USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Athol > History of Athol, Massachusetts > Part 50
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xi. HORATIO KINGSBURY, born Oct. 22, 1818; died March 30, 1848, without issue.
3. iii. EZRA
iv. BENJAMIN, removed to Peoria, Illinois, where he resided the remainder of his life.
v. EUNICE, married Absalom Ball of Warwick; removed to Hartford, Vermont, and later to Grafton. One of her daughters married Thomas Ellinwood, son of Daniel Ellin- wood of Athol, and had a son, George B. Ellinwood, who. married Rebecca Flint; their daughter, Minnie, married William Batchelder. George Batchelder of South Miami, Florida, is a descendant.
vi. SALLY (or Sarah), married February 12, 1809, Captain Francis Twichell, who lived on Riceville Road in Athol.
Children (surname Twichell):
1. Sylvanus E., born March 15, 1810; died October 27, 1864.
2. Ginery Bachelor, born August 26, 1811.
3. Uri, born November 19, 1812.
4. Francis, born May 11, 1814.
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5. Marion (or Mary Ann) born Sept. 15, 1817; married Clark Ellis March 29, 1840; a son Chester born August 29, 1842.
6. Harriet L., born in 1819; died September 10, 1828. 7. Amaziah
8. Lucinda
9. Simeon Fish, baptized August 3, 1827.
vii. LUCINDA, married Reuben Fairbanks and removed to Champlain, New York.
With the Kendall purchase there came to the Fish family at least two and probably three dwellings. One was located in the Sally Fish Circle area, where the Kendalls had long ago been credited with maintaining a "Garrison House, planked up the first story," a place of refuge in times of Indian attacks. The best information available places this "Garrison House" on the knoll, now removed, about on the site of the present A & P building.
Within the memory of the writer an abandoned dwelling stood at about 53 Sally Fish Circle. This was taxed as the "Old House," which may have been the site of this Garrison House and one of the three acquired with the mills.
In 1876, when excavations were made for the first water mains in Main Street, an ancient cellar hole was uncovered al- most directly in front of the Pequoig House at 416 Main Street, said by older residents to have been the site of a Kendall and later a Fish home.
In the last decade of the nineteenth century, when Lucien Lord was extensively advertising his various activities, he published the picture of his birthplace. a small cabin or house said to have been located at about 31 Freedom Street and to have been an old Kendall house which came to his father with the Fish mills, contrasting it with his then palatial home at 441 Chestnut Hill Avenue, which has now been demolished.
The Factory Company disaster of 1839 seriously embar- rassed the Fish family, and forced the liquidation of many of their assets, then almost entirely real estate. They had acquired much additional acreage aside from the original purchase of some eighty acres from the Kendall family, the entire Starrett holdings on Crescent Street being one of these items, as were the whole original Lake Park area and some sixty acres lying between Silver Lake Street and Old Keene Road.
Simeon had gone to his reward some years previously, and had been laid away in the old Fish tomb, now obliterated, in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. Ezra Fish, who apparently held title to most of the real estate, deeded the home farm, including
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the tavern, to his son Henry. Soon after this Henry died, leav- ing his tangled affairs for his widow, Sally (his first cousin) to straighten out as guardian of their two sons, Ezra Wilson and Samuel. During his ownership Ezra had conveyed away most of the Main Street lands east of the Pequoig House, but there remained much of the long frontage west of Exchange Street, as well as the entire Walnut Street and adjacent areas. These were sold in various ways, many items at private sale but others by John H. Partridge, the local Deputy Sheriff, acting in most cases, apparently by agreement, in his capacity as a licensed auctioneer, but probably applying the proceeds to liquidate claims in his hands for collection.
At length, however the distressing situation was adjusted, much of the burden being relieved by the coming of the rail- road and the general improvement in economic conditions. Then "Aunt Sally" in an orderly way could dispose of enough of the family holdings to relieve all financial pressure and could even afford to be public-spirited. When the arrangement was in the making for the removal of the local Baptist Church to the "Factory Village," its site was donated by "Aunt Sally." Remembering her youth, when play time and playgrounds were non-existent, she made her great contribution to the children of coming generations by donating to the School District the entire area bounded by Union. Newton, Maple and Walnut Streets as a public playground forever. Long after the school district system was abolished in Massachusetts, Athol's No. 7, later changed to No. 2. held its annual meeting and kept its organization intact. It was only when the Sally Fish estate was being finally closed that the District conveyed this area to the Town, the conveyance being confirmed by the administrator. It was then that Athol recognized the giver of this area by naming it Fish Park. "Aunt Sally's" nephew. Wilson H. Lee, donated a memorial fountain there in her memory.
The life of this aging lady, however, was not all sunshine. As one and then the other of her sons passed away, she became more and more of a recluse. For a generation she steadfastly refused to dispose of any more of her holdings, and employed her niece's husband, Henry L. Sargent, as her caretaker.
Frequent litigations regarding property lines and rights of way marred her tranquility, and seem to have embittered her. Her barnyard was directly north and close to the Pequoig House, the present Academy of Music site was her garden, and the whole Ridge Hill area her cow pasture, and as such she kept them to the end. Financial stringency eventually com-
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pelled her to dispose of the Silver Lake Street holdings, and later, in 1884, the area at the corner of Maple and Newton Streets, where William D. Luey and George O. Foye built their houses.
In keeping with the custom of the times this family long ago built a family tomb at the southeast corner of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, and there were deposited the remains of the various members of the family as they died.
In the period of prosperity following the Civil War Sally Fish felt financially able to provide a more luxurious resting place for her remains and those of her kin. On June 16, 1870, when returning from a trip to Boston, where she had negotiated for her new tomb, she was involved in the Long Bridge Disaster some three miles east of Athol.
The father of this writer was also on that train, but escaped without injury and assisted in caring for many less fortunate. His brother, Nathaniel Y. Lord, accompanied by Deacon Joab Kendall, was chopping on their farms on Chestnut Hill when they heard the crash and rushed to the scene. Finding "Aunt" Sally Fish sitting on a rock in the river, apparently unharmed but thoroughly scared, Gardiner Lord and Deacon Kendall made a "basket" with their hands and carried her to shore, where she was put aboard Jack Bang's train, which had come up the river to the rescue. This accident did not prevent the com- pletion of the tomb, and before many months the family bodies were deposited in the crypts provided for them.
The last commitment there was the body of Elvira Fish, who died December 6, 1896. For some years the old tomb was used by the town as a receiving vault, but with the erection of the Bullard Tomb in Silver Lake Cemetery in 1884 it was no longer needed, and was permanently closed, later being graded over so that all evidence of it has disappeared.
Sally Fish died March 3, 1887. The releasing of her valua- ble homestead was not quickly accomplished, for she had decreed in her will that the home place should be under the control of three trustees, Henry L. Sargent, Reuben Win- chester, and Beriah W. Fay, and should not be sold for twenty- five years, the whole estate being held in trust. The income was to be paid to her surviving nieces and nephews and to Harry W. Fay, with the further provision that as one of these beneficiaries died that share of income should be applied to the care of the family tomb, the inevitable result being that eventually the whole estate would be held for the one purpose of maintaining the structure housing the family remains.
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This will was duly allowed by the Worcester Probate Court, and the fiduciaries and their legal successors acted under it for approximately thirty years. The Trustees construed the "home place" provision in the will rather narrowly, and soon sold all but about three acres around the buildings, the cow pasture and garden being among lots quickly put on the market. The mansion house and barn with sufficient land around them were kept intact.
Some twenty-five years after her death, when all the original trustees were dead and Harry W. Fay was acting as sole trustee, a law student, George H. B. Green, Jr., once of Belchertown and later a teacher in the Athol High School, suggested to some of the heirs the possibility of reopening the estate and effecting a different application of its funds. Those who were rated much wiser than he in legal affairs, told Mr. Green that his scheme was impossible, but he was not deterred by them, keeping eternally at it until at last he secured a Supreme Court decree setting aside the will and appointing him as adminis- trator of an interstate estate with exceptionally broad powers. By the Court decree the Town of Athol received one thousand dollars as a Cemetery Trust Fund to care for the Fish tomb.
Mr. Green proceeded to register the Fish homestead in the Land Court, and when that was done he quickly sold it to William G. Lord and Nathan D. Cass. These two felt that this area so close to the heart of the Athol business district should be owned by the town, and offered it to the municipality at their cost. However, the voters apparently thought the owners were attempting to get out of an unwise venture, and spurned the offer. The owners then moved onto the southeast corner of the lot two buildings from the Island Street lot where the Methodist Church was to be built. A third building, an unused ell, was removed from the old home, these three buildings form- ing the three four-tenement houses numbered 47, 55, and 63, in Sally Fish Circle.
3. EZRAª FISH (Simeon1), married in Mendon, June 27, 1798, CHLOE JOHNSON. He was associated with his father in operating the mills and the home farm, and soon became half owner and finally the sole owner of the mills and the homestead.
Children: i. MOSES3, born August 18, 1799; married ANNA YOUNG, May 8, 1823. Probably through his wife's people, this couple owned the farm on Old Keene Road at the west end of Willis Road, where there was built, probably by Moses, an elaborate mansion house, which was mortgaged to other members of his immediate family. When he failed
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in his payments the farm was taken from him, the building torn down and rebuilt as the present Fish Homestead in Sally Fish Circle.
Following this he went west, living in various places, perhaps for the longest period in Paw Paw, Michigan. He died at Somerville, New Jersey, leaving some grandchildren in greater New York. Following the death of his first wife he married a widow named Brown, who long survived him, living at Pasadena, California, to a very advanced age.
ii. HENRY, born May 15, 1805 (mentioned in detail else- where in these notes).
iii. LUCY, born November 12, 1802; died September 18, 1909; married AMOS LEANDER CHENEY, October 31, 1843.
Child (surname Cheney):
1. Fred H .; married Annie Knapp; died in Great Bar- rington, November 1, 1923.
Child: a. Henry Fish, born November 11, 1877; was drowned July 21, 1884, in the canal west of his parents' Hampstead Place home.
4. JASON3 FISH (Samuel2, Simeon1), born February 14, 1796; married Sophia Merriam. He removed to Dummerston, Vermont, where he resided for fifty years.
Children:
i. FREDERICK A.4, long resided at Newfane, Vermont. His son, Frank Fish, for a time Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont, lived at Vergennes, where a daughter survives him.
ii. PRESCOTT M., a blacksmith by trade, removed in early manhood to Angelica, New York.
iii. HENRY L., returned to Massachusetts, buying in Orange a farm with a brick house which is still standing, now owned by Arthur E. Drew, on the road from Tully to Bliss- ville.
Children:
1. George H.", eventually removed to Athol; died with- cut issue.
2. Marion, married George C. Fowler, and lived on West Main Street, Orange; died without issue.
iv. WILLIAM W., born in Dummerston, Vermont, May 11, 1832; died in Athol June 23, 1907; married (1) in 1850 ROSELLA B. HEYWOOD, who died in 1867; married (2) in 1875 ABBA P. BINGHAM of Nashua, N. H.
In 1849 William W. Fish went to Angelica, New York, where he learned the blacksmithing trade of his brother, Prescott M. Fish. In September, 1952, he came to Athol, entering the employ of Asa Foster, a blacksmith, with whom he formed a partnership in 1853, when the business was removed to about 512 Main Street. Mr. Fish later acquired Mr. Foster's interest and operated the shop alone. When the shop was burned on February 12, 1871, Mr. Fish acquired some adjoining land and built there the present W. W. Fish Block, removing the blacksmithing stand to a lot which he acquired on "the Island" where the Methodist Church now stands. A few years later he
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sold the blacksmithing business to Henry H. Coolidge and retired from active business life. However, he found time to serve the community in many capacities. In 1876 he was a member of the Legislature, served four years as a Selectman, and was assessor, road commissioner, and cemetery commissioner. On January 16, 1888, he was appointed Post Master by President Cleveland, holding this office until February 14, 1891, when he resigned following the fire of December 21, 1890, which entirely destroyed his office.
William W. Fish was active in Masonic circles, serving as an early Eminent Commander of Athol Commandery, acting as its Prelate for fifteen years, and being High Priest of Union Royal Arch Chapter, rendering its ritual- istic work most effectively.
In later life Mr. Fish built a substantial home on the hilltop overlooking Athol and situated between Chestnut Hill Avenue and Old Keene Road, now known as Cass Farms. Here he died and was buried with Masonic honors in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.
Child (by second wife):
1. Grace Margaret, born November 3, 1876; married September 14, 1898, Nathan D. Cass, a native of Amsterdam, New York, who came to Athol as a paper box shop operative, and died September 21, 1949.
Children (surname Cass): a. William Fish, born February 24, 1906, mar -- ried Mabel Peppard. Resides in a house he has built on his grandfather's estate.
Child:
(1) William Fish, born June 28, 1934; married in Athol November 8, 1952, Martha B. Still; has daughter, Gina L., born June 7, 1953.
b. Grace Margaret, born May 19, 1918; married James A. Graham. She graduated from the High School in Haines City, Florida, from Bradford Junior College, Andover, Mass., and from Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, subsequently taking a legal course at George Washington University. She and her husband, a native of Montana, are both practicing at- torneys in Washington, D. C., residing at Bethseda, Maryland.
Child (surname Graham): (1) Dwight Cass, born December 24, 1952.
Nathan D. Cass greatly improved and elaborated on the old Fish homestead, and William Fish Cass has further added to it, maintaining an extensive dairy on the farm which was the nucleus of Cass Dairy, operating some half- dozen farms in the Athol area.
The Cass factories have been mentioned in the Indus- trial Chapter, but in addition to the factories and the dairy the family has acquired much real estate in and around
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Athol, as well as in Polk County, Florida, developing there a large citrus fruit acreage.
At his death Mr. Cass was one of the largest individual tax payers in Athol, was Chairman of the Board of The State Bank of Haines City, and one of the leading citizens of that municipality. As N. D. Cass grew older, he gradually withdrew from active management of his many interests. These cares have been carried by his son, on whose broad shoulders the entire burden of management now rests.
The story of this family was compiled on February 14, 1950, in Haines City, Florida, in collaboration with Grace Fish Cass. Almost immediately thereafter Mrs. Cass be- came seriously ill and was removed to a hospital in Lake- land, Florida, where she died on March 6, 1950. Her remains were brought to Athol and on March 11 were laid beside those of her immediate family in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.
v. ABBY M., married HENRY L. SARGENT. Mr. Sargent was for many years the caretaker of the real estate hold- ings of his wife's Aunt Sally Fish, and was named by her as one of the Trustees under her will. When this estate was well adjusted, Mr. and Mrs. Sargent removed to New- fane, Vermont, where they spent their later years. They had one child, Fred H. Sargent, for several years a mer- chant in Athol, who predeceased his parents, having never married.
The family name of Fish is no longer borne by any Athol resident, except as a middle name of the two Cass descendants, but the names Fish Street, Fish Park, and Sally Fish Circle perpetuate a name which was outstanding during the early days of the town's development.
The Haven Family
Although not among the original pioneers, one of the early settlers in Athol was Captain John Haven, who, with his two brothers, Simon and Jonathan, came here from Framingham. Although the exact date of his arrival is not known, he is presumed to have come here in 1761, although records here of births in his family date back to 1747. The tradition in the Haven family is that he was the first to settle in the Chestnut Hill area. He located his home on the hillside less than a quarter of a mile north of the southerly end of Townsend Road, where a one-story dwelling known as the Bullard Place stands today. Jonathan Haven settled in Athol in 1763. The Haven title to this property goes back to an original allotment by the Proprietors of Pequoig, who in turn obtained their title and authority from the General Court under the authority of the Crown.
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When the town was organized Captain John Haven took an active part in the setting up of its government, being elected Town Clerk and member of the first Board of Selectmen. His title of Captain probably came from military service prior to his arrival in Athol. At the outset of the Revolution he was looked to for advice in the various situations which arose. He was a delegate to the General Court, being the first represent- ative ever sent from Athol; he was on the Committee of Cor- respondence, and sat in various county and state councils in the early days. In 1774 he was elected Deacon of the church, which office he held until his death on July 12, 1807. After he was well established here, he was followed by his father, Richard Haven, who died on the Haven Farm on August 3, 1770.
1. JOHN® HAVEN (John2, Richard1), married September 8, 1777, MARTHA DEATH, born February 5, 1756, died June 20, 1822. John Haven, Jr., succeeded his father on the Chestnut Hill farm. Returning from the Revolution after the Burgoyne alarm, he built in 1777 the house above his father's home which, now greatly enlarged and altered, is the residence on the Merrifield Creamery Farm.
Children:
i. LEVI', born March 17, 1778; married January 5, 1803, MARY SMITH, daughter of Caleb and Submit Smith; lived for a time on the Brickyard Road, later removing to Vermont.
ii. SAMUEL, born January 23, 1780; married December 23, 1807, DOROTHY GODDARD; died April 24, 1808.
iii. JOHN, born June 16, 1784; died September 8, 1849; married March 5, 1823, ANNA FAY; resided on Carpen- ter Road in a house still standing, overlooking White Pond. One of his daughters was the wife of Edmund J. Gage and the mother of Charles F. and Monroe F. Gage.
2. iv. JOTHAM', born July 11, 1786.
v. ASA, born December 6, 1792; married in September 1820, LUCY R. SMITH of New Salem. In early life, Asa removed to Barre, and was the ancestor of a family bearing the Haven name in that town.
Children:
1. Lucius Sprague, born January 17, 1821.
2. Lucy Smith, born September 4, 1823.
3. Asa Sumner, born December 20, 1825.
4. Twins, born January 17, 1828; died same day.
vi. CHAUNCEY, born February 24, 1800; married in August, 1825, URANIA THOMPSON of Swanzey. He attained the title of Captain probably by service in the militia. He built the house now standing on the southeast slope ot Bare Hill, just off Royalston Road, later removing to Girard, Pennsylvania, where he lived to an advanced age.
Child:
1. Urania Aldrich, born in Athol, May 25, 1827.
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2. JOTHAM4 HAVEN (John3, John2, Richard1), born July 11, 1786, married HANNAH TAFT of Heath, October 1812, and settled on his father's farm where he died on March 7, 1868.
Children:
i. ORAMEL TAFT5, born May 11, 1814, on the home farm; died unmarried at the age of 52.
3. ii. JOSIAH, born March 16, 1818.
ili. EUNICE, born March 20, 1820; married May 26, 1847, Deacon JAMES G. SMITH of Phillipston, grandson of Captain Nathaniel Smith, an emigrant from Truro. They spent their active life on the Smith farm northeast of Athol's Phillipston Reservoir. In 1888 they removed to High Street in Athol, where they resided until death. They had no issue, but adopted two children, both of whom are now deceased.
4. iv. JOTHAM F., born September 13, 1825.
v. HANNAH M., born February 12, 1829; married LEVI W. CARRUTH, who died a few months after marriage. She was employed until her old age as a seamstress in Athol and vicinity. She spent some years with her younger brother, William LeRoy, eventually returning to Athol, where she died May 20, 1917; no children.
vi. JOHN H., born May 13, 1832; lived on the home farm until his death in 1855.
5. vii. WILLIAM LeROY, born May 24, 1835.
3. JOSIAH5 HAVEN (Jotham4, John3, John2, Richard1), born March 16, 1818; died March 19, 1894; married October 14, 1857, SUSAN WILEY, daughter of Samuel and Nancy (Nor- cross) Wiley, who lived on East Hill.
In early manhood he learned the carpenter's trade, and was engaged in woodworking manufacturing at the Boutelle Mill in upper Main Street. Later he built several houses, among them the one still standing at 198 Crescent Street. Eventually returning to the ancestral home, he remained there the balance of his life, taking care of his parents until their death. He was Selectman for 21 years and a representative in the Legislature of 1854, and for a long time was one of the outstanding citi- zens of the community.
Children: i. EVELYN". married December 16, 1890, FRED H. JUD- KINS of Worcester; died there June 23, 1900.
Children (surname Judkins): 1. Ralph Stanley, born in 1896; died in 1900.
2. Frederick Haven, born in Worcester, September 16, 1892; married Almira V. McNutt of Worcester, July 15, 1914.
Children: a. Frederick Arthur, born in Worcester, June 7, 1915; died December 6, 1936.
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b. Earl Herbert, born in Worcester, July 5, 1917; married Annette LaCoste in Athol, April 19, 1941; had one child, Frederick Charles, born April 8, 1942. Married (2) Treesa Padula of Norwalk, Conn .; one child, David.
c. Barbara Viola, born in Athol June 4, 1919; married Donald Holman of Gardner, April 12, 1941.
3. Viola Estelle, born May 16, 1895 in North Brook- field; married Arthur H. McNutt of Nova Scotia, Canada, December 16, 1914.
Children (surname McNutt):
a. Charles A. McNutt, born December 11, 1916; married Lillian Martell, June 26, 1937; two children, Judith Ann, born January 16, 1940, and Charles Arthur, born February 16, 1944, in Worcester.
b. Harold T., born December 25, 1921; married Barbara May Gould, August 15, 1942; two children, Bruce Harold, born November 17, 1945, and Warren Arthur, born January 4, 1949, in Worcester.
4. Earl Haven, born in 1897; died in 1899.
ii. HERBERT, born September 1, 1858; was for some years a druggist in Lowell, later removing to Seattle, where he married and had one son, Pat, still living in Seattle, where he is an executive of a truck manufacturing company, and has a son, Charles. Herbert went to the Klondike in one of the Gold Rushes and never returned.
iii. VIOLA E., born August 21, 1866; died October 23, 1941; graduated in 1883 from Athol High School; taught school in Athol, Phillipston, Petersham, Northfield and other places, eventually retiring and residing until her death at the home farm.
6. iv. ERWIN J., born in 1868.
4. JOTHAM F. HAVEN (Jotham4, Johnª, John2, Richard1), married MARY PROUTY of Chestnut Hill, Feb. 1, 1853.
Children:
i. ISABEL, born May 23, 1853; married FRANCIS W. WHITNEY, April 23, 1872, who owned the old Whitman Jacobs Farm on Chestnut Hill, now owned by Mrs. Ralph Merrifield.
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