History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 144

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 144

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AProches

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with an apt story or a ready joke or a sound advice, that seldom failed to make them go away the better for the visit. Indeed if those walls could repeat what was said there, it would be a history of Concord, of Middlesex and Massachusetts, if not of the country and the world. Very regular in his habits and so uni- form in his ways that the village clock might have been set by his movements, and it has been said that his neighbors used his passsing their windows for a time-piece.

Mr. Brooks was interested in all matters of social improvement, especially that of temperance, and while avoiding fanaticism, by his moderation and good sense helped their progress. His fund of humor aided him in many a difficult situation with ultra zealots, and his ready wit and imperturbable good nature often soothed the troubled waters so that without eloquence he was a favorite speaker on all occasions, and as toast-mas. ter a great success of many important festivities.

Mr. Brooks married, in 1819, Caroline Downes, of Boston, who died March, 1820, leaving a daughter now the wife of the Hon. E. R. Hoar. In 1823 Mr. Brooks married Mary Merrick, daughter of Tilly Merrick a prominent merchant then living in Concord. Of this marriage Hon. George MI. Brooks, judge of Probate for Middlesex County is the only surviving child, a younger brother having died in infancy.

In his pecuniary affairs Mr. Brooks was too unable to say no to applications for loans, and lost many hun- dreds of dollars by his willingness to help those who persisted in borrowing of him without repayment. He bore these losses, as he did the other troubles of life, with great equanimity and without worry or anger. His sunny temperament and his equable disposition, his good health and contented mind, enabled him to go through a long life with less anxiety and more comfort than falls to the lot of many men. His habit was to look on the bright side of everything and to take cheerful views of all subjects, but he had well- considered opinions and the strength of his convic- tions was not lessened by his courteous listening to opposing views. He had great charity for those who differed from him, kindness for all, and enmity to none. He was a firm believer in the Unitarian reli- gion, a constant attendant on public worship and in his later years joined the church of the First Parish in Concord.

Mr. Brooks was of medium height and size, with dark eyes and hair, and a strongly-marked face. Not robust, he had uninterrupted good health and a strong constitution that carried him almost to the four-score limit of man's life with all his faculties in use. He never wore glasses, and always carried a cane, but in- rariabiy under his arm, not as a staff, and for many years bore a lighted lamp to and from his office with a skill to keep the flame burning that only a severe storm could overcome. His health failed very gradu- ally at last, and he died December 11, 1863, after only a week's sickness, a loss to the community and his friends.

CALVIN C. DAMON.1

Mr. Calvin Carver Damon was descended in the sixth generation from Deacon John Damon, one of the early settlers of Reading, Mass. John Damon was born in Reading, Berkshire County, Eng., in 1620. In 1633, being then a lad of some thirteen years, he came to America and found employment in Lynn, Mass., where he resided till about 1644, in which year the township of Reading, including what had been for several years known as Lynn Village, was set off from the town of Lynn. He fixed his residence on the hill, known in later times as Cow- drey's Hill, in Wakefield, formerly the South Parish of Reading, and the part of the town first settled. In the next year, 1645, he was registered as a freeman of Reading. In the early colonial history, those who wished to become "freemen " were required to be members of the Congregational Church, and to take a solemn oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth, binding themselves to maintain its laws. None but "freemen " were allowed to hold office, or to vote on public affairs. About the same time he married Abi- gail, daughter of Richard Sherman, a wealthy mer- chant and leading citizen of Boston. He was also at an early period chosen one of the deacons of the Church. And it is claimed that to his influence was due the fact that the new town took the name of his birth-place in England. These facts indicate that, in his early manhood he had developed qualities which secured for him an alliance with a leading family in the Colony, as well as a prominent position in the Church and in the town. Prior to the incor- poration of the town a grant of one hundred and sixty acres of land had been made by the General Court to each person who was, or might become a resident, on condition that he should raise thirty bushels of Indian corn in two years. In the early colonial records, under the date of 1639, it is said that "John Damon, bringing good and satisfac- tory evidence to that effect, and being a man of substance, having much cattle, took his lot on Bear Brook, at the head of the great pond." This lot was within the present limits of Reading. Mr. Damon did not remove to it, but lived always at his original place of residence. It was occupied by Samuel Da- mon, his second son, who came to manhood. The fourth son of Samuel Damon, named for his grand- father, John, and who was a thriving, wealthy farmer, built there, in 1751, the Damon Mansion, one of the best dwelling-houses of the period in Middlesex County, and which still stands, after the lapse of nearly one hundred and forty years, and having been occupied by six generations of the family.

The grandson of the second John Damon, named above, was Benjamin, who was born in Reading, June 4, 1760. He served from 1776 till the close of the war as a soldier in the army of the Revolution,

1 By Rev. W. R. Bagnall.

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though he attained his majority only some four months before tlic virtual close of the conflict. He had enlisted wlien he was only some sixteen years old. He soon afterwards removed to Amherst, N. H., where he married Polly Hesca, the daughter of a sca- captain who had removed, in 1775, from Plymouth, Mass., to Amherst, N. H.

Speaking of his secluded home, without another house in sight or hearing, and approached in all di- rections through the woods, the historian of the Fiske family says : " There, in the fear of God and in keep- ing his commands, Deacon Damon, with his young wife, sat him down in peace and content, driving his saw-mill in the spring when water was abundant, working his farm in summer, and enjoying the fruits of his labor in the winter. There he lived and died in a good old age, an humble, honest man, rich in faith and good works, and unambitious of the world's gilded honors. There his children were born and reared, in all the loveliness of rural simplicity and Christian education. Nor was their training ineffi- cient, since it is believed by those who knew them well that no one of Deacon Damon's family was ever guilty of a dishonest or dishonorable deed."

His third son was Calvin Carver, born in Am- herst, New Hampshire, February 17, 1803. The son of a farmer, and spending his childhood and youth in what was then a sparsely-settled region, his early opportunities for education were very limited, but he was of an enterprising, ambitious spirit and disinclined to pursuits with which he had been famil- iar from early childhood. Accordingly he sought and obtained employment in a store in Concord, N. H., where, as clerk and salesman, he acquired experience in mercantile pursuits. He remained there till he had attained his majority. He then decided to go to the city of New York, and to seek employment there. He had, however, formed the acquaintance of John Marland, a young man of his own age, the son of Abraham Marland, one of the pioneer woolen manu- facturers of New England. The latter was at this time increasing the facilities of his industry, and his son in- vited his friend Damon to go to Andover and accept a position in the counting-room of his father. He did so and remained there two years. He then engaged in trade, forming a co-partnership with Edwin Farnham, under the style of Farnham & Damon, doing the mis- cellaneous business of what was then known, every- where in the rural districts of New England, as a country store.

He continued that business till about the close of 1831, and in December of that year went to the vil- lage of Saxonville, in the town of Framingham, Mass., on the invitation, again, of John Marland. Mr. Mar- land was then in charge of the mills there, known as the Saxon Mills. He had, shortly before this time, established a small factory for the manufacture of woolen goods at the outlet of Lake Cochituate, and at this time engaged the services of Mr. Damon as

its superintendent, his own time being occupied with the management of the Saxon Mills. Early in 1833 Mr. Damon entered into partnership with Mr. Mar- land, and soon bought Mr. Marland's interest, and continued the business alone till carly in May, 1835, when the mill was destroyed by firc. In the month of December previous he had purchased the property at West Concord, and now removed to that place.

Hc had been aided in the purchase by his wife's uncle, James Johnson, the head of the old and wealthy commission house of Boston-Johnson, Sew- all & Co .- who proposed to take the agency of his goods. During the years of his employment in the mills-first at Andover and then at Saxonville-he had become familiar with the manufacture of satin- ets, a fabric having a cotton warp and wool filling, then used largely in the manufacture of men's cloth- ing, and made very generally by woolen manufactur- ers throughout New England. In deciding to en- gage in this specialty of manufacture he was guided by the advice of Mr. Johnson. He soon found that his business did not pay expenses. The goods, with his facilities for manufacture, cost too much for the price which they would bring, deducting commissions, and he was in competition with long-established and wealthy manufacturers, among whom were Welcome Farnum, Edward Harris, Abraham Marland and others. He determined on a change, at first partial, by devoting a portion of his machinery to the manu- facture of white wool flannels. He soon found that it was neither convenient nor economical to carry on in so small a mill the manufacture of fabrics of two distinct classes. He therefore removed all the ma- chinery adapted only to the manufacture of satinets and filled up the mill with flannel machinery. Mr. Johnson, who, when the mill was started by Mr. Da- mon, had suggested the manufacture of satinets as its business, and still believed that it might be made profitable, was much displeased, and at first was dis- posed to stop the business-as he might have done, with Mr. Damon's largc indebtedness to him-but this, on the other hand, would involve him in loss. Finding that Mr. Damou was inflexible in his pur- pose, he offered him a considerable sum if he would induce some other merchant to take the account and to relieve him from all liability. Mr. Damon's reply was : "No; you have got me into this scrape, and you must get me out." At this time it occurred to Mr. Damon that a kind of cloth might be made with . the flannel machinery which would be likely to have a considerable sale and to afford a more profitable employment for his mill than even all-wool flannels, the manufacture of which had been rapidly devel- oped in the little more than twenty years since it had been first undertaken in this country by Nathaniel Stevens. So many mills had been devoted to this specialty, that the competition in it had become quite active.

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The fabric, proposed to himself, by Mr. Damon, was to be woven in the same manner as ordinary flannel, but with a cotton warp aud a wool filling. An addi- tional consideration in favor of the experiment was the fact that Mr. Damon had on hand a considerable number of warps of cotton which had been prepared for making satinets. Proceeding with the experi- ment, Mr. Damon produced some cloth, a sample of which he carried to Boston and showed to Mr. John- son. It is said that the merchant, on looking at it, exclaimed : "Dom it, that is good cloth ; it will sell," and that this was the origin of the name which, slightly changed to domet or domett or dommet, as it has been variously spelled, was at once giveu to the fabric, and which it still retains, the name being found on the books of Mr. Damon as early as Janu- ary, 1836. Whether or not this was the origin of the name, the remark was one which might naturally have fallen from the lips of the bluff, hearty, old merchant, pleased with the solution of a question which had caused him much anxiety, viz., the profit- able employment of the mill in which he had a con- siderable pecuniary interest, as well as a good busi- ness for a kinsman for whose welfare he was con- cerned.

The merits of the fabric were apparent. It would shrink but little in washing, and, being both light and warm, was well adapted to be a substitute for the linsey-woolsey, originally of home manufacture, which had been long used for the undergarments of women and children. It was also of domestic manu- facture and free from foreign competition. The do- mett flannels soon assumed the place which they have since maintained as a staple article of American manufacture.

The business, thus placed by Mr. Damon on a basis of permanent prosperity, was continued under his personal management till about the close of 1853, when he was subjected to an attack of pleurisy, which resulted in his death January 12, 1854.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON.1

Ralph Waldo Emerson was the son of William Emerson, minister of the First Church in Boston, and Ruth Haskins his wife. He was born in Boston, May 20, 1803, the third child in a family of six sons and two daughters, both of whom, as well as the oldest son, died in infancy. His early education was carried on in the Boston schools, the Latin School among others ; but he was, as a boy, an eager reader, and composition in prose and verse was the constant amusement of his youth. The death of his father when Emerson was but eight years old, although kind friends and the First Church Society came to the aid of the widow of their pastor, made it important that the boys during the whole period of their edu-

cation should work and help the family. Hence Emerson became a teacher before he entered college, aud coutinued to teach during the college course and afterward until 1826.

He graduated at Harvard in 1821, and while teaching, and struggling with very bad health, pre- pared himself for the ministry and was approbated to preach by the Middlesex Association of Ministers in 1826. Sickness obliged him to journey by sea to Florida, and his health improving, he came slowly northward, preaching by the way as opportunity offered. On this trip he was brought into contact with slavery. In 1829 he became the associate pastor, with the Rev. Henry Ware, of the Secoud Church in Boston. The same year he married Ellen Louisa Tucker, of Concord, N. H. Mr. Ware's health failing, Mr. Emerson succeeded to the pastorate of that church. These were years of change and rapid growth in the mind of the young minister and it seemed to him that he and the flock committed to his charge were cramped by usage and tradition. The duty of stated prayer, a perfunctory act, was one from which he shrank, and the communion rite seemed to him foreign and not helpful to Americans of the nineteenth century. He hoped that his people would feel as he did, and wel- come the liberating innovations for which he asked after three years' ministry. The church, however, was not ready for the changes which he propose l in the administering of the rite of the Lord's Supper, and they parted with regret and affection. His wife had died before this time and his own health had been sorely tried by his loss and his parting with his church, so on Christmas Day, 1832, he sailed for Europe for rest and refreshment. He remained abroad less than a year and this visit was chiefly memorable because it was the occasion of his visiting Landor, Wordsworth, and Carlyle, whose writings drew Emerson to seek and find him far among the Scottish moors.

On his return from Europe, restored in body and spirit, he was invited to become pastor of the Unitar- ian Church in New Bedford, but the society not accepting his condition that public prayer be not ex- pected from him unless he felt moved to that act of devotion, he refused the invitation.

In the autumn of 1834 he went to Concord and wrote much of his first book, "Nature," staying with his kin at the Old Manse, which had been built by his grandfather, William Emerson, the patriot minis- ter of the town in the Revolution. In 1835 he bought the house in Concord in which he lived through the remainder of his days, and in September was married to Lydia Jackson, of Plymouth.

The little farm which he acquired, where the Cam - bridge Turnpike leaves the great road to Boston, (three hours away by stage in those days) had the recommendation, for him, of convenience in reaching the city when he went to lecture or visit, and also of lying on the edge of the village near to Walden and

1 By Edward W. Emerson.

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its wide woodland ranges, which became a temple, vis- ited almost daily, and there he waited for the thoughts, tlic oracles which he was sent into the world to re- port. Concord was thercafter his home; he loved and honored the ancestral town, and held it a privi- lege to bear his part of civic duties and neighborly relations, yet held closely to his task of writing, which involved a life mainly secluded during more than half the year ; but, as all his essays were first read as discourses before literary societies, or lectures in the lyceums, he was, of necessity, brought into a contact, which he highly valued, with minds and work of all sorts of men and women. He considered the lyceum his wider pulpit, and, though he put off the gown of the preacher, held the larger office of teacher through life.

He was interested in all that tended to emancipate the bodies, the minds, the souls of his race. Hence, he early and constantly allied himself with the pro- tectors of the Indian and the slave, and maintained that woman had only to ask for greater freedom be- fore the law and wider opportunities, and these would be granted her. Although he had rebelled against forms which he had found hindrances in worship, he required religion and reverence in all true men, and had no sympathy with destructive methods. He watched and helped the spiritual and intellectual awakening and growtli in his generation. He was one of the founders of the Dial magazine, and for a time its editor. Margaret Fuller, Alcott, Thoreau, Channing, Mrs. Ripley, Agassiz, Hawthorne, Lowell were among his friends and neighbors. Through life a strong friendship existed between him and Carlyle, whose works he had welcomed and edited in America when they were little known in England.

"Nature " was Emerson's first work, published in 1836, but later grouped with other addresses and lectures in a volume. The other prose works came in the following order : "Essays," 1841 ; " Essays " (sec- ond series), 1844; "Representative Men," 1850; "English Traits" (written after his visit to England in 1847-48, for the purpose of lecturing there), in 1856; "Conduct of Life," 1860; "Society and Soli- tude," 1870; "Letters and Social Aims," 1874; and after Mr. Emerson's death two other volumes were published by his friend and literary executor, Mr. James Elliot Cabot, entitled "Lectures and Bio- graphical Sketches " and "Miscellanies."

"The office of poet always seemed to Emerson the highest, and even in boyhood he had aspired to express himself in verse, but not until 1847 did he give to the world the volume of poems which he had been rehearsing to himself in the woods through many years. In 1867, " May Day " was pub- lished-the poetical fruits of riper years.

Emerson received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Harvard University, and was also chosen an overscer in 1867, and soon after was appointed a lec- turer on philosophy there. The failure of his strength

at this time was increased by the exposures and exer- tions incident to a partial burning of his house in 1874. His many friends rebuilt his house and sent lim abroad to restore his health meantime. On this trip he visited England, France, Italy, and made a journey up the Nile. He returned in better health, but, although he read a few lectures after his return, he ceased to write, and his public life was at an end. He passed the remainder of his days quietly and hap- piły in Concord, where he died April 27, 1882.

REUBEN N. RICE.

Richard Rice was among the early settlers of Concord, and the name has existed here al- most ever since. Nathaniel, a native of Sudbury, was probably a descendant of Richard, and was the father of the subject of this sketch. He was in business in Boston when Reuben Nathaniel was born there, May 30, 1814, and moved to Concord when the son was fifteen years of age. Here the father lived for several years, and in 1834 built a large four-story windmill on the summit of the New Burying-ground Hill, which was a sight if not a success. The son, who had been educated in the Boston schools of that day, became a clerk in the " Green Store," then kept by J. P. Hayward, who had married the sister of R. N. Rice, with whom the boy lived. He was a bright, handsome, clever youth, full of fun and active in both work and play. The post-office was then kept in the " Green Store," and as this brought many customers, the clerk soon became acquainted with every family in town, and was popular and liked by all who knew him. Here he saw and talked with all sorts of pco- ple, from the professional magnates of the village to the teamsters and loafers who came for their supplies of rum and molasses. To all he was accommodating, and interesting, and he soon became foremost in all that was going on in the town, either of pleasure or profit. Here was his real training and education for the suc- cess of his after life, and here he acquired the friends to whom he was ever dear and true.

At the death of Mr. Haywood, about ten years after his entering the store, Mr. Rice succeeded to the business, and though without capital, secured a silent partner in David Loring, who furnished the means to carry on the business. This was for a time successful, but in the end Mr. Loring became dissatisfied and withdrew, leaving Mr. Rice deeply involved in debt and out of employment, as the store was closed in 1843. R. N., as he was familiarly called, had mar- ried, July 1, 1840, Mary Harriet Hurd, the daughter of Col. Isaac Hurd, Jr., and granddaughter of Dr. Isaac Hurd, a leading physician for many years in Concord. Mrs. Rice had a pleasant manner, a happy temperament and a charming smile, that made their home an attractive resort for their numerous relatives and friends, and a centre for many pleasant gather- ings. When the reverse of fortune came she bore

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her share of the burden, and kept her husband's spirits from sinking into despair by her hopeful joviality.

The opening of the Fitchburg Railroad to Concord in June, 1844, gave Mr. Rice a position as station agent, and he very soon acquired the knowledge of the duties that made him a success in his new em- ployment. His brother-in-law, Chas. Henry Hurd, had gone West to engage in railroading under John W. Brooks, then superintendent of the Rochester and Syracuse Railroad, in New York. After a year's trial of the station in Concord, Mr. Rice decided to join his brother-in-law, and, furnished with strong recom- mendations to Mr. Brooks, he left Concord in the spring of 1846. The change was the turn of the tide for him, readily securing from Mr. Brooks a situation in which he could show his ability and real worth, he was soon promoted to higher positions, till, on the completion of the Michigan Central Railroad, of which Mr. Brooks was superintendent, Mr. Rice and Mr. Hurd were assistant superintendents, the one of the passenger and the other of the freight traffic. Mr. Rice's headquarters were at Detroit, Michigan, and here he soon became as much at home as he had been in Concord, occupying a pleasant cottage on the best street of that city.

His acquaintance with all the Eastern men who had gathered in this growing place was, of course, intimate, and his good qualities were generally made known by his intercourse with the older residents. He took there the same interest in all that was going on, was as public-spirited and ready for work in every useful cause as he had been in Concord. His reverses had not embittered him, but had taught him charity and kindness, and he showed it in many be- nevolent ways. Many a New Englander going to or through Detroit enjoyed his hospitality and felt his grateful aid and assistance. To any one hailing from Concord there was no attention too great and no trouble too burdensome for him to undertake in their behalf.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 144

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1226

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226