Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. III, Part 11

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 772

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. III > Part 11

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(second ) Lydia Webber, of Salem, April 7, 1743- at Salem. The children of Thomas and Margaret Gould: Thomas, born about 1720, see forward; Nehemiah, married, July 11, 1758, Mary Phipps ; Abigail, Margaret, married. November 7, 1743, Ebenezer Dunton, of Salem.

(IV) Thomas Gould, son of Thomas Gould (3), was born in Salem Village or Danvers, Massachu- setts, about 1720. He married at Marblehead, No- vember 27, 1750. Their children: Margaret, bap- tized August 25, 1751 ; Sarah, baptized July 15, 1753; Thomas, baptized November 23, 1755, see forward; Benjamin, baptized November 26, 1758; Abigail, baptized October 31, 1762, perhaps mar- ried Levi Fay, of Sturbridge, December 22, 1785. The foregoing were baptized, but probably not born in Marblehead. Other members of this Gould family lived at Salem and Marblehead.

(V) Thomas Gould, son of Thomas Gould (4), was baptized at Marblehead, November 23, 1755- A record of his birth on the town records of Charl- ton is November 24, 1755, obtained perhaps by sub- tracting his supposed age at death. Possibly the baptism was on the twenty-fifth. . He was a soldier in the revolution, a private in Captain Abel Mason's company, Colonel Jonathan Holm's regiment, in 1776 and 1777, in Rhode Island; also in the same company in Colonel Job Cushing's regiment to re- inforce the northern army in 1777. Jonathan Gould, possibly an uncle, sold to Thomas Gould land in Sturbridge, April 13, 1780. This farm was bounded by Captain White's land, Joshua Witt's and Captain Parker's. This Jonathan Gould, of Sturbridge, died there March 9, 1812, aged eighty-seven years, mak- ing his birth year 1725; his wife Mary died June 13, 1803, aged seventy-five, making her birth year 1728. Thomas was in Sturbridge in 1780. He re- moved from there to Ashford, Connecticut, about 1788, and settled finally in Charlton, Massachusetts, about 1791. fle married, May 23, 1782, Hannah

Williams, of Pomfret, Connecticut. Their inten- tions of marriage were recorded February 10, 1782, at Sturbridge, where he lived, and the marriage is also recorded at Charlton, though the marriage was more likely at Pomfret. The births of all their children are recorded at Charlton, although several were born in Sturbridge, as indicated, and one at Ashford. The children: Willard, born at Stur- bridge, March 3, 1783, married, 1805, Sirene Bond, of Holland; John, born February 7, 1785, at Stur- bridge ; Lyman, born September 19, 1787, at Stur- bridge, married, May 26, 1818, Polly Marble ; Betsey,. born at Ashford, Connecticut, March 12, 1790, mar- ried, March 20, 1814, Abijah Lamb, Jr. ; Rufus, born September 3, 1792, see forward; Lius ( Elias?), born November 6, 1794, at Charlton; Maria, born March 5, 1799, at Sturbridge; Horace, born June 28, 1801, at Charlton.

(\]) Rufus Gould, son of Thomas Gould (5), was born in Charlton, Massachusetts, September 3. 1792. lle married, April 8, 1824, at Oakham, Massa- chusetts, Mary Henry. They resided in Oakham, Rutland and New Braintree, Massachusetts. She- was born in Rutland and baptized there June 14, 1801, daughter of Samuel and Polly (Gates). Henry, married October 28, 1795, at Rutland. Her father. Samuel Henry, was born in Rutland, No-

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lillian

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vember 15, 1765, son of David and Hannah ( Wat- son) Henry. married 1761 in Leicester. David Henry was of Scotch-Irish stock. Some of his family resided in Leicester, where Robert Henry, perhaps his father, marricd, 1731, Charity Tomson. Children of Rufus and Mary ( Henry) Gould : Charles Rufus, born December 27, 1824, died 1827; Rev. George Henry, see forward; Mary Ann, born November 7, 1829, at Oakham; William Rufus, born April 20, 1832, see forward; Louisa Jane, born Feb- ruary 7, 1835, at New Braintree, died in New Brain- tree, November 25, 1843, buried in Oakham; Charles Franklin, born October 31, 1837, in Oakham; Dr. Jolin W., dentist in Worcester, resides at 23 May- wood street, see forward; Rev. Edwin S., born February 2, 1844, at New Braintree, see forward.

(V]]) Rev. George H. Gould, D. D., son of Rufus Gould (6), was born in Oakham, Massachu- setts, February 20, 1827. He attended the public schools and Monson Academy, where he was fitted for college. He was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Amherst in 1850, after which he studied theology for a year at Andover under Professor Park. He was graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1853. His health being im- paired by close application to his books at a time antedating modern college gymnasties and physical culture. he went west to recuperate and was there engaged six months in civil engineering. During two winter seasons he lectured before various lyceums and preached temporarily in a number of larger western cities, including Milwaukee, Detroit, Dubuque, and Chicago. While yet a student, Mr. Gould was invited to become a colleague of the Rev. Albert Barnes, of Philadelphia, and on his return from the west he received a call from the Bowdoin Street Church, Boston, which waited for him a year before selecting another pastor. His health being but little benefited by his stay in the west, he ac- cepted an opportunity in 1857 to go abroad with John B. Gough, the celebrated temperance orator, with whom he spent a year in London, six months in Paris, four months in Edinburgh, two months in Rome and traveled two summers in Switzerland. In 1862 Mr. Gould became pastor of the Olivet Congregational Church of Springfield, Massachu- setts, and during the two years that he was con- nected with that society declined urgent calls from Troy, New York; Norwich, and Hartford, Con- necticut. In December, 1864, he was settled over the old Centre Church in Hartford with the under- standing that on account of ill health he should preach but once each Sunday. He remained there six years and afterward supplied the Central Church at Providence fifteen months; the Walnut Avenue Church in Boston six months, being subsequently connected with various churches in Boston and suburban towns for longer or shorter periods. In 1872, at the formation of the Piedmont Church in Worcester, Mr. Gould became active pastor, a po- sition he retained five years. While thus engaged he was called to the pastorate of Amherst College, his alma mater, being invited to take the chair of biblical literature in conjunction with college preaching. He also received a call to take charge of the Third Congregational Church in New Haven. In 1878 he began supplying the pulpit of Union Church, Worcester, where he continued two years and a half. Then he supplied various pulpits in the city and vicinity, as his health would permit, and though not able to assume the responsibility of a settled pastorate, was an acknowledged force in the pulpit almost to the end of his life. In 1870 Am- herst College bestowed on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

Mr. Gould married, October 15, 1862, Ellen M. Grout, daughter of Jonathan Grout, of Worcester, a descendant in the sixth generation from John Grout, of Sudbury, Massachusetts. Jonathan Grout, Sr., grandfather of Mrs. Gould; carried on a suc- cessful business as book-binder in Millbury for many years. He possessed literary talents of a high order and was a leader in religious circles. His wife Sally was from Lyme, Connecticut. Jon- athan Grout, Jr., was born in Millbury, Massachu- setts, September 14, 1815, and there learned the book-binder's trade of his father. He married, Au- gust 11, 1836, Mary J. Smith, and five years later came to Worcester to reside, establishing himself as a manufacturer and bookseller in the building now occupied by Wesby book-bindery and his suc- cessors there, Putnam, Davis & Co., who carried on a successful business for many years. The pres- ent firm is Davis & Banister (D. A. Davis and C. H. Banister). Jonathan Grout's residence on Main street, nearly opposite Jackson street, is one of the landmarks of the city and is a fine specimen of Corinthian architecture. His only son, John Will- iam Grout, more familiarly known as Willie Grout, was born July 25. 1843, and was educated at the Highland Military School in Worcester. On the breaking out of the rebellion he enlisted in the Fifteenth Volunteer Infantry, and was at once made second lieutenant of Company D, one of the youngest officers in the army. After a sort time in camp his regiment was sent to Maryland, and October 21, 1861, was assigned to the troops placed under com- mand of Colonel Devens in the battle of Leesburg. Under the sharp fire that ensued, the young lieuten- ant exhibited an heroic bravery and coolness that surprised officers and men and encouraged them to still further effort. After the retreat was sounded, while gallantly leading his men from the field, he was fatally wounded by a rebel bullet. A bio- graphical sketch of Willie Grout and a copy of that familiar poem, The Vacant Chair, written by one who had known him from youth, Henry S. Wash- burn, and set to music by the late George F. Root, are to be found in the New England Magasine for April, 1897. The Worcester Camp of the Sons of Veterans was named for Willie Grout. Dr. Gould died May 8, 1899. His widow married, 1899, Rev. William Spooner Smith, of Auburndale.

Doctor George Leon Walker, of Hartford, writ- ing to the Congregationalist some years ago, called Dr. Gould: "the very eloquent minister of Pied- mont Church at Worcester, who certainly has no superior in New England. John B. Gough, the temperance orator, who when at home was a par- ishioner for five years at Piedmont while Dr. Gould was pastor says of him in his autobiography: 'In 1856 I first met Reverend George H. Gould, D. D., and was fascinated by his preaching. He is emo- tional with no sensationalism. He speaks with an earnestness that convinces you he believes all he utters, with deep pathos revealing the tenderness of his own nature, an eloquence perfectly natural, a face radiant at times when he utters some lofty thought. He has no monotonous repetitions ; there is nothing stale or conventional in his preaching. He reaches the intellect and the heart, and were it not for his health he would have been one of the widely-known popular preachers of the day.'"

(VII) William Rufus Gould, son of Rufus Gould (6), was born at New Braintree, Massachu- setts, April 20, 1832, and he resided there until he was twelve years old, when his parents removed to Oakham, Massachusetts. He received his education in the public schools and when not in school worked with his father on the farm. About 1854 he started

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for California, when the gold mines were attracting venturesome and ambitious men from all parts of the country. He located in the northern part of the state and was successful in making money. He re- moved to San Francisco and there engaged in busi- ness. After six years and a half in the west he re- turned to Massachusetts for a visit and decided to stay in the east. In 1860 he settled in Westborough and established a retail boot and shoe business. Soon afterward he purchased the dry goods store of Mr. Penniman and formed a partnership with Henry Chamberlain, of Southborough. Later he engaged in the hardware business. During all the years he was in the mercantile business he had been seeking a good opportunity to go into manufactur- ing, for which he was naturally adapted by me- chanical and executive ability. In April, 1879, he entered partnership with George B. and John L. Brigham under the name of Brigham, Gould & Company, manufacturers of boots and shoes, at Westborough. In 1882 this firm was dissolved. In November, 1883, he formed a new firm, in partner- ship with Melvin H. Walker, under the firm name of Gould & Walker. This firm was located in the Brigham factory on Cottage street until February, 1887, when it was removed to the present quarters in the building at the corner of Milk and Phillips streets. At the time of Mr. Gould's withdrawal, which was caused by ill health, December, 1889, the business of the firm had grown from the modest beginning in 1879, to employ some three hundred hands producing 35,000 cases a year, valued at five hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Gould's place in the firm was taken by M. V. Dunning and the firm has prospered since and has proved one of the substantial industries of the town. In 1887 Mr. Gould erected the business structure in the village known as Gould's Block. Mr. Gould died March 26, 1890.

Mr. Gould was an active and influential citizen in town affairs. He was selectman of the town in 1887-88, one of the water commissioners of the town, overseer of the poor, a director of the First Na- tional Bank and trustee of the Westborough Savings Bank. He was a generous supporter of the church which he attended, and in his will left a liberal be- quest to the Young Men's Christian Association of the town. He used his wealth wisely and gen- erously. He was leader in every good movement in the town, and commanded the confidence as well as the respect and esteem of all his townsmen. His position as the largest taxpayer of the town made him the leader in many ways, and he took advantage of this oportunity to do his full duty as a citizen and set a useful and valuable example. From the tax list published in the history of Westborough for 1890 we quote the names of the three largest tax- payers: J. A. Fayerweather, $595.50; Gould & Walker, $518.10; estate of W. R. Gould, $482.86.

Mr. Gould married, 1866, Sarah Fayerweather, daughter of John A. Fayerweather, and grand- daughter of Major John Fayerweather. Major Fayerweather came of an old Massachusetts Bay family, the emigrant ancestor of which, Thomas, was a proprietor of Boston in the early days, died there in 1638, leaving a son Benjamin, daughter Mary and other children. John Fayerweather settled in Westborough and married there, October 28, 1805. Sally Wheelock, daughter of Colonel Moses Wheelock, prominent in the revolution. He died February 24, 1826. Children of Major John and Sally (Wheelock) Fayerweather: Thomas Hub- bard, born May 16, 1806, married, April 10, 1827, Elmina A. Parker ; John Appleton, born March 12, 1808, see forward; Sarah Hubbard, born January 7,

1810, married Charles Parkman Jones, born March or May 8, 1833; George J.

John Appleton Fayerweather, son of Major John Fayerweather, was born March 12, 1808. He grad- uated at Brown University, after which he worked for a few years on his father's farm. In 1833 he began his mercantile career as proprietor of the general store located in the house now owned by Elijah Burnap on West Main street. A year later he occupied the house and has a store on the present site of the Unitarian Church. In 1836 he bought the old Parkman store and with various changes in his firm carried on the business until 1858. Then for five years he was engaged in the wholesale grocery business in Boston. Retiring from this business, he became interested largely in the insur- ance business and was president of the Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance Company. He held many positions of trust and honor. He was a member of the Westborough Agricultural Society from 1839. and was president of the Worcester County Agri- cultural Society. He was prominent in political life, an active and honored member of the Repub- lican party. He was overseer of the poor, town treasurer, selectman for many years and representa- tive of his district in the general court. He was president of the Westborough National Bank from the time of its incorporation in 1861 until he died. He was appointed by the governor of the state- trustee of the Westborough Reform School and served from 1856 to 1859. In the management of various important local enterprises, Mr. Fayer- weather took an influential and helpful part. He was for many years one of the largest taxpayers and foremost citizens.

He married, December 27, 1831, Sarah Augusta Tyler, daughter of Dr. John E. Tyler, of Boston. She died April 15, 1875. They had two children : One died in infancy, and Sarah Wheelock, born May 29, 1835, married William R. Gould, mentioned above. Mrs. Gould resides in the family homestead at Westborough.

EX-CONGRESSMAN WILLIAM W. RICE. Among the several genealogical lines of the Rice family, as descended from the immigrant, Edmund Rice, is the one to which Hon. William Whitney Rice, of Worcester, belongs, and is as follows:

(1) Edmund Rice, born about 1594, in England, settled at Sudbury, Massachusetts 1639, married and died at Marlboro, Massachusetts; the date of his death was March 3, 1663. He was the father of eleven children, including Edward.

(II) Edward Rice, son of Edmund Rice (1), was born 1619. It is believed he was twice married- first to Agnes Bent, who died childless. The second wife was Anna - . who died in 1713. aged eighty-three years. The children of Edward and Anna-eleven in all-included one named Benjamin.

(III) Benjamin Rice, son of Edward (2) and Anna Rice, born December 22, 1666, married Mary Graves, of Sudbury, Massachusetts, April 1, 1691. They lived at Marlboro, where she died, October 22. 1736, aged sixty-six years. He died February 23. 1748, aged eighty-three years. They had nine children, of whom Azariah was the eldest.

(IV) Azariah Rice, son of Benjamin (3) and Mary (Graves) Rice, was born August 13, 1693. Married Hannah - -, and lived at Brookfield, Massachusetts, where the wife died in 1754, and he of a cancer in 1779, aged eighty-six years. They had nine children, of whom Benjamin was the sec- ond child.

(V) Benjamin Rice, son of Azariah (4) and Hannah Rice, born February I, 1722-23, married

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John J. Fayerweather

WORCESTER COUNTY

Sarahı Upham, of Malden, June 30. 1744. They lived at Brookfield, where he was a selectman and a rep- resentative. He died February 18, 1796, aged seven- ty-three years. His widow died March, 1804, aged eighty-three years. They had six children, of whom Caleb was the third.

(VI) Caleb Rice, son of Benjamin (5) and Saralı (Upham) Rice, born September 2, 1754, mar- ried Sally Abbott, and moved to Sturbridge, and in 1806 to Pompey, New York, where he died of fever, November 4, 1809, and his wife and three children later.

(VII) Rev. Benjamin Rice, son of Caleb (6) and Sally (Abbott) Rice, was born May 9. 1784. He graduated at Brown University in 1808, studied theology at Andover College and settled as a min- ister in Skaneateles, New York, then at Deerfield. Massachusetts, and later at New Gloucester and Buxton, Maine. He finally located at Winchendon, where he died July 11, 1847, aged sixty-four years. He married Elizabeth Bennett, of Sharon. Connec- ticut. She died February, 1818. For his second wife he married Almina, daughter of John Whipple, of Charlton. His third wife wae Lucy, daughter of Phineas Whitney, of Winchendon. His children were all by his last marriage and included one named William Whitney Rice, who became a United States congressman and whose sketch is subjoined.

William Whitney Rice, of Worcester, Massachu- setts, distinguished as a lawyer and statesman, and whose useful public career extended ever a period of nearly one-third a century, was of English an- cestry, and his lineage was well worthy the reverence in which he held it. The families from which he sprang were honored in the land of their birth, and their descendants in America crowned their names with additional honor: They were men and women of brawn and brain and conscience, their hearts fervent in reverence for God and love for religious and political liberty. They were among the best of those who made the New England character, and left an impression for all time upon those who were to follow them.

Mr. Rice was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, March 7. 1826, and died in Worcester, March I, 1896. His parents were the Rev. Benjamin and Lucy (Whitney) Rice. In the paternal line he was seventh from descent from Edmund Rice, and in the maternal line he was eighth in descent from John Whitney, both natives of England. who emi- grated to America respectively in 1638 or 1639 and in 1635. Edward Rice came from Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire, and first settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts, and he was a selectman there in 1644 and deacon in the church in 1648. He subse- quently removed to Marlboro, where he died May 3. 1663. The old homestead in Sudbury yet re- mains in the possession of some of his descendants, and has been for many years the scene of a family reunion. Edward. second son of Edmund, was born in England about 1619, and died in Marlboro, Massa- chusetts, August 15, 1712. His wife was Agnes Bent and he was married a second time. Edward Rice was uncle of Jonas and Gershom Rice, who were sons of Thomas, third son of Edmund. the emigrant. Jonas was the first permanent settler in Worcester, where he died September 22, 1753, aged eighty-one ycars. He was the most important man ot the infant settlement. He was school teacher, deacon of the church. major of militia, and judge of the local courts. Captain Benjamin Rice, great- grandson of Edward Rice, was of the party of "Mohawks" who threw the tca into the Boston Harbor, was a town correspondent of the committec of safety, and served in the legislature in 1776-77

and in 1783-84. He married Sarah Upham, a de- scendant of Lieutenant Phineas' Upham, who is written of elsewhere in this work. Caleb, son of Captain Benjamin, married Sarah Abbott, and they became the parents of Benjamin Rice.

Benjamin Rice was born in Sturbridge, May 9. 1784, and died July 12, 1847. He was a graduate of Brown University, studied Divinity at Andover, entered the Congregational ministry, was settled in turn at Skaneateles, New York: South Deerfield, Massachusetts ; New Gloucester and Buxton, Maine, and during the later years of his life was' pastor at Winchendon, Massachusetts. He was an ex- cellent man and an acceptable minister. He mar- ried Lucy Whitney (see Whitney genealogy in pages following), second daughter of Phinehas Whitney. She was born June 4, 1799, and long sur- vived her husband, dying July 18, 1893, in the ninety-fifth year of her age. She was tall, of great mental and physical strength, and she was a real aid to her husband in his various pastorates. She was the mother of three children: I. Willian Whit- ney Rice, to be written of at length hereafter. 2. Lucy Ann, born in Deerfield, September 26. 1827, who married the Rev. Milan Hubbard Hitchcock. Mr. and Mrs. Hitchcock were missionaries in Cey- lon and Constantinople, and returned home in order to care for Mrs. Hitchcock's mother in her ex- treme old age. 3. Charles Jenkins Rice, born in New Gloucester, Maine, July 2, 1832. He always lived in Winchendon. on the place owned by his mother, a part of the old Phinehas Whitney property. He was offered a collegiate education, but preferred a business career, and engaged in manufacturing and dealing in lumber. He possessed many of the traits of his grandfather, Phinehas Whitney. He was influential in the community, and was for many years moderator of the town meeting. and was twice elected to the legislature as Republican. He was a leading man in the church, and was ever ready to lend his aid to the sick and distressed. He died May 3, 1892. He married Sarah M. Cummings, who was born in Winchendon, June 5, 1842. No chil- dren were born of this marriage.

William Whitney Rice, eldest son of the Rev. Benjamin and Lucy (Whitney) Rice, received his carly education in his native village and in Buxton, Maine, and when thirteen years old entered the Academy at Gorham, in the same state. Prior to this he had contracted excellent habits of study and reading while under the private tutorship of Horatio Woodman, and he left the academy as its mnost cap- able speaker and writer and its best general scholar. The same high abilities were further developed dur- ing his course in Bowdoin College, from which he graduated in 1846, when twenty years old, and this fact was glowingly dwelt upon by the Rev. Egbert C. Smith, D. D., of Andover, in a tribute which he paid to the memory of Mr. Rice before the American Antiquarian Society, subsequent to his death.

While a college student, Mr. Rice taught school in his vacations, and after his graduation was a teacher in Maine, hut a month's confinement to the school room found him with impaired health. and he was obliged to retitrn home, where he lay ill for a year, and his father died before he had recovered. In the autumn of 1847 he resumed teaching, and remained in Leicester Academy for four years. He was a most capable teacher, and many of his pupils who came to stations of eminence and usefulness, attributed much of the credit to him. Among his pupils was the lady who afterwards became his wife. In 1851 he began the study of law. under the pre- ceptorship of Emory Washburn and George F. Hoar, and three years later was admitted to the bar and

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entered upon a practice which soon became exten- sive and profitable. During his professional career he was associated in partnership first with Hon. Thomas L. Nelson, subsequently judge of the United States district court, later with Hon. Francis T. Blackmer, and last with Henry W. King, and with his son, Charles Moen Rice, which partnership con- tinued until the death of the father.

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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. III, Part 11

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 772

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 772