USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Boston and eastern Massachusetts > Part 48
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work. She is a member of the Second Church ( Unitarian ) of Boston, Copley Square.
Anthony Fisher ( 1591-1671 ).
FISHER the immigrant son of Anthony ( died in 1640) and Mary Anne ( Fiske ) Fisher, of Weymouth, in the parish of Syleham, Suffolk, England, and grandson of William and Anne Fiske, of St. James, South Elmsham, and brother of Joshua, Cor- nelius, Amos, Marie and Martha Fisher, was born in Syleham, Suffolk, England, and bap- tized April 20. 1591. He came to Massachu- setts Bay Colony with his wife Mary, sailing from Yarmouth in the ship "Rose," landing at Boston on June 26, 1637, and settled in Ded- ham, where he subscribed to the Covenant July 18, 1637, and was a member of the com- mittee appointed to build a meeting house, and on July 28. 1638, he was assigned his house lot. His wife Mary joined the Dedham church, March 27, 1642, and Anthony "on account of his proud and haughty spirit" was not admitted until March 14. 1645. He served as selectman 1645 and 1647: was chosen county commissioner September 3, 1660 : dep- uty to general court May 2. 1649: woodreeve 1653-55. 1657-58 and 1661-62. His wife Mary died and he married ( secondly ) November 14. 1663. Isabell, widow of Edward Breck, select- man of Dorchester, 1664-66, of Dorchester. He died April 11, 1671. His children ( all by his first wife, Mary) were: Anthony, Cornelius, Nathaniel, David. Lydia and John Fisher.
(II) Anthony Fisher, of Dorchester, son of Anthony and Mary Fisher, was born in Eng- land, came to America with his father and grandfather, and settled in Dedham in 1637. He was a member of the Ancient and Hon- orable Artillery Company in 1644; joined Dedham church, July 20. 1645, and was made a freeman May 6, 1646. He was married Sep- tember 7. 1647, to Joanna, only daughter of Thomas and Joan Faxon, of Brinton, Massa- chusetts : was a surveyor of town of Dedham. 1652-1654. removed to Dorchester and was selectman there 1664. He was a printer, and was paid by the town £4 1os. for printing the catechism prepared by Rev. Richard Mather. the pastor at Dorchester. He died February 13. 1670, and his wife Joanna died October 16. 1604. Their children were: Mehitable, born 1648, died young; Experience, 1650, died young : Josiah, 1654: Abial. 1656. died 1688: Sarah. 1658, married John Wild: Deborah.
1661, married James Fales : Judith. 1663, mar- ried John Bullen: Eleazer, 1669.
(III) Eleazer Fisher, son of AAnthony and Joanna ( Faxon) Fisher, born in Dedham, September 18, 1669, married there October 13, 1698, Mary ( 1674-1744), daughter of William and Mary (Lane) Avery, and their children were: Eleazer, born 1699: William, 1701 : Jemima. 1703, married Hlezekialı Gay, of Dor- chester : David, 1705: Ezra. 1707: Nathaniel. 1708. died 1733-34, unmarried : Mary, 1710. married William Alexander, of Stoughton ; Ezekiel. 1712: Timothy, 1714; Stephen, 1715. probably died young; and Benjamin, 1721. Ezekiel Fisher died in Dedham, February 6. 1722, and his widow at Stoughton, March 25. 1749.
(IV) David Fisher, third son of Eleazer and Mary ( Avery ) Fisher, born in Dedhan, June 21, 1705, married, February 16, 1732, Deborah Boyden, of Walpole. With his wife he joined the South Parish church, November 7. 1736. He removed to Stoughton, where his wife died July 18, 1770, aged fifty-nine years, and he married ( second ), November 7 .. 1770. Elizabeth Talbot, of Stoughton, born February 22, 1754. He died July 30, 1779. and his widow July 2, 1802. His children were: David, born 1733: Thomas, 1735: Jacob. 1737; Deborah. 1739, married John Lewis: Hannah, 1742, married Nathaniel Kingsbury : Nathan, 1745 : Oliver, 1747: Abi- gail. 1749, married William Starrett: Mary, 1751. died 1768: Abner. 1755.
(V) Thomas Fisher, son of David and De- borah ( Boyden) Fisher, born in Stoughton. March 10. 1735, married, October 12. 1758. Mary, daughter of Sammuel and Mary ( Ciney ) Pettee, of Dedham. They both joined the South Parish Church, July 13, 1760. Thomas Fisher served in Captain Ebenezer Tisdale's company from Stoughton for twenty-two days at the Lexington alarm, and in Theophilus Wilder's company. Colonel Dike's regiment. from December 20, 1776, to March 1. 1777. Hle died January 16, 1781, and his widow Mary married, April 26, 1787, Gilead Morse, of Sharon, and died April 27. 1825. aged eighty-two years. The children of Thomas and Mary ( Pettee) Fisher as per record in Stoughton were: Seth, born 1759; Thomas. 1761 : Mary, 1763, married Jonathan Billings. Jr. : Lucy, 1765, married Captain John Morse : Ezra. 1769: Oliver, 1778. died 1830: Jabez. 1780.
(VI) Jabez Fisher, youngest child of Thomas and Mary (Pettee) Fisher, born in
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Sharon, May 7, 1780, married, May 13, 1819, Sarah (1788-1854), second child of Jonathan and Mary ( Robbins) Livermore, of Brighton, or Little Cambridge. Jonathan Livermore ( 1743-1822) was a son of Oliver and Ruth (Stearns) Livermore, of Watertown, and a descendant from Jonathan Livermore, the im- migrant. Mary (Robbins) Livermore was a daughter of Solomon and Martha Robbins, of Newton. Jabez and Sarah (Livermore) Fisher settled in Cambridge where their chil- dren were born, and where he died November 30, 1845. Children : George, born February 15, 1820; Sarah, 1821, died 1823; Jabez, 1824; Sarah Livermore, 1826, died 1828; Oliver, 1829, died 1830; Benjamin Franklin, 1832, died 1832. Jabez Fisher was a coal dealer in Cambridge. He died November 30, 1845.
(VII) George Fisher, eldest child of Jabez and Sarah (Livermore) Fisher, was born in Cambridge, February 15, 1820. He took the full course in the public and high schools of Cambridge, and a partial law course at Har- vard University Law School, and was made a member of the Law School Association. He succeeded his father in the coal and wood business in 1845, and after carrying it on for several years sold it out and became a partner in the firm of Simmons & Fisher, organ build- ers in Charles street, Boston. On March 30, 1859, he purchased the Cambridge Chronicle, and made the paper a profitable investment, and in 1859-66 it had no competition in Cam- bridge. In 1873 he sold the newspaper plant to Linn Boyd Porter. In the Chronicle he advocated anti-slavery, temperance and Amer- icanism as opposed to the "perilous encroach- ments" of the Roman Catholic church. He represented his district in the general court in 1885. He founded the Cambridge Conser- vatory of Music in 1873, and with the assist- ance of his daughter taught music to large classes for several years. He was a well known expert performer on the organ, and held positions at various times in the largest churches in Cambridge. He made a discrim- inating collection of music both printed and in manuscript, and was one of the earliest men- bers of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, and a member of the governing board. The large Cambridge chorus that attracted so much notice at the World's Peace Jubilee was organized and trained by Mr. Fisher. He was a friend and benefactor to Elias Howe in his struggle to introduce the sewing machine, and gave his financial aid at a time when Mr. Howe appeared to him hopelessly in debt, and
while the application for a patent was pending he accompanied Mr. Howe to Washington, and they each wore a suit of clothes made upon the machine which was the patent office model. He was married March 16, 1840, to Hannah Cordelia, third child of Samuel P. and Eunice S. Tecle, who was born in Charles- town, October 9, 1818, died July 3, 1894. She was a member of the Austin Street Unitarian Church, Cambridge. George Fisher died in Cambridge, September 12, 1898. Their chil- dren were: Sarah Cordelia, born 1841, mar- ried, November 29, 1887, Colonel Austin C. Wellington. Caroline Louise, 1843, married Colonel Austin C. Wellington, as his first wife, June 30, 1869, and she died November 23. 1879. George, 1845, died 1846. Anna Jose- phine, 1847, died 1851. Harriet Ellen, 1849, died 1850. Lizzie Livermore, 1850, died 1853. Eliza Bennett, 1853, died 1875. George, 1856, died 1860. George William, 1858, died 1876. George Fisher outlived all his children except Sarah Cordelia ; he had no grandchildren.
(VIII) Sarah Cordelia (Fisher ) Welling- ton, eldest child of George and Hannah Cor- delia (Teele ) Fisher, and the last surviving member of a large family, was born in Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, October 10. 1841. She was graduated at the Cambridge high school, attended Professor Louis Agassiz's school and received musical instruction in London, England, from Senor Randegger and Madam Rndersdorf, and while in Europe in 1876 attended the first performance of Wagner's Niebelungenleid at Bayreuth. She married her brother-in-law, Colonel Austin Clarke Wellington. November 29, 1887. eight years after the death of his first wife, Caroline Louise ( Fisher ) Wellington. Colonel Welling- ton had no children by either wife. He was a son of Jonas Clarke and Harriet Eliza ( Bos- worth ) Wellington, and was born in Lexing- ton, July 17, 1840, where he attended school up to 1856, when his parents removed to Cam- bridge, and he became a bookkeeper in the establishment of S. G. Bowdlear & Company, of Boston, and left the firm August, 1862, to enlist in Company F, Thirty-eighth Massachu- setts Regiment, and accompanied the regiment to Baltimore, New Orleans, and on the Red River expedition under General N. P. Banks. In July, 1864, he was transferred to Washing- ton, D. C., and was in the army of General Sheridan during the closing period of the Civil war. He was acting adjutant of his reg- iment, with the rank of lieutenant, and later was appointed adjutant. His battles were :
i -- 17
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Bisland, Siege of Port Hudson, Cane River Ford, Mansura, in Louisiana, and with Sheri- dan in Opequan, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, Virginia. He was mustered out of the volunteer service June 30, 1865. Upon re- turing to Massachusetts he engaged in the coal business, and formed the corporation of the Austin C. Wellington Coal Company, of which he was treasurer and manager, and this grew into one of the largest concerns in its time, in New England. He continued his inter- est in military affairs, and May 2, 1870, en- tered the Massachusetts State Militia as cap- tain of the Boston Light Infantry, known as the "Tigers," Company A, Seventh Regiment. Hle was elected major of the Fourth Battalion in 1873, and colonel of the First Regiment, February 24 1882. His patriotic spirit was kept alive by membership in the Grand Army of the Republic, his comradeship dating from 1867 in Post 15. In 1874 he was chosen com- mander of Post No. 30, which post he helped to organize and of which he was a charter member. He became commander of Post No. 113 in 1887, holding the position at the time of his death. He was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and a trus- tee of the Soldiers' Home at Chelsea. His business association was with the Boston Coal Exchange, of which he was chairman, and the Charles River Towing Company, of which he was president. He was president of the Bos- ton Mercantile Library Association, and a member of the New England Club, Handel and Haydn Society, and Cecilia Society. His service to his state in a civic capacity was as a member of the general court of Massachu- setts in 1875 and 1876. Colonel Wellington died at his home, 871 Massachusetts avenue, Cambridge, September 23, 1888. His widow, Mrs. Sarah Cordelia (Fisher) Wellington, survived him.
She was president of the Ladies' Aid Asso- ciation, auxiliary to the Soldiers' Home at Chelsea ; a director of the Cambridge Con- servatory of Music, founded by her father, and allied with other philanthropic, religious and musical associations. Her musical talent was an inheritance from both her parents. She early sang in the choir in Cambridge and Bos- ton. Her voice was heard for repeated sea- sons at Trinity Church, New Old South, Im- manuel, and for nine seasons at the Park Street Church. She was a member of the Handel and Haydn Oratorio Society and of the Cecelia Society, and represented both soci- eties at various times as soloist at their con-
certs in Music Hall, Boston. She was presi- dent of the Austin Street Unitarian Alliance, the largest in the United States, and of the Middlesex Alliance which met in Channing Hall, Boston. She was made a director of the National Alliance board; a member of the council of the Cantabrigia Club ; a member of the Woman Suffrage League; of the Cam- bridge Shakespeare Club and of the Browning Society of Boston. She served as secretary and treasurer of the Roundabout Club, as president of the Wednesday Club, and as a director of the Young Woman's Christian Association. She was made a life member of the New England Woman's Club, and of the American Unitarian Association, and an asso- ciate member of the Cambridge Conferences. Her interest in the Cambridge Conservatory of Music on Lee street began in 1873, when with her father she founded the enterprise. She was a member of the faculty of Wellesley College and of the Tourjee Conservatory of Music in Boston. She sang by request in one of the Montreal cathedrals, appeared as accompanist with Camilla Urso, the celebrated violinist, and was always a willing volunteer on occasions for charity, given in opera, con- certs or at society functions. Her home in Cambridge became a mecca for musical enthu- siasts visiting Boston who had heard her in public or learned of her work as teacher through her pupils scattered over the entire United States, who had been fortunate in receiving instruction and advice.
The family from which is HORSFORD descended Eben Norton Horsford, scientist, author and humanitarian, is of English origin. In England the family name appears in the vari- ous forms of Horseford, Hosseford and Hos- ford; in America the family is divided as to the spelling, some preferring Hosford, others Horsford, and this difference dates back to the days of the immigrant. Burke gives as a coat- of-arms of the family: Azure, a chevron ar- gent, three lion's heads erased. Crest : Out of a ducal coronet a demi-pegasus.
William Horseford, of Dorchester, county Dorsetshire, England, made his will June 30, 1621, and it was proved January 22, 1622. He provided for his burial in the church of St. Peter's ; gave to the poor of the Hospital of Dorchester five pounds; bequeathed "the honse and lands with the appurtenances in the parish of St. Peter's on the lane going toward Fryery, unto Joan my wife for the term of her
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life, then to Joan my daughter and the heirs of her body ; then to my own right heirs for- ever." He mentions daughter Sarah, who married John Hands; his late brother, Hugh Horsford; and daughter Grace, who married Thomas Frye. This William may be father or uncle of the American pioneer of the same name.
(I) William Horsford, the immigrant, was born in England, and settled in 1630 or 1633, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, where he was a proprietor in 1633, and a freeman April I, 1634. He removed to Windsor, Connecticut, with the early settlers. His wife (name un- known) died August 26, 1641, and he mar- ried (second) the widow of Henry Fowkes. He removed to Springfield, and preached there from October, 1652, until after 1654, and sub- sequently he and his wife returned to Eng- land, where he died, bequeathing his land at Windsor to his wife and his two children. In 1671 his wife was at Tiverton, Devonshire, England. She bequeathed land to her chil- d'ren at Windsor. Children of William Hors- ford: 1. Sarah, married, November 1, 1642, Stephen Taylor. 2. John, mentioned below.
(II) John Hosford, only son of William Horsford (1), born in England, about 1630, is the progenitor of all the family in America. When his father returned to England he re- mained in Windsor, Connecticut. He was made a freeman May 20, 1652, and in 1658 was a member of the first body of cavalry organized in Connecticut, by Major John Ma- son, numbering thirty-seven men. He died at Windsor, August 7, 1683, leaving a large estate for those days-f1203. In his will he left a legacy for the Connecticut fund for the relief of the poor of other colonies. He mar- ried, at Windsor, November 5, 1657, Phillipa, only daughter of William Thrall (or Trall). She was born in Windsor and was living Oc- tober 3, 1695. They had six sons and three daughters: 1. William, born October 25, 1658. 2. John, born October 16, 1660. 3. Timothy, born October 20, 1662; see forward. 4. Esther, born May 27, 1664. 5. Sarah, born September 27, 1666. 6. Samuel, born June 2, 1669; married, April 4, 1690, Mary Palmer ; second. Elizabeth Brown. 7. Nathaniel, born August 19, 1671, died January 3, 1750 ; mar- ried Mary Phelps. 8. Mary, April 12. 1674. 9. Obadiah, September 20, 1677 ; married, May 4, 1705, Mindwell Phelps.
(III) Timothy Hosford, third child of John Hosford (2), was born at Windsor, October 20, 1662; there is no record of his
death. In 1711 he supplied stores to the forces of the colony sent on an expedition against Canada. He married, December 5, 1689, Hannah Palmer, second child of Timothy Palmer. She was born in Windsor, October 30, 1666, and died there July 8, 1702. They had two sons and one daughter. He married (second) at Windsor, January 24, 1706, Abi- gail Buckland. They had one daughter and one son.
(John (2) and Timothy (3) used the Hos- ford form of the family name ).
(IV) Daniel Horsford, third child of Tim- othy Hosford (3), was born in Windsor, July 5, 1695, and died at South Canaan, Con- necticut, May 23, 1777. He removed in 1715 from Windsor to Hebron, where his uncle, Dr. Obadiah Horsford, had settled in 1706, and was a prominent man. He was admitted an inhabitant of Hebron, May 9, 1715. In 1741 he was among the early settlers of South Canaan. Connecticut, buying for £600, on No- vember 17, 1741, three lots (about 100 acres) with a dwelling house, and all the privileges of one share in the town. He seems to have become a miller, and obtained at an early date the right to use the Great Falls of the Housa- tonic at Canaan. He was also largely inter- ested in the Iron Works started at Canaan. During his later years he transferred much land to his sons, especially to Daniel, who seems to have been his favorite. He was evidently a man of great thrift and enterprise, but not prominent in public affairs. His will, on record at Sharon, Connecticut, mentions all his children ; inventory £900. He married, at Hebron, Connecticut, April 6, 1721, Eliza- beth Stewart, who died at Williamstown, Mass- achusetts, in 1783. They had five sons and one daughter.
(V) Captain Daniel Horsford, eldest child of Daniel Horsford (4), was born in Hebron, November 8, 1723. He was a freeman of Canaan, 1758; was appointed captain of the train band, 1765, after having been lieutenant from 1755. Frequent property transfers are on record in his name. There is no record of his death or will. He evidently died before June II, 1788, when his son Daniel, of Cherry Lot, Vermont, conveys to Jeremiah Horsford, Jr. (not his cousin) for f6 "one-fifth part of the land that was given to the heirs of my honored father, late of Canaan, deceased." He married, about 1748, his cousin, Martha Dibble, daughter of Abraham Dibble, of Tor- rington. She was born probably at Windsor, December 25. 1719. They had three sons and
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two daughters. He married (second) - Packard, a widow.
(VI) Roger Horsford, third son of Daniel Horsford (5), was born at South Canaan, Connecticut, January 21, 1755, and died at Charlotte, Vermont, August 15, 1818. He was a freeman of Canaan in 1781, and removed in February, 1791, to Charlotte, Vermont, to join his brother Daniel. He married at South Canaan, probably about 1778, Mary Brown, eldest child of Jeremiah Brown, of South Canaan. She was born at North Canaan, March 15, 1754, and died at Charlotte, Ver- mont, September 12, 1812. They had seven sons and two daughters. He married (sec- ond) at Charlotte, Abigail Dean, widow.
(VII) Jerediah Horsford, son of Roger and Mary ( Brown) Horsford, was a man of importance in his day. He was born in Char- lotte, Vermont, March 8, 1791, and died at Livonia Station, New York, January 14, 1875. He was in the state militia in 1812, during the war with Great Britain, and served with the American army of defence at Burlington, was in the battle of Niagara Falls, July 25, 1814, and became colonel. In 1814 he removed to New York, and settled in the Genesee Valley. where he was a missionary among the Indians. Ile was also a farmer at Mount Morris, and removed in 1818 to Moscow, Livingston coun- ty. He was a member of the New York state assembly several terms; and representative-in congress, 1851-53, elected as a Whig. He married, at Goshen, Connecticut, September 15, 1816, Charity Maria Norton ; she was born at Goshen, Connecticut, May 31, 1790, and died at Moscow, New York, October 30, 1859. She was a direct descendant of Thomas Nor- ton, the immigrant, who settled in New Haven, in 1639, and removed to Guilford.
(VIII) Professor Eben Norton Horsford, son of Hon. Jerediah and Charity Maria ( Norton) Horsford, was born in Moscow, New York, July 27, 1818. He attended the district school and Livingston county high school, and while yet a boy was employed in the preliminary surveys of the New York and Erie and the Rochester and Auburn railroads. He took the engineering course in the Rens- selaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, and graduated in 1838, at the age of twenty. In 1840 he was appointed professor of mathe- matics and natural sciences in the Albany Fe- male Academy, and in the second year of his professorship won the gold medal offered by the Young Men's Association of Albany for essays, his subject being "Mechanical Powers."
He retained his professorship until 1844, also delivering a course of lectures on chemistry at Newark ( Delaware) College, when he re- signed his chair in Albany and went to Ger- many, where he was a student from 1844 to 1846, investigating chemistry under Baron Liebig, at Giessen. On his return home in 1847 he was elected Rumford professor of Application of Science to the Useful Arts, in Harvard College, and filled that position with enthusiasm and credit for sixteen years. His investigations in chemistry led to inventions and discoveries of great usefulness and com- mercial value, and in 1863 he resigned his Harvard professorship to give his exclusive attention to manufactures based upon his in- ventions and covered by about thirty patents. He founded and was president of the Rum- ford Chemical Works in Providence, Rhode Island. His services along other lines were also highly beneficial. He selected the ma- terial for the service pipes of the Boston water works, for which the city presented him a service of plate. At the outbreak of the civil war he was appointed by Governor Andrew a member of the commission for the defense of Boston harbor, and he prepared the plans adopted for protection against Confederate cruisers. He devised a marching ration for soldiers in the field, largely reducing bulkage and cost of transportation, and of which Gen- eral Grant made much use. He was a United States commissioner to the World's Fair in Vienna in 1873, and a juror at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. He was a member of the American Philosphical Society, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; a Knight of the Order of Dannebrog, conferred by the King of Den- mark ; a resident member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society ; twice an ex- aminer of the United States Mint at Philadel- phia ; and one of the board of managers of the Sons of the Revolution. He received the hon- orary degree of A. M. from Union College in 1843, and from Harvard College in 1847, and the degree of M. D. from the Castleton (Ver- mont ) Medical College. He made his home in Cambridge until his death, January 1, 1893.
Professor Horsford married, in 1847, Mary L'Hommodieu Gardiner, daughter of Honor- able Samuel Gardiner, of the Gardiner family of Shelter Island, Long Island Sound, New York. They had four daughters. She died in 1855, and Professor Horsford married, in 1857, her sister, Phebe Dayton Gardiner. They had one daughter. After the death of Mr ..
EinHorsforg
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Gardiner, his large Shelter Island estate came to Professor Horsford, and he usually spent his summers at the manor house there. He became deeply interested in the antiquities of the island, and erected a monument to the memory of Nathaniel Sylvester, Lord of the Manor of Shelter Island, and to the Quakers who found shelter there with him. In the comparative leisure of his later years he gave close attention to tracing the routes of the Norsemen who early visited this continent ; and with unwearied patience and enthusiastic zeal studied the sagas, pored over ancient charts, explored the coast of New England, and at length became satisfied that he had found in Cambridge the location of the house built by Leif Ericson, and that at Watertown, on the Charles river, had discovered the long lost Norumbega, the settlement made by the Icelandic voyagers, and he here erected a substantial monument to mark the spot. The result of his researches were embodied in a series of monographs, richly illustrated with copies of ancient charts and maps. In testi- mony of their appreciation of his efforts to demonstrate the discovery and colonization of America by the Norsemen, the Scandinavian societies of North America, in 1891, at their annual assembly, presented to Professor Hors- ford an engrossed address framed in wood from Norway, elaborately carved by a Nor- wegian lady; in 1892 the King of Denmark lecorated Professor Horsford as previously related ; and in the same spirit, the Scandina- vian societies of Boston united in a special memorial service for Professor Horsford shortly after his death. Professor Horsford was author of: "Hungarian Milling and Vienna Bread," 1873; "Indian Names of Bos- ton," 1886; "On the Landfall of John Cabot in 1497, and the Site of Norumbega." 1886; Discovery of America by Northmen," 1888; "Discovery of the Ancient City of Norum- bega," 1889: "The Problem of the Northmen," 1889: "The Defences of Norumbega," 1891; "The Landfall of Leif Ericson," 1892; "Leif's House in Vinland," 1893. He also reproduced in print the manuscript of "German and Onon- daga Lexicon," left by the Moravian mission- ary, David Zeisberger, comprising seven volumes ; and published various pamphlets on miscellaneous subjects.
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