History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 248

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 248

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Adams came here from France, as he had promised, and joined them. Josiah Quiney, the most venerable public man in Boston in our time, was Leonard White's fag in college.

Peter Eaton, born in the West Parish, and one of the earliest pupils of Phillips Andover Academy, afterwards the judicious and beloved pastor of Box- ford, was in the same class. Stephen Peabody Webster, also of the West Parish, the first graduate of Atkin- son Academy to enter college, was in the class of 1792. He lived long in Haverhill, N. H. William Smith Shaw, son of the minister and founder of the Boston Athenæum, graduated in 1798.

Leonard White began life in a brilliant way, socially. He was the son of a rich man and he married. the danghter of Tristram Dalton, of Newburyport, grand- daughter of "King" Hooper, of Marblehead. But he was himself neither brilliant nor ambitious. He was modest, kindly and faithful in the discharge of every duty. Much regarded by his townsmen, he was frequently honored by public trust. He served largely upon the school committees, was many years town clerk and treasurer, was in the Legislature in 1409, and a member of Congress from 1811 to 1813. Then he became the first cashier of the Merrimac Bank, serving in that position for a quarter of a century. In the parlor of one of his descendants his portrait hangs, looking out with youthful expression and cheery smile.

James C. Merrill and Samuel Merrill, sons of Gyles Merrill, the good parson of the North Parish, fitted together at Phillips Exeter Academy, and graduated in the same class at Harvard in 1807. Both were ex- cellent classical scholars. One was better in Greek ; the other in Latin. Both studied law. Samuel prac- ticed in Andover. Many a school-boy remembers his long cloak and grave demeanor. James studied with Varnum, practiced in Boston, and was long judge of the Police Court. To the last he kept up his Greek, and in that department was one of the eminent scholars of New England. Of Judge Stephen Minot and his sons, something is said elsewhere. Chase speaks highly of Theodore Eames, a native, who graduated at Yale in 1809; was a teacher, a successful lawyer in Salem, and afterwards, till his death in 1847, judge of the Police Court in Brooklyn, N. Y.

A word more should be added of Rev. Moses Badger, from an historical point of view. He was son of Joseph Badger, a merchant of Haverhill, and half- brother of General Joseph, of Haverhill and Gilman- ton. Moses graduated at Harvard in 1761. The Badgers, according to tradition, owned the farm next to the West farm on Kenoza Avenue, now Winnikeni Towers. Moses Badger abandoned the Puritan faith which brought his ancestors to America, and became an Episcopalian clergyman and an enthusiastic propa- gandist. From 1767 to 1774, when he became a Loyalist refugee, and subsequently chaplain of De- lancey's battalion, in the British army, he was a mis-

sionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. It is reasonably conjectured that he first conducted the services of the Episcopal Church in Haverhill. After the war he was rector of King's Chapel, in Providence, where he died in 1792.

In 1795, Ichabod Tucker joined the Haverhill Fire Society. He was then, and for some years after, a practicing lawyer here; afterwards he removed to Salem and was for many years the much respected clerk of the courts for Essex County.

Jeremiah Pecker, of Haverhill, who graduated at Harvard in 1757, was also a Royalist. After the Revolution he taught school at St. Johns, N. B., where he died in 1809.

Osgood Carleton, born in Haverhill 1742, died in Boston 1816. He served in the army of the Revolu- tion and was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati. After the war he taught mathematies in Boston, and published many maps-among them one of the State in 1801, by order of the General Court. He made various maps and plans of Boston. Moses Emerson born at Haverhill 1717, graduated from Harvard 1737, was a merchant and seems also to have been a " schoolmaster."

Charles Short, LL.D., who died in New York in 1886, was born in Haverhill in 1821, in the Haseltine house, on Water Street. He graduated at Harvard in 1846, with high honors. He spent his life in teach- ing at Phillips Academy, Andover, Harvard College, in the Roxbury Latin School and in Philadelphia. He was some years president of Kenyon College, Ohio, and was lastly Professor of the Latin Language and Literature in Columbia College. He had a high reputation as a writer and was without doubt the most distinguished scholar of Haverhill extraction.

Many years ago an excellent historical sketch of Haverhill was printed, now not much known, of which it was rather unfairly said, "that it was all about the Saltonstalls." It would be impossible to write of the town in its earlier history without hav- ing something to say of them. The name, indeed, has already frequently occurred in the present description, but only incidentally. Some notice of the family oc- curring elsewhere, only such brief mention will be made of it here as may be found practicable.

Sir Richard Saltonstall, as is well known, came out with Winthrop in 1630; but the following winter being very severe, and he advanced in age, he re- turned to England in the following spring. He, how- ever, retained an interest in the welfare of the country, and his famous and admirable letter to Cotton and Wilson, the Boston ministers, exhibits a fine spirit of tolerance, showing at any rate that from the other side of the Atlantic he saw the politics of the Massachusetts colony in larger perspective than perhaps was possible for the men here. Something of the same kind of credit is due to his son Richard, of Ipswich, who, after several long absences in Eng- land, finally also died there.

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His son Nathaniel was born at Ipswich about 1639. Sibley thinks he prepared for college at Ipswich Grammar School, under the celebrated master Ezekiel Cheever. He married Elizabeth Ward, at Haverhill, December 28, 1663, and from their union are descended all the Saltonstalls of America.

August 29, 1664, in consideration of natural affec- tion and of this marriage; his father conveyed to him about a thousand acres of land in Ipswich and in Chebacco Parish. May 3, 1665, he was admitted freeman. In 1671, and from 1673 to 1678, inclusive, he was "invested with magistratical powers for the year ensuing, in the County of Norfolk." In 1665-68 he was an associate for the County Courts in Norfolk. In October, 1677, the General Court appointed him one of the committee of supervision "of the uew brick building at the college." October, 1680, the General Court ordered "that the Essex Regiment should be divided, and Major Nathaniel Saltonstall should have command of the militia in Newbury, Rowley, Brad- ford, Andover, Topsfield, as also Salisbury, Amesbury and Ilaverhill."

In February, 1681-82, Edmund Randolph included him among those whom he called a faction in the General Court, and a warrant was accordingly issued against him ; although, in 1676, in answer to several heads of inquiry concerning the present state of New England, he had mentioned Saltonstall as among the " most popular and well-principled military men . . . who only wait for an opportunity to express their duty to his Majestie."

In 1666, and 1669 to 1672, Saltonstall had been, by election of the freemen of Haverhill, its deputy to the General Court.

As has been said elsewhere, he was of the Provis- ional Council formed April 20, 1789. He was judge of the Inferior Court of the Pleas for Essex, and held that place till his death, May 21, 1707, after a half- year's consumptive illness. Samuel Sewall, who gos- sips about everybody, gives us a little glimpse of him and relates an incident, creditable to both of them. It is well known that he was appointed one of the judges of Oyer and Terminer for the trial of cases of witchcraft ; that he did not sit in the witch cases in 1692, and was " very much dissatisfied with the pro- ceedings of it." Upon which one writer has remarked, "Saltonstall lett the bench, but ought he not, as the friend of justice, to bave been upon it." That would have been heroic, but would have required a good deal of moral courage. Perhaps he had not the martyr's spirit. He at least was superior to the supreme silliness and wickedness of the business, if he did permit his conduct to be modified by prudential considerations. Gurdon Saltonstall was the oldest son of Nathaniel, born at Ilaverhill, March 27, 1666. He graduated at Cambridge in 1684 with great distinction, being also the first graduate furnished by the town. Ile became a minister and was ordained pastor of the church at New London, Connecticut. But in 1707 he was

chosen Governor, and continued in that oflice till his sudden death in 1724. And here one must remark of Governor Saltonstall that if one-half part of the eulogies pronounced upon him are to be taken in earnest, he was certainly the most exalted person this town ever produced-or perhaps any other. It is not intended to reproduce any of these panegyrics here, but they reach all points. lle had, they say, Imagination, reasoning, eloquence, discrimination, readiness, charming manners, a goodly person. Besides, he was just as good as he was great. Ile was, moreover, a strong opponent of Episcopacy.

We begin to understand something of the exalted tributes to Governor Saltonstall when we read that he " was an advocate of rigorous ecclesiastical au- thority, always striving to exalt the ministerial office, to maintain its dignity and to enlarge the power of ecclesiastical bodies, which gave him un- bounded popularity among his clerical brethren "- who made public opinion in those days. But with all allowances, he was clearly an accomplished and remarkable man, who impressed himself deeply upon his cotemporaries.

Richard Saltonstall, second son of Nathaniel, grad- uated in 1695. He always lived at Haverhill, and held civil and military office.

Nathaniel, the youngest son, also graduated in 1695 and was tutor. He is highly spoken of in family tradition, but died young.

Richard, son of Richard last named, was born in 1703 and graduated in 1722. He was colonel in the militia at twenty-three. Drake says he was a scientific and practical farmer. In 1736 he was appointed judge of Superior Court, holding that position till his death, in 1756. It has been necessary to mention his name quite frequently in this narrative. His character was eminently respectable. In 1741, while the court was in session at York, Maine, the celebrated Rev. Samuel Moody, of that place, produced the following :

" Lynde, Dudley, Remington and Saltonstall, With Sewall, meeting at the judgment hall, Make up a learned, wise and faithful set, Of (od-like judges, by God's counsel met."

Judge Saltonstall had three sons of whom we have had occasion to speak,-Colonel Richard, the Loyalist and refugee ; the youngest half-brother Leverett, who died in the British army ; and Dr. Nathaniel, descend- ed through his mother from the patriotic Cooke fami- ly of Boston. Dr. Saltonstall was an excellent man, who practiced his profession in Haverhill respectably and liberally for many years. He enjoyed the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and when he died in 1815, they voluntarily closed their stores and suspended busi- ness. Of Dr. Saltonstall's three sons,-Leverett, Na- thaniel and Richard,-the first and last graduated at Harvard. All removed from the town.

Leverett began the practice of law in Haverhill, but soon transferred his office to Salem. He was a dis-

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tinguished man and a loyal town-man, but his career is fully sketched elsewhere.

So many of this family have graduated formerly from Harvard whilst residents of Haverhill, that the following circumstance should perhaps be mentioned, as given by Sibley in his "Harvard Graduates" : There is no family but the Saltonstalls which has sent seven successive generations to the college-i. e., Nathaniel, graduated 1659; Richard, 1695; Richard, 1722; Nathaniel, 1766; Leverett, 1802. Leverett, 1844; Richard Middlecott, 1881; Henry, son of Sir Richard Saltonstall and uncle of Nathaniel, of Hav- erhill, made nine generations.

In position, prestige, official station and education, the Saltonstalls were undoubtedly the most distin- guished family of the town during the provincial and colonial period and until the Revolution brought forward new men.

Richard Hazzen, of Harvard, 1717, may have been the surveyor and land agent before spoken of.

Edward Barnard, Harvard, 1774, was the son of the minister of the First Parish, and Phineas Adams, 1793, was the son of the minister of the West Parish. Benjamin Greenleaf, the noted teacher and arithmeti- cian, graduated at Dartmouth in 1813. He was born in Haverhill, September 25, 1786.

In 1827, Capt. William Baker, a native of IIaver- hill, died at Providence. He had been a Continental soldier, and in his old age enjoyed a pension. In 1775, when twenty years old, he worked for one Hall, a d.stiller, in Cole Lane (now Portland Street), Boston. The British soldiers were in the habit of lounging about this distillery, and Baker heard some of them in convivial conversation talk of the proposed march to Concord. He got the first news of it through the lines to Richard Devens, of Charleston, who started Paul Revere upon the famous ride.

Some of the Haverhill ministers, whom death has removed within a few years, have formerly heen very dear to the hearts of their parishioners. Among them may be named again Rev. Dr. Train, of the First Bap- tist Society, a useful and scholarly man ; Rev. Dr. George W. Bosworth (yet uuburied while this line is written), of the same ; Rev. Benjamin F. Horsford, of the Centre Congregational, to whom a tribute is paid elsewhere; Rev. Raymond H. Seeley, for twenty- five years the accomplished and beloved pastor of the North Congregational Society ; Rev. Dr. J. W. Han- son, of the Universalist, war chaplain of the "Sixth " in the War for the Union; Rev. T. T. Munger, and Rev. 11. E. Barnes, of the Centre, and many others. Rev. Henry Plummer was a native of Haverhill, born February 22, 1794. Ile preached, largely in llaverhill, for nearly forty years, without salary or regular compensation, and was believed to have done much good.

CHAPTER CLXIL.

JIAVERHILL-( Continued).

Episcopacy-Sketches in Brief-The Churches and Their Present Work.

THE Rev. Charles Arthur Rand, of Trinity Church, who was shipwrecked in the "City of Columbus," was a peculiarly high-minded and devoted inan. Rev. Dr. S. C. Thrall, one of the former rectors, is remem- bered for humor, eccentricity and learning.

From the day when Moses Badger, a young grad- uate of Harvard, embraced Episcopacy and received ordination, one hundred and twenty-five years ago or so, it would seem that there were occasional efforts to build up an Episcopal Church in Haverhill. Rev. Rana Cossit, licensed by the bishop of London to officiate in New England, March 27, 1773, is regis- tered in Fulham records as incumbent of " Haverhill Parish." But it was only in Partibus. Our fathers, the Saltonstalls, the Badgers and all the rest of them, hated and feared Episcopacy. They regarded it as the source of all their woes, and a constant menace to their institutions. And when all the clergymen of that church, like Badger himself, became loyalists, or " Tories," they doubtless thought their gloomy prog- nostications justified. But times and men change. Some of the descendants of the Puritans appear to find special consolation in the ritual and services of the church their ancestors abhorred. And Trinity, seems to be highly prosperon- and even strongly rooted under the efficient rectorship of Rev. David J. Ayers.

October 25, 1869, the town celebrated the hun- dredth birth-day of Hon. Moses Wingate. He was much in town office. He had been often on the school committee, twenty years postmaster, four years representative in General Court, and was in the Constitutional Convention of 1820. A Jeffersonian Democrat in youth, he nobly rounded out his career by voting for Abraham Lincoln at ninety-five. He died June 5, 1870, aged oue hundred years, seven months and twenty-one days. A Mason for sixty-six years and Master Mason in 1813-14, on his centen- nial day he saw his son, the Rev. Charles Wingate, made a Mason.

In 1875 Charles Wingate built upon the homestead estate of his father the Episcopal Free Church of St. John, the Evangelist, where he is the officiating clergyman. He and his wife devote their life and strength to the work, and to the charitable and moral efforts they cluster about it. And under whatever discouragements, they yearly in September, with re- newed gratitude and serene trustfulness, gather about them the friends of the church and of the poor, to celebrate the "Harvest llome."

Among the names hell in regard in the town of men with useful or agreeable qualities, or both, must be named James Gale, Phineas Carleton, Colonel

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Charles White, Rufus Slocomb the expressman, Eleazer A. Porter, Charles Porter, Ezekiel Hale, Caleb Hersey, Moses D. George. And doubtless many more equally deserve mention.

Benjamin Emerson and David P. Harmon are said to have been earnest anti-slavery men, and warm, courageous friends of the slave.

Edward G. Frothingham was a native of Newbury- port, but had lived here many years, when he died, September 17, 1876, at the age of sixty-five years. He had been assistant assessor of internal revenue, and for nearly thirty years was editor and proprietor of the Gazette. Ill health had latterly compelled him to retire from active business, and much curtailed his usefulness.

A person who, for almost fifty years, has been in the way of hearing about Haverhill men would be strangely neglectful were he to omit mention of Al- fred Kittredge. In his day he was identified with almost all the progressive movements of the town, -business, moral, social. Ile was an able man aud a decided man, and the community always knew where to find him. At the time of his death, May I, 1877, he was, at seventy-one, editor and proprietor of the Haverhill Gazette. In the conduct of a paper, he clearly exhibited the same qualities which distin- guished him in private.

Dr. James R. Nichol-, so recently deceased, after a residence of more than fifty years, has been largely known abroad as well as at home. A self-made and self-educated man, he displayed great pertinacity and achieved remarkable success. Proseenting med- ical studies under difficulties, he obtained his degree at the Dartmouth Medical College. At Winnikeni Towers he built up one of the most beautiful estates iu New England. As an officer of many educational institutions and business associations, member of the State Board of Agriculture, and director of the Boston and Maine Railroad, his time was much engrossed, and his name became familiar to the public. As an author, he was successful. "Fireside Science " and " Chemistry of the Farm " have been much read, and his last book, -- " Whence? What? Where?"-received great attention, and has passed through eleven edi- tions.

Haverhill has had an art elub, of which little is heard at the present time.

Harrison L. Plummer is a son of the soil, whose "wandering steps" have "inclined" almost every. where. He paints portraits with as much facility and success in Seville as in Haverhill. Some of his like- nesses are certainly remarkable, and the fine portrait of John G. Whittier painted for his schoolmates at Haverhill Academy, of which the Public Library is custodian, will always be evidence of his skill.

Mr. O. R. Fowler, a landscape painter, has put upon canvas seenes made familiar by the muse of Whittier- his home, or "Fernside," as many of his admirers love to call it, the school-house of his boyhood and

"Country Bridge." The East Parish and the Lake region, have furnished inspiration for many artists, some of them distinguished.

A good many years since, Mr. Hazen Morse, an eminent engraver, established his residence in the town, bringing a hospitable family, several members of which were endowed with artistic taste and skill. One of his sons, still living, enjoyed in his youth the companionship and instruction of Washington Allston and other eminent artists, at home and abroad. It has been thought by loving friends that too great sensitiveness alone may have prevented his signal success in that field. He has, however, been well known and esteemed iu architecture. Just as the new year was coming in, another of this family died suddenly in Boston. Mr. Henry D. Morse was identi- fied with Haverhill from his early youth. An enthusiastic sportsmau, he knew every sunny glade and bosky dell within her borders. Early skillful as an engraver of gold and silver, his artistic instinct and love of beauty in color made him love precious stones, and he is admitted to have possessed a taste in this department almost unrivaled. Ile began the busi- ness of diamond-cutting in America, mastered the secrets of Amsterdam, and became a rival of its methods. Nay more, he invented mechanism which is said to have revolutionized the business. He had, moreover, rare gifts as a painter. Besides, he possessed that brightest jewel, " spotless reputation."

Ilon. Charles J. Noyes, Speaker of the Massachu- setts House of Representatives, a native of Haver- hill, is uoted elsewhere. Governor E. F. Noyes, of Ohio, minister to the French Republic during Presi- dent Hayes' administration, has had intimate relations with the town in formuer years.

On Kent Street, in 1839, was born Henry Bacon, whose father was then pastor of the First Universalist Church. At first employed in a book store in Boston, afterwards a volunteer in the Thirteenth Massachu- setts and wounded, he began his real career when, at twenty-five years, he entered the studio of Cabanel at Paris. In 1866 and the following year, he studied with Edward Frere at Ecouen. His first picture was exhibited at the Salon in 1870.

" Boston Boys and General Gage" was first exhib- ited at the Salon of 1875, and next year at our Centennial Exhibition ; " Franklin at Home," was in the Salon of 1876. Of late years Bacon has shown pic- tures in a different class-like " Bidding Good Bye" aud " The Burial at Sea."

An event well worth pausing an instant to note was the opening of the Academy of Music, on the site of the three Baptist meeting-houses, Merrimac Street, September 17 and 18, 1884, under the management of Mr. James F. West, who has done much to create and gratify taste in the town ; whose wife, Mrs. Julia Houston West,has also pleased many thousands, here and elsewhere, by her noble voice and elevated style as a singer. The seating capacity of the academy is

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one thousand five hundred. In point of approaches, convenience and management, it is fully up to the deserts of the town, and should be regarded as a piece of exceptional good fortune. Still, the best way to achieve success is to deserve it.

Did space permit, a chapter should be devoted to social influences in Haverhill, and to the circum- stances which at one time gave to its society a cer- tain tone and distinction. Itis not generally known that during the siege of Boston a number of wealthy and cultivated people, driven out of the city, found shelter here. Entreated kindly and hospitably, they never forgot the kindness they had received, and in later and happier days they revisited the pleasant little village by the Merrimac and reciprocated its hospitalities. Some whom the stress of war drove hither, lingered permanently in the happy valley. But to explain these circumstances would require more of detail than is now permissible.

It is a curious circumstance that in the early days of the Revolution a part of the library of Harvard would appear to have been brought hither for safe keeping, and that it seems to have been at one time suggested to move the college here also.

It will soon be thirty years (May 15, 1888) since the following advertisement appeared in the Haverhill Gazette : " John James Ingalls ; att'y & counselor at Law : othice with J. J. Marsh, Esq., in Duncan's Building, cor. of Water & Bridge Streets." Within a year appeared the following in the same paper, May 13, 1859 : " John James Ingalls, Attorney at Law, Lawrence, Kansas." That is twenty-nine years ago, and it will very soon be fourteen years since Mr. Ingalls took his seat in the United States Senate, where he is now serving his third term, and over whose deliberations he presides with admirable dig- nity. His unquestioned ability is appreciated no- where more highly than in his own constituency, who regard him with undiminished confidence and in- creased admiration. Senator Ingalls was born in Middleton, a few miles from Haverhill, December 29, 1833, but his family connections were here; here he passed his youth and early manhood, and here his venerable father and his immediate family reside. No record of his career is needed, and no eulogy of his deeds or merits will be attempted. He simply re- ceives the recognition to which he is fairly entitled, as the most distinguished representative of Haverhill, in public life.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 248

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