USA > Massachusetts > Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1901 > Part 63
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Edward Belcher Reynolds was educated in Roxbury, attending both public and private schools. Entering the paper business in Bos- ton, he was engaged in that line of trade for eight years ; at the expiration of which time he became a commercial broker, following that busi- ness continuously and with success for the suc- ceeding thirty years. After retiring from mer- cantile business he took the treasurership of the Forest Hills Cemetery Corporation, which he held for eight years ; and in 1896 he engaged in the real estate and 'mortgage business. He is trus- tee of the estates of the late Horatio Davis and Joseph E. Billings, and is also a trustee and chairman of the Finance Committee of the Rox- bury Latin School. In addition to the duties of these trusteeships, he attends to a considerable amount of business relating to charitable insti- tutions, being president of the Roxbury Home for Children and Aged Women and treasurer of the Roxbury Charitable Society. He has been a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artil- lery Company for the past thirty-five years, and Bostonian Society, and is also a member of the John Eliot and Unitarian Clubs. His religious affiliations are with the First Church, Roxbury, of which for over thirty years he has been an active and valued member, having been con- nected with the Sunday-school, and having served as treasurer for eight years and as Dea- con for thirty years, at first under Dr. George Putnam and in these later years under Dr.
James De Normandie. He is now the senior Deacon.
On October 27, 1858, Mr. Reynolds married Mrs. Elizabeth Vila, a daughter of Benjamin C. Harris, of Providence, R.I., and widow of James Vila, Jr. They have had three children : Ed- ward Belcher, who was born November 9, 1860, and died July 14, 1864; Elizabeth, who was born September 18, 1866, and is the wife of Charles Griffin Child, an instructor in the University of Pennsylvania ; and Ella, who was born March 7, 1869, and resides at home with her parents.
ON. WESLEY AUSTIN GOVE, the well-known East Boston coal mer- chant, was born in Boston, Septem- ber 9, 1835, son of Austin and Louise (Whitney) Gove. His grandfather was Nathaniel Gove ; and he is a descendant of John Gove, a turner, of Cambridge, supposed to have been a son of John, of Charlestown, and brother of Edward Gove, who settled at Hampton.
Jonathan Gove, born in Cambridge in 1682, son of John, of that place, by his second wife, Mary Woodhead, married in 1706 Lydia, daughter of Deacon Samuel Cooper, and about 1730 removed to Weston. His eldest son, Deacon John Gove, born in 1707, married Tabitha Livermore, daughter of Deacon Thomas Livermore, of Waltham, and settled in Lincoln. Their third son, Nathaniel Gove, of Lincoln, Mass., born in 1749, married June 23, 1772, Elizabeth Adams, a descendant of George Adams, an early settler of Watertown.
Nathaniel Gove, Jr., son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth, was born in August, 1774. He married for his first wife Jane Stone, of Fram- ingham, and for his second wife he married her sister Abigail. His last days were spent in Framingham. Among his children were: Wesley, born in 1797; John, born in ISO1 ; Sophia, born in 1803; and Austin, born in Lincoln in 1812.
Austin Gove, son of Nathaniel and Jane (Stone) Gove, settled in Boston, and in IS45 established the coal business in East Boston, which is now carried on by his son and grand- sons. He was an energetic and self-reliant business man, able, honorable, and progressive,
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and one of the pioneer handlers of anthracite coal in this locality. He married Louise A. Whitney, daughter of Nathan and Martha (Stearns) Whitney. His death occurred on October 13, 1885.
Wesley A. Gove was educated in the Boston public schools and at the Wilbraham (Mass.) Academy. He began his business life in the employ of Aaron R. Gay, the stationer, and subsequently became a clerk in a clothing store carried on by his uncle, John Gove. Admitted by his father as junior partner in 1858, he rapidly developed those sterling qualities which have ever since characterized his business un- dertakings. During the last years of his father's life he assumed almost the entire re- sponsibility of the firm's affairs, and, succeeding to the business after his father's death, he car- ried it on alone until 1895, when he admitted his two sons to partnership. The yards of the firm are conveniently located for the direct dis- charge of cargoes, having facilities for the un- loading of several vessels at the same time. They also have a yard at Winthrop Bridge and another in Central Square. They handle an average of fifty thousand tons per year, a con- siderable portion of which is supplied to tow- boats and steamships; and they employ thirty- five men and twenty-six horses.
Mr. Gove has also become prominently iden- tified with several other important enterprises, being at the present time vice-president of the First Ward National Bank, a trustee of the East Boston Savings Bank, and a director of the Erie Telephone Company, the East Boston Land Company, the Pioneer Gold Mining Com- pany, the Boston Cripple Creek Gold Mining Company, and president of the Rising Sun Street Lighting Company.
Enlisting in 1862 as a private in the Forty- first Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer In- fantry, afterward the Third Massachusetts Cav- alry, he was a prisoner of war, confined for three months at Andersonville, was under fire at Charleston, was wounded and taken prisoner at Port Hudson, and retired from the service with the rank of Captain, being honorably dis- charged May 15, 1865. He was a member of the lower house of the Legislature in 1869-71, a State Senator in 1885-86, and a member of
the Boston Board of Aldermen in 1890. In politics he is a Republican. He is a member of Mount Tabor Lodge, F. & A. M. ; St. John's Chapter, William Parkman Commandery, K. T., and has taken thirty-two degrees in that order ; and is also a member of Zenith Lodge, No. 42, I. O. O. F.
Mr. Gove and Miss Mary Jane Kelley, daughter of William and Jane (Merrill) Kelley, of East Boston, were married on September 9. 1860. Their children are: William Austin, born March 25, 1861 ; Robert James, May 22, 1863; Louise Jane, January 21, 1866; Alice May, May 4, 1869; and Wesley Alfred, April 6, 1876. William A. Gove is married and has two children, and Wesley A. Gove is married and has one child. The family attend the Saratoga Street Methodist Church.
ACOB WARREN BERRY, junior mem- ber of the well-known firm of T. A. Holt & Co., was born January 29, 1844, in North Andover, then called Andover, and is the only surviving son of Daniel G. Berry.
His paternal grandfather, Elijah Berry, was a son of Bartholomew Berry and grandson of Joseph Berry, of Salem. Bartholomew, born in 1734, married, it is said, Elizabeth Hayward. He had three sons : Nehemiah, who married Patty Upton; Elijah; and Andrew. Elijah Berry married in 1800 Nabby, daughter of Jabez, Jr., and Nabby (Graves) Hayward. She was a sister of Jabez Hayward, third ; Na- thaniel ; Harry, who spelled the name Howard ; Benjamin, of Andover; Eunice, who married Joshua Putnam, of North Reading ; and Mrs. Bethiah Foster, of Andover. Nabby Graves was a daughter of Daniel, second, and Sarah (Upton) Graves, a sister of Captain Daniel Graves, and on the maternal side grand-daugh- ter of Ebenezer and Sarah (Goodell) Upton, all of North Reading.
Daniel G. Berry was born on October 21, 1818, in North Andover, then Andover, and is still a resident of that town, being a vener- able and respected citizen. He has been engaged in farming during the active years of his life, and has also dealt extensively in wood and
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lumber. His first wife, Susan Berry, daughter of Jacob Berry, a blacksmith in North Andover, was born September 21, 1824, and died January 29, 1875. She was the mother of two children, namely : Jacob Warren, the special subject of this sketch; and Daniel Putnam Berry, who died in early manhood. Mr. Berry married for his second wife January 10, 1876, Sarah Starrett.
Jacob Warren Berry obtained his education in the public schools of Andover and at the private school of his uncle, Hiram Berry, a well-known instructor of that day. In 1862 he enlisted in Company K, Eighth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, under Captain A. G. Allen, of Danvers, and Colonel Coffin, of Newburyport. In December, 1862, the regiment was ordered to Newbern, N.C., where it remained until the following June, after which it was ordered to Baltimore, thence to Maryland Heights, and from there to Gettysburg, where it became a part of Reynolds's corps, and fought in the important battle of July 2 and 3, 1863. At the expiration of his term of enlistment, in August, 1863, Mr. Berry returned to Andover and soon began his mercantile career, accepting a position with one of his army comrades, F. M. Putnam, of Ballardvale, remaining with him as a clerk in his grocery store six months, and from that time until 1870 being employed as a clerk by Abbott & Holt, grocers, at Andover. Forming then a partnership with Mr. John H. Clary, of Merri- mac, Mass., he engaged in business as a dealer in groceries of all kinds under the firm name of Clary & Berry, continuing five years, when the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent. Returning to Andover, Mr. Berry entered the employ of Mr. Holt, and five years later assumed an interest in the business, becoming junior member of the enterprising firm of T. A. Holt & Co., general merchants, which has a large and lucrative trade in Andover and also conducts an extensive business in North Andover. He is a comrade of the General William F. Bartlett Post, No. 99, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is a Past Commander, Adjutant, and Aide-de-camp to the Commander-in-chief. He belongs also to the Andover Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Andover, and is an official member of the R. A. He is an active member of the Old
South Church, of which he is also treasurer, hav- ing held that office for the past twelve years.
On June 28, 1866, Mr. Berry married Anna Josephine, daughter of Moses and Caroline (Abbott) Clement, of North Andover. Mr. and Mrs. Berry have two children now living, namely : Anna Frances, born July 14, 1868 ; and Fred- erick Putnam, born November 29, 1870. A younger daughter, Susie Warren, born August 12, 1875, died in childhood. Anna Frances Berry, after attending the public schools of Andover, completed her course of study in Bos- ton, and is now residing with her parents. Frederick Putnam Berry received his elemen- tary education in the public schools, and subse- quently attended the Punchard School, Andover, Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College in Bos- ton, and a commercial school in Lawrence, where he is now successfully engaged in the furniture business. On June 5, 1895, he married Lucy Adele Marston, of North Andover, a daughter of J. Byron Marston. They have one child, Carl Marston, born February 7, 1898.
INTHROP BUTLER, M.D., of Vine- yard Haven, town of Tisbury, Dukes County, was born in this village, June 25, 1838, son of Matthew Pease and Martha Allen (Robinson) Butler. He is a lineal de- scendant in the eighth generation of Nicholas Butler, who came to America from County Kent, England, in 1637, accompanied by his wife, Joyce, three children, and five servants, resided for a time in Dorchester, and in 1651 removed to Martha's Vineyard. John, son of Nicholas, was constable in 1658. His son, John Butler, Jr., married Priscilla, daughter of Nich- olas Norton, and was the father of Simeon, who married Hannah Cheney, and was Dr. Butler's progenitor in the fourth generation. Elijah Butler, son of Simeon and Hannah, married Thankful Smith, and continued the line through his son, Elijah Butler, second, born in 1738, who married Jane Kelly, of Edgartown, they subse- quently removing to Farmington, Me. Elijah and Jane Butler were the parents of Samuel, Dr. Butler's grandfather, who carried on a tan- nery at Farmington, as his father had done
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before him. Samuel Butler married Mary Pease, a native of Martha's Vineyard.
Matthew Pease Butler, father of Dr. Butler, was born in Farmington, Me., and was reared and educated in that State. When a young man he came to Martha's Vineyard and taught school in Chilmark. Later on he engaged in the provision business here, which he continued for a number of years .. The latter part of his life he spent retired, his death occurring at the age of seventy-six. His wife, Martha, was born in Chilmark, and was a daughter of John and Jane (Allen) Robinson. She was a descendant of the Rev. John Robinson, pastor of the Pil- grims' church at Leyden, Holland, whose son Isaac was the first progenitor of the family in America, coming to Plymouth in 1631, and in 1639 removing to Barnstable. Isaac Robinson was twice married, first to Margaret Hanford and second to Mary Faunce. His son John, by his first wife, married Elizabeth Weeks. Their son Timothy married Mehitable Weeks and transmitted the line through his son Thomas, who married Mary Robinson, whose son Zeph- aniah married twice, first Anna Hatch and second Jedediah West. Shadrach, son of Zeph- aniah by his first wife, married Deborah Robin- son. Their son John married Jane Allen, and John and Jane were the parents of Martha Allen Robinson, mother of Dr. Butler.
The Allens also trace back through a long line of ancestry. Jane Allen, Dr. Butler's grand- mother, was a direct descendant of James Allen, a native of England, who was one of the early settlers of Martha's Vineyard, and who died in Tisbury in 1714. James Allen and his wife reared seven children. The next in line of descent was his son James, second, who was followed by his son Sylvanus, who married Jane Holmes. James, third, son of Sylvanus, mar- ried Martha Athearn; and their son William and his wife, Love Coffin, were the parents of Jane Allen above mentioned.
Dr. Butler's parents reared three children - Winthrop, Leander, and Jane Allen Butler - of whom Dr. Butler is the only one living.
Winthrop Butler received his elementary edu- cation in the schools of Vineyard Haven and subsequently attended a private school in Mid- dleboro. He then turned his attention to the
study of medicine, which he carried on under the instruction of his uncle, Dr. Samuel Wiswell Butler, of Newport, R.I., and later at the Har- vard Medical School, entering in 1859 and remaining until April, 1862. In that year he entered the United States service as assistant surgeon in the volunteer navy, and served under Farragut in the West Gulf Blockading Squadron and under Dahlgren in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
He continued in the service until November 25, 1865, when he received honorable discharge. In the spring of 1866 he was graduated from the Harvard Medical School and commenced the practice of his profession in Groveland, Mass. He remained there one year, and then removed to Vineyard Haven, where he has since resided. One of the most popular physi- cians on the island, he has a good practice and is widely known and respected. He is a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the South Bristol Medical Society, and the American Medical Association, and belongs also to the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, G. A. R.
Dr. Butler was married in 1863 to Adelaide Howland, a native of Vineyard Haven, in the town of Tisbury, and a daughter of John and Rebecca (Crowell) Howland. Mrs. Butler traces her descent on the paternal side from John Howland, one of the " Mayflower " pas- sengers.
ERIAH TILTON HILLMAN, at- torney-at-law, Edgartown, Mass., now serving his twelfth year as Reg- ister of Probate and Insolvency for Dukes County, was born in the town of Chil- mark, Martha's Vineyard, January 28, 1843, and is the son of Owen and Charlotte (Tilton) Hillman, and a lineal descendant of John Hill- man, whose name appears as a grantor on a deed dated 1693 and recorded in the Registry of Deeds for Dukes County, in Book No. 1, page 258, and the name of his son, John, Jr., appears in a deed recorded in 1723 in Book No. 4. page 323.
The name of Benjamin Hillman, son of the second John, appears in a deed recorded in
B. T. HILLMAN.
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1719 in Book No. 4, page 323. He married at Dartmouth, May 15, 1722, Susannah Samp- son, daughter of Joseph Sampson. Her father was a son of James Sampson and grandson of Henry Sampson, who was a youthful member of the "Mayflower " company of Pilgrims in 1620. Henry Sampson married February 6, 1635-6, Ann Plummer. He died in Duxbury, December 24, 1684. His son James, born be- fore 1650 in Duxbury, removed to Dartmouth before 1686, and died there in 1718.
Benjamin Hillman died April 22, 1745. His will appears in the Probate Records for Dukes County dated March 26, 1745, in Book 3, page 178. Benjamin Hillman, Jr., son of Benjamin and Susannah, and great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, served in the Revolutionary War under Major Bassett, in Captain Russell's company. (See Revolution- ary Roll, State Archives, Boston, vol. xxxvi., folio 188.) He was a farmer and a lifelong resident of Martha's Vineyard. He married Abigail Manter. His will appears in Book 7, page 82, Probate Records for Dukes County.
Owen Hillman, son of Benjamin, Jr., and grandfather of Beriah T., was a master mariner for a number of years, and later a pilot. He married Polly Norton, of Edgartown; and they reared a large family.
Owen Hillman, Jr., father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Chilmark, January 12, 1804. He commenced going to sea at the age of fourteen years, in the whaling service, and rose through the different grades of that ser- vice until he became a master mariner. His wife, Charlotte Tilton, a native of Chilmark, was a daughter of Beriah and Lydia (Butler) Tilton, and on both sides she came of long lines of Colonial ancestry.
The will of Samuel Tilton is recorded in the Probate Records for Dukes County of 1718. The next in line of descent was his son Will- iam, whose will is in the Probate Records, Book 3, page 251. The will of William Til- ton's son Beriah is recorded in Book 6, page 199; and that of his grandson, William, sec- ond, is in Book 9, page 342. Beriah Tilton, son of the second William and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a farmer. The first William Tilton married Bathsheba May- .
hew, daughter of Thomas Mayhew, who was son of Matthew, Matthew being son of Thomas, second, who was son of Governor Thomas Mayhew.
Owen Hillman, Jr., died in Chilmark, Octo- ber 10, 1873, in his seventieth year; and his wife died February 5, 1882, at the age of seventy-five. They reared six children : Caro- line W., Francis B. T., Warren T., Beriah T., Zachariah, and Charlotte J.
Beriah T. Hillman received his elementary education in the district school of his native town and in the Dukes County Academy, and in 1861 entered the State Normal School at Bridgewater. In August of the following year, discontinuing his studies, he enlisted for nine months in Company K, Forty-third Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, and sailed on the trans- port "Mississippi " to Newbern, N.C. With his regiment he participated in the battles of Kinston, Whitehall, and Goldsboro. When the regiment was on its way home to be mus- tered out, it arrived in Baltimore, July 3, 1863 (the time of the battle of Gettysburg) ; and he was one of two hundred of his regiment who voluntarily went to the front, to Harper's Ferry, and remained there for about two weeks on guard duty, until they were ordered home. They were discharged on the 30th of August, 1863. Mr. Hillman then returned to Massa- chusetts, and resumed his studies at the Bridgewater Normal School, continuing there until the summer of 1864. On July 2 of that year he enlisted as a private in Company C, Sixtieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volun- teers, for one hundred days. He joined the company at Brockton, and was promoted to the position of First Sergeant. On the 31st of July he was commissioned Second Lieutenant, in which rank he served until the month of November. Soon after, being appointed Lieu- tenant, he was sent with the regiment to Indi- anapolis to guard rebel prisoners confined there. He was honorably discharged in No- vember of that year, and returned home. After teaching one term of school in Easton, Bristol County, in the summer of 1865 he re- sumed his studies at the Normal School at Bridgewater, and was graduated in the fall of that year. He then turned his attention to
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teaching, and taught successively in Chilmark, in the Boston Farm School on Thompson's Island, in Barnstable, and in Quincy. After this he was engaged for a short time in mer- cantile business at West Tisbury.
He served as a member of the School Com- mittee for six years, three years in Chilmark and three years in Edgartown. In 1874 he was chosen Town Treasurer of Chilmark to fill out the unexpired term of Benjamin Mantor, de- ceased, and was afterward annually elected to that office for fifteen years. Mr. Hillman was elected a member of the Massachusetts Legis- lature from Dukes County in 1874 and again in 1885. During the first term he was on the Committee on Fisheries, and during the second on the Committee on Education. In 1887 he was appointed Trial Justice for Dukes County for three years. In March, 1889, he was ap- pointed Register of Probate and Insolvency to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of Hebron Vincent; and in the fall of that year and again in 1893-98 he was elected to the same office. In 1893, having given his atten- tion previously for some time to the study of law, he was admitted to the bar, and has since continued to practise his profession. In 1898 he was made special Justice of the District Court of Dukes County.
In politics Mr. Hillman is a Republican. He belongs to Oriental Lodge, F. & A. M., of Edgartown, and to Henry Clay Wade Post, No. 201, G. A. R., of which he is Past Com- mander. A member of the Methodist Epis- copal church, he has served therein as class leader, steward, and superintendent of the Sunday-school. Mr. Hillman has discharged the duties of his varied official positions with such judgment and fidelity, as to inspire con- fidence and respect.
On August 7, 1867, Mr. Hillman was mar- ried to Miss Abby Buffum Pierce, a daughter of Horace M. and Anna H. (Maxey) Pierce. Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hillman, and six are now living ; namely, Anna Helen, Horace Owen, Fannie Beal, Ar- thur Beriah, Walter Pierce, and Charlotte. Anna Helen is now the wife of Henry E. Cottle, and has two children - Ethel W. and William E. Horace Owen married Henrietta
L. Norton, and has one child, Mildred. Fan- nie Beal married William P. Howard.
OSEPH HENRY WALKER, LL. D., statesman and financier, has been a resi- dent of Worcester, Mass., since 1843, when he came here with his parents, Joseph and Hannah Thayer (Chapin) Walker. He was born December 21, 1829, in Boston, the temporary home of his father's family; but his early years were mostly passed in Hopkin- ton, Middlesex County, where he received his elementary education in the public schools. That he is of substantial, well-rooted New England stock, numbering among his ancestors early and influential planters of the Massachu- setts Bay Colony, may be gathered from the records published in various town histories, notably that of Milford. From these it ap- pears that on the paternal side he is of the ninth generation from Richard Walker, of Lynn, 1630, later a Captain of the militia, in 1638-39 a member of the "Military Company of the Massachusetts," now the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and in 1641, 1648, and 1649 Representative to the General Court. . The line of descent is : Captain Rich- ard1; Samuel,2 of Woburn; Israel 3; Henry 4; Henry,s of Hopkinton, who perished in the Cuban expedition of 1740; Solomon,6 a soldier in the French and Indian War, who married Sarah Bullard, of Framingham ; Joseph,7 born in 1760, married Mehetabel Gibbs; Joseph, $ born in 1804, who married Hannah T., daugh- ter of Eli and Libby (Thayer) Chapin.
Mr. Walker's maternal grandfather, Eli Chapin,6 was the son of Lieutenant Ephraim, 5 a lineal descendant, through Joseph, + Captain Leth, 3 Josiah 2 ("an eminent citizen of Mendon town"), of Samuel Chapin,' immigrant, of Roxbury, 1636, who with his wife, Cicely, later settled in Springfield, and was the father of the family of this name.
Shoe manufacturing may be set down as the hereditary occupation of this line of the Walker family. Joseph Walker, Sr., is said to have been the first in the country to use, instead of thread in making boots and shoes, wooden pegs, which were of his own invention. llis son
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Joseph, father of the subject of this sketch, removed to Worcester in 1843, and here estab- lished himself as a shoe manufacturer.
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