USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Watertown > Historical sketches of Watertown, Massachusetts > Part 27
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JONATHAN, the youngest son of the settler, was born March 10, 1646-47. His son John settled in Boston. His grandson Joseph, born February 10, 1718-19, mar- ried Marguerite Olivier, daughter of Antoine Olivier, a French Huguenot. From him were sons Joseph in three generations : Joseph, born 1747; Joseph, born 1773, married Elizabeth Bulfinch; and JOSEPH, born about 1799, graduated Harvard College 1817, and married Ellen Wales Randolph, daughter of Thomas Mann Randolph, Governor of Virginia, and wife Martha, who was daughter of Thomas Jefferson, Pres- ident of the United States. The wealth and enter- prise of this last Joseph were visible in the last gen- eration, and are perpetuated in his family. Among his sons was Sidney, who fell at the battle of Chicka- mauga, September 19, 1863; living representatives are Thomas Jefferson, a distinguished manufacturer and capitalist; Joseph Randolph, a member of the legal, and Algernon of the medical profession. Thomas Bulfinch (Harvard College 1819) and Rev. James I. T. (Harvard College 1838) were also descendants of the first Joseph. The members of this family have swelled the roll of Harvard graduates by the name of Coolidge, descendants of the first settler, to thirty- four, not to mention those of other names, descend- ants by intermarriage.
Interwoven with the Coolidge family are the names of Bond, Stone, Bright, Brown, Clarke, Mason, Liver- more, Hastings, Jennison, Frost, Whitney, Russell, Stratton, Wigglesworth, Stearns, Richards, Harring-
ton, and many others, through whom it may fairly be computed the descendants of the first settler were as numerous as those bearing his name, and scattered through New England and the Western States. Four towns bear the name of Coolidge, in Kansas, Ken- tucky, Wisconsin and New Mexico. These children of two hundred and sixty years, dispersed so widely, all regard with patriotic pride and devotion Water- town as their maternal home.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
SETH BEMIS.
Seth Bemis, who was born the 23d January, 1775, was the youngest son of David and Mary Bemis, the latter the daughter of Nathaniel and Ann (Bowman) Bright. He was a lineal descendant in the fourth generation of Joseph and Sarah Bemis, who were in Watertown as early as 1640, and were supposed to have come from London, England, in the "Sarah and John." His ancestors had been substantial citizens and land- owners in Watertown, their names appearing on the early town records among those of the selectmen. ITis father owned the water-power where now the Etna Mills are established, carrying ou a grist-mill and paper-mill, and at his death, in 1790, the mill property came to his sons Luke and Seth. The subject of this sketch fitted at New Ipswich Academy for Harvard College, where he graduated in 1795, taking good rank as a scholar. After graduation he spent about a year in the law-office of Franklin Dexter. At this time the attention of fore-seeing and progressive New England men was turned to the establishment in this country of manufacturing in- dustries, and Seth Bemis was among the earliest to join the movement, buying out his brothers' interest in 1796, devoting much time to experiments with machinery, for the different branches of spinning and weaving yarns and cloth, both of cotton and wool. About 1809, at the suggestion of Winslow Lewis, a large Boston ship-owner, he began to ex- periment with the manufacture of heavy cotton goods suitable for sail-cloth, and the War of 1812 found him extensively engaged in the manufacture of cotton duck, a large part of which was marketed in Balti- more and the South. After the close of the war he took up other branches of manufactures, and was associated in his enterprises with some of the well- known Boston merchants of the day, among them John Bellows, Thomas Cardis and William H. Board- man. At a late period, in partnership with his son, Seth Bemis, Jr., he carried on a large business in the grinding of logwood, and the preparation of dye- stuffs. Besides his industrial enterprises, he was much interested in agriculture, and believing that merino sheep could be profitably raised in this coun-
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try, he became largely engaged at one time in breed- ing them on a farm owned by him in Maine, for this purpose importing some of the finest blooded stock.
He was always an active member of the Unitarian parish, taking great interest in its work. He repre sented his town in the Legislature, and, although averse to holding office, was an earnest advocate of public improvements. He died on the 4th April, 1851, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.
He married, on the 24th April, 1808, Sarah Wheel- er, of Concord, Massachusetts, who belonged to a family, descended from the earliest settlers of that town. His wife died on the 22d of June, 1849.
They had four children, who all survived them :-- Jonathan Wheeler Bemis, born Sept. 17, 1810, who graduated from Harvard in 1830, and from the Har- vard Medical School in 1834. He settled in Charles- town, where he followed his profession over thirty- five years. In November, 1859, he married Lucy Wyeth, of Cambridge, and has four children. In 1871 he retired from practice and moved to Cam- bridge, where he now lives.
Sarah Wheeler Bemis, born 25th of July, 1812, who now lives in Newton, just across the Charles River from the old homestead.
Seth Bemis, Jr., born 18th of September, 1814, who fitted for Harvard College at Exeter Academy, but went into business. He was a well-known manufac- turer, and was associated with his father for many years, the success of their dye-stuff business being due, to a large extent, to his energy and capacity. After retiring from active business, about 1860, he moved across the river to Newton, where his sister now lives. Up to the time of his death he continued to hold several positions in manufacturing and other companies. He died 21st of October, 1887, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.
George Bemis born 13th October, 1816, who gradu- ated from Harvard College with high rank in 1835 and from Harvard Law School in 1839. He became a noted lawyer of Boston, where he practiced many years. During the War of the Rebellion he was greatly interested in the success of the National Government, and rendered valuable assistance in the conduct of its diplomatic correspondence both during the war and in the years immediately following its close. His patriotic interest in international law led him to make a study of this subject, in which he be- came deeply interested, and by his will he left a legacy founding a Professorship of International Law in the Harvard Law School. During the latter years of his life he lived much in Europe, where he died the 6th January, 1878, at Nice, France, in the sixty-second year of his age.
Another branch of the Bemis family who have long been residents of Watertown was Charles Bemis, a son of Nathaniel and Abigail (Bridge), a grandson of David and Mary (Bright), a great-grandson of Jona-
than and Anna (Livermore), a great-great-grandson of John and Mary (Harrington), who were next in descent from Joseph and Sarah, who came to Water- town about 1640. They were believed to have come from London in the " Sarah and John." (See Drake.) Homestall, 10-A.
Said Charles Bemis graduated from Harvard Col- lege in 1808, and studied law with Judge Artemas Ward, and practiced his profession during his life in Watertown. He married Annie Vose, of Boston. They had three children-Dr. Charles Vose, of Med- ford, who married Elizabeth F. Henry, of Keene, N. H. daughter of Hon. Wm. Henry, of Chester, Vt. Dr. Bemis has been for many years one of the trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospital. They have two daughters, Fanny Elizabeth and Alice Goodhue.
Abby Vose married Charles J. Barry, son of Wil- liam Barry, of Boston, and Esther (Stetson) Barry, formerly of Randolph. Mr. Charles J. Barry, born in 1811, graduated at Boston High School. After spending some time in the office of A. C. Lombard, he engaged in the wholesale coal business, first in Boston and afterwards in Charlestown, where he was known for his punctilious attention to his business. He took up his residence in Watertown in 1852, was elected on the School Committee in 1854, again in 1858, and continuously until 1865, was made one of the Board of Trustees of the Free Public Library in 1868, and again in 1873, serving until his death in 1883, the last six years being chairman of the board. He was one of the three charter members of the Watertown Savings Bank, was its president from the date of its organization in 1870 until his death. Mr. Barry was re- markable for his exact and regular habits as a business man, enjoying the perfect confidence of all, while he gave much of his time the latter years of his life to en- courage the young and the poor to save their money while they could for sickness and old age, to save their leisure time by using it in reading good books. He was constant in his attendance at church and liberal in his support of the Firet Parish, of which he had long been a member.
Isaac Vose, entered Harvard College, but owing to ill health did not graduate. He studied law with Judge Putnam. He is unmarried and lives at the ancestral place on Main Street, near its junction with Lexington Street.
MILES PRATT.
Miles Pratt was descended from Joshua Pratt, who came to Plymouth in the "Ann" in 1623. At a very early date lands were granted to him in that part of Plymouth which is now Carver, and from that time to the present one branch of the family has made that town its place of residence. David Pratt, the father of Miles, lived in Carver, and having secured some- thing more than a common-school education, devoted the earliest years of his manhood to teaching school.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
Eventually, however, he carried on a foundry in the north part of his native town. He married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Barrows, of Carver, a descendant of John Barrows, who also received grants of land in Carver at an early date and died in 1692. David Pratt had three children-Mary, who married George Barrows; Sarah, who married Marcus M. Sherman, and Miles, the subject of this sketch. Miles was born in Carver, September 17, 1825, and at the age of fifteen years entered upon the occupation of selling hollow-ware, the product of his father's factory, and from that time until his death his career was one of active industry.
About the year 1850, after being with his father some years as a partner in his business, he entered the store of B. W. Dunklee & Co., dealers in stoves, as salesman, and remained in their employ one year, when, with a son of Mr. Gould, an old president of the Blackstone Bank, he formed a partnership under the firm-name of Pratt & Gould, in the retail stove business. In 1854 he formed a new partnership, under the name of Pratt, Weeks & Co., with William G. Lincoln, Allen S. Weeks and his uncles, Thomas and John Jay Barrows, as partners. At that time his father, David Pratt, having retired from business, the new firm engaged for a year in the manufacture of castings in Carver, while building a foundry in Water- town for the manufacture of cook and parlor stoves and stove-ware. In 1855 the new foundry was finished and a considerable business was soon built up, mainly for the Eastern market and that of the Provinces.
In 1857, owing to severe financial depression, the firm dissolved, and while its creditors suffered no ioss, Mr. Pratt was deprived of the earnings of his previous years, emerging from the wreck of his firm a poor man, but with integrity and business vigor unim- paired. With a determination rarely exhibited in such cases he at once took a lease of the Watertown foundry on his own account, and carried on its busi- ness alone with marked success until the following year, 1858, when he formed a partnership with Luke Perkins, also a native of Carver, under the title of Pratt & Perkins, with Wm. G. Lincoln, one of his old partners, as a special partner. In 1863 Mr. Per- kins left the firm and the firm of Miles Pratt & Co. was formed, with Mr. Lincoln as the partner. In 1874 this firm was consolidated with that of George W. Walker & Co., of Boston, under the name of Walker, Pratt & Co., with Mr. Lincoln and Horace G. and George W. Walker as partners. In 1875 the company was incorporated under the name of the Walker & Pratt Manufacturing Company, with George W. Walker as president and Miles Pratt as treasurer. After the death of Mr. Pratt, George E. Priest became the treasurer, and the company is still doing a large and successful business in the manu- facture of stoves, ranges, furnaces, apparatus for hotel kitchens, radiators and boilers for steam and hot water
heating, with their store at 31 and 35 Union Streets, Boston. Since 1863 Oliver Shaw, also a native of Carver, has been the superintendent of the manu- facturing business, and largely to his fidelity and skill the company owes its success.
Mr. Pratt married, in 1851, Sarah B., the daughter of Zebulon Chandler, of Carver, a descendant from Edward Chandler, who appeared in Duxbury in 1633. Mrs. Pratt died March 25, 1858, leaving no children, and on the 6th of October, 1859, Mr. Pratt married Ellen MI Coolidge, of Watertown, and had an only child, Grace, who married Frederick Robinson, of Watertown, and is still living. He died at Water- town on the 9th of August, 1882, and was buried at Mt. Auburn. His death ocenrred at a time when his brain and capacity for work appeared to be in their fullest vigor and when, with the threshold of his bus- iness enterprises, with its difficulties and embarrass- ments and obstacles, successfully surmounted, he was enjoying the fruits of his labors and indulging in am- bitious and well-founded hopes of enhanced success.
The career of Mr. Pratt portrayed in this sketch demonstrates the most prominent characteristics of the man, singleness of purpose, disturbed by no allur- ing temptations, a determination to succeed never weakened by obstacles in his path, and an unswerv - ing integrity, withont which neither singleness of purpose nor determination to succeed could have been of any avail. Good business man as he was, he permitted no outside schemes and enterprises to dis- tract his mind, and accepted no office except that of trustee of the Watertown Savings Bank, of which he was the most active founder. Brought up in politics as a Whig, he preserved his independence of speech and thought, and abandoned the party of his youth when he believed it untrue to the principles of human freedom. Afterwards a Republican, he was still inde- pendent and recognized no authority binding him to its ranks, when he believed that it had outlived its nsefulness and purpose. Nor in religious matters, more than in politics, was he bound by traditions. Born in the Orthodox Congregational Church and edu- cated under its influences, he became in the later years of his life a Swedenborgian and died in that faith. In all things be kept his mind free, always open to convictions, and when convictions came to him he was obedient to their commands.
SAMUEL NOYES.
Samuel Noyes was the son of Christopher and Martha (Reed) Noyes, and was born in Plymouth, N. H., June 27, 1804. He attended the district-school in winter, and aided his father in the store in summer. In June, 1827, Mr. Noyes found employment in Buston, where he remained two years, afterwards went to Cambridge and worked in the grocery-store of Deacon Brown four years.
In April, 1833, he came to Watertown and opened
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(what was then called) a temperance grocery-store, corner of Arsenal and Mt. Auburn Streets. Many prophesied at the time that this new project would be a failure, for it was customary in those days for grocers to sell liquora, and they did a thriving busi- ness in that line.
Mr. Noyes was a strong temperance man, and did not approve of the use or sale of liquors. There were three stores in town at the time which dispensed spirituous liquors, but Mr. Noyes having the strong courage of his convictions, plodded along in his way, his business slowly but constantly increasing. He was soon in need of a larger store, and moved in 1847 into the town hall building, where he remained for a number of years. In 1870 he built the brick block on the opposite side of the street, known as Noyes' Block. He continued to do business there until 1879, when he sold out and retired, having been in active business in Watertown forty-six years.
In June, 1836, Samuel Noyes married Amanda George, of Plymouth, N. H., and bad six children, viz., Mary, Hattie, Samuel G., Sarah B. (who died in infancy), Charles H. and Emma L. Four of these children are now living,-Mary (now Mrs. Noyes), Samuel G. (unmarried), Charles (unmarried), Emma L. (now Mrs. Sidney E. Horne), living in Mendota, Illinois.
Samuel Noyes married for his second wife, Mrs. Mary Horne, and had two children, Wendell and Sidney E.
Mr. Noyes is a Republican in politics, was town treasurer and collector of taxes for twenty years, always attended the Baptist Church, and was treas- urer of that society fifty-five years.
THOMAS L. FRENCH.
Capt. Thomas L. French was born in Cambridge, Mass., Sept. 16, 1802. He was the son of Cyrus and Deborah (Learned), and grandson of Isaac French.
Capt. French's father died when he was quite young, and early in life he was obliged to depend upon his own resources. At the age of fifteen years he was apprenticed to Samuel F. Sawyer, of Cam- bridge, Mass., to learn the trade of mason and builder, and at the age of twenty-one he went in business for himself in Holliston, Mass. He re- mained in Holliston abont four years, then moved to Watertown and continued the same business until withiu a few years when he retired from active life. Capt. French did a large and lucrative busine-# in Watertown, and during the late war was master mechanic at the United States Arsenal and built most of their large brick buildings.
He was very active in town affairs-selectman fifteen years, in the Legislature one year, and held other minor town offices. The captain was never de- feated for any office tendered to him by his towns- men but once. During his active life few men were better posted in town affairs than he. The title of captain he received from being fire warden in the days of the old volunteer Fire Department.
Capt. French married, for his first wife, Esta Pond, of Watertown. There were three children by this union, two of whom died in infancy.
Georgetta is still living. Mrs. French died Oct. 18, 1852. For his second wife, Mr. French married Mrs. Isaac French. She died Jan. 6, 1854.
Mr. French died Aug. 12, 1890.
HECKMAN BINDERY, INC. Bound-To-Please" JULY 01
N. MANCHESTER, INDIANA 46962
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