USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Biographical review, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Essex County, Massachusetts > Part 9
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John Bell, Jr., born in Londonderry, N. H., son of John and his wife, Elizabeth, who was a sister of Colonel Andrew Todd, was the father of Samuel Bell, LL. D., grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Samuel Bell was a Dartmouth graduate, class of 1793, a mem- ber of the New Hampshire bar, and Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. He was Governor of New Hampshire four successive years, being first elected in 1819; and he was
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twelve years a United States Senator from New Hampshire. He married first Mehitable Dana, who bore him five children. She dying. he married Lucy Smith, by whom he had four sons and five daughters. These all attained maturity. The Hon. Samuel Bell died at his home in Chester, N.H., in 1850, aged eighty. His eldest son, Samuel D. Bell, was Justice and Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
James Bell, son of the Hon. Samuel and Mehitable (Dana) Bell, was born in Frances- town, Hillsboro County, N. H., November 13, 1804. A graduate of Bowdoin, he, too, was a member of the New Hampshire bar. He began to practise at Gilmanton Iron Works, and a few years later, in 1832, went to Exe- ter. In 1847 he settled permanently in Gil- ford (now Laconia), N.H. An able lawyer, he established a good reputation, and accumu- lated a competency. In 1855 he was elected to the United States Senate. He died on May 27, 1857. About 1832 he was married to Judith, daughter of Nathaniel and Judith (Cogswell) Upham, of Rochester, N.H. Na- thaniel Upham, who was born in Deerfield, N.H., was a prominent merchant and a mem- ber of Congress. His father was the Rev. Nathaniel Upham, a well-known and highly respected Congregational clergyman. The Hon. James and Mrs. Bell had a family of five children, namely: Mary, widow of Nathaniel G. White, of Northampton, N. H .; Eliza U., in Exeter, at the home of her parents; Lucy, in the same place; James D., an extensive farmer of Hawthorn, Fla., where he settled twenty years ago; and Charles U., the sub- ject of this sketch. James D. Bell has one son, Frank U.
Charles U. Bell was graduated at Bowdoin College in a class of forty in 1863. He stud- ied law with his cousin, Charles H. Bell, of
Exeter, and took a course in the Harvard Law School. In February, 1866, he was admitted to the bar of Rockingham County at Exeter. For five ycars he conducted an independent practice in Exeter. In November, 1871, he moved to Lawrence, and engaged in practice as a member of the firm of White & Bell. His partner, Nathaniel G. White, who had married Mr. Bell's sister, was a man of prom- inence in the legal profession, and was presi- dent of the Boston & Maine system some fifteen years. He died in 1888. In 1878 Mr. Bell became a member of the firm of Sherman & Bell, which was in existence about ten years. His partner, Edgar J. Sherman, was in 1888 appointed Judge of the Superior Court, and is still acting in that capacity. From the time of Mr. Sherman's appointment until 1897 Mr. Bell was without an associate. He then took as partner Mr. Fred H. Eaton, a recent graduate from the Boston Law School. Mr. Bell has been very successful in his professional work. Hc is a prominent member of the Republican party, and has been honored with nomination as Mayor. He has served in the Common Council of the city; and he is one of the commission of threc ap- pointed to revise, consolidate, and arrange the Public Statutes of the Commonwealth. He has been for several years a member of the Board of Overseers of Bowdoin College, and he is one of the trustees of Brewster Free Academy. He is a trustee of the Essex Savings Bank. An upright lawyer and a business man whose integrity is unblemished, he has the confidence and esteem of all who know him.
On November 21, 1873, he was married to Helen M. Pitman, of Laconia, N. H., daugh- ter of Joseph and Charlotte A. (Parker) Pit- man (both deceased). Mrs. Bell died March 26, 1882, leaving four children: Alice L.,
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who was three years in Smith College, now at home; Mary W., who has been three years in Smith College; Joseph P., a Junior of Bow- doin College; and Helen P., in the Lawrence High School. Mr. Bell was married April IO, 1883, to Elizabeth W. Pitman, sister of his first wife. He has a pleasant home at 117 Jackson Street, into which he moved soon after his first marriage. At the time of the war he was a volunteer in the Forty-second Massachusetts Infantry, a hundred-day regi- ment. He is a Grand Army man, and was in 1888 Commander of Needham Post, No. 39. Mr. Bell has been a Deacon of Trinity Con- gregational Church for twenty years.
OHN F. JACKSON, dealer in furni- ture and undertaking goods in George- town, was born in this town, January 9, 1853, son of Caleb Spofford and Hannah (Foster) Jackson. His grandfather was Caleb Jackson, a prosperous farmer and a lifelong resident of Rowley, Mass.
Caleb Spofford Jackson was born in Row- ley, September 25, 1823. His trade was that of a shocmaker, and he followed it in George- town until his death, which occurred in 1876. His wife, Hannah Foster, whom he marricd in May, 1850, was born in Georgetown, and was a daughter. of John and Hannah (Clark) Foster. She is still living.
John F. Jackson was educated in the com- mon and high schools of Georgetown. He served a thorough apprenticeship to the shoe- maker's trade, and was employed as a journey- man by Little & Moulton for ten years, the Little & Co. Corporation for one year, and A. B. Noyes & Co. for three years. He also worked upon ladies' fine footwear in Haver- hill, Mass. In 1887 he purchased the furni- ture, upholstery, and undertaking business
of H. P. Noyes, Georgetown, and has since conducted that establishment with satisfactory financial results.
On June 28, 1888, Mr. Jackson was united in marriage with Lucy R. Goodwin, daughter of Josiah and Sarah (Merrill) Goodwin, of this town. He has three children, namely : Ardelle May, born May 27, 1889; Richmond Merrill, born August 12, 1894; and Herbert Andrews, born May 24, 1898.
Mr. Jackson is a member of Protection Lodge, No. 147, I. O. O. F .; Bethany Lodge, No. 105, Daughters of Rebecca; and of Pen - tucket Lodge, No. 73, Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a Deaccn of the Peabody Memorial Church, in which he was superintendent of the Sunday-school for ten years ; and he is at the present time acting as secretary and treasurer. In politics he is a Republican, but has never sought public office.
ARTWELL SUMNER FRENCH, an esteemed and highly respected resident of Lynn and for several years past its Tax Collector and Treasurer, was born June 17, 1839, in Turner, Mc., the birthplace of his father, Sumner French. He is of English ancestry, the French family having been first represented in Massachusetts by three brothers of that name, who came from England to this country in 1631. The father was one of the leading agriculturists of Turner for the larger part of his active carcer. He married Nancy Reynolds, who was born in Brockton, Mass. Her grandfather and great- grandfather, both named Ichabod Reynolds, were soldiers in the Revolutionary army.
Hartwell Sumner French acquired his edu- cation in the district schools of his native town and in the academies of Hebron and Lewiston Falls. He subsequently taught
HARTWELL S. FRENCH.
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school and assisted in the labors of the farm for two years. On September 10, 1862, in Portland, Me., he enlisted in Company D, Twenty-third Maine Volunteer Infantry. After nine months of service he was mustered out at Portland, July 5, 1863. On the six- teenth day of the following December he re- enlisted at Augusta in the Twenty-ninth Maine Volunteer Infantry, in which he subse- quently served as Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, and Captain. In the spring of 1864 he participated in the Red River expedi- tion and in the engagements at Sabine Cross- roads, Pleasant Hill, and Kane River Cross- ing. In July, 1864, the corps to which his regiment was attached was ordered to Wash- ington, D.C ; and later in the season he took an active part in the Shenandoah campaign, under General Sheridan, being in the battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek. On June 29, 1865, the Twenty-ninth Maine Regiment was sent to Savannah, Ga., and thence to Georgetown, S.C. Later it served for three months in Kingstree, S.C., Captain French being appointed to Provost Marshal duty. In September, 1865, he was made Assistant Commissary of Musters in the Department of the Carolinas, a capacity in which he served until July 12, 1866, when he was mustered out of the service. On return- ing North, Captain French came almost im- mediately to Lynn, where for the ensuing seventeen years he was employed in the shoe business, first with B. F. Doak & Co. and later with the firm of J. S. Bartlett & Co. In July, 1885, he was elected Treasurer and Col- lector of Taxes for the city of Lynn, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of B. F. Peach. Less than a month after, on August 5, he assumed the duties of his re- sponsible position. At the close of his first term, having given general satisfaction, he
was re-elected to the office, and has been honored with a re-election every year since. He has been a director of the Lynn Safe and Deposit Trust Company since its organiza- tion.
In politics Mr. French is a stanch Republi- can and an active worker in the party. He is a member of the Lynn Republican Club, and was chairman of the Republican City Committee in 1883 and 1884. In 1877 he was an Alderinan, and in 1881 and 1882 he was a Representative to the State legislature, serving on the Committee on Military Affairs and as chairman of the Labor Committee. He is also a member of the Oxford Club and the Park Club; of the General Lander Post, No. 5, G. A. R .; of the Abraham Lincoln Lodge, K. of P. ; of the Lynn Board of Trade; and he was the president of the Massachusetts and Maine Veteran Association in 1895. The first of his two marriages was contracted June 17, 1873, with Miss Abbie R. Barrell, who died in September, 1882. The second, on November 1I, 1884, united him with Miss Josephine Tufts, of Lynn, who has one child, Dorothy , French.
OHN PAGE BATES, a retired farmer of Danversport, Mass., was born near his present home, November 4, 1829, son of John and Martha (Page) Bates. The grandfather died in Dedham when his son John was a child. His widow married for her second husband Mr. Fales, of Dedham. John Bates worked in the Danvers Iron Works for some years. After marrying he settled on the farm now owned by his son John P., where he lived for the rest of his life. He died No- vember 4, 1890, in the ninety-fourth year of his age, his wife having passed away several years previously. He was an extensive
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grower of Danvers onions, then the best known variety in the market. His farm pro- duced from one thousand to twelve hundred barrels of this article yearly. He was a Uni- tarian in his religious opinions, his wife, Martha, being a Baptist. They had six chil- dren, namely: Edward W., who was the cap- tain of a packet steamer running from San Francisco to the Sandwich Islands, and who was lost at sea about 1852, with his vessel and all on board; Albert A., who lives in Dan- versport ; John Page, whose name appears at the head of this sketch; Martha E., who mar- ried Andrew J. Elliott, of Salem; Ellen M., who became the wife of Francis Dodge, of Danvers; and William, who died at the age of ten years.
John Page, the third child of his parents, has resided since birth upon his father's farm, which he has continued to improve, growing vegetables and garden produce. He is a Re- publican, but takes no active part in politics beyond casting his vote. March 26, 1854, he married Miss Adeline W. Pickett, daughter of Joseph and Frances Pickett. She died No- vember 16, 1889, leaving four children, namely: John Henry, who resides with his parents; William E., a contractor, who died in Salem, Mass., at the age of thirty-seven, leaving three children - Carlton, Adeline, and Page; Frank, a policeman of Salem, who has two children - Frederick and Mildred ; and Joseph E., a mason of Danversport.
LBERT CLARK, a retired contractor and builder of Rockport, was born at Sandy Bay, April 28, 1816, son of Henry and Sally (Lane) Clark. The family is an old one in this locality. Henry Clark, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, served in both the army and navy during the
Revolutionary War, and was lost on the pri- vateer "Gloucester" in 1776. Henry Clark, Albert Clark's father, was born in Rockport, February 15, 1772, and for many years was engaged in the fishing industry at Cape Ann.
Albert Clark in his youth attended public and private schools. At the age of sixteen he began his apprenticeship to the carpenter's trade with Jacob Dodge, of Wenham, Mass. Upon attaining his majority he returned to Rockport, where he worked at his tradc as a journeyman for some time. Finally estab- lishing himself in business as a contractor, he was prominently identified with building oper- ations in this section for many years, or until his retirement, which took place several years ago.
Mr. Clark contracted the first of his two marriages with Ora Norwood, daughter of Charles and Susannah Norwood, of Rockport. Of that union were born three children, two of whom - Charles H. and Albert F. - are still living, both being residents of this town. His present wife, whom he married in 1866, was in maidenhood Mary L. Lakeman, daugh- ter of Daniel D. and Eliza (Shepard) Lake- man, of Hallowell, Me. Mrs. Clark's mater- nal grandfather, Levi Shepard, of Salisbury, and one of her great-grandfathers, James Lord, third, of Ipswich, were both Revolu- tionary soldiers, the latter serving as a Lieu- tenant in the battle of Bunker Hill. Mrs. Clark is therefore eligible for membership in the Society of Daughters of the American Revolution, for which she has made applica- tion.
Mr. Clark has five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. He has long been inter- ested in all matters relating to public educa- tion, and under the old district-school system he served upon the School Committee. He is a member of Granite Lodge, I. O. O. F., of
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which he is Past Noble Grand, and the only surviving member who was present at its organization in 1848. He and Mrs. Clark attend the Universalist church. They occupy a pleasantly located residence overlooking the ocean, and are highly esteemed in social circles.
EWIS GARRISON HOLT, ice dealer of Lawrence, Mass., has been promi- nent for a number of years in this vicinity as a business man and a member of society. He was born in Andover, Mass., November 15, 1839, son of Jonas and Pamelia Porter (Fry) Holt. He is of the eighth gen- eration in descent from Nicholas Holt, the immigrant, who arrived in Boston in June, 1635, lived for some years at Newbury, Mass., and about 1645 settled in what is now An- dover.
In the first company that went from Andover to join the Revolutionary army were fifteen men named Holt, and one was Captain of the company. Ezekiel Holt, Lewis G. Holt's great-grandfather, lived and died on a farm in Andover quitclaimed to him by the heirs. This farm was in the family until 1873. The original house, erected by a Holt, is still standing.
Isaac Holt, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in this house in 1773. A farmer and cooper, he made a number of water barrels for vessels. He died at the age of seventy. He was married in the house where he was born to Abigail Blunt, a member of an old Andover family which settled in that town shortly after the Holts. Ezekiel Holt and his wife had ten children, who all attained maturity. There were six sons
and four daughters. One daughter and all the sons married. The youngest of the
family, Warren Holt, went to California in 1865. He was an educator, and for some time he managed a military school in New Jersey.
Jonas Holt, son of Isaac, was born at the ancestral homestead in Andover, in December, 1800. He, too, was a cooper and farmer, and spent his days on the old farm. He died in the fall of 1869, aged nearly seventy. His wife was a descendant of Colonel James Frye, who fought in the battle of Bunker Hill. The Andover company was in his regiment. He served throughout the Revolutionary War, and was one of Washington's trusted officers. Mrs. Pamelia P. Holt died in 1868, aged sixty-two. She had been the mother of nine sons and one daughter. Two of the sons died young. The rest attained maturity, were mar- ried, and all but one had children. The eldest son, Warren E. Holt, served through- out the Civil War. He went to the front in the Fourteenth Massachusetts Regiment of Infantry, which was changed early in 1862 to the First Heavy Artillery. A man of fine physique, tall and broad-shouldered, and with intrepid courage, he was a shining mark for the foe. At Spottsylvania his hat was pierced by two bullet-holes, his canteen by three, and his clothing riddled; but not. a drop of his blood was spilled. He lived to be nearly sixty years old, and, dying, left two sons and two daughters. His brother, Horace P., died in the prime of life, leaving a widow, who be- came the wife of his brother Albert. Six of the family are living, namely : Brooks Frye Holt, in the ice business in Andover; Lewis G .; Albert N., manager of a summer resort house in North Andover; Albion Francis, a druggist in Lawrence; Charles Abbée Holt, M. D., in Buenos Ayres, Argentine Republic, a graduate of Harvard Medical College; and Caroline C., widow of James Fleming, in
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Tewksbury, Mass. Dr. Charles A. Holt's wife and son reside in Lawrence. Mrs. Flem- ing has three sons, two daughters, and fifteen grandchildren.
Lewis Garrison Holt was reared on the farm in Andover, and educated in that town. In 1861 he enlisted in the same company with his brother Warren E., and he served in the ranks three years and two months. At Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864, he was seriously wounded by a minie ball in the neck. A slight deviation in the course of the ball would have caused it to enter the spinal col- umn with fatal result. Mr. Holt has been engaged in business since he was seventeen years old. On January 1, 1873, he sold the family homestead in Andover, which had been owned and occupied by Holts for over two and a quarter centuries, and removed to Lawrence. Here he embarked in the ice business with his brother Brooks; and in 1886 they formed a stock company, Mr. Lewis G. Holt being made secretary and treasurer. The company has a flourishing business, owning twelve ice- houses on the Merrimac River in Lawrence and ten in Methuen on Mystic Pond. They retail some thirty thousand tons of ice annu- ally. Mr. Holt is a trustee of the Pacific National Bank and a trustee of the Lawrence Savings Bank.
He was married November 10, 1869, to Emily A. Jenkins, of Bradford, Mass., daugh- ter of Albert and Nancy (Giles) Jenkins, Four children have been born of this union. The eldest son, Louis Albert, is cashier of the ice company. He has a wife and a charming boy. The second son, Edgar Garrison (named for William Lloyd Garrison), a youth of six feet two, is in the class of 1900 in Princeton College. The youngest living, Ernest Le- Roy, a boy of nineteen, six feet three inches in height, is a student in Phillips Academy,
Andover. The other son, Arthur Brooks, lived but twenty-six months.
Mr. Holt was Selectman and Overseer of the Poor in Andover. In Lawrence he was four years Postmaster under Harrison, was two years on the Common Council, three years on the School Committee, and is now chairman of the Board of License Commissioners. A
prominent Knight Templar, he has been Senior Warden and Generalissimo in the Command- ery. He is Past Commander of Needham Post, No. 39, G. A. R. ; and he was twelve years paymaster of the Sixth Regiment, Massa- chusetts Militia, holding the rank of Lieuten- ant under three colonels in succession. In religious belief he is a Universalist.
LFRED W. ALLYN, formerly a suc- cessful builder and contractor of
Lawrence, was born April 2, 1824, in Boston, Mass., son of David Allyn. The paternal grandfather, Jacob Allyn, born Au- gust 5, 1757, died in Seekonk, R.I., in 1813. His widow subsequently removed with her family to Pennsylvania, where she lived to a ripe old age. The father, born in Seekonk, August 15, 1785, who died in Chelsea, Mass., in 1861, lived in Boston during a part of his early life. Shortly after his marriage with Elizabeth McAllister, who was a daughter of a master mariner named Symonds, he removed to one of the suburban agricultural towns, and there carried on farming throughout the remainder of his life. He was an industri- ous and well-to-do husbandman, though not considered wealthy. Of the four sons reared by him, two sons are living - David and Thorndike. David resides with his widowed sister-in-law, Mrs. Caroline C. Allyn. Thorn- dike lives in Chelsea. The mother, after surviving the father some time, died at the
ALFRED W. ALLYN.
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home of her son, Alfred W., in Lawrence, in 1876.
Alfred W. Allyn learned the carpenter's trade in Chelsea, Mass. Subsequently, in IS46, after working for a while in different towns, he settled permanently in Lawrence with his bride. In November of that year he bought an acre of land on Clover Hill, paying twelve hundred dollars for the house and grounds. There were then but four houses on the hill. On land which he afterward pur - chased he used to pasture his cows and raise garden vegetables. His first contract in Law- rence was the building of a fine residence for John Graves, on the estate more recently owned by the late John Fallon. Soon after he became the junior member of the firm Briggs & Allyn, which carried on a substan- tial business during the rest of his life.
On April 28, 1846, Mr. Allyn married Miss Caroline C. Chandler, a daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Dickerman) Chandler, of Canton, Mass. Mr. Chandler was a lifelong farmer of Canton, where his birth occurred March 4, 1784, and his death April 14, 1874. He was a prominent member of the Masonic frater- nity, having been Master of his lodge; and at his death he was buried with Masonic honors. His wife, who was born July 19, 1785, died June 3, 1852. She reared six daughters, of whom Mrs. Allyn, the fifth child, is the only survivor. Two other daughters married, one of whom, at her demise, left two daughters. Lewis Chandler, an uncle of Samuel Chand- ler, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Of Mr. Allyn's three children, one died in in- fancy. Those living are: Mary and Warren C. Mary married Warren F. Taylor, resides on Clover Hill, and has five children. War- ren married Miss Abbie Doland, and has one son, Alfred W. Allyn, a promising young man of nineteen years, now in school. Mr.
Allyn, Sr., died on January 9, 1894. Mrs. Allyn has occupied her present home since 1858. The two acres of ground surrounding it are laid out with a variety of ornamental and fruit trees and a handsome flower garden, which is well taken care of by her brother-in - law, David Allyn, who delights in garden- ing. Mr. and Mrs. Allyn were among the founders of the Lawrence Street Congrega- tional Church, which has recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. She is now the only survivor of the founders.
OHN CLARKSON HOUGHTON, librarian of the Lynn Public Library, was born in this city, July 1, 1823, a son of Cyrus Houghton. His father was born in Harvard, Worcester County, Mass., on a farm that had been in the possession of the Houghton family for six generations, his ancestors as far back as the records extend having been agriculturists. Cyrus Houghton married Miss Elizabeth S. Martin, who was born in Marblehead, Mass., but removed to Lynn in early life. They reared five chil- dren; namely, Harriet C., John C., Cyrus W., S. Ellen, and George H.
Mr. Houghton was educated in the public schools of Lynn and at the Wesleyan Acad- emy, Wilbraham, Mass., and began the active duties of life as a teacher, engaging in that profession in Lynn for six years. In 1855 he entered a shoe factory, and for the next twenty-two years he was engaged in the shoe business, being connected with Lynn firms. He has always held a rank among the leading, public-spirited, and useful citizens of the place, and has devoted himself to its interests and advancement. In 1858 he was a member of the Common Council, and from 1863 till 1870 was one of the School Committee, one
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year of the time being secretary of the board. For ten years, from 1858 to 1868, he was on the Pine Grove Cemetery Commission. He belongs to the Lynn Historical Society, and he has been one of the most enthusiastic members of the Exploring Circle of Lynn ever since its formation in 1850.
In politics Mr. Houghton is a faithful ad- herent of the Republican party. He repre- sented Lynn in the State legislature in 1865 and in 1867, serving as a member of the Educational Committee in the first term, and the last term as one of the Committee on Roads and Bridges. In 1877 he was chosen to his present responsible position, for which his literary qualifications and administrative ability eminently fit him; and he has since filled the office with credit to himself and to the honor of the city. Previous to being ap- pointed librarian, he had served as one of the trustees of the library for fourteen years, or from the date of its organization, making thirty-four consecutive years for which he has been connected with this institution. When sixteen years old he united with the South Street Methodist Church, of which he is a trustee, and for fifty-eight years has been one of its active and valued members.
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