Genealogy and history of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 21

Author: Hurd, Charles Edwin, 1833-1910
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Boston, New England historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 850

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogy and history of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts > Part 21

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).

150

NEW ENGLAND LIBRARY OF

a lifelong resident of Salem, b. January 27, 1742-3, must have d. in 1811, as the adminis- tration of his estate was granted October 21 of that year. He erected a house on the east side of Hardy Street, into which the family moved on December 31, 1782. In 1764 he m. Hannah Sibley. Hardy7 Phippen, baptized in Salem, July 6, 1778, d. in that city October 9, 1868. For twenty-five years he followed the sea, filling every position from that of cabin boy to that of master on a vessel, traversing the different oceans and visiting many ports. Later in life he engaged in mercantile pursuits in Salem, where he was always held in high esteem as an active and worthy citizen. On March 18, 1804, he m. Ursula Knapp Symonds.

Joshua8 Phippen, b. in Salem, December 17, 1812, d. October 8, 1890, in a car of the East- ern Railroad, while en route from Boston to his home in Salem. Beginning his business career as a clerk in the Asiatic Bank, Salem, he afterward became chief clerk in the office of Thomas P. Pingree, who was engaged in the Para trade. He subsequently succeeded to the business of his former employer, in partner- ship with Captain Charles Endicott, establish- ing the firm of Phippen & Endicott. During the twenty-eight years prior to his death he was cashier in the office of the State Treasurer in Boston. He m. first, April 22, 1841, Bet- sey Barr Holman, who d. April 9, 1854. On May 22, 1856, he m., second, Eunice Louise Daniels, who was b. April 7, 1828, daughter of David Daniels, of South Danvers.

Edward Augustus Phippen was the second child born of this last union. He was edu- cated in the schools of his native city. On leaving school in 1879, he began his business career as a clerk in the banking house of Downer & Co., of Boston. In January, 1883, he became the paying teller of the Interna- tional Trust Company of Boston. Here he remained until July, 1890, when, upon the organization of the Old Colony Trust Com- pany, he accepted the position of paying teller in their employment, which he held until pro- moted to his present position. On October 8, 1884, he married Mary Louise Darling, daughter of Elijah S. and Abby (Loud) Dar- ling. Mr. and Mrs. Phippen have four chil-

dren, namely : Clement Lowell, born October 14, 1885; Hardy, born April 14, 1888; Ed- ward Willard, born April 4, 1891; and Mil- dred Darling, born June 7, 1896.

HARLES KNOWLES BOLTON writer and librarian, was born at Cleveland, Ohio, November 14, 1867. William' Bolton, the first of the family known to have lived in America, was at Reading in the spring of 1719, when his intended marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of John and Sarah White, of Andover, was published "May ye 16." He leased a house of Mr. Nicholas Nichols, of Andover, and on January 5, 1719-20, the Rev. Samuel Phil- lips, the eminent Colonial clergyman, of whose church Elizabeth was a member, married them. She was born April 8, 1688. Two months after the wedding the landlord died, and the execu- tor, wishing to settle Mr. Nichols's estate, of- fered to pay Mr. Bolton for the surrender of his lease. He made his home in the North Parish of Reading, where his two children, William2 and John, were born. John became a soldier in the army at Cape Breton, and d. in the service early in 1746. Mr. William Bol- ton, having been m. less than six years, d. in Reading, September 10, 1725. His widow became the wife of Timothy Dorman, of Box- ford, January 5, 1739.

William2 Bolton was b. October 25, 1721, and was baptized soon after the organization of a church in the North Parish. He, with his wife, Mary, whose family name has not been found, lived upon a farm in Reading at the meeting of the Lynnfield line and the highway. He served for several years as a tithing-man, contributed toward the minister's support, as shown on the records, and lived a yeoman's life. May 28, 1773, he followed his son William3 to Shirley, and settled on a farm later known as the "Peter Tarbell place." Here he d. April 30, 1804. His second wife, Sarah, d. in 1822, at the age of one hundred years, lacking two months. Of his sons the oldest, William, 3 an officer in the Revolution, and a New England slaveholder, had a son, a

151

GENEALOGY AND PERSONAL HISTORY

mill-owner and postmaster, who gave his name to Boltonville, Vt. The senior line is repre- sented by W. J. Bolton, a physician and sur- geon of Bernardston, Mass. Ebenezer, 3 an- other son of William,2 left descendants in Westminster; and his brother Aaron3 was a militia captain there, a Selectman, and one of the founders of the local Baptist church. Cap- tain Aaron3 left no sons; but through his daughters he became the ancestor of several prominent men, including Colonel Melvin O. Adams and Ivers W. Adams, both of Boston.

Timothy3 Bolton, a son of William, 2 was b. at Reading, May 5, 1759, and went as a child to Shirley. When scarcely sixteen years of age he joined the army besieging Boston. He was in the battle of Long Island in 1776, at Saratoga and the battle of Whitemarsh in 1777, and spent the memorable winter of 1777- 78 at Valley Forge. He returned home in the spring, and was m. May 14, 1778, to Sybil, daughter of Moses Bennett of Shirley and niece of Captain James Bennett, of Ashby. Her mother was a descendant of Major Simon Willard. Mr. Bolton, after further service on the Hudson in the autumn, returned to live on his father's farm. He held minor town offices, and, like many others in Groton and Shirley, was in sympathy with Captain Shays and his "rebellion," although he took no active part in it. In 1804 he sold the farm to James Parker, Esq., with whose family the Boltons have for a century had associations. Timothy Bolton, after the death of his wife, Sybil, March 20, 1807, went to Jamaica, Vt., and d. in 1826. He received a pension for his ser- vice in the Continental army.

His son, Moses Bennett4 Bolton, was b. at Shirley, August 26, 1788, and went in early life to Wilbraham, where he became a farmer. He m. there August 14, 1811, Sarah Roxana, daughter of Obed Bliss, Esq., who, with his brother, Major Jeremy Bliss and uncle, the Rev. John Bliss (Yale, 1761), were members of a well-known Connecticut valley family. Her mother, also a Bliss, was a descendant of Deacon Samuel Chapin, in whose memory Saint-Gaudens made the statue sometimes called "The Puritan." Mr. Bolton d. in South Hadley Falls, June 2, 1878. His wife

d. September 17, 1855. He was a man of great kindliness and an omnivorous reader.

James Kings Bolton, their oldest son, was b. at Wilbraham, March 31, 1813. He was em- ployed by the company which constructed the first railroad between Worcester and Spring- field. Later he held a part interest in a paper- mill, and became a maker of fine writing paper at South Hadley Falls, where he also owned a farm. As the town grew, he erected houses upon the farm, and withdrew from business. He m. October 24, 1837, Marilla Sophia, daughter of Mr. John Ingram, of Amherst. Her brother, Harrison Ingram, was president of the North Amherst Library Association ; and her cousin, the Rev. S. B. Ingram, was for a time instructor at the college. Her mother was descended from the Connecticut Wolcotts and Pitkins. Mrs. Bolton d. October 28, 1888. Mr. Bolton d. March 21, 1897. Bo]- ton Street marks that part of the town in which he lived.

Charles Edward6 Bolton, his oldest surviv- ing son, was b. at South Hadley Falls, May 16, 1841, and graduated from Amherst Col- lege in 1865. While still a college student, he was on the battlefield of Petersburg, Va., in 1864, as a delegate of the United States Christian Commission. He was a delegate to the World's Young Men's Christian Associa- tion convention in London, and also to the Sunday-school centenary, a speaker at the Rev. Dr. Newman Hall's church in London at the services in memory of Garfield, and the origi- nator of a plan for the improvement of the working classes, described in the Century Magazine for January, 1885. Amherst College in 1882 conferred upon him the degree of Mas- ter of Arts for his philanthropic work and economic writings. While manager of a large manufacturing company, he patented several inventions, and travelled widely. On the lect- ure platform he was popular and successful. An active interest in politics led him to serve a term (1899-1901) as Mayor of East Cleve- land, Ohio, the residence part of the "For- est City"; and he received strong sup- port in more than one Republican Congres- sional convention of his district. He did much for the improvement of Cleveland and

152

NEW ENGLAND LIBRARY OF

East Cleveland, and wrote for various periodicals (the Review of Reviews, the Century Magazine, etc.) upon municipal affairs. Two books grew out of these articles, "A Few Civic Problems of Greater Cleveland " and "A Model Village of Homes, and Other Papers." He d. at East Cleveland, October 23, 1901. The Cleveland Leader of October 24, 1901, referred to Mr. Bolton as "one of the best-known men in Northern Ohio, who won friends everywhere, both in this country and abroad; a man of fine appearance and bearing, and agreeable pres- ence, ... of the highest personal character and worth, a scholar, author, lecturer, and deep student of municipal problems - a man of great energy, of wide information, and of fine public spirit." The ruling purpose of his life was to be helpful to others.

Mr. Bolton m. at Milwaukee, October 16, 1866, Sarah, daughter of John Segar Knowles, Esq., of Farmington, Conn., and a descendant of Colonel John Allyn and Colonel William Pynchon, both literary men of the early Colo- nial days. Mrs. Bolton studied at the semi- nary established by Catherine Beecher, and met at the home of her uncle, Colonel Henry L. Miller, of Hartford, the literary people of the day, Mrs. Sigourney and others. Through her grandmother, Lucy Stanley, she heard much of that brilliant group, distantly akin to her and then passing away - John Trumbull, the poet, Jonathan Edwards and his son Pierre- pont, Joseph Buckminster, the clergyman, Aaron Burr, the statesman, and her unfortu- nate cousin, known as Eliza Wharton in "The Coquette," a novel famous half a century ago. Mrs. Bolton became for a time, with Miss Willard, assistant corresponding secretary of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and later has interested herself in soci- eties to protect and care for animals. She is a vice-president of the American Humane Ed- ucation Society. Mrs. Bolton has written a book entitled "Our Devoted Friend, the Dog" ; another on the higher education of women and the working classes of Europe, entitled "Social Studies in England " ; two volumes of poems; some songs which have been set to music; two volumes of short stories; and a series of popular biographies, beginning with

"Poor Boys who became Famous." These have had a wide reading. She was for several years associate editor of the Congregation- alist.

Charles Knowles7 Bolton, their son, graduated at Harvard in 1890, and became an assistant in the college library. He was librarian of the Brookline Public Library from 1894 to the spring of 1898, when he became librarian of the Boston Athenaeum. Mr. Bolton is a member of the Bunker Hill Monument Asso- ciation, the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, a corresponding member of the Maine Histori- cal Society, and has been connected with the direction of the library and the "Register " of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society. He has written upon library admin- istration and upon historical subjects, includ- ing "The Wooing of Martha Pitkin," "The Love Story of Ursula Wolcott," "Saskia, the wife of Rembrandt," "Brookline, the History of a Favored Town," and "The Private Sol- dier under Washington." He married at Bos- ton, June 23, 1897, Ethel, daughter of Ed- ward Stanwood, Litt. D., editor of the Youth's Companion and formerly editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser, a graduate and an overseer of Bowdoin College. Mr. Stanwood's father was the first city clerk of Augusta, Me. His wife is the daughter of Samuel Topliff, proprietor of the Merchants' Reading-room in Boston many years ago and an alderman in the time of Mayor Quincy. Mrs. Bolton is a graduate of Wellesley College in 1894 and the author of "A History of the Stanwood Family in America." Mr. and Mrs. Bolton live at Brook- line and in summer at "Pound Hill," Shir- ley, once the home of Captain James Parker,

Jr. Their children are: Stanwood Knowles Bolton, born November 10, 1898, in Brook- line; and Geoffrey Bolton, born August 4, 1901, in Shirley.

AMUEL BILLINGS CAPEN, A. M., LL. D., founder of the Municipal League of Boston, widely known as one of the leading laymen of the Congregational church and as a public-spirited

SAMUEL B. CAPEN.

155

GENEALOGY AND PERSONAL HISTORY

citizen sedulously seeking to actualize a high ideal, has been a resident of this city from his birth, which took place December 12, 1842. He was educated at the Quincy Grammar School and the English High School, receiving his diploma at the completion of his course of study in 1858. Choosing a mercantile life, he was employed in the carpet store of Went- worth & Bright on Washington Street, and in 1864 was admitted to partnership with William E. Bright. With this firm and its successors he has since been continuously identified, his present position in the business world being that of treasurer of the Torrey, Bright & Capen Company, dealers in carpetings, Washington Street, Boston.

Mr. Capen is a representative of the eighth generation of the family founded by Barnard Capen, an early settler of Dorchester, his line- age being : Barnard, John, 2 Preserved, 3 John, 4 Christopher,5 Samuel,6 Samuel Childs,7 Sam- uel Billings8. Barnard Capen, the immigrant, was made a freeman at Dorchester in 1636. He d. there in 1638, aged seventy-six years, as shown by his gravestone, which is the oldest in New England; and his wife, Jane, d. in 1653. Their son John, who m. Mary Bass, daughter of Deacon Samuel Bass, of Braintree, was for more than a quarter of a century Dea- con of the First Church of Dorchester. He served as Selectman, as Representative, and as Town Clerk, and was a military officer fifty years, rising to the rank of Captain. Pre- served3 Capen m. in 1682 Mary Payson, of Dorchester; and their son, John, 4 m. in 1722 Ruth, daughter of Ephraim and Sarah (Bass) Thayer, and settled at Braintree.

Christopher, 5 son of John4 and Ruth (Thayer) Capen, m. Abigail, daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Faxon) Thayer, and settled at Stough- ton, taking up his abode in that part of the town which is now Canton. Samuel6 Capen, b. in November, 1760, served as a private sol- dier during several brief terms of enlistment in the Revolutionary War. In a descriptive list of men raised in June, 1780, to re-enforce the Continental army for six months, he is named as nineteen years of age; stature, five feet, five inches; residence, Stoughton. He settled at Dorchester, m. twice, and had nine

children. Samuel Childs,7 son of Samuel6 and Hannah (White) Capen, was b. in Dor- chester, December 24, 1812. He m. March 21, 1839, Ann Billings, daughter of Jesse and Abigail Billings and a descendant of Roger Billings, who became an inhabitant of Dor- chester in 1640. Captain William Billings, a soldier of the Revolution, was grandfather of Ann and great-grandfather of Mr. Capen. The records make mention of William Billings, of Stoughtonham, a Revolutionary soldier in 1775, in 1776, and early in 1777, reported died in May, 1777; and of another of that name, of Wrentham, who enlisted for three years, to expire August, 1780. Samuel C. and Ann B. Capen had two children : Joseph Henry, b. in April, 1840; and Samuel Bill- ings, the subject of this sketch.

Through his great-grandmother Abigail, and also through his great-great-grandmother Ruth, whose maiden name was Thayer, as above noted, Mr. Capen is descended from John Alden, the "Mayflower " Pilgrim. The line of descent through Ruth is thus shown : John' Alden m. Priscilla Mullins. Their daughter Ruth2 m. John Bass; and Sarah, 3 daughter of John and Ruth (Alden) Bass, m. Ephraim Thayer, and was the mother of Ruth, 4 who m. John4 Capen. Joseph Thayer, father of Abigail, wife of Christopher5 Capen, was a brother of Ruth Thayer, wife of John4 Capen and mother of Christopher.

As a member of the Boston School Commit- tee for five years, 1889-93, the last year being president of the board, Mr. Capen rendered eminent services to the cause of education. His school report was highly commended as a valuable document for school and teachers' libraries. As to his practical efficiency, it was the late President Walker of the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology who said of him : "He has been doing an immense amount of work, and has chosen it well. All his en- deavors seem to have borne fruit of the very best kind .... Matters of concern to the board, which other persons thought ought to be carried out because they were good, but which nobody else was able to push along to the desired result, were taken charge of by Mr. Capen, and the work was accomplished

156

NEW ENGLAND LIBRARY OF

easily." Mr. Capen is a member of the Central Congregational Church of Jamaica Plain, and in its Sunday-school has taught a young men's Bible class more than twenty-five years. He is a prominent worker in the lead- ing associations of the denomination, among them the Congregational Club, of which he was president in 1882; the Pilgrim Associa- tion, which he served as president in 1894; the Congregational Sunday-school and Publish- ing Society, of which he was president from 1882 to 1899; the Massachusetts Home Mis- sionary Society, for some years being chair- man of its Finance Committee; and the Ameri- can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions, of which he was chosen president in October, 1899. He was chairman of the Com- mittee of Arrangements of the Christian En- deavor Convention held in Boston in July, 1895, the largest convention ever held in the United States. He was also chairman of the Committee of the International Congregational Council of 1899. He is a trustee of Welles- ley College.

In an address in the spring of 1892 before the Congregational Club, Mr. Capen set forth the need of reform in the administration of municipal affairs, and outlined the plan of a league having such reform for its object. A part of this address was afterward published under the title, "A Revival of Good Citizen- ship." The Pilgrim Association took up the matter, and a permanent organization of the Municipal League of Boston was effected in 1894, Mr. Capen being elected president. His address on taking the chair and assuming the duties of his office was printed in tract No. I issued by the League. Reviewing the work of Mr. Capen in this connection, the New Eng- land Magasine spoke of him as "the ideal citi- zen, a man of broad mind and great catholicity and kindliness, of rare practical sagacity, with a passion for public purity and the public wel- fare, and with an infinite capacity for taking pains," adding, "ten such men could save any Sodom or Gomorrah." A few earnest words from Mr. Capen's address at the meeting of October, 1895, on "Our Uncompleted Work," may here be quoted as voicing his spirit and that of the League: "The problems

of the next century are to be more and more the problems of human brotherhood. We have not a common ancestry or a common religion, but are of many nations and many religions. We want to fuse all interests together under the mighty inspiration and purpose to have a city in which there shall be no slums to con- taminate and destroy, but where schools and public institutions of every name shall be the best in all the world.

"Has not the time fully come when, unless all our interests are to be imperilled, many must subordinate their business and their pleasures for the public weal? And out of it will come a purer and a better city and a nobler and higher standard of life. As a League, we recognize no sectarian creed in the public business, but we stand to- gether for public righteousness and truth, and upon the common platform of American citi- zenship."

During the Presidential campaign of 1896 thirty thousand copies of a paper on the "Na- tional Crisis of 1896," read by him in Sep- tember of that year at the Boston Minister's Meeting, were printed and distributed by the Business Men's Non-partisan Sound Money League of Boston, of which he was vice-presi- dent. Another notable address by Mr. Capen was that on "Municipal Government as a Sphere for Christian Men," delivered by him in Sep- tember, 1899, at the Second International Council, held in Boston. Mr. Capen's skill as a presiding officer has been markedly shown on numerous occasions, as at the Eighth Inter- national Sunday-school Convention in Boston in June, 1898, and at the meetings of the A. B. C. F. M. Mr. Capen is second vice- president of the National Municipal League, which was organized in 1894. The honorary degree of Master of Arts was given him by Dartmouth College in 1893, that of Doctor of Laws both by Oberlin and Middlebury College in 1900. He was married December 8, 1869, to Helen Maria, daughter of the late Dr. John Wright Warren, of Boston, and his wife, Mary Robinson Warren. Mr. and Mrs. Capen have two children : Edward Warren, born Septem- ber 24, 1870; and Mary Warren, born April 18, 1874.

157

GENEALOGY AND PERSONAL HISTORY

DWARD ASA HOOPER, of Cam- bridge, the head of the firm of Hooper & McDonald, manufacturers of parlor furniture, was born in Augusta, Me., August 17, 1838. A son of Jacob Hooper, he comes of English stock, being a descendant in the sixth generation of William Hooper, by the following line: William,' William,2 Jacob, 3 Joseph, 4 Jacob,5 and Edward Asa. 6

William 1 Hooper was b. and reared in Eng- land. A few years after his marriage with Abigail Gale, accompanied by his wife and son William, he emigrated to America, settling at once in Manchester, Mass., where he spent his remaining years, dying there in 1678. William 2 Hooper was b. in England in 1675. Coming with his parents to Manchester, Mass., when but a child, he lived there until his death, which occurred in 1755. He m. Abigail Allen, who, b. in 1681, d. in 1768. Jacob 3 Hooper, b. at Manchester in 1722, in 1747 m. Anna Lee, a direct descendant of Thomas Lee, of Manchester, who was b. in 1694, and d. in 1775. She d. February 17, 1801, aged seventy-nine years.

Joseph 4 Hooper, the youngest of a family of six children, b. in Manchester in 1761, d. October 22, 1794. He was a farmer by occu- pation. At the beginning of the Revolution he was scarce old enough to go to war; but one of his brothers, Thomas Hooper, was killed at the battle of Bennington. August 18, 1785, he m. Nabby Crafts, a native of Manchester, b. November 12, 1767, who d. April 29, 1845.

Of their four children, Jacobs was the third in the succession of births. Born in Manchester, January 2, 1790, he d. there March 8, 1846. He was a hatter by trade; and he followed the occupation in Salem, Marblehead, and Augusta, Me. On retiring from business, he returned to Manchester, the place of his birth. He m. Deliverance Hooper, a daughter of Asa and Deliverance (Knight) Hooper, who, though bearing the same surname, was not a near relative. She was b. in Marblehead, Mass., September 21, 1796; and she d. in 1882. Of the eight children born of their union, two are now liv- ing - Edward A. and Mary Kimball.

Edward A.6 Hooper was educated in the public schools of Manchester. Afterward he learned the upholstery trade in Buffalo, N. Y., within the space of three years. Having then returned to Manchester, he worked at uphol- stering there for two years. From 1858 to 1865 he followed the sea. On his first voy- age, sailing from Boston to California, he served before the mast. When on his last voyage, in 1864, he was shipwrecked in the centre of the Pacific Ocean, at Baker's Island, but had the good fortune to be rescued from a watery grave. Returning then to Bos- ton, Mr. Hooper followed his old trade for three years in this city. Then he removed to Dubuque, Ia., where he continued as an uphol- sterer for two years. From Dubuque he went to China, having accepted a position with a large importing house. After a while he came back to New England, and was subsequently foreman in the upholstering department of a large furniture store in Portland, Me., for twelve years. In 1882 he established himself in Boston as a manufacture of parlor furniture. After carrying on the business alone until 1897, he received Mr. MacDonald as a copart- ner, thereby forming the present firm of Hooper & McDonald.

On December 25, 1873, Mr. Hooper married Ellen Maria Estes, who was born in Gorham, Me., June 14, 1849. A daughter of Joseph and Maria (Edwards) Estes, she is a descend- ant in the seventh generation of Richard Estes, her immigrant ancestor, the line being as fol- lows : Richard, Benjamin,2 Henry,3 Samuel, 4 Robert, 5 Joseph,6 and Ellen Maria 7.

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.

Genealogy and history of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 21

Author: Hurd, Charles Edwin, 1833-1910 Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Boston, New England historical publishing company Number of Pages: 850

Author: Hurd, Charles Edwin, 1833-1910
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Boston, New England historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 850