History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 111

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 111

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Edward Winslow Hincks, the subject of this sketch, having received the rudiments of his education in the public schools of his native town, in 1845, at fif- teen years of age, removed from Bucksport to Bangor, Me., where he served as an apprentice in the office of the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier until 1849, when he removed to Boston, where he was engaged in the printing and publishing business until 1856. He was a Representative from the city of Boston in the Legislature of 1855, and in the same year was a member of the City Council from the Third Ward. Early in 1856 he was appointed a clerk in the office of the secretary of the commonwealth of Massachu- setts, and prepared for publication the State census of 1855. He remained in the secretary's office until the firing upon Fort Sumter, employing his leisure hours in the study of law, with the intention of mak- ing that his profession, being encouraged and assisted in his purpose by Hon. Anson Burlingame, of whom he was an ardent friend and supporter. Having re- moved to Lynn in 1856, he was chosen librarian of the Lynn Library Association, and until the outbreak of the war actively promoted the interests of that or- ganization, whose collection of books subsequently became the nucleus of the present Public Library in that city. He was also prominently connected with the Sabbath-school of the First Baptist Church in

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Lynn. On the 18th of August, 1859, he was appointed adjutant of the Eighth Regiment of Massachusetts Militia,-the Essex County regiment.

This appointment, trivial as it no doubt seemed at the time, proved the turning-point in his life, and was the opening door to a military career in which he won lasting fame.

At the outbreak of the war he was placed by this appointment in a position whose duties he had per- formed with enthusiasm, and from which be could reasonably hope to receive advancement. On the 18th of December, 1860, he wrote to General Ander- son, then stationed at Fort Moultrie, the following letter, which shows him to have been the first volon- teer of the war:

" BOSTON, December IS, 1860. "MAJOR ANDERSON, U. S. A., " Commanding Fort Moultrie :

"MAJOR : In case of attack upon your command by the State (or would-be nation) of South Carolina, will you be at liberty to accept vol- unteers to aid in the defence of Fort Moultrie ?

"I am confident that a large body of volunteers, from this vicinity, can be put afloat at sbort uotice to aid iu the defence of the post eu- trusted to your command, if necessity shall demand and the authorities permit it.

"Indeed, the men who have repeatedly responded to the call of the authorities to protect the officers of the law in their work of securing to the owners, from whom it had escaped, the chattel property of the South, will oever hesitate to respond to a call to aid a meritorious officer of our Federal Republic, wbo is engaged not only in protecting our ua- tivnal property, but in defending the honor of our country and the lives of our countrymen.

" I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant to command. "EDWARD W. HINKS, " Ist Lieut. and Adjt. 8th Regt. Mass. Vol. Mil."

"FORT MOULTRIE, S. C., December 24, 1860.

" LIEUTENANT ED. W. HINKS.

" Adjt. 8th Regt. Mass. Vol. Militia :

"SIR : I thank you, not only for myself, but for the brave little band that are nuder me, for your very welcome letter of the 18th inst., ask- ing whether, in case I am attacked, I would be at liberty to accept vol- unteer aid in the defence of Fort MonItrie.

" When I inform you that my garrison consists of only sixty effective men; that we are in a very iodifferent work, the walls of which are only about fourteen feet high, and that we have within oue bundred and sixty yards of our walls saod hills which commaud our work, and afford admirable sites for batteries and the finest covere for sharp-shoot- ers; and that, besides this, there are numerous bouses, some of them within pistol-shot, you will at once see that if attacked by a force beaded by any one but a simpleton, there is scarce a possibility of our being able to hold out long enough to enable our friends to come to our suc- cor.

" Come what may, I shall ever bear in grateful remembrance your gallant, your humane offer.

" I am, very sincerely, yours, " ROBERT ANDERSON, " Major 1st Artillery, U. S. A."

"24 ST. MARK'S PLACE, July 5, 1866. "GENERAL E. W. HINKS : *

" DEAR SIR : * * * * *

"Your letter, which I received two days before I moved over to Fort Sumter, was the first proffer of aid which was made me whilst in Charleston IIarbor.

"Respectfully, your obedient servant, " ROBERT ANDERSON, " Major General U. S. A."

On the 15th of April, 1861, when the news was re- ceived of the attack on Fort Sumter, he hastened to Boston, and tendered his services to Governor An- drew, and at the same time nrged the acceptance of

the Eighth Regiment as a part of the contingent of fifteen hundred men called for by the President. His offer of service was accepted, and his request at once complied with. Under orders promptly issued, he, that evening, rode to Lynn, Salem, Beverly and Marblehead, and despatched messenger to Newbury- port and Gloucester, notifying the various companies of his regiment to rendezvous in Boston for instant duty. The next morning, April 16th, he marched into Faneuil Hall with three companies from Mar- blehead, the first troops in the country en route for the seat of war.

On the 17th of April he was commissioned lieuten- ant-colonel of the Eighth Regiment, which marched on the 18th for Washington. At Annapolis, Md., on the 21st of April, a detachment from the regiment, under command of Colonel Hiueks, boarded the frig- ate " Constitution," then lying aground, and first light- ening her of her guns, floated her and worked her to sea. Leaving the ship at midnight, he learned the next morning from General Butler that Colonel Lef- ferts, of the New York Seventh Regiment, had, after consultation with his officers, declined to advance his command and take possession of the Baltimore and Washington Railroad, through apprehension of an overpowering rebel force. He at once said to General Butler: "Give me the selection of two companies for the purpose and I will perform the duty." He was at once placed in command of a detachment consist- ing of Captain Knott V. Martin's Marblehead com- pany, Captain Geo. T. Newhall's Lynn company and several picked men, engineers and mechanics from other companies under command of Lieutenant Hodges, of Newburyport, and marched to the station, of which he took possession, with the rolling stock, materials, books, papers, etc., there found. Withont delay he began the work of repair on the engines and track, the former having been disabled and the latter seri- ously broken up. During the first day an advance of five miles was made, and after a night's bivouce the work was resumed and continued until the road was in running order. For this service the regiment received the thanks of Congress in the following re- solve :

" THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION.

" CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. " July 31, 1861.

"On motion of Mr. Lovejoy :

" Resolved, That the thanke of thie House are hereby presented to the Eighth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteere, for their alacrity in re- eponding to the call of the President, and for the energy and patriotism displayed by them in eurmounting obstacles upon sea and land, which traitors had interposed to impede their progress to the defence of the National Capital.

" GALUSHA A. GROW, "Speaker of the House of Representatives.

" Attest :

" EM. ETHERIDGE,

" Clerk."

Reaching Washington on the 26th of April, Colonel Hineks was that day appointed a second lieutenant of cavalry in the regular army, the only rank in which, at that time, an officer could enter the regular

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service. From the date of his entrance into the regular army his military history is borne on the records of the office of the adjutant-general, as fol- lows :

" Appointed second lieutenant Second Cavalry April 26, 1861 ; colonel Eighth Massachusetts Volunteers May 16, 1861 ; colonel Nineteenth Massachusetts Volunteers August 3, 1861 ; brigadier-general United States Volunteers November 29, 1862 ; brevet major-general United States Volunteers March 13, 1865, for gallant and meritorious services during the war ; resigned volunteer commission June 30, 1865 ; appointed lieu- tenant-colonel Fortieth United States Infantry July 28, 1866 ; trans- ferred to the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry March 15, 1869; bre- veted colonel United States Army March 2, 1867, for gallant and meri- torious services at the battle of Antietam, Md. ; and brigadier-general United States Army for gallant and meritorious services in the assault of Petersburg, Va. ; retired from active service for disability resulting from wounds received in the line of duty December 15, 1870, upon the full rauk of colonel United States Army.

"Service .- With Regiment Eighth Massachusetts in the State of Maryland until August 1, 1861; with Regiment Nineteenth Massachu- setts in the Army of the Potomac from August, 1861, to June 30, 1862, when wounded in action at White Oak Swamp, Va. ; absent wounded to Angust 5, 1862 ; commanding Third Brigade, Sedgwick's division, Army of the Potomac, to September 17, 1862, when twice severely wounded in the battle of Antietanı, Md. ; ou leave of absence wounded to March 19, 18G3 ; ou court-martial duty as brigadier-general at Washington, D. C., April 2 to June 9, 1863 ; and under orders of War Department to July 4, 1863 ; commanding draft rendezvous nt Concord, N. H. ; acting assistant provost marshal, general and superintendent of the Volun- teer Recruiting Service for the State of New Hampshire to Blarch 29, 1864 ; commanding district of Saint Mary's and camp of prisoners of war at Point Lookout, Md., April 3 to 20, 1864 ; commanding Third Division, Eighteenth Army Corps, to July, 1864, when wounded ; on court-martial duty to September 22, 1864 ; commanding draft depot und camp of prisoners of war at Hart's Island, New York Harbor, to February, 1865 ; on duty at New York City as acting assistant provost marshal general, superintendent Volunteer Recruiting Service, and chief mustering and disbursiog officer for the Southern Division of New York to March, 1865 ; and on the same duty at Harrisburg, Pa., for the Western Division of Pennsylvania to June 30, 1865; governor of the Military Asylum to March 6, 1867 ; en route to, and in command of, Fort Macon, N. C., until April 13, 1867 ; on special duty at headquar- ters Second Military District at Charleston, S. C., to April 27, 1867 ; provost marshal general Second Military District North and South Caro- lina to January 16, 1868 ; commanding Fortieth regiment and the sub-district and port of Guld-horo', N. C., to July 13, 1868; ou sick leave of absence to December 4, 1868 ; commanding regiment in North Carolina and Louisiana until April 20, 1869, when he assumed command of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, and remained in command of that regi- ment and the post of New Orleans, La., until August 14, 1869 ; on sick leave of absence to December 4, 1869 ; and in command of regiment in New Orleans and en route to and at Fort Clark, Texas, from that date to December 15, 1870."

Such is the record borne on the pages of the army books, and no narrative could set forth the military life of General Hincks so clearly and eloquently as these authoritative words. Aside from the leading well-known generals of the war, few officers can boast of a more varied and gallant and useful career.

In concluding the narrative of the war experience of General Hincks, while the repeated testimony of his superior officers in their general orders to his gal- lantry will be omitted, the list of battles in which he was engaged must not fail to be mentioned.

Battle of Ball's Bluff, Va., October 21, 1861 ; siege of Yorktown, Va., April, 1862 ; affair at West Point, May 7, 1862 ; Fair Oaks, June 1, 1862 ; Oak Grove, June 25, 1862 ; Peach Orchard, June 29, 1862; Savage's Sta- tion, June 29, 1862; White Oak Swmmup, June 30, 1862; Glendale, June 30, 1862 ; Chantilly, September 1, 1862 ; South Mountain, September 14, 1862 ; Antietam, September 16 and 17, 1862; Baylor's Farm, June 15, 1864 ; assault on Petersburg, June 15, 1864."

The services of General Hincks after the war were only less important than those during its continu- ance. Under General Sickles and General Canby the aid he rendered in perfecting and carrying out the reconstruction measures of the government in North and South Carolina, forming what was called the Second Military District, was recognized by his superior officers as efficient and valuable.

On the 15th of December, 1870, the general was re- tired from active service upon the full rank of colonel in the United States Army on account of wounds re- ceived in battle, and on the 7th of March, 1872, he was appointed, by the board of managers of the National Homes, deputy-governor of the Southern Branch of National Homes, at Hampton, Va. On the 1st of January following he was transferred to the Northwestern Branch, near Milwaukee, Wis., and resigned October 1, 1880.

After the resignation of his position as deputy- governor of the National Home at Milwaukee, Gen- eral Hincks remained in that city until June, 1883, and was largely influential in the organization of the Milwaukee Industrial Exposition, a corporation then formed and still in existence, having for its object the promotion of the industrial interests of Milwau- kee and the State of Wisconsin. Since 1883 he has lived in Cambridge, Mass., enjoying a period of well- deserved peace and comfort. He occupies a stately old mansion, said to be more than two hundred years old; and the hooks and pictures and quaint old family china and furniture with which it is replete reveal the culture and taste of its occupants.

In the autumn of 1862, after having been severely wounded in the battle of Antietam, General Hincks was urgently requested by many independent Re- publicans to run for Congress in the Sixth District, then represented by Mr. John B. Alley, but he posi- tively declined to be a candidate for any office that would prevent his return to the field as soon as he should sufficiently recover from his wonnds. He was sergeant-at-arms of the National Republican Conven- tion at Philadelphia in 1872, when General Grant was nominated for a second term; and again at Cincin- nati, in 1876, when General Hayes was nominated for President. In the Cincinnati Convention he was nominated by the chairman of the Michigan delega- tion " for his many wounds received in battle," and was unanimously elected.

General Hincks is a Knight Templar in the Ma- sonic order, a companion in the National Comman- dery of the Loyal Legion and a member of the New England Historical Genealogical Society.

General Hincks has been twice married, -first, January 25, 1855, to Annie Rebecca, daughter of Moody and Clarissa (Leach) Dow, of Lynn, who died in Lynn August 21, 1862. Her only child was Anson Burlingame, who was born in Lynn October 14, 1856, and died in Rockville, Md., January 27, 1862.

He married second, September 3, 1863, Elizabeth

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

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Peirce, daughter of George and Susan (Treadwell) Nichols, of Cambridge, whose only child, Bessie Hincks, born in Cambridge April 11, 1865, died in Cambridge Jnly 5, 1885.

The death of this daughter was peculiarly sad. She had graduated in 1883 from the Milwaukee Col- lege, and had entered the Harvard Annex full of hope and promise. While walking in the street her dress took fire from a burning cracker, and she was burned to death. Her sweet and loving character, blended with high literary attainments, lent a joy and grace to her parents' home, since shadowed in perpet- ual gloom. It is only necessary, before closing this sketch, to add a word of explanation concerning the family name of General Hincks.

The common ancestor of the Hincks family in this country, Councilor and Chief Justice John, uniformly wrote his name Hinckes, but when copied by clerks it was usually written Hinks, and so frequently ap- pears in the Council Records of Massachusetts and the Archives of New Hampshire. Captain Samuel, who graduated at Harvard in 1701, and his son Sam- uel, Jr., the schoolmaster on the Cape, uniformly wrote their names Hincks; but Elisha and his son, Captain Elisha, Jr., the father of the general, appear to have dropped the c, and to have written their names Hinks ; and in early life the general also wrote his name without the c (Hinks), and it so appears in the Army Register and the official records of the war, although other branches of the family wrote their names with a c; but in 1871, under authority of law, the general restored the letter c to his name, and has since written it Hincks, and all the branches of the family descended from Chief Justice John now conform to this style. It will be noted that all of this family in this country bearing the name of Hincks are descended throngh the Winslows from Mary Chilton, who came in the "Mayflower," and Anne Hutchinson, the Quakeress.

FRANCIS W. BREED.

Francis W. Breed, of Lynn, is one of the most prominent shoe manufacturers, not only in that city, but in New England. His extensive factories at home and abroad give employment to large bodies of workmen, and have a capacity, when in full running order, of six or seven thousand pairs of shoes per day. Mr. Breed's rise in business, while it has been rapid, has been steady, conservative and safe. Pos- sessing, in a marked degree, the quality of thorongh- ness in whatever he undertakes, he has achieved suc- cess where competition is close and where slackness or inattention might have caused disaster. His mar- kets, both for purchase and sale, are extensive, and both are watched with a careful eye. Mr. Breed has traveled extensively, and with an elasticity of spirit and a buoyancy of heart, he has always sustained a weight of care and responsibility with calmness and

composure, and kept himself yonng under burdens, which often crush and break down even less active business men. His residence on Ocean Street in Lynn has a beautiful outlook over the bay, and is one of the most attractive and comfortable homes on the shore.

JOHN BROAD TOLMAN.

Mr. Tolman was a lineal descendant from Thomas Tolman, who was born in England in 1608 or 1609, and came over in the " Mary and John " in 1630, be- coming a settler of Dorchester, Mass. A grandson of the early settler just named, whose name also was Thomas, was a native of Lynn, and died here in 1716. And this last Thomas was the great-great-great-grand- father of John B., the subject of this sketch, who thus becomes connected with our Lynn families.

John B. Tolman was born in Barre, Worcester Connty, Mass., on the 30th of December, 1806, and in that town the first two years of his life were passed. His parents then removed to Needham, in Norfolk County, Mass., it being the native place of his pater- nal grandfather, who was severely wounded at the battle of Lexington, but on his recovery enlisted and served through the Revolutionary War, rising from the ranks to a field officer.

In this latter town most of Mr. Tolman's early life was passed and his education chiefly obtained at the public schools there. And he had manual duties to perform about the farm even at the tender age of eight years, such as a boy of this period would be thought entirely unequal to.

At the usual age for apprenticeship he was placed in the office of H. & W. H. Mann, of Dedham, Mass., to learn the printing business. It was a large and well-appointed establishment for the time, and af- forded facilities for acquiring a good knowledge of the art. He faithfully served his full time and not long after went to Boston, there to follow his trade. Says the Commonwealth newspaper of April 9, 1881: " In 1828 Mr. Tolman came to Boston as a journeyman in the book-office of Isaac R. Butts, doing a full day's work each day and filling the berth of an extra hand two nights in the week on the Columbian Centinel, ' hanging out from twelve to three o'clock.' "

It was in February, 1830, that he became a resident of Lynn, where he was at once engaged as printer of the Lynn Record, a few numbers of which had then been issued. After several years of service as man- ager, not only mechanically but editorially, he pur- chased the office and soon did a larger business than had been done in any other Lynn office up to that time. He introduced the first machine press here, printed several papers at different times and had a good rnn of job work.

By middle life he found himself iu circumstances where his accustomed unremitting application to me- chanical labor was unnecessary. He then sold out his printing materials and business, and turned his

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

attention to other and less wearing pursuits. Yet the semi-intellectual employment of type-setting was al- ways congenial to him, and he was sometimes, for years after, seen as a volunteer compositor, for hours together, in some printing-office, the sharp click of the type and the bass rumbling of the press having the okl-time charm for his ear. He now engaged in real estate and kindred operations, and here, too, success generally attended him, so that his means were soon augmented.

The Rev. Edwin Thompson, himself a man of re- markable vitality, industry and perseverance, in a communication to the Dedham Transcript of March 15, 1884, in allusion to the physical strain to which Mr. Tolman was accustomed to subject himself in early manhood, says : "Before the days of railroads Mr. Tolman frequently walked from Lynn to Boston on business and back the same day. Whenever he wished to visit Dedham it required all day to go there by stage, starting by Lynn stage at 8 A.M. for Boston, and leaving Boston for Dedham by 'Mason's stage' at 4 P.M. In order to save time, Mr. Tolman frequently walked the whole distance, twenty miles, leaving Dedham in the morning and arriving at Lynn in sea- son to devote half a day to business."

Perhaps no trait is more conspicuous in Mr. Tolman than his promptness in fulfilling engagements. So rigid was he in this respect, while in the printing business, that he appended to some of his advertise- ments a notice that if a job of work was not ready for delivery at the time agreed on, no pay would be re- quired.

The career of Mr. Tolman furnishes a notable illus- tration of the certainty with which industry, prompt- ness, indomitable perseverance and frugality insure competence.

Mr. Tolman is a strict disciplinarian and a man of marked individuality and rigidly just in all his deal- ings. Like a good many other thrifty men-more in number than is generally supposed-he was never addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors. Nor did he acquire the habit of using tobacco in any form. Mr. Thompson remarks : "Mr. Tolman thinks he has saved, reckoning at compound interest, about eight thousand dollars in not using tobacco, and by not using rum much more." His abstinence from " rum and tobacco," of course did much to increase his pe- cuniary means. And then with his other good traits of prudence in expenditure and carefulness in every way, aided by superior business sagacity, he has been enabled, during his latter years, to spare generous surus for benevolent purposes. In 1881, on the occa- sion of the celebration of his golden wedding, he made a donation to the Lynn Hospital of two thousand five hundred dollars, to be held for the purposes thus cx- pressed in his letter to the president of the corpora- tion :

" As I am interested in the project for o Hospital in this city, und as the present effort to obtain a fund to establish one happens to be coinci-

dent with the fiftieth anniversary of my wedding, I, together with my wife, desire, on this day and occasion, to make it an offering expressivo of onr interest in it and the city in which we have so long resided.

" We also desire to devote the gift, in part, to the benefit of members of the Printing Fraternity in Lynn, as they may be in need of hospital treatment. We both have a strong regard for the occupation to which I was brought up, and in which my wife's father and four of her broth- ers were long engaged.

" As we desire the hospital to be established on a lasting basis, even if it shall commence in a small and prudent way, we wish the income of the fund only to be used, and offer, through you, to give to the Hospital the symbolical sum of Fifty-times-Fifty Dollars, to bo received aod held on the following terms :

"That the said Hospital shall hold and invest the said sum forever, aod devote the incomearising therefrom to maintain o bed, or beds, in said Hospital, for the benefit of all persons, under the rules and regulations of the hospital ; that it shall devote said hed, or beds, to the extent of n sum equal to the whole income received from said fuod, to the use of Practical Letter-Press Priotera residing in Lynn (and especially to noy person ever apprenticed to me), if the same shall be so required."

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 111

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538