Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. II, Part 61

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 732

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. II > Part 61

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A descendant of Lieutenant William French through his second son, John, himself named Will- iam French, a resident of Dummerston in the New Hampshire Grants, was the celebrated victim of the "Westminster Massacre" in 1775. As this was the direct result of the first organized resistance to British authority in the American colonies, William French had been elaimed as the first martyr to the cause of American Independence. On his tomb- stone is still to be seen the following quaint in- scription :

"In memory of William French. Son to Mr. Nathaniel French. Who Was shot at Westminister March ye 13th. 1775, by the hands of Cruel Ministerial tools Of Georg ye 3d. in the Corthouse at 11 a clock at Night in the 22d year of his Age.

"HERE WILLIAM FRENCH his Body lies. For Murder his Blood for Vengeance Cries King Georg the third his Tory Crew tha with a Bawl his head Shot threw. For Liberty and his Countrys Good, he Lost his Life his Dearest blood."

Sergeant Jacob French. the sixth child and sec- ond son in the family of Lieutenant William and Elizabeth French, was born in Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, March 16, 1640. His house was one of the "garrisons" of 1675. and was probably the same venerable brick-lined building which was occupied by James Fletcher in 1870. Ile was a sergeant in the militia. He married (first). September 20, 1665, Mary Champney, daughter of Richard Champney, ruling elder of the Cambridge church. She bore him ten children : Jacob, William, Mary, John,

Joseph, Jabez, Mary (2d), Hannah, Elizabeth, and Sarah; she died April 1, 1681. He married (see- ond), July 30, 1685, Mary Convers, of Woburn, by whom he had one child, Abigail ; this wife passed away June 18, 1686. He married (third) Mary -, who was drowned November 6, 1709. He

married (fourth) Ruth -, who died November 6, 1730. His death occurred May 20, 1713, at the age of seventy-three years and two months.

Deacon William French, second child and son in the family of Sergeant Jacob and Mary (Champ- ney) French. was born in Billerica, Massachusetts, July 18, 1668. He was deacon of the church, and prominent in church and town affairs. He married, May 22, 1695. Sarah Danforth, daughter of Jona- than Danforth, who was for many years the most eminent citizen of Billerica. Nine children were the issue of this marriage: Jacob, Joseph, Sarah, Will- iam, Jonathan, Elizabeth, Ebenezer, Mary, and Nicholas. Deacon French died September 30, 1723, aged fifty-five years and two months; and his widow afterwards married Ebenezer Davis, of Concord.

The descendants of Deacon William French through his daughter Elizabeth, who married Josiah Crosby, include many prominent members of the Crosby family, among who are Hon. Nathan Cros- by. of Lowell; Alpheus Crosby, Professor of Greek at Dartmouth College, and author of a Greek Gram- mar: and Drs. Asa Crosby, of Gilmanton. New Hampshire, Josiah Crosby and George A. Crosby, of Manchester, Thomas R. Crosby, Dixi Crosby, and his eminent son. Alpheus Benning Crosby, of Han- over, and A. H. Crosby, of Concord, men whose names are household words in thousands of homes throughout New England, while some of them are honored wherever medical science is cultivated.

Nicholas French, youngest child and sixth son in the family of Deacon William and Sarah (Dan- forth) French, was born in Billerica, Massachu- setts, September 5. 17II. He removed to Hollis, New Hampshire. about 1741. He was a member of the church in Hollis, and held several minor offices. He married, June 5, 1744. Priscilla Mooar, daughter of Timothy and Annie (Blanchard) Mooar. of Andover, who was born June 12, 1724, and died February 18. 1784. His death occurred August 20, 1796, at the age of nearly eighty-five years. Nicholas and Priscilla French were the par- ents of nine children, namely: Timothy, Priscilla, Nicholas, Isaac, Lucy, Sarah, Jonathan, Sarah (2d), and David.

Jonathan French. the seventh child and fourth son in the family of Nicholas and Priscilla (Mooar) French, was born in Hollis, New Hampshire, Au- gust 21, 1759. He was a soldier in the revolution- ary war, serving in the company of Captain Goss at Bennington in 1777, and taking part in the ex- pedition to Rhode Island in the following year. He removed to Deering. New Hampshire, about 1797, and thence to Fairfax (that part which is now in the town of Cambridge), Vermont, about 1806. In 1788 he married Mary Keyes, daughter of Abner and Mary ( Shed) Keyes, of Dunstable, Massachusetts, and she bore him eight children : Jonathan. Mary. James, David. John. Cynthia, Christopher, and Mark. He died September 18, 1835, aged seventy-six years, and his wife died October 6. 1853. both in Cambridge, Vermont.

Deacon Mark French, youngest child and sixth son in the family of Jonathan and Mary (Keyes) French. was born in Fairfax (now Cambridge), Vermont. February 27. 1808. He lived during the most of his life in the towns of Cambridge and Johnson, Vermont. He married, March 24. 1833, Mary Lyon, daughter of Abel and Lucinda (Olds)

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Lyon, of Swanton, and a descendant of William Lyon, of Roxbury, 1635, and who was also the an- cestor of Mary Lyon, the founder of Mount Holy- oke Seminary, and of General Nathaniel Lyon, who was shot at the battle of Wilson's Creek in 1861. In their home the guiding principles of life and chief topics of conversation were religion, anti- slavery, and temperance : and in these, with a love of education, and a patriotic devotion to their country, their children were early indoctrinated. In the early months of the civil war, when one after another of their children volunteered to serve in defence of their country, the consent of the parents was never withheld; and at the end of four years of war. in which two of their sons died of disease contracted in the service, and both the others were wounded and broken in health, the patriot mother declared that she could not regret the sacrifice she had made for her country. Deacon French's wife died August 6, 1882, and he himself passed away April 14. 1888, at the age of over eighty years. He was the last surviving member of a family of ten, including the parents, whose ages at death aver- aged sixty-eight years and seven months. All of his father's family but one were at some time in their lives members of the First Congregational Church of Cambridge, Vermont, as is shown by their names still to be seen upon the records; and he himself was towards the close of his life the first deacon of the Second Congregational Church of Cambridge, located in the village of Jefferson- ville. The children of Mark and Mary (Lyon) French were seven in number. all sons, and all born in Cambridge, Vermont. as follows :

I. A son, unnamed. born and died May 13, 1834. 2. James Foster, born February 26, 1836. In the spring of 1861 he enlisted from the town of Johnson in the Fifth Regiment of Vermont Volun- teers, and served three years: he was in every bat- tle with his regiment, being slightly wounded in the battle of the Wilderness; and was mustered out of the service at the end of his term of enlistment. After the war was over, he west west, where he has ever since lived. He is now a retired farmer and stock raiser, and resides in Lebanon, Smith county, Kansas. He has never married.

3. George Quincy, born June 1. 1838. At the time of the Free Soil agitation in Kansas, he was one of those who went out from the east to help make Kansas a free state. He returned to Ver- mont in 1860, and when the war broke out in 1861 he was fitting for college in the academy at John- son. He was the first volunteer from that town, enlisting for three years in the Third Vermont Vol- unteers, and serving as corporal in Company E. He died of chronic diarrhoea, in the Hospital at Fort McHenry. Baltimore, Maryland, on November 4, 1862.

4. Jason Olds, born June 28, 1839. In the spring of 1861 he enlisted in the Fifth Vermont Volunteers, and at the battle of Savage's Station, June 3, 1862, he was wounded through the shoulder. and immediately taken prisoner. He was carried from the battle field to the famous Libby Prison in Richmond. where he was confined for about three weeks, at the end of which time he was liber- ated on parole, and soon afterwards exchanged, dis- charged for disability, and returned home. A few months later. having somewhat improved in health, he re-enlisted as a veteran in the Seventeenth Ver- mont Volunteers, and at the battle of Cold Harbor, in June, 1864, he was shot through the liver. the bullet passing out close to the spine. Injuries of this character were at that time considered as neces- sarily fatal, and his survival was looked upon as

almost miraculous by those who knew the circum- stances at the time, as well as by those who have since become acquainted with them. After having improved somewhat, he was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps, in which he remained until after the close of the war, when he was mustered out, and returned to his home in Vermont. He was married, July 3, 1881, to Elizabeth Miller Pot- ter, daughter of Loyal A. and Narcissa L. (Miller) Potter, of Potten, Providence of Quebec. She bore him one son. and died November 28, 1883, in Cam- bridge, Vermont. The son, Philip Sheridan French. was born in Cambridge, Vermont, November 29, 1883. He married, in 1904, Belva J. Hodgkins, of Johnson, Vermont, by whom he has had one son, Philip Hodgkins French; and he now lives in Waltham, Massachusetts, where he is employed in the works of the Waltham Watch Company. With him his father now makes his home.

5. Charles Finney, born December 26, 1840. During the summer of 1862 he enlisted as a recruit in the Fifth Vermont Volunteers, and went to the front. After enduring much hardship and suffer- ing, he died in the hospital on the field, at Brandy Station, Virginia, December 18, 1863, from chronic diarrhoea.

6. Henry Martyn, born September 15, 1847, dicd March 31. 1851. in Johnson, Vermont.

7. John Marshall, the subject of this sketch, was born in Cambridge, Vermont, January 1, 1850. He was educated as a teacher in the normal schools of Johnson, Vermont; Plymouth, New Hampshire; and Lebanon, Ohio; graduating from the first in 1868, and from the second in 1871. In both these schools, he was under the tuition and influence of Silas H. Pearl. a teacher who as an inspiration to his pupils has had few superiors ; and in the third, the National Normal School of Lebanon, Ohio, which he attended in 1873, his methods of teaching were largely modified by Alfred Holbrook, the founder of the school, and his son, R. Heber Hol- brook, men whose strong individuality and common- sense methods have left a permanent impress upon thousands of teachers in the west and south. He was engaged in teaching in Vermont and New Hampshire during a large portion of the time from 1868 to 1878. teaching in public and private, "dis- trict." graded, high, and normal schools.

In the meantime he pursued a course of study in medicine, under the tuition of Robert L. Flagg, M. D., of Jeffersonville. Vermont, and in the medi- cal departments of the Universiay of Vermont and Dartmouth College, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the former institution in 1877; and afterwards, in the winter of 1880-81, taking a post-graduate course in the medical department of the University of New York and in Bellevue Hospital.

He began the practice of his profession in Camp- ton. New Hampshire, in 1878, remaining there until the summer of 1880. when he removed to Sims- bury. Connecticut. On December 1. ISSO. he was married to Miss Mary Josephine Morrison, of Campton Village, New Hampshire, daughter of Jo- seph Weld and Hannah French (Giddings) Mor- rison, who has since heen his faithful helper in every undertaking. No children have been born to them. He remained in Simsbury until 1883. when he lo- cated in Milford. Massachusetts, where he has ever since practiced.

Dr. French has always been an ardent believer in the benefits of association for medical men, as is shown by his membership and work in the various medical societies with which he has been connected. He was a member of the New Hampshire

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Medical Association when practicing in that state, of the Connecticut Medical Society when in Connecticut, and of the Massachusetts Med- ical Society while in Massachusetts. When in Connecticut, he was also a member of the Framington Valley Medical Society. On coming to Milford, he united with the Thurber Medical Association, which is perhaps the oldest purely inde- pendent local medical society in New England, and has been one of its most active workers from that time, having served two years as its president and seventeen as its secretary. In 1901 he was one of the founders of the Aesculapian Club, a unique social semi-medical club, composed of physicians and their wives, and having a limited membership. He is also a member of the American Medical Association, and the American Medical Temper- ance Association. He is an earnest student of the alcohol question in its various phases. In 1892 he became specially interested in the treatment of inebriety, and a few years later established and conducted on strictly ethical lines a sanitarium for the treatment of drug habitues. He gave much time and attention to this line of work, and became well known as a writer on the treatment of alcohol- ism and drug addictions.

He has been a frequent contributor to current periodicals, writing on literary, historical, genealogi- cal, hygienic, medical and insurance topics. In the line of his profession, his writings relate largely to the subjects of alcohol and inebriety, longevity and hygiene, and practical therapeutics. In 1899 he re- ceived the Chase-Wiggin prize from the Rhode Island Medical Society for the best essay on alcohol: and in 1900 was awarded a prize by the Thurber Medical Association for a collective in- vestigation report on the treatment of pneumonia. He was for several years associate editor of the Vermont Medical Monthly: was at one time de- partment editor of Albright's Office Practitioner ; and for a short time, in conjunction with Dr. N. W. Sanborn, of Bellingham, edited and published the New England Alkaloidist.

From his boyhood he has been a member of the Congregational church, and for several years was a deacon in the Milford Congregational church ; also a member and for thirteen years a director of the Milford Young Men's Christian Associa- tion. He has always been interested in fraternal orders, has a membership in the Odd Fellows. United Workmen. Golden Star, and New England Workmen, while he has at various times been con- nected with several others.

In professional lines, he is specially interested in the department of internal medicine. In thera- peutics he is an ardent alkaloidist, using the active principles very largely in his practice. His pro- fessional work has always been that of a general practitioner and family physician, rather than that of a surgeon, or specialist in any direction, with perhaps the exception of inebriety and drug addic- tions. He is medical examiner for a large number of life insurance companies and fraternal benefit associations, and was for five years grand medical director of the United Order of the Golden Star. Ile is a member of the managing board of the Milford Hospital, and also of its medical staff. In politics, Dr. French is counted as an independent voter, with Republican affiliations, but casting his vote for the men and the measures which meet his approval, irrespective of party. At the time of his leaving Campton, New Hampshire, he was superintendent of schools of that town, and this is the only public office which he has ever held.

The French family claims its origin from Rollo,

Duke of Normandy, who was himself a Norman Viking, but who settled in France, and in the year 910 formally adopted the Christian religion and was baptized, taking the name of Robert, Count of Paris, who was his godfather. He had already conquered the province of Normandy, which was now ceded to him in due form by Charles the Simple. King of France, who also gave him in mar- riage his daughter Gisela, in the year 912. The name of French is derived from the French word Frene, the ash-tree or by derivation, an ashen spear. Genealogical research has brought to light about forty variations of the name, including Frene, Freyne, De la Freyne, De la Fresnay, Frainch, ffrenche, and French. The ancient motto of the French family was "Malo mori quam foedari," "I prefer death rather than dishonor." Concerning the coat of arms, it is said that "of the seventeen families of French mentioned by Burke, are quite a variety of armorial bearings, the dolphin and fleur de lis being the most conspicuous."

The first record of the ancestors of Lieutenant William French in England, so far as they have been traced by the American members of the fam- ily, is found in Essex county in the year 1351. Thomas ffrenche, the great-grandfather of William, died in Weathersfield, Essex county, England, in 1599, leaving bequests to the poor of several parishes. His son Thomas, grandfather of William, died at Halsted, Essex county, in 1613; and his son Thomas, the father of William, also lived and died in Halsted.

Another branch of the French family settled in Ireland, where a numerous and highly respectable progeny sprung up and occupied prominent posi- tions in church and state, several of them being peers of the realm. Still another branch settled in Scotland; and lastly, from the English branch numerous members came to New England dur- ing the period known as the "Puritan Exodus," and have borne an honorable part in the develop- ment of the country.

HATHAWAY FAMILY. John Hathaway (1), the immigrant ancestor of Bowers C. Hathaway, of Westborough, Massachusetts, was born in England and came to America at the age of eighteen years in the ship "Blessing." He must, therefore, have been born in 1617. He sailed in July, 1635. He was before the general court, June 6, 1637. He settled in Barnstable in Plymouth colony and was living at Taunton in 1649. He was a member of the Plymouth military company in 1643. Once he was arraigned before the Plymouth court for "lending a gun to an Indian." He was residing at Barn- stable in 1656 and later he removed to Yarmouth. He was admitted a freeman in 1670, bought a tract of land at Freetown, lot No. 18, in 1671, was con- stable in 1676 and again in 1690 at Taunton. He was often on the grand jury. He was selectman of Taunton in 1680 and 1684, deputy to the general court at Plymouth from 1680 to 1684 and in 1691, and to the general court of Massachusetts in 1696-97.

He had a brother, Joseph Hathaway, living in Taunton, admitted a freeman 1657. The home of John Hathaway finally was in what is now Berkeley, Massachusetts, known as The Farms, just north of where the land abuts on the Great river. The site of his house was marked by an iron tablet in 1889 by the Old Colony Historical Society. The will of John Hathaway was dated August 3, 1689, and proved February 15, 1696-97. He bequeathed to wife Elizabeth; sons Thomas, John, Gideon and Edward; daughters by a former wife, etc. He mar-

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B. C. HATHAWAY

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ried ( first ) -; (second) Martha , who died before 1693, and (third) Ruth -, who died September, 1705. His children were: Abraham, born 1652, see forward; Thomas, John, Jr., born August 16, 1658, inherited father's land at Free- town; Hannah, born May, 1662; Edward, born Ferbruary 10, 1663; Gideon. The Old Colony llis- torical Society records, Vol. VI, page 80, in an article on the Hathaway family gives sons Isaac, Ephraim, Abigail, who married James Phillips, and Rebecca, who married Jared Talbot, in addition to the above who were mentioned in the will.

(11) Abraham Hathaway, son of John Hathaway (1), was born in 1652. He was a blacksmith by trade and at one time had charge of the ferry across the Taunton river. He was a soldier in King Phil- ip's war, and the records show August 27, 1675, that he was accredited with two pounds, seven shillings, for service in Captain Daniel Henchman's company. He was a member of the Fourth Squadron of Taunton militia April 8, 1682, and served again in King William's war in 1691 under Captain Thomas Leonard. He was a member of the first military company of Taunton in 1700. He was one of the petitioners at Taunton for the setting off of that part of Taunton since known as Dighton. He was deacon of the church that became the First Church of Dighton. He died August, 1725. His will was dated August 18, 1725. He was then of Dighton. The will names his children as given be- low and other friends, etc. He married, August 28, 1684, Mrs. Rebecca (Wilbur) Pierce, daughter of Shadrach Wilbur, and granddaughter of Samuel Wilbur, of Taunton. She was born January 13, 1665. Their children were: Abraham, Jr., Eben- ezer, born May 25, 1689, see forward; Samuel, born 1690; John, Benjamin, Thomas, Eleazer, Shadrach, Rebecca.

(HI) Lieutenant-Colonel Ebenezer Hathaway, son of Deacon Abraham Hathaway (2), was born at Taunton, Massachusetts, May 25, 1689. He re- sided at Freetown, Massachusetts. He was active in the militia and attained the rank of lieutenant- colonel of the Bristol county regiment in 1749. His will was dated September 24, 1764, and proved February 29, 1768. He died February 16, 1768, in his seventy-ninth year. His grave and that of his wife are marked with headstones. He married (first) Hannah Shaw, daughter of Benjamin (III),

granddaughter of John Shaw ( II), and great-grand- daughter of the immigrant, Abraham Shaw (I), mentioned elsewhere in this work. Hannah Shaw was born in 1693 and died December 20, 1727. lle married (second) Mary Children of Colonel Ebenezer and Hannah Hathaway were: Abigail, born March 25. 1716; Captain Ebenezer, born July II, 1718, married Welthe Gilbert; Silas, born Sep- tember 2, 1721, see forward; Hannah, born March 12, 1724; Benjamin, born May 12, 1726.

(IV) Silas Hathaway, son of Ebenezer Hatha- way (3), was born at Freetown, Massachusetts, Sep- tember 2, 1721. He married Deborah Carlisle. They had five sons or more in the revolutionary army. Their children, born at Freetown, were: Benjamin, soldier in the revolution; Abigail, married (first) Pierce; (second) Joshua Howland; Lydia, Phylena, Joseph, see forward; Eleazer, soldier in the revolution ; Samuel, soldier in revolution ; Silas, Jr., soldier ; Nathaniel, soldier ; Deborah, Esther, Polly, Alanson.

(V) Joseph Hathaway, son of Silas Hathaway (4), was born in Freetown, Massachusetts, about 1750. He was a soldier in the revolution in Cap- tain Elijah Walker's company, Colonel John Hatha- way's regiment, in 1777, on the Rhode Island alarm.

He may have been the Joseph Hathaway who was a prisoner of war in the prison-ship "Lord Sandwich." which landed at Bristol, Rhode Island, March 7, 1778. Ile lived at Freetown, Massachusetts. He married, March, 1773, Bathsheba Simmons, of Dighton. Their children, all born at Freetown. were : Bathsheba, born 1775; Joseph, born February 6, 1781 ; Hannah P., born February 14, 1783; Deb- orah, born March 18, 1787; Lurania, born January 8, 1790; Martin, born January 20, 1792; Ennis, born March 25, 1794, see forward; Thomas, born Feb- ruary 21, 1796.

(VI) Ennis Hathaway, son of Joseph llatha- way (5), was born in Freetown, Massachusetts, March 25, 1794, and died in 1887. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, enlisting in the company organ- ized to defend the town of New Bedford against the British. He did garrison duty at Fort Phenix and took part in the capture of the British privateer "Nimrod." At the time of his death he was the only pensioner of the war of 1812 in that section of the Commonwealth. He was nearly ninety-four at the time of his death. Many of the family en- joyed long life. A sister lived to the age of ninety- five years, a brother was ninety years old and six of the family were living all aged over eighty years.

Ennis Hathaway married Clarissa Chase, daugh- ter of Simeon Chase, who was a soldier in the revo- lution, enlisting early in the struggle for independ- ence and serving in the Continental army to the end of the war. Children of Ennis and Clarissa Chase were: William E., a merchant at East Bos- ton; Bowers C., see forward; Franklin L., deceased, was a contractor at Providence, Rhode Island ;

Clarissa J., married Babbitt, of Berkeley. Massachusetts; Alonzo H., resided in Dorchester and Brockton, Massachusetts; Catherine F .. de- ceased; Charles E. resides on the old homestead at Freetown Massachusetts.

( VII) Bowers C. Hathaway, son of Ennis Hatha- way (6), was born in Freetown, Massachusetts, March 18, 1823. He attended the public school in the neighborhood of his home, and when fifteen years old went to sea in the position of ship's cook, continuing for two years. At the age of seventeen years he again left home, this time to go to New Bedford, whither he walked, a distance of fifteen miles, saving the dollar his father had given him to pay his fare. In New Bedford he was accepted as an apprentice at the carpenter's trade by Braddock Gifford, from whom he received during his term of service the sum of thirty dollars per year and board. At the end of three years and a half his apprenticeship ended and he continued to work as a journeyman. He was a foreman for a Boston con- tractor in 1845, and in 1847 went to Westborough. Massachusetts, to work on the buildings of the State Reform School, then in course of construction. He has had much to do since then with the build- ing and development of that institution. He lived at the same boarding house with the first superin- tendent of the school and assisted him in caring for the first boy committed to his care. He superin- tended the erection of additional buildings after the school had proved itself useful and successful. He was employed in rebuilding the part destroyed by fire in 1859, and he had charge of extensive changes in 1875-76, when the Commonwealth expended a hundred thousand dollars in rebuilding the institu- tion on a much larger scale.

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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. II, Part 61

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 732

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 732