USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I > Part 137
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(III) Benjamin Hills, son of Samuel Hills (2), born at Newbury, Massachusetts, October 16, 1684, died at Chester, New Hampshire, November 3, 1762; married, November 7, 1709, Rebecca Ordway, daughter of Hananiah and Abigail Ordway. Han- aniah was the son of James Ordway. Rebecca was born December 22, 1690, died September 4, -
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1769. His children, all born at Newbury. Massa- chusetts, were: I. Samuel, (see forward). 2. Abi- gail, born November 3, 1713, married Isaac Bailey. 4. Joannah, born March 15, 1717, married Thomas Haseltine. 5. Ruth, born March 15, 1719, married Nathan Mason. 6. Benjamin, born March 12, 1721, died at Chester, New Hampshire, May 6, 1801. 7. Abner, born February 13, 1723, died at Chester, Oc- tober 3, 1794. 8. Hannah, born November 10, 1724, died October 5, 1806. 9. Prudence, born February 12, 1726, died 1773. 10. Moses, born February 9, 1728.
(IV) Samuel Hills, son of Benjamin Hills (3), born at Newbury, Massachusetts, August 10, 1710, died at Chester, New Hampshire, February 2, 1762 ; married ( first), January 28, 1735, Rebecca Thurs- ton, of Newbury. She died May 21, 1743; married (second), November 18, 1743, Elizabeth Swain, of Newbury. She died July 31, 1793. She married (second) Ebenezer Dearborn, after the death of Samuel Hills. He had three children by the first and ten by the second marriage. His children were: I. Edmund, born in Newbury, December 7, 1735. 2. John, born May 25, 1738, died February 22, 1818. 3. Samuel, born May 17, 1743. 4. Isaac, born August 31, 1744, died at Chester, September 24, 1824. 5. Stephen, born at Chester, March 29, 1746, died at Amesbury, Massachusetts, January 31, 1831. 6. Elizabeth, born at Chester, January 4, 1747, died 1778. 7. Hannah, born at Chester, June 5, 1750. 8. Reuben, (see forward). 9. Rachel, born at Ches- ter, August 6, 1754. 10. Rebecca, born at Chester, August 6, 1756. 11. Josiah, born at Chester, October 30, 1760, died at Chester, September 22, 1790. 13. Rachel, born at Chester, May 12, 1762.
(V) Reuben Hills, son of Samuel Hills (4), was born at Chester, New Hampshire, August 14, 1752. He removed to Hawke, now Danville, New Hampshire, thence to Union, Maine. He was a sol- dier in the revolution. He was prominent in the Methodist church, but late in life became a Quaker. He married, January 18, 1779, Sarah Currier, dangh- ter of Gideon Currier. She died at Union, Maine, November 1, 1835. He died there September 28, 1828. Their children, ten of whom were born in Danville, New Hampshire, and two in Union, Maine, were: 1. Samuel, ( see forward). 2. Sarah, born January 27, 1781, died at Searsmont, Maine, May 3, 1862; married John Dickey, January 20, 1803, resided at Searsmont. 3. Nathan, born July 17. 1784, died at Union, Maine, August 28, 1858. 4. Reuben, born March 2, 1786, died at Lincolnville, Maine, October 3, 1874. 5. Josiah, born April 2, 1788, died in Union, Maine, March 28, 1875. 6. Isaac, born February 12, 1790, died at Lincolnville, Maine, January 7, 1840. 7. Naney, born January 29, 1793, died at Union, Maine, May 25, 1862; married, Jan- uary 16, 1817, Jonathan Eastman. 8. Betsey, born March 2, 1795, died May 8, 1796, in Union, Maine. 9. Dr. Cyrus, born January 16, 1797, died at Cush- ing, Maine, October 26, 1860. 10. Alden, born July 14, 1801, drowned at Union, Maine, July 17, 1807. 11. Charlotte, born June 29, 1802, died 1804. 12. Louisa, born July 6, 1804, died in Union, Maine. June 11, 1850; married, February 14, 1822, George Silloway.
(VI) Samuel Hills, son of Reuben Hills (5). was born at Danville, New Hampshire, November 18. 1779, died at Union, May 16, 1853. He was a farmer and settled at Union. He should not be con- fused with a distant relative, Samuel Hills, living in Union at the same time, whose son, Joel Hills, married Abigail Hawes, daughter of Levi and Pa- melia Hawes, of this same line of the Hawes family into which the daughter Margaret of the first named
Samuel Hills (6) married. Samuel Hills married, January 11, 1816, Sarah B. Rogers, who died Octo- ber, 1836. Children were: I. Edward, married Al- mena Drake, had ten children, resided at Thomaston, Maine, and was high sheriff of the county. 2. Israel, resided at Appleton, Maine. 3. Benjamin B., born February 18, 1821, married at Union, Amelia H. Oxton, of Appleton, March 11, 1849; went to War- ren and built a house on the Patterson road. 4. Emeline, married John Walton, resides at Union. 5. Margaret, married Silas Hawes. 6. Samuel, Jr., married and resided at New Orleans, Louisiana. 7. Sarah, born at Union, married Nathaniel Thurs- ton ; resides at Union.
(VII) Margaret Hills, daughter of Samuel Hills (6), was born in Union, Maine; married Silas Hawes, before mentioned.
DR. EMIL SAUER, a well established gen- eral practitioner of Worcester, and who has attained distinction in certain special fields of his profession, is a native of the city named, and comes from an excellent German family.
Wendel Sauer, his paternal grandfather, was a resident of Hesse Darmstadt, and a shoemaker by trade. Prior to 1812 he entered the French army as a substitute. He died at the age of sixty-one years, and his wife at the age of fifty-one years. They were the parents of six children, only one of whom, Joseph, came to the United States.
Joseph Sauer, son of Wendel Sauer, was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, January 29, 1839. He was educated in the schools of his native village, and at the age of fifteen years came to America, landing in New York after a passage of thirty-two days. For a time he worked in a woolen mill in Broad Brook, Connecticut, and in 1859, located in Worcester, Massachusetts. There he found employ- ment in the Allen & Wheelock pistol factory, after- ward in the Crompton loom works, and still later in the carbine factory of the Ballards, with whom he remained until they removed their works to New- buryport, Massachusetts. Early in the civil war period he enlisted as a musician in the Fifteenth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers. and during a portion of his term of service performed hos- pital duty. After the war closed he opened a res- taurant on Front street, Worcester, subsequently expanding his business to a hotel, and from which business he retired in 1903. He married, August 13, 1864, Caroline Meyer, born in Wittenberg, Ger- many. April 25, 1841, who came to the United States with her parents when she was seven years old; her father, Francis Meyer, died at the age of sixty-five years. Their children were: Carrie, married Julius Ehlers, of Hartford, Connecticut, and they have two sons ; Minnie, married Herman Klingle, of Wor- cester, and they have two daughters; Emil, to be further mentioned.
Emil, youngest child and only son of Joseph and Caroline (Meyer) Sauer, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, March 14, 1881. . He was educated in the public schools of that city and after leaving the high school in 1899, at the age of eighteen years, he entered the Jefferson Medical College of Philadal- phia, completed the four year course, and was grad- uated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1903. He was for some time associated with the eminent Philadelphia specialist in gynecology and surgery, Professor Fisher, and subsequently went abroad to further study professional specialties. For six months he attended the Vienna General Hos- pital, having among other instructors the noted sur- geon, Dr. Lorenz. For a like period he was a stu- dent in Berlin, and during his sojourn there was a
BL. IVA PURLIC 1
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member of the Anglo-American Medical Association of Berlin. In 1902 he made a previous trip to Europe, with his bride, and during this time observed meth- ods in the Strasburg hospitals. In 1904 he entered upon general practice in his native city, making a specialty of diseases of women and children, for which he had prepared himself by his particular study of gynecology and pediatrics. From the first le met with unusual success. Dr. Sauer is, con- nected with various leading fraternal and social organizations-Morning Star Lodge, F. and A. M .; Iroquois Lodge, Improved Order of Red Men; the order of the Eagles; the Frohsinns, and the So- cialer Turn Verem. He is a Republican in politics. in 1904 he was presented in the Republican pri- mary in ward seven for the nomination for school committeeman, and was defeated by the narrow mar- gin of forty-three votes, and in 1905 was elected to the two year term which he is now serving. Dr. Sauer married, June 11, 1902, Ethel S. Jordan, daughter of the late John W. Jordan, a member of John W. Jordan & Company, dealers in stoves, ranges and furnaces. Their children are: Caroline Frances, born May 2, 1904; and Helen Louise, born July 5, 1905.
Mrs. Ethel S. (Jordan) Sauer is descended from Samuel Jordan, a native of England, who came to this country in young manhood and married, in ISO5, Sarah Rogers, born in 1786, said to have been a descendant of Jolin Rogers, who "for heresy" was burned at the stake in 1555 under "Bloody Queen Mary." Of their children two daughters and three sons grew to maturity, and one of the former died in Michigan at an advanced age.
John Rogers, son of Samuel and Sarah (Rogers) Jordan, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 28, 1806. His mother being left a widow, he was early thrown upon his own resources. When about ten years old he was sent to New Hampshire to live upon a farm. He learned the trade of stone mason, and became owner of an excellent quarry at Lynn, Massachusetts, where he settled. He was a man of character and ability, and an influential member of the community. He was actively inter- ested in public affairs, served in both branches of the city council, was a captain of militia, and was a member of the Masonic fraternity. He was a man of fine physique and handsome features. He reared an interesting family of nine children, by his first wife, who was Susan Darling, one of a family of seventeen children, whom he married in Mason, New Hampshire. His wife died in 1877, and he had one child by his second marriage. His chil- dren were: John W., see forward; Susan Eliza- beth, married Ebenezer Harris, and resided in Fitch- burg, Massachusetts; Mary A., married Warren Bailey, of Lynn, Massachusetts; Sarah, married J. Wilson, of the same city; Lucy A., married a Rus- sell. also of Lynn; Alexander, resides in Somer- ville, Massachusetts; Samuel, who enlisted before he was eighteen years old, at Lowell, Massachu- setts, to serve in the Mexican war, and died at Fort Jessup, New Mexico, while en route to the front; Oliver Hazard Perry, born 1830, died in Worcester in 1863, leaving wife, son and three daughters; Edward Darling, served in the civil war in Company G, Fifteenth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment ; he was wounded in the leg at the battle of Antietam, and died a few days afterward at Sharpsburg, and was buried in Worcester; Henry Harrison, died young.
John Warren, eldest child of John Rogers and Susan ( Darling) Jordan, was born in Mason, New Hampshire, October 1, 1826. At the age of eight
years he went to live with the family of Thomas Kidder-the same among whom his father had been brought up. He lived there for five years, during that time attending the district school only during two short terms. When thirteen he went to work as a bobbin boy in a mill, and in four years had been advanced 'to overseer of a room. He sub- sequently learned the tinsmith trade at Manchester. In August, 1845, he arrived in Worcester, his entire capital amounting to twenty-five cents, but he un- expectedly found old New Hampshire friends and soon procured employment. He enlisted for the Mexican war at Governor's Island, Boston Harbor. In 1852 he established in Worcester the business with which his name has been associated for more than a half century, which he conducted until his death, in 1902-the oldest firm in Worcester in the hardware and plumbing business. Since the death of Mr. Jordan the managing company has had for its head his son, Frederick B. Jordan. Mr. Jordan was not only a successful man of affairs, but an honored and useful member of the community. He served in the common council in 1859 and 1861, and in the board of aldermen in 1870 and 1871. He was affiliated with Montacute Lodge, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, in which he was a past master, and he had attained the thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite. Mr. Jordan and his family were members of Piedmont Congregational Church.
Mr. Jordan married, in November, 1847, Caro- line C. Loring, of Townsend, Massachusetts, daugh- ter of Elmer and Mary ( Hastings) Loring, and one of a family of twelve children. She bore to her husband four children, of whom but one came to maturity-Genevieve H., who became the wife of D. E. Forrest, of Medford, Massachusetts. Mrs. Jordan died December 12, 1869, and Mr. Jordan married (second), November 24, 1870, Lydia Al- mira Perry, daughter of Joseph S. Perry. The chil- dren of Mr. Jordan by his second marriage were : Lillie May, born March, 1872, died young; Annie Rogers, born June 4, 1873, died February, 1879; John Warren, born June 14, 1874; Frederick B., born August 15, 1875, married Bessie Edwards, and they have two sons-Fred and Leslie ; Ethel S., born July 27, 1881, who became the wife of Dr. Emil Sauer.
CHARLES EDWARD HUNT. William Hunt (I) was the emigrant ancestor of Charles Edward Hunt, of Worcester. It is believed that William Hunt was born in 1605 in England. He came to New England and settled before 1640 in Concord, Massachusetts. He was admitted a freeman June 2, 1641. He was a witness to the will of a neighbor in Concord, William Bowstred, October 23, 1642. He was a farmer. He married (first) Elizabeth Best. She died 1661. He married (second) Mercy (Hurd) Rice. widow of Edmund Rice, 1664. He removed to Marlboro, where he died October, 1667. He made his will October 23, 1667, leaving an estate valued at 596 pounds. He bequeathed to wife Mary, sons Sam- uel. Nehemiah and Isaac, and daughter Elizabeth Barnes. His children were: Nehemiah, married Mary Toole, 1663, and settled at Concord, Massa- chusetts; Isaac, see forward; William; Elizabeth, married Barnes ; Hannah ; Samuel.
( II ) Isaac Hunt, son of William Hunt (1), was born in 1647 in Concord, Massachusetts. He married Mary Stone, May 14, 1667. He died at Concord, 1681. His estate was appraised April 5, 1681. and his wife Mary Hunt was appointed administratrix. Their children were: Isaac, born January 12, 1668, died June, 1669; Hannah, June 5, 1670, married
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Fletcher (see Fletcher sketch); Samuel, October 26, 1672; Isaac, November 18, 1675; Ebe- nezer. July 12, 1677.
(III) Isaac Hunt, fourth child of Isaac Hunt (2), was born in Concord, Massachusetts, Novem- ber 18, 1675. He settled in Sudbury. He married Mary Willard. She was admitted to the Sudbury church, January 20, 1717-8. He left a large estate, having lands at Lancaster and Rutland. The inven- tory of his estate amounted to 1,477 pounds. The children of Isaac and Mary (Willard) Hunt of Sud- bury, all born there, were: Isaac; Thomas, August 20, 1701 : Mary ; Ebenezer; Samuel, January 11, 1709; John, see forward; Simon, April 20, 1713; Henry, March 10, 1715;, Abidah, July 31, 1717.
(IV) John Hunt, sixth child of Isaac Hunt (3), was born in Sudbury, Massachusetts, February 12, 17II. He removed to what is now .Hardwick, Massachusetts, and was one of the earliest settlers. He lived for a short time at Grafton after leaving Sudbury. He married Mary - His farm and homestead was about three-quarters of a mile north of the common in Hardwick where Willis Tavern stood. He was a tavern keeper as well as farmer. During the revolutionary war his inn was a stopping place for soldiers, and as there was an epidemic of small pox in various places Mr. Hunt went to the pest house at New Braintree to be inocu- lated with virus. He died of the disease and was buried in the orchard at the angle of the road to New Braintree, a few rods south of the former resi- dence of Colonel Stephen Fay. The children of John and Mary Hunt of Hardwick were: Samuel, born September 27, 1736; Moses, December 18, 1738, died June 20, 1747 ; Hannah, March 18, 1744; Mary, Octo- ber 13. 1746; John, January 31, 1749-50; Moses, Octo- ber 28, 1756; Joseph, December 8, 1759, married Elizabeth Fay and removed to Bennington, Vermont. (V) Moses Hunt, seventh son of John Hunt (4), was born in Hardwick, Massachusetts, Octo- ber 28, 1756. He married Esther Jenney, daughter of John Jenney, December 10, 1778. He was a farmer. His homestead was in the northern part of Hard- wick. He died there July 10, 1822. He was a revo- lutionary soldier in Captain Samuel Dexter's com- pany, 1776, Colonel Leonard's regiment; also Captain hodges' company, Colonel Job Cushing, in 1777, at the Bennington call. The children of Moses and Esther (Jenney) Hunt were: Sophia, born October 2, 1779, married Joseph Dexter ; Moses. August 27, 1781 ; Abigail, September 23, 1786; John, June 26, 1788, married Mabel Hopkins, January 4, 1816, set- tled in Hadley, Massachusetts; Mary Palmer, April 19, 1790; Esther Jenney, February 10, 1792; Zeph- aniah, August 4, 1793, settler in Barre; Orsamus, see forward : Horace or Hiram, April 15, 1799, died January 15, 1803; William, June 27, 1800, died Janu- ary 11, 1803: Hammond, July 8, 1802, died May 20, 1803; William, September 6. 1804.
(VI) Orsamus Hunt, eighth child of Moses Hunt (5), was born in Hardwick, Massachusetts, Fehruary 16, 1797. He married (first) Laura New- ton, daughter of Silas Newton, January 7, 1821. She died at Granby, Massachusetts, January 14. 1851, aged fifty-six years. He married (second) her sis- ter, Caroline Newton. He died at Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, May 25, 1864. He was a mason by trade, also a contractor and builder, and lived in various towns as his employment demanded. He was in Stockbridge after he left Hardwick for sev- eral years. He removed to Lee, Massachusetts. an adjacent town, where he resided for seven years. The family lived in Amherst for a year and thence removed to Granby, where he was living in 1851 when his wife died. F. B. Knowles, founder of the
Knowles loom works, married a sister of Mrs. Hunt. The children of Orsamus and Laura (Newton) Hunt were: 1. Addison Augustus, born in Hardwick, June 20, 1822, married Clarissa E. Thomas, March 16, 1852; was a school teacher, died 1892. 2. Calvin Newton, born June 8, 1825, died May 21, 1830. 3. Charles Edward, see forward. 4. Edwin Newton, born in Lee, Massachusetts, December 14, 1834, was a soldier and died at the age of sixty years.
(VII) Charles Edward Hunt, third child of Orsamus Hunt (6), was born in Stockbridge, Mass- achusetts, May 21, 1830. He was educated in the common schools in the towns where his parents lived during his boyhood, in Lee, Berkshire county, Mass- achusetts, Amherst and Granby in the same vicinity. At the age of fifteen he came to Worcester as an ap- prentice in the composing room of the old Worcester County Gasette. At that time the paper was a weekly owned by Estey & Evans. Political feeling was strong. Abolition was an absorbing topic of political conversation and action. Even the boys who carried the paper to subscribers realized the depth of feeling when some good citizen, angered by a political editorial in the Gasette, would not only stop his paper but would vent his feelings by chas- ing the paper boy away from the house when he came to deliver the offending sheet. While in the Gazette office Mr. Hunt used to deliver papers Tues- day night and Wednesday morning after publication. There has been some change in the business of printing newspapers since then, not only in putting stereotype presses in place of Washington hand presses and Mergenthaler linotype machines in place of the compositor, but in hours of labor and wages paid. Mr. Hunt received his board for his work dur- ing the first year. He was to receive his board and ten dollars the second year. It is the custom to pay boys a dollar a day for the first year and from $8 to $10 the second year in Worcester newspaper compos- ing rooms, while the scale of wages for journeymen is $18 a week for day work, and eight hours per day instead of ten. Among other boys in the Gazette office at the time was Hezekiah Conant, who later built the big mills at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and became very wealthy.
Mr. Hunt left the Gazette office after a year and a half to return to Granby, where he worked during the fall and winter. He worked the next year or two for H. S. Taylor, of Springfield, who established the first book and job office in Springfield, Massachu- setts. When he was nineteen he went to Greenfield, Massachusetts, and worked for one season on a hand press in a printing office. He attended school for a time at Easthampton and later taught school at Belchertown, Massachusetts. In the spring of 1851 he went to work in a printing office at New Lon- don, Connecticut, on what was then a new and up- to-date press. In 1852 he was assistant teacher with his brother Addison at Ware, Massachusetts. In the spring of 1852 he went to Springfield, Massa- chusetts, to do the power press work on the Spring- field Republican .. After a year and a half he went into the job printing department of the Republican office. but a few months later took charge of the job- press room as foreman. The publishers of the Rc- publican at that time were: Samuel Bowles, Dr. Holland, and Clark W. Bryan, the business manager. The firm name was Samuel Bowles & Co. When the panic and hard times came, just before the civil war, Mr. Bryan had to reduce the force and cut salaries. Mr. Hunt declined to have his salary cut, and in 1858 left the printing office again for the old farm at Granby. which his father bought in 1839 and which was left to the sons at the death of
their mother, January 14, 1851. He conducted
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the farm for four years and then returned
to Springfield to work for Joshua F. Tannett, who had a small printing office, and there worked two years when the business was sold. He was offered his old position of foreman of the . press room in the Republican office at twenty-one dollars per week and accepted the place. During the civil war the modern newspaper was developed. The telegraph service became a necessity, and faster and better presses were demanded. Mr. Hunt was in the Republican office during this important period of development, at the time that the reputation of the Republican was established. He left the paper May 1, 1869, and again returned to the farm at Granby, where he remained until 1872, when he bought out the interests of the other owners and settled down on the farm until he sold it in 1887.
Mr. Hunt took an active part in town affairs at Granby. He was elected superintendent of the Sun- day school before he had removed to the town, and in 1870 was elected deacon of the church. He de- clined to accept either of these honors at the time, but later became deacon. He was elected secretary of the Town Mutual Fire Insurance Company, a position he held for ten years. He was for eight years a member of the school committee and de- clined re-election. The district schools were still in vogue there and the day of the superintendent had not arrived. In his report for the year ending March 1. 1881, Mr. Hunt advocated the grading of the schools and concentrating them at the centre of the town. His views have since been adopted, but at the time they caused great commotion among the old farmers and hurt his prestige as a safe and sane man. His friends saw to it that he was re-elected, however, without his making an effort. The public system of which Massachusetts is so proud to-day was the product of some struggles, and it developed and is developing slowly. The struggle in which Mr. Hunt was a leader in his town went on for years throughout the state. The graded school displaced the district school only after the proof of its super- iority became overwhelming from actual experience.
Mr. Hunt declined to run for selectman, but was drafted into the office of assessor. Of his experience in this office, he says: "I did not prove successful, for when I found the lands of the rich farmers that cut two crops of hay each season assessed at $20 an acre while that of some of the poor struggling fel- lows that was not so good, assessed at $30 and in at least one case $45. I insisted that there should be a square deal. One old fellow, rich in mortgages, who had for several years paid only a poll tax, was brought to book when we found he had $4,000 on a building in Holyoke. The rate was one per cent and he was taxed on the full amount, making his bill $42 in all. As I was the tax collector that year I had the fun of collecting it." He was not re-elected assessor for obvious reasons. It is a well known fact that no department of municipal affairs, even in the smallest towns, is so corrupt and unjustly admin- istered as the assessment for purposes of taxation. A co-operative society or Grange was formed in Granby in the seventies by twelve farmers. Mr. Hunt was secretary. They met once a week to transact business in rooms fitted up for the pur- pose. They had discussions of public questions, lectures, etc. They bought their groceries by whole- sale in Boston and saved hundreds of dollars during the four years that the society lasted. Mr. Hunt sold his farm at Granby in 1887 and came to Mill- bury, Massachusetts, to manage a country place and stock farm for his cousin. F. B. Knowles, the loom manufacturer. The farm was sold in 1894. In 1895 Mr. Hunt took charge of the country place of Frank
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