History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 50

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

USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890 > Part 50

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The original pioneer of this family in America was Thomas Make- peace, whose name is in the list of passengers from London to Dor- chester in the ship James in 1635. He was given, September 27, 1637, a house lot in Boston, where is now Hanover street, near Court. His place and date of birth cannot be here stated with authority, but his will, recorded in the first volume at Boston (page 518), was dated June 30, 1666, and he died before the following March. His son, William, who was accidentally drowned, in August, 1681," left a son, William, and his son-the third William (born at Taunton, 1704, and died at Norton, 1740)-was the father of Peter Makepeace, who was father of Lysander, above mentioned, making the subject of this article a de- scendant in the eighth generation of this family in the New World. It is not the purpose to concern ourselves with the English ancestry of any family, but as many family names have been corrupted and changed, we stop only to notice that the orthography of this has re- mained since the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when it was borne by some of the gentry of Warwick county, England.

While he at first depended, at Hyannis, upon his shop and his trade, his taste for agriculture soon led to the purchase of a farm there, which he successfully carried on. One thousand bushels of potatoes and two hundred bushels of strawberries are some of the items in one year's account of his farm produce. Not all his farming was at once successful, for he was among the experimenters who, be-

* Plymouth Colony records, Vol. VI., page 75.

A1.

Abel D. Makepeace

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fore 1860, lost most of their investments in attempting to produce- cranberries. The remarkable career of Mr. Makepeace in this great industry practically began in 1874, when, being thoroughly satisfied with the prospects, he bought a large tract at Newtown and soon ex- tended his business rapidly by the purchase of other suitable lands and water rights in Barnstable and Plymouth counties, until he is recognized by all New England as the foremost man in the cran- berry business, being now at the head of a combination of owners, cultivating more acres and producing, by far, larger results than any other firm or combination in the world. Their crop in 1887 was six- teen thousand barrels. The business of reclaiming the lands best suited to their cultivation requires, as we have noticed in a preceding chapter, a large investment of time and money, and, at that period and on many occasions since, Mr. Makepeace has had the benefit of the financial support of George F. Baker, of Boston-a man of large means, who has always had unlimited faith in the business sagacity and executive ability of Mr. Makepeace.

The cranberry lands which Mr. Makepeace controls were all pur- chased on his individual responsibility, but as the business exceeded the possibility of single ownership, associations have been formed, under his management, to develop and operate them. Six such asso- ciations have been formed, which are now consolidated as five. The first organization was in 1882, and is still known as the Wankinco Company in Plymouth county. Eight years before its organization some of the men who held its first shares were among his partners in other lands. The Frog-Foot Company and the A. D. M. Company, organized in 1885, 1886, are in Plymouth county. The Marston's Mills and Woodland Companies, in Barnstable, were organized in 18SS, 1889. Of these five companies Mr. Makepeace is treasurer and man- ager, and holds the same relation to the Mashpee Manufacturing Com- pany, incorporated February 19, 1867, under the state law, and now owning the largest tract of cranberry land in Mashpee; and also to the Carver Bog Company, owning one of the most profitable bogs in the state. Since coming to the Cape Mr. Makepeace has had great confi- dence in the agricultural resources and possibilities of this portion of New England, and this faith and the works based upon it entitle him to be regarded as the rejuvenator of Cape Cod agriculture, and the reclaimer of many of its once worthless acres.

He has been an officer many years in the Agricultural Society of the county, and at the death of Charles C. Bearse was elected director of the Hyannis National Bank. In politics Mr. Makepeace has been an independent democrat since 1872-a position well known to be far- from popular on Cape Cod-yet in the canvas for state senator in 1883, and for representative in 1885, he received a very flattering:

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vote. It cannot be said that he is a politician. Whatever of political prominence he enjoys is the outcome of his remarkable business suc- cess along the single line wherein his energies and executive ability are unceasingly brought into action. He has never sought political office or party favors, but his interest in the affairs of the town led him to serve six years on the school committee prior to 1884, when he resigned. In 18SS, after three years' service on the board of select- men, he resigned that position also.

Two years after coming to Hyannis Mr. Makepeace was married, January 2, 1856, to Josephine Crocker, and for more than twenty-five years before removing to West Barnstable, where he now lives, his home was at Hyannis. They have three sons: William F., John C. and Charles D. Makepeace. Their second son was Edward Lincoln Makepeace, a promising young man, who died at the age of twenty. The oldest son, William F., married a daughter of the late Josiah Crocker, and also resides at West Barnstable.

RUSSELL MARSTON .- This is a family name which for more than one hundred and fifty years has been a part of the social. business, political and professional history of Barnstable county. In 1716 Benjamin Marston, a clothier of Taunton, came to Barnstable and settled at Marston's Mills, where he died in 1769. His widow, who survived him until 1774, was Lydia Goodspeed, another old family name. From this couple, whose graves are in the West Barnstable cemetery, have descended all the Marstons of Cape Cod. Accepted traditions make Benjamin the son of John Marston, a clothier of Salem, where his father, John, and his grandfather Dea. John Marston, lived and where Benjamin was born.

At Marston's Mills Benjamin's seven children were born. Esquire Nymphas Marston, the third of the seven, was born in 1728, and at his death in 1788 was a central figure in local history. Prince Marston, the fourth son, married a Winslow and had six sons: Isaiah, Nymphas, Winslow, John, Benjamin, and Prince. Of this generation Winslow received from his uncle Nymphas, the landed estate at Marston's Mills and left it in turn to his two sons-Judge Nymphas Marston, the emi- nent lawyer, and Hon. Charles Marston, afterward Indian commis- sioner. The late Attorney General George Marston was a son of this Charles. Another of the six children of Benjamin and Lydia (Good- speed) Marston received his father's name and was the Benjamin Marston still remembered as having lived in an ancient house on the knoll northwesterly from the grist mill at the Mills. He married Rebecca Whelden, and at his death was succeeded at the grist mill by his two sons-Clement and Allen. Clement married Sarah Adams and had seven sons, the youngest of whom, born on the 14th of ·October, 1816, is the Russell Marston of this sketch.

Rupell Marston

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His boyhood was passed where three generations of ancestors had lived, and with such knowledge of books as a boy might get in a few winters and fewer summers in a country school, he began at sea, what almost every Cape Cod boy sooner or later made the goal of his am- bition. The three dollars which a boy might expect for a month of general usefulness on a coasting vessel was the princely salary by the earning of which young Marston obtained his first ideas of the value of money. This stern discipline, which has produced so many care- ful, conservative men, has borne its fruit in his life as well; for upon that discipline he has built a successful career and a fortune.

By 1846 he had command and ownership in a small coasting vessel named the Outvic, but he determined to abandon the sea, and in the spring of 1847, as half owner of a small victualling stand on Commer- cial street, in Boston, he began the development of the business which has since made his name familiar to half the men of New England. In 1853 he located in Brattle street, where he and his only son, as R. Marston & Co., continue the popular and prosperous restaurant busi- ness.

In the small beginnings and stern necessities which surrounded Mr. Marston from early life we may find the foundation of his subse- quent business success, but for the main-springs of his moral character and the source of those radical political views which have distinguished him we must probably look further back. That he has an inborn reverence for right and an abhorrence of injustice no one may ques- tion. Although the son of a democrat he was early fired with a life- long hatred of slavery by the irresistable logic of Garrison and the captivating eloquence of Wendell Phillips, and once committed to the cause of the oppressed as a matter of right, nothing was too much for him to undertake in their behalf. He was counted a Garrisonian and fearlessly took his stand as an abolitionist with Garrison, Thompson and Phillips, when such a course hazarded a man's social position, political prospects and business opportunities, and for a time his was the only business place of the kind in Boston, opened to the colored man.

Finding then that the churches were generally arrayed on the side of the slave-holders as their champions or apologists made a lasting impression upon his mind and easily obliterated whatever of rever -. ence for church authority he might have inherited from his Puritan ancestors, and at last we find him in the modern school of liberal thinkers.

In his domestic relations Mr. Marston has been signally favored. On the eighth of February, 1842, he married Sarah Crosby, of Centreville, sister of Alvin Crosby, mentioned as the venerable merchant there. Two children-Howard, and Helen Garrison-blessed this union.

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

Howard married Ella M., a daughter of F. G. Kelley, and has one son --- Shirley Marston. Helen married Hammon Woodbury, and has two children-Ethel M., and Marston Woodbury. Mr. Marston's beautiful home and the summer residences of his children are in Centreville, where he has for thirty years identified himself with the community and its interests, and never forgetting the days of his own obscurity, with an open hand and a warm heart, he keeps himself in continual sympathy with the less fortunate and the humble.

Julius Nickerson, born in 1855, is a son of Aaron Nickerson, who died in 1889, grandson of Aaron and great-grandson of Seth Nicker- son, of Harwich. His mother was Caroline, daughter of Benjamin Ewer, a soldier in the war of 1812. Mr. Nickerson was at sea for twenty years prior to 1888. His wife is a daughter of the late Charles C. Bearse.

Samuel Nickerson, son of Samuel Nickerson whose father former- ly lived in Harwich, was born in Harwich in 1809, and died in 1884. He was at sea on the Banks when but eleven years of age, and at fif- teen was a cripple, and then learned carpentry. Later he was coast- ing until fifty years of age, when he bought cranberry property and was manager for the company, besides keeping a retail boot and shoe store. His widow surviving, was a Miss Page. Her children are: Winfield Scott, now in Harvard College; Rosa Page, widow of Charles N. Scudder, and Judson V., deceased.

Seth Nickerson, born 1814, is a son of Seth, 1780-1865; and Polly (Hall) Nickerson, 1784-1860. These were both born in Harwich, and removed from there to Cotuit in 1811. Here they built the house now occupied by their son, Roland T. Seth Nickerson went to sea at eleven and at the age of sixteen went whaling and at twenty-two was master of the Massachusetts. He now resides at Cotuit and is in- terested in cranberry culture. His deceased wife was a daughter of Joseph Nickerson. Their children are: Benjamin, died May 14, 1887; Carleton B., and Ella, now Mrs. W. L. Miner, of Brockton. His pres- ent wife was from Virginia.

M. M. Nye, born in 1826, is a son of Jabez and Polly C. (Hinckley) Nye. His maternal grandfather was John Hinckley (a descendant of Governor Hinckley), who formerly owned the place now occupied by Mr. Nye. Jabez Nye was a thorough mechanic and was at one time foreman ship-builder in the Charlestown navy yard. M. M. Nye went to sea at fourteen years of age and at nineteen was second offi- cer. In January, 1849, he went to California in the ship Edward Ever- ett, and in 1852 to Mexico, where he stayed nearly two years. In 1862-63 he was purser on an Atlantic ship to Liverpool, and was sub- sequently five years superintendent for the state at Rainsford island and was two years mail agent on the Old Colony Railroad before be-

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ginning his present store business in 1876 at the spot where his father had his boat shop in 1807. His wife, Mary A., is a daughter of Charles Lewis.

Amos Otis, the author of the Otis Papers, was one of the prominent men of this county. After teaching successfully for fifteen years, he began his career of forty years as cashier of the Yarmouth Bank. He had the true instincts of an historian, and in preparing his genealog- ical notes of Barnstable families he did a grand philanthropic act, which secures for his name a place among the Cape Cod worthies, whose names he so faithfully tried to reseue from oblivion.

Lucian K. Paine, of Hyannis Port, is a brother of Josiah Paine, the historian, and a son of Josiah Paine-a writer of some note. He has been a carpenter and builder here sinee 1872, and during this period has built more than a seore of the finest cottages at the Port. He also built the Methodist Episcopal chapel at Centreville, and was the architect and builder of the Captain Mezeppa Nickerson cottage.

Charles F. Parker is the only living son of James H. Parker, who was born at Osterville in 1829, and was lost in Long Island sound in 1869. He was master mariner on a merchant coasting vessel. His father James, was a son of James, whose father David, was a son of Daniel and grandson of Robert Parker. Charles F. was a merchant in Harwich from 1875 to 1877, when he removed to Osterville, where he carries on a general store. He has been town clerk of Barnstable since March, 1885. His wife Emma, is a daughter of Thomas Mat- thews, of Yarmouth.

Charles G. Perry was born in Hoboken; he came to Hyannis to live in 1880, having married Dora, a daughter of Alexander Paxter, 2d. and was a merchant here about four years, and postmaster from 1SS5 to 1889. His mother was a daughter of Dr. Charles Goodspeed.

Andrew Phinney, son of Robert, was born in 1815 and died in 1884. He was a carpenter by trade, and in his later life a tradesman in stationery, traveling on the Cape. His widow, Olive G., was first married to Benjamin Jones, and has two children: Emma Jones and Stanley M. Phinney. Mrs. Phinney's father, Arthur B. Marston, was a son of John and Olive (Goodspeed) Marston, and for several years prior to 1852 was an owner in the Marston's Mills fulling mill, where he did the cloth dressing and coloring.

Captain Eli Phinney, born in 1825, is a son of Freeman and Har- riet (Crosby) Phinney. Freeman's father was Solomon, son of Eli, and grandson of Thomas Phinney. This Thomas Phinney lived in a brick house that stood about twenty rods south of the Barnstable and Cen- treville road, near Ambrose Lewis' residence. Captain Phinney went to sea at eleven years of age. He began as cook in a thirty-two ton sloop, and filled all the places from cook to captain. He was always

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

in merchant service; was in the gulf ports, in the West Indies and in European trade, and was master twenty-eight years. retiring in 1875. His wife, Mary B., is a daughter of Watson, son of Winslow Crocker. They have two children: Harriet F. (Mrs. Chester Bearse) and George H. Phinney, of Boston.

Nelson Phinney, son of William and Jane Phinney, married Eu- nice, daughter of Presbrey and Susan Clark, and died at Centreville in 1886. His children were: Edwin S., Rufus E., Nelson, a lawyer in Michigan; Joseph, a banker in Kansas; John A., of Salt Lake City; Susan J. (Mrs. John B. Cornish); Emily (Mrs. Robert Kelley); Alice, a teacher; Carrie K. (Mrs. Albert Sweetser). Edwin S., born in 1845, married Grace F., a daughter of Freeman B. and Harriet Howes. His children are: Beth F., who died in 18SS; Clara E .. Robert M., and Harriet S. Mr. Howes and his oldest daughter, Harriet, died in Sac- ramento, Cal. Rufus E. Phinney, born in Barnstable in 1847, died in Monroe, Mich., in 1884. He graduated at Michigan University in 1871, and was then elected principal of Monroe High School; was ad- mitted to the bar in Michigan in 1874; elected judge of probate in 1876; re-elected in 1880, and was nominated as judge of superior court, Judge Cooley being prime mover in this nomination, but this office he positively declined. He was also noted as the life and soul of the red ribbon movement in his locality, being a most fearless temper- ance advocate.

Colonel Joseph L. Proctor. son of Jacob Proctor, was born in Lu- nenburg, Mass., in 1834. In July, 1880, he bought the Bay View Stock Farm at West Barnstable. Its six hundred acres embrace the place where Brigadier Otis was born, and part of the Judge Shaw place. Colonel Proctor was thirteen years a commissioned officer in the reg- ular army, resigning in October, 1873. His father. Jacob, who died in 18SS at the age of ninety-nine. was the last charter member of the Bunker Hill Monument Association.

Nelson Rhodehouse, born in Vermont in 1828, was at sea from the age of fourteen until 1875. making nine voyages round Cape Horn, five round the globe, seeing nearly every country to which a ship could be sailed. He was in the Ocean Rover. a whaler, burned by Cap- tain Semmes, of the Alabama. He has been a resident of Cotuit since 1858. His wife is Rebecca B. Ewer, from South Sandwich. Their two daughters are Malinda, now a teacher in Harrisburg, Pa., and Catherine M., now Mrs. Harold I. Smith, of New Bedford.

Seth Rich, born in 1823, is a son of Isaac Rich of Wellfleet, who was captain of a fishing boat, and died in 1842. Seth was at sea, fish- ing, from the age of eleven until twenty-five years of age. After the most discouraging struggles he began on the road, in a stationery business, which he followed sixteen years, and from a capital of $1.47

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(borrowed) acquired a fair property and has a nice home in Oster- ville. He was married in 1864 to Augusta, daughter of Robert Lovell. Their family are Howard L. (a clerk in Boston), Walter I. (a book- keeper in New Jersey), Florence, and Carrie M.

Wilson Ryder, born April 8, 1818, is a son of Barnabas and grand- son of Edward Ryder. His wife, Betsey, was a daughter of John Marston of Yarmouth. She was born February 2, 1821, and died Sep- tember 8, 1885. The present Mrs. Ryder was Eveline M. Lingham, from Brockton, Mass. She was born May 22, 1840. Wilson Ryder's children are: George W., born September 12, 1840; Elizabeth E., born May S. 1842; Almira C., born July 31. 1843; Rebecca H., born August 11, 1845; Franklin, born September 6, 1847: Luther M., born July 15, 1849; Clara MI., born July 22, 1854; and Asa C., born Decem- ber 22, 1858.

Joshua H. Ryder, brother of Wilson, was a painter at Cotuit Port for some thirty years prior to his death there in 1879. His sons, Al- bert E. and Wallace, succeeded him and now carry on a prosperous business as carriage and house painters and decorators. Albert's wife is Annie W. Harlow of South Sandwich and he has one son. Wallace married Laura B., daughter of Charles D. Clayton, an English- man who came as a boy to Cotuit and married Mary H., daughter of Grafton Phinney, of an old family here.

The ancestor of the Sears family on Cape Cod was Richard Sears, an early settler in Dennis. His descendants were Paul', born in East Dennis; Paul3, also born in East Dennis; Paul', who settled in Acush- net, born in East Dennis; Nathaniel5, Nathaniel®, William", Nathaniel Sears', who was born in Rochester, Mass., in 1825, and is now a resi- dent of Hyannis. He was at sea in a whale ship five years before he was twenty years of age. After various changes in business he, in February, 1856, became postmaster and station agent at South Mid- dleboro, and in 1859 removed to Hyannis and has since been con- ductor on the Old Colony railroad, excepting the two years in which he represented the Upper Cape district in the state legislature. His family consists of his wife and one son, Charles B. Sears of Fair- haven.

Henry B. Sears was born in Dennis in 1843. His father, Eldridge C., is a son of Eldridge Sears, who was born in 1801 and died in Den- nis in 1881. Henry B. Sears learned the blacksmith trade in Dennis, and in 1866 bought, of William Jones, the only blacksmith shop in Centreville, which he still carries on. It is the same shop which Clark Lincoln built on another site, as before mentioned. His wife, Cynthia, is a daughter of Abijah Howes of Dennis.

Andrew F. Sherman, the register of deeds, was born in 1837, and in 1858 came to Sandwich as clerk for his brother, Thomas C., then a

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

merchant there. Five years later he succeeded him in business in the building now occupied by S. I. Morse. Later he was a few years in Washington, after which he resumed business in Sandwich, where he remained until January, 1887. when he was appointed to his present office as successor to Asa E. Lovell, deceased. He has been twice elected as his own successor, after unanimous nomination by both the republican and democratic county conventions. During his clerkship in Sandwich he married Maria E., daughter of Captain Charles Free- man. His only son, A. Frank Sherman, jr., was editor of the Sand- wich Observer prior to Mr. Pratt, as noticed by Mr. Swift at page 263, and now has charge of the printing for the Sandwich Card and Tag Company.

Captain Abner L. Small, born in 1812, is a son of Benjamin Small, who lived at Little River. He went to sea at ten years of age, at twenty-one was captain, and followed the sea in coast service until 1873. His wife, Betsey, deceased, was a daughter of Pardon A. Bur- lingame. She left three children, two of whom are living: Lester A., and Celia K., now Mrs. Luther G. Baker. Mr. Small's present wife, Mary, also a daughter of Pardon Burlingame, has two children: Al- van B. Falker, by a former marriage, and Benjamin M. Small, book- keeper for Columbia Rubber Works, Boston.

Eben Smith, only son of Eben and grandson of Reuben Smith, was born in 184S. His mother, Lydia, daughter of Isaiah Hinckley, is a descendant from Governor Hinckley, and his wife is Anna L. Pope, of Newton, Mass. They have one daughter, Ethel R.

Nicholas Snow came from England in the ship Ann in 1823. He inarried Constance, daughter of Stephen Hopkins, and moved to Nauset, now Eastham, in 1645. He died at Eastham in 1676, and his wife, Constance, died in 1677. They left sons-Mark, Joseph, Stephen, John, and Jabez-besides several daughters. Stephen married for his first wife widow Susanna Rogers, daughter of Stephen Doane, of Ply- mouth, October 28, 1663, and settled in Eastham. He married for his second wife Mary Bigford, in 1701. He died December 17, 1705. His children, all by first wife and born in Eastham, were: Bathsheba, mar- ried John King; Hannah; Micaijah, married William Cole; Mehitable; Bethiah, married John Smith, and Ebenezer. Ebenezer, son of Stephen, married Hope Norton, December 22, 169S, and died before 1725. His children were: Susanna, Thomas, Ebenezer, Nathaniel (born February 7, 1705), Henry, Thankful, Elisha, Hope, Aaron, and Samuel. Nathaniel, son of Ebenezer, married Mary Doane, daughter of Nathaniel and Mary Doane, of Eastham, in 1731. He lived in Eastham, and died before 1777. His children were: Samuel, born June 6, 1733; James, July 28, 1736; Doane, February 9, 1739; and Na- thaniel, April 19, 1743. The last named, Nathaniel Snow, was married,

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in Eastham, to Thankful Hopkins, and had children: Samuel, born October 30, 1767: James. July 28. 1769; and Nathaniel, July 11, 1771. His wife, Thankful, dying. Nathaniel Snow married Mercy Webber, of Barnstable, in 1775, and removed soon after to Hyannis, building a house at the head of what is known as Snow's creek. He brought with him his three sons-Samuel, James, and Nathaniel. James died young, and Nathaniel moved to Maine and had a large family. Na- thaniel Snow had, by his second wife, Mercy Webber, three sons- Jonathan, Doane, and Prince-and five daughters-Thankful, Annie, Hannah, Mercy, Abigail, and Prudence. Samuel Snow, son of Na- thaniel, married Mercy Beane and had three children: Alvan, died in September, 1861; Samuel, died, aged twenty, and Catherine, who mar- ried a Beane and died, aged about fifty-five. Alvan Snow married Almira Hinckley, of Barnstable, and had three children-Samuel, Sylvanus, and Esther, of whom only Samuel is living. He is married to Sarah J. Armington. Their son, Frank Snow, is married to Minnie Hallett, and they have a son-Sirley M. Snow. Samuel Snow is serv- ing his second year as county commissioner. He has been in the state legislature as representative and as senator.

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 50

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