History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 49

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York : Blake
Number of Pages: 1292

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Mr. Goss, always active in promoting the interests of his town, has been elected on her board of school committee, where he hasrendered valuable service. He has also been. for many years, an officer of the County Agricultural Society. He is a ready and pungent writer, and in all his newspaper work, particularly in that kind of controversial style which often becomes necessary in the defense of his principles or his friends, he is always at home, and clothes his thoughts in plain and vigorous Saxon, which reaches direct the heart and understand- ing. Born as he he was to the lot of the humble and the poor, he was early taught some great principles which rich men's sons ought to understand, but which the very fact of their wealth prevents them from realizing. The limitations which he early and keenly felt be-

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came an impulse, and those environments which would have kept some natures down, became his solid stepping stones. The school where he learned his most valuable lessons was kept by Dame Neces- sity, and under her stern discipline, he acquired a vigor of thought and action which has made him what he is. Upon the foundation laid in the rural schools of Brewster and Dennis he built carefully and well, and by wide observation, years of reading and intercourse with men, he has gained what the college and university often fail to impart, and in the great test of actual experience he has acquitted himself fully.

Such, in brief, is the course, and such the result of a career which bears a useful lesson. Whatever criticisms may spring from political contests, whatever thoughts arise from the friction of business, his success is undoubted and undisputable.

§ Captain Benjamin Hallett of Osterville was born January 18, 1760, and died on the last day of 1849. He was three years in the revolu- tion, was a pioneer in the coasting trade, and raised the first Bethel flag in Boston harbor. He was a Christian patriarch of the Baptist church for sixty-five years. He had thirteen children, the only son being Hon. Benjamin F. Hallett, United States district attorney under Presi- dent Pierce. Commissioner Henry L. Hallett of Boston is a son of Benjamin F.

Charles Gorham Hallett, born in 1827, is a son of Nathaniel and grandson of Joshua Hallett, and like both these ancestors, has made carpentry work his chief business. He built for several years in Provincetown, where he married Elvira, a daughter of Captain Enoch Nickerson, of Provincetown. Their only child is Lucretia G. Hallett.

George W. Hallett, postmaster at Hyannis, was born in 1840. From 1SS5 he was two years special deputy collector of customs and dis. bursing agent for the Barnstable County district. He was at one time in business in Boston, seven or eight years, and is favorably known in the central part of the Cape. His wife was a daughter of Zenas D. Bassett, one of the most prominent men of Hyannis of his time, who died December 30, 1864, at the age of seventy-eight.

Gideon Hallett, born in 1817, is one of five sons of Henry Hal- lett and grandson of Rowland Hallett. In 1843 he married Martha A., daughter of Eleazer and granddaughter of Gershom Bearse. He has one daughter, Alma L. (Mrs. Alton C. Bearse). Mr. Hallett was at sea when nineteen years old, was captain at twenty-eight, and from 1852 to 1865 was in a restaurant business in Boston. He was subsequently interested with Timothy Crocker in a business at Rail- road wharf, at Hyannis.

William Allen Hallett, now living retired at Hyannis, was born there in 1819, and followed the sea from boyhood. For thirty-two

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years prior to 1887 he was captain of a steamer in the Boston and Baltimore line.

Roland T. Harlow, son of Oliver Harlow, came to this county ten years ago. He is engaged in farming, and is also a jobber and contractor. His wife was Emma H. Hodges, from Mansfield. Mass. They have two sons and one daughter.

John M. Handy, born in 1830, was a son of Bethuel Handy, the ship builder, whose father came to Cotuit from Mattapoisett. He went to sea at sixteen years of age, and continued until about 1884, after which he was in business at Cotuit Port until his death in 1889. His wife was a daughter of William Crosby.

Captain Thomas Harris was born in Boston in 1802, and died in Barnstable in March, 1889. He went to sea when only nine years of age, and at twenty-one was captain of a coasting vessel; for seveal years subsequently he was at sea in the Russia trade. He went to California during the gold excitement, returning in 1851. He served one term as sheriff of Barnstable county by election. after having served part of one term by appointment. His wife, who sur- vives him, is Mehitable G., a daughter of Jabez Nye, of Brewster. The youngest of their seven children is Marcus N. Harris, of Barn- stable, who was born in 1848.

Ira L. Hinckley, born at Osterville in 1852, is a son of Lot and grandson of Nymphas Hinckley, whose father came from England, whence his ancestor, a descendant of Governor Hinckley, had removed from Barnstable. His business is carpentering and building. He was in Boston and in Connecticut from 1870 to 1876, and is now living in Osterville. His wife, Mary, is a daughter of Bacon Coleman, of Hyannis. They have one son and one daughter.

John Hinckley, the head of the firm of J. Hinckley & Son, contrac- tors and builders, was born in 1820. He is a son of Isaac Hinckley, whose father, John, was called " Brick House John." His house, per- haps the first one built of brick in town, stood about one and one-half miles west of the present court house. At sixteen the present Mr. Hinckley began business as carpenter, which he still carries on. He was married in 1845 to Mary, daughter of Capt. John Hall. They have two children, Hannah and Frank H. Frank H. Hinckley, born in 1850, now lives where Captain Hall lived. His wife was Hattie Gorham. They have six children : Grace H., Mary Louise, Anna G., Frank H., jr., Alice M., and John Edward.

Joseph N. Hinckley, born in 1829, is a son of Joseph and grandson of Dea. Sylvenus Hinckley. He followed the sea about thirty-nine years prior to 1883, twenty years of this time being in merchant steamers with William P. Clyde & Co., in West India trade. He lived nine years in Camden, N. J. His wife was Julia A. Cornish, of Nan-

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

tucket. Their children are: Emma (Mrs. Harry Boddy, of Camden, N. J.), Rachael (Mrs. Charles Davies, also of Camden), Eliza, Herbert N., and Joseph W. Hinckley.

Nathan A. Hopkins, born in 1828, is a son of Leonard Hopkins, whose father, Joshua, was a son of Joshua Hopkins. This family are direct descendants from Stephen Hopkins, the Pilgrim, through his son Giles, whose sons located in Eastham (Orleans) at an early date. Nathan A. Hopkins came from Orleans to Barnstable in 1832. He was in California from 1851 to 1855. and was for eight years in busi- ness, roofing and concreting, at Stoneham, Mass. Since 1875 he has been farming here. He was married in 1857 to Vesta A. Gray, from Concord, Maine. They have one son, Allen O. Hopkins, and have lost a daughter, Nellie A.

Henry L. Hopkins, third son of Leonard Hopkins, was born April 3, 1841, in Barnstable. Leonard removed from Orleans to Barnstable in 1832, and did a salt-making business here for a time, and in 1851 he sold out to Alvin Howes and went to California, where he died in 1853. Henry L. was engaged with his brother Nathan in farming, for a time, but is now a carpenter. He was married in 1885 to Mary J., daughter of Captain James P. Cotelle, of Dennis. Two other sons of Leonard Hopkins, Leonard Freeman and George W., now reside at Stoneham, Mass.

Captain Alvin Howes, born in Dennis in 1800, was a son of Isaiah Howes, also of Dennis. Captain Howes was at sea in early life, and later was successfully engaged in salt making in Barnstable at the Common Fields. He sold all his salt works to Truman D. Eldridge about 1867. He died in 1870, in Barnstable. His widow, surviving, is Maria W., sister of Amos Otis, the author of the " Otis Papers." Her father, Amos Otis, was a cousin of Colonels James and Joseph Otis. The family are descended from John Otis, the first of the name to settle in this county.

Nathaniel Howland, son of John and grandson of David Howland, was born in West Barnstable in 1810. He became a ship carpenter and worked at Mattapoiset, Stonington and New Bedford. His mother was a daughter of Nathaniel Howland, who was an uncle of the Jabez Howland who kept the old tavern at West Barnstable. His wife was Dorinda, daughter of Ansel Fish, of Sandwich. She died, leaving four children, of whom three-Darius, Martha T. and Edwin T .- are living.

William C. Howland, born in 1823, is the oldest of the five children of Jason Howland, whose father, Ansel, was a brother of the Jabez Howland of the old tavern at West Barnstable. William C. was, prior to 1880, for twenty-five years assistant superintendent at the work-

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house, Bridgewater, Mass. He has one sister and two brothers, one of whom has a family.

Braley Jenkins® (Deacon Braleys, 1775-1873; Simeon', 1733-1808; Samuel3, born 1700; Thomas', born 1666; John1), was born in 1812. Braley Jenkins® was for many years, and until his death, deacon of the Congregational church. His residence, where the present Braley Jenkins lives, at the head of Hinckley's lane, was built about 1700. Mr. Jenkins, who has never married, makes farming his present business . but worked at house-carpentering most of his earlier life. In 1852 he was chairman of the building committee to remodel the Congrega- tional church building. John Jenkins1, aged twenty-six, sailed from England in the Defence of London, in July, 1635. and first settled in Plymouth. In 1637 he volunteered in the Pequot war and in 1645 in the Narragansett expedition. He was often a juror and in 1644 was constable of Plymouth. In 1652 he was a freeman in Barnstable, and in 1659 was one of the men appointed by the colony court to pur- chase Succonesset of the Indians.

Asa Jenkins' (Charles6, Asa", Nathan', Ebenezer3, died 1750; Thomas', born 1666; John1), was born in 1838. He followed the sea most of the time from 1851 to 1874. His present business is farming and cranberry culture. His wife, Martha Josephine, is a daughter of Eben Whelden. Their two sons are Thornton and Fred Stanley Jen- kins. Mr. Jenkins served nine months, in 1862. with Company D. Forty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment. He had a brother, William B. Jenkins, who at his death left one daughter, Nellie Jenkins.

Charles E. Jenkins, son of Nathan, who died in 1865, and grand- son of Asa5, was born in 1830, and in 1863 married Mercy N. Bursley, whose father, Washington Bursley, was a son of Josiah and grandson of the John Bursley before mentioned as born in 1741. Nathan Jen- kins, a farmer, was county commissioner and overseer of the poor and taught school several years in the Bursley district. Charles E. fol- lowed the sea from the age of seventeen, for twenty-five years, in the foreign merchant service. He was master of the merchant ship Raven and has been eight times around the world.

James H. Jenkins, born 1831, is a son of George Jenkins, born 1805, grandson of Asa, (1769-1847); and great-grandson of Nathan Jenkins', who lived on the road between West Barnstable and Marston's Mills. James H. followed the sea from 1845 to 1871. He was sixteen years captain of an East India and California mer- chantman. Since then he has been a farmer on the "Plains." He has been a member of the school committee several years, fifteen of which he has been secretary of the committee.

James T. Jones, the youngest merchant in West Barnstable, born in Sandwich in 1843, is a son of Eliphalet and grandson of Asa Jones.

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In 1862 he served nine months in Company D, Forty-fifth Massachu- setts Volunteers. His wife. Nancy M., is a daughter of John B. Holway.

William F. Jones, born in 1819. is a son of Benjamin Jones, who was born in East Sandwich. A blacksmith by trade, he has made that his principal business, but is well known as the former stage man from West Barnstable to Cotuit for many years. His wife was Ruth Chandler of Middleboro. They have one child, Ellenetta Jones.

FERDINAND G. KELLEY .-- Among the solid men of Barnstable county whose lives have made a lasting imprint upon this generation, F. G. Kelley of Centreville has an undoubted place. He was born Septem- ber 14, 1818, at Centreville. and is the son of Jonathan Kelley, de- ceased, who in his lifetime was a prominent business man of the town. Here he resided, while attending school, until he was seven- teen years of age. In 1836 he entered the store of Simon Parkhurst at Nantucket. returning to Centreville early in 1837 to act as clerk in the store of the Centreville Trading Company. In 1840 his father and himself purchased the store and goods, and since that time Mr. Kelley has been the central figure in the business history of this vil- lage. In 1839 he received a commission signed by Postmaster Gen- eral Amos Kendall, appointing him postmaster at Centreville, which position he has since held, and in 1843 he was commissioned as jus- tice of the peace, which commission has since been regularly renewed. In 1845 he was elected clerk and treasurer of the town, which position, after years of faithful service. he resigned, much to the regret of the people, who for twenty-six years of the time had made his election unanimous. Upon his declination to longer serve, resolutions highly complimentary of his worth and services were offered in the March meeting of 1885 by General John H. Reed, and were unanimously passed and recorded.

In July, 1865, when the First National Bank of Hyannis was orga- nized, he was chosen one of its directors, and has been its vice-presi- dent since 1887. At the organization of the Hyannis Savings Bank he was elected vice-president; in 1871 he was chosen as president, which office he held until the bank closed its business in 1874, as no- ticed in the history of Hyannis. He resigned the office of school com- mittee after several years' service. He was elected by the town to locate and procure the soldiers' monument, the site for which he gave; and at the organization of the Soldiers' Memorial Association he was chosen president and made chairman of the executive committee, which places he still fills. In fact there has hardly been an important event, or any complicated town business during his term of public life of forty years, of which he has not been the head and front; and during all these years his own business has been most industriously

CENTREVILLE, November, 1890.

Dear Sir :-

The portrait over my name in Blake's History of Barnstable County, is simply a caricature and not a like- ness, and for this reason it should not be handed down to posterity as a portrait of myself. Hence, in the interest of my family, I respectfully ask that you remove it from the book and destroy it. By so doing you will confer a favor upon

Yours truly, .

F. G. KELLEY.

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kept in good order, even in uniting in marriage during his official career 150 happy couples.

Enough of the public acts of Mr. Kelley has been enumerated to show the reader how important an element he has been in the town: and to mention his efficient services during the rebellion, in his varied duties, would swell the list to a wearisome number. As a schoolmate of Judge Henry A. Scudder and Hon. George Marston his record in another line is as bright; and the monument of his usefulness will be as lasting.

Sears C. Lapham was born in Dartmouth, Mass., in 1835. He went to Sandwich in 1852 as a clerk, and removing to South Sandwich in 1866, he began a mercantile business, which he carried on fifteen years. In 1880 he removed to Cotuit, where he kept a store in a small build- ing south of the church. The building in which his present store is kept was erected in 1882. His first wife was Cynthia, daughter of Calvin Maggs. She left one son, Elmer Lapham. The second Mrs. Lapham, Mercy F., daughter of E. C. Percival, died August 26, 1889.

Clark Lincoln, son of Clark and Mary Lincoln and grandson of Nathaniel Lincoln, was born in Brewster in 1820. He learned the blacksmith trade in Yarmouth, and about 1842 came to Centreville and opened a blacksmith shop, which he carried on for about twenty years. Since 1860 he has done a plumbing and stove business. He was in the legislature two years as a republican. His wife is Abbie T., a daughter of Seth T. Whelden, jr. Their only child is Mary E. Lincoln.

Henry F. Loring, born in 1836, is a son of Eliphalet, grandson of Elijah, and great-grandson of Abner Loring. His wife, who died November 27, 1886, was Eliza A. Whitman, daughter of Isaac and granddaughter of Doctor Whitman of West Barnstable. She left one son, Frank W. Loring. Mr. Loring's business is farming. North of his house, on his farm, is the site of one of the early Crocker home- steads.

Frederick G. Lothrop, born in Hyannis in 1832, is a son of John Lothrop, of Barnstable, a descendant from Rev. John Lothrop. Fred- erick Lothrop followed the sea, in the foreign merchant service, from the age of thirteen until about 1861; he was then in South American business in New York until 1865, when he bought a large schooner, and was for nine years in the United States coasting trade. In 1876 he established the wholesale export produce house, known as Lothrop & Marsh, 16 Coenties slip, New York, which is doing a successful busi- ness at the present time. His wife, Ella F., is a daughter of Captain George Hallett. They have two sons-Frederick G., jr., and Percy.

Andrew Lovell, born in 1813, is a son of Zenas Lovell, whose father, Andrew Lovell, formerly ran a sloop from Cotuit to Nantucket,

--.

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and died here at the age of eighty-three. At twenty years of age, and for thirty-six years after, the present Andrew Lovell had charge of vessels in the coastwise merchant service. He was elected nineteen times in succession as member and chairman of the selectmen, and was in the legislature two years. His wife was Caroline L. Lovell, of another family. They have one child, Lizzie E., a teacher in Cotuit.

CYRENIUS A. LOVELL .- Mr. Lovell represents a family who, in 1696, came to the south side of the Cape and were early identified with its interests. In 1774 Jacob Lovell. one of the direct lineal descendants, held a commission under King George III., and was among the first in the county to resign it and espouse the cause of the people for lib- erty. Joshua. his son, resided at Osterville. and was active in the affairs of the town. Jacob, son of Joshua, was born here, and was twice married. Mrs. Leonard becoming the second wife. Three chil- dren survive the first marriage. and of the second Cyrenius A. Lovell is the only representative, his nearest surviving kin in the ancestral line being the half-sisters and brother of the first marriage.

He was born on the home farm, Osterville, August 12, 1833, and after a limited education in the common school, engaged in a sea-far- ing life. January 26, 1858, he married Abbie P., daughter of Josiah Ames, of Osterville, and their children were: Alice, who married Thomas Pattison; Cyrenius A .. jr., at home; and Abbie W., also at the homestead. The wife and mother departed this life February 24, 1878, and two years after, January 13, 1880, Mr. Lovell married Mary A., daughter of Wilson Crosby. of Centreville.

At the early age of fourteen he engaged as cook, and for tliree years he followed the coasting business, with one year before the mast, and two years as mate, and when in his twenty-first year, he had ad- vanced to the command of a schooner. He acted as master twenty- nine years, coasting between Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore during the summer season, and making voyages to New Orleans and West Indies during the winter. After thirty-six years of successful sea life, he retired in 1883 to the enjoyment of those so- cial relations and the home so dear to him. In 1874 he had his pres- ent residence erected on the high land, from which is enjoyed a com- manding view of Osterville to the west, and of the bay and sound to the south.

But few of the type of masters of which he is a worthy representa- tive, have spent the years on the stormy main, and in the vigor of manhood have retired, and few have a keener sense of appreciation for the enjoyment of luxurious surroundings and social relations.

GEORGE LOVELL .- This representative man of Barnstable was the third child of Cornelius and Abigail Lovell. His father was a promi- nent man of his day, and the records of the town show that, on the 26th

FMG

RESIDENCE OF C. A. LOVELL, Osterville, Mass.

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of June, 1776, he joined with Joseph Otis and a few other patriots in signing a protest condemning the tyranny and oppression of the mother country, and also the actions of some of his townsmen who favored the British cause. He had eight sons and five daughters. One child only survives. Cornelius Lovell, of Boston.

George Lovell, like most young men of that period, followed the sea, serving in various capacities until, quite early in life, retiring with a competency, he was able to devote himself to those interests which he had acquired in his shipping, and which formed the business of his future life. He was twice married. His first wife was Mary Hilliard, a resident of the adjacent village of Stoughton. There were born to them eight children. His second wife was Adeline Hallett, a daughter of Benjamin Hallett. of Osterville. There were born of this marriage six children.

His excellent judgment and integrity were recognized by all with whom he had dealings, and he was, to many, the adviser, counsellor and friend. In connection with two well known residents of Barn- stable, Zenas D. Bassett and Matthew Cobb, he organized the Des- patch Line, which was the first packet line between Boston, New York and Albany. This enterprise, at that date, was fully equal to a line of steamers between Great Britain and this country at the present time.

During the war of 1812, while sailing in company with other ves- sels from Boston to New York, being pursued by a privateer, he was skillful enough to take advantage of a slight change of wind to out- sail the fleet, and arrived safely at his destination, with his valuable cargo untouched, while his companions were overtaken and captured. On another occasion he was not so fortunate, and was carried to Dart- moor, where he endured with many of his fellow townsmen the pri- vations and hardships of that prison.

He was one of the original directors of the Barnstable Bank, which bore the honored names of Otis. Bacon, Crowell, Bassett and others. In the welfare of the Baptist church he took an abiding interest. For the only church edifice of that denomination ever built in Osterville he gave the land, and a large portion of the funds, and always con- tributed most generously to the support of the minister. He was a pioneer in the cause of temperance, at a time when such a position meant often loss of friends and social standing. He wasa man of fine presence, with a genial smile and a dignified bearing. He died at the age of seventy-four, in the month of November, 1861, leaving the rec- ord of a useful and honored life.

Captain Oliver C. Lumbert, born in 1848, is a son of Josiah Lum- bert, whose father, Josiah Lumbert, was a farmer of Centreville. His mother was a daughter of David Rogers, who came from Harwich and built one of the first buildings in the part of Cotuit where Captain

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Lumbert lives. The captain, after various service at sea, has since 1881 been running vessels in which he is owner, between New York, Philadelphia and Boston, in the coal trade.

A. D. MAKEPEACE .- In the spring of 1854, in the little village of Hyannis, on the south shore of Cape Cod, a young man hung out a sign offering, among strangers, his services as a harness-maker and saddler. The community soon knew of him as Mr. Makepeace, the new harness-maker from Wareham, and might easily have known that he was born at Middleboro on the 23d of January, twenty-two years before. The only place a poor mechanic could expect in a con- servative New England town was such a place as his own inherent ability could create for himself, and so, under stern limitations, Abel Denison Makepeace began his career. His parents were Alvin and Drusilla Makepeace. She was a daughter of David, and granddaugh- ter of Silas Swift, of good old Quaker stock, at West Falmouth. Al- vin Makepeace (1800-1833) and his father, Deacon Lysander, were cloth manufacturers in Bristol county, where the family name has been known and honored for two hundred years. Dea. Lysander Makepeace was a prominent man of Norton, Mass., where he filled many public stations, and represented his town in the legislature.

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 49

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: New York : Blake Number of Pages: 1292

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York : Blake
Number of Pages: 1292