USA > Massachusetts > Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1901 > Part 13
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At the end of ten years the congregation. having outgrown the Friend Street Chapel, moved to a new and larger building on Pitts Street, which had been erected through the exertions of the Rev. F. T. Gray, Henry B. Rogers, Esq., and Mr. Elijah Cobb. This chapel, known as the Pitts Street Chapel, was dedicated November 13, 1836; and ten years later, in September, 1846, the Rev. Samuel H. Winkley accepted the invitation from the Benevolent Fraternity of Churches to become the pastor. In the twenty-fourth year of Mr. Winkley's ministry it was again found expe- dient, on account of changes in the neighbor- hood of Pitts Street Chapel, to seek a more favorable and congenial locality for the con- tinuance of that branch of the work. Mr. Winkley raised by private subscriptions among the friends of the Ministry at Large a greater part of the sum necessary for the erection of
1
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the new chapel, the Benevolent Fraternity con- tributing the proceeds from the sale of the old chapel. Services in Bulfinch Place Chapel commenced in January, 1870.
The Ministry at Large was started with the wish of extending religious advantages to those who were unable to avail themselves of the ordinary places of public worship. Mr. Winkley has not only worked on this line, but has broadened the idea so that the work car- ried on by him has been in reality a ministry at large, confined to no class or condition : but, whenever and wherever opportunity offered, he has been alive to enlighten any one in need of instruction, to comfort, to cheer, to lift into the higher life of love and service all who could be persuaded thereto. Having experi- enced the peace and content of giving himself to God in love and faith and to the service of his children, he has striven to lead as many as possible to become partakers in this joy.
In all the means used, the one aim of his work has never been forgotten. For the greater part of his active ministry he has each Sunday superintended two sessions of the Sunday-school and held two church services, with a conference in the evening. The morn- ing service had for its object principally bib- lical instruction in some line, while the after- noon service was devoted to subjects pertain- ing to practical piety. In addition to calls upon the sick and afflicted and the ordinary parish calls, Mr. Winkley, even when the parish extended to more than twenty towns, made one round of regular calls per year. Believing in the effectiveness of personal work, he besides received many callers at his home. For the greater part of the year nearly every evening in the week found him at the chapel for meetings of various kinds.
No one but a person thoroughly in earnest and in love with the work could endure the physical strain of his arduous and never-ceas- ing labors. This, in connection with his marvellous tact in meeting the difficulties which must constantly arise in such a posi- tion, and a cheerful, helpful, sunshiny dispo- sition, engendered by faith in the Father's love, have resulted in a very rich harvest.
In the work of the Ministry at Large the
hungry are fed, the sick nursed, the destitute clothed. In all these ministrations Mr. Winkley's practice has been to give as he would be willing to receive, not letting his left hand know what the right bestowed.
At the close of the fiftieth year of his min- istry Mr. Winkley resigned the pastorate of the Bulfinch Place Chapel, and was appointed pastor emeritus by the Fraternity. Though having passed his eightieth year, he still in a limited degree pursues his cherished work by frequently preaching, in having more or less care of a weekly teachers' meeting, in re- sponding to many calls for counsel, and in lending a helping hand wherever possible.
ILLIAM HAWKES, JR., for many years an enterprising merchant of Marblehead and a soldier in the War of 1812, was born in that town, March 21, 1797, a son of William and Elizabeth (Pierce) Hawkes. He is of English ancestry, and his great-grandfather owned land in Marblehead which is now in the possession of a descendant. His father was a native of Saugus, Mass. ; and his mother, Elizabeth Pierce Hawkes, was born in Marblehead. William Hawkes, Sr., re- sided in Marblehead from the age of three years until his death, and was prominently identified with town affairs, holding various local offices, including that of Selectman, and serving two terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
After his discharge from service in the War of 1812, William Hawkes, Jr., learned the cabinet-maker's trade, which he followed as a journeyman for some time, and subsequently engaged in the grocery business. One of the most enterprising merchants of his day, his upright character gained the confidence of all with whom he had dealings; and his sterling worth as a citizen was generally conceded. He served with ability upon the School Board and as Overseer of the Poor, and in politics was in his later years a Republican. He at- tended the Unitarian church. His death occurred November 7, 1860.
On October 19, 1819, Mr. Hawkes was united in marriage with Miss Jane Le Master,
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a daughter of Thomas Le Master and of an old Jersey family, the members of which (speaking originally the French language) came to this country in 1755 from the island of Jersey, in the English Channel. Of this union there were five children, two of whom are now living : Elizabeth Sarah, the present owner and occu- pant of the family residence ac Marblehead; and William Hawkes, who also resides in Marblehead. In 1850 William Hawkes mar- ried Elizabeth Hutchinson, of Marblehead ; and they have eight children - Eliza, Mary J., William, Sarah E., Charlotte A., Franklin, George A., and Charles A. Miss Elizabeth S. Hawkes resides at No. 58 Washington Street, and is highly esteemed in social circles. Mrs. Jane Hawkes died November 16, 1856.
ILLIS HERBERT SAWYER, M. D., who for "the last ten years has been successfully engaged in the practice of medicine in Dorchester, was born in Antrim, Hillsboro County, N. H., on January 6, 1863, a son of Samuel S. and Mary (Day) Sawyer. His paternal grand- father was Edmund Sawyer, born in Antrim, N. H., in 1809. The father of Edmund was Enoch, who was a son of Enoch, first; and the last named, who came from Ireland, was one of the early settlers of Goffstown, N. H.
Enoch Sawyer, who was born in Goffstown, removed to Antrim, where he cleared and im- proved a farm. In 1802 he married Lucy Simonds, daughter of Benjamin Simonds, a soldier of the Revolution; and they had a family of six children, of whom Edmund was the third-born. None of the family are now living.
Edmund Sawyer, who, as above stated, was born in Antrim, grew to manhood upon the farm. He learned the blacksmith's trade, which he afterward followed in Bedford and Antrim for more than forty years. His death took place in the last-named .town when he was eighty-six years old. By industry and thrift he had acquired a good estate. He was respected by the entire community as a con- seientious citizen. In his later years he was a Republican, while in religion he was a
Presbyterian. He married Nancy Steele, a daughter of Samuel Steele, of Antrim, and they were the parents of two children: Sam- uel S., father of the subject of this sketch; and Mary F., the wife of D. P. Bryer, of Antrim.
Samuel Steele Sawyer removed with his parents from Bedford to Antrim when he was six months old. His education, begun in the schools of the latter town, was completed at the Peterboro Academy. He then spent a year in the grocery business at West Medford. Mass., as a member of the firm of Sawyer & Parmenter, but subsequently returned to An- trim and engaged in farming. For many years he has been engaged in the milk business, and is also an extensive dealer in cattle. Besides his homestead he owns a valuable farm in Windsor, N. H. In polities he is a Republi- can. He was a member of the Board of Se- leetmen of Antrim for ten years, during five of which he served as chairman; and for two years he was Town Treasurer. He has also served as Supervisor of the Check List, and he represented the town in the Legislature for the years 1879 and 1880. His wife, Mary, to whom he was united on May 18, 1861, was a daughter of Robert Day, of Peterboro. They have had five children - Willis H., Eva Louise, Georgianna, Alice Bertha, and Harry Gilbert. Eva L. is the wife of Watson B. Fearing, of Dorchester, Mass., and has three children - Ruth. Ralph, and Mary Elizabeth. Georgianna is now Mrs. John S. Nesmith, of Antrim. Alice B. is teaching school in Antrim, N. H. Harry G. is engaged in the milk business in Dorchester. Mr. Samuel S. Sawyer has been a member of the Masonic order for the last thirty-two years, and has occupied most of the chairs in Harmony Lodge at Hillsboro Bridge.
Willis H. Sawyer resided on his father's farm till reaching the age of sixteen years. He attended Francestown Academy for four years, and then spent one year in Tufts Col- lege at Medford, Mass. Subsequently apply- ing himself to the study of medicine, he graduated at the Homoeopathic College in New York City in 1888. He spent the two years following in the Brooklyn Homeopathie
.
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Hospital as resident physician, after which, in 1890, he settled in Dorchester, where he has since been engaged in a successful and increasing practice. He is a member of the Massachusetts State Homeopathic Society and of the Boston Surgical and Gynæecological Society and of the Dorchester Medical Club. He also belongs to Union Lodge, F. & A. M., of Dorchester; Dorchester Chapter, R. A. M .; and Joseph Warren Command- ery, K. T.
Dr. Sawyer was married November 29, 1893, to Miss Mabel Ladd, a daughter of George O. and Bessie (Britton) Ladd, of Dor- chester, Mass.
ON. JOHN WHITE KIMBALL, of Fitchburg, has recently entered upon his ninth term in the executive de- partment of the State government, his office being that of Auditor of Accounts, which was created in 1849.
He was born in Fitchburg, Worcester County, January 27, 1828, being the youngest son of Alpheus and Harriet (Stone) Kimball. On the paternal side he comes of old Essex County Colonial stock. Ilis pedigree may be thus shown : Richard' Kimball, a wheelwright, came over from England in 1634, and settled at Ipswich. His wife was Ursula Scott. Their son Thomas,2 born in 1633, who married Mary Smith and settled in that part of Row- ley that is now Bradford, was the father of Thomas, 3 born in 1665. Ephraim, + son of Thomas3 and Deborah (Pemberton) Kimball, married Anne Tenney. Ephraim, the next in line, born in Bradford in 1722, married Mary Wetherbee, of Lunenburg, Worcester County, and lived in Fitchburg. Ephraim,6 born in Fitchburg, married Betsy White, of Lunen- burg, and was the father of Alpheus above named, who was of the seventh generation.
Alpheus Kimball was born in 1792, and died in 1859. He was a scythe-maker and carried on the business in Fitchburg. In poli- tics he was a Whig and became a Free Soiler, being a strong anti-slavery man. Ile was a member of the Congregational church.
His wife, Harriet, died in 1888, at the age
of ninety-seven years and five months. She was a daughter of Luther Stone, of Framing- hanı, and grand-daughter of Josiah Stone, who was a prominent citizen of Framingham in his day, serving as Selectman and Town Clerk, as Representative, as delegate to the Provincial Congress, and as State Senator and Councillor. Josiah was of the sixth generation in descent from Deacon Gregory Stone, who, coming to New England in 1635, settled in Cambridge. The line was: Gregory'; John, 2 who settled at Sudbury; Daniels; Daniel+; Micah,5 who married Abigail Stone, of Lexington; Josiah, 6 born in 1724.
It is interesting here to note that a younger brother of Josiah was Eliab ("Parson Stone" of revered memory), born in 1737, who for more than sixty years was pastor of the old parish church in North Reading.
John White Kimball was educated in the public schools and at Fitchburg Academy. In early manhood he engaged in scythe-making with his father, at a later period turning his attention to real estate dealing. He served in various town offices in the years 1864 to 1872, inclusive: as Representative 1864, 1865, 1872, 1888, and 1891; as a member of the State police February, 1866, to July, 1871; and from the latter date to January 20, 1874, as Police Commissioner. He was United States Pension Agent for the Western District of Massachusetts, December 19, 1873, to July 1, 1877 ; custodian of rolls, dies, and plates used in printing bonds and national bank and United States treasury notes and securities in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, United States Treasury Department, Washington, D. C., November 1, 1877, to February 17, 1879; and Postmaster at Fitchburg, March, 1879, to March 16, 1887. His labors in 1846 as marker for the Fitchburg Fusiliers at target practice may be said to mark the beginning of his military career, which culminated in the Civil War, when his gallant and distinguished service in the field won for him the brevet of Brigadier-general of United States Volunteers, bestowed March 13, 1865. In the Fusiliers he attained the rank of Captain in 1855 ; and he became Adjutant of the Ninth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia in August, 1858, being
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again Captain of the Fusiliers in 1860, and going with them into the United States service in June, 1861. The following is his army record from that time on: "Captain in Fif- teenth Massachusetts Infantry, July 12, 1861; Major, August 1, 1861; present at Ball's Bluff ; Lieutenant Colonel, May 1, 1862, en- gaged in the Peninsular campaign and battle of Antietam ; discharged to accept promotion, November 12, 1862; Colonel of Fifty-third Massachusetts Infantry, November 10, 1862; mustered December 3; served in Louisiana ; present at fall of Port Hudson; engaged in recruiting service at Worcester ; mustered out September 2, 1863.
Mr. Kimball is a Republican. The office of State Auditor he has held continuously by suc- cessive re-elections since January 1, 1892.
He married July 15, 1851, Almira M. Lesure, who was born July 15, 1831. Their children are: Emma Ifrances, born May 13, 1852, married April 17, 1878, Frank W. Eager; Mary Elizabeth, born May 9, 1854; Edward, born September 25, 1857; and Jo- sephine W., born April S, 1876, who died September 2, 1881.
"ON. HOSEA MORRILL KNOWL- TON, Attorney-General of Massa- chusetts, was born in Durham, Me., on May 20, 1847, son of the Rev. Dr Isaac Case and Mary S. (Wellington)
Knowlton.
His
descent
from
William
Knowlton, who settled at Ipswich, Mass., in 1642, and whose father, Captain William Knowlton, had died on the voyage from Lon- don, England, to America a few years earlier, is through John, 3 John, + Andrew, 5 Jeremiah, 6 Ezekiel,7 Isaac C.S His father died at West Acton, Mass., March 23, 1894, and his mother is still living there. Isaac Case Knowlton, son of Ezekiel and Mary Knowlton, was born in Liberty, Me., September 6, ISI9. Left an orphan at a very early age, he was taken care of in childhood by an older sister. Learning the cooper's trade in his youth, he worked at making lime casks in Rockland and Thomaston, and supplemented his common- school education by devoting his spare hours
to the study of Latin and Ilebrew, with a view of fitting himself for the Universalist ministry. For a brief term he was a student at the academy in China, Me. He began to preach at Albion, Me., in 1843. He held pastorates successively at Durham, Auburn, Hampden, and Oldtown in Maine; Keene, N.II. ; South Boston and New Bedford, Mass. ; Calais, Me. ; South Acton and West Acton, Mass., where he accepted a call in 1875, and continued active until 1893, when he retired after fifty years of earnest and efficient ser- vice. Large-hearted, liberal-minded, he was a progressive thinker and speaker, a man who had ideas of his own and knew how to express them in a telling way. He was a contributor to denominational and other papers, and was the author of a History of Calais, Me., and of a book entitled "Through the Shadows." In 1889 Tufts College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
He married in 1845 Mary S., daughter of John and Mary S. (Winslow) Wellington. John Wellington was a farmer and hotel- keeper at Albion, Me. He served at one time as a Representative to the Legislature. His wife was a daughter of Jonathan Winslow, and was of the seventh generation in descent from Kenelm Winslow, of Marshfield, who was a brother of Governor Edward Winslow of the " Mayflower " company of Pilgrims. Jonathan Winslow married Mary Smith, daughter of the Rev. Peter Thatcher Smith, of Windham, Me.
Only two children born to Dr. and Mrs. Knowlton are now living, namely : Hosea M. and his sister, Mary Alice, now the wife of Edward S. Rich. A younger son, Frank W., a graduate of Tufts and a lawyer, died in 1878, aged twenty-six years.
Hosea M. Knowlton was fitted for college in Keene, N. H., and Powers Institute, Ber- nardston, Mass., was graduated at Tufts in 1867 and at the Harvard Law School in 1870. Admitted to the bar in New Bedford in June, 1870, he opened an office in Boston, but after a year removed to New Bedford, where he remains a resident. He was a Register in Bankruptcy, 1872-78; City Solicitor of New Bedford, 1877; a member of the House of
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Representatives, 1876-77; State Senator, 1878-79; District Attorney for the Southern
District of Massachusetts, 1879-93. The office of Attorney-General of the Common- wealth he has held by successive annual re- elections since January, 1894, a fact which is ample evidence of his fitness for the place, of his sufficiency for its duties. He is one of the recognized leaders of the Republican party in the State. Having been prominently named for higher office than any he yet has held, he has shown himself emphatically not one to
" Lie in wait
For wealth or honors or for worldly state,"
but one
" Who, if he rise to station of command, Rises by open means, and there will stand On honorable terms, or else retire."
Brought up in a cheerful religious atmos- phere, he is naturally optimistic and strong in the "faith that makes faithful." Often called upon to exercise his talent as a public speaker on social occasions and at political and other conventions, he sets forth his views clearly and unequivocally, usually making choice of some topic or question that is upper- most in the minds of the people at the time. For instance, at the Boston Merchants' annual dinner on January 3, 1899, he said in part : " What is the United States of America? It is not merely a collection of States: it is a nation. It has the power of expansion that has been settled not only by the practice of one hundred years, but by the decision of the United States Supreme Court. We have ex- panded again by conquest, by purchase, and by treaty; and, wherever a new country has become a part of the United States, that annexed country has become as much a part of the United States as Boston Common itself." At the dinner of the Real Estate Exchange, February, 1899: "The way to reform taxation is to start at the root . . . cut down expenses in the towns. Don't mortgage the future, don't put on the shoulders of your children the burdens that belong to you."
Mr. Knowlton married on May 22, 1873,
Sylvia Bassett Almy, daughter of Benjamin and Sophia (Allen) Almy. There have been born to them seven children - John Welling- ton, Abby Almy, Frank Warren, Edward Allen, Helen Sophia, Sylvia Prescott, and Benjamin Almy. The family home is in New Bedford.
TON. WILLIAM GASTON, A. B., A. M., LI .. D., for many years a lead- ing member of the Suffolk bar and in 1875 Governor of the Common- wealth, was a New Englander by birth, parent- age, and long lines of ancestry, but not of Plymouth Pilgrim or Bay Colony Puritan stock on his paternal side. Born on October 3, 1820, at South Killingly, Conn., son of Alexander and Kezia (Arnold) Gaston, he in- herited on the paternal side the mingled blood of the Huguenots and Scotch Presbyterians. His mother came from pure old English stock.
The original home of the Gastons was in France. One of their number, Jean Gaston, who became a Protestant, was banished on account of his religion, and his property was confiscated. He settled in .Scotland; but later his sons went to the north of Ireland, about 1665-68. John Gaston, Sr., of Volun - town, Conn., born 1703, died 1783 - the im- migrant progenitor of this branch of the family in America, elsewhere recorded - was born in County Antrim, Ireland, and married about 1735 Janet Thompson. She was born in Scotland, and was the daughter of the Rev. Alexander Thompson, who, it is said, lived for a time at Andover, Mass., and later settled at Stoning- ton, Conn. John Gaston, Jr., son of John, Sr., and Janet, was born in Voluntown, 1750, and died there in 1805. He served for many years as a Justice of the Peace and as a meni- ber of the State Legislature. His wife, Ruth, was the daughter of the Rev. Alexander Miller, 2 "Separatist" minister, whose father, a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, settled at Volun- town about 1720.
Alexander Gaston, above named, born in 1772, son of John and Ruth (Miller) Gaston, was a farmer at South Killingly, Conn. Ile was a Captain at twenty-six years of age in the
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Representatives, 1876-77; State Senator, 1878-79; District Attorney for the Southern District of Massachusetts, 1879-93. The office of Attorney-General of the Common- wealth he has held by successive annual re- elections since January, 1894, a fact which is ample evidence of his fitness for the place, of his sufficiency for its duties. He is one of the recognized leaders of the Republican party in the State. Having been prominently named for higher office than any he yet has held, he has shown himself emphatically not one to
" Lie in wait
For wealth or honors or for worldly state,"
but one
" Who, if he rise to station of command, Rises by open means. and there will stand On honorable terms, or else retire."
Brought up in a cheerful religious atmos- phere, he is naturally optimistic and strong in the "faith that makes faithful." Often called upon to exercise his talent as a public speaker on social occasions and at political and other conventions, he sets forth his views clearly and unequivocally, usually making choice of some topic or question that is upper- most in the minds of the people at the time. For instance, at the Boston Merchants' annual dinner on January 3, 1899, he said in part : "What is the United States of America? It is not merely a collection of States: it is a nation. It has the power of expansion that has been settled not only by the practice of .one hundred years, but by the decision of the United States Supreme Court. We have ex- panded again by conquest, by purchase, and by treaty; and, wherever a new country has become a part of the United States, that annexed country has become as much a part of the United States as Boston Common itself." At the dinner of the Real Estate Exchange, February, 1899: "The way to reform taxation is to start at the root . . . cut down expenses in the towns. Don't mortgage the future, don't put on the shoulders of your children the burdens that belong to you."
Mr. Knowlton married on May 22, 1873,
Sylvia Bassett Almy, daughter of Benjamin and Sophia (Allen) Almy. There have been born to them seven children - John Welling- ton, Abby Almy, Frank Warren, Edward Allen, Helen Sophia, Sylvia Prescott, and Benjamin Almy. The family home is in New Bedford.
ON. WILLIAM GASTON, A. B., A. M., LL. D., for many years a lead- ing member of the Suffolk bar and in 1875 Governor of the Common- wealth, was a New Englander by birth, parent- age, and long lines of ancestry, but not of Plymouth Pilgrim or Bay Colony Puritan stock on bis paternal side. Born on October 3, 1820, at South Killingly, Conn., son of Alexander and Kezia (Arnold) Gaston, he in- herited on the paternal side the mingled blood of the Huguenots and Scotch Presbyterians. His mother came from pure old English stock.
The original home of the Gastons was in France. One of their number, Jean Gaston, who became a Protestant, was banished on account of his religion, and his property was confiscated. He settled in Scotland; but later his sons went to the north of Ireland, about 1665-68. John Gaston, Sr., of Volun - town, Conn., born 1703, died 1783 -the im- migrant progenitor of this branch of the family in America, elsewhere recorded - was born in County Antrim, Ireland, and married about 1735 Janet Thompson. She was born in Scotland, and was the daughter of the Rev. Alexander Thompson, who, it is said, lived for a time at Andover, Mass., and later settled at Stoning- ton, Conn. John Gaston, Jr., son of John, Sr., and Janet, was born in Voluntown, 1750, and died there in 1805. He served for many years as a Justice of the Peace and as a mem- ber of the State Legislature. His wife, Ruth, was the daughter of the Rev. Alexander Miller, a "Separatist" minister, whose father, a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, settled at Volun- town about 1720.
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