History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 220

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 220

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" The nncounted generations that have come and gone, the slow advance of freedom through sixty centuries, the mistakes that have darkened history warn ns vigilantly to guard the summit of man's liberty, our Constitution so dearly won. The morning gilds our mountain heights of freedom, when eclipsed by noon it shall only make the men that held their passes immortal."

This appeal for suffrage to the disfranchised sol- diers of Massachusetts has been honored by a repeal of Massachusetts' disfranchising law as applied to them.

Mr. Boynton was the advocate of suffrage and re- forms in money ; was without any large organized party like the Democratic and Republican, yet receiv- ed ten thousand three hundred votes. Eight thou- sand legal votes under United States laws were ex- cluded by Massachusetts. A large number of illegal votes were counted for Loring, who claimed a few score votes more as illegally allowed him. The South denied the excuse of Massachusetts nullifying the amendment. Both old parties united against Boyn- ton unless he would join them.

In 1885 Mr. Boynton, at the Worcester Conven- tion of the Republican party, made an earnest protest of the duty of Massachusetts to obey the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution. That year the Massachusetts Constitution was amended to conform to the national suffrage law ; but as it required two years and a submission to the people and two-thirds majority every step, it has siuee by a few votes been defeated in the House after passing the Senate ; but the end is certain-either the national Constitution must be obeyed by all the States in the Union or suf- frage abandoned, and the sooner Massachusetts obeys the Constitution will she be able to ask a similar compliance by the Southern States,-no question is more vital than suffrage.

ORIN WARREN.

Orin Warren, at this time, 1888, is the principal physician in the town of West Newbury.

An account of his ancestry and early life is fur. nished by two family friends, whose descriptions are so graphic that parts of each paper will be given verbatim.

" The subject of this sketch was born in Fryeburg, Oxford County, Me., January 20, 1833, of American parents, and tradition hath it that in early days his paternal ancestors were of a warlike people, who, for some politieal offence, were driven from Scotland into

Wales. Thenee," some of the family " embarked for the New World of America."

The early death of Dr. Warren's grandparents cut off the source of further information, and we are only able to gather that they were a religious people of the Baptist persnasion aud hard-working farmers."

llis mother's ancestry is described as " Puritan of the most straitest sect." He is a direct descendant of Elder Brewster, of " Mayflower" and Plymouth fame

That the grandfather and grandmother were of a hardy and determined stock goes without saying, when we know that about the year 1792 they mount- ed their horses, and, with one little child, the mother of the subject of this sketch, started from Shirley, Mass., following a bridle-path for scores of miles to the then district of Maine. Settling upon a farm in Fryeburg, in the valley of the Saco River, they coaxed from the soil a living, and brought up, with good re- ligious and educational privileges, a family of eleven children.

Dr. Warren's parents both, at times, earned a liv- ing as teachers of district schools, his father at one time occupying an unused cooper's shop for a school- room, and his mother acting as pedagogue in half of a barn, left vacant for school purposes.

Of hardy and self-reliant extraction, these parents asked of the world only a chance to earn an honest living for themselves and their seven children. Con- sequently Dr. Warren was early taught that to labor was honorable, and that at school or at home there was always business to be attended to.

Theother friend writes of Dr. Warren as one "born of parents who gained a competency by their untiring industry, economy and energy ; the children were largely the fortunate recipients ; all the necessaries and conveniences of life were theirs, without encour- agement to anything of superfluous indulgenee. Self-sacrifice, enterprise, devotion to right and duty were characteristics prominent in the lives of Dr. Warren's parents.

" A full determination to give all the members of their household such religious and intellectual privi- leges as should be favorable to their early develop- ment, and secure to them the highest possible good for their lives and the future, was fully evident.

"The subject of our sketch was the fourth in a merry and musical group of seven, and well calculated for a leader in mirth and song. Naturally of a cheerful disposition, the bright side of life was peculiarly his, and words of courage and good cheer fell from his lips."

This statement is indorsed later by the words of his wife, who says, in regard to this cheerful tempera- ment : " It has been a great help to him in the trying life he has had."

The friend continues : In the quiet and cultured village of Fryeburg, Me., was his home ; the place, embosomed among the hills, upon the banks of the strangely crooked and picturesque Saco, is beautiful

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for situation, and readily reminds one of the truthful poem, commencing,-

"From Agioochook's granite steeps."

The educational advantages of Fryeburg have been for a long series of years superior, as Dartmouth and Bowdoin have supplied active and efficient principals for its far-famed academy, where Dr. Warren pursued a thorough course of study.

Notwithstanding his noteworthy ancestry, his favor- able surroundings and helpful early associations, there was much left for him to accomplish by his own ap- plication, zeal and perseverance, and that these were wisely directed, his subsequent career of usefulness and prosperity abundantly attests.

Dr. Warren began the study of medicine in 1854 with Dr. C. HI. Dana, in Laporte, Pa., continued with Dr. Towle, of Fryeburg, and in the Portland School of Medicine. He pursued his studies further by at- tending two courses of lectures at Maine Medical School, Brunswick, and two more courses at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, where he graduated, March 9, 1858. He spent one season at Deer Island Hospital, Boston Harbor. He came to West New- bury to reside July 14, 1859.

On June 5, 1860, he was married, at the South Con- gregational Church, Boston, by the Rev. E. E. Hale, to Eliza A. Sawyer, daughter of Ezra and Eliza Sawyer. He became a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1861.

This year, 1861, is memorable for the beginning of the great Civil War, by the attack upon Fort Sum- ter. The call of the President for seventy-five thou- sand men to put down the insurrection was altogether inadequate, and was followed by other calls as the magnitude of the Rebellion was made evident. The loyal people arose as one man to preserve the Union of all the States, to save the country from division.

Young men earnestly enlisted in the army, and physicians fresh from their medical studies, or having already begun practice, were anxious to do their part in the good work, and at the same time gain expe- rience in surgery, though at the risk of their lives and the pain of separation from their dear friends at home.

Dr. Warren was one who responded to the nation's call.

On the morning of September 12, 1861, he received an order to report to Surgeon-General Dale at the State-House, Boston, Mass., in the afternoon. That afternoon he started for Annapolis, Md., commissioned as assistant surgeon of the Twenty-first Massachu- setts Volunteers. He left Annapolis with Burnside's expedition for Roanoke Island, January, 1862. He was present at the battle of Roanoke, February 8, 1862, and at that of Newbern, March 14th; also at that of Camden, April 19th, where he was left with the wounded and taken a prisoner.

A week after this Dr. Warren and his patients were sent, via the Dismal Swamp Canal, to Norfolk, where

the wounded were paroled and sent to Fortress Mon- roe, and the doctor was unconditionally released by General Iluger, of the Confederate army.

" This was the day," writes Dr. Warren, " after the memorable battle between the 'Merrimac' and the ' Monitor.' I was invited on board the ' Monitor' by the officers, who were in hopes that I had some infor- mation as to the condition of the ' Merrimac.' "

It seems the place to introduce here an extract from a letter written by Surgeon-General Dale to Dr. John Flint, dated March 17, 1862: "I send you here the following item from a letter of the hospital steward of the Twenty-third Massachusetts Volunteers. From the 11th of February to the 6th of March the pa- tients were under the immediate care of Assistant Surgeon O. Warren, of the Twenty-first Massachu- setts, who labored night and day, using every means in his power, and often depriving himself of comfort that the wounded should have what they needed."

This was done at the General Hospital. Dr. Ilitchcock, on his return from Roanoke, made par- ticular mention of Dr. Warren's devotedness and i efficiency.

"Depriving himself of comfort " was not a senti- mental compliment. Subsisting for three days on a hard-tack and a sweet-potato, while attending to the wounded, required much forgetfulness of self.

Dr. Warren returned to his regiment as soon as a transport left for Newbern. Shortly after his return he was taken ill with dysentery, which continued long after his retirement from the army.

Early in June he received a letter from Adjutant- General Schouler, stating that he had been recom- mended for promotion, and received a commission as surgeon, dated June 9, 1862, in the Thirty-third Regi- ment Massachusetts Volunteers.

On November 30, 1862, he was appointed surgeon of Second Division, Eleventh Army Corps, on the staff of General Steinwehr, and December 18, 1862, was appointed surgeon-in-chief for the same division.

On account of impaired health, before mentioned, Dr. Warren resigned his position in the army, April 1, 1863, and returned to West Newbury to practice his profession and regain his health. Dr. Robinson, who had been for more than fifty years the promi- nent physician of the place, was now aged and in de- clining health, though with sound mind and judgment. September 2, 1863, he " rested from his labors." Dr. Warren had Dr. Robinson's approval and succeeded to much of his practice.

It is a blessing to the country towns in New Eng- land that all men well read in the science of med- cine and skilled in surgery do not go to the large cities to practice.

The sphere of a country physician is not a small one if he improve his opportunities, as his practice is not confined to one town, but he has a circuit some- times for miles around. He can avail himself of the privilege of easy access to the great centres of busi-

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ness and literature, which was denied to his fathers in the profession similarly situated. Though he must drive many weary miles in his rounds of visits, he has beautiful scenery to enjoy and pure air to refresh him after trying watches in the sick-rooms.

The ancient respect for the office of the physician has not entirely faded out from the country towns, and in many instances among our intelligent people "our doctor " becomes the honored friend of families he has visited for years.

Dr. Warren brought from the army to West New- bury more experience in surgery than he could have acquired in many years as a general practitioner. He has gained a well-deserved reputation as a skilltul physician and surgeon. He is remarkable for atten- tion and kindness to his patients.

The high estimation in which his truth and integ- rity are held by the people among whom he dwells are shown by the trusts committed to him in various business matters of importance, and also by his elec- tion to the office of Representative to the General Court of Massachusetts from the district in which West Newbury is situated.

This latter office he would not have accepted had not he required relaxation from the arduous duties of his profession. He became a member of Free and Accepted Masons in May, 1876. He was one of the charter members of Post 151 of G. A. R.

Dr. Warren has an extensive practice and a pleas- ant home in the Western Parish, where his wife and only daughter assist him gracefully in his social duties.

May he long be blessed with health and prosperity to continue the good work of " healing the sick," in which he has been so faithful and so much respected and esteemed.

ELIPHALET EMERY.

Eliphalet Emery was born in that part of Newbury which is now West Newbury, September 5, 1781, and was the son of Nathaniel and Sarah (Short) Emery, of that town. He was born, lived and died on the pa- ternal estate, on which his first American ancestor, John Emery, settled on his arrival from England, more than two hundred years ago. The estate was preserved in all its length and breadth during the life of Mr. Emery, and has descended from him unimpair- ed to his heirs. His education was that of a farmer's son, such as the common schools of Newbury furnish- ed, with the added advantages derived from a course of study in Dummer Academy.

His chosen profession was that of a farmer, inspired partly by the ambition to own and improve his ances- tral acres and partly by the natural tastes for agri- culture which he had inherited with his land. Pos- sessing the habits of industry, accuracy, thoroughness, promptness and fidelity, guided by a quick aud sound intelligence, he stood through life in the front rank among the farmers of the county and State.

Nor did he permit the bounds of his possessions to limit his vision and narrow his mind. Public affairs, those of his town, of his State and of the nation, were subjects to which he applied his mind, and which, in their turn, expanded and strengthened his intellect. He was a member of the Board of Selectmen of West Newbury, after its incorporation in 1819, from 1821 to 1853, with the exception of thirteen scattering years. 1n 1829-31 and 1834 he was chosen a representative to the General Court, and in all matters affecting the interests and welfare of his town he was active and influential. He was especially active during the war, though then beyond the allotted age of man, and the financial condition of West Newbury during that trying period owed much of its soundness to his sagacity and skill. One who knew him well said at the time of his death, " that he died beloved by his friends, respected by his townsmen and all who knew hin; and that his record was that of a faithful, up- right and honest man."

He married, April 4, 1820, Sarah, daughter of Rev. Moses Hale, of Boxford, and granddaughter of Rev. Moses Hale, of West Newbury. Companions in mar- ried life for many years, they were not long separated by the hand of death. Mrs. Emery died March 4, 1865, and her husband April 20, 1869.

CHAPTER CXLVIII.

HAVERHILL.

BY HON. JOHN B. D. COGSWELL.

Haverhill, England, and the Wards.

THE Indian name of Haverhill was Pentuckett. The early English settlers called it Haverhill, in com- pliment to their first minister, Rev. John Ward, whose family had, for several generations, been iden- tified with the town of llaverhill in England. The New England town long since surpassed its original in importance. Within a few years there has been a pleasant interchange of hospitality between promi- nent representatives of the old town and descendants from the first settlers of the new.

Haverhill in England is situated partly in Suffolk and partly in Essex County, which have long been distinguished by the zeal for Protestantism cherished and manifested in their towns and villages. Indeed, the spirit of non-conformity ran riot there during the Commonwealth. August, 1641, an order was published by the House of Commons for taking away all scan- dalous pictures out of churches. William Dowsing, of Stratford, was Parliamentary visitor of Suffolk churches, under warrant from the Earl of Manchester, general of the Eastern Counties. January 6, 1643, he

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was at Haverhill. "He broke down," he says, "abont one hundred superstitious pictures ; seven Fryars hugging a nun ; the picture of God and Christ; and divers other very superstitious ; and two hundred had been break down before I came. We took away the Popish inscriptions and we beat down a great stone cross on the top of the church." On that day, John Ward was ministering, peacefully and profitably, in the little hamlet upon the banks of the Merrimac.

The English Haverhill is twenty miles southeast of Cambridge and fifty northeast of London. In 1887 it had a population of 3684, having nearly trebled during the present century. Its principal in- dustry is a manufactory of checks, cottons and fus- tians, carried on in the Chauntry Mills. It has a market on Wednesday. The places of worship are St. Mary's Episcopal, the old Independent, Con- gregational Chapel, Primitive Methodist, Baptist Chapel, Gospel Room. Municipal functions are administered according to the English complicated system, by local school and burial boards, the Petty Sessions and the County Court.

The voluntary associations are not unlike, at least in name, those with which the American town is familiar. There is a Literary Institute; a Mutual Improvement Society, a local parliament in connec- tion with it; a Choral Union ; a Practicing Society ; the Liberal Association ; Bible and Blanket Societies; the Maternal Institute; a Book Club; Burial and Benefit Societies; the Odd Fellows; Ancient Shep- herds, Ancient Druids, Good Templars, Bands of Hope, Brass and String Bands, Banks, penny and other ; Cricket and Foot-ball Clubs, a Volunteer Fire Brigade. Lastly, there are local poets, who sing :

"On the green turt, in verdant paths and vales, With cowslips washed by many a gurgling rill, Grows the pale primrose in sequestered dales, With eglantines, adorn fair Haverhill."

Aud so on through many stanzas.

The Wards, who thus become a link between the Haverhills of okl and new Essex, were an able and high-spirited family. John Ward, the first, who graduated at Christ College, Cambridge, preached at Haverhill and afterwards at Bury. Ile was suspend- ed by his bishop "for not yielding to wear the sur- plice." After suspension, he returned to Haverhill, where he died, October, 1598. Upon a mural tab- let in the chancel of the church in which he preach- ed, there is said to be a quaint inscription in Latin, of which the following is a translation :

" Grant some of knowledge greater store : More learned some in teaching ; Yet few in lifo did lighten more, None thundered more in preaching."

" Worthies," people used to say that "all of them put together would not make up his abilities."

Nathaniel Ward, the second son, born at Haverhill about 1578, died minister at Shenfield, E-sex, Eng- land, about 1652. He graduated at the Cambridge University in 1603, and was bred a lawyer ; traveled on the Continent in Russia and Denmark, in the company of certain merchants; devoted himself to divinity, and became rector of Standon in Hert- fordshire. He was connected with the Massachu- setts Company in 1630. Brought before Archbishop Laud for non-conformity in 1631 and silenced in 1633, he came to New England in 1634, and became pastor of the church at Agawam or Ipswich, resign- ing in 1636, on account of impaired health. In the year following the settlement of Haverhill in Ameri- ca, the General Court availed itself of his former legal studies and great experience, [for the prepara- tion of the " Body of Liberties," the first code of laws established in New England. It embodied the fundamental declarations of Magna Charta, which, expanded and more precisely expressed, were pro- claimed in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. At the close of 1646, Nathaniel Ward returned to England. Early in the next year he published at London his famous politico-religious tract, "The Simple Cobler of Aggawam." He preached before the General Court of Massachusetts and the House of Commons in England. Able, satirical and eccen- trie, he is especially entitled to mention in this place, as the originator of the movement which led to the settlement of Haverhill.

John Ward, son of Nathaniel, was a man of very different character, perhaps more attractive. He was born November 5, 1606, probably at Ilaverhill, though possibly at Ipswich, England. Like his father and grandfather, he was educated at Cam- bridge, taking his degree of A.B. in 1626 and of A.M. in 1630. He came to America in 1639, and ap- parently made his home for a time in Ipswich, with or near his father. Governor Winthrop, in his his- tory, under date of February 29, 1641, mentions the arduous journey from Piscataqua to Agamenticus (now York, Me.,) of Mr. John Ward, with three others, " Who was to be entertained for their min- ister, aud though it be but six miles, yet they lost their way and wandered two days and one night without food or fire, in the snow and wet. But God heard their prayers." Probably it was not so much this rough experience as the earnest desire of his father, which prevented Mr. Ward's settlement in Agamentiens, and brought him to Haverhill, where he probably took up his permanent residence in the autumn of 1641. He had already had experience in the ministry in England. Cotton Mather has drawn his picture with great detail in the Magnalia. He describes him as " learned, ingenions and religious. He was a person of quick apprehension, a clear un-

This " Painful minister," as he was styled, had three sons,-Samuel, Nathaniel and John, all in the Church, of whom, according to Fuller in his | derstanding, a strong memory, a facetious conversa-

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tion, an exact grammarian, an expert physician, and, which was the top of all, a thorough divine; but, which rarely happens, these endowments of his mind were accompanied with a most healthy, hardy and agile constitution of body, which enabled him to make nothing of walking on foot a journey as long as thirty miles together. Such was the blessing of God upon his religious education, that he was not only restrained from the vices of immorality in all his younger days, but also inclined unto all virtuous actions."

The learned Cotton proceeds to characterize this athletic and accomplished young English divine as also modest and retiring, temperate in diet and sleep, sober in apparel, dutiful and generous to his parents, not ambitious of public display, but truly unostenta- tious, and prudent in managing the affairs of his church and parish, ever seeking the best advice and guided by it. "Through his humility and reservation, it came to pass that, as he chose to begin his ministry in old England at a very small place, thus when he came to New England he chose to settle with a new plantation where he could expect none but small circumstances all his days."

It is quite easy to believe that so admirable a person, thus plentifully endowed with gifts and graces, both of soul and body, might have entered into a profitable matrimonial alliance. We are not therefore surprised when we learn that John Ward " had great offers of rich marriages in England. Yet he chose to marry a meaner person whom exemplary piety had recommend- ed." It that were the only consideration entering in- to the young Puritan minister's scheme of life, it could scarcely be regarded as a love-match. But, although she was so unsparing of his faults "that he would compare her to an accusing conscience," and although " she would often put upon him the duties of secret fasts, yet she ever pleased him wonderfully. Helived with her for more than forty years, in such a happy harmony, that when she died he professed that in all this time he never had received one displeasing word or look from her. When she met with anything in reading that she counted singularly agreeable, she would still impart it unto him. For which cause, when he lost his mate, he caused these words to be fairly written over his table-board-' In Lugenda Compare, Vitæ Spacium Compleat Orbus,' " an apparent aband- onment to grief of the future span of lite hardly con- sistent with the severe self-constraint previously ascribed to him. " And there is this memorable pass- age to be added. While she was a maid there was ensured unto hen the revenue of a parsonage worth two hundred pounds per annum, in case that she married a minister. And all this had been given to our Ward, in case he had conformed unto the doubt- ful matters of the Church of England, but he left all the allurements and enjoyments of England, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God in a wilderness."

The "meaner person," who nevertheless would have brought such comfortable preferment to her hus. band, if he had been contented to abide an amenable clergyman of the Church of England, was Alice Ed- munds, thus, according to Cotton Mather's testimony, quite able to exert a highly beneficial influence in her own household. Their children were two,-Mary, who married Benjamin Woodbridge, and Elizabeth, who married Nathaniel Saltonstall, first of Ipswich and afterwards of Haverhill. Both of these daughters had children, and among the descendants of John Ward, the first Haverhill minister, have been and are some of the ablest men and some of the brightest and most benevolent women of New England.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 220

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