Huntington, Esq., which lasted eight years. He began to manufacture carriages on his own account in 1875, and erected an extensive plant on Friend Street. In 1888 he took his sons David and William into the firm. When William died in 1890, his son James was admitted. Subsequently, leaving the car- riage business in his sons' hands, he turned his attention to the manufacture of street cars. He visited the largest establishment in the country, and with characteristic shrewdness grasped all the details of that industry. Then, in association with his sons Robert and George, he established a plant on the line of the railroad, and commenced work on January 1, 1889, employing nineteen mechanics. He made slow but sure progress; and his cars were purchased by the largest firms in the Union, including the West End Company of Boston, the Valley City and Cable Car Com- pany of Grand Rapids, Mich., the Thomson- Houston Electric Company of Boston, and the Union Electric Car Company of Boston. On the night of April 28, 1893, the patterns and machinery were destroyed by fire, entailing a loss of sixty thousand dollars. Instead of re- building, the firm moved the business to the
402
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
Friend Street factory, where it was restricted to the construction of light and heavy business wagons.
Mr. Ellis was the president of the Ames- bury National Bank and a stockholder and di- rector from its organization. He was one of the promoters and a large stockholder of the Haverhill & Amesbury Railroad; and he was instrumental in organizing the Electric Light, Heat, and Power Company, of which he was the president and treasurer at the time of his death. Also a large real estate owner, he was much interested in the welfare of the town. No citizen of Amesbury has done more to advance its interests than did he during the thirty-four years of his residence here. A prominent member of Clan Frazer, O. S. C., he kept green the memory of his native coun- try. He was wont to say, "I shall never for- get her; but much more do I love the home of my adoption, for it has been very kind to me, and here my ambition has been gratified to an extent beyond my expectations." To his countrymen who sought assistance from him, he would point the way to success, adding : " It is an open door. Ye can travel it as well as I have by the exercise of diligence, sobri- ety, and economy." He died November 3, 1896. A widow and five sons - George, James, David, Robert, and Arthur - survive him. A daughter of David Dowie, of Gala- shiels, Scotland, Mrs. Euphemia Ellis comes of one of the oldest families in that country. The business founded by Mr. Ellis is now in the hands of his sons.
EORGE EDWARD HOGAN, a pop- ular grocer of Lawrence, Mass., whose place of business is at 248 Broadway, was born on February 28, 1846, in North Andover, his parents being George and
Ann (Riley) Hogan. His grandfather, Pat- rick Hogan, whose wife was a Fletcher be- fore her marriage, was a tenant farmer in Ireland. He had a family of three sons and one daughter.
George, who was the second child of Pat- rick Hogan, was the first to leave home, going in 1826 to Leeds, England, in the employ of Obadiah Williams. For seven years subse- quent to that time he was serving an appren- ticeship with Mr. Williams, learning the weaver's trade on the old hand loom. In 1833 he was married to Ann, daughter of Edward and Mattie (Scott) Riley. Her grandparents, Hugh and Mary (Fogarty) Riley, lived and died in Ireland. Edward Riley, who came from Ireland to Blackstone, Mass., died at the unusual age of ninety-six years, and was buried in Woonsocket, R.I., just outside the boun- daries of Massachusetts. His wife died in Ire- land. Of their two sons and five daughters, three did not marry. All came to America, and four daughters and one son are buried near their father.
Four years after his marriage George Hogan, the elder, with his wife and child, sailed for America. After a passage of sixty days on the ocean, during which time a child, after- ward named James, was born, they reached the port of Boston on June 10, 1837. As the Broad Street riot was in progress, they were not allowed to land at once, but were detained until order was restored. They went first to Lowell, and after six months' stay there re- moved in the spring of 1838 to North An- dover. This was just after the financial de- pression of 1837; and, business being yet very dull, the father was obliged to go to Maine for a time in order to secure employment ; but sub- sequently he obtained work as an operator in Stevens's Mill in Andover, and remained there till 1863, when he removed to Lawrence,
GEORGE E. HOGAN.
1
405
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
where he bought at auction for thirteen hun- dred and five dollars the frame structure at 270 Common Street.
Out of his family of seven children, six grew to maturity. These were : Thomas A., who has been in Chicago, Ill., since 1866; James, who died in North Andover at the age of twenty-six; Elizabeth, who is the wife of Henry Harrison, and resides on Farnham Street, Lawrence; John F., residing at 99 Farnham Street, who is married and has four children; Anna Maria Hogan, who lives at South Lawrence; and George E., the subject of this sketch. A son named Joseph died at the age of two and a half years. George Hogan, the father, died in 1870 at the age of seventy-three, leaving an estate valued at three thousand, five hundred dollars. His wife lived to be eighty-three years of age, dying in September, 1888.
George Edward Hogan, after receiving his education in public and private schools in North Andover, at the age of seventeen began learning the moulder's trade in that town with E. Davis & Son. In 1863 the firm removed to Lawrence, and Mr. Hogan came with them and worked in the foundry business for seven years, all told. On the 17th of July, 1870, he began the milk business, having bought out the route and trade of Andrew J. Taylor. He remained thus engaged up to November I, 1875, when he sold out. Just one month from that time he opened a grocery business at 270 Common Street, in company with his brother John, the firm being known as that of Hogan Brothers. On the Ist of April, 1889, Mr. Hogan purchased his brother's interest; and on August 1, 1892, he removed to his present stand, having sold the block where he formerly conducted business for seven thousand dollars. He rents the building now used as his store, and is sole proprietor of the business, Mr.
Hogan's residence is at 361 Haverhill Street, where he purchased a house and settled in 1 892.
He was married on May 20, 1869, to Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Dolan) Claffey. Mr. and Mrs. Claffey, who were natives of Ireland, came to the United States in the forties, bringing their six daughters. Sarah, who was the seventh, was born in Lowell. Mr. Claffey died in 1867 at about seventy years of age, and his widow died five years later, at the age of seventy-five. Mrs. Sarah J. Hogan died on August 5, 1890, leaving four of her seven children. A daughter died in in- fancy, William B. at three years of age, and Sarah J. at twelve months. The living chil- dren are : Mary A., who graduated from the Lawrence High School in 1888, and is now book-keeper and cashier in her father's store; Joseph A. Hogan, M.D., a graduate of the Harvard Medical School in 1897 and a gradu- ate of the surgical department at Carney Hos- pital in Boston, now practising in Lawrence, Mass. ; Ellen J., who graduated from the Lawrence High School in 1892, and is now an assistant in her father's store; and George E. Hogan, Jr., also in the store with his father.
Mr. Hogan is a man of social nature, and belongs to various fraternal organizations. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus and of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, of which last he has been president, secretary, and treasurer; a member of the Order of the Pilgrim Fathers and of the United Friends, in each of which he carries a policy for two thousand dollars; clerk of the Provident Mutual Association, carrying an insurance of two thousand dollars; also member and presi- dent of the Order of the Holy Name. In poli- tics he is a Democrat, and has attended a number of conventions. He has escaped the responsibility of local public office, excepting
406
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
when for a time he served as Overseer of the Poor. Mr. Hogan has been since childhood a devoted member of the Church of the Im- maculate Conception (Catholic). Hc remem- bers being led by his father to the dedication of the church in 1855, and has ever since occupied the same pcw.
OHN HENRY TOWNE, farmer and capitalist, an influential citizen of Topsfield, is a representative of several of the earliest and best known families of Essex County. He is descended on the pa- ternal side from William Towne, who married in Yarmouth, England, Joanna Blessing, and in 1640 came to Massachusetts, settling first in Salem, but in 1651 removing to Topsfield.
William Towne died in 1672. Two of his daughters - namely, Rebecca, who was bap- tized in Yarmouth, February 21, 1621, and Mary - were hung in 1692 for witchcraft. Rebecca was the wife of Francis Nurse, and Mary, of Isaac Easty. Their sister Sarah, who first married Edmund Bridges and after- ward Peter Cloyse, was arrested and narrowly cscapcd the same fate. Rebecca, who was granted a short reprieve after her conviction, was excommunicated from the church, July 3, 1692, by the pastor, the Rev. Samuel Parris.
William Towne's son Jacob, who married Catherine Symonds, of Salcm, and died in Topsfield in 1704, was the next ancestor in this line. His son, Jacob, second, born in Topsfield in 1660, married Phebe Smith, and dicd here in 1741. Their son, Jacob, third, marricd in 1719 Luce Page, who probably married after his death Michael Dwinell, Jr. Joshua Towne, born September 23, 1721, son of the third Jacob, served in the Revolution- ary War. He married in 1748 Sarah Boule,
a French lady, who died in 1760. He died in 1788. Their son, Jacob, fourth, also a Revolutionary soldier, was born December 15, 1750, and died in 1835. His first wife, Rachel Cain, to whom he was married in 1780, dicd in 1807. His second wife was Mrs. Martha Cree Hartwell.
Benjamin Towne, son of Jacob and Rachel (Cain) Towne, was the grandfather of John H. Towne. He was born December 22, 1793, and died in 1879. His wife, Sally Board- man, whom he married in 1812, died in 1872. She was a daughter of Captain Daniel Board- man and a grand-daughter of Captain John Boardman, both Revolutionary soldiers. Her father, for many years commander of a com- pany of militia, was buried with military honors in 1803 from the house now occupied by her grandchildren, J. H. Towne and his sisters.
The emigrant ancestor of the Boardman family was Thomas Boardman, who came over from England in 1635, locating in Ipswich, where his son Daniel was born in 1639. Daniel settled on the Boardman farm in Tops- field in 1665. At his death the estate passed into the hands of his son Nathaniel, whose children died in 1736, the year of a supposed epidemic, from the number of deaths recorded. In his old age Nathaniel sent for his nephew, Captain John Boardman, son of Wait John, who had settled in Preston, Conn.
Wait John Boardman was born in 1676. Hc married Mary Billings, of Preston, in 1713, and died there in 1739. Captain John Boardman, who received the farm from his uncle Nathanicl, was born in 1716. He married in 1736 Elizabeth Cagwin, of Con- necticut, and died April 7, 1780. Their son, Captain Daniel Boardman, was the father of Sally Boardman.
Benjamin Boardman Towne, son of Ben-
407
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
jamin and Sally (Boardman) Towne, was born on the farm now owned by his son, September 1, 1812. On June 22, 1835, he married Miss Esther Peabody, who was born in the same house eleven days later than he, September 12, 1812. She was a daughter of John Potter Peabody, who in 1807 purchased a portion of the Boardman house and farm, where he lived until his death, in November, 1846.
The first ancestor of the Peabody family in America was Lieutenant Francis Peabody, who was born in St. Albans, England ; came to America in the "Planter " in 1635; lived in Ipswich in 1636; in Hampton in 1639; removed to Topsfield in 1657; was Selectman and Town Clerk the following year; received liberty to set up a grist-mill in 1664; and in 1665 built on land adjoining the Boardman farm, the mill being on the brook a short dis- tance below the house in which Joseph Smith, father of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mor- monism, was born. In 1756 a second mill was built on the same site, and in IS24 a third mill, which is standing at the present time, having been put in thorough repair in 1897-98.
From a Genealogy published in 1867 we learn that Lieutenant Francis Peabody was a son of John Paybody and a brother of William Pabodie, who married Elizabeth, daughter of John Alden, and settled at Little Compton, R.I. The father came to this country, it is stated, in or near 1635, probably not with his son Francis, but perhaps with his son William. He was one of the proprietors of Bridgewater, Mass. Some of William Pabodie's descendants spell their name Pea- body.
Lieutenant Francis Peabody married Mary Foster, daughter of Reginald and Judith Foster, their son Isaac being the next in line of descent. Isaac's son Joseph married
Elizabeth Bradstreet, a great-grand-daughter of Governor Simon and Anne (Dudley) Brad- street and grand-daughter of the Rev. Joseph Capen, who began to preach at Topsfield in 1682, and was pastor of the church forty- three years. Jacob Peabody, son of Joseph and Elizabeth, was a Revolutionary soldier. He married Sarah Potter; and their son, John Potter Peabody, married Esther Perkins, who bore him one son and seven daughters, one of whom was Esther, the wife of Benjamin Boardman Towne. Cyrus, the only son in their family of eight, died in 1814, at the age of four years. His little boots are still care- fully preserved by J. H. Towne.
Esther Perkins was a descendant of Thomas Perkins, Isaac Cummings, and Zaccheus Gould, three of the earliest settlers of Tops- field. Her paternal grandfather, Robert Per- kins, served in the Revolutionary War.
Benjamin B. Towne purchased the Board- man homestead in 1836, and, with the excep- tion of four years spent in Beverly, was here engaged in agricultural pursuits until his de- cease, February 26, 1888. His wife died December 21, 1891. They are survived by four children out of a family of six; namely, Serena Josephine, Harriet Rose, John Henry, and Esther Jane. The fourth, Mary Ann Benson, died at the age of eleven years; and the sixth, Benjamin Walter, died at two years. The three daughters occupy a part of the old house. This homestead property, it is inter- esting to note, has been in the family, on the father's or mother's side, since 1665, at this date, 1898, a period of two hundred and thirty-three years. Harriet Rose, the second daughter, a graduate of the Salem Normal School, has had twenty-five years' experience as a teacher in Essex County schools.
John Henry Towne was born February 2, 1841, at the homestead, in the same room that
408
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
was his father's birthplace. After leaving the common schools of his native town he at- tended the Topsfield Academy in 1856, 1857, and 1858, and the Wesleyan Academy at Wil- braham, Mass., in 1859 and 1860. For some time during the Civil War he served in the Sixteenth Unattached Company of Massachu- setts Volunteer Infantry, doing duty in Massa- chusetts and Virginia. On April 11, 1865, he was commissioned by Governor Andrew Second Lieutenant. At the close of the war he attended Schofield's Commercial College in Providence, R.I., and was afterward connected with a commission house for five years. In 1871 he returned to the old farm, which he has since carried on with satisfactory pecuni- ary results.
He has been very active and prominent in local affairs, never shirking the responsibili- ties of office. He was Selectman ten years, from 1882 until 1892, being chairman of the board eight years of the time; was Overseer six years, between 1888 and 1895, three years being chairman of the board. He has been Justice of the Peace the past seven years, and has been on the Board of Assessors continu- ously since 1880, five years being chairman of the board. He was a Representative in the State legislature in 1885, and served as one of the Committee on Elections and on the State House.
In 1884 he was Noble Grand of Fountain Lodge, No. 170, I. O. O. F. ; and in 1885 he became a member of the Grand Lodge of Mas- sachusetts. He has just now entered upon his twenty-seventh term as treasurer of Foun- tain Lodge. He was a charter member in the following secret organizations: Rowena Lodge, No. 113, Daughters of Rebecca; Topsfield Lodge, No. 65, the Ancient Order of United Workmen; Topsfield Grange, No. 184, Patrons of Husbandry. He is also a
charter member of the Topsfield Historical Society.
On January 11, 1883, Mr. Towne married Miss Laura Jane Roberts, who was born Octo- ber 11, 1856, only daughter of Nathan Hanson and Mary Jane Roberts. Her father, a soldier in the Nineteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, was captured at one of the battles in Virginia, and died in Andersonville Prison in August, 1864. Mr. and Mrs. Towne have two children, namely: Annie Florence, born February 17, 1884; and Benjamin Boardman, born March 26, 1889.
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.