Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I, Part 44

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 44

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The children of Joseph and Abigail Wheeler were: Phebe, born January II, 1727-8, married, March 3, 1746, Jotham Wilder, of Lancaster, born in I710. had six children : Wilder was a descendant of Thomas Wilder, of Shiplake, Berkshire, Eng- land; Reuben, December 3, 1729, died July 29, 1763, of small pox while in the military service of George III in Ireland, was unmarried; Rachel, September 15. 1731. died May 15, 1790. in Lancaster, unmar+ ried; Joseph, March 13, 1735; Abigail, March 13, 1737, died October 25, 1817: married (first). July 23. 1758, Louis Conqueret, mariner, had one child Mary; married (second) Joseph Rogers, of Lan- caster.

(IV) Joseph Wheeler, son of Joseph Wheeler (3), was born March 13, 1735, died February 10, 1793, in Worcester. He married (first), January 8, 1761. Mary Greenleaf, daughter of Dr. Daniel and Silence (Nichols) (Marsh) Greenleaf, of Bolton. Dr. Daniel Greenleaf was born in Cambridge, No- vember 2, 1702, and died 1795. He was a descendant of Edmund Greenleaf, born in the parish of Brix- ham, Devonshire, near Torbay, England, about 1600, came to America in 1635 with his family and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts. He was a dyer by trade, was admitted a freeman March 13. 1638-9. kept a tavern 1639, magistrate-commissioner to end small causes in 1642. captain of the militia company. His will was made December 22, 1668, and proved April 12. 1671. Silence Nichols was born in Hing- ham, July 4, 1702, died in Bolton, May 13, 1761. She was the daughter of Israel and Mary (Sumner) Nichols and widow of David Marsh. Mary Sumner was a descendant in the third generation from William Sumner; Senator Charles Sumner was descended in the same line, the seventh generation.

Joseph Wheeler was under the care of his grand- mother after he was three years of age. He went to school at the age of fifteen to prepare for college and entered Harvard at the age of eighteen. He graduatd in the class of 1757 and studied divinity with Rev .. Mr. Woodward, of Weston. He taught school in the town of Weston. In 1759 he was ap- probated to preach and "ordained to the pastoral care of the Church of Christ in Harvard" Decem- ber 12, 1759. Two years later he married Mary Greenleaf. Her father Dr. Daniel and her grand- father Dr. Daniel were both physicians. The latter became a minister of the Gospel. Dr. Daniel Green- leaf, Jr., was at first at Hingham, where he married and afterward removed to Bolton, Massachusetts. in which town he practiced, living to the age of ninety-three years. His second wife was Dolly, widow of Josiah Richardson. His children num- bered ten. of whom Mary was the ninth. She was eighteen and a half years old when she married and had ten children when she died at the age of forty-

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one. Dr. Greenleaf's grandfather was Captain Stephen, distinguished in the Indian wars, deputy to general court, a prominent citizen.

Rev. Joseph Wheeler erected a house in Harvard soon after his settlement there. This house is well preserved and is now (or was recently) occupied by William H. Savage. He left the ministry July 28, 1768, but continued to reside in Harvard and was prominent in all the affairs of the town. He was an ardent patriot and was elected to various positions of trust and honor. He was a member of the local committee of safety and correspondence and attended the convention of committees at Worcester, August 9, 1774. He was a member of the provincial con- gress held at Salem, October 7, 1774, and at Water- town, July 19, 1775. In these assemblies he served at the head of important committees. He represented Harvard in the session of the general court held at Watertown, July 19, 1775. At the Lexington alarm he marched as a private in Captain Joseph Fairbanks' company. Colonel Asa Whitcomb's regi- ment. He spent several weeks at Washington's headquarters and tradition says that he was chap- lain to Washington. Another tradition is that he assisted in laying out the fortifications at Bunker Hill. There is no proof of this except a cane and cannon ball treasured in the family as mementoes. The cannon ball was fired at a group of men on the slope of the hill from a British man of war in the harbor. It cut a sucker from the appletree under which the group was standing and it lodged in the earth near by. Mr. Wheeler secured both ball and stick from which he made a cane.

Mr. Wheeler was appointed register of probate for Worcester county in 1775, but continued to re- side at Harvard until 1781, when he purchased an acres and a half of land on Main street, Worcester, nearly opposite the present site of the court house, and erected there a house which report says that he brought from Harvard. Not long afterward he built the house long known as the Wheeler mansion. This estate remained in the family a hundred years. He held various offices in Worcester and continued in the office of register until his death in 1793. His wife died in 1783 and the following year he married Mrs. Margaret Jennison, widow of Cap- tain Israel Jennison, of Worcester. She was the thirteenth child of Antoine and Mary Sigourne, French Huguenots, and her maiden name was Mar- guerita Olivier. She was born at Annapolis, Nova Scotia, and was married in 1746 to Joseph Coolidge. a distinguished merchant of Boston, by whom she had seven children, one of whom, Margaret, became the wife of Jacob Sweetser, of Lancaster. Mr. .Coolidge died in 1771, and she married in 1775 Captain Israel Jennison. She survived her third husband, dicd at the age of ninety and was buried in the tomb of her son, Joseph Coolidge, in King's Chapel burying ground, Boston.

The estate of Rev. Joseph Wheeler in Worcester, on which he resided, contiguous to those of Joseph Lynde and Judge Edward Bangs, extended east- ward several hundred feet equally with the others. These grounds were well cultivated and stocked with choice fruits and flowering shrubs. This unique garden is described by a relative as follows : "In the rear of these mansions were extensive gard- ens of equal size; across the lower part flowed a purling stream and rare fruits and choice flowers, fountains and the more common embellishments were the result of the industry. taste and skill of the younger branches of the families. Near the centre of each garden was an arbor covered with vines and furnished with scats and also a closet, a deposit for such books and luxuries as might by

chance find their way there. Or, as another descrip- tion has it "liberally stocked with all the edibles and delicacies that a company of merry young people would enjoy on a moonlight evening. They entertained each other with music and similar enjoyments that made the occasions life-long memories of vanished joys."

The children of Rev. Joseph and Mary (Green- leaf) Wheeler were: I. Elizabeth, born December 31, 1761, died July IS, 1782, unmarried. 2. Mary, born April 7, 1863, died at Kingston, Jamaica, of yellow fever, May 4, 1799; married, March 24, 1790, Ezra Waldo Weld, son of Rev. Ezra and Anna (Weld) Weld, of Braintree. 3. Theophilus. born December 22, 1764, died at Worcester, August 1.4. 1840; married Elizabeth Lynde, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Lemmon) Lynde, of Worcester, who came to Worcester from Charlestown after it was destroyed by the British. Theophilus Wheeler was register of probate at Worcester forty-three years, town clerk five years, treasurer two years, overseer of schools, overseer of house of correction, director of the Worcester Bank eighteen years, served as soldier against the Sahy insurgents. 4. Joseph, born August 27,' 1766, died at Dixfield, Maine, January 21, 1852; married, January 13, 1793, Lucy Sumner, daughter of Rev. Joseph and Lucy (Williams) Sumner, of Shrewsbury. Rev. Joseph Sumner was a descendant of George Sumner, born in England. February 14, 1634, later settled at Milton, Massachu- setts. 5. Daniel Greenleaf, born March 14, 1768, died December 10, 1847: married, September 23, 1799, Elizabeth Dupee Sweetser, daughter of Jacob and Margaret (Coolidge) Sweetser, of Lancaster ; she died December 15, 1800. He married (second), November 14, 1802, Elizabeth Grosvenor, daughter of Rev. Ebenezer and Elizabeth Grosvenor; she died August 18, 1803. He married (third), 1805, Nancy Clapp, daughter of William and Priscilla ( Otis) Clapp, of Scituate. 6. John, born May 17. 1770. died at Dover, New Hampshire, April 3. 1840 ; married (first), March 12, 1793, Rebecca Harris, daughter of Captain William and Rebecca (Mason) Harris, and sister of Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris, of Dorchester; she was of Malden, born April 17, 1770, died January 28, 1804. John was an apothecary, postmaster twenty-six years, representative to the general court, associate justice court of common pleas, founder of the Cocheco Manufacturing Co., first president of the Strafford Bank. 7. Moses, born April 4, 1772, died at Boston, March 27, 1838; married (first), November 8, 1807, Elizabeth Porter, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Lamb) Porter. of Malden. S. Clarissa, born February 1, 1774, died at Medford, May 26, 1844, unmarried. 9. Abigail. born February 1776, died Andover, Massa- chusetts, February 21, 1846; married, Octo- ber, I799, Rev. Leonard Woods, son of

Samuel and Abigail Whitney (Underwood )

Woods. He was born at Princeton, June 19, 1774. died at Andover, August 24. 1854. He married ( second) Lucia J., widow of Dr. Ansel G. Ives, of New York (H. C. 1796) ; professor in Andover Theological Seminary thirty-eight years. 10. Levi, horn October 22, 1779, died at Worcester, March 8, 1781. 11. Sophia, born at Worcester, January 20, 1782, died at Danvers, October 8, 1831; married, May 17, 1807. Rev. Samuel Walker, of Danvers. horn at Haverhill, January 27, 1779, died at Danvers, July 7, 1826 (D. C. 1802), pastor of Danvers Church from 1805 till his death.

(V) Joseph Wheeler, son of Joseph Wheeler (4), was born in Harvard, Massachusetts, Angust 27. 1766, died at Dixfield, Maine, January 21, 1852. He married. January 13, 1793, Lucy Sumner, dangh-

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ter of Rev. Joseph and Lucy (Williams) Sumner, of Shrewsbury. She was born December 24, 1771, died April 10, 1863.

Rev. Joseph Sumner was a descendant of William Sumner, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, who was born at Bicester, Oxfordshire, England, and bap- tized January 27, 1604-5, son of Roger and Joan (Franklin) Sumner. He married Mary West, Octo- ber 22, 1625, was admitted freeman May 17, 1637, was deputy to the general court, town officer, commis- sioner to try small causes. His son George, through whom descent is traced, was born in England, Feb- ruary 14, 1634, settled at Milton, Massachusetts. Rev. Joseph was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth ( Griffin) Sumner.

The children of Joseph and Lucy (Sumner) Wheeler were. Lucy Williams, born at Worcester, September 14, 1793, died 1881, at Rumford, Maine ; married David Kimball, had twelve children ; Dorothy Sumner, born in Worcester, September 5, 1795, died in Worcester, 1865; married (first) Ben- jamin Doyen, (second) Elisha Hayden; Sarah Dan- ielson, born at Princeton, June 19, 1798, died in Dixfield, Maine, April 12, 1843, unmarried; Eunice Russell, born at Princeton, February 17, 1801, died in Dixfield, Maine, 1886; married Daniel Sumner Libby, born January 17, 1837; Joseph Sumner, born at Dixfield, Maine, May 9, 1803, died 1870; married Phebe Cole Gleason, had nine children; Erastus Williams, born at Dixfield, Maine, June 17, 1805, died in Worcester, January 17, 1893; married, Octo- ber 5, 1842, Sarah Pollard, daughter of Stephen and Betsey (Hastings) Pollard, of Berlin; Elizabeth Sumner, born at Dixfield, Maine, February 22, 1809, died at Worcester, July 12. 1879; married, January 29, 1850, Edwin Conant, of Worcester, son of Jacob Conant, of Sterling. His first wife was Maria E. Estabrook, daughter of Joseph Estabrook, of Royal- ton, married 1832.

(VI) Erastus Williams Wheeler, son of Joseph Wheeler (5), was born at Dixfield, Maine, June 17, 1805, died in Worcester, January 17, 1893; mar- ried, October 5, 1842, Sarah Pollard, daughter of Stephen and Betsey (Hastings) Pollard, of Berlin. Their children were: Joseph Pollard, born July 28, 1843; Henry Theophilus, June 25, 1845, died in Flor- ence, Alabama, October 16, 1864, in a Rebel prison ; Edwin Wallace, November 13, 1848, married, April, 1872, Clara A. Black, daughter of Edward B. and Matilda A. (Freeman) Black, of Salem, Nova Scotia ; William Jennison, September 13, 1851, married, February 14, 1877, Ida Stratton, daughter of Samuel and Isabelle (Brimhall) Stratton, has one child, Lotta Belle, born January 1, 1883.

(VII) Edwin Wallace Wheeler, son of Erastus William Wheeler (6), was born in Worcester, Massa- chusetts, November 13, IS48. He is a farmer in Wor- cester, a member of the Worcester Grange, Patrons Husbandry. He inherited his father's farm on Forest street. He married, April 4, 1872, Clara A. Black, daughter of Edward B. and Matilda A. (Freeman) Black, of Salem, Nova Scotia. Their children are : Edward William, born May 1, 1873; Henry Clif- ford, April 19, 1875; Sarah Matilda, May 9, 1877 , died January 22, 1892; Alice Abbie, June IO, I888: Wallace Sumner, April 30, 1893.

(VIII) Edward William Wheeler, son of Ed- win Wallace Wheeler (7), was born May I. 1873. He was educated in the Worcester public schools and at Highland Military Academy at Worcester. His father expected him to assist on the farm but he thoroughly disliked farming and left home. Hc went to work for Fuller & Delano, architects, in Worcester, and found the business to his tastes. He studied architecture and remained with Fuller

& Delano for five years. He was with the Webb Granite and Construction Company for six months. He went into business with Albert E. Scoville in the contracting and building business. The firm name is Scoville & Wheeler. They have offices in the Knowles building, 518 Main street. They have had a large variety of contracts and have been suc- cessful. It is one of the most promising firm of builders . in Worcester.

Some of the work of the firm is as follows : The Howe Memorial Library in Shrewsbury; the women's and men's wards and the adminis- tration building in the State Colony for the Insane at Gardner, Massachusetts; two mod-

ern school houses at Gardner ; the postoffice building at Gardner, owned by Hey-

wood estate; buildings and additions to the plant of Heywood Bros. & Wakefield Co. at Gardner, Massachusetts ; residence of John S. Gould, Germain street, Worcester; residences in Worcester for Fred A. Mann, Lenox street, for Samuel D. Spurr, Dean street, Mrs. W. J. Wheeler, nee Stratton, Forest street, for her daughter, Mrs. Lotta Tracey; resi- dences of L. E. Carlton, president of the Heywood Bros. & Wakefield Co., at Gardner, costing twenty thousand dollars; residence for E. L. Thompson, the chair manufacturer of Baldwinville; and a number of handsome residences and stables in Westboro and Gardner.

Captain Wheeler is best known perhaps for his excellent record in the militia. But for his energy and persistent work to maintain the standard of efficiency at a critical time, this organization in which the citizens of Worcester take great pride and which has maintained a long and honorable record, would have been disbanded. He enlisted January 21, 1891. and has been in the militia ever since. He was made a corporal September 9, 1892, and was promoted to sergeant January 18, 1894, having charge of one of the gatling guns then in the possession of Battery B, to which he belonged. When the guns were transferred to another branch of the service he be- came a guidon corporal. He was again appointed sergeant June 1, 1895, and first sergeant June 4, 1902. His promotion to second lieutenant came March 18, 1903. Just a year later, May 19, 1904, he received his commission as captain of the battery in which he had been for thirteen years of continuous service. The title of his command in full is Battery B, First Battalion, Light Artillery, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. The celebration of the thirty- fifth anniversary of the battery was observed Octo- ber 18, 1904. There was a parade, a banquet in the drill shed and a drill at the Fair Grounds. The speeches of Congressman Thayer, Mayor Blodgett, Representative Mark N. Skerrett, General Robert H. Chamberlain, Captain E. G. Barrett, Rev. Dr. Willard Scott, President W. H. Brody and General F. W. Wellington showed the esteem in which the organization is held and the credit due the com- manding officer while lieutenant in maintaining the efficiency of the battery. The inspection of the bat- tery April 12, 1905, was a source of satisfaction to the officers and men, who were complimented on their work.

Captain Wheeler is a prominent Free Mason, being a member of Athelstan Lodge, Eureka Royal Arch Chapter and the Worcester County Command- ery, Knights Templar. He is equally active in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a member of Quinsigamond Lodge, and Mt. Vernon Encamp- ment, also of the Patriarchs Militant, Grand Canton, of Worcester. He is assistant adjutant general with the rank of major on the staff of Brigade Com- mander Daniel Harrington. He is a member of the

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Commonwealth Club, the Tatassit Canoe Club, Wor- cester County Mechanics' Association, Worcester County Agricultural Society, Worcester Grange, Patrons of Husbandry.

BLACK FAMILY. William Black (1) was the emigrant ancestor of the mother of Edward W. Wheeler, of Worcester. William Black was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1727. His father was a public officer and possessed an independent fortune. His leisure was largely employed in the chase and he kept a good pack of hounds, and until William, his son, was of age, he inade hunting his chief amusement. His first occupation was in the posi- tion of traveling salesman for a large manufacturing establishment. In one of his business trips he met an English lady in Huddersfield, England, whom he subsequently married. Her name was Elizabeth Stocks. He engaged in the business of linen and woolen drapery.

By the chance misspelling of the name Stokes for Stocks in the will of her brother, Thomas Stocks, a fortune of twenty thousand pounds intended for her went to a maiden lady named Elizabeth Stokes, a relative of Mrs. Black. Mrs. Black received only fifteen hundred pounds from the estate. Mrs.

Black was a woman of fashion in her day, and when she came to Nova Scotia with her husband she brought her scarlet riding habit and the cap she used to wear in the hunts; also dresses of em- broidered white satin and other rich garments for which she found little use in the life of a pioneer. William Black was attracted by the movement to settle Nova Scotia after the expulsion of the French from Arcadia. There were rich agricultural dis- tricts untenanted since 1755. In 1758 Governor Law- rence, of Nova Scotia, had given invitations to the inhabitants of New England to settle these lands. Liberal terms were given and freedom of conscience and worship was guaranteed by a proclamation. Various religious sects were persecuted by the Puri- tans in Massachusetts and there were vexations re- strictions in religious worship in New York, Vir- ginia and other colonies. A small Baptist church emigrated en masse from Massachusetts to Sack- ville, then Nova Scotia, now New Brunswick, in 1763.

Michael Franklin, then lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, engaged several families to emigrate from Yorkshire, England, to Nova Scotia, in 1772 and others in 1773 and 1774. Mr. Black went to Halifax in 1774 to see the country. He concluded to try the new country and purchased an estate at Amherst, a part of which is occupied or was recently occupied by his descendants. He returned to his home in England in the fall and in the following April chartered a vessel in which he brought his wife, four sons and a daughter. A nurse girl who came with the family later married a son of one of the settlers. Mrs. Black was injured while embark- ing at Hull and this accident probably hastened her death a year later. When Mr. Black made his home in America Halifax had been settled about twenty- five years and had a population of three thousand. There were twelve thousand souls in the whole province at that time. Most of these settlers were Methodists and William Black, his wife, four sons and daughter joined that church in 1779. One son, William Black, became a Methodist preacher. an- other. John Black, a local preacher in the Methodist church. Thomas S. Black, another son, joined the Baptist church later. Mr. Black was justice of the peace for Cumberland and in 1779 was appointed judge of the common pleas. He was one of three trustces of the court house grounds for the county. Many of the New England settlers in Nova

Scotia were in sympathy with the revolution in the other colonies in 1775. and in 1776, by the in- fluence of disaffected persons in the county and vicinity, the garrison at Fort Cumberland was be- sieged by a force from Machias. They disarmed those who were loyal to the British government and forbade them to stir off their farms under penalty of imprisonment or death. The British forces finally appeared in such large numbers that Nova Scotia revolutionists were subdued.

The names of the children of William and Eliza- beth (Stocks) Black who came from England with their parents were: John, William, Richard, Thomas Stocks and Sarah. He married soon after his wife's death Elizabeth Abber, by whom he had seven chil- dren. After his second marriage he purchased a large estate in Dorchester, New Brunswick, where he spent the latter part of his life with his son Joseph. He died in 1820 at the advanced age of ninety-three years. His wife died some years before. At the age of eighty-eight he was strong and active and rode thirty miles on horseback to pay a visit to his sons in Amherst. Some of his descendants are or recently were living on the old place at Dorchester.

The children of William Black (I) were: 1. Jolin, married Barbara Donkin, and settled at River Philip; was a Methodist local preacher, justice of the peace, had six sons and five daughters. 2. Will- iam, born in Huddersfield. England, in 1760, and removed with his father's family to Cumberland in 1775, became a Methodist preacher and converted many to that faith in his itinerant preaching ; he was called Bishop Black and the Father of Methodism in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, as he was the pioneer itinerant of Methodism in the three lower provinces, where Methodism has been very strong in later years. He preached for seven years and a half before he was ordained. In 1789 among the first to be ordained in America he was ordained at a conference in Philadelphia, and was soon after- ward appointed to succeed Dr. Coke as superin- tendent of the Methodist organization in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Rev. William Black married Mary Gay, daughter of Martin Gay, of Westmoreland, and had five children. His wife died in 1827, aged seventy-three. He mar- ried (second), in 1828, Mrs. Calkins, widow of Elisha Calkins, of Liverpool, Nova Scotia. He died 1834. aged seventy-four years. 3. Richard, born in England, 1762, was thirteen when he arrived with the family at Amherst, Cumberland. 4. Thomas Stocks, born in England, came to America with his father, married Mary Freeze, whose father also came from England; settled at Amherst on a farm of five hundred and forty acres which has since been owned by him and his descendants and greatly improved. In 1806 he left the Methodist church to join the Baptist and was later elected deacon, an office he held until his death in 1850, aged eighty- four years; his wife died 1842, aged sixty-six years ; had seven sons and five daughters. 5. Sarah, born in England, married John Chapman, who also came from England with his father, settled at 'Dorchester on what is now very valuable farm land, was justice of the peace at Dorchester; had six children. 6. Elizabeth, married Joshua Freeman, who settled on a farm in the centre of Amherst ; about 1816 he sold the farm and removed to Hamilton, now Ontario, taking his large family with him; they had twelve children. 7. Mary, born in Nova Scotia, married John Weldon, whose father was one of the first emigrants from England to Dorchester, removing thence from Hillsboro, New Brunswick: was a farmer had five children. S. Nancy, born in Nova

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Scotia, married Cyprian Killam, of Nova Scotia, whose parents came from England, settled in Dor- chester ou a farm; had seven sons and four daugh- ters. 9. Jane, married John Fawcett, of Sackville, New Brunswick, where they settled and engaged in farming; had five children. 10. James, married Elizabeth Etter, of Halifax, settled on a portion of the farm of his father at Dorchester; had nine children. 11. Joseph A., inherited a portion

of his father's farm just above the bend in

the Memramcook river and overlooking tle river to its mouth; married Margaret Ryan, had eight children. 12. George Mason, set- tled on part of his father's estate at Dorchester, where he followed his trade of cabinet and carriage maker; married (first) Emily Freeman, daughter of Samuel Freeman, of Amherst; married (second ) Sarah Smith, daughter of Gideon Smith, of Men- ramcook; had five children by the first wife and fourteen by the second.

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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 44

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