USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume IV > Part 32
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Daniel C. Spear, father of Sarah L. (Spear) (Nichols) Rood, was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, in 1820, and lived in Ware, Massachusetts, in 1886. He married Louisa Hartshorn and they had seven chil- dren born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, as follows: Sarah L., 1844; Mary, Edwin, Harlow, Abbey, Lucy, Lizzie Spear. Mr. Spear was a soldier in the civil war, serving in Company I, recruited in West Brookfield, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.
Richard Billings, immigrant BILLINGS ancestor, was in Hartford, Connecticut, with his wife Margery, in 1640. He moved to Hatfield, Massachusetts, in 1661, died there March 3, 1679. She died December 5, 1679. They had a son Samuel, mentioned below.
(II) Samuel, son of Richard Billings, lived in Hatfield. He married, about 1661, Sarah Fellows, who married (second) October 9, 1678, Samuel Belden Jr., and died February 5, 1713. She was daughter of Richard and Ursula Fellows. He died February 1, 1678. Children : I. Samuel, born January 8, 1665, mentioned below. 2. Ebenezer, October 29, 1669. 3. Sarah, died July 15, 1674. 4. Rich- ard, born April 7, 1672, married, March 18, 1703, Hannah Marsh ; (second) Sarah 5. John, October II, 1674, killed by the In- dians July 15, 1698. 6. Sarah, October 18, 1676, married Samuel Dickinson.
(III) Samuel (2), son of Samuel ( 1) Bill- ings, was born January 8, 1665, in Hatfield. He married (first) November 18, 1686, Han- nah Wright, who died November 18, 1687; (second ) Widow Rebecca Miller, born March 26, 1661, daughter of John and Sarah (Heald ) Leonard. Children: I. Samuel. 2. Sarah, born March 15, 1697, married, Janu- ary 16, 1724, Deacon Samuel Smith. 3. Jo- seph, November 15, 1700, married, January 7, 1726, Elizabeth Kellogg. 4. Zechariah, No- vember 29, 1702, mentioned below. 5. Ben- jamin, January 18, 1705, married, November 13, 1729, Mary Hastings.
(IV) Zechariah, son of Samuel (2) Bill- ings, was born in Hatfield, November 29, 1702, died October II, 1771. He married Ruth Meekins, born June 6, 1700, died December 18, 1781, daughter of John (3) and Ruth (Belknap) Meekins. Thomas (2), Thomas (I). Among his children was Silas, men- tioned below.
(V) Silas, son of Zechariah Billings, was born November 13, 1741, died June 6, 1808. He married, November 25, 1773, Miriam Dickinson, born May 9, 1746, died February II, 1836, daughter of Moses and Anna (Smith) Dickinson, and granddaughter of Canada Waite. Among their children was Erastus, mentioned below.
(VI) Colonel Erastus, son of Silas Bill- ings, was born June 30, 1778, and was a farmer in Hatfield. He was a member of the militia and fought in the war of 1812. He married Abigail Allis. In religion he was a Congregationalist. Among his children were Silas, mentioned below, John A., Erastus, mentioned below.
(VII) Captain Silas (2), son of Colonel Erastus Billings, was born October 29, 1800. He was captain of militia. He owned a grist mill and also made a business of raising and selling cattle for beef, driving them to the Bos- ton market. He was considered the best judge
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of cattle in the vicinity. He was a Whig in politics and an active worker in the Congre- gational church. He married, December 9, 1824, Mary S. Graves, daughter of Levi and granddaughter of Perez Graves. (See Graves family). Children : 1. Samuel, drowned at the age of two years by falling into a partly-filled tub of water. 2. Samuel F., born January 18, 1828, mentioned below. 3. Abbie, died young. 4. Abbie. 5. Mary Jane. 6. Cornelia. 7. Sarah Ann.
(VIII) Samuel F., son of Captain Silas (2) Billings, was born January 18, 1828, in Hatfield, where he was educated in the public schools. Until the death of his father he re- mained on the homestead, and then assumed the management of the farm. Like his father, he was a Whig and in religion a faithful Con- gregationalist. He married, January 1, 1857, Elizabeth Hastings Allis, daughter of Dexter Allis: Children: 1. Edward, born April 29, 1859. 2. Silas, died young. 3. Louis A., No- vember 28, 1861, mentioned below. 4. Eliza- beth H., October 11, 1864, married Charles J. Abbott, who died 1901 ; had Howard B. Ab- bott. 5. Samuel F., August 21, 1866, men- tioned below. 6. Silas, 1869, died young.
(IX) Louis A., son of Samuel F. Billings, was born in Hatfield, November 28, 1861. He received his education in the public schools of his native town and in Smith Acad- emy, and assisted his father on the farm. Af- ter his father's death he became associated with his brother Samuel F. in raising tobac- co on the farm, and carries on an extensive business in this line. Although interested in local politics as a Republican. he has never sought office. He attends the Congregation- al church. He is unmarried.
(IX) Samuel F. (2), son of Samuel F. (1) Billings, was born in Hatfield, August 21, 1866. He was educated in the public schools and Smith Academy, and like his brother re- mained on the homestead. He is engaged with him in carrying on the farm, raising a large amount of tobacco. He is a Republican and a Congregationalist. He married, Sarah G. Jenny, widow of Arthur G. Jenny, and daughter of William B. and Sarah A. (Gibbs) Langdon. Her father was born October 31, 1828, and married, April 2, 1855, Sarah A. Gibbs, born April 28, 1837. Child of Samuel F. Billings: Gordon-Langdon, born May 25, 1904.
(VII) Erastus (2), son of Colonel Erastus (1) Billings, was born in Hatfield, May II, 1809, died March 4, 1887. He was educated
in the public schools, and at an early age be- came a member of the firm composed of the family, and engaged in carrying on the Bil- lings farm. He was a Whig in politics and one of the early Abolitionists of this section. He was keenly interested in public affairs, but never sought public office. He married Artemisia F. Ford, of Somers, Connecticut. Children, born at Hatfield: 1. Albert, died in infancy. 2. Henry P., June 9, 1835, died Oc- tober 2, 1891. 3. Erastus F., November 6, 1838, died September 20, 1904. 4. George A., mentioned below.
(VIII) George A., son of Erastus (2) Bil- lings, was born in Hatfield, May 26, 1846, and was educated there in the public schools and in Monson Academy, from which he was graduated in the class of 1866. He began to work for his father on the Billings farm. Later he took charge of his father's farm and was very successful in growing tobacco. Since 1874 he has represented the firm of Sutter Brothers of Chicago, tobacco buyers, and has had charge of the business of this firm through the entire Connecticut valley, buying some five thousand cases annually. He also represents a large cigar manufactur- ing concern of Pennsylvania that makes five million cigars a year. Mr. Billings is a Re- publican in politics and a Congregationalist in religion. He is well known and highly es- teemed by the tobacco planters, an excellent judge of tobacco and of exceptional business ability. He is a member of the school board. He is a member of the Congregational church and is a deacon. He married, Decem- ber 6, 1871, Abbie F. Graves, daughter of Jonathan S. Graves, of Hatfield (see Graves, VII). Children: 1. Mabel L., born August 7, 1873, married Harry L. Howard. 2. Al- bert G., August 4, 1878. 3. Laura F., July 17, 1882. 4. George Raymond, December 30, 1883. 5. Minnie Alice, April 13, 1888, mar- ried Harry W. Marsh.
(The Graves Line, see Thomas Graves 1).
(VI) Levi Graves, son of Captain Perez Graves (q. v.), was born at Hatfield, January 12, 1771, died there in November, 1858, aged eighty-seven years. He married, Mary Smith, born March, 1773. died March 23, 1857, daughter of Jonathan and Bathsheba Smith, of South Hadley. Children : 1. Harvey, born August 10, 1800. 2. Mary S., March 5, 1803, married, December 9, 1824, Captain Silas Bill- ings, of Hatfield. 3. Levi, January 13, 1810.
Samt Of Billings
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4. Jonathan Smith, April 23, 1818, mentioned below.
(VII) Jonathan Smith, son of Levi Graves, was born in Hatfield, April 23, 1818, died there February 26, 1883. He married, Janu- ary 17, 1844, Caroline Smith, born November 22, 1825, at Charlemont, died in Hatfield, daughter of Justin Smith, of Whately, Mas- sachusetts. Children : I. Son, born Septem- ber 8, 1845, died next day. 2. Alfred How- ard, August 7, 1847. 3. Abbie Frances, May 6, 1850, married, December 6, 1871, George A. Billings. (See Billings, VIII). 4. Louisa Malinda, April 19, 1853, married, July 2, 1878, Rev. Edward Sampson Tead ; died November 24, 1888. 5. Carrie Elizabeth, October 26, 1857, married, October 22, 1879, Roswell Bill- ings, of Hatfield.
WESSON The earliest American ances- tor of this name was the pro- genitor of many if not all the Massachusetts families of Wesson, as well as those known as Weston, the cognomen ap- pearing in both these forms. The family is known to have existed in very early times in Staffordshire, England, where its members owned valuable estates.
(I) John Wesson, first of the name in America, was born in 1630 or 1631, in Buck- inghamshire, England, and died in Wakefield, Massachusetts, about 1723, aged over ninety years. About 1644, when only thirteen years old, his father being dead, he sailed as a stow- away in a ship bound for America. Arriving in Massachusetts Bay Colony he settled at Salem, where in 1648, at the age of eighteen, he was a member of the First church. About 1653 he removed to that part of Reading now Wakefield, and accumulated one of the largest estates in the town, his lands adjoining the meeting house square. He is said to have served in King Philip's war, but the name of the organization of which he was a member is not given. In 1653 he married Sarah, daugh- ter of Zachariah Fitch, of Reading, and this is the first marriage there of which record ex- ists. He had at least eight children, four sons among them, each of whom became the head of a family, and his numerous descendants are in all parts of the country. Children : I. Sarah, born July 15, 1656. 2. Mary, May 25, 1659. 3. John, March 8, 1661. 4. Elizabeth, born at Reading. 5. Samuel (see below). 6. Stephen, born 1607; had a farm in Reading, where he died in 1750, aged nearly ninety. The facts here given with reference to John Wes-
son are from a manuscript record left by his son John.
(II) Samuel, son of John and Sarah (Fitch) Wesson, was born at Reading, in 1665. His name usually appears in the rec- ords as Weston. About 1688 he married Abi- gail (surname unknown) and settled in Read- ing. Children : Abigail, born 1689; Samuel, next mentioned.
(III) Samuel (2), son of Samuel (I) and Abigail Wesson, was born in Reading in 1690, and died in 1713. He went to Framingham in 17II, and there married May 7, 1711, Mar- tha, daughter of Nathaniel Haven, grand- daughter of Richard Haven, of Lynn, who came over in 1675. Martha married ( second) Isaac Cousins, of Sherborn, January 12, 1746. She died the following year.
(IV) John (2), only child of Samuel (2) and Martha (Haven) Wesson, was born in Framingham, December 1, 17II. He moved as early as 1749 to Grafton, near the Sutton and Worcester lines, where in the same year he bought of John Gould nine acres in Sut- ton and became the owner of other tracts of land in the neighborhood, having land in Graf- ton, Worcester and Sutton, and in that part now Millbury, but part of which, called "the Gore", was annexed to Worcester in 1785. He was a revolutionary soldier in Captain Joseph Winch's (Framingham) company, Colonel Samuel Bullard's regiment, in 1777, and was in the campaign under General Gates which ended at Saratoga with the surrender of Bur- goyne. He married (first) January 22, 1740, Ruth Death, of Sherborn, born April 20, 17II, daughter of Henry and Rachel (Leland ) Death, her father being son of John, who came from Natick to Sherborn in 1678. Mr. Wesson married (second) Rebecca Daniel, August 24, 1757. Children of John and Ruth : I. Samuel, born at Sherborn, July 14, 1741 ; was a revolutionary soldier. 2. Levi. 3. Joel. 4. John, married Mehitable Elliott. 5. Abel, married Sarah Drury. 6. Silas, was one of twelve soldiers who joined Major Timothy Bigelow of Worcester, and marched to Can- ada, where he was killed at the attack of Que- bec, December 31, 1775.
(V) Joel, third son of John (2) and Ruth (Death) Wesson, was born probably about 1746, in Framingham. He lived for a few years in the seventies in Brookfield, but the greater part of his life in Worcester. He held much real estate and paid one of the largest taxes in that town. He was a juror in 1785 and on the school committee in 1787. He was
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a plow-maker by trade, and was in Framing- ham in 1789, plying his trade there. Joel Wes- son and his brothers were owners of a large part of "the Gore", which was claimed by both Worcester and Grafton. Joel was considered an inhabitant of Grafton until 1785, when the title of Worcester to the section was acknowl- edged formally. A very important deed in tracing this genealogy is recorded in Worces- ter. Joel Wesson and his brother Levi deeded to their brothers John and Samuel, October 24, 1777, certain lands in "the Gore", and the deed gives the names of the children of John and Ruth (Death) Wesson. Joel sold his farm in North Brookfield to his brother, John Wes- son, June 25, 1789. Joel Wesson married Hannah Bigelow, born in Worcester, July 3, 1748, daughter of Joshua and Lydia Bigelow. She survived her husband and died December 29, 1829, aged eighty-two years. Children: I. Huldah, married Lewis Witherby, of Shrews- bury. 2. Hannah, married a Bartlett. 3. Mary (Polly), married Charles Warren, No- vember 6, 1808. 4. Sewell. 5. Joel, born April 7, 1775, at Brookfield, married Thank- ful Newton, September 15, 1796, in Shrews- bury. 6. Rufus, next mentioned.
(VI) Rufus, youngest son of Joel and Han- nah (Bigelow) Wesson, was born at Worces- ter, Massachusetts, in 1786, and died at Wor- cester in 1874, aged eighty-seven. While still a young man he became famous in the region of his residence for the excellence of his plows. These implements were of wood, and yet their construction was so thorough that their work was entirely satisfactory to the ag- ricultural community. The skill of the in- ventor and maker was especially shown in the carving of the convexed curves, and while furrows were turned with shares of wood the Wesson plow found high favor. When the demand for these excellent implements fell off owing to the advent of the cast iron plow, Mr. Wesson abandoned their manufacture and took 11p farming. He acquired much real es- tate and bought what is known as the Wesson place, near Lake Quinsigamond, March 7, 1814, of Lewis Baird. He was a highway surveyor and collector of taxes in 1825, fence viewer in 1816, and served in the militia in the Grafton company. He married at Worcester, September 18, 1808, Betsey Baird, member of a well known family in Worcester. The Bairds were from the West of England, and of earlier date from Scotland. The English and Scotch pedigrees have been carefully kept (see vol. 1, Proceedings of the Worcester So-
ciety of Antiquity. She attained a green old age, dying at the home of one of her children in Worcester in 1876, being then in her eighty- eighth year. Five sons and five daughters were born of this marriage, nine of whom are re- corded in Worcester. The boys all inherited their father's love of mechanics. I. Cornelia, born January 28, 1810; married H. H. Har- rington, of Shrewsbury, 1833; she lived to be upwards of ninety years old. 2. Martin, mar- ried Abigail H. Green, of Grafton,at Marlboro, January 6, 1840 ; he was a shoe manufacturer in Springfield. 3. Edwin, born December 13, 1811; married in Marlboro, Nancy H. Har- rington, of Grafton, June 10, 1838; he was a rifle manufacturer and operated a factory at Northboro, Massachusetts, and afterward at Hartford, Connecticut. 4. Betsy, born Janu- ary 26, 1814; married W. H. H. Connor, of Grafton, October 17, 1844. 5. Rufus, born May 17, 1815 ; engaged in shoe manufacturing in Worcester; married Miriam Harrington, July 23, 1840, daughter of Colonel Daniel and Zillah Harrington, of Shrewsbury. 6. Char- lotte, born September 31, 1819. 7. Jane, May 8, 1823. 8. Daniel B., mentioned below. 9. Franklin, born November 8, 1828; went to Shasta, California, in 1851, and was an expert rifle maker. IO. Frances, born August 8, 1830.
(VII) Daniel Baird, fourth son of Rufus and Betsey (Baird) Wesson, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, May 18, 1825, and died in Springfield, August 4, 1906. Until he was eighteen years of age he resided at home, devoting his time about equally to duties on the farm and schooling, slighting neither, yet nursing a hope that he might soon go free to follow the bent of his inclination, as he shared with his father and older brothers the taste for mechanics and invention. His father de- sired him to learn the shoe business under his brothers Rufus and Martin. Against his in- clination, Daniel was constrained to follow his father's suggestion, but soon found the busi- ness uncongenial and returned to the farm. There he essayed some boyish pistol making with the old flintlock of his father as a model. He patiently whittled out wooden stocks and made barrels from abandoned vessels of pew- ter, and fearlessly tested them. The lad hoped to be sent off to the shop of his brother Ed- win, but his father did not readily entertain the notion of a second departure, and in the end Daniel had to pay for his time to gain his freedom. He was eighteen when he made his bargain, and finding that his father valued his
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time until attaining his majority at $150, he paid him that sum out of his savings and at once went to join his eldest brother. It was a good school for the ambitious lad, since it opened an opportunity to master the trade of gun-making in every detail. In three years he had completed his apprenticeship. He then worked for a time as a journeyman under his brother, first at Northboro, then at Hartford, Connecticut, being a partner and superinten- dent of the shop at the last-named place. Upon the death of his brother Edwin in 1850, Mr. Wesson formed a partnership with Thomas Warner, a master armorer of ac- knowledge skill, who had long resided in Wor- cester. Mr. Warner retired from business about two years later. Mr. Wesson then join- ed his brother Frank, who had a gunmaking establishment at New England village, in the town of Grafton, and there devoted himself to the manufacture of single-barreled target pistols, turning out a fine arm. About this time a Mr. Leonard began to make a stir with an improvement in firearms. He was an edu- cated man with theories, and, having capital at command, organized the Leonard Pistol Manufacturing Company, with shops at Charlestown, Massachusetts. Mr. Wesson was employed as superintendent of the factory and founded a somewhat erratic set of inven- tions, submitted for treatment at his skilled hands. Mr. Leonard had in mind some idea of a rapid firing gun, but his plans did not produce an arm which could discharge with regularity or handled with safety. He had better success, however, with the old "pepper box", the cluster of barrels of which was fired by a revolving hammer. As the weapon had no center of fire it was of course inaccurate and useless for target practice, yet it obtained some vogue and its manufacture was con- tinued at Windsor, Vermont. The change re- leased Mr. Wesson, who then went to the as- sistance of Allen & Luther, of Worcester, who sought his aid in making gun barrels. It was while with this firm that Mr. Wesson became acquainted with his subsequent partner, Hor- ace Smith. An experiment about this time came very near costing Mr. Wesson his life. It was not made with one of his own construc- tion, however, but with the invention of Col- onel Porter, who had come up from the south to find some gunmaker capable of making practical his so-called magazine firing arm.
The practical eye of Mr. Wesson saw at once that the weapon was a ludicrous thing which no skill could render available ; but pressed by
the colonel, he undertook to experiment with it and even to exhibit it before a board of ordnance officers, although heartily ashamed of his task. Notwithstanding every precau- tion in handling it, one chamber went off in- dependently, sending a bullet through Mr. Wesson's hat, while another chamber, pointed directly at his body, narrowly missed fire. While giving his days of labor Mr. Wesson devoted a large part of his nights to thought and study. Out of his reflections and experi- ments came a decidedly great invention, name- ly, a practice cartridge that rendered percus- sion caps a superfluity. But men without am- ple means at command are forced to remain inactive or proceed slowly. Mr. Wesson was brooding over his invention, convinced of its incontestible merit, when Courtland Palmer, of New York, came forward with an improve- ment bullet, that is, one hollowed out in part to receive a charge of powder which was held in place by a plug of cork, the latter perfor- ated to permit the flash from a primer to ig- nite the explosive. Although believing his own to be the better invention, Mr. Wesson felt constrained to accept the offer of the rich Mr. Palmer to enlarge his outlook as a pistol- maker, provided the Palmer invention was given the preference. While studying the Palmer cartridge Mr. Wesson made an im- provement on it for which he received a pa- tent-the addition of a steel disk on which the hammer could explode the fulminate, thus doing away with the primer. It was in work- ing out this plan that Mr. Wesson became as- sociated with the late Horace Smith, with whom in 1852 he formed a partnership and es- tablished a factory at Norwich, Connecticut. It was here that the two men worked out the principles of the arm now known as the Win- chester rifle, an arm which has been much im- proved but which in its main points is prac- tically unchanged to-day. They made this rifle for a time at Norwich, and later applied a similar principle to pistols and other small arms. Eventually they disposed of their pat- ents to the Volcanic Arms Company. In 1855 Mr. Smith retired from the business and be- came otherwise engaged in Worcester. Mr. Wesson was at once called to the position of superintendent of the Volcanic Arms Com- pany, to which the Winchester Arms Com- pany had since succeeded, and under its au- spices the Smith & Wesson cartridge (the self-primed metallic one that had proved prac- tical) was put into use. This cartridge was used in the Spencer rifles during the civil war.
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although the government was slow to adopt either cartridges or rapid fire guns. For years the inventors received a royalty on it. Ex- perimenting and testing his ideas incessantly, Mr. Wesson at length succeeded in perfect- ing a revolver, the peculiarity and merit of which consisted in the fact that the chambers ran entirely through the cylinder. The op- portunity for its manufacture came upon the reorganization of the Volcanic Arms Com- pany, when, freed from his engagement, Mr. Wesson joined again with his old partner, Mr. Smith, who still remained in touch with him and was cognizant of the development. They hired premises on Market street, Springfield, in 1857, and with twenty-five workmen began operations. In 1860, success having attended their efforts, they built a large factory on Stockbridge street, where owing to the large demand for their weapon starting during the civil war they came in time to employ six hun- dred workmen. The army, it is true, supplied only the old fashioned arm with percussion caps ; but the public with less conservatism and more wisdom, demanded the perfect weapon. In 1870 the attention of the wide-awake or- dinance officers of the Russian government was attracted to the Smith & Wesson revolver, and the result was a contract to supply the Russian arm. Two hundred thousand were required for this purpose, and four years were consumed in filling the contract. In 1874 Mr. Smith retired, selling out his interest to Mr. Wesson, who, however, had not cared to change the style under which the business was conducted. The contract with the Russian government was but the prelude to a succes- sion of contracts from governments and firms all over the world, and the filling of these brought not only wealth to Mr. Wesson but a very great degree of prosperity to hundreds of skillful workmen, and incidentally to the city of Springfield. Since 1874 the plant has been materially increased, and it is to-day probably the finest and largest in America for pistol manufacturing, and a model in point of neat- ness, order and thoroughness, presenting the most pleasing aspect whether viewed without or within.
Mr. Wesson was a man of unflagging in- dustry, and in this respect his habits remained practically the same when he was struggling to make his place in the world. His efforts and studies to improve his inventions were never relaxed. Out of these came a number of notable improvements which make the weapon of his invention indisputably first of
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