History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 210

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 210

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).

In the same year, 1851, he commenced his medical studies with Doctor Charles Palmer, now residing at Ipswich. He attended lectures first at the Bowdoin Medical School, in Brunswick, Maine; was one term at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and graduated at Bowdoin in May, 1854. Immedi- ately after he further and practically pursued his studies at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he proved himself an expert in surgery, as he since has a successful practitioner of medicine.

Then he was lacking almost a year of his majority ; he was a fine-looking young man, above the average height, straight, well-formed, with an open counte- nance, mild eyes and a blooming cheek, flushed with youthful beauty. To 1 olendid physical develop ment and an air of intelligence he added an irreproachable moral character, which most become> a physician, who must be the confidant of his patients ; nor has he lost these general and essential qualities now at fifty-three. Since that, hard labor has slightly bent liis form, which has become heavier, more full and bulky as the years have gone by.

His first professional practice commenced at Gil- manton Iron Works, New Hampshire, in 1855, when he was twenty-one years old, in partnership with Doctor Otis French. His popular manners and success in practice soon built up a large business, which he continued seventeen years, when, succeeded by Doctor John F. Young, he settled in Newbury- port. Previously, however, fired by his ardent patriotism, he served his country one year during the Rebellion, with the Twelfth New Hampshire Regi- ment, in the field. Held in esteem by his professional brothers, he has received from them marks of con- fidence and respect. In 1884 he was the delegate for Massachusetts to the American Medical Associa- tion, which met at Washington, and he is now the delegate sent to the International Medical Congress, which will meet in Washington in September.

Doctor Montgomery has been attached to other fra- ternal associations. He was made a Free and Accepted Mason by Winnipesaukee Lodge, at Alton, N. H., in 1863, and has been an Old Fellow of Qnascacunquen Lodge, at Newburyport, since 1873.

In his domestic relations he has been happy. He has been twice married,-first to Miss Frances A., daughter of Hon. Jonathan T. Coffin, of Gilmanton, N. H., by whom he had four children. She died at Newburyport, a beautiful lady, beloved and lamented. In 1880 he married Mrs. Lydia Forbes, who had been a teacher in the public schools, and was a lady of wealth, known in the church for her devotion and liberality. Surrounded with friends, in the fullness of his strength, with patrons who have absolute confi- dence in his skill, Doctor Montgomery apparently has many years of happiness and usefulness before him.

EDWARD PAYSON SHAW.1

Mr. Shaw stands in the front rank of the business men of Newburyport to-day. He was born here in 184I, and therefore is forty-six years old, though appearing younger. He is a fine-looking man, well formed, above medium height, with light hair and complexion, sunny eyes, a hopeful countenance un- ruffled by cares or doubts; vigorous and brave, he is one of the most pleasant and agreeable gentlemen to be met with in the whole length of the town. He shows in his every movement the celerity and strength of the mind that has place in his material form. He carries about him a glow of enthusiasm for whatever he undertakes that would illuminate and move to action a whole town, unless it were completely par- alyzed or clean gone in the decay of consumption. He was named for the celebrated clergyman of Port- land, Me., whose eloquence electrified a generation gone by and left his name in all the churches. His father was Major Samuel Shaw, a man of integrity and piety, one of the best-known drivers of the Eastern Stage Company, which, three-quarters of a century ago, filled the place and performed the uses of the Eastern Railroad to-day. From early boyhood, as long as Samuel Shaw was able to do anything, he was a "Knight of the Whip," and so popular with the traveling public that when he lost his stable by fire, years after he had retired from stage-driving, old friends, some of them graduates of Harvard College, and other men of means, who rode with him long years before, tendered him a purse of money that covered his entire loss. He was major in the militia when General Lowe commanded the citizen-soldiers of Essex, and Colonels Daniel Adams and Jeremiah Colman, and Major David Emery were in service.

Edward P. Shaw, his youngest son, of whom we treat, was born to him by his third wife, Abigail, daughter of Richard Bartlett, who was a brother of Hon. William, vulgarly called " the Jew," because of his great wealth, being a millionaire and at one time the richest man of the State. When we come to his Bartlett blood, we can account for E. P. Shaw's great tact in trade and his ability as a business man. He takes to it as naturally as a duck or Newfoundland dog does to the water.

After he had been trained a time in our public schools, spent a year under "Master" George Tit- comb, then a celebrated school-teacher, and passed a couple of terms in the academy at London, N. H., impatient of delays, he tried one season at fishing, but soon discovered that he knew more of horses than of sea-going vessels. At the age of fourteen years we find him mounted on a hack-box, drawing the reins over prancing steeds, following the occupation of his father. The next year, at fifteen, he was licensed by the mayor and aldermen as a suitable person for the business. At eighteen he owned his own horses and

I By Geo. J. L. Colby.

1850

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

carriages and had a hack-stand at the Merrimac House, which within a few weeks, he has purchased, becoming the proprietor of premises where he began business on his own account, where he used the first horses he ever owned, and where he gave his first note-minor as he was-for the first carriage he ever had.

At twenty-two he made another change-bought out Lovett's Boston Express, which he ran under the name of Shaw's Boston Express, till he was thirty years old. During this time we remember one thing concerning him which elevated him to our highest esteem. ITis father had grown old, feeble and infirm, laut, affectionate and dutiful, the son did not forget his least want or pleasure ; and may the gods forget the son who does ! He deserves to have his eyes picked out by the young eagles. Edward P. Shaw, was not of that class; mornings, weather permitting, he could be seen leading the almost helpless old gentle- man across the street to his office, and there arrang- ing for him a seat, where he could see the passing people and hear the rattling wheels of carriages, the sound of which, reviving the memories of the past, was as sweet music in his ears. After he made his rounds, in attending to business, and was to leave on the cars, again he could be seen carefully assisting his father home. Such was his love and tenderness to his par- ents ; and so long as God holds human destinies in His hand, great will be the reward of such kind- ness. It was like the man ; he makes a little heaven of home, and never forgets or turns back on a friend.

It was during his experiences as an expressman Salem, is for the largest sum on the records in the that he made the acquaintance of the Jaques family- two brothers, farmers, and their two sisters, one of whom, Anna, inherited the property of the others, and became the founder of the " Anna Jaques Hospital," the most beneficent institution in the city. They made him their agent to sell the produce of their farm in Boston, and to purchase what goods they re- quired ; and so faithful was he in those matters that they depended upon him to invest their spare money and the dividends of stocks owned. lle was their trusted financial agent, having absolute power to act on his own judgment, as he would for himself. The In 1881, and also in 1882, he was in the Legislature. Ile had previously served in the City Council, but he inclined to trade more than politics, and abont this date he established the People's Line of Steamers, which he has run to good profit ever since. He now has three steamboats-two connecting with the rail- roads at the mouth of the harbor and one for other uses. He has been heard to say that he never owned a sailing vessel that did not lose money, or a steam craft that did not pay good dividends. total of his business transactions for them exceeded a quarter of a million dollars, running, as it did, through twenty years. So judicious was his action that never a dollar was lost by him; and so wise his investments that never a dividend was passed on any stock he purchased. They grew rich, and when the bachelor brothers died he was appointed administra- tor of their estates, which were inherited by the maiden survivor, Anna, by whose charities many persons were benefited, and benevolent and religious institutions strengthened.

In 1871 Mr. Shaw sold his express and succeeded William H. Swasey in the firm of Sumner, Swasey & Currier. This was an old, well-established flour and produce house, doing a large business at home, |

having favorable connections in other States, and owning shipping engaged in foreign and domestic com- merce. In 1879 he purehased and became sole owner of Commercial wharf,-the property with the business there centering,-and was also largely in real estate ; owned dwelling-houses, and had erected on the site of the house in which he was born the large block called " Shaw's Hall," most of which has been de- voted to the uses of social organizations, no less than nine such societies occupying it to-day. His own residence, where he has lived since 1875, " Woodland Place," is one of the finest estates in the city or coun- ty. It is on elevated ground, overlooking the town and the sea, having suitable buildings, and covering twelve acres of level, fertile land, devoted to flowers, vegetables, and fruit to the extent of over a thousand trees.

It was in 1875 that the silver-mining fever broke out in this vicinity, causing wide-spread excitement; and possibly, had the location been amid the craigs of the Rocky Mountains or in the river bottom of Cali- fornia, it might have been of enduring benefit. In connection with W. W. Chipman, an experienced miner, and Hon. E. G. Kelley, Mr. Shaw purchased the property since known as the Merrimac Silver Mine, with other tracts of adjacent territory, from which they realized very handsomely. They sold the Merrimac mine to New York parties, the consideration named being the round sum of one million dollars. One hundred thousand was paid in cash. The deed, recorded in the county registry at lapse of two hundred and fifty years. The fact that silver ore could be obtained in paying quantities was as well established as it has been in nine out of ten of the "rich finds" in the Mountain and Pacific States of the West. But very soon the new operators were short of funds, and divided among themselves. Lawsuits followed, attachments were made, and finally the works were abandoned to the harpies of law and plunder; and now the buildings, machi- nery, and fifty tons of ore ready for smelting, are go- ing to total destruction.

In 1884 he organized the Black Rocks and Salisbury Beach Railroad, which, by steamers, connects with the Newburyport and Amesbury Street Railroad, and with other railroads running cast, west or south. This beach road is chiefly owned by him now, and he has a charter for its extension to Hampton, N. H., which

1851

NEWBURYPORT.

will be utilized in 1888, and thence it will probably be continued to Rye Beach and Portsmouth.

Mr. Shaw was the first contractor with the United States government in building the jetties at the mouth of the Merrimac River, to deepen the water on the bar and make Newburyport a harbor of refuge. The work, not completed, is still continued. In 1882, to could as appropriately apply to Edward Payson Shaw. further this project, he opened a quarry in the upper ward of the city, and has quarried and furnished one CAPTAIN HENRY M. CROSS.1 hundred thousand tons of stone. The preparation for the work required twenty thousand dollars, and men of Newburyport. He was born in Gorham, two hundred men were on the contract.

In 1886 Mr. Shaw sold his interest in the Newbury- port and Amesbury Railroad to parties in Boston and Salem, and at once proposed to build a similar road to and on Plum Island, which he has completed the present summer. In thirty days he built two miles of road on the island, with a steamboat pier extend- ing into the Merrimac River, and had the cars run- ning, remodeled and enlarged the Plum Island Ho- tel, reconstructed the bridge and draw connecting the island with the mainland, and prepared for laying the rails, three miles, to Market Square, to connect with the trains to Amesbury. This enterprise re- quired a capital of forty thousand dollars in cash and forty thousand dollars in bonds, of which he holds one- quarter part, and the whole commands a premium in the market. Not satisfied with the above as a full year's work, he purchased the Merrimac House, in this city, formerly called the "Wolfe Tavern," in honor of General Wolfe, who died in the capture of Quebec, under whom was a company from Newbury- port, commanded by William Davenport, who was its first landlord, which name he has restored ; pnt forty men at work to repair, repaint and refurnish, and has leased it to Mrs. J. C. Philbrick & Son, proprietors of the Farragut House, Rye Beach, so popular in years past.

Mr. Shaw was the Republican candidate for Rep- resentative to the Legislature at the recent election, and as evidence of his great popularity he received two hundred and fifty more votes than any other nominee of the party.

His latest and most extensive business venture is the organization of the "Newburyport Car Manufac- turing Company," with an ample capital and a board of directors, of which he is the president. He has leased extensive property and commenced the erec- tion of new buildings, and designs to make this one of the largest of the city's industries.

is surrounded by friends who appreciate liim for noble and manly qualities. Industry was born in him, work is his life, and improvement in what surrounds him gives joy to his soul, Hannah F. Gould, the poet, in her famous " Epitaphs," said of Caleb Cushing : " Now he is dead he will be pushing," and these words

Henry M. Cross is among the foremost of the young Maine, in 1843, son of Doctor Enoch Cross-a much- esteemed citizen, and the oldest practicing physician in the county of Essex-and his wife, Charlotte Pettin- gell, daughter of Moses Pettingell, of Salisbury, N. H. The Crosses are of good stock and have been noted from the days of the French and Indian Wars for their skill and bravery as soldiers. Originally from Ipswich, the great ancestor of the line to which Henry M. Cross belongs settled on the banks of the Merrimac River, in Methuen, and purchased his land of the Indians, the extent of the purchase being as much as he could walk around in one day, " from sun to sun." There he built his house, there his descendants have dwelt to this day, and there, by the old Cross ferry, Dr. Enoch, now eighty-eight years old, was born. He removed to Newburyport when his youngest son, Henry M., was an infant. It is a family of remarkable longevity, several of them living to the age of ninety and ninety-five years.

Henry M. Cross was well educated in the schools of Newburyport, and was one of their best pupils. In 1858, when fifteen years old, he graduated at the Brown Latin School, prepared for college, and, in 1860, having pursued a higher course of mathematics, with advanced literary and scientific studies, he grad- uated from the Putnam High School. He came from school well prepared for the study of law, which he had chosen for his profession, and read for a year and more in the offices of Hon. E. F. Stone, recently member of Congress, and Hon. John N. Pike, judge of the Police Court.

In the mean time the War of the Rebellion had burst forth, and in the intense excitement thereby occasioned, Mr. Cross, ardent in his patriotism, would rush to the field of battle. At first he failed to pass the examining board from physical inability. He was very youthful in appearance, slim and light in weight, but he did not perceive his inability to per- form a soldier's duty, and upon the raising of the Forty-eighth Massachusetts Regiment, commanded member of Captain Woodward's company, which was largely composed of young men who had been pupils of the captain when he was teacher of the High School. They were at once ordered to the South, and took part in the campaign against Port Hudson, where was seen some of the hardest fighting of the

We doubt if there is a young man in the county of Essex who can show a better record for enterprise , by Colonel Eben F. Stone, he was accepted as a and industry, and all the time he has moved about as placid and apparently as unconcerned as though he had nothing to do and was a simple observer of pass- ing events. Be sure that he has not neglected his home in his busy life, for no man loves his home bet- ter or is more devoted to his wife and children. He has an ample fortune, should he retire to-day, and 1 By George J. 1. Colby.

1852

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

war. We say no more than every member of his regiment will admit-some of them brave to reekless- ness-that there was not a braver soldier among them than Ilenry M. Cross. When a call was made for volunteers to storm the rebel fortifications-a most hazardous undertaking-he was among the first to respond. The assault was disastrous, and the dead and wounded, including the lieutenant-colonel of the Forty-eighth, covered the field in front of the Confederate works. Mr. Cross had his cartridge-box shot away, but fortunately escaped all personal in- jury. The regiment remained in the field till the surrender of Port Hudson, beyond the time of their enlistment, when he returned home in 1863. Im- mediately after he obtained a lieutenant's commis- sion, re-entered the service in the Fifty-ninth Mas- sachusetts Regiment, and went through the entire series of battles in the early part of the campaign in Virginia, in 1864, from the Wilderness and the severe fighting at Spottsylvania to the battle on the North Anna River, May the 24th, in which engagement he was made a prisoner. That ended his field service. Then followed the hardships, sufferings and dan- gers of the Confederate prisons, far worse than the hazards of battles, extending over nine months. First he was shut up in Libby Prison, in Richmond, which was a house of death to so many Northern sokliers. They might have written over the door, "Who enters here never returns." Thence he was sent to Macon, then to Savannah, and finally taken to Charleston, S. C., with a large number of others, to be put under the fire of the Federal batteries, with the expectation that this exposure would stop the bombardment of the city. From Charleston he was sent to Columbia, thus making the rounds, not as an inspector of prisons, but as a sufferer at every step. While a prisoner he twice escaped, and was twice recaptured. Finally he was paroled and sent to Wil- mington, N. C., in March, 1865, but remained in the Union army till August of that year. Ilis army life was heroic. He won the commendations of every commander under whom he served. He was among the youngest and the best, soldiers from this State.

The war ended, and peace once more smiling upon the country, he returned to Newburyport ; but not to his law books. He had an inclination for trade-a taste for commercial affairs ; and immediately formed a partnership with Mr. Newman Brown, the oldest dealer in coal in the city-giving what leisure time he had to the insurance business. In 1866 he married the eldest daughter of Hon. Albert Currier, of New- buryport. In 1867 he accepted an engagement in Hartford, Ct., as a special agent and adjuster for the North American Fire Insurance Company, in which position he continued two years. Then he purchased the coal business of Mr. Newman Brown, who retired ; and selling the property to the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, became the super- intendent of their business at Newburyport for ten

years. During that time the coal sales increased from 10,000 tons per annum to 80,000, which was profitable to him and them. Desiring to have more control of his own time, he resigned, continuing the same business with Fred. L. Atkinson, till, outside business continning to increase, he retired altogether from the trade. Since that he has been engaged in large corporate enterprises, in land, lumber and cotton, at the South. Most of his time is now spent on the Lower Mississippi, at Arkansas City, Ark., and below. Ile is connected with a Boston corporation which has an extended traet of land, some of the most valuable in the Southwest, on which timber is being felled and dressed for the markets, thus opening a trade important to that section of country. Having visited most of the Southern States, he feels assured of their great prosperity in the near future, from the richness of the soil, their mineral wealth and other natural advantages.

Having his residence in Newburyport, this city has been pleased, as often as circumstances would permit, to avail herself of his abilities and qualifications for publie life. Seven years he was a director of the Public Library, for which his fine scholarship and extensive reading fitted him. Five years he served in the City Council ; one year an alderman and one president of the Common Council. Two years- 1883-84,-he was in the Legislature, actively partici- pating in the debates on the most important questions, being a leading Democrat, and winning the confidence and applause of all parties. The next year he was a candidate for State treasurer, and after a canvass of the State, during which he spoke for the Democrats in all sections of the Commonwealth, he ran more than three thousand votes ahead of his ticket. His friends hold him in reserve now for the Congressional nomination, when an opportunity to elect him shall appear. Ile has developed a good degree of states- manship and fine oratorical powers, few men com- manding more attention from an audience. He is thoroughly sound in principles, adhering to the plat- forms of Jefferson, Madison and other fathers of the Republic. Hle has no tendency to Socialism, which is so rapidly pervading the country ; is opposed to a protective tariff; is firm against all unnecessary and unconstitutional taxes; opposes the unlawful inter- ference of the Federal Government with the States ; or of the States with the counties and towns; or of the towns with individual rights and duties.

ANTHONY STICKNEY JONES.1

Anthony Stickney Jones was born in Pembroke, N. H., July 12, 1802, the only child of David Wheeler Jones, of Boston, and Marcy (Stickney) Jones, of Newburyport. Mr. Jones, the senior, was Welsh by the blood of his ancient house, but had been born in

1 Ry George J L. Colby.

( 7

1853

NEWBURYPORT.

Concord, Mass., to which his mother had fled from contiguity with the English, then in possession of Boston and making her residence their headquarters. After the birth of her son some thirty days, he being born July 4, 1776, the great day in our calendar when the republic was declared, she returned to her home and was admitted to her residence on Bedford Street, which is now owned by her grandson, Dr. Anthony S. Jones. Originally a machine-shop was attached to the rear of the dwelling in which Mr. Jones worked with a relative, Robert Turner, in making cut nails, then first coming into use; and here being injured in lifting iron, he was ordered hy his physicians to Vermont, whence he came down to Pembroke, N. H., where he married his wife, Marcy Stickney, in 1801. She was in the seventh generation from William Stickney, who emigrated from the parish of Stickney, nine miles from Hull, England, whence he sailed for America. He was at Boston in 1638, and one of the original settlers of Rowley in 1639, of whom Gov. Winthrop wrote: "They are godly men, and most of them of good estate." William Stickney was a man of property and much influence, hut of little education,

William's second son was Amos, who was the great- great-great-grandfather of Dr. Jones. He was a weaver at Rowley, in the first fulling-mill on this continent, in a town which, Winthrop said, "exceeds all others in the mannfacture of cloth." Later he set np his business on the Parker, in Newbury, but he owned land in what is now Newburyport.

Amos had a son John, likewise a weaver, on the Artichoke River, where he owned land. He was also a soldier, defending Haverhill against the Indians in 1708. He owned land in Newburyport near the Smith brick-yard and common pasture. John had eight children, the fifth being Joseph, who is styled a mariner and a joiner; owned a part of Long (now Bartlet) Wharf, the lower side adjoining that of Ed- ward Presbury, who was a shipwright living in the conrt on the upper side of the road, and was father-in- law to Hon. Jonathan Greenleaf. Also he sold five acres of land on High Street to .John Lowell and Jona- than Jackson, being the same as that on which the Dexter and Johnson houses were built. He seems to have been wealthy, as were the Stickneys, from the first.

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 210

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