USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Millbury > Centennial history of the town of Millbury, Massachusetts, including vital statistics, 1850-1899 > Part 33
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At the beginning of the Civil War, Mr. Simpson joined the First Regiment of Rhode Island Volunteer Militia, a three months' organ- ization, and went to the front as captain of the Woonsocket com- pany. He was in the first battle of the war where he distinguished
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himself for bravery. He returned with his company and began the manufacture of cotton goods in a small mill in the town of Franklin. In 1862, he moved to Millbury. During the Civil War, Captain Simpson raised a company of Millbury men and proceeded to Boston, but, owing to some misunderstanding with the authorities, the company was not accepted, so it returned home. (It is understood that preference was given to militia companies.)
In 1874, in company with the late John Rhodes and William Andrews, he purchased the Farnumsville Cotton Mills. In 1878, Andrews & Simpson bought Mr. Rhodes' interest, and conducted the mills until 1885, when the property was sold.
Captain Simpson was a man of great business tact, personally looking after his interest in his mills. He was at the office nearly every morning when the wheel started. He was prominent in town affairs. He served as a director of the Millbury National Bank. He was President of the Millbury Electric Light Company. He also served as chief engineer of the fire department for a number of years, a position which he filled with great credit to himself and to the town. He was very chari- table to the poor, and many a one in trouble has reason to thank him for his kind deeds. He gave liberally toward the building of the Baptist Church, and continued to be a generous supporter.
Captain Simpson was a member of Olive Branch Lodge, F. and A. M., of Tyrian Royal Arch Chapter, and of Worcester County Commandery of Knights Templars.
He married Maria Follett. They had two daughters,-one, the wife of S. N. Rogers; the other, the wife of W. G. Farnsworth. Captain Simpson died in Millbury in 1889.
(See "Industries on the Blackstone.")
AMOS SINGLETARY
Amos Singletary, son of John and Mary Grelee Singletary, was the first white person born in what is now the town of Millbury. In the old County-Bridge, or Providence street, burial place, there is a slate grave stone erected to his memory, on which there is inscribed, "Amos Singletary, died 1806." Mr. Singletary was an important person in the early history of Sutton. All the edu- cation that he received was acquired at home. For four years he was a member of the provincial Congress. His name appears frequently in transactions between the town of Sutton and the
i
JUDGE SAMUEL CHASE 1707 - 1800
DR. LEONARD SPAULDING 1816 - 1872
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state government during the time of the Revolutionary War. He was justice of the peace and quorum, and a bail commissioner. He was the father of two boys and seven girls and his son, Amos, was father of twelve children.
JOHN SINGLETARY
John Singletary and his wife, Mary Grelee, (as we learn from church records) joined The Church of Christ in Framingham, Mass., in the year 1710. He was dismissed from that church to Sutton, in 1720, and Mary Grelee, his wife, was transferred in 1721. It has been stated that Mr. Singletary came here from Haverhill, Mass., where he was born. His home was at the outlet of Singletary Lake which was named in honor of the family. He succeeded Ebenezer Daggett in developing the first industry in Millbury, a grist mill. He built the second industry, a saw mill, and also the third industry a grist-mill. The Singletarys became connected by marriage with many of the early families among whom may be mentioned the Stockwells, the Goodells, the Gales, the Goulds, the Dwinnels, and the Burnaps.
(See "Industries on Singletary Stream.")
Dr. LEONARD SPAULDING
(Taken largely from the funeral address delivered by the Rev. George A. Putnam and afterwards published.)
Dr. Leonard Spaulding was born in Carlisle, Mass., April 2, 1816. He received his academic education at Phillips Academy, Andover, but was obliged to relinquish his purpose of going to college on account of failing health. Arriving at the age of twenty- one, he went west, spending nearly four years in teaching. Return- ing, he commenced the study of medicine, taking his first course at Hanover, N. H., and graduating at Pittsfield, Mass., in 1843. He commenced to practice his profession in this town one year later, viz., 1844; since which time, until his decease, he has dwelt constantly here, so that residents of Millbury are familiar with his history.
Dr. Spaulding was most justly held in high esteem as a faithful, intelligent, and successful physician; a man of close observation, patient investigation, and good judgment. His reputation was founded on true merit and not on any groundless pretensions. His practice was characterized by great kindness, gentleness, and
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a tender regard for the feelings of his patients. About a month before he died, in speaking of his past life, he said, with tears starting in his eyes, "that which gives me the greatest pleasure in looking back is, that I have been kind to the poor ;- I have tried to be."
He had more than average intellectual ability, and was char- acterized by a practical common sense, great carefulness in form- ing his opinions, and a commendable candor and moral courage in expressing them. Though not prominent as an official, his position was one of much influence both in civil and eccelsiastical affairs. He had a strong social nature which with his other qual- ities, drew him to the people, and the people to him.
He might have stood up before the people and said, as ancient Samuel did, "Behold, here I am. Whom have I defrauded or whom have I oppressed?"
For fifteen years he held the office of clerk, and for seven years he was superintendent of the Sabbath School of the First Congre- gational Church. He was not demonstrative, in the usual sense of that word; not a great religious talker; the rather did he take on that type of piety which shows itself in loving mercy, doing justly, and walking humbly with God. He seldom spoke of his personal feelings. Even in his last days he seemed to shrink from drawing aside the veil to permit any one to go in with him where the secrets of his heart were kept.
He was a cherished and worthy member of the medical pro- fession, a skilful practitioner, a careful and candid counsellor in whom his patients found not only a sympathizing physician, but also a true friend. As a townsman he was a most excellent citizen, loyal and trustworthy, whose influence was strongly and widely felt, particularly in the school department, in which he was specially efficient. As a Christian gentleman he was one whose counsel was sought frequently and whose genial influence was more and more a blessing to those with whom he mingled.
Dr. Spaulding's home for many years was at the corner of West Main and Beach streets in Bramanville. His wife, a daughter of deacon Tyrus March, survived him for many years.
ITHAMAR STOWE
Ithamar Stowe came to Millbury from Grafton, Mass. He was at one time agent for Capt. Amasa Wood in his shoe factory at
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Thompson, Conn. For a year he was in charge of the factory at West Millbury. He was a man well acquainted with leather and its manufacture, as well as with agricultural matters. Later, Mr. Stowe owned the Tainter farm, which still remains in posses- sion of his descendants.
He was a remarkable all-round man. Upon the generation following his own he left the impression of being an elderly man with wonderful physical vitality for he would often be seen going from his farm to the Center on a dog trot.
He early identified himself with the Baptist Church in which he was a liberal giver. .
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CHAPTER XXXII INDEPENDENT SKETCHES, T-W
SAMUEL DAVENPORT TORREY
Samuel Davenport Torrey was born in Mendon, in 1789. William Torrey, a progenitor, was a conspicuous character in Massachusetts, being for many years a member of the House of Deputies (and always chosen clerk), a magistrate, and a captain of militia. He died in 1690. He was an educated man of affairs, having some knowledge of Latin and also fair literary ability, which appears through a printed essay on "The Futurities," a quaint production still extant.
He had three brothers who settled severally-Philip in Roxbury; James in Scituate, Plymouth Colony; and Joseph in Newport, Rhode Island. William's oldest son was the distinguished scholar and preacher, the Rev. Samuel Torrey, who lived in Weymouth and died there after a pastorate of fifty years. He was educated at Harvard College, and it is recorded that he subsequently twice declined the presidency of the college. He had also the unusual honor of preaching three "election sermons" before the "Great and General Court of Massachusetts." He left no descendants.
Samuel Davenport Torrey established himself early in life in Boston, in the West India trade, at No. 25 South Market Street, near Faneuil Hall. In 1831, his health being somewhat impaired and having acquired what he regarded as a competency, Mr. Torrey retired from business and located permanently in Millbury.
For forty-six years he was one of the substantial citizens of the town, bearing an important part in its affairs, and with those of the Second Congregational Church of which he was a member. Mr. Torrey was twice married. His first wife, Delia Chapin, died in 1821. In 1824, he married Susan Holman Waters, daughter of Asa Waters, Jr., and granddaughter of Colonel Jonathan Holman. Five children were born to them, four daughters and one son, the latter dying in infancy. The daughters were Delia Chapin, still
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living and unmarried; Louisa Maria, wife of Judge Alphonso Taft, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and mother of the honored ex-president of the United States, William Howard Taft; Susan Waters, who married Samuel A. Wood, once of Millbury and later of San Fran- cisco, Cal .; Anna Davenport, wife of Prof. Edward Orton, of the Ohio State University, and later state Geologist of Ohio.
Mr. Torrey was a man of marked individuality and great integ- rity of character, possessing thorough methods of business.
(See Genealogy.)
HENRY P. UPHAM
A Millbury boy, Henry P. Upham, has gained distinction in the Northwestern section of our country. He was born here in 1837 and was son of Joel W. Upham, a maker of water-wheels, who for some time resided in Millbury, but later moved to Worcester. At the age of twenty Henry went to Chicago and thence proceeded to St. Paul, which was at that time a fur trading post of some importance. He engaged in a small way in the lumber business in a mill of his own, but this was soon abandoned and as clerk he entered a St. Paul bank in which by his merits he rose to the posi- tion of president. He became one of the leading financiers in that city and the close friend of Mr. James J. Hill, the great railroad man of the Northwest.
Mr. Upham was much interested in historical matters. He has been president of the "Minnesota State Historical Society," governor of the "Society of Colonial Wars," member of the Mayflower descendants, and a "Son of the American Revolution." The "St. Paul Pioneer Press" of May 2, 1909, thus referred to him: "In the death of Henry P. Upham, the city has lost one who, throughout the greater part of its history, was a powerful factor in its development, and hundreds of those with whom he was brought into contact have lost a kindly friend. Identified, as he was, throughout his active career with the first founded and most conspicuous banking institution of the city, an institution that has always been recognized as one of the leading banks of the Northwest, Mr. Upham, for the greater part of his life, was regard- ed as the foremost banker of this section. As a citizen, Mr. Upham took a keen interest in every public project and exercised a great deal of influence upon the development of the community."
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NELSON WALLING
Nelson Walling, a descendant in the sixth generation of Thomas Walling, who lived at Providence, R. I., as early as 1651, was born at Burrillville, R. I., in 1813. The family was prominent in the early history of that city and of the adjacent towns.
In 1853, Mr. Walling moved to Millbury and built the mill which formerly stood on the location now occupied by the W. W. Windle Co. mill and for years he made this one of the leading industries on Singletary stream, manufacturing a superior quality of woolen cloth. He was contemporary with such manufacturers as John Rhodes, Mowry A. Lapham, Hosea Crane, and Horace Waters. (See Industries on Singletary stream.)
Mr. Walling was a man of few words, studious, and quiet in his manner. He apparently cared little for public office, but he was interested in the welfare of the community, especially having a concern for the large number of people in his employ. For a time Mr. Walling occupied a house opposite his mill, but later he pur- chased the estate formerly owned by 'Squire Clough R. Miles, which is still occupied by his family. Here he lived the life of a gentleman farmer, having cattle that were well-bred and owning a fine pair of black driving-horses that were widely known. He greatly improved the estate, for he found the yard intersected with the ditches and gullies of the old canal and on the corner of the street the old Canal Store stood in ruins. The house was lavishly furnished and the grounds were evenly graded.
Mr. Walling married, first, Eliza Sayles, of a Rhode Island family. Their children were Albert, who was drowned; Hosea; Martin; Caroline; Amelia; Antoinette; and Mary, who died young. Mr. Walling married, second, at Woonsocket, R. I., in June, 1854, Sarah Ann, daughter of Peter and Eliza (Hathaway) Place. Their children were Eliza, married George Clement; Anna Adele; and Sarah Hortense.
Mr. Walling died in Millbury in 1885.
ASA WATERS, THE FIRST
Nathaniel Waters (1671-1718) of Salem, in the year 1715, bought three thousand acres of the wilderness, within the territory that was to become the town of Sutton, but, dying three years later, he probably never lived here, and his land was divided
DEACON ASA WATERS 1742 - 1813
MRS. ASA WATERS, 1ST 1746 - 1828
-
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between his two sons, Nathaniel, Jr., and Jonathan (1715-1786), who had farms in the north part of the township. The home farm of the latter was on the east side of the road leading from Single- tary pond to West Millbury at the east end of the village. Prob- ably the site of the first house is marked by an old well. The present dwelling stands nearly opposite where a road branches to the westward. There for four generations lived a Jonathan Waters. They were descended from James Waters an iron mon- ger and citizen of London who died in that city and was buried in St. Botolph's parish, February 2, 1617, leaving a widow, Phoebe, daughter of George Manning, and a son, Richard. Among the manuscripts in the British Museum is a pedigree prepared by that George Manning showing his descent through eight generations from Symon Manning, who was a crusader to the Holy Land in the reign of Richard I. and who died before 1272. The widow Phoebe Waters married a widower, William Plasse, a gun maker, of London, who had a daughter, Rejoice Plasse. This family, Mr. and Mrs. Plasse and their two children, were in the migration that crossed the Atlantic before 1636 to the new plantation on the Massachu- setts Bay. Richard Waters married in London his step sister, Rejoice Plasse. William Plasse and his step-son followed the trade of gun making in Salem. A grandson of Richard2 Waters was the Nathaniel4 who bought Sutton land, and a grandson of the latter, and son of the first Jonathan5, was the Asa Waters6 who was born in the north parish of Sutton, January 27, 1742. He and his brother Andrus inherited the mechanical talent of their progenitor, Richard. Both were gun makers, and were among the first to perceive the industrial possibilities of the swiftly descending waters of Singletary brook. The two brothers estab- lished trip hammer works where the Holbrook Mill stands, or a little below, and forged gun barrels, scythes and other iron imple- ments.
One April night in 1775, Paul Revere's alarm that British troops were marching out from Boston to destroy military supplies at Concord was spread as fast as horses could travel to every town in the colony and at every one found companies, armed, disci- plined and officered, ready for the expected emergency. Like a swarm of angry hornets marched from every town its complement of minute men. Sutton sent seven companies. Asa Waters was lieutenant of a company from the north parish. The provincial
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troops surrounded Boston and the King's troops were besieged within the town. In the later part of the season he was lieutenant of Capt. Bartholomew Woodbury's company of Colonel Learned's Regiment, part of the besieging force. On April 4, 1776, he was commissioned First Lieutenant of Capt. Abijah Burbank's 13th company of the 5th Worcester County regiment.
Armories for the manufacture of firearms were very few in the colonies at the beginning of the Revolution and, as the importation of arms became very difficult, the work of the gun makers was therefore of the greatest value to the American cause. The iron ore was mined at Salisbury in the northwest corner of Connecticut, the pig iron carried across a rough country to Douglas where it was refined and thence carted to the Sutton Waters Armory to be made into the various metallic parts which were assembled to make up the completed gun. Andrus Waters died from exposure at the mines after two years, and was buried at West Point, with military honors, his death lamented as a public calamity.
Asa was left to pursue the business, which he did with vigor and success. This was the first armory where water power was employed in the making of guns.
Gun powder was as essential to the American cause as firearms and as difficult to obtain. The British in Boston could readily have dispersed their besiegers had they known how small was the supply of powder in the American army. October 18, 1776, the Massachusetts authorities appointed a committee to build a powder mill in Sutton, and appropriated £200 from the state treasury to construct it. Asa Waters was put in charge of its operation. The mill stood partly over the pond where the Winter store now is. A long row of pestles and mortars extended on each of its four sides, all worked by power from the Singletary. The difficulty was in finding the ingredients needed to make the explosive. In after years Mr. Waters was often heard to say, "that there was hardly a barn in Worcester county under which I have not bent my back scraping up saltpetre." He served on committees for the raising of troops and other patriotic efforts during the war, but following the evacuation of Boston his principal public service was in providing munitions of war, guns and gun powder.
He built himself a mansion on Elmwood Street where he lived the last twenty or thirty years of his life. (See Old Houses, p. 370).
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In his later years he was known as Deacon Waters. He was a large land owner and the registry of deeds shows he sold altogether more than 800 acres. He married, June 14, 1764, Sara Goodell, daughter of Capt. Samuel Goodell of Sutton. Oil portraits of himself and his wife were exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition. He died, Apr. 29, 1799. His grave in the West Millbury cemetery was visited in September, 1912, by his great-great-grandson, William Howard Taft, then President of the United States.
ASA WATERS, THE SECOND
Asa Waters, the second, was born in Sutton, November 2, 1769, probably in the house of his father, the first Asa Waters, at the southeast corner of West Main and Rhodes Streets. He developed, to a remarkable degree, skill and ingenuity in the trade which seemed hereditary in his family for several generations, that of gun making. He and his elder brother, Elijah, had learned that trade in the shop of their father on Singletary Stream. The brothers in 1797 purchased the neighboring water power on the Blackstone river. This purchase included the site of their future armory, and as well the gristmill long a landmark on the east side of Main Street and on the north bank of the river where the road crosses it, and also the land between the river and Elm Street as far east as the Cordis dam. They made guns, scythes, saw mills saws and like products.
In 1808 they built the armory which gave its name to the village and contributed so much to its prosperity. The same year they undertook their first contract with the national government to supply firearms for the army. Elijah after a long illness died in 1814 and Asa became the sole proprietor. His son, the third Asa Waters, in an article upon Gun Making ("Journal of Progress," Philadelphia, June, 1887) thus describes his father's work:
"Possessing great physical strength, unusual energy and mechanical talent, he introduced various improvements in gun making, which wrought great changes. * * * Two only will be referred to. Gun barrels were welded and forged up to this time entirely by hand power, the super having two strikers. All this was in the recollection of the writer. On October 25, 1817, he was granted letters patent for his invention for welding gun barrels under trip hammers with concave dies, striking four hun- dred blows a minute and controlled by a foot treadle. This
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patent was signed by James Monroe, President, John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, and Richard Rush, Attorney General. This invention was copied by all the armories of the United States and in Europe, and his claim to originality has never been disputed. In the following year, 1818, observing that the English process of grinding the barrels down before a revolving stone left the metal of uneven thickness around the calibre, and thus liable to explode, he invented a lathe to turn the barrel to uniform thickness. This patent, December 21, 1818, * was the first patent ever issued for turning a gun barrel in a lathe, save one which was a failure. This proved a success so far as the gun barrel was round."
Years later, when the wonderful inventions of Thomas Blanchard for turning the irregular end of the gun barrel and the wooden gun stock, had come into general use and knowledge, claims were made to deprive Millbury of the honor of being the place of the discovery of this new principle in practical mechanics. (See p. 412 for letter from Maj. Wright to Col. Asa H. Waters.)
The first contract by the United States for the making of guns in Millbury was dated September 8, 1808, and called for the delivery of 1000 stands of arms, i. e. a musket and bayonet com- plete, of a certain pattern, in each of the following five years, the price of each to be $10.75, delivered at Springfield, after a full and correct inspection by officers appointed for the purpose who should certify accordingly. Such contracts, made with Asa Waters for periods of five years, were continued during thirty-seven years and meant much to the prosperity of Millbury assuring steady work for a body of skilled mechanics.
By the contract made in 1818, two thousand stands were to be delivered each year during the term of the contract, the barrels should be proved before acceptance, and delivery was to be made at the Watertown arsenal or its vicinity. The price was $14.00 per stand with additional compensation for boxing and transpor- tation from Millbury. Mr. Waters also agreed to give the free right to work under his patent for welding gun barrels wherever guns were made for the United States government.
Writing to the Ordnance department twenty years later (1838) Mr. Waters states that the saving to the government by the use of his patent was 1312 cents for each barrel welded at Harper's Ferry Arsenal, and that at that same rate the annual saving to
ASA WATERS, 2ND 1769 - 1841
MRS. ASA WATERS, 2ND 1784 - 1849
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the government was about $5,000 on the guns made for the United States, and that if the method had been adopted at Harper's Ferry when adopted at Springfield the government would have saved $150,000 at the former place.
In the contract of January 1, 1829, the price was $12.25 for each stand, including bayonet, flints, screw drivers, wipers, ball screws and spring vices.
February 7, 1840, Asa Waters and Son made a contract with the chief of the Ordnance department to manufacture 15,000 pistols, to be delivered in parcels of 750 and at the rate of 3,000 per year. The price of each pistol with its appendages was $7.50, and the expense of proving, inspecting, packing and transporting was to be paid by the government.
The following is somewhat abbreviated from a document in the handwriting of Asa Waters, the second.
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