USA > Massachusetts > Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1901 > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
REV. JAMES DE NORMANDIE, D.D.
133
AMERICAN SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
Boston in 1734. Abraham's son John, ' born in New York in 1703, was a merchant in Bos- ton in business with his uncle Jacob. John Wendell+ married Elizabeth Quincy, daughter of the Hon. Edward and Dorothy (Flynt) Quincy, of Braintree. John,5 horn in 1731, son of John and Elizabeth, was graduated at Harvard College in 1750, and shortly after he removed to Portsmouth, N. H. He was a real estate lawyer and conveyancer. He married for his second wife Dorothy Sherburne, daugh- ter of Judge Henry Sherburne. Judge Sher- burne was a graduate of Harvard College, class of 1728, and a delegate to the Colonial Con- gress at Albany in 1754. "He was a great- grandson (through Henry, born 1674, and Samuel, born 1638) of the first American an- cestor of the Sherburnes, Henry Sherburne, born 1611, who emigrated from Hampshire, England, to the Piscataqua in 1632 "; and this early progenitor of the family was a lineal descendant, through a younger son, of Sir Richard Sherburne, of Stonyhurst, Lanca- shire, England, born in 1465, who was the ninth of that family in succession to hold the dignity of knighthood.
Mr. and Mrs. Webber have four children - George C., Ella Irene, James F., and Albert llarrison (named in honor of President Harri- son). George C., born in Chelsea, April 13, 1879, graduated at the Williams School in this city, enlisted in Battery 11, and served throughout the late war with Spain, after the conclusion of the war receiving an honorable discharge. lle is now a Corporal of Battery HI, First Regiment, Heavy Artillery. Ella- Irene, born in 1882, and James F., born in 1885, both graduates of the Williams School, and Albert H., born in 1889, who is still attending school, reside with their parents in Chelsea.
EV. JAMES DE NORMANDIE, D. D., minister of the First Church in Roxbury, Mass., is a native of Pennsylvania. Born in Newport, Bucks County, Pa., June 9, 1836, son of Dr. James and Sarah B. (Yardley) De Nor-
mandie, he comes of long lines of French Protestant and English Quaker ancestry.
In the middle of the seventeenth century a branch of the De Normandie family whose home for many generations had been in Noyon, France, was living in Geneva, Switz- erland. Here was born in 1651 André De Normandie, who in 1706, at fifty-five years of age, emigrated to Pennsylvania and settled in Bucks County. It is said that he had been a Counsellor to Frederick William, fourth duke and first king of Prussia (1701). Abra- ham De Normandie, born in Geneva, Switzer- land, in 1688, son of Andre and his wife, Louise Clerc, was Sheriff of Bucks County in 1719; for a number of years subsequently from 1728 to 1744, Chief Burgess of Bristol, and member of the Assembly: and in 1756 a member of the State Assembly. He married in 1715 Henrietta Elizabeth Gaudonett, a native of Bristol, England. His son Antoine, born in Bristol, Pa., in 1726, married Mary Hill, and was the father of James, first, who was a native and lifelong resident of Bristol. The family were members of St. James's Church (Episcopal). He died in 1756.
Dr. John Abram De Normandie in January, 1777, had charge of the military hospital at Bristol, Pa., and was a warden of St. James Church, Bristol, 1726. (See his letter to the Committee of Safety, in Pennsylvania Archives, vol. v., requesting that supplies for the use of the hospital should be forwarded. )
Laurant De Normandie was king's lieuten- ant and governor of Noyon, France, who re- tired to Geneva in 1549 to join his intimate friend, John Calvin, to whom Calvin dedicated one of his books in a fine Latin inscrip- tion.
James De Normandie, second. son of James, first, and father of the Rev. James, of Rox- bury, was born in 1797 at Penn's Manor, Pa., and died in 1866 at Yellow Springs, Ohio. He was for a considerable period a prominent physician of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His wife, Sarah Yardley, was descended from Quakers who came over with William Penn. and were among the founders of Pennsyl- vania. Sir George Yardley, one of the early Colonial governors of Virginia, a promoter of
134
AMERICAN SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
its prosperity, was doubtless a scion of the same old English stock.
Dr. James De Normandie and his wife, Sarah, had nine children. The survivors are: Anthony Edward, Courtland Yardley, Thomas Yardley, Eugene, Elizabeth Königmacher, and James. Anthony E. lives in Wilming- ton, Del. ; Courtland Y., in Kingston, Mass .; Thomas Y., in Philadelphia; Eugene, in Danvers, Mass. ; and Elizabeth K., in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
James De Normandie, third, was graduated at Antioch College, under President Horace Mann, in 1853. The following year he was an instructor at Washington University, St. Louis. He then entered Harvard Divinity School, where he pursued a three years' course, and was graduated in June, 1862. Among his classmates were the late Rev. John C. Learned, of St. Louis; the scholarly Frederick May Holland, now living in Con- cord, Mass., busy with books and pen; and the Rev. Samuel B. Stewart, of Lynn.
On Wednesday, October 1, 1862, Mr. De Normandie, having accepted a call from the South Parish (Unitarian) of Portsmouth, N.H., where he had been supplying the pulpit from the beginning of the year, was ordained, and settled there, about twenty churches being represented in the council which, after the usual congregational manner, convened for the purpose at Portsmouth. The Rev. Dr. Lothrop, of Boston, presided over the coun- cil, and the Rev. E. C. Guild acted as scribe. The public exercises began with an invocation by Dr. Lothrop and reading of Scripture by the Rev. Henry W. Foote. The sermon was by the Rev. Dr. Ezra S. Gannett; ordaining prayer by the Rev. Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, the former pastor, then acting president of Harvard University; charge by the Rev. E. E. Hale; right hand of fellowship by the Rev. Courtland Y. De Normandie; address to the people by the Rev. Dr. Briggs, of Salem; concluding prayer by the Rev. Eugene De Normandie. Thus began a successful pastor- ate of twenty-one years' duration, years of study, years of "teaching the way of truth and right," years of helpful service, educa- tional, philanthropic, extending far beyond
the limit of pulpit and parish, and years, too. of effective interest in denominational affairs.
Declining calls to the Church of the Mes- siah in St. Louis, Unity Church, Worcester, also Second Parish, Worcester, the First Parish. Portland, Me., and other churches, Mr. De Normandie in 1883 accepted a call to the First Church in Roxbury. the church of the Apostle Eliot. This church was founded in 1631. In June, 1632, Thomas Welde became its pastor, and in November of the same year John Eliot was ordained as teacher with him. "No matter how small the parish, it was cus- tomary to have pastor and teacher, but very often it was hard to separate their official duties." Of John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, Dr. De Normandie, whose words are above quoted, speaks as "the most command- ing figure among all the non-conformists of England who came to this country for free- dom of worship," and in the same article. in the Roxbury Magasine, pays graceful tribute to Eliot's colleagues and successors to 1882 (Samuel Danforth; Nehemiah Walter, "one of the most distinguished scholars and preachers" of his time; Thomas Walter; Amos Adams, "patriot minister during the stirring times preceding the Revolution "; Eliphalet Porter, 1782-1833, who, joining the new movement in theology, led his flock into the fresh fields of Unitarianism; George Putnam, 1830-78, "unsurpassed, hardly equalled, for impressive eloquence among the clergy of New England "; and John G. Brooks, 1878-82: "There is probably no church in New England where, through so long a line of preachers, the standard of scholarly and pulpit gifts has been so high, and none which has had such a proportion of acknowledged leaders in the community.'4
Trhly a remarkable record for a line of pulpit worthies whose ministrations covered a period of two hundred and fifty years. The acceptable and devoted divine on whom the mantle of the prophets has fallen in these later years is now, be it noted, in the seven- teenth year of this his second pastorate and the thirty-eighth of his ministry. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him
135
AMERICAN SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
by Harvard University in June, IS9S. For seven years, 1882-88, he was editor of the Unitarian Review. Among his contributions to periodical literature may be mentioned a paper on "John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians," in the New England Magasine, vol. xv. ; "Roxbury Latin before John Eliot "; also one on the Roxbury Latin School, in June, 1895; also the History of the South Parish at Portsmouth, N. H., and an Historical Sketch of the First Church in Roxbury; and, among his published addresses, one delivered on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the First Inde- pendent Church of Baltimore, Md., on Octo- ber 29, 1893, "The Lord is One; or, Seventy- five Years of Unitarianism in America "; and one on the one hundredth anniversary of the Roxbury Charitable Association in 1894, and about fifty sermons. He is a life member of the American Unitarian Association, a life member of the Young Men's Christian Union, and member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and of the National Conference of Unitarian and Other Christian Churches. Since 1884 Mr. De Normandie has been presi- dent of the trustees of the Roxbury Latin School, and since 1895 one of the trustees of the Boston Public Library. In politics he is a Republican.
He married on October 27, 1864, Emily Farnum Jones, daughter of William and Ann Greenleaf (Lunt) Jones, of Portsmouth, N.II. His children are: Albert Lunt, born August 17, 1865, died in infancy; Philip Yardley, born June 7, 1868 (A. B., Harvard College, 1891) ; Charles Lunt, born Septem- ber 26, 1870 (A.B., Harvard, 1893; LL.B., 1898): William Jones, born October 8, 1873; and Robert Laurant, born August 24, 1876, Harvard, 1898.
ALEB BENJAMIN TILLINGHAST. M.A., State Librarian, fills his im- portant position with the facile and courteous competence of one who has been free of the world of letters from his youth, and, as keeper of the books of the Com- monwealth, justly magnifies his office in the
interests of the public, whom he serves with equal zeal, intelligence, and efficiency.
Born on April 3, 1843, in West Greenwich, R. I., son of Pardon and Ennice (Tillinghast) Tillinghast, he is of the eighth generation in descent from Elder Pardon Tillinghast, who came to New England and settled at Provi- dence somewhat over two hundred and fifty years ago. The line has thus been traced : Pardon,' Pardon,2 John, 3 Charles, + Pardon, 5 Charles,º Pardon,7 Caleb Benjamin.$
A man of energy and enterprise, a merchant and a preacher, Elder Pardon Tillinghast figured prominently in the early history of the Providence Plantations. He built the first dock and the first warehouse there. He also built a meeting-house and gave it to the Bap- tist Society, the first in America, of which he was the pastor for many years, serving with- out salary. His descendants have intermar- ried with the posterity of Roger Williams, with the Wards, the Greenes of Warwick, the Olneys, and other leading families of Rhode Island.
Pardon Tillinghast2 married Mary Keech, and settled at East Greenwich. Pardon Til- linghast, 7 father of the Librarian, was born in 1811 at West Greenwich, R.I. He married Eunice, daughter of Benjamin and Eunice (Greene) Tillinghast and grand-daughter of Caleb and Wealthian (Ellis) Greene. About the year 1844 he removed across the Connect- icut line to Sterling and a little later to Plainfield, an adjoining town.
At Plainfield the subject of this sketch, then a growing country lad with active mind and body, in the winter seasons attended the district school taught by his father, and in summer worked on the home farm. A profit- able term or two at the academy in Central Village, Plainfield, under the helpful, inspirit- ing teaching of Lucian Burleigh, brother of Charles C. Burleigh, the eloquent anti-slavery speaker, completed his schooling. From a very youthful age he devoted his spare time, saving for this purpose as much as he could from his meals, to diligent reading of the sub- stantial and instructive books of the public library of the village five miles away. Cham- bers's Cyclopedia of English Literature, pored
.
136
AMERICAN SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
over page by page, opened up a broad field for future exploration. Teaching school in Killingly town, Danielsonville borough, and Central Village, he "boarded round," and was still learning in more ways than onc. About the close of the war he removed to Danielsonville, where he was in mercantile life several years, and served on the School Committee as "acting visitor" and in other town offices. His first efforts as a writer for the press doubtless dated from those early years in Connecticut.
Coming to Boston in 1870, he held a place on the editorial staff of the Boston Journal from May of that year till June, 1879, when he left it to assume the duties of his present position. From the first he had charge of the library, but was officially known for a number of years as Assistant Librarian, the nominal head being the secretary of the Board of Edu- cation. In 1893 Mr. - Tillinghast was ap- pointed by Governor Russell State Librarian. He has also served for twenty years as clerk and treasurer of the State Board of Education, and from its organization, in 1890, as a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Free Public Library Commission, being designated as its chairman by Governor Brackett and later by Governor Greenhalge. He is a corresponding mem- ber of the Worcester Society of Antiquity and of the Old Colony, the Weymouth, the Buffalo, the Chicago, and the Western Re- serve Historical Societies, and is one of the council of the New England Historic Genea- logical Society. He is a member of the Boston Art Club and the Appalachian Moun- tain Club, of the Young Men's Christian Union, and the General Theological Library, being on the book committee of the latter. In 1897 he received from Harvard University the honorary degree of Master of Arts, Presi- dent Eliot, in conferring it at the Commence- ment, designating him as "State Librarian, sure- guide to all the documents and records of the Commonwealth, himself a living index at the service of every inquirer."
Of his work another has well spoken in this wise: "Mr. Tillinghast has developed the State Library from a small affair to a thor- oughly organized, well-equipped, and substan-
tial institution. It has more than doubled its size since he took hold of it, and numerous practical features, increasing its usefulness, have been introduced by him. Notable among these is the 'Index of Current Events,' com- piled from newspapers, files of which, cover- ing the leading New England journals, are carefully preserved. Another helpful work, which students of local history especially ap- preciate, is the collection and preservation in bound volumes, systematically arranged, of current historical and genealogical articles published in New England periodicals."
In regard to the features and functions of a State library, Mr. Tillinghast has clearly and forcibly expressed himself in his annual re- ports, which, as may be judged from the fol- lowing extract, deserve a wide reading: "It should contain the best thought of the world upon the vital interests of popular education. It should place at the disposal of those who are to legislate for, direct, or carry out in practical detail our system of free schools, the freshest statistics and the latest records of the im- proved and progressive systems of education. It should do more than this. The free public library system is one of the most important instrumentalities for stimulating the intel- lectual improvement of the people, and may be considered the most potent force co-existent with our school system. ... Instead of being unknown to the mass of the people of the State, the influence of the State library should be felt in the encouragement given through its agency to the establishment of a free public library in every town and village in the State, especially in every village which is largely composed of an industrial popula- tion. To this end the library and those who have it in charge should be able to supply educators and those who can be interested in the foundation, maintenance, and care of free public libraries, with the best information which can be furnished in regard to the selec- tion of books, and to give competent advice in regard to the latest improvements in library economy. In its own administration it should furnish a model to every public library in the State in one direction at least - that a public library should anticipate rather than
137
AMERICAN SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
follow the necessities of the people it is to benefit."
It may here be remarked that the most grati- fying success has attended the efforts of the Library Commission, with Mr. Tillinghast as chairman, in promoting the establishment of free public libraries in a large number of towns and villages in the State where they were lacking previous to 1890.
Mr. Tillinghast was married in 1886 to Mrs. Martha A. Wonson. He resides in Boston.
ON. ARTHUR B. CHAMPLIN, editor and publisher of the Revere Citisen, is a native of Chelsea, and an ex-Mayor of Chelsea. Son of Charles and Caroline (Tomlinson) Champlin, he is a descendant of Joseph Champlin, who came from England and settled at Stonington, Conn., and who, it is asserted by tradition, claimed to be a cousin of George II., boasting of his "blue blood " and of his having fought against his "cousin, the king." Joseph Champlin married for his second wife Mary Noyes, a daughter of the Rev. James Noyes, the first settled minister of Stonington.
Their son, Charles Noyes Champlin, born in 1754, enlisted at Stonington in the Conti- nental army, and served for a time in Captain Palmer's company, Colonel Ely's regiment. Subsequently he was a member of the com- pany under Colonel Ledyard, which defended Fort Griswold at Groton, Conn. ; but, being on a furlough at the time the fort was captured by the British, he had the good fortune to escape the massacre that followed. On July 3, 1832, he applied for a pension, being then seventy- eight years old and residing on his farm at Windham, Conn. This was granted by the United States government for twenty-two months' actual service. At his death he left twelve children, among them John Noyes Champlin, grandfather of the subject of this sketch.
Charles Champlin, son of John Noyes and father of Arthur B., was born in Connecticut. lle settled in Chelsea. ITis wife, Caroline, was a daughter of Cyrus Tomlinson.
Arthur B. Champlin was educated in the public schools of Chelsea, being graduated from the high school. He was for several years the publisher of the Chelsea Gasette, which under his management reached its highest circulation. A few years ago he dis- posed of his interest in the Gasette, and was for a while manager of the Columbia Lithia Spring in Revere. He resides in Revere.
He began his public career in 1878, when he was elected a member of the common council, in which body he served for seven years, during the last two as its president, being the youngest man in the history of the city to fill that office. In the fall of 1887 he was elected to the State Legislature, and served as a member and clerk of the Commit- tee on Street Railways. Being re-elected the following year, he served as a member and clerk of the Committee on Towns. In 1888 he was chosen Mayor of Chelsea. His first term was indorsed by his re-election the year after, and it is frequently remarked by the citizens of Chelsea that "no mayor gave more general satisfaction During his administration the city gained many important improvements : electric lights were introduced, several miles of sewer and water pipe and brick sidewalks were laid, police and fire de- partments reorganized, and the tax rate low- ered. While Mayor, he was nominated and elected Senator from the First Suffolk District, and upon taking his seat in the Senate was made chairman of the Committee on Liquor Law, and a member of the Committee on Pub- lic Charitable Institutions and Public Service. In the following year he was re-elected. Mr. Champlin is a member of various social and fraternal organizations, and while a resi- dent of Chelsea was one of the trustees of the Walnut Street Methodist Episcopal Church and a member of the Young Men's Christian Association.
He married Alice M. Roberts, of Chelsea, 'daughter of Nathan P. and Mary (King) Rob- erts. Mrs. Champlin's first American pro- genitor was Thomas Roberts, one of the ear- liest settlers of Dover Neck, N. H., where he took up land that has since been preserved in the Roberts family in uninterrupted succession,
. 138
AMERICAN SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
a period of more than two centuries. This Thomas Roberts came from Cornwall, Eng- land, where the family had long been seated, Richard Roberts having been created Baron of Truro by James I. Mrs. Champlin's great- grandfather, Nathan Roberts, served in the Continental army, which he joined on July 10, 1780, at Somersworth, N. H., when twenty- two years of age. His son John, the next in line of descent, married Eliza Sherburn. Her father was born in South Berwick, Me., and was named for his grandfather, the Revolution- ary soldier. Mr. and Mrs. Champlin are the parents of three children - Norman A., Na- than R., and Marion L.
AMES POPE was born July 28, 1814, in Dorchester, Mass., son of James and Elizabeth (Lake) Pope, where he now resides. He is of the eighth genera- tion in descent from John Pope, Sr., a pioneer settler of Dorchester, whose name is in the list of "Freemen made at the General Court, Sep- tember 3, 1634." The line is: John'; John, 2 born in England; Ralph, 3 born in 1673 in Dorchester, married Rachel Neale, of Brain- tree; Dr. Ralph, + born in 1705, married Re- becca Stubbs, settled in Stoughton; Colonel Frederick,5 who married in North Bridge- water, June 8, 1758, Mary, daughter of Joseph and Mary Cole; Ralph6; James7; James".
Frederick l'ope, son of Dr. Ralph, was a private in the company under Captain Peter Talbot, which marched from Stoughton on the Lexington alarm. April 19, 1775. In June, 1775, Captain Frederick Pope enlisted a com- pany of fifty-eight men for one month, nine days' service. He was commissioned Major, May 8, 1777; and it is believed that he rose to higher rank before the close of the war. (See Pope Genealogy, page 131.) He was afterward known by the title of Colonel. His great- grandfather, Colonel Frederic Pope, fought for American independence in the Revolutionary War. Mr. Pope's paternal grandfather, Ralph Pope, is pretty certainly known to have served in the Revolutionary War as aide-de-camp to his father. He married Miss Abigail Swan, of Stoughton. Their son James, born in 1792,
was their youngest child. Ralph Pope died when thirty-seven years of age. His wife, sur- viving him, married Lemuel Bird, and lived to be ninety-one.
James Pope, father of the present James, was reared in Stoughton, and there learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed subse- quently both in Stoughton and in Dorchester. For many years he was an active member of the militia. A Unitarian in religious faith, he belonged to the church of that denomina- tion, which he served as Deacon. He died in his seventy-third year. His wife lived to the advanced age of ninety-four.
James Pope, second, direct subject of this sketch, learned the carpenter's trade under his father, with whom he remained until he was twenty-five years old. Ile then engaged in business for himself as a contractor and builder, and subsequently removed to that part of Dor- chester known as the Lower Mills, where he has since carried on business, being undoubt- edly the oldest man thus engaged in Dorches- ter. His continuance in active life is owing to choice, not necessity, as he has accumulated by his industry a large property, and is a type of the substantial, well-to-do, self-made citi- zen.
Mr. Pope was married in 1841 to Miss Sarah Louise Swan, a daughter of Reuben Swan, of Dorchester. Of this union there have been seven children - Almira G., J. Frank, S. Louise, Herbert Webster, Stephen Augustus, Abbott Swan, and one that died in infancy named Katharine. J. Frank, who is engaged in the ice business, served through the Civil War, and, being captured at the battle of Gettysburg, was confined for seven months as a prisoner on Belle Island. His regiment was the Thirteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infan- try, Company A. Herbert also is deceased. S. Louise is the wife of Edward P. Hurd, of Boston. Stephen A. is a resident of Dorches- ter. Abbott S. has been a resident of the State of Colorado for the last twenty years. Mrs. Sarah 1 .. Pope died in 1889. Mr. Pope is a member of the Congregational society.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.