Genealogy and history of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 31

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

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he purchased the farm on "Belle House Neck." Here a house stands to-day (1901) upon a hill overlooking the Duxbury River, and close by is a small family graveyard, where were buried several generations of this branch of the Cushing family. He was ap- pointed to several offices in the Colonial gov- ernment, and was Representative to the Gen- eral Court at Boston in 1692, which was the first year after the Plymouth and Massachu- setts Bay colonies were united, and he was Representative for several succeeding years. He d. at the age of eighty-one, March 31, 1708.

The Hon. John3 Cushing, b. in Hingham, April 28, 1662, son of John and Sarah (Hawke) Cushing, was the eldest of twelve children. He m. May 20, 1687, Deborah Loring. Like his father, he held many posi- tions in the Provincial government. From 1702 to 1710 he was the chief justice of the Superior Court of Plymouth; from 1710 to 1728, inclusive, a member of the Governor's Council; and from 1728 to his death, 1737, Judge of his Majesty's Superior Court of Judicature of Massachusetts. Among the thirty-three judges who sat on the bench of this Superior Court from its foundation in 1692 to its overthrow by the Revolution were : John Cushing, 1728; his son, John Cushing, Jr. ; and his grandson, William Cushing.

Elijah4 Cushing, son of the Hon. John and Deborah (Loring) Cushing, was b. at Scituate, March 7, 1698. He was the fifth of eleven children. He m. in 1724, Elizabeth Barker, of Newport, R. I. ; and he settled in Pembroke, where he acted as Selectman for eleven years, from 1728 to 1739. He was the first Repre- sentative of Pembroke, and on April 12, 1759, he mustered a company in Hanover for the invasion of Canada.

Nathaniels Cushing, son of Elijah and Eliz- abeth (Barker) Cushing, was b. in 1730, being the second of six children. Little is known about him. He was probably a farmer, spend- ing his life in Pembroke and in the adjoining town of Hanson. He m. Lucy Turner, a de- scendant of Humphrey Turner, who came to Massachusetts in 1630.

Thomas' Cushing, son of Nathaniel and

Lucy (Turner) Cushing, was the fifth of six children. Born December 20, 1780, he came to Boston when quite a young man, engaged in commerce, and lived there until his death, at the age of seventy-seven. He m. in 1808, Martha Marston Watson; and after her death he m., in 1813, her sister, Eliza Constantia Watson. They were the daughters of Marston and Lucy (Lee) Watson, of Marblehead and Boston, and direct descendants in the sixth generation of Governor Edward Winslow. Marston Watson, b. in 1756, was a prominent and successful merchant in Boston. He d. at the early age of forty-four years. Among his thirteen children was the Rev. John Lee Wat- son, a graduate of Harvard College in the year 1815, and a minister of Trinity Church in Boston from 1836 to 1846.

Born in Boston, February 7, 1830, on Cres- cent Place, near Green Street, George Shat- tuck Cushing was next to the youngest of nine children. His older brother Thomas, a gradu- ate of Harvard College, class of 1834, was the principal of Chauncy Hall School, and it was at this school that he received his education. At the age of sixteen, when some of his class- mates went to college, he was attracted to the commerce in which Boston merchants were extensively engaged with foreign countries. He went into the house of John D. Bates & Co. on Commercial Wharf, and three years later he made his first voyage to Calcutta, sailing from Newburyport in the barque "Hol- lander," and returning to Philadelphia after a voyage of eleven months. He shortly became associated with Mr. William H. Bordman at 37 Central Wharf, and for the next thirty years of his life he was actively engaged in foreign commerce. He and Mr. Bordman built on the Medford River several vessels of the "clipper " type, and the fitting out of their cargoes from various ports took up much of his time at this period. For two or three years he lived in Kamchatka, and on the Amoor River in Siberia, being very success- fully engaged there in the fur trade. This commercial business caused Mr. Cushing to make many voyages. On one occasion he went to the East by the way of the Isthmus of Suez, where, as there was no canal then built,

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the crossing was made by camels. He also visited, at different times, Japan, the Society, the Philippine, and the Sandwich Islands, and later his business drew him to St. Petersburg, Hamburg, and the manufacturing cities of England. A man of wide interests, sympa- thetic nature and high ideals, he devoted his time to his private and family life, and the care of several trust estates occupied his later years. Among other interests in Boston he was a director of the Mercantile Fire and Marine Insurance Company, and a trustee of the Sailor's Snug Harbor at Germantown in Quincy, where he enjoyed making a visit every year sailing down Boston Harbor by boat and having a talk with the old mariners. He was also a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Bostonian Society, Som- erset Club, and other social clubs of Boston. In politics he was an independent voter, being strongly in favor of free trade and of "free ships.'

Mr. Cushing married in New York on June 10, 1868, Mary Ellen, the daughter of Edward and Ellen Watson (White) Baldwin, who were then living in New York, but whose home had formerly been in Boston. In 1876 Mr. Cush- ing made his residence in Milton, purchasing the place where his wife's family had formerly lived. Here he enjoyed spending several years of country life, and it was here that he died, October 24, 1898, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. Mr. and Mrs. Cushing had two chil- dren - Ellen Watson and George Marston. The latter was graduated from Harvard Col- lege in the class of 1894, and is a member of the Suffolk Bar. He married on November 15, 1900, Grace, daughter of William E. Littleton, of Philadelphia, and they have one child - Alice Littleton, born November 27, 1901.

ILLIAM LOGAN RODMAN GIF- FORD, librarian of the Cambridge Public Library, is the son of Hum- phrey Almy and Alice Peckham (Francis) Gifford, and belongs to the Gifford family of South-eastern Massachusetts. These Giffords are descendants of William, who was at Sand-

wich, Cape Cod, in 1650, and who d. there April 9, 1687. William ' Gifford had five sons, of whom two, Christopher and Robert, settled at Dartmouth, which then included the present sites of Dartmouth, Westport, Fair- haven, and New Bedford. Christopher after- ward removed to Little Compton, R.I. Rob- ert had sons and grandsons of the Gifford name.

The line of the Cambridge librarian is : William1 Gifford, of Sandwich; Christopher, 2 b. 1658; Christopher, 3 b. 1698 ; Christopher, 4 b. 1737; George, 5 b. July 21, 1759, d. March 20, 1826; Humphrey Almy,6 b. December II, 1794, d. April 1, 1868; Humphrey Almy,7 b. September 14, 1828; William Logan Rod- man, b. November 5, 1862.

Humphrey Almy Gifford, second of the name, was b. in Westport, Mass., being a son of Humphrey Almy and Phoebe (Davis) Gif- ford. After spending a part of his early life engaged in the clothing business, he became an agent for the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Co. at New Bedford, which po- sition he filled for a number of years. He was Assistant Postmaster of New Bedford for seven years, and he served the city as Assessor for one year. In politics he is a Democrat. Of the three children b. to him and his wife Alice, two - Isabella Watkins and William Logan Rodman - are living.

Born in New Bedford, Mass., November 5, 1862, William Logan Rodman Gifford received his early education in the public schools, in- cluding the High School of his native city. In 1884 he was graduated from Harvard Col- lege, taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Soon after he became assistant librarian of the Free Public Library of New Bedford. This position he resigned in 1895 to take that of librarian of the Cambridge Public Library, which he has held since.

On June 6, 1888, Mr. Gifford married Eleanor Richardson Dexter, a daughter of Cap- tain John Gibbs and Catharine Bonney (Rug- gles) Dexter, of Rochester, Mass. They have two children : Catherine, born April 15, 1889; and Humphrey Almy, born November 15, 1890. The family has resided in Cambridge since 1895.

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AMUEL ELIOT, LL. D., educa- tional reformer and philanthropist, of honored, grateful memory, was a native of Boston, and during the greater part of his life, which fell little short of seventy-seven full-rounded years, a resident of this city. Born December 22, 1821, the son of William Havard and Margaret Boies (Bradford) Eliot, he was a descendant on the paternal side of Andrew Eliot, who settled at Beverly, Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1669, and through his mother, of Governor Bradford, the historian of the "Mayflower" Pilgrims. The male line was: Andrew,1 Andrew,2 An- drew, 3 Samuel, 4 Samuel, 5 William Havard, 6 Samuel7. (For further particulars concerning early Eliot ancestors see sketch, on another page, of President Eliot of Harvard University, cousin to the late Dr. Samuel Eliot. )

Dr. Eliot's grandfather, Samuel Eliot, 5 a wealthy Boston merchant in the early part of last century, founded in 1814 the Greek pro- fessorship at Harvard now called by his name. He m. in May, 1786, his second wife, Cather- ine Atkins, of Newburyport, described as "very handsome, quiet, and dignified, and with a cultivated mind." She was the daughter of Dudley and Sarah (Kent) Atkins, her father the son of Captain Atkins, formerly of the British navy, and grandson of Governor Joseph Dudley, and her mother a daughter of Colonel Richard Kent by his second wife, who was daughter of the Rev. Nathaniel Gookins, of Cambridge.

William Havard, eldest son of Samuel and Catherine (Atkins) Eliot, was b. in 1795, graduated at Harvard in 1815, and d. near the close of the year 1831. The Tremont House, destroyed a few years since, was built by him. He was one of the early summer residents at Nahant, and was one of the founders in 1831 of the Nahant church, which invites to its pulpit clergymen of different faiths. He is remembered as a man "conspicuous for private virtues, for public spirit, and for refined and elevated tastes." His wife, Margaret Boies Bradford, d. in October, 1864. She was the daughter of Alden and Margaret (Stevenson) Bradford. Her father was sixth in descent from Governor William Bradford, the line

being : William, 1-2 Samuel, 3 Gamaliel, 4-5 Alden6. Gamaliel5 Bradford, b. in 1731, m. Sarah Alden, daughter of Samuel Alden, of Duxbury, and great-grand-daughter of John and Priscilla (Mullins) Alden. Margaret Stevenson, wife of Alden Bradford and mother of Margaret B., was the daughter of Thomas Stevenson, merchant, of Boston and Cohasset, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and his wife, Isabella, b. in Boston in 1744, daughter of Robert Duncan, a native of Londonderry, Ire- land, b. in 1702, who settled in Boston and m. Isabella Caldwell.

Samuel Eliot,7 the subject of this sketch, was the eldest of a family of three children. At Harvard College he ranked as the first scholar in his class, that of 1839. After grad- uation he spent two years in business life, and then went abroad. While in Rome he planned and started a literary work of such proportions as to demand the labor of a lifetime. Of this work a small volume, "Passages from the His- tory of Liberty," was published in 1847; two volumes, entitled "The Liberty of Rome," in 1849. Revised and rewritten, these chapters of the projected "History of Liberty" reap- peared in 1853, collected under three different titles. His original intention was not further carried out, although his school "History of the United States" was issued in 1856, and ran through several editions. He was needed in other fields than that of the historian. To education, philanthropy, and religion he gave devoted and efficient service up to the close of his earthly years. Only a brief summary of his activities can here be attempted.

He was president of Trinity College, 1861- 64; master of the Girls' High and Normal School, Boston, 1872-76; superintendent of Boston public schools, 1878-80, and during three later years a member of the Boston School Committee. His annual reports as superintendent proved profitable for correction and instruction in the better ways of school management. He believed in proper economy and wise expenditure, but not in retrenchment of teachers' salaries, and that children should not be treated as machines or drudges. That they might have real communion with good writers he compiled selections from Franklin,

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Adams, Cooper, and Longfellow, to be used as supplementary readers in the schools. He disapproved of the latter-day system of free text-books and free stationery. For twenty- one years Dr. Eliot was a trustee of the Massa- chusetts School for Feeble-minded Youths, and from the death of Dr. Samuel G. Howe in January, 1876, to his own death, twenty-two years later, its president; for thirty-five years a trustee of the Perkins Institution and Massa- chusetts School for the Blind, during the last twenty-six years being its president (see its history by him in New England Magazine, February, 1897) ; for thirty-two years trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital and chairman the last twenty-four years. He was an overseer of Harvard College, 1866-72. He served as corresponding secretary and after- ward, 1868-72, as president of the American Social Science Association. In one of his annual addresses printed for distribution, he speaks of work going on and work needing to be done, such as building model lodging-houses and working-women's homes, the opening up of new opportunities for women, advocating her right to a higher education and a larger interest in human affairs. His memoirist, Mr. Haynes of the Massachusetts Historical Soci- ety, of which he was a member, testifies that he was "all his life a strong advocate of woman suffrage, always ready to head petitions or to go before legislative committees in its behalf." Dr. Eliot was a fellow of the American Acad- emy of Arts and Sciences, for many years pres- ident of the Boston Athenaeum, and a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Among his published addresses may be named his lecture in August, 1862, before the American Institute of Instruction at Hartford, on "Conservatism in Education "; his Fourth of July oration in 1868 on "The Functions of a City "; and his eulogy on Phillips Brooks, April, 1893, which he was too ill to read him- self. He was a faithful member of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church, giving much time and thought to church work, serving as dele- gate to church congresses and conventions, as president of the Episcopal City Mission, presi- dent of the Massachusetts Bible Society, and for forty years as a trustee of St. Paul's School,

Concord, N.H. The degree of Doctor of Laws he received from Columbia College in 1863; and in 1880, during his absence abroad, it was conferred on him by Harvard in recog- nition of his "scholarship, public spirit, and eminent services in the cause of sound educa- tion.'

Dr. Eliot died September 14, 1898, at his summer home, Beverly Farms. He is survived by his wife, Emily Marshall Otis, whom he married June 7, 1853, and one daughter - Emily Marshall, now the wife of John Holmes Morrison, of Boston. There were two sons : William Samuel, born in Boston, who died November 15, 1874; and George Otis, born in Hartford, Conn., who died in infancy.

Mrs. Eliot is of Boston birth and breeding, daughter of William Foster and Emily (Mar- shall) Otis, and comes of Massachusetts Bay Colony and "Mayflower" ancestry. Her mother d. in 1836; and her father, who never m. again, d. in 1858. He was the fourth son of the Hon. Harrison Gray and Sarah (Foster) Otis, of Boston, and was of the seventh genera- tion in descent from John Otis, who came to New England in 1635. The line was : John1; John, Jr.2; Judge John, 3 who m. Mercy Bacon ; Colonel James, 4 who m. Mary Allyne; Sam- uel Allyne, 5 first Secretary of State of the United States, who m. Elizabeth, daughter of Harrison Gray, of Boston; and their son, Harrison Gray6 Otis, Sr., b. in Boston in 1765, who d. October 28, 1848. Harrison Gray Otis, lawyer, statesman, and orator, was one of the most widely known and honored citizens of Boston in his day, serving various terms in the State Legislature, as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and Representative and Senator in Congress. His wife, Sally, was the eldest daughter of William and Grace (Spear) Foster, of Boston, her father, William, being a lineal descendant of Edward Foster, an early settler of Scituate. The line was : Edward1, Timothy,2 Thomas, 3-4 William5.

Emily Marshall, who in May, 1831, became the wife of William F. Otis, was the most admired woman in Boston, being, in the words of Chester Harding, the artist, who painted her portrait, "simply perfect in face and figure, perfectly charming in manner, and,

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when her face was lighted up in conversation, bewitchingly lovely." She was b. in Cam- bridge in 1807, and was the third daughter of Josiah and Priscilla (Waterman) Marshall. Her father, a merchant of Boston, was the son of Lieutenant Isaac Marshall, of Billerica, and was fifth in lineal descent from John Mar- shall, who became a land-owner in Billerica in February, 1657. Priscilla Waterman was a daughter of Freeman and Joanna (Thomson) Waterman, of Halifax, Mass., the maternal ancestry going back to Francis Cooke. From this "Mayflower " Pilgrim the line descends through his daughter, Mary2 Cooke, who m. John Thomson; their son Jacob, 3 who m. Abi- gail Wadsworth; John4 Thomson, who m. Joanna Adams; Joanna, 5 who m. Freeman Waterman; Priscilla6 Waterman, who m. Josiah Marshall; Emily Marshall,7 wife of William F. Otis; to Mrs. Emily Marshall Otis Eliot.

OHN HENRY COFFIN, of Malden, the principal of the well-known Boston firm, John H. Coffin & Co., was born September 20, 1839, in Amesbury,

Mass. A son of John and Abigail Currier (Wadleigh) Coffin, he belongs to the eighth generation of the family descended from the famous Tristram Coffin, of Nantucket. This Tristram' Coffin, son of Peter and Joanna Coffin, "probably b. at Brixton," Devonshire, England, "about 1605," m. Dionis Stevens. In 1642, after the death of his father, he came to New England, bringing with him his mother and two sisters besides his wife and five children. He first settled in Salisbury. Subsequently he lived in Haverhill and New- bury. In 1660 he removed to Nantucket, settling upon the territory of the Salisbury company, which, in 1659, purchased about nine- tenths of the island. His death occurred in 1681. Tristram, Jr.,2 who remained in New- bury after the removal of his father to Nan- tucket, was also a native of England, b. about 1632. Ile followed the business of merchant tailor. On March 2, 1653, he m. Judith Somerby, widow of Henry Somerby and daugh- ter of Captain Edmund Greenleaf. Their son, Stephen, 3 who, b. in Newbury, August 18,

1665, the eighth in a family of ten children, d. August 31, 1725. He m. Sarah, daughter of John Atkinson, on October 8, 1685. Jo- seph, 4 the twelfth child of this union, b. in Newbury, December 26, 1706, was first m. to Elizabeth Collins. A second marriage united him with Olive Fowler on February 13, 1750. He d. November 23, 1758.

John5 Coffin, youngest child of Joseph and Olive Coffin, and great-grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch, was b. August 12, 1757, also in Newbury. That this ancestor per- formed a patriot's part in the Revolution, the State records amply prove. On August 3, 1775, being then eighteen years old, and six feet two inches in height, he enlisted in Cap- tain Benjamin Perkins's company in the regi- ment of Colonel Moses Little. He re-enlisted for three years on February 16, 1778; reported in General Washington's lifeguard; also pri- vate in Colonel William Washington's regi- ment of light dragoons; Continental army pay accounts for service January 1, 1777, to De- cember 13, 1779. On November 18, 1781, he m. Mary Palmer. Henry6 Coffin, the first child of John and Mary Coffin, m. Tabitha Bootman on February 23, 1783. He was one of the founders of the well-known Amesbury carriage building business.

John7 Coffin, who was a native of Newbury- port, b. in 1810, son of Henry and Tabitha, d. in 1863. His wife Abigail d. in 1864. She was the second child of Eliphalet W. and Elizabeth (Currier) Wadleigh, b. in 1815. Her mother, whose birth occurred during Wash- ington's first administration as President, d. in 1890, at the age of ninety-eight.

During his educational period, John H. Coffin, the subject of this sketch, was a pupil of the public schools of Amesbury and the Putnam Free School of Newburyport. At the age of eighteen he obtained a position in the employment of Taylor & Co., of Boston. His connection with this firm lasted until he en- gaged in business on his own account. This he did by entering the firm of Kurtz, Swallow & Coffin. The story of his successful business career is briefly told by the statement that the style of this firm was successively changed to that of French & Coffin, Page & Coffin, and

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John H. Coffin & Co., the last being that by which it is now known. Since 1883 he has been a resident of Malden.

Mr. Coffin's wife, in maidenhood Maria Green Swett, was born in Wales, Me., daugh- ter of Ebenezer Swett. In her childhood her father removed with the family to Brunswick, Me., where he afterward took a prominent part in town affairs for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Coffin have had four children, namely : Mary Abby, who married James Austin Fynes, and is the mother of one child, Pauline,6 now re- ceiving her education at a private school in New York; Hester Alice, who died unmarried at the age of thirty; Allison Emery, who mar- ried Florence E. Spofford, has one child, Austin Fynes, and is living with her family in Malden ; and John H. Coffin, Jr., who married Florence Steers, has two children - Hester Blanche6 and Alice May,6 and also resides in Malden.

ON. GEORGE VON LENGERKE MEYER, United States Ambassador to Italy, appointed to succeed Gen- eral William F. Draper, resigned, is a Massachusetts man, and, needless to say, one in whose integrity and his ability to serve in high places of trust and honor the State reposes confidence. Born June 24, 1858, in Boston, son of George Augustus and Grace Helen (Parker) Meyer, he is of German de- scent on the paternal side, two generations re- moved from the fatherland. His grandfather, George Augustus Meyer, Sr., who was born May 19, 1773, in Meinersen, province of Han- over, son of Heinrich Ernst Ludwig Meyer, Oberamtman (governor) of Westen, settled in New York City in 1799, and d. there July 19, 1850. His grandmother, Johanna Cathrina von Lengerke Meyer, was a daughter of Johann Heinrich von Lengerke, of Bremen. This re- mote ancestor, from whom Ambassador Meyer derives his middle name, was .b. June 1, 1746. A great-uncle, Friedrich Ludwig Meyer, Lieu- tenant Colonel of the Second Hussars, King's German Legion, fell at the battle of Waterloo in command of his regiment.

George Augustus Meyer, Jr., son of George Augustus, Sr., was b. in New York City in

1824. Coming to Boston in 1848 at twenty- four years of age, he established himself in business as an East India commission mer- chant on India Wharf with George Linder, the firm being Linder & Meyer. The partnership continued until the death of Mr. Meyer, which occurred May 2, 1889, at his home, 194 Bea- con Street. He was m. September 22, 1857, to Grace Helen, daughter of William and Julia M. (Stevens) Parker, of Boston. Her father, William4 Parker, who was president for many years of the Boylston Bank, was the tenth child of Samuel3 Parker, D. D., sometime rector of Trinity Church, Boston, and later Bishop of Massachusetts. The Bishop was a native of Portsmouth, N. H. His grandfather, William1 Parker, Sr., came from England. Bishop Parker's wife was Anne, b. in Boston in 1754, daughter of John and Mary (Clark) Cutler, of Boston. She had two brothers, Benjamin Clark and James, and several sisters, among them Rebecca, who m. Captain Thomas Prince ; Jane, who m. Elisha Doane; and Sarah, who m. Captain Samuel Dunn.

Benjamin Clark Cutler m. in 1794 Mrs. Sarah Mitchell Hyrne, daughter of Thomas and Hester (Marion) Mitchell, of Georgetown, S.C. Julia Rush Cutler, b. of this union, m. Samuel Ward, of New York, and was the mother of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. James Cutler, brother of Benjamin, m. Mehitable, daughter of Governor James Sullivan.

John3 Cutler, father-in-law of Bishop Parker, conducted a prosperous business as a brass founder. He was a prominent Mason, being Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massa- chusetts in 1792. His father, David2 Cutler, a mariner, who d. probably abroad in 1730, was a son of Dr. John' Cutler, who came to Boston in 1694 from Hingham, having arrived there twenty years before from Holland, bear- ing the name Johannes Demesmaker, of which John Cutler is the English translation. Dr. Cutler was a surgeon in King Philip's War. He m. in 1675 Mary, daughter of Edward Cowell, of Boston. After his removal to this city he built a fine house for the time, three stories high, on Washington Street, as now named, then Marlboro Street.

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Genealogy and history of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 31

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