USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Groton > Groton historical series. A collection of papers relating to the history of the town of Groton, Massachusetts, Vol III > Part 22
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NATIVES OF GROTON,
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PERSONS CONNECTED BY RESIDENCE WITH THE TOWN, WHO HAVE PRACTISED LAAW ELSEWHERE.
WILLIAM AMOS BANCROFT is the eldest son of Charles and Lydia Emeline (Spaulding) Bancroft, and was born at Groton, on April 26, 1855. He attended school at Lawrence Acad- emy, Groton, and afterward at Phillips Exeter Academy, and graduated at Harvard College in the Class of 1878. He studied law at the Harvard Law School, and also in the office of William Burnham Stevens, Esq., at Boston, and was ad- mitted to the Suffolk bar on November 21, 1881. In the year 1885 he was appointed Superintendent of the Cambridge Rail- road Company, and in 1888, after its union with the West End Street Railway Company, was made General Roadmaster of the consolidated line, from which, after one year's service, he retired in order to resume the practice of his profession. Mr. Bancroft has always taken a deep interest in military matters, and during his Freshman year at college enlisted in Company B, Fifth Massachusetts Militia Regiment. On March 31, 1879, he was commissioned as Captain of the com- pany, and, on February 7, 1882, as Colonel of the regiment, a position which he still holds. He has also been much interested in boating, and as an undergraduate was a noted oarsman. He was a member of the Cambridge Common Council for one year ( 1882), and also of the House of Repre- sentatives during 1883, 1884, and 1885. On December 2, 1890, he was chosen a member of the Board of Aldermen,
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and upon its organization at the beginning of the year 1891, was made the President of the body ; and on December 8, 1891, was re-chosen to the same body, and by a unanimous vote again made the presiding officer.
On January 18, 1879, Colonel Bancroft was married to Mary, daughter of Joseph and Catharine (Perry) Shaw, of Boston; and they have three children. He is now engaged in the active practice of his profession, having an office in Boston.
ALBERT MARSHALL BIGELOW is a son of Josiah and Harriet Munroe (Sawin) Bigelow, and was born at Brighton, on May 5, 1835. His father bought the Judge Dana place, at the head of Farmers' Row, in 1850, when he removed to Groton, where he died on January 20, 1857. The son received his early education at the Boston Latin School, Roxbury Latin School, and Lawrence Academy, and in 1852 entered Am- herst College, where he remained three years. When at school and college, he never wrote his middle name, either in full or as an initial letter, though it rightfully belonged to him; but since that period he has always used it. In 1857 he began the study of law in New York City, where he was admitted to the bar in 1859, and where he continued to prac- tise until 1883, when he retired from the profession.
On December IS, 1862, Mr. Bigelow was married, first, to Lucy Brace, daughter of the Reverend Dr. John and Mary Skinner (Brace) Todd, of Pittsfield, who died at Montclair, New Jersey, on June 15, 1878, leaving two sons and a daugh- ter; and, on April 13, 1880, in New York, secondly, to Mary Anna, daughter of Clark and Nancy (Perry) Wheelock, by whom there are two children, -a son and a daughter. In 1855 and 1857 his first wife was attending school at Lawrence Academy ; and from January 3, 1827, to January 8, 1833, her father was the minister of the Union Congregational Church at Groton. Mr. Bigelow is now a resident of Morristown, New Jersey.
JOHN PRESCOTT BIGELOW was the second son of the Hon- orable Timothy and Lucy ( Prescott) Bigelow, and born at
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Groton, on August 25, 1797. Ile pursued his preparatory studies at Groton Academy, and graduated at Harvard Col- lege in the Class of 1815. After leaving Cambridge he read law, first in the office of the Honorable Luther Lawrence, of Groton, his uncle by marriage, and afterward in the office of his father; and in 1818 he was admitted to the Suffolk bar. The large and lucrative practice of his father at once opened a wide field for the young advocate, and for a time he was en- gaged in the practice of his profession, attaining a high posi- tion, which promised him future eminence at the bar if he had continued to devote himself to the law.
Very early in life Mr. Bigelow took a deep interest in poli- tics, and as a writer on the public topics of the day he ac- quired considerable reputation. He was also a warm supporter of the militia as well as an active member, at one time hold- ing the position of Captain of the Medford Independent Light Infantry, and subsequently Division Inspector of the Militia. On December 1I, 1826, he was chosen a member of the Common Council of the city of Boston from Ward No. 9, and re-chosen for the six following years, holding the pres- idency of the body during the last two terms. On May 8, 1828, he was elected by the Whigs a member of the House of Representatives, and, with the single exception of 1833, he was re-elected until 1835. On January 14, 1836, by a joint Convention of the House and Senate, he was chosen Secretary of the Commonwealth, a position which he filled for eight years with marked ability ; and on January 4, 1845, by a joint Convention he was chosen a member of the Executive Council, and held the place for five years, thus concluding a term of official life at the State House which in length is per- haps without a precedent in modern times. On December 1 I, 1848, he was elected Mayor of Boston, and re-elected during the two following years, holding the office for three succes- sive terms. Two of the Mayors of Boston have been natives of Groton, and their birthplaces are within a few rods of each other.
After leaving active public life, Mr. Bigelow became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Public Library, an
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institution in which he always took much interest. The first gift of money to the library was made in his name. Upon his retirement from office his friends raised a subscription with the intention to present to him a silver vase, not only as a mark of their appreciation of his public services, but as a tes- timonial of their personal esteem. Mr. Bigelow was strongly opposed to the gift, and when it was suggested that the money be given to the library, the proposition met with his warm approval ; and the donation was accordingly made. When he retired from the Trusteeship, the City Council, on January 29, 1869, passed some flattering resolutions, setting forth his continued interest in the library, and recognizing him as the founder of the institution.
On March 8, 1824, Mr. Bigelow was married to Louisa Anne, daughter of David L. Brown, an English landscape painter, who was at that time a resident of Boston. She was a native of Liverpool, England, and died in London, on Oc- tober 22, 1847, during a temporary visit, aged 47 years. Mr. Bigelow died at his residence in Boston, on July 4, 1872, and bequeathed $10,000 to Lawrence Academy. His father was one of the original Trustees, and served through a period of twenty years. Bigelow Hall, a dormitory of the institution built during the autumn of 1863, was named for the son.
THOMAS BOND was a son of Thomas and Esther (Merriam) Bond, and born at Groton, on April 2, 1778. He pursued his preparatory studies at Groton Academy, and graduated at Har- vard College in the Class of 1801. Eight members of this class were either natives of Groton or at some time residents of the town. In the year 1796 his father's family removed to Augusta, Maine. After graduation Thomas began the study of law in the office of the Honorable Samuel Sumner Wilde, of Hallo- well, Maine, with whom, soon after his admission to the bar, he became associated as a partner. This business connection continued until Mr. Wilde was raised to the bench of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, when Mr. Bond took sole charge of the affairs of the office. For more than twenty years he maintained a high and honorable position at
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the bar, faithfully fulfilling all trusts, and earning the reputation of an able lawyer and an honest man. He was a firm and steadfast Federalist in his politics, and when the War of 1812 brought out the conservatives of Maine and New England. he was chosen, during the years 1813 and 1814, to represent the town of Hallowell in the Massachusetts House of Repre- sentatives. In 1822 and 1823 he was a member of the Senate of Maine from Kennebec County ; and in 1826 he was ap- pointed, on the part of the Senate, a Commissioner to revise the penal code of that State. In 1824 he was chosen a Trus- tee of Bowdoin College, which he continued to hold until the time of his death, on March 28, 1827, at Hallowell.
On December 1, 1805, Mr. Bond was married to Lucretia Flagg, daughter of Dr. Benjamin and Abigail (Odlin) Page, of Hallowell ; and they had a family of three children, one son and two daughters, all now dead. Sce North's History of Augusta (pages 805, 806), for a sketch of the family.
In Hallowell, (Me.) on Wednesday last, Hon. THOMAS BOND, aged 48. Mr. Bond was a native of Groton in this State. He graduated in 1801 at Harvard University, and held a distinguished rank in his class. On leaving college, he became a student, and afterwards a partner in the office of Judge Wilde. He represented Hallowell for several years in the Legislature of Massachusetts, and after the separation of Maine, was elected a Senator for two succeeding years.
" The Massachusetts Spy, and Worcester County Advertiser " ( Worcester), April 4, 1827.
HENRY ADAMS BULLARD was the second son of the Rev- erend John and Elizabeth (Adams) Bullard, and born at Groton, on September 9, 1788. His father was the settled minister of Pepperell, but the printed accounts of his life say that he was born at Groton, which is my authority for the statement. He fitted for college at Groton Academy, -as also did two of his brothers, - and graduated at Harvard Col- lege in the Class of 1807. Ile studied law, first in the office of the Honorable Luther Lawrence, of Groton, and then in the office of Peter A. Browne, Esq., of Philadelphia. Soon after-
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ward, in the spring of 1813, he joined a revolutionary ex- pedition against a part of Mexico, in which he acted as an aide and military secretary to the leader, Don José Alvarez Toledo. The revolutionists were badly defeated at San An- tonio, and Bullard suffered many hardships. On his return he reached Natchitoches, Louisiana, where he established himself and began the practice of his profession, in which he soon reached a prominent position. He was a Justice of the Sixth District Court of Louisiana from the year 1822 to 1831 ; a Representative in Congress from Alexandria and New Orleans (Twenty-first, Twenty-second, and Thirty-first Con- gresses), 1831-1834, 1850, 1851 ; a Justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1834-1846, with the exception of a few months in 1839, when he acted as Secretary of State. Judge Bullard was the first president of the Louisiana Historical Society, and also a Corresponding Member of the Massa- chusetts Historical Society. In 1847, while resident of New Orleans, he was appointed Professor of Civil Law in the Law School of Louisiana ; and in 1850 he was chosen a member of the Legislature. A short time afterward he was elected to the Thirty-first Congress to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of the HIonorable Charles Magill Conrad, who had been appointed Secretary of War in President Fillmore's cabinet. After the adjournment of Congress, on his return home, Mr. Bullard was prostrated by the fatigue of the travel, and after lingering three weeks, died in New Orleans, on April 17, 1851.
Judge Bullard was married to Sarah Keasar (? ), a South- ern lady, and had several children.
JOHN HASKELL BUTLER is a son of John and Mary Jane (Barker) Butler, and was born at Middleton, on August 31, 1841. In the year 1854 his father removed to Groton, where he died on February 10, 1870. The son obtained his early educational training in the district schools of Groton and Shirley, and at Lawrence Academy, where he fitted for college. He graduated at Yale College in the Class of 1863, and began the study of his profession in the office of Griffin
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(J. Q. A.) and Stearns (Wm. S.) at Charlestown. He was admitted to the Middlesex bar in October, 1868, and at once formed a business connection with Mr. Stearns, his former preceptor, which has continued uninterruptedly since that time. He is now a resident of Somerville ; and in 1880 and 1881 represented Ward No. I of that city in the House of Representatives. He has also served twelve years as a mem- ber of the Somerville School Board. On April 29, 1884, he was chosen by the Legislature a member of the Executive Council, in place of the Honorable Charles Rankin McLean, deceased, and during the two following years was re-chosen by the voters of the district. He is connected with a large number of secret societies and social organizations, and in some of them holds high office.
On January 1, 1870, Mr. Butler was married, at Pittston, Pennsylvania, to Laura Louisa, daughter of Jabez Benedict and Mary (Ford) Bull ; and they have one son, John Lawton Butler.
IRA OSBORN CARTER was a son of Lewis and Sarah (Sawyer) Carter, and born at Berlin, Massachusetts, on November 18, 1832. He graduated at Paducah College (Kentucky) in the Class of 1853, and afterward was connected with the institu- tion as a professor. On March 6, 1860, he was married to Susan French, daughter of Walter and Roxana (Fletcher) Shattuck, of Groton. In the autumn of 1863 he was a mem- ber of the Harvard Law School, where he remained one term ; and in the annual catalogue he is put down as a resident of Groton. He died at Arlington, - where he had lived for twenty years, - on February 13, 1885, leaving no children, and was buried in his native town.
MOSES GILL COBB is an only son of Elias Hull and Rebecca Buttrick (Gill) Cobb, and was born at Princeton, on November 24, 1820. The father's family removed to Groton in 1834, and the son was attending Groton Academy during the same year. He graduated at Ilarvard College in the Class of 1843, which he entered during the Sophomore year. In 1846 he
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took the degree of LI .. B. at the Harvard Law School, where he had passed two years. In the annual catalogues of the College, during the Sophomore year, he is put down as of Groton, and, during the Junior and Senior years, as of Spring- field, but, while in the Law School, he appears as of Charles- town. He was admitted to the Suffolk bar on January 26, 1846, and began the practice of his profession in Charlestown, where he was associated in business with General James Dana, at No. 40 Main Street. In May, 1847, to fill a vacancy, he was chosen a member of the Common Council from Ward No. I of that city, and, during the next year, was re-chosen to the same office ; and in the autumn of 1853, to fill another vacancy, he was elected an Alderman from Ward No. 2. In the year 1855 he removed with his family to Dorchester, at the same time keeping his office in Charlestown. While a resident of Dorchester, he was chosen a member of the Ex- ecutive Council for 1856, and he also served on the School Board for several years. Mr. Cobb took a warm interest in military matters, and, as early as 1853, was prominent in organizing a company of Light Artillery, which before the War of the Rebellion had some local celebrity. At the breaking out of the War, he was active in the enlistment of another company, with the understanding that he was to be captain ; but near the end of July, 1861, owing to financial troubles, he was obliged to give up his command, then sta- tioned at Camp Wollaston, Quincy, and, on July 31, Captain Ormand Francis Nims was commissioned in his place. This company, under the name of Nims's Battery, afterward acquired considerable fame in the army for its gallant services.
On October 14, 1846, Mr. Cobb was married to Sophia, daughter of Edmund and Sophia (Sewall ) Munroe, of Boston ; and there have been six children. Since leaving Boston more than thirty years ago, he has been a resident of California ; and his present address is San Francisco.
AMOS HENRY FARNSWORTH is the eldest son of Dr. Amos and Mary ( Bourne | Webber) Farnsworth, and was born in Boston, on August 8, 1825. His father removed to Groton
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in the year 1832, though for many generations the family had lived in the town. He pursued his preparatory studies at Groton Academy, and graduated at Harvard College in the Class of 1844. In the spring of 1845 he entered the Harvard Law School, where he remained three terms, and in the year 1846 took the degree of LL.B. He continued his profes- sional studies in the office of the Honorable Origen Storrs Seymour, of Litchfield, Connecticut, afterward a Judge of the Supreme Judicial Court, and Governor of the State, and he was admitted to the bar of Connecticut. He was also ad- mitted to the bar of New York in 1850, but owing to ill health has never engaged in the active practice of his profession.
On June 6, 1850, Mr. Farnsworth was married to Julia Paine, daughter of the Honorable John l'aine and Maria J. (Tallmadge) Cushman, of Troy, New York ; and since that time he has been a resident of that city.
CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN FARNSWORTH is the eldest son of Luke and Sarah (Hartwell) Farnsworth, and was born at Stanstead, Province of Quebec, on January 8, 1815. At that period his family was living temporarily in Canada. He passed his boyhood, working on his father's farm at Groton, and received no schooling from the time he was fourteen years old until the spring of 1836, when he began to fit for college under the instruction of William L. Chaplin, Esq., of Groton. IIe attended school for a short while, first, at New Ipswich Academy, and, secondly, at Groton Academy, then under the preceptorship of the Reverend Horace Herrick, finishing his preparatory studies in the summer of 1837. He graduated at Harvard College in the Class of 1841, and immediately after- ward passed one term at the Law School in Cambridge. He then entered the office of the Honorable Charles Jarvis Holmes, of Taunton, and soon afterward the office of Timothy Gardner Coffin, Esq., of New Bedford, under whom he com- pleted his professional studies. He was admitted to the bar at Taunton, in March, 1844, and during the next month began the practice of law at Pawtucket, which at that time came within the limits of Massachusetts. In the year 1858 he gave
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up his profession to take charge of the affairs of the Dunnell Manufacturing Company, a corporation at Pawtucket then engaged in the business of calico-printing. In 1860 he was made Treasurer of the company, holding the office until June, 1881, when he resigned the trust and returned to the practice of law, where his younger son Claude Joseph Farnsworth is now associated with him in business. During the years 1875, 1876, 1877, and 1880 he was a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives.
On February 27, 1851, Mr. Farnsworth was married to Marianna, daughter of Joseph and Ann (Mayberry) McIntire, of North Providence, Rhode Island ; and they have had three children, two boys and a girl. The eldest son, John Prescott Farnsworth, graduated at Harvard College in the Class of 1881.
In the year 1862, by an agreement between the Common- wealth of Massachusetts and the State of Rhode Island, with the consent of Congress, the boundary line of these two States was so changed that the town of Pawtucket fell within the limits of Rhode Island. From that time, without a change of residence, Mr. Farnsworth lost his citizenship in Massachusetts.
LUTHER Frrch was a son of Zechariah and Sibyl (Lakin) Fitch, and born at Groton, on January 28, 1783. He re- ceived his early education at Groton Academy, and graduated at Dartmouth College in the Class of 1807. Afterward he read law for eight months in the office of Dudley Chase, Esq., of Randolph, Vermont, and then under the instruction of Judge Samuel Dana, and of Judge William M. Richardson, both of Groton, where he completed his professional studies. Judge Richardson had been a teacher at the Academy, who in part had prepared him for college. Mr. Fitch was ad- mitted to the Middlesex bar in September, 1810, and during the next year he began the practice of his profession in the village of Saccarappa, situated then in that part of Falmouth, District of Maine, which is now Westbrook. In 1820, on the admission of Maine as a State, he was appointed Attorney
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for the County of Cumberland by Governor King; and in 1825, on the organization of a Municipal Court in Portland, he was made the first judge. Soon afterward he took up his abode in that city in order to be near the field of his labors. As a judge, he was faithful and conscientious, and his deci- sions were always well considered and sound. The best tribute to his judicial career is found in the fact that during a period of twenty-nine years he held the office by successive appointments, through all the changes of political adminis- tration, until 1854, when he retired from the bench, at the age of seventy-one years.
On June 23, 1816, Judge Fitch was married to Almira, daughter of Andrew Phillips and Mary ( Dole) Titcomb, of Falmouth ; and they had a family of three sons and five daughters, who were all living at the date of the father's death. At that time one of the sons was a surgeon in the army, and another a physician in California; and four of the daughters were married and residing in Maine. Judge Fitch died in Portland, on August 15, 1870, full of honors and full of years ; and a notice of him in the " Portland Daily Press," August 17, ends with the following paragraph : -
He has gone down to the grave at a ripe old age, loved and honored by all who knew him, without an enemy on earth, and in full hope of a glorious resurrection.
EUGENE FULLER was the eldest son and second child of the Honorable Timothy and Margaret (Crane) Fuller, and born at Cambridge, on May 14, 1815. He received his early education in the schools of Cambridge, and graduated at Harvard College in the Class of 1834. In June, 1833, his father removed from Cambridge to Groton, where he had bought the Judge Dana estate, a farm of fifty acres situated near the northerly end of Farmers' Row. On January 2, 1835, Eugene entered the Harvard Law School, remaining one term, and after that he continued the study of his profession under the instruction of Mr. Farley at Groton. He was admitted to the Middlesex bar in June, 1839, and immediately afterward opened an office in Charlestown, where he remained for two years. He then
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went to New Orleans, and became connected with the public press of that city. While residing at the South, two or three years before his death, he suffered from a sunstroke, which resulted in a softening of the brain, which came very near being fatal, and left him in a shattered condition. His friends were hopeful that medical treatment elsewhere might benefit him; and with that end in view he embarked with an attendant aboard the "Empire City " for New York. When one day out from New Orleans, his attendant being prostrated with sea- sickness, he was left alone and not afterward seen. He must have been lost overboard from the steamer, on June 21, 1859.
On May 31, 1845, Mr. Fuller was married at New Orleans to Mrs. Anna Eliza Rotta, of that city, though originally of Philadelphia ; and they had a family of three sons and two daughters.
RICHARD FULLER was the fourth son of the Honorable Timothy and Margaret (Crane) Fuller, and born at Cambridge on May 15, 1824. In the summer of 1833 his father's family removed to Groton, where he was prepared for college mainly by his eldest sister Margaret, afterward famous as a writer ; and he graduated at Harvard College with high rank in the Class of 1844. He began to study law in the office of Wendell Thornton Davis, Esq., at Greenfield, and then on March 3, 1845, entered the Harvard Law School, where he remained two terms. Hle finished his course of professional studies in the office of his uncle Henry Holton Fuller, Esq., of Boston, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar on December 22, 1846. For two years afterward he was associated with his uncle as a partner, and at the end of that time he opened an office at No. 10 State Street, Boston, in which city he continued to practise his profession during the remainder of his life. He died at his residence in Wayland, on May 30, 1869, after an illness of four weeks' duration.
Mr. Fuller was married, at Canton, on February 6, 1849, first, to Sarah Kolloch, daughter of Francis and Sarah (Kolloch) Batchelder, of Canton, who died at Wayland, on January 10, 1856, aged 26 years ; and, at Wayland, on March
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