History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 186

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 186

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

₡

1749

NEWBURYPORT.

expenditures in the public service, he was reduced to a bankruptcy from which he found it impossible to recuperate. The brick mansion-house on State Street built and occupied by him has been somewhat remodeled for the use of the Public Library, which now occupies it. The alterations, however, which it was necessary to make, have not obliterated or con- cealed the elegance which once characterized it. In 1789, on the occasion of the visit of Washington to Newburyport, the house of Mr. Tracy was his home, and there he spent the night of Friday, November 1st, previous to his departure for New Hampshire the next day. There he was welcomed by an address written by John Quincy Adams, then a student in the office of Theophilus Parsons, to which Washing- ton replied that in visiting Newburyport he had obeyed a favorite inclination, and was gratified hy its indulgence, that in expressing a sincere wish for its prosperity and the happiness of its inhabitants he did but justice to his own sentiments and their merits.

The house afterwards came into the possession of James Prince, and while occupied by him was the home of Lafayette during his visit to Newburyport in August, 1824. The bed and furniture of the chamber in which Washington had slept had been retained, notwithstanding the change in their owner- ship, and were now, thirty-five years later, at the ser- vice of Washington's distinguished friend.

Jonathan Jackson, Mr. Traey's partner in business, was born in Boston and was a graduate of Harvard in 1761. He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1780, marshal of the district of Massachusetts under Washington, treasurer of Harvard College, and also treasurer of the Commonwealth. His wife was a Miss Barnard, of Salem, and the distinction which he won by a life of activity, integrity and use- fulness was fully maintained by his sons,-Charles, a graduate of Harvard in 1793, and a lawyer, who be- came in 1813 Judge of the Supreme Judicial Court ; James, a Harvard graduate of 1796, and for many years the honored head of the medical profession in Boston ; Henry, an eminent shipmaster ; and Patrick Tracy Jackson, the distinguished merchant, who, by his consummate skill and business enterprise, con- joined to the inventive genius and mathematical powers of his partner and friend, Francis C. Lowell laid the foundations of the cotton manufacture of New England, and finally conceived and created the city of Lowell.

Bar in this work, and require no further mention here. There were others in various walks of life, who per- formed their full share in giving character to the generation in which they lived. Without any attempt to classify these, they will be mentioned in the order in which they suggest themselves.

Newburyport has been able to boast of few men more distinguished than Jacob Perkins. Though he won his chief distinction after the close of the war, his business life began while it was in progress, and gives the Revolutionary period a right to claim him as its own. He was born in Newburyport, July 9, 1766, two years after its incorporation. His father, Mat- thew Perkins, removed in early life from Ipswich to Newburyport, and was descended from Abraham Perkins, who appeared in Hampton as early as 1639. The family seems to have inherited from its ances- tors a fondness for Biblical names, to which the Mat- thews and Marks and Lukes and Johns and Isaacs and Jacobs in various generations have abundantly testified. The only education which Jacob Perkins received was that of the common schools of his na- tive city, the welfare and perfection of which the separation from Newbury was sought to promote, and it is possible therefore that to that separation may have been due the display of the mechanical powers which he afterwards so remarkably exhibited. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a goldsmith of Newburyport by the name of Davis, who died three years afterwards, and left him in the manage- ment of his business. He won his earliest reputa- tion in the manufacture of gold beads, then in fash- ion, from the Portuguese joes, in circulation at that time, and shoe-buckles, a new method of plating which, discovered by him, enabled him to undersell all competitors. Hle next turned his attention to machinery. Under the old confederation, the State of Massachusetts established a mint for striking eop- per coins. Perkins, then at the age of twenty-one, was employed by the government to make a suitable die, and the old Massachusetts eents stamped with the eagle and the Indian were the work of his skill. At the age of twenty-four he invented a machine for cutting and heading nails by one operation,-a ma- chine which, with later improvements, has carried the daily product of one man's labor from one thou- sand nails to ten kegs of one hundred pounds each. He next invented the stereotype check-plate for the prevention of counterfeit bank-bills, and thus im- posed an important obstacle in the way of frauds, from which the community were daily suffering. During the War of 1812 he was employed in con- structing machinery for boring out old honey-comb- ed cannon, and in perfecting the science of gunnery. Ile discovered the method of softening and harden- ing steel, by which the process of engraving on that metal was made more easy. He demonstrated the compressibility of water, and, in connection with this

There were other citizens of Newburyport to whom some reference should be made before this narrative leaves the Revolutionary period of its history. The members of the bar of that period, as well as of all other periods covered by this history,-Theophilus Parsons, Rufus King, Tristram Dalton, Daniel Farn- ham, Charles Jackson, John Lowell, Benjamin Green- leaf, Stephen Sewall, Theophilus Bradbury and many others,-are sketched in the chapter on the Bench and ' discovery, invented the bathometer to measure the

1750

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

depth of the sea by the pressure of water, and the pleometer to measure a ship's speed.

After leaving Newburyport in 1816 he lived for a time in Philadelphia, and there devoted himself to experiments on the power of steam, by which he invented a new method of generating it by suddenly letting a small quantity of water into a heated vessel and it is said that he succeeded in employing steam at a pressure of sixty-five atmospheres, or 975 pounds to the square inch. After a short residence in Philadelphia he removed to London, where the steam gun, which he had patented in the United States in 1819, at- tracted the notice of the government, and which he exhibited with trials of its operation before the Duke of Wellington, in 1823. At a distance of thirty- five yards the gun sent its balls through eleven planks, each an inch thick and placed an inch apart, and was capable of discharging one thousand balls per minute. Nothwithstanding his unremitting and useful labors in the cause of science, he never acquired a fortune, and died in London, July 13, 1849, leaving behind him in the country of his adoption a well-earned fame and the title of the " American Inventor."

Michael Hodge was a man who filled a large space in Revolutionary days. Previous to the Revolu- tion he was a captain in the merchant marine, and in 1776 was appointed naval officer of the port of New- buryport. It is probable that previous to that time, siuce about the year 1750, the revenues had been collected by a collector appointed by the King. But in 1776 an act was passed by the General Assembly of the State of Massachusetts entitled an "Act for estab- lishing a naval office and for ascertaining the fees," which provided that in the " several seaports of Boston, Salem, Marblehead, Gloucester, Newburyport, York Pepperelborough, Falmouth on Casco Bay, Townsend (Boothbay), Penobscot, Goldsboro', Machias, Plymouth, Barnstable, Dartmouth and Nantucket, within this State, there be an office kept, to be called and known by the name of the Naval Office, for the purpose of en- tering and clearing of all ships and other vessels trading to or from this State, to take bonds in ade- quate penalty for observing the regulations made, or which shall be made by the General Congress or the General Assembly of this State concerning trade, take manifests upon oath of all cargoes exported or im- ported and keep fair accounts and entries thereof, give bills of health when desired, and sign certificates that the requisites for qualifying vessels to trade have been complied with, and the fees to be demanded and received in said office shall be these following and no greater, that is to say :

s. d.

For entering any ship and vessel from any part of the state. 2 0 For clearing any ship and vessel to any part of the state. 2 0

For entering any ship und vessel from any other of the United

Stairs ..

For clearing any ship and vessel to any other of the I'mted States

G 0

For entering any ship and vessel from a foreign voyage. G 0

Y'ur clearing any ship aud vessel for a foreign voyage 6 0

For a Register.

For Indorsing a Register

For Recording Indorsement. 1 G

For any Bond 2

For a certificate to cancel Boud

For a bill of health ..

2 0

For permit to unload. 1 0

For a cocket

For a let pass

Under this act, on the 22d of November, 1776, Capt. Michael Hodge was appointed naval officer, and it is believed continued in the office until 1789. In that year Newburyport was made by Congress a port of entry, and the district included Salisbury, Ames- bury and Ilaverhill. The first appointments under the act of Congress were made shortly after the visit of Washington to Newburyport, in 1789, and Stephen Cross was made collector, Jonathan Tit- comb naval officer and Michael Hodge surveyor. In 1792 Mr. Cross was superseded by Edward Wiggles- worth, who was succeeded in 1795 by Dudley A. Tyng. In 1803 Ralph Cross, succeeded Mr. Tyng, and remained in office until his death, in 1811, when he was succeeded by Joseph Marquand, who also held the office until his death, in 1820. James Prince held the office from 182t until his death, iu February, 1829, when Solomon II. Currier, the deputy collector, held a temporary appointment until the following July, giving way to Samuel Philips, who was appointed by President Jackson. and remain-

to power ed in office until the accession of the Whig administration in 1841. Henry W. Kinsman followed in 1841, William Nichols in 1845, llenry Kinsman again in 1849, James Blood in 1853, Enoch G. Currier in 1861, Wm. H. Huse in 1870, and George W. Jackman August 1, 1886.

In the naval office Jonathan Titconib, the first incumbent, remained only three years, and was suc- ceeded by Daniel Swett, who again in 1825 was superseded by Thomas Carter, who died in office in 1828. Daniel Foster was appointed in 1825, and at his death, in 1833, he was succeeded hy Benjamin Stickney. Thomas M. Clark followed in 1841, Enoch Fowler in 1845, Thomas L. Clark in 1849, Nicholas Brown in 1853, George J. L. Colby in 1861, under whose administration the office was abolished in 1864.

Michael Little, the first deputy-collector, appoint- ed in 1789, hield office until 1821, when he was suc- ceeded by Solomon Il. Currier. Charles Titcomb followed in 1829, Thomas W. Burnham in 1841, Daniel P. Pike in 1861, and Charles W. Davenport, September 1, 1886.

Captain Hodge, who was appointed surveyor in 1789, as has been before stated, continued in office until his death, June 24, 1816. He was succeeded by William Cross, who was the father of Robert Cross, attorney-at-law, and his brother, George Cross. It is said the name of Cross was so well known in Wash- ington and so identified with Newburyport, on

1751

NEWBURYPORT.

account of the war service and later civil service of many members of the family bearing it, that when the President received the application for an appoint- ment to office of one of the Crosses, he asked it there were no persons of some other name in the town capable of filling a public station. Nathaniel Jack- son succeeded William Cross in 1832, and was fol- lowed by William Pritchard in Deeember, 1860, who was appointed to fill the vacancy occasioned by Mr. Jackson's death. In May, 1861, Henry Stover was appointed and held the office until it was abolished in 1874.

From 1780 to 1789 Captain Hodge was the town clerk, chosen by the town at its annual meetings, and in 1783-84-85 one of the Board of Selectmen.

In 1772 an association was formed in Newburyport called the Marine Society. It had its origin in the voluntary association of six individuals who met on the 5th of November, 1772, and agreed to form a society to promote the interests of shipmasters and tot create a fund for the assistance of needy masters and their families. These six persons were Thomas Jones, William Wyer, Benjamin Rogers, Samuel Newhall, Edward Wigglesworth and Michael Hodge. The society was incorporated in 1777 and is now in the possession of a building and a lund of about $52,000, the income of which, enlarged by annual increments, enables the corporation to carry out with fidelity the purposes for which it was created. The following persons were members of the society at the time of its incorporation :

James Hudson,

Thomas Jones.

Jonathan Parsons. Samuel Newhall. David Coates. William Rogers.

W'm. Friend. Michael Hodge.

Wm. Stickney.

Moses Hale.

Juseph Noyes.

Joseph Stanwood. W'm. P. Johnson.

Nathl. Nowell.

Henry Friend.

Joseph Newmao.

Nicholas Johnson.

Moses Brown.

James Johnson.

Wm Wyer.

Wm. Coombs.

Wm. Nichols. Joseph Rowe.

Thomas Thomas.

Benjamin Rogers.

Anthony Knap.

Edward Wigglesworth.

Eleazer Johnson.

Jeremiah l'earson.

Joseph Choate.

John Barnard.

James Nichols.

Robert Jenkins.

Peter Roberts.

Joshua Hill.

John Fletcher.

Andrew Geddiags. Amos Tappan.

The society has been legatee under the wills of Captain Joseph P. Russell to the amount of $2000 ; Micajah Lunt, $2000; Lucy M. Follansbee, $2000; and John Mussey, $500. The first board of officers consisted of Jonathan Parsons, Jr., president ; IIenry Friend, vice-president; Samuel Newhall, secretary ; and William Coombs, treasurer. The present officers are Robert Couch, president ; Albert Cheever, vice- president; William H. Bayley, secretary ; and William H. Lunt, treasurer. Mr. Parsons held office from November 13, 1772, to November 20, 1772, and was succeeded by James Hudson November 20, 1772;

Samuel Newhall, November 29, 1781; William Coombs, November 28, 1782; Michael Hodge, No- vember 29, 1804; Nicholas Johnson, November 25, 1814; Abraham Wheelwright, November 25, 1824; Eleazer Johnson, November 26, 1829 ; Micajah Lunt, November 24, 1842; Gyles P. Stone, November 27, 1862; William Graves, November 29, 1876; Nathaniel S. Osgood, November 29, 1877; Stephen P. Bray, November 27, 1879; Henry Cook, November 27, 1883, and Robert Couch, the present ineumbent, November 27,1884.

During the Revolution the Marine Society per- formed effective service in the national cause. It was through the influence of its members, if not of the organized body itself, that measures were con- ceived and executed to put the town in a state of defence. They were active and conspicuous in efforts to organize and equip a military force by dividing the town into districts. Coates, Newhall, Hodge, Coombs, Thomas and Wigglesworth, all members of the society, were among the most active in sinking piers in the river and planting fortifications about its mouth.

When the military forces of the town were organ- ized in 1775, six captains of guns were appointed,- Thomas Thomas, William Coombs, Joshua Titcomb, David Coates, William Friend and Michael Hodge, -with squads of six or eight men attached to each gun. It is not improbable that the Newburyport Artil- lery Company was a company which crystallized round these squads as the nucleus of its organization. There was formed in the first years of the life of the Marine Society an independent marine company, of which James Hudson, the president of that society, was captain, and it has been thought by some that this company grew into the Artillery Company. It is more probable, however, that while the artillery company was so far related to the Independent Marine Company as to owe its origin to the same source, the old company disappeared and the new one was organized in 1778. The first officers of this company were Thomas Thomas, captain ; David Coates, captain-lientenant ; Michael Hodge, first lieu- tenant ; Samuel Newhall, second lieutenant. The immediate cause of the enlistment of this company seems to have been a circular sent by the President of the Council to the various independent companies of the State,-

" COUNCIL CHAMNER, Boston, July 26, 1778.

" GENTLEMEN :-- General Sullivan has sigoified to this Board his design of making a sudden attack on Rhode Island by General Washington's express command, and has called upon this state to aid his design, with three thousand of her militia, and to communicate his requests to the several Independent Companies and Gentlemen volunteers in this state to co-operate with the French fleet in the reduction of that Island. In compliance with such earnest requests of the General, and from the idea of the glory of such a conquest, we invite you and the worthy gentle. men under your command to march immediately to Providence to share largely in the honor of banishing forever, from the New England States and from America, the remnant of a British army, too long suf- fered to deal in blood and rapine in these sovereign Independent States. The gloom dissipates and we have reason to expect, from every appear- ance, that our exertion once more will close the scene of blood, and fix

1752

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

you and your offspring forever free and independent of a tyrant, and place you at the greatest remove from connection with that field of blood, the British Isle.

" Gentlemen, you will signify to us as soon as may be your determina- tion on this important enterprise, that General Sullivan may be imme- diately made acquainted with the force designed him from this state.

"Gentlemen, we are your most obedient, very humble servant. " JERE: POWELL, President.

" Commanding officer of the Independent Company Newburyport."

The following was sent in reply :

" NEWBURYPORT, 31 July, 1778.

" Your much esteemed favor of the 26th and 27th of July this no- ment came to hand ; am happy to have it in my power to inform the Honorable Board that the Independent company under my command do, with the utmost cheerfulness accept of their invitation, and will be ready to march by Tuesday morning next, at farthest, and flatter them- selves that they will be joined by numbers of the good people of this town, as we are now heating around for volunteers.

" Am, Sir, with due regards, your most obedient, humble servant, " THOMAS THOMAS.

" To the Honorable Jeremiah Powell, President of the Council."

This company, the rolls of which seem to be wanting in the State archives, is to be added to the list already given of soldiers furnished by Newbury- port. In the expedition for which it was enlisted the town was well represented. General Jonathan Tit- comb, of Newburyport, was in command of the troops from the four counties of Essex, Plymouth, Worces- ter and Bristol, and in the order of battle had com- mand of the brigade on the left wing of the second line. John Tracy, son of Patrick Tracy and a grad- uate of Harvard in 1771 ; Stephen Sewall, a graduate of 1Harvard in 1761 and town clerk from 1764 to 1775; Michael Ilodge, and Rufus King, a graduate of Har- vard in the previous year, and afterwards the distin- guished United States Senator from the State of New York, then a resident of Newburyport, were on the staff of General Jonathan Glover, of Marblehead, who commanded the brigade on the left of the first line. Enoch Titcomb acted on the staff of General Titcomb, while the ranks of the Artillery Company contained many men prominent in various walks of life. The expedition, as is well known, was a failure, and after a short absence the company returned as a distinct organization from the only service in the field which it was called on to perform during the war.

Hon. Eben F. Stone, in an address delivered May 16, 1877, before the veteran Artillery Company, already freely used in this narrative, says that in "the first year of the existence of the Artillery Company Mich- ael llodge was its life and soul." He was the son of Charles and Elizabeth (Titcomb) Hodge, and married Sarah, daughter of Stephen Sewall, one of his prede- cessors in the office of town clerk. He was engaged in commerce and shipping for many years, and was secretary of the first insurance company established in Newburyport. IIe died June 24, 1816, leaving a son, Michael, a graduate of Harvard in 1799, a lawyer and a man of unusual culture, who married, in 1805, Mary Johnson, of Newburyport, and in 1814, Betsey Hayward, daughter of Dr. James Thacher, of Plym- onth, and widow of Daniel Elliott, of Savannah, Georgia,

Captain Thomas Thomas, the first commander of the Artillery Company, who commanded it in the Rhode Island expedition, was a Welshman, who, before the war, was in the merchant service in the employ of Michael Dalton, the father of Hon. Tristram Dalton, the United States Senator. He was one of nine merchants to furnish four vessels of war for the disastrous Penobscot expedition -- the ship "Mon- mouth," Capt. Alexander Ross ; the ship "Sky Rocket," Capt. Burke ; the brigantine "Pallas," Capt. James Johnson ; and the ship "Vengeance," commanded by himself. After the failure of Jonathan Jackson, the partner of Nathaniel Tracy, who built the house in later times known as the Dexter house, Captain Thomas purchased the house and there died in 1796. Ile was a man "of great spirit and courage, full of daring and adventure," and in the early part of the war, in command of the "Yankee Hero," met with great success as a privateersman.

David Coates, another officer of the artillery, was a native of Gloucester and before the war sailed as master in the employ of Nathaniel Tracy and Jona- than Jackson. He served his adopted towu in the Legislature, and in 1783-84-85 was a member of the Board of Selectmen. Samuel Newhall, the second lieutenant of the artillery, so far as is known, held no public office and died soon after the war.

Samuel Allyne Otis, for some time a member of the firm of Coffin & Otis, whose place of business was on Summer Street, was a brother of Harrison Gray Otis, of Boston. He came to Newburyport in early man- hood and made that place his residence until his death, October 27, 1814. The widow of Mr. Otis married Arthur Gilman, the father of the late well- known Arthur Gilman, the architect, of Boston. Ile was descended from John Otis, of Barnstable, Eng- land, who settled in Hingham, Massachsetts, in 1635. A grandson of John bearing the same name removed to Barnstable, Mass., and had a son James, who mar- ried Mary, daughter of Joseph Allyne, of Wethers- field, Conn., and was the grandfather of Samuel Allyne. He was born in Boston in 1773 and died in 1817. He was on the Board of Selectmen in 1798.

Nicholas Pike should be remembered as a promi- nent man of this period. lle was the son of Rev. James Pike, of Somersworth, where he was born in 1743. He graduated at Harvard in 1766, and was principal of the grammar school in Newburyport for many years. He published, in 1788, an arithmatic which had for a long time a place in the public schools of New England and was the first publication of the kind in America. Hle acted as moderator of anuual town-meetings in 1783, '93, '94, '98, '99, 1805, '07, '10; was town clerk from 1776 to 1779 and a member of the Board of Selectmen in 1782. IIe died December 9, 1819.

Of Stephen and Ralph Cross nothing more fitting can be said than the following, taken from Cushing's "Ilistory of Newburyport." "Stephen was born in 1731

1753

NEWBURYPORT.

and Ralph in 1738. They were both brought up ship- wrights in the building yard of their father, Ralph Cross, opposite the bottom of Lime Street. Stephen was one of a number of his trade who went to the lakes in 1756, to construct a flotilla. He and his asso- ciates were made prisoners at the fall of Fort Oswego, and carried to Quebec and thence to France. On his return he formed a co-partnership with his brother Ralph. The business of the firm was extensive. In addition to their ship-building, the partners were en- gaged in trade at home and abroad, and at the com- mencement of the Revolution were fast becoming affluent. . Stephen was chosen one of the delegates to the First Provincial Congress. He died March 30, 1809. At the commencement of the Revo- lution Ralph was a captain in the mililia, commis- sioned by the Royal Governor in 1772. In 1777 he joined the army as lieutenant-colonel of the regi- ment commanded by Colonel Johnson, of Andover." He was in the battle which occasioned the surrender of Burgoyne. "The brothers, with others, contracted with the State and built the frigates 'Hancock,"' Boston ' and ' Protector ' and several other vessels of war. The ' Hancock ' was built in the yard of Jonathan Greenleaf, between Bartlett's and Johnson's wharves, and the two others at the yard of Stephen Cross, afterwards occupied by Titeomb & Lunt as a mast-yard." Stephen was a member of the first Board of Selectmen and served in the same capacity in 1772, '74, '87, '88. He also served as moderator in 1775, '80 and '97. He was also the first collector of the port, having been appointed by Washington to that office in 1789. Ralph was a member of the Board of Selectmen in 1768, a member of the first School Committee, a men- ber of the Committee of Safety and Correspondence and collector of the port from 1803 until his death, September 4, 1811. Ile was also, from 1790 to 1796, brigadier-general of the militia and for a time com- missioner under the bankrupt law.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 186

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1672

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672