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 63
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instrumental in establishing the Mechanic and Agricultural Institution. He was its first, and till his death, only treasurer. At the formation of the South Reading Bank he was elected cashier, and held the position till he died. In these stations he was methodical, careful, and accurate, and in all respects worthy of the confidence which was abundantly reposed in him.
Mr. Eaton, although enjoying but few advantages not possessed by others, found time to cultivate a literary taste, and various addresses, showing both research and ability, were delivered by him. With those public addresses our citizens are quite familiar, and we here insert an extract from a private letter, addressed to his eldest sister, on the reception of the news of the death of an only and cherished son, for the purpose of rendering this description of his style more complete : -
"Your letter of the 23d instant, with its ominous seal, - sad token of its grievous contents, - has come to hand ; its tidings have cast a gloom over our family circle, for we all loved the little, amiable Row- land. Not ten minutes, perhaps, before the reception of your letter, I was thinking of our friends at Worcester, that it was long since we had heard from them, and that I would write immediately.
" While musing on my friends away, - The loved ones of the earth, - And fancying how their lot might be, In sorrow or in mirth, I seemed to hear a mournful tone Come sighing on the breeze,
The wind, it had a startling moan, While whistling through the trees ;
I hark'd - and on the air's vibration, I caught the sounds of woe,
They told of grief and lamentation, Of death, that cruel foe. Again I lent my anxious ear, To catch distincter tones,
A father's sounding sigh I hear, A mother's sobbing moans ; The whispering winds' peculiar strain, So fearful in their lay, Remind me, in a language plain, Of relatives away.
"'T was so; for on the next sad blast That came with solemn roar, Was heard the voice, -' He's breathed his last, Our Rowland is no more ;
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The little, lovely, prattling boy, So patient and so bright, His father's and his mother's joy, No more shall greet our sight.'
" Again I hark'd ; and from the air, The heavenly arch midway,
A song celestial struck my ear, And thus it seem'd to say :
' Rise, spirits, rise ! our upward way With swifter wing pursue,
We'll 'scort to realms of endless day, Where bliss is ever new,
This little seraph, snatched from earth, From sorrow and from pain,
To dwell with those of heavenly birth, . And with his Saviour reign.'"
March, 1840.
Mr. Eaton was much given to antiquarian studies, and this history gives abundant evidence of his patience in tracing the genealogy of families, and in exploring ancient records for important facts and instructive events. He possessed skill in delineating character, was fond of humor, and had a fund of anecdotes drawn chiefly from char- acters of early New England history, which made both his written productions and his conversation interesting.
The personal traits exhibited by Mr. Eaton were very attractive. A perpetual urbanity disarmed opposition to the plans he might be at any time urging. He had the faculty of imparting his views, not so much by direct iteration as by quiet suggestion. He rarely expressed half- formed opinions, but when a controverted subject was presented, gave himself time for reflection, and then expressed his opinion and the reasons for it so courteously that those who could not agree with him were never offended with him. This urbanity was not a skilfully woven garment to cover, and enable him to prosecute, selfish designs, but it was the natural expression of his character ; his heart was kind and gentle, and his manners were but the language in which it uttered its real feelings. Though Mr. Eaton never connected himself with any church, he was a constant attendant upon public worship, and accepted the truths of the Gospel in their more direct and personal meaning.
The death of Mr. Eaton occurred but two months after that of Mr. Emerson, with whom he had been joined in many relations of business and friendship for fifty years. On the Saturday upon which he was smitten with the disease which terminated his life, he had prepared, at
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the request of his pastor, a brief account of the life of his lamented friend, Mr. Emerson. The kind and truthful words with which that account closed, the last words which he ever penned, as they described the character of his friend, so also do they describe his own. These are the words : " His was an unblemished reputation for honesty, integ- rity, and uprightness. He was patriotic, wise, liberal, kind, peaceable."
HON. P. H. SWEETSER.
Hon. P. H. Sweetser, the eldest son of Paul and Sarah Sweetser, was born Sept. 23, 1807, and died June 11, 1872. During his boyhood, like most of the boys of South Reading, he learned the shoemaker's trade, at which he worked during his minority.
At about the time that he attained his majority, the South Reading Academy was opened, and he was one of the first to enter it. He was a quick scholar, and after a brief term at the academy, he taught school in one of the districts in town, with marked success. From this time he attended the academy, teaching school winters, till he had taught in nearly every district in town. His first permanent school was in Saugus, where he taught one or two years, leaving there to take an ushership in Boston. While teaching in Saugus, he married Louisa Foster, of Danvers, a daughter of Capt. Aaron Foster.
This union was in all respects fortunate and happy, and gave him a home to which he was most devotedly attached. Of seven children born to them, one died in infancy, and six survive him. That the education of his children was not neglected will appear from the fact . that two of his sons are now successful preachers, one preparing for the medical profession, and the daughters had the best opportunities that could be obtained by public or private instruction. Often, in his later years, while not engaged in active business, he spoke of his strong desire to educate his children, and expressed his willingness to incur any expense, even beyond his income if necessary, to promote the end he had so much at heart.
In 1838 he was appointed master of the Harvard School in Charles- town, where he remained till 1847. As a teacher, he was uniformly successful, and took a deep interest in education generally. A good disciplinarian, always having control of his school, he was on good terms with his pupils, and admitted them to a familiarity which ren- dered school pleasant and school exercises interesting; this familiar-
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ity, and a playful humor in which he indulged, always made him popular with his pupils. He was prominent in the enterprise of forming the Massachusetts Teachers' Association, and establishing the " Massa- chusetts Teacher " as its organ. For several years he acted as one of the editors of this journal, and the numbers prepared by him were uni- formly interesting and able.
Nor did his interest in popular education cease when he was no longer a teacher. £ He was for many years a member of the school committee of Wakefield, and many of the annual reports for the last twenty years are from his pen, and attest his interest in the schools and his ability as a writer.
One of the last articles that he wrote was the school report for 1871-2, an exceedingly interesting document ; and I remember telling him, after reading it, that I thought it the best of the numerous and excellent reports he had written. From an early period he had been deeply interested in the antislavery cause and the temperance move- ment, and a frequent contributor to the journals in the interest of these and other reforms. Nor with his pen alone. Mr. Sweetser was a very ready and effective speaker. His temperament, always impulsive, im- parted an earnestness to his utterance which was sure to secure the attention, and his habits of thought and feeling prevented him from ever becoming wearisome. During the time of the Washingtonian move- ment, although engaged through the day in teaching, he was yet one of the most acceptable and efficient lecturers, and labored with great ear- nestness to organize and direct the movement.
Some of his last years were also devoted, to a considerable extent, to the promotion of the same object, and many of the ablest articles in the "Nation," a temperance paper published in Boston, were from his pen. He wrote also many hymns of great excellence, for general or special occasions, not a few of which have taken a permanent place in our sacred poetry .. He was for several years a member of the exam- ining committee for Tufts College, the duties of which he performed with fidelity and ability. After leaving the profession of teaching, Mr. Sweetser was twice elected county commissioner for the County of Middlesex, which office he held for six years. He also held almost every office in the gift of the town. As an officer, he was prompt and efficient, and his decisions in all matters in controversy were ready, and in the main judicious. He was a man of remarkably quick per- - ception, and moved forward to a judgment so readily as not unfre- quently to give an impression of haste, and to render him impatient of the slower movements of others. He was, perhaps, as is apt to be the
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case with persons of a nervous temperament, hasty sometimes in his expressions, but seldom so in his actions; they were marked by a caution and careful consideration which did not always manifest them- selves in his ordinary conversation.
Mr. Sweetser was just and prompt in all his business affairs, and, whether personal or official, they would have borne the most thorough examination. It was a favorite maxim with him to " owe no man," and it is safe to say that no one ever lost a cent by him that was justly his due.
The writer of this brief sketch was of nearly the same age as Mr. Sweetser, was a boy with him, being a near neighbor, labored in the same profession and the same place for many years, and was brought into still nearer relations with him by marriage; and the friendship that began almost with his life continued to its end.
It would seem sometimes that what would apparently fit us espe- cially for the performance of a duty is, after all, almost a hinderance. I confess that I have felt this in what I have written. In the intimacy of personal intercourse and friendship, we often fail to estimate and weigh character as we do when the object is at a greater distance. What is seen at too short a range is seen only in its parts, and a longer perspective is necessary to view the object as a whole. Death has now given us such a view of our friend, and I am sure that his memory will be dearer, and his character will appear more marked and estimable, as we look at him from a point more favorable to observe the constant and permanent qualities of his character. For some years previous to his death he had not enjoyed perfect health ; and to one of his intense activity of mind, joined with a temperament not too hopeful, it is not strange that he should have been sometimes inclined to look on the dark side of things. But his sympathies were always with the right, though he might not be so sanguine of its speedy success as some. Few men felt an intenser interest in whatever concerned the welfare of humanity, or were more uniformly on the side of progress and justice.
He had a strong attachment to his native town, and was always prominent in any enterprise for its improvement ; especially so in what- , ever related to education, the public library, and the schools.
In his death his family has lost one whose life was bound up in its wel- fare, the town has lost a good citizen, and the cause of education one whose experience rendered him invaluable as a member of the school committee, and whose vote and voice were always given for whatever promised to extend and improve the means of education. He will be remembered with gratitude by many now in the morning of life, who
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Engave to . Prever Taken in 1863
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have listened to his words of advice and encouragement in his frequent visits to the schools, as he now is in his native town and elsewhere by those who sat under his instructions. Such is a brief and imperfect sketch of the events in the life of an honored citizen ; and an estimate of his character, - which, though dictated by the hand of friendship, is, I believe, truthful and just.
DR. SOLON OSMOND RICHARDSON
Was the second son of Dr. Nathan and Asenath (Rice) Richardson, and was born at North Reading, July 19, 1809, on what was formerly known as the " old Dix Place," and there spent the earliest years of his childhood.
Being but a few years of age when his father removed to Reading and established himself in practice there, the greater part of his boy- hood and youth were spent in that town and South Reading, to which his father subsequently removed (1821). The holes to the dove-cote, cut out by him when a lad, are still observable upon the place then occupied by his father on the road from Reading to Woburn, since owned by Mr. Appleton, ex-county-commissioner for Middlesex.
As a lad at Reading and South Reading, Dr. Richardson received his education at the academy kept by a Mr. Wm. Coffin, of Nantucket, at North Reading, in the public schools of Reading, the academy at Atkinson, N. H., and the Pinkerton Academy at Derry, N. H., where he had as classmates his life-long friends and associates, Dr. Aug. Gros- venor, of Danvers, and Hon. Horace P. Wakefield, M. D., now of Mon- son. Always better than average in his general studies, he was espe- cially noted at school for his fair, distinct, and graceful chirography, which, coupled with his genial courtesy and manner, secured for him, when a lad in his teens, a clerkship in the Charlestown Post-Office, then under Paul Willard, Esq. ; and while there his clerkly abilities and general popularity prompted a proposal which was made to him to become assistant clerk of the House of Representatives, which was, however, declined.
The eminence and extent of practice of his father was such that his professional engagements led him from home the major portion of the time, and Solon, being the eldest of his large family of children (his older brother having died at an early age), was intrusted with much of the care of his father's affairs and family. When not at school he was
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often employed in the preparation of medicines for his father, and thus became early familiar with the science and practice of pharmacy. Finding this pursuit congenial to his inclination and taste, he very readily acquiesced in his father's wish that he should adopt the profes- sion of medicine, and shortly before attaining his majority he entered the medical school of Dartmouth College, from which he received his medical degree, graduating with honors Nov. 30, 1831, and immediately taking up practical study with his father.
He held for a time the position of assistant surgeon at the State Prison, and became a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, from which he afterwards retired, in conformity with usage, on estab- lishing a proprietary medicine. He soon entered general practice with his father, an arrangement that proved, for the short time it was enjoyed, highly satisfactory and successful with both. Besides that at home, offices were established in Lowell, Salem, and Boston, each of which places Dr. Richardson visited on certain days of the week, driving to and from in a carriage, an amount of professional riding that in these days would be considered a grievous hardship.
On the 3d day of April, 1837, Dr. Richardson was married at the " Old parsonage " (recently removed to Salem Street), by Rev. Reuben Emerson, to Susan Barnard of North Reading. Their children have been, a daughter who died in infancy, at Nahant, during a summer's residence of the family there, and an only son, S. O. Richardson, Esq., of Wakefield.
During the studies and novitiate of Dr. Richardson, he had given much attention to diseases of the heart and lungs, and his thesis upon these subjects when he graduated from college was able, and received the commendation of the profession, as displaying much research and original thought. In his treatment of these diseases he was eminently successful, and the number of those who sought his advice in complaints of this character induced him to make them a specialty, and to aban- don general practice.
In 1808 his father, Dr. Nathan Richardson, had introduced into his practice a remedy which he called " Sherry Wine Bitters," which proved an effective agent, the favorable results of which, as ascertained from a prolonged and extensive use thereof among his patients, gave it hig repute, the demand becoming such that instead of supplying it in pow- dered form, as for many years he had prescribed it, for convenience' sake he prepared it in common quart wine bottles. Soon after engaging in practice with his father, Dr. Richardson observed with satisfaction the beneficial effects of these "Bitters," and naturally. made extensive use of them in cases to which they were adapted.
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In the September following his marriage, his father suddenly died, his extensive practice and business thus devolving upon him. To this he gave his best energies, but it soon became evident that his health, which was never very robust, could not long withstand the stress of the duties he had assumed. Reluctant as he was to abandon thus early in life a profession which was endeared to him by many pleasant associa- tions, in which he was gaining note, and which was in every particular congenial to his taste and aspirations, his perceptions indicated clearly to him an early grave or an abandonment of his pursuit.
Deciding in favor of the chance of prolonged life, he resolutely decided to abandon practice, and from this period he confined himself to the manufacture and sale of the "Sherry Wine Bitters," which had for so long a period been satisfactorily employed in his father's and his own practice.
At this time proprietary medicine was a branch of trade unknown in the New England States, and there had never been introduced for sale in the country such a compound as medicated bitters, the idea of pre- paring medicine in that form originating therefore with Dr. Richardson. The labor and expense of preparing and introducing this medicine in proper and convenient form, cannot be imagined by any inexperienced in its details : first, the common wine bottles were ill-shaped for pack- ing and were too heavy ; a new form was designed, and moulds pre- pared, but the manufacture of suitable bottles had not been accom- plished in this Commonwealth, and the many experiments and failures of the manufacturers to produce a light bottle that would withstand pressure and secure safe transportation were vexatious, expensive, and discouraging. Nearly every sale in the early period of using new bottles was attended with more or less breakage in every package, but this difficulty was finally overcome by manufacturers in Philadelphia. Numerous obstacles also were presented in originating and preparing various plates for printing and in creating the embellishments requisite for perfect arrangements. The express business had not then been established, railroads were almost unknown, and private means of transportation for orders, throughout the country, had to be created. To accomplish this Dr. Richardson was obliged to provide several ex- pensive teams, which were constantly employed in transporting his medicine to different parts of the New England States. Nor did he fail to make his medicine known by liberal advertising, and very soon after its introduction to the public, its merits were universally appreci- ated and the demand increased beyond even the most sanguine antici- pations. To meet the requirements of this wide and unexpected 85
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demand, a large capital was needed, a laboratory had to be erected, a large number of horses and carriages supplied for transportation, and every facility for manufacture established, notwithstanding the employ- ment of which at certain seasons the demand was such as to render prompt supply of orders impossible.
Dr. Richardson's success being now fully established, he was enabled to indulge liberally in expenditures which it was his ambition to enjoy. He never entertained a desire to acquire wealth except to promote the comfort and welfare of his family and the community in which he lived. He had been a close observer of the evils attending the acqui- sition of extreme wealth, and was convinced that unhappiness was the too frequent associate thereof. It was an early resolve with him that after gaining a competency, any overplus should be devoted to such charitable and benevolent purposes as comported with his judgment and pleasure ; and in after life he adhered to this resolve, in most cases desiring and enjoining that his benefactions should not be made public. He was always needlessly prodigal in all expenditures connected with his business, in which every department evinced the most thorough organization. " The horses used for his medicine wagons were selected without regard to expense, and his wagons were elaborately constructed and highly finished by the best makers. He always kept in his stables for his personal use five or six of the best horses that could be pro- cured, possessing great love for and fine taste and judgment in horses, in the ownership of which he for many years aspired to excel.
His benevolence and liberality extended to every commendable object brought to his notice. Becoming interested in the mainte- nance of the citizen-soldiery of the Commonwealth, he favored the creation of a local military company ; and on the formation of the or- ganization in this town, in 1851, of the Richardson Light Guards, on the intimation of the founders of the company that it was their wish that it should be so designated, Dr. Richardson, in accepting the honor, testified his appreciation thereof by a most generous gift, which he yearly supplemented with others of kindred nature, manifesting at all times the most lively interest in whatever pertained to the welfare of the Guards, and having unceasingly at heart, as one of his dearest objects, their highest prosperity and success. For years the expenses of parades, target practice, etc,, was borne by him, - furnishing music, and often a bountiful collation on his premises, and aiding them by means and influence in any measures for their advantage. This cher- ished interest never abated anything of its zeal, and to his last hour was continued in all its original strength and vigor ; and he remained
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to the end of life what he became at its birth, its faithful and beneficent foster-father and friend.
To Dr. Richardson also belongs the honor of having been the origi- nal mover in the publication of the town history.
In 1852 Dr. Richardson was elected Town Treasurer, though not desiring the office, which he retained but one year, discharging its duties and trusts to universal satisfaction. , He became engaged some years since with a half-brother, Mr. Nathan Richardson, in the music business, but abandoned the business after a brief time. In 1869 he suffered, while attending to business in Boston, an attack of paralysis, the results of which seriously impaired his health and activity, though by the exercise of the most rigid care of himself he was enabled to maintain a degree of comfort and ability. Even when in enfeebled health his concern for the prosperity and progress of our town con- tinued active, and within the last few months of his life he inaugurated and carried to most successful culmination an enterprise of enduring value and benefit to all. Believing alike in the refining and educating influence of art, and the helpfulness of beneficial surroundings, and that his town ought to preserve in secure form for the benefit of our posterity the features of her greatest benefactor, and that the influence of the faces of men who had benefited mankind is advantageous and encour- aging, he set on foot a movement for the purchase and presentation to the town of the valuable portraits of George Washington and Cyrus Wakefield, which now adorn the walls of our town hall, and became himself responsible for the greater part of the attendant expense, there- by leaving with us another monument to his philanthropy and gen- erosity.
While making a social call at the residence of Cyrus Wakefield, Esq., on Sunday evening, Aug. 31, 1873, Dr. Richardson was seized with apoplexy, and lived but a few hours. His death occasioned universal sorrow.
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