History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 207

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 207

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The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on Mr. Spalding by Ingham University in 1861, and the same degree was conferred by Dartmouth College in 1872. Dr. Spalding has been actively interested in schools and education from early manhood to the present time. He served on the school committees of Somersworth, Rollinsford and Salmon Falls, and ! was fifteen years prominent and useful as a member of the School Board of the city of Newburyport. Hle was elected trustee of South Berwick Academy in 1849, and resigned in 1851. November 13, 1856, he was elected trustee of Hampton Academy, and is still a member of that board. He was elected trustee and secretary of Dearborn Academy in Seabrook, N. H., December 5, 1855, and resigned as secretary in 1864, and is still one of the trustees. He became one of the trustees of Dummer Academy, in 1857, and secretary and treasurer of the board in 1864, but resigned as secretary in 1877, still retaining the office of treas- urer of the board. He is also a member of the Massa- chusetts Historical and Genealogical Society. He has also taken an interest from the first in the Public Library, of which he is one of the permanent di- rectors.

The resignation of Dr. Spalding as pastor was re- ceived and acted upon by the Whitefield Church

of high commendation of him, these resolutions having been drawn up by Rev. Charles Smith, of Andover, Rev. R. Il. Seeley, D.D., of Haverhill (both since deceased), and Rev. D. T. Fiske, D.D., of Newburyport.

Under Dr. Spalding's ministrations the Whitefield Church was built up and flourished for many years ; the membership increased, and additions and im- provements were made to the church edifice which was erected on State Street early in his ministry. But it was not to his own church and society that his activities were limited, for Dr. Spalding has been one of the most public-spirited of the citizens of Newburyport, ready for every undertaking which would benefit its people, or make it attractive to strangers, either by beautifying it, or extending his own liberal hospitality, or encouraging merit in young men whose talents were yet untried. Whatever was for the advancement of any true interest of the city, moral, intellectual or material, he has been among the first to raise his voice and give a helping hand. While the lyceum lectures continued to attract audiences, Dr. Spalding was a leader in that enter- prise, and entertained many of the lecturers at his own attractive house. He was one of those most active in forming the Tuesday Evening Club, a liter- ary and social organization which has continued since 1870, and is still flourishing and vigorous ; and scareely an enterprise of any kind which promised well for the city of his adoption but has received the hearty support of Dr. Spalding, and he has refused it to none to which his attention has been called.

Dr. Spalding is vigorous in body and mind, having the mens sana in corpore sano, sound, wholesome and manly. He is a good preacher, and has remarkable powers as a debater, and writes with facility and force. He has the energy of a man of affairs, and a shrewd common-sense which makes him successful in what he undertakes, and restrains him from under- taking what is impracticable. But his most marked

Charles le France avce

1837

NEWBURYPORT.

characteristie is a catholie and tender sympathy, re- sponsive to the intellectual, moral and physical wants and needs of others. It is this trait which has made him in such great demand for conducting funeral services, not only of members of his own congregation, but of very many others in Newbury- port and its vicinity. The Episcopal Church has the burial service set down in the prayer-book, but the

and embarrassing task of making remarks and offering a prayer which shall not violate the truth nor the feelings of the surviving friends of the deceased. Dr. Spalding has the uncommon gift of saying enough and not too much, of not omitting what ought to be said, and of adding nothing to the truth, so that he has had calls from those who had no claim upon him but that of his generous nature and sympathetic feelings. It is this trait of sympathy which makes him exeel in debate. He knows when he has those whom he addresses with him, and what arguments or appeals will affect each member and the whole body ; of the several academies of whose boards he is and has been a member, or in the association of ministers, or the church conferences, he is always a leader, and he either carries the question he advocates or makes it appear that it ought to succeed. His has been an active and busy life, and yet he has found time to en- courage the young who are struggling for an eduea- tion, and who have found in him a sympathizing friend. His life in Newburyport has been a beneficent one, both as a religions teacher and pastor of a pro- gressive Congregational Church, and as an active citizen ready to raise his voice and employ his hand in every good word and work.

HON. CHARLES CHASE DAME.1

Hon. Charles Chase Dame rightfully receives an honorable place in this work, not because he is a son of Newburyport, but because, since his young man- hood, he has been identified with the interests of this city and because he has here won and preserved a high reputation as a wise counselor, a trustful, public servant and as a man of sterling, irreproachable character.

Charles (. Dame is a descendant of John Dame, (formerly spelled Dam and Damme), who came from England in 1633 with Captain Thomas Wiggin and settled in what is now Dover, N. H. John Dame signed the celebrated protest of 1641 ; was one of the first deacons of the First Church in Dover (1633) and was prominent in the public affairs of this early colony on the Piscataqua.

Judge Dame, of Rochester, N. H. ; Jonathan Dame, for many years a bank cashier in Dover, N. H. ; and Harriet F. Dame, who received the thanks of the New Hampshire Legislature for her tender services

to the sick and wounded in the field for four year-, 1861-65, are also of this family.

Charles C. Dame 8 is of the eighth generation from John Dame, the original emigrant, viz. : John1, John", John3, Richard+, Benjamin3, Samuel“, Joseph7, Charles (.8 Samuel6 and Olive (Tuttle) Dame resided in Wakefield, N. II., where their children were born. Joseph7, their eldest son, was born May 1, 1784, who. Congregational minister has the much more difficult , by his wife, Satira, had eight children, viz. : Mary Ann8, born April 10, 1817 ; Charles C.8, born June 5, 1819; Loammi B.8, born November 17, 1821 ; Joseph Calvin8, born March 19, 1824 ; Luther8, born March 3, 1826 ; Marshall Morrill8, born July 9, 1828 ; Satira A.8, born December 20, I830; and Anna Chase, born May 14, 1833.

Charles Chase Dames, married Frances A. Little of Newbury, Mass., September 1, 1842. They have had four children, two of whom survive, the others having died in childhood.

Mr. Dame was born June 5. 1819, at Kittery Point, District of Maine, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and in the school committee room, with the trustees | where his parents resided. His father, born in Wakefield, N. H., was the first person in that town to enlist in the War of 1812, and was stationed at Fort McCleary, Kittery Point. After his military service he settled in Kittery and married, December 2, 1814, Satira, daughter of Joshua T. Chase, of Kittery, who was a man of note and enjoyed the confidence and suffrages of the inhabitants, for representative to the General Court at Boston for the seven successive years previous to the separation, and to the House of Representatives in Maine for the nine years next after the separation.

On the maternal side, Mr. Dame is a direct de- scendant of Aquila Chase1, of Newbury, Mass. He was one of the first settlers of Hampton (1639), but in 1646 removed to Newbury, and received several grants of land there. Ile was the first pilot on Mer- rimac River, and was a master mariner. Thomas Chase2, son of Aquila1 and Anne ( Wheeler) Chase, a resident of Newbury, was the father of Rev. Josiah Chase3, born November 30, 1713 (H. C. 1738), who was ordained as the first minister over Spruce ('reek Parish, Kittery, September 19, 1750. He married, in 1743, Sarah Tufts, who was a great-granddaughter of Governor Bradstreet. Joseph Tufts ('hase5, the ma- ternal grandfather of Charles C. Dame, was a grand- son of Rev. Josiah, who for thirty-eight years was the minister at Spruce Creek.

Joseph Dame7 was a school-master, and taught for several years, prior and subsequent to his marriage, at New Castle, N. H., to which town the family moved when Charles C. was seven years of age. The family returned to Kittery Point four years after, and at the age of eleven years the lad, Charles C., began life for himself. He worked at honorable employment, and attended the usual winter school of that time. He was a student, a boy-farmer, a clerk in a store and a youthful mariner, as opportunity presented. At the

1 By Oliver Ayer Roberts.

1838

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

age of fourteen years he attended the High School at Portsmouth, N. H., for one year. The winter after he was sixteen he undertook the profession of his father, and taught school at Kittery Foreside, Maine. His teaching had quickened his own desire for more knowledge, and at the age of eighteen years he eu- tered the South Newmarket Academy and pursued an academic education. He subsequently taught in Brentwood, N. H., and in June, 1839, came by re- quest to Newbury, the home of his ancestors, and took charge of the school at the "Upper Green." Here he remained two years, when he was invited to take charge of a grammar school in Lynn, Mass., which he accepted on the 7th of February, 1841. Another promotion awaited him; for, May 2, 1842, he was elected principal of the South Male Grammar School in Newburyport, Mass. He was soon, how- ever, transferred by the school committee of this city to the Brown High School. His health being some- what impaired by his continued application to pri- vate study and teaching, he resigned on the 22d of February, 1849, and made a voyage to the Pacific shore, stopping for a short time in South America. He was absent two years. Returning to Newbury- port, with his health and strength fully restored, he was invited in the fall of 1851 to take charge of the English Department of the Chauncy Hall School, Boston, - then, as now, one of the most noted and successful private schools in the country. Here he taught for nine years, but resigned in 1860, and opened a law-office in Boston, having been admitted in the county of Suffolk to practice in the courts of Massachusetts on the 8th of September, 1859. He was admitted to practice in the Circuit Court of the United States, District of Massachusetts, October 17, 1859, and as an attorney and counselor in the Su- preme Court of the United States March 22, 1876. He retained his residence in Newburyport while teaching in Lynn and Boston, and also while prac- ticing law in the latter city. He was appointed by President Andrew Johnson collector of internal rev- enue for the Fifth District of Massachusetts, -a po- sition which he held under the successive admin- istrations of Presidents Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield and Arthur, until August 1, 1883. The field of his official care was greatly enlarged in 1875 by the addition by consolidation to the Fifth Dis- triet of the Sixth, Seventh and a part of the Fourth Districts of Massachusetts. During his fifteen years of public service as collector of internal revenue, though the average collections were one million of dollars per year, the government did not lose a dollar by his administration, nor were there any discrepancies in his accounts. At the conclusion of his service his accounts were promptly adjusted and settled, Mr. Dame having proved himself a model officer in both method and manner. The great in- crease in his duties and cares, occasioned by the con- solidation of 1875, caused him to entirely forego the

practice of law until 1883, when he opened a law- office in Newburyport, where he still resides and pursues his chosen profession. His residence is on the easterly side of High Street, between Bromfield and Marlboro' Streets. It is a large, comfortable dwelling, -the same in which he established his home in 1842, and the same honse in which he tar- ried when he came to Newburyport in June, 1839. He is a director of the Merchants' National Bank, a trustee of the Institution for Savings and a member of the various educational and philanthropic institu- tions of the city. 'He is a member of the Veteran Artillery Company of Newburyport, also of the An- cient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston. He was the commander of the former in 1870, and is at present judge advocate.

Mr. Dame has been interested in national and State politics and especially in the welfare of his adopted city. He has been a member of the School Board of Newburyport, of its Common Council and of its Board of Aldermen. In 1886 he was the mayor of the city. His administration was characterized by conservative action, careful expenditure and a studied attention to the best interests of the people. He was elected to the State Senate in 1868, to represent the Fourth Essex District. Originally he was a Whig, but at the formation of the Republican party he gave it his adhesion and has since been identified with it. Hle was a member of the Republican State Committee for several years prior to his appointment as collector, but under the order of President Hayes, in regard to officers of the national government identifying them- selves with local politics, he resigned that position. He was replaced upon that committee in the year 1886.

Mr. Dame has been prominently identified with the Masonic Fraternity, and has given to its interests his best thought and strength. He became a mem- ber of Revere Lodge, in Boston, in 1857 ; of St. An- drew's Royal Arch Chapter, and of Boston Com- mandery K. T., in 1858, and of Boston Council of Royal and Select Masters, in 1859. He received the Ineffable Degrees in Raymond Lodge of Perfection, Lowell, Mass., in 1862; in Raymond Council of Princes of Jerusalem, in Mt. Calvary Chapter of Rose Croix, and in Massachusetts Consistory, all in Lowell, Mass., in 1862. On the 22d day of May, 1863, he was made an honorary member of the Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors-Gen- cral of the Thirty-third and last Degree of the North- ern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America-an honor to which his valuable services to Freemasonry well entitled him.

He was Worshipful Master of Revere Lodge in 1860 and 1861, High Priest of St. Andrew's Royal Arch Chapter in 1861 and 1862, having served as Kingin 1860 and as Seribe in 1859, and previously held subordinate ofices in that Chapter. Ile was Grand King of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Massachusetts in 1862. Having received the Orders of Knighthood in Boston

albert & Sitcomby

1839

NEWBURYPORT.

Commandery K. T. in 1858, he was the Eminent Commander of that Body in 1866-67.

Sir Charles C. Dame was Commander of Hugh De Payens Commandery K. T., of Melrose, while it worked under a dispensation, and by his efforts in its behalf won the esteem and love of all his associates. He is an honorary member of that Body. Ile is an honorary member of all the Masonic Bodies, Lodge, Chapter and Commandery, in his adopted city, and in 1867, when a new lodge of A. F. and A. M. was consti- tuted in Georgetown, Mass., the Brethren interested gave it the name of Charles C. Dame Lodge. He was the Illustrious Commander of Boston Consistory, A. and A. Rite, in the years 1863, 1864 and 1865. Ile held the office of Deputy Grand Master in the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, A. F. and A. M., in 1862, 1863 and 1864, and was elected Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts in 1865, 1866 and 1867. He became, by unanimous election, in 1881, a member of the Board of Directors of the Grand Lodge of Massa- chusetts for two years, and has been continued upon that Board until the present time.

December 10, 1884, at the establishment of the Masonic Education and Charity Trust, he was elected a Trustee thereof, for the term of seven years from January 1, 1884, and at the organization of the Board of Trustees he was elected its Secretary, a position which he still occupies.

He has also served on prominent special commit- tees of the Grand Lodge, to whose work he always brought that sound judgment aud conservative action for which he is so well known.

In no other position which he has held were his anxieties and responsibilities greater than during his term of three years as Grand Master of Masons iu Massachusetts. The Grand Lodge had previously voted that its Temple should be built (the foundation was laid), and that the debt should be paid, but it pro- vided no means with which to do either. M. W. Charles C. Dame continued the building, on the site purchased and on the foundation laid, through two years of business depression and of ceaseless anxiety, when, his own resources being exhausted, nothing but herculean labor and an heroic soul could prevent im- mediate and absolute disaster. The friends of the Masonic Institution, by the efforts of the Grand Mas- ter, gave their assistance, and at his solicitation R. W. Sereno D. Nickerson became a member of the Board of Directors, and entered upon the duty of surmount- ing the difficulties which embarrassed the Grand Lodge.

The work of building did not cease, and the prop- erty of the Grand Lodge did not suffer. It was a long, hard struggle, in which Brethren with brave hearts and ample resources gathered around and supported their Grand Master in this work-the greatest the Fra- ternity ever undertook in Massachusetts. In 1867 the Temple, on the corner of Tremont and Boylston streets, was dedicated, with elaborate and solemn services, in

the presence of President Andrew Johnson, of dis- tingnished Freemasons from different States, and of an immense concourse of Massachusetts Brethren. M. W. Charles C. Dame triumphed in the completion of the Temple, a triumph second only to that when, in 1883, the entire debt of the Grand Lodge was wiped out.

The character and ability of Hon. Charles Chase Dame are apparent from the foregoing facts.

Of limited opportunities in boyhood, like many others, working his way upward in the world, persist- ent, studious, honorable, he has attained a place in the esteem of the community which commands respect, veneration and love. Unassuming, and, to some ex- tent, diffident, he possesses powers of execution, as well as of judgment, which cannot be easily baffled. True to his sense of right, ealm amidst anxieties, manifold in resources, fearless of opposition, generous and kind, his great rule in life seems to have been, "To do to others as he would be done by." He is re- spected uear and far by all who have met him; he is beloved by all who share an intimate acquaintance with him. In form he is the embodiment of health and strength; of mind, clear and logical; of heart, tender and sympathizing; honorable in every rela- tion, true under every circumstance. Such a man is Charles Chase Dame, aud is, therefore, entitled to an honorable place in the history of the city and county.

ALBERT CUSHING TITCOMB.1

Titcomb is an honorable name in the annals of our town. William was the first, coming from Newbury, England, on the ship " Hercules," in 1634. The next year he was at Newbury, with Rev. Thomas Parker, founding a town bearing the name of their former residence. Many of their associate settlers were from the same neighborhood. His name appears as an original land-holder. He was a farmer; a man of education and means; was a freeman in 1642, select- man in 1646, representative to General Court in 1655 and always influential in church and town af- fairs. In the long contest between the majority of the First Church and Mr. Parker, on church government, he was active on the popular side-that the people, not the pastor, should rule. Mr. Parker had been willing to permit such control; they claimed it of right. The Puritans were jealous of all encroachments upon civil or ecclesiastical freedom. Bancroft says : "They asked no absolution ; they raised no altar ; they invoked no saints ; they paid no tithes ; they saw in the priest nothing more than a man. The church, as a place of worship, was nothing but a meeting-house. They dug no graves in consecrated ground ; they married without a minister and buried their dead without a prayer." Cherishing such ideas, they re- belled against authority not confirmed by the people, and went so far as to notify Mr. Parker that they had

1 By George J. L. Colby.

1840

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

voted his suspension. The court being appealed to how- ever, sustained the pastor, and William Titeomb, with others, was fined. He died in 1676, leaving children born to him by his wife, Joanna Bartlett. By his will his son Penuel was his heir.

Early the Titcombs owned land in what is now the centre of the town, back of Oak Hill Cemetery, and on Greenleaf street, where the Boston and Maine freight station stands, and in process of time they had Our space does not admit of the names alone of the many Titcombs who won renown in war, but no one of them stands higher than that of Colonel Moses, who, nevertheless, according to the usage of the times, was a slave-holder. We find under date of 1739, William Johnson, shipwright, " giving, granting, sell- ing and conveying to Moses Titcomb, his heirs and assigns forever, a certain negro man named Cam- bridge, of twenty-one years," and affirming that the estates in other parts of Byfield, West Newbury and Newburyport, as they are now called. When the water-side became the chief place of business, we find them both below and above Market Square, owning wharves and stores. William, many years a revenue officer, was located just below where the Custom- House now stands. Josiah was just above the Mar- ket, on Broadway, when it was a broad way, before encroachments had narrowed it. He had a fine man- ' "said Moses Titcomb, his heirs and administrators, sion at the head of what was then Titcomb's wharf, shall, by virtue of this deed, have, hold, use and im- prove the said negro man Cambridge, during the whole of his natural life." Colonel Moses was born in 1700, to William Titcomb, whose wife was Anne Cottle, and she was also a slave-owner, for in the where he gave the most fashionable parties, the gen- tlemen wearing wigs and short clothes with silver knee and shoe-buckles; the ladies wearing caps and ruffles, after their fashion ; and all drinking punch from the silver cups common in that day. There, too, graveyard of the First Church of Newbury can now the servant girls received their lovers at the back-doors, 'be seen a head-stone to one of Mrs. Cottle's slaves. and charmed them in the corners of the big fire-places . The Cottles lived on what is now Bromfield Street, o' winter nights beside the oak logs on huge and- formerly "Cottle's Lane," and were quite rich. Anne was one of the beauties of the town, traditions say. Then Colonel Moses married Merriam Currier, and his daughter became the wife of Nicholas Tracy, whose house was what is now the Public Library building- a man of great wealth, of many estates on the land, of whole fleets of ships on the seas, and also of unbound- ed liberality, public spirit and patriotism. We see, therefore, how Colonel Moses Titcomb, himself a blacksmith, with his fires burning at the head of the first wharf below Green Street, had a use for men ser- vants 'and maid servants, and how he could draw funds for his uses in war. irons. It is only about thirty years since fire devoured the building. Near by was the blacksmith's shop be- longing to the gallant Colonel Moses Titeomb, one of the great men of colonial times. On the opposite side of the road still stands the IIodge house, which belonged to Michael Hodge, who married one of Josiah's daugh- ters. Above, near the east corner of Green and Merri- mac Streets, was the residence of the redoubtable Gene- ral Jonathan Titcomb, one of the heroes ofthe Revolu- tion, who thought he was entitled to sleep o' nights. and when a company beating a bass-drum heeded not his order to depart in peace, having only his night- clothes about his person, he rushed into the street and thrust his trusty sword through the drum-head, silencing it forever. On Market Street was the home of Master George and Honorable Enoch, the birth- place of generations of Titcombs. Then there was Samuel, after whom Titcomb Street was named, living on State Street, where the John Carr hou-e now stands, who owned the whole square from High to Harris, and from State to Green Street, with the ex- ception of the site of the Wolfe Tavern. Captain John Buntin married his daughter Rebecca, and with the bride received the house-lot on the south corner of the square named, where three generations of Buntins have had a home. Samuel was a rich merchant, and had estates in West Newbury and Pelham, and Sa- lem, New Hampshire.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 207

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