History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 176

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 176

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the town, with a mingling of new and healthy blood of mnuch the same kind as the old.

Following are names of some of the reeent and present representatives of Wakefield, in its municipal affairs and general business : Thomas Emerson, Jr., John G. Aborn, Daniel G. Walton, James F. Emer- sou, Thomas Winship, John S. Eaton, Richard Brit- ton, Cyrus Wakefield (2d), Everett Hart, Solon O. Richardson, Jr., William F. Young, James H. Carter, Hiram Eaton, John Winship, Dr. Samuel W. Abbott, William K. Perkins, Captain Samuel F. Littlefield, Edward A. Upton, Edward H. Walton, Cyrus N. White, Joseph Connell, Col. J. F. Mansfield, Samuel K. Hamilton, Maj. W. N. Tyler, Col. John W. Locke, Mason S. Southworth, George W. Aborn, Dr. Charles Jordan, David Perkins, Otis V. Waterman, A. W. Chapman, B. B. Burbank, Charles F. Hartshorne, David H. Darling, Charles H. Davis, Everett W. Eaton, Jacob C. Hartshorne, E. E. Emerson, Thomas J. Skinner, George H. Maddock, John W. White, Arlon S. Atherton, William S. Greenough, Alstead W. Brownell, Theodore E. Balch, Dr. E. P. Colby, Col. Charles F. Woodward, Cyrus G. Beebe, Maj. John M. Cate, William D. Deadman, Selim S. White, Freeman Emmons, Waldo E. Cowdrey, William E. Rogers, Henry H. Savage, James W. Grace, Robert Blyth, Edwin C. Miller, Albert J. Wright, Peter S. Roberts, William L. Coon, Dr. Preston Sheldon, Dean Dudley, Harvey B. Evans, Rufus Kendrick, William G. Strong, Lyman H. Tasker, Ashton H. Thayer, Jacob S. Merrill, Henry Haskell, Nathaniel E. Cutler, Fred. B. Carpenter and Thomas Kernan.

Brief biographical sketches of a few of the repre- sentative men of the town since its incorporation in 1812, who gave much of themselves to the public service or for the public benefit, and having made their reeord, have passed away, may not be inappro- priate in this connection.

DR. JOHN HART .- One of the most conspicuous and influential figures in all the various activities of municipal life from 1790 to 1830 was that of Dr. John Hart, sometimes by his fellow-citizens called "the king." Dr. Hart was a native of Ipswich, born in 1751, son of John Hart, Esq., a lawyer of Ipswich. He married Mary, daughter of Captain Abraham Gould, of Stoneham. He first practised his profes- sion in Georgetown (now Batlı), Maine, but on the breaking out of the War of the Revolution joined the army as a surgcon and served during the war. He was first assigned as surgeon to Colonel Prescott's regiment at Cambridge, before the battle of Buuker Hill, and later was surgeon of the Second Massachu- setts Regiment, under Colonel Jolin Bailey, and ac- companied his regiment in every battle in which it was engaged. He was one of the forty-one officers detailed by General Washington to attend the execu- tion of Major André, and described it as the most impressive and awful scene he ever witnessed. He enjoyed some intimacy with General Washington,

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and was at one time deputed to make a perilous journey to Boston on horse-back and bring back $3000 in gold, which commission he safely accomplished. After the war Dr. Hart settled in the First Parisb of Reading (now Wakefield), purchasing a residence, formerly the homestead of the Smith family, ou the easterly borders of Smith's Pond, now known as Crys- tal Lake, and here he spent the remainder of his long life. Dr. Hart was a skillful physician, giving con- scientious attention to a large practice. He was an ardent patriot, a member of the Society of Cincinnati, constant in his attendance on its meetings, and for many years its vice-president. He was the firm friend and liberal supporter of religious, educational and benevolent institutions, and embraced the faith of the Puritans, but was not sectarian in his opinions. He became a large landed proprietor and was like an English 'squire to the community in which he lived. He was chosen selectman, school committee, repre- sentative and senator; was appointed justice of the peace and of the quorum and justice of the Court of Sessions. As a politician he was of the Jeffersonian school, ever earnest and decided. He was courageons and firm, punctual and honest in all his dealings, kind to the poor, somewhat arbitrary in his ways and impatient of contradiction, generally moderator at town-meetings, and exercised a controlling influence over his fellow-citizens. His personal appearance was striking and imposing-being of fair complexion, Roman nose, high forehead and middle stature, but of portly frame and stately mien. He was an accom- plished horseman and always rode in the saddle, de- spising a sulky. Dr. Hart died in 1836, at the age of eighty-five years. His children were: Mary, who married Henry, son of Rev. Caleb Prentiss; Abraham, who died unmarried; John, educated as a physician, a young man of promise, who died at the age of twenty-four; Sarah and Lucinda, who became the first and second wives of Dr. Thaddens Spaulding ; Samuel, the youngest son, graduated at Harvard Col- lege in 1817, who became a physician highly esteemed in his life and profession, and settled in Brooklyn, N. Y.

BURRAGE YALE .- Mr. Yale was another promi- nent figure of the South Reading days, coming here to reside abont 1810, but his first entry into the town, as he used to boast, was as a tin peddler, barefoot, walking by the side of his cart. He became an ex- tensive manufacturer of tin-ware, and gradually en- larged his business until he was one of the heaviest tin-ware dealers in the State, employing a hundred peddlers and sending his wagons over New England. His tin-shop was at what is now the corner of Main Street and Yale Avenue, and was, on a smaller scale, what is now the shoe factory of Thomas Emerson's Sons. He was a man of shrewd business taet and habita, and amassed a large estate. He was honest, prompt and exact in all his dealings, and had no pa- tience and little mercy with those who were other-

wise. He was unpopular with most of his townsmen by reason of his lofty demeanor, his unrelenting en- deavors to collect his dues, and annoying idiosyn- crasies, but was respected for his unbeuding integrity, his diguified bearing and his public gifts. He held no public offices except those of town treasurer and justice of the peace. Mr. Yale was born iu Meriden, Connecticut, in 1781, and died in Sonth Reading in 1860, aged seventy-nine years. He left three daugh- ters, who married, and are all dead, and one son, Bur- rage Buchanan Yale, Esq., of Stamford, Connecticut. He made liberal gifts to the Yale Engine Company, named in his honor. Mr. Yale left to trustees under his will extensive lands and houses, Yale Avenue having been laid out through his homestead estate.

COLONEL LEMUEL SWEETSER .- Colonel Sweet- ser was a man of strong native qualities, an original thinker, an effective public speaker, possess- ing courage, probity and judgment, and exercised large influence in the councils of the town. He was colonel of cavalry, school committee, justice of the peace and representative, and his business was shoe manufacturing. He was very fond of the military organization, particularly the cavalry corps, and glor- ied in a noble steed. He was a valued member of the Baptist Society, of which he was a prominent fonnder and life-long supporter. He was not himself a scholar, but an active friend of the public schools and of edu- cation in general, and helped to found the South Reading Academy. Colonel Sweetser purchased the estate between Main Street and the Boston & Maine Railroad, and there located his home. The estate is now covered with handsome dwelling-houses, his heirs having laid out Avon Street through the same, and sold house-lots thereon. Colonel Sweetser was the son of Paul and Mary (Hart) Sweetser, and born in the town in 1779. He married Hannah, daughter of Lilley and Sarah Eaton, and died of consumption in 1835, leaving a worthy family of descendants.

DEA. AARON BRYANT .- The town has had many a representative more brilliant by far in mental en- dowments, and more ambitious for well-earned dis- tinction, than good Deacon Bryant, but perhaps the town has never been blest with a man more saintly in character or more anxious to know and to do the Lord's will on earth. He was privileged in his hum- ble station to do a good work for his fellow-men, and after a long life left a sweet and blessed memory. He was the son of Edmund Bryant, and born in New Ipswich, N. H., but was the grandson of Kendall Bryant, of the Old Parish of Reading, and when young came here for his life residence. He was chosen deacon of the Congregational Church in 1815, and served faithfully in that capacity nntil his death, in 1870, a period of fifty-five years. He was largely instrumental in organizing the Congregational Sun- day-school in 1818. Though modest and unassuming, he possessed a well-stored mind, and was prized in the community as a wise connselor and one of the

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

best of citizens. Deacon Bryant married Rebecca Poole, the daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth Emerson, and left no children. His homestead was at the corner of Main and Avon Streets, and his house the same, though enlarged and improved, owned by James Barrett in 1765, and later by Lieu- tenant Nathan Eaton, a soldier of the Revolution. Lieutenant Eaton was a man of great physical pro- portions, so that it became a proverbial comparison to say " as big as Nathan Eaton."

CAPTAIN THOMAS EMERSON .- Another life-long resident of the town, who, by force of character, great industry and wise application of his powers, won his way, without the help of the schools, to a foremost place among the honored citizens of the town, was Captain Thomas Emerson. Coming from an un- tainted Puritan ancestry, among whom were clergy- men, soldiers and leading citizens, he was himself a notable illustration of the best qualities of his lineage. He was born in this town in 1785, and was the son of Captain Thomas Emerson, a soldier of the Revolution, and a man of signal bravery and resolution, who had experienced the miseries of Dartmoor prison. Captain Emerson, Jr., was brought up to habits of toil, and worked his way to being the leading and most successful shoe manufacturer of the town.

He was elected by the votes of his fellow-citizens to nearly every office in their gift. He was chosen as Representative in the General Court eight years, and Senator two years ; was selectman, school committee, justice of the peace and captain of cavalry. He was prominent in the formation of the South Reading Mechanic and Agricultural Institution in 1833, which is still flourishing, and in the organization of the South Reading Bank (now the National Bank of South Reading) in 1854, becoming its first president, and holding the position until his death. Courteous and sympathetic in his personal demeanor, with heart and purse open to the cry of need, an oracle in finance, and ever guided by Christian principles, he was trusted and respected by all. In the Congrega- tional Church he was truly a pillar by his generous contributions to the support of the ministry and charitable enterprises, his zealous interest in spiritual things, and his wise counsel in practical concerns. As an employer of many workmen he obtained their re- spect and confidence by fair dealing and prompt pay- ments, and was the first in the region to abandon the old system of barter to make cash payments to his employees. As the disabilities of age came upon him he transferred his business to his sons, and died in 1871, at the good old age of eighty-six years. His wife was Betsey, daughter of Deacon James Harts- horne, who survived him two years. His sons are Thomas and James F. Emerson. His daughters were Mrs. Augusta Odiorne and Mrs. Sarah H. Bar- nard, both now deceased, and Mrs. Maria J., wife of Major George O. Carpenter. It was truly said of "

Captain Emerson at his death : "He was faithful, earnest, liberal and devout."

LILLEY EATON .- In nearly every town of our Commonwealth there may be found some citizen who, more than any other, is concerned in the administra- tion of its affairs, and familiar with its history and institutions. Such a man in respect to Wakefield was the late Lilley Eaton. Descended through an honor- able ancestry from the first sturdy settlers of the town, he lias himself recorded that he delighted " to inquire after the old paths and to walk therein."

Brought up in the village store of his father, who was active in municipal affairs, the observant son be- came early accustomed to the transaction of town business, and absorbed the best traditions of the elders. The house in which was this store was erect- ed in 1804, and then the most imposing structure of the village, and is still standing at the corner of Main and Salem Streets. It became known as the " Pilgrim's Hotel," as being the general resort of transient clergy- men aud other brethren of the owner's faith, where they always found a cordial welcome. On the third floor of this mansion was the consecrated and spacious " meeting chamber " used by the earnest members of the young Baptist society, of which the senior Mr. Eaton was one of the founders, for their religious, social and conference meetings. In such an atmosphere did Lilley Eaton, Jr., pass his boyhood, and his soul grow strong. He fitted for college at Bradford Acad- emy, but was called home by the sudden death of his father in 1822, to assume the large responsibilities which naturally devolved upon him as eldest son and successor in business. As years and experience de- veloped his powers, by his tastes and abilities and the favor of his fellow-citizens, he filled nearly every offi- cial position of the municipality. It is probable there never was a citizen of the town who occupied so many local offices for so long periods as did Mr. Eaton, and he became perfectly familiar with every detail of town affairs, and the application of the law to the same. He was sclectman twenty-five years, a member of the School Board nearly as long, and gen- erally chairman of each. He was town clerk twenty years, Representative seven years, Senator two years, trustee of Public Library from its establishment, just- ice of peace thirty-eight years, and a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1853. He was for many years the principal writer of deeds and wills in the town, transacted considerable probate business, and at- tended, as administrator, executor and guardian, to the settlement of many estates, and his probity and faithfulness were never questioned. He was Treas- urer of the South Reading Mechanic and Agricul- tural Institution and cashicr of the South Reading Bank (afterward the National Bank of South Reading) from their organization, respectively, until his death. During his active business life of nearly half a century there was hardly a movement or enterprise for the honor or improvement of the town, but Mr. Eaton

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WAKEFIELD.

had an influential part. In this connection might be named the South Reading Academy, the Town House of 1834, the South Reading Stage Company, the High School, the South Reading Mechanic and Agricul- tural Institution, the South Reading Lyceum, the South Reading Bank, the Citizens' Gas-Light Com- pany, the Public Library and Reading-Room, the Lakeside Cemetery, and the change of the town's name.

Mr. Eaton had a genuine love for his native town, and was jealous for her just fame, and the crowning evidence of this love, and the best monument of his genius, may be found in the "History of Reading," including the present towns of Wakefield, Reading and North Reading. To this work he gave years of his best thought and labor. His lamp of life going out before the later chronicles were quite completed, the finishing touches and appropriate additions were given by the accomplished hands of his brother, John Sullivan Eaton, and the work printed in 1874. At the Reading Bi-centennial celebration, in 1844, Mr. Eaton was called to the honor of being poet of the day, and his production delivered on that occasion has become historic.

Mr. Eaton's personal traits were attractive, and his bearing marked by a natural urbanity, a true index to a kind heart. He was a constant attendant at the Congregational Church, and accepted the truths of the Gospel in their more direct and personal mean- ing. Mr. Eaton was the son of Lilley Eaton, the grandson of Lilley Eaton, and descended from the early settler, Jonas Eaton. He was born January 13, 1802, and died January 16, 1872. He married Eliza Nichols, of an old Reading family, and left four sons, still surviving.

DR. SOLON O. RICHARDSON .- One of the most treasured names in the recent history of the town is that of Dr. Solon Osmond Richardson, the generous and public-spirited citizen, who scattered his bene- factions with discriminating hand and kindly heart. Dr. Richardson was born in North Reading, July 19, 1809, and was the son of Dr. Nathan Richardson, formerly of South Reading, the good physician of blessed memory. Dr. Nathan Richardson was skillful and eminent as a physician, his practice extending over New England, and his son, Solon O., was edu- cated to follow the same profession, and he early gave evidence of possessing unusual skill and qualifica- tions as a physician, and on his fatber's death, in 1837, there devolved upon him an extensive practice, to which he gave his enthusiasm and best energies, with strong hopes of usefulness and success in the active and absorbing duties of a chosen profession. Soon, however, his health gave way, and he was forced to the resolution of abandoning his practice, and to limit himself to the manufacture and sale of the "Sherry Wine Bitters," which had already been applied in his father's practice and his own, with re- markable remedial results. At this time proprietary

medicines, and especially medicated bitters, prepared for general sale, was a branch of trade unknown in New England, and many new appliances and methods had to be devised by a pioneer in the business, such as the shape and construction of bottles, designs for wrappers, best means for transportation and a proper system of advertising, involving many perplexities and large expense. All obstacles were, however, sur- mounted, and Richardson's Sherry Wine Bitters be- came a pronounced success, and brought fame and affluence to the persistent and enterprising proprie- tor. Great wealth was not, however, an object with Dr. Richardson, and finding himself possessed of an ample competence, with an increasing income, he yielded to the impulses of a generous nature and be- came as noted for his liberality as for his bitters, though most of his gifts were never made public. He declined the burdens of local office, but had always a lively interest in matters pertaining to the honor and improvement of the town and the benefit of her citi- zens. He was one of the original movers for the compiling and publication of the history of the town, and it was through his efforts and liberal contribu- tions that the town became the owners of the valu- able portraits of George Washington and Cyrus Wake- field that now adorn the walls of the town hall.

When the local military company, now in the front rank of the state militia in all soldierly quali- ties, was organized in 1851, it was named the Rich- ardson Light Guard, in honor of Dr. Richardson, whose appreciation of theact was manifested through- out his life by a constant and ardent interest in the corps and by frequent and generous donations. He was through life a valued member and substantial supporter of the Universalist Society of South Read- ing and Wakefield. Dr. Richardson was fatally seized with apoplexy August 31, 1873, while making a social call on his neighbor, Mr. Wakefield, and died in a few hours, leaving a fragrant memory. His son and successor, the present Dr. S. O. Richard- son, worthily wears the mantle of the father.

CYRUS WAKEFIELD :- The gentleman who gave his name to the town was cast in no ordinary mould. Born on a farm amid the rugged hills of New Hamp- shire, in boyhood inured to toil, with scanty privileges for obtaining an education, he yet had the mind and the will to struggle out of the limited conditions of his early life, and, by study, industry, perseverance and the exercise of a rare judgment, to win a high position among the merchant princes of the New England metropolis, and to become one of the fore- most citizens in the town of his adoption. He had, however, the advantages of good parentage, fixed habits of temperance and economy, a stalwart franie, robust health and great powers of endurance, and these, united with large mental capacity and an indomita- ble will, brought him surely and in due time to the goal of worldly success.

Cyrus Wakefield was the son of James and Hannah

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Heminway Wakefield, and was born in Roxbury, N. H., February 14, 1811. His ambition to get away from home and into the great world of trade was an impelling force when only a boy. After several futile attempts in that direction, he made the decisive step, with his father's consent, at the age of fifteen, and first found employment in the retail grocery store of Wheeler & Bassett, on Washington Street, Boston. His latent powers developed fast, and, having ehanged to a firm on India Street, he was permitted to do a small business outside his regular duties, and soon accumulated $1000, all his own. In 1834 he was in the grocery business for himself. He made only ordi- nary progress until 1844, when one day, observing a quantity of rattan-cane thrown out of a vessel as almost worthless, he purchased the lot and sold it for chair- seatings. On his active inind there then dawned a glimpse of some of the possibilities of the future of rat- tan, from the merchant's standpoint. Not long after he changed his business to that of a jobbing trade in rattans, and employed an agent at Canton, China, and ere long his importations of Canton split rattan were known throughout the United States.

Mr. Wakefield adopted the spelling "rattan," in- stead of "ratan," the old way, for his specialty, and by his persistent use of that orthography brought at last the standard dictionaries to recognize it as the approved style.

In a few years Mr. Wakefield resolved to manufac- ture the eane himself, and utilize, as far as possible, the whole of the material-outside, pith and shav- ings. Starting, in a small way, at Boston, in 1856, he removed his works to South Reading, having pur- chased the mill-site on Water Street, improved for a century by Thomas Green and his descendants. His first factory was very soon too small for his ex- panding business, and, building after building was erected, until at the time of his death the manufac- tories and store-houses of his successor-the Wake- field Rattan Company-covered an area of ten acres of flooring, and the variety of articles of beauty and utility made from rattan was amazing.

Mr. Wakefield married, in 1841, Eliza A., daughter of Captain Henry Bancroft, of Lynnfield, a retired sea-captain, and, in 1851, purchased an estate in South Reading, where he later erected his palatial residence and spent the balance of his days. Mr. Wakefield was greatly interested in the prosperity of the town, and expended much money in the improve. ment of the region near his residence and factories. He was earnest and liberal in the encouragement of all enterprises he thought were for the benefit of the town. He was the moving spirit in the incorpora- tion of the Wakefield Savings Bank, the Wakefield Real Estate and Building Association, the Quanna- powitt Water Company, the main supporter of a free course of lectures, and was an influential director and large stockholder in the National Bank, the Citizens' Gas-Light Company, the South Reading Ice Compa-

ny and the Boston and Maine Foundry Company. The munificent gift by Mr. Wakefield of a town hall has been mentioned in another portion of this sketch, with the circumstances attending the change of the town's name from South Reading to Wakefield. Following this notable event the interest and affec- tion of Mr. Wakefield for the town that had honored his name was more than doubled, and he was con- stantly giving of his thought and wealth to promote its prosperity. He erected spacious brick blocks, near the splendid town hall he had given the town, for the accommodation of anticipated business ; he sought to increase industrial activity not only at his own exten- sive works, but by the attraction of new manufactur- ing and business enterprises ; he offered homes for the people on easy terms, he encouraged the addition of commodious and elegant public buildings, he favored park and street improvements, he lent a helping hand to worthy young students struggling for an education, he gave to the town an elegant diploma plate for High School graduates, he instituted free scientific lectures and projected the founding of a college in Wakefield, where the children of the poor might en- joy the privileges of superior training and a liberal education. Without children, his hopes for the fu- ture centred more and more on the town of his later affections, and he hoped to live to see it the city of Wakefield, famed for its institutions of education and charity, distinguished by the beauty of its scenery and its architectural adornments, and noted for the intelligence and enterprise of its people. Many things he began and accomplished, and many others had only taken shape in his own busy brain. Sud- denly he died,-one Sunday morning in the autumn of 1873-sitting in his chair, and impressively re- minded us " what shadows we are and what shadows we pursue." Taken in connection with the great finan- cial depression then clouding the business world, this event was a serious blow to the material prosperity of the town. The important rattan business was, however, continued without interruption by the Wakefield Rattan Company, while the homestead estate passed to the widow of Mr. Wakefield, and at her death, a few years later, and by her will, de- scended in fitting sequence to Cyrus Wakefield (2d), â high-minded and liberal citizen, who died in his sleigh, as suddenly as his uncle, January, 1888.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 176

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