History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 200

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 200

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Mr. Bartlet's largest loss was that of the ship "Rose," Capt. William Chase, on her passage from Surinam for Newburyport, with sugar, cotton, dye- woods and other merchandise-captured by the French privateer " L'Egypt Conquise," after a gal-

1807

NEWBURYPORT.

lant defense of nearly two hours. That was in 1799. The "Rose " was two hundred and fifty-six tons bur- den, and carried seven heavy guns. The privateer was larger, with more guns and more men. Capt. Chase was wounded early in the engagement. The mate continued the defense, and even after the enemy had boarded, refused to surrender, and was literally cut to pieces on his own deck. Two seamen were killed, two fatally wounded and thirteen injur- ed before her flag came down. She was sent to Gaudaloupe and confiscated. Her loss was one hun- dred and three thousand dollars. Another captured was the ship "Hesper," John N. Cushing, master, who later in life was himself the first merchant and the largest ship-owner in town. Ile was from Russia, loaded with hemp and iron, for Newburyport, and the vessel and cargo were valued at seventy-eight thousand dollars. Many of the names of Mr. Bart- let's captains are still familiar, as Joseph Tyler, who lived on Lime Street; John Goon, on Federal Street; William Chase, on Temple Street ; Dennis Condry, on High Street; Israel Young, on Greene Street ; Sewall Toppan, at the north end ; Hector Coffin, on State Street; Stephen Holland, John Bailey, Friend Dole ; John March, father of the late pastor of the Belleville Church ; William Wheel- wright, in the "Rising Empire," lost near the river La Plata, in South America, which carried him to his great mission in that quarter of the world; and Ambrose White, who sailed the "Potomac," the last ship Mr. Bartlet sent to sea.

Mr. Bartlet by no means confined his operations to the seas. He was greatly interested in agriculture, made it a study, and took delight in his garden and fields in the town, and at one time owned one of the finest farms in Essex County, at Methuen. He was also largely in manufactures ; was the proprietor of the mills in Byfield, which manufactured the first cotton cloth in the United States, where every part of the work was done under one roof. Later, in 1794, it had the first act of incorporation in the State for a woolen-mill, and there was made flannels and broad-cloth. The capital invested was fifty thousand dollars, and when the other proprietors could no lon- ger sustain the losses in this experiment, he bought out the original holders and sold the property to other parties who would continue it. Later he was an owner in all the cotton-mills built in Newbury- port; and it is doubtful if there ever would have been one liere, but for his enthusiasm in that direc- tion causing him to invest two hundred thousand dollars in those works. When the Bartlet Mill, No. 1, was erected, he was told that the directors counted upon his subscription for ten thousand dollars. His reply was, "Very well; you can make it twenty thousand." Later when Mill No. 2 was commenced, the work dragged for want of funds, and might have been abandoned had not General James, the super- intendent, asked of the directors a delay on the

vote for a half an hour, till he could see Mr. Bart- let, then in his ninety-third year. Within the half- hour he returned with Mr. Bartlet's subscription for fifty thousand dollars, and hischeck for the money. As old as he was, he had lost none of his mental vigor ; and was an example to men of twenty-three or fifty-three, " the noblest Roman of them all ;" ever ready, even to the time when other men would have been making preparations for death, to do what he could for the benefit of his town, his country and the world. Il. realized that the best preparation for another life was usefulness in this life.

In all publie matters he proved himself the man of men, when Newburyport had hosts of other sons and citizens to honor every business and profession. When it was proposed, in 1798, that the town should present the federal government with a ship of war, he was with the foremost in building the frigate "Mer- rimac ; " when piers were needed for the harbor, he loosed his purse strings ; when light-houses were called for on Plum Island, before the government had assumed their care, his donation was so large that the town voted "that William Bartlet appoint the light tender." When a bridge was needed over the river, at Deer Island, he was down among the largest sub- seribers to its stock ; and when he saw the value of the Merrimac River to Newburyport, ere the govern- ment expended money on it, or the people appre- ciated the facts, about 1816, William Bartlet, Moses Brown and John Pettingill were incorporated "for clearing the river and locking the falls," to the stock of which he pledged largely. Had he succeeded in making others see the importance of the matter, as he with prophetic eye foresaw, Newburyport to-day would have held the first rank among the cities of Massachusetts, standing next to Boston. To go over all that he did or proposed to do would require a large volume, but he hesitated at nothing which would advance the interests of his native town or the State in which he lived or the country in which he gloried. As to individuals, he was ever ready to help those who would help themselves. The idle, the dissipated, or those who by dishonest means would rob honest labor of its due, he held in con- tempt, and for them had little money. He closed his heart and his hand to the loafers and vagabonds. If they died, let them die; it would make more room for those who deserved to live.

He had no time for politics, though he was an intense Federalist.

The only office he ever held, that required his at- tention out of town, was when a member of the Con- stitutional Convention of 1820. In local affairs he sometimes took an active part, especially on financial questions, and often named the sums voted in the annual assessment. A little incident will illustrate the humorous side of his character. He had com- plained of the bad condition of Federal Street, on which he lived, which displeased the former sur-

1808

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

veyor's friends, who nominated William Bartlet sur- veyor of the highways, not expecting or desiring that he would accept. He turned their joke into a grim reality, when he promptly accepted, and with his usual energy at once entered upon duty, spending every cent of the appropriation on Federal Street. So thorough was the work, that in forty years there- after it did not require forty dollars for repairs. This, however, was his usual mode of action-to do so well and so strong, that nothing more would be needed in his day. His house in which he lived is a specimen, and his brick store on the wharf cost as much in its foundations as the building above the ground. Time may eat into its walls, but its foundations will sur- prise the man who strikes them a thousand years hence, should they not be broken up before, as do the underlyings of the ancient ruins of Roman structures.

Economy is a virtue, though the prodigal and thoughtless often mistake it for a crime. William Bartlet, born to labor and never excelled in industry, was for himself economical in all his expenditures ; but he was munificent and magnificent in his gifts for public and religious purposes. He never belonged to a church, nor did he rely upon what he could do, or think, or say for salvation hereafter. He held to the Calvinistie creed in all its fullness; was the personal friend of his pastor at the North Church, Rev. Dr. Spring ; and afterwards a liberal supporter of wor- ship at the First Presbyterian Church, in which he placed the large, beautiful and costly cenotaph to the famous George Whitefield, whom he had heard preach in his youth. By his religious feelings-a sense of duty that a rich man owes to the world-he donated largely to associations of Christian endeavor and to the spread of virtuous and Christian principles every- where. In his donations and bequests he surpassed any other man who had preceded him or has succeeded him in the town, as much as he did in wealth or busi- ness. He gave to Andover Seminary not less than a quarter of a million of dollars, and his donations were chiefly unsolicited. He suggested, in anticipa- tion, that such and such things be done, and backed his propositions with his money. He was one of the three founders of the Seminary (not one of them, by the way, a member of any church at the time) and made it the object of his care and love. He was its first, oldest and longest-continued friend, its largest benefactor, its most constant supporter. lle also made liberal donations to the Harvard Divinity School, to Williams College and to Amherst ; was one of the vice-presidents of the American Education Society, and by his own contributions was made a director for life. He was one of the originators of the American Board for Foreign Missions and his name stands alone in the preamble to the act of in- corporation. He was present at the first meeting of the prudential committee in 1810; and in 1815 the board voted special thanks to him "for his distin- guished liberality." For three years he was the first

vice-president of the American Tract Society and its generous patron. He was likewise a leading temper- ance man, steadily for the cause, with voice or purse, when it was fashionable for all classes to drink spiritu- ous liquors. In fact, William Bartlet was ready to assist any religious or benevolent institutions that commended themselves to his good judgment, and he did actually expend not less than three hundred thousand dollars for their benefit.

Having carefully considered and studied the life, acts and character of William Bartlet, though no biography of him, we regret to say, has ever been written, we finally conclude that in strength of mind and will for the execution of its purposes, he was not excelled by any man who has lived in the town ; that he was more wealthy than any other citizen and more liberal than any other; that from the least means, by his own industry and perseverance, he was the most suceessful merchant, as he was the most public- spirited ; that he was not only pure in his morals, a model of integrity, but if faith in God and love for man be a test of character, he was a Christian as well as a gentleman ; that he did not throw around his money loosely in wild endeavors to make everybody as rich as himself may not have satisfied the in-ane de- sires of some, but would God that he would vouch- safe more men like William Bartlet, to Newburport ! IIe sleeps his last sleep in Oak Hill Cemetery.

MOSES BROWN.1

Moses Brown was one of those good men, accumu- lating and expending as his generous soul prompted, living for the good of others as much as himself. He was born in West Newbury in 1742, one of the five children of Joseph and Abigail (Hill) Brown near Brown's Springs, on the main road from New- buryport to Haverhill. The farm on which he labor- ed in his youth still remains in the possession of the family. The house is a large, old-fashioned frame building,-a farm-house, where for scores of years the country teams from the north as far as Canada, sometimes a hundred a day, passed to Newburyport, then a great port for shipments, and woukl, more or less, put up. In the next house eastward lived the Feltons, a family which sent three sons into the world sellom equaled in modern times, and who would have given fame to a whole State. One was president of Harvard College; another was the greatest lawyer that ever entered a court-house in California; and the third, still living in Pennsylvania, is a railroad magnate.

At the time of Moses Brown's birth this section was famous for the manufacture of wagons and chaises ; and Moses Brown learned the art of car- riage-building. On reaching his majority he estab- lished himself in that business at Newburyport, and the first work he was called to do, was repairing a

I By George J. L. Colby.

1809

NEWBURYPORT.

carriage for the Hon. Tristram Dalton, living on State Street, opposite the " Wolfe Tavern," in an ele- gant mansion. Mr. Dalton was a high-toned gentleman of influence, wealth and learning-perhaps the most cultivated man in the town. At a later day he was elected Senator, the first from Massachusetts in the Federal Congress, and became the close and trusted friend of President Washington. Mr. Dalton invited Moses Brown into the house, where he, born of poor parents and to hard work, amazed at the rich furniture, the elegant pictures on the walls, the abundance of books, and other magnificent surroundings, almost lost himself in wonder and delight; nor was he less pleased in going to the carriage-house, at the neat- ness of the premises, the beauty of the flowers, utter- ing their morning prayers in their odors rising heavenward, and the acres of fruit and shade-trees imported from Europe. If he ever knew envy at the better condition of another man it was then, when he picked up the shafts of the carriage, and drew it by hand to his work-shop, for he said to a friend : " If I ever have the means and the opportunity, the Dalton house would be the first piece of real estate I would buy." In process of time he had his desire gratified. He did buy it, lived happily in it many years, dis- pensed a large hospitality, and finally died with the gates of heaven ajar and at hand. Tristram Dalton grew poorer, largely by speculation in Wash- ington, then " the city of magnificent distances," and finally removed from Newburyport, and sold the property. Moses Brown, by diligence in business and fortunate voyages, from small beginnings grew rich, and the Dalton estate passed into his hands. He never forgot, however, that he had been poor; and when God blessed his endeavors, and his wealth abounded on sea or land, he considered the poor in his poverty.

How did Moses Brown become rich ? It would be a sufficient answer to say: "By honest industry." Rather than have become so by ways that are dark and means of doubtful morality, he would have pre- ferred poverty, if it had ground him to powder. Having been dead only sixty years, there are those sur- viving who knew him well, and this is the universal testimony, that he would have held coals of fire in his hands sooner than ill-gotten farthings. All the traditions of him coming down to us declare that he preferred obedience to God rather than great riches. He continued to labor at his trade and to save his moderate earnings, till he acquired enough to try his " ventures " on the sea. As he was sa- gacious, he was fortunate, for sagacity is the mother of "good luck." To one vessel he added another; to one piece of real estate a second parcel ; so that in the prime of his days he was the largest real estate owner in the town, and was second only to William Bartlett in general wealth. About the close of the last century he was taxed on a valuation of more than three hundred thousand dollars.

In real estate he owned all to High Street above his residence, except the Berry Titcomb property. Cross- ing High Street, he owned an unbroken line on the Turnpike to the "old brick school-house," and we think to Parker Street. He owned other property on the upper side of the Turnpike, and from Green- leaf Street his land ran to High Street, thence through Pond to Lowe Street, and by Greenleaf Street for its whole length-including within these limits what was called the "Brown farm." Bnt, without stopping to describe or identify the different parcels, we may say, he owned on South (now Brom- field) Street, on Lowe, Kent, Franklin, Harris, Buck. Fruit, State, Titcomb, Dove, Beck, Lime, Merrimac, Green, Broad and Pond Streets, all at one time, as the assessors' books show, and at the same time Brown's Square, named for him, on which he built the Brown Square house for the dry-goods trade, and intended to extend it to Green Street; also the Brown Wharves, and all that attaches to them, from the public landing at the foot of Green Street to the Patch Wharf. He extended his domain from his pier-heads to the premises now owned by Rev. Dr. Spalding.

If we take a look down the Brown Wharf, as it was in "ye olden time," we come first to his counting- room, on the right, in which half a dozen of clerks and employees were busy. On the left hand is his distillery, in full blast, changing his molasses to New England rum. That was in accord with the spirit of the time. Moses Brown was a temperance man at heart and in spirit ; he would not have a man about him who drank to excess. When the American Tem- perance Society was formed, he headed the list of donors to the cause in Newburyport, with five hun- dred dollars-and he continued his annual contribu- tions as long as he lived. And now, as we pass down, we see his blacksmith-shop on one side and his cooper-shop on the other, and farther down, where his riggers, the Pipers, did work, and on the floor above, Sailmaker Ilaynes is cutting the canvas, and around him the sails that shall waft ships to foreign ports and distant seas are being made up-all of these have employment from Moses Brown. But before we leave the " Long Store," we shall see that it is crooked or " hogged," which was done by overloading it with coffee, as big as it is; and where the thatch is growing and little water is now found in the dock, beside that building, ships from the Baltic and the Mediterranean Seas, and barques and brigs from the West Indias could be seen unloading their cargoes. Within sight there is a full acre of molasses in casks, and along the sides of the piers are ships and brigs and schooners, loading or unloading or waiting in the stream for a chance to reach the wharves. We have no means of reaching the figures of this great business. As a merchant he was second only to William Bartlet, though probably never worth more than half as much, for Mr. Bartlet was among the first merchants of the world, the fore-

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

most at Newbnyport, when this was the third com- mercial port in the United States. Moses Brown, however, had a large coastwise and foreign trade, in Europe with the principal commercial nations, Russia, Holland, France, Spain and England, but more largely with their colonies in the West Indies and South America. He had a large number of vessels in the fisheries, which were so extended on the Merrimac River that sixty and more have sailed for the Lab- rador coast in two days. After landing their catch and having them " cured," the same vessels would take them to foreign markets, bringing home their value in the products of the countries where they sold, and making ready at the proper season to sail again. These were what the old people, who can remember when we had a foreign commerce, called " round voy- ages."

We have spoken of Moses Brown in connection with William Bartlet, though ir their general " make up" they were very unlike each other ; yet in their energetic business movements, in their readiness to favor pri- vate or public enterprises that would tend to the com- mon good and improve the town, they were alike, and still more in this : that back of both of them stood one man of great learning, broad conceptions and an energy not less than their own. That man was their Christian pastor, Rev. Dr. Samuel Spring, who in religions and moral action was their guide. We name this because we find them disposing of large sums of money for religious and benevolent purposes in which he was heartily engaged. Neither of them, nor their wives, was a member of any church, save that Mr. Brown joined the North Congregational a little before his death.

No one, unless informed, would have suspected, from their habits of life and their generous donations for pious purposes, that they had not been baptized in infancy, confirmed at maturity and been at the communion every Sunday. It was Dr. Spring who conceived the idea that ripened into the Andover Theological Seminary. At first it was proposed to locate it in West Newbury, with Rev. Dr. Leonard Woods, then residing there, and afterwards becoming its president, at its head. When the Phillips and Abbott donations were made, this was changed, and Andover was selected. Dr. Spring laid the subject before Moses Brown, who promptly replied : "It is a great object ; I will give ten thousand dollars to be- gin with, and more afterwards." This pledge was kept; to the ten thousand dollars he added, from time to time, and made a final donation of twenty- five thousand dollars. We think his entire aid to the Andover Seminary must have been between forty and fifty thousand dollars. He was equally liberal in all other directions. He gave fifteen thousand -principal and interest-to establish the Latin School that bears his name in Newburyport, one thousand five hundred dollars to relieve the distress occasioned by the "great fire " in 1811, made one donation of a

thousand to the American Education Society, one thousand to the Greenville (Tennessee) College, one thousand to the Howard Benevolent Society, one thousand acres of land in Brownville, Me., which township he owned, to the Bangor Theological Semi- nary, and was continually giving to missionary, Bi- ble, tract and like societies, to poor churches and poor people. Nobody knows how much he did give. And he did not Jet one hand know what the other gave. The total would be put low at one hundred thousand dollars; and half as much more he gave to individuals near to or distant from him. To one in- dividual he gave twenty thousand dollars at one time. This was before the era of great fortunes and of millionaires.

But while we may admire Moses Brown for his many donations and bequests, we may the more com- mend his personal character-the purity of his life, the goodness of his heart, the nobility of his nature. Rev. Dr. Woods, who knew him well, truly said : "The name of Moses Brown cannot be pronounced without respect and love. For more than a half- century, in which he was engaged in acquiring and using his property, his reputation for integrity and honor was unsullied. It was his uniform principle to take no advantage to himself that would prove in- jurious to his neighbor. He countenanced no vice. He would not deviate a hair's breadth from what he believed the right."

In personal appearance he was modest, diffident, but always dignified ; of a kind and benignant look and a very persuasive voice. He was of medium height and spare in person. He seems to have cul- tivated no worldly ambitions. He sought neither public applause nor public position. Ile never at- tempted to conceal the lowness of his origin, but rather gloried in it, as by his experiences he better knew the wants of the poor and was more ready to extend aid to the deserving and comfort to the afflicted. He pursued business as though the gains therefrom were not for his use alone, and he distrib- uted them as a trust for the good of others. The law of rectitude was in his heart, and the balances of equity in his hand.

In his family and personal relations he was agree- able and happy, kind and affectionate; but from his family and those in his employ, whom he had the right to control, he demanded obedience to the rules of the best society and the highest morals. He was quiet, placid, thoughtful and at times serious ; but ever he maintained the most absolute confidence in God and cherished a fraternal love for man. His folded hands, when they were not in use, was indica- tive of his supreme tranquility. He had reached a peace that nothing disturbed and hope that nothing dimmed. He was a model husband, a loving father, a firm friend and an honored citizen.

Moses Brown twice married, -- first, to Mary Hall, who died in 1778, leaving no children ; and second,

باحك جيسو

مسن

1 Ne1-1

1811

NEWBURYPORT.

Mary White, of Haverhill, who hell a large property in her own right. She was a lady of rare cultivation, esteemed for the sweetness of her temper, her moral serenity, her kindness to all persons and her devout spirit. Seldom are a couple so much alike. She was his mentor, discreet in her counsels ; and he, to her death, was her admirer and lover. Years increased their attachment and old age brought them into one- ness. Her death was to him an incurable affliction. She bore him two children,-a son who died in in- fancy and a daughter, his sole heir, who, later on, be- came the wife of IIon. William B. Bannister, a lawyer of good repute. Mrs. Bannister died, also leaving a daughter, who, as the inheritor of the estates of her grandfather and grandmother, was the greatest heiress then living in the county of E-sex. She married Ebenezer Hale, M.D., who died early, leaving her a widow with one son, who did not reach his majority, and, as Mrs. Hale died without issue in 1880, here terminated the family of Moses Brown.

The largest heir to Moses Brown's estate, which reached more than a quarter of a million dollars, was Miss Effie Brown Moody, who was a grand-niece of his nephew, Moses Brown. The whole generation of his family, including three brothers, had died a half-century before the estate was settled. Their descendants had scattered into many of the States and one of them resided in the Sandwich Islands.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 200

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