Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. II, Part 73

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 73

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(IV) Lemuel Crane, son of John Crane (3), was born in Berkeley, Massachusetts, October 29, 1736, and died in Oxford, September 28, 1814. Dur- ing the revolution he was a Loyalist and was in- prisoned with other Tories in the Taunton jail on account of his political views. This was the reason he left Berkeley and removed to Oxford, Massa- chusetts. He married, December 13, 1759, Batlı- sheba Gilbert, daughter of Colonel Thomas Gilbert, the Tory leader, who left Boston with the British when the town was evacuated in 1776. Their chil- dren, all born in Berkeley except the youngest, were: Lydia, born April 3, 1761, married Rodolphus Eaton; John, October 3, 1763, see forward; Han- nah, September 26, 1765, married Gideon Hovey ; Gilbert, July 4, 1767; Bathsheba, April 28, 1769, married Jeremiah Metcalf; Mary, January 10, 1772, married Gideon Hovey and Jeremialı Dean; Deb- orah, December 3, 1773, married John Hudson; Abi- gail, married Nahum Pratt; Lemuel, a surveyor ; Oliver, April 1, "1778, married Thomas Kendall; Margery, September 1, 1780, died September 25, 1825, unmarried.

(V) John Crane, son of Lemuel Crane (4), was born in Berkeley, Massachusetts, October 1, 1763, and died in Rockport, Maine, October 30, 1845. He married (first), March 22, 1789, Ruth Humphrey, of Oxford, daughter of Captain Ebenezer Humphrey, a revolutionary soldier. He married (second) Abigail Bunker, of Goldsboro, Maine. Children of John and Ruth Crane were : Jolin, removed to New York, married Batcheller; Calvin, born Feb- ruary 28, 1793, see forward; Hannah, married Wel- come Green; Jared; Captain Elisha B., married Eunice Greeley, of Bakers Island, Maine; Lemuel G., married Clarinda N. Bickford, lived at Golds- boro, Maine, sea captain; Aaron B., died at sea, aged twenty-two years; Bathsheba G., married Fran- cis Gilley, of Fremont, Maine; Thomas B., died at sea, aged nineteen ; Ellen, born January 21, 1817, at Mount Desert, Maine, married George W. B. McDonald, of San Diego, California; Esther B., married Miles Bickford, of Birch Harbor, Maine; Henry B., married Abigail Leighton, of Steuben, Maine, was a sea captain; Ellis K., married Han- nah K. Barrett; sea captain of Northport, Maine; David L., married Nancy Rice, of Goldsboro, Maine. (V1) Calvin Crane, son of John Crane (5), was born in Oxford, Massachusetts, February 28,

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1793, and died in Grafton, Massachusetts, June 19, 1862. He was a tanner by trade, a skillful craftsman, an honest, upright citizen. He resided in Grafton. He married, January 4, 1827, Hannah Forbes, of Uptou, daughter of John Forbes, who died of yellow fever in Havana, and who was, in his time, a mill owner. Their children: Richard Rush, born in Grafton, November 14, 1832, married Arethusia T. Barrett, of Belfast, Maine; removed to Dover, Kan- sas, where he died some years ago; had three chil- dren-Burton, Walter and one other; he was a member of the second company of free state men who went to Kansas from Massachusetts; Charles Robinson was captain of his company and later be- came the first free-state governor of Kansas. John Calvin, see forward. Hannah G., Susanna F. and two daughters who died when young.

(VII) John Calvin Crane, son of Calvin Crane (6), was born in Grafton, Massachusetts, October 10, 1837, and received his education in the common and high schools of that town, and the Lancaster ( Massachusetts ) Academy. When a mere boy he was a recognized correspondent of a Boston paper, which foreshadowed his interest in things literary later to follow. His father being a tanner, he en- tered the employ of Captain Jonathan Warren, for whom his father worked, and later was employed by Calvin W. Forbush, who had shoe factories in Grafton and Lancaster, Massachusetts, and while in the academy at Lancaster he worked in his shop there in his spare hours. In 1854 he removed to West Millbury and began work for A. Wood & Sons, shoe manufacturers, as a cutter, and remained there until the fall of 1858. Having caught the western fever he went to Buffalo and made a tour of the Great Lakes, seeing something also of Canada. He visited Beaver Island in Lake Michigan to see the place where a short time before the Mormon king, Strang, was deposed. Mr. Crane eventually found himself in Chicago, where he stayed for some time. Thence he made his way by rail to Prairie du Chien, there getting his first view of the Father of Waters. St. Paul was his destination, which he reached in due time, sailing the pure water of the Mississippi. By landing at this early period in the land of the "sky tinted water," he found himself enroled among the pioneers of that New England of the west, Min- nesota. For a while his abiding place was near the scenes depicted in Longfellow's Hiawatha, around the laughing Minnehaha. From early childhood he had been interested in the Indian and here he found full scope to satisfy the desire to learn more of the red man than the degenerate Hasanamiscos could furnish. Soon after he arrived in Minnesota Mr. Crane established a depot for the sale of boots to the settlers, also traveling about, selling his goods from a wagon. His depot was at a place called Rich- field, some four or five miles from Fort Snelling, and farmers came from a distance of twenty and thirty miles with wheat to exchange for footwear made in Massachusetts. At that time, some three years before the New Ulm massacre, Minnesota was swarming with Indians, Sioux, Chippewas, Winnebagoes, and others. Here was his oppor- tunity to study the red man in the fulltide of his wild life. Leaving the business in charge of a trust- worthy friend, Mr. Crane pushed into the Indian country hunting, fishing and looking into the ways and customs of those Nomads of the great north- west. He was reported as having been killed by them and his friends near the fort gave up all hope of ever seeing him again, when one day he appeared among them wearing on his face the real Indian tan, sound and healthy. The months passed among the Indian tribes were prolific with results for that which he

sought, and what he then learned has borne fruit. In 1859 he closed out his business and started for New Orleans, but when he reached southern Illi- nois, or Egypt, as it was then called, he changed his mind and decided to take in more of the west and, later, to see something of the south and its peculiar institution, human slavery. All this was accomplished and in early summer he was back in learned the art of painting on glass, then much in vogue. He followed this business until the fall of the Old Bay State, located in Boston, where he 1859, when he returned to work at his trade in Mill- bury. Having been married in November, 1861, Mr. Crane and his wife removed to Boston in 1862, where he engaged in the tobacco trade at 51 Union street. Draft riots, recruiting, etc., caused stagna- tion in the business and the trade was abandoned. He then followed his trade of shoemaker in Wor- cester for several years, living sometimes there and sometimes in West Millbury.

Soon after 1880 Mr. Crane began to extend his literary work and to make researches in family his- tory, historical sketches, magazine articles, biography, poems, etc., from his pen appeared in various periodicals and newspapers, sometimes under his own name and at others under a nom de plume. In 1883-84 Mr. Crane lectured on temperance in various towns in the county. He has also spoken by invita- tion on other subjects in many places. In 1885 he was licensed to preach by the Millbury Baptist church, of which he was a member, which privilege he has used, it is believed, to the eternal welfare of many. In 1897 he was commissioned a justice of the peace for the commonwealth by Governor Roger Wolcott and re-appointed by Governor John L. Bates in 1904. For years Mr. Crane has been a member of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, the New England Historic Genealogical Society and the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Eng- land. His publications have found their way into all parts of this country and into foreign places as well. His patrons in genealogical work reckon among their number many of the distinguished men and women of the land. In 1889 Mr. Crane wrote the history of Millbury (forty-one pages of a thou- sand words each) for the county history published by J. W. Lewis & Co., that year, and he also wrote several of the biographical sketches which appear under other towns, and collected material for other writers engaged on the work.

Mr. Crane has always taken an interest in the sources of our rivers and streams. Some years ago a controversy was had with the late Edward W. Lincoln, of Worcester, concerning the source of the Blackstone river. Mr. Lincoln claimed that Tat- nuck brook and a spring feeding it, having its loca- tion in Paxton, was the source and Mr. Crane held to the theory that Ramshorn pond lying between Millbury and Sutton was the fountain head. No less an authority than Peter Whitney, the first his- torian of the county, placed its source in the latter locality. Along in the eighties Mr. Crane published an article on the ponds of Worcester county, which was received with favor. In ISSI Colonel Willard Glazier, then captain, claimed to have discovered that in a lake lying a little south of Itasca was the fountain head of the great Mississippi and Mr. Crane agreed with him. Ten years later, in 1891, Colonel Glazier determined on a second trip to the locality and Mr. Crane became a member of the expedition, composed of eighteen white men and one Indian. Mr. Crane felt that a personal investigation was the thing needed to ascertain the truth of the claim of Glazier. Before starting on the journey to the headwaters, he made an extended tour through

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Canada. The result of the Glazier expedition in 1891 was favorable to the claim put forth in 1881 by Glazier, and the party of 1800 so reported. A full account of the investigation will be found in the book, "Headwaters of the Mississippi," pub- lished by Rand, McNally & Co., in 1893.

Mr. Crane has for many years been a persistent searcher for stone relics of the Indians and has gathered a large collection, to which he is constantly making additions. Most of his finds are implements of the Nipmucks, our local Indians, a few being of the Micmacs and Narragansetts. Some of his friends insist that he is an expert at classifying the stone work as well as in finding it. He makes no claims to any such distinction, yet he loves the work, and at the proper time may often be seen working his way around our ponds, and he rarely fails to get a handful of treasures.

Mr. Crane has a library of some two thousand volumes at his home in West Millbury. He is the author of the following publications: "Colonel Thomas Gilbert, the Leader of the New England Tories," "Jonathan Holman, a Revolutionary Colonel," "Asa Holman Waters Memorial," "Peter Whitney and his History of Worcester County," "Rev. William Blackstone, the Pioneer of Boston," "Major General Burbank, the early Paper Maker," "The Nipmucks and Their Country," "George Sum- ner Memorial," "What Guns in King Philip's War?" "History of Millbury," in county history of 1889.

Mr. Crane is a lineal descendant on the paternal side of William Bradford, the Pilgrim, second gov- ernor of the Plymouth colony. The mother of Thomas Gilbert, mentioned above, was Hannah Brad- ford in direct line, and Colonel Gilbert's second daughter, Bathsheba, married Lemuel Crane, great grandfather of John C. Crane.

Mr. Crane married, November 21, 1861, Mary Ellen Glazier, a descendant of the Lancaster Gla- ziers, and daughter of Ira and Mary A. Glazier, of Millbury, Massachusetts. Their children: I. Rich- ard Forbes, born in Millbury, October 16, 1862, for several years engaged in the wool business in Bos- ton and Millbury; in 1895 he established in Mill- bury a warehouse for the sale of wool, waste, etc., his father being a silent partner in the business. After four years the business was discontinued. He is at present superintendent of the extensive woolen mill of W. W. Windle & Co., at Bramansville. He married (first) Mae E. Linsley, daughter of Charles Linsley, of Worcester; married (second) Eva M. Reed, born Gleason, adopted daughter of Edwin D. Reed, of Orange, Massachusetts; married (third), 1894, Barbara A. Stickney, of Boston; his child by the third wife, Dorothy Bradford, was born in Mill- bury. 2. Florence E., born June 2. 1874, married Frederick E. Putnam, of Sutton, and they have one child-Ralph E. Putnam, born in Millbury.

OWEN FAMILY. Samuel Owen (I), the im- migrant ancestor of Henry A. Owen, of Whitins- ville, Northbridge, Massachusetts, was born in Wales. Europe, A. D., 1651. He and his wife, Pris- cilla Belcher, with their son Josiah, came to America about 1685. Like most of the early settlers he came to seek civil and religious Liberty and to follow hus- bandry as his occupation. Ile came first to Massa- chusetts, but finding the colony of Rhode Island most independent in matters of conscience and re- ligious opinion he went thither and settled in that part of Providence now known as North Providence and not far from the present Pawtucket turnpike. His descendants have been an industrious and re- spectable class of men, and one of his great-grand-

sons (Daniel, born 1732) was chief justice of the supreme court and lieutenant-governor of the state of Rhode Island. There is reason to believe that Samuel was a Quaker, as his son Josiah was. Chil- dren of Samuel and Priscilla Owen: Abigail, mar- ried, Marchi 13, 1717-18; Elizabeth, married at Smithfield, October 14, 1719, Benjamin Paine; Marg- ery, married, March II, 1723-24, Ralph Woolman; Josiah, born 1681, see forward.

(II) Josiah Owen, son of Samuel Owen (I), was born in Wales, 1681, and came with his parents to America when a child. He married Hannah --- and lived at Providence, Rhode Island. Their children : John, born March 24, 1703; Thomas, born 1706, see forward; Joseph, born 1708; and probably several daughters.

(IH) Thomas Owen, son of Josiah Owen (2), was born according to the records of the Society of Friends at Glocester, Rhode Island, July, 1707, and died September 14, 1798, at Smithfield, Rhode Island. Among his children were Solomon, born 173I, see forward; Hon. Daniel, born 1732, judge of supreme court, lieutenant-governor of Rhode Island.

(IV) Solomon Owen, son of Thomas Owen (3), was born in Rhode Island, 1731. His children : Thomas, born 1757; Solomon, 1759; Benjamin, 1761, see forward; Oliver, 1763; William, 1765, and sev- eral daughters unknown.

(V) Benjamin Owen, son of Solomon Owen (4), was born in Rhode Island, 1761. His children : Silas, born 1786; Benjamin, 1800, see forward, and daughters.

(VI) Benjamin Owen, son of Benjamin (5), was born in Ashford, Connecticut, 1800. He died at Auburn, Massachusetts. His children : Oscar G., born 1836, see forward; Mason S., 1840, father of Clarence; George M., 1847, father of George; Ledoit, 1834 (twin) ; Leander (twin), 1834.

(VII) Oscar G. Owen, son of Benjamin Owen (6), was born 1836. He resides in North Grafton, Massachusetts. He married Harriet M. Robbins. Their children: Oscar L., born 1862; Nellie; Her- bert (twin), born 1871; has son, Oscar Colburn ; Henry A. (twin), born 1871, see forward.

(VIII) Henry A. Owen, son of Oscar G. Owen (7), was born at Stafford Springs, December 14, 1871. He was educated in the public schools of Worcester. at the Millbury, Massachusetts high school, where he studied two years, and at the Rhode Island Technical Drawing School. He studied architecture and civil engineering. He became con- nected with the Whitin Machine Works, July I, 1889, and has been since then in the engineering department of this concern. He is a member of the Whitinsville Lodge of Free Masons and of the St. Elmo Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; also of the Whitinsville Lodge of Odd Fellows. He is a Re- publican in politics, and an attendant of the First Universalist Church, Worcester, Massachusetts.

He married George Spaulding Walcott. daugh- ter of George and Harriet (Carroll) Walcott, of Foxboro, Massachusetts. She is a graduate of the State Normal school at Framingham, Massachu- setts. She taught school before her marriage, at Peterboro, New Hampshire; at Milton and Whitins- ville, Massachusetts. They have two children: Amey Elizabeth, born August 16, 1904; Henry Walcott, born June 12, 1906.

WILLIAM WALKER JOHNSON. Solomon Johnson. Sr., (I), was a proprietor of Sudbury in 1631. He was the immigrant ancestor of William Walker Johnson, of Worcester. Very little is known of him. Both he and his son, Solomon Johnson,

LT.

William M. Johnson

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Jr., were proprietors in 1645. That is the last record of Solomon, Sr. He probably returned to England or died soon afterward.

(II) Solomon Johnson, Jr., son of Solomon Johnson (I), was born in England, and may prop- erly be called the immigrant ancestor of the John- sons of Shrewsbury, Framingham, Marlboro and Worcester. He came to New England early. In 1638 he shared in the division of the Sudbury meadows. He was closely connected with the settlers at Watertown, and in 1651 was appointed herdsman of Watertown with headquarters near the Sudbury line. He was admitted a freeman in 1651. He mar- ried (second), in 1654, Hannah Crafts, at Water- town.

(III) John Johnson, eldest son of Solomon John- son (2), was born in England, about 1636-37; he married in Sudbury, Massachusetts, November 19, 1657, Deborah Ward, daughter of William Ward. She was born in 1637. Her father was one of the proprietors of Marlborough in 1657 with his father, Solomon, and both shared in the first division. John Johnson resided also in Lancaster for a time, and in 1675 served on the committee to meet Philip's warriors. He was admitted a freeman in 1690.

(IV) Daniel Johnson, second child of John Johnson (3), was born in 1675, during King Phil- ip's war. He married Deboralı Lamb, of Framing- ham. She died January 7, 1760. They lived at Marlboro.

(V) Solomon Johnson, eldest son of Daniel Johnson (4), was born in Marlboro, about 1700, and died in Worcester, in 1704. He married Abigail -, probably of Framingham, and lived in that town until about 1730. He was in Leicester until 1733, when he removed to Worcester. His estate was administered in 1795 by his son Peter.

(VI) Peter Johnson, eldest son of Solomon Johnson (5), was born in Framinghamn, Massachu- setts, and baptized in the church there July 7, 1723. He removed to Worcester with his parents when a young boy of ten, and helped clear the forest for the first home of the family. He settled in Wor- cester and carried on a farm there. He died in 1798, and his estate was administered in 1799 by his son Thomas.

(VII) Thomas Johnson, third child of Peter Johnson (6), was born at Worcester, about 1766, and died there July 12, 1834, aged sixty-eight years. He married Sarah Eaton, at Worcester, March 30. 178g. She was the daughter of Thomas and Susannah Eaton, born January 1, 1769, at Worcester, and granddaughter of Samuel and Ruth Eaton, first settlers of the town of Wor- cester. Thomas Eaton was born in Worcester, May 25, 1749, died August 25, 1788. He was a private in Captain David Chadwick's company, Lieutenant- Colonel Benjamin Flagg's regiment, and marched to Hadley by desire of Brigadier General Warner, August 28, 1777, on alarm at Bennington. Susannah Eaton, his wife, died April 25, 1786. The children of Thomas and Sarah Johnson, all born in Worces- ter, were: Thomas, born September 8, 1789; Lewis, born January 19, 1793, died March 30, 1830; Sarah Eaton, born April 6, 1796, married Seth Bannister, of Boylston, September 29, 1836; Peter, a lawyer, born July 20, 1798, died January 25, 1837; Mary. born March 22, 1803, died August 21, 1838; George Wash- ington, see forward; Frederick, born June 23, 1808; James M., born February 13, 1811, died November 10, 1847.

(VIII) George Washington Johnson, sixth child of Thomas Johnson (7), was born at Worcester, Massachusetts, May 2, 1806. He received his edu- cation in the common schools of the city. He was

born in that part of Worcester which has for many years been known as Tatnuck. The land upon which the Tatnuck school building stands to-day was a part of the Johnson farm when he came into the world, and this land was deeded by him to Worces- ter before it became incorporated as a city. Mr. Johnson's boyhood and early life was spent in Wor- cester although then only a village of a few thon- sand inhabitants, was a place of considerable im- portance from the fact that it was one of the relay points on the great stage line running between Boston and New York by way of Springfield, Hart- ford and New Haven. In politics he was a Whig, later a Republican. In early life he served in the militia.

He married, at Worcester, Alona Walker, dangh- ter of Silas Walker, of West Boylston, Massachu- setts. Children of George Washington and Alona Johnson were : Sarah Jane, born at Worcester, March 3, 1837, married Ansel B. Howard, of Worcester; Lewis, born at Worcester, June 15, 1840, married Harriet Hubbard, of Holden ; George Thomas, born at Worcester, Massachusetts, October 29, 1844; enlisted in Company C, Thirty- fourth regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, wounded at the battle of Winchester and died in the hospital in Philadelphia; Hannah, died young ; William Walker, see forward; Nancy Adelaide, died young ; Albert Charles, born 1857.

(IX) William Walker Johnson, son of George Washington Johnson (8), was born in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, July 25, 1847. At the age of six he removed with his parents to Worcester, where they lived for two years. He attended the public schools. At the end of that time the family removed to Holden, where he also attended the public schools until he was seventeen. He then went to Westboro and remained for a year in the employ of Trowbridge & Weatherby, tailors. From there he went to work for A. P. Ware & Co., of Worcester, clothiers and tailors, in whose employ he continued until he was admitted to the firm in 1871.

The record of the Ware-Pratt Company, of which for many years Mr. Johnson has been the president, begins in 1847, with A. P. Ware & Co., the pioneers in the ready-made clothing business of the city. In January, 1866, a branch firm under the name of Ware & Pratt was formed under the management of Henry S. Pratt, the junior partner and the present treasurer of the Ware-Pratt Company. At the end of three years the two firms, which had been located in the old Paine block, consolidated and moved to the First National Bank building on Main street. The firm then began the manufacture of clothing for the retail trade on a much larger scale than before. In IS71 Mr. Ware retired from business and a new firm was formed under the same name, consisting of Henry S. Pratt, Edward T. Wardwell and William W. Johnson. The business continued for seven years, when Mr. Johnson sold his interest to his partners. Two years later, Mr. Wardwell died and Mr. Johnson again entered the firm, and the business of the concern grew rapidly. Mr. Pratt and Mr. Johnson carried on the business as part- ners until the business was incorporated January 23, 1888, under the present name, the Ware-Pratt Company, with Mr. Johnson, president ; Mr. Pratt, treasurer ; and Charles E. Black, secretary. A part of the capital stock was also apportioned among the faithful salesmen and employees of the house. The firm manufactures the greater part of the goods sold over its counters and does a large custom busi- ness. The firm, finding its quarters in the First National Bank building inadequate, moved to the

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State Mutual building upon its completion, Octo- ber 1. 1898, occupying half of the street floor, and having a large workshop in the rear.

Mr. Johnson is vice-president of the People's Savings Bank and has been for twelve years a member of the board of investment. He is prom- inent in Masonic circles. He is a member of Athelstan Lodge; Eureka Royal Arch Chapter ; Hiram Council of Royal and Select Masters; Wor- cester County Commandery, Knights Templar, of which he was the eminent commander in 1902 and 1903, and is at present one of the trustees of its permanent fund and trustee of Masonic Apart- ments. He is also a member of Worcester Lodge of Perfection: of Goddard Council, Princes of Jeru- salem, of which he is at present junior warden; of Lawrence Chapter of Rose Croix; of the Massa- chusetts Consistory: of the Aleppo Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is grand lecturer of the Grand Commandery of the Knights Templar of Massachu- setts and Rhode Island. He is a Republican in poli- tics and has served frequently as delegate to Republi- can county and other conventions. He attends Union Congregational Church. He is a member of the Worcester, Commonwealth, Tatnuck Country and Tatassit Canoe Clubs, the Worcester Agricultural Society and other organizations. He was president of the Merchants' Association of Worcester, in 1906, is a trustee of the Worcester Academy and also of the Board of Trade. Mr. Johnson occupies a leading position among the merchants and business men of the city; he is reckoned among the men of sound judgment and common sense as well as of unusual business ability.

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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 73

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