Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Boston and eastern Massachusetts, Part 17

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 768

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British troops were gathering on the Boston Common and that he feared for the safety of Hancock and Adams who were at Lexington. whither he believed the British were preparing to go in quest of military stores. Revere un- dertook to warn the country ; received his sig- nal that the expedition was making a start : rode through Medford to Lexington. The other messenger. William Dawes, arrived half an hour later and the two messengers proceed- ed together to Concord and were soon joined by Dr. Prescott. They were surprised by British officers who had been patrolling the road ; Dawes and Revere were captured, while the more fortunate Prescott, who knew the country better, made his escape and warned Concord ; the alarm spreading thence in every direction through all the colonies. The pris- oners were closely questioned and threatened, but suffered no actual violence and, during the excitement following a volley from the Lex- ington militia as they drew near Lexington, the prisoners were abandoned. He helped rescue the papers of Mr. Hancock from the Clark house, and while they were getting the trunk out of the house encountered the enemy but got away safely. Longfellow's poem has made Revere's ride one of the classic adven- tures of American history. Revere made his home in Charlestown and after some weeks his wife and family joined him there. He made other perilous trips for the Whigs to New York and Philadelphia. After the Evac- uation in 1776, Washington employed Revere to repair the abandoned guns at Castle Wil- liam, now Fort Independence, and he suc- ceeded by inventing a new kind of carriage, rendered necessary by the fact that the British had broken the trunnions from the guns. In July he was commissioned major of a regi- ment raised for the defense of town and har- bor ; in November lieutenant-colonel in a regi- ment of state artillery, performing many im- portant duties, including the transfer from Boston to Worcester, August, 1777, of a body of several hundred prisoners captured at Ben- nington by Stark. He took part with his regi- ment in the first campaign in Rhode Island, and was several times in command of Castle William, incidentally presiding at many courts martial. His service in defence of Boston har- bor was onerous and, despite adverse condi- tions, he steadfastly fulfilled his duties and endeavored to make the best of the situation. On June 26, 1779. Colonel Revere was ordered to prepare one hundred men of his command to go with the expedition known as the Penob-

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scot Expedition to attack the British at Maja- Bagaduce, now Castine, Maine. The expedi- tion ended in disaster to the American forces, and one unfortunate result of it was a quarrel between Colonel Revere and a captain of marines, resulting in Revere's removal from the service, until he obtained a hearing at a court-martial in 1781 when he was completely vindicated and acquitted of blame. It was a matter of great regret to Revere that his ser- vice was restricted to the state; he hoped and endeavored to obtain a place in the Continen- tal army. He exerted his influence in favor of the adoption of the Federal constitution when its fate seemed doubtful in Massachusetts.

The varied interests of his business and military career did not prevent him from cul- tivating the social side of life. He was the first entered apprentice received into Saint Andrew's Lodge of Free Masons in Boston, and ten years later, in 1770, he was elected its master. He was one of the organizers of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and was its grand master from 1794 to 1797. In this capacity he assisted Governor Samuel Adams at the laying of the cornerstone of the Massa- chusetts State House, July 4, 1795, and deliv- ered an address on that occasion. In 1783 Saint Andrew's Lodge was divided upon the question of remaining under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, which had chartered it, and also the Grand Lodge, or of affiliating with the latter. Twenty-nine mem- bers favored the old arrangement, while twen- ty-three, including Revere, desired to change. The minority withdrew and formed the Rising States Lodge, September, 1784, with Paul Revere its first master. He made jewels for these lodges and made and engraved elaborate certificates of membership and notification cards. At the death of General Washington he was made one of a committee of three to write a letter of condolence to the widow and ask her for a lock of Washington's hair. This request was granted and Revere made a golden urn about four inches in height for the relic. Through correspondence he cultivated the acquaintance of his relatives in Guernsey and France and many of the letters have been preserved. He was the chief founder of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Associa- tion in 1795 and was its first president from 1795 to 1799, when he declined re-election, although his interest in its affairs was undi- minished.

Forty years old when he rode on the mid- night alarm, Paul Revere gave the best years

of his life to his country. After the Revolu- tion and the period of struggle to organize a government Revere received the unqualified respect and honor that he deserved, while his own industry and skill provided him with a competency that enabled him to live well, to educate a large family of children and finally to leave them in comfortable circumstances. He died May 10, 1818, and was buried in the Granary Burial Ground, Boston, where are also the graves of his friends, John Hancock and Samuel Adams.

He married, August 17, 1757, Sarah Orne, who died May, 1773. He married (second), October 10, 1773, Rachel Walker, born in Boston, December 27. 1745, died June 19. 1815. The children of Paul and Sarah Revere : 1. Deborah, born April 3, 1758, died January 3, 1797 : married Amos Lincoln. 2. Paul, born January 6, 1760, mentioned below. 3. Sarah, born January 3, 1762, married, March 20, 1788, Jolin Bradford ; she died July 5, 1791. 4. Mary, born March 31, 1764, died April 30, 1765. 5. Frances, born February 19, 1766, died June 9, 1799; married Stevens. 6. Mary, born March 19, 1768, died August, 1853; married Jedediah Lincoln. 7. Eliza- beth, born December 5, 1770, married Amos Lincoln, whose first wife was her sister. 8. Hannah, born December 15, 1772, died Sep- tember 19, 1773. Children of Paul and Rachel Revere: 9. Joshua, born December 7, 1774, died about 1792. 10. John, born June 10, 1776, died June 27, 1776. 11. Joseph Warren, born April 30, 1777, died October 12, 1868; succeeded his father in business, a prominent citizen of Boston. 12. Lucy, born May 15. 1780, died July 9, 1780. 13. Harriet, born July 24, 1783, died June 27, 1860. 14. John, born December 25, 1784, died March, 1786. 15. Maria, born July 4, 1785, died August 22, 1847 : married Joseph Balestier. 16. John, born March 27. 1787, died April 30, 1847.

(V) Paul Revere, son of Colonel Paul Revere (4), was born in Boston, January 6, 1760. He was educated in Boston schools and associated with his father in business. He resided in Boston and Canton, where his father lived during his latter years in the sum- mer months. He died January 16, 1813, before his father, aged fifty-three years. He mar- ried Children : Sarah, mentioned below ; Paul, George, Rachel, Mary, Deborah, Harriet.

(VI) Sally or Sarah Revere, daughter of Paul Revere (5), was born in Boston about 1785. Married, February 13, 1806, David

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King's Chapel. Boston.

Old State House. Boston.

Old South Church, Boston.

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Curtis: settled in Boston. Children : David

Revere, Maria Revere, Caroline Revere, George Revere, Charles Revere. Henry Revere, Edward Alexander Revere, mentioned below.

(VII) Edward Alexander Revere Curtis. son of David and Sallie ( Revere) (6) Curtis, was born in Boston, February 22, 1822, the vear that Boston was incorporated as a city. Like his brothers and sisters, he carried the name of Revere to remind him of his mother's family. He was educated in the public schools of his native city. He started a type foundry. when a young man, and founded a large and prosperous business. His foundry was located on Congress street, Boston, until it was de- stroyed during the Great Fire of 1872. His was the last building burned. He resumed business afterwards on Federal street and con- tinued until his death in 1889. He made his home for many years in Somerville, and was universally respected and esteemed by his townsmen there. He served in the common council of Somerville and also in the board of aldermen. He was a Republican in politics. He belonged to the Soley Lodge of Free Masons and to the Webcowit Club. He mar- ried Caroline Pruden, daughter of Israel R. and Caroline (Gulliver ) Pruden. Children : 1. Flora. 2. Emma, married Frank W. Cole. 3. Paul Revere, died aged three years. 4. Mabel, died aged three months. 5. Grace, died aged eleven months. 6. Frederick Revere, unmar- ried.

The name of Longfellow LONGFELLOW is found in the records of Yorkshire, England. as far back as 1486 and appears under the various spellings of Langfellay, Langfellowe. Langfellow and Longfellow. The first of the name was James Langfellay. of Otley. In 1510 Sir Peter Langfellowe was a vicar of Calverley. It is well established, by tradition and by documents, that the ancestors of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Maine's most distin- guished son, were in Horsforth. In 1625 we find Edward Longfellow, perhaps from Ilkley. purchasing "Upper House," in Horsforth, and in 1647 he makes over his house and lands to his son William. This William was a well-to- do clothier who lived in Upper House, and. besides, possessed three other houses or cot- tages (being taxed for "4 hearths"), with gardens, closes. crofts, etc. He had two sons, Nathan and William, and four or five daugh- ters. William was baptized at Guiseley (the

parish church of Horsforth). on October 20, 1650.

( I) The first of the name in America was the above-named William, son of William of Horsforth. He came over a young man, to Newbury, Massachusetts, about 1676. He married Anne Sewall, daughter of Henry Sewall, of Newbury, and sister of Samuel Sewall, afterward the first chief justice of Massachusetts, November 10. 1676. He re- ceived from his father-in-law a farm in the parish of Byfield, on the Parker river. He is spoken of as "well educated, but a little wild." or, as another puts it, " not so much of a Puri- tan as some." In 1670, as ensign of the New- bury company, in the Essex regiment, he join- ed the ill-fated expedition of Sir William Phipps against Quebec, which on its return encountered a severe storm in the Gulf of St. Lawrence: one of the ships was wrecked on the Island of Anticosti, and William Long- fellow, with nine of his companions, was drowned. He left five children. The fourth of these, Stephen, born 1685, left to shift for himself, became a blacksmith ; he married Abi- gail, daughter of the Rev. Edward Tompson, of Newbury, afterward of Marshfield. Their fifth child,

(II) Stephen, born 1723, being a bright boy, was sent to Harvard College, where he took his first degree in 1742, and his second in 1745. In this latter year (after having meanwhile taught a school in York), he went to Portland in Maine ( then Falmouth), to be the schoolmaster of the town. The following note was his invitation to move there :

"Falmouth, Nov. 15, 1744.

"Sir : We need a school-master. Mr. Plaisted advises of your being at liberty. If you will undertake the service in this place you may depend upon our being generous and your being satisfied. I wish you would come as soon as possible, and doubt not but you'll find things much to your content.

Your humble serv't, "Thos. Smith.

"P. S .- I write in the name and with the power of the selectman of the town. If you can't serve us pray advise us per first oppor- tunity."

The salary for the first year was £200, in a depreciated currency. He gained the respect of the community to such a degree that he was called to fill important offices being successively

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parish clerk, town clerk, register of probate, and clerk of the courts. When Portland was burned by Mowatt, in 1775, his house was de- stroyed, and he removed to Gorham, where he lived till his death, May 1, 1790. For fif- teen years he was the grammar school master ; parish clerk twenty-three years; town clerk twenty-two years; from 1760 to 1775, from the establishment of the court to the time of the revolution, he was register of probate and clerk of the judicial court. He married, in 1749, Tabitha Bragdon, daughter of Samuel Bragdon, of York. Their oldest son,

(111) Stephen, born 1750, inherited his father's farm, and married Patience Young, of York. December 13, 1773. He represented his town in the Massachusetts general court for eight years, and his county for several years as senator. From 1797 to 18t he was judge of the court of common pleas. He died May 25, 1824. His second chikl,

(I\') Stephen, born in Gorham, in 1776. graduated at Harvard College in 1798. After studying law in Portland he was admitted to the Cumberland bar in 1801, where he soon attained much distinction. In politics he was an ardent Federalist, and represented Portland in the Massachusetts general court in 1814. In 1822, after the separation of Maine from Massachusetts, he was one term in congress. In 1828 he received the degree of LL. D. from Bowdoin College, of which he had been a trustee for nearly twenty years. He was elected president of the Maine Historical Soci- ety in 1834. He married, January 1, 1804. Zilpah, daughter of General Peleg Wadsworth, of Portland, and died in the famous Wads- worth-Longfellow house there in 1849. Will- iam Willis, the historian, said of Hon. Stephen Longfellow : "No man more surely gained the confidence of all who approached him, or held it firmer ; and those who knew him best, loved him most." In this same house, which had been her home since childhood, Zilpah ( Wads- worth) Longfellow died, in March, 1851, and her illustrious son, America's best loved poet, wrote in his journal, under date of March 12. 1851: "In the chamber where I last took leave of her, lay my mother, to welcome and take leave of me no more. I sat all that night alone with her, without terror, almost with- out sorrow, so tranquil had been her death. A sense of peace came over me, as if there had been no shock or jar in nature, but a harmo- nious close to a long life." Mrs. Longfellow was noted for her purity, patience, cheerful- ness and fine manners, and held a high position

in the society of the town by her intelligence and worth.

General Wadsworth was descended from John Alden and Priscilla Mullens, whose courtship has become well known to all Amer- icans and thousands of foreigners through the charming poem written by his grandson. The General's wife. Elizabeth Bartlett, was a de- scendant of Richard Warren and Henry Sam- son, and the blood of nine persons who came over in the historic "Mayflower" flowed in the veins of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

(V) Of such ancestry was born Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, at Portland, Maine, February 27. 1807, and he grew to manhood with the best possible inheritance and environ- ment. llis first letter was written to his father, who was attending the general court in Boston, and seems worthy of reproduction even in a short sketch :

"Portland, ( Jan. - , 1814). "Dear Papa: Ann wants a little Bible like little Betsey's. Will you please buy her one, if you can find any in Boston. I have been to school all the week, and got only seven marks. I shall have a billet on Monday. I wish you buy me a drum. Henry W. Longfellow."

At the age of five he had been fired with military ardor at the breaking out of the war of 1812. and msisted upon having his hair powdered and carrying a tin gun, ready to march for the invasion of Canada. His first printed verses, called "The Battle of Lovell's Pond" appeared in the Portland Gasette, No- vember 17. 1820, and although his brother and biographer, Rev. Samuel Longfellow, thought other boys of thirteen have written better verses, few have been actuated by more patri- otic impulses. The Longfellow children were thrilled by their Grandfather Wadsworth's accounts of his capture by British soldiers, his being imprisoned at Castine, and his escape at last, and these stories made an impression upon Henry which shows in many of his patri- otic poems, so lasting are early influences. In 1821 Longfellow entered Bowdoin College, but pursued the first year's studies at home, taking up residence at Brunswick in 1822. He main- tained a high rank in his class-one of marked ability-and graduated fourth, standing higher than thirty-four classmates. At commence- ment he was assigned an English oration. "His was the first claim to the poem, but as that effort had no definite rank, it was thought due to him that he should receive an appointment

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which placed his scholarship beyond question." This statement of his standing in college was made by his old teacher there, Professor A. S. Packard. In May, 1826. he sailed in a packet- ship for France, to study in Europe that he might fit himself to be professor of modern languages at Bowdoin. His experiences there were most interesting, and among them his acquaintance with Lafayette was particularly so, he having taken a letter to the Marquis. who was entertained at the Wadsworth- Longfellow house in 1825. In August, 1829. he returned to America, and the following month took up his work as professor of modern languages, editing for his classes sev- eral French and Spanish text-books. In Sep- tember, 1831, he married Mary Storer Potter, daughter of Judge Barnett Potter, of Port- land. She was a very beautiful young woman, of unusual cultivation. He held his Bowdoin professorship five and a half years, constantly at work upon translations, and while in Bruns- wick arranged to publish "Outre-Mer." In 1834 he was offered the Smith professorship of modern languages at Harvard, and at once resigned at Bowdoin, and set sail, in April, 1835, for Europe, to perfect himself in Ger- man, and to make himself familiar with the Scandinavian tongues. Mrs. Longfellow died, in Rotterdam. November 29, 1835, and he at once left for Heidelberg, where he passed the winter and spring, spending the summer in Switzerland, and returning to America in Oc- tober. 1836. In December of that year Mr. Longfellow moved to Cambridge and assumed his duties at Harvard.

In 1839 "Hyperion" was published; also "Voices of the Night," his first volume of poems. In a short time followed "Ballads and Other Poems," "The Spanish Student," "The Poets and Poetry of Europe," "Evangeline" came out in 1847: "Kavanagh" in 1849: "Hia- watha" in 1855: "The Courtship of Miles Standish" in 1858; "Tales of a Wayside Inn" in 1863: "New England Tragedies" in 1868; and between this last year and 1880 appeared the translation of Dante's "Divine Comedy," "The Divine Tragedy," "Christus," "After- math," "The Masque of Pandora, and Other Poems," "Keramos and Other Poems," and "Ultima Thule." besides the "Poems of Places," in thirty-one volumes, which Long- fellow edited.

In July, 1843. Mr. Longfellow married Frances Elizabeth Appleton, daughter of Mr. Nathan Appleton, of Boston, who is described as "a woman of stately presence, cultivated

intellect, and deep, though reserved, feeling." Their life in the charming old Craigie House in Cambridge was ideal, and they were con- stantly visited by the literary men of America and all foreigners who appreciated the charm of his poetry, and could secure letters of in- troduction. His intimacy with Emerson, Lowell, Holmes, Whittier, Motley. Agassiz, Bryant, Summer, Bancroft, Cornelius Conway Felton, Richard Henry Dana, father and son ; James T. Fields, Ferdinand Freiligrath, Arthur Hugh Clough, George W. Greene, Hawthorne, Charles Eliot Norton, Prescott, Tieknor, Sam- uel Ward, and many other noted men, both in this country and Europe, gave great pleasure. and the letters which were exchanged between them prove how deep was their attachment. Mrs. Longfellow was fatally burned, July 9, 1861, and the burns which her husband receiv- ed while trying to extinguish the flames which enveloped her, kept him an invalid for some time. The "Cross of Snow," which was found among his papers after his death, expresses very beautifully his great grief, even after eighteen years had passed.

Mr. Longfellow's eldest son, Charles Apple- ton Longfellow, went to the front in March, 1863, and was wounded the following Novem- ber. The father's anxiety must have been great, but how could a son of his, with all the Wadsworth military traditions, have failed to volunteer in the dark days of 1863? In June, 1868, Mr. Longfellow and a large family party, consisting of his two sisters, his brother Samuel. his three daughters, his son Ernest and his wife, and Mr. Thomas Appleton, the beloved brother-in-law, went to Europe, where much attention was showed him. Queen Vic- toria received him at Windsor, after inform- ing him she should be sorry to have him pass through England without meeting him. Mr. Gladstone, Sir Henry Holland, the Duke of Argyll, Lord John Russell, and Tennyson, en- tertained him, and even the lower classes showed their admiration. He said that no foreign tribute paid him touched him deeper than the words of an English hodcarrier, who came up to the carriage door at Harrow and asked permission to take the hand of the man who had written "The Voices of the Night." After fifteen months of delightful travel the party returned and the last years of the poet's life were spent in Cambridge with occasional visits to his native town and other places. In Craigie House, surrounded by his family and mourned by thousands, he passed away, March 24, 1882, and surely no lovelier spirit ever

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dwelt among men. The British nation has enshrined his image in Westminster Abbey ; his native town has placed a bronze statue in a square named for him. But such fame as his needs no outward emblazoning while human hearts can thrill with emotion at his lofty sentiments most gracefully expressed.

Mrs. Anne (Longfellow ) Pierce, a beloved sister of Longfellow, most generously donated to the Maine Historical Society the Wads- worth-Longfellow House in Portland, where lived General Wadsworth, his distinguished sons-Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth, killed at Tripoli, at the age of nineteen, while serving under Commodore Preble ; Commodore Alex- ander Scammell Wadsworth, who was second in command to Captain Hull in the famous fight of the "Constitution" and "Guerriere;" the Rev. Samuel Longfellow, the well known Unitarian clergyman, whose exquisite hymns breathe forth the true spirit of religion, and whose biography of his brother is a model of such work. But its best known inmate was America's loved poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, to honor whose memory and to visit whose early home thousands yearly throng the rooms in which grew to manhood one who was descended from the best blood of New England, and who shed an added lustre upon names already distinguished.

EMERSON Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of America's most famous men-philosopher and poet, was born in Boston, May 25, 1803, son of Rev. William and Ruth ( Haskins) Emerson.

He received substantial instruction from his mother, and also from his aunt, Mary Moody Emerson, a woman of deep scholarship, and entered the grammar school at the age of eight. soon afterward entering the Latin school. He was already giving evidence of his intellectual powers, when eleven years old writing a poetic version from Virgil, and other verse. When fourteen he entered Harvard College. As a student there he excelled in Greek, history, composition and declamation, winning several prizes in the two latter subjects ; was class poet in 1821, and had a part at commencement. For a few years he assisted his brother as teacher in a school preparatory to Harvard and also in a young ladies' school in Boston. At the age of twenty he took up the study of theology, and attended lectures at Harvard Divinity School, but did not pursue the full course. He accepted the Channing theology, was licensed to preach, and supplied various

pulpits. In 1829 he became colleague of Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., pastor of the Second Church ( Unitarian ) Boston, and for eighteen months occupied the pulpit while that divine was abroad, finally succeeding him, and re- mained in the pastorate until 1832, when he resigned, on account of conscientious scruples against administering the communion as pro- vided in the church office. In the two last years of his ministry his church was open to all classes of reformers, and several anti-slav- eryites spoke there. In 1833 he visited Eu- rope, in quest of health, meeting Walter Savage Landor, Coleridge, Wordsworth and Carlyle, and preached in London and elsewhere. In 1833-34 he lectured in Boston on "The Relation of Man to the Globe," and "Travels in Europe." In the latter year he was invited to the pastorate of the Unitarian Church in New Bedford, but declined on account of his scruples with reference to communion. In 1835 he lectured in Boston on bio- graphical subjects-Luther, Milton, Burke. Michael Angelo, and George Fox. In 1835 he lectured before the American Institute of Instruction on "Means of Inspiring a Taste for English Literature." During suc- cessive winters he lectured in Boston on "English Literature," "The Philosophy of Ilistory," and "Human Culture." In 1838 he preached for several months in the Uni- tarian Church at East Lexington but de- clined a settlement, saying, "My pulpit is the lyceum platform." In 1838-39 he lectured on "Resources of the Present Age," and in 1839- 40 on "Human Life." In 1838 he delivered the address before the graduating class of Harvard Divinity School, in which he explic- itly defined his faith, and which awoke such controversy that he separated from the Uni- tarians. In 1839 began the transcendentalism movement in Boston, and Mr. Emerson be- came an assistant editor of its organ, The Dial, in 1842 became sole editor, and acted as such until 1844, when it lapsed. In 1841 was organized the Brook Farm experiment, with which he did not fully sympathize, but its founders and leaders were among his intimate friends, and he frequently visited them.

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Boston and eastern Massachusetts, Part 17

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 768

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 768