USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Plymouth County, Massachusetts > Part 47
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Captain Allen was married May 8, 1869, to Magdalana S., daughter of Captain Clark Delano. Eight children have been born of this union,'namely: Elmena Stover, who died when five years old: Bertha Bolivia, who was born off the coast of Bolivia; Clara B. ; John C., born off Cape Horn; Sarah D., who died December 13, 1880; James Scott Hathaway, born on board ship at Liverpool, England; Florence Souter; and Abbie L., who died in infancy. Soon after his marriage the captain bought the farm of forty acres on which he and his family make their home. Captain Allen is held in high regard as a man of great force of character and moral worth. In politics he is a strong advocate of the principles of the Republican party.
AHUM F. MORSE, Selectman of Rochester for more than twenty years, was born May 19, 1835, on the farm where he now resides, son of John N. and Lydia (Look) Morse. This farm was origi- nally owned by his grandfather, Simeon Morse, who served as a soldier in the Revolution and was one of the early settlers of this locality. John N. Morse was a large land-owner, and one of the prominent men of the district. He had a family of eleven children; namely, John Q. A., James H., Savery A., Mary A., Lydia,
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David, Isaac, Tirzah I., Nahum F., Naomi, and Charlotte H.
Nahum F. Morse acquired his education in the district school and the old Peirce Acad- emy of Middleboro. In boyhood he became familiar with the duties of farm life, and, when he was twenty-six years old, he took full charge of the homestead. The farm covers two hundred acres in Middleboro and Roch- ester, including good tillage and pasture land. His whole life has been spent there. He has been successful as a farmer, keeps some live stock, and raises some fruit. He was married in 1857 to Almeda I. Washburn, of Carver, this county; and eight children came of the union. Two are deceased - Jennie F. and Nahum F. The others are: Lottie H., Annie G., Isaac F., Tirzah S., Chester B., and Helen B.
Mr. Morse, who is a Democrat, has been for many years identified with the adjustment of town affairs, his conservative judgment and practical common sense being highly valued by his townsmen. He has served as Select- man of the town altogether for twenty-two years. In this period he has also acted as Overseer of the Poor, Assessor, and Town Agent; and he has been a Justice of the Peace for fifteen years. He is a Mason in good standing, belonging to Social Harmony Lodge of Wareham, Mass. As a member of the Christian Advent church, he takes an ac- tive interest in religious work.
YSANDER S. RICHARDS, a horticul- turist and author and a leader in various reformatory and progressive move- ments, is a resident of Marshfield Hills. He was born in Quincy, Mass., April 13, 1835, a son of the Hon. Lysander and Content C. (Clapp) Richards. The Richards family is of
English origin, the American branch springing from an emigrant who settled in what is now Norwell, Mass., in 1630.
The Hon. Lysander Richards, who was a son of Nehemiah Richards, was born and reared in Cummington, Mass. After teaching school for a while, he went to Quincy, Mass., where he was interested in the quarries, event- ually becoming a member of the house of Richards, Munn & Co., the largest stone con- tractors in Quincy, and probably in the United States, in their day. Mr. Richards attained eminence in business circles, and had many financial interests. He was the first President of the Quincy Mutual Fire Insurance Com- pany. A prominent member of the Whig party, he served one term as State Senator. He was a member of the Quincy School Board for a number of years, and one of the prime movers in establishing the high school. In religious belief he was a Unitarian. He had an extended acquaintance in Norfolk County, and was respected by all who knew him. He died in 1851 at Havana, Cuba, where he had gone for his health. His wife was also a mem- ber of an old family of English origin, her first ancestor in this country settling in Scituate in 1630. She passed away in 1893. Of their children the following are living: Lysander S., the subject of this article; Louise C., clerk in the United States Life-saving Service Department in the Treasury Building, Wash- ington, D.C .; Venelia, wife of Charles W. Calef, of Auburn, N. H. ; Charles N., keeper of the Senate Stationcry Department at Wash- ington; Clara, also in the national capital ; Anna S., wife of T. Butler Van Alstyne, a lawyer of Tustin, Cal., appointed by Governor Budd President of the Board of Trustees of the Southern California Insane Asylum near Los Angeles, Cal.
Lysander S. Richards acquired his early
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education in the Quincy schools, passing through the grammar grade, and leaving school at the age of fifteen. He was sixteen when his father died, and in the two years following that event was acting Postmaster in Quincy.
At the age of eighteen he obtained a posi- tion as book-keeper for Williams & Rodgers, hide and leather merchants in Boston; and after the dissolution of that firm he was em- ployed as book-keeper for Rodgers, Johnson & Thompson, Boston. At twenty-two he was the junior member of the hide and leather firm of Rodgers, Baxter & Richards, which was sub- sequently merged into Rodgers, Richards & Co. This house controlled an extensive busi- ness, amounting to between two hundred thou- sand and three hundred thousand dollars per year, and was in existence about seven years. Soon after the partnership was dissolved Mr. Richards became a member of the hide and leather firm of Charles Marsh & Co., of Bos- ton, one of the leading mercantile houses of the Hub. The Hon. Charles Marsh (now deceased), the head of the firm, was President of the Granite National Bank and of the Quincy Savings Bank, and was a State Sena- tor. He retired from business in 1874; and Mr. Richards, who was suffering from ill- health, severed his connection with the firm at the same time.
For a number of years Mr. Richards had been engaged in scientific study and research, and had written various articles, including a treatise on cosmography, which was published in the Boston Banner of Light, running about two years in the seventies. On retiring from business, he took the opportunity to visit the gold and silver mines of California and Ne- vada, in order to supplement the knowledge gained from books by actual observation; and before he returned home he studied the miner- alogy of the coal mines of Pennsylvania. It is
an incident worthy of note that Mr. Mckinley, brother of President Mckinley, entertained Mr. Richards in California, and afterward came on to Quincy, and made him an offer to go on to California, and, as an expert, exam- ine some mines in which he was interested.
After his return from this tour Mr. Richards devoted much of his time to literary work, publishing scientific and philosophical papers, as well as a series of articles on his travels in California and the Far West, including Utah, in the Boston Commonwealth. In the fall of 1874 he settled in Marshfield, moving into his present dwelling, which he erected in 1876. Here his most important literary works have been completed. Among these are "The Beginning and End of Man"; "Vocophy"; and "Breaking up; or, The Birth, Develop- ment, and Death of the Earth and its Satel- lite in Story." Mr. Richards taught sciences and other branches of study for a year in a school in Washington, D.C., and for four years had charge of the Marshfield Business Academy, of which he was the founder. During the season of 1866-67 he presided at the Music Hall (Boston) Sunday afternoon lectures. Previous to 1874 he lectured on scientific subjects before the high and gram- mar schools of Quincy, his topics including Darwinism, Astronomy, and Geology. He has also studied carefully the science of agri- culture and horticulture, and has given many addresses at farmers' meetings in Boston. He has been Vice-President of the Marshfield Agricultural and Horticultural Society, and was for three years a member of the State Board of Agriculture.
Mr. Richards has been for a number of years Secretary of the Marshfield Republi- can Committee, of which he is now chairman, and has served as Chairman at conventions, caucuses, and town meetings. At a meeting -
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of the Second Plymouth District Republi- can Committee, comprising the towns of Duxbury, Pembroke, Norwell, Scituate, and Marshfield, he was elected Chairman for the ensuing year, 1896-97 ; but he refuses perma- nent public office, preferring the quiet of his home. He is deeply interested in the prog- ress of the town, and was instrumental in changing the name East Marshfield to Marsh- field Hills, which is much more appropriate, and gives an outsider an idea of the distin- guishing natural feature of the place. Mr. Richards is the President of the Marshfield Hills Public Library. He was vested with the authority of Justice of the Peace for twenty-one years.
Previous to 1866 he was often called upon to preside at conventions in the large halls of Boston ; and he was the leader of the temper- ance movement in Quincy before the advent of Henry H. Faxon. He was President of the Massachusetts Radical Peace Society, and was the first Corresponding Secretary of the Uni- versal Peace Society, with headquarters at Philadelphia. In his early manhood, while living in Quincy, he was President of the Adams Literary Association, President of the Quincy Charitable Society, and superinten- dent of the Unitarian Sunday-school at Adams Temple, the famous church of John and John Quincy Adams. Mr. Richards is now con- nected with the Unitarian church in Marsh- field. He is still an enthusiastic student ; and, being sent in 1891 by the Eastern heirs of a bachelor uncle who had lived in California, to investigate his affairs, he took occasion to visit southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, travelling through the Southern States and studying the natural features of the country.
Mr. Richards was married in 1859 to Miriam G. Rodgers, of Quincy, Mass. Three
children have blessed their union: Clift R. (deceased) ; Eleanor R., artist, who has charge of the art department of the Edgeworth School at Baltimore, Md. ; and C. Rodgers, a graduate of Boston University, at present employed in looking up titles in the Indian Bureau, under the Department of the Interior, of the United States government.
OHN FOSTER, a box manufacturer and lumber and real estate dealer residing in South Hanson, Plymouth County, is a native of Pembroke, Mass., where he was born, March 12, 1842, son of David H. and Deborah (Howland) Foster. On both sides he is descended from early Plymouth colo- nists, who were passengers in the "Mayflower." David Foster, father of David .H., was a pa- triot soldier in the War of 1812, and was killed in service, his head being shot off. David H. Foster was born in Scituate, Mass., in 1799. He followed the trade of a ship carpenter. He and his wife, Deborah, who was a daughter of Luther Howland, of Pem - broke, had seven sons; namely, Horace J., Jairus H., Jared Perkins, Hiram, Charles (de- ceased), Otis, and John. David H. Foster died when about eighty-two years old; and his wife died in January, 1896, at the age of ninety-one years, five months. Both parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
John was the youngest born of the family. He acquired his education in the district school, and in his boyhood was also initiated into the work of the home farm, the care of which, owing to his father's being so much occupied with ship carpentry, and his mother being in feeble health, early devolved upon him. When twenty-two years old, he began buying tracts of timbered- land, which he
JOHN FOSTER.
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cleared, and hired the'lumber sawed. As his business increased, he bought a water-power saw-mill in Pembroke in 1874, and shortly after added a grist-mill and box factory to the plant. Five years later he purchased of Bar- nabas Everson his steam-mill at South Hanson, enlarged it, and built a grist-mill, then trans- ferred his Pembroke grist-mill, excelsior mill, and box factory to South Hanson, still, how- ever, running his saw-mill at Pembroke. A year or two later the entire plant at South Hanson was burned to the ground. Rebuild- ing on a better plan, he did a thriving busi- ness until in December, 1890, the plant was again destroyed by fire. He then immediately put up another set of buildings after the same plan on a much larger scale. When he started, he employed but three or four men, but now has about seventy-five on an average. He handles about five million feet of lumber a year, and keeps a full line of building mate- rials, being the principal dealer within a radius of several miles. He also runs a cooperage shop for the manufacture of cranberry barrels, supplying the cranberry-growers in this section of the State.
Mr. Foster is also extensively engaged in the real estate business, being one of the larg- est real estate owners in this town, also the largest tax-payer, and having much property outside the town. During the past five years he has sold over fifty farms and hundreds of house lots. He is the sole owner of three land companies, besides being the principal owner of several others. In company with Horace B. Maglathlin, under the firm name of the Webster Park Land Company, he is develop- ing a large tract of beach property in Marsh- field, building houses and otherwise improv- ing the property. He owns forty acres of cranberry land, and is interested in many other bogs. All his operations have been
characterized by great energy and business sagacity, and from a humble beginning he has risen to be one of the leading business men of the county.
On October 6, 1868, Mr. Foster married Mary F., daughter of Elbridge G. Fuller, of Halifax, Mass. Mrs. Foster is also descended on both sides from some of the original set- tlers of Plymouth. Two sons were born to them ; namely, Edgar M. and Elewyn N., both now deceased. In 1867 Mr. Foster became a member of Corner Stone Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Duxbury, from which he was de- mitted to Phoenix Lodge of Hanover. He and his wife attend the Congregational church.
ILLIAM PERKINS is a representa- tive of two of the old families of Plympton. A son of William and Sophia Perkins, he was born February 23, 1824, upon his present farm, which has been held in the Perkins name for nearly two cent- uries. His father was a son of Zephaniah Per- kins, who was a son of Deacon Josiah Per- kins, who served as Town Clerk of Plympton forty years. Deacon Josiah Perkins was a son of Luke Perkins, who was born in 1666, moved from Ipswich and settled in Plympton in 1713, and died in 1748. Luke Perkins was the ancestor of nearly all - if not all - who bear the Perkins name in Plymouth County. He was the first blacksmith to settle in Plymp- ton; and it is worthy of noting that many of his descendants have been iron workers of one kind or another down to the present time. There may be no records to show who the an- cestors of Luke Perkins were, but he was probably a son of Abraham Perkins, who lived at Hampton, N.H., and a grandson of John Perkins, who is said to have come over with Roger Williams in 1631, removed with John
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Winthrop, Jr., to Ipswich in 1633, repre- sented that town in the Gencral Court in 1636, and dicd in 1654. On the maternal side Mr. Perkins is a direct descendant of Governor Bradford. His mother, in maiden- hood Sophia Bradford, was a daughter of Cap- tain John Bradford, who was a son of Captain John Bradford, who was a son of Lieutenant Samuel Bradford, who moved from Kingston to Plympton some time between the years 1709 and 1714. Samuel was a son of Major John Bradford, who was a son of Major Will- iam Bradford, Deputy Governor of Plymouth Colony, who was a son of Governor Will- iam Bradford, who came over in the "May- flower."
Mr. Perkins has served in the Massachusetts legislature, and has had much experience in the settlement of estates and in town office. In addition to conducting his farm, he and his two sons are engaged in the manufacture of lumber, and of wooden and paper boxes. In 1850 Mr. Perkins married Ann Jeanettc Churchill, daughter of Simeon Churchill, of Plympton. They have had seven children; namely, Laura W., William, Jr., Clara E., Josiah, Helen E., Ncttie E., and Charles B. Laura W. successively married William L. Bonney and Joshua F. Knowles, and has one child, Esther W. Bonney; William Perkins, Jr., married Ada K. Churchill, and has one child, Gladys Perkins; Clara E. married Fred A. Ward, and has one child, Jay A. Ward; Josiah Perkins died young; Helen E. married Gilbert W. Shaw, and has one child, Florence J. Shaw; Nettie E. married Prince E. Brad- ford, and has one daughter, Bertha W. Brad- ford; Charles B. Perkins, the youngest, is still unmarried.
Mr. Perkins was an early convert to temper- ance, and has never made use of liquor or tobacco. Half a century ago he was a regular
attendant at the meetings of the Anti-slavery Society, and a frequent contributor to its funds. William Loyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Abby Kelly Foster, Parker Pills- bury, Lucy Stonc, and other of the anti- slavery leaders of those early days found shel- ter and entertainment at his house. He was - a member of the Liberty party, the first polit- ical party especially organized to oppose the slave power. Later he belonged to the Free Soil party, and from the advent of the Repub- lican party he has been one of its active ad- herents.
ALTER HORATIO STURGIS,
M. D., a successful medical practi- tioner of Hull, Plymouth County, Mass., was born in Fairfield, Vt., February IO, 1873, son of Smith F. and Clara B. (Wakeman) Sturgis. He is of English ances- try, and traces his lineage back to the time of William, the Conqueror.
Turgesius, who was king of Ireland about A.D Soo, was undoubtedly a still carlier ances- tor. The Sturgis coat-of-arms represents two hounds couchant with a barrcd shield between, and underneath the motto, "Prudencia et Con- stancia." The first appearance of the Sturgis family in America, it has been said, was “in the latter part of the seventeenth century, when two brothers settled, the one in Connecticut, the other in Massachusetts." It should bc noted, however, that "Edward Sturgis, Sr., the progenitor of the family on Cape Cod," was in Charlestown, Mass., in 1634, and set- tled in Yarmouth, Barnstable County, in 1639. (See Freeman's History of Cape Cod. ) From Mrs. Schenck's History of Fairfield, Conn., we learn that John Sturges settled in that town in 1660, in the thirty-seventh year of his age.
Ezra Sturgis, the paternal-great-grandfather
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of Dr. Sturgis, was born in Old Fairfield, Conn., and settled in Fairfield, Vt., where he was prominently identified with the church, officiating as Deacon for many years. His wife, whose maiden name was Lydia Gilbert, was of a highly respected family. Their son, Seth Sturgis, the Doctor's grandfather, who was a native of Fairfield, Vt., was a farmer, also a carpenter and builder, and was highly esteemed in the community. He and his wife, Eliza Bearse, of Fairfield, were commu- nicants of the Episcopal church in that town. Both lived to be quite advanced in years, dying at the ages of eighty-two and eighty- four, respectively.
Smith F. Sturgis, their youngest son, was born in Fairfield, Vt., where he lived on the old homestead. After acquiring his educa- tion, he learned the trade of carpenter and builder, which he followed there for many years. In 1892 he came to Hull, and he here continues the same enterprise. In politics he is a Republican. Fraternally, he affiliates with I. B. Richardson Post, No. 92, Grand Army of the Republic, of Fairfax, Vt .; and he also belongs to Fairfax Lodge, No. 6, A. F. & A. M., of Fairfax, Vt. In 1861 he enlisted in Company H, Third Vermont Vol- unteer Infantry, as a private, and served three years, being wounded at Cold Harbor. H married Clara B. Wakeman; and they had two children - May R. and Walter Horatio. May R. married Alvin J. Perham, of Fairfax, Vt .; and they now reside in Hull, Mass. They have five children, all of whom are now living -- Genevieve, Helen, ' Alvin, Clara, and Waltera.
The maternal great-great-grandfather was Nathan Lobdell, a native of Greenfield, Conn. He engaged extensively in farming. He was prominently identified with the Episcopal church in Vermont for many years, Trinity
Church, Fairfield, having been organized after his settlement in that town, and owing much to his faithful labors. Many times during the early years of the present century he took long and arduous journeys on horseback, sometimes of more than a hundred miles, part of the way being by marked trees, to attend the conventions of the diocese to which he was a delegate. He counted nothing too hard by which he could serve God or his fellow-men.
The maiden name of his wife was Abigail Hoyt. She belonged to a noted Connecticut family. Isaac Wakeman, the paternal great- grandfather,' was born in Connecticut, and inarried Sarah, daughter of Ezekiel Bradley, of Old Fairfield, Conn. The grandfather, Horatio Powell Wakeman, who was born in Fairfield, Vt., received a liberal education, and for many years was a most successful and beloved teacher. He inherited a large patri- monial estate, to which he added from time to time, becoming one of the largest land- owners in the vicinity. He ultimately built a town residence, to which he retired from ac- tive business, and spent his later years in the quiet enjoyment of the fruits of his early labors.
Walter Horatio Sturgis acquired his early education at the New Hampton Institute, Fairfax, Vt., and also attended the St. Albans High School, subsequently entering the Med- ical Department of the University of Ver- mont. In 1895 he was graduated at Baltimore Medical College; and in the spring of that year he located in Hull, where he commenced work, and has gained popularity and a large practice, being highly esteemed, both profes- sionally and personally. Fraternally, he is identified with Commercial Lodge, Knights of Pythias, of Boston, and is also a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
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FOSTER PEIRCE, a leading farmer of Scituate, was born here, July I, 1827, son of Elijah and Lucy (Nash) Peirce, both also natives of the town. He is of the seventh generation descended from Michael Peirce, who was killed in a war with the Indians in Rhode Island. Hayward Peirce, commonly called Squire Peirce, the grandfather of E. Foster Peirce, was promi- nent in the community, and served as a Justice of the Peace. Elijah Peirce was a lifelong resident of this town. A successful merchant and farmer, he was no less prominent than his father. He was the principal auctioneer of the locality. His integrity and good judg- ment were generally recognized, and he was intrusted with the administration of several estates. In politics he was a Whig. H served for some time on the School Committee of Scituate, and was always actively inter- ested in educational affairs. A member of the Unitarian society, he was one of the com- mittee selected in 1840 to superintend the re- modelling of the old church, which was after- ward destroyed by fire. He died in 1848, at the age of fifty-eight. Two of his children are living - Silas and E. Foster. Silas Peirce is a successful business man of Boston, and resides in that city seven months of the year, spending the rest of the time in his sum- mer home at Scituate. He has been the Pres- ident of the Boston National Bank; is now the President of the North American Insur- ance Company, which has an office in Boston ; and he is a Director of the Northern Rail- road, the Nantasket Steamship Company, and
the Cohasset Electric Light Company. It was he who donated to this town the hand- some and well-equipped Peirce Memorial Library at North Scituate. His summer home is a handsome residence, with spacious and beautiful grounds. He married Miss Myra
Hall, now deceased, and has three children Lucy P., Silas, and Susan H.
E. Foster Peirce was reared in Scituate, receiving his education at public and private schools. He has spent most of his life in this town, chiefly occupied in agriculture. His home also is one of the residences of which Scituate is justly proud, its general ap- pearance denoting not only wealth, but good taste and careful ownership. He votes with the Republican party, takes an active interest in town matters, and has filled acceptably a number of public offices. Mr. Foster was married January 12, 1859, to Sarah A. Perry, a native of Scituate, and a daughter of Calvin and Mercy (Litchfield) Perry. Her grand- father, Adam Perry, was a resident of Han- over, Mass. ; and in that town her father, Cal- vin Perry, was born. Calvin Perry served in the War of 1812. His wife was a native of Scituate, where he came to reside after his marriage, and died in 1855. Three other children are also living, namely: Leonard L., residing in Scituate; Elvira, residing in Scit- uate Centre, the widow of Marcena Webb; and Mary F., a retired school-teacher, also re- siding in this town. Mr. and Mrs. Peirce have one child, Annie F. Mrs. Peirce is a member of the Orthodox Congregational church.
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