USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Boston and eastern Massachusetts > Part 71
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ed in the reign of one of the Henries. Edward Rawson was a grantee of the town of New- bury, and was the first town clerk.chosen April 19, 1638, and was annually re-elected until 1647. He was also chosen selectman and com- missioner for the trial of small causes, and served on various committees to lay out lands and transact other business for the town. He was one of the deputies to represent the town in the general court in 1638, and he must have possessed more than ordinary talent for busi- ness as well as a large degree of public spirit. In 1639 he again represented the town at its third session and at the May session was granted five hundred acres as an inducement for him to continue the manufacture of powder. In 1642 he was again deputy and in 1644. In the latter year he received two hundred acres upon the Cochituate river, above Dover bounds. In 1645 he was deputy, and at the close of the session the deputies passed the following vote : "That Edward Rawson is chosen & appointed clerk of the house of deputies for one whole yeere, to Enter of vote passed in both houses & thus also yt passe only by them into the book of Record." In 1646 he was deputy and clerk, and at the November session it was ordered by the deputies "yt Edward Rawson shall have twenty marks allowed him for his paines, out of ye next levy as secrt to ye house of deputies for two yeeres passed." In 1647-8 he continued to represent Newbury in the general court. In the latter year he received two grants of land, one of fifteen hundred acres jointly with Rev. John Wilson of Boston, and another of five hundred acres at Pequot, and with the latter he was granted five pounds on account of expenditures made in preparing for the manu- facture of gunpowder. In 1649 he was again representative, and was re-elected clerk, and May 22, 1650, was chosen secretary of the col- ony. In 1649 he was one of a committee to "Plumb Island," and from his first election as secretary of the colony he was continuously re- elected for a period of thirty-six years, until the usurpation of the government by Sir Ed- mund Andros, when he was displaced. Elliott remarks of him that "he was of respectable character as we may judge from his having this office so long, while there was an annual elec- tion." He owned and cultivated two farms and a meadow in that town, which bears the name of Rawson's meadow. After his removal to Boston his residence was on Rawson's Lane, where he is supposed to have died. This lane bore his name until about 1800, when it was changed to Bromfield street. He owned some
acres of land here which bordered on the com- mon, out of which he sold several house lots. His salary as secretary was only twenty pounds per annum at first, but was subsequently in- creased to sixty pounds. To this office was soon added that of recorder of the county of Suffolk, which he held many years. The rec- ords show several grants of land made to him at various times for "extraordinary services." He and his wife were members of what was called the First Church of Boston, of which Rev. John Wilson was pastor. When divi- sions arose in this church after the death of Mr. Wilson, Edward Rawson was one of the twenty-eight disaffected persons who dissolved connections with that society and formed the Third, or Old South church, in May, 1669. A corporation in England for the propaga- tion of the gospel among the Indians in New England chose Edward Rawson as steward or agent "for the receiving and disposing of such goods and commodities" as should be sent to the united colonies, and the choice was confirmed by the commissioners of the col- onies at New Haven, 1651. Edward Rawson is believed to be the author of a book publish- ed in 1691, entitled "The Revolution in New England Justified, ' and of other similar works. It is quite apparent that he was one of those who participated in the persecution of the Quakers. This seems to be the only blemish upon his fair fame and that he was an uncon- monly useful and excellent man cannot be doubted.
According to the record written in his fami- ly bible by his son, and which is still carefully preserved, Edward Rawson was born April 16, 1615, and died August 27, 1693. He mar- ried, in England, Rachel Perne, granddaugh- ter of John Hooker, whose wife was a Grindal, sister of Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Can- terbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. John Hooker, grandfather of Rachel Perne, was an uncle of the celebrated divine, Rev. Thomas Hooker, who founded the colony of Hartford, Connecticut. The first child of Edward Raw- son, a daughter, was married in England and remained there. The others were Edward, Rachel, David, Mary Perne, Susan, William Rebecca (died young), Rebecca, Elizabeth, John and Grindal.
(II) William, third son and seventh child of Edward and Rachel ( Perne) Rawson, was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, May 21, 1651, and was educated for a mercantile life. He became a prominent merchant and importer of foreign goods. Up to the time of his mar-
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riage he resided with his father in Rawson Lane, now Bromfield street, Boston, where he kept a dry goods store. In 1689 he sold his estate and removed with his family to Dorches- ter, where he lived upon a portion of the "Newbury Farm" inherited by his wife. He afterwards purchased a tract of land in Brain- tree, which is now known as the ancient Raw- son farm. It is situated near Neponset Vill- age and has been passed down from father to son to the fifth generation. The present house is on the same site where William Rawson built his homestead. Here he lived nearly forty years and died September 20, 1726, in his seventy-fifth year. He married, 1673, Anne Glover, only daughter of Nathaniel and Mary (Smith) Glover of Dorchester. She died about 1730, aged seventy-four years. In twenty-five years they had twenty children : Anne, died in infancy: Wilson; Margaret; Edward, died young; Rachel; Dorothy, died young ; William; David; Dorothy; Ebenezer, died young ; Thankful; Nathaniel; Ebenezer ; Edward; Anne; Patience ; Peletiah: Grindal ; Mary.
(III) Captain William Rawson, son of Wil- liam and Anne (Glover) Rawson, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, December 9, 1682; graduated from Harvard College 1703, settled in Mendon, Massachusetts. He was chosen selectman 1729, and also was chosen by the board of selectman to keep the school for three months beginning December 8 same year, to be paid at the rate of forty-five pounds per annum. On March 1, 1731, he was se- lected town clerk and held that office several years. In the same year also he was appointed to teach the grammar school three months, which probably was the first school of that grade ever taught in Mendon. He must have been a successful teacher, for in April, 1737, he was again appointed master of the grammar school for the next ten months. He appears to have taken an active part in town affairs in Mendon and to have enjoyed in an unusual degree the respect of the inhabitants. He was known as Captain Rawson, probably on ac- count of his connection with the militia of the town, and it may be that he took some part in the French and Indian wars, although we have no account of his particular military ser- vice. He died in Mendon, in October, 1769. In 1710 he married Sarah Crosby, of Billerica ; children: William, born February 20, 1711 ; Perne, born October 13, 1713, died young ; Anne, died young; Sarah, born January 3, 1715; Rachel, born September 19, 1716, mar-
ried Captain Torrey ; Anne, born 1720, mar- ried John Holton of Sutton ; Perne, born Jan- uary I, 1727, died April 19, 1741 ; Thomas, born May 2, 1733.
(IV) William Rawson, eldest child of Cap- tain William and Sarah ( Crosby ) Rawson, born in Mendon, Massachusetts, February 20, 17II, died there 1790. His life was spent in his native town and he is said to have been "a distinguished lawyer and considered a man of learning in his day." He was town treasurer 1734, and elected town clerk in 1740, probably succeeding his father in that office. On May 13, 1731, he married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Cook, of Uxbridge; children : Thomas, born May, 1732, married
Read; William, born 1734 (sutler for Rhode Island troops at Crown Point during French and Indian war ), died at Crown Point in 1756; John, born January 23, 1738, married Eliza- beth Bruce; Perne, born October 24, 1741, married Molly Aldrich; Edward, born July 25, 1744; Margaret, born May 14, 1747, died May 29, 1748; Jonathan, born March 15, 1749, married Bathsheba Tracy; Margaret, born 1751.
(V) Edward Rawson, son of William and Margaret (Cook) Rawson, born in Mendon, Massachusetts, July 25, 1744, died there June 16, 1823. He was a thrifty farmer, and a very useful man as a farrier. By his wife Sarah, daughter of Joseph Sadler, of Upton, he had eight children: Cyrenius, born December 12, 1764; Sarah, born August 4, 1766, died Sep- tember 24, 1848, married Elijah Taft ; Joseph, born August 16, 1768; Leonard, born August 23, 1771 ; Orson, died in October 1775; Mary, born December 30, 1777; Simon, born June 24, 1780.
(VI) Simon Rawson, youngest child of Edward and Sarah (Sadler) Rawson, born in Mendon, Massachusetts, June 24, 1780, died there in July, 1847. He married Abigail Wood; ten children : Manning, born Septem- ber 20, 1804: Gordon, born February 11, 1806, married Sarah Cummings; George, born Oc- tober 13, 1808; Mary, born March 14, 18II ; Abigail, born June 9, 1813; Henry, born April 2, 1816: Liberty, born May 12, 1819: Jemima Ann, born May 22, 1822; Charles E., born March 12, 1825; Simeon, born February II, 1828.
(VII) Liberty Rawson, seventh child of Simon and Abigail (Wood) Rawson, born in Mendon, Massachusetts, May 12, 1819, died in East Holliston, Massachusetts, October 30, 1894. After his marriage he settled in Med-
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way, Massachusetts, removed thence to Beloit, Rock county, Wisconsin, lived there a number of years, and then returned east and took up his abode in Holliston. He married September 21, 1842, Harriet Blake of Medway : children : Harriet Louise, born November 22, 1847: Julia Allena, born August 29, 1859; Mary Abbie, born September 8, 1867.
(VIII) Harriet Louise Rawson, eldest child of Liberty and Harriet ( Blake ) Rawson, born November 22, 1847, married, in Hollis- ton, Massachusetts, April 6, 1869, to Francis Batchelder, now of Everett, Massachusetts (see Batchelder family).
FENNO The Fenno family, representa- tives of which have been promi- nent in various capacities and in different walks of life, trace their ancestry to Governor Thomas Dudley, who was born in England about the year 1576, died at Rox- bury, Massachusetts, July 21, 1653. In the city of London, England, October 20, 1629, Thomas Dudley was chosen one of five officers to come to America under the royal charter that had been granted. From the time of his arrival, at Salem in 1631 to the day of his death, in July, 1653, he was second to no man in the colony in influence and activity. He was elected March 29, 1644, sergeant major general, and assistant, May 14, 1645, governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, May 26, 1647 ; deputy governor and commissioner for United Colonies with John Endicott, Esq., assistant. Governor Dudley was the president of this commission. May 6, 1646, was elected com- missioner with Simon Bradstreet, Gent, in re- serve to supply places of commissioners of United Colonies. On a tablet at the corner of Dunster and South streets, Cambridge, is the following: "Thomas Dudley, Founder of Cambridge, Governor of Massachusetts, Lived here in 1630." The amount of his inventory was £1,560. The line of ancestry from Gover- nor Thomas Dudley is as follows: Governor Thomas Dudley ( I) ; Mercy Dudley (2) ; Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge(3) ; Benjamin Wood- bridge (4) ; Elizabeth Woodbridge (5) ; Mary Gilman Grafton (6), who married Joseph Fen- no; John Woodbridge Fenno (7) ; Dana Graf- ton Fenno (8).
(VII) John Woodbridge Fenno, son of Joseph and Mary Gilman (Grafton) Fenno, born July 30, 1792, in Salem, Massachusetts, died November 7, 1859, in Boston, buried at Salem, Massachusetts. After serving as clerk seven or eight years in the old Commercial
Bank of Salem, be became a broker in that city, his great finanical capacity, integrity, far- sightedness, public spirit and personal enter- prise making him the leading broker there, where for a long time he transacted heavy business operations for the Peabodys, Picker- ings. Brookses, and other chief shipping mer- chants of that place engaged in the East India and other foreign trade. Subsequently he came to Boston, and at once took a prominent rank among the most useful citizens of that city. The mercantile and commercial world of Bos- ton and the sister cities well knew by what brilliant abilities and by what an unblemished course he advanced to fortune, being worth at one time half a million of dollars. To him more than any other man, Boston is indebted for the Merchants' Exchange on State street, as through his representations the distinguish- ed firm of which he was a partner purchased the valuable land upon which it is built, so that it might be secured to the citizens for its present important purposes, instead of ministering merely to private ends. The land was fenced in, but the delay in purchasing it caused the other members of the firm to grow uneasy at holding such a large property un- available for an indefinite period, and Mr. Fenno assumed the responsibility solely, and held the land thus for two years, entirely animated by a desire to benefit the citizens. At the end of this long interval the property was sold to the highest bidder at a loss of about $65,000. Mr. Fenno was a pioneer in numerous other public enterprises, his fore- sight suggesting them and his abilities, influ- ence and abundant means admirably combining in carrying them out. To him we are indebted for the great and successful movement which made East Boston what it is, a populous island and the great workshop of the metropolis. Mr. Fenno was the foremost man of the company which did so much to place East Boston in the way to fulfill purposes which her natural posi- tion indicated, and to his efforts the existence of the first ferry is owing, and also the build- ing of the Cunard wharf. Leading merchants will coincide with us in according great credit to MIr. Fenno for his powerful and unselfish exertions at that time. It may be mentioned as an illustration of the substantiality of the firm of Dana, Fenno & Henshaw, that it furnished great and vital aid to the Suffolk and other banks in Boston, standing firm amid the dis- astrous financial crisis of 1837, when many an old and honored banking institution and mercantile house was crushed beneath the
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monetary pressure. Among other great enter- prises with which Mr. Fenno had become con- nected was the Grand Junction railway, and he subsequently projected that memorable and mighty international jubilee in Boston, in 1851, when Lord Elgin visited the city to join in celebrating the close friendly and profitable union between the states and the provinces. The good actions of Mr. Fenno in the days of his prosperity should at least be remembered. What he did when he had the means is still operating beneficially in Boston, though we regret to say that he died a poor man. Mr. Fenno was a kind-hearted and in his palmy days a very benevolent man. He took a great interest in Father Taylor's ministrations, and his purse many times proved his sincerity for the sailor. Father Taylor said of him at one time, "he was one of God's noblemen." (The foregoing was taken from a Boston news- paper). Mr. Fenno was one of the merchant princes of Boston, holding membership in the firms of Dana, Fenno & Henshaw, and Harden & Company, and until within a short time of his death was keeper of records at the Boston custom house. During the war of 1812 he was given charge of the funds and valuables of the banks and property of the citizens of Sa- lem, and with the Salem Light Infantry took them inland for safety.
John Woodbridge Fenno married, Septem- ber 24, 1815, Anne Fossett Grafton, born Jan- uary 15, 1794, died July 11, 1869, daughter of Woodbridge and Patience ( Woodbridge) Grafton. Children : I. Elizabeth Grafton, born August 12, 1816, died October 6, 1816. 2. George Grafton, born May II. 1820, died January 12, 1829. 3. John Ward, born Decem- ber 8, 1824, went to sea 1840, and never re- turned home. 4. Dana Grafton, see forward. 5. Mary Grafton, born July 10, 1830 ; married Jolın C. Dow, December 3, 1850: children: i. George G., born July 25, 1852, died October 3, 1861 ; ii. John Calvin, born April 4, 1854; iii. Henry B., born April 8, 1857, died March 3, 1859; iv. Frank Prescott, born December 9, 1859; v. Charles F., born October 9, 1862, died 1893, in Brooklyn, New York; graduate of Tufts College ; was an accomplished elec- trician and engineer ; vi. Fred Grafton, born February 27, 1870 ; was second officer on Brit- ish steamship "Airdandlin," and was drowned in Vineyard Sound, January 23, 1900.
(VIII) Dana Grafton Fenno, (although he always wrote his name Grafton), fourth child of John Woodbridge and Anne F. (Grafton) Fenno, born at Salem, Massachusetts, February
5, 1827, died July 29, 1888, buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Boston, Massachusetts, under the monument he designed. His parents re- moved to Boston when he was three years of age. He attended private school at Salem in 1836-37-38, and in the fall of 1840 went to Europe on the return voyage of the first Cun- arder. He witnessed the pageant ceremonies at the funeral of Napoleon Bonaparte, and through the courtesy of Hon. Edward Everett, minister plenipotentiary to the court of St. James, was permitted to see the face of the greatest military commander of the nineteenth century. He remained in Paris, France, until the winter of 1842, and among his schoolmates were two brothers, cousins of the eminent sculptor, August Bartholdi. Mr. Fenno com- menced life as clerk with E. F. Newhall & Company, later with G. W. Warren & Com- pany, the predecessors of Jordan, Marsh & Company, of Boston. Later he was engaged at the Merchants' Exchange Reading Room, Boston, Edwin P. Whipple, Esq., superintend- ent, and afterwards at the banking and insur- ance agency of August W. Whipple. In the winter of 1843 he was in the employ of the Original Express Carriers, Messrs. Harnden & Company, No. 8 Court street, Boston. On January 27, 1849, he sailed from Boston in the ship "Capitol" as junior partner of the San Francisco branch of Harden & Company. In 1852-53 he was deputy sheriff of Calaveras county, Mokelumne Hill, California. Janu- ary 27, 1855, he returned to Boston and renew- ed his associations with the Merchants' Ex- change Reading Room, and some months later sailed for Truxillo, Honduras, where he was engaged in mining operations and performing some business for the merchants of Boston in the leather trade. In 1857 he went to Chi- cago, Illinois, and with the New York agent of the Continental Fire Insurance Company or- ganized the Chicago Citizens' Fire Brigade, and was prominent in establishing the new paid fire department, which substituted steam engines for the hand engines. In connection with Captain E. E. Ellsworth and Lieutenant Stryker he organized the original Ellsworth Chicago Zouaves, of which he was an honorary member. He returned to New York and con- tinued with the Continental Fire Isurance Company until April 12, 1861, when Beaure- gard sent his card to Anderson, which caused the firing on Fort Sumter, and the breaking out of the civil war. April 20, 1861, Mr. Fenno joined Company F (Captain Ellis), 7Ist Regiment New York State Militia, and
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Trafton Jenna
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was mustered in May 3, 1861. He accom- panied the regiment to the navy yard at Wash- ington, where he received the body of Col- onel E. E. Ellsworth, at Port 17, on the morn- ing of Ellsworth's death. He was a roommate of Mr. Ellsworth in Chicago, Illinois, before the war. In 1862 he was with the regiment at Tenallytown; he returned with his company to New York, where he was mustered out of United States service September 2, 1862, with his company. He immediately commenced re- cruiting the 165th Regiment New York Volun- teers, known as the Second Duryee Zouaves, under Captain French and Lieutenant Norris ( both of the 71st New York ), enlisted in Com- pany D of that regiment September 16, 1862, and as regimental recruiting sergeant accom- panied the regiment to New Orleans, Louisiana, and was honorably discharged before Port Hudson, May 15, 1863. He returned to Bos- ton and re-enlisted in the 3d Massachusetts Cavalry, Company D, January 5, 1864, for three years, and joined Banks's army in the Red River campaign. He was present at Henderson's Hill, Sabine Cross Roads, Pleas- ant Hill, Cane River, Pine Log Crossing, Muddy Bayou, Piney Woods and numerous other heavy skirmishes. He returned to New Orleans with the 3d Massachusetts Cavalry, June, 1864, and the following month his regi- ment was assigned to the Second Brigade, Sec- ond Division, Nineteenth Army Corps, and joined Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. He was present at Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, and started with Sheridan's raiders for Petersburg, but only went as far as Staunton, Virginia. He was at the Grand Parade at Washington, D. C., and that day his regiment was ordered to report to General Pope on frontier service at Julesburg, beyond Fort Kearny, Nebraska. He was soon after ordered to return to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was mustered out of service Septem- ter 28, 1865, as quartermaster-sergeant. The regiment was paid off at Boston, where he received his commission of first lieutenant of October 5, 1865.
In 1866 Lieutenant Fenno was employed by the United States and Canada Express Company, Nos. 39-40 Court Square, Boston, as editor and bookkeeper. He remained with that company over ten years, and was sub- sequently connected with the Boston Board of Trade. At a later period he joined the sur- vey of the N. Y., B. A. & Schenectady rail- road from Bronx River to Albany, New York, and for five years was employed in the
mathematical department of the New York Life Insurance Company, No. 346 Broad- way, New York. For fifteen years he was a comrade of Charles Russell Lowell Post, No. 7. G. A. R., of Boston, also a member of Bunker Hill Monument Association, of Charlestown, Massachusetts. Early in the seventies, during Lieutenant Fenno's associa- tion with Post No. 7. G. A. R., it was suggested by the Post that they should have a soldiers' burial lot of their own in which a deceased soldier might be honorably interred, thus avoiding all questions of a possible pauper's grave. The post obtained a lot, and then the necessity of a monument was created. Through the influence of General Benjamin F. Butler four cannon were donated to the post by the United States government, viz : three that were served against Fort Sumter from Fort Moul- trie, in April, 1861, and a Confederate "Par- rott" used in April, 1865, just previous to the surrender at Appomattox. Comrade Fenno's design having been accepted by the post, they were erected as a tripod, similar to a stack of muskets, and the "Parrot" placed in pyramid above, surmounted by a conical shell, holding the dear old flag. The monument represents the commencement and end of the war-it brought death to us and now shadows the dead. The thirty-eight cannon balls at the base signify that Post No. 7 will bury with military honors, free of expense, any deceased soldier of the Union requiring such service. It is historical and national in its design, and as a whole very beautiful. It is situated at Mount Hope Cemetery, Boston, and fifty-six comrades repose beneath its shadow. Again, at the suggestion of Comrade Fenno, at the Centennial in Boston, 1875. on the day suc- ceeding the arrival of the Fifth Maryland Regi- ment from Baltimore, a regiment largely made up of Confederates during the war, a magnifi- cent full-sized silk American flag and staff was presented them on Boston Common, General N. P. Banks making the presentation speech. It was the first public overture of the Blue and the Gray. It was the bugle note of success of Boston's Centennial, and the keynote of Philadephia's crowning success a few months later. Comrade Fenno carried the Grand Army of Republic parade colors at Philadel- phia, July 3, 1876, also the regimental tattered battle flag at the reunion of the armies at Baltimore, Maryland, May 6, 1885, also the tattered battle flag-with but one star remain- ing-of the 3d Maine Regiment, at the meet- ing of the national encampment of the Grand
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Army of the Republic at Portland, Maine. The following was copied from a Baltimore paper : "A picture of the Zouaves to be presented to the Fifth-a pleasant reminder. Lieutenant Grafton Fenno, a veteran of the Mexican and of the late civil wars, and a member of the Duryee New York Zouaves, has forwarded, to be presented to the 5th Maryland Regiment, a fine photograph of the Zouaves, taken at Union Square, New York, on the morning of their departure for Baltimore, Maryland, to attend the army of the Potomac reunion held here in May, 1885. The 5th Regiment, it will be remembered, met the Zouaves at Union Station and escorted them through the city to their headquarters at the Howard House. Lieutenant Fenno on that occasion renewed his acquaintance with many of the officers and men of the 5th, which began in Boston in 1875 at the Boston Centennial, and he was last year handsomely entertained at the armory. To him also belongs a large share of honor in an event notable not only in the history of the 5th Regiment, but in the quickening of that feel- ing of fraternity between the Blue and the Gray which has grown so rapidly of late years. That event was the presentation of a stand of colors to the 5th Regiment at Boston, in 1875, by Charles Russell Lowell Post, No. 7, of which Lieutenant Fenno was at that time adjutant, and it was from him came the first suggestion that the colors be presented, although the 5th at that time had some members who were on the Union side during the war, many of them were old Confederates, and as Lieutenant Fenno re- marked, the command was looked upon at the north as a lot of "Johnnies," and as a rep- resentative southern regiment, and the pre- sentation, which was witnessed by at least fifty thousand people on Boston Common, General N. P. Banks making the presentation speech, was recognized as the first public ex- tending of the hand of friendship from the Union to the Confederate soldiers. Lieutenant Fenno afterwards moved to New York, and rejoined his old comrades, the Zouaves, and came with them to Baltimore. The photograph of the Zouaves will be presented to the 5th through Mr. Thomas M. Kenney, a former comrade of Lieutenant Fenno, and commander of Post No. 7, G. A. R., at the time of the flag presentation, but at present a resident of Baltimore and a member of the staff of the American "
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