History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 178

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III > Part 178

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The old Brown estate, an original grant to the first Abraham, now reduced in size, is still owned by descendants of the name. The main body of the house was built by Captain Abraham Brown, but a part is still more ancient. It stands on the road from Watertown village to Waltham, a little to the east of the estate once owned by Governor Gore, afterwards by Theodore Lyman.

The items given above may be recapitulated in the following table, giving the pedigree of Jonathan B. Bright on both the father's and the mother's side.

Ilenry Bright Jr. - Anne Goldstone.

Nathaniel Bright - Mary Coolidge.

Nathaniel Bright = Aan Bowman. Nathaniel Bright - Sybil Stone.

John Hright - Elizabeth Browa.

Abraham Browne - Lydia -.

Jonathan Browne == Mary Shattuck.

Capt. Abraham Browa - Mary Hyde. Jonathan Brown - Elizabeth Simonds.

Capt. Jonathan Brown - Esther Masou. Elizabeth Brown - Johu Bright.

John Bright, the father of Jonathan Brown Bright, was a farmer and a tanner. Only two of the descend- ants of Henry Bright, Jr., are known to have re- ceived a college education-Henry, Harvard 1770, and Nathaniel Francis, Harvard, 1866. But they have bcen and are, almost without exception, men of good

1 By the Rev. Thomas Hill, D.D., LL.D., of Portland, Me.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

sense, with a taste for reading, and of practical, sound judgment. Mr. John Bright's large family made industry an essential virtue among his children ; and his strictly religious character made him a strict disciplinarian to enforce it. At the age of four Jonathan B. was sent to the district school ; and during the next ten years was taught to read, to write and to cipher, working at home during the long vacations. At fourteen he was sent for one quarter to Westford Academy, after which he took lessons for a short time of the Rev. Samuel Ripley, so long pastor of the First Parish, Waltham ; but, having no desire for a collegiate education, he resnmed labor on the farm and in the tan-yard.

In 1816 he attended, one term only, Framingham Academy. The next year, having no more taste for tanning or farming than for study, he went, with an older brother, to New Orleans by sea, thence np the river to St. Louis, and became his brother's clerk in a store. Here he remained until of age, with the ex- ception of one season in a branch store at Franklin, on the Missouri. As soon as he was of age he began a retail business for himself in St. Stephens, Ala- bama ; but the next year moved to Selma. During the following year, 1823, of the seven men of Northern birth in that town, four died of fever; and the other three, including Mr. Bright, suffered severely with the same disease. This decided him to quit the South. In 1824, finding no vessel at Mobile for Bos- ton, he went to New York and sought employment. Making an engagement with Blackstock, Merle & Co., cotton brokers, he paid first a brief visit, after seven years' absence, to his home; then returning, spent twenty-five years in New York, first as clerk, after- wards as partner ; the firm changed to Merle & Bright, and then to Merle, Bright & Co.

In 1849 he returned to the homestead on Beaver Brook, then occupied by his maiden sister Mary, with whom also an unmarried brother John resided. Mr. Bright built here a larger house a few feet east of the old one; and he and his only child, with the brother and sister, constituted the family. Thirty-two years' absence had not diminished his attachment to the old place and to the companions of his childhood. They passed away before him, but the thirty years of quiet enjoyment which followed his retirement to the place of his birth were made much happier by the pro- longation of the sister's life nearly to the close of his own.

In 1827 Mr. Bright married Miss Mary Huguenin Garbrance; but his happiness with her was inter- rupted by her early death in 1830. Her only child, a daughter, came with her father to Waltham in 1849, and in 1861 married lier cousin, William Ellery Bright.

The thirty years, from 1849 to 1879, in which Mr. Bright lived free from active business cares, were by no means years of idleness. With the exception of a journey in 1859 to Nassau, Havana, New Orleans and

St. Louis, and a shorter one in 1860 to Buffalo and Quebec, the occupation of all those years was found in his native town, doing private kindnesses and fostering public improvements. I remember that one of the earliest impressions I received of him was from the chairman of the board of assessors, who told me that he had just had a peculiar experience : Mr. Bright had come in, after the town had been assessed, and said, " Yon have not made my tax large enough ; add so many thousand dollars to my personal proper- ty." It revealed the character of the man; it was both his integrity and his publie spirit that made him thus voluntarily assume a larger proportion of the public expenses.

In 1856 he was put on a town committee to select ground for a new cemetery ; drew up the report, which was accepted, and named all the avennes in the new grounds, Mt. Feake, after ancient Waltham families- a token of the strong interest which he then took in the matter of genealogy.

He furnished a good deal of valuable local history and antiquarian lore to the Waltham Sentinel and the Waltham Free Press, during the years 1856-63. Ile was an active promoter and leader of the Union League of the town during the Civil War ; and before that in the organization of a Farmers' Club, which is still in active operation. But the wire-pulling neces- sary to success in carrying on matters dependent on popular votes was so distasteful to a man of his pure, simple and manly integrity, that, after 1858, he reso- lutely declined to serve on any committee in town affairs.

In 1848, just before retiring from business in New York, Mr. Bright accidentally heard that Dr. Henry Bond, of Philadelphia, had a genealogy of the Bright family. Mr. Bright had a great interest in that mat- ter, although up to that time he had had no leisure to examine it. He immediately wrote to Dr. Bond, and the correspondence was kept up until the latter gen- tleman's death. Dr. Bond proved to have descended, in one line, from Henry Bright, Jr., and was also re- motely connected with Mr. J. B. Bright by the mar- riage of his grandfather to Mr. Bright's annt. Dr. Bond visited Mr. Bright at Waltham and spent some weeks there, while both were much engaged in col- lecting genealogical material. Mr. Bright afterward employed Mr. H. G. Somerby to make researches in England ; and in 1858 printed his valuable records of " The Brights of Suffolk, England."

Since that volume was printed Mr. Bright has col- lected material which would fill three more volumes of the same size, relating to the family on this side the Atlantic, and to other families of the same name.1

1 Mr. Bright was admitted a resident member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society Dec. 11, 1850, and made himself a life member March 20, 1863. Hle interested himself much in the society, and waa a frequent donor to its library. In 1870 he gave five hundred dol- lars to the Building Fund, for purchasing and fitting for the uses of the society the building which it now occupies.

THE RESIDENCE OF MRS. W. E. BRIGHT,

John Roberto

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WALTHAM.

The descendants of Henry Bright, Jr., have been mostly farmers and mechanics, occasionally shop- keepers, none holding other than town or parish offices; but none dishonoring the name. The number bearing the name is small, not exceeding, to the year 1850, one hundred and fifty ; but the descendants in the female line have been more numerous.

By a will dated December 15, 1860, Mr. Bright be- queathed to Harvard College fifty thousand dollars, the income of which should be equally divided be- tween the purchase of books for the college library and the support of scholarships to which Brights, lineally and legitimately descended from Henry Bright, Jr., shall have priority of claim. "I have se- lected Harvard College," he says, "the most ancient and venerated seat of learning in my native State, to be the custodian of this legacy, as an expression of my appreciation of its liberal yet conservative cbarac- ter; trusting that its government will always respect the sincere convictions of the recipients of the income thereof." His daughter was made sole executrix, and by a codicil her husband was added as co-exe- cutor. They paid over the full legacy a year in advance of the time allowed by law; so that the college entered at once upon the enjoyment of the in- come.

Mr. Bright's phrase " liberal yet conservative char- acter," which he applies to the college, might well be employed in describing himself. With an energy of character which in less than thirty years lifted him from the humblest commercial beginning to a competence that could afford such a legacy, he com- bined a genuine shrinking modesty which obscured his worth from careless eyes. His energy led him to join in aiding liberalizing movements; his modesty held him in reserve and allowed his cool, sonnd judgment to keep him in a more conservative position. His independence was maintained by this happy self-re- straint, which would allow him to run into neither extreme of standing by old errors nor of rushing into new ones.

Early in life Mr. Bright adopted views of the Christian religion in substantial agreement with those of Dr. Channing, and he never saw reason to modify them in any essential degree. His warmest virtues were kept, as it were, cool and in the back- ground by this wise and modest caution. Hegave time, labor and money to many good causes, public and pri- vate ; and he gave with a kindly, cheerful spirit ; yet so unostentatiously and so wisely that men's attention was more taken up with the results of the action, than with the action itself. In private, personal kindnesses he exercised a great delicacy ; so that, in some cases, the recipient of a needed help received regular peri- odical donations of a fixed sum, and endeavored for some time in vain to know from whom, or through what channel, they came ; in other cases the recipi- ent thought of the gifts as tokens of friendship, rather than any pecuniary aid.

WILLIAM E. BRIGHT.

William Ellery Bright was born in Mobile, Ala., September 26, 1831, and died at Waltham, Mass., March 12, 1882. His father was Henry Bright, who was born in Waltham, August 31, 1793. His mother way Abigail Fiske, who was born November 3, 1794. His earliest American ancestor upon his father's side was Henry Bright, born in the county of Sulfolk, England, in 1602, and coming to this country in 1630 with the company that settled at Watertown, Mass. The subject of this sketch was of the seventh genera- tion from this fonnder, and the order of his ancestry was as follows, viz .:

Henry1, John5,

Nathaniel",

Henry6,

Nathaniel3,

Henry1.

Nathaniel4,

On the maternal side he was also of the seventh American generation. The succession was as follows :

John1,

Jacob5,

William2, Abigail6,

Thomas®,

Henry 7.

Jonathan4,

Mr. Bright received a good early education at pri- vate schools in New England, and was for many years a member of the well-known firm of Torrey, Bright & Capen, one of the leading carpet stores of Boston.

In 1861, February 28th, he was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth G. Bright, daughter of Jonathan Brown Bright, of Waltham. From this union are three children,-a son, bearing his father's name, and two daughters, who, with their mother, survive.

A correspondent of the Boston Transcript, who writes after a long and intimate acquaintance with the deceased, says of him : " He was a man of excel- lent business faculty, with a calm, clear and capacious head, a soul of the highest rectitude and honor, and a heart framed of generosity and kindness. In 1875 the good people of Waltham elected him to the Gen- eral Court, and urged him to be a candidate again the next year, but the pressure of his business obliged him to decline. For the same cause he declined various other local offices which he was, from time to time, solicited to undertake. A continuons residence of some thirty years in that town had made him well known; his steadfast integrity and his approved in- telligence and liberality had gained him unbounded confidence; while the warm heart and open hand which he carried to works of piety and charity, his uniform suavity of manner and his good judgment and frank co-operation in matters of public interest in town and church, endeared him to the hearts of all who knew him."

JOHN ROBERTS.

Mr. John Roberts the subject of this sketch, was born in Boston in 1802. At the age of fourteen he

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

left school and went to work in a shop for wagon- building, where he remained until he was twenty-one. At that time he established himself in Watertown in the same business and continued there until 1835. Previous to this time there had been a small paper- mill on Stony Brook, in the southwest part of Wal- tham, near the confluence with Charles River. In 1835 Mr. Roberts, with his brother Stephen, who had had practical experience in paper-making, purchased this mill and entered into the business of paper man- ufacture. In a few years he bought out his brother and thereafter conducted the business alone until the last part of his life, when his son was associated with him. The firm-name of John Roberts & Son is one of the oldest and best known in the paper manufac- turing trade. Mr. Roberts put all his energy, indus- try and leading qualities into his new business, and established the basis of an honorable and successful career, with the competence that follows good judg- ment and thrifty management. Being naturally of an inventive mind, he introduced many improvements of his own into machinery and the process of manu- facturing. Among his inventions was a machine for tarring sheathing-paper used for building purposes. Previously this paper had been dipped by hand. Mr. Roberts' invention gave him a specialty in this kind of paper and established a high grade of standard article in tarred paper. He also manufactured the first fine grade hardware papers in this country, which are now so extensively used. In all improve- ments in machinery and methods his foresight and practical knowledge guided him to get the best. He was one of the earliest manufacturers in the United States to introduce the celebrated Fourdrinier machine into the manufacture of paper, a machine which, in its many modifications, is universally in operation in paper manufacture. The picturesque mill of stone, covered by a luxuriant growth of woodbine, sur- rounded by the beauties of nature and the evidences of thrift and prosperity, stands upon the original site and continues in successful operation under his son, William Roberts.

Mr. Roberts was a man of great firmness and force of character, of the strictest integrity and high busi- ness principles. Beneath the practical exterior of his nature he had a warm and generous heart which quickened in the desire to assist others who were worthy and in trouble. In a quiet and nnostentatious way he materially helped many a young man in his business who was struggling with adverse circum- stances and who, he thought, was honest and capable, and needed only pecuniary aid in order to be estab- lished on a good business foundation. His generosity though well known, was bestowed with little display. He was especially interested in the laying out and adornment of Mount Feake Cemetery, where, by the banks of the river on which he had lived and passed the greater portion of his life, his body now reposes. He died in 1871, at the age of sixty-nine years. As

a public-spirited citizen, most patriotic when the country was in danger, he took an active part in whatever related to the welfare of the community.

JONAS W. PARMENTER.

Mr. Jonas Willis Parmenter was a man of good, country-bred New England stock, who rose to prominence in local business matters and to afflu- ence by untiring industry, shrewdness and integ- rity. Born in 1817, in the town of Sudbury, where the family name has been prominent since the days of early settlement, he came to Wal- tham in early manhood, and was, until the time of his death, actively engaged in pursuits identified with the interests of his adopted home. He com- menced with no capital but a clear head and willing hands, and worked up through the hard discipline and experience of the man dependent entirely upon himself. He was at first employed in the Bleachery in an humble capacity, and afterwards started a small trade on Main Street. About 1850 he engaged in the coal business, and carried on that business success- fully until failing health obliged him to retire. From small beginnings, with good business ability, zealous attention to the conduct of his affairs and unim- peachable credit, he built up a trade that steadily increased in amount and prosperity with the growth of the town. With this business as a foundation he amassed a handsome property acquired by trade and fortunate investments. Although his regular busi- ness was local, in his investments his operations took a broader range. His judgment in this respect was quite marked for the unerring sagacity displayed.

Mr. Parmenter was endowed by nature with a large share of common sense, with good judgment and large perceptive faculties. When he decided fully on a given question or course of action subsequent events almost invariably proved him to be right. His long service with the Waltham Savings Bank, as one of the trust- ees, and with the National Bank, as director, brought him in connection with many people seeking loans, and to them he gave the same attention as to his own immediate business. He never allowed his personal bias to influence him in accepting or rejecting an ap- plication for a loan, but guided his decisions entirely by the value and character of the security offered. In financial matters he was of excellent judgment and wise, natural foresight. By his connection with the Waltham Improvement Company, which was soon merged into the American Watch Company, he early became interested in the latter, being its firm friend when friends were not as plenty as in these days of its great prosperity.

He was a reserved man and of few words, but of warm feelings in all the domestic relations of life. In the home circle, where he was best known, he was revered for his qualities of mind and heart. He had strong convictions and never concealed them but by

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SOMERVILLE.

his natural reserve. He never sought public office, though he served occasionally in some capacity of trust. The last office he held was that of Water Commissioner. He was an officer of many corpora- tions, and at the time of his death was a direc- tor in the Waltham National Bank, Newton and Watertown Gas-Light Company, Waltham Gas-Light Company, Bay State Brick Company, and a trustee and member of the Investment Committee of the Waltham Savings Bank. In all positions which he held he performed his duties with unfaltering trust. The later years of his life, until his death, in 1880, were passed amid much pain and severe suffering, which he bore with great courage and patience.

FRANCIS BUTTRICK.

Mr. Francis Buttrick has been prominently identi- fied with the business interests of Waltham for up- wards of a half-century. In the real estate operations incident to a growing New England town, and in the ownership of houses and other buildings which are so intimately connected with the welfare of the people and the prosperity of the place, he has been one of the leading men. He is now by far the largest real estate owner in the city. He has grown up with the material development of Waltham, and is still active in whatever pertains to the management of his prop- erty. Mr. Buttrick was born in Pepperell, Mass., in 1814, and removed with his family to Concord in 1828. Here, after receiving a limited education at the public schools, he learned the trade of house carpenter with his father. Working in that and the surrounding towns as a journeyman, he came to Waltham in 1838, where he continued the same occupation. In 1844 he commenced business on his own account as builder and employer. In 1857 he bought a lumber-yard, planing and saw-mill and box manufactory, and entered into quite extensive operations in that line of business, giving up his occupation as a carpenter. He had lately retired from active participation in his lumber business, which is now organized as the But- trick Lumber Company.

Through his business as carpenter and builder, he became interested in real estate, mostly of improved character, with buildings devoted to the wants of a manufacturing and laboring community. From small beginnings in this way he has, by good judgment and sagacity, fair dealing and attention to his affairs, ac- quired a possession of real estate, varied and valuable, in different parts of the city. As a landlord and party in interest in property held by others, Mr. But- trick has always been kind-hearted and disposed to assist those who were inclined to assist themselves. He has helped many to preserve their homes, when under a more exacting man they might not have been able to keep them. As a citizen, he has always taken an interest in the affairs of the town and city, and con- tributed his advice and support to all matters, public

and private, affecting the welfare of the community. In material aid to the many objects constantly pre- senting themselves for individual assistance, he has bestowed his benefactions willingly and liberally. Mr. Buttrick has been for many years a director in the Waltham National Bank, is president of the Waltham Music Hall Company, and a director in the New England Northwestern Investment Company. He was one of the original promoters and incorpora- tors of the Waltham Co-operative Bank, and for sev- eral years has been its president. This institution has been most successful and praiseworthy in its practical operation in encouraging men to invest their carnings to the best advantage in their own local- ity, and to build for themselves homes. Mr. Buttrick has ever taken a deep interest in this institution, and has given it from the first, the benefit of his active efforts and good judgment.

He was a selectman of the town for several years, and was a member of the last Board of Selectmen, when the town government was changed to a city form of government.

Mr. Buttrick is a man unassuming in life and man- ner, bears the burdens of business easily and quietly. Genial and hospitable in social life, always on the side of good government and sound policy in public affairs, local and general, conservative and level-headed in business matters, he commands the respect of his townspeople, and the confidence of all who know him.

In 1849 he was married to Miss Augusta M. Far- well. He has no children.

CHAPTER LIII.

SOMERVILLE.

BY WILLIAM T. DAVIS.

IN writing a history of Somerville, as a contribu - tion to a history of Middlesex County, in which the histories of all its towns are included, the writer thinks it will be superfluous to record the incidents in its career before its incorporation, and while it was contained within the bounds of Charlestown, from which it was separated in 1842. The histories of Malden and of the county of Middlesex, to be found in these volumes, cover enough of the ground prior to the incorporation of Somerville, and render any further allusion to it unnecessary.

In 1841 the people living in the westerly part of Charlestown, becoming dissatisfied with the burdens of taxation, unrelieved by corresponding benefits, held a meeting on the 22d of November in that year, at the Prospect Ilill School-house, to discuss the question of a division of the town. At that mceting Joseph Miller presided, and Edwin Munroe, Jr., acted as secretary. A committee of seven, consisting of Francis Bowman, Asa Pritchard, Edward Cutter,

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Robert G. Tenney, Benjamin Hadley, John S. Edgerly and John Tapley, was chosen to obtain the views of the people on the question and report at an adjourned meeting. At the adjourned meeting, held on the 29th of November, a committee of six, consisting of Fran- cis Bowman, John S. Edgerly, Clark Bennett, James Hill, Jr., Oliver Tufts and S. S. Runey, was chosen to investigate and report on town affairs generally, and more particularly on the taxes paid by their section of the town.

On the 3d of December the committee reported that in 1840 the assessed tax of the town was $34,093.76 of which the sum of $5,687.78 was assessed on the in- habitants and property above the bridge, over the Middlesex Canal. An analysis of this tax showed that the portion of it paid by inhabitants on property in that section was $4,378.36, while the sum of $1,068.28 was assessed on non-residents, $110.24 on residents for property below the bridge, and $130.20 on the Tufts Miles tan-yard. They also reported that in May, 1840, the population of that section was 1519, the number of families 224 and the number of polls 437. They reported that in 1841 the number of polls was 527, and the assessed tax of the whole town $57,- 522.98, of which the sum of $9,416.20 was paid by the inhabitants and property of that section, divided as follows: $7,221.34 by the inhabitants on property within the section, $1,821.83 on non-residents, $156.03 on residents for property below the bridge, and $217 on the Tan-yard Wharf.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 178

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1278

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278