USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Genealogical history of the town of Reading, Mass., including the present towns of Wakefield, Reading, and North Reading, with chronological and historical sketches, from 1639 to 1874 > Part 53
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
Thaddeus B. Pratt, Esq., b. 1777, was father of Nathan P. Pratt, Esq., b. 1811, who m. Louisa Wakefield ; Abigail, b. 1809, m. Hon. H. P. Wakefield, M. D. ; and Louisa, b. 1814, m. Stephen Foster, Esq.
Mr. Pratt was an active business man, and a prominent citizen of the town ; had excellent judgment, was thoroughly honest, fearless in the expression of his opinions, and interested and active in everything that promoted the well-being of the town, and was often called to serve his fellow-citizens in official positions. He was son of Isaac, b. 1740, son of Timothy, b. 1702, son of John, who came to Reading about 1692, and who was the ancestor of most of the families of that name now in Reading. He was son of John, of Medfield, who died in 1707. His will is recorded in the Suffolk Probate Office, vol. 16, page 328. He was son of John, of Dorchester, who came from England, and was made freeman in 1634.
George Minot, lawyer, born in Haverhill, Jan. 5, 1817, graduated at 'Harvard, studied law with Rufus Choate, was admitted to the bar 1839, was for ten years editor of the U. S. Statutes at Large, published an edition of nine volumes of English Admiralty Reports, and was the editor of the well-known "Minot's Digest," of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. He removed to Reading about 1847, and was the attorney of the Boston and Maine Railroad corpora- tion, up to the time of his decease, April 16, 1858.
William F. Harnden, son of Amariah and Sally Harnden, a cousin of the late Sylvester Harnden; was born in Reading, Aug. 23, 1812, and lived here till about fourteen years of age. He originated the express business, March 4, 1839, when, agree- ably to previous announcement through the newspapers, he made a
552
GENEALOGICAL HISTORY
trip as a public messenger, from Boston to New York, via Boston and Providence Railroad, and a Long Island Sound steamboat. He had in charge a few booksellers' bundles and orders, and some brokers' parcels of bank-notes to deliver or exchange, for which he charged an adequate compensation. He also made arrangements for the rapid transit of freight, and the delivery of the latest intelligence to the press in advance of the mails. The business was rapidly extended, not only in this country, but to foreign countries. Mr. Harnden employed his brother, Adolphus H., as his agent over the route to New York. The latter lost his life, with young Weston of this town, in the ill-fated steamer " Lexington," which was burnt on Long Island Sound, Jan. 13, 1840. Mr. Harnden himself died in 1848. The business had increased to such an extent that ten years ago it was estimated that the aggregate capital employed in carrying it on was from ten to fifteen millions of dollars, yielding a return to the stockholders of nearly fifteen per cent.
Mr. Alfred Perkins, born in Dunbarton, N. H., Nov. 26, 1808, came to Boston about 1826 or '27, and engaged in the wood and coal busi- ness. He furnished fuel to the Boston and Maine Railroad corpora- tion from the commencement of its business till he was appointed fuel agent by them, which position he held for seventeen years. He first came to Reading in 1844, but soon returned to the city. He repur- chased in 1861 the residence here which, during the summer season, he continued to occupy till his decease, which occurred in Boston, Feb. 8, 1874. He was a genial man, extensively known, and greatly esteemed for his many virtues. The officers of the Savings Bank in Reading, of which he was a trustee, passed a vote of respect to his memory.
PERSONS RESIDING IN READING DOING BUSINESS PRINCIPALLY IN BOSTON.
Edward Appleton, Esq., was born in Boston. He received the Franklin medal in the Latin School in 1830, graduated at Harvard College 1835, and taught in the Latin School one year, and in Beverly Academy in 1842-3. He commenced studying civil engineering with James Hayward in 1838, and assisted him in the construction of the Boston and Maine Railroad. In 1842, he married Miss Frances Anne Atkinson, a relative of Theodore Atkinson, who died in 1769, the first husband of Lady Frances Deering Wentworth, one of the maids of honor to the Queen. The portrait of Lady Wentworth, who was a woman of great beauty, was painted by Copley the artist, and was
1
553
OF THE TOWN OF READING.
recently sold in New York for two thousand dollars. The towns of Atkinson and Wentworth, N. H., received their names from her fami- lies. Mr. Appleton came to Reading in 1844, and continued his work upon the extension of the railroad through this town to Boston. He was subsequently employed upon the Ogdensburg Railroad, N. Y. State ; and for several years upon railroads in Maine; then upon the South Reading Branch, and also in building the Saugus Branch rail- roads. In 1855 he spent nearly a year in the oil regions of Pennsyl- vania in railroad business, where he frequently saw the oil flowing off on the surface of the water in the creeks, but the discovery of the mar- vellous supply contained in the earth had not then been made. He was employed in engineering upon the Cambridge Horse Railroad -- the first of the kind in this vicinity ; then for six years in making sur- veys and constructing railroads in the State of Wisconsin. From 1862 to 1867, he was in the employ of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Rail- road corporation. He served as one of the first Board of Railroad Commissioners in this State from 1868 to 1870. His son Thomas, civil engineer, is actively employed in.the same profession.
Charles W. Abbott, born in Lowell, was for fourteen years in the em- ploy of the Salmon Falls Manufacturing Co. as clerk and pay-master ; came to Reading in 1869 ; is engaged in the wool commission business. " Has no political aspirations."
Milo L. Allen, born in Manchester, Massachusetts, 1838, removed to Lawrence, 1848, thence to Reading in 1873. Is clerk in the U. S. Treasury in Boston, having been appointed in 1870.
The Rey. Dr. Barrows, now about nineteen years a resident in Reading, marks a type' of family slowly disappearing from New Eng- land. His early home was a family of twelve, Yankee on both sides of the house from Pilgrim days ; a farm of sixty acres, and obstinate for boys' culture ; parental common-sense ; a spindle ; a loom ; annual barrels of home beef and pork; indefinite bushels of grain and vege- tables ; a few books well chosen and thumbed ; a district school, well attended without regard to weather ; and the Sabbath uniformly divided between home and the Lord's house, three miles away. The old-fash- ioned virtues, ideas, and knowledge ruled the home, more than a din- ner, new jacket, or two-story house. The Bible and Catechism and New England Primer furnished moral lessons ; Proverbs and Franklin's Aphorisms, the industrial and economical teachings. The Old Testa- ment stories were never threadbare. Elijah's ravens, Elisha's bears, Daniel's lions, and Noah's menagerie always came out with a new feather, claw, or antic. Books were in the highest honor, and all
70
554
GENEALOGICAL HISTORY
printed matter was sacred. No winter snows were too lively or deep for the ox-sled and a load of neighborhood children on the way to school, where the firewood was four feet long, and many of the boys six. Naturally from such a home three of the sons entered college, yet with great pecuniary struggle. There were dark valleys and rough cliffs and miserable sloughs all the way. It was sawing and hoeing and mowing to pay bills in classics and mathematics, science and litera- ture. Garden roots were cultivated by day and Greek ones by night, by the subject of this sketch, while in Andover; and in New York, Hebrew and private teaching by the hour, theological polemics in the Seminary, classes in Brooklyn and five-minute lunches on Fulton ferry, were all sandwiched together. So every bill was paid to its full face, and every borrowed dollar returned. This is wellnigh one of the lost arts in getting a liberal education, and therefore mentioned here. This struggle made labor a habit and fair success a rule with Dr. Barrows. Rare good health has allowed unbroken toil, - in a ministry of twenty- five years only two Sabbaths having been lost from the pulpit by sickness. Perhaps his habits of recreation should be named in this connection. His resting hours have been taken in kindling camp-fires all the way from New Brunswick to Colorado, as his Twelve Nights in the Hunter's Camp has sketched. If he has a weakness it is for a good fish-hook and fowling-piece away from home, and a spade at home in leisure hours.
In the spring of 1873 Dr. Barrows was appointed, by a unanimous and to himself totally unexpected vote, to the secretaryship of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society, which office he now holds.
Mrs. Elizabeth Adams (Cate) Barrows, wife of the Rev. W. Barrows, D. D., was born in Pembroke, N. H. Her parents were Meshach Cate and Lucy (Adams) Cate. She was the second daughter, and the youngest of three children. Her early school days were spent in Bos- ton. She afterwards took the full course at Bradford Academy, where she was graduated in 1842. Leaving as a graduate, she soon re- turned as a teacher, and so remained for about four years. Thence she went as an instructor to the Beacon Hill Seminary, Boston, an institution belonging to the Rev. Hubbard Winslow, D. D. From this school of young ladies Mrs. Barrows was called to be the principal of Wheaton Female Seminary, where she had the charge for about three years immediately prior to her marriage, which took place in 1849.
In addition to the instruction of many private pupils resident in the family, Mrs. Barrows has used her pen more or less for the public in Christian and literary periodicals, and in the production of several
555
OF THE TOWN OF READING.
Sabbath-school books. At the request of the Trustees of her alma mater, she prepared the Memorial of Bradford Academy, an octavo and illustrated volume, a well-merited tribute to that superior school, and an interesting contribution to the history of the Christian educa- tion of woman. The work gives large space to an outline memoir of that noble woman and pioneer in female education, Abigail Carleton Hasseltine.
Hiram Barrus, born in Goshen, Mass., July 5, 1822 ; brought up on a farm ; fitted for college, but changing his plans, pursued his studies as opportunities presented.
He was employed in teaching portions of nearly every year from 1840 to 1852, and for a few terms subsequently. Was engaged from 1853 for several years in closing up the affairs of a manufacturing cor- poration, and managing suits at law connected with its affairs. Several questions growing out of these suits were carried to the Supreme Court, in which new and important principles were for the first time estab- lished. He was frequently engaged in his own and adjoining towns in settlement of estates in Probate Court, making out legal papers, and doing the usual routine business pertaining to the office of justice of the peace, to which he was appointed nearly twenty years since. In 1861, he received from his personal friend, Collector Goodrich, an appointment in the Boston Custom House, serving in several positions to which he had been promoted, without request on his part ; he was appointed in 1864 to his present position, Assistant Cashier. In the spring of 1869, by order of the Treasury Department, he was detailed with Deputy Collector J. M. Fiske, to assist, in Washington, in revising and making uniform the system of blank forms used in keeping the customs accounts in the various ports through the country. He was subsequently recalled by the department to supervise the proofs of the revised system, as they passed through the governmental printing office. He came to Reading, May 19, 1863. He has occasionally contributed to the newspapers, and in 1865, published a serial history of his native town. Though not claiming to be an author, some of his writings have found their way into books published by others.
T. T. Briggs was born in Turner, Me., June 15, 1832 ; came to Read- ing Sept. 1867. He was engaged in the grocery trade from 1855 to 1862. Since March, 1870, he has been connected with Gilman L. Parker in the coffee and spice business, under the name of Briggs & Parker.
Mr. William Butler was a native of Oxford, Mass .; came to Boston in 1825, and removed to Reading in 1849 or '50. He was long en-
1 S f
e n
556
GENEALOGICAL HISTORY
gaged in the hardware business near Dock Square in Boston. In 1832 he also engaged in the manufacture of combs, which for many years he made an article of export. For several years he owned a number of vessels, and was engaged in commercial pursuits. The depression produced in that department of business, by the war of the rebellion, led him to go to England and France, where he disposed of his vessels, and then relinquished the business. His son, William, Jr., is in the employ of the Saxonville Manufacturing Corporation, of which his uncle, J. W. Blake, is treasurer.
Joshua Clark, born in Dennis, Mass., 1829, received his education at the academies of Dennis, Brewster, and Andover ; came to Boston in 1848, and entered as clerk in the Shoe and Leather Dealers Bank. He has served in his present position as paying teller sixteen years. He removed to Reading in 1866, having previously resided in Medford six years, and in East Boston eleven.
Maj. A. M. Cook, born in New Durham, N. H., 1823, came to Bos- ton, 1845 ; engaged in trucking and express business from 1854 to 1870.
He was commander of Cook's Battery in Boston, and was ordered to parade on the common, April 19, 1861, when Gov. Andrew informed them they might be ordered into service at any moment. A telegram was received that night of the assault upon our soldiers in Baltimore, and a request from Gen. Butler that more troops be forwarded imme- diately .. Saturday, the 20th, was spent in hurried preparations, and at nine o'clock in the evening, the batteries, with horses and ammunition, were upon the cars, ready to move. They were delayed till sunrise in waiting for the Fifth Regiment, but then started and reached New York in the evening. There they embarked on the steamer "De Soto" for Annapolis. They were in Baltimore, with their field-pieces stationed in Monument Square, and at the Custom House and Post-office, when the Rebel Legislature was arrested. They returned home at the end of their three months' service. In 1862, Major Cook recruited the Eighth Massachusetts Battery, which enlisted for six months, and was in the battles of the second Bull Run, Chantilly, South Mountain, and Antietam. Major Cook was appointed superintendent of warehouses in the Boston Custom House, in Aug. 1861, which position he still holds. During his absence in the army the place was supplied by another. He came to Reading, July, 1871, and built his present residence in the following year.
Charles R. Corkins, born and lived at Whitingham, Vt., till the age of fourteen years. Removed to Charlestown in 1861, and to Reading
557
OF THE TOWN OF READING.
in 1870. Has been for seven years engaged in the insurance busi- ness.
Francis O. Dewey, born in Berlin, near Montpelier, Vt., June 20, 1823 ; came to South Reading, now Wakefield, 1841, remaining five years in the employ of Mr. Burrage Yale ; then commenced his present business in Boston, removing his residence to Brighton. He came to Reading, May 12, 1863, and still resides on the place formerly occupied by Frank Palmer, superintendent of the Merchants Exchange, in Boston.
Mr. Dewey is one of the largest dealers in New England in his branch of the glassware trade. His business extends throughout New England, Canada, and the British Provinces. His sons Edgar and Frank H. are engaged with him.
W. F. Durgin, a native of Peabody, lived in Bradford till he attained his majority ; was educated at Atkinson and Middleboro' academies ; taught school and lived several years at Martha's Vineyard, where he was employed as agent of a manufacturing company. In 1865, came to Boston and was engaged, first, in the office of the "Watchman and Reflector," and subsequently, in his present position, as the commercial editor of the " Advertiser." "Never held a political office." Removed to Reading in 1867, and to his present residence in 1873, which was built by him.
Wm. W. Elliott ; foundry business ; native of Mason, N. H .; came to Boston, and opened business in 1854 ; came to Reading, May, 1873.
Oscar Foote, born in Fairfield, Vt., May 5, 1826; came to Boston in 1850, and has since been principally employed 'in business connected with the market, and has done a large business in the Western pork trade.
He lived in Charlestown eight years, and came to Reading in Sep- tember, 1864. Since living here he has built several valuable houses upon his homestead, which formerly belonged to the Temple family, and which continued in their name for a hundred and thirty-four years. Mr. Foote has laid much of it out in building lots, with suitable streets.
Jacob Graves, born in Vienna, Me., Dec. 5, 1829 ; entered on busi- ness in Faneuil Hall Market, 1847; came to Reading 1852, bought here 1864; does an extensive business in fancy fowls, and is the patentee of "Graves' Incubator and Artificial Mother," which entirely dis- penses with the services of the hen (after the egg is laid) in hatching and raising chickens.
S. E. Gould, bridge contractor and builder, born in Warwick, Mass., 1810; soon removed to Newfane, Vt. ; came to Boston, 1836, removed to
558
GENEALOGICAL HISTORY
Reading, 1872. In 1856 was an alderman in Boston, and also served three years as assessor. He is proprietor of the store near his resi- dence on Woburn Street.
Ira C. Gray, a native of Mendon, Mass., came to Reading in 1871. He has been in business in Boston, as dealer in gentlemen's furnishing goods, about twenty-five years.
Luther Hutchins came to Reading from Boston, 1862, where he had been employed for many years as constable in the criminal courts. He still holds a position connected with the Boston courts. He was a native of Kennebunkport, Me.
A. F. Hollis, of the firm of Hollis and Gunn, job printers, Boston, came from Berkshire County in 1840 or 1841, and to Reading in 1868. Previously resided at Jamaica Plain thirteen years.
William Hawes and Sons, Newell B., Jabez S., and William G., came from Holliston in 1868, and purchased the residence of "Father Kemp." The " St. Joachim " store, of which the brothers are the pro- prietors, was started by them, and was the first "dollar store " in Bos- ton, and second in the country.
E. B. Harrrington, b. in Roxbury, was seven years in California, and has been in the leather trade in Boston twelve years. Removed to Reading in 1869.
A. G. R. Hale, Esq., born in Stowe, Mass., 1834, came to Reading from Cambridge in 1873, and resides on West Street. He was a graduate of Bridgewater State Normal School, spent several years teaching in Del- aware, being called there by Gov. Cannon as tutor, served nine months in the Union army in the war of the rebellion, was subsequently admitted as a member of the Suffolk Bar by the Supreme Court. The degree of LL.B. was conferred upon him by Harvard University. Law office in Boston.
Andrew Howes, born in Chatham Aug. 26, 1826, went by sailing vessel to London in 1843, resided ten years in Essex in business as ship-joiner, came toReading 1857, was with E H. Ryder & Co., ship- chandlers, for ten years, and has since been in the employ of H. & G. W. Lord, net and twine manufacturers. Mr. Howes represents the Middlesex District, No. 6, in the Legislature for the current year, 1874.
Ephraim Hunt, LL. D., b. Readfield, Me., Oct. 20, 1829 ; graduate of Waterville College ; received his first honorary degree before attain- ing the age of twenty-one years ; taught in the South 1853-4 ; became principal of the Boston English High School, 1854, and held the position fourteen years. He was then appointed principal of the Girls' High and Normal Schools, where he remained until the schools
559
OF THE TOWN OF READING.
were divided in 1872. Dr. Hunt is the author of an "English Litera- ture," a work of decided merit, published in Boston in 1871. He was one of the originators of the Reading Savings Bank, suggested by him, of which he is president.
C. P. Judd, Esq., born in Westhampton, Mass., Jan. 25, 1815, grad- uated at Yale College, 1840, read law with Judge Huntington ; was a teacher in South Carolina two years and a half, admitted to the bar in Northampton, 1844, came to Reading, 1846, and kept an office here, over Mr. Reed's store, till 1860. He succeeded Geo. Minot, and still acts as attorney of the Boston & Maine Railroad. Mr. Minot and Mr. Judd married sisters, Misses Elizabeth and Sarah A. Dawes, of Cambridge. They were daughters of William Dawes, merchant, of Boston, son of Judge Thomas Dawes, son of Major Thomas Dawes, who drew the plan for Brattle Street Church in Boston, which was accepted, instead of one drawn by J. S. Copley, the artist. Major Dawes was one of the leading patriots of the Revolution. His house was occupied by the British when they were in possession of Boston. When they evac- uated the city, they left an army blanket in the house, marked "G. R.," which is now in possession of Mrs. Minot, who, among other interest- ing relics, has a locket containing a braid of Gen. Washington's and John Adams's hair.
Robert Kemp, better known as "Father Kemp," was born in Well- fleet, Mass., June 6, 1821.
He came to Reading in 1853, and bought a farm, tried "fancy farm- ing," and in one year sold two hundred and twenty five barrels of apples, at a profit of exactly eight cents a barrel ; then took the "hen fever," which culminated one fine morning when he counted up his hundred chickens, and "turned " as suddenly, when, after the storm of the fol- lowing night, he found his hundred chicks reduced to five.
The inspiration received from the songs of a few neighbors at his home one winter evening, suggested an " Old Folks' Concert." "Dress rehearsals " followed, and the evening of Dec. 6, 1856, saw the first performance of the kind. It was given in Lyceum Hall, Reading, which was packed with hearers. Other concerts followed, till it was decided to try one in Boston. It took. Tremont Temple was crowded, and ten concerts more were given there without any apparent diminution of the public enthusiasm. A singing tour to New York and Washington was planned, and the troupe was made up of forty-seven singers.
All the prominent places on the route gave them a cordial welcome and crowded houses. In the New York Academy of Music six thou- sand people listened to their singing. The largest hall in Philadelphia
560
GENEALOGICAL HISTORY
was crowded to hear them. In Washington they sung patriotic airs to President Buchanan, and appropriate music to his cabinet and the Con- gressmen.
They visited Mount Vernon and sang, " Why do we mourn," around the tomb of Washington. On their return homeward they continued their concerts in the principal cities with unvarying success. An Albany paper, among other things in their favor, said, "Seldom have our people had an opportunity of hearing church music rendered with such an in- spiring effect and elevating influence."
The next year, 1858, a seven months' tour was made in the West, with similar results; and subsequently they continued their work in other States. While in Connecticut they met Abraham Lincoln on a political lecturing tour, who playfully suggested that he would like to swap audiences with them. After the rebel war-cloud began to darken the Southern horizon, they sang the " Star Spangled Banner" in Balti- more to a crowd of unionists and incipient rebels mid applauses and hisses.
In 1861 they visited England, and had rousing concerts in Liverpool, where they remained eight days, and cleared about five hundred dol- lars. One of the papers, in reference to their singing, said, "The vocalization was magnificent. Never have we heard voices more beautifully or equally blended. The effect produced was truly charm- ing." In London and other places they secured good audiences, but their receipts were only about enough to pay expenses, which hastened their return home the same year.
Some of the original members of the company were Mrs. Sarah (Mark M.) Temple, R. N. Temple, Mr. and Mrs. Stillman M. Pratt, Mr. and Mrs. David Brown, Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Bancroft, Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Bancroft, Messrs. Brown and Needham Nichols, Henry Brown, Train Sweetser, Henry Temple, Daniel Foss (the "Grandfather with the big fiddle " ), Edward Safford, doorkeeper ; Mr. and Mrs. Rufus Pierce, of Stoneham ; John Wiley, of Wakefield; Miss Abby Owen, of Lowell. Mrs. Emma J. Nichols, the popular solo singer, was long connected with the company. Mr. R. N. Temple played the flute in the orchestra till their return from Europe. He afterwards acted as agent for the troupe in their subsequent tours in this country. Father Kemp occasionally gives an Old Folks' Concert at the present time, and Music Hall is not capacious enough to receive all who rush to hear him and his antique choir.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.