Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume IV, Part 9

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 886

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume IV > Part 9

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General Devens died January 7, 1891, very suddenly, after a brief illness, surrounded by his immediate relatives. His funeral was from Trinity Church, Boston, January 10, 1891. The services were conducted by Rev. Phillips Brooks, LL.D., and the burial was at Mount Auburn Cemetery, with military honors. The bench and bar were represented in large num- bers, and the Order of the Loyal legion, of which he had been president for several years, attended in a body. Two of the most artistic and impressive statues in the commonwealth have been erected in his honor and to his mem- ory. One of them is in the grounds of the state house in Boston, the other in his home city. Worcester. The movement for the latter memorial was instituted originally by late United States Senator George F. Hoar, a friend and associate of General Devens in poli- tics and law. A large popular subscription was augmented by an appropriation of $5,000 from

the county of Worcester, $7,500 from the city of Worcester, and nearly $4,000 from thirty- nine different towns of the county, ranging in amount from $25 to $450. At a meeting of the commission in charge of the memorial held July 12, 1902. it was voted to contract with Daniel C. French and E. C. Potter for an equestrian statue of General Devens for a sum not exceeding $30,000. The inscription on the pedestal of the statue indicates its character as a county monument to the men as well as the leader. It is: "To General Devens and the men of Worcester County in the War for the Union, 1861-1865." On the west end is a brief summary of the career of General Devens in civil and military life. The statue was form- ally dedicated July 4, 1906. A body of two hundred and fifty of the militia of Worcester and a thousand civil war veterans took part in the parade and exercises. Governor Curtis Guild made an eloquent address. The statue was formally presented to the county by the president of the commission, General William F. Draper, and the statue unveiled by Charles Devens Osborne, a grandnephew of General Devens. General Stewart L. Woodford, of New York, was the orator of the day. Among those present was President Taft, then Secre- tary of War. We quote from General Wood- ford: "He was a citizen in all that citizenship means and implies. He was jurist in the large and true sense of the word. He was a wise, broad, great lawyer. He was an orator whose full, rich and classic eloquence lives on the printed page as it enchained our enraptured sense when spoken. But above all, Charles Devens was, as no man whom I have known, the essential type of the citizen soldier and soldier gentleman." General Devens never married.

(IV) Arthur Lithgow, son of Charles De- vens, was born in Charlestown, April 26, 1821, and died July 22, 1867. He attended the pub- lic schools of Charlestown and the Boston Lat- in School, entered Harvard College and was graduated in the class of 1840, studied his pro- fession in Harvard Law School, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1842. He began to prac- tice his profession, but found business more to his liking, and became selling agent of the Otis Manufacturing Company, of Boston. He be- came a partner in the firm of J. W. Paige & Company of Boston, and was also treasurer of the Appleton & Hamilton Manufacturing Company at the time of his death. He was a member of the Union and Somerset clubs of Boston. In the midst of a promising and suc-

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cessful career he was cut off in the prime of life. In politics he was a Republican after the organization of that party. In religion he was a member of the Episcopal Church. He mar- ried, July 20, 1852, Agnes Howard, daughter of Abijah and Ann Maria (Howard) White, of an old Watertown family. She is a sister of the first wife of James Russell Lowell. (See White family). Children, born at Ware, Mas- sachusetts: I. Arthur Lithgow, June 3, 1853 ; mentioned below. 2. Bessie, November 29, 1855 ; died December 23, 1855. 3. Mary, May 19, 1857: resides with her mother in Cam- bridge. 4. Agnes, born in Boston, June 17, 1865 ; died March 26, 1896; married, October 27, 1886, Thomas Mott Osbourne, of Auburn, New York ; children : i. David Munson, born November 20, 1887: ii. Charles Devens, No- vember 22, 1888; iii. Arthur Lithgow, born April 2, 1892; iv. Robert Klipfel, February 3, 1897.

(V) Arthur Lithgow, son of Arthur Lith- gow Devens, was born June 3, 1853. He at- tended private schools of Boston, and fitted for college at the school of E. S. Dixwell. He graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1874. He is a partner in the banking firm of Devens, Lyman & Company, of Boston. In politics he is a Republican, and in religion an Episcopalian. He married. December 27, 1876, Agnes Russell Elwood, of Rochester, New York, born October 4, 1852. Children : I. Agnes Dorothy, born June 3, 1878; mar- ried Paul Mascarene Hamlen, of Boston, De- cember 6, 1901. 2. Arthur Lithgow Jr., born November 15, 1879: married, April 6, 1907, Wenonah Wetmore, of New York. 3. Eliza- beth Elwood, born April 12, 1881 ; married, September 28, 1907, Gerald Dorr Boardman, of Boston.

(The White Line).

(I) Andrew White was born about 1670, and may have been an immigrant. On Febru- ary 27, 1712-3, Andrew White and Nathaniel Stearms, of Watertown, bought for four hun- dred pounds a house and thirty-six acres of land of Elisha Cook and his wife Elizabeth of Boston. He also bought eleven acres in Cambridge. The farm remained in the White family for many generations. He married, in Woburn, February 4, 1695-6, Sarah Sander- son. bor March 17, 1668-9, died December 31. 1749, daughter of William and Sarah San- derson. He died May 13, 1742. Children : 1. Sarah, born November 17, 1696. 2. Andrew, December 20, 1700: mentioned below. 3.

William, December 18, 1702; married, July 7, 1726, Sarah Cutting. 4. Hannah, January 15, 1708-9; married, December 2, 1730, Jon- athan Learned. Children of Andrew and Mary White, (probably a second wife: 5. Samuel, born August 12, 1717. 6. Marcy, February 27, 1720. 7. John, March 18, 1725. (II) Andrew (2), son of Andrew (1) White, was born December 29, 1700, and lived in Watertown. He was selectman there in 1751 and 1762. He married, December 12, 1722, Jane Dix, born November 18, 1704, died De- cember 31, 1793, daughter of John and Martha (Lawrence) Dix, granddaughter of John and Elizabeth ( Barnard) Dix, and great- granddaughter of Edward Dix, the immi- grant, and Jane Wilkinson, his wife. Chil- dren: I. Jonas, born December 18, 1724; mentioned below. 2. Samuel, born April 9, 1726; died June 19, 1810. 3. Ruth, born March 17, 1727-8; married June 2, 1748, Jo- seph Peirce. 4. Sarah, born May 27, 1730; married August 1, 1754, Nathan Kendall. 5. Martha (twin), born May 27, 1730; married April II, 1751, Nathaniel Livermore. 6. Han- nah, born January 1, 1731-2. 7. Lydia, born August 14, 1733; married May 8, 1753, Ephraim Peirce. 8. Jedediah, born Febru- ary 3, 1734-5 ; married Elizabeth Wellington. 9. Lucy, born December 5, 1736; married November 17, 1757, Paul Wyman. 10. Abi- gail, baptized August 20, 1738; married Oc- tober 29, 1761, Samuel Fiske. II. Andrew, baptized May 3, 1741 ; married April 20, 1769, Mary Cutting. 12. Eunice, baptized March 27. 1743. 13. Elijah, baptized May 26, 1745. (III) Jonas, son of Andrew (2) White, was born December 18, 1724, and died December 22, 1798. After 1764 he was a trader at Watertown. He married, May 2, 1749, Lois Stearns, born January 18, 1722-3, died No- vember, 1796, daughter of John and Abigail (Fiske) Stearns, granddaughter of Samuel and Hannah (Manning) Stearns, and great- granddaughter of Isaac and Mary Stearns, the immigrants. Children: I. Abijah, born May 22, 1750. 2. Jonas, June 7, 1752 ; men- tioned below. 3. Joel, July 15, 1754. 4. Lois, October 8, 1756. 5. Josiah, November 5. 1758. 6. Abigail, baptized August 10, 1760. 7. Lois, born February 4, 1764; mar- ried August 31, 1786, James Robbins.

(IV) Jonas (2), son of Jonas (1) White, was born June 7. 1752. He was representa- tive to the general court in 1803 to 1807, and 1800. He married Ruth Children : 1. Abijah. born June 21, 1777 ; died Septem-

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ber, 1778. 2. Abijah, born June 2, 1779; men- tioned below. 3. Lucy, born February 20, 1781. 4. Jonas, May 19, 1782. 5. William, November 6, 1784. 6. Josiah, March 16, 1787. 7. Henry, April 22, 1789.

(\) Abijah, son of Jonas (2) White, was born at Watertown, June 2, 1779, and died in 1846. He acquired a large estate. He mar- ried Ann Maria Howard. Child: Agnes Howard, married, July 20, 1852, Arthur Lith- gow Devens (see Devens IV).

About the middle of the seven- DRISKO teenth century there was a con- siderable immigration of Scotch people along the southern coast of Maine, and it is probable that this name came to America at that time. There is a family tradition that the name is of Polish origin, but this arises probably from the present form of the name rather than from any basis of fact. It may be a variation of the name Driscoll, and is found in the meagre traces discovered in New Eng- land, with the spellings, Drisco, Driscoe, and Driscow. In searching through the annals of New England but fleeting glimpses of the name appear, and none of the genealogical au- thorities make reference to it at all. The "His- tory of Wells, Maine," gives the name of John Drisco among those who lived in that town be- tween 1641 and 1687. It was probably very near the latter date that his name is found there, as it appears near the end of the list, and other circumstances would also indicate the fact. There were persons of the name living in Rye, New Hampshire, in 1753 and 1756. The name first appears in Scarboro, Maine, in 1729, when Sarah Drisco was married to John Sharp. Two years later Elizabeth Drisco was married to Isaac McKenney in the same town. It is probable that they were daughters of the John Driscoe who was in Wells about 1687. A Jeremiah Drisco was married in Dover as early as 1682 and he was probably the father of Sarah Drisco, married in 1706, and of Cor- nelius Drisco who was married in the same town as early as 1715. It is presumable that Jeremiah Drisco, of Dover, was a brother of John Drisco, of Wells. The first settlers along the Maine coast and in the vicinity of Ports- mouth and Dover, New Hampshire, were not of the same character as those who settled farther south upon our shores. They did not come hither to escape religious persecution, but to engage in the fisheries and lumbering industry. which offered promises of a liveli- hood and of some gains. This is true to a

considerable extent of those who went thither from other points along our coast. Such rec- ords as were made by the pioneers in this re- gion were mostly destroyed in the numerous Indian outrages which burned their homes and drove them away. They were a brave people however, and most of them again returned to build up their fortunes upon the original loca- tions. The records of the seventeenth century in the district now available are extremely meagre and scattered.

(I) John Drisco resided in Wells, Maine, but how long cannot now be ascertained. He probably came there as a single man, and there married, and for aught that can now be dis- covered there ended his days.

(II) John (2), undoubtedly a son of John (1) Drisco, was residing in Scarboro, Maine, as early as 1734. On August 18 of that year his wife, May Drisco, was admitted to the First Church of Scarboro by baptism, and on the same date her daughters, Judith and Joan- na, were baptized. It is presumable that Moses Drisco, whose parentage is not given and who was baptized at the same church, May 9, 1735, was also their child. Presuma- bly they had other children before coming to Scarboro.

(III) Joseph Drisko was a resident of Scar- boro in 1743, and was probably a son of John (2) and Mary Drisco. His wife's name was Elizabeth, and there is evidence that her maid- en name was Gatchel, but no record shows the fact. They had children baptized at the Scar- boro church: John, January 9, 1743; Samuel Gatchel, August 13, 1749; Elizabeth, March 16. 1757. No doubt there were others, but these are all that appear in the church records.

(IV) Joseph (2), born about 1739, probably a son of Joseph (I) and Elizabeth Drisko, was married at the First Church in Scarboro, November 22, 1760, to Olive, daughter of Thomas and Abigail Larrabee, baptized June 12, 1743. Not long after his marriage he pro- ceeded farther into the wilderness and es- tablished a home in the wilds of Addison, Washington county, Maine, where he began to clear up land and engaged in farming. He was surrounded by wild animals, and much of his living was afforded in the early years by the game of the forest. Not many years after he had established his homestead there, he passed away in the prime of life, leaving four sons and three daughters : John, Josiah, Joseph, Jeremiah, Hannah, Polly and Lucy. This fam- ily was especially remarkable for longevity. All of the seven lived to be over eighty years of

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age, and most of them neared their ninety-mile post. All were married except the last named. The family records say that their mother was a Miss Wilson, a native of Martha's Vine- yard. If so, the father must have been twice married. She lived to be ninety-nine years of age.

(V) Jeremiah, youngest child of Joseph (2) Drisko, was born April 17, 1790, in Ad- dison, Maine, and died there early in 1871. He was early accustomed to the labors of the homestead farm, but soon after attaining his majority, engaged in ship building and became in time one of the most successful ship build- ers on the Maine coast. At the same time he continued to till a large farm in his native town not far from the old home, of which he was the owner, and here his death occurred. In many respects he was a remarkable man, and he commanded the respect of all with whom he came in contact. He was known along the Maine coast as an honest and up- right citizen. He possessed great strength of character, being strong and energetic with great determination, and these qualities en- abled him to carry through large undertak- ings. He was an old line Democrat, and took an active interest in town and state politics. His religious beliefs were firmly fixed, and he was a devoted member of the Baptist church, and was ever ready to further any interest calculated to advance his home community. He married, in Maine, Anne, born in St. An- drews, New Brunswick, of English and Scotch parentage, the daughter of John and

(Rose) Frankland. They were probably mar- ried in the old country before coming to New Brunswick. John Frankland was a man of exceptionally fine nature, well educated, some- thing of a genius, and possesing many artistic and interesting qualities. He was a ship- wright and caulker, well known to a large community for his genial nature. Mrs. Drisko was among the eldest of their fifteen children. She was the mother of four sons and three daughters : 1. Anne F., born in 1819: married John Barton, who died when thirty years old; she married (second) Greene B. Stevens, a successful brick mason of Maine; she had three children: Dora W., Howard M. and William ; she died at the age of seven- ty years. 2. Benjamin F., born 1821, died in Maine when a little past seventy years of age; he was a carpenter; he mar- ried Nancy Plummer and had children : How- ard, Julia and Eliza ; both are now deceased. 3. Perry Cook, born in 1823-24; was for twen-

ty-one years master of a sailing vessel, and visited nearly every important port on the globe ; he is yet living, residing in Province- town, Massachusetts, and has a son, Henry B., born of his first wife, who was formerly Frances Plummer, of Maine. 4. Ormander, was a ship carpenter early in life and removed to Boston, where he became a house carpenter; he is now retired, living a part of the time in Boston and the re- mainder in Maine; he married (first) Cath- erine Wass, who left two sons, Frederick and Alonzo; married (second) Mrs. Celia (Long) Knowles, who bore him two sons and two daughters. 5. Alonzo S., mentioned below. 6. Margaret L., born in 1831, died at the age of about seventy years; she was the wife of Captain Charles Union, who raised a com- pany of soldiers in Maine, which he com- manded through several years of active ser- vice in the civil war, participating in many en- gagements, and is now deceased; they left a son, Frank L. 7. Emma, born in 1835; be- came the wife of John Hinckley, a former sea captain ; she survives him and is now living on a farm in Idaho, where he settled some- time before his death; they had five children : Merrill, Albert, Perry, Mable and Maud.

(VI) Alonzo Shaw, fourth son of Jeremiah and Anne (Frankland) Drisko, was born Oc- tober 2, 1829, in Addison, where he grew up to the age of twenty years. In the spring of 1849 he went to Boston to seek employment at any honorable occupation which offered ; he learned the trade of house carpenter, serv- ing faithfully for three years as an apprentice, and subsequently for some time as a journey- man. In time he set up business on his own account, and by his skillful workmanship and honest methods rapidly proved himself worthy as a citizen and business man. He was energetic and industrious and built a great many business places and residences in Old Boston. After the fire of 1872 he con- structed fifty-one stores in the burned dis- trict, and from that time was a very success- ful building contractor up to the time of his retirement in 1903. Mr. Drisko has always taken an active interest in the development of his home city, and he has ever been ready to forward any plan that promised to pro- mote the general welfare. Since the organ- ization of the Republican party in 1856 he has been one of its most staunch supporters, and is proud of the fact that his first presiden- tial vote was cast for John C. Fremont. Both he and his wife have been affiliated with the

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Universalist church. He married, June 23. 1853. in Boston, Alvina Wass, born May 25, 1832, in Addison, died December 1, 1906, at their beautiful home on Warren street, Rox- bury. She was a daughter of Chapman and Mary (Curtis) Wass, both natives of Maine, where they lived active lives, and died at the ages of sixty-five and seventy years respec- tively. Mrs. Drisko was reared in her native town to maturity, and was a good wife and mother, devoted to her home and the up- building of the best interests of the com- munity. She was the mother of three chil- dren : Ella C., Laura, and Clara M. The first died at the age of twenty-six years, the sec- ond at nineteen, and the third at twenty-two ; all unmarried.

"It appears", writes the late COOLIDGE H. G. Somerby, "in the Rolls of the Hundreds, time of Edward the First, that William de Coolidge held lands in Cambridgeshire, from which one can reasonably infer that the fam- ily were seated in that county at that time. The practice of adopting hereditary sur- names from manors and localities originated in Normandy about the close of the tenth century or the beginning of the eleventh. Possessors of land took them from their own estates, a practice in which the Normans were soon imitated by the English, particu- larly after the Conquest. Many families of Saxon origin copied the example of their conqueror and prefixed to their names in a few instances the preposition "de," still re- tained : but, generally speaking, it was drop- ped from surnames about the time of Henry VI. Thus, instead of William de Coolidge. the landed gentry wrote themselves William Coolidge. . The custom of taking name from towns and villages in England is sufficient proof of the ancient descents of those families who bear them. That the name Coulinge (Coolidge) is derived from the village of Couling, or Cowling, in Suffolk, there is not the least doubt, and it continued so to be spelt with occasional variations until after the family settled in Arrington. Probably Collins is derived from the same source. The family of Coolidge of Cambridgeshire is the only one in England that adopted their peculiar way of spelling the name; the corruption being in consequence of there being no fixed mode of spelling in those days, and persons wrote names as they sounded to the ear. In Burke's "Dictionary of Arms" are several

varieties in the spelling of the name, evidently of one common origin, from the similarity of the arms, the griffin being always intro- duced in some form or another, either in the arms or crest. The fleur-de-lis seems an- ciently to have been connected with the fam- ily arms. In the year 1327 Walter Coulin and Ralph Couling of Wimpole (adjoining the parish of Arrington), county Cambridge, were assessed to the King's subsidies. The name has undergone various orthographic changes from the time of its adoption from the village of Cowling in Suffolk on the bor- ders of Cambridgeshire, the first of the name being styled de Cowling, or de Cooling, as lord of the manor there, soon after removed to Cambridgeshire, and spelt the name, at different periods, Couling, Cullings, Colynge, Cullidge, Coledge, Cowledge, Cooledge, Coolidge, etc.

(I) Thomas Colynge, of Arrington, first of the authentic pedigree of the Coolidge family, died 1498. His will was dated February II. 1545 and was proved in the Bishop's Court of Ely the same year. Children: I. William, married Margaret Bell, whose will was dated April 18, 1538, proved January 31, 1538; his will was dated January 12, 1519, and proved May 27, 1519. 2. John, mentioned below. 3. Agnes, married Hill. 4. Alice.

(II) John, son of Thomas Colynge, lived at Arrington ; will dated December 6, 1524, proved December 10, 1524 ; wife Alice died be- fore him. Children: I. Roger, probably died unmarried. 2. Thomas, mentioned below.

(III) Thomas (2), son of John, mentioned in his father's will.

(IV) John (2), son of Thomas (2) Colynge. was a legatee in the will of his grandfather John, in 1524. Children: 1. Son, father of Thomas. 2. Simeon, mentioned below. . 3. Thomas of Downam.

(V) Simeon Cooledge (note change of name), son of John (2), lived in Cot- tenham, where he was buried Novem- ber IO, 1590. His will was dated No- vember 6, and proved November 23, 1590. He married (first) Jane -, who was buried at Cottenham, December 15, 1584; (second) Agnes -, who survived him. Children : I. Alice, married, October 14, 1537, Robert Whitehead. 2. William, of Cottenham, buried October 25, 1618: (see forward). 3. John, died October, 1622 ; married Frances Fabram, who died November, 1605. 4. Agnes. 5. Edith, baptized December 5, 1574. 6. Thomas. baptized July 26, 1579; died August, 1599.

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(VI) William, son of Simeon Cooledge, was born about 1560, and was buried at Cotten- ham, October 25, 1618. His will, dated Octo- ber 21, 1618, was proved the last day of same month. He married, at Cottenham, June 23, 1588, Margaret Mayse, who was buried there February 1I, 1620. Children, with baptismal dates : 1. Richard, January 4, 1590; married May 5, 1615, Elizabeth Ezzex ; six children. 2. William, January 4, 1590. 3. Janc, December 27, 1593 ; buried March 22, 1596. 4. Thomas, July 22, 1595 ; buried July 1, 1597. 5. Eliza- beth, May 22, 1598. 6. Simon, June 15, 1600. 7. Margaret, September 19, 1602. 8. John, mentioned below.

(VII) John (3) Coolidge (note change of name), son of William Cooledge, was bap- tized at Cottenham, England, September 16, 1604. He was one of the earliest settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, probably in 1630, and a proprietor in 1636. He was admitted a freeman May 28, 1636. He was a prominent citizen, selectman many times between 1636 and 1677 ; deputy to the general court in 1658; was often called upon to witness and draft wills, make inventories and settle estates. His will, dated November 19, 1681, proved June 16, 1691, bequeathed to wife Mary, sons John, Stephen, Simon, Nathaniel and Jonathan, and granddaughters Sarah and Mary Mixer. His inventory amounted to 237 pounds seven shil- lings. Grace, widow of Roger Porter, in her will calls Coolidge her brother. His homestall in 1642 was bounded on the north by the Cam- bridge line, west by land of William Paine, east by land of David Fiske, and south by the highway to the pond. In 1673 he bought the homestead of Fiske of his son, David Fiske Jr. He died at Watertown, May 7, 1691, aged eighty-eight, according to town records. His widow Mary died August 22, 1691, aged eigh- ty-eight. Their gravestones are yet standing in Watertown. Children: I. John, probably born in England. 2. Elizabeth (?), married June, 1656, Gilbert Crackbone. 3. Mary, born October 14, 1637; married, September 19, 1655. Isaac Mixer Jr. 4. Stephen, born Oc- tober 28. 1639: wife Rebecca died April 15, 1702 : he died 1771, without issue. 5. Simon, born 1632: mentioned below. 6. Obadiah, born April 18, 1642; died 1663 unmarried. 7. Nathaniel, died 1711. 8. Jonathan, born March 10, 1646-7; (see sketchi).

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume IV, Part 9

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 886

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 886