Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Part 87

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 87

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Mr. Bernstrom was married on October 27, 1893, to Hilda C. Ek. He is a member of the Knights of Malta; of Court Damascus, No. 29, A. O. Foresters; of Massasoit Tribe, No. 6, Improved Order of Red Men, of which he was Grand Representative to the Grand Lodge held in Boston in 1897; of Viking Lodge, No. 3966, Knights of Honor; and of Hendrik Wergeland, which is exclusively a Scandinavian order. He attends the Lutheran church. Mr. Bernstrom is a member of Mas- sachusetts Undertakers' Association, also of the Egyptian College of Embalming in Bos- ton, from the last named of which he received a diploma in 1894.

ATTHEW WALKER, chairman of the Board of Assessors of Barre, was born in Stow, Middlesex County, Mass., August 24, 1835, son of Matthew and Mary (Wrigley) Walker. The father, who was born in Providence, R. I., in 1793, spent the greater part of his active life in Massachusetts as a farmer. He moved to Barre in 1842, but shortly afterward re- moved to Ware, in which town he died in 1846. Politically, he was a Whig and in his religious belief an Episcopalian. His wife, Mary, who was born in 1797, survived him many years, dying in the town of Hardwick in 1871. She was the mother of five children, namely : James, who died in 1871 ; Mary A., who resides in Worcester; Samuel, a resident of Worcester, Mass. ; Matthew, the subject of

this sketch; and Mrs. Eliza Greenwood, of Worcester.

Matthew Walker attended the Ware High School, prepared for his collegiate course at the Williston Seminary, Easthampton, and was graduated from Amherst College in the class of 1857. He engaged in the drug busi- ness in Ware, which he carried on until 1862. He then became connected with the woollen business conducted by Edward Denny at South Barre, where he remained several years. Sub- sequently he occupied the position of book- keeper for the firm of S. Heald & Sons until the death of the senior partner in 1887. He is one of the trustees of the Barre Public Li- brary, clerk of the Glen Valley Cemetery As- sociation, has been secretary of the Worcester County West Agricultural Society since 1889, and is a charter member and clerk of the Barre Library Association, which has for one of its objects the compiling of the historical and genealogical records of the town, and upon which work he has been engaged for several years.

A Republican in politics, he is now serving his nineteenth year as chairman of the Board of Assessors of the town of Barre. He has been one of the Trial Justices of Worcester County since 1891, has served on the School Board, and holds other town offices.

On December 21, 1871, Mr. Walker mar- ried Elizabeth L. Heald, who was born in Barre in 1832, daughter of Stephen Heald, one of the prominent men of the town in his day. Of this union was born one child, who died in infancy. The mother died in 1889. November 24, 1897, Mr. Walker married for his second wife Addie F. Gates Dudley, who was born in Barre, July 29, 1851, youngest daughter of Benjamin A. and Chloe T. (Underwood) Gates. Mr. Walker attends the Unitarian church.

ILLIAM ALEXANDER COCH- RANE, many years connected with the firm of Johnson & Thompson, of Boston, as salesman, died at his home in Concord, N.H., September 5, 1872, at the age of forty-three years. A native of Quebec,

MATTHEW WALKER.

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Canada, born April 12, 1829, he was a direct descendant of Sir William Cochrane, first Earl of Dundonald.

His parents, James and Jean (McClure) Cochrane, both of whom were natives of Scot- land, came to Canada in the early part of the present century, and settled on a farm.

William A. Cochrane was one of a family of three children. When he was very young his father died, and he was adopted by Judge Parker, of Haverhill, Mass., and went to live with him in that town. At the age of nine- teen, after graduating from the high school, he went into a dry-goods store in Boston as clerk. A few years later he became inter- ested in the manufacture of shoe findings in England and in this country, and subse- quently he engaged as a salesman for the wholesale firm of Johnson & Thompson. In this capacity he travelled all over the eastern section of the country, and became widely known among shoe dealers, being the most successful salesman in the whole- sale trade. His ability as a salesman was phenomenal, his genial nature, fine appre- ciation of the wants of the trade, and his skill in dealing with different individuals, to- gether with his readiness and quickness of wit and his wide experience, giving him a rare combination of qualities. It was proverbial that he could succeed where others failed. Despite the enormous sales that he made, it almost never happened that any fault was found by the purchasers. The reason was that Mr. Cochrane's fidelity to the truth, an inher- itance with his Scotch blood, prevented him from ever making misrepresentations. Retir- ing from active business in 1868, he passed his later years by the quiet of his fireside.

Mr. Cochrane was married on July 25, 1867, to Albertina Gertrude Porter, of Boston, daughter of Pierce Porter, who was a native of Raymond, Me. Mrs. Cochrane survives her husband. She is descended from John Porter, who came from Dorset, England, and settled at Salem village, now Danvers, some time be- fore 1637. The line of descent from John is through Samuel, John, Nehemiah, Samuel, Nehemiah, and Pierce Porter. Nehemiah Porter, grandfather of Mrs. Cochrane, lived

during the later part of his life at Manchester, N. H. Pierce Porter began his business life in a general country store at Hookset, N. H., and was successfully engaged in mercantile pursuits throughout his years of activity. He was twice married. By his first wife, Mary Ann Brown, a descendant of Thomas Walford, who settled in Charlestown some time before 1629, and is mentioned in the history of that place as a citizen of prominence, he had four children : Charles Philip, now residing at Manchester, N. H .; George Franklin, of Louisville, Ky .; Albertina G. (Mrs. Coch- rane) ; and Juliet Porter, who resides in Worcester. By his second marriage Mr. Porter had three children, namely : Nellie Josephine, who is now deceased ; Lucy Agnes, now Mrs. J. H. Blizard, of Lynn; and Will- iam Ellis, of Leadville, Col.

HARLES HENRY ROBINSON, a retired merchant living in the Eighth Ward, Worcester, was born in

Brimfield, Mass., February 2, 1828, son of Amherst and Belila (Swift) Rob-

inson. The grandfather, Amariah Robin- son, born April 22, 1766, who died on De- cember 23, 1851, was a carpenter by trade, and worked for many years in Boston, which he generally reached by walking from his home in Wales, Hampden County. He was married on June 15, 1794, to Rebecca Wetherell, who, born on February 14, 1713, died on November 27, 1856. Both were buried at Brimfield. Their children, all now deceased, were: Zenas, born June 23, 1795; Theron, born May 15, 1797, who died, over eighty years of age, in Brookfield, where he had been employed for many years as overseer and agent of a factory; Samuel, born December 21, 1799; Amherst, born October 9, 1801 ; Tryphena W., born February 28, 1804; Re- becca W., born April 7, 1806; Ferdinand, born July 23, 1808; Mary D., born June II, 18II; and Paul B., born July 31, 1812. All reached maturity and married.

Amherst Robinson, a native of Wales, Mass., died in Putnam, Conn. He was the overseer of the carding department in a cot-

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ton-mill for many years, and afterward worked at the manufacture of boots and shoes. In Wales, on April 26, 1826, he was married to Belila Swift. He subsequently lived in Wales for seven years, and then removed to the farm left by his father. His wife died on February 11, 1844, leaving five of her seven children. A second marriage united him with Lydia Chaffee, who had no children. The children of the first marriage were: Hiram, Charles Henry, Albert, Augustus, Salome, Sarah A., and Henry C. Sarah A. died in childhood, and Henry C. died in in- fancy. Hiram, born in 1827, who was a lock- smith by trade, died September 17, 1857, on Navigator's Island in the Samoan group, and was buried there. Albert and Augustus are in San Francisco, dealing in stocks and real estate.

Having attended the common schools for the customary period, Charles Henry Robin- son began his working life at the age of seven- teen in Boston, where he was subsequently employed for four years. Following that he was a clerk for a time, a shoe-cutter in Oxford for one year, and a salesman in a dry-goods and grocery store of Oxford for two years. Then he spent a year at Southville in the same business, and three years in North Ox- ford. In 1859 he came to Worcester with L. M. Learned, bringing his wife and two children. For thirty-two years he was a member of the firm of E. T. Smith & Co., wholesale grocers of this city, after which, some four years since, he retired from active participation in the affairs of the firm. For the last thirty-five years he has resided in his present home. In politics he is a Repub- lican.

On April 23, 1851, Mr. Robinson married Nancy Scott Lovering, who was born in Thompson, Conn., daughter of Freeman and Rebecca May (Scott) Lovering. Her father, who was a farmer by occupation, died in 1849 at the age of forty-seven, leaving his widow and five children. The latter were: Mary, Nancy, Amasa, Ellen, and Frederick E. Ellen is the wife of Edward Newcomb, of Pleasant Street, this city. Frederick E. Lovering resides in the town of Putnam, with

his wife and two daughters. Mary, who was the wife of R. L. Smith, died May 8, 1896, leaving a daughter, Isabel. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson have been the parents of two chil- dren -- Charles S. and Lizzie D. The for- mer, who has lost his wife, is a resident of Providence, R.I. He has a daughter, Grace, who is the wife of David Isaac Wright. Lizzie D. is the widow of William Moore, and resides on Parker Avenue with her daugh- ter Maud.

IERSON T. K. BURPEE, a retired carriage manufacturer residing in the west part of Sterling, Mass., was born in this town, January 2, 1829, son of Nathan and Polly (Gerry) Burpee.

Nathan Burpee was a chair manufacturer here in Sterling for several years; and later he started the manufacture of children's car- riages, which he followed quite extensively up to the time of his death, at sixty-three. He and his wife, whose maiden name was Polly Gerry, had seven children, of whom two are living - Thomas G. and Pierson T. K. The mother died here at the age of thirty- eight years.

Pierson was then but two years old. After completing his education, which was acquired at the common school and at West Boylston High School, he learned the carriage business with his father, and continued working for him. Purchasing the business after his father's death, employing at times some fif- teen to twenty hands, he carried it on until the commencement of the Civil War. In 1862 he enlisted in Company K, Fifty-third Mas- sachusetts Regiment, and was promoted from the rank of private to Second Lieutenant. His company was attached to General Banks's Nineteenth Army Corps, and with it he went to New Orleans. Receiving promotion as First Lieutenant, and detailed with Company K as Nineteenth Army Corps "pioneers, " he participated in many exciting events while going from New Orleans to Port Hudson. After the surrender of Port Hudson he re- ceived an honorable discharge. Returning home, he organized a company of State militia

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in Sterling; and, after receiving therefrom an honorable discharge as Captain, he resumed his former business, in which he was engaged until 1882. He then went to Worcester with the Charles Baker House Furnishing Com- pany, and was employed there for fifteen years.

On October 25, 1855, Mr. Burpee was mar- ried to Julia Estabrook, who was born in Princeton, Mass., daughter of Washington and Lydia (Watson) Estabrook, her father a farmer and hotel-keeper. Mr. Estabrook was a native of Holden, Mass., but spent the ac- tive years of his life in Princeton. He died in Grafton, Mass. Mrs. Estabrook was born in Princeton. She lived to be sixty-two. They had twelve children, of whom five are living: George, Mary, Julia, Ellen, and Wheeler.

Mr. and Mrs. Burpee have had four chil- dren - Hattie I., Herbert T., Helen L., and Edgar W. The last three are now living. Herbert, a travelling salesman, married Maria Whitcomb and has two children. Edgar W. is in a grocery store in Sterling. He married Carrie E. Heywood, and has two children. Helen L. is a school teacher in Fitchburg.

Mr. Burpee is a loyal Republican, serving the town in five different capacities, from Field Driver to chairman of Selectmen. He is a member of Major James A. Pratt Post, No. 59, G. A. R., of Sterling, in which he has al- ways been greatly interested, taking an active part in its affairs, and of which he has served several years as Commander. He is a mem- ber of Lancaster Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Clinton, Mass., with which he has been identified for twenty- five years. In religious views he is a Uni- tarian, and has served several years on the Parish Committee.

OHN HOPKINS, a resident of Mill- bury, son of James and Ann (Hancock) Hopkins, was born March 19, 1840, at Leonard Stanley, Gloucestershire, Eng- land, the birthplace of the Hopkins family for many preceding generations. His pater- nal grandfather, Thomas Hopkins, was a

fuller by trade, and taught that craft to his sons. Thirteen of Thomas Hopkins's eigh- teen children are sleeping in the burial-ground of Leonard Stanley.

James Hopkins, also a native of Leonard Stanley, born in August, 1815, came to America from Liverpool in 1842, reaching New York after a voyage of forty-three days. With him came his three children. His wife, who was a native of Cheltenham, Eng- land, had died of ship fever on the way, and had been buried at sea. About 1843 he set- tled in Dracut, Mass., where he worked at his trade for a year. Then he went to London, Ont., and was there engaged in a mercantile business up to 1847, when he was burned out. After the fire he was engaged in business at Glen Elgin, Ont., and later at Clayville, Auburn, and West Eaton, N. Y., and at Winooski Falls, Vt. Leaving the last named place in 1858, he bought a farm in Elma, Ont., where he died in 1884, aged sixty- nine. A second marriage had united him with Ann Haywood, of Tunbridge Wells, England, for whom he sent, after his arrival in New York, to come and care for his children, Sam- uel, Jane, and John. Samuel died in 1892, in Vedun, Manitoba, to which place he went soon after the North-west Rebellion, in which his son participated, settling on bounty lands given for his services. Jane is the wife of George Morrison, a railroad engineer, and resides at Woonsocket, R. I. James Hopkins's second wife had two children, namely: Elizabeth Ann, who became the wife of Henry Sweetzer, now the owner of a fine ranch in Mendocino County, California, on the shores of the Pa- cific, where he settled in 1866; and James H. Hopkins, who is a baker at Fort Gratiot, Mich. The father was a local Methodist preacher.

When a boy of ten John Hopkins began working in the woollen-mill at West Eaton, Madison County. At the age of sixteen, when his father was living in Winooski Falls, he left home and became an operative in a woollen-mill in Waterford, R.I., where he remained less than a year. In 1857 he went to Andover, Mass. Prior to that he had at- tended academies in Auburn, N. Y., and Bur- lington, Vt. After spending a year in Phillips

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(Andover) Academy he entered the scientific course at Dartmouth College, graduating in 1862 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Beginning at the age of eighteen, he taught school during the winter for six years in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire. In 1862 he began reading law in the office of Joseph B. Cooke at Black- stone, Mass., and at the March term of the Superior Court in Worcester, in 1864, was admitted to the bar of Worcester County. Shortly after he began practice on his own account, and subsequently for twenty-seven years had an office here in Millbury and also at Worcester. On April 1, 1891, he was made a Justice of the Superior Court of Mas- sachusetts. He is the only Englishman who has presided in a Superior Court of this Com- monwealth, and is supposed to be the only Englishman admitted to the bar of Worcester County.

On November 21, 1864, Mr. Hopkins was united in marriage with Mary C. Salisbury, a daughter of John B. and Mary E. (Rams- dell) Salisbury, of Blackstone. Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins have had five children, of whom three are living - Grace E., Herbert Salis- bury, and Herman Phillip. Grace E., born January 17, 1866, is now the wife of the Rev. Herbert B. Trussell, an Episcopal rector at St. Mary's, Ga. Herbert Salisbury, a grad- uate of Dartmouth College, class of 1891, was admitted to the bar in 1895, and resides in Millbury. He married Mary E. Ambler, and has one son, Willis Furber Hopkins, born August 15, 1896. Herman Phillip Hopkins, born January 22, 1873, was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1896, and is now a student of the Boston University Law School.

He was a member of the State legislature in 1882 and 1883, and held the chairmanships of important committees. He has been a Select- man of Millbury, a member of the School Board, and an Assessor; and he has been a trustee of the Town Library for thirty years. In 1885 he was the Democratic nominee for Congress in the Ninth Massachusetts Con- gressional District, for State Senator in 1885, for District Attorney for several times, and for State Auditor in 1886. He is Senior

Visitor of the Scientific Department of Dart- mouth College under the Chandler foundation. Justice Hopkins has the largest private library in Millbury, including a good law library.

EUBEN RAWSON DODGE, the son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Rawson) Dodge, was born in Sutton, Mass., Wilkinsonville post-office, April 3, 1819. Mr. Dodge's father was an enterpris- ing business farmer, and he worked on his father's farm until he was seventeen years old. After that time he went to Shrewsbury, and spent two years to learn the house carpen- ter's trade, which he followed in different places, mostly Worcester, Boston, and Cam- bridge, for twenty years. In 1856 he pur- chased the farm which he now owns, and which he has carried on up to the present time for upward of forty years. It is the place where his family were born. Mr. Dodge is a representative of the seventh gen- eration in descent from Richard, the emigrant ancestor; namely, Richard,' Richard,2 Will- iam, 3 Jacob, 4 Richard,5 Jacob,6 Reuben Raw- son.7 Richard Dodge, the first progenitor, had a high appreciation of the value of educa- tion, and in 1653 was one of the most liberal contributors to a fund for Harvard College.

On his mother's side Mr. Dodge is de- scended in the seventh generation from Ed- ward Rawson, third Secretary of Massachu- setts Colony, who wrote all the acts or laws of the General Court from 1651 to 1686. Mr. Dodge's mother also belonged to the Chace family, and Bishop Philander Chase was her first cousin. The Dodge, Rawson, and Chace families were among the first families in Sutton, and were all large landholders and well-to-do farmers. Mr. Dodge's father and grandfather lived on the farm of the late Gar- dener H. Dodge.

Few people have projected and collected so much historical and genealogical matter which has been put into book form the past fifty years as the subject of this sketch; and, being possessed of strong powers of physical endur- ance, he has generally succeeded in accom- plishing whatever he has undertaken. His

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REUBEN RAWSON DODGE.

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mind was more particularly of an antiquarian, historical, and genealogical turn; and up to the time of his present age, seventy-nine years, he feels a just pride in what he has ac- complished by active labor, both physical and mental. During the year 1849 he began to search out the genealogical history of his mother's family, and during two or three years collected records of the descendants of Edward Rawson, the first ancestor in this country. While passing in October, 1847, the antiquarian book store of Samuel G. Drake in Cornhill, Boston, he saw in the window the Historical and Genealogical Regis- ter, the first number of which had been pub- lished that year. He went into the store and examined the Register, and made the acquaint- ance of Mr. Drake, and spoke to him about publishing in this periodical the matter he had collected about the Rawson family. Mr. Drake thought favorably of it, and encouraged

Mr. Dodge to continue his researches. He took him to the rooms of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society, and intro- duced him to Mr. Ewer and Mr. Montague, and other members of the society, who readily aided him in his labors. Mr. Dodge was then working as a carpenter in Cambridge and Bos- ton. But so deep an interest did he feel in the subject that, after working hard at his trade all day, he spent his evenings in re- searches in books and corresponding with those persons of the name whose address he was able to procure. His expense by cor- respondence to find out the families was con- siderable, as they were settled in many States. The results of his labors were pub- lished in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1851, also in pamphlet form, several hundred copies of which were distributed by himself during a journey through the Southern and Western States, at the same time collecting much other history for a future edition, which was published by Mr. E. B. Crane, of Worcester, 1875, and was well received by the descendants of Ed- ward Rawson. Mr. Montague writing in 1873, twenty-four years after making the ac- quaintance of Mr. Dodge, says: "As a young man, with small pecuniary means and little

spare time, he entered upon researches requir- ing much time and considerable money to pur- sue them properly. He devoted his midnight hours to the work, that he might accomplish his purpose." During the year 1873 Mr. Dodge, while examining the historical works in the library of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, found, much to his sur- prise, three manuscripts bound together, con- taining the early history of Sutton, written by the distinguished antiquary, Christopher Columbus Baldwin, at one time librarian of that society. When a young man Mr. Bald- win resided in Sutton, where he studied law with the late Jonas L. Sibley. He eventually intended to have published the work himself ; but he died before accomplishing it, and the manuscripts were deposited with the society for further use. It is doubtful whether, for many years before they were found by Mr. Dodge, any one had noticed them. He im- mediately borrowed them for a few weeks, and copied them entire. The labor of copying Mr. Baldwin's manuscript, which was done by Mr. Dodge, his wife, and daughter, occupied nearly three weeks of their time. He then called on prominent citizens of the town to obtain their co-operation in having a complete history of the town prepared and published. After the subject had been sufficiently agi- tated, a town meeting was held, January 13, 1876, at which a committee of five were chosen to procure the publication of a History of Sutton. The Rev. William A. Benedict,

pastor of the Congregational church, was chosen to prepare the history. Mr. Dodge gave up his papers freely for the benefit of the town. Nor did he cease his labors in collect- ing material to bring the history down from the period where Mr. Baldwin's manuscript left it. He spent many days in going from family to family to interest them in the work and to collect historical and genealogical facts. The time spent on the work was worth to him several hundred dollars. This was a free gift to the town. It is admitted that, but for his persistent efforts, no history of Sutton would have been published at that time. Mr. Benedict's book was issued in 1878, in a thick octavo of eight hundred and thirty-seven

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pages. In his preface he acknowledges in- debtedness to those who assisted him. He says, "Among these is Reuben R. Dodge, Esq., who had himself projected a history of the town and accumulated considerable ma- terial for his purpose, all of which he freely placed at our disposal; and his encouraging words and unselfish co-operation can never be forgotten." During the year 1879 Mr. Dodge published a pamphlet entitled "Early Rec- ords of the Dodge Family in America." This was the first record of this family. It has been republished by Joseph T. Dodge, of Madison, Wis., in a book of four hundred and fifty pages, and contains a full history of the Dodge family in this country to the present time. Mr. Dodge issued circulars to nearly all the Dodge families in America to meet at Salem, Mass., July 10, 1879, to commemorate the landing of the first ancestor. The gather- ing took place, and many distinguished people were present. Mr. Dodge had also several years before issued circulars inviting the liv- ing descendants of Edward Rawson to assem- ble at Worcester to meet each other and review the history of the family. There were three meetings in different years, 1872, 1873, and 1874. Each year there were several hun- dred members present from different sections of the country.

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Biographical review containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Part 87

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