USA > Massachusetts > Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1901 > Part 21
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wife, Eliza, who was a daughter of Christoph :: and Jemima Mitchell, died also at the age . : seventy-five. They had eight children :
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namely, Alexander M., Charles M., Eliza M., Andrew M., Mary . B., Christopher M., Seth I., and one child that died in infancy.
Andrew M. Myrick was brought up and edu- cated in Nantucket. For seven years, when a young man, he dealt in groceries and coal. He then engaged in the auction and commis- sion business, which he has carried on up to the present time very successfully. During this long period of activity he has witnessed an almost entire change in the business per- sonnel of the island. Many have come and gone; and nearly all the old familiar faces have passed away, he himself being one of the very few links now remaining to connect the present with the former generation. Mr. Myrick has often been selected as administra- tor of estates. For a number of years he was a director in the Nantucket Institution for Sav- : ings. He is now the treasurer of the parish of the Second Congregational Meeting-house (Unitarian), and also, as above mentioned, of the Nantucket Gas Light Company. He cast his first Presidential vote for Henry Clay in 1844, but has been a Republican since the formation of that party. He served several years as Selectman and County Commissioner, and also as Overseer of the Poor and a mem- ber of the School Committee.
Mr. Myrick was married in 1844 to Louise Thompson, a native of Nantucket, and a daughter of James and Diana (Gibbs) Thomp- Mr. and Mrs. Myrick have reared six children; namely, Harrison, Eliza, George, John, Mary L., and Alexander Myrick.
APTAIN JOSEPH MITCHELL, for- merly a well-known resident of Nan- tucket, was born here in the year 1810. At an early age he began a sailor's life; and, becoming an experienced and skilful navigator, he commanded different ves- sels in the merchant marine service. He transported the first steam boiler ever taken to San Francisco, whither he made many trips tia Cape Horn, and in later years one over l.und. Although he never settled in Califor- nia, he was interested in various business enterprises there in the days of its early pros-
perity ; and, possessing sound judgment and more than ordinary ability as a financier, he made money rapidly. He was very generous with his means, and ever ready to help the poor ; and his death, which occurred January 5, 1885, was deeply regretted, not only by his numerous friends in his own station of life. but also by many whom he had assisted in time of trouble. After his retirement from the sea he settled in Nantucket, where he took an active interest in public affairs, was called upon to fill various local offices of trust, and was three times elected to the State Legisla- ture.
Captain Mitchell was twice married, and is survived by his second wife, whose maiden name was Susan R. Hallett. His first wife, Elizabeth Ray, died, leaving two children: George Frederick, now a resident of Somer- ville, Mass. ; and Elizabeth F .. now Mrs. Charles Goodsell, of Brooklyn, N. Y.
MRS. SUSAN R. HALLETT MITCHELL occupies a fine old colonial residence in her native town of Nantucket. Her parents were Isaac, Ir .. and Julia Kimball (Sprague) Hallett. The first progenitors of the Halletts in this vicin- ity, it is said, were early colonists who came from the Isle of Wight. Mrs. Mitchell's pa- ternal grandfather, Isaac Hallett, Sr., who was a native and lifelong resident of Barnstable County, this State, married Ruth Sears, and reared eight children, five sons and three daughters; namely, Josiah, Isaac, William, Allen, Reuben, Olive, Ruth, and Lavinia. The sons all came to Nantucket; and three of them - Isaac, William, and Reuben - settled here permanently.
Isaac Hallett, Jr., followed the occupation of carpenter and builder in Nantucket for a number of years, and then gave his attention to farming, which occupation he continued until his death, at the age of seventy-five. His wife, Mrs. Julia K. Sprague Hallett, was born in Bath, Me., her parents, Nathaniel and Susan Sprague, being natives of Duxbury. Mass. She died at the age of sixty-four, hav- ing reared two children, namely: Sarah R .. now Mrs. Mitchell; and James Hervey, who died when thirty-eight years old.
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The subject of this sketch made her home with her parents until her marriage on April 18, 1880, to Captain Joseph Mitchell, who was for many years one of Nantucket's best-known citizens. Since his death, on January 5, 1885, she has resided in Nantucket most of the time, having a pleasant home here, but spending a part of each year in the enjoyment of travel.
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OLAND WORTHINGTON, some- time Collector of the port of Boston, for many years proprietor and pub- lisher of the Boston Traveller, and one of the leading newspaper men in New England, highly influential in State and na- tional politics, was a native of Agawam, Hampden County, Mass , born September 22, 1817, but passed the greater part of his active life in Boston, where he died at his home in the Roxbury district, March 20, 1898.
He belonged to one of the old Colonial fam- ilies of the Connecticut valley, being a de- scendant in the sixth generation of Nicholas Worthington, who came over from England about the middle of the seventeenth century, and died at Hatfield, Mass., September 6, 1683. His lineage (as we gather from Amer- ican Ancestry, vol. vii. ) was: Nicholas.' Jonathan, 2 Jonathan, 3 Jonathan, ' Jonathan,3 Roland.6 Nicholas Worthington married about 1668 Sara, widow of John White, Jr., and daughter of Thomas Bunce, of Hartford, Conn. She died in 1676, leaving three chil- dren; and her husband married a second wife, Susanna, who also bore him three children. Jonathan,2 born in Hatfield, married Eliza- beth Scott. Jonathan,3 born in 1715 in Hat- held, married Mary Puchase and settled in Agawam. Jonathan,+ born at Agawam in 1743, married Mary Burbank. Jonathan, 5 born September 2, 1779, married first Phoebe Smith, and married, second, her sister Fanny. He was an intelligent, practical farmer and a holder of local public offices.
Roland was one of a family of eight chil- dren. He was brought up on the home farm, and learned his carly lessons, in the three "R's," at the village school, which he left at the age of twelve to join the ranks of the
workers. In March, 1837, having been for some years self-supporting and self-educating, young Worthington came to Boston, and, securing a position in the business depart- ment of the Advertiser, then under the edi- torial charge of Nathan Ilale, the leading daily paper of New England, applied himself diligently, rendering efficient service and fit- ting himself to enter upon his subsequent successful career as a publisher. In 1843. his health becoming impaired from overwork, in order to recuperate he took a trip to the Mediterranean shores, afterwards visiting New Orleans, and spent the following winter in the South, becoming acquainted with the people and their institutions, peculiar and otherwise, returning by way of the Mississippi valley and Chicago, then in its infancy.
Returning to Boston in January, 1845, he assumed the management of the Daily Evening Traveller, then in the third month of its exist- ence as such, its weekly issue being the Weekly Traveller, and its semi-weekly the American Traveller, formerly a weekly dating from January 1, 1825. Yellow journalism was at that time happily unknown. Among its decorous and sedate contemporaries of the American Athens the Traveller, edited by the Rev. George Punchard and Deacon Ferdi- nand Andrews of the Pine Street Church (Congregational), had taken its place as a news sheet, stanchly abiding by the orthodox standards in religion and morality, and a firm advocate of temperance. The newspaper life of those days has been described as a "stately and slow-going affair," one mark of the digni- fied reticence on the part of the publishers being that newsboys were not allowed to cry their papers on the street. The new pub- lisher of the Traveller, a young man of orig- inal ideas, with the requisite force and daring to put his fresh plans into execution, saw his opportunity, and was the author of various in- novations in the journalistic line. When Daniel Webster in August, 1848, made his great political speech at Marshfield, he had it reported in full by an expert stenographer, whom he himself drove down to Marshfield for the purpose, had it at once printed in the Traveller, issued as an extra, which had an
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AlWorthington
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immense sale the next morning, not without vocal advertising on the part of the street venders, we may be sure. Mr. Worthington was the first to see the importance of the news of the dethronement of Louis Philippe, also an event of 1848, and to disseminate it through his paper. It was from the Traveller office that daily bulletins were first issued. During the Civil War great enterprise was shown in collecting war news for the Traveller. The price of the paper was advanced first to four cents and then to five cents. Curtis Guild was managing editor of the Traveller, and his successor was Deacon Andrews, who was succeeded as managing editor by Samuel Bowles. In 1857 disastrous result followed the attempt of Samuel Bowles, who was editor of the Traveller from April 13 to August 10, to unite with it three other Boston papers, and issue a quarto morning paper like the New York Tribune. Mr. - Bowles went to Springfield, leaving Mr. Worthington alone to struggle with the debt he had incurred by his ill-devised project.
Mr. Worthington was one of the original Free Soilers; and, when the Republican party was formed, he promptly stepped into the ranks, taking with him his paper, which, al- though he was not a writer, voiced his opinions, especially in political matters, as the Trilnine did Horace Greeley's. His clear- ness and foresight in scanning the political horizon was manifested in many instances. The Traveller, it is said, was the first paper to suggest the nomination of John Albion An- drew as the successor to Nathaniel P'. Banks as Governor of the Commonwealth, and in 1879 to bring forward the name of John D. Long as a candidate for the same high office, a still greater evidence, perhaps, of the sagac- ity directing its course being its persistent advocacy of George D. Robinson in 1883 as a competitor of General Butler.
A Republican of the stalwart type in 1880, Mr. Worthington stoutly championed Chester A. AArthur in the Presidential campaign which resulted in the election of that gentle- man as Vice-President on the ticket with James A. Garfield. On May 27, 1882, he wis appointed by President Arthur Collector
of the port of Boston. He remained in office till December 1, 1885.
It has been said of him that "he proved a most efficient Collector, that he conducted the business of the office with an eye to the ser- vice of the government and the business com- munity which had to do with the custom- house, and never allowed partisan considera- tions to interfere with the management of the large force of employees under his orders," thus carrying out the principles "of true civil service reform."
On May 1, 1890, he sold the Traveller and retired from active business. Mr. Worthing- ton was for many years a member of the Re- publican State Committee. He served as a Representative in the Legislature in 1859 and as Alderman of Boston in 1873 and 1874. He was a trustee of the Five Cents Savings Bank. He held the rank of Colonel on Gov- ernor Claflin's staff. He was a member of the New England ITistoric Genealogical So- ciety. He attended the First Church of Rox- bury (Unitarian ).
Mr. Worthington lived to the age of eighty years, ve months, and twenty-six days, his dea' i occurring, as above noted, March 20, 18 ,8, at his home on Hawthorne Street, Bost n, Roxbury district. He was married April 26, 1853, to Abbie Bartlett Adams, daughter of James and Mary (Will- iams) Adams, of Roxbury. Mrs. Worthing- ton and three children - Julia Hill, Roland, Jr., and Fannie Smith Staniford - survive. Edward A. Worthington, the second son, died in 1862.
RTHUR ELLIOT ROBINSON, a re- spected citizen of Boston, now retired from active business life, was born in Thomaston, Me., May 7, 1828, being a son of Captain George and Susannah (Norwood) Robinson and a representative of the fifth generation of his family in the State of Maine. Ilis first ancestor in America was Dr. Moses Robinson, a physician of the Scotch-Irish emigration, who, after living for a time at Cushing, Me., was among the earliest settlers of the town of Warren, Me. He was
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buried at Warren in the first graveyard by the old Presbyterian meeting-house. Of his nine children the second-born and the next in this line of descent was Moses, second, who mar- ried a Miss McFarlane, and lived and died at Cushing, Me. It is said that Moses Robin- son, second, took part in the struggle for American independence. Moses Robinson appears as a Sergeant in Major Benjamin Bur- ton's company in 1780, and as holding the same rank under Major Burton, May 1, 1781, to November 4, 1781 (State archives).
Joseph Robinson, son of the second Moses, above mentioned, was born in February, 1755. He married Jane Lewis, and they lived in St. George, Me., where he died March 4, 1843. He had nine children : Mary, who died young ; Andrew; Jane; Captain George; Margaret ; Elizabeth ; Rosanna; Joseph; and Edward.
Captain George Robinson, son of Joseph and father of the subject of this sketch, was born April 14, 1784, at St. George, Me. In his boyhood he began a seafaring life and gradually worked his way up in the service until he became master of a vessel. Subse- quently retiring from the sea, he engaged in the tanning and currying business at Thomas- ton, Me., and later in the mercantile business at the same place. In early manhood profess- ing Whig principles, he subsequently joined the Republican party on its formation. In Masonry he advanced as far as the R. A. Chapter. His death, which took place July 16, 1865, at Thomaston, Me., was much re- gretted by a wide circle of friends. Captain Robinson married Miss Susannah Norwood, of Gloucester, Mass., and a remarkable inci- dent is that both husband and wife were born the same year, month, day, and hour. They were the parents of eleven children, as fol- lows: Eliza N., born July 7, 1806, married John Elliot, and died January 30, 1893- Oliver, born July 13, 1808, died July 5, 1819. Joel M. was born May 12, 1810. He married Ann Bourguin, of Boston, and died January 31, 1877, in East Cambridge. Irene, born August 27, 1812, who married Samuel Elliot and resided in Mobile, Ala., died in Florida, March 1, 1856. Albert, born May 12, 1814, married Mary E. Gault, of Boston, in 1835.
and died December 27, 1867. Isaac, ber .. November 9, 1816, died in infancy. Atien was born June 9, ISIS. He married Mar: A. Bates, of Boston, and died January 2f. 1895, in Dorchester. Susanna. born Ap ::: 23, 1820, married Joshua A. Fuller. as: died May 25, 1855. George Ingraham wis born June 10, 1822. He married Helen M. Stackpole, of Thomaston, and died January 13, 1885. Captain Edwin Adams was 5 :- December 31, 1824. , He married Ameli: Waldo on November 8, 1855, and died No- vember 23, 1894. Arthur Elliot was : ... May 7, 1828, at Thomaston. Susannah N :- wood Robinson was a daughter of Isaac ani Elizabeth Norwood. She died October 6. 1865, at Thomaston, Me., surviving her bes band less than three months.
Arthur E. Robinson was educated in the common schools of Thomaston and at Var- mouth Academy, Maine. In 1843. at the a == of fifteen, he went to East Cambridge, Mass . where he served a seven years' apprenticeship to the blacksmith's trade under his brother Joel. Subsequently he followed the trade :s a journeyman till 1855, when he removed :: South Boston and established himself in the iron and wheelwright business, thus contin- ing until June, 1883, when he retired with z competency. Mr. Robinson is a member ci St. Paul's Lodge, F. & A. M., joining === order in 1858; St. Matthew's Chapter. R. A. M. ; and St. Omar Commandery. K. T. Politically, he is a Republican.
He was married February 24. 1853, in B's- ton, to Miss Georgianna V. Woodward. w- was born on Traverse Street, Boston. April IE. 1830, one of seven children of Elisha and Hannah (English) Woodward. Mrs. Robin- son's father was a native of Petersham. Mass . and her mother was a representative of the o. : English family of Salem. Elisha Woodwar .. her grandfather on the paternal side, servei in the war for American independence ("State Archives of Massachusetts.") H =: first ancestor on the paternal side in this country was Nathaniel Woodward, who setti= : in Boston prior to 1634, and who was ai- mitted a freeman in 1637. Mr. Robin- : has had two children; namely, Arthur W.c .-
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ward and Alden Elliot, both of whom died in infancy. Mr. Robinson is the last survivor of his parents' family. In the enjoyment of good health and freedom from business cares, he may reasonably look forward to many added years of leisure and repose.
ON. CHARLES GIDEON DAVIS, Judge of the Third District Court, Plymouth, was born in this town, May 30, 1820, son of William and Joanna (White) Davis. On the paternal side he is of the fifth generation in descent from Thomas Davis, his immigrant progenitor, the line being: Thomas'; Thomas,? born in Albany, N. Y., in 1722: William, Sr.,3 born in Plymouth in 1758; William, Jr., + born in 1783; Charles Gideon.5 Thomas ' Davis set- tled in Albany and married Catherine Wen- dell, a descendant of Evert Jansen Wendell, the common ancestor of Wendell Phillips and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Thomas' removed to North Carolina. His son Thomas 2 came to Plymouth to be educated, and here married in 1753 Mercy Hedge, by whom he had seven children, as follows: Thomas, the eldest, was treasurer and receiver-general of Massachu- setts from 1792 to 1797, was president of an insurance company in Boston, and praised by his friend Josiah Quincy as the man who placed the finances of Massachusetts on a sound basis; Samuel, who never married, learned the trade of a silversmith, was re- markable for his knowledge of the Indian lan- guage and Indian names of places, received an honorary degree from Harvard in 1819, and died in 1828; Isaac P., who was a rope-maker by trade, had a rope walk in Boston on the site now occupied by the Public Garden, and supplied the United States government with cordage under contract; he served as a naval officer during the President's administration, was a noted art connoisseur and an intimate triend of Daniel Webster, the latter dedicat- ing to him a volume of his speeches; John, who was appointed by President Washington Comptroller of the United States Treasury, was also Judge of the United States for the District of Massachusetts; William, Sr., as
the grandfather of Judge Davis, is mentioned further below; Wendell, a lawyer residing is Sandwich, Mass., who graduated from Har- vard College in 1796, and who served as Sheriff of Barnstable County.
William Davis, Sr., was the first president of the I'lymouth Bank and first president of the Plymouth Agricultural Society. He mar- ried Rebecca Morton, daughter of Nathaniel Morton, of Plymouth, a descendant of George Morton, who came in the "Ann" in 1623. His children were: William, Jr., Judge Davis's father, who was born April 20, 1,83: Nathaniel M., a graduate of Harvard. born in 1785, of the class of 1804, a lawyer, and president of the Plymouth Bank, who mar- ried Harriet L., daughter of Judge Nahum Mitchell, of Bridgewater, Mass .: Thomas. born April 3, 1791; Elizabeth, who marriel for her first husband Alexander Bliss and for her second the historian, George Bancroft.
William Davis, Jr., engaged in mercantile business with his father when a young man. and followed it until his death, which oc- curred in 1824. His wife, Joanna, was a daughter of Captain Gideon White. of Nova Scotia, and a descendant of Peregrine White. who was born on the "Mayflower." She was the mother of five children, two of whom are living: Charles Gideon, the subject of this sketch; and the Hon. William Thomas Davis. of Plymouth, who was born March 3, 1822. The others were: Rebecca Morton, who mar- ried, first, Ebenezer G. Parker, and, second. George S. Tolman; Hannah White, wife i Andrew L. Russell; and Sarah, who died at the age of six years. Mrs. Joanna White Davis died in 1871, aged eighty-two years.
Charles Gideon Davis acquired his early ed- ucation at a private school in Hingham and at the Plymouth High School, completed his college preparations in Bridgewater. took his Bachelor's degree at Harvard in the class of 1840, and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He was also honored in college with a prize for a "Bowdoin Prize Dissertation." one for elocution, and a part at Commence- ment, a forensic upon the war between Eng- land and China, which was then in progress. llis legal studies in the office of the lon.
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Jacob HI. Loud, of Plymouth, were pursued at the Dane Law School of Harvard, and with Messrs. Hubbard and Watts, of Boston. Ad- mitted to the Plymouth County bar in 1843, he engaged in practice in Boston, first in com- pany with William 11. Whitman and later with George P. Sanger and Seth Webb, build- ing up a large general law business. In 1850 a serious bronchial affection necessitated his return to Plymouth, where his professional duties could be interspersed with outdoor exercise; and, purchasing a farm, he erected in 1852 the substantial residence which he has ever since occupied. Withdrawing en- tirely from office practice, he confined his legal efforts wholly to the trial of causes in the higher courts, figuring successfully in many important civil and criminal cases, from which he has derived a high reputation. In 1874 he was appointed Judge of the Third District Court of Plymouth County, in which capacity he is still serving ; and his long con- tinuance in office fully attests his judicial ability and impartiality.
An earnest abolitionist in slavery times, Judge Davis steadfastly refused his allegiance to any political party which attempted to evade that question. With John A. Andrew, Francis W. Bird, and others, he participated in the movement against the re-election of Robert C. Winthrop to Congress in 1846, and he was active in securing the first nomination of Charles Sumner for a seat in the national House of Representatives. In 1848 he at- tended the Whig national convention, but re- pudiated its platform and joined the Free Soil party. Ile was a delegate to the Constitu- tional Convention of 1853; chairman of the Republican State Committee for the years 1854 and 1855; was one of four from this State to attend the Pittsburg gathering which organized the national Republican party in 1856; and in June was a delegate to the Philadelphia convention which nominated John C. Fremont for the Presidency. In 1862 he was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, serving as chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture; was a trustee of the State Agricultural College from that year to 1887; and was appointed in 1862 by
President Lincoln Assessor of Internal Rev- enue, holding office until 1869. In 1872 he attended the Cincinnati convention, which nominated Horace Greeley for President, and for the next twenty-four years he affiliated with the Democratic party, being at one time a member of the State Committee and a candi- date for Representative to Congress. Since 1896 he has acted independently in politics, but was on the electoral ticket of the National Democratic party of 1896. Judge Davis was chosen an overseer of Harvard College in 1859. He was appointed a trustee of the Samoset House in 1850 and of the Pilgrim Society in 1853, holding the former trust un- til the hotel was sold, and the latter trust continuously to the present time. He has been a trustee of the Plymouth County Agri- cultural Society for twenty-three years and was its president for twenty years. He has erected a number of fine residences and busi- ness blocks in Plymouth, and has added much to the attractiveness of the town by setting out over four hundred elm-trees. For over twenty years he has been chairman of the Board of Examiners for admission to the Plymouth County bar. lle attends the Uni- tarian church. In 1869 he visited Europe.
On November 19, 1845, Judge Davis mar- ried Miss Hannah Stevenson Thomas, daugh- ter of Colonel John B. and Mary Howland (Le Baron) Thomas and a descendant of Will- iam Thomas, of Marshfield. They have two children living, namely: Joanna White, born August 10, 1855, who is the wife of Colonel Richard 11. Morgan, of New Bedford, Mass., and the mother of two children - Caroline and Charles Davis Morgan; and Charles Stevenson, born January 1, 1858, a leading attorney of l'lymouth, who married Lydia, daughter of John J. Russell, of that town, and has two children - Charles S. Davis, Jr., and Russell Davis.
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