History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 72

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 72

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

bodies, and the Catholic system of administration of religion in Harvard University, introduced in 1885, in which a group of the ablest preachers of dif- ferent churches are associated in the care of spiritual interests, which are recognized to be so large and var- ious as to demand their united care, is the legitimate outgrowth of the spirit in which Dr. Peabody ad- mitted this great religious opportunity. The most important part of Dr. Peabody's public services at Cambridge still remains to be mentioned. The death of President Felton, in February, 1862, not only re- moved his closest personal friend in the college, but devolved upon him the most laborious and responsi- ble duties as head of the university, being appointed by the corporation acting president, and discharging the duties of that office until the installation of Presi- dent Hill, late in the following autumn. On the resignation of Dr. Hill, in September, 1868, he was again called to the same responsibility, and continued to preside over the university until the inauguration of President Eliot. The success of Dr. Peabody as an administrator was marked, and it seemed natural that he should have been elected to the permanent incum- bency of the office which he adorned. The strong secular tendency in college affairs had, however, pre- determined that the office should not be held in any event by a clergyman.

In these very important duties Dr. Peabody re- mained at his post for twenty-one years, with an interval of travel in Europe from June, 1867, to March, 1868, which he accomplished by compressing the work of two terms into that of a single one after his return, and of which he published, in 1867, a record in his "Reminiscences of European Travel." A briefer visit to Russia and the neighboring coun- tries, in which he shared the hospitalities enjoyed by General Grant, was made by him in the summer of 1876, and a longer sojourn in Europe with his family after resigning the Plummer Professorship, from Juue, 1881, to September, 1882.

His resignation had gone into effect after the Com- mencement of 1881, but he was at once appointed professor emeritus, retiring from the burdens of his official position, but in no sense from his place in the heart of the college, nor from the opportunities of service which awaited him. The key-note of Dr. Peabody's public services is given in the paper already quoted, where he mentions three biographies to which he has been specially indebted. The first is that of Niebuhr :

"If I have been able in things secular and sacred as to reports of current and records of past events to steer a safe way between credulity and scepticism I owe it in great part not to Niebuhr's ' History of Rome,' but to the virtual autobiography that gives shape and vividness to his ' Memoir.' If I remember aright he expressed his confidence in the substantial anthenticity of our canonical gospels, and I owe largely to him my firm faith and trust in them.

"I would next name the ' Life of Thomas Arnold.' When I read it I was pastor of a large parish, with many yonng persons under my charge and influence, and I was at the same time chairman of a school board. I had no need of Arnold to awaken my sympathy with young

Alexander Me Keuzes

221

CAMBRIDGE.

life, but he has helped me to understand it better and to minister more intelligently and efficiently to its needs and cravings. His ' Rugby Ser- mons' have a great charm for me, and wbile I have not been guilty of the absurd and vain attempt to imitate them, I have felt their inspira- tion both in the pulpit and in the lecture-room. My third biography is that of Dr. Chalmers' fruitful and beneficent example in more direc- tions than could be easily specified, but to me of peculiar service in his relation to poverty in Glasgow, with its attendant evils and vices. In his mode of relieving want in person and in kiud, of bringing preven- tive measures to bear on the potential nurseries of crime and of enlist- ing the stronger in the aid and comfort of the feebler members of the community, I found many valuable suggestions for the local charities which came under my direction while I was a parish minister."

It is allotted to few men to fulfill with conspicuous ability so many and various kinds of public service as have fallen to the lot of Dr. Peabody. As a parish minister, huilding up his church in the prosperity of numbers and in the better welfare of a spiritual growth, never stronger in his hold on the affections of his people than when he parted from them, and always remaining the pastor of their affectionate re- gard-as a preacher, devout, earnest, persuasive, a powerful expounder of the truth of the gospel, and never more effective or listened to with more interest than in the years after he had passed threescore and ten-as a theologian strong in his grasp and luminous in his statement of the central verities of Christianity -as an ethical and moral teacher, Incid, eloquent and convincing-as the incumbent of the most difficult position in Harvard College, turning its difficulties into unrivaled opportunities, and creating an excep- tional work-as a successful administrator, numbered among the honored heads of the university, it has been his to win the love and reverence of the succes- sive generations among whom his work has been wrought from youth to age.

REV. ALEXANDER MCKENZIE, D.D.1

Alexander Mckenzie, son of Daniel and . Phebe Mckenzie, was born in New Bedford, Mass., Decem- ber 14, 1830.

Passing through the public schools of New Bedford, he fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Andover; was graduated at Harvard College in 1859; entered Andover Theological Seminary in 1859, graduating therefrom in 1861; was ordained in Augusta, Me., August 28, 1861, and installed as pastor of the South Church of that city, where he remained till January, 1867. He was installed pastor of the First Church, Cambridge, Mass., January 24, 1867, where he still labors.

Previous to his entering Harvard he was engaged a short time as a clerk in a store in New Bedford ; also four years with Lawrence Stone & Co., manufac- turers and commission merchants, Milk Street, Bos- ton. Mr. Mckenzie was married, January 25, 1865, in Fitchburg, to Ellen H., daughter of John Henry and Martha Hoiman Eveleth. Of this union are two children, Kenneth and Margaret. He received the

degree of D.D. from Amherst College, 1879. Of the various offices he has held the following are the more prominent : Trustee of Bowdoin College, 1866-68; member of Cambridge School Committee, 1868-74; overseer of Harvard College, 1872-84; secretary of overseers of Harvard College, 1875; trustee of Phil- lips Academy, Andover, 1876 ; trustee of Cambridge Hospital, 1876 ; president Congregational Club, Bos- ton, 1880; member of Massachusetts Historical So- ciety, 1881 ; lecturer at Andover Theological Semi- nary, 1881-82; lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, 1882; trustee of Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va., 1885; trustee of Wellesley College, 1883 ; preacher to Harvard College, 1886 ; president of Boston Port and Seamen's Aid Society, 1886. Mr. Mckenzie is a preacher and a lecturer of national reputation. The list of his publications is long and varied. Among his books the most extensively read are, perhaps, " History of the First Church in Cambridge," " Cam- bridge Sermons," "Some Things Abroad." A few of his pamphlets are, " Addresses at the Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument in Cambridge" (1870), "Oration at the Centennial of Phillips Academy " (1878), "Sermon before the Legislature of Massachu- setts" (1879), "Oration at the Commencement at Smith College" (1881), "Sermon at the 250th Anni- versary of the First Church in Charlestown " (1882), "Sermon at the 250th Anniversary of Cambridge" (1886), "Sermon at the 20th Anniversary of his In- stallation " (1887), and "Sermon in Memory of Pro- fessor Asa Gray " (1888).

JOHN LANGDON SIBLEY.

John Langdon Sibley was born at Union, Maine, December 29, 1804, and was the eldest child of Jona- than and Persis (Morse) Sibley. The name Sibley is supposed to be compounded from the word sib, which denotes kindred and also peace, and lea, which means field. Peace- field is, therefore, not an improb- able signification ; and like many English surnames, it may have originated in some incident of local his- tory of which there remains no other memorial. The arms of the family, according to Burke, are "Per pale azure, and gules a griffin passant between three crescents argent." The name is found in records of several counties in England as far back as the thir- teenth century. The first person of the name who is known to have come to America was John Sybley, who arrived at Salem in 1629 and became a citizen of Charlestown. Richard, the ancestor of the subject of this sketch, is supposed to have been the son of John. In the fourth generation from Richard was Jonathan, who was born in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, in 1773, studied medicine with Dr. Carrigan, of Concord, New Hampshire ; in his time a man of high and ex- tended reputation ; received in 1799 the earliest di- ploma given by the New Hampshire Medical Society. In the autumn of 1799 he settled in Union in the

1 From Rand's "One in One Thousand."

222

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

then District of Maine, a town at that time of less than six hundred inhabitants, and was the first, and for nearly forty years the only physician resident there.

In 1803 he married Persis Morse, of Sherburne, Massachusetts, who had two brothers already resi- dents of Union. She was born in 1772 and died in 1847. Dr. Sibley had a practice more extensive than lucrative, his patients being scattered over a large and very sparsely-settled rural district. While suc- cessful and justly prized as a physician, he was favor- ably known as an occasional contributor to the prin- cipal medical journal in Boston. He occupied a prominent place in the life of the little community that grew up around him, held for many years a com- mission as justice of the peace under the govern- ments, successively, of Massachusetts and of Maine, and took a leading part in all enterprises for the gen- eral good. He was in every respect a man of exem- plary character, and is especially remembered for his inflexible integrity. As a father he was affectionate and self-sacrificing, yet at the same time a rigid disci- plinarian of the earlier type, and especially strenuous in exacting of his sons the maximum of study and of school-work.

We append the following from the pen of Rev. A. P. Peabody, by permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. :

"No form was more identified with Harvard College in the memory of hundreds of graduates than that of John Langdon Sibley. Of the eighty-one years of his life, sixty were spent in Cambridge, forty-four as a mem- ber of the University, and thirty-seven in its official service ; while with the title of Librarian Emeritus con - ferred on him when he could no longer perform the active duties which were his delight, his name ap- peared in fifty annual catalogues. His father was a physician in Union, Me., with excellent reputation, both professional and personal, and with a practice more extensive than gainful. He craved a liberal education for his eldest son, and learning of the ben- eficiary provisions at Exeter for students of promise, he sought this aid to supplement his own slender re- sources. Of the sacrifices that he made in his son's behalf, some estimate may be formed from his having postponed the purchase of his first pair of spectacles, after he had begun to need them, in order to furnish his son with the means of buying a Greek lexicon.

"Young Sibley must have maintained a blameless character and a high standard of scholarship at Exeter, else he would have been dropped from the foundation, which, from the first, has never given a foothold to youth who could not or would not do it honor. He entered college at the age of seventeen, was a close student, held a high rank in his class, and received honorable appointments at both junior and senior exhibitions, and on graduating. At the same time he provided in various ways for his own support, in his first year as president's freshman, with the duty

of carrying messages and notes on college business from the president to officers and members of the col- lege ; in subsequent years, probably by keeping a winter school, in accordance with the general custom of all the students who were not from the South, or from rich families ; certainly by giving instruction in sacred music, and by working in the library. Imme- diately after graduating, Mr. Sibley entered the Di- vinity School, and was, at the same time, appointed assistant librarian, on a salary of $150, (his prin- cipal receiving only twice that sum), and serving at the same time as instructor in Italian. At the end of a year the librarian's salary was doubled on the ap- pointment of a man who was to devote his whole time to the office, and to dispense with the services of an assistant. Mr. Sibley pursued his course of theo- logical study, and in 1829 was settled as a minister at Stow, Massachusetts, where he remained four years. With a strong home-love for Cambridge, and espec- ially for the library, on leaving Stow he hired a room in Divinity Hall, which he occupied for thirty-three years; and, though he was engaged in editorial labor, he rendered such aid to the librarian as his other pursuits permitted. In 1841, when the library was removed from Harvard to Gore Hall, the old office of assistant librarian was necessarily revived, and he was appointed to fill it. In 1856, on the death of Dr. Harris, he became librarian-in-chief, and so remained till, in 1877, age and infirmity compelled his resigna- tion. During his administration, and mainly through his agency, the number of books in the library, and the funds available for its increase, were fully quad- rupled. Very many sources of supply for oid books. and pamphlets, local histories and rare editions, were. discovered by his enterprise ; and not a few of the most valuable benefactions were elicited by such friendly attentions and kindnesses on his part as gave good promise of fruitful returns. He also edited the Annual Catalogue of the College for twenty years, and prepared no less than ten Triennial Catalogues, which required constant vigilance and extensive cor- respondence throughout the years intervening be- tween each and the following issue, and which, under his hauds, attained a degree of accuracy entirely un- precedented. For fifteen years, too, he issued on Com- mencement week a complete Harvard Necrology, including under each name such salient dates and facts in the life record as reached him by means of information, which he kept in constant employment, and from which he made and preserved copious min- utes. But Mr. Sibley's greatest and most enduring service to the college is his 'Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard College.' Of this work he completed three large octavo volumes, the third vol- ume including the class of 1689 and brought to a close with the last remnant of working power which re- mained to him from the incessant toil of nearly four- score years. This labor was performed under what to many men would have seemed physical inability.

JA .I Will ms , istun

John Langdon Sibley,

Jis

Cam-

ier at

Cam-

223

CAMBRIDGE.

He was operated upon for cataract in both eyes at different times, and, thoughi these operations were reckoned as successful, his restoration was by no means so complete as to render the consulting of un- familiar manuscripts, ill-printed documents, and mat- ter sometimes almost illegible, otherwise than painful and intensely wearisome. Yet he left no source of information without drawing from it all that it could furnish, and was careful to reproduce whatever he transcribed, in all the minutiæ of spelling, punctua- tion and italics, with literal exactness. The work could not have been better done, nor so well by any other man, nor yet at a later time; for the memorials, written and traditional, of our Colonial days are con- stantly dropping out of sight and out of mind, and so fast an age as ours is as prone to forget, as our fathers were solicitons to remember, the past. The time is not far distant when these volumes will be the sole extant authority for a large proportion of their con- tents, and, sent down to coming generations with the seal of anthenticity which our own impresses upon them, they will have a growing interest and valne as long as the college shall stand. In 1860 Mr. Sibley's father died, leaving to him, his only surviving child, the entire savings of his long life of self-denying in- dustry, with the one exception of a legacy of $100 to Phillips Exeter Academy. The property thus left amounted to less than $5000. Mr. Sibley gave the whole of it to the academy and subsequently added more than twice that sum, creating a fund which, by his provision, was to accumulate under certain pre- scribed conditions and limitations. A part of the income of this fund is already in use, while the capi- tal amounts to more than $40,000. Mr. Sibley directed that his name should be strictly concealed, but was induced, in the hope that other benefactors might be won by his example, to permit the secret to be di- vulged at an academic festival in 1872. On that occa- sion Dr. Palfrey presided. Mr. Sibley was present, and, when the announcement was made, was forced upou his feet by shouts of applause. In a speech of rare naïveté, pathos and unstudied eloquence, with a modesty and filial piety that disclaimed all praise for himself, and won from all who heard him the most reverent regard for his parents, he told the story of his early life, of his native home and of the patient and loving toil and sacrifice of those to whose mem- ory he wished to dedicate the Sibley fund. Of his gift lie made small account; but this speech, probably the only speech of any length that he ever made, re- mained with him the great event of his life ; and he never ceased to congratulate himself on its success.

"In Mr. Sibley's character integrity bore a conspic- uous part; and by this I do not mean mere honesty in the narrower sense of the word, but also conscien- tious accuracy, truthfulness and justice in all the de- tails of thought, word and deed. He would be lavish of time and of money, if need were, in determining an obscure date, or the proper orthography of an un-

important name, simply because he deemed it wrong to state what he did not know, or to omit, in any work which he undertook, the full statement of all that he could know. Closely economical in personal expend- iture, Mr. Sibley was generous to every one but him- self. Many poor students owed to him their ability to remain on college ground. There were persons who for years depended on such subsidies as he gave them to eke out their slender income. From his home and table, poor homes and meagrely-spread tables re- ceived liberal supplies. His hospitality was often ex- tended for weeks and months to those whose only claim was their need. Without parade or ostentation he welcomed every opportunity for doing good; and I doubt whether there was ever a year, for the last half of his life, when he did not spend more for others than for himself. It was a characteristic trait that he gave special directions that his funeral should be as simple and inexpensive as was consistent with propri- ety, and that the amount thus saved should be given to the poor. In his home life, which began not till 1866, he accounted himself, and with good reason, pre-eminently happy ; his wife, having been in full sympathy with him in his benevolent purposes, and still deeming it her happiness to employ the income of his estate in precisely the offices of kindness and charity which it was his joy to render !1 As a friend he was true and loyal.

" In dress, manners, appearance and personal habits he preserved to the last much of the simplicity and many of the unconventional ways of his rural birth- place and his early life; but there was in him the very soul of courtesy, and those who knew him best had often fresh surprises in his fineness and delicacy of feeling, his tenderness for the sensibility of others, and his choice of such modes of performing kind acts as might best keep himself in the background and ward off the painful sense of obligation. The last few months of Mr. Sibley's life were a season of de- bility and suffering, with few and brief intervals of relief. In the early summer of 1885 there was a slight improvement, and he cherished a strong hope that he might be able to officiate as chorister in the singing of St. Martin's at the Commencement dinner, an office which, as the successor of Dr. Pierce, he had filled for thirty-six years. But, as the day approached, "he became himself aware, as those about him had been previously, that such an effort was beyond his ability. From that time he was confined for the most part to his room, and gradually lost his hold on pass- ing events and his interest in the outside world. The closing hours often seemed very near, but with a natively strong constitution, unimpaired by luxury, indulgence or indolence, he resisted and overcame repeated paroxysms of disease that threatened an

1 Mrs. Sibley, who has become a resident of Groton, on leaving Cam- bridge, gave tbe house and estate in Phillips Place, bought by her at the time of her marriage, and thus her own separate property, to Cam- bridge Hospital.

224

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

immediately fatal issue. His illness had every alle- viation and comfort that could be afforded by the most assiduous, skillful and loving carc, and if death was ever thus kept at bay, it was so in his case for weeks and months. He died near the close of the year 1885. It was a matter of universal surprise that Mr. Sibley died a rich man. No one could have been more surprised than he would have been, for his prop- erty was worth at least three times what he supposed it to be. When he gave the last instalment of his Exeter fund, he had less property remaining than he had bestowed on the academy. But abont that time he put all that he possessed into the hands of a friend, under whose prudent care and lucrative investments there was a marvelously rapid increase, entirely be- yond his knowledge or anticipation. He left all his property to his wife, with the provision that whatever she might not expend or dispose of in her lifetime should pass into the fund of the Massachusetts His- torical Society, and that a suitable portion of the in- come should then be employed in the continuation of his great biographical work."

WILLIAM PARMENTER.

William Parmenter, a direct descendant of John Parmenter, who was one of the original proprietors of Sudbury, Middlesex County, was born in Boston, March 30, 1789. He was educated in the public schools and graduated at the Boston Latin School, where he received a Franklin medal. He completed a mercantile education with the firm of Pratt & An- drews, merchants, in Boston; was in trade a few years ; and during the War of 1812 and for some years afterward was the chief clerk of Amos Binney, Navy Agent. While in this employment he acquired a knowl- edge of the navy, and an acquaintance with many of its leading officers, enabling him to furnish articles on naval topics for the press which were extensively copied. In 1824 he removed to East Cambridge, a part of Cambridge, having been appointed agent and manager of the New England Crown Glass Company, a corporation established at that place for the manu- facture of window-glass. He continued in this busi- ness until 1836; and meanwhile, from time to time, was elected to public offices, those of selectman of the town, Representative and Senator in the Massachu- setts Legislature. He was also president of the Mid- dlesex Bank from its organization until 1836. In that year he was elected a member of the United States House of Representatives, and by re-election remained in Congress four terms, ending March, 1845. He had early taken an interest in politics and was known as an influential member of the Democratic party. For most of his Congressional life he was the only Democratic member from Massachusetts. Among his colleagues were John Quincy Adams, Robert C. Winthrop, Leverett Saltonstall and Caleb Cushing. He sometimes departed from the party policy ; for

example, on the tariff question he favored protection, and he was alluded to by Mr. Webster, in a speech in Faneuil Hall, as having by his vote secured the passage of the tariff act of 1842. He served chiefly on the Committee on Naval Affairs, of which he was for several terms a member, and when his party was in the ascendency, the chairman. For this duty his experience had given him an especial qualification. He was a ready and practiced speaker, and took share in debate. Then, in that part of the duty of a mem- ber of Congress which includes attention to the inter- ests which his constituents may have at the Capitol, there was occasion for service on the part of Mr. Par- menter beyond his own district, inasmuch as the nearness of lis residence to Boston and his position as a manufacturer had so identified him with the business men of that city, that his correspondence with them was almost as frequent and extensive as if he had been their immediate representative.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 72

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