Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I, Part 4

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 824

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 4

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During his latter years he accomplished much for the substantial improvement of the northern por- tion of his home city, aiding very materially in building up a great manufacturing centre. He built the spacious business block on Lincoln Square, and in 1837 his residence on Highland street. His father's ancient "mansion" in which he was born, presents at this writing about the same homelike appearance that it did a century ago, when it was occupied by a trustworthy loyal revolutionary patriot.

Stephen Salisbury.

PUBLIC LIBRARY

Maykon Salisbury

JEphen Salisbury

WORCESTER COUNTY

Of his domestic relations it may be said that no more affectionate husband or loving parent ever graced a Massachusetts home and fireside. His first wife, to whom he was married November 7, 1833, was Rebekah Scott Dean, of Charlestown, New Hampshire, who died July 24, 1843, leaving as their · only child, Stephen Salisbury, Jr. He next married Nancy Hoard, widow of Captain George Lincoln, who died September 4, 1852. In 1855 he married Mary Grosvenor, widow of Ilon. Edward D. Bangs, former secretary of state for Massachusetts; she died September 25, 1864. He died August 24, 1884, in his eighty-seventh year. In the language of one who had long known him, "He was a considerate gentleman of the old school type, a model of which this generation has none too many imitators." At his funeral the Rev. Andrew P. Peabody, DD., LL. D., used for his text, "We all do fade as a leaf." With his demise a generous property passed to his only child, Stephen Salisbury, Jr., a consid- erable portion of this property being composed of farm lands lying in close proximity to the business portion of the city of Worcester. The son, with wise business discretion, erected many dwellings, factories and business blocks thereon, thereby con- tributing greatly to the growth and prosperity of the city, and a proportionate increase in valuation to the estate.

(V) Hon. Stephen Salisbury is one whose name is familiar to every citizen of Worcester, who has any knowledge of the city and its principal institu- tions. His local pride has been evidenced by his many generous acts for the public welfare, and it is justly to be said that scarcely any undertaking of magnitude has been attempted during recent years without his co-operation, directly or indirectly.

The only son of Stephen and Rebekah Scott (Dean) Salisbury, he was born March 31, 1835, in Worcester, in one of the brick houses near the end of Main street, opposite the court house. He began his education in an infant school taught by Mrs. Levi Heywood, on Main street. When six years old he passed the winter of 1841-42 with his parents in Savannah, Georgia. In the latter year he attended the private school of Mrs. Jonathan Wood, at the corner of Main and School streets, Worcester, Massachusetts, and for a short time in 1844 was a pupil in Miss Bradford's school in Boston. In 1845 he was a student in the grammar school under Warren Lazell, later kept by C. B. Metcalf, until 1848, when he entered the Worcester High School, then in charge of Nelson Wheeler. He matriculated in Harvard College in 1852 and graduated there- from in 1856 after completing the four years' course. After his graduation he went to Berlin and became a student in the Frederick William Uni- versity. During the spring of 1857 he attended lectures at the Ecole de Droit, in Paris. He spent the summer and autumn with his classmates Rice and Kinnicutt in England, Scotland and Ireland, and late in the year visited Turkey, Asia Minor and Greece, including a month's tour on horseback, ac- companied by a guide. This trip gave him much interesting and valuable information concerning the country and customs of Greece. Afterward he re- sumed his studies at Berlin, then re-visiting Paris, and set out with his father's family upon a tour covering portions of Italy, England, Scotland, Ire- land and Wales. In December, 1858, after an ab- sence of more than two years, he returned to Wor- cester, and took up bookkeeping for a time as a special study. He subsequently entered the law office of Dewey and Williams as a student of law, and in 1859 entered Harvard Law School. Two years later he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and was admitted to the bar in Worcester in

October, 1861. During the following winter months he visited David Casares, a college classmate, in Yucatan, where he made a study of the Maya In- dians' ruins and monuments. In 1885 he traveled through the same country and other portions of Mexico and Cuba, re-examining some of the ruins which he had seen on his former visit. In 1888 he again visited Europe, his tour including France, Belgium, Holland and Spain. In Spain, especially, he found much to interest him, as also in portions of Portugal. He was also an extensive traveler in his own country, and with his taste for the study of history and natural history became possessed of a large fund of useful knowledge, a review of which he has given to American societies of historical investigation.

Mr. Salisbury early entered into the responsi- bilities of business life. In 1863 he became a trustee of the State Mutual Life Assurance Com- pany of Worcester. In 1865 he was chosen a director of the Worcester National Bank, and after the death of his father (in 1884) succeeded him in the presi- dency. In 1877 he became a trustee and member of the board of investment of the Worcester County Institution for Savings, of which his father had been president; and in 1882 he succeeded the late Governor Alexander H. Bullock as its president. He was also a director of the old Worcester & Naslıtia and of the Boston, Barre & Gardner Rail- roads. He also gave much attention to public affairs, In 1864, 1865 and 1866 he was a member of the common council of Worcester, and president of the board during his last term. In 1889 he was made one of the commissioners of the sinking funds of the city, and served in that capacity to the time of his death, November 16, 1905. As a Republican he represented the first Worcester district in the state senate in 1893, 1894 and 1895, serving as chairman of the committees on education, banks and banking, and the committee on the treasury. In all these various positions he displayed the qualities of the well cquipped man of affairs, and discharged every trust with scrupulous fidelity.

Mr. Salisbury was conspicuously active and use- ful in his relation to many educational, historical and charitable institutions, devoting to them not only his service, but liberally of his means. He was a prominent member of the Worcester Lyceum and Natural History Association, vice president of the Worcester Agricultural Society, a director of the State Mutual Life Assurance Company, a trustee of . Clark University from its founding in 1887 until his death, and was at one time its treasurer. He was also a trustee of Leicester Academy, and for ten years served as treasurer of the Music Hall Asso- ciation, as well as one of its directors. He was a trustee of the City Hospital at its incorporation in 1872, and secretary for eighteen years; trustee of the Memorial Hospital, and secretary for ten years, and vice president of St. Vincent Hospital. He was also a trustee of Rural Cemetery, and secretary of Hope Cemetery. Mr. Salisbury became a mem- ber of the American Antiquarian Society in 1863, a member of its council in 1874, vice-president in 1884, and in 1887 was elected president, a position which he occupied to the time of his death, and by his will this society received about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and his library. In 1884 he was elected a trustee of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and president in 1895, to which institution he recently gave three hundred thousand dollars. He was a member of the faculty of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology connected with Harvard University ; a member of the Massachusetts His- torical Society, to which institution by his will he gave five thousand dollars; a member of the Wor-

WORCESTER COUNTY

cester County Horticultural Society, and formerly its president; the American Geographical Society ; the New England Historic Genealogical Society; the Sociedad Mexicana de Geografia y Estadistica and the Conservatorio Yucateco. In all of these he ever maintained a deep and intelligent interest. His writings include important papers on the people of Yucatan and their arts, which he contributed to the American Antiquarian Society. He also translated several valuable papers from the German of Dr. Valentine on the same and kindred subjects. In 1888 he prepared and read an exhaustive paper on "Early Books and Libraries." Mr. Salisbury was an accomplished linguist, and enjoyed a good speak- ing knowledge of the Spanish and other languages. Mr. Salisbury's public spirit was shown not only by his interest in municipal and state affairs, but his more tangible works show him to have had at heart the beauty and convenience of the city. Among his public benefactions may be further men- tioned a building for the City Hospital, a laboratory and electrical station for the Worcester Polytechnic Institute; eighteen acres of land bordering on Salisbury Pond given to the city in 1887, and by him named Institute Park; a lot of land to the Worcester Society of Antiquity and contributions to their building fund, and by will another lot of land and five thousand dollars. In 1896 he gave land for the Worcester Art Museum, and con- tributed with other citizens funds for the erection of a museum building and for the endowment of the corporation, and by his will made that institu- tion his residuary legatee. In 1899 he gave land for a building for the Worcester Woman's Club, which has been recently erected. In 1900 Mr. Salis- bury built on the summit of Bancroft Hill, one of the most prominent elevations in Worcester, a gate- way of rough stone, known as Bancroft Tower, which affords an excellent opportunity for observa- tion. This has been opened to the public, together with the grounds surrounding it.

It is unusual in any family for one generation to succeed another during so long a period of time as that between John Salisbury in 1640 and his repre- sentative of the present day, without degeneration in some instance. Of the Salisbury family it is to be said that from the emigrant ancestor down the name has been a synonym for industry, integrity, public- spirit, and civic duties ably and faithfully performed. Each bearer of the name, in his own generation, has shown the faculty of making his work bear fruits beneficial to the general welfare of his fellow-citi- zens, and in no instance has he hesitated to devote himself, intellect and means to these ends.

The late Mr. Salisbury never married. The value of his estate at the time of his decease, which at this writing has not been settled. lias been by estimate fixed at from three to four millions of dollars.

WASHBURN FAMILY. This name is derived from two simple words-wash, which imples a swift current of a stream, and burne (or bourne), signi- fying a brook or small stream. It has been said of this family, whose origin is in England, carrying a . coat-of-arms, that the posterity of John Washburn, who was the first emigrant to locate in New Eng- land in 1632, "will seldom find occasion to blush upon looking back upon the past lives of those from whom they have descended. Fortunate indeed, may the generations now in being, esteem themselves, if they can be sure to bequeath to their posterity an equal source of felicitation."

In this illustrious family have been found some of our nation's greatest characters, in public and private life, including great lawyers, statesmen and

military men in all of the American wars. Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and Wisconsin have each had governors from this Washburn family, and three brothers served as congressmen from three states at the same time, and all with much ability. Authors and college graduates may be found to a score or more, who have left their impress upon the world. As manufacturers, they have excelled, and wherever wire goods and wire fencing are known, there is found the name Washburn as being pioneers in this line.

(I) John Washburn, the original immigrant, who settled at Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 1632, married Margery and by her was born a son named John, of Bridgewater, who married in 1645 Eliza Mitchell. His father was secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and he, with his two sons, John and Philip, were able to bear arms in 1643. The immigrant and his son John were among the original fifty-four persons who became proprie- tors of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1645. They bought the lands of the old Sachem Massasoit, for seven coats of one and a half yards each, nine hatchets, eight hoes, twenty knives, four moose skins, ten and a half yards of cotton cloth. The transfer was signed by Miles Standish, Samuel Nash and Constant Southworth.

(II) John Washburn was born in England, 1621, and his brother Philip at the same place in 1624. He died unmarried. John (II) and his wife Eliza Mitchell had these children: John, married Rebecca Lepham; Thomas, married (first) Abigail Leonard and (second) Deliverance Packard; Jo- seph, married Hannah Latham; Samuel, married Deboralı Packard; Jonathan, married Mary Vaughan; Benjamin, died on the Phipps expedition to Canada; Mary, married Samuel Kingsley ; Eliza- beth, married (first) James Howard and (second) Edward Sealy; Jane, married William Orcutt ; James, married Mary Bowden; Sarah, married John Ames.

(III) Samuel Washburn, son of John (2), called "Sergeant." was born in 1651 at Duxbury, Massa- chusetts. He married Deborah Packard, by whom he had six children, including Israel.

(IV) Israel Washburn, born at Bridgewater, 1684, married Waitstill Sumner in 1708, and had four children-one named Israel.

(V) Israel Washburn, who settled at Rayn- ham, was born August II, 17IS, and married Leah Fobes. He was committeeman of "Inspection and Safety" and captain of a train band, 1774, and served a short time in the revolutionary war. His son was Israel.

(VI) Israel Wahburn, son of Israel Washburn (5), was born in 1775, and married a Miss King in 1783. He served in the revolution and was at the Lexington alarm. He served in the general court and was a member of the constitutional convention. He talked but little and made but one speech in public life. He died at Raynham, 1841. Of his ten children Israel (VII) was one.

(VII) Israel Washburn, son of Israel (6), was born at Raynham, Massachusetts. November 18, 1784, died at Livermore. Maine, September 1, 1876. He went to Maine in 1806 and taught school for a time and then engaged in ship and boat building. He removed to Livermore in 1809 and bought a farm, store and goods, and continued in trade until 1829. This farm was later and is still known as the "Nor- lands." He represented his "district of Maine" be- fore it had been set off from Massachusetts, which was in 1820. He served in 1815, 1816, 1818 and ISI9. Toward the end of his life he was afflicted by blindness and his friends used to read the news to him, of which he never tired. He was great in

WORCESTER COUNTY

cheerfulness, rivaled Lincoln in story-telling and could remember events well. It is said he could name all congressmen and give the district to which they belonged, when he himself had three sons in congress.

His noble son, Hon. Elihu B., of Illinois fame, wrote from Paris, when Minister to France, as follows :

"This is the eighty-sixth birthday of my father. All hail to the glorious, great hearted, great headed, noble old man! In truth, the noblest Roman of them all. How intelligent, how kind, how genial, how hospitable, how true !"

This same worthy son had carved on his father's monument at death, "He was a kind father and an honest man." Passers by. to-day, may see this in the cemetery overlooking the family place, "The Norlands."

(VIII) Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, the only mem- ber who still clung to the final "e" on his name, was the son of Israel (7), born at Livermore, Maine, September 23, 1816, and died at Chicago, Illinois, October 22, 1887, aged seventy-one years. In his early manhood, he taught school for ten dol- lars per month and "boarded round." In 1836 he entered Kents Hill Seminary, and in 1839 the Cam- bridge Law School. In 1840 he moved to Illinois, practicing law at Galena. In 1852 he was elected to a seat in congress, continuing sixteen years, and upon retirement was known as the "Watch Dog of the U. S. Treasury" and also as "Father of the House." He swore into office Schuyler Colfax and James G. Blaine as speakers. To him and William Seward alone did Abraham Lincoln confide the secret of the running of his train from Philadelphia to Wash- ington, March, 1861, when Washburne had the tele- graph wires cut, fearing trouble would ensue en route. Both Seward and Washburne agreed to meet him at the depot in Washington, but Washburne was the only friend who did in fact meet him. He was a constituent and admirer of General Grant, who owed to him promotion to high office. In 1869 Grant offered him a place in his cabinet as secretary of state, which he soon resigned and accepted the office of Minister to France, and was there during the trying days of the siege and commune, coinci- dent with the Franco-Prussian war. He remained there nearly nine years, and longer than any prede- cessor. During the Andrew Johnson impeachment trial, he was chairman of the house committee.

He married in 1845, Adele Gratiot, granddaugh- ter of Stephen Hemstead, of Connecticut, a soldier of the revolutionary war. She died March, 1887, aged sixty, her husband only surviving her until October 22. Their son, Gratiot Washburne, was graduated from the Highland Military Academy of Worcester and from the Naval Academy at New- port, Rhode Island. He was secretary of the United States legation under his father in France, and was une of four upon whom the French government be- stowed the Cross of Legion of Honor for services performed during the siege of Paris. He was secretary of the American Exposition at London in 1886, and died suddenly in Kentucky.

(VIII) Governor Israel Washburn, son of Israel (7), was born at Livermore, Maine, June 6, 1813. He was admitted to the bar in 1823. He was in the legislature in 1842 and congressman from Maine in the thirty-second, thirty-third, thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth United States congresses He was first a Whig and later a Republican. He was elected governor of Maine in 1860, and Lin- coln made him collector of the port of Portland in 1863. He was a literary man and also lectured much. He married (first) Mary M. Webster and (second) Robina Naper Brown, of Boston, in 1876.

He died May 12, 1883, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His son Israel was an officer in the Sixteenth Maine Regiment during the civil war period.

(VIII) General C. C. Washburn, ex-Governor of Wisconsin, was fully named Cadwallader Colden Washburn. He was the son of Israel, born at Livermore, Maine, 1818. de was a land surveyar, went to Illinois in 1839, and settled at Mineral Point, Wisconsin. He practiced law, and in 1859 moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin. He was elected to congress, serving from 1856 to 1862. He was dele- gate to the peace convention in 1861, and raised a cavalry regiment the same year and was made colonel. During 1862 he was promoted to brigadier- general and then to major-general, and was at Vicksburg with Grant and under General Banks in Louisiana. In 1867 he was elected to a seat in con- gress from Wisconsin, serving until 1871, when he was chosen governor of Wisconsin.

(VII) Governor Emory Washburn, of Massa- chusetts, descended from the original immigrant thus: I. John and Margery; 2. John and Eliza- beth Mitchell; 3. Joseph and Hannah Latham ; 4. Joseph and Hannah Johnson; 5. Seth and Mary Harrod; 6. Joseph and Ruth Davis; 7. Governor Emory, who was born in Leicester, Worcester county, Massachusetts, 1800, and graduated at Williams College, 1817. In 1826 and 1827 we find him in the general court of Massachusetts, and in 1841 and 1842, state senator, in 1844 judge of the court of common pleas, from which bench he re- signed in 1847, and in 1853 he became governor of the state he had so faithfully served. He was made a professor in law at Harvard College in 1856, con- tinuing until March 18, 1877, when death claimed him. He was a noted author of many law works, genealogy and general historical books and papers, including the excellent "History of Leicester," his native place. He married Marianna C. Giles, who bore him three children.

(V) John Washburn, son of John (4), was born in 1699, married Abigail Johnson, and had these children : John, born 1730, married Lydia Prince; Abigail, born 1732; Mary, born 1734; Mercy, born 1736; Seth, born 1738, married (first) Faer How- ard, (second) Ann Fullerton, (third) Deborah Churchill; Phillip; Thankful, born 1742.

(VI) Seth Washburn, born 1738, married as above three wives and his children were: Fear, born 1766; Perris; Abigail; Seth born 1769, married Sarah Adams; Ichabod; Anna (by second wife) ; Ephraim (by third wife).

(VII) Captain Ichabod Washburn, son of Seth (6), was born about 1771, and in 1793 married Sylvia Bradford, whose ancestors came in the "May- flower." through the following line: Governor Will- iam Bradford, who came on that ship, had a son, William, whose son, Samuel, had a son, Gamaliel, whose son, Gamaliel, Jr., had a son named Peabody, whose daughter. Sylvia, was the wife of Captain Ichabod Washburn, who was a sea captain and lost his life while off the coast at Portland. Maine, helping to care for his brother seamen who were sick with yellow fever. He died at twenty-eight years of age, leaving three children: Ichabod (VIII) and Charles (twins), who subsequently came to Worcester, and a daughter Pamelia.

(VIII) Ichabod Washburn, the founder of the great wire industry in Worcester, which is now a prominent factor in. the American Steel and Wire Company, son of Ichabod and Sylvia (Bradford) Washburn, was born August II. 1798, at Kingston, Massachusetts. His father died when he was but an infant, and his mother was left to support her- self and little ones by working at her loom and spinning wheel. When nine years of age Ichabod

WORCESTER COUNTY

Washburn went to live with a harness maker in Duxbury, Massachusetts, where he did chores and learned to stitch harness, attending school during the winter terms. After five years' experience at Duxbury, he returned to Kingston and worked for a time in a small cotton factory. At the age of sixteen years he was employed as an apprentice to learn the blacksmith's trade with Jonathan and David Trask, of Leicester. After a service of two years the firm dissolved partnership, and young Washburn found employment with Nathan Muzzey at the same trade, engaging to work for two years, to receive fifty dollars for his services, be allowed twelve weeks schooling and furnished with board and clothing. Mr. Muzzey at the end of a year left Leicester for the adjoining town of Auburn, Wash- burn accompanying him, continuing until his twen- tieth birthday. In the winter of 1817 and 1818 he went to Millbury to work as journeyman, but within a few weeks the news came that a position as clerk in Mr. Warren's grocery store in Portland, Maine, was awaiting him, his sister having become in the meantime Mrs. Warren. A brief trial at clerking in his brother-in-law's store convinced him that he was better adapted to mechanical than mercantile pursuits, and he returned to Millbury and began making ploughs on his own account. He had no funds, but, though a stranger, came to Worcester and presented his case to Mr. Daniel Waldo, a man of means, who heard his story and upon his own note gave him money with which to operate. This was his start financially. In 1819 he worked in an armory making ramrods, and in the autumn of that year came to Worcester.

In 1820 he engaged in business with William H. Howard, manufacturing woolen machinery and lead pipe, and soon thereafter purchased Mr. Howard's interest in the business. In 1822 he took as a part- ner Benjamin Goddard, and with the increase of business they employed thirty workmen. They made the first condenser and long-roll spinning-jack that was made in the county. During the winter of 1830 and 1831, while on School street, he experimented in the manufacture of wooden screws. Later he and Goddard sold their business and moved to Northville, where the manufacture of wire and wooden screws began, the wire being made by Wash- burn & Goddard and the screws by C. Reed & Com- pany, associates. They also made card-wire. Some in 1836-37 the screw business was removed to Prov- idence, and finally merged into the "American Screw Company." In January, 1835, he dissolved with Goddard at Northville, and continued the wire busi- ness in a building erected for him by Stephen Salis- bury, on Mill brook, which furnished the power for driving the crude and experimental machinery then in use. This building was forty by eighty feet, three stories high. In 1835 his twin brother, Charles, came from Harrison, Maine, where he had been practic- ing law, and formed a partnership with his brother, which terminated in January, 1838, but soon after the substitution of the "wire-block" by Ichabod Wash- burn, which revolutionized the industry, the busi- ness began rapidly to multiply, and in 1842 they again associated themselves as partners, the firm name being 1. & C. Washburn.

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Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I, Part 4

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 824

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 824