USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Biographical review; this volume contains biographical sketches of leading citizens of Franklin County, Massachusetts .. > Part 64
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Mr. and Mrs. Davenport have seven chil- dren : Edward D., treasurer and manager of the Park Theatre in Waltham, married Alice N. Warner, and is the father of one son - Charles E .; Bertha M., born March 4, 1866, is the wife of George Williams and mother of one child - Harry L. ; Frank A., born August 20, 1869, ably assists his father about the farm, and is a carpenter by trade; Florence E., born July 8, 1871, was a prominent and popular teacher before her marriage to G. L. Bolton; Louis A. was born May 12, 1874; Jonathan W. was born November 12, 1877; and Mary L. was born November 24, 1880. The last three are still with their parents, the young men aiding their father in his agricul- tural pursuits.
Mr. Davenport is a highly intelligent and
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publie-spirited man, a Republican in polities, and has been Seleetman, Assessor, and Poor Master for ten consecutive years. On the subject of religion he holds liberal views, not being bound by the lines of creed. A por- trait of Mr. Davenport aecompanies this sketch.
EORGE A. LEWIS, a sueeessful grocer and meat dealer in Wendell Centre, was born in the town of Greenfield, Mass., April 1, 1844, son of George and Sarah (Tanner) Lewis. His paternal grandfather died in Greenfield at the age of seventy-five. George Lewis, the elder, was brought up to be a farmer; and at the age of twenty-two he went to Greenfield, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits, and there spent most of his life. He died at Miller's Falls at the age of seventy-four years. He and his wife, Sarah, who was one of the six children of Clark Tanner, became the parents of five children: George A .; Mary, wife of Jerome Hallett; Maria, wife of Levi King; Alice, deceased; and Charles, who is in the express business at Springfield, and with whom his mother now makes her home.
George A. Lewis was educated in the Greenfield public schools, and spent his life with his parents till he was of age. He be- came a farmer, working by the month, till 1862, when he enlisted in Company A, Mas- sachusetts Fifty-second Regiment, in which he served eleven months in the Civil War. He was discharged at Greenfield in 1863, and, thus laying down the implements of war, took up once more the implements of peace. After a time he removed from Greenfield to Northfield, working on a farm there, and then returned to Greenfield; but, after once more going to Northfield, he went to the town of
Erving, where he was employed for a time by ex-Governor Washburn. On leaving that place he purehased a farm at Northfield Moun- tain, which he sold at the end of four years, and in 1877 purehased another farm in Wen- dell, where he resided seven years. In 1885 he built his present house, and settled down, managing a meat and grocery business, greatly to the benefit of the neighborhood, which, being remote from market eentres, needed the advantage of such local enterprise.
In 1864 Mr. Lewis was married to Miss Lizzie Simmonds, daughter of Willard and Mary Simmonds, her father being a well- known resident of Charlestown, N.H., where he carried on the blaeksmith's trade. Mrs. Simmonds, the mother of Mrs. Lewis, was a daughter of Beniah George, the place of her nativity being Saxton's River, where her father was a eitizen of repute, and considered a skilful workman. Mrs. Lewis was one of thirteen children, ten of whom are still liv- ing. Her mother and father both lived to be fifty-two years of age. They were members of the Baptist church.
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis have one son, Charles A. Lewis, mechanic and stationary engineer. He resides with his parents, and is married to Miss Nellie Fiske, of Wendell. Both father and son are Democrats in their political views. Mr. Lewis has been on the Board of Selectmen two years, and also Overseer of the Poor, and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, General Sedgwick's Post, No. 19, of Orange. Both he and his wife are attend- ants of the Congregational chureh. They are highly respected members of the community in which they live. Mrs. Lewis oeeasion- ally fills her husband's place in performing the responsible duties of Postmaster, and is also elerk in his grocery establishment. She contributes mueh, by the influence of her
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cordial manner and neighborly character, to the social life of the place.
RS. FIDELIA ELEANOR HOFF- MANN, widow of the late Adam Joseph Hoffmann, M.D., of North San Juan, Cal., and since 1891 a resident of Greenfield, was born at Northfield Farms, Franklin County, Mass., on January 6, 1840, and is a daughter of Elisha and Harriet (Ruggles) Morgan. She is a direct descend- ant in the fifth generation of Miles Morgan, one of the . pioneer settlers of Springfield, Mass.
Elisha Morgan, her father, was born at Northfield Farms on June 16, 1793, and con- tinued to reside near his birthplace, about five miles from the centre of the town of North- field, throughout his life. In addition to the management of a large farm, he conducted a general mercantile business; and after the War of 1812 he served in the State militia. He died in 1856, survived about twenty years by his wife, Harriet Ruggles, who was a daughter of Edward Ruggles, and was born on January 28, 1797, and lived to be seventy- eight years of age. Both were members of the Universalist church. They reared nine of the ten children born of their union, Mrs. Hoffmann being the youngest child.
Fidelia Eleanor Morgan received the full benefit of the advantages afforded by the com- mon schools of her native town, after which she attended the State Normal School at Westfield to prepare herself for a teacher. In 1861 she began teaching in the public schools of Greenfield, and during the next five years she followed that vocation there and at Chicopee Falls and Amherst. She then went to Wilmington, N.C., to teach the freedmen under the auspices of the American Mission-
ary Association, and the following year was appointed superintendent of a new field at Athens, Ga. She had been at the latter place but a short time when she became impressed with the importance of providing new and more comfortable quarters for the accommoda- tion of the freedmen's children; and, while her mind was busy with planning how the nccd might be met, she received a visit from General F. D. Scwell, the superintendent of that work, to whom she presented the matter and unfolded her plans, and was advised by him to write to General O. O. Howard, who was then stationed at Washington, D.C. A speedy reply was received, containing advice regarding the undertaking, and granting per- mission to build a suitable school-house, in case she could get the people to buy a lot for such a purpose. This they were quite will- ing to do, and the work was pushed to a very satisfactory conclusion. She subsequently taught for a time at Gloversville Seminary, and still later again taught in Greenfield.
In 1871 she went to San Francisco, where, on November 22 of that year, she was united in marriage with Adam Joseph Hoffmann, M.D., a native of Germany and a skilful physician and surgeon. Dr. Hoffmann died on August 14, 1876, after a brief illness, leaving his widow with two daughters: Fan- nie, born on November 4, 1872; and Grace, whose birth occurred on October 15, 1874. They spent their girlhood days in California, where they attended both public and private schools. Fannie at eleven years of age for personal amusement acquired a knowledge of telegraphy, and before she was twelve years old became so proficient as to be able to ac- cept a vacancy that occurred about that time in a North San Juan station, where she ac- quired greater proficiency, and has since be- come an expert. She subsequently gained a
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thorough knowledge of typewriting; and in 1889 she came East, and during the next five years was employed in an office of the West- ern Union Telegraph Company. Since De- cember, 1893, she has held a position with the Associated Press Company in the Union office at Springfield, Mass., being the youngest lady operator in their employ and the only one in New England. Mrs. Hoffmann came East in 1891, and settled in Greenfield, which has since been her home. A woman of many vir- tues and accomplishments, she is now living a quiet but useful life, devoted to the inter- ests of those dearest to her, thoughtful, too, as in former years, for the poor and needy, and holding in loving remembrance the com- panion of her early womanhood. She is a member of the First Congregational Church of Greenfield.
Her husband's father, August Hoffmann, was a noted physician in that part of Germany where he resided throughout his life, never leaving his native country. He prepared many important medical works; and, as a re- sult of his labors and experience, he owned many valuable prescriptions that he sent to his son in America, by whom they were used to great advantage in practice. The duke of that dukedom in which they lived (the exact place not being known to the family in this country) discovered that the son possessed a fine tenor voice, and desired that he be edu- cated for the operatic stage; but the parents, who were in close sympathy with the doc- trines of the Lutheran church, believed such a course sinful, and the father was also very desirous that his son should become a physi- cian, like himself.
Adam Joseph Hoffmann therefore received a medical education at a university of his na- tive land. Desiring a broader field of activ- ity, and not wishing to violate the law of that
country, which prohibits the son from follow- ing the profession of the father during the lifetime of the latter, he came to America in 1852, and settled in San Francisco, Cal. He afterward went to Sacramento, and thence to Petaluma, going from the last -named place to North San Juan, Nevada County, where he died in the prime of a vigorous and ambitious manhood. Politically, Dr. Hoffmann was a Republican. He was associated with the medical faculty of Sacramento, and ranked high in his profession on the Pacific Coast. Socially, he was a member of Manzanita Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. In religion he always adhered to the Lutheran faith, in which he was confirmed in his childhood.
VERY W. SPRAGUE, a well-known and highly respected farmer and cattle dealer of Bernardston, who died on October 8, 1886, was born in this town, July 8, 1814, son of Jose and Phœbe (Hale) Sprague. Jose Sprague was born in Guilford, Vt., May 8, 1777; and his wife was born in Bernardston, Mass., August 6, 1781. The Spragues trace their lineage back to three brothers, William, Ralph, and Richard, who came from England to Massachusetts in 1629. Hezekiah Sprague, a carpenter and joiner, and also a farmer, who was born in Groton, Mass., May 23, 1740, was the first of the fam- ily to settle in Franklin County. He died at his home in Bernardston on March 31, 1795. His wife, Rachel Byham, who was born in Chelmsford, Mass., May 22, 1739, died Janu- ary 24, 1831, at the age of ninety-one. They had six children - Asa, Jose, Elizabeth, Phoebe, Mary, and Apphia -all of whom grew to maturity and had families of their own.
Jose Sprague, the father of Avery W., was
AVERY W. SPRAGUE.
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a farmer and carpenter. He succeeded to the ownership of the homestead in Bernardston, and it was he who built on Bald Mountain the first frame house in the town. He was a well-known and successful business man and a hard worker. The whole of his life was spent in Franklin County; and he died in Bernardston, November 30. 1852. Mrs. Phœbe H. Sprague survived her husband, and died May 31, 1862. In politics Mr. Sprague was a Democrat, and in religious faith he and his wife were Universalists. They had a large family, of whom six grew to maturity. Joseph S., born April 8, 1810, died March 22, 1890; Lurancy, born March 25, 1812, died December 3, 1847; Avery William is the subject of this sketch; a son, born Octo- ber 17, 1816. died two days later; Lysander H., of Bernardston, who was born January 29, 1818. died May 8, 1895; Lovina and Lucina, twins, born August 27, 1824, died - Lovina, October 16, 1847, and Lucina, September 29, 1851.
Avery W. Sprague grew to manhood in Ber- nardston and Gill, acquiring his education in the schools of the former place. At twenty- two years of age he started to work as a farm hand, receiving for his first wages eight dol- lars per month. For fourteen years he worked for others, saving his wages, and at the end of that time was able to pay for the farm in Ber- nardston which he had purchased in company with his brother Joseph. This farm they cultivated together for thirteen years; and then Avery formed a partnership with his brother Lysander H., which lasted for thirty- four years. Besides general farming, they dealt extensively and successfully in cattle. It was only during the last three and a half years of his life that Avery W. Sprague was in business by himself. He was a man of good practical judgment and one of Franklin
County's stirring and prosperous citizens. He owned at one time three hundred acres of land, and at his demise he left an estate of nearly two hundred acres.
Avery W. Sprague was married September 5, 1861, in South Vernon, Vt., to Sophia A. Newton, who was born in Shelburne, Mass., August 27, 1825, daughter of Obed and Je- mima (Allen) Newton. Obed Newton was born January 31, 1795, in Greenfield, on the place where Asa W. Sprague now resides, and was a member of one of the old families which have been for many years prominently identi- fied with the interests of the town. A more extended account of the Newton family fol- lows this sketch. Mrs. Sprague died on April 23, 1893. She was the mother of four children, namely: Susan Francelia, who was born May 21, 1862, was married April 30, 1895, to William A. Scott, and now resides at 52 Conway Street, Greenfield; Nellie Belle, born September 21, 1864, who died April 23, 1865; Martha Abbie, born October 15, 1866; and Asa Winn, born June 30, 1869. The two last named now live together on the old home farm.
In politics Mr. Sprague was a Democrat, and in religion a Universalist. Observing and thoughtful, a man of refined taste, he was an ardent lover of nature, and devoted consid- erable time to the study of botany. A life- like portrait of this departed worthy may be seen on a neighboring page.
HE NEWTON FAMILY. John New- ton, Sr., came to Greenfield, Franklin County, Mass., about 1774, accom- panied by his two sons, Isaac and Samuel, fol- lowing the lead of his son John, who had set- tled here in 1772. The three brothers took up a tract of land, which was heavily timbered
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with hemlock, on the west side of the old stage road from Greenfield to Brattleboro, Vt., extending from near the Bernardston line on the north to below the present limits of Greenfield village on the south, and stretch- ing west over the Connecticut Division of the Boston & Maine Railroad. They also owned land in Leyden and Colerain, a part of which they gave to an ancestor of Dr. Barstow, now of Springfield, in return for labor on the main Newton farm. Their property in all must have comprised fifteen hundred acres. The younger John and his brother Isaac both served in the Revolutionary War, the latter winning some distinction and gaining a Cap- tain's commission.
John Newton, Sr., lived with his son John on a farm just above Long's Four Corners, which has always been occupied by the New- tons and their family connections, and is now owned by Asa W. Sprague, whose mother was a Newton, and of whom a sketch will be found elsewhere in this work. Isaac Newton settled on the place now occupied by Elihu Osgood, in the northern part of the town. He died September 23, 1826, aged seventy-eight years, his wife, Hester, having passed away Decem- ber 23, 1824, at the age of seventy-five. Their remains were buried in the High Street Cemetery. Isaac Newton had a large family, several of whom died in early childhood. One of his sons built the original Mansion House in Greenfield; and a daughter married Colonel Asaph Smead, and lived in the "Upper Meadows."
Samuel Newton settled near where Chap- man and Silver Streets now meet, married, and had three sons: Samuel, Jr., Burrel, and Priestly. Burrel and Samuel, Jr., went to the then far West - Ohio - the former ac- companied by his wife. One of his descend- ants, Samuel Newton by name, now lives in
Ashtabula, Ohio; and there are many others in the vicinity who claim kinship with the Newton family. Priestly kept a meat market in Greenfield many years. He married Har- riet Merrill, and had the following children : Barnard, whose widow and daughter reside in Greenfield; Margaret, who married Newton Smead, and had two sons, Henry and Edwin, the former now living in Greenfield, the lat- ter deceased; Bell, who married first Edwin Smead, second ex-County Commissioner Frederick Smith; Sarah, who married first a Mr. Powers, by whom she had three children, - Edward, Sophia, and Henry - and second Henry Smead, by whom she had one son, Horace, a blacksmith in Guilford, Vt., who married a Miss Mussy, of Vernon, in that State; Priestly, Jr., who married Augusta Taft; Helen, who married George Hopkins, and had three children - Helen, Herbert, and George.
John Newton, the first of the name to settle in Greenfield, as above noted, was born in Haddam, July 19, 1750, married Elizabeth Arms, of Greenfield, who was born July 6, 1755; and they had ten children - Cyrus, John, Curtis, Elizabeth, Asenath, a son who died in infancy, Milicent, Jesse, Obed, and Persis -all born between 1779 and 1798. John and his wife, Elizabeth, died on the farm where he settled; and their bodies were laid to rest in the High Street Cemetery. The farm was left to their sons John, Jr., and Curtis. A brief record of the family is given below, the sons and daughters being severally mentioned in the order of birth.
Cyrus Newton, born March 15, 1779, went to Vernon, Vt., married Sabra Crane, and had four children, namely: Alexis, who married and had a large family, mostly girls, one of whom lives in Brattleboro, Vt., others in Pe- oria, Ill .; Alonzo, whose sons live in Vernon,
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Vt., and in Worcester, Mass., and whose daughter is the wife of Charles C. Houghton, a shoe manufacturer in Worcester; Climena, who married a Mr. Fowler, of Greenfield, and had two sons. Edwin and Wyart, and a daugh- ter, who is now Mrs. Ousterout -all of Greenfield; and Sabra, who married Edwin Pierce.
John Newton, Jr., who was born July 13, 1780. and bore the name of his father and grandfather, died a bachelor on the home farm. June 12, 1871, leaving his property to his nephew. Hervey Curtis Newton.
Curtis Newton, born March 20, 1782, was a Deacon of the first church in the town and a worthy representative of the family, who were all of strict Puritanic faith. He died Febru- ary 8, 1871. having been twice married. His first wife, Salome Sawtelle, to whom he was united May 30, 1808, was born October 8, 1785, and died October 10, 1818. Her chil- dren were: Hervey Curtis; John Sawtelle; and Salome and Martha, who both died in infancy. Hervey Curtis, who was born April 2, 1809, inherited one-half of the old home- stead from his bachelor uncle John; but this he sold in 1876 to Avery W. Sprague, father of Asa WV. Sprague, the present owner. He was elected Selectman of the town in 1844, and with the exception of one year served con- tinuously till 1866. He died April 13, 1883. He was married June 25, 1839, to Sarah Corss, and they reared seven children: their son Christopher enlisted in the Fifty-second Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, and died in New Orleans the day the regiment started for home, leaving a widow and a daughter Annie; Curtis Newton, named for his grandfather, is a bachelor, living in Greenfield; a daughter, Sarah P., is a teacher at Norfolk, Va. ; Ella C. is dead; Lucy mar- ried H. G. Parker, an attorney in Cambridge,
Mass., and had four children, but is now dead ; Belle is caring for her sister Lucy's family; and Henry is in California. John Sawtelle Newton, who was born October 31, 1810, re- sided on one-half the homestead, which he inherited from his father, Curtis, until 1880, when on account of failing health he rented the property, and went to live with a daugh- ter, Mrs. S. L. Wiley, on Congress Street. He is now living in Omaha, Neb. He was married May 22, 1839, to Angeline Martin, who died in January, 1892, and they had four daughters: Anna C., born March 20, 1840, who married Solon L. Wiley, and died in 1876, leaving two children - Edith A., now Mrs. William Sherwin, and Walter S., who is married, and lives in Omaha, Neb .; Martha, born October 13, 1841, who died, un- married, in 1867; Mary De Wolf, born August 31, 1845, who married Dwight Nash, of Mill- er's Falls, and has one child, Jessie E .; and Kate M., born November 5, 1851, who became the second wife of Solon L. Wiley, and has two children, Ruth M. and Anna Katherine.
The second wife of Curtis Newton was Mary DeWolf, of Deerfield, who was born August 10, 1794, married June 13, 1822, and died October 20, 1856. Her children were: Mary Salome, born May 7, 1823; Sarah Persis, who was born September 12, 1824, and died Octo- ber 13, 1826; and Harriet, born January 15, 1830. Mary Salome was married March 27, 1848, to Don Avery Winslow, of Northern Vermont, and had five children, namely : Edward, who was drowned in early manhood; Helen M., an author of some note in Boston, one of the founders of the New England Woman's Press Association, of which she is Treasurer; and Mary, Belle, and Harriet, who reside with their elder sister. Harriet New- ton married H. G. Parker, then Judge of Pro- bate in Greenfield, and now a lawyer of Cam-
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bridge, and has one son, Horatio Newton Parker.
Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of John and Elizabeth Newton, born May 13, 1784, mar- ried Seth Smead, of Greenfield, and reared the following children: Elizabeth, who married a brother of the Hon. C. C. Conant; Grateful, Catherine, and Louisa, who are now deceased ; Newton, who married Margaret Newton ; Will- iam, who married Lottie Carpenter; Seth, who married Harriet Ballow; and George, who has two children - Herbert, in the hardware business in Providence, and Ella, who is car- ing for her uncle William in Greenfield. Asenath Newton, the second daughter, was born May 3, 1786, and died December 20, 1860, at the old homestead, unmarried. Her sister, Milicent Newton, born October 2, 1789, died March 6, 1825, aged thirty-five. She was the wife of Thaddeus Coleman and the mother of four children. Esther married Noah Wells, and her only daugh- ter, Mary l'., now the wife of Judge Fayette Smith, of Cincinnati, is a well-known writer, author of "Jolly Good Times," "Jolly Good Times at Hackmatack," and other popular books for young people, under the pen name of "P. Thorne." Esther's son Elijah was at the head of the Adams Express Company in Philadelphia, and his widow and children still reside in that city. The other three children of Milicent (Newton) Coleman were named Mary, Thaddeus, and Elijah. Jesse, fifth son of John and Elizabeth Newton, was born Feb- ruary 27, 1792, entered the theological depart- ment of Yale College, and died in his Fresh- man year, November 13, 1815, of overwork. The next son, Obed, who was born January 31, 1795, was a man of independent spirit. Up to the time of the elder Harrison the family were Democratic in politics, and dur- ing that exciting campaign Obed incurred the
scorn of his relatives by joining the ranks of the Republicans. Later, however, his brothers and their sons became converted to his views. The present tendency of the fam- ily representatives is toward independence in politics. Obed Newton was superintendent of the Sunday-school of the First Congrega- tional Church when the brick edifice was built at Nash's Mills. He had two wives. The first, whom he married on June 3, 1824, was Jemima, daughter of Dorothy and Quintus Allen, of Greenfield, born March 29, 1803. She died February 20, 1841, leaving the fol- lowing children: Sophia Arms, who married Avery Sprague, of Bernardston, of whom a sketch is given in this work; Betsey, born August 20, 1828, who married Dexter Clark, of Gill, on November 9, 1848, and had two children - Lewis E., who died in El Paso, Tex., leaving a widow, and Lizzie N., who is still living; Isabelle Graham, born June 4, 1832, who died September 14, 1852, unmar- ried; John, born October 28, 1834, who served in the Tenth Massachusetts Regiment, and died from exposure February 15, 1862; Dorothy J., born April 23, 1837, who died June 29, 1841.
The second wife of Obed Newton, to whom he was united December 1, 1841, was Abigail Briggs, who was born in Plymouth, Vt., Oc- tober 24, 1809, daughter of Samuel Briggs, and was a resident of Brattleboro at the time of her marriage. Two sons blessed this union, Jesse Obed and Seth Smead, the former of whom was born in Shelburne, Mass., October 7, 1842. He is a resident of Greenfield, and was connected for a time with Gunn & Amidon in the Miller's Falls Tool Company, but now manufactures Diamond Electric Soap. Jesse O. Newton has been twice married, his first wife being Esther Nash; his second, Hannah Nash, is still liv-
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