Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Part 67

Author: Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston, pub
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Boston, Biographical review publishing company
Number of Pages: 1238

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts > Part 67

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Mr. Benson gave many years of faithful and earnest service to the town. For several years he was a member of the Board of Select- men and of the School Committee, he was an Overseer of the Poor for twenty-four years, and he also served in the capacity of Town Assessor. Besides this he acted officially on various town committees. Politically, he was identified with the Democratic party, whose principles found in him an ardent supporter. At one time he was his party's candidate for the legislature. During the twenty-one years in which he was Justice of the Peace he set- tled forty estates, many of which represented large amounts. By his marriage with Esther Goddard, daughter of Charles Goddard, a prominent resident of Grafton, he became the father of one son, Willard O. Benson, who is now in Cheyenne, Wyo., and has been employed by the Union Pacific Railroad for the past fifteen years. Willard is married and has three children. The death of Mr. Benson, Sr., on April 25, 1898, at the age of eighty - five years and nine months, closed an eventful and useful life. Sincerely

mourned by many friends, his funeral was largely attended.

OAMMI BAKER CARR, one of the best known citizens of Northbridge, was born in Mendon, now Black- stone, Mass., November 19, 1842, son of Hial Cram and Sarah (Aldrich) Carr. He is of the eighth generation in descent from George Carr, one of the earliest settlers of Salisbury, Mass., the line being : George, 1 William,2 Sanders, 3 Hezekiah, 4 Sanders, 5 George,6 Hial C.,7 Loammi B.8

The Carr Family Record, of five hun- dred and forty pages, compiled by Edson I. Carr, of Rockton, Ill., publisher of the Rock- ton Herald, states that George Carr was a son of Robert Carr, a native of Scotland, who lived in London; that he (George) came over as ship-carpenter in the "Mayflower " in 1620 with his wife, Lucinda; that she died the first winter; that his brother William came over as a sailor in the "Fortune" in 1621; and that William Carr and his wife, who accom- panied him, the next summer settled at what is now Bristol, R.I., their nephews, Robert, second, and Caleb, coming in 1635.

George Carr was in Ipswich in 1633, and from there removed to Colchester, now Salis- bury, Mass. On May 3, 1640, he was granted an island in the Merrimac River for a home and for the purpose of a ship-yard. Carr's Island was the home of the Carrs for several generations, and its possession gave the family the monopoly of the ferrying business across the river. This ferry at George Carr's death was considered to be worth four hundred pounds. Two members of the family were drowned while attending it. The large house on Carr's Island was destroyed by fire May 9, 1797. George Carr died in Salisbury, April 4, 1682; and his second wife, Elizabeth, died in the same place, May 6, 1691. He had ten children, born in Salisbury.

William Carr, the fourth child and next in line of descent, was born March 15, 1648. He married Elizabeth Pike, August 20, 1672. She died in Salisbury, May 2, 1715. Their son Sanders, born in Salisbury, Mass., May

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13, 1674, married Mary Purinton (entered his intentions of marriage February 12, 1704, in Salisbury). Their son Hezekiah, born Febru- ary 27, 1714, married Nanne Merrill, in Salis- bury, December 7, 1733. Sanders, second, son of Hezekiah, born August 27, 1734, mar- ried a Miss Maxwell, and settled in Raymond, N. H., where he died in 1809. George Carr, son of Sanders, second, born August 20, 1764, in Epping, N.H., married Mary Marden in Goshen, N.H., October 28, 1790. She was born in Chester, N.H., June 29, 1772, and died in Goshen, January 24, 1858. He re- moved to Maine in 1792, and built the first wharf in Belfast. His wife, afraid that her sons would want to go to sea, persuaded him to return to New Hampshire, which he did in 1810. He was a very large and strong man, and was a ship blacksmith. He died in Bradford, N. H., June 8, 1829. They had eleven children, four of whom came to Whit- insville- Jonathan, George, Hial C., and Charles Rue.

Hial Cram Carr was born in Deering, N.H., on Thursday, January 6, 1814. He came to Whitinsville in September, 1835, and worked in the Whitins' first cotton-mill with his brother, George M. Carr. In September, 1838, he went to Pike County, Illinois, where he took up a quarter-section of land. The journal that he kept on this trip is still pre- served in the family. While there he taught school for two terms in the winter and spring of 1838-39. Returning to Northbridge in 1839, he found employment in Holbrook's cotton-mill, where he had charge of the weav- ing department. He subsequently came back to Whitinsville, and was overseer in the brick cotton-mill. In 1842 he went to Blackstone, and after a short time he had charge of the weaving in both mills in Blackstone. On October 1, 1850, he returned to Whitinsville and bought Elisha M. Smith's livery stable. April 1, 1857, he bought from his brother George the stage line from East Douglas to Whitins' station; and on July 1, 1872, he sold this line to his sons, L. B. and S. A. Carr, and retired from active business. His death occurred March 3, 1883. He was Over- seer of the Poor for a number of years. On

March 12, 1837, he joined the Whitinsville church, but on October 16, 1842, transferred his membership to the Blackstone Congrega- tional Church. He was a member of Granite Lodge, F. & A. M.

He was married in Northbridge, January 6, 1840, to Sarah Aldrich Carr. Their children were: Frances Marian, who was born Septem- ber 10, 1840, and died in November, 1844; Loammi Baker, whose name with birth date appears at the head of this sketch; and Sam- uel Aldrich, born May 31, 1848, who married Helen A. Morton, in East Douglas, Mass., October 9, 1873. The mother was expelled from the Society of Friends for marrying one not of their faith. Hial C. Carr married for his second wife Emily Scott Keith, of Whit- insville, Mass., the ceremony taking place in Boston, April 28, 1858. By her he had one child, Alice Marian, who was born October 8, 1860, in Whitinsville. She married Harry Deacon, May 21, 1879, and died February 28, 1887.

Loammi Baker Carr was educated in the public schools of Whitinsville and at East Greenwich Academy. He married Anne V. Prentice, March 16, 1862, and settled at East Douglas, where he was employed in driving the stage from East Douglas to Whitinsville. On August 19, 1862, he enlisted in Douglas in Company I (Captain William Hunt), Fifty- first Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, to serve nine months. He took part in the actions at Newbern, Whitehall, Goldsboro, and Kingston, N.C. In July, 1863, he was discharged from Stanley General Hospital at Newbern and later from the service, July 27, 1863. Returning home, he and his brother Samuel bought the stage line from their father, and managed it together till May 1, 1874, when he bought the share of Samuel. In May, 1880, Loammi B. Carr went into the undertaking business. He is now engaged in the stage and express business at Whitinsville.

Mr. Loammi B. Carr is a strong Republican in politics, and has been a delegate to several Republican conventions. He was Selectman in Northbridge in 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891. From 1878 to 1882 he served as Deputy

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Sheriff. A prominent Mason, he was one of the organizers of Granite Lodge, F. & A. M., instituted October 13, 1881, and was its first Master, which position he held three years. He belongs to St. Elmo Chapter, R. A. M., and was District Deputy in 1895. He is also a member of Worcester Commandery, K. T., and of Aleppo Temple, Mystic Shrine, Bos- ton. He belongs also to Rowse R. Clark Post, G. A. R., and was Commander of Post Jesse L. Reno, G. A. R., before it disbanded.

By his wife, Anne V. Prentice Carr, he has had two children: Myra L, who is assistant librarian at the library in Whitinsville; and Bertha Marion, wife of Arthur Dewitt McIn- tire, of Putnam, Conn.

EROME VERNON PRENTICE, of Northbridge, a successful contractor and builder, was born in Whitinsville, Mass., November 19, 1850, a son of Luke and Amy (Joslin) Prentice. His immigrant progenitor, Robert Prentice, who came from England, settled at Roxbury, Mass., where, as existing records show, he was a well-to-do man and prominent in town affairs. Upon the register of the Roxbury church, of which Robert Prentice was a mem- ber, appears the entry, "He was buried Feb- ruary 12, 1665."

The next in line of descent was Thomas, known as Thomas Prentice, Sr. He was born in England in 1632 or 1633, and, it is pre- sumed, accompanied his parents to this coun- try. In 1657, in company with his brother James, he bought a farm in Newton, they being among the first settlers there. He married Rebecca Jackson, who was born in England, daughter of Edward and Elizabeth Jackson (baptized October 10, 1633, at Whitechapel parish, London, according to its register). Rebecca was a sister of Elizabeth Jackson, the first wife of John, son of Captain Thomas Prentice, the trooper of Newton. From his wife's father Thomas Prentice, Sr., received a gift of one hundred acres of land at the south part of Newton, near "Baldpate Meadow," be- sides two other tracts of land. He was Se- lectman four years, 1686, 1690, 1699, and

1700. He died in 1724, when over ninety years old. The date of his wife's death is not known.

Their son, Thomas Prentice, Jr., was born in Newton about 1669. He married Eliza- beth Bond about 1690, and died December II, 1724. John Prentice, one of the four chil- dren of Thomas and Elizabeth (Bond) Pren- tice, was born March 6, 1691. The Christian name of his wife, to whom he was married September 29, 1715, in Newton, Mass., was Elizabeth. After their marriage they re- moved to Preston, Conn. They had nine children.

Samuel Prentice, the fourth in the ancestral line, was born in Preston, Conn., November 3, 1721. He removed from Preston to Sutton, and lived in a log cabin near what is known as the Moses Adams place. He later built a frame house that afterward went by the name of "the Old Gambrel-roofed House," and which was burned about 1875. It was located on the site of the home of Edward Maguire. After another removal he took up his residence in a house at the corner of the Oxford and Sutton roads. Selling this place to Simeon Hathaway in 1801, he went to live with his son-in-law, Erastus Clark, of Sturbridge, Mass., giving to him what remained of his property. He died in July, 1804, aged eighty-three years. Samuel Prentice married for his first wife Phoebe Rist, of Uxbridge, Mass., daughter of Thomas Rist, of that place. He married in Sutton, Mass., for his second wife, Abigail Leland, of Providence, R.I., daughter of Amariah Leland. By his first wife he had one child, James, born July 23, 1746 (O. S.), or August 3 (N. S.), of whom more below. By his wife Abigail he had Rhoda (born 1776, died 1839), who married Erastus Clark, of Sturbridge, and had four children - Erastus, Abigail, Merrick, and Esther, all now deceased.

James Prentice, son of Samuel and Phœbe (Rist) Prentice, was born in Sutton, Mass. He owned about two hundred and fifty acres of land in Sutton and Northbridge, seventy-six acres of which he had received from his father by three separate deeds. He was a Lieuten- ant in Captain March Chase's company in the

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Revolutionary War, and served at Roxbury, Mass., and Providence and Newport, R.I. He resided with his father for six years after his marriage, and two of his children were born in the old gambrel-roofed house. In Septem- ber, 1776, they removed to Prentice Corner, where they dug a cellar in the hillside, boarded it over, and lived in it, while he built what is now the middle part of the Willard W. Prentice house. Later the north end was built, and in 1812 the main part was added. At a town meeting held in Sutton August 17, 1779, Lieutenant James Prentice was one of twelve appointed to carry into effect the re- solves of the county and State conventions. He married December 21, 1770, Mrs. Sarah Whitin, daughter of Nathaniel Draper. She was born June 5, 1748, and died at her son Luke's house, December 8, 1831, aged eighty- three. Lieutenant James Prentice died May 20, 1837, aged ninety-one, at the home of his daughter, Sarah Wright, in Spencer, Mass. He had eight children - Calvin, Luther, Dorcas, Luke, Levi, Nahum, Sarah, and Mary.

Luke Prentice, son of Lieutenant James Prentice, was born at Prentice Corner, Sutton (now Northbridge), February II, 1779, and died February 7, 1857. He married Azuba Adams, daughter of Francis and Abigail Adams, of Northbridge, July 20, 1805. She was born June 8, 1780, and died December 29, 1862. Their children were: James Adams, Minerva, Luke, Jr., Marvel, Mellen, and Abigail Baylies. The father was a school teacher before his marriage and for one year afterward. From 1806 to 1808 he conducted store at Northbridge in company with Charles Prentice, of Grafton. He also learned the trade of watchmaker. About 1813 he re- moved to Prentice Corner and took charge of his father's farm. From 1815 to 1831 he was engaged in trade, driving to Providence with hoes, scythes, guns, shoes, and other wares, then taking sloop to Newport, New York, Bal- timore, Philadelphia, Savannah, Ga., in which markets he sold or traded his goods. He served the town as Highway Surveyor, Con- stable and Collector, Assessor, Selectman. He belonged to the Masonic order, being a

Knight Templar. On his farm he found many Indian relics, which he presented to the Anti- quarian Society in Worcester.

Luke Prentice, Jr., was born March 28, 1812, at Northbridge Centre, Mass. He mar- ried Amy Joslin, daughter of Juni and Patty Joslin, of East Thompson, March 21, 1836. He learned shoemaking and worked at his trade until 1840, when he came to Whitins- ville, and entered the employ of P. Whitin & Sons, with whom he remained until 1868. He joined the Congregational church here, July 4, 1858, his wife having joined in 1834. He removed to Church Street, where in 1848 he built a house that he sold in 1880 to Charles Trowbridge. In 1875 he laid out and built Prospect Street, which was accepted by the town in 1877. He then built a house in which he resided until November, 1881, when he built the house on Cottage Street, where he died June 15, 1891. He was Sur- veyor for thirty years and Assessor from 1856 to 1879. His wife died March 24, 1885. Their children were: Mendrick Arnold, born December 27, 1836, died October 11, 1851 ; Lydia L., born June 4, 1838, married Charles T. Cady, of Providence, February 27, 1857, died November 12, 1861 ; Arethusa Marian, born September 8, 1839, died October 15, 1843; Lyman Joslin, born August 17, 1841, a machinist, who enlisted and served in Company A, Twenty-fifth Regiment, Massa- chusetts Volunteers, was in the battles of Kingston, Whitehall, Goldsboro, Rocky Hock Creek, Port Walthall, Chesterfield Junction, and Arrowfield Church, where he was wounded May 9, 1864, and died of his wounds May 16 following at Chesapeake Hospital, Fortress Monroe, Va .; Anne V., born May 29, 1844, married Loammi B. Carr (subject of another sketch), March 16, 1862; John Mowry, born March 26, 1846, died March 10, 1847; Lucius A., born February 22, 1848, married Ida Jones, of Sutton; and Jerome Vernon, born November 19, 1850, whose name begins this sketch, and whose personal history will be given more fully.

Jerome Vernon Prentice received his educa- tion in the schools of Northbridge. When about twenty years old he began to learn the

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carpenter's trade. After spending five years as an apprentice and journeyman he went into business for himself as a contractor, and has since remained thus engaged, having been very successful. In busy times he employs a large number of men. Among the buildings erected by him are several school buildings at Northbridge, the Haywood woollen-mills at Douglas, which he built in 1895, and one hun- dred and five tenements for the Whitins. He is a thorough master of his craft, and it may well be said of him that his work is his best advertisement. He has served on the Board of Selectmen of Northbridge for the last five years, two years of which as chairman; and for four years he has been Superintendent of Streets.

On August 30, 1877, he married Elizabeth Southwick Farnum, daughter of Luke and Chloe (Taft) Farnum, of Northbridge, her father being a well-known farmer and lum- berman of that town, in which he served as Assessor for twenty-two years. He died in Uxbridge, October, 1884. Mr. Prentice built his present comfortable home in 1881, adding to it in 1896 a spacious modern barn.

ILLIAM WIGHT, a prosperous farmer of Sturbridge, was born here, July 22, 1823, son of Festus and Lydia (Marsh) Wight. His grandfather, Al- pheus Wight, who was born September 16, 1770, to dig a canal and raceway one-half a mile long, in November, 1798, with wooden shovels with iron on the edge. The object of this work was to carry water to a grist and saw mill, which began running in the spring of 1800. He paid fifty cents per day for hired labor. Alpheus was twice married: first on January 25, 1792, to Miriam Belknap, who was born in 1772, and died on November 25, 1822. His children by this union were: Fes- tus, Miriam, Buckminster, Sarah, Caroline, Betsey, Evelina, Eliza, Winthrop, Nancy, Lothrop, Alpheus, and Adaline. His second wife, in maidenhood 'Mary H. Howe, to whom he was married in 1826, died February 9, 1873, aged eighty-three years. She bore him one child, Charles P. Wight, born in 1827.

Festus Wight, eldest child of Alpheus and Miriam Wight, was born October 17, 1793. He followed agriculture and also conducted a saw-mill, carding and dressing mill, and grist- mill during the active years of his life. In politics he was an old-time Whig, in religion a Congregationalist. He served his town for several years in the capacity of Selectman. His marriage with Lydia Marsh was performed November 3, 1816. They were the first to celebrate a golden wedding in the town of Sturbridge. Their children were: William, Sarah M., and Lydia M. Sarah M. was born March II, 1821. Lydia M., born in Novem- ber, 1825, died August 27, 1847. The mother, who was born February 2, 1794, died February 9, 1867.

William Wight received his education in the public schools of Sturbridge. Having remained with his parents until then, he hired out on a farm in 1845 for small wages. In 1848 he purchased a half-interest in the grist- mill and saw-mill owned by his father. The carding and dressing mill was sold to the Snell Manufacturing Company in 1853. Three years later he came into possession of the old Wight homestead farm, situated in what was then commonly known as Wight Village. To the original two hundred and fifty acres in the farm he subsequently added one hundred and fifty acres, and made many improvements in the buildings. In addition to carrying on his farm, he has dealt quite extensively in lumber, and though now in his seventy-fifth year he still conducts both his farm and his lumber business. In the fall of 1897 he assisted in shingling his barn. In the year 1894 he visited California and several of the Southern States, and he contemplates making another trip to Southern California.

Mr. Wight has twice married, first on Sep- tember 6, 1849, to Sophia Janes, of Brimfield, Mass., who bore him three children, none of whom lived beyond childhood. They were : Sarah Jane, born January 10, 1851, who died December 15, 1856; Abby F., born February 28, 1858, who died March 8 of the same year ; and Annie Bliss, born July 8, 1859, who died February 22, 1860. The second marriage was contracted June 3, 1862, with Ursula Bel-

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WILLIAM WIGHT.

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knap, who was born September 12, 1819, daughter of Peter and Anna (Marsh) Belknap. In politics Mr. Wight is a Republican. He has served his town creditably as Selectman, Overseer of the Poor, and Assessor; and he is a member of the grange and a trustee of the Joshua Hyde Library. At one time he was a member of the old Quinebaug Library Asso- ciation.

ON. EBENEZER B. LYNDE, a well-known resident of West Brook- field, is a direct descendant of Enoch Lynde, a merchant of Lon- don, England, and Elizabeth (Digby) Lynde, who were married in 1614. Simon, their only .child, a native of London, born in June, 1624, came to Boston in 1650. He was made a Justice for the county of Suffolk, and he acquired a large landed estate in Saybrook, Conn. His son Nathaniel was born in Bos- ton, November 22, 1659. Another son, Ben- jamin, born in 1666, was appointed Chief Jus- tice of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, which office he held until his death in 1745. Benjamin's son, Benjamin Lynde, Jr., was appointed a Justice in 1745 and Chief Justice in 1769. Nathaniel, son of Simon, married at Boston in 1683 a daughter of Deputy Governor Francis Willoughby, and moved on to the estate in Saybrook. He became a Jus- tice of the Quorum, and was an early bene- factor and the first treasurer of Yale College, which was afterward removed to New Haven. The precise location of his residence in Say- brook was what is still called Lynde's Point, at the mouth of the Connecticut River. The four succeeding generations of the family that lived here were respectively represented by Samuel, a judge, born in 1684; Willoughby, born in 1710; Samuel, born in 1736; and Na- thaniel, born May 18, 1784. The first three ancestors mentioned were educated at Yale College. The fourth,

Nathaniel, moved to what is now West Brookfield in 1805, and became the owner of much land. His second marriage was contracted with Eunice Phelps, a daughter of Captain Ebenezer Bissell, of Windsor, Conn.

Ebenezer B. Lynde, son of Nathaniel and Eunice Phelps Lynde, was born in West Brookfield, August 31, 1823. He was edu- cated in the public schools and at Leicester Academy. Subsequently following the occu- pation of farmer, he acquired considerable real estate. Interested in the Warren Savings Bank, he serves it in the capacity of vice- president. On January 23, 1850, he married Minerva Jane White, daughter of Joseph Lee White, a manufacturer in North Adams. Of the children born to him, three are living, namely : Herbert Bissell, who is employed by the H. B. Hood Company; Nathaniel White, a physician in New York City ; and Mary Fin- ney, now residing at home with her parents.

Referring to Mr. Lynde's public career, William T. Davis, in his history of the Brook- fields, has the following: "Mr. Lynde early won a prominent position in his native town. Though at all times reluctant to assume public office, his clear head and sound judgment, combined with a strong will and an unusual executive ability, have often been sought by his fellow-citizens, and when sought they have been willingly lent. He has served on the Board of Selectmen. As Moderator of town meetings and in various ways he has brought his active influence to bear in the promotion of the interests and welfare of the town. He is a member of the Congregational church, and to his energy and fidelity much of its prosperity was due; and to his business foresight may properly be attributed the in- surance of its meeting-house before it was burned in 1881, without which the injury in- flicted upon the society would have been well- nigh irreparable." In 1877 and 1878-79 he represented the Worcester Third District in the Massachusetts Senate, and in both terms was a member of the Committees on Agricult- ure, Engrossed Bills, and Taxation. He has been the president of the Worcester South Agricultural Society, and was appointed by the Governor successively for four years a del- egate of the State of Massachusetts to the Farmers' National Congress. He is vice- president of the Quaboag Historical Society ; was one of seven, who more than twenty years ago organized the West Brookfield Farmers'

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Club, which has become the largest organiza- tion of the kind in the State; and, chosen by his town, he is one of the trustees of the Stickney Fund.

One of Mr. Lynde's most cherished posses- sions is the history of the Lynde-Digby fam- ily, consisting of four large volumes and a large volume of pedigree charts. The pedi- grees include those of Elizabeth Digby's an- cestors, who were of the family of Lord Digby, back to Aelmar Digby, to whom lands were granted by William the Conqueror in 1085. He also preserves the ancient family arms of the Digbys. In the history the Lyndes are traced in Holland, from which Enoch went to London, and where the family name was Van der Lynden, through many gen- erations, back to the Baron Van der Lynden, whose coat of arms and seal, as identified and recorded at the College of Arms at The Hague, are also preserved. No less interesting are two beautiful pastel portraits of Elizabeth Digby, also carefully kept by Mr. Lynde, which were brought over by the Hon. Simon Lynde in 1650.

AMUEL WALKER, for many years a manufacturer of boots and shoes in Milford and one of the most highly respected citizens of the town, was born in Natick on December 30, 1821. He died at his home in Hopedale, June 28, 1890. Mr. Walker was a descend- ant of Captain Richard Walker, who came from England in 1630, and settled in Lynn. This is the line: Richard,' Samuel,2 Israel, 3 Henry, 4 Henry,5 Solomon,6 Solomon, Jr.,7 Samuel. 8.

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Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Part 67

Author: Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston, pub Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Boston, Biographical review publishing company Number of Pages: 1238

Author: Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston, pub
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Boston, Biographical review publishing company
Number of Pages: 1238