USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 33
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The method of his dealings was to buy up the shares of these lands from the soldiers or their legal heirs and then dispose of them at a profit through the founding of new towns. He made investments in different parts of the provinces and is known to have been one of the four original proprietors of Petersborough, New Hampshire, the three others being Jere- miah Gridley, John Hill and Peter Prescott. Gridley was one of the most eminent men and the greatest lawyer of his time, termed at his death "the great lawyer of the province and father of the bar of Boston, master and guide of John Adams in his legal studies." He was also a colonel of militia, and from 1755 until his death in 1767 was grand master of all the Masons of America. John Hill, a prominent business man of Boston, who held many muni- cipal offices, was a member of the governor's council for eight years and was also a colonel in the militia. Besides Petersborough, he was concerned either as grantee or proprietor in the founding of a number of towns in New Hampshire, among them Hillsborough which was named for him. Lieutenant Peter Pres- cott, the fourth proprietor, was the son of Major Jonathan Prescott, an eminent physi- cian of Concord, Massachusetts, and one of the most distinguished men of that town. Peter Prescott was from 1755 to 1762 engaged mostly in military service, but before and after this he was deeply immersed in land speculation, being connected in the establish- ing of a number of New Hampshire towns. Major John Fowle was a factor of importance in some fifteen or more enterprises of this nature, including towns in both New Hamp-
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shire and Maine. In his native town of Wo- burn he had an honorable name and an un- blemished reputation for social and business honor. Children, all born and died in Woburn: I. James, June 13, 1720, died April 10, 1793; married, November 28, 1744, Mary Reed, born June 24, 1726, at Woburn, daughter of Lieu- tenant Israel and Hannah (Wyman) Reed. 2. John, February I, 1726, died October 15, 1786; married, December 28, 1759, Bridget Burbeen, born July 17, 1742, at Woburn, daughter of Joseph and Esther ( Poole) Bur- been. He was an eminent school teacher of his time, a graduate of Harvard College and was distinguished by the title of "Master Fowle." 3. Josiah, July 14, 1731, see forward. 4. Mary, May 12, 1734, died November 27, 1796; married, April 24, 1760, Joshua Wyman Jr., son of Joshua and Mary Wyman, of Woburn. 5. Leonard, January 8, 1737, died January 16, 1798. He was not married.
(V) Josiah, son of Major John Fowle, born July 14, 1731, at Woburn, died there February 28, 1805; married, March, 1752, Margery Carter, born August 3, 1730, at Wo- burn, daughter of Captain Samuel and Mar- gery (Dickson) Carter. Captain Carter was a son of Captain John Carter, one of Woburn's earliest and most distinguished men. Captain Samuel Carter lived to the great age of ninety- three years, and his daughter, Mrs. Fowle, to the age of eighty-two years. Josiah Fowle was an extensive farmer with large holdings of land, comprising between one hundred and two hundred acres, in one of the most valuable and sightly portions of Woburn, extending from the country road, now Main street, at the business centre of the town, east of Ever- ett street, southerly to near the Winchester line, west of the then so-called English hills and along what is now known as Woburn Highlands. His dwelling was beautifully sit- uated on a knoll, on the present fine estate of Mr. James Skinner, a retired leather manufac- turer and one of Woburn's wealthiest citizens. This is on Montvale avenue, which in the early days was the Woburn end of the old Woburn and Salem turnpike. On the morning of April 19, 1775, in response to the alarm which called the minute-men and others to arms to oppose the British soldiers who were on their way to Concord, a military company from Danvers stopped to rest on the farm of Josiah Fowle, but being too late to proceed to Lexington they continued on to Menotomy, now Arling- ton, to intercept the enemy there on their return from Concord and Lexington. Here
they met the British but were subjected to great slaughter and many of their bodies now rest in the old Arlington burying ground. Josiah Fowle was then a member of Captain Jonathan Fox's company, the East Company of Woburn, and at the time of the arrival of the Danvers soldiers at his home he was in Lexington harassing the British while on their retreat through that town to Cambridge and Charlestown. He continued in service thirty days at that time, and is also credited with considerable additional service before 1777, including five months at Ticonderoga in the company of Captain Jesse Wyman, who suc- ceeded Captain Fox, when the latter was made a colonel, and five months at the lines; also in Captain Jonas Richardson's company, Colonel James Frye's regiment; also in Captain Abishai Browne's company, Colonel Josiah Whitney's regiment. His record seems, how- ever, to be confused with that of his son Josiah Jr., who also rendered long service in the revolution. The farm of Josiah Fowle was divided after his death, in accordance with his will, between his sons, his son William receiving the old homestead and about one hundred acres of land to the south, and his son John a portion of the farm to the north, from the turnpike to the country road. Chil- dren, all born at Woburn: I. Josiah, March 20, 1754, married, April 13, 1780, at Boston, Abigail Belknap, born July 16, 1758, at Wo- burn, daughter of Captain Samuel and Abigail (Lewis) Belknap. 2. John (Deacon), No- vember 10, 1755, see forward. 3. Mary, Octo- ber 9, 1761, died November 1, 1835, at Wo- burn ; married (first) March 9, 1781, Sergeant Luke Richardson, son of Ebenezer and Mary Richardson, of Woburn; (second) May 12, 1785, Dr. Sylvanus Plympton, of Woburn. 4. William, April 25, 1763, died July 17, 1850, at Woburn, aged eighty-seven years ; married, November 7, 1782, Sarah Richardson, born January 29, 1767, at Woburn, daughter of Jeduthan and Mary (Wright) Richardson. 5. Margery, October 6, 1767, died August 8, 1799, at Woburn; married, May 26, 1791, at Woburn, Colonel Loammi Baldwin, a distin- guished colonel at the battle of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, and served after- wards as lieutenant-colonel and colonel until during the year 1777; when he resigned on account of ill health. He took a prominent part in the construction of the Middlesex canal, completed in 1803, one of the earliest enterprises of the sort in the United States. He discovered the apple which has become
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famous under the name of the Baldwin apple and cultivated and introduced it to public notice. He was a son of James and Ruth (Richardson) Baldwin, of Woburn. Margery Fowle was his second wife, he having first married Mary Fowle, her cousin, daughter of James and Mary (Reed) Fowle, and grand- daughter of Major John Fowle.
(VI) Deacon John (2), son of Josiah Fowle, born November 10, 1755, at Woburn, died there December 29, 1834; married, Octo- ber 18, 1780, Lois Richardson, born June 10, 1759, at Woburn, only child of Jesse and Jemima (Brooks) Richardson. He was one of the most prominent citizens of Woburn in his time, a man of the highest character, who enjoyed great confidence and esteem for his integrity and many virtues. A pillar of the First Baptist Church, he was a deacon for thirty-five years, from 1799 until his death, and for a number of years its clerk and treas- urer. In civic affairs he was honored by being chosen a selectman for the years 1802-03-05- 06, and town treasurer during the years 1826- 27-28-31. He was a cooper by trade and for many years made and supplied stores and families with tubs and water pails. During the last years of his life he was a cripple, caused primarily by rheumatism in his limbs, contracted as the result of exposure while in the revolutionary war. He was also a great sufferer from eczema of the limbs, and was obliged to use crutches for more than fifteen years. He grew very stout, and for six years he was unable to go up stairs to see his young- est son Eldridge, who was bedridden for years and until his death in 1832 in a room on the second floor, caused by a fall which seriously injured his spine. If it be true that "whom the Lord loveth he chaseneth," Deacon John Fowle was surely one of His well beloved, for even in his last hours he was a terrible sufferer, his death being caused by stoppage of the bowels. Deacon John Fowle lived for a time in the westerly half of the house built by his grandfather, Major John Fowle, and one afternoon, while standing in his front doorway during a thunder storm he narrowly escaped death, being rendered unconscious by a bolt of lightning which passed by him and out of the back doorway, by way of the hall- way, both doors being open. It continued on to his pen of swine in the rear of the house, killing one of their number. About 1817 he removed to a new dwelling which he had caused to be erected a short distance down the country road. Here he lived until his death
in 1834, and his widow until her death in 1840. This dwelling is now the rear portion of the building owned by Thomas Moore, and occupied by him for a grocery. Deacon John Fowle as a soldier of the revolution is sup- posed to have served at Bunker Hill, Charles- town, for three months in 1778, in Captain Wyman's company, Colonel Jacob Gerrish's regiment of guards, this company being de- tached to guard General Burgoyne's army. He is also said to have been a volunteer on board a privateer and also served as a mem- ber of the pioneer corps of the army near Ticonderoga, being brought home from there on a litter, placed on a wagon and exposed to constant rains without change of garments, this bringing on the rheumatism from which he suffered so much in after life.
Deacon John and Lois ( Richardson) Fowle had eleven children, nearly all of whom were remarkable for longevity. Children: I. Lydia Richardson, born February 4, 1781, at Lynn, died December 30, 1859, at Woburn ; married, January 26, 1802, at Woburn, Ezra Kimball, of Ipswich, Massachusetts. 2. Mary, October 28, 1782, at Charlestown, died March 13, 1854, at Woburn; married, April 28, 1805, at Wo- burn, Jonathan Converse, of Woburn, son of Josiah and Hepzibah (Brooks) Converse. 3. John, June 27, 1784, at Lynn, died January 21, 1877, at Stoneham ; married Eleanor John- son, of Boston, daughter of John and Eleanor Johnson. 4. Jesse Richardson, June 24, 1786, at Lynn, died November 10, 1859, at Woburn ; married (first) June 5, 1814, at Woburn, Mary (Polly) Bruce, born February 19, 1788, at Woburn, died there April 5, 1845, daughter of John Jr. and Sarah (Johnson ) Bruce. He married (second) April 7, 1846, at Woburn, Mary (Knight) Beers, born at Newburyport, widow of Uri Beers, of Woburn. 5. Mar- gery, Woburn, June 7, 1788, died there Au- gust 28, 1847, aged fifty-nine years ; married, December 22, 1808, at Woburn, Jonathan Thompson, of Woburn, son of Captain Jon- athan and Mary (Richardson ) Thompson. 6. Leonard, Woburn, November 21, 1790, see forward. 7. Lois, Woburn, January 6, 1793, died July 10, 1887 ; married George Cheney Allen, of Sterling, Massachusetts, son of Daniel and Mary ( Polly) (Houghton) Allen. 8. Myra, Woburn, March 29, 1795, died March IO, 1873, at Woburn ; married, June 28, 1821, at Woburn, William Flagg, of Woburn, son of John and Abigail (Thompson) Flagg. 9. Josiah, Woburn, December 9, 1797, died there January 15, 1870; married, August 12; 1827,
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autoule
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at Woburn, Kezia Baldwin, born May 1, 1806, at Nashua, New Hampshire, daughter of Dea- con James Baldwin, of Nashua. 10. Euseba H., Woburn, December 21, 1800, died May, 1889, at Roxbury; married, November 20, 1825, at Woburn, John Vinton Jr., of Boston, son of John and Rebecca (Cartwright ) Vinton. II. Elbridge, Woburn, March 25, 1803, died there January 26, 1832, unmarried.
(VII) Deacon Leonard, son of Deacon John (2) Fowle, born November 21, 1790, died June 18, 1873, at Woburn ; married, De- cember 27, 1818, at Woburn, Ruby Lucina Adams, born at St. Johnsbury, Vermont, daugh- ter of Jonathan and Olive Adams. He learned the trade of cooper from his father, and for a number of years during his early manhood made distillers' barrels, but after a time he abandoned this, mastered the carpenter's trade and became a prominent contractor and builder. He owned land on the easterly side of Main street, north and south of Green street. and built a dozen or more houses there for sale and to let, all of which are still stand- ing. He also built houses for others in other sections of the town. When the Woburn branch of the Boston and Lowell railroad was built in, the road bed of the company was laid out through his land, in the rear of the houses he had erected. He was a very upright and honorable man in all his dealings and greatly esteemed by his fellowmen. He was a most influential member of the First Baptist Church, but with other leading members he became dissatisfied with certain policies and reforms advocated by younger members who had united with the church during a revival, and after a protracted contention he led a body of forty- five members in asking for a dismissal, which was finally granted, and an independent society was formed of which he was chosen a deacon. In politics he was a staunch Democrat and a believer in the rights of the states. He served the town as a selectman in 1838-39, and in 1838 was also a deputy to the general court of Massachusetts. Children: I. James Leon- ard, born September 2, 1820, see forward. 2. John Adams, January 12, 1823, at Woburn, died there April 9, 1832. 3. Charles Adams, February 26, 1825, at Woburn, died there June 24, 1864 ; married, May 9, 1850, at Lynn, Elizabeth Amanda Ingalls, born October 4, 1830, at Lynn, daughter of Ephraim and Eliz- abeth (Cloon) Ingalls.
(VIII) James Leonard, son of Deacon Leonard and Ruby Lucina (Adams) Fowle, was born at Woburn, September 2, 1820, died
there August 30, 1892; married (first) March 27, 1845, Luthera Tay, daughter of Josiah and Susanna (Johnson) Tay, of Woburn, and a lineal descendant, through her mother's line, of Captain Edward Johnson, one of the founders of the town and called the "Father of Woburn." She died at Woburn, February 10, 1869, and he married ( second) August 31, 1876, Mrs. Christina Annie Scantlan, of Wo- burn. Early in life Mr. Fowle learned the tailoring trade in Boston with Peter Fisk, and followed that occupation the remainder of his life or for more than half a century. In 1842, at the age of twenty-two years, he formed a partnership in the tailoring business in Woburn with Gawin R. Gage, who had been employed as a cutter by Tallman Seeley of that town. The firm was Gage & Fowle, and they con- tinued in partnership until August, 1853, when Mr. Fowle withdrew but remained in the em- ploy of Mr. Gage and his subsequent partner and successor up to the time of his last sick- ness. Mr. Fowle's tastes and habits were essentially domestic. He belonged to no clubs or fraternal organizations, was wholly indif- ferent to official honors, and in consequence never held public office. While exceptionally modest and retiring, no man was better known in the community or enjoyed a larger share of the confidence and esteem of his fellowmen. He possessed many admirable traits of char- acter, was always courteous, the soul of honor, upright and honest, cheerful, kind and com- panionable, and his death was sincerely lamented. Children by first wife, all born at Woburn: I. Isabella Lucina, December 30, 1845, died at Woburn, May 22, 1903 ; married, June 15, 1871, Charles Frederick Patch, of Lynn, Massachusetts, who died at Lynn, Jan- uary 24, 1873. He was then city treasurer, and had been a member of the city council. 2. Arthur Adams, December 3, 1847, see for- ward. 3. Frank Johnson, October 22, 1849, died April 28, 1855, at Woburn. 4. Lena, March 26, 1852, died June 15, 1854, at Wo- burn. 5. Charles Francis, January 23, 1858, unmarried, living at Woburn. 6. Freddie, October 19, 1863, died January 6, 1869, at Woburn.
(IX) Arthur Adams, son of James Leon- ard and Luthera (Tay) Fowle, born at Wo- burn, December 3, 1847, married, June 12, 1877, Kate Wallace Munn, born August 9, 1849, at Woburn, daughter of Charles and Eliza Minerva (Kane) Munn. He is manag- ing editor of The Boston Globe, one of the most influential daily and Sunday newspapers
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in New England, which responsible position he has held since 1884. Through his journal- istic training he has become self-educated and self-mastered, and is in fact a self-made man in the best sense the term implies. With a singular definiteness of purpose he has de- voted himself exclusively to the work of assist- ing in the building up of the phenominally successful newspaper which is his life's source of satisfaction and pride, and has lived to see it grow from an unprofitable enterprise to the position of leadership in circulation and good paying business in New England. Mr. Fowle's early education was acquired in the public schools of Woburn, after leaving which he went to learn the trade of a currier, the tan- ning and currying of leather being in those days, as now, a very important industry in New England, praticularly north of Boston, with Woburn a great centre of this industry. But the trend of the young man's mind did not lead towards a business career, and the currying shop proving distasteful to him after six years of experience, he turned, instinctively it would seem, to newspaper work, beginning on the lowest rung of the ladder, as utility man on The Woburn Journal, a weekly publication in his native town. While engaged on this paper he became local reporter for The Boston Globe, and his talent in this line being soon recog- nized, he was given a position in Boston as general reporter. His salary was only the modest sum of eight dollars per week, although he was then rising to twenty-six years of age, but merit and faithfulness were not long in bringing their reward, and once begun, his promotions followed one another rapidly. During the next ten years he occupied succes- sively the editorial chair as city editor, day- news editor, night-news editor, sporting editor, assistant managing editor, and finally the highest position in the news department, that of managing editor. One of the great achieve- ments while a reporter, and which stamped him as being endowed with the true newspaper instinct, was the obtaining for The Globe ex- clusively the confession from Thomas H. Piper of his murder of little Mabel Young. The sporting department of The Globe was organized by Mr. Fowle, and he was credited with having been the most successful sporting editor that Boston journalism had ever known, although he was not a devotee of sports, and was only interested in them in connection with his newspaper duties.
Mr. Fowle is quiet and unassuming in his manner, and always approachable, and is popu-
lar with and highly respected by all his co- workers for his sterling character and the gen- eral friendliness of his relations with them. This was sincerely demonstrated on December 2, 1897, on the eve of his fiftieth birthday anniversary, when the editors and reporters of The Globe and other employees tendered him a banquet in the parlors of Young's Hotel, Boston, on which occasion General Charles H. Taylor, editor-in-chief and principal owner of the paper, joined heartily with his subordinates in paying a remarkable tribute to the worth and exceptional success of Mr. Fowle in his chosen vocation, while at the same time they presented him with a substantial token of their esteem in the form of a so-called "Klon- dike birthday cake," out of which, "when the cake was opened," instead of "four and twenty blackbirds," as from the pie set before the King, there came fifty gilded half eagles incu- bated at the mint of Uncle Sam. For days following this event congratulations in letters and newspaper editorial expressions poured in upon him from all over the country. Mr. Fowle is partial to domestic life and has re- cently built a dwelling of attractive colonial architecture in one of the best sections of Woburn. Here he will pass the remainder of his days in comfort and contentment, the re- ward of faithfulness to duty well performed. He is still in the prime of life and in excellent health, and is likely to be the presiding genius over the newspaper department of The Globe for many years to come. In religion Mr. Fowle and family are Unitarians; he is a Democrat in politics, although he has never been active or held public office, and belongs to no societies or clubs. In his young man- hood he was affiliated with the militia as a member of the Woburn Mechanic Phalanx, Company G, Fifth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, from 1869 to 1875.
Children, born at Woburn : I. Leonard Munn, July 27, 1878, married, June 10, 1903, at Boston, Grace Agnes Cummings, born De- cember 16, 1882, at Woburn, daughter of Wil- bur Eustace and Lizzie Katharine (Smith) Cummings. He was educated in the Woburn public schools, at the Holderness School, Plymouth, New Hampshire, and at the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. He is now yachting editor of The Boston Globe. They have one child, Leonard Munn Jr., born February 16, 1904, at Woburn. They reside at Marblehead, Massachusetts. 2. Donald Adams, May 24, 1889, at Woburn. He attended the public schools of Woburn
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for a number of years and is now a student at the Rindge Manual Training School, at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Gage family is descended
GAGE from the Norman race. In 1066, de Gaga, de Guaga or De Gage, as the name is variously spelled, accompanied William Duke of Normandy in his Conquest of England, and was rewarded, according to the records of the Domesday Book, by large grants of land in the forest of Dean, county Gloucester. He resided near that forest and built a mansion there in Cirencester, called Clerenwell or Clarewell, and his descendants lived in that vicinity for centuries, including many persons of wealth and some of title. The pedigree of the American family is traced as far back as John Gage, who was living in 1408.
(II) John (2), son of John (1) Gage, mar- ried Eleanor St. Clere.
(III) John (3), son of John (2) Gage, was knighted in 1454 and died September 30, I486.
(IV) William Esq., heir and son of John (3) Gage, was born 1456, married Agnes Bolney.
(V) Sir John (4), son of William Gage, was born 1480, married Phillippa Guilde ford, and was knighted May 22, 1541. He died April 28, 1557.
(VI) Sir Edward, eldest son of Sir John (4) Gage, was knighted by Queen Mary; was a man of great wealth; father of fifteen chil- dren.
(VII) Thomas, son of Sir Edward Gage, had a son John.
(VIII) John (5), who inherited the estate of his grandfather through his uncle, John Gage, was made a baronet March 26, 1622; married Penelope, widow of Sir George Trenchard, and died October 3, 1633, leaving nine children.
(IX) John (6), son of John (5) Gage, was the immigrant ancestor. It is generally believed that he came from Stoneham, county Suffolk, England, though one authority claims that he was from Groton in the same county. He came to America in one of Winthrop's companies. According to his deposition made in 1659, he was born in 1609, but according to another made three years later, he was born in 1604. He settled first in Boston, and was a member of the church there as early as 1630, among the first. He was admitted a freeman, March 4, 1633-34. He was one of
the first settlers of Ipswich, April 1, 1633, and was dismissed from the Boston church to that of Ipswich, September 10, 1643. He was a town officer and on the committee on allotments of lands at Ipswich. He is called corporal on the records of Ipswich in 1639, and sergeant on those of Bradford in 1670. In 1664 he removed to that part of Rowley which became Bradford, and died there March 24, 1672-73. His will was proved March 25, 1673, the day after his death. He married (first) Anna or Amee - -, who died in June, 1658, at Ipswich. He married (second) November, 1658, Sarah Keyes, widow of Robert Keyes. She died in Newbury, July 7, 1681, and her estate was divided among her three daughters, wives of William Smith, John French and Samuel Buswell, by order of the court. John Gage deeded a lot of land to his grandson John, son of his son, Benjamin Gage, Decem- ber 12, 1672, having promised his son Benja- min on his marriage to Prudence Leaver, a certain gift of land. Children by first wife, born in Ipswich: 1. Samuel, 1638, married, June 16, 1674, Sarah Stickney. 2. Daniel, 1639, mentioned below. 3. Benjamin, married, October II, 1671, Prudence Leaver. 4. Nathaniel, born 1645. 5. Jonathan, married, November 12, 1667, Hester Chandler. 6. Josiah, born 1648, married, May 15, 1669, Lydia Ladd.
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