Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III, Part 39

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 39

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BARRUS The name, whether spelled Bar- rus, Barrows, Barrowe or Bar- row, from Barrow, a mound, or borough, a town, is of the family that lived in Yarmouth, England, before 1637. Out of the family was sent to New England in 1637 the immigrant ancestor of the name of Barrus or Barrows in America, in the person of John Barrows.

(I) John Barrows was born in England in 1609 and he left Yarmouth, England, at the age of twenty-eight with his wife Anne, and settled in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. John and Anne Barrows received grants of land in Salem in 1637, and were inhabitants of that town for twenty-eight years, and all their children were born there. They removed to Plymouth before 1665, and John, the immi- grant, died there in 1692. His will shows that he left a second wife younger than himself and four sons: Robert (q. v.), Joshua, Ben- jamin, who lived in Attleboro, and Ebenezer, who lived in Cumberland, Rhode Island, and two daughters, Mary and Deborah.

(II) Robert, eldest son of John and Anne Barrows, was born in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony, removed with his father to

Plymouth and had by his first wife, Ruth, four children : 1. John, 1667, died in .Plymouth, 1720. 2. George (q. v.), 1670. 3. Samuel, 1672, died in Middleboro, 1755. 4. Mehitable, married Adam Wright. He married (second) Lydia Dunham, and had children. 5. Robert, 1689, died in Mansfield, Connecticut, 1779. 6. Thankful, 1692, married Isaac King. 7. Elisha, 1695, died in Rochester, Massachusetts, 1767. 8. Thomas, 1697, died in Mansfield. 9. Lydia, 1699, married Thomas Branch.

(III) George, second son of Robert and Ruth Barrows, was born in Plymouth, Massa- chusetts, 1670. He was a successful commis- sioner in treating with the Indians and by his skill he kept their good will and secured peace to the early settlers. This service secured to him the title of "Captain George." He was a large land holder and had a large family. His eldest son Peleg received the homestead now located in the town of Carver, and which was still in the possession of the family in 1880. Peleg's son Joseph removed to Maine and was the ancestor of Judge W. C. Barrus and Hon. George B. Barrows, president of the Maine senate, and of Rev. C. D. Barrows, of Lowell. Samuel (q. v.), the second son of Captain George, was called Samuel Jr. to distinguish him from his uncle, Deacon Samuel ( 1672- 1755).

( IV) Samuel, second son of Captain George Barrows, was born in Plymouth, Massachu- setts, in 1700. He removed to Middleboro. He married, November 21, 1723, Susannah Tobey, of Sandwich, and removed to Killingly, Connecticut. They had eight children : Noah, born August 20, 1727, was the grandfather of Rev. William Barrows, D. D., secretary of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society, and George (q. v.), was probably the fifth or sixth.

(V) George (2), son of Samuel and Sus- annah (Tobey) Barrows, was born in Kill- ingly, Connecticut, March 21, 1733. He was married and resided in Tolland, Connecticut, where he and all children except one son Lazarus (q. v. ) and one daughter, Keziah, died of malignant fever in 1777.

(VI) Lazarus, only son of George (2) Bar- rows to reach maturity, was born in Tolland, Connecticut, in 1763. Left an orphan in 1777, he was incorrectly told that his name was Barrus and not Barrows, and he changed the spelling of the name to Barrus. He married Ruth, daughter of Joseph Cressey, and soon after the birth of their first child they removed from Tolland, Connecticut, to Rowe, Massa- chusetts. They had nine children born as

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Alvan Barras.

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follows: I. Julia Ann, in Tolland, Connec- ticut, November II, 1785, married Elijah War- ren. 2. Susannah, January 26, 1788, married Bani Parker about 1812. 3. Patience, July 22, 1790, married (first) Elisha Phillips, ( second) Jonathan Lilly, (third) a Mr. Clark. 4. George, April 2, 1793, married (first ) Rhoda Keyes, (second) Rhoda T. Graves ; he died in 1869. 5. Levi (q. v.), March 10, 1795. 6. Freelove, April 21, 1798. 7. Perus, April I, 1801, married Huldah Rogers. 8. Ruth, December 18, 1803, married Elijah Howes, November 24, 1831. 9. Anna, March 29, 1808, married Madison Knowlton, November II, 1830.

(VII) Levi, second son and fifth child of Lazarus and Ruth (Cressey ) Barrus, was born in Charlemont, Massachusetts, March 10, 1795, died March 18, 1878. He married (first) Almeda, daughter of Cyrus and Sarah (Weeks) Stearns, of Goshen, Massachusetts. David Stearns, father of Cyrus, was the first settler of Goshen, Hampshire county, Massa- chusetts. The first American ancestor of David Stearns was Isaac, who came from England in 1630, in the same ship, it is thought, with Governor Winthrop. He settled in Water- town with his kinsman, Charles Stearns, another immigrant who came on the same ship and he was made a freeman by the general court in 1646. Isaac Stearns sold his lands in Watertown in 1680, and with his son Shubael removed to Lynn and took up wild lands at Reading. Shubael was a soldier in the Narragansett expedition and his son Ebenezer married Martha Burnap, of Reading, in 1717. They removed to Sutton where, as first set- tlers, they received one hundred acres of land free. David was the fourth son of Ebenezer and Martha ( Burnap) Stearns. He was born in Sutton in 1729, removed to Dudley where he remained a few years and in 1761, accom- panied by Abijah Tucker, sought a new home beyond the Connecticut river. Stearns and Tucker left their families in Hampton during the summer of 1761, proceeded over the mili- tary trail towards Albany for twelve miles and there felled trees, built a log house and founded the present town of Goshen. The two families spent the winter of 1761-62 in Goshen, their only neighbors being the wild bears and wolves of the primitive forest in which they had intruded. Sarah (Weeks) Stearns was the daughter of Captain Thomas and Mercy (Hinckley) Weeks, the latter of whom was a lineal descendant of Governor Hinckley. Cap- tain Weeks served in the revolutionary war,

being with the colonial troops at the surrender of Ticonderoga, losing his camp equipage and clothing. He had served as paymaster in the army and had attained the rank of captain. He also served in the French and Indian war. In 1761 he went to Chesterfield "Gore" or "no man's land," having been sent there by the general court as an engineer to lay out the town of Goshen. His surveyor's instruments are in the possession of Alvan Barrus, whose house is on the site of the house of Captain Weeks. Captain Weeks became an important man in the community, holding the office of town clerk several years, and being a delegate to the state convention in 1779-80. Captain Weeks died April 20, 1817, in the eighty-sec- ond year of his age, and his wife died at Whately, February 5, 1822, aged eighty-four years ; both were buried in Goshen. Levi Bar- rus married (second) Elvira W. Allis. The children of Levi and Almeda (Stearns) Bar- rus, as taken from the records of Charlemont, were: I. Hiram, July 15, 1822, married Augusta Stone ; he died in 1883. 2. Lorin, May 21, 1825, married Lucinda S. Naramore ; he died in 1899. 3. Laura Ann, July 26, 1827, married Jacob Lovell, and was still living in 1908. 4. Theron Levi, September 1, 1829, married Czarina Robinson, was deacon, school teacher and member of school committee; he died in 1906. 5. Alvan Stone (q. v.), October 14, 1831. 6. Charles, May 25, 1834, married Clarissa Hill ; he died in 1904. 7. Louisa Jane, July 20, 1838, died September 4, 1850. Levi Barrus was a prosperous farmer and removed from Salem to Goshen, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, where he purchased a farm of four hundred acres, which he cultivated with great success and considerable profit. He was originally a Whig in political faith and left that party when it departed from the principles of its founders to make compromises with the slaveholders of the South and joined the Free Soil party of Massachusetts, and in 1856 he was one of the founders and early supporters of the Republican party. He was first a Bap- tist and then a Congregationalist.

(VIII) Alvan Stone, (he evidently dropped the name Stone), son of Levi and Almeda ( Stearns) Barrus, was born on the old farm in Goshen, Massachusetts, October 14, 1831. He attended the district school and remained on the farm with his father until he had attained his majority, when he began the busi- ness of selling milk in Holyoke at the time it had a population of about five thousand. He built up a large and profitable milk route, sold

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out in 1854, and engaged with his brother Hiram in the manufacture of carpenters tools and planes at Goshen. He continued this busi- ness for about three years when he engaged in teaching a winter school in New York state, 1857-58, in a place called Bleecker, Fulton county. He returned to Goshen in 1858 where he bought out the business of a small general store, in partnership with A. W. Crafts. In 1861, upon the outbreak of the war for the Union of the United States, he volunteered for the service in the Northern army, in the Tenth Massachusetts Regiment, but sickness prevented him from serving. In 1862 Mr. Barrus re-enlisted in the First Massachusetts Cavalry, for three years, and during this time was for two years acting steward in the hos- pital service, his health not permitting active service in the field. The hospital was full of contagious cases. Mustered out November 27, 1864. He was appointed a justice of the peace in 1867, and being the only justice in a circuit of eight miles his duties called him in various parts of the county. He also served as town clerk, 1861-62, selectman for twenty-six years, a representative from his town in the general court of Massachusetts, 1879, and in the house he served on the committees on military affairs and agricultural cducation. He was also chair- man of the committee on county estimates. While serving on the committee of education, a bill was reported to the house providing a tax on all dogs of the commonwealth for the benefit of the agricultural schools, which bill was opposed by Representative Barrus, and he induced the committee to substitute a bill providing that the money for the support of the Agricultural College be taken from the treasury of the commonwealth as the original bill was calculated to degrade the cause of education by making it depend on the income from a single source. His substitute was accepted in full and Massachusetts thereforc stood pledged to support agricultural schools by resource to the treasury.

He was elected state senator in 1882, re-elected in 1883 and served in 1883-84. In 1882 the subject of agricultural education came up in the shape of a bill which he introduced to grant a charter to an agricultural socicty at Cummington, Massachusetts, which, when it failed of passage, he caused to be referred to the next session of the general court in 1883, and he was there to further depend and advance his bill. He caused it to be taken from the files of the previous year and placed on the regular order of the day. It was therefore

reported and referred to the regular committee on agriculture. Herc he was ably sustained by Judge John E. Russell and the Agricultural Society of Cummington was granted a charter. Senator Barrus was elected its first president and held the office for thirteen consecutive years. The first capital stock of the concern was provided by him in the shape of his per- sonal note for $3,000, which increased to $5,000, and in 1908 the society had a capital of $10,000, with a fine class of fair buildings and no debts. He was a member of the State Board of Agriculture for six years and in 1889 was seretary of the board of control of the Agricultural College. At the time of the railroad troubles in Massachusetts, 1894-95, he was a member of the governor's council, serving during the administration of Gov- ernor Greenhalge and Lieutenant-Governor Wolcott. During 1896-97 he was one of a commission of five members appointed by Gov- crnor Wolcott to revise the tax laws of Mass- achusetts, and they gave a very interesting and truthful report of the farming towns of the state. He was made a trustee of the State Insane Asylum at Northampton, Massachu- setts, served as chairman of the board and is still serving. He was a promoter and charter member, trustee and vice-president of the Haydenville Savings Bank. He bought out the heirs of the old homestead farm at Lithia, Massachusetts, where he has a fine residence, and the care of the farm is in the hands of his son, George Levi Barrus, who is a practical farmer, as well as a scientific agriculturist, a graduate of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, 1903; he was appointed captain of Company A of the college. His military service was acknowledged by the Grand Army of the Republic, which organization has in him a valued comrade and enthusiastic member of the organization. The long and carnest battle made by Senator Barrus in behalf of state roads for use in the Berkshire hills rather than ornament in the suburbs of large cities and towns for the use of pleasure seekers, began in 1804 when he secured the first appropria- tion for the building of a state road through the town of Goshen and a second appropria- tion in 1896, making a total of $37,000 expended for the benefit of the farmers in transporting their produce over the hill to market. In 1908 the road was completed by a third appropriation and Senator Barrus saw his good work finished in that direction to the evident satisfaction of the long-suffering agri- cultural population. But Senator Barrus is

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not resting the state road matter with this single accomplishment. His views of the bene- fit of highways built and sustained by the com- monwealth for the benefit of the product, of the hill dwellers of Western Massachusetts, rather than for the railroad and automobile interests of the more favored section, are being largely exploited in the newspapers of Massa- chusetts and will surely bear equally rich fruit. His first presidential vote was cast for the Scott and Graham electors in 1852, in 1856 for Fremont and Dayton, following in 1860 by a ballot for the electors of the new Republican party headed by Lincoln and Hamlin and every Republican ticket from that time. He is from choice as well as inheritance a Congregational- ist, and in his early manhood was a teacher and superintendent in the Sabbath school.

He married, June 29, 1869, Emeline Parker, ciaughter of John and Sarah ( Parker ) Wake- feld. Her father was a farmer in Reading, Massachusetts, and she was born August 2, 1846. The children of Alvan and Emeline Parker (Wakefield) Barrus was born in Goshen, Massachusetts, as follows: I. Lena Wakefield, November 2, 1875, a graduate of the Reading high school and from the State Normal school, Bridgewater, Massachusetts, studied domestic science in Boston and is a teacher of domestic science in the Holyoke liigh school. 2. George Levi, December 15, 1880, graduated at the Agricultural College and now in charge of the home farm at Lithia, Hampshire county, Massachusetts.

HOWARD This name, borne by various distinguished men in America, is found among the early col- onists of New England, two of whom were the brothers John and George Howard. John always wrote his name Haward, and so did all his descendants till after 1700, and the early town records conform to this spelling ; but for nearly two hundred years the name has invari- ably been written Howard. It is worthy of remark that the two names Hayward and Hel- ward, which have always been known as dis- tinct families. were uniformly pronounced alike, Howard. They were perhaps the same originally, and both Hayward.

(I) John Howard, or Haward, came from England when about fifteen years of age and settled in Duxbury. He lixed in the family of Captain Myles Standish, and in 1643 was among those who were able to bear arms. In 1645 he is named as one of the fifty-four origi- nal proprietors of the grant of land afterwards

known as Bridgewater, each settler having at first a grant of a houselot of six acres on the town river. From the Howard Genealogy by Herman Howard, the following is learned of John Howard: "In 1656 he was one of the two surveyors of highways for his town, and in 1657 he had taken the freeman's oath. He was one of the fourteen men whose allotment of land was in the easterly part of the grant. He was one of the first military officers, and was appointed ensign September 27, 1664. In May, 1676, during King Philip's War, Ensign John Howard, with twenty others, fought with some Indians and took seventeen of them alive with much plunder, and all returned without serious injury. June 5, 1678, he was deputy to the general court of Massa- chusetts ; also on the same date he was appointed a selectman of his town. In 1683 he, with Thomas Hayward, was a representative to the General Court. October 2, 1689, he was promoted and received his commission as a lieutenant. Mr. Howard was a carpenter by trade. He lived in a house which he built near the first meetinghouse. It stood directly north of the house were B. B. Howard now lives, on the corner of Howard and River streets. *

* * This was the first public house in Bridgewater, as Mr. Howard was licensed to keep an ordinary or tavern, in 1670, at this place. It would prob- ably be difficult to find in the history of all the taverns that have existed in Massachusetts, another of which it can be said, as Judge Mitchell says of the Howard House, that 'He (John Howard), was licensed to keep an ordi- nary or tavern, as early as 1670, and it is remarkable that a public house has been kept there by his descendants ever since, till within a few years.' This house was owned and man- aged by John Howard and his direct descend- ants for a period of one hundred and fifty-one years. John Howard opened the tavern in 1670, and kept it thirty years, until his death in 1700. His eldest son, John, then became proprietor, conducting it twenty-six years, until 1726. His son, Major Edward, was pro- prietor from that date to 1771, for forty-five years. His son, Colonel Edward, owned and conducted the house for thirty-eight years, from 1771 to 1809, when he died. Then his widow and his son, Captain Benjamin Beal Howard, kept the house open twelve years, until 1821. The house was taken down in 1838. A list of the distinguished guests of this tavern, could we know their names, would make exceedingly interesting reading. With-

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out doubt, one of the early distinguished vis- itors was Mary (Chilton) Winslow (the first lady who came on shore from the Mayflower), who was grandmother of the wife of the second proprietor, John Howard. An occa- sional guest was John Reed, D. D., who was a member of Congress during Washington's administration. Oakes Angier, a young lawyer, Hon. William Baylies and Judge Howard were other prominent and frequent visitors. Lieu- tenant Howard died in 1700. His property was appraised in October, the next year. It consisted of about four hundred and fifty acres of land, and his estate was valued at about 840 pounds."

John Howard married Martha, a daughter of Thomas Hayward, one of the original pro- prietors of Bridgewater, who came on the ship "Hercules," in 1635, from Sandwich, county of Kent, England, with five children and three brothers. She died before 1703. The children of this marriage were: John, James, Jonathan, Elizabeth, Sarah, Bethiah and Ephraim.

(II) Major Jonathan, son of John and Martha (Hayward) Howard, date of birth unknown, died before 1739. When he was twenty-one years of age or more in 1685, he received one of the "Young Men's Shares," so called, a grant of land given to young men who previously owned no land. He inherited from his father forty-nine acres of land where he resided and where Frank L. Howard now lives, and also other landed property. He was active in the affairs of the church, and in 1694 he and another were appointed by the town to inspect and take notice of any disorder among the young persons in the galleries of the church on the Sabbath and to declare them by name after the exercises were over. His estate was settled and apportioned in 1739. He married (first ) January 8, 1689, Susanna, daughter of Rev. James Keith, who probably died the same year. He married (second) Sarah Dean, about 1692, and they had nine children: Jonathan, Joshua, Susanna, Ebenezer, Seth, Abiel, Sarah, Henry and Keziah.

(III) Jonathan (2), eldest child of Jona- than ( 1) and Sarah (Dean) Howard, was born in part of old Bridgewater, now West Bridge- water, December 9, 1692, died there May 18, 1769. He married, July 30, 1719, Sarah, daughter of John and Elizabeth ( Ames) Field, of Bridgewater, now West Bridgewater. She died there September 20, 1777, aged sev- enty-eight years. Their children were : Nathan, Charity, Susanna, Sarah, Jonathan, Amy and Betty.

(IV) Nathan, son of Jonathan (2) and Sarah (Field) Howard, was born March 17, 1720, died after October 14, 1799, the date on which he made his will. His son Jonathan was his executor. He married, June II, 1746, Jane, daughter of Major Edward and Mary (Byram) Howard, of what is now West Bridgewater. She died June 29, 1791, aged seventy years. Their children were: Nathan, Jonathan, Gamaliel, Bezaliel, Thaddeus, Arte- mas, Sarah and Jane.

(V) Rev. Bezaliel, fourth son of Nathan and Jane (Howard) Howard, was born in Bridgewater, November 22, 1753, died Janu- ary 20, 1837. He was a corporal in Captain Eliakim Howard's company, Colonel Edward Mitchell's regiment, which marched from Bridgewater to Braintree Neck, March 4, 1776, and was in service six days. He became a student at Harvard College and graduated from that institution in 1781, and afterward received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, and was made fellow of the American Acad- emy. Three years after his graduation (1784), he settled in the ministry at Springfield, where he was pastor of the First Congregational Church from 1785 to 1803, eighteen years. In 1819 he became a Unitarian. He is char- acterized as having had "a conservative dis- position," and as being "sincere, frank, and quaint." He married (first) December 10, 1785, Lucinda, daughter of Jonathan Dwight, of Springfield, who died March 18, 1788, aged twenty. He married (second) Prudence, daughter of Ezekiel and Prudence Williams, of Wethersfield, Connecticut. He had five children, one by the first wife and four by the second : Lucinda Dwight, Margaret, John, Charles, Ezekiel.

(VI) Charles, son of Rev. Bezaliel and Prudence (Williams) Howard, was born in Springfield, March 21, 1794, died September 18, 1875. In politics he was a Democrat. He was a lifelong resident of Springfield. He married, June 21, 1824, Elizabeth Buckminster Dwight, (see Dwight VI), who was born in Springfield, February 18, 1801, died October 7, 1855, daughter of Colonel Thomas and Han- nah (Worthington) Dwight. They had ten children: . Lucinda Orne, Thomas Dwight, Elizabeth Bridge, Sophia Worthington, Cath- erine Lathrop, Mary Dwight, Sarah Bancroft, Emily Williams, Amelia Peabody, John.

(VII) Rev. Thomas Dwight, son of Charles and Elizabeth B. (Dwight ) Howard, was born in Springfield, December 25, 1826. His pre- paratory education was obtained in the com-

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mon schools and in private institutions, and in 1844 he entered Harvard College, from which he took the degree of A. B. in 1848. In the subsequent three years he pursued the study of theology in the same institution. He entered upon the work of the ministry in December, 1851, serving as pastor of the First Unitarian Church until February 1, 1862, in which year he went to Hilton Head, South Carolina, where he became general superintendent of contra- bands living on plantations. He served as chap- lain of the Eighty-eighth United States Col- ored Infantry from January 20, 1864 to August II, 1864; chaplain of the Seventy- eighth United States Colored Infantry from August 24, 1864, to January 6, 1866 ; was pas- tor of churches successively in Berlin, Wis-' consin, from March 1, 1866, to May 1, 1868; in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, July 1, 1868, to Sep- tember, 1869; in Petersham from May 1, 1870, to July 1, 1874; secretary of commissioner of prisons, with office at State House, Boston, Massachusetts, from July 1, 1874, to January I, 1879. March 5, 1880, he removed to Charlestown, New Hampshire, where he was in pastoral charge of a church for twenty-one years, retiring November 1, 1901, to pass the remainder of his life in Springfield, Massachu- setts. He spent a full half century in preach- ing the gospel and in educational work, was an energetic, cheerful and successful worker in the Master's Vineyard, and is now enjoying a well-earned rest in the home of his boyhood, surrounded by a few of his early friends and many who have come to him in the later years. He married, in Perry, Maine, June 8, 1854, Sarah Eaton, of Eastport, Maine, born in Perry, Maine, September 26, 1830, daughter of Dan and Margaret ( Bulmer) Eaton (see Eaton VIII).

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III, Part 39

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