History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 127

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 127

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They had three sons, this young couple, Joseph and Elizabeth, whose names were William, David and Israel. There is a little chamber in the oldest part of the old house, which, through the kindness of the occupants, is often visited with great interest. Perhaps here all three of these boys were born, but, alas for the heroes of peace, it is the heroes of war whom men most idolize, and as one enters beneath the oaken beams of the low ceiling, and sees in the quiet room the ancient furniture, the fire-place and other relics of long gone years, the mind strives only to grasp the strange reality that in this very spot that favorite hero of the Revolution, to whom tales of bravery and courage seem as commonly attributed as to the demi-gods of old, " Old Put," Major Gen- eral Israel Putnam, Washington's " uncut diamond," actually kicked and cried just like any other baby. The wolf's den, the rapid ride from the plow to the Lexington alarm, the tender of the first commission at Boston from the hands of Washington, the dashing plunge at Horseneck, the long service of one of the most trusted commanders, these and all other events of his distinguished life, had a sort of potential exist- ence in this same little room.

He was a little more than twenty-one years old when the event happened to which this item found in an old memorandum book refers: "July ye 19 28

1739 Israel Putnam and Hannah Pope were married together." Immediately the young couple struck out, took a farm at Pomfret, Conn., and returned thither no more. The descendants of the general are numerous in the State of his adoption, in New York, and especially so, through his son, Colonel Israel, an officer with his father iu the Revolution, about Mari- etta, O .; and some also in Kentucky and other Southern States.

William, the oldest brother of the general, had no sons. David, the next son, remained on the home place. It was a mistake to insinuate that Israel mo- nopolized the military spirit of the family. David, so Mr. Upham says, was a celebrated cavalry officer, but, being much older than Israel, flourished in the period anterior to the Revolution. Colonel Timothy Pickering used to mention as one of the recollections of his boyhood, that David Putnam "rode the best horse in the province."

To follow briefly down the old house which may now understandingly be identified by the name it commonly bears, the "Old Put " house, David had these sons,-William, Joseph, Israel and Jesse. Joseph was "Deacon Joseph " of the Village Church, for whom David built that other Putnam house a short distance from his own, known as the "Colonel Jesse house." Of Colonel Jesse and his children, a few words farther on.

William, eldest son of David, moved to Sterling, Mass. A daughter of his became the wife of Captain Samuel Endicott, of Salem, and their son, William P. Endicott, who married Miss Crowningshield, is the father of Hon. William Crowningshield Endicott, President Cleveland's Secretary of War. Another descendant of William Putnam, of Sterling, was the Rev. George Putnam, D.D., long and well known as pastor of the First Church of Roxbury.

Jesse, the youngest son of David, was a graduate of Harvard, and a well known merchant of Boston, whose earlier residence was on Summer Street, near Trinity Church. His daughter Catherine was that lady of fine culture and patriotic spirit who, in her eighty-fifth year, presented a silk banner to the Put- nam Guards of Danvers as they went out to war.

Israel, the third son of David, the fourth in line of ownership, remained on the old place, and from him it descended to the only one of his three sons who married,-Daniel. Daniel married the daughter of another Putnam, Stephen, whom we shall meet in the family branch of Nathaniel, and of his twelve children, two, Miss Susan and her brother Ansel W., are the present occupants of the historic house. The youngest daughter Julia, widow of Hon. John D. Philbrick, of whom something is written in connec- tion with our schools, resides nearly opposite. Allen, the oldest, and Benjamin Wadsworth, the youngest son, reside in Boston. Daniel and Ahira manufac- tnred shoes in a shop still standing within the yard of the old house; the widow and a granddaughter of

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Daniel, who reside here, are his only living represen- tatives; Ahira's son, Granville B., is a well known teacher in Boston, and the name of his other son, Major Wallace A. Putnam, stands first on the monu- ment erected to the Danvers men, who lost their lives in the late war. Deacon William R. Putnam tilled his ancestral acres some thirty years, removed, to reside with his children at Redwing, Minn., in 1874, and there died in 1886. The male lineage of the old General Putnam house runs back then thus, -Ansel, Daniel, Israel, David, Joseph, Thomas. There are now living but five grandsons of Daniel in the male line, and none of them live in Danvers.

A few words concerning the family of Jesse, "Col. Jesse " before alluded to. He was himself one of the prominent and widely known citizens of his day, one of the foremost advocates of the early temperance reform and one of the strongest opponents of slavery. In his manner he was somewhat brusque, and, like his grandfather, he was fond of a good horse.

He died in 1860, but his widow, Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Dr. Silas Merriam, of Middleton, whom he married in her twentieth year, still living, celebrated November 14, 1884, her one hundredth birthday. Rare event ; fitly celebrated. The "tribe of Jesse " were six sons and six daughters, a family in all respects to be proud of. Four of the surviving five were present with their mother on the occasion just men- tioned. These twelve children were, in order, Cathe- rine, Andrew, Elizabeth, Francis P., Henry F., Cal- vin, Mary J., Martha A., Sarah W., Charles, Emily A. and John M. The latter lives on his father's place, and in his family is another Jesse. The other survivors are Calvin; Sarah, widow of George W. Fuller ; and Emily, widow of Rev. Richard T. Searle. Francis died at his home near by his father's a few years ago, much respected. Henry and Charles died in the West, the latter having been superintendent of schools in St. Louis. (Mrs. Putnam died September 20, 1887, at the age of 102 years, 10 months, 6 days.)

b. The family of Nathaniel .- Nathaniel, " Lieuten- ant,"-military titles were common in the family- had two sons, Benjamin and John. The latter went beyond the westerly slope of Hathorne's hill and es- tablished himself near the Log Bridge over the Ipswich River, on the farm now owned by George H. Peabody. He was known as "Carolina John," and this name occurs on a rough diagram of a division of land drawn in ink on the parchment binding of one of the old volumes of records in the registry of deeds at Salem. The site of his home is marked by a very old but well preserved house, situated beneath ancient elms, where the high land begins to slope to the river meadows. It was in the immediate neighbor- hood of the other river farms upon which the broth- ers Deacon Edward and Sergeant Thomas Putnam, cousins of this John, were settled. John had these sons,-Josiah, Jolin, Amos, Samuel and Daniel. A grandson, Daniel, was a deacon of the village church

and lived close by his grandfather's place on one of the Peabody farms, and died in 1801, aged sixty-three years. Neither of the brothers, except Jolin, leave descendants of the male line in Danvers. A descend- ant of Josiah, Hon. Harvey Putnam, born at Brattle- boro, Vt., in 1793, was a prominent lawyer in Schenec- tady, N. Y., a member of Congress, and his son, Hon. James O. Putnam, of Buffalo, has long been one of the most distinguished men of western New York. John, brother of Josiah, had three sons,-John Amos, Edmund. An eccentric old man well-known some years ago, published a rambling autobiographi- cal sketch called "The Life and times of Peter Put- nam." Peter's grandfather was the brother of Amos and Edmund, just mentioned, and their estate was on the turnpike, south of Hathorne's hill.

Amos Putnam was a physician, and one ot the active patriotic spirits of Revolutionary times. His name often occurs in honorable connection on the records of the town. His residence was the brick house near Felton's corner, where afterwards the late Daniel Tapley lived. A son of Dr. Amos, James, also a physician, is to be remembered with his estimable wife who long survived him, as the parents of those two teachers " Hannah and Betsey," names always spoken together because they always taught together, and fondly cherished by many of our older people. Recently a number of the survivors of their old scholars met with Mrs. Harriet P. Fowler to con- sider the erection of a memorial over their hitherto unmarked graves. Something further of them will be found in the chapter on schools.

Edmund Putnam, brother or rather half-brother of Dr. Amos, was " Deacon Edmund," whose name is revered by Universalists as the pioneer of the de- parture of that denomination from the old faith. He served as deacon in the village church from 1762 to 1785, and died in 1810, aged eighty-six years. He lived in the old house standing between the Topsfield road and the railroad, a well preserved relic of witch- craft times, now owned by Augustus Fowler. Dea- con Edmund's sons were Andrew, Israel and Ed- mund. Israel was the father of Elias Putnam, "Squire Lias," a name at which the pen halts to find words of fitting tribute and then passes altogether, on the announcement that a distinguished son, Rev. Dr. Alfred P. Putnam, is to contribute a sketch of his father's life, to appear in subsequent pages of this book. In the number aud character of descendants the line of Edmund, Israel and Elias is well repre- sented at home and abroad.

Poplar and Locust Streets cross each other a third of a mile above the Square at the Plains. Both are ancient roads ; the former, the old "Dyson Road " from Beverly to Andover; the other, the "Topsfield Road." At this corner was the old homestead of Judge Timothy Lindall. Speaking roughly, the roads cross at right angles, the Topsfield road running north, the Andover road running west. Another road,

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now called Summer Street, starts from the Andover road about a half mile west from the Lindall corner, and runs north parallel to the Topsfield road, till it meets a fourth road, now called North Street, which, starting from the Topsfield road a mile and a half above the Lindall corner, runs west, the " back road " to Topsfield. About the sides of the parallelogram which, still roughly speaking, is formed by these four roads, are a number of old Putnam homes. Oak Knoll, the family starting-point, is itself on the east- erly side of Summer Street, about midway of its length. The first Putnam to push much northward was Benjamin, elder of the two sons of Nathaniel. He was "Deacon Benjamin," who settled on the place now owned and occupied by Miss Goodhue, the very old house standing on or near the ancient site, being on North Street, midway between Summer Street and the Topsfield road. Deacon Benjamin died in 1714, fifty years old. By will he gave his son Daniel "one hundred and fifty pounds for his learn- ing." Daniel went to Harvard, and among his col- lege mates during the last year of his course was Joseph Green, son of the village minister. Daniel graduated in 1717, the first of a long list of subsequent graduates of the same name. He became a minister in North Reading, and died there, leaving descend- ants.

Nathaniel, oldest son of Deacon Benjamin, moved hack south to his grandfather's, Nathaniel's, place by the mill-pond. He, likewise, was a deacon, serv- ing twenty-three years, dying in 1754, and he was the father of still another deacon, Archelaus, who at one time lived where the late Gilbert Tapley died, and of whom the story is elsewhere told how he was the pioneer of Danversport.

Tarrant Putnam, next son of Deacon Benjamin, and the first of a number of other Putnams to bear that peculiar name, was the father of Gideon, still another deacon, who died in 1811, eighty-four years old. Gideon was a store-keeper, who lived and car- ried on his business at the well-known corner where subsequently Jonas Warren, Daniel Richards, and the sons of the latter, succeeded him. It was Deacon Gideon who, by selling cheese in Revolu- tionary times at nine shillings per pound, was declared an enemy of his country, though he so far regained popular favor as to be sent soon after to the General Court. He will be remembered as the father of that distinguished citizen whose name has been already mentioned-Judge Samuel Putnam, who died about thirty years ago on the homestead estate of the origi- nal Nathaniel. He is remembered as an old gentle- man courtly and refined, of the manners of the old school, esteemed and respected by all who knew him.

After a highly honorable and extensive practice at the har, in which his severe application showed itself in the fruits of exact and comprehensive legal learn- ing, he was appointed in 1814, on the death of Chief

Justice Sewall, to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court. This he held until January 26, 1842. The late Alfred A. Abbott thus spoke of him at the celebra- tion of the centennial of the town, 1852: "For more than a quarter of a century did he fulfill, ably and faithfully, the duties of his high station, doing his full part to sustain and elevate that reputation of our Supreme bench which has made its decisions standard and indisputable authority throughout the land. Our reports contain a great number of his opinions, elab- orate and rich, than which few are cited with more frequency, or held in greater respect. At length, when the weight of increasing years began to op- press him, Judge Putnamn voluntarily put off the judi- cial ermine, with a rare delicacy and commendable good sense resigning his lofty trust while yet his men- tal vigor was unabated, and retiring from his well- earned and still fresh laurels to the joys and comforts of private life. No one has illustrated the family name with a purer life, higher virtues or juster fame." He was the grantor of the lands of the Walnut Grove Cemetery, Peabody Institute and surrounding es- tates. He carried on the milling business before alluded to, and numerous documents are on file in the Town-House showing with what courteous firm- ness he asserted and maintained his rights whenever the mill privilege was in danger of being infringed, as when Sylvan Street was laid out in 1842 over his dam. As early as 1820, so wrote an aged citizen a few years ago, Judge Putnam was the only man in Essex County who laid in ice for market. Then the ice was cut from the pond with an axe, loaded upon sleds without tools, stored in a cellar built for that purpose and was delivered to consumers with the naked hands. A load was driven twice a week to Salem. This cellar held but a hundred tons; the present harvest is more than five thousand tons. The descendants of Judge Putnam reside chiefly in Bos- ton. A son, Samuel R., married a sister of James Russell Lowell, and their son, Lieutenant William Lowell, fell bravely fighting at Ball's Bluff in 1861. His mother was the writer of a remarkable series of sketches on Hungary at the time of the struggle of Kossuth and his compatriots for liberty. Dr. Charles G. Putnam, second son of the judge, was an eminent practitioner in Boston, president of the Massachu- setts Medical Society, and through his generosity the town possesses a substantial memorial of the family in the reservation known as Pickering Park, at the meeting of several streets laid out through the old farm. This was presented to the town by Dr. Putnam in 1875.

Deacon Tarrant Putnam, uncle to Judge Samuel, was the father of Dr. Israel, of Bath, Me., and Tar- rant, a New York merchant of great wealth. A son of Dr. Israel is Hon. William L. Putnam, ex-mayor of Portland and a leading lawyer there, at present prominent as representing the United States in the fishery controversy with the Dominion.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Just opposite the junction of Summer and North Streets, situated on a high hill at the northwest cor- ner of the parallelogram and looking directly south- erly to Oak Knoll is a pleasant old farm-house known as the Wallis farm. This was the home of Benjamin, one of the seven sons of Deacon Benjamin and the ancestor of Benjamin C. Putnam, now of Danvers, the sixth Benjamin in line. The fourth son of Dea- con Benjamin, and the last to be here mentioned, was Stephen. He pushed around to the easterly side of a long high hill which monopolizes much of the north- erly portion of the land included by the roads spoken of and which fittingly bears the name of Putnam's Hill, and established himself on the site of the pres- ent residence of Henry A. White. The descendants of Stephen have been more conspicuous and are at present more numerously represented than any others of this branch of the family. The old house is still remembered by some, standing under a great willow, heneath which was a large horse-block. Here, as well as on some other estates, slaves were kept; one, " old Rose," was bought in Jamaica by the pound.

The sons who grew up on this hill-side farm in- cluded Timothy, a Tory, who went to Nova Scotia ; Moses, a Harvard graduate of 1759, who went to Wil- ton, N. H. ; Phinehas, Aaron and Stephen, Jr. Phinehas went westward and established his home a half a mile north of the "Old Put" house; of his five sons, Joseph remained at home, and Charles P. Preston, a son of his only child Clarissa, widow of John Preston, now in her ninety-fifth year, is the present owner and occupant of the premises. Mat- thew, another son of Phinehas, went south to the Rebecca Nourse homestead of witchcraft history, which place has come down through another Matthew and Orrin to the heirs of the latter. Timothy, an- other son of Phinehas, came to the Plains and lived long on the site of the present residence of his grand- son, Otis F. Putnam; he was the father of Elbridge, Willard, Adrian and Gustavus, of whom the latter only survives, and through these sons, except Willard, numerous descendants of " Unele Timmy " are living in the town.

Pushing south from his father's home, Stephen's son Aaron went to the southern slope of Putnam's hill and probably built the pleasant old house which one can see through the leafy lane lead- ing in from the Topsfield road near the residence of Israel H. Putnam. Aaron had two sons to estab- lish families, Simeon and Rufus. Simeon's sons were Simeon, Aaron, Augustus, Edward B. and Israel H., the latter retaining the ownership of the old place ; the well known face and figure of the former, "Uncle Sim," for many years tax-collector, will be long re- membered ; he died April 14, 1880, iu his seventy-fifth year. Rufus, soon after his marriage, struck out into a new quarter for the Putnams, and bought one of the old Leach homesteads, under the casterly slope of Folly Hill; William, the survivor of his two sons, is

still living near the site of the old house in his eighty- fourth year; the other son, Rufus Putnam, after a long and honorable service as teacher in the higher schools of Salem, built about thirty years ago on his portion of his father's farm, the house in which he died in November, 1875. He brought back to his native town the ripe wisdom of mature years and the benefit of his counsel was often sought, especially in the settlement of estates. He was long president of the Savings Bank, and long on the school committee; he was quiet in his life, of unspotted character, and greatly respected.

To go back a step now to the farm of Stephen : Stephen, Jr., the youngest brother of Phinehas, Aarou and the others, just mentioned, remained at home. Stephen, Jr., was a carpenter who built or helped to build the village meeting-house of 1786, and he was the father of these children,-Stephen, Moses, Jacob, Susanna, Ruth, Samuel, Eben, Hannah and Sally. The first and the last two died unmarried. Moses and Samuel established themselves close by their grandfather's home, and each built np a large and successful shoe business in the neighborhood, which as an involuntary tribute to the energy and worth of these brothers has for some forty years borne the name of Putnamville. The old name of this locality to the Topsfield line was Blind-hole, after a swamp. Jacob learned the tanner's trade at Elias Endicott's, bought the old Frye's Tavern, between Peabody and Salem, and built up a successful business there. George F. Putnam, of Salem and Boston, is his son. Eben, the last survivor of the children, came early down to Danvers Plains, in the days when there was no village to speak of, where now is the business centre of the town. Of the daughters, Susanna married Daniel Putnam, lived in the "Old Put " house, aud was the mother of the present occupants. Ruth was the wife of Andrew Batchelder, and lived in the old Lindall house. A number of old clocks bear his im- print as " clock-maker ;" by a second wife his de- scendants are likewise numerous and respectable.

The three sons who remained at home all lived to a good old age, to be popularly known as " uncles"- Unele Moses, Uncle Sam and Uncle Eben-and were fathers of very large families. Uncle Moses was ac- cording to the tax-list of 1847 the richest man in town. Those next approaching him were Daniel P., Jonathan and Samuel King, Gilbert Tapley, Benja- min Porter, Samuel Putnam and Elias Putnam. He died September 10, 1860, in his eighty-filth year. Four of his children are living,-Harriet, the wife of Deacon S. P. Fowler ; Susan, widow of Daniel F. Put- nam; Moses; and Emeline, wife of Charles A. Put- nam, of Boston. Of Samuel's children, these,-Mary, widow of Elbridge Trask; Thomas, Albert, Charles A. and Henry. Of Eben's children, these,-Edwin F .; Elizabeth, wife of William Cheever, of Staten Island; Margaret, widow of Joseph W. Ropes ; and Mrs. Hannah Bomer, in the west.

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C. The family of John. It was "Lientenant," afterwards " Captain " John, youngest of the three sons of the pioneer, who remained on the original Putnam homestead at Oak Knoll. He was impetuous, rough, ever ready to stand by his rights if need be with force and arms, but when the farmers realized that educa- tion was lax among them, it was this same man whom they selected "to take care that the law relating to the catechising of children and youth be duly at- tended," and to see "that all families do carefully and constantly attend the due education of their children and youth according to law." In his family the minister, George Burroughs, and his wife lived nine months in the year 1680, and on these beantiful premises where the poet is passing his declining years, the minister gave evidence of that great strength which twelve years later was credited to the devil and cost him his life.

John Putnam had four sons,-Jonathan, James, Eleazer and John. Stretching eastward from Oak Knoll a broad fertile plain lies between Lindall Hill and Putnam's Hill. Skirting the northern limits of this plain was an ancient road, traces of which are yet visible, which coming from Wenham passed by Oak Knoll and so on through a part of the pleasant avenue which leads by the old Prince house, a relic of witchcraft times, which is now the farm-house of J. E. Spring's place, around Beaver Dam to the vil- lage church, a road over which, without doubt, many sad and anxious hearts passed to trial and condemna- tion in the terrible days of 1692. Just opposite the residence of the late Nathaniel Boardman, and in- cluded within his estate, is an old well-preserved house, the oldest in Putnamville. It marks the point at which a traveler coming across the meadow from Oak Knoll would strike the Topsfield road, and thither Jonathan Putnam pushed ont and built, it is thought at least a part of this very house. Jonathan's son Jonathan is the ancestor of Nathan T. Putnam and the descendants of his son David in town are the Boardman family.

James, second son of John, seems to have taken the homestead, Oak Knoll. To follow down this in- teresting estate, it probably passed next to James' son Jethro, at any rate Jethro's son Enoch lived there. Colonel Enoch Putnam was one of the distinguished men of his time. He was forty-three years old when the Revolution broke out, and as a lieutenant in Colonel Hutchinson's Minute-men went to Lexington ; by good service in the war he won his higher title of colonel. It was the two daughters of Colonel Enoch whom two sons of Phinehas Putnam, Joseph and Timothy, married, and as Mrs. Preston, the aged lady before referred to is the daughter of Joseph, she is likewise the granddaughter of Colonel Enoch, and to a young lady, her own granddaughter, has passed a plain gold ring, worn quite smooth, but with this inscription legible,-" Remember the giver .- E. P." The giver was the colonel and the wearer

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 127

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