USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Biographical review; this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Hampshire County, Massachusetts > Part 47
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Elisha A. Edwards, the second child born to Elisha and Julia (King) Edwards, was reared to man's estate in his native town. Early in life he chose farming as his principal vocation, and engaged in tilling the soil dur- ing the summer months and in teaching school in the winters for several years. At the age of sixteen he joined the militia, and, being promoted from time to time, became Colonel of the regiment, resigning his position after eight years' service. On October 1, 1861, inspired by patriotic ardor, Colonel Edwards enlisted in defence of his country, raising a company of over one hundred men, they going into camp as Company B, Thirty-first Massa- chusetts Volunteer Infantry, in Pittsfield, re- moving thence to Lowell, Mass., and after-
ward to Boston. From there the regiment went South, marching into New Orleans May 1, 1862. The Colonel was taken sick while in that city, and after lying there for weeks received his discharge, September 5, 1862.
After his return to Southampton Colonel Edwards was for a long time unable to engage in business ; but since recovering his health he has taken an active part in the management of local public affairs, being an earnest supporter of the Republican party. He has served as Moderator at the annual town meetings for more than a score of years, as Town Clerk thirteen years, as Selectman and Assessor three years, as Justice of the Peace for forty- four years, and is now serving his twenty- eighth year as a member of the Board of County Commissioners, twenty-four years of which he has been its chairman. He has also served as Postmaster of Southampton. Colonel Edwards has always been deeply in- terested in Masonry, and belongs to Jerusalem Lodge of Northampton. He is likewise a member of the William L. Baker Post, No. 86, Grand Army of the Republic. He and his family are members of the Congregational church and useful workers in that denomina- tion. In financial circles the Colonel is favor- ably known throughout this part of Massachu- setts, having been one of the incorporators of the Hampshire Savings Bank of Northampton, of which he has been one of the Trustees ever since the bank was started. He is a Trustee of the Sheldon Academy Corporation, and has also been Secretary and Treasurer for nearly thirty years. He is likewise President and Trustee of the Southampton Library Associa- tion. In 1857 Colonel Edwards visited Kan- sas with a view of locating there, and for a few months was book-keeper for the National Kansas Aid Society of Lawrence.
On the 12th of May, 1846, Colonel Elisha
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A. Edwards was united in marriage with Henrietta L. Sheldon, who was born July 3, 1825, in Southampton. Mrs. Edwards is a daughter of the late Captain Silas and Anna (King) Sheldon, the latter of whom died in 1892. Captain Sheldon and his wife were the parents of seven children; namely, Emily, Silas B., Henrietta L., Lovisa S., Flavel K., Anna K., and Julia E., three of whom are yet living. Four children have been born of the union of Colonel and Mrs. Edwards, the following being a brief record : Alice Julia, born in September, 1848, was first married to George Boyd, and after his death became the wife of W. H. Lyman, by whom she has one child, George W., born March 1, 1889; Mr. Lyman is a travelling salesman, and resides in Springfield. Emma H., born December IO, 1854, died July 11, 1890; she was the wife of the late Deacon L. R. Bartlett, of Westfield, Mass. Isabella G., born May 25, 1856, is a resident of Springfield, Mass., and the widow of the late D. H. Bronson, who passed to the higher life July 6, 1891 ; Mr. and Mrs. Bronson became the parents of two children : Eugene, deceased, and Frederick E., born in January, 1881. Anna K., the youngest child, born March 18, 1861, is the wife of William C. Sheldon, of Southampton.
A lifelike portrait of Colonel Elisha A. Ed- wards accompanies this brief historical sketch of the ancient and honored Hampshire County family of which he is the worthy represent- ative.
J OHN H. WIETHAUPER, superintend- ent of the L. L. Brown Paper Com- pany Mills of West Cummington, was born in Morristown, N.J., August 20, 1846, son of August G. and Mary (Corrington) Wiethauper. Mr. Wiethauper's father was a native of Germany, who, after serving seven
years in apprenticeship at hand paper-making, emigrated to the United States in 1838, and settled in Morristown, N. J. He subsequently moved to Bloomfield, N.J., where he was em- ployed as superintendent, and in 1861 to Dal- ton, Mass., to fill a similar position in Crane & Co.'s paper-mills, which he held until 1877. He died at the age of sixty-nine years. August Wiethauper was an expert in his calling and a highly esteemed citizen. His wife died at the age of fifty-one.
John H. Wiethauper was educated in the public schools of Morristown. After gradu- ating from the high school, he commenced work in the paper-mills. In 1866 he entered the employ of Crane & Co. at Dalton, where under his father's direction he passed through the different branches of the trade, and became proficient in every detail of the business, from the manufacturing of the ordi- nary grades to the production of the finest bond and linen papers, and continued in the employ of the above company until in 1881 he was appointed superintendent of the L. L. Brown Paper Company Mills in West Cum- mington, a position which he has since filled with marked ability. These mills were erected in 1856 by J. D. Nelson; and in 1860 they came into the possession of the present company, of which C. C. Jenks is president, and A. B. Daniels is treasurer. The plant contains all modern improvements in the way of machinery; and, although water is de- pended upon for power, they have in reserve a one hundred horse power engine, with a one hundred and fifty horse-power boiler, which can furnish steam-power in case of accident or the failure of the water supply. They have a large reservoir upon the moun- tain for the purpose of supplying water to their tenants and to the town in case of fires. The company employs from twenty-five to
E. THOMAS SAWYER.
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thirty skilled operatives, and owns a number of tenement-houses. The mills produce a superior quality of both bond and linen papers, which are widely known, and command a ready sale. The entire enterprise is under the direct supervision of Mr. Wiethauper, who, aside from overseeing the work of manu- facturing, has found time to effect a great deal of outside improvement in the way of grading and laying out of lawns and roads.
Mr. Wiethauper married Sophronia Com- stock, of Great Barrington, daughter of Will- iam Comstock. They have three children: J. Russell, Frank C., and John H., Jr. Mr. Wiethauper is a member of Berkshire Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Adams. He attends the Congregational church.
A® SA C. SMITH, who for some years was identified with the manufacturing industries of Western Massachu- setts, is now a very successful farmer of Bel- chertown, where he was born, January 2, 1847. His father, Lucius Smith, was born in Connecticut, March 21, 1820; but his grandfather, Asa Smith, who was also a native of that State, moved to Massachusetts, and settled at Monson, Hampden County, where he engaged in milling. He afterward purchased a farm in the south part of Belcher- town. He married Miss Isabella Tyler; and their children were: Asa, Tyler, Hannah, Lucius, and Ann. Lucius Smith received a common-school education, and in his early manhood assisted his father in the mill at Monson. Subsequent to their removal to South Belchertown he here devoted his time to farming. His first wife, whose maiden name was Lucretia Parsons, died soon after their marriage; and he wedded for his second wife Mrs. Thankful Hathaway Parsons, daugh-
ter of Abner Hathaway, this union being blessed with but one son, Asa C. Smith, above-named. Lucius Smith died January 14, 1883, his wife surviving until May 22, 1893.
Asa C. Smith pursued the usual course of study in the common schools of his native town, and, after attending the Bondville High School for two terms, entered the milling business at Granby, being then eighteen years old. Later he engaged in the same occupation at Tylerville. At the age of twenty-two years he was placed in charge of a room at the mills in Wales, Hampden County, Mass .; and three years later he became superintendent, a position which he most ably filled for a period of some years. He was engaged in the man- ufacturing industries until 1883, when on account of poor health he purchased a farm of one hundred acres adjoining the old home- stead of his parents, and turned his attention to agricultural pursuits. He has continued thus engaged, and is exceedingly prosperous.
On May 12, 1879, he married Miss Carrie R. Burke, daughter of Edward and Jane Burke, of Monson. They have one daughter, Mabel M., who was born March 1, 1880. Mr. Smith is an earnest Republican in poli- tics, and has served as a Selectman in Bel- chertown for seven consecutive years.
ZRA THOMAS SAWYER, a prominent citizen of Easthampton, where he is engaged in the manufacture of rub- ber thread, is a scion of an old family, mem- bers of which figured prominently in some of the early Massachusetts settlements. The first ancestor of the family in this country was Thomas Sawyer, who was born in 1615, and in 1635 came from Lincolnshire, England, and settled in Charlestown, Mass. In 1647 he
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married Mary Prescott, daughter of John Pres- cott, and in 1653 removed to Lancaster, Mass., where his wife's father was one of the first settlers. He became a prominent man in that place, and was appointed by the General Court in 1657 as one of the commissioners "to govern the people." One of the five fortified houses in Lancaster belonged to him, and though several times assaulted by the Indians it was never captured. He died September 12, 1706, aged ninety-one years. His family consisted of nine children, whose names and dates of birth were as follows : Thomas, July, 1649; Ephraim, January, 1651; Mary, Janu- ary, 1653; Elizabeth, January, 1654; Joshua, March, 1655; James, March, 1657; Caleb, April, 1659; John, April, 1661; Nathaniel, November, 1670. Colonel William Prescott, of Bunker Hill fame, was a lineal descendant of John Prescott, of Lancaster. Thomas Saw- yer was married again in 1672.
Thomas Sawyer, second, was a man well versed in mechanics and of an inventive turn of mind. He was taken captive by Indians in 1705, together with his son Elias and another companion, and carried to Canada. After reaching Montreal he made a bargain with the Indians, offering to build a mill on the Cham- bly River on condition that he and his fellow- captives should be released; but the Indians proved treacherous and bound him to a stake with a view to immediate execution. He was saved, however, by the intervention of a friar, who, claiming to hold the keys of purgatory, threatened to unlock the gates and thrust them in if they persisted in their plans. It took Mr. Sawyer a year to complete the mill; and his son Elias was detained for a time longer, and employed to teach the Indians the art of sawing. Since the time of Thomas the name of Sawyer has been associated with mills in every generation.
The family showed a martial spirit in the French and Indian War and during the Revo- lutionary struggle. Ephraim Sawyer, great- grandson of the first Thomas Sawyer men- tioned above, and born in Lancaster, Mass., in 1719, was chosen one of the first "perma- nent commissioners of correspondance," Sep- tember 5, 1774, and was one of a special com- mission of three to whom taxes were paid. He was also one of the "commissioners of cor- respondance of nine," called March 6, 1776, this being the last occasion when the Select- men based their action upon the authority of the king. He served under King George as Lieutenant in the French and Indian War, and years later, at the battle of Lexington, was a Major in Colonel John Whitcomb's regiment of minute-men. He also fought in the same regiment at the battle of Bunker Hill. This regiment also took part in the siege of Boston and the battles of Long Island, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown. At Dobbs Ferry, Major Sawyer led his regi- ment as Lieutenant Colonel, and later was present at the battle of Saratoga, when Bur- goyne surrendered. His five sons, James (who was but fourteen years old at the battle of Bunker Hill), Ephraim, John, Josiah, and Peter, also fought through the war. The name of another member of the family, Ezra Sawyer, appears, with rank of private, on the Lexington alarm roll of Captain Samuel Sawyer's company, Colonel John Whitcomb's regiment, his military record being on file in the office of the Secretary of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts.
Ezra Thomas Sawyer, the special subject of this sketch, is descended from Thomas Sawyer, second, and is the son of Ezra and Eliza (Houghton) Sawyer, and grandson of a later Thomas Sawyer, who was a prosperous farmer of Sterling, Mass. He was born in Lancas-
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ter, Mass., January 4, 1829, and received his education in the public schools of his native town. At the age of sixteen years he began to learn the machinist's trade with Otis Tufts, then located on Bromfield Street, Boston, and remained with him four years. At the age of twenty he was employed to run a locomotive on the Worcester & Nashua Railroad, then just completed, and for a period of seven years served as locomotive engineer on that road and on the Erie and Hudson River Railroads. After leaving the railroad service he was employed for one year in the engineer's depart- ment of the Brooklyn navy yard, and then received an appointment as engineer on board the Vanderbilt steamer "Ariel," running be- tween New York and Bremerhafen. After two years in that ship he came to Easthamp- ton, Mass., and as a machinist entered the employ of his brother, Edmund H. Sawyer, who was there located as treasurer and agent of the Nashawannuck Manufacturing Company.
In 1861, the Goodyear Elastic Fabric Com- pany, now known as the Glendale Company, was organized in Easthampton; and Mr. Saw- yer was appointed superintendent and general agent. He remained in that position until 1873, and was then made treasurer of the East- hampton Rubber Thread Company, acting in that capacity until 1891. In the latter year he was made president and general manager, and has so continued up to the present time. During his administration of the affairs of the company, covering a period of twenty years, it has been in a flourishing condition. The present company was organized in 1864, and has now a capital of four hundred thousand dol- lars. Aside from the offices which he holds in this company, he is a Director in the First National Bank of Easthampton and in the Nashawannuck and Glendale Companies, and is President of the Easthampton Gas Company.
Mr. Sawyer has been twice married - first in 1853, in Lancaster, to Caroline Woodbury, daughter of Moses Howe, of Bolton, Mass .; and second in 1884, in Toledo, Ohio, to Mrs. Mary E. (Montsarratt) Braisted, of Louisville, Ky. A son of Mr. Sawyer, Frank Ezra Saw- yer, was graduated at the Annapolis Naval Academy, and is now a Lieutenant on board the United States man-of-war, " Philadel- phia."
An excellent likeness of Mr. Ezra Thomas Sawyer may be seen on a preceding page. The incidents in his life, briefly narrated in this sketch, sufficiently indicate his character. With an early education limited to the com- mon schools, nothing but a natural faculty inherited from a line of energetic and capable ancestors, the fullest improvement of every opportunity for advancement, a determination to perform thoroughly every duty within the present sphere of action, an avoidance of all those distracting allurements which in politics and speculation are the shoals and rocks wrecking so many of our business men, and withal an integrity above suspicion, could have borne him along from the machinist's bench in Boston through all the stages of his career to the responsible post he now occupies with profit and honor to himself and with remunera- tive returns to those whose trust he admin- isters. With abundant means, a handsome estate, a house to which taste and refinement have contributed their share of grace, and a home to which the happiest domestic relations lend their charm, Mr. Sawyer is enjoying the later years of his life in well-deserved ease and content.
DWARD P. BLODGETT, the subject of the following sketch, was born in East Windsor, Conn., August 23, 1815. When he had reached the early age of
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nine months, his parents, Cephas and Huldah (Gaylord) Blodgett, removed to Amherst, Mass. His father was a well-to-do farmer, and purchased and was in unencumbered pos- session of the farm in Mill Valley, now and for many years known as the Gaylord estate. By an unfortunate combination of circumstances he became involved in business complications by which he lost his beautiful farm, and became hence onward a poor man, dependent on his daily toil in the service of others for the support of his family. At what age our subject was at the time of this great misfort- une he has no recollection, or what took place during those early years of boyhood he has no power to recall; but all the advantages which the district school of seventy years ago afforded were his. Amherst Academy, which in due time became Amherst College, opened its doors to him, as well. At the age of eleven years he was called to the trial of leaving home and going away to work on a farm at the rate of four dollars per month for six months of the year. This continued for six years successively, between the ages of eleven and seventeen. And it may fittingly be said that those six years were no unimpor- tant factor in laying the foundation of that physical development and health which to a remarkable degree have been his inheritance through a long life.
At the age of seventeen the farm was aban- doned with the purpose of entering upon a course of study in preparation for the Chris- tian ministry. After reading the biographies of such men as David Brainard and Henry Martyn, it was impressed upon him that his life work must be to preach the gospel - a mis- sionary, if the way should be opened; if not, an humble messenger of the truth in the home land. But how should those years of study and toil and discipline, so needful for a fitness
for the work, be passed through? He was poor, scarcely a dollar with which to launch upon the untried ocean. But the attempt was made, with the hope and in the faith that the desired haven would be reached. His par- ents, though poor and unable to render finan- cial aid, did all that kindness and sympathy could do, cheerfully relinquishing all claim to his services until of age. He entered upon the classical course in Amherst Academy in the autumn of 1832, boarding at home in Mill Valley, where his parents still resided, and a part of the time at another home under the very shadow of the college, in the family of Lucius Boltwood, Esq., whom he will ever have occasion to remember with gratitude. He entered Amherst College in the autumn of 1834, when that institution was only thirteen years old, and in 1838 graduated from it. During those years of college life his experi- ence was a marvel of personal history, as it pertains to the opening of God's providence in the removal of obstacles in the way of the accomplishment of his purpose. During the first year after leaving college Edward Blodg- ett was engaged in teaching, greatly to his advantage. The Mount Holyoke Seminary at South Hadley had just opened its doors, with that marvellous woman, Mary Lyon, at its head. It was Mr. Blodgett's privilege to be in charge of a school from which young women entered that institution; and he was thereby brought into touch with that seminary, now college, which for the past nearly sixty years has had such a power in human welfare.
In the autumn of 1839 Mr. Blodgett was led to leave the home of his childhood and go to Andover; and the journey thither, instead of being made in a few hours in a luxurious car, occasioned many a wearisome hour in rid- ing in a lumbering stage-coach, which left at early dawn Elijah Boltwood's tavern in Am-
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herst for Worcester. But Andover was reached - a stranger in a strange land, Pro- fessor Park being the only man there he had ever seen. He received him into his home as kindly as if he had been a son. Those were the days of Moses Stuart and Bela B. Ed- wards, names that have been a tower of strength in the history of that seminary. A room was soon assigned him in Phillips Hall, which afterward became so sacred in the study of the Hebrew Bible. And after fifty-six years it was his privilege in June last to go back and re-enter that room and those halls, and for forty and eight hours live over the experiences of the three years spent in prepa- ration for the ministry. The second year of his course he was invited by the principal of the Abbott Female Seminary to teach classes in Butler's Analogy and moral science, so connected with the very best preparation for his work. Not licensed until the Senior year, his first sermon was preached in the seminary chapel in the order of his turn. During the spring vacation of five weeks he was invited to Cornwall, Conn., to supply its pulpit. This invitation was accepted. After return- ing to graduate, he continued to supply the pulpit there during the autumn. From Corn- wall he went to Amherst, spending the winter of 1842 and 1843, preaching as opportunity opened.
The first Sabbath in March following, Mr. Blodgett preached his first sermon in Green- wich, Mass., where he was ordained and in- stalled July 5, 1843, and where he preached his farewell sermon July 29, 1894, after a ministry of fifty-one years. Here has been his life work. The materials of this half cen- tury of service have accumulated so amply that much could readily be added, but the published anniversary sermons contain the substantial facts touching this history. On
the 12th of July following his ordination he was married to his wife, Mary Sutton Webb, who for thirty-one years was a faithful and efficient helper in the work, sharing its joys and its sorrows, its defeats and its victories, until called higher. And, if in any way he has been successful in toil for Christ and the saving of men, he owes more to her wise coun- sels, her gentle and winning words, and her life unselfishly devoted to the good of others than tongue can utter. This long ministry has been an exceedingly happy one. The bond of union through all the years was strong, and nothing occurred during the half- century to mar the fellowship. They dwelt together in unity with a mutual confidence that has been a source of perpetual joy. Dur- ing this period there have been preached four thousand sermons, many of which were re- peated in other churches with which the min- ister had close and tender relations. Mr. Blodgett has lived to see the pastors of these churches removed by death or otherwise, and the men now occupying these pulpits either unborn or in their early boyhood at the time of his entering the ministry.
His relations to the town also were pleas- ant. He was called to bury its dead and to superintend the education of its children in its public schools. Some estimate of the changes that have taken place may be gathered from the fact that there have been followed through the gateway to the cemetery more dead than those living in the town to-day by a hundred people. During this period, while the town has decreased in population two hundred and fifty, the church has held its own numerically, notwithstanding the fact that within a small fraction it has sent away by letter two members where it has received one from others. With the exception of two or three individuals the entire present mem-
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bership have come into the church during this ministry. Such, in brief, are a few facts con - nected with the life and labors of Mr. Blodgett to the present time. "Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day. I cannot be too grateful to God that he has permitted me to preach the gospel of his Son so many years; and, while looking back upon the long record, I feel humiliated under the consciousness of weakness and failure. I hope to find acceptance with him through his forgiving love and abounding grace. And, while I have retired from the cares and responsibilities of the pastoral office at the age of fourscore years, I desire not to be an idler in the great vineyard; but with what strength still remains it is my desire and pur- pose in some humble way to be true to the trust committed to me."
UCIEN BENNETT WILLIAMS, for many years an important factor in the manufacturing interests of North- ampton, Mass., and one of its foremost citi- zens, was born in Becket, Berkshire County, on February 3, 1825. He died at his resi- dence in this city on July 23 of the present year, 1895. Mr. Williams was the repre- sentative of an early settler of Hampshire County, his great-grandfather, Ebenezer Will- iams, who was born and reared in Canterbury, Conn., having removed from there to Worth- ington, Mass., in old Colonial times. This part of the country was then in its primeval wildness; and the journey hither was made by himself and family on horseback, following a path marked by blazed trees.
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