Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III, Part 24

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 986

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 24

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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she had promised to take her home in the morning. The chief passed a firebrand over the face of Susannah, and observing signs of consciousness, spared her life, and she was able to afterwards give her friends timely warning and thwart the plans of the Indians." The children of John ( William) and Susan- nah were: Rebecca, Hezekiah, Sarah, Jede- diah. Lydia, John, Ebenezer, Benjamin, Sam- uel and Abigail.

(IV) Rev. John (3), third son of John (2) (William) and Susannah (Daggett) Col- lins, was born in Charlestown. Rhode Island, March 21, 1716, and died in Stonington, Oc- tober 1, 1778. This John Collins was a Quaker preacher of great power and influence and ministered to the Friends' church of Rich- mond. Rhode Island, of which he was one of the first trustees, and afterwards of the church of the same sect situate one mile west of the village of Hopkinton. Frederick Denison says of him in "Westerly and Its Witnesses," "One of the most distinguished speakers in the Hopkington Meeting was John Collins. Concerning him a testimony was issued by the Monthly Meeting in 1780, from which we present an extract : 'He was born in the town then called Westerly (now Charlestown) De- cember 12, 1716, of believing parents, and when almost twenty-four years of age was convinced of the blessed truth and became zealous and circumspect in life and conver- sation and for truth's sake took up the cross and denied himself of his former pleasures and delights. It was not long after his convince- ment before his mouth was opened to a pub- lic testimony, wherein although for some years he had but few words in meeting, yet his ap- pearance was both acceptable and edifying to Friends, and as he proved himself faithful and diligent in the gift bestowed upon him the Lord was pleased to enlarge it so that he be- came an able minister of the Gospel.' He was an eminent minister and for many years sat at the head of New England Yearly Meet- ing. 'He was much engaged and took much pains in endeavoring to have the Africans or negroes freed from slavery, and often testi- fied against that wicked practice.' His name is a precious legacy to Friends." John Collins married, March 15. 1744, Mehitable Bowen, born at Rehoboth, Massachusetts, August 22, 1725, daughter of Daniel and Mehitable (Chaffee) Bowen. Their children were : John, Susanna, Amos, Benjamin, Samuel, Sarah, Abigail, Stephen and Ruth.

(V) Amos, second son of Rev. John (3)

and Mehitable ( Bowen) Collins, was born in Charlestown, Rhode Island, July 16, 1749, died in Stonington, Connecticut, May 22, 1796. He married, August 10, 1767, at Hopkinton, Rhode Island, Thankful Clarke, born Novem- ber 9, 1748, died July 30, 1831. Both hus- band and wife were buried in the Friends' yard at Hopkinton. Their children, all born at Stonington except Abel and Ruth, who were born in Hopkinton, were: Timothy, Abel, Isaac, Amos, Susanna, Lydia, William, John, Ruth, Hannah and Nancy.

(VI) Lydia, daughter of Amos and Thankful (Clarke ) Collins, was born April 29, 1778 ; married, October 17,1793, John Wil- bur. (See Wilbur VI).

The Dutch element in America MILLS has never completely received its full measure of praise. They fought bravely in all our wars. The Keystone state of Pennsylvania owes its position as much to the thrifty Dutch population as to any other race. The Dutch have had their share in filling up the great west, where mighty states have been carved out of the prairies. In estimating what we owe to the old Dutch traders, we must include the influence of Man- hattan Island on America as a whole; for Manhattan was principally Dutch. The Dutch have two presidents on their roll, Van Buren and a recent occupant of the chair. The Van- derbilts and Van Rensselaers were Dutch people. Mills is not necessarily and ex- clusively a Dutch name. John Stuart Mills, who is perhaps the greatest man to bear the name, was so little of a Dutchman that he was born of Scotch parentage from the Kirriemuir district of Scotland. The great Mills in America have been: Clark Mills, the sculp- tor, whose commissions included the equestrian statue of General Jackson; Hon. Roger Q. Mills, United States senator from Texas and author of the Mills bill; Darius O. Mills, the philanthropist, who was from Long Island English stock. The story of the Mills family which we have now in hand is a legible one and writ with a free hand.

(I) Pieter Wauterse Vander Meulen, when Anglicized was Peter Walbert of the Mills, which finally became shortened to Peter Mills, was born in Holland and came to this country, settling at Windsor, Connecticut. June 9, 1668, Edward Messenger gave to Peter twenty acres to build a house on. The same year Peter sold to Samuel Filley twenty acres lying in Greenfield. In 1683 Edward Messen-

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ger gave to Peter a dwelling house in Windsor. Peter's name is signed to a petition from the men of the new church at Windsor to the general court. He married Dorcas, daughter of Edward Messenger, in 1666. He died in 1710 and she in 1720. Her will was made November 21, 1714, and probated in 1720.

(II) Captain Peter (2), son of Pieter (I) and Dorcas Mills, was born in Windsor in 1668 and died there in 1756. He was a tailor by trade. He served as captain in the Elling- ton parish trainbands that marched to the relief of Boston on the alarm in April, 1775. He also served in 1779.

"East Windsor, 3Ist Aug. 1779. Sir :

By an Act of Assembly that constitutes the Alarm List Capt Mills who bears this, com- mences private in my Company, and is now called upon to shoulder his Musquet and stand Centinel ;- your feelings for Gentlemen who have worn Commissions, and who have sup- ported their Caracter with Fidelity and Honor, and now reduced to his Situation, will strongly actuate you, I doubt not, to every principle of favor and Lenity in your power, and believe me Sir whatever Indulgence is shown the Bearer will be very gratefully re- ceived by your most

Hum Serv't Ros. Grant.

P. S .- Capt. Mills has not applyd for any favr Since he was detachd, but chuses rather and is also advisd to apply after he arrives at N. Londn to avoid the Clamor of the people and keep matters secret-as before

R. G."

He married Joanna Porter in July, 1692. Children: Ebenezer, Return. Eleazer, Mary and Sarah.

(1II) Rev. Ebenezer, eldest son of Cap- tain Peter(2) and Joanna ( Porter ) Mills, was born in Windsor, died in Sandisfield, Massa- chusetts, in 1792. He graduated from Yale College in the class of 1738, locating as a preacher at Haddam and then Simsbury, Con- necticut, and in 1769 he went to Sandisfield, where he was a pioneer settler. He was noted for his wit and extempore rhyming. He mar- ried Mary, daughter of John Drake, of Sims- bury. Children: Pelatiah, a lawyer known as Mills-pro-Rege; Rev. Gideon, Rev. Jede- diah, Poter, John, Daniel, Ann and Drake.

(1V) Drake, the last of the eight children of Rev. Ebenezer and Mary ( Drake) Mills, was born in Sandisfield in 1756 and died there in 1821. He was a soldier in the revolution-

ary war. He married Sarah Saga. Children : Peter, John, Otis, a merchant of Charleston, South Carolina ; Drake, a merchant of New York City ; Sedgwick, Edward, Samuel, Mary, Theodosia and Sarah, married Hon. Erastus O. Beach, of Sandisfield; Hannah, married Colonel Jared Ingersoll, of Pittsfield; Celestia A.

(V) Hon. John, second of the twelve chil- dren of Drake and Sarah (Saga) Mills, was born in Sandisfield, December 29, 1787, died in Springfield, September 8, 1861. He studied law in the office of Hon. John Phelps, of Gran- ville, and was admitted to practice in 1812. He resided in Southwick and was a leader at the bar. As a Democrat he was elected to the Massachusetts senate in 1823-24-25-26-27, and the last two years was president, a position which he discharged with dignity and impar- tiality. He introduced and carried through a bill to abolish capital punishment in Massa- chusetts. In 1826 he was appointed a com- missioner to settle the boundary line between Massachusetts and Connecticut. He was the candidate of the Democracy to run against Daniel Webster in 1827 for United States senator. In 1835 he was postmaster of South- wick under the appointment of President Jackson, and held the office of United States district attorney for Massachusetts from 1835 to 1840 under Van Buren, when the Whigs came into power. In 1836 he moved to Spring- field, Massachusetts, and lived on Howard street. He was state treasurer in 1843. He presided at the ratification meetings in Spring- field in 1844 over the nomination of James K. Polk. He was one of the commissioners appointed by President Tyler on the part of the United States to settle the international boundary dispute between Maine and Canada, in which position he showed marked ability. By 1848 the slavery question was arousing the political conscience of the country and Mr. Mills forsook his old party affiliations and joined the Free Soil party. He presided at the convention of the new party held in Boston and was nominated for lieutenant-governor. As a Free Soiler he was a member of the house of representatives in 1851. He was president of the Hampden Agricultural Society and the Hampden Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Williams College conferred upon him the honorary degree of A. M. in 1823. Mr. Mills was an able lawyer, a forceful speaker and commanded the respect of both the bench and bar and was highly esteemed as a citizen. He married Emily Foote, daughter

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of Colonel Enos Foote. Children : Enos,

John, Isaac and Sarah.

(VI) Isaac, third son of Hon. John and Emily (Foote) Mills, was born in Southwick, January 29, 1826, died in Springfield in 1892. When he was ten years old his father removed to this city and first had his home on Howard street. The boy attended the private schools of Mr. Lawton and Mr. Lombard, where many leading citizens received their early training. For a time Mr. Mills also attended Monson Academy, but he did not graduate from that school, leaving to enter business as a clerk in a railroad office at Bridgeport, Connecticut. Thence he went to Scranton, Pennsylvania, for a time, but during his early manhood returned to Springfield to live, becoming junior partner . in the firm of Deane, Packard & Mills, car builders, who had their shops on the river bank near the foot of Bridge street, where the brick tenement block of Eliphalet Trask used to stand. Mr. Mills entered the employment of his father-in-law, who was a coal merchant. It had been started in 1833 by James Rabb and had always been located at the junction of Court and Water streets, where Mr. Rabb sold flour, feed and grain. In 1866 Mr. Mills bought out the entire business which he con- ducted alone until April 1, 1891. Later it was sold to Richard W. Rice, who had been his clerk for many years. He was a director in the "Old Stone Wall Fire Insurance Com- pany," the Mutual Fire Assurance Company of Springfield. While Mr. Mills kept out of politics he always had that interest in affairs which a good citizen owes to the state. He was one of those who looked on President Cleveland as the best public servant of the time, and in general Mr. Mills of late years took his choice of candidates. Mr. Mills and the late Governor Trask, who were always in- timate, seemed like spared oaks in that quarter of the town where they had for so many years done business, and which was once more lively than it is now. He married Anne L., daugh- ter of Edmund Palmer, of Springfield, a prominent man of his day. Children : A son, who died in infancy ; Emily and Elizabeth H., who are unmarried and live in the residence built by their father on Crescent Hill, a pleas- ant suburb of Springfield.

There has been a certain WHITTIER advancement in genealogical study in the last few de- cades. It is a wholesome fact to note the in- terest being taken by so many families in the

study of ancestry. To record the history of preceding generations is a duty each owes to each. Ripe scholarship and men of able minds have devoted their time to the elucidation of its problems and they were thought not beneath the dignity of men of the mental caliber of Rev. Dr. A. H. Quint and Judge Holmes. We come now to an old Quaker family who settled at the mouth of the Merri- mac. Barred from the glory of war, the Quaker has been uppermost in the triumphs of peace, in the contemplative life and in litera- ture. Bayard Taylor was out of a Pennsyl- vania Quaker family and the Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, speaker of the National house of rep- resentatives, was of Quaker parentage from North Carolina.

(I) Thomas Whittier was born in England in 1620 and came to this country from South- ampton in the ship "Confidence" of London, John Jobson, master. In 1647 he came to Haverhill, Massachusetts, from Newbury, that state, and brought a swarm of bees, the first in the place. They were willed to him by Henry Rolfe, brother to John, who was a fel- low passenger with Thomas from England. At that time it was no mean legacy. Bees were not native to America, and the Indians knew nothing of them. In 1648 the valuation of Thomas' property was eighty pounds. On May 30, 1651, he was appointed by the general court to run out the bounds of the plantation. In 1652, in the division of plough-land, he was granted lot thirteen of seven and one-half acres. He was on the petition to the general court to revoke Pike's sentence. Pike had been fined and disfranchised for giving vent to incendiary remarks about the authority of the governor. Pike was a Quaker exhorter and the court forbid him to exhort in public his favorite religion, upon which he made the re- marks attributed to him. Thomas was ad- mitted a freeman, May 23, 1666. Thomas signed the agreement with John Johnson, the blacksmith of Charlestown, to come to Haver- hill and pursue his calling. The inhabitants were in sore need of one and Johnson was given a gratuity in consideration that he come and to this Thomas contributed. In 1669 he asked to be excused from serving as a constable, and was excused on condition that he find some other suitable person satisfactory to the authorities to take his place. Offices were forced upon people in those days. In 1680 he was one of the committee to select a coadjutor to Rev. Mr. Ward, the minister. In 1683 he voted to place the new meeting

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house on the old site. In 1686 he was lot- layer, an important office. It was customary for the nearest neighbors to sleep in the gar- risons at night, but Thomas, whose Quaker faith brooked no resistance, always refused to shelter himself and family beneath its roof. Relying upon the weapons of his faith, he left his own house unguarded and unprotected with palisades and carried with him no weapons of war. The Indians frequently vis- ited him and the family often heard them, in the stillness of the evening, whispering beneath the windows and saw them peep in upon the little group of defenseless beings. Friend Whittier always treated them civily and hos- pitably and they never molested him or his. Thomas was one of the snow-shoe men of 17II. In 1719 the people of the west end of Haverhill, now Methuen, petitioned to be laid out as a distinct parish and on this Thomas appears as a signer. In the fifth division of land in 1721 he drew lot nine. Thomas was an excellent penman and specimens of his writing exist today. He married Ruth Green. Children : Mary, born August 9, 1647; John (see later ) ; Ruth, August 1. 1651 ; Thomas, June 12, 1653; Susanna, March 27, 1656; Nathaniel, August 11, 1658; Hannah, Septem- ber 10, 1660; Richard, June 27, 1663; Eliza- beth, November 21, 1666; Joseph, from whom John Greenleaf Whittier descends.

(II) Colonel John, the second of the ten children of Thomas and Ruth (Green) Whit- tier, was born in Haverhill, November 24, 1648, died there October 1, 1756. He built a house in 1660. In 1686 he was accused of trespassing on the towns land, and in 1699 he was on a committee appointed by the town to see about accepting the new meeting house and seeing that it was done according to con- tract. In 1711 he signed a petition for a school house to be located near John's house so "that they might have the benefit of having their children brought up in learning as well as the children of those who lived in the cen- ter of the town." In 1774 he was town clerk and rechosen until 1778 when he declined to serve further. He was a private in Captain Cogswell's company. Colonel Gerrish's regi- ment. Whether he was of the same faith of his father it does not appear but he seems to have had no scruples about entering the war. He was afterward promoted to be colonel.

"To the Honorable James Warren Esq. Speaker .- To be communicated to the Honor- able House of Representatives at Watertown. Gentlemen : I have very lately heard that I

am appointed to the command of a Regiment for the Canada Expedition. I most sincerely and heartily thank the Honorable Court, for their repeated Honors done me-and should gladly have accepted the appointment-were it not, that my Health of late, has so far failed me, that at present, I find myself unable to perform a Journey of Twenty Miles with- out much difficulty and delay,-notwithstand- ing my willingness to assist in this (as I ap- prehend) just and righteous Cause-yet the great and constant care of a Regiment and the Fatigues of such a long Journey, render it im- possible for me to accept the invitation, with honor to myself, and any advantage to the Province,- therefore I trust, that the Hon- orable Court will justify me, in declining to accept, at present, of such an appointment.

Gentlemen, That you may have all that wisdom which is profitable to direct,-and that the American Arms may be crowned with Victory and Success, is the Ardent Prayer of Your most humble and obedient Servant

JOHN WHITTIER.

Haverhill, July Ist, 1776."

In 1779 Colonel Whittier was on the com- mittee of correspondence and safety. In the valuation of the property of householders in Haverhill in 1798, the colonel was credited with one thousand dollars. He married Mary Hoyt. Children: John, born November 24, 1686; William (sketch below) ; Thomas, Sep- tember 4. 1693; Abner, September 2, 1695; David, May 5, 1698; Nathaniel, December 8, 1700: Mary, March 18, 1703.

( III) William, the second of the seven children of John and Mary ( Hoyt) Whittier, was born in Haverhill. He was allowed to build a pew in "the hind seat of the meeting house in the west gallery if he promised not to build so high as to damnify the light of the windows." In 1719 he signed a petition for a parsonage house. He was one of the peti- tioners of the new town of Penacook. now Concord, New Hampshire, in 1725, but he seems never to have gone there. He served in Captain James Sawyer's company and Colonel James Frye's regiment, and was at the battle of Bunker Hill, encountering some hard service. He married Rachel Mitchell. Children : Abigail, born February 16, 1717; Richard (sketch below ) ; Abiah, July 16, 1722 ; Mary, May 1, 1727; Rachel, November 7, 1729.

(IV) Richard, the second of the five chil- dren of William and Rachel ( Mitchell) Whit- tier, was born in Methuen. He was one of

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the snow-shoe men, who were a large com- pany of soldiers under the command of Lieu- tenant Colonel Saltonstall, who kept con- stantly armed and equipped for every emer- gency, and that they might be more in readi- ness they were ordered to have snow shoes in winter. He married Elizabeth Bodwell. Children : Ruth, born January 23, 1742; Elizabeth, October 7, 1743; Abiah, February 22, 1746; Persis, April 23, 1748; Elizabeth, February 6, 1750; William, September 26, 1752; Richard (sketch below) ; Daniel Bod- well; Nathaniel, November 4, 1759; Persis, March 30, 1761 ; Nathaniel, May 18, 1764.

(V) Richard (2), the seventh child of Richard (I) and Elizabeth (Bodwell) Whit- tier, was born in Methuen. He married Betsey Chase. Their children were: Daniel Bodwell, Simeon Chase, Dorothy, Richard, Moses, Asa, Abiah, Moses, Leonard and Rufus.

(VI) Rufus, the tenth child of Richard (2) and Betsey (Chase) Whittier, was born in Methuen, in 1800, died in Chicopee in 1852. He was agent of the old Perkins Cotton Mill of Chicopee. He was a Unitarian. He mar- ried Emiline Currier, of Methuen, Massachu- setts. Children: Lucien and Lucius (twins), born September 6, 1835: Nelson (sketch below) ; Emeline Abie, June 16, 1838; Helen, November 1. 1841 : Frank and Fannie (twins ). June 5. 1843.

(VII) Nelson, son of Rufus and Emeline (Currier ) Whittier, was born in Methuen in 1836, died in Chicopee, August 14, 1903. He moved to Chicopee when ten years of age. He later accepted a position as paymaster with the Dwight Manufacturing Company. In 1888 he went to Lowell as agent of the Whittier Cotton Mills and was made treasurer of the company later. When the plant, which at one time was owned by Miss Helen Whittier, was made into a stock company in which Paul Butler, of Lowell, was interested, and was re- moved to Georgia, Mr. Whittier retained his interest in the company and was continued as treasurer. About this time he removed to Chicopee. He was a Republican and select- man of Chicopee in 1886. He was a Master Mason and a Unitarian. Always charitable, he was respected by all who knew him. By his death a personality was removed that was always identified with whatever was good and upright. He married Gertrude Mary Boyden ( see Boyden VII). Mrs. Whittier belongs to the Molly Varnum Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution of Lowell, after-

wards transferred to the Mercy Warren Chap- ter of Springfield, Massachusetts, also of the Womans Middlesex Club of Lowell, obtain- ing her admission thereto through General Josiah Whitney. They have one child, Walter Rufus Boyden, who married Miriam, daugh- ter of Richmond Fletcher, of Lowell, and they have four children: Paul Fletcher, Syd- ney Boyden, Roger Knapp and Gertrude Whittier. Mr. Walter R. B. Whittier is at present treasurer of the Whittier Cotton Mills near Atlanta, Georgia. He takes a deep interest in education and is president of the board of education of Fulton county, Georgia.

(The Boyden Line).

Among those pilotted across the broad At- lantic in the early half of the seventeenth century and to firmly plant the standard of civil and religious liberty on these shores, was one whose name subjoins this memoir. Not so early a comer as the "Mayflower" con- tingent, not so pronounced a Separatist as they, but more of a formalist in religion, nor yet so stationary in his habitation insomuch he did not acquire the influence he otherwise would ; for he was a man of parts and likli- hood, and had such crude learning as the times afforded. The principle of heredity obtains in mental traits somewhat after the manner of physical characteristics, and as we go back and study the ancestral stock of the Boydens we find warrant therein for much that is in us today. The Boyden disposition is ever the same, and kindly note it is the right sort to have. The patriarch of the race had the Boy- den way of doing things which obtains among his remote issue. The name is. a combina- tion of boyd from buidhe, yellow-haired, and den, a valley. It is the name of a river in England. Boyden would mean a vale on the river Boyd. It would be used as a surname by some one who lived in the town of Boyden, or in the valley of the Boyd.

(I) Thomas Boyden, who planted the race on American soil, embarked in the good ship "Francis," from Ipswich, Suffolk, England, in April, 1634. He located in Scituate, Massachusetts, and was admitted to the church there May 17, 1635. His next place of resi- dence was Watertown, Massachusetts, where he was made a freeman, May 21, 1647. After this he is recorded as of Boston, and in 1659 was elected highway surveyor of that penin- sula plantation. That year he conveyed to Joshua Scottow seven acres of upland on Muddy river, now Brookline. The records

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show that Thomas removed to Medford some time previous to September, 1662, and his home there was on Pound street. He fol- lowed the transit of civilization toward the going-down sun, and in 1666 was living in Groton, Massachusetts, where he was an original proprietor in the right of seventy acres. He was in Watertown again by 1670. In 1678 he subscribed "one bushel of wheat to the new brick college," Harvard. In 1682 he was a tithingman in Medford. The fore- name of his wife was Frances, and she died in Boston, March 17, 1658. On November 3, of the same year, he was united in marriage by Governor Bellingham, to Hannah ( Phil- lips ) Morse, widow of Joseph Morse. She died October 3, 1676. Children by Frances : Thomas, the subject of the next paragraph; Mary, born October 15, 1641 : Rebecca, No- vember I, 1643: Nathaniel, 1651 ; Jonathan, February 20, 1652, and Sarah, October 12, 1654.

(II) Thomas (2), eldest son of Thomas (I) and Frances Boyden, was born in Water- town, September 26, 1639. died in Groton, November 15. 1719. He was in the Indian wars. He married Martha, eldest daughter of Richard and Martha Holden. who was born January 15. 1646. died in Charlestown, Massachusetts, March 18, 1687. Children : Martha, born July 14, 1667: Elizabeth, May 24, 1670; John, December 6, 1672: Jonathan, 1675: Joseph (see next paragraph) ; Benja- min, March 29, 1683.

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III, Part 24

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 986

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 986