History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 103

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 103

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The plan and methods of education pursued are based upon certain important features, the most prominent of which are :

1. The supreme importance of the moral character.

2. Health.

3. The highest development of the intellect com- patible with health.

4. The practical usefulness of the individual.

5. The inexpensiveness of the course.

termination of the founder that the college should be distinctively a Christian college. Its foundation would never have been laid by him if this object could not have been secured. The cross carved into the key- | stone spanning the entrance, and that which rises above the highest pinnacle of the noble pile, are only slight evidences, among many, of this purpose.

It is still the aim of those who control that here art, science, and religion shall do their utmost to form Christian character, and impart to it wisdom, strength, and beauty.

The college therefore seeks Christian teachers, and the best Christian influences. It has arranged its curriculum so that; while it shall provide for the highest intellectual acquisition, it shall at the same , time impart religious knowledge in a positive and practical manner, that its students may have some- thing more than a sentimental basis for religious con- victions.

Prominence is given to the study of the word and works of God as the true basis of the higher edu- cation.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

EMERY FISK.

Emery Fisk, born in Framingham, in the State of Massachusetts, Feb. 27, 1803, was a descendant of Robert and Sybil (Gold) Fiske or Fisk, who lived at Broad Gates, Loxfield, Framingham, Suffolk County, England, whose son or grandson, David, with two nephews and their mother, came to Watertown about 1636, and there settled. David went to Wenham, and his descendants are to be found in Northeastern Massachusetts and in New Hampshire towns.

Nathan, one of the nephews, married Susanna He was one of the selectmen of Watertown in about 1674 or 1675. His fourth son, Nathaniel, was born July 12, 1653, and in 1677 married Mary Childs. Their son Nathaniel was born June 9, 1678, and married Hannah Adams at Sherborn. Their third son, Moses, born June 29, 1713, married Mehitable Broad, of Needham, April 11, 1745. Their son Moses, born 1746, married (1775) to Sally -, settled in Natick (Needham Leg) upon their mar- riage. Their son Moses, the father of Emery, was born Jan. 4, 1776, and married Sybil Jennison, of Hillsborough, N. H., May, 1801, and settled in Framingham, where they remained till Emery, their ton, having purchased the Abijah Fisk farm. After remaining here one year the family removed to Natick, purchasing a farm, bordering upon Dug and Long Ponds, of Calvin Fisk, a cousin of the head of the family. When about eighteen years of age Emery left home to carry on the farm of Chester Adams, and, upon Col. Adams removing to Dedham,

Christian Influence .- It was the unswerving de- | oldest son, was fourteen, when they removed to Wes-

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Solomon Flaca 1

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he left him for the purpose of entering into a busi- ness partnership with him. He remained in business in Dedham for several years.

He married, April 16, 1828, Eunice Morse, of Natick, daughter of Adam Morse, and great-grand- | ham Parish. daughter of John Bacon, of Needham, who, as lieu- tenant of a company, was killed near Menotomy, April 19, 1775, in the battle of Lexington. They removed to Needham (now Wellesley) in May, 1833, having purchased a farm of two hundred acres of Isaiah Fiske, a second cousin, and lived upon it the rest of his life. He was an honest, reliable citizen, of social, genial habits, of excellent judgment, cau- tious in business, more given to comfortable enjoy- | Jackson, of Newton.

ment of what he possessed than engaged in the acquire- ment of money, though his income always exceeded his expenditures.

He was greatly respected and his opinions were highly regarded by his neighbors and townsmen. He was selectman and overseer of the poor for several years of the town of Needham, and was representa- tive of the town in the Massachusetts Legislature in the years of 1840 and 1841. He was elected and served as delegate to the convention for revising the Constitution of Massachusetts in 1853, and the ac- quaintance he there formed with such men as Choate, Wilson, Morton, Rantoul, Butler, Burlingame, and others was a source of great pleasure to him so long as he lived. He was a Democrat in politics, and always attended the conventions of his party, State and local.

He died May 17, 1868, leaving two children (six others having died in infancy),-the elder, Abigail Burgess, who married Augustus Eaton, and resides in Needham, and Joseph E., born Oct. 23, 1839, and living at the home place. He graduated at Har- vard College in 1861, was in the war of the Rebellion (1862-65), a prisoner of war ten months, and dis- charged as captain of artillery. He has been for many years a town officer; was a representative in | the musical club of which he was a member. the Legislature in 1874, and a member of the Senate of Massachusetts in 1876-77.

SOLOMON FLAGG.

Solomon Flagg, a true product of Puritan stock, was born in Boston, Aug. 24, 1804. The next spring his father, who had kept one of the two victualing cel- lars then known in Boston, removed to Needham, his native place, and opened a public-house on the spot and in the house where the subject of this sketch resides.

He filled the office of town clerk and assessor for several years.

His wife was a Brown, who was sister of Betty Brown, who gave a large property to the West Need-

One of the early associates of Mr. Flagg speaks of him " as a spruce young man, full of fun and frolic," and adds, " he still retains these characteristics."

He assisted his father in keeping store and tend- ing bar, but under guidance of friends and their own principles, himself and his brother totally abstained from the use of liquors, and very early joined the temperance movement championed by Hon. William

The grandfather of Mr. Flagg, also named Solo- mon, was present in the battle of Lexington, and served at other points during the war of the Revolu- tion. He held offices in the town of Needham.

It is easy to trace the line of the family to Thomas Flagg, who came over from England before 1643, and settling at Watertown was selectman of that town in 1671, 1674-78, and died in 1697.

Mr. Solomon Flagg having married Eliza Hall, had three children,-Charles Henry, who was killed by a sad accident while very young ; Charles Gay, who died, 1860, at the age of twenty-five; and George H. P., born March 12, 1830, who still survives, following the profession of dentistry with such skill and success that he has acquired an enviable reputation in his work, and amassed a fortune which enables him to indulge his father in every want and luxury in his declining years, and to place his familiar features in this his- tory.

In mature life Mr. Flagg united with the church of which for over fifty years he has led the choir with a voice familiar, not to his townspeople only, but to the inhabitants of the neighboring towns, who turned out by hundreds to do him honor on the celebration of his seventy-fifth birthday, under the auspices of

He was school-teacher for thirty-eight years in Needham, Dover, Natick, and Sherborn, and there are few of the old natives of these towns who do not know him and respect him.

Probably no person in Norfolk County, possibly in the State, has held public office so many years in the aggregate as Mr. Flagg, and it is well to put on record the facts of so remarkable a career in this respect.

Mr. Flagg presents in his life the peculiarity of a man always in office, never an office-seeker ; a man of fixed opinions and beliefs, to which he always adhered, but by so doing never gave offense; religious in his bearing and habits, yet very fond of fun and good 1

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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

cheer ; careful not to give offense or notice an affront, and yet keenly alive to word or look ; appearing to be | passive in public matters, but losing no opportunity to use his influence for the public weal. He has had and has much, very much, to do in shaping the affairs of his town, village, and church. He has lived to see many a faction die out and many a man of local in- fluence shelved, genially smiling to himself at the failures, and filling oftentimes the gaps made by their subsidence.

He was selectman of the town of Needham in 1833, 1842, 1843, 1846-49, seven years in all; as- sessor of Needham, 1832, 1833, 1839, 1845, 1857- 59, 1861-64, 1866-74, twenty years in all; member of the school committee, 1831, 1845-51, 1857-61, 1864 -67, 1870-80, twenty-eight years in all. He was appointed town clerk Aug. 19, 1850, and held the office till the incorporation of Wellesley (1881), over thirty years, and was elected town clerk of Wellesley upon the organization of the town, and holds it to the present writing, his third year.

He was appointed treasurer of the town of Need- ham May 14, 1859, and elected every year till the incorporation of Wellesley, twenty-one years.

He was elected as representative to the General Court in 1834, and again in 1861, where he assisted in patriotic preparation for resistance to rebellion. He has thus aggregated one hundred and eight years of service in public elective office. Besides, he has for over twenty years been justice of the peace, has officiated as commissioner in disputed cases,-a record without a parallel, I believe.

No man will dispute Mr. Flagg's word or doubt his friendship, or find him treacherous or unfair. Even the bitterness following upon the division of the old town, and for which Mr. Flagg was an earnest worker, has not strained to the least degree the cords of friendship which had been so strong heretofore.

Mr. Flagg's accuracy as a town treasurer has been such that no suspicion of incorrectness has ever been brought against his accounts, and the neatness and | purchased a farm in Grantville, Mass., now Wellesley elegance of his records, as town clerk, have excited the attention and admiration of experts and State officials. The hope finally may be expressed : May he live as long as his ancestors, and preserve his youth as long as he lives.

HENRY WOOD.

The first of this branch of the Wood family to settle in America was Ephraim Wood, who was born in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England, Dec. 21, 1783. Ephraim was a tailor, and followed that business all

his life. He was a very devout Christian, and a dea- con in Dr. Sharp's church in Boston. He had three brothers,-William, John, and Charles,-the eldest of whom was for a period of over thirty years pastor of the Baptist Chapel, Toddington, England, and died in 1864 at the age of eighty-one years. Ephraim married for his first wife, Sophia Ann Whitbread, who bore him three children,-George, Ephraim, Jr., and Henry (the subject of this sketch). She died April 12, 1812. In 1814, Ephraim married Jane Trigg. The children by this marriage were William, Joseph, Thomas, Frederick, Jane, and Charlotte. Ephraim was buried in his family tomb under St. Paul's Church, Boston. Henry Wood was born in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England, Feb. 6, 1811. His boyhood was passed at his home in England until the time the family came to America. His education was chiefly obtained in the common schools of Boston. He was early apprenticed to learn the paper-hanging and wall-staining business. During this apprentice- ship he attended school in the winter at Ashby, Mass. Prior to the termination of his apprenticeship he bought his time from his employers and began the same business on his own account, and was successful. Becoming alarmed in the panic of 1837, he sold out his business and shortly after engaged in Philadelphia in the business of poultry-raising on an extensive scale, and by the use of an artificial incubator hatched | out many chickens. This business proved to be a failure, for, while the hatching was a complete success, it was impossible to keep the chickens alive. Mr. Wood returned to Boston, and with characteristic en- terprise started again in his old business. He also put to good use his knowledge of chemistry, as applied to the manufacture of colors, and found he could manufacture at a handsome profit. For the second time he sold out his paper-hanging business and com- menced to make colors in a house on Middlesex Street, Boston, doing the work by hand, producing from six to ten pounds of colors per day. About this time he Hills, the same being a part of the property now owned by Judge Abbott. Here he continued the manufacture of colors, and as the business increased he found it necessary to procure a place where power could be used, and leased of Charles Rice, of Newton, Lower Falls, a building where there was a water-power, and here enlarged his business, which soon became extensive and profitable.

About this time Mr. Wood had a very severe sick- ness, but slowly recovered, and while yet hardly con- valescent news came of the total destruction of his color-works by fire, and as there was no insurance on

Olury Wood

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the property, in which nearly all of his money was invested, this loss was severely felt by him, bringing privations which were bravely borne by him and his family. It was at this time that the only cow was sold to furnish money to buy bread. Mr. Wood at once sought the aid of his friend, Curtis Haven, and by his timely assistance was able to establish himself again, by rebuilding on the site of the old works. In a short time, by reason of the increasing demand for his colors, Mr. Wood found it necessary to procure a more extensive place for manufacture, and selling his farm at Grantville, he purchased the water-power and grist-mill of Daniel Morse, at West Needham, now known as Lake Crossing, where the business so rapidly increased that it became necessary to make additions to the buildings from time to time. It was while manufacturing at Lake Crossing that Mr. Wood took into partnership his son, under the firm-name of Henry Wood & Son, and the business continued to be profitable and extensive. In 1866, Mr. Wood with- drew from the firm and his son continued, taking for a partner Horace Humphrey, the new firm paying a royalty per pound to Mr. Wood up to the time of his death.

Mr. Wood was the first man to make bricks of Portland cement and sand, with a slight mixture of lime, which bricks are now recognized to be more durable than most red bricks. He experimented with various machines for the manufacture of these bricks, and with varying success, and it was while making these experiments that he received a serious injury, occasioning the loss of three fingers of one hand and two of the other. Mr. Wood was thor- oughly convinced of the value of these bricks, and the present condition of a chimney built of this cement mixture by him at Wellesley, in 1857, at- tests the correctness of his judgment. The value of this material for building has been further developed by the Middlesex Stone Brick Company, organized by Mr. Wood often alluded in a feeling manner to the self-sacrificing character of his beloved wife, Eliza (now living), to whose devotion was due much of the success of his life. Her gentleness of manner served as a counterpoise to his decided nature, and produced a pleasant harmony in household affairs. While doing all the household work for the large family, and practicing strict economy in management, still, with a happy heart and a melodious voice, she made many a dark day full of sunshine and happiness, and gave to her husband and children sympathetic and practical encouragement. Mr. Wood, after a short sickness, died suddenly, of gastritis, at his residence in Boston, May 2, 1881, at the age of seventy years, and was his son, Edmund M. The Union Cottage of H. H. Hunnewell, the Heckle House, at Newton Lower Falls, the residences of R. M. Pulsifer and E. B. Haskell, of the Boston Herald, and many other buildings in the vicinity of Boston were built of this material. Henry Wood also started a flax industry in the western part of New York, which, however, did not prove to be a success. Mr. Wood was not active in politics. He was a Republican, and an ad- mirer of William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner, and Wendell Phillips. In religion Mr. Wood was reared a Baptist, as were his ancestors, and early in life made a study of the Bible. Later in life he be- came quite liberal in his views on religious subjects. | buried in the family lot in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

He was generous in his donations to charitable ob- jects, even though they were directed by religious societies that did not hold the same views that he did. Early in life Mr. Wood developed a fondness for music, and often amused his schoolmates, and, in later life, his children with songs and stories. He used often to speak of his extravagance in having paid the sum of twelve dollars to hear Jenny Lind sing in the Fitchburg Railroad Hall during her first visit to America.

Henry Wood married for his first wife Lois B. Rice, who died leaving no children. His second wife was Catharine Frances Jennings, who died Feb. 23, .1836. By this marriage there were two children, -- Catharine Frances, who died in infancy, and George Henry, who is still living. Aug. 14, 1836, Mr. Wood married Eliza Hanson Comsett, daughter of William and Mehitable Comsett. By this marriage there were born Edmund M. (1), Martial Duroy (2), Ephraim Albert (3), Sophia Ann Whitbread (4), Martial Franklin Horton (5), and Louis Francis (6).

The versatility of Mr. Wood is shown in the fact of the establishment of the various enterprises here named, and his determined and resolute manner helped him over many a hard spot in his business experiences. While for the early portion of his life he had used liquors and tobacco, on being solicited by a temperance friend to abolish their use he prom- ised to do so, and throwing his tobacco and liquor out of the window, never again used either, and from this time became active in the cause of the Sons of Temperance.

Mr. Wood was generous to the poor and needy, but in a quiet, unostentatious way, as shown by papers found by his executor, which gave evidence of numerous charities of which even his own family were ignorant. He won the respect of all who knew him by his honesty, integrity, and goodness of heart.

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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

JUDGE WHITE, OF WELLESLEY.

Judge White, the subject of this sketch, was born in Quincy. He is a lineal descendant of Thomas White, of Weymouth, who was one of the earliest settlers in that town. This Thomas White was born in 1599. The time of his coming to this country is unknown, and his birthplace also, but probably Wey- mouth, England. In the allotment of land at Wey- mouth in 1636 he received twenty-one shares. He was admitted freeman in 1635. He was captain of a military company, and for several years a representa- tive in the Legislature. He was a member of the memorable court of November, 1637, which voted to banish Mrs. Ann Hutchinson " from out of our juris- diction as being a woman not fit for our society." He was often an appraiser of estates, and in a case of public interest he was appointed referee by the Gen- eral Court. His autograph will, now on file in the Suffolk Registry of Wills, attests a legal turn of mind.

Among his posterity are found, Samuel White, of Taunton, who was born in Braintree and graduated from Harvard College in 1731. He was the first barrister-at-law in Taunton. He presided over the House of Representatives during the period of the Stamp Act. He was of his Majesty's (George III.) Council three years, " and a man of fine personal ap- pearance, of great sagacity, an eloquent speaker, and of irreproachable morals." Francis Baylies, the his- torian, of Plymouth County, and William Baylies, his brother, an eminent lawyer, the compeer of Webster, and often pitted against him in the trial of causes, were the grandchildren of Samuel White.

Samuel Sumner Wilde (whose grandfather was born in Braintree), a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of this State, " whose judicial career," says Judge Shaw, " was unexampled by its length, its brilliancy, and its purity."

Lemuel Shaw, chief justice of the same court for upwards of thirty years, whose grandmother, Silence White, was born in Braintree.

Jonathan White, the eminent lawyer of Plymouth County ; Caleb B. White, D.D., president of Wabash College, Indiana ; his son, Charles B. White, the learned sanitarian of New Orleans ; and Thomas Crane, the founder of the Crane Memorial Hall and public library in Quincy, were also his descendants.

Dr. Nathaniel White, of Weymouth, was the great- grandson of the same Thomas White. He was grad- uated from Harvard College in 1725, was long a phy- sician and surgeon in South Weymouth, and served as such in the French and Indian war.

Nathaniel White, father of Judge White, was the

great-grandson of Dr. Nathaniel White, and the fourth of that name. He was born in Weymouth. His mother was Mary, daughter of Thomas Hollis, of Braintree. She lived to the great age of one hundred and three years. He married Mehitable Curtis, daughter of Theophilus Curtis, the fourth of that name, a descendant probably of Deodatus Curtis, of Braintree.

In early life Mr. Nathaniel White was engaged in the boot and shoe trade, and acquired a handsome fortune for those days. Later he entered the coal and lumber business, and lost heavily. This is men- tioned merely for the reason that the cause of his loss bears evidence of the character of the man. The Native American party made its first appearance in our politics in the autumn of 1854, and ran its course in that and the two following years. During its ascendency it brooked no opposition, and with a bigotry of its own, persecuted what it deemed bigotry in others. Mr. White fell under the ban of this secret organization, to his great pecuniary loss, his usual cus- tomers refusing to trade with him, thereby forcing him to carry for years, at constantly depreciating prices, a large stock of coal and lumber. Mr. White and his three sons, one of them the subject of this sketch, were of the few American-born voters of Quincy who stood up against that racial and religious persecution. In that small company were Charles Francis Adams, Sr., Gideon F. Thayer, Rev. William P. Lunt, Henry Wood, and Benjamin Curtis.

Mr. Nathaniel White was an active member for many years of the Universalist Society of Quincy, and contributed largely to its support, in personal labor and in money.

He was one of the first in Norfolk County to en- gage in floriculture and in horticulture. He was passionately fond of flowers and fruits ; and on his few acres he cultivated the choicest species of flower- ing-plants and many varieties of trees, both fruit and forest.

He was a sportsman, skillful in the use of rod and gun. He knew well the fishing grounds on ponds and in the neighboring bays ; he was familiar with the haunts of the plover and the brant ; he owned a pack of hounds for hunting the fox and the deer. He kept a boat, and in quest of fish and water-fowl frequented the islands and headlands, the nooks and corners in Quincy, Weymouth, and Boston bays, imi- tating, probably, in these things his ancestor, Thomas White, who more than two centuries before lived hard by, and plied his rude boat over the same waters and for the same purposes.

Mr. White was known in the region round about

George While

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for his fine horses, one of which was renowned for his fire and speed. With Deacon George Baxter and Ebenezer Bent, he represented Quincy in the House of Representatives in 1840.

Mr. White was a man of marked individuality, of | deep convictions and passions. His natural intelli- gence was strong and masculine. He was utterly fearless in expressing his opinions, deferring very little to the opinions of others. He was a Democrat in sentiment and character as well as in a party sense. He voted for Gen. Jackson with all his heart, as his father did for Thomas Jefferson.

Judge White was the son of Nathaniel and Mehit- able (Curtis) White. He fitted for college at Phillips' Exeter Academy, then under Dr. Soulé. He was graduated from Yale College in 1848, and from Har- vard Law-School in 1850. He studied law with Hon. Robert Rantoul, Jr., and on his motion was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1851, and immediately after became his partner, with the firm-name of Rantoul & White.

In April, 1851, the trial of Thomas Simms, the fugitive slave, occurred in Boston,-a trial memorable for the argument of Mr. Rantoul on the constitution- ality of the fugitive slave law, and also as one of the exciting causes of the civil war ; and specially notable in the men who appeared in the case and the character- istic parts which each performed.

Commissioner George Ticknor Curtis sat in the judgment seat. To the application of the counsel of Simms for time to examine the papers and prepare the case, the commissioner gave an emphatic refusal ; and to the unanswerable argument of Mr. Rantoul he turned a deaf ear, brandishing in his eyes the Con- stitution as he understood it. In the mean time, pe- titions for a writ of habeas corpus were made by Charles Sumner, Richard H. Dana, and Samuel Se- wall, and hearings were had on the same by Judges Shaw and Woodbury, but the prayers thereof were denied. Five days after this hearing Commissioner Curtis, first delivering an elaborate opinion on the constitutionality of the law, remitted Simms to slavery. . elected Abraham Lincoln President.

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 103

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534