Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I, Part 62

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 62

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He was elected by the general court constable of Concord, December 4, 1638. He was a deputy to the general court seven years, representing the town of Concord. He was captain of the Concord com- pany. He held various other offices. He was an assessor, or "appraiser of horses, cattle, etc., for the purpose of taxing." He was appointed a special officer to prevent drunkenness among the Indians. He purchased of the general court the right to carry on the fur trade at Concord for the sum of five pounds. In his day he was a leading citizen, both in civil affairs and in the military.

His wife Grace died May 12, 1664. He died in- testate, May 21, 1667. An agreement among his heirs on file at the probate office made June 17, 1667, was signed by the eldest son, Joshua Brooks, Captain Timothy Wheeler, husband of Mary Brooks, Caleb Brooks and Gershom Brooks, also sons of Captain Thomas. The children of Captain Thomas Brooks were: I. Mary, married Captain Timothy Wheeler, of Concord. He died July 10, 1687; she died October 4, 1693. 2. Hannah, married, Decem- ber 13, 1647, Thomas Fox. 3. Joshua, of whom later. 4. Caleb, born 1632, married, April 10, 1660, Susan- nah Atkinson (daughter of Thomas Atkinson), born 1641 and died 1669; married (second) Hannah, sister of his first wife, born 1643; removed from Concord to Medford in 1670. 5. Gershom, married, March 12, 1666-7, Hannah Eckles, daughter of Rich- ard and Mary Eckles, of Cambridge, had sons Daniel and Joseph, and four daughters. There may have been other children of Captain Thomas Brooks.

(11) Joshua Brooks, son of Captain Thomas Brooks (I), was born about 1630, probably in Eng- land. He married, October 17, 1653, Hannah Ma- son, daughter of Captain Hugh Mason. He was a tanner by trade. He settled in that part of Con- cord later made the town of Lincoln, where many of his family and his descendants have since lived. Three generations of his descendants in the direct male line have successively held the office of deacon of the Lincoln Church. He was the ancestor of nearly all the name since in Concord and Lincoln. He inherited one-half the Medford property, but there is no account of its disposition except that in January, 1708. He learned his trade as furrier and tanner from Captain Mason, and subsequently mar- ried his daughter. He was admitted as freeman May 26, 1652. The children of Joshua Brooks were: Hannah, married Benjamin Pierce, of Watertown; John, died May 18, 1697; Noah, born 1657, died Feb- ruary I, 1738-9; married Dorothy Wright, daughter probably of Edward Wright, of Concord. Grace born at Concord, March 10, 1660-1, died 1753, mar- ried Judah Potter; Daniel, born at Concord, No- vember 15, 1663, of whom later; Thomas, born May 5, 1666, died September 9, 1671; Esther, born July 4, 1668, died 1742; married, August 17, 1692, Benjamin Whittemore, born 1669, died 1734, son of John and Mary (Upham) Whittemore; Joseph, born Septem- ber 16, 1671, married (first) Abigail Bateman; (second) Rebecca Blodgett; Elizabeth, born Decem- ber 16, 1672; Job, born July 26, 1675, died May 18, 1697; Hugh, born January I, 1677-8, died January 17, 1746-7, married, March 9, 1701-2, Abigail Barker, born 1683, daughter of John and Judith (Simonds) Barker ; Thomas (possibly), married Elizabeth

(111) Daniel Brooks, son of Joshua Brooks (2), was born at Concord, Massachusetts, November 15, 1663. He was known as Daniel Brooks Sr., or Ensign Daniel Brooks. He died October 18, 1733. He married, August 9, 1690, Ann Meriam. She died January 24, 1757, and was daughter of John and Mary (Cooper) Meriam. His will is dated January 6, 1728-9. It mentions "my brother Joseph." wife Anna, daughters Anna Jones and Mary Wheeler, sons Samuel and Job and no others. The children of Daniel Brooks were: Daniel, born June 5, 1693, died young; Samuel, born May 5, 1694, married in Weston, September 6, 1738, Elizabeth Garfield; Han- nah or Anna, born February 21, 1695-6, married. 1716, John Jones, who died March 12, 1762, aged seventy-two years; she died in 1753; she had five children; Job, baptized 1698, (he was the father of John Brooks, and the grandfather of Hon. Eleazer Brooks), married, January 26, 1721, Eliza- beth Flagg; Mary, born March 2, 1699-1700, mar- ried Thomas Wheeler; John, born February 12, 1701-2.

(IV) Deacon John Brooks, son of Daniel Brooks (3), was born February 12, 1701-2, in Con- cord. He married Lydia Barker, daughter of John and Elizabeth Barker, and born June 18. 1711. He was deacon of the First Church in Acton, where he died March 6, 1777. Issue, four children recorded at Concord, the remainder at Acton: John, born December 17. 1728: Samuel, March 16, 1729-30; Charles, April 6, 1732; Lydia, May 7, 1734; Ephraim, August 5, 1736; Daniel, October 24, 1738; Nathaniel. February 17, 1740-1; Jonas, March 18, 1742-3, died March 15, 1746; Peter, March 29, 1745; Jonas, July 31, 1747.

(\') Captain Samuel Brooks, son of Deacon John Brooks (4), was born in Concord, Massa- chusetts, March 16, 1729-30. He married Mrs. Han- nah Brown, of Carlisle, Massachusetts, March 14,

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1755. Her maiden name was Hannah Davis, and she was a daughter of Simon and Hannah ( Brown) Davis, of Concord, Massachusetts, where she was born June 9, 1724. Captain Samuel Brooks settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 1752, the first of the name in that town, and where many of his descendants have lived and are living. He was on the jury list as early as 1760. He was elected field driver in 1762, highway surveyor in 1764, town warden in 1766, tythingman in 1768, juror of the superior court, highway surveyor in 1770, surveyor of boards, shingles, etc., and special committee to perambulate the town line between Shrewsbury and Worcester in 1771, juror in 1772, tythingman, school committee and special committees 1773. 1774, with many of the most wealthy and influential men of Worcester, he signed a protest against the acts and agitation of the committee of safety and correspondence. He apparently wished to avoid war and separation from the mother country, but when the war came he worked and fought against the crown. He was sent to the general court from Worcester in 1786 and 1787. He was a selectman from 1783 to 1793. He was captain in the militia. He died in Worcester, June 29, 1817, aged eighty- seven years. Hannah, his widow, died at Worcester, December 6, 1819, at the advanced age of ninety- five years. The child of Captain Samuel Brooks was: Samuel, horn at Worcester, Massachusetts, June 10, 1755.

(VI) Deacon Samuel Brooks, son of Captain Samuel Brooks (5), was born in Worcester, Massa- chusetts, June 10, 1755. He removed from Wor- cester, Massachusetts, to Haverhill, New Hampshire, at about the close of the revolution and settled there. He went to Haverhill to open a store at the "Cor- ner." He was also the owner of an oil mill on the brook, but was not very successful in these ventures. Later he went to Quebec in Canada, and contracted with the governor of the provinces for a tract of land in the town of Chester, then in an unbroken wilderness, and two of his brothers began lumber- ing in the forest. A year or two later, in 1812, he took his family to Canada, but owing to a change of governors in the provinces, the plans he had marked out were defeated, and he left Chester to settle Stanstead, Canada, where he lived to the close of his life. Deacon Brooks was, while in Haverhill, the History of Haverhill says, one of the most influential citizens of the town. He took part in all public affairs. He was a representative to the general court, selectman of the town, and filled many other positions of honor and trust. For many years he was the register of deeds for Grafton county, New Hampshire. He was a man of genial manners, very ingenious and skillful.

He married Ann Bedel Butler, March 8, 1789. She was the daughter of Colonel Timothy Bedel. who was prominent in the revolutionary war. She was the widow of Dr. Thaddeus Butler. Their daughter Hannah married for her first husband Cap- tain William Trotter, of Bradford, Vermont, and for her second husband Colonel William Barron, of the same town. Both it is said were famous in their day for their fondness for the chase, and they had access to hunt for deer back of Mt. Gardner. Barron was a gentleman of the old school, somewhat slightly built, and very dignified and commanding in person and in speech. Another daughter of Dea- con Samuel Brooks married Asa Low, of Bradford, Vermont, and a third, Judge Nesmith, of Franklin, New Hampshire. The Haverhill history says these women were of great excellence of character and ornaments of home, society and church. Other chil- dren were: Nathaniel, born in Haverhill, New

Hampshire. October 3. 1797, resided at Worcester, Massachusetts ; Samuel, Edwin, George Washing- ton, had twenty children. The old Brooks house where the Deacon lived in Haverhill stood on the South Park near where the pump now or was re- cently. The house and barn were afterward moved to Court street. It was remodeled and was recently occupied by Judge Westgate, and later by Mrs. Bar- stow. Samuel Brooks, son of Samuel Brooks (6), was born in 1793, at Haverhill, New Hampshire. He married Eliza Towle, of Haverhill. They lived a short time at Newbury, Vermont, then removed to Canada, where he became a prominent merchant at Stanstead, later at Lennoxville, where he was a farmer and trader. In 1837 he was appointed a delegate to go to London to interest capital in de- veloping Canada. He formed the British Land Company, and became the manager. He removed to Sherbrooke. He was manager there of a branch of the Montreal Bank. He was a promoter of the Grand Trunk Railroad. His sons William and Charles resided in Chicago. Another son, Dr. Sam- mel Brooks ( Dartmouth, 1874. McGill, M. D.). re- sides at St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Edward Brooks, son of Samuel (Vll), is also a graduate of Dart- mouth, is a lawyer, has been senator and judge of the Canadian courts. Edwin Brooks, son of Samuel Brooks (VI), was a lawyer in New York, removed to California, where he was living in 1888.

(VII) Nathaniel Brooks, son of Samuel Brooks (6), was born at Haverhill. New Hampshire, Oc- tober 3. 1797. His parents removed from Haverhill with a large family of children, and settled finally at Stanstead, Canada, where they both died. At the age of twenty-one Nathaniel Brooks came to Wor- cester, where his grandfather Brooks died in 1817, the year before. His grandfather had been in his day one of the leading citizens. He soon took a leading part in the affairs of the town of Worcester. He was selectman and filled various other town offices. He represented the town in the general court in 1843-44. He was deacon of the old South Church the last fourteen years of his life, and was highly esteemed for his many excellent qualities as a neighbor and citizen.

He married, April 9. 1822, Mary Chadwick, who was a member of the family for which Chadwick Square was named, was born in Worcester. July 3, 1794. She died August 31. 1876. He died November 3. 1850. They had eight children, all born in Wor- cester, as follows: John Adams, born April 10, 1823, died July 17, 1832: Charles Edwin, August 15, 1824: Elizabeth Fisk. June 8, 1826, married George Prich- ard, of Bradford, Vermont, June 5, 1844: Nathaniel Newton, November 27, 1828 (twin) ; Mary Chad- wick, November 27, 1828 (twin), married John Anderson, of Anderson, Heath and Company, of Bos- ton, Massachusetts, and is the last survivor of the family; Horace Earle, March 1. 1834, was in the civil war, and died October 22. 1870: Frederic Barron, July TI, 1838 (twin), died April 11, 1839: Francis Lowe, born July 11, 1838 (twin), died April II, 1839-

(VIII) Charles Edwin Brooks, son of Nathaniel Brooks (7), was born at Worcester, Massachusetts, August 15, 1824. He was educated in the Wor- cester schools and at Worcester Academy. When a young man he left the farm to enter mercantile life. After a service of four years in the office of the Daily Spy, he entered the grocery business as a member of the firm of Brooks and Stearns, whose store was at 8 Front street. He was in business there for about twelve years. During a part of the civil war he served as commissary at Newbern, North Carolina. Upon his return to this city he

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THE PARKER HOMESTEAD, LANCASTER, MASS.

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became associated with his brother Horace and his brother-in-law, David H. Fanning. in the Worcester Skirt Company, the name of which was afterward changed to the Worcester Corset Company. Ile was treasurer and librarian of the Worcester County. Horticultural Society from 1879 until his death, which occurred December 22, 1890.

He married, December 2, 1851, Elizabeth Capron Fanning. ller father, Henry Willson Fanning, was of the sixth generation in descent from Edmund Fanning, who settled at what is now Groton, Connecticut, in 1653. (See sketch of Fan- ning family and D. H. Fanning in this work.) Her mother was of the well known Hale family of Con- necticut. The children of Charles Erwin and Eliza- beth Capron (Fanning) Brooks were: I. Ella Brooks, died at the age of four. 2. Arthur An- derson, born in Worcester, December 25, 1856, Was graduated at the Worcester high school, fitted for college. He graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1879, and from the Divinity School in 1884. He was ordained and installed in 1885 minister of the Third Congregational Society ( Unitarian) at Green- field, Massachusetts. He resigned this charge De- cember, 1896, and went abroad for study and recre- ation. He resides in Boston, Massachusetts. 3. Walter Frederic, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, January 13, 1859.

(IX) Walter Frederic Brooks, son of Charles Edwin Brooks (S), was born in Worcester, Massa- chusetts, January 13, 1859. He was educated in the Worcester schools and fitted for college. He grad- tated from the high school in the class of 1877. He preferred to enter business at once rather than go to college, and he entered the office of George Crompton, loom manufacturer, where he worked for two years. He was associated with William H. Morse for eleven years in the banking business. In 1891, in partnership with Mr. J. F. Rock, he leased the Worcester Theatre and they managed it for three years. He was elected treasurer of the Wor- cester Corset Company in December, 1895, and since then has been identified with this eoncern, which is the largest, best equipped one of the most famous corset factories in the country. The present corporation is the Royal Worcester "Corset Com- pany, of which he is the treasurer. The plant is located on Wyman, Hollis and Grand streets, Wor- cester, and is one of the finest manufacturing build- ings in the city. During Mr. Brooks' connection with the business, it has been growing very rapidly and has greatly prospered.

Mr. Brooks is a well known Mason, having taken all the degrees to the commandery. He is a member of the Worcester County Commandery, Knights Templar. He is a member of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, and of the New England His- torie Genealogical Society as well as other societies. He is a Republican. He resides at 54 Queen street, Worcester, with his aged mother, Elizabeth Fanning Brooks. He is author and compiler of "History of the Fanning Family," published in two volumes in 1905.

PARKER FAMILY. Since that memorable nineteenth day of April, 1775, when Captain John Parker stood in command of his company of minute- men lined up on Lexington Green confronting the pro- gress of Major Pitcairn and his eight hundred British regulars, the name of Parker has occupied a promi- nent place in the early annals of the United States of America. But members of this family have not only become distinguished for services upon the battle field, but as divines, doctors of medicine and of surgery, judges, members of congress, journalists,

artists, lawyers, civil engineers and in fact in all the various walks of life. In this monograph, however, we design to present to the reader in brief outline some of the incidents and professional undertak- ings of George Alanson Parker and three of his sons, Harold, Herbert and Chester.

George Alanson Parker was born in Concord, New Hampshire, May 8, 1821, son of Joseph and Esther (Chapman) Parker. His childhood days were spent in Concord, and from experience in the schools of that town he developed a strong desire for a classical education, and with that object in view fitted for entrance to Harvard College. But the fates led in another direction, and he entered the office of Loammi Baldwin, a noted civil engineer, where he prepared himself for a lifework that proved not only congenial, but in the prosecution of which he was highly successful.

In 1842 he, in company with Samuel M. Felton, became the successors of Loammi Baldwin at Mr. Baldwin's death and for many years they were the most successful firm of civil engineers in New England. Among the public works in which he was engaged during this time were the surveys of the Fitchburg. Petersboro and Shirley and Sullivan roads, and the building of the Sugar River and Bel- lows Falls bridges. About 1855 he established a home in Lancaster which was occupied as a sum- mer residence mainly until his business permitted him to make it his permanent abode. He was chief engineer of Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad during and after the war, and built while chief engineer of that road the then famous bridge across the Susquehanna river at the head of Chesapeake Bay. This undertaking was particu- larly difficult owing to the depth of water, the in secure bottom and the immense bodies of ice that annually descended the river. The successful com- pletion of this structure brought Mr. Parker in national reputation as a constructing engineer. He was one of a board to examine and report upon the proposed bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis.

lle was for a time acting president of the Phil- adelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad and was offered the office permanently. He, however, pre- ferred a more independent life than the duties of such a position would permit.

During the civil war he was engaged by the United States government to supply the rolling stock for the various roads used by the war depart- ment. He built many railroad lines in Delaware, Virginia, the eastern shore of Maryland and later the Zanesville & Ohio River Railway, and for many years was consulting engineer for the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad corporation. He was also interested in railroads in Mississippi and Texas.

Mr. Parker was a special admirer of nature. therefore found enjoyment in out-door life and rec- reation, and in selecting a home for himself and fam- ily in which to take the comfort and leisure due as a reward for an active, strenuous, successful busi- ness life, located in the ancient but charming resi- dential town of Lancaster. And here he entered heartily into the duties as a citizen, serving on vari- ous committees for the improvement of the high- ways and the building of substantial bridges, a work for which by large experience he was specially well fitted. He was also chosen to represent his district in the state legislature, serving in that capacity for three years, 1870-71-72, and when Me- morial Hall was ready for occupancy he gave lib- erally toward furnishing it with fixtures and a valu- able collection of books and works of art. With his natural taste for rural life Mr. Parker took great

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delight at liis Lancaster home and gave much time to beautifying it with trees, choice shrubs and plants, and the entertaining of his friends and neighbors upon his premises was an additional pleas- ure, for he was held in high esteem by the people of Lancaster. He was among the first to recognize the consequences of the destruction of our forests and believed that it was a wise business proposition for every farmer who owned even a small terri- tory to plant trees to take the place of those annu- ally cut down. He exemplified his views by himself planting many thousands of forest trees in planta- tions, distinct from ornamental planting, and now the practical value of his views is demonstrated by the valuable timber growing upon sandy hillsides and fields otherwise valueless, within the limits of liis Lancaster estate.

Mr. Parker married Harriet N., daughter of Cor- nelius C. Felton and Anna Morse his wife. She was a sister of Samuel M. Felton, Mr. Parker's first associate in civil engineering in Charlestown. Massachusetts, and in the seventh generation from Nathaniel Felton, who came from England to Salem in 1633, when seventeen years of age, and later married Mary Skelton, daughter of Rev. Samuel Skelton, the first minister of Salem. George Alan- son Parker died April 20, 1887. His children were: Edith, born in Charlestown, August 2, 1848; George A., May 22, 1852, died February 18, 1853; Harold, June 17. 1854: Herbert, March 2, 1856; Bertha, March 16, 1858; Felton, October 8, 1860; Chester, born in Chester, Pennsylvania, August 10, 1862.

Harold Parker, born in Charlestown, Massa- chusetts, June 17, 1854, received his early education in the public schools at Lancaster, and by private tutor. Subsequently he attended a private school in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then entered the Lancaster Academy, then a popular and highly successful institution. Here he prepared to enter Exeter Academy and there fitted to enter Har- vard College ; after a year and a half he left Cam- bridge aud between the years 1871 and 1899 was en- gaged in engineering, manufacturing and railroad work in many parts of the United States, and for most of that period maintained an engineering office in Clinton, but has always had his home in Lan- caster. He represented the twelfth district in the legislature and has held continued town office for many years. He was appointed by Governor Crane commissioner of Wachusett Mt. State Reserva- tion in 1899 and re-appointed by Governor Bates. He was appointed by Governor Crane a commis- sioner of state highways and has been re-appointed by successive governors to the present time. He has been engaged in the cutting and manufacture of lumber in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and in the construction and operation of street railways and other enterprises. And as a token that he is compe- tent, and that the people have confidence in him, Mr. Parker has frequently been selected as arbiter where differences were to be adjusted and where property rights came in question. He has served as road commissioner and water commissioner in his home town, and the Lancaster people have honored him with other public positions, all of which he has filled with credit to himself and profit to the com- munity.

He married, July 29, 1884, Elizabeth W., daughter of Rev. Dr. George M. Bartol, of Lancaster, which place has for inany years been his home. Mr. Parker is a member of the famous Hasty Pudding Club of Cambridge, president of the Chaffee Mann- facturing Company and a director in several street railway companies. In politics he is a Republican, and an active worker in whatever he undertakes.

Public-spirited, and like his father is fond of out- door exercise, appreciating to the full his beautiful home in Lancaster. Their children are: Bartol, born 1885, a student at Harvard; Elizabeth, 1887; Cornelia, 189.4.

Herbert Parker, son of George Alanson Parker, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, March 2, 1856. He received his early instruction in private schools in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and after fitting for college with private tutors entered Har- vard in 1874, from whence he graduated with high honors in 1878. Because of ill health he did not com- plete the academic course but was later given his degree of A. B. He read law in the office of the late United States senator, George F. Hoar, and in 1883 was admitted to the bar of Massachusetts, and commenced the practice of his profession in Wor- cester the following year. Attracted by his special qualities, Senator Hoar engaged him to act as his private secretary at Washington, where his asso- ciations with leading legislators of the country gave opportunity for the young lawyer to add materially to his already generous stock of knowledge. At the conclusion of his duties as private secretary for Senator Hoar, he again opened a law office in Wor- cester, but later located in Clinton, forming a co- partnership with the late Judge Corcoran. He be- came a member of the law firm of Norcross, Baker & Parker in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, later opening an office in Worcester, where the practice of his profession was continued until he was appointed assistant district attorney for the county of Wor- cester in 1886, the district attorney being the Hon. Francis A. Gaskill, and upon Mr. Gaskill's retire- ment to go upon the superior court bench, he be- came district attorney by appointment of Governor Greenhalge, and was later elected to the same office, the duties of which he discharged with ability and professional skill.

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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 62

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