Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Boston and eastern Massachusetts, Part 67

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

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Rev. John and Martha (Whittingham) Rogers had children: 1. Rev. John of Kittery, Maine, date of birth unknown, died 1773. aged eighty-one years ; graduated from Har- vard College, 1711 ; married October 16, 1718, Susannah, youngest daughter of Major John Whipple, of Ipswich. She died October 22, 1779. 2. Martha, born November 2, 1694, died August 25, 1727; married June 24, 1714, Dr. Thomas Berry, born Boston ; graduated Har- vard College 1712, studied medicine with Dr. Greaves, and became an eminent physician. 3. Mary, born Ipswich, died October 18, 1725 : married John Wise of Ipswich, son of Rev. John Wise, of Chebacco parish, Ipswich, "a divine of great celebrity." 4. Willam, born June 19, 1699, died July 29, 1749: settled in Annapolis, Maryland. 5. Rev. Nathaniel, born September 22, 1701, (see post). 6. Richard, born December 2, 1703, died November 26. 1742; married Mary, daughter of Francis Crampton, Esq., of Ipswich ; was merchant at Ipswich, represented that town in general court 1730, and was justice of the peace 1740- 41. 7. Elizabeth, born July 20. 1705; be- lieved to have died in infancy. 8. Rev. Daniel, born Ipswich July 28, 1707 ; died 1785 ; gradu-

ated from Harvard College 1725, afterward was tutor there and a fellow of the corpora- tion ; ordained minister at York, Maine, 1742; was pastor of Second parish church, Exeter, New Hampshire, 1744 until his death ; married Anna, daughter of Rev. Thomas Foxcroft, of Boston. 9. Elizabeth, twin with Rev. Daniel; married March 14, 1728, Francis Cogswell, merchant of Ipswich, who graduated from Harvard College 1718. 10. Dr. Samuel, born Ipswich, August 31, 1709, died December 21, 1772 ; graduated from Harvard College 1725; town clerk many years, colonel of militia, register of probate, justice of sessions, and representative to the general court; a skillful physician ; married June 1, 1735, Hannah, daughter of Major Ammi Ruhami, a pros- perous merchant.

(VIII) Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, third son and fifth child of Rev. John and Martha ( Whittingham) Rogers, born in Ipswich, September 22, 1701, and died May 10, 1775. He graduated from Harvard College 1721, en- tered the gospel ministry, and after assisting his father and supplying the place of Rev. Mr. Fitch for more than a year, received a call from the Ipswich church August 16, 1726. This call was confirmed by the parish on con- dition that he conform to congregational prin- ciples as specified in the foundations of the church government. This condition was ob- jected to by his father as being without pre- cedent, but the society held to it as indispensi- ble : the matter was satisfactorily settled, and on October 18, 1727, he was ordained col- league with his father. He eventually suc- ceeded his father as pastor, and continued until his death, May 10, 1775; "being taken away," says his biographer, "when with most of his ministerial brethern his patriotic feelings were sorely tried by the proceedings of the mother country, and when he had deep anxiety as to the results of the revolution in which his countrymen had entered." He possessed a superior intellect and cultivated it in constant literary and theological studies, and when called upon to participate in ecclesiastical councils he always was assigned a prominent part in the proceedings. It was with a deep sense of duty that he took on himself and continued to exercise the office of minister, and when the path of duty lay plainly before him he reso- lutely pursued it whether accompanied by many or few. As a man and minister he was loved and respected, and as a preacher he avoided vain philosophy and subtle dispute ; when his heart was most touched there appeared an energy

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of address rarely met with in his day. To the poor and afflicted he was a son of consolation both in word and deed, and his people all loved him for the goodness and singleness of his heart.

Rev. Nathaniel Rogers married first, De- cember 25 1728, Mary, widow of Colonel John Denison, of Ipswich, and daughter of Presi- dent John Leverett, of Harvard College, born October 29, 1701, died June 25, 1756, having borne him eight children. He married sec- ond, April 1, 1758. (pub.) Mary, widow of Daniel Staniford, of Ipswich, daughter of Thomas Burnham and wife Margaret Bore- man, also of Ipswich. She was baptized July 13. 1718, and died September 18, 1779. Three children were born of this marriage. Rev. Nathaniel Rogers had children: 1. Margaret, baptized December 1.4, 1729. died March 27, 1751 ; married, 1725, Dr. John Calef, of Ips- wich, who afterward settled at New Bruns- wick, and died there 1812. 2. Martha, bap- tized January 17, 1730, died March 13, 1730. 3. Martha, baptized in 1733, died same year. 4. Sarah, baptized October 13. 1734, died De- cember 21, 1772. 5. Elizabeth, baptized July II, 1736, died July 19, 1765 ; married Captain Daniel Rogers, goldsmith, of Ipswich. 6. Nathaniel, born January 24, 1737, died Sep- tember, 1739. 7. Lucy, born January 1, 1738, died 1747. 8. Martha, baptized June 14, 1741, died October 27, 1780; married Jacob Tread- well, of Ipswich. 9. Nathaniel, born March 18, 1759. died in infancy. 10. Lucy, twin with Nathaniel, born March 18, 1759; married Lieutenant Jabez Farley, son of General Michael Farley, of Ipswich (see Farley family).

HAWKS In the memorable fleet which sailed from Southampton, Eng- land, with seventeen hundred Puritan emigrants under Winthrop, and land- ed at Salem, Massachusetts, in June, 1630, was Adam Hawks, or Hawkes, who became the progenitor of a numerous branch of the family in America. One of his descendants has re- cently written of him: "Adam Hawkes, founder of the numerous and respectable fami- ly that bears the name throughout the country. was one of the advance guard of hard-headed Englishmen who for liberty of conscience, not loving England less but freedom more, took wife and children and household goods, braved the perils of trackless seas, dared the wiles of savage races in an unknown world, and sowed the seed that has grown the highest civiliza-

tion the earth has ever known." He was of Charlestown in 1634, but received large grants of land in that part of Lynn now Saugus. He was a farmer, and settled on land where iron ore was found. Soon after his settlement his house was burned, the occupants, a servant and twin infants, escaping. His second house sheltered some of his kindred for two cen- turies, being taken down in 1872, two hundred years after his death, and on one of the chim- ney bricks was found the date 1601, probably written in the soft clay when the brick was moulded in England. Adam Hawks married first. Ann Hutchinson, who died December 4. 1669: children: Adam; John, born about 1633; Moses; Benjamin ; Thomas and Sus- anna. He married second, June. 1670, Sarah Hooper : child: Sarah, born June 1. 1671. As his sons and grandsons grew up, some settled in various parts of New England, others west of the Hudson river and some on Long Island.

(I) David Hawks, direct descendant of Adam Hawks, the Puritan emigrant, through the Long Island branch, settled in Massachu- setts, and married, in Tyngsboro, Sarah Col- burn, of Dracut; children: 1. Farrington, of whom further. 2. Sarah (or Polly), born March II. 1771, married John Cummings, of Swanzey, New Hampshire.

(II) Farrington, son of David Hawks (I), was born in Dunstable, Massachusetts, April 21, 1770. Ile insisted that Hawk was the proper form of the family name, but at the request of his wife added "s" to it. A grand- son changed the form to Hawkes, but later eliminated the "e." returning to the form Hawks, adopted by the grandsire. Farring- ton Hawks married, about 1791, in Amesbury, Massachusetts, Sarah Knowlton ; children: I. Abigail, born May 5, 1792; married Nathan Marshall ; children: Sarah. Katherine, Mary, Joshua Pierce, Betsey B., Esther, Joseph A., Luella, and Farrington; of these there is only living Esther, residing in Bradford, New Hampshire, aged eighty-six. 2. Colburn ; see forward. 3. Farrington, born June 5, 1796; married Philena Classon Dean ; children : John F., Sarah E., Henry A., Edward M., Lorenzo Knowlton. 4. Katherine, born Aug- ust II, 1798: married. June 7, 1825, Timothy Dowling : children : Elizabeth C., Timothy L., John H., Sarah J., Mary Ann, Abby II., George W., Marshall R. 5. John, born Octo- ber 26, 1801 : married Betsey Freeman ; chil- dren : Abigail C., and Elhanan Winchester, the last named for the great writer. 6. David.

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born May 7, 1804; married Susan Straw ; chil- dren : Emeline, John Hartwell, William, Frederick, Sarah M., Ellen. 7. Moody, born February 25, 1809; married July 13, 1834, Abigail Frost ; children: Frederick H., Abi- gail Lemira, Elbert Winn (killed in battle of Wilderness), Sarah Hall.

(III) Colburn, eldest son and second child of Farrington and Sarah (Knowlton ) Hawks, born April 14, 1794, lived a part of his life in Bradford, New Hampshire. Ile married, March 5, 1826, Clarissa Brown ; children : I. John Milton, see forward. 2. Bartlett, born in Bradford, March 3, 1828, died young. 3. Robert Bartlett, born October 16, 1829, died 1897, at Bradford, on old farm where he was born. 4. Helen Maria, born June 26, 1832; married Prescott Colby; children: i. Jesse P., married Rachel Alberta Gordon : ii. Belle, married Joseph Currier; children: Helen, Sadie, and Ralph Prescott, graduate of Dart- mouth College, 1908; iii. Flora, married Archi- bald Brown, children Archibald Prescott and John Milton; after death of her husband, Mrs. Colby went to live with her mother on the old farm. 5. Sarah Knowlton, born Sep- tember 13, 1835 ; unmarried ; resides on Hawks homestead at Bradford. 6. Miner, born Janu- ary 8, 1845; educated in Bradford schools ; at age of seventeen enlisted in Rhode Island cavalry regiment, was wounded and discharg- cd, re-enlisted in 2Ist Regt. U. S. C. T. as hospital steward, promoted lieutenant and cap- tain Col. Montgomery's 34th Regt. U. S. C. T., and served to end of war; married Dora George : children: 1. Ralph ; ii. Mertie Clara, married Edgar Preston, of Auburn, New Hampshire ; children: Rhodora, born Octo- ber 16, 1901; Miner, born June 21, 1903; Helen Esther, born September 7, 1907.

(IV) John Milton, M. D., eldest child of Colburn and Clarissa (Brown) Hawks, was born in Bradford, New Hampshire, November 26, 1826. He was educated in the public schools there, and when only fifteen years of age passed the prescribed examination for teacher, and devoted several years to that vo- cation, working at farming during the sum- mers. He first taught in Warner, New Hamp- shire, for one term, and then nearly a year near Schenectady, New York. The following two years he taught in Houston county, Georgia, and while so engaged took up the study of medicine, which, upon his return to New Hampshire, he continued under the pre- ceptorship of Dr. George H. Hubbard, of Bradford. Later he took two courses in the

Vermont Medical College at Woodstock, and completed his studies at Cincinnati (Ohio) Medical College, graduating with the degree of M. D. in 1847. Next year he began his professional career in Manchester, New Hampshire, conducting a drug store in con- nection with his practice. In December, 1861, the first year of the civil war, he sold his busi- ness, laid aside a successful and growing prac- tice, and volunteered his services as physician and surgeon among the "contrabands" (es- caped slaves) at and near Edisto Island, South- Carolina, among whom he labored assiduously about four months. While thus employed he was appointed to the staff of Brigadier Gen- eral Saxton, and placed in charge of the Freed- men's Hospital, and was very largely instru- mental in recruiting and examining the 33d Regiment U. S. C. T., of which he was assist- ant surgeon for one year.

In this connection it is of interest to note that Dr. Hawks was among the first to urge emancipation of the slaves and the use of negro troops, anticipating by more than two years the famous Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln. The writer has before him a time-discolored copy of the Manchester (New Hampshire) American, of August 27, 1861, containing a stirring letter from his pen -the first article in a secular newspaper ad- vocating the arming of the blacks-in which he said : "Let us liberate the slaves ; take them into our service and place weapons in their hands Let us join the War for the Union and the Constitution, and make it also a War of Emancipation. Let us once more unfurl the Stars and Stripes over all the territory from the Potomac and the Ohio, and from Fort Sumter to the Rio Grande. And when our banner shall again float, in the Southern breeze, the sons of Africa will no longer curse it, for not a slave shall be left shackled beneath its folds."

In April, 1862, before entering the military service, Surgeon Hawks wrote from Edisto Island, South Carolina, to Major General David Hunter, commanding the Department of the South, recommending the enlistment of negroes on the South Sea Islands, reminding him of the splendid service of the negroes in Hayti, under Toussaint, when they charged with wooden pikes upon the French troops. In July following General Hunter organized the first black regiment. But the Washington authorities were not yet prepared for so radi- cal a movement, and the so-called "Hunter Regiment," after a few months service as

John MHawks

Esther to Hawks

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laborers, was disbanded. A few weeks later, however, the recruiting of negroes began in earnest, and Surgeon Hawks had the great satisfaction of being present when the first escaped slaves were mustered into the United States army as soldiers. This important event in American history occurred October 7. 1862, in front of General Saxton's headquarters in Beaufort, South Carolina, the recruits being Captain William James's Company B. The oath was administered by General Saxton, Military Governor of South Carolina. When the new regiment mustered eight hundred men. encamped at Camp Saxton, near Beaufort, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, then a cap- tain in the 51st Massachusetts Regiment, was appointed colonel on the recommendation of Surgeon Hawks, General Saxon not being previously acquainted with Colonel Higgin- son.

In October, 1863. Dr. Hawks became sur- geon, with rank of major, of the 21st Regi- ment U. S. C. T., performing both hospital and field duty. The last engagement in which he served was at John's Island, South Carolina, February 10, 1865. Later that year he was in charge of the smallpox hospital at Charles- ton. After the close of hostilities and during the beginning of the reconstruction period he labored efficiently to aid the freedmen in lius- banding their means and securing homes. As early as the summer of 1864 hundreds of color- ed soldiers in the vicinity of Beaufort, South Carolina, were trusting their money for safe keeping to individuals-friends not in the ser- vice, or their officers. Surgeon Hawks ad- dressed General Saxton, setting forth the urgent need of a savings bank for freedmen, and shortly afterward such an institution was organized by that officer. In 1865 Dr. Hawks, now again in civil life, organized and became president of the Florida Land and Lumber Company, a principal object of which was to provide homes and imployment for the eman- cipated blacks of that section. He was also instrumental in providing homesteads for a portion of five hundred families in and near Port Orange, Florida. He soon afterward secured a tract of land on North Indian river, planted an orange grove, and established Hawks Park, which in later years has been his winter home except during a brief period. He was appointed assistant assessor of inter- nal revenue, Fifth Florida District, in 1870, with headquarters at Pensacola, covering on horseback the entire eight western counties of the state. In 1870-71 he was engrossing clerk

in the Florida legislature, and in the latter year printed the Florida Gasetteer, giving an account of every county in the state, and also printed the first Jacksonville ( Florida) directory. In 1887 he printed a work entitled "The East Coast of Florida." He returned north in 1872 and opened a drug store in Allston, Massachu- setts, and the following year opened a similar business in Hyde Park. He sold these inter- ests in 1876, returning to Florida, where he passes the winter seasons, making his summer home in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Before the civil war, Dr. Hawks was a strong anti-slavery advocate, and as such ap- peared on the same platform with William Lloyd Garrison, in the righteous cause of aboli- tion, and has always devoted his energies to whatever has seemed best for the education and elevation of the colored race, and many of his addresses and pen productions have found publication. Ile was an original Re- publican, and stands firm in the faith of that party. For many years he has been promi- nently identified with the Grand Army of the Republic-first as a comrade of Darling Post. Hyde Park, Massachusetts ; later as a charter member and commander of Budd Mather Post, No. 8. of Hawks Park, Florida. organized in 1886. He is author of several monographs on professional topics, especially "Yellow Fever, its Propagation and Prevention," which has appeared in various publications ; and his "Genealogical and Biographical Album," which has passed through several editions. He mar- ried. October 5. 1854, Esther Jane Hill, of whom further.

Esther Jane Hill, M. D., wife of Dr. John M. Hawks, was born in Hookset, New Hamp- shire, August 4, 1833, and died May 6, 1906, at her home in Lynn, Massachusetts, after an illness of a few months. She was fifth of the eight children of Parmenas and Jane (Kim- ball) Hill, and granddaughter of John Hill, of Andover. a soldier of the revolution and the war of 1812, and of Jedediah Kimball, also a revolutionary soldier. Her maternal line of descent is : Richard (1), born in Yarmouth, England; Richard (2), of England, in 1623; Caleb (3) : John (4), of Wenham, Massachu- setts ; Joseph (5); John (6); Jedediah (7); and Jane (8), her mother.

She attended the public schools in Hookset, Suncook and Exeter, the high school in Man- chester, and the academy in Kingston, New Hampshire, and taught winter schools in East Kingston, Merrimack and Thornton's Ferry. New Hampshire. She married Dr. John M

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Hawks, as above mentioned, and the day fol- lowing started for New York, sailing from there for Tampa, Florida, and spending most of the winter in Manatee, that state, where she taught a private school in a Methodist church. The homeward journey in April and May was by way of New Orleans and the Mississippi river to St. Louis, thence by rail via Indian- apolis, Terre Haute, Niagara Falls, etc., and late in June was established in Manchester as a housekeeper and medical student in the office of her husband, visiting his patients, and at times acting as clerk in his drug store. Later she attended lectures at the New England Fe- male Medical College, Boston, and here heard the lectures of that pioneer of women physi- cians, Dr. Marie Zakrzewska. When she took her degree of M. D. in 1857, the college had already graduated seven classes, so that the struggles of the pioneer women in Medicine (Dr. Blackwell, of New York, and Dr. Zak- rewska, of Boston), had already removed and overcome many obstacles, but the way was not yet smooth, and Dr. Hawks had some unpleas- ant experiences. At her graduation, Dr. Gregory stated that if the college could send out one thousand instead of seven graduates, the demand for educated female physicians would yet be unsupplied. From her gradua- tion until 1862 she practiced in Manchester, this proving a preparation for her real life work which was to follow.

In the autumn of 1862 Dr. Esther Hawks volunteered her services to the New York Freedmen's Aid Society as a teacher for freed- men, and was in the second company of teachers sent out, arriving in Beaufort, South Carolina, in October. Women were not then allowed to visit the Department of the South except in the capacity of teachers, and she was among the first to arrive and enter upon duty there. Her first effort was in the Meth- odist church, where three hundred men, women and children, in age ranging from three to thirty years, came for instruction. Her next school was made up from the First Regiment South Carolina Colored Volunteers, at Camp Saxton. There had been in Beaufort, since the summer of 1862, a hospital for colored citi- zens, but none for colored soldiers, and in April, 1863, General Hospital No. 10 was fitted up and opened for the latter, under charge of Surgeon John M. Hawks, and there Dr. Esther Hawks assisted in surgical operations, and nursing the sick; and at one time, when her husband was absent on detached service, she was for two or three weeks in charge of

the hospital, and also of the sick in Colonel Montgomery's Thirty-fourth Regiment, U. S. C. T., in camp near the town. She was assist- ed in these duties by her younger brother, Ed- ward O. Hill, acting as hospital steward. In July, 1863, the wounded heroes of the Fifty- fourth Massachusetts, one hundred and twen- ty-five in number, who had followed the gal- lent Colonel Shaw in his desperate charge on Fort Wagner, were brought to Beaufort, and cared for by Drs. John M. and Esther H. Hawks. In October, 1863, Dr. John M. Hawks was appointed surgeon of the Third (later Twenty-first ) South Carolina Volunteers, located at Hilton Head, an island some miles south of Beaufort. After a few months they accompanied the regiment in February, 1864, to Jacksonville, Florida, whence in a few days an advance was made to Camp Finnegan, eight miles inland. After the disastrous battle at Olustee the regiment returned to Jacksonville, where the Drs. Hawks and other surgeons were busied all night caring for three hundred wounded brought from the battlefield.

On February 29, 1864, Dr. Esther H. Hawks opened a school in Odd Fellows' Hall, Jack- sonville, for both white and colored children, and which was perhaps the last mixed school in the state. It opened with thirty white and one colored child ; blacks kept increasing, and the whites kept dropping out, until only one or two whites remained in a school of one hun- dred. In February, 1865, Charleston, South Carolina, was surrendered to the colored Twenty-first Regiment, commanded by Col- onel Bennett, and this event opened a more important field of work for Dr. Esther Hawks. School houses were deserted, and hundreds of residences abandoned or left in charge of negro servants. Then came rushing events, and she was always at the front. She aided Mr. Redpath to furnish an orphan asylum, and as- sisted in organizing and became principal of the schools in the normal school building, with five hundred pupils and fifteen teachers. The school children, mostly colored. numbered about twenty-five hundred, and at one time Dr. Esther Hawks was general superintendent of the city schools, and while acting in this capacity visited Georgetown. Summerville, Edisto and other islands, organizing schools and appointing and assisting teachers. On May I, 1865, she assisted largely in planning and organizing, with James Redpath, a public pro- cession of school children which, withimpressive ceremonies decorated the graves of the Union prisoners of war buried in trenches on the old

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race track, and not only the graves but the ground between them was covered with flow- ers. (New York Tribune, May 13, 1865). It has been suggested that this grand decora- tion of soldiers' graves may have led to our Memorial Day. In the fall, at the request of the superintendent of instruction, she took charge of the teachers at Hilton Head, on their arrival from New York, and assigned them to duty in various places. From 1866 to 1870 the Drs. Hawks's home was in Port Orange, Florida, where the husband had organized the Florida Land and Lumber Company, primarily "to furnish homesteads to freedmen and others." Though these years were uneventful, they were busy ones, as the wife gave her ser- vices and medicines as physician and teacher, "without money and without price."

Late in 1870 Dr. Esther Hawks located in Lynn, Massachusetts, at 51 Silsbee street, en- tering into a partnership with Dr. Lizzie Breed Welch, who had been her fellow medical graduate. The two and Dr. Mary J. Flanders were the first female physicians in the city. In 1874, on returning from a visit to Florida. Dr. Esther Hawks opened an office at 81 Broad street, where she remained until she purchased the estate at 16 Newhall street, in 1884, where she passed the remainder of her life. She was a successful and popular physi- cian, an honored member of the profession, and in the thirty-five years of her active life established an extensive practice in Lynn and vicinity. She was a member of the New Eng- land Hospital Medical Society, the Boston Gynaecological Society, and an honorary mem- ber of the New Hampshire Association of Military Surgeons. She was actively alive to every cause or movement promising a better- ment of the race. She was one of the founders of the Associated Charities of Lynn, an officer in it as long as she lived, and the influence of her spirit in the committee meetings will long be missed. She was a patron of the Boys Club, and the Day Nursery, the Reading and Rest Rooms, and was often called on to ad- dress the Mothers' Meeting, both at home and other places, and the spontaneous flow of her words, lighted by her wit and humor, was as pleasing to the little people as it was inspiring to the older folks. The cause of women suf- frage, or "woman's rights," as it was first call- ed, enlisted her interest while a young woman, an interest which survived her varied experi- ences in the south, and became active again after her location in Lynn. In 1877 the Lynn Woman Suffrage Club was formed, of which,

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Boston and eastern Massachusetts, Part 67

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