History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 57

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 57

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During the late Civil War he was, by President Lincoln, commissioned as a brigade commissary in the army, with the rank of captain, serving for two years in that capacity.

Parker and Elias Burnham, natives of Essex, estab- lished the first marine railway in Gloucester.

DISTINGUISHED DESCENDANTS OF JOHN COGS- WELL, EARLY SETTLER OF CHEBACCO .- Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was descended from Cornelius Waldo, who married John Cogswell's daughter, Hannah; Oliver Wendell Holmes ; United States Senator John J. Ingalls, of Kansas; Rev. Francis T. Ingalls, his brother; William Cogswell, the distinguished artist ; Hon. John Wentworth, Congressman from Illinois and mayor of Chicago; Rev. Daniel Waldo, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, who lived to the age of one hundred and two years; Rufus Cogswell, a Revo- lutionary soldier, who died at the age of one hundred years ; Horace Maynard, member of Congress from Tennessee, Minister to Turkey and Postmaster-Gene- ral; Loren P. Waldo, member of Congress and judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut; P. Brainard Cogswell, editor and author; O. B. Matteson, Con- gressman from New York; Elisha Whittlesey, Con- gressman from Ohio and long the first comptroller of the United States Treasury ; Dr. Henry Daniel Cogs- well, philanthropist and millionaire of California, who presented public drinking-fountains to the city of Washington and thirty other cities of the United States; Samuel S. Fisher, colonel in War of Rebel- lion and commissioner of patents under Grant ; Arthur Orcutt Jameson, graduate of Dartmouth College, a brilliant scholar, died in early manhood ; Edna Dean Proctor, distinguished as a writer of prosc and verse ; Rev. Dr. James Cogswell, who died

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

at the age of eighty-seven years, at the home of his son in Hartford, Conn., of whom it is related that in his last illness, when his memory had so far failed that he forgot that he had a son, on being asked if he remembered anything about Jesus, said promptly and wi h animation, "O yes, I do remember him ;" the tive brothers, Rev. Drs. Nathaniel and William, Judge Thomas, Francis, and Dr. George Cog-well; General William Cogswell, Congressman from Massachusetts, Seventh District; Hon. John B. D. Cogswell; Fred- erick Hull Cogswell, expert phonographer, founder of a school of phonography, and author of works on the art ; William S. Robinson, the politician, editor and correspondent over the signature of " Warrington ;" and many others of more or less note in different parts of the country.1

PERPETU ATION OF EARLY SURNAMES.2-Of one hundred and ninety-six families residing in this town in 1820, one year after its incorporation, fifty-two were of the name of Burnham ; and of the residue, a pro- portionately large number were of the names of An- drews, Choate, Cogswell, Goodhue, Low and Story. On the list of legal voters here in 1887 are the follow- ing: Andrews, 13; Burnham, 80; Choate, 4; C'ogs- well, 13; Goodhue, 3; Low, 22; Story, 47.

ORTHOGRAPHY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF SURNAMES. -Some of the early settlers spelled their names dif- ferently at different times, and sometimes differently in one and the same document. Andrews is some- times signed Andros. Burnham was sometimes writ- ten Burnam and Burnum. In the eleventh century it was spelled Bernham and Byrnham.

Ou tile in the office of the clerk of the courts in Salem is an atlidavit, dated June 28, 1664, signed "John Choat." lle was the first of the name here. In his signature to the witchcraft petition it is spelled "Chote," while that of his son Thomas is as now

" The Comwells in America," by Rev. Ephraim O. Juneson, of Millis, Mass, men-Ju-law of the late Rev. Dr. William Cogswell, is n arge and elegant volume, finely illustrated, containing the foregoing det In, le Fles much interesting history.

I believe that the late Edwin P. Whipple, the brilliant easyist, bory coti. and popular leturer, was a descendant of John Cogs- w. , f trebacca, and a kinnaman of Ralph Waldo Emerson und Wen- le | Philly lt father was Matthew Whipple, und he had also a Ar ther Mattl w, len esployol in John M. Ives' book store in Salem, abl fr ye un afterwards a dealer in artists' materials, in Cornhill, Het n The Either chiel in Gloucester when Edwin was an infant, and IN w . w. i n d e r novol with her children to Salen.

In der Welt crowd, grundson of John Cogswell, first settler, Ji ritos, Leiter ( Rev. John Emerson, of Gloucester, Boll ( I wi i wh was au au restor of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Matthew Wh pjf. mantiel the eldest daughter of this Willium Cogs- wel 45 wu, I think, in un Ster of Edwin P. Whipple, whose ulder r Bản given the time of Matthew, which was the first name of

Vi thenghĩ f R đơn Enron, of Gloucester, married Sam- Pelops goldsmith, of Sales,'and win the great great grandmother

1 1, 1 4 th sam Phillips line.

uniformly written, Choate. John, Jr., in an entry at the Probate office, signed himself "Chote."

Goodhue was sometimes written Goodhew, as in the witchcraft petition.

Mears is written Meares, Meeres and Meers.

Lufkin is sometimes written Lovekin, as in the witchcraft petition.

The origin and significance of some of the names have not been traced, while those of others are clearly traccable, as well as obvious.

In books on English surnames the first syllable of Burnham is said to signify chief, hero and man ; also a knight, a noble; and sometimes a small river or brook, as now in Scottish song-"the wimpling burn." Ham, the terminal syllable of a large number of names of localities, signifies a town, a village; and the two syllables combined mean a town by a river. Applied to a man, the word signified a lord of a town or vil- lage. In Shakespeare's "Macbeth " the same name, spelled Birnam, is applied to a forest, in act iv., scene 1, and in act v., scenes 3, 4, 5 and 7; and scene 4 of act v. describes how "Birnam wood " did "come to Dnnsinane."

The meaning of Goodhue is, obviously, good color ; and so the name was construed in a published tribute, in Latin, to Rev. Francis Goodhue, who died in 1707 : " Bonitas conjuncta colori cognomen præbent."

Lufkin or Lovekin implies attachment to kindred.

The name Mears, in England and sometimes in this country, has been written Meres, as the plural of Mere, which has two significations-one, a boundary ; the other, a lake; as Grassmere and Windermere, and likewise as in Tennyson's, poem of the Two Voices, when, on the Sabbath morn,

" Like softened nirs that blowing steal, When meres begin to uncongeal, The sweet church bells began to peal."

Rev. Francis Meres was a distinguished clergyman and belle-lettres scholar of Shakespeare's time, who was probably a personal acquaintance of the great bard. He wrote appreciatingly of him when both were living, exhibiting fine literary taste, acuteness, and judgment ; and were he now here, he would, 1 think, dissipate into vapor the idiotic hypothesis that Bacon wrote Shakespeare.

In the following verbatim copy of the will of John Mears, who at the age of three years, came in the ship Abigail, in 1635, from London, with his father, Robert Mears, the name is spelled in no less than three different ways:

" BONTON : 26 : 7 mo. 1663. 1, John Meers, lying sick-declare this as my last will, if no other after this dor appeare. I make my deur vnkell, James Johnson, executor of this my last will. I give to my wife, Mary, my dwelling-honse during her life & if she marry, her next husband to give to her Child she now goes with, yt saidl house and ground, & after both her & her chill's decease, then to my two brothers, or ye survivor of them. Morover, I give to my beloved wife ye bed I now ly on with all ye furniture thereto belonging, six grrone Chairs, a round table and two paire of sheets, besides thom I had with her, with a Long table in the hongo. To my father Meares my best snit and Clonk and four C'ord F of wood, with my Wedding hut. To my dear mother Meares my Chest

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of drawers, two paire of sheets and bed ticking. To my brother, Samuel Meers, a pair of blew Curtaines ; & my 2dl suit and Coat to James Mears, with my musket aud arms; to my wife, all the rest of my estate. John Meers.

" Witness, JAMES JOHNSON, " JAMES OLIVER."

THE PERKINS FAMILY .- Crowell's "History of Essex," on pages 130 and 255, is in error in giving the name of William Perkins as that of the first ancestor in Ipswich, of those of that surname in Essex. John Perkins, Sr., was their primitive ancestor in this country.

The mistake is noted here, let it be distinctly understood, not in any sense or degree whatsoever, as an imputation upon the general accuracy of that mer- itorious work, to which every one who writes histori- cally of this place must be indebted for valuable in- formation, the result of careful and conscientious re- search.

It occurred very naturally, as the records show that a William Perkins came early in 1633, as one of the company of John Winthrop, Jr., that made the first settlement at Agawam, afterwards called Ipswich. He was a preacher, who had no family, being then a single man ; and he remained only about one year, when he removed first to Roxbury, where he married Elizabeth Wotton, and subsequently to Weymouth, which he represented in the General Court, and after- terwards to Gloucester, and next to Topsfield.

John Perkins came later in the same year, 1693, to Agawam, from Boston, where he had lived for about two years, having arrived there in 1631, in the same vessel with the famous Roger Williams. He came from Newent in Gloucestershire, in England; whereas the Rev. Wm. Perkins came, in 1632, from London.

This William left a few descendants in Topsfield; but most of the surname in that town and all who came from that place to Essex, were descendants of John, 1st, whose son Thomas, went from Ipswich to Topsfield, and about 1640 married Phebe, daughter of Zaccheus Gould.

Dr. George A. Perkins, of Salem ; Horatio N. Per- kins, of Melrose; and Frederick B. Perkins, of Hart- ford, Conn., have collated and arranged authentic lists of his posterity. Horatio N. Perkins has the original manuscript of his last will and testament and his ancient Bible.

His descendants are very numerous, especially in this State and Connecticut. many of them highly dis- tinguished in the learned professions and successful in business pursuits. One of them, Dr. Elisha Per- kins, of Plainfield, Conn., was the inventor of the famous " metallic tractors," consisting of two small pointed rods, one of steel and one of brass, used for curing or alleviating rheumatism, sprains, etc., by touching with the points the pained limb or spot. About the beginning of this century, the use of them occasioned a great furor, some zealously approving and others violently opposing. Their discoverer and proprietor had anticipated, by many years, the

magnetic shields, rings, belts, and other appliances of the present time, for the relief of similar ailments. Dr. Perkins was grandfather of Hon. George P. Marsh, of Vermont, the distinguished scholar and diplomat, for some time Minister to Italy, and also to Turkey.

ON ANCESTRAL ACRES .- Miles S., Elias and Elihu Burritt Andrews are living on land purchased by one of their ancestors, Joseph Andrews, in 1678, of John Cogswell, who was a descendant of John, the first settler; from whom they are also descended, through Hannah Cogswell, whose daughter, Rachel Burnham, married the Joseph Andrews above mentioned.

Among others who are living ou land which has been owned in the family betweentwo and three cen- turies, are the family of the late Winthrop Low, Jonathan Cogswell and the family of the late Albert Cogswell, and persons of the names of Andrews, Burn- ham, Low and Story, too numerous to specify.

RUFUS CHOATE, LL.D .- The older portion of those who may chance to read these pages remember more or less of the brilliant career of this remarkable man, though more than a quarter of a century has elapsed since he passed away. I shall not, by attempting anything like an elaborate delineation of him, seek to "add another hue unto the rainbow,"1 but be- yond a brief summary of his personal history, shall merely note a few points and characteristics, chiefly from my own observation.

He and Judge Joseph Story, of the United States Supreme Court, professor at Harvard Law School, and eminent authority in jurisprudence, had a com- mon ancestor in Reginald Foster, who came from England in 1638. He was born in this place, October 1, 1799; graduated at Dartmouth College at the age of twenty, and studied at the Harvard Law School, and in the office of Judge Cummings, of Salem, and afterwards at Washington for a year, with the distin- guished William Wirt, United States Attorney General.

Mr. Wirt resided then in a house still standing in Washington, in G Street, opposite the United States Signal Service office, (head-quarters of " Old Proba- bilities,") and near the War Department. The edi- fice, in recent years, has been occupied as an Asylum for Soldiers' Orphans. Often, in passing the build- ing, have I thought of Choate, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase and other law-students of Mr. Wirt, who afterwards became distinguished.

His practice at the bar extended over a period of thirty-five years, from the opening of an office in Danvers, in 1824, to his decease, in 1859. He repre- sented that town in the Legislature, and one year was a member of the State Senate. He removed in a few years to Salem, and in 1832 was elected to the United States House of Representatives, Declining to serve a second term in Congress he removed, in 1834, to

1 King John, act iv., scene 2.

754

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Boston. He was a Senator of the United States from 1441 to 1-45, filling an unexpired term of Daniel Web- ster, who was Secretary of State in the cabinets of Presidents Harrison and Tyler. He also occupied for some years the honorary position of Regent of the Smithsonian Institute. He was once Attorney General of Massachusetts, and was a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1853. These com- prise all the official positions at any time held by him. In these he evinced distinguished ability ; but his tame rests chiefly upon his wonderful achievements ns an advocate at the bar, and in orations and ad- dresses upon special occasions.

1. Ile owed nothing whatever at the outset of his legal career, to adventitious aids or circumstances, but made his way solely by force of his own genius and ability,-those of his family name who had in some instances been distinguished, having been prin. vipally of the colonial days, and at a remove of at least two, or even three and four generations.

2. An eloquent pleader and fascinating orator, he was at the same time a profound lawyer, a combina- tion not always met with, even in men of distinction at the bar. If there was anything in law which he did not know, it was probably not worth knowing.

3. Ilis rhetoric was peculiar. As I recall the nnique, picturesque, and sometimes gorgeous sentences in some of his speeches, I think of the song of Ariel, in the Tempest :

". Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suller a sea-change Into something rich and strunge."

How apt was the allusion to the aged whaleman of New Bedford, as "tired out with the chase of his gigantic game ! "

Ile had a faculty for saying things which nobody "Isc said, which would at once attract attention aud be widely commented on and remembered. One instance was his saying, in an address before the New England Society of New York City, forty years ago, on the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims, that they founded here "a State without a King, and a thurch without a Bishop." Some will doubtless recollect the animated discussion which took place woon afterwards between two prominent divines, Rev. Dra. Potts and Wainwright, one a Presbyterian and the other an Episcopal ian one contending that there ro ld he, and the other that there could not be, a true church without a bishop. The disputation was reiter- tot by the reiglutes press of this country and of Eng- fino, and the secular journals had a good time over Não a le- serious sein. Very funny also was the desi e of a storcko per on Broadway in that city, who a perdula care, contalionz a parrot, upon cach side ,t how do rww affer having trained the loquacious ford to partospate in the confrisersy-one exclaim- 100, "There can be a church without a bishop," and The ather que rectically retorting, " There cannot be a wi hout a h shop."

Ilis copious vocabulary, like his chirography, was occasionally the subject of good-natured, jocose allu- sions, which he enjoyed as much as did others. Hor- ace Mann related to me that one day when he was present at the Supreme Court, in Boston, during a temporary recess, one of the lawyers mentioned, inci- dentally, that a new edition of Webster's Quarto Dic- tionary was about to appear, containing seventeen thousand new words. Chief Justice Shaw, whose eyes had been closed, apparently in a drowse, groaned and with mock gravity said, "I hope Rufus Choate won't get hold of it !"

4. His nationality, and his belief that to the ques- tion of the maintenance of the Union all else should be subordinate, which in his time were criticized in some quarters as ultra-conservatism, were somewhat differently judged after the late Civil War broke out. When the war-cloud was gathering, before the storm had actually burst upon the country, Mr. Seward took substantially the same position in his last speech in the Senate, just before he took his seat in Lincoln's Cabinet, when he said, " Republicanism is nothing, Democraey is nothing, in the presence of the Union." Choate, years before, had said in a speech, "We stand by the shipping articles and the ship, the whole voyage round. We go for the Union to the last beat of the pulse and the last drop of blood." I presume no one doubts that had he lived until the Rebellion, he would have stood with Everett, whose position previously had been the same as his. ITis utterances had contributed to strengthen and deepen that intense devotion to the Union which nerved millions of American people to sustain it by sacrifice and trea- sure, through the tremendous struggle. As it was with the son and grandson of Webster, so was it with the son and representative of Choate. His son and a son-in-law marched at the country's call, and the son incurred in the exposures of the service the malady that shortened his days. In the battle of Cedar Mountain, he stood shoulder to shoulder with com- rades when several of his company were killed and others fell wounded.

Choate was at heart always anti-slavery. This is evident from some of his private correspondence, in which he could not reasonably be accused of saying anything for public effect. When Edward Everett was in the Senate, he said to him, in a private letter, under date of February 4, 1854, " We hope you may defeat the further extension of slavery, on grounds and by reasoning that will not lose you one American heart or judgment anywhere." In another strictly private letter to the same person, under date of No- vember 17, 1857, he wrote thus in reference to Presi- dent Buchanan, whom he had materially aided to elect : ' I entreat you to give him and all conservative men an idea of a patriot administration. KANSAS MUST BE FREE sua sponte-and the nation kept quiet. and honest, yet with a certain sense of growth, nor unmindful of opportunities of glory."

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5. His estimable personal qualities won the friend- ship of all who knew him. He was always unpre- tending, free from hauteur, accessible and genial. He was modest in his estimate of himself, and especially moderate in his charges for his professional services. President Brown, in his biography of him, says that his largest fee in any one case was $2,500, and his largest retainer $1,500; the largest amount of receipts in any one year was a little more than $22,000; average for the last eleven years of his life, nearly $18,000; and in one year only did they fall below $13,000.

The late Hon. Matthew H. Carpenter, the brilliant lawyer of the West, and United States Senator from Wisconsin, used to speak with emotion of Mr. Choate's kindness to him, when, poor and unknown, he came from Vermont to Boston, and applied for admission to his office as a law-student. Although he had already as many students as his rooms would accommodate, he took him into his own room, be- stowed upon him every attention, and when he started to begin a career at the West, he supplied him with money without solicitation or even intimation. This Mr. Carpenter promptly repaid as soon as able to do 80. In some other cases, however, his generosity and good nature were imposed upon.

6. What may interest the people of this town, per- haps, as much as anything else concerning him per- sonally, is the fond attachment he manifested for his native place. How naturally, when in the U. S. Sen- ate, he expressed this sentiment in a letter to his son, then a little boy, at school in Essex. After telling him how warm the weather was, in the month of May, in Washington, where the grass was then mown and roses were in bloom, he added: "Give me the sun of Essex, however, I say, for all this. One half hour, tell grandmother, under those cherished button-woods, is worth a month under these insufferable fervors." Similar associations and memories were uppermost in his mind, only a short time before he died. He had for some time been an invalid ; and in hope to regain health, he took passage, with his son, in a steamer, for Europe. On arriving at Halifax, he was too ill to proceed any further ; and so he tarried there, in- tending, as soon as sufficiently recovered, to return to Boston. Only the day before his death, he considered himself better and gaining; and the surgeon of the Admiral's flagship of the British fleet then on that station, who had been called in, expressed himself encouragingly. But a little before two o'clock, the next morning, July 13, 1859, he ceased to breathe. In reply to a question, his last words were, that he felt very faint. An autopsy revealed that his death was due to granular dissolution of the kidneys, com- monly called Bright's disease.

Nothing could be more touching than his conver- sation in his last hours, as thus recorded by his son : " Ile talked much of home, making little plans about the best way of getting there; talked of sending for

his family to come to him, hut thought he should recruit so soon that it would be of no use ; talked about Essex, of wanting to go down there, and having a boat built for him, discussing her size and rig."

He who had held juries spell-bound, and charmed multitudes, thought not at this time of courts or listening crowds, but tenderly recalled the scenes of his old home, the ancient town where he drew his first breath.

HON. DAVID CHOATE .- The experiences of this distinguished native and life-long resident were so interwoven with the affairs of the inhabitants, both civil and religious, that a personal sketch of him is a legitimate part of the history of the town. As surveyor, conveyancer, adjuster of estates, and adviser, his services were often in requisition ; and his educa- tional influence upon the place was greater, as a whole, than that of any other person, the recollection of him being ineffaccable from the minds of the large number, of both sexcs, still living, who were among his pupils.

While firm and steadfast in adherence to his de- liberately formed and cherished opinions, he was every mindful of the amenities of social life ; and in his personal intercourse with any and all of those who entertained differing convictions, he never for- got to be a gentleman.

The elder brother of Rufus, he was born in the ancient house on the island, November 29, 1796, and was married, January 14, 1828, to Elizabeth, daughter of Col. Thomas Wade, of Ipswich. They had six children, of whom the following survive : Dr. David Choate, of Salem, Hannah, principal of one of the public schools in that city, Rufus and William C., who reside in Essex, and Rev. Washington Choate, pastor at Irvington-on-the-Hudson, N. Y.

He was a descendant, in the sixth generation, from John Choate, who came to this country in 1645, and also from John Perkins, 1st, George Giddings, John Procter 1st, Reginald Foster, and Thomas Varney.

As a Teacher .- As an instructor Mr. Choate was in his native element. He had not only a due ap- preciation of the dignity of this vocation, which he followed nearly thirty years, but he had a sympathetic and devoted attachment to it. He performed its duties not in a merely perfunctory manner; his heart was always in it. He gave to it more hours of preparation, labor, care and solicitude than any contract would require, and throughout his long career in this calling, he rendered vastly more than an equivalent for any remuneration. He was never a hireling who careth not for the flock. He shrank from no extra toil or effort to assist and encourage those of his pupils who might wish to gain knowledge beyond the established routine of school-studies in his time. He was the first in the town to introduce the study of Astronomy, which he made especially attractive.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 57

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