USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Biographical review, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Essex County, Massachusetts > Part 48
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Mr. Spalding died at his residence in Green Street, April 10, 1892. At that time he was a trustee of Dummer Academy in Byfield, Mass., and of Hampton and Seabrook Acade- mies in New Hampshire. He was much beloved as a friend; and, as a citizen, he occu- pied a warm place in the hearts of his towns- men. In the discharge of his pastoral duties his tenderness and care were unfailing, and his zeal for the church and for the welfare of the community was constantly exercised.
HARLES P. MIGHILL and his brother, Benjamin P. Mighill, are well - known farmers of Rowley, sons of Nathaniel and Maria (Proctor) Mig-
hill. They are descendants of Thomas Mighill, who came to Rowley with the first settlers in 1639. He brought with him his wife Ellen and two sons Samuel and John. Thomas, Jr., was born in 1640, whose mother died the same year, being the first person buried in Rowley. Thomas later married Ann, a sister of Francis Parrat. By this union he had six children, one of whom was Stephen.
The direct line of ancestry to the present generation is as follows: Stephen, born 1651; Nathaniel, born 1684; Jeremiah, born 1724; Thomas, born 1765; Nathaniel, the father above named, born in 1801.
Stephen married in 1680 Sarah Phillips, whose father was also the ancestor of the late Phillips Brooks, D. D., and of Hon. Wendell Phillips. Thomas built the large two-story, four-room house which stood east of the pres- ent residence of Charles P. Mighill. Stephen Mighill died in 1687, leaving three young children, namely : one son, Nathaniel, and daughters, Sarah and Ann. His widow mar- ried (second) March 6, 1688, Robert Green- ough, who became the guardian of her chil- dren.
Nathaniel Mighill was an influential man and the owner of large estates. He married in 1705 Priscilla Pearson, daughter of Jere- miah, a miller of Rowley. Nathaniel and Priscilla Mighill had five sons and five daugh- ters, all of whom were in prosperous circun- stances. Stephen, second, their eldest son, had more land assigned him than the others, with the understanding that he should live at "Bald Pate," now in Georgetown, then a part of Rowley, and at that time an undesirable place of residence, being uninhabited. Eze- kiel, the second son, settled in Newburyport (then Newbury). Nathaniel, second, the third son, settled in Rowley. His was the house still standing at the south-westerly corner of the common, a typical house of "ye olden time," with timbers hewn from the solid white oak.
Thomas, the fourth son, was a Captain in the Revolutionary War. He raised his own company, and served three years. He was for many years a clerk and Deacon of the church, and Town Clerk. He was a Repre- sentative to the General Court eleven years.
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We quote from his Autobiography, now in possession of his grand-daughter, in which is contained an extended account of his religious experience : "I, Thomas Mighill, married to Hannah Northend, daughter of Ezekiel and Elizabeth his wife, November, 26th day, 1747. Had no child by her. She deceased September 25, 1748, in the hour of travail taken with extreme pain in her head, fainted away and died within the space of three or four minutes from the time she was seized. This happened in the dead of the night on Saturday; and I was very much surprised, and found it hard to say 'Thy will be done.' But when I thought more wisely on this sudden stroke of Divine Providence, who it was that ordered it, I felt more calm and submissive to the will of Heaven, knowing he had and ought to have all his creatures at his control and disposal. She was born July 29, 1728. When she de- ceased she was twenty years, one month, and twenty-eight days. My second wife was Sarah Northend, daughter of Captain John Northend and Bethiah his wife. I was married to her November, 13th day, 1750. I had three chil- dren by her : first, Hannah, born on Saturday, half after one o'clock in the morning, January, 18th day, 1752; second, Sarah, born Wednes- day, four o'clock afternoon, February 20, 1754 ; third, son, born August 6th and deceased as soon as born, 1761. My wife after a spell of weakness was seized on Lord's Day, between seven and eight o'clock in the morning, on the last day of May, 1778, and had upward of sixty fits of the convulsive kind, and deceased June the first, at two o'clock in the morning, 1778. This was soon after I served in the Continental army almost two years.
"God's ways are wonderful and past my conception ; and, whilst I passed through many changing scenes, he that orders all things in wisdom - I am ashamed that I am no more
resigned to his all-wise disposing providence. She was born November 24th, 1721. She was, when she deceased, fifty-six years and half one year."
(It is said she procured and drove a load of provisions to her husband's regiment in Charlestown, a distance of about thirty miles. )
"My third wife was Rachel Lane, a widow woman, daughter of Captain John Row, of Gloucester. I was married to her October the 15th, 1778. The children I have by her : first, Elizabeth, born on Saturday morning, October 23, 1779; second, Dorothy, born Saturday, at nine at night, August, 18th day, 1781; third, Anna, born on Monday about sun-rising, September 29th, 1783; fourth, Thomas, born Monday at night, July 10th, 1786."
A family record says: "Dcacon Thomas Mighill deccased August the 26th, 1807, aged eighty-five years, four months, and thirteen days. Rachel, widow of Deacon Thomas Mighill, deceased June the 17th, 1824, aged eighty years. Thomas, son of Deacon Thomas Mighill, deceased April the 9th, 1828, aged forty-one years."
Jeremiah, the fifth son of Nathaniel and Priscilla, settled on the old homestead. He married Sarah Lambert, and by her had two sons and three daughters. The elder son, Nathaniel, third, born 1759, was a remarkably bright lad. Specimens of his handwriting at the age of fourteen are now in the possession of Mr. Charles P. Mighill, and show at that early age a plain and masterly hand.
Thomas Mighill, son of Jeremiah and the grandfather of Charles P. and Benjamin P., married Mary Scott, daughter of Licutenant Moses Scott, who served in the War of the Revolution. The first three generations of the family were farmers and maltsters. Their malt probably took the place of the tea and
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coffee of our day. On the estate on which Thomas lived had been the malt-yard of the first three generations. East of the yard, across the way, stands the old house, probably built by Ezekiel prior to 1680; and near by stood the house built by the first Thomas. The grandfather was a farmer in high standing in the community. His children remembered that he entertained the entire council when the minister was settled in the parish. He was also guardian of some boys of the town. He was a large real estate owner in Rowley. He died at the age of fifty-five years.
Nathaniel, son of Thomas, was born, as before mentioned, in ISO1. He received a good common-school education, and, though not a college-bred man, was especially profi- cient in mathematics, and, with his fine intel- ligence and attainments, ranked for years among the foremost citizens. He was very popular, and was held in high esteem, commanding the fullest confidence of his fellow-townsmen. He represented Rowley in the General Court in 1838-39, and for seventeen years was Dea- con of the church. At the time of his death he was Town Clerk, Selectman, Overseer of the Poor, Assessor, and had served on the Prudential Committee, being given the author- ity to engage the teachers of the district. In 1827 he married Maria Proctor, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Proctor. Her father and his son Charles were the leading physicians in the town for a period of eighty years, a record scarcely to be duplicated in New England.
Deacon Nathaniel and Maria (Proctor) Mighill had four sons - Charles P., Thomas, Nathaniel, and Benjamin P .- and two daugh- ters - Elizabeth and Julia Maria.
Charles P., the eldest son, born in 1830, received in his boyhood a common-school education. At the age of fifteen years the entire care of his father's farm devolved upon
him, and this responsibility he continues to carry. He has been employed in settling estates. His present residence was built by his father seventy years ago, and at the time was called "the finest house in town."
Thomas, the second son, was born in 1836. He is a contractor and builder in Haverhill, Mass. By his first wife, Jane Downes, whom he married in 1861, he has one son, Thomas Arthur, a college-educated young man, who, having studied chemistry in Germany, is now teaching it in Tufts College, Medford, Mass. By his second wife, Maria H. Johnston, of Bremen, Me., Thomas Mighill has a son, Charles Frederic, now a student in the Hav- erhill High School.
The Rev. Nathaniel Mighill, the third son of Deacon Nathaniel and Maria (Proctor) Mighill, was born in Rowley, Mass., August 25, 1839. He was graduated from Dummer Academy in Newbury, Mass., and from Am- herst College, Amherst, Mass., and afterward studied at Union and Andover Theological Seminaries. He was ordained at East Cam- bridge, Mass., September 29, 1864; dis missed September 24, 1867; installed at Brattleboro, Vt., October 3, 1867; dismissed August 31, 1875; installed at First Church, Worcester, Mass., September 15, 1875 ; dis- missed June 15, 1877. He married Fannie H. Allen, formerly of Chelsea, Vt., and by her had two sons - Ralph Scott and Hugh Nathaniel. The former has recently com- pleted his education at Amherst College. The latter is now an undergraduate at the same institution. The Rev. Nathaniel Mighill died February 3, 1878, in his thirty-ninth year. He was a man of unusual cultivation and refinement. His untimely death was greatly mourned.
Benjamin P., the fourth son and youngest child, born in 1845, was educated at Rowley
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and at Dummer Academy. He has spent his life upon the home farm, and has risen to a prominent position in the town, serving at present as Town Clerk and Justice of the Peace. For many years he has held offices of trust in the church, being clerk of the same, and has been superintendent of the Sunday- school nearly twenty-eight years. He married August 13, 1881, Catherine N. Adams, daughter of John C. and Sarah J. (Noyes) Adams, of Newbury, Mass. Mrs. Mighill is librarian of the Rowley Free Public Library.
OEL FOSTER, of Methuen, son of Zephaniah Kittredge and Mercy (Trull) Foster, was born in Tewksbury, Mass., March 3, 1829.
The Foster family were early settlers in Tewksbury. They have always been active and prominent in public affairs, and in every generation, almost without exception, mem- bers and stanch supporters of the Congrega- tional church.
Amos Foster, great-grandfather of Joel, was killed by a band of Indians when on his way home from the French and Indian War, in which he had been a soldier. His son Amos, Joel's grandfather, who was born about 1750, fought in the battle of Bunker Hill, and after the war drew a pension of ninety-six dollars a year. The younger Amos Foster died and was buricd at Tewksbury in 1835.
His first wife, Beulah Kittredge, died in 1776, at twenty-one years of age. His second wife, born Clark, bore him three sons and two daughters.
Zephaniah Kittredge Foster was born at Tewksbury in 1793, and died there at the age of forty-fivc. His wife Mercy, to whom he was married in 1822, was the daughter of Jesse Trull, of Tewksbury, and grand-daughter of
Captain John Trull of the army of the Revolu- tion. On the morning of the Lexington alarm Captain Trull was one of the first to fire the minute-gun to arouse the patriots of the Merri- mac Valley, and later in the day he led his company to battle. Mrs. Mercy Trull Foster died in 1880, aged eighty-seven years. She was the mother of four sons and two daughters; namely, Mary Ann, Zephaniah Parker, John Trull, Joel, Enoch, and Elizabeth O. Mary Ann married Joseph S. Farmer, of Tewksbury. At her death she left a son and daughter. Zephaniah Parker Foster resides in Alameda, Cal. John Trull Foster, who was a farmer of Tewksbury, died from the effects of a fall in his baîn. Joel is the special subject of this sketch. His personal history is outlined below. Enoch, for many years engaged in the manufacture of furniture, now retired, lives at Tewksbury. Elizabeth O. married Nathaniel P. Cole, and lives in San Francisco.
Joel Foster married Sarah M., daughter of Bravity and Sarah (Brown) Gray, of Tewks- bury, September 26, 1860.
Their children are: Harry, who died in in- fancy; Alice Gray, who married Charles W. Mann, and died June 11, 1898, Icaving a daughter, Alice Rachel, born June 5, 1898; Frederick W., who married Alice Russell, has one son, Russell Joel Foster; Leona E., who married Edward D. Taylor, and has a daughter, Ruth Leona; Thaddeus Cole and Helen G., residing with their parents at Methuen.
In 1851 Joel Foster became associated with his brother Enoch and brother-in-law N. P. Cole for the manufacture of furniture, under the firm name of Fosters & Cole, with shops at Tewksbury, and subsequently in San Fran- cisco, under the name of N. P. Cole & Co., since Mr. Foster's retirement from business, in 1871, known as the California Furniture
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Manufacturing Company. Two years later Mr. Foster bought the farm where he now lives, in the easterly part of Methuen on the How Road, commonly known as How Street. His home is beautiful for situation, commanding an extensive view of lake and forest, bounded on the west by the grand Monadnock and the sunset. Behind his build- ings his broad acres stretch up over the highest hill in the town, on the summit of which is the reservoir of the town water-works, and on the farther side another house and barn belong- ing to his farm of two hundred and fifty acres. This farm is a part of the original grant of land made by King George to one of the first settlers in this section by the name of How, and conveyed from one generation to another in that name until purchased by Mr. Foster. The sons are associated with their father in the management of the farm, and the daughters who married are still in his neighborhood. And here, surrounded by his family and com- manding the respect and good will of his neighbors, long may he live, until, like a shock of corn fully ripe, he is gathered into the last great harvest.
OHN P. S. MAHONEY, a promising. and popular young attorney of Law- rence, Mass., was born October 21, 1869, in the adjoining town of North An- dover, a son of Cornelius Mahoney.
John P. S. Mahoney was graduated from the Johnson High School, and, after taking a full course in the Boston University Law School, received his diploma in 1893. On August 8, 1893, he was admitted to the Suffolk County bar, and at once began the practice of his pro- fession in the office of DeCourcy & Coulson, of Lawrence, Mass. In January, 1894, the first day of the month, he severed his connection
with that firm, and established himself in the Merchants' National Bank Building, where he had an office until the completion of the New Central Building, when he took possession of his present handsome suite of rooms on the fourth floor. Since his residence in this city he has built up a fine practice, and has made himself known in legal, educational, political, and social circles. The past four years he has been principal of the Oliver Evening School, which employs some thirty-five teachers, and each season proves itself a blessing to hun- dreds of young men and women by opening unto them a way for adding to their stock of knowledge.
Mr. Mahoney has been identified with the Democratic party as one of its stanchest sup- porters since coming of age, and, when but twenty-four years old, was chosen chairman of the Democratic committee of North Andover. During the first year of his residence in Law- rence he represented Ward 2 in the Common Council, which he served as president one term.
On June 26, 1897, Mr. Mahoney married Miss Mary E. Bradley, of Cambridge, Mass., a daughter of Daniel and Eunice Bradley. Mrs. Mahoney is a woman of broad culture, a graduate of the Somerville High School and of Radcliffe College, and prior to her marriage was a teacher of French in the Lawrence High School. Sailing from Boston on July 3, 1897, on that beautiful steamer, the "Canada," Mr. and Mrs. Mahoney spent their early honey- moon travelling in the British Isles and on the continent of Europe. After visiting the for- mer homes of both their parents and the noted places of interest in Scotland and England, they made an extended trip through Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and France, devoting two weeks of their time to the city of Paris. Returning thence to Liverpool, they again took
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passage on the "Canada," and after a pleasant ocean voyage of seven days disembarked in Boston on the second day of September. Mr. and Mrs. Mahoncy are valucd members of St. Mary's Church of this city, and their cosey home on Custer Street is a centre of social activity.
APTAIN JAMES O. KNAPP, a re- tired shipmaster of Newburyport, Mass., was born in the town of Newbury, September 25, 1838. Son of J. J. and Mary (Pierce) Knapp, he is of the eighth generation in lineal descent from William Knapp, who came to Massachusetts from Bury St. Mary, Suffolk County, England, about 1630, it is said, and who settled at Water- town.
Mr. J. J. Knapp, father of the Captain, was a well-known merchant of Newburyport, and owned ships, brigs, and schooners. He was at one time part owner in four ships, and did a large importing business in the West India molasses trade. Hc was one of the oldest di- rectors in the Merchants' National Bank, and had been in that position for fifty years at the time of his death. He was also director of the Institution for Savings, was secretary of the Newburyport Mutual Firc Insurance Com- pany for fifty years, and sccretary of the New- buryport Marine Insurance Company for twenty years. He was naturally reserved, fond of his home, and not attracted by public life. IIc had many friends in the insurance business, Brewster, Skott, and others, and was highly respected for his ability and integrity. Ile owncd a considerable library of books in Spanish, which language he read fluently; and he was also a good French scholar.
His wife, the mother of Captain Knapp, was a daughter of Captain Benjamin and Eliz-
abeth (Gerrish) Picrcc, of Newburyport. Her father, when only twenty-two years of agc, owncd many brigs and barks. He built the brig "Alert," and during the War of 1812 made a present of her to the United States government. A model of the "Alert " may be found to-day in the Smithsonian Institutc in Washington. Her maternal grandfather was William Gerrish, a wealthy ship-buildcr of Newburyport, who married Mary Brown.
Through this ancestor Captain Knapp is descended from Richard Brown, who came from Alford, England, wintered in Ipswich in 1634, and the following year, sailing up Parker River, came to Newbury. In 1645 Richard Brown received a grant of land on the banks of the Parker River, and later he re- moved to the training green. His wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Edward Green- leaf, who came from England in the ship "Mary and John," and was one of the first settlers to come by water to Newbury. In 1636 Richard Brown was chosen one of the seven Selectmen; and April 14, 1638, he was elected Constable. His son Richard, born at Newbury, February 18, 1657, married Mary Jacques, and in turn had an only son, the Rev. Richard Brown, born September 12, 1675. The third Richard was graduated at Harvard in 1697. He was Town Clerk of Newbury, and taught the parish school, in- structing a class in Latin, and receiving the sum of twenty pounds a year for his services. He married Martha Whipplc, of Ipswich. His son William had a daughter Mary, born November 27, 1733, wlio marricd William Gerrish, as above mentioned.
Mr. J. J. Knapp had six children, two sons and four daughters. One daughter, Elizabeth Knapp, is now Mrs. Lanman, of Hartford, Conn. The other living daughter is Mrs. Walker, who resides with her son-in-law,
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William W. Johnson, son of Mr. Johnson, of encyclopædia fame.
James O. Knapp, leaving the Newburyport High School at sixteen years of age in 1854, shipped on board the ship " Merrimack," Cap- tain Isaac A. Bray, of Newburyport. They sailed from New York to Akyab on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal. From there they went to Antwerp, and thence home by way of New Orleans. His second voyage was in the same ship to New Orleans and back to Boston. On his third voyage he went as second mate in the "Oliver Putnam," Captain Smith, to Liverpool, thence, loaded with salt, to Cal- cutta, and returned with hides, gunny-bags, and castor oil to Boston. On his fourth voy- age he shipped as first mate of the "Clarissa Currier " from Boston to Melbourne, Aus- tralia, thence to Calcutta, then with a cargo of hides, gunny-bags, and castor oil to Lon- don, and returned by way of New York. The fifth voyage saw him first officer of the ship " Merrimack," with coal from New York to "'Frisco," and thence to London with wheat, returning with iron and steel bars and some passengers to Boston from Liverpool. Upon his arrival home he was given the command of the "Susan Howland," and started for "'Frisco"; but the ship caught fire one night, when about fifty miles from the island of Fer- nando de Noronaha, and Captain Knapp with thirty -two men escaped in two life-boats, and made land by rowing to the island, where they remained for forty-three days. They were finally rescued by a steamer, and taken to Pernambuco, and thence home.
On his seventh voyage our hero was Cap- tain of "Ship Agnes " that sailed from Boston, and touched at Melbourne, Batavia, Cheribon, Singapore, and at Prince Wales Island in the Straits of Malacca, where he shipped a cargo of nutmegs, cloves, tin, pepper, and gambier,
worth two hundred thousand dollars. On his eighth voyage, as master of the same ship, he went to Port Louis (capital of the Mauritius Islands), Batavia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Manila, returning to Boston after an absence of two years. The next voyage he loaded coal from New York to Hong Kong, going by the Eastern route via the Malay Archipelago. Captain Knapp next sailed in the "King Fisher," owned by Sam- uel G. Reed. He sailed from New York; but the ship was disabled on the voyage, and was sold at auction at Montevideo.
This was his last voyage, and during the next ten or twelve years Captain Knapp man- aged his real estate investments in Boston. He is now retired. He owns a nice summer residence on Parker River, near the place where his ancestors first landed. He is a member of St. John's Lodge, F. & A. M., and was visiting member of lodges at Hong Kong and at Melbourne, Australia. He is interested in genealogical studies, and has written three volumes of three hundred pages each on the Knapp, Gerrish, Pierce, and Brown families, with a view to publishing in the future.
Captain Knapp married Emily, daughter of William H. Whitmore, and has two children, namely: Orithyia W .; and Joseph W., who is a bright boy of ten years, and is attending the Kelley Grammar School.
J AMES C. CROMBIE, of Lawrence, well known as a public servant for many years, was born in Lowell, May 20, 1854. A son of James C. and Harriet (Heald) Crombie, he comes of New England Revolutionary stock. His immigrant ances- tor, James Crombie, who was a son of John Crombie, left the north of Ireland about 1720,
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and settled in Londonderry, N.Il. On No- vember 17, 1721, James married Joan Rankin, who bore him four sons and five daughters. The sons were: Hugh, William, James, and John. Of thesc, James settled in New Bos- ton, N. H., in 1783. Before this he had mar- ried Jane, daughter of Robert Clarke, of Lon- donderry, and had a family of six sons. Their son Robert, who is next in the line of descent, married Mary Patterson.
Clark Crombie, James C. Crombie's grand- father, was born in New Boston, September 14, 1784. He resided for some time in South Reading (now Wakefield), Mass., in Lowell, and in Baltimore, Md. His death occurred in Baltimore, and his remains were carried to Lowell for interment. His wife, who was Lucy Dane Crombie, a niece of the founder of the Dane Law School at Harvard University, also died in Baltimore, and was buried with her husband in Lowell. They reared the following children: Jane, the wife of Butler Trull, of Goffstown, N.H .; James C., the father of the subject of this sketch; Daniel D., who was a prominent manufacturer in Lawrence; Sarah E., the wife of John P. Ammidon, a Baltimore mer- chant; and Albert D., a business man, resid- ing in Malden, Mass. Daniel D. Crombie was the first agent of the Everett Mills in Lawrence, and was for eight years the treas- urer of the corporation. Hc was well known as a business man of high integrity and marked ability. He died in Kennebunkport, Me., in March, 1886. James C. Crombie, Sr., was born in New Boston, N.H., Septem- ber 4, 1814. He was a manufacturer, and for a number of years was connected with the Merrimack Manufacturing Company of Lowell. Hc died in Lowell in June, 1854. About 1843 he was married to Harriet Heald, of Carlisle, Mass., a daughter of the Hon.
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