USA > Massachusetts > Genealogy and history of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts > Part 47
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Clarence Messer9 Merriam acquired his pre- paratory education in the public schools of St. Johnsbury, Vt., and was graduated from Will- iams College in the class of 1895. Engaging in business in Boston, he settled in Newton Centre in 1898, and has since remained a resident. On June 10, 1898, Mr. Merriam married Florence May Smith, daughter of Joshua K. and Anna (Bishop) Smith, of Waterbury, Conn. Mr. and Mrs. Merriam have one child - Barbara Elizabeth, born July II, 1900.
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RCHIBALD MURRAY HOWE,
Counsellor-at-law, a resident of Cam- bridge, is a native of Northampton Mass. Born May 20, 1848, son of James Murray and Harriet Butler (Clarke) Howe, he comes of long lines of notable New England ancestry, his strongly individual
character, safe to say, being built up on a foundation of traits and tendencies inherited from forebears of honored name and fame. The branch of the Howe family to which he belongs is that founded by John, of Marl- borough, the line of descent being : John, 1 Samuel,2 Moses, 3 Samuel,4 Dr. Estes, 5 Sam- uel,6 James Murray,7 Archibald Murray8.
John Howe came from England more than two hundred and fifty years ago, lived for a short time at Watertown, and in 1639 was at Sudbury. He d. at Marlborough in 1687. Samuel2 Howe, b. in 1642, m., first, Martha Bent, who d. in 1680. He m. in 1685 Sarah Leavitt Clapp, widow of Nathaniel Clapp, of Hingham. Their son Moses, 3 b. in 1695, re- moved from Sudbury to Framingham, and in 1719 settled at Rutland, Mass.
Samuel, 4 b. in 1719, son of Moses3 and his wife Emma, m. in 1739 Hannah Smith, and in 1759 removed to Belchertown. Estes, 5 b. in 1747, practised medicine in Belchertown for fifty years or more. He m. Susanna Dwight, daughter of Captain Nathaniel, Jr., and Hannah (Lyman) Dwight, of Northamp- ton, and a descendant of John' Dwight, one of the early settlers of Dedham, Mass. Hannah Lyman was a daughter of Lieutenant Benja- min and Thankful (Pomeroy) Lyman, of North- ampton. During the Revolutionary War Dr. Estes5 Howe served as an army surgeon, being in Colonel Brewer's regiment in 1775, and at a later period in Rufus Putnam's, while in the Saratoga campaign he was on the staff of Gen- eral Gates. At his home in Belchertown, as he lay disabled by paralysis in June, 1825, he was honored by a call from Lafayette, who was passing by on his way to Boston. He had three sons - William, Estes, Jr., and Samuel. Instead of adopting their father's profession, as the sons of physicians are apt to do, each of these sons became a lawyer and a judge -- Will- iam in the State of Vermont, Estes, Jr., in
New York State, and Samuel in Massachu- setts.
Samuel6 Howe was graduated at Williams College in 1804 in the class with Nathan Hale, father of Dr. Edward Everett Hale. For a number of years, while engaged in law practice, he lived in the little hill town of Worthington, in the extreme western part of Hampshire County. He usually had a student in his office, and at one time the student was William Cullen Bryant, whose father was one of his intimate friends. In 1820, being ap- pointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, he removed with his family to Northampton. For some time he was at the head of a well- filled law school, which he, in connection with his partners, had opened in that city. The relig- ous opinions of his early manhood were ortho- dox, in later years, after careful study, he be- came a Unitarian. The last court that Judge Howe attended was in Worcester in December, 1827. He d. in Boston, January 20, 1828, but little over forty years of age, having lived a life of plain living and high thinking.
His first wife was Susan Tracy, daughter of the Hon. Uriah Tracy, of Connecticut. She d. in 1811, leaving two children, namely : a son Uriah; and Susan, who m. George S. Hill- ard, of Boston. Judge Howe's second wife was Sarah Lydia, daughter of Edward Hutchin- son Robbins, of Milton, who was Lieutenant- Governor of the State under Governor Strong. The four children b. of this union were : Estes, Mary Eleanor, James Murray (father of Archi- bald M.), and Sara Robbins, the latter being now (1901) the one survivor. Mrs. Sarah L. Howe was a leader in the Abolition move- ment in her neighborhood. She d. June 17, 1862. £ Readers of "Recollections of My Mother " need no introduction to Mrs. Joseph Lyman's sister "Sally," who in 1813 m. Samuel Howe, of Worthington, a man of su- perior character and vigorous intellect, cousin and intimate friend of her brother-in-law, Judge Lyman, of Northampton. Edward H. Robbins, of Milton, father of Mrs. Howe and Mrs. Lyman, was a son of the Rev. Nathaniel Robbins (Harvard College, 1747), a native of Cambridge, Mass. (son of Thomas+ and a lineal descendant of Richard, an carly settler of
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Cambridge), who was ordained in 1751 as pastor of the church at Milton, and d. there in 1795. The Rev. Nathaniel Robbins m. Eliz- abeth, daughter of Edward and Lydia (Foster) Hutchinson, and cousin to Governor Thomas5 Hutchinson. Her ' grandfather Hutchinson, Thomas, 4 was a son of Elisha, 3 . grandson of Edward,2 and great-grandson of William1 Hutchinson and his wife, the ill-fated Anne Hutchinson (b. Marbury), spiritual minded and kind hearted, the most advanced woman of her time in New England.
The wife of Edward H. Robbins, and mother of Mrs. Sally L. Howe, was Elizabeth Murray, daughter of James Murray, of Milton, and sis- ter of Dorothy, wife of the Rev. John Forbes, grandfather of the late Hon. John Murray Forbes, of Milton. The Robbins homestead, "Brush Hill," Milton, was inherited from the Murray ancestors.
James Murray7 Howe, b. at Worthington in 1819, d. at sea, on the ship "David Stewart," on a voyage from Rio Janeiro to Baltimore, May 27, 1879. He was for many years a prominent business man of Boston, a broker on State Street. He m. October 7, 1845, Har- riet Butler Clarke, daughter of Christopher and Harriet (Butler) Clarke, of Northampton. Her father was a lineal descendant of Daniel Clark, who was an early settler and influential resident of Windsor, Conn., serving as secre- tary of the Colony in 1658 and for a number of later years. Her mother, whose name she bore, was the daughter of William and Huldah (Brown) Butler. Colonel John Brown, father of Huldah, was an eminent lawyer and patriot of Pittsfield, Mass., a man of great force of character, impetuous and fearless, and a gallant officer in the Revolutionary army. He was killed October 19, 1780 (his thirty-sixth birth- day), with forty-five of his men, in an ambus- cade at Stone Arabia, near Fonda, N. Y. His wife, Huldah Kilbourne, was a native of Wethersfield, Conn. Colonel Brown was a grandson of Lieutenant Jacob Brown, a retired officer of the British army.
James Murray and Harriet B. (Clarke) Howe had three children - Archibald Murray, James Murray (second), and Henry Butler. James Murray (second) m. Elizabeth Hall, of
Bristol, R. I., and has four children. He re- sides at Brush Hill, Milton, Mass. Henry Butler Howe d. at the age of six years. Mrs. Harriet B. Howe, the mother, d. at Cam- bridge, July 11, 1901.
Archibald Murray, the eldest son, and spe- cial subject of this sketch, fitted for college in the public schools of Brookline, and was grad- uated at Harvard in 1869. Among his class- mates were Henry Marion Howe, Frank D. Millet, and Francis Greenwood Peabody. After studying law at the Harvard Law School and in the office of George S. Hillard, Mr. Howe was admitted to practice in the courts of Massachusetts in June, 1872. During the sessions of the Forty-third Congress he served as private secretary to the Hon. Henry L. Pierce, living in Washington eleven months. In 1875 he was associated in law practice with Henry F. Buswell and Charles H. Walcott. Has been engaged for years in active practice of the law, especially relating to administra- tion of estates and the care of funds; has also taken active part in many local and national political affairs, especially Civil Service Re- form. In 1876 and 1877 he was a member of the Common Council of the city of Cambridge, and in 1891 he was a Representative in the State Legislature, chosen on the Democratic and Independent ticket. An ardent patriot, in politics independent, he loves his country be- cause it " aspires to give free opportunity to all." He is a life member of the American Unitarian Association, and is connected with the First Parish (Unitarian) Church, Cam- bridge, is a member of Saint Botolph Club, and vice-president of the Massachusetts Re- form Club.
Mr. Howe was married June 4, 1881, to Arria Sargent Dixwell, daughter of Epes Sar- gent and Mary Ingersoll Bowditch Dixwell, late of Cambridge. He has no children.
ASON GOOD. PARKER, of Cam- bridge, is a native of Boston, where for about forty years he was en- gaged in mercantile business, at first with his father in the firm of Ebenezer Parker & Son and later as a member of the
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successive firms of Kittredge & Parker, Par- ker & Tilton, and Mason G. Parker & Co. He was born June 11, 1831, at 158 Tremont Street, at that time the famous Colonnade Row, the home of his parents, Ebenezer and Celia (Kingman) Parker. The early Ameri- can ancestors of Mr. Parker on the paternal side were inhabitants of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and on the maternal were Plym- outh Colony people.
Among the immigrants to New England about the year 1640 were Abraham and Jacob Parker, brothers, who settled at Chelmsford ; their brother John, who made his home in Billerica; and James and Joseph, supposed to have been brothers of the above named, who after one or two removals became residents of the neighboring town of Groton. The line of descent from Jacob1 Parker to Mr. Parker of Cambridge is: Jacob1; Thomas,2 b. in 1656; Ebenezer, 3 b. 1690; William, 4 b. 1727; Will- iam,5 b. 1751; Ebenezer,6 b. 1778; Mason Good,7 whose birth date is recorded above. Thomas2 Parker m. in 1678 Mary, daughter of William2 and Lydia (Bates) Fletcher, of Chelmsford, and grand-daughter of Robert1 Fletcher, who came over from England in 1630, and settled at Concord. The given name of the wife of Ebenezer3 Parker was Elizabeth, and that of the wife of his son William4 was Sarah. Williams Parker (the grandfather) was m. at Billerica, March 30, 1773, by the Rev. Henry Cummings, to Han- nah Dutton. They removed to Hillsborough, N. H., where she d. in 1815. He m. second, in November, 1822, Susannah Dutton, widow of William Dutton, of Jaffrey, N. H. He d. in 1840.
The Dutton ancestry of Mr. Parker through his paternal grandmother begins with the im- migrant Thomas,' who was formally admitted an inhabitant of Billerica, November 22, 1669, having removed to that place from Woburn. It is known that he had previously lived for some years at Reading, as he had four children b. there. His wife, Susanna, d. in August, 1684, and he m. in November following Mrs. Ruth Hooper. The line continued through his son Thomas,2 b. in 1648; Thomas, 3 b. 1681; John,4 b. 1715; to Hannah, 5 b. October
12, 1752, who m. William5 Parker. Thomas2 Dutton served as a soldier in the "expedition to the eastward " in 1677. His first wife, the mother of his five children, was Mrs. Rebecca Draper, a widow, of Concord, Mass. Thomas3 m. Hannah Burge, of Chelmsford, and nearly twenty years later removed to Westford, where he d. in 1759. John, 4 b. in February, 1714-5, m. in 1740 Rebecca, daughter of Benjamin Shedd. John3 Dutton, his wife, and their daughter Rebecca, all d. of small-pox in De- cember, 1760, when their daughter Hannah (who became Mrs. William Parker) was but eight years old.
Ebenezer,6 son of Williams and Hannah (Dutton) Parker, was b. at Chelmsford, June 17, 1778. He m. in 1801 Sarah Tarbell, who d. in Boston, July 14, 1821, in the forty- fourth year of her age. He m. September 3, . 1822, Celia Kingman, daughter of Abner and Lydia (Paddock) Kingman, of Middleborough, Plymouth County, Mass. Abner Kingman, Mr. Parker's maternal grandfather, was a son of Colonel Abner4 and Susanna (Leonard) Kingman. His father was a descendant in the fourth generation of Henry' Kingman, who came from England at the age of fifteen in 1630, settled at Weymouth, and was Rep- resentative to the General Court 1638-52. Henry1; John,2 b. 1664; John, 3 b. : 1703 ; Colonel Abner, + b. 1735; Abner, 5 b. 1772; Celia, b. November 19, 1795 -this is the Kingman line of ancestry. Colonel Abner+ Kingman was clerk of the parish of Titicut, North Bridgewater, and was a minute-man of the Revolutionary War. He m. in 1762 Su- sanna, daughter of Josiah, Jr., and Jemima (Washburn) Leonard, of Bridgewater. Her father was a son of Josiah,3 who was son of John2 and grandson of Solomon' Leonard, of Duxbury. Jemima Washburn, wife of Josiah Leonard, Jr., was b. in 1710, daughter of Jo- siah+ Washburn, of Bridgewater, who was son of John3 and grandson of John2 and Elizabeth (Mitchell) Washburn. John2 Washburn and his father, John,' who was early in Duxbury, were among the original proprietors of Bridge- water. Elizabeth Mitchell, wife of John2 Washburn, was a daughter of Experience Mitchell by his first wife, Jane, daughter of
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Francis Cook, one of the "Mayflower" Pil- grims. Experience Mitchell and his future wife, Jane Cook, came over in the "Ann," the second forefather ship, in 1623.
Abner5 Kingman in 1805 settled at Provi- dence, and for a number of years kept a shoe store. He was a Deacon of the church nearly twenty-two years. In March, 1827, he re- moved to Boston. He m. in 1793 Lydia, daughter of Thomas5 Paddock, of Middle- borough. She d. in this city in 1832, and he d. in New Haven, Conn., while on a visit, in August, 1833. Thomas,5 b. in 1732, was a son of Joseph,4 b. in March, 1700, and grand- son of Captain John, 3 b. in 1669, who lived at Yarmouth, Barnstable County, Mass. Cap- tain John3 Paddock was son of Zachariah2 and grandson of Robert' Paddock, the founder of the family in New England, who is said to have been at Plymouth as early as 1634. Zachariah Paddock m. in 1659 Deborah Sears, daughter of Richard Sears, the immigrant pro- genitor of the family of this surname on Cape Cod and in Boston.
As above shown, the descent of Mason Good Parker from Francis' Cook is through Jane2 Cook, who m. Experience Mitchell; Eliza- beth Mitchell, who m. John Washburn; Jo- siah Washburn, whose wife was named Mercy ; Jemima5 Washburn, who m. Josiah Leonard, Jr. ; Susanna Leonard, who m. Colonel Abner Kingman; Abner Kingman, who m. Lydia Paddock; and Celia Kingman, who m. Eben- ezer Parker, and was the mother of Mason Good.
Ebenezer6 Parker was a prominent merchant of Boston in the early part and middle of the nineteenth century. He was the second occu- pant of Central Wharf, where his sign was displayed for forty years, or up to the time of his death, in 1857. He was one of a company of merchants and lawyers who built Colonnade Row, a block of twenty-five brick buildings on Tremont Street, extending from West ,to Mason Street. He was one of the thirteen founders of Park Street Church, Boston, which was organized on February 27, 1809, by a council composed of the Rev. Dr. Holmes, of Cambridge, the Rev. Dr. Codman, of Dorches- ter, and lay delegates, which assembled at the
house of William Thurston in Boston. The meeting-house was dedicated January 10, 1810. Ebenezer 6 Parker had thirteen children, of whom the following is a brief record : -
I. Maryann,7 b. June 2, 1802, m. Gideon Eldridge. She d. of consumption, December 27, 1824, leaving one daughter, Maryann, who m. Henry H. Crocker, a merchant of New York City.
2. Albert,7 b. May 10, 1804, m. Julia So- phia, daughter of William Dabney, of Provi- dence, R.I. She d. in September, 1863, and he July 19, 1844. They had two children - Maryann and Amanda Tarbell.
3. Ebenezer,7 Jr., b. September 7, 1806, settled in Boston as a physician, d. November 6, 1833.
4. Charles Tarbell,7 b. August 17, 1808, lawyer, settled at St. Louis, Mo., d. July 14, 1833.
5. Lucretia Dutton,7 b. July 29, 1810, m. Major John R. Vinton, U.S. A., who was killed at the storming of Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1847. : She d. September 12, 1838, having been the mother of three children - Helena, Louise Clare, and Francis Laurens.
6. William Oliver,7 merchant, of Boston, b. August 16, 1812, d. September 12, 1846.
7. Sarah Celia,7 the first child by the sec- ond marriage, b. February I.O, 1824, d. No- vember 10, 1825.
8. Edward Griffin,7 b. November 16, 1825, m. Mrs. Elizabeth Tucker Gray, widow of John H. Gray and daughter of Richard D. Tucker. He d. March 30, 1868, leaving no children.
9. Abner Kingman,7 b. January 6, 1827, d. April 12, 1846.
IO. Chauncy Paddock,7 b. September I, 1829, d. May 19, 1898, m., first, Anna Den- yse, daughter of Daniel Denyse, of Staten Island, and, second, Martha Ann Clifford, of Boston, who d. June 18, 1884, and m., third, Kate Edna Mudd. He had nine children, namely : Charles Earnest, b. September 13, 1864, d. September 27, 1864; Ellen May, b. May 22, 1866, m. Darius N. Covert, and set- tled in Hyde Park, Mass. They have had two children - Bessie, b. August 4, 1888; and George P., b. October 14, 1889, who d. March 10, 1890. Alice Celia, b. January 29, 1869,
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m. Arthur B. Hicks, of Melrose. They reside in Hyde Park. Lillie Mason Merritt, b. No- vember 22, 1870, d. Feb. 16, 1871; Carrie Mason, b. April 24, 1873, d. September 3, 1873; Mason Edward, b. September 28, 1875 ; Clarence Kingman, b. December 4, 1877; Warren Albert, b. May 10, 1879; Grace Edna, b. September 12, 1886, d. July 21, 1899. Of the nine children, five are still living.
II. Mason Good, whose birth date is given above, married Mary Frances Hastings, daugh- ter of Thomas and Martha (Livermore) Hast- ings, of Cambridge, and descendant of an early settler.
12. Warren,7 b. February 21, 1833, d. March 20, 1856.
13. Pierre Irving,7 b. April 14, 1840, d. May 22, 1840.
Maryann8 Parker, daughter of Albert Parker above named, m. her cousin, William H. Dabney, who was Vice-Consul of the United States at Fayal. Dying, he left three chil- dren.
Amanda Tarbell8 Parker, sister of Maryanna, m. Jeremiah A. Hunter, of New London, Va. After the Civil War they came to Massachu- setts, and settled in Lincoln. They have seven children.
Helena8 Vinton, eldest daughter of Major Vinton, m. the Rev. Dr. Gilliat, of Newport, R. I., and they have three children - Helena, Susan, and John R. V. Louise Clare8 Vin- ton, the Major's second daughter, m. Dr. Washington Hoppin, of Providence, R. I., and they have five children.
The Hon. Edward Griffin Parker, brother of Mason Good, was graduated at Yale College in 1847. He studied law in the office of Rufus Choate, was admitted to the bar in 1849, and began practice in Boston. He became active in politics, and was a State Senator in 1859. In 1856, he was the 4th of July orator for the city of Boston. As a member of the staff of Governor Banks in 1859, he held the rank and title of Colonel. He was Captain on the staff of General Butler when the Massachusettts troops passed through Bal- timore in April, 1861; in November, 1862, was made assistant Adjutant-general, United States Volunteers; was chief of staff of Gen-
eral John Henry Martindale at Washington ; and was appointed Judge Advocate at the Old Capitol Prison. After the war he settled in New York City. His business as a Wall Street broker, not proving successful, he took charge of the American Literary Bureau of Reference. He d. March 30, 1868. He was the author of "The Golden Age of American Oratory " (Boston, 1857) and "Reminiscences of Rufus Choate."
Mason Good Parker was educated at the Bos- ton Latin School. He was employed for three years as clerk for William A. Brown & Co., and then became associated with his father on Central Wharf, the firm being Ebenezer Parker & Son. After his father's death he formed a partnership with William P. Kittredge, firm of Kittredge & Parker, which continued for ten years. Mr. Kittredge moved to New York in 1864, and the firm of Parker & Tilton then formed continued till 1866. From that time till his retirement, about ten years ago, Mr. Parker was in business alone, part of the time under the name of Mason G. Parker & Co. He has made his home in Cambridge for the last fifteen years. At St. Paul's Church on Tre- mont Street, Boston, where he was christened seventy years ago, he retained the family pew up to 1896. On account of ill health he then resigned his position as vestryman, which he had held for twelve years. Later he became connected with Christ Church, Cambridge, of which he is a vestryman.
DWIN DRESSER, president of the Cambridgeport Diary Company, Cam- bridge, Mass., was born December 16, 1826, in Detroit, Mich. His parents were Elijah and Eliza (Beaman) Dresser, both of early New England Colonial stock, the father a lineal descendant of John Dresser, the immi- grant progenitor of the family of this surname, and the mother descended from Gamaliel' Bea- man, who arrived at Dorchester, a lad of twelve years, in 1635.
At Rowley, formerly a part of Ipswich, Essex County, Mass., John Dresser became the owner of a house lot in 1643. He d. there in April, 1672. His will mentions his wife
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Mary, sons John2 and Samuel, daughter Eliza- beth, and grandchildren. John2 Dresser was m. twice, and had ten children by his first wife Martha. Samuel2 m. Mary, daughter of Thomas Leaver, and had thirteen children, his second son being John, 3 b. in 1676, who m. Margaret Acy.
Aaron, 4 son of John3 and Margaret (Acy) Dresser, was m. December 4, 1730, to Mehit- able Scott, daughter of John Scott, who m. a widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Crosby. John3 Scott was son of Benjamin, Jr.,2 and Susanna (Scales) Scott, and grandson of Benjamin1 Scott, whose widow, Margaret, was executed at Salem, September 22, 1692, for witchcraft. Several children b. to Aaron Dresser and his wife Mehitable were baptized at Byfield, among them Mehitable, January 6, 1733-4; Oliver, September. 18, 1737; and John, March 28, 1742. (See Essex Antiquarian, 1898.) The appearance of the names of Aaron and Mehit- able Dresser on the town and church records of Lancaster, Mass., leads to the conclusion that the parents of John, 5 who was b. in March, 1742, removed after that date to Lancaster, taking up their abode in that part of the town which in 1781 was incorporated as Sterling. It is extremely improbable that another Aaron Dresser, not known to the genealogist, was living at the same time, he, too, having a wife Mehitable.
That Elijah Dresser, Sr., grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was the son of Aaron and Mehitable Dresser, of Sterling, is shown by the record of his baptism at Chocksett Church, "January 27, 1750-I, child of Aaron Dresser, Elijah," the name of Mehitable, as wife of Aaron, being elsewhere given in the
Lancaster records. It is said that a locality in Sterling was named "Rowley Hill," because its pioneer settlers were from that town. Eli- jah Dresser and Sarah Houghton, both of Lan- caster, were m. in February, 1779. They had three sons - John, Tyrus, and Elijah, Jr. John and Tyrus settled in Turner, Me., and descendants of both are now living in that locality.
Elijah Dresser, Sr., was a Revolutionary soldier. The following is his record in Vol- ume VI., "Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors
in the War of the Revolution." Elijah Dresser, "Lancaster (probably), private, Capt. Samuel Sawyer's co. of minute-men, Col. John Whitcomb's regt., which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775; service seven days; also in Capt. Solomon Stuart's co., Col. Josiah Whitney's regt. ; marched August 21, 1777; returned August 25, 1777; service five days ; company marched on an alarm at Bennington." The history of Turner, Me., mentions Elijah Dresser as an inhabitant of that town who was at the battle of Bunker Hill. He was one of the veterans of the war for American indepen- dence who were present at the dedication of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843, and listened to Webster's memorable oration. He d. in 1846, in the ninety-sixth year of his age.
Elijah Dresser, Jr., was b. in Turner, Me. He m. Eliza Beaman, daughter of Gideon Bea- man, of Sterling, Mass. She was one of a family of three children. Her father was (probably) the Gideon (recorded Gedion) b. July 12, 1763, son of Phineas and Joanna Beaman, of Lancaster. Phineas Beaman and Joannah White were m. in October, 1740. Gamaliel' Beaman, above mentioned as the founder of this family, grew to manhood in Dorchester, m., and had several children b. there. In 1659 he removed to Lancaster, where more children were b. to him and his wife. Sarah. Elijah Dresser, Jr., migrated to Michigan, and d. there in 1829, survived by his wife, two sons - Galen and Edwin - and daughter Joanna. Galen Dresser d. on his way to California in 1849. Mrs. Eliza B. Dresser (left a widow) m. a second husband, John Curtis.
Edwin Dresser was educated in the public schools of Sterling and in Concord, Mass., and then learned the trade of book-binding in the bindery of Captain John Stacy, of Concord. He afterward worked at his trade successively in the cities of Lowell, New York (in the employ of Harper Brothers), and Springfield, spending about a year in each place. In 1848 he worked in Cambridge for L. S. Learned, blank book manufacturer; and with the excep- tion of a year that he spent in Hartford, Conn., he has been a resident in Cambridge ever since that date. From 1850 to 1870 Mr. Dresser
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