USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historical collections, Vol. II > Part 44
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
551
SOUTHBRIDGE.
ments are waged. If among this class of officers there was more mor- tality attendant upon the late conflict, it was because there was more disease.
" The senator from Kentucky has denounced removals from office as the violation of the freedom of opinions and the liberty of speech and action. He advocates a course of conduct towards political opponents characterized by great moderation and forbearance, and, what is much more. he professes to have conformed his actions to his precepts. Wc, all of us, I believe, admire these liberal sentiments, and feel disposed, in our abstract speculations, to adopt them as the rule of our conduet.
" The theory is, indeed, beautiful: but, sir, do we put them in prac- tice when brought to the experiment? I would ask the honorable senator if he has himself practiced them? I will not say he has not, because he assures us he has; but I will say, that some part of his pub- lic conduct has exposed him to strong suspicions of having departed from the path which he now points out as the true one, and of having wandered into that which he now thinks it is so censurable in others to have pursued.
" It will be recollected, sir, that there is considerable patronage at- tached to the department of state. To it appertains the selection of newspapers in which the laws of the United States are published. I well remember that while that honorable senator was at the head of that department, and when the fortunes of the late administration began to wane, the patronage of publishing the laws was withdrawn from certain public journals that had long enjoyed it. What was the cause of this change-this removal from office, I believe I may call it? It was not a violent and vindictive opposition to the existing administration. Some of these journals had scarcely spoken in whispers against it. No, sir; it was for lukewarmness-for neutrality. A want of zeal in the cause of the administration was alleged to be the offense: proscription was the punishment. Where was then that sacred regard for freedom of opinion and liberty of speech and action which we now hear so highly extolled ? Was not this an attempt to control public opinion through the medium of the press, and to bring that press into subserviency to the views of the men in power ?"
All his public speeches were pointed, close, and logical, direct without surplusage, as were also his state papers. He agreed fully with President Jackson upon the subject of the United States bank, and voted against its re-charter.
In 1832 he was a candidate for governor in opposition to Francis Granger, and elected by about ten thousand majority. His first message, as a literary and concise business produc-
552
SOUTHBRIDGE.
duction, was highly commended by all parties. The great point of the message was his financial policy, which was re- garded as exhibiting much thought, and while it was conser- vative, it was well calenlated to advance the best interests of the State, by developing its resources.
In 1834 he was re-elected governor as an opponent to Wil- liam H. Seward, by a majority of thirteen thousand votes. In 1836 he was a candidate for his third election against Jesse Buell, and came into office by nearly thirty thousand majority over his opponent. As a candidate for the fourth term, he was defeated by the election of Mr. Seward.
He favored the annexation of Texas, and gave his support to James K. Polk for president, and received the appoint- ment of secretary of war. Here he exhibited his adminis- trative ability in conducting that department through the war with Mexico. Ilis diplomatie powers were here ex- hibited with much force in the adjustment of the Oregon boundary with England, and his ability as a statesman was shown to be of a high order.
He supported General Cass against General Taylor for president, and on the latter's election returned to his residence at Albany, and remained in private life during the four years of the succeeding administration of the General Government, but, on the election of General Pierce as president, he was called to the department of state. In this office, perhaps, more than any other, he had the opportunity to show the full powers of his mind as a wise statesman, and particularly in the case with the Austrian government, in sustaining Captain Ingraham in his acts in the question of Martin Koszta. In this correspondence he greatly distinguished himself at home and abroad, which placed him in the scale of ability not inferior to any statesman, among the many great men who have be- fore or since controlled the affairs of that office. On the induction of Mr. Buchanan to the office of president he retired
553
SOUTHBRIDGE.
to private life, and died just four months to a day afterwards, while engaged in reading.
He was twice married ; his first wife was Dolly, daughter of Captain Samuel Newell, of his native town; his second, Cornelia, a daughter of the late Benjamin Knower, of Albany, a politician of the same party, an influential man, and a friend of Mr. Marcy.
He may be described as a person above the ordinary height, stout and muscular; his forehead, face, and eyes indicated a man of ability. His appearance, generally, was impressive to a stranger. He possessed great self-control, and was free from pretense ; yet there was great dignity in his manner. Socially, he was pleasant and attractive. He did not excel as a polished speaker, but his straightforward and practical cont- mon sense views were always interesting. His great forte was as a writer ; he had no superior in his state papers.
HON. EBENEZER DAVIS AMMIDOWN.
Ebenezer Davis Ammidown was the only son of Major Calvin Ammidown, who was one of the prominent men in procuring the act of incorporation of the town of Southbridge, and in laying the foundation of the business interests of the place. His mother was Deborah Davis, daughter of Ebenezer Davis, of Charlton, extensively known as a man of great wealth, for that time, in the county of Worcester. The sub- ject of this notice was born in Charlton (in that part which, taken with parts of Sturbridge and Dudley, formed this town in 1816), November 18, 1796, and died here, on the 21st of November, 1865.
Mr. Ammidown was eminently the leading man in South- bridge and vicinity, in public improvements ; a large portion of his life was devoted to that object. The introduction of county roads, especially leading to this common center, was largely by his efforts ; the railroad from Boston to this town
.
SOUTHBRIDGE.
554
was particularly a result of his labors and influence ; and in the cotton manufacture, although he was not the first to en- gage in that business in this place, yet to him more than to any other person has the development of that business been carried on and advanced here. He, in connection with Dr. Samuel Hartwell, the late Moses Plimpton, Esq., and Mr. Samuel Lewis Newell, were the founders of the Columbia Cotton- mill, erected in 1821, and burned, December 6, 1844 ; he erected on that site the present brick mill in 1856, filling it with machinery in 1858; and founded the Central Cotton Manufacturing Company, before explained.
At one time he was operating all the cotton-mills in the vicinity ; the Dresser or Paige mill, the Westville mill, the Columbian, and the Central Company mills.
In 1843-'44, in company with his brother-in-law, Dr. Samuel Hartwell, he visited Europe, and traveled extensively among the manufacturing localities in both England and the conti- nent, and made arrangements, and introduced for a time, at the Central mills, the de laine manufacture.
It was a leading object during the most active part of his life to introduce travel and facilitate business in connection with this town, by county roads and by railway. as before referred to.
He was a commissioner for the Norwich and Worcester rail- road for making its location, and securing lands for right of way; was president for a time of the Norfolk County rail- road, and the leading man in procuring the charter for the Southbridge and Blackstone railroad; was also a long time active in his labors as the agent for right of way and direct- ing the operations of the New York Central and Midland rail- roads, from Boston to Dedham. The leading effort in all this labor was to introduce railroad communication direct from Southbridge to Boston, and ultimately continuing it west to an intersection with the Boston and Albany railroad, at Pahner,
555
SOUTHBRIDGE.
Massachusetts ; to take much of the western travel and freight ria this town east to Boston and Providence.
When in the State Legislature, in both the house and senate, he was regarded as an able member on committees, especially on railroad improvements. So much of his time diverted from his personal affairs was a serious injury to his own estate, which, to a considerable degree, was sacrificed for what he esteemed the public good.
Having nearly brought to the intended result the direet railroad communication from his native town to the capital of the State, and with the center of trade in Rhode Island, it appeared to be a premature and sad close of his life, that he could not be permitted to witness the long-desired object of his labors. This was accomplished on the evening of Novem- ber 9, 1866, a few days short of a year after his decease.
Hon. Linus Child, long personally acquainted with Mr. Ammidown, and for several years connected with him in busi- ness, refers to his character and ability as follows :
"He was a man of great natural talents and energy, and to whatever business or employment he applied himself, he always exhibited great clearness of perception, comprehen- siveness of views, and a capacity to appreciate at a glance the true bearings of any subject to which he gave his attention.
" In these particulars he was rarely excelled or even equaled. His advice and council was frequently sought by his neigh- bors and friends in questions of doubt and difficulty, and always freely given. He was often selected as referee in dis- putes and controversies between different parties, in which his clear and discriminating judgment always enabled him so to decide as to give great weight and satisfaction to his decisions. For many years he was the principal magistrate, before whom cases from his own and adjoining towns were tried.
" It is known to the writer that the cases tried before him
556
SOUTHBRIDGE.
often amounted to scores in a single year. In this some- what extensive business his clearness of perception, the maturity of his judgments, and the strong sense of justice which always characterized his proceedings, so marked his administration of justice that his decisions were almost uni- versally acquiesced in by the parties. His decisions were seldom appealed from, and during an experience of fifteen years, no instance is remembered by the writer in which one of his decisions was ever reversed on an appeal to a higher court. He had been constantly engaged in business and in matters of public interest from the time that South- bridge was a small village up to its present position, as one of the most thriving and prosperons towns in the south part of Worcester county. Though most of his large business opera- tions are now conducted by other parties, it is yet believed that much of the business prosperity of the town is due to the spirit of enterprise awakened by his early suggestions and cherished by his hearty co-operation.
"Mr. Ammidown's time and talents were not confined chiefly or in a great part to matters to which allusion has been made. For many years he was a member of the board of county com- missioners. To the duties of this office he carried qualifications of a high order. Few men have ever held that office who were more highly appreciated by their associates than he was. His thorough and extensive acquaintance with the interests of the county, made his services in connection with the board pe- culiarly valuable, and gave him a great and deserved influence with its members in all their deliberations. In whatever relations he held with public or private associations he im- pressed upon all who had his acquaintance a conviction that he was a man of no ordinary powers of mind.
"Though his quiet and unobtrusive manner did not permit him to take a prominent part in the debates of either the senate or house of representatives, yet, when his associates
557
SOUTHBRIDGE.
came to know his qualifications, there were few men among them whose opinions and counsel were more sought for, or who really exerted a greater influence than he did. His judgment was always sound, and his matured opinions upon all subjects were ever found to evince much thought and re- flection, and were ever considered reliable.
" He was always cool and deliberate. His judgments were never rashly formed. He ever preferred to wait before making his conclusions until his usually severe process of thought and reflection would enable him to reach a result satisfactory to his own mind. His conclusions, thus formed, he seldom changed. The pertinacity with which he clung to opinions once adopted frequently gave him the appearance of obstinacy to those who did not understand the careful manner in which he arrived at the results of his own reflec- tions. But to those who knew him most intimately he was a wise counselor and a safe and trusted friend. He was always calm and collected, even in the most trying cireum- stances. He was seldom off his guard, and never manifested undne excitement. The undisturbed calmness with which he met the last hours of his life, when, in the perfect possession of all his faculties, he held his last interview with his family, and gave his last counsels and directions, only indicated the same quiet and well-balanced mind which he had so constantly displayed throughout all the varying scenes of a long and useful life."
HON. LINUS CHILD.
Hon. Linus Child was born at Woodstock, Connecticut, on the 27th of February, 1802 ; his father was Rensselaer Child. and his mother, Priscilla Corbin, who were married, November 28, 1797. This family resided upon a large and valuable farm in the north border of that town, near the Massachusetts line;
558
SOUTHBRIDGE.
and besides the cultivation of this tract of land, Mr. Child, Senior, was largely engaged as surveyor and conveyancer over a circnit of country of considerable extent in that vicinity ; and as the records will show, this class of business, for a num- ber of years among the farming community, was monopolized by him ; he was a man of large stature, and possessed more than the ordinary powers of intellect.
The subject of this sketch spent his early life on his father's farm, with the usual attendance upon the public school in the neighborhood.
He began his preparation for college under the tuition of Rev. Samuel Backus, of the Muddy Brook parish, East Wood- stock, and completed his preparatory studies at Bacon acad- emy, Colchester, in that State, in the autumn of 1820. In the following winter he became a member of the Freshman class of Yale college, where he graduated in 1824. Mr. Child did not reach the highest rank in college as a scholar; but for honest, actual mastery of the prescribed course, few were before him. After he graduated he became a member of the Law school of New Haven, and studied in the office of S. P. Staples. He also enjoyed the instruction of Judge Daggett, of same place.
Six months after entering the Law school, he entered the office of Hon. Ebenezer Stoddard, in the west parish of his native town, and after eighteen months of study he became a member of the bar in Connecticut.
He then spent a year in the office of Hon. George A. Tufts, of Dudley, Massachusetts, when he was admitted to practice in the courts of Worcester county, and immediately removed to Southbridge, and there commenced the practice of his pro- fession ; in 1829 he married Berintha, daughter of Oliver Mason, Esq. After continuing in his profession at South- bridge about eighteen years, he removed to Lowell in 1845, and took the agency of the large corporation known as the
559
SOUTIIBRIDGE.
"Boot Mills," where he continued about seventeen years ; then removed his family to Boston in April, 1862, and resumed his legal profession, which he continued till the time of his decease. He died at Hingham, after a short illness, of conges- tion of the brain. This attack commenced on Thursday, when he gradually failed, dying Friday evening about nine o'clock, the 26th of August, 1870. His remains were buried at For- est Hills cemetery, on Monday following.
In a brief description of Mr. Child, it may be said, he was large of stature, frank and cordial in his manner of inter- course, with an open and genial countenance, warm-hearted and generous, with an honesty of purpose. He was well informed in the current affairs of the day, and was able to converse with that intelligence which made his conversation . instructive.
While residing at Southbridge, he was elected six times to the office of senator from Worcester, in the State Legislature, and in the performance of his duties as chairman of the com- mittee on railroads, he did much in framing the laws and charters of several roads; establishing principles that have since controlled the immense investments in those institutions. As a lawyer, he excelled not perhaps so much as an advocate as he did as a counselor, yet through his apparent fairness and honesty of purpose, he rarely lost a case before the court.
It may properly be said of Mr. Child, that as a religious man, giving his time and influence in that cause, supporting whatever tended to its advancement, whether as a laborer in the church, the Sabbath school, the cause of an educated min- istry, or the extension of the Gospel by missionary efforts, his services were regarded fully equal, if not greater than in any other field of his engagements. His life was one of practical usefulness, devoted with an honest zeal to the promotion of such objects as he believed would tend to the best good of society. He leaves a wife and three children ; a son, Limus
560
SOUTIIBRIDGE.
Mason Child, a graduate of Harvard, and now a lawyer in Boston; and two daughters, Myra Berintha and Abbie.
The widow of Hon. Linus Child, deceased in the autumn of 1872.
MOSES PLIMPTOM.
The subject of this sketch, was the son of Gershom and Keziah Fiske Plimpton, born, October 17, 1795; married Edna Taylor, of Sturbridge. He died, September 19, 1854, of an injury received in crossing Washington street, Boston, near the old South church, by being run against by horses at- tached to an omnibus. Their children were : Ellen Maria, born, August 21, 1822 ; married, March 18, 1844, to Dr. Samnel Cyrus Hartwell, of Southbridge, son of Dr. Samuel Hartwell. Mr. Plimpton's other children were : George La- fayette, born, August 11, 1824; died in Ohio. Jane Elizabeth, born, March 4, 1827 ; married Ambrose Clark, Somerville. Caroline S., born, April 1, 1829. Louisa E., born, October 5, 1832 ; married, Charles S. Lincoln, a lawyer, of Boston. Edwin Taylor, born, September 28, 1835 ; died at St. Louis, in 1862, from disease contracted in the army, at the battle of Shiloh. Clara Cornelia, born, September 29, 1840; now teacher at the Blind asylum, New York.
Mr. Plimpton was, from the period of the incorporation of the town of Southbridge, 1816 to 1844 (the time the mill he assisted to build-the Columbian Cotton factory-was burned), one of the leading men of the place. The loss suf- fered by the Columbian Manufacturing Company, of which he was a large proprietor, involved his peeuniary affairs largely, and induced him soon after to remove from the town.
During a period of forty years, from his early manhood to that time, few, if any, exerted a greater or more beneficial influence in this town than he. To the cause of temperance, schools, lyceums, and religion, and, in fact to all objects, the
ยท
M. Php low
561
SOUTHBRIDGE.
design of which was the elevation of the people and society about him, he gave his attention and active support. Al- though not having the advantage of a collegiate educa- tion, yet he may be properly called an educated man, well read in the general literature of the day-romance, history, and politics-and possessing considerable knowledge of many scientific subjects.
The writer recolleets, favorably, an historical lecture de- livered by him before the Southbridge lyceum, that was very highly esteemed for the research it exhibited in the numerous and highly interesting facts it disclosed, and the agreeable manner in which it was expressed.
Some quotations were made from this lecture, in manu- script, by the Rev. Joseph S. Clark, when he delivered his centennial discourse at the close of the first century of the in- corporation of the town of Sturbridge, and to which he es- pecially refers at the close of a note in his historical sketch, remarking,
" That he acknowledged with pleasure the many important items re- specting the first settlers of that vicinity, which, with a commendable zeal, Mr. Plimpton had saved from oblivion."
It is much to be regretted that his lecture, here referred to, had not been preserved in print. Much inquiry has been made by this writer among the different members of his fan- ily and friends for this manuscript, but so far without success. It is to be hoped that it may yet be found, as much of its con- tents were from the recollection of the aged several years since passed away ; and such facts can not now be restored without this document.
DR. SAMUEL HARTWELL.
Dr. Hartwell is a native of Oxford, born, August 30, 1793. He is the fifth generation from William Hartwell, of Con-
562
SOUTHBRIDGE.
cord, Massachusetts. His father was Samuel, who was the son of Samuel 3d, who was son of Samuel 2d, who was son of Samnel 1st, the son of William of Concord, who was living there abont 1636. The subject of this notice received his education at the common school and Leicester academy; studied medicine with his brother, Dr. Cyrus, in New Jersey, and graduated at the college of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, in 1816. He commeifeed his profession the fol- lowing year in Southbridge, the year after this town was incorporated, and has continued the practice of medicine up to the present year, 1873, being now eighty years of age.
He married, April 13, 1819, Lydia, daughter of Major Calvin Ammidown ; she was born, January 14, 1799, and died, September 3, 1848. Abont four years after he settled in this town he engaged in the manufacture of cotton with his brother-in-law, Hon. Ebenezer D. Ammidown, Moses Plimpton, Esq., Mr. Samuel Lewis Newell, and others, and erected the Columbia Cotton-mill, and was in- terested in the operating of the same until that mill was destroyed by fire in 1844, when the affairs of this company were closed.
He has at all times manifested an interest in such improve- ments as tended to advance the interest and welfare of South- bridge and vicinity, but that for which he is most distinguished is his reputation as a physician; in this profession he maintains a high degree of eminence, not excelled, if equaled, in this respect by any person in Worcester, south district. Intel- lectually he is much above the average, well read in general literature and the sciences. By a long and attentive course of practice, and as advisory physician, he has accumulated a handsome fortune, and now stands remarkable, for his years, in both mental and physical vigor, apt and quick in his per- ceptions, not a fossil of a past age, but conforming to the advance of the times.
Jarmul Harbuurt
563
SOUTHBRIDGE.
TIMOTHY PAIGE, JUNIOR, ESQ.
Timothy Paige, Junior, Esq., was son of Timothy Paige, Esq., of Hardwick, born at that place, March 6, 1788, died in Southbridge; November 16, 1822. He studied law with Samuel F. Diekinson, Esq., of Amherst, and Hon. Abraham Holmes, of Rochester.
He removed to Georgia and resided there about three years, chiefly at Augusta and Waynesboro', in the practice of the law and as preceptor of an academy. In 1814 he returned to Hardwick, and in December, that year, opened a law office in Honest Town (Southbridge in 1816), and same year, re- ceived commission as justice of the peace. In the first organ- ization of the town in March, 1816, he was elected town clerk, and, as the records will show, he opened the first book for town proceedings, giving the mode of keeping said records, which system has since been followed.
His father, Timothy Paige, was a lineal descendant from Elder William Brewster, of Plymouth, born in Hardwick, February 16, 1767; he was son of Colonel Timothy and Mary Foster Paige, grandson of Deacon Christopher and Elizabeth Reed Paige, and one of the earliest white inhabi- tants of Hardwick.
His mother was Mary Robinson, a lineal descendant from Governor Thomas Dudley, born in Hardwick, December 3, 1758 ; they were married, January 20, 1780; she was dangh- ter of Thomas and Mary Warner Robinson, and granddaugh- ter of James and Patience Ruggles Robinson, who removed from Boston to Rochester in 1714, and thence to Hardwick, in 1757.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.