History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 209

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818

USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 209

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He married for his first wife Clara, daughter of Isaac White, of Mansfield. She died Sept. 27, 1847. His second wife, Frances L., daughter of Jared Williams, of Dighton, died May 9, 1857. He married, Oct. 27, 1858, Delight R., daughter of Christopher Carpenter, of Rehoboth. His children are Clara I., Henry A. (deceased), Ida F. (deceased), Fannie L., and Henry Francis.

THE BRABROOKS.

Connected with the firm of Reed & Barton-the elder as a traveling agent, and the younger as a part- ner-are the two brothers, Alfred and George Bra-

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brook. These gentlemen are now widely known as having been many years efficiently connected with the business, and having developed qualities which render their services of great value. Both entered the employ of the company young, and both have attained to large spheres of trust and responsibility in their respective departments.

Of the ancestors of the family in this country little is known, except that they are believed to have emi- grated from Scotland. Joseph Brabrook and Thomas, his brother, were of Concord, Mass., in 1669. From Joseph have descended all who bear the name in America.

The progenitors from Joseph1 were Joseph2, Ben- jamin3, Benjamin4, and Joseph5. The last-mentioned was the father of Alfred and George Brabrook; also of Joseph Adams Brabrook, of Lowell, Mass., of Rev. Benjamin F. Brabrook, a Baptist clergyman, who died June 9, 1853, at Davenport, Iowa, and of Sarah E. A. Brabrook, of Taunton, Mass. Their mother's maiden name was Sally Adams.

Alfred Brabrook entered the service of Reed & Barton as early as 1837, and subsequently secured a place for his brother George. It is only justice to the former to say that he has been a most efficient and active worker for the interest and prosperity of the house for nearly fifty years, and that his agency has contributed in no small degree to extend its business in the cities where he has traveled. Alfred married Martha Dorrence, and has two daughters living.

George Brabrook, whose portrait appears on another page, was born at Acton, Mass., Nov. 9, 1828. He was brought up on his father's farm at Acton, and received his education at the common schools. IIe remained on the farm until he had attained his ma- jority, and in 1850 became an employé in the shipping- room of Reed & Barton, the firm with which he is at present connected. It would hardly be worth while to enter into details here of the different positions since filled by Mr. Brabrook. He has devoted him- self to business in whatever branch he has pursued with untiring diligence and energy, and it is not too much to say that his success and the honors which are accorded him, both by employés and associates, are commensurate with his exertions and with the in- telligence and genius which he has displayed in his work. After being in the employ of the house a short time, he traveled and sold goods as their agent. In 1859 he became a partner in the business, and so remains at the present time.

Oct. 25, 1860, Mr. Brabrook was united in marriage to Eliza H. Knowles. She is a descendant on her mother's side of Rev. Samuel Danforth, the fourth minister of Taunton, and came to Taunton from her native city of Boston when quite young. They have two sons,-Carleton and George Hale.

MAJ. HENRY HUDSON FISH.

Maj. Henry Hudson Fish was the son of Isaac and Sarah Barker Fish, and was born in Providence, June 5, 1807. He first attended school in Provi- dence, and was then sent to the academy at Wren- tham, Mass., and then to the school of Rowland Greene, in Plainfield, Conn. On leaving school he entered the store of Frederic Carpenter, of Provi- dence, and after the death of Mr. Carpenter he be- came a clerk of Mr. Henry Barton. He then went to Boston, into the auction and commission store of Whitewell, Bond & Co., where he remained until 1827, when he went to Fall River, where he formed a copartnership with W. H. Hawkins in the dry- goods business, one of the earliest houses established there in that business.

After several years of prosperous business he was elected treasurer of the Fall River Savings Institu- tion, and while holding this office was in 1836 elected cashier of the Fall River Bank. In this way he was connected with the business interests of the city for nearly forty years.

In 1863 ill health compelled him to resign, after holding the last-named position twenty-seven years.

After abont two years' rest and travel, with im- proved health he went into active business with Reed & Barton, of Taunton, Mass., in which concern he had been a partner for many years.

From that time he resided in Boston and Taunton until October, 1881, when he went to Fall River, making his home there with one of his married daughters.

He married Eliza A. Glasier, of Fall River, Feb- ruary, 1830, by whom he had seven children, five of whom are still living.

Soon after becoming a citizen of Fall River, he was elected ensign in a rifle company there, and sub- sequently was elected major of the regiment. He be- came a member of the infantry Sept. 9, 1824.

He was much interested in music, and was very in- strumental in forming the first military band and in introducing the first organ, and formed a society for the study and practice of church music.

He was a Sabbath-school teacher over fifty years, and maintained to the last a warm interest in all philanthropic efforts, particularly the education of the freedmen and Indians.

He died Jan. 13, 1882, and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Fall River.

ABIEL B. STAPLES.

A. B. Staples was born in Taunton, Mass., Jan. 19, 1819. He is the son of Ebenezer and Susannah (Booth) Staples. His grandfather and great-grand- father were also named Ebenezer. The ancestors for several generations have resided at or in the imme- diate vicinity of Taunton. His father was by occu- I pation a brick-maker, and reared quite a numerous

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Abiel B. Staples

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family. His children were Benjamin F., Susannah P., Ebenezer P. (deceased), ABIEL B., Fanny M., Salome, Lydia M., Charity, John H., Henry B., Ann G., Edward W., and Silas L. ; all living except Eben- ezer, and all in Bristol County. Ebenezer, the father, was a deacon in the Baptist Church, and one of seven who founded the First Baptist Church in Taunton. The family for several generations have been Baptists.

The only educational advantage enjoyed by A. B. Staples in his youth was an attendance of about three months of each year at the common school of his town, the other nine months he worked in his father's brick-yard.

In April of the year in which he attained his majority (1840) he started business for himself. He began in a small way making brick, and from that time to the present this has been his business. From year to year he added to his facility, and increased his capacity for manufacturing until he is now one of the largest brick manufacturers in the town. He is also quite a large contractor, and sells a great many brick for other parties, as the demand upon him fre- quently exceeds his capability for making. It is worthy of remark that Mr. Staples has never stopped his business on account of hard times or financial de- pression, and never discharged his men because his business was not at that particular time remunerative, but every season he has worked the season through. From the first it was his ambition to excel in the quality of his goods, and to this ambition may be attributed the very favorable reception his bricks meet with at the hands of all masons using them.

Mr. Staples was for several years a member of the City Council of Taunton, but has never sought politi- cal office. He has chosen to devote himself earnestly and entirely to his business. He is a shareholder in two or three coasting vessels, is a charitable man so far as his means allow, and a liberal supporter of the church.

He married April 20, 1842, Mercy J., daughter of Haven and Hannah Spooner, of Barre, Worcester Co., Mass. She was born Jan. 3, 1818. They have had four children,-Abiel W., died in infancy ; Mary J., now Mrs. Levanseller, of West Washington, Me., she has one child, Clinton W. ; Emmo, died in infancy ; Hannah F., now Mrs. Anthony Hall, of Taunton ; she has two children, Flora F. and Albert A.

WILLIAM H. PHILLIPS.

From the best data at hand we think that Capt. William H. Phillips is a lineal descendant from one William Phillips, who was one of the first purchasers in Taunton in 1637 or 1638. But little is known of him. In his will, dated April 16, 1654, he calls him- self threescore and ten years of age. He gives out his small estate to his wife Elizabeth and son James,

who, if he dies without issue, then to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of James Walker.

This James Phillips had children, however, but their names are not known to the writer. He prob- ably had a son William, and certainly a grandson William, who was a native of Martha's Vineyard. He married Lucy Holly, a native of Nantucket. Their children were John, grandfather of Capt. Wil- liam H., another son died young, and four daughters, who obtained maturity.

John Phillips, son of William, was born in Taun- ton, Mass., March 20, 1781, and died in March, 1824. He married Deborah Phillips. She was born in Taunton, Dec. 11, 1781, and died Oct. 6, 1840. From the best information obtained the writer is of the opinion that this John Phillips was a cousin to the father of the well-known Wendell Phillips, and this corresponds to the tradition of the family.

John Phillips was a brickmaker at one time at Daversport, but finally returned to Taunton in De- cember, 1812, where he carried on that business quite extensively, and was somewhat engaged in farming also. He was a very energetic man, a great worker, and called by his friends "working John." He was a soldier for a short time in the war of 1812. His children were William Stoddard; Lucy A., wife of Benjamin Stevens, of Pawtucket, R. I .; Robert, lost at sea when a young man ; James; Sarah W. and Ann M. (twins) ; Sarah W., wife of Reuben Pratt ; and Ann M., married Eben Paull.

Capt. William H. Phillips is also a great-grandson, on his mother's side, from Jacob Haskins, who was born June 20, 1736, and on the 6th of April, 1759, we find him an enrolled soldier in "His Majesty's ser- vice" against the French and Indians. They marched from Taunton on the 16th of April, 1759, to Boston, and then took ship on the 10th of May for Louisburg, arriving there on the 24th. He served with distinc- tion through that and all subsequent wars till his death, Jan. 4, 1819.

The first of his ancestors that we know of was one William Haskins (or Hoskins, as the name was sometimes spelled). He was at Scituate, Mass., in 1634, afterwards at Plymouth. We know but little of him. His children were William, born Nov. 30, 1647 ; Samuel, Mary, Sarah, Benjamin E., and Eliza- beth.

William (the second) was the one who settled in Taunton ; married, July 3, 1677, Sarah, daughter of Thomas Casewell, and had children,-Ann, Sarah, William, born June 30, 1681; and Henry, born May 13, 1683.

Gen. Jacob Haskins, above mentioned, married Mercy -, June 26, 1754. She died Feb. 17, 1839. Their children were Betsey, and Hannah, born Dec. 13, 1774, and died May 11, 1843. She married Enos Burt, born Sept. 3, 1760, and died April 4, 1822. Of their ten children, Hannah, born May 12, 1799, was the third child. She became the wife of William

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HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Stoddard Phillips, and mother of Capt. William H. Phillips ; Hannah M .; John M., whose portrait and biography are in this work; James O .; Enos B .; Frances D., died in infancy ; Deborah F .; Jacob, who died young ; and Mary E.

WILLIAM H. PHILLIPS, the subject of this sketch, is a son of William Stoddard and Hannah (Burt) Phillips. On the paternal side he is the grandson of John Phillips, of Boston, who came to Taunton and married Deborah, a daughter of Capt. Jacob Phillips, a well-known and highly-respected citizen of Taun- ton, who carried on an extensive trade by means of coasting vessels with the neighboring seaport towns. John Phillips, the grandfather of William H., and also his father, William Stoddard Phillips, were manu- facturers of brick, and followed the coasting business, principally in vessels of their own. They were enter- prising and successful men, particularly the latter, who accumulated considerable property.

William H. Phillips, on his mother's side, is de- scended from the Burts of Taunton. His maternal great-grandfather was Stephen Burt, born Jan. 26, 1722, and died August, 1760. His wife's name was Abigail. She survived him till March 15, 1791, when she died in the seventieth year of her age. Enos Burt, born Sept. 3, 1760, died April 4, 1822, and Hannah, his wife, born Dec. 13, 1774, died May 11, 1843, were the parents of Mr. Phillips' mother. The latter was Hannah Burt, born May 12, 1799, and died Dec. 13, 1872.

William H. Phillips was born on an island in the Blackstone River, at or near Central Falls, R. I., March 29, 1825. When he was a child his parents returned to their native town (Taunton), and here William was brought up and attended the commnon schools till the age of fourteen. At this period he began to go to sea in coasting vessels owned by his father, trading at Providence, Fall River, New Bed- ford, and other neighboring seaboard towns. Wil- liam took charge of one of the vessels as captain

before he had attained the age of eighteen. He con- tinued to go to sea until 1857, when, on account of the increase of his business, he left the water and as- sociated himself with Capt. S. N. Staples, of Taunton, under the firm-name of Staples & Phillips. They have since been engaged in the shipping and hand- ling of coal and iron, and in general commercial business.

As a shipmaster, Capt. Phillips was eminently suc- cessful. Since his association with Capt. Staples the firm have carried on a large and increasing business, notwithstanding heavy losses in consequence of the monetary panic of 1873. They have, however, by their characteristic energy, surmounted their difficul- ties and met all their obligations. Few local firms are more prosperous than they are at the present time.

Mr. Phillips has been a Republican in politics since the organization of the party in 1856. In the

last municipal election he took strong ground in favor of prohibition, and with the friends of the temperance cause had the satisfaction of seeing their representative, Hon. H. L. Cushman, elected mayor of Taunton. He was an active worker in securing the charter for the city government of Taunton, and was a member of the first City Council. He and his partner have taken an active interest in all measures looking to the growth and prosperity of the city. Among other interests may be mentioned their ac- tivity in behalf of the horse railroad which runs through the heart of the city, connecting Weir vil- lage and Whittington.

In religious faith and practice, Mr. Phillips is an earnest and devoted Methodist, and his zeal and lib- erality in behalf of the cause have been evinced in the enlargement of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Weir village, and the founding of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church at Taunton.

He married Fanny W., daughter of Joshua and Sally (Richmond) Shaw, of North Middleborough, Mass., Jan. 17, 1848. She was born Oct. 13, 1823, in North Middleborough, Mass. Their children were Henry S., who died in infancy, and Isadore L., born Aug. 20, 1852. She married John F. Montgomery, of Taunton, Jan. 27, 1875. They have three chil- dren, viz .: Fanny W., Hugh, and Mary P.

JOIIN MARSHALL PHILLIPS.

JOHN MARSHALL PHILLIPS, a younger brother of William H. Phillips, was born in Taunton, Mass., April 8, 1829. He was brought up partly on the farm and partly as a sailor on coasting vessels be- longing to his father, and began to go to sea at about twelve years of age. Up to this time he had been a regular attendant at the common schools; but be- tween twelve and twenty his time was divided be- tween sailing in summer and going to school in winter. During this period of his seafaring life he developed much independence of character, and was a mate at seventeen and a captain at nineteen years of age.

In 1849, at the age of twenty, he was among the first adventurers to California, making the voyage thither via Cape Horn in the brig "Triumph," com- manded by his uncle, Capt. Hiram Burt. It required two hundred and sixty days to make the voyage. His life of two years in the mines was comparatively uneventful, or at least partook of those character- istics of mining life which are now commonly under- stood and familiar to most readers. During his so- journ in Camp Saco, a Mexican town, an incident deserving of record occurred. Capt. Phillips ob- served that among the flags floating from the build- ings in the mountains there was no flag of the United States, to whom the country belonged, and he determined to raise the symbol of America in the town. There was no American flag to be found,

I M. Phillips

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and no materials to make one of could be procured short of a distance of one hundred and seventy-five miles ; yet such was the ardor and patriotism of Capt. Phillips that these difficulties were not considered too great; the distance was traveled, the materials pro- cured at whatever cost, and in due time a "star-span- gled banner," made by his own hands, with the assist- ance of his partner, was flung to the Pacific breeze and floated proudly among the emblems of other nationalities. This was the first American flag ever raised in that town.

Returning home, Capt. Phillips purchased a vessel and engaged in the coasting trade. This business he has since followed, with varying fortunes and inci- dents, till within a few years past. He has built several vessels of late years, among which may be mentioned the "Calvin P. Harris," launched at Bath, Me., in August, 1871, and the " Alfred Bra- brook," launched in October, 1873, from the same yard,-that of Goss, Sawyer & Packard, Bath, Me.

He owns an interest in a number of vessels, and is part owner and master of the new excursion steamer " Empire State," plying in Boston and adjacent waters as a summer excursion boat. "The Hand-Book of Boston Harbor" speaks of this steamer thus :

"One of the chief features of the sunner pleasure of Boston is the immense three-decked steamer ' Em- pire State,' of seventeen hundred tons, with a length of three hundred and twenty feet, and eighty feet beam, and spacious and beautiful saloons, dining- rooms, promenade deck, and other luxuriant appur- tenances."

Capt. Phillips is a self-made man, and is noted for his liberality, being free to bestow of his means upon charitable and worthy objects. He and his family are members of the Universalist Church, of Taunton, Mass.

He married, Jan. 15, 1854, Martha E. Morton, daughter of Isaac and Hannah Morton, of Gorham, Me. They have had five children, three sons and two daughters, the latter, viz., Agnes L. and Minerva R., are living ; two sons died in infancy, and M. Walter, the second son, died at the age of twenty-three, March 1, 1881. He had, three years previous to his death, been clerk of the steamer "Empire State."

REV. MORTIMER BLAKE, D.D.1

Rev. Mortimer Blake, D.D., was born in Pittston, Me., June 10, 1813, the son of Ira Blake, a native of Wrentham, and descendant of John Blake, of Sand- wich, who removed to Wrentham with the returning settlers after its destruction in King Philip's war. The mother of the subject of our sketch was Laura Mowry, descendant of Nathaniel Mowry, one of the first settlers of Providence, R. I. The parents met and married in Maine, where the father was teaching,

and returned thence to Franklin, Mass., when the son was about four years old, and there they spent the re- mainder of their days. The father was a bright, clear-headed man, given to books, and the mother a woman of keen, quick intellect, remarkable memory, fond of old ballads and poetry generally.

Their son Mortimer had a strong passion for books, and devoured all the libraries within his reach. When about ten years old he fell in with a Latin grammar, and began study without any teacher. His grand- father Blake, a good deacon of the church, for the en- couragement of the lad, offered to pay the minister if he would hear him recite. A bargain was soon made with Rev. Mr. Smalley (afterward Dr. Smalley, of Worcester), and the boy mastered Virgil and Cicero, and was all ready to start out on Greek before the thought of college had entered his mind.

When fifteen, a German Jew, by the name of Seixas, visited the place to form a class among the ministers of that region for the study of Hebrew. He occupied a part of Dr. Emmons' house. Young Blake was in- vited to join the class. He consented, not without fear and trembling among so many ministers. But Seixas was a fine teacher, and those lessons, taught by a new method, on written sheets, inhere to this day. All this time there was no college visible ahead. But the good grandfather had it in mind, and he, a man of faith and prayer, was hoping and expecting a min- ister might come of all this. And so when Abijah R. Baker (afterwards Rev. and D.D.) opened an acad- emy in Medway village, young Blake was sent there with the purpose of fitting for college, with the full consent of his parents and all concerned. He en- tered Amherst College in 1831, and graduated in 1835. It was in the winter of 1834 he became a de- cidedly Christian man, and thus answered the prayer of the godly grandfather, who had his education so much at heart. In his college course, which the writer well remembers, being only in the class before him, those rare qualities of mind and heart were de- veloped which have done so much for the ministry and the church. As is not uncommon with college students, the graduate of 1835 turned aside for a sea- son to teach. He had tried his hand at this in Hop- kins Academy, Hadley, for a term in his senior year. His many friends in Franklin urged him to open a school there. A stock company erected a large build- ing for the purpose, and in the course of three years nearly a thousand different scholars came under his instruction, many of them now well known in the pulpit and at the bar. Meanwhile he was studying theology with the pastor of the Franklin Church, Rev. E. Smalley, and he was approbated to preach by the Mendon Association, April 24, 1838.

This same year (1838) he received and accepted a very urgent invitation from the trustees of the Hop- kins Academy, Hadley, who remembered his teaching qualities in 1835, to take charge of their institution. He served them only one year. He was beginning to

1 Prepared by S. Hopkins Emery.

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HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

be hungry for the ministry, to which he had been set apart. His first pastorate was with the Congrega- tional Church in Mansfield, Mass., where he was or- dained and installed Dec. 4, 1839. The church was young and struggling, a missionary church, but dur- ing the sixteen years' pastorate of their minister was built up in knowledge and good doctrine, and well established in the sisterhood of churches. It was a trial to them when, in 1855, Dec. 4, Mr. Blake, having accepted a call to the Winslow Church, Taunton, was installed their pastor. But the removal was not to a distance, and no minister has a warmer greeting in the Mansfield pulpit than their pastor of 1839-55.

The record of the long and most useful ministry of already eight-and-twenty years (with promised con- tinuance) in Taunton is not yet complete. Its finished" history cannot be written. Enough is known of it, however, to warrant the assertion that not only has one church felt the quickening influence of such a protracted pastorate, but all the churches of every order, and the entire city as well as the adjoining towns, have been reached and blessed by it. The church conferences, the Sabbath-school conventions, the ministerial associations, the public gatherings of every name have become accustomed to the presence, and feel lost without the wise counsel and easy direc- tion of this one man. The young find in him a sym- pathizing, helpful friend in all their attempts to im- prove time and get knowledge. The Agassiz Club, organized by young students to promote the study of mineralogy and natural science, has no more active, whole-souled member than Dr. Blake. The Wheaton Female Seminary at Norton leans upon the president of its board of trustees more than any one else for sympathy and advice. The State societies of the Congregational order have appreciated the value of Dr. Blake's services, since for several years he was one of the executive committee of the Massachu- setts Home Missionary Society and of the Congrega- tional Board of Publication (its secretary at the time of the union of the latter with the Massachusetts Sabbath-School Society under the new name of the Congregational Publishing Society, and since that union one of the managers and now the secretary of the new society). Amherst College, his Alma Mater, honored herself as well as her son in conferring, in 1868, the honorary degree of D.D. upon this graduate of 1835. It was a just recognition of services ren- dered, of attainments made, and eminence reached by the Franklin boy of 1817.

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History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 209

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1818

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818