USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Plymouth County, Massachusetts > Part 60
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mitted to the bar, he began practice in his native town in the spring of 1862; and a few months later, his energies and ability being equal to a wider field of effort, he removed to Boston. In this city, in 1863, he became the law partner of S. B. Allen, Esq., the firm being Allen & Long.
A stanch Republican from the first, occa- sionally at an early period in his career taking part in political campaigns as a stump speaker, in 1874, five years after his removal to Hing- ham, he was elected Representative to the State legislature; and, being subsequently three times re-elected, he served as a member of the Lower House from 1875 to 1878 inclu- sive, and during the last three sessions as speaker. He was Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1879, Governor in 1880, 1881, and 1882, and in the six years follow- ing, as Representative from the Second Mas- sachusetts Congressional District, was a mem- ber of the Forty-eighth, the Forty-ninth, and the Fiftieth Congress.
In 1889 Mr. Long resumed his law prac- tice in Boston, to which he has since devoted his ripened energies with his old-time per- sistence and success. Office-seeking as a pastime or pursuit he has never indulged in. Official honors if they come to him, come un- sought. As a private citizen, he has not, however, been one absorbed in his own affairs and unmindful of his civic and social obliga- tions. Since taking up his residence in Hingham, he has served on the local School Board, as one of the Trustees of Derby Acad- emy, and of the Hingham Public Library, of Westford Academy, as President of the Amer- ican Unitarian Association, also of the Massa- chusetts Total Abstinence Society, not to mention numerous other organizations with which he has been and is connected. He has a happy gift as a presiding officer, and as
a speaker on public occasions. A translation of the "ÆEneid" in blank verse, which he published in 1879, is an evidence of his scholarly tastes and literary abilities. In 1889, as President of the Pilgrim Society, he presided with grace and spirit at the dedi- cation of the national monument to the Pil- grim Fathers in Plymouth. In 1880 he re- ceived from Harvard the degree of Doctor of Laws.
He was first married in 1870 to Mary Woodward Glover, daughter of George S. and Helen M. (Paul) Glover, of Roxbury. She died on February 16, 1882, leaving two chil- dren - Margaret and Helen. Mr. Long was married, second, May 22, 1886, to Agnes Pierce, daughter of the late Rev. Joseph D. and Martha S. (Price) Pierce, of North Attle- boro, Mass., and by this union has one son, Pierce, born December 29, 1887. Ancestors of Mrs. Long also, according to the genealo- gists and historians, were early settlers of the Plymouth Colony, among them being John Adams, who came in the "Fortune " in 1621, and Captain Michael Pierce (whose son Ben- jamin married John Adams's grand-daughter Martha), who settled in Scituate in 1647, ren- dered great service to the colonists as a mili- tary leader in King Philip's War, and was killed by the Indians in March, 1676. He is said to have been a brother of Captain Will- iam Pierce, who commanded the "Ann" in 1623, and later the "Lion " and other vessels that came over, and was the author of Pierce's "Almanac," 1639, the first book printed in the colony. The Rev. Joseph D. Pierce, Mrs. Long's father, who was born in North Scituate in 1815, and died November 16, 1880-a minister of the gospel, truly consecrated to his work, for more than twenty-five years the faithful and beloved pastor of the Universalist Church at North Attleboro - was a son of
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John Pierce, and was of the sixth generation in descent from Captain Michael Pierce, being of the line of his son Benjamin aforesaid. (See "Pierce Genealogy," by F. C. Pierce.)
How well the public utterances of Mr. Long bear the test of print is evidenced by the vol- ume of " After-dinner and Other Speeches," published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. in 1895, modestly held by the author as possibly of some value as a "partial reflection of the public sentiment, and of the topics and occa- sions, of a generation in Massachusetts which is now more past than present," and to which he inscribes them. The titles are various: "Forefathers' Day at Plymouth," "Webster Centennial at Marshfield," "Governor An- drew, " " Unitarian Missionary Work." These are a sample. We quote a few sentences taken almost at random, the first paragraph from the "Fourth of July Oration," the sec- ond from the "Address on Libraries " : -
"Faith in the common people is not a fine phrase or a dream. It is the teaching of ex- perience and test. . The people may be trusted with their own interests. If it shall appear that any one form of government or so- ciety fails, there will always be intelligence and wit enough to fashion a better . . . As the dead past buries its dead, so the unborn future will solve its own needs. Ours is to do the duty of the present hour."
"In the engrossments of every-day life, few of us apprehend what a universal blessing a library is. I have been surprised and de- lighted, in my observation of our towns, to find how generally people of all conditions of life and degrees of means depend upon the public library, of how many a sick room it is the light, of how many a poor man's home it is the cheer, of how much leisure and ennui it is the relief, and how thoroughly well-informed and well-read the community is made by its
resources. Little does he know of our New England culture who thinks it confined to the select, or who, from a thorough acquaintance with New England homes, has not almost in- variably found in them a wealth and variety of book study, an acquaintance with the field of authors and their works, a literary gleaning and harvest, which a characteristic reticence often hides, but which are as surely there as the waters, whose flow is in winter time un- heard, are under their mantle of ice and snow."
Valuable suggestions and cautions follow in regard to stocking libraries, furnishing the best mental food and stimulus to young and growing minds. But we forbear to quote further. The' book, with its ever timely words of wit and wisdom, its tributes to homely and to lofty virtues, its incitements to noble pa- triotism, deserves a wide reading. It is such a book as the guardians of libraries, who have not already placed a copy of it on their shelves, delight to put on their purchasing lists, marked "specially approved," to be as soon as practicable obtained.
ANIEL E. BROWN, M.D., is one of the bright-minded and progres- sive physicians of Brockton, Mass. A graduate of Hahnemann College, and an experienced physician and surgeon, he is still studying, intending to qualify himself thoroughly in special branches of his profes- sion. He was born in Ellsworth, Hancock County, Me., February 8, 1865, son of Ivory L. and Emma (Eppes) Brown. On the pa- ternal side he is descended in the seventh generation from Peter Brown, one of the "Mayflower" passengers in 1620, and is connected with the family of the famous John Brown, of Ossawatomie, who was of the fifth generation in descent from the immigrant.
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Peter Brown died in Plymouth in 1633. Some of his descendants settled on Cape Cod. The line of descent connecting him with Dr. Brown includes William; David, who settled in Truro, Mass .; Cyrenius; and Ephraim, the Doctor's grandfather. Ephraim Brown re- moved to the State of Maine, and kept a tavern in the vicinity of Ellsworth for a num- ber of years. In his day he was the only Universalist in that locality. He died at the age of seventy-eight. He married a Miss Lord, who was related to Chief Justice John A. Peters. They had but one child, Ivory L., Dr. Brown's father.
Ivory L. Brown was a man of some standing in Ellsworth. He was honest and outspoken, and while serving on the city Committee of Finance was nicknamed "the watchdog of the treasury." He died about three years ago, and was buried with Masonic honors, Judge John Redman delivering the funeral oration. His wife, who was formerly Miss Emma Eppes, of Ellsworth, was a descendant of Colo- nel David Green, who is thought to have been a relation of General Nathaniel Greene. There is a family tradition that an ancestor travelled, disguised as a woman, through the woods from Boston to Providence, to join Roger Williams, after that bold preacher had been banished from Salem. Mrs. Emma E. Brown died in 1888, aged fifty-four years. She had reared two children - Daniel E. and George L.
Daniel E. Brown acquired the rudiments of his education in Ellsworth, entering the grammar school at the early age of eight years, the youngest pupil in that grade. He took the four years' course preparatory for col- lege in the Ellsworth High School, under Principal Dr. D. O. S. Lowell, and then took up the study of medicine with Dr. Walter M. Haines, of Ellsworth, He studied with Dr.
Haines one summer, leaving him in Septem- ber, 1883, to enter Hahnemann College in Philadelphia, where he took the three years' course, graduating in the class of 1886. Dr. Brown was the first. Ellsworth Falls boy to enter a profession, and the receiving of his degree was the consummation of hopes cher- ished from youth.
Thirty days after his graduation from Hahnemann he opened an office in Brockton, where he has now been established some ten years. He is a member of the Medical Board and staff of the Brockton Hospital, with which he has been actively connected since its in- ception. When the question of a hospital in this city was mooted, he was elected to the Board of Trustees and the Building Commit- tee; and he subsequently gave much time and attention to the completion of the institution. He is now on the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee, besides being one of the consulting physicians, and takes a personal pride in the hospital. The institution was dedicated March 14, 1896, six years to a day after the project was first broached. The de- velopment of the scheme was largely assisted by the press, that potent agent in human affairs, and the institution is now wholly out of debt. Dr. Brown has taken instruction at the post-graduate school in New York, and otherwise fitting for the specialty of surgery and diseases of women. He has devoted much time to study of these branches, but is not yet satisfied with his attainments. He is not an aspirant for political office, his chief ambition being in the lines of his profession.
Dr. Brown was married in 1883 to a daugh- ter of A. F. Burnham, Esq., a well-known lawyer of Ellsworth, Me. The Doctor is a member of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Society, of the Knights of Pythias, the Odd Fellows, Masons, and the Brockton Commer-
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cial Club. Liberal in religious opinions and beliefs, he attends the Unitarian church.
HARLES JONES SMITH, an es- teemed citizen of Pembroke, has now almost completed his seventy-first year, and yet is as hale and active as a much younger man. He was born in Bowdoinham, Me., April 7, 1826, a son of Allen and Deb- orah (Jones) Smith.
His father, Allen Smith, was born and edu- cated in the town of Westminster, Mass. As a means of earning his livelihood he engaged in the pursuit of agriculture. During the War of 1812 he was connected with the mili- tary forces, but was in no action against the enemy, being kept busy drilling soldiers. Not very long after his term of service was ended he returned to Bowdoinham, where he remained a short time, and then went to Wilton, Me. A number of years later he re- moved from Wilton, Me., to South New- market, N.H., and there he passed the rest of his earthly life, which ended in his ninetieth year. His wife, a daughter of Charles Jones, of Pembroke, Mass., died in her ninetieth year. Their children were: Judith, Rachel H., Charles J., Eliza M., Jonathan B., Martha A., Harvey A., Joel, Caroline, Deb- orah J., Mehitabel.
Charles Jones Smith was educated in the public schools of Wilton. When quite young he began to learn the nail-maker's trade in East Taunton, Mass .; and the trade once ac- quired, he followed it for twenty years, work- ing in Taunton and Bridgewater. His physi- cal vigor failing from continuous indoor labor, he purchased the farm in Penibroke, on which he now makes his home, and here he has found health, recreation, and profit. Breath- ing the sweet air of the open fields, and exer-
cising every muscle in the varied round of his farm duties, he has renewed his youth and strength, and carries lightly his seventy years. Last season he cut fifteen tons of hay, and put it in the barn with the help of one man only, whom he hired for six days.
Mr. Smith was united in marriage in 1852 with Sarah V. Hicks, of Raynham, Mass., and by this union had the following children : Sarah M., Charles E., Sumner A., Lillian E., and Mary L. Mrs. Sarah V. H. Smith died in 1865.
Mr. Smith was again married in 1867, and by his second wife has three children - Fred S., Deborah J., and Jessie A.
OSES B. COLMAN, a retired resident of Scituate, Plymouth County, Mass., was born in this town, January 31, 1839, son of Captain Moses R. and Polly (Cole) Colman. His parents also were natives of Scituate, where the Col- man family has long been established.
The first of the name to settle here was the great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Joseph Colman, who was in Scituate as early as 1638, and lived with his family on the west side of Colman's Hills, but removed, it is said, to Rhode Island about 1690, some of his daughters settling in Newport. His son Joseph, the next in this line, was the father of Joseph, third, known as Captain Jo- seph Colman, a master mariner, who made his home near Colman's Hills. He died about fifty years ago aged eighty-four.
Moses R. Colman, son of Captain Joseph, was born in Scituate, Mass., December 22, 1807. He was practically reared on ship- board, as he began going to sea with his father at the age of ten years. Becoming a ship-master, he followed the sea for fifty-five
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years, and was in his sixty-sixth year at the time of his death, which took place in Scitu- ate on March 5, 1872. He was the first Rep- resentative to the Massachusetts legislature from Scituate elected by the Republican party, and died during his term of service. He was a highly respected citizen, and a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church. His wife, Polly Cole, was the mother of several children, of whom the survivors are: Moses B., the subject of this sketch; Mary M., wife of Edwin Bowditch, of Scituate; and Frank N., who resides in this town.
Moses B. Colman was educated in the pub- lic and private schools of his native town, and when he had completed his course of study he went to sea with his father. He did not take kindly to sea life, however, and at the age of seventeen he began to learn the carpenter's trade. After serving as an apprentice three years in Scituate and one year in Boston, he was employed as a journeyman in the last- named city until 1866. He then returned to Scituate, and, forming a copartnership with Thomas O. Cole, under the firm name of Cole & Colman, was engaged as a contractor and builder for eleven years. Withdrawing from that firm, he was for some time em- ployed at his trade, and later entered into partnership with J. E. O. Prouty, under the firm name of Colman & Prouty, and was en- gaged in the grain business for four years, or until his retirement from active business pur- suits.
On April 5, 1866, Mr. Colman was united in marriage with Lucy Vinal. She is a daughter of Captain Henry F. Vinal, a native of Scituate, and a well-known mariner of his day. The Vinal family, which is of English descent, was first represented in Scituate by Mrs. Anna Vinal, a widow, and her three children - Martha, Stephen, and John - who
came here in 1636. Captain William Vinal, the grandfather of Mrs. Colman, died in New Orleans while his ship was in that port. Mrs. Colman has one surviving sister, Sarah E., whose husband, Benjamin T. Turner, of this town, is a descendant of Humphrey Turner, an early settler of Scituate, who came to Massa- chusetts in 1628 from the County of Kent, England. Of three children born to Mr. and Mrs. Colman, the only one living is William T., a resident of Malden, Mass.
In politics Mr. Colman is a stanch Repub- lican, and for sixteen years hc was Fire Warden of Scituate. For several years he has acted as local agent for the Quincy Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Quincy and the Dorchester Mutual Insurance Company of Dorchester. He is connected with the Ma- sonic fraternity, and he and Mrs. Colman take an active interest in social matters in the town.
ILLARD TORREY, Deputy Sheriff of Plymouth County through the length and breadth of which his official duties have caused him to be well known, resides on River Street, Norwell. He was born in South Scituate, now Norwell, Mass., September 25, 1833, a son of David and Vesta (Howard) Torrey. The immigrant progenitor of the family was Lieutenant James Torrey, who is said to have been in Scituate before 1640.
George Torrey, father of David, was born on the old Torrey farm in Norwell, then South Scituate. It was he who erected the house that is still standing and in good repair, build- ing it from material that was brought from Providence, R.I., on wagons drawn by oxcn. He was a ship-builder by trade. David, born in 1786, died in 1877, at over ninety years of age. He carried on the ship-building busi-
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ness for forty years in his yards at Tilden's Landing. Eight children, six sons and two daughters, were the fruit of his union with Vesta Howard.
When seventeen years of age Willard Torrey began to work at the ship-joiner's trade here in Norwell. following it for about five years, and next went into a trunk-wood factory, where he was engaged for several years. He was ap- pointed a Deputy Sheriff in 1861, under James Bates, and still holds the position, having per- formed his duties in a way that has elicited the praise, not only of the different sheriffs under whom he has served, but also of those having business with the courts. After the passage of the law regarding special sheriffs in 1880, Sheriff Harmon appointed Mr. Torrey to the office, which is next to that of High Sheriff, and, in the event of the latter's death or inability to serve, his duties would devolve upon Mr. Torrey until a new High Sheriff should be appointed. Mr. Torrey owns a good-sized farm in Norwell. Mr. Torrey's standing in the community is perhaps best shown in a portion of the following quotation from an article that appeared in the Brockton Daily Enterprise : -
"Mr. Torrey's official position has been so prominent that he has been frequently called upon to handle many large estates, and he is now caring for some large property interests all over the county. While he has never passed an examination for admittance to the bar, his advice is frequently sought by the residents in this vicinity, who have come to regard his business sagacity as unquestioned ; and his personal popularity is due in a meas- ure to the courteous manner in which he gives advice. No poor person can pay him a copper for his services. Mr. Torrey's work in court brings him in contact with all classes of the community, and no one can claim that they
have ever failed to receive courteous treatment at his hands; and many have been the favors which he has extended, where others would turn a deaf ear to the appeals of the unfortu- nates who are frequently called before the bar of justice. Deputy Sheriff Torrey has seen judges come and go. There is now no judge living who occupied the judicial bench at the time of his appointment. He has also seen the passing of some of the bright members of the Plymouth bar. There are now living but four members of the Plymouth bar who were practising when he was first appointed to office. "
In 1855 Mr. Torrey married Martha R. Merritt, of South Scituate, a daughter of the late Francis and Clarissa Merritt, and has three children : Frank H., living in Melrose, Mass. ; Walter R., who studied law with Hosea Kingman, of Bridgewater, and is now a student at the law school of Boston Univer- sity; and Miss Mattie W. Torrey, residing at home, who is quite an elocutionist. There are two grandchildren: Miss Marion, daughter of Frank H. Torrey; and Master Wendell Torrey, son of Walter R. Mr. and Mrs. Torrey have resided at their present home since 1860. On the fortieth anniversary of their wedding, De- cember 23, 1895, they received numerous handsome gifts from near and from far, and the heartfelt congratulations of many as- sembled friends, including numbers from the neighboring towns.
In politics Mr. Torrey has always been a Republican. For six years Vice-president of the South Scituate Savings Bank, he has been a member of its Board of Trustees since its incorporation, and of its Board of Investment since 1877. As receiver for the Scituate Savings Bank, he performed his duties in a very commendable manner. Mr. Torrey is a member of the Cohasset Masonic Lodge. He
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attends the Unitarian church, and is one of the Parish Committee.
R UFUS T. ESTES, in former years a well-known merchant in Plymouth County, since 1889 living in retire- ment in the town of Hanover, was born in ; West Hanover, Mass., April 20, 1826, son of Robert and Experience (Studley) Estes. Robert Estes was a blacksmith by trade, and his life was spent for the most part in Han- over, where he died in the eightieth year of his age, his wife living to be about seventy- eight. They were the parents of eight chil- dren, namely : Elizabeth, Robert, and Clarissa, all deceased; Nancy; Beulah, deceased; Rufus T .; Warren; and George, deceased.
Rufus T., the second son, was educated in the Hanover public schools and at the acad- emy at Sandwich, Mass. At the age of twelve he began working at the shoemaker's trade, which he followed for a ycar. He was next employed in the store of Z. F. Brett, of Duxbury, after which he went to East Abing- ton to work for his brother Robert, and drove a pedler's cart through the country for about two years, and then entered his brother's dry- goods store as a clerk. Although but seven- teen years old at the time of his brother's death, he took full charge of the business for six months, at the end of which the store was sold to Samuel Ellis, with whom he continued as a clerk for four years, being then received into partnership. A year later Mr. Estes pur- chased the entire store, and took a partner, to whom, at the end of another year, he sold the business, which consisted of dry goods and furniture. The following year he did a thriv- ing business at merchant tailoring, but sold out, and went to Jacksonville, Fla., where he held the position of clerk in the dry-goods
storc of his former employer and partner, Samuel Ellis. Returning to Massachusetts at the end of a year, he was employed as a dry- goods clerk for a like period in the town of Rockland, after which he embarked in that line of business on his own account, having as a partner E. W. Whiting, with whom, under the style of Estes & Whiting, he con- ducted a successful business for a quarter century, or up to 1887. When Mr. Estes finally retired he had been engaged in the dry- goods business for forty-five years, and during all that time had met with no reverses of any consequence.
In 1847 Mr. Estes was united in marriage with Sarah J. Tribou, by whom he had a son, Alonzo C., but both the child and his mother are now deceased. For his second wife Mr. Estes married Margaret R. Binney, who bore him two children - one that died in infancy, and Emma J. His present wife was before marriage Laurencia C. Dwelley. Mr. Estes is a member of the John Cutter Masonic Lodge of Abington, also of the Baptist church of Rockland, which he served as Deacon and Treasurer many years:
ENRY LYMAN BRYANT, a trusted . and highly successful real estate dealer of Brockton, Mass., was born herc in 1836, a son of George W. and Lucy (Washburn) Bryant, and on his father's side is a connection of the late William Cullen Bryant.
Stephen Bryant, an English immigrant who was in Plymouth, Mass., it is said, as early as 1632, was the ancestor of the Bryants in Bridgewater. His wife, Abigail Shaw, daughter of John Shaw, who came from Eng- land, bore him six children. Stephen, Jr., their second son, was also the father of six
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children. the fifth of whom, named Ichabod, born July 5. 1699, in Middleboro, Mass., removed to North Bridgewater, then the North Parish of Bridgewater. He married Ruth Staples, and had ten children. He died No- vember 22, 1759, and his widow died on March 27, 1777. Philip Bryant, their eldest- born, was the ancestor of the distinguished poet. Job, their fourth child, married Mary Turner, May 3, 1764, and had ten children, Oliver being the sixth. He was married on May 6, 1804. to Nabby, daughter of Timothy Ames, and their union was blessed by the birth of nine children. George Washington, the father of Henry L., was the fourth child. He was born August 4. 1810. and became one of the founders of the town of Brockton, where he engaged in the marble business. He was a trial justice of the police court and Plym- outh County. His wife, Lucy, is a daughter of Bildad Washburn, of Kingston, Mass. She is the mother of two sons and a daughter, namely: George Edward; Henry Lyman; and Abby Lane. who married Frederick Hanson, March 1, 1857; and is now deceased. Mrs. Bryant is now living at the advanced age of ninety-one years.
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