History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 140

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 140

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The Blake Transmitter, being in turn far superior to the infringing instrument, enabled the Bell Tele- phone Company to hold its own in the sharp business competition which continued until, by a judicial de- cision, the company was assured a monopoly of the telephone business during the life of the Bell pat- ents.

That the experimental work connected with the invention of the Blake Transmitter was most thor- ough and exhaustive is shown by the fact that twelve years of commercial use have not led to any substan- tial changes in the design or construction of the in- strument. There are to-day more than 215,000 Blake Transmitters in use in the United States, and proba- bly a larger number in all foreign countries.

Since his first invention Mr. Blake has kept up his interest in electrical research, and the records of the Patent Office show that twenty patents have been granted to him during the last twelve years.

He has been a director of the American Bell Tele- phone Company since November, 1878.

Mr. Blake's life in Weston began June 24, 1873, on which day he was married to Elizabeth L., daugh- ter of Charles T. Hubbard, of whom a biographical sketch is to be found in this volume.

In the year of his marriage there was the beginning of " Keewaydin," the beautiful estate in the south- eastern part of the town which has since been his home and the birth-place of his two children,-Agnes, born January 2, 1876; Benjamin Sewall, born Feb- uary 14, 1877.

About six acres in land, part of the " Woodlands " estate were given his wife by her father, and on this a beautiful house, the gift of her grandfather, Benjamin Sewall, was erected by the distinguished architect Charles Follen McKim. Since that time the estate has been by purchase increased in area to about 130 acres ; the house much enlarged; a magnificent brick stable built; and the grounds surrounding the home buildings made to reflect the highest art of the land- scape architect and gardener.

The stable buildings are grouped around an interior

court-yard, and, in addition to ordinary stable accom- modations, comprise a cottage, mechanical laboratory, experimental and photograph room, bowling alleys and a theatre seating about one hundred persons. Also a boiler-room from which the house, as well as the stable, is heated by underground pipes.

The estate is furnished with a complete system of water works, including a reservoir holding a quarter of a million gallons, with a head of 110 feet at a foun- tain which rises from the pond at the base of the northwestern slope of the eminence on which the house stands.

The southeastern slope, between the house and the Boston and Albany Railway, is divided by massive stone walls, more than twenty feet in height, into a series of terraces designed for fruit culture and green- houses, the whole being enclosed by a high stone wall.

To the northeast, and adjacent to the house, is a sunkeu garden similar to the oue at Hampton Court, England.

From the upper terrace on which the house stands are magnificent views in every direction, including the valley of Charles River in the foreground and Blue Hill, Milton, eleven miles and a half distant.

With these charming surroundings, Mr. Blake and his household enjoy the healthful luxury of quiet country life.

Mr. Blake was elected :- Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1874. Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1881. Member of the National Conference of Electricians, 1884. Member of the American In- stitute of Electrical Engineers, 1889. Member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, 1889.

He is a Fellow of the American Geographical So- ciety ; member of the Bostonian Society ; member of the Boston Society of the Archaeological Institute of America; and has for many years been appointed by the Board of Overseers of Harvard College a member of the committee to visit the Jefferson Physical Laboratory.

He is a member of the most prominent social clubs of Boston ; and his active interest in photography has led to his election for many years as vice-president of the Boston Camera Ciub.

Mr. Blake has always taken a lively interest in the welfare of the town of Weston and on March 24, 1890, was elected one of its three selectmen.

FREDERICK T. BUSH, born in Taunton, Mass., April 24, 1815 ; married Elizabeth Deblois November 10, 1841. Mr. Bush was appointed United States consul at Hong Kong, China, by President Polk in 1845, which office he held for seven years, returning to America in 1852. In 1855 he established the East India house of Bush & Comstock, which con- tinued until 1865. Mr. Bush purchased the Starr farm in Weston of Doctor Henry T. Bowditch,

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where he continued to reside until his death, in 1887.

DOCTOR AMOS BANCROFT, born in Pepperell in 1767 ; graduated at Harvard College in 1791. He was widely known throughout Middlesex County. He came to Weston about 1795, and remained the resident physician until 1811, when he removed to Groton. He took a leading part in town affairs. Dr. Bancroft married Sally Bass, of Boston, in 1796. He had an extensive practice and at various times a num- ber of students under his charge, among these, Doc- tor George C. Shattuck, who, in 1811, married Eliza Cheerer Davis, the daughter of Mrs. John Derby, of Weston. During the winter, when the roads were blocked up with snow, Dr. Bancroft traveled on snow- shoes and would be absent from home several days at a time. In 1848, while walking down State Street in Boston, he was knocked down and injured so severely by a passing team that he died a few hours after. He was attended at his last moments by his former stu- dent, Doctor George C. Shattuck. He was seventy- seven years old at the time of his death.

THOMAS BIGELOW BANCROFT, son of Doctor Amos, graduated at Harvard in 1831, and studied medicine with Doctor Shattuck.

DOCTOR BENJAMIN JAMES followed Doctor Ban- croft as the physician of Weston in 1812, and remain- ed the very popular and highly esteemed practitioner of the town for over thirty-six years. In 1847 he re- moved to New Jersey, where he died at an advanced age. Doctor James was, for many years, town clerk, and filled, at one time and and another, all the chief offices of the town. In 1814 Docter James published a book on Dentistry, which was highly spoken of in its day.

DOCTOR EDGAR PARKER, of Framingham, came to Weston in 1865. He was assistant surgeon in the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment in the war of 1861.

NATHANIEL COOLIDGE, of Watertown, married Lydia Jones in 1687, and settled in Weston. His name is first on the list of the original members of the Weston Church. He was a tailor by trade, but also a large land-owner and farmer. His will desig- nates three farms, mills and wears. He gave one- half acre of land where the first church in Weston was built, boardering on the road which then ran through what is styled the Parkhurst meadow, about in the rear of Doctor Jackson's house. He died in 1711, hut gave no deed of this land to the parish dur- ing his lifetime. He had thirteen children.

In 1715, JONATHAN COOLIDGE, of Newton, his tenth child, born in 1672, conjointly with his wife, Mary, executes a deed to the church, "being moved thereto by divers good causes and considerations, but more especially that of my honored father, Nathaniel Coolidge, etc." This deed is interesting as being witnessed by Colonel Ephraim Williams, of Newton, killed at Lake George in 1755, and the founder of

Williams College in Berkshire County. Jonathan Coolidge was killed by the fall of a tree in 1730.

EPHRAIM CUTTING, born in East Sudbury in 1774; married Theodora Pratt, of Weymouth, in 1802. He had seven children and died in 1866, aged ninety-two years. By trade Mr. Cutting was a carpenter and housewright.

GEORGE WARREN CUTTING, born in Roxbury, March 24, 1805, was the second child of Ephraim. He removed to Weston in 1822 and bought out Jona- than P. Stearns' grocery business in 1830. In 1860 he was appointed postmaster of Weston, which office he held at the time of his death, a period of twenty- five years. He conducted the only grocery in Weston from 1828 to 1885, a period of fifty-seven years. He was a man highly esteemed by the community, of strict integrity and great amiability. He filled many offices of the town with universal acceptance. In 1830 he married Elizabeth Lord, of Ipswich. He had eight children and died May 13, 1885, at the age of eighty years.

GEORGE W. CUTTING, JR., third child of George W., born in Weston, November 18, 1834, succeeded his father in the business, with whom he had been in partnership for some years previous to his father's death. In 1875 George W. Cutting & Son purchased the store property in the centre of Weston of the wid- ow of John Lamson, which property had been in the Lamson family for over one hundred and fifty years.

Mr. Cutting married Josephine M. Brown in 1865 and had six children. In 1862, upon the death of Nathan Hager, he was chosen town clerk, which office he still fills in the year 1890. Mr. Cutting has filled and is still filling many offices of trust in the town.

ALFRED LESLIE CUTTING, his second child, born January 27, 1868, has opened a grocery store on the Concord Road in Weston.

JOHN DERBY, of Salem, purchased a large tract of land in Weston in 1796 and 1805, and made Weston his summer residence. At his death Genera! Samuel G. Derby became possessed of this estate. In early life Mr. Derby followed the sea, and at one period commanded the Sea Fencibles. The title of General he obtained in the War of 1812. He died in Weston and was buried in Salem. Eliza Cheerer Davis, the adopted daughter of John Derby, married Doctor George C. Shattuck, of Boston, in 1811.

There are few men identified with Massachusetts who have left a more brilliant record as an inventor than Ira Draper. Ile was a native of Dedham, Mass., and was born December 29, 1764. Mr. Draper became a resident of Weston in 1809, having pur- chased the Goldwaite farm, which, during the Revo- lution, was owned by Dr. Wheaton, who is men- tioned in the story of the British spy. This farm is now that of Mr. Ripley, in the northwesterly part of Weston. At the period of his residence in Weston he was devoting his time in improving the "Power

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Loom," and succeeded in a permanent invention which he styled the "Revolving Temple," in use at the present time. Mr. Draper's inventive genius covers many patents which are extremely numerous, of great value and still in universal use.

Among the most important of his inventions are the following: 1st, a threshing machine for horse- power ; 2d, an endless track horse-power ; 3d, the hay and straw cutter; 4th, the road scrapper of the V shape; õthì, a rock-lifting machine; 6th, the potato planter; 7th, horse rackets for soft meadows ; 8th, a horse-power ditching machine to cut and clear drain ditches, which was made to cut fifteen inches deep, three inches wide at top and six inches at bottom ; 9th, false felloes for wheels to traverse meadow lands, etc. Mr. Draper married twice, his second wife be- ing sister of his first. He had five children, all born in Weston.

EBENEZER DAGGETT DRAPER, born June 13, 1813. He died at West Roxbury October 20, 1887, at the age of seventy-four years.

LYDIA DRAPER, born in 1815; died at Saugus in 1847.

GEORGE DRAPER, born in 1817 ; died at Hopedale in 1887. He was the father of General William F. Draper, of Hopdale. Lemuel Richards Draper, born in 1823, is still living. Ira Draper removed from Weston in 1823, and died January 22, 1848. Eb- enezer D. Draper inherited his father's inventive genius. He purchased the patent rights of the "Re- volving Temple," and, with his brother George, pur- chased other patents pertaining to the manufacture of fabrics, and started successful machine-shops in Hopedale, Mass. This establishment has become well known throughout the country.

George Draper was the inventor of several import- ant improvements in spinning frames and looms. His son, William F. Draper, now carries on the busi- ness with increasing facilities in Hopedale under the style of George Draper & Sons. The admirable por- trait of Mr. Ira Draper, now in possession of his grandson, James Sumner Draper, of Wayland, repre- sents him holding in his left hand the "Revolving Temple." Mr. Draper died at the age of eighty- three years.

DANIEL EASTABROOK fifth child of Daniel Easta- brook, of Watertown, who married the daughter of Captain Hugh Mason, of Watertown, and grandson of the Rev. Joseph Eastabrook, was born 1676, and set- tled in Weston in 1704, in the south part of the town. He was one of the petitioners for the incorporation of Weston in 1711.

FRANCIS FULLAM, born in Fulham, a suburb of London, England, in 1669. He was sent to America when fourteen years of age. He took an active part in the separation of the farmers from Watertown in 1695. In 1711 he was one of the petitioners for the incorporation of Weston. He commanded the Weston military company, and was guardian of the Natick

Indians. He coosorted with them in their differ- ences and sales of land. He married Sarah, daughter of Lieutenant John Livermore, by whom he had one son, Jacob, killed with Lovewell in 1725. He died in 1757, at the age of eighty-eight years.

LIEUTENANT NATHAN FISKE settled in Westou in 1673, and bought 220 acres of land of Thomas Un- derwood for ten pounds. He died in 1694, leaving nine children.

Nathan, the fourth child of Lieutenant Nathan, horn in 1672, died in 1741, is the ancestor of that family in Weston.

NATHAN, the eldest, born in 1760, was captain of the Weston company. Thaddeus, the second son, born in 1762, was a minister and Doctor of Divinity in 1821.

ABIGAIL, the fifth child, married Isaac Lamson in 1788. Isaac Fiske, the ninth child, born in 1778, graduated at Harvard College in' 1798, and studied law with Artemas Ward, Jr., of Weston.

SEWELL FISKE was captain of the Weston com- pany.

NATHAN WELBY FISKE, born 1798, graduated at Dartmouth in 1817, and was tutor from 1818-20, and in 1823-24 was a missionary in Georgia; was a Pro- fessor of Greek and Literature at Amherst College from 1824 to 1836. He died in Jerusalem in 1847, while on a journey to the Holy Land, and was buried near the tomb of the Psalmist David.

ISAAC FISKE, the ninth child of Nathan above, born in 1778, and graduated at Harvard College in 1798, was for many years the leading lawyer of the Middlesex Circuit ; for twenty-four years he was the town clerk of Weston, and filled many other offices in the town. He was prominent in church affairs, and it is due to him that the Rev. Dr. Field was settled over the church in Weston. He was appointed reg- ister of deeds for Middlesex County by Governor Brooks, which office he held for thirty years. He was removed by Governor Boutwell in 1857 for political reasons. He was a delegate from Weston to the con- vention for amending the Constitution of the State in 1820, and secretary of the convention in Concord in 1812 which opposed the war with England. In 1802 he married Susan Hobbs, and at her death married her sister. He had seven children.

AUGUSTUS HENRY FISKE, second son of Isaac, born in 1805, was a prominent lawyer in Boston, and for many years a partner of Benjamin Rand. In 1830 he married Miss Hannah Bradford, of Concord, and had seven children.

SARAH FISKE, his fourth child, married the Rev. Chandler Robbins.

CHARLES HENRY FISKE, son of Augustus, gradu- ated at Harvard College in 1860 ; he married a daugh- ter of the Rev. Chandler Robbins. He is a promi- nent lawyer in Boston, but still retains his residence in Weston, and is prominent in town affairs.

ANDREW FISKE, son of Augustus, born in 1854;

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graduated at Harvard in 1875 and at the Law School in 1878; he married, in 1878, Gertrude, daughter of Professor E. N. Horsford; he studied law in the office of Judge Hoar.

GEORGE FISKE, brother of Andrew and Charles Fiske, born in 1850; graduated from Harvard in 1872; lives in Concord.

THOMAS FLAGG, born in England in 1615 ; married in Watertown, and had nine sons and three daughters.

JOHN FLAGG, born in 1700; married Hannah Bemis in 1724.

JOHN FLAGG, his fourth child, born in 1731, mar- ried Patience Whittemore in 1754. It was this John Flagg who kept the tavern, now residence of C. Emerson, at which General Washington passed the night in 1789. He also kept the tavern on the edge of Wayland. John, his second son, horn 1762, mar- ried Lucy Curtis in 1786 ; they had six children ; this John followed his father in the tavern; Patience Flagg, his third child, born in 1791, married Colonel Daniel S. Lamson in 1822. The sixth children were twins-Jolin, one of the twins, married, in 1831, Abigail Hobbs. His son, John Lamson Flagg, born in 1835, died in 1874; he graduated from Harvard in 1857; he was mayor of Troy, New York, in 1866-67 ; repre- sentative in the Assembly from 1868 to 1871. A memoir of him was published at the time of his death. In 1889 there have been nine John Flaggs in direct descent.

JOHN MACK GOURGAS came of a noble family of Huguenot descent, who settled in Geneva, Switzer- land, soon after the repeal of the "Edict of Nantes." John M. was born March 9, 1766. In 1783 he entered the counting-room of a German gentleman in Lon- don. When living iu Cumberwell, a suburb of Lon- don, he formed the acquaintance of Dr. John Lett- some, through whom he became interested in inocu- lation for small-pox, a system then in its infancy. Mr. Gourgas came to America about 1808, and settled in Milton. While there he called together a town- meeting and introduced the subject of inoculation. In 1809, 337 persons were inoculated by order of the town authorities. It was through the efforts of Mr. Gourgas that the Legislature passed the laws of 1828. In 1822 Mr. Gourgas purchased the Hon. James Loyd estate in Weston, where he died in 1846. Francis Gourgas, the third son, entered Harvard in 1826. He edited for some years the Concord Freeman and was one of Governor Boutwell's Council. His brother John was a distinguished lawyer in Quincy.

ABRAHAM HEWS, of Weston, established the first pottery in New England in 1765 ; he had six children. ABRAIIAM, his eldest son, had twelve children.

GEORGE HEWS, the seventh child, born in 1806; married Caroline Pelletier, of Boston, in 1852; he was a member of the Handel and Haydn Society for forty-three years, and vice-president of the society for nine years. He was organist of the Rev. Dr. Lothi- rop's church for twenty years; he composed many

sacred hymns and other music, and was by occupation a piano-maker. He died in 1873, very highly es- teemed for his many virtues. The pottery business was transmitted from father to son in Weston, from 1765 to 1871, a period of one hundred and six years. In 1871 the works were removed to North Cambridge, and a large factory was erected under the firm of A. H. Hews & Co.

HORACE HEWS, the eleventh son of Abraham, born in 1815, has been treasurer of the town for a quarter of a century, and resigned in 1889 in conse- quence of failing health.

ABRAHAM HEWS, father of the above children, was made the third postmaster of Weston, by ap- pointment of James Madison in 1812, which office he filled for forty-two years, until his death in 1854. At the time of his death he was the oldest postmaster in the service, and had held the office for a longer period of time. In 1850 the Department at Wash- ington, recognizing his long and faithful service, ad- dressed him a letter of thanks and congratulations.

JOSIAH HOBBS, born in 1684, eldest son of Josiah Hobbs, born in England in 1649. In 1730 purchased the Cheney farm in Weston, and removed there with his family of three sons and four daughters.

NATHAN HOBBS, the youngest, born in Weston in 1730, had nine children. He died in 1779, aged ninety-four years, his wife at the age of eighty-eight years.

EBENEZER HOBBS, born in Boston in 1709, married Ennice Garfield in 1734. He was the eldest son of Josiah, and he is the ancestor of the Hobbs family in Weston. He had nine children. The greater part of the Weston estate remains in the family to this day. Isaac Hobbs, eldest son of Ebenezer, born in 1735, died in 1813. He was deacon of the Weston church and town clerk for forty years.

MATTHEW HOBBS, his sixth son, born in 1745, was at the battle of Concord in Captain Lamson's com- pany ; he joined the Weston company in 1776, which company formed part of the Third Middlesex Regi- ment-Colonel Eleazer Brooks-Samuel Lamson, of Weston, being the major. In 1780 he enlisted for three years or the war, and was made captain of the Weston company.

SAMUEL HOBBS, the eighth child, born in 1751, was a tanner and currier. In 1773 he was a journeyman in the employ of Simeon Pratt, of Roxbury, and joined the famous Tea Party.

EBENEZER HOBBS, second child of Isaac Hobbs, born in 1762, had eight children. Susan, the eldest, and Sophronia, the third child, married Isaac Fiske, of Weston.

EBENEZER HOBBS, the sixth child of Isaac, born in 1794, studied medicine, but later became the agent of the Waltham Mills, and in 1819 married Mary, daugh- ter of General Samuel G. Derby.

Until the year 1867 little had been done towards developing the southeastern portion of Weston be-

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yond the condition of the outlying districts of ordinary farming towns.

In 1867, attracted by the beautiful topographical features of itself and its surroundings, Mr. Charles Townsend Hubbard, of Boston, purchased the "Slack farm " for a summer residence. The estate comprises about 250 acres of land bordering on the Charles River, and is broken up in an attractive manner into meadow, upland and woodland. Mr. Hubbard named his estate "Woodlande," and devoted more than twenty years to improving and beautifying the property. Here his children reached maturity, and in due time married and established themselves in homes on his estate or in the near neighborhood.

Mr. Hubbard was born in Boston in 1817, and there gained distinction as a successful manufacturer and merchant. He died at Weston in 1887, leaving a widow and five children,-Louisa Sewell Hubbard married John Cotton Jackson ; Elizabeth L. Hubbard married Francis Blake; Charlotte W. Hubbard mar- ried Benjamin Loring Young; Charles Wells Hub- bard married Anne L. Swann ; Ann Hubbard married Bancroft Chandler Davis. To Mr. Hubbard, in the south, to Mr. Francis H. Hastings, in the north, and to Mr. James B. Care, in the centre of the town of Weston are due, in no slight degree, the impetus given in the development and progress of the town, which in the near future is destined to become a favored spot among the suburbs of Boston.

ISAAC HOBBS, third child of Isaac, born in 1765; his third child, SAMUEL, born in 1795, married Abi- gail, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Kendall, of Weston. He was captain of the Weston company.

ABIGAIL. HOBBS, sixth child of Isaac, born in 1801, married John Flagg ; they had one son, John Lamson Flagg.

MARY ANN HOBBS, the eighth child of Isaac, born in 1805, married Nathan Hager in 1832.

CAPTAIN JOSIAH JONES, admitted a freeman April 18, 1690, was one of the original members and one of the first deacons of the church in Weston. He died in 1714. The Farmers' Company was called by the name of Lieutenant Jones' company.

JOSIAH JONES, his son, was a captain of the com- pany ; he was elected a deacon in 1714, but refused to accept the office.

ABIGAIL JONES, the only daughter of Josiah, Jr., married Colonel Williams, of Newton, father of Colo- nel Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams Col. lege, killed at Fort William and Henry in 1755. Father and son removed to Weston on the father's marriage, and remained in Weston until their removal to Stockbridge.

ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, daughter of Abigail, married General Joseph Dwight, of Great Barrington, by whom she had two children.

MARY DWIGHT, daughter of Abigail, married the Hon. Theodore Sedgwick, and was the mother of Theodore, llenry and Charles Sedgwick, distin-

guished lawyers of New York ; Jane and Catharine. Sedgwick, eminent authoresses.

ISAAC JONES, son of Captain Josiah, born in 1728, kept a large store in Weston, and in 1752 built the tavern of the "Golden Ball " noted before and during the Revolution ; he was a stanch loyalist or Tory, and brought down upon himself the denunciation of the convention of Worcester County in 1775. Jones and his tavern are mentioned in How's journal. Mr. Jones died in 1813.

LEWIS JONES, of Watertown, married Anna Stone, who came from England in the ship " Increase," in 1635. She was born in 1624. Mr. Jones died in 1684, leaving four children.

JOSIAH JONES, his eldest son, born in 1640, is the ancestor of that branch of the Jones family in Wes- ton ; he was captain of the Weston company, and one of the original members of the church. Deacon in 1709-10; he died in 1743; ten children. JAMES, his oldest child, married Sarah Moore, of Sudbury, and had eleven children.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 140

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034