History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 178

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 178

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REV. SAMUEL PERLEY was born in Ipswich-Line- brook, August 11, 1742, son of Samuel and Ruth- Howe Perley. He was twelve years old when his father died, and Abraham Howe became his guardian. He prepared for college under Rev. George Lesslie, his pastor, and entered Harvard at the age of seven- teen years, where he gradnated in 1763. He was in- vited to a professorship in his Alma Mater, which he declined. He studied divinity with Rev. Mr. Lesslie, his former instructor. At the age of twenty-two years he received a call to settle over the Presbyte-

rian church at Hampton Falls, N. H., where he was ordained and installed, January 31, 1765. Rev. Mr. Leslie preached the ordaining sermon, which was published.

He was preaching in Seabrook in 1771 and '74. He led a company of soldiers to Bunker Hill, on that ever memorable occasion, but they arrived too late to participate in the action. He was next installed Oc - tober 8, 1778, at Groton, Stafford County, N. H., over the church that had been gathered the year before. He continued but a few months, and was next in - stalled in Moultonborough October 20, 1780, over the church which was organized the previous year. His next and last pastorate was over the Congregational Church, Gray, Me., where he resided till his death. His installation, as their first minister, took place September 8, 1784. He retired from the ministry about 1791.

He was a delegate from Gray to the Convention in Fanenil Hall, Boston, to consider the ratification of the Federal Constitution in 1788. Upon the floor he ad- vocated its adoption and with heartiness gave it his vote. He was for many years the only physician in Gray. For many years also he had an extensive practice in probate law. He was three times com- missioned a justice of the peace, covering a period of twenty-one years. He was, then, in his time, the minister, the physician and the lawyer of Gray, and he filled each office with credit, and left a name that is now revered and honored.

Mr. Perley's manners were open and agreeable. His dress was always tidy and plain; he wore a ruf- fle but once, when he took his diploma at college. He was an easy and interesting talker, and was nota- bly hospitable. As a preacher he has been highly commended. He was a man of good-natured ability, and he had acquired a store of learning. His library was large, and embraced valuable works upon theo- logy, law, medicine, literature and general knowledge. He was tenacious of his opinions, and had just that proportion of self-esteem to give his talents free scope, and make them eminently useful. Preceding the war of 1812, he held a long correspondence with President John Adams, upon State polity, wherein he disclosed a wide knowledge of history and of practical state-craft.

A few months after his settlement at Hampton Falls, May 21, 1765, he married Miss Hephzibah, daughter of John and Mercy-Howe Fowler, of his native parish. She was mother of all his children,- eight in number, now a numerous and influential progeny. She was baptized May 22, 1743, and died Friday, August 28, 1818. Mr. Perley died Sunday, November 28, 1830. A monument, costing from a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars, marks the fam- ily tomb. His children regard his memory with pride and affection.

FREDERICK CHESTER SOUTHGATE, EsQ. - Rev. Robert Southgate, the twelfth pastor of the First

Eng ª by AH Ritchie

Asa Lord

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IPSWICH.

Church here, had five children,-Horatio died at Wethersfield, Conn. A daughter is married and liv- ing in Woodstock, Vt. ; Charles M. is a gospel minis- ter in Worcester, Mass .; and the subject of this sketch is a lawyer in Woodstock. He is the only one of the family native here, and was born January 28, 1852. He completed his preparatory studies at Phil- lips Academy, Andover, in 1869, and graduated at Dartmouth College, in 1874. He selected one of the prettiest of New England villages for his future home. He married, August 31, 1877, Miss Anna S. French, of that town; they have two children. He has ac- quired a lucrative practice, and enjoys the fullest con- fidence of his people, which is shown in their be- stowal upon him of mauy public offices and important trusts. He has twice declined a candidacy (which as a Republican in Vermont means election), to legisla- tive distinction, preferring the practice of his pro- fession, and the quiet, social amenities of his people and home.

SAMUEL SYMONDS' CHILDREN .- There appears to be two Samuels,-one who was a graduate of Harvard, in 1663, died in November, 1669, and had a will pro- hated Ninth month 30th, 1669; and another called junior, who died in 1654; William was freeman iu 1670, a representative from Wells, Me., 1676, married Mary Wade, daughter of Jonathan, and left no chil- dren. He died May 22, 1679. His estate was £3359. 98. 3d .; Harlakendine ; Elizabeth married Daniel Eppes; Martha, John Dennison, and afterwards Richard Martyn, of Portsmouth ; Ruth, Rev. John Emerson, of Gloucester ; Priscilla, Thomas Baker, of Topsfield ; Mary, Peter Duncan, of Gloucester ; Re- becca, Henry Bylie, of Salisbury, England, then John Hall, of England, then Rev. William Worcester, of Salisbury, Mass .; Dorothy, Joseph Jacobs; and Susannah.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

ASA LORD.

The subject of this sketch was oue of six children who were born to Asa and Margaret Lord. On the 25th day of September, 1797, young Asa first saw the light in Ipswich, Mass.

In December of 1804 his father sailed from New- buryport for the West Indies, but was lost at sea, and two years later we find the boy, Asa, actuated by a strong filial affection, eager to assist his widowed mother, on a pleasant autumn day (the 9th of Octo- ber, 1806), walking to Newburyport in search of em- ployment.

At this early age of nine years commenced the business life of Asa Lord, for here he obtained em- ployment as errand boy in the family of William Titcomb, with whom he remained seven years. Re- turning to Ipswich he learned the shoemaker's trade

with Mr. Jacob Stanwood, and continued in this bus- iness several years.

In the spring of 1821, beiug in poor health, he took a four months' trip to Mount Desert, and returned improved and has been blessed with good health ever since.

Being ambitious and anxious for a larger field for his business talent, on the 16th of May, 1825, he rented a small shop on High Street, Ipswich, for fif- teen dollars per year, and purchased on credit a stock of general merchandise at Salem, valued at two hun- dred dollars.

He still worked at his bench, leaving his shoes to attend to the calls of his few customers. By his fair dealing, prompt payment of all obligations and his pleasant, genial manner, he made firm friends in bus- iness circles, and soon found his quarters too limited, and accordingly built a new house and large store up- on the site first occupied by him, and has continued there for more than three-score years, and has been successful in winning the respect and love of the community, as well as in accumulating a competency which he has obtained not by dishonest gains, not by failing in business and paying a percentage to his creditors, but by a devotion to business rarely equal- ed, by an honesty of purpose never tarnished, by making his word as good as his bond, he has steadily gone on from little to much, from much to more, un- til at life's eventide he reaps the success of a well rounded life.

May he long live to enjoy the fruits of his applica- tion, honesty, energy and indomitable will!

On November 3, 1825, Mr. Lord was united in mar- riage with Miss Abigail Hodgkins, of Ipswich, the daughter of Captain John Hodgkins. Five children blessed this union, as follows: Lucy A., Thomas H., Abbie B., Francis G. and Mary A .; of this number but two survived, namely, Lucy A. and Thomas H., both of whom reside near the old home. Mary 4. married John A. Brown on December 8, 1872, and died July 8, 1873, leaving one child, Hattie W.

Thomas H. married Lucretia Smith on November 13, 1859, and has all his life been associated with his father in business, and for several years has had al- most entire charge of the large trade established by his father, which he conducts upon the same never- failing principles of honesty and integrity.

DAVID TENNEY KIMBALL.

Rev. David Tenney Kimball, born at Bradford No- vember 23, 1782, died at Ipswich February 3, 1860, aged seventy-seven ; married Dolly Varnum Coburn, of Dracut, October 20, 1807, who died his widow De- cember 12, 1873, aged ninety.

He was the seventh child of Lieutenant Daniel and Mrs. Elisabeth Kimball. His mother had a hrother, David Tenney (H. C., 1768), a devoted minister of much promise, who died a short time before the birth

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of the subject of our sketch, after whom she named her young son. The home of his boyhood was emin- ently Christian, and to its influence and that of these parents may be traced the marked and prominent features in the character of their children, ten of whom, all that lived to mature age, entered into covenant with God. Two of the sons became ministers of the gospel and two of the daughters married clergy- men. His father was not only one of the best farmers in the town, but one of its most influential citizens, - a man of intelligence and sound integrity, faithful to all his engagements. Born in 1747, he was in early manhood when our Revolutionary struggle com- menced. In company with all the hardy, liberty- loving yeomanry of New England, he espoused the cause of the colonies and devoted himself to it, with a courage that never failed and a constancy that never faltered, till his country passed from impend- ing servitude to acknowledged independence. The land which he cultivated descended to him from Ben- jamin Kimball, through Jonathan and Nathaniel, and was greatly improved under his care; but after his decease, having been in possession of the family more than two hundred years, it passed into other hands.

The house in which he was born was situated in a secluded spot, on a cross-road, more than a mile from the public thoroughfare and a considerable distance from any dwelling. Though retired, it was the abode of intelligence, of manly virtue and gladsome child- hood. Here it was that he learned to love his mother, his father and his God. But our records of his child- hood are brief. From all we can learn it appears that in every respect,-in character, temperament and manner-the boy was father to the man. His brothers and sisters all spoke of him as a boy of rare seriousness and devotion to books, and of a most ami- able and lovely disposition. Said his brother Samuel, " I never knew him to utter a mean or profane word. He was always pleasant in his intercourse with his family and playmates, and beloved by all who knew him. He was a great lover of the Bible, which he read through aloud three times before he was eight years old. His sister Jane wrote : " On the Sabbath he would stand by a table and read the whole day when he did not go to church, except to leave for meals. This was his practice from the time he was six years old till he was too tall to stand at a table and read. I think that, as a child and a young man, he had as many lovely traits of character as I ever knew combined in one. He delighted in the memo- ries and associations of his childhood and youth." In the introduction to a discourse delivered in Bradford, he said, " Everything relating to your town, rather let me say to our town, interests me,-your hills, your valleys, your brooks, your river, your ancient dwell- ings, -- your burial-places, these gray hairs ; in short, everything of yours excites in me the tenderest emo- tions. Here rest my pious and beloved parents, who,

in my infancy, gave me up to God for His service in general and for the work of the ministry in particu- lar; and who watched over my youth with the greatest solicitude for my temporal and eternal wel- fare; and here I first entered into covenant with God.',

The education by which his boyhood was instructed was such as could be obtained by attending, during the winter months, the district school, till he was past fifteen. In May 1798, he hecame a student in Atkinson Academy, an institution then much resorted to by students preparing for college. That he was regarded as one of the most promising scholars ap- pears from the fact that, when a request came to Mr. Vose, preceptor, from the neighboring town of Plaistow, for a Fourth-of-July speaker, he recom- mended young Kimball, " whose oration, pronounced in the presence of more than one thousand people, was well received."

Leaving the academy August 14, 1799, he entered Harvard College. He had now reached the position in his academical career to which he had been looking with fond desire, and in which his most sanguine ex- pectations were to be fully realized. In after years he was wont to speak with admiration and enthusiasm of college life and the friendships there formed, and of the four years spent there as among the happiest of his life. While here, he was remarkably free from all youthful indiscretions, and was then, as ever after, the decided friend of law and order, of obedience to the powers that be. In sophomore year there was trouble in his class, and one of their number was sus- pended for insulting a college officer. The censure was resented by his classmates as a great indignity, which they manifested by raising the flag of rebellion and es- corting the criminal on the way to the place of his des- tination. The whole class, with the exception of three, were engaged in this rebellious movement. Among the excepted was Kimball. The honorable course of this trio was considered the result of principle, and not of a desire to procure special favor from the college government, and was subsequently approved by those who were carried away by the excitement of the moment.

As a student, he was noted for the accuracy of his recitations in every department of study, and at once took rank among the best scholars of his class. That he sustained this position during his whole collegiate course is evident from the fact, that in taking his de- gree of A. M., in 1806, he pronounced the valedictory oration in Latin. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and active and prominent in various other societies for literary and moral improvement. His classmates and college acquaintances bear testi- mony to his honorable standing. Says Samuel Greele (H. C., 1802), for nearly fifty years deacon of the Federal Street Church, Boston, in a letter to a son of Mr. K., "I believe no one in his class surpassed him as a belles-lettres scholar. His themes were re- markable for their cliaste and classic elegance. Pro-

Eng ª by A. H. Ritchie.

David J. Kimball

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IPSWICH.

fessor Pearson, who had charge of that department, used to distinguish compositions of superior excel- lence by a double mark. Your father's themes usu- ally had this distinction, and in one or two instances he received a treble mark, a distinction which, I be- lieve, was awarded to no one else during my collegi- ate life. In Andover we were fellow-students in div- inity, and, as we were chums together for some months, I became intimately acquainted with him. I think I never knew one of our sex more remarkable for amiability of disposition. To manline-s of char- acter he united a loveliness of temperament that seemed almost feminine. He pursued his studies with conscientious fidelity and became popular as a preacher. His settlement in one of the oldest and most respectable parishes of the commonwealth indi- cates his professional standing. I take a melancholy pleasure in planting this forget-me-not on the grave of one whom I shall never cease to respect and love as a Christian, a gentleman and a friend."

He took his first collegiate degree August 31, 1803, and, a week from that day, became assistant for one year in Phillips Academy, Andover, Mr. Mark New- man, preceptor.

The time had now arrived when he was to enter upon the study of that profession to which his mother devoted him in her heart when he was a child, for which he had a strong predilection, and upon which he deliberately and prayerfully entered. He com- menced his preparatory studies under the direction of Rev. Jonathan French, pastor of the South Church in Andover. In theology he was an Andoyer stu- dent, on what was then called the Abbot Foundation. Mr. French, who was an orthodox minister in the sense of the Assembly's Catechism, had several young gentlemen as students in theology at that time, con- stituting the Theological Seminary in embryo. On August 6, 1805, he was approbated by the Andover Association for the work of the gospel ministry, in- duced thus early to engage in preaching at the earn- est desire of Mr. French, a step which he always re- gretted, as it prevented him from prosecuting his studies as he had intended. But from the time of his ap- probation to that of his settlement he preached every Sabbath but one or two. It was on September 22, 1805, that he preached for the first time in Ipswich, and June 17, 1806, that the First Church, without a dissenting voice, made choice of him as pastor, in which action the parish concurred with great unan- imity, only one dissenting, and he a Baptist in prin- ciple. On October 8, 1806, he was ordained pastor of the First Church in Ipswich-the ninth in the Massachusetts Colony. He was the eleventh pastor in succession of predecessors, most of whom were men of note in their day, and all of whom maintained the doctrine of the Puritan Fathers. The young pas- tor, then in his twenty-fourth year, felt no slight degree of diffidence and distrust in regard to meeting the high expectations which he had awakened. But

the doctrines which he professed, and the course he had marked out at his ordination, he firmly main- tained and steadily pursued during his public minis- try. He devoted not only his affections but his time and talents to the service of his Master and the inter- ests of His kingdom. He felt that Paul's charge to Timothy. "Be instant in season and out of season," was addressed also to him ; and he acted accordingly. In his visits to the sick he was prompt, affectionate and faithful. When called, at whatever hour of the night, he instantly obeyed the summons, and he not unfre- quently passed whole nights in the chamber of the sick and by the beds of the dying. He made many social calls and visits, the object of which was, in part, to promote kind and friendly feelings and to in- cite in his hearers a deeper interest in his public la- bors. These visits, which averaged five hundred a year, were in all more than twenty thousand.

In person Mr. Kimball was well proportioned, six feet in height, and in the prime of life weighed a hundred and seventy-five pounds ; hair and eyes black, step firm and elastic. He had a pleasing voice, his enunciation was distinct, his manner never violent nor denunciatory, but calm and impressive. In summer he generally appeared in the pulpit in the canonicals presented to him at his ordination by the ladies of the parish, and supplemented by them as occasion demanded.

Though at the time of his settlement he was in deli- cate health, and thought by some not sufficiently ro- bust to warrant his engaging in the labors and respon- sibilities of the ministerial office, and though for years he suffered from headache, often for weeks in succession, yet he lived to preach, in his own pulpit and those of his brethren, more than five thousand sermons, having had no vacation and having been prevented from preaching but a few times, when he supplied his place or the people worshipped with other congregations.

He maintained pleasant pulpit exchanges with his ministerial brethren and his labors were highly ac- ceptable. These exchanges were not only with the Congregational and Presbyterian ministers of the county, but occasionally with others more remote. It is believed that his exchanges were never more fre- quent or more acceptable to his clerical brethren and their societies than at the time of closing his labors at Ipswich, at which time more than sixty pulpits were open to his ministrations.

As a monument of his industry he left above three thousand sermons, written out with remarkable legi- bility. Indeed, he took a pride in doing with clear- ness whatever he attempted ; he never slighted any trust which he assumed.

The following is a sketch of his more public ser- vices :

His Labors among the Young -His labors in be- half of the lambs of his flock were abundant and in- ces-ant. For eleven years, in the earlier period of

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

his ministry, he instructed the children at the church and in his house in the Assembly's Catechism, the number varying from one hundred and fifty to more than two hundred. At the establishment of the Sun- day-school, June 18, 1818, he acted as super- intendent and took part in its immediate instruc- tion. In December of that year he formed a class of young ladies in Wilbur's Catechism, which con- tinued for a long time. He also taught the youth of both sexes in Sacred History ; preached during his ministry more than one hundred sermons exclusively to the young ; occupied fourteen Sabbath evenings in one winter with lectures to young men on the text, " Is the young man Absalom safe?" For years the Bible class, composed of the young people and others more advanced, numbered from two hundred to three hundred. With this exercise he went through most of the Pentateuch, the whole of John's gospel, the four evangelists in their connection and harmony, and the Acts of the Apostles.

Education .- Impressed with the special importance of knowledge to the citizens of a country, the stabil- ity and permanence of whose institutions rest upon intelligence and good morals, he had no sooner en- tered on his pastoral duties than he visited the schools, to encourage the children and youth by his presence, his sympathy and friendly counsel. For more than forty years he was a member ofthe school commit- tee, and no small part of the time chairman, and accus- tomed to examine the teachers and the eight schools repeatedly every year, to pray with and examine the same. In his fiftieth anniversary discourse he re- marked that he had probably made more than two thousand visits to these schools. He was ever the advocate of the most liberal appropriation and of the most complete organization, instruction and dis- cipline of the common schools, and he did much by pen and voice for their improvement. The school hoard, in their annual report for the year ending March, 1860, thus speak of his services : " As a mem- ber of the feoffees of the grammar school for a period of more than thirty years, and as one of the school committee for forty years of his nseful life among ns, he has done much, both by precept and example, for the moral improvement of our youth, and his active exertions and untiring zeal in the cause of education will long be held in grateful remembrance."

He always took special interest in scholars belong- ing to the grammar-school, particularly in those con- templating a collegiate course. By the term "gram- mar-school," we do not mean the common, or public school, as it now exists in our commonwealth, sup- ported by a tax and free of charge, to rich and poor, but a school where Greek and Latin were taught, and where youth could be fitted for college. The Ipswich grammar-school was established in 1650. In six ycars from its opening there were six young men from this town pursuing at the same time their stud- ies at Harvard College; and all of them undoubtedly

pupils of this school. But the grammar-school no longer exists as such ; it has been merged in the Manning School, and its funds appropriated, in part, to the support of its teachers. It was a grand old school some sixty or seventy years ago, when Richard Kimball, George Choate, Charles Choate and Stephen Coburn reigned there. In it more than one hundred of the natives of Ipswich, who have received collegiate honors, acquired their elementary education.

Female Education and Ipswich Female Seminary .- He was among the earliest and most earnest to call attention, public and private, to the whole subject of female education, and especially to the more exten- sive employment of women as teachers. Of so great importance did he regard this subject, that early in his ministry he kept a private school in his own house for several years, to which a goodly number of the young ladies of his society and the town resorted.

The Ipswich Female Seminary was opened for the reception of pupils, April 23, 1828, on which occasion an address was delivered by Mr. Kimball. As presi- dent of the board of trustees during the eleven years in which Miss Grant was principal, he delivered the diplomas with an address annually to the graduating class. At no small sacrifice he received Miss Grant and her associated teachers into his family, when she made the so doing the sine qua non of her establish- ment in Ipswich.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 178

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